A Little Holiday Cheer

Here are some pictures from the past week - enjoy!

Our Cindy Lou Who:

From our Christmas card photo shoot. We never did get her to look at the camera.

Fun times at mommy's graduation party!

We fly out to Missouri on Saturday! Merry Christmas!

Catching Up

Time for a long overdue update. The last time I posted was before Thanksgiving and a lot has happened since then. So here's the Hough House news in (not-so) brief:

During the week before Thanksgiving we got to see my brother Zach for a few hours, and Eden got to meet her second relative outside of her parents. We went to lunch and later took some pictures and watched The Office together – a nice, relaxing visit if too short.

On Thanksgiving we had a wonderful potluck dinner with a whole bunch of friends. Delicious food and good times were enjoyed by all. We also watched Elf on the biggest "magic box" (any television, computer, or in this case, projector screen) Eden had ever seen. It was cute seeing her stare at the screen with big eyes. She was a hit as always. I think the only time I held her was to feed her. I also think our little extrovert is going to introduce us to more new people than we would ever get to know on our own. On a side note, it was Thanksgiving last year that we found out we were pregnant with Eden - crazy.

On Friday we were able to spend a few hours with Peter’s dad and his wife who were in California visiting family. It was fun to catch up with them and introduce Eden to another one of her grandparents. Saturday we had another potluck dinner with friends where I learned that strawberries dipped in sour cream and then brown sugar taste really good. You wouldn't think so, but they do actually.

Last Thursday I finished and turned in my final assignment for my graduate degree. I've already heard back from my professor about my grade so I can officially announce that I will finally graduate with my Master's! What a weight off my shoulders! I enjoyed many aspects of graduate school and definitely learned a lot, but I am so, so, sooooo glad it's over. Especially now that I have Eden. I know multi-tasking is a valued skill in our culture, but I personally think it's overrated. I'm all for focusing on just a few important things at a time. And I really want to enjoy these last few weeks with Eden before I go back to work in January.

On Friday, Peter, Eden, and I packed up and headed to Murrieta Hot Springs to the Calvary Chapel Conference Center for our church's annual retreat. Because we had a baby we got our own room, but it was kind of funny because it was a room with 6 twin beds! The facilities and grounds were very nice - much nicer than we expected. We definitely weren't roughin' it out in the boonies. I was a little concerned about how easy it would be to participate in the activities with Eden, but I think Peter and I found a nice balance that allowed each of us to get some rest and some time with friends. The retreat center has pools for the natural hot springs scattered all over its property, so I got my first experience relaxing in one. It was interesting because the pools are naturally all different temperatures - the first one we tried was so hot that one of my friends named it The Mouth of Hell. We found a much nicer one on our second try. We also got to try an 80-person hot tub that was on the property. Honestly, I liked the hot tub better - the temperature is more consistent, it doesn't turn your silver rings colors (oops), and it doesn't reek of sulphur. I suppose the hot springs might be better for you since they're not full of chlorine, but really, that sulphur smell is quite an obstacle. Once again Eden took the new surroundings like a champ and got lots of attention.

We got back from the retreat on Sunday night, and Eden and I tried to take it easy on Monday. Monday night, however, was Peter's holiday party at work, so we put Eden in her new Christmas dress (she was the most adorable thing I've ever seen) and headed to the dinner. I think we finally hit Eden's limit for new activities (poor baby) because she became the exact opposite of her usual extroverted self and cried anytime a new person came up to her! She passed out toward the end of the evening. Thankfully, the rest of our week is quiet except that she gets her second round of shots on Thursday. Poor, poor baby!

I was hoping things would slow down for us a bit, but I don't think that's going to happen. We are flying to Missouri a week from Saturday so I'm basically trying to cram all Christmas shopping, decorating, card mailing, etc. into the next few days. I'm already realizing that I'm just going to have to let some stuff go or else I'll stress myself out and go insane (and probably take my family with me). So if you get your Christmas card in January, I apologize! I'm simultaneously excited and scared for our trip. It will be great to see our families, but the whole four-month-old-on-a-plane-during-the-holidays does not sound like fun. I also imagine living out of a suitcase for 10 days will be a bit of a challenge - after all, we filled the car with stuff just to take Eden to a fancy conference center.

I'll try to post again before our trip, but that may not happen if things continue at this crazy pace. So just in case, I'll end by wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy holidays! I'll try to post some pictures of Eden from the last few weeks below.

Acting squirrely:

Back from a walk with daddy:

Who me?

