Happy Birthday!

Update... appointment went good. I gained TWO lbs!!! YIPEE!! And my blood pressure decided to be silly today. It was 104/66. Go figure, it just had to prove me wrong. Gloria suspects Mr. L is facing the correct direction, to the rear rather than sunny side up. She was also happy to hear that I have had the occasional real contraction. She thinks he may be on the small side. Two weeks until next appt, then I get to do the GBS (group B strep) test.

Also, today is the birthday of Snitch's kittens. Today last year, she gave birth to 5 adorable kitten while Caayn and I watched and helped when needed. When I think of labor and birth, I see her pushing those kiddos out. I do miss #3 who was the sweetest little thing ever, we named her Sai. I also miss #4, the only male, who was an orange tabby named Henry. Our friend Jimmy took home
#2, who we had named Grumpy because she had a grouchy face. Her name is Tweak now, and looks like her mama.

I had something else I wanted to write about, but I can't remember what it was.

Why We Don't Travel

Out of boredom (okay, and trying to keep my mind off this whole whippet thing) I decided to open MapQuest. I figured out the distances to all of our family members. It's actually quite amazing. My data, let me show you it. (*snicker*)

North Dakota to Arizona (my mom) would take 26 hours and is 1699 miles.
North Dakota to Colorado (my bro and cousins) would be 13 hours and 817 miles. (shortest trip)
North Dakota to California (rest of my family) would take 27 hours and 1825 miles...
North Dakota to Pennsylvania (all of Caayn's family) is 24 hours and 1574 miles.
North Dakota to Tennesse (Caayn's bro) would wake 21 hours and 1421 miles.

So yeah. I think it is safe to say all of our family is about as far away as can possibly be. I was pretty shocked to learn Arizona and Tennesse where that far away, since they seem so much closer than Cali and Penn state... When I left California, we made a road trip. We drove from the coast of California all the way to Pennsylvania (we made it as far as Missouri before stopping for a night), and then from PA to North Dakota. Crazy, huh?

Sully had a dentist appointment yesterday, sort of as a check-up to make sure his teeth went back to normal after his fall a few months back. They look great and he has no cavities. We were also told that stopping the thumb sucking is something that we need to start looking at. There's no way I'm attempting that right now. Not when we are about to have a baby. And we were told to push the pacifier for this baby, rather than thumb sucking. I agreed whole heartedly. Pacifiers are easy to get rid of, thumbs not so much.

My midwife appointment is today. It'll probably be same as usual. See how much weight I've gained, pee in a cup, agree that my allergies are the same, confirm my prenatal and happy pill as only scripts I'm on, blood pressure (110/60 most likely, since it never varies from that),
ask if I have any questions, discuss anything the midwife wants to bring up, listen to heart beat and see you in two weeks. 33 weeks today. I probably won't start weekly visits until after my next one.

At least I have stuff to keep my mind busy... Caayn is going to go to the housing office and see what we have to do to get a fence from ND Fencing (they aren't military fences and you have to pay a rental cost each month). YAY! The whole "we're gonna move" thing was apparently just a heat of the moment sort of statement. And I've decided that I am going to teach Achilles proper leash behavior... He's a puller, which would be bad but he weighs so much that it's hard on me to keep him back. (Glad I weigh as much as I do now--a 92lb me would be completely unable to restrain him... heck, I had trouble just opening those glass doors into buildings because of the suction..) We went a couple laps around a portion of our block, also testing my ability to walk that far without holding onto a stroller, lol. He did good, so did I.

As for the whippet thing, the lady has not written back. It's driving me bonkers. I'm going to end up calling, to see if she got my email before too long! I also found out that the little guy has been available for adoption since the beginning of August... which is a long time for a young fella like him to be sitting. I'm wondering if the lady is not responding to anyone or if the dog has some kind of condition that people aren't liking... Oi. If I haven't said it already, I'm now going crazy. At first I was keeping my distance, I didn't want to want him too much because then it would hurt if we got denied... But now I can't. I'm totally stuck on this dog. I wish she'd get back to me so I can take some kind of action--either get over it because he's going elsewhere or start the adoption process. This blankly sitting, not knowing anything, can really drive a person loopy. (Seriously, I check my email like every 10 minutes. Then I check the adoption site to make sure he is still up there.) Help!

Greyhound Poem

On the first day, God created the Greyhound.

On the second day, God created man to serve the Greyhound.

On the third day, God created the animals of the Earth to serve as potential food for the Greyhound.

On the fourth day, God created honest toil so that man could labor for the good of the Greyhound.

On the fifth day, God created the tennis ball so that the Greyhound may or may not retrieve it according to his mood.

On the sixth day, God created veterinary science to keep the Greyhound healthy and man broke.

On the seventh day, God tried to rest, but He had to walk the Greyhound.

On the eighth day, God believeth that He was done, but Lo! The Garden of Eden was full of Greyhound poop and craters. Adam & Eve, having been banished from the Garden, no longer dwelleth therein to serve the Greyhound, so it came to pass that He had to clean the mess up Himself. And God was displeased.

On the ninth day, God sayeth unto the Heavens, "Who hath domain here, me or the Greyhound"?

On the tenth day, God came upon the Greyhound cockroached upon His Throne and abideth there unmoving, despite all His beseeching. And so it came to pass that God had His answer.

He then sayeth unto Moses, "Fine, you are in charge now, here are my 10 Commandments. You deal with the Greyhound, I'm retiring to Miami Beach!" And Moses convinced Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of bondage in Egypt and journey to the Promised Land.

God sayeth unto Moses, "The Promised Land shall be yours, but you must take the Greyhound
with you." And so it came to pass that the Israelites wandered for 40 years in the wilderness, waiting for the Greyhound to go potty, mark every bush and sniff every blade of grass in its domain. And the Greyhound was fruitful and multiplied.

The people were taken by the comeliness and manner of the Greyhound, but were sorely
distressed. "Lord", they cried out, "The Greyhound is an attractive and sweet creature, but there are so many, what shall we do?" And God sayeth unto the people, "Ye are the cursed people and shall be known as adopters! Thy yards shall be barren of grass. Thy dwellings shall overflow with dog beds, squeaky toys and Greyhound kitsch. Thy carpets shall be forever
stained. Thy vet bills shall be large and thy lives forever ordered around by the Greyhound. And thy minds shall be muddled, as thou shalt treat the Greyhound as thou do thy human offspring."

