So I haven't updated in a while. Nothing's really been happening, so that's partly why, but I've also had a crazy week at work. Today is my first day off from both jobs in well over a week, so I figured I'd pop in and offer up a few tidbits from the past week. Here we go....
We started our registries last Sunday! It was pretty fun, but kind of stressful at the same time. Thanks for all the facebook feedback about what we should make sure to include! We got all of the necessities as far as we can tell. And throughout the week, Andy actually somehow talked me into cloth diapers. We had decided against it at first because the house we will be moving to has public water and sewer, so we figured the water bills would outweigh the diaper cost savings. If there's one thing in the world I can depend on, it's that my husband is a planner. He crunched numbers for days to figure out that we would still save money with cloth. It took a lot of convincing, because I really gravitate toward throwing the poo away rather than putting it in my washer several times a week, but he finally talked me into it.
We had an issue with our fridge this week. Apparently it was on a defrost cycle and so the temperature rose slightly. It was enough to make us realize that our water bottles were not as cold as they should have been. Andy panicked and rotated the dial toward 'cold'. Unfortunately, the temperature continued to hold at a steady 50. If you know anything about fridges, you know that's entirely too warm. So the next day I looked at the dial a bit closer, and realized that 'cold' is actually the opposite of 'colder', so he had actually turned the temperature up. Oops. So after much freaking out and random adjustments, it's finally back to a nice cold temperature with the dial set at 'normal'. All that for nothing. It was pretty exciting. Or not.
We enjoyed watching the Olympic opening ceremony on Friday night! We stayed up until midnight to watch the whole thing and loved every minute of it. It got varied reviews and a lot of the people I know on facebook apparently didn't like it. I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed it. Mr. Bean's appearance may have actually been my favorite part, though the flame lighting was incredibly touching as well. It was fresh and creative and really well done, in my opinion. If you didn't like it, well then that's ok too, I'm just saying that I really did. So far I've also really enjoyed watching some swimming and gymnastics qualifying rounds. And I've got to say that I'm super lucky that Andy is as much of a fan as I am.
My mom, dad, and sister came to visit yesterday! We had fun shopping for the last bit of fabric for the baby's quilt, which is looking super cute! I can't wait to show you all pictures. She's going nuts (in a very, very good way) with anything fabric in the nursery. It's going to be beautiful! We also had fun just sitting around catching up and hearing all about their recent trip to Niagra Falls. I hadn't seen any of them in a while, so it was a really great day. Plus, we went to my favorite Italian restaurant for lunch, so that always makes for a good day!
Also we got a call yesterday from our realtor (who needed some info from us) that may have indicated that things are moving faster with our house than we thought they would. None of us really knows what's going on, so I'm trying not to get too excited just yet, but it's still good to know that things are moving in a forward direction!
And last, but certainly not least, we made it to 15 weeks on Saturday! The Bump tells me that Baby is about 4 inches long and weighs 2.5 ounces. Roughly the size of a navel orange, which is pretty adorable to picture. And I'm starting to show more and more, which is a good thing for me! My tummy has [almost] always been a bit jiggly (come on, whose hasn't??), but now it's starting to tighten up and jiggle less. Good news all around! I've been lotion-ing up with cocoa butter to help avoid stretch marks, but I hope that I'm not so vain that I'll be upset if I get them anyway. I have one pair of regular jeans that still fits. One. They got pretty filthy at work on Saturday evening, so I had nothing to wear to church on Sunday. I ended up pulling out the maternity jeans and my belly is ALMOST big enough to hold them up properly! I tried wearing my capris a week or two back and they just would not stay up, so this relative success with the jeans is very encouraging. I know it's a silly thing to be excited about, but I still am! My next appointment is on the 6th, and then we will set the date for the growth scan ultrasound to find out if it's a boy or a girl!
So that's what happened this week. The next time something exciting happens, I'll be sure to let you know!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Hello Second Trimester!
So we're 14 weeks today! Wahoo! So when exactly does my energy come back?? They say I should be feeling much better this trimester, and for the most part that's true, but I'm still very emotional and also pretty tired. That could be a result of my work schedule, though, so I shouldn't put too much blame on my little Nugget.
