Settled in Red Lodge :)

Life has gotten strangely busy over the last few months. Josh successfully defended his thesis and graduated from SDSM&T. He interviewed in Texas and Montana and was offered a position with Stillwater Mine in Montana, which he accepted. Together we packed and moved with the help of our friends at Project Church and now are in Red Lodge, Montana.

Wyatt & I spent the month of May traveling: 1 1/2 weeks in Texas to visit his paternal grandparents, and 1 1/2 weeks in Alabama / Florida for a family reunion with my side of the family. It was his first time plane traveling and he did very well! All our traveling companions commented on how well-behaved he was and how relaxed even during take-off and landing. I think Wyatt is just a laid back little guy. He is also a charmer, and wows all the women he meets with an incredibly cute smile :)

Since returning to Red Lodge we have been busy unpacking, taking care of a friend who visited for 3 1/2 weeks, taking lots of walks to the post office, and occasionally hanging out in the community pool!

6 months old!

Wyatt has made it to the half a year point! Hard to believe this much time has passed since he was born.
A quick rundown on Wyatt:

• He got his first tooth on March 9th (my birthday) and is happily chewing on his arm right now
• He can roll both directions but usually back to stomach
• He likes to sleep on his stomach and will sleep up to 4 hour stretches there (hooray!)
• He still loves being held and carried but at 19 lbs it is starting to get challenging!
• He seems to have a bit of a shy personality and takes a while to warm up to new people

Motherhood has continued to be a bit of a challenge for me. I wonder where the last 6 months went! I am trying to figure out now whether I should find part-time work or return to school, but all of these things depend upon where Josh finds a job. So I remain in a state of waiting at least for the time being. Right now we are looking at possibilities in Montana, Texas, and Alaska. I can't wait to see where we end up next!

Windy South Dakota! and a cute baby :)

It is another cold day in South Dakota - it's going to be tough to get out this winter with Wyatt if the wind continues like this! 20 degrees and dropping ... colder than Fairbanks, which is unusual for this time of the year!

Grandpa Z holding Wyatt at the Firehouse

In recent news, life has been going pretty well! My parents flew out from Washington the week before Thanksgiving to spend quality time with their new grandson; they treated us to dinner at the Firehouse Brewery, where Wyatt tried out a Fireman's hat.

We had a good first Thanksgiving with Wyatt; we potlucked with the other graduate students in Rapid Valley and lounged around, watching football and playing games. Wyatt just kind of took it all in. He likes to observe, eat, and sleep. He does have a cute smile that he has started showing more regularly! Here is a picture I snapped this morning of his smile :)

Gold flakes in the bottom of a gold pan :)

In other news, Josh continues to work on his thesis. We have had some fun going out and gold panning in areas near Rapid Creek - I take Wyatt up with me and he sleeps in the car seat near us as I help Josh fill buckets with gold bearing dirt! We have had success although it may not look like much at the moment. Wyatt seems to enjoy the outdoors as he stares up at the trees we walk past.

Josh also recently acquired a part time job working a security position at a building on Ellsworth AFB. A man we met at church offered him the position and he works weekends day or night shifts, from 4 - 4. It is a blessing as we currently have no other income! And the other great part about it is that he has Christmas & New Year's weekends off, so we will be driving back to Washington once again for Christmas! It will be interesting attempting that trip with a baby!

It's amazing how much of my life has changed in a few short months since Wyatt was born. At first I struggled with the transition from a busy / hectic work / study life to the new routine of feed baby, diapers, sleep when you can ... but as time has gone on I am beginning to really enjoy this time with Wyatt at home. I don't know that it will be like this always, so I am very glad for the opportunity now. I am trying to take the extra time I have to focus on what God has for us next in life, as we will likely be moving to wherever Josh is able to find work. My hope and earnest desire is that I honor God with whatever I am doing and find satisfaction in Him alone, as I have always struggled in being valued for what I do, not who I am in Christ. Today our pastor spoke about life and death, and living out the passions and dreams that God has given us. Strangely I never had the desire to be a stay at home mom, but that is where I am currently at. So I am praying that God shows me how I can encourage and love other people from my home while supporting my husband and raising my beautiful boy. I am not even close to being there yet, but I trust He will open the doors and show me the way! And if He has something else in mind, I trust He will show me what the next steps are to take. I can't imagine what the next few months will bring ... we are truly at a crossroads in our life.

Time to catch up!

Obviously I have been slacking on the blogger front .... but I think that I will try now to catch up although my blogging will have a different focus than before! And the reason for that is my wonderful son who was born September 15th, 2011, at 1:16 PM. I will give a shortened version of the birth story for those interested :)

I had been working at Casey Peterson & Associates since I returned from Nevada, filling in for the front desk receptionist since Josh & I decided it would be best for me to hold off on returning to school. I had been enrolled in graduate studies in Geological Engineering at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. Anyway, working was going good, pregnancy wasn't too bad at this point, and I was only a little swollen and uncomfortable. I hadn't even packed my bag for the hospital or had the final consult with our doula even though the date was set. September 14th was nothing noteworthy at work although I did end up staying late and was planning to come in early the next day to help process tax returns for the September 15th corporation filing extended deadline. But alas, it wasn't to be.

