18 Months of Wedded Bliss

June 27th marked our one and a half year anniversary. Though I don't really expect we'll celebrate halves very frequently, we had good reason to this time. With only 2 and half weeks left till Eleanor's due date, I am willing to give nearly anything a shot to get her here soon.
So, my mom had a tradition of eating strawberry-rhubarb pie sometime before each of us was born. I don't know the specifics of her timing...maybe I should ask. At any rate, to celebrate 18 months of wedded bliss we made strawberry-rhubarb pie. Ben was fantastic and made the filling and I made the crust and voila! Very delicious pie, with vanilla ice cream of course!
Well, you can't see the pie, but it was really great. I've never made pie crust before so I was a little antsy about it. But it came out very nicely. And we sort of modified two different filling recipes to make our own. We wanted more strawberries than rhubarb and weren't willing to invest in the tapioca pudding powder it called for in the other recipe. I hate pudding, so why would I want it in my pie when flour is a perfectly acceptable alternative.
It was nice to celebrate some sort of wedding anniversary since for our first anniversary was I pretty nauseous and not up to doing much of anything since I was 10 weeks pregnant. Granted, I'm not up to do much now, but I sure enjoy eating a lot more!
And indeed, being married to Ben is quite blissful. We get along ridiculously well, and he is quite patient walking around with me (since I move as fast as a snail these days). He is a good, honest priesthood holder who makes me feel like a princess (he calls me his pregnant, pregnant princess).

Update: The Blessing Dress

Since I've had very few real responsibilities the last few weeks, I spent a lot of time working on the blessing dress. I could have (and probably should have) done the dishes more frequently, but if it is any consolation I did them directly after finishing the embroidery on the dress this morning. In the process of doing the embroidery I have watched at least two movies (Princess Bride, and Deep Impact), and 4 documentaries (China's Lost Girls, March of the Penguins, The Story of 1, and Guns, Germs, and Steel). I feel smarter now. Kind of. So here it is. The practically finished masterpiece (I won't put the snaps on the back until she is here, because I want to make sure it will go over her head. The thing is, I was really supposed to put in a zipper, but I loathe putting in zippers and I don't think it will be necessary). The dress in it's entirety. I didn't want a plain white one. What would be the point of spending so much time embroidering if no one could see it!? Plus, I just like colors--lots of them.

A closer view of some of the embroidery. I did pink, yellow, coral, and blue roses. Again, colors!

This is a detail of the lattice work smocking I did for the yoke. Really folks, it's ridiculously easy. A little time consuming, but nothing terribly difficult. If you can hold and pull a needle and match together dots, you can do it.

Here is a very close up view of the embroidery. I did satin stitch for the roses, except the centers, which are stem-stitches and colonial knots. And the leaves are fly stitches. I have know idea why I'm explaining all this, except perhaps to make myself feel accomplished. Well, I do. I cannot lie. I'm pretty proud. But mostly I'm excited to see exactly who it is that will wear it! 4 MORE WEEKS!

8 months and feeling it

So I just keep getting bigger. But it's supposed to work that way (not that it adds any sort of comfort to my discomfort). There are some things about pregnancy that no one ever mentions, and for good reason, otherwise no one would get pregnant. My least favorite right now is sleeping on my side. I can't do it for more than two hours because it hurts my hips SO BAD! And I've been trying to sleep propped up, but for the past two nights it just makes me have contraction after contraction, which isn't really what I want at 36 weeks (though sometimes I do!).
But on the other hand you have really wonderful things, like a husband who is willing to do just about anything for you. And the incredible sensation of feeling little hands, feet, and other assorted body parts moving around inside you. That's really cool. Almost makes the hip/sleep problem worth it!

The Unemployed

Well, Ben got a part-time summer job that is keeping him pretty busy, but I spend a lot of time nesting now that I'm not teaching anymore. I don't think our apartment has ever been cleaner in the strangest places. I've scrubbed and vacuumed out all of the radiators, for example.
But my latest project is by far my most favorite. I've been working on a blessing dress. I learned how to do some really cool lattice-work smocking when I was doing costumes for Hamlet at BYU, and I've been dying for the chance to put it to use ever since. It's just a simple pattern I purchased, and then I hand smocked the yoke part. It's a cotton dress since Eleanor will be blessed in August (which is stinking hot!). I've also been learning how to embroider because I want to embroider some colored flowers or something along the bottom. Anyway, I just wanted to show off a bit. And justify all my lazing about for the past two weeks.