end o' the week pics and sprego update

Here's my brother on his 27th birthday,

hoarding his presents in these tough economic times.

I love you, Luke!!

What's yummier than yummy?

A man using power tools in long johns, wool socks,

and a Samoan lava-lava.

Peanut, skinny even by Chihuahua standards,

adores any heat source.

Happy, happy news in our little world! With all this bed resting, my blood pressure has stabilized quite significantly. Marcy let me go to the film festival Wednesday night, which was a fabulous event. We enjoyed every film they showed; it was a good year for variety of style and subject matter. PLUS, and perhaps most significantly, we met up with actual FRIENDS at the festival. They are other human beings besides ourselves who live around here and with whom we can do social things, a major missing ingredient in our new lives down here in the States.

Jason has been taking my blood pressure each day, which has been consistently 20 points lower than what it was last week. Today we phoned in to Marcy the results of that and my blood glucose and protein levels. She was happy and said, "You know what this means, don't you? Your body is responding well to bed rest, so you need to keep it up." [insert visual of me blubbering my lips with my finger like a person going crazy] "However," she continued, "You can now feel free to get up and move about for a couple hours each day. Think hard about how you want to spend that time. You can even go for a walk." WELL, say no more, Marcy the Midwife! Very soon, Jason and the dogs joined me for a meadow walk in the gloriously brisk, 1/2 sunny, 1/2 storm cloudy day.

two great videos

These videos, which I watched from other people's blogs while I bed rested (thanks Don and Matt), go together. They are both hilarious. The first is a discussion of how spoiled technology has made us, and the second illustrates to me the opposing simplicity of community, of play, of spontaneously making something fun happen together.

Louis CK - Everything's Amazing; Nobody's Happy

Toddler Leads the Celebration

spregnancy update: 38 weeks

First, the good news: Jason is finished with the bassinet! The main body is in the old mortise and tenon style, whereby one piece fits snugly into another, with no screws or nails. He did use bolts to hold on the rockers, because time was slipping away and that was just easier. His main material was a 4x8' piece of furniture-grade plywood, and he shaped pegs out of walnut scraps from my grandpa Gene. The whole thing is sealed with a lacquer that still has another few days to cure, and once it does, it'll be toxin-free even if babies or critters chew on it. I will probably need to post one more picture after we get it set up with blankets, and maybe another when it contains a wittle tiny sleeping baby.

Second, the not so great news: my blood pressure seems to be creeping upward, as Marcy discovered yesterday at my weekly appointment. She put me on bed rest right away. UUGH! When she told me I had no choice, I said, "But what if the Banff Film Festival is Wednesday night?!" She said, "It is. I'm going to it." So, I can't even sneak out of the house for that, because my midwife will be there! Actually, she's coming over tomorrow to take my blood pressure again, and if things are okay, she might let me up for the films. That would be uber-cool, because attending the BFF was a tradition for us every year in Alaska, and we've been looking so forward to it here.

After about two hours home yesterday, I could see this bed rest bit was going to be a challenge. I get restless so easily. There aren't major undone things, so I'm only mildly anxious about that, but I just like movement, see. It's also weird to lay here feeling perfectly fine and ask someone else to fill up my water glass or grab a book for me.

However, thirdly, as consolation news and to show that I am not a complete whiner who's out of touch with what matters: the baby is doing perfectly fine, by all indications. Also, Marcy's not too worried yet, because my personal baseline blood pressure happens to be high anyway and has been consistent all along. It's just creeping up a tad, and she doesn't want to take chances.

Aside from my belly button never popping out (for which I have been patiently waiting over my thirty-plus years on this planet) the blood pressure thing has been one of the biggest disappointments/worries of my spregnancy. So, I reckon I'm pretty fortunate. I have so many good things, including a super mother who immediately took over meal preparation and scolds me for breaking rules, and an attentive husband, who, despite being an errand-hater, took my list of last minute errands and is even now running them.

I am quite thankful. Quite thankful indeed.

deer and geese and evenings

Yesterday I took my walk at late dusk, and the different light brought new life to common sights. A doe and two fawns ran ahead of me, and their tails were positively glowing white in the haze of the coming night, swishing back and forth like a bouquet of pond cat tails. I thought something was wrong with my eyes; that's how white their tails were.

In a few minutes, I heard a great honking and looked up to see a flock of geese. They were silhouetted so starkly in the vast, clear sky. Poor dears were heading the wrong way, but maybe in a few months after they've met their end in the Yukon Territory, God will let them know that one human, at the very least, recognized their last flight as incredibly beautiful. Or they could be, as my mother suggested, taking an alternate path to avoid bad weather. When I was almost home again and it was pretty much dark, I heard one single honking goose overhead, also flying northwest. I was about to get really sad, but I strained my eyes and could see that there were at least 7 or 8 of them. Just the one honker though, keeping everybody encouraged. The other ones were thinking, "This route seems very fishy..."

Tonight Jason and Dad took two horses and went on a hunt overnight. We need winter meat desperately - a few deer, an elk, or a combination. Jason had a little buck in bow range a couple of evenings ago and called my dad on his cell to see if he'd be available to help haul it out, since it was almost sunset and he was a ways off the road. Talk about blending old ways and new - a bow and arrows and a cell phone. Unfortunately, Dad had a meeting that night, so Jason decided to let the critter go, but he's sorry about it now after a couple subsequent days of being skunked.

We only did a little hunting in Alaska, and I like being in the mode again of having reason to care about the weather and skies other than for recreation. Because of the full moon and clear skies lately, the deer stay up late grazing and go to bed in early morning. Then they sleep in and get up midday for even more grazing. This, as opposed to grazing primarily at dawn and dusk. Now I find that very cool!