Our Little Man is Here!

Rhett made this collage at the hospital on his laptop.

Our lives are now complete. Our son was born healthy and strong and we feel so blessed. He is a big dude, we've been calling him "Tank". We are so happy to be out of the hospital...the OB floor was full, meaning we had to share our small room. The hospital was built 30 years ago, and only has shared rooms, no private and they are small at that. All I can say is post-delivery is the worst time of life to have a roommate and a shared bathroom. I'll stop there. Just really glad to have fled that joint.

RJ is a mini-me of his Dad, except we think he might have my lips.

We are so in love with our chunky guy and Rhett is dreading to have to go back to school and miss each yawn, stretch, cry...and even the poopy diapers.

The Best Day of Work Is Always the Last

I'VE BEEN LIBERATED!!

Puzzle Bums

I was telling a story about the fact my family couldn't believe Rhett was willing to marry me because as my Dad put it, I'm a "giant". In the process, I told how Rhett and I are "puzzle bums". Being puzzle bums comes from our different proportions:
When we sit down, Rhett is taller because he has a long torso, and mine is squatty. But when we stand up my "giant" legs make me about 2" taller.

The fact I was taller met some irrational opposition in certain situations when we were dating/engaged, and we would laugh about it and say, or rather, I would say we fit together perfectly physically--just check out our bums...If I go on my toes a little, my booty fits in the small of his back, we fit together like a puzzle piece.

Our friend Molly took this picture and our expressions depict our feelings about the whole thing. I think it's hilarious and Rhett is just humoring us.

Molly usually uses this aspect of our relationship to differentiate us from her other friends. She said she was telling a story and used our names and her listener had to stop her and ask: "You're talking about the puzzle butt couple right?" Yes. We are the puzzle butts.

Male Infantile Baldness

Just good to know we have options if our

son is born bald in the next few days.

Saturday Night Live has such great commmercials...another favorite of ours is "Oops I Crapped My Pants."

Office Is Back

We had a little get together with friends to watch The Office episode. For treats I made a jello mold in memory of Andy Bernard: "If I don't find out who put my calculator in jello...I'm going to loose my freaking mind!" My other treats were mimics of Angela's "A Nutcracker Christmas" themed star-on-a-stick rice crispy treats.

I dressed up as Phyllis Lapin, taking advantage of a 9-month-pregnant belly to be the largest woman on the show. Rhett of course was then Bob Vance, Vance Refrigeration and humored me with wearing the name tag I printed out for him.

This is me dancing as Phyllis, and yes it's not pretty. I forgot my oven-mit I was going to wear. And the hair just didn't turn out right.
We are glad the show is back on and just as hilarious as ever.

I'm Now Homer Simpson

This morning Rhett was getting ready for school and I woke up and he asked if I slept OK. I told him I was right in the middle of this dream:

For some reason I was in our local grocery store, HyVee. Spending the night, sleeping in the back room. I woke up and decided to stroll around the store and the bakery was just putting out their fresh doughnuts for the day. My favorite doughnuts are the old fashioned cake...I LOVE them. Anyway, I nonchalantly tried to stroll past to see how much they were. In my dream they were .79 each, I have no idea what a fresh doughnut at HyVee would cost me in real life. I had this inner debate about whether I could afford to spend almost a dollar on one doughnut, but it was worth it, so on my way back to the storage room to find my purse, I noticed a whole box of old fashioned doughnuts on a tall shelf priced for $1.00. HECK YES!! I was looking around for a ladder to get them down, when somehow I realized they were last nights left-over doughnuts an employee had set aside for themselves to buy when they got off work this morning. I was really disappointed. A whole box of doughnuts for $1.00!!! So I was headed back to the bakery when all the sudden Rhett called out my name from a check out line. I walked over to ask what he was doing and he was loading all this gourmet dog food onto the conveyor belt. "Why are you buying all this dog food? We don't have a dog or even know anyone with a dog." He explained he needed it for one of the clubs he was involved with at school--some fundraiser or something. For some reason this meant my .79 doughnut would have to stay at the bakery instead of my stomach. I stayed with Rhett and left with him without mentioning my doughnut because it was financially out of the question after the gourmet dog food purchase.

