Sew Cool

Ok, Ok. The title is totally dorky. I totally love it though so whatever.

If you recall several posts ago I mentioned that I was going to be sewing an apron. Well, it turned out...ok. I have learned that patterns are not my friends. I started using a pattern and quickly just decided to do my own thing about half way through. It turned out ok, but its way too big on me so it makes me look about 40 pounds bigger than I actually am, which I do not need. Even so, it keeps my clothes clean when I cook and I am proud of it!

My next project was a quilt. I made one for Justin's mommy as a Christmas gift, and it turned out ok. My washer kind of ate it and thats unfortunate. I made one for my dad and step mom too but the washer really ate that one so I need to fix some of the seams. My washer eats everything...we are gonna get a new one before it eats all of our diapers.

I have been really pissed at myself for not taking more pictures. I PROMISE I will. I am going to make a list of new years resolutions. One of them is going to be to take more pictures. Hmm. More on that later.

Avah Karren: A birth story, 6 years later

Six years ago on December 12, 2004, Avah Karren was born into this world.

Its hard to believe that six years have passed since the first time I held her tiny body in my arms. They say time speeds up tremendously once you have kids and they weren't kidding. I wish I could go back in time and cherish every single moment, every baby kiss, every snuggle, every cry. Its sad to know they are gone forever. Its a good reminder to myself that I need to learn to live in the moment. She is so amazing at six years old and has grown so much, even just in the past couple of months. If you blink you'll miss it.

I was miserable towards the end of my pregnancy. I was bored, having stopped working in October and being due on December 19th. I also had a growth spurt and the belly that was so small during my entire pregnancy bloomed into a full on pregnant belly. I couldn't move very well and I just plain wanted her out. I wanted to meet her badly...getting off of the couch without help was an added bonus. In an incredibly selfish move, just weeks after my mom went through surgery, Avah was induced the morning of December 12, 2004. I did not have a scheduled induction, per se. The hospital called at about 5 am to tell me there was a spot open and I should come down. My mom drove me to the hospital, checked me in, and I changed into my hospital gown. I was given my first round of medication to induce labor at 6 am. I was comfortable and the time flew by. At 10 am the nurse came in and gave me Pitocin through an IV. By Noon my contractions had begun and were strong and unforgiving from the get go. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think, couldn't focus on anything but the awful pain. I was delirious with it. I don't recall a whole lot from Noon-5pm but the pain and seriously wanting some chocolate! At 5pm the doctor came in and I got an epidural...sweeeeet relief. I was able to relax for a few moments but then, only moments after the epidural was administered, Avah went into distress. The charge nurse came in, flipped me on my side, and put pressure on an area of my abdomen. The entire room came alive with nurses, and I heard words being thrown around like "Distress", "C-Section", and "Emergency." I was terrified. The nurse at my side was able to shift Avah around and her heart rate normalized. The nurse checked me right after and found that it was time to push! Only three contractions later, Avah Karren was born at only 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and 19 1/2 inches long at 5:55 pm on December 12, 2004.

As soon as she was born they placed her on my stomach and I remember being completely and totally freaked out by it. This completely formed baby was just inside me and is now laying on my stomach! I didn't know how to touch her, what to do, or what to say. My motherly instinct was NOT instantaneous. My mom cut her umbilical cord and they took her away very briefly to wipe her down and handed her back to me all snuggled in a blanket. I breastfed her immediately and it was then that I realized, she is mine. This is the person that I have gotten to know after the last nine months. Words cannot describe the feelings that come over a mother when she holds her child for the first time. It is incredible, life changing, and terrifying all at the same time.

For days and days after her birth I was so emotional. I was afraid to drive with her, afraid to sleep in case she stopped breathing, afraid that anything bad would happen to her. For about 6 months I was a terrible driver because I was so skiddish, constantly over correcting and being too quick to brake. I finally realized I was more likely to get in an accident driving that way and started driving better again. Being a parent turns you into, well, your parents! I finally got why my parents were so freaking worried about me all of the time. That day and in that very moment, I learned what love truly is.

So, Happy Birthday Avah! No matter how big or sassy you get, you will always be my baby. I love you.

Enjoying the Small Things

Click HERE to read an incredibly inspiring blog. This woman has taken what most would consider a huge setback and turned it into one of her biggest joys. Its inspiring and you cant help but learn from her.

