The Phoenix Edition

Happy Valentine's Day! As you may (or may not) have noticed my TGIF has been silent since Christmas and for a very good reason- which most of you know now but still a few of the more far lung friends and family who read this do not. So for those who know the news you can skip down since by now you're yawning to death. On Boxing Day Shell and I learned that we were going to have a baby. We wanted to wait a while until she got further along to tell Shell's grandparents (and thus the extended Snyder and Amos families) and so rather than having to write about other things with this news burning a hole in my literary pocket I chose to take an extended hiatus. Shell is now in the last week of her first trimester and so on Sunday we phoned Grandma and Grandpa Snyder and Grandma Amos and let them know so now it is free information for all and I can return to this weekly (or so) update. For those who have known for a while, once again I thank you for all your kind thoughts and prayers. For those who are just getting word now, just know it isn't because we love you less, only that we wanted to be down the road a bit before laying it on the baby's great-grandparents. Okay so where do we stand? Well Shell has a collection of midwives now (though we've only met one of them so far). We sweated it for a while because we weren't sure if they were going to take us, but last week we had our first appointment and tomorrow we go for the second one. Next Tuesday is another appointment, this time for an ultrasound that detects potential problems in pregnant women over 35. We are hoping to finally see the baby and that things are going well. Please keep sending those prayers our way. Of course right now we're a jumble of emotions: nervous, ecstatic, nauseous, hopeful, hungry, NOT hungry, and mostly sleepy. At the moment the different calendars peg the due date somewhere between September 3 and September 6...but as long as it doesn't become July or October I think we'll take a bit of the uncertainty- besides this baby is going to appear when it's good and ready and not a second before. So what else is new? Well the second semester for me at school is well into the halfway mark. This week in fact is "reading week" which is spring break if there was such a thing as spring in Canada (I'm beginning to doubt it). This semester seems more manageable and less crammed with overwhelming assignments and I only have three papers due this semester and then 3 finals in May. I'm enjoying my classes more and have met some really great people. I did finally received my one semester grade from last semester and I got a B+ in the Historiography class that I feared early on. So I've finally, officially, started a GPA at Toronto with a 3.30 It's a tad lower than Utah but given the strength of the grading I'm okay with it. Given the pregnancy, there's been little in the way of more renovations but Shell did manage to paint the hallway over Christmas break and it looks great. That leaves only the kitchen and basement as in need of new paint. It will get there in time. In dog news, Dixie and Willow are doing great (if a little stiff from not enough exercise). Winters are hard here and they don't get as much playtime as usual. There is dog news of a different sort as my Mom got a new puppy over the last few months. Since Maddie passed away, there was an absence of pug in the house for the first time in a looooong time. Here's the only photo I have thus far (this is a hint to my mother to send more photos of the puppy!!!) Apologies if you've seen it before. We had a lovely weekend this week. Renee and Jeff visited and we had a great time together. On Sunday a friend from Univeristy, Alex, came out to the country and we had a nice time as well. It feels wonderful to have people visit us, especially since the house is coming along (so if you're in the neighborhood stop on by). Well at least now the phoenix that is this blog has risen again and hopefully in the next few months I'll have more stories to tell, more political ideas to share, and more photos to show you...but for now... Cheers