Baby Stuff

Rosey and I finally went and did our shopping for Sarabelle's nursery yesterday. Between some money that I had set aside and a generous gift from Dad, we were able to get pretty much everything we needed in one shot. Let me tell you... Babies 'R Us made a killing yesterday :) It's amazing how quickly you can blow through money buying stuff for baby.

We got:

• Stroller System (Graco Tour Deluxe)
• Dresser/Changing Table Combo
• Nursing Glider
• Baby Swing
• Baby Carrier
• All manner of bottles, sheets, cloths, rags, diapers, ointments and miscellaneous "stuff" that you just need to have :)

We were afraid that it might not all fit in the car, but we just barely made it.

The dresser was the only thing that we weren't able to take home with us. They didn't have the one we wanted in stock and had to order it in. I suppose that was a good thing as we wouldn't have been able to fit it anyway.

We spent the afternoon assembling. I was actually surprised how easily most of the stuff went together. The most difficult piece was the swing. Other than that, the bulk of the work was mostly unpacking, unwrapping and shuffling stuff around.

Ice Cream Treats

Rosey, Sarabelle and I got a really fun Christmas present from Rosey's Mom... an ice cream maker. I was a little reluctant at first, but after reading through the recipe book that came with it I started to get really excited about experimenting with my own ice cream. We've used it several times now and have had awesome results.


So far, we've made:

• Fresh Strawberry
• Pineapple Coconut
• Chocolate Raspberry

I still have a little bit of tinkering to do to get the recipes just right, but they all turned out pretty good. 

Nine Mile Canyon Winter Hike

Every time that Rosey and I drive down to Moab we stop at a gas station just south of Price. A side road leading away from the gas station and highway six is labeled "Nine Mile Canyon". For years, I've thought to myself, "Someday, I'm going to check out that road". Well several weekends ago when Rosey and I were looking for some way to occupy ourselves on a Saturday afternoon, I said, "Let's check out Nine Mile Canyon".

We've been there several times now and have discovered that it's a really interesting area. It's a mix of red rock and sandstone, canyons and mountains, desert and alpine flora. Really it's a pretty cool place that doesn't seem to be very well traveled by many people. I think that this is exactly what Rosey loves about it :)

On our most recent trip down there, we saw a wash that came up to the side of the road which originated in a canyon in the distance. It didn't really look like a hiking trail but we decided to take it anyway. Our adventurous spirit was rewarded with a spectacular hike through an ice covered sandstone canyon. Way Cool!

And yes, I probably should go to bad husband hell for taking my pregnant wife on a hike like this. But the great thing about Rosey is that she wouldn't have it any other way :)

My Very First Piano Recital

I got a new piano teacher about 6 weeks ago and she convinced me to perform in the Christmas recital. The piece that I performed was called Musetta's Waltz by Puccini. It was the last piece that I learned with my old teacher, Tanner, before he stopped giving lessons.

It was somewhat horrifying to perform in front of a room full of strangers. It's particularly odd because I am obviously old enough to realize that a bad piano recital is not going to make or break my future. And yet, my hands were trembling so bad that I'm surprised that I was able to hit any of the keys at all. It was also rather comical to be the only 31 year old performing amidst a bunch of 8 to 12 year olds.

Here is a video that Rosey took of the performance:

I think that Rosey deserves special credit for putting up with hearing me play this song for so many months in a row :) She's a good sport to pretend like she's not tired of me playing the same piece over and over again.

My next recital is in February when I will be performing the piece "Arabesque" by Johan Burgmuller.

Pregnancy Update

With less than 70 days until the birth of our daughter, Sara Belle Christensen, we are entering the home stretch of the pregnancy. Little Sara seems to be really healthy, but Rosey has started to have some problems with elevated blood pressure. The numbers are right on the border of where the doctors are concerned, and we aren't really sure if this is just her chronic hypertension acting up in response to stress of if she has a mild case of pregnancy induced hypertension.

Either way, the doctor suggested (ordered) that she quit working and try to spend as much time as possible relaxing. I don't think that she's on official "bedrest" yet, but they are continuing to monitor her condition and run tests. In the meantime, Rosey actually feels pretty well despite what the doctor says. We are still going on frequent walks through the neighborhood, which we have discovered actually helps to lower Rosey's blood pressure and is fun for the both of us.

Blog Back Up

After several weeks of being down, I finally revived my blog today. I had suspected that my server had gone down, but it turns out that my DNS account for the domain name svoid.mine.nu had expired. I register through a free service called DynDNS and they recently changed their policy to expire accounts that don't log into their web page at least once a month. So, that's what happened. I recreated my account this morning and everything is happy again. Although I may have to look into switching to a different service that isn't such a pain in the ass.