Baby Wants a Milkshake!

This week was full of grand adventures - like always.  After the exciting and busy time with Marinda's mom being here, Marinda was a little tired.  All week.  "She was just like the girl I fell in love with," Amit was reported to have said with a dreamy look in his eyes.  "You know, sick and too weak to get out of bed."

So Amit and Marinda resorted to one of their favoriet activites while they were dating:  Hanging out in the bedroom with Marinda stuck in bed and Amit finding funny stuff on the internet!  This week's offering: MorphThing!  It started as us wanting to know what our baby will look like.  The results were...not what we expected.  The site basically took half of each of our pictures and put them together.  Look at this picture of morph-Luke.  Why does his forehead have faint hair all over it?  Why does he have 1.5 sets of eyebrows?  Why does he have a slight mustache?  In short, don't use this site.  Oh, apparently, all of boys will look exactly the same. 

What our baby boy will look like

What our baby girl will look like

Super fancy date night - on Friday we had a date night.  What did we do?  We rented "He's just not that into you" and got take-out food from QFC.  Yeah, super fancy.  It was fun though.  "The movie was okay, but the person sitting next to me was exception-al!" Amit said.  "Amit is my exception,"Marinda said, fighting off hormone-charged tears of joy and excitement while watching the last scene.

Baby wants a milkshake - we went to get Chipotle last night because we just couldn't figure out what to do for dinner.  So we get to Chipotle, and on the way there Marinda saw the Red Robin sign.  What happened after that?  This dialogue is a record of the conversation that ensued:
Marinda: Baby wants a milkshake.
Amit: What?  We're going to Chipotle.
Marinda: But - but - but - baby wants a milkshake
Amit: Okay, fine.  But won't our burritos get cold while we're waiting to get our milkshake?  Or if we go to Red Robin first, you'll be too full for your burrito.
<Marinda holds belly with her hands and starts walking>
Amit: Where are you going?
Marinda: I don't know.  I'm following you.
Amit: No, I'm following you.
Marinda: Fine.  I'm following baby. 

Pulled Pork Sandwiches - today we experimented with our crock pot and tried to make pulled pork sandwiches.  I shouldn't say 'try', because we succeeded!  Funny story, we actually heard a commercial on the radio for pork shoulder being on sale at QFC which is why we looked for it.  This is one of the few times advertising has directly led to us buying a product.  See, it does work sometimes.

Mama Mia!

This week we've had a great time having Marinda's mother around.

She flew in Monday afternoon for a nice relaxing week just hanging around the apartment helping Marinda go through stuff for the baby.  The final assessment after a week of her being here?  "I am SO TIRED!" Marinda was reported to have exclaimed.  "How did we manage to fill up every day so full?  We were just suppose to be lazy all week!"

So what did they do?  Well, they started the week off right with a trip to Spa Envy for some pedicures.  And they were SO NICE.  "They even had cloth towels in the bathroom!"  It also was quite affordable, a perfect way to start out their relaxing week.

That night was Valintines Day, and even though we had already celebrated Mom cooked us up a tasty meal complete with chocolate fondu for dessert.  The next day the sun was out, so it was off to the Seattle Arboretum for the morning, lunch with Amit near campus, and then to Sky Nursery to buy some flowers for their apartment's front box.  That night we also took her to our Churchy Marriage Class, which was fun having her there for.  Full day, but the sun was out, you know...

Mom and Marinda at the Arboretum

Mom wanted to take a picture, but it is a really nice Nursery!

Then the next day Marinda taught lessons, then it was off to Bellevue to visit the LDS Temple - so that day was shot.  Then the next day we had another ultrasound for our study!  Luke is still doing great, but not that many great pictures...  he's still upside down and loving it.  We did get to see him do some karate punches.  Mom and Amit's reaction: "Awww.... how cute!"  Marinda's reaction:  "CUTE?!?  That's ME he's punching!"

This is the only picture that kind of turned out.
It is a 3D picture.  Luke is looking away, but you can see his ear
and his shoulder, arm, and little fist of his other hand.
It kind of looks like a super artsy sculpture!

Marinda and Mom went on to campus to do some inspirational writing in one of the library reading rooms, then that night she accompanied/helped up put on the Institute's Married Student Forum.

Saturday we went to lunch at Ivar's Salmon House, a Seattle gem of a restaurant.  It doesn't look like much from the street, but right around the corner from the Fish'n'Chips shack is one of the best restaurants we've found in Seattle to date.  Everything there was good, but the main reason we went was the salmon.  The main reason we'll be going back is the creme brulee trio, where you get three things of creme brulee for $12.

Salmon!  YUM!

After Ivar's we went to the central library in downtown.  The library is still a fun place to go, but the elevators are definitely kind of rough.  "You can 'lit-er-ally' feel your brain move up and down in your head when the elevator accelerates and then decelerates," says Chris Trager from Pawnee, Indiana. Otherwise the library is a great place.  Mrs. Mitchell (Marinda's mom) was intrigued when Amit found a book entitled "Pioneer Women of the Western Reserve."  It's a book with a bunch of stories about women who lived in the Western Reserve (northeastern Ohio) in pioneer times.  Apparently little Luke Misra will have ancestors who lived in the Western Reserve area of Ohio.  (Amit's family probably wouldn't be comfortable with being called 'ancestors' just quite yet)

Marinda is still afraid of heights

That night we watched RA One, the Indian superhero/robot movie that came out last year.  It was entertaining.  "It reminded me of Short Circuit," Amit said.  "Or at least, Short Circuit with wild fight scenes and musical numbers."

And now today Mother Mitchell will be leaving us.  It is sad to bid her farewell, but we know that she will always be close to us in our hearts - or at least on iChat.  :)  To help us remember her, she gave us a final gift of 3lb of the best cooked roast we've ever had and homemade pudding desserts that made us feel special.  Thanks Mom for such a great week!  We'll try and make your next visit in June a little less exciting...

Our super fancy dessert - even in Great-Grandpa Johnson's
ice cream dishes!

Happy V-Day! Celebrating Clutter's Victory...

Because Marinda's mom is coming to visit this upcoming week we decided to celebrate Valentine's Day on Friday night.  In the morning we exchanged home-made cards (a Misra family tradition).  Marinda made Amit a 3-D card that said 'i <3 u'.  Amit gave Marinda a card with Galileo on the cover (inside joke, don't worry about it) and definitions of love on the inside.  One of the definitions was 'What you and I have.'  Awwwwwww.  Also, a mini-rose plant and a heart shaped box of chocolate's ended up on their front step right "before" Amit came home - Marinda is still very curious about who could have left such a romantic present for her.  :)

"When it comes to how I feel about Amit,
My love stands out!"

That night we went to dinner at Ciao Bella, a nearby fancy-ish Italian place.  We had never been there before so it was a risk but the reviews on yelp were good.  The place turned out to be amazing!  The decor was cozy, as seen in this stolen image below.  The food was really good too.  And to Marinda's delight they had creme brulee for dessert.  Looks like someone has a new nearby guilty pleasure.  The following conversation shouldn't be too hard to imagine....
Amit:  Hey hon, what's this random withdrawal of $100 from an ATM doing on our bank statement?
Marinda:  I don't know what you're talking about honey....
Amit:  Wait a second, what are you eating?  Where did that come from?  Is that creme brulee?  Why is there a bag on the floor that says Ciao Bella on it?
Marinda: I don't know what you're talking about honey...(in between scarfing down bites)
Amit: Wait did you get a bunch of cash out to go buy creme brulee, bring it home, then try to NOT hide it from me?
Marinda: <breaks down crying>  I thought I could control myself!  But I was wrong!

Interior of Ciao Bella

We've also been on a Christian movie kick and have been happily surprised with how much we've enjoyed them.  We started with "Soul Surfer."  Then based off of the previews we saw during that movie Netflixed "To Save a Life", "Fireproof" ending with last night's viewing of "Courageous."  All are about being good people and working through problems with Christian values, and all are quite good.

We've also been spending time rearranging our lives...I mean, our apartment...for this baby that's showing up in a few months.  We have a second bedroom that's been functioning as a glorified storage closet (glorified by the presence of Amit's desk) for the past year and a half, but that room will soon have a new occupant.  So we needed to clear it out.  We don't have any baby furniture yet, but we will eventually and it'll need to go somewhere.  Thus, we are busy rearranging everything.  Marinda decided to take this task upon herself while Amit was out of the house for a couple of hours on Saturday.  "I wanted to surprise him!  He does so much, now that I have some semblance of energy I wanted to use it towards something productive."  Needless to say Amit was quite surprised.  "I couldn't believe what I saw when I came home!  I have the best wife-y ever!  And NO I'm NOT talking about my thesis this time!"She ended up vacuuming and everything, but now all there stuff is in loosely defined piles in their living room.  If only we had someone coming tomorrow and staying for a week that could help in this overwhelming task...

Tune in next time when we have a special guest blogger: Marinda's mother, Stacy Mitchell!

Lazy Boy (but he didn't get it from his parents)

This has been a busy and exciting week, or at least a busy and exciting Friday and Saturday.

Friday we had another ultrasound!  Baby was a little more cooperative than last time, but we will probably have to get another diagnostic ultrasound because he didn't feel like showing off his cute little face.  Thankfully, everything is fine with lil' Luke.

After our appointment on Friday Amit had a planetarium show to give.  The show was to a group of - wait for it - kindergardeners!  The show went really well.  Amit started by showing them the night sky and pointing out some constellations.  They of course oohed and aahed at seeing the sky, and when they looked at Ursa Major they were amazed that it was supposed to look like a bear.  "That's not a bear!" they said.  "The tail's too big.  That's the biggest tail ever!"  The other thing they really wanted to see was Pluto.  For some reason everyone loves Kuiper Belt Objects.  At the end the parents and teachers wanted a group picture with Amit.  Afterwards some of the kids could be heard saying "this was the best day ever!" while walking out :)

Saturday was a busy day.  The weather was gorgeous so we decided to go enjoy the outside world.  We went to Magnuson Park and walked on a trail by the water for about an hour.  "Sunshine!" Marinda kept saying over and over again.  "Sunshine rainbows and lolly pops!"

Later on Saturday we began our epic quest to reorganize our apartment in preparation for the baby.  Our task: rearrange our entire apartment so the baby has a nursery.  Our timeline: ONE DAY!  Oh my gosh, we're having a baby we have to do everything right now or else we're bad parents!  So we spent a few hours yesterday working on reorganizing things and trying to empty out our second bedroom while still giving the baby room to play in the living room.

Marinda has spent much of this past week researching baby stuff.  Target's baby sale ended yesterday, so she was going crazy with learning about EVERYTHING.  She now is an expert of baby swings and other things.  So we know exactly what we need to get, now we just need to find it at the best price possible.  If anyone has questions, she has read hundreds, if not thousands of reviews on different products.  Too bad Target's baby sale isn't really that much of a sale, and shipping costs make it not worth it.  Otherwise we'd probably have all the furniture we'd need for lil' Luke.

For one last highlight, we finally found a good, reasonably priced chinese place nearby!  Its better than Safeway chinese food but not as expensive as other places in the gentrified neighborhood of Laurelhurst.  Its basically your run of the mill local american chinese food place, which is exactly what we were looking for :)