RALEIGH AND TANDI'S VISIT

Here are some more pictures from Raleigh and Tandi's visit! Thanks for coming you guys! We had a great time with you here!

Outside the Tucson Rodeo

At Windy Point on the way up to Mount Lemmon

Tandi and Stella at Windy Point

The Sonoran Desert Museum - an amazing place to go!

Raleigh, Tandi and Stella in tow - Desert Museum

SoNoGrAm of Baby Girl Wright!

At our last sonogram a few funny things happened.

1. Our little baby likes to move a lot. At each of her sonograms, she's been completely stretched out, taking every inch of space that is available to her as she spins and kicks inside of me. Anyway, on this particular day, she wasn't too active - which was both nice and frustrating for the technician. She wanted to get a good look at the heart and a few other organs to make sure they were developing right -- and to double-double check to see if she really is a girl (this was at 25 weeks.) Even though we'd had lots of evidence that she was a girl, they wanted to check again. So, as she was trying to push her into a position that she could see, little exhibitionist Wright scooted her bottom right into the field of view! It was hilarious. This was the show she gave us...


Look at this picture as if you are changing a baby's diaper and lifting her legs to lift the diaper underneath her bottom/back - and that's what you are looking at! The little arrow is pointing to her girl parts. Needless to say, it's a girl and she was CLEARLY showing so. :-)

2. It was at 7 am in the morning and for some reason, that seems to be the worst time of day for my nausea recently (which has decided to start up again the past month or so.) As I was laying on the table and the technician was busy looking at the baby, I got more and more nauseous and said, "I'm feeling a little nauseous - but don't worry, I hardly EVER throw up" -- which WAS true up until that moment in time. About two minutes after I said that, I looked over at Jason, began to gag and ran (remind you with my shirt tucked up, jelly all over my stomach) to the bathroom and threw up. It was classic. I'm sure I threw up just because I said that I never did. After I returned, she said that she had enough pictures and we were finished. What a climatic way to end a sonogram!

THE JOYS OF WORKING RETAIL

Beware - this one's a long one. On Tuesday morning, I went to work at Williams-Sonoma. I have to say that most of the time, we have really wonderful, nice and polite customers - but sometimes....well, sometimes the devil (literally) reincarnated as a lady walks in. Today was one of my lucky days to meet a lady devil face-to-face.

So, this lady rushes in, snaps her fingers at me (it's just me and another lady working and there were quite a few people in the store at this time) and says, "I need your help! Could you come here and help me?" I walked over and asked her what I could help her with. She said she had called and was told that we sell water filters for these really fancy coffee makers that we sell. Now, I'm still learning my way through all the coffee stuff (since, I don't drink it, it's been a little challenging for me to remember all the differences between coffee, espresso, cappuccino, brew vs. grind, etc).

I proceeded to ask her what model she owned because the filter would depend upon the model that you have - and she tersely remarked, "I have the S-7." I grab the printout that we have sitting there and looked for her model to decipher what filter she would need for her machine and it said on the paper, "S-7a". While I only had limited understanding, I still knew we only sold TWO filters and that it was either one or the other. I told her she needed the one that went with the S-7a.

She fell into a rant that she doesn't have the S-7a, that she has the S-7 and kept repeating that her model number was not amongst the listed machines. After she had her little tantrum, I said that I would ask Lynn because she knew a little bit more about the filters and she could answer the question regarding her S-7 vs. S-7a lash-out. So, I walked away, motioned to Lynn (who was currently with a customer) and said to her that there was a lady who had a question about the filters that I felt I couldn't answer confidently. Lynn said she would go help her as soon as she was finished.

And I thought that was that. I began helping another customer at the register and before I knew it, this lady walked over and said in a very rude manner, "Excuse me, can you help me?" Lynn looked over and said, "I'll be right with you as soon as I finish with this customer." At this point, this lady huffed and walked back to where the filters were being displayed. Lynn walked over nearly a minute later and answered her questions - which she heard the SAME answer as I was giving her.

About an hour later, this lady walks back into the store and comes up to the cash register where we were and said straight to my face, "I'd like to talk to the nice lady." As her comment registered in my brain, I was a bit stunned. She said, "the other lady - the one with shorter hair, where is she? I'd like her to help me because she wasn't rude." I told her that Lynn had left and she said, "well, I don't want YOU to help me - you were VERY rude to me." To which I replied, "I'm so sorry, ma'am, I didn't mean to be rude to you..." -- and then she interrupted me, "Well, you just left me and started helping someone else." So, to my defense, I said, "I thought Lynn could answer your question more clearly than I could - so I asked her to help you. It was not my intention to be rude or unhelpful at all - I was just trying to get an answer to your question." *Let me remind you that I had NOT been rude to this lady and felt it ridiculous that I had to actually defend myself - but being in retail, you kind of have to be apologetic.

