Why pregnancy will be bad for my teeth

So I had a strong gag reflex before pregnancy, but this is ridiculous. Behold, the enemy.

I can no longer use my electric toothbrush for fear of a repeat performance of Tuesday morning when I threw up all over the bathroom right before I left for work. I did not see that coming. So now I have resorted to the regular old toothbrush. You'd think that would do the trick, right? No. It's better, but man, that gag reflex has taken on a life of its own. TMI? Sorry.

Blog abandonment

So I think I have been subtly accused of blog abandonment. It's true. I haven't posted since March. It's not that I haven't thought about it. It just seems like I am never willing to sit at the computer long enough for the pictures to upload. How rude of me. I check everybody else's blogs regularly for updates and am sorely disappointed when I only get to see last week's adventure and not this week's adventure.
It's true, I really have thought about posting. Like the time my niece Gracynn entertained herself for half an hour on the table in the airport tossing around napkins. Have you noticed how cut her biceps are? No wonder, she works out!
Then I thought I might write about our traveling gnome. We picked him up in "Norway" in Epcot Center on vacation and I entertained myself the rest of the trip getting him in all of our scenery shots.
Then I could have written about the Lake Superior leg of our trip. We thought there wouldn't be much to do around Lake Superior, so we only scheduled one night at this great lodge north of Duluth. Dude, next time I'm spending a week there. Doing nothing.

Then I could have written about how funny baby shower games are. Here in my family room, women are trying to draw a baby on a paper plate on their head. Lisa (my sister in law) got to choose the best ones for a prize. Lisa is on baby watch now...due any day with our next niece, Rebekah Michelle.













Then I could have written about how good a sport my husband is when I ask him to pose for stupid pictures. Here he is waiting for "A Bug's Life" in the Animal Kingdom park, our favorite.














Instead of all those topics, I think I will write about the most recent news. I'm 5 weeks pregnant! I can hardly believe it's true. It's about time we get in the game!

Wonder Valley is a great place

Have you ever been to Wonder Valley? You should go. If not for the ranch resort itself, at least for the drive. I was there this weekend for a retreat for directors of Early Childhood Education programs. I love coming around the bend on Elwood Drive to see the valley before me.

A bountiful harvest...I hope

After visiting Death Valley, I took on projects around the house to finish out my spring break. I painted the office a nice taupe color and did a LOT of work in the yard. It's amazing how a lot of work in the yard can look like not very much in the end, but then it all grows and you see the results of your efforts. In our vegetable garden, I planted two kinds of tomatoes, green peppers, purple peppers, green beans, tomatillos, yellow neck squash, zucchini, cantaloupe seeds, spinach seeds, and green onion seeds. Whew! On top of all that, our cherry, plum, aprium, apricot, orange trees are blooming and the poimegranate should not be too far behind. Who knew I would someday be a farmer!

The next morning I sat on the back patio to eat my breakfast and watched a squirrel go crazy over the seed that dropped when my homemade birdfeeder broke. He even stood on top of the feeder at one time and ate off the bird stoop from the roof. I love having a yard full of life.

Death Valley vacation warms us up during spring break

I always say I hate the desert. Darrel loves the desert. It's not so much that I hate the desert, but I hate the way I feel in the desert. Bloated, dry and itchy eyes, dry and cracked skin, chapped lips. That's how I feel in the desert. We decided to go to Death Valley anyway because it's the right time of the year (weather in the 70s and lots of wildflowers) and Darrel has really wanted to go there with me. He thought he might convert me to a desert-lover. I still didn't love the way I felt, but it was a beautiful, interesting place to see. Everybody asks what there is to see and do in Death Valley...

You can hike in canyons that were formed by shifting earth and

water and material rushing down the hill.

You can drive by and hike in the "Artist's Palette" where oxidation of different minerals has turned the hillsides purple, blue, green, and pink. I tried to make a "snow angel" on the purple hill where it was fine gravel, but it didn't really work. All that happened was my clothes got really dusty. I had to try it though and it satisfied my curiosity.

