LaVaun's lilacs

My grandmother, LaVaun, had the most beautiful lilac bush in her yard when we were growing up. I remember many spring days heading for Morrill when I was a little gal, visiting Grandma, walking through her garden, and coming home with a huge vase of the gorgeous pungent purple flowers. The smell of lilacs always brings back memories of Grandma Saylor....so last summer Ryan planted me my own lilac bush in her memory. This afternoon, I found our first blooms!

35 Weeks

On Friday, I had my 35 week appointment and after weighing in and measuring my belly, the doctor decided to do another sonogram as I did not grow the "average" pounds and cenimeters. Sonogram looked great - doc thinks I am on the "small" side because the Little Lady is extremely low in my pelvis (head down) and tucked in tightly...she then estimated that the baby was slightly less than 6 pounds already! And the sonogram showed she has some hair....must be Ryan's kid as I was bald until I was 2 years old!

We spent Saturday night at the K and had a great time seeing Travis and Michelle!

My Sweet Revenge!

Ryan and I have been immersed in childbirth classes the last few weeks. (And I've been trying to get him to write his thoughts down on our breastfeeding session as he had a few entertaining observations…hopefully a post will come soon from him!). This week's class included the empathy belly - an upper body suit weighing around 40 pounds. Each dad was given the chance to wear the belly, and us mom's-to-be enjoyed forcing the dad's to do tasks such as lying down and then rolling over, bending to pick up a pen, tying shoes, etc. While I'm not convinced that five minutes with the belly gave Ryan a true picture of what it actually feels like lugging around the Little Lady, it did give him a small glimpse into my world - he admitted that lying down and rolling over was pretty hard work!

Sorry for the poor quality of pics - I forgot my camera and used my phone instead!

Boston

Marathon Monday, the Boston Marathon, which many runners consider to be the premier running event of the year, was yesterday. During the fall of 2007, I trained and ran two marathons attempting to qualify for 2008 - first Chicago, in which I missed the qualifying time of 3hrs 40 minutes by seventeen minutes due to extreme heat and humidity. Eight weeks later we went to Dallas to try again, and though I struggled through the last six miles stopping to stretch out my hip every half mile, I finished almost six minutes under the qualifying time. Immediately after returning home, I started training for Boston in April, only be pull out of the race late February due to an overuse IT band injury (rookie mistake not listening to my body and continuing to over-train without taking the necessary time off to recover!). I was extremely sad and disappointed to have trained so hard and not be able to run last year. However, I knew my qualification was good through April 2009 and had a slight hope that maybe I would be able to run it this year - though I knew Ryan and I were planning on trying for a baby and that most likely my Boston dream was over for the time being.


Yesterday, during a solo run, my mind wandered to Hopkinton, Massachusetts and the thousands of runners who have made it their goal and priority to train, qualify and run Boston 2009. And I had thoughts that if I were not pregnant, I would likely be at that starting line with those runners. While I admit this made me slightly sad and a bit nostalgic to run and race in my 'normal' body, my overall feelings were those of excitement and joy. I'm excited to begin seriously running again, hopefully this fall, as I love the feeling of getting into shape and training hard for a goal. I'm excited to race again - while running a marathon at 16 weeks pregnant was fun and I'm proud of my accomplishment, it just wasn’t the same as being able to push yourself to your limits. But mostly I'm completely overjoyed with the thought that if I can requalify, I will have a new addition to my traveling fan club - I have this sweet image in my head of Ryan on the sidelines with the Little Lady cheering me on as I race toward the finish. So keeping these thoughts in mind, I will instead focus on enjoying these last few weeks of pregnancy and looking forward to the marathon of birth that is quickly approaching.

Great friends!

I am so lucky to have such great friends! This past weekend, two of my best friends from college threw me a baby shower in Kansas City. Lesley and Annie were sorority sisters at K-State - we have remained close through the years as Lesley married Tyler who is one of Ryan's best friends, and Annie and I worked together upon graduation plus Ryan and I are proud to be the god-parents of her son, Sutton. We gals had such a great weekend catching up as all the boys flew to Dallas for a 'boys weekend' (a Royals/Rangers game and Jimmy Buffet concert - one last hurrah before the baby arrives).



Of course, the girls threw an amazing baby shower for the Little Lady! Fantastic decorations. Who knew these girls became so crafty after college!!!



Lesley, Annie, and I



All the gals from college - Amanda, Kelly, Lesley and Annie



Christy and Bryn - great friends from Sabetha



Melissa, one of my best running friends. Jessica, we missed you!


The PwC gals - Nicole, Carolyn, and Lela



Any finally, the Trusdale clan. Mema, Darby (ugh, how is she 13 already!), me, Auntie M, Nanny, and Soni

Thank you all so such. It was lovely to see so many of you, and Ryan and I are once again blown away and thankful for the generosity of all our friends and family!

Sweet Shower

What a sweet baby shower. Three generous ladies hosted a shower in Sabetha this past Saturday and oh, what fun we had.

My 33 week belly


Nanny and Auntie M




Love the decor




My twin! Kara is due one day before me!

Sweet quilt Nanny made for the Little Lady


Thank you everyone! Ryan and I really appreciate your generosity and support as we prepare for our new addition to the Osterhaus clan.

Thunderstorms and Hiccups

Due to a thunderstorm and high winds, our power was off for approximately three hours last night. Luckily, the Little Lady was in show-off mode and put on a little entertainment for us. Ryan and I were lying around, reading with flashlights when suddenly my stomach started doing a little dance. Apparently, she had the hiccups…..for ten minutes….we just sat and watched my stomach bounce, and giggled at her. I'm going to miss feeling her once she arrives, but am getting pretty excited for my quickly approaching due date.

Shout out to Bryn - we ate Dos Reales last night, and I attribute the Little Lady's activity to her loving the cheese dip as much as we do! Hmmmm so yummy, let's meet for dinner soon!

Royals Opening Day!

When Ryan and I were first married, we attempted to do a date night every Wednesday – even if our “date” just entailed walking the dogs together, grabbing decaf Starbucks lattes, or TCBY. Though we had good intentions of keeping it up every week, life just gets in the way. However, we still manage to do date night a couple times a month. Last night was one of those occasions.

It was Royals opening day in the Osterhaus household!!! In other words, the first Royals TV appearance. And while I might not be a huge baseball fan, I do love everything about the Royals and baseball season. I love hot summer nights heading for Kaufman stadium (hello, beer and hotdogs…even before pregnancy, my life revolved around food!) . I love fireworks Friday. I love the crowds, the fact that you can always buy cheap tickets last minute (yea, I know it’s a sign that we suck, but hey we’ll look on the positive side of things!), the tailgating with good friends. And I also love watching the Royals on TV. This probably stems from the fact that baseball is a relatively slow, low key game and therefore Ryan tends to be a bit more reserve while watching as compared to other sports (during more intense games, he sometimes yells at the TV, sending Lynnie, poor old girl, into hiding for most of the evening). I love that we can hang out watching the game, while I catch up on reading, internet surfing, or just vegging out. I love that it’s such a slow sport that I don’t have to pay much attention yet can still carry on a somewhat intelligent conversation with Ryan when he does get overly excited about a good play. :) And I love that the start of baseball season means summer is right around the corner!

So last night, we made plans to watch the baseball game together - and I had a chance to flip through the numerous books I am currently reading. Plus the best husband in the world treated me to my latest obsession............TCBY!

We've already decided one of our first "adults only" nights out this summer will be a baseball game. Ohhh, I can't wait!