More name options

Even though tomorrow marks a new year, Christmas won't be over until next Sunday for us, at least. We still need to celebrate Christmas with Josh's mom and Katie & Erin. Until then, no Christmas pictures. In the meantime, however, we've started contemplating baby names. Here's a list of our worst ideas so far (some were ideas for a second and some are just plain jokes):

5. Lucifer
4. Judas
3. Jesus (a fine name..if any of the grandparents could pronounce it!)
2. Maximilian
1. Josherly (the best sounding of all the combinations of Kimberly and Joshua)

UPDATE: Thanks to Anna-Lisa for another terrible name suggestion, this one based on a real person she once knew: Cain Mays. Then do we dare name the next son Abel?

Once again, any suggestions would be appreciated. Naming a child is hard work. Even if we pick a good one, there's no guarantee that Disney won't come out with a villain by the same name in a few years. We did refer to http://www.yeahbaby.com/ for a few humorous articles on naming including the funny (but sometimes crude) boy's names to avoid.

On a brighter note, I'm pretty sure I felt the little guy wiggling last night. Either that or my stomach was silently growling all night. Josh keeps teasing me that I'm going to digest the child, but hopefully he was just dancing, not being eaten.

What I want to be when I grow up

Last night, I called Anna-Lisa in desperation. I was standing in the bookstore, trying to find a gift. "Anna-Lisa," I said, "I need a book recommendation!" After I rambled off a few non-related criteria, she produced two books so perfect that I had to buy both. Not only did she know what I meant, but she had actually read said books herself and could give a summary and review of each. Anna-Lisa is a PHD student at Vanderbilt right now, remember, and still makes time to read books written in English in this century. She's my hero.

Want to know what she recommended? This is what Amazon has to say about the book I got my dad (no peeking, dad) and the book I got my sister-in-law.

I may have found my New Year's resolution: I want to be the kind of person who always has a good book in mind for a friend in need. I guess that means I'd better start reading...

Excuse me?

Some of you may remember my frustration when a co-worker "warned" me not to shop at Food City because that's "where the Mexicans shop." Say what you will about the store, which I don't even really like, but I'm not going to frequent a store just because of the ethnicity of anyone working or shopping there. (This statement came after she said "I'm not racist, but...") Well, it happened again.

Her: Well, how do you like that?
Me: Hmmm?
Her: They've released the most popular baby names in Arizona for 2007. The top 3 boys names are Angel, Jose, and Daniel. What does that tell you?
Me: (getting her implication, but not buying into it) What people are naming their babies?
Her: Well, it certainly tells you a lot about the ethnicity of the state and what kind of people are having babies.

I'm tempted to name my son Angel just to prove a point.

The results are in!

The ultrasound is complete. We are indeed having a baby. Just one baby, for those of you hoping for twins.

And the news everyone's been waiting for. It's a...

Boy!

Friends did much better in the poll than family. Of all our family combined, only 3 people guessed boy. Only one friend, for that matter, guessed girl. Josh thought my family was guessing girl because they thought of baby me, but even his parents and grandparents guessed girl!

That's the only half-decent picture from the whole affair. The ultrasound tech. was pleased with what she saw, but extremely displeased with our baby's cooperation. He would not hold still and insisted on having his hands in front of his face for most of the shots. We were the last appointment of the day, so she spent extra time trying to get a "good shot." We thought they were all good, but I don't know what it's like with other babies.

All that matters to us is that he's well: he's the right size (about 10 ounces) and has all his finger and toe bones, functioning kidneys, no cleft palate, and appears to be developing right on schedule.

The next question we get is usually "what are you going to name him?" We have no idea. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. All we've done so far is rule out names we don't like. If all else fails, we'll name him Alexander Courtiz since Alexander is the Hunt family name Quintin has rights to and Courtiz is the Mays equivalent (which Josh's brother Brandon will pass on). Just kidding.

The cat's out of the bag

I spilled the beans. I squealed. I dropped the bombshell. (Any more ways to say it?) I finally told my co-workers and boss that I am indeed "with child." Of the five women I work with, two of them already thought so, and three had no idea. Not so bad, eh? My boss says she has pretty much known for the last month! So much for my big secret.

P.S. The big ultrasound is Friday. Anyone wanting to get in on the unofficial poll should vote this week. My vote? I don't know. So much for mother's intuition.

"Anchor babies"

Warning: a lengthy and serious post follows. There are no fun updates or pictures included.

Arizona, like many states in the country, is a complete mess right now over illegal (and legal) immigration policies. None of the ideas on the table right now satisfy me. A fence the length of the border with Mexico? Terrible idea. Who will maintain said fence, for one? What about Canada? Penalize companies who do not verify the legal status of their employees? Once again, are jobs really the problem? There seem to be plenty of jobs for the taking here in Arizona.

I would like to listen to the ideas of others, but for the most part, comments on the news and radio disgust me because people cannot seem to separate immigration and race. In my office, whenever immigration comes up, someone always says something about the decline of AZ into "little Mexico" or the audacitiy of speaking Spanish in a public place. You can imagine the way this makes my blood boil. Spanish is not the enemy.

