Something Stephanie

Favorite Things: Months 1-3

2012-01-25T23:23:00.001-06:00

Now that were are 12 weeks into this whole baby business, I thought I'd share some of the things that we have used and loved for these first few months. If not to help other people, but to remind myself if baby two should ever come around...

Fisher Price Love U Zoo Swing

I can't even tell you how lost in the world we would have been without this swing. It took David a couple tries to warm up to it, but once he did he took nearly every nap for the first 10 weeks of his life in this swing. It rocks both like a normal swing and also side to side. David mostly preferred the traditional swing direction and loved watching the mobile, listening to the lullaby's and looking at his reflection in the mirror ball. Now that he's older the seat sits up a bit so I attach some toys to the tray and bring it into the kitchen so he can swing and watch me cook. Life. Saver. I will truly be sad when he's too big for it or no longer likes it.

Miracle Blanket

I've written about my love of the miracle blanket before, but man I love it. I still kick myself for not trying it again before things were totally out of control, but I'm so glad I finally did. I was terrible at swadding with regular blankets and he could totally wiggle out of the velcro ones, but since this one pins his arms down, there's no escaping! It might look like the "baby straight-jacket" but he never fusses when he's in it and usually calms right down. If you ever find yourself thinking "my baby doesn't like to be swaddled". I urge you to just try this for a couple nights. I am SO sad that he appears to be outgrowing it, but I knew he'd have to learn to sleep with his arms free eventually.

Dr. Brown's Formula Pitcher

Yes, we formula feed. Since we do, bottle making takes up a chunk of our day. Those formula makers are tricky too, they make the scoops in 2 ounce portions, so whenever David is drinking odd numbered ounces (he's drinking 5 oz bottles now) we'd be throwing away a whole ounce of formula per bottle if we were making them one at a time. That's a ton of money down the drain! With this pitcher we can mix nearly 28 ounces at a time and store it in the fridge, then when it's time to eat we just pour what we need! Perfect! Highly, highly recommended for anyone that formula feeds!

Munchkin High Speed Bottle Warmer

When I was pregnant, everything I read said bottle warmers were a waste of money and babies shouldn't need their bottle warm. Well since we started making our bottles in the pitcher and they were kept in the fridge I really hated the thought of giving David cold formula. We tried dropping the bottles in a mug of hot water for a few minutes, but our water from the tap takes forever to heat up, I didn't want to mess with the microwave and when you have a screaming infant on our shoulder, time is ticking. This bottle warmer heats a bottle in less than 90 seconds (which at times still feels like an eternity) but it has made our lives so much easier and I think the warm milk helps settle David when he's really worked up. Plus it has a neat attachment you can use to sanitize binkies!

Summer Infant Flat Screen Video Monitor

I was on the fence about getting a video monitor. Turns out I love it. However, I mostly have to keep the video portion off. I've found that when it's on, I get all kinds of crazy. I think every move is him waking up and find myself sitting there staring at him, just waiting for something to happen. Usually I turn the video off or just use the hand held audio one. It picks up sound really well and the lights let me know when he's crying when I'm doing something to where I can't hear like running on the treadmill or washing dishes. It is nice to be able to click on the video and see what he's doing through. It saves me a lot of trips into his room to check on him.

Nuk Pacifier

I had a ton of different pacifiers (or binkies as we call them) when David was born. I'd heard babies could be picky and that turned out be true. This is the one that he picked as his favorite. We have a bunch of them so there's always one close by to grab. I still kind of hope he finds his thumb pretty soon so he can self-soothe, but I have a feeling he's gonna be a binky baby. As long as he doesn't use one as long as I did (way too long) I'm alright with it. We also use Nuk bottles. We like' em.

Homedics SoundSpa Lullaby Sound Machine

Ah, white noise. Where would we be without it? Zach and I can't sleep without a fan on so we figured the little one would like some background noise too. We use this one on the "rain" setting. It's on every time he's in his crib. I think it also helps drown out some of the outside sounds (like our noisy neighbors and barking dogs) and helps cue him in that it's time to sleep. It has a timer, but we let it go all night. I do wish it just had a "fan" or "white noise" setting instead of the droppy rain sounds, but it works. Oh and the projector totally broke after a couple uses. Kind of bummed, but oh well.

Tiny Love Mobile

Let's just cut right to the chase. This thing is hideous. It doesn't go with his nursery "theme", it's totally bright and really obnoxious looking.... and that's the point. I was pretty anal when researching mobiles. I knew babies needed bright colors and bold contrasts to engage them and this is the one that kept coming up the winner in the reviews. I guess the Tiny Love people know what they are doing because David loves this thing. We don't use it for bedtime normally, but whenever I need about 15 minutes to do something like fold laundry or get the diaper bag ready, I lay him under this and he just stares and kicks and is completely mesmerized. If he's fussy in the middle of naptime I'll turn it on and the shapes that move around click every few seconds and I think it totally soothes him back to sleep. Plus it plays classical music. We like that.

Fisher Price Infant to Toddler Rocker

Another life saver. This sits on our kitchen counter. I keep the kickstand up so I can just pop him in the seat any time I need to do something like feed the dogs, eat breakfast, go to the restroom, let the dogs out or get a bottle ready. It vibrates, has a fun little toy bar and is really deep so he has plenty of room to grow into it. When it is in "rocker" mode it sits him up a little more so he can watch me cook or do dishes. We also use it when we eat so he can see us. Love this thing. I hope he likes it as a toddler rocker too.

Honorable Mention:
-My cell phone - Wow. Who knew how much time I'd have to surf Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest during late night feedings?! What on EARTH did people do to stay awake before smart phones?? Seriously!
-Our Lazyboy Recliner- I am SO glad we got that thing. It might be big and kind of ugly, but I have spent hours upon hours in that thing holding David through naps, rocking him to sleep and even pulling some all-nighters back in the early days. Not to mention the fact that I practically lived in that thing during the last couple months of my pregnancy. So glad we have it.
- Yoga pants- I think this is pretty obvious.
- Granola Bars & Diet Coke - There were several days where I lived on these two things alone.

And that's it for now. I'm sure I forgot a bunch of stuff and will smack myself after I push "publish" but perhaps I'll just catch them next time. For now, it's time for bed!

David is 11 Weeks Old!

2012-01-19T11:50:00.000-06:00

David continues to grow and change! I feel like he's a totally different baby every day!

The biggest news is sleep! He's now sleeping at night exclusively in his crib (hope I didn't just jinx that!) He still gets up one or two times a night, but its generally pretty easy to get him back to sleep. A couple times he's pulled out a 7 hour stretch, but we usually average about 5 hour stretches. I am definitely not complaining! Now naptime? That's another story. He is not a big fan of napping in his crib. I usually get him down for about 20 to 30 minutes then he's back up. I know he's tired because then he'll sleep in my arms for a good two hours! While I absolutely LOVE holding him, I know I can't do it all the time, so I've been trying to be a little more persistent about putting him in the crib. Right now it's working! The only reason I'm able to type this blog is because he's sleeping!! Plus I already worked out for 40 minutes AND took a shower! It's a miracle!!

He's more and more alert everyday too! Just in the last couple days he's started to actually bat at some of his toys and grab on to a blanket or soft lovey when I put in on his lap. Adorable! The other night when Zach was talking to him he kept reaching for his face! He LOVES his dad!! Oh my goodness, does he!

His favorite spot to hang out is still his changing table. He will lay there and just smile and kick and has even started "talking" to his best friend - a picture of a cow - every time he's up there. Even in the middle of the night. It makes diaper changes a lot more fun!

How am I doing? Alright. My maternity leave is over half gone now. I have really mixed emotions about it. I didn't think I'd miss work as much as I do. I always had lofty dreams of being a stay at home mom, and while it's not even an option for us, I just don't know if I could do it. Don't get me wrong, I love being home with him and I'm cherishing every single second, but a part of me misses getting dressed and driving somewhere and doing something. Then I think about dropping him off at daycare and feel sick to my stomach. So yeah, mixed emotions. I still have two more months to go (Thank You Hallmark!) but I need to start updating my resume (why I did not do this before leaving, I do not know) because while I'm guaranteed a job back, they couldn't hold my position so I need to get that all spiffed up because I'm sure whatever jobs are open, the manager is going to want to see my resume anyway. Sigh.

I've been trying to work out more often. I'm finally starting to drop more weight. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that all the Christmas candy is finally gone (heh!) and I don't have time to eat big meals. So yay! I still have a long ways to go, but I'm pretty happy with where I am so far! I am SO thankful that Zach got me a treadmill for my birthday. I can't even imagine what I'd do if I didn't have that!! We've both really loved having it for a quick workout whenever we have a few minutes! Total life-saver!

Sorry the pictures aren't the best. I've been bad about getting out the "big camera" so these are all taken with my camera phone.

OH! Here's a video I got of David playing with his first real toy! At first I thought it was a fluke and he was just waving his arms, but no, it appears he was really playing with it, and having a GREAT time! (please do yourself a favor and mute this video. I need to learn to shut my trap when taking videos. I am so annoying! Ha!)

David is Two Months Old

2012-01-03T20:47:00.000-06:00

Look at that big boy!

Here we are at two months old! I finally feel like we are exiting the "newborn" phase of things and entering into full on babyhood. I won't lie, the first month and a half were super hard. Up until he was about 6-7 weeks old, all that child did was cry or sleep. I was starting to feel like I'd never figure it out and then slowly everything has been coming together nicely.

The most important thing we've discovered is the power of the swaddle! We tried swaddling when we got home from the hospital but he seemed to really hate it and would scream and cry even after giving it a few minutes. Then after several nights of watching him flail his arms around every time he was tired I knew we had to give it another go. Enter the Miracle Blanket. It has changed our lives! We wrap him up in that thing, sit down in the rocker and he's usually out in no time flat. I could just kick myself for not trying it again sooner! It has also helped him transition to his crib. He used to hate that thing but now that he's swaddled he sleeps his first stretch in it every night (after he wakes up we bring him in our room and he naps in his swing most the time). We are going to transition to the crib full time next week, including at least two naps a day. Hopefully.

Speaking of sleep - it's getting better. Typically bedtime starts around 8:30 or 9:00 with pajamas, a warm bottle, rocking then the crib. He will be pretty good about giving us a 4-5 hour stretch, wake to eat and then back down for another 4 hours and if we are lucky another 2-3 after that. I'm hoping he drops that 1/2am feeding here pretty soon, but we are pretty happy regardless! He usually takes a long nap in the late afternoon and then another one in the evening then catnaps in between.

He started smiling at 6 weeks. It is so much fun! He smiles more and more every day. He also moves his mouth like he's trying to figure out how to babble and will occasionally coo and squeak. We love it! Right now his favorite thing to do is lay on his changing table and look at a picture of a cow on the wall. Seriously. He will do this multiple times a day for long stretches. Sometimes he'll lay on his activity mat, or in his crib to watch his mobile or on a blanket with us on the couch, but for the most part, the changing pad is his most favorite! We just go with it!

He had his two month doctor appointment today. He weighs 11 lbs, 12 oz (51st percentile), is 22.5 inches long (24th percentile) and his noggin is in the 60th percentile. So, he's doing great!! He holds his head up really well and his favorite way to be held is up on my shoulder so he can look around. He got his shots and was pretty crabby when he woke up from his nap but after a good massage and warm bath he seems to be back to his old self. Thank goodness.poor guy.

Otherwise things are going great! I love him more and more everyday and cannot wait to watch him grow and learn all sorts of new things in the next month! Oh! Sounds like someone is ready for a bottle! Till next time...

First Christmas

2011-12-30T13:55:00.000-06:00

We were so excited to celebrate Christmas for the first time with David!

The night before Christmas Eve was a rough one though. The poor dude only slept 2 hours because he kept waking himself up. We were both exhausted. Luckily on Christmas Eve I thought to bust out the swaddle again (he hated being swaddled for a long time so we gave up). It worked! He was well rested for all the festivities!

Christmas Eve was celebrated at my aunt and uncles house. This was the first Christmas Eve that hasn't been at my Grandma's house so it was a little strange for all of us I think. We had a nice time anyway. David got to debut his first "big boy" outfit! We found the cutest herringbone pants and red sweater and even though he only wore the sweater for a little bit, it was so dang cute! David was awake for a good portion of the evening and then zonked out for a short nap before becoming Mr. Fussypants before church. We weren't sure if we were going to make it to mass, but luckily he fell asleep in the car and slept all the way though church!

Yes, his hands really ARE that big. You should see the feet on this kid too!

That night David gave us the gift of sleep! Sleeping his first 5 hour stretch! Ahh sweet, sweet sleep... He must have known he has to sleep for Santa to come! I celebrated by falling down the stairs in the morning. Luckily I wasn't carrying the baby, but it was quite the spill. My back still hurts! Christmas morning we packed up for the day and headed over to my parents house for breakfast and gifts. He took a good nap and let us eat breakfast and then hung out under the tree while we opened gifts for a little, but soon got fussy and Grandpa had to take over! Something tells me he didn't mind though!

After my parents house we headed over to my Grandpa's house. This was the first time David was introduced to my dad's side of the family and boy howdy, are there a lot of people to meet!!! I was really nervous about him being passed around with all the germies that usually come with a zillion grand-kids running around, but lucky for us he slept in his car seat the whole time! Everyone got to see him but from a "mom approved" distance :) Finally we were all totally worn out so we headed back home to open our gifts and crash out for the night. David slept for seven straight hours that night! He must have been exhausted. He hasn't slept that long again since, but we are hoping for more to come soon!

Next up we head to my friend Kristy's for New Years Eve. We won't be staying long, but it will be nice to get out and do something. We haven't celebrated NYE in years!

David is Six Weeks Old

2011-12-15T12:37:00.000-06:00

Six weeks already! I have a feeling I'm going to start each update post with that sort of disbelief. The time is really flying.

I am not exactly sure what to say that has changed since my last update, but I'm sure there's a ton. He's still pretty much in the same routine that he's been in since we brought him home. He gets up every three hours to eat On. The. Dot. Once in a very great while he'll sleep longer, but usually it's exactly three hours, around the clock. I keep waiting for some longer stretches at night and hope they are coming soon... The books I have say six weeks is when they start to finally figure things out, so we'll see about that.

We are also trying to work on sleeping in the crib. Right now he's not a fan. He sleeps in our room in the pack & play at night (very well, thankfully) and for naps he's usually in his swing (seriously, we'd be lost without that thing!) or sometimes in his little baby seat. We put him in the crib and he'll even put himself to sleep in there but without fail wakes up within an hour screaming. We'll just keep at it, someday he'll get it.

Meals are still his favorite thing. He eats about 8 times a day and loves every second of every meal. And when it's time to eat and we are taking too long getting the bottle ready - watch out. Hangry to the max! He must get that from me...

His fifth week was a big one though. I hosted the 10th annual "Girls Christmas" get-together. Usually we go out to eat, but since I'm not comfortable taking David out yet, I had it at my house instead. We had a great time eating appetizers and lots of sweets. David slept most the night but made sure to wake up and have a major scream-fest right before everyone left. Luckily Zach was home from work early so he could help me out.

Then, this past Tuesday Zach and I had our first day-date since we had David. We dropped him off at my parents and went to lunch and did some Christmas shopping. We were only gone a little over two hours, but it was nice to get out, just me and him again. And, much to my surprise, it wasn't THAT hard leaving David. I knew he was in good hands (and would be sleeping most the time...)

The next few weeks are big ones! His first Christmas is coming up and I'm looking forward to it so much! I hope he's in the spirit because he's got lots of places to go! Church, Grandma and Grandpa's, and then both Great-Grandparents houses! It should be fun! Then the next week he has his two month appointment (TWO MONTHS!) and his shots. I'm not looking forward to that, but I am looking forward to seeing how much he's grown. Wow. Time is just slipping by. I am SO thankful that I don't have to go back to work until the end of March! I know it will be here before I know it though.... Till then I'm going to soak up every day with him!

David is One Month Old

2011-12-02T13:15:00.000-06:00

Hooray! We made it a whole month! Look at us go!

It's hard to believe that a whole month has already passed us by. The days are absolutely flying! People keep asking if we've developed a "routine" yet and I can't help but laugh. There is no such thing as a routine with a newborn I've found out. I've tried, oh yes, I've tried but he kind of runs the show around here right now. Just when we feel like we've figured it out, he throws us a curve ball. Always keeping it interesting, that David!

3 weeks

He spent most of the first two and a half weeks of his little life asleep. He would sleep for hours if we let him, but we were instructed to wake him to eat every 3 hours, so we did. And boy does he like to eat!! He will throw an absolute fit when he's hungry but once we sit down and put on his bib he knows food is on the way and is happy as a clam the whole time he's eating. The past week and a half he's been awake a LOT more. Mostly at night. Of course, right? I don't really think he's got his days and nights totally mixed up, but he seems to wake up on his own more often at night than during the day. We'll have good nights were he sleeps for 3 hours at a time, then other nights where he's up on the hour, every hour. I'm having a hard time believing he'll EVER sleep longer than three hours, really. But at the same time, no matter how tired I am or what crazy hour of the night it is, I am soaking up every single moment of cuddle time I can get right now, because that won't last forever and I love it so much.

