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?

Ireland: Blarney Castle

We flew into Dublin and then rented a car. Our journey took is south through Kilkenny and down to Waterford. This is the Kilkenny Castle built in the 1100's. We didn't have much time to stop, so we didn't go in.
It's a little dark, but this is just an ivy covered church and a graveyard we saw along the drive. Mom was fascinated with the Celtic crosses in the graveyards. We finally got to Waterford and went to the Waterford Crystal factory. Only Mom went on the tour to see the crystal being made. Mike and I just perused the gift shop and munched on a cookie in the cafe. Mike took this picture of me next to a giant crystal glass. It's taller than me! (But I guess that's still not all that tall...) Disappointingly, everything in gift store was still expensive. We had hoped it would be more of an "outlet", but that was not the case. Then we drove on to Cork and about 10 kilometers past to get to our B&B in Blarney. The place I had reserved flaked out on us, but thankfully they had made arrangements for us to stay just down the road. The lady was super sweet and to top it off, she had a friend that knew Maureen O'Hara (starred in the "Quiet Man" with John Wayne and is set in Ireland). The next morning we got up and set off for the famous Blarney Castle. Above and left, is the watchtower. Right is a creek that runs around one side of the castle. Then, of course, there's Mike and I.
In the next picture, I don't know if you can see that little piece of light in the very middle right above the highest window, but that's where the Blarney Stone is and you have to put your head down into that little hole to kiss it. Scary!
Right above the entrance was the "murder hole" where they would throw rocks or hot tar on any unwanted guest. There was a teeny, tiny, winding stairwell that took you all the way to the top. I can't imagine how they made that climb with long robes on. As you can see the step is only as wide as my size 5 1/2 feet. Once at the top, the view was amazing. Oddly enough, the kitchen was at the top too.
This was a mansion not too far from the castle. We walked over to it after we were done at the castle.
This is the top of the castle. Right above that window is where you have to lay down (yes, lay down) to kiss the Blarney stone. This is me kissing the yucky Blarney stone. Mike got a good picture. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite as quick and didn't really get a good pic of Mom and Mike kissing it. Oops. It was so gross. I'm honestly not sure if it was worth it.
Back outside, with our feet on the ground, we walked along a path that led by these old, old trees to the mansion. This tree had like 4 trunks. Then, it looked like a branch had grown about 10 feet over and started another whole tree. It was crazy. This is Mom and I standing under the branch between the two trees.
This is the mansion we walked over to see. We don't know much about it, but it was pretty.
And my personal favorite, a giftstore just for me. Jennifer, I know you're jealous. ;)
Ok, one more Ireland blog and then I'm done. I can start blogging baby news as we probably won't be traveling for a little while.

London has fabulous parks, and everyone hangs out there. This is one of the entrances to Hyde Park. We passed by it on the way to Hard Rock Cafe.
I think the Hard Rock we visited was the first one ever. The gift shop was across the street and in the basement of the gift shop was the Hard Rock vault. We went on a "tour" with a crazy, enthusiastic, and entertaining tour guide. In the vault are some of Hard Rock's most prized possessions. The best thing about it was that we could touch everything. Mike is holding Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar. In my first picture I'm sitting on a couch that belonged to Jimmy Hendrix and holding his guitar valued at over 3.5 million pounds (7 million dollars!) The tour guide said that they had had the couch cleaned to be sure that no one received an acid trip from sitting on it. (ha, ha)
This is the trumpet belonging to the legendary Miles Davis.
The other picture of me documents the single most memorable thing about my trip to London. Not only I'm I holding Kurt Cobain's guitar, but I'm wearing his sun glasses. Much to my husband's embarrassment, I shed a tear or two. It was very intense. The other picture here on the right is the snowglobe that topped Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's wedding cake. It was amazing. Not just the snow globe, but the whole experience.
Next is a picture of the entrance to the Royal Academy of Art. In the plaza there was a giant statue of a pregnant woman. Half her body was covered with skin and the other half revealed muscle, sinew, and her unborn child. (Guess that's what I'll look like in a couple of months--hopefully with my skin on though.)
Left, is Piccadilly Circus. Fun, but much less impressive than Times Square. This is the Mall. Very much like the one in Washington, DC. At the end is Buckingham Palace.
This is Trafalgar Square. The picture shows St. Martin in the Fields church. We went and sat in the church and got to listen to a small orchestra rehearsing for a concert including Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It was free! It was quite nice. Also in Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery. Admission was free! In my opinion, that makes it the best thing to do in London. There were so many great works of art. We didn't have a whole lot of time, so we sought out some of the most famous by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet, Michelangelo, and my personal favorite, Botticelli.
When we returned to our hotel (which was really a dorm for King's College built in 1829), we saw a group of chaps playing cricket in the park across the street. It really added something to our whole London experience.