A general update

Things have settled down a little, after all our traveling. I'm now at 35 weeks and expecting an end-of-June delivery. Brian's students finish school on the 18th, and my mom will be here the 20th. I need to get busy with a playmat and cribskirt. We also need to stock up on diapers, but are trying to remember if Jack wore preemie size, or just went straight to newborns. We're assuming baby Kate will be just as skinny!
We spent the day yesterday in the Carson Valley of Nevada, where Brian had an eye doctor's appointment and we both toughed it out at the dentist. In between appointments, we caught a matinee of the new "Night at the Museum," the first time the three of us had been to a movie together since the last "Night at the Museum." Jack was three months old the first time. I remember it distinctly because I had to change his diaper halfway through the movie, and looking up at me from the changing table there in the movie theater bathroom, he laughed for the first time. What a moment!
Brian's applied for three open vice principal positions in Las Cruces, but hasn't heard back anything. We've tried not to get our hopes up, and every day without a phone call brings us more back down to earth. My poor sister Val's been laid off in Texas, which also looks like a door into the perfect opportunity for her to move to Cruces, thereby partially fulfilling our dream to live in the same town again someday. Someday! We know there's a plan for us.

Whirlwind trip

Just got back from a four-day trip to Santa Cruz. We were able to accompany Brian, 16 sixth-graders, two teachers, and five chaperones on their annual Science field trip. Most of the rest of 'em took a schoolbus, but Jack, Casey and I took our air-conditioned minivan (which was definitely needed by this pregnant lady in the heat of the Central Valley!). We took the kids to the wharf in Santa Cruz one morning to see the sea lions on one of the docks. A teacher told me that they're aggressive animals and that, once they've taken over a dock, you can forget about using it for anything else! Not a great place to take little kids... there is bird poop ALL over the place! But sure, Jack loved it.

We spent a couple lazy hours on the beach--just me and Jack, and his shovel, bucket, and motorcycle. I wish we could've had a day just for that!

And a huge highlight of the trip was our day at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Jack and I had been studying up for a couple days, and he was more than ready to observe all the sealife there was to offer. We saw feeding time for the sea otters...

I was amazed at all the activities for kids his age: knobs, buttons, and levers all over the place; mazes, tunnels, slides, and mini water park that he could actually get his hands in! To touch an actual starfish: heaven! And a window with a big splash of water every minute or so...

On the way back from the aquarium, the schoolbus broke down, and we had to pull off onto a farm road in Watsonville... lots of drama there. Lots of drama the whole trip, but how could we expect anything else, based on our year in Lee Vining so far?

I Want

At the request of my friend Lindsey, an "I Want" list:

-This darn Diet Coke addiction kicked
-Credit card and student loans paid off
-A short labor next month, along with a healthy, happy baby girl
-A really good sewing ability, one in which I do not give up on sewing projects that sit around forever, making me feel guilty
-Continually cleared "flat spaces" in my house, a la organization guru Peter Walsh
-A job for Brian near family (soon? maybe?)
-A movie, like we used to, at a theatre, with a big bucket of popcorn
-A house that is ours, which I can paint and decorate to my heart's content
-A huuuuge vegetable garden, and maybe some chickens and goats
-A budget that I actually stick to
-Curly hair that I like at the end of the day
-The ability to sleep eight hours a night, and sleep in on weekends
-A good grasp of Spanish, and tamale-making skills
-Brian to play more board games with me
-A house in the south of France for a month or so
-A better understanding of the Bible, and more desire to study
-Jack fully potty-trained
-A really nice food processor for all my purees
-Absolute happiness for all my family

Mothers' Day in Mammoth

(33 Weeks Along!)

The legendary Chope's

Last night we traveled south on Hwy. 28, to the sleepy little farming community of La Mesa, to experience the legend that is Chope's. Don't know exactly what it is about this place--'cause honestly, I ain't that picky about my Mexican food--but everyone who knows anything about Las Cruces and southern New Mexico knows that THIS is the place to eat. (Not Northern N.M., mind you; locals will tell you that there IS a distinct difference between foods of the regions. It's kind of like being from Idaho, and being asked if I grew up around potato farms. Or my students in Manteca, who'd never been to the ocean, yet would be asked if they surfed a lot. But I digress!) Chope's is only open a couple hours at lunch and three at dinner, five days a week, and you'd better get there at opening time, because soon after, the line can stretch down the block. I enjoyed a sopaipilla, Jack his quesadilla with beans, and most everyone else the enchiladas, with their choice of--of course--"red or green." Mmm mmm mmm! A perfect way to wrap up our time here in my adopted home state. Here are Grandma Pat and Jack, comparing notes on the salsa: