6 Month Update

I'm keeping track of the items I complete but just not updating this frequently enough.  Here is the latest update since October:

20.  Emile and I had a date night in February before our son was born in which we went to our first Hurricanes came.  It was a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed the game and hope to go to more next year.

22.  Emile and I took the girls to the NC Museum in Art in February to see the Rembrandt exhibit.  The girls didn't get that much out of it given their age but it was nice for us to get to an art museum again.  But I definitely miss the Met.

27.  I got a prenatal massage right before Ethan was born.  It was wonderful.  Looking forward to my next one; hopefully in May.

42.  I had three girls night out adventures.  One night I went to the Red Room with the girls from my book club for dinner.  Always a great time with those gals.  I also went to Tribeca Tavern and also Mellow Mushroom with some friends from my baby board chat line that I'm friends with.  Also a great time.

43.  As I mentioned above, Emile and I went to dinner and to the Hurricanes game back in February.  We also went to Goodnights Comedy Club and Irregardless Cafe one night.  I wish we got out more though.  We're working on it!

55.  I have finally updated the girls baby books so they are current.  Just in time to have our third child!

59.  I tend to read very involved historical fiction or biography books so it takes me awhile to get through a book.  I've been adding in other good reads that are not quiet so dense.  Here are the recent ones I've finished.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  It was very well written but pretty sad. 

Something Borrowed and also Something Blue by Emily Giffin.  Her books are always entertaining!

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarity.  This book made me appreciate my husband and want to make sure we didn't let life get away from us.

The Help by Kathyrn Stockett.  Great read!

Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, Queens by Jane Dunn

66.  I have finally read 3 of my Environmental Management magazines which is helpful for my job.  Just wish I could keep up with them.

86.  I'm excited that I have learned how to knit.  I've started making Natalie a blanket for her dolls and hope to have it finished soon!

87.  I finished another photo album of our international travels -- Emile's and my trip to Canada

88.  I've made two new deserts -- a Ginger Pumpkin Cheesecake and an Apple pie.  I was pretty happy with both of them but the apple was by far the best.

90.  I've tried the Red Room (http://redroomraleigh.com/) which is tapas food and Irregardless Cafe (http://www.irregardless.com/) which is more traditional food.  Both were pretty good.  I'd go back to both.

94.  I love movies!  I was surprised how many Academy Award winning movies I've already seen.  I had to go back quiet a few years to find one I hadn't seen.  I ended up with The Last Emperor and Platoon.  One more to go.

Catch up continued

Blogger only allows 20 labels per post so I had to separate my update into two.

82. We finally got the remaining rooms in our house painted. The living room, hallways and laundry room are a beige color. I love the new, more finished look.


87. I have finished two photo albums of our international travels -- our trip to Switzerland back in 2006 and our recent trip to Paris and the Netherlands.


88. I made Natalie and Claire "Pinkalicious" cupcakes -- pink frosting and cake!.


90. I recently tried Pop's and Mez in Durham. Both were pretty good.

94. I recently watched The King's Speech (2010) -- great movie!  And we also saw The Hurt Locker (2009).

95. I've sent out the following birthday cards -- my dad's, sister's, brother's, mother-in-law's, and Emile's aunt's.

99. I'm not doing very good of keeping track of the wines I've tried but I know I've tried at least 4 since the last posting. Now I'm pregnant and won't be drinking again for awhile so it may be hard to meet this goal.

31. Get tonsils removed

I have been busy these last few months in tackling some of my 101 goals.  The biggest was getting my tonsils removed on January 21 (#31).  It was by far the most painful thing I've done to date; even more so than my two c-sections.  One advantage to getting my tonsils out is that I wasn't able to eat as much.  And thus, of course, I dropped some weight -- the last few pounds of my pregnancy weight.  I've gotten back to my pre-pregnancy weight (#28)!  It's such a relief to be back to this stage.  I also definitely slept in and didn't feel guilty...multiple times while recovery (#39). 

