AND it's a.........

So last night before we went in for our ultrasound, we decided to try a few different gender prediction tests. We're curious and empirical, so we're going to give you the low down on each of them. Then you, as the educated reader, can decide which ones are most accurate.

The Tests

1. How the baby is carried (high=girl, low=boy): BOY
2. Heartbeat (under 140=boy, above 140=girl): GIRL
3. Cravings (sweet=girl, salty/sour=boy): GIRL
4. Ancient Chinese Prediction Method (Age at conception + Month of conception): GIRL
5. Ancient Mayan Prediction Method (Age and Year of conception are both even or odd=girl, not the same=boy): GIRL
6. How a key is picked up (narrow part=girl, round part=boy): GIRL
7. Pregnancy acne (normal=boy, worse=girl): BOY
8. Swinging wedding ring (circle=boy, back and forth=girl): BOY
9. Morning sickness in first trimester (bad=girl, little or none=boy): GIRL
10. How baby weight is carried (hips=girl, tummy=boy): GIRL

Our Analysis

We decided to use a weighted average of our ten-dimensional vector to statistically combine the results of all ten tests. The weights are a number between 1 and 0 that conveys how much we trust that particular measure (1 = perfect trust, 0 = no trust whatsoever). The vector of predictions (Vp) is first assembled thus (1 = girl, -1 = boy):

[-1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, -1, -1, 1, 1]

 Our trust values are chosen based on the following reasons:
1. We don't trust this as much because in Kangeroos it can be misleading. Trust = 0.4
2. We trust this measure based on average laziness of genders as measured by conference talks about the need to work harder (although the measure loses predictive power during puberty when in the presence of the opposite gender). Trust = 0.8
3. Jessica always wants sweet stuff. How predictive could that be? Trust = 0.3
4,5. Ancient methods agree, and are tried and true. Trust = 0.95433234
6. Based on solid physical principles. Trust = 0.8
7. Results of this predictor can be confounded with craving predictor, and they don't agree. Trust = 0.45
 8. I've seen big pendulums in science museums predicting the baby's gender inside mother earth, and I trust the curators of science museums generally. Trust = 0.9
9. Girls don't make me barfy. This is simply absurd. Trust = 0.01
10. No comment on baby weight from the analyst. Trust is a neutral 0.5

Trust vector (Vt):

[0.4, 0.8, 0.3, 0.95433234, 0.95433234, 0.8, 0.45, 0.9, 0.01, 0.5]

Final weighted average =

Vp * Vt / 10 = 0.2569

0.2569 > 0

It might be a GIRL. That's the official prediction from Matt "Nate Silver" and Jessica "Nostradamus".

The Real Deal

Ok, so after the fun with at-home prediction methods, we wanted to double check our answer. We went in to do the ultrasound and got a pretty clear result. You can see for yourself!

 And another adorable shot of our little boy sucking his thumb! We're in love already!

Works Cited:
1. M. R. Kosorok et al. 19something
2. Nate Silver on Bubbles, 20something
3. Nostradamus et al. The Prophecies, 15something

Giving Thanks at 20 Weeks!

We just got back from a wonderful, relaxing week with both of our families for Thanksgiving. We are in the lucky situation where our parents and siblings are friends, so we didn't have to pick and choose where to spend the holiday. Fortunately, I was feeling pretty good, so the week was a nice change from some of the pregnancy weirdness that's been going on lately. We spent the time eating lots of good food, watching movies, going shopping (for maternity clothes!), laughing, and talking about the baby. My belly isn't too big, so I haven't had any strangers poke it yet, but that did not stop my sister from showing our baby some love. This little baby is definitely coming into this world with lots of love and support. I hope our baby understood that all the rubs and pats were coming from people who are really, really excited about his or her arrival!

Also, this week marks a great milestone in our pregnancy: we're halfway there! 20 weeks is officially the halfway mark--so the countdown begins now! We're excited to find out our little one's gender in a few weeks. It's hard to wait, but seeing our baby's mature features on the ultrasound will be totally worth it! Here are a few pictures of our growing baby bump.

Well, Here We Are!

