Taking Book Recommendations From a Four-Year-Old

Last week I was telling one of my students, Noah, about my recent doctor's appointment. I told him how I got to hear the baby's heart beat and that the baby will be born about mid-March. Noah told me he had some books he would lend me: "They're about how to be a good big brother, it'll teach you a lot." It was so sweet. He was very distraught when he came in the next morning because he could not find the books. But he promised he'd keep looking. He found the books on Friday and when he gave them to me he said "you can take them home to read them, and give them back to me on Tuesday." He's got the whole library concept down!



I will admit that when I read the books, I may have teared up a little. It's the hormones. Damn hormones.

Amigas

This is my friend, Devon.

Devon and I have known each other since... forever. Our parents were friends before we were born, so of course we were put together often. When I think of my childhood, I think of Devon: sleepovers that lasted days, camping trips, barbies, building forts, walking to school, Brownies, friendship bracelets, laughing uncontrollably. Devon, my friend who I adore. Devon and her family hold a warm spot in my heart, which is hard to explain- but they truly were a second family to me growing up. She lives in Alberta Canada (where I grew up), although she is currently going to school in London, England. She was last in Tucson in 2006 for our wedding.

Devon is coming to Tucson- tomorrow! For 6 whole days. She'll be here for my baby shower, and we'll get to hang out for a couple days afterwards. I'm so excited for her to see our new home and be apart of our baby's life. I can't wait!

Making us proud

Our niece Tristan is an amazing girl who has overcome a lot in her life.  She graduates High School in May and would like to attend Culinary school - she has her choice between Johnson & Wales University College of Culinary Arts (where Emeril Lagasse, Tyler Florence and Chris Cosentino studied) or Walters State Culinary College, to which she was awarded a full tuition scholarship.

Her Aunt, Uncle and the rest of her family are very, very proud of her.

Schadenfreude

Watching the Chargers lose feels so good. Almost as good as a Broncos win.

Baby Update

Today I went for an ultrasound and a visit to the doctor. The nurse practitioner was concerned at my last visit because I was measuring a little small, so they scheduled this ultrasound just to be sure all was well, and no worries, everything's great. The baby weighs about 3 lbs 12 ounces and is in the 41st percentile. So, he's a little small, but look at his parents! We're not exactly large of stature.

Like the first ultrasound, his hands were in the way so we couldn't get a good picture. But I saw him yawn - which ohmygod was adorable, and he wiggled his fingers and was flexing his toes (which the technician thought was pretty cute). He has hair that is about a centimeter long, and the technician commented with a laugh that he has a big head. Lucky me ;)

Here's a blurry picture of his hand!

Our house: finally moved in!

That took long enough. After an incredibly taxing series of delays, we are finally in to our new home. We moved in on December 26th and have finally gotten all of our boxes unpacked and rooms settled:

 
 

Thanks to our Realtor Zach McDonald, who helped guide us through the process. Our lender was Jesse Isaacs at Copperpoint Lending. Our inspection was performed by Terrence and Debbie Hayes at Hayes Home Inspections. But most importantly, I want to thank Maggie, Chris, Megan, Kyle and Matt - your help with moving, painting and projects has been amazing, and it means a lot to me. I'm not sure we can ever repay you, so thanks again!

If you ever want to visit the house, drop us a line - we'll have a housewarming party soon, so stay tuned!

This pregnancy thing is kinda fun!

I am loving being pregnant. Feeling the little guy move around all the time is really a much neater experience than I ever thought it would be. I have been very fortunate to feel as well as I have all throughout the pregnancy. And although I was disappointed to have a smaller belly, I must admit, it's nice being able to wear my own clothes and not have to buy a bunch of new ones! I can already tell I'm gonna miss being pregnant, but I guess I get a baby out of it in the end, so I guess I'll survive.

