My life is now complete (again)

You and I can both rest easy knowing that mathematicians have found the 46th known Mersenne prime number. We can rest uneasy knowing that $100,000 was given to the team who discovered it. One-hundred grand for discovering another number that is only divisible by one and itself?! I should have been a mathematician.

Seth's Mecca

So I finally talked Seth into taking one of his two weeks of vacation during the week of our anniversary (August 31), as a final pre-baby just-the-two-of-us time. (Thankfully, his work doesn't require that he use vacation weeks for his paternity leave, so he was able to free up his vacation weeks.)

We celebrated six wonderful years of marriage. While I was planning on doing many fun day trips to places around where we live, Seth decreed that we would stay home and get some work done around the house. And work he did. I, on the other hand, napped and got a prenatal massage at a salon in Cincinnati.

He settled for a short trip to Pittsburgh to visit some friends and tour the home of Big Ben and the rest of the Men of Steel. After spending the night at the home of Dave and Diane, we drove into Pittsburgh on Friday morning, in time for the 10:oo am tour of Seth's Mecca . . . Heinz Field.

Of course, the highlight of the tour was the trip through the Steelers Locker Room.


After touring the press box, the business suites, the locker rooms, the actual field, and the fan store (where we found somethings we thought Kieran might like to wear), we headed off to the Ducks Tour of Pittsburgh. This was then followed by a trip on the Duquesne Incline. It's one of the original 17 inclines that took the steel workers from their homes on top of the hill to their work in the factories along the rivers.

If you look closely, you can see the incline going up the side of the hill. This picture was taken from the Steelers stadium.

This is a close-up view of the incline from the station house.

And this is the view from the top of the hill overlooking the city of Pittsburgh (if you can see past the big belly!).

And this is Seth not enjoying having his picture taken so near the edge of the lookout area.

All in all, we had a lovely time visiting with our friends, as well as celebrating our anniversary. Now, on to having this baby. . . .

Ike and the Generator

Holler living has its blessings and curses. One of the blessings is that we live peacefully in the country, away from just about everything. We're at the end of a stony lane, cut off from most of civilization. One of the curses is that we live peacefully in the country, away from just about everything. We're at the end of a stony lane, cut off from most of civilization. This means we're the first ones to lose power when a storm comes through, and the last ones to have it restored.

I may have mentioned the time two winters ago when we were hit with an ice storm and were without power for 5 days. And earlier this summer, we lost power for a day and a half due to a particularly nasty thunderstorm. Through it all, I've been after Seth to find us a generator so that we can carry on with our lives whenever we're (inevitably) hit with another power failure. A few weeks ago, he finally ordered one and it arrived. And our chance to test its mettle came immediately. Or almost immediately.

This past Sunday, we were treated to the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Ike stormed through our area with wind gusts up to 75 mph, ripping up trees, tearing off shingles, and knocking the power out to over 600,000 homes in the tri-state area. Ours went out about 2 p.m.

After a few hours of twidling our thumbs, waiting to see how long we would be without the conveniences provided by eletricity, Seth broke out the new generator (after he ran to the store for a few more parts that he needed to make it work). And this time, we were sitting pretty while everyone else scrambled to find a place to store their freezer food. And, more importantly, Seth was able to watch the Steelers beat the Browns.

Although we live on wooded acreage, the area our house sits on is clear of trees, so we were thankfully spared from many branches and tree limbs ending up on or around the house. Seth found two shingles that had fallen, but that's about the extent of the damage to our area of the Holler (besides the whole no-electricty thing). We stocked up on gas (amazingly, there was -- and still is, in some areas -- a gas shortage in the area) and have been appreciating the blessings of a generator for the past three days.

And now I'm appreciating the blessings of a once-again quiet Holler as the generator was returned to its place in the barn after the power was restored this evening. There it will wait patiently until the next time its services are needed, which I'm anticipating won't be too far in the future (knowing the Holler as I do).