4 Weeks

I'd love to report all of his "developmental milestones" but honestly, I have no idea what I'm supposed to be watching for (book suggestions welcome!). He's really good at tummy time and has awesome head control already (we think anyway) but he's also extremely wiggly. The pediatrician said we need to be careful with him because he's so strong and so reflexive right now. She asked if I felt him move a ton when I was pregnant and was totally shocked when I told her I hardly felt him move at all. I guess he was saving up all his energy! He can already wiggle his way around his crib, so because of this he quickly outgrew his cradle. He still sleeps in his pack-n-play in our room at night though. He loves looking at the big windows in the living room, the lights in the kitchen and his blue curtains in his bedroom. He loves being read to most of the time and is a big fan of his George Winston "December" CD of piano solos that we listen to over, and over, and over again every single night when we rock him to sleep. Overall he seems fairly happy and content but definitely has is majorly fussy moments. He is a baby afterall :)

As for me? I'm doing alright. This "mom" business is hard. I feel like I do nothing all day, but at the same time I feel incredibly busy. It's very strange. I've had a really great recovery though. Despite the PUPP's (which is now mostly gone, thank God!) I have felt back to normal since about the first week! I am so thankful that I healed so fast! I've lost two-thirds of my pregnancy weight so far and have just started going back to the gym. Oh wow, I've missed that. It felt SO good to put on my headphones, crank up the music and really push myself again. I hope to drop the rest of the weight fairly quickly. I hardly have time to snack like I used to, so that should help. I've also quickly realized the importance of getting out of the house every so often by myself. I feel really guilty doing it, but both Zach and I realize I need that time to get dressed, do my hair, get out amongst adults and feel normal for a while. I am very grateful that Zach is able to look after David while I do that. Sometime soon we are going to have my parents watch David while Zach and I go out Christmas shopping and to dinner. I'm excited and nervous at the same time! We need to do it though.

So yeah. One month down! We are so in love with the little guy and can't wait to see what the next month has in store!

Bump Round-Up

2011-11-28T18:11:00.000-06:00

I already get a kick out of looking back on all these pictures. I remember taking the very first one and thinking "oh my god, I'm so fat!!!" Ha! HaHaHa!!

I had a really fun time taking the pictures each week and I'm SO glad I did. As much as pregnancy was hard on me and not the most fun I've ever had, it just blows my mind that all that work created something so precious and perfect. I guess it's true when everybody says "I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat..."

Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T20:39:00.000-06:00

We had a successful first Thanksgiving as a new family of 3!

David and I got up early and made a delicious french toast casserole for breakfast. He is such a happy baby in the morning (he gets that from me, Zach is the night owl of the family). He gets a fresh diaper, bottle, a chat and some cuddles and then is content to hang out in his seat while I feed the dogs, eat breakfast or do whatever else it is that I need to get done in the morning. It's my favorite time of day!

Then we went to our first family gathering at my Grandma's. I think he's going through his 3 week growth spurt because he slept through the entire thing only waking up to eat and then back to sleep he went. At least he was a good baby! It was really great because my cousin was also in town with her little girl so my Grandparents got to spend some time with their two Great-Grandkids! Really cool!

So, overall it was a great day! Needless to say we have a lot to be thankful this year.... and for many years to come!

David is Two Weeks Old

2011-11-17T12:39:00.000-06:00

6 Days Old

David is now two weeks old!

I feel like the days are flying by and he's already changed so much and seems so much bigger!

The first week was hard, just like everyone said it would be. We spent a lot of time running around to different doctor appointments. Some for David, some for me. I developed a rather severe case of post-pardum PUPPP's (horrible, itchy rash...horrible. just awful really.) and was absolutely miserable. I ended up at the dermatologist twice in one day and left with stitches and a chunk cut of my leg for a biopsy. Then poor David had to go the hospital twice to have some labs re-drawn all in addition to our normal doctor appointments. What a whirl-wind! Luckily we both seem to be doing just fine now but those few days were difficult. I was a ball of emotions, but we made it through!

8 Days Old

Luckily David is a really, really good baby. He hardly fusses unless he's tired, hungry or getting his diaper changed. He sleeps like champ and we frequently have to wake him up just to eat. He is so sweet and has an absolutely adorable half-grin that he pulls out every so often that melts our hearts. We spend most the day just holding him and watching him sleep. We love every second.

13 Days Old

Zach has been amazing. Just amazing. He took two weeks off work to stay home and has done so much for us. He loves David and will do whatever we need. He even gets up in the middle of the night to help feed and soothe him. He's a pro! I couldn't have done it without him.

The dogs have reacted just as we suspected. Missy wants to be his best bud, but is being good about it and Ted just keeps his distance, spending most the day snoozing in our bedroom.

First bath at home

He's also had several visitors throughout the past couple weeks. Lots of family, friends and Zach's mom even came and stayed for a week to help out. He's one lucky little dude. So loved!

2 Weeks Old

David's Arrival

2011-11-13T20:59:00.000-06:00

My last week of pregnancy was week 38 since David was born at exactly 39 weeks. A whole week early! The Sunday before that I got a big burst of energy and spent the whole day out shopping. I was so exhausted and sore, but I couldn't stop. That night I did all the grocery shopping, made dinner, baked some muffins and lightly cleaned the house. Your typical "nesting" episode that usually precedes birth. Although I just convinced myself that I was "trying" to bring on labor. Monday (Halloween) came and went and I felt totally fine. I was a tad bit bummed I wasn't in labor. I always thought a Halloween baby would be fun.

Tuesday I woke up late and was rushing to work. I took a shower but didn't wash my hair, shave my legs or pack a lunch. (I should have known....) The whole morning at work I felt really off and totally distracted. I didn't feel any contractions or pains, but I just felt really strange and had a hard time concentrating on anything. After my 11:00 Halloween recap meeting I went to the restroom before I planned to meet a co-worker up outside the card shop. It was there that my water broke!! Thank goodness I was in the restroom, but of course I wasn't totally sure that's what it was because it wasn't a huge gush or anything. I managed to fix myself up enough to go back to my desk and grab my phone to call Zach. He was getting ready to take Ted to the vet so luckily he had my car with my hospital bag in it. I haven't asked how fast he drove to Hallmark, but he got there pretty quickly. I instant messaged my manager and told him I wasn't feeling well so we were heading out. I said I didn't want to make a big to-do because how embarrassed would I be if I told everyone my water broke only to find out I just peed my pants!? Ha!

The ride to the hospital was a little surreal. I had myself convinced that my water hadn't broken and we'd be sent away since I was having zero contractions. Then I also thought maybe I was having contractions and I was just a total rock star and they weren't bothering me. One could wish! We just kept taking turns asking each other "are you ready?" Over and over. I think we were both a little nervous. We checked in at the hospital and they quickly put us in a room and started hooking me up to all sorts of monitors and getting an IV ready. They did a quick test and indeed my water had broken. It was time to have a baby!! So we got all hooked up, settled in and they checked my progress. Still 2 cm like I'd been the past two weeks and no contractions to be seen or felt. They asked if I wanted to see if I went into labor on my own before starting Pitocin to get things moving and I said yes. They said if nothing was happening within 4 hours they would have to start it since my water had broken to help minimize the risk of infection, which I was fine with.

Zach and I started making our calls and sending the "it's baby time" texts and just kind of hung out. I was feeling totally normal and knew I wasn't going to go into labor on my own. At 5:30pm they started me on a really low dose of Pitocin. They tried to check me but were unable to do so. Do not ask me how that's possible, all I know it was super painful while they tried!! At 7:30pm I was only having really mild contractions and they checked me again. This time they were able to tell I was about 5cm (yay!) but they weren't sure of the baby's position. So they brought in the ultrasound machine. Both nurses were pretty convinced he was transverse (sideways - which I had thought he had been for nearly my entire pregnancy) and that I'd need a c-section. They started prepping everything immediately. I was disappointed and VERY nervous but the health of the baby was our number one priority, so, we accepted it. 45 minutes later the doctor came in and took another look. Either the nurses were wrong or he moved within those 45 minutes because she was convinced that he was indeed head down, 6 cm and ready to go. Alright, back to business then!

Around 8:30pm my contractions started really kicking in and while I was able to get through them fairly easily I knew I would want some relief when it came to pushing so I agreed to the epidural. Oh my god, I was so nervous about the epidural. I sat on the edge of the bed and just shook uncontrollably. The nurse held my hand and I closed my eyes until the whole thing was over. I never even saw the anesthesiologist until she was done. It really wasn't bad at all. It took a few minutes to take effect and by the time they had me lay back down I was in HEAVEN. Seriously. I had never been that relaxed in my whole life. I felt warm and cozy and so, so sleepy. I remember telling Zach "I'm going to start doing drugs! This is great!" ha! I could still move my legs and feel pressure but I was totally pain free. I tried to sleep but was too excited so I just rested my eyes and relaxed. Best decision ever.

At 9:15pm they checked me again and I was nearly 9cm and everyone was so pleased I was progressing so fast and were convinced I'd be having an 11-1-11 baby, no problem! They left to go "help the girl next door" (who was NOT having a fun time. She was literally screaming. Blood curdling screaming... only mildly concerning..and part of the reason why I got the epidural, actually.) and said they'd be back soon and we'd start pushing! Around 10:45pm I started feeling intense pressure and was really wanting to start pushing. I just kept saying "hurry up, I need to push, hurry up....." FINALLY at 11:30pm it was time to push. Everyone still was convinced we'd be having a baby that day, but I knew better.

Pushing was the hardest thing I've ever done in all my life. I can't really explain it and quite honestly I've already forgotten most of the "pain" but it was just this extreme amount of "pressure" and frustration when no matter how hard I pushed, nothing happened. Turns out the baby's head was tilted sideways and in order for any progress to be made, he had to turn is head "just a little bit". Luckily I had an amazing doctor (not my normal doctor, which made me nervous, but she turned out to be really great) and she stayed with me nearly the entire time working her magic. The nurses were amazing as well. I could not have asked for a better medical team, that is the truth. Zach was totally awesome as well. He stayed right by me the whole time and was definitely my biggest cheerleader. I couldn't have done it without him. We alternated regular pushing with playing "tug of war" where the nurse held one end of a towel and I held the other. That was my favorite but man it took a lot of energy.

I knew I had been pushing a long time and was really getting exhausted. They had to give me oxygen after a while since I was hyperventilating after contractions and I hated having that thing on my face so much. They also kept putting a cold washcloth on me which fell in my eyes every time I pushed which just made me mad. I kept saying over and over again how I wished I was doing better and how I was sorry I wasn't better at it and everyone kept telling me I was doing great and cheering me on anyway. At one point I proclaimed "I wish I wouldn't have stopped working out!" and then accused everyone of lying to me when they kept saying "you are almost there". Heh! I remember just wanting to rest and the nurses even told me to rest through a couple contractions to get my energy back but I physically coudn't do it, I HAD to push. My eyes had been shut practically the whole time and I remember opening them at one point and looking at the clock. It said 2:35am. OH. MY. GOD. I had been pushing for THREE HOURS already!! That was apparently the fuel I needed so I started pushing with all my might. After three and a half hours of non-stop pushing it was finally time. The room got really full and everyone was rushing around getting things ready. I just kept my eyes closed and tried to concentrate.

The pressure turned to PAIN and I knew I was about to have my baby. The rest is a blur. I just remember Zach telling me "he's coming!" and the nurse saying "dad get your camera" and "the doctor is suctioning his mouth and nose" and then BAM - Baby on my chest. Holy cow. I was so exhausted and so overwhelmed that neither one of us cried but instead we just stared at him and held his hand and said our hellos. It was like an out of body experience. He felt so heavy and looked so big. I couldn't believe we made him!

David Louis was finally here.

November 2, 2011
2:58 am
7 lbs 13 oz
19.5 inches long
full head of dark hair

After a while they whisked him over to the warmer and Zach followed while they finished working on me. It was really uncomfortable and not at all enjoyble but my eyes were glued on Zach and David. After a while they brought him over to me all bundled up and we just held him and stared at him. So amazing.

The rest of that morning is a big blur. I know Zach took a nap and a nurse came in to give David his first bath while I tried to stand and watch. I then ordered some breakfast because all I had to eat the day before was cereal that morning and some almonds I grabbed before leaving work. We checked into our recovery room around 8:30am and the rest of our stay was a whirlwind of visitors, nurses, doctors and very little sleep. I didn't like being in the hospital at all. They were constantly taking David to the nursery and not telling me when he'd be back. I was so happy to head home Friday afternoon, that's for sure.

So, now we are home and loving every second. He's a very good baby and sleeps like a champ. We can't imagine life without him...

I will try my best to do weekly (or maybe bi-weekly) updates. He's doing great so far and we couldn't have asked for a better little baby. We love him so much!

Introducing....

2011-11-07T20:23:00.000-06:00

David Louis

Born November 2, 2011

2:58am

7 pounds 13 ounces

19.5 inches long

Very much loved

At some point I'll share our story and update more, but right now I've got a baby waiting to be loved on...

Pregnancy - Week 37

2011-10-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Today marks the end of week 37 and I am officially wanting this baby out!

Week 37 started off with a weekly doctors appointment. I had my first official cervical check and am already 2 cm dilated. The doctor said this was "good news" especially since I hadn't been having any noticeable contractions. She said "progress without pain is always good!" I had mixed feelings at that point. We are in the process of getting a new roof put on the house and this baby cannot come until after that is done! (currently scheduled for tomorrow...fingers crossed for no rain!). Now that a whole week has passed, I'm taking all the progress I can get! Although I fully realize I can walk around all kinds of dilated for weeks on end. Yay.

I thought I was standing in front of our tree...not a dead patch of grass and the neighbors AC unit... sigh. Also, this shirt is clearly not flattering, but dammit it's comfy!

We are busy at home getting all the final little things set up, like the swing, the cradle, the monitor, and the pack n play. I've washed all the bottles and binkies, my hospital bag is in the car and I carry my makeup and phone charger in my purse with me wherever I go. I keep telling Zach we are like the boy scouts right now... always prepared!

Baby-wise, he's definitely dropped. Or he's just so huge that it feels like it. I've got the "beach ball between my legs" feeling and lots and lots of pelvic pressure, so much that it sometimes wakes me up at night. He's still moving and grooving in there. Sometimes I'm looking down and my stomach will literally jump two inches to the side and back. It is the coolest/craziest thing!!

We had another busy but restful weekend. I've been getting in the habit of waking up early with the dogs, feeding them, eating breakfast myself and then going back to bed until close to noon!! I feel bad for wasting my whole morning, but I'm taking all the sleep I can get, whenever I can get it because nighttime sleep is very hit or miss. Saturday I went to my friend, Erica's bachlorette party. Lucky for me she just wanted to have a girls night at her apartment. We played games, chatted and I watched everyone drink. It was actually a really great time though. It was nice to get out one last time with the girls before the baby gets here!! Then Sunday Zach's work threw him a surprise shower! His boss called me on Friday and asked if I wanted to come and of course I said yes. He was really surprised to see me and I think it' so cool that his co-workers went all out for him! They even had games and cupcakes! That's not too common for the guys these days!!

So, now we are just waiting. I've been having light contractions on and off the past few days. Sometimes I try to time them, but I still can't tell when one ends and another begins. That just tells me that it's definitely not the real thing yet. Hopefully soon though!! Stay tuned!

Foreshadowing?

2011-10-20T19:56:00.000-05:00

Just for fun one night, way before we were even engaged, Zach and I thought it would be funny to try out "The Gene Machine" at Dave & Busters. Here's the result. Could this be what our kid will look like? You never know, but it sure was funny!

Pregnancy - Week 36

2011-10-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

I should be pretty darn thankful that I've had such a "boring" pregnancy. I really don't have a whole lot of updates this week, which is good! I'm at the end now and quite honestly starting to get really nervous!! I've run out of baby projects to occupy me so now I just kind of putter around the house and find myself sitting in the baby room staring at all the stuff. It's really kind of surreal!

The weather has finally cooled (way) off and I am loving every second of it!! We had another beautiful weekend too. Saturday, Zach spent half the day raking leaves and I spent half the day taking naps, I was so exhausted that day. I even got in a little rest outside on the deck and got some color!! That night we went on our "date night/anniversary dinner" to The Dish in Liberty. I know it's nothing fancy, but that's totally us and the pizza was delish! Sunday I got a burst of energy and cleaned the house, ran a bunch of errands and did some baking! Boy, was I ever sore that night!!

Physically things are pretty much the same. I'm really sore, really tired and moving slightly slower than a snail. I think the baby has dropped or is just getting really big because I'm having quite a bit of pelvic pressure and pain at times. Sometimes I will stand up and feel like I've been kicked square in the crotch a thousand times. Luckily once I get moving most of the discomfort goes away. It's just the getting up and getting going that takes the effort. I've also started getting some mild carpal tunnel in my fingers. The tips of all of my fingers are numb all day and in the morning I can hardly move my right hand. However it's nothing that has been too bad, just weird.

Lubbin' on the baby....

The baby has been quite the mover and shaker lately!! Lots of people say they stop feeling movement as often once they get this far along, but I've actually been feeling much more!! There's always this one random body part that he likes to poke out all the time, I'm guessing a knee?? My doctor says he's head down and once I showed her where all the movement is she said he's just a "little rump shaker" ha! It is really neat feeling him that much though! The hiccups are also really cool too. He gets them for LONG periods of time too!!

