1st "Official" Appointment

This morning we had our first official prenatal appointment with our doctor, Dr. Barnabei. She seems like quite a nice woman, and a great doctor. I think she will fit us well! We went over just a couple of little things regarding our medical histories, and talked about our upcoming appointment with the genetic counselor. Though it is optional for all expecting parents, Skip and I feel as if a talk with the counselor will put our minds at ease in case there are any things that could come up throughout the course of this pregnancy, as well as when I go into labor. Based on my sister's history and only for peace of mind in regards to Elizabeth's diagnosis, we thought that it would be a good idea to just get checked out and talk to someone. So we'll update next on that appointment...

But for now, all is well, and we're very excited!

I guess the wish bone worked!

Well, it's March 10th and as of yesterday, I'm officially 8 weeks pregnant! Skip and I found out about a month ago, and we were very excited. I wasn't due for "Aunt Flo" for a couple of days, but I thought "what the heck (haha Jan!) I'll take a test." So I did, and there was this faint little second line. Hmmm... I taped the test to the bathroom mirror for Skip to find when he got home from work, then I went back to the living room to finish my last beer (it was a PBR. The least it could've been was a good beer for my last one. Oh well.). Skip came in the room when he got home and said, "Are we going to have a baby?" I wasn't convinced as of yet, and not to mention 3/4 asleep, so he didn't get much of a response from me. When I got to work the next day, I looked online and learned that any second line, no matter how faint, is a positive result-- so that was that!

I took another test a couple of days later (one that Skip had yoinked from Sinai), and wabam! A big fat plus sign! I was convinced now :). We told our families that weekend, and they are both very excited!

Up to this point I've been counting my blessings for how I've been feeling. A little nausea here and there, and of course sore tatas (tmi, I know...). I've been extremely exhausted though, so that's been rough. To describe it better: Pledging at 3am, right around week 3. Or ~2am on a 24 when you've been running calls all day long. Sleep is all I've wanted, and I've been doing pretty well on getting it. I've heard the second trimester is the best, so I'm looking forward to a month from now...

In the meantime, I saw a nurse and she confirmed our due date of October 19th. She also went over our social/medical histories and gave us a lot of information on what to expect in the coming months. My first OB appointment is March 27th, and we're really looking forward to seeing how everything is progressing.

Aside from the big news, other updates: Skip is nearing the end of the "nursing school tunnel," and (fingers crossed) will be done in August. Sinai ER has been treating him well as a Nurse Extern, and he hopes to continue there for some time after graduation.

My job is the same as always, I suppose no news is "good" news.

Scotch = Neurotic. But what else is new?

My Thoughts

So, last night I watched the election results and was so glad to be able to celebrate Barack Obama's victory. His and McCain's campaigns were historic, and I know his presidency will be even more so.

I have to say that my experience with politics has been much like my experience with religion and the Catholic faith over the past 4 or 5 years. 4 years ago, I walked out of the church that I grew up in because I was told that I was wrong for having the beliefs that I do. The opinions and feelings that I developed so deep in my heart throughout my childhood and early adult life were shot down throughout the course of a short few months while sitting through masses and listening to priests berate people like me. So I stopped going to church. I bet the priests would be happy that they got rid of a "heathen" like me-- "Mission accomplished," they would probably say. Well guess what? I took that time to really think through what I believed in, and only became stonger in my convictions. And I have now found a church that supports me for who I am, and doesn't make me feel as if I'm a horrible person just because of the fact that I have an open mind and heart and accept the fact that the world is not what it was in 1950.

In the past 2 presidential elections (the only ones in which I've been able to vote) I have felt like my opinions and beliefs don't matter. And as I've grown over the past 8 years, I've felt even more so. I felt crushed watching the results unfold 8 years ago, whether those results were legitimate or rigged. 4 years ago, it seemed hopeless that anything would change when the country actually did legitimately decide the results. However, I didn't stew over it, I accepted that that was the way it was, living my life the best ways I knew how, but not backing down. Disagree with their decision? Yes. But insulting those who exercised the same rights that I did was not going to get anything accomplished.

Yesterday, I went to my polling place and filled in the arrow next to the name of someone I so hoped would be able to renew my faith in the American people, and last night, my faith was renewed. The country legitmately decided that this man is the one to bring change to our system by integrating our history with the reality that the world is not what it used to be. To those people who voted for McCain and have not seen the results they hoped for, I will say to you that I understand how you feel. It probably hurts. But realize that by insulting and crying over the results you will not accomplish anything. You and I must take this opportunity to acknowledge that it is what it is, and we must work together to accomplish as much as we can with the system we have in place. If you feel some law or process isn't right, challenge it! Be that voice that reminds us that not everyone agrees-- that is the blessing of living in the society that we do. We can challenge the beliefs and opinions of others without having to worry that we'll be killed doing so. But we also must respect the different voices that people have, and not make others feel oppressed or wrong for feeling the way they do. We all came to have our own beliefs and opinions, however different they may be, but we all did so under the SAME SYSTEM. We can use this new time to work together to make that system even better for everyone. Yes we can.

