Dale says I should put in here that he is wild about me. Duly done.
I didn't make it for a walk on Thursday or Friday (although I did get over 10,000 steps on Wednesday--yippee!), so today I was determined to get out. In spite of the clouds, rain, and cold . . . it was really quite enjoyable. I had my wonderful iPod (Xmas present from the Churchetts) on listening to old Genesis albums that I haven't heard in years, and I went all over the place. By the time I got home I was over 10,000 steps; that was an hour and a half later. My feet feel like they're about to drop off now, and I have a party to go to now for a bookgroup person who's moved to Houston. Hopefully I can sit down somewhere.
This is working out great--I showered while Dale gave Jonathan and Kayleigh their dinners, and now he's changing her dirty nappie while I type this. She's quite a wiggleworm on the changing table now that she's so strong; she can turn herself over from back to front in the blink of an eye.
Kayleigh went for her nine-month checkup Thursday morning. As at all her previous appointments, the doctor pronounced her a perfect baby. I like her doctor's visits! She's settling into the 70-75th percentile range for everything (weight, length, and head circumference) and weighs about 18.5 pounds. The doc was amazed at her sociability and independence; he said most babies cry all the way through the 9-month well-child checkup b/c they're in the throes of stranger anxiety, and she didn't fuss at him at all. By the end of the appointment she'd even crawled over to his chair. She's a good girl!
Busy day yesterday--had to get down in south Austin for Jonathan to run the final mile of the marathon he started last September. We all ran together (me holding the baby in the sling and with a backpack on my back--Kayleigh finally gave up the ghost and went to sleep halfway through), and Jonathan got quite a nice medal at the finish line. Even though it was very gray and misty, that was better than the incredible heat at the kickoff event. Afterwards we went to the Magnolia Cafe on south Congress for food. By the time we got home it was about 3:30 p.m.; hard to believe the day had gone by so fast. At least Dale and I were so stuffed from lunch that we didn't want anything for dinner (but I must confess that about 9 p.m. we both suddenly realized we wanted the leftover curry from the night before and gobbled it down). I also managed to get us lost on the way there by misreading the map in my hurry, but Dale got us a ticket by parking on the sidewalk of the frontage road by the stadium. So glad it wasn't me!
Today we are meeting some friends at Central Market at noon for a slightly damp soccer/football game and some food. We were going to go to Zilker Park, but with all this moisture we thought somewhere with cover might be better. Also maybe I can get some walking in; I used some of my birthday present from Lee et al. to get a nice pedometer, and I'm going to try to do this 10,000 steps thing I keep reading about. (Desperation creeps in--must get moving, somehow!) Yesterday I did just over 4000. I'm going to track it for a few days to see what my normal activity is.
I had a lovely day on Friday when I turned 35--thanks to all who sent happy wishes, lovely cards, marvelous presents. The whole day felt quite special, and as I said to Dale in the evening, it's quite nice to feel like I'm in a good place in my life on my birthday.
One of my pressies was a 7-quart slow cooker from Mom and Dad. I had not previously known they came this large, and I think this is the only brand that makes one so huge (as a matter of fact, they don't even advertise it on their own web site--I had to link to the place Mom bought it from). I borrowed Jennifer's new Slow Cooker cookbook and made the Sunday Ham with Lemon and Ginger. Two small things, though--Dale did the shopping yesterday as I was a little overwhelmed with chores, and it ended up that it would have been easier if I'd gone as I was then stuck with the kiddoes at dinnertime, always a little crazy, and also it took him 6-7 phone calls to find out where things were, exactly what I wanted, etc. So this morning I looked at the ham he bought--I'd requested a 3-lb. one--to make sure all the other ingredients would be the right proportions, and it was an 8.91-lb ham! For the two of us! Then I nearly fainted when I saw that it had cost $45. I think next time I'll do the shopping no matter how tired I am :-). But the ham came out quite nice, and it fit perfectly in my gargantuan slow cooker . . . wouldn't have fit in a 6-quart.
Tomorrow I'm going to make a chicken dish in it (chicken in a wine sauce with carrots). Hopefully it too will be good, because it's going to make lots of leftovers! Which is, of course, the point.