Tuesday bullets

*This morning my alarm went off at 4:50 and I groaned, but I made myself get out of bed to go on a slow 2.31 mile run. While on the run I saw two deer, 1 bunny, 1 skunk, 2 cars driving by, countless birds chirping, and at the very end, 2 people rode by on bikes. But hey it is 9am and I already have 7000 steps for the day and I don't have to worry about doing a workout later (I might stretch though)!

Hi deer!

*Our landlord contacted us partway through the month and asked if we would be staying on though July. We went back and forth about it, but after looking at our updated construction schedule where every room that is being worked on except for one will not be complete AND having no kitchen appliances for over three weeks if we moved in at the end of June, we decided to stay put through July. It sucks because it is another month of rent that we didn't want to pay, but I also don't want to live in a construction zone with two kids- especially one that is putting tons of stuff in his mouth!

*CP and I have been sad that we have no access to the backyard/our garden boxes due to the construction fence on our property. We talked about trying to get back there to plant cherry tomato plants and just hoping that it rains enough before we get back into the house....but last week made the decision to join a local CSA instead! We did a wonderful CSA back in CO and an okay one in MA, but this one gets great reviews so we are crossing our fingers that it's a good one! Our boxes start the first week of June.

*CP's interview for the job that would require less travel is tomorrow. It's a five hour interview with a few panels and he spent a lot of the weekend preparing. Cross your fingers it goes well! The good news is that there is no pressure because he already has a job that he likes....but of course I hope that he likes it because the other perks like a shorter commute and less travel would certainly be nice!

*Twice a year the kids get assessed at daycare. I think that some of it is to make sure that kids get in for early intervention if needed, but I assume that it is also to make sure that they are progressing in general. Wes' evaluation was short and he is right on target for his age group (good job Wes!). According to her preschool teacher, Izzy is doing tremendously well and has progressed past most of the kids older than her in class. To be able to recognize 10 letters out of order in the alphabet is really good at her age (according to her teacher)...the fact that Izzy can recognize all of them out of order is amazing. It was nice to hear that Izzy is also one of the sweetest kids in the class. The one thing that Izzy needs to work on (which is typical of this age) is her emotional development. She can be hard to calm down when she gets upset because she is a bit sensitive (which we obviously already know). But great to hear such a glowing report from her teacher!

*The kids recently had their daycare pictures as well and they are so funny. I don't expect too much from Wes, but Izzy looks like she is quite constipated in her picture. LOL. We decided not to buy any...

*This past weekend we bought a family tent and are planning on going camping with friends (who also have two kids) this summer. I'm curious to see how this goes with kids....

Almost Wordless Wednesday- catching up

Various adventures from October....

On Columbus Day I had the day off from work and Izzy's daycare was closed so we had a Mommy-Izzy day! We went downtown to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Izzy enjoyed watching the monkeys run around after each other, but her favorite part of the day was riding the carousel.

Excited to ride the giraffe

She insisted on watching the ducks for a very long time

How YOU doin'?

We finished the day off with ice cream....

......before coming home to a fallen tree in our backyard (it was very windy that day). CP had the pleasure of using the chain saw that weekend to cut it up. We are getting quotes on possibly taking out what is left of the tree this fall (and hopefully putting in a flowering tree like a dogwood or magnolia)!

We enjoyed watching the Cubs in the playoffs. Since we don't have cable we went out to eat to watch one of the games. The whole restaurant was watching and Izzy got really into clapping when everyone else was cheering and getting excited.

Go Cubbies!

 Right before our first frost we picked a bunch of veggies from the garden- broccoli, carrots, radishes, peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes. Yum!

 Izzy and I also did a Halloween project. I had her draw on different colored pieces of paper, then cut them up to make "hair" for a funny face on our front door.

 The final product- it's hard to see the scribbles on the hair but Izzy is proud anyway!

Almost wordless Wednesday- June garden

So what do our various gardens look like this June?

Purple Veronica starting to bloom in the front garden

After a two year wait the yellow Aconitum is finally blooming!  CP might have trimmed back the white rose bush a bit too much, but at least it looks really healthy.

Hostas and astilbes looking good in the back of the house

Coreoposis are starting to bloom out back

First of the daylilies to bloom

Sugar snap peas on the left with newly-planted cucumbers in front.  On the right, eggplant and many hot pepper plants! (The lettuce and argula previously in this bed were already harvested to make room for all of the summer plants.)

Snap peas are almost ready to eat!

Dill, basil and lots and lots of chives!

Sage, tarragon (which wintered over!), thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and newly-planted parsley.

Spinach in front, mizuna (salad green) in the middle, bok choy and kohlrabi in the back.  Some of this may be gone next weekend to make room for green and yellow beans. 