Visiting with Uncle Zach...

...and Grandpa Hough!

Working hard with mommy on her final project for her Master's degree:

Countdown

Hello all! Well we had our 39th week appointment yesterday. Our OB guessed that baby is about 7 to 7.5 pounds now. She also said that she wouldn't be surprised if I go a "few days" past due since baby is showing no indication of coming out anytime soon. This is also a guess, of course, as apparently babies are well known for doing whatever they want and surprising everyone. However, it's an educated guess, so I'm preparing myself for a wait. I've heard that most first-time-moms deliver after their due date anyway, although that hasn't been true in any case that I can actually think of at this moment, except once (out of three kids) for my mom.

I would rather baby arrive sooner rather than later as 7-7.5 pounds sounds quite nice and as my class is now over. (Temporarily, that is - Peter decided I was too stressed and asked my OB to write me a note which she happily agreed to - I now have until December to finish the last few projects.) But at the moment (now that the pressures of my responsibilities at work and school have been lifted), I'm also more than happy to wait as long as it takes for baby to feel ready to make her entrance into the world. It is a rather big deal after all, and I don't think it's fair to rush her. (I know that I hate to be rushed, and maybe she's like me in that way.) On the other hand, my OB said she probably wouldn't want to let me go more than a week past due, and as I really don't want to be induced, I'm hoping that our daughter decides to come out on her own sometime before that point - which is actually two weeks from today.

That's right! We are now only one week from my official due date: July 29th. And, in celebration of all the wonderful free time I now have, I've decided to create another poll! Isn't it exciting?! Actually, I just may go poll crazy, for no other reason than I can - so definitely take a look to the right and toss your opinion into the ring. I would say that the winners get to name the baby (nope, we still haven't decided on a name), except that a certain friend who I won't identify (okay, her name sounds just like a famous perfume) showed me last time how you can cheat on the polls and vote multiple times. (Said friend then left me with the sad task of informing Peter that "Adelei" had received a significant number of fraudulent votes - which I guess didn't actually make much difference in the end as it still ended up dead last in the poll results. Poor Pete.) Anyway, don't cheat!

A Little Baby Insanity - Straight From Me To You

I am so sorry that I haven't posted to this blog for awhile. I always knew I'd never be the daily posting type, but I was hoping to have at least a weekly update. And now it's been a month... Well, all I can say is that I started this blog to post news about the baby, and since she's not technically here yet, everything so far has really just been a warm-up! Or something like that.

Speaking of baby, did I mention she's not here yet? I'm not sure how I feel about this. In a way I don't feel ready at all - I tried to swaddle a stuffed animal this morning and failed miserably (and I tried about 5 times). So much for that Baby Care Basics class we took. I also would love more time to get more stuff done around the house. The nursery is functionally ready, but not really decorated yet, etc.

On the other hand, people are starting to stare at me wherever I go. I am generally feeling awkward and uncomfortable on a daily basis - almost like my body isn't my body - at least not the one I've known for almost the last 3 decades. I keep dropping things. When I get out bed, my legs feel like they might just snap off. (Seriously, no one told me that at the end of pregnancy your legs might feel like they're just going to break off completely from your hips at any moment. I feel like the Barbie dolls that my brother and I used to use as test dummies for random experiments until they're appendages started to come off on a regular basis. What is that?) I only have two more days of work (yaaaayyyyyyyy!!), but school is running me into the ground. (My professor will give me an Incomplete when I go into labor, but I really want the Incomplete now so that I can have at least some time to rest and appreciate the last few weeks/days of life as just a couple instead of working to 1:30 in the morning like I've done lately.) So in a way I want the baby to come as soon as possible. But then I feel really selfish for wanting our daughter to be born just so I can get out of school or avoid some of the more uncomfortable physical aspects of pregnancy.

The truth is I can't wait to meet her, and I'm terrified at the same time.

Peter is extremely excited which is so cute and always gets me feeling super enthusiastic and ready. But when he goes to work and it's just me in the house with the homework and the to-do list and the Barbie doll legs, I start to wonder. What have I done? Am I ready for this? Is this kid even going to like me? Dr. Phil says that kids are just blank slates that we write on for better or worse. I'm pretty confident that I have no business writing on anyone's slate. I guess this whole pregnancy has been like the beginning of the roller coaster where you're slowly chugging up the hill for the first big drop - and now I've reached those last few moments where we're really high up, and the anticipation is overwhelming, and I can see the drop off that's just ahead - and from up here it looks like the edge of the world. And panic is setting in. And the only thing keeping me from screaming my head off and begging to be let off is the increasingly meaningless idea that I'm supposedly an adult and am too cool and mature for all that.

