Little Raindrops

Posts Tagged ‘Andrea’

I see that my last post date is in October. I’ve been stopping by to write something for weeks, but really, I’ve just been intimidated. So much has happened in the past three months, I’ll never find the time to write about it all! Well, now that I’ve gotten down to it, I’m giving you the extremely abridged version!

I’m really not remembering much about November! A few things stick out, though. Rhino started crawling around, we got our first Misawa snow (and Rhino’s first snow ever!), we had two nice Thanksgivings (one with the church, then a second in our home with our friends), and we discovered we’re going to have another baby in July ‘09! This of course is very exciting and just the age spacing we were hoping for. Thanksgiving was nice, too, and not very hectic at all. Liz, Nicole, and I split up the responsibilities. Really, all I had to do was make up some cranberry sauce and veggies and provide a clean home. The food was all wonderful and we had a terrific first Thanksgiving in Japan!

December will take a while to describe. I had my first prenatal appointment and we saw the ultrasound of our 8 week-old little bean! Heart’s beating, there’s only one in there, everything’s looks fine, that was about it! Two days later we began our trip back to the States to visit with family for Christmas. This was wonderful, but tiring! I’m so glad we got to see all our family (though not as many friends as I had initially hoped. Everything was getting too hectic!) and have Rhino meet the rest of the folks that didn’t get to come out when he was born.

Matt wrote up a big post about the horrible details of the travel itself. He pretty much covered it all, though he didn’t mention how uncomfortable a 9 or 12 hour flight is for a pregnant woman with morning sickness. Airplanes definitely were not my friends. I won’t take this space to complain further about travel and how we never want to step foot on an airplane again (we can stick out Matt’s career here and retire in Japan!) All our destinations made the flights more than worthwhile.

We flew into LA, so we decided to rent a car and drive up to Lompoc to see our friends and recuperate for the weekend. We left at 10pm on a Friday evening and it’s an overnight flight across the international dateline to California. When I booked this flight, I just assumed: leave Friday evening, overnight flight, land Saturday morning. I know, now that I think about it, it doesn’t make any sense. When we landed in CA and the captain said that it was 2pm on Friday, I was so confused! I hadn’t planned to arrive on Friday! So, it was my first time going back in time! We picked up our car and, 3 seconds off the lot, Matt almost gets into an accident! We’ve gotten quite used to driving on the left side and very slowly in Japan. When we got on the freeway, Matt felt all nervous that he was going so fast! Well, “so fast” is 45mph and he definitely needed to kick it up a bit, as everyone else was going 80! It was scary interesting watching him get used to driving in the US again. We arrived in Lompoc, called everyone we knew, didn’t get through to anyone, so we stayed in a hotel. It was nice to just relax and decompress from the long trip by ourselves. On Saturday (the real Saturday, not the Saturday in my confused head) we met up with Wayne and Rena, the wonderful couple from church that took us in as their “kids” (theirs had all moved out) and led the Bible study we attended for 2 years. It was nice to spend the weekend with them, have a little group reunion with some other church people, and show Rhino off. We also met up with our friends Denna, Adam & Ty. We went out to for an Italian dinner to catch up and gab. They ordered a plate of pasta for Tyler (2), but we discovered Rhino is nuts for pasta, and pretty much ate Ty’s whole plate! That was the first we saw of Rhino vehemently demanding table food and it was quite amusing, though slightly embarrassing to be out in a restaurant with a baby who yelled for food as if we hadn’t given him any for months! After church on Sunday we went over to Jody and Roy’s to see their sweet baby girls, have some lunch, and catch up. The weekend was so short and we were fighting to stay awake during the day, so we didn’t end up doing all that I had planned. I couldn’t get a hold of Danielle and would have loved to stop by work (it was drill weekend), but it just didn’t happen. We drove back down to LA on Sunday night, got another hotel (oh my, another whole big terrible story, too!) and caught a flight to Dallas the next morning.

