Ana Sofia Diaz Grill

Here are just a few pictures of dear little Ana Sofia, Miriam and Ben's little girl. Hopefully next time I'll get some better light/learn how to take better photos indoors. I'm still learning the in's and out's of my new camera I received for Christmas from my parents. :)



Ben has set up a blog of his own following their new family. Check it out!

P.S. Birch is going to write a guest blog, I promise. Or rather, he promises. He's still "working on it" in his head. We'll all just have to be patient...

Summer Plans and Projects: The Ambitions of a No-Longer Pregnant Mama

As the days of Basketball Belly draw to a close, I sit dreaming of spring and summer.

As I sat outside on the garden bench today eating strawberries and looking over the many plants growing (lettuce, fennel, cosmos, sugar snap peas, blueberries, artichoke, grapes, sweet broom, and others), my mind wandered the lines of the fence imagining all the ways Birch and I could make our yard into a kind of wonderland with hideaways, various kinds of seating, a barbeque area, perhaps even a small deck. It's by no means a huge yard, but for an apartment it is magical.

Soon, my body will to some extent be my own again. (Hopefully) no more feeling faint even when I'm just sitting up, no more sun headaches, no more needing help to do something as simple as bending down to check the progress of a few chive sprouts. I'll be able to go for walks again and run errands, even when Birch isn't home to take me. I'll be able to wash a whole sink-full of dishes because I'll be able to remain standing for longer than ten minutes. I won't be able to sleep for a reason instead of just lying awake trying to decide if it's truly worth it to go to the bathroom or not from 3:23 a.m. to 3:56 a.m., finally deciding that, "Yes, it's been this long, I should just go to the bathroom." Speaking of which, I'll be able to get out of bed utilizing far fewer steps than the normally required six to eight it takes me now. I'll be able to get to the phone within the required four rings before the machine picks up. I'll be able to remember what it's like to be a real, functioning human being once more.

When that time comes I plan on being ready. My head is bursting with ideas, mostly involving repurposing various objects for garden and home decor, and I can't wait until I can hold a hammer again, move a bookcase, or carry a load of laundry without someone yelling at me that I'm not supposed to be doing that.

I'll "build" the bean teepee first. Roping together bamboo stakes and planting one or two seeds around each one, then watching them grow up towards the sun to form a little shady spot for baby to lay in on a hot, summer morning while I remain close at hand perhaps reading a book or harvesting food for dinner that night.

Then we'll get serious and finally build that outdoor rabbit hutch poor Harlequin has been dreaming of for over a year now. Something like this but with a much larger run and much more protection from the rain.

Next, I’ll start the conquering of the play tent. Keats’ nursery will eventually have a bit of a carnival feel to it and I’d love to sew together a tent for one of the corners of the room. Here are just some of the fabrics I’ll be using:

The "Lantern Bloom" collection by Laura Gunn for Michael Miller Fabrics

I’m so excited for this project. It’ll take me a while to complete as I’m assuming I’ll tackle it in doses. I want it to have four sides with a circus top and to have a quilted appearance, as if made with scraps of found fabric. Each side will be just a flap so that any side can be facing out and used as the entry. Perhaps on especially nice days in summer we can take it outside even. We’ll see. Maybe when Keats is big enough for his very own bed he’ll want to put it inside his tent, who knows? For now, though, it’ll be for a bit of fun and to satisfy my interior design leanings.

Somewhere amidst all of that, I’d like to enlist Birch’s help in building an outdoor daybed for the yard. Country Living featured this daybed made from repurposed headboards. With this in mind as a starting point, I am now on the lookout for cheap headboards (not necessarily matching) ready to be given a good home where they’ll receive a serious uplift into something wonderful. This is an ambitious project, but I think we can do it. Summers are long here in California so I’m hoping we’ll have time. If not, there’s always next year. It may even be worth it to just gather materials this summer and then build next year to make sure that I get everything perfect.

So much of this will be made possible by my wonderful mother, who donated her old sewing machine to me. Thanks, Mom! I love hand-sewing stuffed animals and things, but I think when it comes to these projects a machine will be much more practical and efficient.

