One benefit to being huge

Walking in the supermarket, I just walk straight, and Kevin follows with the basket in my wake. It's amazing that even while everyone's mobbing the grocery store in preparation for the 4th of July, we still find a clear path (or at least a path that clears) everywhere we go!

Productive

Yesterday I got a ton done. I did laundry, ran errands (library, hardware store, groceries), and baked bread (in the bread maker). I practiced the piano, and I even updated my blog with that lovely music playlist you see to the right. And I put it on top so you can turn it off without having to search my entire blog to find the stupid button.
I did a bunch of cooking: I boiled eggs for snacks, I baked pumpkin muffins at 4 in the afternoon (remind me sometime how that's the hottest time of the day. I seem to forget), and later went swimming with Kevin. Which is not cooking, but it was just part of that sentence.
Man! I got so much done!
Contrast today: I went to the doctor. Yup, still pregnant. I went to our ward's playgroup, even though I don't have kids. I noticed I wasn't the only one who didn't have playground-aged kids, but sometimes when you're a stay-at-home mom (especially one who doesn't have kids yet) you just want to go be social.
I came home and ate lunch, put together our baby swing (thank you Cherisse and Ryan, for bringing it by last night on your way to Washington at 1 AM!).
Then I took a nap for the rest of the afternoon.
Kevin came home from work, we ate dinner, and now he is taking a nap. Maybe this has something to do with our fly-by-night guests that stopped by in the wee hours and wouldn't stay even though we requested that they do so.
It's okay, though. They brought us a baby swing and a highchair (the exact kind we wanted and registered for... mostly because we liked theirs).
So if any of you are planning to drive through Boise any time soon, please bring gifts. We may even feed you pumpkin muffins at 2 AM. :)

Simply showing off

My favorite surprise since I've moved here to Boise is that we got a knock on our door with a special delivery. Woo hoo! My cousin, Sylvia, who lives in Boston, had sent us a changing pad to transform yonder dresser into oh-so-convenient changing table. I set it up and got it screwed into place, and then to try it out, I decided to buckle one of my cats into it. I grabbed Toby and strapped him onto the changing table.
He didn't seem to notice.
He stayed there the rest of the afternoon, and now that's one of his favorite spots to hang out-- although he doesn't buckle himself in for some reason.

Toby is really a sleek, adorable cat. It's just that in pictures, all you can see is the angry green eyes glowing out from a black hole. I promise he's not that mean in real life.

And this corner of our house (this dresser with the blank walls and empty space all around it) is the baby's nursery. We still have some work to do, I guess.

I finished this baby quilt a couple days ago. Here's my horrible confession: I made it for a friend who is also having a baby girl shortly after I am. However, once I finished it, I decided to keep it for myself. Mwoo ha ha ha ha! I'm so evil and selfish.

But it's so cute!
Most of it is made of scraps from other projects I've made.

And then if you look at this bottom picture, you can see the way-cute flowers I quilted into the plain section. See, that's why I decided to keep it. I've never made anything cute through actually quilting designs into the fabric, and since I really liked how it turned out, it's mine.

And then today we have company coming to visit us. I should probably get dressed and clean up the house a bit. But that hasn't happened yet. What HAS happened is that Howie kicked over a glass that shattered all over and behind the kitchen table. So I got that all pulled apart and swept up. I decided to vacuum off the dining room chairs, but the vacuum wasn't working so well. So I pulled THAT apart. After cleaning out a couple parts, it still wasn't working so well, so I decided to rinse out the filter.
Boy, was that dumb.
I think I'll just leave the house how it is (dining room scattered throughout the house, vacuum parts scattered throughout living room) and just pretend not to notice when they come.