September Update

Having not posted for a while, I seem to have sort of forgotten what has happened over the past couple of months. So I'll look at my calendar and update based on that.

The Preston Family Reunion 2008 was held the weekend of July 4th in Crystal Lake, hosted by my mom. She did an awesome job, and it was great to see all of the family. I had some very important and emotional conversations with certain family members, and ultimately feel closer than ever to them.

I'm still waiting for my wedding photo album from my asshole photographer. It's going on 10 months now since I ordered...

I went up north for a short weekend visit at the end of July, while the rest of the fam stayed the whole week. It was a little weird not staying up there the whole time-- that's the first time in like 15 years that I haven't been up there for a whole week in the summer :(. That's what I get for taking 2 weeks to go "down south."

Skip and Paradigm Pulse had a show in August at The Rave. I was very proud of all of them, and they had a great turnout. I even got a visit with Kathryn, Lindsay and Steph out of it!

We celebrated Stephanie's birthday with a boat cruise on the Milwaukee river at the end of August-- so much fun, and great to see everyone!

As for September, the summer has been winding down, and I'm trying to make the most of these last few weekends of beautiful weather-- I hope they last! The DSAW Buddy Walk is coming up this weekend, which is always a fun event and great fundraiser for Down Syndrome awareness. That's it for now!

Adios Locks

So, last Wednesday I cut 10 inches off my hair~ yikes! I was actually really relieved, and Molly did a great job. It's taken some getting used to, I think this is the shortest it's ever been, but I really like it. I hope some little girl needing a wig from Locks of Love enjoys my hair!

Trip Report Numero Cinco

The rest of the trip was kind of a winding-down for all of us. We spent one last night in Cusco, then flew out early the next morning for Lima. We left Steph and Mike in the airport, then got a taxi for our hotel in Miraflores. It was nice to have the day in Lima to relax and explore, and that's pretty much all we did. We had a great dinner and went out for drinks, then went back to the hotel.

The next morning was still pretty calm, just packing and getting ready to head out. Then we had to ride in a taxi-van back to the airport. IT WAS THE SCARIEST TRANSPORTATION EXPERIENCE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!! Our driver and the traffic were INSANE! I saw a car hit another car, then they both kept driving! Then we almost hit a bus head on! That was when I screamed "I hate this fucking city!" and promptly burst into tears! I swear I almost asked the driver to pull over so I could puke. When we got to the airport, I wanted to kiss the ground. I've never been so happy to get OUT of a car in my life. Wow. Okay, deep breath. Whew.

Anyways, we flew out of Lima to San Salvador, El Salvador to Miami, then spent the night in the Miami airport. I passed out, and apparently Jes and Sarah took compromising pictures of my ass with a small stuffed llama... I have yet to see those pictures, ladies. When we got to O'Hare, Mom and Dad were waiting for us in the airport, and we got our bags and said our goodbyes. The trip ended on a light note, and we all counted our blessings that we got each place safe, including home.

Trip Report Numero Cuatro

Day three was an okay day, as we only hiked for about 5 hours total, and it wasn't as hilly as the other parts. We were still glad to see the campsite, though, and it was only lunchtime! We got to take showers at this point, and man did they feel good! I've never felt so refreshed in my entire life. Seriously. After showers we had lunch, then had a couple of hours to just relax and take it easy. That evening we headed to a set of Incan ruins that were right near our site, and explored before dinner. Dinner that night was great, then we got to say goodbye to our porters (some of whom tried to makeout with the gringas...eew)

The next morning we were woken up at 3:30 so that we could be on the trail by 5. Everyone wanted to rush to get to the Sun Gate in time to see the sun rise over Machu Picchu. I was SO tired by that point, though, that I lagged back quite a bit. No need to hurry. I made it to the Sun Gate in time to see everyone, then started right back again down to Machu Picchu. It was kind of funny, though, because I was trying to beat the sun as it was coming over the mountains, so I was totally running down the trail. I think I probably looked pretty goofy. Getting to Machu Picchu was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, not to mention it was nice to take off the back pack and rest for a while. We had a tour of the ruins, explored some more, then went down the hill to Aguas Calientes for lunch. I have never tasted such the sweet taste of an ice-cold beer and pizza! After lunch we took a train to Ollantaytambo, then a bus back to Cusco, and our Inca Trail adventure was over.

Trip Report Numero Tres

We got picked up for the Inca Trail at 4:30 am by our guides and porters. Having them all cheer for you when you get on the bus is pretty cool. We picked up the other members of our group, then drove the 2 hours to Ollantaytambo to have breakfast. After breakfast we drove a little further, then got dropped off at Kilometer 82, the starting point of the Trail. The first day of hiking was okay-- I started lagging back after our first rest stop, but I was trucking along. We were all worried about Michael, but he was just going his own pace. Lunch on the trail, a few snacks, about 6 hours of hiking, then we arrived to our first campsite. Boy was it nice to wipe down (you stink after that much hiking, trust me), and to eat dinner and crash.