And Adopters begat Chippers. And Chippers begat Fosterers. And Fosterers begat Adoption Groups. And Adoption Groups begat Discussion Lists. And Discussion Lists begat Gatherings. And Gatherings begat Vendors. And Vendors begat a wardrobe for the Greyhound.

And the Greyhound was spoiled. God looked down on this and was pleased.

-Author Unknown

* I myself am not Christian, but I find this to be wonderful. Feel free to change the word "God" into any suitable deity of your choice.

** "cockroached upon the throne" greyhounds have a sleeping position, on their back, front paws sticking either straight up, overhead or slightly curled to their chest, back legs usually resting against something or splayed wide open baring all... greyhound owners call this the cockroach. I'll have to snap a pic of Achilles doing it.

No Fence

After the hassle of getting the various companies out to our house to mark their lines, the housing office just sent a guy out to take a peek. Basically, in order to get a fence in your backyard, you have to see where all the power lines are and stuff before they will approve you.

I'm assuming, at this point, that I haven't shown any pics of our backyard that show the giant power boxes set directly in our backyard...

We were denied a fence. We were told that we couldn't move on that premise. We were told that we can make an appeal with a certain guy in Housing... So yeah. They can't take the 4 boxes we have in our backyard out (all housing areas have a large communal type strip of land in the backyards; normally all power boxes go there, rather than like ours, where we get disturbed by any crews)... Caayn is pissed, me too, because seriously, why did they build this area like they did? Our corner is more crammed than any housing corner. We have the other corner house slammed right against ours. I think they didn't plan this bit of street very well, cause we should be a corner house, but aren't.

We'll be fighting this one. We have to have a fence. The greyhound's current situation is a zipline like cord (uh, I accidently did buy a zipline type deal for dogs, but Caayn adapted it for our needs) attached to one of those little metal posts that you hand drill into the ground. Perfectly fine for doing doggy business, but absolutely not fine for stretching his legs out and running. He's gained quite a bit of weight since we moved in, he's hovering between 79 and 80, which is big for a greyhound. Plus, it'd be really nice to have an area where Sully could run without me needing to worry if he's going to try and play with that stuff or try to bolt out into the communal area. (Not that that is too bad, but it's full of dakrat holes that are exactly the size of his feet...)

Ugh. And the part that silly old me is worrying about? We'd have to cover over our beautiful bedroom paint!

Baby Rambling

We've got a date. Caayn starts ALS (airman leadership school) on November 7th. So we're really hoping for a baby who wants to make an early appearance. Caayn had a guess date of October 30th? Well, he changed his mind. It's now October 18th. This is based on something kind of cool.

Sully was born on March 19th. My oldest friend (and first love) was born March 20th. Let's get more detailed. Both of his parents were in the Air Force. And? He was born at the hospital here on our base. (It's no longer a functioning hospital, more of a clinic that we all call the hospital.) How freaky is that?! And Sully missed being born on the 20th by just 55 minutes. Weird!

October 19th happens to be the birthday of Caayn's equivilant of my Josh. Her name is Sarah. I don't know if she was his oldest friend sort of deal, but she was his first love. And? Her parents were in the Air Force. Where was she born? Okinawa, Japan. Now, it is too late for Caayn to get transferred there (although a funny side note is that the first neighbors we out lasted in our old house, they got transferred to Okinawa...) So, it'd be kind of interesting if this dude was born on the 18th, lol. Oh, and one last detail of funniness? Josh joined the military about 3 weeks prior to Caayn, and guess where he went when he was done with tech school. Yokota Air Base, in Japan. Silly weirdness!

If I had to adjust my date from Oct 27th, it would be to the 20th, only because of all that stuff. But I'm still pulling for the 27th. Either way though, the baby would be hopefully healthy. Those dates fall in my 36th and 37th weeks, which are good milestones for babies in utero.

Oh, and tonight our cat learned that she can get to our ceiling. In our kitchen, the cupboards are all attached to each other, and stop about a foot from the ceiling. We don't know how she got up there, but the theory is that she was on the counter, jumped on top of the fridge, and then up the foot, foot 'n a half, to the top of the cupboards. She's since been walking back and forth, peering down on everything. It reminds me of Snoopy doing the vulture thing.


(And on a unrelated note to everything else... so I was casually looking into some whippet rescue sites, mostly to see whats out there and where, when I found a whippet who is up for adoption in Minnesota. After reading his detailed description, I poked Caayn into taking a peek. We're interested... I sent the gal who is fostering him an email, to get more info and stuff. We're kind of excited about this, but are not really getting our hopes up. Adoption processes through rescue groups are lengthy and very detailed; not to mention we have no clue if there are others showing interest or how long he's been available. The one thing I think we have going for us is that we have a greyhound. We know the ins and outs of how to care for sighthounds and their special needs. If I hear anything positive about this, I'll post a picture of him. He's darn cute with a really smart face. Oh, and the downside? He's an 8 hour trip away from us. I should have known better than looking into this stuff right now, lol.)

Plague, Dogs, Fall

Monday. There's nothing like it, huh? I'm one of those freaks who actually likes Monday. I like the end to the weekend. It probably has something to do with school and how you got to go back and hang out with friends.

We did nothing this weekend, since Sully mysteriously woke with a fever and was sort of icky the whole time. Never did figure out what he had, since his tummy, head, eyes, butt, legs, ears, didn't hurt. He did briefly mention a sore throat, but then it was all better. Oh and all of Saturday his knee hurt. Hasn't been eating much either. At dinner he'll ask for three different things, none of which he'll eat. Today he had about 8 bites of pasta stars, 3 bites of a hot dog, one bite of a fig newton, half a cup of chocolate milk... poor kiddo.

Sunday I had what I think might have been a "real" contraction. Unlike all the others (which are more than likely just braxton-hicks), this one came with a lower back pain that pulsed with the contraction and went away with it. And the contraction itself felt different. It wasn't painful, but I was more aware of it than I have been of others. Since then I'll get one of those every once in awhile, but not often enough for me to worry about it. I am annoyed that it might be something I should talk to the midwife about, but I don't want to be threatened with more "drastic" measures. Drugs (that would have to be taken every 6 hours, and I'd be lucky if I took one at the right time each day), pelvic rest, possible monitoring. Ugh. I denied drugs last time. I know my body, and if something was wrong, I'd know and get help.

