Wintry Christmas

The snow has arrived, and it's cold! But luckily, it arrived with the end of the semester, so I'm planning on hibernating with Gizmo for the next month. We spent this past weekend beginning our Christmas preparations by cutting down and decorating a tree. Our friend Beth came with us and picked out a cute one for herself.

Unfortunately, JD has a cold this week, so although he cut down our tree, he opted to rest while I decorated it at home. The one contribution he made is located on the bottom right of the tree--yep, it's a Gizmo toy.

But we're not the only ones decorating for Christmas. One home in our town has gone all out with the plastic figurines; they have not one inch of lawn left!

This week, JD's focusing on getting better, and I'm grading final papers. Oh yeah, and hibernating.

Julie's Pregnant!!!

That's right; this is the official announcement. But first: Thanksgiving. It was great and wonderful, and it stinks to be home. Seriously! In Atlanta, everyone takes care of me and makes me take naps and makes sure I'm not thirsty or hungry or cold or nauseous. In Normal, Gizmo still wants her wet food, and the house doesn't clean itself just as the homework doesn't do itself. JD takes excellent care of me, and he's been so sweet and loving, but how can he compare to parents, friends, and relatives all rushing to be first in line to help? But back to Thanksgiving.

I traveled down last Friday night and stayed with Michael and Lina for a night. I woke up Saturday morning to Lina bounding between the two beds in Michael's guest room, one of which was mine. Stacy, Clay, Nora, and unborn baby Caleb drove up Saturday morning to have breakfast with us, and it was so good to see them! It's been at least 6 months.






I spent Saturday and Sunday with a very happy and excited Mom and Dad. Within the first five minutes of seeing me, both had already felt my belly, and Dad had tried to listen for a heartbeat. :) It was so nice to go about their days with them and to relax at the old house. Monday, Mom and I had high tea at the Roswell tea house then had our nails done. I got to see Michele for dinner that night, and I surprised both of us with how much I ate at one sitting! Tuesday I spent most of the day with Ashley, checking out baby furniture. She was incredibly helpful with tips on baby products, and I plan to register with her over Christmas break. Tuesday night the family got back together for dinner before Dad and I headed down to the airport to pick up JD. That was an adventure in itself that I'll have to tell you sometime.

Wednesday was the big shift. Mom, Dad, and Michael headed to Florida for Thanksgiving, and JD and I moved over to the Ponds' house for the rest of the holiday. Vickie and I went maternity clothes shopping Wednesday, and I got some great items that should help me through a cold winter. JD, meanwhile, played golf with his dad and Stephen. We all got back together Wednesday night for a cookout and some board games. Thursday, we headed over to JD's aunt Betty and uncle Rick's house for a delicious meal (followed by a nap for me) and more games. It was nice to see JD's cousin Katie who gave me more tips on babies and kids. We also got the phone call that another cousin, Jonathan and his wife Jaimie are pregnant too! Their baby will only be a month younger than ours. We're excited to have family going through the same adventure with a child that will be the same age!

Most of Friday we spent with Steve, Laurie, Lucas, and their unborn daughter (although born in 2 weeks!!) at their house catching up. It had been a year since we'd seen them, and they remain one of our favorite families to spend time with. Ah, I remember the days when it was just us couples and our dogs, hiking. Now it will be a real crew when we get together in the future! Unfortunately, Saturday saw us back at the airport, headed home to one more week of school, dozens of papers and exams to grade, and plenty of work of my own to finish in the next 7 days. Darn it.

But anyway, I'm pregnant! Today, I'm 13 weeks, and I'm due June 5. No, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet, but we'll find out in January. When JD and I traveled down to Atlanta in early October, we went to tell our families face-to-face the exciting news! I'm been feeling pretty good compared to many other women, but I am taking an anti-nausea medicine, and I'm always completely exhausted. But now that my first trimester is over, I'm hoping for sunny days to come. Here's a picture of my newly-burgeoning belly.



I swear that's not what I usually look like!! Here's a picture from this summer for comparison:



See? There really is something there, and it's only getting bigger! Right now, the little one is the size of a peach. That's pretty good considering it started off as a single cell!

