Tag Archives: husband

When Your Husband Travels for Work

11 Mar

Like Murphy’s Law, it seems that the Law of Your Husband Traveling is that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Back in February, Emma and I were playing in the basement on the second night of Travis’ 4-day work trip. She went around the corner where the stairs are. Being pregnant-lazy, I didn’t follow. Thirty seconds later, I hear her tumbling down the stairs. I race over to her and luckily she’s ok, just scared. Momma is not ok however. That quick movement made my pelvis and hips hate me. If I was moving at a turtle pace before, I was now moving at the speed of a beached whale. Luckily, the pain went away after a few days. Later that night, Emma slipped in the bathtub and bit her tongue, but thankfully it wasn’t bad enough to need medical attention.

Last week, right after our babymoon, Travis went out of town for a work trip. 5 nights, 6 days. Sunday night, I ate a couple of Tums before bed (which I do a lot these days) and hit the sack. A few minutes later, I felt like I was going to explode on both ends. Thankfully, that lasted for only about 10 minutes, I did some business and felt better enough to go back to bed instead of sit in the bathroom. But I couldn’t lay down without feeling awful so I watched an episode of Parenthood and then I could at least recline enough to sleep.

Monday, I still felt off but good enough to venture out to MOPS. (Whenever sickness prevents me and Emma from going to our normally scheduled activities, the week DRAGS by.) I felt mostly fine all day until nighttime came.  I was so miserable that night, I literally got up and drank a cup of coffee at 12:30 to see if it would get things moving, then took a shower and watched a couple episodes of Parenthood. When I finally did get to sleep, it was propped up against the wall in bed.

Tuesday, I had my prenatal appt and my doctor said it didn’t sound like anything to ‘fix’. Since Emma was at daycare and I felt awful, I spent the whole day on the couch. Then Tuesday night happened, which I will elaborate on shortly.

Wednesday, after talking with my mom, I started to think my problem might be acid reflux and not constipation. So I started avoiding trigger foods (citrus, tomatoes, caffeine) and by the end of the day, I was feeling significantly better. Thursday, I felt fine. Acid reflux is a nasty thing!

So Tuesday night. Ugh. I had just fed Emma dinner and was going to give her a bath right after I took the dogs out to go to the bathroom. But somehow, I
got locked out of the house — with Emma locked inside. After unsuccessfully trying to coach Emma to unlock the door (it’s a latch on the knob) and checking for a key in the garage and front door area, I started sobbing and decided my only option was to run to the neighbors’ house to use their phone, even though it meant leaving Emma, who I could hear was crying on the other side of the door. Of course it had to also be the day that we got 6 inches of snow and I was only wearing loafers. Luckily Travis had left a jacket in the garage or I wouldn’t have had one of those either!

Imagine a woman 35 weeks pregnant waddle-running in 10 degrees through snowy, icy roads and down 2 driveways that haven’t been plowed. That was me.

Luckily, my neighbor was home. I called Travis first to ask if we had any spare keys hidden. Nope. They were all in the house. He suggested calling 911 and having the fire dept come out. So that’s what I did. I didn’t want to spend time researching locksmiths. My wonderful neighbor loaded up her 8-month pregnant self and 3-year-old son to drive me back to my house.

When we got back, I went to the front door where we have a window and pounded on it to get Emma to at least come where I could see her. But she wouldn’t. I could hear her screaming hysterically and that made me cry even harder. I decided to head back to the door between the kitchen and garage (where Emma was). I took one step down the front stairs and ended up on my tailbone. I just kneeled in the snow for a few minutes, bawling and thinking,  “Could this night get ANY worse? Please let the baby be ok. OMG, this is so painful. And I’m cold. Travis is never traveling EVER AGAIN!”

The fire dept showed up around 5 minutes later but it felt like an eternity. They tried picking the lock but ended up using an axe between the door and jamb to open the door. Little Emma was fine — shaken up but not hurt. It seemed like she got over the trauma as soon as I picked her up.

Wednesday, I went to the hospital to be monitored just to make sure baby was ok. I wasn’t concerned since I had felt the baby move plenty since my fall but better to be on the safe side. Everything checked out.

Thankfully, the rest of the week was uneventful. I was so happy when Travis finally got home!

