When Life Gives You Lemons

This was a pretty routine week for us. Accordingly, here are a few highlights.

Fall has started! Nicole is super excited about this. She loves the way the air smells and the cooler air. The leaves are just barely starting to change. She is also looking forward to diving into her scarf collection. She also loves pumpkin and is craving pumpkin pie and all things related to pumpkin.

Clayton finished his first month of law school. He loves it so far, but he hears that things are going to start getting tougher. He also turned in his first graded assignment.

Due to Nicole's super human sense of smell, we now switch bedrooms depending on which one smells better. Luckily we have two bedrooms. Often after we lay down to go to bed, Nicole decides that the room is too smelly and we switch.

The new trick is to carry a lemon around with her. She heard that her grandma used to do this and she never threw up when she was pregnant. She sniffs it and it helps to block out all the other smells. She scratches the lemon to make the smell come out more. The lemon helps to reduce or eliminate the nausea. Nicole thinks that smelling the lemon causes her body to focus on the threat of eating a lemon rather than the threat of throwing up. Does anyone know if you can get high off lemons?

For some reason this week, the steam from the shower keeps setting of the fire alarms. So every once in a while, we wake up the whole house by taking a shower.

On Thursday Clayton came home early from school. We went out and got some ice cream. This was the highlight of Nicole's week.

We went to Panera on Friday. Clayton was less than impressed with the chick food, but Nicole really liked the Mac'n'Cheese. There was a movie theater near by so we decided to see what was playing. Instead of going to see a movie, we decided to make up our own.

On Saturday our land lord came down and checked out somethings that are wrong with the apartment. One of the baseboards in the kitchen was mildewy and on further inspection it turns out that the whole wall is mildewy. Our landlord removed the baseboard and we are trying to dry the wall out with fans. No wonder Nicole was unable to go in the kitchen.

Clayton got Nicole out of bed early today by making crepes. Church was righteous. Nicole has friends in the ward and is happy.

Shout out to Regan. Congrats on getting the learners permit. Try not to scare or scar your mom with your new driving skillz.

Also shout out to Liesl, on getting a silver medal at her first figure skating competition. Clayton wants to know when you will see the light and get skates without a toe-pick. Nicole wishes we could have seen it.

Smells are Everywhere!

In response to the difficulty viewing our precious pre-baby baby pictures we decided, with the help of technology, to create some post-baby baby pictures. We found a website online that merges your faces to give you potential babies. So through the digital merging of our pictures we are happy to give you a computer rendering of several versions of our baby. Nicole thinks they are adorable. Clayton thinks they have potential.Clayton had several late nights this week and Nicole had several rough days. She learned that if she eats something hourly it helps with the nausea. Clayton signed up for the Alternative Dispute Resolution Competition. He will be competing in a few weeks.

Nicole has a particular tough time with smells. Nicole went on a walk one day and when she came back our landlord saw her plugging her nose. He was like "why are you doing that? it doesn't smell bad out here. It just smells like outside." Nicole explained that being pregnant gives you super human olfactory factories; she can smell everything and everything is potent! Clayton suggested that she use her respirator. It has worked fairly well. It is super funny though.

We want to give a big congratulations to McKell and Tanner (aka T-dog) on their engagement.

On Thursday Clayton got to meet the senior legal council of Apple. He was a really cool guy. He graduated from GW Law in 86. He told us about his experiences with the company and his experiences at Intel, he worked there as senior council as well. Unfortunately, for all you liberal mac users out there, he prefaced his remarks by saying he would NOT be discussing any future products. (Nicole resents that comment)

Friday, we switched doctors. We met our new doctor. He is Haitian. He speaks with a thick accent but he is still easy to understand. He is very friendly and informative. He helped us understand more about the whole process of having a baby. For example, it is possible that Nicole's vision will change. We got to hear the heartbeat and Nicole thinks it is the most beautiful sound she has ever heard. Clayton thinks it sounds a lot like a helicopter, which is pretty cool. He told us that it is an absolute miracle Nicole is pregnant. Statistically, she beat all the odds. This just helped confirm Clayton's suspicion that she is one in six billion.

We went to a sculpture garden on Saturday. It was a little weird because it was all around the sculptor's house. So we just walked around his yard looking at his sculptures. Nicole thinks they are very good. He had a lot of them. Clayton took a few pictures. Nicole is teaching Clayton how to use Photoshop. He likes the unlimited and ultimate power it gives him. ( Clayton's favorite photo that he has edited so far, he calls "Buffalo Tyler," inspired by Tyler's dream to own a pygmy buffalo ranch. )

Nicole got a calling today in church. We will let you know what it is in a few weeks. The Bishop wants to wait to make it official. Clayton was told he would not get a calling for a while. The first councilor, who is an attorney, thinks that Clayton has enough on his plate with law school for right now.

That's all we have for the week.

A Walk in the Park

Greetings all,

On Monday, we went to old town Alexandria. We drove instead of taking the metro because Nicole's stomach wouldn't handle the odors of public transportation. We started off at the Free Mason memorial for George Washington. It was closed. So we walked around the grounds and decided that we would come back when Tyler comes out to visit. They have a large collection of artifacts that were donated by George's family.

