It's official... finally!

I'm so excited! My little brother is getting married! David proposed to his girlfriend, Sara, on Saturday and she said yes! We were all pretty sure she would say yes (they already set a date, have the temple reserved, and colors picked out) but I'm glad that it's official now. Ben and I have been married almost 7 years and it's about freaking time someone else in my family got married! Hopefully they will have lots of babies soon and live close to us so that my kids will have cousins around. Tyler and Nicole spent a few days with their one and only cousin, Ellie, last week and they miss her terribly. I grew up around my cousins and I want my kids to have that. Hopefully we can go down to LA soon and see Ellie again. Anyway, back to David and Sara. They will be getting married in St. Louis on July 5, 2008. There will be an open house in Vancouver (hopefully at my parent's house) a couple of weeks later. Let's all hope and pray that the weather is good and we won't have to have it in the cultural hall at the church. The most important thing is that David is marrying a WONDERFUL girl and I'm so excited that she's going to be part of our family.

Random Musings at the Request of a man named Jamal.

So I got an IM from a guy whose nickname is Jamal (in the interest of privacy, we shall not refer to him by his real name, Steven Carter, but instead we shall refer to him by some innocuous name like, well, Jamal) who told me to put more posts on our blog. I am sure that by 'you' he meant my wife, but instead I feel like rambling on about nothing in particular, so this is what you get.

A few random tidbits from my life:

Apparently I have come to be known as an 'insensitive to pregnant women' Democrat in my ward. Let me explain. My wife told someone (all of?) the relief society that I (in jest only!) suggested that some of Kristi's pregnancy related symptoms were all in her head. You know, because a child growing inside of you isn't real, its all phsycological, right?! My extremely lame attempt at humor to get my insanely uncomfortably wife to laugh was tragically short sighted, but it was humor just the same. Anyhow, she told someone the story, and pretty soon, a random lady in the ward confronts me one Sunday and asked me incredulously, "You think pregnancy pains are all in her head?!" Needless to say I was dumbfounded.

The Democrat part comes from a conversation I had in our EQ presidency meeting, wherein I suggested that all people who were going to vote for Romney or thought he would make a good president strictly because he is Mormon is a sad misguided idiot. And I think i was slightly less tactful than that when I initially said it. I was quick to say that if you studied the issues, studied Mitt's stance on them and liked his plans/ideas, then by all means you should support and vote for him and I would never have a problem with that. For the record, I feel the same way about voting for Obama strictly because he's black, Hillary strictly because she's a woman, or McCain strictly because he's old! (For the record I like to think of myself as an independent who likes things about both parties but do not subscribe to either. )

In other news, I 'won a bet' with Kristi's doctor yesterday. Kristi has about 3 weeks to go until D-Day, and she had a regular prego exam yesterday. At one point, the doctor said she was going to check Kristi's cervix, to which I said, "I bet she's dilated to about a 0." The doctor laughed a 'bless your heart, you're so stupid' laugh and said something to the effect of she doubted that was the case, but thanks for trying. A little while later, after what seemed like much probing, her face kind of fell, and she said, "Wow. I think you may be right." And she seemed really bummed about it. Point for Ben! (Yes, I am that desperate that I feel pretty high and mighty over something completely arbitrary that nobody could have really known beforehand what the answer was. I guess there were about 11 options, from 0 - baby's head sticking out, so I had about a 9% chance of being correct?)

The chicklets are enjoying spending time with their cousin Ellie (18 months old) who is visiting us from L.A. for a couple days. It's pretty funny to see them together and it gives me hope that the children will not kill the new baby. Well, maybe not for 2 1/2 weeks, at least.

Well, that is all for now. I hope you are all well, and that you are not experiencing the winter like weather that we are today. You know, snow, hail, rain, etc. Be well, and remember: If a tree falls on a mime, and nobody is around to hear it, would anybody care?

Answers to Questions

I get asked a whole lot of questions about my pregnancy. I get tired of answering them all day long, so here are the answers you're looking for:

-Are we having a boy or girl?
We don't know. We want to be surprised. Since we have a boy and a girl, my excuses for needing to know are mostly null and void now. Ben really wanted to be surprised with the other two and I overruled him. So I guess I'd better let him have his way once in a while...

-What do I think it is?
I totally think it's a boy, but I thought Nicole was a boy and Tyler was a girl, so my opinion isn't worth diddly squat.

-Do I have a preference?
Not really. I just want a healthy baby. Tyler wants a boy baby because we already have a girl baby. If it turns out to be a boy, it would make the clothing situation a little easier. If it's a girl, the sizes and seasons would be completely opposite, so I'll need to get more girl clothes. Ben seems to be terrified of having another girl, so for his sake, let's hope it's a boy.

