Realizations

I've had two rather important epiphanies lately that I think are worthy of sharing. The first is about Alaska. We've been here for almost two years now, and I just figured out what makes Alaska so very different. It does something to you, but I've finally put my finger on what. Alaska, in a very powerful but almost imperceptible way, lowers your expectations. I mean, lowers them to almost nil. I'll review the bad ways first and save the good news for the end. Erik and I really struggle to find a good meal here. Good thing my mother taught me to cook, or else we'd really be hurting. A Carl's Jr. opened recently in Fairbanks and Erik was excited to go and get a burger. First of all, it's a sad state of affairs when the existence of a Carl's Jr. is enough to cause excitement. (or is it?, maybe it's a good thing?) So we went one day while we were in town for our childbirth classes and it was not a pleasant dining experience. There were about 15 people in the kitchen area, maybe 4 of which were actually doing something. There were 4 people at the drive-thru window, all arguing with each other. We stood at the register for about 5 minutes before anyone came to take our order. Eventually the manager came to take our order and we had to repeat it to him a couple of times. I saw this guy come on shift, walk around, go outside to his car to get a soda, come back in and talk to a co-worker...it was at least 20 minutes on the clock before he did anything. I do not envy employers in Alaska. I see "Help Wanted" signs up all over the place. Someone with a decent work ethic could get just about any job that they wanted, but that's the problem, I don't think there's a very strong work ethic here. So Carl's Jr. will probably not see very much of us in the future, although it was a very interesting sociological observation opportunity. We have some unbelievable restaurant stories to tell if you're interested. I'd love to share them too, they're stories that I never would have believed if I didn't experience Alaska for myself.
Restaurants are just one way that our expectations of customer service have been severely lowered. When I go to Sam's Club, I just plan on enough time to find what I need myself, because I know for darn sure that if I ever find someone to help me, they either have no interest in helping me and/or they don't know how to anyways. If you want a good story, and have a strong constitution, ask me about the time that I bought Erik a desk for his birthday from OfficeMax. It's a painful story. Alaska just beats you down. You learn to fend for yourself. As a consumer, it's very unfortunate that I have close to no confidence in the service or the product. But I think that the mindset is, "Hey lady, you should be glad that an OfficeMax even exists up here, what more do you want?" It's a bummer that positive consumer experiences are very, very rare.
But here's the upswing. Never in my life have I seen a culture that is so very unmaterialistic. Nobody puts on airs or is at all pretentious. It's really quite incredible. People here are free. Free to be exactly as they want because social expectations are non-existent. In Tucson, you would only go to the grocery store in your pajamas in an extreme emergency. Why? Because you just don't do that. But here, no one is telling you what to do and what not to do. Nobody cares. Nobody cares what your hair looks like, what brand of shoes or jeans you wear, what car you drive. Nobody cares what your front yard looks like or even what your home looks like. Erik and I were driving to pick up his dirt bike and on the same street we saw everything from a very beautiful new home with grass and a garage to beaten-down trailers with rusty old cars parked outside of it. Nobody cares. So while we could really go for a great dining experience, I love that in Alaska people are free to be just people. It's a "come as you are" kind of place. Sometimes it's a little uncomfortable to see people without their materialistic masks on, but at least it's real.

The second realization is a little sad. I have realized that as I enter the world of motherhood I also submit myself to the condition where I can never again just put on some clothes and have it work out. I'm so used to just throwing something on and heading out the door. This baby belly has started to thwart that kind of convenience, but not too drastically. But Sunday proved that my time has come. I put on a blouse and a skirt and thought I was all ready for church. As we are walking out the door, literally as I'm stepping onto the welcome mat, Erik gently informs me that I have a huge hole in the back of my skirt. Right at the zipper. I honestly would have never noticed. Thank goodness for my sweet Erik. So I dejectedly truck upstairs to find another skirt that will fit a 40 week pregnant lady and match the top that I already have on. Getting dressed is somewhat annoying lately, and I wasn't about to change my top, too. I found one that will work, except it has some holes in it too. But the good news is that these holes were towards the bottom of the skirt, not at my bottom. So I trucked down the stairs and down to the basement to get a needle and some thread and while Erik drove us to church I mended a few holes in my skirt. I have a feeling that this nonsense is only going to get worse. Soon I will be a nursing mom, and everything I wear will revolve around whether or not I can nurse in it. That sounds like a nuisance. I also hit the sad realization this week that if we have a baby every two years or so, I will have only a three month break in between each child. Three months people. It breaks down like this. I have already been pregnant for 9 months (I'm actually in my 10th month now, technically) and will nurse for a year. If I want to have another child when Reid is about 2, then I have three months to myself before it starts all over again. By that I mean three months where my body is all my own, three months when it's not sustaining another life. Sheesh. That makes me tired. I think our little Reid needs to come now so that we can get to the fun part of having kids. I'm ready for the payoff.

