The rest of the story

Every one better hurry and read this because Dan may ask that I take it down later. This is the "rest of the story" that I alluded to in my last post.
So, we're getting ready to fly out Sunday afternoon. Dan's back was still hurting like the dickens from the intensive knot busting session of the night before. It was so bad he didn't even make it to church, which really upset him. He was given another vicoden which he obediently took, and "Silly Dan" was back again. I had packed and lugged our bags out to Dad's car when I decided once again to try to persuade Danny that we really did need one of the adorable little kittens to come home with us. I offered him a dollar if he said yes, then Mom offered him 5. That wasn't quite enough, but he whispered to me, asking if he could have $50. Because that's a lot of money. I said sure, why not and went in search of Felix.
For this next part, you have to understand that Dan is not a cat person. He's into dogs and has never actually had a cat before. That being said...as we were looking for Felix, he spotted the little white kitten and said he wanted that one. He named her Snowball and asked if he could bring her back too. Three bites and several scratches later (she was one of the least domesticated kitties-but he had to have her because she was his kitty and he loved her) I delivered her into the waiting arms of my overjoyed husband and continued my efforts to find Felix.
Snowball wriggled her way out of Dan's grasp and he almost cried. He was worried not only that he might have dropped and hurt her, but also that she didn't love him. Long story shot, Dad and I recaptured her, got Felix and put them both into a cat carrier that Mom found in the garage and headed to the airport.
Dad waited after dropping us off to make sure that the cats would be ok. We really weren't prepared to take them onto an airplane and didn't even know what the rules and regs were. "silly Dan" is very child-like and enjoys much more simple pleasures. He kept wanting to open the carrier and hold the kitties. So, as I explained to the ladies at the ticket window that the cats were only 7 weeks old and they were from the same litter, and that my husband was very attached to them, and they were his comfort item, "Silly Dan" was telling about how the kitties love him, and they're sisters and they're going to go on an airplane with us, and how he hoped they would like Princess, and Princess is our dog, and she's old, and since Mouse died last year she doesn't have any friends-just him, and me. The I asked if he could be a big helper and write our information on the luggage tag, and he was really excited to help. The ladies looked at me, and then at him, and then at each other, and told him that it was ok, and of course his kitties could go with him.
Our next adventure was security. Somehow Dan's driver's license was missing from his wallet, so he had to go through extra security. We got separated at that point, and I had to be the one to ask that they search his Temple bag privately, not in the middle of the airport. But he was happy because he got to hold the kitties and take them through the metal detector. Because, as he told the security lady, if the kitties went through the x-ray then their bones would show, and they might not like that. I got a sympathetic glance from her too. They took him into a private room to pat him down and search his bag, and it was taking forever. I finally had to leave him there because they were calling for final boarding for our flight. I have to say, the security lady was really nice. I told her what was going on and why I had to leave, and she told me exactly where the gate was and promised to send Dan on his way and tell him to hurry.
The guy at the gate wasn't so nice though. I got there just before they were closing the door, and told him that my husband was caught in security and he was about a minute and a half behind me. Fifteen seconds later, he said they couldn't wait any longer and if I wanted to get on that flight I would have to leave without him. At this point I was almost crying, and I was pleading with him to wait just one minute..the girl at the desk said that would be ok, but the guy started to close it up anyway. At that point I saw Dan walking contentedly down the hall and yelled at him to run, but the guy closed the door as I turned to tell him Dan was almost there. Danny got there like 10 seconds later, and the girl reopened the door and cooed over the kittens as Dan tried to regale her with the exciting story of their lives and our airport experiences. So we were able to get onto the l-shaped hallway between the building and the plane, and the guy was mad. He told us that we would have to run down to the plane because he didn't have all day. Mind you, I'm almost 6 months pregnant carrying 2 bags, and "Silly Dan" has the kitties, but zero sense of urgency. We did make it on the plane and I offered a silent prayer of thanksgiving as Dan showed the flight attendants his kitties.
When we finally landed in Phoenix, most of the effects were wearing off, and Dan was not so happy anymore. I think what upset him the most was when he asked what he had gotten out of it to let me have a kitten, and I told him that he had negotiated to take Snowball too.
"A cat?! You talked me into getting a cat by giving me a CAT!!!!???!!!"

Illinois, and the trauma involved

It all started one Tuesday night almost two weeks ago...Justin had come over and was dreading the thought of the solo cross country drive he was about to embark on. I managed to talk Danny into going with him by pointing out that if they left after lab on Wednesday he would only miss one class, and that I could fly out and meet them in Illinois after work on Friday and we could see his folks and Sara and Jack and Kami and PJ. Let's just say that it didn't exactly take a lot of arm twisting to get him to agree.
The plan was that Justin would pick Danny up from school at about 3:15 and they would be on their merry way. What actually happened was we got out of class around 3:30, and since Justin wasn't quite set yet, we grabbed some subway, picked up toiletries from walmart that dan had forgotten to pack, and then we headed to Justin's parents house to meet up with him. By the time the CRV was loaded onto the trailer, and we packed up the boys' snackies and had a prayer and said good-bye it was almost 5pm. Dan was super excited to get started during rush hour.
That night and the next day and night I was kind of a mess. Luckily I was working crazy hours then sleeping all day til class time.Despite that fact I was missing Danny like crazy! We really haven't spent a lot of time apart. Once I went to Grandma's with Dad and Suzanne for the day and came home the next morning, but other than that, we've always been together. I have no idea how Sara kept from losing her mind during the two weeks that she and Justin were in separate states.
They made it into Illinois on Friday afternoon, just a couple of hours before I did. But they were in Carbondale, and everyone else was in Godfrey. We ended up not being able to unload everything into the rental house as planned, so the new plan was to get a storage facility...but they were all closed. So the guys left the rental truck at the house and drove the crv up to godfrey. I was so so so very happy to finally be able to see Danny after our long, long separation. Saturday we had planned to go to six flags, but we didn't get out early enough, so we just hung out all together and went swimming and barbecued. All in all, it was really fun just to see everyone again.
Poor Danny was suffering with horrible back pain. I don't know why, but he has had these knots in his back that are huge and painful since before we were married. For the most part he's used to it, but the long car drive and sleeping in the truck one night exacerbated it and he was in substantial pain, so Kami gave him 2 vicodin and tried to break the knots out of his back. Unfortunately it didn't end up helping him too much, but we did find out that Dan has a very...interesting reaction to narcotics. But since this post is already running on really long, I'll save that part of the story for later.

