To a Great Father-in-Law

Okay, so I am spoiled with great in-laws.  I know that, but today my father-in-law proved just how totally awesome he is.  No wonder where my husband got it from. Which on a side-note props to Dan once again for being a great husband.  I had to feed the horses last night and it was snowing like crazy.  Last year this wasn't such a problem since we lived ten minutes away from the barn on roads that were usually pretty clear.  However, yesterday I was pretty afraid to make the trek out there alone. Not to mention that hauling two bales of hay around in snow and all bundled up is getting ridiculously more difficult.  Dan was sweet enough to drive all the way out there with me run an errand while I did most of the feeding, and then play with the dog in the freezing snow while I finished up.  (hallelujah for Carharts and Jessica doing the waters for me).  This was huge considering Dan is not a huge fan of being at the barn, the cold weather, traffic, or being out in crowds.  He had to do all of those things just to make me feel better about going out in the weather.  It was a nice memory for me to watch him play with Solo in the snow with the horses contentedly eating and it mostly quiet as it got dark.  Which I am sure Dan will make fun of that sappy comment later.  Altogether though, it was a three hour adventure and I was VERY grateful to Dan.  ANYWAY, back to my father-in-law,  it all started when I needed to finish my christmas shopping and didn't have anyone to go with for many varying reasons.  Knowing my mother-in-law would likely be shopping today as well I figured I would give her a call and meet up.  Turns out I was right... most of the family may even be able to guess what store she was at.  However, she also happened to be with her husband.  They assured me they wouldn't mind the company and I went to meet up with them (I know, very strange for someone to actually want to do this, but I said I have great in-laws).  I met up with them and took care of a few things and then my mother-in-law had a nail appt.  I needed a few things from a certain store and my father-in-law, Gene, said he could use going there too to look for something so we decided we would go continue shopping and meet back up with my mother-in-law after her appt.  Well, we finished up before her and in our shopping I had mentioned I needed socks.  My in-laws had told me I might as well get them while I was out.  I explained I needed compression socks due to a pesky vein in my left calf causing my left ankle to swell enormous (even for me who happens to have cankles when not pregnant)  and my calf to get sore.  So, what does Gene do?  He heads over to Wal-greens with me, walks right down the feminine products aisle, (despite the fact the compression socks aren't on that aisle) doesn't blink an eye about wandering around with a significantly younger pregnant girl, helps pick the right socks out and even insists on paying for my old lady socks.  Thanks so much Gene, you are awesome! My calves will thank you later I am sure! We met back up with Karen and had lunch and it was nice to finish up my shopping without having to brave the craziness myself.  Wow, I just realized how co-dependent this post makes me sound, but really I just get bored by myself. I really can manage going places alone . . .

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Okay, I didn't really think I was being that pathetic, but according to Dan and our last post I was.  However, I am so lucky to have such a sweet and thoughtful husband.  I went to register at Babies 'R Us with my sister Monday night.  Dan didn't go because we had pretty well picked out all of the stuff that he would care about and weren't putting any really large things on our registry.  I figured who better to do it with than someone who has three kids.  (although I must apologize to my sister because it still took a ridiculous amount of time.)  When I got home Dan had a wonderful surprise for me.  It was a christmas miracle! He had replaced our old fake tree, moved stuff so it would fit in our living room and had it all set up for me to decorate.  It was so sweet of him.  So, we have a tree after all and I got to get out my ornaments in the end.  It is a bit of a small tree in a cramped space so go ahead and laugh at how squished the ornaments are.  I couldn't leave any of them off of it of course so they are in tight quarters.

I HATE WINTER!

The only thing more depressing than the latest onslaught of winter arsenal is the recent state of our blog.  We appreciate the loyalty if there are any readers left.  Thank you for sticking with us through the troubled posts or lack of posts in that last month.  School became crazy and I didn't have time to co-author our blog.  Mikaela says "little did you know how bad that would be.  BIG OOPS!"  I had no idea how down she had been feeling until I read our blog.  We've done some major damage control in the form of time spent together to try and satiate the medically/physiologically induced troubles.  I know it must be difficult for Mikaela to only have a husband in theory when school is in session.  She has done an amazing job of supporting me and preparing for our family in the last few months.  Our blog really wasn't that bad but I wanted to do a new post with some pictures of summer to get the blood flowing again.  I am a severe antagonist of winter conditions and each year my feelings seem to get stronger.  Unfortunately, winter isn't leaving anytime soon and so I am going to make the best of what we have by reminiscing about summer experiences through the medium of photography.  I hope that you enjoy some of the photos. 

