Nope, Not Spring Yet

This morning we woke up to rain, chilly temps and gray skies and it was hard to believe that two days ago it was 70 degrees and sunny. It felt like winter was over! Oh well, it was too good to last, but at least I got some pictures while it was so nice!

A Drive in the Dark

Beau

BIG baby Beau! I am 27 weeks 3 days pregnant but Beau is measuring as if I was 29 weeks and 2 days, nearly two weeks ahead of schedule! They estimate he is already 3 lbs! And look at those chubby cheeks! My glucose test came back fine so it doesn't appear to be a diabetes issue, he is just a big fella. Head is down, fluid is good, cervix is long. I had some bleeding last week and have not been as comfortable lately so the doctor wants me to take it easy and to lie on my side two hours every afternoon. Sounds fine to me! Okay, I'll stop talking now and just let you look at that squishy face!

Perfume

I love me some perfume! I have found that a good fragrance will lift my mood, feed my senses, and help me feel more present in the moment. I took these photos for last weeks photo challenge, "reflection." These Versace eau de toilettes (Bright Crystal and Yellow Diamond) and various Coach Poppy perfumes are what I wear the most, but I also really like Romance by Ralph Lauren and Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf.

Piper and the Pool

It's been warm enough that I've been able to keep the sliding glass door open to the back yard in the afternoon. The cats appreciate it. Here is Piper sitting on the back stoop just outside the kitchen, watching birds.

I've been taking a lot of Piper pictures lately, I think I am feeling a little clingy around her since her accident. 

By the way, doesn't that pool look inviting? I can't wait for swimming weather. Probably won't get warm enough until after the baby comes though. I can see it now: Beau and me, floating in the pool. Poor Remy has summer school but we will put him in his swim trunks as soon as he gets off the bus and he can join us!

NOT a Grackle!

Yesterday I was at the kitchen sink when I saw this guy gleefully flitting around the neighbor's peach tree (which, oddly enough, has buds on it already!) He was so happy to have the WHOLE tree to himself that he stayed for quite a while, so I was able to grab the camera and take some pics. He was a sweet little visitor, not to mention a good reminder that I need to refill my hummingbird feeder!

Living Room

The living room is still a work in progress but with the addition of the $19 coffee table a few months ago, and now a book shelf from Target, it is becoming a really nice place to relax with a cup of tea and a good book!

Piper

Piper used one of her proverbial 9 lives this weekend. Ross was out with a friend and I had just put Remy to bed when she, frantically pacing the four foot wall that divides the loft from the ground floor while she waited for dinner, got a little TOO excited and fell nearly 20 feet to the living room below. She managed to get her front feet under her but still landed hard enough to knock her face on the floor.  By the time I got down the stairs, she was hiding in the garage with a bloody nose. I was imagining a trip to the animal hospital complete with tears, x-rays, and hundreds of dollars in fees but when I opened a can of cat food she began purring loudly and got to work eating (blowing blood bubbles out her nose in the process.) I felt her over for swollen spots or gruesomely protruding bones but she felt fine to me, and she never lost control of her bowels or became shivery, so we took and wait and watch approach. She spent most of the next 24 hours on our bed and a day later was as good as new.  She's a tough old girl!  

Mr. Clean

A Good Week

It's been a busy week in the Cangelosi home. Remy loved being back at school, and he did a phenomenal job wearing his undies and using the toilet. This dream of having him potty trained by the time Beau comes seems to be coming true! 

I have continued with my mission to "focus" in 2014 by cleaning and organizing some of the problem areas in the house, particularly all the mail and school work that had accumulated in the kitchen. I tossed half a garbage bag of junk, cleared off several feet of counter space, and next I want to move my HQ to the unused built-in desk in the loft upstairs. I resisted for a long time because it was too far from the living room and I wouldn't be able to see Remy, but now that he is at school 5 days a week I think it will be okay. And as for Beau, until he learns to crawl, he has to go where I bring him, muhahaha! (First time parents don't fully comprehend what a precious gift that early immobility is!)  

I've also been busying trying new winter-time recipes. The first was a crock pot curry that turned out a little too spicy but was otherwise pretty darn satisfying, and the second was a hamburger soup that I, personally, loved.  Having enough energy to cook is AWESOME. Long live the second trimester!

 http://thelemonbowl.com/2013/05/slow-cooker-chicken-curry.html

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2014/01/hamburger-soup/

Speaking of the second trimester, I'm becoming convinced that Beau is some kind of giant. I will be just 25 weeks along on Saturday, but when this kid shifts his weight I practically lose my balance. Well, not quite, but he is a force to be reckoned with. When I lie on  my side in bed he starts knocking against the mattress like he is trying to kung-fu kick it into submission. This morning he was leaping about so much in the doctor's waiting room that I had to cover my belly with two hands so that people wouldn't be alarmed by my large, spastic belly.  I can't wait to meet this kid!

Temperatures continue to rise into the 60s almost every day so I'm hoping we'll get a chance to spend sometime outdoors as family this weekend, but other then that we don't really have any plans. Maybe church, maybe a trip to Hobby Lobby to get some fabric for my curtain project.  We'll see what happens! 

Thoughts on a New Year

An online friend shared that, instead of resolutions, she comes up with a few key words she can try to live out in the new year. I love that idea because words are simple enough to engrave on your heart, but are dynamic and flexible in a way that a resolution isn't.  My words for 2014 are:

Faith

&

Focus

&

  Patience 

I expect that these words will mean different things to me on different days, but today "Faith" means nourishing my soul and marveling at the beauty of Christ.  "Focus" means cleaning and simplifying my home, and cutting out things (like excessive facebooking) that don't serve me or my family. And "Patience" means enjoying where I am at, instead of fixating on the countdown to Beau's arrival.  

Here's to a 2014 enriched by faith, focus and patience!  

Joy

The Male Great-tailed Grackle

Yesterday I posted a bunch of pictures of brown blackbirds because I only had pics of females. That bugged me, so this morning I got a few pictures of the male of the species. As you can see, it is a rich, glossy black.

Great-tailed Grackle

Coming from the Midwest, these birds seemed exotic to me at first. They can have such impressive legs and tails that I even wondered if they might be Roadrunners! Not even close. They are called Great-tailed Grackles and are a blackbird common to the Southwest and the southern Great Plains regions of the US. Unlike the blackbirds I am more familiar with, the Great-tailed Grackles are very lanky, with long legs and tails, and the males have a very striking iridescence to their black feathers.  These are females that have been using our backyard to stake out the neighbors house lately (possibly watching the neighbors dogs.) They are smaller than the males and, obviously, not black.  They are not my favorite bird of the Southwest (that would be the Western Scrub-Jay) but they are bold and plentiful so they make the backyard much more interesting at a time of year when not a lot is going on back there.