Update, schmupdate

Busy times around our house lately. Chefy, PooMan and I managed to escape to Mt. Shasta for four days of camping. We stayed at a campground on a small mountain lake and got very dirty running around, making campfires, hiking, eating, and generally having a grand time. Here are some pics:

Please disregard awkwardly large sunhat and focus on cute stepson and gorgeous Lake Shasta.

We are all a bit dorky. It's what keeps us entertained as a family.

We had a great time. I must admit, I did diva-it up a little when we first got there. My wife was confused. What happened to that girl I married who spent 2 weeks in the boundary waters and has gone snow camping, for god's sake? I guess that being newly rated PG and still feeling a bit uneasy (for a lack of a better word) about it, and being in the middle of the woods with no comforts of home brought out my Mariah Carey side. After the first day, I managed to put Mariah back on her shelf (where she prefers to be, actually) and let myself have a good time.

Back at home, we are back to work. This summer will be busy with the expansion of our restaurant. Plans are in their final stages and we have a very long list of details to attend to over the next couple of months. Chefy and I will both be trying hard to balance work, summer, PooMan, and this new pregnancy this season. Good times.

Speaking of new pregnancy, things in that department seem to be progressing, as far as I can tell. Every day I think haven't gotten my period......must be pregnant still. JK. I am not having any serious nausea, but there are plenty of other signs my body is cluing me in on to let me know something is up. Simply for my own prosperity, here are my symptoms thus far:

• Fatigue. I get tired just thinking about doing something strenuous. Like making a bowl of cereal.
• Bloat. This one has now become my bff. What would I do without eating one cracker and then watching my stomach expand as if I've just eating the entire box? It's a sight that never fails to enthrall.
• Constipation. Yes, we all know this is TMI, but F that. Things have just....s..l....o....w..e....d  d.....o....w.....n.
• Backache. Upper, lower....it likes to surprise me.
• Cramps. Expand uterus, expand!
• Playing the pee game. My toilet and I, and in fact toilets all over California, are becoming my bff's. Move over bloat. 
• Alien breasts.....with emphasis on "alien."
• Insomnia. Not sleeping b/c you're having really crazy intense dreams about the kid you were pen pals with in second grade= awesome. 
• Queasiness. No full-blown nausea, just some randomly unsettling stomach flips. Ick. 
• Dizziness. This is the fun one. Whoopee!

So I'm thinking so far, it's still in there- blood circulating, cells dividing, organs forming. Extremely strange, if you really stop and think about it. In the restaurant today there was a new baby girl (just one of many, really), but looking at her, the realization that in less than a year I could be taking care of a new baby just sent me spinning. What an idea. I want to write more about what that may feel like but right now just feel still to anxious to do so. Maybe in another post, sometime in the future. For now, our first ultrasound will be July 21, just 10 days away. I will be 8.5 ish weeks pregnant then. Part of me thinks that I'll lay down on that bed, put my legs up and have the midwife search for hours for the imaginary baby I've been making up these past couple of weeks. Sigh. Let's hope this is not the case.

Oh! And many many many many many congratulations and well wishes to Bao in the Oven for the birth of their baby girl! Congrats ladies!!!! Chefy saw the picture of the new baby and lost it. Only, of course, after I did. Kudos!!