Not too much going on here. I am big and fat and I alternate between feeling very lazy and being in a frenzied rush to get things done. Aside from basic cleaning I still need to do (which never ever seems to actually get "done" - sigh) we are all ready for the baby's arrival. Emma is very excited to meet her little sister. Noah doesn't get what's going on, but he sure digs the birth pool.

Remember that quilt I was making for the new baby, the one with SO many mistakes? I finally finished it, thank goodness. I hadn't planned to put a binding on it, mostly out of laziness, but when I saw the "finished" version without a binding, I really really didn't like it. The border still wasn't laying right, and the back of the quilt - plain white Minky - looked pretty boring. Now that I've added the binding, I'm so glad. I really think all quilts look better with a binding, and it doesn't really add that much time. I remember that sewing the binding on Emma's quilt took me forever, but I stitched this one on in only two days.I think I'm in a bit of a quilting rut. Every quilt I've made - and I've only made four - except for one has been made up of squares. I'm vowing that my next quilt, whenever I decide to create it, will not have any squares.

As the new baby's arrival draws closer - about a month away now - I am becoming more and more nervous. How is Noah going to handle suddenly being shoved out of babydom and into middle child status? How am I going to handle having three kids, age four and under? I have heard many people say that the biggest adjustment when having kids is going from no kids to one kid. In my case, that wasn't true at all. When Emma was born, instead of reeling from the shock of having to care for a tiny helpless person before myself at all times, I was so enamored with her that I honestly don't remember there even being any adjustment period. I remember thinking, THIS is what I have been waiting for my whole life. All was great for three years and two months, until I became the mother of two. At that moment, everything that had been so easy before was suddenly much more difficult, and I feel like my quality of mothering (if that makes any sense) dropped considerably. There is always someone getting shafted, and unfortunately for Emma, it's usually her just because she's older. So now I can't help but wonder how another new baby is going to change things, and if having another kid is going to turn me into some crazy, mean, neglectful mommy. Sigh.

In other more light-hearted news, I have a little bit of exciting (for me) news about Emma. For three years she had no hair, and then for another year and a half she refused to wear ponytails, barrettes, headbands, or anything else in her hair. Now, completely out of nowhere, she wants me to put pigtails or barrettes in her hair every day, and then she actually keeps them in! Yay!

We went to another Royals game this weekend, thanks to some tickets given to me by my sweet friend Shawn. Before the season started we discussed buying a partial season ticket package, but I opted out because the past two years I've spent just as much time walking the concourse with Emma during the games while Steve gets to sit and actually watch the game. Now I wish we would have gotten the season tickets, because this year the kids have been really awesome at the games. We've been to probably eleven or twelve games so far this season and I haven't had to get up with them once. They are both perfectly happy going back and forth between Steve's and my laps and their own chairs the whole time. I want to make the most of it and start going to more games the second half of the season because by next year the (three!) kids may not be so willing to just sit and hang out during the games.

Oh, and a completely random thought...what is up with amazon's Free Super Saver Shipping? In the past when I've ordered anything from them, they give me a shipping quote that is always many days away, but the items ships and arrives much sooner. I ordered a new camera lens last week, (and I'm SO excited to get it) and it took them six stinkin' days to ship it! I am way too impatient to wait this long for shipping! It is finally supposed to get here tomorrow, more than a week after I ordered it. On a happier note, I did get some pretty great fabric in the mail yesterday.

The last two weeks we've had a few of our CSA items go bad. I made a promise to myself to step up my efforts to use all of everything we receive. This week we got quite a bit of two things no one in my family really likes that much: cucumbers and zucchini. The cucumbers were little ones that reminded me of pickles and I had no idea what to do with two entire boxes of them. I've been wanting to learn to can, and even though I've always been a little intimidated by it, I decided this was the perfect time to teach myself how to do it.
After purchasing the necessary canning supplies and reading up on canning online, I got Noah down for a nap and set to work making pickles. Be warned that if you do this, your house will smell very pickle-y for quite a few hours afterwards. Unfortunately Noah woke up after only sleeping for about 25 minutes, but I loaded him into the Beco on my back and continued working. He hung out there while I finished the entire process, gleefully smashing crackers in his hands and shoving the crumbs down the back of my shirt. After a lot of manipulating hot jars with funny utensils, in the place of all those cucumbers I had eight jars full of pickles! As a disclaimer, we haven't actually tried any of the pickles yet but they really do look like pickles and smell like pickles so I'm feeling pretty positive that they will taste like pickles too.
I wanted to make bread with all the zucchini so yesterday we made three loaves of regular zucchini bread, which is always yummy. One loaf went into the freezer, and the other two loaves were, um, scarfed down almost immediately by a certain pregnant person who had forgotten how much she actually loves zucchini bread. Today we made two loaves of Zucchini Parmesan bread. I hadn't made it before but the recipe was from Everyday Food so I figured it would probably be good. It did look good and as I took the above picture I really couldn't wait to eat it, but I didn't like the flavor much, so I took the other regular zucchini bread loaf out of the freezer and ate that instead. Yes, that's right. I have, in fact, eaten three loaves of zucchini bread in the past two days. The worst part is, I'm pretty sure that tomorrow I'm going to run to the store and buy some more zucchini.

