Free Furniture Week

Over the past week we have scored 4 new pieces of furniture to replace some of our old hand me downs. These were hand me downs too, but serious upgrades to what we had.

This is the first piece we got from Mark's cousin Kenneth and his wife Millie. It had been in their daughter's room but now they were getting her a new big girl bed so they didn't have room for it any more. It replaced an ugly brown 70's piece we picked up a couple of months ago which now resides in our laundry room out of sight. They even delivered it!

These next pictures came from a girl in Copenhagen named Jill. She had posted on one of my Livejournal communities that they were free to anyone who wanted to come pick them up. I immediately replied "ME ME ME! We have a trailer when can we come?" She had been here on a 13 month internship and was heading back to the US and couldn't find anyone to buy them. We got the dresser and a bed which we put in Twig's room. The bed was a real godsend because we now can throw out the crapass bed that was left by the family before us. Better than what we had (which was nothing) but now we can happily take it to the dump. And we can use the dresser for stuff for the new baby. The next pic is a desk which is temporarily in our bedroom. Mark is going to use it as his study room when he needs to escape from our craziness. Once he is done with his thesis not sure where it will go, but I am sure we will find a place for it. Sadly, it's not really a good replacement for either of our computer tables. Oh how I need a craft room!

So thank you guys for your donations to making our living space better!!

Baby Broda!

I am a little behind with this one but I would like to present my new little nephew Max Johan! My heart sister Gosia became a mommy July 22 to this beautiful little man. They live in Norway so I haven't gotten to meet him yet. But one day he and Twig will become great friends!

*Yes I stole the picture from you Gosia. I couldn't help myself!*

Sexual Conflict

I am trying to get myself geared up for next week by reading through some of my journal articles for my Evolutionary Ecology class. The topic for our first week is sexual conflict. This quote is fantastic so I had to share.

Males that are most persistent in mating attempts are assumed to be the fittest. Females should therefore elevate their levels of resistance to mate with the persistent males, and thus gain greater genetic benefits for their offspring.

Chapman, T.; Arnqvist, G.; Bangham, J. & Rowe, L. 2003: Sexual Conflict. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18, 41-47.

Therefor, the advice to single women should be...ignore every man that tries to have sex with you. The ones that are the most persistent are most likely the ones with the best genetics to pass on to your future kids!

Modern Baby Boom and Me

All of the experts are saying this is the biggest baby boom the western world has seen since the 1950's. Well I didn't want to be left out so I guess I should officially make it public that I will be a momma again sometime at the end of Jan. 2010!

We decided the perfect time to have another one would be between my course work and thesis and once again we got lucky! I guess we got strong baby makin' genes in us since twice now I have gotten preggers my first month off of birth control. Yikes. No mistakes for us I guess :) I really am so grateful we don't have to go through the pain and heart ache that so many of our friends and family have faced with trying to have children. I wish I could give them some of our luck.

I have held off on blogging about this as long as I can, but there are lots of things I want to talk about that are semi sorta baby related. So I figured I needed to spill it first. I was hoping to announce my pregnancy with a nice ultrasound picture to prove it is really real, but we won't have one of those for another month.

Things so far have been pretty easy, but I am prepared for the worst since I had such a rough time with Twig. I am so glad I lost weight (though not as much as I wanted) and that I eat healthy and exercise. I know that has helped make it easier so far. I haven't really gained any weight (some days I am up 2 lbs some days down) though I know that won't last forever. I am starting to show a little baby bump and a lot of my pre-pregnancy clothes (mostly pants) don't fit anymore.

I will have a c-section this time per doctor's orders after the horrible ordeal I had with Twig (he got stuck and wouldn't come out!) which is why I don't know exactly when my "due date" will be. I am praying not until after Jan. 28 since I am currently scheduled to have a final exam that day. The doc may say yes, but I fear will say no. But I will deal with whatever the decision is. At least we do have the option of make up exams here.

That's enough baby blah blah for one post I think. Now I am just praying it ain't twins. Eeeek!

Vacations and Friends

Just had a whirlwind two weeks but so much fun! My best girl Tammy from back home came to visit me August 1-8. This was not only her first trip to Denmark but her first to Europe as well! We had an amazing time and it went by way too quickly. We spent 3 days in Copenhagen, a couple of nights with Mark's parents, had lunch in Roskilde with Darla, a picnic at Trelleborg, she got her first Fransk weiner, and then shopping and hanging out and just general fun was had!For our days in Copenhagen, I decided we would buy something called the CPHCard . We got one for 72 hours and it cost only 450 Dkk. It included all of our bus, train, metro needs (which is crazy expensive here) all around Copenhagen and North Sealand. It was so nice to be able to hop on the bus and metro to go somewhere when your feet were too tired to walk! It also covered admission to almost any and every tourist attraction you can imagine. We visited the zoo, Rosenborg Castle, Frederiksborg Castle, Rundetaarn/The Round Tower, Louisiana Art Museum, Arbejdermuseet/The Workers' Museum, Hans Christian Andersen's Museum (do not go here it sucked!), Tivoli, Bakken, Statens Museum for Kunst/The Danish National Gallery(lots of exhibits were closed so not very fun), and Christiania (this place deserves it's own post!). I would recommend this to anyone that needs to play tour guide or is visiting Copenhagen as a tourist. It is worth every Kroner!
We just returned home from a family trip to the west coast of Jutland with Mark's parents and his brother, SIL, and niece. Once I get some pictures from Elisabeth, I will make a post about that trip. Let's just say for now it was nice and relaxing and good to spend time with the fam.