After telling my whole dream, Rhett laughed and went to school, and I kept thinking about doughnuts and realized that the budget is more of a stress in my life than I previously realized. And I realized each day Homer Simpson and I share more and more similarities. For now, I am Homer with the doughnuts, next will be all the hair loss after I deliver and shed half of my head....hopefully I will end up with more than two hairs and a zigzag though.

Amazing?

This story has recieved a lot of attention lately...the first pregnant man. Rhett and I are with the many other Americans intrigued by this odd situation. We went so far as to watch the Oprah epsiode on YouTube. But after all is said and done--this isn't a medical marvel at all.

IT'S JUST A PREGNANT WOMAN WITH A BEARD AND NO BREASTS!!!!

What do you think? I guess it depends on our definition of "man"

Shots of Herschel Goal Balling It Up

Here are a few shots of Herschel in the Utah State Goal Ball Tournament playing goal ball with all the other blind/visually impaired kids a couple weeks ago. I found these on the Utah Federation for the Blind website, and I was surprised to learn even little 5 & 6-year-olds play goal ball.

Funny Update: A couple weeks ago he was issued a walking cane from blind school.

This was initiated from an assignment they had to take public transit into downtown Salt Lake City. Apparently the instructor noticed people don't know how to react to Herschel because he's a big kid (6'3") and he bumps into people, and has to ask somewhat obvious directional questions. She said people were looking at him like he was a complete weirdo, because he had to ask what the next train stop was because he can't see well enought to read the sign on the wall. The instructors felt if he just had the walking cane with him in public, even if he doesn't tap around, people would know he's visually impaired and cut him some slack, and be more willing to help him if he needs it.

The first day he had his walking stick he was trying it out at school, and was tapping around with his eyes closed to really test it, and apparently his tapping swath wasn't wide enough because he walked right into the doorway and broke his nose...so maybe the walking cane is more danger than help.

Feeling a Little White Trashish

Rhett and I were at Wal-Mart to pick up one item in electronics. I then thought it would be good to get some root beer for the pizza we were having for dinner. So we wandered over to the food half of the store when Rhett realized he wanted a different item. He headed back to electronics and told me to meet him up front. So I had the 2L root beer, and remembered I hadn't got Rhett his Swedish Fish (his favorite candy and a tradition for his birthday and Christmas). While in the candy aisle, I also grabbed some licorice and Hot Tamales because candy was on sale, and we always have treats to watch Conference. I was heading to the front and noticed people glancing at me, and figured I was imagining it. I got to the frozen food and remembered I needed ice cream and whip cream for Rhett's birthday apple pie. As I shut the glass door, I kind of turned and this man was staring in my direction. When I met his gaze, he quickly looked at the ceiling and swiveled his cart in the opposite direction. His reaction was just like the movies, except he didn't begin whistling...it was obvious he was gaping at something interesting and had been caught. So I turned around and no one was in sight--I was the interesting object of his stare. As my view came back from looking behind me, I caught my reflection in the glass door of the ice cream section.... I saw my huge purple belly protruding out below the halo of junk food I was holding in both arms. I turned to go, and the side view was even worse. As I walked down the aisle I realized why everyone seemed to be looking at me...I'm a physical freak of nature with this baby growing perpendicular to my spine, and apparently I have too few arms to carry all my junk food. I decided at that point to laugh instead of cry. I was busting up laughing as I turned around the corner and met Rhett.
"Look at me. Every one's been staring at me with my ginormous belly and feast of junk." Chuckling, Rhett put his arm around me and said: "Don't worry. You look cute pregnant and everyone understands cravings." This made me laugh more. Two whole arm-fulls of cravings!!!!

Incidentally, when we got to the car, I remembered we had our camera and had Rhett take a picture. We did get one where I anticipated the shot better and was looking at the camera smiling, but I thought this unattractive pose and face matched the story better...also, of course this whole experience happens at Wal-Mart, superstore of high class and elegance.

Big 27!

