Cute Crib

I had to post a picture of my beautiful crib. This crib was actually handmade by my brother in law (John's sister's husband). Cool, no? So I just got the mattress in and bedding washed and in and I thought it was cute and wanted to share.


Also, it pains me to have to explain this, but evidently there are quite a few who have serious concerns for me as far as any parenting skills I may have. So for their peace of mind I will add this: YES I KNOW STUFFED ANIMALS AND PILLOWS SHOULD NOT BE IN A CRIB WITH AN INFANT. They're just place holding people, cuz they're cute. I have read up on SIDS and have educated myself accordingly. You can now go back to wondering if I think it's appropriate to leave my baby unattended outdoors or if I have managed to remain unaware in my 28 years on this planet that babies poop, a lot. Thanks!

A Weekend of Adventures.

It started Friday night here:

(Camp Chef tailgating with John and Dallon - COLD!)

Then we went here:

(The poor Ags lost, we knew they would, they were playing Boise - but we were proud that they made a decent run at first of making it interesting, having it tied up 14-14 w/ just a few minutes left in the first half. Some silly mistakes and pressure from a good team, and they just couldn't keep it up. GO AGGIES!)

Saturday afternoon I went here:

(My good friend Amie threw me a baby shower. How fat and uncomfortable do I look?)

(Lots of family made quite the drive to come... very sweet!)

(This is me with the present girls... They made a little assembly line.)


(We took lots of pictures for my mom, who is in Hungary. This was her gift for the shower.)

(The little girls were given the camera to take pictures, and so a great deal of the pictures look like this. CUTE!)

Sunday night we finished up here:

(I threw this sweet party including shades and necklaces.)


(Because this little girl turned 21!)


(Because she's so old and her lungs are compromised,
she needed some youthful help with the candles.)


(This was the requested red velvet cake...
although I should have spiked it... all the children
and pregnant ladies... would have been awesome.)



(Happy Birthday Emily!!!)

And then I spent the subsequent week recuperating. :)

Coconut, You Made My Day Complete!

My birthday this year was pretty low key. Which is shocking if you know me because for the last many years I've all but insisted that my birthday be celebrated in week long format rather than day long. However, this year I didn't have the energy to celebrate for a week so I allowed everyone to take a break, hehe. I did however, get a sweet MyTouch 3g in honor of my b-day, so now when you email me, I can be answering you from the Dr's office, where I always am. Ha.

I also did make a cake. Yes, I make cake for my own birthday. But I honestly don't mind doing it, and the part that is the most fun is I get to choose the treat that I think sounds the very best with no other considerations... That either means coconut, chocolate or both. :)

For this year - Pineapple Coconut Cake via this book. (PS. I purchased that book because there is an entire chapter dedicated to coconut cake.)



The cake has coconut milk in it, the filling is very easy, basically a reduced, thickened and even more 'sugarized' version of a can of crushed pinapple, and the frosting is a cooked pineapple meringue frosting. I've never made a meringue frosting before, I found it was less daunting that it sounded from the instructions, but definitely more complicated than butter cream. Creates kind of a light fluffy result, which I found really cool... but if you LOVE butter cream, it may not be your thing.

Despite what the author of that book would like I'd happily share the recipe, if you're actually interested. :)

Spoiler Alert!

If for unknown reasons it's very important to you to be completely surprised about what our unborn looks like, you may not want to read on. However, to most of you this will simply look like randomness anyway, so even if you want to you may still have no idea.

This morning John and I went in for a 'growth ultrasound'... the Dr. offered us this service so we could see how things were progressing if we'd like (i.e. you guys have good insurance, wanna rack up the bill for them a bit?.... and yes, we always, always do). It was not due to any indication that anything is wrong - nor was I worried there was, but I just wanted to see him, cuz it's been awhile.

What we learned: The baby has assumed good laboring position (head down), and though he has time to change that, he most likely won't.

Also, according to their calculations, which admittedly have widely varying accuracy, he's just over 5lbs, which is a little bit big, but nothing huge. If it happened their "calculations" were on the nose and he put on the average weight from here to my delivery he'd be in the 8 lb range. So we're not talking anything real big. *Phew* To me he feels huge in there though, so I'm not sure how I'll survive.

And - he's definitely still a boy.

The following image of our baby's face is of their fancy 3-d type... Take from that what you will... they still look a lot like black and gray blobs... I actually thought this one was okay as far as being able to see him - from my experience with these types of pictures anyway. See what you think.

(Baby Heywood - 33 Wks)

Still not able to see him in there?? I have provided some help, which may help you decipher the code and break the mental wall like those pictures where it looks like one thing, but it's really something else - and you can't tell it until someone points it out to you... See if this clears anything up... (it's the same pic, but w/ arrows.)


Other than that, no, we still don't know what we're naming him, even if we decide we probably won't say for sure, so don't bother to ask. Although, tonight at dinner John did suggest the names Cannon and Exxon and Augustus... he was joking... thankfully.

Halloween Observance

John and I didn't do a lot this year for Halloween... it's not really John's favorite as he does not like scary stuff or dressing up, so all he's left with is candy. Ha. I like having parties, but am too fat to be up for that much either. I did think we should do something however, so we made some cupcakes from my aforementioned book. Had to take a picture, cuz they're all so super cute.

