The Second Half

I'm sure you are on the edge of your seat wondering what I did for the last half of the 4-day weekend. Am I right? HA.

Friday night, we rented Grown Ups and laughed our butts off before bed. I recommend it. Did you hear that Adam Sandler bought each of his co-workers from that film a Maserati? NICE.

Saturday, we did a some shopping in the morning. Then we spent the afternoon tidying up the house and enjoying a little more couch time. That night, Jenna and Jandi came over for dinner. We sat at the table and ate Wing Stop boneless wings. Aiden loves Jandi, and vice versa, so when Jandi came to sit at the table, so did Aiden. Funny thing was he went straight for the chair directly next to Jandi - not his high chair. It was so cute that we let him sit at the table with us.

We liked having him in a regular chair like us, so I think we are going to break down the high chair into his booster seat. It will be nice to have that huge chair out of the way. The only nice thing about it is that we can fit more people at the table when Aiden sits in his high chair. So we'll probably keep the high chair component handy. Especially with the Christmas holiday around the corner.

Aiden was quite cranky that evening. He only took two short 15 minutes naps during the day, so he was on edge by bedtime. I think we put him down a few minutes early. He was out within seconds. And when we went to check on him before we went to bed, he was laying in the exact same position as we laid him down in. Covered up with his blankets and everything. The blankets are a big deal because those usually get kicked off immediately. And he's too young to be able to cover himself back up properly. He was definitely tuckered out. I think it helped that Jenna and Jandi were there. He always does better when we are around other people. I've decided that's a good thing.

Sunday we did even more shopping. It was our annual family Thanksgiving shopping spree. My dad likes to give each of us $50. We get to spend $40 on our self and $10 on whoever we draw out of a hat. This year, I had Robert and Travis had Alex. I was able to purchase a new pair of boots that I so desperately wanted. My chiropractor will be so proud that I am no longer walking on those worn heels anymore. Robert lost his wallet right before Thanksgiving, so I found him a replacement wallet. Travis bought a few things from Academy for himself (hooray for Thanksgiving weekend sales!) and two 80's comedies for Alex. We will have to wait to exchange gifts when everyone gets here for Christmas. It's easier than mailing them.

My dad likes to do this little shopping spree to get us thinking about Christmas presents for ourselves and others. It makes it easier to get an idea of what everyone would like each year. Plus, I'm always up for a paid-for-shopping-spree. ;)

After Aiden woke up from his nap, we played outside and then went for a walk. The rest of the evening went by entirely too quickly...

A Very Merry Thanksgiving

Want to know the best part of our Thanksgiving weekend? Travis had FOUR DAYS OFF IN A ROW. That has got to be a record. Aside from when he asks off for Christmas. Psh.

This year, Ariel and Robert volunteered to have Thanksgiving at their house. In the past, we have always done it at our place. It was nice to take a step back and actually enjoy the day, as opposed to running around like a madman trying to have 10 dishes hot at the same time. Ha.

Wednesday, I got out of work early and took advantage of that child-free time to do what food preparation that I was in charge of. When I got up Thursday, all I had to do was throw the prepared green bean casserole in the oven and bake the rolls. After that, we had a few hours of chaos before we were able to relax a little. We decided to stay the night at Ariel's since Aiden's bedtime is 7:30. I didn't want to worry about running home to get him in bed on time, so we just packed ourselves up for a couple days "away".

Of course, that's not as simple as it once was. We have to pack our own overnight bags, Aiden's overnight bags (which include extra clothes, PJ's, sheets, blankets, Mr. Lion, food, toys, etc.), the travel crib, Callaway's food, Callaway, plus the food I was in charge of making for Thanksgiving. Puts a pinch in my shoulders just thinking about it again.

In the end, we didn't forget anything. THANK GOODNESS. We got to their house before Aiden's nap time so we could help out with anything they needed before all the guests arrived. They ended up cooking TWO turkeys. They invited eight people besides themselves, but that is still a LOT of turkey.

Here's Ariel's thinking: Robert and Mike wanted to fry a turkey for the first time in their entire lives. Since that very well could end in disaster, Ariel wanted to roast a turkey as a back-up.

