Running on hormones

Today I just flat out woke up on the wrong side of a good mood. I'm not typically moody. Most people will attest that I'm a generally cheerful person with a positive outlook on life. Today was kind of a blue Monday. I found myself a little irritable/impatient this morning and as the day progressed it just got worse. I feel like my boiling point is low today and I've been trying real hard to keep a lid on it. I haven't blown up, I've just gently simmered inwardly, trying not to inflict my blue mood on others. I realized why I was feeling this way when Barbie asked me if I had the receipt for the wood floors because the buyer wanted to confirm that they were actually wood and not laminate. I then blew up. Over a receipt. I knew it was a ridiculous thing to get mad about, but I was powerless to stop it. Then the irrational behaviour came. I wanted to back out of the deal. However, real estate contracts are not set up in a manner that allows the seller to back out of a deal, so we're stuck with these people who are pissing me off to no end. As I watched myself reacting to this tiny little request that ordinarily would be no big deal, it was like I was outside of my own body and unable to do anything to affect the situation.
When I got home, Brian sat me down and talked to me about all the reasons why we should just put up with it.
After he talked some sense into me, I put on my iPod and went for a walk to clear my head and get some fresh air. It turned into a run, though. I couldn't just walk. As I started running my body complained a little but I pushed on, and eventually I got to a comfortable pace. My breathing was a little laboured at first and I had to walk briefly. The kid was all kinds of bouncing around in there and I could feel him bouncing against my bladder, which didn't feel great but not bad enough to stop. I did about 2.5 miles in all, and probably walked for .5 of it. The second part of my run consisted of over a mile of running (no walking). I haven't lost my running mojo! it's just toned down for now.
When I got home I felt so much better. My head was clearer and I felt like my calm self again. Phew!
It's good to know that a head-clearing run also works on hormone driven irrationality.

SOLD!

Ten days on the market, and our house is SOLD!
I might have mentioned previously that we got a shitty offer and the guy also wanted our washer/dryer/refrigerator thrown in for free. LOL! crazy foreigners ;-)

After playing some hard-ball negotiating the price, we finally got what we feel is a reasonable price for our house. After only 10 days on the market we felt that we were not in a position yet to accept any offers below the minimum Brian and I had decided on. And we were confident that our house would sell. We're happy that it worked out, though, and the closing dates line up perfectly for us to move into our new house with a couple of weeks inbetween to move.

Of course, no deal is done until all the papers are signed, so there's still a possibility for the buyers to back out. So keep your fingers crossed!

Pregnancy progression pictures

To accommodate all of my "remote" family and friends' requests for pictures... here it is:

Meet "The Kid"

Today we met The Kid. Sort of. It was our 21 week ultrasound. This is the one where they tell you the sex of the baby, but since we already knew, it was more a confirmation, and of course an anatomy scan to make sure all things are normal.

We're happy to report that The Kid has developed normally and is showing no signs of any problems.

And at the risk of embarassing The Kid, here's a picture of his junk (hopefully nobody will see this as inappropriate):

During the ultrasound, the ultrasound technician zoomed in on The Kid's face and we could clearly see him moving his mouth almost as though he was trying to speak to us. He was also very active. You could see his little feet going the whole time, and to put to rest Grandad Keith's fears that he will favour his right foot in football (soccer to you yanks), he was moving both feet equally.

And finally, my favourite picture....


Awh... he already takes after his mummy!

Pregnancy and Real Estate

The two generally don't mix. Pregnancy is a particularly trying time because your emotions tend to rule you. I had to really watch myself lately and Brian had to be my voice of reason. I'm an impulsive person any day of the year, and I tend to be ruled by my heart rather than my head, so you can imagine how difficult it has been to make logical, non-emotion-based decisions about houses while pregnant. We looked at so many houses - well, when I say "we" I mean me and my wonderful best friend, Barbie. We narrowed our search down to 4 neighbourhoods, eliminated all the houses that didn't meet both mine and Bri's criteria, and then only presented those to him that met my requirements and *might meet all of his. Barbie has also been a voice of reason in this process.

We looked at building a new house, and we found the perfect lot to build on, found a floorplan we liked, but not all of our criteria were met. We weighed the benefits of building a new house in an up and coming neighbourhood, and enquired about options for making the house fit both our criteria. We were almost sold, almost put down a deposit, but something wasn't right. The house was a few thousand dollars over our budget and for the money, it seemed like the benefits of a new house didn't justify the price per square foot.

On the day we found the perfect house we looked at I think 5 houses. I already knew from the pictures that the one we chose would be the most likely candidate, and I think Barbie did, too, because she saved that one till last. When we walked in the door I knew immediately. Barbie did, too. Every criteria for both me and Brian were met:
Granite counter tops, wood floors, and a floor plan that orients the couch away from the kitchen for me - my pet peeve about our current house is that I can see the kitchen (and any mess) while watching TV, and that causes me to be unable to relax until I clean it up. For Brian it was the 3 car garage, all bedrooms upstairs, and an in-ground sprinkler system - what guy wouldn't want a bigger garage? and he's always hated that we don't have sprinklers at our current house, and if you look at the state of our lawn you can see why!

