Is that you?

So, I'm just sitting there and I feel this "flick" in my stomach. It was like a piece of popcorn popping or a flutter. (Well, must be my typical upset stomach.)
I keep going on with my day........ flick flick flick......... Nope, I think it's you! I'm not sure but that random flutter must be my little girl in there. She's just saying "HELLO WORLD HERE I COME!"

Snow Days and Sick Days

Wow, it's sure cold out! Thursday we got a major snowfall and thank goodness I was off work! There's no way I could have driven in that snow. So instead I spent the day outside, by myself, sledding. Typically my husband would have been the first one out the door but he's got a horrible virus that has kept him in bed for about four days. I won't give you details, but he can't eat and is very fatigued. We got him to the Doctor on Friday and started on some anti-nausea pills so now he can at least eat. So.... I ventured out on my own! I went for a walk to Kirkland and had some Starbucks coffee while I sat and watched the snow fall, then I headed to the grocery store to buy Jason some remedies and soup. On my trek back home I only almost bit the snow about three times, whew, close calls. Finally I made it back to the bottom of my hill and a little boy came running up to me. "Miss, can I carry your grocery bags?" What a sweetie! I can only hope my kids have manners like that, I just wanted to hug him!

Our work Christmas party was cancelled, Diana's 30th party cancelled, everything is snowed in. We managed to make it out to the Keg last night for dinner to celebrate with Diana. Poor Jason sat and starred at his food rather than ate it, but it was a blast!

Today, back to my typical Christmas Crafts. Gotta love the snow and sick days! Sometimes it's nice to have an excuse to stay home.

Prego Update

Just a general pregnancy update... I feel fine! Everyone asks me how I feel, I don't think you truly want the honest answer to that so for the most part I feel "fine". I don't have morning sickness, I don't have nausea, I'm the polar opposite. I love to eat. My energy is finally creeping back which is a lifesaver. I literally had a few days where I didn't even want to get up off the couch. For those of you who know me, that's not my typically personality. I'm a Type A personality, go getter, busybody, workaholic, crafter, cooker, wife and friend. I love doing things for others and making people smile but that's been a bit hard lately.

By the end of my ten to eleven hour workday I do my best to go to the gym and take my body sculpt class which brings me to my first stranger appreciation. I was waiting for class when one of the ladies came up to me and said "please don't get mad if I'm totally off, but are you pregnant? (babble babble...) I'm just so used to seeing you and your petite body and it looks like you are pregnant!". Just to throw her off I said no, but then I let her know the truth, made me smile. I guess I'm officially showing now. I know my pants can sure tell I'm showing. Time to shop, very soon.

The last update is they say it's a GIRL! You know, being so early they never truly know but the Ultrasound Tech was pretty darn sure and said to have my girl name ready to go. By the end of the ultrasound she said she was positive, so we'll see! She was a great Tech and I hope to have her each time, she even snuck on a little 3D showing of the little one. She was dancing, moving her arms, bouncing over and over again and even switched sides. What a busy girl! She takes after her mom I guess.

That's it for now!
As always, more to come.
XO

Pickle

Yes! I'm pregnant. I'm finally in that "second trimester" period where I can open up my mouth and tell everyone. Although, Jason started telling people that he didn't even know immediately. He just was so excited he couldn't keep it in, not suprising! No morning sickness, just the opposite, I like to eat. Eating makes me feel better and not sick so I'm trying to be healthy and eat wisely. My main complaint is my skin. It's red, flushed and looks like I have a rash. Of course working in Dermatology doesn't quite help me any. Every day people ask me "What's wrong with your face? Were you in the sun? Did you have a laser done? Do you have a rash?" Well just so you know, that makes it worse. I flush more when that happens! So, I'm trying to accept it and realize things could be a lot worse. I'll just call it the Pregnancy "GLOW" for now, like Jason does. Good thing my husband is so nice. He likes the glow. I sure hope my little pickle likes it too! Why is my baby called pickle you may ask? Well it all leads back to the dream. Before I found out I was pregnant, I awoke to Jason one morning and he said "I met our child." It was such a strange statement. He had a dream that I was pregnant, I gave birth and was sitting on the living room floor with a little girl with thick hair, bangs and cute lips, she laughed and said "TICKLE!!" and Jason replied, wow, she said Tickle. My response was... NO SHE SAID PICKLE!!! Now it's our little Pickle. I think it's amazing that he had that dream before we even knew. He's amazing.
Gotta love the Pickle and the Glow.
That's all for now.
God Bless.

