The Happenings

Last Friday I took Baby G to the Children's Museum. Here she is doing a jig with a whisk.
Later she tried to escape from me by running under a parachute with her friend. Luckily her short legs are no match for mine.
On Saturday we went to the beach with the Larsons. All the pictures were bad so here is the best one. It is entitled, Hey Neil open your eyes!
The beach wore Grace out! She slept for 16 hours straight when we got home. I must remember to take her to the beach more often.
And finally here is Baby G all ready for Church.

Big News

We are having a little boy- 'Snips and snails and puppy dog tails!

Dying of Impatience

Ok, I took the Jack or Jill test two Mondays ago and still haven't gotten the results. When I was complaining of this to my friend she asked, "Is it 7-10 days or 7-10 business days?" Sure enough when I pulled out the medical paper it said business days. blast. That means yesterday was the 7th day not the 9th day. I thought I would know my baby's gender for sure by the end of today. oh bitter disappointment. In other news I set up a baby pool for Grace in the backyard and she loved it. She willingly stayed in for what seemed like a nice long while. Then we munched on pizza, Caesar salad and grapes with our friends. divine. I also had another attack of volunteer-itis. I often fall victim to this disease. Now I am organizing cooking classes for the women and girls in my ward. I think it will turn out to be quite fun. We aren't starting until September. We are going to have a back to school, cooking school theme, perhaps I'll tape bouquets of of newly sharpened pencils to my poster announcing the event:) Guest chefs are going to teach different dishes in a cooking show like manner. Oh the fun. Cross your fingers that we will get our test results soon and have a marvelous day :)

The Three Faces of Grace

1. Tortured Artist

2. Religious Scholar

3. Enthusiastic Sports Fan

Grace was so funny at the Astros game Thursday night. When people would start clapping she would throw down her bottle and clap like crazy. When music for each batter was being played she would dance wildly and when some guy was yelling at the ref Grace started screaming at him too in baby talk. I about died laughing! We made it through the third inning and then headed home. Here are Grace and Neil before the game started.
And here is a shot of the field from our seats.

Literary Pursuits

I recently read this

and I loved it! The book is structured as letters going back and forth between characters. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society takes place in England after the end of WWII. A writer in London is thinking of doing a book on the inhabitants of Guernsey (Guernsey was occupied by German troops for the majority of the war). I found this book heart warming, witty, and hilarious. The main character's personality jumps off the pages to whack you in the face. So basically read it. It is fabulous.
I was sad to learn that this was the author's one and only book. That always seems to happen to me. When I find a book I love it is the author's one hit wonder (can we say I Capture the Castle).

The Day Dried Pinto Beans Rocked my World

Today I decided to try to use some of my dried pinto beans. I have never cooked with dried beans before so this was an adventure. I didn't realize dried pinto beans looked so weird- all tiny and spotted.
I found a recipe online for refried beans in a crock pot. I wasn't crazy about the recipe so I didn't use it(it was a fat free thing and included too many hot peppers for my liking) but the cooking time and amount of water were helpful. This morning I placed 3 cups of pinto beans, 9 cups of water, a dash of cumin, a few dehydrated onion flakes, and one chopped up clove of garlic in my slow cooker on high. Since my slow cooker gets crazy hot after 4 hours I turned it down to low and added another cup of water. 3 hours later I drained the beans. And whoa there was a lot more of them!
Then I threw the beans in my mixer with 1/2 a stick of margarine chopped up and a handful of cheddar and another handful of mozzarella cheese and turned the mixer on. Next I added salt and pepper to taste and a little more cheese and the result was delicious goodness! Ok the picture does not do justice to the tastiness of the beans.
We are having bean burritos for dinner but I couldn't wait so I had a little snack of one already. Yum, yum, yum. Now if catastrophe strikes I have one recipe to make from my food storage :)

Pregnant and Emotional

This morning I woke up at 6 AM and promptly burst into massive tears. The flood gates opened over something someone had said to me while chatting on the phone a few days ago and the fact that I just had a dream where my mom told me I was very likely to commit suicide so I should just do it and get it over with. Can we say CRAZY! I guess I must blame my wild pregnancy hormones. I have broken out rather badly so I thought my hormones must be all whack-a-do right now. Has anyone else had bizarre pregnancy dreams? In other news today I am going to get the Jack or Jill test done so we will know in a week if the new baby is a boy or girl. Over the weekend Neil and I picked up some paint samples for the new baby's room. I'm leaning towards a pretty green or a buttery yellow. I think we will be able to make a more definitive decision once we know the gender. Yesterday, at church, Grace and I went on a visit to nursery. She was a perfect angel and the teachers said she could start right away instead of waiting until she is 18 months old. This is a relief to me because I teach a class of six three year olds who get wildly distracted by Grace's antics. Yesterday she had a major giggle fit right during the time where kids get up to teach little lessons. One of the little girls in my class was doing crazy dance moves and Grace thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. While I do enjoy my little girl's loud belly laugh I'm a little afraid no one, including the child speaker's mother, could hear the little speaker. Whoops. So every week I am faced with the same decision, do I take Grace out of primary sharing time and leave all of the three year olds or sit there and disrupt the meeting? Well now I no longer have to abide the looks of scorn from the other teachers, well, at least not for 6 months until my next baby is born :) And now I must go shower so I can get Jack or Jill-ed.