15 WEEKS

Alright, I think I lost a week somewhere in the process. Or rather, I lost track of the weeks and ended up gaining a week! I have a Doctor's appointment next week, so I suppose I would have found out then. I'm making slow but sure improvements, for which I am sooooooooo thankful. I've introduced a little soy back into my life, which has brought CHOCOLATE back into my life. I hadn't realized how lonely I was until I had my first drink of chocolate soymilk and -- WOW. I also bought a little bit of chocolate soy ice cream by the name of Chocolate Obsession. Incredible how your tastebuds forget. So, I'm temporarily over my nectarine binge and have moved on to chocolate Silk. (That's the name for the chocolate soy milk-- clever, ain't it?)
Yesterday was a banner day for me and visitors. Josh worked from home for part of the day, Brittny came and visited for awhile, and then later in the day Ben, Jen, and Lydia dropped by. People are the best kind of distraction for me. :-)
I also want to take this opportunity to laud my husband to the skies. His patience is really being tested by practically 12 weeks of non-normal home life. Non-regulated laundry, food, ironing, bed-making, bathroom cleaning, you name it -- NON NORMAL. He has become an expert grocery shopper and a clever cleaning guy, too. Also, we decided that if we ever needed any extra cash, we could hire him out to iron people's clothes. He's WAY better at it than I am.
Well, have a wonderful FOURTH OF JULY everyone.

Lydia's Birthday & Update

Hello all Peanut & Lydia fans!
I have had a series of pretty good days followed by sort of ghoulish nights. The night before last I lay awake for perhaps an hour from 3:30 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. sort of aimlessly mind wandering whilst trying to find some comfortable, Mr. Sandman sleep position. It's not that I was UNcomfortable, it's that my body was not be swayed into sleep again. I finally abandoned our bed and moved to the guest bedroom. I was feeling really self conscious about flipping over for the thirtieth time and just HOPING that Josh wasn't being disturbed by all of this. So, yesterday, I took no wonderful 2 hour day time nap and I went to bed armed with 4 pillows. Unfortunately, most of my pillows are full size, although I don't NEED them to be quite THAT big. In our double bed, this doesn't leave much room for Josh. The sad thing is, I'm not even that HUGE (at all) yet, so I can just imagine what sleeping will be like in the late months. This morning I woke up trying to imagine some crafty way to halve the size of a pillow without losing all of the stuffing, etc. Well, enough about me.
Lydia's birthday was last week, and we celebrated with a big bang. Most of you, I'm sure, have already looked at the pics on Jen's blog, but I have a few unique shots, so I'll post 'em.

First Pictures of the Peanut

11 weeks going on 12
Went to my first doctor's appointment today. What a relief, finally! Amazingly, I felt much better today, too. I am so thankful that I wasn't feeling gross at the M.D.'s. Everyone I met was very nice and most exciting of all I got to see our little baby, see it moving around in its swimming pool. (I think it even waved at Josh and myself.) It's amazing how active they already are. I also got to hear the heartbeat later on. Those wonderful, amayazizing things made for the quasi gross things that happen to you at the Gynecologists, but we won't talk about those things.

The Illness That Wouldn't Go Away

Brittny sent me a cute e-card from hallmark last week when I wasn't feeling well. :-) Little did she know that my continued illness had yet another cause. Actually, Brittny had more suspicions than other students. She kept wondering if I was really that sick WHY was I going to school. I could be contagious; I was obviously NOT in a teaching mood, etc. Well, the reason I kept going to school was because my throw ups were not contagious -- they were caused by a little something growing in my insides. (No, not a parasite!) I'm pregnant!
The first month was downright pleasant. My appetite was up and I was going on these nice neighborhood walks with Josh every night. Two weeks ago, however, the drama started. Suddenly, I felt better horizontal than I did vertical. I also did a good deal of heaving over the porcelain throne. Since two weeks ago it's worsened gradually, but amazinly, it is 12:19 in the afternoon and I have energy enough to type something. To THINK something. That is almost the worst part -- my powers of concentration are desperately weakened. Hence, grading, reading, teaching, talking -- all these previous forms of enjoyment (with the exception of grading) have taken on qualities of impossibility. Even doing dishes or walking downstairs to the laundry room have taken on epic proportions. My daily goals are so limited. I am trying eat, but there's no relish in it at all. This morning, I ate half a peice of toast, threw it up, and then ate the peice and a half I had left. That's how grungy this whole supposed "morning" sickness is. Unfortuantely, as all the pregnancy websites remind you, the name morning sickness is really a misnomer. It may occur wenever it wants to. Mine seems to be worse in the afternoon. The best part of my day is when I'm asleep at night. Then, there's the feeling in the morning when I've just woken up, that perhaps today will be a normal day. Well, enough of this rant! I am super excited, and it really helps to read about what positive things my body is actually doing while I am feeling so pukey. (How do you spell that, puky would obviously have a short u??) Apparently, the baby is mostly head right now, but already has nubs for all of its appendages. It even has little notches where the fingers and toes will grow. :-) It's still pretty teensy, like the size of a raspberry or something. My uterus, however, has grown to the size of a grapefruit. Also, the tentative due date is Jan 1 . . a New Year's Baby. I would certainly appreciate EVERYONE'S prayers. So would Josh. He's having to do the horse's share of the work around here. Actually, we'll just go ahead and say he's doing ALL the work. :-) Except when I wash a dish or two in the afternoon. :-)

