Recipe of the Day

So, I know I haven't posted in forever and am not for sure this will last, but since I'm posting these on our playgroup's message board I figured I might as well publish them here, too. One of these days I'll get around to writing actual posts again!

One-Dish Chicken Supper

My notes: The "standard" recipe comes from the back of the Stove Top Stuffing boxes ... you can also add broccoli or frozen mixed veggies. The crockpot version is from the "Fix It and Forget It" cookbook. I wonder if this would be good with cream cheese instead of the sour cream or milk?

Standard edition:
1 box chicken stuffing (or turkey, your choice)
1/4 c. stick margarine, cut up
1 1/2 c. hot water
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (or equivalent; I often cook a whole chicken or turkey and freeze the leftovers, then just pull out a package of the larger chunks for this dish) - you can do this with cooked or uncooked chicken, I just use the cooked for convenience and time-saving
1 can cream of mushroom/chicken/celery (your choice)
1/3 c. sour cream or milk

1. Mix stuffing, margarine, and water, just till moistened.
2. Mix soup and sour cream (or milk).
3. Put chicken in baking dish, top with soup mix then stuffing.
4. Bake at 375 deg. about 35 minutes or till chicken is done (if using precooked chicken, cook till stuffing is nicely browned on top).

If using a crockpot, everything is the same except steps 3 and 4:
3. Put chicken in crockpot, top with soup mix then stuffing.
4. Cook on Low 6-8 hours.

And the quick list of updates since I haven't written in about a year:
We're expecting another daughter in May.
Thomas is in preschool and is looking forward to Kindergarten in the fall (actually, "looking forward to" doesn't quite cover it - he's been asking about just when he gets to start for the last year and a half!)
Beth is finally growing some hair and hates the fact that she isn't in preschool yet; she'll start a one day/week program this coming fall.
Clay is still at OSU and still loves his job.
Rob is still at OSU and living with us, and still can't wait to graduate.
Pregnancy is still a mix of enjoyment and discomfort, and I'm totally worn out by it!

Sick!

Another pop-in, just letting you know we're all still alive. Thomas caught the flu either from preschool or playing with other kids on Thursday, then I caught it, then Clay caught it, then Rob caught it. We'd never have made it without my mom who SO kindly dropped everything (even her workout that she was about to go to!) yesterday morning to come and take care of us. Thanks Mom!
Thomas seems to have gotten the hardest hit, he's still pretty wiped out but I think just tired now, not really sick anymore. Clay and I are both feel a lot better; I'm munching on crackers and drinking Sprite and Clay just won a game of Candy Land with Thomas. I think I'll even be able to make my appointment for massage therapy tomorrow (they're hoping to get rid of my headaches, though don't seem to be overly optimistic).
We're heading out to Indianapolis on Thursday evening to meet up with our best friends (Jeff, Onalee, Anna, Lydia, and Wesley). Wesley turned a year old this past week and we haven't ever seen him, we all lived in Kentucky at the same time but moved when Onalee was pregnant with Wesley and I was pregnant with Beth - it will be so awesome to see everyone!
After hanging out with them on Friday, my mom will drive out and meet up with us. Clay will take her car back to Columbus and my mom will go out the rest of the way to St. Louis with us - there really didn't seem to be any point in going *back* to Columbus on Friday then turning around and leaving on Saturday again.
Ok, I'm getting a little tired again so I'm going to read and rest for a while ... here's hoping tomorrow I'll be 100%!

I'm Back!

