Forgotten Past

So I have to tease Elissa a little because she completely left out the date I planned from our last post.  This was one of the ones we planned for Christmas.  This is what Elissa saw when she opened it (more or less):

It may be too hard to read, but the idea is that we were going to the Symphony.  (Elissa helped plan some of this, but she didn't know what was bringing us downtown -- she picked out a very good restaurant).  When the day came for our date, we got tickets for the metro rail to take us downtown, and for the first time got to enjoy downtown without trying to park.  We ate at The Backspace, which is a 'traditional' italian pizza place (I have no idea if it's actually traditional or not, since I haven't been to Italy).  We arrived early at the Symphony, and found that they had a little pre-concert lecture, helping to explain the music.  It told us that the Symphony would feature Jennifer Frautschi playing a concerto by Bartok.  They then explained that it reflected the impending World War II.  It was intense -- Elissa described it by saying you could definitely tell that he was depicting a Nazi invasion.  I really liked the second movement, which was a lot more peaceful (Violin Concerto No. 2, BB 117 -- movement II).

And now, for this week:  Elissa's been battling a cold all week, and today she got a terrible cough to go along with it.  About the only real interesting thing I can think of that happened this week was at work.  NI negotiates with other companies to get training for their employees.  My manager suggested that I should take a particular training class and so I signed up, and it was this last week.  I got to the class, and immediately things started sounding familiar.  By the time they had a short break in the morning, I was about 95% sure I had taken this training already.  So, I walked back to my desk and found the book that they had given us last time as proof that I'd already taken the class (and not just something really similar).  It was really embarrassing telling my coworkers/manager that I had managed to sign up for and attend a class that I'd already taken without realizing it.  In the end, they got someone else enrolled who was waiting to take the class, so...hopefully no harm done.  I'll be more careful next time.  On a positive note, my week at work was much more productive than my original estimate suggested (because I had 3 more days' worth of time to work).

Good News and Bad News

Baby Update: We went to the doctor yesterday and everything seemed good there.  Daniel was a good sport to come with me for the doctors appointment. We got to hear the heart beat on the Doppler and everything. It was good to know that our baby was still in there!

We also got to set up our anatomy scan ultrasound for 3 weeks from now. We decided to find out what the baby is at the scan -- if our baby will cooperate when the day comes. Daniel described our decision making process best when he told me, "Everyone says, 'but I want it to be a surprise.' It will still be a surprise just a surprise that comes earlier than when the baby comes." So, hurry for surprises on the journey.

In other good news, the doctor did not veto our vacation plans! We can finally make some definite plans to come and see our Utah and Idaho friends! It is fun to make vacation plans!

Bad News:

We had a strong wind storm here earlier this week. (Wind gusts up to 50 mph. Strong winds for most of the day.) Our old roof didn't like that, and we lost a few shingles. We had a roofer come out and give us an estimate. Fortunately, to patch it up won't cost too much money. Unfortunately, our roof is old, so we'll need to start saving now to get a new one. Such are the (un) joys of home ownership I suppose. Fortunately, the joys of home ownership are better than the unpleasant parts so far.

Where are you Mr. Postman?

This week hasn't been too eventful but it has been full of online shopping news! Several weeks ago Daniel ordered a 3000 piece puzzle to put together. It came all the way from Germany, and it is going to be huge (3 ft by 4 ft) when it is all assembled. It took a long time to deliver because they had to airmail it to America and then it had to come to our mail box through the postal service. We have been waiting for 3 weeks!

Because Daniel wanted to hang up the puzzle when he was done, I got to help pick it out.  (It is so big that I don't know where we will hang it though!) We decided on this cool old-ish map because it had some cool boats and no half naked Renaissance mermaids. (We had no idea how hard it would be to find an old timey map puzzle without half naked people, but we quickly learned that is is hard to find!)

