My tour from one John Denver song to another...

What an eventful week!  I returned Saturday from a weeklong trip with a dear friend of mine.  We went to Colorado to drop off her cousin; I went along for the ride so she wouldn’t be alone on the long drive home.  The whole trip, between "Rocky Mountain High" and "Country Roads," I couldn't get John Denver out of my head.

She showed me the sights of Pueblo and Denver before heading back.  The scenery was amazing!  I got to see some tumbleweed; though, they moved too fast for me to get a picture.  The plains of Kansas were stunning and I just couldn’t get over how huge the sky looks when there are no mountains or buildings in the way.  We took a drive through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and got some AMAZING views of the changing Aspens.  There was a handmade castle, Bishop Castle, which was simply unbelievable!!  I’m terrified of heights so we didn’t go up, but I did get to see the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.  I’ll add some pictures to the bottom of the post. 

In house news, we did get some good news last week while I was gone.  The financing has been approved!!  The appraisal has already been completed, which happened a lot faster than we anticipated.  In a shocking turn of events, the appraisal came back LOWER than the listing price.  We asked for a price reduction based on the appraisal and just heard back this afternoon that the bank is willing to lower the price of the house.  In doing so, however, they want to reduce what they pay at closing.  So, Richard and I had a quick conversation while he was on break at work and we’re going to go with it.  Odds are we’ll owe very little at closing (maybe around $400) and we can handle that.

Dave seemed to think we could get a closing date of October 20th, if everything happens smoothly and quickly.  Now that I’ve looked at a calendar, I’m starting to get nervous.  We’ve got to get our house packed and ready to move, get his mom’s stuff moved in, and coordinate getting her down here all at about the same time.  Yikes!  And without Richard taking more than one day off work.  And I didn’t want to start doing any of it until we’re certain that we’re going to closing.  I guess now that we’re pretty sure that we’re going to close on the house, I could probably start packing.    

In baby news… well, not much is happening.  I’m feeling surprisingly normal.  Well, aside from the growing waist line.  We are almost to 15 weeks (tomorrow)!!  Our “gender ultrasound” is schedule for November 8th and I’m crazy excited about that!  I feel like I haven’t seen Lil Pea in AGES and it’s killing me.  I had an appointment today and got to hear the heart beat again today.  Lil Pea was pretty active as the doc had to chase down his/her heartbeat, lol!  That made me smile!  I would listen to it every day, if I could.  Still don’t think I’ve felt anything…  I have had two weird sensations that got me excited, but I can’t say for certain if it was baby or not.  There are a lot of twitches, pinches, and pulling sensations, but these were different.  Felt more like knuckles rolling across my skin from the inside.  Lol!  Sounds weird, I know.  Who knows, it’s early yet to be feeling anything anyway. 

I’ve lost a total of seven pounds since my initial appointment, but my ketones have been negative so they aren’t worried.  My sugars have been a little higher than they’d like (mostly, from my road trip), so they’ve given me a VERY low prescription that I only need to take half a pill before dinner.  Just to see if we can drop my evening sugars down some.  But, more good news, I don’t have to go back to the doctors until our November ultrasound.  I’m excited about that because they’ve been seeing me every two weeks so far. 

Sooooooo, the next couple of weeks I’ll be focused on getting our family moved.  If anyone has any boxes, we’d be most obliged!! 

And now, for some Colorado trip pictures.  :o)  There are a lot.  I took over 500, so it was hard to narrow it down to just a few... 



Kansas: driving through... so straight and flat and sunny and beautiful!  I really loved Kansas.



Kansas:  "amber waves of grain"

Kansas:  There was a huge field of wind turbines.  They were HUGE! 

Kansas: Yes, that's an oil rig...!  How cool is that!?  (I am such a dork..)

Colorado:  Still in the plains, but there were all these cool spikey bushes all of sudden. 

Colorado:  Rocky Mountain High

Colorado: Garden of the Gods.  Breathtaking red rocks.

Colorado: Garden of the Gods.  More rock, wish I could post all my pictures. 

Colorado: Historic Arkansas River Project (HARP).  We took a walk along the HARP...

Colorado: Historic Arkansas River Project (HARP).  Really cool statue.

Colorado: San Isabel National Forest.  We took a drive through the mountains and saw the Aspens changing colors.  Beautiful.  

Colorado: San Isabel National Forest.  A beautiful lake; we stopped here for a few minutes and listened to the wind in the trees and the fish popping. 

 



Colorado: San Isabel National Forest.  More changing Aspens.



Colorado: Casa Bonita.  An awesome Mexican resturant with live entertainment, a bunch of cool rooms, a waterfall, a magic show, divers, a cave to explore, and so much more!  It was awesome!




Missouri:  St. Louis.  Just a garden on the way to the Mississippi River and Gateway Arch.  Thought it was pretty.

 

Missouri:  St. Louis.  Gateway Arch! 



Missouri:  St. Louis.  Gateway Arch! 




Missouri:  St. Louis.  Mississippi River!