As I always do on this date, I have to take a moment to honor the King.

Elvis Presley died 28 years ago today. Long live the King of Rock-n-Roll.

On to other things...

We had our 13th Annual Garness Family Camp-out this past weekend. It was honestly one of the most low key events we've ever had! The Winnebago Bowl did not occur-no one seemed interested in playing football this year. Instead, a bunch of them played a card game called In Between and lost a lot of money! No thanks...

Weather was great-not hot, not cold. No one was decorated-except Randy's tent. Randy ate so much Saturday night that he ended up going to bed at 10pm. This did not cut it with the crew so they decked out his tent with TP and twist tied the zipper to his door shut. Much giggling at 2:30 AM happened! Sadly, this pregnant lady was in bed by 12:30am both nights, so I didn't get in on much. :) Here are a few pictures of the families that attended:

Jesse after trying Banana's for the first time.

My Aunt Charm with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren!

Mike and I-too bad you can't see the new shirt I'm wearing. It's a picture of John Schneider from his Bo Duke days. It says "Bo-delicious!" I was in love with him when I was about age 6. My belly isn't very 'showy' in some shirts, but it's definitely popping out.

And I must add as a note to my brother's blog about our visit to Moonlight Graham's grave-last week I finally purchased the DVD of Field of Dreams (I only had it on VHS) as well as the novel it's based on, Shoeless Joe.

We also have an ultrasound scheduled for this Friday, so we'll be able to see our kiddo in real time. Should be interesting! Otherwise, just recovering from our weekend. We're heading up north this weekend to hang out in Babbitt. Fingers crossed that the weather is good.

Mike just sent this to me. Today is one of those days that I'd love to start saying that at work!

I figured everyone was probably tired of looking at the picture of New Kids on the Block for 2 weeks, so I should post something.

Speaking of New Kids, I just had lunch with my best friend Jess that was my fellow NKOTB freak in JH. She, her brother, and her daughters were up at the MOA to do some shopping, so I met them at Bubba Gump's for lunch. Her bro, Jordan, is a senior at Luther College and I hadn't seen him in probably 5 years. I used to help BABYSIT this kid! And now he's a card carrying Republican, majoring in PolySci, and spent a semester in DC this year working for Republican National Committee. Where did we go wrong with him? Just kidding. :) It was fun to see them all. We had to ask him if he remembered certain things we had done to him as a kid-some of which he did remember! Example: "Jordan, go get us the Doritos out of the kitchen." At age 4, his response was: "Okay." 2 years later his response was: "Do it yourself." Then there was the time we left him sitting on the toilet for 2 hours while we watched a movie because he refused to wipe his own butt at age 3! I seriously feel bad about that one! Thankfully, that was one incident he doesn't remember! :)

Gotta love what you can do to younger siblings.

Doing a lot of reading lately, sitting outside in the heat with Madison as she plays in her kiddie pool. In the evenings, it's actually quite tolerable to sit out front of our house. Yesterday, it cooled down and felt awesome. The neighbor lady's dog had puppies 9 weeks ago, so we went to see them last night. SO CUTE! There are 6 left from a litter of 9. 3 were adopted. The father is a golden retriever mix, mother is a boxer/lab mix, so there colors are all over the place. 2 of the puppies look like the mother, but one is black, the other is tan. The rest are a mix of colors and all resemble goldens. Soft, sweet, so cute. Madison doesn't know what to think. One of them tried to pick up her tail as if it were a toy and run away with it! Mike and I both had one that we particularly liked, but have to keep ourselves from caving. We just got out of the puppy stage-don't need to go back to it yet!

Mike's cousin Mikey is visting us this weekend. Mike picked him up in Waterloo yesterday. Today they are going to Minneapolis to Block E to a cool arcade, lunch at the new Hard Rock, and then on to the Twins v. Boston game. Mikey's fave player is Manny Ramirez, who is not playing because he ran into his teammate on the field and is hurt!

