Pregnant and happy!

Finally I got a good picture of Carrie and her pregnant self. Show that baby off! Carrie and Lil' Bow wow comin' atcha.

Baby Blues? I've got the Baby Pinks.

So I vowed long ago that I would never become the type of mom who loses her own identity and lives only through her children...but I am already beginning to see that that is nearly impossible to avoid this and my baby hasn't even been born yet. I think it has something to do with the fact that every time I look in the mirror I can't help but notice my huge belly and everyone else notices the gigantic bulge first thing too and asks how I'm feeling and when I'm due. And that's not all, lately I've even gotten really excited about completely losing myself and taking care for this tiny being that is so helpless.
Throughout the past nine months, I have been pretty preoccupied with how terrible pregnancy has made me feel and it wasn't until a couple weeks ago when I started to get this feeling...you know, the feeling you get on Christmas Eve or on your birthday, when you get really excited about the unknown contents of your presents. But I really couldn't care less if Christmas came this year. In fact, I would be ecstatic if I woke up tomorrow and it was January. I am getting a present that is light years better than anything that could be under the tree. Now don't get me wrong, I have always been excited about having a baby but now it's starting to feel real. Like it's really going to happen.
I think it all started after my baby shower, thanks again, Desi, Dori, Kerri, and Alyssa. I hadn't really gotten anything for baby before then, because I thought it would make the pregnancy last even longer. So, I don't think I had realized how fun it is going to be to dress my baby. Now my baby has more accessories than I do, bracelets and headbands. And all the cute little clothes, plenty in the closet and even more in a dresser. I am in heaven and I've decided to call this feeling the Baby Pinks.
So in the next five weeks I have got a lot to do to get ready for this kid to come. There are still a lot of things that I need to get...and man, babies are expensive. But I look forward to waking up each day, so that I can get another thing ready for my daughter. She has pretty much taken over my every thought and I don't mind that I've become the person I didn't want to be. Dang it, I am obsessed with my kid and I am happy that I am.

Black Friday...the darkest day of the year

Okay so not the darkest, I tend to be a little dramatic. Thanksgiving week is my husband's favorite week of the year. Not because of turkey or family and not even because of football, but that is a close second. But because my husband LOVES to get good deals. All week long he spend a lot of time on the internet looking at Black Friday deals, researching the quality of the merchandise and where he can get a better price. It is a serious deal for him, and although it drives me crazy, I am grateful to have a husband who wants quality products at any price point.

Right before midnight on Thanksgiving we headed down to the closest outlet mall to try and get discount prices on already marked down merchandise. We only made it to one store, Carters, because I'm a wimp (okay, it's really because I'm 8 mos pregnant and it's difficult for me to get around). We did get some cute little baby clothes. My favorite is a onesie that Eric picked out. It is magenta and it says I love Daddy. It was the only thing he chose, but it was fun to see him get excited about it.

Eric managed to get about an hour of sleep before heading out again with a friend to try and get us a video camera. Not having lived here very long, we didn't seemed to realize how many people live around us and how many of them also want to get a deal. Eric said lines went down the block or farther, hours before the stores opened. So, he got us a video camera online. It was still a fabulous deal...if only we had known about it earlier, Eric could have gotten a little more sleep that night.

All in all, it was an adventure for both of us. I don't know if I'll ever be doing it again, but I don't regret going.

WICKED Birthday Party

I almost forgot to blog this. Carrie and I went to the musical Wicked at the Pantages theater here in LA (Hollywood area) for her Birthday. We put our names in for the lottery that they have and got lucky - front row tickets for only $25 each! We went to a nice little Italian restaurant nearby and checked out the stars on the sidewalks over there and the show was GREAT! Lots of fun. Luckily we got it in before everyone started striking.

The Sunny Side of Life

Carrie is happy to be pregnant - NOT! Don't let this photo deceive you. She IS happy though to only have 8 weeks left. Though I have a feeling they'll feel more like 8 months (to me at least). We're getting really excited for the 3rd member of our little family to arrive. In the mean time, Carrie is feeling the baby dance more and more each day and that along with her heartburn keeps her up late at night (good practice for the coming months I think). She is still hoping to get the NCLEX test done soon too before life gets REALLY hectic.

California weather is our new best friend. We had a picnic in the park today and it was like 90 degrees! Its mid-November! The picture is of me and my first try surfing a couple of weeks ago. Despite the nice weather, the water was FREEZING but there were some dolphins out there with us that day and it was a ton of fun. I know I should be standing on the surfboard but hey.­.­.­ when the water is 30 degrees it messes with your muscles (and it was my first time).­

Fantasy Sports aren't my fantasy

Back a couple of years ago, every time the TV was turned on by Eric, it was on ESPN watching Sportscenter. I know that I complained plenty about the amount of time he spent getting the wrap-up on the day's sporting events. It has been a couple of years now since I've seen Sportscenter and I have since learned that there are much worse things.
You'd think this would make me happy, but now Eric has to watch as many of the actual football, basketball or baseball games that he possibly can...thanks to fantasy sports. Now I'm sure that everyone knows what fantasy sports are, but essentially it is a team that you put together of players. So now he has "players" playing in every game that is played on TV.
And it only gets worse when he has "players" playing on different channels at the same time. Then he uses sopcasts off the internet, score updates on yahoo sports, and toggles between all the different games on TV.
The NFL football season has ruined my Sundays! This is my biggest annoyance. Multiple games, all day long and now he isn't just depressed that the Seahawks lose, but also the Redskins and the Buccaneers and many more teams, because it affects his points in Fantasy Football. And pro basketball and baseball aren't confined to two days a week, they happen all week long.
These are just professional sports teams. He still needs his fix of college football and basketball. Honestly, what is a girl to do?

