Andfam 2010!

I just got back from an awesome vacation!  I am sunburned and sore, totally good signs that the first ever Anderson family reunion was amazingly successful.  We stayed at a beautiful condo right on Lake Tahoe and had a blast hanging out together.  My favorite activities were:

• kayaking every day (down the Truckee River, on the lake when it was smooth, on the lake when it was choppy, etc.)
• reading on the pier/on our balcony
• badminton
• doing puzzles
• eating in every night
• cards/games
• watching the World Cup
• waking up early and taking a ton of naps

It was basically heaven for Kyle and me.   Kyle certainly needed to decompress from work (which has been crazy lately) so I was glad we got to sleep whenever we wanted, especially after exhausting ourselves physically from all the fun things we were doing.  We went kayaking together several times for what felt like HOURS--which was definitely my favorite part.  Kayaking has always been one of my family's favorite activities so it was extra fun that Kyle got to experience it for the first time.

I don't think that me playing badminton was a pretty sight.  Especially the one time I actually moved to hit the birdie and, of course, fell down.  YES pregnancy has made me especially graceful.

Lucy is kind of obsessed with "the baby in my tummy" and always talks about her.  She also talks about the baby in HER tummy...which gets interesting/hilarious.

Katy made us these awesome shirts.  (I get partial credit because giving her a silk screen for Christmas was MY idea.)  They are totally awesome!  We...love robots.  She even made a sweet robot onesie for Velocity.

Lucy always got the last piece in.  (This was early in the morning...which explains why I look so great.)

We are kind of sad to be back--except Christy and Danny, who probably just got off the plane in HAWAII.  They are staying there for a week, which is why I am staying in Concord for a week to help watch Lucy with Mom.  We are having a ton of fun--BUT it also meant that I had to have ANOTHER airport farewell with Kyle.  This one was even suckier!  Lame pregnancy hormones/love.  I miss the guy already.

Separation Anxiety

In August of 08 I blogged about how sad I was to be separated from Kyle for the first time since the wedding.  I NEVER handled separation well--even when we were dating.  The first (only time) we were separated then was for a week over Christmas, before I left my family to meet his for New Years.  And that was MISERABLE and I bawled at the airport.  Oh, and for a week right before we got married--that was even worse.  I cried for DAYS over that one.

Since then, I have left Kyle many times--always to visit home or go on a family trip that Kyle has to miss out on because of work.  And I am ALWAYS miserable about it.  I am of course so excited for whatever trip it is I'm taking, but being apart from Kyle is the worst!  I still hate it.  We've now been married for two years and I think I should have gotten used to it.  I definitely handle it better than I did back when we first got married--I think I drive everyone a bit less crazy with my sighing and complaining about Kyle's absence.  (I think my sadness has morphed from being sad because my husband isn't with me into being sad because everything is cooler and more fun when Kyle is around and I miss him.)  But still, I always cry the night before I leave and when he drops me off at the airport.  Without fail.  In twenty years will this still happen, as I go visit our kids in college or whatever?  When will I get used to it?

ANYWAYS tonight he is dropping me off at the airport again.  I did cry last night, but I'll try to be brave as he drops me off!  Knowing pregnancy hormones as I do, I highly doubt I'll be successful.

Food-based Fun

I was going through the pictures on my phone and Kyle's phone...and realized how ridiculous we are.  We are constantly taking pictures of our food.  The vast majority of our fun is centered around food (just how I was raised) and I guess that leads to a weird amount of food related pictures.  Here are some highlights:

After Gavin's wedding, some of us went to Star of India, our favorite Salt Lake Indian food restaurant.  We ate ourselves sick.  The food was so good that I'm pretty sure we all experienced Pure Being.

We've been eating a weird amount of food with Alan lately.  We should document it more.  Here is Alan eating some pizza from The Slab.

Whenever we have time to kill up north, Kyle and I hit up Nielsen's Frozen Custard.  Their concretes are UNREAL.  Definitely worth the drive.

Ok this isn't food.  It's Eliza.  I just love when she makes this face.

Hello, Rice King potstickers.  I am not much of a potsticker person, but OH MAN.  I order these every time now, as my meal.  They are SO GOOD.  I used to only be able to eat 3 or 4, but now with Velocity to feed as well I can eat all 6.  Basically the only good pregnancy symptom.

And, of course, my beloved Hokulia snow cone.  The second they place that cone in the neat table with holes cut out, I am in heaven until I finish it.  And then I am sad because it's all gone.

Today our food-based fun was the rosemary peasant bread we made and ate with a gross amount of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  It's all gone or I'd put up a picture of that too.  Now I'm going to go have some chocolate-milk-related fun.

I suck.

