quilt complete.

after so many pin sticks and a crick in my back from hunching over while hand-stitching the binding, the baby quilt is done.  i'm actually really excited with how it turned out - i washed it last night so now it's all soft and crinkly and fluffy like it should be.  upon seeing it in its completed form, i think it turned out pretty unisex, and i am quite pleased with that.  makes me want to spend all day crafting.  and, of course, have a room devoted solely to crafts which remains a pipe dream for now.

sorry the photo quality isn't fabulous - iphone photo taken on my desk at work this morning....

in other happenings, we had a pretty good weekend.  i got all ambitious and rearranged furniture and whatnot in the living room (something about being pregnant makes me want to move furniture around.  not sure what that means).  cleared out some more of the clutter in the former office/future baby room.  it's a slow process, but i think we're making headway.  

thursday we head to vegas for my mom's 60th birthday celebration, so that's going to be a blast.  her real birthday is at the end of october, but since i'll likely be close to bursting by that point, we figured we should travel while it still seemed like fun to me.  we'll see cirque de soleil's love and probably take a trip to the hoover dam and have some nice dinners.  i am also hoping to spend some quality time pool-side, as my body temperature will probably appreciate the respite of a dip.  this marks the first trip we've taken with just my fam and jb - the first trip the four of us have been on since my college graduation 7 years ago.  crazy!  i am really looking forward to this time with them.  we get back on sunday and then i leave bright and early monday morning for boston for work.  wheee!  i'll be gone for 10 or 11 days total between the two trips, with only a brief hiatus at home to do a couple loads of laundry.  wish me luck!  

oh, also, we head (momentarily) to our 24-week appointment today.  technically, i won't be 24 weeks til friday, but i didn't want to wait until i was almost 26 weeks before my next appointment, so they squeezed us in today.  i love hearing that little heartbeat and the practice we go to is so great - should be a good little check in with the niblet before my travels.  

bigger than a cantaloupe.

even though jb and i have been taking pics of my belly every week since week 9, i have not posted or shared them with anyone because, well, i am not entirely sure how i feel about all that.  i love my belly, actually, but it is sort of weird to broadcast pictures of a part of my anatomy i'm not usually keen for people to see just because it happens to be housing a cute little niblet.  anyway...mainly i am just not entirely secure about where i stand on the whole belly spectrum (one end: weekly facebook broadcasts of bare belly; other end: not a single photo taken below the neck for 9 months).  

in an attempt to put a stake in the ground, here is a poor quality iphone pic jb took of me before work this morning.  horizontal stripes are awesome (not).  me and nibs have had quite the little growth spurt over the last week or so.  23 weeks tomorrow - whoa.  i'm carrying right in the middle, leading to lots of fun high/low debates about whether it's a boy or a girl.  i'm still super comfortable and have a decent amount of energy.  i sleep well even though i wake up a lot (to pee and also because i tend to roll onto my back and then get all flipped out about it).  24 week appointment is next week, so i'm hoping everything is still looking good!  
point of clarification: i realize it's much bigger than a cantaloupe now (hence the post title).  we didn't have a watermelon on hand (though probably just another couple weeks for the ones in our garden), and i just wanted a reference fruit of some sort.  haha.  

i couldn't resist this since it's been way too long since i posted a dog pic.  we got ollie and etta a few new toys this weekend because they really only have the most pitiful piles of scraps in their basket.  this one was a huge hit.  

movie reviews

we've been to/seen quite a few movies lately.  a couple that are not on this list because they aren't super-recent: robin hood (very mediocre); how to train your dragon (awesome); and iron man 2 (could have been so much better).  sorry this is quite long...

- eclipse: i'll spare the great detail and refer to my previous post for this one.  better than the others in the series does not a great movie make.  i want to like kristen stewart a lot, but mostly she just seems sulky and kind of annoying.  2 out of 5 stars.

- gasland: my friend w. had knee surgery last week, so we brought over food on friday night and watched this movie at their house.  wow.  so much information about a topic i had never really given much thought (natural gas fracking).  obviously, this was a documentary, so the views presented were biased to the filmmaker's opinions, but i thought it was really well done.  it was also terrifying and heart-wrenching to learn about what's happening to small pockets of people across the country (short summary: the fracking poisons ground water and people are getting very sick.  they are also able to light their water on fire as it comes out of the tap).  i don't think you can unilaterally say that extracting natural gas is a bad idea (we have energy needs, there is a huge supply, etc), but the lack of accountability for major companies is startling.  this is a classic david vs. goliath story (think erin brokovitch on steroids) and it seems inevitable that david is going to lose this battle in a very profound way.  anyway...incredible flick, highly informative and engrossing.  4 out of 5 stars.

- cyrus: i think this movie could have been way better than it was.  there were some great actors in it - catherine keener (who i love), marisa tomei, john c. reily.  but none of them really did anything spectacular with the roles, and my guess is that a sub-par plot progression is to blame.  the story is about john (reily's character) meeting molly (tomei) and the wrench in their little love story when he meets her 21 year-old son, cyrus (jonah hill).  anyway, cyrus and molly have a bizarre relationship, and wacky antics ensue.  except that they don't, really.  the premise of the movie leaves a lot of opportunity for hilarity and humanity and in the end, i didn't get my fill of either.  most movies are too long, this one was over in a hurry and i think they left out some valuable character development that would have helped the authenticity a little bit....3 out of 5 stars.

