Yesterday, our house was not cooling off the way we would like it to; it was staying pretty stuffy despite the AC being on. So we turned it off and opened the four big windows of the living room, turned on all the fans, and let the house kind of air out because we were having friends over for dinner.
The Mann's are really cool people. Michael is the assistant manager at the Gamestop that my Michael and I like to go to, so that's how the husbands met--bonding over video games. Pam (his wife) is a nurse, and just a really nice, fun person. They have a 16 month old son named Daniel (or Danny or DJ) that I used to babysit for, but is now in daycare.
Obviously because of all the scheduling conflicts, it has been hard for all of us to get together for dinner in months. But we finally coordinated it and made it happen.
Emerald woke up yesterday with a sour tummy, but some bananas helped her feel worlds better, which was good. Mike had a half day so we went to Wal-Mart to get groceries, and ended up getting a few things for my car. It was a lot of fun because I don't think Mike and I have laughed that hard together in a long time--not since the first time we saw the feature length "Mystery Science Theater 3000" where they watched "This Island Earth" or whatever. We always have a lot of fun =)
Michael decided the best plan for dinner was fat sandwiches. In case you don't watch Man vs Food as religiously as we do, a fat sandwich is basically all these great bar foods rammed into one sandwich. It's really good and a lot of fun to make, but superbly unhealthy, so I set out a veggie tray to kind of soften the blow, lol.
So anyways, we have the Mann's over to dinner, and they leave around 8 to put DJ to bed and we start wanting to wind the kids down--we shut all the windows and Mike goes to turn on the AC which we've had off all afternoon.
It won't turn on.
Like, at all.
We flip it to heater, to fan, to AC....nothing works, and it is just NOT coming on. My first thought was that at least it went out at night when it was going to be cooler, especially since a thunderstorm was blowing in which would cool off the air further.
Wrong. =/
According to the weather report, the temperature is not going to drop below 80 degrees. And I don't know if you have ever been pregnant, but 80 degrees is not a comfortable temperature. All four of us (even during the winter) are used to sleeping at around 64 degrees--and because of stuffiness of the house, we are all starting to get very short tempers.
Michael and I waffle and bicker back and forth for hours as the kids lay in the living room with the four big windows opened again watching "Fantasia". Our options are going to get oscillating fans and hoping that will cool off the house enough for us to sleep (but we would have to spend extra money we don't have on a chance of cooling off), or we can figure out how to get the window unit up and operating.
About midnight, we finally make the window unit work and stick in the window--the house cools down enough for us to settle down, and we have contacted someone to come out the next day and look at our AC. We all lay down in the living room and start trying to fall asleep.
I wasn't able to get comfortable so I didn't get to sleep until well past 3, which means that today, all four of us are so exhausted we can barely function. That is how today started.
We wake up slowly, cuddling and watching Sesame Street and eating poptarts after Michael has left for work. When I finally work up the energy, we clean up some, though you wouldn't be able to tell by looking now--it's all ready been trashed again. The kids were agreeable for sleepy children, and very helpful.
By that time, I have decided that it is time for Mommy to do something for herself.
This pregnancy has been a lot harder on me than the other two, and I am not certain why. I have been in a great deal of pain, very uncomfortable, and growing much faster. Sometimes the pain becomes frankly unbearable. I have asked the doctor's office about it several times, but all their advice was not able to alleviate my pains--the maternity belt, resting and taking it easy, painkillers....When I mentioned it again, the doctor sadly said that there really wasn't anything they could do--it was my third pregnancy and my body was just tired. Anyways, I was getting desperate, because I was so very physically miserable.
Naturally, I call my mom,who suggests stretching and exercising. Worth a shot--I get on Netflix and find a "Yoga Mama" video so that I don't have to pay for a new DVD when I am not certain it will work. This morning was the first opportunity I had to try it.
Emerald and I clear out a big space in the living room, and I try the modified yoga for preggos.
It was hard to get in the mindset because everything the woman is saying sounds like hippie new age crap, but Emerald is having fun, so I keep going.
After a while, I did start feeling relaxed and calmer, and the stretches are really making me feel better than I have in a long, long time. Even though it is hard to focus when Gabriel is crawling between my legs and banging on my butt like it's a bongo (made me feel like a lardo, let me tell ya), but by the end, I was feeling much better. A lot of the stretches were to open up the pelvis and increase the womb space so that the baby wouldn't feel as smooshed, so even Benjamin was awake and playing and having a good time.
I am hoping that I can find someone to do it with me, but unfortunately I don't know anyone else that is pregnant and I don't know that my friends would want to do maternity stretches, so I am probably on my own.
Feeling rejuvenated and much calmer, the kids and I go outside.
Out there, I remember that Gabriel has an ECI appointment this afternoon for Speech Therapy and that we have a family dinner tonight for Daddad's birthday, and I see Gabriel eating chalk and Emerald taking a mud bath and I start to feel tense. So I fish Emerald out of the mud and clean her up a bit and I go to take the chalk away from Gabriel, but I can't see him anywhere and I start to panic...but he is just hiding behind the shed so that I can't take his chalk away. But they aren't behaving anyway--doing things they know they are not supposed to be doing, so we start heading inside.
As usual, Gabriel is the first to charge in, but I stay behind for a half a second to get Emerald to throw away a piece of trash she was playing with....but I hear an unfamiliar male voice inside talking to my son. I know it is not my husband's voice, and I know that Michael is not supposed to be home for another hour. I also know for a fact that the front door was locked because I am still very cautious after Gabriel's little escape escapade a couple months back where he ended up across the street. For that second, I know my son is inside with some unknown male and I don't know what to do.
Just then, the head of Rick--the guy from maintenance--pops out of the open door and I just about faint. I had forgotten that Michael had sent in that request to have the air conditioning fixed. If the guy comes by and nobody answers the door, he lets himself in to fix the problem while we are gone. Because the kids and I were in the backyard, we did not hear the doorbell ring.
Now, I take invasion of my house more stressfully than I ought. I have a hard time getting over it because my house is my sanctuary, and I want somewhere to be safe for me and my kids. When people come into my personal space (like pushy door-to-door salesmen, or Mormons, or well-intentioned maintenance men just doing their job), I get very uncomfortable and it takes me days to feel safe again. I hate it. I don't like people in my home.
Rick has since left to run some errand and the kids and I are scheduled to take a nap--Michael brought me a jumbo ice from sonic, which is helping immensely. I really like ice. It is nice and cold and has a nice crunch.
Hopefully I can calm down before Cassie gets here this afternoon.
-tense-
~Andie~
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