Thursday, October 25, 2007

nanner news and other happenings

so i would like to start off with many thanks to my good friend kari (from Georgia, Cote D'Ivoire, Senegal, France) (http://jkmassonfrance.blogspot.com), the professional. she helped me with my pictures. if you look at kari's blog, it's enough to make you not even want to try yourself. she works, makes all kinds of delicious food from ingredients she picked up at the local market, crochets/knits baby blankets for people like me, reads all kinds of good books, has an amazing blog, communicates well with her friends/family, takes long walks in beautiful places, takes care of a husband in medical school, and always has her nails done. and she does all this while navigating life in a foreign country. i can't actually figure it out. it's a mystery to me. unfortunately i never get to see her. miss you, kari!

i hadn't realized it has been so long since our last post. this here below is part of the reason. maybe our next child will be mellow, for this one is definitely not. it's getting better sometimes, but she still absolutely hates to be set down. and if she's really fussy, she hates to sit still even if you're holding her. i think she may be a child who needs lots of activity. that'll help me get my exercise! (makes those road/plane trips to see family difficult, though!)
she has this expensive, comfortable, soft vibrating music playing chair, but is it enough? of course not! :-)
the other day we made donuts. it was our first time, so we're allowed a few mistakes. which is good, because some of them looked like hockey pucks. patrick decided the holes weren't important. (other than the one i'm holding, they were all hole-less). and i had the oil too high, so they burnt on the outside and were all raw on the inside. raw cookie dough is ok, raw donut batter, not so much. in case you are wondering, no, this isn't exactly part of my post-baby weight loss plan!




so we had to take these pictures for the baby book, and i thought you might like to see them too. lots of work went into the nursery: patrick did numerous paint jobs, my mom sewed the cushions, bob made the footstool, and lar and my mom refinished the dresser. i absolutely love the nursery. we will be sad to leave our little house.
we have lots and lots of lettuce now, and soon broccoli and cabbage. i think my carrots are lost, and the peppers will die with the first frost. but it's fun for now. i'm reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver about her family's year of living on only what they grew and what was available locally. They did this to be healthier and lessen their impact on the environment. whether you care about the environment or not, you have to admit fresh food always tastes better. i'd rather only have tomatoes a few months out of the year then to have nasty tomatoes all year round. i'm not as hardcore as they are yet, but i do try to eat what's in season and buy local when i can. also, you should get Deceptively Delicious, by Jessica Seinfeld. if you haven't heard about it yet, it's all about sneaking vegetables into your kids's (or husband's :-) food, in purees. I can't wait to try chocolate chip cookies with chickpeas. And brownies with spinach. honestly. :-) since we're on this subject, i'm also reading What your doctor may not tell you about vaccinations and How to raise a healthy child in spite of your doctor. all good, and if you have kids, or even if you don't, you should give them a chance. if you know what you're talking about, you won't believe what everybody else tells you.

so my sweet husband took me out on a date the other night. and i honestly hardly thought about Hannah, that's how charming he was. he brought these beautiful long stem roses, too. it was absolutely wonderful. i hadn't realized how much i missed him. like i said, she's super fussy at night, so monday nights when i go to orchestra are not patrick's favourite time. but this week, he managed to bake a harvest loaf and mulled cider, while watching hannah, for us to enjoy when i got home.
at the end of the day, we're all glad it's the end of the day! (i think this might have been the beginning, but whatever!) as you can tell, she's getting so big! i love her to pieces. she's really smiley sometimes, and she's very vocal. i wish we had a video camera, and i could post a video. she can roll over, but only one way. her legs are super strong, and she can push herself all the way up so her chest is off the floor, when she's on her tummy. she'll be crawling before long! unfortunately, we're sharing this nasty cold right now, so the other night she was up every two hrs. it must be really hard when you can't blow your nose! poor thing, she can't even eat well, because she can't breathe. anyways, moving on. We are excited about how God is leading us, for the spring. graduation is so close we can taste it, and there is a job opportunity that is looking really promising. we'll keep you posted!

Thursday, October 04, 2007

We got our pictures back, and it was hard trying to choose which ones to put up here. thanks again to chad, www.photographybychadwick.com.
it was quite the experience, seeing as how she was naked. (translation: no diaper). chad's backdrop suffered a little. she's balding already. looking at these pictures, from a month ago, i can see how much hair she's lost. eyes are still blue, though.












here's our little cheerleader. i think my family has this outfit in 4 sizes now. unfortunately, it obviously hasn't helped the team. the season's still young, right?
i finally made it back to hiway 80 rescue mission, the homeless shelter/halfway house/rehab program that we do every month. this time, we got to bring her with us. it was so wonderful to have her "participating" in ministry as a family. she was even pretty good while we cooked.




so it's a girls weekend right now, with patrick away on business. or business potential. keep him in your prayers, if you think of it. we miss him. oh, who are we kidding? what i really miss is someone else here to hold her sometimes!