The sad and the happy.

Way back last November I took an unexpected trip to California. Unfortunately it wasn’t the happy kind of trip, but a bittersweet visit so that I could attend my Uncle Byron’s funeral. My Uncle had been in poor health for years, and even knowing that when I received a text from my Mother that he was on life support I had to get up and walk out of Relief Society so that a room full of women didn’t see me crying. I learned the news on Sunday and was on a plane to California on Tuesday. I wouldn’t have missed his funeral for anything and wanted to be there for my family. The funeral was such a sad day and my heart broke for my cousins and my Aunt Jeni as I listened to all the funny stories and the tears flowed. He was a smart, funny, loved man and will be missed by so many!

On a happier note while I was in California I got to spend some memorable quality time with my parents in Reno, Nevada. We drove up that morning so we could drop Rebekah off at school and then hang out for the day until the UNR football game that night. What to do with a day to kill in Reno? Lucky for us my Mom had inherited some property in Silver Springs, Nevada about an hour away. When we arrived my Mom who had visited the property before warned my Dad to stay on the pathway because the ground was very soft. Well like all good warnings most are ignored and we were stuck. Not just a tiny bit stuck either, but stuck stuck! The front wheels are spinning and spinning, sand is flying everywhere, and the entire back of the car is lifted off the ground. No amount of digging is going to get us out. A note about this property, it is in the middle of nowhere and neighbors are few and far between. Also it was freezing this day! So after taking some photos to capture the moment my Mom and I set off to walk to the nearest neighbor. We were lucky he was home and had a truck to tow us out and give us a lift back to our car. Maybe you had to be there, but I’ll laugh about this for awhile. After we were pulled out of our predicament we spent the rest of our afternoon safely in the warmth of Scheel's department store and riding the ferris wheel. As far as the game that night, the band was excellent, the football team not so much. We left near the end of the third quarter when UNR was getting their trash kicked and I had officially lost feeling in my feet. Trust me we were prepared too. I was wearing like 5 layers, and we picked up some hand warmers earlier while at Scheels. Oh and I still look like a college student! Some random guy scalping tickets gave me a free ticket to get in, and I wasn’t even asked for an I.D. when I snuck into the student section to say goodbye to Rebekah. Woohoo, although not that surprised. Thanks for the good times Reno!

My sister the college student!

This picture doesn't even do it justice.

My poor Daddy doesn't look too happy here.

A not so great attempt.

Finding the humor now.

Lovely isn't it! Like I said middle of nowhere.

Way lifted off the ground.

A friendly neighbor.

The hole.

Nevada!

Freezing, but having fun!

I just love this picture of my Mom in her zip up blanket.

This is a story about a Chihuahua and a breakfast burrito.

This is also a story about my extreme irritation and anger towards Southwest Airlines, without whom this story would not be possible. I arrive at the airport luggage and Rocky in tow and wait to check in for my flight to California for Christmas. When it’s my turn the lady begins to check me in and when I set Rocky on the scale she says to me I will not allow this crate on your flight. “Excuse me, why not? I have flown with this exact carrier on Southwest with no problems before.” She pulls out a tape measure, see too big. “No I don’t see, the crate fit under the seat just fine before, why not now?” No explanation. She tells me again I won’t allow this crate. “What are my options?” You can leave and go buy a new dog carrier. “I can’t leave now, I would miss my flight.” You can reschedule your flight for a later time. “There is no way I am rescheduling my flight!” You could buy our $45 Southwest carrier. Why this was the third option behind cancelling and rescheduling my flight is beyond me. With no other choice I was forced to buy the bright yellow, mesh, soft-sided Southwest dog carrier. I walk over and begin to work my way up to the front of the security line. I get pulled aside by the guard after walking through the security sensor and am informed they need to do a swab test on my hands and then run it through a machine. They needed to make sure that after holding my dog I didn’t have any residual chemical properties or explosive powders left on my hands. Yes, they honestly thought I may have laced my dog with some sort of explosive device. A smiley (well maybe not at this point in my day) young, innocent girl with her Chihuahua just might blow up an airplane. Needless to say I eventually got through security and made it to my flight. Phew! Finally on my flight, I’m not at all worried about Rocky. He will just sleep through the entire flight and not make a peep. I place him under the seat in front of me, pull down my tray, and begin reading. Maybe two hours into my flight I hear a soft whimper coming from Rocky. I lift up my tray and to my surprise see Rocky had chewed a hole through his cheap-o Southwest carrier (that was not cheap at all) and now has his entire face stuck! Yes his entire face is poking out and looking desperately at the lady sitting next to me chowing down on her breakfast burrito! Unbeknownst to me there was a breakfast burrito my seat neighbor had placed in a paper bag underneath the seat right next to Rocky for the last two hours! Rocky is a Chihuahua of course he can't resist a breakfast burrito! My neighbor was nice enough to try and stretch the hole in the carrier while I pulled Rocky's face back out. Oi! Thank you Southwest for this hilarious Rocky anecdote! This would have never happened with my nice airline approved, hard-sided carrier that we normally travel with. Truly thank you, at least it makes me chuckle now.

