Tropical Storm Hanna

We didn't get nearly as much rain as some places, but here's what it was like for a while outside of our apartment. It rained from Friday night to about 3pm on Saturday. The storm peaked around noon. Luckily as you can see, we have a nice down slope into the woods so the water drained just fine. Some places were without power for a while, but that was mostly near the ocean. Bryce loves the rain and made me leave the sliding glass door open all day so he could listen to it. I'm not complaining either though; after living in the Utah desert, it's nice to see a good rainstorm every now and then. I apologize for the less-than-engaging commentary.

The Baby's Heart is Beating!!

I get so annoyed when other people don't update their blogs frequently enough and then I realized, wait, I haven't posted since August 11. Oops. But, we have had a decently good excuse since we were moving. Anyway, this is just a quick post to let you all know that we are alive and doing well.

We moved into our apartment on August 14 with the help of Bryce's parents. Since I am pregnant, Marilyn didn't let me do much in the way of lifting boxes, but I did get a lot of them unpacked. The apartment is still a work in progress, but we're getting there. Hopefully our couches will come within two weeks and we will get the pictures all hung up. That will hopefully make it feel more like home and that we're settled in.

Bryce is doing well with school. He has lectures from 8-10am, then a dissection lab from 10-12. After that, he's got the entire afternoon and evening to study. He's been doing pretty good, but as we all understand, needs to take breaks every now and then. His first test is on Sept 15 and will cover all the material up to this point. Thankfully subsequent exams aren't cumulative so once a test is done, it's over. Except for one future class and then of course the boards, that is. At any rate, he's liking school and glad to be making progress towards his goal.

I have been busy getting all of the odds and ends in order (all those things that need to get changed and settled when you move to somewhere new). The last major task is to get my car registered, which I will hopefully have done by the end of the week. I am also working for a temp agency, hoping to get an assignment soon here that lasts a few months. I have one day left at my first assignment. It's been difficult. I answer the phone (which rings maybe once an hour), let people in the door (today it was only the mailman), and occasionally mail a letter. Other than that, I'm allowed to read. I've finished one book already and will probably be done with a second by tomorrow. It's not significantly different than what I would be doing at home, except that I get paid to read a book there.

We enjoyed a nice Labor Day weekend down in North Carolina with some of Bryce's family. His parents, brother Mark and family, sister Kim and family, and sister Erin and family were all there. Erin was there for the week from Utah so it was a nice bonus to get to see her, Chris and Max in addition to everyone else already down there. Bryce enjoyed golfing with his dad and brothers-in-law. We (Marilyn, LaDonna, Erin, and I) subsequently made the boys watch the kids so we could go to lunch. It was nice to get away and talk as girls.

So today we went in for our first appointment with our OB out here. Everything went well. I'm about 15 weeks along. We finally heard the heartbeat and it sounded good...fast and strong. So, I guess I should start coming to grips with the fact that I will be a mom in six months. It's becoming real as my clothes (even the big ones) are getting tight and the bump is forming. I'll post some pictures once it's more obvious that I'm actually pregnant.

Well, this is boring, but at least it's something. I'll try to come up with something more interesting to say soon.

Alive and Well in Baltimore

Well, since Bryce is at school and I'm sitting in a hotel watching the Olympics, I decided I didn't have a really good excuse to not at least post something as a "we're still alive" note.

Despite all the warnings and horror stories we heard about cross-country travel, we cruised across the U.S. without too many problems. After all the hectic moving stuff in Utah, we really enjoyed a few days to relax in Colorado Springs, spend time with my dad, Susan, Grace, and also see some friends, Heather and Tyson and Dan and Julie. The three days went all too quickly and before we knew it we were picking up Marilyn (Bryce's mom) from the airport on Saturday night. Since I'm 11 weeks or so along now, I get pretty tired and I didn't want to use a lot of caffeine pills to help me stay awake so Marilyn offered to come out and help me drive. My mom is taking care of her father whose health is quite poor right now. (I guess I haven't officially announced my pregnancy so we'll see how many people read our blog that I haven't told I'm pregnant yet...this should be interesting).

We headed out with out two cars on Sunday morning towards Kansas City, MO. Marilyn and I took turns driving my car and Bryce, the stubborn, drove his car by himself. We gave up on all attempts to convince him to let someone at least ride with him for a while and instead enjoyed listening to Harry Potter 7 during the drive. We got halfway through the last chapter when we pulled into Baltimore. Pretty good. And it made the drive go faster. To whomever created the audio book, thank you.

Props go to Hotwire.com as well. It's a bit of a risk to pay for a hotel without knowing where you are going to stay, but considering we got four rooms (two in Kansas City and two in Columbus) for $240 and ended up at a newly renovated Sheraton, and a decent Best Western, it was completely worth it. We did it again out here and are in a very nice Hyatt Place for $70 a night (including breakfast and internet). I'm a fan.

So, now we're out in Baltimore, having arrived last Tuesday. We stayed with some friends of my sister, Josh and Nikki, for two days, then have been using some free hotel points we had, and Hotwire. Since our stuff arrived last week, we rented a truck and loaded it up to put in storage on Wednesday. Our awesome friends that told us about our complex, Amy and James, are letting us use their garage so we didn't have to put our stuff in storage and then reload it and unload it in a truck. Thank you guys! So, that saved us some more money and now we just have to drag everything from their garage, across the parking lot, and up the stairs to our apartment on Thursday. I'm anxious to get moved in.

We bought dinner for Amy and James for their help with the moving as well as another couple they recruited, Clark and Liesel. They informed us that another first year med student had moved into the ward. I thought that was great. All of the others out here are dental, law, or pharmacy. They told us his name was Andrew and that he was married, but other than that, we didn't know anything. Bryce found him during orientation and as they were talking they discovered that both of their wives had served their missions in Rome at roughly the same time. Yep. Of all chances, I already know Andrew's wife. Tara entered the MTC only six weeks before me and although we never served together, we did have quite the adventure on what I lovingly call "the boat ride from hell". So, another friend found. And, she lives about 5 minutes away from our apartment. They had us over for dinner last night and then we all went over to a 4th year med student in his 8th year (he did a PhD after his second year for four years, so he's finally in his last year of the medical school portion) for dessert. Bryce and Andrew were able to get some good insights in what to expect at UMB and I got some good information from his wife about local stuff.

Well, this is longer than I had expected so I'll let Bryce do a post sometime here to let you know how school is going in more detail than "fine". We're always up for visitors (well, maybe after we move in on Thursday), so feel free to come out sometime!