I also ordered my first batch of maternity clothes early this week, and , they will be here early next week thanks to the miracle of online shopping! We'll see if I like them when they get here. If I do, you will probably get pictures of me in them at some point! I also made a different order on Amazon.com and it should also be arriving soon. So all I can think is "Mr. (or Ms.) Postman when are you going to bring all my stuff?"

Nothing Much

This last week hasn't given us too much to talk about, so this entry will be short.  It was Employee Appreciation Week at work, and this year they decided to give everyone a t-shirt celebrating their 14th year in the Fortune 100 best places to work (that's right, I picked a good workplace!).  It's nice to finally have an NI shirt (of course, I could have bought one any time if I had wanted).

We've been craving lemon bars for a couple weeks now, but kept not having ingredients when we thought about it.  We finally decided to specifically buy ingredients and make them.  I think you'll agree they turned out well.  I offer anyone coming to visit from out of state a free lemon bar*:

*offer limited to supply on hand.

I guess the last thing I wanted to mention was that I found a book (thanks to people here in my ward) called "The Disappearing Spoon", which I thought sounded really boring and 'sciency', but which I would actually recommend to anyone who would enjoy anecdotes about chemistry/science and the elements.

No More Secrets

So, if you any of you know my extended family then you will know that my Grandma hates keeping secrets. So, now that she knows my news, I am just going to tell everyone I can so she doesn't think she needs to keep it a secret!

Here is how Daniel described the situation to me. (at the hospital in a text message):

Guess what -- my girl is growing a healthy baby :D

The text makes more sense in context. We had just gotten out of the 13 week ultra sound, and we had just gotten the same basic news from the ultrasound technician. We even got to take home some pictures for our fridge to compliment the ones I got a 10 weeks.

Oh, in case you didn't guess, I didn't find out until ten weeks that I was pregnant, and even then it was a total surprise to me.  I went in for an annual exam, and the doctor came in and said "We can't do your exam today because you're pregnant!" So we got a dating ultrasound with some pictures instead. Total surprise.

So last week with these pictures on the fridge, I teased Daniel "Hey, did you know there is baby in here?" (Then I pointed to my abdomen.) He shook his head and said in a teasing voice, "Oh, I thought those pictures on the fridge were just baby mock ups, and I was supposed to pick my favorite!" I assured him that he did not have to pick because they were all the same baby and that baby belonged to us.

Weekend Adventures

Last Friday we decided to invite one of my coworkers (and his wife) over for pizza and games.  We had a lot of fun playing a game called Munchkin with them (I'm pretty sure this is one of those 'party' games designed for late night college hang-outs, but we wouldn't know anything about that because we're boring married people...).

Saturday we got to work on our house and put up a couple more shelves (I think we're done with shelves for now).  We also made delicious scones (not like the un-delicious scones you'll find at Starbucks).  This was our first time making them and we were mostly successful.  The important part was that they were an awesome treat.  (This picture of an excellent scone, was not ours).

Sunday morning I got a call to report my home teaching for January.  Only thing is, I didn't know I had an assignment!  Well, it turns out that they had just assigned me, but not told anyone.  With that, came home teachers assigned for us too.  They came by and we got to know them.  They seem nice.

Cake Class

This week we had another fancy Christmas date! Daniel really wanted to do a class, and he thought that a cake decorating class would be an awesome choice that we would both like. After looking at the prices of Joann's Wilton classes we were going to say "No Way!" Fortunately, a friend of mine from the ward is amazing with decorating cakes, and she said she would totally teach us for a few hours about the basics of decorating a cake.

We learned how to cut a large cake in half and what you would do if you wanted a filling (like pudding or jam). We tried our hand at making a frozen transfer which, by the way, is a super cool trick. Then we learned to make a crumb coat which we had never heard of before. (In case you were wondering that is the first layer of frosting that catches all the crumbs. It isn't how your jacket looks after eating a delicious cake or cookie.) Finally, we iced the cake and learned some fancy decoration!

And, in case you were wondering, the cake not only looked great, it tasted great too!