That's my boy... or girl!

Brittney and I went to the Dr. today to get her ultrasound.  The baby was healthy and moving around like crazy but stayed somewhat still for this profile picture.  Doesn't he/she have a cute little button nose?  

The baby at one point gave us a thumbs up, and then decided to wave at us as seen below.  Everything is looking good, based on the size of the baby Brittney would be about 22 weeks along, moving up the due date by a couple of days to July 1st.  

Addicted.

So I don't know what it is, but I have been crazy for apples this last month.  It used to be that I'd buy 4 of them at the store and then 2 would end up going mealy, so we'd use them in Nate's mom's Apple Dutch Babies recipe.  (For fun I'll share it below.  It's basically a German pancake with cinnamon apples and it is amazing.  Hands down my favorite breakfast recipe.)  But lately no matter how many we buy I eat them within a few days.  Yum, they are so good refridgerated.  Just ate my last one this morning...   Not sure if it's just a pregnancy craving or what, but it does feels good to support my home state.

Rita's Apple Dutch Babies

6 Tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

2 large apples (peeled and then thinly sliced)

4 eggs

1 cup flour 

1 cup milk

Heat oven to 425 degrees.

In a frying pan melt butter.  Stir in cinnamon and sugar.  Add apple slices and cook until apples are translucent, about 5 minutes.  Grease 9x9 inch pan (or whatever you have that is comparable... I use a 7x11 inch pan) and add cooked apples.  

In a blender or food processor, whirl eggs and flour until smooth.  Blend in milk slowly.  Pour batter over apples in pan.  Bake uncovered, until pancake is puffy and golden, about 15-18 minutes.  Cut into wedges and sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Makes about 6 servings (but Nate and I usually eat it all.)  

I promise you will not be disappointed.

Catching up.

So Nate and I are officially all moved to Salem.  It has been a crazy last few weeks and I'm finally starting to feel settled.  (Nate and I had considered looking to buy in the next few months, but I assured him that pregnant Brittney does not want to move again... so maybe 2011 we'll start the search.)  Still a few more pictures to hang and a couple of boxes to unpack, but we could officially live in the space now without having to step over things.

We just got our new washer and dryer this weekend.  Wahoo!  I am so happy to no longer have to save up quarters and lug around bags of dirty clothes to the laundry mat.  We also splurged and bought ourselves a really nice new mattress... I need all the help I can get nowadays to get a good night's sleep and the old mattress just wasn't working for us anymore.  Sometimes I felt like I'd been slugged in the shoulder a dozen times... and more often than not I would wake up feeling just as tired as when I went to sleep the night before.

Our apartment is certainly an upgrade from the last... much larger, but with less storage space, so it's been a struggle to find a place for everything.  I have definitely had to get creative.  We also now have two bathrooms.  I went out our third day here to pick up some shower curtains and came across these:

And since I didn't have any cute pictures to match, I went ahead and painted these for the walls:

This weekend Nate and I had three days to spend together (which was exactly what I needed... I've been so lonely here.)  We had such a nice and relaxing weekend together.  And he helped me figure out what photos/art we wanted to hang where.  He talked me into this:

I was a little nervous to hang this series, because it's kind of depressing, but once we got it all hung on the wall, I was so glad that Nate suggested it.  I've never really hung any of my work front and center in our house... it's usually hidden in the spare bedroom.  And I really like it.

Overall, Salem has definitely been an adjustment.  I'm certainly not used to this much traffic (and man, the people here are horrible drivers-- I almost t-boned a guy the other day when he decided to run a red light) and it is awfully gloomy here sometimes, but I think I'm beginning to adjust to it.  It doesn't quite feel like home yet.  Every once in awhile I slip and say "home" when I'm talking about La Grande (which I miss horribly).  And I certainly miss lunches with Nate and knowing that I'll see him at 5:05, which has now become 5:50, but I think with time I'll adjust.  I always do.

So over the next few weeks I hope to get all my photography websites/business cards, etc. updated and get the ball rolling there so I don't die of boredom and then, of course, there is July when this little kiddo will grace us with his/her presence.  I'm definitely looking forward to that.  I'm half way there!  Wahoo!