Thankfully, there was no disaster. Mike thoroughly enjoyed injecting the turkeys with cajun marinade. He brought an extra turkey to fry for his girlfriend's family too.

The boys all stood around and stared for a good 10 minutes as the first turkey settled into the fryer.

The meal turned out great! Thank you Ariel and Robert!! (Pictured below: Wendy, Mike, Jenna, Ariel and Robert.)


We took in as many Thanksgiving-orphans as we could find. Jenna included!



The nice thing about having a bunch of people around is Aiden finds lots of people to entertain him. Brandon (on the couch behind him) read Aiden several books before passing into a tryptophan-induced coma.

After dinner, Travis fell asleep on the couch. Sadly, he was sick for the majority of the weekend. In a way, it's nice that this sickness fell on days he already had off, but then again, it would have been nice to have him around a little more.

The rest of us retired outside for the remainder of the evening. We just chatted it up for a while, but then Jenna had to head home. After a bit, we decided to play some games. We started with a round of Apples to Apples (I really need to get that game!), then took a break for dessert. After pie, we headed back outside for a game of Taboo. Ugh, it was so much fun!

Yes, I am wearing a Snuggie in this photo. It is literally a square blanket with sleeves. So strange. A cold front came in while we were outside playing Taboo, but we were having too much fun to take the time to move inside. Ariel's friends Tara and Kevin came just as we were sitting down for dinner, so they didn't eat with us. But they did stick around for leftovers and games! It was a blast.

Tara's birthday was at midnight, so we sang her happy birthday before they headed out to the bars. Ariel and Robert stayed up to watch a movie and I went to bed.

The next morning, we ate cinnamon rolls and lounged on the couch ALL DAY. Seriously. We came down at 8 to feed Aiden breakfast and Travis was astounded when I came back into the living room at 11 with Aiden's lunch. He could not comprehend that he had just sat on the couch for four hours. It was awesome. We watched Shaun of the Dead, ate leftovers, watched a Law and Order: SVU marathon and ate more leftovers. I'm pretty sure that it's been years since I did that much sitting all at once.


But! It was worth it! We had a great time with friends and family. I hope you all enjoyed your holiday!

Best. Show. Ever.

Yo Gabba Gabba Intro from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

Happy Turkey Day!

Knock, knock!
Who's there?
Arthur.
Arthur who?
Arthur any leftovers?

---

"I hate turkeys. If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Someone needs to tell the turkey, 'man, just be yourself.'" -Mitch Hedberg

Thankful

A few things I am thankful for, in no particular order...

• My son and husband
• My family
• My friends
• A roof over my head
• My pets
• A vehicle to get to me to and from work every day
• All the fun stuff we have to fill our home
• A job to pay for all the items listed previously
• Oh, and the Internet. ;)

Have a great Thanksgiving!!

A little poo shoveling

What an excellent weekend! Friday, after work, I did a little Christmas shopping. I had planned to visit several more stores, but ended up not having time to head up north. Instead, I went to a couple places in Galveston, before heading home with Aiden. When Travis got off from work, we partook in Friday's Movie Night that a few of my friends from work do almost every week. They've invited us several times before, but we always had previous plans. Since the past few weekends had been so busy, I had decided we would take it easy this weekend, so we didn't have anything on the schedule for Friday night.

Aiden trying to find out where the 'Mouw' went

Everyone brought some food that we all shared and then sat around the TV to watch Buddy the Elf and do a little chatting. It was a nice laid back evening, although we did keep Aiden up quite a bit past his bedtime.

Travis had to work Saturday and I still had some Christmas shopping to take care of. Aiden and I got up, ate breakfast, then were on the road to Shopper's Hell. That's how I feel about the city of Webster. There are so many stores and restaurants in one small area, that the traffic is always horrific. Top that off with Old Navy opening up a new store and having crazy sales to celebrate and you've got one stressed out Nikki.

