It swivels, it glides, it reclines, it is water/stain resistant. I’d been looking on craigslist for one, but the used ones seemed to be ugly and seemed to be priced pretty high still. We got this one for a little over $500. I think it’s going to be in our home for many, many years. It will probably move to our bedroom if we ever pry it from our kid’s room.

Second item on the want, want list was a gas stove to replace our old electric stove. Our stove worked, it worked ok actually, but it was starting to get on my nerves. The oven temp wasn’t digital and the nature of the knobs meant you really had no idea what temperature you were setting the oven too, also nothing to alert you that the oven was preheated. This makes bread baking very challenging. It makes any baking challenging. I also can’t stand those stupid electric coils, the pans are always wobbly on them and you end up with one side of the pan collecting all the juices while the other side is dry. This stove has 5 burners, a flat work surface, self cleaning oven, and digital controls. Me very happy.

This is what wound up happening to our garage and basement. When we got the initial estimate, it sounded like they’d just need to break up one square of concrete outside the garage, get the city to do some work in the alley, and just meet up the new sewer pipe in the alley. Turns out the water pipe was directly above the sewer line so they had to redo that, and they had to dig out the entire garage to get to it. Then as they were digging, they discovered we have Class “c” soil under our garage, very unstable. A city worker actually fell into a sink hole as he was working on the alley portion. So in order to save our 102 year old garage, they had to stop digging, and go into the basement in order to lay the pipe in. To be honest the whole description of work makes my head spin. Our water line was 60+ years old and the pipe was very corroded, probably only had a couple years left, especially after having to be disturbed by all the sewer work, so c’est la vive. But ouch, lots of money.

So now we have a new chair, a new stove, a new water line, a new sewer line, and a very damaged bank account, once that was supposed to help us get through my quitting my job to go and have a baby. Oops. Good thing our CSA is paid for.

But enough house stuff. I had an ultrasound on Tuesday. This is Juniper at 32 weeks, 2 days:

All is good, good organs, good position, good size, no chord around the neck. She showed off for us pretty good and I got to see her open and close her mouth a couple times. I feel 100 times better knowing she’s dong good in there. I met with the midwives yesterday and they are not at all concerned with my diabetes, my numbers look good and they have no reason to refer me out to a doctor. So we’re still full speed ahead with the home birth. Go Juniper! You will not be made of sugar and spice.

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We’ve had beautiful Mississippi for thirteen months now. We started her in a new dog training class. I wanted to sneak in one more class before the baby comes. This one is called Dynamic Dog and it’s at our dog daycare place Club K-9 in North Portland. We’ve gone twice now and have discovered our dog is suddenly really good at ‘leave it.’ Last night Tom was putting food on both her paws and could get her to leave it indefinitely. I badly want to start putting things on her nose but she’s very suspicious of us whenever we try it. Maybe in a couple more weeks. We’re teaching her an emergency recall to be used in dangerous situations when we need her to come when called, no matter what. We are using hot dogs and what we do is yell “Mississippi Now!!!” when she comes running, we treat the hell out of her and tell her what an amazing dog she is. She likes this new training exercise so much that last night she burned rubber trying to get out of the kitchen fast to go to Tom in the other room.

We took a chance yesterday and let her go off leash at a beach. We’d been at the regular dog park so she was mellow. The beach is very safe for unleashed dogs and has become a sort of unofficial dog park. She was doing great, we were practicing recalls with her and she was responding well. But then she got a little too interested in what was beyond the beach, and she stopped listening to our recalls. Tom went and got her, she wasn’t easy to get ahold of, but we weren’t about to let her wander off if she wasn’t going to respond to us. So, we are getting there, but not quite ready to go off leash. I want her to play on the beach so badly. If she were more into the water, it might work, but she only jumps in a little bit and then jumps out. She’s more interested in sniffing the sand. She’s a big sniffer.

