the library

i actually ventured to our school library today to do some studying between class and work. i have about 3 hours between the two on tuesdays and usually just go home and chill. but, because of my easily distracted nature, i rarely get any school work done during this time. i usually straighten things up, watch something stupid on tv and take a little nap. the nap, i am actually sad to be missing, the other things-it's probably better for me to get some school work done. so, here i sit, in the wonderful library at denver seminary. it's actually a pretty huge place that is laid out in a nice way. there are tons of windows, so lots of sunlight coming in, which always makes a place more pleasant. i completed one of my papers, so i feel like i have made really good use of my time. now, i am going to meet a friend for lunch at panera and then head to work. (yah, right, like i could actually spend ALL 3 of those hours studying! ;))

pictures from last weekend!

Driving through the mountains on the way to Grand Junction-an absolutely gorgeous (even though quite scary at times, since the speed limit is quite high...) drive!
Driving through the Eisenhower Tunnel..it's a long tunnel and Ryan held his breath the whole way through! I was sure he was going to pass out....and yes, that is the driver's seat he is sitting in...
Nick attempted to hold his the whole way, too... but, to no avail. Poor Nick!
Dustin had Rock Band and the boys were SO into it...he got Rock Band 2 the second night we were there, so that gave them some new songs to try out! Notice the sweet hair doos!

They talked me into trying the game, so I picked the drums and it was insisted upon that I wear the hat with the mohawk....

Fun with the bobcat that Dustin had rented to work on his yard...
Dustin doesn't look scared, but he was holding pretty tightly to the barrel (or whatever that thing he's standing in is called) on the way up... looking a little green! During part of our time there, we went to a place which Dustin called "The Potholes". It's this place where these waterfalls and fallen into the same rocks for so long that these "potholes" have developed, where the water is pretty deep, though the hole is not too wide. The boys spent their time jumping into the freezing water, then climbing back up the rocks.. Too bad I'm preggo, or I would have been right there with them...unfortunately, I just had to sit in the sun and read.

First, after freaking out for a few minutes, Chad (Dustin's bro) jumped...

Then, in went Dustin...(notice me in the bottom left corner, looking a little tense. I'll be honest, it scared me..it looked like every one of them were going to crash into the rocks as they jumped in!) Then Ryan...

Finally Nick...

And there they are (minus Chad, who's taking the picture)

And that was our trip to Grand Junction..or at least, as far as the pictures go...

lately...

the past few days have been filled with a little bit of this and a little bit of that. over this past weekend, we drove across the state to visit one of ryan's bffs, dustin, who lives in grand junction. i was not looking forward to the trip (ryan, nick and i driving over to visit dustin and his brother chad), but it turned out to be lots of fun. they were very kind not to do anything i wasn't up for and we really enjoyed our visit. i will put up some pictures soon, hopefully. 

this week, we have mostly been schooling and working. tuesday, we went back to the doctor for another check up. i was hoping to get to see our little one again, so no ultrasound this time. the doctor did check the babies heartbeat which was like 175! insanely fast, but perfectly normal. we met with the actual doctor this time (we have met with the nurse practitioners before), and she was super helpful. they did talk me into getting my flu shot, which was a wee bit painful. actually, the shot wasn't bad at all, but after about an hour, my arm got really sore and stayed sore all day yesterday. i couldn't even sleep on my right side because it was so sore...but it's better now. and, hopefully no flu for me or the baby. the antibodies (i think) will actually travel thru the umbilical  cord and the baby will get the benefits of the shot, too. that way, when he/she is born, there won't be the chance of her getting the flu as a wee one. so, the pain was worth it. =) i was afraid i would get all flu-y from it (because i always do), but it hasn't been terrible. i didn't feel too hot this morning, so i skipped my class and have laid around all morning....and i feel better. sometimes, i just need some extra rest, it seems. so, i'm trying to embrace that (it's tough, though ;))! 

well, unfortunately, i need to run get ready for work. until next time...

Happy..

First day of fall!! And it's still in the 80s out here in CO! :/ Where's the snow already?!?!

i miss us being together!

to climb or to sweat?...that is the question!

