The Rest of July

I am now at 20 weeks, or 4 1/2 months. This is the halfway mark of pregnancy. The photo above was at 19 weeks. I put an interesting diagram below that shows a baby at 19 weeks. We were at the fair today and the right to life table was there. They had models of babies at different stages of development. The 18 week baby could fit in my hand (from fingertip to bottom of palm)...and it's the hardest thing to imagine the baby being so big already! I am feeling good and thankful that my cyst is gone. The baby is sitting very low which accounts now for much of the discomfort I'm feeling...hopefully baby will want to explore higher regions soon. The baby is active and very wiggly. We had our mid-term ultrasound and the baby moved the entire time! We have chosen to wait until the baby is born to find out the sex.



It has been very very hot here...in the 100's!! Normally our temperatures are in the 80's during the summer. 90 is hot and 100 is newsworthy. We have an air conditioner in our bedroom so we are sleeping at night and that is quite wonderful. I took the cat into the bedroom with me the other evening to work on my grocery list and I was thinking the cat would appreciate the cooler room. She really didn't care though and ran out the door when TJ came in. She's been all stretched out though and I thought this was a funny view!

I'm trying to learn to do more baking and made these biscuits! They turned out pretty good and we used the leftovers for strawberry shortcake. Every week I'm trying to bake some sort of bread-like concoction.

We spent a Saturday morning visiting with my friend Birdie who was up visiting her family. She lives in Mexico with her husband and two children. She is a few months ahead of me in pregnancy. It was so nice to visit!

TJ installed clothes lines under our back porch...I love them! I have been quite excited to do laundry these days so I can go hang up the laundry outside. Since we put the lines under an overhang we'll be able to hang laundry outside longer into the fall/ sooner in the spring when the rains are here.

When I returned from Georgia we went blueberry picking! There are now 7 quarts in our freezer...these were a few of the berries drying. The baking powder box is my favorite kitchen "decor" and very handy to store all those spatula's and spoons.

August is now here and we went to the hospital this morning for the maternity orientation class. It was an hour long and told us where we will go when the baby comes and a bit about the hospital. We'll be taking a childbirth preparation class with our friends Ben & Katie starting at the end of September. You have to take two pillows, a blanket and wear comfortable clothing...I'm very fascinated to find out what we'll be doing!! School will be starting again soon and the summer is winding down. I miss the days when summer seemed like it took forever- this year I'm wondering where it went!

Vacation!

Well, I have returned to Oregon (and my lonely hubby) from vacation.

Spent the first few days in Ohio and got to see the sights and sounds of home again along with visiting several family members.

Jeff & Marsha x 3 treated me to a lovely hibachi lunch...it was quite super to visit with them!

The Amy's brought their families over on Sunday and Skye made sure there was a group photo.

My grandma & grandpa, just celebrating their 60th anniversary!

I got to visit with TJ's parents and nephew for an afternoon.

Went to Georgia and met up with three high school friends (Dinah who lives there and Amy & Amy who flew from Ohio). We went canoing, they threw me a surprise baby shower at a pool, we ate with Amy's uncle at a fancy Italian restaurant and Dinah had her friends over so we could meet them. Dinah drove us to North Carolina for the weekend and we stayed with Amy's sister-in-law. We spent a whole day on the beach and I got to swim in the ocean (and not freeze!). Got a funny sunburn too!

Amy & I comparing baby bumps.

Dinah, Amy, Me, Amy before a neat laser show at this huge rock mountain with southern generals carved on the front.

Canoing! We were the steer-ers...though I wasn't very good!!

On the beach! Ahhh, it was lovely.

I enjoyed my time away but am finding I'm just not the traveler I used to be and was glad to get home. Returned to work today and am already busy getting the files transitioned to the new school year quickly approaching.

Today I also had a fun milestone regarding baby- I felt the first official really kicky kick! It surprised me to say the least. Nice to know little one is still wiggling around in there.

The rest of the photos from my trip are in our picasa online photo album (link to the left).

