Stubborness

These past few days have been all about stubbornness in one way or another. . .

First, Joe started school last Monday (I think I probably mentioned that at least a dozen times...sorry). He's been totally buried since the first day, and stubbornly refuses to give up or stop working for just about anything not church-related (just so you know, his fantasy football team counts as church related, since it's sponsored by the ward elder's quorum). Not that this is a bad thing necessarily, it's just that Karen and I haven't seen much of him the last couple of weeks. However since a couple of people have dropped out of his program in the last month the professors are going a bit easier right now trying to keep the rest of their students from looking for greener pastures.

Second, I think Karen may be starting her 'terrible two's' a little early. She does many of the cognitive things that 18-24 month old kids do, so maybe she's starting that a bit early. Whatever it is, my Karen now stubbornly insits on being allowed to walk just about everywhere we go. If she has to ride in the stroller she throws a bit of a fit trying to get out...which is generally unsuccessful but still annoying. She also makes a mess of everything she possibly can. Yesterday for example, I was doing something on the computer, and she came to the desk where I was sitting and proceeded to take out and hand me every single thing that was in the drawer-from a case of pencils on down to loose paper clips, a couple of marbles, and a broken rubber band. I was not allowed to put any of the junk down without her turning red in the face and screaming at me like I was killing her or something. This is just one of many examples that we have daily now...but she's still so cute it's hard to be angry with her for more than a couple seconds.

The next example of stubbornness comes from someone who isn't even born yet. This morning we had our ultrasound to see 'everything' about the baby and make sure it's not defective in any way... The only problem is that this requires some assistance from the baby itself. We went in this morning and got some of the important measurements done, saw the baby wave it's arms, but it wouldn't turn over or anything. So the lady told me to empty my bladder to see if that would help encourage the tyke to move more... I did, but it didn't help and afterwards it was even more difficult to see the kid. In the hopes of getting a 'better angle' on the subject the mean and evil lady used the transvaginal probe. (If you don't know what that is I'm not telling you, but it wasn't a fun experience.) This didn't help. We couldn't get the baby to move more than it's head and arms, it was sitting cross-legged in the breach position tapping its toes on my bladder. After half an hour of poking my poor tummy, the lady gave up and we have no idea what kind of child we're having because the silly stubborn kid wouldn't budge for anything. We didn't even get very good pictures, so I'm not too worried about not having a scanner to put them up here.

I guess the only person in this Allen family who isn't at all stubborn is me-and if you say otherwise I'll fight you ;)

ho hum...

You know, it feels like I haven't really done anything since we got back from vacation almost 2 weeks ago now. It seems like I do almost exactly the same thing every day, like a hamster in a cage or something. Then I realize, wait I have done some things. Here are a few of the things I remember doing:

Going to church (twice) and wishing Karen was old enough for nursery.

Having dinner with Doren and Steve and Justin and Kitara at least twice-once at Doren's playing games, once at Kitara's for HS Musical extravaganza. It's fun to get together with them, but we always leave early because Karen has to go to bed. (If we stay past 8pm she walks to the door, starts knocking, and saying 'bye bye').

Going to the International Dinner (a monthly activity put on by a different family each month, $12 per couple) this month was the fish fry, southern style. It was good, but I'm not much for the fish...

Last sunday night went to Joe's professor's house for beginning-of-school party. Had a good time, started a Karaoke fest, took potato salad that no one ate but me and Joe (their loss...)

Went to the doctor, regular checkup and bloodwork, with no passing out this time Hooray!!! Also did terrible test involving urine...test is for pre-eclampsia which I think I had with Karen and am starting to have again...I just hope I don't have to do bed rest again!

Lots of laundry and cleaning...before/between vacations I slacked on cleaning everything that didn't start to smell after a couple of days... Needless to say I've had a lot to catch up on the past week or two.

Well...when I put it that way I guess I have done quite a few things recently. However, in the glory of doing dishes and laundry the fun stuff seems to fade into the background. Maybe that's why people keep journals-to remind them of all the cool stuff they did 'back in the day', whether 'the day' was 10 years ago or just yesterday. That's my thought for the day...whatever it is, I hope it makes sense to someone!!!

*by the way, was that HS reunion like this week or something-not that I can/could have gone...?

Vacation part II: Washington DC

Okay, sorry it's taken me so long to get to writing this next part of our vacation...it was a long week involving a trip to the doctor (scheduled) as well as a test I hope none of you ever have to do when you're pregnant (it involves a very large urine sample...that's all I'll say). Just as a disclaimer for this part of our vacation, as to the number, etc. of things that we did... remember that I'm a grumpy pregnant lady with a 1 yr. old, and the days we were in the DC area it was over 100 degrees, without factoring in humidity.

So...where are we...Oh yes. I left off at the end of Monday....Okay. Tuesday morning we got up and checked out of our really nice downtown hotel. We drove through part of Philly to the bridge we were taking into New Jersey. It was a different way than we came, and I got another new state (I think that was one of the best things from this vacation- I got to see 4 'new' states and the district of Columbia). We stopped in NJ for gas and realized that Oregon isn't the only crazy place where you can't pump your own gas-NJ has the same silly rule. But we didn't complain since the price was still cheaper than we pay here in Charlotte. One interesting thing about driving on the east coast is how many states you can go through in a short amount of time. Out west it's hard to be in more than one or two states in a day (driving), but we were in 4 states in less than 2 hours that morning. (PA, NJ, DE, MD), and we added VA just a couple hours later.

We did stop in Maryland to see the DC temple. It was hot, so mostly we saw it from the visitor's center. Oh, one funny thing about going into a visitor's center not in Utah or at church history sites: you get accosted by sister missionaries the second you walk in the door, but as soon as they find out you're originally from Utah they don't even talk to you anymore. Interesting, really. The rest of Tuesday we didn't really do anything. I took a nap, so did Karen. Joe watched ESPN (so did I).