Thanksgiving!!! (Almost)

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am sooo excited. We are going to Justin's grandmas house in the morning to visit for a little while and then my mom and uncle will be coming over for dinner!

Needless to say, since we have company coming over our trainwreck of a living room had to be cleaned. I am happy to say the box spring and the boxes are put away and the junk is now at Goodwill. Now all I have left is a pile of laundry on the couch and all of my sewing/craft stuff all over the dining room table. I have a SERIOUS nesting bug right now so I am trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to keep it in check. I am going to get some couch slipcovers and will be making some Christmas pillows for the living room. Oh, and I am nearly done with my first apron. Its not terrible, but I have definitely learned some lessons. I used the pattern basically just to cut out the shapes and then just kind of made it how I felt like making it. Patterns make no sense.

We finally got to see our wedding pictures, too! I will post some as soon as we get the CD. There are some pretty amazing photos and I am totally thrilled with them.

We had our second to last ultrasound yesterday. It was the anatomy ultrasound and I can say without a doubt that the baby is definitely a HE. He was not being shy with his boy parts at all. He wouldnt, however, show us his brain so we have to go back and hope that he switches positions. Right now he is basically standing on my cervix. Sometimes he likes to dance on it too. I think I prefer a foot to the ribs over a foot to the cervix. Hopefully he flips upside down sometime soon. I LOVE ultrasounds, though. He was acting like he has the hardest life ever...stretching and yawning a million times like he just got off of a 12 hour shift, haha! SO cute.

I seriously need to start posting photos along with these posts. Ha.

Holiday Bug

Image stolen from Pottery Barn

I went shopping for a little bit yesterday and I have to say I am officially in the holiday spirit. If it werent for Avah's bday being on the 12th the whole house would probably be decorated by now. We have a rule, though, that no Christmas decorations go up until AFTER her birthday. That way it makes it a little more special. Of course, she always has the right to revoke the rule on any year but she decided she still  wants to wait. Thats not to say that I cant start getting it all ready though!

50 million things

One of the things about me that I think REALLY bother Justin (secretly) is my inability to ever completely finish one project before moving on to the next. Honestly a photo montage would probably be best to truly show the extent of my problem, but I'm at work right now so thats not gonna happen. Instead, I'm just going to make a list of the projects that I have started but are not complete.

1.) The cabinets in the downstairs bathroom. The doors have been removed and have been sitting on my back porch for a good 6 months now. They've been sanded but not yet primed or painted. Classy!

2.) The countertop in my hallway upstairs. Its been primed and painted, but is still waiting to be polyurthethaned to protect the surface. Still, it looks good.

3.) The 30 (yes, thirty) boxes in my living room from Amazon that have yet to be opened. Justin and I went on a crazy Amazon kick trying to get Christmas shopping done asap. Now I have a million boxes and no where to put them for the time being. They all have to be opened and wrapped immediately because many are for Avah. I am putting it off because I hate wrapping.

4.) The rejects from the old guest room that are also in my living room. Ok, ok. My living room looks like a junk pile. Literally. We have a box spring, a desk, a tv (unplugged and on the floor), a fan, and a few other things that are going to Goodwill. This is partly Justin's fault since he is the one with the truck and the manpower but I havent decided what can go and what will stay.

5.) The baby's room. Its been primed. Mostly. As soon as the baby's room is painted (by me with the windows open and low VOC paint) then I can start to stash the Christmas gifts away in the closet. See the pattern here?

6.) Several sewing projects. I havent actually used a sewing machine since I was in 8th grade Home Ec but I decided I wanted to make a whole bunch of crap and went to the fabric store and bought fabric. Then I headed over to my mom's and borrowed her super crappy 25 year old sewing machine that I wouldnt mind throwing out the window. The bobbin system blows. I can;t get more than like 3 stitches done before it jams. Needless to say, I miiight be buying a new sewing machine soon. Don't tell Justin. =)

All of this stuff could be busted out and done within like 3 days of just working on it. Problem is, I dont have 3 days. Avah has soccer on Saturdays, I'm in school full time so much of my evenings after mom duty are spent doing homework, and our family has a tendancy of making us do at least one thing on the weekends which means I have no days to just throw on work clothes and tackle them down. Oh well! I love my projects.

Diaper Stash

I know this is really nerdy, but I have to share my cloth diaper excitement! We are slowly building our stash and currently own:

2 Bumgenius 4.0 diapers
4 Bumgenius Organic Elementals
2 Flips with 3 staydry and 3 organic liners
3 mystery one size diapers

The mystery diapers are because I took advantage of a sale at Kelly's Closet where you spend $29 and then send you a free one size diaper of their choosing. I cant wait til the packages come...it'll be like an early Christmas!!!

Decorating the Nursery

I am having serious issues with choosing paint colors for the nursery. We (and my "we" I mean "I") chose to do a neutral nursery. Espresso colored furniture and white and light beige/taupe walls. I have looked high and low and I cant seem to nail down a color. I normally just buy a paint color and go with it, but this time I bought samples. I got Studio Taupe by Behr and Gallery Taupe by Behr. The Studio Taupe is too dark and the Gallery Taupe seems too light, but I dont know. Now I have just discovered Bleeker Beige by Benjamin Moore and am REALLY stumped.

Here is the Gallery Taupe:

Here is the Bleeker Beige:

And here is the inspiration for this nursery:

Arg!

15 1/2 weeks

I have to say, throughout this entire pregnancy I have not felt pregnant. I mean, I definitely had my bouts of food adversions and feeling really tired among other symptoms, but nothing like I did with Avah. I'm also not really showing. I am pretty "thick" looking, but it really just looks like I just gained some weight. I dont have that obvious pregnant belly yet. Even with the ultrasounds and the flutters that I've been feeling, I forget I'm pregnant most of the time. Justin and I planned this pregnancy for months before we ever tried for it so I had this "when the baby comes" mind set before I ever even got pregnant. I think about the baby, baby stuff, life with the new baby, etc, constantly but I still manage to forget I am pregnant. Weird, huh?

Oh, and we bought the crib a few weeks ago. Here it is:

I never got to actually decorate a nursery with Avah so its a fun new experience. I will keep you posted!

Ultrasound photos!

He looks like a baby!

See...you can tell he's a boy!

Its a....

BOY!

I had a 3D ultrasound today at one of those clinics you pay to have an ultrasound early at. She said she doesn't say what the gender is one way or another unless she sees all of the parts indicating its either a boy or a girl. So, in short, shes 100% positive our little one is a little guy. We are so excited!

Alaska!

Im back!

Sorry about the whole deleting of the blog thing. We hadn't told our family about the baby yet and my sister emailed me saying she heard I was pregnant  from someone I don't talk to 800 miles away. I figured the only way someone would know that I didn't tell is from this blog. So, needless to say, I had to temporarily delete it. I did NOT want my family learning about something so important from someone that I don't even talk to anymore.

In other news, I am married! Its kind of strange and I don't feel any different. We just barely got our marriage license in the mail so I haven't been able to change my last name yet. Maybe once I do that it will start feeling more real. The day went by SO fast it is almost like a dream. I barely remember any of it except for the vows. That kind of went in slow motion, in a good sort of way. Once we get the pictures back from the photographer I will post them. I might post the video of the actual ceremony but its really personal so I dont know. I will post pics of our honeymoon (in Alaska) soon as well. Holy cow was it pretty up there!

Also, last time I made a post in here I was less than 5 weeks pregnant. I am now 13 weeks prego tomorrow and already starting to show, which is unfortunate. I took the positive pregnancy test as an excuse to eat anything and everything (hey, I was hungry!) so I gained way too much weight too fast. Now I have to make sure I am only eating whole foods, nothing processed, etc.

Anyway, Ill do a super duper image heavy post this weekend for your viewing pleasure!

4 weeks, 4 days

Today I am 4 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Most people don't even know they are pregnant yet but since we were trying I was peeing on sticks every day until it came up positive using the most sensitive pregnancy tests out there. According to my What To Expect app the baby is the size of an orange seed and still looks a lot like, well, nothing.




As for me, I am really tired all of the time. I am also really, really hungry and am retaining water like no ones business. I was even worried I was already starting to show but then I realized I was just really bloated. I really hope that part goes away soon. This morning I had my first bout of nausea which is a very ominous sign of things to come. I didn't get morning sickness with Avah until 8 weeks and I had it bad.



