Getting it together

I'm slowly getting the baby's room together. It's been a disaster area since the baby shower and recent purchases. I got the car seat and stroller, and yesterday I got a changing table for $10 from a ward member. I'm moving out all my craft stuff to make it a little more kid proof.

Also,I finally finished my blanket I've been working on. It took me awhile, but I was teaching myself pretty much how to do everything on this since I've never done a piece quilt or appliqué. I give myself an A- on the finished product, but an A+ on effort. If you remember, I made wall hangings of these animals, so it might look familiar. The wall hangings were made with wool felt. Because I found out that the felt was dry clean only, I went with flannel for the animals on the blanket. So the colors don't match exactly, but they'll do. Also, the wall hangings were hand appliqué, but the blanket was machine appliqué since the flannel was prone to frayed edges.





Next project: bumper pad

36 Weeks - One Month to go

I had another Dr.'s appointment today. The weekly appointment seemed to come very quickly! So, I now weigh just about the same as Matt. I am right where I should be, but it's still a little weird to know that I weigh in the same as my husband who is a foot taller than me! It doesn't bother me like I thought it would. I'm pregnant.

I got the results for the strep culture test, and I am cultured. I tested positive for the strep, so that means I have to have an antibiotic IV immediately upon admittance to the hospital and another one 4 hours later. I don't have to be hooked up the whole time to the IV, so that's good. If I somehow manage to pop the baby out in under 4 hours before I get the second dose (unlikely), the baby will have to be put on antibiotics so he doesn't get sick from my strep cultures.

As promised, I am gracing you with my monthly picture update. This time I'll give you a few more than just the one. I'll even show you week 36 in 2 outfits. One is in a non-pregnancy shirt, and one is in a pregnancy shirt. I personally think the pregnancy shirt makes me look much more pregnant because of how it hangs...

The black one is a review from 32 weeks.








The rest are from today. Exactly 36 weeks...4 weeks until my due date. It's late so my curly hair is a little crazy...

And it was a success!

Our primary program was originally scheduled for November 11th, but because I am due October 23, we needed to rethink that schedule. The way it worked out with General Conference, Ward Conference, fast Sundays etc., our options were October 21st or today. We figured the 21st was really pushing it, so we went with today.

Despite the fact that we were almost 2 months early, and last week was the first time we ran through the entire program, the kids did quite a good job today. It was as good as any program I've seen. I bound all the pictures for the songs in order, so they still had their visual helps, but they sang strong and loud. I couldn't have asked for much more. We just got a new Primary President 2 weeks ago and she is perfect for the job. Very, very organized, direct, and firm. She really helped the program go smoothly.

We only had one kid fall off his chair, and that was when the Bishop was wrapping things up.

So, I was happy.

Money, money, money, money

Although our last check hasn't been cashed yet, it's good to know that we have sent it and Matt's parents should have received it by now. That means we have paid off our $10,000 loan we borrowed when we moved here a little under a year and a half ago. While we had enough in savings for a down payment and closing costs, we would have been tight trying to get things like washer/dryer, fridge, etc. It was super helpful to have the loan, but I'm very happy that they have their money back and we are debt free (minus the mortgage) with a decent savings before the baby comes. My income wasn't super great this past year, but it was extremely helpful in reaching our goals.

We decided, with that behind us, we can now use my piano lesson money to save for MATCHING, NEW living room furniture! We should be able to make that purchase in the next couple of months. Possibly before Christmas. Possibly after Christmas. Who really cares? It's just nice to know we won't be living in a DI showroom forever!!

Cute and slightly impractical

Ok, Juls, I decided to go to kid-to kid to see if they had anything that rivaled the incredibly cute but pricey pumpkin outfit that I love. I decided that the problem with most pumpkin baby outfits is that they are really Halloween oriented and contain jack o lanterns rather than the harvest pumpkin that would be wearable all season long. However, I decided what the heck? Why should jack o lantern and monster clothing be limited to Halloween? So I bought two outfits today. I still want the Target one, but I am much less likely to purchase it now that I have these two cute outfits. Now, I have to admit that the monster one was not purchased at kid-to-kid, but it was 40% off at Carters...

