Option 2 Plan B

I almost forgot about this thing

2009-09-24T11:50:00.000-07:00

I have a blog! I have been a bad bad blogger, neglecting this thing for over 5 months. Well, life at the Cadwells is about to change in a major way. Our darling little child should be entering the world sometime in the next week, just as I have mastered peeing in the cup.

It would be impossible to describe our anticipation and excitement. It seems like I have been pregnant forever. I have been lucky in a number of ways through out the pregnancy. First, is the wonderfully cool summer that we have had this year. It really made working my softball tournaments a breeze with no 100+ temps to deal with. 2nd, I was fortunate to not get incredibly huge until just this past month. It was great to not have a giant belly getting in the way until after the season was over.

I've had two wonderful baby showers and feel very blessed to have so many great people in my life. I can't wait for everyone to meet Miss Jada.

18 Weeks - gettin Fat and Dumb

2009-04-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy may make your belly grow, but it also makes your brain shrink. Before I got pregnant I had heard of pregnancy brain but didn't think much of it. Well, the proof is in the pudding, and that shit is REAL.

Here is a list of the dumb things I have done in the last month:

1. Put the PineSol in the fridge

2. Mistook PineSol for Apple Juice and poured myself a glass

3. Put all my bills in the mail without any postage

4. Left my purse in the shopping cart at the grocery store

5. Went through the drive thru at McDonalds with absolutely no means to pay

6. Drove to Lincoln, NE when I was really supposed to be going to Omaha.

7. Packed for a trip and included absolutely zero jeans, pants or anything to wear on my bottom half.

8. Burnt an entire pan of Lasagna because I forgot to set the timer and fell asleep.

9. Started going through the carwash with my sunroof open

10. Attempted to remove my fingernail polish with alcohol b/c I thought it was remover. I started getting really pissed when it wasn't working so good.

Other than my lack of intelligence, the second trimester has been going well. I have bought only a few pieces of maternity wear. I'm thankful that I can still fit into my jeans.

Now that I am actually showing signs of being pregnant, Marv is really getting excited. This past Sunday, I woke up to find him carrying around a teddy bear in the crook of his arm. When I asked him what he was doing, he said "practicing". He talks to the baby sometimes, mostly telling it to kick me in the kidneys after I've said something he doesn't agree with or asked him to do some kind of domestic chore.

All of the furniture for the baby's room is ready to go. We bought our crib at Nebraska Furniture Mart. We found a floor model on clearance and snatched it up. I bought a changing table and rocking chair off craig's list for $20 each and painted them black to match the bed. I pulled a chest of drawers from a dumpster, cleaned it up, painted it, and replaced the drawer pulls. It all turned out really great and for less than $300! Right now I am in the process of painting the trim in the nursery. Only two more weeks until we can pick a wall color! Will it be pink or blue?

Saying Good-Bye to the First Tri

2009-03-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to be nearing the end of my first trimester of pregnancy. It has not been a pleasant journey. I will not miss the fatigue or morning sickness one bit, although I will miss the special attention my husband gave me when I wasn't feeling well. He has been really great.

We officially found out we were pregnant on Saturday, January 24th when I peed on a stick in the bathroom at Wal-Mart (I did purchase the test BEFORE I used it LOL). We had suspected I was with child since conception, as I had been keeping track of my temperature and when it stayed high after ovulation, I just knew my eggo was preggo! Despite 5 negative Dollar Store pregnancy tests, we were fairly certain that we had gotten the job done.

We felt very happy and blessed to have gotten pregnant the very first month we tried. Knowing that you are knocked up so early in the pregnancy makes the first trimester seem FORever long. I swear it feels like I have been pregnant for at least 6 months already.

I had some bleeding in the first few weeks that gave us a scare. I had an ultrasound at about 6 weeks and everything appeared to be fine. I will never forget DH's face when I showed him the first ultrasound pic. He turned the picture around every which way and was like "What am I looking at". LOL! Of course, he was mostly looking at my growing uterus along with a very tiny little embryo. We proudly attached it to our fridge. DH put the Homer Simpson magnet right in the middle of the picture and I was like "you're covering up our baby's face!". Baby is much bigger now, and we are looking forward to our next ultrasound.

