penn

Checking in

I was going to call this the baby report, and then the scientist in me kicked in. And then I thought "fetus report" or "the parasite status" are a little weirder as title. Side note: yes, I do affectionately refer to my parasite.

We had the 16 week appointment last week, and everything looks great. I'm not really showing yet, but I am a little thicker. The heartbeat was nice and strong. My doctor is really pleased with the progress. I know something can happen any time, but I'm starting to breathe a little easier about everything.

Home preparations have slowly begun. We're starting to clean out the room we will use for the baby. A friend is kindly gifting us her crib and changing table (she's all done), so we'll pick that up this weekend. We still have to paint, but that is going to wait for nicer weather. It's no good painting when it's too cold to open up the house and air everything out.

In short, all is going well. We have our ultrasound in two weeks, and I am excited to see this little parasite moving around. We aren't planning to find out the gender (no pink-a-palooza or bluesplosion), so that will be a fun surprise waiting for us at the end.

Car sharing

Back at the end of June last year, Matt and I gave his car off to his brother in Fargo. Matt hasn't commuted in 5+ years, and we already had to take pains to use his car regularly. With me joining him at his school, we figured we'd use both cars even less. His brother needed a new car, so this was a win-win all around.

Thus far, car sharing has gone well. In the past seven months, we have had one night where we miscommunicated and both needed the car. This was rectified fairly easily. Other than that, we either go places together or take turns with the car.

The savings are good. We save a bit in gas, but most of our savings come from me not commuting to work (side note: this is the most amazing thing, and I love not getting in my car every day). We save about $300 every six months in insurance costs. I'm not sure exactly, since we lost the multicar discount.

The best part, however, is something completely selfish of me. Since we have started sharing the car, I think I have filled up the gas perhaps three times. Maybe less. Again, some of this is a function of not using much gas. We can often go three or four weeks without filling up unless we're taking a road trip or more than one trip up to the Twin Cities. In addition, Matt doesn't mind taking the car out for more gas and to run random errands.

In sum, I'm happy we gave up the other car. Maybe the impending kid will complicate matters more, but continued communication works wonders at making sure we can get where we are going. I'm hoping we can enjoy the savings and environmental friendliness of being a one car family for the foreseeable future.

Pineapple

We had a fun gift the day after we returned from the holidays. One of my best friends is stationed in Hawai'i, and he sent us two fresh pineapples! So delicious.

The pineapple is almost gone, but I wanted to commemorate this here. I hadn't cleaned a pineapple since I was 16 and living in Honduras. I had bountiful fresh pineapple there. I will say, I did not make the same mistake this time that I made then. One day, a friend and I there split an entire pineapple in one sitting. My mouth was raw for a week from all the acid. This time, I'm just enjoying the pineapple a little bit at a time.

Even the uncut pineapple smelled amazing!

Matt showing off the mad pineapple skills I taught him. I did the first one, but he had to finish the second because our little neighbor girl came over so I could babysit.

Now, I'm off to eat a little more pineapple. Such a winter blessing!

A little cleaning

One of the first things I did when we got back was go a little crazy on parts of our apartment. Now that we've settled in, we have a better idea of flow and organization. I noticed areas where I kept walking past items we never use to inconveniently get items we use all the time. There were other inefficiencies and just plain poor organization.

Matt and I tackled the pantry first. No before pictures (it was that shameful -- just imagine stuff all over the floor and lots of tripping to reach oft-used items in the back). Here's our new organization:

All the beer stuff used to be on the bottom left, but we don't use the beer items that often. Matt's brewing barrels used to be in our master closet (blegh) taking up lots of real estate. Tools are now at eye level (third shelf up). And I have a floor!

Perhaps the best change was moving all the cat stuff. We have a small bin we keep food in for daily scooping, but this is where we keep the big bags and her litter. This ans trash bags used to be scattered and behind stuff in the back of the pantry. No more!

We reorganized part of our bedroom too, but that's still a work in progress. We are inching ever closer to finally being able to show off a tour of our new place. One of these days *fingers crossed.*

Anyone else organizing to ring in the new year?