Speaking of whom... he or she is apparently the size of a lemon today! According The Bump, Nugget is about 3.2 inches long and weighs a whopping 1.5 ounces. Also, apparently he or she is very active in there, but I just can't feel it yet. I'm starting to get really anxious for that, though. Every time my tummy grumbles or I have gas, it makes me jump a little bit, wondering if that's it. But no. Not yet. At my last visit, the doctor told me I probably won't feel anything until 17 weeks. So I guess I've still got a while to wait.
In other news, we ordered our crib today! We decided that the crib would be the one piece of furniture for the nursery that we would buy new. The rest we either bought used or will be using our old bedroom set, since we just got ourselves a new (used) set. There will be painting involved. Lots and lots of painting. We decided to go with white furniture so it would be easy to match and also keep the nursery nice and light. Andy's been wanting to buy the crib JUST so we can match the paint and he can get started on the other pieces of furniture. He's got the glider and one dresser sanded and ready so far (the other dresser is still at my parents house, or he'd have that done too) and has bought the paint sprayer and everything he will need to get going on it.
He's been really anxious about getting everything ready as soon as humanly possible. It was cute for a while because it was evidence of him being so excited. But I've been kind of mellow about the whole subject, arguing that there is plenty of time and we don't have to rush any decisions or do everything all at once, so there's a little bit of conflict there. I really thought it would be the other way around. Seriously. I figured I would be the one to go buy everything and have the nursery all set up before we even find out the sex (yes, we'll be doing that, but more about it later) and he'd be dragging his feet, not wanting to make big decisions too quickly. Either way, we balance each other out, and that's what really matters.
Speaking of getting everything done, tomorrow we are going to Babies 'R Us (and maybe Target too, if we have the time and energy) to start our registries. It's a bit overwhelming, to be honest. It's hard as first time parents to know what all we will need or want. We're definitely going to be taking care of the big items (stroller, car seat, etc.) since we already went and figured out what we like, but we know we will probably have to make adjustments later on for the smaller things. Here's something you will rarely hear from an expectant mom: Give me some advice!! What do you wish you had registered for? What did you get that you can't/couldn't live without? What did you register for that you never really used or never ended up liking? Help me out here! A few helpful tidbits: Provided that I can, I'll be breastfeeding and I will also be staying home full-time and teaching lessons in the evenings.
So that's my update for today - we bought a crib and Baby's the size of a lemon and I still like to sleep a lot. And I need your help with my registry! One of these days I promise I will actually get you a picture of my 'bump', although I still don't think it looks like a bump so much as like I just ate a big meal and need to hop on the treadmill a little more often. Oh well. People tell me that these next few months will fly by and suddenly I will be going into labor, wondering where the time went. So there's no need to rush things. Just somebody please tell my husband that :-)
Speaking of whom... he or she is apparently the size of a lemon today! According The Bump, Nugget is about 3.2 inches long and weighs a whopping 1.5 ounces. Also, apparently he or she is very active in there, but I just can't feel it yet. I'm starting to get really anxious for that, though. Every time my tummy grumbles or I have gas, it makes me jump a little bit, wondering if that's it. But no. Not yet. At my last visit, the doctor told me I probably won't feel anything until 17 weeks. So I guess I've still got a while to wait.
In other news, we ordered our crib today! We decided that the crib would be the one piece of furniture for the nursery that we would buy new. The rest we either bought used or will be using our old bedroom set, since we just got ourselves a new (used) set. There will be painting involved. Lots and lots of painting. We decided to go with white furniture so it would be easy to match and also keep the nursery nice and light. Andy's been wanting to buy the crib JUST so we can match the paint and he can get started on the other pieces of furniture. He's got the glider and one dresser sanded and ready so far (the other dresser is still at my parents house, or he'd have that done too) and has bought the paint sprayer and everything he will need to get going on it.
He's been really anxious about getting everything ready as soon as humanly possible. It was cute for a while because it was evidence of him being so excited. But I've been kind of mellow about the whole subject, arguing that there is plenty of time and we don't have to rush any decisions or do everything all at once, so there's a little bit of conflict there. I really thought it would be the other way around. Seriously. I figured I would be the one to go buy everything and have the nursery all set up before we even find out the sex (yes, we'll be doing that, but more about it later) and he'd be dragging his feet, not wanting to make big decisions too quickly. Either way, we balance each other out, and that's what really matters.
