November 13, 2009

potato soup day

my nana (pronounced nonna - very important) died 5 years ago this past august. it was really weird when she passed away since we saw her ALL the time. i lived with a roommate in the same apartment as her - there were only 4 apts, not one of the massive ones - and our apt was her old apt that i grew up going to. we moved in when she moved downstairs, right below us. she was so intermeshed into our lives that it took a long, long time to get used to her being gone. and apparently, i'm still getting used to it. i left work early today - probably shouldn't have gone at all - because of a sore throat and overall icky feeling. on the groggy drive home, i thought about food we had at home. three potatoes. mmm. maybe i'll call nana to get her to make potato soup....whoa.

blame it on being sick. blame it on being pregnant. but the thought just went through my head to call my grandmother that's been dead for 5 years!!! of course, she did make the most amazing potato soup ever. i attempted it, and it just doesn't make the cut. *sigh*

in other news, i have an announcement! FIRST TRIMESTER OVER!!! glory. everyone swore to me that i would find my energy again, and i must be honest and say that i doubted them. but really, almost to the day, i realized i wasn't having to sit down every 5 minutes, that i could dance around with my 4 year olds without breathing hard, that i wasn't taking deep breaths and sighing every second, that i wasn't in bed at 7:30 every night. hello energy!! i'm not running marathons or anything, but i'm not exhausted anymore. thank you Lord! but i will say that i seem to have lost my patience. it's just GONE with the kids. i'm trying to decide which is worse to not have - energy or patience...every time i decide on one, i change my mind. hm. they're both awful to lose...

we had our 12 week ultrasound this past wednesday, and IT. WAS. AMAZING. the first one at 8 weeks was truly miraculous. i've been excited to be pregnant, have been totally "in" the moment and knowing what was going on. but now it's different. almost more of a reality...even though that phrase doesn't quite explain it. the baby isn't a blob on the screen anymore. it has a very distinct head, body, arms, nose, eyes, etc...and the best part of all - IT MOVED!chris had our camera and caught it on video!! he (or she) was very still and i hadn't even thought about it moving. i've read that it is, even though i can't feel it, but i just hadn't thought about it. and i was already amazed at the baby-ness of it, and then JUMP! it was like he twitched or jerked or something - maybe he was asleep and we woke him up! wait wait! i'll try to post the video!!! then after that, he was flexing his neck and moving his arms around! chris said it looked like he was rubbing his eyes. :) :) :) it was remarkable. what an amazing miracle and priviledge that we get to take part in!!

oohooh! and since that video worked (i've never posted a video before!!!) i'll post this one too...


it was also the first time we've seen the doctor that's going to be with us the whole time. i usually see the p.a. of the office, but from now on it will be dr. barker, and we are SO happy with him. i'm so excited!!! he said that the next visit - in 4 weeks - we'll be able to tell the gender. WOW!! i cannot wait. every time i decide that i want one (boy or girl) i change my mind and want the other for one reason or another. then i go back to the previous choice...then back again...i just don't care which one we get!!!! either one will be phenomenal. i just hope and pray that he or she is healthy, happy, and comes to know the Lord.

off to clean the kitchen. how does it get so bad so fast?

November 05, 2009

my newest love

i have fallen in love again. this time it's with an article of clothing, or maybe it's just an accessory. it's the BELLA BAND!!! goodness. it's fabulous, and i wish i had invented it. at 11 weeks pregnant, my belly is starting to expand just a little - enough to make my regular pants really tight. but i tried on maternity pants yesterday, and i am definitely not big enough for those. awkward phase!!! answer? the bella band. observe:













*note - this is NOT my belly...

all you do is pull on your regular pants that can't button anymore, leave them unbuttoned, maybe even unzipped a little, and stretch that bella band over the waist and VOILA! it smooths out the edges AND holds your pants up. it has worked marvelously for me today, and i'll probably have to go get one in another color as well. thank you target!






