Modern Day Baby Jessica

Send a rescue crew to Golden, Colorado - my West Highland Terrier is stuck underneath the recliner.

She was having a freak out about a loud noise, and somehow burrowed herself underneath the recliner.  Her head is caught over a metal bar and her leg appears to be pinned as well, so we can't lift it up to free her.  Hmmm.  She's not struggling yet, so we're going to give her a few chances to free herself before calling the fire department.  Okay, we're not really calling the fire department...but I may need suggestions depending on how long this goes on.

What a nut.

Back Home Again in Indiana

Brent and I made two trips home in May - one for the mini and Mother's Day, and another to pack up our house.  It was great to be home! 

Mini/Mother's Day Weekend

We signed up for the mini last year, long before we knew what this year would hold for us.  After I started my new job in April, my hope to come home this weekend was squashed about 20 minutes into my first day of work because I was told I would instead be going to Boston on Mother's Day.  I was really bummed, because 20 weeks of pregnancy and moving across the country be damned, I was going to do that race. Not very quickly, but I really couldn't stand to miss it.  Then the whole thing worked itself out and we couldn't go to Boston after all, and bada-bing bada-boom, there we were in Indy.  Brent took the day off and flew in that afternoon, landing just a couple hours after me (and giving me plenty of time to enjoy some Patachou cinnamon toast and pick up the rental car). Perfect timing. Brent and I carbed up with the Sinders that night at Bravo and prepared for our fifth and sixth runnings of the Festival 500 Mini Marathon, respectively.

Mom was walking it this year and I think the only reason she came down to put herself through the torture was to keep me from being an idiot and hurting myself or the baby by doing more than I should. After I got pregnant I started running only 3, and very rarely 4, miles at a time, so obviously I was in no shape to run it. Neither Mom or I were overly crazy about getting up that early and being out there for almost 4 hours in the back of the pack, so we called in for reinforcements - Christi, the super-motivator.

Our finish time, including two bathroom stops for the preggo, was 3:46, which we didn't think was all that bad. It went really fast and we had a good time, but I will always stick to my opinion that walking all 13.1 is more brutal than running it. Think how many more steps you have to take the slower you go, and how much longer you're out there? It's been nice to have a break from running and not training for anything right now, but I cant wait to get back out there in October and work on dumping my baby (er, and pre-baby) gut and whittling away at my PR. I even told Christi during the race that I may be ready for another marathon in 2012. Running.is.sickness.

Notice the corral on that bib? E. Thats right - the only year my previous time was good enough for preferred seeding. To put it in perspective, Brent the super runner always starts in B. Would I have been out of my league in E?  Perhaps.  We tucked our tails and went back to the W corral where we belonged, but I hope some day to reach the top middle of the pack again.  All I know is it's going to take a lot of time pushing our new BOB stroller to get back into the E corral, but I'll give it my best shot.  It's rumored that women are better runners after having a baby because their pain tolerance is higher.  That theory makes sense to me!   

After lunch at Bazbeaux's with Christi, Jay, and Peanut, we headed home to Kendallville where Dad and Grandma were just getting in from Florida that evening.  We were pretty tired but we stayed up late visiting anyway- and I think Maddie was especially pleased to have our company without a little white dog accompanying us. 

We continued on with our Mother's Day tradition of eating lunch at Joseph Decuis in Roanoake the next day.  Another great meal and fun times with my family!

Memorial Day Weekend

Our second trip home in May was a tiring whirlwind of hard work and 34 hours of sitting in the car.  We thought we were closing on our house in early June, so we had planned to fly home over Memorial Day to pack up the house and get ready for the movers to come.  After a delayed inspection and other general ridiculousness, flights got too expensive and we were going to have to drive it.  If there's one weekend when you shouldn't plan to fly into Indianapolis, it would be Race weekend.  Duh.  We realized around noon on Thursday that we would NOT be selling our house and that we would NOT need to leave in three hours as planned to drive to Indiana, but we packed up the car and terrier anyway.

Mom and Dad came on Saturday and helped us tear through the house putting things in boxes, and shared the burden of making 15 trips to Lowes and U-Haul for more packing supplies.  Dad may have ended up making most of those trips.  We took a break on Saturday night for a birthday grill-out.  The Steinbergs stopped by to visit and the Sinders came over for dinner, so even though it was a really grueling weekend I got to see some of my favorite people on my birthday.  The May Queen was satisfied.

A big thank you to Mom and Dad - we never would have gotten it all done without them!

