Just a quick update

Because I know everyone is dying to know if I still have morning sickness, the answer is YES! Still ALL DAY! So fun and yet I've gained weight already. And I'm outgrowing my pants. I don't get it but maybe I'm eating more than I think. So Doug is back for two weeks for Christmas and Tristan is so happy to have him back. Finally someone who has energy to fight with him. Doug brought him light sabers this time and they have been fighting with them every chance they get. Tristan is actually a very good sword-type fighter because he has had a lot of swords to practice with.

Well I got the cards done, the presents wrapped, cookies baked but not all decorated yet, and I think we are ready for Christmas. Well, ok I still have to do laundry and pack for our trip which will be fun because we are going north to snow! No snow here, in fact it was 50 degrees yesterday and the kids were out playing after school.

Tristan's latest funny thing he said: I showed him a picture of my first ultrasound and he knows the baby is in my tummy. So he looks at the picture and at me and asked "Did they have to take your head off to take the picture?" I said no, why? "Well how did they take a picture of inside your tummy then?" Ah smart boy, always thinking. I told him it was a special camera that can see inside me. He explained that to Doug when he got home and saw the ultrasound.

I guess that is about all that is going on in our exciting life.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas is Coming!

I love Christmas time, but sometimes it just seems to get so hectic. This year it doesn't help that I'm still nauseous, exhausted, and alone. My neighbor and I co-chaired the Christmas shop at the elementary school this year. We've been shopping since August for clearance things to sell. We had a $1,000.00 budget and we spent it! We opened Tuesday morning and we had to go shopping by 10:30am to restock. We were crazy busy. Then we went shopping again Tuesday night because we sold all the stuff we bought in the morning. So this week has been just a little hectic. FedEx gave away free trees here on post on Wednesday, so of course I had to go get one. It's a nice tree, a little dried out, and a little fatter than I would have picked if it was unwrapped. But it is a FULL tree. As in short and fat. I'll get a picture on when it gets decorated. Hopefully I can get to it tonight. It needs to relax a little more, it still looks wrapped up. But I did get all my Christmas decorations up around the house and Tristan decorated his tree all by himself. He did a very good job for a 4 year old.

So all that's left to do before Christmas is finish shopping, make cookies, do Christmas cards, Tristan's program on the 14th, Playhouse Disney show on the 16th, Doug's home on the 18th, then Christmas here and then at Pekin and Lockport. Yep that's it.

My lists

I kind of have the opinion of "If I'm nauseous, you should be too". So just for the fun of complaining, here's my list of things that are making me sick right now. It changes daily.

The smell of food, pretty much any food.
The smell of dog food and dog treats.
The sight of food on tv. All those food commercials are disgusting.
The smell of Tristan's paint, and he's been in a painting mood lately.
The smell of wet dog, it's been raining here.
The thought of food, I HAD to go grocery shopping today and it was horrible. But poor Tristan needs to eat, even if I can't.
Watching any disgusting shows like CSI, Bones, Survivor, Amazing Race, Kid Nation, anything where there is blood, guts, or food shown in a disgusting way.

Really, poor Tristan. I don't feel like putting much effort into anything, like playing, cooking, cleaning. And this kid is feeling great and has just as much energy as ever. And Doug just left again for three weeks, so it's just me and Tristan here to fend for ourselves. Like I said, poor kid. I'm really hoping this morning sickness stuff (still the wrong term for it) goes away by the end of the month. Really 3 months is enough. I'm tired of feeling queasy ALL day long. And not being able to eat anything good. Although I have had some rare moments when I can eat, something does sound good, and then it's like the scene from Jurassic Park where they lower the cow into the raptor cage. Seriously, don't come near me you might lose a finger.

On the up side, the sun is shining today and I plan to get our stuff to decorate for Christmas. Tristan is all excited since I reminded him he has his own tree. We have to go to our storage shed and get all the stuff first. Fun fun there. And then it would really help if I cleaned my house before decorating, but I think it'll be more like while I'm decorating. Dust the shelf before I put something on it to collect more dust. I think it should be part of your prenatal care that they send a maid to your house to clean. That would be awesome. Ok, I guess I've complained enough, I'll stop. Time to decorate the house (and maybe clean it).

