Christmas, etc.

It has been an eventful month and a bit since last I posted. As with journaling, it seems that the things that would make good blog fodder also keep me occupied so that I don't actually write when I have things to write about. I think about most things in lists:

1. We had our second ultrasound appointment where the technician and my doctor were both thoroughly convinced that we are having a boy. Most ultrasound images are about as clear to me as a Jackson Pollock painting, but they seemed very confident, so I am also very confident. Having a boy will be wonderful, provided we can pick a name for him before he forms a confused identity as a nameless child. Our list of girl names was really progressing pretty well, but I guess that had nothing to do with parental intuition. My father suggested that we set up a sort of name raffle where people can pay some amount to enter a name, and then we use whatever name we draw from the entries. This would definitely simplify things, and perhaps give an early start to our son's college fund. However, I fear that my dear, but sometimes mischievous, brothers would not be able to resist some unfortunately creative entries, and so we'll probably go about things the usual way. The ultrasound also revealed that our unborn child is becoming cuter and less alien.

2. Russell and I finished our first reading of the Book of Mormon together. We have read several other books together (by together, I mean aloud to each other), including Till We Have Faces, The Magician's Nephew, and The Social Animal. However, the Book of Mormon is definitely the most important of our list, and is probably the one of the few books that we will continue reading to each other as long as eyesight permits (and then there's always the audio recordings, right?). Today I rediscovered a delightful quote from Marion G. Romney, who was an apostle in the LDS church in the mid-late 1900s. He said: "I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, . . . [t]he spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. . . Faith, hope, and charity. . . will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace joy, and happiness" (General Conference, April 1980). Who doesn't want that? I can use all the love and wisdom I can get, so I'm definitely on board.

3. We got to spend almost two full weeks over Christmas in St. George, UT with my delightful in-laws. There are always more places that we would like to be than we can be, especially at holidays, but as much as I missed my own parents and brothers (and grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, . . . ), I think we picked the right place for this year's Christmas. All three of Russell's sisters were there, plus the husband and children of his one married sister. It was really wonderful to have everyone together and to get mostly away from work and school. The pictures we took give the impression that we spent most of our time eating at Cafe Rio; I'll need to get better about photo-documenting things, because we did a lot more than that. Other happy memories include, but are not limited to: celebrating Russell's birthday (we actually did this twice: once in Iowa, once in Utah), watching my sister-in-law Miquelle play Mary in a brief nativity at Tuacahn (complete with real camels!), having the traditional Leslie family Christmas Eve sherbet/soda drink, Christmas morning gift extravaganza, four-wheeling (not so much me as Russell and his sisters and dad), making baby blankets with my mother-in-law, after-Christmas sale shopping, and a multi-day "Bones" marathon. Probably best of all was going to the St. George temple so that my husband, Russell LeVan Leslie, and his dad, Russell Allen Leslie, Jr., could do temple work for my Russell's grandfather, Russell Allen Leslie, Sr., and great-grandfather, Russell Uralee Leslie (and if you're wondering if we might name our son Russell, the answer is yes, very possibly).

People often ask me how I'm feeling. I'm not sure if this is out of concern for my physical comfort or in expectation that I'm filled with excited anticipation and/or anxiety. I am feeling well. It is getting more difficult to put my shoes and socks on. Sometimes I can feel the baby move. Other times, I'm not sure if the baby is moving or my stomach is growling (I know, rookie mistake, right? I'll probably get better at telling the difference). So far, he has not lodged himself under my rib cage or kicked my bladder. As for my emotional state, I am feeling very pleased about having a baby. Lately I have not been very worried about the difficult decisions that will probably come with his arrival, but as my friend Sara aptly put it to me a few weeks ago, everything feels bigger when you're pregnant. I don't know if this is a universal experience, but I certainly feel that my emotional pendulum is swinging wider than usual.

Well that was more than I expected to write and probably more than anyone really wanted to read (thank you for your patience if you've made it this far down the post). We're planning on caucusing this week (yes, I have registered as a Republican for this voting cycle), so next time I'll have the inside scoop on the Republican caucusing experience.

Cute

In the weeks since my first post, I have been wrestling with what sort of blog I want to create. Is this "family blog" going to turn into a pregnancy/childhood milestones blog? A blog of posts for special occasions (e.g. birthdays, holidays, vacations, etc.)? An introspective blog? A picture-centric blog? An entertaining blog? Unfortunately, I am not as good at taking pictures or at making people laugh as some of my blogging friends. Basically I don't know what kind of blog I want to create, though this paragraph is making me think I may accidentally end up with an introspective blog.

Since I'm already waxing introspective, I'll tell you that I've really begun to worry about the effect that studying economics is going to have (has already had?) on my perception of reality. For example, what makes something cute? My dear older brother used to tell me that if there were three cinder blocks in a row and one was smaller than the other two, girls would call the runty cinder block "cute." I suppose he meant that it had become semi-synonymous with small, or that smallness could automatically endear literally any object to some of the more tender-hearted among us. Well how about these examples of cuteness, courtesy of two of my professors:

(1) Did you know that generically there are an odd number of Nash equilibria in any game? A very "cute" result from game theory.

