31 weeks!

31 weeks = only 9 weeks to go (as per plan) until our baby makes his grand appearance. 9 weeks!! That is starting to sound like a really small number. Adam & I have been reminiscing about how it wasn't that long ago that we were marveling about being 20 weeks along. This whole experience has flown by and sometimes I feel like we've been so busy with moving and getting ready that I haven't stopped to take it in more. I wish I had kept a journal, or taken more pictures of the journey. Truth be told though, I'm living the journey and doing the best I can, and sometimes that means I'm not going to do every little thing. Anyway, lately I've been getting a sense of urgency about being ready. I don't think the baby is coming anytime super soon, but I feel like I have a lot of projects and things to accomplish before the big day. The following is just a sampling:

• I'm working on packing my hospital bag. As a reward for birthing our baby, I decided to treat myself to a nice set of nursing pajamas that are due to arrive in the mail any day. In addition to my new pjs, the "hospital bag" will really just include a few essentials for Adam & I (toiletries, snacks, maybe an extra pillow, clothes, going home outfit for the baby) and will be sitting by our front door until the big day arrives.
  
• Our infant carseat is in a box in the living room, awaiting some serious attention to the matter of correctly installing it into the backseat of our car.
  
• We have a stroller! It is red, it folds nicely, does neat tricks and turns on a dime. I spent way too much time researching/overthinking the stroller choice but I love the one we got and I think it will work perfectly for us. Right now, we have the baby's stuffed robot strapped into it so we could get in some practice time around the house. Next up, we need to get a handle on using the carseat with the stroller so we'll know what we're doing when the time comes.
  
• Childbirth classes. We actually went to one last month, but decided it wasn't the right class for us so we're starting new classes at the hospital tomorrow night. I'm excited.
• Designing a closet storage system for the baby's room. The baby's room is pretty small, and the closet has one long shelf across the top which unfortunately is pretty useless to store baby stuff. So, this task will involve measuring/sketching the shelving we want, going to Lowe's/Home Depot and buying said sytem, and then coming home and actually installing it. Neither Adam nor I really enjoy home improvement projects that much and have been pretty busy, so this has taken a back seat on our list. But it's there.
• I sorted and washed all the baby clothes we have so far. Then I sat down on the couch to fold each tiny little thing. I can hardly find the words to describe how much I loved doing that. We'll see if I feel the same way about baby laundry a few months from now.
  
• Other, misc. baby-related to do's: Minor car repairs on the Jetta. Possibly getting a nicer camera if finances allow. Buying life insurance. Scheduling newborn photography if we decide to do it. Planning one last weekend getaway for the two of us to the Oregon coast. Picking out a pediatrician. Picking up a small pack of newborn diapers. The list goes on, and on, and on. Most of these items involve the expenditure of money, which we don't have an endless supply of. So we'll see what we can get done, and the rest will work itself out.

In the midst of all this preparing for the baby, we're just living life. Adam is working from home, and working long hours. I'm also working temp jobs, which is a big change from my professional career job but has afforded us some extra money and a lot of flexibility since I can turn down jobs and work whenever I want. It's not something I plan to do for very long but before I get back into a full-time, serious social work job, it's working out just fine. We're enjoying the rain, seeing a lot of our loved ones up here and enjoying our last few weeks of freedom. For example, tonight I came home from work, took a quick nap with Adam, spent a leisurely amount of time making pork chops, homemade applesauce & swiss chard for dinner, talked on the phone with my cousin, swept the floor and watched Dancing with the Stars. I'm fairly certain our nights like this are going to be few and far between come December.

