Thankful for Thanksgiving!

You can always count on a raucous time when the Westover clan gathers, especially if you throw our LaBonde cousins into the mix! Thanksgiving weekend was a ton of fun! In fact, I'm quite sad to be back to real life. I always love to see my family, and it was especially fun to see them with my big belly. I'm almost positive that my belly had a growth spurt over that weekend. Both of my sisters noticed on Saturday that I looked visibly bigger than I had on the days before. My dad noticed on the same day that my coat wouldn't button shut, so he took me to the mall and bought me a cute maternity pea coat at a holiday weekend sale. And anyone who knows my dad knows that is a sign of true love and devotion! Not the buying of the coat, but the being willing to go to the mall with me, not just on any day, but on Thanksgiving weekend! The man loathes shopping and crowds. LOATHES them. He usually goes to the mall once in December. He arrives at the exact moment that the stores opens and buys gifts until it starts to get crowded. Then he leaves and is done with Christmas shopping for the year. Whether he has gotten all of the items on his list or not. :) Callum will be the first grandbaby on either side, so my belly is a source of great interest and excitement, at least on the touchy-feely Westover side. And you know me...I love the attention! Everyone from my grampy (Callum's Great-Grandfather) to my brother-in-laws got to feel the little snoog kicking at some point. His Aunt Laura got quite a powerhouse kicking show after we went out to an Indian restaurant on Saturday night. It was very impressive. It really was such a fabulous weekend overall! Logan may have been bored stiff several times while I ran around with my sisters and friends, but he was very good at entertaining himself with his "new" hand-me-down laptop, and he was fed an amazing meal at least once a day, which is more than enough to make any trip (or day!) a great success in his book. :) Here were some of my favorite moments:

1. Going over to Grammy and Grampy's house for an amazing Thanksgiving feast. I look forward to Grammy's Thanksgiving dinners all year! I especially love the orange rolls, mashed potatoes, turkey, sweet potato pie....ok, EVERYTHING! Logan tried to take my plate away from me to make me stop eating because he knew I would get major heartburn afterward (darn baby!), but I took it back when he wasn't looking. And yes, I did get heartburn later. As predicted. Still worth it! This meal only comes once a year!

2. Our annual "second Thanksgiving" with the LaBondes on Friday. My Aunt Beth (Mom's little sis) and her kids always join us on the Friday after Thanksgiving and we have a non-stop, completely chaotic, BLAST! As is tradition, this blast of a day included a big meal (although we did break from tradition this year with the main dish and have pulled pork---Dad's newest addiction---instead of baked spaghetti), several Marie Callendar's pies, a Knockout basketball tournament (for more on that see my sister Rachel's blog), several board games, and going out to a movie. But the best part is just being with the LaBondes. They are the best!

3. Getting to see many of my closest girlfriends from high school who still live in the area.

4. My youngest sister Laura (Sorry, Rach, but you know she did all of the work!) threw me a baby shower for our close family friends and some of my high school friends. It was my first one, and MAN did we pull in some good stuff! Here are just a few highlights: (Sorry if yours isn't mentioned....I loved everything, but I don't want this entry to be two miles long!)

• A gorgeous white homemade crocheted blanket from my sweet Aunt Jackie.
• A "library starter" kit designed especially for a little boy from my dad's longtime paralegal Mary Jo that was more like a full library of fabulous, classic children's books!
• An unbelievable embroidered blanket made for me by my dad's longtime secretary Gitta. (The same woman who basically functioned as wedding planner for all three of our weddings---she's the best!)
• A fun Sesame Street basket, which Aunt Beth made me using ModPodge, full of each one of her kids' favorite books from when they were babies.
• A car seat and bouncer from my super-generous friend Lauren.
• An adorable and highly creative "Midnight Emergency Baby Kit" from my dear friend Chrissy, complete with all of the things she has needed to soothe her boys in the night...and of course the emergency hotline number! (Her cell!) :)
• The most treasured baby gift I will ever receive: a "burrito blanket" (my mom's trademark baby gift for her dear friends) made by my mother in her last months of life. She made one for each of us, knowing that she wouldn't be able to be there when our babies came. Mine is red (surprise, surprise) and, like the others, has the words "Love, Grandma Sally" embroidered on one of the corners.

