A little Christmas and Thanksgiving

The night before Thanksgiving, I sweet-talked Tom into dragging down the Christmas stuff from the attic so we could decorate the tree.  The kids had fun and Jack only broke two decorations.  He also seems to think that stockings are for your feet, not for hanging from the fireplace.

For Thanksgiving, we drove out to my parents' house in Beaumont.  Luckily, Dianna called to warn us that I-10 was shut down due to a 140 car pile-up so we were able to take an alternate route.  I didn't take a single picture of all the yummy food or good company.  I just have this one attempt at a family picture where my kids are making weird grimaces.

 Oh well.  It was still a delightful day and everyone came home happy, full, and exhausted.

The Big Reveal

I am officially past the halfway mark for this pregnancy.  While the morning all day sickness has mostly subsided, I am getting more and more uncomfortable due to my ever increasing girth. I can count on one hand the number of shirts I can fit into.  And my trips to the bathroom have quadrupled.  Good times.

Yesterday, Tom and I kept Ellie home from school and we went in for the anatomy ultrasound.  Ellie has been insisting for some time that this baby is a boy even though she wanted a girl.  Tom and I both felt like the baby was a girl.  In fact, I was so confident that I bet one of my students $5 it was a girl.

I guess I owe him 5 bucks.

Vomit and Vampires

A new HEB grocery store just opened up in my subdivision. Everyone is so excited about not having to drive 15 minutes away to go grocery shopping.  I went to go check it out today and do some much needed shopping.  I only had a short window of time where I could go by myself so I rushed out of the house with hair still damp from the shower and absolutely no makeup.  You see where this is headed, right?  Every time I go somewhere looking my worst, something bad happens.  This time the something bad was the worst coughing fit I have ever had.  Horrible, hacking, gagging cough.  I couldn't breath, my face turned red, and tears streamed down my face.  I reached under my cart to try to break into the case of water and started vomiting.  Yep, I vomited in the brand new HEB.  It was awful.  Then, I was trying to quickly get out of there and I cut through the wine aisles and managed to knock some bottles of wine off the shelf.  Three employees working that section came running and I am sure were horrified by the red faced, tear-streaked woman with vomit all down her shirt.  Not my finest moment.  I called Tom to tell him about it and his response was, "How do these things always happen to you?"  I don't know, but embarrassing myself just comes naturally to me.

On to more fun news...I went to see the midnight showing of Breaking Dawn II on Thursday night with some fun girls!  Actually, it was the 10:01 show, but still later than I have stayed up since getting pregnant.  It was totally worth it.  But there was a moment in the film when it seemed like they weren't following the book and I became very indignant.  VERY indignant.  And then I realized that I was a 33 year old mother of 2 (and a half) kids getting all riled up over a movie about vampires and werewolves.

Bragging on my husband

This past weekend, Ellie and I drove to Austin to watch Tom's team compete in the state cross country meet.  Sabrina was kind enough to keep Jack for us so Ellie was able to be an only child for a bit.  On Friday, we went to dinner with the team where the girls fawned all over Ellie.  Then on Saturday she joined them under their tent and received even more attention.  Needless to say, she was in her element.

I just have to brag on Tom for a bit.  He has been coaching at his current school for 5 years.  His team has won Districts, placed in the top 3 at Regionals, and gone to State every year for the past 4 years.  His team is the only team in the district for any sport that has competed in a state meet 4 years in a row.  He is that good.  Sometimes I get annoyed because he spends so much time on coaching and obsessing about his team, but I am also very proud of him!  Plus, I think he looks really hot in his coaching gear, wearing two stopwatches around his neck, and running all over the course shouting encouragement at his runners.

The obligatory Halloween post

We dragged Halloween out this year.  Last Friday, the kids got all dressed up in their Power Rangers gear and went to Trunk or Treat at the church.  Ellie has been a huge Power Rangers fan for a little over a year now and she has somehow gotten Jack hooked on the show as well. I am still on the fence, but I will admit they looked pretty darn cute in their costumes!

The kids had fun playing all the different games and then getting loads of candy at the end.  Is it wrong that I always steal all the chocolate out of their candy and hide it for my own personal stash?  They never seem to notice it missing.

Last night we went to a Halloween party at a friend's house before trick-or-treating on their street. Their block is famous.  It has even been featured on the news. Everyone goes all out on decorations and several people even do haunted houses. It is insane.  One of the dads at the party had made a big Batman Lego costume. Jack took one look at him and burst into tears. He was TERRIFIED! 

So, I was a little worried how he would handle trick or treating when all the houses were decked out with scary monsters, not to mention the haunted houses. However, he LOVED it!  Nothing scared him at all.  And by the end of the night, he was more than happy to pose with Lego Batman. 

Tom and I had a conversation about how Halloween is one of those things you just do for your kids to make sure they have happy childhood memories.  Because trekking through crowds, going door-to-door, is not really our idea of a good time.  At least I have lots of chocolate to make it all worthwhile.