My Hero

I hope you will all indulge me in some gushing. My Erik is just the best and even though I've always known it, I want to offer some proof (I've got lots of evidence). On Sunday night he was downstairs in the basement watching something about the war in Iraq on PBS and I was finishing up something upstairs. When I was done I headed down to join him. Going downstairs you have about 7 steps, then a landing where you turn and go down 7 more steps. On the first set of steps I must have missed the last one and stumbled a bit. My foot just kind of slid down and hit the landing. I was on my feet the whole time and didn't hurt myself at all, but next thing I knew Erik was right there to help me. He heard the little misstep and bounded (bounded I tell you) off the couch, around the corner, up the stairs, and around the landing to make sure I was okay. As soon as I looked up, he was right there, ready to help. I still can't think about it without getting weepy. I was emotional about it for the rest of the night. I can't think of a time when I felt more taken care of. It's just an amazing feeling to see that someone you love is so aware of you. Earlier that evening we went for a walk and stopped by at a friend's house to say hello. They are a cute family with two little boys. The husband has been in Iraq since September and is scheduled to come home at the end of the month. When these little boys see Erik, they go bonkers. They LOVE playing with him. He's amazing with them. The wife and I just sit on the couch and visit while Erik plays cars, plays airplane, plays lion, plays horsie...their faces completely light up when he's around. I can't wait to see him play with our little boy. I can't believe I got so lucky and that my kids get Erik for their dad. Those are some lucky kids, I tell you what. I don't know how I ended up with "World's Best Husband", and all signs point to his winning the title of "World's Best Dad" too. I'm just lucky, I guess.

I am my mother's daughter

The past few days have been full of waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting. And if you know me, you know that one thing I am NOT good at...is waiting. Just waiting for the baby to come. I feel worn out and sore, and I'm having contractions, but nothing regular. So basically, I am bummed. I'm ready to go and nothing is happening. I needed a pick me up. So what do I do? I curl my hair. My hair loves to be curly and big. I am my mother's daughter. Somehow it looks much bigger in real life, but I couldn't get a picture that accurately represented just how big it gets. Strangely enough, my face seems much too big in the picture. I think that must be a pregnancy symptom. Strange. At least now I can wait with cute hair. Erik and I felt like Monday night was the night, but then the contractions disappeared. But we got some great footage of me trying to tie up any loose end I could think of, and saying things like, "I need to vacuum", and "I need to wash the mirrored closet in our bedroom." You know, crazy stuff. At least now the house is vacuumed and mirrors are clean. The baby needs so come soon, I don't know how much longer I can keep up my need to have the house "ready to go" (meaning totally clean and tidy, not a dish in the sink or a load of laundry that could be done) at all times.

Reid's Room

This is the view as you walk upstairs. The door on the right is the bathroom and if you turn right at the top of the stairs you get to our bedroom. But a straight shot up the stairs leads you to our baby's room. I found these letters at JoAnn's and painted them. Once our little guy comes he'll know that this room is his, it says so right on the wall.
As you peek inside you see the wonderfulness of his adorable room. I wanted it to be more of a little boy's room than a baby's room. Baby stuff is kind of wimpy sometimes, you know what I mean? I have a feeling that a very spunky and spirited little boy is coming our way...so bright and bold decor seemed to be appropriate.

We found three more prints to match the "Happy Landing" one that we found earlier. I love these vintage airplane prints.

I decided to make his bedding rather than buy it for two good reasons. The first being that cute crib bedding is so expensive. Actually, cute baby anything is very expensive. The second reason is that I wanted to. I found this great fabric and for the price of a bedskirt I got all the materials to make all the bedding, plus I have about 3 yards of the fabric left over, just waiting to be made into something cute.

This view shows the fourth print, as well as the glider, my soon-to-be second home. I've got a boppy all ready and waiting, as well as a magazine nearby. The dresser is a hand-me-down that used to be in the boy's room growing up and then was handed down to me. Erik and I painted it and it was in our room until we moved it into Reid's room. It seemed to me to be the perfect height for a changing table, so we got an armoire for our room and shimmied this into his room.