From there we went to the Torpedo Factory. We drove down king street which Nicole thinks is very long. Nicole thinks that any street that we drive down is long because the truck is bouncy and it makes her sick. Luckily we were able to park by the torpedo factory. The Torpedo Factory is a collection of artist's studios inside of what used to be a torpedo factory. The first artist we met was a sculptor from Italy. She talked to Nicole and introduced her to some other artist. She kept introducing Nicole as a "Budding Sculptor". Nicole got hungry and as she is pregnant that meant she had to eat something immediately. As we perused the street we caught a wiff of something delicious. We wandered near and far to locate it but were we unsuccessful. We did find a tasty little bakery and got a raspberry cheesecake brownie. Nicole's hunger crisis averted, Clayton insisted on a quest to find the yummiest restaurant in Alexandria. After two hours of wandering in the heat, Nicole put her tiny but never the less powerful foot down. We found a disappointing but "acceptable" place to eat. Clayton still mourns the lost opportunity of eating at a Cajun restaurant where the daily special was alligator soup. After one wiff of the place Nicole refused to continue reading the menu. So depressing Italian it was. We were both shocked to learn, upon reading the history of the building, that the restaurant was a former brothel. We gave it 2.2 on the Niclay sweet treats(Reagan) and personal pleasures(Cailie) scale. After lunch, we walked around a park and the pier until it started to rain. We found shelter near the Torpedo Factory, where a man played music on crystal goblets. According to the man, distilled water works best. After that we called it a day.

Tuesday- Nicole dropped Clayton at the slug line (he finally caved after experiencing the joy of sleeping in again) then stayed home and worked on her website. This is what the house looks like. It Rained

Wednesday- Nicole stayed home again and worked on her website. More picture of what the house looks like. Clayton came home late because he had a meeting. It Rained

Thursday-The RS pres. came and visited Nicole in the home. Nicole tried not to be nauseous. More pictures of what the house looks like. It kept raining.

Friday- Nicole made Butter Chicken. One of her favorite (dot) Indian dishes. When Clayton got home, late again. Nicole was devastated that she could not eat the butter chicken she spent hours making because it made her nauseous. Clayton got to not only eat but enjoy it.

Saturday- We went to see the Battle Field of Manassas. We did a five minute quick tour because Nicole started feeling nauseous. We thought it would be better not to vomit on hallowed ground. We would prefer not to be haunted by civil war ghosts for desecrating their memory.

Sunday. Church. Clayton made tamales. Yum.

Peace and Blessings

The Lovely Baby Bump

Monday we announced that Nicole is going to have a baby. It will continue to grow for the next eight months. She is due in April. Nicole went to the doctor Monday morning. She got to hear the heart beat and see a sonogram. As of this week the baby is the size of a peanut. Clayton thinks it looks like an alien. Nicole thinks that babies are the inspiration for the popular image of an alien. The news from the doctor helped explain her cravings, emotional outbursts and general nausea. We held a video chat with our families to let everybody know. We are really excited. We welcome any suggestions for good books but please hold the advice unless you have a citation from a credible expert. Just kidding. Tips are always welcome monetary or otherwise.

Nicole's doctor is from Vietnam. She is nice but told Nicole that she should avoid "dili products" it took a minute for Nicole to figure out that she meant "Deli Products".

People have asked what names we are considering. We want to keep that secret until we have made up our minds, so we will let you all know what name gets put on the birth certificate.

Clayton continues to really enjoy law school. There is a lot of reading so he is super grateful for his glasses.

On Wednesday, we were thinking of Nicole's cousin Cynthia and her new husband Mathew. We wish them the best of luck as they start their new life together.

Thursday, Nicole got a last minute baby sitting job. She had fun and got to watch a lovely and highly sophisticated Care Bears movie and was also exposed to Wonder Pets. It was good practice for motherhood. Clayton came home from school a little earlier than usual because he was not feeling well. After several vats of soup and plenty of sleep he was ready for the next day.

Friday Nicole threw up for the first time of her pregnancy. She is now trying really hard to avoid pretty much all smells, which is a lot harder than it sounds. When Clayton got home Nicole hadn't eaten anything and wasn't going to. Clayton had a hard time convincing her to eat something. She was really craving Shepard's pie but was willing to settle for a baked potato and chili as long as she didn't know that it came from Wendy's. After a twenty minute drive each way the potato and chili were hers. Thankfully, Nicole was fooled, thought the food smelled acceptable and she was able to eat them.

Nicole has a theory that the reason God designed pregnant women develop a super human ability to sense even the tiniest whiff of a smell is to aid in the avoidance of rotten food, poison and anything else that could be harmful to the baby...but it's just a theory.

On Saturday, We decided to get a Costco membership because food is rather expensive here. Yolanda helped us and told us that we could a business membership. She kept saying things like "girl what you thinking?" and "oh she happy now."

Earlier in the week, Nicole got a call from the Primary music chorister asking her to substitute for him on Sunday. When she said yes, she didn't realize how much the primary chorister has to do. She had to come up with a game to help the kids sing. She had a hard time thinking of one. At the last minute, Clayton suggested she use origami flowers. So we spent all morning folding flowers. Nicole colored them with scented markers so they would smell good and taped a song on the bottom. When kids sang well, or at least gave a good effort, Nicole would pick on one of them to come and pick a flower. The kid then got to keep the flower. when it was all over, only a few kids cried because they didn't get a flower. One girl stayed after and wanted Nicole to show her how to make them. Nicole had fun in primary but missed being with Clayton. After church, Nicole told Clayton all about the crying kids. Clayton told her that it was better that way. Now the kids are aware of the harsh realities of capitalism, not everyone gets a flower. He told her he has had enough of the commie crap so rampant in church now a days where everyone shares and everyone gets a flower.

We are still trying to figure out what we want to do with a Monday off.

Peace and Blessings Y'all. Peace and Blessings