Ornery Doggie!

After Tyla became a big sister to Maile she seemed to be all grown up and no longer in need of being crated when she was left home alone. It was like she went from being an ornery puppy to a grown up well behaved adult. We had even gone as far as putting her crate in storage. Well that lasted for a few months and now she's back to her old self again.

The first incident came when we noticed there were a lot of crumbs on the ground in our bedroom. We store her treats in our closet downstairs and she managed to eat almost half of them out of a gallon sized zip loc bag...she did it without even knocking the bag down! She thought we wouldn't notice if she kept the bag in the closet...too bad she left a few remnants. We wrote that off as her being bored and let her be.

So the next incident happened when I left a loaf of the best bread ever on the counter...Great Harvest Bread Company White Chocolate Cherry. Not even thinking about it, because it was way back on the kitchen counter, I came home to an empty plastic bag on the floor and a dog that was cowering at the front door. (She's gotten pretty good at not eating the plastic and getting all the crumbs). Needless to say she was quite bloated with some serious gas for a few days.

The final straw came yesterday when we came home to a cowering dog again...we asked her what she did and led us to the kitchen where low and behold she managed to climb up on the counter, pull a bag of mini bagels (20 of them) down, and eat them ALL in one sitting. Here's the remnants of the bag!

She couldn't move for the rest of the day and looked pretty miserable. Kind of like after eating WAY too much at a Thanksgiving dinner! Here she is in a food comatose!


So we made a trip to the storage unit last night and got her crate...which she thoroughly enjoys going in because she knows she gets a treat. I think we have a foodaholic on our hands!

Study, Sleep, Study

Nothing too exciting here. My day pretty much consists of getting up and walking Tyla on the beach, significantly slower than usual, eating breakfast, checking email, and then studying for my exam (with a nap here and there). I seem to be resorting back to my grad school habits where I'd study for an hour or two and then catch myself napping for a half an hour and then repeating the cycle. It seems that the studying for an hour or two doesn't exactly happen now though. I don't know what it is but I can't concentrate for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time and then I have to get up and do something. I think this is a form of torture. A week from tomorrow I'll be either happy and really stoked to be done or not so happy but still really stoked to be done. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. The way the studying is going right now doesn't make it look too promising though :-)

Oh ya, in between the studying and sleeping, I'm being quite entertained by "Flipper" (that's the baby's new nickname because it feels like it's doing some incredible gymnastics flips in my tummy). Today, "Flipper" decided to do some karate chops in my rib and at the same time he/she was doing a right hook down by my hip. I have to say it's very fun to watch!

Yoga Baby

We went in yesterday for an ultrasound to check on the baby's growth. I've been measuring kind of small so the doctor had me get an ultrasound just to make sure everything is progressing as it should be. And it sure is! It's a nice relief to see the baby and how much it's growing. The baby is right at the 50 percentile for growth. It's amazing that they can measure and estimate the baby's size in utero...even though they can be off by a pound or so...it's pretty cool. They thought it was weighing about 3 pounds 14 oz. And for everyone that's dying to find out what we're having..they DIDN'T slip!! Yea! I was so worried that we'd leave there and know the sex of the baby.

We really wanted to get a good profile shot so we could post it but our baby appears to be practicing its yoga moves...maybe it will be a gymnast...who knows :-) The head is down low, along with it's hands AND feet. I tried to figure out how he/she was doing this and it's pretty much in a pretzel doing a pike stretch in the "V" position. We could see her/him holding on to it's foot while at the same time opening and closing it's mouth. It was SO cute!!! We got a few good feet pictures. The picture at the beginning of the blog is his/her hand and foot by their mouth.

The foot is at the top of the image...you can see it's toes and ankle...

Here's another shot of the foot...I think he/she has my big toe :-)

Nothing New

Haven't posted in a while so I will catch you up on life as an expectant father. Let's see... Wake up, walk Tyla, go to work, come home, go for a run, come home, eat dinner, watch the tour, go to bed, do it all over for five days in a row and do what ever my lovely wife tells me to on the weekend (this usually has something to do with go surf and do some sort of project to get ready for the baby).

All-n-all I can't complain as I would imagine life is going to be A LOT different here in a couple weeks (8+ hopefully).

