Merry Christmas to all my South Asian friends

Anyone Have the Number for the Guiness Book of World Records?

I think I am the world's best thrower upper.

I've done it 18 times today. and counting.

I am quietly (ok not so quietly) approaching my personal best of 22 times in one day set in April 2006 when i was pregnant with Kiran.

My dr called in a prescription for Zofran, the nausea medicine they give to cancer patients on chemo. But I've thrown up 4 times since I took it so I'm not convinced its working.

But I know what does work is prayer. So please take a moment and pray that my body will kick this and get back to normal. Which is only throwing up 2-3 times a day.

And thank God for my in-laws. They took Kiran all day and I honestly don't know what I would have done without them.

Seriously?

Jonathan and I were both excited to sleep in this morning since Kiran was spending the night at her grandparents'. J has had to get up at 6:30am to get ready before Kiran gets up. Jonathan gets Kiran ready for the day so I can just lay around moaning when I finally drag myself out of bed. Anyhow, J was planning to sleep till 7:45 and me until.......whenever.

At 6:45am our phone rang. It was our trash service. The truck was outside and they noticed we hadn't pulled our can to the curb. Did we have any trash we wanted them to take? Seriously. I mean that is the best customer service I've ever heard of from a garbage company but seriously? Calling at 6:45? To see if we forgot to pull our can? Wow.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2 big meals eaten on Thanksgiving

3 cousins

8 hours in the car

4 Christmas trees picked and chopped down

8 throw ups

1 Christmas movie watched (The Family Man)

4 overtimes for Kentucky and Tennessee

25 munchkins from the new Dunkin Donuts

2 new pairs of shoes

0 pictures taken :(

Advice

I really was looking for stocking advice. You have given me lots to think about. I like the idea of a pattern even though I'm not the craftiest. However, I think I could follow a pattern. We went to Pottery Barn Outlet today and they had cute stockings that were cheaper than the regular ones and 30% off. I figure if I wait till closer to Christmas, I can score some pretty cheaply.

So yeah most of you picked up on my little "hint". Caskey Baby #2 is coming early July 2008. I'm only 7-8 weeks along. I think I'm only 7 weeks, my dates say 8 weeks, I'm not measuring 8 weeks so I get to have an ultrasound on Monday to determine due date! Yeah, I've been sick. It just started last week but ugh the torturous first trimester. Those of you women who have wonderful non-sickly pregnancies, I am totally jealous of you. The nausea/vomiting hasn't been as bad as it was with Kiran (but there is still time) but the food aversions have been crazy. Almost all food smells repulse me. I ate spaghettios for dinner tonight for the first time since college so I wouldn't have to smell the rotisserie chicken that Jonathan & Kiran ate. Poor Jonathan couldn't even come close to me last night after he grilled and had chicken smell in his hair.

Ok enough- but I'm sure you will hear plenty about this pregnancy. I admire women who can wait to tell after their first trimester; I'm terrible at keeping this secret.

Christmas Stockings

*courtesy of Pottery Barn

I have NOT been listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving unlike some people (ummerrittum) but I have been thinking about Christmas some. I can't even remember what Christmas decorations we own because they have been packed in a box and sitting in an attic for the last two Christmases. I haven't gotten them down yet but I know we have two stockings from before we moved overseas.

I guess my question is How do you buy stockings? I want to have cute stockings but not too expensive. And how do you plan for your growing family? I mean before Kiran we needed two, this year we need three, next year we'll need four since that is how many of us there will be by then. Do I buy four? What if we decide to have another kid down the road? Do the adults have stockings at your house? Jonathan & I always have since we got married but growing up just us kids had stockings. Where did you get your stockings?

I Know You Really Come For Pics of the Kid

I am waaaay behind in posting pictures of current events so I'll try to do a little of that. I actually like to wait a few days before posting events because it gives me time to talk to people about it. If I post that same night then my conversations go something like this:
Me: "We went to the Fall Festival at Taylors yesterday."
You: "I know. I saw it on your blog."
Me: "Oh." *awkward silence*

So a couple weeks ago, we went back to TFBC for their fall festival.

Kiran was able to have deep conversations with some of her friends

Kiran with her cousin on J's side, Buzz Lightyear

Kiran had the most fun running around the ballfield
Kiran with Grandma, Chief and cousins from K's side

It is still very surreal that we are here and able to go to a fall festival and see every one of Kiran's cousins. We love it.

I Like to Clean Out

I like to go through my house and throw away, give away, sell items we don't use. So imagine my surprise when going through my medicine the other day and I found this:


You can't really see but on the end it says it expired sometime in oh 1997. yikes. That has got to be toxic.

Then last week I was cleaning out items from the car that we bought from my grandmother. There I found this:



Yes that says EXP June 1994. To be fair, I was not in possession of this until recently. I also learned between the last picture and this one how to use the macro feature on my camera!

This medicine was in the same bag. It expired in 1992. Thankfully my house is not rid of all expired medicines esp those that are at least 10 years past their expiration date.

