I married a stud

Get a load of my sweet lovin'.

Birthday in photos

 

Breakfast in bed.  A rare indulgence to get McDonalds.

 

Opened birthday presents.  Love the crafting supplies, cards, and sweater. Do you see those sheets?  That's part of my big present from Ben.  We went shopping for a QUEEN SIZED bed!  I've been wanting one ever since we left our tiny apartment in Boulder.  Finally now with two employed adults and a growing belly, we're making the upgrade from our cramped full sized bed.  It's really the best present I could imagine getting this year!

We had lunch at Panera Bread.  Sure, not very fancy.  But there aren't any locations in our neighborhood, so it's special to go there.  Plus my favorite sandwich, the Bacon Turkey Bravo, is a double no-no for pregnancy.  I do my best to avoid bacon (nitrates) and cold deli meats (listeria). But hey, it's my birthday!  One little sandwich can't do much harm.  Totally worth it. 

 

Picked out cupcakes for later.  After my cupcake tour of Denver I knew the best place - Lovely Confections!

 

Bought some darling fabric at my favorite craft store.  I squeezed a lot of yarn wistfully.  Ben wisely reminded me of all the beautiful skeins in my basket at home.  But it's hard to resist beautiful yarn when you have spending money in your pocket!  Some other time . . .

Afternoon snack at Sweet Action!  They even had my all time favorite ice cream flavor, Mint Chocolate Chip.  Ben is having Banana Reese's Pieces.  

Then home for a while to start a knitting project (because 2 knit works-in-progress isn't enough) and baby blanket with the flannel I bought.  Amanda came over and we talked choreography until my other friends arrived.  

 

We ordered cheesesteaks, french fries with cheese whiz dipping sauce, chips and soda, and of course the cupcakes!  It was a delicious feast, and a nice change from our usual pizza party.

Miranda surprised me with this gorgeous beret that I had seen her working on.  It's perfect for me and so finely knit! (BTW, if you haven't seen the play kitchen that she made her daughter, click that link straightway and look in amazement!)

Amanda found some great stamps and paper for my crafting supply.  We laughed that we bought each other stamps for our recent birthdays.  As an early nursery gift she found a beautiful pop-up book of The Little Prince. We were talking about using the color palette from that book for the nursery, and maybe some stars and moon imagery.  We already have the book in two English editions and a French.  Now we have this glorious illustrated version too!  Our kid will not be allowed to touch it until 2nd grade.  It's too nice of a book!

Thank you to all my friends and family who called and visited and pitched in to make my day really really great.  I love you all!

28

Thank you for all the birthday well wishes!  I had a wonderful day.  My dear sweet husband took me to all my favorite things and I had a great time visiting with friends tonight.  I took a few pictures to post later showing what we did to celebrate. 

Dreamsicle Pie

I improvised a pie based on a key lime pie recipe.  My friends helped us eat it and they demanded that I write down the recipe to remember.  Sadly I don't have a picture because it was devoured too fast!

Dreamsicle Pie
2 cans sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup sour cream
3/4 cup clementine juice
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 2 limes
zest from all the clementines that you squeezed

Combine all the above ingredients in a bowl.  I think it would have stirred smoother if I had blended the sour cream and condensed milk before adding the juice.  Pour the filling into a pre-made graham cracker crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until you see tiny pinhole bubbles burst on the surface.  (Don't brown it!)  Remove and cool completely.  Let chill in the fridge, preferably overnight.  Slice and serve with whipped cream.

Move your body

My dear sister has optimistically invited me to choreograph some parts of the spring musical.  Optimistic because:
A. work is scheduling me for 4 shifts per week, and because we are short-staffed we often work overtime (like yesterday) and
B. my dancing skills have waned a bit since becoming pregnant.  Or should I say, all skills that involve movement have waned.  Including standing up from couches.  My co-worker saw me struggling to get comfortable in my chair during the 7th hour of Monday's hospital orientation.  "When are you due?" he whispered.  "End of May," I replied.  He ticked the months off his fingers, "Wow, you have a long way to go!"  Yes.  Yes I do.  Thank you for pointing that out for me. Now help me cross my legs.

So with her dear students in mind I summoned all my energy to get to the gym this morning.  Yes, after a 16 hour day with only a 30 minute lunch break, a fitful night's sleep while on call, and waking up with a scratchy throat I exercised.  Because I only blog when I can brag about my awesomeness. (For example, I haven't been sick since January 2009.  I hope this throat scratch blows over).

