all set

I taught my last class of the semester today, graded the finals, and calculated the final grades (which I'll submit on Friday).

So pretty much the baby can come any time now. The sooner the better, in my opinion. I spent the time that my class was taking their finals beginning my menus and shopping lists for the next couple months so that I won't have to worry about planning those post-baby and I can stock up on the majority of the non-perishable or freezable ingredients now. I still have a bit less than two weeks (although probably closer to two and a half), so I think we'll have a looooot of free time to accomplish things like that, although I'm definitely working on the "exercise to bring on labor" thing (I was hoping for some good contractions while mowing the lawn last night after swimming for an hour and going to the gym in the morning, but nada).

Speaking of mowing the lawn, last night Neil was edging around the fence and I was mowing in the back yard while Abigail roamed around (thank goodness for that fence!) eating popsicles and pushing herself back and forth over the lawn in her car. I was checking on her every other pass with the lawnmower, and at one point I couldn't find her right away, started to panic, then realized she'd gone into the garden and was STUFFING her cheeks with all the cherry tomatoes that showed even the faintest hint of color. I stopped the mower, went over to her (wanting to claim some for myself), and she proudly said through a mouthful of tomatoes "Look, Mommy! Baby to-may-tows ready!" She's so fun...I love hearing her talk. Tonight she solemnly informed me she was hungry for "awfuls" (waffles) for dinner.

Elliptical love

So everyone keeps asking me if I'm ready "for another one." And while I really don't know if I am or not, here's one thing I am not ready for: giving up the elliptical and weight machines for 4-6 weeks (I know, they tell you to wait 6 weeks, but I started exercising again at 4 last time).

So here is my prayer for today: that I will have a nice easy labor and be able to start going on walks again within a week or two and working out within 2-3 weeks, because let's face it folks, I don't think I can get by without the early-morning endorphins and Ensign-reading time for that long. It's what makes my days start out right, and we (by which I mean Abigail and I) have learned that a happy Mommy is one who got too little sleep but had a chance to work out, and a grumpy Mommy is one who lay in bed until the last possible minute. In other words, we have MWF Nice Mommy and T/TH Let's Make It Through the Day Mommy.

Daddy the outlaw

Like many fathers, I imagine, Neil likes to point out the impossibility or silliness of certain things: the likelihood that Little Red Riding Hood would get away from the wolf, Cinderella's general moaning and groaning about how maltreated she is without doing anything about it, the foolhardiness of Piglet giving up his house to Owl when Owl's house was destroyed and thereby leaving Piglet homeless, etc. Abigail has apparently been listening to these with growing understanding and disdain.

This morning on the way to church Abigail asked to sing the "birdie song." I began singing "The bright sun comes up! The dew dries away! Good morning, good morning, the little birds say!" while Neil sang "The big gun comes up! The birds fly away! The ones that remain get their heads blown away!"

Suddenly we heard a little voice say from the backseat "Daddy, NO SINGING! NO SINGING!" and for the rest of the drive to church, whenever Neil opened his mouth to sing with us, he was immediately met with a screeched "NO SINGING DADDY!"

I guess she told him.

I can tell I've been busy this week when I see this scruffy man who so sorely needs a haircut. But he doesn't complain--he just keeps cutting up peaches!

All done: our jam, bottled peaches, and hot pepper relish

very stupid thing of the day: cutting 15 jalapenos without wearing gloves.

My hands are on fire...eek. Fortunately a combination of aloe vera burn relief (which happens to be laced with lidocaine), ice water, rubbing alcohol, and Vaseline seems to be at least taking the pain down to a bearable level.

Today has been the stuff of which lovely Saturdays are made. We went for a brisk 2.5 mile walk at 7:30 this morning while it was lovely and cool and foggy to work up our appetites, then came home and had whole-wheat crepes with fresh peaches for breakfast. Then we picked beans and applied fertilizer and pesticides to the garden and with our "work" done, took off for the recreation center on campus. Neil and Abigail went straight to the pool while I hit the weight room; after I finished I joined them and the three of us spent a happy hour and a half or so splashing around in the dive pool, which allows children (kind of paradoxical since it's seventeen feet deep, but it was fun). Abigail really took off today--she was wearing the required flotation device, which was sort of like a foam backpack, and she was literally swimming by herself--she would jump in from the diving platform into Neil's arms, then let go and take off swimming the five or ten feet to the side of the pool (trailed very closely by two nervous parents), climb out by herself, and go repeat the whole process. She also was really fascinated by Neil's diving, and by the end of today was very carefully lining her toes up on the edge of the pool, clasping her hands together over her head, and crouching down, and learning forward as she jumped. Pretty cool. We were quite impressed by how coordinated her hands and arms were when she was "swimming"--I guess she's been paying a lot of attention when we've been showing her the movements in the pool lately, and having the little back-floating thing made it so she could actually take off and move independently.

When we finished up at the pool, we all rested for a couple of hours, then we canned all the peaches we got yesterday (although sadly we only got 11 quarts, since the price has really skyrocketed since last year due to the late frost, so we ended up canning less than we did last year. Hopefully apples will be cheaper later on this fall and we can just make extra applesauce). And then we had the brilliant idea of making hot pepper relish with the multitude of jalapenos and bell peppers from the garden--which better be good considering the chemical burn price I foolishly paid.

And speaking of preserving foods, here's a great website somebody sent me earlier on freezing, canning, etc: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/freeze.html (and Rachel, it basically says the same thing about zucchini as I wrote in my email, so hopefully that worked effectively for you, since this doesn't have any other tips!)

happy birthday to me!

today was a lovely birthday. neil gave me 35 pounds of peaches and two hours of jam-making time (and more tomorrow to can the remaining 25 lbs, as 10 lbs were immediately turned into jam). we also went to the awesome Kitchen Art store and browsed for a new skillet (which will ultimately be my grandparents' gift to me, as they gave me some $$ to treat myself. surprise! thank you!) we are still debating which one we want, but it was quite fun to look and debate the relative merits without abigail running around, because yay! some of our friends watched her tonight.

i was treated to lots of loving phone calls today (unfortunately i was gone most of the day and missed all of the ones but the ones which came after 9 pm at night!) and a general feeling of happiness that people were thinking about me. mary beth also posted this totally sweet and very touching blog post about me, and i got a barnes and noble gift card from my aunt and uncle that i am planning to spend on broadway musical soundtracks (abigail LOVES "dansing" to any type of musical, so we have good times together).

and i got my new stroller wheels! yay! so i feel very blessed today.

and perhaps the most wonderful present of all that i could give to myself: i finished all my grading. DONE. Finis! i am basically free for the semester--all i have to do is grade the final assessments, which typically takes me less than an hour, since i don't have to write comments. yay! soon my family will be fed again and restored to the order and schedule to which they are habituated (as opposed to the whirling dervish storm that overtakes our house when it's grading time. things are really only clean at night. and we eat enticing things like frozen pizza).

