Baby

Today marks the start of week 26 and I thought I'd write something about what the baby has been up to.  We're going on four days of TONS of movement.  Before it would move alot and then have a day or two where it was pretty quiet.  However, it ALWAYS moves around in the morning.  I dont wake up from it (I wake up from starving to death), but the days I've been awake early, movement has gone from around 6:30 to about 9.  The last few days have been near constant movement all day long!  Maybe she's just running out of room and I feel all of them now?

Anyways, she now has nearly completely developed blue eyes, and they will open this week.  Her nails are growing, and the blood vessels in her lungs are beging to grow.  Alot of growing still left to do, but if she were born now, she'd have a 70% chance of making it....of course she'd be immobile with drool running down the side of her face for the rest of her life if we tried to save her, so she can just stay in there until atleast September 2nd, when it is safe for her to come out.  So far, no Braxton Hix contractions so atleast the baby and my body are in agreement that she should stay in there longer, however she has been measureing about 1-2 weeks ahead.  I'll start the Raspberry Leaf Tea in a couple of weeks though.

It looks like it has been a while since I've posted any Bump pictures so here ya go!

Almost 23 weeks... laying down.

About 24 weeks.

Almost 26 weeks.  FYI - That shirt is size LARGE!  And I'm having a terrible time finding maternity pants that fit.  Finally found those ones at Ross - they're super comfy, but the lack of a butt makes it so I have to pull them up quite a bit.  I was really hoping I'd get a butt out of this!

Same day - 26wks - laying down.

Busy Weekend

We had a super busy weekend last weekend, but I think we've finally recovered!

FRIDAY: Trevor worked and was up most the night running calls. I got stuff ready for the weekend and worked on the nightmare of a quilt I made for my sister for graduation (will post pics after she gets it at her grad party).

SATURDAY: 7:15AM - Trevor gets home, he takes a shower and we hop in the car. Trevor drops me off at my parents and he heads out to Elmira for a Burn. 8AM - Off to Corvallis I go with my family for Briana's Graduation.

We watch a mass of people dressed exactly alike take their seats.  

Thanks to technological advances (cell phone) we are able to spot Briana - in the back waiving her arm at everyone - while she waits for others to take their seats ahead of her.

And through much eye straing, and several more phone calls, we find her at her seat.

We sit and listen to the "Important" people being introduced, and suprisingly, some very short speeches (took less time than the introductions).  They called the names of those receiving their Doctorate, and they walk across the stage to retreive theire much earned diploma (yes, they actually received their diplomas at that time - no waiting until August for it to come in the mail!).  Then the Master's students picked theirs up (46 of them teachers - more competition for me).  And finally the Undergrads formed four lines and picked their diplomas up from the outer stages.  I have a video of this, but I cant figure out how to put it on here without first putting it on YouTube.

After more phonecalls and crowd searching, we found Briana!










Then back to Eugene we went.  Finally around 4pm Trevor showed up and we had Pizza and Spuds, then Trevor & I piled into the car and off to the Sister's Rodeo we went.

Every year, Trevor's parents get tickets to the Rodeo.  We got there about 1/2 hr. after it started and missed the wild horse chase.  None of the bull riders were injured, and hopefully none of the animals were injured...just mad as could be.  I feel sooooo bad for the poor little calves with their headgear on so they dont get their horns ripped off their noggins.  At the break, they had the buffalo again... then FINALLY came the good part.  The barrel races!  Unfortunately, most of the contestants knocked over a barrel, but one who didn't was 4 one-hundreths shy of a record, which was pretty cool.

SUNDAY we finally got back to Eugene around 5:30 and my mom made Trevor some BBQ spareribs for his birthday dinner.  No idea what time we made it to bed, but Monday, Trevor was up at 6 to go back to work.  Poor Guy.

Pirates

I found a cribset I like better than the fire/dalmation theme....  it is PIRATES COVE.  Problem is, it is much more expensive than the previous one, and only comes with 4 pieces - those in the crib!  I'll attempt to make some of the accessories in my "spare" time after the baby is here.

This not knowing what it is forsure stuff is pretty hard.  :(

Cheap Diapers!