Since I don't have any new and exciting news I will just post some pictures that we have taken over the past couple of weeks.

Here's Kelley at 31 Weeks...

Here's Ryan at 31 Weeks...

Emily, Katie, and Kelley (these are our beautiful little nieces.)

Kelley, Mom (Nancy), and I in the Kapalua Airport...
Kerry and Kelley in Yakima...
Since Tyla grew up always having Kane around she never quite learned how to fetch. The way it use to go is that we would throw something and Kane would run as fast as she could to get it and Tyla would follow. If we threw something in the water Kane would run to the waters edge and Tyla would go out and get it. Once she got it she would turn around and drop it off to Kane. Needless to say she never learned to chase the stick and bring it back to us, so k\now this is what we get. She seems to really like chasing the stick but she hasn't figured out that it is her job to bring it back to us...

This is me trying to surf at North Beach...

Pearl

It's official!! I'm officially driving a "grocery getting, soccer mom" minivan! And the funny thing is that I'm pleasantly surprised. I thought I'd be REALLY sad to get rid of the 4Runner, which I was at first, but after driving off the lot in "Pearl" I am pretty excited. There's nothing like the new car smell, even if it's a minivan! I'll post more pictures of the inside later...that's the pretty part.

It was pretty funny haggling with the trade-in appraiser. In Hawaii, they don't really haggle at ALL for the price of the new vehicle like on the mainland. It's pretty much you pay what they say because there are three Toyota dealers on the island and they're all owned by the same company. On the mainland, Ryan and I would go back and forth and really stick it to them in the end, but not the case here. Except....we somehow managed to haggle with the trade-in guy. The price of the car was set but not the trade in. I don't think he expected us to be as persistent (or funny/obnoxious) as we were. In the end we got $1000 more for the 4Runner than he wanted to initially give us, it wasn't a great deal, but we were happy that we at least got a little deal. Who could resist giving a deal to a preggo woman :-)

The final drive in the 4Runner...she treated me good for the 5 1/2 years I drove her.

What a RIP!!!

So as you know we have decided to take the plunge and get a minivan. What you may not know is what a rip off the whole trade in process it and selling your car by your self (especially a V8) is almost impossible.

If we trade in our vehicle we have been told that we will only get @ $12,000, but probably less. We bought this car for $31,000ish 4 years ago...WHAT A RIP. I guess what they say about Toyotas holding their value was just a good thing to say when they were trying to sell a brand new car.

Anyway if you know anybody who is interested in our 4Runner here is the craigslist add that we have posted.


So here's the deal. We are buying a minivan and must sell our car quickly. We have a 2003 Toyota 4Runner Sport Edition, 4WD, V8 (which actually gets decent gas mileage at about 15-17 MPG), 58,000 miles, silver with grey/black leather interior. This car is immaculate. KBB says that we can get $15,375 (good condition) for private party sale and $12,045 (good condition) for trade in. We are selling this vehicle for $12,500. This offer is only good until later this week. If interested give us a call...Ryan or Kelley (808)721-7926.

Granola and Practicing for Baby...

I think I've been nesting lately...or possibly just trying to get through my boredom :-) I decided to attempt to make homemade granola. My friend Louise was my inspiration for it because before she moved to Mass. she made the BEST homemade granola ever!! Unfortunately mine didn't quite live up to hers but it was still pretty good for a first try.

I didn't really have a recipe so I kind of just added ingredients here and there. I used some oats, peanuts, almonds, walnuts, coconut, and sunflower seeds and added a concoction of heated honey, brown sugar, oil, cinnamon, and a little salt and mixed it all together and put it in the oven at 350 degrees. The tricky part is constantly stirring it every 5 minutes and not letting it burn. After I let it cool I added a bunch of dried fruit like craisins, raisins, and dates (little ones and big ones). I think I added too much of the liquid ingredients because it ended up pretty sticky but still really good. So now we have a ton of granola that I add to yogurt with fresh fruit...pretty tasty!!

On a side note, here's a picture of Ryan practicing rocking the baby...

Just Chillin...

Tyla is beginning to catch on to my life lately...she's getting pretty good at laying on the couch too! This is her favorite spot now. Anytime we have guests over she waits until they get off the chair and she claims her place.