My first prenatal visit ended up with me passing out and throwing up all over the place when they took my blood. Since then, they have learned that I need to lay down to give blood and I cannot look at the needle, which is weird, as I have never had any problems with needles in the past. My mom says she had the same problem when she was pregnant, so I have her to thank for behaving like a 3 year old when it comes time to give blood.

My other appointments have been wonderfully routine. I do, however, have somewhat of an albatross concerning the urine sample. They send you into the bathroom to pee in a cup. There are stacks of cups above the toilet along with a marker to write your name on it. My question is, should you write your name on the cup before you pee in it or after? The first time, I wrote my name on the cup prepiss. This proved troublesome, as I got pee all over the cup and had to wipe it off which ended up blurring my information quite a bit. The second time, I decided to write on the cup post pee. This time as I was rotating the cup in my hand to get my name on it, I ended up spilling all kinds of urine out of the cup, onto the floor, onto my jeans, etc. Yuck.

Guess I have 6 more months to figure it out.

25 Random Things

2009-02-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed reading all of these on Facebook, so I thought I would put one on my blog for all you losers who don't have facebook.

1. My first name with my middle name means "black dawn". I like to tell people I was born on a day there was a solar eclipse. I wasn't, but it sounds really cool.

2. I usually have no problem sharing drinks with people, but I refuse to share a glass of milk. I dunno why, it just grosses me out to share milk.

3. I almost never wear socks.

4. I love taking really hot bubble baths. Most of my days end with a good soak.

5. When I was a kid my grandma used to make "old fashioned sodas" for me with gingerale and a scoop of sherbert. I miss those days.

6. I could not tell you the names of all the Beatles.

7. I CAN tell you the names of all the members of the Jackson 5.

8. I am a very light sleeper.

9. I am afflicted with what I call "movie amnesia". Sometimes I will not remember that I have already seen a movie until I've watched over half of it again.

10. I never forget books that I've read.

11. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry is a book that has had a profound impact on my life. I first read it when I was in 3rd grade.

12. I love to look at maps.

13. My favorite movie is Titanic.

14. The 2008 election is the first election that I actually donated money to a campaign. YES WE CAN!

15. Cooking Tomato Soup with water is nasty. Gotta use milk.

16. I have had the opportunity to play golf at 3 world famous courses in Scotland - Carnoustie, Troon, and St. Andrews.

17. I don't like for my toenails and fingernails to be painted different colors.

18. I rarely get menstraul cramps, but when I do, they are in my back.

19. My husband and I went to Gumby's on our wedding night.

20. My husband's smile can make all my worries disappear

21. My favorite meal is my mom's meatloaf and baked beans.

22. I have not bought a new pair of sneakers in 7 years.

23. I would hate to live in NYC.

24. I love Hershey's hugs

25. I cannot sleep with the television on.

A big middle finger salute to HGTV

2009-01-11T22:33:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love watching HGTV. Long before I was even a homeowner, I would watch this channel and dream of the day that I would have my own house to decorate. I love the real-estate shows, and the first time home buyer shows, but my favorite shows are the room makeover shows.

At the beginning of an HGTV makeover show, they show you the room as it is, talk about the design, implement the design, and voila! A brand spankin new bedroom/living room/bathroom. I truly believe that if you watch enough of these shows you become delusional. You start looking around your house for walls to tear down. Your husband looks at you crazy as you go around the room knocking on the walls, muttering under your breath that it is definitely not "load bearing". You begin to fantasize about granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances. You daydream about tile saws and Carter.....can't forget about Carter....he has the best freakin hair.....oh if you could run your fingers through his hair just one time....and the guy who does the colorsplash show.....he is absolutely a cutie pie....and totally gay, but in your daydream he's not......You start to think that you are actually Bob Vila. That you can and will extend the north side of your house by 6 feet, install french doors leading out onto the double tiered deck that you will construct entirely out of reclaimed wood because you know, going green is the thing to do now days.

Well, this weekend I had my first HG-Re-al-it-tee moment. I had a hair brained idea to paint all of the trim in all of the bedrooms. I decided that the natural honey colored wood had to go. I selected a wonderful shade of white, which took me like 20 minutes to pick out at the store because there were like a billion different shades of white to choose from. I told the guy at the store I wanted "just white".
He said, "You mean you want the color 'just white' or you want just white?"
Not having ever done this before, I looked at him like he was speaking fluent idiot and repeated, "I just need white".
He proceeded to bring out a color strip of different whites, one of which was actually called 'just white', and I thought to myself how brilliantly retarded to name a paint color 'just white'.