And SO MANY OTHERS, including adorable train PJs, a take-along swing to entertain baby, lots of clothes and blankets, baby toys, and very generous gift cards. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of the people who put time and money into my gifts! I am always overwhelmed by the generosity of the people that I love toward myself and my family. I am so blessed!

I know that this has been a long, kindof dull post, but I must mention one more gift before I wrap up. My dad left a large bag in the gift pile and told Laura to have me open it in front of the ladies at the shower. He finds himself almost as amusing as we find him. :) It was a bag full of ridiculous preppy baby clothes and the following note:

Dear Callum,
I am thrilled that you are on the way! Your grandpa is always on the cutting edge of fashion. Now you can be as well!
Love, Grandpa Mike

Look below to see pics of two of his outfits. Check out how amused Laura is! :)

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Ever since December began I have been able to get lots of sub jobs. Yea for flu season! (What a terrible thing to say!)

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: I got a super bad cold over Thanksgiving weekend and lost my voice. Miserable timing!

Kiss My Belly.....It's Irish!!!

Let me clarify that. It's not my actual belly that's Irish, it's the baby inside of my belly. Well, part Irish at least. In reality he's a snuggly mutt of European descent, but many of Logan's ancestors are Irish. (Hence our last name....McKenna.) When we found out we were having a boy Logan got all excited about the idea of giving our little boy a cool Irish first name to go with our Irish last name. The day after the ultrasound I received a message while at work with Logan saying that he had found a name that he loved for our little bambino. (He didn't actually use that word. That's all me.) I called him back and asked him what the name was, and the resulting conversation went something like this:
Logan: "I'm not telling you."
Sarah: "Um....what???"
Logan: "I'm not telling you until we are face to face and you have eaten and are in a really good mood. I want everything to be perfect so that you'll have an open mind, because I really want it. It's the only name that I have ever heard that I think is as cool as my own."
Is this guy the cutest or what?!?! Before he revealed the name to me at home he explained that it was an old Irish name and that it is extremely popular in Ireland and Scotland, but it hasn't caught on over here yet. (This was verified by my Scottish friends from my camp counselor days.) I'll admit, when he told me the name I did just what everyone else has done when I told it to them since that time. I made a face and said, "What is it? How do you spell that?" He was DEVASTATED by my initial reaction. So much so that I immediately put on a happy, reassuring face and tried to convince him that I didn't mean to react that way. I really liked it and would consider it, I just hadn't heard it before. Sort of true. Since that time he has been wearing down my reserve bit by bit, and he has finally gotten me liking it and convinced that this is the name of the baby in my belly. We went through a stage where we had a list of four names we liked, and everyday we would try a new one out and see if it fit. No matter what name's day it was he would "accidentally" use his preferred name several times to "get it into my head that this was the baby's REAL name." He finds himself to be very, very sneaky. :) So, without any further fanfare, here it is, our first son's name:

Callum Michael McKenna

If you hate it....get over it. Or call him Cal. :)


Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Logan found out that he got all honors on yet another round of tests! That's all of them so far this year! Way to go, honey!

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: We figured out that our radiators were on all of this time....we had just turned off the knobs last year. Whoops. To top it off, the majorly ghetto knob in the bathroom popped right off the radiator at some point today, and since we were both gone all day we came home to an apartment filled with the steam that was gushing from that radiator for who knows how many hours, condensing on the ceilings and wrinkling up several of my scrapbook pages that I just finished, among other things. Annoying!

An Ode to Stretchy Pants

There once was a girl named Sarah.
Tight waistbands she just could not bear-a!

So she just got lazy,

Though some called her crazy,

And wore stretchy pants without even a care-a!