Brent and I had to finish off nearly half of a DQ ice cream cake by ourselves on Sunday night before we left for to go back to Denver...shucks. 

 

Bonnie loved being home and hung out in her yard the entire weekend, actin' a fool.  I feel bad that she doesn't have a place to run here and is always on a leash. 

Avian Stare Down

   
And then there was the drive home on my birthday.  There's nothing like sitting in a car for 17 hours while a dog keeps trying to jump in your lap and the winds in Kansas are about to blow you off the road.  It may be awhile before I'll do that again without being sedated first. 

I did at least have a jug of sweet tea as some sort of consolation.   

We also made time to check off the last Presidential Library on I-70 while we had the opportunity on the way home - Harry Truman's.  It was much cooler this time so we were able to stay a little longer without fear of coming back to a Hot Dog in the car.  Very cool library!



24 Weeks

Baby bump - Hawaiian edition

How far along: 24 weeks, 4 days

Total weight gain: Ten pounds

Maternity clothes: Pants, and some tops. 

Feeling: Pretty good.  I'm a little sore and worn out from the hiking, running, and travel days associated with our Hawaii trip, but am feeling much better today than I was yesterday.  I wouldn't want to do 7 hours on a plane if I was much more pregnant than I am right now, that's for sure!

Sleep: Good!
Food cravings or aversions: Potato soup.  I am making it tonight because I haven't been able to get it off my mind all day.

Best moment of the week: Brent getting to feel the baby from the outside this week.

Movement: I finally felt the baby for sure at 23 weeks.  I am so happy about that, even though it's faint.  It may be better that way, actually.  It's just little flutters but still fun.
Gender: ??

Labor Signs: n/a


What I miss: Nothing comes to mind...

What I'm nervous about: Nothing right now...

What I'm looking forward to: Finding a place to live soon. 

Milestones and new this week: At 24 weeks, the baby is a foot long, weighs about a pound, and is developing branches in its lungs. 

Random Colorado Fun

The last couple of months have been pretty wild. I've been working on settling into my new job and Brent has been preparing for a new system conversion at his job. We've been trying to figure out our living situation - with both old and new houses - which has been sucking lots of time with few results so far. When we're not doing these things, we've been trying to schedule something Colorado-y into every weekend we're out here, since that's the whole reason we moved in the first place.

Here, in no particular chronological order (after just dogging the Eisenhower library for this, am I a hypocrite or what?), is what we've been up to the last two months when we're actually here:



Lookout Mountain Hike

Lookout Mountain is about 10 minutes from our apartment, and hikable even on a Friday after work.  We didn't go all the way to the top on this trip, but will probably do it again soon.

Mountain climber dog!  We couldn't believe she made it up those rocks.

It may look like I'm teetering on the edge of a cliff, but I assure you that neither my furry child nor my real child were endangered in the making of this photograph.

Rockies Game

The Cubs visited the Rockies early in the season, and we took in the Friday night game that weekend.  The weather was great for mid-April! 

Everyone was #42 that night in honor of Jackie Robinson

Horsetooth Half Marathon in Ft. Collins

The same weekend as the Rockies game, Brent ran a half marathon in Ft. Collins that started with almost 2 miles of straight uphill running.  Fun!  He said it was his best race to date and came in with a time of 1:38.  Bonnie and I dropped him off at the start line and then found a local church for Palm Sunday service.  Well, I went to church, and Bonnie sat in the car and barked.  The finish line and post-race party was at the New Belgium Brewery, home of Fat Tire.  Bonnie and I waited for him at the finish line, which was interesting with her lunging at other spectators, kids, other dogs, the racers themselves after she scooted herself underneath the metal divider and onto the course.  She's an equal opportunity lunger.

Brent's finest point of every race he runs - his sprint to the finish.

 

Sometimes it's nice to just be one of the lazy spectators holding a coffee.

Red Rocks

We went to Red Rocks Amphitheater one Saturday to check it out.  We didn't realize so many people worked out there!  There's a pretty neat visitors' center at the top with a Hall of Fame of all the musicians who've played there since it was completed in 1941.  We really hope to see a concert here this summer - anyone wanting to join us should come on out!  Any takers??  I swear we'll have more than one bedroom by August...hopefully.

First Visitors!

Lana and Justin were out for the weekend in mid May and we spent all day Saturday with them. We took them on the Coors Brewery tour, ate at Woody's in downtown Golden, and met them near the Tech Center for a great dinner at The White Chocolate Grill.

An engagement picture for the couple that their parents can be proud to put in their hometown newspapers.