Wedding, Baby Shower & Baby Photos

Saturday we attended the wedding of a friend from our old Bible study. It was a beautiful service and we helped a bit with the reception- I lit some candles and TJ (and some other sturdy fellows) scooped very frozen ice cream. We went out for happy hour with several friends from our old study afterwards.

TJ & Sunin serving ice cream.

Us!

Sunday was Donna's baby shower! Little Natalie is expected to join the world in about a month. We had a very nice time!

Donna with her yummy ice cream cake.

Monday I had an ultrasound just to see the baby and I was utterly amazed- there is a fully formed human being in there...no more baby blob! Donna has named the baby "Happy Jumping Little Baby" because the baby was moving all around...arms, legs and everything. Donna took a bit of contraband video which I'm trying to download here but may not be able to b/c our connection isn't quite fast enough.

Baby arm and fist, with little pointer finger slightly sticking up...original photo is a bit clearer.

Upside down curled up baby...head and body and some ribs (?) in photo.

I'm leaving Saturday to go to Ohio & Georgia. If you want to stop and visit with me while I'm in Ohio stop by my parents from 2:30 - 7:30...they live right next door to Barry & Nicki.

Three Years!

Can you believe it! TJ & I have now been married 3 years! My work last week was super busy and his work as always is busy so no major celebrations planned. We did go to our traditional annual strawberry festival though! Got a tomato plant and some yummy strawberry shortcake (which was also the main food for our wedding!). After leaving the festival we stopped at an estate sale and got a free toddler-esqe bed and a quilt rack! The bed was free and the rack was only $5! They were quite the exciting finds. They had a beautiful old school desk too for $25 but since we only had $7 it had to stay. :( One day I'll find another cheap one!

The grange hall we ate our strawberry shortcake in. It's lined with quilts!

My school ended two weeks ago and then was immediately followed by our organization putting on a long conference. I knew that pregnancy would make me more tired but wow, I had no idea! By the last day (Saturday) I was quite done in. Rested Sunday and Monday, worked half days Tuesday and Wednesday, took a sick day today (blah!) and am pondering if it is even worth going in tomorrow! I have one week more of work then will be travelling to Ohio (I'll be home the 5th - 8th) and then on to Georgia for a girls week out! I am super excited to go on this trip and am thankful for my parents who made it possible.

TJ is doing well at his job, learning new things every week. He came home a few weeks ago and showed me some of his wounds (apparently mechanics have a tendency to cut themselves!). These particular woulds were slices from a very sharp blade that went through two layers of shirt in addition to slicing open two pieces of his hand. The fascinating thing though was that he closed the wounds with super glue! Apparently this is a toolbox must and "doesn't burn as much as that other stuff." :) His hand is pretty healed up now and I am now a fan of super glue as an alternative to stitches!

This weekend we'll be attending a fun wedding and a baby shower (different friends). I'm thinking of getting some fresh strawberries and making some Suter's freezer jam!

Baby is doing well. I am now 15 weeks. The midwife was listening to the heartbeat via the handheld doppler this week and in the midst of that lovely heartbeat were these funny static noises the doctor said was the baby moving around! On a sad note we have friends who just lost their baby at 9 weeks. Please pray for their family as they mourn for their little one.

I don't think I'll be able to post again until after I return from Georgia (mid-July), but hope to see many of you at home while I'm there!

First Half of June

Can it really be June already? Time just slips away... The weather is getting a bit warmer now. Our garden is starting to grow (and we still need to finish planting!) and I think our lettuce is ready now. Maybe some strawberries too!

We hosted our last Bible study gathering here. It was nice to all get together. The kids had fun talking to the cat from inside the window and the guys had a good frisbee game.

Playing frisbee

Chatting with the cat.

Exploring

We had a picnic.

There was a thunderstorm here! Ok, compared to Ohio standards it wouldn't be much to speak of, but it was a big deal here. They pre-empted shows for news coverage and everything! At our house we heard some thunder and saw a little lighting. There was a lot of wind too. :)

The threatening skies over wheat field in front of our house.

