THIRD TRIMESTER

So, it's no longer an appleseed, a grape, or even a peach.  Bigger than an eggplant, this baby weighs more than 2 pounds and is supposedly the size of a pumpkin squash!  He moves ALL the time!  Each day I think he has never moved this much before!  It is so weird, although I don't know if he is punching, kicking, or what he is doing in there!  The other day he would move/kick really hard and Adam felt it and we cracked up!  Then he did it again, and we laughed again.  That went on for about 4 times; it was like he knew we were laughing so he kept doing it!  He seems to be very busy in there, whatever he's doing.  I just tell him to keep his head down!

This is what I got the Friday my friend, Julie and I left for our girls trip to Eureka Springs:

Adam sent them to work!

Then the fun began.  Julie and I left for our relaxing getaway, along with the Freakin' Eurekan 15k Trail Run on Saturday morning.  This trail run was way more than we ever bargained for...

The Adventures of Julie and Jennifer

Maybe our first clue should have been the signs indicating the race.  I had called the night before and been reassured that there would be plenty of signs out, that we couldn't miss the location of the race.  This is the only sign we ever saw:

                                   

Someone equated it to a Post It note.  We would definitely have to agree!  And this was after we had turned off the main highway.

When we arrived, we were anxious to pick up our packets and see what this trail race was going to be like.  It was so hilarious!  Look:

And I matched the sign!!

The weather was so pretty.  It was sunny out, but there was still a lot of snow on the ground.  We got started and were feeling pretty good.  Then I noticed a line of people backing up at one point.  We realize they are lining up jumping ACROSS a creek onto a STUMP, one by one.  Here it is, people:

Yes, I am showing these pictures only because we actually made it out of there safe and sound!  I made it; everyone was waiting on the pregnant lady to jump and I made it!  This, however, should have been our SECOND warning sign.

a view from the other side (I think it was pure adrenaline that I made it)

The course was pretty tough, with most of it being uphill, and parts of it being snow and ice covered.  But it was so pretty, we got lots of pictures!

Yes, most of the time, I was thinking, "If Adam knew what this was like, he would kill me!"

At one point, we realized we hadn't seen any indicator cones for a while.  Then we reached a barricade and the trail appeared to continue into a residential county road.  We stayed on it for a while, thinking that was part of the course.  We thought about going to one of the houses to ask, but were kind of scared to, then a dog started barking at us so we decided to turn around.  We had passed a 5k cutoff (but we were doing the 15k), so we decided just to go back and take the 5k route because it was for sure marked.  We could never see where we missed our turn and continued down the 5k trail, thinking that it would all add up to a 15k because we already went so much out of the way.  So according to our GPS, we should have had about 2 miles left from the cutoff (we had already gone close to 5).  The course continued to be very poorly marked, and we found ourselves guessing where to go a lot of the time, and sometimes we would look down 100 feet and see cones to our right or left and have to go get back on the trail.  We never saw any race officials (something I had assured Adam there would be plenty of!) or other runners (aside from the beginning).  After we'd been on the course for at least 7 more miles, we started to get concerned.  At this point, we wouldn't even be able to go back to the beginning of the course, and we were having to look for footprints as clues for which way to go.  Everything Adam had been worried about was going through my head!  He was already concerned about me doing it, but I assured him it would be fine, that there would be lots of officials directing the course and other people around since it was an organized race.  There weren't.

Finally, after three hours on the course (we had planned on it taking 1 1/2 to 2 hours), I saw a clearing with a picnic table and we got so excited, because at least there would be signs or people to ask or SOMETHING!  We got out there, and realized it was the FINISH LINE.  Except NO ONE was there.  We looked around, and I am not kidding, Julie's 4Runner was the only car in the parking lot.  The hustling bustling Visitor Center was closed up and the huge inflatable start line and marathon timer had been taken down.  This is all we saw:

Our relief turned into anger as we realized the race officials had packed up and left with at least two runners still on the course!  What if one of us had fallen or needed medical help?  No one would have known!  To make matters worse, we were late for our relaxing MASSAGES that we had scheduled after the race!  So we rush to Julie's car to call them and get there ASAP.  In the meantime, she gave me her key off her shoe to get into the car with.  When she got in the car, she said, "What'd you do with my key?"  I told her I put it in her seat, and she said, "It's not there."  Okay, so now my pregnancy brain has lost the only car key, 4 hours away from home!  We start frantically searching our pockets and the 4Runner when I notice these geese approaching, honking/quacking at us.  They aren't just passing by either.  They were coming right up next to me while I'm turned around, trying to find the car key so I can get to my massage!  I had to keep turning around to shoo them away, and at one point I had visions of grabbing the umbrella out of Julie's backseat and physically harming these ducks!  Stress levels were running high at that moment, and Julie later informed me she got the geese to go away by flapping her arms up and down and running towards them! (I was too busy looking for the stupid key to notice)  After what seems like the 20th time I look down into the seat, I see the key intermingled with the hinges in the seat.  I saw it and I told Julie, "I see the key, but I'm afraid if I try to grab it, it will fall down into Never Never Land and we'll lose it!"  She was able to wrestle it out of the seat and away we went, like mad women onto our massages, or what was left of them anyway!

We did manage to get one final race picture; can you tell we are both scrapbookers?! :)

                                    

The rest of our weekend was actually fun and relaxing and fairly uneventful!  We couldn't believe what had happened, and for those who know me best, you can bet your biscuits I have written letters to the Race Director, arkansasrunner.com (who promotes the race), and the coaches of the Little Rock Running group.  And I do expect follow up communication.

The whole time we were on the trail, Julie and I kept asking each other, "Are we going to tell people about this?" I kept saying, "I don't know; let's just see how it turns out!" SO, thank the LORD we made it out of there safely, and I believe we can both say we won't be trekking to Eureka Springs for any more trail races in the forseeable future!

We had fun shopping and eating dinner that night.  We ordered duck.  It was delicious.

Julie convinced me I needed to get my baby something to remember this trip by, since he was with me during the crazy experience!

So we made it back to Little Rock safe and sound on Sunday, Valentine's Day, and Adam had cooked me a steak dinner, complete with homemade chocolate covered pineapple and strawberries!

Since then, life has been quiet.  I'm sticking to my indoor workouts for the time being.  We are making progress on the nursery.  The room has been painted and looks beautiful!! (in a manly way, of course)  Here are some pictures of Adam hanging the curtains and putting the crib together.  He actually ironed the curtains-twice!-so they would hang right.

             

                                    

YAY!

So we are making progress now, and we are registering at WalMart tonight, so that should be complete.  Our first shower is two weeks from today!  It is getting here so quickly!  And my belly is growing so quickly, it's like it is making up for lost time in the beginning when I was wondering where my baby bump was!  People are always saying things like, "Jennifer, where'd that come from?"  or "Oh, so you really ARE pregnant!"

And here is a picture at 28 weeks:

Feeling huge and out of breath!

Now I go to the doctor every two weeks!  March is almost here, then after that, April, then MAY!!!!!!!!  Surprisingly I'm not too nervous.  I am actually excited to see this baby that's been living inside of me, and get to know him!  Adam and I went to the Central basketball game last night, and it was senior night so all these players were walking with their parents out on the court.  They were so huge, and their moms were just holding on to their arms.  I told Adam, "What if our son is bigger than me like that one day?"  It's so weird to think about!

I hope you all have a good week!  Remember to actually click on the link if you receive this update in an email. (Don't just reply to it)  I am going to print this blog off and have it made into a book, so I want to have all your comments on the blog page!