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Jun. 12th, 2008 @ 06:06 pm New blog
Well we're finally doing something with www.morlinos.com

So, now we have a blog on there :-) I'm having fun with it. So, from now on, posts will be over there.

I want to figure out a way to transfer all of my LJ posts over there... that may or may not be possible.
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Jun. 11th, 2008 @ 09:33 am Hiccups and Packing
Logan is hiccuping right now... it's pretty cute :-)

I have been packing for the hospital. While in Austin yesterday for my doc appointment (everything is great, btw), I went to Ross and bought a suitcase (seriously, we don't have one...), 2 nighties/pajamas, and a robe. I also went to Half-Priced Books and bought 3 books -- "they" say to bring things you enjoy doing, so I'm bringing books and Ryan's bringing his portable DVD player, Arcos, and PSP. (Of course the camera and video cam, too)

So, for a mental list, the following must be packed:

For Logan:

Premie and Newborn onesies for Logan (just in case he won't fit in the NB ones)

Bottles with slow-flow nipples

Swaddling diapers

Receiving blankets

Hats and socks for Logan

For me:

Nighties/pajamas

robe

books

underwear

nursing bras (gotta buy those!)

socks

feminine pads

nursing pads

house shoes (don't have those)

shoes

2 maternity shirts and a pair of shorts

For Ryan:
a pair of shorts and a pair of jeans

socks

underwear

shoes

3 shirts

Etc...

Toiletries

PSP
DVD player

DVDs

books



I think that's it? Wow... The suitcase definitely isn't big enough! We'll have to pack a back-pack, too. I'm convinced that as soon as I'm done packing I'll go into labor. So... I need to get that done... I really don't want to have someone come back and get all of this stuff for us, LOL
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Jun. 9th, 2008 @ 06:39 pm Nursery's, borders, and tired feet!
Well Mom, Emily, and Savannah came over today to help me put together the nursery. Boy am I tired! When pregnant, as long as you get one thing done during the day, you're feeling pretty good about yourself. So, that being said, I'm feeling REALLY good about myself!

It doesn't look remarkably different... but it's much more organized. We washed all of Logan's clothes (up to 6 months... I'm still working on the rest), blankets, washcloths, towel hoodies, etc. Oh, crib sheets, too. Emily and I made a trip to Walmart and bought necessities to organize with. Also bought a few picture frames.

Savannah was busy making messes and Mom was pretty much watching over her, LOL She played in the kiddie pool that we have for the dogs (we refilled it, of course). She also pooped in the pool, which prompted another refilling, LOL But she had fun. We made her test out everything. And she took a nap in Logan's pack 'n play in our room.

Emily and I also put together our guest bathroom. Ryan and I need to clean out the guest closet since in just a few weeks we'll be having guests... (Logan's grandparents)

Our guest bathroom looks so much nicer now that it has a shower curtain, LOL Also has the rug and towels in there. It's green... I like it :-)

We're going to put a simple wallpaper border in Logan's room. I didn't want to do a whole paint job in there. I mean, someone else could do it for me... I just really didn't want to do it. Ryan and I want to put sailboats up:



Since we live on a lake :-)

We need to put blinds up... We need to buy the ones that we've put in the other parts of the house. We have pretty much just done a few at a time since they're about $50 each (per blind). But, again, Logan is coming soon... we can't be putting this off anymore. There are three windows in Logan's room ::sigh::

Here's a quick video of Logan's nursery...

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Jun. 6th, 2008 @ 03:39 pm Feeling better
Yesterday and somewhat today I have had this really weird tight, full feeling in my upper-abdomen. I don't know if it was me getting over being sick, and because I'm pregnant I'm getting over it a little differently... Or if it was just discomfort from being pregnant that coincidently started the day after I got sick...

Anyway, I felt better this morning, and pretty much feel normal now. Except Logan just feels so big... I feel so worn out. Hopefully only 4 more weeks!

Michael and Kim sent us the Bumpo Seat :-) (google it) Thanks guys :-)

After the "family shower" on Sunday I plan to spend next week getting the nursery ready and packing for the hospital. Cause you just never know when he'll decide to arrive...
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Jun. 5th, 2008 @ 12:02 pm Adventures at the Emergency Clinic
Well after my fun day of being sick yesterday I started to get chest and back pain around 5pm. I've had it before... it's a sharp pain my chest and it seems what helps is breathing in really deep.

Anyway, I took some Tylenol and we left to go get some food at McDonalds. I was just in my PJs cause we were planning on coming right back. Other than still feeling a little weak and gross (I hadn't had the energy to take a shower that day) and the chest/back/shoulder pain, I was feeling pretty much back to normal.

Well half way there it got really bad. I mean... Mind numbingly (sp?) bad. And I have a very high tolerance of pain.

So Ryan asked me if I wanted to go the emergency clinic... I had to think about it, cause I really didn't want to. But, I wasin pain :-( So, he took me. (well, Minor Emergency is all Marble Falls has)

So, after a urine test, a blood test, and checking my cervix to make sure I wasn't dilated at all... It turns out the pain is simply heartburn. I've had hearburn with Logan before... But it had mostly just been an annoying burn rather than a tear-jerking chest/back/shoulder pain.

As it also turns out, I have a urinary tract infection. I had no idea... the symptoms (I've had one before) are basically what I feel every day (have to pee a lot, can't pee much when I do, and when Logan kicks my bladder it feels like a quick burning sensation).

So we got a prescription for amoxycillian... Doc can't prescribe much more than that since I'm 8 months pregnant and there are things that they dont' want in the baby's system when he's born.

The staff was very, very nice, btw... The doctor was amazingly kind and gentle.

