Here’s how I was supposed to spend Thanksgiving:
Wake up at 3 am on Wednesday, whine for the whole 9 hour drive to Ohio about how uncomfortable I was, eat an enormous amount of pie, complain that E was playing WoW while the wominz had to mind the child, do a little Black Friday Shopping, eat some Chick-fil-a, whine about the 9 hour drive home, have a really nice time even after all the complaining.

Here’s how I spent my Thanksgiving instead:
Tuesday night before I went to bed I suddenly got a horrible stabbing pain on the right side of my back. After asking Dr. Google for advice, I chugged water and cranberry juice for a few hours, only to throw it all up because I was in so much pain. Called my OB’s answering service, Man Doctor on call said if it wasn’t contractions (it wasn’t) it was a pulled muscle so I should try putting heat on it and taking more Tylenol. I spent the entire night wandering around the house moaning and being miserable. When E woke up at 3 am I told him we could either go to Ohio the next day or he could go without me, because there was NO FRICKING WAY I was getting in a car until I felt better. At 7 am I gave up on waiting for office hours and called Man Doctor back to warn him I was coming into L&D. When I got there, they hooked me up to the monitors and said “oh look, contractions! and you said you were throwing up? definitely a pulled muscle.” Luckily the treatment for my “pulled muscle” was a lovely dose of morphine so I immediately passed out and when I woke up Man Doctor was gone and Lady Doctor was here. She decided maybe an ultrasound to check my kidneys would be a good idea. Turns out I have about a zillion kidney stones and I am not a crazy person who just cries over a pulled back muscle but instead someone in an enormous amount of agony with a condition that required immediate treatment as well as more procedures post-baby. The urologist decided he could take out the one causing me pain first thing in the morning. So Thanksgiving morning I was strapped down to a table in surgery, given a spinal and *you’re probably enjoying your pie right now so I’ll skip the rest*. By 11am I was back in my room and once again in possession of my iPhone charger (never ever ever go to the hospital for any reason without: phone charger, toothbrush.) By 2 pm I was free of tubes and catheters and leg pressure cuffs and just hanging out waiting for another dose of narcotics. Turns out the only good part of kidney stones at 35 weeks pregnant is that the baby is so close to full term I’m allowed to have drugs. Because NO ONE can just “breath through” a kidney stone. At least when you give birth you get a baby at the end to cuddle. I saw the stone they took out and it wasn’t very cute at all. Now I am just stuck here until they give me a couple more doses of antibiotics and write a prescription for a painkiller for me to take home. Because, oh, did I forget that part? They had to leave a stint in my ureter to keep it from swelling shut, so my pain has decreased about 60% but isn’t going away for at least another week – when they have to take the stint out again.

So to sum up: no road trip, no pie, no time with family, no turkey, extreme pain, slightly terrifying surgery, and one more night in the hospital to go.

I should win some sort of Thanksgiving do-over contest, right? Or at least maybe a pie. Good news is that Baby Sandy is taking it all like a champ, not the slightest hint she cares about mama’s kidney stones. Sadly, Little Evan hates being here so I haven’t gotten to see him much (because really, how much fun is it to have you baby scream for dada and run away when you try to hug him? Not fun. Good way to turn into a sobbing mess.)

I hope your Thanksgiving is going much better and even if you’re trapped at your crazy aunt’s house choking down burnt turkey at least no one has stuck anything up your pee-hole today.

Apologies for my inability to stick with a tense or person for that whole post. Writing from my iPhone is hard.

The other day I saw a comment on Twitter that said something like “Before you post a craft tutorial or idea on your blog, always Google to make sure someone else hasn’t already posted one.”

And then my head exploded.

To be clear, the tweet wasn’t directed at me. Crafting is only a teeny tiny part of my blog and definitely not my area of expertise. I have never gotten a nasty email or comment about the originality of my projects. And I try very, very hard to keep it that way. There is no reason at all I should have taken the kind of offense to the remark that caused my brains to splatter all over the wall behind me.

I understand that people copying each others work is a big problem in blog land. There was the cooking magazine that reprinted a blogger’s post without her permission and then told her “Well the internet is free, so technically we can print anything we want! Plus, we edited your crappy writing so much, YOU should really pay US!” (No, really, this just happened.) And just this week Jill found her recent craft tutorial on a site that claims it “collects” posts from across the internet and republishes them – without giving her byline. But they’re doing it to help you! You’ll get tons of traffic! From this site no one has ever heard of and has no valid contact info!

I also know stealing someone’s design/craft can be a huge problem for handmade businesses, since there’s really no way to copyright something like a ruffle or a rosette. That’s not cool. Don’t rip off creative people you admire – SUPPORT them.

BUT. Posting a recipe for, say, zucchini bread even though there are already a zillion recipes online for zucchini bread is not plagiarism. Neither is posting a how-to on a ribbon mobile or felt flowers or using an empty frame as a whiteboard, although if you Google any of those you get dozens and dozens (hundreds)(sometimes thousands) of responses. Demanding no one ever use an idea someone else has had is like saying “OK, Mommy bloggers, since I’ve already read posts about cloth diapers, potty training, making your own baby food, pooping while giving birth and cute kids, ALL THOSE THINGS are off limits.” If we limited the internet to only 100% original thoughts it probably wouldn’t exist. Neither would most books, movies, art, music, etc. Have you ever read the New Testament? Some of those dudes totally tell the same stories, even though they were told before!!

How about instead of assuming you are such a special snowflake all YOUR ideas are one-of-a-kind and it’s everyone else who’s stealing we agree to some rules for polite blogging?

