Five Weeks

5 weeks and 1 day since I last went running. I've swam twice in that time period, and gone for a long walk on the beach once. Pretty exciting, huh? But, I've now been so inspired by comments from other strong women who've run during pregnancy. I never have before - don't know why. Currently, I spend a lot of time on the couch. You're supposed to exercise when you're pregnant, and I sleep half of the day I'm so tired. You're supposed to eat well when you're pregnant, but most of the time the thought of food makes me nauseated. I force myself to fix dinner, then go back to my couch. Sometimes the nausea fades and I get hungry, so I figure I better fill Up when I'm in the mood. Last week that was a Hostess Ding Dong. The week before it was a Hostess Fruit Pie - cherry if you must know. I should write and thank the Hostess company for fulfilling my needs. Today I made a trip to the International District to pick up some things for dinner that sounded good, only knowing that by dinner time I might not like the idea of food. And then there's the fluids - supposed to drink but have to use the bathroom every five minutes. And then how do you get proper rest at night when you have a headache, and you're up three times to use the bathroom again. It's truly crazy. To top it off, my mind is occupied by the fact that in a year from now, with an additional child crawling around, this house won't be big enough. So, we move. The median house price in this city is $475 thousand. The gas prices are the highest in the country, and the transportation system is in major turmoil. It's so cloudy and wet half of the year, that depression rates skyrocket and people become ill from mold allergies. But we love the saltwater, the mountains, the green, the city . . . it'd be tough to move from friends and family and all that we love, and it'll be crazy to stay. Ah . . . the cranky bored pregnant lady speaks . .

Here's a better story. The dog. She's a cross between a collie and a shepherd, but small - sorta looks like a cross between a black lab and a coyote. She's a great family dog - 6 years old, and amazing with the kids. She herds us like a collie would, and gets nervous when one of us is gone overnight. She's only barked at someone once - and the person was well-deserving of it. She's an indoor/outdoor dog, but stays in when we aren't home. We used to give her free reign of the house until she started eating - anything that she could get to. One particular day it was a variety of chocolate desserts my mom had brought over for a special occasion. So, we resorted to shutting her in the bedroom whenever we left the house. It's a big enough space with her bed in it. She's been fine in there, day after day, for a couple of years. Until last week. I came home to find that she'd chewed the bottom of a fabric window covering. Strange and frustrating, but I didn't think too much of it. The next day was disturbing. When I came home, she had completely shredded the window covering, including bending the metal wires. She had chewed a 3 foot hole in one of our thick blankets, and pulled down a hat rack, piece by piece. She had pulled everything (all the bedding, pillows, etc.) in it's entirety off of the bed. A paper grocery bag with some clothes in it was torn up, it's contents spewed. All items atop the sewing desk were flung onto the floor. A plastic bag with marathon items was chewed, but thankfully nothing destroyed. And last, but not least, I realized that she had been chewing at the bottom of the door to the extent that it will need to be replaced. What the !@#@$#?

So we bought her a harness and had to start leashing her up outside when we left. (We have leash laws where we live and a dog isn't allowed to roam free. We also live near busy arterials.) It's a long leash, and she has water and a doghouse, and a nice grassy backyard. I still come home daily to find her tangled up in something. Most often, I just put her in the car with me and the kids to make quick trips. Yesterday I was trying to leash her up as I headed out to take the kids to school and she got mad. She saw the kids getting in the car, and hopped in. I called her out, and when she discovered she wasn't getting to come, she started circling the car nervously. I finally coaxed her to the leash and harness. This morning was a repeat. She hopped in the car. This time, when I called her out, she knew what was coming. So she ran off. Literally. As soon as we tried to call her, she trotted faster. The kids were all out of the car trying to help, and our 11-yr-old started running down the street after her, but it just egged her on. So . . . all the kids hopped into the car in a hurry as we drove down the street with the slider door open, going 'ding - ding' and the kids yelling for the dog. I'm sure the neighborhood was thrilled. We saw her zooming down the next street and caught up with her. I pulled over and pretended to be all friendly to her. With the door open, and the kids excited, she was only so eager to hop in for the ride. Anything to avoid that harness.

Just another day . . . what's up with the dog? Nothing has changed but the baby growing inside me. Can she sense it?