What God did-- Mazatlan Day 1.5

We made it here to sunny hot Mazatlan, had all my prayers answered along the way and am again just amazed that God is in this with us.

1. my brother vacationing in Florida called at about 2 pm when we were driving to Minneapolis to tell me that he thought the airport was in a 'ground stop' for ice meaing nothing in or out- bless this I phone. the perfect timing of this information confirmed with some information obtained from my dad at work allowed us to cancel our hotel rooms in Houston (which had to be done by 4 pm and we would have been too late if we got to the airport and tried to cancel then) because with any delay we would not have made it in time to get the last shuttle... $325 saved

2. the weather got really bad about 60 miles outside of Minneapolis and we had to drive like 50 miles/hour getting us to the airport late which was ok because we already knew we'd be delayed or else i would have been freaked out by our slow crawl.

3. park and fly went really smoothly with a great driver helping us with all our luggage in the snow and ice and wind

4. one of the biggest stresses for me was checking all our bags. having an 'international flight' from minneapolis to mazatlan meant our first bags were free but the website and the lady i called at the airline said because our layover was overnight that we would have to claim our bags in houston and recheck them this morning for our flight to mazatlan. this would have made our first leg 'domestic' and would have costed an extra $180 just for luggage. i was also not really excited about us having to collect all our luggage and spend the time rechecking them in this morning. well we get to the counter, they check our bags all the way through to mazatlan, will keep them overnight and we didn't pay any first checked bag fee. praise God! that is exactly how i prayed (and others) it would go

5. yes our plane was delayed and yes luke wassink entirely forget his bag at home but so far so good in terms of not hitting any major glitches. we landed in Houston around 12:30 which was 2 hours late. we found a hotel with rooms who still had an active shuttle that late who picked us up and we got 2 two rooms suites for the price of the other rooms which included a hot breakfast and really comfy beds. i just wish i could have slept more than 5 hours in it

6. today our flight to Mazatlan went off without a hitch. on time, beautiful weather etc but once we arrive my biggest stress is realized. getting all of us and all our meds through customs. we didn't have the government letter this time so i knew there would be a chance of getting stopped. at customs you collect your bags, put them through an xray and then push a button... green you walk through and red you get searched which usually goes well unless they see something suspicious in your bag through the xray. this is the part that always makes me nervous. well guess what... the xray wasn't working today so we just walked right on through. yep just walked right on through with our $600+meds/supplies etc. praise God! another answer to prayer

7. one guy on our team has a chronic serious medical condition and he grabbed the wrong bottle of pills to bring with him. Elizabeth, my PA friend who is joining us tomorrow, is still at home and we called her before we took off and she is bringing him down enough for the week.

So the 12 of us made it here safely. the other two familes consisting of the next 11 of us arrived a few hours after us with no hassles. One more flies in tomorrow and 2 more meet up with us on Friday making our team of 26 almost all here in one piece. it is has been a logistic hassle for me to get this big team together but it has all worked out well so far. no extra luggage fees, no layover hassles, no xray at customs. our trip could not have been easier. I love being able to tell stories like this and say "Look what God did"

Tomorrow our beloved Hawkeyes play in the Outback Bowl and I think we just secured us a place to watch it a 9 am with our friends Kyle and Ellen. We stopped by a sports bar tonight who had another bowl on their big TV and asked what time they open. The guys said with a laugh, "11, or i hope 11. we're all going to be hung over". Happy New Years Eve from Mexico! At least he was honest. :-)

Tomorrow we have a 'day off' because of the holiday so it will be just rest, football, beach, naps etc for us. The real work begins on Friday. I'll post more in the coming days and hopefully with some pictures.

The best Christmas present ever

My mom had this wooden replica of my childhood house made for me for Christmas. Even though it was the only present I got this year, it was the best I could have ever imagined. Even if I had gotten thousands of dollars of presents, it still would have been the best I could have ever imagined. 4824 Candy Lane... how I miss you. one slightly blurry picture without the flash
I can't speak for anyone else but for me, home is where my mom is.

