What You've Missed

It's been a busy couple of months around here. Here are a few highlights:

1. Hannah being completely spoiled by friends and family.

            For those of you who aren’t in the know, Erik bequeathed the name “Hannah” upon our unborn daughter. He has no intention of calling her that once she’s born and I’ve also adopted the name for our daughter in utero. I cannot explain anything more than that.

We’ve been steadily acquiring the baby essentials--mostly through the generosity of friends and family. Hannah will join many female cousins on both sides of the fam so she has a lot of people to show her the ropes…and to give her their barely-used hand-me-downs.

We have also been preparing a nursery, at Erik’s insistence. My reluctance to sacrifice our current office/vanity room to an unborn child was trumped by Erik’s planning instincts. His exasperation peaked one night when he asked “Why am I nesting and you’re not?” Pictures to come.

2.  A trip to Nashville for Thanksgiving with the Watsons. 

            Our 7+ hour car ride began with conversations shaped by google searches about the respective states we passed through—just ask if you’d like to hear about the Carrollton, Kentucky bus crash of ’88, the Hatfield-McCoy feud, or what Grob is.

            The Watsons were kind enough to allow us to crash their first ever Thanksgiving meal and all we had to contribute were mushy carrots and snarky remarks. Dusty showed us just how bad intern year can be, Cortnee put everyone else’s hosting skills to shame, and baby Kenzlee gave us a crash course in parenting that neither Erik or I were ready for.

3.  The second annual Christmas Carol outing.

            This one happened only after Erik confiscated my blackberry for the entire event and assured me that I wouldn’t be missed for two hours on a weekend. With logic like that, and my phone buried deep in Erik’s too-tight pants pocket (his description, not mine), I couldn’t argue. We enjoyed the Ricky Gervias-like narrator, the message of generosity and Christmas spirit, and making fun of the chubby dancer who used a violin as a dancing prop.

4.  Our first Christmas tree.

            We don’t have ornaments or a tree skirt, but we have our first real Christmas tree. We selected our tree after a brisk walk through the outdoor Christmas tree lot. Erik was unimpressed by the lot attendant’s inability to tie surgical-level knots or to consider aerodynamics when strapping the tree to our car, but we made it home.

 Stay tuned for what promises to be a happenin' December!

Three Things I Didn't Expect to See While in Utah

1. My mom getting a pedicure. (This from the lady who's not a fan of any form of light touches)2. My dad signing a search warrant on the hood of a deputy's vehicle whilst wearing chaps and holding the reigns to his horse. (All in a day's work, folks)3. My law school classmates at our class reunion while I'm pregnant and husbandless. (I graduated as a single gal)
Honorable Mentions:
- parking a bright red (Peterson) vehicle in the BYU law school parking lot with a big fat U on the back.
-unsuccessfully using my sister's minivan to tail the officer who was looking for my dad behind the cowherd.

Cincy

I made it a point to bring our brand new camera along on my trip to visit Erik in Cincinnati last weekend but failed to pack the fully charged battery, so you'll have to witness our tour of the city using only google images and the few pictures we took with my phone. Here are the highlights:

*enjoying hot chocolate and a Belgian waffle at the Findlay Market in downtown Cincinnati. Our trip to the market ended with Erik paying a toothless man $1 to let us walk away from our compulsory astrological reading.[the fortuneteller had less eyeliner, was a he, and was most definitely not Amy Whinehouse, but isn't it crazy that a someone this famous has missing teeth?]

*walking to Kentucky on the Purple People Bridge. The bridge required some bravery: it had an astounding lack of barriers to people or things jumping/falling from the bridge.
*climbing the steps of the Mt. Adams Church and picking out a lovely townhome. We were surprised to learn that most of the quaint houses came with million dollar price tags, but we're not discouraged.*finding an entire section of Penguin clothing at the Saks Fifth Avenue outlet store. Erik became so attached to the red Penguin Earl shirt that several workers offered to get him (and the shirt) a room.
*Sunday dinner with the Walquists, who have been kind enough to let Erik camp out in their basement for a month. This is especially surprising, given that Erik's very presence in their house seems to set one or more children into a frenzy.
*a driving tour of the UC medical campus.*coming to a decision on a baby stroller after the fastest stroller test drive in the history of stroller test drives at Babies R' Us.
[What? I didn't have time for makeup or a shirt.]

Stay tuned for my picture tour of Utah sans Erik.

October

Some things you’ve missed in our blogging absence:

1. A visit from the Peterson parents, including fine dining at Chez Francois in Vermillion (two enthusiastic thumbs up), Great Lakes Popcorn in Sandusky (one thumb up—my penalty imposed for overstating their fame/rank among popcorn makers), various beaches of Lake Erie (two dry thumbs up—we make no warranty about water quality), brunch at La Scola (two thumbs waaay down and perhaps inside of fists that are punching the responsible party in the nose) and many of our other Toledo Haunts. Visits from the Petersons are always entertaining and too short.