Kris & Andrea are moving to Texas so we co-hosted a going away party for them. It was nice that everyone could come out and spend some time together before they left.

little Rubye
big Rubye (Kris' mom) with Grady

I am now 13 weeks! I think this means I'm in the second trimester now, and entering the fourth month of pregnancy. I've been feeling ok though felt quite sick yesterday and left work a bit early. Hoping that I'll start feeling great and the cyst will go away soon.
At 12 weeks...the bump is growing!

I am hoping to come to Ohio July 5th - 8th before heading to Georgia with Amy B, Amy P to visit Dinah. Will probably have a gathering on the 5th to try and see everyone.

Kris & Andrea's Party

This Saturday evening we are co-hosting a party for Kris & Andrea (& Rubye & Grady of course!). Everyone is welcome- please pass the word! We'll have a potluck- the weather is looking a bit iffy for a BBQ so we'll just stay with the safe realms of potlucks. :) Below is the sign up list of things to bring. I'll update as folks sign up. Party will start around 5:30, food starting to get dished out around 6:00. If you can't sign up/can't bring anything, come anyway!

Here's what we need:

- 1 salad (any kind)
- 1 desserts


Here's what we have so far:

- Rice Krispie Treats
- Fancy Rice Krispie Treats
- Veggie Mini-Quiches
- Crumb Apple Pie
- Apples w/Carmel Dip
- Deviled Eggs
- Peach flavored Jello-Jigglers
- Nut Bars
- Chips & Salsa
- Chili
- 1 dessert
- Paper goods...plates, cups, silverware
- Watermelon
- Strawberry Shortcake
- 1 main dish
- Drinks
- 2 Salads
- Fried Chicken
- Pasta Salad
- Chicken Enchiladas
- Fruit Salad
- Chocolate Chip Cookies


To let us know what you can bring leave a comment here or call or email Katie W or myself. I'm on Facebook too and you can leave me a msg there also. If you need directions to our house just let us know. We'll have balloons across the entrance of the driveway to help (it's really pretty easy to get to)!

Our home has a large yard outside. If it is not raining we'll plan on spending much of the evening outdoors (though of course you are welcome to hang out inside if the outdoors does not appeal). If you have outdoor chairs or blankets we encourage you to bring them! There is plenty of room for frisbee and playing catch, and for kids to run around. Plenty of parking too!

Photos

I just updated our picasa albums but here are some highlight photos:


This is crimson clover...there are fields and fields of it right now, it's so pretty and red!

Issac, Bryan & Lisa's little one.

TJ and I!

TJ & I with Charlotte, our houseguest! And my haircut...

This is my peony...we planted it last year and I thought it died. Turns out they hibernate in the winter! I'm looking forward to this bud flowering.

My long hair before I got it cut.

This is at 9 weeks. Only a little bump. :)

End of May

I'm not getting on the computer as much these days...there is not really any comfortable position between the desk and chair and computer, and evenings have been rough so I've rarely been turning on the computer!

Feeling a bit better now at week 9 1/2. Am thinking a bit more clearly through the nausea, and getting some breaks in the waves. We had a scare last week when I went into the doctor with horrible cramping and some bleeding. Baby S is fine though and among other things the midwife seemed to think my cyst was part of the problem. So until the cysts bursts (or they decide to remove it) no more twisting, bending, medium lifting, jumping or otherwise doing anything that could make it twist.

We had a houseguest for a few weeks, our friend Lisa's mom Charlotte! She was a great houseguest and even cleaned our house top to bottom for us before she left! Our bathroom wasn't this shiny when we moved in and we are in awe of her cleaning skills.

We're still working on our garden, slowly weeding and planting. We got some watermelons in this weekend but still have a large portion of the garden to go. We hope to rent some of the youth from Lisa & Bryan's church to help us weed...they make money for their summer trips and we get help with weeding!

We have no plans for the Memorial Day weekend, just planning to stay home and relax and work in the garden. I have more pictures to post but at the moment am not sure where my camera is and think it's probably in the car. It's raining at the moment so I think I'll wait till later to upload more photos!

May Has Arrived!

