November

Brett is very happy to be wrapping up his internal medicine rotation with a shelf exam tomorrow morning followed by Thanksgiving break in Houston. While I can't say he cared much for internal medicine, he was so happy doing GI (gastrointestinal) work. I'm not sure anything else will top it.

Ellie is very excited to see her cousins soon. She had so much fun trick-or-treating with her friend Noelle. After every house, she would run up to me and show me her pumpkin bucket and tell me that they gave her candy. I laugh at little because she seemed genuinely surprised and pleased each time. I hope she is able to keep that sense of awe and gratitude as she gets older. We dressed her up as Dorthy from the Wizard of Oz. Brett was the tin man & I was the scarecrow. (Brett and I shamelessly stole a lot of her candy and gave the rest to her in rationed increments)

My friend Claire and I had our Temple Symphony Chorale choir concert recently; I really enjoyed the repertoire this semester. I'm a little bummed to not be able to participate next semester, (I'm having a baby in the middle of it) but it turns out I can get my choir fix elsewhere. I was just asked to lead the choir at our church!!! I've never really led a choir before but I'm over-the-moon excited to try. Music has always been one of the main ways that I feel God's love, and I hope this will be an opportunity to have more of that in my life.

Baby #2 is doing well and getting bigger all the time. Ellie goes to my appointments and likes to sit next to me on the bench so she can watch them use the Doppler, take my blood, etc. This pregnancy is going by quickly as I often forget the fact that I'm pregnant because we're so busy. We don't have a name yet but are trying to narrow down our list.

*On a less positive note, I hate cockroaches. HATE them a lot, and our apartment is overrun. We want to move... and live in a house. Also, being sick stinks. Especially when it lasts for more than 2 weeks and you feel like a useless lump on the couch :)

I think she's been watching me do my makeup ;)

We sure love our zoo and having Dad around to come with us!

She loves to sing all the time. I think she's gotten it from Brett actually because he sings several songs with her every night before bed. He's gone during the day obviously, so it's become kind of their thing; their Ellie/Dad time if you will.

It's a ...

Well first of all, we found out that it's a GIRL! We are very excited for Ellie to be getting a little sister and have already assembled a long list of names to mull over the next few months. Ellie however still insists that I have a boy baby in my tummy and she has a girl baby in hers.

Brett is in the thick of his internal medicine rotation but we keep him plenty busy whenever he is home. We went to the TMEA (Temple Medical Education Alliance) family tailgate party. Elizabeth loved the bounce house and digging in the sand on the volley ball court. We also threw some rocks into Belton Lake afterwards; we hadn't been out there all summer.

The next weekend we took Elizabeth to our favorite pumpkin patch here in Temple. It has gotten more popular over the years, so now they even have goats you can feed and pet. Ellie also loved the train; she rode the caboose all by herself!

Yesterday, Ellie and I went to another TMEA activity. Everyone dressed up, played at the park, and got to watch an animal show. This child sure is fearless. She touched every animal that they were allowed to, including holding a giant hissing cockroach in her hand. She also happened to win best child's costume!

So excited to find a bike trailer at a garage sale so we can take advantage of the weather even more!!

Finally Fall

So, what have we been up to in the last month? The quick answer is I've been growing a baby, Brett's been learning to be a doctor, and Ellie has been running around like a crazy toddler. Here's a little more detail.

On Labor Day weekend, we made it over to the Inner Space Caverns with some friends. (Thank you Sarah for the tickets) Ellie really liked the bats that we saw, and I liked that the caves weren't hot :). After that we spent time with more friends from Oklahoma and drove to Waco to visit Magnolia Market.

Brett has been busily doctoring, and we're adjusting to the fact that he has to go in on some weekends and nights now. Ellie is a little surprised when she wakes up and dad is still home, hah, but he always makes it home in time for dinner which is nice.

It's a little weird not knowing what kind of doctor you want to be but we are slowly narrowing it down I think. Surgery has always been off the table, and now family medicine is as well. Psychiatry & Internal Medicine are still in the running though so it will be interesting to see what happens.

At 17 weeks now, I'm definitely feeling larger but much less nauseous; I'll take that trade off any day! We're getting very excited to find out the gender in one week. I've also just started to feel baby move a bit and I love it!

Other than that, I'm just staying busy with the usuals, church, jazzercise, TMEA, choir, and music makers.

Ellie is a busy kid. She loves playing with friends and coloring; and she has also become pretty good at using the potty. She still has accidents, and she wears diapers to sleep in but I think she'll have it handled in plenty of time for baby #2.

Big Sister Promotion

We are so excited to announce that we're growing our family again. It took what felt like eternity (but in reality was only 11 months) to get this baby on board so we are pretty ecstatic about it! We've been feeling a little more guarded about this pregnancy, just not wanting to get our hopes up too soon  because it did take a little while but now we're all in.

I'm remembering now why I don't truly love being pregnant like some people I know. There is this vicious cycle where you feel hungry which makes you nauseous, and because you're nauseous all food sound disgusting, so instead of eating something you just let yourself get more hungry... and therefore more nauseous. It's bad my friends. Luckily no matter now nauseous I feel, steak always sounds good. So every couple of weeks when I can't take being hungry or nauseous any longer I go to the nearest grocery store and let myself by anything that looks appetizing whatsoever. Usually that looks something like steaks, donuts, honeycrisp apples, ice cream, saltine crackers, candy, pizza rolls, bacon, muffins etc. 

