Week 33

Well, we did get a blizzard last weekend which was kind of fun. We didn't have to go anywhere so we just got to watch the snow fall from inside our cozy house. Greg helped our basement neighbor shovel out the walks and the cars the next day. Of course my photo shoot got canceled. It looks like this will be the first time in 9 years that I will not be getting a Christmas card out. Perhaps a New Year's card will find its way into the mail but Christmas cards are out at this point. That's OK. It is just one of those years where keeping things simple is key.

Well due to the snow my regular photo spot is a huge pile of powdery white stuff. Greg got out OK and into position for taking the photo but when I tried to step out onto the snow pile my foot sank in and snow went right up my pantleg. Brrrrrrrrrr! Greg managed to get this shot after I climbed back onto the top step: He thought it was hilarious. I tried to brush the snow out of my pants as fast as possible. Needless to say I had to change my sock before leaving for work! We did manage to get a semi normal shot. The distance is off from the other photos so I'm not sure how much of a comparison can be drawn. I sure feel much bigger than last week. Little Koobie is pretty much out of room to really move around so she stays in one place and just practices stretching her arms and legs so I get lots of belly distortion which is funny to look at. We find her pretty entertaining these days. I have been starting to panic a little as I realize I have 3 weeks until I am "full term" and could have her at any point. I have so much to do to get ready, especially ready to leave my job for 3 months. Plus we have to have a pediatrician picked out before 36 weeks and we still can't decide if we want an office in Queens or in Manhattan. So many choices!

My university is closed from Dec. 24th through January 1st so I am really looking forward to almost a week and a half of vacation to finish up some baby details (like a nursery to put together and a registry to finish). I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love,
The Cruikshanks

Week 32

So sorry this post is so late. I have been drowning in Final Exam preparation for the last 5 or 6 days. I actually had to bite the bullet and take 2 days off of work in order to study for the test properly. I just couldn't master my procrastination tendencies this time around. Of course it didn't help that the course was really hard and there was so much material that it was fairly daunting. I took the exam last night (40 questions in 3 hours) and I think it went well. I am hoping for a solid B in the class. I am just so glad to be done with it. It was my worst course so far at Stern. No more homework, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks..... Actually my teacher was very nice and had an adorable Australian accent. Unfortunately he used it to talk about finance which was soooooo boring. Anyway, I slept like a baby last night and am now trying to catch up on work stuff. Looking forward to a weekend with no school work to ruin it. Last Tuesday was Greg's 33rd birthday and we didn't do anything because I was so busy with school so this weekend we will try to properly honor his special day. We were going to try and go out tonight for vegetarian Dim Sum but last night he requested a quiet night at home with take out instead. I guess he has been a little too busy these days too. I have Julie and Julia on DVD at home and I have been dying to watch it so that may be on the agenda as well.

We snapped this photo this morning. You can kind of see my neighbor's bumper in the shot. I hate it when he parks in my photo area. Anyway, you can't tell but it was COLD out. These photos are getting harder and harder to take outside. We are actually on Blizzard watch this weekend which I think will be fun except that I need to take our Christmas photo so snow may throw a wrench in that plan. I had my 32 week check up this week and little Koobie is right on track for size and had a nice strong heart beat. She remains head down like a good girl. I can tell she is growing larger because her movements are increasing in frequency and intensity as she runs out of space. Other than a little heartburn now and again I have been feeling really well and have no major complaints.

Now for one bonus photo. Me in my giant maternity winter coat. Greg says I look like the stay puff marshmellow man, I say it is more like a toasted marshmallow! At least I am so big now that even with the coat on people can tell I am pregnant and offer me their seats on the train. That is always really nice.

Week 31

Today is my Department's holiday party so I ordered this little black dress on Sunday to wear during the holiday season. It actually is a size too big but I didn't have the energy or time to deal with an exchange so I am just living with it. At least it is comfortable and cheap. Last weekend we had a fun time bowling with our small group on Saturday. My center of gravity must be really off because I did terribly and Greg beat me both games. That must be it right?!?! He can't possibly be getting better at bowling in his wacky hurl the ball down the lane with tons of spin style right?! Then on Sunday I baked a double batch of my Grandmother's sugar cookies because we were hosting a cookie decorating party on Tuesday with our home group. Once a month we skip the bible study and just have fellowship time and this week we thought we would decorate cookies. I was a little nervous that there wouldn't be space for everyone to work (and I didn't want people decorating cookies on the couch!) but it worked out perfectly. The 7 girls all ended up at the table and the 5 guys gravitated over to the Wii and competed in archery. We had a really nice time and everyone made adorable cookies (and ate lots of them too!!!). Grace provided us with naked gingerbread to decorate along with my sugar cookies so there were plenty to go around. I should have taken a before picture to show the set up but after 2 hours of decorating this is what it looked like. And the whole group packing up their cookies to take home. So much fun and really pretty easy to throw together. We decided not to have our annual Christmas party this year for the communion team just because we are so short on time and I am so short on energy these days so this was an easy way to share the season with people on a smaller scale.

Week 30

Week 30! It feels like the home stretch with just 10 weeks to go. We had a very nice 4 day weekend. Our Thanksgiving was quiet consisting of calls home to the family, a cheesy teen movie, a yummy vegan dinner, and decorating the house for Christmas. We watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy over the course of the weekend while we worked which was fun. Those movies remind me of Christmas because they were always released around the holidays. We had friends over for dinner on Friday which was really nice. We used the weekend to get a jump start on Christmas so I can focus on my class final over the next two weeks. The gifts are purchased, wrapped and in some cases packed for shipping. That feels really good. We have some general ideas for a Christmas card (Greg is helping me this year which is fun) and need to plan a photo shoot for that. We made a few additions to the home decor this year which I will have to share later because it looks like Greg took them off the camera.

We ate lots of yummy food over the weekend. We are both so busy during the week that it seems we don't get a chance to cook much so when we have a little time we really enjoy getting into the kitchen together and whipping up great meals. We of course had waffles one day for breakfast (our favorite Chelsea/Plain waffles) and then leftovers over the weekend. I made a crustless Pumpkin pie that was delicious. Couldn't pass up the pie just because we didn't cook our own Thanksgiving dinner! I found some really nice brioche rolls at the grocery store on Friday so we enjoyed "chicken" burgers a couple days for lunch which were really good. And then on Sunday night I made "beef" stroganoff. Lots of delicious comfort food. I hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.