I'm so medical happy now with $30 co-pays that I want to make an appointment with the dermotolgist for this weird rashy-type dry skin patch I have had for like 2 years. I can't get in until after Logan's born, though... since they can't prescribe anything to me anyway. Oh well... 2 years... what's another 2 months?
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Jun. 4th, 2008 @ 03:38 pm Sickliness
Boo! I got sick yesterday... or, last night. Or maybe this morning.

Anyway, I went to bed, sort of, and woke up about 11pm with some serious diareah... not cool. So I woke up several times last night to go... I thought maybe it was some expired milk that I had eaten with cereal that day. I was only 4 days and it smelled fine... but I'm a daredevil.

Then at 4am it finally progressed to vomiting. Oh did I feel SO much better! So I woke Ryan up and told him he needed to call in sick to take care of me.

Normally I can handle this myself, but since I'm pregnant... I didn't want to get deydrated or anything and not have anyone (except EMT) take me to the hospital.

So he did... he was very sweet today :-)

At 6:30am I threw up again, but it was all water. The first time I threw up, I felt so much better that I thought it was over... and I drank a lot of water. Well, apparently I wasn't done.

But after that there was no more. Ryan got me some Immodium AD for the diareah, not sure if that really helped or not. He also got me some fruit, cause that's pretty much what you can eat.

And now I'm feeling a lot better. Still weak, but I have been eating and drinking water with no problems.

I just have to get up the nerve to take a shower, but it's really hard to stand for long periods of time

Hence why I'm sitting in the office typing on my LJ :-)

I think I got it from Savannah... last week she was sick with it, too. I saw her on Monday... and now Mom is sick, too. So... it's probably Savannah's fault.
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May. 30th, 2008 @ 09:53 am (no subject)
No one will understand this... but Lilly, Lexi, Rhett, and Mandy are going to Austin today to have their CERF (Canine Eye Registration Foundation) exam done.

I'm looking super cute today. I have on a really cute shirt that Emily bought me and some cute shorts that I bought... And I'm looking cute and pregnant :-)

I think that's all
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May. 29th, 2008 @ 10:57 pm GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGG
Yes! My subject displays how... mad is not the word. I'm not mad... I'm just... MAD! I'm mad that the Spurs lost... That no one seemed to have any sort of game tonight. I'm mad that this season is over and I have to wait until October to watch again. And I'm mad that I have to wait a whole year until the playoffs (which, let's face it... We know the Spurs will make it to the playoffs, so watching season games isn't THAT fun)

I'm so upset :-( This will take me at least 12 hours to get over.
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May. 29th, 2008 @ 09:18 am Crunch time
Okay... Not too much crunch time...

I'm 31 weeks tomorrow and I'm starting to realize how much we are not prepared for Logan to arrive.

I have not registered for lamaze classes. Now it might be too late! Plus we have to go to Austin for them... once a week... blah. That's an hour away.

Logan's room is not set up. The general furniture is there... but there are baby clothes and all sorts of stuff all over the place. I'm kind of waiting for my showers to be over to really set it all up. If I do it now, I'll only be getting MORE stuff.

Then I'm reading this list of things to pack for the hospital... and I'm thinking that I'm going to forget something! And it will probably be something important, like his car seat (they won't let you take your baby home without one).

Oh, and his pediatrician... no idea. Guess I'll do some research on that today.

Childcare... I want to have some childcare (whether it be in my home or someone elses) just for 2 hours in the mornings, Monday - Thursday. That way I can go and work out and do anything else without having to drag him along (or not go at all).

C'mon... I thought babies just happened??? Why all this work?
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May. 27th, 2008 @ 12:51 pm Cute pictures of Savannah
I'm stealing these from Emily's MySpace







She's feeding me crackers...



She had fun playing in the water hose



I'm just wondering WHAT she is doing here!


Smiling baby :-)



See her pony tail?

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May. 27th, 2008 @ 07:26 am Memorial Day weekend
I guess I'll just sum up our Memorial Day weekend...

I had my first shower! Um... baby shower, LOL Logan got lots of neat stuff from my neat friends! Thanks to Emily and Jeff for pulling it together! It was great seeing my friends again and showing off our new house!

And, we got phones... (see post below)

Hmm... I think that's all we did. Oh, well, we bought a lawn mower! (that was, um, Wednesday, though). We got a really good deal (Craigslist), even though it has a gas leak (which we discovered after we brought it home). But Ryan put JB Weld on the cracks in the tank, and now it's drying. It should be okay. Still, though, despite the leak, it's a Craftsmans 6 hp 22" cutting deck... So it's a monster. We're looking forward to actually mowing with it!

I got a quote from a guy for flagstone (we want to do a flagstone patio... will probably do it when it gets cooler in the winter). $400 for 4 tons (each ton covers about 80 sq ft). That's incredibly cheap... so cheap that I want to go look at the flagstone before we buy. But, he will deliver it, too... For $35. I'm not sure where he is, but I wouldn't delivery flagstone for $35 if it were 100 yards away.

It's a project we can do ourselves... And it seems generally easy.

Oh the projects that we want to do!
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May. 27th, 2008 @ 07:12 am Michael Jr!!!
This is mine and Ryan's nephew (was that gramatically correct? Probably not...)

He is SO cute!

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May. 26th, 2008 @ 10:26 pm Verizon!!!
Well, we signed up with Verizon yesterday.

We transfered my number over, but Ryan has a new one. E-mail me at mmorlino@earthlink.net if you'd like to know what it is.

Anyway, we have great things to say about Verizon out here. We have their broadband netowork (EVDO) -- as opposed to AT&T's Edge network (non-broadband)

Previously we could barely get service out in Granite Shoals -- in Marble Falls it was fine. But it have only 2 bars, if that... and when you started talking it would drop to 1 bar... then drop the call. Terrible. We could go outside and it would be somewhat better, but seeing as how we don't have a house phone, I don't want to have to go outside to talk on the phone.

But Verizon has 3-4 bars at all times out here. No dropped calls -- voice quality is great. We're pleased.

We also got new phones. Ryan bought the Blackberry Curve, which he really likes. It's drastically different from anything we've ever had, so you'll have to wait for his blog on it (yeah, like that will ever happen)





I bought the SMT5800



It's weird, cause it's pretty much a combination of my old HTC 2125 and more recent HTC 8525... and I feel like I'm downgrading. But, I like it. The problem with the 8525 was that it was SO big and more a PDA than a phone. It was VERY hard to dial with it, too (touch screen keypad)

But, my new SMT5800 has the keypad in the front for easy dialing, and the full slide-out querty keyboard, that I love :-)

And it's not a touchscreen, which I have mixed feelings about. You navigate much easier using touch screen, but the screens are much more fragile, and I'm pretty violent with my phone.

Well I suppose that's it about the new phones.

Oh, well, now we're battling with AT&T over the early termination fee. Obviously we don't feel we should pay it since we can't get service... Why would we pay for something we can't use?

It's unfortunate that we've been loyal customers (Cingular, anyway) for 4 years... and was never late on our bill... But now we're "in the wrong". And in the course of one year (6/1/07 - 5/16/08) we have paid them $1663.73 for our service. Wow.
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May. 23rd, 2008 @ 05:18 pm Call out
Cool! Ryan just got called out to Wertz Dam substation, which is like 10 minutes down the road...

And it was a quick fix, so he's on his way back... Probablly a total of 30 minutes.

But, he gets paid for a minimum of 2 hours... at double time... at his new pay! Sweet :-)

On Wednesday Ryan found out that everyone in the co-op (except SCADA) got a 4.9% living adjustment raise. That is the annual raise. Ryan's department isn't eleigable this year, tho, since they just got their 25% - 40% (Ryan got 35%) living adjustment raise, LOL Poor other people... only getting a 4.9% raise.

And starting June 13th (our "dating" anniversary, btw.. 5 years!) they'll be getting paid every 2 weeks instead of on the 15th and 30th, so that works out well. June 13th will be the first paycheck of that new schedule and Ryan's new pay.
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May. 23rd, 2008 @ 05:12 pm Switching
We'll be switching to Verizon soon. We have been with Cingular for as long as we have had cell phones under our name (4 years, maybe?), and I hate to change. But, we get terrible service out here. Verizon covers our area 100% - even under their broadband (which, btw, is twice as fast as Cingulars)

So we went to a Verizon store in Austin today (we were there for my doctors appointment)

On the way to the store, we got in a fender-bender. It was a stop light - with a seperate lane and a yield sign to go right. Well, Ryan was 2nd in line to go, and the lady in front of us started moving forward. So, as the story goes, thinking that she was going, Ryan checked for other cars so he could go... and went. But, the lady braked for some reason, and Ryan hit her. The Explorer is fine... The left fog light was popped out.

The lady's Toyota Avalon didn't fare well (the back bumper is pretty... bumped...). But, that's what insurance is for. So, we exchanged information, blah blah blah. And we've already been on the phone with the insurance company today, no big deal.

Ryan's depressed, though. He's never been in an accident -- has a totally clean record. No tickets, no accidents, etc... So he's bummed that his reign is over.

The lady was very nice... Asked me if the baby was okay. No stranger has ever said anything to me about being pregnant (maybe they're afraid I'm just fat)...

Oh, so, yeah, the doctor. Things are fine... Logan's dilated kidney's are still dilated, but they're functioning well. Just the same procedure as the last two visits to this doctor (not my regular doctor -- this one is monitoring Logan's kidneys). After he's born we'll have to take him to a urologist where they'll, again, keep an eye on him. If it gets worse then they'll have to put a stint in to drain his kidney. "No big deal" Dr. Berry says. But I don't want my baby to have to have surgery :-( Poor little guy won't know what's going on.

My first baby shower is tomorrow and I am excited! It's my "girlfriends" shower :-) And they're all coming out to the house so they can see it.
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May. 20th, 2008 @ 12:35 pm I hate selling cars
Selling cars on Craiglist sucks.

I have the ad for my civic, with ALL of the information... Mileage, pictures of the dings and dents (it's 10 years old, people!) And I priced it at $3500obo -- "Will consider all reasonable offers"

Then I have my Mom showing it, which I feel SO bad... But no one even cares if it's in Marble Falls, no one wants to drive that far. Kyle is a much bigger venue.

But people come to see the car... and low-ball the crap out of it... $2800 or $2500...

They say, "Well, it has high mileage" or "It has some dings"

Yes! You fool! That's why I SAID IT IN THE AD!

One guy even said, "Well, you know, I'm taking a chance on it. The transmission could go out or it coudl drop a CV joint"... You idiot, you're taking a chance on buying ANY used car! And isn't that why you're looking for a Honda? Because they are reliable and known for long-lasting transmissions???

GOSH!!!

To make myself feel better I make an egg salad sandwich. It was really good. I've never had egg salad... or, at least I don't remember having it. It will be a new favorite :-)

I was looking at recipes for quick kids lunches... For Ryan, LOL (he's certainly just as whiney as a kid... just eats A LOT more!). The egg salad sandwich was one of them... Also found some other stuff that I want to try to feed him. I like to make stuff that will last me all week (3 lunches). Egg salad, chicken salad, etc. That way it's quick to put them together.

He eats so much, though, it's exhausting. He gets a sandwhich, two drinks (usually a coke and water with the powder packet that you pour into it), an apple, carrot sticks with ranch, 5 snack items (2 granola bars, crackers with cheese, a nutrigrain bar, and a pack of 2 fig nutons) and 4 mini-snickers.

I cannot imagine eating all of that in a 10.5 hour period, and I'm pregnant! Then he comes home and is "starving" for dinner! LOL

I used to pack just the basics -- sandwich, coke, apples, and a snack item. But then I found out that he was buying snacks, drinks, etc. while on the job. He drives around a lot during the day, and he says that it's nice to stop and stretch his legs and buy something.

I told him I bet he spends $3/day on snacks... That's $12 a week, which is about $48+ a month! That's another bill! And here I am trying to SAVE money!

So I started packing all of this stuff... He says it's not the same. ::sigh:: He's gained 10 pounds since he started at PEC, and he wonders why! I have Coke Zero at home for him, yet he buys huge fountain drinks every day and king size snickers bars. Then sits in his van and drives.

He's worried about gaining weight... I told him to do something about it. (work out, watch what you eat...etc.) But, he won't. So... I guess that's that. I personally think he looks great, but I can see why he's worried. His BMI is almost to the point of being "obese". By looking at him you think, "What?? Obese?" cause, he's still skinny looking, but much thicker than when I first met him.

(was this post all about venting or what?)
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May. 20th, 2008 @ 12:11 pm At 28 weeks
Here I am at 28 weeks! Emily took this picture on Mothers Day weekend

Do I really look that big?? Wow!

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May. 19th, 2008 @ 09:50 am del Sol no more!
We sold the del Sol! Yay!!! We sold it for our asking price, but part of the "deal" was that we would fill the tank up with gas for the guy... and we did.

Mom has a appointment with a guy to show the civic at 11am today, so be praying! Then we'll be done selling cars... which is good, cause I hate it!
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May. 18th, 2008 @ 08:36 am Living with a man
Ryan is so cute and so nice looking... but in the mornings, living with a man drives me crazy, because he is anything but.

Right now the poor guy has his allergies going, so his morning ritual has worsened (for me).

He gets up, and proceeds to blow his nose much like an elephant. No, really... That's what it sounds like. That's a normal part of the morning.

Then he sneezes about 10 times, to which he blows his nose at the same time (you know how you can sneeze thru your mouth or thru your nose kind of thing?) into the sink. This is an added part of the morning due to his allergies.

He washes it down with water, but sometimes, just sometimes, there's a little something left over that I get to clean.

Then he brushes his teeth, and stick brushes the back of his tongue. Well, he has a pretty strong gag relfex, so in order to gag himself he coughs while he's brushing the back of his toungue. It sounds like an incredibly loud dose of vomiting. This is also a normal part of the morning.

And all of this happens at 5:15am when he wakes up for work... While I'm still trying to sleep. I'm considering waking up at 4am and moving to the guest bedroom.

But man, I love him anyway. He went out yesterday and mowed the entire lawn (front, back, and back-back) and trimmed. It took him like 3 hours... and all the while his allergies were just terrible. But, he did it anyway, cause he's a good man.

We have a guy coming to look at the del Sol today. We're thinking he's going to buy it. He sounds like he's been looking for this for a while (like Ryan did when he bought it). He has asked all the right questions that are del Sol specific. I think he and Ryan will get along, lol

Ryan's parents came over yesterday... We have been alternating (for the last 3 times, anyway, lol) between them coming here, us going there, them coming here, etc... Since it's a 2 hour drive. I think we've seen them maybe every 3 - 4 weeks? Anyway, it's so nice to see them. Everytime they come there's something different with our house.

So, Ryan wanted me to clean before they go there. So, I did... But what I loved is that there wasn't much to do! My house is SO clean cause I am SO awesome! :-D Cause I have a weekly schedule that I keep to, so everything always gets done.

Ryan's credit card was declined twice on Friday, so we called USAA to find out what the deal was, cause there's plenty of available credit. Anyway, as it turns out, I had forgot to pay the bill of $25 that was due on May 11th. Well, fine! The USAA CC (we have two) bills don't even come once a month... it's like very 2 - 3 months, it's a really weird system which I have not figured out. I just wish it would come once a month so that I can have it on my list of bills to pay once a month.

Anyway, Ryan gets off the phone and proceeds to tell me how I need to pay bills. And I have this look on my face like, "You have got to be kidding me." So he says, "What? What's wrong?" And I say, "Look, I have been paying bills flawlessy for the past 3.5 years. You never even see them. And I make ONE mistake, and now you give me a lecture on how to pay them?" So, he said he was sorry, and that he shouldn't have done that. That was sweet :-) That is just one thing that I do really well (pay bills, organize bills, manage money, etc.) and that's what I do... he works and makes money and I put his money where it needs to go... And if I were to all of a sudden turn it over to him, he would be dead. That's my skill -- my specialty. And I like it, cause it involves money :-)
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May. 17th, 2008 @ 07:54 pm And he shall be called Logan
That's right -- Dad (Ryan) finally decided on a name for our son :-)

Logan!

A middle name is still in the works, though it won't be as difficult to decide that.

8 more weeks my friends... (until my desired due date of July 11th, anyway)
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May. 14th, 2008 @ 09:29 pm Conversations with an 18 month old
I talked to Savannah on the phone today... It was so cute. This is how it went:

My Mom was on the phone with me, and Savannah knew it was me, and kept saying, "Mawee! Phone!" lol

So Mom gave her the phone:

Me: Hi Savannah!
Savannah: Hi Mawee!
Me: How are you doing, Savannah?
Savannah: I'm fine

::click:: She hung up on me

haha! It was so adorable.

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May. 14th, 2008 @ 12:27 pm My life is good!
I belong to this "August 2008" thread... it's at www.babycenter.com and you're automatically signed up for it when you join (when you give your due date).

Anyway... I enjoy looking at it. It's just a bunch of women who are going thru the same things (pregnancy) that I am. Except that the board is terribly unorganized.

But, a lot of them complain. The big ones I hear are:

Mother-in-Laws
Husbands
Work
Pain (ranging anywhere from swollen ankles, sciatica nerves, not sleeping well, abdomen pain, etc.)

And I'm thinking, "I don't have anything to complain about!" Isn't that awesome?

My mother-in-law is awesome (and I'm not just saying that cause I know you read this! LOL You really are!)

My husband is amazing in every way

I quit work in February because it was VERY stressful... and I haven't been stressed at all since then!

And I'm not in any pain... my sciatica pain is completely gone, I rarely have any heartburn/acid reflux, I'm sleeping from 11pm - 9am and, except for the trips to the bathroom, I'm sleeping well. I rarely have any abdomen pain... It's not even painful, more like uncomfortable.

The only thing is that I'm bored... It's hard for me to do a lot cause I have no energy. I go on walks daily and go to Curves... but my friends aren't here, it costs too much to go see anyone (gas)... and Ryan is at work ALL day (lol, like I expect anything different). Granted, I love our 3-day weekends together!

And right now we're playing "catch-up" with bills... Everything got so un-organized because of the move... but Ryan gets paid tomorrow and that should be the end of our catch-up period. That being said, I haven't been able to spend any money, LOL Which, I know, sounds shallow... but it's hard not to spend any money! Especially when you're bored!
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May. 14th, 2008 @ 11:17 am Vinegar... yuck!
Well, apparently a great way to get your stainless steal dishes (thank you PEC co-workers for those!) clean is to soak them in vinegar.

So, yesterday I was waiting for my pan to heat up to make eggs (breakfast) and I went off and did something and forgot about it.

So when I remembered -- about 20 minutes later -- I turned the burner off to let the pan cool down.

When I thought it was cool enough I sprayed Pam (shout-out to Drew's wife! And... The Office, lol) on it... but apparently it wasn't cool enough, and the Pam just burned itself onto the pan.

So while at HEB yesterday I picked up some vinegar.... which is cool cause it's like $1.50 for a gallon of it, very cheap.

And I poured it in the pan to get the brown burnt Pam off.

And now my house smells like vinegar. :-(

I've heard that pregnant women think things smell like vinegar... but this is just too much for me!

I even like salt and vinegar chips... but... dang...

Another thing I learned... apparently sperm has prostaglandin in it, which causes a softening of the cervix. Apparently prostaglandin "inserts" (can you guess where they inserted?) are derived from pig sperm. Yuck! These are used to help induce labor. Anyway... so when you're close to your due-date and the baby can be born safely, docs say to have sex! Not only does the sperm cause the cervix to soften, but also the orgams can cause contractions... so it's a double whammy of fun!

Isn't that interesting? I knew about the orgasm thing, but not the sperm thing. When high risk women are put on "pelvic rest" I just assumed it was so that they wouldn't have orgasms to cause contractions.

Ooo! Another thing -- I went to this website: http://museum.thetech.org/ugenetics/eyeCalc/eyecalculator.html to see what our baby's eye color would be...

66.6% chance they will be green and 33.3% chance they will be blue! Yes! I'm so excited that he will not have brown eyes, LOL (isn't that terrible?)
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May. 12th, 2008 @ 12:45 pm My First Mothers Day
On Saturday I went to a family get together... half Mothers Day celebration and half my great Aunt Patsy's 79th birthday.

Anyway, when I go there Mom had ordered corsages (sp?) for all of the Mom's, and she had one for me! Yay!!!

I didn't know if anyone was going to do or say anything, since "technically" I'm not a Mom yet.

So we got a picture with all of the Moms with their corsages.

And when I got home from the party (Ryan didn't go), Ryan had cleaned the kitchen and finished mowing the yard and put up the blinds on our patio doors.

He was so sweet :-)

And he wished me a happy Mothers Day on Sunday (the actualy Mothers Day).

So, I was happy :-)

And my in-laws sent me a card, which is now proudly on our fridge... as my first Mothers Day card ever!
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May. 10th, 2008 @ 09:27 pm BBM in 3-D!
Lots of pictures! And a video!

Video - 6:37 ; 3.8MB ; WMV























































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May. 8th, 2008 @ 09:35 pm 4-D ultrasound!
We're getting a 4-D ultrasound tomorrow! (that's 3-D but live action... and in color!)

We'll have pictures and video... I am SO psyched to meet my little boy! Or... see his little Morlino/Wolbrecht features, anyway :-)
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May. 7th, 2008 @ 06:49 pm I'm awesome!!!
So I went to the doctor today... 3 weeks ago they had taken my blood to do a blood count (to make sure I wasn't aneimic...sp?) and to test my glucose level (gestational diabetes)

So I have been SO worried about the gestational diabetes. Diabetes runs in my family (due to weight), and since I've rapidly gained weight I thought maybe I was more at risk.

But, the doc was very impressed! My blood count was excellent and I was very far away from diabetes!

Yay for me!!!
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May. 5th, 2008 @ 06:33 pm Good results
I think this baby might cause me to develop better posture.

My back hurts easily... Not all of the time, but only when I'm obviously sitting badly. So I'm having to sit very straight, with my back very straight, and it feels much better (where-as pre-pregnancy this would get tiring).

And it only hurts in one place, which is strange.

We really want to get mountain bikes. Granite Shoals is an awesome place to bike, since it's basically one giant neighborhood with 17 different parks... And most of the roads are dirt (or, crushed granite, rather). And there's good destinations (local restaurants) within a 1 - 2 miles, which is a good distance for biking.

As a kid, all I did was bike. We lived about 2.5 miles from the center of town, so my friend and I would always bike there. Then we would ruin our good excercize by buying pizza (FTW!) Or we would bike a mile to the river... We were pretty active on our bikes.

Then, of course, when I started driving, bikes were out of the question, so I was totally ruined.

This will also be a great place for our kids to bike around... for all of the reasons listed above.

It's crazy to me to think that in 3 years we'll probably be having another kid (we prefer them to be about 3 years apart). So when BBM is 2 we'll start trying for another one... Wow. Ryan and I were 5 months married 3 years ago. Time flies.