Meeting Lance Armstrong and Team Radioshack

Team Radioshack had a week-long training camp here in Tucson this past week. Each day I've been obsessively checking Twitter, Facebook, various websites and the news for any mention of where the team was going to be. By Saturday I was getting pretty disappointed that I'd had no Lance or Levi sightings. All of this changed on Sunday.

Jeff, Megan, Kyle and I went to Borders at 9 am to get our tickets for the afternoon Lance Armstrong book signing.  We waited in line for 45 minutes just to stand in line again later that afternoon.  It was a pretty silly system, but that's a topic for another day.  Today we're discussing Team Radioshack.

After we got our tickets we went to breakfast, where I revealed my master plans to drive around and search for the guys. I read on Johan Bruyneel's Facebook page that the team was starting to ride at 10:30 am. So I figured I'd hit the popular riding routes, thinking that they wouldn't ride Mount Lemmon since they'd already done so twice this week. My table of friends doubted my ability to find Lance; the boys said they were going to watch football and Megan was going to study for finals.  But despite these nay-sayers, I knew I had a good chance at success today.

At the last minute Megan decided to take me up on my adventure, and we set off down 22nd street. As soon as we turned onto 22nd, I see two event police officers, and I think "hmmmm, maybe they're gonna ride here!" We get to the next major intersection, and there's more police officers- and people in lawn chairs lining the street. We pull over and ask them if they're waiting for the riders. They answered yes, and told us the route the riders were supposed to take. We talked about how they found out the route, and the lady said her husband works in a bike shop and found out from there. So we hauled butt to Udall, cause that's where we're told they're supposed to start, and we see hundreds of motorcyclists. Slowly, it dawns on us that we were talking about different kinds of riders, but we pull in and ask the event cops, who explain to us that it's a motorcycle charity ride. So, shit - back to square one.

Megan checked Twitter from her phone and sees that Lance has posted a picture of Fat Cyclist (if you don't know Fatty's story, I recommend you read this post here because it will come up again later in the story) and we can tell that they're on Mount Lemmon!  We drive and drive and pass plenty of Sunday riders, but no Team Radioshack. But then. Up ahead. I see the Fat Cyclist. I recognize his white jersey and really, who else rides with a helmet cam? We rolled down the windows as we pass Fatty, cheer loudly, and he grins like he's winning a race. We pull over about a hundred yards up, and he gives each of us a high five.  I was so excited, I completely forgot to take pictures!

We get back in the car, and continue up the mountain, knowing for sure now that we're on the right track. We drive for what feels like forever, and that's when we see jerseys we recognize: Trek Mellow Johnny's. And then we start to see team cars. And then we see large groups of riders, and Astana jerseys, and that's when we know we've hit the jackpot.

We pass Lance Armstrong. We pass Levi Leipheimer. We pass Andreas Kloden, Yaroslav Popovych, Chris Horner, and a lot of people I've never heard of. But it was pretty cool, and we got lots of photos that you should check out.

But the coolest part came when the cyclists pulled over so they could snack and put on warmer clothes- preparing for the descent. That provided us the opportunity to catch up and get some pictures:

Levi was very cool and chatted with us for a bit, and Lance seemed a little grumpy about the cold weather. But everyone was nice and didn't seem to mind us being in the center of their group.

We headed back down, getting more pictures on the descent and headed home. We felt we'd done enough stalking for one day. We went to the book signing later on that afternoon, and what did Lance say when we made it to the front of the fast-moving line? "Hey, it's you guys!" He was in a much better mood, and he chatted briefly with us about the cold on the mountain and about Fatty. The people around us were envious that he talked to us- they keep those lines moving and there's generally no chit-chat. So all in all, it was a pretty awesome day. My only regret was not getting to meet Fatty. But the high five will suffice for now!

Good morning

Good morning, originally uploaded by Jeffry and/or Kerri.

Starting my last day of a bell-to-bell, solo work week.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Creepy

Creepy, originally uploaded by Jeffry and/or Kerri.

I get weirded out when Kerri brings her class stuffed toys home to wash - when I walk into the laundry room, they look like they're all staring at me.