This post is long overdue, especially since we've been in Charlottesville almost a month! Wow, the time really flew by! Moving is always stressful, but you finally get to the point when you've almost figured out where to hang all your pictures and you can take a few moments to pause.

We had an awesome summer hanging out with family and traveling, but there is something great about settling down in your own place and starting to put together your life again. We aren't living out of suitcases anymore!

Matt just started classes last week, so our schedule has changed quite a bit since then. Matt is gone for most of the day and I have a lot of flexibility with how to use my time. Although it is strange to not be studying or writing papers, I have to say that my new-found freedom is definitely a welcome change. I can do anything! So far, I've joined the local chamber orchestra and signed on with a group that helps adults improve their writing and reading skills. I just recently found out that this same group teaches civics classes to prepare immigrants to apply for US citizenship. As a politics buff, teaching civics is definitely one of my passions, so I am supremely excited to be involved.

We are really loving Charlottesville so far. We've been able to explore many of the local restaurants and met some really awesome people. Here's to the next 5+ years!

Matt putting together a bookshelf in our living/dining room. Fortunately our house doesn't look like this anymore!

Matt and his family in front of Bodo's Bagels, a classic Charlottesville establishment.

Matt and me at Carter's Mountain Orchard near town.

Eating Wayside Chicken with my family--another Charlottesville classic.

Peru Trip 2012

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Convocations and Corollas

Wow. It's been a little while since our last post. I guess things got pretty busy. We both finished up our last semester at BYU, graduated, packed up all of our belongings (sans some furniture), and moved to the East Coast. Woah! We'll back up a bit and recap some of our exciting transitions and highlight what we'll be up to in the next few months.

First: Graduation

We had so much fun during graduation! Both of our families (well, most of our family members) were able to travel out for graduation, so we spent several days with parents, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents. It was a blast! We had just finished the mad rush at the end of the semester where it really seems like things will never end, so we definitely welcomed the break. Graduation was great! We had the processional the first day for all the graduates. Elder Oaks was the speaker and it was great to hear his words of wisdom for us.

The next day we went to the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences convocation. We decided we only wanted to go to one and we picked mine because I was selected as the Valedictorian for the Political Science department! I was so surprised and honored! We had a lot of fun sitting on the stand during the ceremony and looking out at all the family members who came to see us graduate. So I now officially have a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. And Matt, the cum laude graduate, has a Bachelor of Science in Bioinformatics. Wahoo! Go Class of 2012! And we took lots and lots of pictures, of course.

Second: Move to East Coast

After graduation, our families left and we packed up everything in our tiny apartment. We gave away most of our furniture, which really helped us save a bunch of space in the truck. We only occupied 9x8x5 feet of space with everything we own! Half of our boxes were filled with books. It is really hard to get rid of them! We just keep buying more and more and we can never get up the courage to try to slim down our collection. Maybe we never will and I can have my dream library like the one in Disney's Beauty and the Beast! Of course we'll be able to afford that :)

Before we left, we tried to visit as many friends and family as we could. We spent a few days playing a grand total of 8 or 9 games of Settlers of Catan with Matt's cousins before we left. Matt won 4 times and I won twice. We're trying to become a serious double threat with that game. I'm just worried that someday no one will want to play with us anymore! So we decided to save a bit of money and catch a red eye flight to North Carolina. Wow. All I can say is that I felt pretty weird for a few days afterwards. We left Utah at midnight and got to Raleigh at 8:30 am. Yikes. At least we were able to spend a few days sleeping and catching up!

All of our things in the back of the moving van

Third: New Car

Neither Matt nor I have ever owned a car. We've been married a year and a half, are now college graduates, and we just purchased our first automobile! Our car is a beautiful blue 2006 Toyota Corolla we have christened "The Blueberry", a not-so-subtle homage to one of our favorite TV shows, Psych. And we LOVE it! So far, The Blueberry has lived up to all the high expectations we had for the famously tireless Corollas. My Mom also graciously gave us a Virginia is for Lovers bumper sticker that both is a good reminder of Matt's proposal in Lovingston, VA and a foreshadowing of our new home in Charlottesville. Perfect.

The Rest of the Summer

So what in the world are we up to this summer? Not too much. And we're ok with that. It has been wonderful to wake up and know that there aren't any looming deadlines, no tests coming up, and no strict schedule. It will be hard to give that up when we re-enter real life in August. Well, we're just going to live it up until then! We've got a trip with Matt's family coming up, a trip to Peru to see Matt's Aunt and Uncle who live there, and a bunch of smaller things. Plus, we still have some big decisions coming up. We still need to find housing in Charlottesville and we've got to figure out everything we'll be involved in up there. Well, until next time, remember to live the bigg life!

Comedy of Errors

As we near the end of our time here at BYU, we've examined the way we've spent our free time during our undergraduate careers, and found something lacking. For instance, the Harris Fine Arts Center (or HFAC, for those familiar with BYU shorthand) offers several plays per semester at discount prices. We've lost count of the number of movie-date-nights we've held, but can count on one hand the number of theatrical productions we've enjoyed. We decided to do something about it...

One evening, with time on our hands and ambition to culture-ify ourselves, we decided to walk up to the art museum and look at the new Islamic Art exhibit. En route, we passed through the HFAC and decided it was high time we bought a ticket to a play or something (that's how one culture-ifies oneself ... by attending plays). I walked up to the ticket counter, asked for two tickets for a March 24th showing of "Love's Labors Lost" (a Shakespeare). The guy behind the counter asked "Do you want to see the play right now? I have free tickets ...". Jessica and I looked at each other, and in that split second glance our entire evening's plans changed. I said "We'll take them". He handed us the tickets and we walked into the play, having missed the first couple of minutes and not paid a cent.

The play was set in the 1940's, and besides the novelty of hearing Shakespeare's lines in a Chicago accent, there was a live band playing classics like "Pennsylvania 6 5000".

Our other recent Shakespeare experience left the realm of glamorous tuxedos and the greatest generation and entered the psychedelic. Love's Labors Lost was done in a main-floor auditorium of the HFAC. Our newest experience led us down into the bowels of the HFAC, several floors down to where the stairs don't go any deeper. This, my friends, is where the truly artsy people go, and your average bioinformatician hasn't the nerve to stray. But Jessica and I courageously walked (hand in cold-sweaty hand) into an arena theater to attend "The Comedy of Errors" set in the 1960s, and done in the style of Bob Fosse. It was hilarious, mostly due to the physical comedy, expertly carried out by a long, gangly fellow with a champagne glass and mustache.


After extracting ourselves from the bowels of the HFAC, we walked home with "The Time of the Season" by the Zombies stuck in our heads, and a new-found appreciation for disco balls.

Perhaps our nerdiest venture into the HFAC (if you can believe it gets nerdier) was to attend the BYU hosted TEDx event. If you're familiar with TED talks (an organization that publicizes short talks by creative and successful speakers on a wide range of topics), then TEDx is just an independently organized TED event. This one, hosted by BYU, featured invited speakers and accomplished students on the topics of social entrepreneurship, solutions journalism, and how to be successful. Jessica got free tickets by volunteering at the registration desk, and it was a special treat because one of the speakers was a good friend of ours from Cinnamon tree, named Wilfried Eyi, from Gabon, Central Africa.

Grad School: The Decision

Wow. This has been an intense and somewhat stressful adventure. But like all important and life-changing decisions, this one didn't go off exactly as we planned. Such is life. It turns out that we couldn't pick a school by finding out where we both got in--because none of our acceptance schools overlapped! I got into one of our top schools and Matt got into the other one, but neither of us got into both. How unexpected. But we've done a lot of soul searching and pondering and here is our official decision: We're going to the University of Virginia! Matt just accepted the offer on Wednesday.

UVa has extended Matt a generous stipend and he loved his interview experience there. The faculty were engaging and the research environment was stimulating. He found a lab he is really excited about working in and all his bioengineering dreams will come true in just a few short months.

My future will be decided with much more improvisation, trial and error, and pixie dust. Seriously though, the next five years will be one big journey of self-discovery. Since I won't be getting a postgraduate degree at this point, the options have only become more overwhelming. Do I get a postgraduate teaching certificate? Do I become Suzuki-certified to teach violin? Do I find a position at a local non-profit? Do I apply for editing jobs at local magazines and newspapers? The sky is literally the limit.

Amid all the celebration and confusion one thing has become clear: Charlottesville is the right place for us. We'll be back on the east coast--closer to our families, the ocean, and the Appalachian Trail. What more can you ask for? Here's to our new home!

A Busy Valentine's Day (plus an easy cake recipe!)

We had a real adventure this year on Valentine's Day. Since the beginning of the school week is especially busy for me, I got up early to try to get a heads up on all of my homework. As a result, I was really tired all day. After I took a midterm, I ran home for a one-hour break in my day to bake a cake. I decided I really wanted to use our new bundt pan, so I made a classic recipe from my Mom. (I'll put the super easy recipe at the bottom of the post.) Fortunately, our oven cooks really really fast (is it normal to have to shave off 2-10 minutes off of every baking time?) so I was able to get back to campus in time to meet with Matt for lunch and the campus devotional. 

Our Valentine's bundt cake

Man. Then we had five hours straight of class/work/homework until we could finally get home and relax a bit. I have to admit that I was a bit cranky by the time I got home, but Matt was so sweet. He had bought me some fudge (he certainly knows me well!), a copy of Thomas S. Monson's biography (so excited!!!), and the children's song book from our church. Since we are teaching the Sunday lessons for the six year olds in our congregation, this will really come in handy. It was so thoughtful! I bought Matt some chocolate covered cinnamon bears (a BYU classic) and made him some "love checks" that Matt can redeem for kisses and breakfast in bed and such. So cheesy, but certainly Valentine's Day appropriate :)

Once we had a chance to dress up for dinner, we had to catch the bus since we still don't have a car. Ten minutes and $4.50 later, we arrived at Red Lobster. We were trying to use a gift card my grandmother gave us for Christmas, but the waiting time at the restaurant was almost 2 hours! Wow. It was really cold outside and I was freezing in my skirt, but Matt, in his wonderful, eternal optimism was able to find a great place with a reasonable waiting time. We finally decided on California Pizza Kitchen, which was DELICIOUS. Their artichoke pizza is to die for! It was so so perfect. We had a wonderful waiter and 4 glasses of mango and peach lemonade each! Then we were able to go home and devour the cake. It was wonderful. Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays and I am so glad that Matt made it special this year. You know you've found the right person when they help you have fun despite the chilly air and long restaurant wait times. I'm one lucky duck.

At the bus stop :)

Recipe for Lemon Blackberry Bundt Cake


What you need:
One box of lemon cake mix
3 eggs
1 can of blackberry pie filling


Directions:
Mix ingredients in a bowl and pour into a well greased bundt pan. Bake according to directions on the box. To add a bit more deliciousness, I topped ours with a lemon glaze (lemon juice and powdered sugar). And that's it! It's yummy and very moist.

Noah's Pudding

A few weeks ago, Matt and I went with my Uncle Andy to the Pacific Institute in Salt Lake City for an evening of celebration in honor of Noah's Pudding or Ashure. The tradition of Noah's Pudding is an ancient one. The legend says that after Noah and his family stepped off the ark, Noah put all of the food they had left into one pot and boiled it all together. Every family has their own recipe for Ashure, so there are literally hundreds (maybe more!) recipes for Noah's Pudding. The dessert takes a long time to prepare, but it is delicious! Some of the common ingredients include chick peas, pomegranate seeds, lima beans, sugar, wheat, and sesame seeds. The idea of Noah's Pudding is that even though each of us is different, when we work together, we can create wonderful solutions. The message is simple, but powerful.

The delicious Noah's Pudding.

 My Uncle Andy was invited to speak at the Pacifica Institute about his current project, a glass sculpture collection of pieces that represent the 99 Names of Allah (you can read more about it here). He gave a short address about the importance of Noah's Pudding and was able to discuss a few sculptures he brought with him. It was a great evening. Matt and I were able to make a few new friends and enjoy delicious Turkish fare.

