Friday Five! Scattered...

Revkjarla at the Rev Gals gives us a scattered Friday Five today!  

1. What is something you are chronically looking for, if anything?

There are two things that WH and I seem to have difficulty keeping in one agreed-upon location are our cheque book and our passports.  They seem to migrate from one place to another and are never exactly where we need them to be when we need them to be there!

2. What movie are you looking forward to watching sometime in the future?

Sometime in the future I would really like to sit down and watch the first two Godfather movies. Never seen them!

3. What is one of your favorite comfort foods? (me, pizza. hands down).

Easy! Chips and dip.

4. Story time. Tell us a story of one your favorite people that has touched, blessed your life.

Oh gosh... there are way too many people to think of just one! 
5. What do you do to focus or calm or center yourself? (please, I need ideas!!!)

I'm a big fan of deeeeeeeeeeeep breaths. 

BONUS: Share the first thing (or second thing) that comes to your mind after your read this!

It's time for the first second snack of the day!

Turning the Page

Hello blogospere! Nice to see you again!

GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT GUESS WHAT??

We are having a BAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBYYYYYYYYYYY!

Sorry, I tried to think of a soft and gentle and clever way to make that announcement but nothing seemed to quite encapsulate how I feel about it the way that capital letters do. 

We had the best summer vacation ever and the very best part about it was our discovery about mid-August that we're expecting our first little one.  We are now about 13 weeks along and everything seems to be going well.  I have had a little bit of nausea in the first months, but nothing really to complain about. I'm hopeful that those issues will soon be over! Bring on the 2nd trimester, I say!

It's very exciting and my heart is totally and entirely full at the thought of all the people who already love our little lima bean and can't wait to meet him or her.  I feel very, very blessed! And very, very thankful!

Stay tuned!

In which Chorus looks ahead to vacation...

I AM READY FOR A VACATION.

I WANT TO LEAVE FOR VACATION RIGHT-FREAKING-TODAY.

Anyhoo, we are leaving for vacation in a week and I am looking forward AAAAAAAAH WHY CAN'T WE LEAVE TODAY. 

We will be driving across this great and beautiful country and a little bit of the great country to the south of us, stopping here and there and everywhere to play golf.  Our first destination point is Georgian Bay for three nights with my dad and his wife, then we will head to Ottawa for a week with WH's family, then home via Toronto for our annual Blue Jays game.  This year, we'll see the Yankees (Boo!). 

Right now, we are flood watching. We did have a hotel reservation in Minot, ND, but the hotel is right in the middle of the area that is recently evacuated, so we've had to shift our plans a bit. We have a hotel reservation and a golf reservation in Grand Forks as well, so we're keeping an eye there too.

It's a beautiful day today in Prairie City, sunny and warm and MAYBE IF WE CAN'T LEAVE FOR VACATION TODAY I COULD JUST GO LAY DOWN IN THE GRASS SOMEWHERE INSTEAD.

I'm finding it hard to focus on work.  You might have guessed that.

This weekend

We are nearing the end of WH's latest examining trip to Closeby Province and I am very, very ready for him to come home.  After he's home, the only travel in our near future involves both of us, together, and I can't wait for that.

Fortunately, I have good friends taking care of me while he is away.  Yesterday, I went to two baseball games in which the son of our friends, J and D, was playing.  LittleJ is five and just about the cutest thing you've ever seen (trust me), and I had a wonderful time watching him play. It's amazing at that age, you know, because from the beginning of the first game to the end of the second game, I could almost SEE him learning things and then applying them.  They have a great format in Prairie Hamlet's league; they play two innings, all the kids get to bat each inning, half the kids play in the field each inning and the other half go out into the outfield and practice their batting.  The kids get four swings at pitches thrown by a machine, and then they get to hit off the tee.  So it's a great balance between ensuring that all of the kids have a positive experience while still learning the skills of the game. 

Too much fun, and it was a beautiful day, and this morning I can see all of the places where I missed the sunscreen.

Last night, I attended Prairie City's high school theatre awards and was thoroughly inspired by the quality of young talent that was on display.  Our friend D, father of the baseball pro mentioned above, is a drama teacher in Prairie Hamlet, and his students' December production of a Christmas Carol was many times nominated.  And, in the end, were the successful winners of the awards for best set design, best costumes, best featured actor (for the young man who played Jacob Marley) and best lead actor (for Scrooge).   It was a great thing to witness!

I'm having a quiet morning today, still in bed at 11am sipping my coffee with Mama Cat asleep under the covers, purring so loudly that she's actually vocalizing.  Also pushing laundry, so it's not totally lazy.  This afternoon is a Princess-themed birthday party for J and D's daughter, S, so I guess I have some wrapping to do.  And I just heard the dryer buzz, so I should move things along in that direction too.

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend!

Water on the hosta

One of the reasons we love our new hostas.

Hey look!

It's a blog! Fancy that...

Anyhoo, WH is away for the next couple of weeks examining piano exams, bless his heart, so Chorus is on her own. Of course, I have Mama Cat and Baby Cat, who, somewhat inexplicably, take up the same amount of space on the bed as WH, including his portion of covers.  I actually woke up at one point last night, sat up, looked at them both and said, "Seriously??" They didn't seem embarassed.

