Oh how my belly has grown!

Just to update you all...This Wednesday I am 28 weeks. All is going well. This baby moves a lot! And I do love feeling it move. Steve often feels it move too. And we can see my belly move at times too. I am feeling great, so far I have been so blessed with such a smooth pregnancy. 12 weeks left!

Here are some pictures of my belly growing.

19 Weeks

20 Weeks

21 Weeks

22 Weeks

24 Weeks

25 Weeks

26 Weeks

27 Weeks

It's a lot of fun to see my belly grow - it means the baby is getting bigger! I can't imagine getting much bigger though. And my belly button is almost out which is strange too!

Baby A scan!

This is me and the baby bump yesterday! We did not find out the sex of the baby as we want to be surprised.

We are 20 weeks today! Officially half way there (unless Baby A decides to come late). We had a big scan today, it was very exciting. I felt like it was Christmas - I had butterflies in my belly all day leading up to the scan.

The doctor did almost an hour scan but the video attached is about 5 minutes. The scan is a lot of back and forth, gray and blurs. If you don't know what you're looking for, you could miss it. So I've tried to narrate below what you'll see.

It starts with the beating heart; very quickly you'll be able to see the four chambers. Then the Doppler look at the heart showing the blood go into and out of the heart.

Next you can see a side profile with the baby's head stretched. It's amazing how well you can see the spine.

Then is a view from the top of the head. You can see the dark eye sockets (the cursor goes over these).

From here you can see an arm (the white line is the bone) and then it will bring its hand up to its face. You can see it's hand, thumb and four fingers (the cursor goes over this).

The baby continues to move its arms and will grab its foot with its hand up near its face.It's a better profile picture as well, you can see the nose and mouth. If you look in the chest, you can see the beating heart.

More views from the top of the head, then more profile with arms and legs moving. At one point, the cursor goes over the umbilical cord all the way on the left.

Go to this link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZlcn-okT6s

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Kate

Thailand - Finally Here! (And it's a long one)

It's finally here. Four months it took me to get this blog together. Not entirely true. Four months to figure out what I wanted to write about and then one hour to write the blog and then another week to stop being lazy and attach the pictures so I can FINALLY post it.

We were, yet again, very blessed to have the opportunity to travel in Thailand. We had been saying for two years that we wanted to go. Luckily we stayed an extra year in Australia and were able to do this.

The trip was amazing! We visited Bangkok and Tubkaek Beach. Perfect timing for Bangkok as Thailand had violent protests about the government in Bangkok only a few weeks after we left. It is normally a very peaceful country.

We were busy doing a lot while we were there: seeing the Royal Palace, visiting temples, seeing different statues of the Buddha, taking many different modes of transportation (tuk tuk, ferry, bus, train, subway, taxi, van, motorbike, long boat, kayak and airplane - we tried to take as many as we could), kayaking the Andaman Sea, going to a snake show, visiting markets, touring the city and canals.

Bangkok is way more westernized than I had pictured. The downtown is anyway. Skyscrapers, malls (with security metal detectors upon entry), millions of cars and pollution. We stayed on the perimeter of the downtown area where it looks a bit more like I pictured Thailand to be. Lots and lots of people walking in this area. Sidewalks where every other square of concrete is uprooted and you constantly feel like you're walking up and down hill. Hundreds of street food vendors. Steve was up early most mornings and said it was amazing at how early the vendors set up. Some earlier than 5am. And they would still be there when we ended our day at 5 or 6pm. And they would literally have a tin lunch truck but with no roof or they would set up a card table with a stove and wok and cook ALL day long! These people definitely earned their money, which was next to nothing. There were also men who made their living by repairing shoes on the side of the road. No store. No lunch truck. Just a man sitting on one crate working over another crate which served as his workbench.

We went to a few different markets and they were HUGE! They had everything here, literally. Food, clothes, handbags, candles, lamps, trinkets, even puppies. They did! I'm not sure if those puppies were legal or even had the right shots, but if you wanted a puppy, you go to the market. And it was places like this, as well as the lunch truck, that you got really great tasting authentic Thai food. This is where the locals were every day, this is where they ate. So we got some really good food here.