These descriptions will probably get shorter, now, as there’s still plenty more. Texas was nice. Papa was the only one to have met Rhino, back in March, so it was wonderful that all my uncles, aunt, grandparents, etc. got to meet him! Unfortunately, Rhino hadn’t gotten used to the time zones yet and had just started teething again, so he was pretty grumpy a lot of the week. We kept busy, though. We had a nice Mexican lunch out at the Tupinamba, a restaurant that my family always goes to when I come to visit! We got to see my brother, Matthew, who also lives in Dallas and finally meet his girlfriend, Adria. The five of us went to Ripley’s Believe it or Not, had lunch at Chili’s, and went over to their apartment for dinner and board games. Over the week we got plenty of gaming in — Sequence, Clue, Phase 10, Scattergories — and watched a couple of movies (Eagle Eye, The Other Boleyn Girl, As Good As It Gets). I also went with Grandmother and Aunt Pattie to a quarterly ladies’ luncheon at their church, which was really great! We had a delicious lunch, browsed through second-hand goodies to buy to support their Friendship House, and listened to a wonderful pianist and singer perform Christmas songs. Then on Friday, Papa took us out to the Granada, sort of his second home, with Matthew and Adria to see Bruce Robison & Kelly Willis. It wasn’t exactly our style of music, but it was nice to get out and see the theater and hang out with my dad and brother. We couldn’t bring Rhino, so it was his first time with a babysitter, Papa’s friend Kay. I was really worried that I’d get him to sleep at her house, leave, then he’d wake up and cry and never go back down for her. He did wake up a couple hours after we had left, and he cried for a little bit, then fell back asleep — I was quite impressed! Rhino got a few cute gifts from the Texas family. Papa got him some clothes, including a cute Dallas Cowboys onesie. Rhino also got a Bible stories book and a 2008 coin set. It was a nice time visiting with all the family and I’m glad they finally got to meet Rhino! We left Sunday morning for the next leg of our trip: New York!

Okay, so these aren’t getting much shorter! Well, not to New York. We flew into Buffalo and Matt’s parent’s were there to take us down to Obi. Matt’s sister, Jen, was waiting at home for us and everyone was so excited to see Rhino (and us, I guess!) We got in pretty late, so we pretty much went straight to bed. The rest of the week was filled with a lot of family (Matt has a lot of family close by!) visiting and staring at, taking pictures of Rhino! We went over to Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s one night to meet up with lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.! Rhino got to meet Mitchell, a little boy just 3 weeks older than him. They were so cute together! Another night the church pastor and his family came over one night for dinner and games. Jen and I got a “sisters only” afternoon one day to go get lunch and tea and browse Jo-Ann’s. Jen, Mom and I had a cookie-decorating day! Matt’s brother Jason and his fiancée came over so they could meet Rhino and we could meet her! Later that week, they were married!! I got really sick the night before and couldn’t go to their wedding, though! It was tough, I spent about 36 hours curled up on the sofa or huddled in the bathroom. Rhino pretty much had a full day without Mommy, but he did really well with Grandma and Aunt substitutes! I was bummed to not be able to attend the wedding, but at least I recovered before our flight out. We also watched some movies (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Wall-E, and lots of MST3K.) We also had an early Christmas on the 17th. Matt got more MST3K, some anime, books, cross-stitching stuff; I got some great knitting books and some others; and Rhino received so many cute clothes and toys! They’re all wonderful, but the thing he definitely loved the most was Jen’s gift: a very cute little baby piano! Rhino had recently started really enjoying music and dancing anytime any song started: a commercial jingle, someone singing, 3 notes on a piano, someone whistling, etc.! So he would stand up at the piano, bang out a few notes, dance to his music, play a few more, dance, and on and on! Everyone loved watching him play! It was a fun early Christmas! We did it again a few days later at Aunt Ginny’s with Aunt Connie & Grandpa, too. Rhino got more wonderful outfits, toys, and books. Thankfully, Mom and Dad shipped everything to our home so we didn’t have to pack all the gifts out! We left for the airport Saturday afternoon, but our flight out of Buffalo had been canceled. We made the long drive back home to sleep, and got on an early flight Sunday morning for Colorado.

Originally we had planned to arrive in Colorado two days early, rent a car, stay in Mama’s condo in Denver, and visit with friends in Fort Collins and Denver. By the time we got to Colorado, we were running out of money, car rentals were really high, I was lazy and hadn’t recently been in touch with any friends, we’d lost a day due to our canceled flight, and we were feeling pretty run down. Mama and Ron just picked us up from the airport and took us down to the Springs. I feel like a terrible friend, but it was nice to just relax at “home.” Plus, my sister, her husband and daughter were flying in just a few hours later so I’m glad that we were around to spend more time with them. We had planned to spend time with our friends Carol and Derik, who live in Omaha (and we used to work together. Matt went to tech school with both of them.) They drove down to the Springs for the weekend to see us, but it only turned into an hour that they came over and chatted after dinner on Monday. It was so nice to see them and of course I would have liked more time, things just didn’t quite work out. I’m so glad we at least got to visit for a little bit. Hopefully we’ll have another opportunity before too long! So with my sister in town, I finally got to meet my niece, Amelia! She’s 8 days younger than Rhino and I was so excited to see the two of them together. It was so interesting, they are such different babies! Rhino is a lot more vocal, interested in music and crazy about food. Amelia is all ready running around!! She likes to do her own thing a lot. They both play so differently, sleep differently, eat differently, cry differently — it was quite an experience! She is so beautiful and such a sweetheart. At 10 months, the babies weren’t really interested in playing with each other, but they did play next to each other! We joke that Amelia is sort of a “bully” — they would both be playing with toys, but she would always want to take whatever Rhino had instead! Rhino was very laid back about the whole thing and never really seemed to mind, haha! I wish we could have spent more time with Andrea and her family, but hopefully we will get to see them next year (when the babies won’t be babies anymore — waah!) Aside from watching babies in Colorado, we did actually spend time with Mama and Ron, too! Their dogs, Jack and Tilley, are very high-strung little wild dogs (but so sweet!) and we were nervous about how they’d act around the babies. We were all very surprised though, they were SO good! Whenever a dog would come up to Rhino, we’d say “dog” a lot and eventually Rhino would look at the dog and say “dauh” — he just wouldn’t say the ‘g’. I’m not counting it as a first word, but it was really close and he would do it everytime he’d see a dog! One night we were there, we went out to the Golden Bee, an English pub at the Broadmoor hotel. It’s sort of a Christmastime tradition that my Grandpa started years ago. The babies were really well behaved and loved eating crackers. We drove around afterward and looked at the light displays. We spent a lot of time at home, just relaxing, chatting, hanging out in the kitchen, watching TV, etc. Mama made some great meals that Andrea and I tried to help out with! Andrea made a delicious spinach tofu lasagna one night and Mama and I made a copy of the Olive Garden’s Zuppa Tuscana soup (my favorite!) Andrea and I made multiple visits to the Whole Foods — it was like Grocery Heaven for us! I wish we had more than our crummy commissary selection and expensive Japanese produce out here. Andrea found a Buddha’s Hand and was so excited, she bought it as decoration (I thought it was more appropriate as a Halloween decoration!) We never did use it for anything, but in the future she wants to make candied peels out of one. I found a kiwano that I had wanted to try since I found this sorbet recipe on one of my favorite foodie blogs. Well, we didn’t make a sorbet, just ate spoonfuls from it — and it was less than enjoyable! Matthew and Adria flew in on the 23rd, so now all us siblings were together with our significant others! It was quite a full house, but tons of fun. We had a great, salmon Christmas Eve dinner and filled up on Christmas cookies (Mama went overboard with the date rolls, oatmeal chocolate chip, pinwheels, hazelnut cookies, ricotta cheese sugar cookies, etc, etc.!!) before heading off to the candlelight service at First Pres. It was a beautiful service and I was so glad Matthew and Adria joined us as well. When we got home we opened all of the “grown-up presents”. Mama and Ron got each couple an awesome digital frame, which I love! We did stockings and “baby presents” Christmas morning, which was lots of fun! The babies got some adorable clothes, wonderful books, and some very cute Little People toys! Andrea, Michael and Amelia flew out the next day, so we got some time with Matthew and Adria. We all went to Cave of the Winds, which was amazing! With all the time we lived in Colorado, none of us had ever been and it’s just a few minutes from home. We left from Denver early Sunday morning for our long flight back to Japan.