neil said something today that made me feel very validated as a teacher--i was commenting on how i've been really impressed by all the questions my students have been asking at the conclusion of each other's oral presentations (which we've been running for the last week in class), and since i've been keeping track (i give them credit for asking questions), i told him that they'd asked over 70 questions during the course of 16 presentations thus far--and he said, "well, that shows that you've created a very successful classroom environment where they feel comfortable speaking up and commenting."

now i don't know if that's the case or if it's because they know they'll eventually get credit for asking questions (albeit somewhat limited credit), but it was nice to think that perhaps it IS a class where everyone feels relatively secure and safe and isn't afraid to speak out, since that's one of my main goals as a teacher.

as an amendation to my earlier post, let me say that i am completely worn out by this day and am far from feeling very productive. instead i mostly think "where did the day go today? i never once got a chance to sit down" and i mostly just wish i were going to bed, but i still have to clean the bathrooms (put off to process all of the produce we were blessed/cursed with from our garden tonight). oh well. at least i have lots more freezer bags full of beans, squash, and zucchini, and a healthy stash of peppers awaiting their turn under the broiler to be made into tasty roasted peppers.

note to self for future reference: the woman neil married who could accomplish a lot was also not eight and a half months pregnant with a two-year-old in tow. there. now i feel better. :-)

pictures!

Neil, Dad, Abigail, and Rosalind feeding the fish


A little blurry, but is this not the cutest picture ever? Abigail whole-heartedly adores this man (my amazing dad!)

Rosalind holding Abigail up to see the fish

Working a "peezul" with her grandpa

My birthday dinner, courtesy of Mom and Rosalind, who made all our dinner as part of a Personal Progress goal. Doesn't that trifle look mouth-watering?

**Notice my apron--I am categorically unable to avoid spilling on myself once I pass about the fifth month of pregnancy!

ponderings

Last night Neil asked me "What are some qualities that you've discovered in me that you didn't know about when we were married that you would have married me for if you'd known about them?"

It took me a few minutes to figure out what he was saying, and then I made some off-handed remark, but we returned to the conversation later on that night while brushing our teeth (so it was punctuated with lots of gargling and other pleasant things).

But what I think Neil said (through a mouthful of toothpaste) in response to my turning the question back on him was that he really loved how I charge ahead and "get things done." To which I responded "I thought that drove you crazy!" and he replied, "Well, it does, but that's because I don't plan and do things like you and I'm lazy, so I like that you're not."

I reflected bemusedly over the fact that the man who's been known to study 16 hours solid thinks he's lazy, but was quite touched by the fact that he appreciates my love-notes-in-the-form-of-to-do-lists-mania. It was a pick-me-up that I definitely needed, since I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately, but his comment gave me the motivation to charge ahead today and do the following (none of which I particularly wanted to do):

• get up at 5:45 to go to the gym
• return from the gym and make hot biscuits for breakfast
• grade papers for an hour before getting Abigail up
• be cheerful about Abigail's picky-eater-in-the-morning-ness
• go to campus and teach my class
• write commentary and critiques justifying grades for 8 oral presentations
• run errands for somebody else
• vacuum the house
• write thank-you notes
• return phone calls and emails (massive backlog from being on vacation)
• call and order new stroller wheels for the double stroller
• grade some more papers

And after I finish this post, I will go finish my grading for today (bringing the total up to 8 for today and 22 for the last 24 hours, meaning I have only 16 left to grade), clean the bathrooms, and dust. And hopefully it will be warm enough tonight for us to finally go to the local water park! (and then we can come home and pick beans and water all our plants. yippee skippee!)

So thank you, Neil, because when that alarm went off at 5:45 this morning it was your faith in me that got me out of bed. Honest. That's the only reason why I didn't turn it off and return to bed to reclaim my pillows, you pillow thief you.

weekend

I feel like i should post just to let people know I haven't disappeared into the ether, but I'm a quarter of the way through my grading (which means I've graded 8 papers this afternoon, eek!) so it won't be long since i don't really want to lose my momentum.

This weekend was really fun (in spite of the 58 degree water of Lake Michigan, so sadly we did NOT go swimming). We were able to enjoy lots of fun time just talking and hanging out with family, although it was somewhat curtailed by the three copies of Harry Potter that Mom and I picked up at Sam's Club on Saturday (I finished on Saturday, Elise and Rosalind finished on Sunday, and I read the last 130 pages to Neil on our way home on Monday). As a sidenote, I'm sure grateful for the lack of TV growing up--it meant that I read fast enough that it only took me 5 hours to read the book, so I was able to do the majority of my reading between 11 pm and 2 am when everyone else was asleep. Neil and I also saw the 5th movie on Saturday while Abigail napped at home, so it was a Potter-ful weekend. It's funny to realize that the next time I see my family we'll have another little baby in tow! Crazy!

But we also got to enjoy a lovely lunch with my grandparents on Monday and I got some really fun birthday presents from my fabulous family on Sunday. I honestly forgot it was going to be my birthday the next week when we originally made plans to go up--I just wanted a weekend away from all our responsibilities here!!--but my wonderful family remembered and showered me with thoughtful gifts and a steak dinner complete with trifle for dessert. What lovely people.

I'll try to post some pictures later...I think I may have a few.

baby shower

not much post tonight--tired! I just got home from a frozen dinner baby shower my awesome amazing visiting teachers threw for me--I love those two. They are fabulous! Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and now we have some goodies to look forward to stashed away in our freezer for those crazy hectic post-baby days.

and now i have to go pack for our trip to MI tomorrow! Yay! a weekend of beach and family and yummy good times. abigail is ecstatic.

hero awards

the hero awards today go to...

• the highly recommended very-in-demand pediatrician who graciously responded to my pleading letter by calling up and telling me she would be willing to add Abigail to her (already full!) panel of patients.
• neil, for taking one look at me when he came home and sending me to our room to lie down for half an hour while he took charge of the little screamer and saved the sanity of both of the girls in his life

Potter Mania

If you want to know the details of the ten million pound operation to keep Book 7 a secret until Saturday, check out this article:



http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/International__Business/10-mn_pound_security_to_shield_Potter_secret/articleshow/msid-2206188,curpg-1.cms



Amazing. I especially like the trucks fitted out with satellite tracking systems and alarms on the sealed pallets.

good things

Ah, blueberries. It just doesn't get any better. Although I think Abigail's digestive system may be a roller coaster ride over the next few days (just in time for us to go to Michigan!) Favorite moment of the night: Abigail grabbing Neil's hair and jaw to force his mouth open so she could feed him (unripe) blueberries. She did really well at identifying all the ones that were "ready," but she thought it was funny to try to palm the green ones off on us.

Despite unseasonal frosts and droughts, there was still a moderately decent crop of blueberries at our preferred blueberry farm (about four miles from our house), so we spent a fun evening there tonight. We struck up a conversation with the woman picking next to us and I ended up inviting her to our mother's group/playgroup thing for Enrichment, so I'm really hoping she'll call me about it--she sounded very enthusiastic. I'm sad to say it took me quite awhile to work up the nerve to ask her (I actually went back and talked to her after we'd already said goodbye and left), so I was grateful for the mini missionary opportunity, because I can be a lot better about those kinds of things, and it was a good faith-promoting type of thing to see how eagerly she responded and that she wasn't at all put off when she found out it was a bunch of Mormon women. I think too often I don't want to offend someone or make them feel uncomfortable and so I hold back when I shouldn't, and I'm really grateful that this was so positive--good encouragement for the future.

This doesn't really fit in the train of thought, but it was so cute that I have to write it down: my visiting teachers (who are absolutely the most fabulous women ever, btw) came by this afternoon while Abigail was napping. About half an hour into our very animated discussion of what we think will happen in book seven of Harry Potter, I heard an excited little voice say from Abigail's room: "Oh! Mommy! Friends here!" She had a good time playing for the rest of the afternoon with Ashby, who is about a year younger than her but is absolutely ADORED by Abigail (their older girls were all at an art class). When they left, she said sadly, "Bye, my little friend Ab-shee." Too darling.

In other news, the pesto turned out (I thought) really well tonight, so here's the recipe! One thing I like about this is it doesn't call for an enormously huge quantity of basil, so it's a little more feasible/affordable (to get the 2 cups of basil that most other recipes call for, I would have to uproot my fairly substantial plant).

Dried Tomato Pesto

3/4 c. packed sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil)

1/2 c. olive oil

1/4 c. pine nuts or slivered almonds

1/4 c. snipped fresh basil

1/2 t. salt

8 cloves garlic, chopped

Drain tomatoes of oil, reserve oil. Add enough olive oil to reserved oil to make 1/2 c. Process tomatoes, nuts, basil, salt, and garlic in food processor until finely chopped, then (with machine running) gradually add 1/2 c. oil, processing until almost smooth.

Chill (up to 2 days) or freeze (up to 3 months) unused portions; makes about 1 1/2 c.

A little of this goes a looong way!

happy rainy day

This morning around 5 I woke up to hear thunder crashing outside. I had a very mixed reaction to this, namely the following:

1) No! We spent a total of four hours watering things yesterday!
2) Yay! Free water! And we have an excuse to not leave the house today!

So today has been lovely thus far. I'd already canceled my class to give my students an extra work day before their enormous term paper is due tomorrow, so Abigail and I have had the most relaxing day we've had in weeks. We've all been so busy and stressed lately that today was our day to just stay at home and enjoy being with each other.

Abigail came in around 8 and we spent the next hour "cuddling in Mommy bed" while I rubbed her back and read books (although I did drift in and out of sleep). Then we had a leisurely breakfast of oatmeal with dried apples, started a batch of French bread, vacuumed and dusted, folded laundry, and snuggled down on the couch together with some more books. We played with her toys for awhile (I love how she is so careful about returning everything to its exact assigned spot when she's done with it--and the fact that she insists on calling her little plastic farmer Joseph Smith) and then actually had the time to prepare/eat a lunch that didn't consist of leftovers or PBJs. Instead, we ate Abigail's choices: zucchini, pears, zucchini bread, and French bread. Yum. (And Abigail apologized to the dishwasher when I accidentally bumped it with her high chair: "Oops! Sorry, dishes!")

I hope the rain stops tonight so we can go blueberry picking, but even if it doesn't I'm really looking forward to our yummy dinner--I made some dried tomato pesto yesterday that I am SUPER excited to try. If it's as good as it smells, I'll post the recipe.

a journaling post

I once read a Chicken Soup for the Soul chapter/section that had a list of all these places that someone had wanted to visit. I think the guy made the list when he was pretty young, and then it had stars next to all the places he'd actually visited. Now for me, I don't know if it's so much places I want to visit as things I want to accomplish, but I've been keeping a running list for some time now, and I decided to post it on here. So here goes!

• Run a race (I don’t really care if it’s a 5K or a full marathon).
• Ski Aspen.
• Ride a donkey down into the Grand Canyon
• Whitewater raft the Colorado
• Build sandcastles on every sea coast that I can (so far I've got two: the Atlantic and the Irish Sea)
• Visit the Philippines
• Cruise the Aegean and find out if it really IS “wine-dark”
• Become a certified financial planner
• Acquire education to the point where I don’t feel pretentious when someone calls me “Professor Bailey”
• Attend the temple sealings of all of my children
• Learn to recognize common trees, flowers, and shrubs by their leaves/flowers rather than the little card in their pot at the nursery
• Publish something other than a scholarly article
• Teach fitness classes at a health club
• Visit all the national parks
• Hike Mt. Timpanogos
• Go backcountry camping (the kind where you have to get a permit)
• Learn how to do things to cars other than change the oil/tires, like oh, overhauling an engine or something like that
• Fly a plane
• Become a decent tennis player
• See the revival of one of my favorite musicals on Broadway
• Take yoga/pilates classes
• Teach my kids to read
• Bike the Kal-Haven trail
• Train for an athletic event
• Make my own cheese (once)
• Hike through Snowden with Neil--preferably, spend a week backpacking through Wales
• See the Parthenon, St. Peter's Basilica, Versailles, Venice (preferably in winter--maybe it wouldn't smell as bad?)
• hike through the Lake Country
• buy a grandfather clock from a shop in the Black Forest
• Design landscaping--not just flowerbeds--for my entire yard
• Take classes in photography, pottery, and wood-working
• Become a moderately competent seamstress
• Enroll in a cooking course at a chef school, preferably a vacation-type one where Neil could come too
• Ride an elephant

How 'bout you? What's on your list?

rejoicing

Three silly things about which I am very excited:

• I did not gain any weight this week
• I still don't have stretch marks
• I have "progressed" more in the last week than in the first six hours of labor with Abigail. This is something for which I am so incredibly grateful that I can't even describe it.

See...going to the doctor CAN be a good thing. On occasion.

and the words bit

For some reason Blogger is only showing me the html coding for the pictures, and I'm not tech-savvy enough to want to mess around with it and try to put labels under each picture. Hence the two seperate posts.