2. A visit from Erik’s long-time friend, Brian, “The Wizard,” or “B-Fred.” Brian flew in just for Erik’s birthday and the party never ended. Erik and I huddled under our $7 garbage bags at our first Ohio State football game while Brian looked on, unaffected. Erik and Brian did a brief golf tour of the region (again, Brian demonstrated he was not affected by the weather by sticking with shorts for a brisk fall Toledo afternoon at the links), and had a perfect day at Cedar Point (despite B-Fred’s fear of roller coasters). The fellas also painted our office a more neutral color (“Smoked Oyster”) and had dinner waiting when I came home on most evenings.

3. The beginning of Erik's tour of orthopedic surgery programs. His travels mean that I'm left alone (except for our pit bull, expensive alarm system, and weapons arsenal) to fend for myself most nights.

4. A reminder that I still have it: after completing a grocery shopping trip, I exited the store and passed a man in a molester-van with his windows rolled down. He gave me a “woo-woooo!” as I passed and I obliged him with a half-smile. He continued his loop around the parking lot and waited for me to load up my trunk with the groceries, all the while letting out intermittent “woooot-wooo” sounds. Who can blame him—and who can’t admire that sort of boldness?

Some things we’re looking forward to:

1. My law school reunion and visit to see family.

2. Erik’s return.

3. Baby Jo, due to arrive in Hong Kong any day now to my brother Dane and his wife, April.

4. A Christmas Carol—we just bought tickets and plan on making this a Christmas tradition.

And the Lord said to Erik and Lyndsay . . .buy a house?

It has been well documented that though animals flock to our house like Noah’s Ark, they are not welcome.

Lyndsay guided a bird out of the house with more than a little nudge. Our last centipede was killed with more force than semi truck colliding with a train, leaving a small nick in the wood floor. When Lyndsay killed those condor eggs, she made sure to throw them down to the ground, not just loft them. And when we discovered bumblebees in the basement, yes, bees, they were all destroyed beyond physical recognition.

So, it should come as no surprise that this is yet another animal post. They just love us. This time, they came in the form of fly larvae that found something disgusting at the bottom of our garbage can and decided to form a little colony that would one day take over the world. Imagine my surprise when I discovered them by accident right before eating dinner one night: THOUSANDS of larvae crawling all over the garbage can and lid. The worst part was that garbage day was 4 days away, meaning we couldn’t just toss these critters out on the curb and let someone else deal with the problem. If only a man had been around.

I would go into the details on the clean up, but I can’t afford to throw up on this keyboard. Let’s just hope that no larva ended up on the garbage man. That’s one guy that I want on my side.

Sugar and Spice

I woke Erik up on the morning of my 20-week ultrasound 4 minutes before we needed to leave the house (whoops!), leaving him just enough time to throw on his lucky Franz Ferdinand shirt—the one with the hole in the armpit and which he’d worn the day before for his Step 2 exam.

At the hospital, Erik got to witness the rigmarole that I have come to expect monthly (weighing in, providing urine, and having my blood pressure taken), all the while commenting on each stage:

“It took you THAT long to produce that much urine?”

“Have you been eating lately?”

“Why are we here at 7:30 am again?”

Finally, the moment of truth arrived, I exposed my belly and the technician began her exploration. Erik’s commentary continued, disrupting the ultrasound due both to mine and the technician's belly laughs.

As the technician measured our baby’s femur, we both knew the truth—the absence of any protrusion meant that, as predicted, we’re having a girl. There was a moment of disbelief—after all, Erik had worn his lucky shirt! Luckily, we had brought reinforcements. The Peterson grandparents were ushered into the ultrasound room and brought with them plenty of enthusiasm plus a gift for baby girl Peterson.

Sorry, we're too lazy and it's too cliche to post ultrasound pics, so you'll have to take our word for it. So, bring on the baby name suggestions, commenters. For naming purposes, we were unwisely planning on a burrito instead of a taco, so we're back at square one.

...And We Just Can't Hide It

We’re pleased to announce the anticipated arrival of a new member of the Peterson family. As this may impact the flavor of OWRTF, we are providing our responses to some FAQs in order to get our readers up to speed on this new development.

When are you due?
January 11, 2010 or 01/11/10. We’re very happy about the symmetry of the date.

Wait a second, you haven’t shown us a pregnancy test or an ultrasound pic. How do we know you’re actually pregnant?
Erik knew when he happened upon Lyndsay sobbing during the “Donna Martin graduates!” demonstration on a vintage Beverly Hills 90210 episode. For a girl who remained stone faced during Steele Magnolias and Where the Red Fern Grows, I’m sure you’ll need no further evidence.

Was this planned?
What’s wrong with you?

Do you have a preference as to gender?
Yes. We’re hoping for a boy—which means we will welcome a baby girl in January. We’ll find out for sure later this month.

How have people reacted to the news?
Thanks for asking! Here are some of our favorites:

“Do you know whether you’re having multiples yet?” Laurel (grandmother of twins and triplets)
“So are your boobs, like, huge?” Krista
“Congratulations. Can you have this draft brief finished tonight?” Anonymous Colleague
“What?” (3 times) Katy

Are you sure you're ready for this?
We'll get back to you on that.

