Saturday, March 28, 2009

The gift of time...

So, here we are... We thought our lil' g would be here by now, but it appears that he is very comfy inside Hotel Uterus and in no hurry to come out.

So many times in life I struggle with having too little time, and yet here I am now, waiting for those life-changing moments I know are soon coming, 5 days past my due date and counting! I honestly never thought he would take this long to make an appearance, and I find myself feeling a bit unprepared for how to spend my time. It's not that I have a lot of time, mind you. I still have to go to the hospital every 48 hours for monitoring, which takes practically all day for this car-free expat (hehe!..there's a good pun here..."car-free" = carefree...well, sometimes). Also, my body's shape and agility are more like that of a turtle's than a human's, so it's difficult to get much done. My mind has a lot of time just to be with itself, though. It hasn't slowed down at all, which makes the waiting all the more challenging. This is quite an exercise in living in the moment!

I like to think that babies make the choice of when it's best for them to travel from womb to world. So I keep asking myself, "what can I possibly do to make my world a better place for lil' g? What is he waiting for me to do?" It's definitely true that daily something has happened, either for me or Mark, that makes us feel better prepared. Today, I think there's a better environment for lil' g than we could have provided last week, so he probably knows what he is doing.

What would you do, or what have you done, during a time like this (please comment!)? This is whole post is inspired by my cousin Jeralee, who sent me a list of things she has done or would like to do while waiting to go into labor (thanks, Jeralee)! For me, I'm going to do some baking, take a walk, play the piano, and a few other things, but first, I'm going to blog. Can you believe it? For the next few hours, I am going to attempt to record the happenings of the last several months that haven't made it onto the blog, but should have. You can think of it as a year-end review (you know, like all the ones you see on TV on New Year's Eve), only done in March and lasting 10 months rather than 12.

Read on...!

First, an update on lil' G...

I've been to the hospital three times this week for monitoring. Lil' g is doing very well. I get to listen to his heartbeat for 30 minutes straight every time I am monitored, which is the most beautiful music I've ever heard!

Yesterday we had another ultrasound. They estimated that he is now 4 kilos (that's roughly 8 pounds, 13 ounces)! We also got to see him sucking his thumb, which was too cute for words. So, he's nice and cozy, sucking his thumb, contemplating the nature of the universe... Who'd want that to end?

And a photo...here I am on my due date. Wow--40 weeks pregnant and nearly a 9 pound baby inside!


It looks like I've overshot everyone's guesses on the guessing game I set up. Feel free to guess again, if you want!!

Mom and Dad's European Extravaganza, part...I don't remember...but it happened last May!

We had two more days than what I blogged about with Mom and Dad when they traveled here last year. We enjoyed one day visiting Halstatt, Austria, a beautiful little town on the edge of a lake that has thrived on coal mining for thousands of years, according to archeological evidence. The next day we went to Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart.

A photo tour:

On the boat, crossing the lake to Halstatt, Austria.

Picture perfect..

The town center

Posing in my new hat...

An art exhibit on the lake


Mark inspects the funicular tracks that will take us up the mountain

I loved Austria!

Absolutely gorgeous!

Dressed to go into the mine...

We walked far into the mountain, and then took a slide deeper down still. The slide was used as a quick way to get to different levels of the mine. They clocked our top speed at 34km/hr. Quick indeed! Here's Dad getting off the slide at the bottom. That was fun!

Streets of Salzburg


Mozart's birthplace

Inside one of the cathedrals (can't remember which one)...

Saying goodbye (this was a sad moment)... Mom and Dad went on to England after this, and we drove the car back to Lyon.

Another laundry post...

I really get a kick out of the amount of laundry we see drying in beautiful places (though there's a lot more of it in Italy). Here's a view from our old apartment, taken last June...

Yummy food I made (before the morning sickness hit)...


So, it's hard being a vegetarian in France! I miss all the veggie options I took for granted in the States. I got all courageous one day and tried to make veggie chicken strips. I mixed 1 kg of flour and enough water to make a soft dough, and then I rinsed the dough to remove the starch, leaving only the gluten. I then boiled it in veggie broth and salt for 30 minutes. I cut it into strips and fried it up with veggies and sweet and sour sauce. It was pretty good, but not as good as Trader Joes. Oh well!

Ginger Cookies

These ginger cookies were excellent (should make them again)! Here's the recipe...

1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmet
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated (you could use powdered ginger too)
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 - 1/2 cup molasses
1 egg

Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately, then combine to make a stiff dough. Knead the dough for a few minutes, then roll out and cut into shapes. Dip in sugar, then bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes.

