Portland

Steve had a work trip to Portland for four days. He should really be the one to blog about it, but he didn't want to do it.  I'm very jealous that he gets to fly to places he's never been before while I am basically confined to the metro area until I have the baby.  His only comment: "It was very green there."

Baby Training

We had our Childbirth class today. We could either do a couple hours each week for a month or do it all in one day. Of course we chose the latter. We figured everything about giving birth and taking care of a baby can pretty much be learned in a day. Just in case it can't, we got extra baby practice this week. Thursday we babysat little Oliver for Becky and Wes and Friday we hung out with baby Norah (and Sarah and Tyler, too).

The class was very good. I HIGHLY recommend it. If you are pregnant, I would skip reading all the books and just register for a class at your hospital. And I'm a person that learns well by reading things. The books were good, but today we went over everything I had read previously and lots more. Plus we got to tour the maternity center and get tips that were specific to our hospital like where they keep the snacks and how to get the bed into different positions. I feel very knowledgeable and prepared now....although I would still like her to wait another 6 weeks before making her debut.

Valentine's Day

The kids had their Valentine's Day party on Friday. Every year I have them write "valentines" to each other in the weeks leading up to the party. They have to describe each kid in class with an adjective (something other than the ever-popular "nice") and then give two examples to show why they chose the adjective. So they might write "I like Joe because he is fair. He hits the ball to everyone in four-square. I never see him cheat." They come up with some pretty good adjectives (athletic, hilarious, gentle, intelligent, playful) and very specific examples, too. I'm also surprised at how observant some of the kids are. They pick the exact trait that I would use to describe a kid. When they turn in all the writing, I combine all of Joe's compliments into one book and give it to him at the party. The best part of Valentine's Day for me is watching the kids read what their classmates think of them. Some of them just smile. Others actually get up and walk around the room to thank people for what they wrote or give them a hug. It is very cute. I think people are always interested in how other people see them and this is a safe way to get some feedback (I check them all to make sure they didn't write anything negative). Of course it would also be helpful to read what people think you need to improve...but that's not really in the spirit of Valentine's Day. :)

Steve's favorite part of Valentine's Day is eating all the chocolate and candy that the kids give me.

For our own Valentine's Day we just stayed at the house. Usually we go some place new, but it was cold out and I also didn't really feel like walking around anywhere. So I spent the afternoon lying on the couch reading a book while Steve brought anything I wanted to eat (chocolate ice cream and strawberries). He also did all the dishes and laundry that had piled up over the past week. AND he watched a movie with me (a French one about love...with subtitles!) and didn't complain. It was a pregnant girl's dream come true.

Evidence

Photographic evidence of stocking-cap-wearing inside the house. Clearly, he is embarrassed to be caught in the act. He's just lucky Kevin is not here to see the offense.

Week 32

We had our doctor appointment this week and everything checked out well. I had my third ultrasound and...the placenta has finally moved! It's no longer "lying low". So no more c-section talk. She had her knees up to her face so we don't have any good pictures from the ultrasound. We can report that she is 4 lbs 6 oz and has hair, though. I think that's about all the news from the doctor.

My feet are swollen by the end of the day now. It is not pleasant. Steve said they look like marshmallows. I've started putting my feet up when the kids are working at their desks to see if it helps. Being a teacher is nice because I can set my own schedule about when I want to be up teaching and walking around the classroom or if I want to sit at my desk. School is going well. I have all my paperwork turned in for maternity leave and my substitute lined up. I'm planning on teaching right up until my due date and then the sub would start on April 6th. We'll see if everything goes according to the plan.

Baby Shower

My lovely friend Brooke was nice enough to host a baby shower for me last weekend in Chillicothe. It was mostly family and high school friends, but I also drove Wendy and Jane to the festivities. It was a great time! I only wish I could have talked longer with everyone. Click on the above link for more pictures.

My favorite game was Guess the Baby Picture where guests had to figure out which baby picture belonged to which family member. Marissa won that one and put on quite a show in the back of the room to celebrate her win. By the end of the shower she and Jane were doing the chicken dance from Arrested Development. My least favorite game was Don't Say Baby because I lost miserably. I was the first one to lose all my pins! Jane tricked me into saying baby a few times, but mostly I just did it on my own. Tamra and Becky tied for the win on that one. The other game was Guess the Baby Food. I did not fare well on that either. Jane cleaned up the competition, although being the only one with kids who eat baby food gave her the clear advantage.

I got tons of cute baby clothes, blankets, and toys. Thank you to everyone! Steve was very overwhelmed when he had to unpack it all back in KC. He could also immediately tell I didn't pack the gifts. Way too organized. When we got back we went out to dinner with Jane, Taco, Kevin, Dan, Wendy, and Tyler. Sarah and baby Norah stayed in Olathe because they didn't want to be exposed to my cold. :( I can't wait until we can all go out with our kids.

Speaking of kids, Taco and Jane brought Kevin along for the weekend. He and his brother Colin are two of the cutest kids I've ever seen.

