Baby on the Way!

Michael and I are going to be parents! I am several days into my second trimester, and we'll be welcoming this little one into our family sometime in March!

I know these ultrasounds often look like a whole lot of nothing, so in case you can't see it, baby's head is on the right looking toward the top left corner. It looks like something is growing out of the forehead. That's the hand. During the ultrasound our baby was moving it around, which Michael and I both thought was the most thrilling and adorable thing ever. You can see the body below its head and its skinny little left arm. I promise the baby has legs. They just didn't make it into this shot!

I can't even begin to sum up the experiences and emotions we've had since finding out that I was pregnant on July fourth. So I'll just mention a few things.

• First of all, it is really strange and really amazing to know that I am growing a human being inside of me, and that kid is part Asian! Michael and I think I look pregnant, but to the average person, I probably look like I've just gained some weight. I am really looking forward to getting a cute little bump, then a big bump, then a huge bump, and then rocking the about-to-burst bump.
• Pregnancy sickness. Holy cow. It is no joke, and I didn't get it even close to as bad as some women do. I had no cravings but quite a few days where I was averse to every kind of food. I couldn't even look at our garden knowing that food came out of it. I wrote about my bar exam experience, but did not mention that a huge part of the experience was being seven weeks pregnant at the time and praying along with several other people that I wouldn't feel horribly ill during the test. Given that even without pregnancy that awful test alone is enough to make you nauseous, I consider it a mini miracle that I didn't have a single moment of nausea during the three day exam!
• Fatigue. Holy cow. It is no joke. I normally sleep about nine hours a night. When the fatigue set in, I slept about nine to eleven hours per night and would often take twenty minute to two hour naps to get me through the day. And I was still exhausted all the time. When I wrote that "we" moved, I really meant "Michael moved us." Shout out to my husband for doing 90% of the work without complaining at all. Fortunately, the nausea is almost gone, the fatigue is waning, and they've been replaced with an enormous appetite!
• Joy! Holy cow. The joy is no joke! Even in the throes of first trimester nausea and/or fatigue, there were moments where I just smiled to myself because I was so stinkin' happy to know that my child was growing inside of me! Every week, Michael and I have read about our baby's march through the produce section from blueberry sized, to raspberry sized, to prune sized, to lime sized, etc. (It's now bigger than a peach!) My favorite little baby development updates were ones like "Your baby's ears have moved from its neck to its head" (my baby's EARS were on its NECK?!?), or this week's "Your baby's intestines, which have been growing inside the umbilical cord (exCUSE me?), are now starting their trek to their permanent position in your baby's abdomen. (crazy!)"

I am sure there will be much, much more to enjoy, stress out about, and write about this child in the upcoming months and years! For now, my heart is so full, savoring the last few months of being just the two of us and loving the fact that my tiny, incubating baby is always with me wherever I go.

Myrtle Blueberry and Wild Raspberry Cake

This cake took at least eight hours to make. Here's how it came about.

First things first. I firmly believe that everyone is strange once you get to know them. But, there may be something extra quirky about my family. For instance, here's a picture of the matriarch and patriarch of my mom's side with glowsticks in their glasses. Is this the type of thing that all people in their eighties who have been married for sixty plus years do? Or is there something extra quirky and endearing about these two? I suspect the latter.

Michael and I recently got to spend over a week with my immediate family in Colorado. Toward the beginning of our time in Colorado, we were four wheeling when my mom spotted raspberries. She yelled, my dad hit the brakes and pulled over, and we all stuffed our faces.

"Stuffed our faces" isn't quite accurate. The berries were tiny and it took some work to get a small handful. I really have no idea how bears get so chubby eating mostly this kind of stuff.

Shortly thereafter, the gathering continued when we spent a day in the mountains with my glowstick-in-the-glasses grandparents. Turns out my grandpa has been a mushroomer for the past few years, a fact that made Michael happy given the little shroom farm he once grew. 

We picked quite a few pounds of mushrooms and Grandpa decided he wasn't certain enough that they were safe (we weren't going to eat them anyway) so we threw them away. A few days later, we found out that they were safe and a man the family knows sells them for over $20 per pound at farmers' markets. Woops!

Then, we went backpacking for a few days and my mom found minuscule purple and red berries which she started eating and swore were safe. I didn't believe her at first, but then caved and ate a bunch. No one got sick.

Someone got the crazy idea of making a cake using only these berries (which we later found out are called Myrtle Blueberries). So, we picked and picked and picked.