Our new neighbors, the ones we met after the dog fight, came out and chatted with us for a bit yesterday. She told me that they called the cops too, because her husband did in fact get bit. Apparently the dog is now gone. Thank goodness. And I think the other 2 that they had are gone too, because I haven't seen either in awhile. I'm glad. I was pretty concerned about the male, since I knew if he ever got out while another dog was out, there would be a bad situation. And on a more positive note, our new neighbors have the cutest puppy EVER. It's a pug-a-poo, pug/poodle mix. It looks like a walking dust bunny. And it's totally giving me puppy fever. Caayn keeps saying no (he has to be the rock in this situation, we've learned this the hard way). It doesn't help that the last two pups we've gotten, no 3, have had a bad time.

First was Maya, a lab/chow mix. Cutest gal ever. She got parvo, a bad strain, and died. (Achilles got it from her.) Then we got Arwen, a german short-hair pointer/australian shepherd mix. DAMN good dog. She was gorgeous, intelligent, good with both our dogs, good with Sully... Well, a few weeks later, we found a store with greyhound pups. We got one. (Let me say, for the record, Caayn totally picked her out--I would have chosen this cute little male.) That was Abby, also known as the devil dog. We decided that maybe Arwen would go to a new home. It killed me, because she was really good for our family. The day after we sold Arwen, she got a nasty case of Parvo. Possibly from our house, but Abby never got it, so we aren't sure. She did survive. Abby we kept for a year or so, before she really just had to go. She had so many UTIs we had to get her fixed early, and because of that, she never really learned how to be potty-trained. She was starting to show a lot of aggression, especially to me (nipping, pretending she'd bite)... We gave her away to 2 different homes, one who kept her for a couple of months before bringing her back. We took her to the pound, which was one of the worst things I've ever done. YUCK. I still feel guilty about that. But there was no way we could take having her in our house for who knows how long trying to find another owner.

All of that boils down to NO MORE PUPPIES. I'm not allowed to buy any more, because we've had such a bad run of luck. I still miss Arwen, because she was just so darn perfect. She would have been the right size so that she could rough house with Achilles, and Artemis. Tem is too small to play with Achilles, and I think she misses playing with someone her size. (Our very first dog was a Jack Russell Terrier, so she was used to playing with her...) But at the same time, I think about how much it would have killed me to do the parvo again. When Achilles was at the hospital, it was the worst week of my life. I cried every day. I called the vets so often they knew who I was. I'm not sure I could have done that again with Arwen, watching her waste away, smelling that awful stink... too hard. She's in a good place though, so I know she is okay.

I'm totally torn though. We had agreed that if we did get a dog, it'd be from the humane society. But at the same time, the only breeds of dog we're interested in probably won't be found there. We'd really really like to get a whippet, but we've never seen them sold. It'd be a situation where we'd have to go out of state and find a solid breeder. Or another greyhound, but we've also agreed there that we'll only adopt. There aren't any rescue orgs in North Dakota, closest is St. Paul, I think... but I dunno. I keep telling Caayn that I am so ready to move to an area with a rescue. I really want a chance to volunteer there, and maybe even foster. It's something of a dream of mine. :)

Hmm. Can you tell I have dogs on the brain? Caayn thinks I must be having the baby soon, since last time I also wanted a puppy before Sully was born. Heck, we bought Achilles when I was pregnant; he was 1 week older than Sully's gestational age, lol.

Trees are all turning yellow. I love seeing people's yards with leaves in them. Brings back all kinds of fall related memories. And I love the smell in the air as the trees change and drop. It's like cookies and pumpkin pie and spices. Yay for autumn!

32 weeks

I could tell my belly grew before I even measured it. It's easy to tell, because all of a sudden I'm whacking my belly button everything. I have to get used to opening doors even wider, making sure I am further away from other things... It sucks. My poor belly button is so sore right now. Last night I whacked it a good one on the little metal latch thingy on the door jam. Right into the side of my scar tissue there (from when I had the umbilical hernia fixed from Sully's pregnancy). OWIE. And it doesn't help that Mr. L seems to think my belly button is the coolest place ever. I think all babies are like this. Once they get to a certain size, they spend a good portion of their day trying to stick a foot out through your navel. I'm usually resting a hand there, with some pressure, to keep it from hurting too bad. Silly kid.

32 weeks today. 8 weeks if I went to Nov 16, which is what my midwife gives me. But I'm not a fan of "due dates". The babies are due whenever they are ready to come out. It also creates too much pressure on a woman, who feels she has to produce by then. It's easier to say that you are due in a certain month, or if you are feeling like it, a particular part of the month (early November, for example).

Caayn thinks Mr. L will make his appearance October 30th. That happens to be my mom's birthday, and 3 days before my own birthday. This is crazy. It's only 5 weeks and 4 days until October 30th. 39 whole days. 39. And my own guess is October 27th. That's actually my special wish, because October 27th happens to be my most favorite day in the whole year. It combines some of my other favorite things. Like my favorite number, 27. My favorite month, October. (Oh, and 2+7=9, which is my other favorite number...) :D But even that day is 36 days away. That just seems so close. And so far away. It's easier to think about the weeks than the number of days. The number of days seems so much smaller.

We're ready though. Babies don't really need much. He has some clothes, some blankets, baby towels... a crib and sheets... Oh, we probably ought to get some socks or something, since it'll be closing in on winter and all, and it seems like baby toes are always so cold. And I'd like to find a store that sells those carseat cover thingies, or even one of those "boots" that goes on the end of the carseat... We didn't use one for Sully, we just covered the whole thing with a blanket. But this time, I'd rather not have to worry about keeping a blanket on there in fierce winds and dealing with a 2 year old. This also means we ought to bust out the baby carseat and give it a good cleaning. And, if I could, I'd totally like to get my hands on a wrap of some sort. Leigh had a picture of her wearing a moby in the coolest way, which definitely piqued my interest in those. And I also really like the mei tais. Not sure if we have the extra money to buy either or both though. We do have a Snuggli, bought for use when we took Sully to PA last time (uh, it was hilarious getting a 2 yr old in one of those, considering they aren't meant for a kid that big--he loved it though and cackled every time he saw it).

Anyway, sorry for all the baby talk. I can't help it, it's really becoming all I think about. I'm so ready to meet this guy in my belly. And I can't wait for Sully to meet him. Because, despite what he says, I think he'll like having a little brother. I'm gonna start drinking my red raspberry leaf tea soon... Yay. I didn't drink it until close to the end with Sully, and at the time I really thought it was just super sour and gross. I'm hoping that it tastes better this time!

