Endings and Beginnings

We made it!!! It feels very nice to once again be insured and know that when Baby comes, whatever happens is covered under insurance. I think it's more for my peace of mind than anything, but either way- I can now breathe a little easier. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday, and he said that Baby hasn't really grown a whole lot in the past week, and that's good because if she gets too much bigger we might have some problems! I'm not a very big person! So we're hoping she comes sooner than later, and that she doesn't do too much growing. He also said I haven't dilated at all yet, but I am thinning and softening, which is good. It's interesting to feel the changes my body is going through- I can definitely tell that we're getting things rolling so that she can come soon. We are so excited!!!

Thomas started school today! Hurray! We got everything all together last night so he would be all ready. He even got up early so he could be out the door on his bike to class. I always loved the first day of school- I think I might have been more excited for him than he was!

I just recently started as an Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay Cosmetics-- hooray! I am really excited about it- I think it will be really awesome. Not only do I think it will be a great opportunity to do something a little different and out of my comfort zone, but I have all these wonderful ladies I'm meeting and getting to work with! I'm really excited, because I can already see how it's helped me make more new friends and get myself out of that little bubble and meet new people! I already made two new friends and I'm finding myself working to be more outgoing and caring about people beyond just "Hi, I'm Thomas' wife and mother of his firstborn". Thomas is so good at meeting people and being friendly and getting people together socially, I've always just kind of let him be the social drive and organize what we do with our weekends. I'm excited to have an avenue to develop this skill for myself in a way that is uniquely mine, not Thomas' or MissionShoe's or anything else. Plus we get to play with makeup. :)

On Saturday we went over to the Wahlquist's house and made CORN! Well, I guess they grew the corn, and we didn't really "make" it, but we got to help shuck it and cut it off the cob and "make" it. Well- I really didn't help a whole lot. I kind of just sat there and watched. One, because Baby wasn't allowed to come until today, so I was taking it easy still, and two because I'm actually really allergic to the corn silk (I get a lovely not-so-fun rash). But I was there, so I "helped". And I scooped the cooked corn into baggies. So now we have a freezer full of corn! I didn't get any pictures of it, but we were pretty covered with corn goop stuff. It was fun to get dirty! Heh heh heh...

Yesterday was also our first adventure in canning! While at the Wahlquist's house on Saturday, Thomas got it in his head that he HAD to go pick some green beans and take them home with us. Well, Thomas doesn't really like green beans. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him take more than one bite of green beans- EVER. But he DOES like Dilly Beans... which are pickled green beans. The Wahlquists make them, and so Thomas decided that he wanted to make some too! And when Thomas gets it in his head to do something, he DOES it! So he picked a sackful of green beans, and we took them home and stopped by Wal-Mart to get some canning jars- and we made Dilly Beans. Basically, you cut and wash the beans, put them in hot jars with a clove of garlic and a head of dill weed, pour boiling water/vinegar/salt over them, process them for 10 minutes and you're done. It was way fun! And I hope they will be good. We won't know until Thanksgiving. But we DID it! It was fun!




We have 8 jars of dilly beans, and then we still have a whole sackful of green beans left. We think we will cook those and then freeze them. They can make friends with the corn in our freezer. And the raspberries. Isn't it great living where things GROW?!?

Thomas also decided to use the zucchini we got from the Wahlquists. They're humongous zucchini. He made zucchini bread and muffins- they are absolutely delicious! I love having a husband who is such a good cook.

This is me, enjoying the amazing zucchini bread. And that is Baby, also enjoying the amazing zucchini bread.