Easton,
I love you, you little goofball but fake coughing so that I'll come check on you is not how you get out of taking a nap. Go to sleep!
Love,
Mama

Baby, it's cold outside! And because of my small but growing baby belly, I need a new winter coat. I thought I wouldn't need a new coat because when I'm pregnant I'm usually about ten degrees warmer than everyone else and I just KNEW I wouldn't need a new coat. BUT...I tried my coat on this week and it will only zip for another couple weeks or so and then it will be too small. Actually, ALL of my coats will be too small. I have so many nice coats but none of them will work because of the belly. Santa, will you bring me a new coat? :)

Ladies, did you buy a maternity coat? Did you just buy a bigger coat in a few sizes bigger but not maternity? Did you get lucky and not have to buy a new coat?

Also, while we're on the subject of Christmas...if your family is anything like mine, we really, truly don't need anything for Christmas. But if someone really feels the need to send gifts to the Crafty household...Head Country barbecue sauce, Ranch Style beans (so we can make Cowboy Beans), and Ralph's beef jerky are all things we can't get here that we really miss. Well and Braum's ice cream, but I don't think that's easily mailed. But really...we don't need a thing. I'll be buying myself a new coat and then we're pretty much set. Really. I promise! :)

I just bought $200 worth of restaurant gift certificates for only $16!!! Boy do I love bargains like that! Those are gonna come in handy for date nights with my hubby. These would also make for great (and cheap!) gifts for Christmas.

Want to know how you can get this great deal too? (Boy, I sound like an infomercial.)
Go to www.restaurant.com and type in your zip code to search for participating restaurants in your area. Then add a gift certificate to your shopping cart and then type in the discount code SURPRISE and click on APPLY.

I bought 2 $25 gift certificates to four of our favorite restaurants and cannot believe I only paid $16! Yes, there are some fine-print things to wade through ($35 minimum charge, only one gift certificate can be used per restaurant per month, etc) but if you're careful and read closely, you can REALLY find some great deals for nights out at your favorite places to eat. I think we'll save these to use when it's still a week til payday and we're just really craving a night out on the town.
That tends to happen a lot when you only get paid once a month. :)

Hallelujah! That paper that Jason started for me (thanks, honey! Great job!) and I finished after my trip to the E.R.? I got 20 out of 20 points for it. I have NEVER done that well on a paper that I just threw together at the last minute. Comments from my instructor: Nice work on your paper. Your writing is clear and concise, and the sources you use effectively support your points. It was a pleasure to work with you in this class and I wish you the best in your academic career.

Woohoo! Looks like I'll get a good grade in that class after all. Man, it was a struggle from day one but thank goodness it's OVER! Now I'm taking a sociology course and it's already proven to be pretty tough.

I think I'll celebrate my hard work with some Rolaids to try to put out this raging inferno in my chest (heartburn so bad it feels like I could breathe fire), a bubble bath and a chapter or two of a good book. SIGH! (Big sigh of relief!)

The post in which I talk entirely too much about throwing up...don't say you weren't warned!

Well, it looks like some of us are on the mend. It was a l-o-n-g weekend though! Saturday night, I threw up and threw up and threw up some more until I couldn't even walk by myself from the bathroom back to bed. Once I finally realized it was a bug and not morning sickness, I just kinda resolved to wait it out and see what happened. Thankfully Jason was home and took care of our sweet little man while I was so sick. He's amazing. He kept up with the dishes, laundry, taking care of Easton AND taking care of me. And the taking care of Easton part wasn't easy at all because by Sunday, Easton came down with the bug too. Thankfully, his version was just diarrhea and no throwing up but it was a long rough day for all of us.

By Monday, Easton was better and I thought I was slightly feeling better too, so Jason went off to work. But by 1 pm, I still couldn't keep any food down, so I called my dr and she told me to go to the emergency room. Again. So I called Jason, he came home from work and by the time I mustered up enough energy to finally leave the house, Jason was starting to not feel good at all. I decided he should stay home and get some rest and it's a good thing he did. By the time I got home from the E.R, he was bundled up like an Eskimo on the couch, shivering and shaking. Poor guy! I think in the whole time I've known him he's only been sick like that a hand full of times, so it's tough to see him feeling so crappy!

