What is it?

It seems like every time you announce that you have something new, or are going to be getting something new, every person you tell wants to know all about it. You mention in passing "we're thinking about getting a new car-maybe a minivan" and all of a sudden there are swarms of people around you, asking what kind, when is it coming, what color do you want, will you get the cool roll-down back windows...and on and on. Then if you go to a dealership to actually test-drive or try to buy any kind of said minivan, the sales person automatically assumes that you 'need' the most expensive one on the lot and won't show you anything else. (and then when you say you won't buy said expensive vehicle, they get extremely angry.) If you can't tell, we did have an experience like this a couple weeks ago at a Honda dealership. While we liked the all-leather, rolling windows, and all the other neat features, we didn't want the 7-year loan they were trying to force on us, or the $400/month car payment ("I'm sure there's enough wiggle-room in your budget for this kind of payment") for a 2-yr-old Odyssey that didn't actually drive that well. The sales guy started yelling at us when we said no politely. So we said it again, a little less politely. He got so mad that he kinda stormed off and his boss came and tried to get us to buy it. We were getting angry and Karen was a pill, but we tried to be polite as the next guy started yelling at us to buy the dang van. We still haven't picked up a second vehicle...but when we do it won't be from that place.

Another time people ask 'what is it?' is when you're carrying a shopping bag. It might have dirty dishtowels in it, but people still have to ask. Our friend and Home Teacher Justin went to BYU on a recruiting trip for work a couple weeks ago. He bought us a couple of 'fully invested' shirts, so we can fit in with the home crowd even though we're 2000 miles from 'home'. Well, he gave them to me in a BYU Bookstore bag in the middle of church, which was just fine with me. I pulled one out to look at it up close (which is different from staring at it on a computer screen, let me tell you), and right after I put it away several BYU alumni saw the bag and came running (okay, not quite) to ask, what's in the bag.

The last and sometimes most annoying time that you are always being asked 'what is it?' is when you announce a pregnancy. As soon as someone knows you're expecting, the first words out of their mouth are "what is it?" For those of us who have uncooperative children from conception onward, it can be a difficult question to answer. You may have two or three ultrasounds before you can actually tell what gender the child is. For my first 20 weeks this time, and nearly 35 weeks with Karen, the answer to 'what is it' was 'a child'. Not knowing the gender of your child-to-be can be really annoying, especially the farther along you get, and most people don't consider that if you knew the gender you would tell it when you tell them you're expecting. However, I don't have to answer 'a child' to this question anymore (at least in this pregnancy). Yesterday at the doctor we got the results from our ultrasound, which also stated the gender was still unknown. So, the nice doctor asked if we would like to wait a couple minutes and see if we could tell the gender. Of course we did, and it took all of about 10 seconds with the machine to be able to tell... that this baby is definitely a girl. She's a lot bigger than she was at the last ultrasound, too. So, now when people ask 'what is it', I can say 'it's Rachel Kay Allen' instead of just 'a child'. Yes, we already decided on the name over a month ago. Sorry to all the other Rachels out there, but my baby Rachel is the cutest one ever-and she's not even born yet.

How do you know?

That's a question I find myself asking a lot lately. How do you know what you're supposed to feed your kid? How do you know when to feed them? How do you know how much to feed them? How do you know when bedtime is? How do you know when you should potty train? How do you know when you should punish or not? How do you know when you should change from a crib to a bed? How do you know when they're ready to play at the park? How do you know which diapers are better? How do you know when all the sales are so you can get cheap clothes? How do you know if the kid is ready for nursery? The list of questions sometimes seems endless. And the answer seems to be nearly the same for every question, and it comes in two parts. You either get a) 'Every child is different, so you never really know,' b) 'She'll tell you when she's ready', or c) 'All you can do is try different things until you figure it out.' So, this last week or so we've been trying different things with Karen to see if we can figure out if what we're doing is the best or if there is a 'better' way. Here are a few examples:

We have lots of books in our apartment, 3 bookcases full, and one about halfway there (mostly with Karen's books on it). Karen knows that pulling mom and dad's books off the shelf is bad, but it usually gets her some attention. So, whenever I get busy with something (playing the piano, doing the dishes, taking a shower...) she would pull the books off the shelf so I would notice her. Redirecting her attention had worked, but it wasn't cutting it any more. So I decided that every time she pulled a book off the shelf she would have time out in her crib, since there is nothing to play with in there. I started this on Thursday last week, and it was a horrible day. Karen was in time out at least 6 or 7 times (for about 2 minutes each time). I didn't think I could keep doing this, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it for a couple more days. Friday we only did time out 4 times, and she has not been in time out at all since Sunday morning. It's been nice not to have to pick up books all day long. I guess in that case it was okay to punish, and be really consistent about it.

Another thing we've been working on is changing to a 'big' (twin size) bed from the crib. We only have the top bunk of our bunk beds set up, with rails to keep her from falling but a space where she can get out. At first I only put her there when she was already asleep (usually around lunch/nap time when we were somewhere in the car for too long). One afternoon I put her down and she just got out of bed and tried to sneak to her toys...So she went in her crib. Last night we put her down for the night fully concious in the big bed. She went to sleep! It was amazing! However we went to check on her before we went to bed and she was sitting up, aware that this was not her normal bed. So, we put her back in the crib...but I still see it as a triumph. She lasted almost 4 hours. Maybe by the time we have this next kid she'll be able to go the whole night!?

