Famous Last Words: "I'm 89% sure the baby is a girl."

It looks like Ben's "Bracey Code" isn't so great. Ben swears that the baby has been telling him it's a girl.

Well as doctor Yamishiro said "It's either a boy or a well endowed female." It was hard to tell for sure because the baby wasn't cooperating but Ben and Dr. Yami got a flash of what they believe to be "boy junk". The Doc says he's 80% sure that the baby is a boy but we'll have to wait a couple of weeks until our big ultrasound to be sure. After we got over the surprise we are super excited. In response to Ben's prior claim that he only shoots boys, my mom said "At least now we know it's Ben's."

Now, we just have to decide on a name. Of course it was the girl name that we were firm on.

Sorry about the videos

Ok, I know I seem to be on a video posting kick, and this will be the last one for a while. It is about paying attention to bikers and with spring coming and more people out on their bikes I think it is important

The perfect plan

Saturday as Tracey and I were driving back from a delicious breakfast at Ruth's Diner, we drove past a golf course and Tracey mentioned how she would really like to start Bracey into sports such as golf at a young age so that we could have a fun family activity that we can do together. It seems like things are so competitive these days that unless your kids are playing from the time they can walk then they are relegated to the benches. I thought that this was a great idea because it fits perfectly into my plan of becoming a stage dad.

For those 2 people out there who do not know what a stage mom/dad is, it is where the parent has no discernible talent (see I already fit the bill) so they attempt to live vicariously through their children. The added bonus comes if the child has a ton of talent that you get to retire and "manage" them (ie steal their money).

The only example I can think where a parent has done this is Tiger Woods and he is obviously a huge success. I am sure that there is a one in a million chance where this could scar the child for life and that kid could go crazy and end up marrying a back up dancer, having 2 kids, and wind up in rehab more times than I can count, but that is a purely hypothetical situation. There is no way that could happen in real life right?

A really cool game

It is not very often that I see something online and immediately have to blog about it. Right now there is the Games Developer Conference or GDC which is one of the big nerd get together about video games. As mentioned in this article, most people go there just to see the trailers for the big name games but this new game is just so cool that it is the talk of the conference. That is all the setup I will give before the video



Pretty cool. From the atricle you can see where to download a demo version.

MEAN Pregnant Lady

A couple of months ago Ben, pre-pregnancy, Ben sent me a hilarious link. It was written by ESPN's Sports Guys wife, the Sports Gal. She apologizes to all of the people she was mean to during her pregnancy. Here is the link:http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/071026 (It is towards the bottom in a blue box)

I thought "Wow! This chick is moody . . . but really funny." Well, I'm started to feel like I might be writing an apology blog in a few months. Let me tell you about a little outing Ben and I had.

We went to Costco the other day and the stupid girl who was bagging was telling her co-worker how St. Patricks Day is really on the 15th. Interesting. For those of you who don't know my birthday was Sunday, the 16th. The day before St. Patricks Day. Just like it has been the last 29 years. Well, naturally I corrected her because I didn't want her little friend to be confused. She goes on to argue with me about how NOW and for the rest of eternity it is on the 15th because that Catholic Church didn't want it to be during Holy Week. I have no problem with religions celebrating holidays on different days for religious purposes. I belong to a religion that moves Halloween if it is on Sunday. However, I don't claim that the Church changes it on the calendar for the whole world, which she did. I argued with her for a couple of minutes while Ben paid and then dragged his furious wife from the store. Ben was dying laughing. I know, not a big deal, after all she was a 19 yr old girl working at Costco but still, don't be ignorant! I even googled it when we got home. As I suspected, Rome approved for the Irish Bishops to celebrate on the 15th, they didn't change the date forever! Sweet vindication.

But wait there's more . . .

On the way home from I talked my husband into stopping at 7-Eleven for my new favorite prego treat, a Slurpee (he was scared I'd yell at him like the Costco girl got yelled at if he denied me) So I go get my Slurpee and the stupid machine spits out Peach Slurpee (gross) from the Cherry spigot. I was NOT happy. I stomp, muttering under my breath to the counter and unsuspecting worker. The worker who by the way ALWAYS turns off the card reader and says "It is broken." Funny . . . it's only broken when you work bubba!!! Maybe if you spent less time talking to your buddies, you could let me run my own debit card! Anyway, I digress. So I proceed to tell him how the Slurpee machine is mislabeled. He says "Yeah, I don't know who did that." My reply, "Maybe you should go fix the stupid sign because that really pissed me off!" Bewildered 7-Eleven guy offered to let me dump my slurpee and get new one full of sub-par flavors. GRRRR. Don't worry though, in a fit of rage I filled my cup with Coke slurpee full of caffeine. Maybe if I hadn't given up caffeine for the pregnancy we wouldn't be having these outbursts.

I think that Ben may not take me out in public again until the baby is born.

Help with Lost

Before I post the video I found (and by found, I mean saw on the Best Week Ever blog) I just have to say how good this season of Lost has been. The episode with Desmond was one of the best episodes of recent memory and there has been a pleasant lack of episodes which mainly consist of storylines which set up future mysteries. That being said this video hits a little too close to home.

Baby Names

So as all soon to be parents to do, Ben and I are contemplating what to name our little bundle of joy. Of course this decision will be easier in a couple of weeks when we find out what we are having. Ben is pretty easy going about girl names but as far as boys go, he really wants to name the baby Sam, after his best friend Sammy. I love Sam and his family so I'm not going to argue this too much. However, Ben would be upset if I didn't mention that Anya refused to let Sam name one of their boys Ben. What Ben neglected to tell me was that Anya said no because they already have a nephew named Ben . . . Ben Hanson at that. I completely understand where Anya is coming from.

