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.

It's hullabalievable!

You know how you read or hear in the news about women that didn't know they were pregnant and their first inkling is when they go into labor? Or they feel stomach pain and in the emergency room the doctors end up solving the stomach problem by delivering a full-term baby? That's crazy! I guess I can see how that could happen in the recent case of the woman who was like 400 lbs. Maybe that is a legitimate way to not know you are pregnant. But otherwise, I don't see how it could be possible in any way to not know. It seems like I am aware at every moment that I am pregnant. I think even my subconscious is acutely aware. Add together all the excitement and preparation, all the things I still need to do before he comes, the fact that I need to use the restroom at least every half hour, the very obvious belly, and of course...the fact that this little boy NEVER stops moving, I have a hard time not thinking about being pregnant. So I don't buy it. It's just too unbelievable that someone wouldn't know. As Darian used to say, "it's hullabalievable!"

p.s. Seriously, we have a spunky little guy coming our way. He moves constantly. During choir practice on Sunday the woman sitting next to me could even see my belly moving around out of her peripheral vision. It's that visible. It's not like the kind of motion where you can only tell he's moving if you have your hand on my belly. Nope, just go about your normal life and you'll be able to see the waterbed-like tidal waves whether you want to or not. Our baby's not very subtle, apparently. I have a feeling we're going to wear out a few Johnny Jump-ups.

Erik's Birthday Party

First item of business: the Management would like to apologize for the unintended two-week hiatus of the blog. But now we're back and better than ever. And keep checking up on us, some great posts are in the near future, including the debut of the masterpiece that is Reid's bedroom. Hopefully he will debut soon, too.

The birthday festivities included Bingo (with fantastic prizes), karaoke revolution (which seemed a little intimidating to most of our guests, the only ones who played it were Erik and some tiny kids who mostly just babbled into the microphone), and Win, Lose, or Draw (pictured here). I remember watching this TV show when I was sick and home from school. We just used Pictionary cards for the things to draw and I found the rules for the game on Wikipedia. It was pretty fun, and I think it will show up again some Family Home Evening night. It's a perfect FHE game. This picture shows a good view of the gorgeous necklace that Erik got for me while we were in Hawaii. It's Mother of Pearl and I think it looks like Betty Flinstone's necklace had she been lucky enough to live on Hawaii instead of Bedrock, and if she had been lucky enough to have the world's sweetest husband ever (Erik) instead of a doofus husband who's always coming home late from the bowling alley (Fred). I fell in love with the necklace as soon as I saw it. I think I could pretty much say the same about Erik.

This is the start of lighting the candles. I debated as to whether or not I should brave the notion of actually putting 31 candles on Erik's cake, or should I be conservative and just put a 3 and 1 candle on top. But of course, I am not very conservative in matters of cake, parties, and such...so I went for all 31. There are some candles that say, "Happy Birthday" and the white ones round out the grand total of 31.

More candle lighting. But this picture shows a great view of the handsome birthday boy and his awesome 'stache. It's Mustache March, of course, and I'm happy to say that I have a fun husband that participates in such silliness. It's even better looking now, it's really grown in nicely.
A successful wish and blowout. The party was fun and we have made some really great friends here. I love times like this where we just have fun with our cool friends. There's a small ski hill on base and a great lodge next to it that you can rent out. So we rented the lodge for the night and had a ton of room all to ourselves. Erik's work buddies and their families showed up as well as friends from the ward. In the cake pictures you can see cutie Grace admiring the cake and waiting patiently for her piece of it.

I have spent a good deal of time daydreaming about what I want to eat after the baby is born. I've heard that you're monstrously hungry afterwards, and that sounds like fun to me because throughout the pregnancy eating has been a chore. It's a very sad reality for me because I've always seen food as something to be enjoyed, and now I just eat for nourishment. Nourishment only? What a bore! So my plan is that our next birthday party will be at the hospital, celebrating Reid's day of birth. I came up with this plan mostly so that I could justify getting a cake from ColdStone Creamery. Have you had one of their cakes before? They're incredible. I love cake, and this is good cake. So we'll get a fantastic cake, have a party with the nurses and any visitors smart enough to come when there's cake, and I'll finally be able to enjoy food again. At least that's the plan.

