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...

One last post...

It was about this time (October-ish) that I started posting again, so I will leave you with just one more posting...

Mark is going to be doing a lot more cooking once the baby arrives. He is starting to practice for it now... His first recipe was vegetable pot pie.

Directly from Mark: "This is only the first skirmish in a war on poor cooking that promises to be long and relentless.

And so it begins . . ."

And I must say, it was DELICIOUS!!!!

p.s. I never posted pics from our trip to Dijon, but this is getting ridiculous today! If Lil' g decides to continue camping out, then you'll see photos of Dijon. If not, then you'll see photos of him next! How's that for a deal??

p.p.s. If you've made it this far with me, it's a major accomplishment! Thanks!!

What's your guess??

I've set up a guessing game for lil' Garbanzo's birth stats. You can guess his date of birth, weight, length, etc. I already entered my guess, and you can see that I think he's going to be a big baby. According to an ultrasound three weeks ago, he was already 7 pounds, and I'm much bigger now! What do you think? Is the ultrasound believable?

To play: go to http://expectnet.com/index.php

In the box on the upper left, under "Invited Guests" enter the words: GarbanzoButler

This will take you right to the game, and you shouldn't have to register or anything like that to play.

Can't wait to see who's closest!

My Blessingway...

Flowers brought by guests, small blooms of which were woven into my hair.

Yesterday was a truly special day for me. I was given a Blessingway. It was a celebration of the soon-to-be rite of passage I will be taking into motherhood. A blessingway is similiar to a baby shower in that it is a gathering of friends that takes place at the end of a pregnancy, but it is different from a baby shower because the emphasis is more on wishing and giving the mother strength, and is an expression of the support of her community.

My doula, Yanick, suggested I have a blessingway several weeks ago during one of our meetings. I didn't know anything about blessingways at the time, and she explained a little to me. We spoke of it off and on, but it was only a week ago that I began to think seriously about what I would want to have happen. Being so far away from home and from my native language has been a big challenge, especially since I am experiencing pregnancy for the first time. [Note: An example is that all my doctor's appointments, meetings, lab tests, etc., have been in French, which means I'm missing about 70% of the words that are spoken! Mark makes up for the rest by attending the most important appointments and translating.] Pregnancy has caused in me a desire to be around my family and community more than ever, and yet they are farther away than ever! So, naturally I wanted to include everyone back home in this experience as much as I could.

I came up with two ideas: 1) to have a prayer flag, of sorts, on which would be written the hopes, prayers, and poems of loved ones, that I could bring with me to the hospital to read when I need it most, and 2) to have a phone/email "tree" to spread the news when I go into labor, and each person finding out could light a candle, say a prayer, or send good thoughts my way. I sent out an email to friends/family, asking if they wanted to participate and to send thoughts for my flag.

This entire week I have been receiving beautiful expressions of strength and wisdom from so many wonderful people! Thank you all, so so much! My little flag is turning into something I will treasure the rest of my life.

Yesterday at the Blessingway, I was given the royal treatment, and the support I felt from the women who came, combined with the flood of good wishes from my far-away community, has given me the final ingredients I needed to feel fully ready and prepared for what is to come.

Kari, Ngan, Maryline, Claire, and Yanick all joined me at our apartment. Mark kept us well-fed, bringing out appetizers periodically, and joining in on the festivities as well. Kari and Ngan braided my hair and wove in fresh flowers (so beautiful). That was followed by an amazing foot rub and nail polish, a hand massage, and then my pregnant belly was painted! Maryline started the design, and then each person added to it. My belly turned into a huge flower (my belly button was at the center of the flower), with vines curling around. Every time I laughed, the shape of the flower would change a little, almost like a face. It had a life of its own! Each person took a turn writing on my flag too, and the rest of the time was full of wonderful conversation.

Mark and I are both still glowing from the experience!

This afternoon, Kari surprised us with a blog she created especially for the blessingway! She took exceptional photos, perfectly capturing the emotions we were feeling. She designed an absolutely beautiful blog, loaded up the photos and links and such, and then sent it to me. We will be spending many happy moments gazing at the blog in the coming weeks and into the future!

Click here to see my Blessingway Blog

And so the wait for the birth begins... "Lil' g, we love you! We can't wait to meet you! You can come anytime..."

Baby's first...laundry!

The coming years will be full of "firsts." We experienced one of those today...the incredible cuteness of baby laundry!

Lil' g's vegetarian parents are amazed they found this shirt in France!

Thank you so much to all those who have helped with baby butler's wardrobe! With what we have now and with a few things I know are in the mail, I think we're going to be prepared. This is so much fun!!!

More photos...

We finally found an impact drill, and Mark spent a good part of a day drilling holes in our super-hard concrete walls so we could hang our last few pictures and finish our tiny nursery. Yahoo! We're finally moved in, so now I can post some pics of our new apartment (sorry to make you wait so long, Mom)! There have been some other happenings captured on photo too, so I'll just explain as I go...

Mark has discovered a new talent--pregnancy massage! I benefit from his amazing skill almost nightly, and I usually fall into a deep and peaceful sleep by the end. It has the same effect on our kitties as well...


Ngan came over last week, and she taught me how to make lentil eggrolls (soooo tasty). Then she helped me make 80 of them! Wow! So, our freezer is nicely stocked up for postpartum eating. My prediction is that we'll have 48 in our freezer by the time I go into labor--we've already started eating them. :)


36.5 weeks


Welcome to our living room...


Mark's office (attached to living room)...
Our apartment is roughly 450 square feet, which is very different than most American standards! It works surprisingly well, though, thanks to smart design.