If our baby is born early July, that means only 2 more months till BBM arrives. Awesome!

I paid our first mortgage payment today. I didn't like it one bit. But, our house is so amazing! I just mopped the floors... I prefer to do them just before Ryan gets home so you can still smell the pinesol (what can I say, I like praise). But, unfortunately, Ryan got called out on his way home, so he won't be home for another few hours. Time is money, my friends!

So right now I'm sitting against the arm of our couch with two pillows behind my back. On the laptop... and watching CSI... My "chores" are done today, and I'm feeling pretty good.

And, let's not forget that the Spurs play tonight!
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May. 3rd, 2008 @ 08:36 am Growth Rate
Wow... So, according to my calculations... Our baby will be aprox. 7.5 pounds at 37 weeks (which is considered full term).

I guarantee you he's coming on/around July 11th. If he really is that big, the doctors may not want him to stay in too much longer. Since he'll still have 3 more weeks to go (at which point he will be almost 9 pounds)

Good thing I was born prematurely... my poor mother. Even at my birth at 25 weeks I was 2 weeks ahead in my weight. BBM is aprox 2.5 weeks ahead.

I guess this big baby-ness is coming from me, cause Ryan was "normal" (7 pounds, I think?) and so was Michael (his brother). Hmm... but Michael Jr. was born at about 37 weeks (I think) and he was 7 pounds... So maybe Ryan's side does have something to do with it.

Or, maybe it's not genetics at all.
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May. 2nd, 2008 @ 07:11 pm X-Files 2 Script
As some probably don't know, a sequal to the 1998 X-Files Movie is coming out -- July 25th.

Ryan will be babysitting and I will be going to see it by myself!
I found this really funny video on YouTube... a lady supposedly gets the X-Files 2 Script in the mail...

It cracked me up... She's such a dork... much like I would be if I got it in the mail :-)

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May. 1st, 2008 @ 11:48 am AIM
It's amazing how less internet-social I am now.

5 years ago I was CONSTANTLY on AIM. I mean.. I was always logged in. Simply because I talked to a lot of people -- dating and otherwise.

And thru my dating Ryan, again, pretty much constantly on AIM.

But once we got married, that pittered down to nothing.

Now I'm on AIM maybe once a month... and only a minute or so at a time. I don't even know why I log in... Because I never talk to anyone.

Now if one of my friends wants to chat, they call me.

Weird how times change. And how priorities change.

My e-mail is used for 90% business. The other e-mails I get are from family... But they usually just call.
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Apr. 28th, 2008 @ 11:59 pm Half.com needs to move on!
I'm on half.com right now looking for a few new books to read... I love to read and read and read... fiction... but I don't have any books right now.

Anyway, so half.com displays their "suggestions", which are based off of books I have ordered in the past.

And the three suggestions are:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association

The Elements of Style

A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations:

After all of the books... maybe a dozen or so... that I have ordered since I have not been in school, and yet half.com is still hung up on my psychology major.

Man I hated writing papers and thesis and theories... Keeping up with your references... the psychological jargin...

I loved learning everything... but it was SO hard to apply it the way they wanted me to.

In other news...

Upon lots of research, I decided that I wanted to give Frontline Plus a try. In case you don't know, Frontline Plus is a flea killing topical for dogs.

So someone gave me this great idea... which saved loads and loads and loads of money.

Instead of buying five 6 packs (covers each dog for 6 months) at $43/each (for the wee little dogs)... Buy the X LARGE pack (for dogs up to 130 lbs) for $53/pack. Out of ONE tube (you get 6 per pack) I can extract 0.67 cc of the topical for each dog... That means I can cover all 5 of our dogs with ONE tube. I know I'm confusing you, but bear with me... All in all, that means that a $53 pack can take care of ALL of my dogs for 6 months.

So I spent $53 instead of $215... how awesome is that?
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Apr. 27th, 2008 @ 10:29 am Bedroom Furniture
Here's our new bedroom furniture :-) It's so nice to have it... Our bedroom feels complete now.

These are before and after pictures... Before being when we first saw the house (when it wasn't ours yet)

Our bed set... The bed (headboard, footboard, frame) we bought from Craigslist... Same with the nightstands. The mattress we bought retail (::gasp::!) It's really nice... But we figured that if we're going to have this for the next 15 years, then it should be a good one. Afterall, you spend a third of your life sleeping on your bed!



And our dresser :-) Craigslist (nightstand and dresser were bought together)



Notice in the first "before" picture... (if you can see it), there's a granite topped desk.

So, we had to take that down, of course, to put the bed up against that wall.



That is what we plan to make part of our kitchen island out of (more on that later)
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Apr. 26th, 2008 @ 09:39 am Video!!!!!!!!
Here's are little boy kicking me from the inside :-)

Video is ONLY 3 seconds long... (yes, it's hard to film this stuff!) So, keep an eye on my belly-button!

It's just a quick twitch

BBM Kicking at 26 weeks

I'll work on getting a better video... Sometimes it's as if he's adjusting himself, so there's so much movement going on from his entire body that it looks like I have an alien about to rip open my stomache. It's really cool :-)
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Apr. 26th, 2008 @ 09:23 am 26 weeks
Woa....

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Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 04:03 pm Michael Sr. and Michael Jr
This is such a cute picture... I can't wait to have our little one here :-)

This is Ryan's brother, Michael, and his 3.5 month old, Michael Jr., watching TV

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Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 02:41 pm Changing shape
I just noticed a few days ago how much my body is changing shape.

Now that my belly is growing out, my skin around my hips and "love handles" has disappeared... or, it's relocated, LOL So, when I'm facing the mirror I actually look pretty nice... Like, kind of like I have a shape, lol

But then I turn to the side and, well... it's not good. My butt and my stomache stick out, in opposite directions. In the words of Clairee from "Steel Magnolias" -- " Looks like two pigs fightin' under a blanket." haha, yeah, that's me :-)
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Apr. 24th, 2008 @ 02:18 pm New to us furniture
Well, we finally bought a dresser and two night stands...

