This blog will catch you up on most, but not all of my previous blogs.

Snaggletooth

As I hoped Alyssa's front teeth came in shortly after her snaggleteeth.  Here is a picture of her cute teeth....although we had to take the picture upside down in order to get a good shot because she's stubborn and as you can see from the first picture she refused to open her mouth! She has a total of 6 teeth now.

The Elephants/Intruder

Since we have lived in our dear sweet...WASP! (yikes stay tuned...)...apartment we have received a brand new dryer & dishwasher, have had money taken off our rent because it wasn't painted correctly as well as have had numerous other things fixed, such as our garbage disposal wherein I was told not to put egg shells down the disposal(whatever-so dumb!) and as I am writing this blog I am sitting less that a foot away from a wasp that I have caught between the blinds and the window.  It's kinda freaking me out, but as long as I can hear it buzzing then I'll keep typing.  Luke and Alyssa are Sunday napping right now and I already had to slam a book on top of the wasp I caught this morning!  Can you believe that?!  Wasps(intruders), in our apartment.  This is nuts!  I hope Luke wakes up soon!

Car Jacking

So I can happily report that I have taken the upper hand in "my" parking spot. I get it the majority of the time and they have taken to a spot on the other side of the car port which I believe is actually closer to their apartment. 

Application for Friendship

So I was at Target last week and this lady stopped to ask me about my shopping cart cover that Alyssa sits in.  We began chatting and stood there for probably at least 5 minutes talking like old friends.  She introduced me to the term "Seattle freeze" which apparently means that people are really nice and friendly to casually chat with, but ask them to coffee and they "freeze" up.  She was telling me she had no friends and had been here for about 6 months (same as me) and her husband works for Microsoft (same as me) and she has 4 kids (same as me...wait, oh, no actually not the same as me, but close enough) So anyway we decided to go for coffee sometime and so we exchanged email addresses and now we're going to actually meet up on Wednesday morning.  So I guess I'm off to a good start. 

Oh and this weekend was our first Washington road trip.  We went 3 hours south to Vancouver WA and Portland OR to visit 2 of my roommates from college.  We had a great time visiting and catching up...here are some pictures of me with my old  roommates.

My Secret/Postsecret.com

Not so much a secret anymore.  As of this week it's pretty obvious that I'm pregnant (5 1/2 weeks).  I had a lady at church who greets me every week tell me today that she didn't realize I was pregnant, but I think that'll be the last of people not knowing/seeing.  So far my pregnancy has been pretty easy (same with Alyssa) and I've only thrown up twice and each time was because I had to down 24oz of fluid in less than an hour in preparation for our sonogram.  So I don't know if that really counts as any type of "morning sickness."  But it was sick at that! lol Especially since the first time was in the car while I was driving to my sonogram appointment  (Yes I had my car detailed afterwards)

When Will the Weather Cease to Surprise Me?

About 2 weeks ago I took Alyssa to the grocery store (as I do several times a week because it gives us a reason to go shopping and get out of the house) and the weather was pretty average - lightly cloudy and dry with bits of sun now and then.  But I wasn't too surprised to notice that it was drizzling when we came out of the store, so I put up the hoods on our sweatshirts and began towards the car.  I took 3 steps and was like what the heck is this?  After 5 steps we were mostly wet and after the 25-30 feet to my parking spot we were soaked. 

So I'm not even quite sure how to describe it but it felt and sounded like it was snowing, but looked like it was sprinkling/drizzling from the inside of the windshield.  It was like tons and tons of light sprinkles coming down in the thickest way possible.  So crazy, because if you looked at me you would have thought it was poring rain, but it totally wasn't.  Oh and if that isn't strange, you can imagine how surprised we were that same week to have one day be warm and sunny (65ish degrees) and then next day snow!

Against My Husband's Wishes

Luke continues to sleep in 4-5 layers of clothing.  I'll leave the update to that. lol

Things Get Crazy When Husband Turns 30

So we're not having twins, but we are having a boy!  I couldn't have asked for a better sequence, my girly girl first and then a little boy.  And yes, I'm totally in denial that he has to have a name.  I think most of you know that Luke it totally pushing for 'Indiana' (and no he's not joking).  I hope we can agree on a name before he is born. lol (seriously it might take that long to agree) So Alyssa will still be Daddy's little girl for now...and well forever too.   Look at their hair! 

Oh and I still have a carrot in my oven, from my little spill incident, that I keep forgetting to get out - it's completely white and will probably crumble if I touch it.

