Recent Pictures

More fun with the pony.

Baby E needs a haircut, huh. I'm trying to grow her hair out to all one length, so I can tuck it behind her ears. Or something.

It snowed on Tuesday! This is exciting for us in western Oregon as it only happens about once a year (maybe).

Welcome, Baby J!!!

I am so happy to announce that my sister-in-law had her baby last night! Baby J is a beautiful little girl, who arrived weighing a healthy 8 lbs 11 oz. She put her poor mama through 19 hours of labor. Baby and sil are both doing well. Congratulations to Longroper and J and their new addition Baby J! And woo-hoo! I have another niece!

Weekend Visitors

Dh's brother Magical and his fiancee A visited us this weekend. I can honestly say they were the easiest house guests I have ever had. They helped, they offered to clean, they played with my daughter, and were unfailingly pleasant. They left the house as clean as they found it. Why can't all house guests be like this???

We went to the coast on Saturday. It was rainy and gray, but we all had fun. Baby E helped out by sleeping on both the ride out and the ride back (though on the ride back she cried a lot). We went back to our new discovery, where Magical and A both ordered the salmon, I got grilled halibut with mango pineapple salsa, and Dh got the triple club. (The halibut was delicious, by the way).

We briefly hit the outlet, where I scored some super deals at the Gap outlet. An adorable onesie embroidered with "I (heart) Daddy" for two dollars, three turtlenecks for me (one of which was $1.97!), and a polo and two t-shirts for Dh (the tees were a buck each). Score!

Then we drove farther south to a lookout, where Dh, Magical, and A stood outside in the rain and watched waves crash into a small inlet. Apparently it was cool, because they were all out there for about twenty minutes and got back into the car soaking wet. I don't know, because I stayed DRY.

Once we got back into town, we ate Black Bean Chipotle Soup, which being the genius that I am, I had started in the crock-pot before we left. We played Guesstures and laughed until our stomachs hurt. I think Magical trying to act out a bee will be a joke among us forever.

Sunday was church and naps. They were going to head home that afternoon, but the roads were bad, so they stayed an extra night. We played cards and had more fun. Also meatball subs. Yes, I use my crock-pot A LOT.

Magical and A left Monday morning. Too bad a semi jack-knifed on ice and closed ALL lanes of traffic on the freeway. They were stuck on the road, in the middle of nowhere, for at least five hours. I figure they spent that time making out. They are engaged, after all.

Dh and I remarked to each other how easy it was to have Magical and A visit. (It will be even easier once they can share a bed.) Usually by the end of a weekend, I am ready for my visitors to LEAVE, thanks for coming, but time to GO darlings. But I even sincerely asked Magical if they wanted to stay another day to see if the roads improved.

Note to self: work on convincing Magical and A to move to this area after they graduate!

What Year Do You Belong In?

You Belong in 1999

With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!

What Year Do You Belong In?

Via Sugar and Ice

Blogology

MOUTHOLOGY

Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Well I like the Market Fresh sandwiches at Arby's (no sauce), but to cancel out the "virtue" of that selection, I also like the Ciabatta breakfast sandwich at Jack in the Box. Hello, 2,000 calories of fatty goodness. (I just looked it up - 710 calories. Eek.)

Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. A lovely Italian restaurant in my town.

Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. 15-20% depending on service. I can and do go lower, but service really has to suck. I can't remember ever leaving less than 10%.

Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick of?
A. Fruit.

Q. What are your pizza toppings of choice?
A. Pepperoni and breakfast bacon. Yum.

Q. What do you like to put on your toast?
A. Butter or jelly (or peanut butter if I'm in the first trimester).

TECHNOLOGY

Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. Iguazu Falls in Brazil.

Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. One.

BIOLOGY

Q. Are you right-handed or left-handed?
A. Right-handed.

Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. All four 12-year molars and Baby E.

Q. What is the last heavy item you lifted?
A. Um, does Baby E count?

Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. No.

BULLCRAPOLOGY

Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. No.

Q. If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A. I don't think I would.

Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. It depends on whether it's summer or winter (ie, am I pale or slightly tan). Summer - fuschia, cool red or black. Winter, eggplant or teal.

Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Not that I can remember.

Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. No.

Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. No.

DAREOLOGY

Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. No.

Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. No.

Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Maybe. Fifty grand is a tidy sum. But probably not.

Q. Would you pose naked in a magazine for $250,000?
A. No.

Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A. Not enough $$.

Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. No way. Unless they were trying to hurt my baby. Then I would protect her and become rich! Woo!

