Starting to get settled :)

I've discovered that one of the hardest parts about being on the road and constantly moving from town to town is you never really feel at home.  Thats the biggest reason I wanted our 5th wheel to feel so homey because its the only sense of home we have.  It can get really frustrating every time we are in a new town trying to find grocery stores, churches, doctors, dentists, rv parks, walking / running trails, coffee shops, things you take for granted when you know right where they are when you have lived in a certain place for years.  In Carlsbad, NM there was not much to get to know, or want to know.  It was very small with nothing around it and I was 20 miles from town so I didn't really commit to getting settled.

We've been in Greeley for about 10 weeks now and I can finally say I am feeling good here.  The RV park is not the greatest by any means but other than that I like it.  I think after awhile you start to get used to the trains that blow their horns all through the night, the 18 wheelers that use their jake breaks right outside your trailer 24 hours a day and crazy wind that threatens to blow you over.

I hardly have to use my navigation now to get around.  We've found a great church that we love and have been going to every sunday since the first of the year.  They have 4 services on Sundays, 3 in the morning and 1 at night so even when Brandon has class we can still go to the evening service and we love it there.  They were SO welcoming from the second we walked in the door.  We were greeted by a gentleman who promptly introduced us to the pastor.  He asked Brandon what he does and he said "I work on power lines". Its kinda what we have learned to tell people because if you say "I'm a lineman" they ask "for what team" haha.  Well the pastor goes "oh is that the same thing as a lineman" Brandon and I were blown away and he said yes and the pastor quickly introduced us to another member of the church that is a lineman.  It was such a great feeling from the start and we feel so at home there.

We found a dentist and got our teeth cleaned, found a few parks to go walking at and even found some tennis courts and played a round or two :) ( I totally killed brandon in our match ups!) We've found a couple cute coffee shops that are relaxing and also very popular, sometimes hard to even find a seat!

The greatest find of all though is my doctor.  The two big things that were keeping me from wanting to have a baby on the road was not getting to have a nursery and not having MY doctor back home.  I love my doctor back home so much and felt very comfortable with him but I decided I could be flexible and find someone new wherever we went.  I had my first appointment back in January and did not like the doctor at all.  I was pretty upset thinking what have I done, this is going to be so hard.  I decided to look at other doctors in the office and found a midwife there and scheduled my next appointment with her.  I got to see her a couple weeks ago and Brandon and I both LOVE her!! She is so sweet and very informative, which is exactly what I was looking for.  She is very open to my birth plan and said she'll do anything she can to help me.  She is also so understanding of us moving around and doesn't make us feel bad about it or give us any less care just because we might not be here the whole time.

I know I am jinxing us by writing this post.  I know we'll probably get called to somewhere new next week and I'll have to adjust all over again but I am ok with that.  I am just so happy that I have been able to really enjoy it here and learn how to live in a new city in a short time.  I feel like I am not just "living" though, I've made a life here.  I am going to do that in every town we go to so I always feel at home :)

Being Healthy for Two

So I always thought I would be that pregnant woman that ate all the right things and would be known as "that pregnant lady that is always exercising".  Well reality has hit and I do not feel like I am doing a good job.  There are so many emotional highs and lows you go through when you are pregnant that no one ever tells you about. I don't think anyone tells you because women don't understand it as they are going through it and certainly don't want to remember it when its over.

Prior to getting pregnant I had made some healthy life choices to be in the best shape for a baby.  I was exercising at least 5 times a week, eating lots of fruits and veggies and had stopped drinking alcohol unless for a special occasion (like our honeymoon!) I planned on keeping all this up when I got pregnant and I have tried, but probably not as hard as I should.  I did not expect the exhaustion that hits you like 5 freight trains one after another and stays for well....12 weeks so far.  I sleep in way too late most days and then I am ready for a nap two hours later.  I have to take at least one nap a day, even if its only a half hour.   Moving to Colorado has been great and for the better but the elevation here is so  high it makes it very hard for me to breath.  Not to mention its freezing cold, going from the warm climate of New Mexico to the freezing temps of Northern Colorado has made it difficult to feel great when I am on my runs.  I was running up to 7 miles before I got pregnant and now I am struggling to get through 3 miles.  That brings me to my next point.  Eating.  Although I have been very lucky and did not experience much sickness I have lost my appetite completely.  For the first week after being pregnant I couldn't stop eating, everything and anything sounded good and I was eating every 45 minutes.  That has been gone for weeks now and I am struggling every day to get enough calories (clean calories) in each day.  Running is great and makes me feel wonderful (when I'm done) but I'm burning 400-600 calories which doesn't help when I am already having a difficult time eating enough.  I feel so bad for Brandon, I haven't been making dinners because nothing sounds good or tastes good.  The things that sound good are Candy, waffles, taquitos, CRAP CRAP CRAP! This is by far the most frustrating "symptom" so far this pregnancy and I didn't even know it would happen.