But speaking of turning 30. I just had my 29th and a 1/2 birthday April 5th, which was a Saturday, and it was soo awesome.  I woke up to "breakfast in bed" -well kinda except it was more like breakfast on the couch while watching a movie....but the important part is that Luke had it all made before I woke up.  AND then he handed me the coolest card ever. I am so proud of it that I took pictures for my blog to document how creative my husband is:

I am so excited because I have always wanted to go to Cirque Du Soleil and now I get to go...finally!  I can not wait!

AND speaking of monumental birthday's.  Alyssa will be turning 1 year old on April 28th!  I can't hardly believe it, but yes it's true. (I know so cliché, but had to say it.)  We're not going to throw her a party or anything, but my mom and grandma will be coming into town for the very special occasion so that should be lots of fun.  Luke has specifically requested a chocolate icing cake for Alyssa so that the pictures turn out really good...so stay tuned! lol

Favorite Video's of All Time

We have recently been enjoying using our webcam to take video of Alyssa.  Here is one of our favorite so far.  The quality isn't great because it's our webcam, but maybe someday we'll get a real video camera.

You can view our other videos of Alyssa here.

Oh but we still do enjoy our You Tube (although we haven't received any shared videos from Ramona Quimby in a while) and just this morning Luke found one that's pretty cool:

So I am thinking that I may have issues making friends here in the Seattle area because I'm such a waster.  Some know this about me and for some of my "green" friends I try to shelter them from my wastefulness.  You see just the other day we were at a baby shower in which I was in charge of bringing the cake.  So I found this amazingly cute cake at a little quaint bakery and just as I had hoped everyone was taken aback at how awesome my baby bassinet cake looked.  Well to my dismay the cake was not to my liking.  It was very dry and just not anything like I had hoped.  Some were saying that maybe the bakery was Romanian because their pastry's are less sugary and a little more dry.  Luke and another lady at the shower were the only two people who said anything about actually liking it.  So of course at the end of the shower half of the cake was left and despite the hostess asking if anyone wanted any to take home, everyone declined.  So I took it upon myself to take the cake home.  As I immediately piped up saying that it was no problem that I would take the cake home Luke gave me a hidden simile and I had to look away smiling to myself because he knew exactly what I would be doing with the cake as soon as we got home. 

He knew because on a separate occasion I had baked a 4 layer cake, that looked equally as awesome, for a wedding shower of which the couple didn't show up.  So we had this cake and noone really ate it because we were waiting so long that noone felt like eating it - which was totally understandable.  So at the end of the night while casually talking to our friends I took the entire 4 layer cake and slid it into the trash can.  You have no idea how satisfying it is to hear that thump of a 5lb cake hit the bottom of an empty trash can.  My friends were flabbergasted - mouths open wide.  They said it seemed like an illusion and that I couldn't have just done what they saw me do.  Seriously what did they expect?  Luke and I don't even like cake - we barely ate our own wedding cake so what was I supposed to do with it?  Send it to a homeless shelter?  haha not.

You don't even want to know what else I throw away or how I throw things away for that matter.  Let's just say I wouldn't be very popular up here in the tree hugging west if I published those thoughts!

We've been here about 6 months and I still don't have any "real" friends, but I do have potential friends.

I have met some really neat people lately and they might actually pan out to be actual friends.  But I have some big shoes to fill.  Let's see:    

	There was a girl in my swimming class who seemed rather artsy. She listens to The Shins, she watches Pushing Daisies, and had even heard of Damien Hirst. Plus, she was half white and half Puerto Rican...Does that count?
	I stopped by the local Dutch bakery in hopes of finding myself a nice blond Dutch girl who I might be able to discuss the latest happenings in the BL. It turns out that all of the Dutch girls up here are spoken for so I might just have to wait until the real Melissa moves up here.
	I have decided to call off the search for a new Rebeccah because of my new found career as home maker. I am learning to cook, clean, and sew like a natural...any Home Economics teacher would be proud!
	I did find one girl at church who is a pretty good cook but she doesn't have a very infectious laugh. Also, she doesn't host baby showers at her house every other weekend so I guess the Christa replacement search continues.
	I thought this one would be easy because we live like 2 miles from the local UPS warehouse. The other day when the UPS guy came to my house I decided to make conversation by saying, "So...Have you had any dogs pee on your diode lately?" But he just looked at me funny and walked away. Plus, he had too much hair.
	I have a very serious applicant for the Bethany position. She is very in tune with the earth and she likes to cook with some very unique ingredients. She even sells jewelry! But it turns out it was Cookie Lee - not the Premier Designs I am used to. Again, duplicating the laugh is turning out to be very difficult.
	I attended the local MOPS meeting and asked every lady there what fire station their husband works in and how many years they had been breast feeding. I don't think this went over well because it turns out I was in a meeting of the Washington State Chapter of the National Organization for Women. Plus, they were all taller than 4'2''.
	I took Alyssa in for an Autism screening so I could check out the local SLP. When I walked in her office she had a large soda AND a Jamba Juice sitting on her desk - and it was only 7:30 AM! I thought I had found the perfect Bridget replacement! So I immediately asked her if she wanted to meet up with Bob, Szilvi, and I at El Pollo Loco for lunch. She informed me that she doesn't eat fast food and she claimed not to know Bob and Szilvi...definitely not a Bridget!

