BIRTHDAY PARTY

I have decided to go with a Dora the Explorer birthday party since Cassie is really into that show. For some strange reason, Cassie has a fascination with Dora's backpack. I don't know why but she loves the backpack. I think she just watches the show to see the backpack. I was going to see if I could find Dora's backpack in DL when I did some party shopping today but I had no luck. I didn't even know why I tried looking cause DL isn't going to have anything like that. I did buy about $80 worth of sleepers and warm cloths for Cassie (I can't believe she is wearing 4Ts already) and I did get one birthday present for her. I hope we have a good turn out for the party on the 8th....oh, and April, I need your new address. I only have your old Forks one. How do you and Kevin expect to get an invite to your Godchild's birthday if I don't have your address?!?

PICTURES

After a long fustrating battle with Hello, it finally decided to work this afternoon so I could post those few rodeo pics and the cute pics of Cassie. Hope you all enjoy them.

this was supposed to be a bronco coming out of the shoot but you can't tell. All my rodeo pics turned out pretty crappy. 

Those poor steers. They don't know what's coming and all Cassie wanted to do was ride them. 

Miss Rodeo running theflag around the arena during the national anthem. 

Cassie and Carson. Cassidy is super tired and Carson has an expression like he's going to puke on Cassie. 

Cassie in her cowboy hat. 

"Get along little doggie!" I really thing she looks like me in this picture. 

Cassidy has really changed. I think this picture is really evident of how much she's still changing into her own person. 

"WHAT! I swear I am scribbling on the paper and not your coffee table!!" 

"When I open my eyes, this crayon will be an ice cream cone." 

"WAIT. Before you take my picture, I have to adjust my hat mommy." 

"There we go. So how's this smile." 

How cute is she... 

LION UPDATE

I checked with my dad today to see if the Game & Fish were going to do anything about the lion I saw the other night and dad told me that Game & Fish told him there were so many sightings lately of mountain lions that they are just keeping track of where all the sightings are for now. I didn't know it, but there have been mountain lion sightings around Harvey and New Rockford too. I don't know what they plan to do if the lions get out of control...just imagine, a mountain lion epidemic.

MOUNTAIN LION

I just about had a heart attack on the way home from my parents house tonight. I got about a mile from home and walking out of the ditch to cross HWY 2 right in front of my car was a mountain lion. I have heard about them around the Bottineau area and a few other places close to the Canadian border but never heard, or seen, one this close to home. I was concerned about my dog and if he was still alive. Then I started to worry about the farmers around the area that have elk, horses, and cows along the hwy. I got home, rushed Cassidy in the house paranoid that there could still be one around the house. I called my dad so he could call the Game & Fish dept. Then I called the Elk farmer and the horse farmer down the road from me who has young foals out in the pasture towards were the lion was heading. The elk farmer told me that he would look for it in the morning and check his elk tonight. He also said that he has a special license so that he can actually shoot it if he has to. I didn't know you could actually shoot one cause I thought mountain lions were a protected species. I just hope that everyone's animals are okay tomorrow and that Game & Fish will find the lion and take him back home or where ever the lion needs to be. I know you are probably thinking "Naw, it was a big dog or a coyote, but she didn't see a lion". I swear I saw a mountain lion and I hope I don't see him again.

DSL AND PARTY PLANS

Cassie's birthday is a week from Friday so I thought I better get cracking on her party invitations. I was going to buy them instead of making them this year but on the last minute I decided just to make some. I think they turned out pretty good. Now next time I go to town I will have to pick up some plates and napkins and a few other things. I want people to RSVP cause I want to put a few small things together for the kids that do come. I also have to decide if I want to make a cake or have one made.....hhhmmm, choices.

The NDTC guy got to my parents around 1 pm but had to leave for a bit because someone from NDTC called him and said that the water guys had a valve leak on HWY 17 north of Leeds and they wanted him to go out there and check it out cause there was cable out there that people in Leeds use and didn't want it damaged. I think the guy was gone for about a half hour or so and then he was back. I wish we could get DSL in York but we can't.

Oh well...off to check out more baby names and decide on the party cake.

