Can't Win

So my super sensitive sense of smell seems to be returning to normal which is great but apparently being able to breath through my nose would make me just too comfortable so my body is compensating by taking my vague, ever present nausea, and kicking it up into full fledged demon retching. And tomorrow we have a 12 hour drive to Utah and I'm going to have to bring along a vomit bowl AND sit on a towel because I lose all bladder control when I'm heaving. More then you needed to know, I know, but I'm going to be wretchedly uncomfortable tomorrow and I want everyone to know it and pity me!

The Budge Clan

We lost our patriarch yesterday. We'll miss you Grandpa. 

Could you pass the cheese please?

Every pregnancy has its own flavor, I'm finding. This one wants me to be eating chow mien noodles every day, but since I can't afford that, we're settling for cheese. Any kind of cheese, mozzarella, gouda, cheddar, cottage, gruyere, brie,... I could go on. And I have. The fact that my stomach will calm down for cheese is a double edged sword. While cheese is easily assessable, (and fairly cheap), I've not had the courage to step on the scale and see what all this dairy goodness is doing to my already burgeoning figure. 

This cheese obsession has fitted in rather nicely with Rob's new obsession which is none other then cheese making. He got a mozzarella/ricotta making kit for his birthday, we found some friends to invest in 5 1/2 gallons of fresh, whole milk with us, and I now have some wicked good mozzarella cheese that will compromise a large portion of my lunch today, and some ricotta that will be going into lasagna shortly. I wish I had pictures but the process of making cheese is so quick that I missed both times Rob made the mozzie in the last few days and went to bed last night while he was making ricotta. And I'm not sure the final products will stick around long enough to be photographed! We'll probably get some more milk in a week or two, this time splitting it 3 ways since we ended up with way more milk then we needed with just two families. 5 1/2 gallons is A LOT of milk! Super kudos to Colette who lugged the whole thing up three flights of stairs to our apartment!

lovely parasite

My dictionary widget tells me that a parasite is an organism that lives in or on another organism and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense. If there is a better definition of pregnancy then that please tell me now. My little parasite is only about an inch or two long after 11 weeks of incubating but has all its parts and, most importantly, no longer has a tail. And its sucking me dry. Energy, appetite, will to live... all out the window. I don't have a black list of foods that I can no longer eat, though I have been particularly drawn to chow mien noodles. No, for me it is a black list of smells. Primarily, the smell of  hand soap, body wash and toothpaste. As you might imagine, this affliction makes going anywhere near my bathroom especially horrendous. And my efforts to remain hygienic have been, I'll have to admit it, downright heroic. I've spent the last month and a half walking in a haze of nausea and fatigue (not really walking though, mostly lying on the couch or in bed). My only relief (and sweet relief it has been) is my patient, self-sacrificing husband who has catered to my every whim and picked up all the slack and not once complained even though he has the perfect right to especially since this is such a busy time for him in school. But fear not, gentle reader. There is light at the end of this bleak tunnel. The last few days I have felt myself slowly, possibly, hopefully, turn a corner. The end of the 1st trimester torture is in sight, with just two more weeks to go. We are crossing all our fingers and toes that the good mommy/wife/homemaker will come back to us soon. Until then, I'll be on the couch. 

More kite vacation pictures and waiting for the bus

Kites and School

We had a really great time at the kite festival last weekend, in spite of the horrendous traffic getting there. We got on the freeway going south past Seattle at about 3 on a Friday afternoon which you just don't do if you are sane. I really don't do well in heavy traffic. Even though I wasn't driving, had interesting people to talk to, good books to read and two antsy kids to help distract me, I was still ready to tear my hair out after three hours of inching along. We finally made it to our campground around 11 that night and still had to set up camp. I'll admit that I was ready to chuck in the towel on this vacation, especially after I received 5 bug bites on my forehead alone... I didn't count the rest. However, the forehead bites were in the shape of the constellation Cassiopeia, so that's kind of cool, I guess. Anyway, Saturday morning dawned sunny and cool and just all around beautiful. There was the perfect amount of wind for all the kites at the beach. The picture above doesn't really do justice to how big and amazing these kits were. And that's just one little shot of the sky. Imagine the same view (different kites) everywhere you look! The day was warm enough to play in the water, which Sam and Grace loved. I had quite a time keeping Sam within a safe depth. He just doesn't understand rip tides, no matter how often I explain. "But I know I'm stronger then the water Mom!"
The beach was gorgeous... over 2 miles of just sand, not a rock or pebble in site. We made some fun sand castles, but didn't get pictures. We had our beach towels just in front of this man:

He's without a doubt the most amazing kite flyer I've ever seen. He had three stunt kites that he could do just about anything with. You can see him holding two of them in the picture. The strings for the third are connected to his belt and that band around his leg. It was simply stunning to watch him. I heard one of the event officials telling someone that he is completely deaf and just flies kites every day, all day. What a life!

Here are some more pictures of the day. We had just a great time, but by the end of the day we were all pretty tired. I think we were all in bed by 9. The next day was rainy and cool so it was easy to not linger. We really had such a great time. Rob's mom enjoyed herself so much she has already reserved a place for us to stay next year! I sense a family tradition in the making. 

Ok, so blogger seems to be having trouble uploading the rest of my picture. Which is a shame because they were really good ones. One of them was of Sam waiting for the bus on his first day of school! He and I went to school together last Wednesday for an orientation type thing, and the Friday was is first official day. He really had a great time, though I think it was a bit overwhelming. There are a lot more kids in elementary school then at preschool. He rides a great big huge school bus in the morning, and it is hard for me to imagine my little boy on that great big bus with all those giant kids surrounding him, none of which he knows. He gets mad though we I refer to him as a little boy. His teacher seems really nice and he has 5 friends from church in his class. He's excited about music class and art class and P.E. Also soccer starts next week and he can't wait for that. Grace will start going to preschool next week in the mornings so I'm going to be on my own for about 3 hours a day. I haven't really even started to think about what I'll do. It almost seems too wonderful to be true!