As summer turns to fall perhaps I'll start reacquainting myself with knitting, but for now there are far too many sewing projects I'd love to try. Speaking of which, remind me to buy this book:

Birch is going to be throwing his two cents into this blog tomorrow so be looking forward to that! Let's see how similar our hopes for this summer are... should be interesting and goodness knows this blog could use another voice. As Birch and I actually conquer each one of these goals, I'll be sure to document with pictures and post the process here. I can't wait! All my love and hope you are all well on this beautiful, sunny day!

Birch Sold His Car!

Birch sold his 2007 Subaru STI Limited! Six hundred dollars a month to pay off $22,000 worth of debt has now vanished from our lives and it feels amazing. Couldn’t have happened at a better time. Birch loved that car and I am so thankful to him for making the sacrifice to our family.

Apparently he had a conversation with my mom before he and I even got married where he somewhat lamented having bought it in hindsight. Both Birch and I were extremely single on December 18th, 2007 and couldn't have possibly guessed that we'd be married a mere seven months later, let alone meet the person that we'd marry the very next day, but we did and Birch's bachelor-buy would be the only real casualty to speak of. Perhaps someday I'll make it up to his bachelor-self by helping to purchase his other dream in life: a small farm to call his own.

Though it was convenient to have two cars, I think Birch quickly realized that the money that was being put into that car was creating a serious lack of funds each month. As the months wore on he drove it less and less. At first because Olive would get sick every time she was in it (my brother-in-law Asher can attest to a rather sickening incident going over the San Mateo Bridge where she vomited straight down my shirt), and then because he was biking to work everyday. I really didn’t want to be the nagging wife that forces her husband to sell his dream car, so I’m extremely grateful to Birch for coming to the decision all by himself. Come to think of it, that’s one of the reasons why I think we work so well together. For the most part, we agree on the big and the little things in our life together. When I’ve been contemplating something for a few days, say the acquisition of a bookcase, I bring it up with Birch and more often than not he responds with, “I was thinking that, too!” Or something to that effect. This makes life pretty easy, let me tell you.

It’s a little sad now that it’s gone, especially since we realized that I didn’t take any “goodbye” photos of him with it, but a huge weight is gone and we can’t stop thinking of all the things we’ve wanted to save up for but couldn’t, projects we wanted to try, camping and road trips we’ve wanted to go on, and last but certainly not least, being able to better afford this wonderful addition to our family (coming to a maternity ward near you, maybe, before, on, or after March 26th).

Flurry of Last-Minute Activity

Two weeks left and feeling it. Keats is doing Tai Chi in preparation while Birch and I finish up all those last-minute details and try to ignore the strange last-minute bodily annoyances of a 9-month pregnant lady (of which there are many).

We’ve planted a few more flowers and herbs in the garden and Birch is gearing up for next month when he can finally plant his vegetable seeds and we can put together Keats’ bean tepee. We’ll have summer squashes, beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, and artichokes this year.

My mom and sister took me to do some last-minute shopping including a new car seat and other things necessary for the week or two after Keats is born. Birch and I took his car to get a thorough cleaning inside and out so that we can sell it and then we snagged some ribs for dinner later. Delicious, by the way. I scarfed them down so fast!

We drove down to Santana Row to try and find some presentable pants for me to wear to our maternity shoot the next morning and I remembered why I hate it there so much. Seriously, that place is pretty much my version of a circle of Hell. Not sure which, but it’s in there and buddy’s flappin’ his wings nearby. Granted, going shopping on a Saturday afternoon was not the smartest idea ever, but that place is pure madness and crawling with some of the most self-involved shoppers ever. I was literally pushed out of the way a couple of times and later stepped in dog poo right outside Urban Outfitters. I mean, seriously? You really didn’t think it was necessary to pick that up? Ick. Oh, and while I was standing in line for the fitting room at Anthropologie a lady behind me asked me flat out why I was wasting my time trying on pants. They “obviously” weren’t going to fit. I was glad Birch was waiting outside. That would not have gone well. So yeah, Santana Row has reaffirmed my love for online clothes shopping.

Sunday was maternity shoot day. The city was beautiful and after our shoot Birch and I walked around the Botanical Gardens for another two hours. Correction: I waddled, Birch walked. We took a short “nap” on a bench in the sun and all was right with the world once again, the stain of Santana Row washed away by magnolia blossoms.

Monday reminded me why I don’t go for long walks anymore. I could barely move around the apartment but that’s why YouTube was developed, right? Poirot, Miss Marple, and Inspector Morse kept me company and I realized once again how much Morse really bothers me. I mean, is there ever an episode where he doesn’t hit on someone? Especially witnesses and even suspects! So unprofessional. Haha.

So, with fifteen days before the due date left, Birch and I still have a few things to do: put together the labor bag, do our taxes, launder the baby things, get my car thoroughly washed, install the car seat, and clean the place up like it’s never been cleaned before. That last one is starting to feel more and more dubious everyday as my energy and physical prowess dwindles with each passing moment, but I’m determined to at least get the bedroom tip-top and the kitchen spotless. If we can do those two things I will be very happy.

I am so excited for the baby to be in my arms. It’s hard to wait now, it’s so close! Birch and I enjoy the contact we have with little Keats, but it just can’t compare with what we know is coming. Once again Miriam and Ben have come to our emotional rescue. Some people still insist on letting us know how hard having a baby is, but Ben and Miriam help us to see what we already know: it’s worth it and it’s better than being pregnant. Pregnancy is a strange thing—it’s a waiting game, a process with a very definite goal in the end. Without that ending, the past nine months seems cruel and pointless. Perhaps not pointless but most decidedly cruel. To feel that baby’s fingers wrap around one of your own, to hear it coo and even scream, to begin to understand the meaning behind its expressions and various noises—all of it is magical and beautiful, no matter how hard life has become because of it. Because “it” was the point. We planned this. We wanted this. We knew it would be hard but we knew with an even greater certainty that we wanted the challenge in order to have the reward—to have the child. We wanted a child and now we are so close to seeing his face. Not with a machine but with nothing but our eyes. How incredible it will all be. How completely worth everything that has and will be hard. How completely complete.

Maternity Shoot

Birch and I went up to the city on Sunday morning for a maternity shoot with Cindy and Seth, two of our wonderful three wedding photographers, at the Botanical Gardens. As usual with these two, the shoot was a breeze and very fun, although Birch and I always feel a bit timid and awkward when we're the center of attention. Hopefully that's not too clear in the photos. I'll post some of the shots once they become available to me, but in the meantime go check out Cindy and Seth's streams on Flickr! Both Cindy and Seth have already posted shots from Sunday and we love them! By the way, isn't Birch so handsome?

Olive: Getting the Credit She Deserves

Birch and I began searching for a dog almost as soon as we got married. In November of 2008, we found Olive and she was perfect. She was being held at Andy's Pet Shop in San Jose, but that's nowhere near where they found her or the others in her litter. A rescue operation called GEPDA (Group Education to Protect and Defend Animals) had recently brought a litter back from Taiwan that had been found on the beach

there. It turns out that Taiwan has such a huge stray dog problem that it's become a serious health problem. Groups like GEPDA go there (and other places, too, like Mexico) and capture dogs, quarantine them, and give them the necessary care and treatment before transporting them back to the US for adoption. After some research of our own, we discovered that Olive is a Formosan mix, a breed just very recently acknowledged by the people that make those decisions. We were told by GEPDA that Olive was a lab/shepherd mix, but we think this was a way to give Americans an idea of their temperament (not to mention her physical appearance could very well have been a mix of those two types). Olive was the only girl left in her litter to be adopted and was being somewhat bullied by her brothers who were all a bit larger than she. Knowing we wanted to have children, we wanted a dog that did well with them children and other animals. Luckily, when we went to visit with her there were two little girls also looking for a dog. They were interested in one of her chestnut brothers, but she was completely unphased by their behavior which was somewhat loud and all over the place, so we were confident that she would do well with some training and love. As my family can attest, this nonchalance around children has almost completely faded at this point and poor Olive is shy and cautious. She is extremely pack-oriented and dearly attached to both Birch and I. She's very smart, almost too much so sometimes, especially when it comes to treats. She is not won over by being given treats. She likes people who are quiet, calm, and who don't expect her to like them right away. However, if you have a dog, she pretty much likes you right away. Olive absolutely adores our friends Miriam and Ben. She trusts and listens to them, all because they have a dog that she plays with on a pretty regular basis. They're best dog friends which is convenient because Miriam and Ben are our best friends.

