Out on the Safari in Oregon

After the wedding weekend, Monday we planned on going to Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon with our friends Hollee and little Lillee. Plans changed slightly when Hollee had to go in for an immediate root canal. So even though Hollee couldn't go we still went.

We decided to have Lillee over Sunday night so John made a fort in the living room for Lillee to sleep in.

Monday rolled around and we got up to have waffles with Maple Syrup from Trader Joes. Yum! Then off on our adventure! The local weather wasn't too promising, but we ventured out anyway and what do you know, we had sunshine the entire time in Winston! :)

We saw all kinds of cool animals. Neither John and I had ever been there before. We can't wait to take Dominic!

We saw a bunch of animals with heavy heads...


Some animals with long necks and long horns!

Some scary animals!

Some funny looking sheep!

Some outrageous monkey's...

OK so we really did see come cool monkey's...

The gift shop even had some interesting looking creatures...

Someone played too much and completely crashed out on the way home. haha.

Portland Weekend & Night Hiking

Shannon's wedding was a great excuse to go visit my little brother, Sam and his girlfriend, Emily. They live in Portland. My dad, mom and I traveled up together on Friday so they could catch the Endowment Session (for both Chris and Shannon) Friday night.

Saturday morning was promising beautiful weather for the day. We all got up and had a leisurely breakfast. My mom and I went for an hour walk down to this little village square and back and then got ready for the wedding. Emily and I dropped my parents off at the Temple to attend the ceremony (Sam had to work until the reception) and we headed over to Trader Joes. This is the best place ever! Every chance my mom gets, she's stealing all their coconut milk. haha. It's cheaper than what we have down here and tastes MUCH better to boot! Emily and I almost had a brawl with another Joes customer because we cleaned off the shelf (only 15 cans) and there were no more in stock. We had to give up one can to some lady who was throwing a fit that we took it all. I explained that we lived out of town. Sheesh lady!

After the Temple part of the wedding and photos, we jetted out to grab a snack at the apartment. Then off to the reception. The break from the crowd was good because it started all over again at the reception. I plopped down on the floor and decided to just hang out there. Shannon was busy running around.... I think I barely got a glimpse, didn't even know she'd left when she did. So after hours more of visiting with more friends and Washington family... we left.

After taking a breather from the loudness, we decided to go on a hike to get our blood moving. It was getting late by now... maybe around 7pm. It was dusk as we headed out to the hills around OHSU. The hike was cool though because it lead through a series of ravines... a little on the muddy side, but what the heck.
We left dad in the dust (or mud?) because he was hunting down a geo cache. I swear we should have a beacon on him so that we can find him after things like this. Luckily, we didn't lose him this time. The hike was about a mile out and after turning around it was really really dark! Emily brought a headlamp so my mom and I shared it while Sam and Emily walked ahead in the darkness.... Sam, telling us stories about a guy that had been murdering Portland hikers. Lovely. If that won't make you walk faster eh?

I thought these flowers were cool. They were night bloomers. I don't know what they are, but there were large patches of them everywhere on the hillside of the path.

Sunday gave us dreadful weather. Originally we had wanted to go on a big hike that day. John ended up flying into Portland to buy a car (to drive home). So he met up with us after the purchase at the airport. Hiking seemed out but Emily had told us about this fabric warehouse so we decided to try it out. I needed to get curtains for Dominic's room. We did attempt many times to phone them to see if they were open, they seemed like they were although we never got ahold of anyone.... we were wrong. We drove all the way across Portland and they were closed. We gave it a shot, Easter Sunday and all.

After that failed attempt, we decided to locate another Trader Joes. We did in downtown and filled up on our remaining needed coconut milk and before heading back home decided to go to Beau Tie (sp?) for lunch. A Ford Family favorite! It was quite delicious!

That's about it. Weather was horrid still all the way home. What a fun weekend though!

Mrs. Ralph Faulkinbury!

Wow we had a lot going on from last weekend extending into this week. I'll keep all the events in separate posts. First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to little miss Shannon and her new hubby, Ralph. They actually went through with it! They are officially hitched as of Saturday, March 22nd. You can check out Ralph's older brothers (and fam) blog on my blog-links (www.faulkinbury.blogspot.com). They look like a really fun family and dang it, I forgot to meet them.

The weekend was REALLY overwhelming with family and friends (in a good way). Like my mom posted, it was like a huge reunion. I had a sore throat and started to think I might be getting sick after the weekend... I didn't get sick so I think it was just all the yapping. It was very good to see everyone Although I didn't get quite as many photos as I'd have liked. I'm hoping the Jentzsch's post all the wedding shots on their picasa album. My mom posted most of the best shots between our two cameras. So I'll just share a few others...

