Childbirf Classes

From the time that I found out I was pregnant I have dreaded the childbirth class. I know that you can pick up some good information from them, but I'm not a touchy-feely-huggy sort, and don't usually bond that well with women. After being in the military for 10 years and working almost exclusively with males, I just don't have that much in common with women and don't like their moodiness. However, I know that you're much better off during childbirth if you actually have a clue what's going on, plus you can find out about the facility you're going to deliver at and get some info. Knowing already that I want whatever pain relief that they can give me, up to and including knocking me out, I didn't want anyone lecturing me on natural childbirth and judging me. So I signed us up for one, much to the dismay of D. Last night was the first class and I have to say that it wasn't too painful.

The instructor is an Australian lady which is cool because she could read the back of a cereal box and I'd think it sounded neat. She's pretty laid back and funny, which is the way to get me to listen to things. The other couples in the class are a similar age as D and I are, and they all have due dates within a day or two of mine. Three of the other four husbands are from Illinois, which made D fit right in since that's where he's from. We watched some videos on the stages of childbirth, ate snacks, watched some videos on diet and nutrition, ate snacks, and then did some relaxation techniques where my massage slave had to rub my lower back while I lay there and focused on relaxing. We went to eat out before we went to class, so it was a pretty nice evening out.

I also had my doctor’s appointment this morning where I had my blood glucose test done. I don’t have gestational diabetes and I am not anemic, so that’s two less things to worry about. I go in two weeks for my next visit, and I’m going to have a 4D ultrasound done. I can’t wait to see the baby and what she looks like. :)

It's a Sickness

I took an unsupervised visit to the nursery today, which is always a dangerous thing. Actually it got more dangerous because Bennett's didn't open until 11:30 or noon so I stopped by Lowe's to pass some time. I always like going by myself better, because then I can putter around and look at everything and don't get hurried. While it may be more enjoyable, it definately does more damage to the pocketbook.

Lowe's had several racks of plants on 75% clearance, so I had to go nose around there. I ended up with a Winged Euonymous bush with a couple of leaves left on it, a Penstemon 'Silverton' that wasn't too badly off, two Bronze Ajuga plants that looked very healthy and a mystery bush that had pretty purple flowers just right for attracting bees. I always have the desire to try to rehabilitate these walking wounded plants and see if I can bring them back. Let's not mention all of the otherwise healthy plants that I've killed off this year. In addition to the sick plants I also brought home a May Night salvia, an Arizona Sun Gallardia and a verbena plant. And then I went to the next nursery. :)

My main goal in going out this afternoon was to get some tulip bulbs. Or at least that was what I said I was going out for. My real objective was to get a mountain laurel bush for the back yard. When we lived in Virginia the mountain laurels were so beautiful and I've always wanted one. By the time I was finished at Lowe's I was already hot and sweaty and ready to go home, but I went ahead and pressed on. Instead of my usual rambling around and looking at everything, I homed in on my objective which took a few minutes to find because they'd moved since the last time I was there. I spent a few minutes agonizing over whether to get the light pink ones, pink ones with some white on the flower, or the one I ultimately got, Minuet, which had red rims with white centers. Carrying my prize, I went on to the front office to pick out my tulip bulbs and to pay. I got several different kinds of tulips, in red and yellow which are the colors that Maw asked for.

So now the plants are at home and in my garage, waiting patiently for me to get them put out. I'm giving it an hour or two more to cool off and then I'm going out to plant my new babies. I think this is the last purchase of the year, because I'm about planted out. So now it'll be time to get everything prepped for winter and start making big plans for next year.

Whodathunkit

I've had elephant ears at various points in my life, with varying degrees of success. They have neat foliage, but that was the extent of interesting features in the plant for me. This spring I found some elephant ears with black stems, which add further architectural interest. As the summer progressed, I noticed that there were yellowish leaves on the plant, and was thinking that it might not be doing so good. So I went over to take a look at them, and imagine my surprise when I figured out that they were flowers. Not pretty fragrant flowers, but flowers nontheless. In fact they reminded me somewhat of birds of paradise. So this has been the first surprise of the growing season for me.

