making candy over the weekend

In addition to having brunch on Sunday, I was cooking up a storm on Saturday, making treats for my in-laws. One of these treats are caramels - terrifying to make, but delicious to eat. I had never boiled sugar before - and seeing that frothing mass in the pan as I frantically stirred and tried to read the thermometer because 248 degrees is the stopping point, otherwise something awful happens to the time-space continuum - it was nerve wracking I tell you, good and terrifying. And then it was over. And I waited for the caramel to set, cut it into pieces, and wrapped them up. (Had some help wrapping up from my favorite ladies, J., A., and M... thanks girls!) Here's a shot of me wrapping, taken by the lovely J. (And if you can tell, I was standing right up against the counter - but look how far away my shoulders are - there's a baby in the way. Outrageous!)

seven and a half months!!

Well, I would start by saying "what the? another month has gone by?" but you all knew that already. I would make apologies, but there's no point, there is no fault or blame. Just wish that I could keep this up as much as I do Facebook. But that's another matter altogether...

We managed to get the house put back together about 30 minutes before the first houseguest arrived. Nice! More houseguests, a few last minute RSVPs for Thanksgiving dinner, lots of friends and family, amazing food and thanks to my best friend and my cousin - I didn't have to do all the work by myself. Without them, it wouldn't have happened. You guys are the best!

Then I spent a week trying to figure out what to do about Christmas this year - being on a budget and not having a ton of energy (thanks for that, third trimester!) and really didn't come up with a plan. Oh well. Something will happen, that's for sure. Then G. left town to go back east for a long weekend, to clean out the family farmhouse and get it ready to go on the market.

Of course, right after he left we had our first windstorm of the season (it looks like the trees are going to snap in half, they bend so far over) followed by our first snow of the season (four inches in my front yard! record low temperatures!). And I am alone, in my house, really not wanting to drive on the icy roads.

Throughout all this, I have been neglecting my knitting, which is awfully sad. I set out to knit a baby blanket for this restless little being in my belly - a sizable blanket, lots of colors, gender neutral. It is comprised of seven strips, and when those are done they are magically knit together to make one big cozy blanket. I figured a strip a week (there are seven colors in each strip, so a color a day. easy!) but with Thanksgiving falling right in the middle of of the project, I gave myself nine weeks. Generous! Plenty of time! Well, you all know how time and I get along... mostly that it keeps on going, especially when I am not looking. So here I am, week eleven? of the project, and only have four and a half strips done. Good thing baby isn't due until February 23rd!!

And R. sent me a pattern for knitting your own babylegs. And there are the hats I want to knit, if I knew how to knit them. Patterns still intimidate me - I'll get there some day.

For now, the baby is still up to its antics in its watery home - I swear it is doing back flips in there, which is to be expected at 30 weeks. (Holy cow, how'd I get to be 30 weeks pregnant?) I think last night it was alternately punching and kicking. Impressive coordination skills for such a little guy. Or girl. On that note - pronouns get thrown around quite a bit, i.e. I will say "he kept his legs crossed" or "she's kicking!" but it doesn't really mean I know. I have zero intuition on this front - no dreams, no feelings, nothing. Just a girl's name that I am absolutely in love with, and nada on the boy's name. Except for the boy's names that I don't like. That I am pretty clear on - but not so clear on the names I do like. The one dream I had years ago about my baby boy involved a name that is so trendy now I am not sure I could go through with it.

So that's what I have to say about that, for now. As my grandma would say, "that's all I know about that!".

E.

(ps - hi grandma!! can't wait to see you!)

and it's now mid-november

So last week was the first time I have ever done dishes in the bathtub of my house. Sure, a hostel here or there, but never in my house. However, G removed the kitchen cabinets to complete the hardwood floor install - so the current house configuration is: most living room pieces - in the guest room and in the baby room; the couch is on end in the hallway; the dining room chairs take up the office; the kitchen pantry is shoved up against the front door; the remaining kitchen items are in the hallway (fighting the couch for space). This leaves us with a toaster and microwave in the bathroom on the floor (as far away from water sources as possible, not plugged in when showers happen) and dishes are done in the bathtub. Are we having fun yet?

