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Creek or Crick?

Do you pronounce it "creek" or "crick"?  For me, it's based on the word that preceeds it.  For example, a couple weeks ago, we went hiking at Swan "Crick".  To get there, however, we passed by Greek "Creek." 

Either way, during the summer months especially, I absolutely crave the outdoors of the Rocky Mountains.  I enjoy living in Billings, but it does not hold a candle to the wilderness offerings of the Bozeman area.  In fact, it's fairly flat and desert-y by comparrison.  (Recall photos on Kelly's page taken from her parents' house on the Gallatin River.  That is what I miss.)

My solution?  Take a weekend, drive to Bozeman, and force my mom to take me hiking at Swan Creek.  (Though there is no arm-twisting needed to get my mom to go hiking.)  I loaded up Dominic, Alec, and Bo, and we headed out.  Mike remained behind with Cat the cat.  He had to work.  Mike, not Cat.

Here we are at the beginning of the trail.  Bo is getting braver when it comes to cameras, and he inserted himself into the picture.

 

The next two pictures make me irritated toward my camera.  This first one is a view from the trail.  The camera failed to pick up the deep blue of the sky, which was a beautiful contrast to the still-snow-capped mountains.

 

This is Swan Creek (Crick).  The camera does not properly show how deep the creek still is from the melting snow.

 

This is a morel mushroom.  Mike had never seen one before, so I took its picture.

 

Dominic climbing in the foreground.

 

Alec climbing near Grandma Debbie.

 

I think we only had one fall, resulting in a scraped knee or palm.  I don't remember.

 

Again, my camera doesn't show details here.  We crossed a small stream, and Bo stopped to get a drink.  His buns must have been over-heated, because he then just sat down in the middle of the stream for several minutes.  The stream (invisible in this photo) runs under Bo's tail and out from his front feet.

 

Bo is also getting braver when it comes to getting wet.  Newfoundland dogs are bred to be water dogs.  Labs are also water dogs.  So it only makes sense that Bo, a Newfoundland/Lab mix, would be terrified of water. In this photo, he had waded in nearly up to his undercarriage, and remained there for quite a while.  I fully expected him to start swimming, but apparently he is not that brave yet.  I believe his brain suddenly had the epiphany that standing in water is cooler than standing in the hot hot sun while wearing a black coat.

It was a great hike.  We went farther than I had ever been at Swan Creek.  We dined on Lunchables.  The boys peed outside almost more than Bo did.  They already have walnut-sized bladders, but I think they also discovered that it is exciting to pee in the wilderness.  I do not share that view, but who am I to judge.

I wish there was a creek in my area that could compare.  Even a crick would do.

It's the Little Things

Sometimes I feel burned out at work.  Sometimes I have days where I get up thinking, "I really hate people today," and I hope that I can go the whole day without having to deal with anyone (nice public servant, huh?).  Some days I just can't bring myself to care about other people's problems, like how their neighbor always glares at them, and so they need to see the Chief of Police (Give me a break!).

But some days I just get fired up and don't want to go home.  Today was one of those days.

The morning began with a conversation about stalking laws and cases between myself and the City Attorney.  Fascinating.  It ended with me taking a report from a girl who had her "services" (you should blush a little bit here) advertised on Craig's List without her knowledge...until she started getting phone calls with responses to the add. 

In taking that report, I put myself in the unique position to write at least one Investigative Subpoena to Craig's List and will get to, hopefully, charge the suspect with Criminal Defamation.

"What?" you ask.

Writing an Investigative Subpoena is a task usually reserved for detectives.  They are the ones who know how to do it.  But the City Attorney offered to sit down with me and teach me how to write one.  That is exciting because it gives me an advanced skill that the rest of the Patrol division does not have.

Charging someone with Criminal Defamation became a personal goal as soon as the City Attorney said, "I don't know of anyone ever charging that...but it fits."  Plus there is kind of an unwritten, and usually unspoken competition between officers to see who has charged the most rare and obscure charge.  I will win this round.  If my subpoena is written correctly.

Like I said, it's the little things.  But any day leaving me thinking, "I can't wait to go to work tomorrow," is a great day.

Thoughts on babies and kids

• I had my 20 week check-up last Wednesday (for some reason my mind went blank on how to spell Wednesday...does that look right?).  Anyway, all is well.  They told me I was 19 1/2 weeks.  Then they measured the baby's femur and head, and said that he was measuring 18 1/2 weeks.  They didn't change my due date, however.  I believe my baby over their charts any day.  So just over 19 weeks now?  I'm sure just yesterday I was at 9 weeks.  Already growing up too fast.  Not a good sign!

• They took more measurements and advised:  any risk of Downs Syndrom is as low as they can predict, there are two umbilicle arteries, no sign of clefts or extra limbs or anything, no placenta previa, heart chambers and other vessels are in their correct places, and we are VERY active.

• We are also a boy.  For sure.

• Baby gear is expensive!  We have a bath seat-type thing, a baby sling (I'm not sure what it's really called, but the sling-type thing rather than a baby carrying backpack thing), and have our eyes on a stroller/car seat set, along with a giraffe bedding set.  I desperately wanted a round crib.  Have you ever seen such a thing?  JC Penneys.com  I have settled, however, in order to save some money.  (Stupid rectangle cribs.) 

• Ooh, and a diaper bag!  For some reason, I'm the most excited for my diaper bag.  I'm getting Mike a Jeep diaper bag as part of his Father's Day present.  It just says "Jeep" on the front, nothing special, but I know he will carry it.

• I felt the baby kicking or punching or whatever violent thing he was doing to me this morning.  With my hand!  I had been feeling movements for some time, but this was the first time I have actually been able to feel it on the outside.  I'm so excited for Mike to come home so he can feel!

• Dominic and Alec are back for the summer.  I think we have 6 more weeks with them.  I was just not mentally prepared for them to be here this year.  I had it in my mind that we would do activities, and I would let them pick a meal to help me cook each week, and other interactive things.  None of that has happened. 

• I feel like a horrible person, but I am just not having fun with the boys this year.  Sorry.  In general, kids between about 7-13 drive me nuts!  They are just weird, crave enormous amounts of attention, and do weird things to achieve it.  Both of Mike's boys are in that category now (6 and 9).  It is just frustrating to me.

• They are very into Star Wars, and discuss it non-stop.  Dinner time:  "Do you think Darth Vader likes chicken?"  Mike sneezes:  "Dad, I know how Yoda would say 'bless you.'"  Mike asked me last night how we can get them to talk about other things.  Well, it may help if you put away all your Star Wars movies and cartoons and stop letting them watch Star Wars every day!

• I am feeling very selfish, too, with the whole pregnancy thing.  There was an incident where Mike's mom was talking about nicknames for the baby.  Dominic started rattling off names from Star Wars.  I started to lose it.  "That's enough!  We are not calling this baby any Star Wars names!"  For some reason I just don't want to discuss baby things with the boys.  I do feel bad for that, since this will be their brother, but right now I just feel like this is my and Mike's baby, and no one else's.

• It is also frustrating to try to rid the boys of what we feel are bad habbits since we only have them 8 weeks of the year.  They wear their day clothes to bed!  What?  (If you allow your children to do this, I don't mean to offend, but I can't stand it!)  They are filthy little boys who roll in the dirt and play on the neighbors trampoline.  They need to NOT sleep in their daytime clothes after all that!  It has been a nightly battle this week.  They insist that their mom in Great Falls allows it.  When we say, "Yes, but why don't we allow it here?"  They respond with, "Because they're dirty and we need to sleep in clean pajamas."  They get it, but the very next night, it's the same thing: "You're not wearing that to bed after we just told you to get into your pajamas."  "Yes, our mom in Great Falls lets us."  And they do it to Mike too, lest you think they are just trying to pit me against their mother.

 So those are my random thoughts.  Like I said, I feel bad about many of them, but then again, if I'm not allowed to be a little selfish during my first pregnancy, then when?  I am trying to find the balance between the Boys' needs and my  own.  The good thing is that they are pretty self-sufficient, and don't need minute by minute monitoring or entertaining.  That still allows for some desperately-needed alone time for me.

California, Part Deux

Where was I...got to CA on Friday the 15th, Disney Land on the 16th (free birthday admission!)...Sea World!

On Sunday, my cousin Kathleen met me at my Hotel and we began our treck to Sea World.  We were supposed to also visit my cousin Colleen (Kathleen's oldest sister), but she informed us that we had not specified which day I would be there.  Kathleen insists she is mistaken, but either way, she was unavailable.  Oh, well.  Next time.

Not only did Kathleen drive an hour to get to me then another hour to Sea World, but she bought my ticket, and took me out to lunch there!  She claimed it was a late birthday present.  I'm trying to think of some sort of awsome adventure to take her on next time she visits me here.

Anyway...

Starfish.  I had no idea they came in any other color but the peach-y ones.  I touched one (we were allowed to).  I also didn't know the live ones would feel so hard and rough.