We had a lovely weekend--as you can see from the pictures, we spent most of it in "garden clothes," aka the clothes wherein we can dig in the dirt and eat popsicles without having to use an entire bottle of Spray 'n Wash. Neil spent a couple hours with the Elders' Quorum on Saturday working on a service project, and then when we got home we hit the yardwork, so to speak. Neil, our Hero Yard Man, attacked the dirt pile that has been languishing by the patio for a month or so and finished filling in all the low spots around the fence and house. Then he spent some time cutting the last lingering bits of sod off the sidewalk, which he then used to patch up the grass killed by the dirt pile. Meanwhile, I picked four rows of beans (eek! They are growing like crazy!) and then Neil used our brand spankin' new electric trimmer to demolish the stealthy tall grass sprouting around the fence while Abigail and I snapped all the beans, blanched them, and packed them away in freezer bags for soups this winter. Abigail was quite the little helper--she worked diligently to snap beans (and was quite successful at the rate of about one every two minutes) and then decided she would rather carry all the snapped ends from my beans over to the grass and dump them there (we were sitting on the patio in the backyard). Amazingly, her attention span lasted through the entire huge bowl of beans. I was quite impressed.

We finished up our yard time by watering our back yard and our friends' garden/flowers, then enjoyed a few bowls of shaved ice or "snow," as Abigail calls it, with a hearty and oh-so-healthy lunch of zucchini bread. After Abigail's nap, we packed up a picnic dinner and headed to one of the nearby parks for a hike. We wish it would rain more, but at the same time we're sure enjoying the comparatively cool non-muggy weather (although it would be really nice not to have to go move sprinklers once every hour to prevent the utter crisping of our lawn).

Sunday was lovely and relaxing as well (after we got home from church, since Neil and I subbed in nursery after teaching our regular Sunday School class). We took a long walk together after dinner and then had a festive time with popsicles and sidewalk chalk and read scriptures together before putting Abigail to bed. And now Neil and I are both excitedly ready to dive back into Naomi Novik's Her Majesty's Dragon and Throne of Jade respectively. Thanks, MB, for the recommendation--we're both loving them!

thousands of words

a whole new way to make money

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ever wondered how much your dead body is worth? kind of macabre, but somehow interesting as well!

Neil is worth more than me. Maybe it's his height and perfect vision.

things

Abigail's first words to me today were the following:

"Good norning, Mommy! I a good syeeps!"

I wish I could somehow encapsulate the cuteness of her speech, but I can't. It's priceless though, and so much fun to hear her say new words every day. I've noticed that when she's with Neil and I she spends most of her time asking what things are, so we don't get the full benefit of hearing everything strung together in long sentences or stories, so I have to eavesdrop on her talking with her friends or her toys to really understand how much her vocabulary is expanding. One thing that Neil and I have both marveled at is her grasp of grammar and syntax--she still makes lots of mistakes, as do we all, but she'll say something, realize she said it improperly, and say it again the right way. She does this a lot with plurals, i.e. "Look-a the lotsa yiddle bird--no--birdies!" It's fun to listen to. It's also endearing to hear her pluralize those non-pluralized things, i.e. this morning at breakfast while she watched the butter melt into her French toast she looked up wide-eyed and said "Mommy! Where the little butters go?! They go in here right here in toast? Where the butters go?"

I'm grateful to have the opportunity to be a mother to this little kiddo--she is so much fun. When I was at the gym on Wednesday morning I overheard a couple of guys discussing their classes, and realized from the conversation that they were in American lit (which was my emphasis for my M.A. program). It was sort of odd to realize as I was walking out that I felt absolutely no envy or regret for the fact that I'd graduated and wasn't currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program; instead, I was planning ahead for the activities that Abigail and I would do that day as soon as I finished teaching. It's daunting on some days to be home with her alone all day, but the other days (probably half and half) it's sure a lot of fun. And what other jobs offer the naptime perks? Honestly. It's like...lying down on the job. Doesn't get much better than that.

I'm also really grateful for my own mother. Yay, Mom! I call all the time and it always means a lot to me that she never puts me off or is audibly bored by what I'm saying, even though most of it is probably pretty repetitive a lot of times. Instead, she gives me the same attention and care she gives to my other four sisters, and it's clear from her comments and suggestions that she's actively considering my problems and questions and thinking about how best to resolve them. It's good to have her back from vacation--I nearly burst from all my stored-up "I need to call Mom and ask about ____" things. And plus, she found me a double stroller at a garage sale this morning! Hurray! How cool is that?!

And on an entirely unrelated note, I was really intrigued/thought-provoked by this post on Emily Anne's blog this morning. Check it out. What do you think?

clarification: today really wasn't TOO awful. no major catastophes or big crises, just a lot of little things that sort of piled up, and a lot of things I've been putting off stressing about that I decided I needed to start researching/worrying about again (like insurance, new budget for when I'm not working, fellowships, etc.).

today i am very grateful for an understanding husband who comes home and makes things better. and i am grateful for the chance we had to take a walk as a family over to water our friends' garden. and i am extra super grateful to my friend kathleen for bringing her daughter mia over and keeping abigail occupied this afternoon while i had a chance to relax and just talk with kathleen and not worry about entertaining a grumpy two-year-old!

i deleted the post i wrote earlier because it was too whiny.

the end.

summer eats

First of all...a most heartfelt thank-you to Neil. I know I am truly loved when I find that he has splurged on my favorite cheese, which I have been craving for WEEKS. I am going to be sad when I start doing the grocery shopping again...it's always fun to see what little treats he's bought us.

And next, can I just say I L-O-V-E food in the summer? Everything is so much yummier when it hasn't been shipped over various continents for several days or weeks.

Today for lunch Abigail and I had steamed squash from the garden, as much cantaloupe as we could hold, home-made French bread, and cheddar cheese. It just doesn't get any better than that. And last night I froze three quart-size bags full of green beans from the garden--veggie soup this winter! Hurrah!

When I put Abigail down for her nap today, she threw her arms around my neck and said "I tiss yo mouf!" Adorable. I love that kid.

And if you haven't cast your "vote" yet on baby names, please do so and scroll down! We need some serious tie-breakers, and if you don't normally comment, please rest assured that you don't need a Blogger account to comment and I would love to hear from you, both now and all the time! I have the "comments" function set up so that it sends it directly to my email, so I will always be assured of seeing what you have to say!

ok, i need votes: which spelling do you like better?

Juliet
or
Juliette

?

We are planning to name her Juliet/Juliette Elizabeth.

I suggested flipping a coin last night, as Neil and I are each adamant proponents of a different spelling (but I won't tell you who likes which one. Only that one of us thinks that "Juliet" is easily confused with "toilet," and the other one thinks that "Juliette" looks much more like "toilette" than "Juliet" does like "toilet." One of us is also concerned about the proximity of the double "e" in Juliette Elizabeth).

walking with abigail

Today Abigail and I went to the library after I finished teaching--she absolutely adores the puzzles and requests fervently that we stop there whenever possible so we can work our way through their stash. Anyway, I was flipping through a parenting book while I waited for her to finish selecting the puzzles she wanted to do today, and I came across one entry that really made me think.

It was talking about dealing with the frustration of having a toddler who is verrrry slow at doing everything, and strategies for coping with such frustrations. I thought there were some really good tips in there, but the best one, I thought, was simply realizing that such slowness is a part of having a small person who is just seeing everything for the first time.

I'll be the first to admit that Abigail's slowness about some things is often frustrating for me--breakfast is my Waterloo, especially when she decides to name all the foods on her plate (not with their actual names, but with names she makes up). Or when she tells me a story like the one she told at dinner last night when her fork fell to the floor, which went something like "Uh-oh! Fork fell off plate to floor! Mommy fell off chair to floor. Toes fell off feet. Abigail fell off table. Flowers fell off plants. Fork fell off plate to floor." ??

But I also really treasure her slowness, because it makes me see things in a much more appreciative light and notice all the tiny little things that I would ignore as I speed-walk on by. For instance, every day that we park at the library and walk the three blocks to my office on campus. It takes us about ten or fifteen minutes, and I truly cherish those ten minutes, because we have our little routine of "fun things"--we say good-bye to the parking garage, stop to check on the construction on the corner, say good-morning to the flowers in front of Einstein Bagels and hello to the people eating their breakfasts on the patio. Then we meander slowly across the liquor store parking lot (classy, I know) and stop to jump off the "hump" off the handicapped ramp, carefully examine the handicapped signs and talk about being nice to people "whose yegs dey hurt, we open doors," mosey along to the edge of the parking lot and express our joy that the trees are still there, just like yesterday. Next we cross the street "weelly fast, Mommy! Cars on street!" to the firehouse, walk along past a fraternity house and stop to look at the Kappa Alpha Sigma signs embedded in the sidewalk ("Look, Mommy! Letters!"), walk past the "yiddle trees wif birdies, Mommy! Dey sing songs!" step "keewfuly, Mommy" over the broken places in the sidewalk, cross the street again to campus, and spend several fascinated minutes peering down into the basement windows of the Union Club Hotel at the people folding sheets and towels. Abigail waves good-morning to the "wandwy" workers and we cross the plaza to the humanities building, where we count the stairs up to my classroom ("one, two, four, five, one, two, four, five, one, two, four, five") and meet Neil. On the way back, we walk on the other side of the street where there are even more letters in the sidewalk, which we jump up and down on while we say the letters, then we carefully walk on the "baby sidewalk" (Abigail's term for the smaller cement slabs cut to fit) and run down the swirly ramp into the library, where Abigail gleefully exclaims "liberry, Mommy! Les do peezzles!" And so we do.

I love seeing how interested she is in everything around her, and how she loves to see familiar things and people and places. I get just as excited as she does when she recognizes the library or the grocery store or one of her friends, because I'm totally awestruck by watching her little mind unfold. It never ceases to amaze me as I watch her developing into this entire little person and realize what a miracle children truly are, and it really deepens my testimony and faith in God as I marvel about how perfectly the human body and mind grow and develop.

And speaking of development, Abigail is now firmly convinced that she can spell her own name. If only Mommy and Daddy had realized that it was spelled "A, b, i, j, m, s, t, z, y, s, t, m, y, s, t, a, l!"

confession: i love reading martha stewart living, but it always depresses me for at least 24 hours afterward. it's not the foodie bits, which i love, and generally try at least one or two of the recipes, nor the "good things" section, which i also love...it's all the decorating and gardening and collecting things bits. so many things i want to try, so little (wait, make that no) money to do it with. sadly, i have no home in the hamptons complete with linen press or home in maine complete with map room.

i do, however, have a home. and that is a good thing. and it has a laundry room, which is a wonderful thing. so so grateful not be doing the walk-to-coin-op-laundry thing anymore. and i have a big luxurious tub in my bathroom, and neil and i have our very own bathroom that we don't have to share with abigail, and when guests come there are two whole bathrooms so that everyone can get a shower without the process taking three hours as we all wait our turn. my kitchen may not have marble countertops, as martha recommended to someone in the august edition, but it does have enough space that i have plenty of room to cook and i can still fit in my hutch and abigail's fisher price snack/play-doh/crayon table. i don't have picture windows with gorgeous flowing drapes in my living room, but i have a vaulted ceiling and a fireplace (and windows). and i don't have the most beautiful landscaping in the world, but i have a yard for which i can plan landscaping over the next few years, which is much more fun than just upkeeping something that someone else planted. and most gloriously of all, i have a home that is comfortable, spacious, and aesthetically pleasing, but is not so "finished" that there is nothing else i can do to it to personalize it and make it my own. no, my friends, many late nights laughing and painting and sanding and sealing lie ahead with my dear husband as we ravenously devour sour cream and cheddar chips and jelly beans to keep us going. and really, where would the fun be in a perfect house? all i would be able to do is clean it.

so there's your daily dose of roundabout optimism as inspired by martha stewart.

i'm not sure if some days really are "bad days" or if it's just my perspective on them that makes them seem that way.

troubling fact of the day: after this baby is born, it will cost us 14% of our pre-tax income to insure our family via the university's graduate staff insurance.

so...does anybody have any recommendations about good independent health plans? your advice would be greatly greatly greatly appreciated. we're not concerned about maternity coverage at this point, and Neil's insurance is mostly paid for, so it would be just the girls and I. I know there are some great plans out there, I just don't even know where to start looking...so if you've shopped around and found one that you like, please let me know.

reassuring fact of the day: i was told at my doctor's appointment this morning that they will not let me go past 41 weeks. this is fabulous, since i essentially had to plead with my doctor in utah to induce me before 42 weeks, which was when he felt would be the appropriate time. here, however, they reason that if you go very long, you end up with an enormous baby and a nasty delivery. i'll spare you the gory details, but that's exactly what happened with abigail--third-degree tearing, forceps delivery, and a 24-hour labor. unpleasantness that i would quite like to avoid this time around. so hurrah! it sounds as if this baby will actually be born around her due date. this is a cause for much rejoicing.

and lovely picture of the day: jen's fabulous engagement ring, which you can see here. congratulations, woman!

This is what happens when we tell her to smile for the camera.

When my mom met Neil after we were engaged, she took him on a little walk around the block to get to know him a bit better. A few months ago, Neil and I happened to be discussing this, and he mentioned that one of the things my mom had said was that while he had had the opportunity to go on a mission and mature a bit more, I was still going to have a lot of growing up to do and he'd need to not only be aware of that, but allow me to do so without getting too frustrated by the fact (I'd just turned nineteen about a month before Neil and I met).

If you know my husband, and especially if you know what I was like before I was married versus what I'm like now, you'll know that he's an absolute paragon of patience who has really taken this to heart. He still restrains himself frequently and lets me plunge ahead with something I'm firmly convinced I want/need to do (although I certainly benefit from his wise counsel as well!) Anyway, case in point:

When we were planting our garden this year, I was convinced that we needed lots of zucchini and squash. Six plants each, to be precise. I reasoned that we all loved it, especially Abigail, it would be "free veggies," and we could puree it and freeze it in cubes to feed the baby. Neil raised his eyebrows and said "That's a lot of zucchini and squash," but gave in to my pleas.

This is what our vegetable basket looks like after we came in from the garden this morning, and he did not say "I told you so." Keep in mind that we have been eating zucchini and squash for lunch and dinner already every day this week (and we picked more this evening). As you can tell, the garden is flourishing. Last night (in addition to zucchini) we had a salad made with lettuce and tomatoes (well, one tomato) from our garden--so fun to be eating produce that we grew!

I need to wrap this up, since I promised Neil I would be done with this by the time he finished prepping our lesson for tomorrow, but here's a quick recap of our very fun and relaxing weekend thus far.

Yesterday we kidnapped Neil from work two hours early and the three of us went to the pool. Very very fun. Abigail surprised us both by clasping her hands together above her head (as if she were going to dive) every time she jumped in. She's really good at blowing bubbles and kicking her feet when we help her to "swim," and she's learning to move her arms in tandem with her legs and hold her breath when she goes underwater. She likes to order us around and tell us what water creatures we're supposed to be (yesterday Neil was a whale and she was a barnacle. I was a turtle). Then last night I went to a "pregnant girls getaway" that one of my friends hosted while Neil played video games with Tyler (Elise and Abigail had a sort of sleepover, since Andrea went to the same party). We got home about one a.m. completely worn out, but it was fun.

This morning we picked beans, zucchini, and squash, then Neil spread fertilizer on the lawn while I did some weeding and watering. Then we had a yummy breakfast of whole-wheat blueberry pancakes and blueberry/strawberry/banana smoothies and went to the farmer's market downtown. We loaded up on peaches and cantaloupe, then we went to the library's enormous book sale and managed to score 22 books for Abigail and 17 for us for a grand total of 27.50. Hurray for library sales!

This afternoon we went to see the movie that Abigail has fallen in love with via the trailers (which she watches as an incentive to behave while we clip her fingernails): Ratatouille. If you haven't seen it yet, it was really fun--I doubt you'll be disappointed. Not quite as winning as Finding Nemo, but still a really cute show, and the animation is absolutely out of this world. Totally unbelievable--right down to the variegated colors in the slates on the roofs. Be sure you go early so you don't miss the short before the actual film! Classic Pixar. All three of us loved it (although Abigail was quite distressed when the main character got seperated from his family. She kept repeating "Mouse, go find daddy!" much to the amusement of all the people around us. Fortunately a reunion took place shortly thereafter).

because i have free time...

so I am being completely indulgent in my joy over finishing this project several days early. and because i LOVE answering them (although i don't know if anyone actually likes reading them, although i found Mary Beth's, from whom i stole this, quite entertaining), here is my 80-question thingie. and i don't know how to hide it, so if you don't want to read it, just keep scrollin' down for today's "real" post.



1. What curse word do you use the most?
Um...I don't swear. But I do use the "Mormon versions" more than I wish I did.

2. Do you own an iPod?
No. I don't have a cell phone either. Can you say grad students?

3. What person on your flist do you talk to the most?
What's an flist? Is that some livejournal thing?

4. What time is your alarm clock set to?
6:08 am. Exactly how long I need to get dressed, put in my contacts, brush my teeth, pull my hair up, and drive to Andrea's.

5. Do you still remember the first person you kissed?
No, rumour has it that it was when I was 3 and my mom found me playing Sleeping Beauty on the stage at church with one of the little boys when I should have been in Primary. I don't even know how I knew about Sleeping Beauty--we didn't have a TV and I don't remember having the storybooks until several years later. Osmosis, perhaps?

6. Do you remember where you were on 11/9/01?
Yes. I was a freshman in college and I was brushing my teeth and my friend Bob called and told me to turn on the TV and I just stood there and cried while I watched the plane hit the second tower. I remember clearly that I didn't even spit out the toothpaste.

7. Would you rather take the picture or be in the picture?
Um...it depends. I take a lot of pictures of Abigail and Neil, but I really wish I was in more of them, since it looks like I was the absentee mother when we flip through albums.

8. What was the last movie you watched?
About two minutes of Cinderella.

9. Do any of your friends have children?
Are you kidding me? They outnumber thems what's got no kids.

10. Has anyone ever called you lazy?
Um--more of the exact opposite. And it's not always meant as a compliment!

11. Do you ever take medication to help you fall asleep?
No. I did a couple of times freshman year during finals week, but it always gave me nightmares, so it didn't seem worth the tradeoff.

12. What cd is currently in your cd player?
Gershwin, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and a Billy Joel mix. And there's a jazz CD in the car.

13. Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk?
The BYU Creamery's chocolate milk is pretty much the greatest thing ever, but I generally opt for skim.

14. Has anyone told you a secret this week?
Um...Abigail told me "Daddy walked in road no-no." Does that count?

15. When was the last time you had Starbucks?
Not a coffee drinker, obviously, but it does start to smell pretty tempting on long layovers in the middle of the night. Can you just eat the sprinkles and whipped cream?

16. Can you whistle?
You betcha.

17. What is the first thing you notice about the opposite sex?
Legs, oddly enough. Which is probably why I married a man who's 6'5". To tell you the truth, it was when he stood up in class that I started thinking about how to get him to ask me out.

18. What are you looking forward to?
I have a girls' night party tonight and then it's the WEEKEND and I will have my HUSBAND around! And the farmer's market is tomorrow morning.

19. Did you watch cartoons as a child?
Not at home, since we didn't have a TV, but it was always super exciting on vacation or at my grandparents' house.

20. Do you own any band t-shirts?
Nope. Neither of us do, actually.

21. What will you be doing in one hour?
Probably reading stories to Abigail snuggled up on "Mommy bed."

22. Is anyone in love with you?
He better be.

23. What was the last song you heard?
Neil whistling "Rhapsody in Blue." Incessantly.

24. Last time you cried?
Yesterday morning--Abigail was naming her pieces of toast rather than eating them and I was exhausted and stressed about being late for my class. It's so much worse when you're the professor...

25. Are you on a desktop computer or a laptop?
Just put the laptop away, so this would be the desktop.

26. Are you currently wanting any piercings or tattoos?
Nope!

27. What’s the weather like?
Too hot. Anything over 70 is too hot.

28. Would you ever date a girl/guy covered in tattoos?
Gross. No.

29. What did you do before this?
Worked on editing, changed several diapers, made lunch...

30. When is the last time you slept on the floor?
When I was in labor with Abigail. I was worried about waking Neil up if I stayed in bed, so some martyr-esque notion convinced me that rather than waking him up to take me to the hospital, I should wait until at least 5 am (at which point I'd been in hard labor for 12 hours with contractions every 4 minutes). Not the brightest thing I've ever done.