When Olive first joined our family, she was not much bigger than a Dachshund. Her ears looked enormous and her tail crazy long. In the grass, she pranced about, lifting her paws very high with each step. After months of observation, I think this is because she's somewhat prim and doesn't like getting her paws wet. In fact, she doesn't like getting wet, period. But with Kegel, Miriam and Ben's dog, she'll do anything and often comes running back to us drenched in creek water, mud, and saliva. Lovely. Formosans are mountain dogs and it's amazing to see Olive transform personalities as soon as we get her out into nature, especially the mountains. She speeds up and down the steep sides of trails and on one notable excursion with my sister Sharman and her family, ran up a fallen redwood tree that was perched on at least a forty or fifty-degree angle up the mountain. To be fair, though, she only did this after Birch did it. She'll follow that man anywhere, I swear.

Olive is now a year and a half (strangely enough, we figure she

was born around the time we were getting married), and she has grown tall and thin. Her chest resembles that of a slinky hound as her belly curves up against her spine like a greyhound or something. Though she's grown into her ears a bit since puppyhood, they are still her most notable feature and we get comments on them all the time. In fact, we get comments from strangers all the time about how beautiful she is. We're very proud of our little lady. For the most part, she listens well and doesn't get into too much trouble. (Don't leave a stick of butter laying around though. Birch still hasn't quite mastered this and pays the price for it every time.) And even though she can be timid and spooked around kids, she never retaliates against them. She's never violent. Her reaction is just to get away and we are very grateful for that. (In fact, because she is never violent, it can be hard to teach the kids the right and wrong ways to approach her.) To be fair, usually when she sees kids it's at my parent's house during some family gathering where there are seven children all under the age of eight running around at once. It's pretty hectic, even for us humans. I can't imagine what she thinks about it. Though she's cautious around them and quick to get away if they move towards her too fast, she always checks on them if they fall or trip and won't ever pass up an opportunity to lick them in the face if they make it clear that it's okay to do so. This is her favorite activity with my nephew James and there are plenty of moments where they touch tongues and the rest of us simultaneously laugh and gag as James clearly thinks this is about the best thing in the world! (He's four.)

Olive is an awesome dog. She takes up half the bed, but we'll break her of that soon. She's good at gauging a situation and adopting the mood. Ever since I've been pregnant, I've been exhausted in a way I wasn't expecting and Olive has made my life much easier by just being herself. During the day, while Birch is at work, the apartment is rather quiet and peaceful. Olive sleeps near me or goes out in the yard to chew on a bone. She doesn't get into trouble and I've

got her trained to actually help me up when I need it. She stands firm as I put a bit of my weight on her, rocking myself up from the floor. Sometimes she even actually pulls me up as I hold onto her collar (this has only happened twice when I was feeling especially needy and stuck). When Birch comes home, she greets him with crazy enthusiasm, but we've got her trained now to jump up gently and only when invited. Birch coming home is her biggest test, but even if she's misbehaving, it only lasts a few moments until she calms back down. Birch takes her out for a walk (which we now have to spell out or else she expects it to happen immediately), takes her to the park, throws a frisbee around with her, and the two of them come home happy as clams. I can't wait until I can join this ritual again. Indeed, I think Olive has become a little too used to me being sedentary and Birch being "the fun one." I used to take her out for three or four walks a day while Birch was at work and I miss that.

Like all new parents with a dog, we were a little scared of what Olive would do when she realized there was a new member of the pack, but we aren't so much anymore. Whenever we go somewhere the first thing she does is access who is there. If one of them gets up and leaves, she is noticeably unsettled until they return, as if she has created a new pack already in her mind for this specific time and place. She knows who is supposed to be there and she wants us all to stick together. Birch and I took her with us last Saturday to see Miriam and Ben's new baby girl, Sofia. We watched Kegel carefully and were pleasantly surprised to see how well he had adopted Sofia into his pack. He kept his eye on Olive and kept her in check. Olive, at first, was much more interested in Sofia's things than Sofia herself, but once the baby made a bit of noise, Olive was on it (not literally). She looked at us expectantly, almost as if she was making sure that someone was taking care of the little thing and doing it well. One interesting thing was that she seemed much more at ease when a woman was holding Sofia than she was when Birch or Ben was holding her. She checked on the baby much more while Birch held Sofia against his chest than when I did. And maybe she was tired from playing with Kegel outside for a bit or maybe it was because of the baby, but Olive was much calmer inside (Kegel as well) than either of them has been in the past. It was as if they knew that this was now a quiet place. Leaving there, Birch and I had gained a confidence in Olive that we were unsure of before. She will do well with our baby.

Olive has become a part of our family. We love her so much. We have gained her trust and I am so proud of that. She came a long way to be with us and has turned out to be one of the best decisions Birch and I ever made together. We love you, Olive.

Line-Drying the Research

As I mentioned before, fainting with some regularity led me to become somewhat of a hermit--a pregnant hermit who does a lot of research. It occurred to me that perhaps others could benefit from the hours I've put in and maybe even some company executive will see my blog and give me a free supply of goodies for all this free PR I'm giving them. Hey, one can dream, right?

Birch and I try our best to buy local, buy organic, buy eco-friendly, et cetera, et cetera. This may be where some people roll their eyes and think to themselves, "Seriously? Another blog about going green?" If this is you, I suggest reading something else because all the research I've done recently has at least something to do with having a baby without contributing massive amounts to landfills each year without going broke. I cannot stress this last point enough. Birch is a high school teacher here in Northern California and if you didn't know this before let me enlighten you: they don't make the big bucks. When Birch and I got married we decided that we'd make the monetary sacrifice of me being a stay-at-home mom. With me still in school and the economy the way it is, this decision seems to have worked out for now. With serious thanks to my older siblings and parents, that is. I'm the youngest of six and my siblings have helped us out so much by donating their old baby gear to us. A crib, a changing table, several different kinds of carriers, a car seat, a bassinet... you know, all that stuff that costs some serious cash to buy new or even used. And yes, that list does go on because we haven't even tapped the surface of what has been offered to us. We just need to clear out some room first before we bring anymore in!

So, armed with the big stuff and a budget for the rest, I went into the cyber-world to find the perfect necessities for our little boy.

First up: diapers and diapering accessories.

I knew right away that I didn't want to use brands like Huggies or Pampers purely based on the waste factor, both in landfills and in our bank account. (Note: Working on the assumption that because Birch is so prone to skin issues that baby Keats could very probably have the same, I only looked into sensitive skin options. Plus, it's a baby, so... yeah.)

First I did some research on which of the eco-friendlier disposable diapers were the best. Which had the best reviews both for performance and its ultimate effect on the environment. Mostly, I looked into Seventh Generation, Nature Babycare, and Earth's Best brands. Here are some sites I came across (definitely not all, but I bookmarked these):

http://www.parenting.com/gear-article/Baby/Gear/Tested-by-Moms-Eco-Friendly-Diapers/

http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/organic-parenting/green-eco-diapers-66031101

http://greenbabyguide.com/2008/03/14/the-best-diaper-websites/

Nature Babycare came out on top in my opinion and so that was the brand I ended up using in all my pricing scenarios. Here is the link to their website:

http://www.naty.com/us/Home/tabid/90/Default.aspx

So let's go over the numbers. It became apparent very quickly that buying in bulk was a great way to save money no matter what kind of disposable diaper we were going to buy. I looked on Amazon and their subscriptions (which were very good), but ultimately found that Diapers.com had slightly better deals. I put together a spreadsheet that included the price of the necessary number of diapers, wipes, diaper pail refills, and any other necessary items that were unique to that product or service. For this, though, I will just include the differing diaper costs as that was the most variable. (We decided to go with Nature Babycare wipes no matter what diaper scenario we found ourselves in, and we received a Dekor Plus Diaper Pail from one of Birch's friends/colleagues, so we knew what kind of refills we'd be getting, too. The biodegradable ones from that brand.)

Pampers Swaddlers Sensitive Economy Size Pack:

Size 1: 8 - 14 lbs., 180 diapers. Price: $41.99 ($0.23/diaper)

Nature Babycare Case of 4 Economy Pack:

Size 1: 8 - 14 lbs., 160 diapers. Price: $44.99 ($0.28/diaper)

So, the eco-friendly ones are more expensive, but for us, the peace of mind concerning their ultimate demise made the price difference bearable, even understandable (desirable? No, just understandable).

Because Nature Babycare diapers are 100% biodegradable/compostable, I began looking into diaper services that compost diapers and there are a few. However, these services do not allow you to buy your diapers from another source, claiming that they cannot guarantee where the diapers have been... or something to that effect. This seems somewhat ridiculous to me, but they gotta do what they gotta do, I guess. This revelation somewhat diminished my enthusiasm for the services, but I looked into the pricing anyway. Maybe it wouldn't make a big difference. Maybe the services would have deals just like/close to the ones I'd found.