So, that's that. I'm officially "Full Term" now at 37 weeks. He could come at any time! How crazy is that?!

The Baby's Room

2011-10-16T20:18:00.000-05:00

So, the baby's room is finally done! I actually had a lot of fun putting this together. I never went into it with a "theme". I knew I wanted to do wood alphabet letters in lots of different colors and patterns, but beyond that I had no idea where this was going to end up. I stuck to mostly blues in all different shades and threw in some green here and there as well. We wanted to do something that could easily transition into a "little boy's room" once he gets old enough to proclaim what he wants. I really do love it and cannot wait to spend time with our little guy in there.

Looking in from the hallway

Alphabet Wall - Opposite from the crib. I figure it will be something for him to look at when he's older and chilling out after a nap or whatever. Ha! This is probably the most "creative" thing I've ever done on my own and I've got to say I'm quite proud of it!!

The corner of the room I had no idea what to do with. I thought some colorful paper lanterns (not lit) would be cute.

The dresser and changing area. The pictures above are of our little family, some will be replaced with baby pictures once we have them.

The bookcase and storage area. The picture is the movie poster for "Matchmaker Mary". Our little Missy dog was used in it while she was a "waif" at Wayside when we were waiting to adopt her, so her picture is on it several times. I went to the big movie premier (ha!) when it came out and got this poster thinking I'd put it in a baby's room one day. We also own the movie and I'm sure we'll watch it with the kid someday!

I have a feeling we'll be spending plenty of time here.

Organizing closets is not my strong suit, especially ones this small, but this neat organizer thing really helps. Clearly, this is still a work in progress...

Ted's always checking on me.

Now we just need a baby!!

Four Years

2011-10-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

Today is our our 4th wedding anniversary.

It still feels like yesterday. I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us!

Pregnancy - Week 35

2011-10-11T22:40:00.000-05:00

Another week down!

I'm really tired and am having a hard time coming up with much of anything to say about this week that isn't mopey or whiney, but I'll try... My appointment this week went well. As it turns out I was definitely pretty swollen last week when I went in because ended up LOSING quite a bit of weight. Even my doctor said it was "dramatic" but overall she wasn't worried about it since everything else looked alright. I'm just convinced that most of this awful weight I'm hauling around is water and am even more hopeful that it will quickly go away after birth... As you can see the baby is growing *quite* well...

I plan on working up until my due date, but oh man, it is hard! I'm glad I have something to do during the day so I don't go crazy thinking about the baby, but I am SO uncomfortable all day long. It's really taking a lot out of me, but I still think I can hang in there till the end. Not so sure about my wardrobe though. I keep trying to figure out a creative way to wear yoga pants to work, but haven't come up with anything yet. Ideas?... *sigh*

I think I had my first bout of contractions Sunday night. I hadn't been feeling super well all day and then at 11:30 pm, I shot out of bed with awful cramps and a super tight stomach. I did a few laps around the living room, drank some water and completely freaked out Zach before laying back down. I guess they stopped because I ended up falling asleep, but I was up and down all night. It obviously didn't turn out to be anything since I am still very pregnant and haven't had anything close to that since, but it was eye opening! I packed my hospital bag the next day! :)

In preparation news, I hung some more things in the nursery and I promise it's almost done. I hope to have pictures by next week! Getting the mail has become super fun too! It seems as though every day there some sort of new baby goodie in there. Our house has been completely overtaken by baby things too. Right now we have a stroller in the dining room, pack-n-play and swing in the living room, a whole cabinet full of baby food gear, a laundry room full of baby bedding and we'll be setting the cradle up in our bedroom shortly! There's no denying that the baby is coming soon!

We continue to "train" the dogs. This week we got the gate I plan on using to section off the house when we are doing tummy time, have visitors or just want a dog-free area set up. I've been trying it out every so often. They aren't happy about it, but so far we haven't had any major melt downs, which makes me super happy. They just seem to know something is going on and have been really good about the sudden influx of baby things, so I'm hopeful that the transition to having a real-live baby will be good as well.

So, now there's less than a month left to go... I still can't believe it.

Gettin' Married

2011-10-09T19:24:00.000-05:00

My younger brother is anyway.

Several months ago Vince and Sheena asked me if I'd "take their engagement pictures". Seeing as how I only knew how to use the "automatic" setting on my camera and, well, the fact that I'm not a photographer*, I didn't quite know what to do. But, they suckered me in. Zach gave me a very brief camera tutorial in the backyard the night before the session. We headed out one morning during that horrible heatwave and took as many pictures as we could before it got too hot out. Much to my surprise, we got several pretty decent shots! I suppose it doesn't hurt that the subjects are so good-lookin'!

Congrats to Sheena and Vince! Can't wait for the wedding in June!

*I still don't know what the heck I'm doing with the camera and I by no means think I'm some sort of photographer, but I had a good time anyway! I'm sure I'll get in much more practice when the little one gets here!

Pregnancy - Week 34

2011-10-03T21:39:00.000-05:00

Well tomorrow is the big 35/35 milestone.... 35 weeks pregnant, 35 days to go. I still can't decide if I'm really excited or really nervous! There's still so much to do, but at the same time we seem pretty ready.

Week 34 has been... a bit trying. I ended up going to the doctor on Wednesday because I felt abnormally swollen. Usually I wake up to minimal swelling but that day I woke up just as poofy as when I went to bed the night before. In addition to my feet and hands being swollen I had some seriously pouty lips. Everything ended up being perfectly fine and the nurse practitioner said the swelling wasn't that bad, however the weight gain in one week leads me to believe that I was indeed quite swollen because I haven't been eating nearly as much as before so there's no way that was all "weight gain". Whatever. I'm thinking about telling them to stop showing me my weight. It's starting to get really upsetting, which is so silly because obviously I'll gain weight and I KNOW how to get rid of it once the baby comes, but still... it's hard.

I started doing all the baby laundry this week as well. Wow, he has a lot of outfits!! I believe I counted over 35 onesies and probably the same amount in sleepers. I've been assured that they will all be used, but wow, it seems like a lot! However, I can't complain because it was by far the cutest laundry I've ever done in my life :) The blankets are all folded and all the clothes are put away. All I have left to do is the bedding, changing covers and random toy mats and whatnot. We also hung the blackout curtains and I once I hang up a few more things the nursery will be totally ready!

I also had my mom come over to teach me how to make the SUPER SECRET Italian cookies that she's famous for. I made them for my friend Erica's bridal shower and they were a hit! Thanks, Mom!

Physically I like to say I'm feeling alright (besides the swelling). I haven't had many bad Braxton Hicks and I feel pretty normal as long as I'm being lazy and lounging around, but I do have a pretty persistent back ache and getting up and down from bed or the couch is quite challenging and uncomfortable. I am really looking forward to being able to move without grunting or moaning! Also, the day I get to sleep on my stomach again might go down as a national holiday, even if it is only for an hour or two at a time. I cannot wait!

I've been going back and forth on posting pictures because I just cannot get over how puffy and exhausted I look, but to heck with it. Here you go....

Anello Baby Shower

2011-10-02T20:43:00.001-05:00

Last weekend was my final baby shower. We've been so lucky to have so many people want to shower us with love that I ended up with 4 showers! Which, for someone who tends to shy away from the spotlight can be a bit much, but I still had a great time.

This last one was thrown by my Aunt Janell and cousin Claire. My Anello side of the family is quite large (hello, Italian Catholics!), but also tends to be mostly boys, so luckily when all the ladies get together it isn't too overwhelming. We had a really great time and once again, the baby was spoiled absolutely rotten. Zach and I have hardly anything left that we need to buy before the big day! So lucky!

Here are some pictures from the fun day!

And of course, once I got home Ted needed to inspect everything. He was only a little disappointed that there wasn't anything for him.

Now Missy on the other hand? I caught her a few minutes later with a stuffed rattle under the kitchen table. We might have some training to do...

Pregnancy - Week 33

2011-09-27T21:28:00.001-05:00

33 weeks down!

Week 33 was fairly un-eventful as far as pregnancy goes. Not a whole lot happened. I had a doctor appointment on Wednesday. I continue to measure exactly on track and my stats and the baby's stats are all totally normal. I had my first "internal check" just to make sure things were OK after my weekend of not feeling so hot. Turns out progress is already being made, but nothing that is out of the ordinary or worrisome, so that's good. While I'm pretty much over this whole pregnancy thing, I definitely want the little guy to stay in there as long as he can. Also, I gained a perfectly acceptable amount of weight this time so thank goodness for that! I've actually started noticing that I'm not really that hungry anymore. Sure, once I do get hungry I AM HUNGRY, but lately I feel like I can't even eat very much. There's just not a whole lot of room in there anymore. So, I just kind of snack all day. The "oh wow, when are you due?!" comments have started so I know I'm definitely looking pregnant these days!!

The sleepless nights are becoming more frequent and troublesome though (do note the dark under-eye circles. so chic!). Now I wake up with absolutely awful acid reflux. Luckily some Tums (ugh, Tums, I'm so sick of you...) and usually a stroll around the house to settle things back down helps. However, staying asleep for long is nearly impossible. I'm up every hour at least. And to add to the fun, when I actually do fall asleep I keep having a reoccurring dream about not being able to sleep, like my alarm won't work, it's too loud, or whatever else. Lovely.

The upsides of this week? I finished the Alphabet Wall! It looks so good! I am in love! This weeks picture is a little sneak peek for you, but I'm still waiting to show off the whole thing once I'm totally done with the room. I'm just waiting for a few other things to arrive and I should be good! I also had my last baby shower on Sunday (blog post to come) and the room is completely over-run with goodies that need to be unpacked and organized. We are so lucky, we got nearly EVERYTHING we need at our showers. The list of what we still have to get is so tiny compared to what I thought it would be. We are truly, truly lucky to have such generous family and friends.

Best comment of the week: I was at the nail salon getting a MUCH needed pedicure and the nail guy asked me when my baby was due. I told him "November" and he looked at me and said "Of this year?" I actually had no words. I mean really? I sure as heck hope it's this year!!!

Pregnancy - Week 32

2011-09-19T21:10:00.000-05:00

Today marks the last day of my thirty-second week. The countdown is officially ON!

We started week 32 off with a Royals game. I hadn't been all year and Zach and I had some gift cards that we needed to use. Luckily the weather was awesome and it was his night off. Un-luckily we got there too late and didn't get a free t-shirt. There may have been moping, whining and whimpering involved. But that quickly went away after a yummy hot dog (which made me sick, but it was worth it!). The Royals won and we had a great time! We are trying to get in as many "date nights" as we can before this kiddo gets here!

Thursday was my Hallmark shower! I've said it before, but Hallmark is really great at celebrating big events. Life is a Special Occasion don't you know! My good friends Jessica, Ann-Marie and Stacy threw it for me and so many of my co-workers chipped in and got me some REALLY awesome group gifts and some really thoughtful individual gifts. I'd post pictures, but apparently my camera ate them?? I don't know what happened, but there are only a couple on there and I'm also not sure my co-workers want their picture plastered on the internet. So you'll just have to take my word on it that it was fabulous!

This weekend was pretty low-key. We were originally going to head up to Lincoln for a Nebraska game but unfortunately Zach had a test for school that couldn't be rescheduled so we had to stay home. I think that was probably for the best in my case since I've started getting some pretty noticeable Baxton Hicks contractions ("practice" contractions that aren't real labor, but can sure trick you into thinking it is!). Friday night was pretty rough and I got a little nervous, so Saturday I did nothing. Seriously, I sat in the recliner all day. Zach said I was on "chair rest"! Ha! I was feeling much better by that evening and Sunday morning that I think I over did it again on Sunday. I started feeling awful again so I just had to stop what I was doing and sit down. It's getting really frustrating, not being able to do what normally felt like no big deal, but I guess if I have to be lazy, I have to be lazy. Who complains about that? I guess I do.

I've also started working on training the dogs that they aren't numero uno anymore. I have read that I'm supposed to gradually start giving them less attention (you try that when a Great Dane sticks his schnoz right in your face...) to gradually ease them into what it will be like when the baby comes. I've also started trying to throw off our routines a little bit by leaving them outside longer, feeding myself before them, making them play by themselves and so on. I hope it helps. I can definitely tell they know something is up. Ted's been pretty good about just going in "his room" and sleeping but Missy has been absolutely GLUED to my side the past few weeks. She's very sensitive and if I so much as sniffle she thinks I'm upset and is immediately right there. I can't decide if this a good or bad thing. I have a feeling she's going to want to be the baby's best friend. We'll see what happens....

Pregnancy - Week 31

2011-09-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

We kicked week 31 off with a tour of the hospital I'll be delivering at. I wasn't sure I wanted to do a hospital tour seeing as how I assume that once you are there, you pretty much just do whatever and go wherever they tell you to, but I figured it's free, so what the heck! The rooms seemed nice, as far as hospitals go. The labor rooms are gigantic and that makes me wonder just how many people are going to be in there when the time comes. I'd rather not think about it actually. Then the room where you stay after you give birth is teeny tiny, but that's alright. I wasn't expecting the Four Seasons or anything. The floor was actually very quiet when we were there and they told us that nobody was in labor so that's why. I liked the quiet and the staff all seemed very nice.

After the little tour the nurse took us in her office to "finish filling out paperwork". This, I was not expecting. I'd already sent in my pre-registration so I wasn't quite sure what else there was to do. She started firing off all sorts of questions about what kind of birth I wanted and if I wanted to go natural or what kind of medication I wanted. Talk about blind-sided! I haven't even discussed any of that with the doctor yet! She said this was just a guide and we can change things once we get there, but they just liked to have an idea. THEN we filled out the start of the baby's birth certificate! Whoa baby, that's when it really hit me. BABY. BIRTH. CERTIFICATE. Holy cow. This is happening.... So yeah, hospital tour was a bit more eventful than I'd imagined it would be.

I also had my last "monthly" appointment this week *sigh*. It did not go as hoped. I gained a crap-ton of weight. Like, a lot. Like I barely held it together during the appointment and then bawled my eyes out in the car - lot. The doctor assured me that I was doing ok and that I just need to watch my sodium and try to be as active as I can. She also says everyone has "that month". I just felt like such a failure. I always pictured myself as this super fit and active pregnant lady, running right up until the end. However, my body had different ideas and it's been rough. My siatic nerve has been KILLING me, my feet swell and hurt, my hands ache, my back is sore. It's just really hard to even think about working out. However, since that appointment I've been "active" every day and guess what? I feel much better. Figures. I also feel a lot more like "myself" so that's really good too. So, there's that. Hopefully I do not repeat a huge gain like that EVER again. I start bi-weekly appointments now and then start weekly ones in October!)

Over the weekend I didn't really do a bunch of baby stuff. I did put together the baby rocker seat and that was about it. Zach and I went to a wedding on Saturday and then watched a bunch of football the rest of the weekend! Fall is definitely coming fast and I think I'll be spending a lot of time feathering our nest and getting everything ready to go the next few weeks. It's getting SO close!

Pregnancy - Week 30

2011-09-06T21:36:00.000-05:00

Holy cow, I'm three-quarters of the way there. When I think about back to when I was first pregnant it seems like forever and year ago, but when I think about how fast time is going, it seems to be flying. Then when I think about still having 9 more weeks of this, I can't even fathom it. Funny how that goes.

These pictures get more frightening every week...

I actually made a list of things that happened during the 30th week that I felt like I should mention, so here goes:

Cravings - I can't say I really had any big "cravings" up until this point, mostly things either sounded good, or they didn't. Well this week I started actually getting foods in my head and not being able to get rid of them. First was Caesar salad. There was one day where if I didn't get a Caesar salad for lunch I was going to lose my mind. It was all I could think about. Thankfully I was able to put one together in the Crown Room (whew!). Then it was double dipped malted milk balls. I actually hobbled down to the cafe one afternoon (sore feet and aches be damned!) to get some. However, the most random has been canned green beans. I was driving home from work one day and I just wanted them SO BAD! I never did have them and quite honestly they still sound pretty dang good. Maybe I'll have some with dinner tomorrow... Strange thing is once I have whatever I want, I'm done with it. So, still no constant cravings, but the random ones are quite amusing!

Naps - Sleeping at night is just not going well. I wake up every hour on the hour to roll over because my hips hurt and that is QUITE the feat, let me tell you. It is difficult, uncomfortable and honestly, sort of painful. A couple times I haven't even been able to do it because I'm so sore and out of it. Who know rolling over would be something I liken to an Olympic sport. Then I read articles like this (since proven not a reliable study, but STILL) and immediately feel INSANELY GUILTY about not sleeping only on my left side and wake up freaking out that I've killed the baby. It's really fun, let me tell you. Ugh. Anyway, so I nap whenever I can. I usually take about a half hour snooze after dinner and then the weekends I sneak in at least an hour or two per day. Heavenly!

