Prego Says...

My child is going to LOVE egg and cheese on English muffins! I had a hankering for Egg McMuffins early in my pregnancy, and just had a cafe-made egg and cheese muffin sandwich for breakfast this morning... And both of us are in HEAVEN!!! He's kicking around like crazy and I'm wanting another one... :) I guess I better start perfecting the art of the well-made egg sandwich over the next year or two!

Mer

Baci's New Haircut

How cute am I? Love, Baci

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, so I was right all along - it is a little boy growing in my belly!! I told Hubby that the Chinese birth chart was wrong, and his response was "well, you're not Chinese"! That's so Sheridan...

MEANWHILE, how silly was I to think that the way I am carrying was indicative of the baby's gender?? I guess because it's my first baby, my tummy muscles are still in tact from my gymnastics days and they're holding on to fitness for their lives!!! And since the weight doesn't affect my tummy due to those muscles, it found other places to nest, like my boobs, arms, face, feet, hands, legs, and did I miss anything? Oh yeah, hair.

But back to Peanut!! Remember that episode of Sex and The City where someone reminds Miranda that she has a penis growing inside her?? That's all I could think about yesterday!! I giggled and beamed to the point that I was even annoying myself. I'M HAVING A SON!!!

I shouldn't be surprised, given that the father determines the gender and Peanut's daddy is one of 3 boys, his dad is one of 3 boys, his brother has a son, and in the entire Hall lineage, there's only ONE female (and I met her once; she was rather masculine). Do those Halls have ANY sperm with X chromosomes? Will my son have sons? That's cool with me - I love boys and men. Give me a whole house full of 'em!

A special apology to Lindsay, who I totally let down by not posting the baby's sex yesterday. I didn't know I *had* blog groupies!! I'm so excited!! Thanks for making my day... and thanks for keeping up with The Mer Show. xo

Love, Mer

Peanut's Gender

Is it going to be boy or girl??? We'll find out Tuesday at 11:00 a.m.!!!!

I've thought all along it was a boy, due to Sheridan's family's birth patterns, but due to the way I'm carrying, and how I feel... I'm starting to think it's a girl!! The Chinese birth chart says it's a girl.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I just can't wait ANY LONGER!!

I can't wait to post the news tomorrow... Stay tuned!

Mer

Our Wedding, Chapter One B (By Sheridan)

The day before our fateful trip was an interesting one. Meredith and I taking turns at the computer looking at weather.com and trying to come up with ideas of places to go instead of the Bahamas. From the weather reports, the trip looked to be a disaster. Should we reroute to Maui? Negative. Mexico? No bueno. South America? Are you serious?

After much deliberation and back and forth, we decided to go. Life is an adventure, we said, and our relationship has been an exciting one so far. If we have to get married in the chapel at the Miami Airport, at least it will be a good story for the kids.

5:00 am the cab picks us up, 5:20 we are at the airport wondering where all the people came from. It was as busy as 6 pm on a Friday night. We get on the plane to Phoenix, no problems. We thought we would be able to sleep on that leg, but we were both up, the plane was full. The next leg was Phoenix to Ft. Lauderdale, 4+ hours. Poor Meredith got stuck in the middle seat with some 300 pound guy in the window seat. He was spilling over the sides and slept the whole time. Amazing how he could sleep through all his snoring! I was lucky enough to get the aisle seat, getting my elbow banged ever time someone walked up and down, or the beverage cart was wheeled by me.

Have you flown US Air recently? Don’t. They suck. The seats are small and you have to pay for EVERYTHING!!! Want some water, 2 bucks please. Coffee! A bargain at $1.00 per cup. Meredith and I were starving so we decided to buck up and drop 10 bucks on some snacks. I wait patiently as the Stewardess wheels her cart to my isle, I get my crisp 20 ready and hold it out like I am at a bar trying to get the bartenders attention. She asks the lady across from me if she wants something and the lady goes off about how she paid extra for the exit row and someone else is there. Grrreeeaaattt!! I am starving and my pregnant fiancé is starting to nibble on the arm rest and this lady decides an hour into the flight is a good time to raise a concern??? I thought about grabbing a snack when she wasn’t looking, but changed my mind when I realized I had no exit route. So what if I could out run the Stewardess, I wasn’t about to go D.B Cooper over a sandwich. I hear pay toilets are around the corner. Anyone got change for a dollar?????

