Celebration...nope, no baby yet

Our anniversary was election day Tuesday and since I was in class until 10pm that evening (Andrew was glued to the computer watching election updates), we decided we would celebrate later. It took us a while, but we finally celebrated this past Friday by going on the night tour of Alcatraz. I haven't been to Alcatraz since I was six and Andrew hadn't been at all. Although these two pics suggest it was mid-day, we spent most of our time wondering around the island in the dark. Much more creepy at night. At least it would have been if not for the hundreds of other people wandering around too. The dim lighting added to the ambiance, but for an even better night tour experience, I think they should add muted sound effects and muffled groans from hidden speakers in darkened cells. Oh, and then they need prison actors escaping from cells, terrorizing unsuspecting tourists with chain saws. . . Well . . . maybe not, but Alcatraz would make a great spook alley. In any case, we enjoyed a very warm and pleasant night on the Rock and of course it was great spend it with each other.

Sneak peak

They are a little blurry, but here are some 3D pics of our nameless little one. The technician tried and tried to get her to move her hands away from her face, but she held her ground. I don't blame her, I think it's getting pretty tight in there! The middle pic is of her feet in case you can't tell:)

Here's to us

Well, we've officially been married for two years! That is, since yesterday. And to commemorate the moment we'd each like to share our top three reasons of why we like being married. I'll start with mine; 1) I like having someone to share my life with, 2) I get as many back scratches as I want, and 3) the garbage is miraculously always taken out and a new liner is always placed in the trash can. Andrew's top reasons are; 1) He likes having someone to share his life with, 2) is always amazed there is a packed lunch waiting for him in the fridge when he's off to work, and 3) that there is always toilet paper nicely placed on the dispenser. Married life is truly wonderful!

Miss Pac-Man

Recognize this little girl?

What is a blog for other than to reveal information about ourselves that otherwise people generally would never know. Well here you have it. Melissa has a medium size addicted to Pac-Man and I guess it started when she was a little girl. I caught on to her little fetish the last time she got a new cell phone. First thing she did was download pac-man. Now I catch her playing in all sorts of random and inappropriate places. Don't worry, she got in trouble the day I caught her playing in church. Turns out she is really good at it too. Just a warning in case she ever tries to hustle you at pac-man.

What's going on here?!

As of late, I feel like reorganizing everything. Such as, having these strong urges to clean our apartment from top to bottom. And I don't just mean clean here. I mean, tear apart the apartment and put it all back together again kinda urges. You know, like taking on the linen closet by refolding each towel and sheet. Which I did try to do at 12 o'clock last night, but was sadly thwarted by a tired Andrew telling me to get into bed. Now, they tell me this tendency is called nesting and this is what Pregnancy Weekly had to say about it;

Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently. Women have reported throwing away perfectly good sheets and towels because they felt the strong need to have "brand new, clean" sheets and towels in their home. They have also reported doing things like taking apart the knobs on kitchen cupboards, just so they could disinfect the screws attached to the knobs. Women have discussed taking on cleaning their entire house, armed with a toothbrush. There seems to be no end to the lengths a nesting mother will go to prepare for her upcoming arrival. (http://www.parentingweekly.com/pregnancy/pregnancy_information/nesting_instinct.htm)

Now, I never use to believe in such a phenomenon, but I guess I've been bitten by this strange bug. A few weeks ago, I just had to buy a pumpkin and decorate for Halloween (I've never been inspired to do that before). More recently, I actually became strangely jealous of some friends who moved simply because they got to go through everything they owned and reorganize it. I'd have to say, I became a believer in this so called nesting instinct. Time to go organize and clean - I better cash in on these feelings before it's too late.

Oh baby

As of late, Andrew and I have been having conversations about what our baby will look like...I'm assuming this is a common conversation for expectant parents to have. Turns out, Andrew then spent an afternoon playing with some pics of us and a few morphing programs to figure it out, all scientific like. Here are the results! I think she looks pretty cute, despite the scary looking adult teeth she amazingly seems to have at such a tender age! We also figured out she'll grow up to be around 5 feet 5 inches (supposedly you figure this out by adding together the mother and fathers height, divided by two, minus two inches for a girl, plus two if you're having a boy). And we're also assuming that she is doomed to have short stocky legs, seeing how Andrew and I both have them. Sorry kid, those are the breaks.