Here we are in June and the weather has been beautiful for the last couple of weeks, but tonight there is a frost warning and a chance of snow.  Harumph.  I have brought the potted annuals inside and covered the tomatoes and the herbs with pillow cases and that will have to do.

We have had an exciting spring in the garden here at one-oh-six, spending the equivalent of two car payments on perennials for the new garden that WH built me last year.  We have this new obsession with hostas; it's quite cute.  We also bought 5 trees and as soon as WH is back from his adventure, the trees will go into the ground.

I hope that you're all doing well!

Vegas, Baby!

Last week, I went to Las Vegas with my best friend and her sister for a girls' weekend!  We had a lovely time, and saw a lot of amazing things and spent a fair amount of money! Here are a few scattered thoughts:

• We went to see Ka, the Cirque de Soleil show at the MGM Grand.  Oh, my friends, if you have the opportunity to see this one, you absolutely must.  I actually had a visseral reaction to all the amazing acrobatic work and the jaw-dropping technical aspects of the show.  The experience is simply astonishing.
• The combination of St. Patrick's Day, March Madness and Spring Break create quite an insane atmosphere on the strip.  Whee!
• I bought a red hat and red shoes.
• I don't think we paid full price for anything that we bought because there are so many coupon books and special deals available.  Along that same theme, three words: Premium. Outlet. Mall.
• I saw at least four Elvises. (Elvi?)
• We ate at a Wolfgang Puck restaurant.  It was yummy. We also ate tapas. The tapas was also yummy.  
• I did not purchase a yardstick plastic drinking vessel that requires a lanyard to be carried. Aren't you proud?
• We put a tasteful quantity of money into slot machines while we were there and had fun losing all of it.  At one point, we were up $20...  but not at the end point.
• There were a lot of young women on the strip wearing mini-dresses that didn't fit them properly and ridiculous shoes.  I wore capri pants and comfy shoes and was happy.

Adventures in Interior Design cont.

WH and I continue to wrestle with what to put up on a number of our walls. 

This morning, we had the following conversation:

WH: Here's a crazy idea.  What if we made our own artwork? 
Me: [pause]
WH: No, wait, it would be great!  We could take a class on making a canvas and then we could just paint them!
Me: But what if we don't like them?
WH: Then we won't put them up!
Me: But what if I don't like yours and you really like it?
WH: Then we'll put it up.  Because I worked hard on it.

Me: Aw, honey... Thanks for writing my blog post for me this morning. 

I am addicted to...

... HGTV.

A couple of recent stays at home during the day have meant finding that HGTV is a really inspiring and lovely way to spend TV-watching time.  And as a result of countless episodes of home buying and home decor shows watched in the last couple of months, WH and I are a little bit more motivated to complete some of the home decorating projects that have been trickling along since we moved in.

We went to an antique superstore in Prairie City and found a really nice antique buffet.  It needs a little bit of refinishing work but otherwise, it's exactly what we've described wanting for a long time.  It's dark wood, with cabinet space big enough to hold our liquor cabinet, small drawers for wine stoppers, corkscrews, coasters, the guest book, etc., and a big drawer for linens.  It fits in really nicely with the space and we love it!

Today, we tired to do some more antique shopping for decor items but the local store wasn't open so instead we went to Home Sense, where we found three large wooden candle holders to put next to our fireplace downstairs.  Then off to Michael's to buy nice big candles for them!

We are now also on a pretty active search for artwork for the walls in our living room. We were looking at a design website this morning that had a neat shelving idea that we think we can do on one of the big and currently-bare walls in our upstairs family room, but we really want to do a couple of similar modern-ish paintings in the living room. We're also looking for either a long and narrow painting or for a series of repeating decor pieces to go over the fireplace.  We don't have a mantle but we're trying to think a little bit outside the box for the fireplace space.  A mantle is a possibility though too!

We have interest in three-dimensional decor pieces for smaller wall spaces, things like plates or masks.


It's fun! We're having a good time!

Quiet Morning

I'm enjoying a quiet morning at One-Oh-Six today.  WH is at church while I stay home recovering from a minor surgical procedure that I had on Friday.  I'm feeling better today than I did yesterday, but still a bit sore, especially when I twist or stretch more than I should. 

Thanks to my best friend, who stocked me up with an excellent selection of trashy magazines, I have caught up on all of my celebrity gossip and I have satisfying chocolates close at hand.  I'm not pushing myself too hard, but I think that some laundry is in order.  Today is a day for shuffling around the house at a leisurely pace, I think!

I had my second shower this morning since the surgery and I still can't get all of the iodine stains off my skin.  They sure don't skimp on that stuff, which is probably good. 

The cats aren't sure what they did to be so lucky to have humans home for long periods of time over the last couple of days. They are celebrating by sleeping deeply. That seems to be their default response to any situation, now that I think about it.  Happy? Have a deep sleep.  Sad? Have a deep sleep.  Hungry?  Meow a lot and then have a deep sleep.  Sleepy?  Well, that's definitely deep sleep time.  They are nothing if not predictable.

Anyway, let the shuffling begin!