The Can of Orange Soda: An Update

If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to this post.

We did, in fact, drink the can of orange soda at our reception exactly two years ago.

It was very cute.  And FUN.  It was cool to have something different to do at the reception, something that was really us.  Nothing screams "Kyle and Becca are madly in love" like drinking orange soda, right?

And of course we still have the can.  It got a bit banged up in our moves, and the paint is a little chipped in some places, but it's still our can of orange soda.  We got a little glass case for it to protect it from further damage. It now sits in a place of honor in our living room. I can just imagine us explaining that can to people in 30 years.  I think we'll always have it.

And THAT, my friends, is a non-mushy anniversary post.

Let me sum up

Oh dear, there are so many bloggable topics in my head right now, but I don't want to turn this into a huge long random post.  Let's just sum up some of them:


Mini Blog Post #1:
We have been doing lots of fun things lately, including a fun visit with Ken and Barbara, Kyle's parents.  I now like Springville even more!   We found great restaurants and shops on Main Street, and our canyon is cute.  The Beehive Bazaar at Thanksgiving Point was awesome (we actually went twice and bought some neat stuff).  Kyle's childhood safe (with a long forgotten combination) was returned to him this weekend, and after one night with Kyle and Alan going at it with a hammer and tire iron, they managed to open it--we discovered childhood journals and a TON of comic books.


Mini Blog Post #2:
Pregnancy.  I only throw up like once a week now, which is awesome.  I could do that under normal non-pregnant circumstances and feel like I was a happy healthy person (ok maybe not, but whatev).  I am now having WICKED heartburn though.  Kyle is teaching me his dealing-with-heartburn tricks that he's learned after a lifetime of heartburn, most of which involve pacing and waving my arms around and looking silly.  But Velocity's kicks and punches are becoming stronger, which makes any pain completely worth it.  She is getting so big!  (As is my stomach.) Unfortunately our scanner issues are keeping me from putting up cute ultrasound pictures.

Mini Blog Post #3:
I am a huge grudge-holder.  If someone treats someone I love badly (or, let's be honest, treats ME badly), then I basically hate them forever.  I know that's wrong.  BUT. I am making huge strides in not doing that anymore!  I mean, I have treated people poorly in the past and I feel guilty about it, but I like to think that I've changed since then.  These folks who were jerks to me or my sisters or Kyle 2 or 3 or 7 years ago have probably changed too!  I really should let people change.  So, I've let go of a lot of my hate.  It's amazing how much better I feel.  Next I need to work on liking people who are CURRENTLY jerks.

Mini Blog Post #4
The weight of the responsibility of naming a child is coming crashing down on me.  IT IS A BIG DEAL.  We have our top 3 choices and every day I decide on a different one.  Luckily we have months to decide.  There just so many things to think about!  Some names we love but they're too trendy. Some names I love but I don't love the full proper form--and I just can't feel okay with putting a nickname on a birth certificate.  Some names we love but they offer too many teasing nicknames.  ANYWAYS.  Considering all these things PLUS deciding which name we love the most and feels the most right is taking up most of my pregnancy-limited brainpower.

Ultra Mushy Mini Blog Post #5
Our 2nd anniversary is in less than a week!  Kyle has secret plans for this weekend--I am very excited.  2 years. It is kind of crazy.  Dating and engagement seem like an eternity ago, but it seems impossible that we've been married for Two Whole Years.  It also seems impossible that I could love Kyle more than I did two years ago, but I certainly do.  I find myself saying prayers of gratitude for him every single day.  He continues to impress me with his coolness and maturity.  Being married to each other has changed and improved both of us, and I think it's more fun now than it ever has been.

Addendum:
Ok, so I couldn't leave on that mushy note that so many people find uncomfortable (I usually do too, I just think that anniversaries are special occasions).  I didn't know if I would blog this, but let's just see what happens.