Robyn and I rolled around one of the fountains...


Here's one of Hilary (Jeff's wife) and I. She's such a cutie! I wish they lived closer!! With Jeff finishing up his schooling, it sounds like they may be moving WAAAY far away. :(

How sad, that's really about it off of my camera. I do of course have some group shots, but they are quite the same as my moms. Well then, onto the rest of the weekend! ...

Inchworm: 35wks

BabyCenter.com Updates:

Inchworm doesn't have much room to maneuver now that he's over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew melon). Actually, from our ultrasounds he may be a bit smaller than this estimate from babycenter.com. I'll bet he still doesn't have much room to maneuver though.

• His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products.
• Most of his basic physical development is now complete — he'll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.

My Updates:

I received a call from the doctor later the day of the ultrasound (last week). She basically told me that he was measuring 2wks behind on the small side, but they don't worry about this unless he was 3wks+ on the small side. She thought this was odd because I was originally sent in to do the ultrasound because I was measuring a bit on the bigger side. She said not to worry because he is quite active. We are going to be doing another ultrasound, although I don't know when - to make sure he is still growing regularly. We aren't too worried as we are hobbits ourselves, we should expect a hobbit-sized baby. haha. He has been very active this week so I'm not putting too much worry into the matter.

Other than that, I'm still keeping busy - walking and going on hikes are pretty much it for now.

I have started working full-time from home which is a nice plus. The company I work for (Morgan & Chase Publishing) has agreed to keep me on through contract work. I will still be pretty involved with all the things I was doing before, only now I am at home doing it. It will make leading up to the birth a lot easier and give me more flexibility for naps or errands or whatnot. I'm pretty lucky to have them give me this opportunity. I will continue to do so after Dominic is born too.

That's it for this week!

Inchworm: 34 wks

BabyCenter.com Updates:

• Inchworm now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long.
• His fat layers which he'll need to regulate his body temperature once he's born should be filling him out, making him rounder.
• His skin is also smoother than ever. His central nervous system is maturingHis lungs are continuing to mature as well.

My Updates:

I had a doctor appointment today (as usual every two weeks now). I keep measuring a bit bigger than normal when she measures my tummy. My weight gain has slowed down quite a bit *whew*. So she sent me over to get an ultrasound just to double check his sizing. I had an hour so I grabbed John from work and we went to the appointment.

Everything is very normal and he is pronounced VERY HEALTHY looking by the technician. She was VERY positive in all the comments and remarking how well he was cooperating and doing. From her comments he shouldn't be a very big baby. He may be around 18" at birth, he has a small head (which would be great for me right?! hahah). I guess around this point the baby should be taking on his parents characteristics. John and I joke that we are hobbits so we're hoping for a hobit-sized baby. j/k. She also said he is not very chubby at this point so he should be a leaner little guy.

She tried to get some good shots for us. The first makes his head look like a blob. He was wiggling around a lot. She liked that he was VERY active. The main focus was his hand and you can kind of see his wrist/other hand under the first. She wiggled him around and he just wouldn't move his hands away from his face. She said the machine couldn't catch the face features because he was moving his hands all around in front of it.

The last thing that might be funny to mention is that he doesn't like to be pressed on. He shys away from it. When he's wiggling and moving around and I'm around family and I say, "oh he's moving now if you want to feel him" then he suddenly stops and shys away. I thought it was my imagination, but I guess not. She was really commenting on this. Thought it was just funny.

Anyhow - Dominic is doing really well and is quite healthy! yay!

(Click them now, I've re-posted through a different browser. they should enlarge now.)

Green Eggs & Ham

This past weekend aside from my hike (actually following that), we had a pajama party with our little friend Lillee. After hiking we made homemade mini pizza's and then went out bowling. Of course, I did not bowl, but John and Lillee did. Quite a pair they make!

Sunday morning we played a little kickball down at the park after a breakfast of Green Eggs & Ham (green omlettes actually). I know, I know, the ham is supposed to be green too, but that may have turned out looking moldy - I'll have to experiment with that one.

And of course, here I am looking like a big pink stick of cotton candy. lol.

"Cankles"

***WARNING***
Viewer Digression Advised: If the sight of feet make you ill, look away now!

I just had to post on this for everyone's enjoyment to laugh at my fat-feet/ankles. I noticed for the first time that my ankles were truly swollen about mid to end of the day (Tuesday). How sad. If I like anything about my body, it's my ankles, hey I like nice ankles. To see them disappear into a "cankle" was a sad moment. *lol* (I had just taken off my socks in the cankle shots so I have a little bit of a sock-line. )
This has happened for two days in a row and they are mostly back to normal in the morning. I noticed yesterday that they started to go back to cankles after our morning walk (Ben and I work together and walk for 10-15min. on every break we get). What's really annoying is that I've been walking as much as possible to stay active and now this?! lame. gross.