Reality

Well, we just got back from our hospital tour. We know our root to the hospital, where to park the car (so we don't get a ridiculously large parking ticket), how to register, and most importantly all those little details one never thinks of...like bring a toothbrush and your favorite pillow. However, on our ride back home we were both deep in thought. I was contemplating the reality that there is really only one way this baby is coming out and Andrew was pondering whether or not he would pass out trying to cut the umbilical cord. All the while wondering what happened to the good old days when the father just waited in the lobby. So here's good luck to us both!

We finally decided it was time for an official belly shot (or as official as you can get taking a picture in an apartment). I'm 33 weeks along and still happy with the fact our little one is safely tucked away in my belly.

Family, water skiing, tootsie rolls, and swimming

Well we just got back from our four days of Utah fun! It's sad to be back to real life. Andrew had to get up this morning and, for me, another quarter of school is just around the corner. So, it was most certainly nice not to think about the daily routine, if only for a few days. The highlight of course was being able to see family, but second to that (for Andrew) was getting some watering skiing in. It was beautiful and we were the only boat on the lake! Translation: Andrew was the only person crazy enough to go water skiing at Lake Jordenelle near the end of September. Besides the cold, it was perfect glass and very relaxing.

The second highlight for me, of course, was being able to stock up on flavored tootsie rolls (why do they not sell them in California!?) and orange rolls. (Strange they both have roll in the title.) I just happened to discover the orange rolls while we were having dinner with Andrew's Aunt Darlene and Uncle Ray. They used to live in CA and taught us how to smuggle the frozen rolls home. All it took was a box lined with newspaper and some dry ice! I'll have to let everyone know if I am even able to get these pre-made rolls to rise!

Another highlight I would have to say was using Andrew's parents indoor lap pool! It was fun to see Andrew swim and I'm sure Andrew enjoyed seeing me attempt to swim. I'm positive the wheels were just spinning in his head on how I could improve my technique. Andrew was so excited he smelled like chlorine again that he could not stop smelling himself afterward! The pool was a ton of fun and it is now our goal to convince my parents to put one in their garage! I'd be willing to drive ten minutes up the road for a good swim! Anyways, all in all it was a very fun and relaxing trip!

Things you forgot to tell your mother

Andrew just got off the phone with his mom and was trying to think of events/stories to tell her. . . he just happened to forget to tell her about our weekend trip to Hearst Castle! Details are just not one of his strong points. My favorite forgotten detail was when we landed in Hawaii for our honeymoon and Andrew could not remember the name of our hotel.

Anyway, we have been wanting to take a little trip to see Hearst Castle for a while and last Thursday we decided to just go. So, Andrew booked a cute hotel room and late Friday afternoon we were off! Off to a glamorous freeway crawl. We probably could have waited another hour to leave and still arrived at the same time. Rotten Bay Area traffic. Luckily we stopped for dinner along the way and had a nice break from the car.

When we woke up on Saturday we realized our hotel was literally right next to the beach (we arrived at 10pm the night before and could not see a thing). So, we took a walk along the boardwalk, enjoying the beach, and then we drove the remaining five miles to Hearst Castle. It was a fun tour and we highly recommend it to anyone in the area. Too bad they have about four tours, each showing different sections of the "castle." Great tactic for increasing business earnings, but sad for all the tour goers. I am also little bitter because we got all these pictures of us at the beach and then our camera battery died after one shot at Hearst Castle! I tried to blame Andrew for it, but really we're both at fault. We were just so infatuated with this one little bird and were compelled to take multiple pictures of it. After our little wildlife-photographer kick we realized there was not much battery power left. We were resolved to save the battery for the castle, but then we spotted this strange jelly thing on the beach. . .We couldn't decide if it was a Jelly Fish or some sort of mutated, evil, supernatural, silcon blob. We were afraid to touch it in case it would devour our arm, but, naturally, we took a picture. Luckily the one shot we did get of Andrew at Hearst Castle turned out. So at least there's some sort of proof we were there!

Storage Close

With a little one on the way and a one bedroom apartment, we realized we would need a little more space around here. The problem seemed easy enough to solve. We figured we'd throw up some shelves in our garage, close it off, and put up some doors. A trip to Home Depot, a Saturday afternoon, some whiz bang, and presto, a new storage closet! Of course, it never happens as quickly and as easily as you think. After a Saturday afternoon and four evenings of work, not to mention a few more trips to the hardware store, we finally have our new storage closet. There are a few flaws, but at least it is nice and big. We are still working on moving our boxes out to the garage, but we've got ~11 weeks and counting!