You can check out the formations of the salt pan. I liked hearing the crunch of the salt under my boot. Darrel liked taking pictures when I wasn't looking.

You can go take a tour at Scotty's Castle.

You can take super zoomed pictures of your spouse when she's not looking and she is squinting into the sun while she waits for the tour to start.

You can hide behind forts in the rock formations when you hike in Mosaic Canyon.

You can visit the sand dunes at sunrise...my favorite.

You can have a contest with your spouse. Whoever ends up with the most sand in their shoes gets to choose when and where to eat breakfast. My boot is the one on the left. I chose the closest of two places to eat in the park. Darrel would have chosen the same thing, but I like to have opportunities to win.

You can visit a giant crater where it is REALLY windy.

You can walk out on the salt bed of the lowest point in the western hemisphere at Badwater...named for the bad tasting water.

You can take pictures at the signs like all good tourists. You can do many more things like see where giant boulders move on their own, visit ghost towns, see the 20 mule team borax mines, and lots more. Go visit Death Valley, but remember to drink plenty of water, take chapstick, sunblock, and slather every inch of your body in lotion.

Cori gets her butt kicked part 3

Sunday night Darrel's parents Elmer and Moira joined us for dinner and a game. After we had brunch for dinner, I was definitely planning to get my game on with Dominoes. Again, not so. Elmer and Moira dominated the board for sure.Darrel even had to get the calculator out to add up his points (lowest points win). I'm definitely on a streak. Anyone up for a game?

Cori gets her butt kicked part 2

Okay, so Darrel won Scrabble. That was a little hiccup in my gaming season (the season never really ends). I was ready to kick booty (Darrel's booty in particular) when we got together with our friends Evan and Ayako for dinner and a game Saturday night. Not the case.

We started out with a yummy dinner of sushi rolls, korean pancakes (the name escapes me), chicken rolls with veggies and cheese, miso soup, and a yummy beef chinese dish I forget the name of. I love a new food adventure. I learned that it's true that for the Japanese, presentation is as important as anything. Ayako served up those chicken rolls with a feast for the eyes!




I took a cue from her as I dressed up the dessert of almond shortbread tarts with chocolate-hazelnut spread and pictures made out of bananas and strawberries.

Dessert accompanied a hard core game of Ark of the Covenant. Darrel and Evan dominated the board to the point it almost wasn't fun to finish the game.





Evan and Ayako are quite the pair, always ready with a smarty remark to get a laugh, but Darrel and Evan definitely had the last laugh this time.

I'm just not that competitive...

Okay, maybe I am. Last night Darrel and I decided that we wouldn't turn on the TV and he wouldn't work on homework, but we would play a game together. Since I have been sickeningly addicted to Ticket to Ride, we decided to play Scrabble. I always thought I wasn't very competitive because I can't edge my way to kick the soccer ball when others are fighting for it. When I was 6, the ocach had to tell me to stop picking the flowers and go after the ball. Turns out I am plenty competitive, just not physically aggressive. I love trying to out-wit and out-smart my competitor across the table. My brother recently taught me that I should work a little trash talk into my game. Of course, the trash talk slows down when the table turns. Last night, Darrel won.

Freezing my tail off in Ohio

I have been in Cleveland Ohio since Wednesday visiting the Hanna Perkins Center for Child Development. It has been a great couple of days observing how the school integrates mental health services in their work with children and families. This afternoon we had a brief break and some of us decided to drive 30 minutes north to see Lake Erie.

As you can see, it's frozen into chunks, but the water is still moving underneath.

I had fun tromping through the snow to write a message to my hubby.

Then turned around to see my new friend Dr. Martha Moore swinging her "ice sabre". What a blast!

