Belly Beats

I want to thank my good friend Tasha for providing me with peace of mind.

Before I was pregnant I didn't realize how much I would worry. Seriously, I worry about the baby a lot. Sometimes there are days when I don't feel it moving so I worry if it's okay or even if it's still alive.

At my last doctor's appointment Dr. West said I could come in and listen to the baby's heart beat anytime I wanted... without an appointment! (He's super cool)

One day at work I had planned on going to the gym to get some exercise during lunch but then I started freaking myself out and decided to drive downtown to the hospital and listen to the heartbeat. It's not that inconvenient but it takes a little more than a lunch hour so I can't do it all the time -- which, knowing me, I would want to do.

I was voicing my concern to Tasha (who is also pregnant, yay!) and she said she had rented and been using a fetal doppler to listen to her baby's heartbeat.

She is a little further along that I am and can feel the baby more so she offered to let me use the doppler because she was going to send it back.

Of course I took her up on that! I can now listen to the baby anytime I want. It has brought a lot of peace to this mama-to-be.

Thanks again Tash! And Belly Beats for the great product.

Poll Results... So Far

Alright. Thanks to everyone that has voted so far. There are 24 total votes as of right now. I will leave it up so more can vote and I'll give another update later.

Here are the mid poll results...

Which name do you prefer?

38% Madison Kennedy
29% Isabella Claire
21% Sophie
13% Madison Isabella
0% Cameron Isabella

If you haven't voted yet, go to http://www.babycenter.com/403_baby-girl-names_8771772_165380263709.bc.

I'll explain why I chose some of the names.

Madison, Kennedy, and Isabella are names that I have loved for a while.

My grandma's name is Clara Belle so I chose to put Isabella and Claire together to kind of reverse her name. Besides, I think it's super cute.

Dr. Cameron is one of the female characters on the show, House, and I liked the name Cameron. My other grandma's name is Camille so I thought that the "Cam" part was close enough. Then I put Cameron and Isabella together to be named after both of my grandmas.

I decided I liked Sophie sometime during one of the 3 times I saw Mama Mia in the theater. I don't know which name would be put as the middle name.

The problem with picking a name is that I want all of them.

Tom was bummed that I only did a poll for the girl name. I asked him if he wants me to do a boy poll. He said yes. I can't understand why. He has made it quite clear that Alexander is his name of choice. However, to humor him I will let you know the boy names I like (besides Lex).

Collin (but that's Carly's name), Liam, Harrison (but would never call a kid Harry, it would have to be the whole thing), Noah, Jack, and Aidan.

Notice of Default

So, Tom ran out and grabbed the mail last night when we got home. He was standing in the kitchen examining one of the letters. It wasn't addressed to us but he could see through it to the letter inside. It was addressed to the owner of the place we're renting right now. He had me go over by him to take a look. When he pressed the envelope so I could see though I saw the big phrase, "Notice of Default." Quality!

I couldn't say I was surprised. A couple of months ago Tom was standing outside and a man from the bank came up to him and asked if he was the owner. Of course he didn't tell Tom anything but it is kind of obvious why he was there (I work for a finance company and we do the same thing).

It's nice to be aware that we might be getting kicked out of the house that we are renting. By the way, we are always on time paying rent so it's not like the owner isn't getting our money.

Luckily, earlier in the day we went with a realtor to look at houses. We found one that we really like and made an offer.

It is 5,200 sq ft, 7 bed, 4 bath. It is bank owned and an absolute steal of a deal! We definitely don't need a house that big but it is the price of a house half the size. We really love that it has a basement. Most houses in the Boise area don't.

Hopefully our offer is accepted but if it isn't, we'll find another great deal.

I love this economy!

Halloween

We had fun this halloween. When I got home from work I made a pumpkin casserole for Tom and we watched a scary movie. He was going to take me to the movies but I was so tired. But, he's a trooper. He stayed home with me. We had 4 trick-or-treaters (a 100% increase from last year)!

I dressed up as a vampire for work. My boss, Cathy, was one too. Then she made her boss dress up. I gave her the Twilight series to read and she loved it so we decided we were the Volturi. Sure we were a little more Bram Stroker than Stephenie Meyer but hey, we're living in the times.This is all of us. Drew was a cartoon character but I don't know from which cartoon. Then me, Cathy, Chelsea (the doctor), Tangermann, and Mary (a black fairy).

The night before halloween Tom and I carved a pumpkin. We didn't have a kit to make it look cool so I just did the quickest thing I could think of. Poor thing is a huge head with a little tiny face.

Poll

I've been reading a lot at babycenter.com and found a way to make a poll.

Tom and I have picked a name for a boy (Alexander Thomas, Lex for short) but we can't decide on a name for a girl. We have a long way to go and I might totally and completely change my mind but for now, I did a poll.

Go to http://www.babycenter.com/403_baby-girl-names_8771772_165380263709.bc to vote for the name that you like best.

Thanks!

Strong Heart

We heard the baby's heartbeat for the first time yesterday! It was absolutely amazing and relieving to know that everything is okay. I sort of stress myself out worring. I read too many things on the internet about what can go wrong. I've stopped doing that though.

I think I started to feel the baby last Friday. I know it is super early (12 weeks) but it feels like a little fish swimming around in my belly or like someone let a butterfly loose and it's trying to find its way out. I felt it Friday, then nothing Saturday or Sunday. I started feeling it again Monday and it hasn't stopped for more than a couple of hours. I guess it could be gas or whatever but I've never really felt gas this subtle or this often.

I'd love coments on how early other people have felt their babies. Everything I read says I shouldn't feel it for about 4 more weeks. My doctor said I might feel it earlier because I'm pretty fit. Any thoughts?

