bradnstacey.com

I just "redesigned" www.bradnstacey.com ... and by redesign I mean I simplified it with links to this blog and to some photo albums as well as some other random musings.  Check it out.

Citrus Groves in Arizona

Stacey and I went to a citrus grove in Mesa the other day.  Last year I had to go to this golf thing in Mesa (we'll leave it at that) and I saw fields of citrus trees.  It's no secret I love oranges and grapefruit - ask my grandpa who used to spend forever cutting them for me when we'd visit their place in Florida!

Anyway, we went to "The Orange Patch" and were pleasantly surprised.  It was the tail end of orange season ... in fact, yesterday was possibly the last day for navel oranges according to their sign.  You'd think citrus from the desert would not be sweet or juicy like it would be in more tropical climates ... but the oranges are some of the best I've had and the grapefruit were pretty dang good too!

In the early to mid 1900's the people of this area took the wide open spaces away from Phoenix and created acres and acres of citrus groves.  Sadly, a lot of the groves have been destroyed for "progress" of rows and rows of houses that look all the same.  However, the cool thing is that many of these area still kept quite a few of the mature citrus trees.  

This time of year, when you drive through much of the Phoenix area, there is a sweet smell in the air of citrus blossoms.  I think it is one of the best smells in the world!

Damn Baby

Ever since conception (well, a few weeks after conception), Stacey has been telling me I need to watch "The Waitress."  It's a movie with Keri Russell where her character gets pregnant unexpectedly and how she deals with it.  

Often, people tell us, "Congratulations!"

Well, we are still working through everything in this unexpected journey.  "Congratulations" is something you say to someone when they win the lottery, they get a promotion or get engaged.  Stuff they wanted to happen.  This movie portrays very well what Stacey and I are going through right now in a comical way ... 

Of course, every day is different for either or both of us ... but, go ahead and rent The Waitress at your local Blockbuster, via NetFlix or rent it on iTunes ... and let us know what you think!

Our Little Keylime

Here's a picture from the concert last night. You can roughly see the word "keylime" in the scrolling text bar at the bottom of this jumbo-tron.

You could text message a message to be displayed at the front of Cricket Pavilion. I texted:

"happy st. patty's day to my lovah and our unborn keylime."

We are calling it a "keylime" because one book said it is the size of a lime this week while another said it is the size of a lime. We decided to go with a keylime since it is in the middle of the two. 

Its called compromise people.

MB20 Concert

I surprised Stacey with two tickets for the Matchbox Twenty concert on St. Patrick's Day.  Hey, it won't be long before we can't simply decide to go to a concert on a whim ... without having to worry about finding a babysitter (Troy + Kelly, thanks in advance!).

We went to dinner at Westgate to Bar Louie where Stacey was upset she couldn't partake in the green beer.  Don't worry, I am respectable and only had two pints.  You can't not drink green beer on St. Patrick's Day!

The opener for the concert was Mute Math ... which we rather enjoyed.  They were very crazy on stage.  The lead played the piano while also doing handstands on it.  They played the piano top, microphone and more with the drum sticks.  Here's a video from YouTube:

Next, the "main opener" was Alanis Morrisette.  She very odd on stage but at the same time very awesome.  She sounded better than she does on her albums which is pretty impressive considering she sounds great there.  She did a lot of her classics like "Ironic," "Jagged Little Pill," and "You Oughta Know" while also debuting some new stuff.  She was pretty good even doing a weird version of "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas.

Finally, two plus hours after the 7 PM start time, Matchbox Twenty hit the stage and did not fail to impress.  MB20 is one of our favorite bands ... we've seen them three times plus Rob Thomas once.  We were five rows from the stage but off to the side.  They did all the stuff from their new album while also hitting all their classics. 

It's crazy when you think about how quickly time flies.  We were talking in between bands and remembered Alanis Morrisette was the big "to do" when we went on spring break to Florida in 1996.  Matchbox Twenty became more popular my first year of college in 1997.  Damn it, people, it's 11 years later already!

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baby names

go ahead and make any suggestions you have for baby names ... here are our current top picks:

Boy:  Boston, Coleman (Cole), Landin

Girls: Annabelle (Belle), Cecilia, Alexandria (Alex)

leave your comments for favorites, either our current ones or add your own.  we've only gone thru the "K's" so far on one website ... so i am sure this list will morph over the months.

we are hoping for a boy - screw that "as long as it's healthy" bit ... of course, who doesn't want their baby healthy?  the question was do you prefer a boy or a girl, right?

We're pregnant ...

In case you haven't heard - we are pregnant.  As of today, we are a little over nine weeks along.  The due date is October 17 for the little bugger.  As this wasn't a part of our "bigger plan," we are both slowly coming around to the idea.

Here's a picture for you to frame from about two weeks ago.  I know, isn't it cute?  It looks like an alien.  At this point, it still had a tail.  Eww.