the potty trained pig

Since Bean's arrival is eminent I figured I needed to figure out how to upload videos to the blog. Pickles is our current video subject of choice. We have long been proud of Pickles. She gets to run in the living room every couple days and she is trained to relieve her self in the pig potty. What a kid!!

green valley cinema

Okay, so the first time we went to this movie theater we were in line and finally get to the front. We say we want 2 tickets for a movie. Jason pulls out his debit card, and they say, sorry, we only take cash. ??? I think Jason actually scoffed and said, "Are you serious?" What movie theater only takes cash? Now you know what kind of place we're dealing with.
One time we bought candy (i know, usually you sneak it -- we must have been slacking that day) and they asked if we wanted that regular or frozen. ? Huh? Apparently they freeze some of their candy. Some people want rock hard junior mints. All right..
Anyway, today we were bored. Again. Wishing for labor.... We decided to go see Mamma Mia (which, by the way, was very good - very fun. Pierce Brosnan can't sing, but otherwise very strong performances and Jason dubbed it "joyous").
If you didn't know, the city we live in, Watsonville, is 75% hispanic. We're the minorities. But there are a couple of places to find old white people. One is the California Grill- an 80's/Golden Girls decor overpriced Italian place, the bowling alley, and the 1 pm matinee of Mamma Mia. And one of the biggest hoots not in relation to the movie, was the lady in our row who was dumping her popcorn into a large plastic bag. She decided to leave again right before the movie started and came back with another tub of popcorn. Then I realized what she had done. At this movie theater, if you get the extra large tub of popcorn and you eat it all, they will refill it for you! True genius. It almost rivals Tiffy's popcorn in the overalls from our college days. But Tiffy gets extra points for creativity, so she is still (in our eyes) the popcorn smuggling queen!

no baby yet

So my pick and Lauren's have both passed. No fruit basket for us! Tiffy's pulling for today. We'll see....
Poor Jason is sick. He's a little frustrated because you aren't supposed to get sick in the summer, right? anyway, we just want him to get better so he can kiss on us again.

nesting

we had another appointment today. baby's doing good, and i'm now 3 cm and about 70% effaced. still no contractions. we're just hanging out, waiting on the bean. our big outing for the day is the X-Files movie!

as you can see in the pictures, we're doing quite a bit of nesting.

we have the crib all set up.

poll!

all right people. we know there are a lot of you who read this blog but don't post. well here's your chance. (that means you too Aunt Etta!)

we're taking a poll of when you think baby bean is going to arrive, how much he's going to weigh, and if you're feeling really saucy, you can take a guess at his name (but we're not confirming or denying anything until he arrives). we'll make a calendar in a couple of days with everyone's guesses, unless of course we're in labor. :)

my current guess 7.2 lbs on July 25th. What can I say, I'm optimistic that our child will be as punctual as we are.

Jason's current guess is 6.9 lbs on Aug 6th.

Get your votes in now, and there might be a fruit basket in it for you. (all right, there probably won't be, but we had to motivate you somehow)

the final countdown

We realized that we had not posted a belly shot in a while. We took these yesterday. Today we had a doctor's appointment. For those of you that know the lingo, Becky is 1.5 cm dilated and 60% effaced. The cervix if soft. The doc does not expect Becky to go past her due date of Aug 3rd. We have weekly doc appointments from now on.

I think people are starting to get nervous around us. We were at a restaurant last weekend and the waitress seemed worried that Becky was going to go into labor after the appetizers. A guy outside Target was smiling at Becky and said to her "Almost Done!"

full term

So, I'm 37 weeks, and officially full term. He can come out whenever he wants to now! I definitely understand fully now about the last month being the "get this kid outta me" month. I stopped wearing my wedding rings a couple weeks ago, and now the only footwear I can comfortably wear is flip flops. My heartburn is back, pretty much any sleeping position is uncomfortable after about an hour, and my poor husband has to do all of my bending over. LOL.
He was a big sweetheart a couple of weeks ago and painted my toe nails. How's that for an awesome man? I think we made our last visit to babies r us. While we were there I just had to get this sweet onesie. It says Mommy's new man!

news flash!!!

