Boycotting Christmas

My biggest complaints with the holidays is that people don't appreciate the current one, Thanksgiving is not even here and tons of people are getting ready for Christmas. I wonder if we are the only culture that does this, always jumping ahead. I told Josh that our Christmas tree or decorations will not be up until after Thanksgiving. The mums (even though half dead) will be proudly placed on our front porch till at least Nov. 25th. It's one thing to shop early but another thing to decorate early. The Thanksgiving Holiday should be called " the mistreated holiday".

So in honor of Thanksgiving -

I feel this year has been the best and saddest year of my life. I married my best friend in the world, He is a person that truly brings the best out of me. I am so excited to be having a baby and starting "our" family.

We lost a person very dear to us and as sad as it was in losing Josh's mom, I am so thankful that I was allowed to spend numerous days and nights with her. She was a person that was very special to me. I am also thankful for a great family both mine and the "in laws".

So…...

For Those of you that celebrate the upcoming holiday, Happy Thanksgiving, from our home to yours, and for those that do not, please enjoy the day off!

May your stuffing be tasty, may your turkey be plump, may your potatoes and gravy have nary a lump, may your yams be delicious, may your pies take the prize, may your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!

Gobble till you wobble….and above all, give thanks

Thump, thump, thump

WE HEARD THE HEARTBEAT TODAY!!  Our appointment wasnt till Wednesday but I got a little anxious and called the doctor to see if he could move my appointment till today.   I cannot explain the feeling when we heard it on the monitor.... a little surreal knowing a little person is growing inside of you.   Josh was smiling from ear to ear.  I think Daddy-to-be is just a little excited.  The countdown is on, six more months to go!!

The apple of our eyes

So, Tammy has one major pregnancy food craving... apples.  So much so that she apparently consumed five or six of those bags of pre-sliced apples in a week, not counting her McDonalds visits for apple slices sans caramel dip...  Oddly she hasn't craved apple juice... just apples.  One of our friends asked us the today whether we had a nickname for the baby yet, theirs having acquired the nickname of "2.0" early on... and I'm thinking we might have to go with "the Apple."

     We had a normal doctor appointment the other week, and tried to see if we could hear the heartbeat early (30% chance at 9 weeks according to the doctor) but no luck.  Guess the baby was hiding under Tammy's veins?  Anyway, we will hopefully get to hear it at our next appointment, the day before Thanksgiving.  (I'm secretly hoping we get to be doubly thankful... don't tell Tammy I said that).

     In other news, we are getting new carpet, and we'll be doing the nursery in wood laminate for cleaning and allergen reasons... (okay, and cost savings).

     Also, I'd like to mention that while they do turn the trees nice colors in the fall, I really hate the leaves.  I filled 14 bags of leaves today from our small suburban yard.  In two more weeks, I'm probably going to fill another 14 bags with what's still on the trees right now.  Darned leaf dropping deciduous trees.  Maybe I should plant an apple tree though, eh?

 -Josh

Lost a good friend…

On a down note, our friend John Adelsberger (III) passed away this past week.  He decided to hike the Ozark Mountain Trail through part of Arkansas, and apparently met some misfortune there which has yet to be fully revealed.  John was a friend of mine since I got out of college, part of the group of us that got together to play various rpgs and other games on random weekend evenings.  In the past couple of years several of us had begun hiking and camping again, and we went on several short hikes with him among other friends.  With all of my time consumed with sweeping Tammy off her feet, I didn't join in the full scale multi-day backpacking level of hiking which some of the group took up over the past year, but I did still go meet them and hike along for some conditioning day hikes they did at Castlewood.  There were some other places we went too, like the day hike at Shaw Nature Reserve (very nice place... see picture).





There was also the horrible "Day of the Ticks" at Howell Island (sort of a brush mowed path on an island better for deer hunting than hiking).  I think I counted 35 ticks on me alone in only 3 or 4 hours of total walking around this island.  Through a method we developed of stopping every 5 minutes to spend 2 minutes pulling off ticks, we managed to make it through with, I think, me getting only one actual tick bite, and John might have had one or two, and I'm not sure if any bit into Peter...

Anyway, we had many adventures, both fictional and real, and the discussions we had ranged across such topics as computers, politics, games, work, and women... to only name a few.  He had tons of great jokes, and many witty moments.  As I have already written elsewhere, his wit, and tremendous presence will be greatly missed at our table.

-Josh