Hello Family. I am 8 weeks Pregnant now and it's a bundle of joy, let me tell ya. I have great respect for all you moms out there. Morning sickness is just terrible, and when I say morning sickness, I mean all the time everyday every second sickness. I started off surviving off cheese and crackers, now even that sounds revolting. I am now living off of ginger ale, gatorade, and plain bagels. It's quite depressing when you can't eat and when you can only stomach one thing everyday all the time. When I see food commercials come on the T.V. I have to turn away and plug my ears because they always describe the food and it makes me so sick. Things I use to love and could eat anyday now make me sick just thinking about them. Ice cream, yes, Ice cream makes me sick blehh. Not just food smells make me dry heave, it's now, deoderant, new carpet smell, the smell on the elevators at work, Carlens cologne, sorry baby, and even our air freshener we have in our living room. Sorry if it sounds like i'm going on and on complaining, but I need to tell someone. I know I can definetly relate to my mom, sisters, and sister in laws on this. I think I have only 4 more weeks of this at the least, lets hope. Well anywho, Carlen is almost done with school which is great! I must go now, I'm very nauseous and need to lie down. I'm at work so I will have to wait another hour and a half and then I will lie down....

Play time

Cats

Here is a picture of all our cats together.
This is Morris the friendliest and silliest cat you'll ever meet.
This is Gretchen, the beauty queen/fatty/scaredy cat.
This is Coco, the ultimate huntress and the brains of the group.

Random

Quick story. Last week on the way home from work I was driving on University Avenue going about 50 mph. Everyone slammed on their brakes and a huge horse came running in front of my car and I had to slam on my brakes and swerve into the suicide lane. I missed it by a couple feet. The horse was scared out of his or her mind and was pooping everywhere. It ran into on coming traffic and all the cars stopped and honked. Then in ran back across my side of the road and into the grass. Some people pulled over and took out their cell phones to call the police. Just thought I'd tell you because it was one of the most random things ever; and I love random. I was shaking pretty hard but laughing at the same time. I'm just glad the horse didn't get hit.

Here is the introduction of my book; hope you enjoy:

Introduction

“Ned Chamberlin was a great man. I should have told him that while he was still here.” I should’ve done a lot of things..... “What made Ned great? He smiled at you even when he was in a bad mood, drank with you even though he didn’t drink, and let you use him as your own personal punching bag if you needed it. What I’m trying to get at is, he was selfless. I would say we grew old together but he kept the oldest of us young.”

And here’s where the crying begins.

“I mm…miss you bud. You were always m…my he…hero."

I enjoy this better than the potatoes.

“I….I…can’t finish. I’m sorry…sorry.

“Thank you Charles for your honorable words. It’s alright please sit down, here’s a tissue.”

Ah the tissue. I bring one for blending purposes. No one really knows who I am but wearing black, looking glum, and having a tissue makes no one ask questions. I thought about bringing ice cubes to rub on my eyes a bit right when the crying begins, but no one can see me anyway through their goopy shriveled eyes. Besides it would melt everywhere and I’m not going to hold a freakin ice cube for an hour.

“Does anyone else want to give their final remarks?”

No

“No? Well then we will proceed to Ned’s last request in spreading his ashes through his many handsome gardens. This was one of his greatest wishes before he passed on. He put many years of hard labor into his gardens so let us do him this last honor. We will file out one row at a time, please follow Kate or me, and thank you.

This is new. The black mounds gradually shuffled out row by row. I am at the back as is necessary. What if it was windy outside and as they scattered the ashes they blew back at us in anger. I know I don’t want flaked human in my eyes or mouth, and I don’t even know the guy. I especially wouldn’t want a flaked human that I knew in my eye. That is a weird sentence, flaked human that I knew in my eye, ha, I make myself laugh sometimes.

It was very quiet outside, except for the “handsome” plants rustling about and a few sniffles from the black mass. Luckily the wind was blowing slightly in the opposite direction from us. Will they use their bare hands? Oh, no they are putting on latex gloves, how fitting. You come into this worlds held by latex gloves and your thrown out of this world with latex gloves. I don’t like latex gloves. I’ve never seen dead human thrown around before. It looked like rice thrown at a wedding, but it was definitely not rice and there was quite a different feeling in the air, not to mention substance. I really shouldn’t be smirking at a funeral. Ned is being put back into the earth that he worked on for so many years. I wonder if his plants will welcome him?

“Thank you all for coming and honoring Ned. We are having some refreshments in the dining room and a book where you can write down your best memories of him.”

What memory should I write this time? I should think of a new one. He taught me to appreciate the art of gardening? Or he taught me how to look handsome? Or he taught me to be selfless? Hmm, I don’t know I’ll think of something.

Happenin

I'm at work right now and I thought I would take a break and update you a little on what's goin down in the Smith's crib/life.
I started writing a book! Yay! It's going to be a fiction novel. I know that Carlen is the English Major and what not but I also enjoy writing. He's going to write books of his own once he's graduated; which will be this Spring. Well I guess the only thing going on with me is work and writing a book.
Carlen has to read 18 books this semester and he is constantly reading in our room. Right now he has to finish Moby Dick and Ulysses which are very long books! Ahhh! I wouldn't be able to do it.
We found a couple Wolf Spiders in our basement! If you didn't know already, I have a severe case of Arachnophobia! It makes me so paranoid and I have to vacuum like it's going out of style. I now have to have the light on when i'm walking around so I can make sure I don't step on a spider; which never happens, but just in case. I also check the bed and covers each night to make sure there are no spiders in the bed. Oh I also check the celings, shower, and corners of the walls. You might call it OCD I guess. I don't really know how I developed this fear of spiders since I don't remember a dramatic experience involving them. Luckily our cats can track any insect down, they are the ultimate hunters. Especially Coco, we gave her the middle name of Flidais which is an Irish Goddess in Irish Mythology. She is the greatest huntress and goddess of the forests, so it is a perfect nickname for Coco. I don't know how they find some of the tiniest bugs that blend in with the carpet, it's insane, but grand.
But anywho, just thought I'd give you a sneak peak into the life and mind of Vanessa.

Overview

Hello Family! This is weird, I must admit. I'm use to writing to and for myself in my journal or writing lyrics, but now that other people, meaning family, are going to be reading this I hope i'm not boring. So Carlen and I live in good ol' Provo Utah just south of BYU and Seven Peaks. We live in a house that we share with Debbie and Nick and we live in the basement with our 3 lovely cats and our old fat hampster. Technically the hampster is just mine, Carlen doesn't even like it and wants to give it to one of our cats as a toy, which will never happen, anyway... I will tell you a little bit about our wonderful cats. First theres Morris. He is the friendliest cat you will ever meet and the only "boy" out of the three. He lost his identity when he was only 6 weeks old so now he is a trans gender cat and thinks he's a girl. He loves to steal my hair ties and cotton balls from the bathroom. He cannot have them anymore for after he is done playing with them, he tries to eat them and he chokes on things a lot. In three words, Morris is Mischevious, Happy, and sneaky. Then there is Gretchen. She is like the spoiled beauty queen of the group, though she is no more spoiled than the other ones. She is aloof, beautiful, dark grey, stubborn, plots the hampsters death, has long fluffy fur, and fat. Last but not least there is Coco! She is very intelligent, has beautiful eyes, and is very cuddly. Every morning she wants me to turn on the sink in the bathroom so she can stick her head in the water and drink a ton of water. She also watches me get ready almost every morning and watches movies sometimes with Carlen and I. Well I've probably bored you to death talking about our cats. I will post a picture some day so you can see what they look like.

Carlen is going to BYU right now and is taking his last classes for his degree. He will be done in December with his Bachelors and graduates in April! Oh he is majoring in English by the way and is planning on being a professor. I am still working full time in the Riverwoods Provo area at a place called Agel Enterprises. I work in the Regulatory department and register Agel's nutritional supplement products in South East Asia and parts of Europe.