We don't celebrate Valentine's Day

We do, however, really like to go places and visit friends. This trip just happened to fall on Valentine's weekend.

Luckily for us, we have some of the best friendlies in the universe. Alissa, Jon, Russell, and Alice are always so nice to let me come stay; this time I tested their resolve by bringing a whole posse along with me. So with Nic and friends in tow, we drove to Southern California for an amazing weekend.


Nic, Mike, and Emily spent Friday at the King of the Hammers off-road race. But because I require a lot more sleep, and because I really just wanted to hang out with Alissa, I stayed back and did girl stuff. This included finding the most fabulous dress for Alice for only $13 (originally $50!) and a matching one to fit baby Norah when she gets here. I have now found one perk to being pregnant: Shopping with a girlfriend for baby clothes. That, my friends, is a good time.

The next day was spent at the beach in Laguna Hills. Somehow I managed to not fall down the hill we all climbed up.


Alissa's caption for this photo: "I got an excellent picture of a dumb bird dangerously close to the ocean: And there is a seagull in that picture with Nic, too." I like her so much.

Honestly, one of the best things about spending time with the Kings is that I get to see a glimpse of what it will hopefully be like when Nic and I have our little family. I mean look how fun these kids are:


Anyone who knows me know that I don't especially like it when people try to tell me my business, so I'm not one to ask for advice, well, ever. But when it comes to babies and parenting and all that crazy insane new stuff that I know nothing about, Alissa is my safe place. That's just one reason why it's so fun to see her in action. She gives me confidence that I can be a good mom too. Thanks Alissa for being such a great hostess and for hooking me up with all the baby stuff!

On a lighter note, we also went to the swap meet at the Rose Bowl and saw Jeanine, the season 5 winner from So You Think You Can Dance? Nic says she is even hotter in real life, which is just one reason why I didn't ask to get my picture taken with her. I don't need evidence of pregnant me standing next to perfect dancer girl. No thank you.

Because he was jealous of all my ultrasounds

Growing up without health insurance, Nic has always had a no ambulance rule. Meaning that say he completely shattered his ankle racing motocross, he would refuse the ambulance because he didn't want to get stuck with the bill. I, however, do not abide by that rule, which is why the ambulance transported him to American Fork hospital this morning, not me. I wasn't about to be stuck in traffic with a husband writhing in pain--send me some paramedics!

The stupid part is that after an ambulance ride, x-rays, CAT scan, ultrasound, blood tests and A LOT of morphine, they still can't tell us what caused his severe abdominal pain. We have a suspicion that it's his gallbladder, even though the ultrasound didn't show any stones. So six-ish hours later we got sent home with Lortab and some well wishes.

It's frustrating because A) I've never seen anyone in that much pain, which had to have been caused by something wrong and B) What in the world are we supposed to do if it happens again? Go back to the ER and hit him up with more morphine?

On Monday we're going to Nic's primary care physician who will hopefully refer us to a specialist who will take some more time to figure out the problem. Does anyone out there have experience will gallbladder problems? He's already had his appendix out, so we know it's not that...

This also proves that I will never in my life be sicker than Nic. I'm growing a person here and he up and gets hauled off to the hospital. How do I compete with that?

Non-baby related

Nic finished the bodywork and painting on another car this week. This one is a 1972 BMW and it is ORANGE. With all these cars he's painting, the Landcruiser he builds for me is going to be uh-maze-ing. Right Nic?

Baby Norah!

There it is: Proof that Baby Norah is a girl! Or at least that's what our doctor told us this morning; I guess we'll just have to take his word for it because really, that doesn't look like anything to me, boy or girl.

I have my 20 week appointment at the hospital next Monday where apparently I'll be subjected to all sorts of poking and prodding and will have a better ultrasound--which will hopefully confirm baby's gender beyond an 80 percent chance. But according to my doctor today: "That's either a girl...or a boy with a really embarrassing pee-pee."

It's nice to finally have some info on this thing growing inside of me. I still haven't felt her moving around in there yet, but many of you know that I'm not exactly dying to feel something kicking. in. my. insides. Kinda weirds me out still, I'm not going to lie.

Other fun facts:

• I thought I was over the nausea until I had to leave work early and didn't quite make it home before I had to pull off the road and throw up. So now I've hurled at work, home, and on the side of the road. Maybe next will be the grocery store?
• I haven't had anymore breakdowns and have generally been quite happy. Nic really did throw away that book I was reading.
  
• Not so fun to find out was that I've gained seven pounds over the last month. I wasn't too concerned until my doctor told me to try to lay off the carbs. Nice. I don't think you can ever win; at my appointment in January I had lost three pounds and that wasn't so great either.
  
• Nic claims to not have a gender preference and is excited about having a girl; I am excited to go shopping!

Not recommended reading

Pregnancy breakdown No. 1 has come and gone and I blame a book. Truthfully, the most surprising thing about my little episode on Tuesday was that it hasn't happened sooner. I can't tell you how afraid we have always been of Pregnant Erin and how excited we were to find that she's actually a pretty nice person (who just likes to sleep a lot). Who knew?

Trouble came, however, when I started reading this book:

If I could sum up what I got out of the first couple of chapters, it would be this:

1. Having a baby is like throwing a grenade into your once-happy marriage.
2. Nic and I will never understand each other's needs.
3. Happiness as we know it is about to come to an end.
4. Nic is going to act like a giant douche.

As I read scenarios about couple after couple hating their new lives as parents, I could literally feel my heart pounding out of my chest. That's why when Nic came home an hour or so later than he said, it was all over: This was the start of us never being happy again. He didn't want to come home because we're having a baby and men don't understand babies and he's never going to understand me. Who would want to come home to a tired, pregnant wife anyway? Men don't really want babies. And so on and so forth.

Are you starting to see why Nic confiscated this book? He came home to me sitting on the floor in tears informing him that I was freaking out and can't have a baby. And that's when he calmly reminded me how undouche-like he is and that he was taking my book. It was one of the shortest crises I've ever had.

When I told Nic I was writing about this, his declaration again was: "I'm not like the guys in that book, dammit!" Totally true. I'm lucky to have someone who can find me crying on the floor and make it okay. He'll still laugh about it though, which is one of the reasons I like him so much.

Oh, and if anyone wants a good alternative to Babyproofing Your Marriage, read Heather Armstrong's It Sucked, and Then I Cried. Or watch "Away We Go." Both address the same sort of issues; neither make you want to rethink any important life decisions.

Folk Dance Quilt: Completed

A few months back, Alissa somehow lead me to discover this quilt pattern. Mostly, I just loved the fabrics of the original, but then opted to not spend the money to buy the quilt kit. Luckily, my mother-in-law has an entire room of fabric (seriously, it's a whole bedroom) that for some lovely reason she keeps stocked with material and lets me pillage whenever I please. So this is my version:

I must be liking quilting more because I have now finished two entire quilts--without making Nic contribute at all.

If baby is a girl, then this is going in the nursery. If baby is a boy, I'll have to raid the fabric room for some less-flowery material. We'll hopefully know soon: Feb. 1 is my next ultrasound.

Bitchin' Camero

It's amazing how fast a car can be restored when you're not the one paying for it. It took Nic about a year to get the body work and paint done on his Coronet; for a client's Camero it took him roughly a month. Here's some before and after pictures that had me oohing and awwing.

I don't know how he has the patience, vision, and skill to turn this:

Into this:

How fantastic are those stripes? He did SUCH an amazing job. I mean, he cut out and replaced entire sections of metal. Who does that?

I like him so much.