Mike was thrilled to see new Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby on Jay Leno last night. I haven't seen Mike this excited about hockey since Mario came back in 2000. It will be fun to have an NHL season back.

On the baby front, I officially have a 'belly'. It seems in the last couple of days that it has popped out significantly and people at work have started to actually say, "wow, you look pregnant." I haven't gained more then 2lbs, so it's not too big. I am feeling movement here and there, but nothing major. It's still hard for me to tell. My belly button is stretching, it itches constantly, and my belly is now HARD all the time. One thing I didn't realize-don't lay down on your stomach because it is not comfortable! I was on the floor reaching underneath something to retrieve Madison's ball and my belly was rebelling! Otherwise, I am feeling a lot better. Just tired on certain days, but I feel like I've finally turned a page and gotten over that hump. Back to the doc on Tuesday for a monthly check-up.

My mom is coming up tonight to stay over. Barry is in Fargo at the Tronderlag event (those Tronders know how to party). Next weekend is camping. August is pretty much full!

Have a great weekend.

Ahh, remember the good old days? I came across this picture recently of New Kids on the Block. And now, I just can't help but think, DORKS! Seriously, I still will always have fond memories of how they took over my life for about 3 years. :)

If anyone of my family/friends have finished the new Harry Potter book, will you please email me so we can discuss?!? Mike has not even started it yet and I need to talk to someone about the events that ocurred in this 6th book! They was a lot to process and much to be anticipated. It took me from Saturday afternoon-Monday afternoon to read it. Then I re-read the last 5 chapters just to make sure I could take everything in again. All I have to say is: WOW! It was a good book. Now I'm just in that post-Harry Potter funk.

Heat Wave....

It's HOT in Minnesota-hotter then it's been in a long time! 90's since last week. Madison has acquired a plastic kiddie pool from the neighbors and is loving her time spent in there. She likes to dig which is a riot to watch as the water splashes all over the place. Although she won't get herself completely wet (as in lay down) she does enjoy walking around in it and putting her entire face in the water. And I like wading in it too when it's this hot!

We had a nice vacation. It was nothing major, just lots of time with family and relaxing. My nieces have grown in both height and maturity-which is a joy to witness each time we see them. Grandma took them shopping, we all went to the Mall of America one day as well, so they are equipped with a variety of new things for school this Fall.

For the third year in a row we went canoeing on the Upper Iowa River with my dad, step-sister Janelle, aunt Diane, cousin Allie and her boyfriend, cousin Tyler, Mike, and the rest of us. Beautiful day-not intensely hot and the river was ideal. We really enjoy the leisurely ride down the river taking in the scenery and the wildlife. The kids love the water and it's always a treat to see them swimming at "Big Rock"-the 4th generation to do so. It's amazing to think that my Grandma Webb learned to swim there, as did my dad. I highly recommend going to Bluffton, Iowa and renting a canoe from Randy's Bluffton Store.

We also spent an afternoon in Forestville, a small town in SE MN. It is no longer a working town, but had it's hey day at the turn of the century. It's now a re-creation with people in character talking about life in the late 1800's. I had never been there, considering I grew up less then 45 minutes from there. We all enjoyed it.

Otherwise, I did not feel very well most of the week due to allergies and pregnancy. I was bummed because there was a lot more I would have liked to have done with the girls and my family, but my energy just did not allow for much. I complained to my doctor on Tuesday, who in turn prescribed my old allergy medicine and said to go back to it and see if it makes me feel better. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

This week at the appointment I did hear the baby's heart beat, which is always a thrill. However, yesterday I do believe I felt the first kicks of our little bundle. It was fairly consistent through the day, on both sides of my belly, so I'm thinking this might be it. It's early-just 15 weeks, but the experts say it can begin to happen between 14-18 weeks. While the doctor was monitoring the heart beat, it kept fading away which was due to movement as well. Pretty cool.

