I Chopped it

My hair that is. I'm not sure about the length yet.

Ringing in the New Year Antwerp Style

We spent New Year's Eve watching an amazing fireworks show in Antwerp. I think everyone agreed they hadn't seen a fireworks display quite like it. It was choreographed to music and was really amazing. Getting back to the car was a little scary, just because the crowd was pretty wild and there were people setting off fireworks everywhere. We made it back safely to the car and each enjoyed a dixie cup of sparkling cider. Happy New Year everyone!

Oh and I should mention that it was FREEZING! We were only outside for about an hour and we all dressed as warm as we could. It was worth it to see the fireworks though.

Art Nouveau

Since this trip to Belgium we knew we'd be sticking mainly in Belgium, Seth thought it'd be a good idea to see/do things that are unique to Belgium and that maybe he hadn't done before. There are several Art Nouveau homes in Brussels, so Seth took it upon himself to see A LOT of them. We only were able to see outside of all of but one them. One has been turned into a museum. I hadn't really heard of this kind of architecture before and it was fun to see. It kind of reminds me of Willy Wonka. According to our tour guide, Seth, Art Nouveau became popular around the turn of the 20th century. Here's a sample:

Oo La La

While galavanting around Brussels this afternoon, I stumbled on this most magnificent treasure. Bonpoint. Quite possibly the most adorable children's boutique to grace this Earth. The fabrics were so, so nice and the patterns were beautiful. Reasonably priced at just over $200 for a onesie thing. Okay, so I won't be able to afford anything from there in this life, but a girl can dream. I did some research on the place when I got home. Supposedly Suri and Shiloh shop here.
www.bonpoint.com

2008 Sure Was Great

I tend to be a little cynical in my posts and may make it sound like I can't do anything except complain. I actually think I have a great life and am constantly wondering why I have been so lucky to have so many blessings and to have such a cushy life. Since it's the end of the year, I thought I'd think back and remember some of the things I am grateful for from 2008.

1. I made it through my first year as real, working, grown-up. I am grateful to have a job even if it's hard.
2. I am grateful for great health for both Seth and myself. Seth actually works on having good health, I'm just lucky to have been healthy. I think we're both extremely grateful that I have had a healthy pregnancy thus far.
3. I am grateful to be pregnant. As much as I have complained and wished this baby would just hurry up and get here, I've realized that I am pretty sure this baby is going to be worth all the inconveniences the pregnancy has brought me.
4. I am grateful to have a home and the added bonus of a home warranty which gifted us a new oven, dishwasher, and refrigerator all this year.
5. I am grateful for my extended family. I learned this year that being a grown-up means beginning to deal with grown-up problems. My family seems to have faced a lot of grown-up problems this year. Maybe it's been like this before, but now that I'm a grown-up too, I seem to be clued in to more of the problems. Nevertheless, I am grateful that those grown-ups that are going through these stinky times and for their example and for those that love them and surround them with support.
6. My job makes me grateful on nearly a daily basis for the childhood I had and the loving parents who raised me. I am grateful for a job that keeps my priorities in check and helps me remember what is most important in life.
7. I am very, very grateful for my marriage. I definitely didn't do anything special to deserve it and I know that not everyone gets as lucky as me.

Belated Birthday Shout Out to Mikey Chikey

I've been slacking on the birthday posts. I totally skipped Seth and I'm way late on my brother's. My dear brother Pete (real name Michael) turned the big two-two on December 19th. We celebrated with Happy Sumo for dinner and it was delish.

My brother rocks and here are 22 things about him.

1. He was 9 lbs. 9 oz. when he was born. If you don't know much about how much babies usually weigh when they are born, that is HUGE.

2. The size of his head was always, and probably still is, off the percentile charts. When he was 5 his head couldn't fit into baseball caps of our 15 year old cousins.

3. He stuttered when he was little and it was really cute.

4. I used to pull his hair and make him cry and then lie about it when my mom asked why he was crying.

5. We got Super Ninetendo for Christmas when he was probably about 6. He stayed up all night the first night he got it.

6. He used to eat a million popsicles a day and then throw the sticks behind the tv.

7. I remember he HATED going to Cub Scouts, or maybe just putting on his Cub Scout shirt, but it seems like Cub Scouts was always a big ordeal.

8. He had a bowl cut from about age 5 to 12.

9. He loves to ski and is really good at it. He can do very impressive tricks, especially being how big he is.

10. He played football all through Little League and was usually the biggest kid on the line. He realized he hated it right before high school started and quit.