Windy road types of peeps.

On August 15, just three and a half short months ago, I wrote on this very blog; “Don’t quote me on this, but I have a feeling that Durham will be our home for quite a while.” Ha, I now laugh at myself! Feel free to join in. Either we are the type of people that are extremely indecisive when it comes to figuring what we want out of life. Or we know exactly what we want and just take ridiculously windy roads getting there. Well we are windy road types of peeps and guess what I am over North Carolina! Some people may laugh at us, tell us to stick it out, or think we are just plain dumb moving over and over and over and yep now have the desire to move once again. I’m not saying we have official plans to move just yet but this has been a major topic of discussion between Glenn and I recently. Don’t get me wrong we don’t hate our lives here by any means. We love the green, the people we have met, and the opportunity to establish ourselves as a couple away from a place where people have known us our entire lives. But we dislike Glenn’s job, having no money, and the thought of raising our baby 2,785 miles (Yes, I just Googled that.) away from our families. We have given the East Coast a fair shot. Plain and simple though we are West Coasters born and raised and it’s where we belong. There are a lot of possibilities up in the air right now but I will say that Glenn is looking at jobs teaching at Colleges located on the West Coast. We’re not talking California specific but anywhere within a day’s drive of California is our preference. We don’t exactly love the hassles and expenses and starting over in a new place constantly. Our current plan is that Glenn will remain with his current job teaching at a High School and will apply like crazy at Colleges for next fall. Last year Glenn was narrowed down to the final two applicants for College positions twice, so we are confident that with another year of teaching under his belt he stands a decent chance. We are optimistic, hopeful, and trust that life will work out the way it’s supposed to for us. If we have to stay in North Carolina for another year we know it’s not the worst scenario for us. We could deal, but I just don’t wanna! If life goes according to our plans we will be making a road trip to California next summer, have our baby there, and Glenn will be a College professor in the fall! We’re daring to dream!

I can’t believe I actually kept this secret so long!

We’re having a baby!!! Baby Fox will be arriving on June 27, 2013! In November I took a trip to California and thought I got sick on my flight. A week later when I was back home in North Carolina and still feeling exhausted and like my body was just off somehow I decided I should probably take a pregnancy test. I was so nervous I couldn’t even look at the stick. I made Glenn look first and then tell me, positive! We scheduled a Doctor’s appointment for the day before Thanksgiving. I thought the Doctor would confirm that I was four maybe even five weeks pregnant. So when the Doctor does an ultrasound and tells me I was 8 weeks and 6 days pregnant I was shocked to say the least. I was not expecting to see our baby and hear a heartbeat on this first visit. I stared at this picture of our baby all day long just to believe that this was real. Glenn will love that I’m telling the world that he cried during the visit, but I think it’s just so sweet how excited he is to be a Daddy. Mommy was a little surprised, but Mommy and Daddy are both elated of course and just can’t wait to love on our perfect baby!

Over our Christmas vacation to California we finally had the opportunity to tell our families our little secret. I thought it would be more fun to see people’s reactions in person. And so the secret keeping began. I talk to my mother on the phone practically every day so imagine just how difficult it was for me to find other topics to talk about. I felt so guilty. I am so happy that we waited though. I loved seeing all the different reactions from people: tears, screams, squeals, hugs, we had it all. Since this will be grandbaby #1 for my parents I wanted to tell them in a special way. We bought an ornament that says Joy, and the O was a tiny picture frame. Glenn took the ultrasound photo and photo-shopped in, “Hi Grandma and Grandpa!” We sized it to fit in the ornament and I gave the soon to be grandparents their present the second I was in California. I flew in Monday and Glenn was flying in on Friday. He knew in person I would not be able to hide our secret that many more days, and he was right. The second my Dad walked in the door from work on Monday I jumped up and ran to go get their present. I wish I took a picture of the frame. My Mom just cried and cried and even my Dad’s eyes welled up with tears. I know this will be one spoiled baby. It didn’t take long before this baby dominated our conversations. Baby you are so loved already!!

