Done and done

Louis Auto Glass brought us six new windows today. They look excellent. Very clean. Would our old windows look better if we washed them once in a while?

Instantly noticeable is the reduced noise. Electric can be a bit of a busy street. These new windows block it out almost completely. Nice.

So the window project is done. Mostly because I didn't have anything to do with it. Except paying.

Since I had to stay home from work to let the window guys in, I:

• Made Erin breakfast
• Took Brindzi for a run
• Went grocery shopping
  
• Did laundry
• Thought about chocolate chip cookies (this happens multiple times, every day)
  
• Played Tichu online
• Had a peanut butter banana sandwich for lunch
• Cleaned the litter box
• Called the accountant
• Called the insurance company
• And:

My best project helper Paul came over and we turned this:

Into this:

So the threshold project is done, mostly thanks to Paul and his table saw, router, and compressed air nail gun.

I'm so used to project not being done, it's kind of odd when they get finished. The stairwell room, while certainly not close to being done, is close to being painted, after which it will look much more done. Of course, now Erin wants me to build an entire closet in the baby room. Good thing I know nothing about building closets. Paul?

Vitamin D

Adam and I got outside for some Vitamin D this weekend. It was/is a gorgeous February weekend and it was a LONG weekend, which is even better.

Adam down at Clayton Beach. It wasn't exactly warm though.

But that didn't bother Brindzi. She was just excited to be outside playing in the water and mud.

Then yesterday we headed up to Mt. Baker, along with everyone else in Western WA, to play in the snow. The views were amazing. It was warm enough, while working, to snowshoe in just a shirt, no hat, no gloves.

We hiked up to Artist Point with Becky and Kevin. The two pregnant ladies took up the rear. We got views down into Skagit County and what we assume is Baker Lake.

Supposedly this is a lucky tree. So said the lady on skis who insisted we get a picture with the lucky tree.

And of course the beautiful dome of Mt. Baker. Wow!

And here is our obligatory group photo with lucky tree. It was a pretty amazing day to get some sunshine, exercise, and fun.

Although today is just as nice, we have too many things to do around the house today. Like finish sheet-rocking, cleaning the sheet rock mess, and possibly some gardening. But we did get to sleep in today. Yahoo!

Flutters

I was 20 weeks last Monday. Wow, how time is flying by! In the last few weeks I have had some definite movement, or flutters (quickening) by the baby even on the outside of my belly. Of course it stops moving every time I try to get Adam to feel it. The small flutters have been happening for a while now, since about 17 weeks but the past two weeks it was very obvious. It was moving around a lot, which is fun to feel and realize something really is growing inside of me:-) People are finally seeing that I am pregnant. Must be those new maternity clothes.

I had my 20 week mid-wife appointment last week. I had a lot of questions for her regarding this diet she has put me on. At the last appointment she said I needed to be on a low carb diet to keep my blood pressure down. Or at least that is what I thought. I had some high blood pressure after I got out of college, my doctor felt it was mostly "white coat" syndrome so we started taking it at home and I lost a bunch of weight. Those both helped and I haven't had a high reading since around 2004. But my mid-wife is really worried about that. Also because my weight was higher than it should making me more at risk for gestational diabetes. So she explained that her low carb diet is more for keeping my weight gain down, reducing my risk of developing gestational diabetes, which is all related and connected to also keeping my blood pressure down. It seems complicated but she said this is what all mid-wives and OB's are doing with high risk patients now. She is trying to be preventative, the role of the mid-wife, instead of having to have medical interventions that I don't want. My goal is to gain as little weight as possible and so far I am doing well. I didn't gain any weight between this last appointment and the one before, even though my body is obviously changing. My total weight gain has been 8 pounds and I am 21 weeks (5+ months). I am committed to trying to do my best, to have the least amount of interventions so I can give birth naturally at the Birth Center.

So I am trying to be really good and eat my low carb diet and exercise as much as I can. Adam and I have been walking after work 3-4 times a week and trying to get out each weekend for some longer exercise either skiing or longer walks. I am also doing Prenatal yoga, which has been really fun.

I have been to 2 yoga classes so far. It's been fun to be in a room full of pregnant women. The class is 10 weeks long, each week representing a phase of the 10 months of pregnancy. My friend Becky is also doing it with me.

The other big news is that we got a KING size bed. More room for me to stretch out and get comfortable, room for Gryffin, Adam, and the baby!

