Who wants to be a millionaire?

ME! That's right. And I will too once I invent a cough/cold/sinus medicine that any paranoid pregnant woman can take. The plague had descended on the Johnson household. All 3 of us have been sick this past week with sinusy yucky colds. Emma's kicked her asthma into overdrive so I had to keep her home two days last week for round the clock asthma treatments, but luckily Jeremy was kind enough to not fall flat on his face with the plague until today.

He got up at 4 am to go to work and yours truly was up to blow my nose and take some tylenol (THE only medicine I feel comfortable taking while pregnant) to help with the sinus migraine. I promptly got back into our lovely new bed (pics to come later) and was woke back up around 5am to the sound of a door closing and someone walking around in the kitchen. Um, that's not right. So I did what any sane mother home alone with her child would do-I grabbed my cell phone, punched in 911 and had my finger hovering over the send button, grabbed my handy-dandy 9mm handgun in the other and went to investigate. Luckily for my surprised hubby I'm not trigger happy because he had turned around and come back too sick to work. Instead of a shot to the chest (I'm wicked accurate) he got a good scolding for scaring 10 years off my life! Geez! Needless to say I couldn't go back to sleep after that debacle.

I think Emma and I are on the upside of the cold; she went back to daycare today and my nose no longer drips like a faucet. Minor improvement on my part but welcome nonetheless.

I scored this little baby from work on Friday thanks to a perfect safety record in 2009: a TomTom gps. Congrats to me for not getting any paper cuts or falling out of my desk chair once! Just kidding. I'm not out on the tracks everyday like a lot of our people but I do have to go to a lot of job/construction sites and I do work around the tracks a lot with track engineering/layouts, etc. So I guess for a white-hat (nickname given to all management due to the fact that we are distinguished from other RR employees by a white safety hat-sexy I know) I've done alright.

I had bought Jeremy a GPS two years ago but never had it handy for myself when I desperately needed it, i.e. in the boonies of southeast AR trying to find a particular greenfield site for a customer. Yeah. So I'm really loving having one of my own. Now if I can just figure out how to trade in the mechanical chick voice for a hot guy voice with a British accent or something I'll be set!

In baby news, Justin and Brittany have found out the sex of their baby, but I'm not allowed to tell yet. B has the inside scoop due to an aunt who can do ultrasounds but her official u/s from the doc isn't until Feb 2. (Mollie get ready for some baby orders!) Mine is Feb 3 and I'm feeling another girl. Jeremy is going to be totally outnumbered. He's still suffering from shock at the fact that Emma said out of the blue yesterday "Mama, I need to go shopping". Aah, I've trained my little grasshopper well. Growing up with all boys he is not prepared for the girliness. I watched laughing hysterically as he tried 3 times yesterday to do Emma's ponytail. So wish I had the camera so I could have shared the first two misattempts!

Are we still in Arkansas?

What is with this weather lately? Don't get me wrong, I LOVE cold weather. Give me single digit temperatures and I'm a happy girl. But we don't normally get this in Arkansas. And, in my opinion if we're going to suffer single digit temperatures we should at LEAST get some real snow out of the deal. Poor little Emma thinks the small flurries we got a week ago was real live snow. Boy is she going to be disappointed when she gets a little bigger and discovers the truth!

Never the less, I took her outside and we played in the 1 centimeter of snow. She had a blast so I guess that's all that matters.

I kept laughing at her becuase she didn't want to keep her gloves on but she got mad when she actually touched the snow with her bare hands. "Yucky mommy!" Then when she looked down and saw snow on her boots she had a meltdown- "Mommy! MOMMY! My boots are dirty! Fix it!" Got to love a child who knows how to take care of her shoes!

Last weekend Jeremy and I celebrated our 7 year anniversay, better late than never right?! Since he had to work on Saturday we opted for something close to home and rented a cabin on Lake Catherine for the night. My in-laws pipes were frozen so they were more than happy to stay at our house with Emma for the night and enjoy indoor plumbing and water.

Jeremy is huge on camping and outdoor activities, I am to a lesser extent (and by lesser I mean not in the middle of summer when its miserable outside and so long as the bugs stay away from me) so I knew he would get a kick out of our little overnight excursion. I was pleasantly surprised at the cabins, small but very cozy. We explored outside for a little while and then plopped down in front of the fire to watch some movies. I cannot tell you how long its been since we watched a whole movie with no interruptions. Wait, I can tell you! 2 years and 2 months! Ha!

