It's Memorial Day Weekend and time to celebrate freedom and the brave men and women who have made it all possible!

In the midst of a chaotic Q4 call month for Ed and finishing up Spring quarter at Fuller for Amber, we managed to shop for this antique garden hutch which Ed lovingly refinished. It was quite a little project but after sanding down the reclaimed barnwood hutch and painting it white, we are pretty pleased with the results!

We are really happy about the nursery coming together and finally feeling a bit more prepared for Baby Blews' arrival!

a bigger bump...

Ironman Ed

We had a wonderful trip out to St. George, UT which included the grandparents-to-be, Ed and Debra Blews! After racing to the Dixie Convention Center just in time to be told that Ed could not register, we finally found a kind-hearted soul who directed us to a nearly abandoned ballroom where other kind-hearted souls allowed Ed to retrieve his paperwork. Long story short, we forgot about the time change and thought we were meeting the 10am deadline. We were there at 11am and had missed the deadline according to their time-zone. Sticklers!



Ed impressed us all as he rested post-call that day awakening only for a dinner outing to the Olive Garden. The morning of the race Dad Blews took Ed to T2 where he loaded up into buses with the other athletes and made his way out to the swim start at Sand Hollow Reservoir. Dad came back to the Holiday Inn Express in Washington to give mom and I a lift to the parking lot where we too were transported to the swim start on St. G's finest big yellow school buses.



The scene at T1 was electric and the energy could be felt in the huge crowd of 2100 athletes and hundreds of more spectators. It was truly an amazing experience to be amongst that crowd. We watched them take off into the water, slapping, pulling, hitting, dodging their way into the pack that resembled tuna bubbling in the ocean of the coast of Baja. Ed made great time, jumped on his bike and was off!



We got so lucky seeing him that second time. We came to a corner of the 45 mile loop (part of the 112 mi. bike ride) that was nearest to St. G downtown staging area. Five minutes later, Ed turned the corner and was off on his second loop of what proved to be a hellacious test of strength and willpower. Mom and Dad and myself made our way over to The Egg and I, a local sandwich shop. We had a wonderful lunch and after chatting for quite some time, we took our positions at the bike descent back into town hoping to catch a second glimpse of Ed. After an hour or two, we saw him flying down the road, getting ready to enter T2 and start the most brutal leg of the race: the marathon. We crossed the road and waited. We didn't have to wait long! Ed charged up the hill giving us one last great view of him on that portion of the race course.



The out and back was 13.1 mi. so we had a little bit of time to go to Target, get some comfy camp chairs and of course stock up on candy and snacks! Mom and Dad truly took care of this very pregnant chick (35 weeks at that point). We made our way to the turnaround point where we got to watch Ed make the painful loop and turn around heading back towards the uphill grind and another 13.1 miles. He was devastated that I could not give him his long sleeved shirt. Dad had asked the official if I could hand it to him and the official said Ed would be disqualified. The sun had gone down at this point and it was getting quite chilly. The athlete's body cannot regulate temps under the stress and so temp changes are felt more intensely. I looked at Mom and said, "I can't run, can you?" I saw determination in the woman's eyes as she valiantly took the shirt and sprinted (like a she-bear defending her cub!) up the hill to get Ed's shirt to him. She asked a volunteer to hand it off and he wasn't about to argue with her. Moms are amazing, powerful beings!



So Ed got his shirt and when we saw him returning under the Ford Ironman arch, it was a beautiful site! His feet were torn up. He had to have silver dollar size blisters drained and it was a task for him to walk on them for several days but all in all, he had a great race.

Okay I really do stink at blogging. I have to remember that not every post is going to be witty and epic in length. Or then again, is that a blogger requirement? Who wants to read boring and succinct...wait I think I see a few hands...

Life has gotten quite interesting for the 2 Blews soon to be 3. Our baby (sex unknown to us and only know to ultrasound technician and OB/GYN, oh and the Big Guy upstairs) is due June 10, just around the corner!

We have been busily preparing for his or her arrival and we now have a crib (thanks crib dealer from RC!), a Bob Jogger (thanks Mom and Dad Blews!), a high chair (thanks Grandpa and Grandma McKenna!) a ton of toys, books, clothes, crib mattress and more (thanks to Amber's whole family and friends!) after the Oregon baby shower held April 3 at Grandma Lynn's house in Central Point, OR.

There is also a California baby shower in the works and it will be held in RC on April 17 at Gail Ortega's home, hosted by Jara Agnew (aka supermom and best friend/roomie from college).

I am starting the Spring quarter at Fuller and have downgraded to PT status as a PhD student as the baby is starting to take his or her toll on my body as far as discomfort and memory loss go! LOL Mostly the discomfort has caused me to scale back my commitments to school but there is something very real about "momnesia"...

Ed is now finished (I think) with his cycle of fellowship applications and will be looking forward to hearing about his placement opportunities this June. A lot of big stuff is happening in June...

Truly epic Yosemite view!

Hotter than a firecracker that day! Just look at the gorgeous glacier cut rock!

Getting ready to tackle Half Dome at 5am! Unbeknowst to us, I am about 8 weeks pregnant!

The Half Dome Crew Arrives in Yosemite Valley!

Too long to be gone...

Man, we have a tough time keeping up with this! No wonder our family says we are not very good at communication! The latest on us is that Baby Blews (sex unknown to us) is 20 weeks along and starting to do the happy dance in Amber's belly! Our due date has been moved to June 10, 2010. The recent ultra-sound showed all of his or her parts in their proper place, the right amount of limbs and digits, and a whole lotta movement! (which explains why Amber can't sleep and is awakened by a sensation akin to riding a roller-coaster almost nightly...ugh!)

Life goes on as we pursue our various daily tasks including homework (for Amber now fully immersed in life as a student of Fuller's Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology program) and career/application period (for Ed now racing towards the Med/Peds residency finish line and applying for fellowship in Infectious Disease).

Beyond that Ed is training for his first Iron Man distance triathlon with a few other olympic distance races in between and Amber is training for her eating contest as hunger has finally returned in the 2nd trimester (with a vengeance!) Amber is taking time off from teaching four spinning classes to do more gentle forms of exercise including watching Ed on his trainer in front of the TV. Overall life is good for Ed III and Amber B. We are loving January in So Cal and enjoying some much needed rain in the southland.