Baby Watch As of 2:00 p.m. today we have no baby. My sister sounds like she might just go off the deep end though and for that I am seriously concerned. Apparantly the 9 y/o has figured out how to blackmail her - if she says ANYTHING about his antics at school (let's just say suspension is a definite possibility) he will rat his father out for smoking pot at home. On one hand, I am amazed the kid has it THAT much on the ball and on the other, the whole thing just makes me sick. Anyway, she called me at 11:00 this morning SOBBING. Hopefully this afternoon she's calmed down. I told her to let the school deal with the 9 y/o come what may. She can hold off on that until after Ivy makes her debut. Until then the plan is to keep her calm and sane...and have her get that anti-psychotic shot ASAP after the baby comes.

I'm Tired I swear to G-d, I am tired. I conked out at 9:30 last night - I didn't even leave the TV on sleep timer! After work, we had to go to Sukkot services at 7:00 after a quick trip to WalMart to get some cornstalks for the roof of the sukkah and a couple of pumpkins for good measure. $24 later...we arrived at the synagogue and sat through an hour-long service. Everyone else stayed for the potluck after but we decided we felt more like some hot pizza at home. So we hit Pizza Sienna with a coupon for a 6.99 large cheese and then Foodland for some brownies and milk and home we went. It was too chilly and damp to sit in the sukkah so since I was the only one NOT to have said ha-motzi inside the one at the shul, I went out and did that and inhaled a slice of pizza and then went back in to finish off a cold glass of milk and a brownie. Evan was ABSOLUTELY delighted with the "sukkot" brownies...made it all worthwhile. A quick review of "Days of Our Lives" and that was pretty much all she wrote. Tonight Anthony is out at our crazy sister-in-law's mother's viewing and won't be home until midnight at the earliest. Evan and I have to make brownies for a bar mitzvah oneg tomorrow night and get his homework done. That is IF I remember to get him from the new after-school program. If I don't, all bets are off.

Hit the Ground Running Lots of things are happening in my life these days least of which is, naturally, the lives of my family juxtaposing with my own. We last saw my sister, pregnant and still trailer-bound, in WV. The good news is that she is due next week. The bad news is she has decided to name the baby Ivy Bethann. I actually got over the "Beth" thing and naming her after our mother...my sister's middle name is Susann and mine is Joann so Bethann would be fitting. I told her if she cannot find it in her black little heart to name the baby after me, then Bethann is fine. I plan to call her Sharon anyway. This week has been hard on the pregnancy front as her membranes are "floating" and her OB specialist doesn't seem to have a clue to what or why this is. Dr. Kildare here found it on the internet in 2 minutes flat but...whatever. So she's resting and calling me every five minutes. I am SO hoping she holds out until they can get that baby out and her anti-psych shot into her. She's really done so well without it, I'd hate to lose all that momentum in the home stretch. My dad says he is done with the Sponge but I am not optimistic. They went to a football game on Monday night and somehow he ended up leaving her at FedEx Field and now she's in the hospital claiming he broke her jaw. WTF?????? I tried to get him to tell me all about it last night but he was close-lipped as usual although he did sound incredibly down. I actually felt sorry for him. While I am on the phone with HIM, my sister beeps over from call-waiting and no sooner had I started to talk to HER than my crazy aunt pulls up and starts screaming at me from the sidewalk about my equally-crazy uncle. Apparantly HE has filed for divorce, filed for a PFA and has run off somewhere. She somehow thinks we're involved in this grand conspiracy - I got a little ticked to be honest. I mean, here I am dealing with my own certifiable immediate family...I don't need her delusional problems. She backed down when I told her Tami might lose the baby. (She won't but I had to get the bitch to back off!) After three solid hours on the phone, I was done. Evan was sitting there watching "NCIS" (and quite into it too) and then Anth came home from his committee meeting. HIS family started calling at 10 p.m. And people wonder why we turn off the phone AND answering machine on Fridays. Anyway, I am back to blogging after my hiatus and hitting the ground running it seems. For those familiar with "Raising Arizona", I am just waiting for the guy to come up through the ground in the rain.