I trudged on and on through the snowy pages. Friends, and a recent radio piece, all chimed in: “You just have to get through the first hundred pages or so!” I tried.

With the main characters together in a lovely little house in chilly Sweden, enjoying wine, a meat and potato (with cream sauce!) dinner and finally cuddling up to keep warm, I decided to call it a night.

Tonight I made a lovely potato-crusted cod, scalloped potato and veggie supper. With a lovely side of Banff ave. Brewing Company IPA. And rung in the New Year with a new book – Margaret Atwood’s The Year of the Flood.  For dessert? Dark chocolate from Ikea. Ah, how things come together.

Oh, small mountain towns. They are lovely, but their cinemas are tiny. Please, dear Lux, part your tired, velvety curtains for this movie.

Oh, mamasita, the cookies.

Maybe the best cookies I’ve ever made – and they didn’t even have chocolate in them. They were nothing fancy, just good ‘ol oatmeal raisin, but so soft and crispy and gooey. I halved the recipe, so maybe I put in too much butter… I must’ve done something wrong for them to turn out so tasty. Really though. The recipe made about a dozen cookies, and a day later there are only two left.  I may distract Chris and sneak into the bathroom and eat them later.

So, as the afternoon wore on, a little cuppa tea, snacks and short stories from Awkward Press filled the gap while waiting for Mad Men to start. My new friend Heather (don’t you love meeting internet friends? I do!) has a great short story in this issue about pirates overtaking an office. It was a great story, the type that makes you wish you could be a better writer. And also work in an office with more surly, rum-toting coworkers.

We are now at the seven month mark, and life is starting to fall into a nice little routine. I get a bit of time to myself once Louis goes to bed at 9 p.m.  Chris also treated me to a new Kindle as a wedding anniversary gift, so I can now read books one handed while pinned under a baby. Woo!

Eventually I’ll start doing something productive; however, tonight I’m eating cookies and watching Mad Men.

Grab a chocolatine, a cuppa tea and start your engines!

I’ve purchased a few things off Etsy to spruce up ‘lil Jean Beliveau’s room (pictures to come. Someone soaked her camera this week. It is now resting calmly in a bowl of rice.)

The theme right now is “Rocky Mountains outside my window”. I was hoping to be able to point out a picture of an elk, then be like “hey, what’s that outside?!”

These are the new prints I just purchased (8×10). The goat is eating his tie! The turtle is wearing a fez! Oh man, they kill me. Sometimes I wonder how we lived without Etsy…

I figured it was time to get reading up on  the ‘ol baby business as the blank look I give most people when they ask me questions is bound to lose it’s amusement soon. This week was the four month mark, which seemed like a good time to get some healthy food and snack ideas. The first three months were spent focused on peanut butter toast and apples – not that bad, I guess, but certainly lacking.

Better Food for Pregnancy? oh mama so many good recipes. Tasty recipes like vanilla custard, lemony biscotti, cinnamon baked pears. I like my healthy foods to be camouflaged – am I the only one? And who knew wheat germ is full of folic acid? Not me. I bought a huge bag dirt cheap to throw into cereals. Bonzai!

So, while lovely, there were ups and downs along the way.  Puking out the car window as we drove away from a campsite one morning may top the list. (Life checklist – complete! ) Making Chris pull the car over all day so I could get snacks and drinks and pastries, etc. Actually, that’s pretty normal, but this time it would be imperative that we stop. Now that I look back, most of the trip was spent looking for places to get drinks and snacks. I’m awfully lucky Chris is so patient.  And what were some lessons learned?

* morning sickness during a record heatwave? Not so fun.

* morning sickness and heat stroke on a ferry ride to Vancouver Island? Not recommended.

Oh well. But really, the trip was fantastic. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium, swam in lakes on the side of the highway, visited with Frank, saw helicopters putting out forest fires. And tried the new Very Cherry Dr. Pepper slurpee. Maybe one of the highlights.

More pics on Flickr soon, te prometo.

Oh well. Will save it for another day.

In more exciting news, today is the three month mark for the new baby some of you, again, may also know about. He’s on the way! Chris and I also found out that we are going to be able to move into a new apartment (just downstairs from where we are now. with the same view. phew!) on September 1st. It’s a two bedroom apartment – which means no baby in our bedroom. wooooooo! I can’t wait. Our housing manager is also going to give us her baby swing and a box of baby clothes. Things are coming up Milhouse.

I also just got back from a whirlwind 10 day car trip to Vancouver Island.  With over 200 pictures taken I’ve got me some work to do. For now, please enjoy these!

xo Sarah

xo Sarah