Ultrasound pictures

Here are some of the ultrasound pictures of our little girl! The technician fortunately labeled parts for everyone's convenience. :)

It's a girl!

Happy news to share: David and I are having a GIRL!!! We're both very excited! I had my 20-week ultrasound yesterday, and we got to see our very squirmy baby! The technician took lots of pictures of tiny arms, legs, and feet (which I will post later, promise!), and the baby is perfectly healthy. David had her check the gender several times, just to make sure. He has his reasons: his parents thought he was a girl (going to be named Amanda) until he was born. Nevertheless, we are already sorting through names we like and whispering them and calling them and repeating them dozens of times in an effort to find the right combination. And no, I'm sorry, no one gets to know the name except us until the baby's born. You'll all just have to live with it and say nothing, even if it's Olga Mildred (which it's not, don't worry).

Back to school

David started his sophomore year at Westminster this past week, and has thus far loved every minute of it. He's taking four classes: Math, English, Contemporary Political Philosophy, and Speech. The campus is fifteen minutes away from our house in Emigration Canyon, it only has a few thousand students, small class sizes, and did I mention it's the only liberal arts college in Utah? David definitely puts the "liberal" in "liberal arts." He's right at home. His English teacher told the class the first day that he would occasionally make completely inaccurate or false statements and opinions, and that it was part of the students' grade to catch him when he did so. David's definitely at the right school - I think he's devoted his life to ensuring that everyone's statements and opinions are accurate and fact-based.

It feels very strange to me not to be going back to school. I've gone back to school in the fall for the past 17 years, and the fact that I'm sitting at a desk in a bank and not collecting syllabi and making a homework schedule makes me a little wistful. I might have to go buy some school supplies, just for me, in order to cope.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Raspberries, cousins, and errant felines

I don't know about you guys, but I had a busy weekend. My family and I did lots of fun things, but now it's Monday and I'm exhausted and need another two days off to recuperate from the weekend. How sad is that?

This past weekend was Raspberry Days at Bear Lake, so David and I drove up there with my family to enjoy some delicious fruit. The ironic thing is that there were no fresh raspberries to be found. The raspberry shakes were amazing, as was the raspberry pie, but there were no signs of any fresh raspberries. We passed a fruit stand on the way up to Bear Lake advertising fresh raspberries and we thought, "We're not stopping there, we'll get the real thing when we get to Bear Lake." We should have stopped.

There was a wonderful craft fair at Bear Lake, where I got a beautiful seashell bracelet and helped my poor, girl jewelry-challenged brother pick something out for his girlfriend. Aw, cute. :) We ate a chuck wagon dinner before seeing a play at the Pickleville Theater called "The Return of the Bandito;" or maybe it was "Bandito Rides Again." Anyway, the majority of it was hilarious; some of it was just too silly, and I really could've done without the Obamacare and "The government is taking over our lives, what will we do?!" jokes. But, after all, we were on the Utah/Idaho border, so David and I were the only ones who laughed disdainfully instead of appreciatively.

David and I didn't get home until about 1:45 am - much later than anyone had anticipated, and I hadn't arranged a substitute to play piano for me in Primary on Sunday. So, I managed to drag myself out of bed, go to church and play piano, and then come back home and crawl back in bed. My cousin Tyler and his family invited us down to their house in Lehi for dinner, so we again climbed into the car with my family and drove down there. A few more aunts, uncles, and cousins were there as well, so it was a lot of fun. We spent most of the time outside talking and enjoying the unseasonably cool weather. At one point, one of Tyler's kids got hurt playing on the trampoline with David. As all of us turn to ask what happened, Tyler says, "David beat him up - he started spouting conservative rhetoric and David couldn't take it." Oh, he knows David well, and don't worry - children are one group that David would not beat up for spouting conservative rhetoric. :)