Random junk

So I guess I'll start out with, I'm pregnant! Yep, number two is on the way. Hopefully a girl. I don't know if my morning sickness (such the wrong name for that) is worse or the same. But I can say, I'm tired of eating crackers already. Anyway, that's that news.

I was reading "Baby Laughs" by Jenny McCarthy yesterday and I have some advice. Don't drink and read. I almost choked and squirted cranberry juice out my nose. It is a very funny book.

You know what's ironic? Micheal Jackson on the cover of Ebony magazine. Nuff said.

I was watching tv and a football commercial came on. What is it about sports guys hitting each other on the butt. You don't see that anywhere but sports. You don't see Army guys tapping each others tushies. "Hey good shooting" smack. Is it because sports guys see each other naked a lot. Like my friend Carin's theory on guys who sit next to each other at the movies. Some guys leave the "man seat" between them. Her husband does, he won't sit right next to another guy. But it is really funny to go to a movie here on post and see the basic trainees come in and sit right next to each other. They've seen each other naked. And it's true, all the guys in uniform will sit next to each other. The ones in civies don't. Thank goodness women don't have that problem. I can sit right next to a friend.

Tristan's funny expression of the week: "Oh my gracious Lord!". He sits on the toilet so long his legs fall asleep. What can I say, he's slow at times. Anyway so when he tries to stand up, it hurts. He was saying "Oh God", but I told him that's not nice so he can't say it. I don't know where he got "oh my gracious Lord" but he says it like a little old man at a tent revival. It's hilarious.

Tristan and I went to Toys-r-us on Wednesday to get Christmas list ideas. I might as well just move there and save the hassle of moving the store to our house. Ok, it's not quit that bad, but there are plenty of ideas of things he wants. Unfortunately he wants a lot of big toys. Hello kid, small house, no storage, remember?


This is Tristan in his halloween costume.


Yep, another spider-man suit.


Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!

Our Disney World Trip

It finally happened. I have a quiet moment to myself. Doug and Tristan are at the "knight" museum (aka Frazier Museum) in Louisville tonight. So I have finally went through the Disney pics to put some on here and give our amazing fun filled account. So we drove 13 hours to Florida to our very cheap place to stay. Not that it was cheap looking or anything, just the price from the afvclub is really cheap. The place was decent, full kitchen, 1 bedroom, a pull out couch for Tristan, and the best part, a jacuzzi tub. Tristan loved it. We went to Disney MGM on Monday, thinking it would be a lite day, and it was kind of. We went back to our place for dinner, and came back for the nighttime fireworks show. It was pretty cool. Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom. I loved it. We met Tigger and Pooh and Tristan and I had our pictures taken with them. We had a great time there. We rode all the rides we could. We stayed for the lights parade at night, which was ok but ok to skip too. But the fireworks were awesome. And then getting out of there was another story, so it was a very late night. Luckily we took Wednesday as a day off. We slept in, Tristan watched cartoons, I went shopping to all the touristy gift shops on the strip, Doug and Tristan went out on a paddle boat ride around the lake behind our hotel, we swam in the pool, and then went to the Medieval Times dinner show. The food there was surprisingly good. Of course by the time we got the food we were all starving, but still it was good. And the show was really cool too. Tristan loves all the knight stuff, so it was a fun night. Thursday we went to Sea World and fed the dolphins and sharks, and watched the shows, rode all the kiddie rides, it was a fun (although very hot and humid) day. The brochure I had said Sea World had a night-time fireworks show, which we were planning on staying for. Well one of the staff there was just standing around so I asked her about the fireworks. She told me they didn't do them during the winter. It's October and 95 degrees, lady you don't have winter here. But ok, so we got to go out for a better dinner that night. We went to Joe's Crab Shack that had a decent playground outside, so we sat on the "big deck" right by it so Tristan could play. Friday we went to the Animal Kingdom. It was pretty cool, although not as many rides as the other places. We did the safari, saw the shows, did the dinosaur ride (which Tristan says is his favorite but he would only do it once). Doug and I took turns riding the new roller coaster, Everest. Tristan was an inch to short for it. But it was a nice kind of lite easy day for our last day. We drove back on Saturday so we all had a recovery day before back to work and school. Although work for Doug on Monday was driving back to Ft. Stewart, Georgia. At least he knew the way, having just been through Atlanta. He he he. Um, so we took like 100-150 pictures a day, so if you think that there are a lot here, your wrong. There's more...many many more.

