haircut update

Here's the haircut picture. Hope you enjoy!

I've decided that I don't like doing the preg pics video, because it's too hard to get all the photos to be identical. So I'll just post pictures like the ones following, which will double this week as preg pics and haricut pics.

By the way, I've registered at BabiesRUs now (The link should take you right to our page. But if not, just click on 'Find a Registry' under 'Betsy Kocherhans'). I've told my friend Megan about 17 times already, but I'm just so excited about it! Registering has made everything feel that much more real.

So reminder, here's the before picture:
After:
This was taken last week.
And this was taken today; notice the giant belly.

christmas greetings

I saw this elf video thing on my cousin's blog (thanks, Chrissie!) and I thought it was hilarious. So I filled ours in with me, Brett, Jackie, Joel, and their baby, Blythe. As you can tell from Joel's face, he hates everything fun, including Christmas.

(The picture of him was taken when we were on the beach in Cancun. Who on earth has a grumpy face on the beach in Cancun?!)

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

PS. You can kind of see my haircut in my picture. I am taking a few pictures of my new do before I post it.

music makes me calm

Of course, since I'm supposed to be studying for my final tomorrow, I am easily distracted by pretty much anything. So that's why I've blogged three times this evening. Anyway, I love this video (the song too, but the video is the best part).

mystery cuts

So, I did it. I cut it all off. I haven't taken an "after" picture yet, but I'll post one soon. For now, you can just sit in suspense! Bwah ha ha!

weekly preg pics

Something weird happened with the camera this week to make the picture super bright compared with last week. Oh well. Also, last week seemed like it changed a lot because I was slouching more in that picture. But I'm slouching more because I've got more weight to carry. hee hee. Enjoy the slide show.

preg pics movie

I made a movie today; I've never done it before. Maybe as the weeks go on, I'll even add music or something super neat like that.



For the second picture, I decided to leave my hair down because it's so long right now. And, if I do end up cutting it, then we'll have documentation of how long it was!

Oh, I almost forgot to post this picture of Brett! -hee hee-

music makes life worth living...just like pastries

My Mom posted this video on her blog, and I really enjoyed it...so I'm sharing it with you.

pregnant belly

I figure now that I'm almost 6 months pregnant (a week from today is 6 months, can you believe it?), it's time to post a pregnant belly picture. I got after Jackie so much when she never posted any tummy pictures and I really have been meaning to post pictures of mine, but I haven't. At first I didn't because I was just fat instead of pregnant, and then I kept forgetting. Excuses, excuses. Here it is: 23 weeks pregnant.

babyness

Ethan has started kicking for real in the past 2 weeks. Before it was more like fluttering, but now it's definite kicks and punches and swooshes and flips. I've been trying to see if Brett can feel him from the outside, and finally last night, he felt a big old kick! It was really fun.

We've also made a lot of progress on the house cleaning operation, and so I've been wanting to go look at baby things to get an idea of what we might want. We went to BabiesRUs over the weekend and totally found the most awesome hoodie...we couldn't let it pass. I have a rule about not buying any baby clothes, because I know that people give you so much stuff at showers, etc, but this was too much to pass up. And there was only one left on the shelf!


Brett and I have been bummed about the baby boy clothing situation. Girls have so many cute things and boys have so many lame things to wear. I think it will definitely be harder to dress Ethan in a non-annoying way, but with sweaters like this one, I know it's possible. We don't have to paste our child with footballs and basketballs, when there are clothes that have race cars and guitars on them.

video from the past

Check this out. Good times.

The blog will be a good one to watch, because my mother is an excellent writer and the pictures will be magnificent. We are planning to go with them to England in 2011.

Proposition 8

Typically, I avoid politics. I feel that there is never really anything I can accomplish by getting involved, because I feel that our elected officials will always just do whatever they want regardless of how the people feel. I feel hopeless and powerless when I am aware of something that needs to change because I believe that my voice is not heard.

However. I do have a voice in my own small circle of friends. I can speak out with my own opinion in matters that are important to me.

Please read these comments by my mother. And these by my friend. And these by my brother. They are three people that I admire most in my life and they explain how I feel eloquently. I am sorry for the hatred and fear that people in my church express regarding this issue. I am sorry for the civil rights that are taken away without any thought about the real human beings this affects. This is truly something that will end up affecting all of us.

the pregnant princess and the pea

I'm basically the most impatient person I know--on a normal day, this isn't just because of the pregnancy. (hee hee.) There are many things that really irritate me , but when I react to them, I feel like I'm 2 people. One of these people is reacting to a small problem like a crazy person. The other is the one that is actually me, and that one is observing the actions of this strange crazy person inhabiting my body. Observing, but unable to interfere.

