Baby Greenley

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity- we are finally able to announce to all of our friends and family that Sean and I are going to be expecting a darling little baby on May 3rd, 2016! I posted this on social media this last week. It was so much fun to share this happy news and to get so many well wishes.

Over the last six months or so, I was starting to feel the desire to give parenthood a try. Every time I saw a little chubby baby - I wanted one. This was surprising to me because, in the past, I had never really felt the maternal need to be a mother. I had never really experienced baby hunger. But sure enough, I turned 30 and found myself in a marriage with a wonderful man who wanted to be a father. So little by little, the baby hunger came. My only hesitations  were- 1. I could not handle having a baby while I was still working full time and going to school at night. So I knew that I wanted to at least wait until I was done with that. 2. Depending on where Sean and I were posted, I might not be able to stay at post to have the baby and that would mean I would have to be med-evac'd out six weeks before the due date and wait for another six weeks to travel back to post with the baby. That would be four months without Sean when I would need him the most. No thank you.  

Now that my masters is near it's completion and Dubai is a post where I can stay to have my baby, all hesitation was gone. Shortly thereafter we had this happy outcome!

I didn't think I was pregnant the day we took this test. But Sean was leaving for Dubai the next day and so we decided to take one, just in case. We were both definitely shocked and excited. I am so glad we took the test and that we got to find out the happy news together. We also had the entire day together the next day to take it in and to just be happy. 

The freshness of this happy news made it all the more devastating for me to drop Sean off at the airport. I hated that I wouldn't see him for almost four months. I had to keep reminding myself that I really did want to finish my masters - which is why I stayed. I ugly cried in the car all the way home.

My new temporary home, by the way, is at my sister Serena's. She was good enough to take me in and let me stay in her newly completed basement while I finished my degree.  I was still puffy eyed weepy as I arrived for my first night. It was hard to comprehend that Sean and I would be apart for so long. However, I knew immediately that I would be in good and loving hands. 

I love the Cherry family very much. 

One night I was feeling a bit sad with Sean gone and was watching TV in bed. One by one the Cherry kids came down, asked me to scoot over and joined me. They have done such a good job at keeping me company. It really has been so good to be in this home!  Serena and Chris are great parents and it has been a privilege to observe their approaches to parenting. I have learned a lot! 

I am missing Sean so much. I am so glad that we live in an era of Skype and wifi. 

We are sure to talk to each other every day for at least an hour. 

I don't know what I would do without being to see this face every day. 

At six weeks I went to go and do the confirmation ultrasound. I have to admit I kinda felt like Rachel Green in friends when she felt like a bad mother for not being able to recognize the baby. I put a shirt on the baby to help make it clear where baby was. So it was still exciting to see concrete evidence that there was a baby! Up to this point, I hadn't really felt like I was pregnant and felt uneasy about it. So having a Dr. confirmation definitely put me at ease. 

Here is baby at 12 weeks. It was such a neat experience because baby was moving around a ton. Sean was able to Skype in and listen to the heart beat. It was so neat and left us both on a high all day. We are so happy and excited for this little one to join our family.

Weekend Trip to Pittsburgh

Sean wanted to see his brother before he left for Dubai - we decided to spend a weekend at a halfway point - Pittsburgh. I had never been there before and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised. The one downer of our experience was traffic. Sean's brother got stuck in some pretty bad traffic on the way there. While we waited, we decided to go check out the Andy Warhol museum. We loved it! 

We took this troll up to a lookout with an amazing view of Pittsburgh

Here is the whole clan. It was fun to all be together!

I know that this P is for Pittsburgh - but I thought it looked more like a Potter P. <3

We went to the most bizarre restaurant I had ever been to. It was an old church
that had been converted to a restaurant/brewery. 

I mean - the brewery was literally where the alter used to be!
It was definitely different. The food was really good! I got pasta
made out of zucchini. It was delish! 