Evil Gargamel will get his

We woke two days ago to find out that the smurfs decided to colonize in our back yard. Seriously, overnight we had tons of mushrooms pop up out of no where.

Our yard hadn't been mowed in about a week and a half since Matt went out of town for work last week. It was getting to the point that we were going to have to bag soon. I hate bagging. The last time we bagged the clippings from our yard we used 12! 33 gallon yard bags. We have a lot of yard.

I am one of those crazy people who actually feels good when I've mowed the lawn. I have been waffling back and forth trying to decide if I should cut back on the lawn cutting since I'm now 35 weeks pregnant. On the one hand, I have a theory that women who are too pampered and babied during pregnancy (except those who truly need special consideration) will have a harder, more traumatizing labor. So I've tried to keep active, listen to my body and modify my activity as I see fit. I've kind of felt like mowing can't be that much more stressful on me than pushing stroller with a toddler while pregnant. On the other hand, I'm 35 weeks pregnant...

I started my day yesterday with 45 min. of yoga. I then decided to mow the front lawn. 25 min. later, I felt great when I was done, so I decided to go ahead mow the monster of a back yard (including Smurf Village) that we have. (I kind of felt like Evil Gargamel as I mowed down all the mushrooms.) I have to admit that by the half way point I was feeling a bit tired. I really should have just stopped and left the rest for Matt. But instead I took a 15 min. break and went back out to finish. I felt a little tired, but not bad.

This morning I went on my normal 4 mile walk. I felt fine the whole time walking, but when I got home and stopped for a few minutes, I think my body realized what I'd put it through the last two days. It was the first time I felt like a waddling pregnant lady. The inside of my left thigh/groin area felt incredibly tender, possibly strained. I felt the repercussions of my overexertion all day. I couldn't tell if it was muscles or my bones shifting or what, but I was quite sore for the first time in ages.

I'm feeling a bit better after taking it easy this evening, and I am not quite as sore as I was right after my walk. So, I'm guessing I didn't pull anything. Just pushed myself a little over my limit.

So I've made Matt a promise (he wasn't in approval of my mowing, by the way) that I won't mow both lawns, or even the back yard, the rest of my pregnancy. The front yard, now I'll have to think about that...

Showered me with love

Yesterday my friend Erin put together a baby shower for me. It turned out so nicely! Nothing like a good party to make me feel loved. Sometimes it's easy to think, "I really don't have that many friends" because I don't happen to "hang out" with people regularly. The whole "girl friends" thing kind of took a back seat when I got married. While I think its quite important to cleave to your husband, I've found that it can be helpful and refreshing to get some good girl gab on occasionally.

Once I started making the list, I found that there really are quite a few people that I care about and think care enough about me to be interested in coming to a little party. We invited 35 people and about 15 showed up. I had people from my two wards, piano, and work attend. There were some RSVP regrets because of conflicts, and more than one person told me today that they were sorry to miss it, but they had a gift for me. All in all I felt very loved and supported by my friends.

The party turned out well. I didn't want cake, but we ran with the "little pumpkin" theme and she made some pumpkin rolls with the cream cheese frosting inside. It was so good. Erin also made some delicious brunch meat balls, mini quiche and fresh fruit. It was the perfect combination of food, and it was delightful.

We played two little games. She bought me this AWESOME basket that matches my nursery and filled it with level 1 diapers. The top was covered so we couldn't see and we had to guess how many she was able to squeeze in there. It held 82 diapers and someone actually got the exact number! They got a prize and I got the basket with diapers. The other game we played was "name that baby food". She had 8 jars of baby food and people had to identify what was in the jar. Someone actually got all 8 correct! Amazing since they all look like thrown up sweet potatoes.

The gifts were all so cute and some were nice and practical. He got a lot of cute clothes (and I'm happy to say they're not all just that stinking light blue that everyone associates with a new born boy...I have nothing against blue, just against everything being blue). I now have 1 package of newborn diapers, and about 5 packages of level 1 (one of them being a gigantic bag you'd find at costco). I don't know how long babies stay in each stage (I'm sure each child is different), so hopefully if I don't use them all, someone (Walmart??) will take them back and let me exchange for a different size without a receipt.