Everything else is doing pretty good. I'm going to have to relocate some of the other plants that have gotten too big for their neighbors, but that's to the good since I still have some bare spots on the front of the house. I think we're going to do one last trip to the nursery tomorrow and get some tulip bulbs, get everything set out and transplanted and then call it a growing season.

Bamalama Red Beans

Since D. is out of the country I'm flying solo right now. I haven't been eating that well lately, for various reasons and am trying to get back on track with healthier eating. So tonight when I got home from work I was thinking about having some black beans and rice. Since I got kidney stones most likely from a calcium supplement, I am trying to get more calcium naturally. I was out of black beans so I made it with kidney beans (how appropriate)! It was time to clean out the refrigerator crisper and so I threw most of what I had into the pot. Since I made salsa a few days ago, I decided a more Caribbean themed dish would be good. Here's what I came up with:

Bamalama Red Beans

1 Tbs. olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 stalk celery, minced
1 (14.5 oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14.5 oz) can tomatoes with jalapenos (or you could use Rotel)
1 c. water
1/4 tsp. allspice
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. smoked spanish paprika
Salt & pepper to taste
1/2 c. thinly sliced green onions
About 1 Tbs. or so of minced fresh cilantro
Juice of 1 lemon
Brown Sugar to taste (depends on the acidity level)

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and celery, saute until onion begins to brown. Add beans through salt and pepper and stir well to combine. Bring to a boil and reduce heat. Simmer around 10-15 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine.

This turned out pretty spicy, but really flavorful. Instead of mixing it with the usual rice I made some quinoa to go with it.

Ave Maria

We had some guests in visiting this weekend and had a really great time. It was the first weekend I've felt like doing much in a while. We went to see the Ave Maria Grotto at the St. Bernard's Abbey which is something I've been wanting to do for a long time. It was an absolutely amazing place, I could have spent a lot more time there than what we did, but it was starting to get pretty hot outside. The grotto is a collection of miniature buildings that were made by one of the brothers at the monastery. There are 155 of them total and he made them from found objects. The buildings are located in a scenic wooded park that is very relaxing to walk through. It'll definately be a new stop for visitors who come to see us.

We went to see the Space & Rocket center and enjoyed that also. I'm not that into crowded places, but they did have some very interesting things to see. They had the OCC's Liberty Bike on tour there and set up which was something to see. They have a pretty good assortment of different spacecraft there, and also artifacts from the space program. We rushed the outside tour part, because it was starting to storm and we didn't really want to be standing out beside a giant rocket when it got struck by lightening. Our guests went home on Sunday and we spent the rest of the day relaxing. D.'s grandmother died last Wednesday and he is going home for the funeral so we went out shopping on Monday for clothes for him to wear. It was a pretty eventful weekend so it's nice to be back to work so that I can rest. :)

New Toy

Over the weekend I looked out in the backyard and noticed that there was a hummingbird flying around the regular bird feeder. So today I stopped and picked up a hummingbird feeder on the way home from work. I've been meaning to get one for a while and hadn't gotten around to it. I took the shephard's hook out into the back and tried to put it into the ground and couldn't because it is hard as a rock. I even tried soaking it with a hose and wasn't able to get it to go all the way in. It's standing, but not too firm right now, I'll have to push it in more when we get a good rain in. So now we'll see if I get any takers. :)

It's hotter than a....

I've been running through a list of colorful Southern sayings to try and describe how hot it is, but nothing pays justice. It was 105 F here today and I can say I'm really glad that I work indoors. I could only be persuaded to go outside to get lunch and to go home. It's been a rough week, I came down with either a kidney stone or a bladder infection that felt like one. After they figured out that the antibiotic they had prescribed to me was one that the bacteria had resistance to it went much better. So today is the first day that I have felt normal in a long time. We did find out that the baby is a girl last Wednesday which is fun news.