Wow. Can you tell that I've taught elementary school? And never learned how to write any poetry other than mediocre limericks? My English teaching sister Rachel must be hiding her face in shame. :) But, all limerick joking aside, I do love stretchy pants! O, let me count the ways!!! I have always been a creature of comfort, with the possible exception of the vain high school years when heels and flirting pushed comfort and sanity aside for awhile. Give me something "comfy-cozy" (my mother's phrase) and I will be as content as a purring kitten. Although I will try not to purr. For your sake. And my own reputation's. Truth be told, all of the Westover girls are creatures of comfort in this way. I think Rachel took this to the ultimate extreme when in 3rd grade she refused---refused!---to wear anything other than sweatsuits all year. Sweatsuits! Goo. Major goo. Mom was so desperate to keep her from looking like a complete urchin that she tried to make her sweatsuits all cute by sewing ribbons and bows onto them. Nice try, Mom. Man do I wish that I had a picture of Rachel in one of those sweatsuits right now! Hilarious. (I am happy to say that she has now fully recovered from this phase and is a very fashionable high school teacher. Mom must be smiling. And sighing in relief.) Although I never turned to a life of sweatsuits, I will admit that I spent more than half of my college classes in pajama pants, and I have been pulling off my normal clothes in favor of pajamas the instant I arrive home for years now. My family all teases me because I live in these absolutely heinous, tacky pink pajama pants with giant candy hearts on them that my dad gave me for Valentine's Day several years ago. (See the picture on the next entry.) They are soooo ugly, not to mention stained from food being dropped on them, but whatever. They are COMFY-COZY!!! I can not resist their wide, stretchy waistband! No drawstrings for me....if there isn't a wide, stretchy waistband, the pajama or yoga pants are simply not worth wearing, much less buying. And now the revelation for what brought on this glorification of the comfort of stretchy pants: maternity clothes. Wonderful, glorious, STRETCHY maternity clothes. I keep reading in books that by the end of my pregnancy I will be so sick of my maternity clothes that I will want to burn them, but that I will probably have to continue to wear the pants for awhile until I lose the baby weight. My friends, that is SOOO not a problem for me! I could buy that maybe I would be sick of wearing certain pairs of pants frequently, but there is NO WAY that I will be sick of maternity pants in general. All of those wide, stretchy waistbands just conforming to my belly no matter how bloated or uncomfortable I should be feeling....Heaven! And stretchy pants are no longer banished to being worn to dance class, around the house, or on long car trips, either. No! Now they are worn EVERYWHERE! The store, work, even the symphony! Every pair of pants I can now wear have a wide, stretchy waistband! No zippers, no buttons, no unbuttoning my pants after Thanksgiving dinner! I am already in my stretchy pants, glorious stretchy pants! The first day that I fully realized the joy that these stretchy maternity pants would bring me was the day of my second OBGYN appointment. Needless to say, I was so tiny that I definitely did not need to be wearing maternity clothes yet. But at a thrift shop I had found an adorable pair of jeans with a seam running down the front that, truth be told, were so small that they may never fit once I gained even two more pounds, but I couldn't resist them (especially for $6!) and I couldn't wait to wear them. (See the picture above.) I triumphantly marched into the waiting room where Logan was waiting to meet me and showed him my new maternity pants. He scoffed, "You need to be wearing maternity pants already?!" I defiantly replied that I didn't need to, I wanted to. He took one look at how tight they were on me and at the stretchy waistband and just started to laugh. "You aren't going to stop wearing those after the baby is born are you? You are going to wear those stretchy pants all of the time!" Logan, my dear, you are darn right I am!

