Farewell, President Hinckley

President Gordon B. Hinckley, 1910-2008

President Hinckley has been the President and Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ever since I began attending church in 1999 as a visitor with Tim and his family, which ultimately resulted in my conversion and baptism in August 2001.

A little over a year later, President Hinckley gave the worldwide Church membership a piece of counsel that is among those that I remember most vividly:"I challenge every one of you who can hear me to rise to the divinity within you." (General Conference October 2002)

I love and revere this man, whose lifetime of faith and service is an example to us all. He will be missed.

Maybe I can shed a little light...

Many of you had an understandably hard time making out facial features on the ultrasound Jean posted yesterday. I don't know if I could have made it out if I hadn't seen the image moving around at the doctor's office. So, I have attempted here to clarify the image a bit.

On the left is a rough tracing of his facial features, and you can either A) refer to the previously posted picture and compare the two; or B) compare it to the baby-vu (TM) image on the right. Baby-vu (TM) is a special process I'm working on that filters out the visual noise and confusion inherent in ultrasound photos, in order to allow parents to see what their child looks like in the womb. As you can see, we're having one handsome boy.

Tadpole-Leonard's First Quasi-Head Shot!

He has a face! And it's a cute little smushed face!! I had my 36-week appointment today, and my doctor did an ultrasound to verify baby's position and make sure everything looks okay. And she snapped a picture of his little half-face! WILD! There's a real baby in there!!

So, that was pretty exciting. We were also thrilled to learn that his head is, in fact, down, and that his little heart (which beats at the top of my abdomen instead of the bottom) is, in fact, inside his chest in the proper place. The little guy supposedly weighs 5 lbs. 9 oz. now, but I'm sure he'll be putting on a lot of weight over the next few weeks. Less than a month now!! What? Really? Shocking! We're very excited. :-)

Here are some more of our recent life events:

This photo captured a very, very embarassing experience! Tim and I decided to try the Astro Orbiter ride at Disneyland, which we've never gone on before (because Tim thought it looked boring). You basically just get in a spaceship and fly around. Well, Tim and I obviously decided to ride the spaceship together, only to learn, after several moments of extremely awkward adjustments and painful squishing, that a pregnant woman and a husky grown man will NOT both fit into that little vehicle. So, Tim got out, and I rode the thing by myself. Whee.

Here's Tim being cute in Mickey's Toon Town (where we'll likely be spending much more time once T-L starts joining us on our little Disneyland jaunts).

This is Tim doing his wicked awesome art thing in our new "office" (a.k.a. the old dining room). FYI, we have no kitchen table now. Dinner on the coffee table, folks!

This is me, expressing my utter confusion at the crazy and complex gadgets that accompany babyhood. This Baby Bjorn carrier has so many straps and buttons and doohickies that every time Tim and I attempt to try it on, we give up in frustration moments later. (PS - That's our snazzy new stroller in the background! Thanks Anne Marie! It's ridiculously fun to push around and play with.) :-)

Brief Article from The Onion

I laughed for about five minutes after reading this headline. (I LOVE it when I get a surprise onion ring in my fries!!)

Fabled Burger King Employee Places Single Onion Ring In Everyone's Fries

MUNDELEIN, IL—A legendary Burger King employee, known across the land for the heroic and selfless deed of randomly inserting a single onion...

Yup

So, there's really not much going on at the ol' Anderson place these days. Tim and I have been enduring icky head colds since we came back from PA, and we've both been either really busy with work (Jean) or really busy trying to enjoy the remainder of the break (Tim). Alas, it's back to school for Timmy today, so it's back to Jean staring listlessly at the wall again! (Just kidding.)

I suppose we did a few things this week, like we went to the Visions fantasy art show at the Forest Lawn Memorial (featuring works by Tim's art-crush Syd Mead, as well as some other really cool people), and then enjoyed the nice view on a somewhat overcast day:


Tim got started on building some of our new baby furniture, but once he finished the changing table, he (entirely justifiably) decided that he was done for the day. It took awhile!

I kept on being fat and pregnant, and here is the 34-week picture:

And finally, we spent some quality time together, watching Lost season 3 (gotta get refreshed and prepared for the 31st!), and being downright strange:

I'm So Proud

So, as you probably noticed, Tim (of the Tim and Jean blog) wrote his first post below!! How wonderful of him. As he said, I am snotty and sickly and busy with work right now, and I implored him to contribute to our "mutual" blog on my behalf. Hooray!