Mike is beginning work on the basement this weekend. His final paper is due in just 3 weeks, so I am also giving him a limited time to do basement stuff, and then back to the paper again! Hey, he asked that I be the hard ass, so I am!

We also received an email this week that our friends Amy and Cris, in California, had a baby girl on Monday evening. Welcome Kylie! Looking at the pictures they sent made it suddenly seem much more real to me that we are having one of our own soon. :) Congrats to the happy family.

Have a good weekend!

If I have a baby this large, please shoot me now. This little girl in Wisconsin weighed 13lbs, 12oz. And I thought my brother was big at 10lbs 1oz! Her parents call her the "Big Enchilada."

He's back!

Mike is now back to the blogging world, after taking time off because of school. I've added a link to his site here on mine.

I also encourage you to read my friend Jeannette's new blog about her adventures in Hawaii. She is a GREAT writer and I love to read what she's up to.

I can't wait for this week to end. Vacation begins on Friday at 3pm. I'm looking forward to the break down in Rochester. We have Jesse's baptism, a Mall of America trip with the NY Webb's, canoeing the Upper Iowa, and hopefully a few family history research treks. (Those would be mine-I've got a few places I want to check out.) Mainly, I just can't wait to hang out with all of my family and relax. The only thing that would make it perfect would be if we had the lake from Mike's parent's place to be at as well!

I hope to get through a book or two while relaxing too. I finally finished Clinton's autobiography after starting it last summer. It was a lot of information to process, but I enjoyed it overall. I will say it again: I miss the guy being president. He is my JFK for my generation. He had the ideas that I have, wanted to accomplish the things I wanted to see, and had hope, love, and respect for our nation in the same way that I do. To me, he is a Great American. I guess what I liked the most is that he has all the same faults that we do. And he wasn't afraid to admit to them. That's my take on him.

I'm also reading a book Pat lent to me about the Wright Brother's. It's really interesting to see how passionate these two brothers were to change history forever. My brother's love of flying is contagious-our entire family has all taken a second look at it and hopefully tried to learn more too.

Last Dog Class tomorrow, then Madison goes to the Vet for shots on Thursday. She is my bestest friend-this morning when I was throwing up in the bathroom, she stayed right next to me. How could you ask for more?

Kristin and some Rants of the Day


'Just take those old records off the shelf'...
and then move over for Tom Cruise Psychiatry

I downloaded the interview between Matt Lauer and Tom Cruise today, because I wanted to hear what happened in their discussion over anti-depressants. Holy crap! Tom Cruise is....I don't even know what he is anymore. I understand that he doesn't agree with drugs-that's fine. A lot of people don't believe in anti-depressants. But what got to me was that he was claiming to be an expert, and that psychiatry is a lot of 'bunk', and that he knew the research. He totally got in Matt's face and was rude, inappropriate, and to be honest, if Matt would have just punched him the face to get his attention, it would have rocked.

I guess I never realized how against psychiatry the whole Scientology thing was.

Matt asked a simple question about Brooke Shield's and her use of anti-depressants for post-pardom depression-it worked for her. How come it works for her, but Tom Cruise says she shouldn't have used them? The guy wouldn't answer the question. Yow.

Matt Lauer was awesome. He hung in there. He didn't get his questions answered, but he pushed back against a guy who is using Katie Holmes for a lot of personal gain, in my opinion.

It's been a long time since something like this got me so riled. To quote Roscoe P. Coletrain: "You dipstick."

Another retarded couple: Kevin and Britany

I read a review of Britany Spears and Kevin Federline's show "Chaotic". It said that those two made Nick and Jessica on "Newlyweds" look like Mensa candidates. That was hilarious!

Karl Rove
I won't go there. You know my feelings on using the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative'.

A new look

It was time for something new, so I changed up the template a bit. My HTML background is kind of coming back to me again.

Parents and Aunt are back from the Motherland, as my brother said. Sounded like a great trip and I can't wait to see all the pictures. They were a happy, but tired bunch when I picked them up on Sunday. Nice to have them home.