It's been a while, but I think I'm returning to the blogosphere. We just returned from a trip out to visit family in St. Louis, but have yet to get back into the swing of things. Thomas woke up and promptly threw up the entire contents of his stomach - thankfully, that consisted only of water! He wants something to eat now, but I'm putting him off for a while, then we'll see what happens. He's otherwise doing great, is now fully potty trained, and looking forward to starting school next week. He'll have preschool Monday and Wednesday afternoons, though the first day is shortened. I can't believe he's old enough to start school!
Beth got her second tooth on Saturday, August 23 - the left bottom front tooth was first, right was second. She's working on some others, not sure which exactly yet but guessing the top 2. She's a lot easier with the teething than Thomas was, but doesn't take medicine NEARLY as well, so it's sort of a toss-up. Ugh.
Clay is HOPEFULLY getting results from his blood tests today, they did a whole slew of tests last week to figure out what's going on with his stomach, etc. He's had an upset belly for weeks, the doctor wants to be pretty aggressive as far as tests to figure out what's going on with him - colonoscopy, blood tests, the scope down your esophagus, etc. Yuck!
I've got an appointment with the OB/GYN this week to talk about hormones, etc. (read: possible PPD but I'm not wanting to call it that or admit that I MIGHT have something more going on than irritability) so Mom will be down to watch the kids for my appt. and the Parent Orientation for Thomas's preschool on Thursday, plus maybe for Clay's scope(s) if we can get them scheduled conveniently.
My brother Rob is going to move in while he finds a place to live and gets school/work figured out, he withdrew from Miami and will be attending OSU but isn't sure which quarter he'll get to start classes. It will be a lot of fun having him here, but I've got to clean out the computer room so he'll have somewhere to crash! It's going to be a BUSY couple weeks here!

We won the lottery ...

... but not the good kind involving a windfall of green. We've been down with an extremely nasty virus for the past week, the only redeeming factors being 1) Clay didn't get it! 2) Thomas got it first and was over it before anyone else started feeling symptoms and 3) We live close enough that my mom was able to come down and stay the night to take care of us. I guess I'm the one that got the sickest (fever was over 104 at one point and a week later my throat is still sore) but really, nothing is more miserable than a sick baby. I called in to the pediatrician's office and they wanted to see us, so I hauled my miserable sick self, Thomas's healthy but by now bored self, and Beth's very sad and pathetical sick self to the Dr. on Thursday. He thought it might be strep (imagine how well the throat swab went over) but turns out we've just all got another really nasty virus, and he's seen it a lot in the last couple weeks. So to relieve the symptoms of sore throat he tells me I can use children's benadryl and children's mylanta, mixed together and put in her mouth. The mylanta soothes it, the benadryl numbs it - I'm thinking this is great, and we leave the peds office as they are closing for the night. We head over to Meijer to pick up the mylanta (I have benadryl at home) and some groceries we need - get the groceries, but they don't have the mylanta. Ugh. So then I drag all of us across the street to Walmart where I'm informed that I'm the fourth person in 2 days to come looking for it and no, they don't have it and they can't get it. They suggest CVS, who tells me the same thing - you're the second person today to come looking for it and we don't have it, so sorry. Apparently our Dr. is sending everyone out for this and doesn't know that they quit making it. Grr.
My throat is only a little sore still (finally!) so hopefully today I can make some headway on all the nonsense there is to do around here - I'm absurdly behind after traveling to St. Louis, going to Girls' Weekend, then immediately getting sick - that's over 2 weeks of relying on my mom's overnight (she did some laundry and dishes for us, thank goodness) and Clay's spare time (which he has precious little of, I can't be thankful enough that it was all spent taking care of the stuff I couldn't do). So, I guess this is off for laundry!

Updates

We gave Clay a cute picture frame and "Doodle Box" for Father's Day. The picture frame was our project at playgroup, Thomas did pretty much all of it himself. I gave him the letters for "Daddy" and traced/cut out the kids' hands, but he did all the gluing, coloring, picking out what to put on there, and placing everything. Now I just have to a) take a picture of it and b) print out a picture to put in it. The "Doodle Box" is actually a tool box sold by Craftsmen that comes with paints and stickers and such for the kid(s) to decorate for their Dads. It's still in the box, Clay and Thomas can do it together (lol, I'm seriously looking forward to watching this, I can just hear Clay trying to not be completely anal while a 2-year-old decorates). Clay wants to take it to work after it's done, I guess tools are pretty hard to keep hold of there, so he wants to be able to lock them up.
Thomas's sandboxes arrived, along with a little playset and (finally!) a slide for the big swingset. Now we just have to get the swingset finished and the sandboxes filled. We got the sandboxes and little playset from a garage sale, the playset has a little steering wheel. It's taken up residence in the basement, Thomas calls it his "car" and a new favorite phrase is "Should I drive it ... ?" I love his "Should I do X?" questions, I'm not sure whether it's a cute saying he's come up with or a new way of discovering standards of behavior. It certainly helps though!

