Texas

I made it safe and sound to Texas this afternoon. My father treated me to a week visit to see the Houston clan and then another to see the New Braunfels gang. I had a typical experience at the airport this morning, and no thanks to the pregnancy hormones, managed to make it on the flight that left an hour after the one I had reservations for.

When I arrived in Houston, I was meet by the rain and my brother Lee. Charger managed to remain low key til we arrived at my mom's house where he immediately started harassing Raggedy Ann (the terrier my mom inherited from her father). They like to spend a full day reacquainting and fighting for affection before they both realize when I am here we all ignore them both and then they become buddies again.

Before I left I promised myself that I was going to be good and not snack on junk food, (since I have already gained the recommended pregnancy weight for my frame and have just begun my third trimester). But I was immediately seduced by the Blue Bell. What can I say, I am weak and Cookies n' Cream reminds me of Marshall who I already miss a ton! Besides, I want the baby to have the same respect for the brand as her ancestors! More to come on the Texas trip...lets hope I can fit into more than the sweat pants I wore on the plane today when I leave!

Birthday Fun!

Yesterday was John's birthday! He turned 24! We decided that was cause for celebration so I took the day off and we had some birthday festivities!

John had an interview in the morning, so while he was busy with that Nicole decided it would be a good time to treat me to a birthday pedicure (my birthday is at the end of the month and I leave tomorrow for Texas for just over two weeks)!

YEA!

After the pedis, we went to see the new Nordstrom . It was beautiful and very tempting. However, lucky for Marshall, a pregnant Melissa who is about to be carrying a diaper bag for the next several years of her life and is currently several sizes larger than normal, is not as tempted in such a place these days!

So we settled for some new lipstick!

We made it a short trip since it was John's day not mine and headed home before there was any real damage done!

We started the festivities with lunch at the Cheesecake Factory!

Where we meet this nice lady "Babe"....

Who helped us sing Happy Birthday to John very enthusiastically...

then John opened presents.

After lunch Marshall had to go back to work, but John, Nicole and I headed off for some fun at the Hogle Zoo!

It is still a little chilly outside these days so we didn't see as many animals as we would have liked but we still had some tons of fun!

After the zoo we went back to my place to have cake and watch the Office! It was a fun time had by all!

Basketball

Last Wednesday night Marshall and I went to the Jazz/Rockets game with John and our friend Nicole. Here is a quick summary.

We were excited to cheer for our Rockets!

We thought the old Rockets T-shirt we got Yao to sign would bring good luck!

Elliot Yamin from American Idol sang the National Anthem.

We thought, "who could loose with this guy on our side?"

Apparently they had this guy on their side.

We lost. But Marshall caught this Jazz ball that he gave away to a little kid sitting a few rows ahead of us. We appreciated the Jazz fans sitting near us for letting us cheer for the Rockets.

We made it all better though. After the game we went to The Pie and ate all of our blues away. Thanks John for a fun night out!

It's Official!

I'm a Beeson! Well, I should probably clarify. When Marshall and I got married July of 2007, according to LDS church records, (I've been told these are the only ones that really count), I became Melissa Ann Beeson (Doesn't that look pretty?). Although my dad made a good solid effort to try to convince me to change to Melissa Prince Beeson, I held my ground and immediately began referring to myself as the former.
However, I had somehow managed to keep my Texas driver's license, with my original 16 year old picture and maiden name, the entirety of my BYU education (which seemed like a small eternity) and the years following that I remained a "permanent Utah residence", until it's expiration (which actually isn't until next month). In case you are wondering, I'm pretty sure that WAS a run-on sentence.
Until then, I had managed to make a lot of excuses for why I "couldn't" change my name yet. Mostly they were regarding plane reservations made in my maiden name therefore requiring my Texas driver's license, but mainly I was overwhelmed at the thought of making time to gather all the correct documents and stand in line to make it official.
Anyway, since I have been pregnant, I have felt guilty checking in at my doctor's appointments under my maiden name, with my very patient husband of a "different" name by my side. You see, even though I have been told that the legal marriage immediately "changes" my name for all intents and purposes, the hospital won't refer to me as Melissa Beeson until my driver's license does. So, now that I am over half way through my pregnancy, I have started having those "am I prepared?" dreams, mostly about the changing of my name. You see, I don't want "little girl Beeson" to accidentally be called "little girl Prince" because of my laziness. I am pretty sure Marshall would not enjoy that either.
So, I purposely made my plane ticket to Texas in March under the name Melissa Beeson, knowing this would force me to finally change my driver's license, and jokingly told Marshall that he was getting my name change for Valentine's day.
Yesterday I got ready, (a major event in my life these days), and gathered all the correct documents and had NO wait at the DMV to take a 25 question test and fill out ONE form and TADA... I am officially Melissa Ann Beeson! Yea!
If I could offer some advice to those procrastinating along these same lines... Don't go take a new driver's license picture while you are in the middle of your second trimester, I can eat a horse 24 hours a day phase! It isn't pretty!
Also, i would like to dedicate this entry to Valorie Hartman (Dudoich) :) !
And... I would like to apologize for my "pregnant mind" and the grammar it produces... or lack of!