Looks like I need to re-paint my toenails too! :)

Inchworm: 33 weeks

BabyCenter.com Updates:

• This week Inchworm should weigh a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark.
• He's rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening.
• The bones in his skull aren't fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. These bones don't entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.

A Beautiful Weekend for Hiking

Saturday was such a beautiful day! I went hiking on Lower Table Rock with my mom, dad and a couple of friends (Hollee & her daughter, Lillee). Lower Table Rock is about a 2-mile hike. It's not a drastic feat for the hike, most of you reading have been doing the hike since we were kids. So for those of you thinking, Holy cow you're 7 1/2 months prego and your out hiking?! Really, it's no big deal. If you can walk 2-miles, you can do this hike. lol.

When we showed up there were probably 60-cars in the parking lot! The trail and top seemed fine considering the assumed crowd. There were a lot of cute old people and little kids and an entire scout group.

Once we reached the top, my mom, Lillee and I ditched our shoes for a walk on the old dirt airstrip. We played in a few marsh-puddles along the way. :D

Dad did some geocaching.

Overall, it was a lot of fun and nice to be out! I posted plenty of round belly shots here to hopefully satisfy everyone. Man! My face is getting chubby! I don't realize how round I am until I see photos. Enjoy! I can't wait to just pop already!

Star Wars to a 3yr. Old

Quite Funny - contributed by Ben. :)

Inchworm: 32 weeks

BabyCenter.com Updates:

• By now, Dominic weighs 3.75 pounds (like picking up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long.
• I'm expected to gain about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, he'll gain a third to half of his birth weight during the next 7 weeks as he fattens up for survival in the outside world.
• He now has toenails, fingernails, and real hair (or at least respectable peach fuzz) - we are betting a full head of dark hair!
• His skin is becoming soft and smooth as she plumps up in preparation for birth.

My Updates:

I am being blackmailed at work! OK so I look bald without eyebrows LOL but give me a break, this was taken on a cell phone. One of the girls here wanted to take a picture of me which she told me would not be shared with anyone but this other girl. (ha! yeah right!). I posed anyway for good fun.

She proceeds to send it to me over work email and to this other girl in another department who will probably email it to all her staff buddies and so on. She ALSO printed it out to show someone else. Oh goodness! By the way, the "frame" is a template on her phone - that was the reason she wanted the photo in the first place.

Other than this embarassment that I'm extending to my doing to myself by posting online, I'm doing fantastico!

Ben told me that I must post this, and you always listen to your big brother right?

Birth Classes in a Jiffy!

The weekend before last, John and I attended what I called our “Marathon Birth Classes”. It was a Saturday/Sunday gig 9am-4pm. We had 12 couples in our class.

Our instructor was Betty, a very spunky older lady who had worked for the hospital for 40-years: 30-years in the baby unit (including 15-years teaching the birth classes). We had a pro on our hands! Boy was she funny. I was glad because my Dr. was wary about the weekend class instructiors, warning me that she had heard they weren’t all that great. I told her I’d let her know what I thought. Betty gets an A++!

The first day we covered all the preliminary stuff leading up to the final stage of birth. We did a bit of breathing and relaxation but not much, which she warned us about – this was a crash course and not centered on breathing techniques. I feel like we still covered the introductions to breathing techniques enough for us to practice at home. John says I'm terrible at it. LOL. Too bad he's not having this kid, he'd probably do much better.


Day two was more about the birth specifically and ending with taking your baby home with a little on home-care. After watching oodles of births from the 70's, John was like, "You should just have a C-Section!"...then we got to watch a Cecarian and he changed his mind back to doing it au-naturale.


This day we got to speak to a pediatritian, Dr. Young, who came by and made a little speal about what to expect and what a pediatritian would be available for, etc. He's a really cool guy. John got the class hooked on a long Q&A about circumcision. 10 of the 12 couples were having boys (including a set of identicl twins). We got his card and decided to go with him. He's got six kids of his own. This guy was hilarious though, he was more of a standup comedian.

Betty had the funniest props such as a babydoll, placenta (made from material) complete with umbilicle cord, a fake female pelvic bone and a bucket with a vagina for a bottom (made from material). lol. Quite entertaining to watch a baby being birthed from the bucket-vagina!

So overall, we had a great time and hey, we got to spend two whole days together (John took saturday off work).