Another walk in the park only this time in March

The weather here has been GORGEOUS! I mean, it's the beginning of April and our lawn desperately needs mowing!

My one main complaint with this pregnancy are my hips. They have ached since about month 3 and now Babe is sitting on a nerve which makes it OH APPROXIMATELY ONE MILLION TIMES WORSE.

Normally one would take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for runs, walks, bike rides etc. Instead Aaron and I go for ambles. Short ambles. Here are some photos from the last one:

Project 360: Week 5 (A walk in the park)

On Saturday Aaron stopped work early and we went for a walk in the park. This is what winter with absolutely no snow looks like, rather barren. Here are some of my favorites: (Oh- and my bump is about 32 weeks here.)

busting open basement windows

The other day I left the house in a frenzy as a friend was picking me up and I woke up late. Fast forward a couple hours and the lightbulb above my head went off, "I forgot my keys on the table at home!?" I checked my purse and sure enough, no keys. I called Aaron in a panic and was told to get dropped off and check all the windows and doors in case they were left open (I never leave windows and doors open as I am paranoid about robbers).

I got dropped off (did I mention it was pouring rain?) and proceeded to start checking all the main level openings into our home. Nothing was open and I was getting soggy and grumpy. Aaron had informed me when I called him that I NEEDED to get inside as I had stuff to do! See, we had company coming for the weekend in two days and well, you know what we do for company. So I had a couple more coats of paint to put on a wall, another room to prime, drywall dust to sweep up, papers to organize, a house to clean and tidy, laundry to do..... Yah.

So I checked the upstairs window (that Aaron put a chair through a couple of months ago so it was already busted). I thought it was latched good and hard and it was scary up there waaay above the ground. I seriously thought my ladder was going to come crashing down and that I would meet my untimely end. So down the ladder I went to inspect the basement windows.

SCORE!!!! A lose pane of plexiglass (our house is ghetto)! I gleefully rip off the metal screen into tiny little pieces (there are holes in it anyway) and re-inspect the pane. Yup, very, very lose. "BAM", my foot enters the house. "BAM", again and again until our poor little window is a hole. My heart swells with pride, only there is a cloud on the horizon, how on earth am I going to fit in the hole?! This basement window has a slat down the middle of it making it about half the size of a normal one and most definitely smaller than my hips. I know that Aaron will not be please if I bust the frame too so I figure I have nothing to lose by trying. I drop down to the muddy ground and shove my legs into the house wiggling myself till my hips are pried between the edges of the frame. I carefully place my sweatshirt covered forearms on the glass shard covered sill (from the last break window pane) and tilt my loser body at a 45 degree angle. My hips are now inside the house, I furiously kick my legs attempting to determine what is below me in the dark, unknown depths. I grip the sill with my finger tips as I lower myself downwards. My adrenaline is pumping and my heart is beating. This is the most thrilling thing I have done since riding the roller coaster at tinker town when I was 12. My tippy toes scrape concrete and I let go of the sill....

Amazingly enough there were no boards with nails poking out right below me, there was no unknown hole, there were no tools to cause me to lurch and fall flat on my back knocking me out, I was alive!!! I ran exuberantly up the stairs and unlocked my front door.

I am woman, hear me roar.

Then Aaron came home. He did not congratulate me on my amazing entrance into our locked house! Instead I was lectured on not:
1. trying all the basement windows for one with that would open with no breakage
2. going through the open, broken upstairs window (oops)
3. moving the ladder where I left it leaning up against the house under the aforementioned window
4. covering the window I broke (bugs/rodents/animals)
5. phoning him for advice before I broke the window
6. calling my father-in-law who can get into a house in 5 minutes with a credit card.

My Aaron, I promise I will never break into my house again (unless it is absolutely necessary).

touring metro detroit

My mother-in-law has a year pass for the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn that is expiring soon. So the whole family got ourselves together and made a day of it. I love museums. This one was interesting but a whole lot about America the free, the brave, the beautiful etc etc. I guess I should get used to the patriotism. Kinda over the top though. Anyway, the chair Lincoln died in, the presidential cars back to when there were no cars, steam engines, doll houses, trains, airplanes, cars and much, much more. As most of you are likely shivering in anticipating of SEEING such a museum I will stop describing so as to not ruin any surprises. I know- I'm so kind. I will force you to look at photos though.

