Thksgvg

["Your baby is now 5/8 of an inch long, about the size of a kidney bean. New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. His arms have lengthened, too, and his hands are now flexed at the wrist and meet over his heart. His knee joints have formed, and his feet may be long enough to meet in front of his body. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways."]

This is the update, people. The baby's "tail is just about gone". We are very happy about this in our household, and it seems to be the only news to speak of. The weather has gone completely awry and walking into the mall today the cold wind rendered me unable to breathe for 1.5 seconds. Not the winter that I know and love, this is the time of year when things get ugly...

For Thanksgiving, we're having my sister and family over for dinner and some friends. Dinner and pie, tomorrow should be a GOOOOOD day.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

7 weeks pregnant.

Due July 1.

And it's official: I cried during a Dodge Caravan commercial.

Music and the Soul

Do me a favor. Listen to my song on the top of the list over on the left. Let it be your blanket for a minute. Debussy's, "Au Claire De La Lune", has been in my life for a long time. I wanted to learn it really well in 9th grade. My piano teacher started me on the sheet music and I just never finished learning it. The first page: Beautiful. Second page: a train crashing into several parked cars. Throughout High School, I [had] to play the organ for a couple of wards and accompany the school vocal jazz ensemble (which they gave away my vocal solos so I could play the STUPID piano parts, which I promise I'm not still angry about), so I still did not have time to sit down and learn this beautiful piece.

I still have this intense love affair with La Lune, it sings to me, makes my bones soft, and can bring tears to my eyes any time of the day. Sometimes I sneak 1 minute 30 so I can just play the first page and pretend that's all there is.

I think the reason we have these intense feelings for certain pieces of music are because they remind us of our wonderful past. Or wonderful parts of our regular past:) I remember being 7 years old, and of course having nothing to do in a family of a thousand children, we improvised. It was a rainy day in the summer, and I remember as if it was in slow motion, jumping on an exercise trampoline with my sisters in the living room to The William Tell Overture blaring on the tape player. And playing my cello for the school orchestra at the age of 13, looking up into the flourescent gym lights and thinking I could someday play on a stage in Carnegie Hall. I used to listen the beautiful melody float into the air as my older sister Rachel played the Bach Double on the violin and in that moment, I thought she was some kind of goddess.

Ah, the more music in our lives, the better. Without it, where would we be???

Time for Family Pictures

This is us cracking up, but there are some better ones on http://www.smyliephoto.blogspot.com/

It's been awhile since I made a list, so...

Things I look forward to:

1. The time of day when it's late enough to change into pajamas.

2. Wrestling with Ruby (she seriously hurts).

3. That look that Jake gives me when he walks in the door from work, "Hi, the mother of my children, you look like you've worked hard today and I appreciate it", and the look that I give him, "My poor baby husband who works so hard into the evening and spends his leftover energy on us".

4. Using a clean bathroom.

5. Cooking with fresh ingredients in a clean kitchen.

6. Checking my email.

7. Squeezing my daughters' bums.

8. Laying down in my bed, or any other surface that allows me to be horizontal.

9. Downloading photos onto my computer after a long photo shoot.

10. Listening to my girls talk to eachother when they don't think I'm listening.