Tubkaek Beach was more like the Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach. We stayed at a small resort on a gorgeous beach. Ofcourse we are not really "resort" people so we found other things to do at the resort or nearby towns to stay active. The water was gorgeous; although now come to think of it, we didn't even swim in the water. Not once. The resort was beautiful, luxury but very Thai. We had dinner at an amazing buffet there. Right on the beach with a three piece group singing and playing guitar. It was so peaceful and beautiful. There was so much food, steak, lobster, prawns, salads, pastas, anything you could think of. They had a bunch of different canapes and a variety of small servings for dessert.

The resort had seven pools all in a row, different shapes and sizes and at different levels along the walk down the stairs from our room to the beach. We only used the pools for 1/2 hour total during our whole trip and only one hour before our car picked us up for the airport. We did that just to say we used the pools. This was how we 'used' the pools: get in. Snap a picture of us in pool. Get out. Next pool. Get in. Snap picture. Get out. Next pool. for all 7 pools. That took us about 1/2 hour total. Sad. But like I said, we're not really resort people.

Highlights of our trip included:

1. Elephants. We rode on top of elephants through the jungle. Of course we had a tour guide, but it was so crazy! They are huge. So lovable and friendly. We were able to feed them pineapples and bananas. You just hold one out in your hand, and they will use their trunk to grab it from you. Of course I was afraid to get elephant slobber on me. During our ride through the jungle, the elephant trumpeted. SO LOUD! It was so great though, just like I'd always imagined as a child. The elephant raised its trunk and out came this enormous shrill. Finally, not in the jungle, but out on the road as we were riding back to our hotel, we passed a man riding an elephant on the side of the road. He didn't have a bike or a car as his transportation, he had an elephant! It was insane and almost surreal to see this. A two ton elephant, 10 feet tall with a tiny Thai man on top riding to their next destination. It was quite incredible to be able to experience elephants in these ways.

2. Renting motorbikes. I was so excited for this! I never rode a motorbike or motorcycle before. Not even on the back of one. We hired one each for Steve and me while we were in Tubkaek Beach. At 9.30am we arrived at the front desk to retrieve our bikes for the day. It wasn't until the girl instructed me to sit on the bike that I started to get nervous. She said, 'You've riden a bike before, right?' I told her no and she was quite nervous to give me the key to the bike, which only made me more nervous to take the key and then ride the bike. Wasn't it like a bicycle? Like that old saying 'it's like riding a bike?' No. A motorbike is nothing like riding a bicycle except that they both have only two wheels. Needless to say I chickened out and happily got on the back of Steve's bike. In retrospect, it was the best idea as the traffic was crazy and I didn't know where we were going. So to have us on separate bikes, it would have been very difficult to stay together or communicate if one of us needed to take a break and the one in front kept on driving. Being on Steve's bike, I was able to be his side and rearview mirrors. On the main roads, there was quite a bit of traffic. It was similar to Route 73 in Jersey. Very busy, quite speedy, merging, turning, and few opportunities to do any of these because there were so many cars. To get to the main road, we probably had to drive about 20 minutes. We left our hotel and it was exhilerating. Riding without doors, with the wind in our faces. Luckily there weren't any bugs. And motorbikes are mostly the way to travel on back roads. In fact, we regularly saw a family of 4 on one motorbike. No joke. The father driving with a small child in front of him, then a small child behind him and finally the mother at the very back. I have to remind myself that these are tiny Thai people who do not have the hips and butt I do which take up the entire back seat. There is no way we could have fit two small children on our bike. Plus, none of them were wearing helmets! Just insane. But I guess it's just normal and a way of life for them. Anyway, so 20 minutes to the main road, we left our hotel and after driving for 10 minutes, we decide to stop at 7-11. That's right. 7-11. They are international and even in small towns. Because it was on the other side of the road, Steve would need to do a U-turn. He came to a full stop, then asked me to get off the bike because he wasn't sure what the weight would be like doing this turn. No problem. I hopped off and looked both ways to cross the street while he began his U-turn. It was more of a half U-turn as he lost his balance and ended up off the bike and the bike was on its side. I slowly walked over to him. He was moving and he wasn't going too fast so I knew it wouldn't be too bad. It seemed like he had just fallen off a bicycle. Again, motorbikes and bicycles have nothing in common except for two wheels. It turns out that he hurt himself pretty badly. A cut down his right shin that went for about 5 inches, scrapes on one knee and the other shin and a couple bruises here and there. Since we were at 7-11, we bought some soap, water and cotton balls to wash out the dirt and rocks to assess how bad it was. A local man came over to try to help, he actually tried to help wipe off the blood. After washing, Steve decided to go to the clinic. The local man drove us into town and we spent the next two hours waiting for and getting serviced by the doctor. Steve had to remain on bed rest for the remainder of the day. We decided to hire the bikes for the following day too since we only got to ride it for a total of 20 minutes. And it was great. We rode around our area of the penninsula, stopped at a temple, a small town for lunch, waterfalls, a beach, and a cobra show. We were definitely happy to have rented these although Steve had a minor accident.

