Okay so I know I said no cat posts, but the baby is not here yet, and I have nothing else to take pictures of doing funny things. And a few of you have actually asked for more cat posts (I know- scary). So I say give the people what they want:

Today I was vacuuming the bedroom after finally getting everything in there unpacked, and as we all know the vacuum is very scary. Normally when I so much as open the dreaded vacuum closet, the cats scatter and run under the bed. But today, as I mentioned before, I was vacuuming the bedroom leaving no place to scurry to, so Kahuna found a new hiding place.

This photo still leaves a little to the imagination. Where exactly is he, you might ask?

Yes, that is the kitchen sink.

Ode to the Daffodil

I like daffodils. They are springy. Even when the sun has not been out for days, and every time you look in the mirror you realize that almost a month of only fluorescent light is not flattering for any skin tone, daffodils make it better.

Please also note the new tablecloth.
It makes us feel less like we are eating on a card table.

These babies were a steal at $2.50 at Winco (and "Ode to Winco" may also be in the works). And they make me happy, even when there is never any sun here.

Road Chickens

I have decided since nothing can really compete with the last post, I am going to go ahead and share with you one of the interesting quirks Yuba City has to offer...the infamous ROAD CHICKENS!. I have yet to hear the full story on these fine fowl from a local, but have done some off-road (don't tell my husband) detective work and have finally snatched a slightly fuzzy, but accurate picture of these mysterious beasts.

Please note, that is Highway 99 behind the chickens, so this is no country back road we are talking major highway.

As far as I can tell, there are several roaming flocks with no discernible social structure (I have seen multiple roosters per flock, so assume these are not like lions with one alpha chicken per group). They may or may not be hunted for food around here, as they seemed to be wary of strangers (like me when I was trying to chase them for a close-up). They are here every day, even in the rain, and I estimate their numbers in the 20-30 range.

Baby Pics :o)

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. " ~Psalm 139:14~

Sometimes the wonders of modern technology really excite me, like being able to scan prints of our latest ultrasound so that people who are far away (which is pretty much everyone) can see them online. Maybe the clarity is not fantastic, but we are able to see things that even 25 years ago were still mysterious (trust me I was looking at my own ultrasound pictures the other day and they had to be labeled all over since you really couldn't tell what anything was). But what is truly miraculous is that our Father saw all of this from the start and is working out his plan for us and this baby right now while I am sitting here typing and he is bouncing around in my tummy.

Also in case anyone was wondering, my favorite shot is of his feet, for some reason every time I see them it makes me happy.

The Banshee and the Flood

This week we seem to be having some rain of Biblical proportions, which has more than once threatened to rise up over the edge of our patio & try to storm the castle. However, as you can see from our apparently-less-than-accurate barometer it is truly only partly cloudy, so no cause for panic yet.

Being new to Yuba City, I am not sure if this is normal for them, or if I will get laughed at if I head outside to start bailing out the patio with my popcorn bowl (the largest bowl I currently have). To be on the safe side I am going to give it a few more inches before I start bailing.

The banshee on the other hand I am pretty sure is not normal. On Monday I was minding my own business and working on the computer, when from the back patio came a horrific noise, some kind of unholy cross between an air raid siren and a very sad lady screaming her lungs out. It went away pretty quickly so I was not too worried. Then it came back. Then it came back again and continued every 1.5 to 2 minutes for pretty much the entire past 3 days. I checked to make sure there was no person in distress by the bus stop right outside, and have concluded that this is a rain banshee that will hopefully go away next week when the rain finally goes away. Andrew heard it a bit the other night and was impressed since he didn't really believe me at first as to the sheer volume and nastiness of the sound. We have been trying to record it to post but have had no luck so far.

New Digs

Thought some of you (by this I mostly mean my mom) would like to see what our apartment looks like, so here is the grand tour, ending off at what is my most favorite thing about our apartment ever...you will see why.

As you enter, looking to the left, the living room

Bistro Halverson (still needs a red and white check tablecloth)

And finally the kitchen, still looking pretty clean so far...