LOTS of Ice Art

Okay, so I hope you're ready for a show. These pictures are of the 2007 World Ice Art Championship sculptures. It was incredible to read the signs next to each sculpture and see where everyone comes from. There were competitors from China, Morocco, Holland, Russia, Finland, and a bunch of other places I can't remember anymore. Fairbanks hosts this competition every year, I think. Anyhow, it was fun to walk around and see these amazing sculptures. Some of the pictures aren't so great because our camera got very cold and stopped functioning properly. Seriously, that's what happened. After a while in the cold the battery thought it was running low (even though it wasn't), and our manual options gave out. We had to use the auto options for some of the shots, which means there is a flash. The flash is a bummer because then you just see ice and the flash kills the cool backlighting effect that all the sculptures had. I think the best picture of the night is this one of the camel. Doesn't it look like gold? So cool.

Keep your eye out for pieces of the sculpture that are missing. This big bug has an antenna and a leg that fell off and are on the snow beneath him. The caribou is missing a couple of horns too, but maybe that one was intentional. We've seen some real caribou around here with some messed up looking racks. We saw one that was missing one half of his rack, he had this big, long side and then nothing on the other side. How embarrassing. I bet that even in the caribou world that that would be an unfortunate physical characteristic to deal with.

It's hard to see from this angle, but this gymnast is missing his back leg from about the knee down.

There were a lot of "abstract" entries, and most of them were okay at best. But I really loved this one. It was called "Denali Rain" or something like that. The big blocks in front are mountains and you can see some little Dall Sheep hanging out on them. Then the big circular clouds have rain pouring down from them. It was lit up so beautifully and made me wistful for summer weather and precipitation that isn't snow.

This is one of the okay abstract entries. I don't know what it was supposed to be, so use your imagination.

This was SO much more impressive in person. The pagodas in the front are so detailed and delicate, and the thing in the back is a woman holding a lantern (or something like that). It was spectacular.

This was my favorite of the night. The picture just doesn't do it justice. The multi-block sculptures (the biggest ones) were at the end of the loop we were walking around, and by that time our camera was cold and quitting on us. This sculpture is called "Elijah" and represents Elijah being taken into heaven. You can see Elijah on the right, leading the chariot up into the sky and then the huge stallion above him. I mean, this thing was HUGE. It was so tall and grand. Absolutely breathtaking.

Here are a few shots of us freezing our tushies off. It was maybe -5 while we were out that night, which in our skewed Alaskan minds isn't all that cold. But the problem was that we were walking around in that temperature for at least an hour and by the end of it we were all so cold and a little bit miserable. In these pictures you can see the vapors of our breath. Kind of cool.

Near the end of the loop was a few ice blocks just sitting there. I don't know if they were leftovers or what, but they were just plopped there and Erik figured that'd be a great spot for a photo. By this point we were all SO cold that when he dared us to a contest to see who could sit on the ice for the longest we all said, "no thanks...you win." I hate to back down from a dare, but seriously, it was freezing out there! He's a champ.

They had some carvings advertising sponsors of the event and Cellular One put up this working phone booth. It really had a dial tone when you picked it up.

We wanted a picture together and this was towards the end. A nice but not very spectacular sculpture, but we just wanted to get the picture and then take our sorry little frozen bodies to the car to warm up. Next time we will remember to dress in as many layers as will fit in our warmest coats. That was sort of my problem this year. This is my warmest coat, but with my burgeoning belly it's hard to cram enough layers underneath it. Oh well, we're told that Spring is on its way. I'm not sure if I believe it, but I sure dream about it. I told Erik that I'm planning on our next assignment being in Hawaii. I know there's a whole process involved in receiving our next assignment, but don't worry...I've already decided that that's what it'll be, so that's what will happen. Just wait.

cloth diapers

I am sure that to many (if not all of you) the whole "cloth diaper" idea sounds like a noble experiment at best, and at worst...just plain dumb. That's okay. I'm not on a mission to change the world, I just think it's a good idea for us. Plus, I'm really jazzed about it, so that's why you get to read about it. Cloth diapers are so different than they were years ago and the new styles seem like they'll be just as convenient once I'm on top of the learning curve. There's a great store here in Fairbanks called Blueberry Baby. The two store owners are pretty granola and they are a wealth of knowledge about cloth diapers. Fairbanks doesn't offer much in the way of specialty shops, but since it is a bit of a hippie town, I lucked out that there's a great baby store.