- get him to the greek: it's been a few weeks for this one, but i am still on the fence about it.  i think i just don't really like jonah hill that much.  anyway...in this one, he works for a record label that is trying to get a washed up rock star to perform a show at the greek theatre.  hill is the go-to guy that becomes responsible for getting him there.  there are some hilarious and excellent moments involving p. diddy throughout the movie, and russel brand does his russel brand thing quite well, but the whole thing takes a really serious turn that just doesn't flow with the irreverence and insanity of the majority of the film.  couple that with some less-believable (and less interesting) sub-plots and i was left feeling just sort of bleh about it all.  3 out of 5 stars.

- toy story 3: despite the fact that i cannot remember the first toy story, and i never saw the second one, and this one is in 3D which makes my eyes twitch in ways i'm not really comfortable with, this movie was phenomenal.  it's always so refreshing to me when a movie has everything - character development, cohesive plot, humor, the human experience, and a little dash of nostalgia.  it's clear why pixar is so successful - we went to see this with another couple, none of us has kids, and at least 2-3 of us shed a little tear and left the theatre feeling warmer and fuzzier than we were when we got there.  4.5 out of 5 stars.

- the a-team: i am aware that movies like the a-team aren't actually good, but i like to see a fun, mindless, crazy budget, blockbuster, especially during the summer.  the trailers for the a-team looked super entertaining and funny.  and the movie was enjoyable enough - at least, i was fine sitting in the theatre for the 110 minutes or so.  unfortunately, it left not much else on the table.  i love liam neeson and bradley cooper, but neither of them blew me away (haha, puns!) in this one.  the highlight was sharlto copley, the same guy who was the lead in district 9 (probably my favorite movie of last summer).  that guy is tremendous and i hope he is in lots more movies down the road.  2.5 out of 5 stars.

- shrek 4 (i think it's 4?): again, i saw the first one forever ago, and hadn't seen one of them since, but i thought shrek was very cute.  nothing earth-shattering, and not as well done as toy story, but entertaining nonetheless.  the animation was great and the story, while predictable, was engaging.  3 out of 5 stars.

edward cullen.

first of all, here's a picture of part of the front of the baby quilt i'm making.  the lighting is terrible in this picture (i took it with the isight camera on our imac and our bedroom is kinda dark), but i think you get the idea.  it's definitely not your typical pattern choices, but it's growing on me.  this could work for a boy or a girl, right?  i've been trying so hard to balance evenly between the slightly feminine and the slightly masculine, but it's so hard and makes me feel slightly schizoid sometimes - haha!

i actually have some other fabric i need to use and i'm contemplating trying to cut and piece another one over the weekend, just so i don't forget what i'm doing.  i love holiday weekends - yay for four days off!

last night, i made jb go see eclipse, the new twilight movie, with me.  in my defense, i read all the books so i feel like i have to go see the movies.  i had very much a love/hate relationship with the books.  i couldn't stop reading them or put them down, but i thought they were really vapid and ridiculous.  like candy for my brain - no nutritional value, but i just couldn't stop eating it.  anyway...i think the movies are pretty horrendous.  the casting is really good as far as physical characteristics and all of that, but i think the acting is abysmal.  there's also the lack of decent script writing (though i will say #3 is much better than the first two in this department), the unbelievably slow timing of every scene, and the hilarity of the CG werewolves.  but, we saw it and i have to say that jb is a great sport for being willing to be coerced into going to these movies.

one quick observation: all the vampires look constipated like 80% of the time.  i don't know why that is.  i don't know if their contacts make them feel weird or if the director is offering some bizarre suggestions, but it makes me laugh hysterically at inappropriate times of the movie.  also, all of their teeth are SO white i'm worried they might be radioactive.  just a thought.

quilting.

so i have been wanting to learn how to quilt for a while now.  two of my cousins quilt (as does their mom), and i really like the idea of multiple steps coming together to form a project (but each step feels like a mini-completion in itself).  anyway...their stuff is ridiculously good and inspiring.  and i realize that i will probably not achieve their level of mastery with the craft (i'm too a.d.d. with crafts to really perfect any one), but i think i should be able to make a couple here and there.

to that end, i am taking a class and making a baby quilt (how convenient).  baby quilts are nice because they are crib size and don't require a giant wall or table to piece together.  a normal sized table will do just fine.  last night was the first class where we cut and pieced all our blocks.  next week we will back and stuff and bind and all that.  the pattern is very very simple - it's just a series of rectangles, assembled kind of like bricks.

anyway...the point of my writing about this is to discuss how insanely difficult picking fabric for a quilt is. for this one, i needed 5 fabrics - 4 on the front, 1 for the back.  i am actually pretty decent in normal life at looking at things and understanding when/how they go together - particularly colors and shapes and whatnot.  apparently this skill does not translate to quilting for me.  i couldn't find pictures of all the fabrics i ended up with, but let's just say this baby is going to have quite the colorful blanket.  the front is a multi-colored stripe pattern, two different polka dot patterns (pictured), and this really cute pattern that has elephants and camels and pyramids on it.  the back is the couch pattern pictured below which is COMPLETELY random, but i love it.

