Um...

I had another prenatal appointment today. Baby's heartrate was 156bpm so he/she is nice and healthy! I decided I'd share with you my 18 week belly picture since I feel like I've blown up in the last few weeks. Oddly enough, I haven't gained any weight. To this fact, my doctor said that she wants me to eat more. That felt good to hear until my husband took this picture of me tonight. Now I'm convinced that the doctor is a leettle nutty.

Below is (first) me at 15 weeks and then (second) at 18 weeks. Ignore my ragamuffin hair in the second picture.



I got to have dinner with my dad tonight since he was in town making customer calls. It was really fun - I love spending time with my dad. We had mexican food. When I got home I ate a See's Bordeaux chocolate. My very thoughtful husband bought me a box of Bordeaux (my favorite) for no reason - just because he loves me. Isn't he sweet?

I still have to pack tonight for our trip to Oregon this weekend. Tomorrow when I get home from work I will make Caleb's birthday cake and the chocolate cream cheese frosting. I ordered a cake topper for his birthday but it hasn't come yet even though it was supposed to be here by Wednesday. I'm worried and slightly annoyed. I've got an idea on how to make it work if the topper doesn't show up.

Have a great weekend!

Tile, Birthdays, Flurries & Prayers

Thank you all for your tile suggestions. I've made a choice. It's actually a pretty big relief to make a decision since it's been in the back of my mind for a couple of days, constantly nagging at me. I won't tell you which one I chose, but when the bathroom is completed I'll share pictures. Probably within the next couple of weeks.

We have a fun weekend planned. We're heading down to Oregon for Caleb's 5th birthday! I can't believe he's 5 - when D first came down to Oregon with me to "meet the family" (which seems literally like yesterday) Caleb was only a year and a half old! He and D are buddies and from what I hear Caleb is pretty excited that his Uncle D will be there for his birthday. I'm making Caleb's cake which will be pretty simple (especially compared to last year's Batman cake - pictured below) but I'll post pictures of it next week.

I think my pregnant sisters and I are going to get some informal pictures of the 3 of us and our husbands this weekend. We need some sister belly shots together and I'm not sure that D and I will make it back down to Oregon before my first niece, Anna, is born. Should be fun - I'll post those pictures next week, too, hopefully.

I might start taking regular weekly photos of my growing midsection. I probably won't share them on here every week (bore!) but I'll slap them up here every once in a while. I think I've grown a lot just in the last couple of weeks (but still down 5.5lbs - woohoo!) so I'll post my 18 week picture either on Thursday or Friday.

We had snow flurries this morning - they're still happening, I believe. Nothing is sticking, really - maybe a dusting. I'm dreaming of a 70° day right about now. I am excited about the day I don't have to wear my coat outdoors anymore. D will say that I already don't wear my coat outdoors, but in my defense I wear a couple of sweaters and it's only when we're going from our house to the car and from our car to the church building. No biggie.

I'm up to 2 pillows during church. No, I don't sleep on them... I have a shaped back pillow that goes - where else - behind my back. Then I have a chair cushion that I sit on. My left side has improved somewhat but it's still painful to sit for long periods of time then to try standing. Again - all worth it!

Back to the grind. I didn't bring my lunch today so I walked to Starbucks and bought an egg salad sandwich. They really ruin it by putting lettuce on it so I'll just peel those babies off. I also got my usual decaf grande extra hot caramel machiatto with extra caramel sauce. Every time I go in there the manager asks me if I know what I'm having yet. Today she said "Wow it seems like it's forever away!" I kind of agree with her :)

Please, please keep my friends Matt & Candee in your prayers. Their sweet, beautiful baby boy was born with Trisomy 18 and is not expected to make it through the week. From what I hear, they're being pillars of strength and inspiration to everyone right now. It doesn't surprise me - they've always been amazing people. Please petition the Lord to comfort their breaking hearts.

Need your opinion!

I'll start by saying "Happy Monday"! If I say it maybe I will feel it. I'm thankful the Lord gave me another day but the beginning of another work week is always rough.

