Thursday, July 26, 2007

Introduction

Since my kitchen is a disaster and we've had a crazy schedule lately, I don't have a lot of fun food stuff to share so I'll babble on about other things. Although, here is the obligatory vegan pizza shot. My husband made the crust from Nonna's Italian Kitchen Delicious Home-Style Vegan Cuisine by Bryanna Clark Grogan (one of our favorite cookbooks and he is excellent at making crust and usually uses at least some whole wheat flour instead of just all purpose unbleached) and my seven year old did the rest. He cut up and added the farmer's market squash, carrots, and black olives. I believe the sauce was from Byranna's book as well. I tend to pile on too many toppings, but my oldest son is great at finding a balance.

Okay, I guess I should introduce my main characters. My husband is Rob, my seven year old son is Parker, and my three year old son is Dema. I can't find any recent pictures of the three of them together so here is one from the beach at the Outer Banks, NC from last year.




I'm in my last trimester and we really don't have a great idea of when we conceived. I've been performing my own prenatal checks and I'm measuring around 33 cm. This is big for the 29 or 30 weeks I was thinking. It isn't an exact science so I'm not worried. I do feel HUGE and as big as I did when I went into labor with my other two children. We'll see when this little one comes. I keep thinking Sept. 13th, but it could be as late as Oct. 2nd (I'd be totally surprised though). I was within a day of predicting my last two births, but this pregnancy has been very different from the start so we'll see. The boys can't wait to see their sibling. Parker talks to the baby all the time. He can't wait to help out with the baby. Dema just wants to hug, kiss, and squeeze the baby when it comes out.

In November of 2006, we moved from a youngish house (it was about 9 when we sold it, but we moved in when it was around 2 years) in a "suburban" neighborhood to a 100 year old house closer to downtown.



We love the house, the neighborhood, being able to walk to downtown, the bus service right to our door, it is easier for me to bike to places, etc. While we have all the positives, it is a challenge for us to keep up with an older house. Rob has certainly risen to the occasion. He is currently working on taking out all the "finished" parts to our basement. It is a long story, but we had some mold issues in the basement and the "dark room" was not something we needed and was causing some of the issues. The basement should not have drywall in it and there is an old shower/toilet (can't bring myself to call it a bathroom) which in the words of my 3 year old is "Decusting!". I should have taken before and after pictures of the basement, but believe me, Rob is working his butt off.

We are looking into selling our one and only car. We'd love to live car-free and if I wasn't having another child it would be fairly easy (we've gone 3+ weeks without the car before). Our Xtracycles, our primary source of transportation, are great for hauling two kids, groceries, ladders, lumber, etc. We love the Xtracycles so much, I decided to stock their products in my business since none of the bike shops in town carry the Xtracycle. We are looking into other cycling options for hauling three kids. We think the Xtracycle plus our Chariot trailer will work once the baby comes, but Rob thinks I'll be hauling a little too much weight and Parker is big enough to add some pedal power so maybe a modified tandem. If anyone has suggestions, we are open. We are also lucky to be on a bus route. Although, it takes a lot of planning and you can't be in a hurry to get anywhere. The buses run every 30 minutes (not every 10 minutes like we were used to when we lived in the DC area) and they stop running in our neighborhood pretty early.

I should have food posts soon and hopefully more exciting ramblings, but I'm running on very little sleep so this is the best I can do today.

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