My apartment

I still haven't taken any pictures, but I'm over it already. Maybe someday I will. Actually, we're having people over tomorrow, so I may clean up the house all the way. If that's the case, I might take some pictures-- as much for your benefit as for the fact that it will never happen again.
So we moved into an apartment in Boise. Three weeks ago, but whatever. From our window, we can see the top of the Boise State Stadium, which, for all you football fans out there, is where the Smurf Turf is. I think there's something going on there right now, because I can kind of hear the announcer every once in a while. I can also hear the yappy little dog downstairs named Isabelle. I think she's a Yorkie, and she's super tiny and cute. But she likes to yap and run out whenever anyone walks by (and of course she lives on the corner apartment right on everyone's way to the parking lot). Then once she's run out, her owners yell at her to get back inside. Um, she's a yappy dog-- that's what she does.
A lot of people here smoke. I guess that's because the apartments are rather cheap (less than $650 a month, and that includes all utilities), and in my experience, poor people smoke more. That's probably both an effect and a cause of their poorness, since cigarettes are so expensive. One thing that's kind of sad, though, is how many people are home during the day. There are a lot of people out of work who I know want to be working.
Our apartment itself is pretty straightforward. There's a large living room, which we've kind of divided into an office area and a sitting area. Then there's a dining area and a tiny kitchen. I was really sad to leave my glorious, spacious kitchen in our last house, and I had to part with several of my awesome kitchen things (that I never used but whatever). I think, though, that I kind of like the closet-style kitchen. When I'm cooking, I hardly have to move anywhere, and I can reach everything! I just reach and grab, and there it is.
Then there's one bedroom. I know it's kind of strange to downsize into a smaller apartment right when we're upgrading our family, but it will do for a year. One end of the bedroom we are able to use for Penny. There's a large closet, 2/3 of which is her stuff already. And then there's a dresser/changing table right by the closet, and there will be a crib at the end of our bed. I also have an old rocking chair that's been in our family forever. I re-covered the seat with some fabric that matches our living room chairs. Unfortunately, there's no room in the living room for it, so it doesn't really match anything right now. Oh well. Again, it's just for a year.
Like any place, this new apartment has some quirks. We have central air-conditioning, meaning there's one giant AC in the center of the complex, and it cools the entire place. Unfortunately, I think that's also the case for the hot water heater. You have to turn the water on for several minutes before it begins to get tepid, luke-warm, and then finally warm. By the time I'm finished soaping and scrubbing, the water is finally comfortable, and it's really hard to want to get out.
This place has a dishwasher, which is awesome. But it's one of those dishwashers that doesn't work so well, which is not awesome. We finally figured out (see above paragraph) that you have to prime the hot water before running the dishwasher if you want it to wash the grease off. And then it likes to leave chunks of gunk on our dishes, which is not my favorite. We're still working on it, and soon we'll get it figured out.
Also, our refrigerator sounds like it has squirrels in it. It doesn't, but it makes some weird chattering noises. Ahh, the joys of a new house.

Community feel

So far I really love Boise. There is so much to do!
This doesn't mean that I didn't get bored to tears yesterday from sitting at home and doing nothing. Just because there's a lot going on doesn't mean it all happens every day. And it turns out that Tuesday was a very boring day for this childless stay-at-home mom.
And some of this "stuff to do" requires a bit more energy than I can summon at 8 months pregnant.
But going back to the fun stuff:
On Saturday, some friends we met (actually the guy Kevin's taking over for as law clerk and his wife and daughter) went to the Farmer's Market. It kind of reminds me of the market you see in You've Got Mail where they stop and buy flowers. There are all these stalls set up, and you just stroll along tasting free samples and (theoretically) buying fresh farm-y things. We actually did buy some cherries, and there are a few more things we may go back for once we have money. At the end of the street of famer stalls, there is a courtyard with a fountain in the middle. The courtyard has stalls of artists selling their artwork (craft-fair style), and the fountain is one of those that you can run through and play in. So that's what the kiddos are doing.
Then tonight was the Live After Five concert in that same courtyard. They have a band come play, and then the kiddos play in the fountain while the whole community mingles or sits and watches. It reminded me of a Gordon's concert, except on a much larger scale. The band tonight was Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band, which is a Utah-based band that I never heard until I moved to Idaho. Go figure. They're super fun, though. Then we stood in the oppressive heat and watched all the crazy people dancing. That was the best part. Kevin wanted to go dance too, but I was worn out from just standing around so long. Plus, big pregnant lady dancing would fall in the category of "crazy weirdos we saw dancing at the concert" for many people.
My favorite crazy people were the old Asian lady who was dancing very much like the old Chinese ladies do in the park. And there was a man in plaid shorts and a gardening hat with lots of big ol' tattoos (so many people have tattoos here!). Then there was the man in the white dress and sunhat with fringe on his skirt, leg warmers, and bare feet. He was the craziest, I think, and he was fun to watch until his man-sweat drenched the entire front and back of his dress. Then I got to watch the hula-hoop ladies. They were really really into their hula hoops. Very expressive along with the music. And they required a lot of space.
After the concert (we left at intermission, as we hadn't brought chairs or water) I was incredibly warm, so I went swimming. It's nice to have a pool when you're a big pregnant lady and it finally begins to feel like summer.