(I don't think I'm overreacting to my work situation, because all the interpreters at the U are feeling the same way right now. But I do agree with Kelli; I need to stop and take a breath and regain my composure about the entire situation. Because I am in control, not my boss. She can't have control over me.)

Over the past few weeks, maybe a month or so, all of my senses have become heightened. My skin is super sensitive, so that anything remotely scratchy hurts a lot. I love to go an touch the baby stuff in stores, because they are much softer than regular stuff. My eyes have changed in very strange ways: my vision is more blurry while at the same time, lights and strong colors hurt to look at. But I can see the colors in the trees and the beautiful clouds and mountains from the view on campus. I can now smell everything more acutely, from the boy that doesn't shower, to the smelly feet of the girl sitting across the room. I can also smell good things better, however, and I can tell from the other end of the house that Brett just ate something sweet and so I have to go eat some too (because I'm all about the sugar right now). My taster has changed as well, but I can't think of anything specific, except the sugar cravings.

My friend Megan told me last night (while I was venting to her about my boss), that the yoga instructor from class yesterday told her that today is the first day of some new year (that I can't remember, but I think it was Mayan). She said that the past year has been bad, we've been in bad energy for a year, and that the new year is going to be better. (That is applicable in many ways right now, one big way I can think of is our recent election.) Although I don't tend to get very mystical personally, I always like the idea of a fresh start. And I feel a fresh start today. I am in control of my own life and no one else can take that from me. I will better understand my boundaries and limitations and do what is best for myself and my family. And I plan to look for joy and beauty in my life rather than stress and fear (and clutter, for those of you that have seen my house).

work...bah

I am so stressed out about my job right now that I can't do anything else. I can't think about anything else. I am trying my best to help achieve solutions for the problems we are having and I feel like I'm hitting wall after wall after wall.

Typically, when a job gets to this point for me, I quit. Interpreting has never felt like that to me before. I am so stressed and tired from work every day that I can't do anything else. And that makes me angry.

IMPORTANT NEWS!!!

Our lives have now changed forever. Jackie had her baby!

(Click on the previous sentence to view their blog!)

cleaning

Some of my friends and family may know that we have been trying to organize our house for some time now. It seems that every step we take towards getting rid of junk causes our house to look more and more like a tornado hit it. But now, at last, the reclaiming has begun!!

It is very nice to have little spurts of energy now, rather than being completely exhausted all the time. (Because of the small creature that's in my uterus right now, remember?) Now I'm just completely exhausted most of the time. But if I really put my mind to it, I can do one thing per day. Yesterday, I met with my boss for an hour and a half--I was useless for the remainder of the day. Today, I unexpectedly had the morning off, so I slept for 12 hours, showered, ate breakfast/lunch (while I blogged) and now I'm going to clean the upstairs bathroom.

The kitchen and the downstairs bathroom are already clean and I am finally reclaiming my house, one room at a time. The goal is to have the house clean before the baby is born (March 29). Honestly, in the state that Brett and I are in right now--graduate school, engineering degrees, baby coming, both working, stress at my job, etc ,etc--that goal isn't shooting low. I will not be surprised if it actually takes us until March to be able to find our couch again. -sigh-

I'm debating whether or not to put up that baby countdown thingy that everyone has on their blogs. Maybe I should spruce up the old blog a bit with some of those extra features. I'll think about it. It does make it nice to look at Kelli or Jackie's blogs to see how far along they are. By the way, Jackie is due in 2 DAYS!! Yikes! It's going to be so weird to Skype with them and have a little baby screaming in the background. I may accidentally pee myself with fright for them (and us).

Navy Arlington Ladies

Laurel emailed me to let me know the reason why she was able to take us into Arlington Cemetery. I said before that it was because she was a Captain in the Navy, but that was wrong. She said it's because she is a member of the Navy Arlington Ladies (along with Brett's other aunt Marty). This association was established with the intent of the ladies attending veteran funerals, to make sure that no veteran is buried alone. The Ladies attend the funerals to make sure that someone is there to show the proper respect for the said veteran. Which is really neat. I think that is a great organization of which to be a part.

news: good and bad

My professor recently told me that it is good business sense to always start off with the bad news, so I'm going to do just that.

Brett hurt his back about 2 months ago, while we were trying to move stuff around in the basement. We've been trying to organize the basement since we first moved in. Really the problem is that we just have too much sh---tuff. So, we were moving stuff around in the basement, which was pretty cluttered to begin with and Brett, walking backward, tripped on a pile of mic cables and fell onto a stool. The stool hit him in the middle of his back, which hurt him pretty badly. He had to lie on the floor for some time before he could move again.