I love my FoodSaver. It was a gift from my grandparents a couple of years ago and D and I use it quite often. We buy most of our meat and cheese in bulk at Costco then we use the FoodSaver to separate the meats and cheeses into portion sizes and freeze them.

I do the measuring while D cuts the FoodSaver bags and seals them. I have to admit that I've never frozen mozzarella cheese this way, but last time we bought mozzarella in bulk a large portion of it went bad because we didn't use it often enough. So, we decided to FoodSave it and freeze it this time. I have this strange feeling that we might have compromised the integrity of the cheese. I don't know - you tell me...
If it looks like just a clump of white goo then it's not the quality of the picture - it really does look like a white clump of goo. I should mention that the mozzarella came grated in a large bag which is why the fact that it looks like goo is really puzzling. We only FoodSaved about 6 cups of the mozzarella which means there is a lot left in the bulk bag that will go in the refrigerator. Luckily, D is a huge fan of this cheese and has been dreaming mozzarella quesadilla dreams since we bought it. I'm not much of a mozzarella girl...the texture bugs me. But I will eat it on the homemade personal pan pizzas I made this weekend and now have for leftovers today. I mix in some cheddar on the pizzas, too, to break up the texture.

So, when we were finished with our FoodSaving, we had a block of Tillamook cheddar cheese (the only type of cheddar our household eats), parmesan cheese, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. All the meat we buy at Costco goes directly into the freezer - I've learned that boiling chicken or letting ground beef sit in a warm bath before sauteeing is the quickest way to defrost. A lot of times I'll just throw the ground beef into my big pot, turn the heat to medium low and let it sit there for a while to warm up. Costco has ground beef already frozen and individually sealed into 1lb blocks - I think there are 8-10 blocks in each bag? Anyway, very easy.
All of that to say THANK YOU to my wonderful grandparents for this gift that keeps on giving. We ran out of the bags but I'm going online today to purchase some more...hopefully in bulk!

Here's what I need your help with...


Again the bathroom. You can see to the left a picture of it before D did all the work to self-level it this weekend. Nothing in it. The ShopVac is in the shower along with some other miscellaneous tools that D has been using. D is going to the home improvement store today to order tile. For the last, oh, 6 months I've had this tile picked out that I thought was "the one". This was before we picked out the cabinet/sink and the paint for the bathroom so now I'm unsure of my choice.

Picture 1: The tiles by themselves against the shower.
Picture 2: The tiles up against the paint color that I'm considering (still am a little unsure of this, too. Do you think a khaki color/beige would look better? Or any other color for that matter?) Sorry the picture is so dark.
Picture 3: The tiles up against the bathroom cabinet/sink that we've chosen. Ignore the laundry room floor - that's next on the list.
So - what do you think? The darker one or the lighter one? The first picture is probably the best representation of the actual colors. The dark one is not super dark - it has more of a greenish color to it whereas the lighter one has more blue tones to it. I'm not stuck on a paint color so don't take that into as much consideration as just which one matches the cabinet better. The room is only about 5'x5' so it's not very large if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the help! If you want me to post a closeup of the tiles let me know. I almost did but I don't think my pictures are very good representations of the actual colors.

New Look

My blog finally has a new look!

Let me know what you think.

Also, don't forget to vote over there to the right about whether you think Baby Bee is a boy or a girl. It's 50/50 right now!

(Don't tell anyone, but we went to Costco last night and I bought a bulk supply of Trident Splash Strawberry with Lime gum. Mmmmmmmm. What TMJ? I'm chewing 2 pieces right now)

If anyone knows what this plant is, please tell me. My mom has someone trying to figure it out, but if you know I'd love to hear from you!

Organization

I'm working from home today because I literally about fell out of bed this morning for my left leg wouldn't work. Pain. I love this baby so much but I will be forever grateful to this baby if he/she would kindly move off my sciatic nerve.

Last tax season we opted for part of our tax return money in $75 Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards. I wanted to buy curtains and there was some deal where we paid much less for the gift cards than their actual value so we decided to go for it. Well, their curtains (and most everything in the store) is really pricey so we found curtains at Target instead. It's been almost a year and we finally got around to using the giftcards.

We bought...