I received 2 emails this week that were surprising and full of good news. My former co-worker Jessi, and my former boss Alana, (from the TM experience) are both pregnant and due January 16th, and January 10th respectively. I'm due January 6th, so I guess we'll all just get to be pregnant together! So ironic. Alana has Dylan, who just turned a year old this month, otherwise this is the first for Jessi and Chris too.

Madison did much better at dog class last night. I was happy. She loves being around other dogs too.

Mike had his last graduate class last night, and is now just one thesis away from having his Masters Degree. WHOOHOO!

And, we might have to buy a new car because the Grand Prix is close to dying. More later on that.

Last, I bought the COOLEST Johnny Cash poster on Ebay yesterday for $3 bucks. I swooped in with 3 minutes to spare, and pretty much grabbed it. Can't wait to see it up close. I'm still thinking that if we have a boy, his middle name should be Cash. How cool would that be??? It can't be Elvis or I will never hear the end of it!

SUN, Blessed Be the Sun

We have 4 straight days of good weather-today being the 2nd day. After all the rain we have had, I can't tell you how great this feels!

I had inquiry today from awesome TMer friend/former co-worker Jeannette as to whether blogging was something she should give a try. Since she is spending her summer in Hawaii housesitting, I told her that we, the dorks in MN, would want to hear all about her adventures in the beautiful Aloha state! After giving her 2 good examples of blogs, I hope to welcome her soon.

This week we hit our first milestone in the pregnancy-Mike and I heard the heart beat of the baby! It was very cool and made it seem so much more real. Mike announced that I have an 'alien' in my stomach. :) The first signs of a belly are starting. Very small, but I can definitely notice how the flab just isn't there anymore because it's starting to stretch and get tight! My energy level is starting to come back somewhat, and the nausea has taken a good backseat for the most part.

Madison began a 3 week refresher class called Better Dog 1.5-she has much to remember! We had an enjoyable first class on Wednesday with only 2 other doggie classmates. This will make for more attention and hopefully better results. The two other dogs are a 10 month old mix of spaniel and something really large, like a doberman. His name is Henry and weighs 70lbs, and is HUGE. The other is a little terrier/poodle mix, cutest face, 10 months too, name Maggie. Madison likes them both and wants to play of course! We hope to work on the jumping issue because we are concerned about that with the baby coming. She loves to jump on the neighbor kids because they are closer to her size.

Mike's big thrill this week was meeting one of his sports heroes, NASCAR drive Rusty Wallace! Rusty is retiring after this season and is making his "last call" tour around the US. Mike was able to get his autograph, shake his hand, and have his picture taken. It was very cool for him and I'm glad that I found out about it at the last minute!

This weekend we are driving down to Albert Lea to a 30th birthday party for a college friend. Otherwise, we'll be picking up Mom, Barry and Pam at the airport on Sunday evening where they'll return from their 2 weeks in Norway. I spoke with Mom on Monday and they sound like they are having an amazing time. The highlight so far had been that they were able to hold the violin of their great-grandfather, Benedik Thoreson, who was a famous fiddler in Norway. Mom searched for him for 5 long years and the rewards have been worth it. Probably the best reward was when Mom finally received a photo of Benedik, she showed it to her Uncle Ernest, who had never met his grandfather. Ernest just stood and stared at the photo with tears in his eyes and then said, "Thank you so much." Then he joked, "He was pretty handsome too!" Mom has said many times how much that moment made everything worth it. And now, holding the fiddle, there is just no comparing!

My grandfather turned 90 years old on Monday. What a milestone! Pat told me last night that Paige had said, "Well, now maybe he can make 100 his goal!"

Paige has been asking also what everyone thinks I'm going to have-a boy or a girl. It's so cute that she is excited about this!