Life

So, lately I've been blah. No news to my 3 regular readers (shout out to Jenn, Jill, and Mom), it keeps me posting, which keeps me sane, but worth saying all the same. Because apparently, I'm not alone. Here's yesterday's post from one of my favorite blogs:

Mayor of Dullsville

I feel boring.

I feel so boring I can't even adequately explain how boring I am. Possibly that is because everyone reading this is over six years old, and I no longer have anything to say to people over six years old. I do child care, and laundry, and grocery shopping, and preschool applications and precious little else. I feel like I've lost the ability to discuss anything other than children.

I don't mean that I'm unhappy, because I am enjoying the mommy thing. I just would also enjoy feeling like I had something to contribute to an adult conversation.

How do you stop being boring?

Another blogger posted a comment that I found really helpful:

A. YOU are not boring.
B. Changing diapers IS boring.
C. That does not make you a bad person. It doesn't mean you aren't a great mom just because you don't want to speak toddle-speak or talk about your kids 24/7. It means you are a grown up. And human. And INTERESTING.
D. To combat this, I read about other people's lives (novels as well as blogs). I listen to NPR. And I started something on my blog called Thinky Thursday where I made a promise to myself to write one post per week about something that had nothing to do with children or housekeeping in any way. It pushes me to engage with ideas out there in the world, and to have little conversations about them. And since I started that, I have found myself starting those conversations with my friends in real life too. This helps a little.
E. We ALL feel this way. It comes and goes and is a normal part of having very young kids I think. I'm sending some hugs, for whatever that's worth.

So, I'm going to try Thoughtful Thursdays (sorry, but "Thinky" is a little too kiddish for a day devoted to NOT posting about kids). Which means Beth is getting bumped to Saturdays (so there's something to look forward to every couple days rather than everything happening at once, and the alliteration goes better this way). See how boring I am? I have so much "bore" that I consider the alliteration of my titles.
Since I will not be posting about it tomorrow, I'll have to say today that we're hosting playgroup tomorrow and then post about it Saturday. And Beth discovered yesterday how to use her voice on purpose, and today I heard her chuckle for the first time. Clay claims she's done it before, but I kinda think he's full of it.
Clay's dealing with a serious academic misconduct at school, I feel really bad for him - he had a really miserable day today where he had to confront his Problem Child and the Child With Problems. (PC being the problem, CWP being the ?inadvertent? provider of copy material.) The s**t hit the fan last Thursday when he caught it in the first place, and he's been consulting with deans and such since then finding out procedures and all. For one of the first times ever, I think my job will be easier than his over the next few weeks.
Thomas was pretty good today, he was thrilled that Henry and the rest of the playgroup are coming over tomorrow, so maybe that influenced his behavior this evening just a bit. And here's a cute tidbit from when Clay got home, complete with grammar:

Clay: It's my Thomas! Hi! How are you?
Thomas: Hi! Thomas pretty good.
Clay: (chuckles) Are you pretty good?
Thomas: Uh-huh. (grins)
Clay: How was your day?
Thomas: It was pretty good. Thomas day pretty nice.

Clay and I were just about rolling.

To top it off, we had a showing on the house at 6:30 that seemed to go really well, here's hoping we hear back from them soon! I'm nervous to type it (don't want to jinx us!) but I think they just might be the ones. Finally! See, and I need to get over this whole jinxing thing - I know it's not real, but obviously on some level don't, 'cause it does make me nervous. I'd say I'm a dummy except that I know I'm not. Silly, maybe, but not dumb. :-)

Oh, and before I forget, a link to my flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hwdiary/

Sickies

Clay's been down with a cold since Friday, and as of this morning it's official, he passed it on to Thomas too. Thomas's nose is running away without him, but other than that and being a little cranky he's not doing too badly. Beth is still sound asleep, I left a bottle with Clay this morning while Thomas and I went to the store, and she's been asleep since he gave it to her.
Jenn and Henry came over yesterday, it was great - Thomas started looking out the window watching for them to arrive as soon as he got up. The boys had lots of fun playing, I finished off Beth's dress, and Jenn worked on a cross-stitch she's been at since a junior in high school. I certainly have had projects unfinished since high school, but I have to admit giving up ever getting them done and just tossing them. Heck, I'm about to toss a project I started just a few years ago - a robe that I cut the wrong size (it was my first sewing experiment and I didn't know better, so I went with what their measurements on the back of the envelope said - that I was a size 10 - rather than my actual size of 4). Anyway, Thomas is pulling out my sewing fabric all over the place, so I'd better go stop that.
PS - Our new house is officially under full contract, all the radon and repair stuff negotiated and everything. Yea!