Yesterday I felt gross enough for long enough that I bit several of my nails.  I now feel better physically but am depressed about my lack of self-control, follow through, will power, coolness, and pretty hands.  I've had like 3 or 4 months of pretty hands and now...I feel the lack.  I think that feeling miserable leads to feeling destructive, and my nails were definitely the easiest and most accessible thing to destroy.  It's a good thing they're there, I suppose, or my destructive urge could have been satisfied by blowing up buildings or something.

Goal=more frequent blogging

Three things:

1)My insurance covers the epidural!  We had heard that it wasn't covered and that made me MAD.  We were still going to fork over however much cash it was, but I just thought that was lame.  So now I don't have to be mad AND the whole delivery process will be cheaper than we expected.  FYI--it costs a lot of money to carry and birth a baby, even with insurance.  Good thing Kyle is an excellent saver and has taught me his ways.

2)Hair trauma.  Oh man.  This is why I should never color my hair.  I do it on a spur of the moment impulse once in a million years, and then I have to suffer the consequences when it starts to grow out because I'm not willing to do the upkeep.  In the past, I've only dyed my hair darker (and I guess that was like 5 or 6 years ago--remember my black hair phase? Yikes.).  So no growing out problems.  BUT 3ish months ago I decided to dye it a shade or two blonder.  The difference wasn't extreme--just barely noticeable.  BUT that wasn't taking into account that my hair would GROW IN DARKER because of the whole pregnancy-changes-everything-about-you thing.  So now I have The Root Issue, which I have never before faced.  I don't want to just dye it again because then I'll just have the same problem later and I don't want to be someone who constantly dyes their hair.  So what do you do in this situation?  Dye everything darker? That sucks, because it's already hard for me that pregnancy is dampening my blondness, I couldn't purposely do it to myself!  I'm tempted to just chop off all my hair so drastically that roots are a non-issue. Or would blonde highlights help disguise the issue, and not be a problem later?  I know this is extremely stupid to blog about.  It's just been BUGGING ME and I feel ugly and I don't know how to solve the problem.  The moral is: I should never dye my hair EVER.  Lesson learned.


3) Kyle just got home from work 4 hours early because he had to work late every day this week!  Best day ever.  I will now hang out with him.

oh, blogging

Miracle of miracles, it didn't rain on Memorial Day!  That hasn't happened in ages.  (Ok, I actually don't remember if it rained last year, but it CERTAINLY did the year before that.  I only remember that because we were moving in to our new apartment and I have pictures.)  That meant that not only did Kyle wear TEVAS (the first teva day of the year is always very exciting) but we also had a fun barbecue (hot dogs and chicken and MUDDY BUDDIES, the latter was not grilled) and played games with friends and whatnot.  ALSO we went shopping for KYLE--that never ever EVER happens.  The only new clothes he ever gets are gifts from both sides of the family.  For such a snazzy dresser, this has to be hard on the guy.  Buying clothes for him just about made my day.   Spring is certainly here finally, evidenced by our blasting air conditioner (pregnancy makes you easily overheat, okay?) and lack of full length pants.

We continue to:

--get snow cones at every opportunity

--play with Eliza every day

--look forward to our Tahoe vacation in just two weeks!

--decorate the baby room (it is looking awesome)

--enjoy our Netflix on the Wii

--get excited about the upcoming Top 20 of SYTYCD

--stay late at work nearly every day (just Kyle, my "job" is babysitting Eliza every day and I just do that at home)

-- take lots of trips to Joanns

For the first time we:

--ate Thai food 

--have enjoyed playing games with friends (several times even! we usually hate games!)

--have had long nails for at least two months now (ok that one is just me)

--don't throw up all the time (me again)

--ok I actually can't think of anything else that technically applies to this category

I had my 6 month doctor appointment yesterday--nothing exciting.  Velocity's measuring a week bigger than normal--instead of meaning an earlier due date, this means a good-sized baby.  Andersons don't have puny babies so this comes as no surprise to me.  Doc also said my weight gain is "outstanding"--that isn't something you usually hear so I felt like giving him a hug.  I'm actually just barely back to my pre-pregnancy weight so apparently very little weight gain is great weight gain at this point.

Lots of you probably already read Christy's blog about starting IVF--as the one going through it she has to be reserved and everything when she talks about it.  I, on the other hand, feel no such restraint and let me just tell you we are SO THRILLED and EXCITED and FREAKING OUT.  This is a huge deal and everything is just falling into place and I know that it will go really well, even though the process obviously sucks.  They beat the crap out of cancer and are now totally going to dominate infertility.  They are cool folks, guys.  We'll definitely be praying for the happiest of outcomes, which will be another baby to kiss.  Christy and I have always talked/dreamed about being pregnant at the same time, and there's a chance that can happen, which makes me feel like crying.  Anyways.  This is the thing that I think about the most so I had to blog it!

Eliza is waking up in the Pack n Play so I gotta run give her a bottle and a squeeze!