Halloween Preview!

Because I can't wait till Halloween for everyone to see Colin's costume - here's a little preview! Let me know what you think - I just finished it yesterday!

Isn't my little Leprechaun going to be SOOO cute!?!?!

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

Keith and I took Colin to the pumpkin patch to take some pictures since we discovered that he loves pumpkins so much! He is constantly carrying around his little pumpkins from Ava (or Aya, as he calls her) and Grandma. So cute. Enjoy the pictures!

 

 Sorry it might be a picture overload! I can't help it. I love my boy.

Oh, and anyone want a sneak peak of Colin's Halloween Costume??

Being Sick

Hey Guys!

I am blogging from home tonight, where I am camped out on the couch because (hence the title of my blog) I am sick! Boo! I haven't been this sick in a long time. I was alternately throwing up or going to the bathroom all night long last night. I have a fever and my skin aches. Even my hair hurts. Ugh. I totally hate being sick. I think the last time I was this sick, I had to call in to work and my boss did not believe that I was really sick. She had her husband call and verify that I was actually at home sick. Wow. That lady was crazy! Nevertheless, this sickness is keeping me home from class.

SO, I am trying desperately hard to use the time to study for my second anatomy and physiology II lab practical. I didn't do so hot on the first one (passed, but with a C) so would like to do much better on this test. I can't seem to focus in on the material though. It is SO much. It covers the Respiration, Digestive, and Urinary systems. I've been doing the online tutorials and I am so glad my lab group is meeting early on Wednesday to go over stuff together. I sure hope I can pull out at least a B.

This sickness is also keeping me from going over to my sweet brother's house where he is making pork tenderloin for dinner. Boy, am I sad to be missing that! It sounded so delicious when he was telling me what he wanted to do. I hope he saves me some! ;)

It is also keeping me from completing the sewing that I needed to get done for Halloween. I was supposed to cut out Keith's costume yesterday, but instead laid in bed all day yesterday, and then again this morning. MAN. Its really cramping my style!

Ok, I guess this is really just a complainy blog. I just needed get it all out there. Oh by the way, the medicine I am taking tastes TERRIBLE.

That is all!

Sea World (among other things...)

I guess it has been a while since my last blog post! I have been so busy. Last week I had two tests - one in Human Development (no grade back yet, maybe tonight) and the other in Anatomy lecture (got a 94!! Whooohooo!). I was really concerned about my anatomy test because we leave for Paris and Austria in two weeks. I am going to miss 4 lecture classes and have a test right when we return. My teacher drops our lowest test, so I needed to be sure that the ones I took before we left were high grades since I probably won't be doing much studying while overseas. :)

I have also been working very hard to get Colin's Halloween costume sewed, so that I can sew Keith's, so that I can work on mine...seems like a never ending process! On top of that, Colin has been sick, first with a terrible cold, which later turned into a rash all over his chest and back! Oh man. SO, I've been washing sheets, cleaning house, and trying to eradicate the sickness too.

Last, but not least, we had planned a trip to Sea World for this past weekend. We wanted to take Colin and spend lots of good, fun time together before we left him with the Grandmas for two weeks. That seems like such a long time to be gone from our little man!  We had such a blast at Sea World! Colin particularly loved the dolphin and whale show and, of course, the Shamu show. The last time Keith and I had been to Sea World, we didn't go to the dolphin and whale show. We were SO glad we did this time around. It was SO neat and Colin was entranced. He pointed and clapped! He smiled and laughed! Keith took some video, so whenever I can get that sucked into my computer, I'll post it, but here are a few pictures:

We went to see some of the exhibits after the dolphin show because we were afraid Colin wouldn't want to sit still through another show right away. So, we had fun going through the penguin house:

Seeing the otters, seals, and sea lions: (who, I might add, were barking away for food!)

After walking around for a bit, we decided to go ahead and check out the Shamu show. I think this was the highlight of Colin's trip. He LOVED the whales.  They had a mama killer whale swimming around the tank with her two babies (one of them was just a week old!) and Colin HAD to sit up front, right next to the tank. As he watched the whales swim, he clapped, waved, and shouted "Whaaayulll!! Whaaayyulll!! I love you, whaaaayyyuuuull!!!) It was so cute. It didn't even phase him when the whales splashed water all over us and, boy, was it cold!

From the Shamu show, we headed to the Halloween Spooktacular, where Colin was able to trick-or-treat around the park. He came home with three bags of candy. Whoa! After trick-or-treating, we headed to the shark exhibit: (The pictures aren't great because it was so dark in that exhibit and Colin moves around so much!)

On our way out of the park, we decided to get Colin a Shamu stuffed animal. Can I just tell you how much he loved it?

 
 We also stopped by the dolphin nursery on the way out. Colin had fun watching the babies, but then realized that we were standing in front of a big tank of water...AND...HE WAS HOLDING A WHALE!!! He proceeded to attempt throwing his whale into the water, made it over the fence, but not into the tank (thankfully!) and a Sea World worker had to come rescue it for him. SO funny!

 It was such an awesome day! I was so glad that Colin loved it so much. He was knocked out about 5 minutes after we got in the car hugging his whale. I really want to take him again at Christmas time and check out their Christmas festivities.

Here are a few extra pictures from today. Just thought everyone would like to see Colin showing me his teeth, "cheesing," and reading his books!

 That's all folks!!

Walking

I joined a page sent to me by a friend at church. It is a walking and spiritual development encouragement/accountability type group. It has been almost 4 weeks since I had my second back surgery, so I thought it would be a good time to get going on the walking/losing weight thing. It happens to be wonderful weather for walking right now too! Bonus!

I went on my first walk yesterday. Colin and I were truckin' around the neighborhood, even walking up and around the cul-de-sac roads, when we passed another lady and strollered kiddo. Colin waved hi, I said hello. Just as we were about to pass, the lady asked how old Colin was. I told her 18 months and she, in turn, told me that the little girl that she was walking with was 19 months. Well, we struck up a conversation, and she ended up inviting me to walk with her. Her name was Stephanie and she was the little girl's babysitter three days a week.  After talking a while, I found out that she had been the leader of the MOPS group that I am a part of and her kids had just "aged out," so she had to pass on the leadership. Small world! She was very sweet.

Well, Colin and I got up and tried to meet up with her when walking again this morning, but no luck. We really enjoyed our walk though. We went down to the lake, saw lots of beautiful birds, pointed to all the trees, and made lots of noise on the dock. Then we took a tour of the neighborhood. Colin loved seeing all the cars, trucks, and trees. We even got to point to a UPS van (Wow! So Big!) and a riding lawn mower (AMAZING!). Now Colin is playing on the back porch while I type. I can't believe how much this boy loves being outside.  I think I'll open all the windows in the house today.

I think I'll end with a few pictures of Colin in his outdoor/fall gear! (Surprise, surprise, I'm sure.)

Ok, that was more than a few, but I couldn't help it. He is SO cute! Haha! Off to sewing!