YEA!

Back to Ohio we go! Clay accepted the offer from Ohio State earlier today, so starting May 18 he will be working back in Columbus! Now I guess I have to get serious about decluttering and packing stuff up and house cleaning. Which is what I should be doing right now.
Now all I need is for Beth to decide to show up . . . I am SO done being pregnant.

FINALLY!!

I think I've finally figured out what Thomas has been talking about the last several nights. I don't know exactly what he's saying (something that sounds like both "smells trash" and "more chest") but tonight he added in that he needed a tissue. I think he's talking about that his nose is stuffy (well, not actually stuffy, but he thinks it is!) and so he needs a tissue. Go figure. Here's hoping that's what it actually is.
Clay is home after traveling all day to get here - I think it would have been faster for him to drive - his first flight was delayed, so he missed his connection, and the flight he did get couldn't land at the airport for all the fog. So he was supposed to be home (our house, not just the airport) by noon, and he walked in at 6:45. Poor guy, he's exhausted, and Thomas was Daddy-obsessed, so he "got to" play with a toddler all night. They had lots of fun, but poor Clay! He's asleep now (can you blame him?) which makes for a very quiet night for me! Now off for a nice ice cream sundae again!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way . . .

Apparently the talk about nightmares being just like stories or movies (in that they aren't real) worked last night. Thomas slept until 10:30 (he didn't fall asleep until 11, so that's not a major shock except that he wasn't sleeping past 9:30 the days before) and went down fine at nap time . . . I put him down at 2 and he was out by 2:05. Now I just need to get the rest of the housework done! Clay was supposed to get back early enough for us to all do lunch today, but his flight to Philly was delayed and he missed his connection to W'port. So poor Dave gets to cover Clay's lab for the second week in a row, and we got grilled cheese for lunch instead of whatever fabulous thing we might have eaten. Maybe I'll talk Clay into dinner tomorrow night to make up for it.
Got some ribbon at the store yesterday to finish making the boyish onesies into girlish onesies, I think they're going to look really cute. Will post pics once finished. Lots more to do on the rest of the house before Clay gets home and/or before Beth arrives and/or before putting the house on the market. I'm a bit nervous about it selling, but it's such a cute house that I don't imagine it will be too bad. I hope. Sigh.
Off to more dishes, laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and general randomness.

Crazy Day

Clay left for another interview today, and I'm pretty sure the day would have been a total wash without the Superbowl. I know absolutely nothing about football (Me: "Are we rooting for the blue people or the red people?"; Everyone else: Laughs; Dave: "Uh, the blue ones, that's the Pats!") but getting to go hang out made the world an okay place to be again. Thomas woke up early today and was in a Mood (you know, one of *those*), then Clay left which didn't help either. Oh yeah, before that even, when we got up this morning Dandy had peed on the floor again . . . not a good way to start a day after yet another rotten night's sleep. Anyway, we went to church, came back home and I laid Thomas down right away, no later than 2:30 - he jabbered until 4:30 or later! I ended up waking him up at 6, I didn't want to get him up any earlier because I knew he'd be a serious mess. Thankfully Jenn had invited us over for Superbowl, or I don't know how we would have made it through the night. Even *with* the promise of going over to Henry's it took 2 screaming (I mean scary screaming, not just goofy or throwing a fit) fits out of Thomas just to get in the car. I've never heard him go like that, it was actually kind of frightening. Anyway, we managed to get over there and after about a half hour of laying on my lap Thomas cooled down enough to play. He and Henry had a blast, especially later - they were chasing each other around the kitchen/hallway/dining room. It was so funny, Henry would slow down for me to be able to tickle him as they passed by. Jenn and I played a few games of Mille Bornes while half paying attention to the game, which was great - she knows more about football than I do (btw, just heard on the radio that the Pats lost - sorry Dave!) though how much that says is not much (see note on conversation above).
Back to typing from an extended break of talking to DH . . . he just left this morning, but already wishing he was home! To give a bit of an anecdote, Thomas loves to play with Lite Brite pieces (remember those toys we all played with when we were little? Still around, in travel version here!) and has been obsessed with playing with them every morning this week. I kid you not, we were up in his room for an hour playing with them Friday morning before he would ever come down for breakfast. And he didn't get up until 10:30. Anyway, before we ever even got out the door for church (which is at noon) he had managed to get them taken away. For them to have been taken away . . . it was a rotten morning. Did I mention how extremely grateful I am that Jenn invited us to crash their Superbowl party? Ok, I know I did say it a couple times already, but I honestly don't know how we would have made it through the night.
Ok, so definitely bedtime, especially if tomorrow is in any way remotely like today.