My problem is that I cannot separate immigration and immigrants. Putting the face of a real person on the issue complicates my political opinions, which is probably why this newest proposal disturbs me even more:

There is a movement to require hospitals to provide certified documentation of parents' legal citizenship before issuing birth certificates to newborns. The idea is that children of non-citizens born in the country should not be granted citizenship. What about if the father is a citizen but the mother isn't? Well, that would be okay, as long as the father certifies (in writing) that the child is his and he will take financial care of the child until adulthood. Is anyone else getting a weird feeling in the pit of your stomach about this?

The governor of Arizona has already said she opposes the idea. "I don't like taking a broken immigration policy out on children," she said yesterday. "I think we need to enforce the law, we need to deal with the issues we have already passed." Well spoken. The last thing we need is another policy, especially one that will make it even harder to hospitals to do their job. Need more information? Try the article I read this morning. Don't bother reading the comments section. Only two or three of the 75 comments are valid.

Kimberly Mays, web designer supreme

I'm trying my hand at customizing this page. Maybe if I get really good I'll become a web designer and work from my couch in my pj's. Apparently there is a new movement of digital scrapbooking. There are sites with digital paper (like the background of this page), stickers, bows, etc. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on tangible paper and pictures, but it's opening some very interesting options. Please excuse anything you find obnoxious or that might not work correctly while I play.

Camping

We went camping with Jimmy and Kristy and had lots of fun. It was just an overnight, but getting away for a night is wonderful...it helps that it's been 90 degrees in Phoenix so it still feels like summer around here. Before you get jealous of the amazing outdoors, however, take a look at the next picture:
Other than finding a leaf the size of my face, this picture is of interest because of the strange blue glow above my right shoulder. What? Does that really say Dasani? That's right, just down the road were outhouses and a soda machine. Needless to say, we didn't pick the location. Jimmy and Kristy made the plans and we were delighted to go with them. Soda machine and all.

Thanksgiving (the weekend before)

Saturday we are going to a pre-Thanksgiving bash at Katie and Erin's apartment. This sounds like a fabulous idea for me for 3 reasons:

1. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Celebrating it twice is more my style than 3 weeks of Christmas.
2. We only planned food on the menu that we like. Thank goodness there won't be any green bean casserole.
3. Yet another occasion to promote Alton Brown's turkey. To anyone making dinner this year: give this turkey a try. The secret is cooking it at 500 degrees at first. Don't chicken out, even when your apartment fills with smoke.

After surviving Thanksgiving away from home while in college, I discovered how great it can also be with friends. I celebrated Thanksgiving in Utah with some of my best friends (thank you again, Becca, for letting me invade your home), and I can't wait to spend it with K&E. My favorite Thanksgiving memory of my adult life is the first one we were married. Q, Josh, and I ate only the foods we like and spent the rest of the long weekend playing games. It was no Turkey Trot, but it was everything the holiday should be: delicious, relaxed, and with people I love. Can this year compete?

legos, anyone?

I got an email from a woman I work with on Friday that made me wish I was 10 years old again. Quintin and I spent hours building with Legos and we saved our allowances to order new sets from the Lego magazine. While we had lofty dreams of building Lego nations, we never got as far as this:

According to June's email, the church has 3,976 windows, seats 1,372 lego people, and is about 7 feet x 5 feet. Maybe over Thanksgiving break, I should try my hand at Lego construction again? Don't get me wrong, I won't be building THAT (It took over a year), but maybe I could make a pretty sweet house? Most of my houses are just red brick boxes with a door and a window or two. After posting this originally, I visited the Lego website. I'm just about ready to order some Legos right now. You can sort/order bricks by color, size, shape, use, and more!

a bit of office fun

Some of you may know that I work in the ASU parking office. As silly as it may sound, after having graduated with a degree in Comparative Literature, it is a great job so far. One of the more entertaining diversions I have created is a list of ridiculous (but oh so real) names of people that come in to purchase parking decals. Except when both names are part of the joy, I try to keep my list to just first or last names to protect some semblance of privacy. The names are funny for a variety of reasons. Some names are other (English or otherwise) words. Others, for example, are funny because they are impossible to pronounce. Finally are the names that make me laugh because they make me too uncomfortable to do anything else. I do realize that this could make me seem somewhat heartless, but here we are nonetheless. After that lengthy introduction, here are the top 10 so far:

10. G. Rambo

9. J. Chandarana

8. B. Hembd

7. R. Crnich

6. K. Krumweide

5. K. Stubbs

4. M. Lechuga

3. D. Narciso

2. J. Lusty and L. Slutsky (Tied for second as the couple destined to marry)

1. Stephanie Stephanik

home again

Josh and I moved home to Arizona this past May for the first time (together) in our marriage. It is so nice to be home, but we do miss our little apartment in Provo. I woke up on Saturday with nothing to do craving Magleby's french toast to realize sadly that we would never make the 12-hour drive by the time they stopped serving breakfast. Any time we get homesick for Provo, though, I have to remind myself how much better this insane heat is than snow! This picture of Erin knee-deep in snow is usually enough to make me run outside and soak in the 110 degree sun.

First try?

This is just a test and my first attempt at anything so electronic--stay tuned for something more thrilling! Even though so far I (Kim) have been the only one posting anything, Josh desperately wanted to be included in this adventure. So, this is about US even though I am the only one saying anything. Maybe someday he will grace us with a story of his own.