Since the last post, I've done the following other things:

• Emile and I tried a new restaurant in Raleigh -- Mura Japanese Restaurant (#43, #90).  It was wonderful, although I don't think it was that much better than some of the other sushi restaurants we've frequented.  While there I tried a new wine, although I don't recall the name (#99).
• I bought a stand mixer finally!  I tried it out by making a crust for the banana cream pie that I made from scratch (#88).  It was wonderful! 

• Emile, the girls and I had a picnic at Baileywick park (#12).  It was a lot of fun and something we plan to do frequently this summer.
• I spoke to my doctor about getting a mammogram.  My previous OB doctor had recommended getting a mammogram at around 31 because my aunt got breast cancer at 36.  My new doctor doesn't think it's necessary at my age (now 34) because under 50, a mammogram is not that accurate.  If anything, he recommends doing gene testing instead which I'm looking into.  I have agreed that doing a mammogram now would not be the way to go so I'm removing that from my list since it's no longer applicable (#30).
• I hung out with some girl friends twice in the last two months (#42).
• I've read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (#59).  Great book about HeLa cells.  I highly recommend it, for even the non-scientist.

• I also read Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran a few months ago but forgot to list it (#59).  It was also a very good book.  A historical fiction (my favorite).
• I finished decorating our bathroom (#78).  I'm pretty happy with it.

• Another one that forgot to list before was that I have started helping Emile with the gardening and landscaping (#79).  I will doing more this summer also.
• I was going to make homemade green cleaning products but I instead decided to go with the green products available in the store.  I've switched over all the products I have been using for Method products (#83).
• I recently spent a weekend in Charleston, S.C. with my bookclub friends (#8).  It was a blast.  While I was away, I also didn't use the internet or computer (#92) and no TV for two days (#98).

• While I was in Charleston, I got to try five new wines:  Honey Moon Viognier, Biltmore Riesling, Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc, Jacob's Creek Pinot Grigio, Mirassou Pinot Grigio (#99).  All very good!
• I've sent out one birthday card to my mom (#95).

I've tried keeping up on my Wikipedia reading but I've slacked.  I did read up on HeLa cells recently.  The following is a summary:

• A cell type in an immortal cell line in scientific research.
• Cells derived from cervical cancers cells taken from Henrietta Lacks.
• Cells were propagated by George Gey.
• Neither Lacks nor her family gave Gey permission, but, at that time, permission was neither required nor customarily sought.
• HeLa cells were used by Jonas Salk to test the first polio vaccine in the 1950s. Since that time, HeLa cells have been used for "research into cancer, AIDS, the effects of radiation and toxic substances, gene mapping, and many other scientific pursuits".

56. Potty Trained Natalie

We've been busy lately!  About two weeks ago, we started potty training Natalie (#56).  We decided to try the 3-day potty training method with her since the laid back approach was not working with her even though she wants to sit on the potty -- I think she just needed to know the feeling of letting it out when sitting there. So we put her in underwear as of 13 days ago and she hasn't gone back to diapers since. She even wore them right away during nap and bedtime. The first 48 hours were the toughest -- for her and us. But she didn't have any accidents at nap or bedtime for the first few days and only a 3 or 4 since. She had one day of regression last Friday but since then she's had only two accidents. We're so proud of her. She's such a big girl! She picked out her own underwear to start with (in combination with the ones Oma got her) and of course, they were Disney Princesses.

I've also tried two new wines in the last week (#99) - Crane Lake Petite Shirah and Middle Sister Drama Queen Pinot Grigio.  I really need to take the wine class so I can try to explain better the tastes.  But overall, I thought both were very good.  I really like Shirahs though.  One of my favorite types of red wine.

88. Baked a Blueberry Pie

I made my first blueberry pie (#88) this weekend.  And I have to say, it's pretty darn good!  It doesn't exactly look like the photo but it still turned out well.  Emile got me a baking book for Christmas that I'm starting to make my way through:

The pie crust didn't turn out like the gravel texture it was supposed to before rolling it out but it still worked.  It's amazing that 4 pints of blueberries cook down to fit into a pie pan.  On to the next baking dish!