I heard the baby’s heartbeat yesterday afternoon. I also heard the blips on the doppler as she/he wiggled and kicked. So precious.

The trusses and building materials for adding the second story to our flip house are arriving today. It’s game on this weekend.

DanO and I slipped away to Birmingham, Alabama for the weekend last week. We doled the boys out to family for three days and stole away into the night. It was an amazing, warm trip full of rest, friends, and great conversations. We also broke the bed in our friends’ guest house. O, yes we did. ::wink::

Pregnancy emotionally drains me. Or maybe it was the 5th and 6th months of winter that did me in? I all but gave up on life in mid April when that umpteenth snowfall came and there was no hope of spring on the horizon. It was a perfect storm of hormones and lack of vitamin D and cabin-fevered toddlers. (The last-minute trip to the south is making more sense now, isn’t it?)

OBrother turns two in a week and a half. This would be shocking, but I’m starting to realize that these birthday things just keep happening.

I am 16 something weeks along and coffee is bearable to me again, Praise God. I also don’t fall asleep at the drop of a hat or throw up in the church parking lot anymore. All hail the second trimester!

I never really wrote about the half marathon I ran at the end of March. It was an incredible experience and I hope I take the time and brain power to tell the whole story soon. Mostly I want to say that it was my second half marathon but the first one I had ever run the whole time. I still blush a little when I think about how proud I feel.

I’ve been making this chocolate chip cookie recipe on the regular. Chewiest, best cookies ever.

DanO just keeps chugging along. He is passionate about his 9-5 (6:30-3:30) job and then for a break he works on the investment property, which our boys call “the green house”. In his leisure time, he finishes up odd jobs around our house like replacing the front door or installing more child locks on things (see: almost two-year-old).

This post is reflective of my mind lately. Sporadic and filled-to-the-brim and also simultaneously being eaten by the baby in my belly. No joke, this has been the worst ‘baby brain’ of all of them. I can hardly finish a.

See what I did there?

It’s good to be back. I missed you guys.

The main purpose of my time in Dallas was the Blissdom Social Media Conference which was held at the gorgeous Gaylord Texan resort. And I mean gorgeous as in restuarants under enormous glass atriums with water fountains.

My 4 (FOUR!) days and nights there were filled with ridiculous amounts of uninterrupted sleep and a dubious amount of calories. O and also holding random babies. Literal sat-down-at-the-table-next-to-us-and-we-stole-her-baby random babies.

Elbow chub!!

The adorable Dear Abby Leigh and the even adorabler daughter of Lindsey of Two Bobbins Later

The exception in the sleep department came Friday morning when I got up at 4:30am to hear Jon Acuff speak about what he has learned from his experience in social media. It was an interesting and engaging talk, although it was not exactly what I was expecting. When I signed up for it, I understood the description as being a vision-casting kind of gathering that would be a mix of Jon addressing the group and time for us to work and write in an encouraging environment. It wasn’t that – Jon spoke the whole time – but it was fun and enjoyable. Dude’s hilarious.

I have mixed feelings about the sessions I attended at Blissdom. I liked all of them. The speakers were all very professional, polished and engaging. I left each one encouraged and motivated but I was also hoping for more tangible nuggets and action items for the bettering of my blog and social media presence. I did hear from several attendees that in this session or that one there were some great take-aways, so I will definitely be going back and watching the videos of a few of those. My favorites were Sheila Marcelo’s session Redefining Success and Jon Acuff’s closing keynote.

And then I got down with my bad self at the Girls’ Night Out Blissdom event. I haven’t danced like that since… my wedding, maybe? It felt so good to be out on the floor with girlfriends just having a hilariously awesome and care-free time. Only downside is that I’ve had LMFAO Sexy and I Know It stuck in my head for almost a week.

I work out!

After the after party I got to watch the premier of an episode of Animal Planet’s Tanked featuring my friend Laura of Hollywood Housewife. I don’t know which was more fun, watching the episode or watching her watch the episode. Yea no, I know. It was the latter.

At the party viewing I had fried pickles for the first time in my life. You guys. Why did you not tell me about fried pickles before? They were so life changing that I took a picture. You’re welcome.

The food and sleep were epic, but to me BlissDom has always been about the face-to-face time with my friends from around the country. It dawned on me while I was dancing under a disco ball with girls that I love with my whole heart and with whom I am humbled to share my life through friendship online and off that I am absolutely blessed beyond reason to be part of this online community.

This crazy, eccentric, hilarious community.

{photo credit: BlissDom}

 [[from left: Sharone of Zizzavivizz, Me, JJ the BlahBlahBlahger, Chris Mann from The Voice, (a very confused) Amber Riley from Glee, Abby of Dear Abby Leigh, and Ruthanne of Eclectic Whatnot]]

I realize this may not be alarming to many of you, but as I sat in an airport shuttle van with the sliding door open to the warm Dallas air, the chirp smacked me square in the forehead – as sounds do when you hear them for the first time in five months.