He went to the lovely student clinic that we have to go to now that we are on the student insurance, and the lady told him "I'm not giving you any narcotics." in a very grumpy and unprofessional way. She then proceeded to tell him that his blood pressure was too low for her to believe that he was really in any pain, and that she wasn't even going to do a range of motion test on his back (to see if he hurt anything) because "you can't hurt your back with blunt trauma; it has to be twisting." Duh. So two months later, Brett was still hurting and still not feeling better after several more doctor's visits and a lot of yoga and massage.

Finally, he got in with a competent doctor at the student clinic, who took x-rays of his back and sent him to the hospital for an MRI...where they found that he had knocked his L5 vertebrae forward and they were all surprised that he was walking around. They told him that because of the yoga and the physical integration massage he was doing, he was apparently still able to walk around without severe amounts of pain. It's so frustrating that he has been in so much pain the past few months, but I'm happy that he persevered with the stupid doctors and that he is able to understand his own body that well.

Well, that's our sucky news. But...are you ready for the good news??? I'm not sure if I'm ready to make the big announcement.

Brett and I are going to have a baby! We went to our ultrasound today and found out we are going to have a baby boy. I am currently four and a half months along (18 weeks), with a due date of March 29. The baby is measuring pretty much exactly on with that due date. It's funny, but now that I'm actually spreading the word over The Internet, I feel like I don't have much to say. Oh, and we are naming him Ethan Charles Kocherhans.

Ultrasound pictures aren't very clear, but maybe if I give a description, you can see what I'm talking about. This first picture is the foot. You can see the toe bones and the ball of the foot clearly (in brighter white), while the heel is more shady. The toes are pointing to the left.
Here is the arm, with the hand on the left side, the bent elbow, and the upper arm running down vertical. Brett claims that he saw little Ethan practicing raising and lowering his middle finger, so that when he pops out he will be ready to flip everyone off.
Here is a fun shot of the lower legs and feet. He's got his little ankles crossed and you can see the knees and feet on either end of his shins. (I think) those are his hands resting on top of the knees, and his head farther to the left. But I'm no ultrasound technician.
And this last one is the face shot, which always freaks me out. On our plane ride to DC, we watched the old Terminator movie, and you know the part when Arnold gets his eye ripped out (or shot out or something I can't remember), and so he has just this gaping hole for an eye that pulses red? That's what this kid totally reminds me of in this picture. You can see his one big Terminator eye, and then the rest of his face is pretty blurry.
My favorite thing, (but I didn't have the presence of mind to ask for a picture of it because I had to pee so badly since they ask you to go in with a "full bladder") was we saw a clear shot of Ethan's little shoulder blade. It was so tiny and totally attached to his tiny little arm and I loved that.

They told me to have a "full bladder" for my ultrasound, so I drank quite a bit of water before going in. I was also told that it would take about a half hour, so I wasn't too concerned that I had to pee to begin with. However, I think our technician was new or something, because we were there for over 2 hours! After about an hour, I was about to die from bladder explosion. The technician scanned over to my bladder and said, "Oh, your bladder is bigger than your uterus. I think I'm going to let you go to the bathroom and then we can finish up." Relief to me, but then she kept looking at stuff and taking more pictures and then finally I was squirming enough that she let me go to the bathroom. Yikes!

Basically, I was less freaked out by this whole experience than I thought I would be. I have always been pretty nervous about a little parasite that leeches off my resources and that my body tries to reject by barfing it out for 4 months straight. That doesn't seem natural to me. However, as I am currently in the process, it feels more and more natural the farther along I get. I guess Ethan is not only a parasite, he's a smart parasite, and has brainwashed me into thinking that this is actually a good thing for me and my body.

Well, I guess I had quite a bit to say after all. And more to come, you can count on it!

dc the second

On Tuesday, Lynn and Laurel took us downtown again, this time on the Metro--so they could show us how it worked. I really liked the way the metro stations looked. They are all the same and feel very 1984 to me.
We walked by the White House...
...and actually saw one of the guards on the roof! I think they are supposed to remain unobserved, but we found one! You can see his head popping up to the left of the flag pole.
And, cruising in front of the White House, we saw another Segway gang! I really think they are organized and getting ready to take over the world. We see those Segway gang members on all our trips.
After we saw the White House, we headed down Pennsylvania Ave toward the Old Post Office. On the way, we cut through an old hotel (that I can't remember the name of) where all the politicians and famous people would stay when they came to Washington. People wanting the ear of some politician would wait in the lobby of this hotel for them to come out of their rooms, and that is how the term "lobbyist" came about.