THIS DATE IN HISTORY

On Doug's website, he posted about The History Channel website having a deal where you could find out what happend on your birthday in history. His dates and happening were pretty cool so I had to check it out myself. I have to admit, I have some good ones:

FEBRUARY 8TH

1692: Teenage girls are declared to be under the spell of a witch
Abigail Williams and Betty Parris are declared by a doctor to be "under an evil hand," precipitating a series of sensational accusations in the town of Salem, Massachusetts.

1915: Birth Of A Nation Opens
D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, a landmark film in the history of cinema, premieres at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles.

1587: Mary Queen of Scots beheaded
After 19 years of imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England for her complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I.

1725: Peter the Great dies
On February 8, 1725, Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, dies and is succeeded by his wife, Catherine.

1904: The Russo-Japanese War begins
Following the Russian rejection of a Japanese plan to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan launches a surprise naval attack against Port Arthur, a Russian naval base in China. The Russian fleet was decimated.

1924: First execution by lethal gas
The first execution by lethal gas in American history is carried out in Carson City, Nevada. The executed man was Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese gang who was convicted of murdering a rival gang member.

1887: Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act
In a well-meaning but ultimately flawed attempt to assimilate Native Americans, President Grover Cleveland signs an act to end tribal control of reservations and divide their land into individual holdings.

MORE STUFF

The man who did cleaner out our sewer showed up at 8:30 am. Way earlier than I wanted to get up. I ran outside to show him where the usable outlets were so he could plug in his pump, then I wrote him out a check and went back to bed. Cassie got up around 9:30 am.

The rodeo was really a lot of fun. Brandi and her son, Carson, came with us. We knew we probably wouldn't make the whole duration of the rodeo because of the kids attention spans but we were there for about an hour and a half and got home around 7:00 pm so I thought that was actually really good because I was home at a decent time to give Cassie supper and then give her a bath and put her to bed. I only got about three good pics at the rodeo. I have a digital cam but it doesn't have the sports feature that lets you take good moving pics. I also couldn't resist buying Cassie her own little cowboy hat. I will have to post the pics later.

Today, Cassie had her wellness checkup at the doctors office. EHS needed one done. We found out that Cassie has a mild condition called tibial tortion. It's when the bone between the knee and ankle turn inward. It doesn't effect her walking at al and it usually goes away by the age of six. On the plus side, the doc said that people with tibial tortion usually turn out to be great long distance runners if Cassie should join track.

On the way home, I stopped by my moms and she, Cassie, and I grabbed the orange/white stray cat that my dad was keeping and took her to the vet. She started to get worse again, started loosing weight, couldn't meow, sneezed all the time, and her eyes were starting to water, she was loosing hair in great gobs, and her breath stunk worse than any thing imaginable. The vet kept the cat. She told my mom and I that there have been a lot of stray cats brought to her lately with distemper and leukemia and she thinks that the cat may have something chronic and might not get better from. I feel bad for the kitty and I don't think she's going to come back from the vet. The reason I say this is because the vet never EVER sent my pet crate home with me without the animal, she's always kept it. This time, she sent it home with me and told me to wash it out and disinfect it before I put my cat in it again.

Tomorrow my parents are getting DSL so I have to be at their place after Cassie and I have lunch so that there is someone at the house when NDTC gets there. I hope I am not waiting forever and it doesn't take too long....but I guess it really doesn't matter since I'm at their house very day anyway.

EAR INFECTION AND A FUN DAY

Yep, momma really does know best. Cassie did have an ear infection so now she is on meds for 10 days. I called my mom from the clinic when we were done to see what she wanted then Cassie and I had lunch from McDonalds. Instead of going into the resturant with her, I just drove across to the movie theater parking lot and she and I ate together in the back seat of the car while we listened to tunes.

After I got home from DL, I cleaned my house like a mad woman. I believe that it was the hardest and fastest that I had ever cleaned before so that everything would be in order when Head Start came over. I must say that I am very proud of myself. My entire home, with the exception of Cassie's nursery, is clean...spotless clean. Now I am hoping that it stays this way for another 4 months.