For those of you keeping track, Becky and I have moved cross country 3 times in the past 8 years. In 2000, we moved from Tampa/Panama City to Seattle, Washington. In 2003, we moved to Columbus, Ohio to attend OSU for graduate school (well, at least one of us attended). In 2006, we moved to Watsonville, California to take a job at Monte Vista Christian. So, at this point, moving cross country is no big deal for us. We are used to purging, packing, finding new jobs and new friends, etc.

This time we decided to up the ante by traveling cross country with a newborn! Yes, you read that correctly. The Heddens are on the move again. The title of the blog is the "adventures" of the Hedden family for a reason. On August 25th, I will start my college teaching career as the Assistant Professor of Theatre in the division of Visual & Performing Arts @ Gulf Coast Community College. As many of you know, this is the college Becky and I attended 10 years ago.

We are sad to be leaving behind friends and students, but are thrilled by the latest chapter in our adventures. If things go as planned (God willing), Becky, Baby Bean, mom (Bonnie), Pickles (guinea pig) and I will be flying to Florida on August 19th. Mark your calendars, folks -- 8/19/08 is the day a pig will fly!!

In the meantime, all we have to do is pack up all our stuff, find movers to transport all of that stuff along with our vehicles, go to a smattering of doctors appointments, clean our apartment, and.... oh yeah! give birth to our first child. Luckily we have already found a place to live. So check one thing off the list.

We know we're crazy. But what's life without a little adventure?

one month (or less) to go

The carseat is installed. The hospital bag is packed and Becky is soaking her feet. It must be getting close. We are 36 weeks today. I took these pictures of my beautiful family this afternoon.

bulletproof cable company

Becky and I have been spending a lot of time watching TV and movies lately as we wait for Baby Bean's arrival. Our cable box freaked out again today for the second time in a week so I called to get some technical assistance. They were able to diagnose the problem remotely and determine that the problem was our equipment. We had the option to either wait for a service call next week or take the box in ourselves this afternoon. It turned out the office was just around the corner so we decided to take the box in ourselves. This is where things got kind of weird...

We walked into a lobby with a small crowded office behind glass. It looked like there were two bank tellers with a group of co-workers standing behind them. As we stepped forward we noticed that there were actually only two people working. Behind them were life sized cut outs of TV personalities. Kind of the weird. The two girls behind the glass we ready for the holiday weekend, decked out in red, white and blue from head to toe.

We stepped up to the counter and realized that the tellers were behind bullet proof glass. I am not kidding, 2 inch think bullet proof glass!!! We had to place our old cable box in a bulletproof glass box with a hinged door to pass it to the teller. I had the door cracked open a bit--she actually asked me to close it all the way before she opened it on the other side. I have never seen this much security in any bank I have ever been in. Becky noticed on the door behind us the height markings on the door that gives someone a quick gauge of the height of someone fleeing the business. I thought of making some jokes, but it occurred to me that this kind of security had to be based on something that had happened there in the past.

I could imagine the scenario. A masked man walks in wielding a universal remote control. "Alright, everyone down--I want free cable. I have a remote and I am not afraid to use it!!! Give me HBO and one of those sports packages and no one gets hurt!"

Ah, I wish I was making this stuff up!

one month to go

Today is July 3rd. Becky is due August 3rd! I think we are ready. Our hospital bag is packed.

Baby Bean has a place to sleep and a car seat approved by CHIPS. Seriously, we went to the local CA highway patrol for a car seat inspection. Apparently most of them are installed incorrectly. I thought we did a good job, but it was not tight enough. I wanted to ask for Eric Estrada, but thought they might not appreciate it.

As I write this we are waiting to hear word of the birth of Nick and Beth Dekker's first son. They are friends of mine from OSU. Beth went in for a C-section at 4:30pm EST today. God Bless you Dekker family!!