Speaking of getting everything done, tomorrow we are going to Babies 'R Us (and maybe Target too, if we have the time and energy) to start our registries. It's a bit overwhelming, to be honest. It's hard as first time parents to know what all we will need or want. We're definitely going to be taking care of the big items (stroller, car seat, etc.) since we already went and figured out what we like, but we know we will probably have to make adjustments later on for the smaller things. Here's something you will rarely hear from an expectant mom: Give me some advice!! What do you wish you had registered for? What did you get that you can't/couldn't live without? What did you register for that you never really used or never ended up liking? Help me out here! A few helpful tidbits: Provided that I can, I'll be breastfeeding and I will also be staying home full-time and teaching lessons in the evenings.
So that's my update for today - we bought a crib and Baby's the size of a lemon and I still like to sleep a lot. And I need your help with my registry! One of these days I promise I will actually get you a picture of my 'bump', although I still don't think it looks like a bump so much as like I just ate a big meal and need to hop on the treadmill a little more often. Oh well. People tell me that these next few months will fly by and suddenly I will be going into labor, wondering where the time went. So there's no need to rush things. Just somebody please tell my husband that :-)
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Spilling the Beans
You only get ONE chance to tell people that you're expecting for the first time, so it's important (or at least it was to me) to make it memorable. I wanted to make sure to tell our immediate families in person, which meant we had to wait until Father's Day weekend before we had a chance to see my family. So we had to keep it in until I was 9 whole weeks along! That's a long time to keep a secret. But it was totally worth it. Andy and I had different ideas on how we should spill the beans, so we agreed that we would tell my family my way and his dad his way. Sounds fair, right? (I still think my way was better!)
We got there on Saturday morning and somehow didn't get around to getting dad to open his Father's Day gifts until lunchtime. Talk about torture. I can't believe they didn't figure it out. These people always know everything. Good or bad, they just always seem to know. When Andy and I got engaged, of course my parents were the first people I called after I had finished crying. They answer the phone and I excitedly squeal 'We're engaged!!!' And what do they say? 'We know.' That's it. Now granted, he had asked their permission and told them the whole plan of when, where, and how it was going to happen, but still. At least pretend to be excited. So, because of that, I wanted to surprise my sister with the news so I would get a good reaction. (As it turns out, my parents were legitimately surprised and excited about the news, but I'm still glad I went with my original plan.)
So we gave dad his card and gift, which was just a silly little thing. He's a big kid at heart, so he actually enjoys gifts like that.
Then we brought out the second gift and announced that it was a 'Family Gift' and I thought it was only fair that Andrea, my sister, open it since it will be so long until her birthday. She was totally thrilled by this (who DOESN'T like opening presents!) and I was glad that she accepted that without arguing or being suspicious! A few months ago, I made a super cute little onesie with this specific plan in mind. Well ok, I didn't 'make' it - I bought it plain from the store and then stenciled the design on, but still. So she peeked in the bag and saw that it was a t-shirt of some kind and couldn't figure out why I would be giving a t-shirt as a family gift. I thought the surprise was blown, but I calmly told her to just pull it out and she would understand. Enjoy the following pictures for the rest of the story...
This was followed by lots of squeals and giggles and then she literally knocked me over with hugs. It was perfect. I just wish I had taken video instead of just pictures.
The next day, we spilled the beans to Andy's dad. It was Father's Day, so we went over to his house for lunch right after church. After lunch, we gave him his card, which read 'Happy Father's day, Grandpa'. He was kind of confused for a minute, thinking we just made a mistake and then said 'Oh, am I a Grandpa yet?', to which we replied yes. Then he laughed for about five minutes and kept saying 'Well that will change things!' It was pretty funny.
Then there was the facebook announcement a few weeks later where I posted the video that most of you probably saw. If you didn't, go to youtube and look it up. It's a parody of 'Sexy and I know it' called 'Pregnant and I know it!'. Hilarious!