Hiking, hiking, and more hiking

Mt. Galbraith, Table Top Mountain, and Green Mountain have all been partially explored. Surprisingly, our little terrier loves a good, step climb and pulls us most of the way. Going down is her favorite part.

U2 Concert

Brent took me to see U2 at Invesco Field, where the Broncos play, the weekend before my birthday.  I have always wanted to see U2 in concert, and was even sure that it was on my Life List - but apparently it never made it on there.  What the heck?  Consider it added.

#101 - See U2 in concert.  May 2011

Oh my.  Such a good concert!  The Fray opened for them, which was the cherry on the sundae.  I've been to a concert to see The Fray as the headliner before, so what a nice surprise!

It was U2's 360 tour, which involved setting up a very complex spaceship-looking apparatus on the field.  The concert was on 5/21, which was the day of the supposed rapture, and towards the end I started to wonder if aliens really weren't coming to get us.  It was kind of bizarre in parts, really, but overall the show and special effects were super impressive.  And the music - well, of course the music was awesome.  They played all their hits and more.  And also lit some candles for a woman freed in Burma because of Bono's work with Amnesty International...something like that.  I didn't really catch the whole story.  Bono is occasionally a little out there for me, but I think we need to give the man some props for using 40+ years in the spotlight to promote positive change and work for international causes in which he believes.  Plus, he's still an awesome singer.  Wow.   

As I get all these things documented, I realize why I'm so stinking tired!  That, and the second life I'm supporting with my body right now.  No big deal.  And this really isn't the half of it...more to come this weekend when I cross "Finish blog entries" off my to-do list.

The Move

This is #2 in a series of catch-up posts...I was perhaps a little misleading in the intro of my last blog.  I know you've already figured it out, but no, I am not saying farewell to blogging.  I don't feel that bad about being behind.  I talked about all the farewell parties in that post, but now I'll talk about the actual move.

Brent flew home on a Wednesday night in early April and worked at the house all day on Thursday getting stuff ready to go.  My last day of work was that Thursday, and on Friday we woke up early, finished (or started, who's really keeping track?) packing my things in boxes and cleaning the house to get it show-ready and ready to leave for several months.  It was a fun day, let me tell ya.

Dad came by that morning and was a huge help.  By 3:00 we had everything in the car and rental SUV and ready to start leg #1 of the drive to Colorado.  Just after Dad left and we were literally pulling out of the driveway, a neighbor flagged us down needing a car jump.  Brent and I are the absolute last people you want around when it comes to needing something done mechanically to your car.  We got everything set up, but realized that her battery had some pretty bad corrosion, so we aborted the mission in the name of personal safety for all involved.  You aren't supposed to try and jump a battery with visible corrosion, right?  Sorry to neighbor Alesia that we weren't more help.  :/

We made it to Independence, MO that night and stayed in the only hotel in town with vacancy (and cool with pets) due to a Tim McGraw/Martina McBride concert - Extended Stay America. It was pretty close to the interstate and Bonnie had a freak out about the sound of the semis. There were no lights in the parking lot and we were a little paranoid about our cars packed full of stuff being broken into. All in all, it was a pretty restful night!

We made it the rest of the way on Saturday and made time to visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, KS. You know what that means...another Life List update!

#84 - Visit all the Presidential Libraries

George Bush Presidential Library & Museum - College Station, TX
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum - Atlanta, GA
William J. Clinton Presidential Library & Museum - Little Rock, AR  March 2010
Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library & Museum - Abilene, KS  April 2011
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library - Ann Arbor, MI
Gerald R. Ford Museum - Grand Rapids, MI
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library & Museum - West Branch, IA
Lyndon B. Johnson Library & Museum - Austin, TX  August 2008
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum - Boston, MA
Nixon Presidential Library & Museum - College Park, MD
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum - Simi Valley, CA
Harry S. Truman Library & Museum - Independence, MO

It was strangely 90 degrees that day and since we had Bonnie with us we breezed on through the library pretty quickly while she stayed in the (well-ventilated, shaded) car. I will say that of the three we've visited, it was my least favorite. It wasn't laid out very well and the chronological order of events was scattered, which kinda bothered us. Imagine that. It was pretty heavy on WWII memorabilia, which I always appreciate.

Somewhere in Kansas...

Other than the library stop and a few meals at Cracker Barrel, our drive was pretty uneventful.  We made it into Denver on the night of Day #2.  I started my new job on Monday, so we spent Sunday unpacking and getting ready for the work week.  So...that's the move...two and a half months later.  :)