First Research Trip

The start of the new year has meant the re-start of dissertation research. We kicked off this activity in a big way by driving down to Austin on Friday so that I could look at the Coleridge Family Archive housed at the Harry Ransom Center. We both registered as readers and went through an orientation, where we learned how to handle rare books and manuscripts. After a thorough introduction on how to find materials, I spent most of my time looking through the HRC's old fashioned card catalog system, trying to figure out what's what. The last 20 minutes or so of our trip was spent reading (and handling) letters written by Robert Southey to Sarah Fricker (the future Mrs. Samuel Taylor Coleridge) in 1795. Very cool.

More trips to come in the future. Next time, we'll remember to take pictures.

For those who may be interested

We have been working to develop baby registries and have a pretty good start so far. If you'd like to take a look at them, they are available to view at Babies "R" Us, Target, and www.alternativegiftregistry.org. They're still a work in progress, so (if the spirit moves you) you may want to check them again a month or two down the road.

New Year's Trip

For this New Year's holiday, we took a trip up to Ft. Worth (by way of Dallas) to visit Bryan - a good friend of Ted's - and his girlfriend, Amy. On the way up, we were able to stop in Dallas and register for a few baby items at Babies R Us. We also stopped in at our favorite dive, the San Francisco Rose (oh, how we miss Dallas).

In Ft. Worth, we wandered around downtown with Bryan and Amy. Bryan's apartment is right on the edge of downtown and within walking distance from restaurants, shops, and a movie theater. We enjoyed a BBQ dinner that first night and shared our "big news" with them. They, of course, are very excited, and Bryan agreed to be the baby's godfather.

On New Year's Eve, we walked around the Kimbell Art Museum. Later, we headed over to Texas Wesleyan School of Law. Across the street from the campus is the Ft. Worth Water Gardens, otherwise known as a huge lawsuit waiting to happen (steep, wet steps without railing and a ridiculous amount of water make for a bad combination). Later that night, we went downtown to a club where we had reservations and rang in the New Year.

On New Year's Day, we had brunch with Bryan's parents and family and spend the rest of the day relaxing. Friday, we packed up and headed back home to Waco. We had lots of fun on our mini vacation.

Take a look at the slideshow below to see images of downtown Dallas, Ft. Worth, the Kimbell, the Water Gardens, and New Year's Eve.

Happy New Year!

We had our most recent doctor's visit yesterday and got some good photos of Baby Gonzalez. The kiddo was not happy about being disturbed by the tech, who put a lot of pressure on his comfy home, and started wiggling and kicking to show his disatisfaction.





By the way, in case you were wondering, we haven't confirmed the sex of the baby yet; I just prefer to refer to the baby as "him" rather than "it." We may be lucky enough to learn the baby's gender at our next appointment, which should be in a couple of weeks. It just depends on how accurate the ultrasound is and whether or not the baby feels like cooperating. We will, of course, keep you posted.

In Need of Suggestions

I plan on registering for baby items when my parents come out this week, and I would welcome some advice. Specifically, I am wondering what items you found to be most important when you were a new mom, or when your child/children were newborns and infants? In other words, what things were necessities? I find that I am completely clueless when it comes to baby items and could use all the advice I can get. Thanks!

Christmas has Come

Christmas has arrived at our condo. Our tree is up, complete with presents underneath it. Our Christmas train is on our "mantle." And we even have an historically inaccurate nativity scene. When my parents arrive this Wednesday, Christmas will be "official."

A Clean Utility Room

In order to prepare for the arrival of Baby Gonzalez, we realized one of the first jobs we need to tackle is cleaning out our closets. We recently started the process by cleaning out the disaster zone we call our utility room. I don't have any before pictures to show you because we'd rather not embarrass ourselves like that on the internet. We do, however, have several after pictures of our work that we are proud to show off.




Tomorrow, I plan to begin the process of cleaning out my own closet. The hard work starts, however, when we tackle the closet in what will become the baby's room. While we have done a pretty good job of maintaining some space for our guests to hang clothes there, we also have lots of junk in there that needs to go. Besides, babies require a lot of stuff, and we need to clear up all the space we can.

Small Changes to our Small Bathroom

We tried a special effect on the largest wall in the downstairs bathroom. Basically, you paint your base color, let it dry, and then cover it in small sections with a darker, coordinating glaze. Then, you take the base of a straw broom and drag it across the glaze so that the base color shows through. It did not come out as nice as I would have liked it. You can tell where one section ends and the other begins, which offends my perfectionist side. But we decided to keep it because it has a bamboo kind of feel, which works perfectly with our Asian theme. We'll see how it all looks when it's completed.





We also picked out a new light fixture to go with the Asian theme we envision for this small space. We think it looks pretty good.

Baby Gonzalez Sends Holiday Greetings

Here's one of today's ultrasound pictures. The baby is doing well and even waved hi. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat - very strong, steady, and fast.

Baby Gonzalez at 6 weeks

This ultrasound is from our first visit to the doctor, which was 2 weeks ago. I know it's hard to see, but the baby is the little bean inside the circle. If you click on the image, you will get an enlarged view of the ultrasound.

We had a second ultrasound today and will post some of those images, too.

And yes, we are very excited, as are our families. We haven't gotten an official due date yet, but we calculated it ourselves, and it looks like we're due around July 12th.

BU vs. A&M

On Saturday, we enjoyed Baylor's win over A&M with our friends, Bryan and Amy. Good seats and good company made for a great evening, in spite of the cold and wind. Check out some pictures from the game, below.