The whole month was filled with such nice visits with family. I’m still getting all the photos from each location together, then I will post them to the gallery and include links in this post. I didn’t really take many pictures at all, though! I guess I was too busy with Rhino and visiting that I just didn’t think much about photos. Thankfully, other people got a few! The whole trip was very tiring and expensive (see Matt’s post!), but was definitely worthwhile! Unfortunately, it very well may be our only trip back to the States while we’re stationed in Japan. Mama and Ron, Jen, and Matt’s parents are all planning trips out to see us within the next 18 months, though!! I can’t wait to show them all the wonderful things out here!

Edit: Here are links to the vacation photos from California, Texas, New York, and Colorado!

I really like the Ballband Dishcloth I made a little while ago, but I don’t like that it’s not reversible. And it’s a little big. I found a pattern for a smaller, two-sided scrubbie using the same pattern. I used the same antibacterial acrylic that rocks at scrubbing pots as I have been for my other scrubbers. I’m going to give this to Andrea and Michael as Michael loves using sponges and this is sort of spongey (thick, same size, more absorbent than the large dishcloth) but Andrea wants to use washable cloths. I’ll probably make one for ourselves soon, since it takes no time at all to make.

I know he didn’t say it, but I’m sure that’s what Rhino was thinking when we got the box in the mail! Thank you, Mama, for the cute toys for Rhino!

My mom went to visit Andrea, Michael and Amelia for the 4th and brought toys for her. I’m sure she can’t resist buying for both her grandbabies, so we got some cute toys in the mail a few days ago too! He now has an adorable little radio that he will grab and shake all over the place, and will someday realize that he can change the station. I love the octopus she got him, too! It’s head plays different tunes and each colored tentacle says the color (in English, Spanish, and French!) I get a kick out of it. The English voice says all the color in such a bright, cheery voice, but when it gets to brown, the electronic woman sounds so disgusted. “Green!” “Blue!” “Purple!” “Browwwwn.” What is up with that?! I love brown!!* Anyhow, here’s a video of Rhino seeing the cute octopus for the first time!

* If you’re reading this, you likely all ready know I love brown (… and green.) This can be seen various places throughout our home, but here is one example: Rhino in bed. (Rhino sleeps on his own mattress right next to our mattress-on-the-floor. I love his beautiful organic sheet and he doesn’t use a pillow/blankets at night, they’re just there for his daytime relaxing while I’m doing laundry. Doesn’t he look happy?!)

• 

Matt with Rhino in the Hotsling.

We have a mei tai, a ring sling, a pouch sling, and now we have a wrap. Andrea recommended the Moby Wrap, and I had read plenty of good things about it, so we went ahead and got one. It’s nice to have a variety of different ways to carry him. The wrap will take a little bit of getting used to, and so far we’ve only used one hold. So here’s me with Rhino in the Moby.

Andrea’s daughter was born early on the 21st! Amelia Simone weighed in at 7 lb 12 oz. Mother and daughter are both healthy and doing just fine! Congratulations, Andrea!!

We took another photo tonight. This is 35 weeks, 5 days.

I think we’re also pretty much decided on names now, too. If it’s a girl, it’ll be Maia Joy (if we ever have a second girl, then she’ll be Madeline!). If it’s a boy, it’ll be Ryan Lowell. Yes, Lowell just kind of came up out of nowhere recently, and it surprised me that we both liked it. It happens to mean “little wolf” in Old French, and Matt loves wolves, so that’s just perfect. (Here are other names we had been considering.)

