The Life of Marye and Ben

Legislators love to leave lots of important business until the very end of the legislative session, so we are working long and hard hours right up until the constitutionally-mandated adjournment date of May 19th. Fortunately, at least for me, the extremely late nights (10 pm or later) have been relatively few and no weekend (yet).

Here are a few (non-work related) highlights of the past few weeks:

We (OK, I mean Ben) started painting the nursery last weekend. The old paint was cracking in several spots, so Ben had worked hard to scrape as much of it as he could. He applied two layers of primer last weekend and it looks pretty good. Weather permitting, he is hoping to put a nice coat of green paint on this weekend. We went to Menards last night and picked up a bunch of samples, now we just need to pick!

I had a great birthday party out at my mom’s house a few weeks ago (I celebrated my “golden” b-day on April 30th). Tim, Elizabeth, Megan, Darryn, Liz, and Paul joined us for the festivities, which included a delicious meal prepared by my mom. 30 is great so far!

I also headed out to the eastern edge of Woodbury, and the home of Marit and Mark Sullivan, for a baby shower hosted by my former co-workers from the Dayton office. We enjoyed home-made pizzas, and a hilarious game prepared by Marit that involved identifying melted chocolate bars in diapers. They also each gave us their favorite children’s book, so we now have the start of a great collection for the baby! Speaking of which…my belly is getting big! I’ll try to post a current picture soon. I think the little one is getting close to 3 pounds and he/she definitely makes their presence known. I can’t believe I only have about 2 1/2 months to go.

I also received a jury duty summons in the mail recently. It was especially hilarious because I had literally said the day before it arrived that I thought jury duty would be kind of fun. Be careful what you wish for! My start date is June 9th. We’ll see if they pick a very pregnant woman to serve on an actual jury!

Exactly two weeks from today Ben and I will be on our way to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for Kofi and Kate’s wedding. I am so excited! We will be spending 5 days in a beautiful, all-inclusive resort with swimming pools, beaches, and lots of friends.

I’m sure there are other events from the past few weeks that I am forgetting, but my stomach is rumbling and I need to go get my lunch.

Now that the winter season appears to really and truly be over, Ben and I are excited to do more biking. We went for a nice ride about 10 days ago from our house, down the Greenway, to the Lakes, and back along the Minnehaha Creek. It was my first time riding over the new Sabo Bridge (across Highway 55 on the Greenway). It’s a beautiful bridge.

Last night, we joined John & Jo and Tim & Elizabeth at It’s Greek to Me to celebrate John’s 30th birthday. Getting to Uptown from our house is always kind of a hassle by car, so we decided to ride the cruisers down the Greenway. It was a beautiful ride and, as a bonus, we had the wind in our backs on the way home. So much more relaxing than driving!
I was just perusing the Strib online this morning and read an article about a $900,000 grant that the city of Minneapolis received to promote non-motorized transportation. They will be using the bulk of the funds to improve cycling trails, install bike racks, and start a “all-about-bikes” center at the Midtown building. The center will include bicycle storage, showers, rentals, and repair.

In other news, Ben is having his wisdom teeth removed tomorrow. Not fun for him. I’ll be doing my best to take care of him–which, in my experience, mostly means leaving him alone (and, in this case, maybe getting him a smoothie or bowl of ice cream once in a while!).

Last night, Ben and I both remarked that this past weekend was really wonderful.  It wasn’t really spectacular for any one reason, but, after a hectic, busy week at work, it was great to have two full days of fun and relaxation.

For me, it started on Friday evening when I got home from work.  Ben, Tim, Elizabeth, and Paul were gathered at our house and Ben was cooking a Mexican barley hotdish.  We ate the meal, which was delicious, and then played an exciting game of Settlers of Catan.  Tim threatened to pull off his first ever victory, but I spoiled his fun with a stealth win.  Then, we headed to the Groveland Tap for $2.25 pints of Summit and baskets of fries.  They were salty, but super delicious (the fries that is, not the beer).

