Boy or Girl?

Well, if you're wondering whether my baby is a boy or a girl, let's just say that makes two of us. Unfortunately, the little baby just would not cooperate today. He/she was just nestled in and comfy, refusing to move from its little niche. We even got to see the baby yawn, reinforcing the fact that he/she wasn't going anywhere; clearly, it was nap time! The baby was resting along my spine, his/her little feet scrunched into my hip bone, and the darn hip bone was impeding the view. Everything looked healthy with the baby thus far, though, and he/she is a hefty 10 ounces! We did get some great profile shots and, if I do say so myself, my baby is pretty darn cute, whether boy or girl. At least we don't have to wait too long to take another look--I'm scheduled to have another ultra sound next Wednesday. Let's hope this time we can find out. I'm dying to know! I'll post pictures of babe's profile soon!

Tour de Vermont!

Josh, on our bike path, preparing for the big tour.

(It is crucial when pronouncing this title you say it as though you were French, "Tour de Vehr-moh!"). That's right. For some crazy reason we, being the Madsen family, have the disillusioned idea that we are now somehow Lance Armstrong and the Discovery team. Though instead of racing throughout France and the infamous Pyrenees, we are racing on the back roads of Vermont. When I initially heard this idea, I immediately had visions of me, being lithe and fit, riding through the hilly Vermont countryside with ease and grace, the cool, crisp fall air blowing through my hair--all the while wearing the yellow jersey, mind you. Now that it is getting closer to the actual bike tour, reality has set in and these are the new visions (more like nightmares): me, larger than normal, puffing and huffing, walking my bike up all forms of hills, no matter how mediocre, and then asking incessantly the age-old question, "Are we there yet?" Josh tells me not to worry--we'll only be riding thirty miles a day, which he thinks should only take me three hours. To this I reply, "Three hours? Three hours? Have you ever actually sat on a bike for three hours? That will wreak havoc on my crotch bones!" In order to better prepare for this ordeal, we have been going on daily hour-long bike rides for the last few days and, let me tell you, ONE hour is enough to wreak havoc on aforementioned crotch bones. Ah, well. I am still looking forward to enjoying visions of the beautiful New England trees changing colors and the crisp, cool fall air (not to mention the great company and staying in fun, New England towns). Only, I fully intend on riding far less than thirty miles and letting the "relief car" (Josh's mom in a mini-van) come and pick me up along the way.

Finally, a Bundle of Joy!

Some of you may already know, some of you may not really care, but most of you, I'm sure, will be ecstatic to hear the following good news. Yes, after three plus years, an entire team of doctors and nurses spanning the state of New York, thousands of needles, billions of dollars and an unending number of emotional roller coaster rides, we are finally so thrilled to announce that we're having a baby! (Josh likes to say: "After three years, Dr. Kiltz finally knocked up my wife." Though not very tactful and perhaps a bit misleading, it is, nevertheless, so very true. Sad but so very true).

Most of you know where babies come from, but our baby isn't like most of yours. He/she came from a tube labeled with our names on it, containing three little embryos retrieved, hatched and inseminated at CNY Fertility in Syracuse, NY. Thankfully, only one of those little embryos decided to stay, so we're relieved to say that we're only having one baby at this time. We've experienced many stumbling blocks along our path to parenthood, so many that it would fill an entire novel. We don't know why it took so long for our baby to come to us, with both of us being quite fertile, but we do know that we have been blessed to finally reach this point. Thus far everything looks great, except for the two-minute scare today at my 17 week check-up (the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat with the doppler, so she immediately took me to the ultrasound machine where we saw a perfectly healthy baby, complete with the cutest fingers, who WOULDN'T STAY STILL. I was holding my breath throughout the entire ultrasound, I was that nervous. After, the doctor said, "Okay, you can breathe now!"). Now all we can hope and pray for is a happy, healthy baby born on or around the date of February 21, 2008! Stay tuned to find out the sex; we find out on September 25! Any guesses???

Who Wants a Clean House?

Finally, I cleaned my house--I mean really cleaned my house: the oven, microwave, fridge, pantry, bathrooms, and even dusted everywhere:) I thought that since this was so rare, I would take advantage and post some pictures of our house (also so that I could document that at one time my house was this clean). For those of you who don't know, Josh and I have lived in upstate NY, about 20 miles northwest of Albany, for a little over two years now and we bought a cute new house two years ago in November. We LOVE our house. I love so many things about new homes: the closets (tons & HUGE); the cleanliness (knowing I have been the first and only person to use my toilet); and the opportunity to choose the carpet, tile, cabinetry, etc. There are a few things that I don't love about new homes: no window treatments anywhere (we've spent a fortune on blinds, curtains, etc.); the yard--our yard has been and probably forever will be a royal mess; and the sometimes lack of character that new homes have--no old architechture or hard wood floors. To make up for that lack of character, we've had fun painting EVERY room in the house, most a different color. Josh hasn't really had fun, because he despises painting, but we've enjoyed the finished product. So, now for your viewing pleasure, you too can enjoy the finished product.