Enough about the flight. We get to Ft. Lauderdale and go to Bahama Air for our flight to the island. We go up to the counter to ask the lady working it a question and we have to show her our boarding pass to get her to look at us. What attitude!!! I thought island people were supposed to be happy. Once we showed her our boarding pass and really weren’t wasting her precious flirtation time with the baggage handler, she politely told us we could not have the exit row. Awesome!

We get on the flight, the crew is speaking island language that I can barely understand and we get to Nassau! Mission accomplished. Almost. At this point Meredith tells me that the bus drivers do not work for the hotel and we may have to wait while they try to get other people from the airport to ride the bus. Ok, I think, how long will this take. It can’t be that bad, right? We wait on the bus for half an hour!!! Is there anything worse than spending 10 hours on a plane to get to your dream vacation, only to sit on a bus for 30 minutes waiting to get to the hotel? I think not.

Finally, we get to the hotel! I can finally say Mission Accomplished!!! We, we have to check in. The Bahamas is a little different. Employees walk around the hotel flirting with each other, calling each other “Baby”, “Sweetie”…no sexual harassment laws there. So we are meeting with the “check in lady”, getting our map, all our documents, our wedding binder (in between her taking personal calls)…at this point all I want is the room key and directions to the free bar.

We get our room keys, the bags will be brought up, and we are on our way to the room. Our room is in a building on the other side of the compound so we walk around the two pools and oooh and awww them. We can’t wait to get the vacation started!

We make it to the room and there is the fully stocked bar!! We have arrived. I ask Meredith one more time, “we can drink this stuff, right? It’s free?”

“Yes, baby, it is free”. Awesome!! Where’s the ice?????

Bump Watch

Well, I'm 19 weeks now and things are really progressing. The baby is moving like crazy, and I feel the movements constantly... We're definitely having an active one! I think the baby must like tomatoes, because when I've had tomato soup this week and spaghetti and meat sauce, I felt TONS of movement! I also had a bit of caffeine today, and the kid was dancing, dancing, dancing! I guess s/he's getting ready for the Madonna concert soon... haha

Meanwhile, here's a recent picture of the baby bump. It's started poking out, but you can't see so much in this photo. I think the next time we photograph the belly, it's really going to look different - it's growing pretty rapidly (yay!) and I'm starting to pack on pounds (ugh).

So that's the baby update. Next week we'll find out the sex, so stay tuned for that huge news!!

Love, Mer

Our Wedding, Chapter One

So right before we left for our weddingmoon to The Bahamas, I accepted a job to start with Cisco as a recruiting consultant, and went into the trip feeling relaxed because I crossed a huge burden off my personal to do list - FIND JOB- so now I could GET MARRIED! I had a week or so to take my time preparing for the wedding and picking up last-minute things that I had hadn't found yet, like bridal jewelry and “resort wear” outfits for Sheridan (those aren’t supposed to be last-minute items, but for me, they were). And it gave me some time to switch gears and start preparing for our amazing week!!

Unfortunately, it also gave me time to obsess about the impending Hurricane/ Tropical Storm Hanna and watch The Weather Channel obsessively to see if it was going to ruin our wedding! Was it going to hit Nassau, avoid it, and was it going to be a storm or hurricane? Crap!!!

The day before we left, we realized that Hanna was indeed going to hit Nassau almost directly, and debated on whether or not to cancel - we bought trip insurance just in case my pregnancy didn't cooperate with our trip - but decided that we were going to take our chances, go get married, and make the most of it, no matter what came our way!!

The night before we left, we did last-minute packing, bought snacks for our long journey, and dropped the doggie off at Pet Villa for the week. He didn't even look back at me - he hit the front door, ran for his favorite caretaker, John, jumped in his lap, and that was that... I would imagine it's like dropping your kid off at daycare and the kid not being particularly upset that you're leaving them. Guess I might want to get used to that idea! But Baci did leave us a little surprise when we got home - we found a dog cookie in Sheridan's suitcase as we were wrapping up his packing. He does love us, after all!!! Yay!

