Rest in Peace

I just found out President Hinckley, beloved prophet of the Mormon Church, passed away. He was 97. He was surrounded by family, and greeted on the other side by his wife. I feel like I just lost a best friend. He was such a warm, loving man, and millions mourn his passing.

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day...
2nd Timothy 4, verses 6 through 8

Finally showing!

So, I think I've finally made enough belly progress it's worth showing pics. Here we go with the 24 week pics:

Click on either pic if you want to go to the web album, which features a bare-belly shot, as well as previous belly pics for comparison.

24 weeks! Crazy. So far my only complaints are heartburn and the constant need to go to the restroom. I'm beginning to get tired all the time again, but that might just be me. Our son (I love saying that) kicks like crazy all the time now, even hard enough that Kenny can feel it when we cuddle. Last night we were snuggling, me laying on my side, him on his back, with my tummy up against his side... and he kept flicking at his stomach. I asked:
"Got an itch, hon?"
"No, I think there's a spider or something"
"Are you sure that isn't your son kicking your side through my tummy?"
... silence...
"Oh hey! That's pretty cool!"

Kenny is currently upstairs working out. And, by working out, I mean playing Dance Dance Revolution. It's like aerobics for nerds. Unfortunately, I'm not even coordinated enough for nerd aerobics:).

Well, we may have given up our elaborate dreams of a Mario-themed room (think something like this). I'm just not the artistic type of person who can pull something like that off. That, and we found the cutest nursery set ever:
So we're teetering between the two options right now.
Oh, and thanks, everyone for all the name suggestions! Gave us a lot more to work with. Like I said, we probably won't settle on a single name until we actually meet the little guy, but the ideas definitely help.

A day at the zoo (or in the car)

First, let me say Kenny and I got our callings- Sunday School teachers for the youth. We're way excited. We're team teaching, though not together- Kenny is with another fellow with the 12 year olds, and I'm working with another lady with the 14 year olds. It's weird, but I think the idea was for Kenny and I to get to know other people in the ward, which is appreciated.
Second, my dear aunt lori, who I adore, has started an online business with the best little sock toys. Check it out: they're way fun and cute and quirky, and I'm way proud of her.

We had an interesting weekend. Friday night, we sat and stared at each other. Apparently we need some friends in the Houston area. We ended up watching Return of the King together for the first time since our first date. It was fun enough. Sunday night, I came up with the idea of going to the zoo on Monday (which we both had off). We love zoos, and I had heard Houston had a decent one. I looked at their website and it turned out Monday was a "free zoo day"... delightful! Saved us 20 bucks in the end.The weather was drizzly, so we figured the crowds wouldn't' be too bad.
So we got some google directions, hopped in the car, and took off for the zoo in the middle of the city. We left the GPS and my city map at home, only thinking of them as an afterthought. I'm very proud of my sense of direction so I didn't worry about it.
Well, google lied to us. They sent us to the wrong Wayside drive, apparently. So we got a little lost. We got back on the freeway and drove around til we saw zoo signs, and it was easy enough from there. Only a half hour or so was lost, and we both had a good sense of humor about it.
The zoo was fun. I'd put it somewhere above Hogle Zoo and below the Portland Zoo. It wasn't too crowded and Kenny loved the squirrels that were everywhere (leave it to Kenny to choose squirrels as the wonderful animal to see at the zoo). I even brought the camera, but it was to rainy for any good shots.
After a couple hours there, we had seen everything and were quite content, so we hopped back in the car. Unfortunately, the way we came had been blocked by construction. I tell Kenny "no worries, turn right here, I can still get us back on the freeway"... and I did, just not a direct route at all. About 30 minutes or so heading east then back west to get back on track (fortunately my husband has no problems asking for directions at a gas station). We get on the freeway to go home, and miss our exit. Apparently the exit has a different name coming from the south than it does coming from the north. So we get off at the next exit... I know the general direction we need to get home from there was SW, so we go exploring that way. Turns out that the exit we had gotten off on doesn't believe in through streets. So we go in circles.
To make an already long and boring story shorter, we spent 3 hours int he car and 2 hours at the zoo. By the time we got home, we were both in bad moods. I went straight to my book and Kenny went to video games and we didn't talk for a few hours, knowing full well neither of us was mad, just not in a mood to be nice to each other.

We are definitely so happy with our new house and new ward, but there are definitely some things about moving that we need to get used to. for me, it kills me not knowing my way around perfectly. Apparently having a good sense of direction counts for nothing if the roads don't connect the right way. Kenny is permanently pretty lost- it'll be a while before he's comfortable exploring on his own. So he's the driver and I'm the navigator, and I get upset with myself if I don't fulfill my role well.
I also don't know what to do about meeting people. I've always had built in friends- either school or church or roommates- where do Mormons meet friends outside of church? Church is great but not overflowing with young couples wanting to hang out, that we've met so far at least. We can't really go chill at bars or something, and Kenny's coworkers are hardly the board games and video games type. Any ideas?

