A Little of This, a Little of That

T minus five days and a bunch of hours and we're really starting to get excited about this ultrasound. I'm trying to keep my hopes in check but things just feel so differently this time around that it can't possibly be another girl, can it? (Place your bets now, people.)

For those of you who were asking, our due date is the 19th of June, which some of you may recall is the exact same due date we were given for the Little Goat two years ago. She was three days early; sure enough, as I predicted, my water broke the moment we were finishing setting up the crib in the nursery. We're hoping Sibling X? will make his/her arrival on any day BUT the 16th since we'd just as soon not saddle the LG with having to share a birthday (and seriously, what parent wants to plan TWO parties on the same day - yikes!). I'd also rather Sibling X? not come on the 19th because, well, I don't like odd numbers. On the other hand, Fridays child is "loving and giving."*

On an unrelated note, Mr. J. is right now at this very moment trying to figure out how to get our cats vaccinated and looking halfway decent before we take them down to Airport City to meet their new owner, Ashley. She sounds just like a dream, my friends. She has a dog, but our cats have never seemed bothered by dogs - unless you count the time a friend wanted to adopt them and her EVIL dachshund attacked our poor Bean - I'm guessing that was at least a little bothersome. Besides having a dog, Ashley used to be a vet assistant! How perfect is that? She is so excited to adopt our cats and we are so pleased that we've been able to find them what we hope will be a very happy situation. With me and the LG being gone for several weeks next month, Mr. J. working quite a bit of overtime lately, the frigid weather which makes garage-dwelling not very suitable for the furry beasts, and a new baby coming, the timing is right to move them on. Those of you who had pets before you had children will probably also understand that the void the pets filled in your life is very easily filled by a baby and consequently, we felt it was in the best-interest of the cats to find them a place to live out their lives where they'll be appreciated and loved instead of consistently shoved aside...and also where my asthma and our allergies stand no chance of being affected by them, handily.

In other news, Mr. J. had a very successful doctors appointment yesterday and seems to have found the doctor of his dreams. He came home with a whole page full of notes, hand-written by the doctor, a prescription, AND a free drug sample which should hopefully clear up a hearing issue that's been irritating us for a while already. She seemed really interested in getting to the root of his fatigue and several other problems he's been having and short of offering a real diagnosis, did come up with a plan of attack to figure out a diagnosis. There is hope, and all the problems she talked about have relatively easy solutions that only require a few tests, so wish us luck! We are excited to finally be on the path to getting some answers.

In other news, The Weather Channel forecast predicts tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night will be "bitterly cold." It was -40 Celsius last night (which is also -40 Fahrenheit for my American friends) and it hasn't improved much today. It's not quite as cold as Manitoba has been, but it's sitting at around -30C with the windchill at the moment. Neither car would start this morning, so Mr. J. got a ride to work and came home at lunch with his supervisor to use some starter thing on the cars. It worked on one, the other will have to sit charging all weekend. And yes, the car that still won't start WAS plugged in all night.** So the car that will start is at work and will hopefully start after Mr. J.'s shift ends at 11 tonight.

And this was all very mundane and wordy, but you can now consider yourself updated on nearly all parts of life at Chez J. I'm off to nap before the LG wakes up.

* A side-note for those of you who are of the praying persuasion: We have some other major concerns that, while not precisely pregnancy-related, do nonetheless affect the pregnancy and delivery of this baby. I really want to share those concerns with you, but I just can't right now, but trust me, the very second I can tell you, I WILL.

** For my 'southern' friends: You can equip a car battery with a warmer that you plug in at night. Plugging it in is supposed to keep the battery just warm enough so the car can start in the morning. Plugging in the car at night is de riguer on the Prairies in the winter and most car parking lots at private businesses have spots for employees to plug in their cars during work. It's also quite common to see extension cords wrapped around rear-view mirrors for convenient transport during the day (sorry, I can't find a picture of that). Around here, however, nobody seems to care about plugging in vehicles. They're all crazy and would obviously rather pay to replace a car battery every year than take care of it during winter.