And so it begins...

So I decided to finally open my birthday present and start putting it together. Seems like a good thing to do on a cold winter's day. Bill likes to play electronic football in the living room so I set up a table right next to his so we can 'spend' time together while we're indulging our individual vices.

Here is a picture of the huge box with its 10000+pieces

inside the huge box were four smaller boxes and one gigantic 270 page spiral bound instruction manual

the contents of the four boxes were a ton of small plastic bags containing all the pieces another shot of the instruction manual because it is so hefty it deserved a close up

2.5 hours later I had all the pieces organized by size and color in plastic containers to help with easy access when I start to build

I did make all the mini figures last night

it was harder than I thought because I had to make sure I had the right Lego head on the figures and match everyone's pants and tops and with 3 Luke Skywalkers with different hair styles, 2 Han Solos and a bunch of random imperial troops it took me longer than expected

whoops- I just by accident deleted the third picture of the mini figures and am too lazy to put it back on the blog. There are almost 20 people in total. You get the idea.

So now I am ready to start building. I'll blog on my progress from time to time. Any bets on what happens first? Baby Lucas or a completed 10000+ piece Lego Death Star.

"Our last Christmas alone for at least 20 years"

So Bill said this week, rather tragically, that this is our last Christmas alone for at least 20 years. I think he is calculating in his head that he will be over 60 until we have an 'empty nest'. I think by the time Lucas is 12-14 we can 'train' him to sleep in like ol' dad and mom and not wake up until 10ish on Christmas morning which will make it feel more 'normal' to Bill and I. But alas, for at least the next 10 years or so we'll be up with the dawn seeing what Santa put in our stockings. This year Gabby and Nile were with their mom so Bill and I did relish our day all alone.

Growing up I always had Butter Stresuel Sara Lee Coffee Cake on Christmas morning. Bill used to have it too. I realized on the 23rd before falling asleep that we didn't buy one. We were both working on Christmas Eve so there would be no time to get to the store before it closed. I went to bed sad that there would be no Butter Stresuel Coffee Cake for Christmas morning. I think I went beyond being sad and whined a little (go figure). Unbeknownst to me, during the day on Wednesday, Bill snuck out of work to buy one. After we got up at 10 am this morning, I came downstairs all ready to have oatmeal or toast for breakfast and Bill was heating up the oven to make the coffee cake. It was a great Christmas surprise and every bite was a delight.

Without having the kids this year and not doing presents, we went minimalistic with the decorations. We put up Bill's baby tree his mom bought him for college in the kitchen.
My awesome 'made from cornhusks' Christmas tree my brother and sister-in-law bought we probably 10 years ago which has traveled with me for many Christmases in many different places.

Shout out to my Grandma who bought this for me at a Hallmark store a few years ago; though their song can get irritating it always makes me smile.

Yoda got his Santa hat with a sweet Nativity scene at his feet (is that sacrilegious?) My one lone Dickens caroler stands alone hoping some day for a family of her own. Two stockings still lay on the stairs that never got put up.

And the 'granddaddy' of our minimalistic Christmas is our mouse tree. Bill's folks had two Christmas trees; one for regular ornaments and one only for mice. It is unclear who Barb and Len started their mouse ornament collection but it apparently got out of hand enough to necessitate a second tree. Bill's sister has half the ornaments and we have half and enough to fully decorate a good half sized tree.

A close up of the mice

Bill and I get a Christmas ornament every year and this is the one we got this year. Lucas can grow old with it and tell his kids this was the ornament Grandma and Grandpa got the Christmas when Grandma was pregnant with me.

We spent some of our day of blissful relaxation cleaning up a bit. On a trip down the basement stairs, Bill tripped over his pant leg and whacked his head really hard on the low ceiling of the staircase. He got a good scrap and spent most of the rest of the day with a bag of corn on his head icing it. While we were playing some games, he allowed me to take this sweet classic picture of how he rigged the bag of corn on his head with a rag and an ace bandage.