31. How many hours of sleep do you need to function?
Well, I got four last night, and I'm functionally. Optimally, 8.

32. Do you eat breakfast daily?
Yes. I get very sick if I don't.

33. Are your days fast-paced?
Yes and no. Fast-paced with things that aren't necessarily productive, and they go slowly when I want them to go fast and vice versa.

34. What did you do last night?
Made dinner and enjoyed some family time, then worked on editing from 7:30 until about midnight.

35. Do you use sarcasm?
Not much anymore. It would be kind of cruel to do that to a two-year-old. Although I do like coming into class and asking everyone to turn in their papers and enjoying the panicked muttering until someone realizes I'm just toying with them. That's not really sarcasm, however.

36. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
Twenty-four. And it's this month!

37. Are you picky about spelling and grammar?
Ohhhh yes. Perhaps obsessively so.

38. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
And I quote Mary Beth--"Cedar Point is way better." Make that waaaaaayyy better.

39. Do you get along better with the same sex or the opposite sex?
I used to get along better with guys but now I try to not really hang out with guys other than my husband, so I don't know. I definitely get along better with Neil than I do with Abigail, but perhaps that's because Neil is toilet-trained.

40. Do you like mustard?
Occasionally.

41. Do you sleep on your side?
Um...I hate sleeping on my side. I'm a stomach sleeper. Unfortunately that doesn't happen when one is 8 months pregnant, so yes, for now I am a grudging side sleeper.

42. Do you watch the news?
For the first five minutes while I'm on the elliptical, yes. Then I start reading US News. I usually read MSNBC news online every day.

43. How did you get one of your scars?
Sorry, MB, too good to pass up--my little sister chopped off my finger in the door while simultaneously stealing my socks.

44. Who was the last person to make you mad?
How mad are we talking? Frustrated? That would be my sweet little toddler. But reeeally mad? I don't know...

45. Do you like anybody?
Yes.

46. What is the last thing you purchased?
A day pool pass.

47. What side of the heart do you draw first?
Left, starting from the middle.

48. Can you dive without plugging your nose?
I don't think I've tried to dive since I smashed my ankle to the bone and had to wear a walking cast for six weeks and still have a badly swollen and malformed ankle to this day. Sort of scared of diving now.

49. What colour is your razor?
Blue.

50. What is your blood-type?
A neg.

51. Who would you want to be tied to for 24 hours?
Um...my infant-in-utero. We've gotten pretty good at it over the last few months.

52. What is a rumour someone has spread about you?
I don't think I've ever heard any, to be perfectly honest.

53. How do you feel about carrots?
Good, but not as tasty as celery with peanut butter.

54. How many chairs at the dining room table?
2, I think. Abigail likes to move them around. But two are in our room right now, so that only leaves two.

55. Which is the best Spice Girl?
Um...no idea.

56. Do you know what time it is?
2:31 EST. Wow, this is taking awhile.

57. Do you know all the words to the Fresh Prince Theme Song?
I know none of them. I don't even know what that is. Was it a TV show?

58. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator?
Probably go ballistic and try to climb out the top.

59. What’s your favourite kind of gum?
My dad's repeated "People look like cows chewing their cud when they chew gum" sunk in a little too well--I really don't like gum at all.

60. T or F: All’s fair in love and war?
False. Morality always applies. (good answer, MB)

61. Do you have a crush on anyone?
I don't think Neil counts. Can you have a crush on someone you're married to? I definitely love him lots.

62. Do you know how to use some words correctly, but not know the meaning?
Confessions of someone who has a grad. degree in literature: yes. But it's usually a fairly esoteric word.

63. Do you like to sleep?
Mmm, yes.

64. Do you know which US states don’t use Daylight Savings Time?
Arizon for sure. Hawaii?

65. Do you know the song Total Eclipse of the Heart?
Yep.

66. Do you want a bright yellow ‘06 mustang?
Who in their right mind would turn down a free car? It's free, right?

67. What’s something you’ve always wanted?
I haven't "always" wanted this, but I have for the last three years--a new Wearever nonstick frying pan. Something I've always wanted...hmm, that's hard. I'm pretty happy with my life.

68. Do you have hairy LEGS?
No, I shaved today.

69. Would you rather swim in the ocean or a lake?
Ooh, that's a toughie. I love both. Are we talking Great Lakes? They mostly count as oceans. If we're talking about a little wimpy lake, there's no way.

70. Do you wear a lot of black?
Oh yeah. I'm wearing black right now.

71. Describe your hair:
Probably too long (most of the way down my back), but Neil likes it. Brown with lots of natural reddish blonde highlights and just enough of a wave that it actually needs to be styled.

72. Do you have Entomophobia?
No. Not a bug fan, but I can deal with them. Except for the caterpillar that somehow got onto the bathroom rug. That was not cool.

73. Are you an adult?
I don't feel like it, but I'm somebody's mom, so I guess in theory that makes me one.

74. Where is/are your best friend(s)?
Texas, Utah, California, Michigan.

75. Do you have a tan?
Yes, thanks to my mother's olive-skinned genes.

76. Are you a television addict?
No. I'm really not a TV fan--we don't have one and I like it that way.

77. Do you enjoy spending time with your mother?
Oh my goodness yes! She gets cooler with every year that I age. :-)

78. Are you a sugar freak?
No, it gives me headaches if I eat very much. Even sugared cereal knocks me out for the day (unfortunately cookies don't have the same effect).

79. Do you like orange juice?
Yes--the pulpier the better.

80. What sign are you?
Leo.

Yee-hah!

I am done, done, done with grading AND editing for this week. Somehow I managed to fit in 7 hours and 36 minutes of grading between 7:30 last night and 1:30 today. Probably because Neil took over last night and packed me off with the laptop while he watched Cinderella with Abigail and then stayed an hour later this morning to feed her breakfast so I could work...and Abigail watched three episodes of Blue's Clues this morning, so she's had about 3 hours of movies in the last 24 hours...that should hold her for another two months. Fortunately she was still super happy when we turned it off this morning, which is a good sign for the rest of the day. I certainly have a lovely family who really contributes to my ability to accomplish tasks on a short deadline!

But I'm reaaaallly glad to be done with this editing project, since it means I'll actually get to enjoy the weekend! Now I just have to trade the data disk for payment and I'll be all set. Hurrah!

friends!

Are these not the cutest girlies ever? I am glad Abigail and Elise are such good buddies! (this pic is courtesy of Andrea from the research picnic on Saturday).

On a "friends" note, today Neil and I were saying goodbye after my class while Abigail impatiently ran towards the exterior doors. She looked back at us, waved her hand, and said "Come on, friends!"