This picture was taken in Moab.

This was the hike to get up to where we took the previous picture.

This was at Lake Mead early in the year.

This was taken on the coast in Newport, Oregon.  You can't really see the ocean because of our extremely large heads but it was a good memory so deal with it.

This was taken in August at a lake in Oregon.

OOPS

Well, the Dr.'s appt. went fine. No concerns that we are aware of. The glucose drink did make me pretty sick and give me one killer headache but my Dr. assured me it did the same thing to him when he tried it and not to worry. However, my left hip has been a little sore since Sunday (a bit of foreshadowing if you paid attention to my last post) I asked the Dr. what may have caused this and how to prevent it. He let me know it was probably a strained hip flexor and that heavy lifting and twisting could cause it. Good thing I moved that furniture around Saturday, it looks so much better now where it is than where it started! Oh, that's right, it's in the same spot. Oh well, I guess I learned that lesson the hard way. Luckily, it is feeling better and no real harm done.

Confessions of a pregnant crazy person . . .

Okay so I admit I actually had a terrible attitude on Thanksgiving, was quite ornery and rude to my in-laws and generally felt sorry for myself. Why do you ask? Because I was being a spoiled brat. Thankfully on the following Sunday at church we had excellent speakers and I was reminded of what this time of year is really about. Unfortunately, it was too late for some sorry suckers that had already spent time with me. I truly had great reason to be thankful I was just ignoring it. I have a wonderful family and in-laws that are so supportive and generous and we really couldn't ask for more from them. I frequently say how lucky I am to have married into the family I did, however, apparently it is really easy to take people for granted when you are working on growing a person. I also can never express enough how truly lucky I am to have met and married the man I did. I do not know what I would do without him and I am so grateful to have him in my life. How lucky that I got an honest, hard-working, patient, kind, therapist all in one (how you liking the post you kept telling me to do Dan? ;op) I also am blessed with amazing supportive friends. I can honestly say I probably have the best group of girlfriends right now that I have ever had and I am SO grateful. Not only that, but Dan actually encourages me to spend time with them. Anyway, either the glucose drink I just had to do before my Dr's appt or this post is making me sick so... on to other topics. Pregnancy is going well, it seems to be flying by and right now I feel like I could use a little more time to pull myself together and become an adult. Dan says I am following the textbooks as far as normal nesting behavior and when I worry about what, so hopefully that means I will actually have some instinctual ideas of how to care for the poor thing as well. Solo decided to give us a practice run of getting up in the middle of the night when he was sick last week. Fortunately for Dan he slept right through it and can thus expect to sleep through the kid too. Unfortunately for me it just reaffirmed how much I love sleep and hate being woken up. One bonus to the the baby is that I won't have to go out in the freezing cold to let him go potty or walk to the dumpster following every said trip outside. As christmas approaches I was realizing our apartment is pretty tiny and our fake tree probably won't fit so I was not planning on doing any christmas decorations. I was pretty bummed because my ornaments are my favorite decoration. My mom has been giving us one ornament per year since we were little kids and they are so sentimental now. I love looking through them each year and remembering the milestones and other events they represent. Dan comes from a family of very matching synchronized trees. The first year we were married his response when seeing my ornaments of all different shapes and sizes was, "You aren't putting those on our tree are you?" I told him of course I was and did. Now that he has a few of his own I realize he is much more interested in our non-matching but very meaningful ornaments. It is by far my favorite tradition and always one of my favorite gifts to open each year. So, I figured, no ornaments no decorations. But, last weekend I was nesting pretty bad and decided I better get out my nativity at least to help me focus on what is really important. I am so glad I did, I ended up pulling everything but the tree and trimmings out and putting it up. Surprisingly Dan who usually complains about the decorations said it looked great and was very complimentary. (Goes to show how scary I am pregnant) I also spent two hours moving the previously mentioned HUGE (not really that huge) baby furniture around trying to make it fit better. Surprise, surprise it ended up back in the exact same spot. Thanks for that trait mom, it was a great work-out. Anyway, off to another Dr's appt.