Family
How is another weekend gone?
Aug 15th
Here are a couple pictures from my weekend at my parents’ place:
All the girls ready to go out for the night. Note to self: hang out with people closer to my size so I don't look so huge.
Grandma gave James a pickle. He liked it!
This weekend Ryan’s parents & sister came up. We all went to the zoo today, and it was a lot of fun.
My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. (He tried to eat them shortly after this photo was taken, so we aren't applying to Harvard just yet)
Polar bear. Duh.
What you can't see is that he is reaching for the camera. He's trying to eat it, along with everything else he can get his hands on.
Helping Auntie feed the goats (not really; he's just pretending).
We tried to tell him it was rude to chew on the giraffe's face while we were at the zoo, but he didn't care.
Another development this weekend: we now have (1 or 2) consonants. We’ve for sure heard the “d” sound. I never realized how excited I would get about someone making consonant sounds. It’s kind of ridiculous. But awesome.
Hope you all had a great weekend. It finally cooled off a little here (the high today was in the low 70s). I’m loving it.
We didn’t forget the blog, we just finally had a baby!
Feb 26th
James Victor was welcomed into the world on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010. He weighed in at 8 lbs 14.4 oz and was 20.7 inches in length. Since then we’ve been visiting with friends and family, getting the hang of fun things like diapers and feeding, and taking advantage of all the helpful people at the hospital before the big adventure moves home.
Christmas Meme
Dec 20th
I got this from Swistle, and it looked fun. Also, I am too lazy to write a real entry tonight. I’m playing the pregnancy card.
Eggnog or hot chocolate? I prefer hot chocolate, although I do like to try a glass of eggnog once a year.
Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Santa hasn’t visited Ryan and I at our apartment, since we always are at one of our respective parents’ house for Christmas. At my parents’ house Santa doesn’t wrap gifts – he leaves them under the tree with our names marked on them or in our stockings. At Ryan’s parents’ house he wraps them – even the ones in the stockings. I’m not sure what will happen if he ever visits us here…maybe some of each?
Colored lights on a tree or white? We have some of each, and I like it that way.
Do you hang mistletoe? Nope.
When do you put your decorations up? Since we are usually out of town for Thanksgiving we don’t usually put them up until during that next week or the following weekend. Whenever we get our tree from Pappy’s Trees (this cute old guy that sells trees out of his yard).
What is your favorite holiday dish? Lefse. Mmm…real lefse with butter and sugar (probably made by Lutherans in the church basement – that’s the best kind, you know).
Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? My family opens our gifts on Christmas eve, after a light dinner (usually just hors d’oeuvres) before Midnight Mass. Ryan’s family opens gifts on Christmas eve too. Christmas day is for Santa/church/relaxing.
How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Usually I string lights right up next to the trunk and then come out from there, so there are a lot of lights all through the tree. Our ornaments are mostly things that we’ve gotten as gifts. Last year it was pretty sparse, but Ryan’s sister got us a few boxes of pretty ornaments to add to our collection, so this year it’s much better.
Snow: love it or hate it? I love it as long as I don’t have to deal with it. Especially now that we have a 4-wheel drive vehicle. It’s the cold I can’t stand.
Can you ice skate? HA. I grew up in a town where the high school hockey games were THE events to be at. We went skating for gym class in the winter, and until I was in 7th grade we lived next to a river and would make our own rink on the frozen river every year. I’m not very good though, for all that learning.
What is your favorite holiday dessert? Pie. I love pie. Although the candies my mom makes are a close second.
What is your favorite holiday tradition? Eating a light meal on Christmas eve for dinner before opening gifts. Cheeseball and crackers and meat and candy. Yum.
Candy canes: yum or yuck? Traditional ones are ok. I really like the Starburst ones, but I don’t buy candy canes because the stickiness drives me crazy. There’s no good way to eat them without getting completely sticky.
