We're at 13 weeks!

Hey all! My first post on our blog, yeah, I'm excited. Well, we just finished week 12 on Saturday and have moved into week 13. That means we're in the second trimester and hopefully my nausea will continue to decrease. (Knock on wood, I don't want to jinx anything) Things are going pretty well so far, other than the nausea and other normal pregnancy symptoms, all is well. Of course the second week back to school I came down with a cold, as did about half of my students. Yuck! Germy kids.

"Ruth & Arlyn's Place"

Hopefully I will learn how to post pictures on this thing and will be able to show you all the pictures of our weekend in Grundy Center visiting our friends Ruth and Arlyn. They have a beautiful house just west of Waterloo and we got to help them do some landscaping last weekend. Okay, well Chris got to help do some landscaping. I graded papers and entertained the group with examples of student answers.

"Relaxing w/ some wine after long day's work."

That weekend we also got to see a football game: Iowa State vs. Illinois State in Ames, Iowa. Now folks, I am not a huge football person, but even I can tell that we are in trouble when the yellow flag is thrown on the field about every other play. Boy, was it a slow game. But nevertheless, we had fun tailgating and sweating it out.

This weekend we stuck around home, trying to recuperate from all of our running around. Chris did transfer about 4 yards of dirt from a friend's yard to our driveway (and 1 yard to his parents house). I guess we have another project in the works. I on the other hand, graded papers, wrote tests, worksheets, and lesson plans. Pretty exciting life, huh. I know you're all jealous.

Well I think that's it for now, I'm pretty wiped and want to get to bed before its too late. Take care everyone and I'll write more soon. Love, Heather

Labor Day in the books....looking forward to Doctor's Visit #2

Another fun weekend comes to an end. Heather & I spent the holiday weekend in Grundy Center, IA, visiting friends, and we had a blast. Too bad it had to come to an end. At least I can take solace in that the upcoming week has been shortened by one day. Anyway, I just wanted to check in and let y'all know that doctor's visit #2 comes up tomorrow. Exciting. Heather is a bit under the weather with some allergy-like symptoms, so the timing of the visit is good. We'll let you know how things go, and will share a bit more on our weekend in Grundy Center.

Ribs & More

Thanks to all for the wonderful comments we have received, both on the blog and through email. It is really great to be able to share the events in our lives with such a broad audience and to then smile and laugh as we pour through the feedback. Thanks for participating.

This weekend was a blast. We traveled to Davenport, IA, to attend a ribfest downtown with our friends Matt & Michelle and Tim & Cindi. Matt & Michelle live in Davenport and played host and hostess for the weekend. Heather & I were long overdue to visit their new house (which was great by the way). It is a bit ironical that the last time we tried to visit for Michelle's birthday party, Heather was ill, but this time, PREGNANT, she fared very well. Whatever the case, it's always a fun time with that group and we look forward to getting back together soon.

Aside from watching Tim burn a hole through his mouth with the Thermonuclear sauce from Johnson Ribs, the highlight of the evening had to be the band we saw play. Yes, we did see a very cool replication of the 1964 Shea Stadium concert by a great Beatles cover band, but the real star of the show was the group "13 Steps" that followed shortly thereafter. Man, they were aweful!!! Bucking the flight instinct that triggered within most of the crowd, we braved it out for about six songs. Amazingly, they got worse with each song. To give them some credit, they were very funny, but it was more a "laugh at" than a "laugh with" sitaution. You did not have to be an afficienado to figure out something was wrong up on that stage...very wrong. I think we are going to have to play lots of Baby Mozart to overcome that whole experience!

That's all for now.
Chris