Dad on all fours:

Andrea prowling through the trees:

These berries were so tiny and difficult to pick, they became a precious commodity. Here's Michael's reaction to losing one:

The fruit of two man hours of berry picking:

Ultimately, we got a decent amount of Myrtle Blueberries, supplemented them with more wild raspberries we found while driving home, and baked this cake.

Before baking:

After baking:

So, are we quirky? Are we strange? Yes. But, I love it!

Another Little Photo Shoot

My friend, Kayse, saw the pictures I took of our other friends' one year old and asked me to take some shots of her family. I said, "Yes!" Here are the results:

Cheesy kid smiles make my day.

I love how both their hands are folded!

Now my friends are encouraging me to start a little portrait photography business on the side, something I definitively said I wouldn't do at the end of this post earlier this summer, but that I am now considering. To be continued...

Cross-Town Move

We are packing, packing, packing and moving on Saturday. My in-laws just retired and moved to a city north of San Diego on Wednesday, so we're moving into their house on Saturday. That's right, house. We don't even have close to enough stuff to fill it up, nor are we going to buy stuff to fill it up since we're still in that "we could be living anywhere in the next few years" stage of life and we like to keep our possessions trimmed down.


Here's the state of our apartment.


Closets crammed full of boxes. At least they aren't stacked in the middle of the family room!

Items that have never been neighbors in our apartment now find themselves roommates in the same box. Exhibit A: flour and hangers

Boxes.

Boxes.

Boxes.

Every surface has a pile of sundry items.

Ripping up the garden. But, that means that we'll be making green tomato cake once we're settled in!

Pictures of the new place will be coming in the next couple of weeks!

My Bar Exam Experience

In addition to being exhausting and stressful, as expected, taking the bar exam was a very unique experience. Here's my recap:

The exam took place in a large Convention Center. From my vantage point in my assigned seat in the back left of the exam room, rows of tables, laptops, and aspiring lawyers merged into a sea of heads. Based off my best estimate, I guessed there were at least a thousand, possibly even two thousand examiners in the room, which was one of two rooms in the convention center. I later used the good ol' internet to get a more exact number and found out that there were FIVE THOUSAND people in that convention center. So, for the last three days, I took a test in the same room as 2,500 other people.

One announcer at the front of the room kept time and gave instructions and announcements. My least favorite announcement: "You have 30 seconds remaining." How is that helpful?! Every time he said it, I got so freaked out, I couldn't regroup for the first 10 seconds.

There were dozens of proctors engaging in a zone defense type system. The majority of proctors manned a small zone of test takers and other proctors had jobs such as checking our admission slips before we entered the room, guarding the tables holding a couple thousand tests, etc.

Each morning and afternoon, I had a three hour session. After each of them, I felt physically tired and like my brain was shutting down. But, amazingly, by the next session, whether it was after the lunch break or after a night of sleep, I always felt ready to go again.

Did I pass? I don't know. I won't know until mid-November. But, between you readers and me, I think I did, not based off of how it felt while I was taking it (because it's one of those exams were you frequently feel like you're failing), but based off of practice exams.

Fortunately, I was well cared for. Most of the examiners had to stay in hotels in the area. Since we live so close by, Michael dropped me off and picked me up on Tuesday and Wednesday and even came at noon to bring my lunch and eat with me. It was so nice to get that kind of princess treatment during the difficult three days. On Thursday, he had a lunch date with his mom, but the princess treatment didn't end. I joined two law school classmates for an amazing meal that was prepared and served in their small hotel room kitchen by their two Russian mamas.

When I got home last night, Michael took me out to my favorite Spanish restaurant and we split a bunch of super delicious tapas. The food was so good, it was almost all we talked about for the entire dinner. But, that's typical for us.

Now, I am going to hit "Publish" and put this test far behind me and get on with the last five weeks of my summer!

Eli's One Year Photos

New friends of mine asked me to take a few shots of their one year old. We went to a local park during that lovely time of day when pictures turn out best with the sun getting low giving everything a golden glow. I loved how the pictures came out! Here are my two favorites:

Summer Dinner

After weeks of waiting, our tomatoes finally turned red, so I made this for dinner:

No, I am not on a diet. In fact, I had In-N-Out for lunch. I just find that I often eat unusual dinners when my husband is out of town and I particularly love this salad... I think it's called Caprese? Or Insalata Caprese? Or Caprese Salad? I don't know. All I know is that it's delicious.

If you want to make it:

1. Layer slices of tomato mozzarella cheese (fresh mozzarella is best!)
2. Drizzle with olive oil and squeeze fresh lemon juice on top (balsamic vinegar is how it's always served, but I prefer lemon juice)
3. Sprinkle on salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

Enjoy!