The next day, we got up at 4:00 a.m. for our 6:15 a.m. flight to Phoenix, and couldn't believe how busy the airport was! We got out safely, flew through Phoenix to get to Fort Lauderdale (most miserable flight of my life - I sat next to a fat, hairy, snoring beast on one side, and my broad-shouldered beau on the other, in the smallest seat imaginable, for 4.5 hours!!!), and eventually got to Nassau after a long 9 hour journey!

We arrived to Nassau and I could tell that Sheridan was thinking "where on earth has this woman brought me?" because looking around, downtown Nassau is pretty poor. They drive on the left side of the road and everything's on "island time", meaning everything takes FOREVER, including our shuttle from the airport to the hotel... it's like another planet! I assured Sheridan that it was going to be a fabulous resort and I could tell he was a little skeptical... (and I got a little nervous!) Not to mention, it was starting to get *pretty* windy…

We finally arrived to Sandals around 8:00 p.m. and had a lovely VIP check-in, checked into our room, and got ready for our first night in the resort. We got dressed and hit our first restaurant, Kimono's, the hibachi-style restaurant, and sat with 2 other honeymooning couples, both from the East Coast. We instantly hit it off with our new buddies Matt and Tonya from Washington State… great people!! We all felt a little bit weird about leaving right after our fabulous dinner without paying, but I guess that’s the beautiful part of all-inclusive packages!

After dinner, and after a couple of drinks at the bar (and a junkanoo parade through the bar - junkanoo is a Bahamian cultural tradition, like Mardi Gras for The Bahamas), it was time to call it a night and get some rest. We were looking forward to seeing what this adventure would bring us!

Just Married!

Well folks, we did it!!! We're MARRIED!!! As in FOREVER! Wow! :)

Tales from the Caribbean and corresponding photos are forthcoming. I started my new job today and have a busy week planned, but I plan to start documenting the greatest week of The Mer Show EVER very soon... stay tuned!

Love, Mer

Last Blog Post as a Single Woman

Well peeps, Hanna or not - Sheridan and I are headed to The Bahamas on Monday to get hitched. It might be a rainy wedding, but I figure it's like Charlotte's wedding on Sex and the City - "the worse the wedding, the better the marriage". hahaha No matter if we have to get married inside in the middle of a hurricane, it doesn't change how much we love each other, and want to marry each other. So take THAT, Hanna!!! ;)

Meanwhile, I'll be sure to post when we get back and give all the scoop, plus pictures!

But I do have some commentary before I go:

1. The DNC convention has left me inspired and excited!! Hillary's "Twin Cities" joke made my week (it makes sense that McCain and Bush are meeting in the Twin Cities this week, since it's hard to tell them apart), as did the comment by Barney Smith of Marion, Indiana - "I need a president that puts Barney Smith before Smith Barney". Classic!!! Can't wait to see how the Republican convention goes and what they have to say that might be meaningful other than "Barack Obama is going to raise your taxes!!!" - zzzzzzzzzz. I would like to see them make some good points, even though I hope McCain loses miserably in this election.

2. There's been a lot of criticism this week about Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate choice - that if she was chosen to help garner the vote of Clinton's pantsuit army, it was a bad idea since she's so opposed to reproductive rights; that she only has 2 years of experience as a governor of a state that has a smaller population than the city in which I live right now; and that she isn't even sure what a VP does... but here's MY criticism. Ready? GIRLFRIEND NEEDS A NEW HAIRDO!!! That ponytail flop thing with the butterfly clip and bangs was tragic even in 1990... When is Jose Ebert coming to the rescue?

OK, that's it from command central. I'll see y'all when I get back from the Caribbean!

Love, Mer The Single Girl

p.s. Let's hope Gustav escapes my friends and family in Houston!!!!!!!!!! Bug off, Swedish nuisance!

Tropical Storm Hanna

Everyone cross your fingers that this stupid storm bypasses The Bahamas and that it doesn't completely ruin our wedding and honeymoon next week. It's not looking good... :( Everyone do a reverse rain dance for us!!!

HANNA, GO AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE????????

Mer

Indiana

So my future sister-in-law, Carolyn, is getting married to Sheridan's brother, Matt, on New Year's Eve in Indianapolis. I'm going to be too enormous to attend by then, but I went out to IN for the bachelorette party this past weekend to join in on the celebration. We had about 10 girls from different points in Carolyn's life - college, childhood, work, and new sisters-in-law - and had a great time at her family's lake house, lounging, eating, drinking, and game-playing. It was a really fun mini-vacation and I think the bride had a really great time.

