Sewing

Much to my mom's delight, I've been sewing. Appropriately, my first project on my "new" machine was, indeed, hemming pants. But, I've since moved on to more fun and exciting things. Like curtains for the nursery. I'm super excited about how they turned out and I smile every time I walk by the nursery and see them.

I learned to do a blind hem. I imagine this will be quite useful in the future, but it's a little tricky and quite nerve-wracking. Fortunately, it turned out okay.


Scout supervised the process, lending her extensive expertise when needed


Sewing on the buttons. This was the last step and I was really excited to get them on, put the curtains up, and be done with it.


The finished product. Really, I think it turned out super cute, if I do say so myself. And look, you can get an idea of the wall color.


And a close-up so you can admire the adorableness.

Pregnancy Workouts

I had a few requests to share my pregnancy workout plan, so I will oblige for those of you who may be interested. First, a little background. I don't like working out. It's not fun for me, I don't get this awesome energy boost afterwards, there's usually some level of pain involved, I'm not trying to become Super Woman, etc, etc. I workout because I know it's good for me. Period. So, I like to get the best possible workout in the lease amount of time. That's just the philosophy behind my exercises. So, here's what I've been doing:

Monday - Strength day: 2 sets of 8 reps each of body-weight chest press (essentially, a push up), rows, and single-leg squats
Tuesday - Cardio workout - Run or swim for maybe 20 minutes
Wednesday - Core day: Stir the pot, quad leg extension, and side planks. The sets and reps vary depending on where I am in my progression
Thursday - Cardio workout - same as Tuesday
Friday - Strength day: repeat Monday's workout
Saturday - Cardio workout, Core day - repeat Wednesday's core workout
Sunday - Rest. It is the Sabbath after all.

And that's it. Usually, I don't spend more than 20 minutes per day working out. Except Saturdays since I do cardio and core. It's pretty much just scaled back a little from what I used to do before I was pregnant. The cardio has been getting tricky. I've been doing some running or swimming, but it's getting to the point that running is becoming a ridiculous endeavor. And, swimming is fine, but I'm a terrible swimmer and it requires taking the cover off the pool by myself. Sometimes, I'm just too lazy for it. I have a spin bike on order that should arrive next week and I'm hoping that will be the answer to my cardio workout troubles. I used to do interval workouts for my cardio, but I was losing weight with those and that's not encouraged during pregnancy so for now I just do steady-state cardio and I'll save the interval workouts for losing the pregnancy weight after the baby comes.

Primarily, I'm hoping this will achieve the desired results of making the labor, delivery, and recovery a little easier. Fingers crossed!

An Uninvited Guest

Mr. Frisby and I are pretty open when it comes to letting people use our pool. It cost a pretty penny and it continues to cost both time and money to maintain it. So, we like it to be well-used and worth the efforts. Usually if people want to use the pool, we don't hesitate to say yes. But, a few nights ago I went outside to find an uninvited and unwelcome guest swimming around in our pool.



I don't know how this guy got in, but obviously, he needed to be shown the door right away. Mr. Frisby and I were actually both impressed that I didn't scream or otherwise make a big deal (not that I'm terribly afraid of frogs or anything, but seeing one swimming around unexpected in the pool gave me quite a start). I calmly called for Mr. Frisby to come outside. When he came, I informed him there was a frog in the pool and he needed to take care of it (there is an unspoken agreement that when it comes to creatures in the pool, I will not be handling them). I was then impressed as Mr. Frisby walked over to where the frog was swimming near the edge and with one lightning fast grab, snatched him out of the pool. (That's Mr. Frisby's hand holding him in the picture). He then showed him the gate and released him into the front yard where I imagine he was soon hunted down by some neighborhood cat.

As you can see from the picture, the frog was actually quite large. Both Mr. Frisby and I wonder if it was somebody's pet. However, I'm not about to store someone's lost frog in my house and I'm not about to let it cruise around my pool. Sorry Frogger. You were uninvited and unwelcome. Time to go!

Vacay!

Long time, no blog. Mr. Frisby and I have been out of town on vacation. We thought it would be a good idea to head out to Idaho and Utah to visit with family before the baby comes and things get crazy. Though the baby didn't come, things still got crazy. We figured out the stats on our way home:

Two birds killed by Ox
One unexpected funeral
Two lousy colds caught
One speeding ticket acquired
2,500 plus miles driven
38 plus hours in the car

All in about a week and a half. While heading into Nevada on day 1 of our vacation, I realized that we had forgotten the camera. So, we don't even have any documentation of our adventures except for a couple cell phone pics. In spite of the craziness, however, we had a good time and it was wonderful to spend time with family. Scout had a good time meeting new people and new dogs and ran herself totally ragged. She's literally been sleeping all day.

So, what did we do on our vacation? Let's see. We started out in Rexburg, ID with Mr. Frisby's family. We went four-wheeling and searched for treasures with a metal detector. Nobody hurt on the four wheelers and no treasures found with the metal detectors. We also went shooting. This was my one request while in Idaho and we had a great time. This was also one of the few activities documented with our cell phone cameras.



We determined that Baby likes the .357 Magnum best.

We also visited with Mr. Frisby's grandparents. This turned out to be a very worthwhile activity as Mr. Frisby's grandfather passed away just before we were getting ready to leave Rexburg and head to Utah to visit with my family. We continued with our plans to head to Utah and we headed down a day early since we would be returning to Rexburg for the funeral a few days later. While in Utah, I did some shopping with my sisters and we also went to a park in Provo Canyon for a little picnic and fun times. Then it was back up to Rexburg for the funeral. At the funeral, I got to meet some of Mr. Frisby's extended family that I had only heard about before. After the funeral, it was back to Utah for more time with my family.

Somewhere along the way near the tail end of the trip, Mr. Frisby got a cold. Then he gave it to me. Let's just say the drive home was miserable. And, that was pretty much our vacation. We're still recovering.

And, for the record, the speeding ticket was acquired by Mr. Frisby. I wasn't even in the car. And, we each had the "privilege" of being the driver when a bird was killed. But, truly, the birds were at fault. They literally flew into the car. Kind of stupid if you ask me. But, I don't credit birds with a lot of intelligence, so there you go. Frisby Family Vacay 2011!