2013 year-end survey

I'm not sure if I've ever done one of these. If so, it's not been for a number of years. I thought I'd jump on this blogger bandwagon. I'm using a modified set of questions from Definitely RA.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 31 this past fall. My birthday happened to fall on our family weekend. While I thankfully didn't have conferences on my birthday, I was pretty tuckered out. Matt and I got fro-yo instead of doing a cake. Then, we went to see the Sandra Bullock movie Gravity. We probably got dinner at Applebee's because Matt's mom always sends me Applebee's giftcards for my birthday.

What are your strongest memories from this year, and why?
This year was rough for me. A lot of work stress and adjustment to being a teacher coupled with commuting, which I really dislike. The summer was the most memorable. We drove out west, like we did two years ago. There are lots of memorable moments from the trip, but I think the most exciting ones are all the osprey sitings. This truly was the summer of the osprey. Matt and I saw 6 or 7 osprey. One was carrying a fish as it flew over our car (!), and we even got to see an osprey catch a fish in the waters off of Alki in West Seattle.

What did you do this year that you’d never done before?
Lots of things -- went on a 6 night back packing trip, went to a Mariner's baseball game with Matt, and got pregnant. Yes, I totally buried the lede there. More details soon! (PS if you know me on facebook, this is something we're not bringing up there for the time being)

What did you want and get?
I wanted a new job, and I got it! I also got a new washer and dryer (our old one broke).

What did you want and not get?
A new camera? Lenses for my camera? Cleaning my camera? I can't think of anything major that we didn't get. We had moments of stress, but everything seemed to work out. My only bummer from this year is that I don't use my camera much because it should be really deep-cleaned, and I haven't had the time to either do it myself or send it out.

What would you like to have next year that you didn’t have this year?
Curriculum planned out for my classes. This is totally my weak spot. I'm good at making vague plans, and I think I can do better next year.

Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't make New Year's resolutions, per se. I did not keep up my goal of running a 5k every month for a variety of reasons, including work stress and laziness (but mostly work stress at the start).

My "resolutions" for this next year just include streamlining my life, making room for a new family member, and planning curriculum for next year.

What was your biggest achievement of this year?
Getting my awesome new job! Oh, and I was proud of carrying my backpack the whole whoever-many-miles (30ish?) we backpacked. That sucker was heavy. I even did stream crossings on my own.

What was your biggest failure?
I had some notable classroom management issues in one of my classes, but I prefer to think of that as water under the bridge. The running this was also a big fail. I never really got back into the gym after March this past year.

What did you rely on when you were overwhelmed?
Matt and sugar. The latter was probably my downfall.

What are your strongest recommendations for entertainment from this year? (books, television, movies, music, etc)
We started watching Star Trek: The Next Generation this year on Netflix, and I really love that show. We're also enjoying the end of How I Met Your Mother.

My favorite book from the year was Code Name Verity, but I also think I need to read more.

I didn't watch enough movies to really recommend one. I think we saw two -- Star Trek: Into Darkness (my husband is a trekkie), and Gravity. Both were good. I'd like to go to more movies or at least watch more at home, since we have a decent collection of ones we haven't seen.

What song will remind you of this year?
I am almost embarrassed to say this on the internet, but country music will remind me of this year. My students at my last school really liked it, so I played a fair amount on Pandora during student work time. Matt and I also listened to a good chunk of country on the radio while we were in Wyoming. There's this interesting song about a guy with skoal rings in his best jeans that is pretty catchy.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year (not necessarily from the song that reminds you of the year).
This is not my strong point. I'm going to have to skip until I think of something.

What was your most enjoyable purchase?
Even though we haven't gone yet, I am ridiculously excited about our spring break plans. We did not have a spring break together last year (my school just didn't have one). This year, we are going to Florida to see Twins Spring Training (Matt's pick) and manatees (my pick).

Oh, and I how can I forget the washer and dryer? That totally wins for most awesome purchase. I love my new machines.

Did you travel? If so, where?
The year started out slow but finished okay. We didn't do as much traveling as we'd like. We visited Iowa a lot to see Matt's family. We drove out to Oregon via Fargo and Montana to see friends & family. We drove back via Wyoming for backpacking and South Dakota. I got to see the Corn Palace!

