Pillow Tester

If you are wondering what kind of strange horseshoe-shaped pillow Paul is napping in, you are not alone. I've never seen one before, myself. This is the wonderful pregnancy pillow that arrived from Amazon.com yesterday. I've been having back problems at night since almost the beginning of pregnancey so I finally decided it was time to try something new. I shoulda tried this sooner -fabulously comfy! I guess Paul wanted to make sure it was suitable, and so is testing it in nap mode at this very moment. As he's been out for a few hours so far, it must be getting a good review. Maybe next week we will have two of these monstrously large pillows in our bed!

Morning Glory Muffins

I got this recipe from allrecipes.com and they are SUPER!! I did 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour as opposed to what's listed below, but I think I'd need to add an additional 1/4 tsp. baking soda next time to help the heavy wheat rise more. Plus I am thinking next time of using 1 cup of honey instead of 1 1/4 cups of sugar (that's a lot of sugar and they were more than sweet enough).



Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups grated carrots
1 apple - peeled, cored, and finely chopped
1 cup raisins
1 egg
2 egg whites
1/4 cup apple butter
1/4 cup mango chutney (or use 1/2 cup total of apple butter instead)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly oil 18 muffin cups, or coat with nonstick cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, apple butter, oil and vanilla.
In a large bowl, stir together flours, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir in carrots, apples and raisins. Stir in apple butter mixture until just moistened. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full.
In a small bowl, combine walnuts and wheat germ; sprinkle over the muffin tops.
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the tops are golden and spring back when lightly pressed.

Our Ultracool Ultrasound

Ultrasounds have come a long way as my Aunt Jamie has said when she started doing the 4D ( I hope I'm using the right terminology... I want to call it 3D) ultrasounds on her patients. But it was hard to be amazed, truly, until we had one ourselves!

Tired Baby Teague

Bluebirds at Home

After many false alarms, a nesting pair of bluebirds finally decided to close escrow and move in. They were indecisive house hunters that kept coming back every month, fly in and out of each apartment, look like they were going to buy and then they'd disappear.

But to my surprise, I saw some grass sticking out of one of the apartments when I was mowing last weekend and then closely monitored and found the shy little birdies coming and going in the mornings and evenings. It's been really hot the last few days, and with no air-conditioning in this upscale apartment built by Dad, the homeowners (dedicated nest sitters) are sitting the nest with their beaks out to catch the occasional breeze.

Awwww how cute!

I'm Back!!

Hi Everyone,

I don't know where the last three months of life have gone! Just a few short weeks after I last posted on the blog, Paul and I found out I am....
We kept it rather quiet for the first trimester. In the meantime, I celebrated my 35th birthday and Paul made me my favorite cake served on Bella and Edward plates! I have been reading him the Twilight Saga books - my favorite tied with Pride and Prejudice. He had to know what I was obsessing about so I insisted he listen every night while I read a chapter or two. He's gotten out of a few nights here and there. We are now almost at the end of the last book are all in anticipation of the release of Eclipse - the movie of the third book. Notice how Paul served me my slice of cake on Bella's face so I had Edward staring at me while I ate.

During the months of February and March, most of the weekends were spent collecting rocks from vacant lots to build this dry-stone wall garden bed for our veggie garden.

Almost all of April and May I was traveling back to back each week on various field projects for work. I told work I could finish up the spring field season but would be out of commission for the rest of my pregnancy after that. Thank goodness! Because my feet are starting to swell along with my belly and field work was getting awkward towards the end. May 20th we left for San Francisco to visit my sister and her boyfriend in Mariposa.
Then we drove down to So. Cal with Heather to visit with the rest of the family and attend our cousin Kaitlyn's wedding.

On the 24th Paul and I headed to Maui for our 5-year-later belated honeymoon! We had such a great time. We rented a beachfront condo for the 6 days. What a view!

We did plenty of snorkeling. That's Paul by the way.

We did some adventure hiking using a guidebook that we had to consult at every turn...
That led us to pools that we had to swim across to get to the next waterfall. We left our clothes stashed in the bushes and had our swimsuits on underneath. Good thing we planned ahead and brought waterproof bags for our camera and guidebook..

We did some less adventurous hikes to some very scenic beaches..

and of course made an effort to see the sunset every day!

It's dinner time, so I will go for now. Bye till next time!