Getting closer

to our due date. We finally received our "birth kit" from our wonderful midwife, Alisa. It seems surreal that next month we will finally be parents. We are making the final arrangements so we can be as ready as possible. Physically, I can tell we are getting closer because my graceful walk has turned into a penguin waddle and it takes a while for my hips to cooperate with walking. Although I am still working out, my workout has been greatly modified. Fortunately, I only have to work until June 24th, and then I get a big break until the baby comes. Unfortunately, summer hours at a school district are 7:30 to 6:00, so most of the day drags. Thankfully, my baby is with me these 10 hours a day, andhe reminds me that the day is getting closer when I get to hold him in my arms by the soft kicks and turns in my tummy.

The stairs

There are a flight of stairs that lead to our TaeKwonDo school. It has been our belief that unless you are handicapped in some way, there is no excuse for using the elevator instead of the stairs. So, unless I am moving a dolly or something with wheels that is impossible to carry, I have climbed those stairs every day since we opened in August 2008. This may seem like a trivial matter. However, I am now almost 8 and a half weeks pregnant and carrying over 30 lbs extra as I walk. Every day as I approach the stairs I think to myself, "Surely I can take the elevator." But I can't get it out of my mind that if I can physically climb those stairs without endangering my baby, then I have no excuse not to, even if I am completely out of breath at the top, or my calves are screaming at me. The way I talk about these stairs one would think it entailed climbing 3 or 4 flights, but no, its just one. So day after day, I refuse to take the elevator, just as I refuse not carrying things under 40 lbs. I refuse to stop my daily activity because I am pregnant. I have known many people who use different excuses (including pregnancy!) to slow down their activity level to being almost nonexistent. I have to admit I work out about 3 times a week now, and my run/jog has turned into a brisk walk, my head kicks, are now knee level, and I have resorted to doing girl pushups (with my knees on the ground), but I have not quit. And I don't plan to....unless I have to. So those stairs are my motivation to continue doing what I do, one more day, until I can no longer do so. And when I can't climb those stairs any more...then.....and only then....I may start using a cane. ;)

Maggie is Found!

I had to admit, Jesse and I had lost complete hope in finding our little pal. After having lost her on Friday night/Saturday morning, we figured someone had picked her up and givenher a home. Well that was the case, but the kind people looked for signs and ran into one of our flyers last night. It just so happened to be Maggie's first birthday! It was heart breaking to pick her up becasue the little girl that foun dher had bathed her, fed her and obviously played with her. Her mother told me she had fallen in love with the dog over the weekend. Although their kindness was evident in their calling us, they were not very nice when I was at their house picking the dog up. I guess I would feel the same way if I had taken care of Maggie over the weekend and then had to give her up. Maggie is safely home and as happy as she can be. :)

The day is getting closer...

We are getting closer and the days seem longer. The Kuhns' household has been busy building the nursery, taking care of rabbits, chickens, vegetables, a booming business, and trying to locate our lost dog. Maggie got lost on Saturday morning, after sneaking out of the backyard. Our guess is that she went out to play and probably couldn't find her way home. We searched high and low for her, to no avail. We pray that she comes home or that she has found a caring home to take care of her. Both Jesse and I miss her too much, but have accepted the fact that she probably won't be found.

I continue to grow a bit more uncomfortable everyday which is a good sign because it means Jesse Jr. is growing and getting ready to meet us face to face. He moves throughout the day and I am trying my best to stay active. I try to practice TKD at least 3 times a week, although I have to admit it is very difficult to do.

Jesse is extremely excited and looking forward to meet his son, as any expectant father would be.

Well that is it up till now, hopefully I will have a chance to post more later!

Our Farm & Cruises

KuGar Farm is alive and well. Maggie has stopped eating our chickens for the time being. Our rabbits are doing well except the new additions, none of which survived. We went out of town for 2 weekends in a row and the first weekend it froze, killing 5 of 6. The second weekend killed the last little guy. Our other pregnant doe (Whitewithblackey) is due tomorrow. The bad news is we're headed out of town on Saturday for the week. Hopefully we'll still have some kittens (baby bunnies) when we get back.

Enrique (our brother) gave us 4 citrus trees for Christmass. All are doing very well. Three have produced dozens of these small, beautiful, and wonderful smelling flowers. The 4th has begun producing leaves again. It's a Mexican lime so I'm sure the Laredo heat will do it some good.

I mentioned earlier that we're traveling next week. Clarissa and I will be taking our first ever cruise!! We're headed to Cozumel and Progresso for the week. If you have any suggestions let us know.