Power Outages

The power went out last night. Argh! After sitting in the dark for awhile, I realized there was a big candle on our dresser and that I have a lighter stashed in the medicine cabinet. (I'm not one of those ex-smokers who can't handle being near a lighter... I seem to collect them even though I haven't bought one in ages.)

But reading by the light of a candle that is like 5 feet away and flickering is sort of hard. I could have kept on, but honestly, I'm not that desperate to read. I set my phone to be the alarm Caayn would need in the morning. Our room was so... quiet... I'm used to lots of noise. We have the baby monitor going all night, since Sully is on a different floor than we are, and also a small fan. The fan is usually for white noise, but not when I'm pregnant. That bad boy is usually pointed right at me. But we didn't have either going... The power came on at 3 something, 5 hours after it went out. Then it went out again. Came back at almost 5. Most of that time I didn't sleep. I have rules about night time, and sleeping confined in a black box isn't one of them. (Maybe some other time I'll write about my silly night time rules.) I also kept thinking about what if Mr. L was here. Although, to be honest, he probably would have slept through it. And it's not like the time where it was below freezing outside and we had no heat. But still. A momma has to wonder and worry.

Luckily Sully didn't wake up, he'd have thrown a fit that his nightlight was out and that we couldn't turn on any other light!

However, right before this all went down, we realized there was a lot of banging coming from the house next door. Which is empty, because the guy moved out. (And left his car behind, which is pretty funny...) So we have new neighbors, who were attempting to move some stuff in. Poor folks. If I were a good citizen, I would have gone over and checked to see if they need anything. Or made Caayn do it. I'm not though. I sort of get spooked when meeting new people. (I suppose you could say I'm shy.)

They do have dogs though. 3 of them. A German Shepherd, some sort of black dog, and a wee thing that looks like a Yorkie. I Can tell ya right now, Achilles is going to be in dog heaven. He likes black dogs, and he looooooves Yorkies. Silly dog.

Funny thing about being pregnant? People are always apologizing to me about a room being cold, or their hands being cold, or the gel being cold. I always answer with, "It's no problem, I'm pregnant. I'm always hot." It takes a lot to make me cold! Silly people.

Last thing, I swear. Sully has hit a new phase. A phase of screaming like a baby. As in, "Waaaaaah! Waaaaaah! Waaaaaah!" Literally, that is what he is saying. It drives me bonkers. I think he has seen too many baby shows now. And he's been throwing some awful tantrums lately. Those involve him shrieking NO at the top of his lungs. I admit, half the time I am secretly giggling when this happens. He has the funniest voice ever. It's like a higher pitched version of an old smoker who is on the verge of losing their voice. I'm not quite sure how to handle these though. Talking quietly doesn't work, ignoring him doesn't work, holding him doesn't work. He just has to get it out of his system. Then he's all smiles and kisses. Poor Caayn though--working all day and then coming home to a kid who showers him with love and then 10 minutes later is shrieking.

Oh. I lied. Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. My mom gets all super excited about this day, works on her pirate dialect all year. I'm sure she is freaking the customers out right now. I have to make sure not to call her, lol. She's such a loon. (In a good way.)

Exactly How Much Does a Teenage Boy Eat?

Sully loves McDonald's chicken nuggets. In general, the only meat products I can get him to eat are most kinds of chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and the occasional turkey sandwich. So we don't not let him have them. He's too picky for us to say no to.

Normally our McDonald's is like lightning quick. This weekend we were sitting in line, grumbling about how this one guy was taking forever. Turns out he was getting 5 bags of grub. We were shocked. I made a lame joke about catering a party with it (I'm so not funny, it's shameful)... and then the thought hit me. If we were to pull into a fast food joint (or, well, anywhere food is ordered really) in like 13 years, are we going to be pulling $40 or $50 orders? Seriously, I am going to be having two teen boys in my house. How much do those things eat?

Caayn said maybe they wouldn't eat much. Except for the fact that Sully is already taking after his momma. When I was younger, I literally pounded food down. I could eat an entire large pizza by myself. I once out-ate every single family member at Thanksgiving. My gut is the bottomless pit. (My old housemate said that I was like a snake--my belly would get all big after eating, then I'd have to go and digest it all, hehe.) And every night I eat more than Caayn. I have no clue what I'm going to do later in life, when my metabolism takes a decline. Portion sizing? I don't understand...

Right now, Sully is eating his second peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. In about 10 or 20 minutes, he'll probably come up to me with a go-gurt. No, I have to add that he just now asked me for a hot dog instead. So we're working on 2 sandwiches and a hot dog.

Eh, that's okay though. I'm going to be the happiest, proudest momma of boys ever. (I am that happy right now, but I am currently only the happiest, proudest momma of a boy ever.) If I could know I was certain of more boys, I'd be all over having more kids. But this way works too--they'll be bringing their friends over to the house! Yay! Boys I understand, I know them. I was a tomboy. My friends worked on cars, skateboarded, played in bands... I don't know much about girls, hence the excitement about my boys.

Anyway, so that was my thought for the weekend!

I Dream of Italy

Okay, if you are the sort of person who does not like to hear about other people's dreams, read no further. Caayn thinks I'm a nut for having to get this down, but I really don't want to forget it, which means I have to write it out. Be forewarned--I have vivid dreams and remember lots of detail, meaning this will likely be long!

I went to Italy (it was a place called Tor, oddly enough) and was sitting near a road, looking at these most gorgeous cliffs that backdropped some hotel. Caayn was arriving after me, since he had to take some plane from the Bahamas or something. (Lol.) Loads of people were around, taking pictures and stuff. A little Italian boy wandered up to me, eating ice cream. I kept thinking how utterly wonderful it was and how very very beautiful.

I walked down a path and noticed I was barefoot. Looking around, I noticed most people were wearing flip-flops and was wondering if I would get in trouble, but figured not, because its Italy. I came to a thing sort of like a big pier. On one side, a little ways down the shore, there was a huge cliff with two diving boards set into it. People were jumping off them, and the ocean was full of people; it was a lovely shade of turquoise. I also saw people using a zipline and some sort of weird kayaking sort of zipline.

Caayn showed up and we went to our hotel with Sully. Sully was being really silly. He'd say, "I'm really tired!" and then keel over and giggle. I'm assuming that we stayed the night there, because I feel like this then went to the next day. We wandered to this little backstreet area where there were vendors selling stuff. Caayn bought me a hideous armband/bracelet thing. I think we were looking for a place to eat, because as we passed a bunch of Japanese restuarants, I said that I was afraid to eat at an Italian place because they pronounce their foods differently than we do back home...

