It's A....

Picture Updates at the bottom!!
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GIRL!! (See, I knew it!) I will post ultrasound pictures later this afternoon once I can scan them and upload them - that is, after I finish grouting the mud room. We laid stone tile in the mud room this past weekend and it's my job today (since I am off and everything...) to grout. I WOULD post pictures however my camera has sprouted legs and run away so whenever it returns from it's vacation I will post pictures of the mud room and also our new out building the 'men folk' built over the weekend.

Pictures will follow of Little Miss Morrison later :)

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Ok - some of the pictures that I uploaded :) - I left out her 'private parts' because, well, the girl has to have SOME modesty and there were a lot that looked very similar. I didn't add any arrows but I will explain what you are looking at!

Here she is facing down and you can see her spine perfectly and the outline of her body. Also, if you look closely, her mouth is open - we swear she was sucking her thumb during part of the ultrasound.

Curled up in classic 'fetal position' - this is a side shot and you can see her back and bottom and her leg and foot from this angle.

By far my favorite picture - she is giving us the 'thumbs up' that everything is A-OK in there!

The jury is still out whether I will do the 3D/4D ultrasound. They seem a little creepy to me and if I can wait this long I can wait a few more months to see her!

Merry Christmas by the way if I don't get around to posting again!!

Wedding Bells

Today, I am 20 weeks pregnant so, 5 months if you want to count like that. Tomorrow, I will have been married for 5 years! I uploaded some pictures from our album and thought I would share just a little bit about our wedding day.

We did NOT have a big wedding, that's for sure! Both of us were no where even remotely interested in having a large, extravagant event where half the world was invited. No offense to those of you who had that kind of wedding - they are very fun to go to, just not for me to be in!

We got married on December 20, 2003 - a Saturday. All in that same week, I had graduated from college, moved all of my belongings out of my apartment in Banner Elk to the house we had found here in Wytheville, and then got married on Saturday. It all looked perfectly acceptable on paper - it was a little more tiring than I had expected though! Luckily, there wasn't much planning on my part or anyone's part for that matter. We decided to get married at a wedding chapel in Gatlinburg, TN. Now, that sounds tacky, like going to Las Vegas, but I had done a lot of searching for 'the place' and found a chapel that was NOT on the main strip (haha) and was very elegant in my view.

The chapel did everything for us - they set us up with flowers, a photographer, music, even a video tape of the wedding! All I had to do was show up and get dressed! Easy!! It had snowed the night before so everything was coated in just the 'right' amount of snow (pretty in pictures but not panic mode to drive in!). It all worked out wonderfully and I have never regretted doing it that way for a moment.

Here are a few pictures I scanned that were some of my favorites from 'the day'. This will be our last anniversary with just the two of us but we are both so excited about what is to come :) Don't forget, we find out Monday whether it's a boy or a girl! I will try my best to post that afternoon so I don't have a disappointed crowd waiting for me. We'll see if our poll turned out correctly!




My gracious we both look so young!

Bread Baking

I got real domestic over the weekend and tried my hand at making bread. I just got a WONDERFUL Kitchenaide mixer and have used every possible excuse to use it (I almost used it to make meatballs last night to mix the ingredients but felt like that was going a little too far).

So anyway, I made Honey Oatmeal Bread and it turned out FABULOUS! I have never, ever made bread before - not yeast bread anyway, but figured - hey, how hard can it possibly be? Not very is the answer! It was so easy with the help from the mixer. It has a bread hook so I virtually had to just pour in the ingredients in the correct order and it did the rest - mixing, kneading, etc. I couldn't believe it! After mixing it had to rise for an hour then divide into loaves and pans and rise for another hour (actually it rose for about 2 hours the second time because we snuck off to the antique mall for a little bit) and pop it in the oven!

Vola! We have bread - isn't it pretty? A good job for my first loaf of bread if I do say so (actually there are two loaves and the other one didn't come out of it's pan...at all...so it got a little butchered. Live and learn)


By the way, it was sooo good! It's very dense and sweet because of the honey. I will definitely make this again!

Baby Bump

Not the best picture but it will have to do with Mrs. Un-photogenic here!