We played two rounds of Ticket to Ride Dice (our new favorite game), 4 games of Hive (two before we realized we were playing it wrong) and 4 games of Catan Dice.

And we had Chinese food with two friends home alone on Christmas. And we fed our friends cat. And we saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button which was really good but could be titled 'Forrest Gump of the New Millennium'.

I know our lives will never be the same after Lucas arrives. And I everyone says it will only get better, but today was pretty well near perfect except for Bill's head injury and that for half the games we played I lost. But otherwise pretty well near perfect.

I was sitting at Christmas Eve service last night thinking about how next year we'll have a baby to hold. Next year we'll have a 5th stocking to hang. Next year there is no way we'll be sleeping in on Christmas morning. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of our son, but am not wishing away one moment we have alone together until that day comes.

A conversation at work and a disclaimer with a major announcement

Coworker: Have you picked a name for your baby?
Me: I think we are going to name him Lucas.
Coworker: Oh that's a great name. I thought you'd pick something like Speilberg Iverson
Me: Why Speilberg?
Coworker: For Star Wars
Me: He didn't do Star Wars.
Coworker: He didn't, who did?
Me: George Lucas
Coworker: (silence). I'm a dumbass, I knew that.

** really his name is Lucas not after George Lucas (but that is a really good side effect) because we want to call him Luke, yes, after our favorite Jedi but also after the doctor who wrote the gospel of Luke, and Lucas fits better with his middle name of Hawk, which, yes, is after our beloved Hawkeyes. We are still debating spelling Hawk with an 'e'.

So you heard it here first, if you haven't heard already, we are naming our baby Lucas Hawk Iverson. Now that is a cool name; Luke Iverson. Try saying it loud like you are announcing it over a PA system at a major sporting event (the test for any real name)**

Homesick

This video makes me feel homesick for a place I have never lived but for the place that has stolen my heart.

I lied

I lied. Day old snow is pretty tasty. Bill only has the kids on Wednesday nights so he and Gabby got to share an inaugural winter bowl together.

Snow Ice Cream

Bill's mom grew up in El Paso and passed along a family recipe for Snow Ice Cream. Being a snow snob myself and coming from the land of white falls, winters and springs, celebrating snow was a little beyond me. But I will have to admit there is some magical and yummy about snow ice cream made with the first snow of the year. And midwest snow is purer than East Coast snow because it doesn't stop over in Detroit to pick up car factory emissions. I worked until 9 pm last night and it started to snow sometime in the afternoon. Bill called, "You want snow ice cream when you get home? I did an inventory, all we need is cream and I'm headed to the store". Heck ya, I want snow ice cream. And the baby wants it too. Bill loves to make it with Gabby (Nile doesn't like it) and I look forward to many winters teaching the baby how to make the perfect bowl. Here is the recipe. You should try it- that is if you have snow.

1. snow- preferably fresh fallen snow. Bill likes to get it from the top of the hedges

2. cream- skim milk won't cut it, 2% if you have to but nothing beats half and half
3. vanilla

4. vanilla pudding mix

5. sugar

Fill your bowl with snow, add some cream then a few drops of vanilla with a dusting of vanilla pudding mix along with not even half a spoonful of sugar. Stir. Taste. Add whatever you need more of and enjoy. I like to stir mine totally until it is almost the consistency of a thick milk shake. Bill likes to eat his more 'au natural' in its more solid form. The fun of snow ice cream is that there is no real right way. Bill and the kids have tried different flavors, choc pudding mix with choc milk and they say nothing beats the original.

We only have this a few times a winter and it is really only best with new fallen snow. Day old snow just doesn't seem to make good ice cream. It is a real treat in places that never really snows like the South but even us, Northeners, can enjoy it especially during the first major snow fall of the winter.

yum!