The only thing we didn't have a chance to do was to go to the Cathedral of Learning. It is basically a library that looks like Hogwarts. So - my dream come true. Someday I hope to go back and see it!

Silhouettes

I love Silhouettes! It has turned into a sort of hobby of mine. Here is some of my work thus far - 

My brother and his wife

I sold a silhouette at a Christmas Auction, the guy that cashed it in asked that I make this for his brother as a wedding gift.

I made this for my sister's family. I still owe my other sisters theirs (it was supposed to be a Christmas Gift)

I made a bunch of these for my friends for Christmas one year. The heart was where they either lived or worked.

One summer I made a silhouette of each country I have lived in. The heart is where I lived.
I went to high school in Guatemala City  

I taught English in Kunming, China for a semester. 

I served my Mormon mission in Buenos Aires and lived there for a year and a half.

For my undergrad capstone project, I conducted an ethnography in Copacabana Bolivia for three months.

Here they all are together.

This is a silhouette of the Angel Oak Tree in Charleston. Sean and I visited in January of '14 for his sister's wedding.
 I made this for him for that Valentine's day. 

Me

Tip to Columbia SC

As we draw close to Sean's departure, we are making the rounds to family to say our goodbyes. A couple of weeks ago, I took a Friday off and we drove down to Columbia South Carolina where Sean's house is. I had never been to Columbia, so I was happy to go and see a bit more of Sean's life! We were only there from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon, so I only got a tour of the highlights. We went to eat at his favorite Mexican place, went to see Beth-annie's house - which is where Sean's Dad and Beth-annie plan on moving. Then Sean showed me around town. We got to go check out USC campus where he went for his undergrad. We also stopped by some of the old abandoned buildings that Sean used to explore while he was in college.... the scariest of them being Babcock.
We were also able to go to his mother's grave. I am glad that I was able to go. She sounds like she was such a genuinely  good person. I will always be sad that I never had the chance to know her.
It was a short weekend, but it was a good one. It was fun to see a bit more into Sean's past and what makes him so great.

Potter Family Bike Trip 2015!!

A couple of years ago the Cherrys and the Pulsiphers went on a bike/camp adventure around Lake Michigan. I had just started my job at GW, so I couldn't go. I was very sad to miss out. Luckily it sounds like Pulsipher bike trips are going to be a reoccurring event and my awesome brother-in-law David planned another trip for this summer just before the 4th of July and better yet, in the DC area! David took care of all the planning and did a great job! 

So here is my photo heavy post on our bike trip! 

Here we are loading up the vans at the Cherry's house before we head up to Hagerstown MD. 

Ed, Henry and Ed's raccoon named Night Kill running to our stop at Cafe Rio :)
Ed was devastated when Night Kill got lost on the trail. 

DAY ONE: June 29th

We stayed at a motel up in Hagerstown and spent the morning assembling our bikes and getting ready.  All told there were 5 adults and 6 children. Only one of the kiddos was able to ride her own bike. So the rest of the kids were in trailers, baby bike seats or on tagalong bike attachments. 

Lane and Jim - the oldest and the youngest of the children on the trip. It was so great to spend time with both of them!

Lane and I were the only big kid bikes that didn't have children attached. Here
was my set up with a trailer and tent that David let me borrow. 

Our trail was down the old C&O Canal. It was really cool to not only ride down some
 gorgeously green trails, but to also go through some of the old ruins of the canal. It was really interesting!
This is Serena stopping along the first bridge we came across.  

Here are Serena and I with all of our gear! We had great weather and the majority
of the trail was covered with trees so we didn't get very sunburned! 

The Pulsipher family on the bridge 

In a tragic twist of events - our dear Lane's kneecap was dislocated. Luckily we weren't too far from our motel where our cars were parked. Serena took my bike, and got the van and Chris, David and Ashley carried poor Lane a mile back on the trail where there was a connecting path with the highway so that Serena could pick her up. Serena and Lane had to leave our group :(. We were so sad for Lane! While all of this happened, I stayed with all of our bike gear and watched over these three and Henry .... they got up to all sorts of shenannigans. We had a odd incident where another biker came through and literally ran over ME! He didn't even stop to see if I was ok! Luckily no damage was done and I was ok - but it was super weird.  