At this point, our manager Cathy noticed the little exchange, walked over and began helping her AGAIN - to tell her AGAIN the same thing AGAIN that both Lynn and I had told her. She, in a gruff, bought the darn filter that I had told her was the correct one in the first place and left the store.

Well, it was all over before I knew it, but the third girl that I was working with, Jenny (she's a little youunger than me) was standing right behind me when this little exchange went on and after the devil left, she said she could NOT believe that that lady talked to me that way and that I handled it very diplomatically and she would have been a lot more rude to the lady.

I have two things to say about this: 1. This lady was a you-know-what...and how can she accuse me of being rude, when she was clearly the epitome of a RUDE person?? Double standard, I think so. 2. It makes me grateful for kind and gracious people who treat people with a mutual respect. Obviously this lady missed that day in etiquette school...that --- or she's from the East or Northest. That kind of behavior is definitely more prevalent there. :-)

"The East and West have terrible storms...and we, well, we live in paradise." - Chuck George, meteorologist for channel 13, Tucson, AZ.

Chuck, I couldn't say it better. We DO live in paradise. I mean, who can beat perfect 80 degree weather in February? Jason can agree - I've always been a fan of the desert. He often refers to me as his "desert girl" because I love to sit out in the heat of the sun and feel the warmth on my face like lizards do! Being in Arizona has been good for my soul.

I remember as a young girl, I participated in the Suzuki violin camp in St. George. At the ripe age of seven, I fell in love with the landscape, the warmth of the sun, the blue skies and the red rock of the mountains there. After living three years in the East, my love for the desert grew ten-fold, after dealing with cold (and or hot) humid weather, wind chill that brought temperatures below freezing and shade in the summer that brought no relief! I'd repeatedly say, "I just want to live someplace warm and sunny." Needless to say, Jason and I had a general understanding that *eventually* we would settle in a nice, warm, arid and sunny climate. I feel really lucky to live here - because, well, weather is a HUGE factor on my moods. Jason can attest to this fact. Here are some pictures of the mountains in Tucson and some of the sunsets. You just can't beat it!!

STELLA GRACE - you're the cutest

Stella is the cutest niece anyone could ask for. One thing that cracks me up about this girl is that she has a temperamental personality where she's either super happy or super angry. One second she can be completely content and within seconds she can be so angry that her face is bright red from crying. Two switches = hot and cold. But how can you resist? I mean, look at her!!!

Look how cute she is in her swimsuit!

Obviously this picture is of a very happy Stella.

Ahhhh. Family.

Jason and I were treated by a visit from my brother Raleigh and his wife, Tandi...and even more exciting, from my first little niece, Stella. We had a great time hanging out, enjoying the nice weather and going to a few of Tucson's scenic sites.

Here we are at Tucson's annual rodeo - one of the biggest events of the year. Yee-haw!

Welcome to the world, Avery Mae LaDuke!


So, Jason and I were getting ready for bed the night before Valentine's day when my phone started to ring at about 10:30 pm. I was wondering who might be calling me that late, so I looked at my phone and saw that it was Addie, so I answered it anticipating what she was going to say. She was in labor! Jason and I packed a few clothes and ran over to their place to stay with Callie while they went to the hospital to see what was going on. I called Addie at 6:30 the next morning (Valentine's Day) and found out that Avery was born! She's such a beautiful little baby girl and it was so fun to hold her. Congrats Addie and Cameron!

I threw a baby shower for my two friends here in Tucson, Addie and Erin. Addie is having a little girl in February and Erin is having a little boy in January. I crammed about 25 people into my small living room and we played a lot of great games - thanks to Janae and her creative thumb. We had a great time and ate some delicious chocolate fondue. The first picture is of Erin concentrating on figuring out what the unnamed baby food was! The second picture is of Addie and her niece Lily and the third picture is of Erin, Addie and me on New Year's Eve - three preggo girls together.

So, I'm putting this up a little late, obviously since I am in my 26th week of pregnancy. But I thought it'd be fun to post one our best pictures of our little girl yet! She's growing healthy and strong, which is a huge blessing. When I was really sick and first diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, all the doctors said that I would have a really hard time having a healthy pregnancy and that it'd probably be smart to not have children. Boy, have I proved them wrong! I'm so grateful for good doctors, for amazing technology and for a watchful Heavenly Father. I know this sweet little spirit is to come to our home. We're very excited for her to arrive!