Mannings on the Move

This is a view of the freeway on a typical snowy day during the morning commute. However, there was nothing typical about our commute this morning. I mean, people were for the most part making intelligent decisions! People were driving a reasonable speed for a snowy morning, they were keeping a safe distance between cars and all in all, things were going very well! I couldn't have been happier with this morning's commute. Keep it up, Utah Valley drivers! And I'm very happy that it is snowing! We could really use the precipitation (I don't like the word moisture very much) and it's just not Christmas without a beautiful blanket of snow.

This has been a pretty eventful day! I was at work today when Chris called and told me he was on his way to the doctor. He ended up breaking his finger playing touch football at work. He's in pain, but he's fine. We went to the hospital this afternoon, and had an ultrasound of our baby! We are having a baby GIRL! I am so excited! I would have been happy either way, but a little girl will be so fun! She'll be able to have princess parties with all of her cousins. I just wanted to let you all know! It has been an exciting day for us! Have fun, and thanks for reading!

I think I've had a rash of lazy posts lately, and this is one more of them. I saw this on SNL this weekend and thought it was hilarious! Kristin hasn't seen it yet since she was asleep beside me (cute, exhausted pregnant wife). Sometimes you've got to wonder about the sensationalist journalists like those on Dateline. In other news, we find out the gender of our baby tomorrow! We are so excited!

The Academy of Choke Artists is pleased to present BYU #15 Max Hall with the Biggest Choke Award for the 2008 season. Hall threw 5 interceptions, had 6 passes swatted down, and who knows how many hurries. The Academy credits Hall with the Cougars' loss.

I just wanted everyone to know that I am fair in my political views, and although I am very passionate and decided in my political views, I can also look at the politicians that I disagree with and see them as human beings. I was very impressed with this video of Sarah Palin. I think that she speaks very honestly and openly in her home with CNN, and sheds the thick fascade that she wore during the election. I just wish that all politicians could speak honestly and without spin all the time.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs, failblog.org, when I noticed this advertisement.

Here's the description beneath the image:

GIANT Gummy Bears on a Stick are equal to 88 regular-sized gummy bears! These deliciously large gummies are handmade in the US.

GROSS! Why would anyone want a gummy bear that big?

The BYU Cougars are making the 45 minute trek from LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo to Rice-Eccels Stadium in Salt Lake this saturday to face The University of Utah's Running Utes. The Cougars head into this game with only one devastating loss against TCU and some injuries in the secondary, as well as a possibly injured Tight End, Dennis Pitta, whereas Utah heads into the game with an unblemished record and a healthy team. Us Cougar fans have faced tough odds and beat them before, and I have no reason to think that this year will be any different!

This is so cool! A classmate showed me these images that looked like they were macros (extreme close ups) of little model towns. He then showed me time lapse photography of one of these models moving. The video below is of a beach scene. But here's the trick: they're not models. These are real people on a real beach! Tilt-shift uses a special lens that severely limits the depth of field of an image, making it look like the subject of the photo is a macro scene. Here is the Wikipedia entry on tilt-shift photography.

I knew that with the amount of people that have already told us face-to-face what they think we're having, that the results couldn't have been that lopsided. The culprit confessed last night via text message. I respect the culprit too much to out them publicly. If he/she wishes to comment on his/her escapades, he/she can do so here, but this is the last I shall speak of it. The culprit, after seeing that there were only four votes for girl, decided it would be funny to make girl reach 1000 votes, which would have really scared us and made us privatize our blog if it actually did reach over 1000 votes. But it was all in good fun. But the culprit did apologize for ruining the fun. That was not his/her intentions. It is now just a week until we go in for the ultrasound. We are so excited! This is like Christmas, only we're even more anxious! We're like children on Christmas Eve. Kristin's little belly is really starting to poke out (I'll post pictures soon). We really couldn't be happier right now. Life is good.

Well, someone had definitely found a way to manipulate the poll. In an hour, it jumped 50 votes for girl, and 0 votes for boy. So, if you want to make a guess, leave a comment or email one of us, because I have removed the poll at Kristin's request. But we still want to know what you guys think! So please comment!

I seriously can't believe that over 200 people have viewed our blog, let alone voted in our poll. That's more than 50% of the friends I have on Facebook—which would account for 99% of those that could know about our blog. If you have voted more than once, fess up. We're just kind of shocked by the numbers and want to know if any of you are just trying to skew the numbers for your own pleasure.

Kristin is going in for her ultrasound appointment on November 25. We want to make sure that everyone that wants to can get their guess in before we find out. I'm putting a poll up here in a moment, so please, put in your guess and leave a comment if you'd like!

Cool! I've never been tagged before. And, despite Kristin asking me to do the 4-4-4 that Andrea tagged her in, I am going to let her do that one, since I wasn't tagged in that one. However, I was specifically mentioned in this tag, so here we go.

For the past several months, I've had a little lump on my back that has gotten larger. For a couple months, Kristin has told me that I need to have it looked at, but between work and school, I don't have much time as it is, so I put it off. Last week, though, it started to become tender, so I thought I'd better go get it checked out. I went in for my appointment today, thinking that they might schedule a time to have it removed, but to my surprise, the physician's assistant told me that the cyst that I had could easily become infected, and that she would like to remove it right then. She had me lay down on the table, told me I'd feel a small poke, (I didn't) and then she started cutting. I didn't feel a thing! In just a couple minutes, she had me stitched up and on my way. So, it was no big deal! But I was a bit nervous during it, because usually, if someone is going to have surgery, they have a few days, weeks or months to prepare themselves for it. So, that's my crazy experience of the day.

