Garden?

Spring (or at least our PNW version thereof) has come to our area, and I always get that itching to go outside and enjoy it!  I want to spread a blanket on the grass, eat dinner outside, and generally soak up as many bits of sunshine and warmth as possible.  I also want to go out and get started on the garden.  I can't stand the thought of an empty garden bed!

This year, though, is a bit different.  If we had our druthers, we would be in the process of moving out of this house and into a new one.  However, we have yet to find that new house, so, for the moment, we are staying put.  We keep hoping that each weekend will bring that perfect house.  Thus I am in a garden bind: to plant or not to plant?  Will I end up reaping the benefits of a veggie garden, or will it all just whither on the vine when we finally do find that new house?

For March and April I dithered.  Now that it's May, I finally had to make a decision.  I've purchased my tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach, and peas and planted them in the beds.  Delphinium also helped me plant lettuce, radishes, gem squash, and zucchini from seed.  We have a full garden in the works.  Either we'll have a lovely bounty of veggies in a few months time, or maybe Murphy's Law will ensure that we will finally find our new house.

Hello Bee Blog

Being half way through this pregnancy is making be focus on everything baby.  I browse Amazon, visit babysteals all the time, and religiously read the "week by week" pages on several sites.  I love to read blogs (though not boards).  I'm just a tiny bit obsessed!  That's why I was very excited to come across a new blog call Hellobee.  It's written by a community of bloggers, so there is always lots of new content, and their focus is almost exclusively pregnancy and little babies.  The quality of the writing is quite high, and they do offer all sorts of different perspectives.  While I don't read every single post, there is always something of interest on a given day.

Shameless Shopping Post

Whew! We did it!  I feel like we've looked at a thousand dresses between us, but now we are all clothed for the wedding.  We tried David's Bridal, but aside from a shockingly unpleasant sales lady, we found nothing but cheap-looking choices.  While my brother and his fiance were very flexible with their guidelines, I'm pretty sure that ruched purple satin with sequins and black net is not to their taste (or mine!).

After looking at $100+ flower girl dresses in the bridal shop, we headed over to Macy's, and enjoyed much better luck.  Since it was only a few weeks after Easter, we found all sorts of fancy little girl dresses on the clearance rack.  It cost us only $13 to buy a sweet little pink seersucker dress with tiny roses on the bodice.  Next up was JCPenny, and still our luck held.

For the baby we located a beautiful cream satin gown with net overlay embroidered with green and pink flowers.  Sooo cute!  And only $18!  While at Penny's we actually do very well and find rehearsal dinner dresses for all the grown up ladies (Grandma and the cousins) as well.  Who would have thought we would have such luck there?

The bargain prices continued when we took a quick trip up to the outlet mall.  In the one maternity shop (they are NOT common let me tell you) I found several dresses to try.  They ranged in price from $20-$140, but it was the least expensive one that looked the nicest.  Honestly I had not yet looked at the tag!  Of course it does still require alterations, so the price will go up a bit, but still I am so happy to have found most everything we'll need.  Well, maybe not shoes, but that's another story.

British Vegetarian Food

As you may have noticed, I can never resist a collection of vegetarian recipes.  Luckily they are not as few and far between as they once were!  In honor of their national vegetarian week, the BBC has some great recipes.  I think I will definitely have to try the samosas (my husband goes wild for them) and the cheese pies.  I'm not the best with pie crusts, but I guess I'll have to give this one a shot.  Happy British Vegetarian Week!

More Preschools

We have yet another preschool visit scheduled for tomorrow.  It is so hard to pick a school when we don't know where we'll be living by the time fall rolls around.  I think what I will do is find one I like in our current town, and one in our goal town, and then get her on the list for both.  I will lose one application fee, but at least we'll have a space for her when the time comes.  This assumes, of course, that I can find two schools worth considering.  All this uncertainty is killing me!

I am still really having trouble locating places where I would feel comfortable sending my child.  It shocks me to see some of the dingy heaps many people seem happy to choose.  The strangest part is that the price of the school does not seem to track with what I see as the quality.  One of the smelliest and most dead-eyed schools we visited was also one of the most expensive.  If I had the guts (and funds) to open a high-quality daycare or preschool in our area, I think I would make a mint.

Travel at Two

Well we made it back from our adventure visiting with Great-Grandma.  She is getting on a bit, but she still manages to do most things for herself.  My big girl was such a big girl that it made the whole trip so much easier!  She did not offer to climb the furniture, play with the millions of antiques, or chase the cat, and her behavior on the airplane was very good as well.  The best, the most wonderful part, was her sleeping.  In the past we have never traveled to a new place without crying and troubles at bedtime.  The first night is usually especially rough.  Often she doesn't sleep through the night either.

