The Holidays 2009

It was a Hoke Thanksgiving this year with Bryan's family joining us in Denver, and everyone pitching in on the Thanksgiving dinner. I decided to brine our turkey this year, and it turned out great (thank you Emeril)! Now if only I could get the gravy right - every year that seems to be the hardest thing - this year it was too strong and salty. Bryan made mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, Janice made stuffing and mint peas, Charlie supplied lots and lots of wine (including an alcohol-free Chardonnay for me!), and Mike was in charge of pies (which were more numerous than the bottles of wine, and very yummy - a pregnant woman's perfect Thanksgiving). And our good friend Katie joined us for Thanksgiving and brought homemade cornbread. Mmm!

Outnumbering the humans this year, the pets also had a good Thanksgiving. Though instead of over-indulging on food and drink, they played and played and played until they couldn't hold their eyes open anymore. Charlie brought his two dogs Bernie and Lark up from Tucson with him, and Deuce and Pedro were in heaven. Lark, a young beautiful girl doggie, made Deuce feel young and playful like I haven't seen him in years. And Pedro followed Lark around everywhere for the first few days - love at first sight. And Lark had lots of first experiences - meeting Deuce and Pedro, meeting cats, meeting stairs... She was completely perplexed and a little alarmed that we would so freely go up and down the cliff of stairs, and she refused to come down on her first morning (Charlie had carried her up the stairs the night before). Finally Bernie ran up the stairs and showed her how to do it, and she followed him down with no problem - stairs conquered. All four dogs were on their best behavior the whole week, and Skylar and Hera were quite content in their peaceful, dog-free master bedroom.

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Bryan and his family went to a Denver Nuggets game, while I spent the evening working (grading, boo!). Bryan and some of his work friends have season tickets, which they share with eachother when spouses or family or friends want to go.

For Christmas, we headed to Missouri for a traditional Theilen Christmas, with lots of family and food and our traditional game of Greed on Christmas Eve. Grandma and Grandpa Edmonds stayed several nights with us, including Christmas Eve, and so were there to celebrate Christmas morning with us as we opened presents and ate a huge breakfast. Kelsey was very excited about her loot - two little kittens from Santa, a puppy from mom, laser tag from her awesome Aunt Monica and Uncle Bryan, etc.

A couple games of Hand and Foot, a few movies on dad's theater system, a day of never-ending near-disasters (a trip to the hospital (Grandma fell early Sat morning and cut her elbow, but she's okay now), a flat tire, and rescuing mom's car that spun off the road (the storm hit MO just in time for a white Christmas!)), an afternoon of sledding for Bryan, Kelsey, and the puppy, and a baby shower with the family on Sunday finished out the Theilen Christmas vacation. It was great!Getting to Missouri was another story. We ended up leaving the night before we had planned due to the weather forecast for blizzard conditions in Kansas the following day. We drove through a few hours of snow, poor visibility, and accumulation on I-70 in eastern Colorado and western Kansas, and when that cleared up we thought we were through the hard part. But about an hour from the usual half-way point between Denver and Kansas City we realized the hard part was just beginning. Freezing rain/mist/fog had made I-70 a sheet of ice for miles and miles. We continued on at a crawl, sliding anytime Bryan pushed on the brakes or accelerator. There were lots of other cars off the road, in the ditch or facing the wrong way, and there was one point when a Hummer drove past us, going much faster than he should have, and lost control right in front of us. The Hummer started to slide back and forth and eventually slid into our lane and into the ditch on the side of the road, barely missing the car in front of us. If he hadn't slid all the way off the road, there would have been no way for us to avoid him. Our little Prius did okay, mostly because Bryan knew what he was doing and took it slow. We stopped for gas literally a couple miles after the ice suddenly ended, where we got some pictures of the ice on the car. Here is a picture of the ice that accumulated on the driver side rear-view mirror, with Bryan's hand for reference. Not long after that, we stopped for a few hours of sleep after 8 hours of white-knuckled, eyes-peeled driving on what should have been an easy 5 hour drive. The next day we made it in to Kansas City with relatively good weather and no problems. And the drive back to Colorado was easy and uneventful.

New Years Eve will be quiet (compared with previous years). We're going to see Avatar on IMAX this evening, and I predict a game of Mars Rails will follow (I am the queen of Mars Rails!!!, though not so good at Lunar Rails or Euro Rails). My challenge will be staying awake until midnight, and not being too jealous of all the yummy champagne everyone else gets to drink. Xerxes and I will enjoy some sparkling cider, I'm sure.

Happy New Year everyone!