FĂȘte de la Musique

Every year on the summer solstice, something magical happens in Lyon. Musicians of all genres and abilities come out onto the streets and play. The air is filled with music. You can walk, munching on street food, and enjoy performance after performance, or you can simply stay in one place and enjoy a full concert. That's how our evening went; we started out walking, enjoying the pleasures of several bands and music styles, and then we found one ensemble that we couldn't tear ourselves away from, so we stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Kari and Jonathan introduced us to this Lyonnaise tradition, and we roamed the streets together. She put together a wonderful and much more detailed blog posting on the event, but I'll give you a taste here...

1st band of the night, at a pub in Vieux Lyon

Crossing the river, musique in the air...

Big Band Bonanza!


On the banks of the Rhone...

These guys were the hit of the night! We could not pull ourselves away from the artistry of these 4 musicians. They played fast and furiously, definitely some of the most accomplished musicians we've ever heard!

Not a fan of the second-hand smoke, but you've gotta admit, this takes coordination (smoking and fingers flying over the guitar strings)!

...and when we came back to consciousness, the light of day had descended.

A day of hiking in the Alps...

Mark's lab has a yearly ski day (this pregnant lady missed it two weeks ago) and hiking day. These photos are from a hike we took with them, high in the hills behind Grenoble, last June.


Those aren't clouds you see on the horizon (well, there are a few)...those are the high Alps! Mount Blanc is in the horizon, off to the right.




You have to see it to believe it...

I had always heard about hail the size of golf balls, but it's a difficult concept to grasp when all the biggest hail you've seen is the size of a blueberry. Well, last July, my perception was changed. We suddenly got a huge summer storm, and the hail that came crashing down was approaching golf ball size (though still not quite there). We grabbed this piece from our balcony, and it was melting fast when we took the photos.



Freya always finds the funniest hiding places...

Fresh air works wonders for morning sickness!

The morning sickness hit its peak in August. If you look at the number of pictures in our photo folders on our computer, you can see that life slowed wayyyyyy down.

Kari and Jonathan invited us out to the house the in country where they house-sit in the summers. Kari's incredible cooking combined with the fresh air was the best remedy I could find for my nausea!

During a walk along the river...


Picking blackberries (really really tasty)!


Kari did a much better job of documenting things (I wasn't taking many photos) here and here.

Thanks for the rescue from nausea-world, Kari and Jonathan! Those weekends did us a world of good! Plus, thanks to your fabulous and nutritious cooking, Lil' g is made of something more than saltine crackers, potatoes, and a few refried beans!

A fun new game...Untangle the Cat!

I caught Misha sleeping in this funny position sometime in the middle of September. Can you identify her feet from her legs?



She's all paws to me!

A cooking demonstration...

At the beginning of October, we went to a conference especially for English-speaking expats living in Lyon. During lunchtime, they had a cooking demonstration from chefs at the Paul Bocuse Institute. They made Fois Gras with some type of mushroom sauce (made from expensive and delicious mushrooms). More than anything, it was fun to watch professional french chefs...

The tall skinny guy is the award-winning chef...

...but it was this guy we liked, with the mustache, hat, and big belly.

I've been published!!


Kari surprised me during the summer by publishing some of my photographs in Bien Dire (we're big fans of this magazine)!! These were photos I took of the traboules during a tour we took on my birthday this year.


Imagine my excitement and surprise when I saw my name in print...copyright, Kendra Butler!!!


I feel seriously cool...

Speechless in Venice...

I never posted anything about Venice, other than what an amazing place it is to hang one's laundry. This is for two reasons: 1) laziness, and 2) I'm still trying to find words to describe it! It's simply incredible and full of magic, another world, a living city and a ghost town at the same time...

Our first night there...gondola parking along the Grand Canal

Venice has no cars (well, there's one tiny part of the island where you can park). There's no room for them! So, your transportation options for getting around the city are by foot or by boat. This is a typical "street" in Venice, though they get much narrower than this.

Flower shop by our hotel

A little portico off the canal


The Rialto Bridge

Gondolas on the Grand Canal

So many places in Venice, you can take narrow passages that seem to lead to nowhere, and then you suddenly find yourself in open courtyards with a well in the middle, all alone...



The Rialto Bridge from the other side...


Old carvings, statues, and stone reliefs can be found all over the city, over doorways, on walls...anywhere your eyes wander. According to our guidebook, this relief depicts a helmet and a shield and refers to an ancient story about a knight who was travelling back from the Holy Land, carrying an important relic to be delivered to the provost of Cologne. He was swinded out of his relic, and "...it is said that the knight roamed endlessly, wailing in the streets, until one day, in this courtyard, the people found empty armor and a helmet."



We loved this door. We want one like it someday.

Our favorite church in Venice. It's made of white marble and just seems to float on the water.

Our favorite well...

This is Kronos, the Sire of Time. We really liked him--he's completely covered in hair and holding a sun disk. He had personality!

And on this coat of arms....a duck!!












Knock, knock...