The store clerk proved to be very helpful and sent me on my way with my paint, tape, paintbrushes, paint tray, and sandpaper.

The first part of my task was to sand all the varnished wood, scratching it up so the paint would adhere to it. On HGTV, they mention this tip quite a bit, but they never actually show it being done, and let me tell you, it takes FORever. After 1 hour of sanding, I scaled my project back from bedrooms plural to bedroom singular. Once the sanding is complete, you then must wipe up the dust. Another FUN 30 minutes. Next comes prepping the room to paint. This involves 45 minutes of laying down plastic and securing it under the baseboards, and taping the walls surrounding the doors and windows - more FUN.

To make a long story short, it took me about 10 hours spread out over 2 days to paint the trim in 1 bedroom. I finished at about midnight on Sunday. Tired and annoyed with myself for picking such a tedious decorative task, I poured myself a glass of wine and turned on the television where I caught the last 5 minutes of another wonderful makeover show - a totally turned out dining room AND a surprise bonus master bath remodel.

Beautiful and flawless all in 30 minutes.

FUCK YOU HGTV

.......on second thought....that tile is amazing.....and that granite would look great in my kitchen...I mean, I'm pretty sure this counter top would come off pretty easily......

Happy Birthday Kala

2009-01-04T13:33:00.000-08:00

This year I gave myself a great birthday present.....a vacation! Marv and I went on a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas. We departed out of Port Canaveral, stopping at Royal Carribean's private island CocoCay and Nassau, Bahamas.

On December 15th, after spending 2 days with friends in Orlando, we sailed out on Monarch of the Seas, one of the oldest ships in the RCI fleet. We were surprised that she was still in really great shape. The ship left at 5pm. We were originally scheduled for the main dining seating at 6:30, but we decided to change it to the second seating at 8:30pm. Dinner was absolutely delicious. Marv had steak and I got the mahi-mahi. We had hardly finished our meals, however, when the rocking and swaying of the ship became too much. We both felt like we were going to be seeing our dinner again real soon. The rest of the night was a wash, as we spent it in bed totally seasick.

When we woke up the next morning, we were very thankful that the ship was still. We had anchored just off the shore of Cococay. After grabbing some breakfast at the buffet, we hopped a ferry to the island. The palm trees, white sand beaches, and aqua blue water, were absolutely gorgeous. The water surrounding the island was crystal clear and very shallow. You could wade a good 200 yards from the shore and it would still not even be to your knees. There was really no surf or waves to speak of. On one particular side of the island, the water was a bit deeper and provided a great place to snorkel.

We took some time to explore the island before grabbing some lunch at the BBQ stations. After filling our bellies, we found a hammock and relaxed the rest of the day away.

The ship left Cococay at approximately 6pm. We would be in for another dinner filled with rocking and swaying. We retrieved some free seasick meds from the infirmary which made all the difference in the world.

Our dinner mates consisted of a young college aged couple from North Dakota and 3 twenty something sisters with monster hooters (Marv was in heaven). They were all very likable and dinner each night was filled with a lot of laughs.

When we woke up on Day 3, we were in the port of Nassau, Bahamas. After getting into a wonderful squabble Marv and Kala style, we made up, rented a scootercycle, and toured the island. We ventured over to the Atlantis resort and did some sightseeing. Marv did a good job driving on the opposite side of the road as we do in the states. He only almost got us killed a couple of times by turning into the wrong lane. The weather was perfect, and we ended our day at a bar called Da Shak.

Day 4 was spent at Sea so we busied ourselves with all the fun things to do on the ship. The most memorable was trying out the RCI signature Rock Wall. Neither of us had ever rock climbed before so it was definitely a challenge. With a little help and guidance from the supportive staff, we both made it to the very top.

We disembarked on December 19th and headed back to Orlando to stay with our friends, Chris and Christy. They have a two year old son, Ian, who we absolutely adore. We enjoyed going with them for Ian's very first meeting with Santa. He did a great job, and his pictures came out hilarious.

We spent my actual birthday (Dec. 20th) lounging out next to the pool enjoying the 80 degree weather. That night we went to the Orlando Magic game to watch them take on the LA Lakers. It was our first pro basketball game. Afterwards, we walked over to the bar district and went to our favorite Orlando bar, Chillers. We spent the rest of the night there getting drunk before taking a Taxi back to our friends house.

