That word pretty much sums up my life as of late. Here's a not-so-short summary. You have been warned. :)
The car.
I still remember when Brian brought home the Saturn in the fall of 2007. I was so angry at him because, although it was a newer car than the '78 Porsche he had previously, it had a manual transmission! After a few half-baked attempts at learning stick on the Porsche that included lots of stalling and screaming for my life, I let Brian drive me around in the Saturn like a little old lady who never bothered to get a driver's license.
Fast forward to fall 2009, when we moved to Ohio. Since Brian was in school full-time, and I needed to get one of those job-type things to help support us, I no longer had a personal chauffeur to drive me to and from interviews. So, I finally buckled down, had a heart-to-heart with the Saturn, and conquered my fear of driving stick.
After a rocky start, and despite all of the car's quirks (like only half of the dashboard lights working, no back-up lights, a clicking sound whenever you turned on the heat and/or air conditioning, etc.) we became great pals. I felt a strong attachment to that car and drove it with pride, despite its inherent ghettofabulousness.
You can imagine how heartbroken I was to discover recently that the car no longer idled. I won't bore you with the specifics of what went wrong, but after not being able to fix it after two months (!) in the shop, we knew it was time to let it go. With a new part-time job for Brian starting in January and a baby on the way, it was time to get a new car.
Although the new one is pretty and works far better than the Saturn ever did, I still can't help but miss the car that taught me how to drive stick. That drove us to Disney World and back. That wore three different state license plates throughout its life.
R.I.P. Saturn. We love you and we'll never forget you!
Photo courtesy: Brian Kaster (aka the bestest best husband ever!). And in case you were wondering, the handicapped signs were put up AFTER we parked there (no joke...gotta love Chicago!). At least the city didn't slap us with a ticket!
The roof over our heads.
Our former landlord, who we really liked (and trust me, he loved us in return!) sold the building we're living in to a couple who don't speak much English and had
zero experience being landlords. Very long story short (trust me, it's full of drama and lots of frustration), let's just say that we can't wait to move out after our lease ends into a house in the 'burbs. True that I'm not thrilled about moving away from the city, but I am excited to be closer to family, friends and some fresher air.
The cats.
They're still fluffy and crazy, as always. :)
Shortly after returning from Christmas, however, we noticed that Sokka's appetite had decreased dramatically and his ribcage was starting to show. For a cat that would chase us down and consistently wake us at 5:30 in the morning begging for food, we knew something was amiss. We brought him to the vet to get it checked out and a few days later got the news that Sokka has diabetes.
We're not quite sure how it happened (he used to be a couple of pounds overweight, which we gradually fixed, and kept him pretty active) but of course pregnancy hormones plus my natural predisposition to worry led me to blame myself for letting him get to that point. After a talk with Brian (who is great at talking sense into my oft-non-sensical brain) I realized that it likely wasn't my/our fault, and all we can do at this point is to help him feel better.
So now we'll get to discover the joys of living with a diabetic cat!
Sokka, taken a few months ago (I didn't have the heart to photograph him while he still looks like "skeletor cat"). I'll post an update pic after he chunks up a little. :)
The baby.
After the morning sickness
finally subsided in early-mid December, I took a few weeks to simply enjoy feeling like a human being again instead of the pukey, food-hating zombie I was for essentially three months. It's been a blast to feel the baby starting to move, and it's amazing that it's now full-on kicking and rolling around in there!
We journeyed to Evanston on New Year's Eve morning for the anatomy scan, a detailed ultrasound that is essentially a guided tour of the baby's many parts and my uterus. For a majority of the scan the baby was pretty stubborn, which proves that there's some of my genes in there somewhere!
When it came time to locate "the goods", the baby miraculously had no problem showing us the parts, and we found out that we're having a BOY! And we're so stinkin' excited...although I think Brian is more relieved that he won't have to suffer through what he calls "Pony Princess Cartoons".
...whew! Now you know why it's taken me so long to post anything. Life's been pretty crazy lately, and it's only going to get crazier in 2013. It's time for me to pick back up my camera and start clicking away again.
Let's do this!