There are a couple other things I need to buy soon, but I really need to concentrate on getting the travel system so I have the car seat handy if I were to go into labor early. I tried getting it on Saturday, but Target was out of stock of the particular one I wanted and they're the only retailer who carries it. So I either need to order it online pronto or go to a neighboring town's Target.

5 weeks. It's coming quickly. Scary and exciting all at the same time!

Pickles

Our pickling cucumbers were one of the few plants in our garden that actually gave us enough fruit to do something with. That was exciting to me since I love pickles.

I found a recipe online, but made a few changes. It called for white distilled vinegar. I had cider vinegar. And then amount of vinegar to water seemed like it wasn't enough to get the desired tartness I wanted, so I increased it a bit. I don't have a canner, but the jars sealed properly without it and without a cooking water bath after I had the hot brine in the jars with the cucumbers. We canned two jars the first time.

We opened my first attempt about a week ago. Yowza! Too much vinegar! Matt said it felt like the enamel was being stripped off his teeth. And he really didn't care for the cider vinegar taste in that amount. I've eaten almost all the pickles because I can't let my hard work go to waste. I don't mind the vinegaryness of it, but it does give me a little tummy ache by the end of the pickle.

Yesterday I tried actually following the recipe with the white vinegar and correct amount. We'll try these in about a week or two. Hopefully it's a better result!

Things that make me...

I figured I'd do a few more 4's about myself today.

4 things that make me sad:

1. People who smoke when they are pregnant, and/or around their (or any) children. I feel especially sad for little kids or babies that can't do anything to get away from it. Sad and disturbing on many levels.
2. Littering. I am continually flabbergasted at how people deliberately dump trash on the side of the road. I'm not just talking about lazy litterers (though that's sad/bad too). You know, I'm talking about the kind of people that leave mattresses on the side of the road. And bags of trash in a field. Seriously. I've seen 3 mattresses littered here. One in a field by our house (it was there for months!!), one thrown over a bridge, and one on a remote back street. We also have 3 open fields near our house where bags of trash have been tossed. The tall field grass also catches all the "lazy" litter. The majority of the city looks good and clean, but look closely in any field here and you'd think we're living in a dump. (Though I have to say, some of the rough areas in Philly where Matt lived in truly were like living in a very filthy dump. I've never seen litter quite like that before. It's sad.)
3. Matt's gone this week for work. I made a long "to do" list before he left so I could keep myself busy while he's gone. It's better like that. I hope he's getting some good sleep in his hotel without this pregnant lady taking up too much bed space. He'll be back Friday.
   
4. Um. I can't think of other sad things right now. I'm sad I am not very good at trivia. I wish I could remember random info. Matt's really good at it. Sometimes I get a little jealous.
   

4 things that make me happy

1. Hearing from friends and family via telephone, email and blogs. I love that my sister has a blog now. Then I get to hear funny stories about forgetful tooth fairies, and I get to see great pictures. I've also found a number of friends recently who have blogs and have been able to "re-connect" with friends I possibly wouldn't have otherwise. It's delightful!
2. Feeling my baby move is very fun. He has really big movements now. The only time I don't really like it is when it's continuous repetitive movement that lasts a long time. It feels like he's knocking relentlessly on the door sometimes. He's been head down the last couple of check ups, so I hope he stays that way!
   
3. Kids that actually practice the piano and do really well at lessons. I love that. And I love supportive parents.
4. There was a hint of fall in the air today! I LOVED IT! The temperature stayed around 75 and there was a nice cool breeze flowing. I even have my windows opened right now. It wasn't quite fall, but it surely wasn't the hot weather we've been having the past couple months. Ah man! I just heard on the news that it should be back up to the 90's by Friday. 8-( I'll enjoy the cool while I can I guess!

The lesser of two weevils

Our pantry closet was invaded by weevils. Our gigantic bag of rice from Costco came to harbor an equally gigantic amount of weevils over the last two months. We knew storing the rice in its bag with a chip clip was not a super idea, but our buckets had not arrived and what else could we do? Even if our freezer had been empty, the bag of rice wouldn't have fit in there...

As I went to make rice for our super spicy vindaloo curry last night, I discovered the colony. I called to Matt to come see, and he noticed that they had not limited themselves to the bag of rice. No, they were not content and had set out to find tastier eats in our pantry. They made themselves at home on every shelf actually. We immediately took the rice to the outside trash, but I just wasn't up to cleaning out everything else last night.