Cassie and I had a lot of fun today. We made a fruit dip that wasn't too bad but Cassie didn't like it so she just ate her apple plain. Then we went outside and played with bubbles. She thought that was a blast, and then we broke out some sidewalk chalk and I couldn't get her to stop until she covered almost every square foot of cement that we have outside our house. Before we went back inside, we fed the dog and then took a short walk.

When I was watching the new season of Nip/Tuck the other day, I say a hilarious advertisment for the new Jim Carrey movie "Fun With Dick and Jane". I gotta see that! I also want to see "The Brothers Grim" movie that has also come out but I haven't seen it in DL and I haven't seen the commercials for it in a while.

Tomorrow I don't have anything going on, the news says that we might have frost tomorrow night cause it's only going to be 39 degrees during the night...buuurrrrrr. I don't think I am going to go anywhere since the high durning the day is 58. I also saw on the news some guy is working with quantum power for vehicles to save on disel and fuel.

DOCTORS APPOINTMENT

Cassie has a doctors appointment at 11:20 in DL so I am going to have to run her in fast and then get back right away for Head Start. I also got an email from my mom and she said that she would call me around noon and talk to me but I am going to have to call her before I take off or I am going to miss her phone call. I might buy coffee at the Liquid Bean and then run it up to mom and that way I can just talk to her too. It would be nice too if I could see MaryAnne Fetterly while I was there, she is my lactation consultant and I have only spoken to her a few times over the phone since Cassie and I stopped going to Baby & I. She knows that I am expecting and that I am going to deliver in Devils Lake instead of Cando and she is at the hospital for every birth so I know that I will at least see her then but it would be nice to see her before then too.

SIDING, PAINTING, AND BABY

My parents came over to the house on Sunday around 12:30 pm to help us get started on the siding. We got a lot done by the time Darren's parents came over, which was about 3 pm or later. Darren's folks stayed until 7:30 or so and then they took off and my parents stayed until 9:30 to get the south side of the house finished. Everything got done except for the peak of the house cause it was getting to late. The house looks really great with the siding. My parents said that if there is a really nice day this week and they are not busy, they were going to come over and do the east side of the house for us since is just one of the little ends. That will be really nice. Dad kind of wants us to get all the siding on the house before winter too but we are almost out of the siding and we will have to buy some more and I don't know when Darren and I would get to Menards to pick more up. We will have to see...that would be great to get all the siding on!!

I primed and painted the front door today. I am going to have to sent pics so everyone can see the work that we are doing. If I was smart, I would have taken before and after pics of the house to show the improvements that just siding is making. I also have to have April check the picks and play with them for me. I am not sure if I want to go all the way to the roof with the same color or if I want the peaks in the house in white instead of the light blue/grey that we are doing. I thought April could play with it and we could check it out before we actually go out and buy the white siding and then decide that we aren't going to like it with two different colors.

I think Cassie has an ear infection. She was up three times the night before last and lastnight she cried a couple of times but the stopped right away so I didn't have to get out of bed. Today she has been just terrible, all day long she has done nothing but cry. Tomorrow I have Early Head Start but I am going to call the clinic and see if I can get Cassidy in tomorrow and if I have to call the EHS lady and tell her not to come then that's what I am going to have to do.

I bought my first item of baby cloths yesterday. It's a unisex sleeper/bunting. I figured I better get stocked up on those since this is going to be a winter baby.

The clinic also called me today. The ultrasound came back and everything with the baby is normal. That's a relief. However, even the ultrasound said that there was no report on the sexual organs because the sex was indeterminable at the time of the ultrasound but there was a note from the radiologist that read the ultrasound saying that another ultrasound may be done to have those checked before birth and if my doc decides to have that done, then maybe we can also find out what we are having....the day of my ultrasound Darren called me from on the road and said that he wants to know what the baby is before it's born. I must have gone through 10,000 names and I can't find a single one that I really like. I want to find something a little "western" but I also want it to have double consonants (Darren, Janelle, Cassidy...ect). The whole name game hasn't been much fun.