We are in the process of picking out names and have come up with the girl name, and down to 3 boy names so far. Anyone that wants to send suggestions (Serious ones-not Seymour Butts or something) we'll be happy to hear them! Uncle Tom has already let us know that Tom is a great name! :)

And I'm excited to listen to the Podcast, 5 minutes with Witchita, which I downloaded today. I'm already really liking Adam Curry's Sourcecode a lot.

Congrats to Molly and Paul for a successful Bonnaroo 2005-I enjoyed reading about your adventures!

Have a great weekend everyone. Happy Father's Day!

Couple things...

-Dad, quit posting at 2:20AM and you might not get so frustrated. :)
-My parents are in Norway with my Aunt Pam. Uff da.
-Cousin Allie graduated from H.S. I feel old.
-Thanks to Pat for introducing to me to Adam Curry's podcast. I love it.
-MP3 players are just cool.
-I had to buy maternity pants.
-Mike has two weeks of school left. Yay!
-Today is Friday. I am happy. 3 more weeks and I have vacation.
-Today is Uncle Charlie's birthday. Happy Birthday!
-It is also my cousin Jenni's birthday and my cousin Ryan's birthday.

I have had a lot of time to think lately, as traffic has been particularly heavy. This time of year marks a date that I struggle with at times. June 10th was the day my step-sister Mary was killed in a car accident in 1991.

At the time, our parents weren't married, but we'd sure known each other long enough. I guess long enough to know that our parents would probably get married to each other eventually. We didn't always get along. Probably because we were so close in age and our maturity levels were different. She tended to act younger, I wanted to hang out with her older brother Matt. She still liked to play dolls at age 12, I was on to other things. But at 16, we had both gotten our licenses, it was almost summer, and we were starting to connect and looking forward to hanging out. I think a lot of it too was that our parents weren't forcing us to get together, but that we could do it on our own agenda.

Needless to say, losing someone at 16, who is the same age as you, was life altering and scary. It was unreal and threw me off course for a good 3 months. None of my friends knew what to say to me, they left me alone when I really needed them, and I was deathly afraid to sleep by myself that entire summer. Plus, my mother had to deal with her own grief, deal with me, and try her best to help Barry get through what was the most difficult time in his life.

I guess what struck me to write about this is a conversation I had with my uncle Charlie a few weeks ago. We were just chatting about stuff and started discussing dreams that people have about their loved ones that passed away. I had a number of good/bad ones about Mary for a year after she died. Charlie mentioned that he still remembered what he was doing and where he was when Pam called to tell him that Mary had died. It threw everyone.

When I drive down to Muscatine with Mike to visit his relatives, I have to drive that same stretch of road that Mary was killed on. They have now re-routed traffic and created a bypass around the city of New Hampton because there had been so many accidents attributed to that spot. And even though I know now that it's changed, I still subconsciously worry each time that Mike drives down there.

That day remains the hardest day of my life, with my grandmother's funeral ranking only second. My father splitting from my mother near Christmas is also on that list. But I can remember the details so vividly from that day it scares me. When I feel myself trying to recall June 10, 1991, I shut it down. The memories are too painful to even think about.

Overall, the reason I wrote this, was out of therapy. Yesterday I sat in my car on my way home from work and just cried for Mary. It's been 14 years, and a DAY does not go by that I don't think of her. And what got to me was how unfair, damn unfair, that she can't be here with me to celebrate turning 30. She's frozen at 16. I'm having this baby, and I wish she were here to have a family too and go through these milestones with me. We went to the cemetary to put in her urn on Memorial Day and I just couldn't stand it. I haven't felt this way for a long time, but the enormous burden of it all just came crashing down yesterday.

I miss her. And I guess I always will.

Most recent picture of Jesse, from about 2 weeks ago. He has already grown and changed from this one!

"I can't breathe"

That's the latest pregnancy symptom I've experienced. I haven't been able to catch my breath all day, but apparently it's normal! Complete and total weirdness.