Wednesday morning we got up bright and early, loaded the stroller, water cooler, food cooler, and diaper bag...and some other stuff...into our car, drove to the metro station (we stayed in Fairfax, out of DC a ways) and after some difficulty and nasty looks from commuters, got on the train to the national mall. By the time we got to the mall at 9:30 it was already at least 80 degrees. Since it was going to get way hotter as the day went on we decided to see as many of the monuments/memorials as we could before it got too hot to be outside anymore. So, here is a list of the things we saw in the morning (some pics at the bottom): Washington Monument (outside only-no strollers inside), WWII memorial, Lincoln memorial, Korea memorial, Vietnam memorial. I think that was all... After that we stopped at a shady bench to eat the lunch we brought, then headed for shade.

At this time (around noon) I was definitely starting to overheat, and I had already almost finished off our cooler full of water...being pregnant on this type of trip isn't very fun, just to let you know. Anyway, we started making our way from the area around the Vietnam memorial to the Smithsonian (yes, AC!!!), and I nearly passed out a couple of times. We wanted to go (well, I wanted to go..) to the museum of American history...but it was closed for rennovation! Yes, so if you want to see it go after next summer. We went to the natural history museum instead. It was really cool (in multiple senses of the word). They had a discovery room where we could let Karen touch lots of different things. She really liked holding skulls...what does that say about her future? There was also an exhibit on Korea that we really liked. Of course the dinosaurs were really cool too...yeah it was fun. The only bad part was that everyone else who had been outside in the morning was now packed into the same building we were (at least that's what it felt like; there was hardly room to move the stroller...). After natural history we went over to the air and space museum to see some things...and find Joe a McDonald's because the lunch wasn't enough for him. After this we went to the national Archives and saw the DofI, Constitution, bill of rights, etc. It was really cool and would have been great if Karen hadn't thrown a fit while we were trying to look at them. She just wanted to walk!! So, after that ordeal we decided to try out an art museum. The only art museum I've ever been to is the MOA at BYU, so I thought it would be interesting to see a 'real' art museum...however, we didn't watch the time well enough. Everything there closes at 5pm-silly government buildings!-so we couldn't do that. So, we thought we'd go to dinner somewhere...but we didn't know where to go. We were tired...so by 5:30 we were back on the metro heading for our hotel and the suburbs where we knew where to find food. We ended up at IHOP for dinner, and I don't think pancakes have ever tasted so good. We went back to the hotel, put Karen in bed, took showers, and I fell asleep watching ESPN (baseball is so boring on TV).

The next morning we got up and drove home. We were tired, we wanted to be home, and we didn't want to be in the heat anymore. So, yes I went to DC, but there was SOOOOOO much that we didn't get to see. We decided that next time we go there it will be either spring or fall (not so hot) and we don't want to take strollers. In the post-9/11 security world, it's no fun to have to take lots of different bags and strollers places because they have to be searched every time you go into a building or near a monument...just a note. In all it was a really fun trip (even if this post doesn't sound that way-it's almost my nap time) and I would love to do it again-in a few years. It was great to go and see lots of new things, and it was also great to come home at the end.

To Philly Cheesesteak...or not?

The answer to this question is one I'd never thought much about until about a week ago. Supposedly you have to go to Philadelphia to get a good one, and that never seemed very likely to happen to me. Then last week I went with Joe to his conference (Academy of Management), and it just happened to be in Philadelphia. The trip was good, it was fun to drive all the way up there past some big cities and all that. Before we left my brother Joseph said to be sure to get one of these famous sandwiches, and I said 'okay, sure, whatever'. Then last Monday we were at the Reading Terminal Market for lunch. (If you've seen National Treasure, it's the place where the chick and the nerdy guy hide from the bad guys. H0wever, it's about 12 blocks from Independence Hall, so I'm not sure they would have actually run there to hide; it was good in the movie though....anyway). It's this really cool place-kinda like a food court but like 10 times bigger with any type of food you can think of. When we went there for lunch, I looked around to see 'what was good', and ended up at the salad bar. Joe got the cheesesteak. Not that it looked bad to me so I got salad...I think there's some wierd part of my pregnant mind that craves salad. Almost every time we go out to eat now I want salad, instead of a yummy burger and fries, steak, or just about anything else.

Well, enough of that. The rest of the time in Philadelphia was good. We stayed in the Courtyard Marriot because that's where the conference was, not because we enjoy spending hundreds of $ on hotel rooms. It was right downtown across the street from the courthouse, which was closed for rennovations, and the Masonic temple which I couldn't go in because I'm a girl and therefore cannot be a Mason. The architecture outside was cool though...So, downtown...oh yeah, it was about 6 blocks from the historical 'mall' (I think that's a funny word for it, but that's not my business really...) with Independence Hall and the Ben Franklin home and such. So, while Joe went to the conference Karen and I went there and saw all the cool history things. One note to all of you who are thinking of traveling to this area soon: This is not a very stroller-friendly place. Karen was fiesty and I couldn't let her walk around by herself because she was trying to run away and find either daddy or home (depending on the minute). So, on the tour of the Hall she was in the stroller. I had the privelege (along with some kind French guy who didn't speak English) of carrying the kid in the stroller up the big staircase to the second floor and back down again. I don't suggest it for anyone. Other than that we had a pretty good time going to the museums and historical places. Karen got bored and fell asleep in the stroller (note picture of her sleeping in front of the Liberty bell).

This was just the first half of our vacation, I'll put the DC part up later because urgent things like food and naptime are calling to me now.