As a last example, we've been getting ready to go into nursery. Karen is now a very large 16 months old, but has recently been dealing with a bit of separation anxiety. She wants to play with the other little kids, but she wants mommy to be right there the whole time. I've tried leaving her in different nursery classes (like for Enrichment night, etc.) but it hasn't worked out... until this morning. Tuesday mornings I have my 'Let's talk about it' class at the church, where moms come and talk about stuff; anything from laundry and shoe issues to who wears the pants in the family and is that how it should be. Today, for the first time ever Karen went into the nursery and started playing with the toys. I told the lady watching the kids that I'd take her if she had any problems because she's not used to it. But she was just fine. After an hour and a half she came walking down the hall holding hands with the other kids, having a grand old time and didn't even notice me until I called her name. It was a great feeling.

Well, it seems like I've figured out the answers to a couple of questions, at least for now. If you want, I can give you the answers. They're at the end of the first paragraph. If I ever find any better answers, I'll let you know. Here are some other 'firsts' that Karen's had the last month or so.

Karen's first time at the playground; she's much more self-sufficient there now; we just have to make sure she doesn't slide head-first.

the first day as a superhero; Super Karen is wearing the oh-so-stylin dish towel, and reading the Book of Mormon. I'm making her a cape as part of a Halloween costume...

Karen's first time putting olives on all her fingers; when I started taking the picture they were all on, but they didn't last.

The rest of the story

Well, since the last time I wrote, things have been really crazy. I had talked to Jamie just before writing that blog and she seemed happy and confident that John would pull through. However, he took a serious turn for the worse that afternoon and died about 6:30 that evening. I think I was one of the first people to hear about it, and it was a big shock. Imagine us sitting down to dinner and praying for John's recovery, only to get a call five minutes later that he had died. I think I've cried more in the past couple of days than I have in a long time. Maybe that means my cry-quota has been filled and I won't have to do it anymore for a while, but with the funeral tomorrow I doubt that will happen. I'll be in the kitchen helping with the dinner tomorrow, which means I'll be around the funeral-stuff from around 10 am till after we clean up the dinner, whenever that is.

On a much lighter but still frustrating note, I was going to write about the other things that have been happening the last week or so. Last Friday was a rainy day; it rained outside, and it also rained inside. You might ask yourself how it could possibly rain in our apartment when we live on the first floor? The answer is that the connection between the water pipe and the hot water heater on the second floor burst at about 9:30 in the morning. All the water from the tank and more water from the pipe came down into our apartment, specifically Karen's room (closet actually) and the front bathroom, with some spillage in the 'hallway' between the kitchen and living room. Water came through the heater-vents, the bathroom exhaust fan, and the walls. Luckily it was during the office hours and the maintenance guys got here quick to help me move our stuff out of the way. Most of the stuff in the closet was in plastic tubs-the stuff that we don't have room for in our apartment, Karen's too-small clothes, and stuff like that. Most of the furniture had no problems or only slight water damage on the bottom where the water tried to get at it. They had a carpet guy come in and take out the soaking-wet pad under the carpet and bring in a giant fan to dry out the floor/carpet.

Saturday we worked on getting the carpets dry and monitoring the water spots that appeared in the ceiling.

Sunday we got up and went to church. When we got home, we noticed that the ceiling in Karen's room was sagging more than it had been, right near the water spots. We called our home teacher to help us move all the stuff that was still in the room in case the ceiling fell or something. During the night it did start to drip-noisily.

Monday they said a guy was going to come and open a hole in the ceiling to make sure it was getting dry in there. It wasn't dripping as much as it had been, but the nasty wet smell when they opened it up said there was or had been quite a bit of water up there. It was also worrysome that he cut through the sheetrock like it was butter. Note: at this point we have Karen's crib, bunkbeds, and lots of other 'junk' just sitting around our living room, leaving us almost no room to 'live' in, since it was still wet feeling/smelling in Karen's room.

Tuesday they checked on the hole, made it a little bigger, and that was it. Wednesday they patched the hole. To do this took an interesting process, since the rest of the ceiling around the hole is sagging quite severely. First, they put in some shims (little wooden wedges usually used for things like getting doorframes or other construction works up just a bit if the floor isn't exactly level.) to bring the level of the ceiling there a little lower. Then they screwed the piece of sheetrock into the pile of shims. After that it still wasn't quite low enough, so they put a very thick layer of 'mud' on it to make it more or less level with the rest of the ceiling. They're going to have someone come next week to make it more invisible by putting the 'popcorn' looking stuff on it and then paint that little portion of ceiling.

Thursday they came back to inspect their very poor handywork. They said it was 'fixed' and we should move all the stuff back into the bedroom; the guy will put cloths or plastic down when he paints next week. One of the sets of sister missionaries also came over to help wash all the construction dust off the walls. It was helpful in that it would have taken me three or four times as long to do the work, but it was during nap time and Karen woke up early and was somewhat beastly all afternoon. After Joe got out of class at 7 pm, we started moving things back in. We'd called our home teacher to help us move it all back, and after going to an appointment with the Elders, the three of them came and helped put the bunk beds back together (actually we only put the top bunk back together; it has rails on it so Karen can sleep in it sooner than the bottom bunk because it has a place where she can get out, but it would be difficult for her to fall out of bed. By 9 pm we had most of the stuff back into the room, and Karen could finally go to bed. It was a long day, but I got my house back together.