Mississippi has started sleeping in our room. She used to always sleep on the couch. It seems like she’s much more interested now in being close to us all the time. We need to get a rug for the bedroom. We have a chair in there, and she likes it, but she prefers to stretch out. I put one of her doggy blankets in the room, just folder once so she can really stretch out.

It’s very hard to do sewing projects around her. If I’m on the floor, she wants to be doing whatever I’m doing. She sat on my lap as I was trying to cut fabric. Same goes in the garden. If I’m digging, she wants to help. If I trim plants, she thinks it’s her job to carry the trimmings off and dismantle them. I think it’s really cute, but I worry that I’ll never get a decent vegetable garden started. So I think I’m going to have to make a barrier with some bamboo from our big wall-of-bamboo grove.

I know that it’s our fault for not being diligent about this, but we still can’t get her to stop pulling on the leash. Squirrels, cats and sometimes other dogs are a major hazard for me now, as it does major damage to my poor, stretched out stomach muscles when she pulls. It’ll be worse when we add a baby carrier or stroller to the mix, so we’re going to try a gentle leader. Our trainer is going to help us get used to it. I would hate for her to hate it. I daydream about strolling around the neighborhood with dog and baby, all calmly enjoying our day. Right now they are pipe dreams. Anyone on a skateboard, a squirrel, a bike, a cat, all pose major threats to our safety by her trying to take off on me. And I can’t take risks like that with a tiny baby.

We put a grate in the back of the car too and are slowly getting her accustomed to it. We can’t have her crawling all over the baby, plus it’s just not safe with her standing up between the front car seats especially with a baby in the car. She’s been surprisingly fine with it. We only put her back there when we are coming home from fun doggy things like the dog park or her daycare. She’s only complained once.

So a year and change later, Mississippi continues to grown and learn and get better and better at being the awesome dog that she is. Can’t believe how far we’ve come in a year. She’s so smart.

I got some work done in the garden. I cleared out some of the compost dirt to make way for three tomato plants. I started a big bowl of lettuce seeds and arugula starts, I replaced the basil plants that was eaten by snails, and I got some hanging baskets for the side porch and planted fuschias in them. I even refreshed Mississippi’s wheat grass container. Yes, our dog has her own supply of fresh wheat grass. The blueberries are budding, as are the raspberries. Can’t wait for some berries!

The giant mound of dirt where the old compost bin used to be is bigger than I imagined. I want to clear some space in the front of the house, along the front wall and use the dirt there for a flower bed, but The digging might be too much work for me in my current state. I thought I could transfer much of the compost dirt to a large keg bucket for now, but I barely dented the mound and the bucket is full. It’s driving me nuts, I want to make that flower bed so badly. So for now, I made enough space to plant the tomatoes. The old compost bin was in the best spot in the garden, it must be reclaimed!

We had a great dinner on the side porch Saturday night and are all blissed out on our house. I think we are the luckiest people in the world.

This week I’d like to finish painting at least one wall in my office so I can put up some shelves soon and empty out some more boxes And tonight I’m going to sew up the curtains for the kid room. We looked at Adirondack chairs this weekend and dreamed of sitting on the front porch in the summer heat, watching the neighbors go by. We checked out our local farmer’s market and vowed to make it a regular Sunday activity. We got some asparagus, strawberries, and dried flowers. Can’t wait for berry season.

The weather was spectacular this weekend. Can’t wait for Portland summer and sweet tomatoes from the garden.

But lets back up first. A month ago I had a test show some high glucose readings, so I decided to be safe and cut out most sugars and simple starches from my diet. It’s been pretty easy, except I’ve had a really strong sweet tooth with this pregnancy and I’ve really missed sugar. So I decided if the next test came out clean for glucose, I’d allow myself 1 treat, before returning to my healthy, sugar free ways. A brownie sundae was what my heart desired. Yesterday’s test came out clear for glucose and I suddenly became a lady on a mission. I’d heard about the Sugar Cube cart on Mississippi but I went to the website and found out they aren’t open on Tuesdays. So I looked for alternatives. I tried out Pix on N Williams, they are good, but I didn’t get my brownie sundae. In my opinion, they have the kind of desserts that look really pretty, but they leave you wanting more.