Hormonal Breakdowns - Sometimes I will wake up and just KNOW that it's going to be a crying sort of day. Just the littlest thing will set me off. One day at work I called Zach in complete hysterics because I was so frustrated that my feet hurt and I got worn out when I went to walk to get water. I had to go in a conference room until I could calm myself down. How ridiculous!! One other time a former co-worker saw me in the parking garage and totally innocently said "oh my gosh, I almost didn't recognize you!" which of course translated directly in my mind to "you have turned into such a fat cow, I couldn't even tell it was you!!" I was upset the whole rest of the day. Of course after a night of sleep, I wake up and think "what on earth was I so upset about yesterday??" and laugh at myself. Most of the time I'm perfectly fine, but I definitely have my moments...

Other adventures this week included a trip to the Santa-Cali-Gon Days festival. Wow. That was the best people watching I've experienced in a looooong time. Lots of parenting "don'ts" were mentally noted, for sure. We also went to another soccer match, my third of the season! Luckily this time the weather was absolute perfection and David Beckham was there! We had awesome seats and our camera! Zach thought it was cool cause he's like the 'best soccer player evah' and used to play for his favorite team, Manchester United. I just thought it was cool to see a real live celebrity (Posh was not in attendance, bummer.)!

I also put together the bookcase for the nursery, hooked up the mobile, finished the alphabet letters (!!!) and organized some of his clothes. It's really coming together and I promise, pictures will soon follow! Until then....

Pregnancy - Week 29

2011-08-31T19:55:00.000-05:00

Hi. I can't believe I'm posting this picture. It is quite possibly the worst picture yet. But, I had been out shopping and was hot and tired and wearing what might be the most unflattering shirt known to man, but you know what? It's comfortable so I love it!

I always tell myself I need to start keeping nightly notes on what happened that day because every time I sit down to write one of these I go completely blank. I will start that tonight. (maybe).

I'm starting to feel really worn out. I've been trying to get in a walk after lunch because by the time I get home from work I want to do nothing but sit in my glider and close my eyes. Luckily that got a bit easier this week because Zach started a new work schedule. He's now home on Tuesday and Wednesday night, as well as Saturday and getting home earlier on Friday! So we get to spend a lot more time together. I know it doesn't sound like much but when I've only been seeing him on the weekends for the last couple years, it is so awesome. And perfect timing! He's really helping me out with the house stuff and making sure I "relax" when I'm supposed to be.

The weekend was pretty busy too. Friday I went to my very first "Just Between Friends" (JBF) consignment sale (shh, don't tell my mother....) :) It was pretty insane. There was SO. MUCH. STUFF. It filled the entire John Knox Pavilion for those of you in the area. Anyway, there were a few things that I was there looking for and while I didn't find those few things, I did find some other stuff that I snapped up. Some things were even brand new with the tags still on!! Then there were other items that I did NOT even touch, like used diaper pails. Who in their right mind buys (or tries to sell) a used diaper pail? Seriously. People. That's gross. But, all in all it was a success and I'll probably go back in the spring!

I do think I overdid it though. By Friday evening I think I was having my first round of Braxton Hicks contractions. I was SOOO uncomfortable and my stomach would just get hard as a rock! I grabbed a really tall glass of ice water, sat in my glider and watched the entire Chiefs preseason game. I felt much better after that! Thank goodness! I was getting nervous! Now if only we could win...

Saturday was childbirth class! We signed up for the all day class to just get it done in one shot. I'm glad we went. While I didn't particularly learn anything that I didn't already know, it felt good to be hearing the same thing at the same time Zach was. I'm still not sure I have a definite "birth plan" lined up but I have a good idea of how I'd like things to go. With that said, I'm not marrying myself to anything. Stuff happens during labor and as long as the end result is us going home with a healthy baby, I'll do whatever I have to.

Sunday I went out shopping. I've gone and putzed around many times but I haven't had a full on shopping outing in a while! I have started stocking up on my post-birth supplies and some baby stuff. I even bought our first bottle of baby laundry soap! I plan on starting to wash clothes and everything else here pretty soon! I want to be READY about a month before he's due. I also got the baby some things. I haven't bought him much on my own until then so it was nice to feel like I have now.

Otherwise, that's week 29! I'm starting to feel that urge to GET IT ALL DONE NOW including all our house projects we still have not started, so I've been feeling a bit stressed, but I know it will all be ok. There's still 10 weeks to go!

Pregnancy - Week 28

2011-08-24T20:38:00.000-05:00

Week 28 pretty much marks the time where I think I can say I really "feel pregnant". There is no more forgetting about this big ol' belly anymore. Getting up from the couch or heaven help me, out of bed requires much more effort than it used to, that's for sure! I walk terribly slow, think twice about picking up whatever I drop and have welcomed back my old friend, exhaustion.

Now let's talk about what I have been enjoying this pregnancy, shall we?
~ My hair is super full and not falling out all over the bathroom like it normally does. It also doesn't need to be washed nearly as much as when I'm not pregnant. Prior to pregnancy I had to wash it every day, or else. Now I can even get away with 2 days of no washing! It's great! My hair has thanked me for much a needed break.
~ My complexion is nice and clear. While makeup doesn't quite stay on like it used to, I feel like my skin looks really nice right now. I don't even really mind being as pale as I am!
~ My thin, normally non-existant lips are slightly more full!
~ I have learned how to "relax". I'm a constant do-er, so being pregnant has allowed me to really appreciate doing nothing and just enjoying being still.
~ People are a lot nicer to pregnant ladies! I get lots of random smiles and hello's in the hallway now.
~ Zach will give me a foot rub whenever I ask!
~ My dogs have calmed down around me considerably. Perhaps it's age, but they are much calmer when it's just me at home and they seem to know that I need to be taking it easy, so they take it easy right with me.
~ Having a totally new summer wardrobe is pretty fun!
~ Guilt-free ice cream eating!
~ Not feeling like I have to "suck it in" all the time.
~ I don't have to clean the litter box!
~ Shopping for baby things is a ton of fun!
~ Two words - Baby. Kicks.

So yeah, while I might moan about some things more than others, I really am happy to be pregnant and am trying to soak it all up. I feel lucky and blessed and just so grateful to be pregnant every day and I need to remind myself that not everyone gets this and I should happily take every ache and pain and sleepless night and be thankful.

Kansas City Baby Shower #1

2011-08-22T21:17:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday was my first Kansas City baby shower. I come from such a large family (Italian/Catholic!) so instead of one big shower I'm having a couple smaller ones. This one included my mom's side of the family and a few friends. It was at my mom's house but was hosted by my Aunt Joann, Aunt Theresa and my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Sheena. They really did an amazingly beautiful job. Everything was perfect and we had such a great time.

Sheena really did a fabulous job with all the decorating and my Aunts took care of all the food. I even tried Chicken Salad for the first time ever! I'm so grown up now! The cake was absolutely adorable and there was this really fancy ice-cream punch that everyone loved as well.

The one game we played was "guess the baby food". I was doing really well until I mistook bananas for chicken. Oops. I apparently have a bit to learn. The baby was spoiled again with all the wonderful gifts everyone gave us. We even get to borrow a cradle that my grandpa made for my cousin 18 years ago! I'm so excited to use it!

Thanks so much everyone! We are so lucky to have so many people who already love our little guy just as much as we do.

Sioux Falls Baby Shower

2011-08-19T12:00:00.002-05:00

Last weekend my mother-in-law, Kim and sister-in-law, Amanda threw me a lovely little baby shower. It was a last minute decision for Zach and I to make one more trip to Sioux Falls before the baby comes, so they didn't have a whole lot of time to pull everything together but it turned out great! We all had a really good time, played some fun games, ate some amazing cupcakes and the baby got spoiled rotten. Amanda is also pregnant so we spent a lot of time swapping pregnancy stories and are so excited that we'll have our babies so close in age. I hope they become great cousin friends! We had a really fun weekend up there and I can't believe the next time we go up we'll be taking our kiddo with us!!

I suppose I forgot to mention...

2011-08-18T21:31:00.000-05:00

Yes, I caved. At 20 weeks. We I kept it to myself for a little bit, but then just couldn't contain my excitement any longer :)

We are thrilled!!

Pregnancy - Week 27

2011-08-16T20:33:00.000-05:00

Hello 3rd Trimester!

Week 27 started off with a monthly doctor appointment. It was the first time Zach couldn't make it so that was a bit weird, but the whole appointment lasted all of 10 minutes so it wasn't a big deal. I had my glucose test and have apparently passed because as they say "no news is good news"! Hooray! The test wasn't really that bad either. The drink didn't bother me too bad and I only got shaky and nauseous for a few minutes before I ate lunch. After that, everything was fine! No big whoop! Baby's heartbeat was great and I'm measuring exactly on track! I only have one more "monthly" appointment and then I start going every two weeks in September!

Physically, I feel like I'm starting to get really huge. Especially when I look at pictures. I feel like I'm starting to show it in my face (Dread! Horror!) and that's just not cool. But it's all for a good reason, right? I'm definitely trying to stay as active as I can. I walk after lunch for a little bit every day, "work out" a few times a week and do some light weights here and there. I'd really like to try water aerobics, but the class times are funky. I get pretty achy at night and my feet still really hurt (don't worry, I'm wearing "more supportive" shoes now, it's helping) but otherwise I'm doing alright. So far.

Food-wise I think I'm pretty much back to my old self. Sometimes I wish I would lose my sweet-tooth again because now chocolate is all I want. Chocolate and milk. I've never been a big milk drinker, but right now I just can't get enough! That's a good craving, right?!

This weekend we went on our last trip to Sioux Falls before the baby comes! I had a lovely shower which I will write about later and spent some quality time with Zach's family. It was nice! The weather was amazing too! Mid-70s and sunny!! I couldn't have asked for more! I also got some of the best sleep I've had in months! I must have been really relaxed :)

The nursery is still in complete disarray. Zach's putting the crib together this weekend and then once that's up and the dresser is in place, I can really get cooking! I just need to finish painting my alphabet letters!

So here we go. The home stretch. There's so much to do and so much going on! I just hope I can get it all done!

Pregnancy - Week 26

2011-08-09T21:18:00.000-05:00

The weeks are flying by now!

I really don't have a whole lot of different things to say about week 26 than I did about week 25. I suppose that's a good thing. Everyone always says you want a "boring" pregnancy! I did start feeling much stronger movement though. There have even been a few times where I saw my whole belly moving around all crazy-like. Previously it had just been little tiny bumps that I'd see, but this was definite wiggling and pushing. So crazy! Of course there are still days where I don't feel much of anything and actually find myself questioning if I felt anything at all. Then out of the blue, whammo, big kick! It just blows my mind that sometimes I can't feel anything, then other times it's so obvious.

This weekend Zach painted the nursery. I'd post pictures, but you really can't tell much of a difference in them. We went with a pretty light beige (Behr Sandstone Cove - now that I think about it, it's almost the same color as my blog background...) since I want to add a bunch of color with the Alphabet wall and whatnot. Also, we wanted something that could easily be painted over. Our goal isn't to really create a "baby room" but a room that baby can grow into and we can easily adjust it to whatever the kid ends up liking. I'm really trying to stay away from anything too "baby". I hope it works. Once Zach gets the crib assembled I can really get started on putting everything together. Right now it's all just in piles on the floor and in the closet.

We also got a glider for the room. We totally weren't planning on getting one but were going to get a nice recliner for the living room instead (and still plan on it). However when I found one for cheap on our Hallmark "want ads" I couldn't pass it up. I actually think it's going to go well in the room and it's pretty comfy too. It will be nice to have a spot in the room to sit so I don't have to go out to the living room at night. I think it was a wise purchase!

Physically I'm feeling alright. Two gripes. 1) I can't sleep for the life of me. I wake up multiple times a night and have the hardest time falling back asleep. Last night I was up from 1:30 until almost 4! I need to start getting out of bed and reading or something. This cannot continue! 2) My feet are killing me! They have definitely "expanded" both in width and length. I had the nicest thinnest size 8 feet before this now I don't even know what size I wear. I'm officially down to two pairs of sandals that fit and even my flip flops don't work well anymore. My heel is starting to come over the edge. I might have to break down and get some new shoes soon. They also hurt quite a bit when I walk. I just really hope they go back to somewhat normal after this, but I have my doubts... *sigh*. Otherwise I'm doing great! I still think the morning sickness is trying to creep back in but I have found a big glass of ice cold water really helps nip that right away.

I can't believe this ends the 2nd trimester. I feel like this pregnancy is speeding by but when I think about when I first found out I was pregnant, it seems like ages ago. It's just still so surreal to me. I have my first baby shower this coming weekend. I think that's when it might really hit me. Maybe. We'll see. It's just all so exciting!

Bring on the temper tantrums!

2011-08-06T09:20:00.000-05:00

He's really good at preparing us for total meltdowns.

Ted was just chilling out on the bed until Missy brought in another bone to chew. He had one already, but really wanted hers. Bad. And don't worry, he's just "talking". Please note the constant tail wagging. Ha!

Pregnancy - Week 25

2011-08-02T20:55:00.000-05:00

Things are about to start getting real busy around here and my memory is not quite the best these days (ah, pregnancy brain - it's real) so in order for me to try to capture everything I want to remember it's time for weekly updates! Hooray!

Week 25 brought with it a lot of growing. I felt like I was suddenly huge! It looks like the pictures prove it too. Hard to believe I'm only going to get bigger! Wowzers! I don't mind though really, it's just another reminder that everything is going as it should and baby is healthy and growing.

Fun aside: I bought this shirt probably 5 years ago. It was $2 at NY&Co during a sale. I didn't try it on and had no idea what a tent it was. I never once wore it until I was pregnant. I almost threw it out numerous times but never did because I thought it would be a great maternity shirt! See, hanging on to random articles of clothes pays off, Zach! ;)

The big news for week 25 was that my sweet tooth returned!! Oh boy have I been loving it!! I'm still being careful to not over-do it, but I am so excited that the thought of cookies no longer makes me want to hide my head. Chocolate seems to be the favorite right now. Chocolate ice cream to be specific. And the pecan sticky buns at work. Whoo baby, those are a once a week treat though, they are so terrible for me! The new no-go? Mexican. You win some, you lose some.

Friday night Zach and I went and rounded out our registries. This baby is one lucky duck and is having several showers. I got my first invitation this week and we are just so excited!! I can't wait to have all these little baby things around. I've really been holding back on buying anything so I'm so excited to actually get some baby goodies and it feels really awesome that so many other people are just as excited about our wee one as we are.

Saturday during the day I worked more on the alphabet wall and we just relaxed before heading out to the Sporting KC game. Luckily Saturday wasn't too hot and I felt fine during the game. No swelling or anything! I was a bit achy when we got back, but a nice foot rub and tall glass of water fixed that right up. We also had BBQ before at Arthur Bryants. If there's one food that's been a consistent winner this whole pregnancy, it's BBQ. This kid will be Kansas City through and through :)

Sunday I spent shopping with girlfriends for Erica's wedding shoes! It's always nice to take a baby break and focus on wedding stuff! We actually have a lot of weddings coming up in the next year! Unfortunately Erica's is 3 days before my due date, but hopefully baby will hold out so I can go!

And just for the record, it is still hot. Really, really hot. I know this is annoying but I did it for posterity sake. This was the temperature as I drove home from work today. I'm going to come back and look at it this winter when I'm complaining about the cold, don't you worry!

So that's week 25! It's hard to believe I'm getting ready to close out the second trimester. We have a lot of stuff coming up in the next few weeks, a trip to Sioux Falls, baby showers, child birth class, hospital tour, daycare visits and lots of nursery prep! I have a feeling this is when it starts getting really fun :)

Pregnancy - Weeks 23 & 24

2011-07-27T19:36:00.001-05:00

Week 23 started out with a follow up ultrasound to our big anatomy scan at 19 weeks. Baby was doing great! The first time they couldn't get good head measurements because baby was head down and not budging. This time baby was head up and perfectly cooperative. It was a really quick ultrasound and a little hard to see, but all that we cared about was that baby is healthy and growing right on track.

Movement continues to become more frequent and strong. I did have a couple days during week 23 where I wasn't feeling anything. I had what could only be considered a total breakdown which ended in a concerned Zach leaving work early. Of course while he's driving home the baby starts kicking up a storm. Neither one of us complained though! Since then things have been a little more consistent. It's really fun, I've even seen my stomach moving around a few times. Totally weird!

We have been in the middle of a horrible heat wave. The past two weeks have been absolutely brutal. 100+ almost every single day. I've done nothing but stay inside. I try to go shopping but get so hot and worn out just walking from the car to the store! I've also had to give up riding the bus (again) because of the heat. My stop where I wait is in the direct sunlight and I've been riding for long enough to know that there's a decent chance of the bus being late, not having AC or the AC not working right when it's this hot. It just hasn't been worth the risk to me. I'm a wuss. Maybe in August I'll try again? Who knows. I'm so sick of driving though!

Lately my only other problems have been with sleeping. I just cannot get situated. I don't even know how many times I wake up throughout the night anymore. Not because I need to use the restroom, but because I'm just not comfortable. I've always been a stomach sleeper and have NEVER been a side sleeper so I'm not adjusting well. Even with the five (FIVE!) pillows I have stacked around me I can't get comfy. Tis life I suppose.