3. We visited a cave and a waterfall in the same day. Although they were both beautiful sights, what I remember most was being a celebrity. There must have been a school field trip because at each place were a couple of buses and tons of kids. Steve and I were walking around the cave looking at things when a little girl asked me my name. I told her. She then said, 'You are beautiful.' So sweet! And quite flattering. Then Steve came over, they asked his name and then said, 'You are handsome.' So, that was sweet too. But it was then less flattering for me. Not that I was jealous and of course Steve is handsome. But, I realized then that they were probably practicing their English. They must have learned in school that girls are beautiful and boys are handsome and it's a nice thing to say to boys/girls. Oh well, they seemed excited to meet and talk with us. Onto the waterfalls. A small walk and passing some school kids and there were these great waterfalls. All the kids were in the waterfall. There was a small natural pool at the bottom shallow enough to be safe where anyone could go in. Because there were about 100 kids there, we decided just to observe. While watching the excitement, a little girl came up to me asking me if I could take her picture. I said yes and went to take her camera. She then skipped away from me, to her teacher, handed her teacher the camera and then ran back to me to sit next to me. She wanted her picture with me! How cute was that? She said thank you when it was done and then another girl came to sit next to me. After she was done, another girl. About 10 girls did this and then we got a group shot. It was quite funny and I do not know why they wanted their picture with me. Was it because I had red hair? Had they never seen red hair before? Was it because I was so pale white and they weren't used to that? Perhaps it was because I was so tall and most Thai people are short. Or perhaps it's like the first girl said at the cave, I was beautiful and they just wanted their picture with me. Ha! Anyway, it was a lot of fun for those 10 minutes and I felt like a celebrity.

4. Anytime we ordered a beer, they would give one 40oz bottle with 2 glasses. Apparently Thai people are superstitious - ordering 2 of anything is bad luck. So people won't buy 2 oranges, they will buy 1 or 3. So I can't really explain the 2 glasses that accompanied the 1 un-superstitious bottle of beer. These 2 glasses seem like bad luck to me. After the first time, we then knew to order one bottle and two glasses.

5. Monkeys. At one of the caves, wild monkeys lived there, like 50 of them. They were so tiny. They swung from trees. They fought with each other. They groom each other. The babies feed from the moms or ride on their moms backs as they run around. It was so cool to see these monkeys in their natural habitat. When we arrived, the monkeys were at the top of a cliff. They then used the vines to swing down to the ground level where people were eating. They were so quick and graceful. The best part was that these monkeys took food right from peoples hands. Steve and I both got to feed them.

6. Toilets. Man, how do I describe these? Being on the other side of the world, you may wonder if the water goes down the other way. I have no idea. The big surprise was that it was basically the top of the toilet, like the seat that the boys put up and down, cemented to a hole in the ground. Before we went, sometime in my life, I vaguely remember hearing toilets like these existed. I forgot until we got there. The hotels had regular westernized toilets, but almost all of the public toilets were this hole in the ground. It was quite challenging. I'm not quite sure how boys do it, it seems like there is a far distance between themselves and where the pee ends up; perhaps they have urinals. But for the girls, you put your feet on the toilet seat, and squat. It is quite uncomfortable. To me, squatting is reserved for camping and the woods, not to public toilets. And it's wet. I like to pretend that it's just the water from the toilet splashing up from the flushing, but who knows what it really is. I have tunnel vision with that. So it's a bit slippery. It was an experience to say the least. And I am very grateful that westernized toilets are well above ground and have a seat.

Thailand was an amazing place to go, so gorgeous and welcoming. This country has so much to offer in such a small space and we didn't even see that much of it. I am so glad we got to go there! Looking forward to the next trip...until then...

Cheers,

Kate

Crazy Things People Say to Pregnant Women

I have heard from pregnant women before, 'You won't believe what people say to you or how complete strangers will come up to you in the supermarket and touch your belly without asking.'