On Saturday morning, I did some quality catching up on my newspaper reading while we enjoyed a nice, long breakfast.  Shortly after noon, we got in the car and started the beautiful drive down to Wabasha in northeastern Minnesota.  The sun was streaming in through the car windows and it is truly a miracle that I didn’t nap the entire way down.  We talked to whole way and the drive, about an hour and a half, was over in what seemed like a matter of minutes.  The purpose of the trip was to visit Ben’s grandma, who was recently in the hospital with pneumonia.  She is back at home in the nursing facility now and, thankfully, doing much better.  She is still weak, but we enjoyed visiting with her for about two and half hours.  She is on the best conversationalists I have ever met.  She shared some great stories, and Ben and I brought her up to date on the latest baby news, our jobs, and the things we are looking forward to with the (eventual) coming of spring.  After the drive back, I checked a few things off of the to-do list at home, we enjoyed a low-key dinner, and then some March Madness on TV.

We headed to the home formerly known as Paul and Mary’s house, now just Paul’s house, on Sunday morning.  The guys went for a run, while I headed to A Baker’s Wife to buy sour cherry and cream cheese danishes.  We were enjoying these with some coffee when we noticed Megan and Darryn outside, returning for a foray to the coffee shop.  They joined us for a bit as well.  We spent the rest of the day doing some reading, running a few errands, and, in an unusual move for me, watching mindless TV shows.  It was a great way to end the weekend.

Equally great is the fact that my Monday wasn’t as hectic as I expected it to be.  The health care reform bill that makes up a significant part of my work these days had a committee hearing today, which didn’t take nearly as long as I expected it to.  In addition, in light of the snow storm, I decided to drive the city streets on the way home.  They were strangely deserted, which is even weirder in light of the fact that the highways were jam packed due to the weather and the Twins home opener.  I’ll take all of this good fortune for as long as I can get it!

I heard a rumor that spring started about 10 days ago, and that tomorrow is the first day of April.  Judging by the scene out our kitchen window, the weather gods in Minnesota must be a little confused.

Ben took this picture a few hours ago, and the snow has been falling steadily since that time.  I think there are probably 4-5 inches on the ground right now and it is still snowing. Plus, the wind has picked up a little, so things are swirling around nicely.  Nothing like a little blizzard to remind us that winter is not over yet.  Luckily, 50s are in the forecast for this weekend, so everything should melt in a few days.  Does that mean we don’t have to shovel tomorrow morning?

We had an excellent time down in Decorah for Spring Break 2008.  The weather was a little un-Spring Breaklike, with some snow and temperatures in the high 30s-low 40s, but we spent a lot of time outside and enjoyed Yarrow and Steve’s house with a wonderful fireplace in the living room.

The highlights of the trip included: walking around downtown Decorah, as a pack of 9, and visiting the Magpie for lunch, the bakery for snacks, and the co-op for sightseeing; the traditional evening meal at Sabor Latino Dos; live music by the band Music for Animals Saturday night, with the lead singer in some fantastic white short shorts; breakfast sandwiches on Sunday morning; and a huge snowball fight Sunday afternoon.

Here is a group photo, taken Sunday afternoon after the snowball fight:

I’m in the process of putting additional photos into the Gallery, including a great sequence of shots of each of us posing as outdoorsy models.

As promised, here is one of the pictures that we were given during our recent ultrasound appointment. I think the baby has my lips and Ben thinks it has his toes The quality of this jpeg isn’t as high as on the screen at the hospital, so you’ll have to take our word for it! The ultrasound was incredible, we spent close to an hour with the radiology tech as she moved the wand around, taking different pictures and measurements. My favorite parts were the constantly moving legs and the few times that we could see he/she open its mouth and move its hand towards it.

We had an appointment with our midwife last Friday and it was short and sweet.  The ultrasound report was brief and basically stated that everything looked normal and measured average.  They also measured my fundal height–basically the distance from the top of the uterus to the pubic bone–which was also right on schedule.  We got to hear the heart rate again, which was loud and steady.  It sounded more like galloping this time, last time we thought it sounded like a train.
We are going to Decorah this weekend to visit Yarrow and Steve for the annual Spring Break trip. I’m a little hesitant to admit this, but I’ll probably be taking the ultrasound pictures along to show them off!

