16 Weeks and Counting

The proverbial cat is finally out of the bag...but, in case you hadn't heard, I'm pregnant!

Monday morning we had our 16 week appointment and met another of the Nurse-Midwives at our clinic. She was really great and shared our excitement. We heard the heartbeat again (always a joy), discussed my ever-increasing stuffiness, gaining weight, diet, and our 20-week ultrasound. It's crazy to think we're only a few weeks from the halfway point! We're excited to see the little one but still do not intend to know the gender until the big day. If you want to mark your calendars but haven't yet, our estimated due date is January 5, 2010. For those of you keeping score, that's 24 days after Mark's birthday and a mere 3 before mine - so much for avoiding another "Christmastime" birthday! Although, I have a feeling this one may take his/her own sweet time so maybe MLK weekend? Or my Aunt Diane's birthday? Thank goodness we got married in May!

Also, many people have commented to me that I seem to have "popped" this week. As I'm neither a kernel of popcorn or a butterball turkey, I prefer to think that I'm starting to "show" that I'm pregnant. Please remember this when speaking with pregnant women.

In other news this week, we found out that friends from church are also going to have a baby and are due just 6 days after us! We're excited to share this journey with them!

Less exciting but still great - we've been in the house a month. Boxes still need to be unpacked but that's ok. And, due to our lack of rain, the grass is quite brown but I'm trying to remember to water every now and again. We're settling in and loving our new neighborhood (Hamline Midway). I saw a sign this morning on our walk that stated, "On a bicycle, the top is always down". Give it a second. Makes me feel a little like we're in Ballard (our old Seattle neighborhood)...that and the neighbor with chickens in her yard! :) There are lots of friendly people on our block and many dogs as well as a few children.

Last night we had an exceptional date night! We rode our bikes to Midway Stadium, home of the Saint Paul Saints baseball team. It's maybe a mile each way and GA tickets are $5 each. We looked into the setting sun most of the evening but truly enjoyed time outside watching baseball together! Did I mention they sell Cheese Curds at the game (see Fried Cheese Curds)?

Work. We're both doing it. My boss is on maternity leave through September and I agreed to take on the Marketing aspect of her job, thinking "no big deal". Well, that plus many other unforeseen duties has meant I'm working a lot. And I'm wiped out when I get home! Mark has been rather busy with his business, Elite Asset Protection (www.eaprotection.com). It's been exciting to watch him grow and learn and build this new enterprise. I'm so proud and happy that he's been able to do something that is mentally stimulating, challenging, and fun to earn income! He's had the desire to have his own business for longer than I've known him so it's pretty rewarding to hear the "new order" text notification!

We will do our best to continue to post (including pictures) regularly now that we're "out". Also, if you want to read a couple of emails from earlier in the pregnancy, I've added them below (TGIF and All is Well).

The FEAR of water

Recently Dani and I were sitting around a table with some friends and I had asked one of our friends if they believed that everyone has a fear? They weren't so sure, so we went around the table and almost everyone had some type of fear. Everyone except me. I couldn't think of anything that was a true fear. Then, today, it hit me, that perhaps I do? I think I have a fear of a water pipe leaking in a house when were not home. Back in Seattle we had a neighbor (our townhouse that we shared a wall with neighbor) that lost a water valve (yeah, it shot off) during the night when he wasn't home. This was on the third floor. He opened his front door (on the first level) with over 2 inches of water on the floor. So, when I say I fear a water leak, I just don't like how wiley water can be in a home when it gets out.

Another note: I LOVE our new home. It is fantastic, and I enjoy the many projects and creativity I have to use to complete them. With that said... here's a little taste of the past few days:

So a week ago I was moving the stove and noticed an old sink had been installed in place of it (years ago). As I tapped one of the original steel pipes I noticed a droplet of water and thought "oh crap, that's not good". There was a hole cut out in the wall where the pipes once connected to the sink, but the droplet was coming from above. I ran upstairs to the bathroom to check for overflow, and luckily all was fine there. I returned back downstairs and placed a mirror and flashlight into the wall to find a "T" valve about 8 inches up that likely was the "original" branch for the "original" sink that was once there. That part of the wall was covered. I noticed that the cold water pipe "T" had a plug in it, and it was fine. However, the hot water "T" section had a small pipe coming out, with a cap on it. It was corroded beyond recovery and was very likely the culprit of the leak. I waited for a while, tapped it, and again, a droplet came.

