Sandersconnection

Yesterday we got a knock on the door, and while Millie bolted to the bedroom (I guess she didn’t feel presentable), she yelled out for me to go answer it.  It was the UPS man, and he dropped off two big boxes: one with the carseat you see below, and one with a stroller.  We were flummoxed as to who had bought this for us – there wasn’t a note or card or anything.  But after a few minutes of conjecture and hypotheses, I realized that there was an invoice attached to one of the boxes which might say who the items were billed to.  Sure enough it did, and it turns out that one of Millie’s relatives (her mom’s cousin – what does that make her to Millie?) bought the carseat and stroller for us!  I’m not sure if I have even met this relative; I know we certainly haven’t seen her since we’ve been married, so this was quite an unexpected blessing.

I had fun today figuring out how to adjust the carseat, and I practiced on Charlie the Build-a-Bear.  Charlie is a little smaller than a baby, although come to think of it, he might not be smaller than our baby, since Millie was just told that our mystery-sexed child is too small!  She had an appointment on Monday where the doctor measured her and said she seems 3cm too small.  On Friday she’ll have an ultrasound where they will confirm whether or not the baby is actually too small, or whether Millie’s belly is small for some other reason, and hopefully we’ll figure out what the upshot of having a runt is.  From my brief Googling, it sounds like sometimes babies’ growth slows in the womb, so they have to induce labor early so that the baby can start growing outside the womb.  I would actually be excited at the prospect of an early inducement, assuming there were no associated medical risks for the baby, since I’m excited to meet this kid!

Since we’ve made it this far without knowing whether we have an Alowicious or a Helga, we’re going to try to avoid discovering the sex at the ultrasound on Friday.  I’ll tell the ultra-sound technician that we don’t want to know, and with any luck there won’t be anything too obvious dangling on screen that will give it away.  The tech is kind of mean though, so hopefully she won’t be insensitive to our wishes, and start referring to it as a “she” or “he.”

In other news, I got a part-time job researching for a professor at school.  The pay is $10/hour, which is a moderate drop from my $560/day job at A&B earlier this summer, but it’s better than nothing   I think it will be nice if I can continue this work during the school year, since it’s the type of job where I can set my own hours and work from home.

Lastly, we’ll be coming home this Friday, and are looking forward to seeing whoever is there.  Dad and Sarah leave on a mission trip on Saturday, but at least we’ll see Dad for one night (I think Sarah will be in Athens).  I’m looking forward to playing with Liam, eating some good food, and staying up to a ridiculous hour with Jona.

Two weeks ago, at the beginning of my spring break, Millie and I went to a bed & breakfast in South Boston, VA.  We had a great time: playing frisbee, eating well, and going to a NASCAR practice round   The B&B we stayed at, “The Tacrea House,” was built in the 1740’s and inhabited by many generations of Patrick Henry’s family.  It was full of interesting antiques – in fact, the wardrobe where I hung my clothes belonged to Jefferson Davis!  Here are some pictures from our weekend:

We have a state park about 5 minutes from our house, and sometimes we like to hike a trail in the afternoon or early evening.  Last night we decided to do a 3 mile trail, and we set out walking at about 7:40pm.

After about a mile, I started joking with Millie, asking her how she would handle it if it got dark and we had to spend the night in the woods.  Would we stumble around, trying to find our way back to the car?  Would we just sit on a log and wait out the night?  After a few minutes of this she told me to stop, saying it was making her scared.

A few minutes later, I tripped and sliced my big toe on a rock (I shouldn’t hike in Tevas, I know).  It was bleeding a lot, and so I decided to pick up the pace and try to make it back to the car as quickly as possible.  At about the same time, we noticed that it was getting pretty dark in the forest, darker than we thought it would be at 8:10.  “Definitely no more jokes about spending the night in the forest,” I thought.

Millie was getting pretty anxious.  She kept on asking me if I was sure we were on the right trail.  “I don’t remember this bridge/clearing/hill/fallen tree from last time.”  I was almost certain we were on the correct trail; I knew it had orange markers, and we kept passing orange markers.  However, Millie’s questions started making me worry whether we were on the right trail, after all.

At about 8:20 we really started worrying.  There was no sign of reaching the end of the trail, and it was dark enough that we could no longer see roots and bumps in the trail.  Millie began jogging-walking, trying to see around each upcoming bend, hoping for a sign that we were nearing the parking lot.  Each time she asked me whether we would make it I would answer her “of course we will,” but I really wasn’t that confident.

At about 8:25 though, to our delight, we rounded a bend and saw a white figure on the trail ahead of us, going the same direction as us.  We got closer and saw that it was a woman and a man, with a dog.  We followed them, and at about 8:35 we finally emerged from the woods and saw our car.  It was almost fully dark at that point (and it was totally dark in the woods, since the trees block out so much light), and we were so relieved!

So lesson learned: Set out on evening hikes earlier than you think you need to.  And don’t start making “what if” jokes until you’re out of the woods!

I just re-signed up for Gevalia, and I got a coupon code for such a good deal that I thought I’d post it.  Most of their promotions are for “new” members, and if you’re re-signing up, you might have to wait a certain amount of time, or use a different credit card, or something.

But the code “402136″  is a “welcome back” promotion, for people who have been past members.  For $10 you get two half-pounds of coffee, and a stainless steel coffee maker, with free shipping.  Woot!