Things have been fairly busy at home and work lately. Mike is on the home stretch of school, with just 4 weeks left of classes. He will then have until August to complete his thesis. He's quite happy about all of this, as you can imagine! I have to say that I'm looking forward to having him home more often then he has been.

Two weeks ago I went down to Rochester for an overnight to go to my cousin Sara's shower for her son Jesse. I stopped at her house the day before the shower so that I could hang out and actually get to HOLD the child, since I knew he would be hogged by all the cousins and aunties at the shower the next day. He is growing, smiling, laughing, you name it. He's just about 9lbs, so he's definitely gaining the weight he needs. The shower was really fun and Sara received some really nice things. We shared our news that day as well, surprising a lot of people. Maybe they figured we weren't going to have kids at all?!? There was a time in my life where I had no interest in them!

Last weekend we stayed home, finally. We had to re-sod part of the front yard that Madison has burned out with her peeing. That was a very interesting job. Pulling up all the old dead grass was no fun at all. The challenge has been how to unload it. Our local compost pile wanted to charge $1 per bag to just BUY the bags to use, then charge $12 a POUND to take it. We are talking bags that way more then 20lbs, and we had 6 bags. So, Mike has them in his car today and is hauling them all the way up north in order to dump them in the woods on his Dad's property. What more can you do?

The sod itself is working, I think. Mike did a great job laying it, and now we are in the watering, watering, and more watering part. Madison hates that she can't be out front now, because when she goes out back, there isn't near enough stuff to look at! i.e. The neighbor dogs are out front where she wants to see them. Thankfully, our association gave us the opportunity to do this so that we didn't have to pay their ridiculous charges.

We also went to see Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith on Thursday last week. It wasn't awesome or anything, but a good flick and nice to see things all get wrapped up. I found Yoda to be his cool Jedi self, as always. I found Anakin's demise to the dark side quite fascinating, although they did rush it a bit. The saddest part to me is when Obi Wan is yelling to him, "You were the chosen one!" Of course, when Hayden Christensen first sat up in the Vadar costume, that was just the coolest thing in the world. It gave me goose bumps! Now, I want to go to Target and buy the Darth Vadar voice changer and mask.

This weekend I am heading to Rochester to hang out at home. My parents and Pam leave for Norway in a week, so I thought I'd spend some time with them before they go. I WISH to no end that I could go with them! Some day....

Otherwise, I'm just learning to deal with being pregnant, nauseous, and trying to do my job at work. This is a challenge at times, but the being sick part seems to be better. I've only thrown up once, the rest of the time I just don't feel well and I never realized a person could suddenly get so tired! I'm also eating a lot more then I'm used to, which is hard to realize. I often used to skip meals if I wasn't hungry, or just eat something small to tide me over. Not anymore! I have to eat regular, balanced meals. If I feel sick, I still have to eat something because my stomach makes noises and DEMANDS food. All this, and the kid is only the size of a kidney bean. (or so the experts say!)

That's life in for me right now....

My cousin Amy with the new baby organutan born at her zoo on Mother's Day.

Oh, the times...they are a'changing.

In high school, I did a story for the school paper on the production the Drama club was doing on Frankenstein. As I learned more about the author, Mary Shelley, it fascinated me to find out that she wrote this story while she was pregnant. If you need background, think of it like this: creation of life, not knowing what will happen when you do, it could go great, it could go bad. You just have to have faith and courage as you begin the journey.

Well, Mike & I have embarked on that same journey. I'm happy to say that I'm 7 weeks pregnant and due January 6th.

In the same breath, I now also understand what all these millions of people have been talking about. Pregnancy is strange, exciting, and scary. I have never felt so many physical and emotional things at one time in my entire life.

And I could never have thought this many hormones running around in my body could produce the results they are. Basically, I have never felt so out of control of my body ever!

Jesse

New York, New York!

Mike with Rusty's #2 Miller Lite car.

Hoover Dam

The Venetian and it's canal