Here are our top name choices (not in order):
--Ruby Caroline, Ruby Kay, etc. (the middle name isn't set yet)
--Abigail Valentine (we'd call her Abby)
--Penny Valentine (I need to decide if I am the kind of person who names a baby Penelope) (And I need to decide if it matters--technically we could just name her Penny Vaughn--this is one of my internal struggles)

Ruby has been THE name for months and months, long before I was pregnant, but suddenly it isn't set in stone and we're strongly considering other options.  We LOVE Valentine as a middle name (it's a big family name on my side) and I couldn't do a Ruby Valentine (too gimmicky), so that's one point against Ruby.    Love Penny but not wild about Penelope.  Love Abby, and Abigail is quickly growing on us (pretty strongly, too).  Isn't Abby Valentine one of the cutest   things you've heard?  But Ruby Vaughn=my heart.  And Penny is just adorable.

I think it might be awkward to blog the naming process and have people form opinions before it's a reality, but I think it's so INTERESTING.  I love hearing about what other people are thinking about naming their babies, so how could I refuse to share these tidbits with others?  And I feel fine telling anyone who asks, so why should it be weird to blog it?  Anyways, there you have it.  Hopefully we will have enough children to use up our favorite names.  If I don't get to name a boy, I will be bitter my entire life.

AHA!

I KNEW that these Frosted Flakes didn't taste as good as they usually do.  I thought I was just losing my mind.  I'm almost to the bottom of the box and I just now actually looked at it.  I hate when I'm forced to eat healthier against my will. Give me back my Original Kellogg's Frosted Flakes!!


I've been eating a LOT of cold cereal lately.  Here's one reason why:

We just cleaned out our fridge, getting rid of all our expired perishables, and this is what we were left with. Mostly condiments, with nothing to put them on. I had no clue we had no food! I think the state of our fridge is HILARIOUS, all those empty shelves.  We haven't been to the grocery store for months.  I've been so sick, and then my family was in town and we ate out a lot, and then I was gone in CA and Kyle just ate tuna and canned soup (gross), then my family was here AGAIN and we didn't make any food, and now...we usually just go out for dinner (mostly Taco Bell).  Thank heavens Katy gave us a lot of leftover pantry food when she moved to CA--we are well stocked with pasta, Top Ramen, and tomato soup.

It's not like I have much of an appetite anyways.  Hence the cold cereal.  I keep waiting to be ravenously hungry all the time--that sounds like a fun part of pregnancy. Kyle will enjoy that too, I'm sure. 

I wonder how long we can last without going to the grocery store.  We are definitely holding out for as long as we can.

Lately

Well, the little cantaloupe is definitely kicking.  It's a pretty cool feeling.  I thought it would be another couple of weeks before I could feel her, so this is very awesome.  There's a real little person in there!  It's amazing how many times this whole thing has actually started to "feel real"--when I started having symptoms, when we heard the heartbeat, when we saw the ultrasound, and now that I feel her.  I guess it just takes a LOT for it to really sink in!  I'm excited for the 20-week ultrasound tomorrow to see what's going on with Velocity.  Oh and by the way I'm HALFWAY DONE with this delightful experience.  Woo!  (By "delightful" I mean "horrific"--why am I still throwing up??)

I stopped biting my nails over a month ago.  This is a record for me!  And thanks to pregnancy hormones, my nails are LONG.  This is a very big deal--I've been trying to break the habit for...20ish years.  I feel like a real girl now!

One of the greatest things to ever happen to us--Netflix streaming to our tv.  We have great internet but our computers are SLOW so we never watched any of the Instant View movies or shows.  Kyle was looking into getting one of the new Netflix Ready Streaming Devices, but they are exorbitantly priced.  THEN I saw that all you need is a Wii, which my parents gave us for Christmas two years ago, and a free disc from Netflix to activate it.  It came this week and it is MAGNIFICENT.  It is fast and easy and convenient and we are getting a ton of use out of it.  We are even SAVING money--because we will use this so much, we switched our membership to just get 1 disc at a time because 2 would just be unnecessary now!  I rarely see Kyle so excited about something :)   Anyways.  We love it.  I have now gushed about Netflix as much as I've gushed about having a baby--I obviously have my priorities straight.

