"No birds, no bees
No flowers, no leaves
No wonder, November"

Ever year on the first day of this month since I can remember my Mom says that little poem, and writes it places where everyone can see it. I bet it was written on the dry erase board in our kitchen, that she uses to keep track of everyone's responsibilities that day, with a picture of a tree with colored leaves falling. :-) She also sent me an email with it in the body. Ahh... traditions.



This year I was in Provo on Halloween and when Brian called to read scriptures and say prayer with me he said "Happy almost November!" and I shared the poem with him. My mom has trained me well. I wonder if my great-grandchildren will know the poem, and I wonder when my Mom first heard it...

Well, I feel like my whole life is leading up to the momentous events of January. I don't even think I've thought about my life after that point in detail. Like, is there going to be a February, 2007? Whoah. We'll have a baby then. Ahhhh!

Laura at 27-weeks.
Oh boy, so I will finally try and catch up and start posting more regularly, because that's what a blog is for! A lot has been going on here in the Hall family!
I'm still commuting weekly to school in Provo. Six weeks down, eight to go. Man, that's not even half. The Greyhound smells funny, so the eight hours I spend on it each week aren't my favorite, but it's a means to an end. So overall I'm glad for it. Except for the week that the only seat left when I got on in St. George (at 1:30 am) was next to this really thick guy (like he wasn't really fat, just big), and he was taking up his seat plus 3/4 of the only open seat on the bus. And he was asleep. Wow. So I sat down on the empty corner and tried to move him over a little, but it's a little awkward, you know? So finally he sorta wakes up and notices me, but doesn't move. So I just try and sleep by leaning back on the seat with my back facing him and then I feel his head fall onto my shoulder. Whoah buddy, I'm married and not to you. So I move my arm so my shoulder blade kinda jabs his head. Yae for a bony back. That wakes him up good, and after shifting around and then moving to the aisle, he lays down on the floor and falls asleep. No way, a whole two seats to myself! So when in doubt, use a little shoulder blade action. It gets 'em every time.

I'm going to put up pregnancy pics here too, because I've grown a lot! Some people are silly enough to say I still don't look pregnant, but like I ate a big meal. Well, maybe a whole turkey without chewing, because I definately have the belly. You be the judge.
It's true that some clothes conceil the belly while others highlight it. Basically if I wear nonmaternity clothes I look frumpy but not obviously pregnant. It just looks like I have no figure and a little gut. Not attractive. Maternity clothes, on the other hand, highlight my waist (it's still there, I promise) and the belly separately. Much more flattering and feminine I think. That's when I get the, "You're finally looking pregnant!" reactions. I'm still waiting for the "Ma'am, have my seat" reaction on the bus though. We'll see. Brian says a little heavy breathing and, "Is there a hospital at the next stop??!!" should do the trick.
So, on Brian. He's working hard at Summerhays (the music store he is managing) and on his business school applications. He's applying round 1 to five schools. He just submitted his Harvard application last Thursday. His application looked awesome to me, and his essays great. I think his a gifted writer, and he has a patience for proofreading and refining that I don't. So if I were the admissions committee I would be impressed. But I'm a little biased. For that application we're waiting to hear if he'll get an interview, then we'll start looking for decently priced flights to Boston. I wonder when we'll find out.
Meanwhile, he's working on his Northwestern application. We already have the interview scheduled for that school, since they interview all applicants. We'll be flying into Chicago on the Monday before Thanksgiving and then driving to Cedar Rapids, IA that evening to spend the holiday with his mom and siblings. I am so, so excited to spend time with his family! Also, we will get to see Laura Jones while in Chicago, since she's living in Aurora now. I've missed Laura a ton--it will be awesome to see her.

Brian and Laura in Barcelona.

So I decided to start a blog because I like reading other people's. Plus I think it will be fun to have a place to record our progress toward some goals... like Brian applying for business school, Laura finishing her master's, and most importantly having a baby!

Some of the applications are up for his top-choice schools (Stanford, Northwestern, Michigan, Yale, and Harvard), so we've started that. Brian has now emptied the "How to Go to College for Free" and "How to Write a Fabulous College Essay" sections of the St. George library, but since they're geared toward high schoolers, we're trying to see if we can still make the advice work for our situation. Harvard for free? We'll see. Maybe a baby will help. I'll keep working on that.

Brian doesn't have any backups, so we're putting all of our effort into these top-tier schools. If nothing materializes, we'll work another year and try again. I have to hand it to him, Brian knows what he wants.

On another note, I just scheduled our twenty-week ultrasound, for August 24th. I can't believe I'm that far along, but I'm excited because the pics of the fetuses in all of the books for 20 weeks look a LOT less alienish. I'm really, really excited to see the baby, even though I know I won't really recognize the image as a human. But it will be fun anyhow.

We've had two appointments so far -- one at 12 weeks, and the other at 18 weeks. We got to hear the heartbeat at both, loud and strong, even though Dr. Kvarfordt (yeah, pronounce that. Brian and I call him Dr. Kevorkian) said it wasn't very usual to hear it at 12 weeks. Hearing the heartbeat that first time was one of the coolest experiences ever! Brian and I just beamed at eachother. It was a milestone in our relationship, kind of like when we first shared an apple walking to school. Some things just change you forever.

OK, so my new dilemma, now that the ultrasound is getting close is thinking maybe I'd rather not know if it's a boy or girl. As much as I want to go out and buy my first onesie to look at for the next four months (and not a white or yellow one), I'm now thinking it would be fun to have a surprise! Wouldn't it? Then we'd really have something to tell people when we call them in January, instead of just a height and weight the'll soon forget.

On the other hand, maybe there are enough surprises in the delivery room (like what pain really is). So maybe we'd better clear this mystery up while we can. Anyhow, I really think it's a girl, so maybe we could just go on woman's intuition.

Decisions, decisions.