We had a rather eventful morning today, though. Yesterday as David and I were watching a movie, a gust of wind blew open our back door. I got up, shut it, and locked it, and neither of us thought anything of it. Until this morning. I got up around 6:00 am to use the bathroom, and looked into the living room to where we keep the cats at night, and saw that the back door had again been blown wide open - and the cats were gone. Fortunately, Chloe - the tiny, paranoid, homebody - was sitting on the back steps, and she was more than happy to come back in the warm and dry house; our other cat, Riley, was nowhere to be found. I woke David up, and he and I searched the canyon for about an hour yelling his name before we heard him crying in the bushes about a hundred feet up the canyon from our house. David climbed through the scrub oak and found Riley shivering in the bushes, covered in burs. It took us the better part of half an hour to cut all them off of him and make sure he was otherwise uninjured. Then the stupid cat fell asleep instantly after what, I'm sure, he deemed a night of adventure and David and I still had to go to work after a morning of frantic and frenzied searching. This must be what parents feel like when their toddler goes missing, only to be found in the neighbor's backyard a few blocks away. You're at first happy and relieved that they're safe, and then angry that they ran away and caused you grief; there's a simultaneous impulse to cuddle and throttle, and you might do a little of both. I know I would/did. Just kidding, don't call PETA, or Child Protective Services. :)

So now you see why I need another weekend. I might spend my entire lunch break sleeping. It's a good thing there were donuts at work this morning. :)

Downeast Basics Giveaway

Madeline of Uber Chic for Cheap is having a giveaway on her website from Downeast Basics! If you enter, you have the chance to win the clothing item of your choice, selected from their new arrivals. Simply go to Uber Chic for Cheap and leave a comment with which item you love the most, along with your first name and email. Winners will be drawn on Sunday - good luck!

Baby Update

For those of you who don't know (and if the "how big your baby is compared to food" widget didn't give it away), David and I are expecting a baby in January! This accounts for the complete lack of blogging activity for the past few months, and the fact that there's a social networking sites moratorium on the computers at work. :)

I'm 14 weeks pregnant today! I made it successfully and for the most part unscathed through the first trimester. Fortunately, the nausea was minimal and the throwing up was nonexistent, so I consider myself fairly lucky to have not had to deal with that too badly (although it sure felt worse when I was experiencing it). I had my first prenatal appointment a month ago, and David and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time then! That was pretty awesome. I wasn't sure exactly how far along I was, so we had an ultrasound to determine that. Here are a few pictures:

This is the side view. I was about 11 weeks pregnant then, so the baby still looks a little alien-like. Can you see the tiny arms?

 This is the top view. You can see the baby's head right in the middle, with the left arm just off-center.

I had my second prenatal appointment today, where I got to hear the baby's heartbeat again and schedule an ultrasound in six weeks to determine the gender! And FYI, we will, of course, be telling everyone what we're having (as far as sex is concerned), but we're not telling you any names. We're picking ones we like, zipping our lips, and presenting the baby to the world with a non-negotiable moniker. Sorry for those of you who were looking forward to some sort of name poll, but this is not a democratic decision: you get no votes, and no representation. It's a dictatorship: two people make the decision, and then tell you, and you like it or suffer the consequences! Just kidding. But seriously. :)

Pregnancy has been treating me pretty well thus far. I have the usual complaints - stubborn acne, lower back pain, fatigue, etc. - but it has its advantages. For one thing, I get to eat more and it's okay, even encouraged, and I get to shop for new clothes. It's also an excuse to go to bed early, leave early, or skip out on things in general. I also get to tease my husband. David will come home from work and say, "Oh man, I am so tired!" and I'll say, "What's your excuse? You're not growing another human being!" He can also claim to be "hungry" or any variation of "moody" (angry, upset, disturbed, etc.) and I can use the same response. It's awesome. :) I do miss some things though, and will probably consume them in large quantities after I have the baby and then not want them for another few months after that. I miss mayonnaise and cold lunch meat and cookie dough and creamy salad dressing and slightly pink steak. Anyone know of a good mayo substitute? I put it on/in more things than I realized and really miss it; is that weird?

Anyway, there's your baby update! I'll definitely post more ultrasound pictures when I get them.

Alaska!

I recently took a trip up to Alaska to visit my mother-in-law, who is up there on business. It was quite an adventure - solo plane rides, midnight sunsets, permafrost forests, delicious dinners, moose, bear, killer mosquitoes, seals, birds, fish, and major jet lag. "Where are the pictures?!" you cry. They're coming, not to worry.

I took this picture out the airplane window coming in
to Anchorage. It's about 12:30 at night and, yes,
the sun is just barely setting.

*Quick side note: my seat on the plane was unexpectedly
changed to the emergency exit aisle; when asked if I was
prepared to assist in the event of an emergency,
I responded, "I've seen all six seasons of 'Lost,'
I know how to survive a plane crash."

This is the view out my in-law's back porch.
It's about 10:30 pm.