As you can see my rear end appears to be growing at approximately the same rate as my belly so I've been trying to ease back into working out when I have time. It's pretty pathetic, but I do what I can. Walk on the treadmill, a Tracy Anderson arm workout, maybe some squats. It's still not enough as I should be doing, but my "bad leg" is killing me most nights and even though my energy level is alright, I'm still pretty exhausted by the end of the day. Maybe I should try some morning workouts?

Several people have asked to see pictures of the nursery progress....Well, here you go!

Pretty awesome huh?! Haha! Yeah, I have a lot of work to do. We need to move the furniture in the first picture elsewhere, paint and then assemble the crib and bookshelf. After that's done I can really get going. The mess on the floor is the Alphabet Wall Project That Will Likely End Me, but I'm having fun trying to get it done. Oh and I guess we should figure out another place to put the vacuum... and maybe the Vogue picture too... The dresser is for the baby though. I Loooooove it! The crib matches, of course. We don't have matching bedroom furniture for ourselves, but our baby sure will! Nothing but the best :)

Pregnancy - Weeks 21 & 22

2011-07-12T20:35:00.000-05:00

It would figure that the very next day after I wrote my last update about not feeling movement - I feel movement. Not that I'm complaining!!! I think what I thought was just gas was actually movement for quite a while. Starting on week 21 it just kept getting stronger and more frequent. There will be days where I feel a lot of movement and some days where I hardly feel any. All of it is very, very low. I wonder what is poking me? A hand? A foot? An elbow? It's definitely fun to guess. Zach has felt it once. He was so excited. He kept pointing to his hand and telling me exactly where he felt the kick. It was super cute. Most of the time the baby is very stubborn though. I'll feel lots of movement and call Zach over then... nothing. We'll just keep trying!

It has been ridiculously hot here. Like 100 degrees hot. Day after day after day! I'm doing my best to just stay inside as much as possible. I did start back riding the bus. I took a two month break because I was getting really motion sick, but feel better now so I thought I'd give it a go. So far it's alright. It's nice being back with my "bus friends" and being able to take my glorious 45 minute nap on the ride home every night but the heat...whoo boy. Luckily I didn't ride yesterday, apparently there was no AC! I would have died. Not that the AC on a normal day is much better. I'm trying though, I told myself I'd ride at least 3 times a week. So we'll see what happens.

Last Friday Zach and I went and registered! I took the half day off and we had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings before heading to Target and Babies R Us. I still have lots of stuff I need to go back and add, but I think we are off to a good start. It was super fun! Way better than registering for wedding stuff, that was torture! Zach loved it and was really great at helping me pick things out. I know I've said it before, but he's really into this baby stuff and that's just so exciting. I picked a good one :)

The following Monday, the 4th of July, we went and ordered our baby furniture. Apparently we like to make our big purchases on the 4th of July. Two years ago we bought my car that day! The furniture actually came in a few days ago but we need to wait for my brother to help us haul it in his truck and I really need to finish clearing out the baby's room and clean the carpets! It's all happening fast now!

Overall the past two weeks have been really good. Despite having a hard time getting comfortable and sleeping at night, I'm feeling really good. We have another ultrasound tomorrow to check back on some things and I'm hoping all goes well. Although the movement is sure reassuring!

Pregnancy - Weeks 19 & 20

2011-06-28T22:20:00.000-05:00

Halfway there!

Weeks 19 and 20 were fairly good. My energy level is way back up for the most part. I do still have some nights where I'm just too tired to get off the couch, but most of the time I feel like I can do my normal routine and be just fine. On the food front, less things seem to be bothering me as much. Still can't do much sugar, but have found a couple things that I can have and be fine - Rice Krispy Treats (cannot. stop. eating. them.) and Peanuts M&M's are alright too. Most other sweet stuff is still yicky though. I guess I'll just stick to fruit.

All the baby books I have keep going on and on about "all the movement you are feeling now"... um, yeah, not so much here. I do feel really super light random pops and taps, but most of the time I honestly can't tell if it's the baby or not. I have a feeling it will still be a while before I feel a big thump. I'm trying not to let it get me down or worried, but lets face it, that's hard. However, my belly is growing like a weed right now so I can only assume things are going well in there. For the most part I'm exclusively wearing maternity clothes. My wardrobe is beyond limited right now. I really should start writing down my outfits because I spend most mornings trying to remember if I've already worn that shirt to work this week. I just can't justify spending a boat-load on clothes for myself right now.

I've started work on gathering things for the baby's room! I'm not big on "themes" but have always wanted to do something with the Alphabet. Something they can grow into a little bit. I found a ton of inspiration pictures and was determined to make it happen. Luckily Hobby Lobby was a gold mine of letters! Here's what I have so far. Some of them need to be switched but I needed to get it laid out before I could tell what all I had thrown in my cart. I'll be painting and possibly mod-podging some scrapbook paper on a few of them soon! Colors TBD!

Now that we are halfway there I'm starting to feel like I really need to get on some things. Namely, daycare. I've been pretending it doesn't exist for too long. I seriously need to start calling places. It's so hard to even know where to start. Oy. I'm also really starting to feel the nesting bug kick in. I found myself rearranging a kitchen cabinent while also trying to make breakfast before work one day. I just couldn't help myself. Oh and the hormones have really kicked in this week. I will cry for no reason at the drop of a hat. Last night I saw a commercial for the new Winnie the Pooh movie and totally lost it. How random is that! Haha!

So that's about it for weeks 19 & 20. Only two more weeks till my next apppointment and ultrasound. Lets hope I'm feeling some bouncing around in there by then!

Picture time! Ugh. These always turn out so bad. Especially when I try to do them myself with the self timer. What a fiasco! Haha! I should post the rejects sometime, most of them involve Ted getting in the frame and hamming it up. He cracks me up.

Snoozaroo

2011-06-22T22:15:00.001-05:00

Zach took this picture several weeks ago, just as I was exiting the first trimester. The exhaustion I experienced was more than I ever could have imagined it would be. I spent most of my weekends curled up in bed with one or both of the dogs. Luckily they seemed to understand I just needed to rest. It's kind of amazing because before I got pregnant, that wasn't always the case. Much of my energy has returned for the time being, but sometimes a good ol' snoozaroo just sounds perfect.

Pregnancy - Weeks 14-18

2011-06-15T22:01:00.000-05:00

...and we're up to date! My goodness, I'm almost half-way done!!!

Well, week 14 wasn’t so magical. Neither was week 15. I was still tired, felt sick constantly (but still never actually *got* sick) and was just a general pile of blah. I was starting to think I’d never feel better when week 16 rolled around. Suddenly, I was staying up a few minutes later each night, playing with the dogs more and actually getting things done around the house! I even worked out a few times! Around the same time food gradually stopped making me feel ill every time I ate it and I was able to function in the morning like a normal human! Hooray for the second trimester! I still can’t eat sweets, but sometimes try to anyway... you know, just to see… Shamefully, my favorite food is McDonald’s French Fries. I swear I could eat them every day (but I don’t). Luckily I still love salad and fruit too.

The last couple weeks have been pretty good!! We’ve been really busy so far this summer and it seems like we have something planned every weekend, which I’m loving because soon we won’t have such freedoms to go wherever, whenever.

We’ve made a couple trips out to Babies R Us to check things out and we have a pretty good list of stuff we want to buy and/or register for, which is really exciting. Zach has been totally into it too. I wasn’t sure if he’d be up for all the baby gear decision making, but he’s really interested and totally helpful. He definitely has been keeping me grounded!

We’ve gradually started working on the baby’s room too. It was our spare bedroom, but mostly it was "George’s Room" (our cat). One Saturday I went to the pool with my friend Kristy and came home to the spare room being completely cleared out and our office now a very functional office / spare room!! I was so excited, however George has been less than amused. He’ll adjust. I spent last Sunday cleaning out the closet, so other than moving a few more things out and down to the basement, we are ready to start the nursery! Planning is in full swing!

Our “BIG” ultrasound was today (19 weeks 1 day). Oh, was I ever nervous. I still haven’t felt anything I can definitely call movement so I was a little nervous, despite my rapidly expanding middle. Thankfully, everything was great! Perfect, if you will. Baby is currently doing quite the headstand in there and was partying it up big time the whole ultrasound. SO active!! I still couldn’t feel anything, but found out I have what’s called an “anterior placenta” meaning that the placenta is in front of the baby, when it is typically in the back. It’s no big deal or risk, but it just means that I will feel movement a little later than normal since baby’s going to have to get a little bigger and stronger for me to feel it through the extra padding. As long as the wee one is ok in there, I’m ok with it. I should start feeling things soon enough….

So that’s where we are at! I’m ready to start putting the nursery together and buying all sorts of little baby things. Basically I’m going to really try my best to enjoy this second trimester and summer! So far, so good!

And because I think I've put it off long enough... Here are some pictures. Oofta!

(apparently I like pink??... ha! Just noticed that!)

Pregnancy - Weeks 7-13

2011-06-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

I just realized I never posted Weeks 7-13. Here they are...

How on earth is it possible that I haven’t updated this in five weeks?! I don’t even feel like I’ve been pregnant five weeks! Well, sometimes I feel like I’ve been pregnant for years, but mostly it’s gone fast.

So what’s been happening? I moved up a week. I’m now due November 8. So I pretty much skipped week 10 all together. I’m still not exactly convinced my due date should be the 8th, but that’s what the doctors chart said and that’s exactly what the baby was measuring at our ultrasound, so I guess I’m going with it.

Oh yes, we had our first ultrasound. It was so fast, but incredibly reassuring. I had never been so nervous in my whole life. She put the wand up to me and immediately said “see baby moving around?” I was so stunned that I could hardly focus on the screen and nearly missed it. Zach said he saw it, so that made me feel better. We got to see the heart beating and hear it for a few seconds, which was pretty awesome! We got our couple of pictures headed to the waiting room and just stared at them the whole time we were waiting. Definitely helped it all feel a bit more real.

We told our family Easter weekend. We had to call Zach’s family since they are out of town, but they were definitely trilled. I bought my mom a book called “Easter at Grandmas” and barged in on her while cleaning to give it to her. She got it pretty quick and my family is very excited. We told the extended family the next day and I told work and friends the following week. It’s good being “out of the closet”.

I still haven’t been feeling too great. I have a good day here and there, but mostly I come home from work, force myself to eat something for dinner then retreat to the couch to watch stupid TV and moan. It seems as though everyday there is something new that my body doesn’t agree with. At first, all I wanted was Mexican, now it makes me sick. Hot food used to be delicious, now the colder-the better. I still haven’t been able to go near anything sweet. Cookies, cake, ice cream, candy, kool-aid, most cereal, granola bars, yogurt… NOTHING! It is probably one of the most frustrating things. Although today, on the eve of my 14th week, I ate a fun size pack of skittles and two mini Hershey’s bars and didn’t feel like curling up on the floor and dying. So…. Progress! Now fruit? I could eat that all day long. Zach’s mom sent us an Edible Arrangement as a congrats and I kid you not, I ate the entire thing in one weekend. And pickles. Yes, it’s stereotypical, but man alive I love pickles right now.

I’m still pretty much exhausted. I could easily sleep in until 9 and go to bed at 8. Easily. Unfortunately that is not an option and I spend most of my day trying not to yawn during meetings. But again, some days are really good and I feel alright!

Everyone keeps telling me that the 14th week is some magical week where I *should* start feeling better. We’ll see. I did go to the gym tonight for the first time in…. well…. Too long.

As far as the belly goes - well it’s definitely there. I’m now officially wearing only maternity pants (which, are seriously, from the heavens. All pants should have elastic waists!!!!) Most of my normal flowy shirts still fit though. I tried on some maternity tops and they just looked ridiculous. Soon enough though. I’ve been taking weekly “belly shots” since week 12 and really can’t see much difference. I think I feel bigger than I am at this point.

My mom bought the baby his/her first outfits. She got a few gender-neutral sleepers and plain onesies. Zach said seeing them made it more real that the ultrasound. For me, it was crazy hanging them in the closet! Speaking of closet, I need to start clearing out baby’s room. Right now it’s the guest room slash “hmm, where do I put this” room. We are condensing the office down and making it a combo office/guest room. It will be quite the challenge. I’m leaving it up to Zach.

So there you have it! On to the next trimester....

Thirty Years

2011-06-12T21:38:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was my 30th Birthday. Yep, 30. I will be honest, I was really, really, really not looking forward to this birthday, at all. Until I got pregnant. Then I kind of forgot all about it... So, when the day got here, I was mostly just kind of "whatever" about the whole thing. I have bigger things to worry about right now :) However, everyone around me really made it a super special day(week).

I took the day off work and Zach surprised me by taking the day off as well. The morning was a bit rough because I had a minor hair-tastrophy. I tried dying it on my own the night prior (as I have many times before) but this time the results were, um, orange. YIKES! Luckily a quick re-do did the trick and a major crisis was averted.

Zach and I then spent the day out shopping for my gift - a treadmill. Now before you all start sending my husband hate mail for buying his pregnant wife a treadmill, let me tell you that I've wanted one FOREVER and was beyond thrilled to get one! It will make getting back in shape after baby far less stressful! I am so excited! Then I treated myself to a pedicure, which was so nice since painting my own toes has become a little difficult these days! That night Zach took me to dinner at Skies on top of the Hyatt. I love the views of downtown up there and the food was excellent! We had a great time!

I got back to work the next day to a fun birthday treat day and a whole slew of cards. So many they didn't even all fit on my desk! That's one of the best things about working for Hallmark, you definitely feel the love, no matter what the occasion is. My cabinet is always full of cards for some reason or another most of the year. My admin also left me this teeny vase with some flowers from her garden. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Friday night we celebrated with my family. Originally my parents had been threatening me with a giant 30th birthday bash at their house. Lucky for me those plans changed once I got pregnant. Apparently I'm really boring when I'm not drinking. Ha! No really, it's true. Anyway... So we decided to have a big family dinner at Garozzo's instead. Oh man, it was good!

After dinner we went over to my parents house for birthday fruit. Yes, fruit. The baby still doesn't like sweets or baked goods of any kind so a birthday cake was out of the question for me. I requested fruit instead. However, at the Anello house having fruit for your cake does not get you out of the obligatory "Happy Birthday" sing-a-long and photo shoot. The fruit was EXCELLENT by the way!

Then it was time for gifts. I got some lovely things, a new dress, cardigan, gift cards, earrings and worn out place-mats! You see, my parents have had these place-mats since I can remember eating. We used them practically every night. They are country themed and I could never get enough of looking at all the little pictures on them. I loved them. I recently mentioned how much I loved them to my mom and she totally surprised me by giving them to me! I am SO excited to use them for our family dinners now. Hopefully our kiddo loves them just as much as I do.

The weekend was chock-full of more time with friends and much more food. A friend even made me a faux margarita and I am dying for the recipe because that sucker hit the spot! Next weekend we are headed to the lake for some fun in the sun.

18 weeks pregnant... 30 years old. Life is pretty good!

Pregnancy - Weeks 4-6

2011-06-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

(I've been keeping a journal about my pregnancy since I found out. Thought I'd share..)

Written Week 6

Oh pregnancy, what a funny thing. My entire life I’ve dreamed of being pregnant. No really, my entire life. Now that I’m here, well, let’s just say reality is a wee bit different than what I had painted in my mind.

The first week was pretty ok. I definitely felt “weird”. However, I think a lot of that was nerves. Oh my, the nerves. I was so paranoid. I took a pregnancy test approximately every other day just to help calm myself down. But other than that, I was good. Bloated beyond belief, but good.

Around week 5 all the symptoms started to hit and have remained. The first was exhaustion. Holy lord, the exhaustion. Just the simple act of walking from my bus stop to my office took every ounce of my willpower and strength. I seriously have not been this tired since I had mono in college. I currently go to bed around 9 or 9:30 (after probably dozing a few times on the couch) and have to force myself out of bed at 6 (or 5 if I'm feeling up to taking the bus). On the weekends, I get up and feed the dogs then go back to bed until at least 10 and take a good two or three hour nap sometime during the day. Getting through the day at work is rough. I gave up caffeine cold turkey when I found out (which is why I had been trying to wean myself off it for the past few months) so without my fizzies I had nothing. I frequently have to get up and take little walks just to keep my wits about me. I’m so tired at the end of the day I have been known to stop mid-walk and break down in tears. Totally cool.

Next up, nausea! While I have not full on puked, I constantly feel disgusting. So gross. The thought of food is just not something I care to think about, however if I get so much as the tiniest bit hungry, it gets a thousand times worse! I do my best to snack throughout the day, but it’s a chore and I hate it. Mostly I feel bad from about 7am until 5pm. So, my entire work day. How convenient! I feel alright once I get home and have dinner, but then start feeling a little queasy again around bedtime. I’m managing though. Mints and lemonade seem to help. Oh! And guess what my ONE aversion is so far? Sugar! SUGAR. Can you even believe it?! The girl with the worlds biggest sweet tooth doesn’t want sugar?! Honestly, it’s rather upsetting. I just want to take solace in a slice of cake or cup of ice cream. However, the thought of it makes my mouth taste bad.