Target

So you go to Target to buy some needed items for the house. You get five items. The set of plastic drawers doesn't have a tag on it. The cashier asks you how much you thought it was. You think and err on the side of high and say, "$13.99." The cashier plugs something in and tells you your total. You think the total is kinda low but whatever. Later you look at your receipt. Two items that you bought (meaning were on the conveyor belt and then in your bag) were not even on the receipt. These two items together costs about $4. Another item you see was supposed to be $2.19 but it says tootsie rolls $0.10. And then you see the cashier plugged in the drawers as merchandise $10. Only one item actually rang up correctly.

What do you do?

State Book

Thank you for all your help with the state book. I took pictures of the finished product. I never could have done it without you people.
I mailed this book to one of YOU! Someone who does not live in Michigan, Texas or Virginia. You'll just have to wait and see who gets it.

I shamelessly stole the Motivation for Moms on the sidebar from my sister-in-law. I love the ideas it suggests. Even if I don't do them, it helps keep me focused on what is truly important.

Keeping up with India

Man in India marries dog as atonement

Fitz

First of all, you guys are awesome. You really came through for me this weekend. Because of my blog post about J being gone this weekend, Kiran and I had lunch at CFA with an old middle/high school friend and we walked around the beautiful lake at Furman with a college friend and her son. And I fully intend to blog about that later.

But this blog is about the Fitz Fam. Last night, I was able to hang out all my brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews on my side as well as my dad's brothers and sister-in-law. I always love it when my dad's two brothers come to town. There is always lots of laughing (Did you know there is a Medal of Honor Museum in Charleston?) and singing and just plain fun.

Unfortunately, the reason for this reunion was not so jovial. We found out this week that my dad's mom has cancer. Its an aggressive form of lung cancer that doesn't have good long term prospects. We would appreciate your prayers as we deal with this the best we can. The destination is certain, but the path unknown.

Uncle Scott surprised us all by flying in from the Middle East. Mom Fitz was quite surprised!

Uncle Will with his stylish nieces!

Mom Fitz with her sons and great-grandchildren

Linens-N-Things

I didn't have time to read our local newspaper yesterday so I decided this morning to go ahead and put it in the recycling bin. At the last second, I thought well I'll just flip through to see if there are any good ads or anything. Wouldn't you know that there were 11 Linens-N-Things 20% coupons sitting in there. I'm not a big fan of Linens-N-Things because they do the whole -N- thing but thankfully Bed, Bath and Beyond accepts competitors' coupons.

On another note, Kiran just dropped her second cookie down the air vent in our kitchen floor.

I'm counting this as today's thing for Kiran's room. I have a really cute lamp that goes with her bedding but it needs a shade. It needs a small shade that clips onto the oblong bulb (you know what I'm talking about?). Where can I find these lamp shades? I just need a solid color- maybe pink or yellow. I checked at Target while I was there and didn't find anything that fit the bill. Thanks!!

If you were wondering what to get me for Christmas...

I just saw this.
Its a giant cupcake pan. It makes cakes that look like this:

How fun!!!

We did something in Kiran's room!!!!

It was a learning experience. We are calling this one our practice house. In a few years, we will sell it and all its holes to new owners. So I used a drill for the first time tonight...

And we hung what was hopefully the hardest thing: a picture frame with hooks.

I just wanted to make sure you knew this was a joint project. I couldn't have done this without J's expertise. And sense of humor :)

South Carolina

I am working on a book about the States for a 4th grader's project (Sorry Mert it got "lost" in a stack but I'm getting it done now!). The book is being sent from person to person, state to state, all school year until it finally goes back to the 4th grader. Each person is to write about their state. So..... help me brainstorm what to include about South Carolina.

I've thought of:

• mountains
• beaches and Charleston
• Fort Sumter and the Civil War
• something about the capital?
  

What else should I include?

Amazing Race

My favorite show started tonight- The Amazing Race! I live vicariously through these people. I desperately want to be on the show, travel to all the cool places and perform cool cultural tasks. But I can't go on TV. I make fun of the stupid things that people say on there (My ox is broken!) and I know people all over the world would be making fun of some of the things that would come out of my mouth. I just can't handle that.

J is going to be out of town Thurs- Sun for tournaments. Does anyone have any good ideas for fun things for me & Kiran to do while J is gone?

playing in her crib

A Ferocious Lion

Our first trick-or-treaters showed up at 6pm. It was two young boys. Kiran ran to the door and helped me give them the candy. They turned to leave and Kiran began WAILING. She stood at the door and SOBBED. The boys looked distraught. They didn't know what to do. Eventually, they moved on and Kiran recovered.

a rough start

But Kiran really enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Kiran was a little unsure about going up to the neighbors' houses for candy but we convinced her it was a good thing to do.

She never kept that mane on for more than oh 2.4 seconds at a time.But she hung on to her one-of-a-kind trick-or-treating bag from Jill!

We ended up staying at our neighbor's house for a while. They have an 11 month old baby girl. I spotted them weeks ago and pegged them as our top contenders for our new best friends. And every time we hang out with them, my initial impressions are confirmed more and more.

Caskey jack-o-lantern

Kiran helping with the trick-or-treaters

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to Uncle Jordan!