Vintage Nursery

It has been busy around our house as usual. Greg has been doing some bookwork for a company for some extra money and I am trying to get my supervised hours in so that I can sit for my BCBA exam and eventually be a consultant.

In our spare time, we have been working on getting the nursery ready for our little man.  Luckily, it has been REALLY cold, so we are not overly motivated to do anything outside.  The nursery has been a bit of a project since we are moving and replacing a door.  That is Greg's part of the work.

I have been crafting quite a bit.  My goal was to create a mostly gender neutral nursery that has a vintage sort of feel.  Nothing too commercialized.  I hope to use the same nursery for two kiddos fairly close together.  I would hate to have to buy anything twice.

I started with this fabric.

Made this quilt.  I will make another in the same fabric, but with triangles for the second baby if we have one.

I made a crib skirt in matching flannel because I couldn't find one in a neutral color that was not all ruffley.  No picture of the crib skirt yet, but here is a picture of Moose helping me make the quilt.

Then I made an ABC banner that will circle the entire room.  The idea was stolen from my sister's blog, lifeafterstaff.blogspot.com. 

I am now working on a farm animal mobile.  I made some felted animals and a friend felted some balls that will go on the strings.  I am looking for a top for the mobile.  Here are my silly farm animals.

Lastly, I need to repaint the room and get some black and white farm animal pictures to go in my frames.  I have some that I have taken myself and a few that I am ordering.  They will each have a nursery rhyme under them.  More pictures to follow when the room is finished!

Uncooperative

I might have the most uncooperative child already.  I am hoping that changes before he arrives.  Either that, or we know he takes after me personality wise.  Yipee!

We went for our follow up ultrasound today to get better measurements of his head and his heart.  The tech was able to get great pictures of his heart and said that everything looks good.  But, this little boy is still upside down and crammed in the back and bottom of my uterus making it difficult to measure his head and nearly impossible to get a look at his face.

 

See, backwards and curled up.  Anytime she got any view of his face, his right hand was across it.  Greg said maybe he is like his dad and doesn't want to have his picture taken.

 Here are his long legs again.

 

So curled up!

 

 

He is pretty crammed in there.  I think he will be happy to get out when May rolls around.

 

Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

I am so bad about updating this blog, but since I am down and out with the flu and therefore at home by myself and bored out of my mind, it seemed like a good time to post an update.

This is my fourth day of being sick and I am actually feeling quite a lot better.  I no longer have a fever, but I can't be at work until I have been fever free for a full 24 hours.  So, tomorrow it is.

Our biggest news came right after Christmas.  We had a major snowstorm on the 27th, but braved the weather for my 20 week ultrasound.  It is pretty amazing to see our little one looking so much like a human now. 

 

Those legs are definitely not my legs.  They have to be Greg's long legs.

It is a good thing that we wanted to know the gender because that was the one thing that was easy to see.  We will be welcoming a little boy into our home in May!  We couldn't be more excited.

It was fun breaking the news to my family at our Christmas celebration!

The ultrasound technician could not get a good look at his head or his heart because of his positioning, so we will actually be going back this afternoon for a recheck, assuming my fever stays away.

The Real Reason I Didn't do a Fall Triathlon

I have been waiting for a while to share some exciting news. 

We will be adding to our family in May!

I found out in August, just days before the Pumpkinman and Maniac Triathlons.  I was hoping to do the Maniac Tri this year, but because it is my first pregnancy and I was so early in it, I decided it would be best to skip it this year.  I have been keeping up with workouts for the most part, still running, biking and swimming, just not all on the same day.  In fact, Moose and I ran in a 5K this morning.

I have been incredibly lucky and have not really been sick at all.  I have been a little tired and once in a while feel generally kind of blah, but overall, it has been smooth sailing.  I am really hoping that it continues this way. 

Here are some pictures of the little alien baby.  If you are not into these kind of pictures (I'm not), I apologize.  They are mostly for family and so that Ella can see a picture of her cousin.