So, in addition to everything that's been going on in the ward the past week or so, we had a domestic disaster as well. What I'm thankful for is that now it's mostly over and we can start getting back to normal, whatever that really means. We're all safe and healthy, if a bit exhausted from the past week, and we're looking forward to next week being much more calm (or at least no more crazy than this week was!!!) After we finally get around to putting all our flood pictures on the computer I'll put a couple up here so you can all see-that's one thing on the list for next week!!

Accidents happen...

I know it's been a while since I put anything up. Ever since last Tuesday it has been really crazy around here. Last Tuesday morning I went to the WIC office for my appointment; it was at 8:30 a.m., and I got there at 8. It took two hours, and I was rushing like a crazy person to get to the church for the class I'm in. (It's called 'let's talk about it' and "it" refers to anything that's going on for you...anyway I go and learn a few things and cry a bunch and it's really nice... back to the point.) After class I came home, and Karen took a nap then had lunch around 2 or 3... Then around 3 I got a call from a friend in the ward telling me that John Martinson, a friend of ours in the ward, had been in a most terrible car accident. This was no ordinary car accident; he had multiple breaks on all limbs, with lots of internal bleeding and other damage as well. This was a huge shock, since I, like most people my age, feel not invincible but pretty close to it. I visit teach John's wife Jamie (some of you may know them; they graduated from BYU the same time Joe and I did-April '06), who is pregnant with their first child. My first reaction (after calling Joe in shock) was to sit on the couch and cry for about 20 minutes (that's one of the worst things about being pregnant for me right now-I feel like a faucet that won't turn off). The rest of the day I didn't feel like doing anything, but I felt bad doing nothing.... and I can't remember exactly what we did, but I kept getting phone calls from people making sure that I knew what was going on, and every time someone called to tell me about it, I would cry some more (but thankfully not as much as the first time).

Wednesday was a 'normal' day. I don't remember doing anything really except debating in my mind whether I should call Jamie again that day or leave her alone because all the family was in town. I ended up not calling her, but we did get a link to a blog that they were updating a few times a day. It was a relief to know what was happening without having to be continually bugging them. Here's the link to the blog: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/john_martinson , I hope it works right.

Anyway, with this accident it was very scary until about Saturday, when he became more stable even though he's still on the ventilator and a bunch of other machines. The ward fast held for him on Sunday seemed very powerful, and for the first time in any pregnant/nursing state I wished I could fast. John is now working on slowly waking up and breathing some on his own. I believe he will eventually make a full recovery, but it will take a long time.

Sunday, a most unexpected thing happened though. A new RS presidency was called, and the new president asked me to be in charge of meals for the family, since the compassionate service leader is the sister-in-law of John and Jamie. It's kinda scary for me, since I don't like to just call people and ask if they would like to take food to someone... but it's worked out so far and will probably continue to. I just hope this isn't a preview of a new calling for me. I think it would drive me crazy.

This is just a small part of our oh-so-eventful week, and I'll put more info up soon. As this is the more disasterous news I thought I should get it out of the way first. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some more time to write stuff here.

Time...

Where does all the time go? I post something one day, and it seems like I come back the next day and see that it's been more than a week since I last wrote anything. It doesn't feel like much has happened, but I know that by the end of this I'll think to myself "whoa, I need to write more often so these aren't so long".

Well...most of last week was pretty standard: laundry, cooking, cleaning... and all those 'exciting' mom-things I get to do. However, the weekend was pretty good. Saturday afternoon we went to Justin and Kitara Beasley's apartment for our fantasy football draft (sponsored by the EQ). We got a good draft order, and ended up with our favorite Peyton Manning as well as quite a few others that will hopefully turn out well. After the draft was the BYU season opener against Arizona. Having missed almost the whole season last year it was great to get back in the spirit of the game. Once again I had to relearn a valuable lesson about BYU football: don't leave before the game is over. We left with about a minute and a half left in the 4th, only to miss just about the most exciting part of the half...oh well. It was almost 9pm and Karen needed a bath for church the next day.

Sunday we made Haitian food, probably for the last time before the baby comes in 5 months. However much I love the stuff, it's really bad for a pregnant-lady diet since it's almost all extremely salty, fried, and/or spicy. I think I'm still retaining water from eating it... Anyway we made tons of food and realized we couldn't eat it all before it goes bad. Luckily there's another former Haitian missionary in the ward, and he just happens to have a wife and 7 kids...so we took a bunch of the leftovers to them and visited a while, which was nice. Their family is nice, but I don't think I could handle having 7 or 8 kids; I really think I'd go crazy.

Monday was labor day-as my dad says, it's the day we're all supposed to do lots of labor. That goes against what the real reason for labor day is, which was to have a day off from your labor, but whatever works I guess. We bought a little charcoal grill at Walmart and had some friends over to BBQ-chicken, burgers, hot dogs, and brauts...we had lots of meat and other good things

Tuesday was a very hormonal pregnant lady day... one of those days where everything seems a lot worse than it really is. I ended up crying for hours for no real reason. I couldn't sleep that night...except when I had nightmares of Karen growing up to hate me or my parents getting divorced because they couldn't agree on whether to buy a new car or a new minivan...yeah it was a wierd day... Oh, and one of my family members was found dead-our suckerfish named Sharkbait; we had to flush him and buy a new smaller one (which cost $6!). Assuming he survives a week or so we'll have to find a name for the newest addition to our family.

