2011 MS Walk

The first weekend of April, we participated in the MS Walk in Seattle for the second year.  Bret & Gabe joined us this year, and this year we also decided to take it to the next level and get matching team shirts, rather than just wearing the color of the cause (orange).  We designed the shirts online at CustomInk.com and we found a cool syringe graphic to add to our design.  After we placed the order, they contacted Laura and donated to our team for the Walk - how cool is that?!?

My dad was diagnosed with the Relapsing-Remitting Course of Multiple Sclerosis in 1995.  Our team is "The Sunday Night Injections", named after one of the first medical management responses my dad tried for his MS:  an injection of the medication Avonex each Sunday night.

I wanted to be sure Gabe could fit into his shirt for a few years...don't think that'll be a problem!

We made it up on the HuskyTron screen (second team name from the bottom)!  Thanks to everyone who donated!!

2010 Photo Book

I'm going through my pictures from the last couple of months and playing catch up with blog posts.  So far I've got 4 blog posts in draft status...we'll see how long it takes me to actually get them published!

Mandy had the idea last Christmas to put together a photo book for my parents & grandparents as a Christmas gift.  She asked me, Laura & Christina to contribute pictures we'd taken from the year, and Christina was even able to get pictures of Mom's off of her laptop without her knowing so that the gift could be kept a surprise. 

Mandy worked many hours to put together the book and it turned out SO great!!  She shipped it to Mom & Dad with a "DO NOT OPEN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE" note on it, and we figured out a way for me and Christina to both just happen to end up at Mom & Dad's house for dinner one night, where we planned to have them open the Photo Book with all of us there to see it together for the first time.  The surprise worked out perfectly because after dinner, Laura and Christina were talking about old Tim Noah songs & videos and Laura found some on YouTube that they were watching.  One had a ringing phone in it, which completely disguised the Skype ringer of Mandy calling.  Brilliant, Laura! 

Mandy did such an awesome job on the book - she'd asked us for pictures and memories from the year, so the book is a fun walk down 2010's memory lane.

Our "seeing the 2010 book" picture, complete with Paul & Mandy on Skype and Mom holding the book...we thought it'd be fun to have this in the 2011 book!

Mandy's hope is to do a book every year - hooray for us!!

Luck o' the Pregnant, Part Deux

Remember last time I was pregnant, when I took 2nd place in my office's NCAA Basketball Tournament pool?  Well there must be something lucky about me and pregnancy (at least when it comes to betting on college basketball), because this year I took first place!  And only one of my teams even made it to the Final Four!  I'm thinking about writing a how-to guide for all the folks in my office that actually know the teams and stats and players.  I think they'd really appreciate my insights. 

Auntie Sara's Wedding

by Gabe Totten

This is my Auntie Sara:


We've had some good times together!


Auntie Sara calls me her "sweet boy" and gives me hugs and snuggles.  But then last Thanksgiving I heard her call this guy her "sweet boy" too, and I heard people talking about how they were going to get married.

What?!  Married?!  You mean I have to share my Auntie Sara's hugs and snuggles?  I wasn't so sure how I felt about it.

But then I heard Mommy talking to Auntie Sara and almost-Uncle Jared about how I was going to be in their wedding and I started feeling better about it.  After all, it only seemed fitting that both of Auntie Sara's sweet boys should participate in the wedding.

On the evening of the rehearsal I was feeling good (and looking good if I do say so myself).

I gave the paparazzi (a.k.a. Mommy) a chance to photograph me from different angles, I checked out the structural integrity of the church, I showed off my impressive upper body strength...I even helped an older lady up some stairs:

I felt relaxed and ready for the Big Day. 

The day of the wedding I showed up at the church excited to put my much-practiced walking-down-the-aisle skills on display.

I even spent some time thinking about what words of wisdom to share with the couple about the meaning of marriage.

Before the ceremony, I tried to relax by just getting back to basics and playing a little music to calm my nerves.

Everything was going really well until Mommy put me into a monkey suit.

Auntie Sara didn't have to wear her shoes, why did I??

And then, to make matters even worse, I had to be in a picture with A GIRL.

I found out that I not only have to share Auntie Sara with Uncle Jared, but with THREE OTHER GIRLS that also call her Auntie Sara!

I'm surrounded!

I was NOT HAPPY about this development.

But luckily, Auntie Sara seemed to remember who her #1 sweet boy is:

For the ceremony, I was in a pretty good mood again and as a gentleman, I let the ladies go first and I hung back a little so I could work the crowd and thank folks for coming out.

By the reception, I had loosened my tie, untucked my shirt, and decided to just have a good time.

I borrowed cousin Jason's Blackberry and called a few buddies to brag about how well the wedding had gone.

Toward the end of the reception, I pulled Uncle Jared aside to let him know he'd better treat Auntie Sara right.  Before we talked, I spent a moment seeking guidance from heaven.

Yeah...Uncle Jared's a good guy, even if he does have three nieces and is another "sweet boy" to Auntie Sara.  But I told him:  I'm still gonna keep my eye on him to make sure he stays in line!

Okay, seriously?

That post title is for Bret, who hates the sarcastic and oh-so-popular-right-now over-usage of "Seriously?" and "Really?"  The sad part is, I used to say them too but I've tried to stop now because I'm just that fabulous of a wife. 

Anyway.

The real reason for this post, and the title, is that this second round of pregnancy is out. of. control.  Take pretty much any pregnancy "thing" (except for morning sickness, because thankfully I didn't have that with Gabe and haven't this time either), and multiply it by seventeen thousand gazillion trillion, and that's how I feel.  Way more tired, way more sensitive to smell, way more picky about what I want to eat, and way way way way way more emotional.  For a girl that's all about feelings anyway, pregnancy is like having an emotion-amplifier implanted into your heart and not being told where the off button is located.  And for me, being happy or sad or sentimental or frustrated all ends up in the same outlet of expression:  tears.  Bret and I can both attest to the fact that this is both really funny and really annoying.

Here are some of the more ridiculous examples of recent emotional uprisings:

- A few weeks ago we decided to make a quick trip to Staples and Fred Meyer for a couple of things.  We're singing along to the radio and just minutes away from arriving at Staples, when suddenly ONE LINE of the song that I've just sung hits me like a ton of bricks and I am instantly crying.  Not just teary eyed, but full on hitch-in-my-throat crying.  Okay, seriously?  One line of a song is going to send me into tearful weepiness in half a second??  And then I'm both crying and laughing at myself for crying.  Poor Bret was just left sitting there not sure what to do because our fun little karaoke-fest just turned into falling-apart-pregnant-wife on him. 

- Sunday night I was watching TV before bed and flipping through the channels when I came across the end of Top Gun.  So I'm watching Iceman and Slider fighting the Migs and thinking about how they're repeating every line and wondering if pilots really do that in real life.  Then Maverick shows up to join the fight but can't get his head in the game because he's missing Goose and there's the scene where he stares at Goose's dogtags in his hand and says "Talk to me, Goose", and I tear up.     Okay .   .   .   Seriously??  Over Top Gun?  Well apparently, yes.

- Moments after the Top Gun Incident of March 2011, while I'm still snorting over the ridiculousness of what this baby is doing to me, I decide to turn to the news to distract myself.  They're talking about the first test flight of the new Boeing 747 Intercontinental that had happened that morning.  So whatever, that's interesting enough but no cause for the waterworks to start...or so I thought.  The newscasters are talking about how many orders have been placed and they're showing pictures of the pilots waving and Boeing executives shaking hands and then I hear "Hundreds came out to watch the historic event, including the press and many of the assembly line workers who've spent the past four years on the project" and then there's cheering and they show the plane lifting off.  And I tear up.

OKAY, SERIOUSLY??  REALLY?? 

It's just that all those people have worked so hard and they probably felt such a sense of pride when they saw the flight, knowing that they were a part of that...and holy cow, we have the technology to FLY, to put a thing that big up in the air and it's unbelievable and incredible and aren't people and what they can come up with just so amazing?!?

...and I'm an idiot.  I was just looking around for a picture I could put of the plane into this post and I came across this video of the flight, and started tearing up all over again.  Sheesh. 

And I have another 5 months of this to go, people. 

!!!!