A Late Summer Face Lift

The early morning sun peeked through my window blinds beckoning me to rise this morning. It was only 6:00, but something inside said it was time to greet the day. I climbed out of bed and poured myself some cereal, which I enjoyed while sitting on my front step. The clouds slowly turned a pretty gold tint, but the real sunrise was hidden by the trees. It is the perfect time of day, a time which I seldom get to enjoy. I was able to read my Bible without feeling rushed to get ready for work or to get the house cleaning done. But I did notice, while sitting there, that my flower gardens are looking very sad... There are no more flowers and no buds showing promise of late summer blooms. Just dried out stalks and crunchy old flowers. My little flower garden needs a late summer face lift. I know it is just a small garden without much space for big perennials, but a few fall flowers would be nice. Especially since I so enjoy flowers in my garden. I suppose I'm looking for some suggestions or a book to borrow that has many good ideas in it. You might think that I've got too much to do already, seeing as I'm seven months pregnant and all that, but I'm still plenty able to look at flower books and even plant a few bulbs or plants... Any ideas??? I would love a garden that was full of blooms all season long, even if that is impractical.

Peach Jam and Green Chili Stew

I must feel like I have gotten something accomplished today, because I feel relaxed enough to blog. This is good.

Last night I had my parents over for some homemade green chili stew. It was my first attempt at making the stew and I must say, I did a pretty good job. If you've never had green chili stew, then you've probably not grown up in New Mexico or lived with someone who did. It has ground turkey, hominy, onions and garlic... but most importantly green chili. Yummm. Dad helped me make sopapillas and I also had made fried potatoes to go with the stew. What a yummy supper and the time spent with family made it ten times even better. Adam even told me later that it was a good supper.

Today I have been keeping myself pretty busy, with the exception of the last hour and a half that I spent sleeping. I've been doing laundry and cleaning my kitchen, but mostly I've been making a batch of peach jam. I bought some peaches last night on my way home with the intention of making some jam today. I peeled, cut, mashed, stirred and scooped till I had nearly nine little jars of fresh jam sitting on my counter. I am quite pleased with myself. Now all i have left on my list of things to get done today is clean the bathroom, finish folding the laundry, make the bed (I washed the sheets) and get supper on the table for a hungry husband. And I'm not getting anything done here, so I'm off to finish my chores for the day!

A Brief From The Life of Bethany

I know, I know. It's much too late and I should be in bed, but I am trying my best to get sleepy. Hopefully it'll hit me soon and then I'll crawl back into bed next to Adam, where I belong.

Sorry 'bout lack of news and fun things on my blog. The computer has just lost it's luster for the time being. Maybe I've got too much on my mind, or too much to do...

I've started counting down the last ten(ish) weeks of pregnancy. The baby moves quite often and it's so amazing and always makes me smile. Sometimes I can feel a little knee or hand pushing against my skin. It's pretty neat when I can distinguish which body part it is... I registered (or at least started) for my baby shower this past week. On Monday, I went out with some friends to Baby's R Us and got some pointers from a recent Mom... I enjoyed myself, although my registry still hasn't appeared online and I would love to edit some things I needlessly registered for. I also registered at Target and my Mom thinks I am silly because it's all just little things. Suppose I'll go back eventually and register for more than just baby shampoo and pacifiers. I don't think I need to register for clothes because everyone knows that babies need warm, snuggly outfits when they are born just before winter. Am I right about that? I'm feeling more prepared now for some reason... Maybe just because my thoughts are finally coming together and I feel like I am doing something, though not sure what I'm really getting done. :)

Today my Daddy came over and helped me with a few things around my house. It may not seem like a lot to him, but I sure felt the difference in having him there! Sometimes it's just nice to have someone come help you do things or even someone to talk to while you're working. We did a little painting and he helped me caulk around the molding that Adam had hung up. I'm really bad at caulking and I was so glad that I had professional caulking help! I was going to take Dad out for lunch to thank him for all his help, but I'll have to take him out again. See, what happened was we went to a restaurant owned by this fellow named Nick (Greek man in his 50's). Nick often comes to the restaurant where I work to visit my boss and he's a pretty friendly guy. So anyway, I knew the owner at the place we went for lunch. Dad and I order and were chatting when Nick walks by. He sees me and smiles... stops and says hello, then keeps walking. On his way back, he slides into the booth next to Dad, which was real funny because Dad's not the type to get too cozy with strange men he doesn't know. I'm laughing inside of myself because I know Dad isn't to comfortable having this Greek man who he doesn't know just randomly slide into the booth next to him on our lunch date. But I tried to make the best of it and made small talk with Nick while I ate my soup. Soup is good, Nick is tired, he got up too early, party house is busy on Fridays, blah, blah, blah... All the while Dad has this slightly amused look on his face because this guy is sitting next to him and having conversation with his daughter. When small talk was done and our meals came, Nick got up and left us in peace to enjoy our lunch and each other's company. When we were finished it turned out that Nick got our meal for us because it was our "first" time coming to his restaurant (I have been there before, just not that he knew of). So I owe Dad another lunch because how can I say that I took him out to lunch when I didn't have to pay?

I know this is possibly a boring post to you, but please excuse me... It is going on midnight and I should be in bed getting my beauty sleep....

More photos from Nova Scotia

Seems there are many things these days that I cannot keep up with and blogging is one of them. But here's a few photos for you to enjoy...
Look close and you can see the curls in my hair from the ocean breeze and sea salt air. They were fun to have for the day.

Loving the Salty Sea

Well, I am home from vacation, if you didn't already know. We had a wonderful visit with my Grandma and saw many beautiful sights. My favorite place was the beach, where the ocean came rushing up the sands to lick at my toes. It was quite a wonderful thing. At first I met the ocean with a bit of intimidation... Maybe a fear of getting "too" wet? But when it first crashed against my legs, I laughed out loud like a little child, disregarding the other more seasoned beach-goers. I rolled up my pant legs and welcomed the salty sea as I splashed in the water for the first time. It was only natural for sand sculpting to follow and we found strange pleasure in watching the tides come up and wash away our work. And then it was time to be on our way, leaving the monotonous crashing of the waves far behind us.