Desert Hiking Fun…

These pictures are from our hikes the past couple of weeks. We went on The Lost Dog Trail and Pinnacle Peak. Hiking is like one of the few things free to do around here, so we usually go either on Tuesday or Saturday morning.

On top of Pinnacle Peak

These are the worst cactus, Jumping Cholla, i guess you touch them and they “shoot” out at you. Jacob likes to pretend to try touch cactus and I just know one of these days he’s going to get some stuck in his finger. 🙂

Near the bottom of Pinnacle Peak

The highest point for hikers on Pinnacle Peak.

On the Lost Dog Trail

My huge cactus

Jacob’s Huge Cactus

Baby Registry and 20 Weeks!

Click on the image above or click here to view our baby registry.

Before we left for Arizona my mom and I went to Babies R Us and registered. I must say that it was more fun registering for baby things than registering for our wedding three years ago. It was nice to have my mother there and between doing product research before hand and my mother’s opinion it made it not overwhelming, but fun.

We’ve had several people ask us if we’re registered anywhere or what we need. So, yes we’re registered at Babies R Us and we own a baby blanket (knitted by my great grandma) and a rattle given as an early baby gift so we need “everything.”  🙂 But really, we thought it would be a good idea to register since 1.) we’re in this awkward transition right now (not being near anyone we actually know well) so those who have asked can see what we need 2.) I’m a list maker, so this way we can put everything we will eventually need in one place and we get discounts by creating a registry 3.)  For the fun of it…most people only register for their first child so even if we don’t have any baby showers etc. we experienced the fun of registering.

20 WEEKS!

As many of you know this past Tuesday we had our gender ultrasound and we’re having a BOY! We both kind of thought it was a boy (not sure why though) now we just need to choose a name. They didn’t do a 3D ultrasound, but it was still cool. He was all curled up in there so she had to move him around so we could find out if he was a boy, but then he wouldn’t stop moving.

How far along: 20 weeks

Baby size: 12 oz at our ultrasound on Tuesday

Weight gain: about 8 lbs.

Belly button: In

Maternity clothes: I just started wearing a few maternity clothes, so a combination of both. I’m doing the whole rubber band on the shorts thing.

Names: not yet, it’s going to be tough.

Gender: BOY

Movement: I’m pretty sure I’ve felt it move, but it’s not very distinct yet.

Sleep: Just in the past two weeks it has gotten uncomfortable to sleep on my stomach. I didn’t realize how much I slept on my stomach before.

Food aversions: still spinach.

Food cravings: Pesto

Best moment this week: hitting the half way mark (the first half seemed to go by slowly)

What I miss: sleeping on my stomach and running

What I’m looking forward to: feeling more movement

Here’s a picture…

Camelback Mountain

 

We woke up at 4:30am Saturday morning to go hiking up Camelback Mountain. We haven’t adjusted to the time difference yet (and hope to keep it that way), so we’ve been waking up normally between 5 and 6am anyway. There was  a lot of people out on the trail already when we got there.

 

At the top…tired and sweaty. The climb was quite challenging. Going up was just tiring, but I didn’t like going down…kind of scary sometimes. Jake was totally fine though and we took it slow for me. 19 weeks pregnant in the picture below.

 

We saw a lizard.

The weather was very nice in the morning neither of us were overheated.

 

 

 

 

Go Make Art…

I was reading this post here and even though it was written to graduates I like what she says and it was a good reminder to me regarding our situation right now.

Make art with the way you live in your house until college starts – the way you hang out with your mom, the way you laugh at your dad instead of roll your eyes, the way you choose to listen to your baby sister who is going to miss you more than she can possibly put into words right now.

Whether you’re taking a gap year to work or travel or spend time with YWAM, make art with how you enter in – not like a tourist who watches from behind a camera lens and insists all of your usual comforts are close at hand. As best you can, enter in to your new situation ready to be creative and make art with the circumstance you are given no matter how crummy it might turn out to be.

If you’re headed off to college, be it close to home or a day away, make art in your dorm room – not just with how you decorate, but with how you exist with your roommate or suite mate or friends. Be curious. Be open. Hold fast to your confidence when you are among many but remember to share your vulnerability when you are among few.

Learn, not just from your professors, but from your classmates. Be slow to judge, slow to speak, slow to anger. Be quick to listen, quick to pray, quick to look for the hope in dark situations.

My current situation is that I’m here without a job. I’m going through several temp agencies and either noting has come up or the several possibilities that I’ve had have fallen through. So I wait. I’m not bored here, but feel kind of useless. I’ve been writing down positives of not having a job right now (making art in my current circumstances). For example, I can have dinner ready when Jacob gets home (that has never happened in our married life so far), I can do all the cleaning/laundering/keeping a clean house for Jacob to come home to, I won’t be exhausted, I can make Jacob’s lunch every morning since I’m home, I can exercise more, have more time to read and spend time in the Word… You all can be praying…

We went to the PCA church here in Scottsdale on Sunday. It’s easy to want to just be a fly on the fall in places like that since we’ll only be here for a few months, but that’s not making art is it? we’re going to Sunday School before the service this Sunday and see how that goes. People were very nice though.

Just my thoughts for the day…

A Little Tour of our Apartment

Enjoy a little tour of our apartment…

As you walk in the front door to your left is the kitchen. It’s the first time we’ve ever had a dishwasher and a full size stove/oven.

Then to your right is the dining/living room.

Pretty much straight from the front door is a small hallway with the laundry closet, 1st bathroom, and guest bedroom. Jacob has actually been using the spare bathroom because there’s more space and the shower head is higher. The spare room has kind of turned into our ironing room. 🙂

This is the best view from the guest room.

On the other side of the living room is our room with the attached bathroom and closet.

Our awesome walk in closet.

The complex is nice…there are three pools and a fitness room.

Wisconsin to Arizona

2,050 Miles in three days….

This is going to be a picture heavy post and most are taken from my car window, so the quality isn’t awesome.

We left Milwaukee Wednesday afternoon and drove to Austin, MN then Thursday bright and early our adventure began…

South Dakota…

 

We stopped at Mt. Rushmore because I had never seen it before. It was super windy there. Now I can say I’ve seen it.

 

Cheapest gas on our whole trip…Custer, SD.

Cool little tunnel

We stopped at Wall Drug. What a hick place…we weren’t there very long. I enjoyed the 500 billboards leading up to it though.

More Wall Drug

Wyoming…

Jacob took this picture (obviously), but Wyoming was boring, so boring that we drove on to Colorado to stay the night.

Colorado… 

Colorado was gorgeous driving through the mountains. We came across some snow.

Utah…

Jacob enjoyed the scenery of Utah the best.

Arizona…

We arrived in Arizona on Saturday afternoon to 104  degrees.

Some of our first Cactus sightings…

A few final Comments…

• As far as scenery goes, Jacob’s favorite state was Utah and mine was Colorado.
• We thought Wisconsin and Minnesota had a lot of land mass without civilization, but we were wrong. A large part of our country is a desolate barren wasteland. oh my goodness. Jacob says he understands now why they can do atomic weapon testing and no one can get hurt.
• We saw a coyote.
• Due to construction we got a chip in our windshield…how lovely. We’ll need to get that fixed soon.

I will update in the next few days with pictures of our apartment and Scottsdale comments.