Well, I am so glad I blogged about the bathroom smell. I should have gotten to it sooner! Although the smell is not yet gone, I do believe we now understand the problem and are on our way to fixing it (well, having someone fix it). As a couple of people commented, we believe it is a sewage smell creeping back up into the house. As a dear and very knowledgable man from my church back in Rochester emailed me, it is probably that we have a problem with the trap in that drain, whose very job it is to prevent the sewage smell from entering the house. I am thrilled that the end is in sight!
In other news, we made my first prenatal appointment today! I am very excited! We will be going on Tuesday morning at 10, to the same Dr our Pastor and his wife use. The best part is, this Dr is apparently very good, and provides care much more like what Americans would expect (not that anyone said it quite that way to me, but I´ve been told many times here prenatal checks consist of feeling the woman´s belly and sending her on her way. Whereas this Dr cares about things like vitamins and iron levels and weight gain). And the fun part is that he does an ultrasound every single month, and sends you home with the picture! So in just a few days I might get to see my baby for the 1st time!
Other than that, the most interesting thing I can share is that overall, weather here has been hitting highs of least upper 60s, if not mid 80s. Apparently, this weather is unusual and early, and things that normally don´t bloom or bud till almost May are already out. Part of me can hardly believe this is February, the other part has almost forgotten what a Rochester winter looks like!
Oh, and in answer to a question from Inkling in the comments a few days back, I have had no problems whatsoever receiving packages so far. I have had delivered to my door one smallish and one fairly large package with not a word said to me about customs or duty or any such thing. (Both senders had marked ´gift´on the customs declaration) I was both very excited and very grateful, not having been sure ahead of time how that would work out.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Miraculous solution, anyone??
Ok, so a little while back, we had a drainage issue in our upstairs bathroom, off our bedroom (you now know the extent of my 2nd floor). The shower got completely clogged up, and there was water standing in the shower stall for several days until the man our landlord hired finally arrived to fix it. Soon after the fix-it man drained out all the water, an absolutely terrible odor developed. WE assumed something left over from the standing water was the cause. Within the first few days of this odor developing, I cleaned the shower with my all-purpose lemon scented disinfectant. Each time, it seemed better, but by the end of the day, the odor was obviously making a comeback. So we bought a small bottle of chlorinated bleach. I used that all up by cleaning the shower a total of 4 times over a couple of days, varying the intensity of the solutions I used and the amount of time I left it before rinsing (the last time, I used ir straight out of the bottle.) EAch time, it seemed better, but by the next morning, the ordor had returned. I need some new approaches here.
The trouble is that the smell is absolutely awful for my pregnant nose and stomach. So it may very well be that is just needs someone to take the time to scrub really thoroughly with the bleach, but I don´t think I can stand to be in there that long. And my husband is never home long enough to tackle such a job (literally - it would mean not sleeping or something). Those unavoidable-because-I-am-pregnant middle of the night bathroom runs? I first cover my nose with a tissue, clamp it closed, and take a deep breath all before entering the bathroom, then get out as quick as I can and don´t unclamp my nose until I am several feet away from the closed door. Last night, I made my husband switch places with me - I usually sleep on the side closer to the bathroom, but was sure I could smell it from bed.
But I feel like 2 rounds of disinfectant and 4 rounds of bleach should have killed anything. I don´t want to even consider the whole long period of serious scrubbing unless I have a fool-proof method in hand.
So, anyone have a miraculous solution for me??
The trouble is that the smell is absolutely awful for my pregnant nose and stomach. So it may very well be that is just needs someone to take the time to scrub really thoroughly with the bleach, but I don´t think I can stand to be in there that long. And my husband is never home long enough to tackle such a job (literally - it would mean not sleeping or something). Those unavoidable-because-I-am-pregnant middle of the night bathroom runs? I first cover my nose with a tissue, clamp it closed, and take a deep breath all before entering the bathroom, then get out as quick as I can and don´t unclamp my nose until I am several feet away from the closed door. Last night, I made my husband switch places with me - I usually sleep on the side closer to the bathroom, but was sure I could smell it from bed.