I weighed myself a few weeks ago and I had gained 10 pounds, 10 pounds in a few weeks! I instantly started crying.  I read online it may be water weight so I drank more water then I have ever drank in my life and weighed myself two days later.  I had lost 8 pounds! The things the woman's body does when pregnant is so strange.  No one else can gain and lose that much weight in a matter of days.  Every woman is different.  Some don't gain a pound until well into their second trimester.  Some gain all their weight in the first trimester and don't gain again until the third.  Others lose weight during their pregnancy! Its all so different and its very emotional on the woman going through it. I had an emotional break down a few mornings ago.  Crying to my husband that I am huge and I don't know how quick I'll be able to lose the weight after the baby is here.  I am upset because I feel like any weight I gain will be my fault.  I am NOT eating as best I should and I am not exercising daily.  I am tired and frustrated.   I am trying to remember there is no right or wrong to weight gain.  At 12 weeks I have now gained 3 pounds and I am ok with that and I am working on accepting the changes my body is going through.

Along with the hormones that make even the smallest things huge, there is all the media that tells you what you should look like pregnant, feel like, and what to eat and NOT eat.  As much as I wish I could, I really don't think I will be one of those Fit Pregnancy models that have toothpick thin legs and arms and are all belly.  Nope, in fact I am sure my face will gain weight and my legs will get a little bigger, and who knows what will happen to my butt! For some reason though, you NEVER see those pictures on the magazines or online.  I get emails daily from various sites I have signed up to, that say "watch what you eat", "Don't eat for two", "Eat this healthy alternative rather then the junk you really want".  Yeah I've tried the healthy alternative and you know what, 3 days later I STILL want the junk. I feel like I am constantly googling things to make sure its ok to eat or drink.  "No lunchmeat, no coffee, no chai, no herbal teas, no soft cheeses, no hot dogs, no raw fish, nothing that has sat out for two hours, no artificial sweeteners" and the list goes on.  I feel like my head is going to explode, I had to ask my husband to try to help me remember what I can't eat so I don't accidentally eat something bad! Then the guilt that comes from having that ONE bite of a hot dog because you forgot and googling it to see what damage you might have done.....I seriously might go crazy!!!

As I head into the second trimester my goal is to be healthier but not focus on the scale so much or what I am "not" doing.  I need to focus on the positive choices I am making every day.  My body is changing and it is going to gain or lose what it needs for a healthy baby.  If I want a starburst I will have one, maybe even a couple but NOT a whole bag.  I don't want to treat my pregnancy as a reason to be a human garbage disposal but maybe I need to cut myself a little slack and realize eating clean pregnant is not as easy as I thought it might be.
Thanks for hanging in there on this whiney post!!

Catching Up!!

I am so sorry it took me so long to write this post.  I have been exhausted since I started growing a baby and I can just barely get through the day doing the things I am supposed to do each day.  Honestly, I am failing at that too! I don't make the bed every day, because some days I don't GET OUT OF IT! I let the dishes pile up for a few days at a time and then I am upset that I have so many dishes to do.  And Dinner....oh my poor husband! I think I've only made a full dinner a handful of times in the last two months.  Nothing sounds good and I honestly just don't have the energy to decide what to make and then make it! I haven't been sick thank goodness but I have just been so so so tired!! Its all I can do every day to get some sort of exercise in so I can try to stay healthy! Luckily it is getting so nice here in Greeley.  It was 61 yesterday and a high of 65 today, in January!!

We got to go home for Christmas and that was really fun, we hadn't been home since our wedding! We got home in the EARLY morning of Saturday the 22nd.  We didn't plan on telling our parents our exciting news of Baby Underdown until Christmas morning and didn't want to tell our friends until our get together on Friday the 28th so we had A LOT of time to try to avoid the big question.  My mom asked me and was BEGGING me to go snowboarding the whole time, and I avoided it like crazy and Brandon couldn't look her in the eye.  We didn't dare go to his parents house until Christmas cause we knew he couldn't keep it in.  We had my mom open her christmas present on christmas morning and she cried and was shocked and then it hit her WHY I wasn't committing to going snowboarding :) We went to Brandon's parents and gave them their present and they cried and were very excited! That felt better getting to tell our parents, then we just had to wait until friday to get to tell all our friends.