so, the front is done.  i'll post a picture of it once i get home.  i can't decide if it's awful or if i'm totally in love with it, but either way it will be cozy and warm for our little winter baby.

edit: i remembered i had a scrap of the camel print in my car, so here it is too!

this one gives you the idea - the dots are actually the same size as the one below.  

fabric #2 - the dots pull out colors from the stripes and the other pattern (or at least, that was the goal)

the backing.  super random for a baby, but how awesome are these couches?  

travels and travails.

when i first started taking french classes a loooong time ago, i was really confused that travail is work en francais, since travel is fun in english.  alas, this past week i was in chicago for work and i realized how the two can actually be quite similar.  haha.  i was there for a conference and it was a jam-packed week - i flew out at 6:20 on monday morning and landed right around 11 on friday night.  days were long and busy, but i learned a lot and it was fun to be engaging with educators outside of the office and the usual scope of my job.  i love chicago even though i didn't get to see too much of it from a hotel conference room.

a couple of highlights: i got to spend a few hours with my friend mp who lives in rhode island.  i hadn't seen him in over a year, so it was awesome to catch up and get to watch some videos of his twin baby girls (born oct. 28 last year).  man, those are some cute babies.

also, my girl n had her baby girl friday morning.  it didn't happen in chicago, but i was there while it was happening so it counts as a highlight.  yola kat is 9 lbs 14 oz and quite the pretty little lady.

saturday after i was back, jb and i decided to head to usa baby because we heard they were having a sale.  we ended up getting a pretty good deal on furniture for the niblet, so we can cross that off our list!  granted, the furniture won't actually be in for 3-4 months (who knows why this stuff takes so long to build), but we know it's coming and we know what it looks like, which feels like a big step.  we went with white furniture and the glider is white with a dark slate blue microfiber upholstery.

we also spent a couple hours trying to begin our registry sunday afternoon.  wow, talk about exhausting.  we made some headway, but we will need to do some more work on that over the next couple of weeks.  i keep telling myself we have plenty of time, but then i realize time is FLYING, so i'm just trying to stay on top of everything.....

jb models the crib.

dresser that we will use as changing table.  we passed on the hutch since the room is so small.

glider in the store.  wicked comfortable!

half way there.

yesterday afternoon, jb and i went to the doctors' office to see the baby up close and personal for the second time.  the first ultrasound we had was at not quite 7 weeks, so we were pretty excited to see if our little niblet had progressed from the gummy bear look/size.  we were not disappointed!

the baby (and i) are measuring exactly where we thought we were, so that is awesome.  s/he has all ten fingers and toes, 4 chambers of the heart, kidneys, bladder, etc etc.  of all the 20 criteria that the sonogram tech looks at, each one looked great, she said.  we could not be more excited.  right now, the baby is mostly head down, kind of lying across my belly.  s/he was sleeping when we interrupted with our little peek in there, so lots of the pictures show hands in front of face like s/he's rubbing his/her eyes and telling us to carry along.  such a scorpio already - ha ha!  the heartbeat was almost exactly the same as our 16 week appointment - 146.  i'm still feeling movement kind of on and off, but the tech said my placenta is anterior (sorry if this is tmi for some of you), which makes it harder to feel kicks as frequently and intensely this early on.  so, that made me feel a lot better and less crazy.

anyway...i actually only cried a little bit, mostly because it was just so awesome.  i expected to bawl, but i was really just so amazed and excited to see the niblet moving around looking like a real human baby in there.  we did stand firm on not finding out the gender, and i'm really proud of us for that.  it is so tempting, but we told the tech right when we walked in that we didn't want to know, so she didn't even look in that general vicinity.  she said she doesn't know either, so it will be a surprise for everyone in november.  woo hoo!

one funny story - after the sonogram, i got to get weighed and b/p and all that.  my doc's office just got a new, digital scale, so i stepped on it and it got to about where i expected it to be, then it started climbing to the 160s, 170s, 185, 192 and then sort of acting all crazy and going up and down in that range.  i was freaking out a little bit because i KNOW i haven't eaten THAT many french fries....the nurse was confused too so she was like, just step off the scale and then get back on.  well, of course i turn around and jb has one of his feet on the back of the scale messing up the whole thing.  the nurses about lost it.

hand in front of face; profile of face and abdomen

little feet; profile of full body, hand waving

both hands in front of face (weird pic); head and abdomen

head and abdomen with a little wave; hand in front of face in "land ho" position

yummy dinner.

now that we're finally kinda sorta back in the swing of things (except for what happened this morning - i'll get to that in a sec), we are back to cooking dinner at home.  yay!  not that we haven't been at all, it's just been more about throwing stuff together lately than actually planned, functional meals.  anyway...last night was the first night i felt like life would be normal again after school and all the activity and fun that has been going on, and it was awesome.  we got home from work, picked veggies in the garden, jb mowed the lawn, and i watered all the potted plants (man, we have a LOT of plants) and ran to the grocery store to pick up the goods for dinner.

i was craving salmon and central market (this amazing grocery store by our house) has a salad they make in their cafe area, so i went over, took a picture of the description on the menu, and bought all the ingredients to make it at home.  it was a super tasty treat - the perfect summer dish.