 

Sea turtles.  So cute!

 

Stingrays.  We also got to touch them.  Ever felt a stingray?  Think wet mushroom.  Kathleen desperately wanted to touch one, but got freaked out every time they approached.  As you can see from the picture, they come up out of the water a little bit.  That was what got her, "You're supposed to stay under there!"  She did eventually feel one.

 

Disgusting eels.  They need to not live in holes.  Gross.

 

We took in a dolphin show.  We did not sit in the splash zone.  They had a strange man named Terrin in a straw hat with a guitar singing songs with all the rules.  Like, "If you like that camera and you like that dress..." something, something, something about don't sit in the splash zone.  We took heed because I do like my camera.

 

 

Seals and sea lions who made it quite clear that they were starving for fish.

 

 

Penguins and puffins

 

 

Balugas

 

 

Polar bear.  I did not find this bear's rear particularly photogenic or anything.  He was hiding in a corner, and the other one was no where to be seen.  This was the only angle I could get.

 

We also went through the shark exhibit, including the underwater tunnel where the sharks cruise above and beside you.  And the emperor penguin exhibit.  Those were too dark to photograph, though.

I found it very odd that Sea World also hosts a horse show, and has a Pet Arena to see cats and dogs performing tricks.  What in the world do horses, cats, and dogs have to do with sea life?  And can you honestly get a cat to perform tricks?  I know they are smart, but cats, as a general rule, do what they want to do, and humans are just conveniently placed to feed and pet them at their will.  We skipped those shows.

After Sea World, Kathleen drove me back to the hotel where we hung out in my room watching TV for a while.  We were both too tired of walking and too tired of sitting to go anywhere else.  While watching Forensic Files, or something like that, we were rocked by an earthquake!  At its origin, it was a 4.something quake.  It wasn't nearly that strong by the time it got to us.  Two days later, I felt another quake.  The news claimed it was a 3.7 aftershock, and I wondered how they distinguish between an aftershock and another, smaller earthquake, especially that much later.  I've been through several minor earthquakes like that.  My co-workers however, who had not felt a quake ever before, and who were up on the 18th floor, were quite sure the building was going to collapse.  I took it as part of the whole California experience.

The Land, The World, and The Trees

I have been back from my California trip for almost a week now.  It is high time I do a post about it.  This will be mostly a picture post, I think.  Let me say first that the actual training I went to left something to be desired.  I just wasn't as good as I had hoped for, and not as good as the one in Texas last year.

But, the vacation part was great!

Here is me in my hotel room.  My own balcony behind me.

 

Views from the balcony

 

I was fascinated by these purple trees!  Anyone know what they are??

 

Speaking of trees, as a Montana girl, I grew up around pine trees.  Palm trees are a novelty (unless you count the tacky neon ones outside of some of the local casinos).  I took many many pictures of them.  I will spare you, since many of my readers live in palm-tree country.

 

But before I spare you, I must note that the trunks on these palm trees remind me of elephant toes.

 

Here's a good segway:  me under a palm tree at Disney Land!

 

Ok, technically California Adventure Park, but it's on the Disney campus, and for the first 2 hours I was there, I had no clue that I wasn't actually in Disney Land propper.

I rode the big mouse wheel.

 

I couldn't ride this bear ride because my baby does not meet the minimum height requirement. 

 

I finally found my way to Disney Land itself.

 

Finding Nemo submarine ride.  The duck hanging out on the rock in front cracked me up.

 

View from inside the sub

 

Tarzan's Tree House

 

I went on several more rides, like Pirates of the Carribean (too dark for photos) and the Jungle Cruise.  During the Jungle Cruise, while clicking away with my camera, it dawned on me that I was getting upset that people's heads were blocking my camera's view of fake tigers.  I decided to put the camera away and enjoy the rest of the day with my own real eyes.

Between the Land and the Adventure Park, I spent about 6 hours there.  I had finally had enough.  I retired to my hotel room, but returned to watch the fireworks later that night.  (I had one of the few hotel rooms that did not face in a Disney direction, therefore, I could not see the fireworks from my hotel room.)

***

My computer has started giving me threatening messages that if I keep up my picture-sharing ways, my Internet could run slowly or my computer may become unresponsive.  It wants to shut itself off, so I will close here, and save my pictu-mentary of The World for another day.