The following morning was beautiful outside and I took some other pictures and just sat on our screened in porch or the swing by the lake for about an hour. In the freezing cold. Apparently we had some neighbors show up late the night before and I'm sure they thought I was nuts because I could see them peeking out the window.

And although I promised Jeremy I would not show all of his failed attempts let me just say that it took 5 tries to get this one semi-good picture. 5. Every time he would take the picture his eyes would be closed. Every time! By the time we actually got this picture I was laughing so hard that I was crying. It was the Johnson Curse at work. No Johnson male can seem to take a picture with their eyes open on the first try. Ever.

We had a lot of fun and have even decided to rent a cabin again when the weather warms up a little and bring Emma Lou with us. There's tons of stuff for her to do outdoors and we really think she'll like it. Best part- they have pet friendly cabins too so if we have to bring the four legged fatties we can. Speaking of fatties I need to post a picture of Rosie-she literally looks like a barrel with legs. I think I have the only beagle on earth that is supposed to weigh 25 pounds but is pushing 50. All doggie diets have failed miserably.

Time Warp

Where oh where did the time go? I just realized I still have not blogged about Christmas, oops. How about we just say I did, huh? It feels a little lame to blog about Christmas the 2nd week of January . . . so I'm going to assume most of you saw my pics on facebook and can imagine the day for yourselves. Suffice to say Emma now adores Santa Claus and I'm still trying to find a way to fit all of her stuff into the house. One other quick note- orange juice and a new laptop do not mix.

Christmas Day-Jeremy opens his brand new laptop from yours truly.

20 minutes later- Emma spills orange juice all over the keyboard.

Two days later- I spend $400 more than I originally spent to replace it at Best Buy because of course they do not have super deals going after Christmas.

Now- Broke as a joke. Sigh.

During December I decided to be frivolous and spend some of my Christmas bonus money from work on this little baby: a Nikon D3000 camera. I bought a package deal that included the camera, 2 lenses, and a case. Aaah. I love taking pictures so I've been lusting after a nice DSLR for some time. When Best Buy put this little beauty on special it was just meant to be. Now I just have to figure out how to work all the little bells and whistles and how to splurge on the other lens I want and the external flash. I feel a photography class in my future.

I was responsible with my Christmas bonus as well; I paid off a lingering hospital bill from one of Emma's asthma stays, bought Christmas presents, and paid the ob-gyn bill for the yet to be born baby #2. God bless Christmas bonus money! Jeremy also got a Christmas bonus and spent his on a new Trek road bike. My hubby is quite the Lance Armstrong these days; first a mountain bike last December and now the road bike. No, I have not been up a mountain lately after the last disastrous ride, but I have ridden my bike some. Safety first with Baby #2 on board! And, for those inquiring minds that want to know, Jeremy does have some spiffy spandex bicycle shorts that he wears when he rides. But he mans them up by wearing something over them. And after riding myself I totally see why padded shorts are necessary- I mean is anyone's butt seriously small enough to fit on those skinny little seats comfortably?!

Jeremy and I were officially married 7 years on January 4th! Yay us! We have actually been together 11 years if you count the dating period. That's a super long time folks; 60% of my life has been with Jeremy. He's a great hubby and the best daddy ever. Since our anniversary fell on a Monday, and Emma was sick, we're going to celebrate this weekend by renting a cabin at the lake on Saturday night while Em stays with MeMe and PopPop. A cold night, roaring fire, movies and popcorn= romance central baby!

Now that my morning sickness is almost completely gone I can actually think about romance again! Ha! Speaking of Baby #2, I have officially graduated to about 50% maternity clothes in week 15. This is much sooner than with Emma; I was in month 5 before I had to resort to maternity clothes. Oh well. My vanity demanded that I break out the maternity clothes so that I would look more pregnant as opposed to just fat. It's amazing how many people will think you're just packing on the pounds when you wear normal clothes, but break out the maternity shirts and you instantly go from fat to pregnant.

Realizing the truth . . .

If you realize that something is true does it change your attitude? For instance, I've recently had the epiphany that being pregnant (1st trimester at least) turns me into a snarling three headed beotch.

Oops. Guess Jeremy was right.

I will never ever tell him that though. Ever.

It would give him too much smug satisfaction and he would gloat and then the super duper beotch would come out of hiding and go on a rampage.

Not pretty.

But really, I have been pretty touchy lately. I don't do well without sleep and for some reason I cannot sleep through the night since I've been pregnant. Add the normal exhaustion to the whole no sleep thing and really I'm lucky to still be married.