Happy Birthday, JD

This past weekend, we celebrated my husband's 29 birthday! He's getting so old. His birthday actually fell on Monday--the worst night for both of us since I have class and he has basketball. So, we celebrated instead on Sunday night with a dinner out, yummy deserts, and presents including a new flat-screen computer monitor and a new electric shaver that was desperately needed. Of course, Gizmo got in on the fun of opening presents. But really the party capped off a fun weekend. Friday, after graduate forum at school, some friends came over to "grade," watch movies, and look at pictures. Saturday, JD and I began our Christmas shopping and went bowling with Danielle and Kyle. In the course of the weekend, JD also stained the back porch, and I finished off paper number two! Unfortunately, the weather has taken a turn for the worse, and I think it's here to stay. But we have the holidays to look forward to, so time to go back out to shop for more presents for JD!

Countdown

9 more days until Thanksgiving break...

Halloween

I'll bet you can't guess what I dressed up as for Halloween! Myself. Seriously, the days of costumes are over, and I am now one of the adults handing out candy to the kids having fun. But that's okay because I still get candy, and I'm still having fun. For Halloween this year, when we were asked what we were doing, we told our friends that we were doing nothing, and they thought that sounded great! So we ended up with a group of people over here Saturday night doing nothing together. Well, that's not entirely true. We ate pizza and candy and watched a movie and knitted and hung out. So that's something, and I think it was better than a lot of other Halloween options! JD and I did carve a pumpkin: it's an owl; can you tell?



For the first time in many, many, many years, now that Halloween's over, I'm ready for Christmas. I'm ususally one of the die-hard scrooges until Thanksgiving is over, but this year, for some reason, I say bring on the decorations, presents, food, and family time! If only I can make it through 4 more weeks of school and 2 more papers I have to write. Hmmm. Tricky.

Fall Colors

Another lazy weekend, ahhhhhh. The weeks are flying by, and Thanksgiving is going to be here before we know it. But the weekends are relaxing, full of walks, movies, food, and sleep. We had a beautiful weekend up here with sun and warmth and pretty trees. The leaves are now getting rather out of control, but I think they're worth the beautiful colors.


But the pretty colors lead to lots of work. Where did the driveway go?

And that work becomes especially aparent when the neighbor rakes his yard, and we don't.

To his credit, JD worked hard to clean our yard, and we now have a massive leaf pile waiting for the garbage men. But I'd say there's still 70% of the leaves still on the trees, so we've got a ways to go.

Suprise Visit to Atlanta

This weekend, JD and I took the opportunity to make a suprise visit to Atlanta. We drove the 10 hours on Friday and stayed the night at Michael's new house; he was the only one clued in to the suprise. There, we played with his new kitty, Lina, who is sweet and adorable!

Saturday morning, we followed Michael over to Mom and Dad's only to pass them going the other way! We followed them to IHOP where they were meeting my grandparents, so we got to suprise everyone at once! Some tears were involved, and it was a happy reunion.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Pond's house. When they first saw us at the door, they were afraid that something was wrong, but we assured them that our visit was pure pleasure. We got to have a great lunch with them and to catch up on all our news. That afternoon, Michael hosted a barbecue to break in his new house; my uncles and cousins came over as well as the Ponds, and it was a wonderful evening of family togetherness.

It really made me start looking forward to the holidays. We spent Sunday driving the 10 hours back to Normal, but the trip was worth it. Every moment counts.

Slowing Down

It's the midpoint in the semester, it's cold, it's rainy, and I'm slowing down. I'm realizing how much work I have left to accomplish in a month and a half, and I don't feel like doing it! My poor students... It doesn't help that I've been getting a lot of stomach aches lately. Hello, stress, I was hoping that you'd never return. The past few weekends, JD and I have found ourselves looking at the clock after watching a couple of movies and realizing that it's only six o'clock. What will we do with the rest of the cold, rainy day?

First, I need an attitude adjustment. Second, we need to turn up the heat. Third, I need a nap. No! I musn't give in. I realize it's just the midterm doledrums, so I try to suggest a house project for JD to work on so that he can motivate me to get some work done, but then we lay around on the couch thinking about that for a while until we agree we don't feel like it.

