Laundry

I started sorting Norah's clothes, blankets, etc for washing. It took a while to get all the packaging and tags off. Not in the picture are the hand made blankets, some new ones and several my mom had made and used with my sister and me. Oh, and the cloth diapers, another good sized pile! Now if it would just cool down a little I might actually wash everything, but I don't want to run the dryer and we don't have anywhere to hang things outside!

Yummy Jam

Maybe it's a weird pregnancy thing, but this year I really got into making jams. I've never done it before, but I found out it's really pretty easy. I was able to make one batch of strawberry from our garden before they were done. Next year I'll be sure to start earlier! Then raspberries started. I had to buy those since our plants aren't very happy. I made several batches of raspberry. Then we were able to buy cherries wholesale with farm connections. Cherry jam is very good. I've made a lot of cherry jam. Then I got some free cherries from a friend, so I made more, I still have enough to do another batch. One batch is only about four 12oz jars. So here's my stash so far, left to right: Strawberry - Cherry - Raspberry

I remember my Mom making strawberry freezer jam when we were little. We don't have our big freezer anymore, but we do have a big pantry which is why I opted to can them. They are also all made with the low sugar pectin, so about half of the normal sugar amounts. We all think they taste great, I can't imagine what it would be like with the regular sugar/pectin amounts! Oh and our local grocery store was running a sale last week, buy two boxes of pectin get a free 5lbs sugar! That was nice :) We're going to start canning green beans soon. Not my favorite thing, but most people like them. Then it's on to peaches and pears, which we will probably be able to get wholesale this year also, very helpful. I am worried that we will get 60lbs of fruit to can and I'll go into labor....

*** I found this website very helpful:http://www.pickyourown.org/cherry_preserves.htm I also added some spices to my cherry jam from a recipe that I found in the Ball home canning book, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp cloves.

I just needed to complain a little more......

This forecast doesn't belong here! Where am I?!
**I guess I need to add that we do have an A/C unit for part of the house, it's in the kitchen sliding door. It does a good job of cooling the kitchen and greatroom areas but the bedrooms are still toasty! We've had the A/C blasting on the highest setting for a couple days now, and it's kept the temp at about 75 and about 80 in the other rooms. We also have several fans around the house to keep the air moving, so it could be a lot worse!

Oh icky hot

We broke the record for heat today.....103. They actually have Wednesday at 105. It's 11pm now and it's finally down to 85 outside, so so icky. Our bedroom is too hot to sleep. I'm going to try and sleep on the couch since it's only about 78 out here.....Oh and it's more fun since I've had cough since Thursday that makes sleeping tricky anyway. On the upside, Norah doesn't seem to mind any of it, she's still wiggling and hiccuping regularly just like she should.
George liked how well my bowl of watermelon was sitting on my belly, just a few more weeks and I'll be able to bend again!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RHEA AND EVOLY!!!!!!

36 weeks! WooHoo!!!

Whew, starting the ninth month! My belly doesn't look this big to me, but it sure looks big in pictures! She's still very wiggly and active, so she's not running out of room yet. I had an appt last week and everything is looking great. I go in again on the 27th for a routine appt. The heat has been icky, I'm not enjoying all the 90* days since I can't do anything outside. But overall everything has been going very well and I'm feeling pretty good still. And George will be home on Friday!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Noooooooo I'm going to melt...........

This is the most conservative forecast of the local stations....All the others show 90+ something the whole week......

Baby Shower Pictures

I uploaded the shower pictures here! We had a fun time, played games, lots of presents and yummy cake!
Now it's time to do laundry and write thank you cards!

Too Hot!

Icky icky, it's too hot here! It's been in the 90's for a couple days now. I over heat really quickly, and randomly sometimes due to the hormone overload. Ugh, where's my nice mild northwest summer?
I got a pedicure today, ahhhh so nice! Hopefully it will still look nice by the time Norah decides to arrive. I picked a beautiful purple of course :) but I won't scare everyone with another picture of my feet! I'm happy to report that I haven't had any swelling of feet/ankles yet, yay me!
I've been making jam lately. Something new for me, and it's pretty easy. So far I've made strawberry which turned out yummy. I used berries from our garden which are now done for the season, bummer, so there was only one batch. We have a couple pounds of sweet cherries left so I thought I'd try those. And I picked up a flat of raspberries today, they're huge! If you're local, go by BiZi Farms and get some, they're called Cascade Delight and they are wonderful!
I'm missing Georgie. He will be home on the 24th. He's going to have to figure out how to fit on the bed with my million pillows hehe. Baby shower is tomorrow so I'll have some pictures to post later.

