Got official word - M got the job! HR called with the official offer, explained benefits, yadda, yadda, so yay! His first day will be September 28th because they want to get him in there in time to qualify for this year's bonus. Extra yay!

Next step for us is figuring out the logistics of his new job's workload, caring for Kate, when I should come home, etc. We've both agreed that I should attempt to keep working up until I give birth, but that entirely depends on how involved this new position is, how my health goes in the next few months, etc. There's a lot of stuff we just have to wait-and-see on. Whatever happens, our lives are going to look very different by next year, which is a good thing!

Another good, if smaller, bit of news, we are finally getting our mail again! The post office had stopped delivering to our complex because there had been so many mailbox break-ins, but I guess that's been resolved because we had mail yesterday! One of the letters was a bill (boo) but another was a book for Kate (yay!) so it all balanced out.

Felt well enough last night to make a big pot of beef stew, which will last us for the next few days. This weekend I'm going to try and catch up on chores, because the dish pile is out of control, and I'm tired of tripping over the laundry pile in the bedroom every single damned day. M has also requested pumpkin bread for this weekend, so I'll bake up a couple of loaves to celebrate the good news and the cooler weather.

Completely exhausted when I got home yesterday, so dinner was frozen taquitos. No chores were done. The baby had taken a 4-hour nap after being up so early, but she was completely loopy by the end of the evening, definitely overtired. She passed out as soon as I put her in bed, which was a welcomed relief. 

Showered, got into bed myself, then had a terrible night where the cats interrupted my sleep every couple of hours - let me in, let me out, the water is low, play string with me! -_- Y'all. Chill.

Today is going to be a busy day, and I totally forgot how busy until I got to work. I have to do the end of month reports at work, then Kate has her first speech therapy session at noon that I need to be home for, then I have an OB checkup this afternoon. I decided as I walked into work that I would be taking a half day, because driving to and fro all day just to be at work for a couple of hours at a time is ludicrous. 

Fairly quiet evening at home. M and I both had leftover pizza, which served as dinner. I had intended to attack Dish Mountain to get it tamed, but my pelvis was killing me, and M was chatty, so we ended up just sitting on the couch together and talking for most of the evening. Much better than doing dishes. I felt physically awful, though, so the couch was really my only options.

When putting the baby to bed I discovered that her newfound love of putting things under her mattress (herself included) and her love of naked time, had combined horribly when I found a soiled diaper hiding under the mattress. -_- More poo cleanup ensued. At least this time I didn't have to wash all her blankets, and her mattresses are waterproof and easy to clean up. But yeesh, girl, that was not cool.

Set an early alarm so I could do dishes this morning, and got up at 6. And so did the baby, because of course she did. I made her breakfast and plonked her down in front of the TV with a medley of Ms. Rachel songs going to keep her occupied, then I attacked as many of the dishes as I could before it was time to get ready for work. Discovered that the kitchen sink's hot water knob is now broken, so had to wash the dishes with cold water. -_- Got about halfway through the dishes before I ran out of time.

Woke M up, threw on some clothes, and headed out. Hopefully the rest of the day is pretty quiet, and maybe I can sneak out of work a little early since it's a holiday weekend/my birthday weekend.

M made the executive decision last night that I am no longer cooking dinner for the rest of my pregnancy. He has seen me struggle too much lately with the body pains and exhaustion I'm fighting at the end of the day, so from now on no more cooking. I will absolutely not argue with that, it's definitely a huge burden lifted. Time to stock up on frozen meals!

Yesterday went completely off the rails. -_- 

Got a call from M at around 10:30 that he needed me to come home immediately, so I took my lunch a tad early and headed to the house. When I got there, the baby was in the bath and M was rampaging through the house. Seems that the baby had taken off her poopy diaper before M had woken up, and just smeared it everywhere - her whole body, her crib, her blankets, everywhere. 

He'd just finished bathing the baby, so I got her out of the tub and got her dried off and dressed. M was not handling things well, so I took all the bedding and threw it in the tub with some laundry soap and water and let it soak so I could scrub it. I gave the baby a lunch plate, and then spent a good amount of time scrubbing all her stuff. Drain tub, rinse, repeat. 

Baby wanted to help, of course, so she started bringing her dirty clothes and throwing it into the tub. So those were scrubbed, too. I gave her a fresh sponge so she would stop trying to steal mine, and that kept her occupied enough that I could finish the task.

The baby had an absolute meltdown when she saw her blankets go back into the tub for the second soak. She loves them so much. It made getting her down for a nap nearly impossible, but she finally cried enough to exhaust herself to sleep. Poor girl was having such a weird day, she probably felt very thrown off.

