Fun Pics

Here are some fun running pictures that I thought needed to make it onto the blog. It's fun running with the belly--I get many long looks, waves, and smiles from passers by.





Marge and Steve's dog Cosmo gets REALLY excited to run and has started a daily whine session at about 10:00 thinking he might get to go out. We are spoiling him, taking him every day. Today, we went for over an hour and ran through the golf course. He was a terrible running partner, stopping every 5 seconds or so to pick up a new smell. But, who could get mad at such a happy dog?

Guest Blogger Mike

Joy and I certainly aren't the culture police but we get a little tired of modern movie offerings. Much of today's comedy lacks originality and relies on an endless tirade of "f-bombs" and childish jokes. Case in point, Step Brothers. It started out okay but quickly turned into a tiring and disgusting movie.

So, it was with great pleasure that Joy and I watched a great, classic movie, the 1989 hit, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Good laughs with Chevy Chase, hilarious characters with the family members and only one or two uses of the "f-bomb."

Check out the video clips below and go grab it at Netflix or find it at your local video store for some great holiday humor.

The trailer


The dinner scene


The 250,000 Christmas Lights


Electrified Cat Scene

Schneiter Family Iowa Christmas

Mike and I have been in Iowa for the past few days for Christmas with his family. It has been a very nice relaxing time. The Schneiters love to cook, play games, and just hang out together, so we fit right in (and we sneak away for a run every day). Here are some pictures from our time together.

Mike's mom, Margie, making something delicious.

Marge and Steve holding up their new quilt, compliments of Marge's sister, Linda.

Mike and I (I'm about 25 weeks pregnant now).

Mike happily reading on the couch.

Excited for homemade pizza!

Mike's aunt, uncles, and parents playing cards.

Cousins and aunts, more cards. They are really into Pinochle and have taught me to play over the past couple years. We stay up waay too late playing every night!

Mike's younger brother, Brett, and his girlfriend Jaime.

Siblings Tom, Patty, Marge, and Linda showing their homemade quilts. I am keeping my fingers crossed for one--they are gorgeous!

Most of the cousins, from L to R: Rachel Duncan, Justin (Jessie's bf), Jessie Kreuger, Brett, Jaime, Mike, me, Abby (Jessie's older sister), and Andy (Abby's husband).

Running in Iowa

Everyone knows that it gets cold in the mountains. I live in Colorado at about 6000 feet and frequently ski and play above 10,000. But, Colorado cold cannot compare to the Montana cold I grew up with. That kind of cold made the snow squeak and your boogers freeze on each inhalation. Iowa cold, however, surpasses them all. We were supposed to fly in a couple of days ago (missed our flight, long pathetic story for another time) and the windchill was simply "hazardous", not 0, not -30 or even -45, just "hazardous". Luckily it has warmed up to the balmy teens for our trip, with a windchill around 5. Learning how to exercise in this weather is an adventure in itself. We did manage it today, but have been foiled in the past. A couple of years ago, it was impossible. No matter how many layers one dons, it is extremely difficult to cover those triangle spots of skin on the sides of the face--the ones between the goggles and the neck gaiter. And, it just looks funny to run with your hands covering your face to protect it from the wind (I remember having this conversation with Hannah after her first trip to Iowa). In any case, we WERE able to get out today, thankfully. We were the people Addie made fun of in her post today--the ones running down the middle of the road, sidewalks covered in snow, and piles of more snow narrowing the already slippery streets. Sorry, Ad, we were desperate for exercise after spending yesterday in airports, on planes, and waiting in many lines. We needed the air, even if it was REALLY COLD.

Posing pre-run.

I wore a tank, 2 heavy long underwear tops, and my big hoody, fleece tights, fleece socks, windproof gloves and hat.

Now we are relaxing in the lovely (and warm) Schneiter home, getting ready for Christmas and just enjoying each other.

Skiing!

Mike, 3 of his coworkers, and I went for a night skin up Sunlight a few days ago. We love that place! They leave a warming hut open on the summit for the night skinners to use. On any given night, there are at least a dozen or so people up there after hours, many more during full moons.



I went up to Aspen Highlands today after church with a crew of 6 other people. It was 30 degrees and sunny, perfect ski weather. After church is ideal right now, because a half day of skiing wears me out!

Disco Fever

Last night, Mike and I and a bunch of friends donned our best disco attire to go cut loose at a bar in Carbondale. I searched our storage closet to find my old bell bottoms and hippie shirts from high school and passed them out to some friends (none of them fit me right now). A friend of ours plays in a band called Sparkle Motion--they do disco covers and are a blast to watch and dance to! The place was full of afro wigs, polyester one piece suits, and gogo boots. Normally, Mikey and I are NOT night owls--we are in bed before 10 pretty much every night. But, last night, we decided we'd better take advantage of the fact that our disco nights sans babysitter are limited, so we danced until 1:30 am! Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so I have no evidence of Mike's plether jacket or my sparkly shirt.

Growing Fast!

I get frequent email updates from various baby websites detailing what's going on with fetal development during the current week. In the latest, I read that the babe is gaining about 6 ounces each week right now. I did the math: proportionately, that is equal to 150 lb person gaining 37-56 pounds each week! No wonder I need 9-10 hours of sleep every night!

Here's a picture of someone else's cute little munchkin at 24 weeks. Might be something like what ours looks like.

Fun Day

Mike and I hung out together all day today. After a relaxing morning, we went backcountry skiing for a couple hours on William's Peak, chopped a load of firewood, watched two high school basketball games, and came home to cook yummy enchiladas. Now we are sitting in front of the fire--he's reading, I'm knitting and blogging. What a pleasant day.

Here are some photos of the latest.

Smiling Joy on top of Willie's for baby's first time skiing. The wind was blowing at least 40mph, but we were warm from the hike up. Thank God for windbreakers!

The prego belly at 23 weeks. My belly button is almost flat.

Side view.

I've been knitting lots--here is my first completed project for our babe. It is a sleep sack with a drawstring in the bottom. I imagine using it frequently in our chilly house and while camping. A friend of ours saw me knitting it and asked for one. He's 6'2". I said no.

Close up of the casing and drawstring.

Hats for Reese's boys. They outgrew their originals.

I did it! Las Vegas Half Marathon at 5 1/2 months pregnant

Mike and I drove to Vegas yesterday for him to run the LV Marathon and for me to waddle in the half marathon. Here's a little count from the day:

Weeks pregnant: 22

Miles run in today's race: 13.1

Miles walked: 0

Liters of water ingested while running: about 2 1/2

GUs eaten: 3

Number of other pregnant ladies seen: 0

Total number of runners: 20,000

Number of half marathoners: 9,833

Largest number of runners in any race I have run before today: about 300

Minutes of fireworks at the starting line: about 5

Starting time: 6:07am

Approximate temperature at the start: 50 degrees and cloudy

Potty stops I took along the course: 6

Estimated time spent peeing and waiting for a port-a-pottie: 12 minutes

Potty stops available: Probably 20!

Total number of people dressed as Elvis: about 300

Number of cars allowed on the Strip during the race: 0

Total race time: 2:27:32

Minutes per mile pace: 11:15

Overall place: 4,347 (top half, just barely!)

Place in Women: 2150/5175

Number of Marathoners that beat me, a half-marathoner: 1 (We finished within seconds of each other--it was very cool to see an elite runner finish!)

Number of runs longer than 4 miles I plan on doing in the next 4 months:0

Mike's race time: 3:04:52

Mike's mile pace: 7:03

Mike's place in the marathon: 63rd! (top 0.6%!!)


Fun day! Now we're off to eat some grub!

Pictures

Here are a few pictures of the finished products of our labors over the holidays.

New wood flooring in the kitchen and entry. The area now covered by this beautiful wood was once covered by three different surfaces--ugly pink linoleum, budget crosshatch faux wood, and carpet. It is now all tied together and feels much much bigger.

New trim! About 1/3 of the place had any trim at all and it was very small--the new stuff is about 3 1/2 inches tall.

The babe's room is now BRIGHT green, but would anyone expect any less than BRIGHT from me? (purple cabinets, red walls, a green nursery--it works.)

Purty new brushed nickel faucets in the downstairs bathrooms.

Mike and I went exploring for a few hours yesterday in Glenwood Canyon. He was checking out some new cliffs to climb while hanging on a fixed rope. The rope loosened a rock above him that subsequently fell on his head. He was left with 2 nice gashes--this picture shows the big one, about 1 1/2 inches long. He had forgotten his helmet--let's hope this serves as a reminder to bring it along next time!

Thanksgiving

It's been a great and busy several days with friends and family and the house is now quiet. Mom, Dad, Wes and Stef all came to hang out and they happened to bring a large arrangement of power tools. When we announced we were pregnant, Wes and Stef offered to come out for a few days to work on our house as a gift to us. This was the time and all 6 of us buckled down and worked for three solid days. We put in a beautiful wood floor in the kitchen and entry way, painted the kitchen, put trim in, painted the nursery, replaced kitchen faucets and light fixtures, and put in new switches and outlets to match. The flooring was actually wainscoating that we found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore. We turned it over so the wainscoating flaced the floor and the back was up and called it flooring--it turned out to be gorgeous! Pictures will follow of the finished floor. We are so thankful to have had the help. Alone, all of that work would have taken us months to finish alone.