*Side note #2: I decided one morning to hike out to the
lake you can see in the picture. I took two steps into the
forest and decided against it. The ground in Alaska is permafrost,
which means it's rock-hard most of the year and thaws to
a degree in the spring and summer. It was like walking on
textured, bouncy foam - the strangest sensation ever!

My mother-in-law and I drove into Anchorage
from Big Lake where she lives almost every day.
One evening we were there, we went to a restaurant
called The Brewhouse, a very fancy shmancy place.
We both ordered this dish: grilled salmon on baby spinach
and garlic mashed potatoes, topped with tomato basil butter
and sprinkled with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers.

Salivating yet?

On my last full day in Alaska, we drove down to Seward,
and the view was spectacular!
This is the Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains.
I never got over how enormous they were!

 

What are those white specks, you ask?

Bugs. Dead ones. I took this through the windshield. :)

It was a little windy!

While we were driving along the Seward Highway,
my mother-in-law would point out the window and say,
"Look, they're going net fishing."
Finally, I said, "What's 'net fishing?' Do you just stick your
net in the water and hope something swims in?"
"Yes," she said. "O-kay," I thought, "Optimistic folk,
these Alaskans are." But that's exactly what these people in the
picture are doing. The groups seemed to be families mostly.
The dad would put on waders, grab his net, and walk
not 6 feet from the shore and plop the net in the water.
After twirling it around for a few seconds, he would bring it up,
and at least 10 fish would be inside!
These people could fill up one of those white
food storage buckets with fish in about half an hour!

"That's my kind of fishing," I thought.

I went down to the shore to get a closer look
at the process, and to stick my toes in the Alaska water.

It was SOOO cold! Wow. I took off my shoes,
put my toes in, took the picture, and got out.
The sand was very strange, too: it was dark gray,
sparkly, and extremely compact. This was not a beach to take
those romantic couples "two footprints side-by-side pictures"
- my feet made no impression whatsoever in the sand.

We stopped at an animal refuge on our journey to Seward.
Most of the animals here were found injured or
otherwise incapable of surviving in the wild and
are being rehabilitated, or are there to rebuild their population
because they've been all but eradicated in the wild.

*Sidenote 3: Lest you think that the only moose in Alaska
are in fenced enclosures, I did see two, real, wild, Alaska moose;
they just weren't nearly as close as these two.

Musk ox, against those incredible mountains.

A very friendly brown bear...

...who also acted a little like a dog. Just kidding.

She had been trained to sit and stick out her tongue

so the vet could check up on her.

Caribou/Reindeer. I was surprised to see how

fuzzy their antlers actually were.

*Side note #4: the place was swarming with mosquitoes.

I got over 24 bites on my face, neck, arms, and feet,

and my body has a really bad allergic reaction to bug bites.

I've been home for almost a week and they're still

not gone and haven't yet stopped itching.

When we got to Seward, we visited the aquarium.

It wasn't a large one, but it had great exhibits.

 

 

 

 

 

They had a large, open enclosure full of Alaskan birds as well.

 

This funny little bird, a rhinoceros oclit, was

raised by researchers, so he loves people.

He would splash around to get your attention,

then swim right up to you, trying to escape.

They also had two seals, and a huge stellar sea lion.

We were looking in the enclosure for him when he came

thundering around the corner and dove into the water with

a huge splash that would have drenched us

had not 8-foot plastic walls been protecting us!

 

Beautiful Alaska sunsets (again, around 11:00 pm,

and, sorry, more dead bugs).

It was a great last day to spend in Alaska, because the last night was terrible. My plane was scheduled to leave at 1:55 am, but was running (flying?) late and wouldn't be there until 2:30 am. By the time it got there, they got everyone off, cleaned it (we all yelled, "We don't care if it's clean!"), loaded us and our luggage on, I switched seats again, we didn't leave until 3:30. We got in to Salt Lake around 9:45, and it was 11:00 by the time I finally got home and promptly collapsed for about six hours.

*Last side note about Alaska: people do not live in igloos or drive a team of sled dogs to work. They do not live solely off of what they can kill and cook over an open fire. They do not always have subzero temperatures. They live in normal houses, drive cars, shop at Walmart and Target, pick up their prescriptions at Walgreens, eat at Red Robin, and go into the city on the weekends to shop at the mall. Alaska is, in short, not at all primitive and highly civilized; it's just incredibly vast and amazingly beautiful to boot.