He traveled again this past Monday just for a (19 hour) day. Emma had developed a cold over the weekend and had very labored breathing so I took her to the doctor. They prescribed an albuterol nebulizer 3x a day, antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection, and steroids for inflammation. Poor girl! I swear, every time I’ve taken Emma to the doctor for being sick, Travis has been out of town.

Now you can see why I’m scared to have a newborn to take care of too, right? Travis is done traveling for the next couple of months though. It’ll be nice to have him at home.

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Babymoon #2

2 Mar

This past weekend, my mother-in-law watched Emma so that Travis and I could have a night away. The plan had been to go to a Minnesota Gopher hockey game but we didn’t realize until after we had reserved a non-refundable hotel room that instead of playing Friday/Saturday like they do 99% of the time, they were instead playing Thursday/Friday. What are the odds? We had even chosen a hotel right on campus so that we could walk to the game. Ugh.

The week before our trip, we also realized that Travis had to fly out for a work trip on Sunday afternoon. That meant we had to drive down to the Cities separately and spend time parking Travis’ truck in airport parking. Double ugh.

Nevertheless, we had fun — though I joked to Travis that with our time away from Emma, we ended up doing kid stuff anyway (like going to the Mall of America and the Como Zoo & Conservatory).

We left our house around 10 am on Saturday morning and stopped at Cabela’s (quite possibly Travis’ favorite store) on our way through Rogers. We dropped Travis’ truck off at airport parking when we got to the Cities and then headed to the MOA for a movie. We walked through Nickelodeon Universe a bit, did some shopping and then saw American Sniper. It was really good, but very sobering. Then we went out to eat at Digby’s in Roseville, where I had a delicious burger and Travis had a buffalo chicken pizza. After that, we checked into our hotel, attempted to watch the Avs vs. Wild game and zonked out.

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Sunday morning as I was getting ready, I started having some crazy Braxton Hicks contractions — like one every 3 minutes. I drank some water and laid back down on the bed, and after 20 minutes or so, they slowed to every 5 minutes. If I had been in Brainerd, I probably would’ve called and talked to a nurse, but since I was down in the Cities, I thought I’d just wait it out. So we checked out of our hotel and went to Panera for breakfast. By the time we got to Bethlehem Baptist for church at 11, the contractions were only coming every 10-15 minutes and irregularly. So weird. (I have my next prenatal appointment tomorrow and will ask about that.)

After church, we drove around our old stomping grounds a bit and then ate lunch at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Mmmm… spumoni ice cream. We had about an hour and a half to kill before I had to drive Travis to the airport so we checked out the Como Zoo and Conservatory for a bit. Gotta live it up in the city while we can!

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I dropped Travis off at the airport around 4 pm and then headed back up to Brainerd. I got home around 6:30 to a very happy Bisky. Even though it was only one night, I missed her. But the downtime was very nice.

Babymoon #2 in the books!

If I’m still pregnant the last Saturday of March, we are planning on going down to the Cities again (sans Emma) for the wedding of one my good friends. I can’t decide though if I want to just drive back afterward or risk being down in the Cities when labor starts. I guess I’m risking that if I go down regardless if I stay overnight or not. Hmmm….

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7-Year Anniversary Celebration, Part 2

19 May

It’s our 7-year anniversary today. But since it’s 7:30 pm right now and we’re watching Bones while eating Starbursts from Easter, I’ll tell you about our weekend instead.

Saturday, we drove down to Brainerd and got new tires on our SUV. While our car was being worked on, we went on a run – my first one since the Hot Chocolate 15K almost a month ago. Then we ate lunch at Erbert’s & Gerbert’s and it was just as delicious as we remembered it. After lunch, we hit a few garage sales on our drive back north.

That night, we had our friends Jesse and Emily over for dinner and played some Big Buck Hunter. I suck at that game and totally lost, but it was still fun.

Sunday dawned gorgeous and we ate breakfast outside on the deck. We went to church, met a great family that we’re excited to get to know (the wife is a blogger, writer and runner!), and then had a picnic at park. The clouds and wind rolled in, so we didn’t stay long after eating. Emma fell asleep on the way home and took a 2.5 hour nap, so I got a nap too! It was glorious. We went on a walk outside and then ate leftovers for dinner.

After Emma went down for bed, Travis and I relaxed in his parents’ jacuzzi tub while watching an episode of Burn Notice on the iPad with wine for me and beer for him (and a granola bar and popcorn might have been consumed as well).

It was such an enjoyable weekend, and a great lowkey celebration for our anniversary.

