all while sitting still

i am wondering if its possible to feel ready for this babe when he chooses his day. i know that excited and anxious and curious and reflective are all things we're experiencing, but i'm not sure we'll feel ready until we are holding him in our arms, falling in love. there are list of things to do and lists of things to gather and stacks of things to read.....and 7-ish weeks to do it. realistically, there will be things left undone and i think its ok? no matter how much i do or gather or nest or read, i am quite sure that the real learning will begin the day i cuddle with this little man for the first time.

i am wondering what will happen on election day - and what will or will not change after that. my absentee ballott has been jeering at my from my desktop bin of things to do for a few weeks and finally today i filled it out and shoved it in the mailbox. i'm not sure who (if anyone) has the right answers, the right plans, the right motivations to help our country fix itself. i am hopeful i made the right choice and hopeful the American people will keep faith in our country, even if they don't always have faith in the people who govern it.

i am joyful and learning to live in the moment. and learning to slow down, even if its by necessity. knitting seems to be the perfect project for a soon-to-be-momma. keeps your hands and mind busy but all the while you're doing it from the comfort of your favorite chair with your favorite pup curled up next to you, his ears twitching as the yarn rolls across them. it was a good day of learning how to just sit and be and be ok about it. and the first knitting project is off to a great start.

phew-

the last stocking is done, secret present projects are "done" (except one last touch that has to wait)...finally put the sewing machine away, and now to start my knitting project for Baby Conklin!

in the meantime, we're getting ready for halloween Friday night! can't wait - what are you guys going to be for halloween??? also, this delicious dinner turned out to be an excellent way to use up the other half of the ginormous squash we had in our fridge. :) i had no idea making risotto was so easy! and these ghosty cookies (found them from m.writes blog)....are dangerous, but so amazing! you gotta make them - they are super-kid-friendly (ie: reid loves them!)

Here we are: 33 weeks! Can you believe it?

new friends and joy in the mundane

what a lovely baby party they threw for us today...Reid's new squadron is just full of great gals i am really enjoying getting to know. there were even a few new faces today and of course seeing some old friends was also nice. we have been so blessed with friendship, support - and baby gifts galore! all we need now is a baby (and that rocker should be showing up soon too...then we'll be ready). its a good thing they didn't wait one more week for the shower, my cute white trouser pants probably won't have fit...things are getting c-r-o-w-d-e-d inside my clothes these days.

two of three more of the secret project presents are complete. the last one is ready to be put together tomorrow. then all i need to do is stop by the fabric shop on friday for a little impromptu how-to lesson for the finishing touch and that'll be done. in the meantime, the rest of the week will be spent on a couple of things:
1) finding all the right touches for our halloween costumes
2) completing my homework for my last knitting class on friday (which just so happens to be the beginning of a new project.......one i am super excited about!)
if you haven't figured it out, the new slower version of me needs something to keep me occupied - so its not that i'm overexerting myself with these projects, its just that if i don't have things like this to keep me busy i will get really cranky. :)

success!

we had this for dinner last night - and let me tell you, my wonderful but tending-towards-ridiculously-picky-on-some-days hubby chowed it down. i was so happy! i like to try new "extravagant" recipes as i find cooking new, strange things (and using ingredients i've never even heard of) enjoyable and am nervous most times that i will be the only one at the table enjoying the fruits of my experimenting, but this was absolutely a success! next time, however, i will definitely be using more curry paste. it could have used a little extra zip.

there should be some pictures to show for the rest of my weekend as i have big plans to cross a few of my full-in-progress projects off of my "to do" list by the end of tomorrow. for now, just hanging out and having a good old hamburgers on the grill, chilling on the patio kind of night. enjoy~

ps - anyone have good tips on making the blog title work nicely? i am pretty sure i have to add words to my picture not in the blogger template itself (or it looks yucky like mine does)....add that to my list of projects. ;)

reaching out

maybe its because so many of my most-favorite people live so very far away or because its a romantic reminder of a slower, simpler time in the world when its all people had to stay in touch or maybe i just like pretty stationary and nice pens to write with; there are probably many reasons, but i SO love letter writing (and letter receiving!).

i just bought these yesterday because i can't help myself - and have requested similar products on my holiday wish-list as you can never have enough. its so simple ... a few words to tell someone anything, lick the envelope, stick on a stamp (or 6 in my case as i'm still using up my stash of 37 cent stamps combined with a heap of 1 centers) and shove it in the mailbox. even before the receipient could possibly have received it (like at that exact moment when you are still standing in front of the magical slat in the mailbox) you feel like you've already connected with them. and sometimes you end up chatting on the phone the very next day about all the things you discussed in your cute little card, but its ok - they'll receive it a few days later and love that conversation all over again. i just think there's something to be said for this simple, slow form of conversation. to me, its like spending an entire afternoon at the coffee shop with someone you love and miss - and making sure they know that you love and miss them! and sometimes when you are lucky, you end up getting a sweet little note back from that person in return!

1 more stocking is built........ we cut out fabric for 5. that's when i'll stop and go back to my other projecting. :)

the best.

for some reason yesterday, which was not particularly taxing or exhausting, totally wore me out. something about being pregnant and feeling huge, i think (shan, i'm glad we are going through this together, its nice to hear i'm not the only one who has to roll myself out of a laying position). i crawled myself into bed at 7:30 pm to read until it was an "acceptable" time to go to sleep (only made it about an hour!). aside from getting to relax all evening, the best part of the night was feeling so loved when reid came up and lay beside me and put his arm around "our" belly. there is nothing like a good cuddle drifting right into sleep for the night.

the "inter-web"

my mom always tells me how my Great Grandpa Alvin would just be amazed these days....about computers, about GPS systems in cars, about gas prices (this one apparently makes him roll over in his grave?), about food prices (probably about prices of anything) ... and although i am apparently of that generation that inherently knows how to use computers and all the other geeked-out-techonology, i am happy to report that i still find myself capable of amazement at what you can find information on just by searching through the "internet-machine"... such fun.

mom left today and Reid and I enjoyed our day-off-for-no-apparent-reason together. just lovely!! and i finished stocking number 3. (but not without an "emergency" call to my mom as she was just pulling into her driveway after a long day traveling back to Wisconsin to make sure that my pattern interpretting skills weren't equal to my calculus-doing skills -terrible- luckily she confirmed that i was on the right track and all turned out as planned).

So, how'd you spend your weekend? Is it still beautiful and fall where you live or has it quickly transitioned to borderline winter weather these days? Somehow I missed the transition of sundown and its suddenly getting dark before 7pm. Sort of caught me by surprise tonight on my way to yoga. hmm.

when 8 weeks seems like a long time...

...i just have to think about some things i'm excited for -

1. meeting this little man and finally figuring out his name

2. finishing all my projects in those 8 weeks (looking at it that way, 8 weeks doesn't seem nearly long enough!)

3. decorating the house for Christmas, baking Christmas cookies and wrapping all the presents (yes, my Christmas shopping is done, done, done!)

4. Alie is coming to visit in LESS than 8 weeks. :)

5. the first time since March that it finally rains for the whole entire day in San Marcos and how good things will smell when that happens

6. getting to wear all of Reid's softest, oldest, most-favorite t-shirts because all of mine are too small.

For now, I am enjoying my big, slow self and trying to embrace the fact that I have to take a rest or a nap in the middle of the day and that I feel like I need a forklift to get out of bed sometimes. I find that grunting helps. ;) I am enjoying feeling this little man attempt to streeeetch his arms and legs in his tiny little aquatic enclosure. I enjoy imagining what it will be like to see him for the first time and to introduce him to all the cool people we know - what a lucky little Christmas elf he will be.