Then we were in some soothing building that had these really long (maybe 12 feet?) boxed pools. Like a planter box, filled with water. I got in one and was sort of swimming frog-style, which was really relaxing. I ended up giving birth to Mr. L (whew, I almost wrote out his name..) there, so I get the impression it was sort of like a birth center because there were lots of midwives. Mr. L was absolutely a little baldy, very alert, and full of newborn wiggly goodness. Caayn said he wanted to go home now, since we had the baby and all. I started freaking out about how I would never get to come to Italy ever again if we did and that I just wanted to move here.

So we end up at some lady's house. She apparently is the aunt of some guy Caayn works with (he kept saying it was Doug, and there would be this big impression that the last name Doug was all mafia style and really important, lol)... We stayed there for a little bit, Sully hung out and played with stuff, and there was small talk and baby oogling. Before long though, we decide that we should go. I had finally convinced him to stay in Italy, and that maybe we would travel around.

We're driving down the road (while we were driving I called my mom on my cellphone to tell her that I'd had the baby) and before too long there starts to be really weird things going on. In the distance we could see some sort of building that was all evil, dungeon, style. Everything was wrapped in a purple mist. The fields in front of the building had weird humanoid things shambling around. I screamed and told Caayn to turn around. He did and then before too long we were not in a car. We were on -something- but I don't know what (maybe a unicycle or something like that). There were these creatures that had the shape of an elk, but their faces were skulls and they had tattered purple/gray shrouds. Some of them had glowing apples in their mouths. They'd walk gracefully up to us and say some phrase and try to give us the apple, but you weren't supposed to take it because it was bad. We're going faster and faster trying to get through the orchard-like field to the road up ahead. (No clue if those creatures were good or bad or whatnot...)

After all that, we manage to get back to our hotel. I tell Caayn that I really need to find a mei tai or a moby because we're just carrying Mr. L in our arms. (Also a brief thought of how we don't have a carseat, but that it's Italy and we don't need one, lol.) So this leads to us wandering up and down roads and into buildings. As we're going, the buildings are turning from rural sort of buildings to big cement, square buildings. Some lady says we have to meet some guy, so we're led up all kinds of steps and then left on a building top in the rain.

And that's it.

What I want to remember are the land areas. On the one side was all the cliffsides (all of them were gently rounded, no sharp edges) and then if you looked to a different side, and also when we were driving towards the bad place, there were these gorgeous mountains that were bluish-purple, and there was all kinds of snow on them.

I woke up all blissed out and peaceful. Every time I closed my eyes again, I'd see the cliffs. I wish there was really a place like that in Italy, I'd go there and live the rest of my life there. What beauty.

A Couple of Pictures

That's my belly in all of its nearly 31 week glory. (Tomorrow is the beginning of 31..)

I learned some things about me while trying to get the perfect shot. My upper arms are HUGE--in one photo, I think there was the beginning of a roll... It's freaky. Also, I have fairly good sized biceps for a girl, thanks to hefting around a 2 year old. I can't wait to have a baby in a carseat--thats where you feel the burn... One last thing about my big ol' belly--I'm in love with the way it looks in unbuttoned jeans (I think it looks hot, but probably not so much to anyone else), and I love the graceful, perky curve it has at the bottom, before turning into a normal body part. And no, I probably won't be showing pictures of THAT any time soon.





And here is the obligatory photo of me wearing jeans. And for the record, those jeans are labeled size 5. :D I got them from Pac Sun. In all fairness though, I bought those at a time when in every single other store, I was buying either a 9 or an 11. I was so stoked that the Pac Sun pants were sized differently that I bought 2 pairs.

Medical Claims

I am studying Medical Claims and Billing. Yep. I got sucked into that whole thing. Surprisingly it is actually kind of fun and is the sort of work that I know I would enjoy doing. (I like filling out forms and dealing paper work, who knows why.)

When I worked at the juice bar, I plowed through lessons like crazy. I think I was turning one in every week or so, sometimes two in a week. That sort of tells you how slow my work was... I think I also read something like 10-15 very long books as well; all in a 6 month period.

I hit the end of one set of lessons right around the time we were moving into this house. When you finished one set, actually when you hit a particular lesson # in a set it would trigger the next set of lessons to be sent out immediately. I was worried about doing that because I wasn't positive they had my new address. So I fired off one of the little student question form thingies asking what to do, and asked for an email confirmation of them changing my address. Never happened. I was a little confused. Whatever.

Yesterday I received my final set of lessons. Totally out of the blue! So apparently they have my new address... Now I've got to drag out 3 other binders, go through my old lessons, so I can catch up before diving in to this new stuff. Of course, all this info is good to have, except for the fact that I won't be able to actually GET a job in this field for a super long time. I have no intentions in sticking a new baby into daycare (even though I love the woman who would do the daycare super lots)... It's a bit of a conundrum. Maybe when Mr. L hits kindegarten (yes, spelled wrong--that's how I pronounce it, and thats how I've spelled it for life... at this point, I'm too lazy to find out the proper spelling).

But it is kind of exciting to think I might actually be hitting the end of my lessons. It's now been two years since I first signed up. Goes to show that signing up for any kind of school work right before having a baby is not such a good idea. Not so much.

WTF? Weather?

So I was saying something about snow and blah blah blah... I'm not sure I mentioned it here, but I've been heard saying that I think we are going to have a bad, cold, long, winter. Yesterday felt like autumn. It was probably around 57? 60? I dunno. There was a brisk feel to the breeze. I know this because I spent like an hour brushing a second dog out of Artemis's long coat.

Today isn't bad. In fact, it's pleasant. Mid 70s if I had to guess. I've got all my windows open to let some fresh air in. During the winter season, you really miss the fresh air. The windows stay sealed shut for like 8 months. Yucky.

Forecast for tomorrow? High of 48 (was a high off 44 earlier in the day). Low of 30. Chance of snow showers.

WTF?

Since when is it acceptable anywhere to have snow showers at the beginning of September? Seriously.

Last winter, we had a huge blizzard at the beginning of October. Trees down all of the town, power out for a fair length of time... We ran out of diapers, go figure. And we spent a long time in our bedroom with the dogs and a well bundled little Sully. Our room is always the warmest--we usually have 5 bodies in there at night, lol.