Travis, you are still the one who makes me laugh the most and remember that life is fun. I love you!

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7-Year Anniversary Celebration, Part 1

7 May

Last weekend, Travis and I spent a night away from Emma for the first time since she was born. As we drove away from Travis’ parents’ house, I almost cried but after that, I was fine. We did call to check in that night and the next morning, and Emma did great! That was a relief.

Travis and I enjoyed ourselves as well. We drove down to the Brainerd area on Friday to look at houses. After that, we were starving so instead of cooking dinner in the kitchen of our hotel room like planned, we ate at Grizzly’s. Sufficiently stuffed, we checked into our hotel at Cragun’s Resort, then walked along the lakeshore for a bit before enjoying a free drink and live music at the resort bar.

We went back to the room to get our jacuzzi on. So fun! We drank wine and talked about houses. Then we watched part of the Wild vs. Blackhawks game and hit the sack. We were dialed!

Saturday morning, I read blogs in bed while Travis slept in and then we drove to Caribou Coffee for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We took our coffee with us and went down to the lake again.

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It was kinda chilly though so we I didn’t last long. Back up in the room, I sat by the fireplace until it was time to checkout.

We had lunch with a girl I knew in college. She lives near Baxter with her husband and daughter who’s just a few months older than Emma. It was fun reconnecting and they gave us the lowdown on the area.

After lunch, we stopped at Fleet Farm, then drove up to the house we were interested in to talk to a neighbor about the neighborhood. It seemed like a great place and we went back on Monday to see it again but someone put an offer on it yesterday, so back to square one. There aren’t many other houses on the market in our price range that we haven’t looked at so it might be a while before we find a house. I’m definitely ready for life to resume a more normal feel, but trying to be patient and trust God’s provision.

We got back up to Nevis about 4:30 on Saturday. It was good to be away for a night but I enjoyed seeing Emma again.

Emma and I are hanging out down in the Cities this week visiting friends while Travis is out of town on a work trip. It’s a little overwhelming because of all the running around but it’s better than staying in Nevis by ourselves!

Emma’s 13 months today but I don’t have a post ready. Guess that one will be a titch late. Later!

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Our Top 15 Colorado Memories, Part 2

21 Mar

If you missed Part 1, read it here.

………………….

Continuing on with my top 15 Colorado memories (in no particular order)…

6. Elk hunting (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013)

We have gone up to the mountains for elk hunting every October, except for the fall we moved out here (I didn’t blog about it 2009 and 2010 for some reason). Unfortunately, with work and now Emma, I have only been able to be there for the whole time once – in 2011. That was also the year that Travis shot his big bull (and boiled the head to make a European mount!?!?) so I’m saying that was our favorite trip, but they have all been enjoyable in different ways. We haven’t camped in the same spot twice, and camp set up is always a little different, but good! It’ll be interesting to see how elk hunting goes in the future (yes, we’ll be returning to Colorado every year for elk hunting… or at least, Travis and his family will be. Emma and I are still on the fence.)

img_17127. My Olympic triathlon and marathon

In 2011, I completed my first Olympic triathlon in Steamboat Springs. In 2012, I ran my first full marathon in Anchorage. Ok, so that race wasn’t in Colorado. BUT all of my training was, and those are memories that I will never forget. I spent hundreds of hours running, biking and swimming in preparation for those 2 races. I biked to work. I ran 18 miles at 9,000 feet. I purposefully re-ran the half marathon course that had kicked my butt when running it the first time in 10-degree weather. What was Travis doing during that time? Playing hockey. Studying for the PE. Finishing his Master’s degree. You know, stuff.

318235_256197047743958_5830935_n8. Care group camping trips (2012, 2013)

This became an annual camping trip with our small group from church starting in 2010 (again, I didn’t blog about it in 2010 or 2011). While all the years were fun and different because of the location and people attending, I’m going to say that my favorite year was 2012. Most of our friends were there, for the same days, and Travis and I accidentally brought our smallest tent so with the 2 of us and our 2 dogs, we were not cold at all. It was so nice! That’s my main complaint about camping – I’m usually cold a lot. That year, we also did some hiking and skipped rocks. But I mustn’t forget the year (2011) that Charlotte, Sheri and I braved swimming in the mountain lake. Brrrr…

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300562_251345134895816_1309176_n9. Emma’s birth and first year of life

Emma will never remember living in Colorado, but we will. We’ll tell her about it. About how crazy Colorado weather is – it snowed 3 times after Emma was born on April 7. The day we went home from the hospital, it was snowing. About how she went camping when she was 4 months old. We’ll show her the pictures of our house. When we think of Emma as a baby, we’ll think of Colorado.