Tennessee vacation

For my last flight during my pregnancy we decided to go visit our good friends Joshua and Jaclyn in Knoxville, Tennessee. Well, that's not exactly how it happened - we've been wanting to visit them for almost a year now and finally made it out earlier this month, and it just so happens that will be the last flight I take until after the baby is born.

It was a great trip, with lots of games, laughter, fondue! Our other good friend Matt, who lives down in Huntsville, Alabama, drove up and joined us for part of the weekend - I don't think I have laughed so much or so hard in a really long time as I did that night with Bryan, Joshua, and Matt re-living their Florida days. And of course the trip couldn't end until we ate at Waffle House, the restaurant of choice when we lived in Cocoa Beach! What a fantastic vacation.

My big belly

Things are going great as I enter my third trimester. Some aches and pains associated with a giant belly, but nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing indicating a health issue. But people have definitely started to comment on my big belly. A month or so ago a woman at a craft store asked if this was my 2nd or 3rd baby since women tend to be smaller on their first. Then a couple weekends ago we were in Tennessee visiting some good friends and a complete stranger told me she thought I was going to have a Christmas baby. The other day the lady at the grocery check out asked when I was due, and when I told her early March her eyes about popped out of her head and her mouth gaped open like it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. Then my cleaning lady told me last Friday that I am now as big as she was when she gave birth to her son 20-some years ago. (I think she has just forgotten how big she really was). Other people ask if I'm having twins, and then ask if I'm sure - yep, every ultrasound and fetal-monitor and examination indicate just one baby boy.

I don't think I'm all that crazy huge, and my midwife assures me that I'm where I should be; the baby may be a little big and my due date may be off by a week or so, but it's nothing to be worried about - my measurements and weight are all within the normal range for this stage in my pregnancy. Some women carry high, others low, some big, others small. Me, I'm carrying a bowling ball, right out front.

More Belly Pics

Here's the latest round of belly pics, most recent on top.

25 weeks (Nov 21)

24 weeks (Nov 15)

22 weeks (Nov 1)

21 weeks (Oct 26) with Deuce

20 weeks (Oct 18) with Pedro

How will our other "kids" adjust?

Deuce (left), Pedro (right), Hera (on my lap), and Skylar (just outside of the camera's view) all help me relax after an exhausting day of teaching, research, and being pregnant.

We're not sure how our current "kids" will take having a new baby around in a few months. I'm sure there will be a bit of jealousy (on their parts) and neglect (on ours). I'd like to think we'll still have time to love up the dogs and cats, but LOTS of people have warned us that we just won't have the time or energy. Life will undoubtedly be different, and I hope we're all able to adjust to our growing family.

We are trying to slowly adjust Deuce and Pedro by having the baby's room, which is still nothing like a baby's room, off limits to them, and by trying to not call them "little boys" quite so much. It's hard, though. I've also read that it might help to carry around a doll and give it all the attention for a while so they get used to me not having just them to coo over. Although it's entirely possible Deuce and Pedro won't even acknowledge the baby's existence until he's able to pet or play with them, in which case they'll just be sad we're ignoring them for no apparent reason.

As for the cats, I'm pretty sure Skylar will keep a polite distance for a while. Hera, however, will be very put-off that my lap is no longer hers and that some other creature has taken her spot. But Hera's good with routine, so I guess I'll have to start making my lap off limits to her now and she'll adjust. Hopefully.

Our 5 Year Anniversary

We celebrated our 5-year wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. Hard to believe that it's already been 5 years! Plus two years before that of dating. It seems like just yesterday that I was floating on my surfboard, waiting for the slow 6 inch summer Florida waves to roll in with Bryan, Aly, and Deb, no clue what would be in store for us... Anyway, these first 5 years have been great! And they'll undoubtedly be VERY different from our next 5 years.

Halloween and October Snow Storm

We had our first big snow storm of the season the week before Halloween. It was beautiful, and I decided the 18+ inches of snow we got at the house was a good reason not to go to work. No sense battling traffic and slippery roads and cold temperatures if I didn't absolutely have to. It was wonderful staying at home with the dogs, watching the snow fall.

Here are some pics of the snow. The first one was taken in the morning of Oct 28th. The second was taken the following morning with over a foot and a half of snow. The front bush was completely covered, and the birdhouse and corner of roof show the amount of snow that built up during the storm. Our backyard was pretty buried too, which the dogs enjoyed! Here Deuce (and Pedro behind him) are asking to come back in after racing around in the snow.


Fortunately for all the local kids, almost all the snow was melted and gone for Halloween. Bryan and I stayed home, passed out candy and watched scary movies on TV - no costumes or big parties this year, just a relaxing evening at home. A week before, we had carved pumpkins with our friend Katie - Bryan was very excited when a trick-or-treating family recognized what his pumpkin was. :)