Aiden and I did the forbidden and got fast food while we were between stores. Aiden LOVES chicken nuggets. What kid doesn't? Funny thing, is Aiden calls them crackers. Ha! We spent a few minutes in PetCo looking at fish, lizards and tarantulas before I picked out some new fish. I only got three, but we need to fill up our tank a little. What I REALLY need to do is buy some faux-plants to put in the tank. I still have all my saltwater decor in the tank, but it's actually a freshwater tank now. The coral doesn't provide the same protection that a plant would from the aggressive fish in our tank known as Bubba (the orange one).

That afternoon, Sue came over to watch Aiden at our house while Travis and I went to a wine party. Our friend Kai threw a party for 20 of his friends at an Italian restaurant. It was from 4 to 6:30, they served appetizers and unlimited wine. Bad idea. At least for me. I drank entirely too much. Although that was not quite apparent to me until it was time to leave. Everyone went over to Kai's afterward and once we got to his house, I realized the extent of the damage.

I still enjoyed the rest of the evening and we were home by 9 to relieve Sue. Thankfully the next morning I only had a headache - no nausea. Phew! We spent the morning lounging around. Travis made breakfast burritos and then we headed outside to play.

Travis was cleaning up the dog poo from the yard with two shovels. I looked over to find that Aiden had found his beach shovel and was following his daddy around. Every time Travis leaned over to scrape up a pile, Aiden would squat down and hit the ground with his shovel. It took them about 15 minutes before the entire yard was cleared out. I know he missed a lot, but it's better than nothing; that's for sure.

After Aiden's nap, we all went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving food. Then we headed down to Galveston to hang out at Ariel and Robert's until dinner time.

I have heard several people mention going out for Chinese food recently, so I decided it was our turn to hit up a buffet. Aiden has never been to a buffet, let alone out for Chinese food, so I was looking forward to the trip. It was nice to be able to offer Aiden a little of everything to see what he liked. He mostly seemed to enjoy the low mein noodles and a pork dish. It was an excellent, random meal spent with family. It's fun to do stuff like that every once in a while. We should probably do it more often. Especially when it's so hard for us to find a time when we are all off work at the same time!

Toast

I know I'm the queen of videos lately. Bear with me. I love so many of them! Including OK Go - they are always so creative. (See their last videos, here, and the one that started it all, here.)

People Are Awesome

I like to think that everyone in this video survived their 'trick'...

Sunday at the Zoo

Sunday morning, while we were eating breakfast, David mentioned that he wanted to go to the zoo again. He said it had been a while since he had gone to the Houston Zoo. I have wanted to take Aiden ever since I HAD him, even though for months he wouldn't have known the difference between the zoo and our backyard. I was complaining about how I wanted to go, but I wasn't up for spending $30 a person to get in there. David assured me that it was only $10. $10 we could do!

So, at lunch time, we got on the road into Houston. Aiden slept during the drive. Although I don't think he got to sleep long enough. He did great during the entire time at the zoo though.

I wasn't sure if Aiden would show any interest in the animals. I worried that it would be hard to point out the animals in the exhibits since all I could do was point from a distance. David said that Aiden would love it at this age and he was right! There was even a large cat exhibit where Aiden pointed out the cat that we couldn't find. HA!

It was a little chilly though. Before we left the house, I went through our box of larger sized clothes in the garage in search of a coat. I found two coats and a heavy jacket, so I think we are set for the winter! PHEW. (Again, many thanks to everyone who has given us hand-me-downs!! Alexa, Jenn, Sara and Heather.) Thank goodness Aiden had that coat because it was was humid-cold. And rainy for a bit even. We took a break halfway through our trek to go through the Lizard House. It was indoors and WARM.

We only stayed at the zoo for a few hours before we had to head back home. Travis, Ariel and Robert's softball team had their championship starting at 5:00 pm. They won the first game, but lost the second. Although they were happy they lost the second when it started to pour down rain while we were chatting post-game. It was COLD.

My favorite Davidism of the day: "Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes?"

Ahhhh, David. We will miss you, friend.

French Ad

Just Call Me Hood Rat

When I think of my childhood and life as a teenager, I would say I was a good kid. I did a few things I probably shouldn't have in high school, including attending a few underage parties, but nothing too extreme. I never got in trouble - save for two run-ins with the police.