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10. Our Wedding Anniversaries

Ok, I realize this is broad but our anniversaries were nice in different ways. For our 1-year anniversary, we rented a secluded cabin in the mountains and went hiking. For our 2-year, we saw O.A.R. perform at Red Rocks and went hiking up in Leadville, which involved fording an ice-cold mountain stream. For our 5-year, we spent a weekend up in Frisco, where we ate breakfast at the awesome Butterhorn Bakery. I can’t remember what we did for (and I didn’t blog about) our 3rd and 4th anniversaries, so they must’ve not been that exciting. 😉

dsc03370Stay tuned for Part 3…

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Our house is under contract!

25 Feb

Our house is under contract! It was only on the market for a day before we received a full-price offer. We accepted the offer with a 30-day closing and right now, are in the midst of inspection items and a looming appraisal. If all goes well, our closing date is March 20, and we give possession on March 22.

I can’t believe it’s actually happening!

I finally told my boss and co-workers that I’m moving to Minnesota. Most of them were not surprised. Hmmm… guess I’m not that good at keeping secrets. But they were all happy for me, and sad to see me go. Our departure is definitely bittersweet.

Since my mommy brain is mush, and I won’t remember this stuff next month, let alone a year or more from now (I’ve probably already forgotten stuff!), here’s what we did to our house to get it ready to sell:

  • Packed up and filled a storage unit with about 75% of our stuff
  • Repainted our kitchen cabinet doors
  • Removed all closet doors and treated with Liquid Gold
  • Replaced all family pictures with landscape scenes
  • Puttyed, sanded, spackled and painted the office ceiling, and spots in the hallway, kitchen, master bedroom and laundry room
  • Scraped, washed and painted the exterior soffit and fascia
  • Hung small piece of wood between roof and fascia for new gutters to be installed
  • Had new gutters installed
  • Painted:
    • The hallway and one wall in the living room
    • Both bathrooms. Twice. (FYI, pastels are not in.)
    • Two walls of the master bedroom (We used a color that we had a full gallon of, but no idea why or who bought it)
    • Half of the laundry room (Half was semi-gloss, half was flat – we have no idea how that happened)
    • The laundry room doors and trim
    • The bench in front of our house
    • The china cabinet in our kitchen
    • The master bathroom vanity
  • Finished the windowsill in the master bathroom and added a piece of white trim above the tile
  • Replaced the front exterior light fixture and house numbers to be more modern
  • Had the carpet replaced (which involved removing everything not attached or contained within a piece of furniture – including our closet organizers, pictures on the walls, bed headboard, file drawers, and low closet shelves – and then putting it all back; we hired them to move the furniture itself)
  • Replaced the toilet seat in the main bathroom
  • Spent 3 whole days deep-cleaning our house with a toothbrush and bleach (I actually took work off to clean our house.)
  • Bought new throw pillows for bed and rug for kitchen
  • Bought new nightstands to replace our crappy makeshift ones: a nightstand we rescued from the curb, and a garden table

This is what happens when you leave many house projects only half finished. And totally slack on cleaning.

And that list doesn’t include all of the ‘re-dos’ we had. Our house project mantra was, “Two steps forward, One step back.” For example, when staining the windowsill in the master bathroom, Travis taped off the vanity. When he removed said tape, part of the fake wood veneer came with it. So we had to remove the vanity and paint it. After painting said vanity, we tried to hang it back up. Somehow, we didn’t get one of screws in the right place and it literally busted out a 3-inch chunk of sheet rock. The vanity is now held up with 3 screws instead of 4. In the midst of that debacle, we scraped some of the new paint off the vanity. OMG!!!!

Another instance: Travis and his dad redid our main bathroom last February. In the course of that project, Travis repainted the door trim. We didn’t even know it was possible but that extra coat of paint made the bathroom door no longer shut. So Travis pounded on the trim, busting it loose from the wall. After a few finish nails, the trim was anchored and the door shut, but now the trim and surrounding wall needed to be painted. Again.