When we lived in San Diego we didn't eat out at fast food restaurants very much...well at least we didn't  for dinner and if we did it was usually because we were going out with friends.  Well, since we have lived here we have gone to McDonalds like 10 times for dinner (which is a lot for us) and every time we eat there we look at each other and think about how weird it is to be eating there again.

So anyway, besides McDonalds we have tried a couple of local fast food chains that that are not seen so much in San Diego.

Taco Time

Our first and last experience with Taco Time was a week or so after we arrived here.  We went inside to order and took a while to look over the menu.  They had a chicken taco thing that looked good from the picture and so I was going to ask about that and Luke thought he might get something that sounded like a chimichanga. It was actually called a "Crisp Burrito." So we get to the register to order and I ask the (young) guy what was on the chicken taco thing.  He promptly begins to ring up the chicken taco until I clarify that not I don't want to order yet, I want to know what is on it.  "Oh" he says and turns around to search the picture menu up above for the item I am inquiring about.  I realize he can't find it and I point it out.  He says "oh-yeah"  Then he proceeds to say, "well it looks like it has chicken, lettuce and cheese on top and some stuff inside."  I say, "that's all?"  Then he says, "uh, I think so." I'm annoyed with him so I say, "Are you just guessing from what the picture looks because I really do want to know what is exactly on the taco, so could you ask?"  So he attempts to ask the worker making the food and she promptly repeats the list of ingredients to him (which I can hear) and then he turns around and can only remember 2 of the things she says and then tries to ask her again, but I stop him because I have heard what she said.

Another puzzling item on the menu was called "Mexi-fries." Luke and I both noticed that they looked suspiciously like tater tots. But this wasn't "Burger Time" or "Potato Time" so had to take them at their word that these were some sort of authentic Mexican side dish. What do we know, we only used to live like 5 minutes from the border.

So then we order and sit down.  Our food arrives with just my order and we have to tell the guy that Luke's chimichunga is missing.  So he was like oh okay.  So he goes to get it and it's not made so he comes back and asks him which one he wanted again and then goes back, makes it and brings in out as I'm finishing my taco and then we both laugh because his "meal" is the size of a taquito. lol  I think Luke was full enough because he had eaten some of my taco and plenty of the "Mexi-fries" (which did end up just being tater tots) while he was waiting.  But we'll most likely NEVER go back there again because the food just wasn't that good.

Dairy Queen

Recently after an attempted meal at home gone bad, we went to Dairy Queen to gratify our grumbling tummies.  We walk in and similarly to Taco Time we look over the menu because we haven't been there in a very long time.  There are 3 different types of cheeseburgers: The regular cheeseburger, the classic cheeseburger, and the cheeseburger deluxe. The regular cheeseburger was kinda obvious that it was just the plain cheeseburger or even the "kids cheeseburger" if you will, but the problem with the other two was that the pictures both looked the same and they only varied by price and sesame seeds buns. So we decide to inquire about the differences.

We approached a young girl at the register and ask about the cheeseburgers. She looked behind her at the pictures on the above menu and said "I know there's a difference I just don't know what they are because they look the same to me" THEN she proceeds to look at us as if we should just pick one to order.  I am again flabbergasted as thoughts of our Taco Time experience flood into my head, so I again ask if she can find out.  The manager comes over and informs us that that 10 cent difference is that one has ketchup and mustard and the other has Thousand Island dressing.  I think we both ended up getting the latter and they were yummy!  So in contrast to Taco Time we actually really enjoyed our meal.

So I just have to say that I never thought I'd say this, (especially since I'm not even 30 years old yet) but "Young People These Days!" what the heck?!