in other news, have you discovered "just veggies" yet? i'm munching on them right now. they are SO delicious and give me my veggies for the day, which is just fabulous. you can eat it like popcorn or you can throw them in soup or ramen to add just a few veggies to the mix! bravo!! i love them!!! my dear friend audrey introduced them to me. well, i guess i sort of just stole them from her since she was snacking on them, and she only just turned 2 so she couldn't defend her snack very well. but i did wind up buying my own eventually. :)


in final news, wait wait don't tell me - HERE WE COME! :) :) :)

November 01, 2009

weekend highlights

this past week was the longest week in the history of the world. we were going up to the mountain cabin with chris' parents! we haven't been up to the cabin with them in TWO YEARS. i knew it had been a long time, but while we were there, i looked it up and it had been 2 years...shameful. we left after work on friday and got back this afternoon. there were several highlights.


since i'm still in my first trimester, all i do is sleep, talk about how tired i am, sit down, breathe deeply and sigh, sleep and talk about sleeping. so all i wanted to do this weekend was, you guessed it, sleep. no hikes for this trip! while not many naps were taken, lots of sitting around was had by all!! it was lovely. right when we got there, the cabin was warm with a fire, and dinner was perfectly ready - pot roast with broiled veggies. are you kidding me?! we got there, hugged the parents, sat down for 5 minutes, and then sat down to one of the most delicious dinners i've ever had!! GLORY! i said, "now THIS is my kinda vacation!!" and then the next night we had steaks grilled outside. wow the food was good!!!



they taught us a marvelous new game introduced to them by the lovely jane neall - mexican train dominoes. i won't try to explain it here, but just know that it is beautifully addictive and so so fun!! it's one of those games that you can play for a little while, do something else for a few hours and then come back to it later. the highlight of the game experience requires some explanation...i will explain that the winner gets rid of all his dominoes and gets a score of zero for that round. everyone else adds up the total dots of their remaining tiles that they didn't play, and that's their score for the round - lowest score in the end wins. an average score for someone who doesn't win is anywhere from 5-30. no big numbers. well, one round i didn't win and my score was 140. that is one-hundred-and-forty. GOOD GRIEF!!! if you know how to play, we were playing double-ones, and i never even drew a one out of the boneyard!!!!!!! i think i had about 25 tiles and had only played tiles on the "wild" trains. *sigh* it was HILARIOUS. we laughed for a long long time, and i officially went down in the record books. haha!!!


we took little banjo with us - his third trip to the mountain! but it was his first trip when it wasn't just chris and me. we learned that we should only take him when it's going to be the two of us. not that he was a nuisance. we just thought he does better when it's just us. but the banjo highlight was mostly our fault, not his: late this morning, chris and i were reading on the front porch, and he came to the front door and started crying. i said "oh i wish we could bring him out here!" a few minutes later, i got him and just held him out on the porch. we thought there would be no harm in letting him down to explore for a little while. he's NEVER run from us when we were trying to get him, so we figured he wouldn't bolt into the wilderness. well...he didn't bolt from us, but he got REALLY spooked and it took us a while to get him. he just kept circling and circling and circling the house and would NOT let us catch him. every time he would come to a window, he would reach his little paws up and cry. he really just wanted back inside!!! chris thought it was because he (banjo) thought we were "hunting" him, b/c we basically just followed him around everywhere he went. he eventually just sat under the front porch and wailed in a deep gutteral cry that i've never heard come from his little body! i crawled under the porch and he let me pick him up. when i handed him off to chris though, he started flailing around - which is REALLY unlike him - but we finally got him back inside. *whew* BAD decision on our part...and mostly my part since it was my idea. as he was recovering under the bed, we noticed that all his little paws were really muddy. they've never been muddy before!! poor little buddy...

the greatest highlight of the entire weekend was gaining an hour on saturday night. GLORY!!! i love that day every year. it's probably the last time we'll be able to enjoy it until our kids are old enough to enjoy it too...babies don't know about daylight savings time...*sigh*