Baby Bump at 18 weeks pregnant :)

I still feel like I am at that awkward stage where people can't tell that I am pregnant that don't know me and it just looks like I like to eat! I can no longer 'suck in' my belly and it's definitely firm - so it will start to round out soon! More updates to come!

Speculations

Just a quick post to let everyone know my ultrasound is scheduled for Monday, Dec. 22nd! Logan's and my anniversary is the 20th and then of course Christmas is just around the corner so this will definitely be a double present! I am eager to find out if it is a little miss or mister Morrison in there although I have had a hunch since the beginning! No telling right now though - I don't want to 'influence' the poll although boy is clearly winning. I WILL get a 'baby bump' shot up over the weekend - I tried to get one with the camera's self timer and that did NOT go well - belly angles are hard to get by yourself without the rest of you looking like a swollen hippo. I am curious why so many people think that it's a boy though - I enjoy hearing all of the speculation!
To influence the speculation here is my short list of my pregnancy so far -

- very little morning sickness in the first trimester, more mild nausea than anything
- I have had about every illness to go around school though - crappy immune system
- The weight I am gaining seems to be all in my stomach area. I haven't gained THAT much yet and hope it stays that way!
- My face went through an awkward teenage stage where it decided to break out like crazy but is clearing up nicely now
- Acid reflux has now set in some evenings which is SUPER since I have never in my life had this or heart burn or anything of that sort
- I started feeling the baby move around 16 weeks and it is definitely 'spunky' now at 18 weeks - last night it kicked so hard I felt it on the outside of my stomach with my hand - I wish Logan could have felt it but it decided to go to sleep when he came over!

So, short list but interesting - maybe it will help with the voting :) I am not going to tell what I think Baby M is until I find out (I would hate to be wrong)! Baby bump pic will follow soon :) Have a great chilly weekend!!

Updates

Here are some updates on what's been going on since I wrote last:


I am a little concerned (but not really!) at the amount of snow we have gotten so far this year and it's not even Christmas yet! We were out of school 2 days before Thanksgiving. We were supposed to go back to school Monday (yesterday) but have had 2 snow days so far. Not that I am complaining! I have gotten all sorts of things taken care of and semi-cleaned around the house (I shampooed carpets today!). The bad news is I think this means we are in for a nasty winter. The good news is that any days that are tacked on to the end of the school year - I DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT! Not that I am rubbing it in anyone's face and not that I am going to have it so much easier with a baby instead of a classroom full of 4th graders...I'm just saying :)


We still have the kittens that we are fostering and I can't believe the change in them in the few weeks we've had them. The black kitten that was so timid and shy is now the first one to come out and jump on my lap to snuggle. They both run around the house at a million miles an hour to play and are an endless source of entertainment. We are currently looking for an indoor home for them (hopefully before the holidays) and I would really like them to stay together since they are so close with each other. Four cats sleeping on the bed is just a little too much for me - especially since I am starting to get to the uncomfortable sleeping stage where I can't seem to get myself settled...

Although I haven't showed anything in awhile I have several knitting projects going on. I am finishing up a pair of mittens and a matching hat for my sister-in-law for Christmas. These are my first mittens I have done. I am about halfway done with the second one - the snow days have helped keep me knitting-motivated. I have decided though I don't like knitting things that come in twos - like socks and mittens, etc...I think it gets monotonous after awhile because I already know how it's going to turn out. Here is a picture of the first finished mitten -

The yarn is a little darker than the picture leads on but it is beautiful. It's purple with mixed in pinks and blues which you can see up close. I hope she likes them (and hope she doesn't read this! If so - act surprised!!). I don't know why the picture is blurry there - it's not blurry on my camera or computer - I will look into that and get a better picture...

So that's about it that's exciting in the Morrison house. I have a Dr. appointment on Friday and am supposed to be getting scheduled for my ultrasound to figure out if it is a boy or girl baby Morrison. I really need to have Logan take a picture to show my 'baby bump' - it's getting there! I will be 18 weeks this Friday! Can you believe it? I will try to get a belly picture on sometime this week to help with my 'boy or girl poll' up in the corner - if you haven't make sure you vote! Hopefully next week the ACTUAL results will be revealed!!