- 2 cereal keepers
- An under-the-kitchen-sink shelf (see below)
- A stair-step organizer (see below)
- 2 plastic bag holders (for D's garage)
- Some clearance Christmas decor (including 3 cute stocking holders for $3.49 ea! David already claimed the Christmas tree one - less "girly". Our baby and I will have the stars.)

- A beautiful silk plant for my downstairs guest bathroom

(Ignore the blue countertops - it's my kitchen circa 1986. If somehow I ever win $20k then we'll redo the kitchen!)

- A heavy brown suede covered arm chair thing that sits on the floor so there's a comfortable spot on the floor to sit since we don't have a lot of sitting areas in our living room. Wow, that was a run-on sentence.
We got a few other things, too, but I'll spare you!

It didn't occur to me to take "Before" shots of my cabinets, or maybe it did occur to me but I was too embarassed of them to take any photos so I'm just telling you that I forgot. No, I really did forget. But...here are the "After" shots...

The first photo is the stair-step organizer that I used for my spice cabinet, and the second is the under-the-sink shelf that I used under my kitchen sink. When my laundry room is done being remodeled, I'll move all the cleaning supplies downstairs. For now, they're easily accessible.

(Does anyone throw away spices after 6 months like they're "supposed" to? I don't!)

Hopefully tomorrow I will change my blogger background. I feel like someone who still has their Christmas lights on their house 3 weeks after Christmas (don't worry - those came down the weekend after the New Year).

Thanks for your comments on my last blog - love them!!

Miscellaneous - Yay for long weekends!

I don't have a lot to say.

Tess has Cherry Eye. We self-diagnosed. Apparently surgery is the only thing that fixes it but many say that it's not necessary if the eye is not bothering the dog (which, it's not bothering Tess). We will still continue with the "wait and see" method, especially now that we know it isn't life-threatening and because it doesn't bother her. She has a yearly check-up so if it's not gone by then we'll talk to the vet.

I have been working on keeping my word. I'm not very good at saying I'll do something and then doing it - I usually over-commit then just drop off. Usually it's just to myself that I over-commit but sometimes it's to others (mainly my husband). It's not a good personality trait and, frankly, I think it's sinful. So, I talked to David and he suggested not telling him when I'm going to do something. Start with a small thing and only tell myself that I'm going to do it and then just get it done. So I told myself all day yesterday that I was going to Swiffer then wipe down our kitchen floor (it's not a small kitchen floor). So, I did. I feel good. I know it's a small task, but considering that lately I've felt like doing nothing after coming home from work besides fixing dinner and laying on the couch, it's kind of a big deal to me. I might post my small accomplishments from time to time just to keep myself motivated.

So, on Wednesday night I got home and really had an inkling for some crunchy baby dills. I think I ate 6 of them and they tasted oh so good. Then, I saw the pan of brownies beckoning me so I had a little piece of one. I know everyone likes their brownies baked different ways...some like them fudgy and a little undercooked (EW) and some like them thin and chewy (YUM). Some, even still, like them burnt to a crisp - although the only person I know who likes them this way is my mom and she likes everything "extra crunchy". Anyway, for some reason the brownies I made on Tuesday night were a bit on the fudgy side which is the ONLY reason that the entire pan isn't consumed. I went my entire first trimester without vomiting...well, there was that one occasion where I took my prenatal vitamin on an empty stomach but I don't count that as anythign having to do with pregnancy except that I didn't want to eat anything which was the reason for the empty stomach at bedtime. Wednesday night I was not so lucky. Something didn't set well with me and the pickles and the brownie came back up. And it hurt. It hurt bad. I've never vomited like that where it was so painful. I decided to stay home from Bible class since I was feeling puny and afraid I might heave again. Just wanted to record my only time in my pregnancy where I actually got sick and threw up. I'm sure you're glad I shared.

D and I both have MLK Day off on Monday. Home improvement projects time! We both also have Presidents' Day off in February, too, which I'm thankful for because that means more baby prep and home improvement work. D is hard at work chipping away at the bathroom floor downstairs preparing to add a new floor and repairing sheetrock and painting. In the laundry room, he and his brother-in-law are going to work on the plumbing and then D is going to hang shelves and install the beautiful utility sink (I'm not kidding - it's beautiful) and paint the room a beautiful canary yellow. D already painted the downstairs guest bedroom last weekend.

