An Important Update

I'm sure everyone's already heard, but just in case you haven't... we're having a BABY!

14 weeks today!

It's taken me a while to get it up here... I am so lazy about blogging these days.  :)  Reading other blogs of pregnant first-timers has really helped me get through the nausea.  And lots and lots of baby pictures.  Doesn't matter whose baby it is.

Anyhoo, so maybe I'll write about my experience.  Or maybe you want to be spared the details?  Here's one funny thing.  Before getting pregnant, my whole life--I never had a sweet tooth.  Never cared much for candy.  Now, every time I see someone eating candy, or see it on the shelf at the store, or in an ad, I want it.  Candy that I would never, never eat before--like swedish fish--I have been eating in handfuls.  Last night I even dreamed about candy.

I've also been eating lots of potatoes.  French fries, mashed, baked, you name it.  Mmm... maybe I'll make potato salad today.  That sounds good.

I did have a bad case of nausea for about 6 weeks.  Some days I wanted to die.  (Not really.)  But then one morning, about two weeks ago, I woke up and it was gone.  Completely.  I am SO LUCKY!  I haven't totally gotten my appetite back though.  For example, I can't eat broccoli, dark chocolate, mint-chocolate, pizza, and especially avocado and ESPECIALLY guacamole.  Thinking about it makes me sick.

For those of you concerned about my veg diet, I have been eating chicken noodle soup.  And I have tried, with all my might, to eat some actual chicken.  I haven't been able to yet.  ANY IDEAS???  I think it will be good for my baby to have some meat.  Maybe someone can grind it up and hide it in something else and I'll eat it without knowing... that might work.  Anyway, everyone says that it's ok to have a vegetarian pregnancy if you eat right.  So we'll see.  I'm ok with eating meat though.  If only I could do it.

So here are the books I'm reading... I am very interested to know which book YOU would suggest, or if you are against reading any of these:

HypnoBirthing
Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way
Fit Pregnancy for Dummies
What to Expect When You're Expecting

John and I are super excited.  Our due date is August 18.  I don't know if I can wait that long!

Some Pics from the Holidays

Another great blessing of living in New York is that we are so close to John's brother and his wife, Josh and Mattie.  We got to spend Thanksgiving at their apartment in New Haven!  We had the most delicious dinner and such a great time.

Check out their beautiful Thanksgiving dishes.  

The day after Thanksgiving we took the bus up to Boston to spend the weekend with my very good friend Laura and her family.  It was my first time visiting Boston and I was so excited to finally see the place where Laura grew up!  While we were there we got to go on a wonderful historical tour of the area lead by Laura's mother.  We also got to hang out with John's old professor Kirk Dearden (and his family) who now teaches public health at Boston University.  

This is a replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin at Walden Pond.  It has been a dream of mine to visit Walden Pond for a long time it was so exciting!

Holding hands with Mr. Thoreau (and trying not to freeze to death).

Walden Pond

 We also got to visit the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord and the graves of some famous writers.

We also visited the Freedom Trail in Boston, including the North Church where the lantern was hung (remember the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea") the night of Paul Revere's famous "midnight ride."  We saw Faneuil Hall, the Minuteman museum in Concord, and the site of the battles of Lexington and Concord.  We went to the Old North Bridge, site of the "shot heard 'round the world," and the Wayside Inn (from Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn).  It was so awesome to be in a place with so much history.  I would definitely recommend going to visit.  I hope we can go back sometime soon.  

 Here is Laura's dad making his wonderful healthy pancakes for us.  Blueberries, cinnamon, coconut, whole wheat, and lots of other stuff.  He also has a cookie business, and we got to sample some of the rejects.  They were so delicious!!  I can't wait to taste the real cookies (hopefully sold at Whole Foods soon!)

We also got to try a Fluffernutter for the first time!  It's a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow cream.  I guess kids in the Northeast grow up eating these but I had never heard of them!