The picture frame we gave Brandon's parents :) 

The picture frame we gave my mom :) 

We wanted to be able to tell as many people in person as possible and it was sooo worth the long wait! We got to have all of our closets friends at our friends Shannon and Tyson's house and as soon as the last guest arrived I had to spill the beans.  Brandon almost did earlier, we had gotten there early to help them set up and visit and Shannon wanted to go to Sushi, I said oh yeah I am dying for Sushi and Brandon pipes up and goes "Can you have that hun?" I go "of course I can sweetie, WHY wouldn't I?" as I am glaring at him for almost blowing it after we had waited so long! He goes "Oh I just thought cause of your diet you were on"..... Good cover up Brandon! Shannon and Tyson offered me a glass of wine a couple times and I kept saying, yeah I'll wait til everyone gets here! I seriously thought I couldn't hold it in, if one of them would have asked if I was pregnant I would have blown it right then and there!  As soon as everyone was there I got everyones attention and thanked them all for making time for us during the crazy holiday times, then I said,  "and guess what.....we're pregnant!!!" Everyones jaws dropped and it was the best feeling in the whole wide world.  Then I said "It has come to my attention someone else in this room is pregnant" and all the girls nervously looked around at each other like "its not me" haha it was awesome! It was AMANDA!! She got to tell everyone she is pregnant too, 2 weeks ahead of me! Oh it was just the best night and a memory I will cherish FOREVER! How lucky are we to have so many friends that can pack a kitchen full and be so genuinely happy for us.  I love our friends so much and we are so beyond blessed to have such GREAT people in our lives!

Mommies to be! :) 

Some of the girls *LOVE* 

Proud Daddies to be!! :) 

 Not all of our special friends were able to be there, some were busy with holidays and others were not in town.  We got to tell them before hand and they were just as happy for us.  On our way home to Colorado, we got to meet up with the McBrides and I got to FINALLY meet baby Wes! We got to have lunch together and catch up about this crazy life.  It was so nice talking in person (since Cayla and I text every day!) and know that the things we are going through in this apprenticeship is not unique or because of anything we've done, its just part of the apprenticeship.

Love Love Love!!!!

We are so lucky to have so many friends all over the country, friends really are your family, I have never felt so loved than I have in the past few years.

Baby Underdown!!

Wednesday December 5th: I just had to write this down so I can document everything and post it after we announce.  I don't want to forget anything about this feeling and experience! 

Dear Baby,

I can't even start to tell you how excited your daddy and I are that you are finally in my belly.  We have wanted you for a really long time, and tried for you for about 5 months, and now you are finally on your way! When you want someone so bad, the time seems to drag on, 5 months felt like 50 years! Month after month when I would get my period I would be so sad because that meant you were not here yet.  I just prayed and asked God to give us a baby, find us OUR baby, our perfect little angel.  I told him I knew it just must not have been time yet and I knew he was waiting for just the right baby to give us.  Now I am so glad he waited because I know you are the one picked out just for us and I love you so much already. 

I decided to test Tuesday December 4th.  I just had a feeling, my body felt different and I was almost two days late at this point.  I tested and left it in the bathroom ( in Piper!) for the 3 minutes it takes and waited in the living room.  I told your daddy I was going to test that night but didn't tell him when.  I went into the bathroom after 3 minutes and 2 seconds, looked at the test and immediately started screaming, I saw what I had been wanting to see, two pink lines!! I almost fell down the stairs trying to get to your daddy, as I was screaming and shoved the test in his face and said "LOOK!" He goes "whats this mean?" as I was screaming, jumping up and down and climbing into his arms.  I said "WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!" He goes "No, no are you serious, really? Oh my gosh, I can't believe it!!" There was a lot more screaming and jumping up and down and hugging and saying "WHAT? Wow, its really happening!" I asked him what he thought when he first heard me scream and he said "I thought you were running from a spider or something, I didn't know you were testing" 

Your daddy starting at TWO lines, letting it sink it :)

 Then came the fun part of telling a couple friends, your mommy is not very good at keeping exciting news to herself.  I texted my friend Amanda and she had the most incredible response a girl could ever get! 

Best Response EVER!