In case you're interested, here's the color that the laundry room will be painted. I'll be sure to post "before" and "after" pictures for your enjoyment. And also because my husband has been working so hard on our house and won't let me lift a finger to help him. He wouldn't even let me help paint the guest room even though I told him it wouldn't hurt the baby in the least bit.

So, the color for the laundry room (I'll have white cabinetry in here and have white front-loading machines):

Does anyone know why Blogger sometimes rotates your pictures without your permission? Hm.

So, there you have it. I guess I did have a lot to say after all.

Now you say something! I love comments - can't get enough of them. You should know that if you subscribe to my blog and you're reading this in your email, you can come to my actual blog and leave a comment without having to create an account or anything. Just sayin'.

Have a good weekend!

(No, I haven't gotten around to updating the look of my page).

Photo Tag & Painting

I was tagged by Liz at Mainly a Midwife for a photo tag.

You're supposed to go to your fifth photo folder and post the fifth picture. Sorry - this one might be a little boring but I did follow the rules! This was taken in February 2006 when D and I went to the cabin that his sister's husband's family owns on Lake Cavenaugh. Actually, my future sister-in-law and brother-in-law hosted us at the cabin. D and I weren't married yet so he slept on the really old, really lumpy couch while I slept in a bed in one of the two bedrooms. It was a fun weekend.


I'm supposed to tag others. Just consider yourself tagged if you read this, mkay?

I just want to show you really fast what I've been working on. Hopefully these paintings will be hung in the downstairs guest bathroom, but honestly they didn't turn out the way I planned so I may just shove them in the corner of a closet somewhere. Either way, for the past few days this has been my project (to the detriment of the laundry piling up). The first is the set and the second picture is a close-up of the main painting.

If you have advice, I'd love to hear it! The paintings have more depth than it looks like on the screen. I tried to build up the texture - the main reason I love working with acrylics is for the texture opportunities! There's also some parts of the paintins that have an iridescent gold look that doesn't come across well in the photos.


Have a good Tuesday! Tomorrow night I will post pictures of my fabulous Christmas present from my in-laws (built by my fabulous father-in-law!).

Tess, the pooch

Ok, so I know I haven't updated my blog site yet. Soon. Soon.

Something's wrong with my pooch. Well, it seems relatively harmless...as a matter of fact, I looked up online what it might be and every site said "cherry eye" which is not common in older dogs (Tess is 7). So, I'm confused. It doesn't seem to be bothering her and some days it's red and other days it's just pink. We are trying to decide if we should pay the $50 to take her to the vet. From what I've read, the only thing they can do is give us drops to put in it to make it less irritable or they can do surgery to fix it completely. Surgery means $$$$$$ which, because I'm just now realizing how much one little baby can cost, we don't have the money for right now. However, right now Tess is our baby and I want her to be okay. So, just wondering if any of you have ever seen this and any other information you can give. If you can't see the picture very well, you can click on it to blow it up.


Not just that, but she's been extra clingy the last week or two. I told D that I think it's because she senses my pregnancy and is trying to be protective. He doesn't believe me. The picture I took is from last night and yes, she's in bed with me while I read "Marley & Me". She's sweet and I love her...she fell asleep with her chin resting on my belly.

Speaking of belly - I think I had a growth spurt overnight on Saturday. Still not much of anything except the fluff that already existed, but my womb actually feels pretty solid if you poke it. I made D feel it a couple of times yesterday and I don't think he really gets why I'm excited. He tried to act like he understood, but he didn't...I know this because I can see the twinkle in his eye and the slight smirk on his face when he gets fake excited for me. Don't tell him, but I think it's cute.

Monday. Again. Thank you, Lord, for letting me wake up to another day.

Anyone else anticipating Daylight Savings Time? My thought is that at 7:30 it should be light outside. I can't even see the water right now.