Cute Kittens and Crazy Hormones

The pregnancy hormones that wreck my emotional stability have definitely kicked in this week - I think everything under the sun has put me in a state close to breaking down in tears - and over nothing really.

My week started off terrible just to let you know. The stomach flu is going around school like wildfire and guess who happens to get it? Of course. It started Monday morning before I left for school and I honestly thought it was just 'pregnancy' related even though I hadn't had morning sickness in over 3 weeks. I figured - ah, maybe it comes and goes. The problem was I didn't feel better afterwards like I normally do. By the time my 10:30 Reading Class rolled around it was all I could do to listen to one more kid read aloud and finally threw their quiz in the front of the room, told them to read the next 2 chapters and take a quiz and I would be back soon. I spent the next 10-15 minutes in the bathroom/nurse's office. It definitely went downhill after I was able to get a sub in and went home and crawled into bed. I ended up taking Monday off too and wasn't really able to eat a full meal or feel hungry until just yesterday (Thursday!!). Ooh - I feel bad for anyone else that is unfortunate enough to get this!

So, like I said the tearing up has increased. We read Stone Fox in one of my Reading classes and let's just say it's a good thing they finished the book while I was out sick because I read the rest on my own and was glad no one was around to see it. Why oh why to people write children's' books where the heroic pet DIES at the end? Not good in my case - we DEFINITELY won't be reading 'Where the Red Fern Grows' this year! Everything on tv and the news has made me about have a breakdown too - it's driving me crazy and I can see Logan look at me like he's ready to have me committed!

Another fun hormone-related 'perk' is that my face has recently started breaking out like I was in high school again. I THOUGHT I WAS OVER THIS! I read somewhere that says bad skin is associated with a certain gender of baby but can't remember off the top of my head now. We'll see if that is indeed the case!

Now for some cuter news :)

We are kitten-sitting for the weekend while our friends Billy and Rita are out of town. Logan and Billy work together and are notorious for finding stray animals while they are out surveying. I guess it's their rural locations but a couple of weeks ago they stumbled across these two babies while out. They were as wild as a kitten you could find and Billy and Rita are fostering them and taming them until they can get adopted from the shelter.



The gray one has really come around and is very friendly and playful and likes being held and petted. The grumpy-faced black one is still a major scardy cat and has hidden every chance he gets. He is my project for the night and is sitting nervously on my lap while I type so he can try to get used to being a pet instead of a wild beast :)

The only thing else I can say is I am so glad it's the weekend and I think tomorrow we are going to appease the pregnancy hormones and go see the mighty easy-on-the-eyes Daniel Craig in the new James Bond movie. Fun times! Have a good weekend and hope it's not to cold and rainy your way!!

Not for the Soft Hearted

Logan has been talking for months now that he is going to be a big hunter this year so we can save money on meat (goes along with our canning I guess?) and get a deer. He went out in the woods for the very first time ever hunting on Wednesday. This is what happened....


Yep. That's a 9 point buck. He was out in the woods for oh...about maybe an hour? And note the clothing - yep, that's what he wore hunting. I think he did have on a green fleece over the shirt. No camo for this hunter. Now, many years ago this might have bothered me but not so much anymore. I see it as the good of the cause and we will be eating it and there are only about 50 billion more back there without any natural predators so I am feeling ok about this.

He spent about 4 hours doing all of the dirty work and getting the meat packaged the other night so we have a freezer full of deer. I think tomorrow I am going to make some deer stew and can it at my in-laws house. My canning book has a very yummy looking recipe for beef stew so I don't see why I can't substitute. We'll see how that goes! Just wanted to share Logan's big moment of his very first hunting trip. Beginner's luck!!

Don't Be A Chicken!

This poor girl has been on the fence about who she is voting for...hopefully you weren't and went out and voted today! We got up early at went before there was a crowd (although I doubt at our rural voting location there would be much of a crowd ever). Now the waiting begins of finding out who will become our new Prez during this very historical election!



**Note - there have been about 2 hens and both of the guineas who have discovered this new trick of jumping onto the roof of the coop then jumping on to the fence. They have been doing it for about a month now and they just sit up on the fence (or like this one who walked ALL the way around the fence) and then just jump back into the pen. They have never once tried to escape - just wanted to look around I guess! I don't think they will jump out because they don't want to be separated from the rest of the flock. It's funny watching them waddle around the top of the fence though and just look around and be curious!