But I feel like 2 rounds of disinfectant and 4 rounds of bleach should have killed anything. I don´t want to even consider the whole long period of serious scrubbing unless I have a fool-proof method in hand.
So, anyone have a miraculous solution for me??
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Tidbits
This post is a random collection of thoughts and observations I have been wanting to share...
They are building a new section to our relatively new neighborhood behind our house. I think it much have something to do with being made in the image of our Creator that makes it so very interesting to watch the process of something being built. I often watch from my upstairs window for a few minutes, and usually check daily on how much progress has been made.
I am not thrilled about having houses put in behind us, as it will feel much more closed in, but I am grateful that my bedroom window will look out at the little bit of space between houses instead right into someone else´s bedroom window. And I am grateful that there are no houses right across from us. I think they will someday turn the open patch of dirt into a park.
I´m looking forward to reaching the benchmark of 2nd trimester in about another month... the nauseasness and tiredness are getting old, and I am hopeful that some of that will ease as the 1st trimester ends.
Any worries I had about filling my day as a homemaker disappeared with the onset of pregnancy. I am lucky to keep up with the basics these days.
I´m realizing that I have a lot of fear attached to doing anything outside of my comfort zone - which includes kind of a lot of things, sometimes. I´d appreciate prayer to be released from this. I know it is natural to be nervous, etc, about new things, but in a situation where I am often confronted by new things are something outside my comfort zone (I´ve moved to another country, for goodness sake!), this whole fear issue can be a bit debilatating.
Although still being asked to work harder and do more, my beloved husband received some rare praise last night for a job well done in recent weeks. For this, I am grateful. And for the fact that he might actually get home by 8 tonight, instead of 9 or later.
Of course, last night was also when we thought we´d be getting news about the level of insurance coverage his company will provide for my prenatal/birth care, but instead found out his boss forgot to take the marriage certificate to HR in Monterrey last week. Supposedly he took it today; we now have to wait up to another week.
It is interesting the little things you learn about a person when you live with them. For example, my husband religiously checks expiration dates when making a purchase and/or consuming something we have had for a while. On the other hand, though, I´ve seen him eat fruit or homemade items well past the date I would have considered them edible.
I know there was more, but I am afraid pregnancy brain strikes again! It´s all mush now, and I can´t for the life of me think what else there was. I´ll be so annoyed later when the things I have been wanted to share with someone suddenly pop back into my head. Oh well.
They are building a new section to our relatively new neighborhood behind our house. I think it much have something to do with being made in the image of our Creator that makes it so very interesting to watch the process of something being built. I often watch from my upstairs window for a few minutes, and usually check daily on how much progress has been made.
I am not thrilled about having houses put in behind us, as it will feel much more closed in, but I am grateful that my bedroom window will look out at the little bit of space between houses instead right into someone else´s bedroom window. And I am grateful that there are no houses right across from us. I think they will someday turn the open patch of dirt into a park.
I´m looking forward to reaching the benchmark of 2nd trimester in about another month... the nauseasness and tiredness are getting old, and I am hopeful that some of that will ease as the 1st trimester ends.
Any worries I had about filling my day as a homemaker disappeared with the onset of pregnancy. I am lucky to keep up with the basics these days.
I´m realizing that I have a lot of fear attached to doing anything outside of my comfort zone - which includes kind of a lot of things, sometimes. I´d appreciate prayer to be released from this. I know it is natural to be nervous, etc, about new things, but in a situation where I am often confronted by new things are something outside my comfort zone (I´ve moved to another country, for goodness sake!), this whole fear issue can be a bit debilatating.
Although still being asked to work harder and do more, my beloved husband received some rare praise last night for a job well done in recent weeks. For this, I am grateful. And for the fact that he might actually get home by 8 tonight, instead of 9 or later.