11. Girls called him "Mikey Big Guns" in high school.

12. He can talk his way in and out of anything and everything.

13. He always asks for the best Christmas presents and always gets them.

14. He did very little school and still made good grades. He even made Sterling Scholar for art.

15. He is a great artist.

16. He served a mission to El Salvador. I don't speak Spanish but I think his Spanish sounds awesome.

17. He's done decorative painting for two LDS temples.

18. He is very intelligent and likes to think deeply about things.

19. He just bought a puppy and she is the cutest thing in the world.

20. He has a unique sense of style and can pull of most anything.

21. He loves cheese.

22. He's a vegetarian.

A couple more that I have to mention:

-He was pulled over with several of his friends for shooting illegal fireworks out of their car. People called police thinking they were gun shots. He was charged with 3 misdemeanors: disorderly conduct, firing a weapon from a vehicle, and possession of illegal fireworks. He is a lucky ducky and only had to go to a fire safety class as punishment.
-He and a friend lit a baby pool of gasoline on fire.
-and most recently, he was handcuffed but I guess not technically arrested for long boarding in a parking garage and then running away from the cops.

Brothers are great. :)

Galavanting in Germany

We spent yesterday at Bernkastle-Kreuz and Trier. In Trier I got to experience the Herway-famous Spagetti Ice Cream. Bernkastle was a beautiful town along the Mossel River. I could have taken more pictures, but it wouldn't have done the town justice. Trier was pretty too, but we mostly went there for the ice cream. Seth and his brothers were introduced to it by their sports coach from high school and we happened to run into the coach at the ice cream place. It should be noted that Trier is at least two hours from Brussels, so it was quite a coincidence.

Today we went bowling on the base before leaving back to Belgium. I bowled my highest game ever, 133. Ye-ah. I beat Seth the first game, which I really enjoyed because I hardly beat him at anything except Table Tennis and Sudoku. Rachel seemed to have a blast bowling in the beginning but slowly started to lose interest toward the end, hence the picture.

This little cutie-patootie is Seth's brother, Jake and his wife's little boy, Tommy. Rachel is theirs too. Isn't he the cutest thing? He's so so smiley and content practically all of the time. They live in North Carolina so it's been a lot of fun to get to spend time with them.

A Christmas Miracle

My suitcase arrived Christmas Eve around 7:30. Santa didn't bring it, but still, it's a Christmas miracle.


On another note, it's 6:45 a.m. and I've been up since 3:00 a.m. when I had to go potty. I haven't been able to fall asleep since and I've tried a lot of things. I've been trying to watch Grey's or The Office online but it won't let me because I'm in Germany. No fair for Germans. I did sneak in two epidsodes of The Hills which was a complete waste of time, but there's not a lot to do at 4:30 a.m. Seth was up with me for about 2 of the 4 hours I've been awake. Everyone else is still sleeping. My computer says it's 10:47 p.m. which I'm guessing is what time it is in Utah.

We had a great Christmas this morning, well I guess yesterday morning. It was fun to have little kids around to open presents, it's makes the day so much more magical. The baby even got quite a few gifts this morning, which I got to open. We got to talk to Seth's sister, Nicole, who is serving a mission in Paris. She's probably the most positive, energetic, enthusiastic, hard working, missionary there is. She LOVES LOVES LOVES being a missionary. She's just a fun girl all around and it's been weird being in Belgium without her. After talking with her, we loaded up the cars and headed to Germany. We're staying on an Air Force base and visiting a couple of towns while we're here. We're staying in apartments on the base and they are actually really nice and it's been getting Seth thinking about going through the military to pay his last year of school. NO. THANKS. I'm all about living in another country and there's nothing wrong with military families, I just don't want my husband and soon to be father of my child to be deployed to Iraq just to save some medical school debt. NO. THANKS. Plus side of a military base though, Diet Pepsi. American Diet Pepsi. They only had Diet Coke out of the fountain so I got one of those tonight and bought a bottle of Diet Pepsi for tomorrow. Simple pleasures. American sodas are a big deal because the European Coke Light is not good. Neither is Mexican Coke Light. Can you tell I'm bored. I've been rambling on about the difference between EU coke and US coke. Have you fallen asleep? I wish I did.

Poop.

What do you get when you have a delayed flight which causes you to miss your connecting flight which causes your bags to be transferred to another airline, then lost, then two of them found, but one of them still gone, yeah, the one with the clothes, and two days later wearing the same clothes? 

Me.

We made it to Belgium safely, just five hours behind schedule. Our bags did not arrive with us. A day later two of our bags made it. Seth's and a small extra one that had my pajamas and some Christmas presents. The one still missing? Yeah, just everything else that I need like clothes, garments, toiletries, etc. Luckily, I packed a change of clothes in my carry-on so I have about 3 different combinations of outfits between what I have. 

The plus side of things is I've been able to listen to our 3 year old niece sing "Dinger" Bells. 

Vacation starts in t-minus 3 hours...