Snowballed

Warren’s smug little mug has been taunting me for the last seven (yes, seven) months as I’ve tried to conquer his 900 page biography. I’m happy to announce that I’ve done it! The gentle nudge I needed to buckle down and finish came from the Toledo Public Library. Apparently even they have a limit to their generosity—they politely requested that I return their book or be subject to their hefty five cent per day fine.

I offer you this summary to save you the pain of reading the book yourself:

-Ms. Schroeder (the author) is a huge fan of similes. I’m not.

-Warren didn’t get where he is now without being a tight-fisted, savvy, eccentric guy.

-Warren had a pseudo polygamous arrangement with his now deceased wife and his current wife that I found fascinating.

-Once, a very wealthy Katharine Graham asked Warren for a dime to use a payphone. He only had a quarter so he went in search of someone who could give him change. In the end, she convinced him to cough up the entire 25 cents.

-Warren Buffett is conservative with his money and liberal with his politics.

-Susie Buffett was pretty tight with Bono.

-Warren Buffett is fascinated by Bill Gates.

-You should have acquired some Berkshire Hathaway stock a long time ago.

See? I just saved you 7 months and at least 25 cents in late fees.

Things that Bother Me about Erik: Installment One

At the risk of offending Erik or his allies, I've decided to create a new series on our blog called: Things that Bother Me About Erik. Erik's welcome to do the same. Perhaps by airing our marital dirty laundry we can obtain a closure which is unavailable except through public exposure of each others' shortcomings. Plus, who can deny its entertainment value?

I realize that by traditional measures of husbandly contribution, I shouldn't discourage any inclination Erik may have to straighten up or clean our house. However, a startling trend has arisen. I present to you two exhibits:


Exhibit 1: Blackberry Pearl ($200 value) At the termination of our two year cell phone contract, Erik and I were eligible for two free brand new phones. A partner in my firm had generously offered me his iPhone free of charge, but I figured I would still get the Blackberry Pearl and either sell it or keep it as a back-up in the event of an iPhone malfunction. The Pearl arrived in its box and I didn't even bother to open it. I left it with the paperwork and Erik's phone on our dining room table--an action not uncommon for either of us. Two weeks later, and suspiciously after Erik had done a quick clean-up/purging of the dining room area, the cell phone was nowhere to be found. Erik admitted that he had "straightened up" the table and had no concrete alibi, but denied any involvement in the disappearance of the phone.

Exhibit 2: $1,500 Check* Last Saturday was a busy day. Erik and I planned on attending a wedding in Cleveland (more on this later?) and we divied up the pre-trip tasks. Erik's plan was to do our bank transactions, including depositing a $1,500 refund check that resulted from refinancing our house. After a search in all of the usual locations, the check was nowhere to be found. My veiled suggestion that Erik may have once again thrown the check away in one of his cleaning rampages was met with defensiveness. As a last resort before calling the company and asking them to reissue the check, we decided to look in our respective cars. As I sifted through the contents of my trunk, I heard a quiet, "I found it," then "I think I might have a problem." As I suspected, the check had been in the garbage the whole time. This time Erik could not deny his culpability.

So we'll put it at the top of the list of Things that Bother Me About Erik:

1. He throws away items of increasing value without any recollection of doing so.

*actual check not pictured.

Are you going to eat that?

Usually when I’m walking around downtown Toledo, I’m hit with at least one request:

Will you give me some money for gas?

Can I have some spare cash?

Will you look at them shoes! (my own)

Lift up your skirt! (more demand than request)

As a result of their frequency, I’ve become jaded towards such requests and my instinctual response is to politely decline. Yesterday I attended a work-related event at the Mud Hens game and left carrying a hamburger for Erik. I decided to call Erik during my three block walk back to my car in order to dissuade any requestors. No such luck.

I sat in the driver’s seat of my car, put the plate with the hamburger on it in the passenger seat and was closing my door when I heard “HEY!” A lady then approached me and indicated that she is pregnant, had been sick all day, was hungry and then asked if I have any food she could have. Erik’s hamburger was in plain sight so there was no polite way to say no—but my various stashes of candy throughout the car remained safe. I obtained Erik’s consent and handed the hamburger over to the woman.

After I had a chance to reflect on it, the incident disturbed me in more ways than one. First, how hungry do you have to be to chase someone down and ask for the food they’re holding in their hands? What kind of life will the woman’s unborn child have? Most importantly, why did I even hesitate to give my food to her? Worst case scenario, she’s not really hungry or pregnant, and she’s tricked me into feeding her dinner for the night. That’s a risk I can take.

Ultimately Erik, the woman, and I all enjoyed burgers by the end of the night (Erik’s was a replacement burger from Wendy’s). In the future, maybe I’ll think twice before refusing the requests of those I encounter on the street. Indecency laws be damned.