Oh, and so I can pretend my blog is more interesting, here's a random pic. This is exactly what I imagine our son will look like (Kenny as a little boy):

He's so cute

I forgot to post this yesterday, so I missed a day (I was trying to post once a day this week to make up for my bad blogging of the last few monhts). Oops. This counts for yesterday then:
We haven't finished unpacking the office yet, so there are books and boxes all over the floor. Lucy keeps me company throughout the day, usually sleeping on my feet, or, in the afternoon, in the spot of sun on the floor from the window.
Kenny's school had some testing today so school got out early. He came up to the office, saw the puppy sleeping and said "I wish I could sleep in a sunspot on the carpet like that like that". I go back to work, and the next time I turn around, I see this:

He actually fell asleep like that, right behind my office chair, in under 3 minutes while I was working. He didn't even wake up when I tripped on him trying to get to the camera. It made me want to curl up with the two of them as well. I think half the pictures I've taken of Kenny in the last year have been of him sleeping in cute places with the puppy.

Names

Alright, everyone... time for name suggestions. Our current winners are (in no particular order):
-Amos (if we can get past the anus thing, this one would win)
-Milo (I love it for a kid, but I have problems picturing a future CEO named Milo)
-Elijah (kind of trendy right now, especially among the mormons)
-Caleb (not that original, and Kenny is merely "ok" with it, but it's been a favorite of mine for a long time, it was a cool OT prophet and it has a cool meaning in hebrew and arabic)

Unfortunately, most of my male heroes have lame names. Victor or Hugo, Jean or Marius, John or Ronald or Reuel, Clive Staples, Antoine (as in st. exupery), Alexandre (as in Dumas), Mario, Luigi, Brom, Larry (after my dad of course)... yeah, no luck. All kind of lame for a little boy (no offense, dad). Dylan would be great, but my sister Becky claimed that one and it fits her son quite well.

The things we're looking for are: original (as a Jennifer, I'm deadset on having a child who shares his name with at least 4 kids in every class), more than one syllable (since we have a monosyllabic last name), not trendy (Aiden, Caden, Jaden, Carter, Conner... all good names, but it's been done), can't end in "k" (Jack Kunz sounds too much like racoons), not the name of an ex-boyfriend (Jake and Ryan are right out), and ideally, it would have some fun meaning behind it (as much as I love being named after Arthur's adulterous wife). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, though please be understanding if one or the other of us vetoes it (we've gotten used to shooting down each other's ideas). I doubt we'll really decide for sure until the baby comes (only 4 months!), since there hasn't been a strong enough front runner yet.

Texas and the puppy

First, let me say I adore my puppy. I honestly think she is a wonderful dog and very much like a first child to us. It did my heart so much good to see her run and play int he backyard when we moved here- she hasn't ever been able to play like that. She loves just running in circles in the backyard. She keeps me company each day as a I work, starting the morning by sitting on my feet til they are warmed up, then moving to a sunny spot in my room and napping, moving every 15 minutes or so to keep up with the sun. Here is my desk- note the puppy curled up on the floor:

But the last few weeks have not been kind to her. First, there was the adventure of last week- I was in my office watching her from my window, running in circles and playing with invisible tennis balls or something. My office window only covers about half of the backyard, but she makes such big circles that she comes and goes from my view pretty regularly. And then, once, I looked out the window and... no puppy! I go downstairs and look outside... still no puppy. I go outside and look under/behind everything... still no puppy. Just a gaping obvious hole under our fence we hadn't noticed before (Lucy didn't dig it, we're just dumb and didn't check the perimeter of our fence for such things).
Now, I've lost dogs before. With Chester, the dog of my youth, it was seemingly a weekly occurrence. Chester, however, was a street-wise dog and knew that cars are not our friends. Lucy, however, just sees something big and fast to play with. We live next to a very busy street, and that's exactly where the hole was facing.
I immediately broke down and freaked out. I said a quick prayer and ran outside (fortunately this was not one of the days I decided to work in my bathrobe all day). I couldn't see her or hear her, but after a few minutes a car with a nice lady pulled over and asked if I was looking for a beagle. The lady had seen Lucy get out and run into the street, where apparently a large truck missed her by only a foot or so. The truck honked and scared Lucy into the other lane of traffic, where she had a few more close calls before running back into our subdivision. The woman pointed me a block over in the subdivision where Lucy was. I called her and she came quite quickly. She acted as if she knew she was in trouble but I didn't have the heart to punish her, I was just so glad she was alive! And it wasn't her fault- she didn't even dig the hole, she just wiggled through it. She doesn't know yet what fences are for.
The lady was nearly in tears, telling me over and over how lucky we were and how we nearly lost our dog forever.
Aside from that adventure, Lucy has had another struggle. Our dog, the most gentle and unintimidating dog ever, has taken to barking and growling at strangers. Mind you, Lucy does not bite- not even while playing, if you stick your hand it her mouth. You can poke your fingers in her food while she's eating and she still won't bite. But ever since we moved, she has become territorial of our house and barks and growls and bears her teeth at strangers. I hate it! I can't tell the people she's really a nice dog and won't bite- who'd believe it? The most I can do is punish her, and she's definitely been getting a lot of that lately. She flinches a lot now when we look at her the wrong way, because she's been in trouble so much lately. She's also had an upset stomach the whole time we've been here, though thankfully she waits til we take her outside.
And she really is so well trained! Go, stay, come, no bite, stand, attack mom, attack dad, wait, leave it, shake, up, down... she's got it all down. What can we do to show our new friends what a great dog she is? How could you not love this:

It's a ....

BOY! That's right... a very pleasant surprise for us. I'm glad now we didn't fully trust in the 12 week ultrasound, since our son made it very plain this time around that he is, indeed, a son.
I'll admit, I was secretly hoping this would happen. OK, not even so secretly. But I didn't want to let on just how much I really thought it would be great to have this first one be a boy.
Kenny, of course, is thrilled. Though we both would have been 100% happy either way, I think he too had been trying to hide just how much he wanted a boy, so this is great.
Now the problem is coming up with a name. We had some great girl ones picked out but have yet to come up with a boy one we both like, not for a lack of trying. The front runner was Amos, until Lori pointed out that sounds like Anus. There are some that one of us likes and the other is "ok" with- Joshua, Caleb, Christian... Then there are some more unique ones that we would love if we didn't already realize the poor child is predisposed to be a nerd, given his parentage on both sides- names like Roland and Leif. Unfortunately no family names stand out- Chauncey and Cyril are right out (sorry ancestors) and I'm pretty sure my dad forbade us from using Larry. Kenny was named after his grandpa, and we like that name, but I don't think we could do a "Junior". Maybe as a middle name.
So yeah, any suggestions you have for unique-but-not-weird names would be greatly appreciated.
The other happy news is that this will make nursery decorating so much easier. We decided it would be fun to do a mario themed nursery (see this site for an idea, though we'd baby it up a little). We chose it not just because we are video game nerds, but it'll work well- lots of solid bright colors, smiling clouds, smiling hills... and it will be easy enough to do gender-neutral for future children.
Anyways,t here's the news. We didn't get a video of it, but that's OK... I don't know if we'd ever rewatch it. We do have some wonderful pictures and are currently in the market for a scanner so I can post those soon. We're oh-so-happy with our son!

The bad blogger

So I know everyone is awaiting pics and news, and I have no excuse... we've had internet for over a week now. I'm going to try to post every day this week and hopefully feel a bit more caught up.
Things are great! Honestly, we are just so happy in our new place. Here's a recap:
Kenny started student teaching last Monday. It is a rough school district but we knew that coming into this. Fortunately, Kenny got assigned to a "magnet school"- the kids (or their parents) have to apply to get in, so the fact they are there at least some one is caring about these kids schooling. The school is about 97% minorities, but Kenny says "they're just kids, like anywhere else". Kids with mesh backpacks and metal detectors. We really lucked out and Kenny's mentoring teacher, Mr. Gore, set Kenny up to be an after-school tutor 8 hours a week for 25 dollars an hour- which is perfect! We knew Kenny would need/want a part time job when we got here and couldn't think of where a nearly-graduated math major could work. And it gives him plenty of time at home with me.
I'm doing well. I'm convinced more and more everyday that I'm just one lucky girl- this pregnancy has been a breeze so far. Working remotely isn't as bad as I thought it would be- generally I'm not too lonely and I've actually been more productive than I was at the office. Lucy keeps me company all day and has adjusted well to our new home, other than her need to growl at new folks coming to our house. Anyone who's met our puppy knows she is very gentle and hardly intimidating, so I don't know who she thinks she is fooling. She had an adventure the other day, having to do with a hole in our fence, but I'll save that for another post.
I don't have pictures of the house yet, though we are getting there. We're 90% unpacked and I did finally find the camera. I'd post my most recent belly pics but they look no different from the last ones. I do at last have an appetite and am eating as much as a pregnant woman should. I'm almost back up to the weight I was when I started.
Tomorrow we meet the baby! We have our ultrasound at 2 o'clock and get to find out the gender. We're VERY excited. Honestly, I don't think I could say if I have a preference for a boy vs. a girl- both have advantages and disadvantages... I just want to know!
Check back tomorrow for another post!