I was a little disappointed when I went to the doctor and after they measured baby on the ultrasound and moved my due date from February 26th to March 7th - cheers to being pregnant for an extra week and 2 days (not that I'm counting).

It will all be worth it in the end and it's not going to be this way forever so that makes life easier :) We're excited to learn the gender in the beginning of Oct. and start thinking names and feelings kicks.

P.S. We're potty training Ellie this week so heaven help us!   

Let Freedom Ring

We had a great weekend celebrating our freedom with both Canada Day & the 4th of July. It's kind of fun that they are only a few days apart. We had some family pictures taken by the wonderful Claire Falco (We're so happy they moved to Temple!!!).

Then, we met up with my sister Sarah and her family at Tonkawa Falls in Crawford, TX and ended with swimming and hamburgers with our Canadian friends.

Additional thoughts on Trinidad & Tobago

The Food - The food wasn't all that great. It didn't get us sick and it wasn't gross it just wasn't that good haha. We tried a few things including; kofta, crab & dumplings, shark & bake, & doubles. I liked the doubles and roti bread more than I expected to but the crab & dumplings were a huge let down.

The People - The people all seem so friendly and happy to be outside all the time. We got really good at saying no to vendors on the street and were even serenaded on the beach with 'the itsy bitsy spider' (much to Ellie's delight). Also, we kind of felt like the only white people on the island most of the time; it's cool to be the minority sometimes.

The Money - It really weird spending $60 on one lunch from a shack on the side of the road. You constantly have to remind yourself that $100 TT is only $20 US. I'm glad that when we go to Canada the exchange rate is a lot closer.

Giant Caterpillars - these things are seriously huge. We found them in the park across the street from my parents' apartment; apparently they just become brown moths. My mom's picture is a little more convincing than mine; I'm still a little scared of them.

Overlooking Trinidad

Outside the apartment

Just Being Cute

Trinidad Vacation

Saturday/ Sunday

We arrived in Trinidad Saturday night after our 6 hour flight and Ellie did as well as can be expected for a 2 year old ;) . On Sunday we went to church with my parents and started to get a sense of the Caribbean culture I guess you could say. Everyone was very friendly and happy to come ask us questions as it was quite plain we were visitors (I'm pretty sure we were the only Caucasians in the congregation). Sunday afternoon was a little rainy but we drove over to a Hindu temple on the sea and a giant monkey statue.

Monday

 We started the day with a hike to Maracas Falls. Everything you would expect from the jungle was there, extreme humidity, mangoes & other unfamiliar fruit strewn about the ground, flowers, and all the sounds of the rain forest. I little less expected, we learned there are crabs that live on tropical mountains.

After the hike we drove straight to what I call 'the hummingbird house'. The man who owns the house, gives a sort of lecture on hummingbirds and allows you to walk through the gardens and property to observe. There were hundreds of hummingbirds there of all different species.

Monday evening Brett, my dad, & myself went on a boat tour of the Caroni Swamp. I liked seeing the four eyed fish, and the mangroves crawling with small crabs.

Tuesday/ Wednesday

Brett & I left Ellie with Grandma & Grandpa and took the 25 minute flight to Tobago. We got off the plane with just our backpacks and started walking. First, we walked to Pigeon Point Beach and spent a couple hours there relaxing and had some Kofta for lunch. After lunch we went on a glass bottom boat tour. This was one of my favorite things from this vacation. We were taken in the boat over Bucco Reef and allows to look at everything through the bottom of the boat, and then we got out of the boat and snorkeled for 20 minutes. I've never done anything like this and LOVED it! After snorkeling, the boat took us over to the Nylon Pool. They also call it the fountain of youth there. It's in the middle of the reef but only waist deep and the water is truly as clear as a chlorinated pool back home. The bottom of the 'pool' isn't sand, it's actually finely crushed coral so everyone encourages you to 'exfoliate' while you're there.

Pigeon Point Beach

Glass bottom boat over Bucco Reef

The Nylon Pool

After walking about 8 miles to save on cab fairs, and being in the sun all day Brett & I promptly collapsed at our hotel that evening. My birthday present was a 1 night stay at the all inclusive resort on Turtle Beach. We sipped virgin pina coladas, ate at the buffet, read books on the patio, and even got to watch a giant leather back turtle lay her eggs from a few feet away. It was heaven. 

Wednesday was a little bit of a let down. It was pouring rain so all flights to Trinidad were grounded; we sat in the tiny airport pretty much all day but at least we finished our books and got back that night.

Thursday

We got up and went to the Port of Spain zoo and afterwards went to the zip-line. While Brett, my dad & I went on the zip line; Ellie and my mom played together in a tree house & on the beach near the zip line. 

It's a little hard to tell, but she is laughing in these pictures, not crying.

Friday = Beach Day

We had been promising Ellie before we even left Temple that we would take her to the beach and we saved it for our last day in Trinidad. We went to Maracas Beach and had a blast. My only regret from the day is losing my sunglasses and hair tie to a particularly violent wave that sucked me under and made me do a few somersaults under water before I could get up. I think Ellie and the beach were made for each other; she spent all day playing in the waves and sand and we still had to drag her away crying for more.

  

Saturday

We got up early, said some sad goodbyes, and made the 13 hours of traveling back to temple. After a full week jam packed with fun we all feel a little like Ellie did in the airport.