This past weekend I woke up sick as a dog on Sunday and after begging Jeremy three times (he does not wake easily) to get up and watch Emma he finally did. And on top of that he kept her entertained for a whole 2 hours so I could lay in bed and sleep/be miserable. God love him.

And then, two nights this week he has washed dishes for me with only minimal and very subtle hints from me. I repeat, God love him. That's right everyone, no dishwasher. When we bought our house with the brilliant idea of remodeling there was no dishwasher on site. This was supposed to be remedied immediately but 5 years down the road and still washing by hand. Yuck. Bet you know what's on my bday list for this year!

In short, with our 7 year anniversary coming up he has really picked a good time to remind me how wonderful he is. And, now that I know what a beotch I've been (and knowing is half the battle) maybe I can manage to turn my frown upside down and make it to year 8! Ha!

I'll post Christmas pics and recap soon. I really should actually do some work today but still feeling vacation-any from my time off . . . .

It's the most hectic time of year

I love Christmas time. The smells, the lights, the food . . . and this year due to baby #2 I'm loving the food a little more than usual. Next weigh in is not going to be pretty. Oh well. But, this year I'm having a little bit of trouble getting into my normal yule tide spirit.

Last week was a very rough week for the Johnson family. Emma was sick almost all week. The kind of sick that didn't let mommy get more than 3 hours of sleep a night. I was able to stay home with her for two days, then Jeremy kept her one, and my mom the other. So, I was going to work in zombie mode. And it was a crazy week at work. Apparently someone announced a new deadline on all projects and it was December 25th. Yuck.

But, the worst part of last week was the loss of our fur-baby Dakota, a 12 year old black lab. (And I feel terrible that I can't locate a picture of her on my computer. It's been a long time since we'd had a photo shoot.) Dakota went into the vet on Monday night and had to be put to sleep on Thursday. She has been with us since we started dating. I claim her because I loved her, but she was 100% Jeremy's dog. She played with me and Emma, but it was Jeremy who she followed tirelessly. She literally shadowed every step he took. I don't know if the lab breed are just loyal in general , but I like to think it was part of her personality too that made her such a terrific dog.

Jeremy was and still is heart broken. If you know us you know that dogs are more than just pets; they're family. He wanted her brought home so I went to pick her up and it took everything I had in me not to go ballistic on the people at the vets office. They carried her out to me in a trash bag! I wanted to just scream at them. I had hoped to get her home before Jeremy could see but as luck would have it he was waiting for me at the house. His dad offered to stay and help with the burial but Jeremy insisted on doing it alone. I don't think I have ever seen anything as heartbreaking as watching him pet her and talk to her one last time. It was freezing outside and I had taken Emma in out of the cold, but after about an hour I bundled her up and we went out there because I just couldn't stand him doing it alone.

So, I'm working up to my Christmas spirit this year. I know the reason for the season, and I rejoice in our Lord. But the other things I usually enjoy: baking, carols, etc. are just not as easy to come by. My goal this week is to find my Christmas cheer and make this a memorable holiday for Emma. Hopefully by doing that I can help pull Jeremy out of his funk as well.

Dirty Little Secrets

Jeremy discovered one of my dirty little secrets last weekend. It's one that I've held near and dear to my heart because I obviously didn't reveal this little baby prior to the wedding, because, hello, no need to put the brakes on the show right?!

I know every word to "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice. Every. Single. Word. And I still love that song to this day and will belt it out at every opportunity. I'm not ashamed! In fact I still vividly remember my mom actually listening to this tape (remember those?!) after she had already bought it for me and throwing it away because it was too graphic. Mom-still pissed at you about that after all these years, FYI.

At any rate, it was completely by accident that I let this little secret out of the bag. Jeremy finds it extremely amusing to find "annoying" songs and sing them at the bright and early hour of 4:30am for his conductors so that the song gets stuck in their head all day. Some past favorites have included The Spice Girls and The Offspring. So, we're driving in the car and he's telling me about how he got Ice Ice Baby stuck in his conductors' head that day and how pissed he was. As he's telling me he starts singing the first verse or so. "Whoa! Hold it right there! You are totally screwing it up, those are not the right words!" And . . . secret is out. He sat there struggling between horror and amusement as I sang the entire song.