Baby, we are so excited for you, for this next chapter of our lives.  We can't wait to tell everyone you are on your way, we are going to announce it in 2 1/2 short weeks at Christmas! I made my first appointment to hear your heartbeat and it is for January 11th.  I don't know how I am going to wait that long but I will have to manage.  I love you! 

First "belly" picture, 3weeks and 5 days!

Broken Water Hose and Bubble Wrap

The drive up to Greeley wasn't too bad once we got on the road.  One of our rear jacks broke as Brandon was hooking up to Piper so he had to tie them up before we left.  Not what you want to happen right before you leave but it isn't the end of the world, he already has it fixed now :)

Needless to say this my first winter on the road and our first winter in Piper.  I am so thankful that we are in Piper, I would probably go insane if we still had Thor.  We made the 12 hour drive from Carlsbad to Greeley and got to the RV park about 8:30 Saturday night.  The RV park didn't have our "sites" ( I say that VERY loosely) set up so we didn't get to set up until noon on Sunday, that was a little frustrating but we made do.  We got all set up and I got unpacked with my decorations all up.  We had a couple errands to run, like buying Brandon long under ware, then we went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  It was so nice to be able to get what we needed and go to dinner all within 5 miles of our RV park.  I can get used to this!

Sunday night we slept pretty well.  We have our furnace set at 40 so it keeps everything from freezing and our space heater in the bedroom at 70 and we are perfectly warm.  We woke up at 6 this morning and Brandon and I got to have breakfast, coffee and hot coco together, it was so fun! A much needed change from his 3:30 am departures.  Sounds like he is only about 10 miles away from our RV park which again is much better than him being in a whole other state and an hour and a half away!

This RV park is definitely one of the more uncomfortable ones we've stayed at.  They are full in their park so they opened up a field and put about 100 campers and 5th wheels in that.  So this is where we are staying, in a field, in Colorado.  We do have electric, water, and sewer but its just weird. There is no cable, not even local channels from our antenna, but I do have lightening fast wifi so I can watch all our shows online. Even our skirting guy asked what our space number we were and I had to give him directions to where we were in the field.

Our Spot....

Looking out our front door....

Our furnace wasn't kicking on this morning, we thought we must have ran out of propane so we went outside to change it over to the other tank ( I wanted to go so I could remember how) well we walked outside and saw this:

Yeah the connecting part of the heated hose cracked and apparently had been spewing water all night long.  We wouldn't have known until I went and looked cause we still had water in Piper.  Oh well.  Easy cheap fix :)

My next winterization project was to put that bubble wrap stuff on our windows.  I am a little bummed about having to do this, I absolutely love opening my blinds and letting the sunlight in and in the summer opening all my windows :)  It took me about 2 hours but I got every single window and overhead vent covered so we really live in a cave now.

Bubble wrap  on some of the windows

Our living room with NO lights on.....ugh! 

Our skirting guy should be coming by today to take measurements so Piper can get a new winter jacket.  It should really help keep the heat in and plus we get so much storage underneath now :) I'll post a pic when we get it all installed.
That is our little update, living in a 5th wheel is not all fun and games but its not miserable and its memories for our memory bank :)

Colorado here we come!!

We're headed to Colorado, but we don't know when or where.  We could be leaving tomorrow, or Sunday, I am really hoping for tomorrow so Brandon has a day to get Piper set up before he leaves for work.  Sounds promising that we'll be going to Greeley, CO, north of Denver, but there has been mention of Thornton too.  Brandon practically live in Thornton for 8 months, it is where his shower, I mean gym, was that he went to every day.  I wouldn't mind Thornton, but honestly at this point I am so ready for anywhere!

I've tried to be strong and I think I've been a pretty good trooper but NM is the most boring and lonely state in the country.  Brandon has 3 hours of drive time each day and works 10-12 hour days so I never see him.  Mix that with no cell service, there being NOTHING down here and I am 20 miles from "town" that only has one store, I've gone a bit crazy!  I cant wait for restaurants, shopping, PEOPLE, grocery stores and gas stations just down the street, coffee shops, running trails, Target, a GYM, closer to home, and seeing FRIENDS!

