To Be Pregnant or Not To Be Pregnant...

....that is the question of the day. Among other things my paranoid hypochondriac neuroses will definitely not be beneficial if i'm ever able to get pregnant. But what really really *really* doesn't help is when it's a scary reality and not just in my head. Today at work i found out that this whole swine flu thing has NOT declined like i had thought. In fact there are so many cases diagnosed by the doctors across the street that the CDC has told them to stop sending specimens to be tested because they just don't have the ability to do so anymore. Someone I work with just found out they have swine flu, and to make matters worse i came home from work to read this headline:

Pregnancy Ups Swine Flu Death Risk

It basically says that you're more at risk for death and complications if you're pregnant and get the swine flu. So now they're full-speed ahead with making swine flu vaccines, and pregnant women are at the top of the list to get it because there won't be nearly enough doses for everybody. There's only one little itty-bitty catch. It's a completely new vaccine that's never been tested before. Not only has it never been tested before, but they're adding an adjuvant that's also never been made before and doesn't have FDA approval. So the government is going to get an "emergency declaration" to use it. (Adjuvant Info Here) AND when there was a swine flu scare in the 70s they did a rush-vaccine then too....and it caused all kinds of awful problems.

But wait...i'm not done! British and Swiss health officials have even suggested delaying getting pregnant until the swine flu threat passes. This is way bigger than i was even remotely anticipating. And normally I wouldn't be overly concerned (oh who am i kidding, Worry is my middle name) but there is that one little fact...i work smack dab in the middle of it all. These sick people are going to be coming to me for medicine and vaccinations....and their germs will be right there with them. If it's as bad as the news is reporting what are the chances that i *won't* get it?

As i see it i have three options:
1) Seriously consider delaying getting pregnant for a yearish
2) Hopefully get pregnant right as flu season hits and get a vaccine that has never been tested and therefore allow myself and baby to be guinea pigs
3) Hopefully get pregnant right as flu season hits, do nothing, and hope i don't die
[end panic attack][temporarily]

What would you do?

Long Lost Twins

Have i ever mentioned that Dala has a twin that lives right down the street? The first time i saw Lucy i thought Dala had gotten outside somehow. They've met once before but Dala was inside looking through the screen door and Lucy was just visiting the front porch. Today they met in the real world. Can you guess which one is Dala and which is Lucy?

There was no fighting, which is what i was expecting, just some fluffy tails and warning meows. Lucy was on top of *Dala's* sewer so after she wandered off Dala ran back across the street and started rubbing her cheeks all over the spot where Lucy had been. Silly kitty.

Pregnant Women are Smug

I just heard this on the Bert Show yesterday and it made me giggle. I wish i had found it when Ally was still pregnant to make her laugh when she was miserable but better late than never I guess.

Teddy and Katie

I'm keeping Teddy for the weekend while Grandmom visits her sister in Alabama. He's pretty darn cute but I still don't understand some of the things he does. He will not eat anything...ever. Grandmom gave me 3 different kinds of dry food (which i've tried plain, with a little hot water to soften it, and with shreds of cheese) but he won't eat it. So i bought him some canned food and he won't touch that either. I've never had a problem with any animal *not* eating. The only thing he seems interested in is the cat's canned food. He licks and licks and licks their plates when they're done eating. But i googled it and you're not supposed to feed dogs cat food long term because the fat/protein content is so different it makes the dog really fat. He's not even very interested in treats! Any suggestions on how to make a dog eat?

Last night Katie spent the night with me (in addition to the dog...) and we both stayed up until 2am. That was all fine and dandy until she came and woke me up at 7:50am. Needless to say i'm exhausted. In fact i think it's about time for a nap.

After talking to a customer at work I've discovered that you can still do Caribbean and Mexican cruises with just a birth certificate. I have a vacation week coming up in August. Hmmm.....last minute cruise?

Outdoors Again

Yesterday we were outside and came across Todd the Toad in the yard! Dala was very happy to see him. They're buddies now.


On our walk there was *another* snake in the road. It wasn't as big but slimy and gross nonetheless. So we walked past it and continued on our way to the cul-de-sac, turned around and headed back. Only when we got to the general area where the snake was the street light had gone out. It was pitch black and Jake made me keep walking so i trailed behind him deathly afraid i'd step right on it's back. The light came back on not long after we passed it and there was no snake to be found...

I was at Lowe's with Grandmom and she got Jake two plants: a rosebush in honor of his Granny and Tiger Eye flowers in honor of his uncle. This is in addition to the two encore azaleas my Dad got him for the same thing. We planted them all and hopefully I can keep them alive. I loved the Tiger Eye flowers so much i went and bought some more.

Todd the Toad

As i said before, interesting things happen on our midnight (or later) walks. Yesterday it rained toad frogs. (And i'm going to call them toad frogs because they're all frogs to me but every time i say frog Jake has to correct me and say it's a toad) So we're walking along and i see an itty-bitty toad frog and point it out to Jake. Two steps later there's another....then another...then another! And these were tiny! I've never seen them so small, all the ones i usually see have big old fat beer bellies. We must have chased at least 10 off the road so they wouldn't get squished. They were all in a general area so Jake thinks they must have been born nearby, but they looked older than newborns.

Jake picked up one baby toad frog and carried it the *entire* walk. It peed on him, but he still carried it home. We played around with it and took some pictures before releasing it. Then when i went to the computer to review the pictures they were missing. Nowhere to be found on the SD card or the camera's internal memory. I had *just* reviewed them on the camera before taking the SD card out! I searched every different way i knew how to see if they were somehow hidden or stored differently on the card or something but they were just completely missing (although the file numbers show they had indeed existed) Somehow they got erased. So i did what any sensible person would do. At almost 2am we went back outside and got another one so i could take pictures for my blog. On the way back in we found the original Todd the Toad in the driveway so we scooped him up and took pictures of both. After our fun we re-released them outside. There was a giant toad frog just sitting there too! Since it took me two trips and lots of frustration you'll get plenty of frog pics to enjoy.

Not sure if Todd the Toad was straight or gay because neither of our kisses turned him into a prince...

Dala meets Todd...

Marriage and the Bachelorette

This weekend Kellye got married! Her wedding gown was GORGEOUS. Here are some pictures of the pharmacy girls.

Today we had a Bachelorette party of sorts. What better bachelorette party than a group of girls watching the TV show and gossiping about the ensuing drama? Kristie even had a real-life connection to the ex-girlfriend of one of the guys on the show. Oh my!