What's in a Name?

I told my students today that I'm pregnant. It was highly entertaining. To break the news, I gave them a "pop quiz" which consisted of two questions:

1) What is the name of the play we're reading right now? (A: The Diary of Anne Frank)

2) What should Mrs. Harr name her baby boy (due in May)?

I loved watching them read the questions and slowly comprehend what the second question meant. Although, perhaps my favorite part was chuckling at the kids who didn't even get to question two due to the fact that they were stressing about the first question because they couldn't remember the name of the play (really???).

Their name suggestions were pretty great, too. Here's the short list:

Givlio

Chewbacca

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Francisco

Lleyton

Amala Kia

Spuncer

Smikey

Maximus

Mikelsousky

Hayzen

Scrumdeliumpsious

Perceus

Jimbob

And those are just the ones that made me laugh out loud. It's not counting all the boys who want the baby named after them or the weird spellings, like Dakhoda.

In any case, I think I'll have to look elsewhere for inspiration. Or...maybe I should take their advice.

Jimbob Chewbacca Harr

What do you think?

Poll

Tomorrow is a big day for me. I solve a grammatical problem I've had for the last four months. You see, in the English Language, there is no gender-neutral, third-person singular pronoun for a person. I love our language, but this really bothers me, especially lately because I hate calling the baby "it".

But tomorrow we find out if it's a boy or a girl! I don't have a preference; I'll just be glad to know whether to call this child a "he" or a "she" from now on.

Any guesses? Here's a picture to help.

(Sorry, I know my shirt is blocking your view of the baby. It's the best I could do.)

Happy Halloween!

While I wait for Graham to come home from work so we can watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (best Halloween movie EVER in my opinion), I thought I'd post some fun pictures of our festivities this year.

Last night, we went down to Ken and Sarah's for dinner and pumpkin carving. Ian's 75 pound pumpkin was AWESOME. I wish you could tell from the picture how big it is.

Graham's and mine weren't quite as ambitious, but I think our pumpkin family is kinda precious, especially with the baby one.

I brought some cupcakes down for dessert, and I summoned my mom's decorating abilities to make these yummy mummy cupcakes. Shouldn't all mummies be this cute?

Hope you and yours are having a great holiday, too!

Best Husband Ever!

Have I mentioned I have the best husband ever? No, really, he constantly outdoes himself and makes me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Case in point: Last week Graham came home from work on Tuesday and announced that he had a "small" present for me. He got a sneaky look on his face and said that while it was small, he wanted to wrap it because it would be more fun that way. After disappearing into the office for about 5 minutes with our box of wrapping supplies, he announced he was ready for me to come in. The whole time, I had been trying to decipher what he could possible have bought me. My best guess was that "small" might equal something for the baby, like a cute pair of socks. Needless to say, I did not open a pair of socks.

When I walked in the room, he held up a TINY package. I looked at him quizzically, and took it from him. I opened it, revealing a 16 GB memory card.

"Why is Graham giving Megan memory cards?" you ask. It's because we have been talking for months about saving money to get me a DSLR camera for my birthday/Christmas present. As I was processing the meaning of the gift, Graham pulled a second box (this one significantly bigger) from its hiding place in the file cabinet, and presented me with a second gift. Lo and behold, it held my Canon Rebel camera! Apparently, Graham decided that it wouldn't be nearly as much fun to give me the camera if I not only knew what I was getting, but also when. So he ordered it on his own so he could surprise me a month before my birthday!

Told you, he's the best...ever.

We've had a lot of fun playing with the camera in the last week or so, and I'm looking forward to becoming more familiar with its functions and mastering at least some of what it has to offer. Here are some of the pictures we've taken so far:

Did you know...

that there are actually three people in the following picture:

"What?" you say.


You can only see two?


Can't find the third?


Here is a zoomed in version:

Baby Harr will debut in May of 2012!

(I know some of you have already received this news, but celebrate with us again! After all, it's a pretty big deal, and we're ridiculously excited!)

Dreams Come True

When I was a little girl, I used to daydream of marrying prince charming and setting up house to live happily ever after. Many days, my best friend, Stephanie, and I would dress ourselves up and "walk down the aisle" of my bedroom, pretending to get married. We would set our "husbands" (the over-sized teddy bears named Mr. Fuzzy and Big Berkley) at one end of the room, have a wedding, and then practice throwing the bouquet to each other. We talked about how we would be each other's maid of honor, and we planned our wedding colors and designed our dresses.

Back then, I had no idea what it really meant to fall in love and become a partner in a marriage. I just knew it was something I wanted. Over the last several years, however, I have seen this dream come true...better than I ever imagined when I was five. Getting married nine and a half months ago has been the biggest blessing of my life (and Graham is a much superior husband to the stuffed bear of my childhood). And standing beside me, supporting me all the way, was Stephanie.

Then, last week, the rest of the childhood dream came true. I was able to be a part of Stephanie's wedding to her own prince charming. Although it was a whirlwind weekend trip to San Diego, I would not have traded the experience for the world. Stephanie looked beyond beautiful, and as I watched her interact with her husband-to-be over the course of the weekend, I felt strongly that this was a man I could entrust her to. He brings out the best in her, supports and encourages her, and loves her with a clear devotion and loyalty. I look forward to watching them grow together in the coming years, and I feel so blessed to have been a part of celebrating with them.

So here's to childhood dreams coming true, albeit in different (and better) ways than I would have imagined.

Steph & Nick

Graham & I remembering our own special day.

Life has been crazy around here lately. I have started teaching school again, and I never cease to be amazed by how tired I am after a week of full-time work, especially when work involves entertaining adolescents all day. I'm SO glad to be back, and I have a great bunch of students this year (they're even starting to get the hang of opening their lockers), but GOODNESS I've renewed an afternoon relationship with my bed. I'm getting back into the schedule, though, and I'm looking forward to the year.

It was wonderful to have the three-day weekend of Labor Day after the first week, and Graham and I made good use of the extra day.

Saturday, we went to the Manti temple with Robyn and Jeff, which was awesome! The building is straight out of the pioneer era and the hand-carvings and paintings are gorgeous. There is a special spirit about the temple, and I felt clearly what a labor of love it was to build.
Monday morning, we went canoeing on the Provo River with a college friend (and his wife) of Graham's. I had been wanting to go canoeing all summer, and we hadn't gotten around to it, so I was really excited to get out on the water and channel my inner Pocahontas.

That evening, we got together with Graham's dad and younger brother to have family night and make homemade pizza and homemade ice cream. I was nervous about cooking for them since the last time they came over was the only time since I've known Graham that I really botched a meal, but the food turned out well, and we had a great evening. Below are some pictures of the three musketeers diligently making our dessert. I had never made ice cream myself and I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but I found a GREAT recipe for rocky road online, and it was a hit! WAHOO!
I'm not sure I was really rested before the new school week rolled around, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!