Swiss chard in front, kale in the back. These plants LOVE when we put organic fish fertilizer on them.  The nitrogen makes them grow like crazy!

Spring at the NSC house- Pictures!

Yes, this is a post that is months late.  But I wanted to make sure that it is documented!

Once the weather got warmer, we coordinated with our next door neighbor, with whom we share part of our driveway with, and had our driveways torn up and then repaved.  This was frankly a safety issue because the seller of our house hadn't repaved the driveway maybe ever?  Our neighbor told us that he would buy the seal coat stuff at Home Depot, mix it with gasoline so that it would go further (he was a CHEAPSKATE), and then coat the driveway.  The neighborhood would stink for a week of gasoline and she was worried that if someone lit a match or dropped a cigarette, the driveway would go up in flames.  AWESOME and I'm sure very environmentally friendly.  :-/

The driveway was really uneven which made for huge puddles when it rained and lovely ice skating rinks in the wintertime.  So yeah, not safe.

BEFORE: Hard to see, but this is the uneven driveway

BEFORE: Not in great shape

DURING: Old driveway ripped out, then graded

AFTER: A smooth driveway!

We had 9 cubic yards of mulch delivered to our house, along with 2 cubic yards of dirt.  We spread this throughout the garden beds which was tiring work!

Our spring flowers included these AMAZING red tulips.  They were gigantic and looked fantastic.  Home Depot tulips for the win!  (I mean, check out the difference in size between the red and the orange ones to the right- WOW!)  I got a lot of compliments on these tulips.

Inside the tulips

My hyacinths looked okay this year....not amazing though.

And I might have forgotten to take pictures of the daffodils in the back this year.  :-(

Randomly this spring we found a peony growing through the grass in our backyard!!  It didn't come up last year so maybe the dreadfully long winter allowed it to grow enough for us to notice it before CP started to mow?  Either way, I moved it to a side garden and while it didn't bloom this year, I'm hoping that it will next year!  Gotta love free peonies.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

So other than awkward run-ins at beer festivals, what have I been up to?  Well, I finally got some meds that took away my SIX DAY migraine (yes it continued into yesterday).  So as of last night I was relatively pain-free and so very thankful.  

For work I traveled down to Springfield, IL and let me tell you it is a HOTBED of activity (ha ha).  One night I went out for dinner and came across the old IL state capitol building.  Pretty no?  I liked the red roof.

When I got back from Springfield and picked up the dogs at the boarder (CP was away for work as well), I picked up Buster looking like this (see below).  Now to be fair, the boarder did tell us that he had an eye infection or something the day before, but I didn't quite expect his face to look this bad.  When I picked him up the girls working said something about him getting upset about being placed in a different cage from Koda during dinnertime and banging his face against the cage.  First of all, OUCH.  Secondly, then move him into the cage with Koda!  They don't eat each other's food.  *sigh*  

We really like the boarder though- more for the doggie daycare aspect as Buster LOVES going there, gives all of the staff members hugs, and comes back exhausted twice a week from playing with the other dogs.

I think that it probably wasn't too bad but as soon as he hurt it, he then scratched it and scratched it and made it worse.  So after my five hour drive from Springfield (which should only take 3 hours), I then had to take Buster to the vet. 

Twice a day I get to put ointment in his eye, and then pat the area with a cleaning agent.  He also gets antibiotics twice a day.  Thankfully he trusts me to do this and not hurt him (plus I'm sure it doesn't hurt that he gets some unsalted peanuts as a treat for being compliant.)

Between CP's pneumonia and now upper respiratory infection, Koda's bone tumor, and Buster smashing his face in, I would say that the rest of the NSC family is trying to steal my pregnancy thunder!  Just kidding.....but seriously, I would like to go at least a month without seeing our vet.  He is making far too much money off of us.

Here is what the area looked like as of Sunday.  More like a scab and he is being a big trooper by wearing the dreaded cone when I am not around.  Poor guy.

We still have a few things blooming in our garden which is a bit of a surprise.  When my parents replanted the front garden for us last month, they transplanted a rose bush from their house in MI that they didn't want anymore.  The bush went into complete shock, all of the leaves went brown and fell off the bush.  I was pretty sure we had lost it, but kept watering and watering.  The green leaves slowly grew back and this week, despite it not being the right weather for a rose bush to bloom, I found this flower and a dozen more starting on the plant.  I'm amazed at the comeback and can't wait to see what the plant looks like next year!!

I also thought that it was pretty late for Bee Balm to flower, but it is the first year for this plant so maybe that is why it is so late?  Either way, it's a nice splash of color at the end of September!

