New Blog

For those of you that don't know, Shannon and I have been regularly attending an Orthodox church. And I've just started a new blog to discuss anything and everything related to our journey toward this ancient form of Christian faith. So if you're interested in having theological discussions with us or just hearing about our story come to Liminal Incense. I hope many of you will come and ask us questions and discuss with us. But if that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, don't worry, Rushcapades will continue with its regular programming.

Messenger

Trudy is a very smart dog.  Even as a wee pup, we had to keep her mentally- as well as physically active. She catches on to new tricks pretty easily.  She's also eager to please and likes having a job.  So, in my pregnancy I've started taking advantage of that. 

It started a few weeks ago, when I decided it would be nice if she could bring me the dogs' leashes so I didn't have to look for them or bend over to pick them up. 

"Trudy.  Bring me your leashes."  She perked her ears up, and trotted purposefully out of the kitchen, as I smiled at the prospect of never again having to search for or bend over to pick up their leashes.  A minute or two later, despite previous success at leash retrieval, she returned empty-mouthed, unable to find them (I think they were in the car).  She looked everywhere.  Then she went into Brian's studio and sniffed a short piece of black webbing but left it, knowing it wasn't a leash.  A few minutes later, exasperated by the lack of leashes and desperate to go for a walk, she went back to the 12 inch strap and decided to bring it anyway. "Mom, will this do?"

A second case came when I took Trudy and Otis to the dog park. It was a typical blustery day, and I didn't want to have to get out and dig around in the car for the chuck-it with her ball in it.  I knew it was somewhere in the back with her, so I just asked her to bring me her ball. It took a few tries, since the plastic launching device was previously a doggy no-no, but she eventually overcame her learned inhibition and brought it to my perfectly warm and dry hand in the front seat. I'm starting to like this, I thought. 

Finally, last night I was exhausted. Dinner was ready, but Brian was downstairs in our bedroom. I had been up and down stairs all day at work and at home and didn't feel like yelling. So, I thought to myself, "I wish Trudy could go tell Brian that it's time to eat." Then I had an idea. And it worked perfectly! 

Not only did it get my message across, but when she brought the sign to Brian he thought it was so funny he came up right away, laughing hysterically  :) 

Swiper, No swiping!

For those of you that don't know, Dora the Explorer is one of the current kid crazes. It is an animated television series aimed at pre-school age children. The main character, Dora, is a seven-year-old Latina girl who goes on adventures with her special backpack, map, and monkey named Boots. Children are encouraged to respond to Dora throughout the show as she problem solves teaching kids math, music and other concepts you would see on any kid show. But what sets it apart for me is that Dora also teaches kids words and phrases in Spanish.

Like any phenomenon in the children's world, marketers have taken Dora to the extreme. You can find pretty much anything with the Dora characters on them. But until recently, I thought the show itself was pretty innocent.

On Dora's show there is a character named Swiper (a fox) that likes to steal things. Dora often catches him in the act and stands with feet apart, arm extended, waving her palm at Swiper saying, "Swiper, No swiping." This saves the day as she has caught Swiper in the act. 

This weekend, while we were at the wedding and catching up with friends, their almost 2-year-old boy was playing on the stairs near us with his grandma's cell phone. A few minutes later, grandma came to look for the cell phone and asked him if she could have it back. The little boy, immediately stood up and went into the "Swiper, no swiping" pose to fend off his grandma! A modern day version of "mine!" Grandma finally gave up and asked him if he wanted to go with her downstairs, and happily he left with her, cell phone still clutched in his little hand.

So parents out there with children watching Dora, beware!

Estie and Joel Parris

This weekend Brian and I braved the flood damaged I-5 (which ended up not being that bad) to head to Portland for our 26th wedding. Our friend Estie worked at Camp Firwood with us for the three summers we were there and we were excited to receive an invitation and an opportunity to reconnect.

We love going to weddings.

There were some similarities between Estie and Joel's wedding and ours. They too had a flower TEAM, though theirs was much larger than ours. There were 12 little kids coming down the various aisles, and instead of throwing petals they were ringing bells. Super cute! Also similar to us they do not like cake. They had a dessert buffet with a chocolate fondue fountain, but the big treat was homemade icecream sandwiches--hundreds of cookies all baked by her mom!

Congratulations Estie and Joel!

Weighty Comments

Now that it is obvious that I am pregnant, people are beginning to be a bit more bold with their comments. Almost daily I hear things like "You look great", "Wow, you are finally starting to pop", "I don't know if you are going to make it to February", "You are hardly showing." Here are a few recent, unusual ones.

