Well, I was right - it was a helluva week. Brad wound up being really sick and I spent the whole week really paranoid I'd get it and we'd have to cancel our trip. Work was really crazy since I agreed to take on a colleague's class while he went to a conference this week. Just a bit nutty. BUT....... We're leaving in the morning!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! It really just hit this morning that we're actually going and I'm just so pumped. We're in the process of getting packed up, but we're making good progress. Anywho, we'll be back next weekend I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell! I'll probably do another blog with my pics like I did for Korea (only I don't think you'll have to wait as long this time). Have a good week, everyone!

Ugh. I totally hate spring forward day. We went to our friends, Sean and Tracie, house for dinner last night and lost track of time - didn't get home until midnight. Well, make that one a.m. I was scheduled to sing at the 8am service so that was yucky. Needless to say, it was not one of my better efforts. I am so pooped! Our VA friend, Nick, came over for dinner tonight and we had a great time with him, but I'm officially done for the evening. Brad is starting to feel sick (better now than next week!), so he's already in bed. Oiy. It's going to be a hard week. Sorry to be so gloomy. I'll be cheerier when I get some rest!

We have a heartbeat! Brad and I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and it was the magical heartbeat day. Our doc found it right away and it was absolutely amazing to hear! I got all weepy and even Brad was a little emotional. The doc said the heartbeat was strong - 164 beats/minute. My sister-in-law said it would sound like a train - choo-choo-choo, etc, and she was exactly right. The doc is also really pleased that I'm doing so well - all signs point to the baby and me being healthy so far. Good news! This should also be the last week of my first trimester. Time is flying so quickly!

My stupid cat, Shadow, gets into more scrapes than I ever thought an indoor animal could..... There was the sprint towards wherever when we were trying to move, there was the day he spent locked in the basement, and there was last night. This was mostly Brad's fault, but Shadow knows how to really make it fun....

Last night, Brad went out our back door into the backyard. When he returned, he apparently didn't pull the door shut all the way (our doors get kind screwy about that - they look closed, but they're not really), nor did he lock it. When he got up at 4:15 this morning to feed the cats and go for a run, he couldn't find Shadow. What he found was the back door wide open - the wind must have pushed it in!!!!!!!! He woke me up to tell me what happened - there we are, in the middle of the night, in the backyard with flashlights trying to find the curious cat. We found him about 10 minutes later. He'd managed to get out of the fenced backyard (no claws, mind you - he must have crawled underneath) and Brad found him in a neighbor's bushes. The poor guy was terrified - he probably was really excited for the adventure and then got lost, not knowing how to get back inside. We have no idea how long he was out there, but he gobbled down his food and went straight to the litter box. Guess he didn't know he could poop in the grass! As soon as he got calmed down, he went straight to sleep. I imagine he was out there for a while.

I'm just so thankful that a) we found him. b) he didn't get hurt, since he has no claws to defend himself and c) that the only bad thing that happened was the cat got out - no one came in! Brad was absolutely mortified he'd been so careless. He was totally distraught this morning. Needless to say, I didn't exactly jump back to sleep - the adrenaline was pumping pretty hard. So, I've been up since a little before 4:30 and I'm not allowed to have too much caffeine. Ugh.

So anyway, happy ending. The kitty's fine - just pretty wigged out. Another day in the life.... I knew things were far too slow around here. What a week!

Whew! I had a great time with my sister this weekend. We got all caught up, did some shopping and took in some Kansas City sights. So much fun! A friend from Lexington is in town for a conference and so we met up with him after dropping MB off at the airport. He'll be around for the next couple of weeks. Spending the weekend with family and then with a comfy friend from back in VA, we almost forgot we're alone out here in KS.