I of course, decided that when I got pregnant, I would speak up to these people and politely say, 'Please don't put your hand on me without asking.' I mean, why is it okay to put your hand on a strangers belly? What if I were just fat? Would they put their hand on my stomach then? Do strangers approach me and put their hand on my butt? No.


To date, I have not had any strangers put their hand on my belly. Perhaps that is because I am not clearly showing. But I do have one coworker who feels he is able to touch my belly any time he wants to. I have aggressively and angrily pushed/thrown his arm off of me after he did this. It was not as polite as I would have imagined by asking nicely 'Please do not put your hand on me without asking.' But I couldn't help myself. I felt so uncomfortable. As I am not even out of my first trimester, my uterus is only the size of a grapefruit. And to be nice, my stomach is not that small. I had a little gut to begin with, plus the grapfruit, plus some carbs to curb my nauseau and there is my current bump. Although it is extremely exciting that I am pregnant, I'd say my bump is only 20% baby, and that is under my skin, flesh and fat. So when someone touches my belly at this point, they are simply touching my fat. Again I ask, Would they put their hand on my stomach if I were fat? No. But that is what this coworker has continued to do. I have since made sure that I am carrying something at stomach level, a coat over my arm or a purse to block my belly from being touched.


Being pregnant, and so early pregnant, I thought I would be immune to such belling touching and inappropriate comments. I was wrong. Apparently being pregnant means anyone and everyone can give you unsolicited advice. I might as well wear a shirt that says 'I'm pregnant. Please approach me, touch my belly and/or provide me with unsolicited advice and/or scary pregnant stories.' It is truly unbelievable. It actually makes me wonder how many times I have said inappropriate things to others. I do remember being in sixth grade and constantly telling my family things they didn't want to hear but starting or ending the statement with 'No offense.' As if 'no offense' excused the horrible comment I had just said. Like, 'No offense but that dress makes you look fat.' Or 'I just don't like you, no offense.' That was my mind when I was 12. I truly hope that I have outgrown that and no longer tell people inappropriate things. What is that saying? If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.


Here are some things that people have said to me in the less than 13 weeks I have been pregnant:

1. I saw you on Wednesday and thought you might be pregnant. Yeah, I came in, saw your stomach and thought to myself, 'she's definitely pregnant.' But I didn't want to say anything just in case.

2. I have had 8 miscarriages between 6 and 11 weeks.

3. I saw you at Target and saw your bump and you are definitely pregnant! I didn't start showing until the end of my second trimester.

Note from Kate on #3: Screw you lady. We are not all stick thin with the metabolism of a gazelle.

4. My friend had an awful labor. So long and painful. And she really tore.

5. You're pregnant? Oh, I just thought you were putting on weight.

6. You're going to take a nap?!?!?!?!? You just woke up!

Note from Kate on #6: Screw you man. You try building a brain, a heart, lungs and a full body. Then talk to me about if it's okay to take a nap.

7. You should really do pilates. I read that it can really help with labor. You should really make sure that you're keeping active. Do you want the number to my gym? (Advice given by a man whose wife has never been pregnant and after reading an article on keeping active during pregnancy.)

8. Chocolate? You don't really need to be eating that.

Note from Kate on #8: You must be kidding right? I'm pregnant!

9. Do you know what night it happened?

10. Waiting for the next inappropriate comment to take this slot. Will it be your comment?


As most of you know, I do not like being told what to do. But I especially do not like being told what to do if I do not invite some sort of opinion from the other person. It's who I am. But, I believe 9 months of hearing such things will probably help me to improve. There has to be good out of all of these crazy comments, right?


Sincerely,

The fat, tired, chocolate eating pregnant Kate:)

Thank you to shoemaker Hoby of St. James's Street London, Hiram Hutchinson and Charles Goodyear

Steve and I celebrated Christmas on 19th December 2009 this past season. Since we were going home for the holidays, we decided to have 'our' Christmas before we left and to have a small Christmas with few gifts. It was a Sunday night after I had just finished packing for our trip.

One gift for me, one gift for Steve. One gift for me, one gift for Steve. It went on like that for four and a half rounds. Five presents for me and four for Steve. He opened is last present which was an index card. There was a clue! I love games! It was the beginning of a scavenger hunt.