The first was on Valentine's Day. I think it was my first Valentine's Day with Travis, which puts us in 2000. I was 17. We had just dropped off my dad's girlfriend at the airport in Champaign and were headed home for the night. I missed my turn, so I took the next right. It was only after I was already committed to the turn that Travis pointed out that I was pulling into a bad neighborhood. I kind of freaked, and tried to speed through until I could take another right to get back on the main road.

After doing what I like to call a California stop, I got pulled over by a cop. He was very stern, asked for my driver's license and insurance. I was driving my dad's car, so I searched through the glove box for the insurance. The only card I pulled out was expired, but it was all I could find, so I gave it to him with my ID. A couple minutes later two more cop cars pulled up. The first policeman came up to my window, while another went up to Travis' window and had us both get out of the car.

He asked us to empty our pockets, slowly. We did it. Then he asked for permission to search my car. "Sure," I said. I have nothing to hide. He made sure to ask if I had any drugs or weapons in the vehicle. "No, sir." Travis and I just stood on the side of the road where the police had set us and watched them go through my dad's vehicle.

Thankfully, they did not tear into the seats or break anything. I did chuckle when they opened up my Sea World pen with a killer whale on the tip. I'm assuming they were looking for drugs.

After they had completed the search, the original cop came up to talk to me again. He admitted that we looked out of place for this neighborhood, so they assumed we were buying drugs. I explained what had happened and he actually apologized for the inconvenience. He said, under other circumstance, he would have let me go for rolling through a stop sign in a known bad neighborhood. BUT. My insurance card is expired and that's a no-no. Since their reason for pulling me over was for running a stop sign, they had to give me two tickets: one for the stop sign and one for expired insurance.

The good news was they let me drive home. I was shaken, but glad that the cops were nice to us in the end. I had to go to court some time later with the current insurance card to prove the vehicle was insured. Unfortunately, even though the vehicle was insured, I had to pay for a year's worth of this special, expensive insurance for people who were driving without proof of insurance. Annoying, but I could deal. It's my responsibility as a driver to make sure a vehicle is legal before I get on the road.

That following fall, I had graduated from high school and was attending the local community college. I was driving home from class and was planning to stop by and surprise Travis. It was 3:55 pm and I was driving through a school zone. Since the school zone speed changes at 4:00 pm, I decided it was close enough and went the normal posted speed.

Unlucky for me, there was a cop waiting at the very end of the school zone. He clocked me "speeding" and pulled me over immediately. I was parked on the side of a fairly busy road, which was horribly embarassing for me. He did the normal routine and got my driver's license and special insurance card. He came back a couple minutes later and asked me to get out of the car.

Oh no.

I was getting shaky, since I was unsure what warranted this behavior. He made me turn off the car and take my keys and purse with me. After he got me to the back of my car, he asked me if I knew my driver's license was suspended.

Blink, blink.

"WHAT?! No! Why is it suspended?!"

"I'm sorry, but my computer doesn't tell me the 'why', only that it is suspended."

"What? Ok. So, what do I do? What happens now?"

"Well, you can't drive on a suspended vehicle, so I will have to drive you home. Then you can contact your lawyer or the courthouse to find out how to solve this."

By this point, I was SOBBING. I couldn't stop. The police officer told me to stop crying, that I wasn't in THAT much trouble. He said that he would have let me go on a warning for speeding through a school zone right at 4, but he couldn't let the driver's license part go. Are you kidding me?! I have to get a ride home in the BACK of a cop car! That is humiliating and SCARY.

Needless to say, I didn't get to stop by Travis' house. After a little digging, I found out that my special insurance had been cancelled, which was against the rules for my previous encounter with the police. I had to have that insurance for a year and cancelling it beforehand is frowned upon. Question was, why was it cancelled? I had to pay for an entire year in advance. I didn't get any money back, so I had no notification that it had been cancelled.

After speaking with the insurance company, it turned out that they had accidentally cancelled it. HA. My court date was set for something ridiculous, like two months later. In the meantime, my MOM had to drive me to COLLEGE everyday. Then she picked me up and brought me to work. Lucky for us, we worked at the same place, so it was easy to get a ride home from her at the end of the day.

