Toys

Since Scout isn't really in the business of playing with many toys yet, and we haven't really bought many toys, I might be a little bit idealistic about my standards.  I know that they might change, but for right now, I'm pretty picky.  We don't have a lot of space, so we can't afford to fill up our house with lots of junky toys that won't interest Scout for long.  I want toys that Scout will come back to over and over again.  I also don't like waste, so I want the toys to be high quality and last a long time.  Lastly, I want the toys we buy to force her to use her imagination, be creative, be physically active, or push her thinking in some way.  I like looking at kids toys and thinking about what I like and don't like about them.  I found this site, and I really like the look of all of the toys on here, the site is called All toys by B. toys.  They sell them at Target, we purchased the toy below online for Levi for his first birthday.

What I like at first glance: 
All of the toys are brightly colored and attractive looking.  They are all interactive in someway, you can't just turn them on and be an idle watcher, you have to participate.  Even though you have to interact, the younger toys are very easy to work.  For example, this fire engine has flashing lights, makes noise, and "drives" for about 10 seconds when you press the driver down.  You can also move the ladder up and down and pull out the water hose.  I like that the noises that all of the toys make are realistic noises that a kid could recognize later.

We will have to ask Levi in a few months and see what he thinks, but for now I'm book marking these toys for future reference!

August 2009

Socks!

Andrew is amazingly talented, it's a little ridiculous. He taught himself to knit. Last Spring he decided to try a sock, supposedly one of the harder things to knit (I wouldn't know!). After a long hiatus due to moving and baby, and with just a few phone calls to friends and family for help, he was able to successfully complete this masterpiece. It's pretty amazing! I can't wait for the mate to be done so that I can wear them!

Today

Today I feel accomplished.  Things are getting done.  We are way too busy for our own good and we could never maintain this pace for very long, but we are doing well right now.  This weekend as we were driving about on our adventures, Andrew and I were talking about how we were feeling content and happy.  Things aren't perfect and we don't have everything figured out, but life is good.  We are enjoying where we are at right now.

This weekend we headed down to Seattle area again to spend time with family and friends.  Saturday we got to spend time with one of our good high school friends, his wife, and their fun little boy.  We only see them once a year and we always enjoy actually getting to visit and hang out with them.We also got to spend time with Andrew's family on Saturday while we were down in our hometown area; Scout got to see her cousin, aunt, uncles, grandma, grandpa, and even great-grandma.  After we left the Bybee's, on Sunday we spent some time relaxing with my mom (while Scout refused to take a nap unless I was holding her) and then went to Levi's first birthday party.  I am so glad that we have such wonderful families, it really is fun to spend time with them.

With the help of my former professor and friend (he really did more of the work), I taught my first class at Western last night. 6-10 pm was no where near as bad as I thought it would be.  The time went by fast and I found that I really enjoyed teaching college kids.  They want to be there and they want to learn the material.  Waaaaaay different than middle school kids.  These students actually laugh at your jokes and ask questions.

My only complaint about yesterday being such a long day of work, I have only nursed Scout once.  And I have only seen her for about 45 min since we left Levi's bday party on Sunday night.  She has just timed her sleeping and waking exactly wrong with my comings and goings.  It's a little too much pumping for me and I miss holding my baby!  Fortunately, it is only day a week.

Andrew has been baking lots of bread, last weekend he even used the dough to make a batch of delicious cinnamon rolls for us.  So amazing.

He also got around to using the strawberries we got the summer to make our favorite strawberry-rhubarb freezer jam.  We couldn't have survived the winter without it!

This coming week we are still over the top busy!  I have open house and Andrew has trumpet lessons tonight so Scout has to be babysat by the neighbor girl.  Tomorrow we are having friends over for dinner, Thursday and Friday we breath, then Saturday Andrew starts rehearsals for a musical (?) he is playing in.  Rehearsals are Saturday, twice on Sunday, and weeknights until the performances on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  It will be a crazy next couple of weeks, wish us luck!

Birthday 2009

Still working on those scrapbook pages

5am

Getting up at 5am stinks. I'm not looking forward to doing that again tomorrow. Thankfully, Andrew has been getting up with me so that I don't feel like I am the only human alive at that hour. It helps me feel much cheerier when someone else is up and moving. And occasionally, we have gorgeous mornings (like the one Andrew captured below) that make 5am actually feel like a treat.

Happy Birthday Levi!

Happy 1st Birthday Levi!

Bread, Bread, Bread

Andrew is an excellent cook and is great at baking. We've been talking about making our own bread, instead of buying sandwich bread for quite a while. Now that he is home during the day, he decided to take the plunge and give it a try. We bought some really nice bread loaf pans to get him started and he used this basic white sandwich bread. He says it was pretty easy. I'm not going to try and post the directions here, you should really read the few paragraphs and directions on the original recipe, the author was very detailed and descriptive. These pictures are from his first attempt, the bread turned out great! I think we are hooked and this is going to be part of his weekly routine from now on!

Scout

The other morning (August 28th if you want to be exact.  I know, it was almost a month ago!) Scout was being very smiley and talking at me. She was being quite adorable so I'd thought I'd try and get a good picture of her. Capturing that baby smile is not so easy! I just laugh when I look at these pictures, she is making some awful faces!  I promise that she was actually looking very cute in between my camera snapping photos.

Grandpa Ward's Birthday Weekend

The weekend of my dad's birthday, August 26th-28th, we got to spend a little bit of unexpected time with my family. Alec had a soccer tournament here in Bellingham, so after his game on Friday he came and stayed the night at our house. It was a lot of fun to have him! We BBQ'd, him and Andrew built a slip'n'slide, we watched Anchorman and ate tons of popcorn, and then had pancakes for breakfast before taking him to his Saturday morning game. Here are a few pictures from the slip'n'slide adventures.

