Bye bye Durango

I'm pretty behind on blogging. In getting ready for the baby to arrive, however, I have recharged the camera batteries. The last pictures were from three weeks ago when we traded in our 99 Durango (205k miles) for a Toyota Highlander. The new car is about to get its second tank of gas under our ownership! It hasn't had its picture taken mostly because it is parked under our tree and without leaves, the tree does nothing to protect the cars from birdsh*t.

Mark and Lilly came with us to trade in the cars since their furnace had ceased working that day and incidently it was the one of the few days we have had any snow yet this winter!

How Quickly The Weather Changes!

Last week, we took a nice walk just south of our house and took in the veiws of the Mountains. You can see a little snow on the peaks.

I think this would be about 34 weeks, almost 35--eight days ago.

Yesterday afternoon the tiny ice pellets turned to snow and it really stuck in our bare dirt backyard. Here are all the trucks out roughing it.

And here is our garden getting its first blanket of snow for the winter.

Baby Shower

Our baby shower was great fun! We were so glad to see so many good friends & glad you could all make it way down to Littleton! Amy, Joanie and Buffy did an awful lot of preparing and organizing food, decorations and activities and we are VERY grateful--it was perfect!

More Finishing

When Betty took the chic wood paneling down, we found out there were large pieces of drywall missing where extra outlets had been added. I spent this afternoon patching and mudding:
Here is the wall with the patches in place.And here it is again with the first layer of mud.

Beginning the Finishing

Betty adds the finishing touches to the framing around our new basement window.
The little Volkswagon makes a trip to Home Depot in order to pick up a couple sheets of drywall!
After bringing the drywall inside, we were pretty tired out, but managed to put up one sheet before calling it a night.

Continuous Improvement

I spent Friday morning taping most of the house so that Betty could paint trim on Saturday. Betty ended up running through two more rolls of tape as she touched up all the shelves in the livingroom as well as placing tape on the floor where it was a little hard for me.

I spent Friday afternoon mudding the newly exposed drywall in our basement so that Betty could spend Saturday sanding it! You can see she is a little dusty! Also featured is our favorite contractor, Mr. ShopVac.

Why people don't like being pregnant

When we found out we were pregnant, I signed up for a couple of email lists that send out updates on a fairly regular basis. They seem to have bred and I now receive several a day. Most are advertisements for things that I MUST buy if I expect to possibly survive pregnancy and motherhood. Unfortunately, the informational ones are almost never helpful or kind. Throughout they have explained to me various types of torture I should be experiencing--it seems they are written by the same people who have to tell every pregnant woman they meet their own terrible birth story, that she will never get her body back and sleep is highly overrated. While these things may well be true, they will overtake the new parents whether they knew about them or not. I am sick, I don't have heartburn, I am not in pain, I don't have to wake up more than once or twice a night to pee, I'm not any more grouchy than I would normally be without food, I don't have any problems with the way my body looks. Perhaps there is an email list out there that includes the part I like (your baby is now the size of a pumpkin) and also includes positive information about pregnancy--I am certain that I am not the only woman who enjoys this time. There is a tiny, separate human right inside of me. She has her own perspective and opinions about what goes on out here and in there. How cool is that?!

For example:
Braxton-Hicks and back pain
Lisa, you may begin to feel (if you haven't already) periodic Braxton-Hicks contractions over the next few weeks. These are absolutely normal but can be somewhat uncomfortable at times. Your body is literally practicing for labor, and they give you a little taste of what it will be like. In addition to the contractions, you may also feel a variety of aches and pains on your lower ribs and pelvis. Pelvic pain is generally felt in the lower back and is caused more by your pelvis expanding in preparation for birth, than pressure from the baby. The rib pain is caused by pressure from your baby and uterus, probably feels like a dull ache, and can be felt all the way across the top of your abdomen. Ouch!

I don't have any of these things going on (which is true pretty much about every email I receive)--my pelvis has been spreading since about 10 weeks and of course its not comfortable, but of course its totally normal! Of course, I don't have rib pain because my baby still has about five inches to go before she can reach my ribcage!