It took one visit, on my court date to prove that it was the insurance company that had cancelled my insurance, not me. I had paid in full and could prove it. They reinstated my license and I have not had a problem since.

The result of these run-ins with the police is that I have a constant fear of all police when I am driving. I am convinced that they will pull me over for something that is just this side of illegal and then find something else monstrous wrong with me or my car. As far as I know, I am doing everything legally. But that's just the thing. If I am doing something illegal, I don't know about it.

All that, topped with the fact that Travis got pulled over here in Texas for driving without a seatbelt when he was, in fact, WEARING HIS SEATBELT, has me a little terrified. Everytime I see a cop on the road, my pulse speeds up and I sweat just a little.

I need therapy.

Mimic

I wish I could find a job that pays enough for me to study stuff like this!

Maah!

Ever since the time change, the sun has moved back directly in front of us for the drive into work every morning. That means Aiden SCREAMS until I get the sun visor up in front of him. I got lucky and it was cloudy a couple days this week, so I didn't have to swerve like a madman trying to one handedly unfold the visor and set it in place.

On Tuesday, during the drive in, we had the visor in place while Aiden read a book. That kept him entertained while his view of the road was obstructed. He was quietly reading, when he sweetly asks from behind his wall, "Momma? Momma?" Ugh, adorable.

He has been so great since his four molars broke through the gums. He still has his moments, but that is totally doable. I will take that over 24/7 angry cries ANY DAY. His molars are still pushing up, so there are times when he needs a little Ibuprofen to quiet the random outbursts of tears. He likes to play by himself again, which is wonderful. It makes preparing dinner much easier for Travis and I.

I have noticed lately that Aiden likes to ball up his blankets and cuddle up on the pile on his tummy. Tuesday night I talked with Travis about putting a pillow in bed with him. I'm pretty sure he's past the suffocating-in-his-sleep stage, but we are still worried about him using such an item to help propel himself out of his crib. I understand that IS a possibility. We went for it anyway. We found the flatest pillow we could and through it in one end of the crib. He LOVES it. He just curls up on his tummy, head on the pillow. I'm sure it's a nice change from his hard, flat mattress.

Just within the past month, I have noticed a few developmental increases in Aiden. He is suddenly able to hold a crayon like you normally hold a pencil to write, as opposed to the caveman grip he used to do. He also is able to scoop yogurt out of the cup and feed himself with a spoon. It's still a big mess, but he is getting so good at it. The only downfall with that is he absolutely refuses help from us (like when he gets to the hard-to-reach bottom bit).

Aiden has also started to copy words we say. I can point to something and repeat the name of the object, then sometimes he says it too. Of course, it's Aiden's version of the word, but it is still obviously an attempt to copy me. Just the other day he said "maah" for milk. That was huge for me because I had noticed that he has made no effort to SAY the word for anything we taught him the hand sign for. Milk is one of those. Now he makes the hand signal AND says "maah, maah".

He's growing into such a cute little guy! I love it!

Mom and Cara

This photo cracks me up. My mom was going through old photos and came across this one of her (left) and her cousin (right) when they were somewhere around 9 or 10 years old. Whenever they had family visits, everyone had to dress up. My mom said that their parents used to like to make them pose like adults. It is pretty funny. Although nowadays you'd probably get a visit from Child Protective Services.

I haven't seen it in years, but I remember seeing a video of my mom and her three siblings when they were kids. My mom was the youngest, at somewhere around 5 years old I think. She was a waitress, walking around smoking a cigarette and serving her brothers and sister drinks like they were in a club. Ohhhhh funny...

A Festival

Sunday we got up bright and early to get on the road to the Texas Renaissance Festival north of Houston. Zach and Linsey invited us to go along for the Roman Bacchanal weekend so our boys could wear togas together. It was a 2-hour drive and we had a two car caravan. To help pass the time, we listened to Mitch Hedberg for a good hour. That man is hilarious. Then he had to go and overdose on drugs. Ugh. Happens to all the great comedians.

