I've Seen it Raining Fire in the Sky

Well I can check off a few more places on my 1000 Places To See Before You Die list ;) And I now know how to make a composting toilet, what an elk sounds like in the middle of the night, that 11,000 ft elevation is a bit too high for me to function normally, and that had I been a cliff dwelling native, I probably would have never moved for fear of falling off. Oh and my daughter is a super trooper.


I had my first experience of Colorado these past 10 days and I think it was done justice. I have never seen such a beautiful area as the Rocky Mountains. Telluride in particular is absolutely breathtaking and I understand why such a remote spot has become a celebrity favorite. I saw a two bedroom townhome for sale for 1.6 mil. Almost every home is perfectly gorgeous, and had I the money, I'd live there too. It was a last minute spot in our trip (a favor bestowed upon me as I didn't complain when the hunting males asked to stay in the log cabin one extra night) and I'm so glad we didn't miss the oppurtunity!

This is Caelen enjoying some ice cream in a shop on Main St.

After driving in a motorhome (thank God!) 24 hours from CA through NV, and UT we finally arrived in Delores CO. Just northwest of Durango. Our final destination was a log cabin at about 11,000 ft in the rockies. The woman who owns it bought it from her parents and now rents it out as much as she can. It's on 328 acres and although you can hike the 2.5 miles from the road up 1000 feet to the cabin, we had her escort us and all our luggage in a 4 wheeler. The much better way to go I think. It put Caelen right to sleep even though we were bouncing all over the place.




As we arrived and she happily pointed out the outhouse about 50 feet from the cabin I tried the sound grateful, "Oh great!" when really I was thinking, "Are you flipping kidding me?"

It was pretty rustic. The lights were solar powered and as most of our experience was rain, thunder and lightning, and cold cloudy days, we were definitely conserving the little light we had.
Thankfully, after a lot of uncertainty about whether or not they could make it, Thomas' step brother Elijah, his wife and their three girls ended up coming. I was so happy to have company for me and Caelen as the men spent the mornings (5-10ish) and the evenings (5-9) hunting in the mountains around our cabin.




The sound of elk in the middle of the night during a thunder storm was extremely eerie. It's a high-pitched, lonely sounding cry but I knew what it was right away because of all the elk calls the guys had around the house. The sound was good news for our fearless (maybe a bit crazy?) hunters, who left before light the next morning in a storm to try and bring home the big one. Unfortunately for them, after 5 days of hunting they never caught one and Thomas is pretty sure his bow-hunting days are over as quickly as they had begun.

After Elijah and the girls left Monday afternoon, we were planning on leaving the next day. But when Thomas and his dad got home after another unsuccessful morning they proposed staying one more night and leaving the next day. They promised me Telluride and the Cliff Dwellings and I agreed. I really enjoyed the comfort of the cabin, with nothing so much as a radio. It was cozy but big enough for cabin-fever to be kept at bay during the many storms we had. I did crosswords and Caelen did a lot of coloring and reading to pass the time, but I don't think we were ever really bored.





I don't think I'll ever take a shower that is battery powered and only heats 5 gallons of water at a time again. After we went down to feed the horses in a rain storm, I was pretty wet but warm from the hike and thought, "Heck, I'll take a shower, why not, it's been 4 days since my last one and I'm already wet." So in a rainstorm I get this shower going out on the back deck. Just a little Cabela's tent shower. It felt so good! I got my hair shampooed, stuck some conditioner in, started to wash the rest of me and that darn thing went straight to cold. No, not cold, I'm sorry, Freezing! That was it, I had used my 5 gallons just trying to get my hair wet! I had conditioner in my hair and soap all over my body, with 5 virtual strangers in the cabin who probably wouldn't appreciate me running naked through the house screaming. So like a bad a** I rinsed off, rinsed my hair and got out of there as fast as I could. Yeah, they laughed at me when I told my tale. You probably did too ;) 5 gallons, what a joke!



This is us going down to take care of the horses.

So after fun mountain living, we left the cabin, drove to a local campsite and took a semi-normal shower. This one could have sandblasted Caelen into a wall had I let her stand under it, so that was some tricky manuevering. I found my makeup and we had a nice evening in Telluride. We camped at the bottom of our mountain again only to wake up to ice on the insides of our windows and that the battery had died on our heater in our motorhome. It was below freezing and poor Caelen's hand were so cold she kept crying and crying. We did everything to heat them up but she didn't want anyone to touch her oowies.