New Sport

Ok before I sort through the like 500 pictures from Disney World and post about it, I'm going to write about a new sport Tristan invented. It's called toothbrush sword fighting. Seriously that is the only way I can think of for him to get a HUGE glob of toothpaste on the bathroom wall, behind him, above his head, above the towel rack even. I went into the bathroom and saw the blue toothpaste up there and thought "What the ..., how the...., eww." So much for letting him brush his teeth alone. Maybe the new spider man toothbrush had something to do with it. It is so kind of sad when he gets all excited over a new toothbrush. You'd think he never gets anything new. Of course that's not the case (see previous posts). But here we are at Wal-Mart again, and he sees the spider man toothbrush and just goes nuts. "Can I have a new toothbrush, pleeeeeease? Oh yeah, new toothbrush, new toothbrush!" It's like some poor little orphan, "Can I have some more porridge please?" Anyway, I'll get to the Disney stuff soon. Just as soon as I have a quiet moment. Ya, like that's going to happen.

Famous last words

Tristan was standing on the couch, with an evil look on his face. In front of him was his Diego pop up jungle hut, with no roof. I'm thinking he's going to try and jump down through the top. I said "what are you doing?" And here's the famous last words, he said "hehe, watch this." He's said it lots of times before and I'm sure I'll hear it a lot more. He is little mister adventure. Anything dangerous or scary, he wants to do it. And the bigger he gets, I'm sure the worse it will get. He's already part monkey I swear. Oh but all he did was jump, he didn't do what I thought he would and I didn't give him any more ideas. He has definitely not gotten that fear of heights thing yet. He'll jump from anything you'll let him or at least he'll act like it until I start yelling "NO, get down from there, you'll get hurt,...". And all this while he's coughing up a lung, running a fever, and cant' breath through his nose. Just think how adventurous he is when he's feeling good.

Doug's home

Doug came home on Saturday and with him came all his stuff. Bags, boxes, junk. So that means the house is a mess and of course he had to mess up the new computer. I just went to look for some pictures to put on of Tristan dressed up as various things and all my pictures are gone. At least out of Picasa. They better be somewhere on here, so help him. But on the up side of having my husband home, I don't have to answer all of Tristan's calls at night, I didn't have to cook dinner, and I just might get out of mowing the yard for a while. Of course that means no more peanutbutter and jelly or cereal for dinner. We only did that a few times while Doug was gone. There are just some days you don't feel like cooking you know.

Otherwise, not much going on here, which is why I haven't updated lately. We've been doing a lot of nothing. Tristan is out playing as much as he can, I've been out shopping as much as I can. Oh and I've been planning our Disney trip, yeah! We're going to Disney World! Florida in October shouldn't be too bad I hope. I think Tristan is going to love it. And if he doesn't I know I will. I've always wanted to go to Disney World.

Ok, cute thing of the week. Tristan was jumping off the couch and I don't know why he said it, but he said "Damn it...oh I'm sorry". Because he knows he's not supposed to say bad words. I looked at him, trying not to laugh, and said "What did you say?" He said "I said damn it but I said I'm sorry". And I said "Because your not supposed to say that word are you?" Ya, he knows, but when he gets older and bigger he's going to say a bad word. He told me that one day and I asked "what bad word are you going to say". He thought about it a minute then said "I'll say damn it". I don't know where he ever picked that word up :)

So here's some pictures of Tristan dressed up as whatever. The quality is not the best because I took them with his fisher price camera.

