He helped take care of my Gram before she died. Now he takes care of her dog, like he promised.
He watches over the old folks that live in his neighborhood.
He has trained two American bull terriers to absolute obedience and perfection.
He can fix anything, and has. He is a fixer.
He keeps my Dad moving and active.
He takes care of my Mom. He makes things for her.
He is funny. "Here's a funny story..."
He is very smart. If he doesn't know something, he will soon.
He can get inside my nephew Jack's mind and understand exactly what's going on with him.
He is a gentle, not-at-all-scary, loving giant to my niece Livie.
He is Blondie's fierce protector. They also try to go out and find dates together. She has to go somewhere else when a pretty girl comes by.
He is Bubba's playmate at Go Zonkers. He plans great field trips for him and helps him make stuff.
He loves me. He came out to keep me company when I was alone with a new baby one Thanksgiving. And he brought me flowers.
He is handsome. And single.
He can calm babies by holding them close to his chest and making low soft sounds.
He is the go-to guy for the entire neighborhood. If you need something, anything, you call Greg.

He is a wonderful, strong, gentle, smart, funny, handsome man. And I love him very much.
Happy birthday, Greg.

Please send in your guesses for the following categories:

How much weight The Princess gains:
What date the baby will be born on:
What the baby will weigh:

Keep in mind that The Princess has gained 26 lbs as of 4/15/2008.
Her due date is June 23rd.

Submit your guesses soon! And if you can think of more people to send this to, please do.
Winners will get a hearty handshake, a pat on the back, and bragging rights.

Thanks!

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For a look at some pictures of the pregnant girl and the other members of our family, please click on the extended entry.

This is Hubby and Bro. Bro went to his girlfriend's prom yesterday. Aren't my men good-looking?

The Princess and Hubby. Mom and Amy say that The Princess looks more like me now. I wish.

1. Bubba had the same coach for tball last year. The season went well, except for the fact that the coach put his son in for all the game-winning opportunities, let him pitch all the time, and otherwise favored him over the other boys. We never said anything (except for under our breath), but it irked us enough to request a different team assignment this year.

Obviously we didn't get the reassignment. After talking with some other moms who felt the same way, I called the coach. I told him my concerns in a nice, matter-of-fact, nonconfrontational way, and he received them in kind. Thank goodness that's over.

2. My new glasses (the ones I had to wait a whole month for, since they screwed up the prescription and had to redo them) have a chip in the frame. I discovered this the day after I finally got them. Knowing that it would be more hell-on-earth to get them repaired, and wanting to cut my losses, I requested a refund.

Hubby and I had purchased our glasses together, as a BOGO deal, but they would only refund me a small portion of what I paid. So now Hubby's taking his back too. Turns out that there was a flaw in one of the lenses. We will never go back to EYEMASTERS again.

Sam$ will have my new one ready in a week. And the new pair will probably last as long as the last one I got from them - four years so far.

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Bubba's friend Allie is over today. They've been discussing boogers. She told him he had snot coming out of his nose. I helped him blow his nose, and she mentioned that her mom still uses the booger sucker on her.

And that she liked it.

We really like Allie.

The Princess: Ruthie was eating a bar of soap this morning.
Dabny: Now she's going to fart bubbles.

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My new eyeglasses finally arrived (don't ask). I think I like them, but they'll take some getting used to. I can't wait to try out the Transit10ns gradual tinting on them. How cool am I? I am so ready for summer now.

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Bro's thinking of workin' on the railroad. All the livelong day. A patient told me about a training program at the juco that lasts six weeks and certifies you to be a conductor. Conductors start at about $40k/year and can relocate pretty much wherever they want.

He is totally interested. He's even looking into tuition reimbursement from his work. How about that?

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Bubba went to the school book fair yesterday and picked out a book on physics. He loves it and keeps making us read it to him.

I'm scared.

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I work tonight again, then I'm off for five days. I'll be so glad to have the weekend home with the family. And by the time I have to work again, I'll be more than ready.

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It's starting to rain. I was supposed to take a walk, but I think I'll make cookies instead.

Have a great day!

I so didn't need to know what that sounded like. Euw.

First and most importantly, Blondie is healthy! Also good-looking, with a great sense of humor. AND she's coming out for a visit soon!

Now, the less-important stuff -

We were digging up shrubs and ground cover and weeds and stumps this past weekend. In the space between our two driveways, we took out everything except the pine shrub, and installed a beautiful snow fountain weeping cherry tree. It's just like the one we had in Osweg0 - the one that Bro used to hide under when he was small. We surrounded it with flowers and it looks so beautiful!

We spent most of the weekend outside, cleaning up the front yard and planting. Bubba was in his element. He loves the garden store, he loves to dig, he loves playing with the hose, he loves worms and snails and dirt. And when he wasn't helping me with those things, he was racing his big Bro through the neighborhood on his bike.

