Adventures with Marah--The Finale

The grand finale of Marah's vacation here was our day trip to NYC. We're 3 hours away, which is definitely do-able, but not particularly enjoyable (especially for 6 months pregnant girls). We parked in Newark and then rode the subway to the WTC station, which threw us off conveniently close to where the ferry takes off.

In my pregnancy-induced stupidity haze, I failed to realize that the Statue of Liberty Ferry and the Stanton Island Ferry do NOT leave from the same spot. It was pure luck that Jon spotted the terminal as we were booking it away from the 6 hour line to get on the Statue Ferry. The Stanton Ferry may not take you directly to the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island, but a 15 minute wait and free ride DEFINITELY trumps a 6 hour wait and $15/person. So Marah got to see the Statue of Liberty from a distance, but she saw it and that's what counts. And I was really ticked off when they made us all exit the ferry at Stanton Island so we could go stand in line to get on again. Grrr...

Jon had this fabulous plan for our trip--he had every subway station labeled on the map and a note telling us which train to take where. So, of course, NYC had to complicate things by closing half the stations in lower Manhattan and taking the 1 train off the tracks for repairs. Luckily we figured things out fairly quickly and were able to get everywhere we needed to go.

Our next stop was Chelsea Market, which is my favorite place in NYC besides Central Park. Thank you, Daniel & Wendy, for introducing us to this place. It has all these fabulous little stores that we never have time to go into, but I always want to. I don't even like chocolate, but the brownie smell coming from one particular shop almost makes me forget. We grabbed some surprisingly good lobster bisque from The Lobster Place and then raided the nearby stores for free samples. No gelato this time, but there were cheeses, bread, and chips for my eating pleasure.

We then booked it over to Central Park so Marah could see it before it got dark. I have to say--Central Park is just not as impressive in the winter. Lots of brown trees and fenced-off grassy areas. The one place we really wanted her to see was the Bethesda Fountain, which was, of course, on the exact opposite end of this GIGANTIC park. My feet were not pleased, but it was totally worth it when we got there and the same Indian man was there singing opera duets with himself while dancing around with his violin. Another of my favorite sites in NYC. And please excuse the picture, as I look (and felt) like a bloated cow.

Next stop was FAO Schwartz--the toy store. Jon was not impressed, but Marah & I enjoyed looking at all the dolls. And this Lego Chewbacca was pretty sweet, too. I took her past Tiffany's next, but she refused to go inside (wimp). So we just enjoyed the diamonds from outside the display windows.

Marah's one demand while we were visiting NYC was that she must find and purchase a Coach Purse. Lucky for her, there was no shortage of people selling them. Here she is in front of the Coach store with her purse that she, of course, purchased totally legitimately from the counter inside. For only $30. Moving on...I was surprised to see the rink still up in Rockefeller Square, but there it was. So Marah got to see all the skaters before we hurried her on to Times Square. Our last stop was going to be the Empire State Building, but the line was at least an hour long, and it was getting late. So Jon vetoed that adventure and we headed back to the subway. Marah got to enjoy getting up close and personal with strangers as we rode the horribly packed subway back to Newark. I wanted to get a picture but couldn't get my arm into my purse to find my camera. Oh, the joy.

By the time we got home we were too tired to do anything but go straight to bed. As I've said before, NYC is not my favorite place (sorry, Kris). Compared to Chicago and DC it's dirty, crowded, and stinky. But I have to admit--it's growing on me. Not being there during the Christmas insanity definitely helped improve my perspective. I also think I would enjoy it more if we had more time to explore--one day trips just don't give enough time to see everything.

HOWEVER, upon our return home, I made the following declaration to Jon: There will be no more touristing for me until this baby is OUT of my belly. You have no idea what an extra 10 pounds can do to your feet after 9 straight hours of walking/standing.

We had a blast with the Marah Fish here and were sad to see her leave. I'm sure she's glad to be home where she actually has some privacy and isn't woken up every morning at 6 am by me & Jon. Thank you, one bedroom apartment. Good thing we close on our house NEXT WEEKEND. Hallelujah!

And no, Amber Precious, I didn't forget your birthday. I'm just a total slacker and didn't email you or even comment on your blog. I hope it was most fabulous.

Holiday Celebrations

I love holidays. Halloween especially, but I love them all. This past week provided 2.5 excellent holidays for my entertainment--Easter, St. Patrick's Day, and the Ides of March (the last one only gets half-holiday status). It seems like most people wait until they have kids before they pull out the traditions, but not me. Much to Jon's dismay, we have been celebrating every holiday since we got married with various ridiculous and not-so-ridiculous activities.