Best Kevin story of the weekend: We were getting ready to walk to Pumpernicks for breakfast Saturday morning. Steve had on a stocking cap. He wears one constantly even around the house. I'm always trying to get him to take it off. Kevin took one look at it and said, "Take it off. It's not that cold. It's not snowing. Take it off." Then he proceeded to take it off Steve's head. He also yelled at Steve for not walking on the sidewalk on the way to the restuarant. He is a boy after my own heart. :)

Liberty Memorial and Other Weekend Activities

 

 

 

Steve and I have lived in Kansas City for almost five years, but we've never been to the top of the Liberty Memorial. This Saturday the weather was beautiful (68 degrees!) and while we were driving around the city we decided it was about time we went. These are views from the bottom and the top. Another first for us was going to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. We were half looking for things for the bathroom remodel, but really we just wanted to check it out. Who knew something like this existed? Click on the link to learn more about it. I love living in a city big enough to have plenty of places I've never been before. In other weekend news we bought a bathtub. It was not a whirlpool. :( It's still an upgrade from what we had, though. We also sold the Cougar! How did anyone sell things before Craigslist? The internet makes it so easy.  Best of all we found the perfect home for Kitty the Cougar.  A father bought her for his daughter to take to college.  Awwww. :)    

Baby Name Poll Coming to an End!!!

I hope you're all getting your final votes in. Poll close is imminent.

Due to the overwhelming voting response and our faith in the democratic process, we've decided we actually will take the poll results into account and name our daughter whatever the people choose.

*NOTE:  Not really.

Update on February 1: Final results....

Beatrice 9

Emma 9

Hannah 15

Lillian 16

Matilda 40

We realized pretty early that the poll was being sabotaged by our "friends".  

Jim and Taco, we always knew you couldn't be trusted.  But et tu Katie'?  We never would have guessed you could go to the dark side.  For shame.

2009 Tour of Missouri

You should be excited.

This year the Tour of Missouri will be September 7-13.
This year it will be starting in STL and FINISHING in KC!
This year Chillicothe will host the start of a stage!

Also, Sedalia will host what will most likely be the kingmaker stage, the individual time trial. The first two editions put the TT in Branson.

This is fantastic news for me because for just one day's vacation cost I should easily be able to watch the TT, Chillicothe to STJ and the KC stages! This is because the tour runs Mon-Sun so always before I had to take off work to watch the race in KC and then travel to STL if I wanted to see the finish. Now I can just take off Friday to see the best stage (TT) then head up to Chilli for Saturday's start and back to KC on Sunday to see the finish. Fantastic.

Having a race like this in Missouri is tough to describe to non-cycling-fans. Last year the current best sprinter in the world was there. Two years ago I made it to the start and was close enough to spit on some of the best racers in the world, including a former Tour de France winner. For someone that follows cycling, going to a semi-major stage race like this one is like going to an NFL playoff game except that it only costs time and gas to get there and you get to sit in the front row.

So I'm pretty stoked.

The Great Escape

We knew when we were planning for our baby that we'd need a different car for Megan. The Cougar she drives now is sporty and gets great gas mileage, but it's a 2-door and the back seats are molded into two captain-chair buckets. They're great because they fold down to make a huge cargo area and they're terrible because if you're over 5'10" or if you're a baby's carseat, you don't fit in them. So we decided we needed the "mom-mobile" of our generation... the SUV. We wanted something as small as possible and narrowed our search down to the Ford Escape. The regular Escape gets very decent gas mileage for an SUV (rated 19c/25h) but all along we had in the back of our minds the hope that an Escape Hybrid (rated 36c/31h) would come along for the right price.

Then we got lucky with an ad on eBay. A small dealer in Louisville listed a no-reserve 2006 Hybrid for a very low starting bid price, red exterior and gray interior, 2WD, and the right options package. They were a small dealership that at best came across as amateurish with a terribly-done listing with spelling/grammar errors all over, not enough pictures and very light on details. Their eBay feedback rating was terrible: 90% for 22 items. In eBay, if you don't have a rating of 100% people have the right to look at you funny unless you have a good excuse. If your rating is below 97%... it's a big red flag that you shouldn't be trusted. 90% !?.

As I watched the auction, the Louisville Escape got no action at all - very bad since eBay items tend to get "hot" as more people bidding leads others to believe the item is more desirable. In the last 30 seconds of the auction (to avoid anyone else rebidding) I put in a bid and we won the vehicle with the very first (and only) bid... at a ridiculously low price.

Then I went into full prep-mode. The auction ended on Wednesday. We needed to get insurance, financing, and a travel plan prepared before the weekend. Being naturally cynical we assumed the worst of the dealer. I took screenshots of the eBay listing, their website (they had listed it locally as well), prepared a full-legalese'd counter-offer regarding inspections and warranties to present to them in case they tried to make up for the low price by sticking us with bogus fees (something we read was very common). I looked up the # to the Louisville police! I recorded in type every single phone conversation I had with them before and after the auction and archived all the emails we exchanged. I printed the important stuff and took the rest on a flash drive. I refused to fly and demanded Megan ride with me in the Cougar so that we could take our check and leave if it came to that. We were ready for war.

So we felt both silly and relieved when we met them face-to-face and not only did they not try to gouge us with anything above what we already committed to, they were genuinely likable guys. They told us they had expected the Escape to get way more bids and that not only were they going to tell us we got a great deal (car dealers always tell you that) they were going to show us how much they paid for it at auction. It turned out we got it for 25% less than they paid!

After getting it checked out at a Ford dealer in the area (everything was fine), we were on our way home. Caravaning home (8hrs driving time with bathroom breaks every hour for the seven months pregnant girl) wasn't a whole lot of fun and would be a lot easier if we'd ever spring for a cell phone plan with two phones.. but we made it and the Escape made it just fine. Driving to Kentucky and back in one weekend was an adventure. Highway gas mileage was as advertised at just around 30 running into the west wind. Thank you to the McGuires who offered up their home to weary travelers.

Also, congratulations to Jane and Megan for beating us at Pitch (that was written by Megan).