And a short video clip demonstrating all of the fun you can have with black plastic and some water
Unfortunately, it was very hot that weekend and we didn't think that we could submit Scout to sitting out in the sun in the middle of day to watch Alec's games.  My parents and Emma came up to see Alec's games and in between games we were all able to meet up go out to lunch to celebrate my dad's birthday.

Alec had a late game that evening after Scout's bedtime. We decided to put her in the stroller and see if she would sleep while we watched the game. She slept through three fourths of the game and when she woke up she was confused but not too unhappy. We were glad that we were able to go and see him play! As you can tell from the pictures, she is the focus almost the entire time the camera is out!

It was a fun weekend and we were so glad that we got to see my family and wish my dad a Happy Birthday in person!

Today

I am not feeling my happiest, cheeriest self today.  Couldn't tell you why exactly, but I feel like Andrew said this morning, "I woke up on the WRONG side."  Not Scout's fault, she has slept through the night the last two nights, 6pm-545am or 615am.  Past when I am getting up and ready at least.  No midnight feedings to blame my grumpiness on.  It was even sunny yesterday and we worked in the yard.  Who knows, maybe it is all the new stuff we have starting up this week and next?  Oh well, I'll just drink my cup of coffee, write my post for today, and see if I can't at least get my to-do list finished so I feel productive if not cheerful.

Remember how I wanted to get my 2009 scrapbook done in time to use a half-off coupon?  Didn't happen, are you surprised?  I'm not.  I am still trying to finish it so that next time a coupon comes around I'm ready.

This post yesterday made me laugh.  Or gag.  Or a little bit of both. 

We had a nice lunch with Andrew's family on Saturday, Scout got to meet her Great-grandma Bybee!

We also had friends over for dinner on Friday.  That was nice.  Andrew made some delicious Turkey Quinoa Meatloaf and potatoes, recipe coming soon.  Having friends over to our house is perfect.  It's social, but relaxing.  We need to do that more often...if we can get people to drive out to our house! 

Sunday we took Scout into town to see friends while Andrew had a rehearsal.  We ate great homemade blackberry pie.  And our little monster has been doing much better at visiting.  She occasionally will smile at other people, or at least in their presence.  And when she got tired, she just fell asleep on my shoulder for a little snooze.

In the next 7 days, Andrew starts teaching trumpet lessons again, he has a rehearsal on Thursday, and a concert on Friday, we are meeting up with out of town friends on Saturday, Levi has his first birthday party, and I start teaching my class up at Western.  That on top of taking care of Scout and a full-time job?  We are crazy, maybe I won't still be alive to post next week!

Mt. Baker 2009

Another page from 2009

The Upside

Having to go back to work stinks. I love my job and I love having summers off and all of the perks that come with being a teacher. But isn't there a way that no one would have to go into work and we could all just stay home and be together? Fortunately, we are lucky enough that we don't have to take Scout to outside child care. Andrew is able to stay home with her during the day. Which is fun for them and sad for me. Luckily, there are a few upsides. Like the fact that he makes me coffee and breakfast every morning, cleans the house, makes dinner every night, and tries to do everything he can to share Scout with me during the day. Last week they came in and had lunch with me one day. I did more baby playing than eating :)

Another day, I got this fun text:

"Scout wanted me to send you this and tell you she likes baths now."

Another day, I got this one. It was taken after she had a hard time falling asleep for her nap and Andrew decided to try a walk.

Then last Friday, I opened my email to these wonderful pictures. I love them!

The End-Priest Lake pt. 6

The last of my favorite photos from Priest Lake.

Ribollita or Reboiled Italian Cabbage Soup

Andrew has taken over the cooking. meal planning, and grocery shopping.  Which is wonderful, not only because I don't have to do it after work anymore, but he is a way better cook than I am.  He has more patience than I do and is more willing to try new recipes.  One of the new recipes he tried, that we absolutely love is this cabbage soup.  The recipe and the photo are originally found here. This soup doesn't look like much, it took a little bit of planning to make, and it sounds a kind of weird to have bread in soup, but oh my goodness it's amazing.  Andrew says it was worth all of the work since we both enjoyed it so much.  And it is filling, way more filling than most soups.  We loved it and are definitely keeping it on the menu list!

Cabbage Soup

• 2 cups dry cannellini beans
• 4 cups water
• 3 (32 ounce) cartons chicken broth
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 sage leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 2 onions, diced
• 3 carrots, peeled and sliced
• 3 large stalks celery, chopped
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 1/2 cups cabbage, coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch Swiss chard, trimmed and chopped
• 1 bunch kale, trimmed and chopped
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 12 (1/2-inch-thick) slices French bread, lightly toasted or stale
• salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese for topping
• 1/2 cup olive oil

1. Sort and rinse the beans before placing them in a large pot with the water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook 5 minutes. Turn off heat, cover, and let stand 1 1/2 hours. Drain.
2. Place the beans, chicken broth, garlic, sage leaves, bay leaves, and salt in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until beans are tender, about 2 hours. Cool. Remove 1 cup of beans. Discard the bay leaves and sage leaves. Blend the remaining bean mixture with a hand mixer until smooth. Set aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions; cook and stir until transparent, about 10 minutes. Combine the carrots, celery, potatoes, cabbage, Swiss chard, and kale with the onions. Stir in the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover, and cook until greens have wilted, stirring at least once, about 20 minutes. Stir in the pureed bean mixture, and cook 40 minute until the mixture thickens. Stir in the reserved beans. Adjust seasonings to taste. Add the toasted bread slices; cook until bread is soaked, about 10 minutes longer. Cool, and refrigerate overnight.
4. Reheat the soup over low heat until heated through, about 20 minutes. Serve each serving garnished with 2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.