Growing

Ok, so many of you have asked for it. Here is a picture of my growing belly, at week 17. I can really tell it's growing and my clothes don't fit any more but for some people it's still really hard to tell. What I call my extra padding has disguised my "bump". I noticed other (skinny) women at my prenatal yoga class who were the same weeks along (19), had what appeared to be much larger "bumps". I have always just had a little extra around my middle :-)

Yesterday I went out and bought my first maternity clothes. I was down to only having 2 pairs of jeans that fit. Now I have a pair of pants for each day of the work week, with stretchy bands no less. I find most typical maternity shirts a little much right now, they make you look extra big. So I am sticking with a few longer and just stretchier fabric. We will see how long that lasts, I found I now have to hide that funny band around all the jeans:-)

I am still a little overwhelmed by the whole baby room thing. I don't really know where to start of when I need to start. I feel like I still have a ton of time, although I know it will go quickly. So for now, I am just waiting and leaving it empty. It's already painted, it just needs stuff. Baby stuff.

Bend and Sore Legs

Although it took us a long time to drive through the snow in Oregon, we loved the snow once we got to Bend. It provided us with some great cross country skiing with the whole family, age 90 through the yet to be born baby Shaffer.

Here we all are at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park.
It was awesome to have a place that groomed and was FREE! We skied there for 3 days. Adam got private skating technique lesson from a former Olympian, Jed Hinkley! I got to ski with my 90 year old grandpa, Dan Bulkley and my mom. It was quite the family affair.

I tried out my dad's fancy fast classic skis that let me fly down the hills but my recreational technique was a little off. Luckily Jed and dad came to my rescue with a little more wax and a quick lesson on how to make them work a little better.

We also got to do a day of snow shoeing with Kevin, Meghan, Susan, Brindzi, and Mom. It was pretty cool snow shoe through the woods, over the lava beds, and up and down some hills. We ate lunch in a little shelter. Brindzi had the best time. She attempted to "swim" through the snow that was deeper than her. She was one tired dog!

Here we are. Almost the whole family. We were just missing Gryffin. I don't know if he would have liked the snow as much as Brindzi. And Baby Shaffer got to go along for the ride.

Here we all are. The snow was so deep it tired us all out. Adam and Kevin had some pretty good snow fights.

The bearded men of my family!

My mom and I ski along on this gorgeous day that allowed us to finally see the Mts.

The last day of skiing we decided to go into the back country. Only a few people had ventured back there, so the snow was pretty deep and soft still. I fell down and had trouble getting up because the snow was too deep to hold my poles. I also blame it on being pregnant and that my center of gravity is off;-)

We had to try to get a shot with the Mts in the back ground. On this one, Adam made it back in time. It's hard to get from the camera, precariously propped on a tree, in skis.

Pretty amazing day to end our trip to Bend, Oregon! We had a new years eve game fest, cheered in the new year, slept and made the trek back to Bellingham. Next year's trip might be a little different but we already started checking out what kind of cool contraptions there are to ski with babies!

I ain't dreaming

We didn't wake up to it. But things still turned white. Hurrah! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Hope everyone is having a good time with friends and family.

Citizen forestry

I'm not feeling particularly wordy tonight. By which I mean I'm not feeling particularly clever with my words, not that I can't think up any. Onward disjointed, generic sounding ramblishness! Ah:

We headed up to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest this weekend to find a Christmas tree. Usually we pick one up on Bainbridge during the Thanksgiving weekend, but we hosted the Turkey Day in Bellingham, and so had to find a tree...alternatively.

We aren't at all interested in spending $50 on a dead plant, so we headed up to the National Forest, because for $10 you can cut any tree you want under 12 feet. Of course, that depends on finding one. Part of that $50, that's called "convenience."

We wandered for a long while (actually, we drove around for a long while), searching for promising groves. We saw a lot of hemlocks and cedars, but very few firs. If it wasn't for Jill and Paul and their chocolate chip cookies, we may have gotten discouraged.

Eventually we did find and area that had been clear-cut long before, and had many firs for the choosing. So we tromped around for a while until we found the perfect one.

And of course, by "perfect" I mean the least not perfect.

Adam 1, Nature 0

It's a bit Charlie Brownish. Very few branches and hardly any strong ones. Lots of ornaments. Which would be great, except there are almost no branches without ornaments, which I've decided looks not ordinary. It's nice enough, though. It looks like a $10 tree. Or maybe $15. There are probably better trees out there, but we didn't see them. It's hard when the tree farm is 1,724,229 randomly planted acres.

I'm done writing words now. Check out that post below! Yow!

Ba-bum Ba-bum Ba-bum Ba-bum

That is the sound of a heart beat beating 150 times per minute...of a baby inside of me! Yes, I am excited to announce to the cyber-world that I am pregnant! Adam and I are super excited! I am almost 12 weeks along, or 3 months. It will be due around June 24th. Perfect timing for school to be done :-) We will keep you informed with all the exciting growth and changes.

How's today then?

10:46 am

Thanksgiving in Bellingham. My family, plus my Aunt Pam and Erin's Aunt Mary. Good times and good food.

Last weekend, Paul came and helped me mud and tape the sheetrock in the stairwell room. Paul being the expert. Me being the bungler. But it's looking pretty good. Of course, I haven't worked on it since then...

Also built the big door for Gryffin's bathroom. So it's closer to not being not done.