Pilgrims at Oak Ridge

I think I'm actually starting to believe we'll be bringing home a baby in December. I feel like I was fairly nervous during my pregnancy with Judah, but I guess our last loss has made me even more nervous. I trust and believe that God is good, no matter what happens, but I know I should have more faith that everything will be fine. So I bought a baby outfit. It was on clearance at Old Navy - this gray, chevron-striped baby pajamas. (Because, you now, gray and chevron stripes are very hip right now and I definitely want my baby to be hip) I debated about buying it - part of me felt like I was being almost presumptuous to buy something so early. But I put it in my basket, choosing instead to hope and believe that this baby that I'm beginning to feel kicking and moving will come home with us in just a few short months. I know there are no guarantees. I have had too many friends and acquaintances walk through trying and difficult times during pregnancy. But I'm thankful...

Or maybe I should have entitled it "Baseball!!" The Cubs came to Atlanta, so we headed there to see them play. Judah has now been to four different stadiums in his two years of life: Wrigley , Fenway , Yankee , and now Turner. He loved the ice cream we let him eat, the ice we let him crunch, and the lemonade he drank. I think he might have noticed that there was something going on involving a ball and some cheering. We were happy that our cubbies won! And hopefully we'll get to more stadiums soon....

Our first morning in Atlanta, we headed to the awesome Georgia aquarium. It was excellent.  Apparently this tiny guy, the sea dragon, is actually the animal in the aquarium that is the most expensive to maintain. Even more than the giant whale sharks. Apparently they are very picky about habitats.  I love to photograph Jellyfish. And also these guys.... Kids under 3 are free, so I'm hoping we can get back down there before Judah's third birthday to take advantage.

A few weeks ago when we were in the midst of our awful, awful heat wave we went bowling with some friends. Judah wore the cutest bowling shoes ever. I think we'll be back sometime.

Here is the project I finally finished this week. It has been lying untouched for months and cluttering up the sewing room. As part of my burst of cleaning energy, I also finally finished it - a new card table tent for Judah.  I don't exactly have a source for this - I did a google search and found lots of fun pictures of tents people had made and tried to incorporate my favorite parts. So far, Judah's favorite part is definitely the mail box, which is right by the front door. He loves to pass letter in and out. I included a bird bath and bird house. I will definitely be making at least one more bird. This might be my favorite side. There are apples to pick, although the apples are currently in need of some stems. The last side, complete with a small garden where Judah can pick flowers. So far, Judah seems to be really enjoying it. I'm happy to be done and glad Judah has something new to play with!

If you needed further proof that I've been doing little besides lay around for the last 3 months, here's your proof: My sewing room, until yesterday. Yikes! And now, with my newly found energy!

1. I think that the fatigue and nausea of my first trimester is finally starting to ease. I definitely feel like I had it worse this time, although maybe it just felt worse since I'm also chasing around a two year old. Hopefully that means there will be more blogging. And a cleaner house. 2. We are now a paci-free household. Judah had been chewing on his pacis for quite a while and ended up chewing holes in the three or so pacis we still had around. He wasn't really satisfied to use a paci with a hole in it, but I wasn't about to go and buy another one when we needed to be stopping anyway. He has asked for it a few times at naps and bed time, but overall seems to be fine without it. 3. We had a picnic today. Outside. Those not living in SC may not understand what this means, but for the last few weeks our average temps have been in the mid nineties to low hundreds with humidity in the 80% range or higher. Just walking outside to the mailbox has been miserable. Thankfull...

Although not morally or otherwise opposed to alcohol, Jeff and I rarely drink. I prefer to eat my calories, and don't love the taste of beer or wine. Thus our near tee-totaling state. I barely even think about wanting to drink something alcoholic. Except when I'm pregnant. It's like because suddenly I can't drink for nine months, I suddenly feel the overwhelming urge to have a woodchuck hard cider or a nice cold margarita. Sigh. I had some very ripe watermelon in the fridge leftover from a church lunch and knew that it would never get eaten, so I decided to make my own mocktail. I threw all the watermelon into our food processor and blended it until smooth. To make my drink, I mix equal parts watermelon juice with diet sierra mist and throw in some mint leaves then give it all a stir with some ice. It's cold, refreshing, and the mint really makes me feel like I'm drinking something fancy. Any other favorite pregnancy drinks?

Wow. You know you haven't posted in a while when you get a spam  comment on your most recent post. Sheesh. Summer continues to fly along with lots of activities. The other week I made what I think is the best peach ice cream ever. I've eaten a lot of peach ice cream in my day, but this was fantastic. I only slightly modified the recipe I found here . The addition of the honey to the peaches really gave this ice cream that extra special something that made it taste even more like summer. Instead of using vanilla extract, I used a vanilla bean that I simmered in the milk as I was making the custard, which gave it a nice vanilla flavor as well. If you can find fresh local peaches (or for all you folks who live elsewhere, fresh South Carolina peaches) you will not be disappointed.