-Do we have names picked out?
No. With Tyler and Nicole we had names picked out before we even thought about having children. We haven't been able to agree on a girl name that we both like. Ben likes Brooklyn (gag) and I like Ella. For a few days we both liked Tori, but that has faded. For a boy we had pretty much decided on Jack, but now it's not even on our top 10 list. I like Connor and Ben hasn't vetoed it yet, so that's a possibility. Feel free to send us your suggestions. :-)

-When am I due?
The original due date they gave me was April 22. At my ultrasound the technician said the baby was measuring a little bigger than that and they came up with April 18. Since I hate being pregnant, I'm really hoping for the April 18 date. But since I have yet to go into labor on my own, I'll probably go late and not have this baby until Halloween or something. Honestly, I don't care if I go a few days late. I just really want to go into labor on my own this time instead of being induced.

-Where are we going to have the baby?
Southwest Washington Medical Center.

-Am I going to have an epidural?
You bet your sweet behind I am! Even though my last experience with an epidural was less than pleasant, it's still better than going through labor. So unless this baby comes in record time and there isn't enough time to have one, I'm planning on having someone stick a 10 inch needle into my back so that I don't have to feel like I'm going to die.

-What do the kids think about all of this?
They are so excited! They have both been practicing giving bottles and playing patty cake and changing diapers with Nicole's dolls. It worries me a little to see her fling them over her shoulder when she's done with them, but I guess I'll just have to keep a very close eye on both of them. :-)

Last but not least...

-How am I feeling?
I'm feeling like I'm 8 months pregnant! I have made no secret of the fact that I HATE being pregnant. My skin is stretched so tight I feel like it's going to just split. My belly button sticks out an inch (at least) and my maternity clothes are all too small. I'm living in sweat pants and Ben's t-shirts because that is what is comfortable. If I get in real clothes for you, you must be someone really special that I feel the need to impress. Other than that, I'm fine. I finally have a little bit of energy and I'm getting into that "nesting" stage. I actually love that part because I get so much done! I'm not sick anymore, but the smell of garlic is still quite offensive. Overall, I'm ready to be done with this. I can't wait to meet this baby who beats me up from the inside all day and all night!

Hopefully this clears things up a little bit. Have a marvelous day!

p.s. Ben just informed me that I sound a little bitter in this post. I don't mean to sound bitter! I just thought you'd all like to know what's going on and since everyone asks the same questions, I thought this would be the most efficient way to do it.

Getting ready for baby

I've been trying to get the kids used to the idea of having a baby around. Nicole has her dolls (and Tyler plays with them when she's not looking) so we practice with them. We talk about giving the baby bottles, being quiet so that babies can sleep, being soft and gentle with babies, etc. For my birthday I got a new rocker for the nursery. I am sure I'll be spending a lot of time in that chair when the baby comes. Before the chair got here, Nicole decided to use our old rocker one last time. I walked in the nursery and found her like this with her baby:

She was rocking and singing to the baby and giving her some water. It was so sweet! Tyler's preschool teacher had her baby yesterday, so Tyler says that when she comes home from the hospital, it will be my turn. I still have 43 days to go, but it will be my turn soon enough. :-)

Is it the 80's again?

As a child, I remember having a chia-pet. I loved them. It was so fun to sit there and watch grass grow. Oh wait, no it wasn't. Chia-pets were a trial of my patience as a child. I always wanted the instant gratification. The chia-pet makes you wait, and wait, and wait, and wait. As a child, 5 days for seeds to sprout is just too long. My mom got the kids a little chia-pet named "Buddy" and I was worried that they would have the same problem I did. I was pleasantly surprised. Tyler wanted to check on Buddy's "hair" every morning, but other than that, he didn't bug me too much about it. When the seeds sprouted, he was thrilled and immediately wanted to give Buddy a haircut. I made him wait another day (I'm so mean) and first thing the next morning, he was ready with his little scissors to give Buddy a "snip" (his words, not mine). Now, every single morning, he wants to snip some hair. I find little pieces of grass everywhere. Nicole hasn't really figured out scissors yet (probably because I keep them away from her at all cost) so she needs some help with her snipping. Buddy's hair is growing like grass now and the kids love it. They wanted Buddy to take a bath with them (because his hair likes water) but we managed to keep him in the kitchen. Anyway, here's a picture (last week, before Buddy's hair got super long) of Tyler giving Buddy his morning snip. Maybe chia-pets are fun, if you like watching grass grow...