Climbing Pregnant

This video is me climbing at 8 months.

Mothers Hands.

 Swollen feet, tiny shoes...It helps to go first thing in the day before the heat gets to my feet.

I did switch to my bigger shoes at about 9 months.

 My Busted Toes

Then we come to today...38 weeks pregnant.  10 days till my due date.  My goal with climbing was to climb for as long as I could.  I have had to scale back, no more with the harness, (it didn't fit after a while anyway) I was also such and un-reliable partner.  I couldn't schedule when I would feel up to climbing, so it worked out best when I would go alone.  I really love climbing in The Cave, but overhang problems got harder and harder as my belly grew since my ab strength was going.  So I would just do some easy bouldering, but felt uncomfortable making big moves...so I stuck to traversing.  I decided this would be a good time to work on technique  not strength or crazy moves!  My feet had gotten really sloppy too, so this was a good time to work on them.

So far I'm still able to climb about once a week.  I go early before too many people get there, so I don't get in the way.  I'll try to keep going.  Well until September...I did suspend my membership for a month!  Here's hoping to at least one more climb before the little one arrives!

 

Bump!

My Pets

I have been home and able to spend all day with my pets.  They are so cute...all day long.

Olivia loves sitting in the garden all day.

She will move from char to chair following the birds and the shadows.

Sometimes they can be in the same space!

All I want is Kiko to wear a birthday hat...all day every day.

This makes me so happy!

Kiko is hard to take photos of, she will never sit still, but I guess she will stare at herself in the mirror...I took advantage!

I think Olivia loves taking Glamour shots.

At night I walk Batman.

Baby Moles

One of the things that happens when your pregnant, is that your moles can get darker, or you can get new ones.  I have had this one on my heel, but it's a bit darker now.  I love how it's ring on the center back of my heel.

This one was a surprise!  I found it when I was rock climbing one day.  It's hidden right at the base of my toe.  So cute!

I have one at the tip of the nose of my Montana Tattoo that is getting darker too.

I have one on my belly above my belly button. It's getting a little bigger and a little darker.  But it's not centered!  Or rather I think my belly button is a little off centered. 

I

Melanie is Here...and 30!

Birthday's?  I love them!  This year is no exception.  The girls at work were super sweet.  We had a pizza party and they even got me a cake!  Thumbs up!

Andy got me a dozen balloons.  So much better than a dozen roses!  It helped us keep track of Kiko throughout the night.

I set up a photo booth.

I think it worked out OK.

It was such a great day.

The night was filled with smiles and balloons.

Adventure Time with Melanie and Jurine!

!

I went to Arkansas to see Jeri and Steve.  It was so great!  Monday the 2nd of April Jeri and I went to The Cosmic Cavern.  It was a limestone cave in the Ozark Mountains.  The cave was far from pristine.   There was a lot of Quartz mining, and when the cave first opened, they would burn tires to smoke out the bats!  So there was a lot of black soot on the walls too.  But there was a lot of cave to explore! 

 All cave photos look the same to me, It's hard to tell the scale of things.  In this particular cave after hours you could come back and go on a "wild cave tour" you would have your own miners lamp and you needed to be prepared to get muddy!  You got to explore the un-developed parts of the cave.  So cool!  Maybe next time.

After the cave we went and had an awesome lunch in Eureka Springs.  We both had Avocado sandwiches with sprouts, and lots of other veggies.  It was so great! Then we hit some really tacky gift shops and headed home and the twisty windy roads of the Ozark Mountains.

Cottey College; Founders Weekend 2012

The first weekend in April I made the trek to Nevada Missouri to Cottey College for Founder weekend 2012. It was my 10 year reunion.  I have been looking forward to going for....I want to say 10 years, but it was probably more like 5.

There were so many great friends there.  It was so great to see them.  The thing that hit me the most was that when we went on a tour of the dorms...they smelled the same.  The suites, and especially the kitchen.  It was nice to know that we did not stink it up when we were there, it was just part of the building.  Somehow it felt as though we just came back from  break, but all of us had new lives, that didn't break our connection to each other or the college.

When I was a student and Founders weekend came along it was so overwhelming all these women coming back, telling stories of when they were at Cottey.  It really felt like I was a part of this very very special group of women, and I was so proud!  That feeling was present at this Founders as well.  As I saw the classes that came after me, I hoped that they felt it too.  I don't think you need to spend much time at Cottey to know how special  place it is.

All the ingredients are there; The PEO support, the location, the spirit all make this unique college what it is.  I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The weekend flew by.  I took my Time-Laps camera and made a video of the weekend.  I like to think I captured the time passing quite accurately.

Surprising the Pickle

Caroline (far left) and I both found out we were pregnant on the same day.  We decided to revel the news together while we were taking a photo.

It was a lovely day and the pieces all fell into place.  We all walked down to Wedge and Fig and had lunch.  Andy and Jules were able to join us (photo takers!)  Since it was so nice and sunny, it was not hard to convince the girls that we should take a group photo in front of some daffodils.
 
  Jules started taking photos, after a few I said, "Caroline is pregnant"...no reaction.  Then Caroline said, "Melanie is pregnant too"... no reaction. I asked Caroline, "Why don't they believe us?" Caroline Answered, "I don't know"  Then Reesha chimed in, "They are not kidding!"

Then they started to get it...Kelly kept looking back and forth at both of us, Carrie Ann started asking, "Seriously? Seriously?"

Jules was able to capture it so great!

I did take a bit for it to hit everyone.  Caroline is due 5 days after me!  So crazy.  The girls are pretty excited for both of us!

Surprise we are Pregnant BBQ!

To announce that we were expecting we invited our friends to a BBQ party we called:

MEAT + 1

We told our friends we wanted to kick off the spring right with a good old fashioned Meat Party, Where meat is the main attraction.  The + 1 was explained away by telling our guests to bring a + 1.  Bring a dish to share and a friend!

It worked great!  They didn't suspect a thing!  To capture the fun we had our friend Deb come over first to take photos of  us breaking the news.  So of course, Deb was first:

 Erin made my favorite face ever!

These guys didn't even crack. 

 I asked Adam if he brought buns to the BBQ,

 Since he didn't I told him it was OK,

I had one in my oven.

 Part of the fun was timing our reactions with our friends!

 Oh Brothers who make the same surprised face.

 Charlie was the sweetest!  His girlfriend knew for months and didn't tell him!

  Proof that Katelyn CAN keep a secret!

 YAY!

So fun.