Secondhand Sarah

As I'm sure you all know, I've never been a particularly low maintenance human being. What can I say?! I just like nice things and a cushy life! (Who doesn't, really?!) However, being a substitute teacher who is married to a medical student whose yearly tuition is more than $10,000 more than the entire yearly salary I received last year when I was teaching full time has forced me to snap out of it. At least a little. :) I am so blessed because I know that I will never have to worry about my kids going hungry or not being able to pay my heating bills because of the incredibly generous families that Logan and I come from, both of whom have the ability and the desire to help us. But, in the meantime, we're trying to scrape together to make ends meet independently so it will never even come to that point of an emergency bailout. (Speaking of bailouts, that reminds me of our crazy economy, and how I have never in my life been grateful that we can't afford to have any investments or own a home....until now. Everyone else may be freaking out about the daily fluctuations of the DOW, but it currently impacts my financial security in no way whatsoever. I guess there are a few benefits to being young, poor students after all!) Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Secondhand Sarah. I have recently discovered the blessings and joy that accompany buying or receiving quality secondhand materials. Of course, I have been surrounded by secondhand (or third or fourth hand) furniture for years now. Almost every item of furniture we own came from the basements of Logan's parents or grandmother! Now I have expanded my appreciation into the realm of clothing and baby items. I have never had the patience to be a thrift store shopper. I like to walk into a store, scan the items available, and walk out. Stores like Ross and TJMaxx, while a great bargain, just overwhelm me and I end up giving up before I've even begun. But maternity clothes finally motivated me to just get over it. They are so stinking expensive, but you don't even wear them for a full year, so it's not worth spending a fortune on! What's a girl to do? Find a fabulous thrift shop, that's what! There is a thrift shop called The Scholarshop in Saint Louis that my incredibly fashionable Auntie Muriel always raves about (I hope no other pregnant Saint Louisians are reading this or I will be blowing my secret!), and I have begun to frequent it. I was relieved to see that there is only one maternity rack, because, although that limits the selection, it is much less overwhelming. I totally lucked out the first time I went, because someone who was pregnant last winter and loved GAP maternity clothes in exactly my size must have just donated a bundle of stuff, and I snagged it all! I got a bunch of GAP maternity clothes, which I love but cannot afford full price, and it was amazingly cheap! I have not had as much luck since, but there have been several other finds, including the adorable "stretchy pants" jeans mentioned in the blog entry adjacent to this one. The next thing I have become addicted to is online reselling sites, including ebay and Craigslist. I have found several great deals and I even bought some lady's full maternity wardrobe super cheap. Unfortunately I didn't really think through the fact that just because we wear the same size doesn't meant that we will necessarily have the same style. Oh well. Enough things worked that it was worth the price, and I laughed hysterically when I discovered that we did in fact have at least one thing in common. You will never believe what was in that pile of clothes....a second pair of the infamous, heinous candy heart stretchy pants! What are the odds?! Last but not least is Freecycle.com. I had heard girls at church talk about it, so I got online and checked it out. I was able to get a ton of gently used baby clothes from this lady, as well as a highchair and a few other things! Wow! And all of that was, as you would guess from the website's name, free! I was very excited, but also discouraged that absolutely everything having to do with my pregnancy and baby so far are used, used, used. Still 100% useful, but used nonetheless. It's so exciting to get new things every once in a while! On that subject, I would like to give a shout out to my good friend Mortie who sent my baby his first present---a new adorable outfit---and to my dad, who always spoils me rotten and sent me some money to buy myself some good maternity clothes, including a great pair of jeans that will fit longer than the pictured ones and some church clothes. (My favorite new dress is pictured at the top. Not secondhand, but so cute! Aren't I getting huge?!) I can't wait until my first baby shower next week that my sissies are throwing me to get some more shiny new things for my little snoog! In the meantime....just call me Secondhand Sarah!

The infamous candy heart stretchy pants....
TWICE!!!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Logan, who loves to cook and is fabulous at it when he can find the time, learned how to make homemade bread and has been on a bread making kick! YUM!

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: It is getting freezing here and the landlord still hasn't turned on the radiators! I mean, come on, it is almost the end of November!

Hip, Hip, HOORAY.....

....I GET TO BLOG TODAY!!!

