Real quick

I'm working on updating the blog. It's taking forever. Disneyworld, our cruise, DC, Outer Banks camping..
But, just real quick I wanted to write how grateful I am for Azure. She has done the dishes every day this week without being asked. She genuinely likes doing it. Crazy! 80% of the time the dishes are spotless. I rarely have to re-wash. For someone who doesn't like doing the dishes this is a HUGE blessing!

I love age 5! Love! I really feel like I've hit the jackpot with Azure. I feel undeserving of her a lot of times. I hate that I lose my temper with her sometimes for just being a child. She acts so much like a mature adult sometimes that I forget how old she really is.

Saturday while Charles and Vince were napping I took Azure grocery shopping with me. I debated just going alone but, wanted her company. Usually I am all for going grocery shopping alone, I can get more done, quicker. But, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that taking her with me proved to be an enormous help and I was actually faster than had I gone alone! What?!

In the produce section Azure read my list to me and I ran around bagging all the fruits and vegetables she called out. As I placed them in the cart, she crossed off the items. What a time saver!

My journey through motherhood so far has been dealing with small children. We've just hit a new stage of life. She is no longer a small child- at least not mentally. I really like this new stage!

I was overcome with gratitude for her as I reflected on this experience later on. Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, but really I am always emotional let's be honest. She is truly one of my best friends and I can only hope and pray that I can be as good to her as she is to me.

We're done!

Today I am 16 wks and I'm feeling TONS better! Haven't thrown up in over a week! Woot!

15 wks

Still super tired and not back to eating healthy like I was before this sickness started (minimal food aversions). I'm not as bothered by strong smells anymore that send me sprinting to the nearest toilet or trash can. Such a blessing to feel semi-normal again! I know the fatigue and *ahem* lack of fiber are correlated. I figured that out sometime in 2005. I think I mentioned some of that in this post.

Charles is done with his residency! *cue Hallelujah chorus* Things should become more normal again and we can actually work on all our family goals we've had on the back-burner this last year. Last Friday was his end of residency dinner- semi-formal. You know I love me a chance to get fancy schmancy so everyone can whisper, "Wow, that's Charles' wife?" I kid...kinda.

Back to Charles- I don't fully understand everything he does at work, obviously. Sometimes he comes home and says things like, "If you saw what I did at work today you would have died." Some of those things have included: assisting a patient with an impacted bowel, a large obese woman with gangrene who had maggots in her hospital bed, crazy surgeries with blood squirting all over the operating room, etc. I'm not one of those people that likes gross things so I don't ask for details unless my curiosity is really piqued, which rarely happens on the topic of maggots and the like. Hey, that's why I didn't go into the medical field. Because he's right, I would die.

He's all grown-up :)

So, it was really meaningful to have his co-workers come up to me at the dinner and say things like, "Charles is an outstanding pharmacist. He's a really hard-worker. We're so glad he's staying on. He's our favorite resident." And then to hear them talk about the research projects they've worked on all year and how much his research benefited the hospital and their protocol. I am one proud wife.

Sadly, we didn't have anyone take pics of us. But, Charles snapped this one of me when we got home.

To celebrate his 2 weeks off (his first vacation in over a year) he went with the scouts on a 50 mile hike up the Applachian trail. He loves backpacking and hasn't done it for years so it was perfect timing for him. I'm happy he got to go.

Tomorrow the kids and I leave to meet up with him in Asheville, NC and then we're off to DC to sight-see and visit Cath AND eat Cafe Rio. Can not tell you how excited I am for that!!! Then down to camp on the beach on the Outer Banks. Yay for beach camping- one of my fave things I haven't done since 1999? And then we'll visit Ev and Mike in Raleigh and then back home.