Wake Up Call

Monday morning around 7 am I woke up to the friendly tune of "Country Roads" by John Denver.  No, I don't have one of those fancy alarm clocks that sing you awake, that is the ring tone I have set for my younger brother John.  I have to admit my first thought was, "Oh crap he wrecked my car".  However, I was pleasantly surprised to hear a calm, somewhat cheerful John on the line apologizing for calling so early. He hadn't wrecked the car, but he was at the hospital and the cheerful tone was due to the IV pain killers that he had just received for kidney stones! After I got the scoop and he assured me he was going to be ok, I made arrangements with work and headed down to Provo to pick him up.  We spent the rest of the day hanging around my house and laughing at his drugged state.  Unfortunately for John, it took most of the rest of the week for the pain to go away, but we enjoyed getting to spend the down time with him and watching him carefully ration his remaining pain pills for the "other" stone the doctor spotted on it's way! He's not so excited that he has entered the "kidney stone phase of his life" but we are glad it wasn't something more serious! 

What will you do?...

A commonly asked question these days is- What will you do with Charger when the baby comes? Yep, it's true, our dog thinks he's a person! And because he thinks he is a person, it's almost like we are having our second child not our first. It's all our fault, we admit it. It probably started the night we first got him when we thought it would be cute and funny to drive through Taco Bell in celebration (get it? he's a chihuahua). The drive through employee fell in love at the site of our little mascot and offered some meat for him. That was his first people food and it was all over from there.
The first night was much like Lady and the Tramp. We were back and forth from the laundry room all night long. Our friends assured us that would stop after a few nights but apparently we no will power because Charger sleeps with us.

When we take him places, (yes, we take him around town with us), he rides on our shoulders. We wouldn't want him to miss out on any of the scenery.

I vowed not to be the girl with the dog in the purse, but as you probably already know or can guess, I have the purse and he happily travels in it.
He goes with us on vacation, to the grocery store (sometimes), to the mall, to run errands, and he has even been in a few restaurants undetected thanks to the dog bag. I know, don't judge.
He has a great personality and is all in all a pretty easy pet despite how high maintenance I make him out to be, but you can understand why these habits might make it hard to introduce a baby into the picture.
So, for the last half of my pregnancy we are going to try our best to undo the horrible parenting we did with Charger for the first year and a half of his life. We will see how it goes.... wish us luck!

It's a Girl!

We went to the doctor yesterday and found out we are having a girl! She was very modest at first and wasn't going to let us take a peek. The nurse poked around for a while and continued taking pictures of every other body part she could see but was hesitant to tell us what she thought we were having till she got a good shot. After some persuasion the nurse fessed up that she thought we were looking at "little girl parts" and Marshall and I cheered, after which Baby Girl Beeson opened wide to let us confirm. I guess she figured if that's all we wanted she would cooperate. We can't blame her for wanting to be a little lady. We left with several pictures. Marshall even commented that it looked like we spent the afternoon in a photo booth with the roll of pictures we left with! We will post one as soon as we can find a scanner. In the meantime, everything else seemed good and healthy and I appear to be right on track for my estimated due date of June 10th. We are pretty sure we have her named already but we want to take the weekend to think about it before we make it official.

Another exciting first yesterday... Although I have been feeling those little tickles and bubbles in my belly for a few weeks now, I felt her kick with my hand for the first time late last night!