Winter in Minnesota

Well, everybody has been requesting pictures of two things. First, everyone wants to see photographic proof of Jared's svelte new look. Second, everyone has wanted to see post-blizzard pictures. Look no further. Below is a picture of Jared shoveling snow tonight. We got another 6" or so today, after the 17" last weekend (the 5th biggest Minnesota snowstorm ever). That brings the year's total so far to something like three feet.

So, it's so far away you can't see Jared's hot new bod, but you get the idea. Notice that the snow pile in our driveway is already taller than he is.

The sad thing is, if you look at your calendar you will notice that today is - the first day of winter.

I'm Going to Need a New Wardrobe

Last night I was on the phone with a friend, and I told him that I could only talk for a few minutes because I was going to the gym. He said: "You?! Going to the gym?! Is that a restaurant?" After such an unwarranted slander, I thought it was time to break the news to him (and the rest of you). As of this morning, I have lost 50 pounds. I started on September 13th with a diet consisting of the lowest amount of calories that an active adult male can safely eat, and combined that with exercise.

Things went pretty smoothly (although my coworkers have complained that not eating much sugar has caused irritability and decreased mental acuity). I only hit two snags. First, there was the time when, after about 6 weeks of impeccable diet and exercise adherence, I got the bright idea to have a "free day," where I would be allowed to eat whatever I wanted for a whole day. I went to McDonald's for lunch, and ate two McRibs, a large fry, and a large coke (and possible two apple pies - it's a little hazy). How the normal stomach can handle a meal like that is beyond me, but a - shall we say - "unprepared" stomach can not handle that. The meal spent a grand total of 15 minutes in my body doing its Monaco Grand Prix impersonation before it was expurgated with extreme prejudice.

The second snag was when, because my diet had changed, I had some heartburn. I went to the hall closet to take what I thought were some old antacid pills. I was accustomed to taking three of these pills back when I used to use this medicine regularly. To my everlasting regret, I did not read the pills or the blister carefully, and ended up taking a triple dose of a medication marketed in Canada as The Magic Bullet - used to clear one's, uh, "system" prior to surgery. For close to a week, Kate kept calling our upstairs privy "Ground Zero." These snags, needless to say, completely disrupted my capacity for diet and exercise

Anyway, despite the brief interruptions, today I reached my goal. That's right - 50 pounds in 90 days. (I weigh roughly what I did when I got married). Kate was going to blog about it to brag on me, but I was wearing a tight shirt and she was so distracted she couldn't type. I was going to post a photo, but I got all my shirtless shots mixed up with some pictures of Matthew McConaughey and now I can't tell them apart. I'm pretty sure this one is me though.

I'm glad it's such a good look for me. Turns out I'm going to be going shirtless for a while, because now I don't have any clothes.

Jared Morton

Out with it!

So, you may have noticed I have all but stopped blogging lately, and in part it is because I didn't know if I could keep my secret if I was posting, I guess. Well, it's time to officially tell you all that I'm pregnant!!

I had wanted to wait to tell for a number of reasons this time around--I wanted to tell you all in person, well, on the phone first, or I wanted to craft some super clever post, but just haven't been up for that. Plus I wanted to wait till I had at least been to the doctor, plus I've been kind of nervous to tell I guess. I don't know why, but I've just been nervous this whole time. I guess just already having 2 healthy kids makes you feel due for something. The biggest thing that has probably really kept me from doing it is that I just fall asleep every spare minute, so a lot of things have not been getting done.

Anyway, many/most of you know that we have tried for quite a while (2+) years this time, so we feel very excited that it has finally happened. As one who struggles to get pregnant sometimes (Sara snuck in very quickly and quietly!), I feel very acutely the pain of those who desperately want children, but just can't seem to get them here. (Not that I am trying to compare my situation to the many others that have it much worse.) That is another thing that makes me hesitant to announce our happy news--I know it can hurt some others in a way, I guess. For anyone in that situation, I hope and pray the best for you!