We've finished 2 stockings, and 2 more are well on the way - 1 will just go into the Christmas stuff bin until its user is added to the family someday. I'm glad Mom could help me - she had to translate the patterns for me. Those things are SO not user friendly.

when inspiration finally hits....

before telling you just how my Mom and i have spent the last two days in project-land, i must provide a disclaimer: although it is before Halloween, when working on building Christmas stockings, you absolutely have to play holiday tunes to get the mood right. ALSO: don't forget to download your coupon for a free cappucino at Barnes and Noble at: The Mother Load
there's also a coupon for the store, what a great way to spend your Sunday afternoon browsing for Christmas presents, coupon and free cappuccino in hand?!?

we knew we wanted to make a Christmas stocking for baby no-name while she was visiting, but it sort of morphed into making new stockings for all of us - and maybe a couple extra (just to plan ahead for later). Joann Fabric Super Stores are absolutely amazing/terrible - by the time we left, i had about 6 new project ideas in my brain and while we were looking at stocking fabric, i kept thinking up all the other amazing things (like some sweet pajama pants for every person i know) i could make out of all the cute fabrics. the cart filled with 3 different fabrics we liked-but-not-loved and then we wandered past this wierd old Santa Claus doll/decor thing and that's when inspiration finally hit and i knew what i wanted to make. we came home with hunter green wool felt, cranberry-ish red felt, dark chocolate brown courduroy and cranberry-ish (matching) red courduroy for the bodies of the stockings as well as a pattern and some sweet fabric for cuffs - and a linen/muslin type fabric for the inside of the stockings. at this point, most of the stockings are cut out and two of them are ready to be put together. i even embroidered ( i guess that's what I did, wasn't the most technical operation but turned out great) a snowflake on one and quilted another one. its been fun and exhausting coming up with ideas but i think the final project will be quite nice. a bit of excellent luck today, just when we hit a rough spot and had to re-do a little something and i was annoyed, the doorbell rang to announce the arrival of my long-anticipated delivery....my new hand-made kitchen canisters from One Wintry Night Pottery finally arrived! They are absolutely LOVELY!

aside from stockings, we've done Temecula Old Town, including Mad Madeline's Burger joint, and Carlsbad Village for fish tacos (the little baby-man is definitely a fan of fish tacos) - SO good. Tomorrow we are going to do some playing out in town.

and while all of this is good and well, the most exciting part of my evening (can't really explain it) was getting a picture from Reid (who is in Champaign tonight watching the Illini game - he flew there for work in his jet, how cool!?!?!). The picture is of him and Jay Leman (he was the big defensive hero from last year's Illini football team, I often referred to him as my "boyfriend"). it got me all giddy inside. :)

Happy 27th Birthday

to my love ~
who always makes me smile....
and refuses to ever, EVER, get old -
the fun is just beginning!
hope you enjoyed your funfetti cake. ;)
xoxo

besides "discovering" America today.....

I'm very happy the government believes its employees should have days like today off...but first I have to say that the Santa Anna winds are here. We can see fires north/west of here burning from our backyard. They're on Camp Pendleton and in Oceanside - far enough away that we're safe, but close enough that it makes you uncomfortable, and edgy that maybe more will spring up. Please keep the people who had to evacuate in your thoughts and appreciate being in your own home to sleep tonight. And please cross your fingers we get to stay home this year - Mom, are you sure you want to come for a visit this week? Could be an adventure......


So I made that pumpkin spice bread and I've gotta say its just too tasty - I may have to give away the second loaf to protect myself from eating them both. tomorrow. They even passed the Reid-test so you know they are good.


I spent this evening working some more on my projects - finally, I'm a bit behind where I wanted to be, but hoping Mom can help me put the final touches on this weekend when she's here visiting (and start on the stocking, hopefully she's up for this!)...... they're all turning out super cute, but the second one I turned out tonight has slightly askew pockets. As my previous disclaimer stated, "made with love and full of character" ... hoping the recipients will just smile a little and love them all the more.