Those were the worst things, but there were other little ones like having to repaint a piece of baseboard that was now uncovered by shorter carpet. Or touch up trim in the hallway that had had paint seep on it from underneath the painter’s tape when we painted the walls. Or another one of my favorites, having to repaint the kitchen drawers because someone dripped red wine all down them, and it wouldn’t come off without removing the paint along with it.

But it was all worth it to have our house sell so fast. It was really helpful to have a Realtor with an eye for decorating and staging.

The buyers are a young couple buying their first home. I like to imagine that they’re newlyweds and just starting out like Travis and I were when we bought this house, our first home. I hope they build lots of memories in it – that they host barbecues on the deck in back; play horseshoes and narrowly miss hitting the neighbor’s shed; climb up on the roof to watch the Carnation Festival fireworks; get their hands dirty doing landscaping and gardening; have fun decorating the inside; rock out in the garage while working on their cars; spend cozy winter days on the couch watching the snow come down thick; run hundreds of miles on the neighborhood greenway; walk to Dairy Queen on summer evenings; and so much more. I love this house. And even though it has been a bugger at times (ripping windows out with sawzalls and having the heavens open while half the house is sans shingles), I will always remember it. Actually, those bugger things are some of the best memories.

Now that I’m crying, here are the pictures posted with our listing. (If you’re interested in what the house looked like before, click here.)

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Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.

– Arnold Bennett

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Uprooting Bitterness in Marriage

18 Feb

Last weekend, my Facebook feed was full of Valentine’s Day stories. Flowers, candlelight dinners, surprise gifts, you name it. I didn’t post mine: sitting in bed with a second glass of wine, chocolate and my iPad playing My First Home episodes on Netflix. Alone. Somehow, a few months ago, I had agreed to Travis playing in a pond hockey tournament up in the mountains that weekend. Happy Valentine’s Day!

I was very tempted to be bitter. Bitter that Travis was doing something fun while I stayed home to care for our dogs and baby. Bitter that I had to take care of getting our house ready for showing by myself. Bitter that I had to spend Valentine’s Day alone.

Turns out, I’m a ‘glass half empty’ kind of gal. Poor Travis has to deal with me getting hung up on everything that’s wrong, needs fixing, isn’t what I wanted in our marriage. I do it in my relationship with God, in my marriage, in my self. Bitterness starts off as jealousy or hurt feelings or unfulfilled desires. The seed gets planted there. Then it grows and morphs and starts taking over. My female brain is able to keep a running tally of every way that Travis fails and disappoints, and use it against him. Everything he does is added to a mental tally sheet with 2 columns: ‘He Did It Right’ and ‘He Did It Wrong.’

DSC02446June 2008 (a little over a year of being married)

Bitterness threatened to destroy our marriage for the first several years. The tough thing about bitterness is that it’s sneaky. It’s no coincidence that the Bible talks about the root of bitterness ‘springing up’ – it isn’t there, and then it is. And once you get going down that trail, it’s hard to get off. Because you feel so justified in being angry. Just like God asks Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry…?” and Jonah retorts, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” Oh, how that is my heart so often!

Obviously, my struggle with bitterness is ongoing. Having a baby has added a whole new dimension to it. In marriage, and now in parenthood, it is so easy to keep a running tally of Who’s Done What, and Who’s Done More. But as I’ve discovered over and over again, that kind of tally helps no one. In fact, it is the breeding ground of bitterness, and it will destroy a marriage if not guarded against.

wpid-20130518_175951.jpgOur 6-Year Anniversary – May 19, 2013

So here’s what I have to remind myself of in the midst of the struggle against bitterness, specifically in marriage. Hopefully it’s helpful:

1) Find your fulfillment in God. As Christians, we have a beautiful hope in the gospel. We know that there is One who understands us perfectly. There is One who is able to satisfy every need and desire – Jesus. We also know that our Savior is committed to changing us, and to bringing about His glory and our good in our lives. He will not leave us alone, or things as they are. He is working His redemptive story out. He wants your marriage to be whole and healthy. So even when it feels like things have been the same forever, and you can’t see how they will ever get better, hold on. Continue pursuing God and a heart of obedience.

