even i know...

...when it's time for a haircut.

going strong

i went walking today for the second day in a row. it's been really nice to get out. i was sure i was going to wait for school to be over to start walking, but thanks to my sister bethany, i am participating in a healthy habits challenge. spencer and i both are. one of the habits is getting 30 minutes of exercise. spencer goes out in the morning and i leave when he comes back.
this is a competition, so of course, if i'm in, i'm in all the way. i'm eating my vegetables and fruit and avoiding sweets (that's one that's a little harder for me). i'm really glad to have the motivation to get walking. i'm already reaping the benefits, which (unfortunately) include being really tired in the afternoon and getting closer to a waddle in the evenings (thankfully i've been able to avoid the waddle in public).

here's to being healthier!

quilt festival spring 2009

i feel very out of my element here (and if you take a look at the quilts, you'll see why!), but i thought it would be fun to try my very amateur hand at this. here is where park city girl has started this online quilt festival. there are tons of entries! i tried for a little bit to find a quilt that was more my skill level, but i may be way out of my league!

the quilt i'm sharing isn't necessarily my favorite, but it's one i really like. it's a quilt i made for benny. i plan on making each of our kids a quilt and i'm lucky i never decided when each would receive theirs! benny got his after his first birthday. (click for more detail)

closer view with the simple back and fold-over binding

in some ways i felt kind-of limited in my fabric selection. they are all fabrics i love, but i had purchased them for a different purpose. a few years before this i had gotten a whole lot of fabrics to make a "girly" quilt for me - lots of pinks and purples with some blues and greens. i never got around to making my quilt and then benny came along. i really couldn't justify buying more fabrics until i had used some from my big (for me and for our small budget) collection. i decided that i could pull enough fabrics out of my collection to make a quilt that was "boy" enough for benny. i did buy the yellow to have more contrast in there. i've decided that i can buy a different fabric or two little by little!

this quilt was often my first attempt at maching quilting. i just used my little janome. of course, straight lines aren't too hard - especially when following seams, but it was a big project for me! i'm really happy with how it turned out.


i wish i could show off my real favorite, but i really have no idea when it will be finished. i'll cheat and show the completed top.

back at it

this morning i was surprised when spencer's alarm went off at around 6:30a (give or take a half hour since i was too tired, even, to look at the time on our ceiling). i assumed he wanted to get some studying done this morning before the rest of us got up and started distracting him. a little while later, however, spencer got back into bed and said, "it's your turn." he had gone on his run. obviously i'm not supposed to just pick up running in my condition, but i've been talking about getting back into walking before this baby comes. it just hasn't been important enough to get me out of bed before spencer leaves for school. i stayed in bed for a little while longer but i did, indeed, get up and go walking this morning. according to map my run i went 1.36 miles. not too bad for the first time this pregnancy. i'm really glad i went out. it was a beautiful morning - overcast with everything wet and smelling alive. i feel really good so i'll definitely be going once spencer finishes school this semester and i may bring myself to get up earlier in the morning to go before he leaves. no promises.


this will also double as a pregnancy picture. i'm just over 31 weeks and feeling good! spencer did some omm on me a few months ago that has really helped with my sciatic nerve pain (i'm reaping the benefits of having a physician in the home already!).

i know i haven't said much about it here, but we are very excited for "the girl" (as we've dubbed her) to join us. i've actually been much better at writing in my journal (and recently started working on our photo albums), which is more important to me than blogging these days. i'm not even sure if i mentioned we're having a girl. we're really looking forward to the new experiences we'll have. the boys will be great with their little sister. they come with me to all my appointments and benny loves seeing the "baby movie" or hearing her heartbeat each time. it's still quite strange to think of being a mother of three and a family of five, but we are thrilled.

by way of information, i am due 17 june but have a c-section scheduled for 24 june. we are hoping and praying that i go into labor on my own before the 24th, but we'll have to wait and see. any extra prayers are welcome! it's been an interesting experience here because my doctor can't talk very candidly about my having a vbac due to laws and insurance issues against vbacs. however, if i go into active labor on my own, they won't stop me. it makes it much more helpful that spencer has already learned to check for dilation!

a kiss better and misc.

just before dinner this evening, benny bumped his head on something. i don't know what it was, but that happens fairly often around here. he usually comes over to me for a kiss better, but this time he said, "andy kiss better" and walked right next to andy. benny bent his head down by andy's face and andy promptly gave him a kiss. benny was all better.
i loved this because benny just loves andy and because andy has only recently started giving kisses on cheeks. usually they're just air kisses - sometimes he'll kiss his hand and throw it out, but not too often.

lately, i've really been enjoying watching the boys grow up. it's especially fun with benny because he is constantly entering unchartered waters for us. he is learning so much. his speech is getting so much better and more and more people are beginning to understand what he's saying. he's also starting to make connections in different ways. toward the end of dinner he was discussing some of the people in his life in terms of lady, man, kid, and dog. it may seem silly, but it's fun for me to see him learning.

a while ago i made the decision to make a better effort at using correct grammar with benny. i definitely wouldn't call myself a grammar nazi, but i try to make sure i use the proper tense, order, and part of speech. and, i think i talk a lot. it's been fun to watch benny figuring speech out. he almost always uses the right pronoun (many of you know he used to always refer to himself in the third person...) and i'll sometimes hear him say something using the correct part of speech but not necessarily the right selection (mostly with prepositions).