Toes

Well, people have been asking, so I'd just like to say that I'm doing alright, the baby doesn't seem to plan on coming any time soon, and I'm off bed rest! Yay!

We also haven't heard from Purina  about that job in Iowa yet, so no good news, but no bad news either. I think Gary will give them a call sometime in the next week to get a definite answer. In any case, we're doing just fine where we are, though if anyone sees an engineering job suitable for Gary, let us know!

Mainly, we've been doing some packing at our house; getting ready for our move to the new place this weekend. We aren't planning to move all of it at once, since we have the whole month before we need to officially be out of there, but we want to have it done in the next couple weeks so we can have ample time for cleaning.

In something completely unrelated to anything, one night Gary was being silly and drew little faces on my toes as I sat on the couch. I of course returned the favor. There are X's on Gary's baby toes because Gary doesn't like them to be touched. He says it feels like they aren't on right, and they could fall off if you play with them too much. I'm sure he doesn't really believe that, but I leave them alone anyway.

Gary's faces on my toes

My faces on Gary's toes.

An Unexpected Turn

Last night was a pretty interesting night for us. We got to pre-register at the hospital before our Childbirth class, so everything is set up to go for when we have baby. We like Birthplace at Pullman Regional very much, they are so nice and they have a refrigerator full of snacks! This is very important.

So we're all nice and registered and this is where the fun happens! At around 6pm or so, just after we leave the hospital to go eat some dinner, I start to have cramping feelings in my back and tummy, accompanied by some sharp pains skittering around the edges. I didn't think too much of it at the time, because I feel these pains off and on every now and again, and they go away rather quickly once I change what I'm doing. This time they persisted all throughout dinner, and also through Childbirth class. By this time I'm not feeling so great, so at around 8:30pm we talk to our class nurse/teacher, and it is her expert opinion that we ought to take the long walk down the hall to the OB.

So we get there, we have all the instruments strapped to my tummy, baby seems to be doing fine, blood pressure is fine, but lo and behold, I'm having lots of contractions that don't seem to be Braxton Hicks.

The good news is: it doesn't seem to be pre-term labor at this point either. The contractions aren't getting more intense or closer together and they don't seem to be egging on the baby to get out of my tummy. For now, they've put me on modified bed-rest and I get to spend all my time at home doing nothing, which sounds great but in reality is quite boring.

In the end, the doctor gave me a drug that I can no longer remember the name of, and when I got home I slept like the dead and it was awesome. Unfortunately, it didn't stop the contractions from happening anymore,  as I can feel them going on right now. Hopefully they will subside on their own and baby will come out when she's supposed to, and not a day sooner.

I also wanted to say something great about Gary. He's so good to me. He was absolutely the best and held my hand and read me a story and was as concerned and attentive as he could be. He was calm and supportive during an ordeal that I'm sure was just as scary to him as it was to me. Peri is going to have the best Dad ever!

Short, general update.

It's been a few weeks since I've updated this thing, so I thought I'd jot some things down.

First off, we're very excited because Gary has a phone interview scheduled with Nestle Purina for an engineering job he applied for there! Yay! We spent an evening practicing what he would say if asked standard questions and how to use his previous experience to his advantage. It's made him feel much more confident about his capabilities. It would be so great if he were to get hired! According to a random article on Yahoo!, Nestle is one of the best places to work for.

There are a couple downsides to landing this job: 1) it requires a move to Fort Dodge, IA. I've looked up the city on the internet, and it looks like a pretty decent city. We'd probably be very happy living there. It would just be unfortunate to live so far away from our families. But you gotta do what you gotta do. This job would give Gary much needed experience and job stability and would be great for our family. 2) We just signed a lease for a duplex in Pullman for the next year, starting July 1, and we've already made the deposit payment... If we get this job, we're going to have to do some fancy footwork to get out of it. Hopefully the landlady would be understanding and let us go without us having to find a sublet.