This was not the brownie sundae I was looking for:

See, very beautiful, but my strawberry cream thingy was just kinda meh. I felt kinda gypped. I think they must be great at some things, my coffee was very tasty, and their meringue cookies seemed very popular. They are open late so I want to go back with Tom and get some food off their “Scooby snacks” menu. But for that moment in my life, they didn’t deliver the goods I needed. Anyway. Back to the sundae.

I kept thinking about that brownie sundae. So today I said “eff it” I want my sundae and I’m not going to be happy until I get it. At noon, I drove down the street to the Sugar Cube and ordered me up their “Ultimate Brownie Sundae.” The girl smiled a big smile and said she’d call me when it was ready. When I picked it up, she said “hope it’s good.” So I told her this was the last sugar I’d get to have for a long while. I told her about my glucose thing, how it’s probably not gestational diabetes but how I’d decided to just play it safe and cut out all sugar while I’m pregnant. I told her I was taking the glucose tolerance test next week. Turns out she used to be a phleboligist. Is that weird or what? She warned me the glucose stuff tastes awful and advised I pick the orange flavor, tastes like Orange Crush.

Look at how cute it is! That cherry, divine. Um, oh, so good, every bite. Salty caramel sauce, perfect brownie with chewy bits, creamy ice cream, and super cute plate to boot. I was in heaven for those brief moments. Now that was a sundae worth waiting for. I decided I’d allow myself a few visits between now and the baby’s arrival.

I handed my empty plate back in. The magical Sugar Cube lady asked my how I liked my sundae. “Oh My God” I said. “I’m going to have to make this my monthly stop.”
As I turned to leave, she said:
“Come see Momma, she’ll take care of you.”

I love you house.

I’m much more calm about the diet thing. The test doesn’t say anything other than there was more sugar in my body than my body could process, after a breakfast, first thing in the morning. It doesn’t mean I have gestational diabetes. It just means it’s time to be better at my food. Gestational diabetes is pretty common and it generally goes away once the baby is born. So I know I’m more at risk of getting it, given my family and personal history. I’m ready to stop messing around. I think I’m already past the initial shock of removing sugars and simple carbs, there wasn’t that much in my diet to cut out in the first place. I will now keep an emergency bag of cashews in my purse instead of clif bars. Anyway, things are good, I might start posting some recipes or some of my food journal, hopefully it’ll help inspire other pregnant women out there to see all the yummy stuff that’s out there even without simple carbs and sugars. Tonight it’s eggplant Parmesan. I’m sad at the idea that I can’t get lingonberry juice from Ikea, but my baby is worth going without for 4 months.

We’re in serious nesting mode. We found a dining room table last night on Craigslist and we’re going to pick it up tomorrow morning. I hope we can enlist some help to get it into our house, because the top is too heavy for me to lift. It’s a great, thick mission style dining room table with 10 chairs. Just in time for our housewarming party. I set up the crib and I’m hoping to have time today to exchange the mattress. I got the wrong size. This weekend we are putting together the grill and probably finding more furniture off craigslist. We may even look at fridges. We hope to have a lot of stuff taken care of this weekend and hopefully be done with the bulk of move-in stuff, except for getting our sewer line fixed, but yeah, we won’t think about that right now.

Tonight we go see Rogue Wave at the Wonder Ballroom (after a nap). Things are looking up. Next week will be a very busy week at work, but I’m hanging in there. I’ll go hang out at Tom’s work for a change of scenery.

We snuck away from the boxes for the weekend and headed up to the Hood River area of Oregon. We stayed at the Mt Hood Hamlet B&B in Parkdale. It was a lovely, friendly place and since it’s off season, we practically had the place to ourselves. In the mornings I would bring my books to the little sitting room upstairs and watch the quails eat their breakfast with a great view of Mt Hood in the background. Our goal was to do as little as possible and catch up on some sleep but we ended up going out on a few easy excursions anyway. Friday night we ate at Celilo in downtown Hood River. Saturday we went on a little walk at Catherine Creek, then a joyride out to Trout Lake and back. We had some world class pizza at Double Mountain Brewery in Hood River, then a nap, then wine tasting (for Tom, I did a lot of wine sniffing). I had an absolutely insane huckleberry shake at Apple Valley Fruits. We went back to Double Mountain for sandwiches, beer, and music. The music wasn’t up our alley but it was fun to hang out at the bar and just be out in the world.

