Update. For Real.

So.... I've had lots of single-subject entries lately, but nothing about life in general.  Get comfortable, this is going to be a long one.  (........TWSS?)

We finally got the accident report for our wreck.... A month later.  It turns out they're blaming most of it on Paul - even though we were the last vehicle involved.  He caused damage to two cars, yes, but I'm pretty sure there was damage before we even got there - why else would they be stopped in the middle of the Interstate?  I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I don't think there's anything we can really do to change it, other than pray our rates don't jump up.
Sigh.
I'm at 27 weeks preggo now....  Almost to that last trimester, and just under 3 months until the due date!  I'm feeling pretty good, but still tired more than it seems like I should be (maybe something to do with two little boys, and my waking up at night).  I've found that there is a "perfect" caffienation window....  Late enough it will still be effective to stay awake during the afternoon, but early enough it won't keep me awake when I need to go to bed at night.  So that means it has to be between about 10 and 11 in the morning.  But usually I can get something done while they nap if I have a Dr. Pepper or a Crystal Light "energy" drink.
During December, I had a bad cough, which did a number on this hernia I have above my belly button.  It's been there since I was pregnant with Jacob, but definitely has gotten bigger, and the coughing really made it start pooching - about the size of a half an apple sticking out above my belly button.  I have repeatedly asked my doctor about it, and she said as long as it still goes back in (which it does whenever I lay down), it's not an emergency.  Not that I wanted to have surgery, but it's ugly (if you think it sounds gross, you should see it!) and it hurts pretty bad by the end of the day if I don't take an hour or two of laying down and "letting it rest" every day.  I showed it to her while standing up last appointment (looks much worse), and she suggested I get a maternity support belt to help keep it in.  I got what is actually a postpartum support belt (identical to a hernia support belt, but cheaper!), which is about 9 inches wide and closes with velcro.  Sexiness.  But it really is helping.  In the week and a half since I started wearing it (all day, every day), I've only had one day where it hurt at the end of the day - the day I spent scrubbing the bathroom.
And adding to this vision of sexiness....  I've started having to wear compression pantyhose.  I've griped about my varicose veins every pregnancy - in fact, they were the first indication that I was pregnant with this baby.... Before any other symptoms showed up, before I even took a test, my veins swelled up and started aching (which is why I went and bought a test).  They've gotten worse (yet I still only have them on one leg!), and I have a new "patch" on the lower part of my shin that itches.  I griped about it to my doctor, and showed them to her (ugly!), and she sent me to a vein specialist.

Think I needed to go see a vein doctor? (And this is first thing in the morning, on a day they look "good!")

The specialist told me that the ones on my foot were bad enough they could ulcerate (is that the word?  become open sores).  That sounded just lovely.  Well, the whole experience was just lovely, from the paper shorts I had to wear in the examining room, to rolling said shorts up to my crotch and having "mug shots" taken of my legs with my name taped on my butt.
Let me tell you about these support hose. When I took them out of the box, they looked about big enough to fit Jacob.  I know they'll stretch to fit, but....  It was still intimidating.  So I tried to put them on, like you'd put on pantyhose.  FAIL.  These things are tight.  How tight?  They are the kind you have to have a prescription to even get - that's how much they "compress." When I put them on my hand and arm, they are uncomfortably snug.  Imagine trying to get these things over my size 12 hooves.  I tried for a good 10 minutes, and got half of one foot in.  So I gave up, ate lunch, took a nap, and before trying again, researched online. (Yeah, those YouTube video models are NOT wearing real support hose - or at least not appropriately sized.)  So I tried again.  You have to turn them completely inside out to the foot, put your foot only in, then the other one, then shimmy them all the way up.  Once you get your feet and calves in, it's not that much different than regular pantyhose.  But that first little bit is painful and awkward and really uncomfortable.  Once they are on, they're not that bad, and they definitely did make a difference of what my legs looked like at the end of the day - not swollen and heavy feeling.  But definitely not looking forward to wearing these for the three fattest months of being pregnant.  (Thankfully, they actually do fit over my belly, and don't feel tight.... yet.)  The good news is, the vein doctor said that I can get the veins fixed/removed/whatever they do 6 weeks after I have the baby - maybe I'll actually have good looking legs this summer!
So lets recap for your mental viewing..... 6 months pregnant.  Support hose.  Hernia belt.  From 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM.
 plus this.....on fat me.....  (Because we all know those are NOT pictures of me, and I am not taking any!)