Since it's been so hot and dry none of the flowers are showing off at their best right now. I was surprised when I went outside this evening to check things over that there were some lovely flowers on my latest clematis vine. This is the Betty Corning variety, and I love them because they are so understated. In fact I barely noticed that it was there. :) I gave almost everything a good watering down to help them along. There's a tropical depression moving towards Texas and I'm hoping it blows some rain our way. A girl can dream. :)

The Golden Compass

It was with some excitement and a little anxiety that I saw the following link on Yahoo News today. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718640/info The Golden Compass is part of an excellent trilogy by Philip Pullman. After I got the first one I immediately went out and bought the others and had a reading marathon to finish them. It was one of the best series that I'd read in a long time. So on to the movie. There are parts of it that look incredible, but there's always that nagging "But it wasn't like that in the book!" that I will have to get over. I do have to say that Nicole Kidman as Ms. Coulter is a fabulous choice. Something else to look forward to in December. :) Hopefully I can see it before I go into labor. ;)

Crepe Myrtles

Last fall when we bought our house there were two trees that had been planted in the summer. One of them looked to be dead and the other had only one or two green leaves on it. As part of our agreeing to buy the house I asked for the trees to be replaced. I also asked if I could pick the replacement trees. Since there were crepe myrtles that my grandmother had planted growing in front of our house when I was younger I really wanted some. Those had been the bright magenta colored blooms that are a trifle overblown. For those who might not be familiar with them, most of the common crepe myrtles are magenta, lavendar and white. The trees that got put into the front yard actually looked to be almost in worse shape than the trees that were removed and I thought they might die over the winter.

Flash to April when the trees had just begun to leaf out, and the whole area was struck with a severe frost. It killed the top of the limbs of the tree and turned all of the leaves brown. For a month nothing grew on them and finally leaves started coming out. While D and I were out shopping I noticed that there were crepe myrtles in the parking lot of the store and they were RED. I had never seen a red crepe myrtle before and I was in love. Since we didn't have any idea what the color of those that were planted in our yard were I got a flash of hope that they might be red too, but what are the chances. A couple of weeks ago I noticed the flower buds on them, and finally yesterday they opened up and they were....RED! Actually only one has opened up so far I haven't seen the other yet. I'm hoping it's red too, since red and magenta together look like colors a cheap hooker might wear. But I guess we'll see. :)

Roses

Yesterday I got home from work and ran out to take pictures of the roses. My Elle rose was opening up the day before, and when I went to takea picture I realized that my camera battery was dead. :P So I went out and snapped some quick pictures. Since it had just rained earlier I got some perfect dewy shots. I especially admired the intricate bloom on the Neptune bush, up above. I have been really happy with how well the roses have done since they were just planted this year. My previous attempts at growing roses haven't always been successful so it's always a crapshoot with me. So far the most effort that I have had to go to so far this year is assassinating a couple of Japanese beetles that were snacking. I don't really like killing things but sometimes you have to.

The pregnancy is going along pretty well, I don't really have much to complain about....yet. ;) I reserve my right to complain in the future! I'm still waiting for this nesting instinct to kick in that will make me clean the house like a mad woman. Go figure, the one symptom that I REALLY need isn't happening. I try not to get too excited or nervous because I still have a long way to go. I'm getting to the point though that I'm going to have to start making some arrangements...find a pediatrician, take some childbirth classes, pick out a hospital etc. It was nice being comfortably numb and not having to worry about all of that, but I guess I must. :)

Nice Weather

We've had a very nice spell of weather over the last couple of weeks. We've gotten quite a bit of rain, and the temperatures have been a little cooler. We went to Lowe's this morning to get a work bench for the garage, and of course while we were there I had to look at the garden center. I've been keeping my eyes out for a replacement for my peppermint clematis. It has very neat looking blooms on it but unfortunately hasn't been doing so well since it got planted. Almost all of the leaves have fallen off and it just wasn't looking too good. So while we were at Lowe's I found a Butterscotch Jessamine that has yellow fragrant flowers. It was a very well established plant and looks like it'll do good. I also picked up a couple of plants for the bird/butterfly/bee garden that I'm going to be setting up by my bird feeder.

