Shower #1

I've had 3 wonderful baby showers now. All 3 have been quite different from each other, and they've been equally as fantastic. It really is nice to be honored in this way, even though the attention is a little odd. I'm not used to everyone looking at me and waiting to see what I'll say, etc.

Here is the 1st shower. I'm in a Life Group through my church, and a couple of weeks ago they surprised me and Jeremy with a baby shower. One of our members, Jenna, made that beautiful cake herself. That last one with Jeremy looking so stoic is from a game we played where the men had to stuff their shirts with balloons and then bend over to tie their shoes without popping the balloons. Quite a hoot! (Sidenote, in case my mother reads this: this was a surprise shower, so I wasn't exactly dressed for success. I wouldn't normally wear a white t-shirt and a pony tail to a baby shower!) :-)














I'll pace myself and post pictures from the other showers later.













This past Monday night I noticed for the very first time that my feet and ankles are swelling! Yuck! I was hoping to avoid that unattractive part of being pregnant, but alas, no. I was walking home from Life Group (it's just a few blocks from our house) and I kept thinking that my legs were really tired and achy, as if I'd just run a marathon or something. When I got home, about 30 minutes later I happened to look at my bare feet, and Holy Cow! They were all puffy. Today's Wednesday and they're not back to normal, so I'm guessing I'll have 10 more weeks of this. Lovely.

A new season

Much to catch up on.... but details will have to wait. I've entered the Baby Shower season. First, the Monday before last our incredible Life Group threw us a surprise shower! We really had no idea they would do that, but it was a lot of fun. Pictures to follow. Then, last Saturday I had a shower with 25 friends - it was such a blessing. Pictures to follow on that too.

But now... I'm headed to Houston for yet another baby shower this weekend (and my last). I'm glad Hurricane Ike is not hampering my trip.

It's really humbling to be on "this side" of a baby shower. I've been to so many through the years, but it's just cool to be on the receiving end. And it's humbling that people care enough to show up and buy us a gift. Jeremy and I are blessed by wonderful friends and family.

I'm officially in my last trimester of pregnancy. It really has gone by so quickly. I'm still feeling pretty good, fortunately!

Gotta go catch a plane to Houston... more later.

Irish at last!

It's official... I am a legal citizen of Ireland. It has taken years and years to get this accomplished. My grandfather (Dad's dad) was born and raised in Ireland and came to the U.S. when he was in his late 20s. Ireland allows anyone that has a parent or grandparent that was born in Ireland to become a citizen too. They make you jump through many hoops and practically promise your firstborn child to them, but they allow it. So after much hoop-jumping (but no giving of my firstborn), I am official! My quest started after our family visited Ireland in 1998. We got to meet cousins and other relatives for the very first time, and I really fell in love with the culture and scenery there. Upon my return, a friend informed me that I was qualified to become a citizen because of my grandfather. So my research began, and through the years, I've slowly gathered all the documentation they required. I must admit that I wish I could celebrate by going to a local Irish pub and having a pint or two, but I don't think that would be so good for little Westin. So I'll postpone the celebration until after he's born. One of the cool benefits of being an Irish citizen is that they're a member of the European Union, which means I could live and work in any EU country. We'd still have to get Jeremy a visa, but it would be a lot easier than both of us having to get one. So maybe down the road we'll go live somewhere "over there" for a year or so... it would be an amazing experience, I'm sure.

I'm famous! Well, not exactly.

This might be the closest I ever come to national fame... (except for the time my sisters and I were featured in the FCA magazine "Sharing the Victory" way back in the early 90s, but that's another story).

I got quoted in an MSNBC online news article today. First, some background:

I recently joined a real estate networking site called Active Rain. It's a way for real estate agents and mortgage lenders to network and share information about what's going on in the industry. You can write articles and post them to a blog that they provide for you, as well as lots of other stuff. Well - after the really big news about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being taken over by the government, I decided to write an article about it and put it on my blog (my business blog, not this blog). So I did.

And then.... today I get a phone call from Jane Hodges, who is a reporter for MSNBC. She's a contributor to lots of online content on MSNBC's website, and she came across my blog entry and decided to call me for my input on how the Fannie/Freddie bailout has affected mortgage rates and the general impact on the industry. So we chatted for about 10 minutes, and that was that.

I checked tonight to see if she had posted anything, and sure enough! Here's the article. I have two whole sentences to boast about, but hey - it's still pretty cool to me.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26628137/from/ET/

And, if you're up for some pleasure reading (that's a joke by the way), Click here for the blog entry I wrote that got her attention to begin with. (Please ignore the terrible quality pictures. I just started it and I don't really know what I'm doing yet. It's a major work in progress.)

Thanks for letting me share my nanosecond of fame. :-)

Word of the Day

I've learned a new word this election season. I honestly had never heard it before. The word is "vetting".

I think it's a funny word, although I don't really know why. Wikipedia has this to say about it:

"Broadly, vetting is a process of examination and evaluation. Specifically, vetting often refers to performing a background check on someone before offering them employment. In addition, in intelligence gathering, assets are vetted to determine their usefulness."

John McCain "vetted" Sarah Palin. Barack Obama had a "vetting process" to find Joe Biden. Is this a really common word and I've just missed it all these years?

Vet, vetted, vetting.

Let's see if I can apply it to my world:

• Did I "vet" my husband before I decided to marry him? (I don't know if I did, but I think he vetted me, because he told me once his dad advised him to check a woman's teeth before marrying her to make sure she'd live good and long!)

• "The Hansens vetted out a few babysitters before deciding which one to hire." (perhaps one day!)

• "Jeremy's vetting process for nursing schools eventually landed him at Wake Tech." (that's not really true... it's the only one he even strongly considered, but it sounds kind of fun.)

I'm gonna try and use this word at least once a week in my conversations. It just sounds too cool not to!! At the very least, I'll sound just as clever as all those politicos out there. Maybe.

Uninspired

I'm in a bit of a blogging funk, I think. I just don't have much to say right now, or if I do, it seems like too much effort to write about it. So... for those very few faithful followers, I'm sorry that you haven't heard much from me lately. I promise I'll be back as soon as some inspiration hits me!