The vision of sexiness.  My husband can't keep his hands off me.  (Not.  I'm not sure he even wants to touch me!)
In other news....
The boys are ready for spring.  I'm ready for spring!  They are fighting and nit-picking all the time, it seems, and seeing just how far they can go with defying me.  (Nathan telling me that's NOT how you do whatever I tell him to do - usually in violin - and Jacob crossing his arms and putting his head down when I tell him to do something.) I really want to just be able to kick them outside with no jacket and no shoes whenever I'm about to snap.  But taking 10 minutes to dress them just for them to spend 5 minutes outside seems so pointless.
I have a mouse in my kitchen.  If you've ever seen Ratatouille, I want to call to mind two scenes:  When the old lady at the farm house sees the rats in her kitchen and takes after them with the shot gun (which I could totally see myself doing, if I ever saw the little beasts), and then shoots the ceiling and it falls in and there's like a million rats living in her ceiling.  Whenever I know there's a mouse in our house, this is what I envision.  I can sometimes hear one in the wall when I'm trying to sleep, and I imagine a whole community living in there.  And I may not be far off, because it seems like when we catch one, we catch several.  Gross.  The other scene is when the health inspector comes into the restaurant, and the rats are all over the kitchen cooking the meals.  Not that they cook my meals here, but I sometimes hear one scurry away when I get a drink in the middle of the night, and I envision that there's like 20 of them.  Luckily, ours are mice, not rats - at least as far as I know.  (Shudder.)  But nonetheless, the little [insert bad name here] are getting quite adept at stealing bait.  We've caught 4 in the last couple weeks, but the bait has been stolen 3x that many times - and we use peanut butter, not a hunk of cheese they can grab and run off with!  I seriously would take a shot gun after them if we had one.
We've decided on what type of vehicle we want to get when we replace the car.  We wanted a crossover, but they are not made to use the backseat on an everyday basis.  We looked at SUVs, but the gas mileage about made me pass out.  (I couldn't go from getting 22+ to getting half that.)  So we decided we'd go with a minivan, as much as I hate the idea of being stereotyped as a "minivan mommy."  We're going to go with a Toyota, not because of all the safety bells and whistles they're always bragging about, but because they last forever (like it or not).  We're looking to get a mid-2000s model, and probably have to take out a small loan (which I hate the idea of), but we just have not been able to save up the money to pay cash for the whole thing.  I'm hoping we can get about half the money from selling my car (privately, not trade-in, which always screws you over), and maybe by then we'll have a small chunk saved up as well.  (Although every time we try, something breaks and we have to use that money to fix something else - like the house A/C.)  We're going to cram all 3 kids into the car for at least the first couple months.  Not ideal - definitely crowded, but it's more responsible, we feel.  And we're praying the exact right van shows up when we need it.
I'm having the mealtime showdown AGAIN with Jacob.  He wouldn't touch his breakfast this morning, which made him really moody and overly emotional about everything.  But he has got to learn that he can't just skip a meal and get rewarded with snacks all morning.  I did give him half a roll with peanut butter on it at 10, but that lasted less than an hour.  It's moments like this my backbone as a mother is sorely tested.  Nathan did this, but wanted milk for his between-meals.  Jacob just wants chips and sweets.
We're trying to get back in the swing of being social again.  We haven't really done anything social on a regular basis for a long time.  It's just easier to sit at home and not try to work out a time that works for everyone.  (Especially with Paul's work schedule.)  But it's not good to be hermits, and we want our kids to know hospitality, so....  We're trying.  Hopefully having a baby in 3 months won't throw us back into hermitage.
Sigh.  It's 11, so I'm going to go fix an early lunch for these guys and then probably send them to bed early for their naps, too.  Because if I have to tell them not to hit/kick/shove again, as they whine at me with snotty noses, I'm seriously going to blow a gasket.  (I'm such a cold, insensitive, uncaring mother.)