Wednesday, June 5th, 2013

Here is another "baby bump" picture of Elizabeth.  We thought that we might as well take the photo outside by our blooming rose bush instead of inside like usual.  Today is a sort of unique day in her pregnancy... some people call it "35/35".  Today marks the 35th week of pregnancy, and there are also exactly 35 days until her due date.  Not a lot else is new around here... just waiting for the big day!  Elizabeth is at a water aerobics class now (which generally helps her sore back).  I made myself some comfort food for supper... tater tot casserole.

Monday, May 27th, 2013

Happy Memorial Day to all.  Elizabeth and I shared a long weekend with family in Galena, IL which was highlighted by the wedding of Missy Roberts to Lyndon Hawkins.  Brandon & Amy drove out to Ames to meet up with us on Saturday before we drove to Galena together on Sunday.  We actually met up with Eben & Lynn on the drive out and arrived together in time for lunch with the whole family.  Rick & Marilyn had rented a huge townhouse at Eagle Ridge where we met up with the family for lunch on Sunday... Marilyn had mad a total of 700 Swedish meatballs and ham balls.  After lunch we went back to our smaller townhouse to get ready for the big day.  It ended up being a very rainy day, so the wedding had to be done under a big tent instead of outside like originally planned.  It still was a very beautiful ceremony, and the reception afterwards was a lot of fun. 

Amy & Brandon outside of the wedding tent... with Elizabeth providing a fun photo bomb :)

Front cover of Missy & Lyndon's wedding program.

Missy & Lyndon

... and you may kiss the bride!

Everyone blew bubbles as the happy couple walked down the aisle as husband & wife.

Missy tossing her bouquet of flowers.

Susan, Eben, Marilyn, Aaron, and Marcia at the wedding.

Guests of the wedding signed a tree instead of a guest book.

 Today we all met back at Marilyn's townhouse for breakfast before heading our separate ways.  After making it back to Ames, Brandon & Amy went out to lunch with Elizabeth and myself to Hickory Park.  That was delicious as always.  Then I went with Amy & Brandon down to Ankeny to visit our aunt LaVonne.  Aaron also stopped by for a while.  In all, it was a fun weekend for family & it was a great wedding for Lyndon and Missy.

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

Right now I'm feeling pretty exhausted after a long weekend fishing and camping up at Yellow River.  I took Friday off from work, and I drove up with Matt Seago early Friday morning to start off our trip.  There we met up with Jon & Jeremy Seago, their dad, and Tyler.  This year we didn't seem to concentrate so much on fishing as we normally do.  Of course we did catch our share of fish, but we also played bocce ball, made s'mores, played hacky sack, and spent a lot of time sitting around the camp fire.  For the most part the weather cooperated with us, unlike some years :)  Both nights did get pretty cold (this morning when I got up there was frost on the ground and on the cars), and the wind was bad at times, but mostly we were dry.  Saturday morning when I awoke I found that the wind overnight did make quite a mess of our camp.  One canopy of Matt's was destroyed, the trash bag was blown over causing it to blow all over, and our lawn chairs and other items were scattered around.  That was fun to clean up. 

As for fishing, Friday we focused on the fishing hole right beside camp.  The first fish that I caught I decided to eat it ASAP just to have the freshest trout I could.  So after I reeled it in I cleaned it, took it to camp and seasoned it, wrapped it in aluminum foil, and cooked it over the camp fire.  Really fresh trout is hard to beat.  Later that day I went back to the same hole and caught 3 more fish (two I threw back because they were smaller).  Then that evening I walked with Tyler to a different fishing hole back in the woods.  We had a few bites, but had trouble setting the hook well and getting them to shore.  After an hour and a half, I managed to catch one fish that we kept.  So my fishing total for Friday was 5 fish, 3 keepers. 

On Saturday, Jon, Jeremy, and myself went fishing for probably 45 minutes total, just at the hole next to camp.  Each of us caught 2 nice keepers in that time.  It was nice when they were actually biting at a steady pace.  I'm sure we could have gotten our limit of 5 per day each if we had stayed, but we decided to stop fishing and clean what we had.  We fried up some fish fillets, and also made some homemade onion rings which were delicious.  That night we also grilled steaks that their dad had brought up.  Overall I would say that we ate plenty of good food during the trip.  This morning I got up and cooked breakfast (bacon and scrambled eggs) over the fire pit. 

Here was the first trout (a rainbow trout) that I caught and immediately cleaned & cooked.

