Tina Fey better win an Emmy

I really do hate politics (though you wouldn't know it from all my blogs) but Tina Fey is just so awesome as Sarah Palin. Oh, man, it's high-larious!

Go tell your Nana

There's a couple of cuss words. Sorry, Grammy. Disregard them and just pay attention to the rest. Everyone else, enjoy it. And, pass it on to your Nanas!

See more Sarah Silverman videos at Funny or Die

Jackpot!

My good friend Rachel had a baby girl this last winter, and when I told her we were having a girl she gave me ALL her old baby clothes!! She has some flippin' cute stuff, too. A bunch of it was still brand new with tags. We are pretty much set for baby clothes up to about 9 months. Rachel's daughter, Ruby, turned out to be such a little chunk that she's already wearing the 12 month baby clothes. The only think I don't really have now as far as apparel is concerned is socks and accessories. Now I just need to run out and get more hangers! YAY!

The Name Game

Now that we know it's a girl, I have four months to think of a couple good names so that when the baby is born I have a few combinations to choose from when I meet her. Here is the list of girls name that I have on a list that I've been compiling pretty much since day one. Tons of names have come and gone, and these are the ones that I haven't either gotten sick of or thought of a nasty nickname for.

Juliana (after my mom)
Lydia
Maple (my great grandma)
Amalia (Molly for short)
Kate
Violet
Stella
Sophie
Ava
Lily
Maya
Leela (I actually got this name from Futurama, but I love it!)
Imogene (after my grampa Gene)
Lauralei
Gwen
Brooke
Margaret (Maggie, also a family name after my Grandma)

These are thoughts for both first or middle names. My favorite combinations so far are Juliana Violet, Maya Juliana...you get the picture. Chances are VERY good that Juliana will be a first or middle name. It's just so pretty, and my mom rocks.

Now here's where the game comes in. I want you to list your two favorite names, your least favorite name (and why), and a new name that you like but wasn't on the list. I want to make sure all my bases are covered so I don't hear a name after the baby is here and curse the skies for not thinking of it before. That, and so I don't stick my kid with a name I thought was cool for a second, but later realized was lame. Now get to it!

P.S. The Sarah Palin baby name generator said I should name the baby Timber Challenger Ristig. Hahaha!

It's Another Girl!

My good friend Megan works at the Humane Association here in Albuquerque which is where Pete and I got our old dog Izzy. We've been thinking about getting another dog, but weren't really conducting an exhaustive search. I told Megan that I'd love to get either a Boston Terrier or a Pug. They have those little gremlin faces and those goofy, googly eyes that I love, they don't really shed, and they are smaller and therefore easier to take places. Well, Megan called us this morning to let us know they just got a really cute Boston Terrier in, and we should come in to see her.

Long story short, we totally fell in love with her. She was uber-friendly, played with the kids that were there, didn't care about the cats, was pretty carefree and easygoing, and was absolutely adorable. At first we had some concerns, though. She is nine years old, so we'd have to go through the yuckiness of losing a pet again in the next few years. She also has a cataract in her left eye so there's a possibility of her losing her vision all together at some point. After mulling it over, though, we decided to go ahead and adopt her. Despite the cataract, she is in amazing condition for a nine-year-old dog. On top of that, Megan wanted us to have her so bad that she offered to pay the adoption fee as a "present for the baby". Because she is old the adoption fee was only $35.

Anyhoo, we adopted her and took her home a couple hours ago. We're loving her so far. She is totally housebroken (HALLELUJAH!) and has pretty much avoided the cats. She took a nap on Pete's lap and I snapped some pictures. I think she'll make a nice addition to our family!

It's a Girl!

The whole time we were doing the ultrasound the baby decided that she'd jam her head up into her placenta and let her little butt hang free in the amniotic fluid. While that made for an unbelievably clear crotch-shot, it was hard to get a good, clear picture of her head and face. I tried getting her out of there with some strategic wiggling, but she's ornery like her mama. Here's the photographic evidence of her girliness...

I had them check once later on in the ultrasound too, just to make sure. It's definitely a girl.

The ultrasound consisted of both 2-D and 3-D shots. Laura is gone and I can't figure out the video, so maybe I'll put one up later if I can figure it out. If not, at least you have these lovely stills to enjoy!

Chilling out.

Snuggling with placenta.

Yanking on something.

A hand.

Putting up her dukes. Really, a face block if you ask me. She did not feel like doing a photo shoot today.

A lovely profile.

The baby was super skinny and creepy looking in the 3-D pictures. The ones I posted were the least creepy. She's only 17 weeks along, so she still looks like a little alien or Mr. Burns from the Simpson's. Poor kid! At least her mama is going to do her very best to get her adorable things to wear when she goes shopping in about two seconds. The stores are calling to me. They are beckoning....

