When it rains, it pours...

No posts for so many weeks and then two in the same day!  Well, as Ryan said, it has been a busy month.  I have had to adjust to going back to school after having the summer off.  That in itself has been hard work.  Good thing I am in my second trimester with a little more energy now!  I have a great class and the kids are always asking me questions about the baby.  They are always offering suggestions on what to name Scooter, in hopes of us choosing their name and feeling as though they played an important part in the little life growing in my belly.  I was even left a note from a one of my students from last year saying that she would miss me when it would be time for me to leave to have the baby.  So although I am excited about not having planning, corrections, report cards, parent-teacher interviews and staff meetings, I will miss the children.

What I really wanted to do was give you an update on Scooter.  I am now at 21 weeks (a little over 5 months) and things seem to be going well.  We had another ultrasound last week and the baby continues to grow at a miraculous rate.  Scooter's feet measure 3.5 centimeters!

Everything seems to be right where it should and if I sit quietly, I can sometimes feel the baby move.  It is such a soft and subtle feeling that sometimes, I wonder if that is what I am really feeling and then I look forward to when Scooter is stronger and can really kick me.  Then I think I should maybe be careful what I wish for. ; )  Here is Scooter's heart beat. It is still strong at 141 beats per minute.

Janae was also curious about how big my belly was getting so we took a picture just for you Janae!

And that is my Scooter update!

End of September

So here we are, the end of September. It's been a busy month like all months. It has included baby stuff buying, travelling and general around the house business, as well as a visit from both sets of parents.

Last week, we had Martine and Denis over on their way to Medicine Hat. They were going to visit Nancy and Eric, Jen and Kerry, as well as my parents. They spent the night on Tuesday, we had dinner, chatted and showed baby ultrasound pictures.

Then on Friday Mom and Dad came up for a visit. Mom had a work conference on Saturday, so while she was gone, Dad and I went for a photo walk to Nose Hill park. Two hours and quite some distance later, I had lots of pictures (click for the whole set), Dad had 15. Not sure what he was doing.

It was nice to get to spend some time just walking, chatting and taking pictures.

On Sunday Mom and Dad packed up Hunter and they went to visit Warren and family for lunch, church and to see how their new house was coming along.

All in all it was nice to get to see both sets of parents, but it does make for a busy week. Now we are looking forward to a quiet weekend with no plans. I'm in Edmonton for the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of next week, and Saturday we have the Constantin clan coming down as we're hosting Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday. Sounds like about 14 people are going to be in the house. Last ones in have to eat off the floor I guess.

And I'm not sure if you can hear that, but our house alarm is going off. In the two years that we've been here, it's never done that. I don't know the disarm code ... that's not true I do and it's call wire cutters. Problem SOLVED!

State of the Union

It's been a bit since we last updated this thing. So I'll just give everyone a little something to think about.

Basement Developement
!SERIOUSLY!
We're just finishing up some of the estimates which are highlighting some of the major restrictions we now have to work with.

$2200 to move the rough plumbing for the bathroom, except we can't move it where we want it.

$2500 to move the ducting, but we probably would need to buy a new high efficiency furnace to move it where we want.

So costs to get a bathroom with fixtures and a 7 foot ceiling in an undeveloped basement already cost $10,000 - $15,000. Then we would actually have to finish the basement.

Starting to think of only developing half the basement and converting the main floor bathroom into a full bath and putting the laundry in the basement, expect laundy in the basement isn't real popular with me and guests/Hunter would have to come upstairs to use the bathroom.

We do have a LARGE desk for the basement office, if we get one. I think it weights 1,000,000,000 pounds. It took 3 of us to get it into the basement it's never moving again.

Scooter
Growing. I think I saw a list of things Nicole is/has purchased on the desk. That might be what happens when you leave town?

The Job
Really enjoying the new job. Not actually have to produce anything is pretty slick. The travel isn't maybe my favorite, and I know it isn't Nicole's. Two Edmonton trips plus a day's commute to Vancouver this month.

We are getting into some serious work on redesigning www.atb.com. It should be an exciting process. The project has a lot of zero's behind the price tag and needs to be done in just over 5 months. So we'll see what happens there.

Camping
We might be done. It's supposed to snow this weekend and we had given some thought to doing one last trip before the forecast was in. I'm not ready to winterize the trailer just yet, but I think it's false hope.

Really! Already!

Just so nobody thinks we're ignoring you. Here's a two parter to keep you slightly entertained.

Part I

We had some friends over for a BBQ on Saturday and both Nixon and Gabby were big hits that night with the adults. On the flip side the piano was a big hit with Gabby (especially the buttons)

Part II

With the weather being the way it has been this shouldn't have been a shock, but it was a bit.

This means only one thing, but I can't bring myself to say it.

Part III

She's pretty hey? You can also see the new haircut.