Obviously, we are very excited and thankful about our new addition. There is a lot more to this story though, and a lot of things I haven't been able to write about here. Back in the fall we decided that instead of pursuing another IUI, we really felt called to adopt. We had been doing lots of reading and thinking about adoption and were excited to move forward. Because it is so easy to know exactly who we are and where we live from reading our blog, we didn't want to write about the adoption on the blog until everything was finalized which is why this is the first time we've written about it here.  We attended our first informational meeting with Bethany Christian Services in November and then had our training with them in early December. Then we found out we were pregnant. Surprise! Then we found out the pregnancy was ectopic . The ectopic pregnancy didn't change our feelings about adoption so we proceeded with our home study, finally getting approved and go...

Or yet another reason why I've been slack blogging over the 10 weeks or so....

I felt like making a good breakfast today to celebrate everyone being back home. I spied this recipe for buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake on pinterest a while ago and thoroughly enjoyed making it. Anyway, I did make a few changes. First of all, I felt a little guilty making cake for breakfast. I love cake and all, but to make it a wee bit healthier I swapped in 1/2 c. of whole wheat flour. This gave it a nice crunch in addition to adding some extra fiber. I got some fresh local peaches this week that were getting soft, so I added about a cup of peaches and decreased the amount of blueberries slightly. I also swapped in orange zest for lemon since I didn't have any lemons here. I loved this - I would say this is very similar to a muffin in consistency. The sugar sprinkle on top gives it a nice crunchy top. Dinner tonight was nice, too. I had some pizza makings in the fridge (leftover from my girl's night). I made Jeff his usual favorite - pepperoni. I recently spied (a...

Both of my boys finally made it back home yesterday afternoon. I'm not sure Judah missed me at all - he still wanted his Nana to get him out of the car when we got home. Jeff got home a little later from the conference he went to. My house, which had been clean all week, rapidly deteriorated with toys, train parts, and rice on the floor. I have never been so happy to have a messy house. Today, I made a delicious breakfast and savored the toddler giggles I overheard as Jeff played tickle monster with Judah. It is good to have things back to normal.

Since I was working this week and Jeff had to go to a conference, Judah is staying with my parents. It's been a very strange few days. Very quiet. Last night, I enjoyed having a few girls over for a girl's grill night at our house. We grilled pizza and then I grilled fruit to serve with ice cream for dessert. It was fantastic. I'm debating between getting take out tonight or just eating cereal. Maybe I'll rent a movie.... I miss both of my boys, but I have loved how clean the house is staying with no one at home to mess anything up. I'm looking forward to having them all back home this weekend.

Here's my sweet boy talking.

I'm sure I have mentioned before that Judah has a somewhat larger-than-average noggin. Ok, ok. When I say "larger than average" I really mean "at the 99th percentile for kids his age," but whatever. You get the picture. Since he just got a cool new tricycle (Thanks, Mom!) he also needed a bike helmet. (Although I am a fairly laid back mom about almost everything, I have seen too much to allow any of my kids to ride a bike without a helmet. ) I picked one up at walmart. As I was standing on the bike helmet aisle, I perused the options before settling on one that was labeled for kids 5 and over. I knew that the two year old helmets wouldn't fit him, but surely the five year old helmet would be fine. I brought it home and.... it barely fits. It might even be slightly too small, but I can get it on his head, so I decided that's what he'll use for now. I accidentally left said helmet at my parent's house last weekend. He wanted to ride his trike...

I feel like we waited for Judah to start talking for kind of a long time. Now, it feels like he's trying to make up for all the lost time. For example, we drove up to my parent's house for a quick overnight trip on Friday. As we were leaving town, I stopped by Sonic and got a diet coke for the road. I decided that Judah would love a small cup of ice. He did, in fact, love the ice, but the 25 minutes he was eating the ice were the only time during the entire hour and 20 minute car ride he wasn't talking. Here is a summary of the monologue emanating from my backseat: "Nana. Papa. Nana house. Papa house. Nana, hold you. Nana, hold you. Nana, hold you. Papa house. Papa boat. Tractor. Nana. Papa. Nana. Papa. Nana house. Papa house...." You get the picture. My kid loves to talk. My kid loves his grandparents.

1. My current favorite snack is ranch dip made with nonfat Greek yogurt and a packet of ranch seasoning with either veggies or lime tortilla chips. I wish I could say I liked it better with the veggies, but the lime chips are super delicious. Sadly I ate all of the lime chips yesterday so today I could only eat it with veggies. 2. I am very, very happy to be back in good tomato season. Our tomatoes are still green, but since we know lots of people with bigger gardens we have been given some delicious, garden fresh tomatoes. And good tomatoes mean that I can again eat my favorite ABC (DE) LT sandwiches. 3. My current favorite words that Judah says are: 1. "Yawg" = log. He has a log loader on the train set he got for his birthday and loves to talk about picking them up. 2. "Bofe" = both. He says this whenever he is holding/looking at more than one similar item or if he wants Jeff to rub both of his shoulders. 3. "Wabbit" = rabbit. He's just so caref...