Okay, so who are we fooling?

I've decided to retire this blog, since I never post on it. Anything that's happening in our lives, I post on the one-time "Pregnancy Blog" and one-time "Christian Blog." I have now transformed it to be a family blog: "Rachel, Richard and Christian." I know, inventive. Anyway, since the afore-mentioned blog is now a private blog, feel free to send me your email address if you would like an invite! This blog will be going down in the next week or so.

Au revoir, ardent fans! See you in another life.

Plus One Makes Three

Richard and I saw this statuette at the mall yesterday. It looks a lot like our future family, so we had to get it!

Here is a link to a picture of it.

Here it is in our living room:


The man has a little more hair than Richard does and the woman has a little less than I do, so I guess it balances out. We are excited for our little addition!

Update and Christmas Decorations

From what I blog, it probably seems like there's nothing going on in our world except my pregnancy. While my pregnancy certainly is in the forefront of everything we do, we do do other things besides think about our baby and all the troubles it's caused me. (Ha ha! Just kidding! We also think of how wonderful it will be! But we'll both be very happy when the Wonders of Pregnancy have passed us by to alight on some other unsuspecting couple.)

Richard is still working hard at his research, now working on a publication that he'd like to get out before he starts putting his dissertation together. I am trying to get myself ready for the baby, teach two sections of French 227 and also make some progress on my dissertation. With all of the hospital visits, holidays and such, it's been hard to make as much progress as I'd like, but little by very little, I'm working my way towards that proposal approval.

We spent Thanksgiving here in Madison with Richard's family: David and Jen, who live here in Madison, Sharee and Matt and their daughter Clara who live in Lawrence, Kansas, and Michelle and Albert who live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Although I wasn't feeling well and couldn't participate in all of the festivities, it was fun to see everyone, especially since we won't be able to for Christmas, as we'll be here with either a new baby or a very, very pregnant and likely unhappy me.

Saturday I put up our tree! Here are some pics of my Christmas decorating!

Corn Maze

Last Saturday Richard and I went with our friends Johnny and Sheena Chaston to Treinen Farm in Lodi to do their corn maze. It was really fun - I'd never done a corn maze before, but I thought trying to figure out how to make the little maps they gave us get us to the right places was really fun! Of course, it would have been even better if we had remembered to bring flashlights. It was a mite bit dark in there at times, but our cell phones miraculously worked as lights to get us through the entire thing. I was the only one that didn't have a cell phone light to contribute, but I was all prepared to use the Indiglo light on my watch to light the way should the need have arrisen. I did take my turn navigating, but when I was trailing along behind, I looked up at the stars and figured out which corner of the maze corresponded to which constelation in the sky. I would NEVER have gotten lost in there, even if my Indiglo watch and the light from cell phones of my friends had failed and prevented me from looking at the map. Plus, there weren't really any dead ends, as you can see from the picture of the maze above.

Tagged by Sheena

It appears that I was tagged to do this "random habits" thing. I did one like it fairly recently, but not on this blog, so I guess I will bite the bullet and try to think of 8 original things.

Okay, here are the rules for this tag:1: Each player starts with 8 random habits/facts about themselves.2: People who are tagged need to write a post on their blog about their eight things and post these rules.3: At the end of the post you need to choose 8 people to get tagged and list their names

1. I hate summer. Okay, that's not true. There are many things I like about summer...just give me a second ...uh... thinking.... thinking... uh, peaches! I like peaches that are in season in the summer. And...um...swimming outside! I guess, to be more truthful, I have to say that of all the seasons, summer is the season I like least of all. I guess this is mostly because I hate hot weather, and I am not a person who does well exercising outside when it's hot. Summer therefore ends up being a season where I'm stuck inside, sweating, sneezing (it's allergy season for me), and putting up with wasps, spiders and other disgusting bugs. Ugh. Give me winter or fall, people.

2. I'm pregnant, and although we have a name picked out (that we're PRETTY sure about, not 100%, but fairly sure) I insist upon calling him "Baby." During the day, I can be heard saying things like: "Oh, no, don't do that, Baby" (when he's just stuck a foot in my bladder or ribs) or "Do you like vegetables, Baby?" then to Richard: "He didn't say yes, so I guess he doesn't want any! Too bad for him!" (This is how I get out of eating my veggies. I think it's rather clever of me.).

3. I love music. I might even love music even more than I love books. Ooh. What a statement. I might have to think for awhile before making such a bold statement.

4. I absolutely adore things that are really, truly sour: lemons, limes, unsweetened 100% cranberry juice, Warheads (sour candies I used to buy at Walmart when I was in high school. The outsides were so acidic that you could only eat 5 or so in a row before they burned a hole in your tongue. My brother said they tasted like throw-up. Those things were GREAT.).

5. I love running, swimming, skate skiing and biking. I'm working on getting better at all four. Although not currently. I'm working on just staying alive at the moment. Exercise is sadly, lamentably on the back burner.

6. My favorite movies are movies I can quote back to front and still love to watch again and again. Some examples: Shadowlands, Aladdin, Pride and Prejudice, Le dîner de cons, and all of the Lord of the Rings movies.

7. My favorite movie soundtrack is The Nightmare before Christmas. Danny Elfman's voice is AMAZING. I love it. And I love his music. I especially love the new version of the soundtrack that was released last year. I hate Marilyn Manson stuff normally, but I have to admit that I like the sound of his voice on his "This is Halloween" remake. I know. Weird. Creepy even.

8. My very favorite food in the whole entire world is hot buffalo wings. YUM.

Tagged: Sheri, Meridy, Ashley Miller, Kristin Porter, Aimee Cannon, Jen Hatch, Chelsea Rowan. If you want. Don't feel any pressure. Just don't show your face around the blogosphere until you've done it.

Fall in Madison

Today Richard and I went for a walk. I took my camera along to capture some of the amazing colors we have been blessed with here in Madison this week. I love fall! It's my favorite season!

Leaves. This is now my desktop background.

This tree was seriously amazing.

There are so many different colors!

Barking Squirrel

This is another random post. Sorry.

I was reading on the sofa this morning when I heard this strange sort of squawking from outside the window. I thought it was one of the wild turkeys we sometimes have wandering around getting into a fight with one of the local children or something. So I got up and looked out the window toward the sound and I saw this:

He was just sitting there with his little hands together, making intermittent squawking or barking sounds. They were spaced each about 1-2 seconds apart. I have no idea what was upsetting him (he was obviously upset) but I grabbed the camera and got a little video of his odd behavior.

The start is sort of boring since you can't hear him: you just have to imagine the squawk coming out each time the little guy bobs his head. I eventually do get the window open so you can hear it. It's the strangest sound ever. Who knew that squirrels made a sound??