First, some pictures of our furry child, Skyla enjoying the water at a creek leading to Lake Barcis. Even in July, the water is freezing. The top right one is of her being carried downstream a bit by the current.

There is new life around us in many ways. These, a green bean, a zucchini, and some tomatoes came from my garden. The tomatoes do look a little funny, but they taste fine.

Last but certainly not least is the ultrasound picture of our baby. Under it's head, the Dr. typed Ciao! Mom and Dad! It's too early to determine gender but we did see and hear a beating heart, which is the most important thing. They confirmed my due date of Feb. 8, 2007. They also saw only 1 baby. The heart is beating at 162 bpm. If you go by the rule that boys have fewer bpm than girls, 162 is pretty much in the middle of the range. So unfortunately, no real clue as to what gender it is. I have another appt. in 3 weeks when I am 15 weeks along. They will look for and check more of the child's anatomy (hopefully they will be able to determine gender). They will also run the standard triple marker test for any abnormalities as well as check amniotic fluid etc. That's about all I can think to tell you. More in 3 weeks.

This is me and the baby. I'm not showing too much. You could tell more in a naked picture, but Mike wouldn't let me post that on the internet. Ha, ha.

Tentative plans are for Mike to be deployed in Jan and for me to come to Houston to have the baby. Not the most ideal situation, but he has to go and it's either in Jan or May. We feel that a Jan deployment is the lesser of two evils.

More later. :)

BABY ALLISON

We found out on Monday that I am 8 weeks pregnant. I took 2 home pregnancy tests on Monday and on Tuesday I went to the doctor for a blood test which was also positive.

Unfortunately, I the OB won't see me until I am 3 months so I'm just eating well and trying to learn as much as possible about my new role in life.

It's still hard for me to believe, because I don't really "feel" pregnant. I haven't really been sick, I'm not excessively tired, etc. They just tell me there's a baby in there so...

No pictures or anything yet. I pretty much look the same as I did in all of the vacation pictures from a week ago. Who knew?

I'm sweating out the next 4 weeks because apparently at 3 months I'm pretty much out of the woods as far as morning sickness and miscarriage.

So please be praying for us and the baby as we attempt to tackle this new stage in our lives.

The Rest of Ireland

After Blarney, we traveled north to Limerick. These are some castle ruins and a random church we saw along the way. Since Mike couldn't really pull off at a moment's notice, Mom and I continually played a game of "photograph that church". If you've ever tried to take a picture from a moving car, you know what a challenge that can be. You never know what sign or building will suddenly obstruct your view. We had to take like 5 or 6 pictures every time to get 1 semi-decent shot. It was funny. When we got to Limerick and the River Shannon, we saw King John's Castle. Again, because we had spent so long at Blarney, we just got some pictures. Also , as we drove along the Shannon we saw several groups of swans. A little girl was feeding these at a ramp. They were so huge and their necks were really bendy. This is another picture of roadside ruins.

Between Limerick and Shannon was Bunratty Castle.

This next picture was a graveyard and some ruins on a hill overlooking the town. We thought it was enchanting, but it was hard to get a good picture of it.

This cross was in another graveyard we stopped at right on the coast near the Cliffs of Moher.

These are the beautiful Cliffs of Moher. It is a 5 mile stretch of dramatic cliffs that meet the ocean in a roar of waves. I think I had seen a picture of them in a calendar or something once and I was completely taken with their beauty. It was the one thing I had to see in Ireland. I wasn't disappointed. Moher is the Gaelic word for ruins. As you can see there are several ruins. But, we couldn't walk over there for a closer look. It was really windy, so they had people out there making sure tourists didn't get too close to the edge. I'm sure you can tell by the chaos of our hair (well, Mom's and mine anyway) how windy it was.

I used to think if I was a cow, I'd like to live in Brenham, but after seeing how green and lush it is here, I might have to reconsider. However, I don't think these cows will be used to make ice cream... (Yes, I took a picture of cows on my Ireland vacation.)

This castle/watchtower was a little further down the coast.

When we finally made it to Connemara and arrived safely at our B&B, we got out of the car and looked up to see a beautiful double rainbow. What could be more perfect than seeing a rainbow over the coast in Ireland? We could only assume that leprechauns were playing with a pot of gold at the end. It was magical.

When the magic was over, we went inside to check in and inquire about a place to get some supper. On our way out of the driveway, Mike (who had, up to this point, done an excellent job driving on the passenger side, the left side of the road, and shifting with his left hand) ran over a stone "fence" about a foot high. It scratched the bottom of the car, ripped off some of the plastic mudflap thing, and punctured the tire. Thank goodness everything was in working order and we just had to use the spare tire.

This was the view from the dining room at the B&B. Lovely.

Some other random, roadside churches.

Then we returned the car to Dublin and hopped on our flight back to London.

Good stuff huh?