I was glad to have Marah here to celebrate with me, since she is a much more willing participant than Jonny (although I'm quite convinced that if she had been at home and my mom tried to pull this off, Marah would have rebelled).

So, the Ides of March. There's not really too much you can do with this one unless dressing up in a bloody toga is your thing. I did, however, try to convince them that it would be really fun to walk up to some random person and whisper, "Beware the Ides of March!" But of course, Mr. Rationality had to shoot that one down by pointing out that a proper warning has to be given in advance--not the day of. "That's like going around saying, 'Beware today' or 'Beware right now.'" Next year I'm going to make him wear a toga.

St. Patrick's Day is always one of Jon's favorite holidays. Last year I made green 4-leaf clover pancakes. This year, it was green bread bowls and broccoli cheddar soup. I think this all stems from the fact that my mom dyed our milk green every St. Patrick's Day when we were kids. Jon usually expresses his excitement over the festive food by emitting groans of various volumes and frequencies. But, of course, he eats it anyway because green food is STILL food. Oh yes, and everyone in this house wore green (although Jon's was a matter of chance, not choice).

Easter is much tamer. There's not much you can do until you have kids big enough to find Easter eggs (no, I do not make Jon hunt for eggs, although, in retrospect, I should have tried it to see what he'd do). We're also not big sweet-eaters, so all the Easter candy is pretty useless around here. Of course, I did buy two Cadbury Creme Eggs--one for Marah, one for me & Jon (I think the baby would bruise several internal organs if I tried to eat a whole one. He hates it when I eat candy). So, all I'm left with is dyeing eggs. Jon may hate this more than the green food, although I think some of that stems from the fact that I spilled the dye all over the carpet the first year we were married. I've been very careful ever since, especially now that I'm pregnant and prone to dropping, spilling or breaking everything I touch.

Jon worked very hard at undermining the egg-dyeing this year. I boiled 6 eggs--2 for each of us--which I considered to be a very manageable number, even for Jon. So of course, he insisted on eating one of them when we got home from NYC at midnight and there was no food in the house. Thus, on Easter Sunday the boy has just ONE egg to decorate. It still took me & Marah 15 minutes to pry him away from Starcraft and get him to the table. He then proceeded to "accidentally" drop his egg into the black dye, declared it a lost cause, and went back to Starcraft. At least Marah & I made some cool eggs.

Lastly, here is a picture of the White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Marah & I made. This has nothing to do with a holiday--I'm just please with how it turned out (except for the mushy crust). Thanks again, Kellie, for teaching me how to make cheesecake!

Adventures with Marah (part 1)

As I mentioned before, my lovely little sister Marah is out here visiting for a week. In order to keep her from lounging around all day texting her boyfriend, Jonny & I prepared a thrilling weekend for her.

Friday Mar. 14th--
After recovering from our 2am bedtime the night before (this is especially painful for those of us who go to bed at 9:30pm) we decided to show Marah some of the local sights. And in the 6 months we have been here, we've found a grand total of...one. Granted, it's been winter since we got here. I'm sure Maryland has a plethora of fabulous things to see when it's not grey and ugly outside.

So, once we got Marah up and moving, we headed to the town of Havre de Grace where we walked along the boardwalk bordering the Chesapeake and showed her the local wildlife (some geese, ducks, and squirrels). Since the boardwalk is a whole half a mile long, we spent the rest of the time sitting on a little beach where Jon attempted to teach Marah how to skip rocks. I think her best throw produced two skips. Jon's was somewhere around 15.

Saturday Mar. 15th--
Since Marah got gypped out of the traditional 8th grade Washington D.C. trip, we had strict instructions to show her the sights. After a slight (40 minute) detour because we got lost on the way (regardless of the fact that we'd been there the previous two weekends), we began our tour with the DC temple. Unfortunately, it's still a bit too early for flowers, so the scenery was pretty...brownish.

After a thrilling 20 minute Metro ride, we grabbed some food at an extremely overheated McDonald's and headed to the Museum of Natural History. Pretty much the only reason people go there is to see the Hope Diamond (which I did not get a picture of since it was swarmed by a pack of middle school kids). But I did find the Hazen Necklace and took a picture just for you, Anne. And Marah found some cavemen.

By decree of the fat lady (me) we took a small breather on the mall before heading to the Washington Monument. It was an unusually gorgeous day--perfect for touristing. It was at this point that we made the erroneous decision to hit all the outside sites first and save the museums for when it got darker. Marah was thus blessed to see the White House, Lincoln Memorial, WWII, Vietnam, & Korean War Memorials, and the Jefferson Memorial (from a distance). We then tried to book it to the Holocaust Museum, only to find that it closed at 5:30. And then we found out that ALL the museums closed at 5:30. Even on Saturday. So ridiculous. I knew my dad would be especially perturbed that we didn't make it to the Air & Space Museum (excerpt from his phone conversation with Marah yesterday: "What?! You made it all the way down there and didn't get to the Air & Space Museum?!). My Dad thinks D.C.'s whole purpose is to house this museum.

