I Don't Recognize This Feeling...

Warmth! At long last!

The furnace man was supposed to come between 8:30-9:00 and didn't actually show up until closer to 11:00. That part was really annoying, but it ended up being okay. The problem was nothing major--a crack in the ignitor! Weird, huh? Martin wondered if maybe it happened during the earthquake last spring, and I hadn't thought of that, but it is something to wonder about. How else would an ignitor become cracked? So anyway, now the heat is back on and it's truly delightful. I'm embarrassed to say that our in-house temperature only topped 60 degrees once this week (yesterday) and in general it was hovering around 53 degrees. It was a little bit cozy though; I brought the little space heater down to the front room and Anja and I just kind of hung out there all week, keeping warm. I have never wished so hard for a wood stove or fireplace!

In other news, I made Jill's famous apple cinnamon scones this morning. Anja was in an awesome mood and my dad came over. We've actually had a very enjoyable day, except for the lack of punctuality in the appointment, but it doesn't matter now and Anja is sleeping and I have a feeling she's going to take a good long nap. Maybe I'll join her in a little bit.

My baby belly is slowly getting bigger than my buttocks. Finally! In fact, I think I might even start looking pregnant within the next few weeks.

Not much is new around here. I was supposed to play at the Klein Brot Haus this evening, but they are no longer having music on Fridays and might actually even be closed on Friday nights now. This is too bad because Martin and I were both really looking forward to going up there. Tomorrow we are having a Schap Family Halloween Party--I still haven't put together our costumes--and the day after that is my uncle's Fall Party at his farm. I'm looking forward to both! I'm going to make Laura's chocolate chip cookies and a cranberry fruit salad I found in Simply in Season. Unfortunately, the stores don't have their whole cranberries yet so I had to buy canned. Booo. This year I'm definitely going to stock up on cranberries so I can use them all year long. They freeze for up to a year! I'm just going to start stocking up every Thanksgiving. Until I lived on my own, I never realized that whole cranberries were something you could only get once a year. Funny, the things you learn as you get older.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I think the festivities will be a nice change from the house cleaning we've been doing the past couple of weekends.

This morning I woke up around 5:00 to that horrible, horrible Street Sweeper that runs around town. It was cleaning the entire library parking lot!!! UGH!! It must not have bothered the others because I was the only one who woke up, but it was kind of worth it because Anja and Martin were asleep next to each other, lying in the exact same position. It was super adorable.

I'd better get going on those cookies while I still have so much naptime ahead of me...