I woke up the next day thinking about what an awesome birthday I had. Marv woke up with a major hangover. I would like to put in print that I drank WAY more than him and was totally fine. He is a lightweight.

After 9 days in paradise, we were definitely ready to head home. We could, however, have done without the 5 degree temperature waiting for us when we stepped off the plane at KCI.

I suck at blogging

2008-12-02T10:13:00.001-08:00

I've decided that I am officially one of the worst bloggers I know. I do, however, have a couple theories as to why I just cannot get the hang of this blogging thing. I think one of the main reasons is that I am a journal kind of gal. You know, that thing you do with an actual pen and paper.

Writing in a journal is so much different from typing on a computer. There is just something about the ink on the pad that is much more real, open, and honest. Perhaps it is the fact that on the computer it is much too easy to erase entire sentences, paragraphs, and even pages. With a couple clicks of a button, entire thoughts and feelings can be gone in an instant. Another thing about journal writing is that there are no readers. I simply write for me and only me. Sometimes I will share an excerpt here or there with certain people, but for the most part, there is no audience to qualify, no politically correctness, no ones feelings to consider, no boundaries, no bars, just freedom.

Ugly babies

2008-11-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

Let's talk for a minute about ugly ass babies. I am at the age where a lot of my friends are having kids. I have probably been to about 11 baby showers in the past year. The new parents send out birth announcements with their little ones picture. The sad reality is that newborn babies are just not cute. Most of them resemble shriveled up shrunken old men. Don't get me wrong, I love babies just as much as the next girl, but it blows my mind just how ugg to the mug these little bundles of joy can be.

The worst part is that a lot of the babies just get uglier and uglier, but their parents continue to take more and more pictures. I don't even like to look at the pics anymore b/c I just feel so bad. I feel like the biggest fake standing there saying "Awwww, what a cutie" when I'm really thinking "your baby has a serious case of the uglies". And it seems that the parents are just oblivious to the fact that their kid is just not cute. How does that happen? Love obviously blinds you.

No doubt I am probably destined to have an ugly ass baby. As much shit as I talk about other peoples kids, Karma will h ave fun with me. But when I do, I will keep his pictures to myself and not force other people to marvel at his "cuteness".

how to waste 4 hours on a Wednesday night

2008-10-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

When we moved to our new house we had to get a new cable company. We attempted to hijack the modem we received from our old cable company and use it for our new service. It worked for about a month, before we received a notice from the former cable company that they did indeed need their modem back. So we had to get a new one. Old cable company provided one free of charge. New cable company tacks on $6 per month to use one of theirs. So we just decided to buy our own.

Modems are possibly one of the easiest computer thingys to hook up. The directions are crystal clear and unless you are one of those "special" people who walk around with cheetos in their nose, there is no way you can screw it up. After successfully installing the modem, we tested the connection and to our suprise, it failed to connect. We double checked the power supply, and the usb cable and both were securely in place. We tried again. No connection.

So I rummaged through the junk drawer in the kitchen to find our cable company's handy dandy high speed internet welcome kit. They had a section in there for troubleshooting. I turned to the section, skimmed all the solutions, and then focused in on the customer service number listed in tiny elf size print at the bottom of the page.

I dial the number. A lovely female automated voice picks up. "Thank you for calling Comcast. Your call is important to us. For English press 1. For spanish puso numero dos". I accidently press 2. When the new male spanish speaking automated voice starts talking, I quickly hang up and redial.

After navigating through all the automated prompts, I finally make it to the hold music. And I love how hold music now days has commercials. You get like 2 minutes worth of a song and then a commercial about something related to the company. In this case, about additional channels offered through a higher tiered service line. 20 minutes later a real person actually answers my call. "Thank you for calling Comcast, how can I assist you today?" I explain that we got a new modem and now our connection doesn't seem to be working. "Did you go through all the troubleshooting tools in the manual?"
"Yes" I lie.

Apparently she must get that all the time b/c she promptly begins with the very first troubleshooting point listed in the manual. We exhaust all of the idiotic troubleshooting solutions in the manual (turn your computer off and wait 30 seconds....check to make sure the power cord of the modem is plugged in completely.....ensure the usb cable is firmly attached....etc, dumb, etc, more dumb). I feel slightly better about my little lie b/c obviously that shit didn't work anyway and now she doesn't know that I lied.