Once he opened the index card he stared at me. I had gotten this idea from a gift my dad gave my mom one year. In Moorestown, where the house has many, many rooms, my dad sent my mom on a scavenger hunt. In the family room, then the study, then the bedroom, then the kitchen, then another upstairs bathroom, the laundry room, then finally back to the family room where her Rolex watch was in the cabinet where the remote controls are stored.

So when Steve stared at me, I explained my inspiration followed by, 'No, your end prize is not a Rolex.'

And so he started. The Moorestown house where my family lived had 15 rooms (including bathrooms). Our teeny, tiny apartment had 3. This was going to be a challenge. Plus, I had to figure out how to plant the clues throughout the rooms without Steve seeing. But he piped on anyway. After the first index card, he was off to the bathroom, then to the kitchen, then to the laundry room, then to the library (small corner in our family room with a chair and shelf of books) and finally under the rubbish bin in the kitchen.

Ahhh, the golden present. It must be a good gift to require a scavenger hunt, right? Well, Steve liked it. The present was tickets to the Golden Plains Festival. A weekend camping and music festival. Just what Steve likes. He was very happy with his gift.

You may remember last year, December 2008 when Steve and I went to another music festival (Meredith Music Festival). It was my first and Steve's umpteenth. (Picture below.) It was challenging to say the least. After that experience, I am shocked that I considered going to another let alone bought tickets as a gift for Steve. It rained the entire time we were there. It was ridiculously muddy. I walked around in wet, muddy sneakers all weekend and had to continue to wear the same pair of wet, soggy, muddy socks as they were the only non-cotton socks I had taken with me. It was a nightmare. We slept a ton and barely any beer had been drunk. But the worst part, and I suppose the best part, was that that had to be the absolute worst conditions to ever see a festival in. It could only go up from here. And it had. Sunday morning we saw sunshine - on our way out. But I had survived, with minimal complaining.

Coincidentally, the Golden Plains Music Festival was to be held at the same amphitheatre. But it was in March and the beginning of autumn. It was going to be a lot of fun as we had four additional people going with us this year.

We arrived early, got a great campsite and set up camp. I can't even remember when it started. When the first drop of invasive rain fell. I almost felt like it hadn't stopped since December of '08 or that this country town has a permanent rain cloud over it. Surely it couldn't rain again, could it? No, it was just a sprinkling. Phew! Close call.

No, I was wrong. In December 2008 when I thought there was no way another festival at this amphitheatre could be that rainy and muddy again...I was wrong. It was. It rained the entire time! Except on the morning we were leaving - why does that always happen? It poured. It hailed. It was cold. It was wet. It was muddy. It was miserable weather. This couldn't be possible. I'm never doing this again, ever!

There was an upside though. After the festival in December 2008 and on our drive back to Melbourne, we stopped at an outdoors store and bought gumboots. They remind me of gardening boots. Basically, they are rain boots. They sat in storage for over a year. 'So glad we purchased them and I'll never get to use them' I would think sarcastically. But Steve suggested we bring them this weekend 'just in case.' I couldn't have been happier. I had the driest feet around. Last year when I was wearing muddy, soggy, wet sneakers with the same muddy, soggy, wet socks I had worn for three days, I had so much gumboot envy as other girls had prepared for the rain. Well, this year I was prepared too! I had gumboots, rain pants and a raincoat. (Picture below.) It was bearable and actually still fun!

I don't know if I'll ever do a festival like that again. When I think of the rain I think no way. When I think it can't possibly happen for a third time, I think I may be able to.

Anyway, to tie it all together...thank you to shoemaker Hoby of St. James's Street London for manufacturing the design of the calfskin leather boot. Thank you to Charles Goodyear for inventing the vulcanization process for natural rubber. And finally, thank you to Hiram Hutchinson who bought the patent to manufacture the footwear and took the rubber from Goodyear and calfskin leather from Hoby to combine them and make the 'Wellington boot' aka the gumboot aka the best footwear that kept my feet warm and dry during this very wet music festival.

These men helped to make my experience bearable and fun! I am actually considering going to another music festival again someday. (Plus, I got lots of compliments on the cute design I had chosen for the gumboots.)

Cheers,

Dry Feet Kate

The Dingo Ate My Thong

Not my thong...Steve's thong. And not underwear, but a flip flop. (Thong is an Aussie term for flip flop; a US thong is called a g-string her in Australia...FYI). Anyway, TRUE STORY!!!!!