The plan was to remove the small piece of pipe, put a plug in place of it, and be done. Initial time estimate: 1 hour max., with time for cleanup.

Days later I was ready to start the small job. I first put a pipe wrench up into the wall and was able to reach the small pipe without a problem. Oh, I did FIRST cut the main water valve.... give me a little credit. I was able to get the teeth to catch, and wa-la. It was twisting in a matter of turns. However, the pipe was SO corroded, only half of it came out.
Great. I made a small incision in the wall (a few inches) to gain better detail and evaluate the situation. The pipe was so corroded, it was less than a millimeter thick in one place.
OK, so now I had to extract the remaining part of the pipe. I was thinking I once used (via my Grandfather) a pipe wrench with a head that had horizontally extended teeth. I might have dreamed this up, but I feel like something like this exists (and if not, make note--go get a patent now!). I went to a few stores and they just stared at me. I explained the situation to one guy, and he recommended a pipe extractor. Great. I showed him the pipe piece I had, and he said a 3/4" extractor should do the job. I came home, drilled out some of the corrosion, and then looked at the extractor. The pipe looked closer to 1/2", although my 1/2" drill bit sat inside of the pipe w/ about 1/8" room. 5/8" pipe? They say there is no such thing. The extractor was not going to work. I got online and googled "how to remove a pipe", and found someone that recommended an internal pipe wrench. Wow, that sounds great. Went to store, and they had a number of them. Why didn't they think of this when I explained the situation the first time? Oh well, I got one, came home, and inserted said internal pipe wrench. I twisted. The piece that locks the wrench inside broke. I said some explicatives. I returned to said home store and requested a new one. They obliged. I returned home w/ new pipe extractor. Inserted tool, twisted, it locked, and then the battle began. I used a deep socket to grab the internal pipe wrench (I'm still working on this w/ about 2" cut into the wall) and the largest socket wrench I have. Nothing. I added a cheater pipe and twisted again. Geez. I gave it all I had, and it began to come out. Whew. Pipe removed.

I thought ahead and purchased a plug to put in. It was a 1/2" plug. It fit pretty good. I put it in w/ some Teflon. Turned on water. It leaked. Turned off water. Removed plug, used teflon paste. Returned plug. Turned on water. Still leaked. Turned off water. Called Dad. He recommended a different plug. Found one at Ace that was US made. It looked better. Tried teflon paste + new plug. It leaked. Tried more teflon, it leaked too. Called Dad. He recommended as a last effort epoxy. I thought what the heck. Cleaned pipe, etc. really good and re-ran threads w/ a tap.

Before shutting off the water main I filled the sinks with water so that we'd have some for cleanup, etc. I applied a STRONG cleaning solution to the pipe (a concentrated pre-epoxy grease removed), and a small amount ran onto my hands. I figured it was the equivalent of gasoline, but it was not! It began to burn, so I ran to the filled sink of water and soaked my hands for a few minutes. Whew--good thing I had some water on reserve. Otherwise I might be typing right now.

Applied epoxy + new plug and waited 9 hours for the super Pro epoxy w/ kevlar to set. Turned on water the next morning. The plug did NOT leak. Great. However, I noticed a really small leak just below the plug on the "T" head. Crap. Well, I have all the cleaning stuff and epoxy. Why not? So, I cleaned all and applied a liberal amount of epoxy on said area. We ate out again that night.

Well, there you have it. It appears to be holding fine now. Below is a picture of the T valve inside the wall, with a liberal amount of epoxy around it. The newspaper is sitting there (for now) so that I can pull it out and check to see if any water has leaked. So far, so good... but I hesitate to say anything more, as we all know what can happen.