Wednesday I took Karen to get what are almost her last shots before starting school. This was the worst trip to the doctor that she's ever had. I think she remembers the last time she was there or something because she totally threw a fit whenever a nurse person or doctor came close to her. In the past three months Karen has grown another 3 inches longer (now 32 in. total) and gained another 2 pounds (24 lb. total). She's in the 75th percentile for both height and weight, and is now no longer required to dring whole milk but can take a full dose of baby tylenol. Her growth rate is supposed to be slowing down now, but it hasn't slowed much. At this rate she'll be 3 1/2 feet tall by the time she's two, and weigh almost enough to be out of a booster seat... I hope she slows down! Also last night at our Activity with my 8-12 yr. old girls (15 of them last night!) I taught them how to play 'do you love your neighbor?' and they thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world. Now they want a party night where they can play games like that the whole time... only I can't remember any more of them... any help? I could teach them 'signs' but I think they're a little young for that...

Anyway, things are going well here. Joe finished the last section of his 'thesis' project today. After a little more polishing it will be completely done!!!! Also tonight is the NFL season opener: Colts v. Saints, and about half of our fantasy team is playing (against each other!!). Maybe I should take some pictures to put on here...it's been a while....

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.

She Walks!!!!!

Well, it finally happened. It was the moment we'd been hoping for and dreading for the past 14 months. On Thursday evening Karen pulled herself up and started walking. It was great to see her finally doing it. She'd been terrible to me and Joe all week up to that point, making all kinds of huge messes and throwing lots of temper tantrums (which she doesn't usually do). She just seemed frustrated, but now she is back to her happy and mostly contented self, just better at getting into things than ever before. Karen is so happy to be walking that she almost refuses to crawl anymore. Yesterday at church she was walking and fell down (which she still does a lot). She wasn't close to any furniture, so she rolled onto her back and yelled at me until I came and set her back on her feet. She wouldn't crawl to a place where she could get up, she just wanted to walk.

Anyway...now she is definitely a toddler, if there was any doubt left in my mind. I've tried to stop saying 'baby Karen' in favor of the 'big-girl Karen', since she definitely isn't a baby and there will be a new baby in a few months. That's been quite a change of mindset for me, really. My baby isn't really a baby now...soon she goes to nursery, and before I know it she'll be driving or something. Ah, oh well. Here are Karen walking pics. For the event, we even took a little video on our dying camera (It doesn't look really great, but it's okay) but I'm not sure how to post it. When I figure it out I'll put it up.

As a last note...for those of you who are Harry Potter fans: How about that last book, eh? If you haven't made it that far yet (I know my brother Mike is still on his way through for the first time), it's definitely worth it to get to the end of the series. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that it ends the way I thought it should.

Pictures from Utah trip

This picture is (R-L) Michael and Sara Redd (Joe's sister...), Danny and Kathleen Allen (Joe's brother...), Kris and David Sanders (Joe's mission companion), Joe, Karen, and I'm taking the picture. We got together to meet David and his new wife Kris at Cafe Rio in Provo on the 4th of July.

This was Karen having a great time at the family BBQ for the 4th of July. It was at the church pavillion, and most of my extended family on Mom's side was there. Karen had lots of fun playing with the aunts, uncles and cousins. (L: Karen with Grandpa Howes' hat riding cousin Liberty's scooter; R: Karen with Calista, Mike, and Stacia Howes)

Karen sitting on the air mattress that we slept on at Danny and Kathleen's apartment. She thought it was really cool-especially when we let the air out at the end.

This is the family hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa Zillner's. Karen loved playing with Calista (she was even kind of saying her name by the end.) L: Calista and Karen behind Joseph; me, Mike, and Stacia sitting on the couch; R: Karen loves Calista's sunglasses!

These are pictures from the actual 50th wedding anniversary for my grandparents (On left.) It was at the church, and tons of people came, most of whom I didn't know. M: a few of Grandma's quilts, a couple of the cedar chests Grandpa made, and some other fun stuff (this time we visited I got an urn; it's empty and it looks really cool wit oak and walnut; last visit I got a bowl that's maple I think, the time before that, walnut and pine pillar candlesticks) R: painting of the Swiss temple where my grandparents got married by my cousin Alexa Kirshman. She's really good!

These are a couple of the family pictures that we took. L: Grandparents with all the grandkids (I think there are 21); R: the 4-generation picture with Grandma & Grandpa, mom, me, Karen and my aunt Joanne, cousin Jamie, and baby Liberty.

As you may notice, there aren't pictures of our get together at the Heisses. It was a great party and we were so busy talking and trying to catch up with everyone that we didn't take any pictures. I know Nancy did, and I'd love to get some from her...but at the moment I think she's a bit busy with little baby Rachel. (congrats by the way guys!!!)

Softball to peanut

So, Tuesday morning I had my first visit to my new OB/GYN. Having previously had a couple of 'first appointments' like this, I thought I knew what to expect. I thought it would probably take a couple of hours and be both painful and boring; boring being the whole medical history, insurance, etc. part and the painful being the actual exam and tests part.

Well, it started out about like I expected, we got there, filled out tons of papers, said no to lots of questions (everything from number of partners to drug and alcohol use to genetic disorders-if you haven't been through it, it's really an experience....). Then I got the nasty hospital gown and sheet and was told to 'sit, stay' until the Dr. would come and do the exam part. So, I'm waiting and waiting...and eventually a lady comes in, but it's not the doctor. It's some woman who works with some part of social services with some program for mom's and new babies...kinda a waste of time, but you get some free stuff, so I talked to her. It turns out she's actually a member of the church! I wasn't expecting that (neither was she), but it was a pleasant surprise. So the lady's in there talking to me about everything from the hospital to her son who's about to turn in his mission papers. This would be fine, except that I'm still sitting there in the nasty hospital gown and sheet. So, she talks and talks and talks, and the doctor doesn't come in. Finally, I've about had enough of all this and the doctor walks in, does the exam and all that. Then she drops the bomb "I don't think you're as far along as you think you are in your pregnancy."

