The Larson Adventure

Sunday, October 4, 2009

DMB: Des Moines 2009

I am a little late in updating this thing- but last Friday’s activities could not be ignored any longer. DMB: Des Moines ’09! Lucky Turkey got to listen to her 3rd Dave Matthews Band concert during her time in Mommy’s belly (and yes, I checked and she had ears for all three concerts). This one was a little closer to home, which was very nice after the concert when I knew where I was going and made it there in a matter of minutes! Even with the concert being in Des Moines (not nearly the tailgating festivities as Alpine Valley, WI), we continued the tailgating tradition prior to the concert. The pregnant tailgater has decided that Des Moines has no idea how many porta potty’s are needed for tailgates- the 2 in our lot were not enough by a long shot (the same could be said about the bathrooms in the stadium as well). Other than the bathroom situation, the tailgating was a blast and the concert was great! I was very fun to continue our DMB tradition with friends Brad and LuCinda, but also add a few more newbies to the bunch. We hope Mike, Megan, Sue, Ben, Ryan and Crystal all had a great time at their first ever DMB concert (from what we have heard they did). Another fun thing about the night was that we got to see my brother and sister-in-law, who came from Iowa City to see the concert with a different group of friends. Here are a couple of pictures from the day and night:

Beer, beer and wine!

Here is a picture of one of our Sunday activities from a few weeks ago:

We did a similar thing this past weekend brewing up an Oatmeal Stout beer, bottling a Cream Ale beer (the white bucket in the above picture) and transferring the Australian Chardonnay (the yellow glass carboy on the left in the above picture). I guess you could say that I am getting prepared for after the baby is born and I can participate in adult drinks once again!

We have found that doing a number of different batches on the same day makes it much easier with the sanitation process. I believe this is our 3rd batch of beer this fall, and we have one more left to go (we are hoping to get it brewed next weekend if the weather is nice and our schedule permits it). The last time we brewed we had a incident with the turkey fryer (no, not the baby), and the gas-line creating a little bit of a flame (that could be an understatement). We cannot complain, after 28 batches our cheap Walmart turkey fryer was bound to call it quits and the only thing injured during the incident was the grill cover (easy to replace). Needless to say, we purchased a new fryer this morning from our favorite local brew supply store: Beer Crazy (check it out if you are in the DM area, not only do they sell brewing supplies and wine-making supplies but they have a very nice selection of specialty beers). Here is a picture of the new addition to our brewing supplies:

We love the new burner and it makes things much easier!

The next job is to figure out a "winery name" and label design for the wine- any suggestions?

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Counting down and stirring up some home-brew goodness

We have officially hit the third trimester for Baby Turkey! 12 weeks left and counting down. The baby’s room is pretty much complete, and as Nick puts it: “It looks like a baby’s room now!” Not sure what it was looking like before. I also had my glucose test earlier this week, and with no call from the lab- I must have passed! Thank goodness for me, and the lab tech that said she really hoped I passed because she did not want to have to take blood out of my hand that many times in one day. Baby seems to be growing fine and we are now onto our every other week Dr. appointments- let the fun begin.

With the end in sight (sort of), and the summer turning cool it was time to get active with our brewing once again! Nick ordered up his favorite from last year, a Peat Smoked Porter. I ordered a new brew, a Cream Ale that is supposed to be a good beer after mowing the lawn (which doesn’t really make sense because I don’t mow the lawn, nor will the lawn need to be mowed by the time the beer is ready for consumption.) We brewed up Nick’s batch last weekend, and will start mine this weekend. Don’t worry, the beer will not be ready to be drank until around the time the baby is here- I may have to be tempted for a week or so, but not much longer than that. I am thinking I am going to put more of mine in growler containers (see picture) so I can open one and have small bits at a time without having to drink a whole bottle. And who knows, Nick may opt to help me drink it as well. It was very fun to get back into the brewing business again, as we have taken most of the year off with the pregnancy.

If you are in the neighborhood around the holidays, we should have a little one to hold and some homebrews to drink- until then the homebrew stash is getting a little low and the baby just kicks in my tummy.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Reading, research and babies

When we found out we were expecting, my sister, Megan (The Teacher), presented Turkey with a couple of books and a card that read:

"Research has shown that if a baby is repeatedly read the same story while in the womb, it will begin to recognize the story and settle down when it is read. Not only is this effect seen before birth, but reading the book to the newborn shows a similar calming and comforting response. This could be a big help for new parents who are just learning how to calm a crying baby or settle baby down for a nap."

What an interesting concept! Anything that will help settle down a baby is worth a try. Turkey is quickly becoming fond of the book "We're Going on a Bear Hunt," as well as a few others (to add a little spice to Mommy's reading list). We will see if the research holds true with our little one!

Thanks for the idea Aunt Megan (and Uncle Mike)!

Monday, August 10, 2009

A Month in Review

I am a little bit behind in the blog updates, or a lot behind in Nick's view. So here it goes: Our mid-July-current list of fun filled activities.

In mid-July, we made our annual (or usually annual) trip to East Troy, WI for the back-to-back DMB concerts with our friends Brad and LuCinda. This year we made a change and opted to get a hotel room verses camping. Oddly enough, this changed was decided prior to finding out we were expecting. When the time came the change was welcome with open arms by the 5 month pregnant woman (me!). We had a great time, and even got to break-in our newly constructed Bags game.

Up next was the First Annual Lawn Olympics. Nick and his friend/co-worker, Levi, decided to get people together and have a tournament revolving around playing yard games (and drinking of course). Those that were able to attend had a blast and “The Ringers”, Andy and Scott, dominated the games and took home the grand prize. Way to go Andy and Scott! And yes- we still want you guys to come back next year, I want a rematch in the finals of Bags!

Then August began and we quickly realized that at the rate we were going the Baby was going to be here before we were ready for her. And so, work on the Baby’s room quickly began! Nick was a trooper as I hit up Pottery Barn Kids for the bedding and room decorations, and then went to Babies R Us to begin our registering. Registering didn’t last the longest, as a busy Saturday afternoon is not a good time for a pregnant lady that doesn’t like crowds while she is shopping (at Babies R Us). The registering quickly got put on hold and we will make attempt two sometime this week/weekend. Who knew a kid needed so much stuff! We were able to pick up our stroller/car seat combo, and we love it! Testing out a Pack N Play was a different story, as there was no sales assistants around to help us (we looked) and so we decided to take one down and try to take it down and put it up by ourselves. If the store has people watching the security cameras I am sure they got a kick out of the two of us trying to figure the dang thing out. Needless to say, we will NOT be registering for that model and hope to find a more Kara/Nick friendly version when we go back. The next day was spent cleaning out the Dog’s room and converting it to the Baby’s room. Sorry Dogs, you will now be banished to the basement for your new sleeping/daytime quarters. The Baby’s room is coming together nicely, we are just waiting for the glider and ottoman to arrive for pick-up at the end of the month.

This past weekend was Beach Day at the Lakewood beach with Nick’s high school friends and their two little girls. As always, we had a great time with all of them and cannot wait to do it again! The weather was hot, but the water was great and everyone seemed to have a good time.

I believe everyone should be caught up to date at this point. Sorry for the delay on the updates. I am sure it will only get worse once the Turkey arrives in November!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Congrats!

Congrats to Lindsay (Kara's old roommate) and Alan on their marriage this past weekend! We couldn’t be happier for the two of you and loved sharing your special day with you.