--from a high school friend off his facebook. it is worth a try and good for a laugh; with these type of culinary skills i wonder how much longer he'll be single :-) --

Jeff's Super Easy Single-Bachelor Chocolate Tofu Pie

1 package of silken tofu
1 bag of chocolate chips
1 store bought/pre-made graham cracker crust pie crust
Some sugar
Some vanilla

1. Open bag of chocolate chips. For quality control purposes, open the bag and eat a handful. Repeat. Depending on quality, you might need a second bag of chips.
2. Empty mostly-filled bag of chocolate chips into a microwavable container. Yes, a small aquarium will do...or rinsed-out beer pitcher. Microwave until melted.
3. Ask your most attractive, single neighbor if you can borrow her food processor. If she doesn't have one, ask for a blender. If she doesn't have one, ask for mixer. If she doesn't have one - you have met your soulmate so say, "That's OK, we can put it on our wedding registry." Live happily ever after. Do not continue to Step 4.
4. Pour everything you have into the food processor. Do not add the pie crust, however. Blend until smooth. For those keeping score, I add a few drops of vanilla and enough sugar to make the entire pool of brown goop taste good.
5. Pour contents of food processor into pie crust. Put pie in fridge. Wait until pie is firm. Eat or show off to attractive single neighbor.

*Notes*
Try the following:
1. Honey instead of sugar.
2. Espresso or left over coffee (1/2 cup) to add to entire mixture.
3. Garnishing with fruit.

Twas early morning of December 13th

'Twas early morning of December 13th, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse because Bill caught it in the kitchen last week

Two stockings were hung on the stair railing by dental floss a job half complete because prego mamma can't remember who's is whose

In hopes that someone else would finish putting them up

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of chocolate chip pancakes, studying for finals and bickering with each other danced in their heads;

And mamma with her fat prego belly, and I with my bald head,

Had just settled down for a long winter's nap,

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,

I thought about springing from the bed to see what was the matter but it was over so fast and I thought he just hit the trash cans so I didn't do anything but roll over and tell my prego wife that that guy is not on the lawn in his car but just on the curb knocking over the trashcans.

And then we woke up this morning. This is where the cute rhyming poem ends. That crazy driver got up on our lawn across the driveway and knocked 2 almost 3 of our hedges down. He barely miss our neighbors house. I think the hedges slowed him. He barely missed the church van which resides in our driveway. He barely missed the $500 tree we had planted two years ago on our front lawn. He barely missed our house. Oh I'm pissed. Even if Bill had sprung up to see what was the matter, he probably wouldn't have seen anything. It was the middle of the night and by the time he got downstairs, the car was probably gone and his contacts are always a big foggy first thing from sleeping. My mom says "look on the bright side, you wanted those hedges trimmed". My dad says call local body shops and see if anyone comes in with twigs stuck under their car and then take one of our twigs in for comparison; he always is thinking logically. I called and made a police report in case someone else saw something or some guy got picked up for reckless driving a few blocks away from our house last night. I know nothing will come of it, but it felt good to have Iowa City's finest standing on the porch taking information as if he was all concerned about it. We'll have a hole in our hedges for years I'm sure to match the pile of rock on the driveway (going on year 2) and the pile of dirt on the lawn (going on year 1) all of which we have the best of intentions to do some landscaping with.

Here is a look at the newly-trimmed-by-a-crazy-person's-car hedge

And a close up

And a tire track shot in case I find myself in a court room with Joe Pesci and Marissa Tomei debating what kind of car's suspension can get over a curb and still make flat parallel marks like these

And Bill was right, he did knock over the trash can. Poor trash can lid, you've seen better days!