I woke up around 5 AM on Sept. 15 to get a drink of water after feeling kind of a funny "pop" in my abdomen. Turns out my water had broken! I told Josh, who decided to lay down for a little bit longer as he had just gone to bed from working on his thesis. I didn't feel too bad right away, so I proceeded to eat breakfast, take a shower, and do my normal work preparations. I figured I would go to work until my dr's appt at 10 AM. I know, I'm a little crazy. We decided to call my doula first to see what she thought - she was concerned since it was 3 weeks early and said I should call my dr. We called the dr's office where the on-call dr was shocked we weren't already at Labor & Delivery. Hmm. Josh at this point had gotten back out of bed and the contractions had started to strengthen. We talked it over and decided to go to the hospital although we had planned to labor at home for some time. So we called our doula and told her to meet us at the hospital. We had to make a quick run over to the school to print off our birth plan prior to going to the hospital, and ended up checking in around 8:30 AM.

I wasn't in triage for long - just long enough to check that indeed, my water had broken and I was getting ready to have this baby! Our doula met us there and we got moved to a delivery room where we worked through the contractions walking, slow-dancing, and generally moving. However when it got close to transition I headed for the bed and didn't leave it! I can't remember when I started pushing or really even how long it took, maybe 1 - 2 hours? The funniest part was that my OB doc showed up and was heading out the door to get suited up when Wyatt came out - he ran over and caught him with his bare hands! I guess he came quick!

Wyatt was 6 lbs 1.8 oz at birth, 19 inches long. There was a little concern at the start about his breathing and jaundice, but the NICU nurses came to check him out and said he was just fine! We ended up staying two nights at the hospital before we were both discharged and sent home.

There are a lot more details to the story of course, but many I am not comfortable posting online for the whole world to see! So call me if you want to hear them or send me an email :) All in all, it was totally unexpected for Wyatt to show up early, but I ended up with the natural, med-free birth I had hoped for and recovered pretty well. 8 weeks out I am finally feeling well adjusted to being a stay at home mom with a wonderful newborn son!

The picture at the top is a photo of Wyatt Richard Brewer at 1 week of age in the "Boys Rule" onesie that was the first thing Josh picked up to dress him in. Here is another more recent photo of Wyatt from yesterday when I was getting ready to take him out for a walk in the stroller - didn't happen because the wind was too cold, but he sure looked cute!

Baby Shower!!

Yesterday I was blessed by the ladies of Lighthouse Christian Fellowship with a baby shower! Very first time for me to be the center of such attention! And it was a lot of fun to open all of the gifts with all of the baby clothes and other such things.

Here's a picture of all those wonderful women (and a few of their lovely daughters too). Baby Brewer is going to be a well-dressed little fella, I can tell you that for sure. Only 9 1/2 weeks 'til the due date, and as we all know that means the baby could show up anywhere from 7-11 weeks from now! Exciting and hard to believe the time is drawing so close. At least now I have a few diapers, baby wipes, clothes, and even a bouncy chair & bassinet. Hooray!

Angel Lake Hike

For my Sunday off this week I decided to go to Angel Lake for a hike and just to enjoy the afternoon. Lara came along with me and we drove out to Wells, then up a sketchy, skinny road to the lake. No guardrails and a drop off made for a bit of a nervous drive for me, since I still have a little of that fear of heights.

We decided to hike up one of the many trails in the area, this one leading to Smith Lake. As you can see, there was a bit of snow on the trail yet, which made it slightly treacherous. At the second snow patch we turned back since it was getting late and because we didn't want to risk sliding off the side of the mountain! Plus I was hiking in sandals... yeah not the best idea. Too hot for boots though.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny afternoon, and the bugs weren't even out. I was glad to see the renowned Angel Lake and had fun looking at the cool rocks. Yes, once a nerdy geologist, always a nerdy geologist. By the time we got back in town, it was time for bed!

Gallivanting around Twin Falls!

For the Fourth of July weekend I took some time off work to travel north to Twin Falls, ID! I left after hitting the pool for the midday swim on Friday. It was a nice drive, a little on the warm side but not bad!

I enjoyed myself and pampered myself on Friday night by going to the mall and watching a movie, Monte Carlo, which was a great fun comedy to watch (and admittedly a bit of a chick flick). I was amazed at how happy I felt when I arrived in Twin Falls to discover stores galore, especially one of my favorites (Target!) which was part of the plan anyway. After my evening I bedded down for the night and got at least a little rest - I wanted to hit the trails early in the morning before it got too hot!

So Saturday after a fabulous breakfast at Idaho Joe's, I made my way to Shoshone Falls, which was certainly beautiful. I made a morning of it by biking around on all the trails on the canyon rim and down to the nearby lake. It was a lovely day to be out on the bike! I did manage to wear myself out a little bit with the sun and the heat, so I was only too glad to get back to town and treat myself to a cherry limeade at Sonic ... mmm... wish they had one of those in Elko, though it's probably a good thing they don't!