i haven't been blogging recently, because our weeks have been pretty busy. two weekends ago, we hosted j's mom for a few days.
last weekend, our brother & sister in law stayed with us on friday night, along with their adorable newborn j. saturday, i volunteered for an ASTA event, and my wallet got stolen. big fun. i spent a lot of time saturday & then early this week making sure all the credit cards & other items were cancelled effectively. saturday afternoon, j took me shopping for maternity clothes for the first time. pretty depressing. i hate shopping. j is a much better shopper than i. i was lucky to have him around, esp considering i had no way of paying for the clothes (& new wallet). that evening, we were invited to an impromptu bbq at our friends' house, and had our last opportunity to see friend k pregnant. she gave birth tonight - congratulations, c & k!!!
on sunday, mother's day, j made french toast for me for breaky, and then we met up with family in canby for lunch at a mexican restaurant. i think i spent the rest of the day just watching tv... i was drained from the week/end. this week is almost over... today is my longest day of teaching. sat & sun we'll spend at smith rock, burning the remains of the piano sat night. it's supposed to be pretty warm there, so i might sneak off to a movie in the heat of the afternoon while everyone is climbing...
i'm starting to get nervous about $$... many of my students are taking the summer off, which i hadn't anticipated. combining that with the two or so months i'll have to take off once the baby arrives, i just hope we're ok.
i'm up with insomnia at the moment. we still have flannel sheets on our bed, as i became too busy today to change them to lighter ones, and it was a bit warm. tomorrow/today it's supposed to be in the mid 80's to 90's. perhaps i should try sleeping in the basement.
on monday evening, we met j's parents for dinner at mccormick & schmicks out in beaverton. they treated us to dinner in honor of j's 31st birthday, which was on thursday. it was fun going out for dinner on a weekday, and i was able to go thanks to operation "studio reduction 2008." thanks for the dinner, r & d! 
last weekend, we met up with friends at smith rock for a weekend of climbing and piano burning. the weather was really hot - close to 100, but we all followed through because the piano just had to be destroyed! i, personally, did no climbing - it's not allowed in my "condition." and it was too hot for me to make the short journey down to where people were climbing, so i stayed up near the parking lot in the shade. i got to do a bit of puppy sitting for cute d.m., who was battling puppy separation anxiety issues. j, j, & i got ice cream cones late in the afternoon. we all made it back to the campsite, where c started cooking us dinner. it was actually his birthday that weekend, but he chose to make us all dinner AND breakfast. dinner was yummy chicken/beef fajitas, with the chicken/beef leftovers + eggs for breaky. delicious, c! thanks so much for your culinary skills! in the 2nd pic, you can see poor r nursing her bee sting with an ice cube, and in the 1st & 3rd pic, you can see the piano wood "bench." that wood actually never got burned. we had way more than we could consume, so it's back sitting piled in our backyard. 
m's parties always have a hat making station. i was too tired to make one, but c & a made some. well, at first a actually just made glasses...
on friday, i had lunch with my friend c, who's on maternity leave from the symphony. she hasn't had her baby yet (to my knowledge), but her due date was on friday. first time babies almost never show up when they're supposed to! anyway, she looked really good for being about to pop any minute, and it was nice to talk "baby" & get caught up. 
the main game of the night was jenga - we each had to take turns pulling out a box without disrupting the rest of the pile. on each box was written a truth or a dare, and we had to do whatever was on it, and then place the box on the top of the pile without knocking it all over. whomever knocked the pile over had to "shotgun" a beer. if i had been the one, j would've had to do the honors for me. anyway, here's a pic of r reading his box, discovering that he had to add accessories, and then another pic of him all fancied up. 
here are pictures of/near the waterfall. there's a dam engineered that used to divert water to the town of cascade locks. j just happened to look up at the tree in the 3rd picture & notice that there were shoes in it. people have definitely claimed their territory. we tried eating our lunch by the waterfall, but it was really windy & wet there, so we decided to move back down to the bridge, where it was nice & sunny. 
normally the koi are in the area of the first picture, by the waterfall, but instead they were all congregated in the pond near the entrance. i wonder if they get moved, or if they can make their way there by themselves...
last weekend, we went to the japanese garden to attend an ikebana show and tea ceremony. these were our favorites- the first was mine, and the 2nd was j's. after the ceremony, we took a quick wet tour of the garden before heading to henry's to hang out with a friend, v, who is leaving portland. (service was really slow! not good for a starving pregnant woman...)
