Squirt vs. The Tundra

Shortly after we were married, Vic sold his Toyota Tundra and purchased a Scion XA. There were a number of reasons for this, gas prices being not the least of them, and the Scion has been a good car. We affectionately refer to it as our truck, a running shoe, and the Squirt -- it's cute. Vic can get where he needs to go, although for upscale business meetings, he may park the Squirt a little distance from the building. With flat-folding back seats, he can fit lots of stuff -- his guitar, amp, pedal board, etc. We even took turns when driving it to California so that each of us had a chance to nap in the back on an air mattress. (We agreed that we felt a bit like the family dog, relegated to the back but poking our heads through the space between the front seats to find out what was happening.)


For Vic's birthday, I decided to give him the opportunity -- though just for a week -- to drive something more manly than cute. In fact, cute is the last word anyone would use to describe a Tundra. I located a local Toyota dealership that rents their vehicles, and made the arrangements. Then, as part of a birthday with several surprises, I directed Vic to the dealership, told him to wait in the Squirt, and ran inside to take care of the paperwork. When I brought him over to the truck and filled him in on the surprise, the biggest grin spread across his face. The grin grew when he stepped up into the driver's seat, and grew even more when he drove past me (in the Squirt) out of the lot.


(Although one might be concerned about the emotional ramifications of having to return such a beloved vehicle after only a week, we firmly believe that the financial shock when we refill the gas tank will loosen the hold the truck has on us.)


So if you are passed on the freeway by a grinning man in a charcoal gray Toyota Tundra, license plate BUZZ 04, wave hello. It's Vic.

Melinda

Sunshine, Warmth, and Blue Sky

These are a few of my favorite things. Being a Seattle native, one would think I would be used to the gray of our winters, the drip of rain, the chilliness. It's true that I like the sound of rain on the roof and the smell of the fresh, just-after-the-rain air. But by this time of year I'm usually craving some sunshiny, blue-skied, t-shirt weather.

Vic and I took a trip to Arizona this past week and stocked up on warm weather to get us through the rest of the winter/spring here. The four-day vacation included lots of yummy (and even world-famous) food, Mariners spring training baseball, cacti, and HGTV. We came home feeling rested and, when I woke up to rain on the skylight yesterday, I didn't even mind.

Melinda

Nielsen's Frozen Custard, on our Salt Lake City layover

Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix - featured on Martha Stewart and Oprah

The very symbol of my favorite things

Outfield lawn seats for Mariners vs Arizona Diamondbacks

My first time at a spring training game

Infield seats for Mariners vs Chicago Whitesox

(third row above the Mariners dugout!)

Our sunny cottage in Tucson

The pansies (my favorite flower) outside our front door

There was even a lemon tree in the yard

Vic, happy to be seeing Saguaro National Park

Roadrunners really are fast, but I caught this one on camera

Glee!

Tucson, from Saguaro National Park, at sunset

A Better Shot

We had our follow-up ultrasound this morning. The little one was still facing my back, but is now moving around enough that they were able to get the measurements they needed. They even tried doing one of those fancy 3D scans, but Vic and I both thought it looked pretty creepy (think alien-baby meets modern-art sculpture). There was one pretty nice shot though, so here it is.

(Oh, and this technician confirmed that our peanut appears to be of the feminine variety.)

Melinda

Is 90% Enough?

Vic and I took the peanut in for an ultrasound last Friday. The technician moved the wand-thingy all around, measuring and taking pictures of various parts of our little one. (The doctor will review the results with us in a couple of weeks, but for the moment we're happy to know that all arms, legs, hands, feet, and major organs are present and accounted for.)

After about 45 minutes of measuring and snapping pictures in near silence, the tech announced, "Looks like you're having a girl!" To which I replied, "And what kind of percentage would you give me on your certainty of that?" The answer was 90%. Is that enough to buy girl clothes or paint a room pink? (Not that a pink room is necessarily in her future.)

But the peanut was less than cooperative on a few shots they need to get. Seems she was facing my back and they couldn't see everything they needed to. So we're headed back in late next week for those shots. While they're at it, we'll ask for confirmation of the remaining 10%!

Below are two shots from the ultrasound. They're a little vague and scary-looking, but we knew many of you would want to see them anyway. The first is of the peanut's hand, and in the second, taken from the side, she is lying face-down. (Her spine curves along the top, and the pink bow is on top of her head.)

Before & After

We don't have cable. We don't have satellite TV. Our rabbit ears bring in about four channels we can see and hear well enough to watch. And for right now, this is fine with us -- we have a lot going on in our lives, not a lot of time, and friends who TiVo favorite shows and save them to watch with us.

But whenever we travel, the first thing we check at our hotel is whether they get HGTV. Despite the fact that we're renters, we love watching homeowners redecorate.

As it turns out, we may soon have the chance to become homeowners -- we're just beginning the process of loan preapproval and internet home searching. In the meantime, though, we're thankful for landlords who are okay with us doing a bit of painting.

We recently took a look at our master bedroom and realized that it looked like all the "before" pictures you've ever seen on a home improvement show. Being designers, we couldn't just pick a color and slap it on the walls. No, we came up with a few options, took photos of our room, and colored the walls in Photoshop. The decision was for a deep red paint, which turned out to be cozy and warm. There are other things we've yet to do (curtains, hanging shelves and pictures, etc.) but here, along with the curtain fabric and a close-up of the stripe detail (Vic's genius idea), are the results of our efforts in true "before and after" format.

The Kicker

Our peanut went to the doctor on Friday for it's latest checkup. My weight went down another half pound since I'm still feeling queasy, but the doctor says not to worry -- the peanut is a "perfect little parasite" (his words) and takes all the nutrition it needs before letting me have any. He also mentioned (and I appreciate the forewarning) that since the baby is definitely growing well, I might gain as much as ten pounds in the next 4-6 weeks. Wow.

We also got to listen to the heartbeat again and, while I still can't feel any movement, we could hear distinct kicks -- sort of like when you tap on the top of a live microphone. So nice to know that things are going well.

Melinda

Heartbeat

Woosh-woosh-woosh-woosh... 150 wooshes per minute = the peanut's heartbeat.

The doctor visit went well yesterday. Just a check-weight, check-blood-pressure kind of thing, but we got to hear the peanut's heartbeat. Considering that there's no outward evidence that I'm pregnant (well, other than my sleeping 12 hours per day), it was nice to know that there really is a kid growing in there and that everything is going well.

Melinda