DUMBOLOGY

Q: What is in your left pocket?
A: No pockets. And I don't like to put things in my pockets anyway.

Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A: Yes.

Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A: Stand. (But sit to wash my face. <--new pregnancy thing)

Q: Could you live with roommates?
A: Yeah, but I would carefully select them.

Q: How many pairs of flip flops do you own?
A: Three.

Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A: I got pulled over several months ago for an illegal U-turn.

Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: Someone with a fulfilling job and happy kids.

LASTOLOGY

Q: Last Friend you talked to?
A: EdgyK

Q: Last person who called you?
A: JDub

Q: Last person you saw?
A: Baby E

FAVORITOLOGY

Q: Number?
A: Four. Not that I really do anything with that.

Q: Season?
A: Summer.

CURRENTOLOGY

Q: Missing someone?
A: Dh (he's at work).

Q: Mood?
A: Content.

Q: Listening to?
A: Feist.

Q: Watching?
A: Uh, typing. So not watching.

Q: Worrying about?
A: Baby E has the runs. For the first time in her life, if you can believe that.

RANDOMOLOGY

Q: First place you went this morning?
A: The bathroom (pregnant). Then the kitchen where Dh informed me Baby E was unwell. So I headed to her room to change the sheets, Lysol the mattress and wash bed linens and poopy pajamas. Yum, diarrhea.

Q: What can you not wait to do?
A: Have this kid. And then cuddle him tons.

Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A: The Nanny Diaries (about the same as the book - just okay).

Q: Do you smile often?
A: At Baby E and Dh, lots. But I have to tell myself to smile at strangers, even nice people at stores. I think I walk around in public with a stony "don't talk to me" face on.

Q: Are you a friendly person?
A: Generally yes. I have a hard time being friendly to mean people.

Swiped from Hollow Squirrel.

Conversation

EdgyK: I don't have any stretch marks. I don't know how that happened, since I got as big as a house each time.

Me: You shouldn't have told me that. Now I want to kill you.

Bob-o

Baby E is not big on television, but for some reason, she holds a special place in her heart for Bob the Builder. Any time one of us turns the tv on, she asks hopefully, "Bob-o?" Any time she spots the remotes laying around, she asks hopefully, "Bob-o?" Occasionally I will indeed turn on a Bob the Builder dvd (we have a whopping two). She watches for a few minutes, then starts playing with her toys. Then she closes the doors of the entertainment center. However, if I dare to turn the show off, she will wave her arms around, shouting, "Bob-o! Bob-o!"

Dh went to the Bob the Builder website with her a couple of weeks ago. The site plays the theme song, which she loves. He played a few of the games while she laughed hilariously. Now if she spies me on the computer, she asks hopefully, "Bob-o?"

It will be nice to have a construction manager in the family.

Image Credit: Kiddieland

***

A Cowboy’s Wife is having a contest on her food blog! You can win a Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer and she’ll ship anywhere so everyone is eligible!

You Decide: Rude or Not?

So I'm at the local children's consignment shop. The big winter clearance only yielded two items for me: a sweater and an adorable Ralph Lauren one-piece, both baby boy size 6-9 months. I coaxed Baby E away from the play kitchen and over to the cash register. A woman was in front of me in line, buying half the store, lots and lots of baby girl clothes. She had her little granddaughter with her, asleep in an infant carrier. She and the owner were chatting about jumper seats. The owner was really into the conversation. I stood for about five minutes, trying to keep Baby E from pulling all the books off the bookshelf next to the register. (I hate bending over.....) All the items were rung up, the customer's credit card was on the counter. To my amazement, the following came out of the owner's mouth:

"Here, come behind the counter, and we'll look at Sh0pko's website. That's where we got our jumper seat."

She proceeded to browse the Internet for jumper seats with the customer, while I stood there waiting! It was at least ten MORE minutes. I took the pleasant look off my face. My back was really starting to hurt. I'm obviously pregnant. I obviously had a toddler with me. Baby E was being very quiet, but hello! Run the lady's credit card, check me out (I obviously only had two items to purchase), and then browse the bloody Internet with your new best friend until your hair falls out!

Ahem.

So, tell me, am I overreacting?

6 Month Prenatal Appt

• I am mildly anemic (shocking).
• I am NOT diabetic. Hallelujah!
• My belly is measuring "the big side of normal." Ha ha
• My weight gain is fine (and still lower and slower than it was with Baby E).
  
• There's not much of anything I can do about my back being out. Oh and my insurance won't cover me if I decide to go to a chiropractor.
• However my insurance will cover one of these babies once the actual baby has been born.