I like going to the gym because I can spend longer exercising and stretching than I do when I stay home.  The elliptical is also the only form of aerobics I can do without severe leg pain.  I still have bad aches in my gracilis every time I take a step.  But for some reason running on an elliptical is completely painless.  When I got home I stretched a little more.  Molly joined in.

While stretching my quads I looked down at what used to be a flat plane from hip to hip and saw this:

Oh.

Oh my.

I'm in ur living room, eclipsing your sun!

Now if you will excuse me, I think it's almost time for elevenses.

Jem and her buddy

Jem has a couple beagle pals at daycare.  They recently posted a video of her getting good and tired. 

February

I'm so glad it's February.  Good stuff happens:
Superbowl parties (I hate football but love the food and friends)
Oscar parties
My birthday
Valentine's Day
And it's a short month, so it's over before you know it!

I'm now six months pregnant.  Egads.  I feel pretty good except the fitful sleeping, the constant belly poking by the kid, and tearing of my abdominal muscles.  Otherwise no health problems.  I continue to outgrow my clothes and struggle finding comfortable things to wear to work and church. 

I'm knitting like a fiend lately.  I have two projects going for myself, I finished Ben's hat, and I have my eyes on a sweater vest pattern for our little boy.  That's on top of my spinning that I'm still working on.  I'm resisting going to the yarn store as long as possible.

I was on call all weekend and it sucked.  I get so anxious.  I was sure that I would be called in twice, once for a patient in the ICU that the docs told me on Saturday they would want to dialyze on Sunday, and once for one of our regulars who hadn't been in for over a week and a half.  That was on top of our normal flow of emergencies, who often come in Sunday evenings.  It seemed like a sure thing so I was a bundle of nerves all weekend, watching my pager nervously.  Never called me.  Weird.  Instead of being glad that I didn't have to work I'm exhausted from worrying about it.  I really need to get this call mind-set in better control. 

Today was my day off.  Laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, and knitting.  Exciting stuff.  I guess I don't have much else to say.  Just checking in to say hi, I suppose.

Spinning success

I finished my first skein of handspun yarn using my wheel.  It's so much fun to spin!  I just used the book that came with my wheel to teach me how to spin and ply the yarn together.  I started to work on that beautiful blue roving in the background, you can see my first bobbin is already almost full.  I can't decide if I want to to ply the blue yarn, making it lofty and strong, or leave it single ply so I have more length to knit. 
(How awesome is it that my new craft space gets natural sunlight in through the little egress window?)

Burning up

I'm so happy Burn Notice is back on the air.  It's like a fantastic, juicy cheeseburger and fries.  Utter junk yet so delicious.

I'm finally making some good progress on Ben's Norwegian hat. I'm moving my craft space into the basement.  My former room will be the new nursery.  We threw out the 1977 couches and got a new sectional.  I love it so much!  I set up my craft table behind it and it's become my favorite place.  I have my laptop, my knitting, a snack, and a good show playing on our franken-dvr.  

It's been a rough week at work.  We're ramping up to start two new hospital contracts.  Extra training sessions everywhere, staff shortages, and on top of that a lot of acute patients at our regular hospital.  I'm the only one from our morning shift who is home yet.  The others who started at 6 had to take over evening shift as well.  I only got to go home because I'm on call, so in the event that I get called back I won't be completely exhausted from working 17 hours.  I don't think things will calm down until at least mid-February.

Hike + BBQ = awesome

I'll leave the hike pictures to Ben.

Expanding

Here's a requisite pooch shot.  Thanks for the Bellaband tip, Ant.  I found a BeBand at Target by the same makers and I'm in my old jeans again.  This will help hold my scrubs up too!

First Trimester Musings: Recovery

November 18, 2009 - I vacuumed a floor.

First Trimester Musings: Ultrasound

(Written at 12 weeks, early November 2009)

I am so so relieved to have had the ultrasound.  It's scary how I really have no perception that there is a little human inside of me, with bones and tissue and an APPENDIX, for crying out loud.  How alien.  I swore this was a molar or ectopic pregnancy.  How could it be so easy?  How can I feel so normal? 

(9 week pregnant self feel free to stab future self for saying this.  Does she REMEMBER sitting at home, not being able to do anything but nap under a quilt, not even browse the internet?  And how she threw up a single saltine, and on another morning just water???) 

But really.  From all the stories and "common symptoms" I read, I've had it fairly easy.  Way to go, genepool.  I knew these hips meant I would be a baby-making rockstar.

