A Bun In The Oven

Luckily we weren't planning to keep it secret (j/k Jamie). Today I had my first doctor's appointment for my pregnancy. I'm about 9 weeks along with a due date of May 27. Needless to say we are very excited! And apparently the blood tests aren't always right since I got pregnant that same month :) The first ultrasound won't be for 3 weeks and it will be quite some time before we know the sex. I'll keep everyone posted with belly pictures :) I always said I wanted to be pregnant before 30 (even if it was only by 9 weeks)! Happy birthday to me!

I Love Books

As you all know, I love books. The picture of my first baby steps shows me carrying a giant picture book with a grin from ear to ear. When Brett was a baby I used to "read"to him from those picture books. I won every year in elementary school for most books read in the year. Everyone has things they are passionate about and mine is books.

I currently belong to 2 book clubs down here in Miami. Last month a girl in one of them asked if we would like to participate in a book club chain letter she'd recieved. Once I read through it I was excited. Everyone sent the letter to 6 of their friends and 1 book to the person 2 levels behind them. I eagerly sent off my letters and my book. I figured $2 to send a book that I enjoyed but wouldn't read twice was a great deal. My mom and mom-in-law called as soon as they recieved their letters. They were also excited.

So here's the best part. Today I recieved my first book! It was one I had seen and thought about in the book store. I can't wait!

Time to start my garden season

Contrary to most of you, it is now time to start my new gardening season. Last week I got a big bag of Miracle Grow and started my new seeds. I start a lot of the plants in pots before moving them to the garden. The actually garden will get tilled under this month and then replanted with all the new stuff.

I Just Need To Vent...

I've been sick with a nasty cold all week so I haven't been doing anything exciting but work has had me in a tizzy. I guess it's just the nature of my field but there are some clients that I love to see and others who make me shudder whenever I see their name on the appointment list. The latest drama at work involves one of those. This woman is extremely high maintenance and her cat is not a happy kitty. That alone would be enough to make things difficult. Last month said kitty decided to go into acute renal failure. We had him hospitalized for a weekend trying to get his kidneys working again. This kitty is grumpy enough that we had to sedate hime each time we checked him. So his owner wasn't happy about that... She also wasn't happy that she couldn't sit next to his cage 24 hours a day in our ICU... Nobody at work enjoyed that weekend. After 3 days of no urine formation (yes, you saw that right) I told the woman there was nothing else I could do to start his kidneys going. I recommended she take him home to die rather than he be miserable for his last couple days at the clinic. After he had been home for 2 days he started urinating again. Rather than be grateful for her miracle (I'm a doctor, not God, I'm glad he made it against the odds), she has decided we tried to kill her cat. Really?! On Friday she got a local station to listen to her and come film about our bad clinic. Needless to say I am not feeling nicely towards this woman.
The plus side of this is the outpouring from many of our clients that are outraged. One client is a local humane society director and she actually called me to say how mad she was at the station and that we should sue them for liable. An employee at the station who is a long term client also called to say she would help us fight this. And 3 seperate clients who were thrilled with how their pets current treatments were going brought us snacks.
It's just so frustrasting that a miserable person who likes to make everyone around them miserable can have so much influence in your life. AAAARRRGH!!!!!

Swimming With The Dogs

Lately Mike has been taking the dogs to the lake across the street to swim every other day. Both of them are getting older and have some arthritis. The swimming is great because it works all their muscles without having any chance of injuring themselves. And in our hot weather it sure feels good :)

Another New Car

Last Saturday on my way home from work the porsche decided to spring a leak in the radiator and dump all my coolant onto the road. So there I sat at the bottom of the freeway exit ramp with no way to move. A kind man helped me push it to the side of the road until Mike could arrive but it wasn't good. After that we realized that as much as we like the porsche we need a reliable car to get me to and from work while we continue with it's "project" status. So on Wednesday we went and bought this...

A bright yellow 2008 Chevy Aveo. It has auto nothing and cost a whooping $11,000. It gets great milage, approx. 40 mpg on the freeway, and will work very well for getting me to work. I'll still drive the porsche around here but it needed way too much right away to make it my only car. And the Aveo does seat 5...

Continuing with the baby conversation we did find a problem with my last blood test. I don't seem to be ovulating. A normal progesterone level after ovulation is 4 or greater and mine was 1. So starting next month my doctor is going to stick me on Clomid to induce ovulation. It does increase the risk of twins but what do you do? If we have no results after 3 months I get to start seeing a fertility specialist. Cross your fingers for one baby right away :)

Water Bill

So we just got our first water bill since we put in the rain barrel. They bill for every 3 months here so this bill was from May 27 to August 26. Our bill ending in May was for 17,204 gallons at a grand total of $106. That bill covered the first part of our growing season for our plants so it was at high consumption. The current bill is also during our high consumption time and is for 9,724 gallons at a total of $61. In 3 more billing cycles the rain barrel will have paid for itself and we really feel great about what a difference it has made. We have also been making small household changes as far as showers vs baths and leaving water running less when doing dishes and brushing teeth. It just makes us more excited and motivated to see just how much we can do!