Next the IMAX to see a "Corral Reef Adventure". It wasn't particularly adventurous but it really made me want to head somewhere tropical. We then headed to Mexican Town for Lunch.

Just down the street was a pedestrian bridge across the highway. I have no idea what the point was, but we crossed it. (Please forgive the jacket. It was raining. I had to buy the rain jacket when I went to Africa. In January. I left it to a week before I had to go. The only jacket I could find in the city was two sizes too big. I hate it.)

Next we parted company from the in-laws and went over to the old train station. Surrounded by barbed wire, completely deserted and all the glass in the windows busted out. It was beautiful in a really wrong way.

John K. Books. They claim to be the largest seller of used books in Michigan. Four floors. They hand you a MAP when you go in! Aaron was drooling. He said the prices weren't that bad either.

Then to REI for some backpacking induced drooling. (I think we found our pot set! We have to make some test runs first though.) Some visiting with friends on the way home. Long, fun day:)

mountain backpacking

When Aaron and I first got married we planned on doing something big for our first year anniversary. We dreamed of different continents, long journeys and foreign languages. Maybe one day that'll happen. Like- maybe for our 25th wedding anniversary. So for now we've had to readjust our expectations to fit our budget and we're going to have to stick with...

GOING TO SEE MY FAMILY IN JULY!!!!!

What a deflator eh?! "On our way home" from seeing them though we plan on stopping in Montana for a weekish and going backpacking. I've never been overnight but I love camping and hiking and have always wanted to attempt it. Aaron's been itching to go his whole life but see, I came along, and halted all plans of adventure and excitement.

We've bought some of our gear. Aaron made me buy a backpack for our honeymoon (so we didn't have to pay for checked baggage- so romantic) and he's had one forever. We just bought down sleeping bags off of steep and cheap. And we have a cute little tent that you can barely move around in that's light enough for Aaron to carry (he has agreed to carry anything of weighty significance). He has a little stove so all we need is cooking stuff. I'd rather eat dried fruit and nuts for a week straight as I hate cooking while camping. Fortunately my husband loves it. So all I have to do is sit back and watch him work. Right. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

The other big thing we need to do before going is, um, well, move. Like I need to get off my rear end and walk or run or skip or anything. I used to run about 5 miles a week. That's not amazing but there is. no. way. that. could. happen. now. Aaron gets a lot of exercise with working but no cardio so he really needs to do stuff with me but he is in better shape than I am. Another thing to help us get into the groove is a mini backpacking trip maybe in May- to the pictured rocks in the U.P. They look so pretty!

So after I write this I need to go for a walk. But I have a house to clean, laundry to do, bow ties to sew, dresses to sew (I have passed the difficult stuff so you'll see photo's soon!) and I promised my Aaron that I'd bake him some banana blueberry bread.

So we are looking forward to a week of wearing the same clothes, not showering, swatting mosquitos continually, sleeping on the ground and getting to see some of God's gorgeous creation. We'll take a million pictures and I'll tell you all about our adventures!

Of course all plans are subject to change without notice. I've been informed that I still need to get my passport renewed "just in case" and he checks flights to random corners of the world continuously. I am not going to the middle east though. No matter how cheap the flights are.

Civil War Musters

This post is for the Canadians- did you know that Americans have Civil War reenactments all over the USA? Weird right?!

Normal people make it their hobby to collect items from that time period and then they dress up and take part in the battles and the encampments behind the battle lines. There's the amputation tent, dress maker shops, candy shops, blacksmith shops, little kids running around in period costume, ladies in massive dresses with hope skirts taking photos with digital cameras, cannon's going off, cavalry, sand bags, filth, hand made goods, milliner shops, artillery, army, and all different ranks. And they all do this voluntarily. Some people even take their summers and travel to all the different musters as participants! Double weird.

One of Aaron's life long ambitions has been to participate in one (or two, three, four... etc). To have his whole family decked out in period custom and him waving a pistol and winning some glorious (or not so glorious) battle. Right. What have I married?!