oh, no...i'm gonna be sick...again!

nice, I know.

So, remember how I don't look at my food before I eat it? Yeah, gotta change that, asap. Well, team, I had another "incident" this evening. I get home around 7:00 p.m. each night from work. When I walk into the house I am ready to eat dinner. Let's face it, I'm ready to eat dinner at 5:00 p.m., but I'm a patient girl. So, because NOTHING really can be ready to eat in 30 seconds flat, I usually like to grab an "appetizer" of sorts.

Tonight was no exception. AND, seeing that we have some left over Clam Dip from Thanksgiving (my fav!) I thought "why not?!" and partook. Was there a problem with my beloved Clam Dip? No. Folks.

For the last few minutes, I've been been poppin' moldy french bread.

GAG! What is the deal, people? When will I learn?!?!?!

So, don't be surprised if I have food poisoning and am never to be heard of again. I swear, I never saw it coming. But, if this is my last post, know that I like you all. Oh, and before I sign off, enjoy some of the tags my mom might use for her neighbor gifts this year. She thinks I might need to tone down a few of them though. What do you think? (She's giving Lehi Roller Mill pancake mix...just add water, you know?) :)

hey, hope you too can simplify this holiday season. cheers! -melis

the answer!

OK... for everyone who took part in the guess how many pomegranate seed challenge,

The Texas Division winner was Lyssa Z. barely beating out Sam H.
The overall winner, hailing from the Utah Division was Marc R.

Congratulations to all participants, look forward to more contests in the future... maybe :) !

The answer is in comment #9 of the pomegranate post

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, I just finished plucking the seeds from the pomegranates for "Dixie Salad" as it's called around my house and since Melissa was sleeping and I wasn't really thinking about much, I decided to count how many seeds were in the pomegranate.

Melissa has really been wanting to do some sort of prize give away on the blog and so I figure this is the perfect opportunity. The person closest to guessing the number of seeds in pomegranate #3 from tonight gets the satisfaction of a job well done and an increase of character.

ps - dixie salad is really good, it's made with apples, bananas, pomegranates and whipped cream.

pss - the word for "grenade" comes from (pome)granate

FAST FORWARD to actual Thanksgiving morning. I (melissa) am awake...and have been awake since 3 somthing a.m. Why? I fell asleep at 7:00 p.m. That will mess up your sleeping schedule.

So, in the wee hours this morning I found this video. All I can say is this...it made me a little teary. And when I just showed it Aaron, it made him shed a tear or two. Maybe because it's the season of our lives that we're in, or that they found something on our little baby's heart that is sometimes seen in babies with Down Syndrome and the days we spent preparing for that possibility (we just got the results back, nothing looks abnormal at this point with our teeny tiny baby)... Well, we are just grateful right now and this video was touching.

I thought this would be an appropriate thing to post on this special day of Thanksgiving. It makes me think of the sacrifices those around me have made in my behalf (and Aaron's, of course). Thanks to all the good people in our lives. We love you. Enjoy.

the results

In the words of today's sonographer: "looks like we have a wiggle worm on our hands."



We're having a little girl.

!!! yES!!!!!
details to come.

p.s. due to my mom's total abhorrence of Aaron's foul language :) I decided to delete part of this post! :)

bloggin' & babies...

team,

this is melissa again. I feel I need to give a shout out to Aaron for updating the blog the last two times. Let me tell you something special about Aaron...something that bonds us to our very core...that is, he is a bloggin' fool.

For such a long time, it's been only me. It was only me that would update y'all and tell you the stories of life. It was only me who would click on everyone's blog and find out your goings & comings. It was all me. Now? not so. I love that randomly in the day, Aaron will text, gmail chat, or call me and say, "Oh, so and so has updated their blog," or "did you see the pictures on so and so's blog?" Be still my heart.

We have a saying here at the Wood house, "A family that blogs together, stays together." Nuff said.

With that said, I think Aaron will understand WHY I am updating our blog, even though we are taking a "time out" on the internet.

(We talked the other day about spending WaY too much time on the internet, bloggin, checking email, his NBA fantasy team (what is that all about?) :), shopping, etc. So, we decided to have a fast, if you will, from the internet this weekend. We have so many other good things we wanted to accomplish---i.e. laundry, put away all those clean dishes, go through the closets, figuring out our Christmas cards... and these things don't happen when we are both sitting at the table with our laptops in front of our face.)

It is a good thing we have done this starting yesterday morning. I am proud to announce we got TONS done, and the weekend isn't even over. We EVEN had time for a dance party/karaoke fest to Ben Folds last night. I never knew how talented Aaron was at playing the Air Piano AND singing with the lyrics on his computer AND swiveling his hips. Now, if that isn't rad/talent, I don't know what is.

ANYWAY, so b/c I understand Aaron's love for bloggin'---and seeing that I didn't update our blog on our BLOGIVERSARY (even though it was me who figured it out), AND because tomorrow is such an IMPORTANT DAY in our lives - I deem it necessary to blog for a second to share some thoughts.

First, BLOGIVERSARY? Yeah, awesome. Most of you don't remember that special day...exactly ONE year to date (well, now one year and 9 days ago). Many of you weren't the devoted fans you are today. Well, team...I have decided to give you a link to that infamous day. Here 'tis. Man, we've had a good run. It is fun to see what we did last November (well at least for us).

Secondly, IMPORTANT DAY? Yes. Indeed, very important. You may have etched on your calendars (as if it is a stone or something) this Wednesday as the big Ultrasound date, but alas, the doctor's office called and my appointment needed to be rescheduled. Well, team, after many calls, I was able to switch around work AND it worked for Aaron, we got a Monday appt. It was that, or wait till Dec. 4th.