NO BLOGS

Either I have been missing out on something big happening or I am just that obsessed with my blogs, but nobody has posted....AND I MEAN NOBODY! It's been a week or more since all of the blogs I check out have been updated or you all just don't want me reading your blogs anymore so you have found some way to hide the text from me or you are going somewhere else to post. PLEASE UPDATE BLOGS, PEOPLE!

A BABY, A NIGHT OUT, AND CLEANING

Friday I helped my mom with Dounuts. My mom got started at 6 am and Cassie and I joined her around 11 am. My mom made 100 dozen dounuts and it took her 14 hours. Cassie and I had to leave my mom around 8:30 pm cause Cassie didn't have a nap and she was starting to get very tired. My mom was done frying all her dounuts and she just needed to bag the last 4 dozen and she was done herself. I really don't want to see another dounut for a little while.

Saturday in the afternoon Darren, Cassie, and I ran to Rugby to see Darren's cousin's new baby. She is really cute and looks like Darren's cousin Jeff.

When we got home, my mom came over to the house to watch Cassie so that Darren and I could have a late anniversary night out. We went to Devils Lake and stopped at Wal-Mart so that Darren could buy some hunting camo because he is going to spend Saturday in Harvey hunting with his roommate. Then we went over to The Ranch and ate and from The Ranch we went to the Spirit Lake Casino and spent money. We didn't win a damn thing but we just played penny machines for about an hour and a half and then headed home. I think it was 1 am when we finally got back to the house.

Today Darren's parents are coming down so we can get the siding on the front of the house since there are only a few more days that it's going to be nice and then winter will be here before we know it. I have come to realize that we aren't going to get the whole house sided, but at least about half of it will be done and when spring comes it gives us an incentive to finish it so the house doesn't look stupid. Darren even said that I could paint a wall in the living room and later we might check with an electrician about getting different lighting in the living room cause the light we have now really sucks.

I see my doc again in about two more weeks. I might have to have my last couple of prenatal appointments with the doc from Minot who will be doing the surgery just so he knows what I expect from everything and how I would like things to go plus there are some things that I want to ask the doc about doing opposed to some other things that they would do during surgery, but it all depends on the doc.

Well I better get my living room cleaned up and vacuumed and my dishes in the sink washed...then the WHOLE house will be clean when Darren's folks get here. Hopefully I can keep the house this nice so when the baby is born, it will be clean when people come to help me the first few weeks.

ULTRASOUND

Cassie and I woke up around 10 am. I stayed inside and pretty much sat by the phone because the clinic was supposed to call and let me know the time of my ultrasound. It got to be around noon so I called the clinic and they had not heard from the tech yet but expected him to call at any moment. I sat around and waited another hour and a half and at 1:30 I called the clinic back, the receptionist put me on hold to check about a time and when she came back on the phone she told me to be at the clinic by 4:30 pm. I explained to her that was a pretty crappy way of setting up their ultrasound. I and my daughter have a schedule that we like to keep up on and I have other things to do besides wait for a damn phone call and I have to feed Cassie and work in a nap and since I had things outside of the house I had to do and I don't have a cell phone, I could miss the call all together or not get the message on my answering machine right away. Even though I am a stay-at-home-mom it doesn't mean that I don't have anything to do and other apointments or jobs I need to get done. If I would have known right away at noon that I wouldn't have to be at the clinic until 4:30 I could have let Cassie lay down for her nap at 1 pm (her normal nap time) and still make it for my appointment, but instead I kept her up thinking that if I put her to nap that's when the clinic would call and want me there in an hour. I called Billy to let her know that I was going to pick her up right away so we could get into Devils Lake. I also had to run by my parents and help my dad pull start his tractor before I went into town. When we got to DL, the first thing we did was stop at a restaurant to feed the kiddies, then we did our shopping at Wal-Mart, and got to the appointment. We just made it to the clinic at 4:30 and the tech was sitting with the receptionists and he looked a little pissy right from the beginning. He did all the things that he needed to do for the ultrasound and I let him know that we would like to know the sex of the baby. (Darren called in the morning to tell me he wanted to know the sex) The tech seemed like he was getting a little fustrated and said that he couldn't tell for sure what the baby was because I am only 19 weeks along and it's hard to make out the sex of the baby until you are around 20 weeks. He said that he would guess that it is another girl but then that's like me saying that I guess it's a boy. Billy and I saw what we considered to be boy and girl parts so we didn't have a freakin' clue what the baby was when we walked out of the clinic. I don't even think the tech even gave me a percentage on his guess of the baby being a girl. I guess it is going to be a surprise for everyone now. All I know is that my doctor said that boy babies have lower heartbeats than girls. A girls heartbeat ranges from the 150's to 160's and the tech said that my babies heartbeat was only 135. I am guessing boy. After the appointment we grabbed coffee to go at the Liquid Bean and then we came home. I stopped at my mom's to watch House M.D. which is a really good show and then came home. When I got home I realized why the tech seemed so crabby. Sometime after I left the house, the receptionist had called me back to tell me that they would like me there at 3:45 instead of 4:30 so the tech was waiting 45 minutes for me to get to the appointment. I missed the clinic message just like I told the receptionist on the phone because I had shit that needed to be done. I am going to write an email to the administrator of the Towner County Medical Center and let them know something different has to be done about that.