Then there’s the bloat. It. Is. Ridiculous. NONE of my pants fit correctly. None of them. However I am so afraid of jinxing myself that I flat out refuse to go buy a belly band or heaven forbid, maternity pants until I have heard a heartbeat and know for sure that this is really happening. Oh yeah, did I mention, we don’t get an ultrasound until 10 weeks! TEN WEEKS!! I had my first appointment at 6 weeks and it was just the standard work-up. Four weeks of waiting and praying and hoping and worrying. It’s awesome. So yeah, I look super fat. People at work are definitely giving me the side-eye. We don’t plan on sharing our news until 14 weeks, but I honestly have no idea how that’s going to happen. Someone is going to figure this out!

Mostly though, it’s the worry. I try my best to stay positive. I make it a point to tell myself daily that the odds are in our favor, my doctor sees no reason to worry. So far everything is pretty normal and status quo. So I just have to believe that my body is doing what it’s supposed to do and in three excruciatingly long weeks we’ll see the bambino and know for sure what’s going on.

I thank my lucky stars every day that I'm pregnant and I am so happy to be having a baby. I would do all of this a thousand times over for a little one. I know this whole entry seems complain-y but I really am so thankful right now.

Finding Out

2011-05-31T19:31:00.000-05:00

(I've been keeping a journal about my pregnancy since I found out. Thought I'd share..)

Written after I found out....

I got a positive pregnancy test on Monday, March 7. The weekend before I took the test I just felt “off” the whole time. Saturday, I remember being in the car and feeling extremely hot. I even remember having Zach feel my head. He said I definitely felt warm, but other than just feeling “weird” I didn’t feel sick. So we went and had lunch and I felt much better afterwards. Sunday I was just exhausted! But what really got me scratching my head was when I was eating homemade pizza for dinner it tasted DISGUSTING. I couldn’t even finish one piece. It was making my stomach hurt. Zach said it tasted fine so I went and got some cinnamon bread instead. It went down juuuust fine. Now, anyone that knows me knows I LOVE pizza, so for it to taste strange… well that’s just not normal.

Monday I still felt strange. I was burning up and so exhausted. After work it was as if some force took over me and my car went on auto-pilot straight to buy a pregnancy test. I bought 3. The whole time I told myself I was being stupid and just setting myself up for disappointment. I even told myself I had to wait until the next day to test. Maybe even Wednesday.

I got home, let the dogs out and paced back and forth staring at the tests. I remember thinking to myself “ just take the test so you can see the negative and just move on with it.”. So I did. I took the test, set it on the counter and waited a few seconds. I saw the control line start to appear and didn’t see a thing in the test spot. So I said “told you so, dummie” and went to let the dogs in. I cleaned them off and headed back to check again about 4 minutes later. WHAT IS THAT I SEE!? Dear Lord, it’s a line. Two lines. Two of them. Right there, staring me in the face. It was a faint second line, but it was absolutely there. I stood there in shock for a good 10 minutes and then tried to continue about my evening. Hahaha! Zach was at work and I couldn’t tell him that sort of thing via text or phone call so I just sat there. I didn’t even tell the dogs.

The next day I took another test and the line was even darker. So after trying to function like a normal human being all day at work (unsuccessfully) I ran out and bought one of those expensive digital tests and planned to take it the next morning. I still hadn’t told Zach but thankfully he was on spring break so I asked if he wanted to come have lunch with me Wednesday. Luckily he wasn’t at all suspicious. I took the digital that morning and “PREGNANT” popped up within a minute. I stared at it a lot, put it in a plastic baggie and stuck it in my purse. Weird. The day crawls by at a snails pace until Zach comes to pick me up at 11:30. I hop in the car and try not to act strange. It didn’t work so well because when he tried to pull out of the drive I yelled “no! stop the car! Wait! Don’t go anywhere”. He goes “um, ok….” and I fished the test out of my purse. He reacted immediately (probably didn’t even see what it said) and was super happy! It was exciting. It was awesome. We are going to have a baby!

The News

2011-05-18T21:26:00.000-05:00

It's baby time!

That's right, I'm pregnant! I'm about 15 weeks along now and we are just so, so excited!

The wee one is due November 8th :)

Many more updates to come!

A Dress for Kate

2011-04-28T20:37:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to even pretend to tell you that I'm not TOTALLY EXCITED about the Royal Wedding tomorrow. I'm mildly obsessed. Seriously. My alarm is already set to get up before the crack of dawn to watch the whole thing go down.

Obviously, I'm most excited about seeing The Dress. Since I'm a lunatic, I went ahead and did some research and here are my suggestions (you know, because I'm an authority and all). I'm interested to see how close I come. I'm a bit torn between ballgown and a-line/trumpet. Although I have a feeling she'll go with a sleeker design. I am definitely banking on lace though. I'm also betting she wears sleeves, but let me tell you, that's hard to find!

In no particular order.....

Amsale

Kenneth Pool

Ramona Keveza

Lazaro

Phillipa Lepley

Monique Lhuillier

Oscar De La Renta

Pnina Tornai

Saison Blanche
(designer of my wedding gown, so obviously, the most awesome choice ;)

For the record, I HATE the Oscar dress, but I just have a sneaking suspicion something like that will end up being the one.

Just your typical Saturday morning...

2011-04-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

Soooo innocent...

Oh, Hail!

2011-04-04T19:45:00.001-05:00

In case you haven't heard... We got some hail last night. I'd never experienced hail quite like this before. I honestly thought our house was being bombed. Zach said I went in to "full-on panic mode" Ha! Luckily the damage to our house is minimal considering what I've seen around town. Just looking across the street I can see missing shutters and windows. Down the road there are houses who's siding literally looks like swiss cheese! It was insane. So, our new house might be getting a new roof. I'm hoping there's also damage to our deck, because a new one of those would. be. awesome.

Behold! Nature.

Note: This hail had been in the yard for about 15-20 minutes before we picked it up, so it was probably even BIGGER!

Levi's 3rd Birthday

2011-04-03T08:11:00.000-05:00

Saturday was the 3rd birthday party for Zach's God-son, Levi. He's the little firecracker belonging to our friends John and Sally. Levi is one lucky kid, every single year the weather has been absolutely gorgeous for his party and yesterday was no exception! I even managed to get a little color on my face! Finally! The Yo-Gabba-Gabba themed party was fun and the little kids had a good time. And man, were there a lot of little kids! Yowza!

Ted Turns Two

2011-03-19T08:52:00.000-05:00

Our big guy is two today! He's all growed up and has turned into a very awesome dog. He's, loving, he's funny, he's obedient, he's so, so cuddly and he's so smart it's scary. He's also a wonderful poser for my camera! I swear this dog has never once laid in the yard to chew a stick, but the second I get out the camera he goes to town. Such a character!

His first two years have not been without their challenges, but he has really turned into quite the amazing dude. We both love him to pieces and it never amazes us how 'human like' he is. We talk to him like another person and he just seems to understand. Before we got a Dane, people told us that they are different than any other dog and I didn't believe them. I mean, he's a DOG. But, it's true. They are just different souls. He's our concerned, caring, loyal, protective, comedian, spoiled rotten, big baby. Happy Birthday, Teddery Dude!

Hall Bath

2011-03-17T18:57:00.001-05:00

Hey! I finished a project!! After living here for 3 years, I have "finished" a room! The smallest room in the house, but hey, you have to start somewhere right? This is our hall bathroom. I (my dad) painted it a long time ago but the color didn't turn out just quite like I thought it would (story of my house...we won't even mention the horror that is my living room, hallway, entry, stairs and landing) so finding the right decor has been tricky. I have cycled through a shameful amount (4) of shower curtains trying to find "the one" and nothing was working. One day while just wandering through Target, this spoke to me. I loved it and went from there! The artwork is from Gordman's (I love that place). I would have liked to replace the light fixture, but you know, budgets and stuff.... So, TA DA! Here it is!

*Ok fine, so maybe it's not totally done... I still have to replace my sailboat tissue holder I've had since my college days. I'll get there eventually...

Rozzelle

2011-03-16T21:18:00.000-05:00

Oh, hi, blog. Yeah, I'm not doing so well with the keeping up. I've just had ZERO motivation to get out and take pictures. I really hope the change in weather lights a fire under me. I have so much I want to capture! Till then, here's a look inside the Nelson's Rozzelle Court.

Missy is Three!

2011-03-12T06:30:00.011-06:00

My little Missy girl is 3 years old today! Oh how time does fly. I cannot believe it's been three years. She's just my most favorite little dog. So stubborn, so smart (she just disguises it with stupid, but I swear she knows exactly what she's doing), so hilarious and so, so loving. She is at my side every second that I'm home and loyally follows me from room to room. She is just the best little companion. She is my Missy Moo...

I got her this new Kong toy (Tugger Knot) and gave it to her while Ted was outside. She LOVED it! Until Ted came in and stole it. But, I have a feeling she'll get it back soon enough, she's a tough one when she wants to be! She also might be getting a new collar. I've "misplaced" hers and cannot find it for the life of me (how do you lose a dog collar?!) Oh well it was time for an upgrade anyway. A girls gotta look good!

Oscars 2011 - My Best Dressed

2011-03-02T00:01:00.000-06:00

I've never done a "best dressed" list before but, since I am obsessed with watching any and all awards shows (even if I don't watch many movies) I thought what the heck!

So, here are my best dressed from the Academy Awards, 2011

Anne Hathaway

She was a terrible host, but at least she looked great doing it. I pretty much love anything she wears.

Giuliana Rancic

Ever since I started watching "Giuliana & Bill" I have really grown to like her. She's just too cute. I couldn't find many pictures of her this year, but I really did like this dress. However, I'm always one for a good full ballgown. I also loved her hair the best of anyone.

Hailee Steinfeld

She is too cute. If I were 14 and going to the Oscars, I would totally wear this. So adorable.

Mila Kunis

I think she's pretty much the most gorgeous person on the face of the Earth, for real. This dress was so, so pretty!

Natalie Portman

For being as pregnant as she was, this looked amazing on her. I could have liked a different hairstyle better, but still, very pretty. I only dream of looking this good pregnant.

Reece Witherspoon

Barbie! I think she looked very elegant and probably the classiest of anyone at the awards.

Camila Alves

I really have no idea who this lady is besides the person standing next to Mathew McConaughey(who is gross), but this is by far and away my most FAVORITE dress of the night. Stunning. I want it. Love.

Hanging On

2011-03-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

Just when I thought spring might actually make an early appearance for once, we got dumped on again. The good news was that it only lasted a couple days, then yesterday we had a huge thunderstorm and it all washed away. I'd like to think that's the last of it, but I know better. This IS Missouri afterall. Spring is my least favorite season. It's just a big tease!

Spring Fever

2011-02-28T06:30:00.000-06:00

Last Friday both Zach and I took the day off work. We surely weren't expecting it to be so nice out but were pleasantly surprised with a wonderful 60 degree day. You don't get a whole lot of those in February so we took advantage of it! We had a casual lunch out at Jason's Deli and then headed to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. We have a "membership" so we like to try to go a few times a year. Zach loves the place. I like it, but get rather sleepy after an hour or so (it's so dark in there!!). Luckily, the Sculpture Park is awesome and we can spend a good amount of time outside too. I thought it would be fun to take along the camera and play around. I have much to learn, that is for sure. After we hung out for a while, we stopped at Winstead's for some ultra-summery Cherry Limeaids and headed home. I got to go on a fabulous run outside through the neighborhood and we had yummy pizza for dinner while we watched random shows off the DVR. Definitely one of the best random days off in a while!

Curious George

2011-02-26T15:39:00.000-06:00

Occasionally George likes to get up on top of the cabinets. I believe this particular incident was caused by the vacuum. Oh man, that thing is SCARY! He was perched up there for quite some time and then decided he wanted down but didn't wan to jump. He stood up on top of the pantry and meowed for a good few minutes until I finally saved him, cleaned him off and made a mental note that it might be time for a good top of the cabinets dusting....

Vintage Valentine

2011-02-14T06:30:00.005-06:00

2001

This was taken around Valentine's Day back when I was a sophomore in college.... Ten Years Ago. [Moment of silence]. Back when wearing black pants to the bar was normal and Zach would go within 10 feet of an Abercrombie. Wow, it really feels like yesterday, but at the same time seems like ages ago. Time flies when you are having fun, right!?

Happy Valentine's Day Zach!

Loves You!

Valentine's Day Sugar Cookies

2011-02-13T16:26:00.000-06:00

I spent all afternoon baking up my Valentine's Day sugar cookies. I had grand plans for these bad boys including trying out royal icing, but the day just got away fom me and I went with the old standby. I did try making chocolate sugar cookies. That turned to be a HUGE disaster. The dough didn't chill long enough and it was just one big sticky mess. I ended up just plopping the dough on the cookie sheet and baking it up. Much to my surprise they are very tasty, just not super cute. Oh well.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Sporting Event

2011-02-12T17:06:00.000-06:00

Thursday evening Zach and I attended a happy hour for Sporting KC. For those that don't know, that's the new name for the Wizzards, Kansas City's pro soccer team. Zach has become a huge soccer fan in the past year or so. So, when he found out that they were building a fancy new soccer stadium for the team he was gung-ho! Through some other events, Zach has made friends with one of the reps for the Sproting so when we purchased a season ticket package (4 games) we got invited to this happy hour thing at their main office to check out the renderings for the new stadium. Zach really wanted to go and it was close to my work so he picked me up and we headed over.

It was neat to see the office. It's in a loft downtown and was done quite well. There were quite a few people there checking out everything. They also had an open bar. I requested a glass of white wine and it came in what might be the worlds largest wine glass. I'm fairly certain I had an entire half bottle of wine in there. I knew I was in trouble when the bartender held up the bottle and said "eh, I'm just going to pour the rest in." Oh my! We chatted it up with a few of the Sporting staff, checked out the pictures and video tour then went about our merry way. I'm not really one for hobnobbing. I would be a terrible socialite.

Check out the model of the new stadium. It looks pretty cool!

I felt so important with my own little name tag, even though I hate name tags. When I picked it up I noticed it was sitting right next to one that said "Mike Sweeney". Oooh! He never showed though.

So yeah, soccer. Woo.

Behind the Scenes

2011-02-09T06:51:00.001-06:00

A neat baker, I am not. This is actually pretty clean and tidy for me when I'm cooking. By the end of it the whole counter will be covered in every measuring cup, teaspoon, spatula and mixing bowl I own.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken

2011-02-08T06:43:00.006-06:00

I discovered Thai food through Weight Watchers Smart ones frozen meals. No really. There are a few of them that I really love! So when this recipe poped up on my Google Reader, I knew I had to try it! I made this on the day of the blizzard and it was so easy and totally hit the spot! I will definitely be adding this to the rotation.

Thai Honey Peanut Chicken
from: The Tasty Kitchen via ThreeManyCooks

1 pound Chicken, In Chunks
¼ cups Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Honey
1 Tablespoon Lime Juice
1 teaspoon Minced Garlic (approximately 1 Large Clove)
1 Tablespoon Natural Peanut Butter (heaping Tablespoon Even Better)
½ teaspoons Curry Powder
1 teaspoon Sriracha (optional) - I used Chili Sauce

Mix ingredients and marinate chicken for 2-3 hours.

Cook chicken in the sauce over medium-high heat for 7-8 minutes or until chicken is done. Reduce heat to medium-low and add precooked veggies if desired. Serve topped with sesame seeds.

To thicken sauce if needed: reduce heat to medium-low and add a cornstarch slurry (1 teaspoon cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water). - I didn't need to do this.

I doubled the recipe and I'm glad I did because Zach said the leftovers were delicious! My only complaint? It was a bit on the salty side. It also made my house smell like soy sauce for about 3 days, but it was worth it.

Big T

2011-02-07T08:34:00.000-06:00

I can't believe I'm even posting this picture because, lets be honest here, I look terrible (no wonder mothers always tell you not to slouch!). However, look how damn big my dog is! He doesn't sit on his bum too often (I can imagine it isn't very comfortable putting all his weight on that tiny bony butt) but when he does we always go "HOLY COW HE'S SO HUGE!". I guess you never get used to it.

Sorry about the lack of non-dog pictures as of late. I haven't had a lot of motivation to go out and take pictures with this craptastic weather we've been having. No more dog pictures this week though, I promise!

Snow Removal

2011-02-05T11:38:00.000-06:00

This is the driveway of the house next door. Nobody has lived there in at least 6 months, however each time it snows, these people show up to shovel. I can only guess they are the realtors or hired by the realtor. Not sure who the random kid is, he just showed up.

When it ~~snowed~~ blizzard-ed earlier this week the plows decided it would be best to pile all of the snow from the street into the two vacant houses' driveways. So there were these huge 7 ft mounds of snow covering a large part of the driveway. When these people showed up I didn't think there was any way they'd even try to shovel through it, but they have proven me wrong! That guy is going to be sore tomorrow... And no, I'm not going to help. 1) I'm terrible at shoveling and 2) I have a cold. So there.

In other snow related news - I just got a Twitter update from our Greenwood news and it said that there are 45 mailboxes that are undeliverable because the town plowed all the snow into them. It said the mayor himself was going to go shovel them all out. I find that hard to believe since this huge dead tree is still in my yard 7 months later...

and now for his next trick...