Midterms from the hot place.

So I've taken many tests in my life that I thought were bad, but nothing could have prepared me for what USC had in store for me with our midterm exams. WOW. I've never felt so dumb after taking a test. Did I pass? Probably not. Gladly, its over and now I have 4 days of vacation and some time to straighten out my slice! Carrie is doing well, happy to be no longer "morning sick" and I'm starting to get packages unexpectedly in the mail from Children's Place and Gymboree. Sgt Pepper is trying to recruit me to the Air Force, and after paying 1 semesters worth of tuition I'm the one doing the recruiting. If USC could just put together a national championship football team I could justify spending the 100k/yr, but come on ... Stanford?? Really?!? I'm confident we'll show Notre Dame what football is really about.

Keep on keepin' on

One month of school is now out of the way and I'm almost getting the hang of things. We're starting to get into a routine and its nice to feel slightly more acclimated to big city life. We got our car back from the body shop a few days ago and it looks pretty good. Can't hardly tell its been wrecked. I'm getting through my tooth morphology class and as you can see, I've spent lots of time doing some carvings. Its actually the funnest part about school so far. We're getting to do a bunch of wax-ups too which is fun. I can say that school is much funner when its stuff you actually want to learn about.

Carrie and I have also gotten season passes to the home football games this year and its been fun. We saw WSU get whooped up on and then a huge upset by Stanford this last Saturday (a very sad event for all involved). The parachuting Navy Seals was cool at the beginning too. The only downside is the 4 hours straight of standing up in the student section (which can get a bit rowdy). It does take its toll on a 6 1/2 month pregnant woman. She's a good sport though.

The baby's been kicking quite a bit. Carrie threatens spankings at least daily (baby thinks the bladder is a punching bag sometimes). Carrie is no longer fitting into normal clothing and as you can tell by the picture, she's been doing her fair share of maternity clothes shopping. She doesn't believe that its possible to get any bigger until she watches Baby Story on TLC. I still think she's more beautiful than the day I met her (especially at a football game).

Life in the Big City

Well as you can see from the pictures, the LA traffic hasn't been so good to us. Our little car was recently the victim of an out-of-control blind motorcyclist on the freeway. We were fine thankfully but he was taken to the hospital (hopefully he's ok) and we delayed traffic for a good couple of hours. Sorry LA. But we're trying to avoid driving and trying to forget the event. Carrie finally got an appointment with an OBGYN here and we're set to find out what we're having Sept 11^th (hopefully not a sign of things to come). We had a little "White Coat" Ceremony last night at USC welcoming us into the dental profession. Don't I look professional?!?! School I also got my 2^nd week of orientation about done and am looking forward to moving on with things. I feel like I should be busier. Joe is telling me about how crazy stuff is for him at OHSU after only a couple days. Oh well. More Xbox for me. Haha.

School has Begun!

Well, we've been in So Cal for 2 whole weeks now and I already have one boring week of dental school orientation under my belt. I can pretty much fix you teeth as well as any dentist out there right now. Thats how good USC is. We've thankfully been forced into getting settled thanks to the Smith's arrival for a night while supporting they're man Terry Fator (now winner of America's Got Talent) and are liking it here for the most part (though we were forced to sleep on the air mattress and floor for a week or so before we broke down and bought a mattress at Costco). I also went to Grandma Maurine's funeral in Salt Lake a week or so ago. It was sad but a great memorial to a great lady. It was also nice to see family that only gets together one every 15 yrs or so (cousin Dan thought I was Kacey's husband). On another topic, Carrie is almost 5 mo pregnant now and we're excited to get her into a doctor soon to find out what we're having - a little Henry or a little Lillie. She's been bored here during the day while I'm gone but takes long naps to make up for it. We like our ward and people seem really nice here (which we've missed in our past couple of wards). There's not much to complain about except for crazy expensive school, and 30 yr old ovens - nothing serious.

I Love Vacation

So the Nighthawk chapter of my life is finally over (thankfully) and the Dental part is set to begin in just over a month. We just got back from a vacation to Island Park where Lyle and Mary just bought there new cabin. We went to Yellowstone and did some boating and rafting. It was a great time and really nice to get away from everything for a while. It was the longest (5 days) that I've been without TV or internet for about as long as I can remember. We're about to go camping at Priest Lake with Carrie's family, and then start packing for Cali. Should be a fun time. We've purged most of our furniture and appliances and only have a few boxes to take now. LA is a world away from the tranquility of Island Park but we're always up for new things.

Busy Weekend

Lets see... Julees wedding, and reception, and golf and morning-sick wife. Almost too much for one guy to handle right? Well it took a few days of recovery but I'm doing better now. Can't say the same for Carrie who's been throwing up every other day or so but that just means her hormones are out of wack in a good way right? It was a good time though, all the fam together in O-town. I decided I can't take much more of my job and am quitting on July 2nd before they can make me work another holiday (i think Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and day, New Years Eve and day, Easter and Memorial day were enough weren't they?). So we'll have a month or so to lounge, mooch, relax until school starts for me. We're excited to get to So Cal though. I'm ready to get going with school. Not sure where we'll live or how we'll survive but we're excited.