Frank the Fetus

We actually didn't find out the sex of our baby at our 20 week ultrasound, so we just refer to it as "Frank the Fetus" (a term we picked up from Josh and Jill when they were pregnant with Ben.) Some days we also call it Maria because of the Santana song... not that we are going to name our child either one of these. Not knowing the sex makes the pregnancy a lot of fun. One week it's Frank and the next it's Maria. I just don't like referring to our child as "it". :) You can feel free to offer other names as well, if you'd like.

I haven't taken any pictures of my belly until now, but after looking at Johnni's, I have to admit that it is kind of fun to see the weekly changes. The only indicator I've had so far that my belly is growing is that more and more of my clothes don't seem to fit these days. So, if you want to see the first belly pic, scroll on. If not, this is your stopping point. :) :)

I think I caught the nurse off-guard at my last doctor's appointment when she asked me to step on the scale. I literally burst out laughing when I saw the numbers. I actually haven't gained very much thus far, but I still have quite a ways to go. Before getting pregnant I was in great shape, due to training for the SF marathon. However, after a long and trying first trimester complete with daily nausea, I wasn't able to keep running. Excuses no more... Ross and I bought an elliptical and even though it's our first week with it, I am enjoying being active again. "Ellipticalizing" is much less impact than running and Frank seems to be enjoying it as well. It's almost as though he's not done working out when I am, because he continues to bounce right along in there even after I'm done with my cool down. :)

Summer Fun

I have already confessed to being lazy about taking photos, but thanks to Kate, I have a few to send along to summarize some of the fun things that we've done this summer. Enjoy.

Jasper Winery--I kept hearing about this winery in DSM that had live music and outdoor events every Thursday night throughout the summer, so we finally decided to check it out. It was a beautiful night to sit outside, have a burger, and take in some dueling guitars. Those who weren't pregnant enjoyed the Sangria. Ross even tried Sangria and Redbull...yuck.

SWINE Fest--"Where Pork Meets Cork" (or something like that...) The event was held on DMACC's Ankeny campus and included over 10 Iowan wine vendors and another 10-12 Iowa pork vendors. For your ticket price you got a wine glass to take around with you to sample unlimited wines that paired with tasty pork. You could also pick your favorite wine and take a bottle home with you. I have to admit that by the 15th sample or so, I was porked out, so it's a good thing that there was a chocolate booth to give me a break. At the end of the night Kay Thuesen talked a vendor into letting the guys drink some of the Maker's Mark that was part of a cooking display. She had no idea how much to pour and the guys didn't stop her... Needless to say I was the DD. I look forward to next year when I will be able to take part in the wine tasting as well.

4th of July Camping--and I use that term loosely. The tradition started last year after Kelsey and Jay's wedding in the Quad Cities. We stopped at my mom's place in CR and camped over the 4th on our way back to DSM. This year we continued the tradition. Even though the weather was cooler and rainier than we would have liked, we still enjoyed a lot of good food, Bocce Ball, smores over a blazing fire (thanks to our Pyro husbands), swimming, and massages by my sister, who is practicing to be a licensed massage therapist. I think the only "camping" part of the weekend was perhaps the fact that we slept in a tent... on air mattresses. :) Most campsites also do not provide a warm breakfast with chefs that take requests what type of pancakes and eggs you prefer. Lauren is enjoying a Smore in the picture below.

Yes, that is Brad stuffing his shoes with newspaper. According to Matt R., doing so helps to dry them out... and he was right. Within ten minutes our shoes were totally dry. Who would have thought? I also like the picture below because it looks like my sister is totally wasted, but I'm pretty sure it was only her first or second beer. We were all just that relaxed.

In addition, Ross and I took a couple of sailing classes at Gray's Lake, using Hobie Bravos and we had a blast. We look forward to sailing throughout the summer, so I will have to take my camera next time we go.

Thinking Orange

Okay, so many of you have heard about our infamous "orange" room. Yes, I realize that orange is not for everyone (especially my mother) but when I painted the room a year ago, I did so with a gender-neutral nursery in mind. And I just happen to love it! It's not your everyday color-of-the-rainbow orange, but rather it is a nice rusty color.

When I invited my mom to help me design the nursery, she went straight to work looking all over town for fabric samples that she could make bedding and other coordinates from. One week later (I'm not kidding) she sent me an envelope in the mail with 4-5 different coordinating fabrics that she thought would go wonderfully in our nursery. However, the fabric was accompanied with a note that said, "I couldn't find anything to go with orange. I think you should hold these samples up against your office wall because I think a nice buttery-yellow would be a great choice." Excuse me? There was no way I was going to paint over my rusty walls--especially because I had a bet with Mollie that I wouldn't repaint the room when it was time to make it into a nursery. Part of my decision to stick with the orange was just me being stubborn, but I really do like it!

