Say What?!

Well, here's a picture of us at 37.5 weeks. Notice how skinny Matt looks compared to me? Wow... It's really only in pictures that I see how big I really am. Otherwise, I've gotten pretty used to the big belly. Sometimes I look down, see my belly, and think that I don't really look that big. And then I see pictures. :)
Every pregnant woman has a picture with SOME kind of food or drink resting on the belly shelf, right? I found it to be a great spot for M & M's. :)

Lastly, our big news (as of lately) is that we are moving! Matt was offered a position as a wildlife biologist (same thing he does now) with the BLM in Canon City, CO. It's on the front range, about 45 miles southwest of Colorado Springs, and is pronounced "canyon" since it has the little swirly thing over the first n. I just don't know how to type that! We put our house on the market last week and will be moving to Canon City at the end of May. It will be a busy spring for us!

Who Are You?

The time has come! We're going private with the blog this weekend! If you would like to continue to read our blog and see pictures of Baby Rustand (and us, I guess!), please email me at rustandjulie@yahoo.com. I'll be sending out an email inviting you to view our blog this weekend. If you stumbled upon our blog by blog stalking, let me know who you are or you will be cut off!

Please remember that we don't want any pictures of our little one on Facebook. We won't be posting pictures on Facebook and hope that you will respect our wishes and not post pictures of our baby on Facebook, either. Thanks!

Runner's World

I've been trying to get a picture of Matt in his running clothes for a few weeks, but every time he puts them on, he takes off for a run. Imagine that! :) I think Matt looks so cute in his running clothes! Don't his ridiculously strong legs look so skinny in his tights? I love it! Matt's been running a lot this winter. He runs 4 days a week on his lunch hour and then heads back to the office to take a quick shower (thanks to the fire crew's facilities) and get back to work. It works out really well - he gets to run in the daylight AND he gets a mid-day break from his cube. He usually runs 6-7 miles each day during the week and ups it to a 9-mile run over the weekend. Sometimes another runner from his office joins him, but currently she's training for an ultra marathon - or something crazy like that. (Who would voluntarily run 35 miles? And pay a registration fee to do it?) I'm guessing Matt's probably going to do a few half marathons this spring and summer. He's ready for it now, but there aren't a lot of races in February in Colorado. :)

Cute, huh?

Where in the world are Matt and Julie?

Completely unrelated to Valentine's Day, and moreso related to the fact that we both had a three-day weekend, we took off for a weekend away to an undisclosed location. Can you figure out where we went?

Finishing Touches

Here's a few pictures of our new bathroom with the shower curtain and matching towels. I just found matching towels yesterday at JCPenney and the shower curtain is from Wal-Mart. I think it fits in with the rest of the house really well! The blueish in the shower curtain is neither blue nor green, but somewhere in the middle. We really like it!

Weekend Update

Unfortunately, this won't be as entertaining as SNL! We just haven't been doing too much lately, so nothing really big to report. Usually, we would be snowshoeing every weekend and enjoying winter a little bit more. Then again, in past winters, I haven't been carrying a baby in womb, either.

This weekend has been super productive and I'm happy with the things that we've accomplished. Mostly the things I've done, since typically I can find a good excuse to just lay around. Matt's always doing something productive it seems! Sometimes, I just want him to be lazy like me! I digress. I managed to finish up a few things that I've been putting off, do a few loads of baby things in prep for the baby, write what I can in the baby book, and take care of some general business. Matt and I also assembled (meaning, put the wheels on!) the baby's travel system and took the pack & play out of the box. Each step gets us both that much more for baby's arrival! When I type it all out, it seems like nothing. :(

We went to Junction yesterday to shop and go to church. We headed out after an eventful start to the morning, not involving the hospital or our baby, but rather a call from the bank to check out what appeared to be a fraudulent situation. While Matt was out for a quick morning walk, I ordered our crib online. We found the one we wanted a few days ago, but I just hadn't placed the order yet. Well, when he came home, I was on the phone with one of my sisters. Rather than interrupting our conversation, I figured I'd tell him that I ordered the crib when I was off the phone. In the mean time, Matt's phone rang and it was Wells Fargo, asking about a purchase from a furniture store in Florida. Matt, not knowing that I had purchased the crib that morning, denied the transaction, thus starting the process of cancelling his credit card. (Whoa. Those people don't waste any time!) I ordered the crib online, so I really didn't care where it came from. What difference does it make, right? In Wells Fargo defense, I'm glad they took the time to call about a transaction in Florida when clearly we live in Colorado. Anyway, the whole situation could have been avoided if I would have asked my sister to hold on for 2 seconds while I told Matt that I purchased the crib. My fault! Note to self: some things are important enough to interrupt a conversation.