Everything stops. What? How could I not be 4 1/2 months along? That's when my last period was! What was this woman saying to me? She wanted to do a quick ultrasound to make sure. At this point Joe and Karen finally got to come back with me (they'd been in the waiting room the whole time!) and I found out that it was now after 11am (we'd come in at 9). So, the doctor did the ultrasound, and Karen was so cute when she put the heartbeat on. She kept saying "what's that? What's that?" all excited and everything. However, I was not very pleased with the result of the ultrasound. My baby, instead of being the size of a softball, was the size of a peanut shell. It was small, it still had a tail, and we were lucky to be able to hear the heartbeat. It turns out that I'm only now 11 weeks along! Instead of being due the end of December, I'm now due the beginning of February! Talk about a heart stopper. As many of you (especially Nancy right now I'm sure) can attest, the worst nightmare you have when you're pregnant is that it will never end, and you'll be stuck like this forever. The extra 6 weeks on the end of my 'sentence' makes it seem very much like this.

Anyway, back to the doctor office... So the doctor says, okay, now that we have your real due date, we'll draw your blood for the tests. (It's now 11:30 or a bit after.) I go out, followed by Joe and Karen, to the lab place and sit in the 'blood drawing' chair. The nurse person tries to get the blood from my left arm, but misses the vein. Then she tries the right arm; missed again. Then she gets another nurse person to try it-like I have some wierd veins or something. This lady was just evil to me. Since they'd tried both arms with no success, she decides to try a vein in my hand next. (note-I have really poor circulation in hands and feet at the best of times, even worse during pregnancy) Well, of the 5 (yes, five) vials they were trying to fill, they ended up getting one. The vein in my hand exploded. Then they ask if I'd had anything to eat that day (I'd had breakfast before we came-almost 4 hours now) or if I'd had anything to drink. I think they'd forgotten that I'd been there for over 3 hours by this time. I don't remember much of what else they were saying to me, because I passed out. This was my first such experience, and if you haven't done it before, I don't recommend it. I was sitting there with a vein in my hand exploded (even now there's a huge knot and bruise on it) and then I was having a very strange dream which I was rudely awakened from by the most nasty smelling salts ever. They made me lay down, have some water and a plum, and finally we got to leave. While I liked the office and the doctor and the hospital, I'm kinda afraid to go back for my next appointment; they still have at least 4 vials of blood to take.

So, if anyone else has a better story for their first dr. visit I'd love to hear it. I came home and went to bed for a few hours, trying to forget the horror of the morning, but obviously it didn't work. Next time I write it will be something much better and hopefully less horrifying. (Our vacation wasn't THAT bad! ;D )

Freedom!!!

As promised, we now have internet in our apartment! It is a wonderful feeling of freedom to be able to check my blog and email any time I want to now. This is a really good thing to, because there is so much that I have to write! Our whole trip to Utah, the first dr. visit for baby....the list goes on. I'll try to do it all fairly soon-before I forget it all, and then get absorbed completely by my new Harry Potter book that will be here in the mail on Saturday (usually by 1pm EDT). Whatever I don't get down by then will most likely be forgotten in the rush to read (and then wait impatiently to re-read while Joe takes his turn with the book) the long-awaited finale. Can you tell I'm excited. BY the way, if you haven't seen the new movie yet you really should-definitely the best one so far! TTFN

Utah!

Well, here I am sitting in Danny and Kathleen's apartment writing this next blog. I didn't get to write last Friday because we were 'babysitting' the Anderson kids. It was a fun weekend, but very tiring. Their kids were very good and in general nothing big happened, but going from one kid to 5 instantly was not very fun. If you want more details...I'll put them somewhere else some other time.

Anyway...we spent all of Monday getting ready to go on vacation. Tuesday morning we got up really early and were at the airport by 6:30 eastern time. The flight was fine, Karen was pretty good, and we got here just fine. We even rented a car (it's a PT Cruiser...kinda fun). We spent yesterday visiting family and now it's the 4th of July! Happy Independence Day everyone! I'll probably write more later...as in sometime in the vague future, not later today or tomorrow.

A week with Joe's parents

I think I might remember a bit more about this past week than I did about the one from my last blog. I even have pictures of them-but having placenta brain I couldn't remember to bring them with me of course. The reason for all of this was that Joe's parents came to visit . They arrived Saturday afternoon/evening and left this morning. Saturday night it was too late to go out doing things, so we watched TV. Sunday we went to church and then Grandpa Allen watched Tiger Woods play golf all afternoon. Monday we went downtown. As previously mentioned Joe's ancestors came from this area of the country-actually one county away from here-so we went to the library downtown to see if we could find any more information. The lady who was 'helping' us wasn't very helpful at all, but we did find a few things for one of the lines. Monday afternoon we went to a State Historical site-the first-ever gold mine in the US. Once we got there we found it was closed on Mondays (although the website said it would be open), so we went to the mall instead. For any of you who like shopping, Concord Mills is the place for you-even if you don't have much money. There are tons of outlet stores and all kinds of good things there. You can get Nikes or Reeboks for $20, and the Gap outlet is one of my favorite places-and they even have a maternity section!