Day two was the rough day. We started up Dead Woman's Pass right from the start of the day, and it took about 3 hours to reach the top. 14000 feet is an accomplishment! Down we went from that point to our lunch stop, and then up again to the second pass. By that point we were all really starting to struggle. At least I was. We rested at the top of the second pass before heading down again, towards our campsite. 10 hours of hiking really causes serious exhaustion, so by the time we hit the camp, we were running on fumes. But we made it. So did Michael, after being carried for a little while by the porters. Too bad it was pitch black outside by that point, so no one got any pictures. Lucky bastard...

Trip Report Numero Dos

Leaving Cuenca in our midsts, we headed toward Guayaquil in our own private "buseta." We drove through El Cajas National Park, and then down the mountains into the more tropical area of the country. The living conditions changed as much as the climate, so that was a bit of education for us as wealthy foreigners. I've decided everyone needs to be exposed to extreme poverty at least once in their lives to learn how to appreciate all that you have.

We flew out of Guayaquil to Lima, Peru, where we left our bags in secure lockers and headed for the Miraflores district of the city. Another scary cab ride, I must admit. We arrived at a restaurant called La Rosa Nautica just in time to meet Steph, Mike, and their friend/guide Aimee. Though we were all quite tired, we had an amazing meal literally perched on a pier over the Pacific. Pretty cool, if I do say so myself. After dinner we headed back to the airport where we attempted to sleep until our flight out at 5:30 the next morning. Sleeping on airport floors is yucky.

We flew out to Cusco and got in around 7:30 in the morning (and it was freezing cold!). We got picked up from the airport by our hostel, which was a nice bonus. The hostel was a welcome sight as we were all pretty tired. We dropped our stuff off, had some coca tea, cleaned up a bit then headed to explore a little bit of Cusco. We ate food, and as we were doing so we realized how absolutely exhausted we were. So we headed back up to the hostel, and crashed for the rest of the afternoon before heading back down for dinner.

We had 3 days in Cusco to acclimate to the altitude (10,000 feet is tough!), as well as explore the city. Loooottss of shopping! Everybody got really good at haggling, as well as trying to figure out the Nuevo Sol, Peru's currency. Sunscreen was our best friend because that high-altitude sun is a killer.

Trip Report Numero Uno

It's been a while since I've posted, so I thought an update would be good.

I'm getting used to being back at home-- actually, I got used to being home almost as soon as I got back. The trip was great, but the whole time I was wishing that Skip was there with me. I suppose that's a good thing, though, huh? At least I wasn't feeling awesome that I was gone from my hubby for 17 days! Here's a little recap as to what we did for all that time:

Ecuador: We had a long couple of days of travelling, going from O'Hare to Miami to San Jose, Costa Rica to Quito, Ecuador to Loja, Ecuador (that flight was CRAZY! Flying into the mountains of Ecuador was even scarier than flying into Cusco!). Somewhere in the midst of all that flying, Sarah pointed out that we had not realized the Loja airport was actually about 30 miles outside of Loja (why call it Loja airport, then, huh?), and we already knew that Loja was about an hour from Vilcabamba (our ultimate destination). So when we got there, we had to negotiate a ride to our hotel/resort. Hmm... Looks like it was time to jump into that speaking spanish thing. After negotiating with a couple of taxi drivers, we figured out two cabs to Vilc. (and continued to negotiate price between Sarah and I via the drivers' cell phones once we were on the road). The ride was super dark and scary, the two cabs got separated, we saw a donkey sleeping in the middle of the road, we almost fell off the side of the road, but we ended up at Izhcayluma safely.

Our two days in Vilcabamba were spent just hanging around, taking pictures, drinking, horseback riding (and me horseback falling-- I've got the scars to prove it!), and generally just relaxing with the beautiful backdrop of Vilcabamba surrounding us. We had much more reliable transportation back to Loja in a private taxi, and then we had to negotiate the crowded Loja bus station in order to get to Cuenca. Stressfully, we figured it out, and managed to get our gringo butts on a bus. Yet another dark and scary ride, this time 5 hours long through rain-damaged roads and villages, but we got to Cuenca finally by about 11 pm, and crashed at Hotel Crespo.

We spent our 4 days in Cuenca exploring the city, buying gifts, trying to stay dry from the rain, and taking more pictures, of course. We had the opportunity to visit with Sarah's homestay family from when she was down there for school, and that was great. They were so kind and accomodating (they fed us!), and it was great to see Sarah so happy (yet sentimental at the same time!). We had some amazing Italian food, drank a lot of Pilsener (the local beer), and Andy, Michael and I even tried cuy (guinea pig). Very interesting taste, much more interesting presentation :). Homesickness crept in a little bit for me a couple of times, but phone calls and emails home kept me connected.