This year we decided to spend Christmas in New York.  We were sad to be away from our families but we needed to save the money (and traveling during the holidays is the worst!!)

  John infront of the famous tree at the Rockefeller Center.  It was HUGE!

For lunch on Christmas Eve we invited some people from our ward over for crepes.  

Our cute friends June and Olive.

Here are some pics of the huge snow storm that came right after Christmas.  It was nice not having a car that we had to drive in the snow!

And that's it.  I always wish that I had taken more pictures... maybe next year!

1001 Reasons Why We Love New York

Just kidding, you probably wouldn't have time to read all that.  But here are a few!

1. There is always something to do.  Concerts, musicals, plays, community events, food, sight-seeing, museums, parks, shopping, etc.

(The view of Ground Zero from our friend's office building down town)

 (We won the Wicked lottery when John's family was visiting!)

 (Famous Jackson Pollock at either the Museum of Modern art or the Met-- I can't remember)

(The Brooklyn Bridge)

2. The FOOD.  I always heard that people in New York never cook and I thought that was so weird.  But now I understand why!  There is good food everywhere.  Anything you're in the mood for--from any country you can think of.  And it's pretty easy to find it for cheap.  We really like a Chinese place around the corner where we can both fill up (with left-overs) on $4 each.

3. People live in small apartments.  Can you imagine?  We know a family of 7 that lives in a two bedroom apartment (all 5 kids in the same room) and they ALL GET ALONG!  This is just one example.  Many families in New York live like this.  It appears to be good for the family.

4. Another result of small apartments--we spend a lot of time outside and less time sitting around inside.

 (The view from the Henry Hudson Park trail near our house.  George Washington Bridge above, going to New Jersey.)

(Central Park in the fall)

5. Doggies everywhere!!  It seems to us that having a dog is the thing to do in New York.  It is really fun for John and I because we love dogs and we get to pet them and play with them, even though we can't have any for ourselves because of allergies.

(The Halloween doggie parade in the Village!)

 (Can you believe this?)

 (So cute.)

5. NO CAR!!!!!!  Not having a car has been a luxury for us.  We have no car payments, no insurance, no parking, no driving in snow or ice, and no being stuck in traffic.  What a dream.  Everywhere we need to go, we can get there on the subway or the bus.  The public transportation in this city is amazing.  We are loving it.

6. Our neighborhood.  It is almost like living in a small town.  There is a library, post office, clothing/furniture/shoe stores, Goodwill, Staples, several groceries, cheap pizza, laundry, pet stores, bike stores, pharmacies, restaurants, and a movie theatre within walking distance of our apartment.  Quick and easy access to all the essentials.

7. Bike lanes all over the city.  New York has been getting serious about this over the past few years.  There are physically protected paths, bi-directional protected paths, buffered bike lanes, green painted bike lanes, and shared lanes all over the city.  Not to mention all the bike paths in the parks.  We love it!  John has access to special indoor, guarded bike parking area at his work.

 (Biking across the George Washington Bridge for cheaper groceries in New Jersey.)

8. Having a grocery around the corner, with cheap produce. This has been a huge convenience for me.  In Atlanta I drove 20 minutes to the grocery store and stocked up for the week.  Here I can just run over and get what I need for the day.

9. Our ward.  We are really enjoying our ward.  It is full of the most friendly and outgoing people we have ever met.  Before we even moved here we had friends.  We are always going places and hanging out with our friends from the ward.  There are also dozens of professional performing artists in the ward. And I mean the serious kind, that perform on Broadway and with the Met.  It is a little intimidating for me but really awesome.

Ok well, nine's enough for now.  Please come visit us.  We have plenty of floor space.  It will be so fun!

Our trip to Ireland

This post is way overdue!  I am a lazy blogger.