Two years of marriage

We celebrated our two year wedding anniversary last week, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays of the year. (It's a whole holiday we get just to ourselves! So fun.) We've been together for well over seven years now, and I can honestly say I love Adam more and more each year. You'd think that after waking up next to the same person day after day, you'd get tired or bored, but I feel lucky. I still swoon a little when I look at him from across a room sometimes. He never fails to make me laugh, make me think, and help me a better version of myself. He still surprises me sometimes and we never run out of things to talk about. I think that's almost weird. We're around each other all the time, but truth be told, I'd hardly rather be anywhere else. I truly enjoy being in his company and feel so thankful for our friendship and the fact that I've found someone I love so much to spend my life with. This year, our celebration was pretty low-key. Our actual anniversary was a beautiful, warm summer night and we walked around downtown for awhile and treated ourselves to a fondue dinner. Said dinner included a big pot of melted cheese, bread, apples, and vegetables for dipping, salad, and a mix of of filet mignon (for Adam) and shrimp (for me) which we cooked in a French-style broth. We're totally going back for dessert fondue since we were way too stuffed to even try it.

Mmmm....fondue


Anyway, in celebration of many years of love, etc. the photo portion of this blog post will be kicking it old school showcasing some oldies but goodies from way back when.

Hanging out at my old apartment in 2005


Goofing off in front of Adam's old house in Orange, CA


U of O graduation in 2007


Couple of kids in love, shot in Adam's parents' backyard in...2004?


September 13th, 2009. Happiest day of my life.

Heave ho to Idaho!

Last weekend, I ventured out on what will likely be one of last ever road trips sans baby. My mom & I drove out to Lewiston, Idaho where we share roots with some pretty wonderful folks. The drive, the place and of course the people are pretty near and dear to my heart and I was way overdue for a visit. We attended the wedding of one of my cousins (well, my second or third cousin, actually...but who needs labels), and the party doubled as a sort of family reunion with lots of laughs and good times.

Driving along the Columbia Gorge. Some of it is dramatic and beautiful...


But most of the drive is pretty much like this.

G&J's in Umatilla.

Banana milkshakes at G&J's: A family tradition.

Sweet homeless kitty at a fruit stand near Walla Walla. I instantly feel in love and spent the next 20 minutes cuddling with her and thinking about putting her in the car with us. I was *this* close to doing so but decided that given her extensive vet needs and awful timing with other events in my life, I would think about it for a couple of days. We stopped back on our way home and the fruit stand folks were happy to report she'd been adopted by a some other nice travelers.

Mom with our fruit stand bounty: Washington cherries, Hermiston watermelon and sweet Walla Walla onions from the source. The farmer selling them actually had too many melons on hand and threw in a few extra for free. Score.

View of the hills from downtown Lewiston

My mom's cousin Karen & I.


Mom, Linda & I. You can't tell from this picture, but just an hour earlier it was 103 degrees in downtown Clarkston. Oh man, talk about hot. Thank heavens for the watermelon...

Lovebug updates - 28 weeks, 4 days

It's been awhile since we've put much on the blog about the baby, so here's the latest and greatest in babyland. I'm happy to share that our lovebug is doing great, as healthy and active as ever. He (& I) are getting bigger every week and it's exciting to be able to feel him all the time. His kicks and dances are so strong they actually wake me up at night. I am adjusting to my body changing and really enjoying swimming a lot as it's the one time I can just float and not have to carry around all this weight out in front of me. The baby loves swimming too and tends to gently sway more and kick less when I'm in the water.

One of the not-so-smart things I've found myself inevitably doing during pregnancy is comparing and assigning meaning between my experience being pregnant and what other pregnant ladies are going through. I think a lot of women do it, and sometimes you start to worry if you're not feeling the baby as much as they are, or not having the same symptoms, etc. (Honestly, I often find myself feeling much better than people expect and don't often relate to the usual complaints of pregnancy. I think I've just been very lucky to have an easy time with it. I also try to remember that this is all quite temporary and well worth the discomforts.) I think every body and every baby is so different that it's pretty much useless to spend energy comparing notes. That said, until recently I've been reading and hearing a lot about Braxton Hicks contractions (false or practice labor) and wondering why it wasn't happening to me. I was sort of feeling left in the dust...until last night when I had what I believe was my first real contraction. I got pretty excited and woke Adam up to tell him about it even though it was 4 a.m. Finally I could understand what everyone was talking about! Basically, my belly felt like a balloon that was being blown up until it was so big and tight that it couldn't get any harder or bigger. Then, about a minute or two later, it slowly went away. It wasn't painful, just odd. Pretty interesting.

