Summer in Colorado

It's nice here most of the year, but the summer is still a bit hot for my taste. I have always been somewhat of a whimp about the heat. I just try to go out in the mornings and evenings as much as possible. Now most of my flowers and tomatoes love the heat. I will have to post some photos since everything has gone crazy out there.

We've been back from our forays into seeing the families for almost a week. Overall, we had a good time. We went to three very different weddings. The most unique one was for our friends Bob and Melissa who got married on her parent's ranch in Stanford. The ceremony was in a pasture and we sat on hay bales. It was really beautiful (a little hot) with the views of the prairies and mountains. The reception was in a barn that had been cleaned and shined. It was great. They fed all almost 400 people and had a live band (not that great). One of the weddings in North Dakota also had 400 people and a Catholic mass-which is all a bit much for me. It was also 4th of July themed per the bride's desire. Again, a bit over the top for my taste, but she seemed pleased with all of it. The last one was for one of Bernie's high school friends. This one was significantly smaller and also lovely. However, as I am not supposed to drink, I have had enough raucous partying for awhile. I think Bernie has too!

I think everyone knows now, but for an official announcement...We are having a baby in January (the 24th to be exact). I was actually 12 weeks yesterday. We have known since 4 weeks but have been slow about letting the news leak because of the whole first trimester paranoia. But things seem to be going well. I actually had an ultrasound at 10 weeks and got to see the heartbeat and even the arms and legs move. At our appointment last week, we heard the heart beat. Very exciting stuff.

Now that the news is out of the way, I will continue with rambling about the trip. The most non-positive excitement we had was related to my dad. I don't remember if I ever posted about his sink. Well, the faucet has been broken since November and the water was running about a gallon a minute since then. He was very stubborn and would not let anyone fix it because "God broke the faucet and if I have enough faith, God will fix it." Yeah, he has pretty much gone off the deep end, which when coupled with his physical decline is not very much fun. Anyway, we got into Great Falls and stopped by his house first. He warned me it was bad, but I was unprepared. For the past month the faucet had basically been flooding the kitchen. The carpet was soaking squishy wet and it was dripping into the basement. It smelled horrible and there was mold growing. When I asked him what he was doing, he said "still waiting." So my family and I basically had to force him to get it fixed. At first he was very upset, but has since done an about face and said that he isn't going to fight with us anymore. He is bizarre.

I will be done with my summer class in about 10 days. Then the preparation for my final class and teaching begins. It should be fun to be big and pregnant in front of up to 150 undergraduates! Not so much looking forward to that.