Melissa’s blog

OK, before I couldn’t find a moose to save my life, now it seems I can’t get away from them. It was a beautiful day today so I donned all of the clothing I could fit and headed out into the 1 degree weather. As I was heading down the road toward the coastal trail I passed some runners and for a split second thought about turning around but forged on. The thought of turning around was triggered by the fact that when the runners ran past they had icicles on their eyebrows and beards and such. At trail head I met up with another walker who warned me of a moose on the trail about 1/4 mile ahead. OK I thought I’ll walk until I get close and then turn around. Well, 1/4 mile isn’t that far, I was about 3 minutes into the walk when I came upon the moose. There was a skier behind me who didn’t look like he was slowing down so I tagged along. He did wind up removing his skies, asked if I was ready, told me to be ware of the moose’s hind legs then we took off running:) The moose could have cared less.The trail was very scenic, the inlet was to my right and various things were on my right. I did note that the frozen pond that everyone skates on was accessible from the trail. Hummm I need a pair of skates that would be awesome. So i ventured on a bit further but not too far. I still felt good, was a getting a bit cold but realized I had to double back so I turned at a bridge. Didn’t make it to Earthquake park but maybe next time.I was sure the moose was gone due to all of the people I had passed on the trail but no dice, he was still there and looking at me head on. I was going to scale the fence but I saw my skier friend coming so i waited for him, two people are better than one. Well, the moose was staring us down so we decided to go off the trail into the frozen mud flats to get around him. the skier dude offered to take my pic by the moose. It was a butt shot      ( of the moose that is) and a little nerve racking but fun nonetheless.  A chilly but beautiful walk. 

I woke up and looked out the kitchen window this morning and the sleeping lady was bathed in pink, I love the view from out house. The sun shone today like I haven’t seen in quite some time. I never thought I would pay that much attention to the sun and it’s habits but I could definitely tell a difference in it’s position, it was shinning all day and hitting areas that it hasn’t hit in quite some time :) Sunrise is now 10 AM and sunset is about 4:15. December the sunrise was as late as 10:15 and sunset was as early at 3:40. The clear blue skies prompted me to figure I would bundle up and head out for a nice walk on along the coastal trail. That was until I realized bundling up was an understatement, it was only 4 degrees out, so I decided to bake some muffins, granola and, marinara sauce instead. I know they say not to fall into that trap, so I am determined to get everything I want done today so if it is nice again tomorrow, which it is supposed to be, I will bundle up with all of the outer wear that I own, strap the camera around my neck and head out!!! The inlet is really neat when the sun is out because when the tide comes in the inlet is full of ice chunks that float along with the current. Maybe I’ll even make it to earthquake park where I hear there are fantastic views of the city. 

pile of garbage, a discarded Christmas tree, no IT’S A MOOSE in the back yard. I was getting ready to hit the hey, I doused the lights and saw a heap of something in the neighbors yard. I honestly thought they threw their tree out the for the time being, but then it started to move and I realized it was moose gnawing on their grass. I tried to open my living room windows to get what would have been an awesome shot but they must have been frozen shut bolocks!! So headed down stairs to try my hand at a shot from, oh about 10 years I kid you not. I tried without the flash so as to not disturb her but that didn’t work. I came back upstairs to try again but still couldn’t the darn window open, back down stairs to rush out, snap a few with the flash and back into safety :)As I am downloading the pics that I did get, she starts wondering around which, if it were day light would have been awesome, but there was no way I was heading back out for a pic while she was on her feet!! She wondered around chewing up the shrubbery around the houses and then make her break and headed down the L street in search of some other tasty morsels.  

So, I headed to work as usual this morning but the day turned for the worse when I had to call the Dr. due to some problems. The Dr. wanted to see me right away, if right away means in 5 hours. I’m not complaining because he got me in. It all turned out OK, a broken blood vessel caused the scare. There was a quick ultrasound that proved all was well so YEAH for technology.Speaking of technology I have all of these books on being pregnant and all these web-sites on being pregnant and they claim to be so comprehensive and truthful but really they aren’t. You would think every aspect of pregnancy could be covered with todays technology but alas, in our “sue happy world” there is too much liability to publish something that says, “this could happen and if it does this is what it could be from.” What is out there are text book pregnancy books. You know, on week 16 this is what the average baby looks like and does. They are good references but they aren’t “real” it is starting to really tick me off. Unless you have a bunch of friends, and I mean a whole bunch, you will never know everything there is to know about being pregnant. There is even a new blog in our paper up here that I thought would be awesome but it isn’t. It isn’t a “personal” blog, it’s just some chick pulling published articles from various places and bringing them together on her blog. Blah!!Anyway Dr, said everything looks fine so not to worry. Ha, is that supposed to be funny, not worry. If I make it to May 6th without a full head of grey hair, and at least 1 heart attack I will consider that a success:) After this whole pregnancy thing bringing up the baby is going to be a walk in the park hee hee! Just think, only 17 more weeks of this!! The good thing is, Junior really is a mover and shaker now so feeling him move is very reassuring!!

Well, I guess my football watching days are over for the year. The Steelers could have pulled it out but they didn’t, they lost to Baltimore by 2 points. It was a decent game but they should have won. In the last quarter I was jumping and bouncing around a lot and junior sure was too. Now we know he isn’t only a music lover he is a football fan too. He really has no choice of being as football fan, nor will he have a choice as to who his favorite team is either, hee hee. We were up pretty late, close to 2 am, and I think junior was upset at that and was kicking, or dancing, and or getting a karate lesions because once I finally laid down he was going crazy. It was great though Chad finally got to feel him move !!! My placenta, being anterior was going to make feeling movement very minimal for a while, a while I thought being sometime next month so I am glad we were able to feel it now. I guess junior is also 1 pound by now, a momentous occasion. I thought that was pretty cool, then Chad snapped me back to reality by saying, “Yeah he only has about 5 more pounds to gain!!” Well, when you put it that way, I’m scared!!! Well, today is January 6th so that means in 1 month I will be back in the lower 48 for a visit and a baby shower yippie!! One month is good but it is still one month so I’m going to try to keep my excitement at bay for now, but we are certainly moving right along.