Well, yes. I know it isn't permanent. G finished the floor over the weekend (I spent the night at a friend's house due to overwhelming off-gassing) and today was spent trying to re-install the kitchen cabinets. Some of you may have heard a story about a co-worker of mine who gave us some kitchen cabinets. They were left-over from his brother's development project, and free to us. We were very excited. Unfortunately - it didn't quite work out... here's my note to M:

So we got the cabinets back to the house, got them unloaded and lined up in the kitchen. Tricky thing is, they are all mostly bathroom cabinets. There are only two kitchen cabinets, both sink units, and the rest are the shorter bathroom cabinets. No idea how the boys missed this when they were loading them up… I think they were just trying to get ‘er done and didn’t notice. So all the cabinets moved down to the garage where they are resting nicely with all their parts and pieces. I’m guessing I should document the dimensions of all of them and we’ll figure out a plan. The plus side is that we used the rental truck to do a dump run, which cleaned out half the garage (very worthwhile!). The downside – we tacked the old cabinets back in place. I hate those things. Slapped a coat of paint on them last night and pray they’ll look decent after a second coat. Anyway, that’s the cabinet drama so far…

The sink has running water but the disposal isn't hooked up yet (G walked out of the house saying, "well, you can use the sink, but if it starts to leak, then put a bucket under it" which equals "no thanks" from me! I don't want to be responsible for a flood on the brand new barely-cured hardwood floor!). He is working on installing the trim right now. Then hopefully tomorrow we can start putting the house back together before our guests show up for the Thanksgiving holiday. They start arriving on Sunday and my to-do list is quite long... everything from "clean bathroom" to "wash extra linens". I can hardly wait for them to arrive - as crazy as it all is right now - being surrounded by loved ones is the best ever. I miss my California peeps!

And seriously - if this was your floor, you'd be a happy camper, right?



That's what I thought...

I love the tigerwood!! It is so beautiful. We are so close to having this project finished.

Now, onto my knitting, baking and organizing... because, you know, knitting a baby blanket is the most appropriate way for me to gaze at my gorgeous new floor, right?

the first photo

Courtesy of the lovely Jessica Levine, the first photo worth publishing on the web. She and I are making a date to do some gorgeous creative photography for month 7/8... I know I will have plenty to share then. I just knew it wasn't fair to keep y'all waiting any longer. (Yes, that is my iPhone in hand, I was trying to find her and she took this of me as I crossed the street... ) This is me at six months. I can't believe it has already been six months... February is getting closer and closer....

Hope you are well! We are settling into the last phase of the flooring project - hopefully we will be done just in time for Thanksgiving.

time, time, time...

It constantly amazes me, how quickly time flies by. For instance - it was just New Year's Eve. We were just celebrating our last night in Bali (the last big vacation before we tried to start our family) in May. It was just that afternoon in June, when we confirmed that just-like-that, our family is starting!! And it was just August, when I committed to myself that I would update this space more regularly, to keep my friends and family current on our lives. And now it's October.

O C T O B E R.

Mid-October, at that. Time to start salivating over Thanksgiving side dishes, as I prepare the menu for my almost infamous 5 course Thanksgiving meal. Time to carve pumpkins. Time to order Halloween candy (I just can't give out the waxy chocolate stuff anymore - I've moved on to "healthy junk food" and somehow that feels better). Time to start setting up the nursery... oh right, because I am now in my fifth month of pregnancy. 5 months. Just over the halfway mark. How the heck did that happen? No clue. You wake up, you go to sleep, repeat about 147 times, and voila! Here you are, here I am.

5 months. I'm finally showing, and have just started to gain weight. Baby is doing great - well, baby is doing average, which at this point is a very good thing. Funny point - G and I finally decided to find out what the sex of our baby is on the way to the ultrasound appointment. I was mixed about finding out - there is something fantastic in the mystery of it, such a huge surprise (after all, it is what it is at this point, no changing that!!) but I can also see how knowing would be helpful too... so we were ready to find out. And low and behold, baby kept it's legs crossed the whole time.

