Our first ski!

Kel and I both FINALLY had a weekend where we both had FREETIME. The past six months have been chaotic with school, family, and holidays. When we realized we had 'nothing' to do but housework (which is completely optional at this point), the thought of finding snow somewhere in the Midwest to go skiing was on top of our list.

Yes, Court and I got out and played where the snow was, just outside of Ironwood, MI. It's a sad day when Duluthians must travel 2 hours to enjoy the wilds of nature. It was a perfect day though, fresh snow, not too cold and safe enough for a pregnant lady to enjoy exercise before she gets too rotund. No belly picture this entry there really isn't a significant visual change, though it does seem like court is smuggling a grapefruit just under her skin.

On our 2 hour drive court and I had time to discuss names for our little addition thats afoot. Now I, am predisposed to answer any opinion question with a little tongue in cheek humor especially if it doesn't need serious consideration for another 4-6 months. Court, on the other hand, is ready to begin planning and discussing the arrival of this child. Which includes, but is not limited to, nursery preparation, diaper type, and names. I've never really been a planner but I suppose this is a special exception. So, the name discussion got off, to what I thought, a swimming start with "power" names for our current hegemony being thrown out like: Lockheed, Hal (iburton), Raytheon (not my favorite). Though we both laughed it was not that produtive. After "Car Talk" and no talking in the car the discussion became a bit more serious and I think we made some real progress in weeding out the riff raff (I voted yes for riff raff but I think it is going to be killed in the committee and won't make it to name status, then I remembered The Rocky Horror Picture Show and I will love my child no matter what they choose to do or be but why start things off on the weird foot). I don't think we're ready to divulge any options especially on the world wide web, BUT if anyone would like to share their ideas we are always open to suggestions, serious or otherwise.

After the ski on the way home the name topic came up again and we had a revelation: We were thinking of naming our child Global Warming but that would have a negative or "bad" connotation. Also, their initials would be GWB the same as our ever so popular un-elected president George "the wombat" Bush, something we want to distance ourselves from further than this world will allow.

Speaking of: we wanted to send our best to our good friend Bill who is forced to stay in Iraq longer than his required term because of this new "Augmentation" of the military this week. Our thoughts are with him and his wife Kate and brand new baby Eva. We hope this all ends soon and positive.

Peace out, Kel & Court

Up Top

Eddy approves of the addition to the family with an "Up Top"

hi. (this is Kelly by the way) It's been a while. Sorry. We were so excited to get a blog going for our friends and family to see the progress of baby Bartz that we shot up this blog. Little did we realize that you have to maintain these things on a regular basis. I hope the kid isn't this time consuming!
We went back to the doctor today for our visit #2 which involved the sound of our little ones heart beat! It took a while for our doctor to find it. I felt my fears, that this was all just a dream, were true and we have just concocted this entire fiasco because of the lack of anything better to talk about. Note: I've just been reprimanded by Court for calling our little bundle of joy a fiasco. Poor word choice. Anyhoo, the heart beat was "perfect" according to Doc Stank and everything is progressing nicely. She asked if we had any questions which was met with blank stares from both of us. Obviously we do not know what we are in for.
I feel that feeling might be a trend throughout the pregnancy (speaking for myself of course) and probably well into adolescence. In fact, New Year's Day we were invited to an afternoon celebration at Casey and Cord's for some good food, drink (non-alcoholic for Court), conversation, and playtime. There were almost as many kids as adults and because we were newly expecting everyone was congratulating us and asking if we were ready for this. I would smile and say "yeah, we'll see." and the parent would smile back and give a knowing look that I haven't quite figured out yet. So I have felt this "not knowing what we are in for" feeling two significant times since the new year, and it's January 3rd. We have a stack of books and an endless resource of friends/family to consult, but no amount of consultation can explain a look. I have a feeling the roller coaster is still clanking up the first drop and the anticipation is only going to build. 'Til next time, which will be soon. Happy New Year! It's going to be a good one!