So, I’ve been absent for a while, in part because I’ve been trying to stock up on things to say. 😉  However, just when I’d get something cool, Mollie would say it!  Such a good little blogger. 🙂

Today, I went to Pomona to take the Engineer in Training exam, along with 2,000 – 5,000 other people.  The directions are all very clear: things like “OMGWTF, GET HERE RIGHT AT 7:00 OR WE WILL STEAL YOUR FIRSTBORN” and “LEAVE TIME FOR PARKING OR YOU WILL LOSE YOUR IMMORTAL SOUL.”  I didn’t like either of those ideas, so I was sure to be ready to park at 6:25.  What they DIDN’T tell me was that parking would take every one of those 35 minutes I left myself, so when I did park, I was still power-walking for the door.  When I got there, however, I discovered that my effort was all for getting at the back of a 5-row line some 400 feet long, STACKED with people slowly filing in the door.

The actual test took place in a massive barn-like building at the fairgrounds of the Pomona Fairplex (one of three buildings there that the NCEES rented for the occasion).  We were instructed where to sit and what we could have with us, which was virtually nothing (we had to leave all our “forbidden devices” on a table by the door), when to go to the restroom or leave the building, the whole nine yards.  Somehow, all some-hundred proctors they had were from the “overweight, old, mean people’s society,” and the “head proctor” was nice and condescending, to boot.  Yet, for all their strict rules, they were severely lacking in actual punctuality.  The test did not start “EXACTLY AT 8:00 AM”, but at 8:31, and the afternoon session didn’t start until 2:11 PM, meaning I didn’t actually get out until around 6 (I finished early).

The nice thing about the experience, though, was that I got to enjoy two nice long car ride on our lovely LA freeways in our need Mazda 3.  Mollie told you it was nice, and new, and I’m hear to tell you that it owns.  The car is amazingly quiet on the freeway, and handles the (many) irregularities in the road surface with exquisite grace.  Also, I had almost forgotten how much better it is driving a manual than an automatic… this car makes me happy. 😉

Not that I would know at all, but I have a suspicion that the new car might be able to make 0-60 in 7-8 seconds, and top 95 in fourth gear.  Maybe someday someone I don’t know at all will find a long, empty stretch of highway and see where it maxes out… 😛

I’m posting some pictures to keep you all updated on our lives… since apparently Andy is too much of a slacker to post on this blog any more!  He leaves all the work to me!  Or maybe he’s just jealous that my posts get more comments than his?  Yeah, I think that’s it.

We bought this Mazda yesterday.  It’s really nice– practically brand new.  Driven for only 3 months.  And it’s a manual (Andy’s #1 criteria).  As for me, I need a little practice to get back in the swing of driving a stick shift.

Oh, and leave it to me to spill Taco Bell in it on the drive home from the dealership.  🙁  New rule: no preggos eating in the car!  I am such a klutz these days!

Yep, it’s a girl!

So yeah, I was totally wrong about having a boy but that’s okay with me. 🙂 Little Natalie has already managed to surprise her mom, which is NOT easy to do!

The ultrasound was a lot of fun! The still pictures don’t really do it justice, it’s so fun to see everything moving around. I think she was sleepy (my caffeine/sugar drink plan backfired because we had to sit in the waiting room a while!), but at one point she threw her arms over her head and stretched her back– so cute! We could see her little mouth opening and closing, even on the regular 2D. We also did a couple minutes of the 4D ultrasound, which was REALLY neat. Like I said, the baby was sleepy so she was all snuggled up and hiding half of her face, but we still got a pretty good shot.

Everything looks perfect as far as development goes, so that was really nice to hear as well.
Soon we will have more pictures to post. We recorded the whole thing onto VHS and once we get it onto DVD we can do more with pictures/video… so keep checking back if you want to see that! 🙂

This week something very important happened– I bought my first piece of REAL furniture! A pretty seafoam colored suede sofa. I love to decorate but I’ve never really had the money to get the things I want. I saved my money all summer and after much searching found a couch that I really like.

But before you see a picture of that, you have to see what our place looked like in the beginning. When we first moved here, the walls were covered with ugly, outdated wallpaper. It only took a couple weeks of putting up with that for us to ask the landlords if we could tear it down and paint. They loved the idea– no surprise there.

BEFORE:

So that’s what it looked like when we moved in. Except that as you can see, I’d already started tearing down the wallpaper border when I decided I should get before and after pictures. 🙂 Pretty “blah”, right? And not at ALL my style. Actually these pictures don’t do justice to how ugly the paper was, at least in my mind. Weird orange and blue with pinecones/pineapples… we never could figure it out exactly. I told Andy it was opressing me.
AFTER:

What an improvement!

I really like the pillows that came with the couch. 🙂

To make things fit nicely, my desk had to get banished to the funky little space right beside the front door. But it works, since now I can’t store random junk there like I was before.Then I have also planned to avail plumbing services by finding a reliable plumbing contractor .

What a difference, huh? I feel like I finally have a grown-up living room! Next project: bedroom. I will probably start ripping out wallpaper there this weekend.

Since the topic of baby gender came up after my last post and I have nothing better to do. 🙂
First off, I’ve had lots of really realistic dreams (unusual for me). However the boy dreams are always after the birth and the girl dreams are always of an ultrasound. A month ago I was positive it would be a boy.

1st trimester: 3 boy dreams, 1 girl dream
2nd trimester: 2 girl dreams, 1 boy dream

Now for the old wives tales:
-The “string test” says girl. They swear by this method at JC Penney Longview- it worked every time but once!
-The Chinese Lunar Calendar says girl.
Here’s some other info I found online:

You will have a boy if:

-baby’s heartrate is under 140 beats per minute- NO
-you are carrying low and in front- NO
-your urine is bright yellow- NO
-you don’t experience any morning sickness in the first trimester- NO
You will have a girl if:

-your baby’s heartrate is 140 or higher- YES (155)
-you are carrying high and all over- YES (I think, anyway)
-your urine is clear- YES
-you sleep on your right side- MOSTLY YES

So that’s a pretty obvious girl! Okay, so they are pretty darn goofy, but I’ve found over the years that I am rather superstitious. We’ll see if that wins out over my original intuition that it’s a boy in… 10 days.

If anyone has any other silly ways of predicting or wants to make a guess, leave a comment. I like hearing what everyone has to say.