Quick Update

I will be going to California for another Domestic Violence conference.  Gone from Friday until the next Wednesday.  The last one was in Texas.  I never saw any armadillos in Texas, but while in California, I will be seeing Disney Land and Sea World!  Did you know that you can get into Disney Land for free on your birthday?  I did.  And as luck would have it, Saturday is my birthday!  I will also get to visit my cousin Kathleen who lives near where I will be staying.  And perhaps my other cousin, Colleen (and fam.) who live near the Sea World area.

In preparation for my Cali trip, I had to buy a swim suit.  We will be staying at the Anaheim Marriott Hotel (shockingly fancy!).  It has a pool.  Relaxing by the pool while on vacation..uh, I mean, at a conference...highly recommended.  Shopping for a swim suit while pregnant?  Not recommended at all.

First, all the maternity swim suits seem to be tank top things with regular bottoms.  Not going to work.  I figure, I don't need to cover up my stomach.  That's the part that is supposed to be getting bigger!  My thighs, however, must be disguised.  It was very discouraging to try on several regular-bottomed suits, each one driving the point further home that the tops of my thighs are larger than they used to be. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, not fat, it's natural, got it.  That doesn't change the fact that gaining weight in your thighs is NEVER fun.)  I ended up buying a very cute two-piece suit with a halter top and skirted bottom.  I love it.  I don't hate my legs, just the very tops of them.

Second, as I said in one of my previous posts, I still only look "sort of" pregnant.  You know it, and I know it, so I think I look fine in my new suit.  To those who don't know me, however, I will look like the fat girl who should really do some extra sit-ups before putting on that two-piece.  Dang it!  I'll just pooch my stomach out a little and rub it a lot, so people will assume I'm pregnant, not fat.

And speaking of...here we are:

 

14 weeks.  The doctor believes this is a boy, but cautions not to paint the nursery blue yet.  (We got some "bottom shots" which provide clearer evidence to boyhood.)  If that is true, allow me to introduce you to Liam John Atkinson.  If not, I have no idea.  I was punched with that right arm shortly after this photo and felt it.  Yay!

Half-Butted

I didn't want to swear in my title, but my topic of discussion today is all the half way done projects around my house.  Mike and I, it would seem, have become notorious for starting several projects, but we just never get them done.  The final step (or some other step along the way) is just too much for us, so we end up with a bunch of half-as*ed things all over the place.

This table, for example:

 

Mike built it for me for Christmas.  2 YEARS AGO! He promised that once summer came around, he would paint the frame white to match our front porch.  2 summers have come and gone.  It's a great table, but unfinished.  Or as I call it, a half-butted project.

Or, our front screen door (it's the door that leads to our 2 front doors):

 

The old screen door broke off last summer, so we had to get a new one.  Simple.  But the new one was smaller than the old one, so Mike had to build a new door frame.  The whole point of getting this particular screen door was that it has a screen and glass pane on the bottom, so it can be sealed off to keep out the wind in the winter.  Not much point in that since the frame is still not finished.

 

And so you don't think I'm blaming all of the half-buttedness on my poor husband, here is my prized planter that I built last year:

Pretty good, but the plan all along was to have one more brick level on the wall.  I'm not growing vegetables there this year, by the way.  There are bulb plants in there that have yet to flower.

My other "burial mound":

 

(Note the weeds popping through the mulch) I have yet to plant anything in those pots on the mound.  They spent last summer empty too.

This is my very newest planter.  New new.  I built it all by myself yesterday.  Start to finish...almost.

 

The actual plan is to cover the remaining grass with landscaping gravel.  (The less grass we have, the less I have to yell at Mike to mow and weed-eat.)  I'm sure the gravel part of this will remain an "idea" for some time.  My cat has taken a great liking to this new planter.  Not sure why, but I'm hoping it does not remind him of his bathroom.

These boards are also a recent, destined to be half-butted, project:

 

They will eventually be put together to become two 8' X 4' planters.  They must first be painted so they don't just crumble away.  I desperately want to get them finished before planting season is over.  We'll see.

And don't be fooled into thinking that it is only our outside projects that do not get finished.  We painted and moved in to this bedroom last summer:

 

There will eventually be a chair rail-type thing running along the wall to disguise the divide between the two colors.

My window seat that we built last year:

 

It's not supposed to be ugly like that.

 

These pieces of moulding will eventually be put on the front.  Unfortunately, moulding comes in 8-foot sections.  And the window seat is around 10 feet long.  That put an end to that project last year, and doomed it to half-buttedness.

Why not just buckle down and finish some projects?  I don't know.  It's just more fun to start new ones, I think.

