Welcome to Tina's Starrving Mind

More Baby Pictures

I thought you might like to see a few more pictures of the baby.

Baby Noah

Noah came over the weekend. I (Nathan) am writing this to share some initial thoughts about the delivery, the first few days, and what you all really want--pictures. Tina will translate this to German and probably edit it a fair amount, too, when she gets a chance.

Our Little Nursery

I finally finished getting the nursery ready for "little guy." I originally wanted to paint a tree mural, but then had another idea.
Out of scrapbooking and construction paper I cut out the stem and "leaves" and glued it to the wall with wallpaper paste. I think the tree mural gives the room something extra special - I just want to hug that tree :) (no worries, I actually don't do things like that...). Now, all we are waiting for is "little guy" to be born.

Abortion - "...as though my very own soul was being ripped out of my body".

(deutsche Übersetzung kann unter "Deutsch" rechts gefunden werden) Today while I was driving on my way to a pregnancy check-up, I was listening to the radio. Dr. Laura read her email of the day which really struck me and I couldn't help it, but cry for a while in gratitude for the miracle Nathan and I are experiencing, and also in anger of abortion.

Pregnant

It's such an amazing, yet strange thing to have a little person growing inside of you. You can find more belly pictures when you click on the right "Photography & Artwork" in the "Pregnant - Schwanger" folder.

Es ist so wunderbar, aber auch etwas komisch, dass in mir eine kleine Person waechst. Wenn ihr auf das Link auf der rechten Seite "Photography & Artwork" klickt und den Ordner "Pregnant - Schwanger" oeffnet, koennt ihr mehr Bauchbilder sehen.

My Style of Bassinet

My family wanted to see the bassinet I got, so here it is! When I first started looking for a bassinet, I thought I would never find one I liked. All of the bassinets were so frilly and kitschy. I am so glad I found this one (in the classifieds, used only once, for so much cheaper). Nice natural color, simple contemporary design, and lots of storage space. And, the bassinet can be folded together so that I can take it with me easily. The great thing is, that I can attach it to the bed and one side can be lowered, which will make nursing at night so much easier.

A Stroller for "Little Guy"

Even though Nathan and I have pretty much decided on a name for our baby, I will probably keep calling him "little guy" until he is born :) So, yesterday we decided to go look at some strollers for little guy. We had already researched and looked on consumer reports and online for ratings and reviews and decided that a Graco Quattro Tour Travel System would be the best, but we just wanted to see and compare strollers in the store and "experience" the handling.

Thai-spiced pumpkin soup

I found a very simple pumpkin soup recipe online and made a few changes to it to make the consistency and taste just right. This recipe got the first prize on a soup cook-off competition!

Serves about 6-8:

Keep in mind that different Thai curry pastes have differing strengths. Start with a teaspoon and then build from there until the soup has a level of spiciness and flavor that works for your palette. Top with toasted pumpkin seeds.

2 acorn squash, pumpkins, or other smallish winter squash
(my favorite is the Indian Hokaido pumpkin)

Tina's crepes

I tried a few crepe recipes, but this one turned out the best. I made a few changes, and everybody so far loves my crepes. You can eat them with Nutella, jam, cinnamon-sugar, powdered sugar and lemon juice, fruits and whipped cream, and whatever sounds good to you.

This makes about 12-14 crepes.

4 eggs
500 ml (2 1/8 cups) milk
1 little bag of vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract + 1 Tbsp sugar)
Rum flavoring to taste ( I add 1/2-1 tsp)
3 Tbsp sugar
50 g (3 1/2 Tbsp) butter, melted
250 g (2 cups) flour