Julie and Julia

My good friend Rachel just celebrated her birthday this weekend. Her husband Don set up a "Julie and Julia" Party. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, it's based on the famous cook, Julia Child. The girls dressed up like Julia Child and the guys dressed up like her husband. We all wore big red hearts on our shirts, just like in the movie, and walked around saying "Bon Appetit!" in a high pitched, Julia Child-like voice. Rachel made an amazing dish of Beef Bourguignon (also like in the movie), which came straight out of Julia Child's cook book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". It was such a fun night!

15 week checkup

Thursday marked 15 weeks. I got an email telling me the baby was now the size of an apple. Wow!! It's so exciting to know what's going on inside me as the baby grows. Richard and I have been praying every night that the baby and I will be healthy throughout the pregnancy and labor.

I also went to the Doctor on Thursday. It was a typical checkup. We heard the heartbeat again, and everything was progressing well. I still haven't gained weight. This seems funny to me because my pants are getting tight. We also asked about getting an ultrasound in order to find out the baby's gender in a few weeks. This is where I got a little upset. Here's the story...

A month ago, during our last doctor visit, we told the doctor we would not be doing any additional testing. You see, they had recommended doing genetic testing along with some other additional tests which all tell you the "risk" of your baby having some disorder. The tests come by way of blood test, ultrasound and maybe something else that I'm forgetting. After talking to the doctor, we determined it was unlikely (given our health, family history and age) that there would be any risk, and even if there was a risk, we wouldn't really change anything we did during the pregnancy. Now, a month later, we asked about when we would be able to know the gender of the baby. The doctor told us that she never does an ultrasound without some medical reason, and definitely not JUST to know the gender of the baby. Since my pregnancy is going well, she doesn't feel the need to do another ultrasound. She told me if I want to know the gender, I could do the additional testing we spoke of a month ago, and at the same time they could look for the sex of the baby. I was shocked! Our doctor basically refused to let us know the gender of the baby unless we pay more for some extra test that we don't want. Is that normal?!?! I guess we'll end up doing the additional testing, but only the ultrasound and not all the blood work. I'm just frustrated that our doctor won't do a simple check for he sex of the baby. Grrrr.

Changing the brakes on the Kia

After changing the front discs a few weeks ago, thought I would tackle the rear shoes on the Kia. I included a picture if you ever wondered what the insides looked like. I'm not much of a car maintenance guy so my friend Mark helped me out. Long story short, the shoes did not need replacing. There was just a lot of brake dust that was causing the squeaking. We did take the opportunity to repack the bearing. So far the brakes have been quiet and the car is stopping. That is a good thing. I still have the timing belt to do, but that is a horse of a different color. Think I may just pay to get it done (~$600) or roll the dice. Only driving 6 miles a day limits the probability. If we keep the car 4 more years that is another 8K miles. Total miles on car currently 64K. Thoughts?

Orange County Fair

This blog was posted by both Richard and Sarah...


How better to start off a blog than with a pig race... fast aren't they?



We went to the Orange County fair last night with our friends, Jill and Mark. It was fun to see all the attractions and eat different foods. Jill and Mark had the idea of tasting a little bit of everything. So we tried tasty fries (fresh fried potato chips), pulled pork sandwich, corn bread, corn on the cob, and the largest corn dog we had ever seen. We split the corn dog 4 ways, and it was still too much for Sarah to eat. We eventually made it to the booths owned by Chicken Charlie. Jill and Mark know him personally, and he fries anything you can think of. He asked Sarah what she wanted, and she, of course, asked for dessert. We ate two fried Oreos and a fried Klondike bar. Chicken Charlie has been filming a reality TV show that may air on TV if all goes well. In the TV show he'll be frying an entire wedding cake! If you're interested in reading more about Chicken Charlie, visit this article.

We also payed $1 to see a really big steer. He stood 6'6" at the shoulders. Wow! Here's a picture of Sarah standing in front of it, but he's far enough away that the picture doesn't show his true size. You get the idea.



Oh, and for an update to Sarah's last post, the baby is now the size of a lemon.

LA Gun Club

Don organized a trip to the LA Gun Club for a few of the guys. It had been about 10 years since I'd shot a gun, but it all came back quickly after the first trigger pull. I decided to use only one target, which makes it look like I'm a good shot... well except for a couple holes there in the arm. I could say that I was pretending a hostage was in front of the target, and I only wanted to wound the man, but that would be a lie. It's possible those are Vince's shots since he used my target the first round. (just kidding) I had a great time and look forward to going back in the future. Maybe shoot something with a little more kick than a 9mm. Go ahead, make my day.
Videos: Craig, Vince, Don

2nd Trimester

I'm officially in my 2nd trimester now, and tomorrow I'll hit my 14 week mark. So far, the 2nd trimester is living up to it's expectations. I have my energy back and I don't feel sick anymore. I think Richard is especially happy about this, because I'm able to make nice dinners again. When I wasn't feeling well, Richard was in charge of making all the dinners. He made chicken, but the smell of it cooking made me sick. Then he made pasta but the creamy sauce made me sick. So we resorted to cereal and grilled cheese most of the time. Thank goodness I can eat like normal again!

Each week I get an email telling me the new developments and size of our baby, and each time the baby's size is compared to some type of food. It started at poppy seed, then lentil, blueberry, etc. At 13 weeks, our baby was the size of a medium shrimp. I didn't like this, because I'm picturing cold, wet, raw meat. I much prefer to think of our baby as some sort of fruit. So I'm hoping tomorrow's 14 week email mentions something cuter than a piece of meat. I'll let you know.

Some people have been asking when I'll have a baby bump. I don't have a bump yet, and I can still fit into my jeans, but I'm excited to start looking pregnant, and we plan to take profile pictures as we go. I know every pregnancy is different, but I've been told I should start to see a little baby bump in the next month. I guess a shrimp wouldn't show much anyway.

Flower Cake with Matching Cake Truffles

Some of you watched the video Richard posted of me making a cake. So I'm posting the final product. Someone ordered this cake for a bridal shower, and my friend Danielle made matching kruffles. What are kruffles? They are little balls of cake infused with icing and covered in a high quality candy coating. She actually has her own business, and I just get a few cake orders through her. In case you want to see more of her stuff, you can go to her website at www.Kruffles.com I'm really a beginner, so I don't charge much. My friend, Chantee told me to time myself, so I could figure out how much I make an hour. I think I'm just barely making minimum wage. But I still enjoy it. And who knows, if I get really good, I may be a be to make quite a profit.

Broadcasting Sarah into Cyberspace

Richard here, posting for the first time. For those of you that may not know... I'm a geek. I love technology, especially technology that involves my Android phone. There is an application that I've started using called USTREAM. It allows me to use my phone's camera to stream live video and audio on the internet. Yesterday, I decided to create a channel called "SMSCake" and broadcast Sarah making a cake (you can watch the video here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8642975). Will post a final pic of the cake later. Of note, you can also use the application on your PC with a webcam. I can already see us streaming our babies first steps, first birthday, and pretty much any other first (or second if I can't get the phone in time). Sarah has told me that we will not be broadcasting the birth, but I may be able to broadcast soon after. Will keep you posted when I create a baby channel.

The URL for her cake channel is http://www.ustream.tv/channel/smscake
Password is "decorate"