As Serena took my bike and Henry needed to be on a tagalong, I took over Serena's bike. Tagalongs are the BEST! The kids can still peddle - which is awesome when you are going up a hill or through the mud!
Here is Ashley and Ed and me with Henry. It was a lot of fun!  

On the trail 

Ashley, Jim and I taking a break to look at a dam. This has been a really wet spring and the river  was really high. 

Love those Pulsiphers!

DAY 2: JUNE 30th

Here we are day two at camp - George was SO happy to find a frog - all told they found at least four frogs and a turtle. The kids were in heaven! Its so nice to take these kids out to play in nature! 

Part of the trail was flooded out and we needed to take a detour. Once you leave the bike path along the banks of the river, the country roads are full of extreme UPs and DOWNs. I was not as hydrated as I thought and I started get nauseous , dizzy and got a pounding headache. We took a quick break and my bike buddy for the morning - Ed, took care of me. Sweetie. Here he is spraying and fanning me. 

DAY THREE: July1st!

Ashley with cute little Ed. I was so impressed with him! He is only three years old and he held on tight to that tandem bike  all day for three days! My nephews are so cool!!

We decided to stay in a hotel the night of the 30th and we are pretty lucky we did.
There was a SEVERE thunderstorm that night that we hadn't seen in the forecast.
We were able to sleep in beds and take showers. It was great. Henry was
my bike buddy for most of the way. It was a blast and he has some pretty powerful
legs to that would give me the "turbo boost" I'd need every once and a while.

We found roadside wild raspberries. They were SO SO SO GOOOD! 

My dear little Charlotte was such a trooper on this trip. She was on my bike tag along when we got
caught in a huge rainstorm. We both got DRENCHED. She was our positive cheerleader!

Its a lot of gear - I love that bikes are capable of carrying it all.

Nature = Heaven

Henry's turbo boost got us a bit to far ahead from the rest of the group.
So we took a break. It felt so good to be surrounded by nothing but green. 

The nice thing about the C&O Trail is that you go through several small towns.
Ashley saved the day and took a pizza detour while we went ahead and set up camp.
The kids loved it. This was my attempt at getting a non-goofy picture of them.

Here is the star of the show! Jim is 10 months old and was such a joy to have on the trip!
He wasn't fussy at all and loved to be in his bike chair. Jim wins the MVP of the trip!

Our campsite was right on the banks of the river. It was gorgeous. Ashley and I took a dip and it felt AMAZING!

I finally got all of the kids smiling and in one selfie! Too bad I didn't worry about my facial expression! (wamp wamp)

Sunset at camp - through the trees and over the river. It was a gorgeous evening. 

We worked to keep the fire going - luckily there was a fallen tree not too far away. 

I bought sparklers for the kids. 

We loved it :)

DAY 4: JULY 2nd 

We woke up on day four to a rain storm. We tried to wait it out in our tents, but alas it did not let up and our tents got wet. We had to pack out while everything was all wet. Not the most fun. We also decided to get on the side roads again as the trail had a lot of mud on that stretch and it was really hard to ride through. We got back onto the country roads and rode up and down for an hour or two before we decided to call it. Serena was on her way to rescue us. We had several set backs and were not as far in terms of  milage as we had originally planned. In the end, I was totally ok with that. 

It really was such a great trip! David did such a great job planning it. I was definitely pushed to some physical limits that I was not expecting, but I was glad for it. As cheesy as it sounds, a trip like this that has its highs and lows and is dependent on the group working together to meet a goal is great for a whole other level of family bonding. I had one on one time for hours with each of my nephews and niece. It helped me build relationships with them in ways that I don't think I would have gotten at your run-of-the-mill family reunion. I would totally do it again and I think it was a total SUCCESS!