Baby Room Before

I was messing around with our Christmas camera today and figured out how to create video footage . . . so, we decided to film the baby's room in its current state so we could commemorate the forthcoming transformation.



Also, today is the official "half way" point of the pregnancy - and everything is going well. We expect that everything will go just as well during the second half.

Pictures from this Weekend

We had a fairly uneventful weekend, which ended up being a good thing because it forced us to complete our closet cleaning project. We now have some shelves in the closet designated for the baby's things. You can see those two shelves below:



We don't expect to keep the books in the closet. Those will be out on display in the room after we paint the room and install the shelves.

Here is a longer view of the closet. Let me tell you, we had to get rid of a lot of things in order to find that kind of space. How much, you may ask? Well, I'm probably the only English grad student around who currently has zero bookshelves fully devoted to books. In fact, we only have one bookshelf in our entire condo - part of it is devoted to books, and the other half is devoted to decorations and knick knacks.



We also made a Baskin Robbins run this afternoon. This is Ted's banana royale, minus the bananas:



And this is my brownie sundae:



Once upon a time, we enjoyed ice cream regularly and always had some stocked in our freezer. But ice cream stopped loving us back, so this is the way we enjoy ice cream these days. It is our occasional treat.

Rugby Match

The Baylor Men's Rugby Club played its first home match of 2009 today against UNT. This was their fourth cup match, and they went into with a 3-0 record. Baylor was able to score first, but unfortunately, they let UNT pull ahead and weren't able to catch up. You can take a look at photos from the game below.



You can also read a description of the game by clicking here. We look forward to the quarterfinals against SFA on the 28th and expect the guys will be ready for whatever the east Texans bring.

Valentine's Day

I got my Valentine's Day gifts a day early this year. When Ted and I returned from campus on Friday, he had three gifts lined up and waiting for me. As you can see in the slideshow below, I was very surprised. He got me a beautiful set of pearls and a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory assortment. I modeled the pearls with one of my new dresses (which, by the way, is NOT a maternity dress - yay for trends that don't see the need to hug every last curve but still look fashionable and can get me through my preggo months and beyond) and a pair of new shoes.

In the first picture, you get a pretty good view of what my preggo tummy looks like these days. You can also get a glimpse of the gift I got for Ted (or rather, the gift bag containing his gift) in some of the "modeling" shots. He got a blue ray disc he's been wanting for awhile . . . and some Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory chocolates. :-)

Research Trip

We headed down to Austin once again so that I could wrap up my "traveling research" for the dissertation chapter I am currently working on, and this time we made a weekend out of it. While I was trying to make sense of 19th century handwriting, Ted snapped a bunch of photos of our room, the "view" (we were perfectly angled to see UT's football stadium), the campus, and the capitol. You can take a look at his handiwork below.



We enjoyed an early Valentine's Day dinner at Fleming's on Friday night, and, as usual, we forgot the camera. But you can check out the restaurant by clicking here.

On the way back home today, we made a stop at the outlets at Ted's suggestion and found some nice clothes to accommodate my growing tummy. While I still don't look "pregnant" to most people, it is getting more and more difficult to fit into my regular clothes. But no longer! I now have lots of nice options.

New Curtains

Below, you can see the latest addition to our condo. This is all part of the effort to get our home into shape before the arrival of Ted the IV.





These curtains are great because they don't let in nearly as much light and heat as our old miniblinds, which will be great during the summer, and they were on clearance at Pier One. :-)

You know it's a cold day in Texas when . . .

You wake up to find ice has attached itself to the fence,



and your car is covered in icicles,



your BBQ pit is frozen shut,



it takes you 20 minutes (or more) to break through the thick layer of ice that has covered your car and sealed the doors shut,



and your hubby can remove the pieces of ice in large sheets.



These pictures were taken yesterday. The temperature was about 29 degrees when we left that morning, but the wind chill made it feel like 14. We had another layer of ice waiting for us this morning, but it wasn't nearly as thick. If this weather keeps up much longer, we'll be pros at ice removal.

By the way, did I mention that the temperature got up to about 80 degrees last week? Talk about temperature fluctuations!

It's a boy!

That's right, we now know that Baby Gonzalez is Ted the IV. :-)

New Sink

We made a discovery today - we found a moderately priced vanity and top, already assembled, that we actually liked, for our downstairs bathroom. Since that room has been sinkless for most of the time we've lived here, we decided we'd better buy it. It's not the custom order one that we had originally chosen, but it looks just as good and suits our needs, which are becoming a little more pressing now that Baby Gonzalez is on the way. The sink isn't installed yet, but here are a few photos to give you an idea of what it will look like.







You can also see our new wall plates (that we finally bought) in the photos and (sort of) get an idea of how the sink looks underneath the new lighting fixture. We think it will look pretty snazzy when it's all said and done.

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.