During all this evening projecting, Reid and Baxter were cuddling and catching up on some DVR action, and at one point I look over to catch Reid practicing swaddling on Baxter (who obviously was not protesting the activity) ....... they are too cute.

Julian - Apple Days Festival

We headed east to Julian today to enjoy some of the brisk high 50's they were blessed with over the weekend, and boy was it brisk! We had lunch outside at a BBQ place and the hot cider and chicken pot pie I ordered up helped warm me up - in the shade it was downright chilly (had I a nice knit hat I think it would have been quite comfy!).

I looked at a nice used bookshop for Blueberries for Sal but no joy. It was just fun to wander amongst all the people, looking at the funny little kids hats and cute little dogs and try to figure out what people were up to. There were some particularly interesting motorcyclists sporting full-body garb - looked like they were about to attempt some major sport jumping endeavor, but I'm pretty sure they were just out joyriding and showing off their "awesome" biker attire. Whatever happened to those leather chaps the good old boys used to sport? Oh - but there was one traditionalist biker who had an amazing mustache which droopily ended on either side of his mouth with a matching beaded combination.

As is tradition, we picked up a delicious apple crumble pie and some apple cider and stopped along the way for some apples. I must say I've been spoiled with the apple orchards back in the midwest, but this was still pretty enjoyable, mostly due to the cooler weather and me romantically pretending it was a fall day and we were on the verge of winter and therefore I had better stock up on apples and rush home immediately to put together some (my first) homemade apple sauce so we were prepared with sustenance for the winter. Its on the stove now in its final stages of smashing and smushing and smelling just wonderful.
On our long drive home I told Reid I wanted to live on a farm someday (this was after he mistakenly identified a farm we passed as a goat farm...no, those were sheep. cute - to his defense, he was driving the very curvy, windy roads...he's more of a country kid than I). He asked me what I wanted to farm to which I replied some sort of small animals and lots of things to eat. His next question was: so what do farmers do in the winter? I responded that in my fantasy version of reality they sit inside the house all winter going out only to tend to the small animals that are cozily stashed away in the barns and spend lots of quality time together and looking out at the pretty snow. I guess they'd have to go outside every once in awhile to get some firewood. Isn't fantasy fun? I really do think I'd enjoy living on a farm.....but I am also aware of the fact that it is much more work than my little postcard version of reality makes it out to be. That'll have to be a conversation for my grandparents the next time we're hanging out.

I'm thinking tomorrow, on our day off (yay Columbus for "discovering" American AND for getting us government employees a 4 day weekend!) I'll spend it finally sitting down to work on these projects. I have gotten some excellent knitting practice in this weekend - then I met a knitting pro with a thick English accent I could listen to all day but barely understood who told me that I was being taught the more difficult method and that I needed to do the continental stich vice whatever method its called that I am learning -5 less steps apparently. I had no idea knitting could be such a passionate conversation topic, but she was throwing something out there called a Russian knit stich and she was altogether against that as well as the version I'm currently learning. Wow. She gave me her card, I'll keep it handy in case I decide I need to learn a more politically correct version of knitting~!

almost feels like autumn!

the weather was perfect, 70 with a nice breeze - so we took advantage and visited Bates Nut Farm and picked out some pumpkins, came home and watched the end of the Illinois game and then went for a very up-hilly 2 hour long hike with Baxter. Saturdays are definitely my favorite. Are the trees changing color where you live?

This is what San Marcos looks like from the top of the hill we hiked up. The bigger white buildings center/right is Cal State San Marcos University. Our condo is in the little group right in front of it.

knit this!

