cooler days

Cooler days? Who am I kidding? It's been like this since April. Our summer this year was in what was technically springtime and was just 2 weeks of weather that was in the 70s and one of those weeks we were in Thailand. But I'm excited it's fallish because it just feels different somehow but really it's just the same as summer except that I have an overwhelming impulse to collect pine cones. In honor of the beginning of fall I made a pumpkin pie this weekend and it was delish. I am also looking forward to start making some of our favorite soups like roasted butternut squash, carrot and corriander (aka cilantro), broccoli cheese and leek and potato. Yum. What are some other good soups? Any seasonal favorites that I should add to my soup list?

21 weeks

Here I am at 21 weeks (I'm 23 now, just a little behind with my posts), this was the day that we found out we are having a baby girl! We are both so excited!! Now comes the hard part, choosing a name.

It's really hard to choose a name for your child. It's probably so bad that I'd advise people not to get pregnant because of it. I'm serious. There's so many decisions. First of all you have to agree. Secondly, it can't be the name of anyone you know--and just think of how many people you know. I suppose it can be the name of someone you know if you're willing to take that risk. It would be great to use a family name but how to pick which side of the family? And what if all your favorites have already been taken by other people in your family? It can't be something that rhymes with anything bad or that could generate a mean nick name. You want to pick something semi-unique so that your kid isn't one of 18 children with the same name in her class, but not so unique that it's obvious you're trying too hard. Will the initials spell something weird? Will her initials spell something weird once she's married? Then of course you have to deal with those special people in your life who ask you not to use the name they have chosen for their child--you know who I mean, that friend who isn't even dating but has her kids names picked out? And of course you might want it to mean something. So there may be a really great name that you love but when you look up the meaning and it's something like "hypocrite" or "slothful one" you think maybe not. You might have a really sweet name picked out but when you tell people they react weirdly or not as you expected so you wonder if it's the name or if they just have gas. But this shouldn't really matter because it's your baby so it's should be a name that you love, but it's such a big responsibility that if there's something bad about the name that you haven't realized yet you really do want someone to tell you. Perhaps most importantly, it has to be a name you can imagine yourself shouting across the playground at the top of your lungs when your kid is pulling another kids hair or putting sand down her pants. Am I missing anything?

We have a couple of names picked out, a top two, but so far have not made a formal announcement of the one we have chosen, because we haven't chosen yet. It's still up in the air...

Blackburn

A couple of weeks ago we went to see Sam's football (aka soccer) team play up in Blackburn which is way up north. He has supported the Blackburn Rovers since he was a wee lad and hadn't been to see them in years and years. So it was very exciting. I was looking forward to the fights but it was pretty tame except for a big fat man and a little short man who got annoyed with each other in the row in front of us because Blackburn were losing and the big fat man said something rude and called them all mean names and the little short man said if he couldn't say something nice to not say anything at all so the big fat guy called the little short guy an even ruder name and the little short guy's girlfriend had to restrain him from punching the big fat guy and I was a little disappointed, because like I said, I went for the fights. But it was pretty fun! A lot of the fans stand up chanting and taunting the opposition during the whole game which was strangely familiar and heartwarming, my fellow Aggies might know what I mean by that.

Here are some little hood rats before the game. I got told off by Sam for laughing at their northern accents.

That's me eating a cheese and onion pie (see I told you I was a pie eater) and a giant pile of chips (aka french fries). YUM, I like football:)

The teams warming up.

Sadly Blackburn didn't win but it was still really fun just to be there in person and feel all the excitement and tension. It was a good day.