Saturday, January 31, 2009

Almost There!!

So, there is only 1 week until my due date. This last week, I have been working on finishing up any last minute things, making sure kiddo has clean clothes, sheets, that kind of thing. Oh, and I finally packed some things for the hospital. I think I have hit the point where I am ready to not be pregnant anymore.

Today, B is putting up the last door (we painted trim/doors). Its been a while since we had all of the doors attached to the house. Maybe now Pepper will stay out of the closets.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Happy New Year

So, its the new year. I have heard a lot of people saying that they are happy that 2008 is over, and I have to admit. Our 2008 wasn't that bad. We had a great trip in April, we found out about the baby, and otherwise the year has been pretty uneventful (not that I'm complaining). 2009 will be better though.


My vacation is almost over, and that makes me a little sad. I've been on vacation since 12-17, and have been working on going through boxes, making piles - trash, Salvation army, 1/2 price bookstore, just trying to get some of the clutter out of the house. B is going to start getting mad, I keep moving stuff around, I think it must have taken 10 minutes to find the coffee filters. oh well.


Alien baby is doing fine. I'm 35 weeks now, (out of 40), so only a couple of weeks left. B and I took some pictures, Pepper thought she needed to help. On wednesday (the 31st) we took a tour of the maternity wing where I am going to deliver, and filled out a lot of the paperwork to "pre-admit" me.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Merry Christmas

To all who found our little spot on the web from the Christmas card, welcome.

This year has been quite a year. We celebrated our 5 year anniversary in January. We went to Hermann, MO, and stayed in a B&B for the weekend. It was really relaxing, however there was an ice storm a few days earlier, and when we were leaving, the weather was questionable. Thankfully we made it home ok. In April we visited the beautiful country of Ireland. If you scroll down, you will see pictures and be able to read stories. To sum, it was great, and I would recommend it to anyone.

In June, we learned that we were expecting a new little person (still a surprise baby). February 7th is coming faster than I thought it would. Brian and I have been working on the house, trying to get all of the little home improvement projects done. It's getting close, we may just make it. Right now the baby's room looks like a disaster area, with boxes and stuff sitting around. I have time off until the end of the year so, I suppose I will try to get stuff straightened out.

Work for me has been crazy. As I am pregnant, I'm not working in the lab, so I've been writing reports....for the last 6 months. We had a huge project that got finished up the end of September, and then its been smaller projects with tight deadlines. Brian is working on finishing up his Ph.D. (hopefully in May). He finished up all of the course work, but is now working on his dissertation, and teaching a few undergraduate classes.

Brian and I hope that you have a great holiday season, Merry Christmas.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Pepper vs. The Wrapping Paper Tube

So, last year, we noticed that Pepper really enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper tubes, along with pretty much anything you gave her, egg carton, random collapsed boxes, paper towel tubes....

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Ireland, Day 7

Well, it all had to end sometime, and I think we were both ready to come home and sleep in our own bed. We got up early, and before the Innkeeper's kids were on the bus, we were eating breakfast. As we drove to the Shannon Airport there was this lingering thought "do we have enough gas?" Most of our vacation, we had only put a few euros in at a time, as we got to drop the car off empty, so we didn't want to put any more in than we had to. About 2/3 of the way to the Airport, we stopped and put 2 L in (gas was about 1.22 euro/L, 4L = 1 gallon). When we pulled into the car drop-off, our little meter said we had 15 km left in the gas tank, so I think we did pretty well. As we were driving, we were on the highway, we passed this beautiful castle, and of course there wasn't any time to stop/pull over. So I did what anyone would do - rolled down the window. We made it to the airport, and had time to check in, do a little bit of shopping in the Duty-free store, and change any euros we had left back to dollars. The flight home was pretty un-interesting, which I'm ok with.

Ireland, Day 6




We didn't drive near as much this day as the others, as we were staying Doolin another night. So we drove up the coastline a little bit, and visited the Burren, which is a piece of Ireland that is so rocky, I was amazed that anyone could raise anything, but sure enough when we were out hiking, we saw a man and his dog moving some cattle. Most of this day we stopped at another castle (imagine that) and went to more little church/cemetary combinations. So most of this trip, we have been using this map, that often has a little star and some sight to see, but no real direction as to how to get there. I managed to get B to turn down this little "road" that frankly, I'm surpised didn't rip the oil pan off of our little car. We turned in a little early this day, mostly as we had to pack and clean out the car a little bit. Our flight left pretty early, so we had to leave for the airport first thing in the morning.

Ireland, Day 5

We continued up the coast of western Ireland. To save time, we hopped on a ferry that took us across a small bay, where the Shannon goes to the sea. We then hugged the coast for a while. The view was fantastic, however, there was one slight problem. There are remarkably few public restrooms. And I'll just leave it at that. The big sight for the day was visiting the Cliffs of Moher. Which is I think the one place that every tour bus stops, but it was...wow.
We stayed that night in Doolin, which is a little town that is known for having lots of Irish music. Since it was pretty early in the season, only one of the pubs was open, and when you walked in the door, heat from the fireplace could almost push you over. The music was great. There were 3 guys, with a total of probably 6 instruments, ranging from the accordian, pipes/flutes/clarinets, and the bodhráns (traditional irish drum). And could they play. It was interesting to watch them play, they would just be talking/drinking, and then one would start up a new song, and the other two would just hop right on in.