We put in a rather low-ball offer on the house knowing that the sellers wouldn't go for it, but we wanted to start low to keep their expectations down. They came back with a counter that seemed still unreasonable, so we countered with what we considered another low-ball offer which we thought they'd reject again. I was fully prepared to walk away from this house if we didn't get it for what we wanted. Which is unusual for me given, as I said, that I am impulsive and my heart was already sold on this house. Brian is completely the oppposite. He's ruled by his head. I see this as a perfect example of how he has influenced me over the years to become a more rational person. We were both stunned when they accepted our offer!

Now that I can let my guard down, I've already hung up all my art work in my mind, and repainted the pink bedroom to a nice manly grey-blue for the kid, with a sports car mural on the wall (for Brian ;-))

The inspection went well. There are only a few minor things wrong with the house that are easily fixed. We submitted an amendment to the sellers in the hope that they will commit to fixing some of them, but we're not optomistic.

Our current house is getting a lot of activity. It's been like Grand Central Station here over the past few days. One realtor asked me not to accept any offers over the weekend because her client really wants the house. That's all very promising.

Speaking of activity, the kid is now moving quite a bit. On Friday night as we were on our way down to Trudy's to meet some friends, he gave me a nice jab in the left ovary. OOOF!

Best Valentines Gift EVER!

Today is shaping up to be an awesome day! Today, my wonferful husband bought me THIS!


Check out those floors :-) And that fireplace passes through to the other room.



And this beautiful kitchen with granite counter tops and stainless appliances!

House hunting

We spent most of Sunday looking at houses. We found one we kind of liked but the yard was rather small, then we went over to a new subdivision in Avery Ranch Parkside and found a floor plan we just loved, but it was way too much money for not enough house. Finally, yesterday we found a house we both love. 3 car garage, 4 bedrooms, a game room, granite counters/stainless kitchen, wood floors... and in a neighbourhood we wouldn't mind living in. We put in an offer. We don't expect they'll take it, but it's a good starting point. The house is beautiful! As we were looking out of the game room we saw about 15 deer in the field across the street. The field belongs to a catholic church - finally, a church is good for something - providing me with a nice field to look at while I'm in my game room!
Cross your fingers that they take our offer!

Our house is now on the market! Somebody is going to fall in love with our beautiful wood floors and awesome floorplan here. Everyone send good real estate mojo our way!

It's SHOW time!

Literally. At my baby doctor visit on Friday, she measured my uterus as being now up past my navel. It's approximately the size of a large canteloupe! It's no wonder I can't breathe! My organs have moved up under my ribs and are crowding my lungs! UGH! It's times like these when you wish you lived in a one-story house.

There's no denying the gut now. Though in my defense it is smaller than most men's beer guts I've seen. Today when I looked in the mirror sideways, I couldn't help but laugh at the large egg shape protruding out front of me. It's going to get MUCH, MUCH bigger in the coming months and that is frightening! I saw a pregnant co-worker in the elevator last week who is only 2 weeks away from delivering. She looked like she was smuggling a large melon. So cute! I hope I'm even half that cute.

The kid is now at the point where he can hear. And to celebrate this milestone I gave him his own playlist on my iPod entitled "Baby music". It's all classical music. I read that babies respond to classical music because it has a similar rythem to the mother's heartbeat. It's also supposed to make them smarter. I'm not sure why, though.
Last night while I watched telly, I lay on the couch and taped my iPod headphones to my belly. I didn't notice the kid moving, but the cat was rather confused by it :-)

Sickness in pregnancy

I have something. It started off as a sore throat, turned into a dry cough, then a (eeeeew!) wet cough, and now, finally, it's a full on snotty nose, watery eys, coughing like an old smoker, cold.
I saw the baby doctor yesterday. Brian came with me and we listened to the kid's heartbeat. It's around 150BPM now. Brian's face was a picture when he heard it. He was smiling from ear to ear at me and looking all goofy and mushy.

My blood pressure is quite low, which I'm told is normal for this part of the pregnancy. The result is a delightful headrush every time I stand up, though.
The doctor gave me a list of things to take to manage my nasty cold symptoms that are pregnancy-safe. Unfortunately, none of them are very effective.

Brian's getting even more excited about his impending fatherhood now. He's been reading the book "What to expect the first year", just so that he can help me out and be knowledgeable when the kid arrives. I am so impressed with his initiative. Other things I'm impressed with are his commitment to keeping his dirty clothes off the floor and the bathtub, keeping his laundry basket from overflowing, and putting his shoes away. We're getting ready to put our house for sale, so that means we have to be extra neat and tidy so that people coming to view our house see the real beauty of it, rather than all of our stuff. It's funny how when you get your house ready to sell, and make it perfect for prospective buyers, you actually like it more. Almost enough to want to stay in it. Almost.