I think the excitement of last week and this past weekend has finally hit. I'm totally un-functional today. I cannot concentrate on anything for longer than 20 minutes. I think I'm about to give in to the ADD and do what my body wants me to - just chill out. I made a quick trip to the grocery store to get some fresh air - it's 64 and sunny! Coming home, some guy pulled out in front of me on a major road (the speed limit was 40 mph). It was bad enough that I had to slam on my brakes to avoid hitting him! I think the sound of the tires squealing was louder than my horn. Since my windows were down, I could smell the burned rubber from my tires for about 100 yards after that. Getting in an accident would have really been the icing on the cake - especially since it probably would have been nasty. Glad he heard all the rucus and decided to look up in my direction! Might have been a good idea before pulling out onto the road....

Sorry for the ridiculously long time away. Life's been a little ho-hum. However, I am pleased to announce that the Winemans have their grove back! Life has officially returned to the chaotic whirlwind that we're used to dealing with.

My sister is coming to visit this weekend, which is great, but the house is nowhere near ready for a guest. And yes, the house needs to be super clean b/c she's allergic to our kitties. We leave for England in just over two weeks and I haven't really had time to come up with a decent itinerary. We have plane tickets and a place to sleep and that's about it. I installed a water filter on the back of our refrigerator last weekend, but turns out there was a small leak in the hose. Two nights ago, we discovered said leak by seeing water dripping from our family room ceiling down onto a nice bookcase. It had clearly been doing that for a while.... Got it all cleaned up, but we have stains on the ceiling and the top of the bookcase is warped. My mother in law is in the hospital again for passing out in her home. She's been there a couple of days and the doctors are still working on what's wrong with her. AND, when I came home from work last night, Brad escorted me to the basement which had about 2 inches of standing water in it! The sump pump eventually turned on and we spent a good amount of time sweeping the water towards that corner. Most of our stuff is safe, but there were a handful of casualties. The next step is making sure it doesn't all mold and mildew...

So, there you have it. My life in the last 3 days. It's been kind of nuts, but Brad and I both are approaching everything with an eery level of calm. Life is back to normal for us and even though I won't say it's a good thing, at least it's a familiar thing.

Happy Valentine's Day! I don't have much to report, but yesterday afternoon I went outside and took some pictures of our house in the snow. Yesterday's snow wasn't all that deep, but it still looks pretty blanketing the yard and roof. Here's our winter house:

It's snowing again. At least I got a snow day out of it, which is nice. Is it spring yet? I'm so ready for flowers and warm days spent outside in my backyard. Just a few more weeks....

Over the weekend, Brad and I finished putting together a smith machine in our basement. Brad loves to life weights (I do, too) and this was a steal! But it came in a box and took a couple of weekends to finish. Behold the mighty machine - sorry about the picture - the light is very weird in the basement.

It's official! We're going to England! (again....) Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and we won't have to cancel this one, too. My doctor said it was fine to go as long as I don't have any complications between now and then. We leave 18 March and will stay for a week! Yipeee! We've decided to spend most of our time in London since there's so much to see. One of Brad's friends lives in Cambridge and so we'll spend the day up there, but it's only an hour outside London. I'm still working on details, but I'm so excited!!!!

I've got baby fever! A woman I know from church brought me a whole slew of maternity clothes yesterday. It was so nice of her - especially since they are exactly my size and I like the style! Score! I tried on a bunch of stuff yesterday and it was a nice mix of stuff I can wear really soon and stuff that's more for when I really balloon up. Okay, so I tried those on, too - it was fun to imagine myself with a big preggo belly.... :)

I had my first real checkup with my doctor on Friday. Everything's fine but there is one weird thing (I pretty much already knew, but having the doctor confirm was strange). Yeah, given the enormous size of my ass, it's genuinely surprising that I don't have good birthin' hips! I have a fairly narrow pelvis, which he said will make it difficult if I have a big baby. It's not any worse than any of my teeny friends who carry babies, it's just odd for someone my size to have narrow hips. Here's hoping I have a small to medium sized baby...