After I got home I went out and planted the jessamine. I also did some tidying up of our back porch area because it was looking a little junky. I had some failed planting experiments, old pots and stuff sitting around so I got it all cleaned up. I also got rid of the failed lotus plant and potted a water lily in its place. After that I was pretty much wiped out for the day and came in and rested.

It has been a pretty quiet and restful weekend. It has been raining some off and on which is much better than the drought that we were having. D.'s parents went home on Thursday after a very busy and productive visit.

One of the main things that got finished was the gravel pathway in the picture above. Before it was part of the flower bed and to get over to the faucet you had to walk around grass clumps and got ant bites all over your feet. Now it is much cleaner and tidier looking. The stepping stones have a neat Celtic knot on them. We also got mulch laid down so maybe the plants won't dry out quite so fast. The mulch helps give it a more finished look also. Note that my pink whirling butterfly plant in the bottom right corner has been corraled. I had the same plant in North Carolina and it was very well behaved. This one has been sprawling all over the flower bed and looking pretty shabby. We got a little hoop to hold it up so that the stems on it cascade a bit and look so much nicer.

What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Laundry, grocery shopping, more laundry and then ending up with doing laundry. We've been behind for the last month or so and getting caught up really sucks.

4th of July

So I haven't felt like posting for a while now. I was feeling extremely fatigued for most of the month of May and the early part of June. I haven't had any problems with morning sickness, but the heat does wear me out really quickly now. I have been busy with work and finishing up my classes. So I've started the next round now and I'm really not at my best with it. I'm used to a few weeks between classes so there was a bit of a break. This set started the day after the other classes ended so I'm still trying to get my bearings with it.

D's parents have been here visiting since Friday. It's been like having a couple of industrious helpful little elves around the place because they have gotten so much done while I was at work. They stained the fence, did some yard work and reorganized the garage. We went to see Transformers this afternoon, and I really enjoyed the movie. Back to work tomorrow, but at least it's only for two days before the weekend.

Welcome Cookies Back Again!

The cookie drought at our house has finally been broken, behold it is Snack Day at work tomorrow! Of course I forgot that I had told them I would bake some cookies until 9:10 p.m. I have had this recipe for a while that I wanted to try, because my grandma used to bake some pineapple coconut cookies and my mom loved them. Since grandma is dead and her estranged sister has the recipe box she doesn't have a recipe. So I found this one out on the internet and am going to bake them for her next time she comes to visit. It's not that healthy for you but the taste is a real winner.

Pineapple Coconut Cookies
1/2 c. shortening
1/2 c. brown sugar, firmly packed
1/4 c. white sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c. crushed pineapple, drained
1/2 package of baking coconut

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl cream together the shortening and sugars. Add in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, pineapple and coconut alternately and stir well. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes or until they just start to brown around the edges. Be careful not to overbake them.

Neptune

My first roses in the new house bloomed today. They have had buds on them for the last week or so that just barely open a little bit each day. This rosebush is Neptune, that I bought from the Edmund's Roses catalog this spring. It's been kind of dry lately and there have been some little bugs on the buds so the flowers weren't perfect. But I figure that it's an accomplishment enough to get even a raggedy bloom out of them so I'm posting the pictures like a proud mama.