So here it is... the story of the rest of our summer travels:

Ireland.  Ireland is awesome.  I know why it is so green there.  Because it rains ALL the time!  It's also really cold.  I had to buy a raincoat and an umbrella and like 5 pairs of socks!  I was freezing the whole time we were there.  In August.  It was kind of funny actually--every time the sun came out (which was only for a few minutes at a time) and the temperature increased to about 65, everyone would start complaining about how dreadfully hot it was!!  Anyway, it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been.  And Irish people are pretty cool.

We didn't learn our lesson from the first car rental and did it again in Ireland.  At least it was not a hybrid this time, but we did have to drive on the left side of the road which was WORSE!!!

Dad shifting the gears with his left hand.

We saw a lot of old castles like this one on our drive.

The beautiful fields in the countryside.  It's probably hard to see the stone walls that separate the fields but that was one of my favorite things to see.

Anyway, the first day we drove down to the southern tip of the island, to Bally Bunion.  People drive crazy mad in Ireland, like 80 miles an hour on the small two-lane highways.  Scary.  Bally Bunion is famous for golfing.  Even President Clinton was there once, and they built him a statue in the center of the town!

The reason we decided to stay there was because John and I have a friend in Atlanta from there.  His family is still there.  So we were planning to meet them but something came up with the family and we never ended up meeting them.  But it was ok, because we stayed a bed and breakfast that looked right out over the beach and the sea.  It was so beautiful.  Check out the ancient castle ruins.

By the way, there were toddlers running around NAKED on this beach!  I was barely able to keep from shivering with my sweatshirt on!

The next day we drove north.  We stopped by the Burren (pronounced "burrn") National Park in County Clare.   It is a huge area covered in limestone rock with little cracks where the grass came through.  While we were there we saw the oldest man-made structure that I had ever seen.  It is an ancient tomb and I think they estimate that is is 5,000 years old.  Here is someone else's picture from the internet.

The Burren had stone walls like this everywhere.  Some of them were reeeeally really old.

We also stopped by the Cliffs of Moore which are these really cool cliffs along the ocean.  Sorry, no picture.  I think it is where they filmed some scenes in the new Harry Potter movie!

Anyway, Dad and John went home the next morning and Mom, Carlene and I stayed for the epic event that we had been waiting for... the whole purpose for our trip to Europe.  The Fleadh!  The biggest traditional music festival in the woooooorlddd!  This year it was in Cavan.  It was awesome.  We stayed with a host family who we paid 35 Euros each per night.  They made a killing off of us.  (Everyone in the town rented rooms for the same price so I guess there was no way to negotiate it.)  The mom cooked us traditional Irish breakfast every morning.  It was more like meatfast than breakfast but what can you do.  They eat this weird thing called black and white pudding which I never ate because I heard someone say "pig's blood" and that was the deal breaker for me.  But I did really like their brown bread and porridge.    Our host family had four children who had names like Cian and Cara.  It took me a few days before I could understand anything they were saying but they were nice to us.  Their house was freezing all of the time.  I took a shower as little as possible because the window to the bathroom was always open and I hated taking a shower while cold air was blowing on me!  One night we asked them if they could turn the heat on and they looked at us kind of funny and then brought a little space heater into our room.

This was the view of the front and back yard of the house.  The house and property had been in their family for many generations.  I can't imagine what that would be like!

Well, we started out the week by attending the Scoil Eigse, a big music camp that proceeds the Fleadh Cheoil.  All of the students were divided into groups by instrument and ability level.  I joined the adult mixed instrument class.  The teacher of my group was Mary Nugent and she was so cool.   This was my first experience learning tunes by ear and it was really hard.  I played the whistle, by the way.  It was the easiest one to carry all the way over from the US.  Mom was playing the flute and Carlene was playing the fiddle.  Other traditional Irish music instruments are: accordion, banjo, uilleann pipes, and concertina. Every evening after we spent the day memorizing new tunes, they had a huge "session" with everyone in the camp.  It was crazy to be in a big room with like 500 people all playing tunes together!  (A session is when irish musicians get together in a pub and just play tunes together.  Kind of like a jam session I guess.)