2011-01-31T06:00:00.000-06:00

I really don't know where he comes up with this stuff, but Ted is now completely obsessed with shutting the office door. If we aren't watching him and he feels the need to go cause trouble, he will waltz in the office and shut himself in. Then he knocks all of Zach's movies off the bookcase and chews the corners of the cases. Looks like even though he's almost 2, we've still got ourselves a big ol' puppy.

Just a tree

2011-01-25T21:23:00.000-06:00

Just a tree I drive by every day. Nothing too special about it, but I like the way this picture turned out.

Lick Monsta!

2011-01-24T20:46:00.000-06:00

Even though this picture is totally blurry, I just love it so much.

That Missy, too much love in her heart.

Snow Going

2011-01-21T21:13:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, Kansas City was expecting a big ol' snowstorm. I was pretty skeptical since the news was hyping it up so much. The sunny skies that morning also had me scratching my head. All was fine and well until the afternoon.... Around 3:00 I turned around and saw this out my window. Yep, time to pack 'em up and head out.

Luckily I took the bus to work and didn't have to worry about driving most of the way home, however this is my third winter riding the bus, so I knew how things were going to happen. 1) The early bus was going to be packed 2) It's going to be a long ride and 3) Walk to Union Station in order to avoid waiting outside.

So, I did. It's about a 15 minute walk at least so while I was walking I took a few pictures with my camera phone. The snow was very pretty and it was still pretty quiet outside. It was lovely.

Notice how empty this street is. Not even 40 minutes later it would be bumper to bumper.

Don't you just love Union Station? It's so glamorous!

I wasn't the only one who thought to leave early. I think most of the people who ride the bus ended up there. There began our wait.... The bus showed up almost a half hour late (the bus barn is downtown too, so this was a sign of things to come for sure). Union Station is the second stop on the route. The bus was full after I got on. I knew I needed to settle in because this was going to be a long one. It took us over an hour to get from Union Station to The Sprint Center. Those of you from Kansas City will understand how crazy that is. We had to start turning people away after that stop since we had literally no more room and they had all been waiting in the cold for over an hour! I'd guess at least 30 people had to stand. (don't worry, there were 3 more buses behind us and word on the street is that the last bus only had 2 people on it. Ha!) It took about another 40 minutes or so to even get to the highway and at that point I stopped keeping track. We were going at a snails pace. Luckily everyone that rides the bus is used to it and we were all in good spirits, joking around and whatnot. (side: I remember my first winter riding the bus and a snowstorm hit and it took hours to get home. It was right before Christmas and we probably spent at least half an hour singing Christmas Carols. We even took a little "detour" through some neighborhoods and got to see some lights, it was..dare I say...fun) I have NEVER seen so much traffic in my life. Literally every person in Kansas City left to go home at the EXACT same time. Oy. We got to Lee's Summit at 7. After cleaning my car and slooooowly driving home, I arrived at 7:30. I left my desk at 3:15. You do the math.

Needless to say, I worked from home on Thursday. But the best part? We're expecting another storm on Sunday. Oh boy!

Barns

2011-01-18T21:17:00.000-06:00

Perhaps this is a bit strange, but I've always had a thing for barns. Ever since I can remember I've thought they were neat. They are one of the best parts of road trips. I'm always looking for them and find myself daydreaming about what they could possibly be used for, what sorts of (adorable, furry) critters live inside, how old they are and what their story is. I love them all, old, new, falling apart, nearly torn down, white, red, green...anything barn is good to me! Funny thing is that I don't know that I've ever even really been IN a "real" barn before! So, huh. Yeah, kinda weird.

Years and years ago I always said it would be fun to go around and take pictures of barns. Even to me, it sounded crazy. But now that I have a new camera, a new hobby and a goal to take more pictures, I figure why not!? So, here it is! My first barn. It's just on the other side of the road and I see it every day. My favorite part of the barn is its shape and the thing on the top (note to self: find out what that's called...). I also love how it's all the one color. I took this picture last Sunday when I wandered out into the cold one late afternoon. I really like how this one turned out (I have more to share eventually) and I can't wait to find more barns. I already know of three others within walking distance to my house (another perk of living in a "small town"). So yay! Barns!

Humor me.

Big Red

2011-01-16T22:45:00.000-06:00

One year ago today, my mom and dad adopted Redford from Wayside Waifs. He's seriously the worlds best dog. I know he's made the last year just a little brighter for all of us. Happy "gotcha day" Redford!

The Face

2011-01-15T11:01:00.000-06:00

I mean for real, how can you not love that face?

Diet Coke

2011-01-12T22:17:00.000-06:00

I'm currently in the process of giving up my beloved Diet Coke. Oh the fizzies, how I love them. I never really drank a whole lot of pop before I started working. Not even in college! (mostly because Northwest had gross Pepsi) I've never been able to drink coffee, so I turned to Diet Coke instead. My one can a day habit is slooowly being cut back. Right now I aim for just 3 a week (and man do I look forward to those 3...). Then I'll hopefully cut that back some more, but who really knows. I've been down this road before. I was trying to be strong today and just drink water, but the day (and the headache) got the best of me and I had to give in. There's always tomorrow! I've been doing good, just have to hang in there...

First Snow

2011-01-10T21:23:00.000-06:00

Today we had our first real snow of the winter. The weather people were actually right for once and the storm hit pretty much exactly when they said it would and it did pretty much exactly what they said it would. Crazy! I am a terribly, terribly nervous driver and that multiplies by about 1,000 when it snows, so I'm lucky enough to take the bus to work. I especially love riding the bus on snow days! Sure, my trip to work took over two and a half hours, but at least I wasn't behind the wheel!

This picture is of Crown Center Square. I took this as I was walking to my office from the bus stop. I wish the lights showed up better, but it was getting too light out. They are extra pretty, especially in the snow. I eat lunch at those tables whenever possible in the summer. I just love it out there.

This picture was taken while I was waiting for my bus to go home. Such a pretty view in the snow. Miraculously the ride home took our normal time since there was a break in the snow during the afternoon rush. It really picked up again once I got home though. Hopefully the ride in tomorrow goes a little faster.

Welcome to Greenwood

2011-01-09T21:06:00.000-06:00

I live in a "small town". While our house is just feet away from Lee's Summit (seriously, right past this sign), we do indeed live in a small town. Small town life has its advantages and its disadvantages, that's for sure. We love how we are still "close" but are definitely out of the way. Through my Project 365 I hope to be able to show you a few different parts of my small town. Some I know about, some I've yet to discover. Just this evening I took a (chilly) walk and snapped a few pictures that I'll post later on.

But for now, Welcome to Greenwood. Population: 3,952.

Hoof

2011-01-06T22:25:00.000-06:00

Missy and her hoof. Officially her favorite chew bone. Unfortunately way too stinky to have in the house. Such is the life.

Uh yeah. I need to start taking pictures of things besides my dogs, no?

Breakfast Casserole

2011-01-04T19:04:00.002-06:00

Yum, breakfast food! I've always said my favorite meal of the day is breakfast. I just love all sorts of different breakfast foods. Eggs being pretty high on the list. Breakfast casserole always reminds me of Easter. Probably because it's what we have at my Grandma's house every year. It is extra delicious! I'm not exactly sure why I never made it myself until last Mother's day, but I'm glad I tried it out. It is so easy, totally customizable and extra delicious, especially re-heated as leftovers. I recently made a pan for a yummy New Years Eve brunch with Zach. Here's a super basic recipe I found, but you can adapt it anyway you want. I've used both regular sausage and turkey sausage and both were good. If you are trying to be good you could throw in some veggies (although I think veggies in breakfast food is just weird). I'm even pretty sure you could use egg substitute! Enjoy!

Breakfast Casserole

(found somewhere on the internet)

Ingredients

6 slices bread, cubed

1 pound sausage, browned and drained (or whatever else you want to use)

1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

8 eggs, beaten

2 cups milk

1 teaspoon salt

pepper to taste

Directions

Cube bread and place evenly in a greased 9x13 pan. Sprinkle evenly with sausage and cheese. Mix eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl then pour evenly into the pan. Cover and chill overnight. Remove from fridge 15 minutes prior to baking. Bake 45 minutes at 325 degrees until set. Cut into squares to serve.

The Oldest

2011-01-03T19:03:00.000-06:00

Poor George doesn't get near the attention that he used to since the dogs have come to town. Something tells me he doesn't quite mind.

Here's to you Mr. Furrybottoms!

Videos count too...

2011-01-02T21:54:00.000-06:00

I took this video of Ted last week. He has discovered door stops and thinks they are AWESOME. We have no clue how he discovered this, but he has, and is now obsessed. Whenever I'm in the office on the computer and he wants attention, he goes over and incessantly flicks them with is paw. He'll flick them then stare straight at you and wag his tail, as if to say "hahaha!! look how smart and cute I am!! look at you paying attentention to me!! Oh what's that, you want to go back to your email?! watch this!! *flick!*" This will go on and on until I give him attention and pets. I swear, you could pet this dog 24 hours a day and it still wouldn't be enough.

Project 365

2011-01-01T18:45:00.000-06:00

I heard about Project 365 a while back. It's a challenge to get you to take one picture, every day, for a year. It really intrigued me, so I thought I'd give it a whirl since we have a fancy new camera and all.

The pictures can be of anything! A picture from the DSLR, my cell phone, my point and shoot, one that Zach takes and I'm even going to allow myself to scan pictures I already have. So, really, I'm making my own rules here.

I will already tell you that the likelihood of me uploading a new picture everyday is very, very slim. So, yeah. Perhaps I will call my project - Project Take More Pictures and Blog More.

Heeeeere we go!

(ok fine. I guess this is sort of a "resolution")

Goodbye, 2010

2010-12-31T16:48:00.000-06:00

I've thought about it, and I'm not going to do a big recap of 2010 like I did for 2008 and 2009. I guess I just don't feel like it.

So, farewell 2010 and here's to 2011! No resolutions. Mostly I just want to try my best to "live in the now". I get so caught up with looking forward and dwelling on the past, and not a whole lot of time gets spent on what's going on now. So I guess if you want to call that a resolution, you can.

I hope yours is great!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T16:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas 2010! We spent ours in Sioux Falls with Zach's mom's side of the family. Before we left we had a little family Christmas with my Mom, Dad, Brothers and significant others. We opened a few presents, had some delicious lasagna, cheesecake and of course lots of cookies!

Thursday we left super early in the morning to avoid all the snow that was predicted (and didn't happen until the next day...). This was the first time we've ever left our dogs in the care of someone that wasn't a family member. We had a fantastic pet sitting company come check on them at various times throughout the day. The dogs didn't seem to mind at all. It made me feel SO much better knowing my babies were at home and not sitting in some cold concrete cage surrounded by chaos at a kennel. Plus it was way, way, way less expensive. Wins all around!

Thursday night in South Dakota we hung out with his family, ate more Italian (yay for two Italian families!) and hung out with the new 3 month old baby nephew. Zach's step-sister and husband had the flu (foreshadowing....) so we were on baby duty for the next few days. Luckily he was super cute. Even Zach got brave and held him. Blog, meet Elias.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day were a blur of family gatherings, lots of food, more baby passing, Church and snow. Lots of snow! What blows my mind about Sioux Falls is that their snow removal efficiencies are out of this word! It snowed a good 4 inches Thursday night and when we got up on Friday it was all completely plowed and drivable! Couldn't believe it!

We left to come home on Sunday and when we woke up we found out that nearly everyone had the stomach flu. We hightailed it out of there so fast trying to avoid the plague, but it was inevitable. I made it home but boy I wasn't feeling well. I spent all of Monday in bed. Zach had it the other day. Fun times. At least we are back to normal now and feeling good. I have the whole week off and didn't want to waste it being sick.

Today we headed out to Best Buy to cash in all our very generous gift cards for our new D-SLR! I am BEYOND excited to learn how to use this thing and start taking pictures. It's charging right now, but here's the first one Zach snapped of Ted. Unbelievable! So many more to come...

So, there you have it. Another Christmas comes and goes.... Merry Belated Christmas to you!

Crazy Pajama Lady

2010-12-20T22:21:00.000-06:00

Just tonight my mom was telling me that I'm "very behind on the blog". I told her it was because I had nothing interesting to talk about. Well, I should be careful what I say because shortly thereafter, this happened:

Ted got himself a major case of the zoomies and needed desparatey to go run wild in the backyard. I thought I'd go out and toss the ball for him once and then go back inside. I closed the door behind me, threw the ball, watched him run a bit and then turned to open the door. You guessed it! Locked. I do not know how the door magically locked behind me (you have to turn the thing-a-ma-doo on the knob to get it to lock). Panic!!!! There I was in my 3 sizes too big 10 year old cloud pajama pants, 1999 Northwest Football Championship tshirt and blue "Hospital Hill Run" socks. That's it! No coat, no shoes, no sanity, no nothing!

After trying the door countless times, I admitted defeat. (I think I may have even knocked a few times, you know, in case Missy felt like helping me out). So I walked (in my socks!) through the backyard, praying I don't step in any poo, over to where the gate is. Of course we've had major settling issues in our backyard and the gate was stuck, so I had to pry and pry and pry (hello, splinters!) the thing open until it was wide enough to squeeze through, while at the same time keeping Ted from following me. Fun times, everyone! Note to self, fix gate.

So then to the front of the house. Of course it's locked. Of course the garage doors are locked. Of course I didn't get a keypad put on! So there I am, pacing around the front of my house in the cold (in socks! and pajamas!) trying to decide which neighbor I would go to first. The girl next to us was my first choice. She's super cool, about our age and hey! We are even facebook friends!! She'd totally think it was funny. Not home. AAH!

My other options were the couple across the street, but I know they have a new baby and I didn't want to possibly wake him up, so I passed. Then there was 'Zoro'. We don't know his real name but he comes and goes totally randomly, so we nicknamed him that. He happened to come home as I was starting to walk down the street. I figured he'd stop, right? Nope, in the garage, door closed. Ok then. I guess if I saw some crazy lady walking down the street in pajamas and no shoes in the middle of December, I'd get the heck inside too. Then there was Mike. Oh trusty Mike. I don't think I've posted this before but I've kinda done this before. Except it was summer and I was out running. Slightly different than December and pajamas. Anyway he's like the dad of the neighborhood. He helped build all the houses and knows everything about everyone in the whole subdivision. He's really nice and luckily he was home. He opened the door and as soon as I told him what happened (again) he got a good laugh out of the whole thing and let me use his phone to call my dad to come with the extra key. While I waited we caught up on all the neighborhood gossip. Who's moving out, who's moving in, who's had a baby, who's pregnant, you know neighborly stuff.

My dad showed up a few minutes later, let me in, let Ted in, laughed a little then went on his way. Oh what a night!

So there. That's what's been going on. I'm crazy pajama lady.

We'll be having that keypad installed ASAP.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

2010-12-05T20:35:00.000-06:00

I made these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies for Thanksgiving this year. Whoopie pies are so super easy to make and they are pretty much the perfect sized dessert! Each person gets their own little pie, and man, were these good!

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Cream Cheese Filling

from: Martha Stewart

FOR THE PUMPKIN WHOOPIE COOKIES
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cloves
2 cups firmly packed dark-brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups pumpkin puree, chilled
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
FOR THE CREAM-CHEESE FILLING
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Make the cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; set aside. In another large bowl, whisk together brown sugar and oil until well combined. Add pumpkin puree and whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined. Sprinkle flour mixture over pumpkin mixture and whisk until fully incorporated.
Using a small ice cream scoop with a release mechanism, drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 1 inch apart. Transfer to oven and bake until cookies are just starting to crack on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of each cookie comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely on pan.
Make the filling: Sift confectioner' sugar into a medium bowl; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla, beat just until smooth. (Filling can be made up to a day in advance. Cover and refrigerate; let stand at room temperature to soften before using.)
Assemble the whoopie pies: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Transfer filling to a disposable pastry bag and snip the end. When cookies have cooled completely, pipe a large dollop of filling on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, pressing down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edge of the cookies. Transfer to prepared baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate cookies at least 30 minutes before serving and up to 3 days.

Ho-Ho-Holiday Wishlist!

2010-11-26T21:19:00.000-06:00

Happy Black Friday everyone! I was up at the crack of dawn this morning to meet my brother's girlfriend/fiance, Jessi and Sheena for some shopping fun! We met at 5:30 am and I didn't get home until 3:30pm, took a quick nap, ate dinner then headed back out to finish up! We had a great time and hit a lot of the big stores. No pushing and shoving for us as we weren't there for the door busters, but were just looking for some good deals. I think we all succeeded! I still have a couple more things to get, but I'm thisclose to being done! I'm so much further ahead than last year! I can't wait to be finished. Christmas shopping stresses me out bad!

Christmas list time! Here's what's on my wish list this year!