For those of you who decide to go right on this choose your own adventure, you will see the hallway, with two bedrooms (so come visit us any time but May 12!) and the bathroom. A rather spectacular feature which our bathroom has is the accessible door, measuring in at a whopping 36 inches! So when you come and visit us, bring a friend and you can both run through our bathroom door at the same time without even bumping the jam.
And here we arrive at the very best part. Behind these unassuming white doors lies a wonderful secret!That's right, the holy grail of apartment appliances, here in my unit I have my very own full size washer and dryer!!!! Imagine, a baby who will be born into the world with clean clothes to wear, and a way to get off all the things that babies do to make their clothes not clean. A lifeline for when my husband says "Danica, I need 5 white t shirts for physical training at the academy today-stat!". No more sharing with male neighbors of the 20-35 age bracket who never clean the lint trap! No more laundry dumped on the floor because someone else needed the machine and thought your clean laundry could wait on the floor for you to come get it. Whether these lovely machines will be the best thing about living in Yuba City remains to be seen, but they are by far the best thing our new digs have to offer!

Baby Watch 2010! This just in: It's a Boy!

Well, it's going to be a boy actually, don't get excited, there is no baby til May. For those of you who actually just checked this blog for baby info and not to learn about Andrew's new hair cut or a harrowing cat story, you are in luck. Due to the rain that is not forecast to leave until next week I am stuck inside and am going to do 2 posts in one day.

I went to the anatomy ultrasound last Thursday (Jan. 14th) and the good news is, there's still a baby in there, he is a he, and they may be moving my due date up a couple weeks to the 2nd week of May. We got lots of good looks at all of the relevant parts that are supposed to be there, although the little guy was stubborn and would not roll over (even after repeated jiggling and bongo drumming on my belly by the ultrasound tech) and some laps around the hallways by me. So, I had to go back a second day to make sure we got pictures of the bottom of the spine-which it turns out, is good and closed up. She said the baby has quite big thighs and a big belly (all of this I am going to blame on the husband's genes, because they couldn't possibly come from me). I also saw him opening and closing his mouth and moving his tongue around. He moves everything else around too, but this we already knew from the amount of kicking around in there that has gone on since the day before Thanksgiving.

Due to my current lack of technical equipment, I will have to try and post pictures from the ultrasound later, but stay tuned, they should be coming soon! She gave us some pretty cool shots of the little feet and fingers.

Also since we are way up here in Yuba City and only expecting visit from a few of you, I am going to put a few pictures of my getting-larger self but these may significantly decrease once I am much larger. :0) Also to give you more detail-craving friends a definitive measure of the belly (which doesn't scare me as much as measuring it in inches) I will be posting my measurements in standard paper-clip chain increments. The current tally: 22 paperclips to go around the belly, as evidenced in the photo above.

Large animal vet

So normally I would not post about our cats, as we really know you are reading this blog for info on the baby, but there is a story that must be shared, if for no other reason than to offer a shout out to our good neighbors back in Huntington Beach and offer them proof that our cats have survived the move.

The move did not start well for our big guy, Kahuna, mainly because he becomes a spazz when he is in the car and so we had to give him a tranquilizer just to get him up here. The image of cat tranquilizer that is now probably going through your head is some guy in khaki and an Australian accent crouching by the big cat in the jungle with his blow gun pointed straight at him. But, this is the kind of cat tranquilizer that prevents sane people (me) from becoming insane on a 5 hr drive to Fresno with 2 cats in the car. To be more specific, let's just say it prevents enormous amounts of drool and vomit coming out of a big cat during said ride and leave it at that.

The process did not start out well as giving a cat a pill is something that might require a post in itself, but my lovely assistant (mom) and I managed to get it down, only to return to the scene 10 min. later to find pink vomit on the floor...little know fact: cat tranquilizer pills are pink. To make an already long story short, enough juice got into the beast to make him stoned and just grouchy enough to move without putting up a fight, so we made it here and he seems to have recovered.Please note: this cat is not dead, this is his happy position.

Another little know side effect of these magic pills is it makes our cats hate each other and growl back and forth the entire night (resulting in no sleep for people who are locked in a room w/ them) and every subsequent meeting for the next 4 days. We are however happy to report they seem to have made up and are friends again.

Yes, we realize this picture makes our cat look fat...she is just large boned.

The Hair Cut!!

So in order to avoid being yelled at unnecessarily at the start of the academy I figured it would be best to cut the hair short. So Danica and I took a trip to the "Macys" of Yuba City (Wal-Mart) and bought some clippers. Honestly I thought it was going to be horrible and that I would be wearing a beanie for the next 3 months and possibly into summer, but actually it turned out not being nearly as bad as I thought, still not my favorite but not bad considering that this is the shortest my hair has been since I was 6 weeks old! Well I guess you can be the judge.

So I went from longer than this:

To this: