Little updates (now with pictures!)

It's been more or less quiet in the Morrison house lately. For those who didn't know, Ben had a two week trip back to Chicago for work purposes recently. I didn't say much about it on here because he chose to be sneaky and not tell his family about the trip until he drove down to McLeansboro on Friday night and showed up on their doorstep. Needless to say, they were very surprised and very happy to see him. I was back here in the Netherlands, very pregnant and very jealous. But also very happy that he got to go because a trip where he got to see his best friend and his family was exactly what he's been needing lately.

As for news from the Netherlands, just a few small updates. First, as of this week we finally have the nursery all organized. The baby clothes are washed and put away, as are the sheets, blankets, hats, bibs, washcloths, etc etc etc. We bought an shelf for bathroom baby stuff and a small wardrobe for the stroller, diaper bags, toys, etc downstairs (since we don't have the luxury of built-in closets around here). We spent many hours Ikea shopping, assembling, and organizing, and we are happy to report that when the baby comes we will be "ready".

The finished nursery!


Our other news may shock some of you a little. For dinner one night this week, I made a stir fry. It was absolutely delicious. I found a really yummy sweet chili and soy stir fry sauce at our local grocery store, so I tried it out with scallions, snow peas, portabella mushrooms... and tofu. Now, the tofu isn't a crazy thing for me. I'm a tree hugging hippie like that. But the shocker is this: Ben not only ate it, but he really enjoyed it. In fact when I asked if he liked it enough so that I could use up the rest of the tofu on dinner the next night, he said sure. What?! So really, our current big news is not the impending birth of our first child, but the impending addition of tofu to our regular meals. The only way I could be more excited is if he suddenly agreed to start eating hazelnuts.

And for anyone who is counting/curious, I'm 38 weeks along, 2 weeks from the due date. So we probably won't have too many exciting stories or anecdotes for a little while. This weekend we're just going to enjoy some simple pleasures like going to Starbucks and our favorite tapas restaurant, maybe catching a movie and sleeping in. Just savoring one of the last quiet adult weekends we'll have for a while. Next weekend is Ben's birthday and, provided we don't have an early baby arrival, we probably do a repeat. Dinner, coffee, relax. We might even go to brunch if we're feeling crazy. And we are currently accepting applications for houseguests/babysitters so that we can plan another dinner out sometime before we move back to the U.S. Any takers?

Added photo bonus! Me, 38 weeks, ready for a night out! Wooo!