Right as we walked into the front gate there was a stand for face painting. Linsey and I really wanted to get our own faces done, along with the boys. Unfortunately Luke was not too thrilled about some stranger touching his face, so they didn't do his. Aiden was in the middle of taking a bite from a cookie when the woman started to paint his cheek. He FROZE. And stayed in that position, cookie hovering in his mouth, throughout the entire painting. It only took a minute, so it wasn't for that long. But it made me laught the whole time.

After the artist was done with Aiden's dragon, she moved on to da mommas. We both did fancy eye embellishments. It was so pretty I didn't want to wash it off at the end of the day. I did, however, get a chance to walk through Walmart with the paint still on. That earned a few stares.



Last year I saw the archery range and really wanted to give it a try, but didn't work up the guts. This year, I decided before we even got to the festival that I was going to try it. You get 10 arrows for $5, so I did five and Travis did five. It was a lot of fun. Too bad I was better at hitting the ceiling panel than the balloons.

Roman Bacchanal toga and face paint

Zach and Friar Luke

You can sort of see Travis and Aiden in the shadows next to Zach and Luke. Zach swears up and down that Luke screamed "weeeeee!" the entire ride. Aiden could not figure out what the heck was going on. I was convinced the dads had more fun than the boys. I couldn't believe how fast that thing went. Oh man did it make me laugh though.

There are lots of weaponry shops throughout the grounds. We stopped in several, but this one seemed to specialize in ninja swords. David LOVES ninjas and swords, so he had to stop to check them out.

I got a ton of pictures this year. Normal etiquette teaches you not to take photos of random strangers without their permission. This year, I realized that these people are dressing up because they want their photo taken. I jumped in for a few of them. This first one of me with the fawn was probably my all-time favorite costume.

LARGE centaur and a tiny child

Just hangin' out with a couple barbarians

We spent five hours walking the festival grounds. Last year we got stuck for two hours in the parking lot waiting for traffic to start moving because we left at closing. This year we left before dusk; partially to avoid the rush and partially because we were all exhausted. Linsey is something like 14 weeks pregnant!

A few of the activities in which we partook:

• Fire Whip - although we didn't stay long enough to see him light the whip on fire
• Drench a Wench - a woman sits above the tank berating the throwers and random people in the crowd. She was so vulgar and mean I couldn't stay to watch for long. David and Travis, however, found it hilarious.
• Ate gyros for lunch - VERY delicious
• Tried honey mead - not so delicious

There were a hundred other things to check out along the way, like the costumes (fairies, ninjas, women with corsets that hold their boobs so high it looks painful), the random child riding a llama and the various stages with music that related to the area we were in (gypsies in the greek section, oompa band in the german section and so on).

We had a blast, but I'm pretty sure I am still recooperating from the busy weekend.

A Party

Saturday night, after the wedding, we had plans to go up to Jenna's house. She moved several months ago and we still had not made it up to see the new place. She has also made some friends in the past couple years that we have never met. So she figured, what better way to show us her life than to have a party! YAY!

We got to meet her neighbor Mark...

He was cold, so he borrowed Jenna's sweater. He seems like a really nice guy. He helps Jenna out whenever she needs it and he has two boys who are Brian and Jandi's age (Jenna's kids), so they play together whenever they are at Dad's house.

Jenna's house is really cute and her backyard is great for entertaining. It has an enclosed porch to protect from the rain and a decent yard for the kids to play in. There is even a little BBQ pit that the boys made into a camp fire for a little while. Unfortunately we had not planned for this event and could only come up with one log. That didn't last long.

Left to right: Mark, David, Travis and Chris W.

After we had given up on the frigid outdoors, we came inside to play quarters. David and Jandi, goofing off (with the same facial expression!)...


I was permanently cold...

This was on the night of the fall time change, so we kept Aiden up a little later than normal hoping he would sleep in a little in the morning. (It worked!) We set him up in Jenna's bedroom, so I went back periodically to check on him.

I think we ended up leaving somewhere around midnight? Although, I am really not sure. I was having a good time, but our DD was ready for bed. Travis works hard and doesn't sleep much, so I was honestly surprised he stayed awake as long as he did.