You can see the tower of the post office behind Brett, and then the Capitol Building farther away.
We went to the top of the tower and saw the bells and the view. I think my favorite skyline is DC's skyline. I love how all the buildings are relatively low, so that the monuments remain above everything else.

After the Post Office, we went to the Natural History Museum, which was awesome. I love museums.

On Wednesday, Laurel drove us to the Arlington Cemetery. She has a pass, since she was a Captain in the Navy (at least I think that's why), so we could drive into the cemetery. Typically, visitors have to park at the bottom and walk all around the huge cemetery, so it was very nice that we had a ride. The cemetery is beautiful and stunning.

We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I enjoyed that, and took tons of pictures, but they really all ended up looking the same, since they mostly just walk back and forth in a line.
Here's a nice picture of the Pentagon that I got from Arlington Cemetery.
And the beautiful DC skyline from the front porch of the Lee House, which is inside the cemetery.
Once we finished walking around and seeing the cemetery, we headed to Mt. Vernon. On our way, we were looking for lunch and saw a Five Guys! Brett's cousins used to take him to Five Guys when he came out to visit before, and he really liked it. Also, they just built a Five Guys in Salt Lake. Lunch was very good, and I would recommend anyone that likes burgers and fries to try the one nearest to them. I even liked the burger and I don't typically do hamburgers. Just a warning, though, one order of fries is plenty for at least 2 people. Some of you could probably stretch it to 4 people. They pretty much just give you a brown lunch bag full of fries.
After lunch we made it to Mt. Vernon. Brett and I have always thought we wanted a smallish house, just enough to suit our needs. When we were looking at the Lee House, I decided I needed a house at least as big as the Lee House. And then once we got to Mt. Vernon, I changed my mind again and now I won't settle for anything less than Mt. Vernon (grounds included).
Most of my tree pictures from my earlier post were taken on Mt. Vernon grounds. Beautiful.

We went to the Mt. Vernon museum as well, and saw many interesting things, including wax figures of George Washington at various ages in his life. They figured out what he looked like based on his clothes and dentures and all kinds of other interesting evidence like that.

They even had Washington's dentures (not made of wood) on display, along with this lovely sign that I got a huge kick out of.
On our way back, we drove through Alexandria and by Washington's old town home. Very neat.
On Thursday, Brett and I went off on our own to see Gallaudet University, which is a Deaf Liberal Arts University.
Here's Brett with the statue of Gallaudet and Alice.
We got to the Visitor's Center just in time to join a walking tour of the campus. It was all signed, so I interpreted for Brett. Brett is taking a beginning ASL class right now at school, and he said he understood a lot of what was said (which is so cool to me!). That weekend ended up being Homecoming, so there was a big group of alumni on the tour as well. They all graduated from Gallaudet in 1958. It was fun to watch them chatting about how things used to be when they lived on campus. The guy in the blue shirt was our guide. He was very nice. Gallaudet campus is beautiful as well; we enjoyed wandering and seeing all the old buildings. These rocks are built in the shape of a big "G". Brett is showing the ASL handshape for "G" as well.
After Gallaudet, we went to find a little hole in the wall Guitar shop. Just because we always have to see the guitar shops.

Once we had our fill at the shop, we walked down to the Portrait Gallery and saw all the portraits of the US presidents and a bunch of other famous people (Ben Franklin, Joseph Smith, Queen Elizabeth I, etc.).

In the middle of the Portrait Gallery, they have a beautiful covered courtyard. They had a jazz trio playing music for people that wanted to stop in, either for the museum or for the cafe.
On Friday, we went to the Holocaust Museum, which was impressive and educational and sad.

We then went to the Air and Space museum, where Brett walked around looking at all the planes and spaceships, etc and I walked around looking for the nearest bench to sit on. I was tired and mostly ready to go home to Salt Lake by then.

After we left the Air and Space museum, we walked (a very short way) toward the Capitol to take a last picture. It got cold on Friday, but Brett left his jacket home and was very cold all day. You can tell by his cold face in this picture.

Our trip to DC was super awesome and fun. I've always wanted to live in DC, and so I was visiting to see how well we'd like living there as well. I like DC as well as Chicago, but I'm still liking Salt Lake quite a bit right now. We've still got three years of school left, so we'll be here at least that long, but who knows what we'll do after that! Probably move to Chile.

done enough for DC

I finished all of the paper except for the dumb financial data that I just need to pull out of you-know-where anyway, so I think I deserve a blogging break. Especially since Brett is going to help me with making up the financials (since it relates to costs of computer storage, etc that he knows quite a lot about) and he is taking a nap right now.

