SNOW // baby blanket project

I spent the day at my grandma's house yesterday. She made me, as well as the other 'older' cousins, a blanket for my high school graduation in 2005... and I decided that I wanted to make one like it for our little one who will be joining us sometime in the near future. These are the 5 different flannel fabrics I started out with:

Since I hadn't ever made this kind of blanket before, I wasn't really sure on what colors to get... I thought I had a pretty colorful bunch, but I know for next time that I should probably pick more solids. At least I got my favorite colors: teal, green and brown! I wasn't expecting to see the patterns of the fabric but I figured more of the color would show through. Oh well, I still absolutely love the finished product! I think it took about 5 hours to complete. The blanket is 38" x 40", and it's not the most 'square' thing you'd ever see [two sides are a little lopsided], but it's hard because the fabric stretches and when you sew diagonally, things just get stretched out of place. But anyways, here's a few pictures!

I'm pretty proud of it. I think it looks really good, but maybe I'm biased. :] It does need to be washed a few more times so that it unravels a bit more and gives it a better 'chenille' look, but it's super soft and cuddly now... and smells delicious. I can't wait until I have a little baby to wrap up inside of it!

We got dumped on today with a bunch of snow... this is what I woke up to this morning:

It's pretty, it's fun to play in... but then dogs pee in it, and it gets muddy and slushy, and you have to scrape it off your car, and you have to drive in it , and you get lakes in your shoes from the melted stuff... so, it's not the most fun thing. I don't mind it... until I have to do something in it that doesn't involve making and throwing white balls, sticking carrots into it or sliding around on it on some mechanical contraption.

Oh well; today was a good day to make a pumpkin cheesecake and to throw a roast into the crock pot... the roast is currently starting to fall apart in all of it's juicy glory. Mmm.

Between that, some garlic red mashed potatoes and an oriental salad... I think we'll be having a feast tonight. Top it off with some of the pumpkin cheesecake, a squirt of whipped cream and some caramel drizzled on top... I think I might have to post a photo of the finished product later.

I think it's time to cuddle on the couch with MY blanket [made with love by grandma] with something warm to drink...

27 Weeks.

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It's been just over three weeks since we returned to the States. Re-adjusting seems to be going well. There are things here and there that make us miss Kenya so much, but there are also things that we are enjoying about being home. We don't regret our decision to leave early, but it was a very hard one.

Jake is doing well with work at the Dubbe's. The Dubbe's are a great family to work with/for, and Jake really seems to be enjoying being back there. They have a lot of sod jobs this week since it's supposed to be nice out, and from what I hear, a few of them are quiet large! [on a side note, please continue to pray for Adam Dubbe as he recovers; and for his wife, Abri, and 6 month old son, Evan, for strength, encouragement and understanding]

I've been trying to keep myself busy doing small things; there isn't much to 'do' around here when you don't live in your own house, have a car, and live an hour away from your family... but we are so blessed to have a place to stay! I've been doing some crocheting, and also my mom gave me a sewing machine that someone had given to her... so I've been playing around with that, trying to figure things out. Hopefully I can start sewing some little baby things soon! I did a little extra cooking/baking this week also. As hard as it is for me to rest without feeling lazy, I've been trying to kind of take it easy... and "rest up while I can."

My midwife called me last week and said that all of my test came back negative for parasites/eggs/etc. So, that's good that I don't have little bugs running around my system... but it does make us wonder what was really going on and causing the excruciating stomach pain. We decided not to take further action/do anymore testing as of right now, because the pains/symptoms are decreasing... but if I'm still having problems at my next appointment, my midwife wants to refer me to an infectious disease doctor. I'm still having a lot of nausea, especially in the evenings. And the headaches! The headaches have definitely returned. When my midwife asked if I had any headaches/migraines, I said yes, but that they seemed to significantly decrease when I got pregnant. As I was thinking about it later on in the week, the reason they probably were decreasing was because we were in Africa... higher altitude, better weather, less 'weather changes,' etc. Now that we're back in MN, I've probably had more 'headache days' than 'non-headache days.' So far no migraines... but enough of a headache to put me in kind of a hazy mental state.

It's hard to believe I will be beginning the third trimester next week... and in exactly 10 weeks, I will be considered "full term." Time is really flying by. I feel like there is a lot that I need to do, since we haven't really done... anything... but then again, I think it's silly to stress about because babies don't require much "stuff" anyways. There's quite a bit of research I want to do on various topics, though.

I think that's all for now... here's the most recent 'belly picture.' Still not exactly looking 'pregnant' [at least to the untrained eye!], but the bump is a little more pronounced now.

27 weeks, 1 day