That entire month between Thanksgiving and Christmas was surreal to me. Telling our family and friends was unforgettable and truly makes this baby feel more real now. I still can’t grasp that I’m already in my second trimester. Today I am 14 weeks and three days pregnant. Honestly, I feel fantastic! I am definitely more tired than normal and feel like I need a nap every day. I have only had just a handful of times where I feel a little nauseous at night. When that happens Glenn has found a secret potion of half diet mountain dew and half pink lemonade slushee that helps. I never drink soda so it’s sweet he found a way to make it not so icky for me. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful husband who is kind and takes care of me. Aww I’m in LOVE! Next big baby news will be boy or girl in just four short weeks!

Fall Festivities

I can’t express enough just how much I LOVE fall! I seriously love the whole month of October, and all the many fall activities. We have had a date to a pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving for FHE, trunk or treat at church, and have been enjoying lots of candy corn! I figure the best way to share our fun is to show through pictures. Enjoy us and all our cuteness.

Glenn's pumpkin. What a lighting nerd.

I am not very artistic so I'm very happy you can actually tell my pumpkin is a Fox.  

Pumpkin carving makes me happy.

Rocky goes crazy for candy corn. Video coming soon.



We won the best decorated trunk at trunk or treat! I was ridiculously excited considering the prize was just free frosties at Wendy's.

 

Seriously though we deserved it. We will be finding hay in our van for months. Too bad Glenn didn't come up with the brilliant idea of using a tarp underneath until after we put a barrel of hay all over the place.  

Rocky is a pumpkin.

Glenn is a dog.

My friend Alyssa as Mrs. Frizzle.

Someone caption this please.

Tired from Trunk or Treat.

Lexi the devil dog. The dogs were such a big hit with the kids.

I always thought it would be fun to get stuck at the top of a ride.

I am not afraid of heights. Skydiving from 10,000 feet in the air, zip-lining through the Alaskan rainforest, those swings at the North Carolina State Fair, I love a good adrenaline rush! This last weekend we went to the North Carolina State Fair with our good friends Zach and Alyssa. I really wanted to go on the spinny swings, not the kiddy version, the crazy ones that go way higher than all but one ride at the fair (drop zone and we went on that too!). We couldn’t convince Alyssa to go on the swings so they sat out, and good thing for Alyssa too. Glenn and I were sitting ready to go in our seats, all buckled in tightly (ya right, it’s just a loose bar) and they start to take us up, jk, they bring us down, start to take us up, jk, back down again, third time is a charm and we finally made it all the way up. We marveled at the amazing view, the lights, the people, kissed romantically at the top, and I joked with Glenn that it would be funny if we got stuck at the top. The ride was nice and slow and mellow. We did like three circles and started to drop back down, bump, bump, and bump! This was not a smooth ride, it’s the State Fair so we figured well that’s that, and started to unbuckle and walk away. A man walks up to us and says, ‘sorry, the generator went out and we lost power, you can go again if you like.’ So we buckle back up and wait to go again. Sure enough as we look around the lights are completely off on three rides all right next to each other. We go back up, much smoother, and much faster this time, and lucky me it just meant another kiss at the top. So not quite my wish of getting stuck at the top, but pretty close and still a good story.

Oh and I learned something about myself at the Fair. I am completely intolerant of line cutters. I hate it. I think it’s so rude, especially when the line is like 45 minutes for everyone else. I am not the type of person to let this behavior slide, so twice, yes twice, I yelled at a group of kids who tried to cut in behind us. Yes I’m that person, yelling at teenage kids at the State Fair. Am I getting old?

It's a little dark, but you get the idea.

I have a goal.

My Mother has told me on multiple occasions that I don’t blog enough. She’s right. I don’t. I get so caught up in thinking that I just don’t have an exciting enough life to share with other people. Well, here is my new motto. Oh well. My “we still feel like newlyweds” life with my husband is plenty of happiness to me. So I’m going to write more. Lot’s more. At least once a week. My goal is twice. It might be a funny anecdote. A cute picture of my puppies. My thoughts on life. Whatever, I feel like, because this is my blog. I love to write, so it’s been quite silly of me that I have not been putting this talent of mine to good use.