I don't know if it's good news or bad...

Work has been absolutely insane lately. We are really short handed right now, and with the Fourth of July coming up that equals a ton of hours. Like this week..by the end of my fourth day of work I was at 38.5 hours. Needless to say, this hasn't exactly been helpful with the swelling issues I've been having lately. I finally had to call my doctor because my circulation was so bad that my foot/leg was falling asleep while I was walking! So, she put me on an eight-hour shift restriction. So basically I can do every single aspect of my job...I just can't do it longer than 8 hours at a time. But Pepsi, for liability issues, won't allow anyone to work if they have any restrictions at all. So, at 24 weeks pregnant, I've got to go out on maternity leave. So, on the one hand I'm happy that I get to stay at home and spend time with Danny, but on the other hand I think I may go insane not working until December. And I'm not sure if I'll still have a job then because my job is only secure for the first 12 weeks, then they can backfill it. Oh well, que sera, sera.

an update, even though there's not much to say

Well, hmm.....I feel like kind of a slacker since I haven't posted in forever. School is going well, it's a lot of fun having a class with Danny. But it kind of sucks too because I end up doing the tests first (they're online) then whatever problems I miss, he sees and can anticipate them and he get 100's whereas, I do not. So, this week he has to go first!
Work has been absolutely insane this week! We've been getting out between 5 and 6 in the morning. But I guess that's what happens when half of a skeleton crew gets fired in one day. Three of my builders decided last week to turn the lunch hour into happy hour. On company property....in the secure, monitored parking lot....parked near where our supervisor parks. Needless to say, not a good idea.
Oh, one little tibit here. My mother called me this morning. I was a little less than thrilled though because I was crawling into bed, dreading waking up for class in 5 hours when all of a sudden my phone goes off. The really disappointing part is that I guess it was a mistake or a pocket call, because I could hear the background noises, but got no response when I tried to say hi. I assume that it was a pocket call anyway. Who knows?
Suzanne has not had her baby yet. That's kind of a good thing though. She still doesn't have a name picked out for her poor baby yet. And she's due in just a couple of weeks, July 7th. I requested vacation time for that week, so I'm excited on multiple levels. First off, this is my first totally legitimate niece. No matter what, this kiddo is related to me. Cause my first nephew isn't a nephew anymore...not since the divorce anyway.....and I'd lose the Aunt title with Jack too if anything ever happened with me and Danny. Not that I'm really worried about that, but it's something to think about. Anyway....can you tell I'm sleepy, I'm a little more rambly than usual (and is rambly a word?-wow, I just did a side note inside of a side note......anyway, I'm excited for her, but also because I get really excited when I don't have to go to work. I think that might be a sign that I'm not in a good job right now. Oh well, I'll probably only be there for another 4 weeks anyway.
So, that's whats up with me. And now it's off to bed to get whatever sleep I can before I start it all over again!

What a week!!

ok, this has been an insane and hectic week. Fist off, last week I only worked three days, after being off for two weeks. So needless to say, getting back into the swing of things was not fun. Especially since I keep getting bigger and bigger and more and more tired, so standing all night is not fun at all! In addition, we had 3 guys out with injuries, so our crew was seriously diminished, and we've got an inspection audit coming up next week, so it is extremely busy.
This week I have had to reevaluate my sock choices - by the way, if anyone has ideas/suggestions on how to keep your socks from cutting into swollen, pregnant ankles I would greatly appreciate them. I don't remember what I did with Devon- and, the day came that I have been dreading for the past month.
Last night I had to take off my wedding ring. It just isn't fitting on my big pregnant hippo fingers, and it was cutting in so much it started to hurt. It's actually been off for almost 24 hours and there's still the indentation on my finger from where it was digging in. But let me tell you, I did NOT want to take it off yet. Because now I know I won't get it back on till probably November at the earliest, and I am devastated. When I got home from work, I actually cried about it. And not just gentle weeping, but all out, heaving sobs of misery that left Dan's shirt and my pillow drenched and snotted on. The thing is, my wedding ring is so special to me. Danny picked it out himself for me...he took me shopping with him, but he's the one who found my set and I LOVE it. And it's a sign to anyone that sees me that I am a married woman with a wonderful husband who loves me very much. It is the ring that he put on my hand the day that we were married. And I haven't really taken it off since we got married. (except to have it sized and soldered-and I cried a little then too) All in all, it's very traumatic.
Aside from work, my home life was crazy busy this week too. This week Dan and I started class. We are taking biology together and I am super excited to be back in class even if it's only one. Two days a week we're in class from 12:30 to 5, which gives me an hour to go home, eat, decide not to cook anything for dinner, get ready for work, and leave. It's a lot of fun though, I never took biology, I had Chem and Physics in high school.
Like I said, it's been a heck of a week!