Pottermania!!!!! The last Harry Potter book's release date has been announced. In case you've been living under a rock today and missed the near-constant news coverage - 21 July is the big day. Even more fun because it's unexpected, what with the latest movie coming out just days before that. July will be a very fun month. Maybe I'll pass a love of Harry Potter through the umbilical cord to my unborn child.... He/she will certainly get an overdose this summer!

Oh, so I had my first pregnant icky day yesterday. I was fine until the evening. I was busy doing lots of things and then Brad and I got chatting and lost track of time. Next thing we knew it was after 8pm and I guess my body decided all of a sudden that was not okay. I started feeling pretty quesy and nothing we had in the house to make for dinner was appetizing (and the stuff that was would take too long to make). And of course, we couldn't order a pizza because the thought of grease made me feel worse. So Brad drove us out in the snow to get a sandwich so I wouldn't get sick. I started feeling a little icky tonight right before dinner, but I made sure we ate earlier and now I'm fine. Guess I've just entered the fun weeks. At least I finally feel pregnant - it was a little disturbing how not-pregnant I was feeling.

Well, I've hit a bit of a lull again. I don't think it will last long as this spring is starting to fill up with activities. I'm pretty sure I can count on life getting back to the usual crazy pace here in a couple of weeks. I'll keep ya posted. For now, all I have to say is:

1. Eight degrees is cold. Very cold.
2. 200 yards from my car to my building at work is not very far. Unless it's 8 degrees. Then, it's like the Boston marathon.
3. It's snowing here....again.
4. I ran errands in said snow today, deciding that I must eventually learn to drive in this mess. I did pretty well. I don't like the ice, but if it's just snow, I can get around.
5. Is it spring yet?

Brrr.........

You might have noticed the addition of the baby ticker. I thought it was a cute way of keeping track of progress. So far, so good. I feel great, no morning sickness yet, no real problems.

Yesterday was my first day to really teach and it went well. I have nice students again this time and I think it's going to be a good semester. I wasn't happy with the first few weeks of my American history II class in the fall, so I'm trying to change some things up to make it better. Once I get to the 20th century, I'm mostly happy with what I did last time and I won't have to tweak much. Here's hoping this will be a good spring.

Have a great day!

What a nice weekend we had. Saturday, we went with Sean and Tracie to lunch at an Irish pub and then to see The Last King of Scotland. What an amazing movie. Not the least bit uplifting... seriously, a very heavy film....but the story was compelling and Forest Whittaker WAS Idi Amin. Wow. When we left the theater, it was just starting the snow storm that lasted for another 12 hours. By Sunday morning we had at least 4 inches. The roads are clear now, but there's still plenty of snow all over the place.

Sunday afternoon we braved the snowy roads to go downtown to catch the Kansas City Symphony perform (the tickets were my b-day present). They were also very good. The did Beethoven's 5th, which was the big draw, and was lovely. The surprise hit of the performance was a violin concerto by Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer. They had this Hungarian soloist come in for this piece and blew us all away. He was amazing. The place went absolutely bonkers (well, as wild and nuts as you can get at a symphony concert!) and he came out for an encore which was met with even wilder applause. Very fun. Then, weird thing. Every time I go to a concert like this I think back to my band days and yesterday I was thinking about my old band director and wondering how he was doing. When we got home, there was a message on the machine from my parents, who are in New York for the week, saying they'd just run into him there! So eerie!

I'm spending the bulk of today doing boring things like paying bills and doing laundry. Tomorrow is the first day I do real stuff with my classes, so I'm trying to get ready.

