jam

This June I went strawberry picking with my sister and nieces and nephews. There is a farm within Prague not too far away. We went on the last day for picking, and the berries were small and many were going bad. I brought home a whole bunch of them, and Garrett helped me lop off their stems and we froze them for smoothies. But a kilo of them I saved to make strawberry jam. I was very excited about this effort, as I've never done it before.

Unfortunately, it was not successful. My sister said that last year their jam was too runny -- more like a sauce. Being careful to avoid this, I overcooked the strawberries. It turned out a bit more like a jar of a gummy bear. We attempted to eat it for a while, finding it was spreadable when heated in the microwave. But, it just didn't taste that great, and I just tossed it. Maybe next year will be better.

photo shoot

A few weeks ago a fellow teacher at our school offered to take photos of us, as she is practicing to be the photographer at a wedding this summer. I thought it would be fun to have some photos of our pre-family before she left town.

They are a bit more artsy than I am used to, but I am liking them. Here are two.

The first is with Prague Castle behind us. The second is in the castle moat, the "deer moat" which neither of us had ever been it. It's very pretty.

You can see more here.

Jack

On June 19, 2011, my grandpa died, at the age of 93. Several people have scanned and uploaded some precious old family photos that I'm enjoying. Above is my grandpa & my dad, probably about 1946. I've never seen this photo before. I think it's spectacular.

This is early spring, 1982. I'm on the way. It looks like NJ, but I can't tell quite where we are. A pretty cute family photo, with my Grandpa in the back center.

On July 1st, I celebrated Anna's 8+1/2 birthday with her. We spent the afternoon together.

Part of our time was spent stamping and card making. Then we went for ice cream at Cream & Dream. It was a fun afternoon, but I ended it exhausted; partly because we had to spend the morning going to & from the foreign police on a long bus ride that nearly made me sick, and partly because I guess I'm entering the third-trimester tiredness.

entering the third trimester

This is Week 28, marking the start of the third trimester. In less than 10 weeks, our little girl would be considered "on time," but I'm trying to mentally prepare for more like 12-13 more weeks.

So far, my pregnancy has been "by the book" and just about everything that most women experience, I've been experiencing. Weird dreams. Leg cramps. Restless leg syndrome, mildly. Don't like picking things off the floor. Don't like standing up from the floor. And I believe I have also entered the less-energy phase again. I don't feel that good in the evenings, when I'm full from dinner and all my organs seem to be squashed.

But I love feeling her move around, and my favorite is getting to feel a part of her when I poke on my belly. I'm not so sure I can distinguish between head and rear, but still it's thrilling to be feeling something that is her. Sometimes a leg or arm goes slipping by my hand, or I can watch it slide with a bump across my belly. Garrett says it feels slimy. Weird, but it kind of does.

In about a week we'll have our last ultrasound, and hopefully there will be confirmation that she is, in fact, a she. Or I shall have some un-doing to do in my mental preparation.

quilt

This week my friend Laura came to visit us in Prague. She brought a beautiful quilt she made for our baby. It's got triangles and squares of red and blue, and the back is a beautiful print with birds.

Here we are together, sitting on it on our park with Prague in the background. The baby bump is growing.