However, I know there are many that want to know the details, and for our own family history, I want to share them, so here goes! I'm still only 12 weeks, but at my appointment at 10 weeks, they could find the heartbeat loud and clear, so that was really fun (they weren't sure if they'd be able to through my scar tissue). However, after that appointment, the fun began. There was quite a bit of bleeding--probably from the internal exam, but still I was pretty freaked out, and of course it was a weekend, so they weren't in the regular office, and ya-da, ya-da, the doc on call wanted me on bed rest for a few days and to take it easy until that stopped completely. So, that wasn't too fun, and of course I started thinking of all the worst case things, but then that Monday morning I went back in and they could still find the heartbeat, just perfect. Whew.

Other than that drama, I've been pretty lucky so far. At least I feel like I should say that. I don't want to complain, especially after wanting to be pregnant for so long, but there are parts of it that are just not so blissful! I haven't thrown up at all, but I've felt on the verge of it pretty much 24/7, but I'm really hoping that will go away now that I'm passing that 12 week mark, but it hasn't quite yet. Still gag every teeth brushing, cough, and sneeze. Food has kind of been a problem. Nothing sounds good, more like most things sound aversive, but of course if I don't eat, that's somehow worse. I've had a lot of bread and butter and mild kind of stuff. I had Chinese one day and it almost killed me. Panera is what I've been craving most days. YUM!!

I guess the only other big thing is that I am just so tired! I wouldn't trade that for anything right now, but still, I feel like I can't quite get all the things done that I need to. But, I can put a lot of things on the back burner to cook a baby, so really, I am not complaining!!

Jared is super excited, and has really been great. He totally took over Thanksgiving, and I didn't do any of it. I'll have to post more about that delish menu in another post about the other things that we've done lately, but suffice it to say, look up Emeril's Gold Brick Chocolate Pecan pie and make it if you want something divine (even without the edible gold leaf).

We told the kids, and they didn't believe us at first. Well, I should specify that they didn't believe when Jared told them--smart kids! They are very excited, and have both put their orders in for what they want. Of course John wants a "boy baby" and Sara a "girl baby." I think it will be a girl, but I have been wrong both other times, so I probably should start looking for boy stuff. Anyway, we're thrilled and can't wait for June!

Oh, yeah, the due date is June 12th, and since it will be a C-section, the typical is to do that a week early, so the birthday could be 6/5/2011. Kind of cool, huh? It's a Sunday, so I don't know if they'll schedule it that day, but anyway, it will probably be very close to that.

So, that's the news and the explanation for why I've been MIA. I'll try to rejoin the blogging club!

Fall Break--Zoo Babies

We just started back up at school after a two week hiatus. We had a lot of fun crammed in there, and I'm trying to decide how many pictures to post in this post. I'm thinking just from the zoo day, although I still have lots of others to get up here, too. We went with some of our friends from John's school, and these little ones just have the best time together (and we moms chat for hours every time we get together, so I guess we have a little bit of fun, too).

What am I writing all this for? Zoo pictures are pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!

Oh, hey, Mom--notice that Sara is wearing the pants you gave her? SO cute!

John and Alex spent several minutes trying to decide if these alligators were real, because they were so still. Good way to get boys to hold still, too! :o)



In the wolf area: I assume they want the kids to climb on this? Who knows!







And in this picture, that is a real wolf showing between the kids...pretty cool!


In this picture, John is climbing up this fake rock thing that I don't think they really intended for this use, but the kids had a ball with this, although they got a little nervous, too!







How cute is this next one? It's like a Sea World ad...love the obvious wonder and amazement!

It's hard to tell, but John liked having this shark get so close...

In the time we were at this hands-on exhibit, two kids went in the drink, and evidently it happens all the time! I was trying to keep a tight grip on my monkeys--didn't think they'd want to fall in with the sting rays and little sharks, but they loved touching them!




They couldn't hold this next pose for long:

We stayed a few minutes longer than the others and played on this playground:
nothing like a giant mosquito!

or a spider's web!
And then I tried to take some nice pictures, but shouldn't have given him gum...






I really like these last ones in black and white:


Anyway, it was an awesome day at the zoo! Thanks Tonya and Wendy!

Anniversaries, Birthdays, and Holidays with Visitors!

