2 Dozen Years

Yep, I'm now 24, as of yesterday. It's not quite exciting as it used to be to have birthdays, but they're nice. We celebrated the whole weekend, sort of.

Friday, we went to Chick-fil-A on BSU's campus. It was delicious, as always. Joseph had never eaten there, but he loved the fries. We got there just before they closed. They weren't even going to be open on Saturday. We then drove up Table Rock in Boise for a gorgeous view of the Treasure Valley. It's been so beautiful here recently. Spring has sprung!

Saturday, I opened my presents after eating a yummy breakfast that James made. I got some more good books, some exercise videos (which means I have 10 now...enough for 2 weeks!), and a sweet new blender/food processor. I never realized how much I hated my old one until I started using this one. Basically, it's a lot easier to clean, has 3 sets of blades instead of 1 tiny pair of blades in the bottom, and can make a smoothie in 30 seconds. The amazing thing is that it's not technically more powerful by a whole lot, but it's designed a whole lot better. The canister is completely circular, so it won't be so hard to scrape down the sides. No more lame, runny hummus either! I'm excited. I also love the name: Ninja.

I was feeling pretty tired, so we relaxed most of the day, went on a walk, and then went to see the Hunger Games! We got in for (almost) free, because James got vouchers for free movie tickets. I thought it was very well done.

Sunday was my actual birthday. I'd finally splurged and gotten a few ingredients from the Asian store to made Thai curry and some spring rolls (which are actually Vietnamese.) They were both delicious. I still think of Tanisha every time I make her recipes, because they are so awesome.

James and I have a calling. We taught the 12-year-olds for the last two weeks, but there was only one student each time. They asked us to teach the 16-18-year-olds instead. Yikes! That wasn't very long ago!

messing around with effects of Picasa

from Table Rock

feeling huge!

39 weeks today. There's no telling when this boy will show up. I feel like it will be "soon", but who knows what that actually means? Mom comes Friday, so I'm in no hurry before then. We have enough food in the house to feed an army, and everything is clean. Bring it on.

What a Week!

So far, at least.

I've been doing some last-minute (though not really) preparations for the baby. Yesterday, I cooked all morning and completely wore myself out with yogurt, 2 batches of bread, restocking the pancake mix, soaking and cooking beans to freeze, and then realizing that I needed to actually make something for lunch. Black bean soup is to die for! I'm excited to be eating it again today. By the end of yesterday, I didn't want to do any more dishes.

We had a good St. Patrick's Day. I made corned beef and cabbage, which is amazingly simple in the crock pot. I didn't wear green since I don't have any, but luckily I only got pinched once.

We went to Boise on Saturday to check out the Asian store. I've been craving some Thai red curry and spring rolls, but I don't usually like to go somewhere special to buy ingredients. Since it's my birthday this weekend, I decided to splurge and get the ingredients I needed. :) It actually wasn't that expensive.

James and I have been called to teach the 12-year-old Sunday school class. So far, so good. There was only one kid there on Sunday, but there are supposed to be more. It's a lot easier than teaching last year, since Jojo is in nursery and we are only responsible for the one hour. I'm glad, because I love going to Relief Society. I was able to go visiting teaching on Sunday as well, and it was really nice to meet all the women I teach. My companion is really interesting, and it turns out that she homeschools her kids! How do I keep running into these people? :)

I had my hopefully next-to-last dr. appointment today. I am very excited to say that I'm at 2 cm and 50%. That is a huge improvement over my first pregnancy. I didn't get to a 2 until about 15 hours of labor and after the epidural. No joke. If I shave off 15 hours, then that means I will only be in labor for 12 this time! That would be awesome. I guess we'll see.

James has a job fair in Utah on Wed., so I hope nothing crazy happens. He's doing it in one day, so I'm helping him out by getting his teacher work sample polished. I also gave him a haircut last night. Hurray! It only took an hour. Haircuts really aren't too bad. I think I'm going to wait till Mom gets here to hold down Joseph for his.

I can't believe how close I am to the end.

So Close...

James worked extra hard this week to get his teacher work sample done. Yes, he's down to the last week of student teaching! He has officially gotten a job at the night school as a security guy, so now he just needs to find an additional job for summer, and then a "real" job for fall. For some reason, I just don't feel too worried. I'd love to stay here, but it's still pretty likely that we'll move in August, even if just to Boise. Timing is a funny thing. James is covered by the school's insurance until April 16th. Phew! That means I'm definitely taken care of, even if I'm overdue. I can't help but feel that this baby is coming at a perfect time. The same was true for Joseph, and he's been such a delight for the last almost 2 years.

On a different note, I've been studying up on vegetarianism before I embark on my "experiment" next month. What I've read confirms what I already know: a healthy diet with a variety of plant foods really doesn't need many animal products. Even by considering myself "vegetarian" for a month, I'm sure there will be days when I exceed 5% of my caloric intake from animal products. Yeah, I like cheese. For the most part, I don't think that I'll miss the meat all that much. I rarely eat any before dinner, and it's not like those meals seem to be missing anything. The idea doesn't seem as crazy as I originally thought. It's a big motivation to do it, because meat gives me indigestion and heartburn more than anything else right now! Sugar would too, if I were eating any.

On another random note, I figured out a system for not reading the same children's books over and over. Joseph has about 50 books, so I divided them up into 3 bags. Each weeek, I can rotate which group of books we read. 15 books is plenty for a week, and he doesn't really miss the ones that are put away. It also means 1/3 of the mess to clean up, because Joseph tends to be a little overzealous in pulling books off the shelf. I love reading time and seeing how much Joseph learns. He's a little sponge. Still, It's nice to get a 2-week break from each book that I've already read about 50 times. :)

Dear Daylight Saving Time:

Guess who still woke up at 7 a.m.?

You're lame.

I'm 37 weeks pregnant, so I'm tired. You just made life more difficult by taking away an hour of my sleep. I tried to beat you, but it just took me an hour to fall asleep last night. Same for my toddler and husband.

Why do you even exist? I hate getting up when it's dark. I couldn't care less if it's still light out at night, because after 8:00 I'm not likely to go anywhere.

Yeah, okay, so you were invented to "save energy". Big whoop.

Give me back my hour of sleep!

Sincerely,

A disgruntled customer

Recycle Time!

Since I couldn't resist getting out all the cute little baby clothes this week, I decided to sort through them to get rid of anything stained or otherwise useless. What I came up with were 6 really gross, old onesies that were size 18 mos. Joseph never wears them at this age, and even if he did, these onesies were hand-me-downs and hopelessly stained from his uncle's messy baby food spills. I also found an old, thin, plastic crib pad (not sure what to call it). A stroke of genius happened and the toddler shoe organizer was born. Not only did I use up the bottom half (or the less stained half!) of the onesies and the pad, I also found a use for my growing collection of yo-yo flowers and ribbon. This is a great way to keep track of all the shoes that Joseph doesn't currently wear without having them on some shelf where he can pull them off and make a mess. James asked me if I found it on Pinterest. I didn't, because the only "recycling onesies" crafts I can find are with onesies that still look pretty good (adding appliques, etc.). Yes, I only have boys so far, but hey, at least the flowers are boy colors...sort of.