The Entertainer

Last night I got to finally fulfill a dream of mine: I got to see Billy Joel live.
In 7th grade, I got myself his greatest hits albums. I remembered listening to the song Piano Man as a kid, and one of my new friends, an odd fellow named Jonah, was a huge fan. Within a few years, my sister and I had every album and every word memorized. He's the first musician that got me passionate about music. He also convinced me to stop listening to the radio.
My junior year of High School, Billy was on what was supposed to be his last tour ever as he slipped into retirement. Lori, now in college, and I decided to spend our life savings to see him perform at Madison Square Gardens in his home town of New York City (mind you, I grew up in Washington State- it wasn't exactly something we could make a road trip out of). It took a lot of saving and a lot of convincing my parents, but we got it all planned and flew out.
We got to see the sites of manhattan, and I got to see Les Miserables on broadway, which is still one of the highlights of my life. However, the day of the concert, we found out it was cancelled. Billy was "sick". And by sick, I mean, probably too drunk to perform. It's something I've been bitter about ever since: Billy stood me up, and I lost my one chance to see him live.
Well, in the years since, Billy has cleaned up a bit. It would appear he's running out of money, as well, so he's touring again. His recent compilation album, "My Lives" was a compilation of his favorite but more obscure songs (much better than his greatest hits- in my opinion, Greatest Hits are seldom an artist's best songs). And this tour went along the same theme. In truth, I've moved on to other artists lately and don't listen to Billy much anymore. I went to this concert mostly to be able to say I finally saw him live, not because I'm passionate about his music anymore.
Then I saw him, and I heard him, and I transformed back into an excitable 13 year old girl, screaming my heart out and nearly bursting with music. The show last night was AMAZING. Honestly, I couldn't be happier with it. His voice is back up to par, his piano was of course incredible, and his song selection... words can hardly tell how happy it made me. The first half hour of the show was particularly good- he even did a song from his first album, which is perhaps his least known album, but my personal favorite. Among my favorites of the evening: The Entertainer, Everybody loves you now, Angry Young Man, Vienna and... well, he didn't actually play it (he let the audience vote and another song won), but the fact he even mentioned Summer Highland Falls made my heart jump.
Now, if only I could get Led Zep to tour in the US again, or make Joni Mitchell 30 years younger...

Things I'm grateful for

This is a great thanksgiving for me- so much to be grateful for!

• I'm grateful for my sweet husband. He takes such good care of me and always makes me feel special and loved. He's a hard worker and we always have fun together.
• I'm grateful for my puppy. Lucy has grown up to be a great dog- literally, nearly no complaints from me. The energy level has calmed down a bit, she doesn't whine anymore, and she obeys all directions really well. And she's adorable! Lately she likes to carry her towel/doggy blanket around with her in her mouth- just like a baby blanket, always dragging around. It's so cute.
  
• I am so grateful for my job. I am so lucky to have found it, and that they are going to let me work remotely when we move. I never thought with my linguistics major I would find a job like this.
• I am grateful for our home! The loan stuff came through this week and we got a really good deal and I'm just feeling so blessed.
• I'm grateful for my baby. It's amazing how emotionally attached I've gotten to this little alien parasite growing in my tummy. We're so excited to have her (or him) join us.
• I am grateful for our health. Especially with the kind of care I take of myself, I know I have an amazing guardian angel.
  
• I'm grateful for my family. I love that we have all stayed close into adulthood. I love that I still consider my parents some of my best friends. I've been so lucky to have Lori nearby, and to have Becky a short IM/phone call away, and we are so excited to be moving closer to Kevin and his sweet wife Candace. And Chris- well, someday we'll see Chris again:).
  
• And last but not least, I am so grateful for my church and my testimony. I can't imagine living without the direction, love and guidance that Christ and his gospel give me.
  

I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!

We own a home!

After two intense days of searching, we found the home of our dreams. It's a brand new home in a brand new development, just under 2000 square feet and cost us 138,000 (which was 25k down from its asking price). It has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms. We also get a 42 inch LG plasma HD TV as part of the deal. :)

OK, so I don't LOVE the exterior. I really wish the bricks connected from one side to the other just above the garage, but it'll do. For all the photos plus a walk-through of the house, go to our web album.
Things we love about this house:

• It's in a great location, about 15 minutes southeast of my brother Kevin (more towards the city). Kenny's commute will probably be about 20 minutes, maybe less. The development we're is only about 10% built, so the land will be appreciating. We'll have one of the cheaper houses on the block, which is nice for reselling. We won't be in Kevin's ward, but we will be in his stake. We're very near a shopping center, right on a main road, and there's a huge mega church across from us, so we know that that land nearby isn't going to be turned into a shopping mall anytime soon.
  