So.... last Friday's post was a little prophetic. Most of you already know the big news that I'm pregnant! I found out on Saturday. Hmmmm. Due date is 18 September and I'm in my 6th week. So far, I feel great, just a little tired. Okay, make that completely wiped. It started Wednesday night - I can't remember the last time I felt so unreasonably exhausted. I made it through my first day of the semester yesterday, but I was dead on my feet by noon. It didn't help that the nail holding the heel to the sole of my shoe decided to pop up and poke me in the heel out of nowhere. I had to leave in between classes and go buy new shoes so I could continue walking! Thank goodness I found a sale! So, yeah, I passed out before 9:30 last night and slept until almost 8 this morning! Geez...I knew I was supposed to be tired, but I never expected it to be this bad..... But, I'm so excited to have a baby on the way, I almost don't care. Almost.

It has been snowing for the last several hours, but it's starting to end and is mostly just flurries now. The sun is peeping through the clouds, shining on the snowflakes making them look like pieces of glitter falling from the sky. It's really beautiful...

So.... I really have nothing new to say, but I don't like leaving my blog stale for so long. I finally started scrapbooking again and it feels wonderful to have a creative outlet. Classes start Thursday of next week, so I'm spending a lot of time putting those together. I think this semester will go much more smoothly than the last.

It's snowing outside right now. We're supposed to have a big winter storm come through this weekend, so that should be interesting.

I'm really excited Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy are back from reruns.

But seriously, folks, that's all I've got. Maybe something super-exciting will happen next week.

The Army school where Brad teaches invites several international officers to participate in its program each year. These are some of the most promising mid-rank officers in their countries (~35 years old) and they come to foster a spirit of cultural understanding and perspective. It's kinda cool. Brad and I signed up to sponsor two officers coming in to start in February. Both arrived this week.

On Wednesday, we met our Rwandan guy at the airport and he seems very interesting. He has scars on his head and is missing half an index finger - obtained in the 1994 conflict. You know, I felt very cultured after watching "Hotel Rwanda", but standing before this man with visible scarring from a very real conflict made me feel rather silly for feeling like I knew about it because I watched a movie. He's very open about it and volunteered the information himself. I'm looking forward to getting to know him better.

On Friday, we met our Lithuanian guy and he's great, too. We had a little more time to spend with him and so I got to learn a lot about Lithuania (I didn't have far to go since I knew next to nothing about it before then). He's very friendly and open. He, also, fought in a major conflict - he was a very young man when the Soviet Union fell and so participated in the revolution to overthrow the Russians in his country. He doesn't have physical scars, but you can tell the emotional scars run deep - he's not a big fan of the Russians.

All in all, a very educational week. They're living on post, but we'll be getting together with them a few times while they're here. I'm anxious to learn as much as I can from these guys.

Yesterday was my 31st birthday and I've had this blog for a year! Time sure flies - how the hell did I get this old?

Brad took me out last night for dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant. I've been dying to try that cuisine for a while now. It was okay. Not bad, but I'm not sure I'll rush back to have it again. But I'm so glad I got to try it - it's really different. After that, we hit this art house theater downtown Kansas City to see History Boys. Great movie - also great to have a theater that plays all those movies that don't come to the huge cineplexes. Brad got me tickets to see the Kansas City Symphony later this month, which is awesome! They're doing Beethoven's 5th. Can't wait!

Happy 2007!!!! We had a semi-quiet New Years Eve with our new friends, Tracie and Sean. Then, while Brad watched football I worked on my craft room. (although, I did manage to catch Boise State kick the Sooners back to Oklahoma in one of the best college football games, ever!) I haven't done much with the room since we moved in. Stitch peed on the carpet (!!!!!) and so I've kept the room closed off until I had time to deal with it. I got the smell mostly gone and my room all set up. I even hung pictures on the wall. I'm totally set to sit down and scrapbook for the first time since probably May. Can't wait!

Tracie and I dragged our hubbies to Casino Royale this afternoon. I rarely see a movie twice in the theater, but this was worth it. Tracie hadn't seen it yet and she's a huge Daniel Craig fan. So yeah, we drooled and Brad and Sean made fun of us. They liked the movie, too, so I felt vindicated since they both went in grudgingly. It's fun having some friends to do stuff with - what a nice change.