changes here & there

i have had a difficult adjustment back to work from my "summer break" schedule. even though i worked a lot this summer and was very busy, my teaching load of 4 courses this fall has me feeling incredibly bogged down. i have to take it a week--or really, a day--at a time in order to keep from losing my mind. add to the situation that i have a new boss, who while great, still requires some adjustments. the semester has had a bit of a rocky start from my perspective, but i think each semester begins this way, i just tend to forget the initial challenges.

after passing my licensure exam in july, i now only have 5.5 hours of supervision left until i can submit my paperwork to become a fully licensed social worker. while i am eager to complete this process, i will miss my once-a-week visits with my supervisor, who has been so incredibly kind and supportive. 

the midwives changed our due date once again, this time to christmas day. to make a long story a bit shorter, the lovely midwife/cattle rancher told us that any changes to a due date should be based on first trimester measurements because there is too much variability in second trimester ultrasound measurements. she was agitated that it was changed inaccurately and it felt nice to have someone else acting as my advocate in a medical setting, considering that is often my role at the hospital. i really hope we get the chance to deliver with this particular midwife, because she is so comfortable to be around. i like them all, but i feel especially at ease with her.

how far along: 24 weeks

total weight gain/loss: not sure.

maternity clothes: almost entirely. 

stretch marks: still none. (yet.)

sleep: pretty rough after 2AM, so by 2PM all i wanna do is nap, but on tuesdays and thursdays i have to teach introduction to social work. i'm sure my teaching evals are going to be less-than-stellar this term. poor students.

best moment this week: getting out on my mountain bike today with brandon and being able to climb up some steep ascents that i can't always complete when i'm not pregnant.

movement: i feel her wiggling around just about every time i sit still and brandon finally got to feel her move, which was awesome.

food cravings: i had to do my glucose test on friday afternoon, so i work up friday craving every fruit and sweet thing i saw. in general i crave fruit, but having it be off limits that day made it especially appealing. 

gender: female.

what i miss: being able to get up off the floor without having to flip over onto my hands and knees or have someone give me a hand.

milestones: i realized today that our baby has passed through the "viability threshold" so, heaven forbid, she comes early she now has a pretty good chance (50-70%) of surviving life outside of my body. mind blowing!

stop over

rob & becky made a detour on their road trip to austin to see our little piece of life here in wyomin'. it was nice to be able to share some of our old favorites & new adventures with them. we went to vedauwoo & hiked around the crazy rocks. we were eager to see a moose, so eager i mistook some hikers tromping through the brush for one. oops!

we also spent lots of time in antique shops & each of us found a few treasures. i found a great print of a ponderosa (kind of nikki mcclure style) in a junky frame. we put it in a new frame & it looks great. plus it is a reminder of home, which is always a bonus! 

on saturday we packed the four of us & the two mutts in the outback. we felt like sardines in there with the dogs breathing down our necks! but it was another beautiful day so we took our time & enjoyed the trip to rocky mountain national park. we saw one elk from a distance in the park & about fifty in a city park down in town.

the park was beautiful--definitely a place i want to visit again. most of the park was closed for the season, so brandon & i need to make plans to get there next summer. too bad dogs are not welcome in national parks. i understand the rationale, but as a dog owner it really cramps my style.

on sunday we hung around the house, brandon & rob put together a washstand papa overstreet made a few years back. i need to get pictures of the finished product--it is really cool! becky & i ran errands, went for coffee, & baked an apple pie. it was nice to lay low with them. we even used our projector and $1-yard-sale-score-projection-screen to watch a movie! 

they took off yesterday after a tour of campus. it was nice that it wasn't "goodbye" since we will see them in austin in a few weeks for thanksgiving. after they left brandon & snuck in the last bike ride of the season, which was awesome. i had a wreck that left me hurting pretty bad, but it still felt good to get out before the snow hit. which it did this morning. we are in a total winter wonderland at the moment!

postage stamp possibilities

we have a little postage stamp of a garden, which i have posted about before. actually, it is more envelope-shaped. but a garden it most definitely resembles. things are actually growing and we've been eating them from time to time. here are a few photos of the recent harvest. 

the carrot came up by mistake when i was pulling weeds, but tasted EXACTLY like a carrot! who would have thought?

our kale and lettuce, which we have been eating like crazy. my mom is always so happy when we sit down to dinner and she can say, "the lettuce is from the garden!" i never fully appreciated what that meant and used to think "gross!" but now, i get it! i can totally taste how much better, fresher, and safer this food that i grew actually is. way to go mom for continuing to grow food for our family, even when all of us kids were mistakenly thinking store-bought was better. 

in our family we have a christmas tradition of "find the pickle ornament on the christmas tree". this summer we have a new tradition, called "where's the pepper?"--sort of like "where's waldo". if you squint just enough you can see we have three peppers growing strong!

tassels, our corn has tassels!

these pictures aren't about the garden, but about the other theme of our summer: mountain biking! brandon finished his 70 mile race in about 8 hours. can you imagine being on your bike for that long?!? no thanks. that is why i volunteered, although i ended up riding about 25 miles myself because i got lost on the way to my volunteer post. typical. i also fell in the mud multiple times, so my shoes have been living on the back deck. even simple green couldn't revive them.

i was so impressed with brandon though. he did amazing and is even thinking about doing it again next year. he wasn't sore the next day at all, just a little tired. 

what we've been up to:

b: preparing his presentation for the ecology conference in august.
l: writing a literature review for my thesis.

