Baby

Here is an update, as I am sure everyone reading this already knows that a baby is on the way!

I had what should have been my first OB appt in the end of December. My blood work is all good and it is now on the books that have a blood type of A neg. Rhogam here I come! Maybe it will work out like it did for my Mom. 4 A neg babies and one A pos father, we definitely beat the odds there!

The baby's heartbeat was easy to find and was 168 at 12 weeks which is good. I don't know if that says anything about gender, but I have 2 sisters and a friend that are convinced it is a girl. Actually my friend, Anna, had a dream that she could see the baby through my stomach and that it is a girl! On the flip side, everyone that works in Microbiology has had a boy first. Apparantly this trend has held true for over 30 years. I wonder if I will break it? We will have to wait until July to find out!

Here is an ultrasound pic from my 7 week ultrasound. For those of you that don't know, there was some bleeding so I had 2 ultrasounds by week 10. Everything is fine though.

Brian was so excited that the baby was going to have a tail... I really had to break it to him that it goes away in the 8-9 week. In this photo you can also see the yolk sac on the bottom. That was a surprise to me, I hadn't read anything about that. I guess we are more like chickens than I thought!

I guess I will get my practice peeing in a cup as I will have to do it at every appt! Not very good at it now, but I guess practice makes perfect! :)

A Fun Weekend

Since I didn't have to work last weekend, Brian and I decided to make the most of the weekend. We had another whirlwind weekend.

Friday night we raked all of the leaves. Raking is officially done for the year! Now we have to haul the 20+ bags to the compost area.

Saturday I played in a volleyball tournament in Rochester. We didn't do that well, but we all had fun. That's what counts right?

We then drove to Springfield to see my Grandma, as she has been in and out of the hospital and is now in the nursing home for hopefully a short stint. Since it was too late on Saturday to see her, we saw her Sunday morning. Saturday night, since my sister was free, we went and saw her cute new house.

After Our visit with Grandma, we drove back to the cities to go to the zoo and dinner. It was a beautiful day and we saw my favorites the dolphins and sea horses and a new animal I have taken a liking to, the Red Panda.




On the way to the restaurant, we practically drove right by my sister Nicole's house so we called her and stopped in on her for a bit so Brian could see her house.

We then went to eat at Al Vento's, this cute little Italian place in South Minneapolis. I had beef tenderloin with a potato truffle puree and Brian had a pasta dish with duck. We then had dessert, even though we were both stuffed! I had my creme brule trio and Brian had gelato.

It was a full weekend full of touring new dwellings and driving! We loved every minute of it!

The end to a productive day off.

I really relished my day off today. I didn't have one appointment, phone call, or errand to run. I know what you all are thinking.... she didn't do anything except lie on the couch all day. I only watched one hour of television and that was when Brian was taking a nap on my lap :)

Here is what I accomplished:

1. Made an apple pie. I also LOVE to bake the leftover crust with cinnamon and sugar. It is almost better than the pie!










2. I did 5 loads of laundry. I still wonder how we accumulate so much laundry.

3. I cleaned the fridge and restocked it (i.e. went grocery shopping).


4. I filed 4 months of paperwork. I really need to do that right away and not let it pile up :)

5. I read a bit and knitted a bit.

6. I hung up our 4 Halloween decorations.
Now off to finish my day by............

folding clothes!

Bodily fluids and food... really?

I have to tell you about a pretty bone-headed thing a nurse did today. I was working in the blood bank and typically when a patient has special needs for their blood products, we have a nurse come down and get it as it is hard to replace if it gets lost in our pneumatic tube system.

So..... a nurse walks in to the blood bank with her soup, crackers, and fountain pop and says, "I'm here to pick up some blood."

My eyebrows raise as I look at her food. She sheepishly tries to hide it with her other hand.. which is holding her pop. I proceed to tell her, " You are absolutely not picking up blood with food". She then proceeds to question me and says "Really?"

