how bout those rocky mountains

it appears we can't get enough of the rocky mountains, because b accepted a summer internship in denver. he'll be working for nestle and we'll be there three months.

this means baby wells will be born in denver. uh, awesome. not exactly the most ideal situation, but what's life if not exciting, right? i've had a while to get used to this whole idea, and i'm not freaked out about it. i figure women have plenty of babies in colorado just like they do here. i've been researching doctors and hospitals in our new area...we'll be there two months before the baby is due, so i should be okay. but if you know of anyone in denver feel free to pass their name along :)

i shared the news at work today. i gotta say i'm getting really sick of dropping bombs on people...this is the third time in a year that i've had to tell a boss some big news. i feel bad every time, but have to keep reminding myself that real life is more important than a job.

tonight it's snowing & freezing so we went out for pho to warm up [and to celebrate b aceing his accounting final this morning]. it was delicious! now we're watching changeling and i'll go to bed early. like i do every night.

p.s. thanks for all your nice comments about my brother! he finally got to come home from the hospital today...they took out his appendix on monday, but turned out his intestines and colon were inflamed as well so no one really knows what the problem is. annoying! they kept him for more tests but now he's home. probably another 4 - 6 weeks before he gets a clean bill of health and gets to head out on the mission.

timing

[me & sparky @ the mall last weekend in CA]

so it's t-minus 2 days and counting till my brother is supposed to report to the missionary training center here in utah to get ready to go to mexico. all weekend i was getting a little sad thinking he was finally leaving for two whole years.

this morning b's phone rang at 5 a.m. -- he has a big presentation today at school, so i thought it was one of his OCD teammates calling to tell him something. my phone was on vibrate so i didnt hear it also ring. his phone rang again at 6 but he didnt answer it again...but when i asked who it was and he said my MOM i grabbed the phone. we all know that middle-of-the-night phone calls either mean something really exciting is happening or someone has died [neither of which i was particularly looking forward to] so i called her back.

turns out granty-pants was up all night with a horrible stomachache [which he'd been complaining of throughout the weekend, but they all chalked it up to nerves...we have a history of nervous tummies in our family] and woke my parents up at 3 a.m. to say he needed to go to the hospital. my dad took him to the emergency room where they diagnosed grant with appendicitis, and he got hooked up to morphine and then went under the knife for an emergency appendectomy.

oddly enough, we know someone who just had the same thing happen to her, days before HER mission. her report date was postponed 4 weeks to give her time to recover. not positive yet on what will happen to granty, but i'm guessing it will be the same thing. poor little guy, though. he was all ready to go, and now he'll have to wait a while longer. just sucks to be all mentally geared toward this huge event and then get it postponed.

i haven't talked to the little drugged-up patient yet, but i can't wait to hear how he's doing. i'll keep you posted on his status ;) and now i need to take a nap because we got up WAY too early today.

i love me some piano rock

last night we went to see billy joel + elton john IN CONCERT. this was a long time in the making as we bought tickets to originally see them back in november, but they both got swine flu and had to reschedule.

i was so so excited for this; i LOVE billy joel. the 2-disc billy joel greatest hits album was one of my first CD purchases, and i clearly remember being the only person in our 13-year-old sunday school class to applaud when our teacher saw him in concert. i've been a fan for a while obviously, and no one can argue that mr. elton john doesn't have some swingin hits himself -- so the prospect of seeing these two piano men together was just a fantastic proposition. lucky for me, b is a big fan too, so getting tickets was a no-brainer.

we headed up to slc after work and had dinner at a cute japanese place, koko kitchen. yum! then we went to the gateway to kill some time [and get some cookies], and ended up at energy solutions arena.

getting exciiiiited for the show...



no opening act, nothing -- just the two guys at dueling pianos to start the show off. they sang each other's songs and played along and it was great...and then we got over an hour of each man by himself before they reunited again for a double-piano finale. they ROCKED. by the end of the show i was so tired i could barely keep my eyes open [at 11 p.m....haha], but i was so amazed by both of them and their incredible piano skills.

the dueling pianos:



one thing i did NOT like was that there was no giant screen to watch closeups. there was an electric-light screen as part of the stage setup, but from our seat in the nosebleeds we could barely see it due to the giant speakers -- and it didn't just show them the whole time anyway. boo.

a little elton john...



he wasn't as entertaining as anticipated...barely talked to the audience at all, just ran through his set. he did play all my faves though -- don't let the sun go down on me and levon in particular.

and THEN it was billy. ohhh he did not disappoint. he was so funny and personable and amazing. he'd just rattle off songs one-handed on the piano while he talked to us. that man is 60 years old and he still got it.



