Getting bigger

Tonight we're visiting my sister Mary's house. Our other sister, Debbie, called and wanted to see a current picture of Erin. So Here it is, at 4.5 months:

Little Flutters

Last night I felt a little flutter. I knew I would be feeling the baby moving sometime soon, but there is so much other stuff going on in my body, I wasn't quite sure if this was it. I put my hand under my shirt and sure enough, felt a little push! I told Joshua and he ran over, putting his hand on my stomach. Literally. I had to guide him to where the baby is actually located in my body. :) He tried for a while but felt nothing. He tried again after dinner, when I felt something, I asked if he did too. He didn't realize that was the baby. He said he thought his hand had a twitch. :) Next Friday is the ultrasound but don't expect any big news ... The gender will remain unknown until the baby is born.

You've Got to be Kidding!

Yesterday morning I was getting ready to leave for work as usual. Hmmm ... my car key was not on the key hook. Nor was it on the coat rack. Oh yeah, Joshua drove my car last night and cannot seem to get the key to either of these locations. He likes to put them in his pocket instead. I ran through the house while calling his cell searching every possible place it could have been left. Nothing. The only place left was his jacket pocket which was at that moment in a locker at the YMCA with his cell phone. Rats! Our closest family members were at the Y with him, so calling them would do no good. My other sister in law works close to my school, so I gave her a try. No answer. Then I tried Joshua's parents. My father in law is the best! I quickly explained the situation and he said, "Well, I guess I better come pick you up then." Just like that he was on his way. My hero! I made it to school before the kids did (although I missed the morning staff devotional). As we were arriving Joshua called. He informed me that the key was in fact in his pocket, but he was proud of me for being resourceful. Sounds silly, but any little thing can become a huge drama with these pregnancy hormones, so it was lucky that I held it together and didn't have a breakdown! What a morning!

Joshua's Reply:
I just want to say how proud I am of my wife. As a husband, I have a certain fear that my wife won't adapt to her new home very quickly. Especially when that home is near her in-laws (whom she's only known for the last 3+ years). She felt comfortable enough to call my family for help. I'm just glad they're more dependable than I am.

You snooze, you lose

While out at Costco last week, Joshua and I spotted a glider chair that would be perfect for a nursery. We sat in it, tried rocking, and remembered the price so we could comparison shop. Neither of us had a clue what a glider cost. Yesterday we went to a 10-acre furniture store that we had heard had great prices. The 3 or so gliders they had there were almost 3 times as much as the one we had seen and not nearly as nice looking. So, we enjoyed our free popcorn and hot cocoa, then headed back to Costco. What do you know, they were sold out. So we tried the other Costco. Sold out too. They looked it up for us and found one in Oregon and one in Idaho. Bummer! Trying to make the most of our evening and the van we had borrowed, we went to Target to pick up a stroller we had found last week. Once again, our plans were thwarted as they too were sold out. Needless o say, we learned our lesson. When you see something you need but aren't sure of the price, buy it then and return it later if need be. Anybody know of any good baby furniture stores?

Sweet tea and Hush Puppies with Butter

"Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit. Look who's here." This is the welcome sign to our new favorite guilty pleasure of a restaurant. Fat Rascal's Barbecue in Port Orchard offers wood smoked beef ribs, chicken, and pork that even the most discriminating North Carolinian would appreciate. We arrived with visions of sweet tea and racks of ribs in our heads. We were not disappointed. For starters we had hush puppies served with butter. Erin had a pulled pork sandwich, I had the Some of 'Dis and 'Dat Platter with Ribs, Beef Brisket, potato salad, baked beans, deep-fried corn-on-the-cob, and cornbread.

As we waited for our food to be prepared, which wasn't very long, we were able to play some of the table games provided. Much like the Cracker Barrel they had Golf Tee Solitaire, Yahtzee, and Trivial Pursuit questions. Perfect when you don't know what to talk about, as if having a baby doesn't create something to talk about. Our server was wonderful, obviously transplanted from the South herself.

So, if you're ever in the mood for some sweet tea and ribs, just let us know and we'll join you there. (don't forget the hush puppies)

Duh!

Today I was leaving for work at 0'dark thirty as usual. My windshield was just a bit fogged up and seemed damp on the outside, so I ran the wipers over a couple times. It helped a bit, so I drove off. Then it got really fogged up, so I did what I always do in such a situation: ran the wipers with a bit of wiper fluid. Duh Erin! It was 29 degrees outside! I couldn't see anything at this point, not even the side of the road to pull over, so I just stopped and put on the hazards. (Don't panic, I was still in my neighborhood on a very quiet street.) After scraping the ice I made off the windshield, things were looking up. One day I'll figure out this thing they call winter!