Thankful

24 pounds, wow, that's a big turkey! Well I did it, a mere nine hours later the bird was finished. Thank goodness for my dad, it's just comforting to have him there and know that if there's a major disaster that we can fix it. Which did happen without anyone knowing. I must have had the water a bit too warm in one of the batches of his famous rolls and they didn't rise. I'm so glad we made 4 batches of rolls, we definitely were not short any rolls even with the mishap of throwing out a batch. Eleven guests, three tables put together, one turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, jello, cranberry sauce, turnips, two pumpkin pies and two apple pies later with a little wine and berry juice it was over. The day I've planned so long for was completed. It was a blur. I'm so glad that my dream came true and I was able to host Thanksgiving for both of our families at my new house. It was perfect! I loved bringing both of our traditions to one table full of laughter and fun. We had puzzles, movies, lounging and relaxing as well. The whole day was just what I would have wanted for a traditional Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for my family and... for my new baby to come. Yes, it's all going well and I can thank God for it, and I did at church today... over and over.... I'm so thankful.

Random Thoughts

It's been a while, a long while. I've found that I am not a frequent blogger. It's hard for me to keep up with my hectic schedule! My new wine business is fun and I spend most of my free time focusing on that. Our recent Open House was a hit as well and I find myself learning more and more about wine and my palate every day. Currently, I'm on a "wine smelling" kick. I just like to smell it and see what I come up with. The sense of smell is so amazing and can definitely trigger memories, events and open doors to new senses.

Recently Jason took me on a surprise trip to Lake Chelan! It was so nice. He planned it all without me knowing. We stayed at Campbell's resort on the water. It was a weekend filled with relaxing and literally doing NOTHING. Well needed and deserved. We went to my favorite winery, Vin Du Lac. There I was able to hands on see their beautiful lucious surroundings and their amazing awards and accolades. I think they will always be my favorite winery.

Gooble Gobble.... Turkey day is around the corner! More to post soon as I'll try to keep up from now on.

Cheers!

Friends

Friends are an important, crucial part of life. To me, I rely on my husband, my family... my cat Rosie, and my friends. I am lucky for those that I have and thankful for the friendship they bring to my life. Even though life gets busy, tough, and overwhelming at times I know my true friends are always there for me.

Time Flies

Wow. It's been a while since I've typed away at my blog. Between all the other things out there (Facebook, Myspace, reality) I find myself on many different sites. It's amazing how fast time flies.

My latest and greatest news is my new business! Northwest Wine Source. My sister, Diana, and I bought this business from a friend that moved away. We were afraid to even speak about it until it was final and we had a liquor license as we didn't know if it would happen. After 8 pain staking months of paperwork, saving money, background checks, etc, we are finally starting! Our website will be up in January as the company has several other projects ahead of us. So, you may ask yourself, what is Northwest Wine Source? We are your local wine specialists. We focus on hand selecting excellent NW wines that you don't typically find in the grocery store or that you may be hesitant to pick out because you don't know the quality. Thus far, we have visited over 20 wineries to expose ourselves to the winemakers and know where they are coming from. We will have wine tasting events, parties, and sell special orders and monthly wine clubs. I am so excited for this new venture, so on top of my full time job I now have my side business that I can't wait to explore even more.

Not only has this business venture brought my sister and I closer but it has opened me to a whole new world and passion for wine. Sometimes I fall in love with smelling the wine that I know I may love it before I even sip it. I can't wait to share this passion with my friends and family.

Cent Anni!

Dad

Can you resist this delight? My dad came over tonight with his arms full of goodies. Most importantly was my 4 year old wedding cake. I know, it sounds scary, but it's not! He's a professional baker and he has been the master at keeping this cake fresh since we got married. Our 4 year wedding anniversary is tomorrow and so, it's time, to pull out the yellow cake with guava and strawberry filling, buttercream frosting and my favorite purple little flowers. I snuck a bite and slipped one to my dad too... yummy! Believe it or not, there's not even a drop of frostbite! I'm so excited for our anniversary tomorrow. Not to mention in my dad's other arm was a homemade strawberry/rhubarb/apple pie that he made us with cut-out hearts around it. Now that's a dad for you! My wonderful loving creative mother also made us a 99% recycled card made with the original paper I created our invitations with. Now, that's where I get my creativity. My parents. Love it!