Once she was asleep, I did the task that had originally been planned for my lunch break - pick up the grocery order. Got home, and the sound of the front door woke the baby back up, so once M and I had brought all the groceries in, I got her up, and she helped me put away all the food. Meaning mostly that I put stuff away and she snacked on pilfered strawberries. 

No dinner, too much happening in the house. Baby fought her bedtime because still no blankets, so we had to make due with some throw blankets from the couch, which she wasn't a big fan of. 

M got it in his head that the state of the floors was a Major Problem, so once the baby was finally asleep, we got out the mop and bucket and scrubbed every floor in the common areas of the house. He did the living room and kitchen while I did the hall, bathroom, and cat closet. By the time we were finished it was nearly 11 and we were both exhausted. 

I have blisters on my right hand from all the scrubbing and wringing of blankets. I can't actually remember the last time I took a shower. I haven't had a break in months. I am very, very tired.

I really can't wait for my lunch outing with my sister this weekend. It will be so, so nice to get away from the house for an afternoon! 

Went home for lunch Friday, intent on finishing up the last of the Serbian pork that I'd made a few days before. Baby crawled onto my lap, as she usually does when I'm eating, so I gave her a taste, thinking it'd be too spicy for her and she'd go back to her own plate of food. Well, joke's on me, she's into that that stuff, so we shared the last of the leftovers, and then she snatched the bowl away from me when it was empty and began licking sauce the bottom. Guess she likes spicy!

All of my dreams lately have been either Star Trek or costume-related. The other night? Vampires on the Enterprise! Last night? Dream brain was sewing a whole Regency wardrobe. Ope, now there's a dragon attacking the Enterprise, but Worf is going to handle it. Gotta get that ballgown finished!

Woke up Saturday at around 7:30, so I had a little bit of time to myself in the morning to toodle around, eat breakfast, and slowly wake up, before the baby was up. It was very relaxing for a while. The baby was a holy terror once she was awake, though, and fought her nap so, so hard, that it completely stressed me out. She finally went down around 1:30, so I took the opportunity to make a pot of potato and ham chowder, which lasted us the rest of the weekend. Baby was in a much better mood once she got up from her nap, so the rest of the evening was fairly pleasant.

While I was dealing with baby shenanigans and soup, M was out fixing both our cars. The tire on the Toyota was first, and it turned out that the replacement tire we'd put on had a nail in it. -_- At least it wasn't a bent rim like M had feared, so he went to a different shop, picked up another, much better used tire, and the Toyota was good to go. The Jeep was next, and while he'd expected to have to take the front end off the Jeep in order to replace some hard-to-reach hoses, a bit of research and a quick check revealed that the aftermarket thermostat that he'd installed a few months ago had actually warped, and that was what was causing all the overheating issues. So, he replaced it with a proper OEM part, and now it's doing just fine, which is great because it saved us about $300 in more complicated repairs!

Since M and I had knocked out most of our chores on Saturday, we mutually agreed that we would take it easy on Sunday. I woke up late at around 9, had a bit of breakfast, and when 10 rolled around and the baby still wasn't up, I decided to wake her. She was in a pretty good mood, she ate some food, and then went down pretty easily for a nap. She slept for nearly 3 hours, and was an absolutely cantankerous mess when she got up, and the rest of the evening was full of explosive tantrums. She finally chilled out after a good two hours of attitude and nonsense. I made her a sweet potato, which made her happy. 

She went to bed at her normal time and was asleep almost instantly. Then about an hour later I heard her up and fussing, so I checked on her, and AUGH, naked poo situation. M and I had to double team it, where he bathed the baby and I washed the mattress and blankets. -_- Thankfully, she went immediately back to sleep once everything and everyone was clean and sorted out, so I could enjoy my dinner and a bit of ice cream without interruption. Ended the night with a nosebleed.

Overall, things seem to be looking up. The two car repairs cost much less money and time than M anticipated. The insurance company of the guy that hit me said that they were assuming liability, so that's all over and done with and ended in our favor. A phone case I ordered and which had gotten bounced back to sender finally arrived on Saturday evening. Amazon reissued the baby flash cards at no charge, and they arrived quickly and were not stolen this time. And, my sister was paid early by a client, so she's treating me to lunch and movie for my birthday! 

We also got the word that M would be "hearing from HR soon" about the potential new job. Friend is being very vague about whether that is a good or bad thing, but of course we're hoping that it's good. We should know sometime this week, so fingers crossed!