So, today I set out to de-weevil our goods, and it appears that weevils have pretty good taste. The most surprising find was the falafal mix. I just bought it this week. When I took it out, I noticed it was leaking powder. Odd, I thought. There should be a sealed bag inside my sealed box. So I opened it up and saw the internal bag was punctured with multiple holes. Crawling out of the holes were weevils. Many weevils. As I looked at the outside of the box again, I noticed the holes on the box as well. (Notice the picture to the right. You can see a couple weevils on the bottom right hand of the picture as well.) It was by far the most infested item after the rice. The next discovery almost as infested? My Indian Masala spice mix. The lid had a little crack and they weeviled their way through. Oi. They like their ethnic foods. Why couldn't they have gone for the tuna that we've had for 3 years and not touched?

I threw away almost everything that didn't have a good seal. I vacuumed out all the little buggers I could see. I washed with soap and water. I used 409. And if that wasn't enough, I sought out a do-it-yourself pest control place and found a non-toxic (to humans) spray that would help kill any stragglers I may have missed.

I'm about 1/2 way done putting all my non-infested food back. The upside of this all? My pantry will be sooo clean, good looking, and organized when this is all over.

Guestimating stinks

So I ordered four 6-gallon plastic food storage buckets from Grandma's Country almost 2 weeks ago online. Under "shipping info" it says, "Most orders are shipped within 3 days of the time they are placed and arrive within a week." Sounds normal.

But then a week went by and nothing was showing up at my house or on my credit card. I was wondering if something was wrong with my order, so I finally called them today, 2 weeks after my initial purchase.

I found out 2 things.

First, they finally shipped my things (and charged my card) last Friday, so maybe it will get here tomorrow with a little delay due to the holiday.

Second, they charged me $13 more than their "shipping estimate"!!!!!!!!! I couldn't believe it. I didn't know it was an estimate (maybe it was in fine print somewhere, but it never says on their shipping info page that they just estimate the price), and to go from $11 to $24 is a big jump!

I'm a bit peeved right now, but what can I do? Not a whole lot.

Why can't Texas grocery stores (or Costco!) just sell food storage buckets like they do in UT?

Sidebar updates

I've finally updated my sidebar to include links to more of my family and friends. If I somehow missed you, just let me know! (Also, if you don't want me to link you, let me know and I'll strike you off my sidebar forever.)

Some may call me crazy

, but others may just agree with me. I have a twinge of sadness and longing in my heart knowing that BYU started today and I'm not there. I loved going to BYU. I loved living in Provo with the influx of population associated with school. I miss living by campus, going to classes (and yoga), and having certain resources available to me that I wouldn't have had (and currently don't have) else where.

It was nice to move on to a new phase of life, but man I'm missing Provo and BYU.

Sitting in my Swimsuit

I finally broke down and bought me a maternity swim suit. Why, you ask, would I do such a thing when summer is over, most of the pools are closing down, and I'm less than 2 months away from delivering? Well, I felt compelled to lap swim. And suits were on sale with the season ending.

We have one indoor public pool here that has lap swim year round. They don't have the greatest of hours, but I should be able to work it a couple times a week. Some days I can really feel the extra weight on my wrists or ankles/knees when I do yoga or walk, so it will be nice to have a feeling of water weightlessness every so often.

While I had good intentions of going swimming this morning, my plans were foiled. I got the address for the pool and Google mapped it. Google is not always right, as was the case today. When I got home (1/2 hour before they closed for the morning) after my unfruitful search, I called to figure out where I went wrong. Apparently I took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

But really, McKinney has this slightly annoying system where they start a road at two different sides of town in the approx. latitudinal or longitudinal location. They have intentions of one day connecting them, so they give them the same name. However, that means we have 2 Hardin streets, 2 College streets, 2 Eldorado streets, etc. until that long awaited connection day arrives. It makes it difficult and confusing occasionally. Even for Google Maps. And me. So I sit here in my newly purchased and un-wet swimsuit writing this post.

At least now I know where they're located, and maybe, just maybe I'll be able to make it there tomorrow after I drop off Matt at work at 8 AM and before they close up at 9 AM.