Favorite Christmas show? How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Always the cartoon version. Although A Christmas Story is a close second. “You’ll shoot your eye out!” HAHAHA. My sister and I got bb guns for Christmas one year. I don’t think anyone told us that though. And we were (are) good shots.
Phone people
Dec 15th
I am not a phone person. I think you all know what I mean. There are some people that love to talk on the phone. They can visit for hours at a time, always thinking of something new to talk about, and they are usually good at multitasking while they do it. My sister comes to mind (only one of them). She calls me once or twice a week, usually, and its a good thing, because I don’t call anyone, ever. She updates me on the funny things her kids are up to (her kids are awesome), and asks me questions about my life, and talks about her school work and their dairy farm and the neighbors and the people she knows from her job at the nursing home. You will notice that her life is considerably busy – she has 2 kids that live with them full-time and 2 other kids that come and go, along with a dairy farm that she and her husband run, a part-time job at the nursing home, and she’s currently taking 18 credits at a local college to get her degree in social work. The woman is seriously motivated. Anyway, even with all of this going on, she calls me. And she calls my mom and my other sisters. She is a phone person (and it’s a good thing, because I get most of my family news through her).
I, on the other hand, am not a phone person. It’s not that I’m too busy – we don’t have any kids (yet), I only have my one full-time job, and it’s a strictly 8-4:30 gig M-F. I was volunteering at the library twice a week, but I quit doing that when all the bending over was making me dizzy (sometime around 15 weeks pregnant or so). I just don’t enjoy talking on the phone much, I guess. I view it as a very utilitarian thing. I call someone if I need to talk to them about something – where are you, what time are we meeting, how do I make this, etc. Or if I need to share news, and usually I try to call if it’s a special occasion (birthdays, for example), but I’m not great at that either.
It’s not that I don’t like talking to the people I know. I love visiting with people in person, and I’m great at email…I just don’t like the phone. I’m not very good at making small talk. I ask a lot of stupid questions like “So, what’s up?” over and over if I get the sense that the other person expects me to stay on the phone, or if they call me and the conversation lags. I’m just not good with down-time on the phone. Usually I call, ask the obligatory question about how things are going, and get right to my reason for calling. And then I hang up.
Are you a phone person? Do you know someone who is different than you are, and does it bother you, or fascinate you (or some of each)?
A quickie
Dec 2nd
Thanksgiving was awesome. We came home with a truck full of baby stuff, thanks in part to my sisters passing things down and in part to the 2 (TWO!) surprise showers over the weekend (some of the family couldn’t make it all the way to my hometown for the one, so they threw their own). We also ate lots of yummy food, as is required. The potato dumplings were fabulous, and we have leftovers in the fridge, ready to fry up when we get a chance. And of course there was pumpkin pie, which is my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.
Ryan and I are attending the Labor & Delivery class from the hospital. It runs 6-9:30pm Tuesday through Thursday this week. Since Ryan doesn’t get off work until 5 it means a few meals eaten out and on the go this week, and straight to bed when we get home. But, so far the class has been helpful and pretty cool. We got to tour the birthing center last night, and it set my mind at ease about a lot of things (wireless monitoring of baby’s heartbeat and my contractions, so I’m free to move around and even shower if I want to; all the rooms are singles, so no chance of a roommate you don’t know or don’t like; wireless internet available (I have my priorities in order, obviously)).
Hopefully I’ll get to a more extensive post soon. Maybe even with pictures that I will steal from facebook since we forgot our camera.
