Escaping for just a Moment

The past few weekends have been spent with relaxation on the mind. Although when I think of relaxation I think of hanging out at home, lately it just hasn't been doing the trick.  My mind will just race with all the projects that need to be done around the house (our poor nursery still doesn't have curtains) and then the mad rush of errands around town starts.  There is something about driving around town in 100 degree heat that just makes it all worse.  And although I love the feeling of getting things done I seem to be craving some time just get away from the daily things that occupy my mind.   So I have been making some efforts to get us out of the house and do things we don't normally do on the weekends. 

I also think it is hard to express the level of stress that we have both been under lately. It has been much better this past week but living in a town that is being ravaged by one of Colorado's wildfire is hard. The giant smoke plume over the mountains, the constant smoke in the air, the national guard vehicles patrolling town and general stress felt around town is always there. It is only compounded for us by having close friends who are affected. Happily as of yesterday the fire was contained completely however the feelings of what has happened still linger and it is especially hard to move on when there are so many other fires going on in the state and people's homes and lives being devestated by it. Last weekend we made an escape the the much cooler and not so smokey mountains with a little pit stop in Denver to hit up H&M.  Althought it sounds as if we were avoiding the situation we generally just needed to get out of our little town to gain some perspective.

Althought there is a little hint of guilt I don't think this is a bad thing. We should probably do it more even when there isn't a crisis going on. It is just too easy to get wrapped up in all the little details of life that follow us around every day.  

Bad News Good News

Thing have just kind of exploded around here. Not literally...but you know.

Lets start with the bad news and work our way to good news which always involves the little nugget.

Bad News:  Our poor town is in the midst of a really serious fire.  Fort Collins sits right up against the mountains in Northern Colorado and a lot of our friends live in the foothills and in the mountains. It has been burning for over a week now and almost 200 structures (homes included) have burned.  It has kept a lot of us on edge and it has filled the town with smoke.  Being pregnant and asthmatic has pretty much kept me confined to the house which just sucks.  It is just sad since it has taken so many people's homes and possessions not to mention it has devestated the landscape.  Bradley brought up a good point when he said that our little nuggett won't know what that area looks before the fire. I am sure it will just look like the surface of the moon for awhile.  A lot of my students also live in this area so I am sure this is something that our community will be dealing with for a long time.

The fire actually hopped the mountain for a few days so you could see actual fire from town

So so news: I am in the middle of my summer graduate classes which I have to make about a 45 minute drive South East of town so it has been nice to get out of the smoke. 

Good news: We had our ultrasound last week to check up on the babe.  Babe is sooo incredibly healthy and at that point was weighing 10 ounces. The most exciting part was finding out if the babe was a boy or a girl.We had a party last weekend to announce to everyone and all you people that guessed boy (myself included) we were....

wrong!

 Nugget is a girl! I am so over the moon!