After many, many weeks of being forced from the blogging scene I am beginning my comeback today! It all began when Logan had a test week. We only have one computer, and he takes all of his notes on it, so during testing weeks, and the several weeks preceding them, I have zero access to the computer whatsoever. Study, study, study. I know, I know, it's more difficult on him, but those testing weeks are no piece of cake for me, either. MAN do I hate them! He just disappears from my life completely, and it's like an extra little stab that the computer does as well. No blogging, no emailing, no looking at baby stuff and pregnancy websites, and no catching up on my shows online. (We don't have cable and for some reason we can't get rabbit ears to bring in a single channel in our apartment. Thank goodness that ABC and NBC put all of their shows online! I wish the other big channels would follow suit!) To make matters worse, a couple of days after his tests came to a close the power cord for our laptop stopped working and the monitor came unhinged from the base. Goo. It appears that we would have to buy a whole new monitor in order to fix it---something about the hinges being stripped---but, after considerable stressing out, my dad offered us a lovely solution. We are going to inherit one of his law firm's old laptops that they no longer use! Hallelujah! We really can't afford a brand new laptop (or even a new monitor and the cost of repairs), especially with the baby on the way, but Logan desperately needs access to one for school. In the meantime, we borrowed a power cord from a friend while we wait for the new one we ordered to arrive in the mail, and we are precariously propping the monitor onto its stripped hinges and using it as a desktop forevermore. Do you realize what this means?! I may not be able to MOVE the computer that I have access to, but I will no longer be cut off from civilization during testing periods! Yippee! A blessing in disguise. For me at least. :) More blog entries to come in the next couple of days! Stay tuned!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Getting access back to my computer AND my husband!

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: Our computer breaking. Obviously.

Happy Halloween From The Great Pumpkin!

Isn't this a fun shirt?! It comes to you courtesy of my little sister, Laura, who has a matching one! Happy Halloween!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Logan finally got to feel the baby kick! Hooray!

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: Logan has been so busy studying (on our one and only computer) that I haven't had any time to blog....or even check my email some days!

It's a . . . . .

. . . . . BOY! A BOY!!! What am I, Sarah Westover McKenna, going to do with a BOY?!? I don't even have any brothers! For that matter, neither does Logan. We are entering uncharted waters, especially for the Westover side of the family. I must admit that I am feeling a little shell-shocked by this news. So much so, in fact, that I had to wait until today to post the big news. I just needed some time to wrap my head around it. I had thoroughly convinced myself (and Logan, and my sisters, and so on and so forth) that it was a girl, but the baby who has been referred to as "she" and "her" for the last 20 weeks is in fact a HE. Wow. Looks like I am going to have to stop thinking ruffly skirts and go get some cute little overalls instead! :) Wish me luck . . . I'm gonna need it!

Isn't technology awesome to be able to get a picture like this?! It's the same type of process as an MRI or a CT Scan---layer by layer images compiled into this cutie trying to hide his face. :)

World Premiere Belly Pic!

This week I decided that I was finally getting round enough to take a cute belly pic for the blog, so I got dolled up for church and had a little photo session with Logan. (Check out our cool, old apartment building in the background!) I am about to start week 20, and we are finding out the gender tomorrow, so stay tuned this week for an exciting update on the blog!

