the name game

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."

William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

---

"The Perfect Baby Name: A Proven Plan for Choosing a Name You'll Love" by Jeanine Cox is just one out of a multitude of books that surround the topic of selecting a name for your baby. Joe chose this book several months ago and it's actually a really neat book. It, of course, gives a list of girl names and boy names, but also adds the name meanings and potential nicknames. It's pretty neat to see the different nicknames associated with each name!

The book also recommends really thinking a lot about the name selection process and has different exercises for both mom and dad to complete to help combine the efforts of the name game. Different things are important to different people, and they have exercises for just about everyone.

1. Exercise 1 - Visualize your baby, what you think they will look like, what you think they will be like. Then visualize them growing into a child, a teenager, and adult and think of names for this person.
   
2. Exercise 2 - Choose names that you like that provide alliteration with your last name. For example, if your last name starts with an "S", selecting first names that also start with an "S" or a similar sound (like a soft "C").
   
3. Exercise 3 - Another exercise is to think of acronyms (initials) that you like and selecting the first and middle name so that the name spells the acronym you like.
   
4. Exercise 4 - Think of adjectives that describe characteristics that are most important to you (such as love and honesty), then look up these words in a thesaurus or in the baby name book to find names with those meanings.
5. Exercise 5 - Create a list of family names based on the relative(s) you have found the most inspiring or the relatives that have passed away, but who you want to be remembered.
6. Exercise 6 - Find out if a place that is important to you would be a good name for your child by answering some questions including (but not limited to) "Where did you meet your partner?", "Where were you when you conceived your child?", and "What do you think is the most beautiful place on earth?"
7. Exercise 7 - Select a list of names for your child that connects them with his or her heritage (such as Irish names, German names, etc.).
8. Exercise 8 - Choose the name types that you think may be most significant to you and select your favorite name from the corresponding list. The lists included were Biblical names, Nature names, New Age names, Shakespearean names, Musical names, Place names, and Surnames as First Names.
9. Exercise 9 - By following all of the exercises above, both mom and dad should have a list of their favorite names from each exercise. Now, combine both mom and dad's favorites into a new list of possible names.
10. Exercise 10 - Make the final cut from mom's list and dad's list and deliberate about what you want the final name to be, based on the selections from each list.
    

This book is actually very, very cool...and really promotes collaboration on the name selection process. Which is good. After all, both mom and dad created the child, right? :-) All in all, however, we didn't end up doing any of the exercises (what bad direction followers we are!), but we did look at the extensive list of girls and boys names, which provided MUCH entertainment for us. I was planning on listing a few of our "favorites" (meaning we wouldn't be caught dead naming our child by those names), but I don't want to unintentionally offend anyone. So I will refrain. But let's just say that there are some VERY interesting names in this book. Some of them you read three times and still say "What? Someone would actually call their child by this name?" The answer is "Yes, yes they would."

Most importantly, however, we have OFFICIALLY narrowed down our top name choice(s). And what's funny about it is that we didn't even use the book to come up with our choice(s)...they are names that we both just really like. Right now, we are not planning on announcing our baby's name quite yet, though.

"Why not?", is the question probably going through your head right now.

Well, you see...

We haven't actually "met" our baby yet, and his name is very personal to us. It's kind of like asking me what size bra I wear or what color my underwear are. Yes, everyone is super excited to know the answer, but it's very personal and because of our personalities being the way they are we don't quite feel comfortable announcing the answer to the world just yet. Plus, we want to be 100% sure that the name "fits" when we finally see his face. You know?

So you'll just have to sit tight for a few more months and, until then, we shall keep calling our little one "Baby McG". Don't worry, though. The wait will not be long and he will be here soon enough. :-)

alive and kickin'

Hey everyone!

I know it's been quite a while since we last blogged it up on our site, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to procrastinate my homework a little longer and type up a blog because it's really depressing to me that our last one was three months ago. That's just ridiculous. So...

Everything has been going well. Joe, Lucy and I are all good. That is all.

Bye, and thanks for reading!!

he he he

Kidding. Here goes...

• Camping - Joe and I went camping in Tucson for our Anniversary in February and ended up getting snowed out. We were camped at a place towards the bottom of Mt. Lemmon, but decided to drive up towards the top of the Mountain to sight see and walk around only to be greeted by an impending snow storm. It was crazy. A heck of a lot of fun. But crazy. When we drove back down to our campsite, it was raining heavily with a little bit of snow/slush mixed in, so instead of sticking it out and getting hypothermia, we packed up and went to a hotel for the night. We were able to go camping again in April, though. Mom and dad, Joe, Lucy and I went up near Prescott and camped up there. It was WONDERFUL! I love camping so much. It's a chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of Phoenix, spend time with nature and each other, and relax. And making campfires is fun, too.
  
• Snow - Joe and Lucy Fur and Alanna and I were fortunate enough to get up north before the winter season was over and played around in the snow. And Flagstaff is so much fun! We spent some time sledding up at the Wing Mountain Play Area just outside of Flag and drove up to Snow Bowl, too. I can't wait until winter again! (and yes...I know it's just barely May).
  
• Camera - My camera was stolen at the annual Ostrich Festival in Chandler. Joe, Alanna and I had finished watching a freak show (yeah...interesting) and were walking towards the ostrich races when I realized I had left my camera on the seat. We were gone for only a couple minutes and it was already gone. No one turned it in either. I'm just thankful there were only a few pictures on it. There was one of Joe eating an ostrich burger, so I apologize for those whi were looking forward to seeing that. :-) On a side note, though, I am so disgutsed by the fact that this camera, which was a gift from Joe for Christmas just FIVE MONTHS AGO, is nowhere to be found. Why in God's name do there need to be so many camera models made all the time. I love this camera and apparently will never have another one because it has literally vanished from all existence and is NOWHERE to be found. Why do they have to discontinue cameras so quickly just to make new models that will be discontinued in 6 months anyway?
  
• School - I finally started my master's program and am just finishing up my second course. I've been doing really well, so far (whenever I don't procrastinate) and am actually enjoying learning again. The course I am in right now is called Life-Span Development and it has mainly brushed up on some things I already knew from my undergrad studies, but it's just really interesting to speak with a facilitator who is actually in the field and to learn from what she has to say. The topics are interesting as well. Most recently I have examined my own family tree on both my father's and mother's sides and analyzed different traits of each person to help in determining which characteristics are hereditary and which are a result of environmental factors. I'm probably boring you, so I'll just end by saying that I'm actually liking it a little more than I thought I would.
  
• Family visit - Joe's mom, sister Jen and nephew Jason just came out to Arizona for a visit a couple weeks ago. Jason is looking into attending a school out here in the Phoenix area so they came for a tour and to see Joe and Theresa and Lucy...the most amazing Phoenicians who ever lived. :-) We hung out, walked around Papago Park, played with Lucy Fur, and just had a good time. It is so nice having visitors so please come back! And anyone who wants to come visit, just give us a heads up and we'll get the guest room set up for ya!!
  
• Lucy -Lucy is doing well. She apparently needs long-term medication for her tick fever because it's still in her little body. But she isn't just a lump of fur anymore. She eats normally, is very playful at times, and is fairly healthy overall. But she has to take daily meds for six months. She'll go in for another check up later this year, at which point they will determine if they can lower the dosage or create another treatment plan. But overall, she's good. She's still pretty calm, but does have so normal beagle energy, so that's good. Poor beagle. Stupid little tick. What did she ever do to you?
• People and the never-ending quest to understand them - I am amazed by people and technology. What it is even more amazing is how people use technology. For example, technology is used for things such as relaying big news to family/friends in a quick and easy manner. It is used to keep in touch with long lost friends and rebuild friendships from years past. It is also used...apparently...to "break up" with friends. Sending hateful emails to friends and family, deleting people as friends from Facebook, ostracizing family/friends by blocking them from each other. Technology, while I love it and understand how it is helpful (for doing things like blogging!), has sometimes become an avenue where people lead such passive-aggressive lives. It's kind of ridiculous.
  
• Work - On a lighter note, work has been going well for both Joe and I. I actually really like my job. One thing that happened recently that was a little sad, however, is that the team I have worked with over the past year and a half (or so) was taken away from me. :-( Sad. The entire division was reorganized. It takes me time to build friendships and working relationships with people...especially on a team where there were already "issues" when I first came on board. But relationships are not just an automatic thing for me. I don't meet someone and instantly become in sync with them. And it definitely took awhile for everyone on our team to work well together. Finally, a year and a half later, when we are on a roll, working super well together as as high performing team...surprise! See ya later guys. They switched us around and now we're no longer together. While I know I will still see my old teammates regularly and while I know my new teammates will be good to work with as well, it's still just sad because of the amount of effort I put in to that team. We were like a little family of sorts. I liked them so much! All I have to say is that my new teammates have some pretty big shoes to fill. As for Joe...I know Joe likes his job, too (for the most part! he he), and is also thinking of possibly going back to school within the next couple years as well. So work is good. We have jobs and can pay bills. So that's good enough for me!
  
• Books - I decided to start a book review blog. I only have one review so far, but seriously. Check it out. This book is awesome. And I know this was written MONTHS ago when I didn't have too much going on and there will definitely be more to come, but don't judge. Just read.
  
• Joe - Joe told me to make sure that I add in here a quick note for him because he wants everyone knows how much he loves me. How sweet! :-)

Phew! How was that for procrastinating? :-) Have a great weekend everyone! Hope all is well...

XOXO
T

ten questions for stephenie meyer

Joe was at dialysis one day...well, actually, he goes more than only once, obviously...but on one particular day he called me from dialysis and said to check out TIME Magazine online because Stephenie Meyer is taking questions on her books.

So I responded, "Yeah, sure. That's cool."

So I found the link online and typed in a question on how she came up with her characters, if they were inspired by real people, etc. etd. etd. And, honestly, I didn't think anything more about it because there were, literally, thousands of questions already posted there and thousands posted after mine (as I checked on subsequent days).

But Steph (Joe's sister) just forwarded me a link to the article where she picks some of the thousands of questions and only answers 10 of them. Guess who's question is answered first?

MINE!!

Weird, huh?

[Side Note: The article shows 2 pages worth of questions, meaning she actually answered 15 questions. But...even better...she answered ANOTHER one of my questions on the second page. So the first question and the second to last question were both mine. Too cool!]

Here's the link to the article:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1834663,00.html

And here's a link to the video where...............they say my name!!!
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1485842900/bctid1743153004

They totally reworded my question, but they got the jist of it, I guess. Anyway, I've already come to terms with the fact that I'm a twerd. So I guess there's no shame in posting about my geekiness. :o)

Enjoy!

it's been awhile...

Okay.

So maybe it's only been a week. But, still...I feel so removed from blogging that I've decided to write one even though nothing significantly exciting has been going on.

Here's an update on life in the Theresa lane:

• Reading: I have started reading 3 different books - Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling. I've decided that I need to take a step back and read one. Just one at a time. I'm finding it hard to concentrate, though, since I finished the Twilight Saga. Yep. I finished it. All of 'em. They were good. But now it's time to move on. I think I might stick with Harry Potter so that I can read the Half Blood Prince afterwards (since the movie is coming out this holiday season and I want to have read the book beforehand). Afterwards, I will probably resume reading Labyrinth...and follow that up with The Host by Stephenie Meyer (which Alanna just bought for me yesterday! THANKS, LONI!!)

• Camping: I can't wait to go camping again! Joe and I will try to squeeze in at least one more trip before the transplant. It's just hard because we're leaving for a cruise around Hawaii next month and the transplant is a couple weeks after we get back. So this next trip might be our last of 2008. Now we just have to figure out where to go...

• Cooking: Ever since Joe has needed to start a new diet because of his ESRD, it's been a struggle deciding what things are "good things" for him to eat. It's really not TOO difficult now that we've got the hang of it, but it's still a change. Basically we have to make sure whatever we prepare has LOTS of protein, little to no sodium, little to no phosphorus and little to no potassium. Sodium is easy to eliminate, but try cutting out phosphorus and potassium when the nutritional content for those are rarely on the labels! Anyway, I've been getting good use of my new cookbooks and will post a couple of our favorite recipes soon.

• Current Events: John Edwards makes me so angry. There was a time when he was my favorite choice back when all the democrat contenders were still in the game. It's amazing to me how one (or, in his case, REPEATED) lack of judgment can change my entire opinion about a person. I feel terribly for his wife and am just really sad about the whole situation.

• Dialysis: I hate dialysis. I'm not the one doing it 3 times a week, but I still hate it. That's all I'm saying about that.

• Family: Joe, my family and I will be taking a cruise around Hawaii in exactly ONE MONTH! I can not wait for this. It's going to be interesting having to work our activities around dialysis, but honestly, I'm content just walking around and experiencing life in Hawaii. I'm sure no matter what we do will be wonderful and fun. I can't WAIT!!!

• Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds Fur: While on our cruise, Lucy will be staying at a doggie day care and boarding place I found since all of our potential dog sitters are going with us on the cruise! So...I took her there yesterday for about 4 hours to see how she liked it. She seemed fine after Alanna and I picked her up, so that's good. I think the REAL test will be when I drop her off next Wednesday for another half day - if we get there and she's excited with tail wagging and all, then I'll know she likes it. I know that she's just a dog. And animal. And she probably loves and prefers being around the other dogs all day, but part of me is freaked out that she's not going to remember who we are...or that she's not going to want to come home with us. I mean, she'll be there for 10 nights/10 days! That's a loooooong time! I know I'm weird, but I really hope she likes it and that she is happy to see us when we get back.

• Work: I have been out of work for 2 months now. I'm doing part-time design work on the side, so I do have a little money trickling in here and there, but nothing full time yet. I believe that I am at a crossroads. So far, the only people who have responded to my resumes and letters have been related to positions I have never done before. Interesting, huh? I had an interview yesterday for a position as an Academic Counselor (I'll tell you more about it if they offer me the gig) and have another interview set up for Sunday (weird, I know) for a position as a Publications Designer. I have my Bachelor's in Psychology and the area of psychology has always been an interest of mine. I've always been fascinated with everything about it, so that's what I went through my undergrad career studying for - to hopefully work in that field someday. But then life happened and I went through a few jobs completely unrelated to psychology; but they were jobs that I fully enjoyed as well. While working in one of those jobs, I was able to explore my creative side and being designing a whole bunch of different types of materials for print and web. I never knew I would like it so much! So now I have been presented with two interview opportunities: one pertaining to Psychology and Design. The Academic Counselor position, if I'm accepted, is one that I could use as a start to working in psychology and eventually going back to school to further my career in that field. The Publications Designer position, if I'm accepted, could be used as a stepping stone into the field of design (I'd have to eventually go back to school for that, too). These are two fields that I feel strongly about. So now comes the question of the day - which road should I take?
  

Until next time,
XOXO

twilight, woods canyon lake, et al

Last weekend, two things happened:

1. We endured the teenfest at the Breaking Dawn release party at a bookstore in Tempe, and
2. We went camping with my parents and some family friends, the Rousch and Huffman families.
   

BREAKING DAWN
If you remember my Twilight Saga post from a week or so ago, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, read it!

Anyway, Joe being the amazingly wonderful and thoughtful person he is, decided to go with me to Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe for the release party for this much-anticipated final novel in the series. I kind of had a hunch that we'd be the oldest people there, but I never really realized how MUCH older we would be. I mean, there were definitely some people older than us (chaperones, more than likely) and there were a small handful of folks older than us who were actually sporting homemade t-shirts and costumes. But all in all, we were some of the oldest people there.

We walked down to an ice cream shop for a little bit, then came back and found a corner to sit in away from the hoopla. When it came time to line up, Joe stayed with me for a few, but then decided to wait outside. Smart man! The whole store was like a can of sardines.

At midnight, after a very LOUD countdown by the customers, they began calling people by group to come pick up their copies. I had pre-ordered the book and with my receipt was a ticket that said group "G".

Group A was called and about 30 or so people filed by to pick up their books. Then group B was called and about 6 teen girls standing in front of me started to go get their books. I noticed one of them had been assigned to group Q. Now, I know they teach the alphabet to kids BEFORE they get into junior high, but I'm pretty sure that the letter Q is nowhere NEAR the letter B. So I decided, "heck, they're not even looking at group numbers anyway", got in line behind Q Girl, grabbed my copy of the book, and was out in 5 minutes.

Normally, I would have finished the book days ago, but I've been pacing myself. And while I only have about 100 pages left, I must say that Stephenie Meyer is really doing a great job at wrapping up the story. I'm very happy with my purchase!

CAMPING

Woods Canyon Lake was the place - we camped about a mile from the water. We drove up early on Saturday morning and got up there around 10am.

It was about a 2.5 hour drive (including one stop) to the north east of Phoenix. The drive out there was awesome. We had to drive through part of Mesa to get to Highway 87. The 87 is a stretch of road that (as far as I'm concerned) is one of the prettiest roads to drive on in Arizona. The highway drives through part of an Indian Reservation and, once you hit the reservation where the land is protected, it's just awesome. It still looks like a desert, but it's just pretty - rolling hills, huge rock formations, etc. It's something that doesn't look like it belongs amidst a huge sprawling metropolis.

Anyway, we got up to the campsite with little trouble. The only troubles were that (1) my car was very slow (especially on never-ending inclines) and (2) we almost didn't find the campsite.

Other than that, all was good. We went out to the lake for a short trip, took a hike to the rim, hung out around the campfire, relaxed, etc. I love camping SO MUCH!! The only part I didn't like was having to come back to the city.

(the picture upload on blogger isn't working right now, so we'll post some pics later on)

On the way back from our trip, something kicked up and cracked the radiator, apparently, causing all the antifreeze to leak out once we turned the car off. So I ended up having to take the care to the shop for a couple days to get a new radiator and parts. Yeah....this was definitely an expensive week. Fun...but expensive!

twilight

I apologize in advance and wanted to let you know that I will try to limit my talk of The Twilight Saga because I believe it is akin to my liking of the CW's Gossip Girl. But I just want to throw the information out there for those of you who have no idea what this is.

Basically, I had no idea what these books were, who they were written by; knew nothing about them. However, every time I was in a bookstore, I would see these books on display and the cover design always intrigued me (I'm a sucker for a good cover design).

Side Note 1
I give major props to the Stephenie Meyer marketing team
because if they hadn't been on display in every bookstore I went to,
I would have never even given these books a second glance.

Side Note 2
Stephenie Meyer is the author of these books, and is also from Phoenix.

Anyway, I picked up the first book, Twilight, and didn't really read the cover or anything. Just bought it. Like I said, I'm a sucker for a good cover (or, at least, what I think is a good design). And when I brought it home, Joe read the back and, with a semi-baffled look, read part of what it said.

"A Teen People 'HOT LIST' pick?" he said questioningly and (kind of) mockingly, in reference to the "teen" part.

I kind of chuckled, shrugged my shoulders, and didn't really respond. After all, Joe thinks I'm a freak already and, also, I wasn't really expecting to like the book much.

But I did.

A lot.

So I went out to buy the other two books in the series (New Moon and Eclipse) and finished them within 3 days. Keep in mind these books are at least 500 pages each.

What surprised me about this whole experience is just how big it actually is. There are oodles of websites devoted to these books and the characters in them. I mean, just Google the word "twlight" and you'll see what I mean. Even though the subject matter is different, it appears to be similar to the hype that always surrounds the Harry Potter franchise.

The final book of the series (Breaking Dawn) will be released this Saturday AND they already made the first book into a movie and it will be premiering sometime in December, so those are a couple things I'm looking forward to.

Anyway, check them out if you'd like. Or just laugh at me and say, "Ok, Theresa. Sure. I'll get right on that."