Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Summer lovin'...having a blast

My body hasn’t been this sore since two-a-day summer football practices 15 years ago!

Within the last 10 days, Leigh and I have traveled to Colorado (where much partying and hiking was involved for one of my best friend’s weddings), packed our apartment up in a bunch of cardboard boxes, rented a U-Haul, loaded it (with the help of some of the best friends/humans EVER!), unpacked the truck, unpacked the boxes, moved furniture and then weeded, tilled and planted a 20’x20’ garden in the backyard. I’ve got blisters on my blisters and you better believe my dogs are barking!


But I cannot tell you how freakin’ excited we are to FINALLY be living in our own house again. It’s like that feeling that comes over you after you’ve been sick for a few days and then you get better again. It’s like feeling better again and really loving feeling healthy and so glad you’re not sick anymore. So the apartment was sick. The house is now healthy.

Can you believe it’s been since 2005 since we’ve had our own space? In ’05 we lived with my mom (I’m not afraid to admit it…she’s a whole lot of fun!) to save money for our trip to Tibet. Then we moved to Tibet and lived in a hotel for a year and a half. Then we come back to America and move to Oregon and land in an apartment for the last year. That’s a long time to be away from this and we love it!

Our place is a cute 2/1 (with a large office space in the basement that is totally cool even in the hot sunny summer afternoons). It was built awhile ago and has lots of cool built in shelving, hideaway ironing boards, potato drawers, a canning storage closet, hardwood floors, a almost new washer and dryer, lots of big windows, on a quiet dead end street, an amazing garden space with herbs and roses and flowers already established, really cool landlords and it is less than a 10 minute walk from the University of Portland. (Yeah, I know).

Today we planted our garden and it felt so good to have dirt under the fingernails and sweat on the brow. The soil here is amazingly lush and dark and rich. I should know…I’ve taken a shower twice today to wash it off me! We planted spinach, lettuce, collards, kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts and next month we’ll be planting onions, garlic, carrot, snow peas and maybe some fava beans.

School starts in less than 3 weeks now. That’s crazy. I don’t feel eager to give up my very leisurely pace of life this summer. It has been so fantastic to not have a job, not have to go to school (I’m taking online classes) and just be able to wake up early, do yoga, work in the garden, play tennis or go hiking or camping or just chill with Leigh (or should I say distract her from her work). I would be jealous of me right now too and I am definitely grateful for this chance to catch my breath and relax before the gates of chaos are unleashed upon me. Not only school but…

Baby is growing fast! Leigh has expanded incredibly in the last month and it is true joy and magic to witness the transformation. She glows. She is happy and healthy and getting heavy. Just tonight she was complaining that she might be starting to waddle a little bit. But she is really carrying well and is in really good spirits and looks more amazing and beautiful every day. Funny moment, we had just stopped at a bakery for a middle of the afternoon snack during one of our many running-around-doing-errands-all-day days and she was munching on a raspberry hand pie when she said to me, “I love being pregnant. It is a trump card for anything – eating ice cream or pies, not lifting too much during a move, people treat you especially nice, taking naps…”

So, yeah, I think she’s enjoying it. Especially recently since the baby has started to really move around. The other night we were watching a movie (Everything is Illuminated – really good film made from the book, I recommended it), and I had my hand on her belly and I swear the baby was breakdancing! She told me today that she has a balloon from her butthole to her boobs and this baby can just bounce from rib to rib. Just watching the seismic activity of her uterus is amazing and kind of creepy. I can’t help picturing the scene from Alien when the thing bursts out of the guy’s stomach. Yikes, I really hope that doesn’t happen…

Leigh’s parents come into town tomorrow for a weeklong visit. We're excited. We love showing off our new home. Going to the farmer's market, see all the bridges and rivers, Mount Hood, etc. We’re going down to the southern Oregon coast to check out some wildlife refuges (mom) and visit a lot of train stuff (dad). We should get the chance to go out to eat a couple times, which is something two broke ass students can’t do very often (which is a real shame b/c Portland has some phenomenal restaurants). We’ll also go looking at baby stuff. You know, get the essentials - diapers, onesies, big screen tv (for dad of course).

Hope y'all are having a great summer!


Our first dinner in the new house! YAY!

Pics of the new house to come...

3 comments:

Andy "Google Me" Greider said...

So nice to see the two of you so happy, healthy, loving life and bringing a new life along to join the fun.

Miss you both tremendously!

Bear Clan

Andy "Google Me" Greider said...

and oh yeah, the Alien / swelling belly thing - glad it wasn't just me who thought it! LOL!

Bear

Unknown said...

You've got it made! Love the garden and love that you are just now planting in August. In Colorado, we are harvesting and getting ready for fall. I picked two yellow cottonwood leaves off the ground just the other day!
Loving the warmth of your friendship and the remaining days of summer. Mazel Tov on your new home!!! YAHOO.
Love ya,
Laine and the Fabistein's