I'm back and you're behind

Yes, really, I'm back. From the ER, from the land of the employed, from a dog show in Philadelphia, from Maine. You name it, I'm back. Not exactly sure how it happened but I have not blogged in 2007. Nothing against 2007, I just haven't been in the mood.

Working backwards, I spent the afternoon at the hospital being monitored. Working backwards some more, I felt dizzy this morning, then lost vision in my right eye completely. It came back after a few scary minutes and I felt okay, aside from a lingering headache. I finished session number two with the professional organizer, then realized the baby wasn't moving quite as much as she had been over the weekend. I had some water and got horizontal on the couch for a bit, but there wasn't any improvement. Called my doctor's office, expecting to be told to wait for it to happen again, then call. Instead, I was told to go to the ER. They would call and let them know I was coming. When I arrived I was taken almost immediately up to the birth center and into a triage room, where we spent the next few hours plugged in and wired to monitors. Not surprisingly, baby v2.0 - the girl version became extremely active as soon as everything was connected. I answered lots of questions, many of them repeated by three different medical professionals, had a neuro workup, etc. All was deemed to be fine and I was sent home with no special instructions, except that I have to see my OB this week. My regular appointment next Tuesday is not soon enough. It was all big fun. I hope I don't have to see the inside of the birth center again until sometime in April.

Still working backwards, you read that whole employed thing right. My position was eliminated about 10 days ago. On advice of counsel, this isn't exactly the place to be going into detail about the situation. Suffice it to say we're doing fine and, if I take a long view of things, this is likely to end up being a good thing.

Just a few more random updates and you'll be all caught up:

• Penguin celebrated her ninth birthday on the 19th. She doesn't look a day over seven.
• Oliver moved to a toddler bed a little over a week ago. His room isn't big enough to have both set up during the transition, as most books recommend, so he did it cold-turkey and hasn't looked back. When I got back from Philadelphia I couldn't easily put him in his crib. Either the arms are too short or the belly got too big, so for a while only CD could put him to bed. Since he has to go to Utah later in the month, we decided to make the move. We also didn't want Oliver to associate losing his crib with the arrival of his sister, or to make too many transitions at one time when we move to the new house.
  
• The organizer is helping me de-clutter before the impending move, as well as organize the new spaces. She's brilliant. Yeah, I could have done this all myself but it's more fun with her and I know I'm doing it right. The savings we will see from not moving the clutter should cover what it is costing.
  
• The house is progressing, though it has seemed like slow progress the last few weeks. It's about to pick up speed, however. The drywall and plaster are done and the floors are in process. Next week we should start to see cabinets, appliances and tile being installed. I'm trying to stay optimistic about moving in sometime in March. There's not much I can do to make it happen any faster. We hit a small snag in delivery of some of the tile but have adjusted. We may move in without a shower in the master bath. I can live with that, and use the kids' bath shower for a while if necessary. I am making progress on finding light fixtures, rugs, and other things we will need for the house.
• My Patriots lost yesterday. My Steelers have a new coach.
• Tomorrow is my 41st birthday.