Laura's 2 favorite things

Her Easter dress and Grandma M's blanket, her 2 favorite things.

Boundary Waters '08

Jim and I just got back from a trip with some friends to the boundary waters (between Minnesota and Canada). Lots of canoeing, camping, and mosquitoes. The weather was very schitzophrenic, with 10 mintues of rain, then sunshine, then cloudy and cold, then rain again. But the weather never really ruined any of the fun, thankfully. And the thunderstorms at night were fun to listen to from the safety of the tents!

These turtles are about the extent of the wildlife that we saw. There was also a friendly beaver that lived near our campsite who we saw several times. And we heard some loons and eagles. No bears or moose, though, for better or worse.

Michelle and John getting ready to portage their canoe. None of the portages were too long, thankfully. Some were slippery and tricky, though. Jim and John did great carrying the canoes and Michelle carried all the heavy packs. They were all very protective of me in my "condition", haha, and I got away with mostly just carrying day packs and paddles.

Jim's steering away!

Self-portrait

John and Michelle navigating some rapids.

Bye-bye canoes! Not really, we had them anchored to our bodies while we stopped on a rock in the middle of the lake for lunch.

This is the only thing we caught all weekend. It didn't make for very good eatin'.

Here's my failed attempt at making english muffins. The dough didn't work out quite right.

But the dough did make tasty pancakes!

And last, my sad little feet after we got home, all calomined up. I have mosquito bites in places I never realized possible. But it was well worth it.

Babysitting

Disaster Area

At one point last week, I was cooking for a potluck, making Jim's birthday dinner and dessert, and prepping all the food for a boundary waters trip for 4 people. Here's the resulting mess in my kitchen.

Happy Birthday Jim!

Jim's birthday was a few weeks ago. Instead of a cake, he asked for chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. Yum!

The belly - 15 weeks

Now that I look at the picture, I guess my belly is more pronounced than I thought. Or maybe I'm just sticking it out for the picture. Either way, there's definitely a baby in there! I haven't actually gained ANY weight, which makes me both proud and nervous. At this point, I'm sure I had gained at least 15 pounds with Laura. But that's definitely excessive. Tomorrow's the next appointment, so we'll see what the doctor has to say.

Memorial Day Weekend

Getting sentimental or something, because I wanted to make sure that I remembered what a great weekend we had. Jim, Laura and I spent almost everyday together, all day and really really enjoyed ourselves. Laura was a great kid, Jim and I had lots of laughs and fun and we all just got along so well. We hiked, canoed, had friends over for dinner, worked on the house, gardened, went shooping, ate out, cooked and just had a really good time. Its not that we don't usually enjoy each others' company, but this weekend seemed especially fun. Didn't want to forget that.

Thank you to our troops and all of our veterans who have passed away. We remember you and appreciate all you do for us. And we remember our family and friends who have passed away. For some reason, I thought about Grandma Anderson a lot today in particular.

Jim's TV debut

Here's a picture of Jim on TV! He's the 3rd person from the left in the gray shirt. He joined a committee that advises the city council on airport relations and they actually televise the meetings on public access. Pretty exciting and the beginning of a huge career, I'm guessing.

Didn't want to forget

Here are a few notes that I wrote on the family's blog that I wanted to make sure I remembered:

Jim deleted our history the other day and that is how I usually get to this website. I knew I was forgetting to check something for the last few days! Our garden is just so-so. I definitely got a little wound up about the few nice days we had here and there and put out seedling too early. The peas, potatoes, onions, and swiss chard look small, but healthy. Probably about right for this time of year and considering how long the coolness has stayed around. The rhubarb is HUGE and 2 of the 4 asparagus plants seem to have made it through the winter. Everything else, I put out way too early. I have a kabocha,a pumpkin, and a butternut squash and they all look very sad, but the rabbits aren't eating them, at least. Maybe it will warm up and give them a kick. The tomatoes are still there, but aren't growing too fast too soon, and the peppers were just tiny and sad so I bought one today from Gertens that is nice and big and beautiful. No sign yet of the beans, edemame, parsnips, or various flowers I planted as seeds last week. We also bought a dogwood shrub for the front corner yard. It has yellow leaves and the sticks should be red in the winter, so it will add some color out there. The lilac is about to bloom out there too. And I bought a few pansies for a hanging basket today too. Our daylilies, echinechea, peonies, and some other flowers I don't know the name of are pretty green, but no open blooms yet. The tulips just finished and only 2 of the daffodils (from Anthony's sale) actually bloomed (I think I really hurt them when I pulled back the mulch early and then tried to carefully replace it around them). So that's my garden story. It turned out to be long!

We had a fun day today. Jim and Laura woke up before me and had pancakes ready by the time I came down. Yum! Then we went on a hike at a local nature park and rented a canoe for a little while. Laura enjoyed both. We had a picnic lunch on the beach, even though it was way too cold for a swim. Jim cleaned out the garage while Laura and I napped and then we went to Gertens and Ruby Tuesdays for dinner. Its supposed to rain tomorrow, so I'm glad we got our outside fun taken care of today! We may go clothes shopping at the megamall tomorrow since we're all in need of a few things and it Memorial Day sale time. But it will be crazy, so we'll see.

Baby or blob? Look closely and you'll see the baby in there

Here's baby's first picture. He/she was really wiggly today, so I only got a few glimpses of fingers and toes and cute things like that. And its too early to see if its a girl or a boy (that's just a leg). But all seems to be going very well. Heartbeat is great and everything seems to be about the right size for the age. She declared my due date to be November 21st. Yay baby!