But today starts a new week, and I have some resolutions to get me over the semester hump. Number 1: stay busy, be productive. If I feel like sleeping, I need to leave the house and run an errand. Number 2: Remember how lucky I am to be here in this doctoral program, and I need to appreciate it. Yes, it's a lot of work, but what isn't? Number 3: Look forward to the breaks that are coming. Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner! And finally, Number 4: okay, I can't think of a number 4, but I think that numbers 1-3 will keep me busy for a while anyway.

Michael's Fall Visit

The past couple of weeks have been work, work, work! Fall has officially arrived: we're now getting highs in the low 60s, high 50s. And Michael showed up this weekend just in time for a couple of cold, rainy days. Darn. But we still made the best of the time we had. Friday morning, we took a long bike ride to downtown Bloomington on the Constitution Trail, back up to ISU and uptown Normal. Michael got to ride our extra bike - it's kinda old and only cost $10, but it still works!

In Bloomington, we had a delicious lunch at Kelly's bakery.

Friday afternoon, we met up with Emily and her out-of-town friend Allison at a pumkin patch and corn maze. Needless to say, we got very lost in deep mud until Michael took control and led us out of there.

Michael had a good time checking out JD's bike; it was a little chilly for riding though.

Friday night, Michael was very brave (and JD too) by attending my Children's Literature First Friday party. He got hugs from professors, lots of interesting (and I do mean interesting) conversation, and quite a mish-mash of foods. Now he knows what JD and I do for fun! Saturday, we hit up some town thrift stores, played board games, and went out to eat. Emily came with us to Distahl for a delicious dinner.

I'm very sad that Michael's gone; it makes me homesick and miss my whole family even more. But every time someone visits, I have more memories of people I love in my house and around my town. That's priceless.

Fall Has Arrived

Today is the first day of fall, my favorite time of year! JD and I celebrated its arrival by staying home this weekend and relaxing for the first time in many weeks. In fact, after watching two movies on Saturday, we got bored!! But we were productive in some ways. We worked on our garden on Saturday morning, or should I say, we removed our garden on Saturday morning. Yes, it's sad, but we still have plenty of room to plant vegetables without providing weeds the opportunity to thrive in our backyard. We hung out with some fellow grad students on Friday, ate some pizza, and played a board game. Sunday, we attended church (and heard an awesome sermon!) and went to the movies with Danielle. We saw Easy Virtue, which was really funny and satisfying. I highly recommend it. Now that I feel pretty caught up on my school work, and I've gotten some quality relaxation time with JD , I think I might be ready for the week!

Happy fall! (Yes, we grew those pumkins!)

Oh, I've been telling some of you about the insane gnat swarm that has taken over the town. But I have the sneaky suspicion that you're not taking me seriously, so I have proof. Behold the plague: no, it's not snow. No, it's not dust. It's gnats, and they extend for miles in every direction!!

Sandwich, IL

JD and I had the best time this weekend with Emily, Danielle, and Farran, hanging out in Sandwich, IL. Danielle's family owns a farm there, and ever since Emily and I heard that there is such a thing as a Sandwich fair (although it has nothing to do with sandwiches), we knew we had to attend. So, Friday we all drove the hour and a half to Danielle's farm where we played with all her cool farm stuff!!

We named these kittens Smoky and the Bandit. They liked to chew your fingers.

Danielle on top of her old pig house.

JD and I climbed to the top of a grain silo.

That's Farran in front, me and the dog, Buddy, in the back right, and Danielle in the back left.

We had a big fire with marshmellows and s'mores!

Saturday, JD had to drive to Indiana for work, but I went to the fair with the girls. It was so fun! We saw prize vegetables, photographs, art and crafts, pies, pigs, sheep, rabbits, the list goes on. We also enjoyed way too much fair food and a crazy ferris wheel. I think I may be back next year!

Julie in the cow barn.

Emily in her second life as a milk maid.

Thanks to Danielle and her family for a great time! In other news, Michael got a kitten! She's black and white and precious! I can't wait to meet her this fall.