Finally, I get to think about the baby room!  Mom got me this beautiful "chandelier" at Downeast because she's awesome:

Originally heck of expensive from Pottery Barn Kids.  I love it!  I've tried to describe it to people, and once they actually see it they say that I suck at describing it. So finally, a picture.  You can't tell the color really well in the picture--the ribbon is a beautiful shade of green, and in the center of each white paper flower is a lavender or clear bead.  The baby room decor will therefore be pale green and lavender, which I am in love with.  I think we're going to keep it pretty simple.  We have some ideas about what we'll do in there--I'll blog it when we actually get going.

Sad Face Emoticon

Do not google image "fat val kilmer" unless you want to cry.  I think I need to go watch The Saint real quick.  I miss the old Val.

Oh dear

Like most pregnant women, I am addicted to checking my baby's progress on the Baby Center website.  Particularly fun is the "what your baby looks like this week" feature.  The baby looks fairly normal and comfy in the aptly named fetal position, up until week 19, which is how far along I am.  Now, apparently, Velocity is suffering this indignity:

Excruciating and hilarious.  And FREAKY.  Poor Velocity.  It will be better next week, I promise--I'll get fatter and make some space for you.

Whew.

Just got back from California!  It was a last minute trip (it always is) because Mom was up here for her spring break,  and then was going to be up here again ten days later for Katy's graduation.  My friends, that is what we call a FREE RIDE.  On the day Mom was leaving, Kyle encouraged me to go because he is awesome.  I HAD to take advantage of not having to pay airfare.  While I was gone Kyle improved the beauty of our home in a multiplicity of ways.  It is freakishly clean, the baby room is cleared out, there are flowers everywhere, he  decorated our bedroom (we hadn't gotten to that yet) and he put up some cute floating shelves in our wide hallway.  It looks great.  I think...he is neat.

In California I went to kindergarten with Mom most days.  I also spent a lot of time sitting on the swing on our back patio, enjoying the sun and reading zombie books and drinking Diet Pepsi.  That is basically my heaven.  I got to babysit Lucy several times, we had a fun birthday party for her, and we got her 3 year old pictures taken in the mall, which were incredibly cute.


The highlight was going to garage sales with Mom and Christy.  They take garage sales SERIOUSLY--we had to get up at the crack of dawn to hit the good ones as they opened.  And we hit the JACKPOT.  I bought so much stuff for Velocity!  I can't wait to get it all organized.  Adorable clothes (I think I have decided that tiny baby girl socks are my FAVORITE), a swing, an exer-saucer, and a ton of other stuff.  Such great deals.  We all had a blast. It is such a good feeling to get a barely worn $15 Baby Gap outfit for $1.  The equipment that would normally have cost at least $150 we got for $20.  THAT is why garage sale-ing is the best.

Now that my stomach has actually grown (I look pregnant now, not just chubby) and I have things for her, it is like reality has finally struck.  Those socks are going to have tiny feet in them!  Crazy.  I even wear maternity clothes sometimes!  Um, pretty sure that there is no reason to ever not wear maternity pants ever again.  Have you worn these things?  I have never been so comfortable.

So I had a great trip, and I am so happy to be home.  I missed Kyle like crazy! And now my parents are here for several days for Katy's graduation.  That means fun restaurants and hanging out (plus sitting through graduation AGAIN, woo hoo) (just kidding Katy, I am happy to do it for you) and my house looks beautiful and I can start thinking about baby girl nursery things finally and I am just really happy!

Also, I was in California for 10 days and only threw up once.  I've been in Utah for one day and I've thrown up once.  What the heck?!