Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

Countdown to Moving Day: 19 Hours

48 Hours!

Countdown to Moving Day: 2 Days

For those of you who don't know, some of these girls have been my friends since sixth grade and the others since ninth grade.  That didn't seem so impressive in tenth grade, but now that we're all 24 and 25, we're realizing that keeping old friends should really be a priority.  Tear.

Anyway, my children will be calling them Aunt Katie, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Jane, and other Aunt Sarah.  Aunt Emma is unpictured . . . as usual.

Baby Update

Thought I'd provide a little baby update.  We just entered the eighth week, which is the end of the second month, more than halfway through the first trimester  According to thebump.com, Baby Hutson is the size of a raspberry and looks like a tadpole.  He/she has little webbed fingers and toes, and he/she can actually move around even though I can't feel it yet.

As for me, I wish that I were just floating around without a care in the world.  Whoever named morning sickness was an idiot.  It's more like all-the-time-every-day sickness.  I wake up sick and force myself to eat something because if I don't eat something, my acid reflux will get bad and make me more sick.  Then I take a nap around noon when the nausea gets really bad, wake up an hour later and walk to babysitting in the 101 degree heat, lovely.  Around 6pm I can stomach a little dinner, and I try to eat something that isn't crackers, potato chips, or a bagel.  Last night, though, around 11:30, I saw a Taco Bell commercial and was just about dying to get my hands on whatever ridiculous steak burrito thing they were selling.  I don't even really like Taco Bell.  

But all complaining aside, "morning" sickness is usually a good sign of placenta development and hormone levels.  This time around things seem to be going really well, and we're looking forward to another doctor's appointment in a week where we will hopefully see the baby's heart beat.  Go baby go!

Getting Closer...

Countdown to Moving Day: 4 Days

Still Counting Down...

Countdown to Moving Day: 6 Days

Yes that is Ethan Miller, in a box, eating Chipotle, in the BVN dressing room.  There's just SO MUCH to do in Kansas!

Countdown

Countdown to Moving Day: 7 days

Twenty-Four is the new Sixty

Well I turned 24 a little while ago and didn't think much of it. It's not 21; it's not 30 . . . so what? But when I was washing my hands in the bathroom yesterday, I looked at myself in the mirror and sticking straight up in the middle of my part was a strong, wirey gray hair.

I tried to photograph it for you, but close-ups of hair follicles just don't look good for some reason.

So when I informed Johnny of this, he laughed at me (a direct quote would have been, "HA HA") and said he would pay for me to go get my hair dyed. Then he kept talking about how they should give him a bunch of before and after shots to chose from and how I should try red or better yet blonde.

It's a good thing that he was all the way in Maryland with the army so that he didn't have to experience my pregnant wrath . . . which most likely consists of complaining how bad things smell.

(Can you find him in the picture?)

Countdown

Countdown to moving day: 9 days

A Little Peanut

Well I was going to wait a little while longer, but I told my students in a good-bye email, so I guess I should let the rest of the world know as well.

We're pregnant!

I'm only 7 weeks along, and we had a little scare on Friday, but I went in to see the doctor and everything is fine. That little white blob is a growing and supposedly healthy baby. Next appointment is August 3, and we'll hopefully get to see a heartbeat then!

In the meantime, I'm going to go eat some more crackers and plain, baked potato because that's all I can stomach right now.

Summer Reading #5

Book #5: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

I feel like Maya Angelou gets a bad rap, but maybe I'm just thinking of my family's impression of her which is Tracey Morgan imitating her on Saturday Night Live with a line of greeting cards. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is her autobiography that focuses mainly on her childhood. She tells really interesting stories and gives insight into African American life around World War II. I would have almost given it five stars until the end. The ending, in my opinion, feels like she got tired of writing it and just stopped without giving closure on a many different things. Other than that, though, I recommend it, but definitely not for younger readers.

I give it:

Chaos

Welcome to the chaos of moving. I like to think that we're professionals now that we've moved to four different houses together since we've been married.

So here's our new plan...pack everything, drive the car to Kansas, get a moving company to drive everything else, live in my parents' basement until the Philadelphia house sells, buy a new house in Prairie Village.

Countdown: 19 days

Summer Reading #3 and #4

It's the battle of the Jane Yolen novels.

Book #3: The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

Now I don't know if anyone else remembers sitting in the seventh grade pod and watching this movie, but I do, and I think I liked the movie. The book ... not so much. The premise of the book is that you have a young Jewish girl from modern times who is sick and tired of hearing her relatives' stories about the Holocaust. Then somehow during Passover, she is magically transported back in time to the Holocaust and has to experience everything that her relatives did in the concentration camps. I just had a real issue with this. I understand that the author is trying to prove to young people that the memory of the Holocaust should be kept alive, but no family member who experienced concentration camps would ever wish that their grandchild would have to go experience it to understand what they went through. I much prefer Elie Wiesel's memoir Night to this book (though definitely an emotionally difficult read).

I give it:

Book #4: Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

This one, however, I do recommend. Briar Rose is an interesting mystery story about a young woman, Becca, whose grandmother dies and makes her promise that she'll figure out the truth about her past. All that Becca really knows about her grandmother is that she always told the story of Sleeping Beauty but in a different way than everyone else. The mystery ends up taking her on a trip to Poland to learn about an extermination camp there. There is a random gay character who at first I thought, "Really? An agenda in a book about the Holocaust?," but it ended up showing experiences of other people besides Jews who were persecuted. I found it very informative. Overall, the information in this book clearly shows that the author did her research way more than in The Devil's Arithmetic. This book was well-written and shows the reader that even if you have read a ton of books about the Holocaust, there is always new information out there, and the stories should never stop being told.

I give it:

Something You Might Find Interesting...

First of all, Happy Fourth of July! Thank you to all the people like my husband who have defended our independence for so many years.

And speaking of my husband, we have an exciting announcement: Johnny has been offered an actuarial position...in Kansas. Yes folks, that's right. We're packing up our humble belongings and saying good bye to Philadelphia.

But you ask:

Didn't you just buy a house in Philly? Yes.

Didn't Rachel say she would never live in the suburbs? Yes.

Is this what you really want to do? Absolutely.

We've had an amazing time in Philadelphia, especially me. But now it's time for us to settle down near family. So stay posted because this blog is going to take a turn toward home farming and the return of the Adventures of Austin, Meriahna, and Sydney!