"Ry, I have a feeling I'm about to get pulled over..."

....turns out I was right. Twenty seconds later, the siren and lights went on. I slowly pulled over and into a K-Mart parking lot. Down went my window and here goes:


Officer: "Good Evening. Do you know why I pulled you over?"

Stormy: "No sir, not really."

Officer: "Well you swerved back there into the bike lane, and well, it's the holidays, I want to make sure that you're not driving under the influence or talking on your cell phone."

Stormy: "No officer, it was neither, I sneezed." (I refrained from mentioning that I was holding my legs together to avoid pee-ing my pants. Considering I had to pee like a Russian race horse and the baby feels like it's literally sitting on my bladder!)

Officer: "Oh, okay. That makes perfect sense. How about you give me your driver's license, registration, and insurance information."

Stormy: "Sure, no problem. Sweetheart can you help me find the insurance card and registration?"

Officer: "I'll be back and you can keep looking."

(about 5 minutes later)

Officer: "Were you able to find that information?"

Stormy: "Well, we found an expired insurance card and registration from Utah, we're still working on it."

Officer: "Okay, then. I can check to see if your insurance was renewed. Be right back."

(another 5 minutes later)

Stormy: "We found the Oregon registration!"

Officer: "Thank you ma'm. Well everything checks out just fine. I'm not going to give you a warning or ticket, I simply wanted to make sure you weren't driving under the influence."

Stormy: "Officer, rest assured we weren't driving under the influence, in fact, my husband and I have never drank an ounce of alcohol in our lives."

Officer: "WHAT?!??!?!?!"

Stormy: "Nope."

Officer: "Wow. That's amazing."

Stormy: "You know what else, officer? This past July marked the 10th anniversary since I received a traffic ticket...AND I was only 5 months from my 10th anniversary of not being pulled over!"

Officer: "Well, that's wonderful. I'm glad you're driving safely. All I have to suggest is that you go home and prepare a "traffic stop packet" in the chance you get pulled over, this way, you'll be more prepared."

Stormy: "Absolutely, Officer, will do!"

(about 4 minutes later)

We finally finished cleaning off the dash which was covered with the glove compartment contents.

Field Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Back in October, Sofia's school had a field trip to the Pumpkin Patch! (So sorry for the delay in posting these.) Ryan took the day off and we accompanied Sofia and the other students. It was so much FUN—complete with a train ride, feeding the animals, a pyramid hay maze, and of course, loads of pumpkins.

We went to the Flower Farmer Pumpkin Patch in Canby, Oregon. Canby is SE of Portland. It was a beautiful morning and it didn't rain—even though we were fully prepared as Oregonians are—it was nice to enjoy it without the rain!

Mami and Sofia about to depart on the train ride...

Papi, the Rock Star, ready for the train ride as well!

First a visit to feed the animals, las chivas y los burros (goats and donkeys)

Next a stop at the gigantic hay pyramid. This was a fun one—Sofia couldn't stop running through with her flashlight. The crazy thing was that Papi is allergic to hay so he couldn't go in there and I'm claustrophobic so it was quite the experience. We had a blast and Sofia pretended to be one of the Backyardigans "on a secret mission."

Alas, I found my pumpkin! Sofia had to pick a pumpkin, which she could carry for 10 steps all by herself. She was so proud of this little pumpkin as you can see in the picture. Good times!

Papi and Sofi, so precious. This picture makes me melt!

Coming up for air....

Perhaps that sounds a wee bit dramatic for some of you but nevertheless and notwithstanding that's basically what I'm doing here. I've been relatively MIA online for a few weeks. The month of November proved to be extremely painful as you all know and today I felt somewhat coherent enough to type a post.

So, yes, I'm as sick as I was with Sofia. And, yes, I'm on the "vomiting-my-guts-out-weight-loss plan." For those of you who recall my 30-by-30 goal--I put it on hold until the end of the pregnancy. That said, I've still actually managed to achieve 56.7% of that goal. Yes, I've lost 17 pounds in the last month averaging 4.5 pounds per week. My b-day is six days away, so we'll see what the number actually is on December 9th.

Ryan is unceasingly supportive (thanks a million, sweetheart). He's picked up where I haven't been able to and we're getting through this. Last week on one particular day my body was so dehydrated and wasted that I literally slept 16 hours. When I finally woke up and vomited some more I managed to get some fruit in me. Later that evening Ryan and Sofia were headed to the gym and encouraged me to go with them. This way I could get my mind and blood pumping so I agreed. I took it really easy but it definitely helped. I was able to do that two other days last week and it proved to be as good for my mind as well as for my body. We're going to go again tonight. :)

Clearly, this is one of my life battles, but I know why we decided have another baby, and I know this part won't last forever. I'm feeling more and more connected to the little one inside of me and continue to do everything I can to "keep my eye on the prize" --sorry for the cheesy-ness there. It's up and down for me; I try to keep in mind how happy our family will be to welcome the new little one into our lives.