While I had my camera out, I took a picture of my new haircut.  I just got back from the salon about 2 hours ago:

 

I am excited about it.  I love the newness of going from super long to short hair.  And best of all, it took me only about 15 minutes to style it.  Compare that to 1 hour if I wanted to wear my hair down when it was long.

Also, to ease possible curiosity, I took a profile picture to show off my belly.  I am disappointed with it.  I swear that I looked pregnant on Friday.  I'm even wearing my mommy pants here but it doesn't look like much.  Maybe I'm not sideways enough...

 

(Please excuse the boys' messy room.) 

I promise there is a baby in there, full-butted, I'm sure.  I'll post another photo in a few days, on one of my pregnant days.

Several for Sunday

1.  This week has been a week of mixed emotions for me.  I have yet to get pregnancy-emotional, crying and such, but I have been getting annoyed at small things.  For example:  I was complaining to Mike that I wished I could move past the "kind of" phase of pregnancy.  You know the phase .  I don't look clearly pregnant, but I have also gotten too big for most of my pants.  I went to work the next day, and a lady said, "Oh, look, you're starting to look like you've got a baby in there!" 

What was my reaction?  Was it the pleased, "Oh, good, you can tell"  or "Yeah, thanks"?  No.  My gut reaction, which I did not voice of course, was, "Oh yeah?  Well, I'm still smaller than you."  Oh, my goodness.  When did I get so hateful?

Another example:  It was Secretary Appreciation Week, or Day, last week (can't remember which).  I work in the office now, and do much of what the secretaries do.  The Bosses got all of the secretaries bouquettes inside of Billings PD mugs.  They got one for me too, and informed me that I was their "Honorary Secretary."  My reaction?  "Hey thanks"?  No.  Again, not voiced, but, "I am not a secretary!"  Both hateful and ungrateful.  There's nothing even remotely wrong with being a secretary.  Our police dept would not function without them.  Could I be more horrible a person?

At least I know where that one stems from.  I have effectively been stripped of all my authority.  I am tired of people asking if they can "talk to an actual officer".  I guess I'm just a little sensetive about not being readily identifiable and listened to.  To hear someone actually call me a secretary...well that's my excuse for my childish reaction.  Of course, I quickly realed myself in and appreciated my gift.

2.  Speaking of not being able to fit into my pants, I have just discovered the greatest invention to date.  The BE Band by Bellaband.  It is an elastic band that can be worn "over unbuttoned pre-pregnancy pants."  Who needs to buy all new pants when you can just wear your old pants, unbuttoned.  Which I was doing, but now I can disguise the fact that I'm walking around with my pants unbuttoned.  Perfect.  I'm excited at this discovery.

3.  While I now have the means to keep many of my pre-preg. pants for a while yet.  I did go shopping last week for my first round of mommy clothes.  It was fun, although the sales girl was quite pushy.  I was the only one in the small store for most of the time, and that didn't help.  I ended up with half the store's clothes in my dressing room because the sales girl would grab stuff and say, "I'll go ahead and put these in here for you to try," and, "I think this is cute.  Do you? (no time for my response) I'll go ahead and put this in your room."  I was pleased to learn that the store is fairly inexpensive.  I managed not to go crazy and came away with a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts, and 3 shirts.  And anti-stretch mark lotion. 

These mommy pants/shorts with the big elastic bellies are SUPER comfortable!  It's nice to be able to sit down without unbuttoning my pants.  Although now I can just keep them unbuttoned if I so choose!

4.  I have reclaimed my gardens from the weeds.  At least for now.  I'm proud of myself for getting all of the weeding done so early.  I know...it's like laundry.  You're never really done.

SPT: Gift to (of) a family member

 

(You'd think I could have at least straightened out my pants for this!)

This is my gift to me, to my husband, to my family:  a new family member.  He/She is in there somewhere, I heard a 164 beat/min rhythem yesterday to prove it!

Is It Finally Here?

For the past week (and mostly forever before that) it has been in the mid-40's (F) weather-wise, if not colder.  It has been cloudy and usually raining or snowing.  It gets old, but I live in MT, after all, so I won't complain about it...yet.  But, it was finally sunny today.  I ventured outside and discovered (drum roll, please....) that it was still butt-cold out.  I could see my dog's breath. 

However, while it may not quite feel Springy yet to me, my yard has started to say otherwise.

First, I found that my rhubarb plant has already started its regrowth:

 

I also found some little tiny lettuce leaves, and leaves on my colombine plants.

Then, and I was shocked, I found these:

 

I recall planting them at the end of the summer.  Now I have no idea what they are.  But check those out--flowers already!

 

 

 

Who knew!  Happy Spring!