Finally, we ripped out some of our veggie plants (yellow wax beans, mizuna, cucumbers, yellow squash), but we still have zucchini, poblano peppers, cayenne peppers, eggplant, swiss chard, carrots, kale, and beets going.  And amazingly enough, our tomatoes are finally turning red and they are DELICIOUS.  Tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt= heaven.

But seriously, after all of the tomatoes and caprese salads that I have been eating recently, if this baby doesn't like tomatoes then I don't know what I did wrong!!

Ups and Downs

It was a tough weekend full of ups and downs.

Up- After work on Friday I braved Chicago traffic and headed up to MI for the night to see a good friend from college.  Her parents live only 20 minutes away from my parent's house in MI so it was great to see her- even if it was only for the night.  

Down- Right before I got to my parent's house in MI a deer with a death wish jumped in front of my car.  I looked in my rearview mirror for one second and it just appeared!  I didn't even have time to hit the brakes.  Luckily it was running fast enough across the road (and I was only going 34 mph) that I think that I just clipped the back of it and it did no damage to the car.  I was totally stunned for a few minutes, but happy that both of us came out of that encounter okay (especially because I was driving the Prius and not the Escape).

Up- Buster came with me up to MI because his cousin, my sister's dog, was going to be up with my parents.  They always have a great time together and completely tire each other out so it was an easy decision.

Down- Just that we had to leave Saturday morning and couldn't stay the whole weekend!!

Up- Saturday night we had two birthday parties in the city- one for a friend that I haven't seen in a few years, the other for my sister.  It was nice to see old friends at both parties- and get some birthday cake!  Mmmmmm birthday cake.  :-)

Down- I stood too much at both parties in flip flops.  My ankles were huge by the end of the night- my feet were KILLING me and it made driving home hard (I was the designated driver of course).

Up- CP and I finally took the plunge and headed out to check out our first baby store on Sunday.  We picked Buy Buy Baby because even though it is not close as Babies R Us to our house, I have heard that they are better with returns and we knew that we needed help shopping (they have associates take you around the store to help you figure out what you need/want and why).  We didn't really intend to do too much- just to go over the items we needed to touch/see/feel/etc. and figure out the rest later.  Well....over three hours later we were mentally exhausted and my ankles/feet were killing me again!  The good news is that my next door neighbors gave us an awesome/expensive stroller (Peg Perego) AND a more durable stroller for gravel/hiking/etc. so we just have to buy the car seat and two car seat bases, thus saving us a pretty penny.  :-)

Down- All of that time spent at the store meant that we rushed through the rest of the day. Making and canning curry zucchini relish, planting beet and carrot seeds for (crossing fingers) a fall harvest, loads of laundry, house cleaning, picking veggies, etc.  

Up- Our garden is producing ridiculous amounts of veggies these days.  Between zucchini, summer squash, cucumbers, yellow wax beans, swiss chard, kale, mizuna, jalapenos, eggplant, and cayenne peppers our kitchen counter and the fridge is chock full of fresh veggies.  The baby is getting lots of tastes of different veggies these days through the amniotic fluid- hopefully it means that he/she will like veggies!!  Last night we had a salad with fresh veggies on top and also made swiss chard lasagna.  YUM!

Down- Our tomato plants are doing just okay.  They aren't very full and just aren't producing like normal.  I wonder if it is because it hasn't been hot enough this summer?  Tomatoes tend to thrive in the heat.....

THE WORST

Then to top things off, before I went to bed last night I was saying good night to the dogs (they both now sleep on the first floor).  I quickly laid down next to Koda and heard some labored breathing.  (I don't think that it anything bad, but it just got me thinking bad thoughts.)  I started bawling as I lay next to her because unfortunately she didn't get any better with the antibiotics and the Benadryl this weekend.  I talked to the vet this morning and he recommends a CT scan to see if she does have a bone tumor.  I called over to find out prices on the CT scan- the estimate is $1200-1300 and if they have to biopsy anything, that's another $1500.  *sigh*  There is a possibility that we could have a consult with the oncologist without a CT scan to figure out our options (if we have any), but that is something that CP and I have to discuss tonight.  Work has been hard so far today as I didn't sleep well last night and I can't stop thinking about her.....

By the way, thank you all for your supportive comments on my post from Friday.  It was nice to know that so many people were thinking about Koda!

Twins are exhausting

This past weekend CP and I headed up to my parents house in MI with our friends and their twin almost-2-year-olds.  Of course I knew that kids were exhausting, but twins- whew!  I know that there are a bunch of you out there that are currently carrying twins and I don't want to scare you, but WOW. 