2) Be thankful. Bitterness comes out of a heart that feels like it has been slighted, overlooked or neglected. But God has given abundant blessings to everyone, including me and you. Search diligently for them. Speak thanksgiving out loud for them. They may be small. They may seem insignificant and trivial compared to what is ‘wrong’. But thanksgiving replaces bitterness. Similarly…

3) Focus on the positives. Bitterness seeks out situations and problems to justify itself, and add fuel to the fire. Everything is seen through that lens, and drowns out any positives of the situation. With Travis, I had to let go of all the things I was holding in my “He Did It Wrong” hand, and start intentionally focusing on the things that I love about him and the things he does ‘right’. At first, I could only come up with a couple. But as time went on, I was able to see more and more. I have to keep bringing myself back to those things whenever I’m tempted to be bitter at him for something.

4) Be honest. Bitterness points a finger. It does not acknowledge its own blame. It took me over 5 years in my marriage to realize that I was bitter at Travis about something that I was the main culprit in. I’m certain that I would still not be aware of that had God not shown it to me, but it took that honest revelation of my own guilt for me to get over the bitterness that I felt in that area. What’s more, after I got over the bitterness and admitted how I was helping to cause the situation, I felt freed to work on bettering the situation with what I could control.

5) Communicate. So often, my bitterness has come from assuming that Travis did or didn’t do something intentionally, with certain motives or for a certain reason. If you’re going to assume, give the other person the benefit of the doubt. If you can’t do that, don’t assume! If you want them to do something for you, ask them to. If they didn’t do something you expected them to, calmly ask why not. If you were upset by something, explain why. Even if you think that a situation shouldn’t need an explanation, or that they should ‘just know’, communicate. Travis and I are finding out as parents that it’s better to over-communicate, than under-communicate. But with the caveat that it’s best to communicate when you can do so without yelling or cursing. 😉

6) Focus on serving. Bitterness ultimately comes from being focused on myself. My needs, my desires, what I’m getting or not getting. But when I focus on making Travis happy instead of waiting for or expecting him to make me happy, it’s a win-win. I actually make myself happy by making him happy. It’s not always easy to lay down my own agenda, and I’m not the best at thinking about Travis’ needs over mine, but when I do, I’m always glad I did.

So at the end of the day, I’m glad that Travis got to play hockey. He loves it and I want him to be able to do the things he loves. I’m also glad that he bought me a massage for Valentine’s Day because I am so using that this weekend!

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“Behold, I am making all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

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How I found out I was pregnant

18 Sep

 

{not my test – pics are at home – but it looked exactly like that}

I am currently 11 weeks 2 days. If you count back from today, that means I technically got pregnant just a few weeks after we got back from Alaska. As in a few weeks after we started trying to get pregnant.

You may remember this post from soon after our Alaska trip, where I said that getting pregnant could happen anytime, or it could take a while.

I was prepared for it to take a while. 3 months, 6 months, 1 year — I was ready to wait on God in faith. Besides, I didn’t think the odds were in my favor. I had been on birth control for over five years. My cycles were “irregular” (45 days long instead of 28) so I had only had 2 full cycles since going off birth control. And I had just trained for and run a full marathon – who knew if that would affect things?

During the ‘two week window’ of waiting to take a home pregnancy test, I started to feel cramping in my lower abdomen, different than any period cramping I’d had before.

‘Maybe?’ I thought but didn’t want to get my hopes up. I mean, who gets pregnant on the first try? I started researching pregnancy symptoms at work but God convicted me during a morning quiet time that I wasn’t trusting Him but trying to figure things out on my own. So I stopped researching and told the Lord that I would be content in not knowing.

Those two weeks ticked off day by (slowly moving) day and finally it was the day I was supposed to get my period. By the time I got home from work, it still hadn’t appeared and I had the thought that I could take a pregnancy test and just find out right then. But my plan had been to take it the next morning so I told God that I was trusting Him and would wait.

I slept horribly that night, not just because I was excited and nervous but also because I felt awful. I let the dogs out in the middle of the night because Charlie was whining and felt like I was going to puke. I was leaning more and more toward the idea of me being pregnant.

Morning dawned and I immediately got up and went into the bathroom, where I had set out everything the night before: the pregnancy test, a plastic cup (I was nervous that I wouldn’t pee on the stick right so I opted to do the dip method, which the test instructions said was fine), my phone (for the timer), and the camera. I did my thing, dipped the test, laid it flat, turned on the timer, and walked out of the bathroom. I didn’t want to sit there agonizing over the test.

When the 3 minutes were up, I announced to the dogs, “Moment of truth,” and walked back into the bathroom. The lines could not have been more clear.

I was pregnant.