Snappy Diapers is selling the "old colors" of FuzziBunz size SMALL for the same prices as the "seconds" sell for on other websites.  I ordered 1 red, 4 light blue, and 1 pink as we dont KNOW forsure that it is a girl.  The remaining diapers are PINK....  so if you're having a girl!!!!

http://www.snappydiapers.com/item_21/FuzziBunz-Perfect-Size-Diapers-Clearance.htm

Seconds are at:  http://www.fuzzibunzseconds.net/store/Default.asp
These have slight defects or irregularities from the factory, but are still very usable.

Cichlid Attack!

Trevor has had African Cichlids for the past couple of years.  We were worried about them when we went to Washington because they are very agressive, and will eat each other if not fed enough.  We left them with a 14 day feeder disk for two days.  When we returned, ALL fish looked just as they had before we left! 

Friday, Trevor got two new Yellow Lab babies.  An Albino had been chewed up previously and was living in the "recovery" tank.  When he put the new Yellow Labs in the "recovery" tank, the Albino was moved into the main tank (she's been healed for some time now, just no reason to move her).

Saturday night, I come home (Trevor worked all weekend) to find the Albino all chewed up on her side at the bottom, barely breathing.  I catch her, very easily, and put her in a special net inside the tank.  I sat and watched the fish for quite some time, and the larger ones were being VERY aggressive.  So, Trevor decided they had grown too large and needed more space (when they're small they need to be crowded so they cant single out a fish and pick on it).

We search craigslist for a larger tank, and pet stores for 55 gallon.  [We planned to get a tank over 100 gallons after we bought a house and were hoping they'd make it until then, so we really didn't want to spend the money on a new tank just to turn around and buy a nice one in less than a year.]  Monday, we ended up at WalMart, and purchased a 55 gallon kit for less than used ones were advertised on craigslist, and minus the extra fish they came with!  :)

Here's what we spent last night doing:

29 Gallon - Please excuse the agle, it only showed up on camera...we couldn't see it...must be something to do with the flash.

Trevor saved as much water as possible for the new tank, and cleaned out the sand/gravel.

He caught all the fish and separated the mean ones in the bucket on the right.

He then filled the new tank.

And arranged his decorations, as well as added some new gravel (I spent the entire time he was dismantaling the old tank rinsing the gravel)

After carefully ensuring the water was the same temperature, in went the fish.

Ta Da!  Happy Fish!

The orange fish are Red Zebra's - they look like gold fish to me, and there are three of them.

The black and blue fish was discovered so recently it has not been named... we call it the "Wanna Be" because it looks like some other fish he has but different markings.

The blue striped one is a Demasoni - they're our favorite and are supposedly the most aggressive of all the African's.  They're one of our least aggressive ones.  Go Figure!

The blue and orange fish is a Red Top.  This one is a male, the female is an ugly brown.  We have 4 baby fish from them in the "Recovery Tank" below.

Here is one of the two Albino's.

All of the larger baby fish.  There are three Red Tops and the two new Yellow Labs.

The smallest baby.  It is a Red Top.  He is probably 10 times bigger than when we first saw him, and the only known survivor of the batch.

I am happy to report that all fish are alive and doing well this morning!  AND their aggressiveness has diminished considerably!  Today I am tasked with syncing the heaters at the proper temperature.  :)

Nursery Ideas

Since we wont be finding out if it is a boy or girl, I'm trying to do something that will work for either.  I'm having a really hard time because when I see something, I dont see both genders in it...I see either BOY or GIRL, but I think I've come up with something that will work.

The lower half of the room will be painted red (once we buy a house - hopefully before baby), and the upper half will be left white.

If it is a girl (like we think it is), we'll do Lady Bugs:

  I know if I order this, it will end up being a boy though....  So I'm going to attempt to make the main pieces.  The border will go where the red meets white on the walls, and the red would be painted with black dots like a lady bug.

For a boy, I'd like something similar to this:

Probably more dalmation and less firetruck-ish.  I'd like a cartoony dalmation border where the red meets white, and the white will get black "spots" like a dalmation.  I even have a dalmation poster.

Onions!

At the beginning of the week Trevor and I had a nice Trip to Walla Walla, Washington.  Trevor has been applying for 911-System jobs (he currently works as a paramedic for a non-emergency transport company), and was accepted to test with Walla Walla Fire District.  It was a 5.5hr trip that we made in about 7hrs.  We stopped to eat as well as several potty breaks.