I'm may just be a fundraising genius

So here is what I did, two years in a row mind you. I organized a bake and craft sale to raise money for our Mexico Mission. I enlisted all the crafty gals at church to donate crafts, made the entire Mexico team bake goodies. I baked two of my 'in my mind county fair award winning' apple pies. And the stage was set. This year a new lady at church named Pat said she did some crafty things and wanted to help out. The more the merrier I thought. Little did I know what crafty things Pat did and how much she wanted to help out. We get to church last Sunday and Pat has this entire huge bin of stuff she has made; scarves, hats, and these adorable gift bags by the 100s. She says making this stuff is relaxing for her and she wanted to help out our mission. We had to lay out twice the table space just to be able to display all the stuff we had. Kate outdid herself with this awesome homemade advent calender that she under priced so I pushed it up $10 more bucks along with these bead filled heat massage pillows. Kim made adorable barrettes which make me wish we were having a girl along with some neat wall hangings. Amy and Nichole made cool jewelry. Dani, in her post partum state, donated some homemade soap, burp clothes and towel sets. Beth brought three awesome necklaces and a baby blanket I didn't buy but hope one turns up like that at my shower :-). Did I forget anyone? It was an amazing spread. The Wassinks and Mim brought yummy bread, Derek and Josh in the midst of studying for finals brought cookies. Shonna who is not even going this time made muffins which along with my 'in my mind county fair award winning apple pies' made for an amazing spread. Our little church who doesn't have a 'real building' yet is made up of large generous hearts. The sale went fabulous and we raised $933.25. Let me repeat that $933.25 for a small 150 person on a good day church in a small mid western town. It was amazing. I was in awe as I counted up the cash box. I just may be a fundraising genius or I just may just dwell in the best community ever! Is this Heaven? No it's Iowa... and we couldn't agree more.

Here are some of the cute bags we bought from Pat for gifts. Act surprised if you get one some day.

Here is one filled up
Had to buy these on the off chance my baby is a girl, but if not they will look adorable in some little girl named Lauren's hair.

Yet another crazy race

Bill ran yet another crazy race on Saturday. This race was in Des Moines and was a 8 mile trail run. Friday night we had some friends over to play games and didn't get to bed until a little past midnight. We were up at 5:55 to get on the road for the race. Even Bill made a statement about how crazy this was. But on our way we were. We hit a really icy patch of highway and had to crawl at like 10 miles/hour so we almost missed the race. But luck would have it we pulled into the finish with about 20 minutes to spare, Bill got changed in the car and I got him registered. The start was 8 miles north so we had to follow the bus of runners to the start as Bill continued to get ready in the car. Here is the shot of how bundled up Bill was. It was freezing cold, windy and icy. Here are the racers at the start. Only about 50 of them. One girl wasn't wearing socks.
And they're off. Bill is about midway in this pack, wearing his red jacket. After the start, I got back in the car and drove to the finish to wait for Bill. There was a 4 mile race as well I was going to do but the footing was too iffy and I didn't want to fall with Half Pint. So I stayed in the car, read a book and got ready at the finish line about 5 minutes before Bill expected himself to show up. And here he comes...

Bill got 3rd in his age group. It was so cold that there wasn't an award ceremony. They just gave you your award as your crossed the finish line and then everyone just got in their cars to warm up. This is the farthest Bill has ever raced and I was really proud he did it in such terrible conditions. He was really glad I didn't race after he was done racing because even with special attachments on his shoes for snow and ice, his footing was terrible. He was glad Half pint and I stayed warm in the car.

I still can't believe he did this race; probably the craziest one by far.

Iverson Year in Review

Welcome to many of you at our blog for the first time prompted to come to this site by that adorable Iverson Christmas postcard which recently arrived in your mailbox. I promised a full year in review and you'll get it. Feel free after you are done to roam around our blog, check out past months posts for snapshots from our year. And there are always the lovely "how big is Katie's stomach now?" pictures as I document my pregnancy.

So I guess we will this year start with the youngest member of the family. Baby Iverson is due on April 20th. Today we found that baby is a boy! That is thrilling news #1. Thrilling news #2 is that we are finally cleaning out our junk/bonus room for baby and actually sorting through years of stuff we have collected. Nothing like a new family member coming home to promote a little cleaning; I think the appropriate term is nesting. Bill can hardly believe he is starting over having a baby when his kids are 12 and 14. The only emotion he can share when asked about it, "I tired" he'll say. I can't really believe I am someone's mom. The bigger my belly gets, the more real it becomes. Feel free to check back to the blog for more belly pics and then finally baby pictures.