- salmon (about 4 oz. per person.  i prefer wild, but they only had farm raised last night.  put cumin, paprika, salt, pepper, sesame oil, and rice wine vinegar, then bake on 400 for about 20 minutes, depending on the size of the filet.  i like to broil it for a few minutes at the end so it's kinda crispy on the outside).
- daikon radish, grated or julienned
- carrot, grated or julienned
- english cucumber, grated or julienned
- mango, cubed
- fresh lettuce or field greens
- ginger mandarin salad dressing - i used brianna's and it is delicious

all in all, a great night at our casa.  and then there was this morning.  poor ollie - i woke up (early), walked in to the kitchen, and fortunately decided to turn a light on.  good thing because that dog must have eaten something really bad as there was an explosion (or more like 6) all over the place.  clearly what justin wanted to be woken up with: "hey honey, our dog had explosive poop everywhere, can you get up and come clean it?".  gross.  anyway...i guess it's good practice for future diaper changing and all that.  hopefully our baby doesn't excrete with the same volume and ferocity as our dog.....and i hope mr. ollivander is feeling much better by this afternoon when we get home.  we left him in a crate today to contain any potential madness.

ollie on a day when he was feeling much better than today....

the st. thomas adventure

well, we've been back for a week so i think it's about time to summarize the trip.  we still aren't fully re-settled back home, which is ridiculous, but we've been super busy and we're almost there.  i just finished all the laundry (it didn't help that i had to wash every towel and blanket in the house, since ollie took it upon himself to sleep wherever he pleased while we were gone....), and i think everything else is about in place.

st. thomas was a little disappointing, which is sad.  jb and i had a blast with each other, but the hotel we stayed in was really a let-down.  it was dirty, worn-down, and the service was HORRENDOUS.  then, the package we booked was all-inclusive, and the food was just not good.  since i'm really into eating these days, this was a really sad state of affairs for me.  but, we did make the best of it, even though we overpaid and wouldn't recommend this place to anyone else.

the highlight of the trip was our day excursion to virgin gorda.  we booked a charter on a boat and it took us to st. john (briefly), past lots of islands and lovely views, to marina key (the smallest island in the caribbean, where we had lunch), virgin gorda (where we toured the baths and swam in devil's cove), and jost van dyke, a little island that has about 50 residents and one or two bars, that's IT.  it was a great day.  the baths (short for batholiths) are these HUGE rocks that you hike through, with water and animal life all around.  super cool natural formations.  pics that jb took are below.

other than that, we spent the majority of this trip being super lazy.  it was incredible.  i've really never taken a vacation where i just didn't DO stuff, and this might be our last one for quite some time.  jb is a funny guy, so he kept me entertained all day.  we floated in the lovely ocean, hung out and napped by the pool, read books, and watched the french open sometimes.  we also became obsessed with the iguanas that are everywhere and saved all of our drink accoutrements for the little guys.  jb has plenty of video footage of that, so i'll wait for him to edit and post that.

anyway....all in all, it was really nice to get away and to spend some quality time just the two of us.  it's been a long three years leading up to this trip.

the biggest bummer happened when we got back to our house after a LONG flight home (delays, delays, delays).  we had gotten some neighbors to watch the dogs, cat, chickens, and garden.  i figured it was better to pay them and have everyone in their own environment than to board the dogs and let everything else fend for itself.  well, i don't think the neighbors had bad intentions, but they certainly didn't treat our house the way we might have expected.  despite asking them not to let the chickens out, they did (two days after we left), and their dog (a 90-lb. chocolate lab) killed our hen, bettyrene.  she was our favorite, and this was exactly a year after octavia died mysteriously, so we were pretty bummed.  plus, even though it's a chicken (i think you have to have a little bit of perspective when it comes to chickens), it's still hard to know that a pet died in such a horrible manner.  anyway, she was a sweet little hen and she will be missed, but bixby and bernadette and still going strong, so hopefully they'll be safe from neighboring dogs for a while.

in addition to the loss of a chicken, our garden was completely ignored/neglected.  super bummer considering all the time, money, and energy jb has put into it this year.  we lost our pumpkins and our squash and all the tomatoes that should have been picked while we were gone.  fortunately, we have gotten some good rain this week and it looks like most everything else will be salvageable, if not the bumper crop we were hoping for.

finally, the lab chewed the arm rest of one of our outdoor teak adirondack chairs.  super bummer.  it's not completely ruined, it just has teeth marks in it now.  the chairs were a surprise gift from justin about a year ago, and were not cheap.  we had debated getting them for about 4 years before we finally bit the bullet.  anyway.  jb is hoping to contact the manufacturer to see if we can just get a replacement arm rest, but it was a huge bummer.  oh, yeah, and their dog dug a big hole in our front yard, but i'm sure our pups probably helped with that a little bit too.

so, we're in the market for a new/different pet-sitter.  i know it's a big responsibility, but i feel like you should maybe just decline the job instead of saying you'll do it and then letting our house and pets get worked over by your dog/neglect.  that is harsh, i guess.  i really really don't think there was malicious intent, it was just hard to come home to all of that.

finally, in baby browne news, i felt the little monkey move last saturday, june 5.  very exciting!  we have the 20-week ultrasound this wednesday (my dad's birthday), though we're still not planning to find out the sex.  i am so excited to see the little face and arms and legs and all that.  i haven't felt him/her move every single day since then, but here and there i do feel it.  i think it's like a goldfish doing flips in there.

inside the baths in virgin gorda

someday, we'll own a sailboat....

the view from our hotel room (the best part of the hotel)

one of our new iguana buddies

one of the few super sunny days we had so you can see how blue the water is

rest in peace, bettyrene

we're back!

we have lots of pictures to post and lots of stories to write, but first we're working on catch up at work and life.  one of our chickens, bettyrene, died while we were gone, so that was super sad news to come home to.  beyond that though, we got some sun and some relaxation, so we're feeling pretty good about life.  i'd love another week off to just spend at home getting stuff organized and cleaned up (nesting starts sooooo early), but we should have relatively mellow weekends coming up.  hope everyone is well (the 4 people that read this and all...haha).

the fam.

sorry for the creepy red-eye reduction situation.  i don't have the original of this photo, so i just did the best i could.  anyway - my family is awesome.  this is about 10 minutes post-graduation, but enough time to take my cap off....

it's over!

school, that is.  officially.  this weekend was a whirlwind of activity and excitement, and it was completely awesome.

thursday night, mom and dad came into town and the four of us got to spend some down time before all the festivities started.  jb braised some beef deliciousness and i made veggies from the farmer's market.  smothered new potatoes with dill recipe is below - yum.

friday we ran around in the morning until we picked my brother up from the airport.  we were able to have lunch just the nuclear hesterly fam, which never happens and was super fun.  marilyn, jb's mom, came in as well, which was awesome.  friday night was the actual commencement ceremony.  that was pretty lackluster, but helped to make everything feel final and done.  we went to a reception for just my class afterwards that was ok, but by that point i was SO tired, i was just ready to get some sleep.

saturday we woke up early and got the house and yard ready.  all the parental units worked SO hard to make sure everything looked perfect, and it really turned out nice.  it  made jb and i want to spend more time/energy on the yard in the future because i feel like it's so much easier to enjoy it when it's cleaned up.

anyway...about 40-50 people showed up at our house and there were piles of delicious food brought in from louisiana, kansas, and austin.  it was incredible.  everyone was so supportive and it was just phenomenal to have the vast majority of the people i know and love all in one spot.  the weather, though hot, was pretty good, and everyone was able to spread out a bit so our house didn't seem quite as teensy.  jb and i agree it was the best party we've ever thrown.  such a blast.

yesterday was a day of recuperation and farewells and today we're back to the grind at work!  fortunately, this is a 3-day work week, so we just have to get through this, get packed and organized, and then we're OFF to st. thomas!

**new potatoes smothered with fresh dill:
- about 1 pound of fresh new potatoes, skins on
- about half an onion, sliced or chopped
- a few tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- about 2-3 tbsp butter
- salt and pepper to taste

wash potatoes and chop into fourths (the goal is roughly bite-size pieces).  in a big saucepan (that has a lid), put a dab of butter and sautee the onions until translucent.  add the potatoes over a med-high heat until lightly brown and kinda sticking to the bottom of the pan.  pour in about half a cup of water, cover, and simmer over lower heat for about 10 minutes.  check potatoes and stir, adding more water if necessary.  add salt, pepper, remainder of butter, and dill and stir.  re-cover and simmer until water is mostly drained.  you'll probably have to add about 1-1.5 cups of water in half cup increments, and this whole process should take about 30 minutes.  make sure potatoes are fork-tender and that the water is all evaporated.  serve.

update on the little a.

just a quick update that little arlo seinfeld hesterly is a-ok.  turns out he had hemorrhagic gastroenteritis (HGE).  yikes!  fortunately, my parents got him to the vet in time and the prognosis is good.  he's back there today and hooked up to an iv again for fluids and monitoring and whatnot.  we're so grateful that my family's vets are awesome and that all this stuff went down on a weekday so that he could be tended to immediately.

in other news, jb and i went to our 16 week appointment today and the little bug is sounding great!  heartbeat was 148 (jb will say 145 but the midwife told me 148), so it's a little slower than last time but perfectly normal.  we have the "big" ultrasound on june 16, my dad's birthday.  we're still planning to keep it a surprise, though jb is convinced that this slower heartbeat is a telltale sign that it's a boy.

anyway...i'm still feeling great and hungry.  haha. this weekend is graduation with family friends and lots of delicious eats, i'm sure.  then, we head to st. thomas for a week.  lots of exciting things coming down the pike!  i'll post garden pics and other stuff soon.

little arlo.

i got a very distressing call from my mom this morning - their dog, arlo, is in critical condition at the vet right now.  apparently, all was well when he went for a walk this morning, but when he got home things started going downhill very fast.  the vet my family has been seeing for the past 30 years or so is incredible, and i do trust that they are doing everything they can for the little dude.  just please say a little prayer for him - he's not even a year old yet, and he's a sweetheart.  here's a picture from a few months ago of him with duck on top of my dad's shoes.

tasty treats.

food is on my mind a lot these days.  i've always loved meal time, but it's taken on new meaning between being pregnant and being done with classes and thus having time to spend in the kitchen again.

we harvested our first tomato yesterday!  we haven't eaten it yet - probably tomorrow - but it is beautiful!  i have to give jb full credit for all his hard work with watering and fertilizing and feeding.  we've got tons more on the vine, so i'm sure we'll be taking lots of pictures as the full bounty comes to fruition.  that is...provided it doesn't get too hot in the next week or two....