These first two pictures are of the regular ol' prefolds. I have done a lot of research and pricing and I think that I'll stick with prefolds for the newborn stage (with a wrap covering it, you'll see that picture in a bit.) At night I'll use the fancier (and more expensive) snap diapers, but during the many daytime diaper changes I'll just use these things. The baby store has these cool clips that hook the diaper together instead of using diaper pins. They work like the metal things that hold together an ACE bandage, except that the little teeth are plastic instead.

My pictures are a little out of order, sorry. This is the inside of the wrap that goes over the diaper. This is size Small, which will work for 8-15 lbs. Check out the cool gussets along the sides. This is a polar fleece wrap, so the inside and out are supersoft fleece and in between there's a waterproof laminate layer.

This is the newborn size of the wrap in the regular fabric. It's a really soft polyester knit. This size only fits up to 10 lbs. so I don't intend on buying too many of these. Especially since I'm predicting the baby's weight to be in the low 9's. I was in the upper 8's and Erik was 11 lbs. Plus, the due date from the ultrasounds and the 40 week calculation due date are almost two weeks apart. So that says to me that the baby probably isn't coming earlier than I thought, he's just coming bigger. That sounds great to me, though. I imagine that nice, sturdy babies are more apt to eat and sleep well.

This is the cloth wipe. It took me a while after deciding to use cloth diapers to come to the question, "but if I'm not throwing anything away, then where do I put the yucky wipe?" I would never have guessed that cloth diaperers use cloth wipes. But I guess it makes sense. You're washing a diaper anyway, so what difference does it make to throw in a wipe? These are super soft cotton terry and they're the perfect size. Plus, they're inexpensive and I imagine that I'll be using them for just about everything.

So this is the most exciting part. The actual diaper. This is the brand that I'll be using, Kissaluvs. After some price comparison research and weighing pros and cons of different types, I really like this kind. Plus, this brand came with a very high recommendation from my local hippie baby store owners (who have each cloth diapered 3 kids) so I figure they know what they're talking about. This is the smallest size, fitting 5-12 lbs. I think I'll only use this diaper during the night, until he gets to the next size. The next size goes from 10-25 lbs., so that will last him a long time. They have snaps that hold it together and adjust for size. The fabric is incredibly soft, unbleached cotton sherpa. They also come in different colors. So I plan to use these guys once he's out of the 10 diapers a day stage. Also available for cloth diapers are flushable liners, these cool things that you put in (especially great for when he's starting solid foods) and then you just dump the yucky liner into the toilet. No soaking or scraping, yuck.

This is the diaper folded up and the top edge folded down so that it doesn't mess with the umbilical cord.

Last of all, this is a liner that you can put in for night-time or whenever you want extra absorption. There are also some really cool all-in-one diapers that have the waterproof lining right on the outside of the cloth diaper. Those are very cool and I think that I'll go for those once he's older and starting solid foods. There's not much of a difference between all-in-ones and disposables, at least in terms of construction. They're cool.

So that's the story. For our first baby I don't think we'll see much in the way of financial savings by using cloth diapers because these new-fangled kinds can get pricey. But we'll definitely see savings once Reid's little brothers and sisters come along. And as far as the energy issue is concerned, I realized that that's probably a wash too. Disposables use energy in production, as do cloth. Cloth also use energy and water to launder them. But the one-time energy use for cloth production + laundering energy = the production energy for the thousands of disposables. I don't have any stats on that, that's just what I figure. So the real difference between the two for me is that these won't end up in a land fill, they'll end up on the next baby's bottom. Plus, stats do show that kids in cloth diapers potty train much earlier. That is a big plus for me. When I was at the hippie baby store, the store owner had her youngest son with her, less than 18 months. He is starting potty training. I think that's pretty great. Don't worry if you think that I'm crazy for all of this. It won't hurt my feelings. In fact, if you've known me long enough, this won't be the first time that you thought I was crazy. You've probably come to expect this sort of thing from me. But if you have any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear them. I probably won't be talked out of it, but I like to hear others' ideas. Plus, I'd love to hear suggestions on how to fold the darn prefolds. That is something that I've never really done, and I'm going to have to get good...fast. Thanks for hanging in there with me, this was a lot of ramble about a topic which I'm sure is only exciting to me.

