Thanksgiving was great!

Thanksgiving was so much fun! Everyone put in so much hard work for everything and it turned out so great! I am most thankful for my family! We care so much for each other! I love them very much!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy (not forward) this entire email and paste into a new e-mail that you can send. Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to you......Tis the Season to be NICE! HO HO HO

1. Wrapping Paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper. I love watching the paper go wild on christmas morning! Kids are so cute!
2. Real Tree or Artificial? Either one. We'll be lucky if we get a tree this year.
3. When do you put up the tree? ummm....When and if we get one!

4. When do you take the tree down? that depends
5. Do you like eggnog? love, love, love it!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Gosh, I dunno. Hummm.... I remember when I got a bike! I practiced riding it so much so I could take the training wheels off.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Dad!

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes I do!

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Cards in the mail! It's more personal!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Lol, Christmas Story! the one with the red rider b-b-gun!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? After Thanksgiving
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Not that I know of. Pretty sure I kept and destroyed all the gifts I received as a kid.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge. I love homemade fudge and caramels!
16. Lights on the tree? Yep.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Silent Night

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Uhhh...whatever happens happens!

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen. (Only a real Christmas guru knows that it's Donder, not Donner.) <--that's from Alyson...? I don't know if it's true or not. But let's not forget RUDOLPH!!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Christmas day! I would never ruin Christmas by opening presents the day before!! Casey's family opens one on Christmas eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? busy stores/traffic

23. Favorite ornament theme and color? Traditional Christmas colors, red, green, gold and silver

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I love turkey on christmas day.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Ummm....Really, I want baby stuff! (we're registered at Target.com) If you insist on getting me something, I want Stephens hot chocolate in French Vanilla or those spiced apple cider packets made by alpine. Yep, that's what I want.

Christmas is a Season. Christmas is a feeling. Christmas is kindness and love. Christmas is the highlight of every year that I always look forward to!

Bored....out.....of.....my......brains.......

My brains are turning to mush....I need a new book to read. Does anybody have any suggestions?

I had something to say a few days ago but now I can't think of what it is...hummmm....

Well, Working in the lab at work has it's good side and it's bad side. The good thing is, I'm now doing something that I want to. I get to retouch pictures and design stuff. With my latest project done ( Banners for the South Towne Mall). I am just left with retouching pictures. I am working full time, more if I'd get paid for it, and working nearly with out a break. Seriously, my boss would have me there day and night if he could. I fell a little behind in my work but overall I'm staying on top of things. The bad side is I can't get a moment's peace to FINISH my work. There are like 3-4 things daily that pop up must be done NOW! When I worked the front desk, I very very very rarely made the lab do last minute projects. Now, I'm getting them frequently. What's the deal? Oh well, I guess it's just job security, right? I'm happy about it! :D

Espen is growing up a storm! I swear she was running a marathone earlier today and she was dancing this evening. I can hardly wait to meet her! Sure, I've been carrying her for 29 (almost 30) weeks now, but I still know nothing about her! Like, does she like hot chocolate as much as I do? Does she like our kitten? Is she allergic to them? How does she feel about our frogs eating our fish? Does she like my singing voice, or would she rather me put on a CD of lullaby's? Oh well, 10 1/2 weeks to go and I can start discovering those things. In the mean time, I'll do things I enjoy and hopefully, she'll love them too!

Being preggers is interesting. First of all, I never thought I'd get pregnant. (I was going to adopt...pht! just kidding...lol) My tummy is starting to get bigger, I can't even suck it in anymore. I cause traffic jams in the hallways at work! I'm hungry all the time, thirsty all the time and I'm getting regular heart burn (which I heard means she's going to have tons of hair!XD) Even though I'm nearing the finish line and I'm ready to turn this oven off, I'm still getting sick regularly. At least 2 times a week I need stay within close proximity to the bathroom in case I have to be sick. It's mostly interesting how my thoughts have changed. I've gone from wondering what movies are coming out to wondering if I really got what it takes to go into labor and have a baby. I keep thinking perhaps I can just ignore the fact that I'm growing large with baby and maybe she'll just suddenly appear one day in my arms without all the pushing and pain and episiotomies.... I also wish I had someone close to me pregnant as well. Like a sister-in-law or close friend. Nope, it's just me. I can talk about being pregnant all the time but, nobody is experiencing it with me. Casey comes close but, I work all day and he works late and Espen's usually quieted down when he gets home. He's lucky if he even gets to feel her move.

I'm really excited for Thanksgiving this year. It's going to be with my mom's side of the family so that means there's going to be a lot of people there. There is going to be tons of food! Kids! Games! We're holding an auction to raise money to buy a pig for a family in a 3rd world country! Casey and I have decided we're going to auction off his Albino Clawed Frogs. The only requirement is that they have an aquarium with an air pump. We're ready to change our tank from a frog tank to a fish tank! That and they keep eating the fish we buy for it! We've gone through 3 neon tetras and 2 mixed fruit fish! So, hopefully, somebody wants some frogs, some kid will beg their mom or dad to let them get the frog!!!

Last week we switched them to our bigger aquarium with out a lid. We went to the grandparents and came home to discover we had only 2 frogs! One of them had disappeared! We looked all over and decided it had jumped out and then got drug off by a cat. Later that evening Casey found it, Izzy had been playing with it. Poor, poor froggie. Sure, we wanted to get rid of them but that's not how! We'd rather them go the way of the earth but... meh. Sadness.

Anyways, I hope all is well with whoever reads this!

a month later...

lol. I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! Well, here's the updates: We're finally starting to get settled in! Our front room, kitchen and bathroom are now pretty much organized and clean! Whee!!! Espen's room is still our storage unit but it's slowly emptying and being turned into a nursery. We got Casey's hand-me-down lazy boy in there, for late night nursing and stuff. The compy is in there too, I hope to move it to the front room. ..it may stay here though.

Halloween was pretty easy going for us. Casey had to work and I went to Todd and Brooke's for a Halloween Party. He claimed it wasn't a birthday party, but we all sang and wished him happy birthday anyways. Casey spray painted a pumpking and put a face on it for his pumpkin painting contest at work. We call it Krylon, 'cause of the paint! We got another pumpkin from the community garden by my parents house and it was decorative until a couple nights ago. We cut it up, roasted the seed and steamed the pumpkin! Last night, I made a pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin!!! I highly recommomend it!

I'm FINALLY starting to get a baby bump! It only took 27 weeks to get there. I'm quite proud of my bump. If Espen is kicking hard enough, you can see my tummy move too! Casey is finally able to feel her move too. He loves feeling her kick. It's like this thing that we've been told has been growing in me is ACTUALLY there!!! Most of the time I don't "feel" pregnant, aside from being sick. Although, it's getting harder to bend over and I'm eating like a horse! I guess I must be preggers! lol. Tomorrow I have to do the 3-hour glucose tolerance test. My blood sugar was too high after the one hour test, so now I have to do the three hour test. I'm not looking forward to it. I have to fast from midnight till the next morning. Normally, that's not a problem. This pregnancy, however, has made fasting impossible for me. I get really sick in the mornings if I don't have anything to eat right away. oh well, I'll do anything for this little wormie. I love her.

Work is progressing. I've moved from being the receptionist to the Graphic Artist/Retoucher. FINALLY! I was really getting weary of my job. But, the wait was worth it. I really do like retouching and designing stuff. I'm hoping to keep the job after Espen is born too. It'll be great!