• It has a GIANT backyard. I mean, HUGE. We'll need to lay down sod in the backyard, but Lucy will have more room than she'll know what to do with. I'll get to go to town with landscaping and gardening (Already got myself a Texas Gardening book).
  
• There isn't a space in the house we can't think of a good use for. Most of the houses we saw had a dining room/parlor area that we just wouldn't use or have furniture for, or didn't have enough bedroom space, but this one is just right.
  
• We LOVE the kitchen. It will come with upgraded black dishwasher/stove to match our black/stainless steel fridge. The cupboards are the nice 42" ones. The sink has a drinking tap with purified water. The countertops are some nice near-granite stone. The breakfast nook will suit our table perfectly.
• The master bedroom itself was very big but nothing too notable. It is on the first story, so we'll be downstairs and the other bedrooms are up. Both of us will have our own large, walk-in closets.
  
• The master bathroom is, like all new Texas bathrooms, wonderful and big. I've got a huge giant bathtub with a separate shower, 2-sink vanity with a place to have a chair in front of the mirror... so fancy.
• It's boring, but the home is way energy efficient. We got the fancy appliances, the fancy insulation, the fancy A/C, the super sealant on the double-paned windows... all will definitely help keep utility costs down.
• It has 4 bedrooms- the master, two "unnotable" but big enough bedrooms upstairs, and one really big one upstairs. We're thinking the big upstairs one will be a nursery, one of the average rooms will be my office, and the other one will be the guest/random junk room.
• It has a good gas fireplace- not a gas log one, but one where we put in our own wood, which I prefer.
  
• As part of the move in, we got to choose between upgraded appliances/2-inch plantation blinds throughout/shudder on that front window vs. having sod in the backyard. We chose the first option and we'll take care of landscaping and sodding the backyard ourselves.
• The seller is helping pay the closing costs and set us up with their own lender. We're hoping to qualify for a good FHA loan.

So that's the general idea. Here's a link to the map of where we are. We are both so very happy and think this will be perfect for us. The closing date is December 20th but we probably won't move in until the 27th-29th.

Excitingly terrified

So, I'm realizing more and more that I'm terrified of all the exciting stuff coming up. Excited, but terrified.
We leave tomorrow to Houston for 3 days to find a house. In essence, we have two days- two whole days to find our first home, where we'll start raising a family. In a state we've only visited once. We're SO excited, but I'm feeling the pressure a bit too. We've just about lost patience with our current apartment, and as the winter comes I'm excited to escape the cold as much as possible. Lucy is excited to have a yard of her own so she never has to sit in her kennel for 9 hours again.
A lot of the homes we've been looking at online are great. Mostly 4 bedroom, 2 story, built in the last 5 years... for 120-140k!
Which raises the next thing I'm afraid of. We're using my stock options to help come up with money for the down payment. I vested (my options became available to me) on November 6th- the day the stock market took a turn for the worst. And, unfortunately, a 1% change in the market comes out to a 5 or 10% change in my company stock... and it went from 36 to 26 in about a week. It's gone back up a little, and it may go up more between now and Dec 15th when I go into a company blackout period (to prevent insider trading), but... I feel so unlucky! Had I vested and exercised my options just one day sooner... we'd have probably 6k more to work with! At the same time, I feel so blessed just to have the options and with how the timing worked out. Pray for the stock market for me (ironically, it's down because of the low housing problems right now).
I think my other big fear/excitement surrounds the baby, or rather, parenthood. Obviously, I'm thrilled we're having a baby. This has been the biggest thing for me to look forward to over the years. But yeah, it is a little scary. Aside from the fears about if the baby is healthy, if I can make it through labor, if I can keep a baby alive... the big picture of being a parent is so big I can't wrap my head around it. And the fact that Kenny and I both grew up seeing very different parenting styles (heck, between my two parents I saw totally opposite parenting styles) makes me curious to see how this will work out. I have no doubt he will be an amazing father.
So please, share in our excitement, but pray that we'll be able to make a good choice this weekend, and tackle everything coming up:)

So I think my blog needs more pictures

Blogs with pictures are the funnest, so I need to spice mine up a little more. Please note you can click on any of the images to see a bigger version. Here are some Halloween pics from the party at work:

Ten points to anyone who guesses what either of us are (it shouldn't be hard). Here's friend Jer, who won the $1000 grand prize for best costume, was Optimus Prime from Transformers. I thought it was pretty kickin:

The CEO, his wife, and the executive team dressed up as Prince Charming and Snow White, and hired 7 midgets for the day to be the 7 dwarves. Apparently each year the CEO figures out some way to incorporate midgets into his costume, to the point that the midget community looks forward to it and vies for the position each year.