Well for other news the doc that is delivering this baby spoke to my mom at work and said that the baby can be delivered at 38 weeks as long as it's healthy and I think my mom checked it on a calendar at the hospital and the week that I am 38 weeks (and the doc is scheduled to be at the hospital that weekend) is Friday the 13th. My mom said that she really doesn't want the baby born on Friday the 13th but what can you do about it.

I posted the ultrasound pics of the new baby. I hope you all enjoy them.

This is the first pic. It looks like the baby is trying to suck it's thumb. 

you can see the face really good in this one. 

This one just creeps me out. I don't think it's right to have a "skull shot" of your child. 

WORKING ON MY WEEKEND

So I didn't get my trim painted yesterday because it was too warm outside and my mom didn't come over until 5pm and I just wanted to get the dresser up to Mike and then get home before it got late.

Mike was in a bad mood because one of his co-workers was having a bad day and I guess you just can't even say hello to the guy without him getting upset over it so it irritated Mike. I went into Mike's apartment and he started clearing a path so we could get through with the dresser then we went out to get the dresser. I shut the apartment door behind me on the way out not realizing that his apartment door locks automatically when you shut it. Mike's apartment keys and his cell phone was in his apartment so we had to drive over to the landlords house and get an extra key. I felt really bad locking him out of his own apartment. After we got the dresser in the apartment, mom had some clean bedding and put one of Mike's beds together. Then we went out to eat at the Chicken Hut and then we came home. We got home around 8:00 and little Cassie crashed close to 8:30.

Today Darren got the first coat of paint on the trim. I was hoping to get outside while Cassie is taking her nap to get the second coat of paint on and then we will be ready for the siding but it's humid out even though there is a really good wind so I don't think the paint is going to dry as quickly as I hoped. Oh well, I will check it in a few hours and if it's dry I will paint, if it's not dry then I won't.

I need to get some cloths washed but I can always do that during the week because Darren doesn't bring his dirty cloths back anymore cause the guy he's staying with has a washing machine and a dryer so that's kind of nice. Darren has to get a new pair of work boots because his soles wore out and he gets rocks in his boots during the day. I figured if he got into town this afternoon than I can wash my cloths while he is gone.

I still need to check and see if Darren wants to determine the sex of the baby or not for my ultra sound on Tuesday. To make it up to April, I was thinking about running over the 1 Hour Photo with the ultra sound pics as soon as the appointment is over and showing them to her. Unless by magic she got Tuesday off.

DOC AND A LITTLE SHOPPING

My doc appointment went really well. There was no trace of protein this time and the fetal heartbeat was a strong 160 bpm and was easy to hear. My ultra sound is set up for Tuesday next week. The bad thing to this is that they don't schedule you by a time, they call you before the tech gets to the clinic and then tell you what time to come in, the receptionist told me that they usually call you about an hour before the appointment. This is going to make it bad for April cause I can't just call her up and say, "My ultra sound is in 20 mins" and then expect her to be there so I am going to take Billy with me to the appointment because she's a stay-at-home mom too and she can just pick-up-and-go when I call. April, I am very sorry!