Having dreamt of that moment for so many months (since I’ve had baby fever for a while), I have to say that it was rather anticlimactic compared to what I expected*. I had expected to scream and jump up and down in delight but my reaction was more of a subdued joy. I realized that I had been more certain of being pregnant than I had wanted to admit to myself before that moment. Seeing that result on the test was more of a validation of what I already knew, rather than a surprise – more like, “I knew it!” than “OMG! I can’t believe I’m pregnant!!!!!”

And Travis was out of town on a work trip. Since I wanted to tell him in person, I was the only one who knew for over a day. Those 24 hours felt very surreal.

Travis had known that I was going to take a pregnancy test while he was gone and when he got home, I gave him a little pair of hockey skate baby booties (the ones in our announcement picture). He didn’t realize what they were at first but when I pulled out the positive pregnancy test and showed him that, he deciphered the code (they print it right on the stick), then realized what the booties were and got really excited. We’re having a baby!

More to come…

*I don’t mean to minimize the specialness of the moment, and of course I was very excited and happy. This was just my personal reaction to the situation.

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A Map Project

13 Jun

A couple of weeks after our 5-year anniversary, I finally gave Travis his anniversary gift. The first part was a map project I had seen on chicrunner’s blog, which was a version of this one on Kayla Danelle, which was a version of this one on minimoz.

I took all of their ideas and put my own spin on it. The map lives on…

First, where to get the maps. There had been a map store near our house but it closed. I thought about buying an atlas from Walmart but ended up using Rand McNally’s website to make jpgs of each map I wanted to include. I put those jpgs on a flash drive and went to Walmart.

They have a fancy new machine that lets you print your pictures instantly. Instead of having to wait an hour, I got them in 5 minutes. Sweet!

I also bought a frame, scrapbook paper and small rubber stamp letters (for $0.99!) while I was there.

When I got home, I started by making a heart cutout that I could use to turn each map into the shape of a heart.

Then I set to work stamping out the words for each map caption. I had planned on using sticker letters but couldn’t find any at Walmart that were the size/style/color I wanted so this worked out great. I also got to use one of stamp pads I’ve had since, like, 5th grade.

The maps and captions are:

  • fell in love (University of Minnesota campus)
  • got engaged (Chicago waterfront)
  • said I do (Mounds View, MN)
  • made a home (Wheat Ridge, CO)

Finally, I was ready to put the maps into the frame. I’m pretty sure I bought a 13 x 15 frame, with no mat or anything.

At first, I had planned to just use the blank side of the picture the frame came with as the background but the maps were just a little cream-colored so it didn’t look right. I decided to put a border around each map and toyed with laying it out like this:

But I ran out of time and had to pick Travis up from the airport so I hid everything away to finish the next day.

When I got it back out, I decided that I wasn’t a huge fan of the diamond layout and that it might work better to lay the maps out vertically instead of horizontally. I put the scrapbook paper down first in a block pattern and taped the back with looped Scotch tape.

Then I laid out the pictures and captions.

Once I was satisfied, I carefully lifted up a corner at a time to tape them down exactly as they were.

It still needed something. I took the map/paper insert back out and added silver hearts leftover from our wedding invitations to “mark the spot” of each relevant location.

I also added a note for Travis on the back.

Done! I really like how this project turned out and it didn’t take very long – maybe 2-3 hours?

But since this wasn’t really a “guy” thing, I also bought Travis a tarp.

It’s a practical thing but also a running joke between Travis and me. Several years ago, when we were trying to decide what to buy some friends for their wedding, Travis wanted to get them a tarp. I retorted, “You don’t buy someone a tarp for their wedding!” But he insisted – “It’s on their registry!” So we bought them a tarp, along with something else more traditional like bath towels. Now whenever we’re shopping for a wedding or shower gift, he suggests a tarp. Sorry Trav, once is enough. Unless the gift is for you, I guess.

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Anniversary Trip {Part Two}

22 May

Sunday dawned cold but clear. When I went out to get bagels from the grocery store across the street, this was our car:

Brrr…

After eating a cinnamon raisin bagel with peanut butter, I was off on my run and Travis was off to his morning hockey game. I took the pooches with me for the first 3 miles, then planned to drop them off to run the last 15 alone. After being couped up in a hotel room for 36 hours, only going outside for bathroom breaks, Katy and Charlie had a LOT of energy. And needed a lot of #2 pit stops. Nothing gets things moving like a run.

