Thursday, September 25, 2008

A Song

First, allow me to report I have been feeling really good. I only throw up about once a week now. I am very thankful for this wonderful turn of events. I can also drink milk again, which is great, because I am totally addicted to milk. Anyways, while I was in the midst of being sick all the time, I ran accross a Baby Blues comic strip with this great new version of John Lennon's song, "Yesterday." I thought it was funny, but only the first verse fit my situation, so I changed the other verses. The shower part refers to me not being able to take a full shower standing up without puking, which thankfully is also gone.

"Ode to Pregnancy"
(with apologies to John Lennon and the makers of Baby Blues)
(Sing to the tune of "Yesterday")

Yesterday, procreation seemed so far away,
Now it dominates my resume,
Oh, I can blame that negligee.

Morning sickness, seems to haunt my every waking hour,
I find it sad that I can't even shower,
Oh, how can nausea have such power?

Why it is so bad,
I don't know, it makes me sad -
But when baby comes, I know we will be so glad!

So all in all, I think it's worth each bathroom call,
Each midnight trip down the hall,
Oh, I believe we'll have it all!

Mmmmm, mmmm, hmmm........

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Best Hot Chocolate

I was reminiscing the other day and thought I would share.

Growing up in Oklahoma, snow was exasperatingly rare, and always looked forward to with great anticipation. When it would finally snow, the very first thought in my mind was always the same – If I walk to Nonnie’s house, she’ll fix me the best hot cocoa in the whole entire world.

Getting to Nonnie’s house always turned out to be a grand adventure. The cousins would call each other up and excitedly talk of all the sledding and snow ball fights we would have that day, then the search for the sleds began. Some years we actually managed to find the sleds and unbury them from their spot in the storm cellar. It didn’t really matter though – our snowsuits were plenty slick enough for sliding down the small hills between our house and Nonnie’s. We would meet at the pond halfway to Nonnie’s, and hurl ourselves down its outer bank, over and over again, trying to see who could make the most daring start. My favorite was to start with a flip at the top and slide the rest of the way down on the seat of my snowsuit.

When we were tired of testing fate, we would traipse the rest of the way to Nonnie’s house, making grandiose snow fort plans along the way. We had, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worst snow forts in the history of all snow forts. But my, if you could only see the way they were supposed to look!

When we finally couldn’t feel any of our body parts, we would head inside for the real treat. Nonnie would see us coming and start some of her famous hot chocolate on the stove. Then she would meet us in the laundry room and make us take off all our wet clothes to throw in the dryer. In exchange, we were allowed to wear Grandpappy’s pajamas, with the legs rolled up and the waist clothes pinned behind us so they wouldn’t fall off. Next she would sit us at the breakfast bar, and we would tell her all about our awesome snow forts and how brave and daring we were in our snow adventures. She would fill us up with hot cocoa, then read us books or play scrabble with us until our clothes were dry. Thus entrenched in love and warmth, we would head back out to face the wilds of the snowy day.

There are some things Nonnie will always hold the record for. She had the best cinnamon rolls, the softest sheets, the nicest reading chair, and, of course, the best hot chocolate in the world. Come to find out, Nonnie’s famous hot cocoa was a recipe pretty much straight from the Hershey’s cocoa box. Maybe the secret ingredient that made it so yummy was drinking it after the blustery cold of playing in the snow. Maybe it was getting to wear Grandpappy’s pajamas while our clothes dried in the dryer – but I think it was love.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Pictures

Here are some pictures to go with the Catch-Up blog. They're not anywhere close to in order, but I'll caption them so you'll know what they are.

This is Mommy on her birthday in April.
This is Alex, looking onery as usual. They came to visit us sometime over the summer, and we had just gotten out of the pool, so his hair is all spikey.

This is on our camping trip in June. I think technically baby peanut was camping with us :)

Godwill, Steph, and Makanaka on our camping trip. Tony, Godwill, and Makanaka all ended up with walking sticks, but Makanaka didn't like his.


This is a recent picture of Will - he's changed a lot since the hospital pictures huh?

This is the class I was in at Bible School. I like the youngest class - they fit my maturity level best.

This is Makanaka sprawled out on Tony's lap. It must have been more comfortable than it looked, he stayed there forever.

This is us on our trip to Eureka Springs. We went to a really cool wildlife refuge that specialized in big cats. Baby peanut is definately with us on this trip.

This is what my flower bed looked like in very early June. Now all the plants are huge and overflowing the bed - unfortunately, so are the weeds.

Playing Catch-Up

Okay, first of all, allow me to acknowledge it has been six months since my last post. I apologize profusely :) I shall diligently endeavor to swiftly recap all the stuff that has happened since then. Here goes:

March
-Nothing that I remember (how was that for brevity?)
-By this time, Baby Will is thriving and growing at a tremendous rate

April
-Unfortunately, April seems to be holding true as a sad chapter in the progress of each year. At the beginning of April, my Uncle Phillip passed away in a motorcycle accident. His family is doing well considering, but of course could still use your thoughts and prayers.
-Stephanie and Godwill's baby, Makanaka, was born

May
-We got a new camera (Yay!)
-School let out for the summer
-Kari had surgery on her ankle. Everything went well, and she is doing great.
-I started my first flower bed. It did great until July, when I started severly neglecting it. Some of the flowers have lived in spite of themselves, but the poor dears have definately been abused.
-I went to Branson with Mommy, Auntie, and Alex

June
-Vacation Bible School
-Camping with Steph, Godwill, and Makanaka
-We went on a short vacation to Eureka Springs, and while we were there, we found out I'm pregnant! Since Tony is always giving me tigers for special occasions, I got him a cute daddy tiger holding a baby tiger as my way of telling him the news. At this point, I felt totally great and normal.

July
-Started getting sick with the baby. This note pretty much dominated July and the beginning of August.

August
-Finally got to see Mommy, for the first time since getting pregnant. Since I couldn't drive two miles in the car without throwing up, driving to Tulsa before this point seemed a little daunting :)
-Back to school for Tony and I! I will probably keep working until January-ish, for all of you who are wondering :)

September
-We celebrated our second anniversary yesterday. As my gift, I didn't throw up all day long!
-Today, we got to hear our baby's heartbeat for the first time. This was very exciting for both of us! :)

Well, thats all the catching up for now - I might try to post some pictures later, if my internet connection will let me. Tata!