The 15 week belly shot

If you haven't read the post below, it's there for the reading! Just keeping my word and posting my 15 week belly shot. Still not much there. Maybe I'll post my 10 week one next to it for comparison. Yeah, my hair looks better up.

First picture: 10 weeks / Second picture: 15 weeks

Can you tell a difference? I can. Maybe. If I squint.

It's a post about the Baby

15 weeks today! Baby is the size of a naval orange or an apple depending on which site you refer to. Baby's about 4" from crown to rump and can sense light even though the eyelids are fused shut at this point.

I can't feel anything yet but that's normal. It'll be fun when I can feel the baby! I don't really feel pregnant except for maybe the tiniest appearance of what I would assume is a baby bump since I haven't gained any weight. That, and near constant pain in my lower back. My doctor told me that it's probably the baby pushing on nerves and that I could take Tylenol for the pain. Usually I just deal with it.

What else...

Tonight is belly picture night. Every 5 weeks - can you believe it's been 5 weeks since my last one? I can't! So, I'll post it tonight. Maybe. :)

D has been asking me to write things down about how I'm feeling and about this pregnancy in general. He finally got me to pick out a Pregnancy Journal online and I LOVE it. It'll take a while to fill out because I've mostly forgotten what I craved in the first trimester and how I felt (amazing how that happens to a memory!), but I'm really looking forward to keeping it up. Although, they want you to take belly pictures every week. Uh, sorry...not gonna happen.

Here's the journal I have. It retails for $23 but Amazon.com has it for $11.53...you can click on the picture below for more information. The only thing I think they could have included is a place for the home pregnancy tests. Sorry if that grosses you out, but I kept all 3 of mine. I love looking at them.
I'm sure you're all sick of looking at my holiday themed blog page. I'll change it soon. Well, "soon" is relative. By "soon" I probably mean within the next 90 days. Just ask Micah - I've been telling her that I'll whip together a new page for her for probably months now. I promise, Micah, when I do mine I will throw yours together too (carefully and delicately!).

We've been getting torrential downpours here lately with wind thrown into the mix to make things interesting. Fortunately, we haven't had any flooding because we live on a hill and have wetlands practically behind our house. However, there are those in this area who have not been as fortunte and have a lot of flooding problems. Many have evacuated but some are staying at their properties and telling the news reporters that "It's not going to be as bad as last year". I won't address these people just because I think you can draw your own conclusions, but I-5 has been shut down in some areas and for the state to do that is a BIG deal.

This is a picture of I-5 from the flood of Dec. 2007. Yes, that's a picture of an exit sign and a guy in a canoe on the highway.

Right now the sky is a mixture of grey, blue, and white. Yes, we can actually see the sky! It's beautiful, especially now that it's not freezing. It's a balmy 48° outside.

Hopefully this weekend will involve some moving around of furniture and possibly painting the downstairs guest bedroom. We'll see what D has planned.

Hope you all have a great Thursday!

2009: The Beginning

2009 has started off a little rough. First, I have to say the first day of 2009 was a joy. We got to spend New Year's Day with my in-laws celebrating Christmas a little late. We feasted on appetizers and dessert until we were fuller than full. My father-in-law broke out the espresso machine and made drinks to order. He even obliged to making me seconds of my caramel machiatto!

Here we all are minus my father-in-law who took the picture:
I got a really, really awesome gift from my in-laws but I'll save that post for a little later this week when I have pictures to show you. It's worth the wait, trust me!

I took Friday off work and was relatively productive cleaning up the house which is good because on Saturday I was completely worthless. I just felt icky the entire day and by Sunday I still felt icky.

Sunday was difficult. A couple who attends the congregation I grew up in down south lost their young son (I think he was 24 or 25) on Saturday night. Their son was funny, athletic, personable, goofy yet so loveable. He was intelligent but sometimes just made the wrong decisions. Don't we all? He has an older sister with whom he was very close and I can't imagine how she's feeling right now. This news is hard...it's hard to think of someone with so much life left to live being gone so fast. I wasn't going to mention this yet but since there are so many people already soliciting prayers publicly on behalf of this family I wanted to do the same. Please keep his family in your prayers that God may comfort their hearts.