We had our 9th Bradley class tonight. We talked about cesarean sections (and watched a video – ick!) and advanced first stage labor and a few other things. We also chatted with the instructor after class about doulas. Andrea asked me about whether or not I think she should hire a doula for her birth and it never really occurred to me. I figured, if you have a husband coach, why would you need one? I brought that up to our instructor, since she is a doula, and she explained the role and the importance of her job. I’m thinking it might actually be a good option for our situation. Since I’m a little worried about whether our doctor is going to bully us around or try and convince us that we need certain interventions which we aren’t interested in, it would be nice to have someone else to sort of stand up for us. She has a lot more knowledge and confidence and would also serve as an assistant coach. Matt will be the main coach, but he will need support, or possibly rest, or she can run errands, etc. We also get a 50% discount because we are Bradley students, which puts the service within a what I think is a very reasonable range for what we’d get. Matt and I are going to talk about it a little more and research some other doulas in the area. And I know our doctor sort of rejected talking to me about a birth plan the first appointment or discussing medication and other options, so I really haven’t brought anything up about what we want and don’t want. He knows that we’re doing Bradley classes, so if he knows anything about that, then maybe he can make some assumptions about what we don’t want. Our instructor mentioned a home birth with a midwife, which has been something on my mind since my second appointment back in August. We’ve switched doctors all ready and really like the hospital in Goleta, so I’m thinking I’d rather not do a home birth anyway. It’s something I’d be interested in possibly for the next birth, but I feel like it’s too late to change now. I still like the idea of a water birth, and I can’t do that in the hospital here, so if I did a home birth later on that would be an option. Anyhow, it’s something I never really considered, but we’re going to be talking about having a doula present at the hospital after all. I think it could make the whole thing with the doctor less stressful. So we’ll see what happens with that.

Tonight Jen drove up after work and hung out with us for dinner. She and Danielle had been planning a baby shower for me at the church, so she headed over to set up for that around 6. Matt and I popped over at about 7 and met up with Katherine (and daughter, Laura) and Jody. It was a small shower, but I don’t have too many girlfriends, and it was super-nice! Danielle picked up a cute cake (strawberry — my favorite!) and there was plenty of yummy snacks. They decorated the place really nicely with purple streamers, candy-filled baby bottles, and cute animal plates.

We munched and played some fun games. First everyone wrote some fun baby advice on a note card for Matt and I to hold on to. We were also all given 3 clips to place somewhere on our clothes and were prohibited from saying the word “baby” for the entire evening. If we messed up, we’d have to give up one of our clips to the person who heard us (or encouraged us to) say the forbidden word. Jen slipped within the first two minutes when Matt took a look at our cake and sneakily asked her “what does that say” as if he couldn’t read it. Everyone thought it would be pretty easy to just replace “baby” with plenty of other words, but when you get into conversation, you forget all about it and we all had a good laugh at each others mistakes. Matt won the evening with 6 clips. We played another game where we had to list names of baby animals. Jen had a huge list (ostrich, eel, camel, eagle … there were maybe 40 animals) and we’d have to give the names(s) of the animal’s baby. We got a point for each correct one, or if Jen was feeling generous, would give half a point for creativity or effort. It was pretty tough! We were all impressed that Jody knows a baby female zebra is a filly and who knew that a baby eel is a fry? I won the game with 18 points, but most of them were just guesses. It was fun and educational!

Then we got to the gifts! Andrea and Mama had sent some to the us in advance to bring to the shower. Mama sent some cute things that I had as a baby, which is really sweet (Peter Rabbit piggy bank, ceramic clown head to hang on the wall, etc)! She also sent us bath supplies like hooded towels and some really cute onesies! Andrea sent us the bathtub we wanted, bath supplies, and an adorable Nightmare Before Christmas onesie/hat! (Matt loves the movie and she periodically sends him things like t-shirts and rubber masks and this was just perfect!) We also got a nice card from Danielle, some diapers from Katherine, a pretty baby footprint frame and really soft blanket and gift card from Jody, and a Pack’n Play (to match our stroller!) from Jen, Mom, Aunt Ginny, Aunt Connie, and Mom-Mom. It was a great time and was really sweet of Jen and Danielle to set up.

The February Due Date Club is having a cyber baby shower for secret shower buddies. I got a girl who is stationed at Rammstein and have had a blast shopping for her! It’s her first baby and she’s having a boy and I got all sorts of cute things from the store (fun clothes, a very soft bear hooded blanket, baby bath gift set) and off her registry! I’ve been wrapping them up and will be sending out the box this week. Then when we all receive our gifts we open them at the same time and have a little shower! It’ll be fun.