Nile turned 12 in June. He is in the 7th grade. He continues to be the consummate athlete playing soccer, baseball, football and basketball. He joined a private more elite soccer club this fall and his skills have really improved. He enjoys all sports and likes being active. Contrary to what I thought two years ago, he continues to play the trumpet and really likes that as well. He has made the transition from elementary to junior high smoothly academically and advanced two years in math. Some of Gabby's friends are in his math class which I think drives her a bit crazy which, of course, makes him delighted.

Gabby is now 14 and a freshman in high school. She will say "school is school", however, she is doing really well and enjoying herself socially. She had her first formal dance this fall which was kind a dud because of her date which is a long complicated story with all the drama of a 14 year old so I won't go into it. She looked beautiful beyond her years and it will be a funny story to tell years from now as all our high school dance stories have become. She ran cross country this fall but was injured for about 1/2 of the season. She has decided against track in the spring in lieu of soccer which she has never really played. We'll see how that goes. Unlike her brother, Gabby is not competitive in sports and really just wants to be on the team and hang out with her friends.

Next comes me, oh yeah I'm knocked up and getting fatter by the hour :-) But enough of that. Here is some non pregnancy news. I continue to work at the Emergency Room which I really like. My 12 hour shifts are long, but 4 days off are heavenly. I will continue to work after my maternity leave and we hope Bill can stay home 1-2 days with baby and we'll have child care in home for the other day I'll work (hopefully). I had just started running last year when I wrote the Christmas letter and have gotten in some semblance of good shape. Bill and I have run a bunch of 5Ks throughout the year. He is way faster than I am but we have enjoyed the time together going to and from these small town races on Saturday mornings. I even won two medals. They say I can run pregnant as long as I want as long as I don't get too overheated or tired. I have been trying to run a few days a week and now I'm indoors due to potential icy sidewalks because I'm a lopsided fall risk. I did also start swimming with a friend of mine a few weeks ago and that is a great workout and so much easier on my expanding body.

Bill continues his work; not much change from last year. He is still the director of the first semester medical school class and runs the outpatient resident clinic at the VA. This summer a medical professor from Cambridge University came over to have a week workshop on teaching communication skills which is done very differently in British medical schools. This concept has really jazzed up Bill and he is now spearheading an entire change in how communication skills are taught to Iowa Medical students. We will be going to England the first week of February so Bill can learn more from him and we can have one last vacation before little one arrives. His running has really progressed this year which you can tell by the number of shoes he has gone through as you should replace them every 300-400 miles. His 5k is competitive in his age group and he has racked up the medals and trophies. He even won a whole race in September. He said it was so weird being at the total front of the pack that he didn't know what to do. I said "just run like you're being chased".

Our big family trip was to Tybee Island in Georgia in July. We went with Bill's sister's family; her daughter Megan is 13 and son Drake is 8. My folks also met us in Georgia and it was a really fun relaxing time. This was the height of our running insanity as we willingly got up at 5 am on vacation to run because it was just too hot if you waited even until 6 or 7 am. Plenty of pictures from our vacation in our past blog postings from July.

Bill and I went to Puerto Rico in February and had a nice trip just the two of us. We continue our work in Mexico and had three successful trips this year. We head back for another week on New Year's Eve. I will miss the spring trip due to baby, but will be back for the fall trip. We look forward to having our Mexico Mission trips be part of our new little one's life experience.

It is another good year to be a Hawkeye; let's be honest I say that every year but I really mean it. We have enjoyed watching our football team rise like a phoenix from the ashes. My Aunt Mary and her family purchased the four tickets in front of us and it has been really great going to the home games with them. I don't have any other family close so it is really a blessing. And my Uncle Rob is just a crazy and loud and vocal about the Hawks so he and Bill get along great. We added Michigan State to our "Iverson Big 10 Stadium Tour" this year going to East Lansing to watch the Hawks unfortunately lose in October. We went with our friends, Amy and Brian Boelk, and my folks met us there. We have also tried to go to several other non football events to cheer on our Hawks; we have been to gymnastics, volleyball, field hockey and basketball. We are going to hit wrestling and indoor track this winter and hope to catch baseball and softball in the spring. We have been throwing around Hawkeye names for our baby... we'll see what concoction of crazy Hawkeye devotion we can come up with that is still somewhat normal.