And then the baby kicks or something, and I just can't wait to see her face to face and find out exactly who this new little person is whose soul and body have been knit together by the hand of God.

So yeah, baby isn't here yet. And I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Early Morning Ramble

Well, it's 5:57 in the morning here, and I've been up since about 4:15 am. I finally decided that if I was going to be awake, I might as well do something - thus, here's a new blog post! We're in a bit of a heat wave here in Southern California which has made falling to sleep initially difficult, and for me anyway, third trimester pregnancy has meant that once I wake up (which usually happens sometime in the 4 o'clock hour), I can't fall back asleep again - at least not until about 7 or 8 o'clock, which is when I have to get up anyway.

Other than my sleep deprivation issues, things here are going pretty well. Baby is kicking and moving around like a madwoman right now, which I always figure is a good sign of health and vitality. Work is going well enough. I've noticed a slightly decreased interest in my reference questions lately - I don't seem to be enjoying the research quite as much as normal - but I think this might just be a reflection of being distracted by other non-work life events. For example, school is being a bit of a bear: I'm taking a web design class which I thought was for beginners, but 80% of what the teacher said in lecture yesterday went completely over my head, so I may have been misinformed about that when I registered for class. The information is interesting though (we're learning HTML and CSS right now), so even if I'm facing a monstrously steep learning curve, that helps. Unfortunately, I'm having to spend about 4 hours a day in homework on this class just to try to keep up at all - and I'm not even sure that's enough (since the last lecture was mostly gibberish to me). Normally this situation would stress me out to the extreme, and I definitely have felt some serious stress at moments, but on the other hand, it's my last class before graduating, it's more of an elective (not essential to my job so anything I learn is a bonus), and there's a reasonable chance I'm going to have to take an Incomplete for it anyway if Baby comes on or before her due date. All good reasons not to worry too much I figure. Although it sure would be nice to have some free time for other things.

That's about it for my life here at the moment. Pete's enjoying his job and getting to work with some new colleagues. He has a really great group of chaplains for next year. And he's starting a drumline which both he and many of the kids are excited about! We've enjoyed a couple of great baby showers recently and feel so appreciative of all of our kind, generous, and supportive family and friends. Peter and a few of my friends even conspired to fly my mom out for the baby showers as a surprise - it was wonderful being able to see her and have her present for those events. I feel very, very blessed. If I can get it to work, I'll post a picture of me and my mom below (so you can see my big pregnant belly). It's crazy to me that we only have about six weeks left before this baby is actually here...

Baby Names Part Two

Ok, so the polls for voting on the spelling of potential baby names has ended and here are the winners: Annabelle, Adelei, and Laney. I agree with you all on two out of three - the first two that is. I must confess, I like the spelling Lanie best for the last poll, but that didn't seem to be very popular. I've decided to go ahead and make another poll for everyone to vote on which of the above three they actually prefer overall. Same rules as before: feel free to comment as long as it's relatively positive and, of course, we reserve the right to completely ignore the results and choose whatever name we want in the end (especially since we now have Shanelle's promise to personally defend our child against any bullies or mockers). But I really enjoyed getting everybody's opinion on the last polls, and I'm curious to see what everyone really thinks is the best name for our daughter (given the limited choices we've provided). I'm getting a lot of variety when I talk to people in person - no one name seems to be heavily favored so far, so again, I'm curious to see what another poll will show. (And, in case anyone's curious, we have no idea about middle names. Feel free to comment with a "write-in" vote on that if you'd like.)

In other news we went to our hospital orientation yesterday. It was fun and informative but also a bit surreal. We both had a moment of panic when, as we were walking to Labor and Delivery on our tour, we passed the nursery and saw 3 little brand new babies through the window. Hard to believe we're going to have one of those in about 8 weeks. (Well, you know, not one of those specific babies...) I also had another personal moment of panic when they were showing us the fancy beds in the Labor and Delivery rooms that can convert to chairs and then have the bottom of the bed be removed for actual delivery. I think they meant it to be comforting/impressive somehow, but it just looked like an instrument of torture to me. Even with the pretty, brightly covered bedspread. But overall I feel much better now that we're pre-registered and know exactly where to go, park, etc. when the time comes.

