a long weekend of thanks

our entire thanksgiving weekend was stellar. i'm posting a few of my favorite pictures of abby (in all her adorable, dimple-y cuteness). i know that i really should have taken more photos, but i was so busy enjoying the wonderful company all weekend that it was hard to remember to pull the camera out. in any case, i plan to keep all the warm memories tucked away for safe-keeping.

we spent thursday with my family in the cleveland area, and then went down to columbus friday morning to visit with mike's relatives. both were wonderful gatherings, full of good food and lots of fun (and football). on saturday we went to visit mike's grandma for a bit, and then went to see "bolt" with his brother and his family. we left earlier today, and though i'm glad to be back home, i'm so grateful for having such wonderful people to share the holidays with! thank you to all! we're already looking forward to christmas, when we will get to see some of the people that couldn't be with us this weekend - and a chance to visit again with the ones that were! hurrah for holidays!

rollin' rollin' rollin'

i couldn't resist posting a photo of the buttercrust flake-aparts. they turned out quite nicely (if i do say so myself). thanksgiving is one of the few times that i have a reason to pull out grandma's pie board, and i always think of her when i use it. i love hand-me-downs!

on a roll

luckily for me (and the rest of the family), i'm not in charge of the thanksgiving meal. my contribution, as in years past, is to bring the bread. so far i've made marjorie's whole wheat rolls, cranberry nut muffins, and oatmeal buttermilk muffins. i'm saving the buttercrust flakeaparts for tomorrow morning because i always think they're best the first day (though they're plenty tasty the next day too).

29 weeks

...and 4 days of ninja baby. the belly pic, as requested.

mmm... chocolatey...

yesterday i worked on mint fondants. these are dark chocolate. the white frosting is to help me remember which flavor center it is. otherwise, i might have to make mike take bites out of each one to check for me. he did do a taste test for me though, and they were approved. unfortunately i'm already out of dark chocolate, and only about halfway through my mint centers. oh well... on to the milk chocolate, i guess!

candy by football-light

my activity during the ohio state/michigan game this afternoon was working on fondants. the reason for this activity: a couple of my co-workers have instigated a cookie exchange, and we're each responsible for making nine dozen of some tasty treat. this seemed like a good solution because 1) the aforementioned co-workers "suggested" candy - which i took as a request, 2) the recipe makes plenty to fill my quota, and 3) they will be by far the easiest thing to transport on the train to work.
so...we went to bj's today to buy our 4lb bag of confectioners sugar and made a special stop for flavoring and candy melts. i'm just making two flavors to begin with. the green is peppermint (i think this will have dark and milk chocolate coating) and the pink is raspberry (i think this will get the white coating, but maybe a little dark chocolate also). i also bought maple flavor, but i'm not sure if i have enough time to do more yet. i'm really hoping for some profits to bring to some other gatherings, but may end up making another batch if there aren't enough left and i've got time to spare.
i'm hoping to do the dipping and decorating tomorrow.

ps - the buckeyes won and i don't think they even needed me to wear my lucky underpants (though i did)

soft and white and fluffy and cold

we've been getting our first real (sticking) snow of the season today. i admit that i wasn't quite ready to trade in my lovely walking shoes for my extremely comfy (but much heavier) snow boots when taking my daily strolls, but it is awfully pretty (and totally better than the nasty, cold rain that preceeded it). i'm hoping we'll have plenty of the white stuff for when missy and her crew are up for christmas. i believe there has already been talk of shoveling and sledding, provided the weather cooperates. it would be nice to let oscar get some snowball-making practice in while he can, not to mention snowmen and snow dragons and snow forts!

tick, tick, tick

we got confirmation of our registration for childbirth classes and a prenatal hospital tour in the mail yesterday. i know i've had my countdown ticker for several weeks now, but getting these confirmations in the mail really signaled to me that we're seriously getting closer to being parents (and real adults).

ps - the totally adorable (and eco-friendly) calendar is from here.

mmm... yummy

when it's cold and rainy, there's nothing better than something warm for lunch. i decided that fried apple would certainly cover that base and would go well with my vanilla yogurt. this was one of those delicious farmer's market apples, so no sugar needed - just a little cinnamon and a handful of raisins. yummy ummers.