(This post has taken me a long time to put together, and I think I'm going to separate it out over a few posts. So when I started writing the blog, Brett was napping and I had just finished the paper, but it's been a few days since then.)

So, DC. It was a wonderful trip. Typically, I prefer trips that include beaches and sleeping and a whole lot of lying around. However, the trip to DC included a nice combination of sleeping and site-seeing. The weather was beautiful. When we left Salt Lake, it was getting ready to snow and the clouds were covering the mountains. But the weather in DC all week was around 80 degrees and sunny. We didn't wear our jackets until the last day!

We stayed with Brett's uncle Lynn and his wife, Laurel. They were so great to stay with: we didn't need to rent a car because they drove us anyplace that wasn't accessible by Metro, they allowed us to sleep in every day, they allowed us to eat at their home and even cooked for us every night! I haven't looked at all the receipts yet, but I think we spent less than $200 on that trip (especially since our plane tickets were free because of a promotion from our cell phone company)!

We arrived Saturday evening, and so had a nice dinner with Laurel (because Lynn was out playing in a golfing tournament) and then watched a Hitchcock movie, Rebecca. I recommend that one; it was very interesting. The next day, Sunday, we slept (quite) in and then headed off to visit another set of Brett's aunt and uncles, Mark and Marty. Fortunately for us, their son Andrew and his wife Jill and baby Aiden were visiting the family too, so we got to see them! We haven't seen Andrew and Jillian since before she was pregnant with Aiden, so that was really nice.

Well on to the pictures! That's really the best part about any blog, right? On Monday, Lynn and Laurel took us down to the Mall to walk around and see all the monuments. Lynn's car was extremely fancy and Brett spent any time in the car asking Lynn about all the features he has. Here is my favorite feature, called a little coke fridge in the back seat.
We went to the Marine Memorial first, although it's not on the Mall, it was on the way. In the picture are Lynn, Brett, and Laurel (from left to right). I think you can really tell that Brett and Lynn are related, just by their stance.
Then we went to the monument for Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who happens to be my favorite president. This ended up being my favorite monument as well, it was so beautiful with all the fountains and the trees. Following is one of the quotes that was inscribed on the rocks in the monument. I think if you click on it to blow the picture up, you should be able to read it all.
Brett is in this picture, along with another quote that I hope you can read. If it ends up that the words don't show up, maybe I'll post the quotes as a comment.
Here's another quote I liked from FDR.
After we spent some time at the FDR memorial, we started to walk around the Tidal Basin toward the Jefferson Monument. I got some great pictures of the monuments reflecting in the water. Here is the Washington Monument for a couple of pictures.

And the Jefferson Memorial.
I really enjoyed this quote from Jefferson, in came in the middle of a big long quote that ran all the way down the wall, so I cropped the picture so you could see what I thought was the most interesting. I tremble for a lot of things/people/myself when I reflect that God is just.
Once we walked around to the other side of Tidal Basin, we stopped to get some lunch at one of the vendors along the walkway. It was the last day of the season, so they didn't have anything that we wanted to eat. We ended up getting some hot dogs. Surprising enough, although I do like hot dogs, I've never dared eat one from a cart before. It was an interesting experience that I'm not sure I ever need to repeat.

Once we had our lunch, we headed over to the Washington Monument.
Here's the view of the White House from the Washington Monument.
And this is looking toward the Lincoln Memorial from the Washington (and Brett, of course). I'm switching between calling them all Monuments or Memorials, because I don't know which is correct. Maybe both.
We stopped and saw the World War II Memorial, which was very nice.
Here is yet another quote from FDR, this time saying how honorable women are. This was inside the WWII Memorial.
This is the Women's Memorial for the Vietnam War. It might also be called the Nurses Memorial.
And Brett at the Vietnam Memorial.
Then we made it to the Lincoln Monument. I've heard the story about the sculptor or whomever had the final say, shaping Lincoln's hands into ASL letters "A" for the left hand and "L" for the right, for "A"braham "L"incoln. (They told us the same story when we visited Gallaudet.) Does anyone know that story and if there's any truth to it? I can see the "A" and the "L", but I'm wondering if people applied that story after the fact.
After the Lincoln Monument, we stopped at the Korean War Memorial. I liked this memorial a lot too; it was interesting.
We were pretty exhausted by the end of our trek. Lynn drove us by the Pentagon, where he used to work (he actually worked there when the building was hit on September 11). I didn't get a good picture of the building that day, but I have one later. We also drove by the Air Force Memorial. This was a cool looking memorial as well.
So ended our Monday excursions.

I'll post the second half of the blog tomorrow.