Here is a 2D frontal picture.  I think it is cool that you can see 2 arms/hands and 2 legs/feet when the baby only measures 5cm.

Janie

The first time I rode her was in December of 1992 and she started bucking when I asked her to canter.  There was something about the little mare that I loved anyway and I bought her.  She was the first horse that I bought with my own money, saved from selling 4H market lambs at the fair.  We brought her home on a very cold night after my grandpa had built her a stall in our old cow barn.  After all, there was no way I could let her sleep outside like the other horses.

Janie and I had many adventures from trail riding to pony club, hunter paces and events, and LOTS of roundy round shows.

She had the best personality and even had a few tricks up her sleeve.  She could shake and "say please" and gave the best pony kisses.

I sold Janie after leaving to be a working student in Virginia.  She had two other owners, but I was able to keep up with her wherabouts.  Her last owners cherished her as much as I did.  In 2008, they offered har back to me for retirement.  I was thrilled to have her back, relaxing in my backyard.  Thank you so much Heather for letting me have this time with her!

Janie taught so many kids how to ride.  I think Ella and I were the lucky ones to have the last ride on her.

The last two winters were pretty tough on Janie.  She wasn't able to gain much weight back over the summer, so the difficult decision was made to have her put down this fall.  I did OK during the actual procedure and burial, but haven't really been able to talk about it or think about her until now.

Janie was so loved.  I am glad that she had a long life and had the last few years to enjoy retirement.  I will always remember her cute, fuzzy face, her gentle nicker and the best pony kisses.

Odie

I haven't posted anything for a very long time, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been anything happening around here.

I had a great summer with Odie.  He really is a terrific horse and a really quiet and willing 3 year old.  Odie competed in two team penning events, went on several trail rides and even went swimming!  He never put a foot wrong and was always willing to try whatever was asked of him.

Unfortuntely, in May, I found out that Odie is a bilateral cryptorchid.  That means that even though he was sold to me as a gelding and appeared to be a gelding, he was actually a stallion who had undecended testicles.  This is a problem that can be rectified with surgery, but a very costly surgery with a 6 month recovery time.  It really was not something that I could afford to take on and it really limited my options on where he could live.

I contacted his previous owners who own a horse business and breed horses, hoping that they would work something out with me, or take him back for the same money that I paid for him.  The conversations did NOT go well, to say the very least.  After talking to Greg and a few other professionals, I found myself submitting paperwork for a small claims trial.

The situation was quite tense and I was really nervous about going to court.  Overall, it went really well.  In the court, I told my story, submitted verterinary paperwork, bills and the original bill of sale.  The previous owners spoke a lot about his registration papers (really a moot point since registration papers can be filled out by anyone, education and horse knowledge not required) and the fact that they didn't know he was a cryptorchid.

In the end, I won the case.  The previous owners had to reimburse me for the cost of the horse, the vet bills and the court fees.  They also had to take Odie back, which was the hardest part.

You are greatly missed Odie.  I hope you are showing someone else what a great little horse you are!

Ranch Sorting

Melanie and Gus

Despite the wind and freezing temperatures, muscle pains and illness, my friends and I took our horses to a ranch sorting clinic.  All of our horses met some cows a few weeks ago, but this was their first time actually working cows and learning to play by the rules.



Me and Odie

Here's a quick run down of a ranch sorting event -

• There are two connecting pens with a gate in the middle with 12 cows on one side
• Cows are numbered 0-9 with 2 unnumbered cows
• The object is to move cows from one side to the other in order beginning with the number the announcer calls.
• If any of the cows cross the line in the wrong order, or any unnumbered cows cross the line, you are eliminated.
• Riders ride in teams of 2 and take turns cutting the cows and manning the gate.
• If you do really well (fast with lots of cows), you can win money.

Becky and Maverick

All three horses did really well all day.  With a little practice, health on our side and some warmer temperatures, I think we could be really good!



Melanie and Gus and Me and Odie