Imagine the scene: I am standing there in scrubs, closed toed shoes, lab coat and gloves and she brings in soup, crackers and pop. Really? She is asking for Hepatitis!

Vocab lesson

On Saturday night a group of girls and I went to watch the Minnesota Roller Girls in St. Paul. I learned a whole new vocab lesson and rules to what appears to be a really fun sport. Too bad I can't skate.

The object of the roller derby is to outscore your opponent. You do this by having one of the team members, called a Jammer, pass the others team skaters.

1st new vocab word:
Jammer:Designated by a star on her helmet, she speed skates through the pack gaining points by passing skaters from the other team.

2nd vocab word:

Pack: all skaters from both teams have to skate together (minus the jammer) in a tight group that follows a pace put forth by a pivot. This pack is where the action happens. The pushing, shoving, and illegal tripping happens here.

3rd vocab word:

Pivot: one skater from each team that sets the pace for the pack. They also block the other teams jammer.

Here is a video of one of the jams: sorry about the bad filming.

On top of the new vocab words, all of the skaters pick unique names.....

Here are a few:

Suzie Smashbox

Venus Thightrap

Tiki Torture

Psycho Novia

Killaman Jaro

Sinaminn

What would be your rollergirl name?

There was also a charity booth that would give you a black eye for $1. Here is mine.

Cold and rainy weather brings.....

1. A sump pump that is working overtime. I'm just glad that it is working and we don't have water in our basement.

2. A furnace scare..... last night it was only 63 degrees in our house. We had to reset the furnace's "brain" by turning it off and on again.

3. Heidi the pin cushion: Every fall brings the flu shot and mantoux screen for TB.

4. A knitting revival: I have started knitting again due to the comforting warm feel of the yarn when it is cold outside.

5. Chili- nothing better than a bowl of chili to warm your insides.

6. Apple desserts: crisp, bars, and pies...yummy!

7. The end of sand volleyball.... pedicure here I come.

8. The half way point in Brian's coaching season, which means he will actually be home in the evenings fairly soon.

There is supposed to be some sun tomorrow! Get outside and replenish your Vitamin D levels :)

An activity filled weekend

Last weekend was jam packed full of exciting activities. It was my 3 day weekend that I get every 6 weeks so Friday I got some cleaning done and got ready for the rest of the weekend festivities.

Saturday: I played in a coed 6's volleyball tournament and Brian coached a JV volleyball tournament. Brian's team played pretty well and took 10th place out of 16 teams. He said they played much better than they had been playing.

I played with a team that I had never played before. I knew one guy and one girl. It was interesting to play next to people in which I had to learn and adjust to their playing style. We ended up winning the tournament so I made some money that day! Here is a picture of our team. Notice how short I am? The guy on the right side is one of the best players that I have ever played with. He hit a ball so hard (without jumping) that he knocked the wind out of a guy on the other side of the court. It was a really fun day.



Sunday: Brian met me and 2 of our friends down in Carver to run my first 5K ever. I'm pretty sure that I have never run 3.1 miles before, so I was very nervous. When I got there it felt like a little club that I didn't belong to.

I had 2 goals for myself for this race:

1. Finish in less than 40 minutes. ( I know this is a long time, but after 6 matches of volleyball the day before, I was pretty tired!)
2. Not to walk for any extended period of time.

Well, I completed both goals. I finished in 32:20, just about 10 minute miles and I only walked 4 steps as I was grabbing and drinking some water at the water station. I am very proud of myself for completing both of my goals and am looking to sign up for the next 5K.

I also have to say that I was not sore in the least from all the activity over the weekend. I did go home and take a nap on Sunday after the race! Brian on the other hand was a bit sore for 4 days after the race. He is a runner at heart, but he did not train for the race at all. I guess that didn't really stop him though as he finished in 23 minutes and got a medal for being 2nd in his age group.

You should all know that I can still beat him at swimming and thumb wrestling!

No, Brian did not run in his sandals.............