Fitting the Stereotype

Throughout my life I have been stereotyped many times, whether because of my religion, activities and interests, appearance and dress, or my college major choice and resulting career. But, in all reality, I have never truly fit completely into any of the stereotypes that people have tried to use to categorize or understand me. That all changed last week. Last week I succumbed to hormonal peer pressure and became the stereotypical pregnant woman, complete with MUST-HAVE cravings and nonsensical crying. Poor, sweet Logie! Up until this point in my pregnancy I haven't been craving much other than a refreshing citrus drink made by mixing 3/4 parts lemonade to 1/4 part fresca, along with my lifelong love affair with my sweet-tooth, of course. The cravings have been very manageable and very cheap. My emotions also have not been much more irrational than usual, which really isn't saying much I suppose. (Ok, I'll admit it...once during the first trimester I did start sobbing when I discovered that Logan had eaten the last cup of tapioca pudding.) Not so much anymore. Cravings had been popping up more and more, but Logan tries to be very diligent about our budget, so unless it is already in the house I usually just pout to no avail. However, last week I lost all control of my rational side and for the first time sent him running out into the night trying to find a way to pacify me. We were watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory on DVD when the drama began to unfold. (By the way, if you haven't seen that show yet, you need to! It is HILARIOUS!!! It is amazingly enjoyable to both the science geek in our home and the sassy girl married to him with the average intelligence level. Hmmm...I wonder if it could have something to do with character identification?) The characters were eating Thai food and Indian food in the same episode and I became frantic, declaring that I needed some ethnic food NOW! Logan patiently pointed out that we had no cheap take-out places near us and that I had just eaten. This did not work! In fact, it only drove me into more of a tizzy, with me making all sorts of unfair and untrue accusations about him being the only husband in the world not fulfilling his pregnant wife's cravings and not even caring that I was tired and sick and cranky because of his baby! I worked myself up to the point where tears were streaming rapidly and Logan was sprinting out of the apartment to get me my favorite dish from the only Indian place near us, an expensive restaurant we have only been to twice for special occasions. When he returned looking anxious, but anticipating a calmer, more reasonable Sarah, and presented me with my divine dish, I started bawling again, this time because I knew that we couldn't afford the food he had just gotten me. Wow. The next day when I declared that I wouldn't eat anything but salad for dinner he dashed out of the house before I could even finish my sentence in an attempt to avoid the waterworks and drama that were sure to ensue should he stay behind. Poor Logan! :) I am happy to say that things have simmered back down since then and that today when I was told that we didn't have extra money in the budget this week for ice cream I was able to say ok and go back to reading my pregnancy book. Logan, my dear, I would like to take this opportunity to say that you are not the only husband in the world who isn't jumping to fill his pregnant wife's every wish and desire, but you may just be the most patient! I love you!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Going to lunch with my fun Aunt Muriel at Companion Bakery, a place I crave regularly---whether pregnant or not!---but rarely get to go.

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: Heartburn. Especially in the middle of the night. It is not fun to try to sleep in a recliner!

Vanity, Thou Art a Silly, Curly-Haired Woman!

Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense.
Julian Casablancas

Today's topic is vanity. In general, I am not a very vain person. Now, I am fully aware that those of you who knew me primarily in high school, when I was known to be seen on any given school day strutting around in red lipstick, high heels, and a mini-skirt my mother most definitely would not approve of, are surely scoffing at this moment! However, those of you who knew me, and especially those of you who lived with me, in college know that those high school days are looooong gone. Let's just say freshman year of college hit and the showers became less frequent, the wearing of PJs to class became a regular event, and the wearing of makeup became such a rare occasion that I was often mistaken for two different people. No joke! (If you don't believe me, just ask Morgan and she'll tell you about the time that a snooty girl named Tammy argued with me that there was a girl who was not me but who looked like me in the choir class before hers....except she was "really beautiful." Hmmm....) Anyway, now that laziness has overtaken the primary pursuits of beauty in my life (Sorry, Logan!) my vanity has become one the less apparent of my many faults and weaknesses. With one exception. One would think that since I hardly ever wash my hair and almost never do my hair that I wouldn't really care about my hair, but that is simply not so. Last year I got a haircut that I must now admit was probably the best haircut I've ever gotten in my life. It laid perfectly and lasted for months without getting all crazy-poofy again. However, when asked by Logan if I liked my haircut and had finally found a stylist that I liked in Saint Louis, he received an adamant "no!" Why, you may ask? He wasn't that friendly, and, sin of sins, he didn't even say one nice thing about my hair! Imagine! If a stylist of mine wants a good tip and a loyal customer, well, then all they have to do is make a fuss over my hair. "Oh, the curls are so beautiful!" "Wow, it's so long and thick!" "Women pay hundreds of dollars for perms that look like this!" They don't even have to be that GOOD at cutting my hair! Now, you may be wondering what in the world brought on such a ridiculous rant.....not to mention an expose of one of my own silliest qualities. It was yet another haircut. I used to get my hair cut every six weeks or so only with my favorite stylists, but now that we are dirt poor I have had to lower my standards. (Like it even makes a difference....I can't remember the last time I did my hair and wore it down!) I haven't had it cut in about six months or so, and my pregnancy seems to be making it grow even faster than before, so it's been driving me crazy with its frizziness and sheer mass. I looked at a book in Borders on how to cut your own hair and seriously considered it because I was so desperate (yikes!), but I finally settled on just going to the beauty school by our apartment for a dramatically discounted service. Now, you may think that you know where this story is going....a bad cut at a beauty school leads to a vanity meltdown. You are wrong. She actually did a pretty good job. The offending incident was not the cut itself but, you guessed it, a verbal injury to my delicate vanity. (Hey, they are lucky I wasn't having a crazy hormonal pregnancy moment or that women could have lost an eye with so many scissors nearby!) When the girl was done cutting she called over her supervisor to check it before she dried it. She told the supervisor that she was going to diffuse it and leave it curly, and her supervisor said, "Oh, I guess there is a nice little wave in there. So you're going to try to force some curl?" FORCE some curl?!?! Nice LITTLE WAVE?!?! I mean, the nerve of that woman! :) Let's all hope this isn't a genetic trait that the baby will inherit!

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Finally finding the time to make pumpkin bread and decorate for Halloween!

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: Logan's insatiable obsession with the Presidential Election. Not to mention the baseball playoffs.

The Tiny Little Thumper Within

Last week the baby started moving! Funnest! Well, I suppose that in all reality the baby has been moving for a lot longer than that, but last week I started to feel it. One day I was coughing really hard and felt like something pushed out from within, like it was unhappy with me not getting enough air. I wondered if it was the baby, but I couldn't be sure because I had been coughing so hard that my stomach muscles were really working, so I just shrugged and waited to see if it would happen again. The next day I was reading a magazine and listening to a mix on my iPod when a great booty-shaking song came on. All of the sudden I started feeling bubbly-butterflies in my lower belly, and a moment later a distinct little thump from within. As my sister Rachel so aptly put it, "Oh. My. Word." Leave it to my baby to wait until a great booty-shaking dance song comes on to make itself known! Haha! After that I started feeling baby more and more, especially late at night when a sane person would be asleep. (In fact, now that I am a constantly tired pregnant lady I am no longer a hard-core night owl, so I often AM trying to sleep and can't because the baby is distracting me with all of its thumps.) The tiny little thumps are still too small for Logan to feel, although I make him sit with his hand on my belly at least once a day trying in vain to feel them. Hopefully the little thumper will be big enough soon that its Daddy will be able to feel its movements! In the meantime, all I have to say is that if it continues to demonstrate behaviors similar to those of its mother, and if it does turn out to be the girl that almost everyone thinks that it is, then in about 15 years . . . . . Heaven help us all! :)

Best Thing Since I Last Blogged: Going to Eckert's Farm for a Wash U event. While I was there I got to see pig races. Cutest!

Worst Thing Since I Last Blogged: Seeing the tiniest pig get trampled during one of the races! (Don't worry, he got up and ran to the finish line anyway!) :) Also, morning sickness kicking in during my second trimester. Unpleasant surprise!

My Mom's Divine Pumpkin Bread Recipe!

I got several requests for my easy and delicious pumpkin bread recipe, so I'm just going to post it. It is so delish---try it!

3 1/3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. cinnamon

Add:
1 cup cooking oil
2/3 cup water
4 eggs
2 cups canned pumpkin

Mix well.

