Boy, Oh Boy

Yep, we’re having a boy!

We had our ultrasound appointment on May 18th.  Baby boy is NOT shy (must take after his dad).  We got a very nice extended butt shot, legs spread, penis front and center.  The Tech said she would have a hard time hiding it from us if we did not want to know.  My next appointment we found out baby is measuring about a week ahead of where he should be, which is consistent with the earlier ultrasound we had at about 11 weeks.  Every thing else looks to be on track.  We have US pictures at home which I’ll try and add here once we scan them.

Now for the hard part – picking out a room theme and color!  Most likely we’ll head towards either animals or alphabets – the classic a’s.  We have already ordered the furniture.  We shopped at USA Baby in Bloomington during a sale (We were in line for over an hour to get our deals.  And at least it was both of us there – Dean held our place in line while I headed to the bathroom) and decided on the Bonavita Metro collection in Classic Cherry.   We ordered the convertible crib, 2 dressers, and a nightstand.    Color wise, I know it’s traditional, but blue is one of my favorite colors.  We might go with that or perhaps a combination of blue and green.  NO YELLOW.  Almost our entire house is yellow so it’s definitely time to branch out.

Mother’s Day and Anniversary

My very first Mother’s Day was nice and low key.  Great mom-to-be cards from family and friends as well as calls from the family.  Dean gave me a card and then let me pick the movie to go see – Star Trek!  Loved it!  The first movie I’ve seen in the theater since Sex and the City.  Yes, we are boring people. 

Our Second Anniversary was a little more complicated.  Our anniversary is May 12th.  I travelled for work to Iowa on the 11th and 12th.  Dean travelled for work on the 12th-14th.  When I got home on the 12th Dean had left some very nice cotton roses for me in the bathroom (we chose the traditional gift theme route).  Very thoughtful and I just love that I came home to that.  We blackberry messengered each other on the 12th and had a brief call.  We celebrated over the weekend by going out to Chez Daniel in Bloomington.  It is a French Restaurant in a hotel.  It’s actually set up very nicely to look more like a cottage then a restaurant with small rooms to separate the dinners.  We were in a small terraced area with windows that overlooked the entry way.  The waiter was even French!  The food was good as well – Dean and I both got the prime rib special – Cote de Boeuf Rotie.  (The menu has french names but the descriptions are in English.)  The meal was nice and the atmosphere was very laid back.  The waiter did provide us with a complimentary dessert and a chorus of ‘Bon Anniversare’ since we let him know it was our anniversary up front.  I would definitely go back there again – especially once I can DRINK THE GOOD WINE.  I tried non-alcoholic wine.  Do not try it yourself.  Terrible.  The only truely bad thing about the evening. 

After dinner we went back home and put in a movie – Burn After Reading.  I was so full I passed out 10 minutes in and woke up for the credits.  Dean at least enjoyed it.

Early May

A lot has happened since I last posted.  I’ve been writing this in my head for a while and I guess it’s finally time to put it down in blog form.

ASK Founder’s Day was a huge success.  We had a small, intimate gathering for the 20th Anniversary, but there was lots of good conversation and socializing.  We had some background music going that no one could hear because the conversations just kept flowing.  All the ladies looked wonderful and it was great to have the span of Founder to Active available.  I did raid the ASK storage area for some visual aids and I must say that Leah’s scrap books were the biggest hit.  They started around 1995 and ended in the early 2000s.  So many people were looking for themselves and others they knew.  They will definitely be brought to the special 5-year celebrations from now on.

After Founder’s Day, Dean and I headed to Disney World for work – we both had meetings to attend for an application at work.  His was on Tuesday and mine on Wednesday.  So, we arrived a little early and spent about 5 hours on Monday at EPCOT.  I love EPCOT.  It’s by far my favorite park – especially going to France and enjoying the pastries and wine (although I had to skip the wine this time).  The weather was HOT – low 90s with hardly any breeze.  I am definitely not ready for it to be that hot yet.  On Tuesday, Dean went to his meeting with one of my co-workers and I went to the pool.  Rough day for me.  I sat around doing some work e-mail, calling family, reading my book.   Then Dede, Melissa, Petra, Dean and I headed over to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping.  They have some awesome Disney stores there that just seem to go on and on and on…  I did find baby’s first onesie.  The picture is attached below.  I tried to find one in adult size for my Uncle Bill, but no luck. 

Baby's First Onesie

Wednesday was my meeting and then we flew home.

An update already?!?

Well, if you’re like me and want to get things in chronological order from your friends, you’ve read the previous post first.  I started working on that 3 weeks ago and just got it posted today.  Whew.  Told you I was the worst blogger!

