As Promised...

This is mostly just for my sister Rachel who keeps bugging me about sending her pictures of my growing stomach. So here it is at 33 weeks. Only 7 more to go and then the real fun starts!

Home Alone

Dan has left me. For five days at least, then he'll be back. He is at the Midwest Cadet Campout as a counselor. So that leaves me at home by myself with little to do. I dropped Dan off at camp on Saturday morning and he will be there until Wednesday. There are boys there from all over Iowa and a few neighboring states, but they are actually camping about 5 miles from our house. Sunday they had a morning service out at the camp and the families where invited, so my in-laws and I went out there and had lunch with Dan and saw where he was camping. They had only been there for a day, but his boys had already set up a nice camp, built a table, a teeter-totter, and dug a pit for a swimming pool. It seemed as if they were having fun.
Back on the home front, I have been doing the chores - feeding the calves and checking the cows daily. Since Dan fixed the pasture fence, I haven't had to chase cows again. Last week I chased them back into their pasture at least 5 or 6 times. Not much fun especially when you're 7 months pregnant. Not much work has been happening in the basement since last week was mainly focused on keeping the cows in. Which also means that no progress has been made on the baby room either. Some days I dream that I will wake up and walk into the spare room and it will be fully stocked with all the right baby necessities, but I guess it's going to take a little more work than that. Let me know if you want to help!
Four more weeks until I head back to school and seven more weeks (approximately) until our new addition arrives. For those of you who would like to see a new picture of my bump, which is growing nicely, wait a couple more days - Dan has the camera at camp.

Life on the Prairie

And the storm rolls through. Sarah caught this picture out our front window looking west as a storm rolled through. This same storm caused two tornados about 30 miles away.And there are days on the prairie when it snows and the cattle bunch around the hay feeder to fend off the bitterness of winter. The bright light in the center of this picture below is not a meteorite and not the sun shining through the snowy sky, it is Sarah taking a picture from inside our house as I am returning to the barn from feeding hay. The dark spot upward and left of the tractor would be the calves around the hay bale.Soon though spring arrives and the new calves are born. They are cute only a short time though. Their curiousity to follow me around soon turns to fear and they run away instead.

And then summer arrives and the cattle go to pasture to spend the cool spring days and hot sultry afternoons under a shade tree. The wise mothers are hungry for corn and leave their calves behind for a snack. I often will check on the cows and bring corn to lure them to me so I can check them for sickness and count numbers to make sure they are all accounted for.

The first time I ever...

When thinking about what to blog about I think back to this last weekend and the fun Sarah and I had boating with Scott, Chelsie, and Chelsie's brothers; Conner and Cameron. sp?
This picture is not of last weekend on Lake Red Rock but of last Labor Day weekend at Lake Rathbun. That is me believe it or not, the guy who couldn't swim, tread water, or even wanted to get on any water borne vessel until I was a senior at ISU. That is me shown in the picture skiing my very first time ever and also the very first time ever I skied out of the wake. I don't know what I was doing, I was just holding on. Skiing is quite fun and on the danger scale I don't have an exact opinion on what is most dangerous, tubing, knee boarding or skiing. All I know is that for me all of them are scary, I admit it. I didn't grow up doing them at all and I know that makes it more scary. Lord willing my body will hold up for many years and I can enjoy it many more times.

Baseball and Fireworks

There is just something great about enjoying a baseball game in the summer. This past weekend we went to an I-Cubs game with a few friends. Scott, Zach and Regina, and Justin and Nicole. Through work, Dan got the tickets to the game and also tickets to a tailgate meal before the game. Did I mention I love hotdogs! We didn't really have tickets for great seats, but we found some good seats to sit in right on the 3rd base line. It was a good game even though the Cubbies lost. After the game there was a fire works show. Taking pictures of fireworks is all about timing and this was the only really good one of about 15 that I took.

Make sure you don't miss out on the great American tradition of going to a baseball game this summer no matter what level of play. And remember, "There's no crying in baseball!" (That's one of my favorite movie quotes, can you name the movie and actor?)

The Bump

Here by popular demand are pictures of the bump. Some may think there's not much there to look at, but this is me 27 weeks pregnant. Trust me, it feels a lot bigger than it looks.

I have heard women say that they love being pregnant, but I have not found that to be true. It is a means to an end and I can't wait for it to be over. Sure, I don't feel to bad about eating ice cream twice a day or sleeping in more than necessary. But what about breaking out like a teenager, the sore back, the feeling of always being full, and the real pain of that little person jamming their foot into your ribs or spine? Those are the realities for me and I'm sure there are a few of you who can relate.

Overall, we have been blessed with a healthy and easy pregnancy so far and are very thankful for that. If only it were so easy to start shopping for this baby. Who knew that there were so many different kinds of car seats, strollers, cribs, diapers, bottles, and the list goes on and on. Just walking into Target is overwhelming and don't even get me started are Babies R Us. Another challenge is getting Dan to even go near one of those stores. If you have any words of wisdom please let me know!

Home Makeover Three

I have had requests to blog about something other than home improvement pictures but you will have to bear with me at least one more time. I think our next blog will either have pictures of Sarah and her pregnancy or of myself out mowing alfalfa, which I plan to do the next few days. So please vote with your comments and I may or may not go with what everyone out in the internet world thinks we should blog about. :-)

I am including a few more pictures to show the work we went to installing our second egress window. This picture is a before picture and is in the soon to be bedroom. And this is of the same corner with the egress window in. And just so you know; I am not interested in being hired to install these windows except to the highest bidders or if there is food involved. It is challenging work and we learned as we went.This picture is of my beautiful wife standing next to the bedroom egress window. You can see that ground level is about halfway down the window and in the background is our pine tree wind break. And yes, Sarah is pregnant and beautiful.

This picture here is almost the final view from outside. We will install a window well and trim it out to finish the window off.