(2) What word other than "cute" could accurately describe the fact that the unconditional cumulative distribution function of ln(capital) is a fixed point of the operator that integrates its derivative with the conditional probability distribution of ln(capital')?

Before I started my PhD program, I was under the impression that this is the sort of thing really embodies cuteness: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/lovely-owl-video_n_1101488.html. It's strange how economics (probably other fields as well, but I wouldn't know firsthand) really gets under your skin and changes the way you talk and even what you mean by the words you use. Perhaps by the time I'm done, my brother will be praying for me to go back to the small = cute mentality.

In between visions of the "this is your brain on economics" commercials I could make to warn away the unsuspecting beginning students of economics, I convinced Russell to grow a little goatee this week. I think he grew it for a good seven or eight days, and this allowed the hair on his chin and mustache to get as long as it has ever been in his entire life. What did we learn as a result of this experience? For one thing, it turns out that Russell has a sort of reddish beard. Which begs the question: what evolutionary or creative purpose can there possibly be to having a single human being with blond head hair, red facial hair, and black chest hair? My husband, the Neapolitan man.

But now the beard is gone, my brain is still on economics, and I think I should probably save the rest of my introspective musings for my journal, rather than assuming that anyone besides me could possibly be interested in them. In three weeks we get to find out "what flavor" we're having, in the words of my OB/GYN. Also, Thanksgiving will have happened. So perhaps I can escape an excessively mind-vomity blog after all...

The Alien

This is the new Russell and Emily Leslie family blog. Sort of. Mostly, it's going to be me, Emily, blogging about the Russell and Emily Leslie family. I feel a little bad about taking over PR for our family, but not too bad. I figure I can succeed in being at least as unbiased as most major news outlets (am I setting the bar too low?).

I guess since this is the first entry, I have about 16 months of stuff to cover. Here's the first 13 months: We got married in June 2010, made it through one last year at BYU, successfully got admitted to our respective graduate programs at the University of Iowa, and had a summer of epic adventure.

My epic adventures:

-going to Guatemala

-building a bookshelf

-orchestrating our entire move

-researching the pretrial detention of suspected felons

Russell's epic adventures:

-finishing classes

-interning at clinics

Mine may have been a little more epic, aside from the shared epic adventures:

-nuptial celebrations for bosom buddies

-Webb family reunion (i.e. temporary tent city, complete with family "Survivor" activities to separate the wheat from the chaff in my mother-in- law's wonderfully large extended family)

-first anniversary celebrated at amazing B&B in Salt Lake

The last three months have been spent mostly here in the Shire of the U.S.: Iowa. Russell is now well into the first semester of his MHA (masters of healthcare administration) program. He has become an avid reader of Atul Gawande books (I recommend them on his behalf, and also based on the two chapters I have read so far). He is also well on his way to a successful career in politics, having won in his first bid for elected office as a member of the Student Faculty Liaison. I think we're both still figuring out what the SFL does exactly, but we'll let you know when we know.

For my part, I spend most days doing math. None of my classes have math anywhere in the course title, but it turns out that as a first year PhD student in economics, that's pretty much what all your classes boil down to. There are five other students in my year, so we're getting to know each other pretty well. For anyone who's wondering, Russell's program is two years; mine is five. How's that going to work? Excellent question.

This brings me--tangentially--to my final and most important topic, also the inspiration for the title of this post: I am pregnant. I had my very first appointment on Friday (two days ago), and so I am finally in possession of an estimated due date, which is April 22. I never knew where due dates come from, and I guess I still don't know if they are all estimated the same way, but mine involved an ultrasound. This was awesome--probably the best thing that happened to me all week. I didn't know I was already 13 weeks along, so I wasn't expecting to see the little heart beating, and the not-quite-as-tiny-as-expected limbs so clearly. The technician printed two images for me: one from the side of the entire fetus, and one of its face. "Aw, it's looking out at you," she said as she handed it to me. Perhaps I'm experiencing an oxytocin deficiency, but honestly all I could think of when I saw that picture was the striking resemblance that the dear little face bore to the iconic alien. I suppose we'd all look a little more like aliens if we were looking at each other using ultrasounds (or x-rays?), so I can only assume that the baby will resolve itself into a lovable infant bundle by the time it gets into my arms and I'm looking at it with normal vision instead. What will I do about school when that day comes? I don't know yet. I think about this question a lot, but I doubt I'll actually decide in advance.

For now, we're both happy to be in Iowa, grateful to be in school, and excited about the prospect of a baby.

P.S. Russell just showed his sister the picture above. She thought it was an alien picture that he was showing her as a joke.