Since everything was closed, we decided to head home (which was good, because my feet and back were killing me. I think I made them stop and sit somewhere every two blocks on the way to the Metro). We finished off our adventure with an 8:30 pm dinner at Cracker Barrel and then headed home to soak our feet in the tub.

In our spare time, Jon & I have been introducing Marah to our excellent games. So far we've gotten her to play Settlers and Ticket to Ride, but she still prefers games where she "doesn't have to think." Poor girl. We'll have her straightened out before we send her home.

And now we need to get off the couch and go shopping. Little does Marah know that the actual reason she's out here is NOT to see the sites--it's to help me carry groceries up two flights of stairs. It's a dang good thing we're moving soon, because I already have to stop and take a break between loads. Yet another joy of pregnancy.

Upcoming Marah adventures: New York City, baby shopping at Ikea, and seeing our new house (from the outside).

And now I'm happy.

I apologize to anyone who was trying to read my blog last night in the midst of my experimenting. After an hour or so of tweaking, I'm finally happy with how it looks. (In case you're wondering--that's a picture of the Chesapeake Bay we took). I realize it may not look perfect on everyone's browser/screen, but it looks awesome on mine, and that's what really counts, right?

In other news, my little sister Marah is coming to visit today! We get to play with her for a whole week. She came to see us last summer, too, but this time we actually live NOT in the middle of nowhere. We'll be playing tour guides and taking her to D.C., NYC, and possibly West Virginia (Jon thinks everyone needs to "experience" West Virginia at least once). My sister Kenna was going to come too, but had issues getting her flights figured out. Oh well. I suppose hanging out with a bunch of hot guys in Provo is almost as much fun as hanging out with your fat, married sister...

I also have an exciting announcement to make--we're having a baby! Yay! Oh, and we're going to HAWAII in May for two weeks. Thank you, US Government, for putting a military installation on Honolulu. These pasty legs will finally get some sunshine--Iowa and Maryland are not conducive to tanning. If you happen to be in Hawaii in May, just look for the pale, 7 months pregnant girl laying on Waikiki Beach with a book. I'm so excited!!

Experimenting...

Call me paranoid, but...

I've been hit with a bout of blogger paranoia. No particular reason--just a random fear. Anyway, I suddenly feel the need to ask some of you to make a change to your blog. Could you please not list my last name in your links? You could just us down as "Jonny & Megan" or whatever helps you designate between Megans (I know there are many of us).

I hope I'm not offending anyone! I had to make some changes to my links just before I wrote this, so don't feel guilty. I just don't like the idea of googling my name and seeing a link to my blog pop up.

I know, if I REALLY wanted it to be super safe I would make it an invite only, but I find that kind of tedious and I like my friends being able to find and read my blog through others' blogs--it's just the weirdos I want to keep away.

Thanks, guys! And feel free to ask me to make any changes that make you feel safer. I'll even remove you from my links if you want. Just ask.

Half-baked

Today is my official 20 week mark, which allegedly means I'm halfway done with pregnancy. Allegedly. Apparently this week the baby is the size of a banana, which I find infinitely amusing. I just keep picturing this banana-shaped baby floating around, kicking the sides of my tummy when I'm trying to go to sleep.

In honor of the halfway mark, I present the joys of pregnancy I've experienced thus far:

*nausea *dizziness *stupidity
*exhaustion *food aversions *heartburn
*stretch marks *bloating *dropping things
*restlessness *backache *pea-sized bladder
*nursing pads *stuffy nose *rounded ligament pain
*having my belly touched by a random person
*feeling the baby doing gymnastics and kickboxing
*inability to go more than 2 hours without eating (this makes church really interesting)
*getting to buy new clothes
*getting to borrow clothes from friends when Jon thinks I'm spending too much
*postponing the name debate until we get a name book

Things I have to look forward to:

*contractions *unwanted advice from strangers
*running into doors/people with my belly (thanks, Adrian)
*being kicked in the ribs *MORE heartburn
*not being able to get up from the couch without help
*getting strange looks from people because I look like a knocked-up teenager
*buying baby stuff (Jon won't let me start until we're in our house)
*labor and delivery
AND
*finally getting to meet this little man
(who will hopefully have a name before he's born)

Am I missing anything?