Some downsides to this weekend:
1. Allergies.
Bro and I have been slammed with tree pollen allergies. My eyes were tearing and red at work yesterday so bad that I actually had to call and ask Hubby to bring in my eye drops. The patients must have either thought I was a pothead or extremely sympathetic due to my red teary eyes. Yeesh.

2. Muscle aches.
Hubby and I were both sitting in the dirt - he was digging up a stump, I was yanking out shrubs and weeds and ground cover, when Daisy trotted off after another dog (she doesn't run anymore). We looked at each other, and Hubby said, "I can't get up. My knee is killing me." I slowly wrenched myself to standing position, then ran to catch up with Daisy and Bubba, calling "She's friendly! She's just deaf!" It was not pretty. Hubby and I are both so sore from the garden work. And older than ever.

3. We lost all three dogs.
Well, actually I was at work, so I didn't do it. And we didn't really lose Daisy - Hubby saw her sitting on the front stoop and realized someone left the gate to the backyard open. Ruthie was found entertaining a black lab in back of the house, and Penny was found in an adjacent neighborhood by a nice family. When Hubby and Bubba went to pick Penny up, Bubba made fast friends with the kids that found her. Now he has kids to play with nearby! (That's definitely a big up-side!)

4. Overwork + undersleep = not good.
I worked Saturday from 6p to midnight. Yesterday I was supposed to work from 7p to 1a, but I thought I'd be nice and go in at 5pm since the day shift was short a nurse. We got slammed. All night. And instead of getting a nice mix of sick and not-so-sick patients, every single person was actually sick. Each patient needed the works. Every bed was full and so was the waiting room. All night. Then my relief didn't show up. I woke her at 1:05am, and she still hadn't shown when my charge nurse sent me home at 2am. Then at 7am, I got a call from ED asking me to work today 10a to 10p. No.

I took down the windchimes because they were too loud. It's cloudy and breezy. My bed is waiting. The cleaning can wait. It's nap time.

Have a good day.

Maybe it's because I'm PMSing (I found you don't need to get a period to have PMS).
Maybe it's because I made a mistake at work last night - and then repeated it an hour later (It was innocuous but stupid, and I'm really pissed at myself about it).
Maybe it's because Hubby's going to the track AGAIN tonight.

It could be due to many reasons, but who really cares why?

Just be smart and stay out of my way, unless you are bearing chocolate or books or jewelry.

And don't make fun of my yoga pants.

While we were in Orlando last week, Ruthie and Penny were barking at something outside the yard that they couldn't get to. The girls turned their anger on each other, and Ruthie bit Penny on the face. Penny required three staples, but she's healed well and she's okay.

Of course, this scared us. We worried that there was a dominance issue. We didn't sense that Ruthie had a mean streak, but now we weren't sure. How many times had Bubba laid on top of her, while she placidly accepted his abuse?

Obviously we couldn't leave anything to chance, with Bubba in the house, and the baby on the way. So we had a dog trainer come out to the house to evaluate Ruthie and our home situation. She watched the dogs together and separately. She saw how we handled them and how they interacted with each other. She was impressed with our control of the dogs.

Okay - Greg. I know you're laughing. Quit it.

She gave us suggestions, taught Ruthie a few commands, showed us some exercises to do with her and the other two girls. She recommended we walk her and Penny every day, together. She said we should have 'class' for at least ten minutes a day. She suggested that Ruthie sleep in Bubba's room, since Ruthie felt like she was the master when she slept near Hubby in our room. She wants Bubba to feed Ruthie, to show her that he is in charge.

Overall, she felt that Ruthie was a good dog - although much younger than we thought she was (13-14 mos as opposed to two years old). She told us we were doing the right things, and should continue to do so, while following her suggestions.

Already things are better. Ruthie really does want to please us. She looks to us to see what we want her to do next. She catches on quickly. We are surprised at how patient she really is.

And Bubba is so pleased with his new roomie.

Of course, we'll keep a close watch on her. But I think she's a good-hearted dog. I have a feeling she'll someday be a really great dog.

Maybe even as great as Orphie?

Yeah, yeah, I know. Such a tough life.

But I was yearning for my own bed so badly, especially toward the end of our back-to-back trips.

I have cleaned the first floor top to bottom: vacuuming and shampooing the carpets, washing the floors, cleaning bathrooms, changing linens, doing laundry, sterilizing the kitchen. I have reloaded the fridge and pantry, cooked big pots o'food.

The Princess has vacuumed and straightened out the whole basement, and Bro is scheduled to shampoo all the carpets down there today.

I will be tackling the second floor this week.

Today, Bubba has been invited to a birthday party at the local indoor pool/water park. Then a dog trainer is coming to meet with us at 2pm, to evaluate Ruthie and let us know how to best train her, and what we've been doing wrong or not doing at all.

I am so happy to be home. I'm even happy to cook dinner and do laundry. I will start working on my outdoor spring cleanup chores as soon as it warms up this week. I'm even looking forward to that!

Let's see how long that lasts!