Menu Planning

About a week ago, I sat down and wrote out a two-week menu plan. I used meats I already had in my freezers, mostly recipes I've already made, and most ingredients were already in my pantry. I added the few needed ingredients to my Winco list, and I was ready. It's going really well. I have tried menu planning before, but for some reason, everything really clicked into place this time. Due to various reasons (more leftovers than I thought, a date on Saturday - woohoo!), my two week menu plan will probably last 2 1/2 weeks.

I made sure to include several crock-pot recipes. I got a big crock-pot for Christmas from my bil and his wife (I had a medium size one -- too small for large stews) and I am in loooove with it. Plus, I love being able to spend half an hour in the morning and be done with dinner.

Tonight the menu is Chicken Curry with Cream over brown basmati rice. The first time I made this recipe, Dh announced excitedly, "This is so good! Now we never have to get Indian takeout again!" To which I mentally responded, Yeah that's not going to happen.

26 Weeks

Less than 100 days to go!

Baby E Figures Out the Pony!

Just as Liz predicted, Baby E figured out the pony in her own time. This morning she climbed on it all by herself, and proceeded to rock away! While still pressing his ear to hear the annoying song, of course. Ha ha

Belly Pics

Early December, 4.5 months
Last week, 5.5 months

Super Productive

I had a really productive day today!

• Stripped and remade all beds
• Washed all those sheets & pillowcases (2 loads laundry)
• Picked up living room
• Cleaned out the clutter corner of the kitchen counter (has been cluttered with recipes ripped from magazines and little plans and to-do lists of mine for literally months)
• Put away load of laundry left over from yesterday
• Visited EdgyK for about an hour
• Did 5-minute clean on hall bathroom*
  
• Made delicious, healthy Black Bean Chipotle Soup** and Buttermilk Cornbread (um, only the soup is healthy), both from scratch
• Ran and put away two dishwasher loads

And I even rested during Baby E's nap and spent time playing with her and reading to her. I am proud of myself. If only every day could be as productive. And it's even a Tuesday. (Normally Mondays are by far my most productive days.) The only thing I didn't get to, though I tried, was working out. I made it through about ten minutes of my prenatal yoga dvd before Baby E asked me to read to her. And then that one book quickly became five and before I knew it, it was time to feed her dinner and so long yoga. Perhaps tomorrow.


*I can't explain it. Baby E is usually pretty content to follow me around and play near me as I do chores, but when I try to clean a bathroom, she becomes a whirling dervish. During the 5-minute clean, she attempted to unroll the TP twice, tried to get into medicine, tried to stick her hand into the dangerous cleanser soaking the toilet, and tried to put on Dh's deoderant. Thus I decided 5 minutes was just going to have to cut it for the hall bathroom.

**This is the first meatless recipe I've tried making that Dh truly likes. Hallelujah!

Dh's Full of It

Dh is always making up outrageous names for me, then I am supposed to protest, and he defends the names with outlandish reasoning. He pretends to get very annoyed if I do not play along. Since these names are all too often variations of "heina," I am rather willing to protest. So the other day, he invented a name for me that was a combination of Baby E's name and my real name.

"No! That cannot be a name for me!" I yelled. Isn't it enough that I had to push that kid out, and now am home with her all the time??? I will not answer to some strange subsumation of my personhood!

Dh rose to the challenge. He proceeded to list the traits of an individual who could be referred to by a combination of my name and Baby E's name:

• A girl.
• Cute.
  
• Demands lots of his attention.
• Is irresistible (in different ways, he clarified).

Finally I conceded that while Baby E and I do share some important characteristics, and one could technically use Dh's made-up name to describe an individual possessing said characteristics, there is no way in heck I will respond to that name.

QT Time with My Family*

Dh is taking some time off work to relax and work on an online grad course. Tuesday night he told me he planned on going to the library Wednesday to work on his course (since, yeah, it's pretty much impossible to do schoolwork when Baby E is waltzing around you acting adorable, and asking you in irresistible ways to read her a book or take her on a walk). However, yesterday morning Dh walked into the dining room and announced, "I've changed my plans for the day slightly (slight pause) completely." I busted up laughing. "Let's go to the coast!" I agreed wholeheartedly and an hour later we were off!

