I love turkey. I'll be eating turkey leftovers until it's gone. Cannot fathom letting perfectly good turkey go to waste. My sister will only eat it fresh out of the oven, she doesn't do leftovers. Me, I prefer the leftovers! I told her we should consider sharing a turkey next year . I did manage to cook a turkey yesterday, although there were none of my famous homemade noodles and the dinner wasn't as big an affair as usual. It was still yummy.

This morning, I woke up to a lovely, lovely migraine. I haven't had one this entire pregnancy, but this morning's was a doozy. I had one imitrex left, and after some quick reading in my pharmacology book to determine its effects during pregnancy I gulped it down in hopes of relief. There are some reports that it might induce labor and therefore is to be avoided in early/mid pregnancy, but I don't think I'm very worried about that particular aspect at the moment. I was worried about starting labor with a migraine, but thankfully the imitrex has kicked in and the headache is gone. I've not found anything else that kicks a migraine once it stars, and I'm so very, very thankful that imitrex exists. Of course the side effects are not very pleasant and I'll probably have to go back to bed for a few hours to sleep them off, but they are certainly far more tolerable than the migraine pain!

I'm not fighting the shopping madness this morning. Even without the migraine I just didn't have it in me. Kroger last weekend was enough shopping for me. Good luck to anyone out there dealing with that mess!

Think I'm headed back to bed as the side effects are hitting me and I'm feeling somewhat woozy, but at least there's no blinding, dehabilitating head pain (which woke me up from sleep at 4:30 this morning by the way). No baby yet either, he's going to take his time.

Of course I do!!!

GO BUCKS!!!

What a game that was! I thought for certain the excitement would send me straight into laborland, but alas, baby and I are still connected today. Toddler and I had a great time watching the game, him cursing in Greek (thanks hubby for teaching him that) and me being very careful to not teach him any new words in English.

Of course, the real excitement to our day was not in fact the game, but rather was the trip to Kroger earlier yesterday morning to stock up on junk food game supplies. Let me just say this... if you've not been to a grocery store in small-town Ohio on "Game Day," not to mention the last weekend before Thanksgiving... DON'T DO IT!!! Especially when said grocery store is remodeling, half the parking lot is torn up, AND especially if you happen to be 9 months pregnant with a rowdy toddler in tow! What the heck was I thinking? We should have ordered pizza.

But wait, we couldn't order pizza because we have no front porch and the delivery guy couldn't have gotten to our front door. I can't believe I forgot to post about this (claiming preggo brain!) but last weekend our front porch collapsed (with hubby on it!). It was a concrete porch which just (apparently) decided it was too old/cracked/heavy, and completely caved in while hubby was out feeding the cats. One of my two kitties didn't make it out alive (poor thing probably wouldn't leave his food) but it could have been soooooooo much worse! I usually feed the cats, and toddler usually helps me. Poor hubby managed to jump a little so no concrete landed on him, and all he got out of the deal was a good scare and a bruised butt. At any rate, we had to knock down (I say we, as if I had any part in this ) the rest of the porch, and the guy who is going to build us a new one is not available until next weekend (after Thanksgiving). It's quite spectacular really, and I'd post pictures if I knew how to do that sort of thing. That might have been the excitement that started off all these contractions!

So, for now we are using the back door which is not that big of a deal unless you're a pizza delivery guy and happen to run into my large, blind dog that lives out back... who doesn't like strangers in his space... Yeah, probably not having anything delivered this week. I'd be in real trouble if I had an emergency and needed an ambulance or something.

The trip to Kroger was necessary I suppose, but oh my goodness what a conglomeration of STUPIDITY! I should have turned around when I saw the parking lot. Parking is a mess due to the remodel, but the kicker is... there's no clear flow of traffic from one point to another. As a result, you get some people who turn into the parking lot and STOP because they're not sure which way they should go or if anyone else is going to stop for them, and others (like my dear hubby) who say TO HELL WITH EVERYONE ELSE and fly across the parking lot daring anyone to get in their way. There have been so many accidents there when type 1 stops and type 2 slams into them. I have a tendency to park at the far, far end of the lot (it's a small lot so it's really still not that far) which really does make for a smoother transition back to the road when my shopping is finished. Yesterday, however, there weren't even any spots at the far end of the lot and I had to play the circling game with all the stupidity that entails before I could even think about getting my junk food.