Now we begin to get a bit more in depth. She asks for the mac address of the modem, the make and model number, blah, blah, blah. She says that the new modem is not registered to my account (Well, no shit sherlock. I told you the fucking thing was NEW) She then says that all she has to do is put it in the system and it should fire right up. Why the fuck we didn't do that in the first place is beyond me. Apparently she just wanted to sit at her desk and surf the internet while I plugged and unplugged every single electronic within 10 feet of my computer.

She says everything should be fine now and to reboot my computer. I believe her and hang up. I reboot the computer. Double click on the blue 'e' to open my internet explorer browser. Nothing happens. I click on my connections tab and once again is the big yellow triangle with the exclamation point in the middle which means something is wrong. Personally, I think they should have just made it a hand giving you the finger. Because at this point, I really just feel like my computer is saying "FUCK YOU".

So I hit redial......"Thank you for calling Comcast. Your call is important to us........"

.....15 minutes on hold

I get a different girl this time. I explain to her the situation. Apparently this girl was deaf b/c as soon as I stop talking she says "Did you go through all the troubleshooting tools in the manual?" This time when I say Yes, it's not a lie. But she doesn't believe me either and starts right back up at troubleshooting solution #1 - Turn off your computer and wait 30 seconds.

I try to explain to her that I already did this before with another call center employee, but she simply responds back in that sure-ya-did voice and says "well, let's just try it again". So as she prompted me to unplug this and unplug that, I just sat there, not doing a god damn thing. Finally, we get to the part of her asking for the modem id number, make, model and all that jazz. She continues "Well, that's the one I have listed here. I thought you said you got a new one?" I then tell her for the 3rd time that I had already given all of that information to another Comcast employee on a phone call 40 minutes ago.

"Well, you should have told me that. Now we have to try something else."

It's a good thing that at this point my cell phone dropped the call. Had it not, she would most definitely have received an ear full of explicit language.

Redialing........

"Thank you for calling Comcast......"

12 minutes on hold

I get a man this time. I explain all that has happened. He responds "Did you go through all the troubleshooting tools in the manaul?"

SHOOT ME NOW.

TAG

2008-10-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

5 Joys
1. Shopping
2. Helping Others
3. My Job
4. Eating
5. KU Football and Basketball

5 Fears
1. Snakes
2. Failure
3. Being Broke
4. Cervical Cancer
5. Losing my parents

5 Obsessions
1. The Internet
2. Planning
3. KU
4. Dr. Phil
5. HGTV

One Liners from the Hubster

2008-10-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

My husband is the King of one liners. Usually he steals them from movies or television shows and attempts to pass them off as his own. The best ones, however, are the ones he makes up himself. They are usually super retarded or extra cheesy. The one that I'm sharing today was absolutely poetic and made my heart melt.

Last week I had the unfortunate experience of attending a funeral of the husband of one of my friends. As you can imagine, it was a very emotional day. When I returned home, my husband immediately turned off the television and just held me close. Between sobs I said to him "I would be lost without you". He returned with "Well, I wouldn't be lost without you." And I braced myself for the rhetorical jab that so often finds its way into our conversations, thinking that he picked a piss poor time for satire and whit. With my head against his heart and his hand soothingly stroking my hair he said "I wouldn't be lost without you, because without you, there would be nowhere left to go".

Wedding Dress Shopping

2008-10-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Today I went wedding dress shopping with a friend. She brought me along because 1. I am a bridesmaid, and 2. I will give her the most honest opinion possible without regards to her feelings (Yep, I'm just a bitch like that). Well, as much as my friend appreciated my honest opinions, the other brides we encountered - eh, not so much.

Cups with Straws

2008-10-01T11:35:00.000-07:00

Today I spilled a half a cup of soda in my lap. This happens quite often because I overfill my cup and then attempt to "drink" the spillage that has formed on the lid. Although I am 28 years old and should fully understand the physics of cups with straws, I always tip the cup to the mouth to collect said spillage between my thirsty lips. This in turn leads for the beverage to either leak out of the lid, or for even more beverage to escape from the straw hole, and before you know it, half of my drink is seeping into my crotch.