On Thanksgiving morning, Wes, Mike, and I ran a 5K race, the Turkey Trot. We had wanted to do it for a while but have always been gone, so this was a fun opportunity. Wes ran with me the whole way and we did it in 26:30. I was psyched! That's only just over 2 minutes slower than normal, and I had expected to do more like 33:00. Mike took 6th place of about 300 people. It was great to get a little endorphin rush and calorie burn in before the feast. 13 folks showed up for dinner--it was my first time hosting, so mom walked me through all of the cooking and it was delicious! We ate, talked, played Taboo, ate pie, laughed, hung out. Here are some photos of our time together.

The Thanksgiving feast--turkey, stuffing, grean bean casserole, mashed taters, sweet potatoes, gravy, cornbread, cranberry sauce, apple pie and pecan pie. Mike lifted up my shirt to show the belly just as the photo was taken.

Check out the belly! It felt like it grew inches this week.

We took a day off of working for a beautiful hike up Grizzly Creek. We hiked through fog and mist for hours.

A view of the canyon on the hike.

21 weeks! Wes and I comparing bellies. Similar genes?? (It's really not fair, he does about 10 situps a year.)

Wes and Mike working on the floors.

Wes with the old floor gone.

Stef scraping up the old flooring.

All systems normal!

I received the official radiology report of the ultrasound from the hospital yesterday. All systems are officially normal! Yeah!

It's a . . . . .!!

It's a Baby!! With two arms AND two legs! And hands! And feet with very tiny toes attached!! And two eyes and a nose (despite the fact that I dreamt it was nose less) and a mouth that opens and closes. We shielded our eyes when she measured the femurs so we wouldn't see the goods--that took A LOT of will power. Later, when she was working near that same area, the kid conveniently was grabbing its own package as if to hide it ("Sorry, mom and dad, you have to wait to see!"). So far, everything looks good and we'll get the official report later this week. My due date will stay the same, April 11th, as the sizes of everything today matched up with the date we had.

A perfect little footprint.

The munchkin's profile--eyes, nose, mouth, neck, and chest.

Mike and I went elk hunting from dawn to dusk on Saturday and saw nothing but prints. Mike saw two deer within about 25 yards and was VERY tempted to shoot one. The thought process went... I should shoot this deer, but I can't tag it. No tag means no getting it butchered. I don't have a garage to hang it in but I suppose I could put a tarp on the carpet in the living room...but Joy would probably then have ME butchered..." So we have no meat. Bummer, next year we will also have deer tags! We saw elk tracks everywhere as well as lion tracks. Mike had been out in the same area nearly every day last week after work and there were many lion tracks on top of his boot prints. I was glad to have a large caliber rifle in my hands. The area also happens to be a place where I trail run often, alone, and with headphones. I might think twice next time (or at least bring a slower friend with me).

Maybe the reason we didn't get anything is because I...

...like to take naps instead of hike around.

Definitely not the clearest print we saw, but you get the idea. This is not a house cat!

Mike and his friend Chris Van Leuven have been working every weekend on a new route in Glenwood Canyon. They are calling it "The Horse and Pony Show" and if you know the two of them, especially together, it describes them PERFECTLY. They are a hilarious duo. The route is really hard (5.12a), mixed sport and trad, and about 500 feet long. They have put many hours into this project and Mike comes home after working on it all day as happy as he can possibly be! They leave the house by 7am on weekends and usually get home after 8pm.

Chris showed up at our house Sunday morning with a nice little scarf on.


So, Mike insisted on wearing a scarf as well. He took my fancy Irish scarf and returned it in perfect condition. I just thought it was so funny that these two boys were out being as tough as can be...and wearing scarves. Here's Mike with his serious face on, holding his big drill, and wearing his wife's scarf. What a cutie!

The route has great views of Grizzly Creek.

Working (it)

One of my students broke his wrist a few days ago and is getting surgery right now. It's 8:30 pm and I am in the hospital waiting room...in FRISCO. For those of you who aren't locals, that is about 2 hours from home! We should get out of here around 9:30 or 10:00, then drive to Carbondale to drop him off, then back to Glenwood--it's going to be a long day. I took a little advantage of the time after I dropped him off, went to the yarn store and to a yummy dinner. I ordered an Izze and asked for a wine glass. I also ordered a salad appetizer and the most expensive item on the menu ($22.00, the seafood primavera with shrimp, scallops, crab, artichokes, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, pine nuts topped with a delectable buttery lemony sauce) because I am charging it to the student's account--I'm not paid by the hour and figured I deserved a nice dinner for working so late!