They say it's about the size of a lime

It's been a rough couple of months at the Ahlstrom household - sickness, lots of work, new callings, more sickness. Oh yeah, and then there's this:

Yep, it's true. And we managed to (mostly) keep it a secret for almost 13 weeks - hard. This morning we had an ultrasound and saw Baby Ahlstrom bouncing around for the camera, showing us its ginormous alien head.

Even though I've been the sickest I've ever been, it took that ultrasound to make it real for me, and reality is sinking in with each passing minute.

And now I can say thank you - for keeping us in your prayers, for still being my friend even though I didn't tell you our little secret, and for sending good vibes out to our family while it took us so long to reach this point.

Now let's just pray that we can make it until October 11.

Smelly feet

I've never really been the kind of person to take my shoes off when I go into someone else's house, especially my own. Unless they specifically request it, but when they do, it makes me feel weird. Walking around someone else's house in my socks (or no socks) with a bunch of other people just doesn't feel right.

Then I married Andy, who is half Japanese and we moved into his parents' old house. His Japanese mother added this entryway onto said house - a specific place for people to leave their shoes when they came in. It has some Japanese name, which I cannot remember at present.

Andy convinced me I would love it, and I wasn't so sure. But when he pointed out that I would have an entire shoe room instead of just a few measley racks in the closet, the idea grew on me.

Just look at where I get to store all my shoes!

And thus I joined the club of taking off my shoes when I came into the house. Actually, I probably became the leader.

Usually, it's not too big a deal. We take off our shoes, and when people come over and see the big pile of shoes, they take off their shoes too. No big deal, right?

Except last night, we had the young men and young women over to our house to work on a movie project with Andy. I sat downstairs catching up on The Martha Stewart Show (she has great ideas okay!) while everyone sat upstairs writing their scripts and throwing popcorn all over the kitchen. When everyone left, I went upstairs to help Andy clean up, and the whole upstairs reeked.

It. Was. Rank.

Smelly like an entire high school basketball team had wiped our furniture, cabinets, and appliances down with their wet jerseys after a championship game. And we even had really strong scented plug-ins and a Scentsy "candle" burning - what the heck? When I told Andy it smelled like a locker room, he said he's pretty sure it was one of the young men's feet. His feet?

Maybe I just don't get that because I didn't grow up with brothers, but holy cow! Whose feet are stinky enough to smell up an entire first floor of a house?

Before they came over, I spent 30 minutes cleaning the floors so that their wouldn't get dirty inside my house, but when dirty feet come inside my house and make my house dirty, it makes me not very happy.

This poor young man, I don't mean to pick on him. But I just might rethink the whole "remove your shoes before you walk into my house" thing.

All right, I need some help - who has an answer for me?

I am married to a man who loves Chinese food. Which means that every time he gets a craving, we have two choices:

1) We can go out and get good Chinese food.

2) I can make Chinese food, and then 10 minutes after we try it, we can go out and get good Chinese food.

Because I am not good at making Chinese food.

I would say that most people who know me, or at least the people who have lived near me and been invited to dinner, would say I'm a pretty good cook. I can make pretty much anything, and it usually turns out pretty good, sometimes even great. It's all about identifying great recipes, really.

But I have not had any success with Chinese food. Sure, I've made lots of stir-fries (beef, chicken, shrimp - you name it), and while they're healthy and packed with veggies, they just don't taste anything like what you get in a Chinese restaurant. We've decided it's all about the sauce, and I just haven't found any recipes with that good restaurant-like stir-fry sauce.

So I'm putting this out there: do you have a stir-fry recipe with good sauce that tastes (almost) as good as a chinese restaurant? If so, email it to me. Our budget depends on it!

(Yes, I'll settle for almost. I'm being realistic here, and know that it will never be as good a the restaurant.)