In lieu of actual posting, but to assure all you'uns that we are still alive, I put up a few goodies on the Quotes page for the first time in, um, over a year.

21 April 2008 Vlog from guitarmatt on Vimeo.

Taking a cue from Andrew, this update on the Price household comes in video form. The password, to keep viewers restricted to readers of this blog, is "scotland".

And yes, putting in the dreads did indeed hurt. Not too much, just as much as pulling hair, but for hours on end. You end up with more emotional damage than physical, I think.

Also, you can't tell from the video, but Jeni is in a HUGE amount of pain, which if you know her usual pain tolerance is a big deal. Pray for her.

...all hell breaks loose. This will just be a quick rundown before I jump back into the fray. Yesterday through an oversight by someone at the school, Jeni found out about an exam she has tomorrow. Our little man has been sick for the last few days while we've been doing my dreads. Whatever he's got I caught, too. We suffered through it knowing that we'd get a break today. This morning as she was putting him down after his morning feed, Jeni's back went out and she dropped Hosea, thankfully only a few inches into his cot. She's in a lot of pain and can't pick him up, so my sick day's been scratched. Top it off with the facts that we're out of food, nearly out of toilet paper and that Hosea just dropped the two biggest poop-splosions of his life one immediately after the other. That pretty much sums up life right now.

I know a few Palmerston Place people have been reading this blog, so sorry that we weren't at church this morning. Feel free to leave comments if you like on any post, the party's open to everyone.

You all will have to wait a day or two for dread pics. I said I'd get some up once I felt like a real person again, and unfortunately that's going to take a little longer than I thought.

Last edit: Friday, 10:42 p.m.

As Miranda pointed out in our last post, Matt's hair has reached critical mass. We're dreading today (um, and maybe tomorrow). So far, we're about 4 hours into it, and we have one test dread done and his hair about 40% sectioned off.

4:35 p.m. Edited to add:

Sectioning complete!
Jeni says: Daddy, I want another pony.
Matt says: Churned butter once or twice, living in an Amish paradise.

6:54 p.m. Edited to add:
Dinner, then 4 dreads done. Time to put the man to sleep...

8:40 p.m. Edited to add:
Hosea was/is really having a hard time tonight, but 4 more are done.

10:49 p.m. edited to add: Okay, we have 14 done. They look awesome! Matt thinks it's bedtime...

Friday, 2:51 p.m. 27 dreads done, about 14 to go. We can almost see the finish line!

Friday, 5:14 p.m. 34 dreads done, about 14 to go. Funny how that happens.

Friday, 7:04 p.m. 37 dreads done, about 11 to go (also: dinner eaten, baby fed, 'Seabiscuit' finished, 1st episode of '24' watched). Time to put Hosea to sleep!

Friday, 10:42 p.m. Done!!!!! We'll post pics tomorrow, after Matt can touch his head without cringing and I don't feel like I've been standing up for two days straight whilst running my hands through a sawmill.
(Also, three more episodes of '24' watched. Pretty good, but not as thrilling as people have led us to believe. )

Our kid definitely eats better than we do. Today, I have made or am currently making:
-- Homemade veggie stock with carrots, onions, leeks, garlic, potatoes rutabaga, fresh herbs, and peppercorns
--Cheesy chicken and root veggie casserole
-- Braised beef stew (okay, this is for all of us)

Matt and I together have chopped nearly 5 pounds of veggies for this endeavour.

Last week, I made him "baby ratatouille" with courgette, sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, and tomato with fresh dill and grated cheese. For that same lunch I had an apple and two pieces of toast.

See where I'm going with this? On the plus side, Matt and I have eaten better with all the fresh fruit and veg in the house. On the minus side, our food budget is kinda, um, hurting.

All you parents, any delicous baby recipes we should know about, especially ones we can all eat?

Guys, you don't have to pretend I don't know: I am extremely biased. Even though he's in kind of a funny looking stage right now (a touch on the bulldog end of the spectrum, no?), I still think Hosea is ridiculously cute. I love almost everything about him (maybe not the fact that he pooped on the floor this afternoon), and he constantly finds new and creative ways to keep me cracking up and generally adoring him.

Take this week for example. He's doing much better now that we're back into the normal routine, thankfully. He's also started babbling, which actually turns me into a puddle of Jeni goo every time he says "Madagabamamanahaaaahaaabadada." Or things like that. Seriously, it's so cute! Matt pretends to retain dignity, but I see him crack under the weight of that much adorableness when nobody's looking. I promise I'll get a video of him soon.

Here are some pictures of our cute son, since I know you guys just can't get enough of him. At least, I know I can't.



Quick, look nonchalant!


Hosea wearing a Matt-wig, or "Whoa, how'd my arms get SO LONG?"

A quick snooze in Daddy's arms to round out a long day.


Matt loves his baby giraffe.


Guys, this polar bear's talking to me! Check it out! P.S. I can stand now.

Okay, so normally I don't put non-us stuff on this blog, but Matt showed me this and it was WAY too funny.


see more crazy cat pics

Well, I won't sugar-coat it-- things have been dump-tacular here at Casa Price. Hosea stopped sleeping (for a myriad of reasons, but we think this is the main one), so Matt and I are exhausted. Also, he's not just not sleeping-- he's spending hours (many) of the day and night screaming and crying. Matt and I feel helpless and desperate, and have been spending time jumping down each other's throats as a result.
Hosea's gone from this:



To this:


Man, on man.

On the up side, lambing has been super fun. Here's a few shots of me and sheeps:




Also, Alisha's Sweet and Spunky onesies are so cute they make my head spin! Here's some of the out-takes:






Go here to see more of her wonderful stuff!

But seriously, pray for us. We all need it before I sell Hosea to the circus to pay off my student loans.

The ever-fabulous Laura (who also babysat for us and cleaned our kitchen last night) brought back a little bottle of saffron threads for us from her 3-week trip to Spain. Having never tried cooking with saffron, or even eating it (apart from the 39 cent "saffron rice" tubes we ate as kids), I was intrigued but a little worried. This stuff costs more per ounce than gold! The last thing I needed was to waste 1/2 a bottle on a recipe I'd ruin and wind up hating.

Lucking, my preccccious (i.e., the google food blog search) didn't fail me. I found this recipe, which we made tonight. Fast, easy, cheap (except the saffron) and DELICIOUS!!! Yay for successful adventures in cooking!

ETA: Oh no! Ellen informs me I didn't actually link to the recipe I tried. Here it is. (It, and it's myriad leftovers, were incredible.)

Lentil Soup with Saffron Yogurt

Since I'm doing great and we're finally feeling somewhat normal again, here's a bunch of pictures to make up for the lack of recent posts.

First, the Souzas came for a day trip just before I went into hospital, which was fantastic if way too short. They're so cool. Here's a great pic Matt snapped of Adelaide in the Camera Obscura:



Here's one of Hosea getting into trouble in his cot. He gets into all sorts of strange positions, then cries until we come admire his skillz and/or get him unstuck:



Here's me and the man, getting a pre-bath snuggle:




And here's just a couple of the ten trillion I took of him playing on the floor with Jazzy's blankie:








Including this one, which clearly shows the "Seriously? Seriously." face that Auntie Kayla must have taught him over Christmas:

Still cute, in case y'all we're worried!

See? We're pretty good. We are pretty anxious about housing, I'm trying to muster energy to study, Hosea welcomed tooth 701 into the air, and Matt is stuck on a particular operation in Trauma Center, but otherwise we're hanging in there.

2 more months until summer madness!