In other news, it's been excruciatingly hot here lately with temperatures in the 90s almost every day. We're doing our best to stay cool but I'm really longing for some rain...or clouds...or just a cool day. Last weekend the house was super hot so we drove up the Historical Columbia Hwy to see some waterfalls and find some cold water. It's awesome after living in San Jose to be out of the city and in the middle of paradise in only 20 minutes. We hiked up LaTourell Falls and Horsetail Falls and didn't end up swimming a lot but got a little wet under the falls. I am a pretty embarassing hiking partner as I can't really climb very fast and get pretty short of breath. Adam was super patient and went the same speed as me, not caring when lots of people would pass us. He's a nice guy like that. We had a fun day and didn't stop to take any pictures, but here are some internet photos of where we ventured to. It really is this pretty.

Trail to Horsetail Falls

This water is way colder than it looks.


Here are a couple of photos of our nursery-in-progress. The crib was generously given to us by good friends, the dresser is a craigslist purchase and the rocking chair is a gift from my dad. We're not sure if the room is going to be super matchy, but we liked this rocket ship bedding set and might add some other items to have a "Fly Me To the Moon" nursery theme. :)


Birthing ball, box of boy shoes from a friend, baby gate, and Goodnight Moon. Just some essentials.

Note a few tiny items already hanging in the closet - fun stuff. I love sitting in the new chair and am planning on spending lots of time in this spot.

Yours truly at just before 29 weeks. Cruisin' right along.

I told the Mr. I wanted to put up a picture of him also, for good measure, and this is what I got.

Sweet Cornmeal Shortcakes with Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce

Baking is truly my culinary achilles heel and nowhere is that more apparent than when I try my hand at biscuit making. We love biscuits (really, who doesn't?) and many things about biscuits would lead you to believe they'd be pretty darn simple to bake up. The ingredient list is relatively short, and great biscuits have been made by women for generations - even pioneer women without any of the fancy gadgets I have at my disposal. Still, I've made some unbelievably awful batches of biscuits. Ones that don't rise, taste bland and end up looking like hockey pucks. My desire to be able to whip up light, fluffy buttery biscuits at a moment's notice has helped me persevere and I've finally been able to make some that are a-ok. Not great, not the best, but not bad, either. I owe my meanger attempts at biscuit success to: buying a fresh can of baking powder, using self-rising flour, and handling the dough as little as humanly possible.

I decided to try my hand at making some sweet biscuits to go with my homemade strawberry rhubarb sauce, which is made all the easier by the fact that I now have a humongous, overgrown rhubarb plant right outside my doorstep. It's an original summer recipe by yours truly and is well-worth the effort of homemade biscuits. Serve with your favorite fruit sauce and ice cream.

Sweet Cornmeal Shortcakes

• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of yellow cornmeal
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
  
• 6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Sift together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a mixing bowl.
   
2. Using a pastry blender or food processor, cut in butter pieces until dough is crumbly with the clumps the size of small peas.
3. Make a small well in the center of the bowl and gently pour in the heavy cream and beaten egg.
   
4. Stir with a spatula until *just* combined into a wet dough and, using floured hands, turn out onto a large greased baking sheet.
5. Lightly knead or roll dough out into a large circle of 1/2-inch thickness. The dough will be messy and will not have a perfect shape; they are meant to look rustic and will taste delicious regadless. Cut into 6 or 7 scone-shaped triangles and gently separate one another by at least inch. If desired, use additional cream or a beaten egg to brush atop the biscuits and sprinkle an additional tablespoon of sugar over the top.
6. Bake until lightly browned or for 15 - 18 minutes and cool on a baking rack.

Biscuits cooling on the rack

Easy rhubarb sauce: 3-4 long stalks cut up with 1/2 pint strawberries, 1/2 - 3/4 cup of sugar (depending on sweetness of your rhubarb), a squirt of lemon juice and 1/4 cup of water simmered for 20 minutes until, well, saucy. Yum.