It was 35 when I first went out so I had decided to wear a long-sleeve tech shirt plus a lightweight jacket. The sun was out in full force, though, and by the time I got back to the hotel with the dogs, that jacket was too much. I left my long-sleeve on and with my compression tights and running skirt on bottom, I was perfectly dressed for the 40-50 degree weather.

Running in the mountains isn’t all bad

Pooches in their kennel, I headed back out with 3 hours of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to keep me company. Having something like a story to think about helps to pass the time. Since I had a long way to go and was running at a good 4,000 feet higher than usual, my strategy for this run was to run at an easy, comfortable pace and walk when I needed or wanted to. Which was good because there were a lot of hills on this run.

First 3 miles:

15 mile out and back:

And those just show the main hills! There were also a bunch of smaller rolling hills. I ran up most of the smaller hills but walked up the big ones. It just wasn’t worth pushing myself to run up them, only to be completely out of breath at the top and have to walk anyway.

Miles 5 – 7.5 (of the 15 mile route) were tiring. It was enough uphill to be noticeable but not enough that I could justify walking. Around mile 6, I saw Travis driving back from his hockey game. He honked and I waved.

Finally I got to the turnaround! But because of the doozy of a hill at miles 10-10.5 (which I walked most of), and my aching legs/hips, I actually only ran the way back a minute faster than the way out.

Around mile 13, I took a bathroom break, which was glorious. For the last 2 miles, I alternated between thinking “Hey, this isn’t so bad”, “Holy crap, my hips are throbbing”, “I can totally run a marathon”, and “EIGHT more miles after this? I’m screwed”. But I made it. And I’m pretty sure that I’m going to cry at the finish line of the real marathon because I get emotional just finishing my long runs. 😉

I borrowed Travis’ phone so that I could track my splits via the MapMyRun app but I’m pretty sure it didn’t work correctly. It says that the route I ran was only 14.6 miles instead of 15.1 (and actually, on the phone it said it was only 13.99 but when I looked it up online later, it said 14.6). It also said that my pace on some of the flatter miles was something like 14:45. I know I’m slow but I’m not that slow.

So plugging in my own numbers, it took me 3:47:36 to run 18 miles, for an average pace of 12:38. For running the longest run of my life at 9,300 feet with a cumulative elevation gain of 736 feet and a bunch of walking, I’m feeling pretty good about that pace.

Nevertheless, I’m hoping that I’ll run the marathon faster than that. And since the race is practically at sea level and I’ll have tapered beforehand, I feel confident that I can. Even if I run the race at an average pace of 12:30/mile, that would put me around 5:30:00 for a marathon finish time. So the goal I’m toying with right now is somewhere between 5:10 (11:49 pace) and 5:30 (12:35 pace).

I’ll wait until after my 20 miler to officially decide on goals.

………………………..

After my run, I took a shower and Epsom salt bath. Travis’ team had won their morning game too so they were moving on to the championship game at 3 pm. We packed up all of our stuff, ate lunch at Noodles & Company, and then went shopping at the outlet mall for 25 minutes to kill time. I went to the Gap Outlet and found this adorable dress for $32 that I am smitten with as well as 2 pairs of black pants — traditional dress pants for $30 and skinny jeans for $35 (I’ll post pictures later). I’m only going to keep one pair (due to our Alaska trip limiting our $$ resources) but can’t decide if I want to go trendy or timeless. Thoughts? Travis had some luck too with finding some hiking/aquashoes at the Columbia outlet for $25, marked down from $85!

Then it was off to the last hockey game. I took the dogs for a short walk while Travis got ready and then went in to watch the game. They lost by 1 point in overtime. Bummer!

A quick stop at a gas station for snacks and we were headed home to do laundry and veg out. We took Loveland Pass instead of the Eisenhower Tunnel, which neither of us had done before. The views were gorgeous:

But as always, I got freaked out and asked Travis to slow down at least 10 times. I’m a wreck on mountain roads.

Finally, we made it home. After we unloaded and unpacked everything, Travis was going to recharge the AC in our Focus when the car just up and died. Now it won’t start. I’m just glad that it didn’t die at the top of Loveland Pass! That would’ve been bad.

But I convinced Travis that instead of spending all night trying to fix it, he should just hang out with me. And so we ended our nice little anniversary weekend with an episode of NCIS (we’re totally addicted to that show).

Pretty soon, though, the real celebration begins: ALASKA!!

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