Pregnancy Preparations

Oh, the list-making! The hunting and gathering! The painting and purchasing, imagining and expanding, reading and remodeling. Prior to the arrival of baby we have been:

• working our jobs at Midwest Disability and the University of Minnesota
• Nick's first class in Hamline's business school (to start the MBA)
• Teresa's last class in the Center for Spirituality and Healing (to finish the graduate minor), and a statistics class from the Humphrey School
• prenatal yoga at Blooma
• meeting midwives and doctors and doulas
• attending classes at the Childbirth Collective
• arranging diaper service
• touring hospitals and birth centers
• pondering names for this being who will enter our world
• writing thank-you letters in response to incredible generosity
• cooking to pre-stock our freezer for a busy summer
• weeding and lawn care in this early spring bloom
• cleaning out the garden beds in preparation for seed-planting
• washing baby clothes and diapers
• remodeling the upstairs 'swan bathroom' with new vanity and cabinets
• painting and setting up the baby room with crib, dressers, wall decorations
• moving our bedroom from the first floor to the second, across the hall from the baby room
• dreaming, reading and journaling
• quieting

As I write this, I am a few days from the "guess date" (due date), so the baby could come anytime... tomorrow or two weeks from now.

Spring is coming!

It really is!

In February it felt extremely dangerous to drive in town because of visibility issues. At intersections the 4-meter high piles of snow impeded sight lines and made me worry that I would crash into a car or pedestrian. So about a month ago, bulldozers took over the city center to shave the snow piles into meter-high mounds, and cart away the snow. Now those snow piles are finally melting. In the countryside the rivers are swelling with snowmelt.



In my ikebana class last night, the flowers from my arrangement were tulips and cherry blossoms さくら. The tips of some young trees have a reddish-tint, as if they are considering buds. Birds have returned. The sun rises and sets at around six, which is a lot of daylight. And today is our first day of RAIN. Bad news for the ski slopes, but good news for my spirit.

Council Crest: the view

I like being a tourist around my own home.
Recently my grrrl J and I went to Council Crest Park in Portland. Council Crest is thought to be the highest point in Portland at 1073 feet above sea level. This spot was originally called Talbot's Mountain, after its pioneer settlers, but was also once known as Glass Hill and later called Fairmount, the name of the road that encircles it. According to legend, it got its name because it was here that Native Americans held meetings and built signal fires. The Portland Streetcar, in the old days, used to bring citydwellers up here to enjoy the view and play at an amusement park. You can see all the major volcanoes from this vantage point. Mt. St. Helen's is behind me.


Monkey in a tree!

Oregon: Wine, Cheese, and Sea

This past Saturday and Sunday we traveled toward the coast, stopping along the way for wine and cheese. We loved Apolloni Vineyards' pinot noir and the salmon jerky at Ecola Seafoods.

We stopped at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and sampled dairy products. A and I approve of Tillamook's new flavors of chocolate ice cream, in case you're wondering.

Cannon Beach's famous Haystack Rock, as seen from the south along Highway 101.

Seaside, Oregon is considered the end of the trail for the historic Lewis & Clark expedition, which just celebrated its bi-centennial. We like Thomas Jefferson for initiating this curious and brave exploration.

Spring flowers in full bloom. Pretty ladies.

Washington: Mt. St. Helen's and a Lilac Garden!

This past Monday my Mom and her partner and I had a great time being tourists in Washington. We visited Mt. St. Helen's, about 3 hours (but only 50 miles) from Portland.

This grand volcano blew in 1980, and although the animals and plants and trees are returning, the devastation is still remarkable. Immediately after the eruption, nearby mountain rivers were choked with ash and pumice, some of which is carried all the way to the ocean. In 2003 the volcano spewed ash and steam again, and continues to smoke today. We hiked the hummocks (piles of ash and rock) at the base of the volcano and spotted a tiny frog on the trail; frogs are always a good indicator of the health of the land!

On the drive home we stopped in Woodland, Washington at Hulda Klager Lilac Gardens for a wonderful springtime treat. Below you can see lilac, monkey tree, camelia, magnolia, lavender and a white flowering tree I can't recall the name of (beginning with V -- does someone know?).

On the Journey

My time, my mind is filled with the possibilities of my journey. This year will be remarkable; whether it will be *good* is yet to be seen. I'm applying for schools in the Netherlands, in order to possibly live with/near my best grrl Amber and her beefy/smartypants husband Adam. We're also applying to multiple programs and schools to teach English: Japan, Thailand, Middle-East, who-knows-where. Nick (my beefy/smartypants boyfriend) and I are busy each day in communication with various schools or teachers in Asia. Some days I feel drunk, my head swimming with the possibilities.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I'm busy resigning from my Portland activities: Unitarian Universalist Service Committee http://www.uusc.org/, UU Connections Committee, UU Chamber Choir, my little folk music group 'Mo Mack & the Peacemakers', Hands to Hearts International http://www.handstohearts.org/, TND, and my job http://www.edgelink.com/. Goodbyes are exhausting and sad. Just over 2 months till take-off!

And oh! The trees are glorious this week. Each a goddess, dressed in her pink or white ballgown, her lovely perfume wafting down to those who pause to smell her gift. Spring is such a joy. First come daphne bushes with their unassuming blossoms and their sweet orange-ginger scent. Daphne is my favorite flower to give me Hope in this long grey Pacific winter. Next are crocuses, which in the Midwest can be seen poking through snowdrifts at the end of a long winter. Shortly after are the daffodils, cherry blossoms, green grasses, blue skies, suntans. . .

I've been intending to get on the bandwagon and blog for some time now. Lord knows I have some soapboxing (is that a verb?) to do. My goals for this blog: 1) to be in communication with friends/family while we travel. 2) to reflect what it means to be Woman - Midwestern - American - Western, while I explore other ways of being. 3) to improve my writing voice. Yikes. 4) this one tagged on at the end: to be more tech-savvy. How the hell do I post the photos so they are in the right spot on the page?!