New Jersey Throws Us Another Curveball

You may remember that we were welcomed to New Jersey by Hurricane Irene. That was really something. Our next weather adventure has been dropped in our laps. Snow in October. That's right... snow. We have been displaced from our home by power outage resulting from a crazy snowstorm that blew through Saturday and Sunday morning. We kept hearing crack and thud after crack and thud... trees that still had their leaves that were now cracking under the burden of heavy, wet snow. Our neighborhood seriously looks like the apocalypse was just ushered in!! Gigantic tree branches and power lines down everywhere!! We have had slumber parties the last 2 nights with gracious friends from church who didn't lose power. We returned to our house briefly yesterday afternoon and the thermostat was at 54. Chilly! We're hoping for our power to be restored asap but for now we're living out of our minivan (that was a scary statement) and staying with friends!! Pics to come when we dig our camera out!!

The Announcement Long in Coming... Wren Autumn Desch

She made it!! Wren Autumn made her appearance Sunday morning at 5 AM and what a gift she is. Being 16 days overdue she had plenty of time to pork up to a whopping 9 pounds and 22 inches long! We are grateful beyond what words can say and rejoice with great joy over this newest addition to our family. The boys are completely smitten with their little sister and now we're all just trying to make the adjustment to a new family member. (I have lots more to say but right now Wren and Justice are both asleep and Howie is at preschool, so I have "youshouldbesleepingrightnow" alarms going off in my head over and over!!) Here she is!

Still No Baby

We're still waiting. One week overdue and counting! I'm drinking all of the raspberry leaf tea I can stomach, hoping to schedule an acupuncture appointment, and walking here and there. Thankfully my sense of humor is still mostly intact, although if you could ask Howie and Justice if this were true they might tell you otherwise. This morning Justice was very upset with me that I wouldn't pour him his millionth cup of chocolate milk and it drove me to tears. What that mostly says to me is we need this baby to be born! (And Justice has a bad temper.) We'll keep you posted!

Saturday Morning in NYC

My mom, sister Marnie, brother-in-law Chris, and precious nephew Pax rolled into town Thursday night in anticipation of Baby Girl's arrival (due date yesterday, nothing to report yet), and we're sooo happy to have them here! We're hoping that our baby will appear soon but until then we're just having fun. This morning we hopped on the bus at the end of our street that took us into NYC. We joined the human throng in Times Square and hiked up to Central Park. We had a great time!! The boys would have loved just riding on the bus and coming back home. Howie's favorite part was definitely the bus but he did ask me on the way home if we could live in New York City. So I would say the morning was quite a hit!

Howie rides his scooter through Times Square- it's hard to see how this went very well judging from the crushing movement of humanity, but he managed somehow.

Grandma, Josh, and Justice pose with Mickey and Minnie! How perfect is this for Justice?? He couldn't bear to look away even for a moment.

Unsurprisingly, Justy managed to find a big puddle in a playground in Central Park and completely soak himself... then he headed straight for the sand area. Yuck.

Paxy scales the ropes in Central Park

Paxy and Grandma look at all of the horse carriages in Central Park

What a goofball!!

Photo with Woody!! Howie said to me, "I can't believe Woody is REAL!!"

Frappucino drinking in Times Square... seriously? Are we those parents? We are indeed.

It was a fun morning and we're excited to go back soon!!

I'm Raising A Real Man Here

Josh had a meeting at church tonight and was not going to be home for dinner. Seeing that I'm quite unmotivated to cook in my current state, I decided that the boys and I could just eat cereal for dinner and call it a night. The boys have always been fine with this arrangement, but this conversation tells me that everything is changing. Justice ate dinner happy as could be (sugar and milk are his two main food groups... frosted mini wheats? yes please! A veritable feast!), but Howie... my boy is becoming a man.

Howie: I like hot things from the oven for dinner. I don't like cold things for dinner.

Me: What?

Howie: I like hot things that you make in the oven, not cold things.

Me: Like what?

Howie: Uhh, like roast beef. Not cereal for dinner.

Yeesh.

Lazy Saturday

The boys and I didn't have any grand plans for this morning. Josh was gone at a youth event and we had a lovely time playing, painting, splashing in the one puddle outside on the street, listening to Raffi, and coloring Sunday School pages. Sometimes a lazy morning is just what you need.

Random Reflections

1. Josh and I are official New Jerseyians, at least in the eyes of the state of NJ. We forked over our cash and did our time at the driver's license office this morning and walked away with NJ driver's licenses, NJ car titles, and NJ license plates. We were so grateful to a lovely new friend from church who took care of the boys while we slogged out on the much-dreaded errand. When we left the boys were stuffing their faces with donuts and we were carrying every piece of paper we could think of that they could ask for, lest we would return without having completed the dreadful task of transferring everything. We arrived at the office to a healthy line although we got there only 5 minutes after it opened. Thankfully it moved fairly quickly, and there was a general sense of alarm when the workers saw my state of advanced pregnancy (like I would seriously deliver in their office??? But hey, it cut our waiting time, so I'm grateful!!), so we were whisked away to the front of the line. We filled out a bajillion forms and presented them to the bureaucrat on duty, who promptly told me that I had to have a piece of mail with my name and our new address on it. I assumed since we had a few bills with Josh's name on them and our address and our marriage license that would be enough, but it was not to be. All of the sudden our kind friend babysitting and our 30 minute drive were looking to be all for naught, since we wouldn't be able to register our cars either if I didn't have a drivers license number. Josh continued on and I went out to his car, praying that there would be something random in there with my name and our address on it. I found an envelope addressed to us from our realtor- not official mail exactly, but hey, what did I have to lose? When I came back I met a lady at the door who was directing people where to go, and she looked at my proof of address (which was probably technically inadequate), my pathetic overall appearance, and my advanced state of pregnancy, and she acccepted it!! I was sooooo thrilled that we wouldn't have to find time to come back later! Not only did she authorize my letter but she also again whisked me to the front of the line, circumventing many, many people. (Who knew pregnancy got you so much??) I continued to hold my breath until I was holding my new license lest someone should find me unprepared afterall, but it didn't happen! I am so thankful that those errands are done!

2. We enjoyed a wonderful few days with Bible Bill last weekend! It was so much fun to have him as our first official visitor in New Jersey! Nana was unable to accompany him since she's waiting on a knee replacement, so we'll look forward to her coming next time! The boys were thrilled to have BB for a few days. They so enjoyed pushing him down the tube slide at the park, eating at Bobby's Burger Palace together, and setting up Playmobil men battles.

3. I made a French-Style Pot-Roasted Pork Loin last night from Cook's Illustrated and it was really something. You're supposed to double butterfly the roast so it opens like a business letter... who can figure out how to do that?? I did it wrong of course so I only had one butterfly, into which I rubbed butter, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, and herbes de provence. Tied it up with twine, added it to a pot of sauteed apples and onions and some white wine, and threw it in the oven. Then I made a note to myself that this is not exactly a great weeknight dinner. In the end we didn't even eat it!! It took much longer to cook through than I was anticipating since it was a thick roast, so it's sitting in the fridge for tonight. I had never made a pork roast but I have such good memories of eating delicious pork roast made by my grandma at their house for family celebrations. I was trying to recreate that for my family. I think I failed somewhat since it wasn't ready on time and it didn't really taste like hers (although it tastes amazing), but I'll keep trying.