On a side note, I was just released from the nursery after 10 months. It was an okay calling but I didn't get to know anyone in our ward. We've only been in it for 10 months. I just got called as the young women's girls camp coordinator for our ward to the stake. I'm not sure the exact name of my calling but I'm super stoked! I am also supposed to help with personal progress. I'm going to the combined activity tonight to carve pumpkins... well, I'll probably watch them. Tom and I have a pumpkin carving date tomorrow night.

Peru

Thank goodness for Saturdays when I can do things I want. I finally went through our Peru pictures and am ready to post them.

We started our flight that went Boise-Salt Lake City-1 hr layover-Atlanta-3 hr layover-Lima-7 hr layover-Cusco. It sounds like a long trip but the way home was worse. We stayed in Cusco for that night then caught a train to Aguas Calientes, which is the town closest to Machu Picchu.

Aguas Calientes is a little tourist town full of restaurants and shops in the middle of the Andes . At this time I was 6 weeks pregnant and the major symptom was an aversion to the smell of food, which did not go well with the smell of the town.

For our first meal in Aguas we decided to eat at a place that had typical food of Peru in the name. Great! Who wouldn't want typical food while in peru? We sat down and as I was admiring the decor, I saw this picture above me of President Hinkley, Monsen, and Faust. Of course we had to take a picture.

Our little hotel was at the top of the city so we got to climb a b'jillion stairs to get there -- super great to stay in shape. This picture is from our window.

We went with Tom's brother Robb, and wife Michelle. We were in Aguas for a total of five days (which ended up being 4 days too long). While we were there, we had the hotel service do our laundry. They said it would take about 3 hours so we left for the day and came back that evening. Tom's and my clothes were back but Robb's and Shell's weren't. The hotel receptionist (who had worked there for 2 days) was frantically trying to find them. She ended up taking Robb and Shell to the laundry place... a local woman's house. The local woman was mad and yelling "mi casa, es mi casa" to the hotel girl. Finally they found their clothes in a bag in the woman's house. The bag was labeled "Juan." Hmmm. I had noticed earlier that half of the locals dress like Americans. I'm starting to understand.

Obviously while we were there we went to Machu Picchu. Shell and I wanted to hike there. We looked at a tourist information thing that said that the hike was easy. Ok, easy to me means you could push a wheelchair. No. We get to the base of this hike and watch the switchback of stairs zig-zag to the clouds. Gulp.

We started the hike anyway as we watch bus after bus of Asian tourists pass us on their way to the top. Long story short, Tom and I got in a minor arguement and the result was that we ended up with only one picture of the hike, and only because I made him take it of me so I could have the proof.

Finally we reached the top, and subsequently, Machu Picchu.

A quick history of Machu Picchu: It is the site of an ancient Inkan city. The name means "old mountain." If I remember correctly, it was built in the 15th century out of the granite that is in the mountain. Each stone was cut precisely so they could all fit together without mortar (so, like the Salt Lake temple but way earlier). It was inhabited for 100 years before the Spanish came and took over the country.

There is a trail (called the Inkan Trail) that takes about 4 days to hike and it goes through a bunch of ruined Inkan cities. We met some guys who did it. They said it was brutal, especially because of the altitude (7500 ft).

We rode the bus back down the mountain.

We were peacfully sitting on our train ride back to Cusco when this fast-beat music starts playing like we'd just walked into Express. Suddenly our train attendants start strutting down the isle modeling clothes that they would be selling. It was super funny but they did a good job. Tom would have even bought me a sweater but I told him I didn't really need one. He got sold!

On the same train ride they had a man dressed in Peruvian pre-hunting festival garb dance for us. Keep in mind this is in the isle of a train, and not a big isle.

I think my favorite part of the trip was when we were back in Cusco. It started after we had eaten at an Italian restraunt. We walked out and a man was standing there with flyers for his business. He was a tour guide, but his tour was done on horses. His tour cost $20 per person, which was about $80 cheaper than going to a tourist place. We made arrangements to meet him in front of our hotel the next morning at 9.

Fast forward to the next morning around 8:30. Robb was feeling a little uncomfortable going with a tour guide we found on the street. He got us all thinking about being kidnapped for American ransom or something. We decided that if he wasn't there by 9 then we would go buy a seperate tour.

Nine o'clock rolls around, then 9:05. Just when we were going to leave, along comes our little Peruvian man walking up the street. He got us a taxi and we all hopped in.

It was about 5 miles to the ranch where we would start the tour. I found out that the man (I think his name was Hernan) had walked at least 5 miles from his house to our hotel that morning. I was sooooo glad we didn't ditch on him.

The horses he had for us were pretty little compared to what I'm used to. Everytime Robb got on his, Hernan was like "oooohhhh."

The first place he took us was to some ruins that he called El Templo de la Luna. He took us inside and explained some things that they believe about the condor, puma, and python. It was really interesting to listen to (and translate since he spoke Spanish). Everything was symbolic. They represented 3 worlds. The greatest was the condor, or the stars. The puma was the things in the earth and the python represented the earth. Hmm, kind of like the three kingdoms.

While we were in El Templo de la Luna, Hernan offered to do a ritual for us for a little extra money. We decided to go along with it. His ritual was to balance our energies... make them positive. So, he took us to a place where nobody could see us and had us lay down. Then he hung a rock tied to a rope over a bunch of body parts and if it swung clockwise it was positive, if not, negative. Then he took the bad energy and made it good. Lucky us huh? All positive.

One of the ruins we went to was Saqsaywaman. Ha, ha. Sound that out.

We happened to be touring on the world day of tourism. I love when they try to make signs in English and don't quite have it how we would, Mister Tourist.

The last day we were there, we took a bus ride to some other ruins. It cost like 50 cents per person to go about 50 miles but we had to squish with all the locals. I'll post some random pictures that will always be my memories about the trip.