Home Sweet Home

Now that the dust has settled and our bags are unpacked, I've finally found a chance to write about our week last week. We didn't take the camera, but came home with much more than pictures could ever have captured.

On Monday, January 18th, Rob's grandmother Elanor, a.k.a Grambo, passed into God's arms at the glorious age of (almost) 95. While it wasn't completely unexpected, it was still sort of a shock to most of her family and friends. She was Grambo! She didn't give up! Her 80th birthday present to herself was to go heli-hiking in the Alps. She wasn't one to take life lying down, she was a wonderful person to all who knew her, and I heard her described more than once as a "firecracker!" Even though I only met her one time, her memory will be lasting, and we won't miss a chance to tell our children about her.

Tuesday morning we headed to the airport (early) and after three flights we landed in Cleveland, OH, around midnight. During one of our layovers Rob got a call from a company he applied with and was able to do a phone interview before our next plane left. Perfect timing! :) Hopefully he'll get to do a second interview in person at the beginning of next month, but more on that later.

The rest of the week was full of family time, good food, fond memories of Elanor, and exploring the city. Even though there was some sadness, it was a great way to spend the week and we know we won't soon forget our time there. It was nice to get a chance to meet (and catch up with) more of the Shankland family!

Friday morning we got up at 5:00 am, which is really 2:00 am for us west-coasters, and headed again to the airport. Flying at 6 months pregnant is uncomfortable enough, but being that tired didn't help things! We made it though, thanks to Rob. He's a wonderful daddy already!

Papa moose flew with us to Chicago, and from there he went home to Denver, and we flew to San Francisco. After 2 delays and a gate-change, it was getting late and we almost decided to just rent a car and drive home! It's only about 15 hours, we can do that, right? Yeah... Um, I'm pretty sure someone would have ended up walking home if we'd tried that... I was *a bit* cranky by this time. I'd like to take this opportunity to again thank my wonderful husband for not leaving me at the airport and continuing home without me. It wasn't the most friendly day I've ever had. Sorry, honey. :)

At long last we made it home, and I think I lasted about 20 minutes before falling dead-asleep on the couch. But what a week it was! We are so blessed to be a part of a family that loves each other so much. It was more than obvious that Elanor was a driving force in the family, someone that helped to mold and shape many of the kids that came through her home (Rob being one of them!) and she will be greatly missed. I think Rob said it best: We're sad for ourselves but happy that she's home now with God.

Thank you, Elanor, for all that you were to all of us. You'll be in our hearts forever.

Sunday Update

So, not much to report over the last few weeks, but I do have a few pictures to share!

26 Weeks:

27 Weeks:

It feels like I’m getting bigger by the minute! Here’s where the baby is at 27 weeks:

27 weeks: a cauliflower!

I’m feeling pretty good lately! We’ve started taking Bradley Birth classes, and we LOVE them. I’m really learning a lot about why so many people have complications during birth, and how to (hopefully) avoid those complications. We’re going to try and bring this baby into the world without drugs, and this class is really helping to prepare us for that.

On Tuesday we have an appointment with our doctor and we plan to discuss how they feel about natural birth. Last week we toured the hospital where we plan to deliver, and they seemed very open and willing to work with us there; I hope the doctor feels the same way. Because it’s a whole “practice” that we go to and not just one specific doctor, it’s been hard to get a feel for that kind of thing at each of our 5-minute doctor visits when we’ve gone in. So this time we’re just going to ask a ton of questions and see what we get! So many people have scoffed at us for our choice of having a natural birth, be it friends or acquaintances, unfortunately I’m kind of getting used to it. If the doctor turns out to be the same way we have no problem finding a midwife or different doctor more in tune with our expectations. I just hope we don’t have to go through that!! Wish us luck, I’m not really looking forward to that part of the appointment.

Also, I took the glucose test for gestational diabetes last week and passed with flying colors. I am SO GLAD I don’t have to do that again- whoever decided that making an already dizzy pregnant lady drink some overly-sweet, syrupy, sugar-high-inducing drink and then drawing her blood, was a cruel, evil person. Oh, and did I forget to mention that they don’t want you to eat anything other than toast before the test?? It was awful! I thought I might pass out in the lab as we were leaving, and I think I scared another pregnant mom walking in after me… oops! But at least she knew what she was in for! YUCK, I don’t look forward to doing that again for the next baby. But, lets not get ahead of ourselves there… :)

In other news, we started the Dave Ramsey envelope system for our money this month, and so far it’s working pretty well. It will take another month or so to get used to it, and get out of the habit of just handing over the plastic card all the time. Even with debit cards it’s too easy to just spend and not think about it, so this cash-only system seems like it will help us immensely. So far so good! My sis-in-law Katrina sent me a link to a really neat site that has templates to make your own envelopes to use (go here to check it out!), and I got out my craft stuff and went to work! I’ll post pictures of how it turned out later, but I’m pretty impressed!