Enough said, my mom is extremely talented at making all sorts of creations. I "commisioned" her to make a bedskirt for the crib as well as curtains for the closet, but of course she didn't stop there. Just take a look at the crib. How cute is that?! She does amazing work. Thanks, Mom!


I should note that I am extremely proud of all my bargain finds for the nursery. I should have written a book... maybe I still will. It could be called, Designing on a Dime for the Frugal Mother-to-be. Hmm... I'm going to have to work on that title. Anyway, I was able to repurpose furniture that we already had around the house, shop around at garage sales, get hand-me-downs from friends, or friends-of-friends, and last but not least...shop Craigslist on a daily basis. The crib in the above picture I got for $30 from a friend.

The glider is a Dutalier glider, which is apparently top-of-the line and extremely comfortable according to my mom, among many others. New: Chair and ottoman~$800-900. On Craigslist and practically brand-new~$90 for both and the color even matches! That's a deal! There is a saying from Uppercase Living that I want to put above the crib and the picture on the wall is a modern Noah's Ark print that a local artist, who also happens to be a friend of our family painted.

Another inexpensive and crafty project to keep me busy this summer was the fabric wall-hangings. I simply stretched fabric over artist's canvanses, attached hangers and voila. Wall art for the total cost of about $20.

Now, I have a lot of weird quirks, but one of them in particular is that I HATE sliding closet doors because you can only see one side of the closet at a time. So I took the closet doors off and my mom made coordinating curtains which can be pulled back out of the way and tucked behind tie-backs that I attached on the inside of the closet. I love the color that they add to the room. :)

Check out the window valances as well. I made those--starting from 1/4 plywood and a circular saw. I believe the day I tackled that project Ross pointed out that we tend to exchange gender roles on a frequent basis. He had done the laundry and the dishes and made dinner while I was out in the garage sawing and drilling away. My dad would be proud. I must also point out that the total cost of wood for the project was $1.01. You should check out the scrap wood cart at Home Depot if you are ever in need of inexpensive wood for a project!

The dresser in the picture was already in the room. It will serve the dual purpose of a changing table as well.

This is a view from the doorway. I still have a few minor things to get done, but I've already had a lot of fun this summer creating a cozy room for our new little one come fall.

Update

Wow! It doesn't seem like March was that long ago, but a lot has happened since our last post. I am horrible at remembering to take pictures, so you'll just have to hang in there and settle for text. :)

As most of you already know, Ross and I are expecting our first little one in the beginning of November. I spent most of March, April, and May with constant morning sickness. I'm not quite sure why it's called morning sickness since it was 24 hours around the clock, but I am feeling much better in my second trimester and enjoying all of the changes. We have our 20 week ultrasound in a couple of weeks but we won't find out the gender until November. :)

I also completed my Master's program from Drake in May and graduated on the 16th. I originally looked forward to taking the summer off, but then signed up for 9 credits over June and July. Yes, I realize that I am crazy, but I love to learn and I may as well take classes while I still have the time!

So, here I sit on my second official day of summer reaffirmed that I chose the right profession. Sleeping in until 9....or sometimes 10 is bliss. I get up when I want, do what I want, and at the end of the day I smile knowing that I have over two more months to go.

Jobs, Jobs Everywhere!

As many of you already know, Ross was laid-off in January, due to company-wide budget cuts. It was a huge blow and an extremely challenging circumstance. However, after a lot of hard work, Ross has found a new job with Metabank, in downtown Des Moines. His title will be credit analyst, or senior credit analyst (something like that) and he starts Monday the 30th. The major downfall is that he has to wear a full suit and tie everyday, but he's excited! :)

As far as my career goes... I just can't seem to stay in the same position for very long. I started out teaching first and second grade math and literacy my first two years in Ankeny. Then Ankeny decided to absorb the math and literacy teachers into the regular gen-ed classrooms to reduce class size (Which didn't really happen, but it was a good idea.) I wanted to go to first grade, but ended up in third and I've had the best year teaching, yet! I love third grade! However, my 5-10 year plan is to be an instructional coach, mentoring teachers to facilitate best practice in the classroom. So, when the literacy leader position opened in my building, I figured that it would be a great stepping stone to attaining my goal. As of yesterday, I am proud to say that I will be our building's literacy leader for the 2009-2010 school year. Essentially, I will be working with at-promise (struggling) readers in small groups and one-on-one situations, along with helping to facilitate professional development in the area of literacy for elementary teachers. It should a fun ride! I look forward to the challenges it brings.