I love that. I'm glad we're all friends as well as parents and child--she told me the other day "Mommy and Abigail buddies," and when I responded, "Yes, we are!" she said "Daddy buddies too?"

Cute, cute, cute.

,

post 4th of July letdown

Why is it that the fun always equates to a sort of jet-lagged feeling the next day?

...perhaps because the two-year-old did not go to bed until 11:48, which is a new record.

In any case, we did have a lovely 4th of July. Neil decided that we should continue our "tradition" of going out to breakfast as a family on the 4th (which we did exactly once 3 years ago and never had the opportunity to do again), so we had a lovely trip to IHOP. It really was lovely--all three of us were well-behaved and ate our respective breakfasts. Then we took Neil to campus so he could work on some research, so the lucky guy got to spend the majority of the afternoon either doing research or studying for his qualifiers.

We had a BBQ with six other families in our ward, which was lots of fun. It half-heartedly rained, so the air was heavy and muggy, and all the kids managed to get pretty sweaty (and the dads who played frisbee, which Neil did for about three hours. I leave it to you to guess the condition he was in afterwards). Then we went over to a field by campus to watch the fireworks, and got there two hours early so we had plenty of time to speculate on the vagaries of human nature. Something about the crowd mentality seemed to lower a lot of social mores--for instance, one woman asked a couple of our friends if she could "just rest for a minute" on their lawn chairs because she was tired from walking across the field. The "minute" turned into about eight other people who took over not only their chairs but their blankets and then proceeded to blow cigarette smoke over the entire gathering, which included two newborn infants, four pregnant women, and ten other small children. They sat there until the fireworks were over and then left without a word of explanation. Interesting. Abigail also got trampled by a bunch of frisbee-playing teenagers (literally--she was playing on the grass with a toy about seven feet from my chair and a guy who must have weighed about 200 lbs ran RIGHT over her), who coolly continued with their game while Abigail wailed and we tried to help her walk off her limp and their frisbee continued to smash into our chairs and strollers.

And then there was the lovely man who came over with enough glowy sticks for all of the kids to have one, and the thoughtful members of our gathering who brought enough snacks and sparklers for everyone to share (Andrea! Yay for you!). Just interesting to see different sides of human nature.

Anyway, we had a really fun time watching the fireworks--the finale was probably the best I had ever seen--and Abigail loved the "sparkly stars" and the "big booms!" And blessedly, rain started pouring down about an hour after we got home, so all the neighborhood fireworks stopped shortly after midnight and we were able to sleep.

I really wish I'd remembered my camera yesterday so I could have documented the whole thing, so hopefully I'll be able to snag some pictures from other more prepared people and post those later! In particular, I wish I'd been able to get a picture of Abigail with her first sparkler--I didn't buy any because I was worried about her being too young, but I think having the chance to hold two was just about right. She thought they were pretty neat. And we loved watching the little tiny firecrackers that people had brought--we sort of wandered around for awhile looking at those. Very fun. All in all, it was a lovely Fourth, and hopefully a solid night's sleep will make us all chipper and cheery tomorrow!

And Sarah, in answer to your question, Beethoven Lives Upstairs was definitely my favorite. If you haven't heard that one, you're really missing out!

oh bliss. the grading is done and i have twenty minutes to spare before i need to go pick up abigail.

clean bathrooms, here i come!

middle o' grading

I haven't had anything very exciting to post for the last few days--just doing lots of grading again. I was all excited because I thought I was going to finish up my grading in time to enjoy Independence Day--then someone emailed me today asked me to edit their thesis. Which is also exciting, since it means a money project, but it means I have to trade free time for work time.

Speaking of editing, Neil's advisor told me that if I'm interested, he may have quite a lot of editing for me to do. Apparently he's got a book and a bunch of articles--plus student dissertations/papers--that need some work. Same mixed feelings there--work bad, money good. But I am grateful that I have skills that are marketable and can help to buy things like oh, food!

Anyway, I'm hoping that I hear back on this thesis thing sometime in the next hour so I can start on it this afternoon after I finish my grading (Abigail is playing at a friend's house).

Speaking of Abigail, last night we set the sprinkler on the garden after we finished doing some yard work (hurray! 34 weeks pregnant and I can still mow (most of--Neil had to finish up the last 10 minutes; apparently 50 minutes was my limit yesterday) the lawn!). I was weeding the sad little strawberry bed on the side of the house and suddenly saw water flying in all directions across the yard. Abigail, bless her fearless little heart, was standing on the edge of the garden laughing riotously--she was COMPLETELY drenched, as in water literally dripping off her clothes and hair--and waving the sprinkler up and down in her hands. She informed me proudly "Ab-ee-gull water garden, Mommy!" We had a good laugh about it later while we were toweling her little shivering body dry.

And speaking of the strawberries, a lot of times I get so sad for the people who owned this house before us when I'm doing work around the house. We bought a foreclosure, and it was only 5 years old when we bought it last fall and had been empty for about 3 years, so the people who built it lost it almost right away. But I feel so bad for them when I'm weeding around their little strawberry bed or admiring the day lilies or ripping down their lovingly (if heinous) decorating choices (I'm thinking of the tile around the kitchen sink and the weird painted puppy tracks in the bathroom). I hope that they are happy and in a better financial position now, wherever they ended up moving. Sad, sad, sad for them, even if it was to our advantage. It really is a lovely house. They must have been very sad to leave.

hero worship

Abigail has found a new idol. Today we went to the playground after my class and met up with some of the other women in the ward for a picnic lunch. Abigail asked all the way there if the "boys" (our guests last night) would be there, and when we arrived, she attached herself to one of them and spent the next two hours trotting along behind him like a devoted little puppy.

Fortunately he was really good-natured about it (he's almost three years old) and the two of them apparently really hit it off. I'm relieved that he's less of a daredevil than Abigail--this was the first time we've ever gone to the playground that I haven't had to catch her when she decides to jump from terrifying heights or refuses to go on any slide but the super super tall ones. The two of them spent the majority of the time dropping sticks through the benches where we ate lunch or playing imaginary games under the trees in the shade, so it was a much more restful park experience than we usually have! I'm glad that Abigail is making new friends and is eager to expand her circle of pals so willingly!

new friends

Tonight we invited a couple of the new families in the ward over for games and dessert. We really enjoyed having the chance to talk with them and get to know them (and eat lots of yummy food!) and Abigail had a blast running around with the boys being generally crazy. She kept chasing them around saying "Hiiiii booooys!" and laughing.

We've generally had a nice relaxing weekend with the opportunity to get some to-do list things done: pruning bushes, touching up the paint in the kitchen (unfortunately it appears like it will be a project of some duration), just sort of general maintenance-around-the-house things. Neil, bless his heart, mopped the kitchen floor for me yesterday, so I am rejoicing in cleanliness!