• Texas,  Travel & Places

    Ahh, The Beach

    Even if it was just a 15 minute walk last weekend, it was glorious to walk on the beach. It’s Friday and a holiday weekend here in the U.S. My plans are to go see a movie, do some driving around, maybe some final baby shopping, sleep, and see if I can convince the baby to start making his way out.

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    39 Weeks | Nope, Not in Labor…Yet

    I opted for a video this time around. There’s rambling and a four letter word towards the end. Just Google ‘Lightning Crotch’ and you too will throw out four letter words. Yesterday I had the two worst instances of it thus far and I swore the baby was ready to break through! My 39 week appointment is today, preceded by another growth ultrasound. I’ll just predict the ultrasound and say, ‘Yes, he’s still giant’. Only a few days left in August so we still might have our September baby…who knows.

  • Gardening

    It’s a Jungle

    Late last week I managed to walk around the garden and check out everything in bloom. Despite the garden being overgrown and weedy, there’s quite a bit blooming. In addition, there’s a lot of wildlife flitting about in the form of bees, dragonflies, butterflies, lizards, frogs, and toads. So despite my thinking the garden horrendous, apparently the wildlife seem to appreciate the wildness. I’m quite happy with my self seeded tithonia that came up. It didn’t get nearly as tall as the plants that grew last year, which ended up falling over a few times and at least once or twice that was due to trampling by deer. I have…

  • 100 Happy Days

    100 Happy Days | Days 80-91

    Day 80: No photo…There were a lot of no photo days this time around. Day 81: Teddy’s closet is done! Day 82: No photo. Day 83: Small harvest from what was left of the tomatoes. Day 84: The new car just after we signed the papers! Day 85: Black and blue salvia blooming in the garden. Day 86: Leo enjoying his the baby’s crib. Day 87: No photo Day 88: My little companion! Day 89: My cotton is blooming! This one is has brown fibers. Day 90: Finally the black eyed susan vines have taken off and are blooming! I’ve tried growing them multiple times and this is the first…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    38 Weeks | From Pachyderm Feet to Sausage Legs

    Like the new baby mobile? We had to say goodbye to my Ford Ranger since you aren’t allowed to drive with a baby in a two-seater truck. Plus, at 12 years old and 154K miles she was definitely in need of some repairs. I think this was taken the day we got the truck back in October 2002 when we were living in Melbourne, Florida. Ah, I was skinny! And not swollen! And the truck was shiny and new! It was a little bittersweet turning over the the truck I’d driven all of these years, especially since I was giving up a stick shift. I’ve driven a stick since I…

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    Looking Forward | Post-Baby Products

    Last week I said I would talk about some of the products I’m looking forward to trying post-pregnancy. Here’s a run-down of some of them. Bumgenius Freetime cloth diapers: This is probably the biggest product of all that I’m looking forward to trying. We won’t be starting the cloth diapering until the baby’s meconium has gone, so several days after he is born, maybe even a week or so since we have a ton of newborn sized diapers I got with a diaper cake a friend of mine made me for one of my showers. Of course we’ll be keeping a small amount of disposable diapers on hand for occassions…

  • Gardening

    As The Weeds Grow

    This part of the garden is scary. The path is full of weeds and weeds have overtaken the some sections of the garden. Nevermind that the armadillos showed back up sometime last week and did some more jacking up of the garden. Ah, how nice it will be to bend down to pick up weeds in cooler weather. I’ll be bending down to pick up weeds, probably, before it gets cool again. We’ve had heat advisory days most days in the last week and none of those afternoon storms that get just so close end up coming over our house. August in Texas…yep, that’s where we’re at.

  • Baby Teddy,  Family

    37 Weeks: How are you feeling?

    The inevitable first trimester question has returned with a vengence. How are you feeling? is the question of the day, hour, week, month, no matter if we just talked to or saw the person asking the question the day before. I get why people ask, they are interested in how things are going and are trying to make a conversation. But, it’s almost like asking a person who is sick that question—just a tad annoying. If anything, it has taught me not to ask any other pregnant woman that again. So, how am I feeling?? Like I’m almost full-term pregnant in the heat of the Texas summer. In other words,…

  • 100 Happy Days

    100 Happy Days: Days 66-79

    Day 66: The candy lilies bloomed! Day 67: Forgot to take a photo. Day 68: Lots of progress on the guest bedroom! Go Chris! Day 69: Forgot to take a photo. Day 70: Hanging with Samson on the stairs, one of his favorite spots in the house. He was already on his downhill turn at this point but was still coming out to hang with us. Day 71: Paint in the guest bedroom! Day 72: Homemade chocolate chip cookies…mmmmm, cooookies! Day 73: Seed order came in! Now if they could just plant themselves in this heat….and the tomatoes can take themseles down, too. Day 74: Not necessarily ‘happy’ but Samson…

  • Gardening

    That’s not a golden lotus!

    Sometime back in the fall or even last summer Chris’ dad brought us a banana tree from his yard that was supposed to be a golden lotus banana, a pup from one of the plants that we had given him back when we lived in Florida. In our garden in Florida we had several varieties of banana trees that we grew. Anyway, the banana died back over the winter and with the very harsh winter this year I was still surprised that it came back up in the spring when the ground warmed up. Golden lotus banana trees are typically squat and bushy so when the tree and its subsequent…