Happy St Patrick's Day

Or should I say Happy St. Pug-trick's Day!

Today, people say "why is everyone pretending to be irish?" well... just a side note. I'm an american with irish blood (my dad's side) so I'm not pretending. But Brody, yes he's pretending cause he loves sloppy kisses.

But it's St. Patrick's Day! Everyone gets to be irish today and enjoy it! It's a fun and happy day! One day, I would like to be in Ireland for this day!



Very Exciting Weekend NBR(Not Baby Related)

I had a very nice and exciting weekend and I just wanted to share!

After all the traveling my new hubby and I have been doing, it’s very nice to be home. Yes I miss California and all, but being back in Seattle and getting back into the groove of things have been really nice. Although, I don’t know what the future holds and hope to move closer to Sacrmento and family someday, I am becoming more and more content with Seattle. Maybe it’s being pregnant, maybe its being a very happy newly wed, or maybe it’s the friends. Whatever it is, I’m starting to find happiness here.

Cole and I have been enjoying our weekend home and not jam packed with plans. Finding the time to spend with the dogs and each other, and still finding the time for friends is becoming easier and more at our pace. (this means finding time to take my weekend naps on both Saturday and Sunday without rush :) )

Anyways! Why was this weekend so exciting?? Well, for one, our good friends Amanda and Tim got engaged!!! Yay!! We’re all so excited for them and they’re wedding day to come!!

And for two, Cole and I bought a car! We’re so excited! We have been considering a family car for almost a year now. No, we weren’t exactly planning for the baby so soon, well… Cole wasn’t  But we’ve been keeping in mind that my 2 door Acura RSX would eventually need to go and a 4 door car of some kind would need to be purchased.

So after tons of research on Cole’s part, and one too many conversations about cars that drove me crazy, we finally found one that fit the criteria’s. 1. I liked it 2. Cole liked it 3. Babies would fit easily with a stroller 4.gets at least 25 mpg on the highway and lastly, 5. All wheel drive to survive the snow.

So what did we find? The Infiniti G25X.

We’re picking it up today or tomorrow! So we ‘re really excited. (mine will be white... like the pug) Now, might be thinking “does she really think a baby and stroller can fit in that car?” Well, yes I do. Actually I know it can. Cole and I happen to go to the dog park 2 weeks ago and saw a women, getting out of her G25x, with a dog, baby, and stroller, all by herself. So, it definitely helped knowing that it will work :)

Hopefully I will get it soon and post pictures :)

Lastly, Pugmania is on June 18th! What is Pugmania you ask? Well, it’s also known as Pug-a-palooza! Yes, its probably the loudest dog gathering around :) All pug and pug mixes join together for a day in Seattle. There are pug races, and pug kissing contests, pug costume contests, and even pug agility. So, Since this is the first year Brody and I are available to attend, we’ve decided that Brody will be entering the races and the agility contest! Brody is a pretty fast pug since he does chase Taylor and her BFF Nutmeg, but the agility is a whole other beast. So, remembering that my friend Amanda had recently mentioned wanting to make an agility course for her dog, Nutmeg, we starting talking about how to make this work :)

So we have started getting idea’s of the best ways to make our own agility course. So far, this has consisted of plastic gardening stakes for the pole weave, a cut out tunnel laundry basket for the tunnel, and PVC pipe made into a dog jump.

Brody has a couple months to get his agility on, but he will get it! I think the weave will be the hardest thing for him to get. But I think he can do it! Go Team Brody! :)

3rd OB Appointment

So we had our 3rd OB appointment yesterday and it went well. It was very short though. Just a “how are doing? Any questions? Are you feeling the baby move yet?” and then they checked the baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler again and the doctor said “very good! 132”




Then she gave us the referral to the imaging center so we can find out the sex of the baby!!! We’re so excited but they won’t see us before 20wks, so our appointment to find out the sex is on March 21st! a month away! This is going to feel like the longest month ever!



There have been a few things I’ve discovered in the last couple weeks. 1. As much as I love the taste of it, my stomach can no longer hold fast food easily. No McDonalds, no burger king, no arby’s and no taco bell. The last two really break my heart, but I have been so sick after trying to have fast food, so I am taking it out of my diet. You would think with no alcohol, no caffeine, and no fast food, I wouldn’t be gaining as much weight as I am! Well, I guess that’s the sneaky thing about carbs. Oh I’ve gained another 4lbs since my last visit. My doctor said “good! You’re gaining weight!” Which was not the response I excepted. I expected “its great you’re gaining weight but you might want to slow it down a notch.” Oh well… it guess its good! I guess in her eyes I’ve only gained 8lbs… but I’m counting sicne the wedding.. and as I’ve mentioned, I’ve gained a steady 4 lbs each other since the wedding!! So, if you care to do the math, you’ll know how much I’ve REALLY gained  but its not all from pregnancy, so I guess I’ll go with what my doctor thinks 



Also, I am more tired now than I was in my first trimester! Last weekend was a 3 day weekend for Cole and I. I took a 2 hour nap, but sat and Sunday and a 3.5 hour nap on Monday!! I also went to bed early each night. I had no problem at all falling back asleep. The bad side is that I waste my day away sleeping. The good side? Cole does all the laundry while I’m asleep. This is usually one of my duties of the house. But he finished 3.5 loads during my Monday nap!