Glowing Trees in the Fall

Fall is coming to the Holler. I can smell it. And I can feel it in the cool chill the air has taken on in the evenings. I love autumn and the respite it brings from the summer heat.

I also love it when the trees glow as their leaves change. This is a picture of a glowing tree that friend Shari took several years ago. I've had a printout of it posted on my wall at work ever since. One of my favorite pictures ever. I'm looking forward to fall this year and hoping it will be a good one, despite the lack of rain we've had the past month or so. Hopefully many, many trees will glow like this, making the last month of the pregnancy that much nicer.

Things that Make Me Smile

Many, many years ago, I was reading a Family Circle magazine and stumbled upon a one-page list of "20 Things that Make Me Smile." Because (most of) the things on the list actually do make the corners of my mouth turn up, I ripped it out and have kept it on my wall at work. The list has grown a bit over the years as I've added to it, and I'm sure it will continue to grow as I stumble upon other things that cause me to exercise my facial muscles. For now, however, here's my list of 27 things that make smile.

1. Birthday cakes with icing roses
2. Geese flying in a V formation
3. A crisp fresh salad from my backyard garden
4. An unexpected hug
5. Zoos where animals roam free
6. Telling a joke and remembering the punch line
7. Drivers who let me merge
8. A full moon hung low in the sky
9. Fireflies in the night air
10. Old family portraits; new family portraits
11. Whimsical salt and pepper shakers
12. Neighborhood kids playing hopscotch
13. The dog greeting me at the door
14. Sunrise on the first day of summer vacation
15. The familiar chimes of the ice cream truck
16. Sunlight streaming through stained-glass windows
17. Babies making spit bubbles
18. A "real" person answering the phone
19. A stranger saying, "God bless you" when I sneeze
20. Solving the Sunday crossword puzzle
21. My husband
22. The first crocuses of spring
23. Glowing trees in the fall
24. Realizing Thanksgiving is not two days away--it's tomorrow
25. Mechanics who fix my tire for free
26. Sleeping in on Saturday mornings
27. Freshly mowed grass

So what's on your list?

Kieran Photos

One of the nice things about having placenta previa is that we've had more chances to check in on our growing baby. We've had four ultrasounds--the final one was last week. Seth wasn't able to be at last week's, but I don't think he was too disappointed since he's generally been frustrated at each viewing because he couldn't make head or tails (literally) of what the tech was pointing out. Though the ultrasounds were done so that the tech could get pictures of where the placenta was for the doctor, she also kindly printed out a few at each one for us, as well.

This is Kieran at 28 weeks, lying on his side with his little hand up over his head.

And this is him at 32 weeks, looking directly at his face. It seems, thankfully, that he has an entire face (thank you Discovery Channel for planting that worry in my head), and all his body parts.

Seth is anxiously awaiting the arrival of his boy so that he can have some play time with him. I'm anxiously awaiting his arrival so that I can wear normal clothes and get off our sofa without rolling around like a bowling ball again.

Bad Blogger

So, I've been a bad blogger lately. I know. I haven't blogged anything in a month. Bad blogger. But, in my defense, I've been a bit busy finishing up our VBS for 2009. I'm happy to say it's been sent off to the printers and will be available in January 2009. So, if you're in the market for a good VBS (if I do say so myself), check it out.

In other news, the pregnancy is going well. I had the last sonogram last week, and Kieran is a bit on the small side but the doctor wasn't worried. And the placenta has kindly moved out of the way, so that I no longer have placenta previa but a low-lying placenta. One less thing to worry about. The countdown continues--less than 8 weeks left until his projected arrival.

I'm thankful that the cooler day sof autumn seem to be on the way in and the hot days of summer seem to be on their way out. I'm also thankful for the little bit of rain that we got over the weekend that should help my garden finish strong this year.

I have lots more to say, so I'll attempt to be a bit more diligent in blogging. Happy trails!