This weekend

Well, of course the weekend got off to a rather rough start with Friday, though it was fun to take the pictures & video.

HH had mandatory overtime on Saturday, so Chick and I did the usual--I worked some more on layout (revising the cover...still not approved, but below is a picture of it as it is now) & we napped, ate, played, etc.

When HH got home we went grocery shopping. It's pretty rediculous that I get so excited from grocery shopping, but whatever floats your boat, right?

Anyhow, we first went to QFC, where they were having a holiday open house with lots of tasty samples & sales. Then we also went to Albertsons, Walgreens, & Fred Meyers. I won't list everything that I got, and I was more intent on getting things put away quickly than I was in taking a picture of it all (like the die hard frugality chicks do on the blogs to the right)...but here's a summary:

• 92 items purchased


• $100 spent


• The average price was $1.10. That's the average, but some things ended up being free, and the most expensive was Breyer's ice cream for $2.50 each...we have our priorities straight.


• Everything was on sale except for 3 cans of Tuna (Fred Meyer sells it for $.59 a can for the first three, which seems to be the best deal, regardless of sales)


• In addition to sales, I used $20 worth of coupons : )

Plus:

• $15 credit to spend at Albertsons next time we go


• a free loaf of Albertson's french bread


• a free DVD rental from Redbox (we watched Get Smart...pretty funny!)


• a free 8x10 from Walgreens

Minds at work

Yesterday was a hard day. Especially in the morning--Little chick took my glasses while I was still in bed & I had to search for them for half an hour and then bend them back into shape : (

There were other things, too, but that's not the point. The point is that by the time evening came I was DONE. It was too early to go to bed, though, so while Chick played with her toys and HH worked on a sudoku in the paper I got out our camera and tried out new settings while lounging on the couch. We've had the camera for a couple of years, but I tend to use the same auto settings & have no idea what the others are for! I can't find the book (but I know it's somewhere around here...) to just read about the settings. Anyhow, as you can see the settings aren't quite right, but isn't she CUTE?! She put her vest on herself. She's also good at socks, shoes, pants, and sometimes panties.

"Yeah"

Chick really is doing well with learning to talk-- now she can whine in ASL AND English.
In the past week or two she has learned to add an "S" for possessives & also plurals. Her "S" sounds more like "sh" so she says things like "Mama'sh towel" or "More pigsh."

But the cutest thing to me is "Yeah." She just started saying it about 3 days ago. She's been saying "Nope" for quite a while, but "yeah" is new and she says it so emphatically most of the time that it just cracks us up.

Of course I feel a little guilty--I picture Michael Caine saying, "Always YES, never yeah" to Sandra Bullock (in Miss Congeniality)... oh dear, I've already tainted my daughter!!

Anyhow, here's a video of her....

Update on Me & My Life

Last night was another midwife appt. All is well. I'm dilated to 2 and have a soft cervix (tmi?)...could be a couple of days, or it could be weeks. Hopefully I can get through layout, which starts today and will go through next week. Next Thursday (the first of my possible due dates) is a full moon, so that's not in my favor! But I am getting excited to meet the baby...when I remember that pregnancy ends with a baby (crazy that I could forget, but I do!).

So yesterday I moved the cradle into our room & made sure all the baby stuff was as organized as possible. I also bought the special treats that we'll have during and after the birth (T. Joe's Dixie Peach juice - my favorite!, and T. Joe's graham crackers for Chick). Last time I had my absolute favorite food: Breakfast Casserole, as the post-birth meal. However, it's our tradition to have it for breakfast on Christmas morning. The two events are too close together, so I need to figure out what else we can eat after the baby comes. Any ideas? My midwife always does a birthday cake when she has babies--the whole family eats cake sitting on the bed with the new baby. That's a fun tradition, but I tend to like savory rather than sweet.

And speaking of food, I've made a huge batch of raisin bran muffins & a couple more casseroles to freeze. Now all I need to do is prepare 1 or 2 more casseroles (lasagna--on the menu for Sunday) and cook up some chicken and ground beef and I'll be done! I'll have about 2 weeks of meals completely done, and another week or two of meal components to throw together.

Other news: I decided on which prego pics to order. I'll be getting #17, 18, 41, and 68. If you haven't looked yet, they're still online until Thursday. Click on the logo then select "Your Session" & enter "p.j." as the name, and "bebe" as the password. You have to then click on the photo to enter the gallery.

Lastly, our dryer stopped working completely (it hasn't worked well for quite a while!). HH had a new replacement that he was putting off installing (it required hooking up gas rather than electricity & changing the water heater, which we also had but put off doing)...anyhow, the demise of the old dryer was the nudge that he needed, and now I have a beautiful working dryer! Yay! Of course, now I need to help him get motivated enough to get rid of the old one!

Halloween Fairy (Another great idea from Stacy)

When talking about Halloween, Stacy mentioned the Halloween Fairy. Just like the tooth fairy, If you put all of your candy under the bed or wherever, she will come and take it. In the candy's place she will leave a cool toy.

I think this is a brilliant idea! We'll probably start next year. As for Laying down the Law (Kim!)...I guess so. But when I took her candy away from her it was so that we could go in to the ward dinner...I just needed to put it in the car. Once we were home I gave her the dumdum and she was happy with that.

I do limit her sugar--I've loosened up somewhat (when she realizes that she's getting the shaft). She's usually happy with a substitute--yogurt instead of ice cream, or apple sauce instead of apple pie. It's totally hypocritical that I eat that stuff, but I'm working towards a happy medium on both sides : ) During the pregnancy I've gotten lazy, but I usually limit myself to one free day a week--one special breakfast, one dessert, one more decadent dinner, etc (Isn't it funny that pregnancy is when I cut loose? Chick was formed on Burger King...I ate more fast food during that pregnancy than the rest of my life combined! This baby is being formed on candy and the leftover apple pie!).