And now, I would like to highly recommend you all go out and get a new bed. Not just any bed, THIS bed. We were blessed with it as a Christmas gift (THANK YOU MAMA AND POP SHANKLAND!!) and until we slept on it for a few nights I really had no idea how bad our other mattress had gotten. So go. Now. Go out and get one! It will change your life. I promise. :)

100 Days!

I'm sort of having a freak-out moment here. 100 days left until baby Shankland is due. Really? Wait, where did the time go?!? I can remember sitting on the couch with Rob talking and planning our wedding, and then there was the entire year after we got married that I nagged him about starting our family and having our first baby... and now there are only 100 days left until she's here!? HOLY COW!!!

It seems like the waiting and waiting and waiting is really, finally, getting close to being over!! I can't wait to meet our baby girl!!

I am so excited I can hardly stand it! Migraines, swollen feet, heartburn, I can take it.

Only 100 days to go. :)

Happy New Year! It's 2010!!

This week marks 25 weeks pregnant! HOLY COW time is flying!! I’m not very good at marking our progress with the weekly pictures anymore because it seems like the pages are just flying off the calendar faster than I can keep up with them! But, here I am at 25 weeks, in the nursery that we’ve been working on!

And here’s the punkin at 25 weeks, too!

25 weeks- a rutabaga!

She’s been kicking up a storm these last few weeks, and Rob’s had the chance to feel her quite a bit! I’m also noticing fun things like pinched nerves, swollen ankles, and that oh-so-fun heartburn, none of which are too bad, but all are still VERY annoying!

So, we’ve been spending a little time in the baby’s room getting things put together. We don’t really have a theme, but we are going with mostly pink and green. I did find some cute bedding that has pink elephants on it, though! Rob painted the walls and hung the blinds and the curtain rod, and we got a beautiful baby quilt from mom and a few cute pink outfits for Christmas. I think it’s starting to come together!

Here is the room so far. (Hooray for Other Mothers, they have great stuff for a good price! We got the crib, stroller, pack-n-play, and a bouncer there. I’m sure we’ll be back!)

A close-up of the quilt my mom made. It’s so soft, and just the right colors! I can’t wait to wrap our baby girl in it!!

We found a dresser on Craigslist the other day too, we just need to paint it. It’s cream and pink, but the rest of the furniture will be white, so the poor dresser looks like it’s yellow. So, Rob’s going to paint it white for me.

We still have a lot to do, but I feel like we’ve come a long way! All we need furniture-wise is a changing table and a glider. So far so good!

As it IS New Years Day, I think I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about some of our plans for 2010. Can you believe another decade has passed? I’m starting to feel like the older I get, the faster the time goes! I guess my folks were right. :)

Of course, the biggest part of this next year for Rob and I will be the arrival of our baby girl. We can’t wait!!

And on that note, we’ve both decided that it’s time for a “money makeover” if you will, and I’ve started reading Dave Ramsey’s book Financial Peace. We hope to be able to be a one-income family when the baby arrives, and we need some help to get to that position financially between now and then so I can stay at home with her if at all possible.

I gotta say, after reading only the first few chapters of his book, I can really see why so many people rave about Dave Ramsey and his money strategy. It’s not gimicky, or schemey, or complicated, or anything like that. It’s just common sense tools to use to help you better manage your money. If you haven’t read the book yet, I highly recommend it.

(Sheesh, I sound like he’s paying me to advertize! I promise he’s not, I’m just a big believer already. I’m excited about getting back in control of our money!)

I also hope to start sewing a little more, at least as much as possible with a new little one in the house, and Rob wants to find a more stable job. He has a few feelers out there, wish us luck! If we can we’d also like to take a trip to Seattle to see my brother and his family, and our friends there. We have a wedding to go to on the East coast in October (yay Andy and Alex!) and want to make a stop in Denver somewhere in there too. I guess I’ll learn what it’s like to travel with a baby! :)

No matter what the year brings, we' both feel very blessed to be where we are, and hope to be able to spend lots of time with family and friends. Here’s to a great 2009, and an even better 2010! Cheers!!