It is surprising how fast April went by! I think the biggest news for April was finding out I am pregnant! Donna had given me some of her old tests and on the 7th I had tested. A very light "pregnant" line appeared. The test was expired so I figured it was just an error. Got another test that night...and the next morning...and the next morning...and don't you know that pesky line still was there! I had a pre-schedule doctor's appointment on the 9th and they ran some bloodwork to confirm the pregnancy, and that night the doctors office called and said "Congratulations! You are pregnant!"

As Donna says, "a line is still a line, no matter how faint it is." She said this a lot in response to my "but it's only a faint line..." comments. :D

On the 18th I did a very relaxed Pampered Chef show at Kris & Andrea's- and writing this reminds me I need to place those orders today!!

I had my first appointment with a midwife on the 22nd. They ran a lot of bloodwork to test for the most fascinating things, and she guessed I might be around 8 weeks. I squeezed the ball longer than I was supposed to while giving them my blood and still have a huge bruise.

I had an ultrasound on the 28th to try and figure out how far along I really am. The ultrasound tech said I was 6 weeks, 2 days. How can they tell? I don't know. She thought my due date would be around December 18th. Hopefully baby will come a bit earlier! The ultrasound tech also found an ovarian cyst on my left ovary. I was surprisingly glad about this because I'd been having some sharp pain there for a month and thought I might have a hernia. The midwife said the cyst should just dissolve on it's own soon.

This is tiny baby...the two + signs are the crown and rump! The photo says the baby is .54cm...I'll be 7 weeks tomorrow so maybe baby is an inch now!

Baby news has been our biggest focus this month. I'm feeling tired a lot and finding that as Adele said, "it takes a lot of work to make a baby!" I can't do as much at all or I'll get very nauseous and sore. That cyst acts up too which doesn't really help anything. Today is Saturday and we're enjoying a sleepy rainy day at home.

Catching Up...

We have had a crazy busy couple of weeks! Here are the highlights with some photos:

• Lisa's mom & sister came to stay with us for Lisa's shower weekend (since Bryan & Lisa were hosting his mom!). They were our first houseguests and we enjoyed having them! Hopefully they will be back after Lisa has her baby!
• We hosted Lisa's baby shower Saturday that weekend! It was a relaxing time to hang out with friends and see what cool gifts Lisa got! I think she will not be lacking on stuffed animals. That evening we went to another shower for a friend of Lisas. It was a shower filled day!
  
• Sunday a family from my hometown 2,363 miles away came over for lunch! They were in town visiting their daughter so came to church with us and then came over for lunch! It was great showing them our home!

• The next weekend TJ and I took a quick weekend trip (thank-you friends!) to Trout Lake, WA. We stayed at The Farm B & B and visited the Maryhill Museum of Art, Stonehenge replica and a lot of little towns on the way home! It was refreshing and relaxing and probably the last chance we'll have to get away until the fall comes.

• We have now officially been at our country home for one year! Under the terms of our rental agreement we have to clean the carpets (because of the cat) so we plan to do that this weekend. We also hope to rent a tiller and get the garden ready for planting. I need to get the tomatoes & peppers started too! This weekend is Lisa's church baby shower and some local craft/plant shows.

Cheryl, Lisa, Donna

Doug, Rosalyn, Amanda

Beautiful Washington View

View at the Stonehenge replica

Washington view...fun, huh!

Seeds!

We have all our seeds now for the summer. Here is a list of all the things that will be in our garden:

Hart Seed Co	Basil	Sweet Basil
Seeds of Change	Bean, Bush	Bountiful Stringless Snap Bush Bean Heirloom
Botanical Interests, Inc	Bean, Edamame	Edamame Soybean butterbean
Amish Land Seeds	Bean, Pole	Old Homestead Bean
Gurneys	Carrot	Carrot, Tendersweet
Plantation Product's Inc	Cilantro	Longstanding Cilantro
Botanical Interests, Inc	Corn, Sweet	Corn Sweet (se) Luscious
Seeds of Change	Corn, Sweet	Hocker's Sweet Corn Heirloom
Territorial Seed Company	Cucumber	CU292 Marketmore 97 Slicing Cucumber
Renee's Garden	Greens: Arugula	Italian Arugula
Gurneys	Greens: Lettuce, Leaf	Leaf Lettuce, Blend
Renee's Garden	Greens: Mix	Monet's Garden Mesclun
Botanical Interests, Inc	Onion, Green	White Lisbon Bunching Onion
Territorial Seed Company	Peas, Sugar Snap	PE632 Sugar Star Snap Pea
American Seed	Pepper	California Wonder Pepper
Hart Seed Co	Pepper	California Wonder Pepper
Gurneys	Popcorn	Popcorn, Japanese White Hull-less
Hart's Heritage Seeds	Pumpkin	Pumpkin Connecticut Field
Seed Savers Exchange	Radish	Plum Purple Radish
American Seed	Squash, Butternut	Waltham Butternut Squash
Territorial Seed Company	Squash, Zucchini	SQ790 Black Beauty Zucchini
Hart's Heritage Seeds	Sunflower	Sunflower Mammoth
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Amish Salad Tomato Seeds
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Large Mennonite Heritage Tomato Seeds
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Matts Wild Cherry Tomato
Gurneys	Tomato	Tomato, Heirloom Rainbow Blend
Amish Land Seeds	Tomato	Kitten Katastrophe Due
Seed Savers Exchange	Watermelon	Blacktail Mountain Watermelon
Botanical Interests, Inc	Zucchini	Black Beauty Zucchini

As you can see we have a pretty aggressive list of vegetables this year! We still are still in the beginner's level of gardening but growing in our knowledge quickly.

One of my new favorite booklets are the "Storey County Wisdom Bulletins." So far we have "Starting Seeds Indoors," "Easy Composters You Can Build," "Grow the Best Blueberries," "Grow the Best Tomatos," " Build your own Underground Root Cellar" and then in the mail on their way to us we have "Wide Row Planting," "Grow the Best Corn," "Controlling Garden Weeds" and "Gardening Answers." They are each about 30 pages and cost less than $5.00 each and are chalk full of super down to earth practical advice.

In the next week or two I'll be starting my tomatoes and peppers in the basement. Today we were at Home Depot and got a shop florescent light so they can have light. I need to ready my Starting Seeds Indoors and Grow the Best Tomatos booklets a few more times!

Spring!

This sight does wonderful things in my heart!

I feel like we've been hibernating since December. I think our house would agree! This week TJ has been quite sick with the flu and has bronchitis. I never knew that the flu could be anything more than bowing to the porcelain god but it is! Fever, aches and pains and a horrible cold is the flu.

We are currently watching the Babylon 5 series. My husband who is ok with Sci Fi but not as enraptured as I absolutely loves Babylon 5! He watched it when it was on tv and is quite excited that I am watching it with him now. It's funny because I'm still pretty neutral on whether I like it or not. It does have an intricate storyline and there are several episodes I am quite sold on. We're on season four right now and I believe there is one more season "and the movies" as all the fans tell me. So we'll see!

Today when I woke up the sky was clear, the sun out and a light frost on the ground. As I drove to work the sky above was clear but in the distance I could see low cloud banks on the ground...low lying (lying? laying? hmmm...) fog. When I got home it was about 55 degrees with clear skies and lots of sunshine!! I took a walk around the house and admired all the green and bulbs springing up. Went out to look at the garden too. Last year I only thought of the plants we could plant. This year I just keep thinking about all the weeds. The garden is completely overrun with weeds and I'm quite overwhelmed! Where do we start? I have no idea but I'm determined to find out! I read somewhere that land that has been left to the weeds takes several years to get to a point where the weeds stop trying to completely take over. I think we have a long road ahead, but a worthwhile one if it means a healthy weed free garden!

Here are some photos of things!

Crocus vernus subsp. albiflorus...never knew what a crocus was till this week when it popped up out of the ground.

TJ helped some friends with a few household fix-up projects...this is his foot coming down out of their attic! The floor was very far away. Yikes!!

Look! I'm Mennonite! I've been considering wearing a headcovering off and on, for no other reason than I like them...got this headcovering off a good headcovering website!

I bought a mini-rose bush on sale and it was blooming during the snow. I think I lately overwatered it because the leaves are all yellow. But I'm hopeful (as always) that it will revive!