So, ever since like 2 days into the whole pregnancy thing, two major things have changed about me... #1-i have to pee all the time. #2-my body temperature is even higher than before, so i get hot super easy. as you might imagine, one of these alone would get old pretty quickly...unfortunately, the combination of the two is almost too much sometimes. mainly, the problems begin to arise at night. i've always been a finicky sleeper-i like the temperature just right, but no air blowing directly on my body. in the great state of colorado, the weather has been pretty amazing lately, so we've just opened our windows at night and put our box fan in it-which cools off the room wonderfully...especially if you are sleeping on the window side of the room (which, i'll be straight with you, is the safe side of the room-the furtherist from the door (which, you know, is where the boogieman would come in if he were to come in-seeing as we live on the second floor, so the windows are not accessible to him)). but, the only problem with sleeping on the window side is that the bathroom is on the opposite side of the room. so, in order to get to the bathroom, if, say, one has to go in the middle of the night, is to climb over the person sleeping on that side of the bed and stumble into the bathroom. and that's a huge problem when the person on the other side of the bed is, like, a giant. for the first few weeks of the pregnancy, i did this-i slept on the window side (for the coolness) and climbed over the sleeping giant (who, unfortunately, i awoke) around 4 or 5 times a night when  i felt the need to pee.... but, after trying to step off the side of our bed + the height of ryan, which is around, i'm sure, 10 feet total, in the middle of the dark, dark night with no glasses on...well, i realized that was a little too dangerous for a clumsy pregnant woman to attempt. falling is just not an option these days! so, last week, i made the switch with ryan. i climbed into his side of the bed, determining that having the bathroom more easily accessible was a better option for me during this stage of my life. so, as it is, my giant of a husband (who always likes to sleep on his side) has turned into the great blocker-of-the-cool-air. sometime between the hours which we fall asleep and the hours in which we wake up, he turns into a huge wall that sucks up any cool air in the night.

deeper thinking

we went back to church this morning. we have missed it the past few weeks because i haven't been feeling top notch, but this morning, i felt much better. we went to a new church to hear one of our professors preach. ryan is taking this amazing philosophy class, it really touches a deep passion in him. he has been talking quite highly of his professor, so when he heard he was preaching at a church really near our house this morning, we decided to visit. it's always an interesting experience visiting a new church...as we were singing during the beginning of the service, i was reminded of something we have been talking about in our Old Testament class-God takes worship quite seriously. and, i don't think we take it near seriously enough. many times, i have found myself caught up in the music at church, not really (really) thinking about the words i was saying. so, this morning, i thought, "i really want to think deeply about this things. i don't want to come to church (and walk in life) and serve God only with my lips-i want my heart to be in this" so, i thought about what i was singing as i was singing it, and every now and then, when that strange line of a song would come up, i would just stop singing. you know the kind of line i'm talking about-the one that doesn't sound quite right, or that just seems to be in the song because it rhymes with the line before/after it. no need to sing things that we don't really mean... i just don't think that's very honoring to God, in the end. a new song came up that neither ryan or i had heard before, so we were reading the words as everyone sang along...and one of the lines was actually "Lord i give you the power over my life" ummm...i don't think so. i don't think we have any power to give God, who, well, has all the power (remember that whole omnipotent thing?!?). i just want to be careful to think more about the things i say at church...because it's pretty important! 

our labor day weekend

we had a very fun, but busy holiday weekend! my wonderful in-laws arrived last thursday and were here until yesterday morning. we did more over the weekend than we've done the whole time we've lived here, i think! we had great fun catching up with them and seeing the sights around denver. here are a few of the things we got to see:
on the light rail, headed downtown:

the city lights:

as we drove into estes park, i snapped this picture really quick-we don't actually know those people... there were having a special market in estes park..dustin and ryan were really excited about it, and also just as excited about being together again!

how cute is this?!

ryan's best attempt at a mickey mouse pancake, practicing for the kiddo-luckily, he has a couple of years to practice! the ears kept falling off!! a pretty sunflower-they are wildflowers here and grow all over the place!
we took a ride on the dinosaur ridge tour bus-quite fascinating!
these are actual fossilized dino footprints from about 60 million years ago (or something equally as crazy)...they were charcoaled in soon after they were discovered so they'd be easier to see):