But still.

And on a unrelated note, I totally mended a pillow case today. I've put it off for 3 years. That's right. 3 years. Today, I busted out my sewing stuff and made myself a very neat and tidy little seam. Bet you never would have guessed that of me. I took 2 or 3 (not sure if I had signed up for it my junior year, which I failed to attend for the most part) years of sewing in high school. I love sewing, just don't do it often. Go me! :D I can't wait to display my work to Caayn, lol.

Meandering Thoughts

I was going to post my thoughts on the whole September 11 thing, but two things happened. First, I felt a wee bit guilty because unlike most people, I don't have the same feelings regarding it. And second, my computer froze and had to be restarted, thus losing the couple of sentences I had already written out. So rather than expose the inner bad me and make people think I'm evil, I'll post other stuff.

Like Caayn's work. Oh my freaking gosh am I tired of what they are doing. Which, to be honest, is really nothing... but I've been told not to write anything about anything, so... hmm. He came home for lunch today to tell me even worse news. October 1st there is some thing that will be taking place. Well, his shop is NOT prepared for it, because they've sort of been kicked out of the buildings they need to be in. So.... it's been decided that to make up for the time they have lost and are continuing to lose, very shortly he will be working 12 hour shifts again. With no weekends. And then the thing on October 1st could take a week or so (it usually does), so yeah... it's possible he is looking at 3 or 4 weeks of working 12s with no weekends. UGH. The only "plus" side, if you can even call it that, is that it hasn't started yet. He MAY make it to my appt on Friday, but he certainly won't make it to the ones that take place during that time period. Boo. And to make things even more difficult, we only have one car. Yucky poo.

I wish I was like other bloggers. You know the ones who have a topic they want to talk about, then they write some short, usually witty, blurb about it. No extras. They stick right to the point. Nope. I can't do that no matter how hard I try. I'm too freaking wordy. In person, I'm totally quiet--I like to listen to others, I like to watch people interact... but put a pen in my hand or a keyboard in front of me and I just don't shut up. You should see the emails that me and my mom write. I get it from her, this weird written wordiness. I joke to Caayn that it's because I have no one else to tell this crap to (except him, and trust me, he hears it all, and then has to turn around and read it too!), and if I don't get it out of my head, it all sits there and swirls... If I don't get it out, I feel like I might explode.

One last thing before I get up to go eat something... which, by the way, is still difficult for me to do. I'm only actually hungry at breakfast time. Any other food I eat, I am pretty much forcing myself to. Shame on me. 2 meals a day will not provide all the nutrients for a growing boy. Nope. (Bet I still gain 4 or 5 lbs on Friday...) Oops. I digressed too much and forgot what I was going to say. Oh well.

Oh! I thought of something else. My birthday is semi sort of coming up... it's at the beginning of November. Caayn wants to know what he should get me... I HATE that question. I never know. So yeah, hmm. I dunno. Well, secretly I want a puppy. Yeah, can you spell nightmare? And if I couldn't get one, I'd really like to adopt a retired racer for Achilles to pal around with. But that would involve a trip to Minneapolis... which neither of us want to do. Not when you consider we'll either have a new baby (and its really hard to get them to adopt out a greyhound to you if you have a baby/small kids) or I'll be hugely pregnant. So poo on that. A trip back home would be nice. I miss my Pacific ocean. I want to play pool at Hot Shots, have clam chowder at Brad's, have a six pack on the beach in Pirate's Cove, eat anything at Fat Cat's, have lots of frozen yogurt from T'n'Ts... Ha, maybe convince Caayn to go dancing at Tortilla Flats. Oh, and go see the butterfly trees in Grover Beach, go to the Santa Barbara Zoo... just drive up and down the 101.... That'd be nice. Probably would be too expensive though. Or a tattoo! But it would have to wait until June, because I really like the tattoo guys that Caayn uses there.

Ugh.

Jeans Anyone?

I finally was allowed to make my midwife appointment. It's scheduled for Friday. Which seems so very far away. I'm definitely having a very large increase in Braxton-Hicks. Generally I have between 4-6 an hour, just enough to not have to call L&D, haha. Water, peeing, laying down... none of that makes them stop. It's very annoying. Every single time I get one, I feel like I have to pee. My guess? The baby is right on my bladder and the squeeze makes him push on it. Drives me bonkers! My belly is now at 42" around... one more inch and it will be 10" larger than pre-baby. (We can thank the c-section for that 33" gut. :P) And you know what? I totally squeezed into a pair of jeans that were size 5. HA!!! They were, of course, stretched to the limit at the top, but since I was wearing a mid-thigh length dress, you couldn't tell. I felt so hot! And human! I forgot how good a pair of jeans can make you feel. Yes, it was a wee bit uncomfortable, but it was totally worth it. I'm trying to figure out where I can get something like a Bella band, so I can wear more jeans. (Hey, I need to do something anyway--all my maternity clothes are summer stuff, and out here I absolutely can't find good maternity pants that look half way decent....) I know a tube top would work great, except I don't think stores are selling them anymore, it being fall and all... Eh, well, I'll figure something out.

On a Sully note... He took of his pajama top all by himself this morning, and then, with a teeny bit of help (showing him how to hold the shirt), he put the shirt he picked out on all by himself. How much does he rock!?

Ugh. Another BH. I've got to pack his bag, then I'm gonna sit on my butt for a few minutes before rummaging through my clothes and seeing if I can pull of wearing JEANS in PUBLIC with my man. Ooooh yeah! :D

Posts

Huh. My last two posts were posted at the same time. 12:43pm. Strange. Even though, technically it was at later times, since I'm noticed that Blogger chooses to use the time that you click "new post" as the time you posted. It usually takes me an hour or so to finish a post.

All Pictures

First up is a picture of Achilles... waaay back to when he went swimming at the pool that one day. I wish I had caught a photo of him actually swimming--he would "leap"
through the water and looked very silly. Greyhounds are not nearly as graceful in the water.




Then there is Achilles laying in bed. This was one of the days where he was limping pretty badly and was having forced bedrest. There were pillows mounded up all around him.




Up next is... Sully's new hair cut. Yes. I cut his hair. All those beautiful curls... The downside of those fabulous curls was that the back half of his head was just plain nasty. It was all ratted up and completely tangled. I know it hadn't been actually brushed to tangle-free in at least a couple of weeks. It just wasn't possible to drag a brush through. So now it's short.




Then after he was done monkeying around on his bed, he got in his pajamas and brushed his teeth... don't mind the toilet paper--he was playing in the sink earlier and soaked that entire roll. I'm trying to see if it will be at all usable (not that it matters, since he a-doesn't pee in his toilet yet and b-neither does anyone else).




Here's a picture of the bunkbed....




That's all I've got for now. I should get around to taking another belly shot... I'm 30 weeks today. YAY! It won't be too long now. The weather is getting a wee bit colder. Temps in the 60s now. It's definitely heading towards autumn. Fine by me, autumn and winter are my favorite seasons. (Well, winter out here not as much; weather back home, YES! Winter back home was rain.) Here's to hoping we don't have any snow until after Mr. L is born. Heck, if it started snowing after I got to the hospital, that would be fine. However, I'm not sure that will happen... we usually have snow by Halloween.

Still working on my list... more stuff has been crossed off. I'm taking it super light today, my back is killing me. I need to remember not to bend over so much and to try and squat more. Oh well.

Thank goodness today is Friday!

The One With The List

I'm feeling braver today. I'm gonna post my list. A lot of things should be marked off, but aren't, because I am definitely going room by room. This just keeps me from doing too much and then walking like a really really old lady for the rest of the day. (And seriously, even though I haven't even hit half the list, my house looks about 75% better! YAY!) Oh, and I'll just go ahead and say it. I have 3 floors in my house; 3 floors of hardwood. Yes, I vacuum the hardwood... I've yet to find something that removes both the dog hair AND crumbs, without having to sweep 3 whole floors. On with the list!

General List

• vacuum floors
• swiffer floors
• clean windows
• wash curtains
• clean out toy box
• throw out trash stuffs
• hang pictures of Sully
• clean the dining room table
• clean stove
• clean out fridge
• sweep out the garage
• get ALL laundry done
• clean all toilets
• clean out cat box
• clean out van/vacuum
• pick up various things in Mr. L's room
• open the computers and vacuum
• tidy up linen closet
• clean out coat closets

And now for the room by room break down.... Be prepared. There are lots of rooms.

Kitchen

• clean fridge inside and out
• clean stove top
• take everything off counters and scrub 'em
• clean out drawers, including junk drawer
• tidy up the cupboards
• clean microwave

Dining Room Area (includes two computers/desks)

• vacuum rug
• clean back doors (glass)
• pick up toys
• throw out clutter
• clean out desk drawers
• vacuum computers
• wash table
• vacuum chairs
• clean up my comp desk
  

Living Room

• vacuum rug
• vacuum couches
• vacuum floor
• swiffer floor
• pick up toys
• clean windows/tv screen
• put movies back in cases
• tidy bookshelves
• dust knickknack shelves
• wash armrests/seat/back of glider
• dust entertainment center

Hall Areas

• wash dog bowls
• vacuum dog rug thingy
• remove crayon marks from walls
• vacuum floors

Our Bedroom/Bathroom

• clean mirrors/window
• clean out closet
• vacuum floor
• tidy up nightstands
• clean toilet
• toss expired medicines/vitamins

Upstairs Bathroom

• clean mirror/sink
• clean toilet
• wash floor mat
• tidy up medicine cabinet/weird storage space over toilet

Mr. L's Room

• pick up Sully's toys
• vacuum floor
• swiffer floor
• clean windows
• buy curtains
  
• hang up curtains
  

Sully's Room

• clean windows
• remove crayon marks from walls
• hang up all his clothes/fold them
• vacuum floor
• swiffer floor

Sully's Bathroom

• clean toilet
• clean mirror/sink
• give him a fresh towel
• vacuum floor

Laundry Room

• do all the laundry
• clean out the storage shelves
• vacuum floor
• toss the old pee-stained yucky dog bed
• clean window
• clean cat box
• peel all the remaining bits of painter's tape

WHEW!! What a list. I'm going about it very sporadically but hey, it works for me. The laundry part is the hardest. I figured rather than start with the clothes and stuff, I would do the stuff I would never get around to. Like the many many pillows that Artemis has peed on (seriously, she has got to be the most irritating dog in the history of the world--Caayn looked at her and she peed on both his pillows, the next day he didn't even look at her, and she peed on them again... Anyone want a dog who barks nonstop at all people, all dogs, all things, sheds copiously amounts of white hair everywhere, and pees when she is nervous or scared or excited? Yowsers.)... I was digressing... So I've been washing pillows... And did you know that is a difficult endeavor? A few of the ones that have been down there for 6+ months were peed on by the devil dog. Abby. They have such a powerful reek that I'm not sure they are salvagable. They might have to get tossed. After the dumb pillows are done, I'll have to do things like various linens (I think they breed in my linen closet, because I swear we have too much), bath mats... I'm gonna have to make a trip to the laundramat too. Our king sized comforter doesn't fit in the washer. Guess whats wrong with it? Artemis peed on it. And I can tell you right now, the first or second night we use it, she'll pee on it again. Happened at least twice since we bought it.

I'm procrastinating. :D

On a more fun side note... Sully is totally becoming a big boy. At 2. This is SO not allowed. In the morning, he sings and talks about his Daddy (who is rarely home by the time he wakes up), staying in his bed until I either tell him to come out or go in there. We change his diaper (hopefully not for too awfully long, since he keeps requesting his "big boy underwear" or "underpants"... stuper cute, as he would say). He picks out the clothes he wants to wear. It's really interesting to see his personality and prefrences come out. Like I never knew that he prefers blue pants. Jeans, shorts, whatever. He has a big stack of things like khakis and whatnot, but he only likes to wear the blue. Very cool! And while we do this, I'm trying to teach him how to put his clothes on... He's not one to take the intiative here, so it's something we are slowly working on. At night time he washes his own hands (not hsi face yet, but we'll get there) and brushes his own teeth... along with attempting to spit in the sink, which is freaking adorable.

He watched Emperor's New Groove last night, for the first time. When I went in his room this morning, he grins and me and says, "Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.." like when Kusco (not sure how its actually spelled) saved Pacha from falling and he struts around dancing and singing that... Funny stuff.

And I'm also getting excited for Mr. L to get here. I can finally see our family with two children. Plus, then I get to share his name, lol, rather than refer to him as Mr. L. Although, I gotta say, thats growing on me!

Okay... now I've got to get back to the cleaning. Or at least those pain in my ass pillows.

Fall Cleaning or Early Nesting?

I apparently went into a fit of nesting yesterday. At nearly 30 weeks, I think I'm being a little premature, but considering what I did, probably not. Caayn is theorizing that I did it because our trash can is full and trash doesn't go until Thursday.... I'm known for going on a huge cleaning binge when we have 1 trash bag left, too. I don't know why this is, but it's annoying!

I made a huge list of things to do around the house. I mean huge. And then, when I decided that wasn't enough, I went and made a room-by-room break down of what needs to be done in each room. If I were feeling brave, I'd post it. But I'm not, so I won't.

But yeah. The list is huge. And I can tell by the time I get it all done, I will probably like go into spontaneous labor. (Yes, I totally just said "like" with no purpose--hey, I'm from California, what can I say? You should hear me talk on my wedding video, its embarrassing.) Caayn is helping too, since there are a lot of things I can't do. Like sweeping out the dirt/dust which is the left overs from the snow/sludge/mud gremlins from last winter... The motion of sweeping will pretty much land me on the couch in no time flat.

Am I a freak for admitting that I like to clean bathrooms? It's one of my favorite household chores. That, and cleaning windows. It's fun because it takes about 20 minutes to get a bathroom spotless (that is, if you don't start with a nasty bathroom) and then when you are done, you have a really great feeling of accomplishment, even though the task was small.

Oh, and I'm a nice taskmistress. Some of the items on the list are super easy, that way we feel like we are getting things done when we check things off.

We bought sheets for Mr. L's crib. The crib is set up in his room too, with the pack n play. I'm not really sure what to do with it, since I don't know where else to put it. Well, I assume for a time, it will be in our room, since it has the little bassinet attachment. We used it like that for Sully, although we got really inventive with various usages... And we bought a few more items of clothes for him. I forgot that we'll be headed into winter when he gets here, so we're gonna need more long sleeved, legged things. With Sully, we were more towards the end of winter... It's silly, I have a "My First Christmas" thing, which was mostly bought because of the uber cute reindeer on it, but it's 9 months. Mr. L won't fit it by December, and he won't fit in it next year (which I consider to be his first real holiday... it so does not count as a first holiday if they are too tiny to get into the action). Hmm.... I wonder if I saved those hilarious reindeer ears.... But back on my original note, Mr. L's room is coming along. We do need to find him a dresser, and a load of hangers, but then we should be done. The room isn't painted, but I can't paint HIS room and not have Sully's room painted, so neither are getting done right now. Whenever I walk in there, I smile. It's looking like a room for a baby, rather than a room that had no purpose and was mostly ignored.

And for an update... Achilles is now going to the vet on Monday. He is continuing to limp. I don't know if this is related to the dog fight or not. It's the same paw he limped on the rest of that day, though. The frustrating thing is that it's an on and off kind of limp. Some parts of the day he'll walk around fine, but then other times, he'll be limping. We were looking at it being either a muscular cause or the possibility of a torn ligament... well, the way I see it, if it was muscular, it would have healed by now, and if it was a torn ligament, I can't imagine he would have a point where he stopped limping. So I dunno. Hopefully we get it figured out.

Can I Have My Husband Back?!

Two things to write about. Just to let you know.

First of all, Sully's bunk bed arrived. He was totally over the moon about it, and spent the rest of yesterday going up and down the ladder. And we're pretty sure he spent his whole nap time playing in the room (ladder off the bunk, of course). Night time went over well, for the most part. He did hit some bumps around 4am, but then it was smooth sailing again. He came to wake me up bright and early (8:30ish?). I took pictures... but like the pictures of Achilles swimming, they have yet to make it to the computer. :P

Second. This is gonna be long. So Caayn was looking at a really awesome, much anticipated 4 day weekend. Friday was an ACC family day and Monday is, of course, Labor Day. Thursday night, about 20 minutes after we went to bed, he gets a phone call. All the day shift from his shop have to go to work. Immediately. So, after no sleep, he went to work from midnight until 7am. (Oh yeah, and to top it off, he had a huge lunch at 4pm on Thursday, and so didn't have dinner--so he was up all that time with no food...) Came home, crashed until 11ish, when the bunk bed got delivered/set up... Then we had to do our car registration. Later that night, around 8? he gets a second phone call. I heard something about, "8:45? Yes sir." and shuddered. I didn't want to think he had to go in. Again. After no sleep. Instead, it was a briefing sort of thing, for this morning. He came home around 9:30 to tell me he has to go to work. Very not "4 day weekend".

Is it really petty to say that I just want my husband home? Yeah, I'm lucky that he isn't deployed and all, but still... I want a weekend with him. Especially considering Tuesday they start working 12 hour shifts again. GAH!!!

And to end this on a sort of silly note... I see things out of the corner of my eye all the time. Shooting things, black or white, zipping around. Sometimes I see things crawling on the wall or on the floor. Nothing is ever there. Coincidentally I noticed that I stopped seeing these things after a few days on Zoloft. I'm not sure if those are connected, but I am kind of glad it stopped. It was getting ridiculous. So yesterday we're all sitting on Sully's big boy bed (which he says gleefully) and I saw 10-20 tiny glittery things flying all over the place--in front of me. Not out of the corner of my eye. It was very strange. Caayn probably thought I was nuts, since there definitely wasn't anything there... but yeah. Very strange, very silly. Hopefully there is not much more of THAT. It's bad enough I keep doing that jumpy-twitch thing while sleeping. (Ya know where your body kind of jerks and you wake up?) I've been doing that a lot every night. In fact, before I got off the couch, I was almost dozing and I definitely twitched and yelled something, because Sully started laughing at me. Gee, thanks kid. LOL. So yep. Lots of silliness abounds over here.

Oh and one last thing. So we shopped around for a comforter set for the bottom bunk (no point in getting the top bunk set up yet since no one will be using it for 2 or 3 more years)... I'm picky about this. I don't really want a cartoony one, unless it was Blues Clues. However, I came across this bed set online... OMG. It is so adorable. I love it. I want to buy it for the bottom AND top bunk, lol, AND the crib set.... Heck, if it came in king, I would totally put it on my bed. Caayn is iffy on it. It's $70 for the quilt and two pillow cases. I'm in love. Since we were hesitantly thinking of getting it, we bought navy blue sheets for his bunk. Mostly because we couldn't use white--he's still in diapers, and he drinks a boatload every night. Too much possibility of white sheets being stained, either by leaks from the diaper or when we really get the potty training thing going.