I really enjoyed seeing the Columbia River Flood Basalts along the gorge (above), and Trevor enjoyed the rolling hills once we got out of the gorge (below).

We had planned to stay in a Budget Inn, but on the way up there we had drove by one and decided there was no way we were staying in one of those.  We ended up staying in the next cheapest hotel...the Travel Lodge.  The sign outside said it was recently renovated, but I think all they did was put tile flooring in the bathroom.  It was clean though and we had a HUGE king bed - apparently I hog the entire Full we have at home, so Trevor was pleased.  He quickly learned that it doesn't matter what size bed we have, I still like to snuggle up next to him... and he didn't have any more room than he does at home!  ;)

Check-in for his test was at 7:15.  I dropped him off, and drove back down the road to Milton-Freewater, Oregon for gas.  Washington gas prices dont make sense.  It was $3.15 in Walla Walla at the cheapie stations.  I drove less than 5 miles south and paid $2.85.  I had a nice guy come out and pump the gas for me, and there was no sales tax!  Not sure why anyone would pay $3.15 for gas, when they can just drive across the border and save  $0.30/gallon... 10 gallons and you save $3!  I can think of alot of things I can buy for $3!

Anyway, on the way back from getting gas, I drove around and looked for houses for sale.  They have decent prices, and nice sized back yards... however, their floorplans are a little off...but maybe that was just the architec?

As I sat in the parkinglot at the Test, I was suprised at how many people were finished in less than an hour.  Trevor said the test normally takes him about 2hrs, and these people were done in 45 minutes!  To pass the test, they had to score 75%, and only the top 20 scores were to move on to the Physical Ability Test and Interview.  Some of the people were comming out and driving away, while others came out and sat in their cars.  I assumed the tests were scored as they left the building, and those who sat in their cars were waiting to see if they were in the top 20.  Trevor came out at the 1hr mark.  When he got in the car he gave me the bad news.  They weren't hiring.  I was shocked.  Why would they have all those people drive all the way there to go through the hiring process if they didn't have any positions open!  Apparently, they're required to have a "List" of hires incase something happens and they have to hire immediately.

We waited around until 12:30 for the test scores to be posted.  They ended up only posting the top 20, which Trevor wasn't in, so we headed for Oregon with the intent of doing some sight seeing and fishing.  We were 40 minutes from Walla Walla when Trevor received a phone call.  I was just about to get on the freeway when I heard it was someone from the City of Walla Walla.  I went past the onramp and pulled over.  They had moved Trevor to the #20 position because one of the top 20 hadn't showed up for the Physical Ability Test and Trevor had been #21 (out of about 100 people)!  We turned around and drove back to Walla Walla.

Trevor went through the Physical Abilities Test with one of the fastest times.  Afterwards they told him how many points they earned for certain times...  Everyone else knew this ahead of time, prior to completeing the course.  The time limit is 10 minutes, and normally you just have to be within that time.  Trevor said he could have gone way faster had he known ahead of time that it was scored based on time.  I timmed him at just under 2min. 30sec. and they timmed him at just over, well within the 10 minute time limit.  Trevor did awesome! 

We ended up having to stay the night because interviews were scheduled for the following day.  The night before, after we had checked into our hotel, we had gone for a walk and found the Budget Inn.  It looked super nice and brand new!  We opted to stay there the second night, and were really impressed with it.  BRAND NEW... even smelled a little like paint still... really nice... AND we had a huge bed agian! AND it was a few dollars cheaper than the run down Travel Lodge!

The next morning, Trevor interviewed at 8:40, which went really well, then we went back to the hotel, he changed, and we checked out.  We decided to head home through bend.  We went past a HUGE lake (Lake Walula, I beleive, below).  This way took us a considerable amount of time because we made a few long stops and a detour.  Leaving around 10am, we finally made it home around 7pm.

Overall we feel the trip was a success.  Trevor is now on a list, and if they hire in the next year and a half, he will be called.  We do have to wait a couple of weeks to find out where he is ranked in the list though. 

Crooked River Stop (Near Bend):

He Did this to scare me.... :(

Columnar Basalts

Closeup

Trevor's Prairie Dog (can you see it?)