Justin and I are trying to figure out when to tell our family. It seems strange we have told our friends and not our family, but its very different. We are definitely going to keep it from my family at least until after my sister's wedding on September 4th. I had the idea of announcing it at our wedding rehearsal dinner which will be just the people in the wedding party and our parents, but Justin thinks emotions will already be high and that will send it over the top. I think it would be nice, but I could be wrong.



I will start posting every week on Saturdays and will start to include belly pictures. Our first doctor's appointment is on September 9th and I will make sure I come straight home and post the ultrasound pictures! So exciting!

Me + Massage Heights = GRR!!

I can definitely say that I am noticeably more moody lately. Obviously those are both completely normal symptoms of a pregnancy but its still tough to deal with in a way. Its just like PMS...you know you are being crazy but you cant really help it.

I had to work today and while I was there my mom texted me asking me if I wanted to go get a massage, her treat. I said ok and was totally excited. I started doing a little bit of research on maybe getting a prenatal massage membership and found that some places wont do first trimester massages on completely unfounded myths that they cause miscarriage. I checked out several sources, including the American OB/GYN Society just to make sure. Not to mention I specifically asked my doctor if I could partake in several different spa activities at all stages of pregnancy, specifically massage, and she said absolutely. I also checked the place's website and found they actually offer prenatal massage and the website said nothing about not offering first trimester massage. I was satisfied that I had done my due diligence and that was that.

When we got there and they had us fill out some questionnaires and one of the questions asked if I was pregnant. I answered truthfully and gave back the forms. When the therapist came and got us she said she couldn't give me a massage without a doctors note due to fear of lawsuit. I was absolutely pissed. First off, the idea massage causes miscarriage is a MYTH, secondly its not published anywhere on the website, and third the receptionist said nothing about it when my mom made the appointment. It seriously wasted a good hour of my day and was a huge disappointment. All of that could have been avoided with a simple "We offer only 2nd and 3rd trimester massages" or something like that on their website. Ugh. Idiots.

Needless to say, I did not get my massage. I gave them a piece of my mind in a not so nice way and left. What a letdown.

Avah's First Day of Kindergarten!

My dad came into town the night before Avah's first day of school which resulted in a looong night. For some reason my alarm didn't go off so we ended up waking up a good 45 minutes later than I would have liked. I woke Avah up and got her to breakfast as quickly as possible.

I took several other pictures that were cuter but they all came out blurry because I was rushing around like a mad man.  Avah got dressed and I braided her hair and we were ready! I had to drive the one block to her school because she would have ended up being late if we had walked!

When we got to school she was so excited she was practically running ahead of us.

Any nervousness she had completely went away once we got to the area the kids are dropped off at. She saw the playground and forgot that it was scary to go to Kindergarten. Here the teacher is explaining to her that if she leaves her backpack there to hold her place in line she can go play on the playground until the bell rings. I think those are my sunglasses that got in the way...it was an impromptu photo.

After this conversation Avah took off running towards the playground without a hug or a glance back. I called her back and made her take one more picture.

She gave me a big hug and kiss after that (albeit a very, very distracted hug and kiss) and that was that. No tears, no nothing, all thanks to a couple of swings and a slide.

I cant believe my little one is in elementary! Its insane!!

POSITIVE!!

We did it the very first freaking month!

We are totally having a baby! I am due April 23, 2011 and am about 3 weeks along.

Yay!!

Oh, to be five again

Avah has this incredibly cute habit of randomly saying the funniest things. She is one of those kids that are constantly thinking so a lot of the things she says are out of the blue. Lately, one of her favorite topics are me having a baby. For example, the other day we were sitting on the couch right after we got home. I had just pulled the laptop onto my lap and this is how our conversation went:

Avah - "Mommy? Its ok if you have a baby and it sleeps in my room. Ill even feed it so you dont have to wake up."

Me - (trying not to laugh) "Honey, you wouldnt have to get up with the baby and feed it. You need your sleep. Besides, you can't feed it. The baby drinks milk out of Mommy."

Avah - (completely perplexed and trying to decide if I'm full of crap or not) "How?"

Me - "Out of my boobs."

Avah - (long pause) "Thats nasty!"

Another similar conversation after the first one went something like this:

Avah - "Mommy, you can still have the baby sleep in my room. Its ok. I won't even wake up."