Our final hours in Colorado were spent at the Mesa Verde cliff dwellings. These were really worth the 19 mile drive from the highway in through curving roads that had me in the bathroom. So was the Navajo Taco we purchased at the food shop.








And that's our Colorado tale. If you ever get the chance to see this part of the country for yourself, do it! I have never seen anything to match the beauty of the Rockies in my opinion. Of course I love mountains and their rocky rivers and year round Chirstmas trees.

Table Talk

Recently Caelen has enjoyed joining in the dinner conversation and last night I was able to capture some on video! She was talking to Daddy about something very important as you'll see :) (Even though Caelen's vocabulary is pretty big, when she has "conversations" sometimes they're just baby babble.)

Those who can't "Do", teach.

This is the scene I walked into about half an hour ago. Caelen potty training Bear!

She had him sitting on the little potty and she was showing him how to wipe and flush and everything. She would say, "Bear potty!" "Here Bear." Caelen isn't potty trained, but at least she's a confident teacher :)

We're big colorers these days! It's her new favorite activity. For our trip to Colorado I got her new crayons and 2 new books.
Here she is just being cute :)

C3PO has a buddy!

The magic password must be "OB7" or maybe that's the new character in a new Star Wars, but Caelen is obsessed with this. I think they're just her favorite letters and number put together. Anytime she sees writing she points and says OB7. There are literally dozens of "OB7's" all over our back patio in chalk because that's all she wants me to write! As soon as I write it she's pointing to a new spot asking me to write it there too. It's pretty darn funny.

The other day in the car she was singing "oh Sheepy" from Wonder Pets. When I tried to sing along she would put her hand up and say "NO Mommy!" then she'd continue on her own. When she said, "Wonder Pets" clear as a bell (instead of Bo Bo Pets) I said, "Good job honey! Good Wonder Pets!" she said, "NO Mommy!" I asked, "Am I just not allowed to speak anymore or what?" "Yeah" she says and continues on "Oh sheepy, oh sheepy oh sheepy...."

On Tuesday I went in for a doctor's apt to hear the baby's heartbeat and also got to have another ultrasound! It was pretty exciting. At first the baby was fast alseep just like in the 9 week one. But my doctor started pushing the ultrasound around and the baby woke up and started kicking their legs out like a little froggy and then balled up again and spun around. It must be fun in there, all weightless and tiny! The baby is fully formed, looks like a real baby, just super small! Only about 3 inches at this point. It was fun to see them move since I hadn't go to yet.
I'm sometimes feeling twinges or pressure but nothing obviously the baby moving around yet. It's still early and I'm not worried about it, I just really look forward to that part!

Can't ask for much more really

Everyone should be so lucky as me. Seriously, for 7 weeks I've been completely out of comission and barfing all day and exhausted from making a human in my belly. (Jealous aren't ya?)
That's not why! My husband has never complained as he's cleaned the house, done the grocery shopping, made his breakfast, lunch AND dinners (Caelen's too and sometime mine). He's even occasionally done the laundry. When I mention how useless I am he tells me that's absolutely NOT true, I'm making a baby and that I'll be back to normal someday and not to worry. So THAT'S why I'm lucky! I have to brag on my hubby ;)
Anyway I'm 13 weeks pregnant today and I feel like maybe I'm finally coming around. I still battle moments of nausea throughout the day but I'm eating a lot more, getting stuff done around the house (who would have ever thought it'd would be exciting to clean?), getting OUT of the house and just feeling better in general.
Today Caelen and I ran a couple errands. I got some of my favorite soap from Bath and Body Works. Sea Island Cotton YUM. I also got 4 others because they were on sale! We got lightly rained on at the park. There were a ton of kids from the Y there but that didn't intimidate Caelen, she was right in there with them!
All small accomplishments, but I'm happy to get out these days ;)

I saw a picture on the internet today of a little adorable Chinese baby and under it it said, "Chinese Gymnastics Team Captain."

Maybe this isn't working

Yesterday while we were visitng my friend Tina and her daughter Maddie who is almost 5 Caelen had to have a time out. She got up on the couch for little kids next to Maddie and immediately began telling her to move! Move Maddie! Excuse me Maddie! When I told her that wasn't kind and we didn't tell people to move like that she began to kick Maddie off. When I went to remove her she threw a book across the room. I picked her up took her the bottom step and told her to sit for time out.
While she did that I got all her diaper changing stuff ready and laid out. When it was over I told her she may be done and to come and get her diaper changed. Well she made no motions to get up. She looked and me, put her hands in her lap and said, "No mommy, sit in time out."
Maybe I need to make the new "time out" be a diaper change since it's obviously a worse punishment!!