Lastly, the diaper station. In these boxes you'll see 4 different kinds of diapers. I have a stash from the O'neil's of newborn disposables that I'll use until all the gross newborn poo is over with. Then I have an assortment of clot diapers that I got so that I can see which kind I like best. I'm actually excited for this cloth diapering adventure. Now I just need to get a little guy here to diaper! The ultrasounds all showed him right on target for the 14th, which has come and gone. The official due date is the 23rd, so Monday put us at 39 weeks. We are in range, people! Erik is great, whenever I'm feeling a little bummed that I don't have my baby already, he says, "Well, we're one day closer." He's right. We have no idea what day he's coming, but today gets us one day closer. At the very most, I'll be induced on the 30th. So a week and a half tops. That's not too bad. We know a lot of people who were expecting at about the same time as us, some before and some after. Everyone has their baby but me. I feel like the mom on Dumbo watching all the other animals get their cute little babies from the stork and just waiting for my little baby. Well, we're one day closer.

As big as it gets

This was taken last night. Erik and I are feeling the need to document more, this pregnancy could be over anytime and we (I) want proof that my body did the seemingly impossible and that my belly grew large enough to hold a watermelon. And not the round, seedless, bio-genetically engineered kind...I'm talking the regular kind, the huge kind.

This picture is of us and our Doctor, Captain Sundermeyer. We had an appointment today and afterwards I made sure to get a picture with him because he's leaving tomorrow for a two-week TDY and will probably not be there to catch the little guy. If he is there, that means that I went a week past the due date and was induced. I'm not too jazzed about that possibility. But I'm also not quite at the stage where I'm feeling like, "Get this baby out of me!" Right now I'm like, "I don't really feel like having a baby today, but maybe next week." I guess we'll see soon enough how it's all going to turn out.

The Marvelous Mustache

You may have been privy to Erik's tales of Mustache March. The Elder's Quorum made the month of March a bonding month through the growth of facial hair. On the last Friday of the month the quorum had a Ward Activity to commemorate a job well done. The funny part is that it was announced that dinner would be provided, and in our ward that means that everyone and their neighbor is coming. It was a good party and Jeremy had some fun games planned. He had mustache trivia questions, complete with visual aids. It was great. Erik's mustache came in very nicely, but it was hard to compete with Bro. Lowry (the dude on the far right). He made a good show, though.

Before he shaved it off, he wanted to get a few pictures of it to remember it by. I guess that for a guy who has to be clean shaven every day of his life (with Saturday as an exception, unless he has a church meeting), the novelty of a mustache is pretty appealing. What I find appealing is this man's gorgeous blue eyes. Seriously people, this picture does not do them justice, they are phenomenal. I hope that our little Reid gets his father's eyes. I think he's going to have my hair because at our last ultrasound with the specialist in Anchorage the technician showed us a great view of his hair. He got a good shot of the back of Reid's head and pointed out that there was hair already. Then he said, "watch this" and kind of pushed on my belly to make the fluid surrounding baby swish around. We could see the hair sway in the fluid, like when you're in a swimming pool or something. It was fantastic. So he's got he Olsen nose (perfect), he's coming out with lots of hair (like his mom) and hopefully he'll end up with eyes like these. He'll be unstoppable.

In honor of Spring

Last Sunday we were feeling the fever and I needed to use the grill. I get so tired of being inside so much and now that the weather is so perfect I felt it was time to bring Mr. Weber back to life. The snow hadn't really melted so much yet, you can still see it in the background, but the promise of spring was enough for me. I cut up a pineapple and we grilled that and some chicken, and I made some mashed potatoes. So this is me displaying our tribute to the promise of Spring. Good thing Erik is a good eater because I ate the pineapple, a few bites of potatoes, and about 1/5 of the chicken. I only have so much room in my stomach and grilled pineapple has priority. He generously assists me in finishing my meals.

Spring Fever

This picture was taken on Saturday, March 31st. Look at all the snow. It's everywhere, right? After the Priesthood session Erik and our awesome friend Jeremy and his daughter Madeline went out on the snowmachines for a little fun. So this was just a week and a half ago. (p.s. the O'neils are the best. I just don't know what I'd do without them. I plan on taking them with us wherever we go next.)

This is the view from outside our house just one and a half weeks ago. We're talking 10 short days, people.

This is the same view, but taken about 5 minutes ago. Notice the delightful absence of so much snow. All the snow is melted off of roofs, sidewalks, playgrounds, and just a tiny bit remains on the grass. In a couple of days it'll be history.

This is the playground area outside our backyard and it's been getting some good use lately. It's amazing around here, everyone is in such a pleasant mood. Around here you have to work for your Springtime. You pay your dues all winter, and then, just when you thought that winter would last forever, it all starts melting. Honestly, the beautiful weather brings a joy deep into my soul. It feels so good. Erik and I are almost giddy. Kids are out playing in shorts and t-shirts, riding bikes and rollerblades. The temperatures are around 45 during the day and 20ish at night. As far as I'm concerned...it might as well be heaven.