I'm getting bigger!

I guess, eventually, I knew that I would get bigger in places other than my breasts and my abdomen...However, here's the catch...I didn't realize it would have anything to do with my choice in footwear.

Note to me: wearing flip flops when you are pregnant and your center of gravity is constantly changing while your weight is constantly increasing is not the idea of a genius.

Josh, Winnie and I didn't get but 25 feet from our driveway when I rolled my ankle. Oh, and boy did it hurt.

Part of me wonders if it was Karma. See, when I rolled my ankle, I was in the middle of complaining to Josh how I hate it when college is back in session because those idiot college students, while they are completely drunk and walking to or from their 5th party of the night, just toss their empty alcohol containers on the boulevard outside our house.

Well, anyway, I have a fat ankle but I also have a wonderful husband to wait on me.

Na Na nuh Na Na

I got to visit a friend last night and hold twin babies! Oh, how I can't wait to have my own.

And I hadn't been able to chat with this friend for a long time, so it felt wonderful to catch up and see eachother.

I just love babies! They are so cute and adorable...and....well...cute and adorable, they don't need to be much more than that to make me all smiles.

I took this picture in a harbor at Grand Marais. I like how the sun turned out. 

Josh, Steve, and Grandma staring up at a huge Cedar tree on one of the hiking paths we went on. 

The group of us playing Dominos at the Lodge House in Lutsen. 

My Dad's dog, Copper, crawled up onto my nephew while he was sleeping a few weekends ago.  

Shy Blogger?

OMG, have I turned into a shy blogger? It seems that lately, I've been having a hard time writing a blog a day. Shame on me! There is a million ideas and thoughts that make their way through my brain every day...And still I am having a hard time finding a topic to blog about? It seems wrong.

Today, I'll just give you a general update.

• I had my annual review at work, and let's just say that it went amazingly well!

• I excitedly subjected myself to an online grammar quiz today, which I not-so-excitedly report to you that I failed. Unless in some twisted universe 50% is still passing...Ouch, this was a blow to my self esteem.

• Josh and I will be purchasing a Scion Xb for our second vehicle in the next 6 months. It gets excellent MPG, and it has an excellent safety rating, and it's affordable, and it has the extra space we'll need now that we'll have a child, a dog, and a canoe.
  
  Here's a cool picture of it:
  
  The SCION XB, in all its glory.
  

• I was too curious to wait for my next doctor's appointment to find out how much I weigh now...So, I weighed myself at the exercise room here at work. What? You want to know how much I weighed? Well....Um....I guess I weighed 171 lbs. Ouch, even though I know I'm pregnant, and I've only gained 15 lbs so far, it just hurts to say it.

Okay, now, I'll post some more pictures after I post this blog.

Only 3 months to go!

Yay, I'm 2/3 of the way through! Just think, at Christmas, Josh and I will have a 2 week old baby boy. How exciting!

Jamie casting into Lake Superior 

Lake Superior Rocks 

Chelsea painting the view. 

Josh, Jamie and Steve enjoying Lake Superior 

Meet the Tin Man 

Photos of or around Lake Superior 

Josh and I at Grand Marais 

Rasberries that we hand picked while we were hiking. 

Get older, get more picky

I remember being young and not caring if the top of my pop can "might" be dirty before I drink out of it. This morning, however, I realized that I really wanted to wipe off the top of my orange juice can this morning before I drank out of it.

As I went to open my little 5.5 oz juice can, I suddenly remembered a story that my mom told me when I was younger... it went something like this...

"You should really wash off the tops of your cans before you drink out of them because my mother saw a homeless man urinating on a crate of pop cans (or was it bottles)in an alley once."

And after I remembered this little story, I remembered that I've noticed my coworkers wiping off their pop can tops before they open them. And now that I think of what could possibly be on a pop can top, I can't help but wipe mine off.

I've also noticed that the older I get, and the more informed I get, the pickier I become.

I don't use antibacterial soap anymore because it just creates a breeding ground for super bacteria that have become immune to the soap.

I don't touch the handles in bathrooms with my bare hands anymore.

and there are probably many other things that I have done all my life but have suddenly found a reason to modify.

One thing I will not do, though, is be one of those lysol carrying mom's spraying every single door handle in the whole house. It's hard not to think of those little creatures that look so icky in the magnified 10,000,000 times pictures hanging out on your door handles and countertops, and I can see why some women over sterilize everything.

But I've found that if I imagine those little creatures as tiny cartoons with weird smiley faces having a party on my doorknobs instead of the real-life nastiness that they are, I can ignore them.

Don't ever try to guess a pregnant woman's due date!