I know, it’s not an excuse not to post a short update every week or so, but it has been a hectic time at the Capitol.  Our policy bill deadlines are looming and there is a frantic vibe hanging around our office complex.  I have been keeping up with the pace fairly well and, thankfully, my hours haven’t been too out of control.  Ben is keeping busy as well, he is involved in a project to review the proposals they received to recycle electronic waste.

We had brunch at a fun new place last weekend, Hot Plate.  We met a former coworker from the Dayton office, Jill, and her husband Sam.  I had a delicious omelette with bacon (yum!), mushrooms, and cheddar.  The room is decorated with a quirky retro vibe, and they have a small store in the basement selling everything you would expect to find in your grandparent’s attic.

Is anyone else looking forward to their portion of the economic stimulus package?  I figured I would do my duty as a (relatively recent) US citizen and spend it.  After all, I have plenty of baby items to purchase!  Ben has announced that he is spending his half on beer

We had the highly anticipated 20-week ultrasound this week and I am very happy to report that everything looks great.  The little rascal was dancing up a storm in there, but they managed to get all of the necessary pictures and measurements.  We have an appointment with the midwife tomorrow.  I’ll post a further update, along with an ultrasound picture, in the next few days.

We had a wonderful weekend Up North at North Haven. The temperatures were reasonable and the company was excellent. The cabin, North Haven, was more spacious than we were used to. The living space was beautiful, with awesome views of Lake Superior. Plus, the cabin had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It was missing a sauna, but that was the only complaint.

Tim, Elizabeth, Ben and I enjoyed two afternoons of skiing on Saturday and Sunday. We went to a groomed area near Lutsen on Saturday and skied about 13 kilometers. On Sunday we were more adventurous and we skied part of the Superior Hiking Trail that was not groomed. It was a little steep in some parts, but the views were awesome. We saw moose tracks the first day and wolf tracks on the second, but we didn’t spot any actual wildlife.

We ate a lot of good food. The seven of us actually polished off a pan of scotch-a-roos, a large Cafe Latte German Chocolate Cake, a boterkoek (buttery tart) that my mom made, as well as the breakfast and dinner feasts that we took turns making. Wow.

To relax, we played some games (Yahtzee and speed scrabble were popular, hide the mango was also fun), did some reading, and watched a DVD of Entourage episodes that Megan and Darryn brought along.

Ben and I slept in a downstairs bedroom and left the shades up so that we could enjoy the sun rise over the lake in the mornings. It was a great weekend. Here are two favorite pictures:

Ben on the cross country ski trail:

And a great group shot in the back yard of North Haven:

I put together a list of little projects that I want to finish before the baby arrives in late July. They mostly involve closet organization and sorting through some piles that I know contain items to throw away/donate. I also want to buy some new furniture for the porch. Of course, the best projects on the list involve the baby room. We are planning to move the guest room upstairs and create a nursery in the bedroom adjacent to our own room. Ben started this project two weeks ago when he moved the guest room furniture upstairs. We now have a beautiful empty room:

And an equally nice guest room upstairs. I think this space looks a lot bigger now that it has more furniture in it:

Ben and I are headed to the North Shore this weekend for the 4th annual cabin trip. We have stayed in Nordkapp, a cabin near Lutsen, in the past, but unfortunately it wasn’t available for our chosen dates. Instead, we will be staying in North Haven, which is near Schroeder (a little bit south of Lutsen). It will be a great weekend with the buddies (Tim & Elizabeth, Megan & Darryn, and Liz), with some cross country skiing, hiking, board games, and relaxing.

The amount of food that we typically bring to the cabin weekend is pretty amazing. We divide up the meals and everyone brings snacks and treats. Ben and I are fixing a breakfast that will consist of sandwiches (english muffins, egg, sausage patty, and cheese), potatoes, and some fruit. We are also bringing a Cafe Latte German Chocolate Cake. Yum. Other indulgences include chips (for the post exercising salt craving), scotch-a-roos (Megan will be fixing these), and some quality beer (well, for others, not me so much).

I’m sure there will be some great pictures to post next week!