Becky Cairns

If Mom and Dad don’t know if they’re having a boy or a girl, certified nurse midwife Christy Francis doesn’t want to know, either.

“Sometimes if they’re having a surprise, it helps me to be surprised ... because I don’t want to accidentally slip,” says Francis, who offers routine ultrasounds for mothers throughout their pregnancies at Ogden Nurse Midwives in South Ogden.

Extra care is needed on ultrasounds, Francis says, in order to avoid scrolling over “something” that reveals the sex, or to avoid reacting to seeing that something.

“You hope they don’t see any different look on your face,” she says.

Adds ultrasound technician Kathy Field: “If you slip and tell them, it’s like ruining Christmas, you know what I mean?”

Pass out the party hats, folks, it’s birthday time again at the Golden Spike National Historic Site.

And Pat Maher gets two hats, thank you very much — one to wear for the traditional railroading birthday celebrated every May 10, and one to wear for his own birthday, also on May 10.

Sharing his date of birth with this historic Utah holiday means Maher elects to spend many of his May 10ths at Promontory Summit to relive the driving of the golden spike at the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869.

No, he won’t be handing out slices of birthday cake, but Maher will make the trek north this Friday for his 52nd birthday and the site’s 144th anniversary.

A mystery is gnawing at the branches of the rescued Willard Bay beavers’ family tree.

Beaver No. 6 is likely related to No. 5 — but is he also related to No. 2? Are No. 3 and No. 1 siblings? Is Momma the mother of two of the juveniles, or all five of them — or none of them?

DNA testing may be able to sort out the relationships of the six animals injured in a recent diesel fuel spill at the bay and now recovering at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah.

Secretariat could run like the wind, Trigger was a movie star and Mr. Ed could talk.

As horses go, Soren is special, too, although you won’t see why when first meeting him face to face. But as soon as this big red horse turns around, you will discover something is missing — his tail.

Who needed flat-screen TVs, iPhones and McMansions to get the envy ball off and rolling?

Even back in the day, Caveman Joe couldn’t help but drool over his hole-in-the-rock neighbor’s new hunting spear and wish he had one just as sharp and sporty.

And Cavegal Jane may have loved her own rock jewelry, but she also turned a tad green over the latest fad in mastodon-tooth bracelets.

Envy is an everlasting state of mind that’s plagued our psyches since the dawn of time.

Modern researchers have even pinpointed a new incarnation of this age-old lust for things out of reach: Facebook envy. One study just released by German researchers in February found that envy often rears its head as we scroll through others’ posts about exotic vacations, new houses and job promotions.

On this St. Patrick’s Day — as we’re reveling in all things green — we turned to the experts for their insights on why envy may turn US into something green, and how we might better cope with this state of mind.

Mindy has spent weeks creating a scrapbook for hubby Joel for Valentine’s Day, filled with photos and cute notes about everything from their first date to their wedding to their best-ever Hawaiian vacation.

Joel got Mindy a card and a muffin — a pink one — that he picked up at the gas station on the way home from work.

Are you guessing this couple’s Valentine’s Day is headed for disaster faster than a box of chocolates left sitting by the romantic fireside?

The rest of the world is about to find out what some Utahns already know: Our pretty great state is a hotbed of demolition derby action.

Weekend after weekend, in arenas hither and yon, drivers like Layton’s Steve “Scooter” Carroll and West Haven’s Johnny Gullo are tearing it up in the dirt, bent on smashing the living daylights out of each other.

And once the derby’s over, these guys are hard at work in their shops, rebuilding their cars to go out and do it all over again.

The drama of Utah’s demolition derby circuit is the focus of “Kings of Crash,” a new reality television series debuting next Sunday, Feb. 10, on the Velocity channel. Drivers Carroll and Gullo, along with Gullo’s 20-year-old son Dalton, are three of eight “four-wheeled gladiators” whose lives were documented by TV crews during last summer’s competitive season.