Me - "Yes you will. Babies are very loud."

Avah - "That's ok. Maybe you could just give me a little hug and I'll go back to sleep."

I love how excited she is to have a sibling, but I think its hilarious that shes trying to convince me by saying she will take care of it. Shes making the exact same argument kids do when they want a puppy or a kitty.We aren't really telling her we are actively trying because its SUCH a long process and we don't want her to get to antsy or discouraged. Not only that, I am trying to avoid the questions that come along with telling a kid you are trying to get pregnant! Ha!

ALASKA!

First off, I have to say that Alpine was soo nice and soo relaxing. We took a ton of pictures and I will post them shortly. They are on two different cameras and I am a lazy butt so I'm sorry but you will have to wait.

In other news, Justin and I have decided to bag Costa Rica and go to Alaska instead for our honeymoon! My little sister's husband got super duper sick (he passed out on the plane back to the states) in Costa Rica and with me (hopefully) being pregnant we dont want to take any chances. We are flying into Anchorage (NOT doing a cruise) and will rent a car there. From Anchorage we are going to travel about 40 miles south and stay at the Alyeska Resort, "Where wilderness and luxury meet." Ha! Its a four diamond ski resort but since its going to be the off season we are getting the rooms at an incredible deal. It has about a million different excursions that we can go on and we are ridiculously excited. We plan on trying to see the Northern Lights, go on a few hikes, check out the glaciers, and check out the wildlife conservatory. You can check out the hotel by clicking here.

The Big O

We are in the process of waiting for The Big O...ovulation. I am using OPKs (Ovulation Prediction Kits) that will tell us that ovulation is about to occur anywhere from 12-36 hours before I do. Since we are using the Shettles Method for a boy that is pretty much the only time we will try to conceive. Its a really, really small window so hopefully my grandma's (on both sides) ridiculously fertile genes were passed on to me. My grandma on my mom's side had 5 kids in 5 years and my grandma on my dad's side was much the same. To be honest, I have no idea how many kids she had. I have never met any of my uncles or my aunt but I know that there are lots of boys and only one girl. My mom's side of the family had three boys and two girls. I guess we will have to wait and see.

We are going to Alpine, Arizona on Friday after work for a little bit of rest and relaxation for our birthdays. My grandma (Avah's great-grandma) is going to take her and it will be the first time in years that Avah has been away from me for more than one night. Avah is excited because my grandma has a Wii and she hardly ever gets to play it at our house. She knows she can convince my grandma to do whatever she wants. Every time she goes to anyones house she begs to watch tv and/or play video games because shes lucky if she gets 20 minutes a day at home. Usually its nothing at all. I'm hoping I can relax without worrying or missing Avah too much. I know shes in good hands with my grandma but still...I'm a mom!

I'll be back after the weekend (probably on my birthday!) to post pictures and stuff.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Lana! I don't have any other way to get a hold of you so I figure I'll just post it here. Ha.

Canvas Love and more

We are nearing our 1st anniversary of buying our house and it is still no where near being finished. The downstairs is coming together slowly but surely (in terms of decor) but Avah's room is the only thing that is finished upstairs. I'm pretty sure the master will be the very last thing but that's ok. Anyway, back to the point, there is this website called CanvasLove.com. Its amazing and has pretty great prices. I am going to turn these photos into 8x10 gallery wrapped canvases for the living/dining area:

Ill post the photo of the wall once I get around to ordering them and stuff. I promise.

We are preparing for baby making time. We haven't really decided when we are going to tell anyone yet. My mom knows but that's just because I tell her everything and I always have. Anyway, for now its kind of a secret. I ordered Preseed (based on a raving review from Lana) and an ovulation kit from Amazon the other day and they are here and ready to go. We are going to Alpine next weekend for some us time and for our birthdays (Justin's was on July 19th and mine is August 1st) and we are hoping that will be The Time. We are going to try the Shettles Method to hopefully conceive a boy. It basically uses to the theory that boy sperm swim faster but die sooner and girl sperm swim slower but are more resilient. Wish us luck!

Oh, we got our very first wedding presents this week! The first was a cash gift that was initiated on our very cool registry at Honeyfund.com from my Aunt Tonya and Uncle Ron. The second was a brand new refrigerator from Justin's dad and step mom! Its super neato and it comes on Saturday.