3-Day Week
Nov 23rd
I am so happy there are only 3 days of work this week I can hardly stand it. I am anxious to go home, and excited to see my family (although I’ll miss having one of my sisters and her husband and kids there). There will be lots of laughing and eating and baby talk, I’m sure. Now, if I could just get someone to come do all this work on my desk before Wednesday…
Speaking of baby talk…well, there’s not much to say. We still don’t have a name picked out, or even any serious contenders really. I’ll be 28 weeks tomorrow or Wednesday (depending who you ask), and we have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow. We have one more month-long break between appointments and then we start going every two weeks, which seems crazy. Crazy in how quickly time flies, not crazy that we would see the doctor that often. It’s getting to the time where I should be coming up with questions about labor & delivery and stuff, but I don’t have many questions so far about that. Or at least none that I can think of off the top of my head. I plan to do a natural birth with no drugs. I know other people who have done it, and I’m a big believer in the “you can do anything for a (relatively) short period of time,” philosophy. I need to sit down and write out a birth plan, mostly because it will make me feel more organized, but also because it will be something to refer people to when they are asking me questions and I can’t remember what I wanted because I’m focused elsewhere. I also plan on staying away from the hospital as long as possible. I don’t want to go in too early, and I’m sure time will pass more quickly if I’m doing something other than hanging out in the birthing center. Considering we live only 5 minutes from the hospital I’m not worried about waiting too long.
All of this is a little overwhelming to me, but exciting at the same time. I remember when we first found out I was pregnant, and thinking how far away all of this seemed. Like it would take forever to get to this point. And yet it feels like time has flown by. I’m almost 7 months pregnant. There are only 3 months left. And I am so excited to meet our little guy.
Now if he would just tell us what his name is…
Things that make my day:
Nov 18th
Aside from this cold hanging on by it’s scratchy gross fingernails, I am having a great day. There are a few things contributing to this:
- My friend, Gwen, sent me pictures of her son, who is just over 2 weeks old. We saw them the day he was born (it was the day we flew out East), and he’s just SO CUTE. I can’t wait until I can hold my little one.
- It is Wednesday, which means that there are only 2 1/2 days of work left this week, and next week is Thanksgiving. Only a week left until we get a nice long weekend to go visit family.
- My mom just informed me that she plans on making potato dumplings on Friday while we are home. I LOVE potato dumplings. And in case you have never had the pleasure of trying them, they are basically ground up potatoes mixed with flour and boiled. You serve them with butter and salt and bacon (or side pork if you can get it), including “drippings” (aka grease). They are extremely heavy, but they taste sooo good. And in the morning, if there are leftovers, you slice them up and fry them and they are even better. You can’t get them in restaurants (at least not outside of my hometown, that I’m aware of), and so the only time I have them is when we go home and mom makes them. One of these years I want to get the grinder attachment for our kitchenaid so that we can try making them. But until then it will be a once or twice a year treat. Considering how we eat them it’s probably better that way anyway.
- Ryan and I have our first baby-related class tonight. I’m a little nervous about it, but it makes me excited that we are at that point. In a related item, we will be picking up some baby stuff from my sisters over Thanksgiving, and so we’ll be one step closer to getting the baby’s room ready. I remember when Thanksgiving seemed so far away. Not anymore!
So, I’m in a good mood. Now I should take advantage of it and get back to work.
Happy Birthday, Karen
Jul 22nd
It is my sister’s 27th birthday today. Happy birthday, Karen. You rock!
ps. You should start a blog. You know, in your spare time. HAHAHA. But seriously, the stories of your children alone would keep you writing for ages.
Ladies’ Culture Club 2009
Jun 5th
So my aunt on my dad’s side of the family started this thing a few years ago that we call “Ladies’ Culture Club”, where the women on that side of the family over the age of 16 are invited to go to a play and then dinner down in Minneapolis. The first year we went to Hamlet, the next year they went to The Wedding Singer (I missed that one), last year we went to Jesus Christ Superstar, and this year we are going to Phantom of the Opera. I’m so excited! I love going to see plays, and it’s a great chance to catch up with people I don’t see often. Most of us don’t live in the same area (NO ONE lives near Ryan and I. Ha.), and so we don’t see each other often.
I will fill you in on what I thought about the play (and about dinner at Hell’s Kitchen) when we get back in town.
Have a great weekend!
