Friday, March 30, 2012

Our due date is almost here!

and I'm freaking out!

No, I'm not comforted by the fact that this is my second time around.  In fact, that might make it worse in some ways because I have some preconceived notions.  Last time I was pretty chillaxed since I had NO IDEA what I was getting into.  Now, I'm like...uh...crap....here I go again.

Plus, I've been totally lazy about getting ready.  Birth bag?  What?  Although I did make sure I have a few necessities easily accessible, ...in our house, not neatly tucked in a bag ready to go.  And here's what they are:


  • My awesome slippers!  {those were the flippin' bomb!}
  • Pads & adult diapers.  Yes, I sprung for the adult diapers this time. {TMI??}
  • and Gatorade and Snickers...oh wait, I don't have those yet, shit.


As the date approaches, I'm finding myself extremely torn between wanting this little guy out of my belly and wanting to get some things done first!

For instance, I want to see The Hunger Games on Saturday.  Please, please don't come before Saturday!  {or on Saturday for that matter.  Especially not during the movie...please}. Otherwise, I'll end up having to watch it on Netflix.

But I also HATE being late.  If my mom is only coming for two weeks, I want to make the most of her time.  We can't be dilly dallying waiting for Trouble to make his grand entrance.

If Trouble knows what's best for him, he'll come right on schedule, just like our little Ro Bear did!

 Something tells me that's not very likely....

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

On the Job

Rowan seems to be trying out all kinds of careers since his birth.  
He's certainly got plenty of aptitudes to choose from.  

Besides being an artist, musical prodigy, chef, diplomat, professional RC car driver, firefighter, and DJ, among other things, he's recently taken an interest in construction management.

"Let's see, according to these blueprints, you're not doing it right. 
Mom and Dad, you need to learn how to read instructions!  Good thing I'm here."

"First you have to make sure it's level."

"Then we can drill!"

Whew!  With Rowan driving this project, I'm sure we'll get finished on schedule....
then again, his crew is kind of a worthless bunch ;)


Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Farm Fresh CSA Delivery!! {and how our dog got us roped into this}

Look what we found on our doorstep this morning!

 Mmmm....fresh

 We've done the CSA thing a couple times.

What's CSA?  Community Supported Agriculture.  Basically, local farmers provide produce weekly, which you pay {generally, a hefty price} to receive a share of.

I always enjoy getting the produce.  It's great to always have veggies {and sometimes fruits} available, and it feel right to support our local farmers. 

The drawback is, you typically end up with a LOT of the likes of kale and Swiss chard, especially towards the end of the season.  I've tried multiple recipes with these greens and never found something that I actually like to eat.  I usually just choke it down because we paid buco-bucks for the stuff!

Whenever people come around with sign-up sheets for these CSAs, we contemplate....and then ultimately decline due to the high $$$ tag and the inevitable kale overload.  So what made this time different?

I'll tell you.

We were enjoying a sunny weekend afternoon.  We had come inside the house to feed Rowan a mid-day snack.  All the doors to our house were open, letting the outdoor air freshen out senses. Buddy was quiet {for a change}, Domino was laying lazily on his bed.  It was about as perfect of a scene as you'll see in our house. But we're not dummies.  The baby gate was up in the front door.  The baby gate is always up if the door is open.  Why?  Well, we have a baby, duh.  And we have a dog.  A dog who likes to go outside.  But he's a {fairly} good dog and he doesn't breech the baby gate....at least not usually....

Out of nowhere, our bliss was suddenly ended when the doorbell rang!  There was no one to be seen, not even a shadow, but Domino was up off his bed and over the gate faster than lightening!  His loud bark piercing the neighborhood's ears.  Roger followed quickly behind, "Domino, get back here!"

But it was too late.  He was gone.  Chasing a young man down our driveway like a Hell Hound on a witch hunt. 

The poor guy was booking it as fast as his legs could take him. {Imagine those cartoons where the body is leaning backwards and the legs are just a circular blur}.

"Don't Run!"  yelled Roger to the hunted.  Good advice, but not taken.  Seriously, who wouldn't run from 80lb's of lean muscle, big teeth, and greyhound legs?

After a split second of madness, Domino returned to the house.  D never followed the young man past our driveway.  When he reached the end of our lot, he turned around and came home, thinking he had done his duty.  Like I said, he is a fairly good dog...or at least he tries to be.


Roger literally threw Domino in the back yard, and ran down the street to see how the young man was fairing.  He found him halfway down the block, sitting on the curb with his head in his hands, still trying to catch his breath.

"You okay?" Roger asked, "I can't tell you how sorry I am.  What are you selling?"


And that's how we ended up with this CSA delivery. 

But hey, at least it wasn't magazines or something lame.  And this one actually delivers!  Last time, we had to go pick up.  Kinda nice when you have a newborn on the way.  Interested in this CSA?  Go here.

After a profuse apology and a plea that it would may be good for everyone, the young man, Sam, agreed to come back to the house and meet Domino, who, this time, greeted him with a sheepish look, wagging nub {he doesn't have a tail}, and plenty of licks in an attempt to say "I'm sorry".  We talked for a while about Sam's past experience with dogs, and we apologized over and over, knowing very well, that he'd be scarred for life thanks to our over-protective dog.