Otis's vet: "Christmas baby?"
Me: "No, we are due in February, so we have a few more months to wait."
Otis's vet: Oh (stutters for something to say) it must be your coat" *nervous laughter*

Co-worker: "Oh hi, when did you get back from maternity leave?"
Me: "Actually, I haven't left yet. We are due in February."
Co-worker: "I guess I really haven't seen you since school started." (This was a strange comment since my role at school has me in front of the staff nearly every month.)

Both of these happened on the same day and were made by women that have had children. The next two comments came from students in my Pre-Algebra class.

Boy: Mrs. Rush are you losing weight?
Me: No, (boy) I am actually gaining weight, because I am pregnant, remember?
Boy: Oh, I thought you might not be anymore. Last week you looked more pregnant.
Me: I think it depends on what I am wearing.

While I squatted down to help a student by their desk, another girl says, "Mrs. Rush, your butt is really big. You really shouldn't squat down like that."

It's amazing how pregnancy makes everybody feel comfortable sharing their opinions on your body.

Grandpa William Batiuk ~ 1921 - 2007

As you may have read in one of my previous posts, Brian's grandpa past away just before American Thanksgiving. Last spring, he and grandma moved from their long time home in Trail, B.C. to be closer to family as their health conditions, including Grandpa's Alzheimer's, worsened. Grandpa had been in and out of the hospital with various ailments since then and it was sad to see him lose precious memories and be unable to do the things he loved like golfing and gardening. But even to the end, we continued to see his gentle spirit, his wit and his love of nature.


We held a family memorial service at Brian's parents last Saturday. Everyone got to share some fond memories:

• how, even in his 80's, he beat Brian's aunt at golf
• how he always affectionately and inexplicably called his grandkids "ginks"
• how, every time the ginks would walk by and smack the newspaper he was reading, he wouldn't get upset but would just calmly uncrumple it and continue reading
• how, one time, he did something no other mortal has done and lived: stood up to Grandma :) She was voicing, to Brian's brother, her not-so-favorable opinions about the "young people of today" when Grandpa astonished him by sticking up for us
• how he would painstakingly fill out full pads of grocery store contest applications and win fabulous merchandise almost weekly
• how he was one of the first people in B.C. to work on computers, but refused to own one in his home.

Overall, he will surely be remembered for his unfailing dedication to his family, his love of children (they always made his face brighten) and his never-ending wonder for nature.


We finished our celebration by listening to and reading his favorite Ukrainian hymn and eating a Ukrainian meal (he loved his heritage). Grandma gave each of the branches of his family a Ukrainian memento to remind us of grandpa.

My last memory of grandpa took place over Canadian Thanksgiving in October. We picked him up from his nursing home so he could celebrate with us. Carol, Brian's mom, asked me if I would give him a haircut, since I regularly cut Brian's hair. I was a little nervous, but I agreed.


Although, he didn't have much hair, it still was an adventure. His diabetes made him very sensitive to touch, so I was careful not to startle him too much. The toughest part was his neck. Several times I asked him to look down. I think it was the third time when he turned to me and, unsure why he would want to do such a thing, said, "There's just a dog down there." Carol and I had a good chuckle and I decided to just do my best without getting him to look down. I didn't have much time with Grandpa Batiuk, but the times I did I saw a man to be admired and we will always remember him.

29 weeks!

Well, we've officially made it into the third trimester. Our baby girl is actively moving and growing. Without fail, every time Brian puts his hand or face on my belly she responds with a "kick." We don't know if that is a good thing because she is so responsive toward him or a bad thing because she likes to kick him in the face.



The doctor said everything is going great from their perspective (heart beat is strong, I'm measuring perfectly, great blood pressure, etc). Supposedly, she is the size of a butternut squash this week. That is really hard for me to believe that something that big is inside of me. Brian didn't find it surprising, but he did question me on the choice to have butternut squash soup for dinner recently.



Life is getting more complicated for me however. Sleeping is not a easy as it used to be, my back is hurting more often, and little things are getting a lot more difficult. The other day I had to call Brian to help me get my pantyhose on. It didn't help when he came in the room and started busting up laughing.

People comment regularly that I am finally starting to look big. A few people have asked for belly pictures so we finally got around to taking one. I won't be offended if you quickly avert your eyes.

Only a couple more months and she will be here! We can't wait!

Our Babymoon

All of my pregnancy magazines have advertisements for "babymoons." (One last trip as a couple before you have a baby and your life changes forever). Most of the advertisements are for warm places with sunny beaches or romantic places in Europe, so a few months ago, Brian and I decided to take advantage of my Thanksgiving break and go to that most exotic of locales... Calgary, Alberta.