We put Mississippi in boarding all weekend, thinking we’d actually get some decent sleep for a change, but we ended up missing her all weekend and I couldn’t sleep anyway. We saw a “doggy camp” just up the road from where we were staying so maybe next time we’ll bring her and then we can have hikes together during the day without stressing over her barking all night at a dog friendly hotel. Judging from how difficult it was for her to settle into our new house, I don’t think she’s going to do well sleeping in strange places. She always wants to go ‘home’ to her couch.

When we picked Mississippi up from boarding, she was so happy to see us, she sat in my lap a good part of the way home. She’s never done that, the front passenger seat was a little crowded but I hugged and squeezed her. I know she had a great time at boarding, but we missed each other. It’s getting harder and harder to stand leaving her behind. I wish she was easier to travel with. She’s still so rambunctious and barky. We want to try camping with her, but we know that first night is going to be horrible. She likes to sleep with us but she gets so squirmy, she can’t settle in. She’s so spoiled.

The days of ‘just the two of us’ are long gone. We feel a void when she’s gone so it makes it harder to have fun. Believe me, we still manage to have a good time, but we want her with us. Soon there will be four.

One Year Ago Today

We move into our new house tomorrow! My shoulder is sore and I’m tired. I’m glad the moving is almost done. i can’t believe how much crap we have. I’m excited about our new neighborhood and our new, old, glorious house. What a find, I really can’t believe it. I got a lot of things on my hose dream list like a porch (two in fact) and a claw foot bathtub. I even have a tool wall where I’ll get to outline my tools. I’ve always wanted to do that.

Thank you Portland, for being so incredibly welcoming over the past year. We love our new town to pieces. And it’s obviously being very good to us.

Now that we’re leaving our old neighborhood near Sellwood, I’m thinking about all the placeing and things I’d wished I’d done more of.

Wish I’d…
• Gone to Mocha Momma’s more often
• went down to the river more often
• Had breakfast at the weird gingerbread looking place on Milwaukie
• Gone to Oak Park
• Had more pizza’s and music at the Muddy Rudder
• Done more karaoke at the Woods
• Gone to the driving range more often
• Gone on a long bike ride down the springwater trail

I’ll miss our neighborhood, I love it in Sellwood, we got really lucky finding our rental house last year when I didn’t know my way around town. But I’m getting more and more enthused about our new neighborhood. North Portland seems to far away, feels like we’re moving to a new town, and that’s an exciting feeling. It’s also exciting that this is going to be our last move for years and years and years.

Besides being a great realtor, he’s also a great guy. We enjoyed spending time with him and totally trusted him. During the process, he made sure we were always kept up to date with the lenders and sellers. Since this was our first house, he gave us tons of information along the way so we understood what was going on. He was great at pointing out potential repairs/improvements and estimated costs for them so that we’d have a rough idea of what we were looking at for time and money.

We were referred to him by friends who gave him a glowing review. I’d like to pass on more glowing recommendations for him.

Thanks Benj!

Benjamin Rice, Broker
GRI, ABR, Earth Advantage Accredited
Windermere Real Estate
Portland Heights Branch
contact info

Still, it was absolutely beautiful. Stunning, Every time we go on a hike I am completely awestruck at how beautiful Oregon is. I feel so lucky to live here and I want more hiking in my life.

Unfortunately there are lots of very loud dirt bikes that start from the same parking lot as the trail head and you can still here them for the first couple miles of the trail. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to finish the hike with all the loud bikes but once we got farther in, the beauty more than made up for the racket.