Trippin'

Ok, and now for a few trip photos and not just long rants exposing how much of an old iritated woman I am.

First of all, as far as pictures go, no they are not THAT beautiful... it's a beautiful place, but it's hot and wet and sandy and we were relaxing so there was no hauling around of the Canon... plus which the Canon desperatley needs to be cleaned. Instead you are subjected to crappy fuji point and shoot pictures... but since no one really loves to see all that many vacation photos of others, somehow i'm sure you'll survive.

This is the beach directly outside (about 30 feet outside)
our room... soooo beautiful. And yes, a Corona commerical
in the making.

John at Smuggler's Cove on our first day. Pretty
Good snorkeling.... ridiculously clear water.

John enjoying a pina colada from a beach
vendor at Smuggler's Cove.

Our 'three' shadows on Cane Garden Bay Beach.

The view on our drive - this is Cane Garden Bay
Beach on Tortola.

Hard to have tension just looking at this pic...

We took a day sail charter and went out to a
couple different islands, did some snorkeling,
saw 'the baths' and hung out on the boat.

Snorkeling by Cooper Island.

From the beach at Cooper Island... our boat is just beyond
that palm leaf.

From the boat looking looking out on Virgin Gorda.

"The Baths" - Virgin Gorda

Going for the water... gotta keep hydrated.

Always the most flattering pic you can take.

Eating some lunch on our balcony... Rough Life.

On our sail...

I'm Back... and a Rant.

So we're back. Boo! But at least we had a good time and it was so great to get away. I'm sure I'll post pictures and stories soon, although they're nothing to write home about.... I was hardly about to drag my nice camera out into the hot, humid, wet, sandy areas we were in, and there is no art with a point and shoot, haha. (Glad i didn't i totally have sand in my little crap camera's lense.) But we were about reeeelllllaaaxxxinggg...and that's really what it was all about.... mmm. I do also have a few jobs to edit that I must get to quickly, so we'll see when I can deal w/ the vacation photos!

And now I wanted to relay this story, in hopes that perhaps someone can tell me why this type of person annoys me SO bad. It's probably just plain hypocritical for me to be this annoyed... but oh well! :)

Here is the scenario: After a long day of travel and several time zones we are now in baggage claim in SLC. It is midnight essentially. There is a large crowd of people at baggage claim all waiting for the revolving wheels to start turning and bags to start appearing. To our right John and I watch a couple girls hug and squeel, obviously two came to pick up the third. Fairly young - I'd venture a guess at 19-20-21. I must, because it is important later, describe what they look like. One has jeans, tshirt, jacket. Average. One is in basically pajamas. It's late, so acceptable. The third girl is wearing a black 'newsboy cap', a very short black dressish kinda trenchcoat (presumably also a very short black dress underneath... it can't be seen as the trench is tied), a very open weave set of black fishnet tights and shiney black pumps with a heel, probably 3 or 4 inches. Also her hair and make-up is normal/light besides black lipstick. I had only noticed them because of their loud excited greeting and then I went back to standing there in a very tired, dellusional, impatient to get my bag and get the heck out kinda haze.

A few moments later, the girl in the black ensemble, steps into the center of the crowd and announces, 'Hey everyone, my name is --- (don't even remember), it's my friend Kate's birthday today, and I was wondering if you all would help me sing happy birthday to her?!?!' No I don't want to sing happy birthday to your friend, no one even likes to sing happy birthday to their friends and relatives while the candles are burning really. I'm tired, it's been a long day, and I don't care in the slightest about Kate. In fact, truely i'm embarrassed for you right now, and this whole thing is embarrassing me and I'm not even the one talking. She starts and gets a very quiet, mumbled, unenthusiastic version of the requested song from the crowd. Of which I am not appart.

Moments after, as they're standing not too far behind us, I hear the girl who spoke to the crowd say, "Is it because of how I am dressed? People just don't get me here. I should be in London, I would fit in so much better in Europe." (English friends, please don't pee your "pants" at this point.)

I wanted to turn around and say to this poor victimized girl:

A) No it's not because of how you're dressed it's because it's late, we're tired, we don't KNOW Kate and we don't wanna. This isn't exactly a bar or a birthday party or a concert. Why do you even want us to do this?

B) Good luck w/ the Europe thing, clearly you've never been as from my experience, especially in England, loud, pushy Americans who make loud, pushy annoyingly public scenes are everything they hate in life. So you should fit in grrrrrreeeeaaaaatttt. Move imediately.

C) Why do people work so hard at being a big victim in life? Poor misunderstood rebels. Particularly those who can't pull it off. Girl, you're young, white, probably middle class and probably still have white, middle class parents who still pay some/all of your average bills - Have tragicly looking hookerish clothes and black lipstick all you want - you're still not a hip, misunderstood artist. No one is buying what you're trying to sell, it's all been done before. Grow up.

Am I jerk or what? I am, I know. Why does this girl and other girls exactly like her bother me so bad? Someone figure it out for me, and let me know.