Household Happenings

We spent Sunday (all day) cleaning the garage out. It was absolutely amazing how much junk Thomas managed to part with. He has pretty good pack rat tendencies that drive me crazy as I hate clutter and throw things out all day long. Of course I do have a couple boxes of my own that are filled with things that have a lot of sentimental value attached to them. I would never throw Thomas' stuff out without permission because I know how important those memories can be. But anyway Sunday he threw so much stuff out it could have filled the back of his truck.

The whole reason for this is we have a middle bedroom full of more junk that has to be moved out so the baby can have a room! In a 4 bedroom house I think it's perfectly reasonable for two children to have their own rooms ;) But we have a lot of work to do to get there. And we have plenty of time but I think you have to do these things when the bug bites you, it makes it so much easier.

Anyway I also found a whole bunch of fun toys and things that I couldn''t bear to throw out from my childhood so now Caelen has a slinky and a Jacob's Ladder among other fun stuffed animals that she's rapidly become attached to. They all had to take "baths" first through the washing machine!

One another topic, our garden has finally started producing something. It got killed off when all the transplants died earlier this spring and we had to start from scratch so eveything is really behind. But everyday Caelen asked "More Minnows?" and we go and pick all the tomatos and eat every single one before we've left the garden. There's green beans also and a few pumpkins although I wish there were more.And there's two types of cucumbers which Caelen will eat skin and all if I don't get it away from her. :)

I'm starting to feel like I look pregnant, although to strangers I probably just look fat LOL. I'm still barfing everyday but somedays seem a little more managable than they used to be. I at least can get myself to the grocery store if I plan well ahead. Poor Thomas is still doing everything he can to make up for my lack of energy and ability to do my normal chores and God bless him, he never complains!! I'm trying really hard whenever I get an kind of spurt of normality to do stuff around the house because I feel so bad. Today I got the laundry put away, Caelen's room tidied and started cleaning our bathroom. I plan to have that done by the time Thomas comes home. I also have to go to Target (I LOVE Target!)

So we're hanging in there and enjoying the Olympics with DVR.

It's me

Got this in my 10 weeks pregnant newsletter from Babycenter.com. So true!

Fair Time

Yesterday we took Caelen to the Sonoma County Fair and everybody had a really good time which is usually hard for my family as our ideas of a good time are all so different. Caelen had opted out of her morning nap, deciding instead to talk to herself in her crib for 1 1/2 hours. We HAD to go though, one of my girlfriend's husbands was going to be in the sheep shearing competition and we didn't want to miss it!
She never complained about her lack of sleep and enjoyed riding around in her stroller most of the time.

We checked out the kiddie area (she was way too small for any fun rides and the area for small babies looked like a day care so we moved on), the flower show, and the main pavilion.


But I had told Caelen that she was going to see animals and she was holding me to it. So we saw all the cows and sheep. She mooed along with the cows and made a grand enterance into the sheep pavilion by throwing her head back and BAAAA-ing so loud everyone had to look and laugh.



We got some free ice cream from the Clover stand and at first she didn't want to have anything to do with it. When she's tired she's not very adventerous and gets nervous about everything. Well she'd never seen ice cream in a cone before. Finally I peaked her interest with it, she had one taste and confinscated my cone and ate the whole darn thing. It's OK, I was done with it and was hoping she'd finish it for me :)


At 2:00 we made our way toward the sheep sheering ring and met up with Angie and Abby, and the Dows. Johnny competed in two heats. They wear these really funny mocasins that look like elf boots but Angie was saying that as they sheer, they have to go up on the sides of their feet sometimes and soled shoes would really be a probelm. Caelen enjoyed watching the sheep get a "hair cut" and she cheered along with Abby, "Go Daddy!"


We got some lunch as my morning sickness was starting to kick in. Caelen and I shared some chicken & fries. She just wanted more and more BBQ sauce.

Then I got a snow cone and Thomas got more ice cream which got dropped on the ground after a couple of licks. We checked out the rabbits before we decided it was time to head home. And the Budweiser Clydesdales (and the Dalmation!) went by a couple of times.



Caelen fell asleep in the car of course, but this time she didn't wake up we we got home!

She slept in the car for another half and hour before we decided to go get her. Poor thing. And she was so tired she could fall asleep that night until almost 8:15. But it was worth it I think. We all had a fun time.