Of course, last night was also when we thought we´d be getting news about the level of insurance coverage his company will provide for my prenatal/birth care, but instead found out his boss forgot to take the marriage certificate to HR in Monterrey last week. Supposedly he took it today; we now have to wait up to another week.
It is interesting the little things you learn about a person when you live with them. For example, my husband religiously checks expiration dates when making a purchase and/or consuming something we have had for a while. On the other hand, though, I´ve seen him eat fruit or homemade items well past the date I would have considered them edible.
I know there was more, but I am afraid pregnancy brain strikes again! It´s all mush now, and I can´t for the life of me think what else there was. I´ll be so annoyed later when the things I have been wanted to share with someone suddenly pop back into my head. Oh well.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
How I am feeling, Prayer requests
How I am feeling is a question I seem to get from everyone I talk to, so I thought some of my readers may be wondering as well.
I am pretty much mildly nauseas most of the time, although some days are better than others. I have yet to throw up at all, and usually can eat something, although often not just anything. I keep saltine crackers, water, and hard candies on me at all times, any of which seem to help when I get too uncomfortable. I try to eat a little something every few hours. I also learned this week that it is important to eat a little something in the evening, especially if I am at all hungry. I tried to ignore feeling hungry as we were just settling in to fall asleep the other night... and felt absolutely awful the next morning. I won't do that again!
I am also very tired. If I didn't keep reading on pregnancy websites and hearing from people who have been pregnant that being really tired is normal at this point, I would feel a little ridiculous. Although I rarely actually take 3 naps a day, I almost always want one every morning, every afternoon, and every evening. I usually let myself have one longer one, and sometimes one other quick one. Of course, 'longer' can mean anything from 40 min to 2 hours, depending on how I feel on a given day!
This quote was in the weekly email I am getting from Baby Center...
"I'm seven weeks pregnant, and I'm having every symptom in the book — from morning sickness to sore breasts. Is it possible to feel huge already?" — Janean
I laughed when I read this, because although my clothes basically still fit an all, I do feel a lot bigger already. And I have quite a few of the basic symptoms as well. But overall, I am not complaining. I am not throwing up, and for that I often give thanks.
Oh, the other thing I am experiencing is a lot of congestion, which apparently can be a pregnancy related symptom. This I would appreciate prayer for, as it is wearing on me. Plus, then I have trouble beathing at night, which makes it harder for both of us to sleep. And, congestion related coughing engages my gag reflex, which is the when I come closest to really losing it. All in all, I am ready to be done with the congestion.
Speaking of prayer requests, my big one is for my beloved's job situation. He is frustrated by the tediousness of the work, and by his supervisor's style of leadership...which includes up to 4 calls in a day reminding him to work hard and get everything done. And the salary just isn't sufficient. It already wasn't, and now we have a baby on the way. Not to mention things like me needing maternity clothes, prenatal vists, etc. I was going to blog a while back, but never got that far, how in early January, they were told 'positive changes' were coming to the comapany, which would lighten the workload and possibly raise salaries. These changes are supposedly coming in February or March. But so far nothing else has been said. So, we are praying for either really good changes to come quickly, or a new job to open up. The trick is, while working, he doesn't have a lot of time for job hunting...so it has to be the Lord.
We had a major car repair recently, which I think just added the pressure on my beloved. He has taken to saying almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day how he needs a new job. Then last night, he asked me if I think he's a bad person, like lazy or something, because he doesn't want this job anymore. Poor guy. He's working his tail off, getting hounded by his boss like he isn't, and getting paid next to nothing for it....and he feels bad that he doesn't like his job!
God has always been faithful to provide for me in the past, so there is a part of me that is sure He will this time too. Then there is that human part of me that struggles every blasted time to have faith. Anyways, I know He will be faithful to provide again, I just would like prayer that the doors open soon, and that we recognize them when they do.