Awhile back I saw this post about sewing a camera strap and I decided that would be the perfect fast and simple thing to take my mind off those darn quilts. I was a bit reluctant to cut into my Nikon strap, but I found out that, should I mess things up too terribly, I could purchase another one for about $4. With so little risk involved, I took my seam ripper to the strap, quickly cut up some of my fabric, did a little stitching, and ended up with this. Yay! I love it.
Noah has developed a love affair with his shoes. For awhile he would bring them to me first thing every morning and wear them all day except for naps and when he went to bed. Now he has advanced into a whole new level of obsession and he won't let me take them off. Ever. He has not taken them off for two days, and last night in the middle of the night I awoke to someone smacking me in the face with a shoe. Through my sleepy haze, I slowly realized that his shoe must have fallen off while he was still sleeping and he wanted me to put it back on for him. Once I replaced the shoe, he rolled over and immediately went back to sleep. Oh, and apparently Emma isn't the only one of my kids who doesn't care if things match.

I stole this from Jen. I feel like I should post something, but I'm too tired to string together any coherent sentences.

1. Favorite hobby?

Sewing, taking pictures, reading.

2. How do you feel about your ex?

Indifferent.

3. Do you own guns?

Nope.

4. What flavor do you usually drink at Sonic?

I never go to Sonic. I think pretty much every item on their menu is gross. They somehow even manage to have nasty ice cream.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor’s appts?

No.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?

Gross (except for at ball games).

7. Favorite Christmas song?

Mary Did You Know?

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Two cups of half-caff coffee. If I weren't pregnant I'd spend half the day drinking it. If I weren't nursing I'd drink it all day.

9. Can you do push ups?

Ha. Not lately.

10. Can you do a chin up?

Just one at a time.

12. Do you like blue cheese?

Sometimes.

13. Ever been in a car wreck?

Yep.

14. Do you have ADD?

No.

15. What’s one trait that you hate about yourself?

Hmmmm. I wish I weren't afraid of snakes.

16. Middle name?

Kathryn

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.

1. Rats.

2. Noah just woke up.

3. Now how will I finish this riveting blog post?

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday.

I took the kids swimming and paid for the pool admission. Does that count? I didn't buy anything else.

19. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink.

Coffee, water, that's about it.

20. Current worry?

Will I have the time (or the motivation) to clean the bathroom before my brother visits tonight?

21. Current hate right now?

Cleaning the bathroom.

22. How did you bring in the new year?

Watching 24 on DVD with Steve. Exciting stuff.

23. Where would you like to be right now?

In my bed, asleep.

24. Do you like bok choy?

We got some in our CSA a few weeks ago and I used it in stir fry. It was the first time I'd had it and I wasn't real impressed.

25. Do you own slippers?

No.

26. What shirt are you wearing?

A plain pink maternity v-neck tee shirt.

27. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?

I don't know.

28. Can you whistle?

Yes.

29. Could you be a pirate?

Uh. What?

30. What songs do you sing in the shower?

Whatever I think will help keep Noah content so he'll stay in there happily until I can finish washing my hair. If I'm in the shower alone - which pretty much never happens - I don't sing. I'd much rather enjoy the silence.

31. Favorite girl’s name

Emma? Jane? I don't know.

32. Favorite boy’s name

Morgan.

33. What’s in your pockets?

They are currently empty.

34. Last thing that made you laugh?

Noah's dancing.

35. Best bedsheets as a child?

No idea.

36. Worst injury you ever had?

A broken arm, I guess.

37. Do you like where you live?

I like Kansas City a lot, but I don't like my particular neighborhood much.

38. How many TVs in the house?

One.

39. Who is your loudest friend?

Not sure.

40. Favorite book?

Again, not sure.

41. Favorite sports team?

Go Royals!

43. Favorite candy?

Probably Chewy Sweet Tarts or Chewy Sprees.

44. Does someone have a crush on you right now?

Not that I know of.

45. What is the first thing you thought of this morning?

4:49? Seriously? Dude, can't you at least let me sleep until it's light outside?