Why Calgary? Well, actually we stayed a few nights in Canmore, a town near Banff, which is a little more exciting and beautiful. There are a couple things that drew us to this destination. First, airfare during Thanksgiving is unreal, so we knew we would be driving. Second, we wanted to go somewhere new, and we could use our Trendwest membership to get a place in Canmore for very little. (It cost more to kennel our dogs for a night than for our room!) Finally, Brian's brother Kevin, his wife Melanie, and their 7 month old baby Jamie live in Calgary and we don't get to see them very often.

The drive is about 10 1/2 hours if you drive non-stop and conditions are favorable. Unfortunately with a 6+ month pregnant woman and two dogs you can't drive non-stop. Fortunately, the drive is beautiful. There was snow all around us, but the roads were bare and the sky was blue. The air was crisp and absolutely FREEZING! (Note the temperature on the dashboard in the middle of the day.)
At one rest stop Otis got to experience snow for the first time! Trudy needed to wear the coat Alli got her because she is so skinny and doesn't have much fur. While in Canmore we mostly vegged out in our room. But we did make one venture into town each day to walk around the shops and get something to eat.
Then on to Calgary to spend a few days with Kevin, Melanie, and Jamie. Melanie and I spent a lot of time talking about new motherhood. She passed on her maternity clothes, (My wardrobe at least doubled!) as well as some clothes and things that Jamie has outgrown. We saw some of Calgary; I drove around with Melanie one afternoon and Brian went to some art shows. We played a great new version of the game of Settlers of Catan and again just relaxed.

Our dogs got to stay with us at their house. Jamie gave them a crash course in how to act around babies! She poked them, pinched their noses, pulled their tails, took their bones away while they were chewing them and even tried to pull herself to standing using Trudy (and her fur!). They were so great! She also exposed them to lots of new smells and sounds. Our only trouble was making sure they didn't lick her to death every time they walked by. Jamie and the dogs even joined forces to become an irresistible wake up crew.

Our only sad part of our trip was that while we were gone Brian's grandpa passed away. We knew it might be soon and made a point to visit him before we left, but it was still difficult. The family decided to wait to have the service until after we got home, and Melanie decided to caravan back with us so she could be there too. Kevin flew in later in the week because of work.

Overall, it was great to get away with Brian. We had fun just laughing, dreaming about the next stage of our marriage, spending time with family we don't see often, and doing nothing. I came back really refreshed, in spite of spending an entire day in the car.

Cool Tip #2 - Iron

So people always say that eating while you are pregnant is so easy because you can eat anything. That hasn't been true for me. I find it so difficult, mostly because I still struggle to eat meat which makes it hard to get enough protein for baby. Then after my last blood test, my doctor said I need to be eating more iron.

Brian has become the "iron and protein nazi," which I appreciate how supportive he is, but it is still frustrating. The forced burritos at bedtime when I realized that I hadn't eaten much protein was humorous/annoying but also very sweet.

Tonight, after completing my last blog, I asked Brian if he wanted to share a grapefruit with me. I can always eat fruit. He said, "Shouldn't you eat some spinach? You haven't had much iron today." I told him that I really didn't want any spinach and he suggested that I eat both. Not feeling that hungry I decided to search for iron rich foods on google, secretly hoping something yummier like grapefruit would be on the list.

Healthcastle.com came up first on the list. On their homepage it listed Spinach as an Iron Absorption Inhibitor and grapefruit as an Iron Absorption Enhancer. There was also a link entitled "Is Spinach a good source of iron?" Feeling a little cheeky, and emboldened by my new knowledge of the limitations of spinach and the power of grapefruit, I clicked on the link thinking that I was going to prove Brian wrong and be able to just eat my grapefruit.

Unfortunately, in the section labeled "So should you or should you not eat Spinach?" it said spinach will be a good source of iron if you eat it with an Iron Absorption Enhancer...like grapefruit. So as I am typing up our story to share with you my newly found knowledge, I am eating a spinach salad with grapefruit slices. And Brian is gloating.

Phew!

The last six weeks have been abnormally busy! Add being pregnant on top of all of the extras at work and travelling and voila! not much blogging gets done, let alone other necessities like cleaning house and buying groceries. Those days I was home involved a lot of scrambling to eat and doing just enough to get by around the house before falling into bed. Being my first full weekend home for a while, I first breathed a big sigh of relief and then got to work, hardly leaving the house for three days! But we are now entering the work week with a mostly clean house, a garage that we can park our car in (yes Friends, the Rush's car is in their garage) and baked goods for breakfast. Stay tuned for the highlights of the last few weeks.