Not Doin Nothin

This weekend we're both off and we're looking forward to doing NOTHING.

We've been really busy the past two months and while the past two weekends have been fairly normal (hallelujah) we've still been out and doing things around Austin. (Like this week, I had dinner out Monday, Junior League orientation Tuesday and a TriDelta Alumnae Happy Hour Thursday. I had a blast! But it was busy. I could go for some down-time.)

This weekend, none of it.

It's actually a really good weekend for us to be embracing lameness because on Monday Ross hurt his back. We're not exactly sure what he did but the self-diagnosis via WebMD has us guessing pulled muscle or pinched nerve. I actually even worked from home Tuesday afternoon because I wasn't sure how mobile he'd be and thought he might need someone to like fetch water and such.

He's been taking it really easy all week. And we decided since we're on a budget (saving up for the August Canadian vacation!), been pretty busy for 2-3 months and he's achey, we'd just hibernate this weekend. That said my big plans for the next 48 hours include

• Reading and maybe finishing Nanny Returns (sequel to The Nanny Diaries)
• Few chores
• Gym
• Lexi walks
• Watching The King's Speech

Whew, oh yeah, that's more than enough activity for two days.

You Can't Have Half

Warning: this blog post is not fluffy. It's about a real issue and is kinda serious in nature. Read at your own risk.
 
Monday night I had drinks and dinner with some fabulous former coworkers. Most of our meal was fun and fluffy but somehow we got to talking about a (hypothetical) predicament that we'd either seen amongst friends or in my case, had seen on Grey's Anatomy.

If you are in a serious relationship or marriage and you don't want kids but you get pregnant, what do you do? Compound that with the man in the relationship wanting kids.

On the one hand I'm pro-choice. But just because I believe in having the choice, doesn't mean I believe abortion is the right answer most the time or even half the time. The choice just exists. If you are married though (or in a very serious relationship, I'm just gonna keep saying "married" and "husband" for simplicity), is it just your choice? It is both of yours baby but you are the one who has to carry it in your body for 9 months. And even pregnancy aside, if you don't want to be a mother, should you have a baby for the sake of your husband? Is a kid whose mother doesn't want to be a mother going to have much of a shot?

We all agreed that it wasn't a decision you could make without talking to your husband. I would say though to some extent, that was where agreement ended. Personally I view it as someone having to give in (though I don't really like that phrase in this instance). Either you are going to agree to have the baby against your initial desires and hope it all turns out OK or he is going to agree to let you have an abortion. Or you are going to tell him that you hear him, you understand he wants a baby but you cannot compromise and you are not having a baby. Let's face it, at the end of the day there's not really a compromise in this situation; you can't have half a baby.

It's really a no win situation. But know it is a no-win situation, what do you do?

Personally, I'm just thank my lucky stars, the baby-gods and the marriage-gods that my hubs and I are on the same page. No we're not quite ready to become parents but if I woke up pregnant tomorrow (extremely unlikely), eh so we'd become parents sooner than expected. It'd be fine.

But what do you think? How should one handle the uncompromising nature of having children or not having them?

We have the maturity of 12 year olds

Watching ABC World News, story is about Anthony Weiner's sexting scandal.

Me: Honey, I have to tell you. If your last name had been Weiner, I would've kept my own.
Ross: If my last name were Weiner, I'd have taken yours.

What do you do online?

Not to be too nosy or anything, but what do you do online?

As a firefighter's wife, I have a lot of time at home by myself. Now I have girlfriends but they have husbands who are home every evening and apparently sometimes they like to hang out with them. So in short, my girlfriends aren't available to entertain me for a full 24 hours, every third day and thus, I'm at home.

I walk the puppy, watch a little TV, blog, read, work out... and then it's 8 p.m. Every once in a while after blogging I catch myself thinking "there is a whole internet world out there! What do people do there!?". Usually I've already Facebooked, tweeted and blogged...in short, covered all my social media bases. I've realized social media is about all I do online. I guess given how much I like to talk and socialize, this shouldn't have surprised me but it kinda did.

So assuming you do something other than play on social media sites when you are online, what is it? And can I do it too?

My Puppy is Falling Apart

Back in March Lexi got into a little puppy scuffle. She got her nose scratched up decently and had to go to the emergency vet where she was put on antibiotics to protect her from infection.

In April she started scratching herself like there was no tomorrow. Behind the ears, on the belly, her haunches, you name it, she scratched it. And she kept us up all night. On the drive to work after a week of it I called the vet and said "I don't care what you have to do. Make her better or just drug her; our house has to sleep tonight." Antibiotics and a switch back to all-natural dog food later, she was fine again.

This week she's started trying to hack up a lung. She'll bark at something on TV and within 1-2 barks it has progressed from barking to coughing/hacking. Or she'll just be minding her own business and BAM coughing fit. Back to the vet yet again. They aren't 100% sure what it is, maybe something with allergies or maybe something else. Either way she's on three medications now as a result.

I wonder if the Obama healthcare reform covers puppies.

Western MA: Tornado Alley Extended?

Crazy things happened in Massachusetts today. And since most you blog readers are either in MA, used to live in MA or are otherwise connected to MA, you probably already know that tornadoes hit the western half of the state today.

Our very dear Age, Joe, Taygan and Boyd live out there. They had a scary, scary day but thankfully they and their home are all OK. However lots of trees are down, including one that hit Age's (new) car, and the roads are impassable. And if you watch any of the videos or catch the news coverage, you know that many of their neighbors were not nearly so lucky.

So if you have an in with the Big Man Upstairs or any other deities, take a second this week and ask them to lend a hand with the clean up and repairs out in Western Massachusetts, the newest but hopefully temporary addition to Tornado Alley. And thank them for keeping our favorite little Western Massachusetts family safe.