I read that a person's tastes are almost completely developed by what they are exposed to (food-wise) in the first two years. I don't expose chick to as much variety as I should, but I try to not let sugar & food coloring be too prevalent because she might not like other things once she's used to the sweet & technocolored : ) She started eating fruit snacks, and now she asks for them for breakfast...augh! (it is cute, though...she made up her own sign & says "Nack?" all hopeful-like!)

By the way, I make PB & Honey Candy as our treat substitute...delicious! And easy to make: combine 1 c Honey with 1 c Peanut butter. Then add 2 c powdered milk & I add up to a cup of ground up oats (so it's less sticky) & ground flax seeds (for added nutrition). Mix well & roll into a snake, slice into pieces (overachievers can roll the pieces into balls) and refrigerate or freeze. MMMMMMmmmmm good! My Mom made it for us growing up, but I've also seen it in the book "Super Baby Food," which is a GREAT resource & I highly recommend it.

Another book that I recommend, while I'm writing about nutrition is "Fatland." But I should say that I am not saying any of this to be judgemental. HH barely eats, but when he does it's often twizzlers or tortilla chips with salsa. I'm fine with however people want to fuel themselves, but as for me and my chicks.....

Writing this (LONG! Sorry!!) post has made me want to be a bit more diligent in how I eat. So thanks if you read to the end, but I suppose the epiphany was meant for me!

{End of soapbox}

Other Delights this Week...

So in addition to the pumpkin patch, and Halloween (posted below), I had a delightful week!

My parents got home from their cruise and came to dinner to tell us all about it. To celebrate the season, I made pumpkin gnocchi (and in addition to having enough for dinner & some leftover for lunches, I froze enough for a future meal post-baby). I also tried out crockpot lady's Rotisserie-Style Chicken, which was super easy & tasted great.

Chick and I picked apples from the tree in the yard (very organic looking & need a bit more paring than store-bought apples, but nice and tart...great for baking!), and then made an apple pie to eat for dessert. We had a lovely evening!! Glad the folks had a good cruise : )

The next day I used the carcass & made chicken stock. It honestly is the best stock I've ever made! I've always done it on the stove, but tried crockpot lady's recipe in the crock. SO GREAT! I froze it in a few extra ice cube trays, so I'm set for a while.

I've been enjoying the changing leaves--the trees in the greenbelt behind our house have finally started to change and fall. It's gorgeous. Since I've never lived here in fall/early winter, I can't imagine what it will look like when all the leaves are gone. I always like the change, though--I'll probably be excited for bare trees, too.

Oh, and last but not least, I found THE PERFECT lampshade. HH dumpster dove a black lamp at some point in the past, and I came across it and decided to use it in the bedroom. It didn't have a harp or a shade, though, so I bought a shade that didn't need a harp at Walmart for $15. I was ok with it, but it was a little more brown than was ideal. So then I took a quick stop at Value Village and found a shade (for $4) that was in new condition & was the exact same yellow as the yellow walls in my room & was mottled, just like the faux finish on the walls! It was so perfect! HH picked up a harp at Lowes for a couple of dollars, and TaDa...here it is!

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

The day before Halloween we went with Stacy, Lea, & Luther to visit Craven's Pumpkin Patch. The kids all had a great time--they have all sorts of displays and attractions for kids to explore, and a few animals to pet & look at.





Chick loved the tractor!

Isn't this the coolest pumpkin? I roasted most of the seeds, but saved out some to dry & plant in the garden...hopefully we can have some cool, bumpy homegrown pumpkins next year!

This Halloween

I am embarrassed to admit that I did not start sewing chick's costume until 11am on Halloween day! I ran out of pompons, and the sewing adhesive for putting them on was taking too long to dry--I ended up pulling them off the front & leaving it blank. And the hat, of course, didn't get completely covered. Anyhow, not what it was supposed to be...baby #2 will get a better sheep costume, since the sewing is all done & all I'll have to do is finish with the pompoms. Luckily Chick is cute enough to pull it off.

For someone who has never (as far as I know) eaten candy, she was very upset that I took it from her...she signed & said CANDY while crying (Darn Signing Time, why did they have to teach that sign?!)

We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat / Chili dinner party (isn't the ballerina in yellow cute? She got cutest costume...such a gorgeous & classic costume!), and then came home and handed out candy. Chick did awesome giving out candy, and of course all of the trick-or-treaters thought that she was darling (sorry, I didn't get a picture).

Finally I gave her a dum-dum (Handsome Handyman got all the rest...which wasn't much since her pumpkin was so small!) and she vegged in front of the TV!

Flashback: Last Halloween

She's changed so much! She could never fit in that bucket now!

Another Ode to Blogs

I can't sleep--Chick woke up at 2:30 and went back to sleep, but I was not so lucky. HH left for work an hour ago, and I've been on the computer since then. I've been catching up on blogs that I didn't have time to read in the chaos of getting ready for Halloween.

Anyhow, I just wanted to say thanks! I love reading about what everyone is up to & seeing pictures and videos. This morning I was treated to two music videos--one was "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by They Might Be Giants, and the other was "O Holy Night" sung by Renee Fleming. As polar opposite as they are, they both made me so happy! And I loved that Erin blogged about missing a painting that a friend did (it's been packed away lately)...some things are just "things" but others really enrich your life & home, you know?

Anyhow, it's been a nice morning with friends, so thanks!