Advice Needed

My mom is coming in two weeks and we're planning to go shopping for a lot of baby stuff. Since I'm new at this whole thing and I have many friends and family who are parents, I'm looking for your advice on baby products. I know all the obvious things I will need, but I would like to know what the most surprising thing is that you couldn't live without. And also, something you thought you would used a lot, and haven't used at all.

Any other advice you have on baby products is welcome. Also, if you have any books on babies that you really like, I'd love to know that too.

As far as life goes, things are going well. Work is going along fine and its good to be productive and earning money. I have been tired, but generally feeling really good. I'm wearing only maternity pants now, but I can still wear most of my normal shirts, although that will end soon I'm sure.

Yesterday we had an enrichment activity at church, which I'm now in charge of. We had a breakfast and a speaker who spoke about depression. The last week was stressful as I was trying to get all the loose ends taken care of. I'm glad it went fairly well and its over!

Time is flying by...My mom is coming in two weeks, and then it will be only a few weeks until Thanksgiving, and then it will be Christmas time which always flies by, and then little baby girl will be coming in only a month or so. We're really enjoying fall here and enjoying all the beauty around us.

General Conference

First I will start with an updated picture of Suzy. This one is Suzy at 23 weeks.

Between General Conference sessions on Saturday afternoon we ventured down a trail near our home, aptly named KC Trail. We walked through the woods, which were very pretty. Parts of the path were quite swampy so the trail had been raised on these wood platforms, some of which were pretty wobbly. This is my favorite picture from that day.

The trail led us across the train tracks near our house.

Me at the KC Trail sign...

After dropping Suzy off at work one day, I was killing time until an appointment I had and was driving around out in the sticks, when I came across this cool bridge. I thought it was a good picture so I decided to post it too.

This past weekend was perfect. The weather was bright sunny and relatively warm (mid 70s) and to top that off it was the official peak time for the fall foliage. Inspired by Elder Perry's talk at General Conference (Saturday Morning for those of you who missed it, read or listen to it here) we decided to go to Walden Pond and walk around Thoreau's old stomping grounds. It is certainly a nice peaceful place (when all the people aren't around, it was packed), but it was a beautiful location, especially with the leaves turning. These picks are us at Walden Pond.

Site of Thoreau's small cabin.

Tradition has it that fans of Thoreau add their own rock to this pile when they visit the site (next to his cabin). This is me tossing my small pebble onto the pile (this one was for Ms. Pera).

Sunday after Church, Suzy and I decided to take a nice Sunday drive through the woods to see more fantastic tree colors. We stopped along the Deerfield River for these.

I have other pictures of the fall here in Western Mass on Flickr, click here to see them.

Yankee Soil in Charleston

So on our way home to Amherst, we stopped for a day in Charleston, South Carolina. We both really enjoyed the beauty of this city. We decided to visit two old historic mansions in the city. One has purposely not been restored. The other one had been restored very nicely. Most of the old homes in the city have beautiful gardens in front of them.

One of the really popular things in the old days in Charleston was to have these "benches" on your porches. They are really fun, they rock side to side and bounce up and down. Though they seem to bend A LOT and there is always this thought in the back of your mind that it might break.

One of the biggest things to see in Charleston is Fort Sumter. It is all by itself way out in the middle of the bay. It was a 30 minute ferry ride out the Fort, then we had an hour to explore before we had to get back on the boat and go back to the mainland. One of the really interesting things that I learned about Fort Sumter is that the whole island was man-made from rock and earth shipped down to South Carolina from . . . New England. Therefore when the South attacked the Fort to start the Civil War, they were actually attacking Northern soil!

Just like at Fort Pulaski in Savannah, there were several cannon balls still embedded in the brick walls of Fort Sumter.

Overall we really enjoyed Charleston and look forward to having a chance to go back sometime soon.

Battery Recharger and Baby Bumps

When Suzy and I were unpacking our things a month ago I came across the camera battery recharger, and stuck it somewhere in our huge desk. Then several days later the camera battery died. I went to the desk where I thought that I had stuck the recharger, but when I got there I could not find it. So for several weeks we searched the house looking for the charger. Yesterday we both searched through the desk, and guess what. . . the charger was where I had checked first. I guess that somehow I missed it. 

Anyway, this is a long story to explain why we had not posted any Suzy pregnant pictures. So in in response to several requests I present Suzy's baby bump. . . 

This first picture is Suzy at about 17 weeks, a slight, but noticeable baby bump. People are often commenting that she doesn't look pregnant. That is because she lost 15 pounds during the first trimester, which she has only now almost fully gained back. This second picture was taken last night, at 21 weeks.

Several weeks ago, on an overcast but incredibly humid Saturday, Suzy and I went to an air show. We had a fun time. Here are some of the pictures from the air show (as a side note it was at this air show that the camera battery died).

Another brief aside, I just want to say how excited I am that the BYU Cougars Football team are now ranked #7 in the country!!! This week I had my marketing professor, and ASU alum, come up to me and congratulate me on how well my alma mater is playing these days. I had to gloat that our quarterback transfered to BYU from ASU! Even though we don't get to watch much of the games way out here, we are very excited and hope that the team can keep up the good work and destroy the Utes in November propelling BYU into a BCS bowl and possibly a second National Championship.!!!

Update

I have an update on my last post. I now have a job! Its not an amazing job, and it doesn't pay that great, but its decent, and I'm really in no place to complain. I'm working in accounts receivable at the Yankee Candle headquarters. They were looking for someone to work until the end of the year since Christmas time is their busy season. Its good timing and the people are nice.

Its too bad its through a staffing agency because then I don't get the benefits of working for Yankee directly (yummy candles) and obviously the staffing agency takes a big part of what Yankee is paying for me. But like I said, I'm lucky to have found something so its all good. I'm glad to be busy again and to have a little income. :)