Rhett turned 27 yesterday. We didn't have anything amazing to do, but the weather was great, nice and warm for a change. We were able to go to lunch and a movie together. Good food, OK movie (Leatherheads I liked it, Rhett wasn't the biggest fan). Rhett wanted apple pie instead of cake, I got him The Office Season 2 on DVD, shown below. But the biggest delight was the webcam. He hooked it up and we were able to chat live with his family. Rhett even gave them a tour of our duplex thanks to wireless internet. The webcam is the new favorite toy and made the birthday.

We were sitting there and I mentioned how old 27 seems. Rhett replied: "Tell me about it. It's kind of depressing. I'm 27 years old, I'm six figures in debt, I'm unemployed with a kid on the way, and at least half a decade away from my career." I busted up laughing and agreed those statistics don't sound very successful...but in the right context, it isn't that bad...maybe it will make 37 seem that much better in 10 years. So despite the reality check, we had a great day celebrating Rhett's 27th birthday.

One Week Away!

The Office is starting back up next Thursday.
Here is the new episode synposis...sounds hilarious!!

DINNER PARTY
9/8c TV-PG
4.10.2008
GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER - Pam and Jim find they have run out of excuses and are forced to go to Jan and Michael's house for dinner. When Andy and Angela are also invited to dinner, Dwight's jealousy gets the best of him.

Herschel's in the News

This is an article from the Deseret Morning News on April 1, 2008. We were pretty excited they interviewed and mentioned Herschel...previous posts about Herschel click here

Take soccer, baseball, dodgeball and the concept of 3-on-3 down at the gym and you've got goalball.
Never heard of it? They have tournaments — the 13th annual elimination tournament for kids statewide went all day Monday at Crescent View Middle School in Sandy.
They have Team USA Olympic athletes: the No. 1 defender and the No. 5 thrower in the country lives in Logan. It's designated a USU club sport.
Six — probably more — of the best players in the country live in Utah, host of the 2008 USA National Goalball Championships and home of the 2006 USA girls and USA men's champions.
Want to play? Can you throw a rubber ball about the size of a basketball but more than three times heavier 10 times in about that many seconds and dive to the floor in between throws. Can you grab the ball, jump up and spin like a discus thrower and send the ball — with serious English — back across the court? Do you like the thought of getting your nose broke about every half minute?
Face guards? Never.
Still want to play?
Well, you can't. Not if you're reading this, anyway. You're welcome to watch, but if you're not legally blind you don't have what it takes to play goalball.

Herschel Kelly does. He's 18, a high school senior from American Fork and a member of the men's adult team in the national tournament. He goes to Logan twice a week to practice. Even though he's only been at it since January, he sure plays a mean goalball.
He should, he says, still sweating after vying for third place and still taking all the blame that three goals got passed him in the final minute.
"I was pretty much exhausted but I should have stopped them," he said. "That one, I thought I'd broken my nose again, but I still should have stopped it."
Asked if goalballers ever wear face protection, he said "No. They'd just get in the way."
They do wear goggles — darkened ski goggles that prevent the slightest hint of light coming through. Kelly and other visually impaired players at Crescent on Monday can see light, some color and shapes without them.
"Mostly, it's like I've got multiple astigmatism; I just see multiple and fractured images." He has a cornea condition that mostly continues to defy advances and his four doctors at the Moran Eye Center.
"They've used a laser to kind of cut out a hole in the cornea and put in little supports to help hold its structure, but it's degenerative, so we'll see how it goes."
Peter Ashton, 16, who has been playing about 10 years and who made the throws that got past Kelly in the final minutes, said he picked up on his opponent's weakness.
"During half time I overheard him saying he was really tired, so I just quick-pitched them like crazy at the end," Ashton said.
Hearing the other side — and the ball which has bells inside so players and sense it's speed and direction — is vital to winning. Ashton said. "That's why it has to be quiet when we're playing. People will try all sorts of tricks, like rolling it really slow to kind of throw you off. But the best way is to get it and get rid of it as fast as you can."
Kim Crowther of Kaysville said goalball is the only sport her son Austin Fowler, 11, and daughter Asia Fowler, 9, can play. They don't have Junior Jazz or Little League, she said, pointing out their team placed first, "and they just love it."