Shadow Cats

On any given sunny day, you will find the cats behind the curtain in the master bathroom basking in the sun. Normally they just lay there (one at a time of course - Cleo doesn't like her space invaded!). On this particular day, I was lucky enough to have my camera close by to catch the shadow puppet play the cats were acting out!

Cleo is blissfully unaware of the danger lurking in every corner as she basks in the sun.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Gabby prepares a sneak-attack that sends Cleo scrambling for safer territory.

Gabby is overwhelmed by the beauty of the setting sun and takes a minute to soak it all in.

After staring at the sun for a little too long, Gabby carefully feels her way out of the mysterious secret kitty hiding place.

Oh, hey you guys, I was just...cleaning behind the curtains...

Ida

I have had Ida since I was in probably 4th or 5th grade. "She" was a science fair project although I can't even remember what the project was. She survived it though whatever it was.

Meet Ida:

Yep, Ida is a plant. I am pretty sure she is Swedish Ivy but I might be mistaken as I have never seen another one in a store. Ida is definitely one of the most resilient plants I have ever owned - she has managed to survive with less than perfect light conditions, lazy watering, and a year in a sweltering germ-infested 3rd grade classroom. A pretty tough cookie if you do ask me!

So, the reason I am writing about Ida is because for only the 2nd time since I have owned her (that I know of!) she has bloomed! The first time it happened was not long after I had been married and had her in my classroom. The second time was just last week. I have never seen flowers like this - they are very dainty white flowers with small purple dots on them. Very, very pretty.



I must be doing something right because she must be happy. Hopefully she will be with me for many years to come (already made it through 17!)

Getting Bigger!

I am talking about the chickens' eggs, not my waistline if you were wondering! Up until now our eggs have just been 'medium' sized. Last night, we got a whopper!


In case you are wondering, that is an 'antique' Jiffy Way egg scale. Very accurate too - we have tried many store bought eggs on it and they always register with their boxed promise of 'large' or 'extra-large', etc. My father gave that to me after knowing I was always fascinated with it and was searching for one of my own. These babies go for about $40-50 for the old ones. Not even sure if you can buy new ones although I am sure you can some where!

Hanging in There

I know I know I KNOW! I have been so lame lately - not been a good friend at all with writing. Every afternoon I have the best intentions of sitting down and writing - I swear I even have ideas. But then I get home, change into some less binding clothes (all clothes are becoming binding nowadays!) and boy....that bed looks so comfortable....and I am so sleepy....just for a few minutes....and BAM - it's 6:00 and time to make dinner! So goes just about every one of my afternoons as of late.

I am finally better after last week - I was pretty sure I was going to die! As I said before, I started off the week with a super bad cold and wasn't sleeping very well because of it. Last Monday, after waking up several times to blow my nose, I was awakened by a searing pain in my back. Not to be gross but it hurt so bad I got physically sick. I managed to tough it out until morning when I could call my dr. and they had me come in and found out I had a kidney stone! Yikes! I got sent up to the hospital to get an ultrasound done on my kidneys and bladder (they didn't find anything unusual so I guess it was a small 'un). The only good thing I got out of it was the u/s tech let me see the baby and even let me hear the heartbeat - the first time! It was so neat but I was kind of sad Logan wasn't there to see it (he went to work before I went to the dr. and neither one of us thought I would have to go to the hospital!).

So that was my wild ride last week. I felt better by the weekend and ended up going to Rogersville for the weekend to Heritage Days - a neat but VERY crowded festival celebrating Rogersville's past complete with food, crafts, and Civil War reenactments. I hadn't been in awhile so thought I would go before I had a little one to tote around.

Not much other new news - the chickens are still laying their 1-2 eggs a day. Who would have thought we would get so excited about eggs! Unfortunately eating eggs isn't on the top of my list in the mornings - the smell of cooking eggs makes me queasy - not the taste, just the smell...Hopefully I am on the upswing with all of the yucky feelings and tiredness - can you believe that next Friday I will be 3 months preggo already? 1st trimester is almost mastered! Woo! Bare with me until my energy returns and I will get back into the swing of things - and hopefully I will have a cute baby belly (not just chubby belly) to show off! Have a good Friday and weekend!!

Earning Their Keep

I meant to blog all weekend. I had really good intentions. Logan was gone to a horse training clinic in North Carolina and I had a huge list of things I wanted to get done - clean the house, rent some chick-flick movies, make pepper jelly, get some Christmas presents knitted...Unfortunately I learned a hard lesson this weekend - being pregnant and sick are not good combinations - especially on the weekend when you can't call your doctor to get medicine recommendations!

I developed a very nasty head cold over the weekend which cut many of my plans short. I cleaned on Saturday and that was about the extent of my productivity - the rest was spent sleeping and blowing my nose - not fun. I even did something I never do today - take a half a day off! Gasp!! I am starting to feel slightly better though and hope I have dealt with the worst of it!

Logan came home today and made a wonderful discovery since I haven't gotten down to the chicken coop since Sunday morning -


One of our girls laid her first eggs! Now, of course there is NO telling which one it is - we figure it is probably our 'little red hen' but unless we see one setting, it's hard to tell with all of those girls running around down there! Hopefully the others will follow in her footsteps and we'll have an egg business up and running!!

Hopefully I will be back in the blogging swing of things VERY shortly - I have several neat things I am eager to share as well as some cute knitting projects I have wrapped up! I am venturing into mittens as we speak - yikes! As for now, I think it's time to go crawl into bed (so much for the papers I brought home to grade on my 'half a day off'). HA!

Daisy Sweater - Finished!

What to do on a rainy, nasty Saturday? Finish my Baby Daisy Sweater of course! It's about time too! I have been working on this since summer and I feel like it has taken me forever! Mostly because I started back to school then of course there is the all-the-time tiredness so that hasn't been helpful. I finished knitting it at the beginning of the week and finished sewing the sleeves up and sewing in all of the loose ends and putting it's buttons on this afternoon. I still need to wash and block it to make the border lay down but I am very pleased with my work!

If you are a knitter and interested in the pattern, you can find it here.

I knitted it on size 6 needles with Paton's Shetland Chunky Tweed in Earthy Brown. I loved the colors for either a boy or a girl so it was perfect! The yarn is so thick and soft and will be a great winter sweater. I plan on making a hat to match it but that might wait for a couple of Christmas presents to be finished (oh yeah, and my Brea Bag that STILL needs to be sewn - will do before casting on anything else!).

So, here are pics of my days hard work. I am not 100% happy with the quality of the pictures, I think it makes the yarn look too shiny - which it's not - and you can't see as much detail but you get the idea :)

Can You See It Now?

I promise I am not going to be one of those crazy ladies that forces her ultra sound pictures in your face and swears that it's smiling at you or there's it's little hand/foot/privates. I just thought you might want to see my first pics of 'baby Morrison'.

I went yesterday after school for my first sonogram and was surprised of how quick it was. After sitting in the doctor's office for around 45 minutes (30 minutes past my appt. time!) I went in, was gelled up, and as quick as that the technician found little baby in there! It was a very unreal experience I think. I mean, I saw the little baby (sea monkey?) and even saw it's little beating heart but I still don't "feel" like something is growing inside of me or has a heart beat! Yikes!! BUT it was very cool to see. So, here are baby's first pics -

Picture number 1 - the line running through the baby (sea monkey) is actually it's length. The number 1 is at the top of it's 'head' and the line extends down to it's bottom. The bump opposite of it is the 'egg sack'. Weird.

I added a green (gender neutral) arrow to show where little Morrison is in this one - it's unzoomed so it's not as grainy but it's also a little harder to point out.

So, first of many baby pictures to come. At this point, I really don't think I will be interested in the 4-D ultrasounds. They kind of creep me out and I have heard of more people being disappointed with them then I have of people really loving them. Plus I already have to wait 9 (10!) months to see the baby - why rush it? Plus it's expensive and insurance definitely won't be covering that!

To complete my Journey to Doctors, tomorrow I get to spend my wonderful after school hours at the dentist for a check up. Hopefully the baby hasn't ruined my perfect cavity-free teeth!