Some Insomniatic Artwork

Here's what I can do with Paint. . Draw a picture of my house. :-) I spent so much time on this for no reason at all, I thought it might make it worth it if I posted it on the blog.

Unforgettable Sand

GIGANTESCOS
Spring Break in the OBX was really nice. The beach there is quite beautiful -- all of the homes are hidden by these enormous sand dunes, so you feel like you're at a remote beach. The homes in Waves, actually on most of the island, were ginormous! At Cape San Blas there are homes in all varieties or sizes -- including the one we stayed in (The Treehouse, 2 bdrms) . Most homes were 4 or 5 bedroom colossals.

SANDBLASTED JEANS, ANYONE?

The first day on the beach was a sandblaster to the legs and face. Unfortunately, it lacked any spa-like qualities that people pay thousands and thousands of dollars for. We beat a hasty retreat, for which we got called all sorts of names by the "adults." I reflected upon this as I told the story to my students. I still call the older generation, "the adults." Ridiculous! I guess its a more polite way of addressing them as a generalization.

LIGHTHOUSES, AHOY!

We went and did some sight seeing on the OBX. We visited two lighthouses, although we were allowed to climb neither. We even heard some ghost stories about the Bay in which Blackbeard, the Pirate, was killed. Apparently, his head was severed from his body, and the latter was thrown overboard but continued to swim for quite some time. The head was sent to the governor of VA as proof, and then on to England. It was stolen by a group of pagan's who cut off the top of the head, dipped it into bronze, and used it as a chalice in their wicked pagan rituals. Jen and I were told all this by a overzealous teacher turned Park Ranger. Same Park Ranger couldn't resist asking us if we'd heard about the sand on Hatteras. We hadn't. Well, once it got between your toes, you could never really shake that feeling, so you came back over and over just to get that feeling.

NEW OLYMPIC SPORT
Of course, we spent a fair amount of time Pook's Watching. It's a new sport, haven't you heard? The real sport was trying to wipe Lydia's nose. It got so bad that people holding her would ask other people to get a tissue and play the "evil, mean, nose wiper" personality, so that whoever was holding her wouldn't be fussed against. Thankfully, she only had a runny nose and no other symptoms. Unfortunately, several others had worse symptoms, including Jen. She stayed up hacking several nights in a row.


THE WELL APPOINTED HOME
We had a great time. The house was what I'd like to call, "well appointed." There was enough usable space so that we didn't feel like we were in each other's space all of the time, and we didn't have to play that horrible musical tables game. There were enough flat surfaces so that eating, prepping, chopping, making coffee, playing games, stacking books, magazines, Lydia's toys. . everything had its own space and there was no need for the the constant moving of the objects in a circle. :-) The pool table and game room were great! The hot tub was pretty nice, even though the weather was quite chilly in the evenings. It made it even better to shed clothes getting chillier by the second, then plunge into the HOT water and feel the comfort and warmth spread from your toes to your neck. When the jets and whatnot were turned on. . forget it. . a wonderland.


KITTY HAWK & THE LOST COLONY
We thoroughly enjoyed our second day of sightseeing, a smidge more than our first day. The first day we encountered wild ponies wandering through their PEN, and the most beautiful beaches in the United States (if you like the remote, barren sort), and two lighthouses that we couldn't climb. This second day we saw two replicas of the first successful plane flewn by the Wright Bros. The presentation was given (I swear) by an ex-minster. . he labored every point he was making. He was dramatic I almost laughed out loud at several points. After seeing some of the tallest sand dunes in the U.S. (make that the word, why don't we?), we made our way across the Pamlico Sound to Roanoke Island where the memorials and musuem about the Lost Colony are. This was highly interesting. Right next door were the Elizabethan Gardens which were just popping into bloom. Ben, Jen, Lydia, Josh and I took a long walk through azaleas, hydrangeas, camellias, and lots of other gorgeous shrubs.

WALKS ON BEACH

The walks out on the beach were marvelous (after that first day). There was a nice wooden bridge taking us over the dunes to a 30 to 40 foot wide expanse of good sand. The dunes covered the other homes. On our last walk, Josh and I really walked far. We discovered this HUGE jellyfish which Josh couldn't resist poking in the ribs.