Tuesday I went back to the mall with Grandma Allen and Karen while Joe went to work and Grandpa went to Asheboro to see if he could find some more information about his ancestors (and he found tons; all of those lines are back across the pond now). Tuesday afternoon I stayed home with Karen (we both took naps) while Joe and his parents went back to the gold mine. They did some panning for gold, and Joe found enough to buy a hamburger (a couple little specks that you almost need a magnifying glass to see). His dad found some too, but not as much.

Wednesday was Joe's birthday. He's now 'for real' old at the good old age of 26. (Sadly at this point I had to ask Joe what we did on his birthday, but I remembered right as he told me, so it's okay I guess.) This was the day we went to the temple. For us it's about 100 miles, or 2 hours from north Charlotte to south Columbia, SC. It's a really small temple and they had only 2 sessions in the morning and 2 in the evening. The first session all of us but Grandpa (who is Karen's new favorite person-because he's so funny looking?) and Karen stayed out. The session had like 50 people even though the room only holds 40, and it went over so much that I barely got out in time for Grandpa to ge into the next session and Joe (who was farther back in the room) didn't make it to the second like he'd been planning. After we got home we made Lasagna and Dream Cake (like Angel Food Cake, only with the egg yolks too) for dinner and watched a movie.

Yesterday I was so tired I didn't want to do anything. Joe's parents went for a walk/hike at the nature preserve over by the church, but Karen and I stayed home and Joe was at work. In the afternoon Grandma and I went back to the mall (yes, again) while Karen was sleeping; Grandpa had had enough, he didn't want to shop anymore, so he stayed home with the sleeping Karen.

The only things left to talk about are Karen's tooth issues. She cut her first molar on Tuesday, but I didn't notice it until Wednesday. The rest of them are close too; she's been really good about it, I didn't even realize she was working on them until I saw the first one. She's also really close to walking. Until today she's insisted on holding one of our fingers in each hand if she was walking; today she only requires one. Also, she stood up by herself in the middle of the living room this morning (not just once but three times).

Well, it has been an eventful week but I think that's about it for now. I don't know how next week will work with blogging-we're watching the house and kids for some people in our ward starting either thursday or friday, and ending the day before we leave for Utah. (so also if you call and I don't answer immediately, I'll call you back, but it might be a few hours). I'm also planning to call some of you regarding our trip this weekend-saturday or sunday, I'm not sure which. TTFN

...memory

Well, thinking back, nothing really happened this week. Monday I ... cleaned bathrooms I think.

Tuesday... oh yeah, Tuesday I went to the family history center at the church to try and find one of Joe's ancestors that we can't find anything about. They were 'helpfully unhelpful'-the lady directed me to a couple of websites to look at, but there was no new (to me) information on any of them. Tuesday was also laundry day.

Wednesday...nope, that day is completely gone. I don't remember a single thing that happened-except I made fish for dinner.

We're up to Thursday now! Yesterday...I dusted, vacuumed, and had a seriously pregnant moment-one of my first this time around. I didn't want anything for dinner-not that I wasn't hungry, of course I was hungry; I just didn't want anything that we had at our house. What I really wanted was a great big juicy steak and a spinach salad (like the one Joe's mom makes, it's great), the thought of anything else was just 'blah'. So we had potato fries at like 6pm, it was a nice 'snack', and Karen really likes potatoes in any form; she's just like her mommy that way. Then at about 9:30 I had Joe make me some Sloppy Joe's. Not that Joe's sloppy Joe's are any different than mine, I just really needed some kind of meat (and so did he) and since steak wasn't available I had to settle for something else.

So...what have I done today? I went and met with my friend Jennifer that I do Activity Nights with (8-12 girls, we have about 15 of them) to plan our activity for next Tuesday. When I got there she was on the verge of a breakdown. Her 2 year old (as I'm sure some of you can relate to) is completely wild, and besides the normal 2-year-old stuff he seems like ADD hyperactive or something. Add to that she has a 4 week old baby and is on antibiotics, at home by herself...Let's say she needed a hug this morning. When I went in I had one of those "what have I gotten myself into?" moments, seeing her with a totally out of control little boy, trying to take care of her new baby and still work on her calling...then knowing I'm going to be in the same boat in about 6 months from now. I almost cried myself, actually. Somehow through our hormones we got our activity planned, and we're going to watch BOM movies next week. Then we came home, Karen had lunch and fell asleep (I love nap time!) and I also fell asleep while reading my scriptures. After I woke up (thanks to Joe calling me) I made a cake for the dinner we're going to at our friend's house tonight. Then I packed up Karen and came to write my blog. Now you know everything I can remember from this week.

I think my memory is getting bad again. One of my professors at BYU called it "placenta brain", where your placenta and hormones take over and a year or so down the road you wake up one morning and you don't quite remember what happened in the past year, except for vague things like "I have a baby, and she used to nurse all day every day but now it's only a couple times a day and she sleeps through the night so it's okay." I'm convinced that placenta brain is the reason people have more than one child. If we remembered in full detail all the things that happened while we were pregnant or postpartum, we'd never do it again and our species would cease to exist. Well, that's it for now. Joe's parents are coming tomorrrow and staying till next Friday morning, so I should have more interesting things to write about next week.

Swimming!