The weekend made me very happy that I am carrying a singleton as I don't know how I would do it with CP's work travel.  When he leaves for his one to two week travel stints I'm sure I will be pulling my hair out with one kid and two dogs!  I know that if I had twins that would be all that I would know, but still.  Two kids that mimic everything the other one does.  Two kids that need to be changed, fed, put down for naps and bedtime, that need constant help and interaction. There are only so many hands at a time!  Maybe the fact that I am pregnant with diminished energy and swollen ankles meant that this weekend was tougher on me physically.  Who knows.

While we were picking 16 pounds of blueberries (yep!) my friend asked if we are going to have a second child.  Obviously I need the current one to come out okay first, but with two days left until viability (24 weeks), I am feeling pretty confident that we will have a take home baby. My answer was, I don't know.  We will see how things go with this baby.  It will also depend on when/if we feel ready for a second baby.  I would like to think that we would try naturally for a few months before jumping back to IVF but depending on my age at the time, maybe we just want to go straight for the frozen transfer of my one embryo currently hanging out in the clinic freezer (since it will be coming from an egg of a slightly younger woman).  A frozen transfer means less drugs and a smaller number of appointments at the clinic heading up into the transfer.   If that doesn't work or if we lose the embryo in the thaw, will we want to go through IVF again with an existing baby?  I don't have those answers just yet.  Honestly I just want to focus on the current baby and not think of the future.

------------------------------------------

While we were tired from the twins and their endless energy, my parents had an exhausting weekend re-planting our front garden.  They can usually be found every weekend up in MI but because we were there with our friends, they asked if we wanted them to "fix" our front garden.  All summer long our front garden has looked pretty sad because we planted a bunch of perennials this spring, but most of them didn't take off like we thought they would (maybe next year).  And then the flowering perennials got trampled on by the windows and siding contractors.  So CP and I gave them carte blanche to fix up our front garden.

I don't even want to know how much they spent on all of the new plants and to be honest, I don't think we need as many boxwoods and evergreens as they planted, but in my opinion, the front garden looks amazing.  Maybe after they retire they could start a landscaping business?  :-)

BEFORE: Sad, trampled front garden

AFTER: Whoa!  More plants and mulch make a huge difference!

Final word is that my parents are amazing.

Picture Thursday

Can I just tell you how much I am loving this summer here in Chicago?  We had a few hot days, but lately it has barely squeaked past 80 degrees and this 22 week pregnant girl (and her hands and her feet) are loving it!  The tomatoes in the garden?  Not as much.

So how is the garden doing?  I know that you were wondering.  ;-)

Well, we started with empty raised beds back in June and were worried that we were too far behind in the growing season.  We didn't get to plant our beets and our sugar snap peas didn't work out (partly because of the damn rabbits!), but everything else seems to be doing well.

On the left, yellow wax beans.  CP thought that he bought bush beans but they are climbing more than usual.  In the middle we planted carrots which like usual, didn't flourish.  *sigh*  On the right, mizuna in front and bok choy in the back.

Since I took this picture we have added some nitrogen to the soil and the plants seem to be doing better and growing faster.  Swiss chard on the left, spinach in the middle, and kale on the right.  There is a tree that shades some of this raised bed for some of the day- we may need to trim some of its branches as you can see the kale in the front is doing better than the kale in the back.  Not a bumper crop for us this year like usual, but hopefully it gets better as it starts to cool down.

Lots of green tomatoes on these plants.  Can't wait for them to turn!

The money raised bed.  Zucchini and yellow squash on the ends, hot peppers, eggplant and cucumbers in the middle.  Everything is doing GREAT and has been delicious so far!

One of our herb beds is going GREAT.  Starting with the spiky things in the far right corner- green onions, thai basil, regular basil, chives, parsley, chervil, and finally in the back left, dill.  

This herb bed looks a little sad, but it is because we recently took out all of the bolted lettuce, moved the rest of the herbs that had been in the ground (sage, two times of thyme, rosemary, marjoram and oregano) to this bed and replanted lettuce seeds with a heat-resistant type.  You can barely see the sprouts of the new lettuce but I can't wait for it to come in!

Any interesting flowers pop recently?  So glad you asked.

Our newest daylily to pop.  Isn't this so pretty?

The rose of sharon tree is blooming!

Close-up of a rose of sharon flower.

Pink and  yellow tiger lilies.  CP is mad that they face down, but I think that they are kind of cool and look like colorful chandeliers.  :-)

I honestly don't even know what this plant is called....but we needed to fill in some spaces in one of the beds and it looked cool so we bought two.  Fun spiky flowers!!

These hostas look sad but that is only because they were transplanted in the middle of the summer.  Still do-able but they probably won't look good until next year.  My parents have all kinds of hostas at their house in MI so we split some plants and transplanted them here.  Hostas are impossible to kill so I can't wait for these to take over this side bed so that we don't have to worry about doing anything with it!!