October Trip to Utah!

I was able to visit Utah for a few days the last week in October. The main reason for my visit is that my friend Paul Abegg invited me to come and solo with the Dixie State College Orchestra, which he conducts. I managed to come out a little early and spend ONE WHOLE DAY with my family! Totally worth it...I wish it could have been for longer. Of course, Greg had to work and couldn't come.

It's always been my dream to be pregnant the same time as my sisters. Here Lea is on her last, her 4th boy, due Dec. 20th. I just barely made it!

My nephews!!!!

Lea's Family

Brian's Family

I was lucky to be able to see my dad's concert with the BYU Symphonic Band the one day I was in town, and I was so excited when Geralyn, my oboe professor from my undergrad days at BYU, was at the concert too!

Snow Canyon in St. George, UT. I'm 20 weeks pregnant in this picture.

My parents drove me to St. George and hung out with me all weekend! I'm so glad we were able to spend time together. And man, the weather in St. George was BEAUTIFUL that weekend. It made me miss the Arizona desert.

Beautiful Snow Canyon (named after Lorenzo Snow, not because it ever snows here)

Paul and I performing the Bach Violin and Oboe Concerto with the Dixie State College Orchestra. I had some close-ups, but it turns out that being 20-weeks pregnant and playing the oboe is not a good combination!

Flat Stanley

Some of you may be familiar with the children's book "Flat Stanley". I however was not, and so I was surprised when I received a letter in the mail from my 6-yr-old nephew Cole asking me to show Flat Stanley around Atlanta, GA. I, being an over-achiever, did much more than that. I took Flat Stanley on a tour of Georgia AND Tennessee, and then flew across the country with him to Utah. I was determined that our Flat Stanley would get the most pins on the map!

Here I am teaching Flat Stanley an oboe lesson. He even got his own oboe to keep!

And through a random series of events, my student Carolyn accidentally picked up the copy of my music that had Flat Stanley in it for her Senior Recital. Imagine her surprise when she came out to play the second piece on her recital, opened the music, and found a Flat Stanley paperdoll with a paper oboe in his hand! Yeah, she cracked up. And if you look at the top left of the stand, you will see Flat Stanley's hand poking out. Yep...he was waving at the audience the ENTIRE time!

In addition to driving the golfcart, and attending a circus in TN, and going to the Oak Ridge Science Museum and buying Cole's class pencils that change colors, he also got his own plane seat on our trip out to UT!

Ultrasound Pictures

Looking between her legs (which by the way, she did not like). Definitely a girl.

Her little foot

She looks just like me when I was her age!

It's a....

GIRL!

To be honest, I was kind of expecting a girl. I don't know why, and I don't know if I would even call it a "feeling". I think it's probably because Ella and Maiya lived with us for 4 months and we got used to having little girls in the house.

We are SUPER excited! I've told Greg I'm going to start toughening him up, because I know he is just going to be a big sucker for this little girl and she's going to wrap him around her little finger, just like Ella did!

Everything on the ultrasound looked fabulous. Baby is right on schedule, and is already sucking away at her hands. I was a finger sucker, so I'm guessing she's sucking her fingers and not her thumb. She was very lazy this morning, hardly moving at all. The ultrasound technician kept bouncing my belly to get her to move, but it didn't really work. She obviously couldn't be bothered to accommodate our ultrasound. (I'm thinking she takes after Greg.) They were able to get two very clear pictures of the gender, so they are very certain in their announcement that it's a girl.

The doctor says my placenta is low-lying, but should move as I get bigger. He also said my uterus is tipped forward which makes it difficult to feel the baby move. I guess that's why I haven't felt much movement. On Sunday I felt my first flutters, but it was after I VIOLENTLY sneezed. For anybody who has heard me sneeze, you know that it really does scare small children...in this case, a very, very small child.

No, we haven't thought of any names yet. I might have been able to come up with a few boy names, but when it comes to girl names I am at a complete and utter loss. My student told me yesterday that 51% of parents have name regret after naming their child. So much pressure!

By the way, I was voting it was a girl, and Greg was voting it was a boy, and the loser had to buy the winner cheese fries at Outback. We plan all our bets this way so that either way we get cheese fries.

Looks like it's Outback tonight!

Jamming with Stevie Wonder...yes, in person

Yes, it's true...I jammed with Stevie Wonder.

No, really, I did. Look at the pictures. That's Stevie Wonder sitting at the piano with the sunglasses!

I played with the Atlanta Symphony on Sunday for the 90th birthday part of Reverend Lowery. Look him up if you don't recognize his name - MLK's right-hand man in the Civil Rights movement, an amazing man who has literally changed our country.

It was a 4-hour birthday extravaganza!

Also sharing the stage with me and Stevie Wonder were the Attorney General of the United States, Pres. Obama's personal assistant, Soledad O'Brien from CNN, Al Sharpton, Andrew Young, and Martin Luther King III to name a few.

And yes, of course we played "Sir Duke!" It was AWESOME!

Glamping

Definition of Glamping: Glamorous Camping

Necessities: Oversized tents

with air mattresses

An awesome cook stove with taco soup for dinner

And not pictured: flushing toilets, bugless restrooms, and showers

A supposed 8-man raft that only fit 4 adults, a two-year-old, and a cooler very tightly

Bonus: Chattachoochee River Access

Awesome friends who have all the necessary Glamping Equipment -- Mark, Nicole and little Anna

And a camp site that is just outside of Newnan: Chattachoochee Bend

We highly recommend it!

Update

For my family who doesn't live close to me....16 weeks!