also, this weekend while driving back from lafayette, jb and i decided to challenge ourselves to get more creative with meals.  we're each taking one day a week to cook something we've never cooked before (or, at the very least, something we hardly ever cook....).  super fun!  my night was monday of this week, so i made black bean soup (recipe from the joy of cooking) and chicken enchiladas (recipe was sort of a weird hodge podge of my brain and the joy of cooking).  the soup could have used some extra pizzazz (i didn't have a ham bone or salt pork to cook with), but the enchiladas were pretty good.  i shredded chicken and mixed it with salsa verde combined with some cream cheese for the insides and then enchilada sauce and grated sharp cheddar on top.  not bad.

jb, though, in typical fashion, totally showed my efforts up last night.  it didn't hurt that everything we ate was super duper fresh - the fish had been fileted less than 2 hours before we were eating it, the lettuce and onions from the salad and dill for the fish were in the ground yesterday morning (gotta love farmers market days).  and the bread was fresh baked from the farmers market as well.  tasty!  anyway...menu was: baked butterfish with sauteed dill and garlic; bibb lettuce salad with toasted pecans, purple onion, goat cheese, avocado, and mandarins; and freshly baked ciabatta.  doesn't get much better than that, so i took a picture.  and no, that whole chunk of bread wasn't just for me....i promise!

mother's day.

happy (one day late) mother's day!  this weekend, jb and i loaded up the pups and drove to louisiana to visit my parents.  it was a great weekend.  friday night, we had dinner at marcello's just the four of us.  yummy.  though i couldn't partake in the tasty cabernet, we had calamari and ciabatta with olives marinated in garlic to start, and i had huge shrimp with pasta and pine nuts and some other goodness.  man, i love to eat.

saturday we ran around getting errands and stuff done, including eating lunch at judice inn at 10 in the morning - hilarious.  i seriously want to franchise that place in my backyard.  i could eat like 20 cheeseburgers a day (ok, so maybe like 2, but they are so so so good).  saturday night was a close family friend's 60th birthday shindig and what a blast!  joe douglas, the bayou boss, who played at our wedding a few years ago, rocked the house.  it was awesome to get to be at a party, dancing and listening to him, and to get to see him play live when we could really pay attention and enjoy the show.  super fun.  we cut a rug the whole evening.

yesterday, we had a great lunch with family (mom cooked pork roast, rice and gravy upon my request) before hitting the road.  we also celebrated my first (almost) mother's day, which was a really nice surprise and very touching.  the dogs wore themselves out completely with arlo, my parents' brussels griffon.  this is the two of them in the car on the way to lafayette.  on the ride back, they were snuggled up in the far back with the seats up, so i didn't get a picture.

special congrats to our friends a&p whose baby girl amelia was born last monday, and to my cousin l and her family who welcomed baby #4, also amelia, last tuesday.  both little ladies are gorgeous and have been born into wonderful families.  

another gaff.

even though i was moderately offended at first about the "pregnant face" comment, i've decided that any commentary about my pregnancy should be taken with a grain of salt, and it's much more fun to laugh at the comfort people have with saying stuff to me.
so, today at a work lunch, the same person who made the pregnant face comment decided to inform me i was having a girl.  first, she just glanced at me and said "oh, it's a boy, definitely".  then, she looked a little closer (i guess?) and said "wait, no, it's a girl.  your skin is bad".
hilarious.  the irony here is that my skin has been better than it has been my entire life until this week, when i've randomly sort of broken out.  but even this break out is nothing compared to the normal state of affairs of my non-pregnant self.  i wasn't wearing make up, so maybe that made it look rougher than usual, but in any case, i am SO amused.  can't wait for the next one!

yummy.

since i don't have class anymore (YAY!), and my energy level is slllllloooooooowwwwwwllllyyyyyy starting to show its face again, i decided to be a tad bit domestic last night.  i made whole wheat bread in our bread maker, which has been sadly neglected for far too long now.  homemade fresh bread is one of my most favorite things of all time, and i am totally vowing to make at least 1 loaf a week now that i have more free time to focus on such things.  anyway...i set the timer on the machine so i didn't have to stay up past 11, and i awoke at 5:40 before my run to the smell of warm toasty fresh bread.  holy goodness.  i had about 20 more minutes i could sleep, but my tummy immediately started growling, so i sliced some up with some all natural peanut butter and honey from my friend d's dad's bee farm.  i recommend this as the way to start every morning.  if you have a bread machine, here is the recipe i used.  i am going to be trying out lots of different whole wheat recipes over the next few weeks, so i'll post the ones i like the best.  this one was a little dense, and i think they were a little short on the yeast (the top didn't poof out the way it usually does).  