After the doc appointment I ran and did my Wal-Mart shopping. Geeze you can't find crap in that store since they are remodeling it. I think I must have danced around the card rack behind electronics with Cassidy for about 20 minutes before I found the Baby and Anniversary cards. What should have been a half hour trip turned out to be almost an hour. Then afterwards we went to Old Main to eat since we all were hungry. The kids must have been starving because they both really ate well.

Then our last trip was to Leevers so I could cash my WIC checks and get some other groceries, especially meat since we aren't going to have that around anymore since Darren's dad is selling the cows.

I was hoping to get some painting done on my house today but my mom isn't home yet and Billy isn't sure if she can come to my place tomorrow to watch Cassie for me while I get the trim painted. Plus, we have a chance for thunderstorm's for tonight and tomorrow so I may not be able to paint tomorrow anyway....AND my mom and I planned on running up to Rolla tomorrow when my mom got off work. Maybe I can still get the first coat on tonight then I only have one more to do. I wish I could get lucky and only have to put one coat of paint on the trim, but the trim is this nasty dark brown color so I don't think one coat will cover it.

PRETTY BUSY DAY

Billy and I made it into DL today in time for her appointment. Her doc was running a little late and we got out of the clinic at the same time I was supposed to have my WIC appointment in Leeds. We hurried home and thankfully nobody had an appointment when I got there so I was still seen for WIC right away. After WIC Billy and I took the kids up to the restaurant for tater tot hotdish and then I came home cause it was getting to be about Cassie's nap time. Cassie laid down for her nap and was sleeping when the Early Head Start lady got here, it wasn't too bad because there was still a lot of paperwork to fill out and I got most of that done by the time Cassie got up. I told the Head Start lady that when she comes out to the house at the time that she is scheduled for, it's Cassie's normal nap time. The lady said we will keep trying the scheduled time for a few weeks and if Cassie is sleeping each time she comes, she will try and get a time change with another family in Leeds but it can't always be done. I don't want to come off rude or anything but I explained that I wasn't going to change Cassie's schedule just for Head Start because the schedule we have now works for the whole family. She understood and is going to try and work something out.

Tomorrow at 10:40 I have my doc appointment. Billy will be going with me to that. Then afterwards I have some shopping to do at Wal-Mart and then Leevers. I guess Thursday doesn't work well for Mike so mom decided we will run up there on Friday after she gets off work.

I have been checking out some baby names. I have found a couple that are OK but nothing that I really like. I am going to do some more checking and hopefully I will be able to find two names that Darren and I really like.

CASSIE HAS BEEN HAVING ONE HELL OF A WEEK

When we were moving Mike, Cassie did a cartwheel down Mike's front steps to his house. Fortunately she didn't even get one black and blue mark and after a few moments of crying she was fine. I also think it helped that Mike's front steps have carpet on them. On Monday she was running through my mom's house with a balloon and she tripped right in front of their fireplace and she slammed the palm of her right hand down on the wood basked and took a very small area of skin off. Once we got a band-aid on it she was fine because the air really irritated it. Then today she was playing with a popcorn tin that my mom uses to store her cookies in until the bake sale and Cassie dropped a book in one and the lid was still about half way on so when she pushed on the lid, she pinched her finger between the inside of the tin and the lid and I had to strategically work the lid and her finger around to get her finger out. She really bawled about that for a while but she was getting really tired and was ready for a bath and bed. Then to help the pain a little I gave her and oreo cookie (big mistake) and after a while I could hear this scratching sound and I went to check on Cassie and there she was in my mom's hallway scribbling on the wall with the cookie and of course when I told her that was very naughty it sent her into another fit of bawling. I am really hoping that the rest of the week will be accident free but it won't suprise me if she trips stepping up from the curb tomorrow morning heading to our WIC appointment and then on Thursday injuring herself with something in the waiting room at the doctors office and who knows what type of injuries she will sustain over the weekend. Man, has she had one rough week so far.