Quick Re-Cap of the last month or so...The above flowers (so beautiful!!) were a part of the many surprises Jared gave me on our anniversary. 9 big ones for us. Man! Anyway, he was very sweet and had the flowers for me in the morning (which the kids had helped him pick out, so they LOVED this little secret). Then, when he came home from work, he surprised me with a night out to a Greek restaurant (YUM!!) and a movie, and had even arranged a babysitter!! I was so surprised, and it was a great day! Love you, Babe!

The next pictures are from a cute little museum we went to with some friends...they spent most of their time with these awesome blocks building away. Such teamwork!







The next pictures are from our fun Labor Day weekend. Jared's parents flew out to spend the weekend, so we tried to do all of the Twin Cities in just a few days and had a great time! They were very good sports about all the running around, and I seemed to be the only one that kept wanting to get some food at some point. Call me crazy, but the food is always the best part, right? Anyway, this is the state capital we toured around after we had already toured a historic mansion (I didn't take any pix in there). There were several memorials on the grounds and we were all quite impressed.



But Sara was bored, so she confiscated the camera and took this...



We all loved this WWII gun that was from a ship in Pearl Harbor if I was paying attention, and I don't guarantee that I was!


We also took them to Minnehaha Falls, which we've had fun visiting a few times.


And, of course, the Mall of America!!



The next day after church, we went to show them some more of the downtown, and had a good time watching this lock on the river. Now Jared wants to go through in his float tube. Hmm.






And Sara took the camera again. I guess she told Grandpa to smile, so he did, and she said, "Not like that!" What tact! Grandpa thought it was pretty funny, though! The kids had such a ball chatting their ears off, and Jared and had fun letting them ride with G and G. Our ride was so quiet! :o)

We ended the whirlwind trip taking them canoeing on Monday, and I didn't dare take my camera--have you met my husband? I thought we'd be in the drink for sure, but we actually didn't tip. Anyway, I think we all had a fun time, even though it started to drizzle about half way through and then really rained right as we were finishing, so that was quite, uh, memorable, which is code for cold! But it was fun anyway! Thanks for coming out, Mom and Dad!

So the next pictures are from John's big day--my baby is 6! We gave him a scooter, soccer stuff, an R/C car, and Sara picked a new bat for him. He still won't brave the scooter and bike too often, but we're working on it.

His other big surprise was to get picked up from school by Dad and taken to the Mall of America to ride the rides! We hadn't done any before, and they rode all but one that they wouldn't let him on. Now this, he really did brave! He loved all of it. After they had been there a while, Sara and I wanted to come check it out, so we took a few shots...


Yes, this is them...



And the goods from G and G Morton...books and a dinosaur quiz game that they both totally aced! Even though he's not so into dinosaurs anymore, they still both know a ton of dino-trivia. Cute!


And this is the poster he made for the school's "Be the One to Stop Bullying" contest. How cute is this?

And for my big 3-0, I wanted to go downtown to the Foshay Tower observation deck, which used to be the tallest building in the area for a long time. Anyway, it was so fun, but a little unnerving even though it was only 30 something stories. I also wanted to go to Punch Pizza, which is HEAVEN, so that was just a perfect day! John and Sara wanted to get flowers for me, so I've been so spoiled by flowers lately! Oh, and they had to buy a new vase, because I dropped the other beautiful crystal one when I cleaned it out from the anniversary flowers. That was very sad (and painful--I got several small cuts on my hands and one pretty big gash!), so I'm paranoid now! Anyway, here are the pictures:

The Foshay Tower is modeled after the Washington Monument...






And now, finally to John's birthday party! There were lots of cute pictures, but with lots of little kidlets in them, so I'll have to check with Moms about posting them or edit them out. Anyway, here is one of the pictures John drew to use as a decoration. Seriously, he drew this! By himself. We went with a Star Wars theme, which he is just diving into and loving, so it's been kind of fun.

We had Jedi training, and they had to race little Star Wars skateboards (the current McD toy) down these rain gutters, because Jedis have to be fast. We did three legged races and bean bag tosses, because they have to work together! Then we also did light saber training and shoot the storm trooper. So funny! I definitely need to edit more pix so I can post them!

And we had corn dogs because they look like light sabers. And we got cool popsicles (again, think Light Sabers) instead of cake, so we had to put the candles in the corn dog!



So, that gets things pretty much up to date! Anyone still reading this? :o)