With 2009 right around the corner we have plenty of things to look forward to. Bill will jump the pond for the first time as we go to England in February. Bill and the kids will be going on a cruise just the three of them in March for Spring Break. Initially I was going and my folks were as well but I'll be 36 weeks so Bill is taking just the kids and my folks are coming here in case baby comes early. I think Bill is really looking forward to the time alone with just them before our newest member arrives. Baby is due in April. We will have a fun summer trip with the kids in July. And by then it is almost football season again :-) How quickly everything comes back to the Hawkeyes.

It is amazing how much more verbose than usual I am when I don't have to get the Christmas letter short enough to fit on the paper. Thanks for reading my ramblings of another fun filled Iverson year. I hope this holiday finds you safe and happy and warm. Having you in our life is a blessing. Thanks for your friendship.

Happy 41st, my love.

We celebrated Bill's birthday early on Sunday because the kids were over. His real birthday is tomorrow, the 2nd. We had a nice day with minimal bickering which is all Bill really wanted to his birthday. Not 41 candles but enough to make the point that he is getting old.
Thinking of a wish face or I don't my picture taken face which may be one in the same. He got them all out with on breath so his wish should come true.

Gabby made him a bracelet and Nile made him this really sweet card.

the front

the inside.

Nile took that blue plastic thing off a 'truth or dare' book he has and when you hit the button, the lights flicker and stops on an option for you. VERY CLEVER. And Nile got Bill's choice activities right... watch TV, take a nap. drink a beer, eat chips and cookies.

A sweet sentiment on the back.

Bill's sister reminded Bill of a funny story at Thanksgiving. Bill had this little green mouse named Boxer who had a parachute on it. One day while playing. Boxer's parachute came down mid flight and Boxer came crashing to the ground. Bill made Boxer a little bed for recuperate in and Boxer was in this bed for about 6 mo nursing his injuries. Bill still has Boxer on a shelf upstairs. Everyone laughed at this story but I almost cried with this happy thought. I am having this man's child. This man who is sweet and caring and thoughtful and full of imagination. I cannot wait for Bill to make a bed for some wounded plastic creature or stuffed animal who gets injured in the line of play and put it next to our son's bed for him to watch over it.

Bill's definitely not the man for everyone, but he is the man for me and I love him dearly.

Happy Birthday!

The Scale of Truth

So the scale at the doctor's office has me only having gained 12 lbs. I now refer to that as M.F.S -- my favorite scale. Little does MFS know that I gained a few pounds before ever stepping on it but what MFS doesn't know won't hurt him.

Oh yeah and I'm having a boy! I went to Target today to get inspired and fell in love with every little turtle and dinosaur I saw.

The Advent Conspiracy

20 week and 20 lbs

There are no words to describe how I feel in this body. All I can say is I'm 1/2 way done.

The infamous belly button ring

Does everyone know that I have a belly button ring? I got it pierced at the end of my first year in PA school, just two days before starting rotations and meeting Bill. I have never changed it but now it is time because of my expanding baby belly. I bought a pregnancy piercing online which is a long flexible plastic bar that can be used hopefully throughout my pregnancy until I can put my regular ring back in. Having never changed my ring, I sought help from an expert. Katie, a nurse at work, had changed hers plenty of times so this morning before work got too busy, she changed it out. My friend, Kim, was shadowing me today and she took the pics.

Here is the before shot.

Getting my old ring out--- how much skinnier I look laying down
Ringless (how my father would much rather have my belly button)

My new piercing in place.

Side view

Of yeah it also glows in the dark... holla! I'm awesome.