Bump Watch

I have discovered something I find really strange lately - I guess it's not that strange, just more uncomfortable. Most people at school at this point know I am pregnant and are very happy to give me all sorts of advice and hints and ask how I am doing. I love that part - I am so glad I work with so many nice, wonderful people. The weird thing is now when most people pass me in the hallway, they smile and say hi then look at my stomach. Not just glance but stare my tummy down.

At first I thought it was just me being psycho but I am noticing it more and more. I guess they are on 'bump watch' (some swear I am already getting a little baby belly, I think it's more of a junk food belly but who am I to argue?). I feel like I am way too early to start to get a little bump but I think a lot of it is I feel really bloated and retaining water so maybe that's it. I have already had to resort to the Bella Band on several pair of pants so I don't have the sensation of being cut in two! Anything tight around my stomach right now is NOT a pleasant feeling.

Oh - and the morning sickness has kicked in. yea. That's not even justified to be capitalized! I thought it was all in my head at first and I was just 'making' myself sick by expecting it. This morning at school I almost yakked though :( I walked around the halls slowly before school started and that seemed to help and slow deep breathing helped it pass. I am not really a thrower-upper so maybe all I will get is the nausea? Please? I can't be leaving my class to go ralph every morning. I am trying a lot of remedies but let me tell you - it is awfully hard to put something in your mouth when you feel like everything is going to be coming out!

So that's the latest news in the big exciting new drama. My weekend (which can't get here soon enough!) is going to be filled with more tomato canning (tomato sauce this time!) and then a trip to Roanoke on Sunday for a soccer game. Logan is coaching traveling soccer and well, we'll be traveling. I won't always be able to 'travel' with him so I am going when I can and it will be a fun little trip up the road!

Cold Weather Wishing

I am so ready for fall that I can barely stand myself. Around the middle of September I feel like it should be fall now - not blazing hot summer still. Over the weekend it got near the 90's here. Um, so that would be all well and good if I lived AT THE BEACH but I live in the mountains where it's not supposed to get that hot even in August in summer! By the time school starts back I am longing for long sleeve shirts, sweaters, and pants - I am so sick of it being unbearably hot outside.

Today was a slight relief with 77 degrees but I am ready for the crisp, cool 'football' weather and ready to bundle up...Not to mention I have some nice knitted stuff that is aching to be worn :) Luckily I didn't knit any sweaters or anything 'form fitting' because with fall and winter will come a bigger waistline - not because of all of the yummy 'comfort' foods though!

Sea Monkey

I know the added widget to the right is slightly creepy right now but won't it be cool to see how much the baby changes from week to week? Right now Logan and I are jokingly calling it the 'sea monkey' because - come on, it really doesn't look like a human baby yet huh? I have a hard time visualizing this growing into a baby but maybe all new overly obsessive overly researching mothers feel this way? I have already read so many books and articles and websites that I feel qualified to deliver a baby by myself!

I am kind of looking forward to feeling 'more pregnant' - right now there isn't much changes other than what I mentioned before of the extreme exhaustion - I went to bed at a scary 9:30 last night and didn't MOVE until the alarm went off! Logan said Cleo the cat crawled under the covers with us last night but I had no clue - that's about the only major thing is that I used to be such a light sleeper and now not much (other than my bladder) wakes me up at night! Oh - an increased bra size is another change but I am not sure you wanted to know that!

So, enjoy watching Baby Sea Monkey grow for now - MAYBE I will get to bring home an exciting picture after my first ultra-sound on the 22nd? Will I become one of those crazy moms that frames the picture? Will it hang on the fridge? Only time will tell! For now, I need to go finish the LAST FLIPPIN' SLEEVE of the baby Daisy sweater - it's taking for-ev-er!

Surprise!

So my mom kind of spilled the beans first if you read her blog too.

If you haven't, let me be the first to share with you my new and exciting news - there will be a brand new Morrison come May! Yep, I am pregnant!

