still here, just busy!

hey friends!  i haven’t posted in a couple weeks for various reasons (most of which you’ll see here later in the post), but i’m here now and ready to write!

so on to updating:

x. stinker alert!  pictures of ransom coming up!  just look at that stinker:

x. we went to durham last weekend for the onething regional at kings park international church (which is a way cool church, for what it’s worth) and got to see some old friends (and make some new ones!) from KC.  it was a fun and spiritually refreshing time for us, though we didn’t get to make vacation of the trip as much as we wanted to because darin wound up volunteering for the on-site bookstore and that meant i had full-time baby care on my hands.  i tried to help out with the conference at first in a number of ways, but ransom decided he didn’t much care for mom doing anything but dealing with his growth-spurty-whining self (growth spurts are the worst…).  but we still had a blast.

x. we did, however, manage to visit the famous barbecue restaurant The Pit in raleigh and it was everything it was supposed to be–delicious pit barbecue with savory sauces and old-fashioned sides.  darin got pulled pork and brisket with sweet potato fries and i got barbecue tofu and veggies (because we ate so poorly the whole trip so far and my body wa screaming “give me something good to eat!”) and everything was so flipping tasty!  we also got a scoop of homemade cinnamon ice cream with a maple-bacon gingersnap cookie for dessert; i tell you, i never thought bacon would be good in a cookie, but this one sure was tops! we definitely recommend!

x. in ransom news, there’s not a whole lot to tell–he’s just big and getting bigger.  he’s scooting around and we sit him up a lot, and sometimes he’ll stay sitting up for a while, but eventually he kind of forgets to hold himself up and falls over.  it’s kind of cute.  and he will stand up tall for decent spurts of time if we support him under the arms when he gets shaky.  this kid is so strong… it blows my mind.

x. he’s also been getting random foods to munch on when they’re available.  he doesn’t really eat them, but he’s getting closer to doing so.  he will now gnaw on apple slices and we’ve been working on steamed veggies, but those seem to be more satisfying his curiosity than his palate for now, which is fine by me.  we’re really enjoying baby-led weaning (see a great article here), not rushing ransom at all into solids and encouraging him to explore foods as they should be enjoyed.  he seems to like it, too!  there was terrible lighting and all i had was my camera phone, but see him here at buca di beppo with an apple from aunt b’s salad:

he’s so cute… we had him out at IKEA the day prior and got him to fiddle with steamed veggies for a while, much to all of our delight.  he was holding a broccoli floret like a flower bouquet for while, just studying it.  that part was pretty much my favorite…  broccoli is a fun food.

x. also to be ransomly noted: the NoJo Secure-Me is just about the most brilliant thing they’ve come up with for babies.  i love it.  i works in shopping carts, high chairs, regular chairs, whatever and it’s just so darn cute (or is that my kid who’s so cute?).  check it out:

x. in other news, i just finished reading michael pollan’s In Defense of Food and man, it was worth the two days overdue fees i racked up from the library to finish it.  i can’t even tell you how valuable pollan’s words are to this country and generation.  we’ve forgotten how to eat, and it’s making us all (our livestock and produce included) sick and dead.  i know personally, i am going to buck up and learn to eat a salad in the next couple of weeks.  i hate salad.  something about eating grass always bothered me, and no matter what i added to it, that bowl of leaves still didn’t ever appeal to my tastes (and on that note, most of us add so many things that it kind of brings the nutrition of said-salad back to nil if not beyond-in-the-bad…).  i can do better.  i was a vegetarian for years in college and after.  i like plants.  i just need to learn to eat the leaves…

x. in related news, find the book and read it.  your american life pretty much depends on it.

x. hey, christmas is almost here–get excited!  and take a break every once in a while from thinking about buying gifts.  just enjoy the season of preparing for Jesus’ birthday.  it’s actually a lovely time of the year if you let it be.  yes.  i love christmas…  and christmas music!  woohoo!  i turned some christmas music on last month when i was having a bad day simply because christmas music (of the good kind, not your radio station variety.  no saint nick and frosty songs for me!) elevates my happies.  don’t know why, it just does.  and i’m perfectly fine with it.  selah.

x. i made bread and granola bars and bulk black beans yesterday.  it felt so good to be in the kitchen all that time.  i think i’d really like to be one of those cook-once-a-month moms and just spend a day or two doing nothing but cooking and freezing meals.  they save so much money doing that…  we need a deep freeze.  we really do.

x.  speaking of food and related things, i haven’t reported my weigh-in for two weeks.  i apologize for that.  i’ve actually done it personally and kept up in my head, but neither friday or the days following of the last two weeks were all that conducive to posting, so i just haven’t.  but i can tell you this: i’m still losing!  here are stats, for old time’s sakes (i’ll pickup again next friday with proper weekly weigh-ins):

Weight: 195 lbs.
Waist: 34″
Hips: 45″
Progress: 3 more lbs. lost (8 total since reporting!)
Pounds to Ideal Weight: 39 to go!

i didn’t get to work out the past two weeks as much as i would like because i was suffering from being half sick on top of having a really late visit from my headachy crampy friend aunt flo (which was also a bit of a bummer…  and if all that was TMI, well, too bad), but i’m getting back on my game now and feeling much better, so hopefully things will continue to progress.

x. pending i apply wisdom with this bit of glory: i found a buca di beppo coupon for $10 off $20 this past week.  we have a buca less than a mile from the house and we simply love to go.  we had one in KC but we only went once and though we had a great time, we just never went again.  it has now become a family favorite (my extended family included).  love the buca.

x. our friends shane and emily had their baby a couple of days ago–a little girl named stella–and we’re so thrilled for them!  they’re going to make great parents!  congrats, friends!  can’t wait to meet your little star!

okay, so my child is having a moment.  i better go…  love to you all and thanks for dropping by!