A lesson in temperature inversion

Since no one from Indiana has heard of the inversion that I keep referring to (I only learned of it recently myself) I thought I would give a quick explanation as well as some photos. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, "A temperature inversion occurs when air close to the earth is cooler than the air above it. Under these conditions the pollution cannot rise and be dispersed. Cities surrounded by mountains also experience trapping of pollution. Inversion can happen in any season. Winter inversions are likely to cause particulate and carbon monoxide pollution. Summer inversions are more likely to create smog." (http://www.lbl.gov/Education/ELSI/Frames/pollution-outdoor-f.html
In past weeks, inversion has caused the air quality to deteriorate to levels below EPA standards. This has wreaked havoc on my poor asthmatic lungs and causes people without respiratory illnesses have all sorts of problems. If you can imagine the valley as a bowl with plastic wrap over it. Below is a picture of our valley as we are driving home one day. You can see the ugly inversion below the arrow.

Below is a picture of the Bear Lake inversion. Beyond the brown weeds you can see white puff clouds. Don't be fooled, it's only inversion.

Here we are driving into the inversion. One minute the sun is shining and the day is beautiful and the next minute, the temperature is 10+ degrees colder and the sun is gone.

I don't know the correlation with inversion and wind but there is little to no wind allowing really amazing ice crystals to form everywhere. They grow out like little platforms all over the ground.

Giant puff balls on a pine tree. Every needle is coated on all sides with little crystals

A better picture of that bald eagle we saw.

Sunday adventures.....and chicken

Jammie and I went on an adventure on Sunday for something to do. We drove to Bear Lake about an hour away and saw tons of wildlife. Jammie also played photo shoot with me and he did such a good job, I had trouble choosing which ones to post. So here are a bunch of random ones of me and my ever expanding belly.
Bear Lake is under the clouds in the background. Inversion at its best.

Standing at Bear Lake. The crunchy weeds were beautiful too!

Such a Vanna!

I knew my Mom wouldn't like this one.....

The other day we went to local market and bought 97 lbs of chicken for $30. YES!!! That's 19 chickens and a whole ton of meat!

Jammie cooked chickens for HOURS and HOURS!

A bald eagle. I forgot to crop the image. Poo.

Jammie at Bear Lake. It was cold but the lake wasn't frozen.

Oh DEER!! We saw over 50 mule deer on our drive around the lake.

What are people thinking? There was an old lady that lived in a shoe..... There were shoe laces painted on the front and fairy tale people crawling out of fairy tale windows.

Welcome home!!! Breathe the fresh air and inversion. (Driving back into the valley.)

New Horizons....and Old Ones

Tomorrow I will begin my THIRD TRIMESTER!!! I thought the first would never end and my second flew by! Let's hope that the last is just as smooth as the second. We have our next midwife appointment on Tuesday which will begin bi-monthly appointments. This is just another sign that BeeGee is on her way!!

Jammie and I have decided that we are going to move back to Indiana. With a new baby on the way and absolutely nothing working out here, we must move on. We are both so excited to be near our family and friends again, we can hardly wait! We haven't set a concrete date but it appears that Jammie's obligation with the military will keep him here until the last weekend in June. We haven't decided when the baby and I will fly home. It will probably be a week or two earlier. (We don't want to attempt driving home with the cats screeching and a newborn needing fed every two to three hours. It would take us a week of driving!!!.... AHHHH!!!) So the plan is underway. Another huge purge will ensue. I'm looking forward to seeing some Indiana sunsets soon. We'll keep everyone posted.

Random Pictures

After scanning through pictures during our extended weekend, I found some that I hadn't posted.

These are the newest pictures of me and my growing baby belly- 6 months already!!!

She is REALLY kickin'!!! The other day I discovered that not only can we feel her kicks but now we can see them too. My entire belly spasms for nearly two hours each night during her aerobics time. I think she's training to be a gymnast in there!!!


Jammie loves these pictures and was insistent that I post them. Don't let these pictures fool you, I'll be his wing girl but I won't shoot at anything.

I never post pictures of our cats, Fritz and Fraulein, but I think they deserve some blog space. So cute. They are in for a shock in a couple of months!

Barfing Cat Sequence: Fritz celebrated a little too much this New Years....



Fraulein- if it's a nook, she's in there.

Feeling better

Phew!!! This week has been so long. On Wednesday I woke up with severe chest pain and shortness of breath. Then Thursday, at 2 in the morning, I woke up to even worse pain and swelling in my feet. After much contemplation I decided that it was best to get it checked out and took myself to the InstaCare. They did an EKG, took 4 vials of blood and did a chest x-ray before they decided that I might have a blood clot and sent me to the hospital. So frustrating!!! I spent the next 5 hours inhaling radioactive gas and getting squirted in the heart with colorful dye for "baby-safe" scans before they decided that I had a "low probability of having a blood clot" and sent me home. The next day the pain had subsided but I had to go to another doctor, this one specifically for the baby, and had an ultrasound of my legs. Thank goodness they found nothing and the baby seems perfect. A blood clot would have been a showstopper for the home birth we've been gearing up for. Today I've felt no major pangs and feel less tired. What a crazy situation!!!!

OUR BABY!!!!!!!

Today Jammie and I drove to Salt Lake City for our first glimpse at our new little baby. In case you didn't figure out by the new color change to the blog.....

WE'RE HAVING A BABY GIRL!!!!!!!!!!

Here are the first pictures of our little one. We should have a video posted soon as well.

She was a little camera shy at first and blocked her face with her hand.

She looks like she's sleeping but was kicking like crazy!!!

Cute button nose.



Does she look like her Daddy or Mommy?

"Hi Grandma!!"

Don't worry, that's just the umbilical cord between her legs.

Adorable profile... practicing her smooches already!

"See my foot!"

We counted - all 10 fingers and all 10 toes.

We're so excited to have seen our little baby girl that we couldn't wait to share these with you.

Play to hear our baby girl's heartbeat. 138 beats per minute

Jammie is so techno-savvy. He talked the technician into recording this special for us.