MY TUESDAY

I need to start cleaning up the house today cause Early Head Start comes again tomorrow. I also have a WIC appointment at 10:40 in the morning in Leeds at the Community Center. WIC never takes long and the Head Start lady doesn't come until 3:30 so I have time in between appointments to get lunch together and for Cassie to take her nap.

Cassie was up way to early for me today. She was up hollering for me at 8:30. Normally she isn't up until 9:30 or later. She has gotten into Teletubbies and BooBahs on PBS and I can't really stand them. The characters in both shows don't talk, they just babble and I can't really see Cassie learning anything from that but it keeps her attention extremely well. During these two shows is when I check my email and do my blog since I have moved the computer into the living room.

I have to clean a dresser out in the back room for Mike. The dresser belongs to my parents and they were letting Darren and I use until we got our own set and Mike really needs one bad now in his new apartment. Darren is storing stuff like TV cables, some wires, and a few other odds and ends in the dresser in a closet. The closet was the only place we could actually put the dresser to get it out of the way. Sometime this week or weekend mom and I are going to run it up to Mike.

My mom is starting her baking this weekend too for the Mercy Hospital employee Bake and Craft sale that they have every year right before the Christmas holiday. It might even be before Thanksgiving but I'm pretty sure it's closer to Christmas. My mom bakes so much that she starts about 3 months before the sale and it takes almost 3 trips to town to get everything there. The last couple of years she didn't have to bring anything back home because it all sold.

MY WEEKEND

Saturday Darren had a truck load sale in the True Value parking lot in Harvey and he did really well. Also on Saturday I moved Tango over to my mom and dad's place and reintroduced him to the "herd". Cholla and Luna were a little rough with him at first, they we establishing their pecking order, but after a few hours they all settled down and are doing great. On Sunday Darren, Cassie, and I went to Rolla and helped Mike pack some stuff and helped him move the big stuff to his new apartment that he couldn't move by himself. It's a basement apartment and it's a little small but it's nice. The only down side was that we found a salamander in the spare bedroom. Hopefully that isn't a sign that he is going to have a problem with mice and other creatures and especially water in the spring when the snow melts. Mike is going to check out renters insurance cause he is probably going to need it in that place.

Monday was a pretty relaxing day. Cassie and I hung out around the house until about 4:30 and we went and to my mom and dad's. When we got there Cassie found a snake right away when she got out of the car. She really wanted to touch it bad but she wasn't sure about it. I think she chased that poor snake for a good 15 minutes. She tried to get me and Nana to touch it but there wasn't a chance in the world either of us were going to touch it. Then later in the evening around 8 pm we ran to Dairy Queen in Rugby. I got food to eat and Cassie got her chocolate ice cream with sprinkles. Cassie wasn't too terribly hungry because she had a pancake at Nana's before we left for DQ.

Wednesday I have WIC and Early Head Start and on Thursday I have another doctors appointment. I am hoping to get an ultra sound set up too for this month, if not, it will just have to wait until next month. I am tempted to sneak a peak and what the baby might be, but then I would just be ruining it for myself too so I will have to tell the tech right away before the ultra sound that I don't want to know even if I beg him/her later.

The other night I went through the boy baby names in a baby name book that I bought at Books To Go. I found a few names that I like that I will have to run by Darren (I hope he likes at least one of them) and I am going to start checking the girl names tonight.

There is also a baby shower for my cousin and her new daughter this weekend in New York Mills, MN but that is such a long way to go and with the price of gas I can't afford it. I am going to pick her up a card and send something to her instead and hopefully she will get it in time for the shower.

DL TRIP

I didn't get to go with Billy for her ultra sound appointment. My mom got a hold of me this morning and my grandma had some appointments and stuff in town and things got a little crazy so she wanted to know if I would go with her. I needed to get a few things in town anyway and since I didn't have to spend the gas driving I went with her. I tried to call Billy to see if she could find someone else to join her for the ultra sound but all I got was her answering machine so she was already gone or outside doing something. I hope she found someone cause I feel bad about not going. I really wanted to go.

