Good Morning!
I'm sorry it's been so long in between updates from me again... To be honest I don't have all that much going on in life right now... I mean you can only say "I'm PREGNANT" once and you can only say I'm sick as a dog so many times... And since those two things have pretty much ruled my life since the second week of October I find myself with very little to actually say.
However, this week was a little bit different!
For those of you who will ask, we concurred the skunk! I'm washing the very last load of skunk affected material right now. I've found that pouring a bit of vinegar into the bleach trap takes the smell right out. As far as Gandalf goes... well, if you get right up in his face his jowls still smell of skunk a bit so we just keep applying the spray. BUT the rest of him smells lovely from all that expensive skunk shampoo! :) The worst part of this whole ordeal is that he is MY dog. He comes to ME when he wants attention, petting, lovin' on, ect. And because my nose is so darn sensitive at the moment, I pretty much have to beat him off in panic if he comes up to me unexpectedly... because, let's face it, close up dog breath perfumed with Pepe Le'Pew's new Ode de colon... "Week old skunk" is NOT good right now. It breaks my heart to see his face fall and have him walk away with the "what did I do wrong mama?" face on. I've been making Ryan spend lots of time with him and every time I walk by when he's laying down I make it a point to pet on him and rub his belly with my toes... but I know it doesn't quite make up for it. Poor guy!
Back to the news!
This week we had unexpected guests! Ryan's parents, Denny and Cheryl, surprised us a few days before Thanksgiving and asked if they could come to us for the holiday. We, of course, said the more the merrier! This was the first big holiday that we've been with any of our family since Christmas of 2005 so it was a banner day for us! They got in on Wednesday night and stayed until early Saturday morning.
In those two and a half days I got exactly ONE picture! Pffffftttt.... I whipped out my camera just before we ate and got a picture of the spread and only my Father in law, Denny, is in it because he was ready to eat!
We had; turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry stuffing, vedalia onion cornbread, sweet potato pie, rolls, green bean salad, corn nuggets (these lovely little local bits... cream corn breaded and deep fried! YUMMO) and of course off the table are my famous Pumpkin Cheesecake (I hope everyone I shared the recipe with found it a great addition to their holidays! I know it's one of my very favorite recipes!) and a homemade Pecan Pie. It was quite a lot of food for four and I have to be honest... I left out a few of the traditional family dishes just to cull it down a bit! CRAZY!

As for the rest of the time they were here... There isn't all that much to do in Del Rio... we spent a lot of time just visiting, which is a GREAT use of time in my opinion! On Friday we had a slow morning and then hit the town. We took them on a tour of the town... it took about 30 minutes :) Then we went to the base and showed them all it has to offer... That took about 15 minutes... Then we showed them Ryan's office and headed home. Then on Friday night we hit the town for some good old fashioned Texas BBQ. They treated us to dinner at Rudy's which is a fun place to eat. I have pictures from a dinner when my mom and dad were here but I FORGOT MY CAMERA this time. I was so bummed! I was looking forward to doing a post about the Rudy's experience (you sit at long picnic tables and eat off of a wax paper placemat with your hands then wash off at a trough when you're done... it's a blast!!!) and I still will but I wanted pictures of both sets of parents... BUMMER! I've just gotten out of the habit of taking my camera along these days... there isn't all that much to see around here. :)
All in all we had a lovely time! It's always fun to have some good one on one visit time. We've been the visitors for so many years now that we almost never have a chance to get a lot of time with any one person or couple during a trip. Having a HUGE family and usually only 10 to 14 days to visit all of them does create a very busy trip!
The only problem with their visit was that we could NEVER stop talking and as a result we were all up until 2am on Friday night. They woke us up on Saturday morning at 6:45am to say goodbye and hit the road for their 13 hour drive after only 4 hours of sleep. THAT I wouldn't wish on anyone. YIKES! They made it home safe, sound and exhausted! We had a great time... Thanks for the last minute visit Mom and Dad!!!
The last bit of news is that I am now in my 2nd Trimester!!!
After 9 years and 3 miscarriages I'm only a few weeks away from feeling my baby kick for the very first time... It doesn't feel real... not one bit. No matter how sick or tired I am I just keep expecting to wake up!
One thing that's making it feel a little more real now is that I already can't button my pants... In fact the little hairband trick isn't working for me anymore either! Because of the nature of my surgery five years ago the doctor doesn't think I'll gain very much weight during the pregnancy because I've maintained a solid weight for over four years now. I seem to have the perfect balance of getting just the nutrients I need and nothing more. This is why, in my doctor's opinion, I am VERY anemic and they've now put me on B-12 supplements as well. He thinks I get just enough for me and the baby is taking it all so I'm running on empty! LOL In fact at 13 weeks and bit pregnant I have a HUGE pooch and I've actually lost 3 pounds. I can't even throw up so who knows where it's going. I now have to up my calorie intake as well. So they are anticipating a small gain and due to the nature of the surgery and my body shape (as in I literally have 4, count 'em, FOUR inches between the bottom of my rib cage and the top of my hip bone) they think I'm going to look like a torpedo! Should be fun...
All that said... Everyone is asking for belly pictures and I happened to actually feel good enough to get out of my PJ's today... so here you go!
This is the only comparison picture I could find. This was last Christmas on my four year anniversary of my surgery and I have not changed a bit since then... well UNTIL I got pregnant.

I swear I'm standing up perfectly straight. I'm straight up and down with that bump. INSANE!

Well, that's it for me today! I have permission from my sister to share all of my pictures of my new nephew, Aaron, so those will be coming soon.
Auf Wiedersehen! (Yes I know I'm on the border of Mexico... but I just can't switch... I love the German!)
Courtney