So today my job is to get Piper travel ready just in case we leave tomorrow.  I will:

• Pack up all our dishes so they don't break in travel
• Move anything heavy out of the cupboards
• Move everything off of the counters
• Strap down the chairs and recliners
• Strap Cupboards shut
• Take down all my decorations
• Clean
• Vacuum
• Take anything out of the bathroom cupboard that could fall out in travel

Brandon's job is to

• Move the tvs and secure them 
• Unhook our water, sewer and electric
• Hook up to Piper

I'm a little nervous I will miss something, I've only packed up Piper one other time and we had just got it so I didn't have as much stuff.  I can guarantee by the end of the apprenticeship, I'll be the fastest girl ever at getting a 5th wheel travel ready :) 

Underdown Thanksgiving 2012

As you know I have been very excited about thanksgiving this year.  I was excited to have a full day with Brandon, start some new traditions and COOK good food.  I was pretty nervous but I felt like I could handle it.  I took my hens out of the freezer on Monday so they would have plenty of time to thaw out.  They still had ice crystals on the inside on Thursday and that kinda concerned me but they seemed to work out fine.  I've always heard of needing to take the insides out, or theres a little bag...well I don't think that applies to hens, I couldn't find any bag but I found some pretty nasty inside stuff so I took that out.  Brandon told me to "scrape it out like a pumpkin" but of course he wouldn't come to help at all!
Heres a couple things I learned this year :

• The disposable pans will crack and leak juice all over your oven if you move them in and out of the oven. This will cause a lot of smoke....
• In a 5th wheel you cannot pull the rack out "a little" to baste the hens....The rack will fall down and cause a big mess as you are frantically trying to keep your hens off the bottom on your oven and floor.....

Other than these two almost disasters the dinner turned out great! We had a little food.....

• Two hens ( 5 pounds each)
• 1 small ham
• Green Bean Casserole
• Yams
• Cranberry Sauce
• Corn
• Hawaiian Rolls
• Deviled Eggs
• Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
• Stuffing
• Apple Pie
• Cherry Pie
• Chocolate Cream Pie

Yes its a lot of food but I ran into a couple problems when I was making my list for Thanksgiving...I COULDN'T Leave anything out or it wouldn't have felt like thanksgiving.  I am a HUGE fan of leftovers....I really think there is nothing better than a turkey sandwich with stuffing, gravy, mayo, pepper on my favorite bread...YUM!! I actually think the leftover sandwiches are better than the dinner itself so I HAD to make sure we had enough for leftovers.   Brandon made fun of me and said "yeah you have to have your leftovers".  This is our 3rd Thanksgiving together and he has ALWAYS made fun of me for needing my left overs. Well I served him up a plate of leftover thanksgiving yesterday and he was speechless, said it was amazing and just kept saying "yum, yum, yum" HA! so I guess someone will stop making fun of me for needing my leftovers now :) 

Sure doesn't get much better than this... :) 

 I had to get a ham  because Brandon really loves ham, I am not much of a fan but I couldn't leave it off the menu.  I made the ham in the crock pot this year and it was amazing, even if I am not the biggest fan.   I put brown sugar down on the bottom, ham on top, brown sugar and then a can of pineapple chunks and juice and let it cook for 7 hours on low.  It was the most tender, sweet ham...yum!! And what about the sides, I HAD to have all the sides to make it a perfect dinner...so you see...you probably would have done the same thing as me :) 

I did pretty well and had everything ready to eat at 2:45 and it was still hot :)  I was worried about making my moms stuffing, her stuffing is my absolute favorite, I did alright I put too much poultry seasoning in but its still edible.  I made Brandon's moms mashed potatoes (this is the only  side he wanted) so I was extra nervous about getting those right but I did, he said they were perfect!! 

So all in all it was a very fun day and I feel like an accomplished wife now that I have made my very own thanksgiving dinner in our 5th wheel kitchen none the less. Wait until I have a whole house with a full kitchen and oven!! :) 

Lighting the pilot in the oven :)

The Hen all ready to go in the oven :) 

"Just Basting my birds" 

ALL DONE!! :) 

Using my kitchen aid for Mashed Potatoes :) 

Brandon carving the hen 

Dinner is served!! 

Happy Husband! 

We relaxed after dinner and then we decided we would go check out black friday...when figured since we are in such a small town it wouldn't be so bad.  Artesia only has 11,000 people in it so it was the perfect time.  We went to Kmart cause they had a 50 inch TV for $288...well we stood in line for an hour and a half, we were at the front of the line and we didn't even get a TV cause they only had 6! We were pretty bummed so we headed over to Walmart and we got an iPad and a $75 gift card to Walmart and a 50 Inch TV for $225.  Brandon is very happy now, all he wanted was a HUGE tv and recliners in his home so now he has both :) 

Sitting outside of Kmart....all for nothing!

But then he got one....Happy boy!! :)

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving and if you went to black friday I hope you got some great deals!!