We had another doctors appointment yesterday (4 weeks from the previous one) and once again got to listen to baby’s heartbeat.  It was a little hard to find as baby just kept kicking and kicking and kicking.  And now baby won’t stop!  At work today, I just kept thinking, “Kid, take a nap, will ya?”  It’s all still under the surface, as I’m only 19 weeks tomorrow, so I’m the only one that gets to enjoy it.  Or suffer through it.  I guess baby should get the kicking out of its system now so that I’m not getting kicked black and blue in about 2 months.

ASK Founder’s Day meeting and celebration are this weekend.  I need to put together the meeting and am helping with the celebration activities afterwards.  After all that work, Dean and I are heading to Florida for a vacation/work conference.  It’s on Disney property so this will be my second trip this year.  His meeting is on Tuesday and mine is Wednesday.  We’re heading down Sunday afternoon and will enjoy Monday at EPCOT.  I love EPCOT.  I love Frace at EPCOT.  Good pastries, great wine (which others will need to enjoy for me), interesting entertainment.

Alive and kickin’ and wavin’

Yep, we’re alive.  I am the most awful poster of all of my friends.  I just don’t think my life is that interesting that people will care.  But, since I do have some intersting news that I’m willing to share now, I’ve once again joined the blogosphere. 

Dean and I found out in mid-January that we are expecting!  Yep, we’re going to be parents – I know, scary, right?  Our (single) bundle of joy (?) is due to arrive in late September, but you know how fickle babies can be about due dates.

Now, I’ve never really been a “I really want to have kids” person, so it took me a good month to get used to the idea.  And then it took me more time to be comfortable with more than just my family and close friends knowing.  Then I just wanted to actually SEE a doctor before we let people know.  The doctor criteria actually put us back by 3 weeks – I had to reschedule my first appointment by a week due to a conflict and then my doctor was called to the OR for my appointment and I was pushed back another two weeks.  (the clinic staff wanted to make it 4, but 16 weeks is a little late for a first appointment in my opinion and belive me, I told them so).

I never got truely sick, but I did have a lot of nausea if nothing was in my stomach.  Those 5 weeks seemed to last forever.  Driving also proved to be an issue, especially on the longer trips – I had a really hard time on our trip up to and back from Blaine for a Superbowl party.

I’m already at the stage where my pants don’t fit.  Kristina was nice enough to go Maternity pants shopping with me.  I’ve been wearing them ever since, including to work before I let work know.  They are pretty comfy and the belly band is getting to be used more.

Some of you may be looking for belly shots.  I’ve always thought of my belly as my worst area and detest showing it off.  Once I’m sure that it looks like nothin’ but baby, I’ll get around to taking some.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is tomorrow and I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful holiday surrounded by friends and family.

Dean and I are busy this year.  We are with the Schiro/Nowak crowd for Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day.  Then we head back to the cities for the late flight to Milwaukee Christmas night.  My sister and niece are flying in from NC on the same evening, so my parents are very kindly becoming taxis for their kids.  The ladies have plans for the ballet on Saturday afternoon.

Been a while…

…a very long while.  Since it has been such a long while I’m going to basically skip over the things that happened and start fresh.

I wanted to say thanks to all who sent out good thoughts for Dean’s Dad.  Fritz passed away on October 16th.  Dean, Janet, and I were all there.  It was peaceful after such a long struggle.  The funeral was held on Monday, October 20th in Lake Lillian, MN with the burial at the local Cosmos, MN cemetary.  It was a bright sunny day during the harvest.

Send good thoughts…

I know there are a limited number of people who read this, but please, please send good thoughts out into the universe (however you personally do that) about Dean’s Dad.  He has not been doing well lately as I have written.  Fritz was transferred down to St. Mary’s in Rochester (part of the Mayo campus) on Thursday evening as the doctors at Abbott had exhausted their knowledge on what was going on.  He has been run through extensive tests through the weekend and they are still looking at results in order to properly diagnose him.  Late Sunday evening, he went into cardiac arrest.  Dean was staying overnight with him.  He said that the doctors and nurses were VERY FAST in responding to his situation.  They were able to stabilize him and moved him up to the ICU overnight.  He has shown some progress through the night and this morning so they hope to move him down to a regular room sometime today.  Thanks, all.  Amanda and Dean

Finished

Well, the Women Run the Cities 10-mile is over.  I’m not especially pleased with my performance.  A lot of people are telling me to quit giving myself such a hard time, but I can’t help it.  I wanted to run/jog the entire race no matter what time I finished with.  Unfortunately, I ended up run/walking from about 6.5 miles onward.  I stopped a little before the 5-mile mark for the bathroom and lost a lot of my momentum.  My time was 2:06:36.  Below is a picture of me, Pam and Kristina right before the race.  I have my water belt on that my sister and niece gave me for my birthday.  I ended up not running with it, though, since there were 7 water stops along the route.  Pam and Kristina were actually able to smile for their finish picture.  I look about ready to die.  At the 5K turn around (about 1.5 miles to the end) the EMT tech took one look at me and said “Are you okay?”