Kittens (baby rabbits)

Last night at 12:40 in the morning a heard a very loud noise outside our bedroom window. I thought someone had tripped over something in our obstacle course of a yard. I took the gun and flashlight outside to be rewarded with the birth of 6 new kittens. They are about the size of an almond rocha, bald, pink, and so ugly they're cute. We will be selling them in 5 weeks to help us recoup the ridiculous amount of money that I spend on my hobby.

I also finished a really tough workout today. It took me 13 min and 23 sec. I wasn't even close to the first one finished. We did 35 pull-ups, 400 meter sprint, 18 squat thrusters (a squat with a 45lb bar. when you stand, you thrust it over your head and straighten your arms), 800 meter sprint, 18 squat thrusters, 400 meter sprint, 35 pull ups. OUCH!! I have to do my pullups off a box because there's no way I can do 70 pull-ups in a week much less in divided into 1 workout!

I can't wait for tomorrows workout!

KuGar Farm!

We've had quite a busy last two months here at KuGar Farm. I say KuGar Farm because our house has become a small ranch. My wonderful (if not completely willing) wife has acquiesced to my requests for chickens and rabbits. We also have an occasional cat, a handfull of a dog, and most importantly Jesse Jr.

I heard from a friend, at a restaurant I worked at, that his favorite meal was small rabbit wrapped in bacon and grilled. I figured it would be fun to raise rabbits and because they're significantly cuter than chickens, Clarissa would like them as well. The plan as of now is to sell the ones we can, and eat the rest. We own 5 rabbits, 4 of which are does, and 1 is a buck. When I bought them one of the does was pregnant so I was told. I promptly researched my new hobby. Notice, purchased first, researched second. It turns out that the doe was pregnant. Tonight, when we got home, our pregnant doe was running around her cage with alfalfa in her mouth building a nest. Within 2 days we should be welcoming conejitos to our farm. I've mated the other 3 does with our buck and should see quite a few more rabbits by the end of March.

The chickens were a little harder to get. Maggie went through 2 different groups of 5. She's a bird dog, and chickens are.......... birds. We're working on training her not to eat chickens. To do this we purchased a lame rooster that is called a bantam. Think 1/4 size of a chicken. He looks exactly like a white tiny rooster, but he can't walk, run, or fly. He does cockadoodledoo, but at a quarter the decible of our last rooster, which is still infinitely louder than our first rooster, which did not cockadoodledoo at all, but which Maggie killed. The idea was to let Maggie kill the rooster while we watch, then put a healthy amount of fear into her. Problem is, Maggie knows she's not supposed to eat chicken and so won't do it infront of us. I would abandon the project all together, but it brings me tons of joy to feed my animals in the morning, move the chicken tractor, fill their water, and watch them. Not to mention farm fresh eggs are undoubtedly the way to go.

As for the trees that my brother bought us for Christmass, they're doing very well. We used KuGar compost in the planting and they seem to be handeling it well. We did have a freeze that stripped our poor Mexican lime balder than my head, but he's got green shoots sticking out now.

One of the nicest things about the Mrs. being pregnant (besides Jr) is that my car HAD to go. With no AC in Laredo's heat, and our son being born in the middle of July, it was scrap metal. So, we just bought a new car in Houston and traded in the Tiburon. The Tiburon barely made it in to the dealership. People say that all the time I'm sure. Ours BARELY made it in. From San Antonio to Houston for just under an hour, our car struggled to hit 55 mph on the highway. It picked back up and rolled into the dealership. We did tell them that the Check Engine light was on and that they would want to check on that. I guess they didn't care too much because they gave us $1900 for a car we were sure would bring in $500 and not a penny more. Now we're driving around in style in a used Infinity QX56. If you need a new used car, I highly suggest texasonlinesales.com. We got ours for 14K less than Kelly Blue Book.

As for the most exciting part of the trip to Houston, we got to see our new nephew Santiago Jose. He's beautiful just like all the rest of the Garcia-Saenz clan. He looked a little hungry compared to his older brothers, but when you take into consideration that his biggest brother was in the 98th percentile of children, that's to be expected. Not to mention that there's zero chance that baby's gonna starve. Vero knows how to feed her boys!

And what about our little guy. This week Clarissa started week 20. According to her, Jesse is the size of a cantaloupe. We had a sonogram done on Wednesday and everything looks good. It wouldn't matter to us if he had 4 arms anyway, but it's nice to see two arms and two legs anyway. Clarissa's been a champ so far. She battled through migraines for a week or so and a terrible cough for about 2 weeks. Other than that, she's had a wonderfully woe free pregnancy. I can tell that she's constantly tired, but she rarely complains. I firmly believe that she's one of, if not the single toughest women I've ever known, and has fought through it like a champ.

Needless to say, we're busy, but happy. The Lord has seen fit to bless us and we won't fail to give thanks.