Frazer Island over Australia Day weekend (Steve's belated birthday present). A weekend of camping and 4-wheel driving on this strictly beach island. It is literally a beach island. The beach is not used for sunbathing. It is a highway. And the middle of ths island is all sand as well, so it made for a very bumpy ride but a very happy birthday boy.
















This island is off of Queensland and has a population of wild dingoes. Everywhere you go are signs reading 'Be Dingo Safe.' It lists what to do in case of emergencies of a dingo encounter (look it in the eye, cross your arms, if you are with another adult stand back-to-back, do not run away, always accompany small children). It also listed how to prevent encounters with dingoes such as storing food in the car overnight and under no circumstances should you feed a dingo.

















Easy enough. Although I was still scared that a dingo may attack me. They are cute. They look just like dogs. And they are not afraid of people in the sense that they came onto our campsite every night and stood about 6 feet from us. But they are scared if they feel they are being threatened. For instance, as I was scared of being attack, I was on the lookout for dingoes one evening after dinner. It was dark out so it's hard to see sometimes. Every movement of the wind in the bushes would scare me. And finally, a dingo was trotting along out of a bush on the side of our campsite I jumped up and screamed. The poor thing, I scared it more than it scared me. It flinched and scampered away tripping over itself.


The morning after the night we arrived I was packing up our site. We had just learned that Keith and Becky welcomed Maddie into the world!!!! Steve was sitting in the tent doorway looking perplexed. "Where are my thongs?" he asked me. "What do you mean, didn't you take them inside the tent last night?" I pointed to the outside of the tent. Of course I would assume he took everything inside the tent. That's what I would do. Just incase there is a masked murderer or a thief on the island trying to get whatever they can from innocent people sleeping. Always bring everything in the tent so not to tempt those people.


"No, I left them outside the tent. The dingoes must have gotten them." I thought it was a possibility. I mean, if I was afraid of a masked murderer traveling all the way to this remote island, getting through on a 4WD and taking the lives of innocent people, why would it be unlikely that a dingo (animals which were prevalent on the island and which we had seen just the night before) had taken them. Besides, hadn't a dingo eaten a baby before?


Still, as I didn't have proof, I couldn't be 100% positive. Innocent until proven guilty, right?


We finished packing up the site and were spending a few moments enjoying the weather before driving to our next destination. Steve did a scope of the site ensuring we didn't forget anything. And you'll never guess....there on the hill, 10 feet from the entrance to our tent were the platforms or base of Steve's thongs. Unless it was the masked murder, the dingo had taken his thong from right outside our tent in the middle of the night (we didn't even hear them!), taken the thongs only 10 feet away and proceeded to eat the strap on both thongs, again we didn't hear them/it chewing away at the thongs (They are so sneaky quiet).





















But mystery solved. "The dingo ate my thong!" Steve proclaimed. It was a funny moment. Not only do they look like dogs, but they have similar interests as well (eating and chewing on people's shoes). Luckily Steve had a pair of boots he could wear for the rest of the trip.


Other than that exciting Aussie initiation, Frazer Island had gorgeous pure water lakes. One was so blue and clear with white sand beaches that I felt like I was in the carribean. Another lake was the color of honey - it was just beautiful and so peaceful. It was a great trip and Steve was very happy with his birthday present.
















Don't forget to be Dingo Safe - be sure to accompany your children, and thongs, at all times.

Holy Crap it's February!

WTF? February already, and really it's March tomorrow. So Holy Crap it's March!

Where did the time go? 2009 was here and gone in an instant. Here are a few blogs being thrown your way.

We had a great time home for the holidays this past season. It was really nice to be home for Christmas with the appropriate corresponding weather. Snow! We saw snow! I know you all are probably so sick of the snow. In fact, I know a lot of you are as your emails and Facebook status' state this. But for us, it was great to see the snow, to feel the cold, to have the heat on in the house during Christmas (or not on in the case of the Fitzgerald's house).

Again, it was a whirlwind of a visit, not staying more than 2 consecutive nights at one house. A fast 18 days but we did manage to see most people. Those that we did not, we look forward to seeing you again in early 2011. Wow, 2011! Talk about where does time go.

My unbirthday was a lot of fun and a good intro into being 30 plus a fabulous farewell from the states - once again. We are so lucky to have such amazing friends and family.

Not to fret, it is about nine months until we are home for good!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!