Well, it's definitely a good thing that our AC was out last week and not this week. Surprisingly, for NC, it's only rained about 1/2" this whole month. Now, in places like Utah when that happens it gets really dry. Here, on the other hand, it still stays extremely wet and it gets really hot. So, the temps have been going up steadily all week and we are sitting at a boiling 96 degrees today (plus humidity). We decided this week that we needed to make use of the pool in our back yard, instead of cursing it's existence because people stay there really late at night. So, last week on my grocery shopping trip I picked up the little swimmers diapers and a floatie thing for Karen. It's really cute dolphinesque riding thing she can actually sit in and feel 'secure' in the water. Well, we went out for the first time on Saturday, and Karen screamed for the first 10 minutes she was in the water. She's not used to being in any water cooler than her bathwater, and she's definitely never been in water deeper than a couple inches. She was just freaked out, until we put her in her floatie. She thought it was way cool, but she was still nervous. We only stayed out about 20 min. Yesterday afternoon we went back for a second try, and it went over much better. She only flipped out for about 5 minutes and had a good time for the next half hour or so. Maybe one of these times she won't flip out when we go out there.

As for the rest of the things that we've done this week... To explain that, I need to make an announcement... As of the end of December (or maybe the beginning of January) Karen will be a big sister. Yes, I am expecting again. It came as a bit of a surprise. I only found out for sure in the last week or so, and I'm already 11 weeks along. Most of this week has been spent working out insurance things and trying to find a doctor. The problem with the whole doctor thing is that it's not possible to call ANY office in the city (of nearly 1 million people) and get in to see an OB/GYN within two weeks. The closest appointment I could find was for the 17th of JULY. So, while I am currently expecting and will be in maternity clothes by the time we get to Utah to see most of you, I have not had the confirmation of hearing a heartbeat or anything like that. By my first doctor visit I will be 17 weeks along-almost halfway finished. Everything is going really well so far and I pray that everything is okay, but I don't really know for sure. I just wanted to let you all know before we get there and you all think I'm just gaining a lot of weight or something. Well, that's it for now. Hope you're all staying cool.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Well, with Memorial Day this last week summer has officially arrived here in NC. While it's nice to go outside and be in the sun for a while, it's not so fun when the 80-90 degree (plus humidity of course) comes inside to stay for a while. This week our air conditioning broke. We had been having some problems with it previously, and the maintenance people came in Tuesday morning to replace the thermostat. I thought, "wow, now we'll actually be able to control when and for how long the AC runs!" because it's been very unpredictable. However, this was just the beginning of our problems. The guys went out back to check that the connection from the unit outside to the thermostat was working correctly-and of course it wasn't. So, the worked on the connection, replacing a part or two, and it still wouldn't work. Actually, it wouldn't even turn on making it now officially 'broke' (not 'broken', we are in the South). So it was Tuesday afternoon, 90 degrees outside, I was doing laundry and something else (maybe the dishwasher was running, I don't remember) and it was miserable. About this time I thought it would nice to go to the mall or something but being the end of the month we were out of money. So I sat at home in my sauna of a living room. They said they'd be able to fix it for sure the next day. Of course it didn't work. Thursday morning they got an entirely new unit in, and finally by around 4pm on Thusday the ordeal was over. It was gross, and we are soooooo glad it's done now. We should have a great reduction in our electric bill now though.

Now to our housing issues...I wrote last week that I saw a house I really liked. Well, it turns out that Joe really liked it too. It's small, in an okay neighborhood (not great schools though) and the yard is really great (as in size, not quality; it needs some work). So Saturday we made an offer. They were supposed to let us know by Monday (even though it was technically a holiday). On Monday their realtor called our realtor and said it would be Tuesday before anything happened. The couple who owned the house were in the process of splitting up, and they were being argumentative with each other. So Tuesday came...and went. Wednesday came, and our realtor called us to say they hadn't responded yet and she wasn't sure if they were going to, there was another offer on the house, and it just wasn't going well. Well, we had to let our apartment complex know if we were moving 60 days in advance of our lease ending (which was June 1). With our house prospects fairly dim, we called it quits on buying and since we have a new AC unit in this apartment we'll just stay where we are for now.

Besides those two stories, the only other thing I've done this week is grocery shopping. Being on a fairly tight budget, by the end of the month I don't let myself leave the house much. If I go anywhere that has things for sale I'm afraid I'll buy something-anything-and I don't really have the money for it. So I go to bed kinda down the last few days of the month because I don't really feel like I've done much. Then magically, I wake up on the morning of the first day of the month and I have money again! And not only do I have money that I can spend, I actually MUST go and spend money, since by this time we're almost completely out of food. So today, being the first, I made my enormous grocery list and headed out. First I bought Karen's baby food (thank goodness she will only need it for a few more months-it's so expensive!) at one store, then headed out to Super Walmart to get most of it. On the way back after about 2-3 hours of shopping, we make a quick stop at the bread store (discount, almost expired bread that lasts really well in the freezer!) and we're back home just in time for lunch. Of course today, like most shopping trips, Karen fell asleep in the car on the way back, which meant that she skipped lunch, but it was much easier to bring in all the food since she wasn't trying to follow me out the door on every trip out to bring in more stuff. Sadly, this is the most exciting shopping trip of the month. I actually look forward to it, plan for it, and feel a bit of a letdown when it's over, knowing I won't do it again for another month. However, now we have our Costco card, so tomorrow is another mini shopping trip to look forward to (especially the free samples!). Well, now that you know all about my grocery shopping obsession, I think it's time for me to be done for now. Here's a picture of the house we almost (kinda) bought.

