Baby Shower!

My awesome Mom threw a double baby shower for me and my sister-in-law, Jenn, this past weekend. It was so good to see some family & high school friends, meet some of her church friends, and spend time with her, Grace, Jenn, and George! It was a fantastic weekend and a really fun party :) Here are some of the photos:

Aunt Grace, Aunt Jenn, me, & Mom


Fresh summer fruit and Turkey Hill iced tea - YUM!


Mom found fabric several years ago that says "Aunt Grace" all over it... she bought a fat quarter and has been saving it all this time! She is so thoughtful!


Melissa Ciacci made us portable-high-chairs. She took the pattern from one that her grandmother made her when she delivered Olivia! It fits on the back of a regular chair and ties around the waist of the baby to secure him in the chair. Great for friends' houses or restaurants without high chairs, and for using in the high chair instead of the clips :)



Poppy sent us beautiful silk scarves. I only have two photos of us with them - one I look weird in and the other Jenn looks weird in. So I posted the one I look weird in. Good thing the scarves are beautiful to make up for my weird face!




Mom's friend Ruth got back from a trip to Montana the day before the shower. Among several other gifts, she brought these shirts - they say "My First Montana T-Shirt." I promise to post photos of Baby Barnes wearing it when he comes!


Rebecca's mom, Laurie Hasselhan, is so thoughtful - she sent over a toy wagon with lots of baby toiletries and cow-boy themed items! I will definitely have to post photos of Baby Barnes wearing the boots, onsies, & pants, and playing with the wagon and toy horse! There's also a book about a new baby sheep on a farm and the proud daddy sheep gets to show off his new son - Mrs. Hasselhan knows me so well!



Wanda Stober picked out the cutest little space outfit. It has little spaceships and aliens all over it, and the feet are alien heads with little antennas!



Penny Mears gave us a little laundry basket full of baby items - one of them is a board book about Courderoy. I've never read the Courderoy books before, but this one is so sweet I might have to go buy the others!






Grace made a Curious George baby quilt for Jenn and George's baby out of a cloth book pattern. She sewed in the names of the animals when she quilted it! She's so crafty :) :) :)


This is the baby quilt Aunt Grace made - the dinosaur is fantastic! She's so crafty and makes such beautiful things!




Jenn did a bunch of sewing for my son - this is the sweet blanket she made :) Aunt Jenn is so sweet!



Mom made such beautiful baby quilts for us. Gramma Frank loves these babies so much already! Thanks, Mom, for a fun party and a great weekend! I love you!

Reality Check

I got a reality check earlier this week when I went to visit Aunt Cathi, Uncle Nathan, and Crystal (more about this visit coming soon, with photos :). Crystal has an adorable new puppy. Well, he's not really a puppy because he's 3 years old, but he's the size of a puppy.

Bentley is a 2.5 lb teacup poodle. I have decided that 2.5 lb is actually remarkably big. I now think that an 8 lb baby must be much bigger than a 2.5 lb dog and I'm starting to get nervous. I can imagine giving birth to something the size of Bentley, but unfortunately that would be a very unhealthy baby. How do I sign up for a 3-week-early-but-still-healthy-6-pound-baby?

Blueberry Syrup

On Wednesday morning I went blueberry picking at Moorehead's Blueberry Farm with a couple of friends from church and their adorable kids :) I picked 4.25 pounds in a little over an hour (between playing peek-a-boo with the kids and pulling branches down for them to reach). I'm going again on Sunday with the Mayers for a Father's Day outing for Nathan and the girls :) Those berries will become a pie/cobbler for a women's dinner I'm hosting next week, and the rest will be frozen for use later this year...

.... but the berries from Wednesday.... that's another story :)



They became Blueberry Syrup! I invited myself over to Kathy's house to share her canning equipment while her kids were napping. We used this recipe (the low sugar variation)... It came out beautifully dark, a little thicker than I anticipated (which was good - one little stir and it loosened right up and then clung very nicely to the pancakes!), and flavorful without being overly sweet. The first batch we made smooth and the second batch we added whole berries at the end. With the whole berries we also added lemon zest instead of just the juice... I haven't tried that jar yet, but the lemon was unnoticeable in the smooth syrup so next time I'd probably add zest to that one too - I think I'd like the added brightness of lemon flavor.

This is one of the cooking blogs I read semi-regularly... she's been experimenting in freezer jam and mentioned adding lime to black raspberry preserves. That sounds fantastically delicious too so I might have to try lime instead of lemon in the future!



But for the first attempt, following the recipe was definitely successful!

25 Weeks - All Healthy!

Yesterday we had our follow-up ultrasound to check out the parts of Baby Barnes that the ultrasound technician couldn't see effectively at the 20 week appointment.

He's grown so much in 5 weeks! This I already knew, though, based on his movement... much stronger, more varied, and in many new places :) The ultrasound was awesome - we got to see him moving his arms and legs, watch his heart beat, check out his kidneys and other internal organs, and look at his face! He started to fall asleep at one point and had his hand resting across his nose - we needed a photo of his nose and lips, so the technician poked and jiggled my belly until he moved his arm away. It was amazing to see how much bigger he is and to be able to see movement at the same time as feeling it :)

We got to meet the 3rd of the four midwives - Theodora. She is SUCH a sweet lady! The first thing she said after coming in the exam room was "You have a beautiful baby!" How could I not like her?!? :)

Conclusion - we're both healthy and doing great!