Then this past Sunday we spilled the beans at church. Andy made me stand up and make the announcement because he doesn't like talking in front of crowds. During the sharing of joys and concerns that we do before the prayer, I stood up and said that we had a joy that was also a concern. At this point, people still hadn't figured it out. I was amazed. I'd practiced my speech for a while so that I wouldn't fumble around it, but after saying 'We're expecting a baby in January, so we're very excited...' I almost broke down crying. Stupid hormones. After a few seconds of recovery, I was able to continue with '...we'd really appreciate prayers for health and safety and some sanity in the meantime!' People were totally surprised and we were a little late for lunch because of all the wonderful people who wanted to congratulate us. It really is a pretty great church. My favorite comment though came from an older gentleman who sits with his wife in the pew in front of us every week. Their kids are a few years older than we are, and they have some very young grandkids that don't live close by. Every week, at some point during the sermon, she passes back her bag of candy to us so that we can have a treat. We love them. Well after the service he turns around and gives me a hug and says congrats and all that. Then he says to me, 'So I guess now if I notice you're getting a little pudgy it's ok for me to point it out and say you're doing a good job growing that baby!' HA! Priceless. Gotta love him.
So that's how we spilled the beans. How did you do it? Even if you don't have kids yet, have you come up with any ideas?
We got there on Saturday morning and somehow didn't get around to getting dad to open his Father's Day gifts until lunchtime. Talk about torture. I can't believe they didn't figure it out. These people always know everything. Good or bad, they just always seem to know. When Andy and I got engaged, of course my parents were the first people I called after I had finished crying. They answer the phone and I excitedly squeal 'We're engaged!!!' And what do they say? 'We know.' That's it. Now granted, he had asked their permission and told them the whole plan of when, where, and how it was going to happen, but still. At least pretend to be excited. So, because of that, I wanted to surprise my sister with the news so I would get a good reaction. (As it turns out, my parents were legitimately surprised and excited about the news, but I'm still glad I went with my original plan.)
So we gave dad his card and gift, which was just a silly little thing. He's a big kid at heart, so he actually enjoys gifts like that.
Then we brought out the second gift and announced that it was a 'Family Gift' and I thought it was only fair that Andrea, my sister, open it since it will be so long until her birthday. She was totally thrilled by this (who DOESN'T like opening presents!) and I was glad that she accepted that without arguing or being suspicious! A few months ago, I made a super cute little onesie with this specific plan in mind. Well ok, I didn't 'make' it - I bought it plain from the store and then stenciled the design on, but still. So she peeked in the bag and saw that it was a t-shirt of some kind and couldn't figure out why I would be giving a t-shirt as a family gift. I thought the surprise was blown, but I calmly told her to just pull it out and she would understand. Enjoy the following pictures for the rest of the story...
This was followed by lots of squeals and giggles and then she literally knocked me over with hugs. It was perfect. I just wish I had taken video instead of just pictures.
The next day, we spilled the beans to Andy's dad. It was Father's Day, so we went over to his house for lunch right after church. After lunch, we gave him his card, which read 'Happy Father's day, Grandpa'. He was kind of confused for a minute, thinking we just made a mistake and then said 'Oh, am I a Grandpa yet?', to which we replied yes. Then he laughed for about five minutes and kept saying 'Well that will change things!' It was pretty funny.
Then there was the facebook announcement a few weeks later where I posted the video that most of you probably saw. If you didn't, go to youtube and look it up. It's a parody of 'Sexy and I know it' called 'Pregnant and I know it!'. Hilarious!
Then this past Sunday we spilled the beans at church. Andy made me stand up and make the announcement because he doesn't like talking in front of crowds. During the sharing of joys and concerns that we do before the prayer, I stood up and said that we had a joy that was also a concern. At this point, people still hadn't figured it out. I was amazed. I'd practiced my speech for a while so that I wouldn't fumble around it, but after saying 'We're expecting a baby in January, so we're very excited...' I almost broke down crying. Stupid hormones. After a few seconds of recovery, I was able to continue with '...we'd really appreciate prayers for health and safety and some sanity in the meantime!' People were totally surprised and we were a little late for lunch because of all the wonderful people who wanted to congratulate us. It really is a pretty great church. My favorite comment though came from an older gentleman who sits with his wife in the pew in front of us every week. Their kids are a few years older than we are, and they have some very young grandkids that don't live close by. Every week, at some point during the sermon, she passes back her bag of candy to us so that we can have a treat. We love them. Well after the service he turns around and gives me a hug and says congrats and all that. Then he says to me, 'So I guess now if I notice you're getting a little pudgy it's ok for me to point it out and say you're doing a good job growing that baby!' HA! Priceless. Gotta love him.
So that's how we spilled the beans. How did you do it? Even if you don't have kids yet, have you come up with any ideas?