Things are pretty busy. My last class begins next week. (I should be doing the reading right now.) My college roommate, Stacey, is coming in town tomorrow with her family, so I'm really looking forward to that. Peter's enjoying his slightly more relaxed summer work hours. And we just celebrated our 8th anniversary on May 27th! I was feeling quite proud of us and thinking that that was a really long time until I remembered that my parents will celebrate their 40th anniversary later this year. So yeah, we're still just newbies in so many ways.

Hope you all are doing well! Keep us updated on your lives!

School, Books, Names, and The Pregosaurus

Let's see, some updates:

1. I'm done with school!!!! Okay, just the spring semester, but it was a killer, people. AND I have only one more class to take before I'm finished with the program, have my degree, and never, ever have to be in school again (fingers crossed). I'm currently signed up to take a Web Design class starting in June. The last day of class is actually my due date, so it should be interesting. I've already been pre-approved by the instructor for an Incomplete if I need it, but I'm really hoping that by some miracle I get everything done before I deliver so that once the baby comes I won't have to think about work OR school. It's probably wishful thinking, but a girl can hope.

2. Peter is almost finished with his school year. This upcoming week is his last week - which I think means it's mostly finals. A good wife would know for sure, but the details seem to have slipped my mind at the moment. He has a year-long contract so there's no big break coming up for him officially, but he will soon have A LOT more flexibility and free time in his work day which will be nice, and he'll be able to spend more time on the things he enjoys doing but always has to put off for other more urgent tasks. So we're looking forward to that.

3. I'm apparently at the irrationally-angry stage of pregnancy. Although perhaps this isn't actually a new stage and my friends and family have just been graciously putting up with a lot of abuse. I hope that's not the case. Anyway, the last week or two I've found myself becoming basically enraged by situations/circumstances/people that I might normally find frustrating but wouldn't consider homicide over. Yesterday at the library a patron I'd just finished helping grabbed a hold of my arm with both hands because she had just thought of another question to ask me and she wanted to quickly get my attention before I walked away. For me, it was kind of like a scene in a movie where you're looking out through a character's eyes, all the other noises in the room go silent, and you just hear the character's heartbeat and everything looks red - or something like that anyway. Fortunately, in the few seconds it took for me to get a grip and remind myself that I could NOT kill this woman (at least in the library with all the witnesses), she let go of my arm, and I was able to carry on like nothing had happened. As Andy from The Office once said, "That was an overreaction." I've been having a lot of overreactions lately, although I think I've successfully kept most of them hidden. As Baby Center informs me, I am now a "pregosaurus" - which is apparently the equivalent of bridezilla. I apologize in advance.

4. I finished The Host. If you don't know what I'm talking about see the below post on why it pays to be a librarian. Overall, I liked the book. The author is a good storyteller which is definitely what makes her Twilight series so popular. The Host took a little while to get going for me, and I lost my patience with the main character a few times (this could just have been pregosaurus warning signs), but I was definitely sucked in after awhile. I also cried at the end, which is often the sign of a good book just like it can be the sign of a good movie. It is a bit on the long side - or longer than it needs to be - but it seems to me that good storytellers often have trouble with being concise and self-editing in their writing - like J.K. Rowling, for example. But because they're good storytellers, we don't care. If anyone out there would like a more detailed review than this, just let me know and I'll send you an e-mail with all my thoughts, cautions, recommendations, etc. (without giving away the ending, of course). In more Stephenie Meyer news, the next book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn, is coming out in August. I just signed up on the library's wait list yesterday - I'm number 29. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm pretty excited. (By the way, Twilight the movie is coming out in December. This must be quite the year for the author.)

5. Thanks to everyone who voted on potential name spellings for the baby! (We had an ultrasound yesterday by the way, and she's looking great and apparently around 3 pounds now.) I'm debating the wisdom of setting up a poll so that everyone can actually vote for which of the 3 names they like the best, but I haven't decided if that's a good idea or not. We'll see...

Okay, well I hope that gives you a good summary of life in the Hough House at the moment! We hope you all are doing well!

5 Projects in 5 Weeks

Just thought I'd post a short note to say that you probably won't be hearing much from me for awhile. The end of the semester is approaching, and I recently realized that I have 5 major projects due over the next 5 weeks. Between other school reading and busywork, my job, and normal life stuff, I'm a little short on free time at the moment. So, if this blog isn't updated frequently, don't worry - I haven't forgotten about it! I'm just busy banging my head on the table (or wall) or daydreaming about a time when I could drink lots of coffee in order to power through long, boring papers. :) Oh, how I miss caffeine sometimes...