Fun in Hood River

Yesterday George and I drove up to Hood River. We had lunch at the Double Mtn pub, went on a tour of the Full Sail Beer Brewery, visited Multnomah Falls and had dinner at the lodge. It was so much fun and the weather was beautiful. We were looking to spend a little time together before he left for his two weeks of active army today. Hood River is pretty fun! There are so many little shops and hole in the wall type restaurants I'd like to go back for a weekend and have time to walk around. I thought maybe we'd be able to drive back there and pick up peaches for canning later this summer, but it might be a little too close to due day by then, we'll see...

You left it open for me right?

No drawer is safe! It's like she has a homing beacon when it comes to open drawers.

Shoulda called 6 months ago!

I just got my premium/renewal for my car insurance and it went up $33 on my 6month cost breakdown. Annoying but not horrible. But I noticed in my policy it says I drive 100+ miles a week to/from work or school, and 7,500+miles annually, ummm not. Well, not since last August when I quit my job. I drove less than 2k miles in the last three months according to my oil change sticker thingie. I really only drive to the grocery store, post office, and the barn. So I called the car insurance folks, and guess what? Now my car is qualifies for a lower category, which saves me $54 on my six month policy, Yay! If I'd only noticed this on the last renewal I could have already saved us some money, but at least I caught it this time. Every little bit helps!

Cutie Hummingbird!

The little hummingbirds love these red flowers! I think this is an 'Anna' since it has a bright green back and it's very vocal! I took a little video of it feeding, but it's hard to see until the very end.

We're official!

We can now go through labor and birth, well, according to the hospital anyway!

34 weeks. Yikes that's 8.5 months!

Things I've learned about pregnancy so far:
If you lay down you will fall asleep, prepare to wake up two hours later.
Eat as many cherries as you want, it can only help.....
The baby will move the most when no one else is around
-baby will move the least or not at all when you actually want them too
It's okay to eat three ice cream sandwiches in an hour, and then a piece of pie, and then.... :)
Padded bras are a good idea
Your brain is like swiss cheese, you must learn to write things down or you will forget.....like the rest of the stuff I was going to add to this list.
Oh but lastly what I learned today. Don't dive after a barfing cat when 8.5 month pregnant. Your body no longer moves like it should, and the carpet will clean.

Happy 5th of July!

So George got home about 5:30 tonight. Dad decided to have a little extra fun and have George and Galen light off his 'stash' of fireworks that he's been saving for many many years. They had a great time blow up loud things, it really helped George feel better about missing out yesterday. They were lighting off boxes and boxes of bottlerockets, yeah the kind you're not supposed to have, when the cop that lives up the road drove by. He kept driving and didn't come back so they kept lighting them! They also had several M80's (=loud boom) and big booming rockets, fun stuff!
Back to work tomorrow :)

A Fun 4th

We had a good time over here yesterday. Lots of people, food, fireworks. But no Georgie....pout. He spent the 4th in Montana, darn the Army! There were no fireworks allowed in Billings city limits so he didn't get to set any off! Big Pout! He called last night just as the guys were getting started here, so they set off some noisy stuff so he could hear through the phone :)
The guys did a great job with the rest of the show, lots of big, loud, colorful exploding things! Clean up wasn't bad today at all. Probably the smallest clean up we've had since everyone was lighting from the same spot. It was a fun day, but I'm ready for George to be home tonight. I'm not looking forward to his two weeks of active army......

Happy Birthday Dad!

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday. He's 60! He DID NOT want a party, but we were allowed to make him dinner....Of course, he was setting tile downstairs until 9pm, so it was a late dinner :) It was a manly meal of meatloaf, fried potatoes and corn on the cob. Followed with strawberry rhubarb pie. I'd never made the pie before but it turned out pretty good!

My dad is the youngest 60 year old I know. He's in great shape and can out work most guys half his age. He's usually up and working by 4:30-5am and goes until 8-10pm. What an amazing guy! Most recently he's been putting in those hours finishing the basement so George and I will have a little more room when Norah gets here. It looks soooooo good down there, I'll get pics of it soon when he's done laying the tile.

He really didn't want me to take his pic, so he gave me the crazy person smile.....great way to document 60 years...Gotta love him!