Busted!

There are crickets living in my walls and Louis (my cat) has a broken tail. I don't know how either of those things happened, but they did and do. What can we do about them? I don't think you can do much for a cat with a busted tail, except treat it real gentle and don't pull on it... Does anyone have any suggestion for getting crickets out of walls without making a mess? It's kinda annoying when you can hear them chirping in there. And my poor kitty...

Ready For My Baby

Here I am again... Sorry for the lapse in time, but I'm sure you understand. Adam and I have started child birth classes, which are every Wednesday evening through the end of September. I am finding them quite helpful, though I don't think I'll ever get the "breathing" thing right. We're supposed to be practicing. Did anyone ever find the rhythmic breathing to be actually helpful? Sometimes it makes me light-headed...

The stinky carpet in the baby's room has finally been replaced, so now we can start setting things up in the room and get everything organized. Actually, I started as soon as I got home today. Thursday I had picked up the crib which my boss had given me, so I put that together. After it was set up, it was very strange to see it standing there and to know that very soon we would have a little person living with us and sleeping in that crib. A house guest of sorts. Adam and I will no longer have the house to ourselves. But I suppose we'll learn how to share and we'll enjoy it. I also picked up the changing table which was given to me, so that is now in the room. I wish I could take pictures to show you how the room looks, but I still have not replaced the camera cord which my puppy ate in July. It's kind of emotional to sit in there knowing that our little baby will be here soon and all this stuff is for him or her. Wow...

Anyway, I also have been being adventurous in my living room. Wednesday I picked out some paint (without any help) for the walls. I chose two different colors, so one wall could be an accent wall. Yesterday, while the carpet guys were here putting in carpet, my sister Hannah and I painted three of the walls in the living room. I saved the last for another day. I am so pleased with the results and Adam said he was proud of me for taking the initiative and doing this all by myself. Suppose I usually have to check with him to make sure he approves, but he likes it when I don't have to check with him about everything. I've been trying to get my projects all done before the baby comes. We'll see how far I get, especially since one of those projects includes reupholstering an old chair I've had for years. I ordered fabric, so that's at least a start!

So you can see why blogging hasn't been at the top of my list, even though I'm sure everyone wants to know how baby is and to make sure I'm behaving myself. Baby's good and I've been good too. I've got seven weeks left till my due date and my next Dr's appointment is next Friday. She'll probably complain about my weight again and ask me if I eat too many carbs, sweets, or too late at night. I'll say that it's been five and half weeks since you saw me last and that I think I've done pretty good. (Only four pounds added so far since last time.) I probably should make a dentist appointment, seeing as they were after me last month and I'll never get to it if I put it off too long. *sigh* It seems like there is so much to do... I'm ready to hold my baby.

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.