We got back from PA with head colds, but we had such a fun time during our trip. I met my little nephew Killian for the first time! SO CUTE!!! I WANT ONE!!! My awesome friend Lauri did a pregnant photo shoot with me and Tim!! Sample photos will be coming soon. We had some Christmas parties and a wedding and a little baby shower with my PA peeps. And we ate TONS of Wawa soft pretzels, Tastykakes, and Asher's chocolates. Mmm... delicious Pennsylvania...

Anyway, I was going to quickly supplement Tim's post with a summary of baby tidbits.

Tidbit #1: Our apartment is all rearranged now! Well, we still have to hang up some photos and what not, but the baby's room has finally been vacated by its previous residents (me and Tim), and is now ready for the crib- and changing table-building process. Hooray! I feel excessively unprepared for a new baby still, but at least when his room is finished, he'll have a comfy little place to crash (and cry all night long).

Tidbit #2: My stomach has become amusingly lumpy of late. It's so amazing and unbelievable that there's a little, five-pound, independent being in there, who's constantly rolling around and poking out. Just over the past couple of weeks, we've noticed a lot more bony bumps protruding from my abdomen, which I haven't yet been able to identify. I'm thinking they've consisted of a heel, knee, and possibly bum, but I'm not totally sure. Crazy. Seriously, I never knew how crazy pregnancy was.

Tidbit #3: We had our hospital orientation and tour yesterday! I dragged myself away from my PJs and Kleenex for the 1.5-hour event at our local hospital, Huntington. And lemme tell ya... I have NEVER seen such a concentration of pregnant bellies, and I'm Mormon! There must've been 75 couples in attendance, with all the women visibly showing! It was wild. We had an informational meeting in the auditorium first, where I learned a couple of new things (such as the fact that after I get to spend an hour with our brand new little guy, he's taken away for his two- to six-hour checkup in the nursery, and after that, returned to us at our leisure). Good to know. After the meeting, we broke up into small groups for the tour of the labor and delivery area, the maternity area, and the main lobby. I was pretty impressed with the LDR rooms - they are warmly lit with private bathrooms and soft colors, and they basically look like small hotel rooms (that, we're told, can transform in a jiffy into more medical environments). Very cozy. So, overall, it was a fun and educational experience, and it made me realize that I'm actually having a baby. (Duh Jean.)

Only about six weeks to go now!! I just told Tim a few minutes ago that I hope little Tadpole-Leonard doesn't come early. I adore him and everything, and am absolutely thrilled to meet him, but we still have quite a few things to take care of. (And his increasingly strong movements are making me a little nervous!) So we'll see! :-)

What? Tim posts, too?

That's right, all-- I can post, too! Due to a headcold and an abundance of work, Jean has called in the second string blogger of the family, so you get to hear from me for once. You'll be clamoring for her before this post is over, so be sure to make her feel welcome once she returns. Anyway, that's me above, sportin' the Molestache and trying not to hurt myself with scissors. I was mostly successful.

Here's Jean holding our nephew Killian while we were back visiting our families in PA (that's Pennsylvania, for you state-abbreviationally challenged) for Christmas and New Year's. He's seven months old now, and cute as a button.

From left to right, this is Lauri, Karyn, and Jean at Karyn's wedding reception. We were able to attend during our trip back home, and it was great to catch up with some old high school friends with whom we do not visit very often, being 3,000 miles away and all. It was a very nice wedding, and we wish Karyn and Ed a wonderful and happy marriage.

My sister Dana takes down 9 pins during our Christmas Day Wii Sports Bowling Tournament '07 (or CDWSBT '07, for the tournament-abbreviationally gifted among you). They got a new 50" HDTV for Christmas, and it looked pretty nice.

Below are two of my brothers, Brett (11) and (bottom) Mark (18) with nephew Killian. If you hadn't guessed, Mark is the one rockin' the giant fro, a talent that he alone possesses among us Anderson boys.

We had a fun trip back to PA and have returned to Pasadena to rearrange and build new furniture in preparation for our little guy. He gets bigger every day, and his movements in the womb now fall more into the "squirming" category than that of "kicking." It's really fun to try to guess what body part is poking out as he moves around. I'm really excited to get to know him, as is Jean, though we are both willing to wait until the due date.

I hope you all had a great Christmas and a happy New Year, and we wish you all the best in 2008!