So, you thought you had a few more days to vote on the baby's gender? Not so. Only about 24 more hours, team. Cast your votes wisely.

Honestly, at this point, I am just nervous about the baby, boy or girl. Everyone's telling me it's normal to worry about the health and whether or not they will have one arm or two. (Aaron told me, that we will just call our baby Stubs if that happens, thanks hon.) I mean, we will love whatever we are blessed with. I just worry a lot about lots of things. Thanks, Denise aka Mom. I blame you for that talent.

We shall see. We'll definitely let you know what we find out. !!!! Crazy, eh? I know. I am still reeling that this is all for ReALs and not for FaKes, you know?

Anyway, team, have a great day/night (whenever it is you read this). Peace out for now.

camping

We went to Garner State Park with some friends a couple of weeks ago and here are some pictures.

We don't have any sleeping bags but we had a lot of blankets! Melissa stayed plenty warm and I was happy about that because she hates to be cold.

Here's the tent Melissa got me for Christmas last year. It is really great and easy to set up too. Plus, you can see the stars through the roof.

Here's everyone that came doing a "silly face". I don't know if Jake knows what "silly face" means.

We went down to the river and played. Some people went in the river with their phones in their pockets, but luckily it didn't break.

I thought the action shot of me trying to knock down a cairn was pretty sweet.

click the links inside for more

In honor of our first blog birthday, I'm posting a couple pictures that I like, this first one is a cheap joke, but a good one. Not much to it, but really funny.
Next, here is a picture of the scoring scheme for the fantasy basketball league I'm playing in with a bunch of friends, notice that technical fouls and ejections are worth a lot of negative points, I'm leading the league in those categories.




Here's a witty FedEx ad. (click the pic for a better view)


I really like this one with the penguins. I think everyone in college should talk a class on "cognitive dissonance". Basically that means you are able to see something from someone else's perspective. It is what economists do for a living. I've been really into economics lately and love reading the "Freakonomics" blog. ( I like leavitt more than dubner).


This picture is from an NPR story on the ever - growing size of our homes. I've been thinking how often we spend money just to be spending money and then I got all into these wacky sites like the "small house society" devoted to living resourcefully and reducing our impact on the environment.

And to finish off this post I'd like to tell everybody about how great my friend Adam is. It is my privilege to know him. He's always having a crazy adventure. Here he is with an over 100 year old lobster he caught off the coast of California. I want to live by him so I will always feel alive. Adam, you are the man. (PS - he is a really cool commercial airline pilot)


While I'm sharing my feelings, just wanna make a public shout-out to Melissa. You're the best! I love you so much and can't believe I always get to chillax with you. LOVE!

ps- i like it when you guys post... hint hint adam, jordan. (scott and mark you do a good job)

*edit - Adam, I just saw you "manning up the blog" and I'm really impressed.

*edit 2 - There are a bunch of men around here that need to blog as well, mike b. and todd w. are the only men around San Antonio man enough to blog. and they are doing a good job. I'd like to see posts from quintin, brian, dave, kip, tim, chris b. way up in washington,

never posted these darlings.

So, I was looking through some photographs on the old computadora (again, for my non-spanish speaking friends...it means computer), and came across these gems.

I am lousy at posting pictures right after they've been taken. For that, I apologize. But, I thoguht you would like to see Aaron's cute family! My definite favorites are the ones with "los hermanos"---holy cow, I forgot how fluent I am in spanish. The boys are so funny when they get together. I mean, seriously, I was taking A (meaning ONE) photo of them together, and then they keep posing and say, "no! here's another one!" yikes. they love the camera. But, we ask, does the camera love them?

You decide.

No, I'll decide. The camera does love them. Heck, we all love them. :)

So, here's some photos from the "shoot" up AF Canyon.

Please Enjoy. Of course you'll enjoy! Duh! (kajsa, I can't stop saying duh. I totally blame you).

by george, i've got it!

Team.

I have an announcement to make. I have it figured out. Did science prove it? no. Did we see actual evidence? no. But, how do I know? LOOK AT THE FACTS, PEOPLE! Duh! (thanks kajsa for re-introducing that word into my life. it has had a long 8-10 year absence and has been dearly missed).

We are going to have a baby boy. I totally know it.

I've decided that it is a Season for the Boys. Yes, I did create a special title for this season, because it is true. Why? Well, I'll tell you. Every single pregnant woman I know is having a boy. Not ONE of them is having a girl! Not one is having a girl! (well, one person is not far enough along to know, but...soon enough, and when she does, it will be a boy too).

Oh, you think I don't know people? Hey, I know people. And, it just so happens that a bunch are pregnant right this very minute. Oh, and yes, I know more than a handful, thank you very much. Let me list the names. (oh, these are in no particular order...just the order that they are coming to my brain).
Tiffany E., Bekah G., Danielle C., Lindsay B., Katie S., Svetlana, Shaela H., Margaret S., ...and well, that is all I can think of right this very moment in time. But, team, that is a lot of girls that I am friends with who are having a boy here in a few months. (in case I forgot someone...I will blame aaron, and remind me and I will add you to the list!)

What does that mean? Crazy. It is the Season for the Boys.

You know what song comes to mind? "Let's Hear it for the Boys" -- you know, that song that they play on Foot Loose (are we supposed to underline movie titles? and put quotes around song titles? i never remember), where the best friend is learning how to dance? Yeah, best part of the whole movie, and of course, they choose such a great song that totally has everything to do with MY post.

Well. That's it for now. To make it official, I guess we'll go to the appointment the DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING to find out.

But, whatever, I already totally know. Sheesh. It is nice to be so smart AND psychic.