The Calm Before the Storm

The last two weeks have been uneventful and WONDERFUL around our house. After the second hospital stay I appreciate things like being able to clean my own house and play blocks with my son a lot more. A few days a week are spent going to doctor visits, which is getting old but at least we're all home together.

The other nice part has been Birch's relaxed schedule for school. The last block is called "Advanced Topics," or all the extra/miscellaneous things they haven't studied yet. Luckily it has meant fewer lectures and more time for Birch to spend with us. I wish we could say we've had big trips to the zoo, the pool, etc. but with me being on "light bedrest" it's mostly been time at home. Sometimes that's the best, right?

Birch has one more week of school and then he's supposed to start studying for 5-6 weeks for his boards. He's scheduled to take the test June 9 but that will have to change. Even though our baby is due June 14 my doctor says there's a good chance I'll deliver early. Not too soon (cross my fingers!) but I probably won't make my due date. Most likely we'll push the test back to the end of June so Birch can take some time off in the middle when the baby comes.

So I'm gearing up for 10-hour study days in my last weeks before delivery with a busy two-year-old. Who can really study for 10 hours anyway? Birch's advisors will help him plan out the time each day to make that happen but I still can't imagine it. Then somewhere in the middle of that we'll have a new baby, he'll actually take the test and we'll get adjusted to our new family. No sweat!

My Husband the Sports Writer

When Birch closes the door to study in our office at home, I assume he's actually studying most of the time. After all, who wouldn't get distracted by the internet or take a little nap once in a while?

But today I learned that another distraction for Birch is emailing his opinion to writers on espn.com. If you look on the college basketball home page today, you'll see a letter he wrote included in an article written about the NCAA basketball tournament. Nice job, babe!

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=4073000

I'm not sure how long this link will work, so here's his letter:

Mr. Lunardi,

I enjoyed your most recent article, "Re-examining the at-large 'eye test'." In full disclosure I must admit that I'm a student at the University of Arizona and was completely shocked when we made it into the tournament, but we'll take what we can get.

You speak of which team is "best" and "most deserving" to get an at-large bid to the field of 65. Why not examine who is "best" and "most deserving" to be in the tournament overall? Do your No. 15 and No. 16 seeds represent the best teams in the country? Where would they fit in your RPI-based evidence chart? Is the conference champion of a crappy conference really "deserving" to play with the "best" teams in the country? For example, should David Stern start including D-league division or conference champions in the NBA playoffs? Aren't they as "deserving" as Morehead State or Radford (I think there's more parity between the D-league and the NBA as compared to UNC and Morehead State)?

I think we need to stop giving out automatic bids to conference champions and start taking the best 64 (not 65) teams in college basketball to the NCAA tournament. As you said, the best and the most deserving are the same teams. Right?

Thanks,
Birch, Tucson, Ariz.

Easter, Simple & Sweet

Earlier last week I had big plans to celebrate Easter: invite friends over for dinner, find Trevor his first tie to wear to church on Sunday, make Easter crafts, etc. Then my body decided to not cooperate again and with a little more bleeding I was back in the hospital. No contractions this time, but enough to keep me there for a few days.

When I came home on Saturday I didn't even want to think about Easter, we just needed to get our family back on track again. I dyed a few eggs on Sunday and we did a short egg hunt in our backyard. It was actually nice to spend the day at home with just our family. After so many babysitters last week Trevor has calmed down a little bit and things are almost back to normal.

As soon as he found an egg, Trevor shook it to make sure it had candy inside. My lovely hard-boiled eggs were all tossed in the dirt.

Sweet sunglasses from the Easter bunny!

PB & J on RYE?

We took a rare trip to the grocery store with Birch this week. I like it when he comes with me because then I can see what food he really likes. Usually I expect to see bags of Doritos, frozen hot wings, and Powerade in the cart but this time he tossed in a loaf of marble rye bread.

While we finished shopping the story of the marble rye came out: during high school he worked at a ranch doing odd jobs (i.e. yardwork, cleaning horse stalls) and most days for lunch the woman who lived there would make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on rye. After a while the flavor grew on him but he hasn't had one in years. So this week Birch has been enjoying a delicious PB & J on rye for lunch almost every day. I did try it once but it didn't have the same effect on me.

Do you have any strange (or normal) foods from your childhood that you love? My mom always made taco meat with El Pato and tomato sauce and it's still my favorite. For breakfast we ate rice cereal: a bowl of rice with sugar, cinnamon and milk. Sometimes when we go home for a visit my dad will make it and Birch just shakes his head. Maybe on those days I'll agree to eat a PB & J on rye for him.