Nesting

Ok, now I know the baby is coming soon . . . Clay has started nesting! He spent the evening moving around furniture (including a huge dresser!) getting it arranged for Beth's arrival. I don't remember this happening with Thomas, but maybe it was because I already had it all done . . .
I'm working on finishing a dress for Beth, thank you notes, dishes, and laundry - except not right now, while I'm taking a break and trying to remember a name for a thank you note I have yet to write. No luck. I was just browsing through the links on a friend's blog and found one to yet another blog - somebody I have no idea who they are, but they're apparently also due right around now. She's gone through all her nesting stuff too, and even planned out the clothes for Kid #1 to wear to visit Kid #2 in the hospital. I hate to admit it, but I hadn't even thought of that, in spite of my mom talking about how mortified she was at the condition of my brother and I when we went to visit my youngest brother - for the last 20 years. So now one other thing to add to the list of things to do - figure out Thomas' wardrobe for the length of our stay in the hospital. My rational brain says that this is a stupid thing to worry about, that it really is not difficult for any adult to figure out what to put on a 2-year-old. The mommy-and-wife part of my brain says I obviously need to worry about this because Clay goes into a bit of a panic when he has to dress Thomas and I *am* here to ask. I'm pretty sure the hospital stay will be the worst part of the whole experience - except that I wouldn't want to give birth at home (talk about a mess to clean up! Ugh, eew, and ick!) I'd have considered staying at home so as not to be trapped and be able to answer the infinite crises that erupt when I'm not available.
Time to get out the To Do list!

Day 3 and still running!

Wow, I am so impressed with me . . . how pathetic is that? Anyway, today was a LONG day . . . fun and good but REALLY LONG. Woke up starving at 5:30, got up and made a peanut butter sandwich, still couldn't sleep, got a sinus blowup with headache, took drugs, still couldn't sleep, drugs took effect, still couldn't sleep, alarm went off to get ready for Dr. visit, got up and felt like I had been run over by a truck. Still haven't slept any more all day. Went to the OB, a nice quick tummy check and out! The fastest appointment yet, aside from last night's ultrasound (15 minutes and GONE!) so I was happy. They're apparently trying to speed up the check-in process by having people seeing the doctors go to the first window, midwives and ultrasound guy to the second . . . maybe a good thought, but when you get a line at the second window and the first window lady is just busyworking, perhaps you ought to relax the "procedure" in face of reality. Not to mention that the first window lady was uber-cranky, and annoying. Sigh. Thankfully I was actually seeing a midwife so I didn't have to talk to the first window lady pretty much at all, but she was pretty rude to the woman in front of me (and the one who arrived behind me) so just her being there was getting on my nerves. Which probably says more about my nerves than the lady at the desk. Anyway, got out of there and stopped at the grocery store - while I wasn't sleeping I was craving Oreos to the point that I gave half a serious thought to putting on my coat and going to the store. I was able to control that particular urge by reminding myself that having not slept I probably wouldn't be a very safe person to be driving . . . we'll not think about that I never slept after that either and still drove to the Dr.'s office. Got home and hung out doing my crossword, etc., finally had to wake Thomas up at 10:15, Jenn and Henry were coming at 10:30 for our much-awaited trip to Joann Fabrics. Thomas was still eating when they got here, but just an oatmeal bar, so he just left it for later.
The trip to Joann's was fabulous, I got some really cute patterns and fabrics (knits! I needed knits! Walmart - the only store close to here that carries fabric - doesn't regularly carry knits!) I already cut out the fabric for one dress, hopefully I'll get the dress done tomorrow, plus a couple cute onesies from another pattern I got . . . pink cotton knit. Thomas and Henry were real troopers while we traipsed all over the store, though every time we mommies would go to separate parts of the store each of the boys would be asking "Where did Henry/Thomas go?" Jenn got some great fabric for a totally cute shirt that she's going to make for herself . . . I haven't even thought of making something for myself recently, I'm waiting for the time when I'm not pregnant and I have an actual need for more clothes to coincide. That sentence just took about 5 minutes to get grammatically correct - it's late! Anyway, then to the mall for awesome Chinese food, the lemon chicken I got was SO good that I didn't mind tasting it for heartburn over the next several hours. TMI, sorry. Stopped in a couple stores on the way out looking for a doll for Thomas (for when Beth is born - I think it might help him to have a baby to take care of while I take care of Beth) and socks from Old Navy. Alas, no luck on either. Home to try to get Thomas down for a nap at 3:30 . . . also unsuccessful. He sat up in his crib chattering away and dumping all of his stuffed animals and blankets out of bed for the next 2 hours (nearly). At least he was resting, right? Clay got home in the meantime, but had a wicked headache and has been asleep for longer than Thomas has now.
Last weekend I got a bunch of chicken on sale at the grocery store (it NEVER goes on good sale here, plus I really want to have stuff easy and ready for when Beth is here) so I spent all evening getting it all cooked, packaged, and frozen. We now have enough for 6 chicken quaesadilla meals, 1-2 of chicken squares, 3-4 of anything requiring chicken chunks (soup, chicken & broccoli toss, stir fry, etc.), plus 6 whole chicken breasts baked with different Italian herbs, with wine in the bottom of the dish . . . can be eaten whole or cut however I need for whatever I want to make. Not bad for a couple hours (dinner was in there too, more chicken squares using a couple of the chicken breasts) and like $14. All good stuff, but remember I haven't slept since 5:30 this morning . . . I am SO TIRED. Which means I should stop typing here, but it's kind of fun to have an outlet for whatever went on during the day . . . the computer can be a better audience than a sleeping husband! Good thing or bad?
Off. to. bed.

Part 2, Day 2!

Wow, 2 days in a row and I'm still on top of it! Maybe I shouldn't sound SO surprised, but considering how bad I am at keeping up with stuff like this . . .
Thomas is down for a much-needed nap, we were going to go shopping with friends today but we had enough freezing rain that the area schools all canceled, so we've rescheduled for tomorrow. Thankfully, Jenn and Henry were able to come over just to play anyway . . . the first thing Thomas said when I got him up this morning was "Is Henry downstairs?" He was pretty excited when I told him last night that we were going to the store with Henry, so it would have been a really rotten morning if they hadn't been able to play. Jenn and I had fun playing this ancient card game (well, not ancient exactly, but my mom said she and her siblings would play it when they were sick growing up!), so I might just have to get one for us. It's called Mille Bornes, and it's a lot of luck and some skill, so not as frustrating as some games that are all one or the other. I also got to show off the dresses that I've made for Beth, which I am very excited about. We're going to Joann Fabrics tomorrow, and I can't wait to get some more fabric to make some more outfits for her! It's a lot more fun sewing girls' stuff than boys' stuff, I guess because you can't tell as much that it's homemade . . . if I were to make some jeans for Thomas, you would be able to tell that they aren't from Baby Gap or whatever. Plus I get to use all the trim - ribbon and rickrack and so forth, plus the fancy stitching that would just look weird on a boy's shirt. Maybe I'll make her a little top with some of the fabric that matches the one dress I made . . . too much fun! And relaxing . . . I find that my patience is below zero at the end of this pregnancy, so doing something like sewing keeps the peace with Thomas better than my goofing off with him would.
Clay is back in town safely, in spite of a winter storm that blew in and delayed his final flight for over an hour . . . and it's only a 45-minute flight! The plane was coming from Williamsport airport and headed to Philly (where he was) - supposed to leave at 11:40ish and arrive at 12:22, he boarded the flight at 12:18. Thankfully he already had someone covering his lab until he got back, so it didn't matter so much that it was 1:30 when he called to tell me he was on the ground and in his car (lab starts at 1!) My mom is flying out to spend the week in St. Louis with her mom and sisters, and her flight is managing to leave on time from Columbus (Ohio), but the storm from Minneapolis isn't supposed to hit there until around 7 tonight, so I guess it makes sense. Really though, that means that Clay was in 2 different winter storms today . . . and we'll be seeing the one from MN again in a couple days! Traveling seems so weird when you think about the weather and all, you get out of one storm just in time and it catches up with you a couple days later. I'm a little bit nervous right now because Clay is interviewing again next Monday, so is gone Sun. - Tues. next week too, and my mom isn't getting back to OH until Monday . . . she's coming out to help with the kids so if I go into labor next weekend . . . ugh! I really don't want to face labor alone! On the other hand, Jenn said she'd come in with me if it were to happen that way, which is wonderful of her, but I would still be really upset if Clay was gone. Anyway, I need to lay down for a bit while Thomas is napping or I'll never be rested for heading to the ultrasound later this evening. Not that it should require much rest, but it always seems like I'm out of energy way before I get to the Dr.'s office. Here's hoping for some cool pictures from the ultrasound!