100% whole wheat bread
makes 1 1/2 to 2 lb loaf - i used the 1.5 lb setting for whole wheat, light crust
* 1 1/2 cups water plus 2 tablespoons water 
* 3 3/4 cups wheat flour
* 2 tablespoons dry milk
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 2 tablespoons butter
* 2 tablespoons honey
* 1 1/2 tablespoons gluten
* 1 tablespoon molasses
* 2 1/8 teaspoons fast rise yeast
(or 3 tspns active dry yeast) 


this weekend, before justin's big ride on saturday, he asked me to make him the homemade granola bars my cousin posted on her blog a few months ago.  he says they are the best energy boosters on a long ride, and they are super delicious.  this is the original recipe, but i usually do about half the amount of brown sugar (i think they're too sweet with the full load) and add pumpkin seeds, dried cranberries or pineapple, and chocolate and peanut butter chips.  yum!  anyway...jb did GREAT on his ride - finished 100 miles in just over 5 hours - beating his last year's time by over 2 hours.  shiner was super fun and i am looking forward to going out there again next year with some pups and a kiddo in tow for music, beer, and brats.  fun!  


Granola Bars Basic Recipe
 * 2 Cup Oats
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 1 Cup whole wheat flour
* 1/2 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1 tsp cinnamon
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1/2 Cup honey
* Any dried fruit, nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, etc.
 Mix all ingredients and press into greased pan, 9 X 13. Dough will be very dry and crumbly, but press until dough forms with pan.. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes or until edges are browned. Take out and let cool entirely. Cut into strips and store in snack size bags.
 **The dough was very dry. I added a couple of tablespoon of water to help mix it all together and you might need to use your hands to get it mixed up and pressed into the pan.

fruits of our labor

well, we harvested the first fruit from our garden a couple days ago - a cucumber.  we ate it last night on toast with a little cream cheese....deliciousness.  it was so crispy and fresh!  nothing like produce straight from the garden.

we also randomly have tons of rose bushes around our yard.  i kind of hate roses - they are beautiful, but growing them is a huge pain and i end up slicing my hands and arms open on the thorns every time i deal with them.  but, whoever lived here before us planted them around, and despite not taking care of them in ANY capacity, every year around this time, we get mega blooms.  this year has been especially fruitful, so i cut some and put them in a vase.  they're not looking as great anymore, but i am sure i can just go cut some more and replenish the arrangement.  we have some hot pink ones and some weird mottled pink and white ones that don't do as well when they're cut.  

i guess that's all for now.  this is the first weekend i don't have to think about school at all and it's SO WEIRD.  jb will be rocking his 100-mile bike ride tomorrow.  more to come.  

things to not say to a newly pregnant woman

me: "i'm pregnant!"
person: "ahh, i was wondering because, you know, your face looks pregnant."
me: "thank you?"

how is "your face looks pregnant" ever a compliment?

finito.

after 33 long months, my graduate career has come to a close.  finally.  in all honesty, it doesn't feel real yet.  i took my last final last night, financial statement analysis.  it was hard but i think i should still graduate.  woohoo!  in about 4 weeks, we will celebrate in earnest with the graduation ceremony, parties, etc etc.  by then, i'm thinking it will probably feel more legit.  for now, i'm just hoping i don't receive a random phone call telling me they can't find my transcript or some giant component of a grade.  bring on the free time!

congratulations, it's a baby

dear internet,

today i heard the heartbeat of my unborn son. pretty solid stuff. we are already at 12 weeks, which is much too early to actually determine the sex of the baby, but i'm absolutely convinced it's a boy. how do i know this? because the heartbeat sounded like the 4th led zeppelin album. our doctor was thrown against the wall when the heartbeat came through the doppler, due to the sheer power of this man-babies heartbeat. there isn't a girls heartbeat i know of that would have the same effects... piper would argue that at 165bpm, we are totally having a girl. what she didn't realize was that our son was simply doing push-ups, incidentally raising the heartbeat at the time. another indicating factor of masculinity was the ultrasound. our doctor determined that what we were looking at on screen was indeed 100% penis. apparently the first trimester of a boy's life in the womb is spent developing his most important organ. our next visit is at 16 weeks - more to come at that point.

xoxo

justin

expectations.

today, for the second time in a little over five weeks, jb and i heard the heartbeat of our child.  wow.  i have been pregnant, officially, according to the books and websites and doctors, for exactly 12 weeks.  we've known about it for about eight.  i must say, i am still trying to wrap my head completely around the whole thing.

though we knew we wanted kids, this was not a planned pregnancy, per se.  i have been finishing my last semester of grad school while trying to finish my first trimester of pregnancy, which wasn't *exactly* the plan.  but, the older (and hopefully wiser) i get, the more i feel like plans are kind of for the birds.  so, ready or not, planned or not, here we are, about to finish the first third of this exciting new adventure.

so far, i have felt remarkably good.  i'm sleepy a lot and try to fit a nap in every day.  but, no throwing up, no other crazy weird or scary symptoms.  in fact, if i hadn't seen the little nubbin at the 7 week ultrasound and heard her (him) again this morning, i don't know that i'd be entirely convinced i was actually knocked up.

anyway...that's all the news we have so far.  due date is november 5.  we're not planning to find out the sex (despite the groans i hear EVERY TIME i tell people that).  the heartbeat was 165 this morning, and that just supports my confidence in the fact that it's a girl.  we're stoked.  we're staying in austin, staying in our house.  we're going to wait a few more weeks/months to break the news to the dogs.

