Almost Father's Day + New Bookshelf

This year was Kyle's first "Almost Father's Day!" I know that he'll be an absolutely fantastic dad to our little pod.

Since this man loves a good pizza, the fetus and I figured we'd buy him some cool tools to whip up some tastiness whenever he wanted: pizza stone, pizza peel and cookbook. Who am I kidding? I quickly realized while he was opening his gifts that those gifts weren't really for him—they were for me. I must've been hungry for artisan pizza when I ordered them because there are a ton of other gifts I'm sure he'd rather receive. Wow, I'm such an awesome gift-giver, but at least he pretended to be delighted. Do I get partial credit for not just simply buying him socks?

38 weeks along in this pic and so excited to eat some of that gourmet goodness! Hopefully we'll see the little babe soon...her due date is this Saturday, but who knows when she'll actually come. Hurry little one, we want to snuggle you!

On an exciting note for me...Kyle slaved many a night building me this monstrosity of a bookshelf—its made from solid oak and 8 feet tall! Woohoo! I'm so proud of him and so excited to welcome this much needed new piece of furniture into my studio to hold my plethora of books. Hmm. I could use another one for the other side of the window...

3 Weeks To Go!

With all of this Arkansas heat, we tend to drink a lot of water these days. I try to keep hydrated by drinking a glass of water per hour if I can remember. Thus far the babe and I have been healthy and strong...and gaining lots of wondrous weight. It will be so much fun trying to loose it all after this little darling comes into the world.

{Week 33}
I had been trail running in my favorite Vibram 5 Finger shoes well into my 7th month, but then eased off and have only been hiking and walking during my 8th and 9th month.

I'm simply aching to run again—once I have this little bundle of joy, I believe I will treat myself to Merrell's new Minimalist running shoes or New Balance's Minimus.

After our lovely hike at Devil's Den State Park, we thought we'd hit up the local theater. Though I don't particularly care to go to the movies—I prefer my clean sofa to snuggle up on and being able to pause the flick if I so desire—we decided to catch one more film before the little one arrives. Here we are shoving burritos in Kyle's pockets. So sneaky, but we were hungry!

{Week 36}
I still haven't bought any maternity clothes! Only 3 weeks to go—let's see how far I can get before I start wearing sheets with cutouts for neckholes and armholes...of course I'll be sure to belt it nicely.

These days, little Nel especially likes to tuck her feet up and press firmly on my ribs, which is a constant treat. Nothing like a little daily pain. But she's just so adorable, I couldn't possibly be upset about it.

At the rate that I post, the next one will most likely include images and updates on our newest addition! Woohoo!

Kyle's 1st UltraMarathon!

April 16th was the big day: the Ouachita 50K Trail Race. That converts to 31.07 miles for us Americans.

The race began at 6 am while it was still dark out and there were some re-fueling stations but most people brought there own camel-backs or water bottles for the 6 or so miles in between each station.

Above is a graph of the elevation of the race. The 50 km course has a total of 4175 feet of up and down (and yes, many people got lost at least a time or two on in the middle of the forest).
One leg of the race—at about mile 3—included the dreaded Pinnacle Hill (yes, that part of the graph that quickly escalates from 300 feet elevation to 950 feet elevation). You have to essentially boulder up this mountain of sheer incline up 950+ feet and then climb down the other side. What a nice way to warm up those muscles which still have over a marathon to run!

The video below shows the geography of the race. Its rather unnecessarily long, but check out that mountain!



Here he is receiving his medal by a lady in bunny ears, of course. Such a grueling race but so worth it (so he says) after putting in endless hours of training, running marathons on our treadmill, and fueling like a champ, this man certainly deserved the fabulous long-sleeved technical T-shirt and Arkansas-shaped medal for all of his hard work.

I'm so proud of him! Cutest ultra-marathoner ever! I made him pose at home for this shot so I could get a pic of him in all his gear. Next on his list is the 50-Mile Trail Race. I'm thinking I'll just start with a 25K after our little babe is born and he can sport the "Pro Almira" shirt.

Week 25 & 27...

I'm not a big fan of documenting the pregnancy bump—its a little weird to put up pictures of my expanding self—if I had my way, I would just post a picture of the adorable little babe and say "Surprise!" However, I doubt friends or family would really appreciate that, so since I am documenting a little here and there, I rather wish I would've done all our pics a more mug-shot profile manner so I could compare, but alas, I didn't, so here are some updates.

{Week 25. Compared to a robin's egg—for educational purposes only}

{Week 27. Some lady in the grocery story told me it was unusual for me to carry my baby so high and be having a girl. Apparently as the old wives tale goes, if you carry your baby "high", you're having a boy...I seem to be an exception to that rule. I suppose we got a new-hire stork.}

We're Having a Chick + Babymoon

Yes, the rumors are true: we're having a little girl hatchling...and if you're reading this, you probably already know that. Expected due date is July 2nd, but who knows. Word on the street is that with your first pregnancy the little babe can be 2 weeks early or 2 weeks late or maybe it will just camp out in there for life if the quarters are hospitable enough.

Below is baby Nel's first photo. I can't be sure if she's daintily waving for the camera or holding an imaginary bottle. Either way, she's hilarious.