He then said something like, "Well I bet you listened to MC Hammer to. Loser." To which I promplty burst into a rendition of "You Can't Touch This". Come on! Who didn't listen to Vanilla Ice or MC Hammer! Really! I even owned a pair of parachute pants; if I could find the picture I would post it proudly. Take that!

Just goes to show I had excellent taste even as a child.

The craziness you missed

What Johnson insanity have you missed out on while I've been too swamped to blog? Well, let me fill you in . . .

1. I was almost arrested

2. First looong drive with a 2 yr old (!!)

3. Drive was totally worth it because we got to see my friend Jenn for her 29th b-day

4. Took Emma to her 1st Razorback game

5. Discovered that I WILL suffer from sickness during this pregnancy-yay

6. Saw New Moon (L.O.V.E.)

7. Totally skipped out on company Christmas party-we are such rebels I know

8. Railroad screwed our plans to visit my big brother and his family for Thanksgiving

I can understand that you might like a little more explanation on some of these so here we go:

I was almost arrested for driving around a Dick's Sporting Goods parking lot in Hot Springs. It was getting late and Jeremy wanted to run in and look for something so I stayed out in the car with Emma because she was getting cranky. To diminish said crankiness I was driving around the lot. As long as we were moving Emma was ok-to stop would have meant torture. As I'm driving I notice a Dick's employee in the parking lot kind of watching me funny. So I think to myself that I need to park b/c he's looking a little nervous. He goes into the store and pulls what appears to be a manager over to the front window and is gesturing outside. About this time Jeremy comes walking out the doors laughing, hops in the car and tells me I better drive off becuase the police are on their way. Apparently this dude was freaking out and telling the manager there was a suspicious car outside circling the parking lot and he thought they were going to come inside with guns and rob the place. Really? Really? I know I am not the first person in the world to circle a parking lot while waiting on someone inside. And furthermore, it was light enough he could see that there was only one lone woman in the car. And I'm going to bust in with guns blazing and rob the place. I repeat-really?

That weekend we drove to Fayetteville to see our friends Jennifer and David. All three of us went to UCA together and I really miss not being able to see them more often. The drive with Emma was going great until the batteries in her portable DVD player died. Once Mickey Mouse disappeared all hell broke loose. I wound up climbing in the backseat and pulling out the laptop and logged onto Playhouse Disney.com. Thank the Lord for verizon wireless internet; I'm considering writing one of those sappy thank you letters that could wind up reenacted on tv-watch for it.

Unfortunately we didn't account for traffic and the drive took us much longer than anticipated; we didn't get to Fayetteville until around 9:30pm. Following our arrival there was a mass exodus for the door. Jenn assures me our way-beyond-fashionably-late-entrance was not the cue for everyone else to leave. So, we wound up missing most of the party but got to spend lots of time with Jenn and Dave which was fantastic. (Thanks guys for letting us stay with you and pretty much take over your whole weekend! And the food was excellent Dave!)

Another high point of the weekend was when I totally kicked Jeremy's ass at baseball on the Wii. Aah, sweet victory. We're both extremely competitive if you didn't know so it was a fierce battle of games for a solid hour or two while Emma took a much needed nap. I need a Wii now.

Saturday we took Emma to her first Hogs game and she LOVED it! I was a little worried that she wouldn't take the confined quarters very well but she did great all the way throught the 3rd quarter. By that time is was around 9:30pm and she just wasn't having anymore. We had the brilliant idea that we would avoid the hellish drive from Friday by driving home that night while she slept. Great idea in theory. Two hours into the drive I discovered my pregnancy sickness. Great. Jeremy wanted to keep going but I convinced him it would be a BIG mistake to make me stay in the car any longer so we stopped at a hotel for the night and finished up the drive home on Sunday morning.

This past weekend we were rebels and skipped our company Christmas party and had a date night. New Moon! Ah, Twiligh series how I love you. This movie was ten times better than the first (yay new director) and with the exception of a few corny scenes fantastic. I will buy it on DVD The. Day. It. Comes. Out.

And finally, we were going to meet my brother and his family in Mississippi (mid-point for us all) and spend some belated Thanksgiving time together this Friday but work derailed that plan. (Derailed-get it? We work for the railroad? Ha! I crack myself up with my not-so-witty play on words!) So, hopefully we can reschedule for a weekend in December.

In preggers news- my ultrasound is next week so hopefully Jeremy will know one way or the other if he's going to need to figure out a way to squeeze two or three kids in the back of the Si. Ha! And I'm already having to do the rubber band trick on my pants. Sigh.