Spoiler Alert!!!! - Post includes baby gender

Out of respect for family wishes - I am not revealing the baby's gender immediately. Basically, I know this gets posted to Facebook, but I'm not sure how much of the actual text shows up in the ticker window. So, I'm delaying all announcements and links until I don't think they'll show up and ruin someone's surprise. So SPOILER ALERT!!!! - don't keep reading if you don't want to know the gender.







Okay, I think I'm in the clear - hopefully. So on Tuesday we had the big ultrasound. And by big I mean BIG - the things lasted 30+minutes. The tech did all kinds of measurements on the head, brain, heart, arms, legs, found all the internal organs to make sure everything was where and developing as it should be. THankfully, it all is. Not surprisingly, the baby was measuring a week ahead of schedule. But since Gene and I are so tall, the tech just figured we were going to have a tall/long baby.

Okay, I know I am definitely in the clear now. So the first thing we saw let us know we were having a boy! He was displaying all his boys parts very proudly so there was no question about it. Gene was really happy when he found out. He couldn't go with me to the ultrasound since he had just started his new job. My mom was there so I was nice I wasn't alone. I'm glad it was a boy, because all the stuff we had bought and planned was kinda boyish, so I guess it was providential or karma or something. The thing we're stuck with now, is a serious lack of names. I had all kinds of names I loved for girls, but I cannot for the life of me think a good ones for boys. I like older names, but everyone else thinks they sound old manish - which granted some of them are. Gene just doesn't like a lot of the 'cute' names because he doesn't think they sound very adult when the baby grows up, and I definitely agree. So, we made a new list and I want people to tell me what they think, because I seriously need help getting excited about these. Here's the link


Email me or leave me a message on Facebook if there are any you love or hate and why. Maybe that'll help. Thanks!

State Fair Fun - Salad-on-a-stick

Gene and I went to the Iowa State Fair today since he hadn't been since college and until last week, neither had I. It also helped that Gene got free tickets from Kaplan, because there was no way we were paying $20 to get into the fair. I don't care how much you love food on a stick, it isn't worth that!

We walked through some of the livestock barns, and we saw the Avenue of Breeds so my city boy would know there was more than one type of cow. Of course the only one he cared about were the Angus beef cows and wondered where they were selling cuts of last year's losers.

We walked around the Varied Industries building and registered for a free water softener, got a free Iowa Democrats fan. It was interesting the the Iowa Democrats table was bustling, but there was only one couple at the Iowa Republican's table, and they were just registering for the give-a-way for free ISU footbal tickets. We saw the prettiest and uglist cakes, rode the SkyWay thingie, and saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat done to interpretive dance. We went through all of the Cultural Center and were wowed by all the cool photos and paintings.

But, of course, the most important thing to do at the fair - we ate, we ate a lot. Between the two of us we consumed: a gyro, a giantic cone of cotton candy, a corn dog, two Mt. Dews, an iced tea, a lemonade, a salad-on-a-stick, and a funnel cake. I'd like to point out that I had the salad-on-a stick, though Gene did have to pull me away from the dill pickle-cream cheese-corned beef thingie on a stick - it sounded really, really good :).

Now, I am blogging and looking at baby clothes patterns and my big, strong man of a husband is completely comotose on the sofa! Wow, the pregnant lady completely wore out the 6'4" husband to the point of sheer and utter exhaustion. Ahhh the fun of the Fair.