Another first: today I learned to "cast on" and to do a "knit stitch" from Jodi. What a sweet lady and how fun! I didn't make anything more than a row of knit stitches, but I'm sort of proud of it in a silly little kid "want to put it on the fridge" sort of way. And my homework is to keep practicing it...mostly because right now I feel like a fingerless monkey trying to gracefully knit a little row of nothingness. Its all very unfamiliar and there is a lot of finness involved I guess as to how you hold the needles, how you apply tension to the yarn, etc. I like thinking about a bunch of ladies sitting around knitting and chatting...and imagining its 4 below zero instead of 97 degrees and I'm stuck inside passing the time as I knit. I think this will be fun! Especially once I get to create something besides a finger sweater or whatever this tiny little cute row of practice stitchery is. I guess while its not "exciting" in the traditional sense, its exciting to me because its tradition and because its another way to exhibit some good old fashioned homemade love for people to enjoy.

The quesadillas were excellent, by the way, and one got stuck in the freezer for my next wierd "man I wish I had some delicious acorn squash goodness for dinner" craving as they were super rich and amazing.

I'm taking a new friend to preggo yoga with me tonight, she's a yoga virgin and nervous about feeling dumb (which is exactly why it took me so long to try yoga, thanks Alie for encouraging me) and awkward. I guess that's all part of trying out new activities - at the beginning you don't know how to do it, but isn't that the point? Is there something that you've been thinkin on trying out for awhile now and maybe just need to take the plunge? I'd love to hear about it!

ideas when you least expect

after a super fun long weekend (so I took the day off today....so what?) with Reid's parents in town, bookended by 2 all-day airshow events, lots of yummy dinners out and socializing amidst baseball/football watching, I'm home alone with Baxter to slow down and catch up on the world whizzing past me.

its 97 degrees of hotness and there is an evil wind blowing, somewhat reminiscent of the santa anna conditions i came to loathe last fall. please no more fires. i gave in and turned the ac back on after a nice weekend break from it - i even got to wear a hoodie out of necessity on Saturday night! unfortunately, the break from oppressive heat was short lived. however - i've had an acorn squash in my fridge for well over a week now and we're probably borderline on the unspoken "best if used by" date, but today i finally got an answer for what to do with my little spontaneous purchase of autum loving when i visited a great blog all about cooking, smitten kitchen and she showed me this fabulous recipe, pictures and all for acorn squash quesadillas and tomatillo salsa. Reid is working til midnight and i am so making this for dinner! the only other plans for tonight are sounding rather wonderful:
1) walk Baxter
2) check the news to make sure I don't need to start storing my runaway from fires bag in the car
3) dash to the grocery store for a couple missing ingredients to the above great recipe and some lunchmeat so my husband doesn't starve at lunch all week
4) nap
5) whip up the delicious quesadilla goodness and salsa. i am too excited.
6) get all the sewing stuff back out from its hiding places where i stashed it for the visitors and get to cracking - i have Friday off and plan to go to Quilter's Paradise for some much-needed instruction on creating double fold bias binding. horray for 4-day weekends!

oh, and tomorrow is my first knitting class. what a great week it is. :) can you believe there are only 10 weeks left before i'm a momma? oh - and more cute pumpkin-ny ideas from another fabulous blog. i want to go to Julian in the mountains this weekend and do some pumpkin-patching activities, but this heat needs to settle down before i can fully embrace the fall season the rest of you are experiencing.

october-ish.

even though the AC is still on, it is officially October - and fall (normal fall) is my favorite season, so I was looking for some good autumnal goodness to get excited about. who doesn't love drinking hot cider while wearing a hoodie and jeans and watching a football game from under a lap blanket? throw in apple doughnuts and a hayrack ride...maybe a bonfire and I am in heaven.

I came across this article on pumpkin love and had to share.....let me know if you try any of the recipes, not sure which one I am most excited about! Same blog, she also had a cute idea on decorating the front step with pumpkins.

totally unrelated, I am thinking of doing something like this to a nightstand to put in the nursery next to the rocker. we'll see, there may not be enough time for all the projects to be done between now and Christmas.

Miss Boser gave me a great calendar and turning to the October page today let me escape to relive a great memory of a lunch stop on the side of the road heading into Denali last August. (see the chacos and beautiful wool socks paired nicely? a perfect example and appreciation for autumn attire).