The mother load

Day off work, gift certificates in hand, time to nest.

I agree


Eat breakfast. Return library books. I still love being close to a library.


Went to a little store called Ikea. Mary is standing at the base of the sign. Man that belly is huge.


Baby loves affordable, flat packing, Scandanavian design on a budget.


Babies R Us. Momma is sweating, removes sweater. Full of joy.


We've been wanting to eat here for a while, a local fixture called Caveman Kitchens. All take-out, simple family operated joint, we chatted with the help (owner?) and ordered one bbq beef sandwich, one side (like a dry stew w/ pork and potatoes and onions and carrots), one drink (pregnant lady wanted orange soda).


All of it was great, very reasonable prices, we ate in the car while it rained. To our surpise they gave us three (!!!) pieces of sweet potato pie for free. We'll be back, I was impressed (even without the free pie).


Lots of time, lots of bargain-wrangling, lots of money at Target. The car is much fuller than it looks here.


So here's the nursery so far. Not sure if we'll keep the (free) brown dresser or not. The green mailbox is a big winner, we got it from a metal scrapyard with plans to covert it into a toybox, but its a little too large for the space. We'll see.


Funky corner shelf found in basement, will paint. Old table found in church, solid wood and much sturdier than rickety $100 mdf changing tables, will paint and keep. (Don't worry mom, we have curved changing pads to put on top)


Closet is coming along!


Crash. Glad someone else is fixing dinner...

Chance of showers

We went to Ohio. For the showers. Mom had duck punch.



And a chocolate fountain.



Oreo truffles



Fathers



Confession: the main reason I included this photo is because these nice people are photogenic and they make me look like a good photographer.



Went to church here
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lon=-84.754959&lat=40.0164372&datum=nad83

Been a long time. A good experience. Nice lamps too.



Harvest



Party at the in laws



Measuring the belly



Mothers



1 nephew, 1 homemade duck blind



Good to see Kyle



Mom found some of dad’s old clothes from the 70’s, and she wanted Josh and I to try them on for fun. My brother, he’s such a ham. (And I'm actually wearing that shirt right now as I post this... honest)



Back to Seattle, another baby shower from church folks. Very nice.



The kid will have plenty of Seattle gear.



I just love the authentic, unscripted, unguarded, genuineness of candid photography, don’t you?



We got lots of gifts, and everybody watched us open them. It was like Christmas as a kid, only with more gifts cards.



Booties.



People have been good to us. Many thanks.

(And one more shower to come, this one from Mars Hill Grad School peeps!)

Bad daddy - good belly.

Been a little unfair to our folks and family - not nearly enough belly pics. Bad daddy (again). Here are a few from this last weekend, taken in the woods behind our place. The belly grows!





It really is amazing, we feel and see him move all the time. At the last doc visit we were told that we were in trouble if we ever got less than 10 movements in 10 hours, and we burst out laughing 'cause the kid is breakdancing in there for what seems like hours a day.

Fullness.

Assorted goodness

Mary. School Day 1. The belly is MUCH bigger now.



Guy from church brings us 2 boxes of grapes. His friends, who used to make wine from the stuff, quit doing so. We made mucho grape juice. Thanks mom Besecker for the recipe!



Mikey and Heather came to visit. Saw a churchy rainbow. No pot of gold.



Micah's birthday, we went looking for a Korean place in nearby Federal Way (lots of Korean food there). Spontaneously found this fantastic, reasonably priced, seemingly family-run place... forgot the name though.





Micah feeling very self-assured in Gasworks Park.



This is my favorite, Micah and Heather at Golden Gardens.



Lots of cool stuff on the beach to take home... how much will fit in the bag?



Great time, not enough time.

To Seattle: Not quite a haiku

Food scarce? Big is beautiful.


Abundant? Thin is in.


My smile? Out of style.


Sad is the new happy.

Foodie

I realized I had lots of chow pics sitting about, so lets talk about food.



Guy from church says: My daughter has a cherry tree. Picked several pounds. For free!



Saw this delightful roadside stand while on the first leg of a short vacation around the Olympic Peninsula. Who knew hot dogs and expresso were such a great pairing?



When the in-laws came to visit, we picked about 10 pounds of blueberries here: http://www.canterberryfarms.com/blueberries.cfm. They sell their stuff at Pike Place Market, but grow and make their stuff close to our house.

Okay, here is Tom: berries on the left, cherries on the right. After they left we picked about 15 pounds of blackberries from a friend's backyard. I've never had so many berries in the freezer in my life.



Ah, the Columbia building, Starbucks on the 30-something floor. Cheaper than the space needle.



Okay, while not technically edible, we do see these fungi growing along the trails close to our place. Here we're on the Tiger Mountain summit trail, a mere 15 minutes from our place.



When the Clapps came to visit we went to a Thai place in Seattle - fantastic. One of the best Thai places ever, and certainly the best presentation.



When the Turneys came to visit, they were kind enough to take us out for din at the Space Needle. The Space Needle Restaurant gets both flak (locally) and hype (for tourists) but I dunno... maybe it was the weather (perfectly sunny with a georgous sunset), maybe it was the company, maybe it was the fact that we weren't picking up the tab, but I thought it was great.



Berry waffles with homemade ice cream. I don't even remember what kind of berries. Ice cream recipe from the recipe book "Perfect Scoop" by Lebovitz. Very time-intensive recipes, but yields the best home made ice cream ever. Got this book and fancy schamncy ice cream maker for Mary for her birthday.



Mark's "Eggs Gwendra." Delightful.



Mary and I counted: We've hosted a total of 14 people since June. While we have enjoyed every single one, we're suprised how much several straight months of hosting can make ya tired. Maybe we won't open that B&B...

Big tree