Itching to Tell You

So, I went to the doctor again today. This time, to tell them about how my arms and legs and belly all itch like wild fire. It's some funky thing they don't understand called pups. I look a little chicken-pox-ish on my wrists and hands. AAH! The only options are to take benadryl, use a hydro-cortisone cream, or just plain have the baby already. They set me up with an induction date for Monday morning at 7 a.m. I have a doctor's appointment on Friday to see if that could possibly be moved up to this weekend for the sake of my skin (and this growing little person).

Anyway, that's the status.

I'm hoping excercise might help. My friend Nancy picked me up this morning for a rigorous walk around the medical center buildings with the other mammas who were all pushing strollers. It seemed to help a bit. Then, Scott and I played some racquetball this afternoon. I beat him, but I think he was taking it extremely easy on me. Moving forward and backward was no big deal, but side to side was tricky. Whether it "helps" or not, it was SO fun! I wish we'd been playing every week up till now.

My mom is here and consequently, our front room looks way better. Hooray! We're just trying to gear up to do all the fun projects we've concocted for ourselves while we wait for the little gal to show up!

Back by popular demand (for Dave)

This is the best pizza dough recipe, it's fail-proof and it tastes so good. Try this one and throw away your old recipes.

Grandma Smith’s Pizza Dough
Serves: 4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes (includes 30 minutes rising time)
1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup warm water
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
2–3 cups flour
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Dissolve yeast and sugar
in warm water, and let yeast activate for 5 minutes.
2. Add oil, salt, and 1½ cups of flour to the yeast mixture.
Knead dough, adding flour as needed, until dough is sticky to
the touch but does not stick to your fingers, about 10 minutes.
3. Let dough rise for 30 minutes. Dough is ready when your
finger leaves a dent or impression after touching it.
4. Spread dough onto pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal.
Add sauce and toppings. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes
or until cheese is melted and crust is golden. For a thick crust,
or if you are not using a pizza stone, pre-cook your flattened
dough for 10 minutes before adding sauce or toppings.

Little Theater Across the River

Scott and I went to a movie last night.

We saw Star Trek at this sweet little-old theater in a place called New Cumberland, which is just across the Susquehanna river from Hershey and Harrisburg. It was great. I liked paying only $3 for a movie ticket, only $1.25 for a very decent amount of popcorn. I liked holding Scott's hand in the theater and squeezing it a little harder for the jumpy moments in the show. I liked the art-deco murals along the walls and ceilings. I liked how the aging lady looked at us a little funny when we asked for two tickets to Star Trek, since, as we found out a moment later, that was the only option for 7pm in a one room theater. I liked the plot and the recurring themes that made me feel smart to have noticed and counted. I liked feeling like maybe our baby would come in the next few days (I think I'm starting to figure out what contractions feel like, but nothing too intense or revealing, yet).

I liked walking around in a balmy warm neighborhood afterward trying to describe to Scott how ready/unready I feel about being a mom. Like, I keep thinking there is something I've forgotten to do or prepare or like there should be some other qualifier for such a huge responsibility. Like, shouldn't I have passed a test or something? Scott is hopeful that we'll be just fine and figure it out as we go. We will, but it's just crazy to think that everything we do from birth-day on will be with her. She'll come with us wherever we go. She'll cry and we'll comfort her. She'll learn to crawl and smile and laugh and talk. And someday, she's going to learn how hard things can be and what pain feels like and what sickness feels like and what a broken heart feels like. And, I'm responsible for bringing her to all of this. And, she wants to come. Woah.

Life is so totally worth it.

When's that baby due? BABY!

According to the widget on the right, which represents what the doctors said, our baby is due on the 29th. While that's a great day for her to come, no one really knows when she will come.

So, I'm wondering what do you think? When will our baby be born? If you guess the day right, you'll win the prize of knowing that you guessed right. C'mon, it'll be fun!

I'm okay with her coming any time after tomorrow. Tomorrow I have a project due. Right, I need to be working on it instead of blogging. But, you don't mind that I'm blogging, do you? My mom comes on Saturday, which will be fabulous. So, really, it's okay if the baby waits till my mom and I have had a day or so to rearrange everything/play/sew/paint/clean/organize/etc. And, I'd love for my mom to be here when the baby comes and all, but other than that, I'm fine if our baby comes when she's ready as long as that's not in like 2 weeks or something. Oh, and we're planning to name her Elizabeth. We'll let you know the final details on that once she's here, though.