Baby E slept on the drive over (it's only about an hour). We went to a well-known Oregon coast restaurant chain.** The place was moderately full. However, all the waitresses were running around like chickens with their heads cut off, acting very flustered. Food was piled up on the counter, ready to be brought to tables, but anytime the waitresses went up to the counter, they never took the food. It all sat there, and they frantically waved receipts in the cook's face. I know this because we were seated directly next to the kitchen. These chicks were incompetent. After ten minutes, we didn't even have water. Nor did we have any idea which lady was our waitress, as no one had come to our table, aside from a busboy bringing some silverware. Dh was starting to get pissed and suggested leaving. I was game. I had only suggested the restaurant because it was the first place that popped in my head.

We drove up the road and spotted a restaurant in a hotel. We decided to go there because by then it was 1:30 and we are all starving. Well. This place was almost empty yet had the most amazing view of the ocean. The food was delicious (I got the grilled salmon with an orange chipotle glaze) and we spent about the same as if we had stayed at the crappy place. We decided we need to stop sticking with what's comfortable, because it means we've been missing some awesome stuff.

We hit the outlet mall briefly so I could score some baby boy clothes off the clearance racks at Carters. (So. Cute.) Then we headed down the coast to attempt some whale watching. Unfortunately it was a rather stormy day so even if whales had been frolicking, we wouldn't have been able to distinguish their plumes from choppy cresting waves. A lady at a souvenir shop said she saw six on Monday! Dh was kind of disappointed to not see any. But we still all enjoyed ourselves. He bought me a silly little silver ring one size bigger than normal so I'll still have something to wear when my fingers get too swollen for my wedding rings.

On the ride home, everyone was driving like grandpas because Oh my gosh! It's raining! It's never rained in Oregon before! We'd better drive 15 miles below the speed limit! So it took a loooong time to get home. Baby E threw her binky where we couldn't reach it and we weren't willing to pull over to find it and thereby sacrifice the lead we had finally obtained over the slow drivers. (We're bad parents. We know.) And it was past her bedtime. So she cried herself to sleep. Which she hasn't done since she was about three months old. I felt kind of bad, but mostly glad that she was sleeping peacefully instead of crying. She perked right up once we got home and got some mandarin oranges into her system. I gave Dh props on his excellent decision to change his plans completely. He's a genius.


*Dh started saying "QT time" ages ago for reasons unknown, and now we both say it. I think it's funny. If you have a sense of humor, you think it's funny too.

**Let's just say it starts with an M and ends with an o's. It has consistently crappy service and mediocre food, yet is inexplicably always packed.

In Which I Rant

**If you're set on watching Waitress, skip this section. Spoilers included.**

I watched Waitress tonight. Superficially, I enjoyed it. It had some very amusing parts, and zany characters. But I do not like it, nor do I recommend it. Its messages were anti-men and anti-family. Nearly every male character in the movie was a reprobate. Two were having affairs with married women (since there were only four men in the movie, that's crap odds.) A third was a psycho controlling freak. Only the fourth was bearable (an adorable Andy Griffith playing a crotchety old man). Only when the main character fell in love with her newborn daughter did she find the courage to tell her abusive husband she wanted a divorce. And then, of course, her life was roses.

The movie makes single parenthood look like a walk in the park, which I have a strong suspicion is completely false. Just strap that kiddo into a Baby Bjorn! And once she's too big for that, why just continue to bring her to your place of employment! Has anyone involved in the making of this movie even met a toddler? What an insipid idea. My toddler's really pretty well-behaved, but the idea of taking her to any job for eight hours makes me want to back into a corner and curl into the fetal position.

* * *

I'm reading Mary Modern by Camille Deangelis right now. I find the story very interesting so far. However. I am so tired of being told that because I am registered as a Republican, I am racist, an illogical opponent of stem cell research, and a blind supporter of Bush. SO TIRED. I don't constantly post insulting comments about Democrats. Why do so many liberals feel the need to make snide comments about my supposed political positions in their books (which have nothing do with politics, by the way). It's lame, and it's immature.

* * *

Okay, I think I'm done ranting (for now). So, I'm like, 25 weeks pregnant. Cool, huh. This is going by really quickly. My pelvic pain is quite bad. This has reduced my shopping ability to nearly zero. EdgyK mourns, but my budget rejoices. Baby E also mourns. She gets really bored, and when she is bored, she just wants to eat. I am a little confused as to where she picked up that idea, it's not really something I do too often. (I suppose she could have come up with it on her own.) But anyway, walking at all hurts, sitting too long hurts. But other than that, I feel really good. Baby Boy bounces around like crazy, I love it. In fact, he recently acquired the ability of kicking so hard it hurts. He doesn't do that too often (yet), thank goodness.