In the beginning of the hike I was writing a pregnant woman’s guide to hiking in my head, but by the time we were done, I had decided maybe my hike was more than I should have taken on and I didn’t want to encourage any other pregnant ladies to follow in my crazy footsteps. Some parts of the trail involved some acrobatics that probably shouldn’t be done when “with child.” But it ended well, no falls, and I took my time up hill. I took a bath when we got home and I feel fine, baby is seemingly happily snuggled in my belly and I’m drinking lots of water.

Mississippi loved it and tromped through all the water she could get to. The falls were beautiful and the trails were almost empty. We saw a few mountain bikers and a couple of hikers but that was it in the 4 hours we were there. All the trees were moss covered and provided very soft places to sit.

After our hike we were on a serious hamburger hunt. We’d only had a bagel for breakfast and a Clif bar on the trail so we were starving. We bumped into Coleman’s Shady Rest, a cute diner on Oregon 6, just 1 mile before the 6/8 junction in Gail’s Creek Oregn. The burgers were so good, I’m going to try and find an excuse to go back there. There’s a tractor right in the middle of the restaurant, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Well, the amazing fluke of an early spring is now gone and we are back to very dark, grey, wet skies here in Portland. I don’t think I’d mind them that much if I didn’t feel like I was waiting, waiting waiting so much these days. We get to close on the house in a week and a half (fingers crossed) and I am so bad at this waiting period. I’ve been doing lots of packing, I’m getting down to things I’m avoiding and essentials that we still need. I think we’ve finally acquired all the boxes we need, we’re just short on packing materials, but there is always the Willamette Weekly.

We spent some time in our new neighborhood last weekend. The sun was out and the world was full of glory. We went to Peninsula park and checked out the rec center. We drove to the New Seasons by our house and got some things for dinner plus a quick snack. They gave us some empty boxes. We are liking our new neighborhood more and more. I found a CSA that has a pick up point just a block or two from our house, so I can walk to get our weekly fresh produce. The farm is in Troutdale and the CSA share is for 24 weeks of fresh produce. They seem really nice, I can’t wait.

Now that packing is coming together, I’m going to have to get back to my drawings. I’ve been avoiding finishing the stack that I started last week. I run out of energy after dinner so if I don’t do them early in the day, they don’t get done. I had to give into my packing desires and put the drawings aside for a while. I’m behind, very behind. I thought of a couple ideas while lying in bed the other night but they didn’t work out like I imagined.

I’ve been missing the act of writing. I feel like I have nothing to say in this blog sometimes and at the same time I have everything to see. I miss the days of filling my teenage diary up with words, any words that came to mind. It might be time to get back to pen and paper, and let that feed my imagination. I could use some more imagination, more Curious George days where I just wander. Photo outings, long walks. These things will have to wait until we are done moving. I’m itchy and antsy these days. We’ve planned a weekend getaway to Mt Hood after we’re done moving and I’m so looking forward to it. I want to frolic among the wild flowers.

I got a landscaping book at Powell’s yesterday so I can start daydreaming about my garden. Not much is going to happen this year, I’m just excited to discover what plants are already back there, but I love looking through the photos and imagining what I could do. Finally our own garden, that I can add to year after year. Benches! Trellises! Bulbs and trees. All of these things are possible now.

So all hail the green chair!

I’m proud to say I’ve averaged 12 gym visits a month through my first trimester and while house hunting. Add on 4 yoga classes to that and I sound like a regular gym rat. I WILL be in good shape throughout this pregnancy. I promise you, little one. My hunger isn’t quite as crazy as it was a little over a week ago, but it’s still definitely more strong in my second trimester compared to my first. I’m trying to keep lots of fruit and healthy snacks around.

I’m wearing more preggo clothes these days and finding more and more old baggy items of clothing that are no longer baggy. Happily I have some items of clothing that I refused to get rid of, even though they made me feel frumpy, but now, at least one of them, has turned out to be an excellent and very cute preggo shirt. I’ve been getting maternity clothes donations too. I feel so spoiled to be getting all these hand-me-downs. A definite benefit to having kids after nearly everyone else on the planet has done so.