Let's try this again!

So, it's been over a year since I posted anything - after just 2 posts (!), but I'm going to try posting a bit every day or thereabouts for a while - just a journal of the day I guess. Apologies for the long absence, Clay (DH) got seriously ill soon after the last posting, so we were in survival mode for a couple months after, then moving/graduation/new house & job for Clay . . . C'est la vie! Anyway, I've thought about getting back on here and trying for frequent postings, but was finally inspired into actually doing it by reading one of my friend's. Her blog is terrifically funny, which is to say she's very funny, but I really enjoy reading it anyway when I think about looking it up, so maybe somebody in the family (or even out of it!) would like reading about our life.
So, quick update on life: we're in a little town in Pennsylvania where Clay has a position as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry - just a 1-year thing, so as of May we're out of here. Well, May or whenever we actually move . . . Clay's off on another interview right now. He's in Minneapolis, and we're hoping that he'll beat the winter storm out of there to be back in time for the ultrasound tomorrow. Hoping.
Continuation of update: Thomas is nearing 2 1/2 (March!) and we're working on potty training - some days are LOTS better than others. Can I just say I DO NOT like potty training? I have done SO much laundry in the last week or so since we switched to "Big Boy Underpants"! On the other hand, those plastic covers that they make are AWESOME and save so much on the mess scale that I am so happy I found ones that fit him.
Beth (Elizabeth Rose) is due Feb. 18, we'll see when she actually shows up. I'm definitely in the "nesting" phase of pregnancy . . . I moved the changing table down into our room from the closet it's been living in, have all the clothes for her washed, folded, sorted, and in their baskets on the changing table shelf, all the blankets ready (folded on the bottom shelf), bassinet out and ready, then put on a shelf in our closet till needed, the swing and car seat covers washed and then put together, also in a closet till needed, floors vacuumed, laundry finished even to the blankets on our bed, half of the living room floor steam cleaned . . . all today, except most of the washing of Beth's clothes and blankets and car seat cover were all done earlier in the week. Not to mention the regular stuff, caring for Thomas and all. And of all things, I'm deciding to start posting to my blog again tonight, after a year.
We've got a cat (Annie, regular Domestic Short Hair) and a dog (Dandy, retired racing greyhound, new addition in August '07), and a nice Cape Cod style house that's 5 minutes by stroller to an awesome park. I mean really awesome, like drawing people from about 100 miles around on a good summer's day, about 7000 people on an average nice summer weekend day. Which means hopefully we'll be able to resell well and quickly this spring.
Ok, it's nearly 1 AM here, so off to bed . . . after I vacuum the kitchen rug, and sweep and swiffer in there. Not to mention that Thomas and I are going shopping tomorrow with friends, so I should really be asleep 2 hours ago. Oh, well . . . nesting!