My conversation wth a coworker this morning went something like this:

Me: Hi (name of coworker)

Coworker: Hi...Hey...are you pregnant? [he chuckles at his own question as if he's joking]

Me: Yup, I'm pregnant [what else would I say?]

Coworker: When are you due? Pretty soon right?

Me: No, the first week in December [OMG! do I look like I could be due "pretty soon,"? He just basically called me fat]

Coworker: Oh, yah, that's a ways out still [He looked suprised when he said this]

Me: yup


So My lesson learned:

Don't wear this shirt again until I'm "due pretty soon." Although, maybe then I'll appear to be having Triplets!

EGAAAD!

I had hoped to make up for my lack of blogging and lack of pictures last week with one big fat blog complete with tons of pictures, but it seems that Blogger has decided that it doesn't like to upload my pictures today.

I'll try later tonight.

Until then, imagine how much fun I had at the Itasca County Fair on Saturday evening. Here are some of the things that I did at the fair:

• Ate 1 corn dog ($3.00)
• Visited the English Setter puppies in the Children's barn
• Ate 1 corn dog ($2.00) and 1 order of fries ($2.00)
• Watched my nephews ride the "magic school bus," the "dragon," and the "sizzler"
• Drank a large Root Beer ($3.00)
• Amazed myself at how wierd it was that the Carnies were now younger than me.
• Ate 2 ears of corn ($2.00)
• Shared a dough doggie with Josh (Mom's treat)
• Walked around the 4-H barns and wondered why I wasn't involved in 4-H when I was younger, then remembered I was involved in everything else.
• Watched Mom eat her Gyro. I really wanted a Gyro, but couldn't even imagine any left over room in my tummy for one.
• Drove home.

Hello from the North Country

I apologize for the infrequent blogs, however, when you visit this beautiful North Country, you will realize how much time you do not want to spend inside on a computer.

I am excited to post pictures when I get back and I'm sure I'll have plenty for you.

Josh and I will be salmon fishing today among other things. Yesterday, we took the "gondola" up to the top of Lutsen Mountain.

Loco or Cookoo

Today we went for a hike, overheated Grandma, cooled Grandma off, ate lunch, and then went swimming in the outdoor pool, the indoor pool, and I dipped my legs into the hot tub.

While we were sitting on lawn chairs enjoying the sun, we were able to witness a wonderfully intelligent conversation between a bunch of youngsters who were enjoying the pool.

Youngster A: "We're loco, do you guys know what loco means?"
Youngster B: "no"
Youngster A: "It means cookoo."
Youngster B: "You're cookoo."
Youngster A: "No, you're loco!"
Youngster B: "cookoo, cookooo"

The conversation went on for a while before they decided to play "whoopie war" which meant that they should hit eachother with their pool noodles.

It has been quite a day so far. :)

What a Beautiful Drive

So I've made it here to this beautiful resort/lodge and I am still in shock at how beautiful the drive here was. It was gloomy and rainy, so I didn't get out to take any picturs but I'll post more pictures of the week here when I have time.

The North Woods is a must to see.

Poor Little Catfish

4 AM

I wake up, notice Josh isn't in the bed next to me...I think the worst.

"Did he get in an accident on the way back from the bar last night?...He did ride his bike to the bar, maybe some drunk driver hit him" (side note: I just realized how much of a poor hick that makes him sound, riding his bike to the bar...Well, he went to see his brother's band play and he's conscientious of the environment)

I get out of bed, grab the phone, check all of the rooms on the main floor, start calling him...And then I notice the white vehicle in my drive way...I hang up the phone...Look out on my deck and I see this



It turns out that at some point, and I haven't actually heard this from Josh but am just assuming, Josh and his brother and his brother's roommate decided to go fishing after the band stopped or the bar closed and they caught a catfish. One solitary catfish. And being the good fishermen that they are, they decided that it should be filleted right away.

So, in short, I'm glad he's safe and I'm sorry for the poor little catfish that probably though that he/she would be safe going for that bait at this time of night...Because what fisherman in their right mind would be fishing so early in the morning.

I just had to blog about it.

The Sunlight is Going Away

When I woke up this morning at 7 am, and then hit snooze for another hour, and then woke up again at 8 am, I couldn't believe that it was so dark out still. I know that the darkness was due to the storm we had last night and the gloomy clouds that remained, but it reminded me that as summer fades away...so does our sunlight.

But then I remembered that my favorite season, FALL, will be here soon and I suddenly became happier. This morning, I have been giddy with red, yellow and orange maple leaves and the occasional jack-o-lantern dancing around in my head.