Some pics for your viewing pleasure. And yes, I know - they're huge. I'm really pregnant, so gimme a break!!!

Mer xo

UPDATE On The Job Front

Well folks - new development! So on Thursday of last week, I had decided to accept the offer with Ning, but when I called Cisco (www.cisco.com) to decline their offer, they sweetened the pot so much that I had no choice but to accept that offer.

So in the end, the Cisco opportunity is going to offer me benefits, paid vacation, long term stability, and a couple of other perks that are really, really important. I start that new job after I get back from our "weddingmoon" - on Monday, September 8th.

So............... I have two more weeks of vacation left! Yeeeeehaw! I feel bag for reneging on Ning, but for me, the Cisco gig is just the right fit. Thanks to everyone for hearing me through this crazy time professionally (and personally, but that's beside the point...) - I couldn't have done it without the support of my friends and family.

And now that I have the job wrapped up, I can start concentrating on my WEDDING to the man of my dreams!!! It's in 10 days from today!!! And we leave for The Bahamas next Monday!!! Woooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! The countdown has begun...

Love, Mer

The Mer Show Gets Back to WORK!

Well, the vacation is officially over. Monday morning, bright and early, I get back to work. I have been VERY lucky to land a couple of really great opportunities, and I have chosen to join the recruiting team at Ning, a social networking platform that is definitely going places! It's located in Palo Alto, CA, and is headed by an incredibly bright CEO named Gina Bianchini, and has a unique way of approaching the social networking space. A huge bonus with this job is that my new boss is really cool - she has so much positive energy, and I like her a lot going into this (unlike the rude tyrant I worked for at my last company). Yay!!

So with that, I'm heading to Indianapolis for my future sister-in-law's bachelorette party today, and then get back Sunday night - just in time to start my new jobsky. No rest for the wicked!

Thanks for all your support and encouragement through my job searching process - my friends and family have been so great and I really appreciate it!

Meanwhile, have a super duper weekend! Love, Mer

p.s. New company - www.ning.com CHECK IT OUT!

Our New Toaster Oven

OMG, we just got our first wedding gift and it's... a toaster! How traditional is that? One of Sheridan's friends sent us the Black and Decker model off our registry, and I can't wait to make some toast where it's only toasted on one side - my favorite! And leftovers? Fuhgetaboutit! Simple pleasures...

A toaster as a first gift... this marriage is gonna last! ;)

Love, Mer

Stroller Practice

He's getting ready!!! :)

MY HERO - NASTIA LIUKIN!!!

Nastia Liukin is decidedly not anything like Mary Lou Retton - she's more like a Nadia Comeneci... but man, she is my kind of gymnast!!! She's so elegant and graceful, and more like a ballerina than a powerhouse athlete; it's so refreshing to see artistic gymnastics once again! Nastia put on a stellar performance and made it look so easy... beautiful under pressure, and made ridiculously difficult routines look like a cakewalk.

I am disappointed for Shawn Johnson, since she went into the Olympics expecting to win, and with much media pressure to do so, but she did her best, and that landed her a silver medal. But an American 1, 2 finish - OMG, how exciting!!!!!

I cried. Could be the progesterone coursing through my veins, but I was really blown over with emotion at the end of watching the DVR recording of the women's all-around final. I'm serious - I CRIED! Not much phases me these days after everything I've been through the last few years, but the Olympics has brought me several tear-filled moments this summer... it's ridiculous!

Anyway, congratulations to Nastia Liukin on her fabulous gold medal win, and to Shawn Johnson, as well, for her also brilliant performance and silver medal.

Love, Mer

Thoughts On Olympic Gymnastics

As a former competitive gymnast, of course my favorite part of the summer Olympics is the gymnastics - specifically, the women's gymnastics events. I was explaining to Sheridan last night that for me, Olympic gymnastics is sort of equatable to a European being excited about the World Cup, or a football nut seeing their favorite team compete in the Super Bowl. :)

This year, our team of female gymnasts went to Beijing primed and ready to conquer the gold medal. In the end, we won the silver medal, which is AWESOME, but there were some serious complications along the way - Chellsie Memmel and Samantha Peczik injured themselves IN Beijing right after arrival, and Alicia Sacramone just didn't do her best as the go-to girl.