Sisters

Sisters. I'm so happy I have a sister like Diana. She is my best friend, sister, business partner, and most importantly the person I would turn to if I ever needed a friend. She listens, cares, loves, shares, laughs and cries with me. In the 6 years I've been with Jason we have overcome a lot of situations. All in all we have made it out better than I would have imagined. I can't wait to have so many memories together. Thanks Diana for being my sister.

TJ for Short

THOMAS JEFFERSON(1743-1826): He was an amazing man. Visiting his house in Monticello, Virginia gave me chills. He is most remembered as author of the Decleration of Independence. He once said "No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden." His garden was a beautiful, each and every square inch of it. He had eggplant, to watermelons, to grapes and beyond. Every single stem was thriving in his rich soil and beautiful surrounding earth. His house was re-composed of most of his items and I felt thrilled to walk the floor that he created. His rotating book tray gave me inspiration alongside his polygraph where he would copy the books he wrote such as "Jeffersons Works." Seeing the ~6'3" bed he died in made me reflect on how he changed this world. He died on July 4th only hours before his friend, John Adams. Back in that time they transfered news via horseback so John thought his friend was still alive, when he died on July 4th as well. What an amazing day that was. Oh... the history.... I love it.

Eat your Cake!

I love cake and everything that it entails. I love making someone feel good by baking them a cake. I love it when my cake is gone quickly, I love the smell, look and taste of everything about it. Cake makes me happy! I sometimes wonder why I'm not an artist of some sort. I want to be able to do everything imaginable that utlizes my creativity to it's fullest extent. Yesterday Jason and I went for a long walk and spent the day tooling around Kirkland. I could've stayed in Sur La Table for hours on end. He did have to nearly drag me out. I really would love to take cake decorating classes, but then I decided, I will just ask my dad (retired baker) to give me lessons! I am excited and want to learn everything he knows so I can take on his fine traits as well. So in my so called free time my next endeavor is to master the art of cake decorating. I already have a professional kit thanks to my sister in law. So here I come, let's eat cake!!

The Birthday Week

Birthday: The day you were born.

Now it's turned into the day to have fun, celebrate, eat cake and laugh. Jason had his 33rd Birthday this past week. Since we've been married we have adopted a new theme to birthdays, learned from Diana, it's the BIRTHDAY WEEK! It is not only a day but a week full of events. I love it. Especially when it's my turn.

So this past week we were busy! It started with our housewarming party then it all went into the Birthday week. Monday was the KEG for dinner with his immediate family. I had the shrimp and he opted for a big juicy steak. Then we enjoyed my home-made white cake with strawberries and cream/whipped topping. Present time was next! Jason scored with a necklace from me and guitar lessons, and from Diana.... a MINI helicopter to fly around the house. I must add that it nearly took my ear off last night when he was flying it for mine and Rosie's entertainment.

Tuesday Jason had his night of volunteering at Children's hospital where he held a newborn baby for a few hours. I'm sure that brought him back to his childhood sensations.

Once Friday rolled around it was time for more fun! Jason's long time friend Andy came over and made us a yummy dinner of Kabobs on the BBQ. We sat out on the patio with our new lawn set and watched the sunset, talked, ate food, and had drinks. A little later my little brother stopped by so I ended up having a night with the boys. My bed time rolled around and I left them to the garage, ping pong table and beer.

Saturday was party time! We started with a taxi ride to Trader Vic's for dinner. We had a private room with Jerry as our head waiter. The food was to die for. We started with the Pu Pu platter which is nothing to "poo poo" about. The drink menu was larger than the dinner menu, that's my kind of place! My aloha cup and Jamaican punch was tipsy. Then for dessert we had the molten chocolate cake and lemon drop shots. We had our close friends there and the dinner couldn't have been better, we even had our own volume for the music (turn it up Jason!). Lastly we headed to LUCKY STRIKE. Now this is an upscale bowling alley if I've ever seen one. My shoes went so well with my short shorts and black top. I started out the game winning and ended loosing but life is full of ups and downs. Jason had a permanent smile the entire night. So much fun. Fun Fun Fun. I love my life. I love Jason. I love having fun friends, family and laughter.

The birthday week ended with breakfast out and a relaxing day of hubby and wife time.
Love. It's great.