Well, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I really am trying to blog more consistently, but of course lately I have too easily allowed myself to sucked into reading pregnancy pages! But my desire is to get better. So, maybe I will!
I am pretty much mildly nauseas most of the time, although some days are better than others. I have yet to throw up at all, and usually can eat something, although often not just anything. I keep saltine crackers, water, and hard candies on me at all times, any of which seem to help when I get too uncomfortable. I try to eat a little something every few hours. I also learned this week that it is important to eat a little something in the evening, especially if I am at all hungry. I tried to ignore feeling hungry as we were just settling in to fall asleep the other night... and felt absolutely awful the next morning. I won't do that again!
I am also very tired. If I didn't keep reading on pregnancy websites and hearing from people who have been pregnant that being really tired is normal at this point, I would feel a little ridiculous. Although I rarely actually take 3 naps a day, I almost always want one every morning, every afternoon, and every evening. I usually let myself have one longer one, and sometimes one other quick one. Of course, 'longer' can mean anything from 40 min to 2 hours, depending on how I feel on a given day!
This quote was in the weekly email I am getting from Baby Center...
"I'm seven weeks pregnant, and I'm having every symptom in the book — from morning sickness to sore breasts. Is it possible to feel huge already?" — Janean
I laughed when I read this, because although my clothes basically still fit an all, I do feel a lot bigger already. And I have quite a few of the basic symptoms as well. But overall, I am not complaining. I am not throwing up, and for that I often give thanks.
Oh, the other thing I am experiencing is a lot of congestion, which apparently can be a pregnancy related symptom. This I would appreciate prayer for, as it is wearing on me. Plus, then I have trouble beathing at night, which makes it harder for both of us to sleep. And, congestion related coughing engages my gag reflex, which is the when I come closest to really losing it. All in all, I am ready to be done with the congestion.
Speaking of prayer requests, my big one is for my beloved's job situation. He is frustrated by the tediousness of the work, and by his supervisor's style of leadership...which includes up to 4 calls in a day reminding him to work hard and get everything done. And the salary just isn't sufficient. It already wasn't, and now we have a baby on the way. Not to mention things like me needing maternity clothes, prenatal vists, etc. I was going to blog a while back, but never got that far, how in early January, they were told 'positive changes' were coming to the comapany, which would lighten the workload and possibly raise salaries. These changes are supposedly coming in February or March. But so far nothing else has been said. So, we are praying for either really good changes to come quickly, or a new job to open up. The trick is, while working, he doesn't have a lot of time for job hunting...so it has to be the Lord.
We had a major car repair recently, which I think just added the pressure on my beloved. He has taken to saying almost daily, sometimes multiple times a day how he needs a new job. Then last night, he asked me if I think he's a bad person, like lazy or something, because he doesn't want this job anymore. Poor guy. He's working his tail off, getting hounded by his boss like he isn't, and getting paid next to nothing for it....and he feels bad that he doesn't like his job!
God has always been faithful to provide for me in the past, so there is a part of me that is sure He will this time too. Then there is that human part of me that struggles every blasted time to have faith. Anyways, I know He will be faithful to provide again, I just would like prayer that the doors open soon, and that we recognize them when they do.
Well, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I really am trying to blog more consistently, but of course lately I have too easily allowed myself to sucked into reading pregnancy pages! But my desire is to get better. So, maybe I will!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Can´t say I didn´t warn you!
I mean, I don´t know what I was thinking. It like runs in the family after all. For some reason, I was thinking of generic statistics and timelines more than what I know to be true for our family. Silly of me. That is, what I am trying to say is....
I´M PREGNANT!!
When we realized that our chosen form of birth control was not going to work for us, we did consider (and even try) a few other options. But none of them felt right. Although we had planned on waiting maybe 6 months or a little more, we ended up feeling like we needed to just give the reins over to the Lord right off the bat.