When I was in town, I picked up a baby name book. I am going to start going through it and pick out a boy's and a girl's name because I have decided not to figure out the sex of the baby unless Darren says that he wants to know. So all of you that wanted to know what I was having, you are going to have to wait until January.

I also have some work to do for my dad. He tried to send me a link to use but it's not working and he has it saved on his computer at home so I am going to have to go over there and see if I can do that stuff from his house while he's building more trailers in the shop. If anyone hasn't heard about my dad's business, go to www.jackalopeconversions.com and you can check it out.

SCHWAN VISIT AND AN ULTRA SOUND

So I took Doug's advice and just didn't say anything to Greg while he was here. Darren called me before Greg showed up and told me not to order too much from him though cause he didn't want Greg to get all the commission from our order. Darren told me where there was another driver doing a truck load sale tomorrow in DL so I was thinking about running there and getting the rest of my order.

When Greg did get here, he pulled into my yard and had to do an 80-point turn to get the truck turned around. He stopped the truck and it took him about 10 minutes before he actually came up to the door. He talked to me for a bit before I gave him my order and and afterwards he was talking about all the work Darren was doing outside and he wanted to know what color the siding was going to be and what kind of renovations, if any, were we doing inside. I just gave him quick short answers and then after about another 10 minutes he says "well I better go get your stuff". Yeah that would be nice. He was gone for a LONG time, I even had time to call my mom and talk to her before the guy got back to the house. He kind of creeped me out because he followed me around the house. And I mean he was right behind me. Everytime I turned around he was rightthere. He followed me to the freezer and watched me put stuff in, then he followed me into the living room because I was getting Cassidy ready to go see my mom, and then he followed me right to the front of the door again. If he wasn't a Schwan man, I would have thought that he was going to hurt me or something. It was just weird. Cassidy doesn't even follow me around like that!

Darren also said that the week he was in Marshall, MN at Schwan's U that Greg was driving for him and that Greg didn't finish any of his routes and he lost customers because of it and a few happend to be big customers that Darren always look forward too because they always bought a lot so Darren's mad about that too right now.

Today I go with Billy Jo to the Cando hospital. She is having her ultra sound done today and she is going to find out the sex of the baby. I think this is so cool. For once I am actually going to be at the other end of the table and I will be able to enjoy it instead of thinking "Oh my God I've gotta pee!" I just feel bad that Billy's husband can't be with her. I know that he would want to know the sex of the baby before me and he has every right to know before me but he couldn't' get the time off of work.

DARREN'S BEING SCREWED

Darren was doing his route yesterday and had another driver, Terry, with him so that Terry could build a bigger customer base. When they were at the last stop of the day, Terry went into a place and someone there told him that Greg, another driver from Harvey that the other Schwan drivers really don't like, told them that if they got their orders from Greg instead of Darren that Greg would give them the employee discount. Terry went outside and told Darren so when Terry and Darren got back to the depot they told the Manager Butch. Butch sounded a little pissed and said that he would put a stop to that right now. What really makes me mad is that Greg was supposed to be a friend of Darren's. It isn't Darren's fault that Greg doesn't have his own route yet because Greg is too slow, talks to customers way to much, and hasn't finished a route that he has filled in for yet since he's started. Plus, Greg is jerking with Darren's income, and income that we really need right now with home improvements going on, payments for our car, and saving for the baby. My opinion is that Greg should be fired. He's taking away customers from Darren and when you work for Schwan's you can not provide service for some other drivers customers unless you are filling in his route or a truck load sale. He definitely went against rules in their handbook. Greg is supposed to be coming here to our house tonight because he is filling in for our usual driver. I am tempted to give him a piece of my mind when he gets here. Friends don't do that shit to each other. But maybe it's best if I just stay out of it and let Darren, Greg, and Butch handle it. I would also like to write to schwans.com but I don't want to embarrass Darren or anything because those emails are forwarded from schwans.com to the manager of the depot where there is a problem at. You guys need to let me know what you would do, Greg should be by around 7 pm tonight.