Let's just say Kroger was NOT a pleasant experience. But we survived, got our junk food, and enjoyed the rest of our day. And I'm not going back there until after Thanksgiving.

I've been contracting every 10 minutes or so for the past two days, and I am exhausted. They don't get any closer together or stronger, so I guess baby is just practicing in there, but I wish he'd either give mom a break or come out already! The lack of sleep is seriously getting to me. Oh, and did I mention that hubby is going out of town this weekend? I'm not happy about this, for the record, but I swear the man is convinced we're having another Christmas baby. So. Not. Going. To. Happen. I will be insane way before then.

I've arranged for three kiddies to be gone to their dad's for an extra weekend, but that still leaves me with toddler (by far the most demanding of my time/attention). I thought I might send him to my mom's for a while, but everyone there is sick with strep throat... so I need a plan B! I'm thinking of making hubby take toddler with him (do-able but probably not pleasant...) because not only am I in tears at the thought of being here alone chasing him all weekend, but I'm also worried about the logistics if baby decides to come while hubby is gone. My mom is my only backup, and I definitely do NOT want to be dealing with strep in my four (soon to be five) at the moment! We'll see what tomorrow brings, maybe I'll feel better and the contractions will go away.

Oh what I'd give for a good night's sleep right about now!

I made it through one whole class, with an A even! Tomorrow morning is my lab final (thought it was today but that's another story) and Monday will be THE END.

Tomorrow is my birthday.

Tonight I've been having contractions 10 minutes apart all night long, and I'm hoping baby brudder doesn't decide he wants to share my birthday! Hubby is still in denial I think... no, I know. He called from Wal-Mart to see if I needed anything, and I told him to pick up a pack of newborn diapers (it's the only thing we still don't have, but a pretty important thing nonetheless). He replied "I don't have much cash, let me wait on those." I told him I'd been contracting all night and it's pretty certain we won't be able to wait *too* much longer, and the poor guy freaked.

"Did your water break? Is there a chance you might have it this weekend while I'm gone?" (mind you I told him when he scheduled this trip he was pressing his luck, but what do I know)...

At any rate, he decided since my water didn't break there's no real rush and the diapers can wait until next week. Hope baby doesn't have other ideas (I'd really like to make it through finals while he's still in that portable stage, but I guess it's not really up to me).

It won't be long now, I'm getting excited!

It's official. I'm 37 weeks! As hubby says, I'm in my month . This phrase cracks me up, but I guess that's what they say in Greece to indicate that baby may come anytime within the next month. Just sounds funny in English. I'm in my month. I'm hoping baby stays put for another week and a half or so, just so I can finish this quarter out, get though finals and all that, and not have to worry about/mess with doing make-ups or whatever. Much better (in my opinion) to get them out of the way while the information is still fresh and I'm not (as) sleep-deprived from getting up every 2 hours with a newborn.

I won't complain whenever he decides to come. Well, okay I might complain if it's Christmas and he's not here yet!

Teenager went to his dad's this weekend, and I suspect he'll come back in a horrible mood (since dad was going to "have a serious talking to with him about his behavior as of late"). Dad did go to the school today and was successful at having the inaccuracies removed from teenager's record, so at least there's that. I'm getting the runaround from everyone re: the suspension appeal, and apparently people do not return phone calls anymore. Very, extremely frustrating. I'm sending out certified letters on Monday. Not much else to do unless/until the next school board meeting.

It will be a busy weekend. 2 tests on Monday, along with a paper due, and a birthday party/baby shower-y kind of thing with my (extended) family on Sunday. My birthday is next week, but of course I'm skipping it
so it doesn't really count. I might just give myself a day off. A whole day off. The entire day. To do nothing. What a dream! Probably not, but it's a nice thought anyway. Ah well, I did next to nothing today and even had a nice nap this afternoon (thanks hubby) which did wonders for my well-being.

But now... I have to (HAVE TO) get back to studying. I got myself sidetracked by these stupid freaking addictive riddles (www.weffridddles.com but go there at your own risk because they are addictive!) and haven't been using my evenings very productively as a result. It was fun, though!

Okay, back to the books