Earth Baby: The Compostable Diaper Service and Tiny Tots Composting Service were the two in my area that looked the best. However, Tiny Tots uses only one brand of compostable diapers and it comes all the way from Canada. Seemed kind of backwards (and it was expensive!) so I looked into Earth Baby more closely. http://www.earth-baby.com/home.php

For the first month, I figured I would need at least ten diapers a day and one or two wipes per change. Nature Babycare Size 1 diapers come in packs of 40, so I figured I would need seven packs for the first month alone. Ouch. Earth Baby sells these packs at $11.79. Their service is $29.99/month. Nature Babycare wipes (a pack of 70) cost $3.59 and I figured I'd need at least four packs. Through this service I'd have to buy compostable bags through them, not Dekor, and those cost $4.99 for a 12-pack. All together: $161.86/month. Wow. Yeah, that wasn't going to work with our budget. So, disregarding the months of service after month one, I looked into their Starter Pack and how that would help lower the cost of that initial month. The Starter Pack includes 2 packs diapers, 2 packs wipes, 1 pack diaper pail bags, 1 box diaper bags for purse, and Baby Bum Balm all for $46.74. This meant that in addition to the Starter Pack we'd be paying for the service ($29.99), five more packs of diapers ($58.95), and two more packs of wipes ($7.18). All together: $142.86/month. Going with the Starter Pack saved about twenty dollars, but that number still seemed a bit too high and it was going to mean some serious rearranging of other budgetary needs to allow for it. So the search continued.

I thought to myself, "Okay, maybe we just can't afford a service and we'll just have to content ourselves with biodegradable diapers that end up in the landfill but that won't last as long there as Pampers or Huggies would." In my mind, it was an ideological sacrifice, but one that our budget might have to make for us. So, I went back to Diapers.com and figured the numbers there. How much would it cost to get the same products without any composting service?

Two 4-pack 40-count diapers: $89.98

Ten 70-count wipes (special deal, more than needed for one month): $34.99

Two-pack of 240-count Dekor Plus refills: $10.99

All together: $135.96/month.

Okay, so this didn't save us that much money a month. I was beginning to resign myself to the fact that just diapering the baby was going to be more expensive than Birch or I had realized and that a serious discussion was necessary once he came home from work.

Frustrated, I ended my search for a week or two, trying to readjust my brain away from factoring together costs, environmental implications, daily performance, and a computer screen.

When I came back to the search I decided to look into cloth diapering again. Birch and I had thought this impossible for us as we have no personal laundry system in our apartment (it costs $2.25/load in our communal laundry without doing a pre-wash, etc., that is necessary for cloth diapers) and we hadn't found a service that cleaned and sanitized the diapers without the use of chlorine bleach. But, on a whim, I looked into Tiny Tots again, this time at their cloth diaper service and boy was I overjoyed at what I found. They are locally owned and operated and have been awarded first place as Best Resource Reduction Program in the State of California and first place in Innovation in Industry Water Conservation in the State of California. More information can be found here: www.tinytots.com, now onto the money...

With Tiny Tots, you don't buy your cloth diapers and then have them launder them, instead it's as if the diapers are on loan to you, so there is no one-time cost to buy the diapers initially and then you pay for a service. The diapers are part of the service price. Tiny Tots recommends 80 diapers/week (about the same that I expected, thankfully). This amount is $22/week and you pay every four weeks, so $88/month (approximately). I then added the cost of wipes (from somewhere like Diapers.com or Amazon) at $15.16/month and the cost of pail refills ($10.99). All together: $114.15/month. Phew. Okay, I could work with that. Of course, there's the added "one-time" cost of diaper covers and clips (about $11/cover and $8/pack of clips), but even with that, our monthly cost of diapers had become much more manageable and the stress level that had been building in my brain dissipated as soon as I saw what this did to our monthly budget. Deep breath, sigh, deep breath... Thank you Tiny Tots.

So, that's my scoop on diapers. I could say more but I've said enough, I think. More feedback will come as I actually use the darn things, I'm sure. In the meantime, I hope this was helpful for those of you that are in the same boat as Birch and I. If you have any questions be sure to ask as it's very likely that I have the answer written down somewhere in my research notes (or at least know of a way to find the answer. Haha, or merely an opinion on the matter).