"Well it's been a long day" (or couple of weeks)

It seems like it's been forever since I did a post. Since the last time I wrote...Joe went to Dallas and back, did finals, we've spent quite a bit of time looking at houses, Karen turned one and got shots, and I survived it all. So, I guess I'll write a bit about all of those (I'll be brief so you don't have to spend hours reading this).

After NYC, Joe came home for a week and a half. During that time he did his finals. This semester was unique for one reason: he didn't have straight A's going into the final. He actually ended up with 2 grades that weren't A's (for more details call and ask Joe, he loves to gripe about it, and I can't say that I blame him). However, the semester finished, just like it always does. I wanted to celebrate and do something fun, but the next day he left for Dallas instead. This trip was 'really exciting'. He collected data at a convention of Humane Society people for three days. Sometimes it can be fun to collect data (count how often people raise their hands in class or some other wierd thing), but this was walking around saying "Do ya wanna take a survey?" It wasn't the most exciting thing that he'd ever done. On the bright side the food for the conference was provided-it was Vegan, and somewhat "interesting" I understand-but it was provided. He brought me back a T-shirt with a kitty that says "Love is a four-legged word", which was kinda cute.

The past few months we've been thinking about buying a house or townhome or something. We don't have a lot of money at this point but we're just sick of renting and don't want to do it for another 3 or 4 years. So, we've been looking around at what we hoped would be 'cute little houses', but our luck hasn't been good. There are lots of places in our price range, but most of them are in areas that I wouldn't want to be in after dark. So then we thought maybe we'd just stay where we're at anyway, or get a 3 bedroom apartment.... we just aren't quite sure. Then I went with the realtor today and saw this really cute little house with a great yard in a decent neighborhood...so we'll just have to see what happens. Maybe we'll move, maybe we won't. It's not very fun to be up in the air like this, so hopefully it gets resolved soon.

And now, at last, my cute Karen-poo has turned 1. It seems like she was just born a month ago, but she's a whole year old. It was really wierd to watch the American Idol finale and thinking about how I missed it last year because I was in labor. Anyway, we had a nice get together with some of our friends to celebrate her birthday. I made a cute bear-shaped birthday cake, we had ice cream, watched Idol, and had a good time. We gave Karen a Noah's Ark (Little People, Fisher Price), and she loves to put the animals in and out and in and out. We took her to get her checkup/shots yesterday, and in a year she has tripled her weight (coming in at 21lbs 10 oz.) and grown 9 inches in length. It's just amazing to see how much she's grown.

On a last note, we bought our plane tickets for Utah. We'll be in town from July 2 to 10. We're going to be busy a couple days with my grandparents 50th anniversary (it's so exciting!) but we'd love to see all of our friends and family while we're there. Hopefully there will also be some good movies at the dollar theater by then as well, but that's farther down on the priority list. Anyway, hope you're all having a good time being where you are, and have a great Memorial Day.

Mr. Allen goes to NY and Back...

Well, we have finally made it...almost. Classes are over, one trip is finished, and now there are only two finals and one more trip for Joe before 'summer vacation'. For Joe, a full load of classes is 12 (or 13) credit hours, so he basically has 3 real classes and 3 hours of research credit. This is nice at finals because he really only has 3 classes to study for. So, one week from now I will be 'free'. It's funny how I have this feeling, even though I'm not the one who's actually sitting in the classes or meetings. Maybe it's because I get calls at random times during the day with Joe saying "honey, what do you think about _____?" and then not taking an "I don't know" for an answer. Whatever it is, it'll be nice to have him only working 20 hours a week for a couple months.

So, in the past two weeks Karen hasdone some really cute things. I don't have pictures of most of them because they all seemed to happen when Joe had the camera in NYC, but there are a couple of cute pics at the bottom. She has also learned how to sit up. Whereas previously if Karen wanted to sit up instead of lay down she would yell and make a fuss until Joe or I did something about it; now however she just sits up on her own. She's also started 'scooting' a little bit, though she still mostly rolls. She's getting really good at following me everywhere I go. One evening I left her with Joe while I went into the little girl's room. Upon exiting, I tripped over Karen who had followed me, preferring to sit by a closed door than to play with daddy. Some kids are just crazy huh?

Joe had a good time in NYC last weekend. He flew in Thursday afternoon/evening and stayed until Sunday night. He got to go to many of those 'cool' places that you see in tv and movies, like Central Park, Radio City Music Hall (where the NFL Draft was going on), and Ground Zero, just to name a few. He wanted to go to a broadway musical, but neglected to reserve tickets several months ago; the shortest waiting list was almost 200 people long. While he was gone Karen and I hung out. I did a lot on my cleaning list, and our apartment is starting to look clean. I think the worst of what I did was clean the blinds from all our windows (okay, so there are only 4 windows, but it felt like way more than that as I cleaned them all). I put 'em in the bathtub to soak, and they left a terrible ring. But now the light comes in the windows so much better! It's great! Also while Joe was gone I read a bunch of Harry Potter. We've preordered #7, and as part of my birthday present Joe says I get to read it first. I'm also excited for the movie of #5 that comes out just before the next book (July 13, just after we get back from Utah). Maybe we'll see the movie for our anniversary. Can any of you believe that it'll be our 4th anniversary this year? It's really gone by fast. Karen turns 1 in 19 more days. She's so cute and active now.

Well, I hope y'all did well on your finals, or at least did them ;) Let me know where you'll be in the summer. We'll be here for most of the time, but we're heading to Utah the first week or so of July, and then to Philadelphia for a few days in August.