Hallway
Sorry, no pics of kitchen. It was kind of messy at the time. :)


Bedroom/nursery


I'm so proud of our little nursery. I'm in love with the canopy! I made the mobile myself, after reading that black and white (or deeply contrasting colors) are good for newborn development.


My belly as of last night, 37 weeks, 1 day. I really feel like lil' g had a growth spurt the last couple of days!

I know, I know, it's been FOREVER since I have posted anything. I'm sorry to all those who have been waiting too long. A quick synopsis of our lives since last post: we moved, and we like our new apartment very much. It's really small (about 450 sq. feet!), but very quiet, and all the extra sleep we are getting is making us much more productive! We have had some trouble with our internet and phone connection (makes blogging harder), but hopefully that will work itself out soon. We enjoyed a wonderful trip to Dijon over Christmas (mustard capitol of the world), and also had a wonderful time showing AunTy all around Lyon in January. Now we are primarily thinking "baby's almost here!!!" and trying to enjoy our last few weeks as "MK."

And now I have for you a lineup of belly shots! Enjoy!

Moments after we realized "we're pregnant!" 5 weeks
Right now, I cannot believe that was ever my waist!

8 weeks

12 weeks

This is the first meal I cooked after the all-day morning sickness ended (about 16 weeks). It was fabulous!! I was lazy in my picture taking at this stage, because I looked fluffy, not pregnant. :)

Me in Venice (in front of Titian's house)--19 weeks

23 weeks

Christmas Day--28 weeks

29 weeks

30 weeks

33 weeks

Last night...35 weeks!

Lil' g's due date is March 24th. I will be considered full term and could have the baby any time after March 3rd. I'll let you do the math!

Whew!!!

Fête des Lumières

We enjoyed a completely new experience this weekend. That is, we battled the crowds to see the Fête des Lumières, Lyon's annual light festival. The entire city is lit up artistically and creatively. We saw light used like paint, impressive and grand buildings turned into toy chests, gray stone facades turned bright red or blue or purple, a kaleidoscope of colors, and the subjects of ancient sculpture turned into dolls for a giant little boy. It was wonderful!

However, the few photos I took did not at all turn out well. You can kind of get the idea below...

So, I am going to link to Kari's blog yet again, because her photos turned out great. Plus, she did a great job describing the history of the festival, which brought it to life to me more, even after the fact.

We are going to be moving next Tuesday, so we're busy packing, setting up utilities, and attacking a very long list of things to do. Wish us luck! I am not sure what kind of internet connection we will have, but hopefully we'll be back online soon.

A bientot!

A thankful Thankgiving...

Last Sunday we enjoyed a wonderful Thankgiving celebration with Kari and Jonathan. They were the hosts, and they welcomed us into their warm and cheery apartment, complete with sparkling Christmas tree, holiday music, and Chex Mix! One of the things that was so heart-warming about this Thanksgiving is how simply American it was. Mark and I love France, there's no doubt, but we find our hearts yearn to be home too, especially at this time of year. So, to be welcomed with Chex Mix!!!...it couldn't have been better, and it tasted sooooooo good!

I think that because I was feeling a little homesick this year, I wanted to search out old family recipes that I remember from childhood. I asked my mother for the recipes, and after a bit of a search herself, she happily provided them. I chose recipes from both of my grandmothers.

Here is the menu:

Chex Mix
Deviled eggs
Spinokopitta (spinach filled pastry) for the vegetarians, and roasted Guinea Fowl (a bird native to Africa, and one we saw being hunted by the Hadza tribe when we were in Tanzania!)
Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy
Cornbread stuffing
Sweet potato casserole (amazing, delicious recipe here)
Green bean casserole
Frog eye salad (my Grandma Jensen's recipe)
Buttermilk dinner rolls (my Grandma Baxter's recipe)
Pumpkin pie (thanks to a can of Libby's, provided by Kari)

As usual, I forgot my camera, but thankfully, Kari is a wonderful photographer and documented the occasion very well on her blog. Click here to see her photos!

In the comments section of Kari's blog, people seemed a little disturbed by the idea of frog-eye salad. The salad is actually made from little spheres of pasta that resemble tapioca and also little frog's eyes when cooked! So, in order to dispell all worries, here's the recipe (I downsized it substantially, as the original recipe serves at least 25 people):

Frog-eye salad:

1/2 cup Acini de Pepe pasta (or Orzo would work too), uncooked
1 can pineapple chunks
1 can mandarin oranges
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups of whipped cream (or to taste)
1 cup shredded coconut (optional)
1 cup mini marshmallows (optional)
other desired fruit (marachino cherries, for example)

Cook the pasta in unsalted water until al dente. Drain and rinse well with cold water. Set aside.

While pasta is cooking, drain the canned fruit, saving the juice and setting the fruit aside. Pour the fruit juice into a small saucepan and mix with the egg, sugar, flour and salt. Whip with a whisk until well mixed. Heat saucepan with medium heat, and keep whisking until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat and let cool.

When pasta and sauce are cooled, combine in a large bowl with the pineapple and mandarin oranges. Stir well and then store overnight in the refrigerator (the pasta will absorb much of the sauce, taking up the flavor...mmmm....).

The next day, mix the pasta/sauce mixture with the whipped cream and other desired ingredients (coconut, marshmallows, etc.). Let chill for 2 hours or until ready to serve. Enjoy!


Mmmmm... And we enjoyed the fruits of our efforts for many days with the leftovers! Since I saved half of the dough for the dinner roll recipe, I think I'll make cinnamon rolls today!

And so, thank you Kari and Jonathan for being such wonderful hosts, thank you Mom for finding me the recipes, and thank you Grandma Jensen and Grandma Baxter for so many happy Thanksgiving memories...and recipes too!