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! How many days will I not be working you ask...18. That's right folks, EIGHTEEN days straight of not working. EIGHTEEN straight days of Seth not having to wake up WAY before the sun comes up. EIGHTEEN straight days of Seth not having to wear scrubs. EIGHTEEN straight days of Seth not having to study. EIGHTEEN straight days of not having to talk to clients. EIGHTEEN straight days of not going into stinky, yucky houses. EIGHTEEN straight days of sleeping in, eating good food, being with family, enjoying the Christmas spirit, and remembering why vacations rock.

Merry Christmas everybody. May your holidays be merry and bright and full of the best things in the world. Merry Christmas.

Another year older, but probably not much wiser...

I am officially a quarter of a century old. It happened on Friday. The day was pretty good and started out with my fave Einstein’s bagel for breakfast with Seth. Then he and I picked up a bunk bed from a donor to give to one of my clients. Seth broke part of it while loading into the truck. He felt way bad. Then we did some errands together and I later met up with a SIL for some lunch. She is going to die when she reads this because she didn’t know it was my birthday. LOL. My SIL will remain nameless. I thought it was pretty funny. I was going to mention it during lunch, but then I thought it might seem like I wanted her to pay for my lunch. When I got home from lunch, Seth had a treasure hunt for my present. I asked for money to finally finish a project in my condo that I’ve been wanting to do forever! Instead of just forking over the dough, Seth left creative clues throughout our place and had money at each site. It was fun! On the last note he said I could spend the money on whatever I wanted “EXCEPT CANDY!!” He also gave me a pair of boots that I picked out for him to give me. J We finished the night by delivering the bunk bed to 4 very excited kids and tried putting it together. We were unsuccessful and definitely let the kids down. We headed over to meet my cousin Amy and sister Lanx for dinner. It was delish and the company was even better. Amy gave me a card with money in it and said I could ONLY spend it on candy. I love her. Sunday the festivities continued with a birthday dinner made by my mom and the most delicious cupcakes ever. I had two last night and just ate another one just now. Even though I am depressed that I am another year older and closer to wrinkles and dentures, I felt very loved on my birthday weekend. Thanks everyone who sent texts, phone calls, and cards to make me feel special! (Except for you, nameless sister-in-law. JUST KIDDING!!) Oh AND I have really great co-workers. Thursday (since we don’t work Friday) I came into work with a fully decorated office, balloons, streamers, the works. I had a 12-pack of Diet Pepsi waiting for me and what else but candy! My friends know me too well. I got super cute gifts and even Baby got a cute fisherman’s sweater from my friend Abbie! It is so, so cute. Oh and Saturday morning I went back to my clients and was able to set up the bunk bed so you don’t have to feel bad for them. I now have 4 kid clients who think I’m the bomb dot com. Kids are so easy to please.

Baby it's cold outside...and inside...

Our furnace seemed to be broken a couple of weeks ago. Turns out our furnace was really dirty. Also, we were informed you are supposed to change the furnace filter monthly. We have lived in our place now for 17 months and haven't changed the filter once. Oops. Our bad. The furnace works now. Thankfully.

A belly that is growing at a rapid pace...

My belly has seemed to go from this to this in just a matter of weeks. I can't remember when the first one was taken, I think around 4 and 1/2 months. Right around the time the barfing stopped. I'm 6 months now. My belly button seems to be holding on for dear life. I keep checking to see if it has popped. It's almost there. I always thought pregnant people were cute. Not so cute when it's happening to you. One really cool thing is the baby is moving SO much. I really love it.

I don't know if anyone wanted to see this, but this is what I look like at the moment!

2 Years of Marital Bliss

Because there's no better wayto say "Happy Anniversary" than a pair of matching I Heart each other slash Mr. and Mrs. sweats. Seth always thought it would be funny to have matching elastic bottom sweats. Lucky for him, the traditional two year anniversary gift is something made of cotton. These Wal-mart special sweats are 100% cotton. Perfect.

Seth and I celebrated our second anniversary on Nov. 17th. Two years and going strong.

To Chop or Not to Chop?

I know this is ridiculous and the length of my hair certainly is not worthy of a post, but deciding whether or not to cut my hair has been consuming my thoughts during the entire time I get ready each morning and each time I go to the bathroom (cuz I see myself in the mirror). Above is a picture of about what my hair looks like right now.

The pics below are examples of my short hair. I am so so so sick of my long hair right now. I have lots of fine hair that just hangs on my head and doesn't do anything. I'm hesitant to chop it though because my preggo-chunks-face might be just around the corner. It'd be pretty traumatic if I chopped by hair and then my face all of the sudden decided to get chubster.

Do I just not risk it and wait until my baby is born and then do the traditional new mom chop?

p.s. I realize I am so pathetic to post about this, but help a girl out would ya?

p.p.s. This picture is from when Seth and I were dating. We were so in like in this picture, not quite in love yet. :) Fun memories. Oh and it looks like he has frosted tips. He doesn't.