he even whipped out the guitar for we didn't start the fire. be still my heart.



nothing like hearing all your favorite songs live and in person -- it's still rock & roll to me, allentown, you may be right, always a woman, only the good die young. love. sorry elton, but billy was the best part of the night.

for the finale they came back out with both their pianos and their separate bands -- ending with piano man, my very favorite billy joel song. we almost left before they got to it but b talked me into staying. and it was sooo worth it.



there you have it. best date night of 2010.

and btw baby dub is more of a billy fan himself, judging by the kicks i got during his set. he'll fit right in around here :)

rule #2: double tap

if you know what the title of this blog is from, you are awesome. [it's from zombieland. b got to pick the movie this week and that was his selection. i'm not a huge zombie person but this movie was freaking hilarious. once you get over the gore.] [disclaimer: we watched the movie on clearplay, so if you watch it unedited and become offended by language and violence, don't blame me -- i never heard/saw it.]

and while we're on the subject of things that make me laugh, our new favorite tv show is modern family. for real, best new show on tv. full of great, quotable one-liners and usually has a good message.

AND, speaking of family...we went home to rancho over the holiday weekend. which is not a holiday weekend if you work for my employer, who feels there should be no paid holidays between new year's and memorial day. whatevs -- i took my sweet PTO and we make a 4-day out of it.

the weekend involved plenty of delicious food, a trip to h&m, sleeping in and hanging out with the fam. and of course it was goodbye weekend for my little missionary brother. my grandparents and aunt/uncle/cousin all came to join in the fun. saturday night the parents threw him a going away party, complete with bratty teenagers who trashed the house WHILE they were in the same room with my 'rents annnd a bunch of my parents' friends who took one look at me and lunged for my growing stomach. fun fun.

sunday we went to church where granty gave his going away talk. he made me laugh and made some people cry [but not me. these baby-hormones have made me a lot less emotional than i usually am]. we had fondue that night and talked politics and real-life disasters aorund the dinner table, as we do most times the fam gets together. and fashion. i think my grandpa negatively commented on my above-the-bump skinny belt every 10 minutes -- sorry gramps, i have to show that i still have SOMEWHAT of a figure.

here's the whole family after church...please note the blue sky; the weather was incredible:

monday the relatives left and the five of us went to the movies and out for mongolian stir fry for lunch. mmm. did a little final shopping, then b and i headed to the airport to travel home to frigid utah. and here we are. best part of the belated arrival was that the week flew by -- i love having mondays off. we need a few more of these types of weeks :)

i got nothin.

reason for lack of posting lately? nothing. we just do nothing. life in the past week and a half has involved lots of burn notice, work, sleeping and family time.

i made valentines [i'm crafty again! maybe.]
i learned to determine the feeling of being regularly kicked by my little heirloom-tomato-sized baby [and i kind of love it]
i finished hunger games AND catching fire [which have been noted before but bears repeating as i still think about them daily]
we watched the super bowl, against my better judgment -- my favorite commercial was the google one
i worked
b went to school
i slept -- though my sleep these days is regularly interrupted by crazy, CRAZY dreams. i have now dreamt twice of unintentionally starving my baby and once of trying to put it back in after birth.

in two days we're headed off to california for my brother's mission farewell and i can't wait [for CA, not for my bro to leave for two years]. even though, you know, i was just IN california less than two weeks ago. we're getting really good at going to the airport, b and i -- in the past month, b has gone to seattle, san francisco and now LA and i will have gone to LA twice. not a bad spot to be in, i must say. looking forward to loading up at TJs and h&m. and maybe blogging more often ;)

the bump

when our friends the mcmullins moved to pasadena, melanie was pregnant with henry. there was an eccentric older couple at our church who were always saying odd things, and one of the first sundays the mcmullins went to church, the man came up to melanie, looked at her stomach, and said: "as they say in people magazine, is that a baby bump?"

we laughed about that a lot. and now i think about it often as i'm growing my own little bump. sometimes i think i look like a girl who's eaten a few too many burritos, but once in a while i actually look pregnant. i guess.

i'm 18.5 weeks. baby wells is allegedly the size of a bell pepper.

and fyi it's been tough to get a good belly shot. i guess that's how you know i'm not really that pregnant. here are a couple to give you a general idea:

and just for reference, here's what i looked like the day we found out i was pregnant. i guess compared to this i definitely have grown a bit:

oh and by the way my latest craving is cheese. if anyone wants to make a dish of 7-layer dip and bring it to my house, i'd be eternally indebted ;)