nearing the finish

Today we are at week 33! It's wild to think that in a little more than a month there's going to be a baby in the house...our baby! Now that we're picking up speed towards the end, or rather...the beginning, I'm getting excited, anxious, nervous, and tired. It's really hard to imagine having a baby. Not the labor part, I don't try to imagine that part too often, it's hard for me to imagine holding a baby that's mine. I get to hold friends' babies all the time, but it's going to be wild to hold my baby. I've got a few projects left to do in the next few weeks. I have a little quilt that I need to finish. I bought some fabric to make a bedskirt and bumper with, so I need to get started on that. We found three more prints like the "Happy Landing" one, so I need to get all those framed and hung up. But, in case you were wondering, we have settled the stroller issue. It was a very hard decision for me because I don't want to end up with a gazillion strollers because that would mean that we would have purchased all gazillion of them, and it would mean that we would have to pack and move all gazillion of them each time we have a new assignment. The stroller that I loved (in theory) is still a great one. We got to see it in person when we were in Anchorage in February. There's a cute baby store there that carries the Bumbleride line and it was good to see what it can do. It wasn't as sleek as I had hoped, and it was still fairly expensive. So...after examining just what we want from a stroller, we realized that our needs would be met by two inexpensive kinds. A carseat frame for when the baby is small enough to still be in the carseat, and an umbrella-type stroller for when he is bigger. By the time he's too big for the carseat, he'll do just fine in the umbrella stroller. Both of these types will fold down compactly and they're lightweight. Perfect! Here's the carseat frame that we're getting. It has a basket and cupholders (both mentioned as necessities by our kind readers) and the carseat will just snap right in. I'm glad this stroller decision is done. I really went around in circles on that one. Be sure to check back on our blog soon, the next post will be about the cloth diapers we'll be using. They're very cool.

Yukon Quest 2007

This Wednesday morning Erik and I volunteered at the North Pole check-in for the Yukon Quest. The Yukon Quest is a sled dog race that isn't as famous as the Iditarod, but it's harder and I think more renowned in the sled dog racing community. It's a 1000 mile race that starts in Canada's Yukon Territory (Whitehorse to be exact), and then finishes in Fairbanks. This check-in is 30 miles from the finish line and the two mushers that we saw in our 4am-8am shift finished 5th and 6th place. The race had already been won that morning when we were there, but it was so fun to see the mushers and even more fun to see the dogs.

This is the team of dogs coming down over the hill and onto the river. I think that a good part of the race is on frozen rivers. This is the second of the 2 teams that we saw and her dogs were a little bigger than the first guy's. His dogs were scrappy looking things. If you didn't know that they were incredible athletes, you wouldn't be able to tell by looking at them. These racing dogs are much smaller and scrappier than the dogs we saw in Denali. Those dogs are mountain dogs that carry heavier loads and cut trails in the snow, so they have to be beefier.

All of her dogs had these little coats on, and the first guy's dogs had little booties on but no coats. We volunteered with some of Erik's friends from the office and one of the guys has a great picture of a dog with frost all over his face. I'll see if I can get it because it was wild seeing these little things out in the freezing cold...and they LOVE it. It was -40 that morning!

I had the very important job of giving the musher her bib that showed that she stopped at the checkpoint. She and the musher ahead of her traveled together for most of the race and then at the checkpoint before ours they disbanded and were racing to the finish. At the previous check-in they were only 4 minutes apart, so when a half and hour went by between him and when we saw her we were a little worried. She giggled when we told her that he was a half hour ahead of her and said that she had fallen asleep and the dogs just kept going in the direction they were headed. When she came to and realized that she couldn't see any markers on the trail she turned around to get back on track. She was really laid-back and mellow for someone who is only 30 miles away from finishing a 1000 mile race that has kept her in the cold for more than a week. What an interesting gig, isn't it? That's Alaska for you!

Photos from this week