We bought a cherry sleigh bed about a month ago... it's beautiful.

And I thought, "Well, it's cherry, so it should be easy to match"

Hmm... Theoretically, yes... but as it turns out we're pretty picky on not only the color, but the look.

Well, I found this set right away, but it was too much -- $475. I e-mailed her and asked her to please e-mail me when she decides she will take $350.

Well a few days ago -- almost a month later -- she e-mails me and tells me that she will.

So I picked it up today in Leander (about an hour). And of course it fit perfectly in our lovely Ford Explorer :-)

She already took the ad down, but I'll get pictures later. It's really nice... we're excited :-)

So now our bedroom is complete! Bed, nice new mattress (the only thing we bought retail, LOL), dresser, mirror, and nightstands.

Now on to the dining room table!
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Apr. 23rd, 2008 @ 08:58 am Ryan got a raise!!!
Ryan got a raise at work today! The PEC board re-evaluated the pays. They want to make them more comparable to Austin Energy's pay, as they are losing a lot of good people to AE.

Anyway, he got a really big raise! I'm not sure if he wants me to say how much, though.

Yay!
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Apr. 22nd, 2008 @ 05:49 pm Not Honda people anymore :-(
Well we're in the process of selling my beloved Honda Civic... I've had it since I was 15 and I am very sad to see it go. We're also selling Ryan's del Sol.

We bought a Ford Explorer... It was just in the right place at the right time. We're really loving it. It's been great for moving and doing projects around the house... There's so much room and it's perfect for kiddos. It's a 2000 and is in excellent condition cosmetically... a really beautiful SUV. The seats fold down flat so it provides tons of room for hauling things, and it can pull a trailer and a boat (hey, we live on a lake...)

Anyway, so it's hard to imagine that we won't be honda people anymore...

But, you know... we have different priorities now. Ryan has his company van, so we only need one car... And the del Sol is a hot sports car that can't handle a car seat, LOL (unless you're Brittany Spears, and I'm not... though some have speculated)


It's hard moving to another make of car... We trust Honda, they've been good to us.
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Apr. 22nd, 2008 @ 11:24 am July 11th
This is my guess on when our son will be born. He's 2 weeks ahead on his weight. So whether or not he won't last until August 1st in the womb, or the doctors will want to induce me... either way, I think he'll come early.

July 11th is a good date... It's a Friday, so Ryan will be off (if I go into natural labor), and at that point he will be full term.

I can't believe that's only 11 weeks away!
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Apr. 17th, 2008 @ 09:15 am I'm about to do something drastic...
This freaking pit bull next door barks for about 2 hours at a time... NONSTOP!!!

The poor dog is very sweet -- never barks at us when we're out in the back yard.

Our neighbors don't have a fence, so he's chained up all day, all night. He has a dog house. We've been here for a month and I have seen them take him on a walk once.

What he's barking at his is lack of attention... and it's so constant.

And, he's right by the baby's room. He will not be waking up the baby with his barking.

I'm seriously considering calling the city on the neighbors... Cause this is just ridiculous. And they don't do anything to stop him. And I've never seen them outside playing with him. It's just sad.

I don't think he's a fighting dog, though it would fit the stereotype to a T (mexicans and blacks live there... in a crummy house.. crummy cars... pit bull). He's never agressive, and although I've never met a fighting dog, I assume they would be aggressive towards us or our dogs.

But, I feel like a hypocrite if I call the city. It's like like our four dogs don't bark. But, they bark at something, never nothing. And it's in like 30 second outbursts, and that's it. If it's ever any longer I walk outside and tell them "No" in my adult voice :-)

Mmm... he just stopped barking.

Maybe I'll offer to take him for walks or something. Poor dog needs something.

Nope, just started again.
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Apr. 10th, 2008 @ 03:38 pm Tax return
Whew! I finally did our 2007 taxes.

I did it on paper before... and it said we owed almost $2,000... which, I was baffled. So, like most things, I put it aside to forget about, LOL

But I e-filed today... thinking that a computer could do a much better job...

And now we get a refund of $361 :-)

Good 'ol computers!
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Apr. 8th, 2008 @ 09:00 am Neighbors
When we were outside on Saturday weeding our front yard, our neighbors across the street came over to introduce themselves.

Which, that's great... cause we're very, subdued... if you will.

We're so used to apartment life... and not really wanting to know your neighbors, LOL And we're so comfortable with eachother, we don't feel the need to make any friends.

But, they have a vacation home right across the street (there are lots of vacation homes here... it's a weekend by the lake kind of place). And they have a boat... so we need to be their friends :-)

Ryan wants to get a boat at some point... but he wants to rent one, first. But, it would cost us like $500+ to rent one for 3 - 4 hours... and... we don't have that kind of money right now. So I told him that we should just make friends with someone who has a boat :-)

We've been to the Marble Falls coc (church of Christ) the last two Sundays. We like it. It's much bigger than any other one we've ever been to, LOL About 300+ people. And they have a nursery, which is very important. My opinion on bringing kids to church is that it's punishment for them, you, and those around you. Much like taking them to restaurants. You can't expect them to sit still... they're kids.

Ryan and I had a fun day yesterday... He was in a really good mood the entire day... and I'm always in a good mood... so it went well :-P We went to the dentist (my dad)... then went to give my Mom her keys (she left them in my car), then to lunch at Grinns (::grin::) and to Ross to buy new deep-pocket sheets for our upcoming mattress. And I bought a maternity shirt... it seems you can't have too many.