Five months. Five solid months of snowfall. Five months of lifeless outdoor landscapes. Five months of keeping two small, male children mostly indoors and going positively stir-crazy.

That’s not to say that beautiful, crisp winter mornings don’t have their place. They certainly do. On Christmas.

So birds. They have those here in Texas right now, apparently. Which shouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did considering that the first 18 years of my life I lived in a climate so moderate and constantly alive that moss growing on people’s roof shingles is a legitimate problem. There’s moss on everything in Oregon, as if the whole state were that part of the woods that’s far enough in so no one goes and disturbs it and moss and such feels safe enough to grow. At least that’s how I remember it.

In Minnesota, everything dies. I guess this comes in handy in the area of moss and bugs and other things it’s nice to kill out once a year, but it is positively devastating for the humans that live through it. It seems like every year I make it through January in Minnesota and think that I’ve made it. I’ve survived negative temperature highs; the dead of winter is behind me. But then I get to March and I’ll be darned if it’s not 38 times longer than January ever was. March holds the promise (and even the delivery) of spring for so much of the country. Birds chirp from California to DC. Moms instagram pictures of their kids in shorts, outside digging in the sandbox.

Meanwhile, I have 10 inches of snow in my yard. March makes me dig way, way down deep to this treasure trove of memories. I remember that last summer it was gorgeous and hot and sunny and my kids were the ones playing in the kiddie pool in the back yard. I think through the fog about the days out on a boat on the St. Croix river. I will myself to recall the afternoons we spent in the strawberry fields as a family.

And sometimes, I fly to Dallas and hear a bird chirp just to get me through.

I will make it. Spring will come. It will.

I wish you could have seen your oldest brother’s face when we told him about you.

“There’s a baby in Mommy’s tummy,” we said.

He beamed. His face positively lit up. We had been talking about it as a family for a while. Oboy, who will be four when you meet him, asked about you regularly. He was the most verbal advocate for your creation, even petitioning God in his prayers before bed to give you to us. His face when we told him God had put you in my tummy to start growing and be ready to come out? Pure joy. But I’m sure it does not begin to compare with how happy he will be when he holds you for the first time.

O, the holding. Baby, there will be so much holding when you arrive in October, you won’t even know what to do with yourself. OBrother, who will be two and half when you are born, will want in on the action too. (Don’t worry, we will always be there to help him.) OBrother doesn’t have quite the understanding that the oldest does, but he seems to think about you often. Every time he points to my stomach and says “beebee” my heart melts, and I’m sure yours would too if you could hear him. He also has a strange fascination with pulling up my shirt and rubbing my tummy, which is awkward but adorable. I have a feeling you two will be fast friends.

And Daddy. Daddy is already your biggest fan. Funny story, he knew about you before I did. And not in the intuitive “I think you’re pregnant” kind of way, but quite literally. I didn’t wait long enough to check the pregnancy test before another child was urgently calling me (this might be something you should get used to.) so there it sat on the master bathroom counter quietly with its two pink lines until Daddy came in and noticed. That was a funny conversation.

“When were you going to tell me?” He asked. And so it was on a Friday afternoon in early February that Daddy informed me I was pregnant with you.

Today the two of us – you and I – are flying to Texas for a blogging conference and can I just tell you? I am so excited to have you along with me! This Sunday, if we feel up to it, we are going to run a half marathon around the city of Dallas, but trust me. I will listen to you and my body and we will do what we can. Training runs have quadrupled in difficulty since you joined me. I’m not complaining, promise. I understand that my body’s primary allegiance is to you and not to the 13 miles I am going to try to run. Although? Can I complain really quick, sweet little one? The throwing up thing is getting really, really old. I mean, I know you need All of The Hormones for your growing and things, but mercy. The list of public places I have had to lean over an puke in is getting a little ridiculous. I know they say that this is a first trimester thing so we are almost out of the woods (we are 10.5wk now) but if my memory serves, there is no magic corner that I turn at 12 weeks. It tends to fade away around 15 weeks.

You are sure making your presence known – which is uncomfortable but also good, because there was a strange month there in December of 2012 where, for the first time in four and a half years, I was neither pregnant nor nursing anyone and my body was all “Huh? What do I even do with this independence?” Barfing or not, I’m so glad you’re here with me, cooking along and getting ready to meet your loud crazy exciting loving family.

Now let’s go take a nap, baby. I’m freakin exhausted.

Love,

Mommy

Sometimes you want to open up your laptop and not feel the twinge of guilt from that “new post” tab in your browser.

Sometimes, you don’t care that your whole family went to Florida for a week and you have some freaking awesome pictures and it’s customary to blog such photos. You like those photos right where they are, taking up pretty space on your pretty harddrive and nowhere else.

Sometimes you don’t have any more thoughts or feelings or you’re not quick enough on your feet to jump on the most recent bandwagon/current event/public figure roast going on on the interwebs. Sometimes (usually) it makes you tired just to think about.

Sometimes you look at these things and you think, self, you don’t really even have what it takes to be a blogger. You just keep this website out there and throw up words on it when you can, but really, you don’t have the effort or the energy or the ability to keep it up like you should.

And sometimes, you don’t know what to do with those thoughts, so naturally, you blog them.

(image source)

That love had me running 10 to 15 miles a week since November just for the feeling it gave me, even, friends, on a treadmill. So when a half marathon appeared on my radar that at the time was only 7 weeks away, I was able to jump right into a training schedule mid-way through.

(photo source)

Next week I will be in Dallas for the Blissdom Conference and the Sunday after the conference is over, I will be running the Rock ‘n ‘Roll Half Marathon with a few blogging friends. I am planning to run a 10:30 minute/mile pace; last weekend I completed 11 miles at this tempo and it felt pretty good. It will be hard work, but I am feeling pretty motivated by this goal.

Also: Running! In shorts! Outside! Without snow on the ground! Can you imagine?

Most of my runs for this race have been done on a treadmill. By most I mean all but two at this point. I had been optimistic that the couple of weeks right before the event I would be able to move more of my runs outside so that I would have road legs but let’s be honest: March averages of 10″ of snowfall in Minneapolis – 9″ of which we got last week.

It will be interesting to see how my indoor training translates to the race course. Yes, interesting is the word. Also interesting will be hopping on a plane for 4 hours to fly home the evening after the race. May God have mercy on my quads.

The linoleum floor tile had to go, as did the plastic wall tiles and outdated fixtures. We found out the floor had rotted from a leaky toilet, both of which were replaced. After slaving away into the evenings…

We eventually ended up with this!

And yes, the tub is still pink, but not to worry. It will be white soon enough.

Hi friends and readers (who are friends I just haven’t met yet). How have you been? I’ve missed you, I really have. And on account of that, I’d love to hang out with one of you tomorrow night. How, you say?

BlogLove™ Events, hosted by the girls at LoveFeast™ Table, are blogger networking events meant to be experiential and inspiring. The next event is TOMORROW from 7:00-9:00 pm and will be held in the sustainable living lifestyle store, Moss Envy in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The event’s theme is “Refresh & Renew” and is meant to inspire conversation around you and your blog’s growth. (Which, if the silence around here lately is any indication, I could desperately use. Amen? Amen.)

Come ready to network with bloggers, engage with businesses, make new relationships and get re-energized around your story and passion. We think getting together in real life inspires us all to continue to create, engage and share!

During the evening there will be make-up touch ups available from our host, Moss Envy, light fare and drinks, a beautiful swag bag and plenty of friendly faces.

We pretty much had a near death experience this weekend. OBrother’s stomach flu arrived on Thursday and by Saturday DanO was the last man keeping his lunch down standing.

There were some scary almost-passing-out-on-the-kitchen-floor moments, and some messy washing-out-the-carseat moments, but mostly there were sweet, tired moments of snuggling. There was pedialite and saltines a plenty, and I spent an inconceivable portion of Saturday asleep.

If you need us today we will be sipping gatorade and praying away any further sickness while we make plans and start to pack for our trip to Disney World this week – our reason to survive.

It’s not every single day, but very nearly, both of my boys take simultaneous naps in the afternoon. This event itself saves my every loving life.

When OBrother was about 13 months old, the boys had gotten into this weird staggered nap schedule that was driving me bonkers – OBrother would go down morning-ish, then around the time he woke up it was OBoy’s turn, who would wake when OBrother was teetering on the edge of his second nap. I felt like all I did all day was put someone down or keep someone from waking someone else up. Then I did something drastic. When most babies of his age were still taking a solid two naps, I robbed OBrother of his morning nap for the sake of my sanity, and I made the remaining nap shifts overlap. We became the people who needed to leave playdates at 11:00 and eat lunch by 11:20 sharp. Every (normal) day from then on I have laid the boys down together at noon (although 6 months later it is more like 1pm) at which point I have an hour and a half to myself.

All of the mamas of two kids in two years say it with me: HALLELUJAH

It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Logistically, their nap length is not the same which means if they start together, they don’t end together – and this is where I remind you that they share a room. From the very beginning I had to teach OBoy to exit the room quietly after he wakes up. There have been several occasions on which he has been excited about something (or sick and loudly sad upon waking) and OBrother has risen then, too. We call those bad nap days and they are permission to put the littlest one to bed early that evening. As I laid them down, we constantly talked about being quiet when we wake up and coming out quietly. We have a video monitor in their room, so when I know it’s about the time for OBoy to wake, I keep a pretty close eye on the monitor to make sure everything is going alright. If I need to, I will fly up the stairs as quickly and silently as a hawk to intercept.

These moments each afternoon have been glorious, and as I look ahead to OBoy growing out of needing a nap, it makes me just a smidgen nervous.

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What does the nap schedule look like for your littles? Or… How did the transition out of naps at your house?