Now don't think I lied to you with me swearing that knitting the baby stuff was just for fun and for a while in the future. Honestly, I didn't think it would happen as quick as it did :)

Logan and I are both very excited though - I had my first doctors appointment today and I am 6 weeks along. Yes - VERY early (some people shudder at telling people so early, but I really can't keep it to my self much longer :))

I don't plan on my blog becoming SOLELY a pregnancy blog but it will keep everybody updated on what's going on and how I am doing and what's new and hopefully all of you 'already mothers' will give me lots and lots of advice.

So far, I am feeling really good except for being insanely tired in the evenings! I do the sleep of the dead at night and now even that is interrupted with a trip to the bathroom once (or twice like last night). Some of my jeans are getting snug with bloat - not baby yet but I am sure I won't be in them for much longer!

So........I will keep a constant update - I go the 22nd for my first ultra sound which I already can't wait! Yea!

Cow Horse Challenge

At this time of year, Logan and I tend to go to a lot of horse events - a lot of fairs, rodeo-type events and others. Last night we went to something we had never been to before - cattle sorting at the Abingdon Cow Horse Challenge.

Let me try my best to explain cattle sorting. My favorite way to explain it is it's like playing pool with horses and cows. There are two pens set up and they are attached by a small passage-way (they kind of look like an '8'). There are 10 young cows with numbers 0-9 and one 'spare cow' without a number. There are two riders on horseback and the object is to get the cows into the other pen in numerical order without letting the spare cow go through. It's different every time because the announcer gives the riders a number to start with - they might have to start with number 4, then go 5,6,7,8,9,0,1,2 and 3. It is WAY harder than it sounds because those cows want to bust through to the other side or not go through at all. The riders have 90 seconds to get the cattle through and if one goes in out of order or the spare cow goes through, they are disqualified.

Now, I can hear my mother now saying 'that's cruel for the cows'. Other than the numerical thing which just makes it more challenging, there is a lot of history in ranch work in competitions like this. Say there is a sick or injured cow or one that just needs to be checked on, riders would have to separate the herd to get to that particular cow or maybe they are selling some of the cows and not the others, they would have to separate them into two herds. If you are familiar with any of these events, team roping and cutting are other 'practical' competitions. I am very sure you can find all of these events if you did a search on youtube!

I couldn't believe the amount of people there last night - it started around 6:30-7:00 (it was supposed to start at 6!) and we left at 9:30 and it was still in full swing going on! I think they said they had around 350 teams there competing (teams could consist of some of the same people - just switched up) - at the rate they were going, they might still be out there this morning! Logan and I both said they should have started it WAY earlier in the day but I don't think they were expecting the turn out that showed up. All in all, it was a lot of fun to watch and while we were there, only 1 team (an all girl team!) got all of the cattle through! Oh - another highlight of my night? Deep-fried Oreos. A funnel-cake-like batter on the outside and on the inside they were warm and soft. YUM! You GOTTA love fair food :)

The horses and riders warm up before the competition.

Trying to pick out the first cow

The first one gets through!

Blocking the entrance so the others don't go through.

Spectators

Homemade

Recipe for Ashley's Famous Homemade Tomato Soup (not that famous - it's from a recipe book and tweaked by my mother-in-law):

Ingredients:
15 gallons of tomatoes (I use just a mixture of tomatoes - no one type particularly - this batch had Big Boys, Romas, and heirlooms)
10 onions
1 stalk celery (I like celery so I add more - for 15 gallons I would add 6 stalks)
fresh basil and parsley to taste
1/2 c. butter
6 tbs. salt
16 tbs. sugar
4 tsp. pepper (less if you don't like it spicy)

Wash and cut up tomatoes - no need to peel. Chop onion, celery, parsley, and basil and add to tomatoes. Cook until celery is tender. Put through sieve and put back on the stove. Add butter to soup and stir. Add sugar, salt, and pepper. Run through sieve again if desired (I never do this a second time - I like it thick).

Fill jars within 1 inch of top and process in boiling bath for 45 minutes.

*I usually just do 5 gallons of tomatoes at a time since I really don't have pots big enough to fill with 15 gallons of chopped tomatoes! Everything measures down very easily and this is really hard to mess up if you have a little more or a little less of something! I am sure you could even cut it way down so you are just making a batch or two for eating as long as you have a food mill or strainer. Enjoy (or just come visit us on soup and grilled cheese night!