Seeing what has been happening with the economy lately has been unnerving and a little scary. Because of the turmoil and uncertainty in the world around us, I was greatly looking forward to General Conference this past weekend. One theme that I heard repeated several times was the theme of enjoying the journey and finding joy in the little things of life. If our economic struggles continue and worsen, that will be more important than ever, because there may not be as much money to go around, so we'll have to do without our entertainment money, which will mean more time making our own fun as families and friends, which means more memories, more laughter and more joy and happiness. Whoever said "I want money" was very fundamentally screwed up. I want to talk about some of the simple things that I enjoyed this weekend.

• Watching Josie do her excited dance.
• Helping Josie brush her teeth even though it was really hard. It was just so funny!
• Spending Friday evening with Matt and the girls while Kristin slept on the Love Sac at the Higley's.
• Talking with my dad and Kevin after Priesthood Session.
• Making breakfast on Sunday morning with Kristin for Richard Low's birthday.
• Playing Settlers of Catan with Kristin, Richard and Kristine (and not just because I won for the first time ever!)
• Participating in my cousin, Brian's baby, Hannah's, blessing.
• Spending time with Brian, Kambree, Willie and Amanda after everyone else had left.

Sometimes, it's good as was repeated so many times during conference to remember how blessed we are. There are so many simple things that go on in our lives that we can be thankful for. Now, if I could just remember to take pictures...

I went to my 12 week appointment today, and met the doctor. He's such a nice guy. We also got to hear our baby's heartbeat! It was so exciting! It made this whole thing so real to us! The nurse said we have a stubborn baby already. She would put the doppler in one spot, and we could hear it really well, and then the next second it would be gone. The baby kept moving! Hopefully we'll have a really active baby! I just want to say how blessed I am to have the husband I have! Chris is so good to me. He really takes care of all of my needs, and it's been happening ever since we started dating! He's the best! Chris, you rock! I promise to get on here and write more. I'm still trying to get into this blog thing, but I'll try to do better! Thank you all for reading this!

This is Benton Paul performing At the Bottom.

On Saturday, my best friend in the whole-wide world(apart from my beautiful, sweet, wonderful wife), Richard Low, called and I could tell that he was happy. I was pretty sure I knew what he was so happy about, but I let him share it without interrupting. He told me that he had just gotten engaged to his awesome girlfriend, Kristine Kirkeiner. I don't know the date yet. Hopefully I can get Richard to add a comment and tell me when they're tying the knot.

Next Friday (September 26th) at Thanksgiving Point, Kalai is playing with the very talented Benton Paul; a local musician who Kristin and I became acquainted with at a show he performed at Tahitian Noni. Our friends Mikey and Karie Peterson invited us to go, and we sure were glad we did. Benton's music is very original and can go from poppy to soulful. He puts a lot of emotion into his music, and you can tell he loves to perform. If you want an evening of good, mellow music; if you want to just lie next to your special someone and sip some hot cocoa; if you want to discover some great musicians that you may not be familiar with, then this is the concert for you. Kristin and I are going with my brother Kevin and a date; as well as my best buddy Richard Low and his girlfriend, Kristine Kirkeiner. We're planning on having a blast! We hope to be able to share this experience with more of you! To get the best price, go get your tickets at the Thanksgiving Point box office!

A couple days ago, the "Maintenance Required" light came on in our car and stayed on. This didn't worry me too much because the car felt like it was running fine, but I wanted to go in and get the car checked out soon to prevent any bigger problems. Money has been on my mind a lot more recently because we have a baby on the way, and from what I've heard, they aren't cheap! That's why I took the car to AAMCO because they offer a free computer diagnostic. Well, they were quickly able to tell me that it was a simple service reminder, but while they were at it, they checked the transmission fluid, which was filthy, and gunk was building up on the transmission magnet which helps keep the transmission clean. So I agreed to have the transmission fluid flushed and replaced. I walked out of there only 20 minutes later, feeling relieved and blessed. It wasn't very expensive, and if I keep on top of the transmission, having it serviced every year, this car will last us a long time. The car is paid for, so keeping it running well will provide us with a lot of value, which will mean that we can provide even more for our little one on the way. Life is good.

Last night there was a girls night out with my mom's side of the family (grandma, aunts, sisters, my mom, and a cousin!). Anyway we went and saw Mamma Mia the sing-along version. The movie isn't that great, but the sing-along was fun! Haha! After the movie we went and got shakes. My sis Andrea helped me become the center of attention, which I hated. That was when I told everyone there that I'm pregnant! It was like a wave of Woohoos. It was pretty funny. This morning Chris decided we should tell everyone else. So here we are. I am feeling pretty good most of the time. I have good days and bad days though. It's a packaged deal though, and it's worth it for the end result. I'm 9 1/2 weeks along. I'm due on April 11th. Thank you all for your congratulations and support! We'll definitely keep you posted!

Today was Kristin's first appointment with the OBGYN. It basically consisted of collecting medical histories, answering questions and doing some blood work. Kristin hasn't had the best experiences with needles, so she was understandably nervous. But she handled it like a pro! We'll find out soon how much we owe (I had no idea how expensive it is!) and what Kristin's blood type is. Luckily, I'm O-, so regardless of what her blood type is, she won't have to get shots. The reason that I waited to post this is it took us a couple days to decide we wanted to announce Kristin's pregnancy. But this is it! We are officially announcing that we are expecting a baby!