If we don't get this job, then all I have to say is: yay! We found a new place to live in Pullman! The rent is a little more expensive, but it has a washer and dryer in it and it's much closer to Gary's work! He can walk to work and that will save us a considerable amount of money in gas, which is ridiculously expensive in Pullman. The w/d will save us about $40 for laundry. And we won't have a giant pile of dirty clothes all the time! I can't wait!

In other activities, my brother, sister, and her children came down this past weekend because Sarah wanted to spend her birthday weekend with us. How sweet :)  I made her cupcakes from scratch, and they turned out pretty decent. We went to the Farmer's market and numerous parks on Saturday and had a whole lot of fun! We then baked a turkey roast for dinner, and it was also very good! Great weekend all around!

Camping Family Adventure

On May 5th through the 7th, Gary and I went camping with my brother Ben, my sister Sarah, and her two children Jeilyn (5) and Kinton (2). We went to Riverside State Park, which is right on the outskirts of Spokane. It was a great weekend, and we accomplished everything we set out to do, with lots of time to spare! The best part was that even though the weather forecast said there would be intermittent showers throughout the days we were there, It actually only rained on our last night. The rest of the time we enjoyed beautiful (if a little chilly) weather!

On our first night we set up camp and then made dinner, which consisted of roasted hotdogs on buns. We had a good time showing the kids how to roast a good hotdog over the fire. For dessert we continued the roasting theme and made s'mores! Jeilyn had a lot of fun with them, but Kinton seems to prefer his marshmallows cold with graham crackers and chocolate on the side. Perhaps when he's older he'll understand the awesomeness of a good hot s'more.

After dinner we played around a little bit, then retired to the tent where we sang camp songs and Gary entertained us with "scary" stories (they weren't that scary). Afterward we all laid down and listened to Sarah read a chapter of the Book of Mormon to her kids as they fell asleep.

Cooking and eating. Pleas excuse Ben's weird face!

The next morning, I woke everyone up early (it's hard to sleep on the ground when one is 29 weeks pregnant) and we got ready to make Breakfast Burritos! Gary made the filling in his dutch oven and then warmed up the tortillas on the lid. It was so good!

Uncle Gary carried Kinton the whole time!

After cleaning up we decided to go hiking.  There were some really nice trails, which were easy enough for Jeilyn and me to go on.

Jeilyn and Ben overlooking the Spokane River rapids.

Along one of the trails, we heard a baby hawk calling for it's parents. You could just barely see him in his nest at the top of the tree.

While on the trails, we found a walking stick for Jeilyn, and later one for Kinton as well, even though he wasn't walking. When we got back to camp, Gary whittled the bark off and wrapped the tops with leather cord so the kids could take them home.

 After our return from hiking and a nice lunch of sandwiches, Ben and Gary decided to do some biking on the other side of the river. While they were gone, the children, Sarah, and I made peanut butter bird feeders. Kinton was more interested in eating the peanut butter, and was constantly getting seeds in his mouth because he couldn't wait for Mom to put some on a clean plate for him. In a bid for some attention for herself, Jeilyn tried it too.

The peanut butter was cold and sticky.

Jeilyn and Kinton next to Jeilyn's birdfeeder. This picture was taken just before she pushed Kinton out of the picture. Yay for sisterly love.

It was a pretty steep hill.

 When the boys got back, we had a lot of time to kill before it was time for bed, so Gary decided to teach Kinton and Jeilyn how to climb steep hills. Uncle Ben ended up going too because Gary climbed up first and only then realized that might not be a good idea, lest one of the little ones should fall backwards. What a good uncle!


 After eating our foil dinners, it started to rain, so we packed everything into Sarah's van and turned in for the night. It rained really hard the whole night, so in the morning we decided to skip breakfast at the campsite and made our weary way home. All in all, it was a great weekend, and hopefully we can go camping together again sometime!

Upon our return to Pullman, Gary put the birdseed out on our porch and we got a visitor! He came back the next day for more too!