It all ended OK.  Thank goodness.  Obviously with some pros and cons in between.

Of course, this wasn't the finest dog-parent moment.  Nothing to brag about.... But we have to chuckle a little because this was one of many heart-stopping events in Domino's life resume. Events that both test our patience and endear him to us.  If you don't know Domino, before you go thinking we're not suitable dog owners, try to refrain from judging too harshly.  I think we do a pretty good job.  Dom's not vicious, and he's probably better behaved than most household dogs, but he's not an easy dog. He's close to his instincts and always will be. Most people probably would've given up on him a long time ago, {in fact, someone did, and that's how we got him in the first place}. 

Want to see more about Domino and our other crazy animals?  Here ya go!

Now, to figure out what to make with the Swiss chard in our box ;)





  

Monday, March 26, 2012

Pancakes a la Chef Rowan

In the last few months, I discovered how quick and easy it is to make pancakes!

Since I misplaced my mom's recipe {which is still my fave}, I've tried a few different recipes from the internet.  We're not big on the super fluffy pancakes, so so far, our favorite internet recipe is this one.  Only, we skip the butter in the batter {this happened by accident the first time and then we realized they didn't really need it}, and put a little less baking powder in the mix, because I hate that baking powder taste, and because we don't like super fluffy pancakes, remember?  We also use sugar instead of malted milk.  Still, I should just get my mom's recipe again.

This Sunday, Rowan decided he should make the pancakes.


He did a great job!  I must admit, I was a little surprised that he didn't make a mess at all.  He whisked that pancake batter like a pro.  What a chef! 

 No mess!

 looks about ready, Mom!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

COMING SOON: "Built-in" Window Seating

I've always pictured a built-in window seat and bookshelf around our front living room window. 

We thought it should be easy enough to build.  Especially after looking at plans from this website, which I found through Simply Sadie Jane.

While, that does seem easy enough, our time and space in the garage or "woodshop" is very limited. Not to mention that not having a truck makes large amounts of wood material pickup difficult. As we realized that we were never going to get around to a true built-in, we decided we would fake a built-in using some sort of Ikea modular system.

We originally were going to go with the Billy system, and trick it out with our own fancy trim.  But when we got to Ikea, we found the HEMNES system, and felt that the real wood gave it a nicer touch, so even though the measurements were a little off {nothing non-custom quite fits the dimensions of our windows}, we went for it.

We DO have to make some modifications, and they are a little tricky to figure out, so we're taking our time...haha...what don't we take our time with, eh?

Well,  for now, here is a {grainy} photo of the fairly bare window.  I'll post later on the progress and finished result.


Window with one HEMNES bench constructed

Monday, March 19, 2012

Hello, Again

It's been a while.  I pretty much get an "F" in blogging.

A lot has been going on around here and blogging is the last thing on my list of to-dos.  Can you believe that in just a few weeks, we'll have another little baby boy?!!  It doesn't seem real.  And the fact that I've been through it before doesn't give me a whole lot of comfort when I think about the whole labor/delivery process...or breastfeeding...*cringe*

But I am excited to meet "Trouble". Just like with Rowan, we wonder what he'll look like and what his personality will be.  This time is a little different because we can't help but compare to the only thing we've got to judge by, which is the Ro-Bear, himself.  I wonder if they'll look like siblings?

We feel both ready and unprepared at the same time.

Work has been crazy for me.  I'm trying to get a couple projects completed, which is burning into my month of pre-delivery pregnancy leave.  DAMMIT!  But I couldn't in good conscience leave my projects half done on someone else's shoulders.  That said, the 13hr days and restless nights, worrying about my projects are killing me!  I'm so exhausted....so....that's why {well, part of the reason}, not much at home is getting done, and no blogging either :(

Unfortunately, we also have had a few computer issues {not sure if the dog knocking the computer off the couch and breaking the screen counts as a "computer issue" but it ruined one of our computers none the less}. Basically, we have 4 computers, all with different operating systems, saved information, programs, etc. Three of which barely hold a charge, one of those has a shattered screen, and the fourth is hooked up to the tv. This makes finding/posting photos and doing any kind of computer work super inconvenient. I'm ready for ONE decent computer, and sooo wishing we had a Cloud account.

BUT.....I do hope to share a couple house projects soon. 

We're working on a "built-in" bookshelf/bench at the living room window!  We're really happy with how it's going so far! 

Oh yes, and there's still the lawn.  We got some good momentum on it about a month ago, and then my birthday happened....my big 3-0.  {kind of a big deal, right?} Well, I wasn't really in the mood to do anything, including what we had planned, which was to go to the snow.  Just seemed like a hassle, especially with even the remotest posibility that our baby would come early and I'd be giving birth in some strange cabin in Strawberry.

So instead of going to the snow, Rogér brought the snow to me! And he did it all behind my back so that it was a HUGE surprise! Fake snow all over the front "yard"!!

Fun for us, not so great for lawn progress, but we're getting there.

Anyhow, I did manage to scrounge a few photos of the "snow" off my new iPod Touch. So here ya go!

 looks real!
 until you notice the orange tree and snow-free neighbor's lawn
People who drove by were a little dumbfounded ;)
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