We went to two parties this weekend. I’m very proud of this. Of course, I had to go to sleep immediately after we got home from each one (and the second one ended at 7pm) but still, I was fairly social and everything. Pretty good for 14 weeks pregnant. Tom is liking the arrangement where he drives there and I drive home. I find that I don’t have any desires whatsoever for alcoholic beverages but I do miss having a nice buzz. Speaking of buzzes, someone toasted my belly at the party Saturday with a loud “Kampai!”. He says I’m going to have a girl. We had just met him 3 minutes before he proclaimed this.

Speaking of gender, I get asked if I know the gender of my baby something like 6-10 times a day. Which considering how very rarely I leave my house, is pretty astounding. So I’d like to publicly announce, No! I do not know! I will not know for a quite a while, please stop asking.

Mississippi curled up next to me and put her ear to my belly last night. Tom thinks she was trying to listen. Maybe my little belly just makes a great pillow. She’s getting a little better at not jumping on me. She still jumps on Tom like crazy. She also seems to like to jump on the cleanest clothed people at the dog park. If you’re in a pink and white dress, she’ll jump on you with her muddy pause. You’ve been warned.

As the baby stuff accumulates, we are getting closer to our moving date. Looks like negotiations for the house are close to completion and the mortgage paperwork begins. I’m nervous and excited about moving into our new house. I love our neighborhood now so I’m starting to get really sad at the idea that we are leaving it. But I’m trying to feel more confident that yes, it actually is going to be our house. Our new neighborhood is good too, I just need to get used to it. Funny how things worked out. Our time for closing is longer than the time we spent looking. When you find what you’re looking for, I guess it doesn’t matter how long you’ve spent looking for it. We may have found someone to take over our rental place which would make the whole moving job much easier. We won’t have to worry about showing the house or keeping it somewhat orderly while we pack. Can’t believe we’ll be moving into our very own house soon. I’ve been looking up info on our future elementary school and imagining stroller walks through our new park.

Tomorrow is my first appointment with our midwives. I’m excited to get that show on the road.

Work lately has involved a lot of frustration and needless waiting around. I feel like I’m doing nothing fast. I’m a big sobbing mess. I could use a picnic or something. I love taking Mississippi to the dog park but I need some other kind of fun in my life too. Our weekends tend to revolve around her dog park time. And my week days tend to revolve around her daycare schedule. She’s got a lot of energy.

My days have been pretty stressful with phone calls and emails about the potential house. I’m packing one box a day, just to keep my eye on the prize. It’s stressful waiting to hear what’s going to happen, I’m going to feel a lot better about things next week, once all the estimates are done and we find out what the owners are going to take care of. The latest update is slightly high radon levels, a very badly corroded sewer line, and a leaky oil tank. Fun fun.

You know what I could really use? A poker night. Where is Shannon when you need her? Probably studying too hard somewhere.

I’ll have to settle for prenatal yoga followed by pork chops. Not really the level of fun I’m looking for.

I’m 11 weeks pregnant now and the challenges of the first trimester are fading quickly. I am not as tired. I’m not sure I could have cooked all that food a few weeks ago. I still feel like I got off pretty easy in my first trimester. Not much nausea, and the being tired wasn’t all that bad. It’s strange how fast I’m getting bigger now. With less symptoms, I don’t feel pregnant until I look in the mirror and see my profile. I thought the getting bigger part would be scary but it actually makes me feel more calm. As long as I keep growing, I know the baby is growing.

There were tons of kids and babies at the party. I got some hand me down maternity things and Liam got some hand me down boy’s clothes. I love hand me downs. I’m excited at the prospect that some day it will be by turn to hand things down.

After the party, I was understandably tired and the next morning my back was killing me, I might have overdone it a bit, but today my back in feeling fine. More gym time today then an interview with some midwives. Next week is my 12 week checkup and my genetic screening. Hurray for almost being done with the first trimester.