Currently, we're socked in with low clouds and snow that's been falling all day long. It's only sticking where snow already existed, so the roads are just wet and slushy. I LOVE days like this where we can enjoy the weather without worrying about going somewhere. I especially like when they fall on a weekend! Seriously, I do. Of course, Matt still managed to get a 9-mile run in despite the snow. See what I mean on the productivity level!? I had to laugh today when I got to the page in the baby book that said, "Number of pounds Mommy gained ________ Number of pounds Daddy gained _______." Ha! My skinny guy has gone negative if anything! How bad will that make my number look in the book!? I'm pullin' double digits while Matt's going negative...

I'm looking forward to two short weeks at school - this week, the kids have Friday off, and everyone has next Monday off. My last performance for the year will be February 23rd. It's a first grade concert, and the kids are singing patriotic songs with a little bit of dialogue that I wrote to go with the songs that I picked. I'm keeping it very simple!

Remember last year when I blogged about Girls on the Run? The program for 3rd-8th grade girls involving a 5k run? Anyway, I'm the head coach at my school this year, so I've been attending a few extra meetings and trainings for that. I'm excited to start the program and the girls ask me about it almost every day. I guess they're pretty pumped, too! I have recruited two other teachers and the school counselor to help coach, so they will take over when I leave. I'm sure I'll pop in on a few practices before the race on May 1st. Matt, Baby, and I may even make the trip to Junction so I can walk (and push the stroller?!) in the back of the group to encourage any stragglers from our group. I'm sure we won't decide one way or the other until the night of April 30th.

Oh! Speaking of April 30th, that's the night of the Garfield Re-2 music faculty concert, which I guess I'm a part of since I teach in the district. I have no idea what we're doing, except for the fact that I WILL be singing something with the other vocalists, but I WON'T be singing a solo or accompanying anyone. Not this year!

And that's your weekend update with Julie Rustand. (Picture me throwing a pencil at the computer screen in typical SNL fashion.)

Privacy, Take 3

If you're a reader of my sisters' blogs, you'll know that they have recently gone private with their blogs. The peer pressure was just too much (just kidding!) and we are headed in the same direction with our blog!

Now that our baby's arrival is coming closer, I want to put it out there that sometime BEFORE baby comes, we will be going private with our blog. In other words, you will be invited to view our blog (via an email) and each time you wish to view our blog, you'll need to sign in with a user name and password. But don't let that stop you from checking in with us! It sounds like a bigger process than it actually is.

We have gone back and forth on the issue of internet privacy, and we (ok, mostly me) have decided that it's best to go private with our blog before our baby comes. I do not want pictures posted of our baby unless we, our baby's parents, are the ones posting the pictures. We started a blog years ago to stay in touch with family and friends who live far away, and we will continue to use our blog for that very reason - pictures and all. However, since we DO have a blog, and try to keep it updated, we are also requesting (kindly, but firmly) no pictures be posted on facebook of our little one.

Matt's fear is that people will stop checking our blog, thus rendering it pointless for us to maintain. I would love for you to help prove him wrong (not in a bad way) and not let the user name and password prevent you from checking in with us. Honestly, I can see his point. However, if you readers out there are too... well, chicken, to request an invite, there's nothing I can do about that. We really do want you to stay connected to us while protecting our little sweet pea at the same time!

I'll post again later asking for you to email me if you'd like to be on the invite list, so don't worry that I'm going to cut you out tonight. I simply wanted to put it out there that we will eventually be going private with our blog - and you won't want to miss out on that right before our baby comes!