I went to the doctor yesterday for my weekly check up and as of now I'm pretty much the same. Still lots of contractions so I'm still confined to the couch.

Last night we went to look at Mini Vans...yikes! I always swore I'd never drive one but I think I'm sold on the convenience factor. After being really aware of parking lately and how I would have to squeeze a car seat in between the tightly parked cars in Hawaii I think the sliding doors are awesome...not to mention how much room for all of our stuff they have. Yep, I'm going to look like a grocery getting, soccer mom, but I figured if we put a few surf stickers and a surf rack on it I might be able to pull of the "cool" factor... :-) Just joking. I'm all about comfort before fashion so this should be right up my alley!

Maui Trip...

We just got back from a long weekend in Maui with my mom. I actually came back a few days early because my lovely contractions started back again...ugh! I'm planted back on my usual place of residence...the couch. This "modified" bed rest is definitely not my favorite thing to do. As my friend Christina reminded me, maybe all those nagging injuries I've had for the last few years will actually have time to heal...got to remember to keep the glass full right now :-)

Here are some pictures from our trip...

Mom made me pose for this one :-)

Ryan was really into hats this trip so here's a sampling...

It was definitely a different trip then usual. We didn't do a whole lot but it was nice and relaxing. Ryan got a few long runs in and a nice ocean swim. I did a lot of napping and floundered in the water with my mom (she actually swam and I floated). Yesterday morning Ryan had to stay at the condo to work (he worked from Maui yesterday...someone has to bring home the bacon!) so Mom and I went down to the beach below her condo for our morning swim. When we arrived it was absolutely gorgeous (the picture at the top was the beach where we were looking across at Molokai). I noticed a huge animal in the water which turned out to be a honu (turtle) so my mom was off to take a look...I frolicked behind her to try to make it but was too slow...hehehe! Then all of the sudden another creature jumped way out of the water, it was a bat ray...it was the coolest sight...a flying bat ray and a big old honu. What a day!

Happy 4th!!!

Just wanted to say "HAPPY 4th of JULY"! We are spending time on Maui with Kelley's mom and will update with some pics soon. Here's a little reminder of what it's all about taken from good 'ol wikipedia.

During the American Revolution, the legal separation from Great Britain occured on July 2, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve a resolution of independence that had been proposed in June by Richard Henry Lee of Virginia.[1] After voting for independence, Congress turned its attention to the Declaration of Independence, a statement explaining this decision, which had been prepared by a committee with Thomas Jefferson as its principal author. Congress debated and revised the Declaration, finally approving it on July 4. A day earlier, John Adams had written to his wife Abigail:

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.[2]

Adams's prediction was off by two days. From the outset, Americans celebrated independence on July 4, the date shown on the much-publicized Declaration of Independence, rather than on July 2, the date the resolution of independence was approved in a closed session of Congress.[3]

One of the most enduring myths about Independence Day is that Congress signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.[4] The myth had become so firmly established that, decades after the event and nearing the end of their lives, even the elderly Thomas Jefferson and John Adams had come to believe that they and the other delegates had signed the Declaration on the fourth.[5] Most delegates actually signed the Declaration on August 2, 1776.[6]

Nothing too exciting...

Sorry we haven't updated in a while...but there's nothing too exciting going on unless you call being couch bound all day yesterday exciting? So these lovely contractions (Braxton-Hicks I think) have been happening a lot lately. Maybe my body is telling me to SLOW way down. I thought that going for a 30 minute walk was considered slowing down, but I guess I have to do nothing to actually slow down according to my body right now. Oh well, if that's the sacrifice I have to make for this little baby, then I'm all for it! He/she sure doesn't think it has to slow down though. I think it was doing back flips and cartwheels in my stomach yesterday. That has been my entertainment lately...watching my stomach make all these crazy contortions and having some crazy karate chops pop out the side...it's pretty cool!

My mom is coming into town today and we head to Maui on Friday (as long as I get the okay from the doctor on Thursday). It should be nice and relaxing...I'm getting pretty good at that now :-) HAPPY 4th of JULY everyone! Hope you all are having a great week!