Once we got back to Minnesota, we moved into our new place then flew immediately back to Portland for a conference for Matt. Other traveling was back to Iowa for Thanksgiving and back to Portland for Christmas. So, it was a family-centric year. I hope we can add some other destinations (hopefully foreign one of these days!) for the upcoming years.

What do you wish you’d done more of?
Running and/or working out would be great. I also wish I'd done more planning last summer.

What do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinating.

Compared to this time last year, how are you different?
Well, there's the obvious -- I'm pregnant. I am 15 weeks along right now and trying not to worry. I'm at the stage where I feel better but don't look/feel obviously pregnant. I never felt too poorly -- mostly just nausea and being really tired. Everything has looked good so far, so I'm hopeful. I am due in late late June, so I've still got plenty of time to get ready.

I also feel more centered this year. I am not perfect. I struggle with grading (my least favorite teaching task) and planning in advance. But I really love my job, and I like not having to commute at all. I'm confident in my marriage. And I'm really excited to start a family.

Compared to this time last year, how are you the same?
I was pretty confident in my marriage last year, so that is still good. Honestly, for all the little changes that happened this year (new apartment, new job, new life), I don't feel all that much different.

What’s a life lesson you learned this year?
I am now significantly better at peeing in the woods. Not perfect; just better.

Zoo Lights

One of my favorite things during our time in Oregon was visiting the Zoo Lights. I used to visit zoos regularly. During college, I had a zoo membership with a guest pass; trips to the zoo were a fun distraction from studying (and sometimes in addition to studying when I went for class!).

My parents have a zoo membership, and we decided to visit. Not all the animals are visible during the zoo lights, so we visited a little early to check out a few exhibits. One of the highlights of the night was getting to see a 3 year old baby elephant at the zoo! I also got to see my favorite duck, the bufflehead:

By far, though, was the magic of seeing all the decorations. The zoo was much more decked out than it has been in years past. I only took a few pictures -- light conditions were challenging -- but I wish I could have taken many more. Definitely worth a visit.

Home for the holidays

We're back in Minnesota already, but I still want to recap our holidays briefly. We had a great 9 days in the greater Portland area. The time flew by super fast. We spent most of our time at home with the family: playing games, cooking, watching football, or making music.

The main game we played was Ticket to Ride, a route-making, spatial, map-based game. In this game, your goal is to reach destinations, based on "destination cards" you received, by building routes. Some routes can get quite circuitous, but all you have to do is connect your given cities.

We also played a lot of Blokus (a family favorite), Qwirkle, and ping pong.

I brought along my ukulele. To my great relief, I had no issues carrying it on to any plane. I did make it one of my two carry-ons each time, but I was still concerned because it is longer than a standard suitcase. My brothers and I all played some, and we even started teaching Matt how to play.

We also visited the coast with our beagle. Can you believe this dog is 15? I can't. She is still spry like a puppy and loves her walks. She is going deaf and a little bit blind, but she manages okay. Also, somehow, she sometimes manages to hear anyway. We went to Seaside for the superior beach walking and a specific restaurant my parents like.

This is my younger brother walking the dog:

Matt and I played with her too:

Finally, all of our stockings hung up. Matt's and mine, my parents, my older brother, my younger brother, and his girlfriend. We do stockings Dec 6th for St. Nicholas Day, and we all know we must bring our stockings back home for Christmas in order to receive another one next year.

All in all, a delightful trip. Living so far from my family is hard, and I really cherish our time together when we can get some.

Getting home

This year, the holidays once again found Matt and I traveling to Oregon. Even before leaving Minnesota, I found this amazing mural on the wall of a bathroom in terminal E at the MSP airport:

And also this playful drain in the sink in said bathroom:

We traveled through Chicago O'Hare on the way out to Oregon. We had a decently long layover, but of course our plane from MSP was delayed. This lead to a quick walk across O'Hare to get to our next gate. I did tell Matt that it wasn't truly a trip to O'Hare without a little sprinting.