Intyce Riding Boot - Steve Madden

Oh how I love these boots! I've been thinking about buying them for myself for months now, but every time I go to do it, I stop myself. I have a slight boot addiction. I love these so, but do I already have some that are *kind of* similar? Yes. But they aren't the same! I also can't decide between black and cognac. Such decisions.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1i

Zach and I have been talking about upgrading our camera for years now. We both love taking pictures, but we are getting frustrated with my old point and shoot. Zach's actually taking photography classes for school, so he would know how to use it and can teach me the basics. I think this might be the year we actually go for it! Then we'll just need to get (and learn how to use) some photo editing software and we'll be good to go!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Flip Video Ultra HD Camcorder

I just think these are neat!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Tracy Anderson Method - Mat Workout DVD

I only learned of Tracy Anderson this year and have since been obsessed with her workout style. It so fits what I'm looking for. Her programs are targeted to get you a "dancers body", thin but strong, long and lean. She has a whole series of videos, but I think I'll try this one first. I already do a bunch of stuff she's put out on You Tube.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kong Mega Wubba

Now, we all know how much Ted loves his Wubba. I recently saw this at Petco and thought it would be perfect for Ted. He would tote that thing all around outside, just like his Jolly Ball. It's so huge! Missy would be totally content with a new chew bone or a squeaky-squeaky. George wants treats, any kind will do.

Let the Shopping begin! I hope you get everything you want!

Fill in the Blanks Friday! - Thanksgiving Edition

2010-11-19T14:41:00.001-06:00

1. My Thanksgiving plans this year will include heading to the gym bright and early for my own little 5K. I usually try to do an actual race (my first race EVER was on Thanksgiving!), but just didn't feel like shelling out the cash this year and had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be super cold this year. Turns out I was right! It's going to be COLD on Thursday so I think I'll just go for a nice little run in my climate controlled gym, thank you very much. Heck, maybe I'll even make it a 10K :) After that I'll bum around the house then head to my aunts house for the Anello family eat-a-palooza and then home to scour the Black Friday ads and watch some TV with Zach. Can't wait!

2. My favorite Thanksgiving was (no offense extended family) the one that was just me, my parents and my brothers. It was way back when and I can't remember why we did it, but we busted out the china and had a nice little dinner. Just us. Holiday family time is awesome, but I'm easily overwhelmed, so it's good every once in a while to just go back to basics, but normally I do like all the big hooplah.

3. My signature Thanksgiving dish is dessert. I've never made anything else. Like, ever. Ok, well, once I made mashed potatoes. Just once (but not for Thanksgiving). I really need to start cooking more, no? Anyway, I make a wide variety of pumpkin desserts. My pumpkin roll is good. So are my pumpkin bars. And my pumpkin bread. But, this year I think I'm going with pumpkin whoopie pies.

4. My favorite Thanksgiving food is DESSERT! Yum yum! Pecan Pie is my favorite. I do also love apple pie. And pumpkin stuff. And cake! And whatever else you can give me filled with sugar. Thankfully my family is BIG on desserts, so there is never a shortage. I hardly eat any actual dinner and save all my room for dessert. That being said, I had NEVER tried sweet potatoes until last year. They just looked....weird. So I stayed far, far away. WHY oh WHY didn't anyone tell me that THEY ARE THE BEST THINGS EVER!? It's like dessert! For dinner! My goodness.... delicious. I must learn how to make them (with like a gallon of butter, brown sugar and of course, marshmallows on top!)

5. Thanksgiving is just kind of another day for me. I don't know, it's no big deal. Never has been. Eh. I'm kind of ready for it to be over. I do enjoy the two days off work though! :)

6. I am thankful for my husband, my dogs, my cat, my family, my friends, my job, my house and possessions, my families health, to live in America and all that other good stuff!

Gobble! Gobble!

Just hanging out!

2010-11-13T22:33:00.000-06:00

Not a whole lot going on in the world-o-Stephanie right now, hence the lack of blogging. Such is life.

I've been cooking and baking more regularly! I take pictures to blog with, but they all turn out terrible. I'm hoping to get a new camera and figure out how to take pictures when there's no natural light. (suggestions welcome). It probably won't be before holiday baking time starts though (around the corner folks!), which stinks because I have lots of new recipes I want to try this year.

Still working out. Trying for 6 days a week, but it usually ends up at 5. I need to be better at not skipping that 6th day. I want to give up Diet Coke, but every day I try ends up being a "bad" one and I give in. I guess there are worse things in life than drinking one coke a day, but still, I need to quit. Sugar and carbs are still my biggest downfalls, but sugar is slowly becoming less and less appealing, which is just bizarre to me. Otherwise, I think I still eat fairly healthy. Still totally on that big soup kick too.

I'm looking down the barrel of the last 6 months of my 20's and am not dealing with it very well. I guess I just need to focus on making it a good six months right?

So yep, that's about it!

Here are some new pictures of the pups!

...and I totally just outted myself for watching The Vanilla Ice Project.

(but it's so good!)

Howl-O-Ween 2010

2010-11-01T21:57:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween from our pups to yours!

Ever since we've had Missy, I've always called her "The Crazy Banana". I swore one day I'd find a banana Halloween costume and this was the year! It was so funny, I'd put her in it and she wouldn't budge. Just stood there, completely still. Poor thing. She was just too adorable though.

Ted didn't originally have a Halloween costume. Friday after work I thought I'd just stop by Target to see if they had anything on sale. I always thought it would be hilarious to dress him up as a horse, but I never thought I'd find a costume. Then this leaped off the shelf at me. The headless horesman! So funny! I literally doubled over in a laughter when we finally got him in it. Once he was in it he really didn't care about it, but oh man, it was funny!

We didn't get a single trick-or-treater. Sad. The kids missed out though, we had some good candy!

George lucked out this year and didn't have to wear his wizzard costume. I'll be sure to get him next year.

The first pumpkin I ever carved all on my own!! It's hard work!

I hope you had a fantabulous Halloween!

Pumpkin Bars

2010-10-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Almost-Halloween!

It's finally starting to feel a little more like fall around here and it's so nice! We had a Halloween Trick-or-TREAT DAY at work on Friday and of course everyone expected me to bring my now-famous frosted sugar cookies (sorry, no recipe to share here, top secret!), but I also wanted to bring another dessert since I had the baking itch. I saw these on Sugar Plum's blog a few days ago and they just looked too yummy. The recipe was super simple and I already had everything I needed, so it was perfect!

Frosted Pumpkin Bars
via: Sugar Plum
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 (16 oz) can pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts, toasted

Frosting (I doubled this)
4 ounces cream cheese, softed
1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 2/3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 15x10x1 jelly roll pan (mine is 17x13x1 and worked just fine) with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, granulated sugar and pumpkin until creamy - about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined - about 2-3 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined. Beat in walnuts until just combined.

Scrape and smooth batter into prepared pan. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out with moist crumbs attached. Cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the frosting, beat cream cheese in a large mixing bowl using a mixer on medium speed until creamy. Beat in butter until creamy. Beat in confectioners' sugar, cream and vanilla until well combined and smooth - about 2-3 minutes. Spread frosting over cake, sprinkle with extra cinnamon if desired, and slice into bars.

Yum yum! They were a big hit at work. Some people even told me they ate them instead of their lunch! Ha! They did dry out pretty bad after a while, so I suggest storing them in the fridge until you are going to serve them. Enjoy!

Come back soon to see what the dogs are for Halloween this year! It's gonna be hilarious!

Three Years

2010-10-15T22:30:00.000-05:00

This past Thursday, Zach and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. We both took a few days off of work and just spent time together. We didn't have any plans, we just hung out. It was a nice change of pace considering we only have limited time with each other during a normal week and that time usually manages to get scheduled to the nth degree. That night we went and had a very lovely dinner at Pierpont's at Union Station, which was great because we took most of our wedding day pictures at Union Station. Ah, good memories.

So here's to 3 great years and many more to come.

Stephanie & Zach ~ October 13, 2007

Loves you!
-Me

Taco Soup

2010-10-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

I've been behind the times. I've never had, or made, Taco Soup. Quite frankly when it comes to soup, I'm just now, at the age of 29, starting to try "new" things. Up until now my soup consumption has consisted mainly of chicken noodle, tomato, and beef and barley. B-or-ing.

These days I'm a soup fanatic. I can't eat enough of the stuff! I would guess I probably eat soup for dinner or lunch at least 4 times a week. The soup aisle is my new favorite place! So many choices! So cheap! So healthy! I guess it's a phase, but a welcome one.

This Taco Soup recipe has been around for a long time. I think it might be another Weight Watchers recipe, but I kind of just threw it together based on a few internet searches. It was not really as much a soup as it is a chili. Either way, it was delicious! And really easy! Brown some meat, open some cans, mix it all together, simmer and you are done!

Taco Soup
1 lb. ground turkey or lean beef (I used ground turkey)
1 (1 oz.) package hidden valley ranch dressing mix (I used spicy ranch mix)
1 (1 oz) package taco seasoning Mix
1 (16 oz.) can black beans (rinsed and drained)
1 (16 oz) can chili beans
1 (16 oz) can whole kernel corn (I used an even smaller can and will likely leave it out completely next time, corn just isn't our thing)
1 (8 oz) can Mexican-style tomatoes (used Rotel)
1 (8 oz) can diced tomatoes (any flavor)
1 (4 oz) can chopped green chili's
Dash of onion powder
Dash of garlic powder
Dash of Southwest Chipolte Spice
1 Can of water

Brown the beef or turkey in a skillet and drain off excess liquid. In a large stockpot, combine the ground meat and all the spices and cans of beans and veggies plus one can of water (you could use more if you want it even soupier or none if you want a thick chili). Let simmer for 1 hour over low to medium heat.

We served ours topped with cheddar cheese and a side of cornbread. It was the perfect fall meal! The leftovers are even better!

Soft Pretzels - My New Favortie Recipe

2010-10-13T14:40:00.000-05:00

I love soft pretzels. Love them! The are one of my most favorite ballpark treats. That chewy crust, the soft bread, the sprinkles of salt and the delicious cheese dip is just too much for me to resist.

I'd always wanted to try making soft pretzels on my own, but just figured they would be too hard. That is until my baking hero Annie of Annie's Eats posted a how-to on soft pretzels. I knew I had to try! So, one Chiefs Sunday I decided to make them before the game.

I'm going to be honest. I had no idea how soft pretzels were made and when I got to the part about boiling them in baking soda water (!?!) I just had a feeling that I was doomed. The whole time I was in the kitchen I kept yelling out to Zach, "Don't expect much!", "There's no way these are going to work", "I have no idea what I'm doing!". Needless to say, I was less than optimistic. I was constantly surprised when each step turned out to be rather easy! I was doing it! I was making soft pretzels! Using yeast and baking soda water and everything!

Soft Pretzels
from Annie's Eats
Ingredients:
For the dough:
1½ cups warm water (110-115° F)
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. salt
2¼ tsp. instant yeast
22 oz. all-purpose flour (about 4½ cups)
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil, for greasing the bowl

For finishing:
Cooking spray
10 cups water
2/3 cup baking soda
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp. water
Pretzel (or kosher) salt

Directions:
To make the dough, combine the water, sugar, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed to dissolve the yeast. Add in the flour and melted butter and mix just until the dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth and clears the sides of the bowl, about 5 minutes. Transfer the dough to a bowl lightly greased with vegetable oil, turning once to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place, about 50-55 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Preheat the oven to 450° F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and spray lightly with cooking spray. Bring the water and baking soda to a boil in a large saucepan or stockpot. In the meantime, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Working with one piece at a time, roll a segment out into a 24-inch long rope. Make a U-shape with the rope and holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and onto the bottom of the U-shape in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining pieces of dough.

Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 or 2 at a time, for 30 seconds. Remove from the water with a slotted skimmer and return to the baking sheet. Once all the pretzels have been boiled, brush the tops with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in the preheated oven until dark golden brown, about 12-14 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.

You guys, These. Were. Amazing. I couldn't believe it! I'm not even joking when I say this might very well be my most favorite thing I've ever made. Yes, that's how much I love soft pretzels! They tasted even better than at the stadium! We froze the ones we didn't eat right away and then heated them up a couple weeks later by thawing them a bit in the microwave and then putting them back in the oven for just about 3-4 minutes. Perfect even re-heated!

You must make these. Nowish.

Fill in the Blank Friday - October 8, 2010

2010-10-08T13:20:00.000-05:00

1. The first thing I do in the morning to start my day is (at home) give the dogs and cat lots of hugs and loves. (at work) crack open a diet coke and check up on my Google Reader. It's my own coffee and newspaper type of thing.

2. Today I wish I was hanging out at home with the pups watching all my lame DVR'd shows, all cozy in bed.

3. If I had an extra $100 in my bank account today I would head to TJ Maxx. I'm in the mood to shop and could spend hours in that place with $100!

4. Tomorrow we are taking Ted to the vet because he has some mystery yuckiness in his ears (poor dude), then I will go to the gym and work out in the yard with Zach. Tomorrow night we are having dinner with friends out at the Cheesecake Factory! Mmmm!

5. Two things that don't go together are socks with strappy sandals. People! Stop it!

6. Something I can never pass up at the grocery store is shredded cheese. It's an honest to goodness sickness. I probably have 4 bags of the stuff at home right now. That and recently I've been buying a ton of soup. Can't get enough of it. Most of the time it's even better when you throw some shredded cheese on top! :)

7. The last time I tried something new was just now! I had some Southwestern Ranch Baked Lays. Delish! Very spicy and actually Southwesterny! Usually all chips taste the same to me...

Have a happy weekend!

A different kind of race!

2010-10-08T06:30:00.001-05:00

I know you all are used to me blabbering on about all the races that I run, but this time it's not about me! A few weeks ago my friend Kristy send me an email asking if Zach and I would like to go to the NASCAR race with her and her husband. After staring blankly at my screen for a few seconds (Kristy and are aren't what you'd consider to be your typical NASCAR goin girls) I asked Zach if he'd be up to it. We both agreed that even though we don't follow the "activity" (absolutely refuse to call it a sport, sorry) we thought the experience would be fun. And it was!

I had no idea what to expect when we got there. First, parking was FREE(!!!) and it looked as if people had been there for a long while. As in, all weekend. Plus the number of flags was insane! I'm bummed I didn't get a better picture.

I'm not sure how far away we parked, but it felt like it took ten years to walk to the actual speedway.

We got our credentials and were shocked at the price on the tickets. $150!! Holy bananas! So glad we scored these puppies for free! We also got "Fan Walk" passes. We'll get to that...

I can't remember how many the speedway seats, but it is a lot!

Our seats were in row 14 way on the end of the seating area. Normally row 14 would be awesome for most events, but for a big race, it makes it a little hard to see, but being that close to the cars was pretty neato!

A look at the infield. People apparently pay thousands of dollars to camp out there all weekend. You should have seen some of the campers and setups! Wooden decks and all! It was crazy.

What's neat about racing is that they let you bring in your own cooler full of whatever you want! Kristy and I decided to attempt to relive our college days and brought vodka with soda. I think I took maybe 3 drinks of mine before admitting I'm old and crying uncle. Plus I didn't really think about all the debris that would be floating around the air. No sooner had I poured my cup when I noticed a bunch of little black flecks floating around in it. Diet Coke please! "Next time" I'll stick to beer like the boys did.

James and Kristy! We are about to head down the stairs to the Fan Walk.

This is the tunnel that goes under the track to the infield. Ooooohweeee! It sounded really crazy when the cars drove over it too!

Varoom!

Here we are on the inside of the track. It was different, but the same. Yep. I know my racing.

I believe this is the scoreboard. Evidently you have to know the numbers on the cars to have this make any sort of sense.

We got pretty close to all the trailers and stuff. Serious business goes on back there.

Kristy and I got our picture taken at Victory Lane in the infield. It's where the winner gets their trophy. We didn't stay for the whole race to witness it though.

Zach and I!

This is the Pit Area! It's where the cars pull in to get their tires changed and stuff. It looks like a lot bigger space on TV. Fast and furious work!

Here's a really terrible cell phone video of the cars zooming past! They really do go super fast! It was noisy, but not too bad. I didn't feel like I needed ear plugs or anything. What I wasn't prepared for was the smell! I left reaking of exhaust fumes and burnt rubber.

Overall we had a really fun time! I'm glad we got to go! It was yet another perfect fall day and we enjoyed it to the max!

Northwest

2010-10-06T20:58:00.000-05:00

This past Saturday Zach and I headed back to the place where we met. Northwest Missouri State University. We met our Freshman year and were quick friends and lunch buddies. The rest, as they say, is history (and a very long story). We haven't been back up there since we've been engaged/married, and this year the stars aligned where Nebraska had a bye week the same week as a NW home game! We couldn't pass that up! We headed up with our friends (and my old college roomie and fellow Sigma Sigma Sigma) Erica and her boyfriend Steve. We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather! We had a great time!

Hopefully we can make it back next year too.

Fitness Challenge 2.0 - The (sort-of) End.

2010-10-06T09:47:00.000-05:00

I've been putting off writing this last "Fitness Challenge 2.0" Update. I feel like every time I finish a challenge it just gives me license to go back to doing whatever I want. Mainly, eating whatever I want. So, I've been gradually extending the challenge in my head, week by week. Every day is a new day. I try not to beat myself up if I eat something bad, but instead try to make up for it in the gym and by making healthier choices the next time.

I haven't been weighing myself, so I don't know how much I've lost, but it's something since all my clothes are fitting better/looser. So, while I don't think I lost a huge chunk (not that I have a HUGE chunk to lose anyway, in my opinion) I have lost something and I'm feeling good.

So, I guess this is the last update for Fitness Challenge 2.0, although it's never really over. I think I'm just going to take a break from writing about it for a while.