This time, she went down late (due to our arrival time), requested about three or four blanket adjustments, and then just went to sleep!  And she stayed asleep THE WHOLE NIGHT! And she did it EVERY NIGHT WE WERE THERE!  Ahhhhh that is the sound of one big part of my mommy anxiety just letting go.  If she will do this on all our travels this summer, we will all have a much easier, happier time.  Here's hoping that we've turned such an important corner.

Visiting the Doctor

Yesterday we had our nearly half way doctor visit.  I am floored that we are nearly half way!  It's so exciting to think about meeting the new baby, but I am seriously not ready yet in an organizational sense.  I'm also worried that the big girl is not ready yet either.  When I got pregnant I kept telling myself that she would have nine whole months to get older and more mature, but now that time is cut in half and she still seems like a baby to me.  I'm sure we'll figure it out (people do!) but there will certainly be some logistics to overcome.

That being said, the doctor declared us both to be in good health.  The baby is measuring as it should, and everything is still locked up tight.  It is strange to go to those appointments the second time around.  When the whole thing was new I used to go in with a list full of questions (what is that jabbing pain when I roll over?), but now we spend much more of the time just chatting.  May the second half be as unremarkable as the first.

Sick Baby

Ugh!  My poor little girl has contracted some sort of nasty tummy bug.  Let's just say I change A LOT of diapers these days, and leave it at that.  She's been so sick that we haven't left the house in about six days, and it is starting to wear on both of us.  Between bouts of illness, the poor things says "Go bye bye?  Get new books at library?" So I know she's bored as well.  I've even called in the TV while sick rule to try and keep her happy.  We've spent many an hour with her collapsed on top of me watching Sesame Street.  May things please be better soon!

Schniff!

Wow!  It seems that not only do we have the excitement of my brother getting married, but he would also like our girl and I to be in the wedding party!  That's right, she will be the one and only flower girl, and I will be a groom's maid (groom's matron sounds a bit prison-y).  I was wondering if he might ask for the flower girl, but I am taken completely by surprise to be asked as well.  It is such an honor, and I must confess that there was a bit of teary-ness at the time he asked.  On top of it all, I can wear whatever type of gown I would like with no stipulations on color or style.  That's a good thing since formal maternity dresses are few and far between!

Freezer Clean

In all the excitement over pregnancy, wedding, house hunting, and everything else, I'm afraid that the household is falling by the wayside.  I never allow things to actually get gross (my mother's voice in my head won't allow that) but let's just say that the organizing and de-cluttering part of the job is not exactly getting my full attention.  The pantry and the freezer, for example, have gone virtually untended for weeks.  The results are not pretty.

Snacks sprout from every corner, bags of half-used pasta spill down one whole shelf, and bottles, jars, and cans are hopelessly piled.  In short, you can't see what you have, and you can't find anything.  This sort of situation is how you end up with four year old boxes of graham crackers you didn't even know you had.  There are four parts to my recovery plan:

1. No buying any new pantry items for at least a few weeks.  New stuff piled on top only makes it worse.
2. Go through the packages looking for things that are already expired.  Toss without mercy.
3. Organize the remaining items, so that you know what you have.
4. Come up with meals that will use up some of the older items, and soon you'll have a lovely pantry!

Still Hunting

Well we've done it.  We've finally passed the average number of houses (40) seen by Americans before they buy.  House #40 was not even tempting.  I don't know if it's us or the houses, but somehow it never seems quite right.  I swear we are not THAT picky!  All we want is a fairly normal house (some neighborhoods around here are architectural history lessons from the 70's) in fairly decent condition in a fairly decent location.  Is that so much to ask?  Unfortunately that's what everyone else wants too.

A new part of the game seems to be bidding wars.  When we started out there was never any pressure to put in an offer because most houses sat for several weeks or months before selling.  Now we are seeing properties that have six full-price offers and 50k escalators within the first day or two.  One 60's era house with a view of the lake got 26 offers in its first weekend on the market!

At least the number of houses available is starting to increase.  I think those people who were holding out as long as they could because they didn't want to sell at the absolute bottom are starting to edge back into the market.  Of course they're doing so because prices are edging up too.  The old double-edged sword is definitely in play here.  With only five months left before the baby comes, I'm starting to get a bit nervous.

Baby Brother Getting Married

It's true!  It's true!  He's asked (he baked her cookies!), she's accepted, and now the wedding is on quite soon.  We all think she is a gem of the first order, so there is nothing but excitement and happiness being passed around.  When people get married many will say "oh they are the perfect pair" even when they are like a badger and a giraffe trying to be a couple.  These two, however, really are extremely well-suited to one another.  They have decided to split the difference when it comes to east coast and west coast families, so there will be a wedding out there, and a reception over here.  We are beyond excited and madly making travel plans.