Politics are Yucky

I generally tend not to proclaim my political views for the most part, but seriously...Sarah Palin? Not only is she totally and utterly unqualified to be #2 in line for the Presidency, but she is a crazy, bible thumping, book banning lunatic who wants to invade everything and sounds like she has absolutely no idea what she's talking about, so she just talks like a verbal diarrhea suffering beauty queen. Let's all hope she's right, that God does have a plan, and that plan does not include making her President. I'm not one of those super-Obama people, but McCain, if elected president, would be the oldest person ever elected to the office. That gives him a pretty darn good chance of dropping dead, thus making Sarah Palin the next president.

If you all missed the Charlie Gibson interview yesterday, here's a clip.


One thing that I noticed that scares me more than anything is that whenever asked a question about foreign policy, her first response is "invade". Don't get me wrong, I'm all about protecting this country. But, you'd think her answer might include SOMEWHERE in there that she'd want to sit down and try to talk things out with said countries. Maybe work out a plan that can solve outside problems and possible threats to the country by having a dialogue with the leaders involved and trying to work out some kind of resolution. Nope. This crazy you-know-what has lost her mind, and McCain has lost his mind for choosing her as a running mate.

While Pete is concerned with these things, the issue that officially turned him completely off to Palin is the fact that she tried to have books banned from the Wassila library system. When the Head Librarian refused to remove the books, Palin tried to fire the librarian. Members of the community rose up, and the librarian ended up keeping her job. But the fact that this woman is banning books is crazy from the start. Welcome to America, sister.

The most clearly put, eloquent, and lay-your-cards-out-on-the-table statement I've heard about Sarah Palin's run for VP was said by none other than Matt Damon. Yes, Matt Damon. I've posted this elsewhere, as has my cousin Ben, but it's so good you should watch it again.

Getting in shape...getting an ultrasound

Pete and I signed up for a membership at NM Sports and Wellness. I decided that I sit around WAY too much and am in the worst shape I've been in since my pre-Army days. I'm scared of getting tired and wearing out part-way through delivery when this kid decides to come out, so we went gym shopping. We toured everyone's favorite meat market, Defined Fitness ("Hey guy, what do you squat?"), and knew that Gold's Gym was the same. The guy at Defined Fitness didn't know what "pre-natal" meant. Meat-head. We decided to tour NMS&W at the urging of our good friend Caroline. It was awesome. There are tons of pre-natal classes, the hours are great, there were a gzillion of each machine, and there were normal looking people and lots of kids around. They also have a bunch of classes I can take the newborn baby to, and free daycare if I don't wanna. We weren't sure if we would be able to squeeze the membership fee into our budget, so we did a little tweaking. We go out to eat at least 3-4 times per week, so we decided to limit our eating out to one time per week. It'll probably be better for us if we eat at home, anyways. I think it'll be well worth the sacrifice and extra cooking.

Next weekend we have our first 4-D ultrasound scheduled. We should be able to tell if it's a girl or a boy (finally!) so check back on Saturday the 13th after 3 or 4pm and I'll have it posted here. I'll also post pictures and the video if I can figure it out. Laura hooked me up with the last one. I'm sure if I can't figure it out, Pete will. I'm pretty sure all the Ristig's are hoping for a boy, and all the Nicolai/Hutchins' are hoping for a girl (especially my mom). Pete always said if we didn't have a boy after three tries, he's going to bribe one of his nephews with college money to change their last name! He's pretty much drawing the line at three. Yeah....we'll see (*evil laugh, twisting of moustache*).

Here's a little something since I've been slacking in my random awesome videos.

Time to Shop!

We've crossed the first trimester hurdle, and I feel like it's safe to do some shopping now. Yay! Pete and I went out and bought a crib yesterday. We're trying to pace ourselves as far as what we buy and when so we don't feel the pinch of outfitting an entire new room all at once. I originally picked out a crib that had the swoosh thing in the back instead of the sides, but the one I liked got yucky reviews about the paint peeling really easily. I had an image of going in to find my baby chewing on the edge of the crib with a mouthful of paint chips. Yech! So, I chose the crib with better reviews, but has the swooshes on the ends instead.

When Laura was here she painted the room tan for me. It'll match pretty much anything I pick out as far as decor. I'm going to be scheduling my 4-D ultrasound in the next couple of weeks here so we can find out the sex of the baby. I want a girl...Pete wants a boy. We're both fine with whatever, of course, but Pete is a guy's guy, and I think it's more fun to shop for a girl. And isn't good shopping what it's really all about, ladies? Ha ha!

After we pop for the ultrasound our next big purchase will be a new timing belt for the car. I won't be shopping for a hot minute. It sucks spending so much money on something you can't see, but is a necessity. At least I'll have peace of mind that the belt won't wear out and randomly break leaving me stranded who knows where pregnant or with an infant. It would be way more fun to spend the money on stuff, though. Stuff is awesome. Being a responsible adult is no fun!