The Best Bean Burgers

It's been a while since we posted a recipe and this particular one has recently become a favorite. We really love bean burgers and we had a recipe that we used fairly regularly. Then, the website where we usually find our recipe was down. It was definitely a bummer, but then we found a recipe that we like even more on Allrecipes.com. This one uses more veggies and it's delicious!

Here's what you need:

• 1 (16 ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 green bell pepper, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1/2 onion, cut into wedges
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce or hot sauce
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs

 
Directions

1. If grilling, preheat an outdoor grill for high heat, and lightly oil a sheet of aluminum foil. If baking, preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C), and lightly oil a baking sheet.
2. In a medium bowl, mash black beans with a fork until thick and pasty.
3. In a food processor, finely chop bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Then stir into mashed beans.
4. In a small bowl, stir together egg, chili powder, cumin, and chili sauce.
5. Stir the egg mixture into the mashed beans. Mix in bread crumbs until the mixture is sticky and holds together. Divide mixture into four patties.
6. If grilling, place patties on foil, and grill about 8 minutes on each side. If baking, place patties on baking sheet, and bake about 10 minutes on each side.

Since it's not really grilling weather right now, we just baked them in the oven. So good! I was a little worried about them being really spicy, but the beans and veggies really balanced out the flavor. We loved them. They're especially good with relish on top.

A Whale of a Brag Wall : 2012

Already?! What have we done already in 2012 that deserves attention? Well, some of it is culmination of 2011 efforts. Here's a list:

• Jessica was awarded a $1500 ORCA grant from the Office of Research and Creative Activities for a research project she's working on as a student research fellow at the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy (CSED) at BYU.
• Matt was awarded $500 of an ORCA grant as part of a group project in computational biology.
• Jessica is team lead of an internship group working with Innosight through the Students for Social Entrepreneurship program at BYU.
• Matt got an interview at the University of Virginia (UVA) for February 23rd.
• Jessica is helping to publish a student travel magazine called Stowaway. She is one of the magazine's copyeditors.
• Matt is working on a new bioinformatics tool for the Griffitts lab (where he works) that visualizes transposon insertion data.

Thanks for tuning in for another episode of Brag Wall 2012!

Nossa Casinha

As most of you are probably aware, Jessica and I have moved up in the world as of the day after finals week and the day before flying to North Carolina for Christmas break. We transitioned to a new apartment, about ten blocks closer to campus. Besides being closer, we enjoy higher ceilings, windows and daylight, and slightly cheaper rent. Sounds like the deal of a lifetime, right? Well, yeah, it was :)

To satisfy the curiosity of all, here are a few pictures of our new living conditions (yes, the bed is in the living room ... or you could say the couches are in the bedroom)...










The apartment is technically smaller, but it feels much roomier and we love it. Amamos nossa casinha!

Matt and Jessica Biggs 2011

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One Year Anniversary!

On December 21st, we celebrated our 1st Wedding Anniversary! What a quick year! Fortunately, 2011 was full of fun and happiness, and opportunities for both of us to learn and grow. It is amazing how much we've learned about cooking, being less selfish, and serving others since getting married. We are so excited to find out what this next year of marriage has in store! This new year means our last semester at BYU, since we both graduate in April. We're so excited to hear from graduate programs and find out where we're headed after BYU. Stay tuned!

We were out on the East Coast visiting our families for the Christmas break, so we had a lot of fun the last two weeks (more on that in the next post). So instead of agonizing over picking the right gifts for each other, we decided to celebrate all of our anniversaries with dinner at a nice restaurant. We chose one of my favorite restaurants in Chapel Hill, The Mediterranean Deli. The deli's atmosphere is awesome. They have Persian rugs and tile decor and the smells of hummus and fresh-baked pita are everywhere. Matt chose a tomato, spinach and feta fatayer, while Jessica chose the hummus and gyro platter. Then we topped it all off with some baklava. Yum! It was all delicious! Definitely a great way to celebrate!

After dinner, we ate a few bites of our wedding cake. Jessica's parents kept it in their freezer for a whole year! It was definitely a little gross, but it's a classic tradition, so here are some pictures to prove we did it!

Year-old wedding cake, in all its glory.