Spring Break

Ross and I took off on our week-long road trip Saturday, March 14th. Our first stop was St. Louis. It was a beautiful day for the drive, and with the help of a GPS, we arrived on time, without any hassel. (That thing proved to be a lifesaver!) Our first stop was the Budweiser Anheuser-Busch tour. We saw the entire process of brewing the beer from start to finish and we even stopped along the way to check out the Budweiser Clydesdales. They were huge! At the end of the tour we sampled different beers, and the whole thing was free!

After the brewery tour we checked into our hotel. Apparently people celebrate St. Patrick's day for a whole week in St. Louis. Our hotel was taken over by crazy and LOUD partiers. For the first time, we were the old boring couple, but that was just fine with me! :)

Saturday night we decided to brave the crowds and head downtown to an Italian place for dinner. We were not prepared for what happened next! The streets were lined with bumper to bumper traffic and crowds of people. We were a block from our final destination when we were cut off by a Monster energy drink truck that parked in the middle of the street to hand out free cans. So here we are, stopped under this bridge on a narrow, cobblestone road, with a horse and carriage to our right. All of the sudden the horse lowered its head and tried to peer into the passenger side window. So, I ducked and shrieked because I thought the horse was going to come through the window. Ross then managed to pull the car forward to get away from the horse to no avail. The horse got behind our car and... THUNK! The freaking thing bashed it's head into the back of the spoiler and left saliva on our car. Only in St. Louis...

So we decided to get the heck out of Dodge. We went back to our hotel to grab the GPS and then entered in the address for a restaurant called "10th Street Italian". We had read about it in our hotel guide and it sounded good, so we thought that we would give it a shot, even though the restuarant was 30 minutes away. By now it was 8:30 and we were starving! We finally arrived at our destination, only to find that it was the equivalent of a Fazoli's!!! That's the problem with GPS--you never know what you're really going to get! Needless to say, we passed up 10th Street Italian for a local pub and grill on the corner. It was quite delicious, especially after all of the trouble we had been through.

We also went to the St. Louis Zoo, while we were there. It was a beautiful day to be outside! Ross couldn't get enough of the penguin exhibit. I made him leave early because I couldn't stand the smell (think of fish X 10!) and I didn't hear the end of it the rest of the trip. If you look really hard, you can see a black rhino in the background of the picture.

After St. Louis, we stopped in Nashville for a couple of days. To be quite honest, I wasn't impressed with the Grand Old Opry. We also did quite a bit of window shopping and I beat Ross in putt-putt golf, according to his scorekeeping. I fessed up later, after I checked the scores and pointed out that we actually tied. There will have to be a rematch in the near future!

Two days in Nashville was enough for us and we were excited to get down to Alabama to see Matt and Johnni. We definitely saved the best for last. We spent a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather. However, on Friday, while we were there, Matt had a family day for his Army class. This is Matt flying.

We posed as Matt's family for the day and got to shadow his daily schedule. He was the first to fly. We watched him take off and do a lot of different types of landings for an hour or so. We also had the opportunity to go up into the control tower and Johnni gave Matt permission to take off over the headset. It all just sounded like jibberish to me, but it was really cool to listen to. After his flight session, Matt landed and came over to eat lunch with us while his stick buddy took the controls. I am so amazed with how much Matt has learned in a short time of flight school. He talked us through everything that was going on as the helicopters continued to buzz in and out of the runway. It was another beautiful day and definitely the highlight of our trip.

We headed back to West Des Moines around 5am on Saturday, March 21 and arrived home sometime after 10pm. After a fun-filled week we were ready to be home. I slept like a rock! Now it's back to work to finish out the school year!

OOPS!

Since it's been a long winter in Iowa... to say the least, I have finally talked Ross into taking a road trip down to see Matt and Johnni in Alabama over spring break. This has been weeks in the making, so when he finally gave in, I was ecstatic! I started searching for cheap hotels along the way, primarily using Priceline.com. In past experiences, Ross did the bidding and got us great rates in KC. However, since this is my trip to plan, I thought I would try the bidding.

I was so excited when I finally got through--thinking I had gotten us a 3-star hotel room in St. Louis for $45.00 a night. When I clicked the final button of no return or cancellations, I was appalled at what I had done! I was staring at a hotel room for almost $700 per night with over $200 in taxes and fees. Total damage: $1513.91. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

I spent the next 20 minutes on the phone with the hotel and then a Priceline representative trying to explain that I put our CC security code in the price box. "Due to extenuating circumstances" she was able to cancel the reservation and refund our money... and then BANNED me from thier website. Can you do that?! :) :) Those 20 minutes were awful, and needless to say, it made me sick!