A Month Gone By

Sorry for the long time between posts y'all. Just everyday life as usual around here. I've really been enjoying the warm weather lately. Its been in the 70's and the average temp this time of year is usually the 50's so I keep feeling like its May instead of the end of March. When it hasn't been raining or super humid, Nicky and I have enjoyed outside time and have made another few trips to the park by our house. The stroller ride over there usually puts him to sleep. Once we get there, there isn't too much for him to do since he is too young for the playground, but we do get some swinging in together. The park is nice and big and there is a nice walking path around its perimeter so I make sure and walk that each time so I can get in exercise at least. I am happy that I have lost all my baby weight now (I think I have breastfeeding to thank for that), but I would like lose another 5 pounds or so and more importantly, tone my muscles. I think sit-ups are probably in order to suck in the baby belly, but I am not excited to do those yet. Carrying around an 18 pound baby does help a bit:) Nicky seems to like being outside, but he is a little young for sunscreen (its technically for babies over 6 months old), and I guess I'm supposed to try to put him in light long-sleeved shirts and pants plus a hat anyway, but that seems like so many clothes for my warm-blooded baby. I do the hat and try to keep him in the shade most times since we aren't out for long periods of time.

The month was also filled with lots of sports watching. I am now close to sick of it. I love watching sports but since my Jayhawks lost last Saturday, I am just not excited anymore about college basketball. Also, I think I will give up on filling out brackets for the NCAA tournament after this. I hadn't done so until last year and this year, and I always steered Scott to good picks for his brackets. However, when I've done my own brackets, I've totally stunk it up. I am currently next to last in our group this year and was in a similar position last year. I think the problem is that I get too analytical about it and look at the rankings and try to put in a certain number of upsets instead of going with my gut like I used to. Now, I never picked blindly or randomly like some people who pick based on the teams colors or if they know someone who lives in that state. I, however, used to rely more on my instincts. Next year I will either give up the brackets or maybe have Scott feed me the match ups verbally so that I don't have the stupid rankings there in front of me to screw me up.

In other sports news, Scott & I were excited that our Alma Mater, UND, was once again in the NCAA hockey tournament. Since our stupid cable company was showing the game but not until 2 days later, we decided to watch the game at a local sports bar and grill that had the game on satellite. Last year, we were in San Francisco where I was attending a conference and were able to watch the game in the bar attached to our hotel. It was really fun because our bartender was from Boston and we were playing Boston College. Unfortunately, Boston won last year. Well, the game we saw on Sunday was a good one, and luckily, UND beat our rival, the Minnesota Gophers 3 to 2 in overtime. Nicky seemed to enjoy himself and took a few naps during the game. Anyway, UND is now in the Frozen Four which is taking place in Saint Louis. Its so close that Scott & I have been tempted to make a trip of it to attend and write it off as part of his upcoming birthday, but so far, we just can't justify the cost to ourselves. It would have been fun... But guess who we play again - Boston! Maybe we'll beat them this year.

And finally, I have to make just a few TV comments again. I will say only a few things about American Idol. First, for the love of God, would everyone please stop voting for Sanjaya so I don't have to hear his horrible singing anymore!!! I get it, he was "cool" hair. Its pretty silly that that is what is keeping him in the competition as it is painfully clear at this point that his singing skills are far below everyone else's. It kills me that the votes of a bunch of pre-teen girls are screwing up the competition again. Scott & I have already lost two of our favorite contestants so far - Stephanie and Chris Sligh. It seems like Chris might have a bit of an ego, though, so Scott & I weren't as fond of him as we were in the beginning. Still, neither he nor Stephanie deserved to go this early in the competition. Besides Sanjaya, I think Haley and Phil should have gone first just based on their performances thus far. Ok, enough AI.

Scott & I have also recently started watching the TV show Jericho. Its about a small town in Kansas after a bunch of nuclear bombs have taken out the government and most of the major cities in the US. Why is it that all the nuclear holocaust movies are centered in Kansas? It creeps me out - its way too close. The 70's movie The Day After was set in Lawrence, KS, our former home and only 45 miles away now plus in that movie, KC was where the bomb went off. In Jericho, Lawrence was one of the places that got bombed. I swear I am going to start having nuclear disaster dreams. Not good, I know. But the show is so compelling that I am very much stuck on it. It is really good. We've watched all the past episodes on the computer because we didn't start watching it at the beginning of this season when it started, but now we are all caught up so we can watch it on live TV. I highly recommend the show. Check it out.

Happy Spring everyone!