Speaking of proud mamas, I am going to be one. In December plus or minus a few weeks. So there's a lot of excitement around the homestead now. I have been doing well and I had my first doctor visit. My next one will be the second week in June to keep an eye on everything and make sure it is all going well. I'm such a logistician that I must already start planning every detail that I can think of so that very little gets left to chance. It's actually obsessive/compulsive I think. :)

It's been a pretty busy week, work has really picked up for me lately. I've also gotten over the aversion to food and actually cooked for the first time this last weekend. It seems like I'm making up for the meals lost with a vengeance now, so hopefully I'm not as big as a whale for my next doctor's visit.

P.S. The roses smell divine, very strong traditional rose smell. :)

Fenced In

The new fence is in. We came home from work one day to find all of the posts in place. The next day they had the cross-sections in place. Then a couple of days later the fence panels were in and it was done. Some of our other neighbors were getting a fence from the same place and they did them all together. I actually can't get a shot of the whole backyard in one picture.

It is really nice and defines our property. Before it was hard to tell whose was what. So there it is. Now we are working on getting it paid for. ;)

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

Work finally started on our privacy fence today. We commissioned it a couple of weeks ago but it was raining last week and they didn't get started on it. I am so excited because we have never owned an honest to God real all around privacy fence. We have a lot of projects that we are planning for the back yard, but we didn't really want to start on any of them until we had the fence.

One of our challenge spots that we are going to be doing something with is the drainage ditch in the back yard that cuts off the back 1/3 of our back yard. I'm not sure why they chose that drainage option because it makes the back part of the yard mostly unusable. Don't worry though friends, I have a plan. The main problem that I have with the current drainage ditch is the fact that the soil is eroding as the rainwater flows over it. What we plan on doing is to dig it out a bit more and make a dry gravel streambed and incorporate features that will help keep the soil in place and out of the local streams. We will plant some rain garden type plants that can deal with water or drought on the edges and then put a wooden bridge over it, like one of these:

http://www.aquaart.com/lwbridges.html

And then all along the back fenceline I plan on planting the whole thing in blackberry brambles. So in this way we will be able to utilize our whole backyard instead of just writing off the part with the ditch in it. The other advantage is that by fencing it we won't have to worry about the kids riding their dirt bikes and four wheelers through it. Now if only it will all work out as smoothly as that. ;)

Technology Curse

So overall the weekend hasn't been very promising. I've broken two major household appliances, it has rained for the last two days, it has been cold and not exactly condusive to getting things done. It's not necessarily that I broke the appliances as much as I was the one who found that they weren't working. The dishwasher isn't turning on and it appears to have some disconnect between the electronic panel on the front and what actually turns it on. The timer on the dryer is not moving and clothes just dry and dry and dry. So I really probably shouldn't even be on the computer because lord knows what will happen to it.

Not a really good way to start off the new week, hopefully it isn't a sign. ;)

Gardening in my Garage

We had the freezing spell Saturday through Monday so I couldn't put out any plants. I got in a shipment yesterday evening, but I worked late so I couldn't put it out. Today it rained a ton, so no planting for a few days while I wait for it to dry out. In the meantime I was concerned for my new Angel Face rose bush. I had planted one of these up in North Carolina, pictured above. I fell madly in love with it and it tore my heart out to leave it when we left. So I found one in a gardening catalog and ordered it. It came in with yesterday's shipment and was a bare-root plant wrapped in plastic. Since I won't be able to plant it outside for a few days I went ahead and put it in a pot with some dirt in it to keep it from drying out. Hopefully I'll be able to get them out before they all die.

Too good to be true

Most people that I know figured that we'd get another cold snap after the warm weather we've been having. We just didn't think it would be this much of a cold snap. After a couple of nights at 27 degrees the leaves on my crepe myrtle tree died. Most everything else still seems to be doing okay and that has been the only casualty I have seen. I'm definately ready for a bit warmer weather.

My last round of mail-order plants is coming in and after that I don't plan on planting much. Our main priority is to get the privacy fence in the back yard put up and then maintain the things that we have planted so far. Looking forward to warming up soon. :)