Thursday, February 17, 2011

Check In: Week 13, I Popped!

I have finally officially gotten to my second trimester!  With that I have realized that many of the early pregnancy symptoms have somewhat subsided, thank goodness.  The nausea is very infrequent, my boobs are not as sore, and my energy level is coming back.  In addition I have finally popped!  In other words, I'm showing...a little :-)

My husband has been in Florida helping his brother plant for a little over two weeks and I was so hoping by the time he got back I would be showing.  Now you remember how much Greg has been dying to see a little bump, so of course he was on my case to send him pictures while he was there so he could see the progress.  I didn't want to disappoint him but was still unsure if it was truly a "Bob bump" or if it was still the lovely bloating.  He asked on the perfect day though, because literally that morning, I popped!  Seriously, it was like now you don't see him, now you do!  I hesitantly snapped a picture of myself in the hotel bathroom, yes I was traveling too, and sent it on his way.  His response?  "That's definitely a baby bump!"

Joyously I shared my bare belly with my mom, grandma, and friend Lauran.  It seems kinda odd lifting up my shirt to take a picture of myself and sending it to people, but I guess think that's what pregnant people do, right?  Needless to say, you are in for a show too because I am sharing my self portrait with you all :-)

In celebration of the bump I have decided to start perusing some maternity items.  Let me tell you, people say that maternity clothes have gotten so much cuter, however, it makes me wonder how bad they were before because I haven't really noticed the cute factor.  Maybe it's because I live in a rural area, but boy do I have slim pickins'.  And the smalls are still huge, which I'm sure will change belly wise, but in the sleeves and yes, even though they HAVE grown, just ask my husband, they are still big in the boobs.  Like I said, I know my belly will eventually fill these out but I am definitely thinking I need a trip to the city where malls exist once I get further along.

In the mean time I'm enjoying still fitting into my current wardrobe and will hopefully not have to spend money on clothes soon.  I did spend money on a cute frame though!  I know, I'm a nerd, but I just had to splurge.  How cute is this?!  It sits on my desk at work.
That's my 10 week ultrasound :-)

13 Week Check-In
Weight Gain: 2.5 pounds, I think mainly in my butt to be honest, haha
Showing: refer to picture above!
Favorite Moment This Week: Valentines Day when Greg surprised me with a porch swing, with cupholders! Oh yeah, that's how we roll swing! He said he got the medium sized one so we could fit Bob on their with us :-)
Most Looking Forward To: My next appoint on March 1st because then we'll be scheduling my next ultrasound that will tell us the gender!!!!  I can't wait to start shopping!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Homemade Ooey Gooey Cinnamon Rolls

Intimidated by the word "homemade?"  I know I was!  But, the enticing words "ooey, gooey, and cinnamon rolls" had me hooked.  I just had to try to make these sinfully delicious sounding rolls.  I actually got the recipe from another famous blogger known as "The Pioneer Woman."  She made the claim that once you make these rolls for family and friends, you will forever be known for them, and only them.  Now that HAS to be a great cinnamon roll, right?!

Well I started by getting all of the ingredients....almost a week and a half ago.  Not gonna lie, in the face of the word homemade, and navigating a recipe that was not written in traditional recipe format, it took me a while to muster up the courage to try to decipher and tackle it.  (From this experience I did learn that for the sake of your readers to make ANY future recipes crystal clear.)  Another intimidating factor was that it made a HUGE batch; 6-7 pie tins of rolls to be exact.  I was so afraid of messing up the recipe and ending up with a huge bowl of wasted ingredients.  So I stressed about the impending chance of failure and kept putting it off.

I must say the only thing that got me to tackle the rolls was the expiration date on the milk and some words of wisdom about stress and anxiety from my dear aunt.  She said that so often we stress so much about the unknown and put things off only to find out that our fears are unfounded, which really struck a cord with me.  Why was I stressing about making cinnamon rolls?  The only way to ease that stress and know if my stress actually had any grounds, was to try it.  And, of course, it was a learning experience and I made many notations on the original recipe, but the rolls turned out great.  All of the stressing for nothing!  So if you see these rolls and think, "I have GOT to try to make them," go ahead, conquer your fear of yeast and rising dough and give it a whirl!  You'll be glad you did.

Here is the link to the new and BETTER recipe from Ree, aka the pioneer woman.  http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/06/cinammon_rolls_/
It is much easier to understand than the one I used and has step by step instructions with pictures, which would have helped when I made it.  I have also added pics of my cinnamon rolls below, which I must confess truly are as sinful as they look and are SO much fun to make!





Friday, February 4, 2011

A shower? Really...?!

They say that hindsight is 20/20 and, in this case, it was.  I'm sure you've all heard reports and saw the news about the horrible storm that ripped through the mid to northeast part of the United States.  Well, living in southern Indiana, we tend to get more of the ice and freezing rain rather than the snow.  After experiencing such ice that blankets the entire area, I without a doubt prefer the snow I used to get in Michigan. Well as this storm approached I kept a watchful eye on the storm, knowing full well that if something happened it was me and only me here to take care of things; poor Greg was in Florida.

As I left work Tuesday evening I thought to myself, "well this isn't too bad."  It was just a light rain and wasn't freezing.  However, 20 minutes up the road, I was in hell.  Ice completely covered the roads and tree limbs were shattered all over the place.  When I got home I knew that there was a good chance that my house would lose power, especially considered that the city 30 miles north of me was completely shut down.  My first thought was to take a shower because if I lost power in the night, I may not be able to take one in the morning...  Really...Really!?  A shower!?  Who thinks like that?!  Needless to say about 15 minutes later, with soap in my hair, the lights go off.  So I'm in the bathroom, with no window, feeling around for my iphone so I could use my handy flashlight application to get me through.  Then it dawned on me.  No electricity=no water or heat and soon it would be pitch black outside!  I raced to finish my shower before the tank ran out of water and scurried to pack an overnight bag.  Not sure where I was going, but I knew I couldn't stay in a freezing house.  Feeling blindly through the house I found our Coleman Lantern which enabled me to at least finish packing.

About an hour later, and after much debate, I ventured back on the roads to head to my friends house near my place of work, and of course the roads 15 minutes south of my house were FINE!  The difference in weather was night and day.  When I arrived she had made dinner and baked brownies to curb the pregnancy cravings, yay me!

Now, moral of the story.  I have realized that you DON'T take a shower if you think there is a chance of losing power.  There are more important things to consider like food, shelter, and water.  Needless to say, I will definitely be setting up an emergency plan well in advance and be prepared for any other storms that decide to head my way.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Edits to the Stir-Fry Recipe

Just an FYI that apparently my "eyeball" measurements are off.  I remade my stir-fry recipe and realized that I needed to make a few changes.  Thanks to my mom I have a kitchen scale now that helps with the weight of the protein so I don't have to hold the item while stepping on a scale to see the poundage anymore.  Which, by the way, does NOT work very well.  Anyway, I made the changes in the recipe and promise to never post another recipe without first testing my "eyeball" measurements. :-)