Ultrasound

Today was the day I thought would NEVER come! When I found out I was pregnant on June 17, I called to schedule my first appointment. When they told me July 21, I still had my last miscarriage at the forefront of my mind and I wasn't sure if I would be able to carry this baby that long.
Thank God I did! And today came and was a great day. The ultrasound always makes it so much more real to me. To actually see the baby in there is a very exciting but strange thing. It's so nice to know I'm not just throwing up for the fun of it!

Here's the little peanut. The heartbeat was really obvious on the ultrasound as was the umbilical cord (the little tail thingy on the picture.) On the first picture their head is on the right, on the bottom picture it's on the left.

I'm technically due on February 23, 2009. My 27th birthday is the next day! I'm happy about sharing my birthday if that's what happens. We get to find out the sex at the end of Sept. and I'm really excited for that! i have no preference but I love finding out.

Caelen has no clue what's going on. Thomas told her I had a baby in my tummy and so she kissed it and said, "All better!"

The rumors are true

I must apologize for the lack of blogging on my part. We are in fact pregnant again and I am in fact nauseated (and feeling the result of it) all day long. Therefore I spend most of my time laying on the couch in misery if not in the bathroom and if I do feel well for a bit then I have to take advantage of that time and get something done, like laundry, dishes etc. You really should see my house....
Anyway, we are THRILLED besides and our first ultrasound is tomorrow! So I will be doing my best to post and just know that we haven't fallen off the face of the earth. Love to all!

What's next? Algebra?

I thought I was going crazy or maybe just hearing things but I'm pretty good at interpreting my child's English and I was pretty sure of what I was hearing. Turns out I wasn't going crazy; my 19 month old was just counting to 10.
It goes like this: She was looking at all my wallet pics of family and friends and I heard what sounds like, "six, seven, four, two." I've never heard her say those words before and she was doing it as she placed each picture down. Finally I asked her in astonishment, "Are you counting?"
I said, "One...."
She smiled up at me and said, "Two."
I said, "Three"
She said, "Four."
I said, "Five"
She said, "Six."

I then asked her what comes after that and she said, "Seven."
I helped her along with "eight, nine, ten." and when we repeated it, she counted every other number all the way to a triumphant finish and a big grin with "Ten".

I'm seriously with this girl 24/7 and I've been wracking my brains to figure out how she heard these words. The only thing I can come up with is one of her Wonder Pets episodes has Moose and Zee counting the arms of an octopus. That would explain the missing nine and ten in her vocabulary.

All Better!

While Caelen and I were looking at all the pictures in her "Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes" we came across a picture of Jesus showing the apostles His scars in his hands and feet from the cross. I explained to Caelen that Jesus had "Owies" on His hands and feet so she bent down to the book and kissed them! I wanted to cry it was so cute.

Caelen still remembers the zoo. If you ask her what she saw she'll say, "Animals." If you ask her what the hippo was doing she says, "Night night".

A Zoo Day

Every first Wednesday of the month the San Francisco Zoo is free so I decided that would be a really fun outing for us stay at home moms with no money. But with various vacations, swim lessons etc. every mom had to back out except me and Adria. So we loaded up in my Sequoia and went down there this morning. Thank goodness we got there early because we would have never found parking otherwise. I think next time we'll go when kids are in school! It was really crowded.
Caelen was really excited because she just loves animals of all kinds. On the way she kept saying, "Zoo, Giraffe, Tiger." Once we were there and she had missed her nap she was super mellow but I think she was really absorbing it all and she would smile occasionally.
The only things she hated was the Train! Of course we thought riding the little kids train around the zoo would be fun and Tyler was all about it. Caelen thought she was until we got closer to the front of the line and she saw the steam and heard the air brakes. Man that girl clung to me like a koala and I thought she was going to cut off my air supply. We rode it, but she had her arms around my neck and her eyes shut the whole time. I think she would have been able to handle it had she not been missing her nap. She was no worse for the wear though and said, "Bye bye choo choo," as we went to find the bears.

Here are the kids (Austin is in the carrier part of the stroller) waiting for us to finish our bathroom breaks before we got started for the day.

Caelen loves birds and she didn't want to be moved away from these huge guys!

The blankie, better known as the "Bauchie" had to come along to the zoo of course! She's Linus.

More birds

She thought this rhino was pretty cool but I think she loved the peacock that was hanging out in his pen more.

Penguins, mom's favorite!

The giraffes and zebras were probably the highlight and the last thing we saw on our way out. She has chili cheese fries all over her face for this shot. But there wasn't time to primp, we had to grab a spot on the fence as soon as it cleared!

Here's my sleeping angel after a long day!

They played hard today!

If I get more pictures from Adria I'll put them up :)