Meanwhile, I'm huge and happy. Scott is busy and happy. He had me cut his hair last weekend, so he no longer has his crazy long curls. I love the curls, but I also love seeing the cute shape of his head, too. He definitely looks summery-er. Do you think our gal will have curls? Will she have hair at all? As you can tell from the picture, neither of us had much hair to speak of for a while, and both of us were blondish at the beginning. Scott's blond lasted quite a while, actually. Will she look anything like either of us? Such fun questions.

I'm a PhD candidate

So I'm now a PhD candidate, I passed my candidacy exam! I thought I was a PhD candidate before, but I guess I was in no-man's land. Hurray!

*edit by Nancy: This is huge! He was worried and working on this test for a long time. It took the professors a long time to grade it and a long time to get the results back. He passed with a HIGH pass. That's cause he's fabulous, amazing, blessed, and stinkin' smart. Go Scott go!

Why I Try to Have a Horizontal Monopoly on Life

I found this quote when I was going through some old emails. It's inspiring.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve

equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects."

~Lazarus Long (Time Enough For Love)

While some of these things are not on my personal list, I think it's fun to know at least a little about a lot of things. What's on your list?

Image of a gnarly tree taken by me along Highway 50 in northern California circa 2004.

Still Here

Hi there. The little gal is still part of my personal ensemble, though she is looking bigger and pointier and lower every day!

Scott and the scouts are supposed to have a swimming party tonight. The forecast calls for 60-70 degree weather with rain. Ha! It's too bad, really. It seems like whenever they plan an outdoor activity it rains on them. It'll be some chilly swimming!

My friend Beth was kind enough to offer me a massage. I had the most luxurious hand and foot massages last night! Wow! What a nice gift. She had planned on getting the kinks out of my back as well, but was so thorough on these other swollen appendages of mine that we didn't have enough time. It was lovely.

We moved (Scott moved) the bassinet into our room last night. Things are shaping up. We've washed almost everything that will touch our baby, we've sterilized bottles and binkies, we've packed a bag. It's still a bit surreal. Like waiting for the second coming almost. You don't know the hour or day, you just know the signs and can only prepare! (Hope that's not weird, but it really has some similarities, I think.)

Meanwhile, I've got some serious reading to do for school. Eventually, I need to write a paper, too. AH! Maybe if I get it all done I can relax and have a baby (definitely being ironic, here, people).

Thanks for all your kind comments!

Tree Huggers, etc.

I've never been called a tree huger until this last week. It felt funny. But it was from a friend, so whatever. The actual ha ha funny was the second time when it was not stated explicitly, but rather implied. Let me explain.

On Friday, we went to 6 stores in 4 hours. It was our marathon of last-minute-shopping for everything we needed for the arrival of Little Miss Jones. Our first stop was Salvation Army which turned out to be a warehouse of wonderful selection. We were seeking fleece and wool for, you know, diaper covers. We made out like bandits with a purplish wool wrap around skirt, two manly huge fleece sweaters, and a wool blanket. We also found some nice little flannel blankets which will become wipes and such. At the counter, the lady asked if we were stocking up for winter. I hesitated a moment, then decided just to tell her what we intended for this wool and fleece.

"Sacrificial wool," I called it. She wrapped the sweet milk-glass vase I found for $.99 in the skirt. Presumably because she had no paper to wrap it in.

"That's a great idea," I told her. And it was. Here's all this cushy stuff to keep my new vase from breaking.

Then, Scott tried to stop her from bagging everything separately cause, really, it would all fit into one bag and if not was easy to carry anyway.

"Oh, that's right, you're . . ." she said in response to our bag-reducing efforts. We gave her smiles and thumbs up as we left. Then, I laughed all the way to Costco (across the street) and beyond. What was she going to call us? Tree-huggers? Silly? Full of it? Anyway, it cracked me up.

A few pictures of our soon-to-be-threesome.


Practicing with our flash. Isn't Mr. Jones a stud?


We got a new flash, so the pensive look is just a practice shot, but it pretty much sums up my tiredness of late. You know it's bad when the guy at the meat counter in the grocery store says you look tired. What are you supposed to look like at 37 weeks?


This is me at 36 weeks, I think. It's a bit blurry, but I'm the pregnant lady, so I get to choose the picture. And if it so happens that the blurry one is more flattering, then that's what you get to see.

A Nice Surprise

Look what Scott found yesterday!

There are a few new episodes of Pushing Daisies on abc.com. I'm so lucky! Go. Go enjoy the color and the language and the quirkiness and the fruit!