Weekend fun!

This past weekend, four of my five best friends from High School came to visit me! Laura, Kim, and Amy flew down from PA & DE, and Rebecca and her husband Kevin drove down from TN. Jessica got stuck in DC and couldn't make it :( Boo for the courts giving her funky deadlines for legal documents! We missed you, Jess!

After picking the girls up from the airport, we drove down to Galveston Island for the day. It was really windy, which was a thankful relief from the heat!





After our picnic lunch we headed off to a museum and took a look at the historic ship, Elissa (a "tall ship").







Then we went walking around the historic downtown and did some window shopping. There were markers in some of the stores, and on the pier by the Elissa, showing water levels for various hurricanes. Ike (2008) was the highest mark, second only to the tragic hurricane in 1900 (after which the entire island was raised and the sea-wall was built.)


Amy's dad has a love affair with Hawaiian shirts... this photo's for you, Mr. Zieser!


After watching a short video about the tragic 1900 hurricane, we headed back to Sea Wall Boulevard for some fantastic seafood from Casey's (which is apparently a sister restaurant to Gaido's, which is James' favorite :)


The shrimp atop Casey's. Gaido's has a crab, but we didn't get a photo of that...


After dinner we went wading in the surf. It was MUCH cooler at dusk and the water was amazingly warm. A beautiful end to a great day on the island!



The rest of the weekend included a trip to the Chocolate Bar, Tin Roof Barbecue, Chuy's Mexican Restaurant, and Hobby Lobby, interspersed with Rock Band and card/board games (Time's Up, Yahtzee, Say Anything). We made breakfast tacos on Saturday morning, homemade pizza for dinner Saturday night, and enjoyed baked goods from my friend Kathy on Sunday morning. Kathy's husband, Dirk, preached Sunday morning and we were encouraged and challenged by scripture's description of our union with Christ (Colossians 2).











What a great weekend!

You Might be Pregnant If...

Your stomach starts growling and instead of it being right below your sternum, it's strangely somewhere several inches to the right, behind your ribs.

Your belly is now the easiest place to feel your pulse (thank you increased blood volume flowing to that area...)

You can go to the bathroom at any given moment of the day (or night)

Every time you meet someone new (or see the end credits of a movie) you have a discussion about whether this new name would fit your child

Your back hurts when you lie on your back, your hips hurt when you lie on your side, and... well... you just can't lie on your stomach.

You are suddenly the most important person in the discussion of where to go for dinner :) :) :)

You feel like an alien in your own body (not that all the goings on are bad/uncomfortable... they're just way different than what you're accustomed to!) - thanks, Mom, for that analogy - I haven't heard a better one yet!

That's All, Folks!

Well, yesterday I turned in my keys to the Band Hall at Pin Oak. After five years, I'm no longer a Middle School Band Director. It's a strange combination of relief, excitement, regret (at what else I could have done while I was there), and nostalgia. It's been such a strange/funny/weird/bizarre experience working with middle school kids that as I walked out of the building I really wanted to hear the end music of Looney Toons with a big "That's All, Folks!" I'm such a nerd...


Things I'm looking forward to this summer:
*Re-organizing furniture & setting up the baby stuff
*Having a garage sale
*Sewing baby room stuff and hopefully living room curtains
*Fruit picking and canning (peaches and blueberries first!)
*Regularly listening to symphonic music (Rimsky-Korsokov today :)
*Attending an entire Adult Sunday School series for the first time in 5 years!
*Eating produce from my little garden (LOTS of tomatoes today!)
*Finishing Kodaly class & certification!
*Visitors!!! Laura/Amy/Beck/Kim/Jess in June, and Laura/Sarah in August :)
*Visiting Mom & George/Jenn & having a double baby shower :)
*Quality time with James: walking, scripture reading, getting ready for baby
*NOT spending 2 weeks in the car for our annual road trip (I'll miss seeing people, but not the time in the car!!!)
*Scrap-booking shower for Shauna
*AIR CONDITIONING

Yesterday I took a bath and while I was sitting there enjoying the warm water, Baby Barnes started moving and I could see my belly move!

Last week a few of James' students gave him baby gifts. One night he got home really late from a school function and I had already gone to bed. He was SO EXCITED about the baby gift (a super cute pair of cargo shorts and ADORABLE little sweater vest) that he came in and woke me up to show me! He was so cute :) And another couple of kids got a 3 month t-shirt that says "My Dad is the World's Greatest Statistics Teacher." Gotta love those gifted and talented high school students :)

I would be remiss to not mention how thankful I am for the all of the service men and women (and their families) for their service to our country, especially this Memorial Day Weekend. Frustration with the political issues at hand put aside, this really is a pretty great place to live. THANK YOU to all of our family members and friends who have served in the armed forces!