T minus 7 minutes

Well, I've got pasta boiling and it will be the end of having supper ready, so I've got seven minutes to post something.  We've made it through the first couple of weeks of March with not much ado.  We're still in limbo about all sorts of things, so no resolution on any job fronts.  We do know that we're still working on having a baby in May though.  We go back to the OB this Wednesday.  This is the last of the monthly appointments, so we start biweekly after this.  Two weekends back we managed to put together baby furniture and have moved the house around a bit.  This past weekend we didn't do much of anything, just recovered.  I also taught my last couple of courses at Westwood so I'm done there until August-ish.  This coming weekend we will start demolition on the bathroom.  Chris wants to get it all done in a week, so we'll see how it goes.  I have faith that it can happen, just will it is the question.  I'll probably get to do some painting, but as long as he gets the major stuff (like the bathtub, tiling, and sheetrock hung) we'll be good to go.  I'm still at the cafe though that will only be through the end of the month -- it has been very painful to be up and about so much.  Anyway, this is apparently as much as I can type before the timer goes off, so I had significantly less than seven minutes to start with.  I hope that all is well by everyone. 

Walk in the Prairie

Well I had today off.  I should be writing thank you notes for the shower, or grading papers, or sleeping, or the list could probably go on indefinitely.  I chose to do something I wanted to do though and go to the prairie.  The prairie has a trail that I walk and run on -- the first outside walking this year since I was on a strict no slipping policy for this winter.  I took my phone which means I could get some pictures of winter giving way to spring.  This time of year really is great in my opinion as we watch the snow melt, the water levels rise and green buds begin to form.  We won't have anything close to a true spring for a month or so, but it is still nice to see the preparation of it all.  

Some remaining snow caught in the bushes

Bubbling brook

Not quite thawed out pond, but its getting there -- see the lighter colored ice?

Trees in the distance

Almost makes me forget I'm in a metropolitan area when this is what I see. 

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Shower Pics (Finally)

My niece and me all shower ready.  She had a great dress!

cake -- it was apparently good as most of it got eaten.

Wrapping up a month

Well, this starts week 29 for me.  I finally decided to "pop" a little.  The chiropractor today was not surprised I was so sore because what takes most people several months to do, I managed to do in about three days.  I got a lot of sleep in Tulsa over the weekend in so that's probably where some of it comes from -- getting enough rest that my body could do what it needed to do.  The past few weeks have been interesting -- from an interview for me to new closets both Chris and I have been super super busy. 

My school term at Westwood is almost over -- I have two weeks left!!  I'm so excited that I can't contain it.  I'm not teaching for the next two terms so it will be a welcome break.  Hopefully by August (when the next possible term for me to teach in) I will have a new position that doesn't require me to teach, but I could teach if I wanted...which at this point I don't. 

I'm actually planning on writing more tomorrow because I've got time off in the morning.  I will upload a few shower pictures and go from there.  My mom had a GREAT shower for me this past weekend that brought in lots of interesting stuff.  I got a few essential things (like diapers, bibs, diaper bag) and some fun things -- like toys and teethers.  Since we didn't find out gender people didn't bring us clothes at all, which is kind of weird.  We now have one thing that we can bring the baby home in.  :) 

Chris is having a lot of drama at work and hopefully it will all work out in a way that is immediately recognizable as good.  There are several scenarios where he loses both of his "underlings" and has to train a new person who makes considerably more money than he does.  Hopefully the department will realize that they've got to do something and end up paying Chris more.  I mean, even bringing the position up to market value would be a great thing and help us out tremendously. 

I'm off to continue my trend of getting a ridiculous amount of sleep each day. 

Busy Busy Busy

Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks.  Last weekend we decided that we'd make a quick trip to Minne to see our friends there.  We drove up after work on Thursday and then drove home on Sunday.  It was nice to get out of town and enjoy each other in the car.  It was nice to just stop and let things be.  We also realize that this will be the last trip that we make just the two of us and so that was an interesting conversation we had.  We played lots of games and made lots of good food -- as is normal for our trips to Minne.  Heather likes to cook and bake so we are always inventive of things to eat.  We managed to make chocolate covered strawberries this time -- yum.  It was also nice because David recently quit his job so we got to hang out with him on Friday.  We also got above freezing so David and Chris went out to get some of the slush off of the drive way.  Here's a pic of them doing so.

Cooling the strawberries outside since there was no room in the fridge.

That brings us to Valentine's Day.  We discussed going to a movie but decided that after our busy weekend we just wanted to stay home and chill on the couch.  Ripley did have a lot to do with this decision because I didn't want to sit down much more.  We also opened a couple of great presents for Ripley -- a carseat and a stroller.  :)  We're slowly accumulating stuff for Ripley.  As Chris says, "Ripley takes up a lot of space and it isn't even here yet!" 

Wednesday last week I had my monthly appointment.  It went well, except for the blood pressure part.  That was enough of a problem that tomorrow I get to go back and have it checked and whatnot again.  Hopefully it won't be too bad and I can finish out the term at Westwood and a bit of working at the cafe. 

Friday I had a phone interview with a company called Cabot Microelectronics.  I've applied for several positions with them, but finally found one that I'm easily qualified for.  They do inorganic slurries that are similar to some of the projects I worked on at OU in my undergrad years.  The phone interview was at 330, and by 530 I had heard back from the HR person.   :) Hopefully this means that I'll get an in person interview this week before I leave for Tulsa.  I missed the call because we had gone to see "The King's Speech."  It was quite a good movie and the fact that it is based on George VI is a cool thing.  I have heard several interviews about the movie on NPR and so I really wanted to see it. 