8 days, people.

that's 8 calendar days.  as in, one week plus one day.  and then, i will officially be an MBA.  but even more importantly than that, i will be freeeeeee....i cannot wait.

this weekend was awesome, as usual.  they never are long enough, and i never get tired of saying that, however trite.  we managed to do lots of yard work and even some house work.  cooked some delicious food, including butternut squash soup that was super tasty.  saw kick-ass with some friends.  it was ok - pretty hilarious, but wildly inappropriate and violent, with lots of language i wouldn't even want a 17 year-old to use (hello, pot, i'm the potty-mouthed kettle).  the highlight of the whole weekend for me was watching jb get into a fist fight with our weed eater.  pretty hilarious.  he was victorious, though, so take that, yard equipment.

we've got lots of exciting stuff coming up on the weekends, so i'm sure pictures and stories will be forthcoming.  trip back to louisiana, trip to st. thomas, trip to vegas.  plus, graduation and all the joviality that will ensue in its wake.  i almost need a nap just thinking about it....

one final thought - now that school is over (ish), i am looking for book recommendations.  that's right, REAL books that i WANT to read.  bring 'em on.

promotion for a friend.

my friend (and my mom's boss) jasmine has a precious son named Finn (well, his nickname is Finn, and he's the Fifth generation of his name, awesomeness).  anyway...he's in a photo contest with his cute little mug, so if you'd like, please visit this site and vote for his cute little cheeks on monday.  i will try to remember to re-post this then.  i will promote other peoples' children in the future, just send me your propaganda :)

more bluebonnets and dogs.

i'm sorry i just cannot seem to get enough of this lovely spring weather and our sweet pups having a field day in it.  we took them to walnut creek again this weekend, with a camera this time.  if possible, this weekend was even prettier.  they did not want to behave and sit calmly for any portraits, but i think we got some pretty hilarious action shots that capture our little adventure.  

i'm also posting a couple pictures of the chickens in a planter.  we have a long, skinny window-box type planter with nothing planted in it right now.  the chickens think flinging the dirt in there around is a great time.  

garden update #1

so, things in the spring garden are really growing, so far.  i think it's a combination of fresh rain water (jb is so diligent, and it is because of him that the plants are all still alive....), functional temperatures (nights in the 50s, days in the 70s = perfection), and chicken poop.  jb dressed everything with a healthy amount of chicken business last weekend, and we've really seen some great growth since then.  i really hope the weather stays spring-ish (as opposed to summer-ish) for a while longer so we can actually reap the benefits of all this work.  here are some pics from this afternoon:

(valley girl tomato plant - one of eight tomato plants we're growing this year....)

(one of our heirloom varieties - i think we have three total, out of the eight tomatoes)

(eggplant - you can see the pole beans in the background)

(squash)

(habanero pepper - we're growing like 6 different types of peppers, too)

(tomatillo, one of two)

(pumpkins!  from seed....)

(watermelon, one of three)

(bluebonnets - these aren't in our garden, but they're in our yard)

happy weekend!

hoppy easter....

for the record, i have always hated the phrase "hoppy easter".  i think it's ridiculous.  but somehow, i also now find it hilarious and like to use it in jest.

this is obviously a few days late, but we had a great day for easter, and an awesome weekend in general.  friday, we had w&d over for steaks and got to sit on the back porch for dinner.  the back porch dinner is the thing i love the most about austin, and this time of year is the most exceptional for it.  saturday, jb did a long bike ride.  he's training for the shiner ride - a 100 mile bike ride to shiner, texas.  he did it last year, and i think he's kind of crazy, but also awesome.  anyway...last year there was not a lot of training but he still made it.  this year, despite every single one of our friends bailing on doing it with him, he's put in lots of training rides and been doing strength training.  i'm quite proud.

anyway...when he got back from his ride, we took the pups to walnut creek park for a hike and a picnic.  it was, yet again, absolutely gorgeous out.  the bluebonnets are in full bloom everywhere right now, which is gorgeous.  the dogs got to romp through fields of flowers and cool off in the creek.  it was etta's first time swimming, and she's not quite sure about it yet.  she's also not sure about bikers, and she let them all know by standing behind me and barking at them.  she's quite ferocious.  i can't take credit for this picture since we forgot the camera, but this is a good representation (and it's from walnut creek, this year).

on easter sunday, we went to mass with several friends at st. austin's on campus.  it was a really good service, and the priest there is full of energy and really nice.  then, we all went to brunch at z tejas.  always delicious.  i spent the afternoon working on a paper for school (less than 3 weeks left!), and then we went to c&r's for gumbo.  all in all, the only downside was not having a few extra days to hang out and relax.  it's time for a real vacation....

the virtue of happiness.

i came across this editorial yesterday, and i was super intrigued by it.  the gist of it is the sandra bullock conundrum.  if you could have the pinnacle of professional success, only to find out a week or so later that your significant other has been philandering with 11 different other women (that we know about), would you make that trade?


of course, my answer, and the consensus of the studies cited in the article is a resounding no.  i've always felt, i guess on a gut level, that you can't quantify (monetarily) domestic contentedness.  i mean, it would always be nice to make a little more cash, to have a little more breathing room.  but never at the expense of my marriage, family, and home life.


a couple of interesting factoids from the article: "joining a group that meets even just once a month produces the same happiness gain as doubling your income....being married produces a psychic gain equivalent to more than $100,000 a year."  


anyway...as you go on about your day, think about the areas where you really are fortunate, and realize that even though money may stress you out, you're much happier than you might even realize.