Kyle took me in January to L.A. for our Babymoon/my birthday and we got tickets to be contestants on the Price Is Right (a Kyle "Bucket List" item)—no, sadly we were not picked, but I wasn't willing to risk pre-term labor to run around giving everyone high-fives (personally, I refuse to give high-fives on most occasions anyway) and being crazy for 4 hours, so we'll have to take another stab at it again sometime I suppose. The main takeaway: Drew Carey needs to put some weight back on. Its not a good look for him.

I had a video, but sadly it won't show up. Boo.

Kyle and Neil playing at the pier. Adorableness at its finest.

Enjoying some shopping in the delightful Santa Monica winter weather.

Alisa, here are a couple of promised preggers photos. I need a better profile shot, but Kyle took a couple while I was getting ready for a YW event. More to come...

— Week 18 —

— Week 23 —

Pretty big difference between me trying to make my baby bump show at week 18 versus week 23 and trying to minimize it with black.

I waited so long to show so that I could get out of the "chubby phase" of pregnancy and now I'm thinking, "Good, let's leave it at this size." I can't make it through the one side of our french doors sideways anymore—Kyle woke up to me yelping after a failed attempt to sneak through them in the middle of the night. Looks like I'm a wide load these days, and just when I think I couldn't get any bigger, I realize that the math says otherwise as I'm only a little over halfway.

The New Abode

We're home owners! Does this mean an end to our nomadic lifestyle? For a while perhaps...

Our new casa interior needs some updating—its not necessarily outdated, just not my style. We need to paint, redo floors, change out lighting fixtures and actually decorate, but that aside, the structure is good. We also have a neighborhood saline pool (salt water is so much better than chlorine)! The house is about 4 years old and we're proud to call it our own! We have a little plot of land (about a 1/4 acre) and I can't wait to start my garden next year...Japanese Beetles and exhaustive heat willing. Oh, and another fun thing is our landscape...we'll have to dig out and replace about 10+ trees and bushes because the previous owner did not water them while the house was for sale, and they died a painful death of dehydration. Yay, more projects.

I have two favorite things about owning a home:

#1: we have our own washer and dryer and it doesn't matter if I want to do laundry at 2 in the morning—it won't wake anyone up and I won't find cat hair on my clothes afterward or have to worry about some stranger touching my clothes.

#2: I can't hear my neighbors and they can't hear me...and I don't receive notes on my door saying "Please go outside and enjoy the fall leaves because you're walking too loudly on the floor." I can actually run around my house and do jumping jacks if I want!...and I do.

#3: A yard! I can finally plant my own little garden!

Here she is: 3 Bedroom, 2 1/2 Bathrooms + Studio...and 3 car garage. Our little white car just wouldn't accept anything less, she's so finicky about having lots of space to herself.
Entryway...Formal dining room. Finally a room that fits our monstrous table...barely.
My atelier is nice and roomy with that perfect constant northern sunlight.
The eatery. This is where the magical food creations begin. One thing we didn't thing about was having to buy all new appliances. We actually got a stellar deal on a scratch and dent Samsung refrigerator that we love! The casual dining area is partially shown. We still need to buy a breakfast table for that, but for now its just an empty space where I sit my growing wheatgrass down to capture some sun.

Hooray for dual sink bathrooms, or the "Marriage Saver" as some realtors call it.

Oddly enough, there isn't a picture of the living room? I'll have to add one later.

So that's a wrap. If you're ever in the neighborhood (though I doubt Arkansas is on the list of places you'd like to visit this year), you can always stay in our "sparest of spare rooms" (sorry, Anne of Green Gables applies to everything) and sleep on our "luxury air mattress".

I'll add more pics as we update our darling little house!

Kyle's MBA Graduation

We've been in Bentonville, AR for 7 months now—time flies! Kyle graduated with his MBA from the A.C. Nielsen Center at the University of Wisconsin. I'm thoroughly proud of him. He landed his Marketing Research dream job and here we are.

We bought a house! However, it isn't fixed it up yet. I still have to paint the entire house from top to bottom, replace some flooring and actually hang pictures for once. I make it a point to never put any nails in the walls for fear of loosing our deposit because we've only rented until now and moved so much. We've moved 8 times in our marriage of 4 years! I know its hard to keep track of where we are, so here's a re-cap:

Our Nomadic Timeline (I'll have to make this into an infographic at some point)

Alpharetta, GA — Alpharetta, GA — Sarapiqui, Costa Rica — Alpharetta, GA — Madison, WI — Chicago, IL — Madison, WI — Bentonville, AR...

Without further adieu, the graduation pictures...

MBA Class of 2010! Woot!

Apparently one of the professors always does this weird thing with his hand on his head and they're poking a little fun—imitation is the purest form of flattery right?


Kyle's parents and sister came for the occasion. They had the privilege of sleeping on our "luxury air mattress" for a few nights, but despite cramped quarters and only one loo, we had a lot of fun!

We were able to introduce them to one of Madison's jewels: Stella's Bakery and their Spicy Cheese Bread...I could really go for some of that right now. Hmm...I think I'm going to have to create a Visit Madison Guide Book with all the things that we loved about it there and will certainly miss!

Next up...Our New House!