Today I will be finishing the flower bed. So... off to Home Depot and Backbone Nursury, or whatever it's called.
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Apr. 7th, 2008 @ 09:24 am (no subject)
Oh, and Ryan can feel the baby kick, now. He couldn't feel him before... Only I could. But he's felt him a few times now. So that's special :-)
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Apr. 7th, 2008 @ 08:02 am Day of rest
Ryan and I planted a flower bed yesterday... We actually were planning on doing two seperate ones along our front porch...

We completely finished the one on the left... the one on the right has the stone edgers in place and the dirt has been tilled... but we ran out of top soil, plants, and energy.

I am so, so sore... probably the sorest I have ever been.

I didn't even do that much heavy lifting... I took the 36 limestone edgers (about 15 lbs a piece) from the Explorer to the porch (not a far walk)... that's the only heavy lifting I did. Ryan's the one who took the twenty 40 lb bags of dirt and manure/compost out.

But there was a lot of sitting on the hard porch pulling grass out of the dirt... a lot of on my knees... a lot of everything uncomfortable.

But it was fun :-) The one on the left looks amazing. And the one on the right will look amazing!

We have before, during, and half-after pictures... so we'll get those up when we're totally done.

I think I'll go and get more stuff at Home Depot and the local nursery down the street (I don't have much time today)... Then I'll actually finish it tomorrow. I need to rest my poor body a bit...

Sleep helped a lot -- it's amazing how well that works. And tylenol.

We're going to the dentist (aka my dad) today. And now we have insurance, so he'll actually get paid :-) Ryan's getting off at 12pm today, then we'll leave.

OH! We also bought a mattress while in San Marcos over the weekend. We bought it for our new queen bed (well, new to us). It's a eurotop. And it was on sale, AND it was tax free :-)

We have so many things we need to get pictures of... our new blinds (well, four of them, anyway... they're expensive). Our new bed... Our new flower garden.

Oh, and we mowed our lawn, finally, on Saturday. That was another sore-party. We pulled the majority of the weeds up out of the front yard, then mowed it.

And the back yard we just mowed. We're tilling all of that up when we put down grass over the entire back yard (1/3 acre), so for now it just gets mowed.

It was a very busy weekend.
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Apr. 3rd, 2008 @ 10:02 am Re: Northland Cable
So I e-mailed Northland Cable about their lame install...

They called me this morning... which was impressive.

They credited us the install fee ($80) and one month of service ($55 + taxes).... So... WOW! I wasn't expecting that. That's like $140 plus (taxes, remember?)

So, basically, we won't have to pay our next 2.5 bills... sweet :-)
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Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 05:39 pm Pregnant Belly
I just took some pictures in the mirror... the flash makes my stretch marks look way worse than they are...





So that's today at 22.5 weeks (23 weeks on Friday)
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Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 04:33 pm Baby things update
Mmm... let's see...

achy legs, achy back, stretch marks, mild insomnia, heart burn...

Oh but it's all worth it!

Well I know that lotions don't prevent or eliminate stretch marks... But I tried anyway. It didn't work. I have started to get itty bitty stretch marks just to the left (from my angle) of my bellybutton

Oh... and I don't have an inny anymore, LOL (bellybutton) It's more of a "I can't decide"--ee

The sonogram last Tuesday went well. He has a condition called hydronephrosis which is where his kidney's aren't draining fully.

Well, it's not too much to worry about. They're only dilated to about 7mm (supposed to be 6mm). I'm going back to this doctor (a different doctor than my normal one) on May 2nd to get another sono. He said if it has remained the same or gone down then it's nothing to worry about... If they're over 10mm then they'll have to discuss options. It's nothing serious... maybe just antibiotics when he's born. Worse case senario is surgery.

But, he has big feet! His cousin, Michael Jr., was born with large feet and hands... (they're not too large now, I think he's caught up with himself). So, I asked the doc to look at his feet. He said, "Woa! They are big!" haha I guess it's a Morlino trait... along with only producing boys, lol





His foot



His foot again



Video should be coming soon. They didn't have DVD.. just VHS... um... okay, talk about lacking in that department. So, we'll figure something out :-)
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Apr. 2nd, 2008 @ 02:20 pm We're back online!
Wow! After 2.5 weeks of not having the internet... well... if you know me, you know how hard it's been!

But we're back online as of a few hours ago.

We have Northland Cable (cable internet... yay!!!) and it's 3mb down!!! Oh sweet speed! (compared to our 450kb down with Momentum).

And our pink is about 80... which isn't great... but Momentum's was 300 or 400 or so... absolutely ridiculous!

We did have one hiccup... the install guy was. well, he wasn't educated properly for his position as an install guy for an internet company.

He was here, installed it...

Then came into the living room and

"Okay, I'm done, this is your total"
"So it's working?"
"It's all hooked up"
"But is it working?"
"Well, you can turn your computer on to check"

(he didn't check for me? You mean he was going to leave not knowing whether or not it was working???)

So I go and turn the computer on... Oh my gosh it's not working!

So he sits there for another 20 minutes trying to get it to work... I'm back in the living room watching TV...

He comes in:

"Here's your credit card, and here's your confirmation number for the billing"
"So it's working?"
"Uh, no... we don't have an IT guy, so you're going to have to call this tech support number. You'll probably have to change your IP address"
"Um... okay..."

So he leaves... and I go in there, thinking maybe I can get it to work. I've messed with this quite a bit.

Yup, I got it to work. He didn't have it installed properly. Here's the deal (follow along now):

We have a built in ethernet port to our motherboard... it's disabled.

We have a seperate ethernet card, which is enabled.

He had the cable modem hooked up to the disabled port.

He had the router hooked up to the enabled port.

This is how this works: From the wall outlet, to the cable modem, to the router, to the computer.

Well, he skipped the router part -- he didn't have the internet going INTO the router... just a cable coming OUT OF the router. How can it work like that?

So I'm calling them a bit to get my installation money back... that is just ridiculous.
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