First Trimester Musings: Acceptance

(Written mid October 2009)

I've had a strange disconnect between having a baby and being pregnant.  I just feel pregnant, like it's a temporary disease that's giving me weird symptoms and will eventually go away.  I'm adament about not looking at baby products or baby advice or baby names.  After two weeks of excitement, I turned all my books and pamphlets from the OB facedown.  For some reason I don't want to see the work "pregnant" around the house.

I was watching some old Muppet videos on Youtube.  The thought came to me, that I frequently have thought, that I should be sure that when we eventually have kids, they watch some Muppets because Muppets are awesome.  Then I had an epiipheny - this wasn't some far off prediction.  There was a kid in my belly RIGHT NOW.  She/He will be the one that I encourage to watch Muppets.  Right there with me now in this room.  I kind of freaked out in a major way.

First Trimester Musings: Food

(Written October 2009)

If I get up before 8 am, I have to puke at least once.  Good luck trying to eat anything before 9 am.

The first thing I cooked in three weeks was bacon.  Nitrate and nitrite free bacon, courtesy of my dear dad.

My food aversion has manifest as "anything that you cooked."  If Ben makes it or I buy it ready made, I seem to do better.

Surprisingly, peanuts are my go-to snack for keeping fueled during the day.  And suddenly orange juice is delicious.  And pickles.  I had a Jimmy John's pickle and wanted to marry it.

What's happening in my belly?

Because I hear you are all dying to know :-)  I'm in that weird poochy stage.  My clothes don't fit and my husband says I've looked pregnant for months.  But when I tell people the news and that I'm 21 weeks, they look down at my stomach and tell me I don't look pregnant at all.

I feel him moving all the time now.  Especially during a meal (blood sugar spike?) and when I change positions - sitting to standing and such.

My belly button is disappearing way too fast!  It's kind of freaking me out.

The most annoying pregnancy change?  My absurdly strong pulse.  I hear it when I'm trying to sleep at night.  I feel it in odd places like my scalp, my shoulders, and pretty much my entire abdomen.  I feel my heart pounding with extra stroke volume when I climb stairs.  I swear I can even feel my inferior vena cava flowing.  My hand veins are so engorged with extra blood that they are raised and fat.  L&D nurses must have the easiest patients for placing IVs. 

I'm going to post a couple things I wrote during the first trimester, just to catch up my journalling.

It's a boy!

Everything in its place and he's right on schedule. 

Comforts

Snow falling quietly, kneading yeasty dough, sipping French hot
chocolate, and knitting green curls. I like today.

A new decade

I told Ben that I couldn't believe another decade has passed.  "Really?" he asked, "I can.  We had a lot happen in the last ten years."  We thought of all the momentous things that happened to us in the aughts. 

• Most of our courtship and our marriage
• All of my undergrad education
• My first real job as a research assistant
  
• Completing a second degree
• My second real job as a nurse
  
• Most of Ben's college years
• Numerous jobs for Ben
• Moving five times in three cities
  
• Buying our first house
• Buying my first car
• Buying my first new car
• Travel too numerous to count
• Thousands of knit stitches
• Thousands of video games
• A movie-making phase
• A ballet revival phase
  
• Getting a cat
• Getting a dog
• Three computers for me, who knows how many for Ben?

Ok, proven wrong.  I guess it seems right that ten years have passed, given all the growth we've had. 

We're excited to start a new adventure this year.  For those who haven't heard yet, we're having a baby in May.  That's right, I'm 21 weeks pregnant.  Want to know why I was so quiet in the blogosphere in October and November?  That's called the first trimester and it BLOWS!  But those times are past, I feel pretty great these days.  The little kid has finally made itself known to me.  Just in the past week I started feeling movement.  Now I swear it's doing somersaults in there.  Tomorrow we have the big ultrasound to find out if our first will be a little boy or little girl.  I don't care which, I just want to know!  I'll be sure to let you all know too, and perhaps I'll fill in some details on how the pregnancy has been so far. 

Happy New Year and here's to ten more!

I can make bobbles!

Christmas break is turning into a fiber feast!  I've been knitting up a storm on my new addi-clicks turbo needles and learning to spin on my new spinning - wait for it - wheel!  Holy smokes it's so much fun. Technically it belongs to both me and Amanda.  Santa thinks we are mature enough to share a Christmas present.  :-)  I'm taking video clips of our vacation.  In January I'll knit those together into a little film of Christmas with the Waterhouses.  Hope everyone is having a relaxing week!