I'm already starting to get excited for our annual pumpkin carving party. Josh and I have had a pumpkin carving party at our home for the past 3 years! This is one tradition that I would like to keep for as long as possible.

I imagine for this year's party I'll do the following:

• Put out my Tupperware halloween bowls with candy in them for everyone to see
• Purchase body paints so we can paint my ever expanding belly as if it were a pumpkin
• Put out two tables for people to carve on
• Buy a halloween music CD to play in the background
• Display pictures from the last three pumpkin carving parties
• Force everyone to take a picture with their pumpkin and then a larger group picture

See, I know I'm crazy, but I can't help it. Fall and Halloween are just so much fun!

Guess who's under the pumpkin from our pumpkin carving party two years ago?

Comments to a Pregnant Lady

In the past few weeks, I've heard the following comments from people that I know.

"You're big for being five months along." - best friend

"You're walking funny now." - husband

"Wow, you sure have gotten big." - Co-worker

If I wanted to, I could probably still hide the fact that I'm pregnant by wearing an oversized sweatshirt, but then I would just feel fat. I find that I feel better when people can tell that I'm pregnant, however, I'm running out of clothes that help me achieve this.

I have an entire tub full of clothes that I can no longer fit into, and it seems like I keep adding items to this tub every day. I even had to go out and buy special grannie-like underwear the other day.

And I'm not ashamed that I have to wear grannie underwear because they are damn comfortable! Those of you who have been pregnant before probably know what I'm talking about. And those of you who haven't been pregnant before....you just wait!

OH, it's a pregnant lady


Just a fatty in a sweatshirt

The First of Many

August 6th marked our first wedding anniversary and boy did we have an eventful day.

Josh woke me up with a "Happy Anniversary" kiss while he held the fried egg, cheese and ham sandwich that he made me in one of his hands. I politely thanked him for making me breakfast but told him that I couldn't possible eat anything right at the moment, seeing as I just woke up from a really really deep sleep.

He didn't seem too hurt that I turned down the breakfast that he made me and he simply ate the sandwich so that it wasn't wasted. (I have a feeling that he was still hungry)

We attended church and heard his dad's new one-man blue grass band play during the service. I found it very enjoyable and the congregation seemed to like it too.

We visited his mom in the hospital, as she had her gall bladder removed the day before. She had finally been able to eat something and it seemed like most of the grogginess from the day before had left her. We visited for a while but then decided it was time for us to head back home.

The 4 hour drive seemed to go by quicker than usual, but I was extremely tired most of the trip and was falling asleep in the car. Winnie, the wonderful dog that she is, just slept in the back seat with no complaints.

When we finally arrived back home, we left immediately to go have our 1st Anniversary dinner at the Olive Garden (the same place we celebrated our engagement).

We capped off our evening watching some Ray Bradbury Theater episodes courtesy of Netflix.

What may seem to some as a boring first anniversary was actually a wonderful one. Josh and I spent the entire day together, and we had a wonderful time talking, and just enjoying each other's company. That's the great thing about us...We could be anywhere, and we can always entertain each other.

I have a truly amazing husband.

Ode to Homestarrunner

"Who is Homestarrunner," you ask. Shame on you for not knowing. He is just the semi-star of his own web site (his semi-friend strong bad is the real star) created by the brothers chaps. "Who are the brothers chaps," you ask. Oh for pete's sake, go look for your self. "Who is Pete," you ask. Oh, I give up....

www.homestarrunner.com

This is Homestarrunner:




You can meet the characters of this little net cartoon at this link

http://www.homestarrunner.com/characters2.html

This is a cute little cartoon that has no advertisements and is updated weekly. The humor is subtle, but there is no foul language, violence or nudity. It's just some good clean fun subtle and weird humor.

Baby Boy Names

We are giving up! at least until we HAVE to come up with a name for this child of ours.

I have a feeling that we'll just end up using the name that my husband prefers because it kinda was one of my favorites at first too...we'll see. Until then, we refer to him using words like "He" or "This Boy" or "Our Boy." Hey, it works for now.

Other events: I'm increasingly looking forward to our week long vacation to the Lake Superio coast line. Frankly, I'm just looking forward to doing nothing for an entire week. Of course, by nothing I mean...

1. Playing board games with my in-laws.
2. Listening to my father-in-law play his mandolin every waking minute like it's been surgically attached to his body.
3. Hearing stories about my husband when he was a boy.
4. Probably hearing naming ideas for our little boy.
5. Eating some delicious food.
6. And taking as many pictures as humanly possible.

We have a little break in the hot temperatures, which is a welcomed change. I hope everyone else around the country is getting the same.