Poor Alicia is getting thrown under the bus badly for her mistakes in the team finals - she fell on beam and floor (eek!). As if she's not beating herself up enough, Marta Karolyi and some other media outlets are saying that if she hadn't broken her concentration (which was the fault of the event organizers - I disagree), they would have won. I hate for Alicia that Marta is bringing even more focus to her mistakes on a world stage... as if she's not beating herself up enough! Well, in the off chance that Alicia Sacramone reads my blog - girl, I think you're a badass and you should keep your chin high, because you really did do a great job.

Competitive gymnastics is brutal - injuries, pressure, sacrifices, and so much more. When I think of everything these young women have gone through to get to this point, I am in awe. I feel honored that I got to participate in this sport, even in a small way, at a much more novice level... I bet people all over the world feel the same way when watching their favorite sport, that they did as a kid. It's sort of cool that all of us, all over the globe, can share that.

Anyway, I can't wait to watch the men's and women's event finals over the next few days. Should be exciting and inspiring!!

Love, Mer

Denver and San Diego

Sheridan and I have done a lot of traveling this summer - Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Lake Tahoe, San Diego, and next weekend Sheridan's heading to Reno while I head to Indianapolis for bachelor/ette parties! Whew - it's been a fun summer!!!

Here's a few pics from Denver and San Diego. We went to Denver to visit Sheridan's brother and family - Brandon, Sarah, and Michael - and I visited San Diego this weekend while Sheridan had his bachelor party Saturday night.

Unfortunately, there's no pictures from that event... which is probably best, since I heard stories of ripped clothing, vomiting, and dancers! Now THAT'S a proper bachelor party - good job, baby!!!! :)

Love, Mer

Bump Watch

Well, I'm, at 13 weeks now and still not showing! I have a little bit of an almost-bump, but I'm pretty sure that's more from just not working out in the last 2 months and eating tons of pizza and steak... :) But my chest sure is multiplying at a rapid rate, that's for sure!!!! I'm going to look like a retired porn star soon...

I had another ultrasound last Thursday and things went GREAT!! The Peanut looks really healthy and is growing on track. He's about 7 cm or 3 inches long, and has some long, skinny legs growing in there... he obviously gets that from his dad, not me with my Mary Lou Retton thunder thighs!! We still don't know for sure if it's a male or female, but I'd still bet $1000000000000000 that it's a boy.

Should we start a pool? I will probably know soon... Leave a comment if you'd like in on the guessing game!

Love, Mer

First Day of Temporary Retirement

So............. it's my first day of unemployment, since my contract with Affymetrix ended Friday. The last 3 times I've been unemployed, I was in San Diego and 2 of those times it was summertime and I spent a good majority of my time at the beach (or pool) with a cocktail in hand. (Does that mean I've found myself in this predicament 3 summers in a row? Wow, I'm incredibly unlucky, but at least drinking made the day go by faster. This time, no luck there...) I spent my time at the beach or with friends who either worked nights or were also homebound during the day. This time, I don't really know too many people here in San Jose, and don't really have any regular spots yet, so I'm going to have to get creative with my time. I think this is going to be my to do list today. What do you think?

1. Update profile on Linked In and check the job boards, return a couple of professional phone calls. CHECK - done.

2. Make and eat breakfast. CHECK - done.

3. Shower and get dressed. Need to do that.

4. Run to Target to pick up soap for the bathroom, try not to buy anything else.

5. Do some grocery shopping and make Sheridan dinner like a good housewife. Let's see, what doesn't nauseate me today??

6. Perhaps hit the gym if the baby allows me any energy today.

OK, that looks like a pretty healthy list!! Maybe tomorrow will be cleaning day and maybe catching up with my long distance friends who are also not working, or perhaps if I'm lucky, I'll have an interview lined up! Wish me luck.

Off to start my exciting day!! Love, Mer

UPDATE: I bought my bridal veil this morning and am wearing it around the house this afternoon. I am GETTING MARRIED IN ONE MONTH FROM TODAY!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!