I hear they are going to post a few more to kind of tie up loose ends. Who knows how they'll do that, but I'm glad I get a few more hours with the Pie Maker and his friends.

Time to Post

Hi hi hi!

It's sunny out and that makes me glad. Last week was full of rain.

I've been sewing like mad, and actually have a few things to show for it! Like, this nursing cover made of fabric I purchased in high school. I had high hopes that it might become some fabulous button-up shirt dress, but I don't know how to make things like that, so it's a good looking way to hide the baby while she takes nourishment. :)


Scott and I are going to attempt to do the whole cloth diaper thing. You may think we are nuts, and that's okay, cause we sort of are, but not just because of this. I'm excited about it, really. Some people do it to keep down plastic consumption. That's why Scott's excited about it (or should I say, willing to give it a go). Some people do it to keep costs down (it's not free or anything, but over the course of the diapering of your baby can save you some money). I want to do it for a little of both of those reasons and also for another. It's along the same lines of my major aversion to drinking milk. I like milk (though I'm probably allergic to it) but I don't NEED milk. So, rather than worrying about having milk and having to go to the store to get milk all the time, I prefer to have a can or two of that dry milk on hand if I do want to use milk or even a case of soy milk that we can store in a closet and pull out a new box whenever we run out. Similarly, I don't like the thought of stressing about buying diapers. I'm a homebody who'd rather wash 'em and re-use 'em than trot to the store when I realize we're almost out.

I'll keep you posted, and if you have questions about doing the whole cloth-diaper thing, I've found loads of good resources online.

All of that leads me to the next couple of things I've made: cloth diaper covers. These little dandies are made of wool and fleece respectively and help grab the moisture from the diaper without allowing it to penetrate this outer layer. Easy to make, too.


I finally sewed baby's drapes, but I did my good 'ole I-don't-actually-measure-anything technique and so one curtain is a few inches longer than the other. I'll have to fix them and then show them.

Shabby Apple Giveaway

I want to win a dress from Shabby Apple! Check out the post on this blog.

Weird

Last night on our way-too-late-to-be-here Wal-Mart run for tent stakes and 4 inch cans (the scouts are making stoves), we passed the freezer section.

The weird part was that the ice cream area was ROPED OFF. Like, someone tied a yellow rope around the side and then all the way down the aisle stringing the rope through the handles so nobody could open the freezer doors.

Maybe this was to retain a little cold-ness for newly stocked ice cream, or maybe it's was time someone made it difficult for people to satisfy their sugary and fatty cravings just before midnight.

What is up with that?

JUNE!

I don't know about you, but I've been anticipating this June unlike any other June. Our baby could be here any week! Sort of, anyway. This is week 36, so after next week, any time is fair game though she's due June 29th. I'm jazzed. And also, nervous about how much I need to have done before that "bwessed occasion." Thing like: make her curtains, find enough space for some diapers on the changing table, organize my arts 'n crafts supplies, organize the scary stack of lotion and soap accumulating under the bathroom sink, and of course, read 7 more books and write a paper and a project.

One day at a time.

This little gal inside me is really fun to watch. In the evenings, Scott and I just stare at the way she moves and try to guess which of her scrunched up parts is making my belly contort in a particular manner. It's so entertaining! It makes me so excited to hold her in my arms rather than my torso and really know which piece is which. Whoosh. I'm going to be a MOM! Laura says it's like "signing up to be tired for the next 20 years." She's probably right. What I didn't know is that it starts before they even get here! "No sleep for you!" I can barely roll my body over in bed without assistance, and I'm nearly a cripple until 11 am with these unbelievable hip and joint pains. Fascinating stuff, I tell ya.

Here's a little something fun I made for Laura's birthday.



A set of gift cards and accompanying gift/note tags. Pretty much original designs. I did pilfer the paisley and the zebra stripe, but they were free for commercial and personal use, so I used 'em! The flower is entirely mine, and, as you can imagine, the smiley face is courtesy of a type face. I think it would be fun to have these printed for reals (i.e. not Staples) and sell them somewhere. I'd buy them. Or at least I'd like them and say to myself, "I could do that." :)

And, Scott finished his Candidacy exam last week! Hooray! He did it! What's that, you ask? That's a test that decides (as if his grades weren't enough) whether he can stay in graduate school. Since only 3 people in his department took the test, however, the professors can take their sweet time and we may get the results eventually. Here's to Mr. Jones!