Lastly, this post nasal drip is driving me nuts! I constantly have, what I think is a headache and is probably sinus pain. I went to buy a netti pot and they were out. So I grabbed a saline spray that is suppose to do the same thing as a netti pot. I wasn’t doing it right. First… is came out my throat. Then just came out of the same nostril, then.. Cole decided I was doing it wrong and pushed it really far in my nose and my nose started bleeding. So I’m just going to wait till I can get my hands on a normal netti pot and go from there.



Lastly, I’ve decided. Brody wins for the “has the most sympathy pains in the house”. He eats ALL the time and is always hungry. He’ll eat whatever you give him. He doesn’t even need to smell it first. He sleeps as often as possible and only on comfortable surfaces. Can only exercise for so long before running out of engery. Recently has had lots of gas, AND…… today he woke up with me on of my many trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night and as I left, Cole walked in to shower and I left brody in there. We both heard him whinning more than normal… then I hear Cole say “Brody!! No!! Stop!” HAHAHAHAH the little guy has had his pee pee accident in 2.5 years. Now, im not saying I had an accident, I just mean, he had to go really bad too and couldn’t hold it in any longer. Well, poor guy. He even tried to jump in the shower with cole before his accident. If he had made it into his shower and had his accident… he probably wouldn’t have been in trouble at all. Even though I doubt he realized there was a drain in the shower and if anything was trying to get dad’s attention.





Well… that’s the most recent updates!

Thanksgiving in Sacramento

Finally back on track in Seattle, kind of.




Cole, Courtney and myself (along with our dogs, yes we each have one) drove down to Sacramento for thanksgiving. Thankfully we were in Cole's truck so it was a little roomy. Nonetheless, the car stunk of dog when the trip was over. It took a good 13 hours, and very minimal stops. We are definitely getting used to this crazy drive! We didn’t encounter any snow or worrisome weather conditions. Well, except thick fog. We left at 5pm on Tuesdays and got to Sac at 6am on Wednesday. I convinced Cole it would be a great idea to get the Eclipse book on tape for entertainment. It was great :) We still haven’t finished it, but something about twilight makes me all excited!



We got home and all went to our separate homes. It was nice to see family, soon to be family :-), and friends. As some of you know, I get really nervous around Cole's family, but this trip was a really nice time, and really finally felt like myself. I look forward to my soon-to-be life as a Van Gundy.



My family is doing well too! Thanksgiving was great except 2 things.... well 3 things! 1. Sharon was in Asia. 2. Brody had surgery!!!! and 3 Auny was sick too!!!



Brody was acting completely normal on Wednesday until around 5pm when my mom came home. She frantically calls me around 8pm to tell me my dog has been throwing up about once and hour! I go straight home to see my mom scrubbing her pristine white carpet and Brody sitting next to her, with that guilty face. (his tail goes down and his face sags more, and he looks around like "where can I hide") He calms down and eats a little. I take him to my room to sleep. He moves around all night and finally, throws up again around 4am, and of course, eats it before I can grab a paper towel. I clean it up, and we go back to bed.




When the morning comes, he’s acting a little better but keeps stretching. I look up the symptoms online and it sounded like pancreatitis.(I can’t spell it) I got to the store to run errands for thanksgiving dinner. As I am at the store, I get a call from my brother saying "He has to go to the vet, I made an appointment, go to Alpine" and gives me the address. I head straight over there with pug in tow. We get there, and we're the only ones in the waiting room, and Brody proceeds to bark at every dog that goes by. We get called in and wait 30 min to get seen. Then another 30 to take the blood tests. then another hour to get the results. Then another 30 min to determine to get and x ray, 5 min to take the x ray, wait another 40 min for result, they need another x ray, 10 min, then 30 min to give us results again. Yes, this process took almost 4 hours!!!!



Turns out he ate a huge chunk of a nyla-bone and rope... from his toys and they got stuck in his stomach and esophagus. He was in recovery for some time. When we were finally able to get him home the next day, he was high as a kite! His eyes are normally big, but they were HUGE when we got home! Later that night we went to bed and on the floor of my room at my mom's house is a house phone with a little light on it. Brody has a cone on and didnt want to go to bed. SO he stared at the light the whole night, STANDING! weirdo


He calmed down a tad the next day


Saturday we got together with everyone as a casual engagement party. It was nice to see everyone and chat. We started at Crush 29, went to basic and then after party at Cole's mom's house. Needless to say, I went straight to bed! Everyone else was up till 5, and had no problems sleeping at 2am.

Oddly, in the almost 4 years in Seattle, I've never actually seen a fight, like a fist fight before. In roseville, on saturday, I saw my first one. It was terrible! It was outside of basic while we were waiting for Dusty to pick us up, 2 groups of guys decide to start fist fighting! My immediate reaction was for my jaw to drop, THEN start running towards them to stop it. I remember that I tried to run towards them, and Cole stopped me. I was so upset and dissappointed that there are actually people out there that believe that throwing your fists around is macho and a "good idea". At the time I remember thinking " If I can get over there, they will stop punching each other cause they wouldn't punch a girl". Im glad I didnt make it, cause they may have on accident. Anyways, my point is, that fight was so stupid; I'm glad I didnt get involved; and I love that fighting like that isn't Cole's style.

Well, we're finally home in Seattle, and its nice and cold. Im very excited for this month all the christmas festivities. Cole and I will actually be down in Sacramento again for christmas but for a longer stay this time. About a week and a half! Woo Hoo!