This is my teacher's cd that just came out.  (She's the one playing the flute!) I love it.  You should check it out.

At the end of the week the town became flooded with thousands of Fleadh-goers.  There were concerts and sessions going on all over the place, and competitions, and (my favorite part) busking going on all over the streets!  I didn't know what busking was before this trip.  Basically it's when you play on the street for money.  People of all ages (even cute little kids) were playing by themselves and in groups all over the place.  And the streets were packed with people listening and enjoying themselves.  Literally, the streets were packed so tight that sometimes I got stuck in a human traffic jam and couldn't move.  It was crazy to see how excited these Irish people were about the music.

This was a spontaneous street session that we joined for a little bit.  After a while people had to start sessions on the street because there was no more room in the pubs.  

Some young buskers.

Mom and Carlene played in a few sessions.  I was never brave enough to join in. 

This session was fun because there were kids playing in it.  The bar served them soda instead of Guiness. 

Some of our highlights were seeing Andy Irvine (front row seats!!), Lunasa, and my favorite--Dedannon!  They were soooooo awesome.   One of the main draws of the Fleadh are the competitions.  They have competitions for every instrument and every age level.  We went to some of them, and were totally blown away at how good all of the kids were who participated in the competitions.  There were little kids playing the fiddle who would knock the socks off of some of the famous fiddle players in the US that I have heard!  And that goes for all the instruments.  Banjo, concertina, etc.  It's like they were born with the music in their blood.  The most interesting competitions we went to were the whistling and lilting.  They would just stand in front of the room and whistle tunes!  They were very serious about it.  Lilting is hard to describe, but it was also really cool to watch.

Andy Irvine

Going to the Fleadh was the most intense introduction to Irish music anyone could have.  It was awsome.  I am totally into it now.  "Trad" is what they call it over there.  I love "trad."  I listen to it all the time.   The thing that really surprised me was how into it the kids were.  There were hundreds and hundreds of kids at the music camp and in the competitions who were SO good.  I've never been to a music camp that had so many kids who were so excited to play music.  It was really unbelievable.  I can't wait to go back someday (but I probably won't be able to afford it for a long time)!

NEW YORK CITY!!!!

Ok, well if you haven't already heard, John and I are moving to New York City!  And we are doing it in SIX days!  I have been meaning to announce it on here but I have been keeping myself busy and away from the computer.

Things are crazy around here!  We are packing up our house, selling our car, and spending time with as many friends as possible before we leave Georgia.  I am sad to leave Atlanta (I will miss the hot weather SO much) but I am terribly excited to live in New York.  John of course is in heaven and we haven't even gotten there yet.  New York is one of his number one favorite places on this planet.  It is my dream come true to live in a place where we don't have to own a car.  No car payments, no insurance, no more being stuck in traffic, no more finding a parking space!! Yay for the subway!  I'm excited about lots of other things too, but at this moment the car is on my mind because we are trying hard to get that thing sold and out of our hair.  Anyone want a 1999 Camry?

We were just in NYC last weekend looking for an apartment and boy, what an adventure that was.  We think we found one (cross your fingers), but we haven't signed a lease or paid any money yet.  It's in the Washington Heights/Inwood area in northern Manhattan.

SO, consider yourself invited to New York.  Please Please Please come visit us.  You have no excuse not to come now.  A free place to stay in New York!  You CAN'T pass that up!  So go buy your plane ticket right now!

Oh yeah the reason we're moving is because John's fellowship program is sending him to the New York City Health Dept. on assignment for two years.  He is really excited to work there.  It will be good for him to rub shoulders with some important people in the field.  And he competed with several other people for this position so go John!!  As for me I am going to find a job.  Somewhere, somehow.  Hopefully I will be able to use my fancy expensive degree.  We'll see.

Ok, back to packing.  Any tips on how to pack hangers?  Box or garbage bag?