Today we went around looking for closets and bathroom stuff.  We are trying to remodel the closets to make them more space efficient (we've basically decided that the space in our place is about as in-efficient as it gets, so we're working on changing that) and think we've found the right pieces that it won't break the bank or Chris' back putting everything together.  We've also started to put bathroom stuff together because over Chris' spring break he wants to remodel the bathroom.  We purchased a dual flush toilet from Costco today, so it is now going to happen.  It is weird being grown up and being excited about getting stuff for toilets and closets, but hopefully it will enhance the last few months of this pregnancy thing and help us once Ripley gets here. 

Well, We Got the Blizzard

We definitely got hit by the Blizzard of 2011.  We got a little bit of snow on Monday night, then 18-22 inches of snow (mainly in massive drifts) Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning.  Since the snow came down with massive amounts of wind (we're talking 50+ mph here) we mainly got a TON of drifts.  The doors had drifts against them that kept them from opening -- I understand that for fire code the doors have to open outward (have to go with the flow of traffic leaving a building), but that prevents us from getting out entirely when there is two feet of snow up against the door.  The city was basically shut down yesterday as the snow didn't really stop until mid-morning.  A quick timeline in pictures: 

This was about 3:30 pm 1 February 2011

This was about seven pm 1 February 2011

This was about ten pm Tuesday 1 February 2011

 

This was about seven am Wednesday 2 February 2011.  

Since they canceled UIC, as well as the cafe, that meant both Chris and I got to hang out and have a snow day!  Something we thoroughly enjoyed.  We got a surprise day together and it was great for both of us.  We got to sleep in since we knew both works were closed.  We didn't have to clean the house since we both work on keeping it clean during our hours we are here alone, and I didn't have to work weird hours at the cafe -- I told the pastor (who originally had ideas of us opening the cafe at 6 like normal) that I couldn't get out because my car was buried.  When there is snow above the bumper of a car it doesn't go very far very well.  I ventured out earlier than Chris did to take pictures of the aftermath. I also wanted to dig the car out as the plows had started getting some spots clear.  I had a few guys come over and help dig me out -- really they just gave the car a big push to get it initially over all the snow.  The driver's side door was pretty much completely covered, and the entire passenger's side was a drift of snow.  After getting me out the guys and I went around and helped brush off a few more cars.  It was nice to see the people here help each other out.  So often it feels like we are very isolated, but this demonstrated something a bit different. 

Later in the day both Chris and I ventured out.  We walked around the complex a bit and wanted to see the roads -- wanting to know exactly how bad they were since he'd have to be on an early train this morning.  We walked as far as they had plowed on the sidewalks, but ended up walking in the middle of the streets a bit.  We also walked by the lake/pond across the street where I typically run and it was quite pretty.  We ended our venture out by climbing a few of the snow piles at the edge of the complex.  They are probably 15-20 feet tall and very fun.  I was jealous of the children going down the snow piles on sleds, but we had fun going down our snow piles sitting down.  Here are a few pictures of the various things we saw while out.  The first picture is one of the fire hydrants.  Most people ask us, "Why are there little flags on top of your hydrants?" the first time they visit us -- and this is why! 

Notice the snow piles

ripples in the snow from the wind

 

This morning when I took Chris to the train it reminded me a lot of driving around OK at Christmas in 2007 after the massive ice storm.  The largest difference was that the trees were replaced with snow!  The snow is also a lot taller than the tree piles, but the fortification feeling was the same.  Most places only have one lane of traffic open because they can't get the snow out of the second one after plowing the first lane. 

13 Year Old Mail

Well, in the middle of our winter blizzard we decided to check the mail.  Apparently the post office is cleaning out mail in hopes that they don't have to deliver for the next few days.  (UIC is shut down tomorrow, possibly on Thursday and since 1965 when the university started that has NEVER happened.)  We received some report cards for the parents of Ashley Rushing.  If you know who this is, as they've graduated college now, they probably are concerned with their middle school report cards we received in the mail today.  We also got a few messages for the lady who lived here before us, but that was only 4 years old.

We're watching it snow and listening to the howling wind.  It is windy enough that driving home from school/work was horrid.  And not really because there was a lot of snow, but because of the stupid wind.  In 20 minutes that I was home while waiting for Chris's train to get here, the windows on the car froze entirely -- on both the inside and the outside.  We're also enjoying laughing about the fact that the pastor in charge at the cafe wants me to come in tomorrow at 530am.  Before I left the cafe this morning to go teach I basically told him I wouldn't be there tomorrow, but he didn't believe me.  I tried explaining that I was simply not going to make it, but he insists that I get up at five am and (while watching the snow come down still) confirm that I'm not going to make it. 

We watched the weather map and over the course of an hour it expanded to cover an extra 400 miles.  This means we will be getting DUMPED on.  :) I'm excited, though I'm not excited that it isn't really packing snow, so that means no snowmen to build.  Though that's on the agenda for tomorrow if we can stand the wind.  The windchill on Thursday is expected to be close to -30F.  As it stands we're already getting massive drifts happenings, but that's what happens with blowing snow.

Like I said though, we got 13 year old mail from the post office in hopes that they'd not deliver again until Friday.  However, the dust bunnies accompanying the mail are interesting.  I mean, where does the mail go for 13 years?  Did they all of a sudden decide that they needed that crate and it fell between a crate and the wall?

Since Chris and I have an unexpected bit of time together we're going to watch a movie and maybe make some supper.  (I was supposed to have class tonight, but they canceled it -- yay!!)  And I'll be taking regular pictures of the amassing snow, so that'll be the next post.