I love the Olympics! (and slingbox)

On Monday I will post the answer re: the mystery city and share the adventures we had there!

This past weekend we stayed in London, but it was a very USA weekend. Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for one of my girlfriends that was overflowing with expats. It was really nice and among the American company was lots of American food. Yum. Then we went to see the movie Dark Knight. Pat loved the movie and we both loved seeing all the beautiful scenes of Chicago. I am sure the people behind us were annoyed with all the "That's my office! That's near your office!" but we loved it! And Sunday we hit a pub that we have walked past a millions times but never actually walked through the door . . . the menu boasts the "Sears Tower" and "Board of Trade" appetizer platters as well as a burger recipe that is over 20 years old from, where else, Chicago. The verdict: A for effort and B (maybe C+) for food.

I am not sure what prompted this surge of American pride. Perhaps I caught Olympic-mania? Slingbox has definitely been my best friend lately (it is hard for me to admit this, but it is definitely our most used wedding gift. Click here to read about this great gadget). I love the Olympics! Always have, always will. And I would be completely distraught if I couldn't catch all the action. Especially the gymnastics. Bet you didn’t know that I should have been Olympic gymnast . . . yep, little 7 year-old Becky loved to bounce around the gym! I was even asked to join the training team after rocking the competition and sticking my landing at the end of an amazing routine on the uneven bars. First place baby!!! My parents response to the awesome opportunity (and awesome time & financial commitment)? No dice: “We are having another baby.” I guess I could be bitter, but I’m not . . . well, not anymore anyway. I just look at Danny like my own gold medal. Buddy, you are worth a million gold medals!

Everyone obviously knows the Phelps story (he rocks and seems like such a great guy!) and you have probably heard about Nastia Liukin & Shawn Johnson and Kerri Walsh & Misty May-Treanor. They all have stolen the headlines as well as our hearts with their dominance and their smiles. And they make us proud to be American, no matter where we live!

But have you heard of table tennis? Even if you know that it is a sport in the Olympics, you might not be aware of these interesting (weird) tid-bits:

*the Chinese are CRAZY for it

*the most intense professional league in the world is in China, and for the year leading up to the Olympics all foreigners were kicked out of the league to ensure that China dominated in Beijing

*one of their favorite foreigners is a German by the name of Timo Boll. They voted him sexiest foreign athlete, above David Beckham! Decide for yourself:

Boll:


Beckham:


*in 2005, the members of Chinese National Table Tennis Team put together a rap that has been compared to the 1984 Chicago Bears Super Bowl Shuffle! Check it out:



Ok, I admit I am a Chicago girl and still know every word to the Super Bowl Shuffle. I admit that I don’t speak Chinese (but talk to me in a year), so I have no idea what they are saying. But still. Really? Does this even compare to the Super Bowl Shuffle? I am not convinced. Are you?



The table tennis final rounds will take place this weekend and I will be sure to update you on how the medals shake out. Click here to learn more about table tennis.

I have to give a shout out to my awesome in-laws for hosting our slingbox and making my Olympic obsession possible! Merci beaucoup for allowing the (hidden) dish on your roof and mucho gracias for tweaking it when we have technical difficulties. No rest for the weary slingbox though. Just as the Olympics are winding down, it is on to another obsession and the conventions!

Name this city . . .

Any ideas where we went last weekend?


Here's another hint . . .

The Bump

I definitely haven't "popped" yet, but I keep getting requests for pictures. So here are a couple shots from this morning of my BumBum bump at 21 weeks. And 3 days, but who's counting?

I see London, I see France

Two weeks ago my little brother Danny stopped to visit us on his way home from Africa, where he had been volunteering and traveling for about a month. After just one afternoon & evening of catching up on sleep and non-African food (pizza, saltines, pb & j, mac & cheese and recognizable fruit, in case you are curious) we hit the town running!

We decided our couple days would focus around the theater and museums. Danny spent a couple days in London last summer, so we both have hit our fair share of London’s top tourist sights. We decided to see Jersey Boys and Billy Elliot and to visit the National Gallery and the British Museum.

After getting our play tickets, we headed to the National Gallery to check out the paintings ranging from 1250 – 1900. Ok, we only made to about 1700, but we saw all the important ones – the Italians of course. Then we walked outside to a beautiful, warm & sunny day for some excellent people watching in Trafalgar Square. Perspective is a funny thing . . . after a cold & rainy weekend, I thought it was really hot, and was loving it. After a month in Africa, Danny thought it was cool and was loving it! At least we agreed that it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

When we showed up at the theater that night, they upgraded our seats! That has never happened to me before. Apparently, they closed the balcony we were supposed to sit in and moved everyone downstairs. Great for us, not so great for the future of Jersey Boys in London. Regardless of what the Londoners think, we both loved the show! Two thumbs up!

The next day we headed to the British Museum, known for its extensive collection from ancient Egypt and Greece. They have a huge exhibit with original friezes & metopes from the Parthenon that apparently the Greek government wants back. Good luck with that! Many of the statues are missing parts and the signs say things like “Head at the blah blah blah museum in Athens”. I don’t know why, but that still makes me laugh, two weeks later! Anyway, it was really neat and really interesting, but also really crowded.

At Billy Elliot that night we started to understand why Jersey Boys might not be getting the same reception it did in the states (and to wonder how Billy Elliot will do when it opens in NY this fall). It was good. The dancing was great. The little star of the show (a 12ish year old boy) was an amazingly talented singer & dancer (ballet, tap, modern, he did it all!). But we both left the theater a little, well, flat. It was really really good, but I am not sure if I would consider it great. Maybe it was bc some of the Brit jokes went over our heads or maybe it was bc sometimes we had a hard time understanding what they said. I don’t know, all I know is that we both enjoyed Jersey Boys more.

Friday we ventured out to Wimbledon (which is a very lovely suburb of London) to visit the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. They have a really cool and interactive museum and they do tours of the huge grounds. We both thoroughly enjoyed them both! Unfortunately we did not get to see center court due to construction. They are adding a retractable roof to avoid rain delays in the future. If you watched the Federer/Nadal final this year, you know they need it! But did you know that the club actually has 19 outdoor courts? And that center court seats 14,000 spectators? There are your facts of the day!

Here is a picture of several of the courts (including 2 & 3), with many of the neighborhood homes behind them:



Here is a picture of me & Danny in the “competitors'” interview seats. Look how excited we are after winning mixed doubles! HA!



Friday night Pat came home & we hit the local pub. We took it easy bc we had an early train to catch the next day. Paris, here we come!

We arrived and dropped our stuff off at the hotel and set off to see as much as possible in our one afternoon in Paris (which, I must say was quite a lot!). We found a great café with gourmet croquet-monsieurs on our walk towards Le Tour Eiffel. Yum! We hardly passed another person on our walk and were beginning to wonder were all the people were hiding. Then we arrived at the Champs de Mars in front of the Tour Eiffel and found tons of people picnicing and enjoying the beautiful summer day. Here is a pic of the 3 of us (or is it 4 of us? I think BumBum is starting to make an appearance!):



Don’t you love Danny & Pat’s matching outfits? LOL!

Next we walked along the Seine towards the Place de la Concorde, which is where all the executions took place during the revolution. Now it is a huge square with a 3,200 year old Luxor obelisk in the middle, surrounded by a ginormous roundabout. Then we continued through the Jardin des Tuileries and into the middle of the Louvre. And then on to Notre-Dame (that is where all the people were! Wow that line was long).



Next we took a well deserved stop at a café for ice cream and beer (not all of us are on the preggo no drinking track). And then we were off to our final destination of the day, Sacre-Coeur. I was really excited for this one bc had never been there, and had heard about the awesome views of the city.

It did not disappoint! The church was beautiful and so were the views. Here is a picture of the church and one of us on the steps, with the city behind us:





After all that walking, we need a little break before dinner. Good thing we found the Cubs game on TV. I am not lying! They had a channel I had never seen in a hotel before that played American sports. We even caught big Charlie’s attempt to sing the 7th inning stretch. Are we true ND fans or what?

I convinced the boys to head to dinner before the game was over (yay for me) and despite the abundance of Asian restaurants near our hotel, we found a tres yummy French restaurant. They brought a pot of mashed potatoes to your table to serve them onto your plate and it looked like straight-up melted cheese as they heaped it on. YUM!

Sunday we got our rental car and headed to Normandy to visit the D-Day beaches and American Military cemetery. It was a gorgeous drive (about 3 hours from Paris) and the weather was perfect and sunny. It was so beautiful and tranquil . . . which made it so difficult to imagine the scene there on June 6, 1944 and the following days and weeks.

There were actually 5 beaches they invaded that heroic day (2 British, 2 American, 1 Canadian). We started at Arromanches-les-Bains, which was Gold Beach, where the Brits landed. Pat thought it was so funny that we kept seeing signs for “Centre Ville”, so here is a picture of me & Danny showing our Elk Pride. Notice my school colors?



Out of O-h-i-o and back to France! In Arromanches-les-Bains they have a cool museum with models of the immense portable port (nicknamed Winston) they built to bring supplies over from England to support the ground movement towards Paris after they took the beaches. It was pretty much an engineering miracle! They constructed it to move with the water by having columns secured to the bottom of the Channel, but the actual “floor” of the port was flexible to move with the waves and insure the fastest possible unloading of trucks and supplies. I am not sure how the engineers would feel about my technical description, but you get the idea. It was an incredible feat and one of several keys for the Allied Invasion’s success. You can still see remnants of Winston on the beach and not too far off shore. Check it out:



Next we headed toward Colleville and Omaha Beach, the infamous landing spot of the Americans. It was the hardest fought battle of the day (think Saving Private Ryan) and the lynchpin of the Allied Invasion. Out of the 5 beaches where infantry landed and 3 places inland where paratroopers landed, Omaha Beach accounted for about 36% of the casualties of the day.

The US has recently built a beautiful monument and museum around the cemetery that was dedicated in 1956 and serves as a burial ground for 9,387 American Servicemen and women who lost their lives in the battles to take back Europe from the Germans (not just those who died on D-Day). It is an amazing, amazing sight. And the museum provides a fantastic history of WWII and the D-Day Invasion. Next time you are in Paris, leave a day for the historic trip to Normandy! Here are a couple pictures:







On our way out of town, we imbibed in a little American-ness as our salute to all those brave Americans who changed the world that day: We hit the McDonald’s drive-thru!

BumBum is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As many of you already know, Pat and I are expecting a little addition to our family! That’s right, I am pregnant and BumBum is scheduled to arrive around Dec. 23. That makes me almost 20 weeks, the halfway point! Kinda crazy, right? The reason we waited so long to share our news is that Pat’s parents and brothers were coming to visit and we wanted to tell them in person. It was so fun to see the confused, surprised, exhilarated looks on their faces! Just about everyone has had that same super surprised reaction, which has made sharing our news even more fun. I love surprises!!!

I imagine my parents had similar looks of shock when we told them over the phone. My mom said “Who is? YOU ARE?” And my dad said “Well, nothing you two do surprises me anymore!” Which was apropos to the very next question, “So I guess you are not going to Asia anymore?” We chuckled before telling him that we are still planning to move to Asia, just a little bit later and with a little bit more stuff (probably a lot more stuff but don’t tell Pat).

No, we are not finding out the sex. We are both sooooooooo curious, but think it will be more fun to wait. And Pat thinks it is saving us tons of money . . . I could make an argument for being able to plan ahead and buy things on sale. But I won’t; he is probably right.

You may be wondering where the nickname BumBum came from . . . it is the sound we heard at the first ultrasound to confirm our little one’s presence & vitality, and it still echoes in my head – BumBum BumBum BumBum. I heard it again last week – it is good & strong! I can’t wait to feel it as I cuddle this little person close to me!

I keep getting requests for photos of the bump . . . sorry, there actually isn’t much to see yet. Pat is so cute when he comes home every week, expecting to see some major progress. He always comes in and pats my belly. A couple weeks ago he said “It is getting harder!” What, my stomach hasn’t always been hard? I received a blank stare to that question, which I will take as an official “no comment” and am ok with that. Really. Moving on.

He came home last Friday and exclaimed "You’re showing!" but then I changed for dinner he said "Oh, not in that outfit." The books say BumBum will have a major growth spurt in the next couple weeks, so I am guessing soon you will be able to tell no matter what I am wearing. Unless of course it is a tent and I am not planning on that. Photos will be posted soon so you can follow along from your very own living room or office! Yippee!

We received many congrats over email from our friends and family. Here are a couple of my favorites:

From Pat’s sister (who is also pregnant with her first and due Nov. 14. She was the only member of his family who wasn’t here in person, so we called her!):

First: I had to write and say congrats again too!! I can't even concentrate at work now :) :)

Then: I am just so floored, ahhhh!!!!!! Congrats again mama!

And finally: So happy for you guys, and so excited to all be parents together!!!!! OK I will try to stop emailing you now :)

From one of Pat’s ND friends:

I'm so happy for you and Becky and Baby McC!!! This is such amazing news. We are so pumped. Definitely a T if you have your first born on Jesus' bday, though. Huge T. God bless all THREE of you guys and know that we will be thinking about you from now until December...

From Pat’s cousin:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!WOW!!!
I am totally SHOCKED and SURPRISED at the EXCITING news of the two of you having a baby!!!! Holy moly, you two are going to have a British baby!!!! I'm so thrilled and jumping for joy for the McC's, such happy news!!! Man, you two should be in the CIA, you really had this little piece of info locked down big time!!!

From a ND girlfriend:

congrats!!!!!!!!!!!! SO happy for you and Pat :) Have you bought any ND baby stuff yet? :)

From another ND girlfriend:

WHAT?! . . . okay, I haven’t even read the email – just saw the first part . . . can I call you?

Then:
Okay, so I have read the email and OMG! . . how on earth have you kept this a secret so long . . . seriously, I’m like in shock . . . CONGRATULATIONS to both you and Pat . . I want to actually cry because you’ll be so far away for it all  . . . I have so many questions and just ended up missing you even more . . . I can’t believe one of my closest friends is going to have a little bambino so far away  . . . I’m so happy for y’all though – so extremely happy! . . . this is absolutely wonderful news – I’m just being selfish because I miss talking to you . . .
CONGRATULATIONS again! . . . please give Pat my love and congrats . . . THIS IS AWESOME! . .

From Pat’s uncle:

Congratulations, Patrick and Becky. We look forward to following your progress. Whatever you do, don't give the baby a British name.

From another ND girl (mother of a 4 week old when she wrote this):

i can't believe you didn't tell me!!!!!!!!!!!!

i can't, can't, can't wait to here all about it!!! please call whenever you get a chance. you may need to listen to a howling baby in the background... but it is a sound you will need to get used to!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHH. i am seriously so excited for both of you. seriously - call whenever you can. even if it is only for 5 minutes!

From her husband:

just heard the good news… Congratulations. It’s the most ridiculous experience of your life and you will certainly ride a roller coaster over the next 24 weeks. Just remember, this is the easy part!

From my aunt:

I got your message and congratulations mom-to-be! You must be extremely excited. You and Tommy seem to be roughly on the same schedule for major life events. Did you do your Chinese thing to figure out the sex yet? I gotta tell you I don't know how accurate that is since it didn't work with Laura :) I am glad you are getting in some sight-seeing in before the little one makes his/her appearance.

From another friend:

I am so excited that we get to share this awesome experience. I miss you!!
I can't get over the growing size of the class of '31!!!!!!!!!!!!

From the only girlfriend I couldn't fool (we spent 3 days together in Maui for a wedding in May and then a night in London just a week before the word was out!):

I KNEW IT!!!! Congratulations Becky and Pat!!! I told John before we met you last week "now remember Becky wasn't really drinking in Hawaii so don't force any drinks on her like you did last time because I think she's pregnant!" And you kept talking about babies so I had a feeling.... John thought I was crazy so I'm glad I'm not. You look fabulous - 16 weeks along?!!?

From Pat’s business school friend, who lives in CA (can you tell?):

Awesome guys. Congratulations. Great news.
It is one hell of a ride. We attended our second "childbirth prep class" last night where we learned all about the 10 stages of a woman's anger during labor. Its crazy, although I can't imagine sweet little Becky getting mad. Hopefully you'll have a girl so I can introduce my son later in life. We're both really stoked for you guys.


Thank you to everyone for your congratulations and prayers! We love & miss you and can’t wait for you to meet BumBum! We can't wait to meet BumBum!!!