Now that is certainly my child in there! No question about it. The doc even asked me to get up and walk around, use the toilet, we waited 20 min... and still the legs were crossed. I love the immense sense of humor of the universe.

Okay - since I still don't have a photo of myself that I am willing to put on the internet, I will leave you with these house photos.

G has finished putting in the floor in the hallway, the back bedroom (known as Julia's room or Mardi's room, depending on who is visiting...) and the office.

Check out the before and after on the front entrance area:You may notice that there is this odd "slate" on the floor, and the wall on the right (G's left, your right) is kind of a blue-gray color. The previous? original? owners thought it a grand idea to stain the wood with a blue wash and it darkened the whole entry area. We decided to replace the slate with the tigerwood and when G was mid-task, he decided to paint the wood the same color as the walls...

It came out so nicely!! He is such an amazing DIY'er. Huge kudos to my husband. He also wants to paint the door, which I am in agreement on. Here is the main hallway: And this is the back bedroom I mentioned before:

He is almost done putting in all the trim. Once that is complete, we move on to figure out if we can afford to finish the dining room/living room and kitchen. It will be complicated, and it will mean life without a functioning kitchen for a week or two... but I know this guy can install and refinish the floors in no time. He's in trouble now since I've seen how fast he did this last bit!!

Hope you are all doing well. Also, I plan on coming to Sacramento for Christmas - 7 months pregnant and all. Let's make a date for a visit if you are in the area!

time to play catch up

Wow. I knew August would be hectic, but I didn't realize how hectic. After my grandmother's visit, we entertained G's father, sister, and her fiance!! Big congratulations to Sylvia. We are so happy for her! And another G joins our family - that's right, we had three G's in the house for a week.

During that time we also took a trip out to Spokane for a couple days, to visit with G's aunt/senior G's sister, M. G's dad designed her house, it is absolutely beautiful. It was also ridiculously hot - climbing into the 100s. This is why I left California!! Sheesh! No wonder I don't live in Eastern Washington.

After the family left, I quickly packed my bags and left for a girls weekend in the Bay Area. I love San Francisco - always will! - and I love hanging out with my girlfriends there. These girls are the best. We headed down to Aptos (between Santa Cruz and Monterey) to spend a few days at a condo on the beach. Good food, good games, good company, amazing views. Fantastic weekend.

The only downside is that I came home to an empty house. My sweet G has gone back to East Coast for a couple (three and a half!) weeks to take care of his dad. His dad is not doing so well - G has gone to provide some physical and emotional support to the family out East.

So that is where we're at. Oh yeah, and one more thing....We are expecting our first child! Our little family of two will be a family of three in late February/early March of 2009. We are incredibly happy - it is such an amazing experience to go from "really? are you sure?" to amazing joy and huge, huge smiles. I am headed into month four of this incredible journey through pregnancy - and of course, I am the luckiest girl in the world, so far this has been a very simple pregnancy for me.

Will certainly try to keep up on the postings, and hopefully get some belly photos up here once I really start showing.

hurray for sweat equity!

G. has almost finished the master bedroom floor. He finished applying the wax the first night of my grandmother's visit, and the three of us picked out some trim and now that is painted and installed. The only piece left is, well, the new painted trim is whiter than the old trim that is still in place around the doorframes. Oops. So we're going to paint the doorframe trim so it all matches and then we can call Phase 1 of the flooring project complete. Check it out!


We had our Second Sunday brunch on the first Sunday this month... a good showing of folks, lots of new faces, and way too much food. So amazing - I love my Seattle family! And the visit from my grandma was great - she has so many stories to tell, I just soaked them all in. Thanks for the visit grandma!! I think you left too soon. (Oh, and I got her to make her potatoes for Brunch - if only I had known all the years the secret is bacon grease... a classic moment at brunch, as I asked her to make one pan with bacon product and another without... when I presented the two options to my friends, their response was, "I guess I'll have the veggie version, but man! the bacon version sure looks better!"... indeed, they were. I'm slowly coming out of my vegetarian shell.... )

Hope you're all having a lovely August. We're just starting to hit 90 degrees here... blue skies even! How I love the Seattle summers...