b: riding his bike in the name of "training" for his 70 mile bike ride
l: grooming our garden, hoping we can eat more than lettuce before the summer turns to winter. {last year that was sept. 15.}

b: gearing up for a week in yellowstone, doing river research commissioned by the navy.
l: gearing up for a two-day whirlwind tour of our square state, stopping along the way to interview people who provide services to people who are homeless. this is for job #2, where i am a mentor to a mcnair scholar.

b: working on all four of our bikes--something always seems to be in disrepair these days. i guess they are just getting more use than normal.
l: refinishing some furniture {pictures to come when it is complete}.

both of us:

• wishing we had more time away from the computer, where we could hike, bike, eat, read, & sleep. 
• enjoying our delicious CSA fruits. these apricots straight from the tree are incredible.
• looking forward to having our godson & his lovely family here in our house soon. what excellent motivation to work hard now so we can enjoy every moment they are here!

shrub like rasta

last friday it was 32 degrees and sunny; in brandon's mind, this equates to the perfect day for mountain biking. he got back in bed after checking the weather and as soon as i cracked my eyes open he began negotiating about what it would take for me to be willing to go riding. it sounded somewhat miserable, but he was obviously desperate for time outside on his bike. i gave in and we were off into the cold, crisp air.

when we got to the trailhead there were cows grazing everywhere, a species harvey had not yet been introduced to. the hair on his back immediately stood on end and he let out a few scary, big dog barks. the cows were unfazed by this little "hank the cow dog" look-a-like and went back to their food. occasionally on our ride we would come across a lone cow and harvey would dutifully protect us until we were at a safe distance (i.e., make a total jerk of himself barking up a storm while the cow took no notice of either harvey or us).

i had an intense fear brewing that i would come around the corner at full-speed and plow into one of the cows. what an obituary that would be: death by cow! therefore, i rode a little tentatively until the last segment when i let my fears go and plowed on ahead through the aspens.

harvey and i were racing through the single-track and came around the corner to another deadly scenario: an ice-covered bridge. i slammed on my breaks before i hit it and slid off the trail into the bushes. these are the reasons you ride tentatively when it is freezing outside!

it turned out to be a great ride and left all three of us with the wonderful feeling of proper exhaustion for the remainder of the day. probably the last ride before the snow hits hard, as it is supposed to do this week.

we noticed this little plant growing in the back a couple of days ago. ever since, all i can think about when i see it is rasta! so i revised the buffalo soldier lyrics to say, "shrub like rasta" and i find that song is stuck in my head all the time. silly song for a silly plant, i suppose.

sweet bike...

as i alluded to before, we have had an event-filled week.  sara mia came to visit, then we drove up to seattle with her for time with kemi, after that we cruised down to visit logan, alyssa, and rowan (our godson).  it was recently rowan's first birthday and alyssa's 23, so we had some celebrating to do.  when we got back from our northwest tour we celebrated mom's birthday with a little spaghetti and mashed potatoes (her favorite combination--don't ask).  and now we are home and i am sick.  but the sickness is worth it for all the memories we made.

for the past month, i have wanted to show everyone something brandon has been putting his heart into.  however, it was a big surprise for logan and rowan (alyssa already knew about it).  rowan started walking a month or so ago and brandon decided to build him a "like-a-bike" which is a wooden bike without pedals.  kids learn to run along and then pull up their feet when they want to coast, which puts them at an advantage with that balance thing the rest of us all struggled with.  being the awesome godfather that brandon is, he wants to give rowan every advantage he can.  thus, we introduce to you the wooden, pedal-less bike:

we knew logan would be thrilled that brandon made it and that his son had his first bike, but we also knew rowan would need to grow into it a bit so our expectations weren't too high that the little guy would be too interested.  boy were we wrong!  he loves it and every 20 minutes or so while we were there he would go over to the bike, pull on the handlebars and grunt at us until we helped him up and cruised around the house.  it was the best reaction to a gift we could have ever hoped for. 

the bike features some handlebars that were once logan's (cut down to rowan size) and the custom decals on the side read: GODSIFF RACING, with Rowan underneath.  it is pretty dang awesome and i am so glad to share it with the blogging world now that it is no longer a secret gift.

on sunday the boys went mountain biking and alyssa had sunday school to teach, so rowan and i got some awesome godmum/godson time.  he was a doll and was all smiles, with each animal cracker i fed him.  i got a few great photos of the adorableness that he is, but the one above is my favorite.

back to the original

i had to do it. i had to go back to the original layout of our blog. the green just wasn't working for me, perhaps because that color seems to have taken over my life (the truck i drive at work, the uniform i have to wear). it is just too much, even for this green-loving girl. so this is how i chose to spend my limited time at the library. :)

a large slew of boy scouts will be working on the forest in the coming weeks (we are talking hundreds here) so brandon has to work on his days off in order to prepare for the trails the eager boys will be cutting in. this means no major camping trips or the like for us this week, but i am enjoying a couple of days to get the stuff done that i need to.

however, brandon had to take the car to town this morning, leaving me at our place 16 miles out of town. so i rode my bike. currently i am feeling a little sore, a lot tired, and grossly sweaty. it was wonderful though and definitely made me feel like i conquered my day. always a good feeling.

the offer for visitors has been extended to all and so far only papa has taken us up on it. to the rest of you, get on it! we want to show you this beautiful place that we are temporarily calling home.