End of Semester Crunch

I feel bad because I haven't posted in a long, long time. My semester ends this coming Monday so I am basically doing homework whenever I am not eating or sleeping. I promise to post some great pictures from our Thanksgiving adventure with my family and more updates soon.

For now, hope you enjoy some shots from our annual Christmas card shoot yesterday. Thank you Jenny for taking the pictures. You can't tell but my belly is getting bigger and is starting to definitely "show."

Would you like a glove with your salad?

I stopped at Trader Joe's yesterday during my lunch break to pick up some tasty French Market Lemonade for Thanksgiving dinner. Since I hadn't packed a lunch, I decided to try one of their in-house made salads. (Note: I am finding that with the decrease of my nausea, there is a noted increase in my appetite and my stomach is slowly growing outwards. I eat much more often these days.)

I rushed back to my office and started devouring the Fiesta Chicken salad. After about 10 bites, I noticed that there was an odd looking piece of lettuce - a cream colored piece to be exact. After further examination, I discovered that this piece of lettuce was actually the finger tip of a rubber latex glove. I didn't dig around further to see if there was a finger or more of the glove. How does a piece of latex glove get into a salad????

As you can imagine, finding a rubber glove in your salad is quite disgusting and made me loose the little lunch I did eat. Since I didn't have any cash on me to buy something else, I munched on the Anise Licorice Scotty Dogs I purchased for my brother Tom for lunch.

After work, I trudged back to Trader Joe's to get my lousy $3.99 reimbursed. I didn't care about the money - I just wanted to show them what was in their salad. The manager was equally disgusted and eagerly gave me my money back AND nice bouquet of flowers. Though I will never buy a salad or any other in-house made food from them again, I do plan to continue to patronize their unique grocery store for such things like trail mix, French lemonade and cherry tomatoes.

I am thankful for these odd experiences...it is things like this that make my life unique and gives me material to write about on my blog.

Expecting the Unexpected

Here are some signs that we should be expecting the unexpected:

• Finding unusual things touching enough to bring tears. Example: After watching the season premiere of CSI and crying for at least 30 minutes afterwards, Lance asks "Isn't this show about police investigating dead people?" My reply (between sobs) "Yes. But it is so touching!" Lance replies, sacractically, "Oh. Right. Very touching."
• The constant feeling I can only label as "yuck" along with a hate/hate relationship with most foods (especially meats) Did I also mention throwing up?
• An absolute loathing of the smell of my refridgerator and bad breath.
• The need to go to bed at 8:30 p.m. and sleep in as late as I can, despite being a night owl.
• A whole closet full of pants and skirts that no longer fit.
• Cravings for food I swore off when I graduated from college - such as Spaghettios and Ramen noodles.
• Many trips to the doctor accompanied by a handful of ultrasounds that show a little baby moving around with 10 fingers and 10 toes and a strong heart.
• A "D" day of May 6, 2008.

We have come to expect the unexpected in life and this surprise is very welcomed, highly anticipated and fills our hearts full of gratitude. Five years of waiting and we can now await our little miracle!

Halloween Humors

Yesterday was Sofi's second Halloween and she LOVED it. We haven't been good about taking pictures lately but I wished we would have taken out our camera last night and this morning because there were some sweet moments.

For starters, we had to put her doggie playpen fence up around the door so she couldn't maul the trick or treaters or try to steal their candy. Every time the doorbell would ring, she would be posed right next to the fence, looking eagerly back at us like "Well, are you going to answer the door?" She would then proceed to receive adoring pets and comments from our neighbors. She was loving every moment of it.

She did manage to steal a few pieces of candy from the bowl and was on a sugar rush all night. She was driving us nuts with her whining and restlessness.

On her walk this morning, she found a pile of candy that was left on the walking path. Before Lance had a chance to stop her, she grabbed a tootsie pop and refused to let him take it out of her mouth. (She has the strongest jaw hold of any animal I have personally met and a pretty scary growl when you are trying to take something out of her mouth she is unwilling to give up.)

When she got home from her walk, she went and "hid" behind the lazy boy, using her paws to hold the tootsie pop stick as she found out how many licks it takes to get to the center. Being the softies we are, we couldn't take the candy from her as she looked so darn cute eating her sucker. It was a very happy halloween for Sofi.

Fire Update

Just wanted to post a quick message to let everyone know we are okay. Luckily the fire that was miles away from our house is now under control and we were never in immediate danger. Everything does smell like one big campfire, though, and we were told to stay inside as much as possible until further notice as the air quality is horrible.

I have to laugh that I posted the message about the Santa Ana winds yesterday. By the time dinner rolled around, we had a major fire of our own nearby, fueled by these winds. Luckily, we have very little loss with our fire as compared to the area surrounding Malibu. I still like the Santa Ana winds. Just not the problems that come along with them.

"They're Here."

Lance woke me up early this morning after his walk with Sofi. All he said was "They're here." I thought in my sleepy state - Who's here? Aliens? The Mafia? The police? The cast from the Harry Potter movies? I mean - It was only 6 a.m. or so and for him to wake me up, it had to be someone special.

It turns out he was referring to the Santa Ana winds. This is our second year of experiencing the Santa Ana winds and I have to admit, I never cease to marvel at this geographic phenomenon. (Another name for them is the Chinook winds and I will never forget what these are because I missed this question in my US Geography class in college.) All of the pine needles from the tree outside of our fence are now are back porch and the cool breeze you expect to feel as you watch the leaves on the trees blow turns out to be quite hot instead.

Even though these winds can cause great destruction, as seen as the massive fire in Malibu this weekend, I feel they are, in a way, magical. Like, as Jack Black says in the movie "The Holiday," anything can happen when they blow. What an amazing world we live in. I knew I majored in Geography for a reason.

Carpooling

WARNING: THIS IS A FUNNY COMMENTARY ON OUR MARRIAGE. NOT YOUR USUAL "WHAT WE ARE UP TO" POSTING. HOPE YOU ENJOY!

We decided early on in our marriage that Lance would be in charge of anything relating to the cars. This includes maintenance, tab renewals, car washes--you name it. Occassionally, I will fill up the car with gas, but that is pretty much where my role ends. I also discovered early on that waiting until the last minute to do things is just part of who Lance is. ( I must admit I procrastinate a bit myself...but only with certain things like sending birthday gifts or doing homework.) He will always get things done...just on his own timetable.

With these two facts revealed, you can now guess why my Rav4 is sitting in the garage, waiting for the '08 tabs to be delivered and we are forced to carpool to work every day. Lance gets to hear me kindly "urging" him to hurry up while he gets ready every morning, listen to my grouchy comments at the radio annoucers and put up with my not so chipper attitude about his choice of conversation on the way to work. I think next year we will have our new license tabs well before they expire. Lance will remember this week and be sure of that.

To his credit, he usually just chuckles at my comments and thinks my "I wish we didn't have to carpool, don't talk to me before 9 a.m., I hate mornings" attitude is cute. I think one of the most amazing things about our relationship is no matter how flawed we are as people, we have the ability to look past those flaws and see the good in each other. And laugh and tease each other about our silly mannerisms. Maybe that is what love is. Whatever it is, I can't WAIT until I can drive myself to work. Less stressful (and peaceful) for all involved.