I have also been shopping for Andrea. She just had her shower in Virginia earlier this week and it sounded like a terrific time! She’ll be posting photos when her schedule calms down and I can’t wait to see! It’s a shame that we can’t have showers with our families, I would love to have been there and I know Mama would have too. I’ve been enjoying shopping for other girls; it keeps my mind off shopping for our own baby. I’ve been good and haven’t gotten anything else, but I have been “window shopping” online. I put together two online registries at Target & Babies”R”Us. I’m not sure if I’ll have a shower or not or if anyone will even use the registries, but it’s at least a place for me to keep a list of things I’d like so I can buy things off there when baby arrives. Plus, it’s just fun to look at cute things!

It always goes this way — I’m never loyal to my journals. I’m just so lazy.

I’m sitting in the school parking lot, wiping sour cream off my Taco Bell order, and waiting for my computer science class to start. School is going pretty well. Next week I have my first exams in math and physics. Physics is pretty tough, but Mr. Jorstad says it gets much easier from here. Math is extremely boring. I took this class (particularly) with spastic Mr. King before dropping last semester. Now Dr. Mesri very slowly over explains everything. It’s better than being too difficult, I guess. My programming class is just an introduction to C and it’s not too tough. some of my days are long (M/W: 9a-7p; T: 830a-3p; R: 830a-930p), but I never have classes on Fridays.

I met a girl at work named Danielle who recently moved to Lompoc (the same street as us.) We’re going to the gym together Mondays-Thursdays before class/work. She picks me up at 4:40 and we do weight training or spinning until Matt picks me up on his way to work. Danielle used to be a Marine and loves to work out, so she is the perfect motivator. This is only our second week into it, but I feel fantastic all day long! I’m very sore and hopefully soon I’ll start toning up. I’ve put on entirely too much weight over the past year.

We also started going back to church after about three months. We were going to a small group at Jim’s on Thursday nights, studying Acts, but we hadn’t been able to attend since school started up. He found a group for us on Friday nights at Wayne & Rena’s, studying marriage. They live right across the street from us and are so great! All of the other four couples in the group have children older than us, so it is interesting to hear about their experiences.

Last weekend Answers in Genesis, a group that teaches creation backed by science, came to Calvary for a two-day conference. We took in a few lectures about apologetics, astronomy, and our foundations. Matt had heard Ken Ham, the founder of AiG, speak many years ago. He believes in intelligent design, a six day creation, that we are the center of the universe, that there was a worldwide flood, and that dinosaurs lived at the same time as man, to name a few. Some of it still sounds pretty out there to me, but some of their evidence was pretty convincing. And science aside, there’s a lot said in the Bible that I never knew about. We picked up some DVDs and a book to research these ideas further.

Andrea sent me a really cute new journal the other day, which I suppose inspired me to pick up the pen again. I’m not letting myself start new journals without finishing the old ones anymore.

Last month we decided what we’re going to do when Matt leaves the Air Force. The plan was: I’d move out to Colorado over Christmas ‘07 and go to CSU in the spring. At the beginning of March he’d follow and find a job around Fort Collins. I have two years left in my physics degree and we would try to buy a house. The last time I went to work I learned that many people in my shop will be leaving, another squadron is moving out with us, many full-time positions will be opening up, and they want to promote at least one SrA. The full-time job will be a GS-11 position and we’re getting new equipment that someone needs to learn and teach to everyone else. It’s extremely tempting to stick around for another two years after signing on full-time

Yes, it certainly is. Matt was a sweetheart and picked me up at the airport last Wednesday looking all handsome in his nice suit, and greeting me with chocolate and a rose. It’s been a nice, relaxing week for me to adjust to being back home. It’s cool hanging out with Jason and having him around. We play a lot of games together and whatnot. It’s also nice having a third seat at dinner; we don’t have leftovers that will never truly be eaten. Last night the three of us went over to my buddy Brian’s house (joined by my other school pals Missy and Evin) for some food and Office Space and [if we had not been tired and stayed a little longer] Halo 2. It was a good time and it’s nice to introduce Jason to some new people. We went to a new church that Jason picked out last Sunday and stayed later for a great potluck. It was a good time and a nice, small church and it suits Jason really well. Matt and I are going to return to Calvary, though. There is a lot about that particular church that we like, we just have to find a way to be more socially comfortable. That’s up to us, though, and not really any fault of Calvary’s. We also went to Jalama Beach last weekend, which is a very pretty, tucked-away beach right in our backyard.

