For Emily, Abbie, Liz, and Whoever Else Is Interested,

Here is a picture of my belly, taken a couple of days ago (at 31 weeks and 1 day).

Things are going well. I pre-registered at the hospital today. Every day, I wish for a cookie, a brownie, a piece of cake, or a donut. Some days I give in, some days I don't. But what do you do when you've just baked a batch of cookies because they sounded good, and then you find yourself with more cookies than will power?

The prize-winner for most unexpected current pregnancy symptom: achy joints in my hands. It must from swelling, but my hands don't really look swollen to me. Curious.

We miss you, Christmas break!

We had a great time in Utah visiting with family and friends, and it was over too soon. I didn't take a lot of pictures, and most of the ones I do have are fuzzy, but I'm going to post them anyway. Some of the highlights include:

Christmas breakfast: Not picnic-style this year, and not cooked in the bathroom, but still prepared and eaten with love.
Midas received his first T-shirt.


A few of us went to the new Oquirrh Mountain temple. This is a prime example of our bad luck with pictures. After we were done at the temple, we drove away and turned around and went back specifically to take pictures, and this is the best we got. (Matthew REALLY loves the temple).


We even asked a passerby to take a picture for us, and ended up with several failed attempts from her as well. My favorite from her batch:


There were some great moments of the trip we didn't capture on film, but they were unforgettable. We got to talk to James on the phone. We played games a lot and went sledding a little, and we spent some time in Bear River with Hendricksons and Crosbys. We're so lucky to have such great families!

It's a . . .

We're having a boy baby!

I had another ultrasound this morning, and he's definitely a he. It's so clear, it would be awkward to post the ultrasound picture. It caught us off guard--we both thought it was a girl--but we're excited! Matthew, of course, loves the name Shadrach. So far, I like Dean, Grant, Theodore, and Maxwell. Hopefully in the next 19 weeks we can come to an agreement on something.

Also, in anticipation of today's doctor's visit, I have been fantasizing about the doctor telling me I need to gain more weight and ordering me to eat more ice cream, cookies, and chocolate. But the truth I learned today is that I have gained twice as much as I should have since my last visit. Drat.

Notice Anything Different About Us?

That's right! Matthew is a med student and I am a future community college English teacher!

Mother Knows

Sometimes I have a difficult time accepting unsolicited advice from my mom. It's like I'm still trying to prove, after 8 years of living away from home, that I'm independent, bright, capable of functioning on my own. Maybe it's a lingering echo of that phrase all toddlers master: "No! I do it!"

But sometimes, Mom's right. I have two case studies to illustrate.

1. Matthew, as everyone who knows him knows, is an exceptionally smart, hard-working guy. But for whatever reason, by mid-June, we still didn't know whether he was going to get in to medical school. We kept our fingers crossed for Midwestern, where he was on a waiting list. During that time, my mom called more than once to suggest that Matthew just go up to the admissions office and talk to them. Maybe a spot would open and they'd give it to him. I thought it was sort of silly, but I agreed to humor her and mention it to Matthew. Anyway, we went. Matt was in the admissions office for less than 5 minutes. We drove back to Mesa thinking, oh, well. And the next day, he was in.

2. I like to think that I would be a great employee for a variety of employers. And when I got my master's degree last summer, I assumed it was my ticket to a very enjoyable (if low-paying) job in a library, a school, a museum, or an organization involving books in some way. But I think the last time I even had an interview was in February. Mom's advice to me in this situation: You should call the community colleges and see if there are any positions. Sometimes, they might have something they haven't posted online yet. At the time, I thought, oh, Mom. You just don't understand the age of technology. If there was a job, they'd post it. Well, last week in church, somebody heard me say that I had degrees in English and and humanities, and said, "the community colleges need English teachers." "Really?" I said, "I've been checking the job postings and haven't seen anything..." She assured me I should just get in touch with the various department chairpeople. On Thursday I sent my info to three people. Within an hour I had an interview set up. This morning at the interview, the head of the English department at PVCC gave me the job.

So. . . thanks, Mom. Call again soon.

News

In the few minutes of public library internet time I've got today, I'm just going to note some news in our lives.

In the past month and a half,

• Matthew and Kathryn visited Eagar, where the sun is not so mean.

• Kathryn picked up a fascination for gardening (it's still theoretical, though), read some books, and edited some others.

• Matthew's work situation improved a little.

• Matthew and Kathryn enrolled in an anatomy and physiology class together. Their final is on Friday - hooray!

• Matthew and Kathryn moved to a lovely condo.

• Matthew and Kathryn visited Utah, very briefly.

And finally, and most importantly,

• Matthew got accepted to medical school at Midwestern University in Glendale!
  

I'm so proud of Matt. He's going to be a great doctor. We have a busy month ahead with another move and all the other preparations, but I'm going to try to savor this pre-med school time.

And one more thing: here come the summer thunderstorms!

More Than a Quarter Century

We celebrated Matthew's birthday this weekend with family, friends, lots of good food, and some water.

"Water" was Matt's response when I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday. I found out through some probing that he meant he wanted to play in a river or a lake, so we drove north to Fossil Creek and had a great afternoon of hiking and playing in the water. Matthew loves to jump off of things into water, and he loves to climb on things, so we were happy when we found a spot upstream that provided opportunities for both. Here is Matthew doing what he loves:



(After I watched Matthew jump a few times, I thought I might want to do it, so I climbed up, swam over, and clambered down to the edge of the waterfall. Then I stood there for a long time looking down, and finally, I turned around and retraced my steps. I was NOT too afraid to do it. I just decided I didn't want to, that's all.)

For lunch we split a bag of Jalapeno chips. It was a great day, and a great finish to a three-day celebration that included Frisbee, Grandma Crosby's delicious fried chicken, cheesecake, and our nieces Raylin and Lucy trying to learn how to walk. Happy Birthday, Matthew!