And although my beloved husband was pretty sure from the moment we stopped using birth control that I would end up pregnant, I really didn´t think I would. Not right off the bat anyways. Don´t get me wrong - I loved the idea of getting pregnant, and any nervousness I had pre-wedding about getting pregnant right away disappeared on the wedding day. I just figured it could take a few months.
But then my normally very timely period didn´t arrive. That day was when it finally sunk in for me that it was a very real possibility. Because I was sick (congestion, very sore throat) and got to the Dr. about 20 minutes too late, I took an over the counter pregnancy test when I was only a day late. Neither of us had slept well due to my sickness (my sore throat kept waking me up, and my congestion kept waking him up), but I didn´t want to take anything I shouldn´t if I was actually pregnant. The test gave us a very, very faint positive result. We were thrilled!
The next day we did make it to the Dr. He gave me a pregnancy test, although just another over the counter type, and it came up negative. He took his test result very seriously, and had little to nothing to say about the positive result fro the night before. I figured there was a good chance it was just because it was so early still, but it did throw us off a little.
Several days later, still no period, and having felt naseous everyday, we were sure enough that we started telling parents what we were thinking.
Finally, this past Thursday, a friend from church (also our landlady), a blood lab analyzer by profession, came over with all the equipment to do the bloodwork in my living room. Is that crazy or what? Sitting on my living room couch, she took my blood, spun it to separate it, and did the pregnancy test. In her words, now there was no doubts.
We´ll get to the Dr to begin prenatal care as soon as we finish up my paperwork to be married/live here. (The other Dr we went to is just for walk-in consults. Not necessarily long-term prenatal care.) Hopefully we´ll wrap all that up in the next couple of days.
According to the handy-dandy computer calculators, I am due September 30th.
Well, for some of you, this is how we communicate, so I figured this was the best way to tell you. Others of you will hear from family, etc, but I thought you might like to hear the story from me :)
I´M PREGNANT!!
When we realized that our chosen form of birth control was not going to work for us, we did consider (and even try) a few other options. But none of them felt right. Although we had planned on waiting maybe 6 months or a little more, we ended up feeling like we needed to just give the reins over to the Lord right off the bat.
And although my beloved husband was pretty sure from the moment we stopped using birth control that I would end up pregnant, I really didn´t think I would. Not right off the bat anyways. Don´t get me wrong - I loved the idea of getting pregnant, and any nervousness I had pre-wedding about getting pregnant right away disappeared on the wedding day. I just figured it could take a few months.
But then my normally very timely period didn´t arrive. That day was when it finally sunk in for me that it was a very real possibility. Because I was sick (congestion, very sore throat) and got to the Dr. about 20 minutes too late, I took an over the counter pregnancy test when I was only a day late. Neither of us had slept well due to my sickness (my sore throat kept waking me up, and my congestion kept waking him up), but I didn´t want to take anything I shouldn´t if I was actually pregnant. The test gave us a very, very faint positive result. We were thrilled!
The next day we did make it to the Dr. He gave me a pregnancy test, although just another over the counter type, and it came up negative. He took his test result very seriously, and had little to nothing to say about the positive result fro the night before. I figured there was a good chance it was just because it was so early still, but it did throw us off a little.
Several days later, still no period, and having felt naseous everyday, we were sure enough that we started telling parents what we were thinking.
Finally, this past Thursday, a friend from church (also our landlady), a blood lab analyzer by profession, came over with all the equipment to do the bloodwork in my living room. Is that crazy or what? Sitting on my living room couch, she took my blood, spun it to separate it, and did the pregnancy test. In her words, now there was no doubts.
We´ll get to the Dr to begin prenatal care as soon as we finish up my paperwork to be married/live here. (The other Dr we went to is just for walk-in consults. Not necessarily long-term prenatal care.) Hopefully we´ll wrap all that up in the next couple of days.
According to the handy-dandy computer calculators, I am due September 30th.
Well, for some of you, this is how we communicate, so I figured this was the best way to tell you. Others of you will hear from family, etc, but I thought you might like to hear the story from me :)
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