Above is the living/family room! This is my favorite room because it's really one of the few I've actually decorated.

Another view of the living room. This was the first room we painted and this is the second color...I found it so difficult to choose paint color! In fact, I have so many paint samples that I could have my own paint shop!Yet another view of the living room.
The living room as seen from the kitchen.

The kitchen: hooray! Notice the lovely curtains my mom and I made. Nice, eh?
More kitchen....I, clearly, am obsessed with red. I found that red phone at Pottery Barn and just had to have it. I waited for it to go on sale, then bought it for myself for Christmas. Merry Christmas to me!
The dinette, complete with the table and chairs from Josh's kind grandpa.
The entryway.
This room is technically a dining room and, unfortunately, the first room you see when you walk in the house. I say unfortunately because unfortunately we have NO furniture. I want to make it into a beautiful study/den/library but I want the perfect furniture. Well, the perfect furniture is far too expensive, so I'll just wait until I strike it rich. I do, however, love the paint in here. Of course, it is red and we (by we, I mean Josh) put up the chair rail a little higher than usual to add a fun little flair of style. Now, stayed tuned for the furniture to fill this room (that will be quite some time, but I'm sure you can wait if I can!).

My camera died before I could take pictures of the upstairs, but I'll post pictures soon. Hopefully, you can stand the wait....

The Lovely Lake Roosevelt

I know, I know. I've been gone for a while. I have an excuse. I flew cross country to see my family in WA (where we went to the lake and had a ball); went to VT for the Labor Day weekend to visit Josh's brother, his wife and their daughter (I forgot my camera but we had a blast eating hot dogs and s'mores around the fire pit, going raspberry picking and making yummy jam, eating out at Flatbread Pizza, making fresh fajitas with fixings from the garden and having a mountain bike adventure where I only biked for one mile but am still feeling the effects of a sore bum); and then last night I had my Personal Progress Kick-off for the year (which, after FAR too much work, actually went off spectacularly! I had 12 girls come! That, in the Schenectady Ward, is a MIRACLE). So, I sincerely apologize that I have been absent from the blogging sphere. I am SURE most of you have been waiting with bated breath to read the next installment of the lives of Joshy and Jessy. So, without further ado, I present to you pictures (most of them stolen from my siblings' blogs) from the lovely Lake Roosevelt, my favorite place on earth.

My brother Ryan and his son, Cody, walking down to the beach. It was quite the hike. As Jon said, "It's a 5-minute walk down and a 35-minute walk up."

Ryan, Brandon, Katie and Kathleen building sand castles on our gorgeous beach. It was beautiful, private (for the most part) and HUGE! Perfect beach!

Our daily ritual of wiffle ball! After lunch, we'd return to the beach and play some hard-core wiffle ball. When it got a little warmer, we played out into the water. And, I don't like to brag, but in one particular game I was totally awesome. I got back-to-back doubles, one even bringing in 2 RBIs. Basically, I am the next Big Papi!

Josh hard at work doing his infamous "drip castles".

Tanner and Kathleen watching Josh give the final touches to a sand castle that eventually baby Cody plowed over.

Josh preparing to wakeboard off the back of the boat. This was only his second year wakeboarding and he was pretty much awesome. He got better daily and my entire family (well, mostly me) was quite impressed with his mad skills.

Josh in the water, preparing to board.

This is me taking a picture of Josh wakeboarding. No one ever told me how difficult it is to actually take a shot while the wakeboarder is behind the boat. They're constantly moving. So, we have a thousand pictures looking just like this: absent one wakeboarder.

Finally, I begged Michelle, Jon's wife, to take a picture. She's a pro and thus she got a beautiful picture of Josh showing his stuff! Present, one wakeboarder.

This picture just cracks me up! We got all the little kids to try out skiing on this sweet ride called the Ski Skimmer. Here's Brandon, barely 3, skiing behind the wave runner. He looked so TINY out there. Though the kids screamed and cried initially, they LOVED it in the end.

There was a fire pit where we had yummy s'mores one night. Yum, yum. Does it get any better than s'mores, I ask you?? I think NOT!

Josh and me looking over the view of Lake Roosevelt. Man, do I look good. I guess that's what happens when you spend a week at the lake, sans make-up, hair-dryers or more than two working bathrooms for 17 people (yikes!). We did have a grand time at the lake, though! Thanks, Mom and Dad and all Spokanites who prepared for and planned our big trip. And I didn't even get pictures of some of our grandest times: watching Tommy Boy outside on a big-screen projector, playing lots of card games & other activities late at night, and, of course, EATING. Boy, did we eat and then we ate some more. But what else can you expect from the Spear clan? Can't wait for our next adventure--hopefully, sometime next summer and, hopefully, at the lovely Lake Roosevelt. I do love that lake. It's my idea of heaven!