Tidbits

Hello again,
So here are a few of the things I had meant to blog about pre-having a baby. Don't worry I think after this I'm mostly caught up and then will start to put cute pictures and stories up about Jaren. I'm resisting the temptation to take new updated photos (of the garden or my ankles - see below) because it's doing things like that which make me continue to put off posting a blog. So what you see is what you get. :)

TIDBIT 1 - SHOWERS

The first tidbit is a few pictures of a surprise baby shower that Varian's Mum (and yes they spell it mum) organized for me with the help of Garby and my cute friends Rachel and Diana. Varian was in on the plot as well and was quite sneaky about the whole thing. I was totally surprised! I can't believe how spoiled we've been by loved ones here and from our friends and family and Green Acres friends back home (They did surprise long distance showers for us). You're all so wonderful and thoughtful. Max and Laree have practically given us our entire nursery set, and so many others have been so generous, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! :)

Yes we played the diaper game - so gross but fun. I did a terrible job at that game, but as you can see I'm getting plenty of chocolate in the dice game, and I had the best guess of how many toilet paper squares my belly had become - any guesses?

TIDBIT 2 - CANKLES

So remember my earlier blog about tacky people. This is an example of karma and it coming back to haunt me. Last summer when I went home for a visit I had dinner with the loveshack girls (aka my old roommates - that was the name of my house) and I very tactlessly overreacted to seeing cute Nancy's pregnant feet. They were so swollen I was shocked (hmm, maybe this is tacky using her name without telling her first). I tried to backpedal but alas the damage was done. So in return the karma fairies cursed me with those beauties you see above. Seriously they hurt so much.

Luckily towards the end of my pregnancy I had finished teaching and was off my feet (who knows how big they might have become otherwise). But one night Varian and I were in the movie theater when I felt my feet expanding...it was creepy. When we got out I was appalled to see how much bigger they had grown during the previous two hours. I took that picture in the bathroom stall. It's a bit blurry because I took the flash off - I didn't want to alarm any of the other women in the restroom at the time. :} The next photo is after Christmas - look at those creases between my ankles and toes. So sad. One of the first things I noticed about my body post-baby was my adorable little ankle bones - seriously I've never appreciated them so much. Ahh, it's good to have my feet back to their original size!

TIDBIT #3 - GREEN THUMBS

All the credit of this one goes to Varian who planted a garden on the side of our house - although I have occasionally helped with the watering. So far the best results have come from our herbs but we have had a few of our own tomatoes and cucumbers. We're still waiting on the zucchini and pumpkins. We also have planted various fruit trees but will probably have to wait a little longer for them to be ready. But we have a lemon tree (very pretty), a mandarin orange tree, off-and-on again banana trees (they keep dying but then after awhile another one shows up in its place), paw-paw trees and a passion fruit vine.

Oh my heavens, this has taken me all day long to finish. How in the world do people blog so often?! Mostly it's the photos that slow me down (and doing it mostly in baby's nap times) but still it's quite an ordeal. Well hopefully though I'll get some baby photos up next.