Conspiracy

I am pretty sure the tomatoes are plotting against me in their hopes they will live their whole lives in the garden without being consumed. All summer they didn't do anything - we were afraid we were hardly going to get any tomatoes off of them despite it being a nice semi-cool semi-wet summer. All of a sudden, I start back to work and the tomatoes are cranking out at a dizzying speed! Just what I want to do on my precious weekend is can a million tomatoes.

Last weekend we got a whole 5 gallon bucket full. Tonight I went out and picked and got another bucket full!!


These might be destine for soup also - I only had 7 quarts and I know we will use much more than that over the winter through next summer. It's not like we won't get more! The NEXT batch will probably be just Romas for tomato sauce.

I thought I would add some pics of our pretty chickens now that they are mostly grown up. The still have some filling out to do but it's neat to see how they turned out - especially the mixed batch we got at first. Most of those were roosters (of course). The black and white striped one is still to be determined whether it is a he or a she (right now we are calling it Pat - hahaha). The roosters have started crowing with their awkward teenage-rooster voices. Pretty amusing if you ask me!

Labor Day Weekend

What is it about a long weekend that makes me not want to sit still and burn it up as fast as it can go? This weekend, Logan and I traveled to Banner Elk for the Holston Camp staff reunion which is held every 3 years on Labor Day weekend.

We didn't leave until Saturday morning and stayed until around lunch on Sunday - not long but a lot of activity packed into 2 days! We saw a lot of good friends and did some shopping in Valle Crucis and Boone! If you remember, camp is where Logan and I met so it holds a very near and dear place in our hearts as well as being a very spiritual place for the both of us.

We saw the brand new Lake Lyons, stayed and slept out in Rustic (cabins without electricity!) and ate a lot of GOOD camp food! Yum! Here are a few pics from the weekend:

Logan and I with Lake Lyons in the background - there's a super cool zip line that goes across the lake that made me wish I brought my bathing suit!

Logan takes a rest in our cabin at Hill Top in rustic.

Becca and Blake make their beds in the cabin.

Can you believe that all behind Logan used to be a lake? There were problems with the dam and about 3 years ago they drained the whole thing and have yet to refill it. Supposedly in a few months it will be refilled! Poor Wildcat Lake!

Wonderful Camp girl friends! From left to right - Garrett, Jessica and her super cute baby Finley, me, Becca, and Valerie.

So that basically was my weekend. Today I tried to rest but ended up canning tomato soup (the tomatoes are finally pouring in from the garden) and then going to the river to swim and cook out and rest. Now it's time to start thinking about this week and school and get everything planned and caught up on laundry. No wonder I have been so tired at night!

Starting Over

I got my computer back this week and I would have posted sooner BUT all of the programs had been wiped off my computer. Ahhhh! In order to get rid of the particularly nasty virus that was on my computer, Windows had to be completely wiped out and started over. I did save my files but all of my programs like my Kodak camera picture software and iTunes and everything else I had on here at one point were wiped away. I think after several days of working with it, I finally have everything back to almost normal....Which means I have pictures again!

Here is the Yoda Baby sweater I finished and got all stitched up before it was time for me to go back to school. It was such an easy pattern but the worst part was stitching up all it's little seams. I am really pleased with how it turned out! Now hopefully it will fit a baby!!



The sweater wraps kimono-style around the baby so you don't have to deal with trying to fit it over a wiggly baby's head - a neat concept!

I am about 70% finished with the next sweater of my new favorite yarn - Paton's Chunky Tweed in Earthy Brown. It is so soft and snuggly. I made this in a bigger size and all I have left to do is the raglan sleeves. The yarn isn't nearly as shiny as the picture shows it to be.



Other than knitting, school is back to being my life! I miss summer already but I do have a FUN weekend ahead of me next weekend when I get to meet up with old camp buddies at the Holston Camp Staff reunion! Now THAT I will take pictures of :) If you recall, that is the camp where Logan and I met and a lot of my best friends were made (City Mouse!). I can not wait and hopefully this week will fly by with students starting back on Wednesday.

Oh - one more fun thought - we have a ton of drawings for things at our Countywide Conference for school starting back and I won a $25 gift card to Starbucks! Now THAT will help me start back to school!!!!