1. If you are “inspired” by someone else’s idea, link to them in your post.
2. If you flat out USE someone else’s tutorial, link to them in your post, and maybe stick to just posting pictures instead of your own “how-to”.
3. Changing the NAME of a recipe is not the same as inventing a new recipe. You have to actually modify the ingredients/instructions to make it new.
4. Use common sense – don’t be a douchecanoe. When in doubt, link link link.

But for the record, the internet is a really huge place. I promise there is more than enough room for everyone’s yarn wreath tutorials (coming soon to bebehblog!)

Like I said, I didn’t really need to get so pissed off about this – I’m just having a pissed off sort of day and angry blogging is the pregnant woman’s equivalent of drinking a bottle of wine.

Today is Carpet Day here in the bebeh-house, which is both extremely exciting and extremely awful, because I have to be here all day to…I don’t know. Supervise or something. Make sure they aren’t casing the joint (do people still say that?) Give them permission to take all the pictures off the walls so they can get the carpet roll up the stairs. I never know what to do with myself when we have people here working. Watch? Offer to help? Just stay out of the way? Do I need to feed them? Should I offer them drinks? Oh God, what if they need to pee? What if they need to pee and they notice how dirty the baseboards are in my bathroom? What if the need to pee and notice the dirty baseboards and then judge me?

And that is why I woke up in a panic at 7 am and spent an hour giving my upstairs bathroom the most thorough cleaning it’s had in months. Then I sprayed extra cleaner in the shower just so it would smell clean. I think this might be the first sign of a mental breakdown.

It’s also a cold, wet, miserable rainy kind of day so not only are Little Evan and I trapped AT the house, we’re trapped IN the house. I’m preparing myself for an exhausting, nap-free kind of day. Meltdown usually starts about 11:30 with full on screaming and hitting by noon on the days we don’t get out for Stroller Strides/playdates/shopping/ANYTHING. But I planned ahead and have not one but two new baking recipes to try and absolutely no qualms about bribing good toddler behavior with fresh from the oven pumpkin bread. If I don’t cover it in cream cheese and shove it all in my face first. NOM.

I’m also making the most bastardized version of crock-pot chili EVER, which will either come out incredibly delicious or totally inedible. I’m guessing the later. Because that’s what happens when you’ve already thrown half your ingredients in the crock-pot before you realize you don’t HAVE a 29 oz can of tomato puree. Or chili powder. Or kidney beans. So you use tomato sauce. And taco seasoning. And a packet of microwavable black beans. And I can’t run to the store because I have to be here for the carpet steam cleaning specialists guys. Totally inedible.

Also, here’s today’s brilliant idea: Someone should start a company that installs carpet/renovates kitchens/fixes plumbing/does all that other home repair and installation stuff but promises their employees are 100% NON-SMOKERS. Because seriously, carpet dude? You’re going to make my whole house stink like cigarettes and somehow think you’re NOT leaving that smell in my brand new carpeting? Not cool.

Tomorrow is “frantically put the house back together day because E invited his entire hockey team over for a cookout on Saturday” day, so I should have some after pictures of the renovation by the afternoon. I can’t wait to show you just how livable we managed to make the ugliest room ever!

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The winner of the $30 credit at Taradara is…

EMMIE BEE!!! Although I’ve entered literally every giveaway she’s ever done and never won anything, including the one where she was giving away a store credit because she was too lazy to drive to the mall and use it* so I’m not sure I WANT her to win my giveaway. But she’s having a bad week so I’m glad she did. Em, I’ve sent your contact info to Tara so she can set you up!

*For the record, by “lazy” I mean “has three kids under the age of 2″. So, not at all lazy.

Ok, so maybe not quite half way, but the old carpet is up, the new carpet is ordered and we’ve got all day Friday to paint. every. single. surface. of this stupid room. But to truly show you how much progress we’ve made since we bought the house three years ago, I had to track down my ancient LiveJournal account and steal these pictures.

This is the wallpaper I found under the OTHER wallpaper. Sadly, it was just on this one wall or I might have kept it. Jungle animals are so hot right now.

I *intentionally* painted that futon orange. You know, to match the room. Yikes.

And then in the past three years, we’ve thrown out most of the furniture, dragged a guest bed up there and turned it into a giant junk hole.

I also painted the walls a color that should have been called "dirty band-aid" and hung up dark polyester curtains. Because who wants to really SEE a room that ugly?

Since Wednesday afternoon, THAT has turned into this:

Ugly room, now with less stuff!

Which now looks like this:

That's my dad, who ripped up all that carpet entirely by himself. Before I had finished breakfast. No, he is not for sale or rent.

Next up, paint ceiling, paint trim, paint moldings, replace electric baseboard heaters, repeat all of that in the stairwell, buy new closet doors and THEN we can paint the walls.

The carpet guy comes Thursday.

And then we get to move all our bedroom furniture UP.

I need to go lie down.

TOMORROW!!!!

I wanted to let you know that although the next week is going to be INSANE at the bebehblog residence (my folks come Thursday to start new nursery/master bedroom renovations) and here on the blog (giveaways every day) I’m going to keep up posting regular Little Evan and Baby Sandy type updates too. So even if you’re not interested in giveaways please don’t delete me from your reader just yet.

Because, trust me, you’re going to want to see if we can make THIS…

…into livable space.

Also, if you’re local and have any need for:
1. End table shaped like a dock piling with burn mark on top
2. Giant Stonehenge style speakers
3. Former radio console with all the speakers and doors ripped off
4. Size 5 black satin pants covered in sparkly black mirrors
5. 400 square feet of orange carpet that may be soaked in cat pee

LET ME KNOW! IT’S ALL YOURS! I CAN DELIVER!!