The fishing hole next to our campsite.  If you look close you can almost see the fish in the water.  In person it was actually easy to see where the trout were as we were fishing.

Matt, Jeremy, and Tyler at the campsite.

Here I am with our stringer of 6 fish on Saturday.

Monday, May 6th, 2013

Well, a lot has changed around Ames as far as the weather goes in the past few days.  Today we enjoyed mid-70's temperature for most of the day.  I actually mowed the lawn for the first time this year as well.  That's quite the contrast from all of the snow that we had last Thursday and Friday. 

Here is our lawn after the first mowing of the year...

Another thing that has been on our minds a lot is the birth of Baby Salton... due date July 10th!  Right now he and Elizabeth are 30 weeks and 5 days along.  According to this website, he should be about as big as a pineapple now. It makes me wonder how close his arrival will actually be to his due date.  Elizabeth gets a pretty sore back quite often from the little guy as well.  We're also feeling quite a few kicks which is pretty neat. 

Elizabeth at 30 weeks, 5 days

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

You know how the old saying goes... April showers brings May flowers.  That's supposed to be FLOWERS... NOT SNOW!!! 

When Elizabeth and myself awoke this morning, we were unpleasantly surprised to find a decent amount of snow on the ground.  What?!?  Just a couple of days ago it was 80 degrees, and I was outside playing basketball wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  It was actually HOT outside. 

Here is the view of our back yard this morning.

Here is the driveway.  I refuse to shovel snow in May!

I cannot remember actually ever seeing snow in May before.  I have seen snow at odd times during the year driving through the mountains of Colorado or something, but that doesn't count.  This is just weird.  As a joke, we played a CD of Christmas carols at work today.

Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Happy Earth Day to all.  This must me one of the lamest holidays there are.  It's not that I have anything against the Earth or recycling or anything, but how many "holidays" do we need?

This past Saturday should have been a holiday though as it was Cy's House of Trivia!!  This marks the second year in a row where we've attended this event.  It's really hard to get tickets for this event.  In fact, we likely would not have been able to go except that I won a "lottery" that Iowa State held.  Five new tables were chosen this year in the lottery, and I was #2.  I believe that this means we will be able to attend next year as well, but after that we will need at least 2 tables not to renew their tickets.  I definitely want to go every year that I can!  This may be the most entertaining sporting event of the year for me.  I'm just so happy to be able to meet some of the players and coaches! 

Our team name this year was "Tyrus McGee's Fan Club".  I chose this on the chance that the organizers would put Tyrus at our table this way... and wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what happened.  They had Tyrus sit at our table right off the start in Round 1.  I talked to him a little bit about him vs coach Hoiberg in games of HORSE, and I thanked him for being a fun Cyclone to watch.  Other notables that sat at our table were ISU's offensive line coach, Chris Klenakis, and I believe the Swimming & Diving coach, Duane Sorenson.  We also had the chance to meet and greet quite a few other Cyclones during the night.

Tyrus and me, just chillin'

Our team with Coach Paul Rhoads

Elizabeth with CPR after she won an autographed football via raffle ticket

The Gleasons with Jamie Pollard

John Walters and myself

Korie Lucious

Myself, Anna Prins, Chelsea Poppens, Ann, and Tim

Our group with Cy

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Another busy weekday for myself as always... Today I woke up around 5 AM, had a little time to shower, make breakfast, etc, before I headed off to work.  Mondays & Wednesdays are my early days of the week as I need to be in Marshalltown before 7:00 for my first patient. 

As of now I'm happy to say that Elizabeth and our little one are now in the third trimester!  July seems like it's so far away, but I know that it will be here before we know it. 

Of course there are now other things growing in our house besides a baby... I've just started a few seeds in a tray of potting soil for our garden this year.  Right now I have some "Better Boy" tomatoes, some Bell Peppers, and some "Gardener's Delight" tomatoes.  It's my understanding that the Better Boy variety is more of a traditional full sized tomato that should yield well, and the Gardener's Delight is a small, cherry tomato.  I also just found out that I should have likely started these seeds back in February.  Oh well.  I'll still give it  try, and if they are late to mature I'm sure it's no big deal.  It's not like the seeds cost much money anyways.  Since it's the first year I've been in charge of a garden, I'm not expecting a garden like Marcia used to have.  I may go and buy a tomato plant that's already started anyways just to make sure that we have something.  I'm also planning on planting some carrots as well.  Not sure if anything else will make the garden yet or not.

Tomato ands pepper seeds getting ready to be planted.