baby bedding

i've been casually looking at baby bedding, just to see what's out there and what's available. so much of it is really cute. almost too cute. bears and bulldozers and farm animals - oh my! it's a little overwhelming to someone who prefers things to be a bit more plain.
nevertheless... i've come across two sets that aren't too, too much. or maybe they are, but i thought they were worthy of posting.
the first one i really thought was cute (but not too cute), and i like the football theme, but maybe it's carrying it a little too far to have football bedding, no? plus, what if our ultrasound was an anomaly and we have a girl? would it be too strange to put a girl to bed in a crib adorned with helmets and footballs?

i'm a bit more fond of the second one. it's got the "right" colors without being too theme-y, but maybe it's not "baby" enough. what say you?

anywho... just something to think about in a non-commital sort of way.

a room suitable for a ninja

so we got the first coat of paint rolled on this evening. it's totally going to need a second coat (if not a third), but i'm really liking the color. i think it will suit our little ninja just fine. plus, that denimy, grey-blue will be pretty sweet with "go bucks" colors. it looks almost like what i planned (if you can really call it "planning").

UPDATE: we finished painting friday evening! next on the list: furniture tetris!

i have a couple of tracks from the great white north album on my mp3 player. every time i hear one of them it makes me smile (if not speak along or laugh out loud). my favorite tracks (in no particular order): the beer hunter, peter's donuts, elron mckenzie, coffee sandwich, and (of course) the 12 days of christmas. speaking of which, it's almost the time of year to put that last track back into circulation...
image via

and it begins...

we have paint! mike has decided to start painting the room for ninja-boy tonight. i'm planning on joining him shortly, as long as we can ventilate properly.

more for the "to do" list

note to self: get moving on the christmas cards before they become valentines

ninja baby

from deep within his dark fortress, ninja baby practices both day and night...
i think our little ninja should have one of these plushies. it would be ever so appropriate. of course, one of these would be fun too.

i really did rake leaves on thursday...honest!

but you certainly wouldn't know it by looking at the yard! at least the leaves make a gorgeous carpet. it's almost too bad to clear them away. ah well...

hello third trimester

two-thirds of the way there and feeling great. (though i think a lot of the great has to do with it being a saturday and having slept in - yay for sleep!)

magic everywhere

every fall the bushes along where i walk to work get wrapped in burlap. to me they always look a bit like leafy creatures all wrapped and huddled down together for the winter.
happy friday!

on your mark, get set, go!

after dragging my feet for at least a week, my promotional bookmarks are ready to drop off. i'm glad to be able to cross this off my list. now off to rake leaves before going to the doctor's office this afternoon...

poster day 2

so this is my revised poster sketch. i really think it's coming along. the covers in the border (though lovely and gorgeous) were weirdly distracting, so we eliminated them for the time being. now to the committee too see if it will pass the test...dun dun dunnnnn!

in progress

i'm working on our poster for black history month. this is what i have so far. i want to work some of our covers into the border with some kind of pattern, but i haven't quite figured that bit out yet. i'm also not sure that this is the final color scheme. i'll post a final layout when i've got one. i think the theme they settled on was "igniting hope" or something. we've been doing a lot of "igniting leadership" resources lately, so that's how it relates.

it's holiday time

i don't think i can refer to these as christmas cacti anymore. they're more like holiday cacti. i have two of them, and they both just started blooming in time for halloween, but have been known to bloom for thanksgiving, easter, even my birthday (which i thought was very nice of them). i think they just like to celebrate, which i don't think i should argue about, because they're terribly gorgeous when they're all full of flowers.

afterward

we had a fun (if quiet) night last night. we didn't have quite as many trick-or-treaters as we expected early on, but as we turned out our porchlight to get ready to go visit family, there was a flood of kids on our street. i guess we're at the end of the route for most. still, we have a few "profits" that mike will enjoy for a few weeks.

we enjoyed visiting with mike's mom and john, and seeing the kids (who had already changed out of their costumes and taken an inventory of all their candy!)

i couldn't help but post one of missy's photos of oscar as "poopsie." he looks either serious or nervous, or maybe he's just missing his papa—but totally cute all the same. you can see more of their trick-or-treating fun here.