It was so much fun to get up to Jenna's house. We haven't hung out with her much recently. Both of her kids are active in sports, so during the school year she is always busy doing things with them. Plus, she works in Galveston at UTMB and lives 30-minutes north of us, making it difficult to do stuff during the week. Chris and Alexa made it to the party for a couple hours too. It was crazy to have the old gang back together!

A Wedding

Sometime early last week, I was having lunch with Jenna when I realized, out loud, that the wedding we had on Saturday fell directly over Aiden's nap time. I was having a mini-breakdown trying to figure out how we would handle that, when Jenna suggests that she could watch him. GREAT SUGGESTION, JENNA!

So, Saturday morning, Jenna came over half an hour before the start of the wedding. I went over where everything was that she would need and then we left. I'm not sure how he did after we walked out the door, but Aiden seemed happy with Jenna and her 7-year-old daughter Jandi.

The wedding itself was fun. I have not been to a lot of weddings lately, mostly due to the fact that everyone I know is pretty much married off. This one was interesting because it was in a church. It surprised me to realize that the last wedding I went to (and was actually a bridesmaid in) was the summer after my first year in Texas. That means it was the summer of 2003. I can only recall one other wedding that I have been to inside a church, and that was my cousin Mike's way back when. I seriously don't even know when it was. I just know I was a kid. Since then, all the weddings have been outside, save one - that was in a Vegas chapel. Ha!

I know it will probably irritate some to know that I do not attend church. Therefore, my main association with churches is with funerals. As Travis and I were walking up to the church, I started to get a little anxiety, until I realized that this was not a sad occasion. It was a happy one! A wedding! Anxiety averted.

The wedding itself was a complete 180 to what I am accustomed to. I work with the bride, Sheri, at UTMB and she married a pastor. They had a service in the middle of their ceremony. I'm sure that is totally normal for most, but it is not what I have experienced in my adulthood. Interesting though.

After the ceremony, we walked over to the recreation hall for the reception. Sheri's friend Kate made the groom's cake. The groom proprosed to Sheri on the beach, so he chose a sand castle for his cake. It was DELICIOUS.

I also know two of the bridesmaids from work as well. Michelle, dancing in the middle in the photo below, and Katie, who has a son five months younger than Aiden. I also made a new friend in Kate (pictured on the left), who was at the bachelorette party.



After the reception, we headed back to get Aiden. He had slept through most of our time away, but Jenna assured us that everything went well. And as it turns out, Jandi loved taking care of Aiden, so Jenna didn't really have to do much! ;)

Halloween Candy

Kit Kat Happiness from Nicolette Ward on Vimeo.

OMG

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

First Haircut!!!

On Monday night we trimmed Aiden's hair around the edges. We decided it was time to get rid of the mullet. ;)

Here's a 'before' photo so you can see the difference better...

We did the trim ourselves. It was a horrible process. He screamed the entire time. Hopefully we get better at that.

On a different note, I'm starting to feel like Aiden is constantly medicated. He always has something wrong with him. It was the pink eye FOREVER and now? Now it's an upper respiratory infection and Impetigo! Yay! I don't really recommend Googling that for the photos because Aiden's is NO WHERE near as bad as those pictures are. At the moment, it looks like two pimples and two canker sores.

Impetigo is a staph infection. It is contagious, but only from an infected wound to another wound. Sooooo, hopefully no one else will get it. YUCK though, huh?

Aiden has had a new sore crop up every morning since Friday, so I decided to bring him to the Urgent Care Clinic last night. The doctor prescribed only a topical antibiotic since the upper respiratory infection is not bad. You know we're regulars when the technicians recognize me at two separate pharmacies. Eek.

We get to apply a cream 3 times a day for 7-10 days, that "may burn" upon contact. Yay. Oh and the daycare won't let him come back until it's not contagious anymore. I have no idea how long that is, so at least for today he is going to Auntie Ayo's!!

All Hallow's Eve

This was Aiden's first time to walk around and actually do trick or treating. Last year, I carried him around and followed Alexa and Blair as they actually went door to door. Since Aiden is currently enamored with Elmo, Blair loaned him an Elmo-head basket to catch his candy for the evening.