Just for laughs, here are some of the darling things my students have said regarding my pregnancy.

"Is the baby big enough that we can hear it yet?"
"If the baby is so small, how come you're getting so fat?"
"Do you have to eat baby food for the baby?"
"You haven't eaten for a while and the baby is probably hungry. Should I bring you a snack from your desk?"

Aren't they the sweetest?!

The Pregnancy Bump

As per the request of Michelle, here's the 16-week belly-shot showing my baby's baby. It's hard to tell with the outfit that she's wearing, but she has been seeing significant growth since Christmas.

At our last doctor's appointment we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. We're only able to make out one heartbeat. (it's probably not triplets) Our next sonogram will be at the end of the month, where we won't be finding the gender.

I still think it's funny that we have all these tools to find out about the baby before he/she is born. Height, weight, sex, development process. And we just choose to not know the sex. What does it even matter to us to know the other things? If there's a severe problem, does it mean we'll abort the baby? No. Why do we need to know so much beforehand? I doubt it helps us to calculate the day the baby will be born. I still haven't seen a doctor predict that.

Well That's New

This morning we woke up to a beautiful blanket of snow outside! There wasn't quite enough for a snow day, so out I went in the dark (cause the sun doesn't come up until like 9:00 around here) to go to school. I had to scrape all the snow off my windshield before driving. Feeling fairly proud of my accomplishment, I jumped in and took off. Next time I need to remember to scrape off the back window too ... I wanted so much to take a picture for you all to see, but Joshua has hidden the camera in some secret location. I called to ask him to reveal it to me, but he ignored my call! Imagine that. In other news, we got to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time. Today makes 16 weeks, so hopefully sometime soon I can feel normal again. I am still having days of nausea now with the added bonus of headaches all the while feeling totally exhausted. What fun being pregnant is!

Gingerbread Cathedral

This Christmas I wanted to make a Gingerbread House. For Thanksgiving our family in Washington got together to build the houses together. I, of course, built mine from scratch using a template I found online. (here)But either the templates were off or the recipe I had was off. The result was a poor example of a gingerbread house. (I'll upload the picture when I get back home.)

In California at Erin's Mom's house I knew I would have some time to find a good template and a good recipe to make a great gingerbread house. I tried another template from the site referenced above, but the pieces didn't even line up in the cutouts, and everyone else's templates were too simle. Four walls and an "A"-frame roof is too boring for me. I decided to make my own. With a pencil, paper, ruler and some foam board I started to create my masterpiece for this year.

Cathedrals have great shapes and are usually very ornate, so that made the perfect idea for my house. After designing the church (loosely based on St. Pauls Cathedral in London, England) I needed to find the right recipe. I lost the recipe that I used on last years gingerbread house After going through two not-so-good recipes, Erin's mom found a great one. I was a little discouraged that I wouldn't be able to make the house because it was taking so much time, but finally I was able to get it done.

The resulting structure stands at over 1 foot tall with the Point of the cross at 20½ inches. The footprint is 12in by 17in and consumed two full batches of dough. Next it needs to be decorated, probably by Erin's mom. And lit up. I cut out places in the bottom to install lighting.

For more pictures, visit: http://picasaweb.google.com/joshua.hardwick/GingerbreadCathedral

Christmas Fun and Our Newest Nephew

I'm having trouble putting pictures where I want them, so these are backwards. Oh well. Here is Auntie Jackie with her nephew. Is he cute or what!?
Christmas Eve we spent with Joshua's family in Gig Harbor. We had fun visiting with the Muellers from CA. The highlight of the evening was the surprise gift to Joshua's folks ... all the kids chipped in for new reclining chairs! It was a lovely evening cut only slightly short by our trip to the airport. We had a late night flight to CA and arrived just before midnight. After sleeping in a bit, we had fun opening gifts with my mom and sister. Then we had dinner with some other family members and enjoyed visiting. Last but not least we spent Christmas evening with my dad. He has two new kittens that entertained us all.

Seven days after his due date, baby Caleb came into the world. After 17 hours of labor (yikes!) they decided to do a C-section. So, at 7:57 pm on 12/27/07 we met our 7 pound 4 oz nephew. He is too precious and he and mommy are doing well.