As you can see, its stainless steel and totally awesome. Now we have a cream colored ancient dishwasher that refuses to break so I can get a new one and a disgusting range that will not come clean. I am so happy to have at least one appliance that is new, energy efficient, and that doesn't suck. Yay!

Avah's New Room

When we first moved in to our house (last August) I painted Avah's room a Pepto Bismal pink and put purple polka dot decals up, per her request. Her room is pretty big with 12 foot walls and vaulted ceilings so the pink was pretty overwhelming. It radiated pink into the hall and you almost needed sunglasses to go inside. I kept trying to make it comfortable but nothing I did seemed to help. Then it dawned on me; The pink was the problem. So I asked Avah how she would feel about changing it thinking she would flip out and that would be the end of that, but she was fine with it. As the days went on she got really excited so last week I began the three day process. This is how it turned out:

We are still waiting for some more decals, some wooden letters that are pink and yellow that spell her name and a new ceiling fan to come via Amazon. Over all I am really happy with how it turned out. I got this new edging tool call Shurline and it made the edging so insanely easy. I didn't use ANY tape for the main color because of it and it took me all of 20 minutes to do the edging for the baseboards and the ceiling. Getting up and down the ladder took more time than the actual painting did. It is well worth the $3 or $4 I paid for it.

Now when we go into Avah's room it is so nice and relaxing. I swear she is calmer now and sleeps better too. Its still really girly and cute though.

Oh, and don't mind the mess. I was way to lazy to clean up before I took the pictures!

I'm amazed

When Avah was a baby I didn't even consider going the cloth diaper route. When I thought of cloth diapers I thought of the folding, leaking, pinning, and overall grossness of the original cloth diapers. Lately, though, I've been really interested in learning more about them. I dont know why it didnt occur to me that we would have advanced from the old fashioned cloth diapers around the same time color tvs and computers became the norm.

We have decided to go with the Bumgenius brand of cloth diapers...they look awesome and the reviews are fantastic. Look at this:

Doctors Appointment #1

Today was my preconception doctors appointment. Most it was just me paying the doctor a whole lot of money to answer some questions I had that I could have found on the internet, but at least I got some free prenatal vitamins out of it. Even so, it is nice to hear MY doctor's input. I got some information on the two hospitals the practice uses and which one would be more comfortable for me. With Avah the hospital room was TINY and it was really uncomfortable because of it. Also, I didnt particularly like being treated like I was a sick person. I had just delivered a baby and I'm prrrretty sure people have been doing that for a fairly long time. I know that's kind of what I get for having a baby at a hospital instead of a birthing center, but I want to go to one anyway. The hospital we are choosing is a lot more low key than most and does not handle high risk births. Hopefully we will fall into the "not high risk" category. I still have not decided on the drugs or no drugs piece of it yet. I would really love to do it without them but I still remember very clearly how horrible the pain was so it's hard to say for sure. I do know that I really do not want pitocin and that if I choose to go the drug free route I do not want an IV. I will let them put a port in but I want absolutely nothing hooked up unless I have to go into emergency surgery for an actual emergency, not just because the baby is taking too long for their liking to come.

So I guess this is it. We have about a month left before it will be time and hopefully we dont have to try for very long. I'm not a patient person.

Day One?

The first post of a new blog is always kind of awkward. I have had a total of maybe 3 new blogs in my lifetime, but I can't ever remember them being easy. This is the first blog I have ever had that actually has some sort of purpose, but its still hard to begin.

This blog is really just to chronicle the events of the first few years of me and Justin's marriage. I probably should have started a real blog when we first bought our house and moved in together almost a year ago, but whats done is done. It  would have been nice to be able to read through the pages of that journal and look back on it. Its crazy how easily the little things are forgotten.

Tomorrow is the start so to speak of preparing for the start of a second child. Its the preconception doctors appointment! Its a completely new experience for all of us. Avah was a surprise for me so the whole preparing thing is a completely new side of a pregnancy for me along with everything else that goes along with choosing to have a child with someone I love. Justin has never been around babies before, let alone a pregnancy, so its totally new for him. Avah is the youngest in the family right now so she has never been around them either. Shes been begging for a sibling for as long as I can remember, though, so this will be a very exciting experience for all of us.

I have a lot more to write about, but I think I'll save that for another post. Bye for now!