A small group that eats (and prays) together stays together

This semester the schedules got so crazy for each couple in our small group from church that we had to set a different day of the week to meet every two weeks. Today was a first - Saturday brunch at the Schmidt's! We broke out the china for the occasion and devoured the

whole wheat raisin cinnamon rolls

berrylicious fruit salsa with cinnamon tortilla chips

cheesy vegetable quiche

pineapple and cranberry juice

and a pot of coffee.

Right now we're reading through a book called "What the Bible says about Healthy Living". As a group, we're taking steps to live healthier lifestyles, eat food that God created to be food, and eat it as close to how God created it as possible. It's a journey, not something that can happen overnight. Does that mean we stop enjoying our food and celebrating life together? No way! We enjoy it all the more.

A trip to Africa

Last night we took a trip to Africa via the World Vision AIDS exhibit being presented at a local church. The free exhibit is really well done. Each visitor gets a headset with an ipod shuffle that has the story of one of four children from Africa whose lives have been affected by AIDS. The story is told as if you are the child in the story. I was a young boy named Emmanuel. The actual child tells part of the story and part is narrated. As you go through the exhibit, the audio tour leads you through a maze of rooms, each a setting for part of the story. At one point you end up in a clinic. The clinician gestures for you to place your hand on the counter and then stamps your hand with either a red + or a black -, indicating the your HIV diagnosis. The exhibit is traveling like a concert tour throughout the country. Check it out...you should go when it comes to your city.

http://www.worldvisionexperience.org/

Darrel takes poison like a champ

Last Friday, February 1, Darrel and I drove to UC San Francisco to try the next in a long series of treatments aimed at fixing his back problem. We said goodbye to Kitty and made the schlepp (that's what his doctor calls it) to the City. We made it just in time for the 11:15 appointment to get Botox injections in the long muscle down the side of his spine. The idea is that if you paralyze the muscle, it can't spasm and the other muscles get a chance to rest and take over for that muscle.

Darrel gripped the chair in his typical non-demonstrative manner as the resident pierced him with the needle and the doctor said, "Go deeper... deep, deep, deep, there you go". I think I might have made a crack about how long the needle must be or something. Darrel said nothing.

Like any brave patient, Darrel got to pick where he wanted to have lunch. We ate at Brothers Restaurant for Korean bar-be-que. We filled up on a brothy soup, rice, tasty beef strips, rice noodles with veggies and all the fermented vegetable side dishes one can hope for. Did I mention this was Darrel's choice? The beef and rice are really good...

To answer the now famous question...Did it work??? Darrel doesn't think so at this point. We'll give it more time and maybe a second try (even deeper) in May. Either way, we continue to pray for healing.

Kitty keeps us laughing

Who would have thought the raggedy cat that hid under our eaves through a rainstorm would become our constant entertainment? She has filled out quite a bit since we have had her, but that doesn't change her constant "bed hair" look. Her latest antic is to run quickly from one end of the house to the other as if she keeps seeing ghosts. No matter how many times her nails skid on the kitchen floor, it's still funny every time. Funny, nobody seems to think she's quite as cute as we do.

Blogland musings

I love checking blog posts of friends. I'm a stealth blog reader. I never leave comments, but I love to read every post. It all started when I realized how much my friends Ericlee and Dorina's daughter Meilani would change while they were gone for the summer. I didn't want her to come home and be all grown up, so I checked into Dorina's blog. I realized what a connection I had with my friends just knowing what they were up to every now and then. Then came the baby blogs. Nearly every woman I know of child-bearing age was pregnant last year and, of course, I had to keep up with all of the babies on their blogs. I started thinking that surely I would start a blog someday when we have a child. Then I decided that I don't have to wait until we have a baby to have a blog. We have lives and do stuff! We're cute sometimes! Really though, the older I get, the greater my desire to stay closely connected to family and friends. This, I believe, is a great way to do it. Be sure to say hello to let me know you're out there! Or you can be a stealth reader like me if you want to.