As far as girl names go, I'm having a dilemma. Originally I had planned on naming the baby Preston if it's a girl. However, over the last few days I've started thinking that I want to name it Dannelly if it's a girl, which is my maiden name. (Pronounced "Dan-a-Lee" unless you are a telemarketer and then we don't want to talk to you anyway!) How cute is that?! AND because Dannelly is such a big name for a little girl, we can call her Ellie. Super cute!

Ben and I have been jokingly calling the baby Bracey as you all know. But we've also been joking about giving it a Utah Mormon name and calling it Tre'n (Tracey + Ben). Ben took it a step further and decided he liked LeTre'n. That way the kid is guaranteed to be Mormon AND an athlete. As I was searching the web for name this morning I came across the best web site in the world.

Drumroll . . . .

"The Utah Baby Namer"

http://wesclark.com/ubn/

That's right there is a whole site dedicated to all the crazy names people here in Utah name their kids, including creative spellings, meanings and my favorite . . . apostrophes. Oh my religion and home state . . . you are something else. Hopefully you enjoy it and won't find your name on the list! Don't feel bad if you do though, one of my favorite Grandma's has her name on the list. Way to go Alvaretta!

Ben and Bracey Communicate

My husband is truly amazing. 

 

He is able to communicate with our unborn child . . . so he claims.  It usually occurs when he wants to convince me to do something.  He taps on my stomach using "Bracey code"  and the Bracey "kicks" and gives him an answer.  This event is usually followed by the phrase, "But Bracey wants you to!"  When I point out that I can't feel the baby kicking he usually replies with something along the lines of "It's not my fault it doesn't want to talk to you."  And when I tell him to knock off the tapping I get the "victim face" and he says, "Why won't you let me talk to our child?!"  Very infuriating and probably not the safest route for a man with a pregnant wife.  After all, he won't even buy me a Crème Brule torch because he's afraid that one night I'll get mad and try to set him on fire while he is asleep.  I can't possibly think of anything he might do to make me mad. Now that I think about it, I think that this game may be banned in the very near future. 

 

NOTE: I will now be hearing about how I made disparaging comments about him on our blog.  (Victim Face)

I love you Ben!

It was just a matter of time

Yesterday morning as I was driving to work, the radio program I listen to every morning mentioned that there is a new restaurant opening in Provo/Orem. Normally, a single restaurant opening is not big enough to be mentioned on the radio but this one is so unique that I am amazed I have not heard of it before. The restaurant is called Max and Cheese: A Kids Cafe. I must warn you that if you try to look at their web site that they have a white background and white text so if you would like to read something you have to highlight it and then you can see everything.

So what makes this restaurant so different. As you can read in this Deseret News article, this place thrives on giving kids exactly what they want and give adults a huge nostalgia factor. They specialize in all of the kids basics such as mac and cheese, hot dogs cut to look like an octopus, and pb&j sandwiches. Knowing how people are in Utah county, I think this will be a hit with more than kids.

1st Baby Purchase

Poor Ben. His wife made him buy a crib. We got the Pottery Barn crib that I wanted for 1/2 off! We saw it at Downeast Outfitters in Layton a month ago but it was sold. We just happened to go in to the Downeast in Draper and they had it!!! It's perfect, no scratches dents or anything. I had given up on getting my fancy crib because it was just too expensive. It's a Pregnancy Miracle! Ben wasn't super excited about buying it but I think he figured it was easier to appease his pregnant wife. Now he admits that it was a great find and a great deal.

Primary and Ben

Ben and I teach a Primary class at church. This is a great calling for us. We only have two kids in our class this year and they are both great kids. One is an 8 year old boy and the other is a 6 year old girl. Someday I will tell you about the quirkiness surrounding our Primary and how we ended up with such an odd class. Anyway . . . back to the point. Sometimes Ben and I disagree about the best way to our approach our calling. Actually, to be completely accurate, I don't agree with how Ben approaches it. There are two basic points where Ben and I diverge.

The first is "How detailed do you get with our class?" Granted, Ben is much smarter and more knowledgeable than I am. The problem is sometimes he tends to be WAY too in depth with the kids. Jillian can't even read yet and therefore doesn't fully understand some of the concepts Ben tries to explain. Here are a couple of examples:

1. Josh: "Is Heaven in the sky?"
Ben's answer: "Well actually, the spirits from the pre-existence are here on the earth."
Tracey's answer: "Josh, that is something that will be much more clear when we die."

2. Jillian: "Did Heavenly Father make the dinosaurs?"
Ben: "Well, actually . . . "
Tracey interrupts with "Yes, Heavenly Father made everything on earth."

There are multiple other examples but Ben is playing innocent and won't help me remember them.

Ben also likes to say silly things to the kids that definitely don't help our class remain reverent. Today the kids were imagining that they were shepherds. As the are imagining this Ben says "And then the killer sheep attack!" Yup. That was the end of that lesson. He also likes to throw in things like during a scripture story "And then ______ punched ______ in the nose." or when explaining good and bad choices he particularly likes to come up with bad choices to point out.

Parenting with Ben is going to be quite the adventure. At least when my kids come up with crazy things I'll know exactly where they came from.