By the way, the E.R. visit was pretty uneventful. I hauled my crappy-feeling self in there, got checked in, got blood drawn, and waited about 2 1/2 hours to be seen. Then the dr hooked me up to an I.V, gave me a shot of Zofran and I hung out and watched t.v for about an hour or so. Then they said to follow up with my ob/gyn and sent me on my way. Pretty much a repeat of last time only (thankfully) without the 7 1/2 hour wait time. Thank goodness! By the time I was released it was raining and starting to snow. By the time I was half way home, it was snowing so hard I had to slow down to 35 on the interstate just to see where I was going. I made it home just as the snow quit falling. It sure made for an interesting day!

When I got home, Easton was already in bed for the night. I checked on him, gave Jason some Tylenol and we shared a can of beef broth for dinner. Then he went to bed and I got right to work on my paper that was due by midnight last night. I really didn't mean to wait until the last minute on this one. I just kept waiting to work on it when I felt better but that time never happened. I'm sure it wasn't the best paper I've ever done, but by golly somehow I got it done. I couldn't have done it at all without Jason though. He did 2 whole pages of it for me while I was in the E.R. Normally I frown on that kind of stuff big time but trust me, this was an emergency to be sure! Thanks, honey for doing great work and getting me started. You're a lifesaver!

So I got the paper in on time. Thankfully I remembered that the paper was due at 12:00pm Pacific time and not Eastern time. I earned myself a little breathing room with 3 extra hours to work on my paper and I sure did need it! I submitted my paper at 9:46pm Pacific time (which is 12:46 my time) and that extra little bit sure saved me! At this point, I'm just proud to have pulled it off and not so much worried about the grade. This whole 5 1/2 week long class has been a struggle from day one and I am so glad it is over! 2 E.R visits, technical problems, a vacation, Easton's 1 year birthday, and morning sickness every single day and I still managed to do it. WHEW! That was tough! No rest for me though. My next class starts...TODAY! Thankfully it starts out easy 'cause I sure could use a little EASY right now!

Know what else I could use? A nice, big, fat, juicy cheeseburger. Oh, man that sounds wonderful! Never mind the fact that it's only 9:30am. When the last real meal you've been able to eat (and not throw up) was 3 days ago, you don't care what the clock says. When you want a cheeseburger, you want a cheeseburger. Too bad I'll still be living on applesauce, beef broth and Jello for the next day or so til the queasies go away. But thankfully, I'm not throwing up today. HALLELUJAH!

Poor Jason still feels really crappy but he's in bed today and probably will be all day. Hopefully it's over quickly. At least I'm feeling well enough to take care of us while he's out of comission. Get well soon, honey! I love you!

There's some kind of stomach bug going around and it's running rampant at our house. As if the debilitating morning-sickness wasn't enough, now we've got this too. Gross!

All of this and I have a 6-8 pg paper due tomorrow that I am just now starting. This stinks! Guess that's what I get for not doing it earlier. Bleh!

Oh my gracious...there are only 43 days until Christmas! Holy cow! Usually I start my shopping about September but with a new little one on the way, it has really snuck up on me this year! We're not travelling anywhere for Christmas this year, so we'll be doing most of our shopping online. That should take some of the stress out of the equation but YIKES! Better get started!

In other news, I was hoping to have time to get some pictures uploaded tomorrow, but I just got an email from my instructor that says there was a computer glitch and I have to redo TWO homework assignments! AARRGGHH!! I have had nothing but technical difficulties in this class and I am SO FRUSTRATED! Thankfully this is the last week of class. Looks like I won't have to deal with it much longer. But my next 5 1/2 week class starts November 18th. No rest for the weary. I'll just keep my nose to the grindstone and before I know it I'll have my degree. At least that's what I keep telling myself. :) To paraphrase one of my favorite Disney movies "just keep working, just keep working. Working, working, working, working." :)

Easton,
Boy, oh boy is mama running behind with your 12 month letter! We have been so busy in the past month. We went to Oklahoma to visit for three weeks, came home for a few days and then went on vacation with Daddy for a week to Williamsburg. Now we're back at home, getting back into our routine and I can finally take a break and write this letter to you. I just cannot even believe that you have been in my life for a whole year. It seems like just yesterday we brought you home from the hospital!

You are so busy these days. Always on the move and checking things out. You love to "clean off the coffee table" and by that I mean sweep everything on the table off into the floor. You also love to open the kitchen cabinets. Guess it's time to put those locks on now to keep your little fingers from getting pinched.