13 weeks and feeling better

We have officially entered the 2nd trimester and I am feeling a whole lot better! Hooray! Now I only feel sick when I need to eat (which I still have no desire to do and am consequently at -5 pounds from pre-pregnancy). Yesterday was our last day of school for the year. My room moms threw an amazing party and I left with more gifts than I have ever had in my life! The children are excite about the baby and the questions have already begun. "Why can't I feel anything?" "How does the baby get out?" "Will you name the baby my name if it's a girl?"
On Monday we are flying to So Cal for Christmas, and hopefully to meet our newest nephew , courtesy of my brother and his wife. :) Today is the due date, so let's hope he's here before we fly back home! The fun is only just beginning ...

Blog Upkeep

I know we've been very bad at updating our blog. Thank you for not giving up on us. I've uploaded some pictures that we captured during the month of October. So much happend that month. Erin's birthday, Joshua went to the Albuquerque balloon fiesta, Joshua's birthday, and we carved a hole into the kitchen door for the cat to be able to eat his food in the garage.

Click here for all the pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/joshua.hardwick/October2007

Baby's First Picture

Introducing the newest member yet to join the Hardwick family! Here are the first pictures of our expected baby. We aren't going to find out if it's a boy or a girl until his/her birthday. So please allow us the luxury of assigning a sex on occasion knowing that we will be using it loosely and interchangeably. Because, lets face it, the baby is a person and not an "it". So the very first picture of her/him from head to tail is located below. He/she is upside down with the feet near the top. The doctor also took a video (which we'll receive later) where the baby waved hello to us.

We are very excited to be new parents, still wondering if we're ready for it I'm sure. Erin wasn't sure she was pregnant for the first month. As soon as the test rang positive, she became positively sick. I thought "morning" sickness meant it happend only after sleeping. Erin corrected me that like a day is separated into morning, afternoon, and nighttime; so the first trimester of pregnancy is considered the morning, hence the term previously mentioned. It really should be called "before and after sleeping, between meals, not-excuse-enough-to-miss-work, until-Jesus-returns" sickness.

Lately we've taken to asking people how they got more than one child, "Did you forget the pain?" "Yes" is often the reply. Some weird amnesia must go on in a woman's head once she holds her new child that makes her think "I could do that again." I'm glad I'm not a woman. Even if a file cabinet gives me a static shock, the next time I'll have somebody else pull files for me.

Oh, I almost forgot, the doctor offered a new benefit that's being tested at their practice. You can get a 3D modeling of your own baby after the sonagram. I don't know the benefit yet, but it was a pretty good value at $1,500 plus the cost of materials.

Joshua's 31st Birthday

I know it's been almost a month since my birthday, but I've got to blog about it anyway.

This year I wanted to have a birthday party like I remembered as a kid. Carving pumpkins. Usually when the family gets together to celebrate something we just sit, eat, and play cards. This time my sister Pattie was willing to let me use her house to have everyone carve pumpkins.

I went online and found some templates to use and we all made some pretty good looking jack-o-lanterns. And, yes, Blake is carving a green pumpkin. I recommend it as it really shows off the carving with it's contrast in color. However it was a very juicy pumpkin.

My end result? A scary looking tree with a bat flying overhead. Blake made a cool spider. Spencer's said "Be Swell". Mavric had a three faced pumpkin with stab wounds all around. Marisa and Chandler shared a pumpkin who had a delightful face.

Okay, now I'm all set to make my gingerbread house.

The First Day of Our Fourth Year

So today was our third anniversary! Joshua is off working hard and enjoying the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. In his place, he sent his mom with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a love letter to my classroom. She came in and asked the kids to help her sing "Happy Anniversary" to Mrs. Hardwick. They sang away and when she left, one little girl asked me "Who was that?" At the same time a little boy asked,"What's Anniversary?" How sweet are they? One of the other boys explained that an anniversary was like a birthday for your wedding. A fine explanation I think! :) I ended my day with a strange (sans my husband), but nonetheless wonderful, anniversary dinner with the Hardwicks and the Graffes. Even better, now I have leftovers for tomorrow's dinner! As lovely as my day was, I am hoping that next year Joshua will be with me so we can celebrate together.

Yard Work

Yesterday, we decided that we'd had enough with working on the inside of the house, and started focusing on our yard again. As winter is stepping in it's going to start raining soon, so we had to start burning all the debris that was on our yard. And when there are so many trees on the property that makes for a lot of debris. I invited my folks over to help, mostly because my mom likes to be part of a debris burning party.

We found out that we had a science experiment on our hands once the blaze took off. Apparently sound doesn't travel through intense heat. I could talk to Erin on the other side but my voice sounded like it was coming from either side of the fire, not through it. Try it out, it's really neat. (Disclaimer: I am not recommending that you begin a large fire on your property or anywhere else. Check with your local authorities, and apply for permits where neccessary. Be sure to contact the fire department 48 hours prior to setting your blaze. Unless you live in Gig Harbor, and can just create any fire however large at any time.)

You can see in the picture below how we already have a large pile to burn to the right of the fire. It was a perfect day to burn as it was a little overcast with very little wind so the smoke went mostly straight up. It rained the day before and again during the evening, with little to no risk of the fire spreading. However, I just checked and at 8am this morning it is still burning away with a visible flame after raining all night.

Many of you may remember that I love watching Little House on the Prairie. I thought I'd perform a little Pa Ingalls on the firewood leftover from the previous owners. But they left some horrible, knotty wood; although, I did manage to split a few. My dad gave me back my old maul that I used back in High School to help pay for mission trips for church. (I'm sure he'll call it his, but I don't see him using it again any time soon, so I'm keeping it.)

Not pictured is our cat, Six, who we let roam in the outdoors with us. His front paws have been de-clawed, so we don't let him out much and it shows. He doesn't let us near him when he's outside because he thinks he's in trouble and we'll take him back inside. At one point when it looked like he was trying to escape, he scoweled and hissed at me when I went to touch him. I backed off and he ran back into the house. As soon as he was just within the door, he calmly said "Meow." and I could pet him without fear of attack.

New Cereal

So, I found my new favorite breakfast cereal lately (eaten with a side of fruit). It has all the grains and things to make a healthy body without all the artificial sugars. It's pumpkin, flaxseed granola, found at Trader Joe's. Then the other day when shopping at Fred Meyer (a grocery store with a healthy food section) I saw the same cereal sold in bulk for more than a dollar cheaper. I'm thinking, "A dollar and a half cheaper and less waste in the environment. It's like I'm getting paid to be healthy and greener for the environment." Upon this epiphany, Erin and I go purchase a tupperware container to fill up.

Once home, I realize, "Hey, this cereal is bigger than my head!"

Breakfast Test

This is our first full weekend in our new house. So we wanted to have a fun breakfast together. But we really haven't gone grocery shopping since moving out of our apartment. So with our leftover ingredients we had buckwheat pancakes with bannana syrup and eggs. The egg carton said they were expired, but a trick we learned from the days of Mr. Wizard was to test them in water.

Here you can see a good egg and a bad one. (The bad ones float)

As far as progress with the house, we have decided not to scrape the rest of the ceilings. Or should I say, I won't be scraping any more ceilings, as Erin didn't participate. It made the whole house dusty, I'm sure we've ruined at least one vacuum, and my hands are dry and crackling. However, it was fun spraying the mud onto the ceiling for the orange peel texture. My friend Jared came over with his compressor to help out. Sorry there are no pictures, the camera was misplaced at the time.

Also, our current front door doesn't have a deadbolt. So I purchased a door-hole maker to do the job. But the drill bit broke off in the middle of drilling and left itself in the middle of the door. The door now is completely scratched up and looks awful. A quick trip to Home Depot and I returned the unlodged part of the drill bit and exchanged it for a new door. The new door is fiberglass with an ornate half-moon shaped window at the top. It's pre-hung so it came with a new door jamb and everything. I just have never installed one before, so I'm a little hesitant to start ripping a hole in the front of my new house.

I need to stop watching the DIY Network, otherwise I'll keep thinking that I can do all of these projects on my own. Next project, custom built-in bookshelves, new windows, sunroom off of the kitchen...

Settling In

We are now actually living in our new house (hooray!) and hard at work on some updates. Joshua has expertly applied texture to the bedroom ceiling and painted it too. We finished painting our now creamy yellow kitchen. Today we intend to finish painting the bedroom so we can move our bed in. I have been lining shelves and cabinets all over so we can put things away - a slow but steady process. Six has made himself at home. He prefers our bed to any other spot in the house unless there is an open closet door or cabinet - then he heads inside for some privacy.
I have also been settling in at work. Have I mentioned yet that I love it? I knew I loved teaching, but somehow in the craziness of the last eight years the joy had faded away. I am happy to say that it is back and better than ever! It is so wonderful to have parents in my room helping out with everything they can - grading and filing, helping students, sharpening pencils, etc.