September started out beautifully with a visit from Thomas’ mother. She’s a travelling wonder and will hop in the car at the drop of a hat and drive across the country on a whim. All the way up from Texas to Oregon she trekked with a great friend of hers and they stayed with us for just over a week. Always the traveler, we couldn't stay indoors for hardly any stretch of time and were able to explore Symons State Park on the Oregon coast, the Tillamook cheese factory, the Oregon Zoo, and Munson Creek Falls near Tillamook. Both Thomas and I love being outdoors and thankfully his mom is also keen for hiking and the outdoors.
After we said our good-byes and got back to some sort of normal after all that activity, I became violently ill about three weeks or so later. I thought it was a horrendous stomach bug that caused me to vomit at the drop of a hat, but then the fatigue hit me. I had pneumonia about ten years ago and still remember how staggeringly tiring it was to get out of bed and use the bathroom and go back to bed. This fatigue was like that – possibly worse, but no respiratory issues. After about a week, Thomas noted that I was also late for my monthly cycle. I think I had known this, but was so horribly ill, I probably pushed this to my last of my list of shit to care about. Thomas was scheduled to leave town for several weeks on 21st October, so I quickly scheduled a doctor appointment for a prenatal checkup. They don’t actually see you for several weeks, but this allowed me to queasily make my way to the clinic for a blood draw. This was the morning of the 21st and the doctor called me the following day saying I was very pregnant. Whoa nelly.
With Thomas out of town for the next several weeks, I was able to become a hermit in the house and take care of myself the best I could manage to. He didn’t return until 7th November and I was still pretty ill at this point. I lost 20+ pounds during this one month period and was thinking why the hell do people do this willingly? Thankfully, we have grocery delivery available to us here from Safeway and I did a couple nights of takeout when I had the stomach to face solid food.
The funny thing about the timing on this was during the time Thomas’ mother was here, she was even prodding us about having children. Neither Thomas nor I are over the moon to have kids in a hurry, it was always something ‘we’ll do later’. Like ten years later, even after being together for nearly 9 years.
Regardless, it happened now and we’re pretty okay with it. I’m not excited, per se, but I am looking forward to all it will bring our lives and I couldn’t imagine a better person I would want to have such a close relationship and impact on my children than Thomas. Our relationship is amazing and it’ll be interesting to see how it goes over the next handful of years.
The middle and end of November was pretty horrible for both Thomas and me. I lost one of my sisters on the 16th to heart failure. She had just turned 59. Because of our age difference, we were not the closest of sisters, but my heart still mourns for her and the loss her children must be facing. To follow that up, our beloved 13 year old Manx cat, Genghis, became suddenly ill on 19th November and passed away peacefully in our bed, where he loved to sleep with us, on 22nd November. Our hearts are truly heavy, even now, with everything going on and changing in our household.
December has been fairly positive for us thus far. I’m not nearly as ill, starting my second trimester, and Thomas has been called back to work for his seasonal job and I’ll follow in January. We’re holding each other up and doing a pretty alright job of it.
Thanks for letting me catch up on non-food related news with you! I’ll be posting a Thanksgiving recap here in a couple days and hopefully get some more recipes and cookbook reviews up for you guys.
- Patricia
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