Early Thanksgiving Dinner

Greg and I slaved away in the kitchen last night to prepare for our dinner party tonight. We are finally having our upstairs neighbors over for dinner. I had been struggling with knowing what to make these three Tufts international students -- two Frenchmen and one Turk -- but then we thought of creating a mini Thanksgiving feast. I had a blast last night (and Greg pretended to enjoy it even though it was not his idea of a fun evening) making pumpkin roll, baking a turkey breast, and prepping a handful of other dishes for tonight. I only had a few moments of freak-out as I thought about how incredible both French and Turkish cuisine are compared to my half-effort dinner. But Greg was quick to remind me that college boys are always happy for a free meal. Let's hope I don't offend their taste buds! Since Greg and I are going to Erie, PA this Thanksgiving to be with my family, it's fun still being able to host a piece of Thanksgiving in our home. I wish we could invite all of you over tonight! (But our little home will be packed to the max with five people!)

I can't wait to eat pumpkin roll!!!

Meet Baby King

Adorable facial profile picture

A cute little foot just waiting to be tickled

Can you guess the gender from this one?
(Hint: the picture is taken from below looking up.)

Meet our little boy at 18 weeks, 2 days

I think he looks like Greg!

We're so thankful for how God has sustained and grown this little guy thus far!

Oh if only we had backed up our computer...

Our other blog-worthy event from our trip to Nashville is that of our computer hard drive crashing. I tried all of the trouble-shooting suggestions online to no avail. In fact, I couldn't even find the hard drive to "repair" it as they were instructing. We took it in to the Apple store today, and they determined that the hard drive has a mechanical failure. Ugh! Our "Genius" (as they call the techies who help you at the store) was great, and after attempting to recover the data himself, he referred us to a couple companies to contact for more complex data recovery. He set us up for our free replacement as soon as we're ready. And he even suggested that NEXT TIME, we buy an external hard drive and back up our computer regularly. ha ha The thing is, we'd been planning to do just that for the last ten months. We had even decided which one to buy... But we mistakenly assumed that our computer was still new enough that we could safely put it off a little longer. Boy, were we wrong!

So from one blogger who has lost all pictures, music, documents, papers, financials, etc. to a friend who has hopefully not experienced this, I urge you with fervency to stop putting off your computer back-up and do it NOW. You will not regret it.

Airport Security?

Greg and I flew to Nashville on Wednesday for a conference. We had a great time reconnecting with some friends there and were thankful to be able to attend. Our stop-overs going and returning were both in Detroit, and we had a four hour lay-over on the way home on Friday. Greg's parents were able to pick us up in Detroit, and we had a wonderful dinner together at a nearby restaurant before heading back to the airport to return to Boston.

We had absolutely no trouble getting back in the Detroit airport, no problems with security. In fact, there was hardly anyone there at 8:00pm on a Friday, so we had 5-6 security officers assisting and chatting with us. As our plane was beginning to board, Greg and I pulled out our boarding passes to make sure we were sitting by each other. We were completely confused to not see our Detroit to Boston flight on my boarding pass. We knew we'd only received one boarding pass each so why were they different? I searched my bag for a second boarding pass, all the while knowing I didn't have one. But then I pulled one out of a book I had been reading on the last flight. We looked at the two boarding passes side by side and realized that I had gotten into the Detroit airport on the boarding pass of my seatmate from the prior leg!!! (Apparently I had picked it up and thought it was mine.) And you know what was even crazier than them not realizing my ID didn't match? My seatmate's trip ENDED in Detroit, so they shouldn't have even let me back in through the airport security on that boarding pass.

We were shocked, and I am still shocked as I write this. It definitely drives home the point that you really need to keep track of your boarding pass. It wouldn't be difficult for someone to fly as you!

Seeking your Baby Registry Advice

Okay, the time has come. With the holidays just around the corner (and mainly motivated by my family celebrating "Christmas at Thanksgiving"), Greg and I took the plunge and made a trip to Babies R Us yesterday.

This was actually our second trip. The first one was over a month ago, and I begged him to let us walk through the store once when we were shopping nearby. It didn't go so well. My marvelous husband made it through 1/3 of the store with me in about five minutes and had to run out to keep from hyperventilating. I can definitely understand his response -- the massive amounts of STUFF they're trying to sell us and the prices and the fact that he probably didn't know what half of it even was -- that's enough to make anyone hyperventilate.

Well, this time we did a little prep talking and set a 45 minute time limit and a goal -- open a registry and look at car seats and strollers. Greg was awesome, and we even had time to pick out a bjorn as well!

So here is the purpose of this post. I know a lot of you that follow us are parents, and we would love your advice on what items you think are necessary for a newborn. First though, you have to be aware of our situation. We live in a teeny tiny apartment (and will be here for at least the first few months with baby) without a washer and dryer or dishwasher (thus cloth diapers will have to wait). We already snagged a bassinet off Craig's List, so we're set with bedding. Finally, due to the ambiguity of our future, we are really trying to walk the route of simplicity and minimalism. Okay, knowing all that, what items do you suggest we include or not include on our registry?

We've already started one at Babies R Us if you want to see the tips we've received thus far. I found this post about items to include and this post about items not to include immensely helpful to get us started.

Bring on the advice!

Autumn Musings on an Odd Day

Last night, Greg and I decided to pull out the winter clothes. It has been quite chilly here recently, and we were both getting desperate for our sweaters and winter socks and coats. It was surreal for me to pack away all my summer clothes and realize that the next time I pull them out, I'll have a little one in in my arms...and somehow I doubt I'll be able to wear half of those clothes again!

This morning, we woke up to snow flurries! It was such a strange site, walking to work in the falling snow while the rows of trees along my walk were still green with only touches of autumn peeking about. I have been watching closely the row of trees along my walk, as it happens every year that suddenly one day I will look at them and find the most amazing display of colors. Today wasn't the day; they are still green. But that didn't seem to stop the snow.

We lost power at work today. Not just our building but a large portion of our city (Medford). Apparently some manhole covers near where we used to live were on fire, and somehow that caused the power to be lost for what they're now saying will probably be 8-10 hours minimum. Greg and I live less than half a mile from my office, but yet, here we are blessed with electricity. I am thankful. But I have to admit that I am more thankful for the extra few hours I have this afternoon to SLEEP (and blog).

Lastly, going back to yesterday, Greg and I were able to hear the amazing sound of our baby's heartbeat again. A month ago, it took our doctor a good minute or so to find this little one's heartbeat, but yesterday, he found it in a few seconds. Our little one seems to be developing well and healthily, something for which we are thankful and amazed. We're excited to find out whether I'm carrying a boy or girl in four weeks and bring home some pictures as well!

13 weeks down, 26+/- to go

We've been bursting to tell everyone, and we've finally made it to 13 weeks today! We're joyfully and hopefully expecting our first little baby boy or girl mid-April!

It has been quite a journey getting to this point, and though it was full of pain and much loss, we are so thankful for how the Lord has used the journey to conform us more to His image. We do not deserve this Life He gives, but we gratefully receive it as His gift of grace. Greg and I continue to pray that He will prepare us for this huge change and that He will enable us to show His love to this little one. We covet your prayers for and with us as we await our baby's arrival.

Because of our three prior losses, we were monitored closely during the first eight weeks, so we were able to have two ultrasounds very early on to see and measure the heartbeat and size. It was absolutely amazing to watch the tiny little dark spot on the screen pulsing with life.

We'll hopefully know whether it's a boy or girl just before Thanksgiving -- let us know what you think; vote in our poll on our blog!