Marina's niece and nephew came along too, which was excellent because they showed the boys how to do it.

Aiden's toga held up nicely throughout the evening. Two and a half meters of fabric, four safety pins and a short length of gold rope is all it took! The only hiccup is that we lost his dagger at some point. It's a bummer because he likes to play with that dagger.

Blair was a mummy - his costume was excellent! He did pretty good at the trick or treating, although he did seem to get a little nervous at a few of the masked trick or treaters that were floating around the neighborhood.

Aiden's first house to trick or treat at: Tom, Chris and Alexa's neighbor



Pre-arranged marriage:

We all walked down one street while Chris stayed back to hand out candy. The boys were getting tired of walking, so we went back to the Ramby's house. They pulled out the wagon and went back out again. That time Alexa, Skylar and I hung back. We ate pizza and candy and the adults even imbibed a little vino. All in all, I thought it was an excellent evening. Aiden and Travis share a favorite candy: Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yum!

Fried Ice Cream is Phenomenal

I didn't have time to do photos this morning, so I will have to post those tomorrow. I am very disappointed because I caught some GREAT moments this weekend.

I'm a little bummed that I didn't get to see much of Travis this weekend. Our friend David is staying in Houston for 4-5 weeks for job training. That means we get to see him on the weekends for a while. This past Friday was his friend's birthday dinner. Since we've hung out with him a few times, he invited us to come along. Unfortunately, the restaurant was an hour and a half away in north Houston and they weren't meeting for dinner until 8pm - half an hour PAST Aiden's normal bedtime. I decided to stay home with Aiden, while Travis went out to dinner.

Travis didn't get home until around midnight, so I was already asleep. Then he got up before I did because he had to work Saturday. I had a lot of running around to do, so Aiden and I got on the road first thing. I had to run into work for a bit, while Auntie Ayo and Uncle Robert kept an eye on the kiddo for me. He ate lunch there before we went home for nap time (Aiden slept, I cleaned the kitchen). As soon as Aiden woke up from his nap, we went right back out to go grocery shopping.

We got back with an hour to spare before I had to go to Galveston for a Halloween costume bachelorette party. A girl from work is getting married next weekend, so we went out to celebrate. I met up with them to get ready and then we went to dinner at Yaga's at 7:30. After that, we went to the Lounge to visit Ariel for a minute. Then we finished the night off at Molly's. We spent a lot of Friday nights at Molly's when we lived in downtown Galveston. The place wasn't as busy as it was when we used to frequent the bar.

I saw a lot of funny costumes, but the most freaky, by far, was a girl dressed up like a body that had been dumped in the ocean. She had wet, stringy hair filled with seaweed. She was wrapped in a black plastic bag that had been taped up with duct tape. Then to finish off the outfit, she wore egg crate shoes filled with "concrete". When she walked into the bar, she shuffled slowly over to me. It was by far one of the creepiest moments of my life. She reminded me of that girl from the Ring with her dark, wet hair. Eesh.

While I was at the bachelorette party, David hung out with Travis at our house and then stayed the night. So the following morning, I got to catch up a little with David about their move back to Texas and his new job. Travis left to do work at our friend Marina's house after Aiden went down for a nap. When Aiden woke up, we went with David out to lunch at Pappasito's. I ate entirely too much.

For the very first time ever, I tried fried ice cream! Vanilla ice cream, crunchy fried coconut coating, drizzled in caramel sauce. !!! This delicious treat has never been on my radar and now I'm kicking myself for the years of lost opportunities. It was amazing. Amazingly delicious and amazingly mind-boggling. How do you fry something that melts to a liquid at room temperature? I have to say that this dessert just about tops my list of favorite restaurant desserts. It comes second only to the Cookie Monster from Cheddar's.

After stuffing our faces (Aiden too!), we vegged out on the couch back at our house for an hour. Then David headed off for his hotel to catch up on some work, while Aiden and I drove to the Ramby's for trick or treating. Travis had to meet us up there since his electrical work took a little longer than he had planned.

Chris and Alexa had Jacen, Marina and the kids over to join in on the trick or treating fun. It was all cute beyond words. I will save the details for tomorrow's post!