Let's see... other good pics... well, I should post the pic of my ultrasound the other day, but I still haven't scanned it. Here's a pic of Kenny and I just before we went to a friends wedding the other day. Note that I still look completely unpregnant:

And here's a pic of a random cute baby beaver, who makes me happy:

Scary day with a happy surprise

First let me say this post may have a little too much info for those who don't know me well or just don't want to hear about such things. I'll try to keep it as ick-free as possible.
So, we had a scare this weekend. I had my first real appointment with my midwife last friday and they did typical poking around in awkward places. They warned me there may be some spotting, and there was on Friday/Saturday, but nothing notable.
Then Sunday night, it got a little worse. Monday morning, it was REALLY bad. So I called them and got an appointment for an Ultrasound, but the earliest they could do it was 3 pm. So all day I was at work, trying to not think about all those late miscarriage stories I'd heard. Yesterday was my 12 week mark, which is in theory the "safe" mark (chances of miscarriage drop to like 3% or something). I didn't have any cramping or something, which was some consolation.
And, of course, Kenny forgot his cell phone yesterday. So I had to email him updates.
So, 3 o'clock rolls around, I ditch my clients, and go for an ultrasound by myself since Kenny had class. The last ultrasound (at 9 weeks) was such a quick thing, and the baby didn't look like a baby at all. This time, I got about 15 minutes worth of looking at a perfect little human from every angle. She (and I will call her "she" for the sake of ease of communication) was all stretched out, as if on a hammock. She had arms, legs, a little pot belly... I think she even sucked her thumb at some point. The midwife said it was one of the best 12 week ultrasounds she had seen- usually the babies are all scrunched up, but mine was putting on a show. Everything looked 100% ok.
And then the technician did something strange. She said "would you like to guess the gender?" "Um, sure. I think it's a girl."
Then she said "well, it's obviously too soon to be sure, but I think you're right. Look at this". And she showed me in the baby's genital region 3 little white lines. She said those white lines are what they look for to tell if it's a girl. She hadn't ever seen them so early, but they were pretty clear. She said obviously don't go buying girl clothes yet, but she's 80% sure this ones a girl. I'm gonna try and not get my hopes up, but since I already thought it was a girl... it's gonna be hard to not permanently think of this baby as a girl. Only 7-8 weeks and we can know for sure.
The midwife has no idea why I was spotting so bad, but it stopped yesterday. She put me on "pelvic rest" for 2 weeks and told me to take it easy for the next few days, so today I stayed home from work (or rather, I stayed at Lori's home, since my internet doesn't work and there's some odd smell wafting from our landlady's half of the house). I'd love to post a pic of the ultrasound, it really was incredible, but got to wait til my internet at home gets working. Anyways, thanks for your prayers, I think everything will be ok and I'm feeling great about this pregnancy.

This week in our lfie

Today we got to hear the baby's heartbeat again- a healthy 170 beats per minute! No pics this time, as we didn't get an ultrasound- just some uncomfortable prodding for me.
I'm still down about 13 pounds, but my appetite is pretty much back as of last week. I probably look less pregnant now than I did when I started, but I can notice a difference below my belly button. The baby is about 2 inches long right now, can wiggle and flex his hands, and has a less alien look these days.
Aside from the pregnancy, we got a lot going on. Halloween was awesome. My office went all out. Honestly, if you told me my company spent 20k on halloween decorations, I wouldn't be surprised inth e least. Each department had something big going on. I hear marketing even had a petting zoo. Not an ounce of work was done the whole day (except for me, a client exploded in the morning) and everyone brought their families for the party all afternoon. I dressed up as the witch from Monty Python's holy grail. For those who hadn't seen the movie, I was just frumpy looking. But about 10 people got it without prompting, which made me happy. Kenny came in the afternoon with a great Dr. Mario costume.
Poor Kenny. This is going to be an awful 6 week block for him. He's on campus from 8 am to 4 most days, then has to squish in 20 hours of work each week, working around evening classes and other obligations. He's definitely showing the wear. He doesn't complain and just keeps chugging along, but I feel awful for him. I wish there was more I can do to relieve his stress. Fortunately, it's only for another month or so, then we're done! In a little less than two weeks we take a whirlwind trip to find our house in Houston. We're so excited!
Anyways, there's the recap.