ASK Runners

Tired lady

Runner Extraordinaire

Kickin Butt Kristina

Yes, I am still here…

Bet you never thought I’d get around to this again, did ya? I’ve been a very bad blogger. No posts for a month now. There were a lot of thing that happened during that time. The post will be super long as I’m going to summarize key events starting with

Labor Day Weekend:

The extra day off was really nice. Saturday we had Tiffany’s 31^st birthday celebration. Really good blueberry martinis, great food (thanks Deb), great conversation, played with some of the kids on the swing set and in the teepee. We left relatively early since I had to run the next morning. Pam and I did the Human Race 10K for nikeplus with a time of 1:12:35. Not great, but we both finished. After that, it was rush, rush, rush to get ready for Logan’s birthday party at Mary’s parents’ house. We had a nice time there with the Froyums and Wentorfs. Forgot our suits for swimming, but had fun watching all the kids. We also got to show off our wedding album with all the pictures from the photographer and the ones our friends so kindly donated.

Workouts aplenty:

I’ve been putting in small runs (5K to 4-miles) during lunch at work in the Como area. Pam and I have been diligently training for the 10-mile Women Run the Cities Race on Sunday. We’ve put in large runs of 10K (labor day weekend mentioned above), 8-miles, 7-miles, and 9-miles. I tend to do better the second time I run a distance since I KNOW that I can do it. The 9-miles on Saturday did not go well. I spent about 3 miles trying not to hop into the woods on the side of the road to pee. We did hit a port-o-pottie at mile 5, but after the break I lost a bit of my momentum and had to walk. The last 4 miles were about half and half running and walking. I did catch up to Pam at the Yankee Doodle and Dodd light (well, after she walked back a little ways to get me) and we finished by walking through the hills at her house. I’m figuring the 10-mile will be about a 2 hour run. Uggh.I’ve also taken up rock climbing again (after a 3-year hiatus) and am taking an intro to belly dancing class in Lakeville. I try to get some weights in there every week as well. I think that’s about as well rounded a workout schedule as I’m going to get.

Test hell:

I am studying to take the Professional Engineer (PE) Exam for Electrical Engineering on October 24^th. They have a review course at the U on Thursday nights that I also took the first time I attempted the test. Going over the exact same material, but it has been 2 years. I am also a little ahead this time since I KNOW I have to study outside of class and not just rely on the notes from the instructors.

Dean’s Dad:

Dean’s Dad is back in the hospital again. They did send him home in August from the hospital but on one of his follow-up visits they found bacteria in his blood. So, the vasculitis diagnosis was incorrect, although the treatment did temporarily relieve some of his symptoms. They have deduced that his GI issues are being caused by C-Diff, a bacterial infection in the GI tract. Hopefully now that they’ve diagnosed this, he will be able to get some strength back (they are feeding him through IV and regular meals to try and get his weight up). The treatment for this is antibiotics. However, the ones he was on were also causing some issues with his platelet count, so they’ve switched those recently. So, they have one thing figured out but still have others. Please send out your good thoughts!

Musical interlude:

Finally, I’ve attended two concerts in the past month – They Might Be Giants with Pam and Michelle at First Ave. and Mike Doughty/Semisonic/Live at the McNally River Rocks Outdoor concert with Dean, Mark, and Pam. Both were a lot of fun. Pam, Michelle, and I met for drinks and appetizers downtown before the concert at Bella Notte. We didn’t have the preferred seats, but we were able to get a pretty good look at the band from where we parked ourselves. And the most surprising thing – I didn’t have to leave the floor to go to the bathroom the entire time. At the River Rocks concert, we did opt for VIP seating. The tickets were pretty expensive, but they did have burgers, hot dogs, desserts, and chips for us to eat and drinks within the area were part of the cost. Also, they had bleacher seating for watching the concert. We did hit the main area for Mike Doughty – and he was AWESOME!!! The set was acoustic with a cello. Oh man, once again, AWESOME! And, he was available for signing CDs or tickets or T-shirts or you after his set. I got to meet Doughty! No camera handy so I didn’t get a picture but Mark and I stood in line for about 10 minutes so I could shake his hand, get an autograph, and let him know that this was my favorite concert since the Women’s Club in 2002. If they ever put this concert out as a CD and you like Mike Doughty, I highly recommend it be bought. We then stayed for Semisonic and Live sitting in the VIP section, drinking, eating, and just having a great time. During Live, I got really bored so everyone got a little backrub.

They’re Almost Gone:

And last but not least, I’ve been on a bit of a cookie kick lately. I opened the last box of Girl Scout Cookies today. Less than one box of Thin Mints to go and I’ll have GS Cookie withdrawal until next year.

See you when I see you.