Time flies but not racing fans

We spent our last weekend away from home this past weekend. At least our last for a while. We were in Pekin for the Marigold Fest, which really I just went for the art in the park. But Tristan went to the parade and got so much candy I thought he went trick-or-treating already. On that note, do we really need the Halloween candy out already. If I buy it now, it would be all yucky by Halloween, so of course I would have to eat it before then and buy more. Anyway, so now we're back and the weather could not be nicer. I love fall. I could handle 70 degree weather year round. Kids outside playing, getting tired out, yelling themselves silly far away from me. Ah, nice. And me and my neighbors drinking Mike's hard lemonade at 3:00 in the afternoon. But none of us liked it, so really we each only drank half our bottle. This weekend is a little fest on post called Day for the Kids. Lots of games, free food, jumping castle things, plenty to wear a kid out. And maybe we'll even get up to the orchard to pick apples on Sunday. These past two months have just gone by so fast with us traveling all over the place. Which brings me to the time flies but not racing fans. I've noticed that people who have sticker or decals of their favorite race car driver are some of the slowest drivers. If you are such a fan of racing, why don't you drive faster? Here let me show you the gas pedal. Bad drivers is one of my biggest pet peeves. If you can't talk on a cell phone and drive at the same time then shut up or pull over. Just because you have a phone in your hand does not mean you have to slow down. I need those bumper stickers that say, "Shut up and drive" and "I'm not tailgating, I'm drafting". Which thanks to Mythbusters is proved to save gas. Anyway, that's my rant of the day.

Our trip to Grand Marais, Michigan

We've done a lot of traveling lately. Between all my trips to Pekin, our trip to Michigan, and to Lockport, we haven't spent a weekend at home since August 4. And we will be gone again this weekend. But after that, things might just calm down a little. Until then, I'm trying to figure out how to get the pictures from G.M. on here. If it works, enjoy the show. If it doesn't, well I'm sure someone will tell me how to do it.

Ah, toys!

We had to go to Wal-Mart today. Actually had to, to buy another of those plastic drawer towers. You know what I'm talking about. Why did we NEED one? Because we have to many toys and stuff. We went to Lockport this past weekend and Tristan got spoiled again. He got a lot of play-doh and stuff to go with it. We already had some so it's not like he was deprived or anything. And it's great that the family thinks of him and spoils him. But the new additions put us over our storage limit. So I got a five drawer thing and filled it already. With art stuff, play-doh and toys, coloring books. And it still didn't all fit. We have more that is still on top of the roll away dishwasher in the scary closet (as it is called around here). I'm surprised that people don't think that Toys-R-Us exploded in our house. His room sure looks like it. Well more like Toys-R-Us and Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree. Because not only does he get spoiled by both sides of the family but he has a mommy who can't say no either. So ya it's a little my fault too. And I'm a pack rat so it's not like I can really get rid of stuff or throw it away. But I should invest in that company that makes the drawer things. We have three of them now. We have a small one for all the cars. A seven drawer one with two drawers of just the Cars movie cars. All of them! We have ALL of them! A drawer for guns, one for pirate stuff, and one for cd's. Yep, this kids got it all. Now if only he would play with it all in his room by himself. Well, the neighborhood kids like to play in his room. Did I mention all the toys under his bed? Can you see all the storage tubs and boxes under there? And for those of you who haven't seen it before, there's Tristan's castle room. Somewhere behind all the bookshelves and stuff is the ruined castle I painted. Some artist huh? Realistic trees and all. Thank you, thank you.

Let's get this party started

I'm slowly becoming addicted to blogs. It all started with Catherine Newman from Parent Center. Then a friend here and there have sent me links to their blogs and it just goes on and on. And I think it is a great way to keep in touch with all those old friends we kind of loose track of. So I called my blog down this road because life's a journey, right? And well, my mind is a very meandering road. I swear it won't take a straight path and you'll soon find out that I kind of jump around with topics. So anyway, I thought it was as good a title as any. Now I had a web site when we were in Germany and I kept up with it for a while. And then I had a kid. Well now he's in school, so we'll see how this goes. I don't know, writing things might be easier than posting pictures. But anyway, it's a start and we'll see where it goes.