Add:
1 cup chocolate chips (or coconut or nuts)

Pour into 2 or 3 (depending on size) greased and floured bread tins.
Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Fanatic for Fall

(This pic is of Logan and I four years ago on the weekend we got engaged. It reminds me of such a happy time...engaged at Halloween!)

Well, it's official...I am completely and utterly in love with fall! I always used to be a big time summer person, mostly because to me summer meant no school, fun jobs, tons of free time, and a killer tan! However, as I got older, the love for summer began to fade, mostly because I am no longer able to lay out at the pool for hours on end with my girlfriends, for several reasons, which include no more easy access to a pool, not as much free time, and, let's face it, a lower tolerance for baking miserably in the heat in the pursuit of nothing other than brown skin. I mean, the shade's 200 yards away, so why would I want to read a book in the sun when I could be relaxing under a tree?! Wow, that makes me sound about 20 years older than I actually am. Consequently, my love transferred to spring. It's warm and beautiful, the flowers are blooming, the miserable, never-endingly long Logan, Utah winter is over, and, once again, it signals that the time is coming when I will have no school. Some things never change! :) I still love spring dearly, but ever since we moved to Saint Louis I have found myself more and more enamored with fall, and I have decided that the reason is that spring here is just an ominous warning that the oppressive heat and humidity of summer is fast approaching, and fall is the joyful news that it's GONE, and that nothing is coming anytime soon other than a wimpy non-Utah, non-Colorado winter. Aaaahhhh....relief! I hate humidity! Another reason that I adore the fall is because it signals the approach of the holiday season, which I love, and especially the coming of Halloween. I don't know why, but I LOVE Halloween! I hate scary movies and refuse to watch them or enter haunted houses because I get nightmares, so it doesn't seem like Halloween would be my favorite holiday, but in many ways it is! I love cutesy orange and black decorations, I love dressing up and seeing little kids in costumes, I love the more moderate weather of October, and I love CANDY!!! (Like that's shocking news to any of you!) I look forward to each October as a time to decorate and make delicious, moist chocolate-chip pumpkin bread for myself and my friends and family, wrapped in foil and tied up with orange and black ribbons of course! (I have an easy and divine recipe if anyone is interested. It truly is the best one that I've ever had, so let me know if you'd like it!) One of the things I am really looking forward to about having kids is that holidays are so much more exciting with kids, especially Halloween! Christmas has so much to offer all ages, but if you aren't into spooky stuff Halloween is really a kiddie holiday. I can't wait! In fact, this year I have been SOOO in love with the fall weather and the idea of fall that the name Autumn is really starting to grow on me for a girl! (Along with a whole list of others, of course...and no, we don't know the baby's gender yet. Soon I hope!) Just a few more days until the baking and decorating will be in full force at the McKenna homestead. Don't you wish you were lucky enough to live close enough to receive some pumpkin bread???

Best thing since I last blogged: Hearing our baby's heartbeat for the first time! Cutest!

Worst thing since I last blogged: Logan having to study constantly this year. Yuck.

(One of my girlfriend's always does the "best thing" and "worst thing" at the end of her posts, which I really like, so I'm copying her idea.)

A Baby on the Way....

Hello friends and family! I have decided that now that I have a baby on the way it is time to cave in to the trends and start a blog. Logan thinks I'm silly, but I love looking at my friends' blogs, so I'm going for it anyway! As most of you have heard, I am pregnant! YIPPEE!!! The baby is due on March 3rd, and we could not be more excited! Logan is in his second year of medical school at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, and he loves it! I have been teaching elementary school full-time for the last three years, but teaching in the inner city last year was so rough that I am taking this year to just recuperate and get ready for the baby. I will probably end up subbing or working retail or something....something easy to walk away from without a complicated maternity leave! For now I'm just on the job hunt and enjoying my free time. Here is my first ultrasound picture, taken a few weeks ago. I can't believe how developed the baby already looks! I think it is adorable, but I am obviously a little biased! :) Love to you all!