You are still screeching a lot. A WHOLE lot!!! It seems to be your way of telling us everything. Done eating? SCREECH! Want a toy? SCREECH! Are you happy? Screech! Want to get down? SCREEEECCCHHH! I've taken more Tylenol this past month than ever before. Sweet baby, I will sure be glad when you have another way of telling me what you need!

You are cruising around the house holding onto everything. You will be taking your first steps just any day and it's exciting to see you working so hard on learning to walk. You still have no teeth yet but are always chewing on the tag of your favorite bear. You now have two bears - a yellow one and a blue one. Heaven help us if you happen to drop your bear over the side of your crib at naptime! You HAVE to have your bear or you just absolutely cannot go to sleep. Looks like we'll be trying to find just one more bear to have on hand in case anything happens to yellow bear or blue bear. You grab two handfuls of the bear and cram as much of it in your mouth as you possibly can. We can always tell you're tired when your eyes get red and you dive head first into your bear.

You used to be a champion sleeper. You used to sleep 12-13 hours in a stretch every single night without fail. Now we're lucky if you only wake up once during the night. Are your teeth bothering you? Did you just decide you like the way the world looks around 4am? Either way, I miss the good old days of you sleeping til 8:30.

You are such a joy to me, my sweet boy. You really have a silly side and love to be entertaining me by dancing to music whenever it's on or scrunching up your face and making silly sounds. You've found that you can growl and you know that it usually makes me laugh so you do it often.

I am so lucky to be your mama and I can't wait to see what this next year brings.
I love you and no matter how big you get, you'll always be my baby.
Love,
Mama

Can't stay awake long enough to figure out how to add these to my template instead of as a blog post but here are some tickers for those of you who were wondering.

OK ya'll. I promise to never, ever leave an "I went to the E.R yesterday" post up for that long again without updating. Sorry. In the last 6 weeks, I have only been at my house a total of thirteen days...most of those days I was laid out on the couch, clamping my teeth together trying not to throw up. Imagine what my house looks like. Imagine the piles of laundry and mail. Imagine how badly I need to vacuum. Don't even get me started on how badly my poor fish need their tank cleaned.
I'll try to update here as much as I can.
E.R. trip - After leaving there w/a shot of Zofran and an rx for more, I felt great. Sometimes the meds even manage to take the edge off and I actually can get through the day without feeling pukey. I have an o.b. appt w/my old dr tomorrow. I was (and still am) contemplating switching dr's but not before I go to tomorrow's appt and make my last payment from when E was born. (Hallelujah! It's about time!) And I'll also tell the dr what trouble I had w/his nurse. I think I'm gonna take my E.R. bill in and also that stupid, useless rx that nurse called in for me. Not that I expect to get reimbursed for all that but I feel all that extra money and headache and crap would have been able to be avoided if the nurse had just listened to me. But I could go on and on about that. Next topic. Expect an update about my dr's appt visit...um, sometime relatively soon. Can't promise when but hopefully tomorrow or the next day. Just don't hold me to that.

E's 1st birthday - His party in OK was so much fun! I was feeling yucky even then so I didn't get to visit with people as much as I'd have liked but it was so good to see everyone. I know, I know...you want to see pictures. Hopefully some time before Easton is two, I'll get those pictures uploaded.

Our trip to Williamsburg - was FUN! I'm so glad I felt up to going. We saw colonial Williamsburg on E's actual birthday. We ate dinner at Chowning's Tavern and they had a magician, musicians and other people in costume there. E had some apple pie and ice cream for his first birthday dessert. I really wanted to make him a cake but that just didn't work out. But we had a good time at the tavern. Might not seem like the place for a little one but it was a very family-friendly place. Easton really liked the musicians that played music while we ate.

Halloween - Easton was a cowboy. We stayed home and handed out candy to the trick or treaters. I took pictures and hope to get those uploaded along w/his bday pictures.

Ashford University - I'm still enrolled at Ashford and taking classes online. I'm on week 3 of a 5 1/2 week long class and it has been a struggle to keep up while we were away from home but thanks to the people at the resort where we stayed, I was able to log in to a computer in the manager's office (after my laptop wouldn't cooperate) and complete my homework. A HUGE thank you to them for that. I'll really be thanking whem when I get an A in this class because I was able to complete all the assignments thanks to them.

I know I'm forgetting something but that's all I can think of for now. I'll try to get caught up on emails and pictures as soon as I can. Between housework, keeping up w/E and still feeling crappy (but better than before I went to the E.R.), I've got a TON of things to do and not enough hours in the day to do them.
Thanks for all the comments, good thoughts and emails.