We had a good time walking up and down the beach and sunbathing. The water was nearly freezing, but Matt and Jason jumped in anyway. They got a tad sunburned and Matt has been suffering all week, but we plan on going back hopefully every weekend. Good times.

I also finally got a chance to upload the photos I took while TDY. I have an album up of visiting with Andrea. I said earlier that we did some origami and crocheting while I was there, here are a few of our finished products.

I also got a chance to do a bit of crocheting while I was hanging out by myself in the hotel room. I started working on a baby afghan and worked on a bunch of squares for Mama’s afghan. These are the squares I completed:

So there’s that. Jason and I played a bunch of pool today. I never really learned how to play, so today was sort of instructional. Of course, I’ve played plenty of games before, but I learned today that I’ve been doing everything incorrectly. We practiced for almost two hours and had a grand ol’ time.

I got an email from Andy yesterday saying that he had been sailing from San Diego to Santa Barbara as part of some crew, proving his seaworthiness in order to be part of some large Mexico –> New Zealand trip. I was so excited to hear he was in Santa Barbara and sent off an email immediately making plans for today. Alas, he called today from Colorado as soon as he received my message. I was a little bummed that he was in California and didn’t even think to get together. He’s a world-traveler now and I’m not sure when our paths will cross again. I’m sure they will. I think sometimes I just get nostalgic for times in my past. College in Colorado was fun most of the time and I do miss the friends I had then. Being that they’re all males, I often feel it’s inappropriate to keep in touch or be as close as I’d like to. They’re good guys and I think of them often. It’s always good to see someone or get an email hearing about all the great adventures.

Matt and I are planning a quick trip next month. Neil Gaiman will be up near San Francisco, about 4 hours away from us, for a book signing. He’s cutting back a lot on his appearances and I don’t want to miss an opportunity. I’ve never been to a signing before, but I think it sounds like a good time. And of all the famous people I know of, I think he is the one I’d like to meet the most. Matt will take a day or two of leave and we’ll probably stay the night up in the bay area. We had only been once, for a Switchfoot concert, and didn’t get to explore the city at all. So maybe we’ll make a big event of it. Anyhow, I’m excited to pick up Neil’s Fragile Things and get to say hello.

Wednesday was my first day of math class. I was really nervous about the whole thing and ready to drop the class that day. I received a text message from Erick earlier reporting that they just started chapter 5. I had just finished chapter 2 and started freaking out about how I’d never catch up. It really bummed me out a bit because I’ve been struggling on my own with the coursework. Then I received another text informing me that they had skipped chapters 3 and 4, renewing my confidence. I went to class and found I wasn’t really that far behind. I just have to do some super-studying for our first exam two weeks from now. I’m not working (though I am researching some exciting jobs) and this is the only class I’m taking, so I shouldn’t have any excuses not to do well enough.

I went to the dentist today for a first exam and cleaning. It went well enough at first and I really like my dentist. Before going to Georgia I had toothaches and learned I needed a root canal due to decay around some poorly installed Air Force filling. Bummed about that, got over it though. I still need to get a crown on my tooth-stub. Today they found another filling that had improperly bonded and didn’t do it’s job. So I have some deep decay in that tooth as well and will go in to look at it again next week and see if we can avoid another root canal. And another Air Force filling cracked and will need to be redone. And my gums are receding around the implant I got when I was sixteen, exposing the metal. It could get worse and become a bad thing, so I need to go to someone else to see about some bone grafting. Fun … and cheap, I’m sure. Ughh. So it was somewhat of a disheartening day at the dentist, but that’s life I guess. I’m just wondering how our wallet is going to take to all this work.

Well, that’s my overly wordy update for the week. Jason starts work on Tuesday, then I’ll be home alone during the week. I have class at night on Mondays and Wednesdays, but during the day I’ll be alone … studying, crocheting, and most likely blogging. So ta ta ’til then.