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Pinterest and Pretzel Rolls
So, Pinterest. I joined about a month ago (maybe. it's hard to keep track of time in pin-land.) The peer pressure finally got to me. Normally, I run away from things that are super popular. Don't know why, I just can't stand to be a part of the hype. Still haven't seen Harry Potter, read (or watched) Twilight or the Hunger Games, and I am one of a very few people who never went to see Avatar. I know, it's lame, but I just have NO interest in things that are receiving such hype and attention. So I was very surprised to find myself sucked into Pinterest.
I think it came down to practicality. My bookmarks list was a mile long with different folders for different rooms in my house - 'dining room', 'living room', and now 'nursery'. It was so disorganized and hard to find things. Then there were the blogs. I love visiting other people's blogs and getting ideas and inspiration from them. But bookmarking different pages or keeping different tabs open in my browser window just wasn't practical. So ... Pinterest.
I love it, and I hate it. I think that's a pretty common opinion. It's super handy for organizing and sharing ideas and finding inspiration that I may never have seen before. But it takes up so much time! I got so sucked into looking at recipes one day that I forgot to do my hair before I had to leave for work. Not good. The day that I told my parents and sister that we were expecting, we literally spent half the day on Pinterest looking at anything labelled 'baby'. Fun, but time consuming.
And then there's the disappointments. So far, I have tried only recipes because it's silly to try and do crafts or home improvement things in a house that you know you will be moving out of in the next few months. Some of the recipes have turned out GREAT! Like the calzone I made for dinner the other night. Yum. But then sometimes things just don't turn out like you think they will. Thursday, I was teaching lessons, so I needed a good crockpot meal. I found a recipe for Meatball and Tortellini Soup, which sounded divine. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I couldn't handle how it smelled and only ate the tortellini part. Andy, bless his heart, ate his whole bowl and said that it was good, but maybe only a once-in-a-while meal. I don't know if I messed it up or if it was just not a food that we liked, but either way, we won't be trying that again.
So today I'm going old school and making something out of a COOK BOOK! My former church put one together a few years ago and everyone contributed, so I have a good feeling that this recipe has been tried and has been known to work. I hope. It's a recipe for Auntie Anne's Soft Pretzels. Pretzels are Andy's favorite food. Not favorite snack food, favorite food. My favorite sandwich is Turkey and Swiss on a Pretzel Roll. So I'm making us both happy and making some pretzel rolls today. I hope.
The very first thing I did (after getting the cook book out, of course) was dump flour all over myself. Good! At least now I look like I've been baking! Then 4 cups of it went into the mixing bowl. After that, I chiseled away at my brown sugar until I got 1/4 cup's worth and combined with a packet of active dry yeast and 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (not too hot, you don't want to burn your yeast!) Gave it all a good stir and let it dissolve. Then I waited until it looked like the yeast had bloomed (don't panic, it's just a living organism going into your food, you'll be fine.) and dumped it in with the flour. Using my dough hook, I mixed it. Uh-Oh. The recipe doesn't say to use an electric mixer, but it also doesn't say you can't. Either way, something went wrong. I kneaded it by hand to try and get some of the loose pieces back together and then put it back in the mixer with a few drops more warm water. That seemed to do the trick. Now it is a 'stiff dough', which is exactly what the recipe wants. Crisis averted. I hope. Then I cover and let it rise for 20 minutes. Please rise. Pretty please?
During this time, I tried to clean up the kitchen a bit (I am SUCH a messy cook!), work on some laundry, and get the next steps ready for the pretzels. I may or may not have forgotten what I was doing a few times, gotten distracted by Pinterest, and let the dough rise for more than 20 minutes. Oops.
Well, it didn't really rise. So I rolled it out and cut it up the best that I could. I've got a bad feeling about this. It didn't really want to roll out, so I only got 5 usable strips out of it. The rest I made into smaller sized pretzels and pretzel bites. At some point I remembered to turn on the oven to 450 degrees, but it didn't get preheated in time so the pretzels had to go in anyway. Before going in the oven, they get dunked in a mixture of 4 T. (which I've always read as tablespoons) baking soda and 1 c. (cup, right?) cold water. Well I did that and the baking soda didn't completely dissolve, it just kind of settled to the bottom of the bowl. They go in the oven for 10 minutes and then get dunked (or basted) with melted butter when they come out. Then, if you're making regular pretzels you sprinkle on the coarse salt or dip in a cinnamon/sugar mixture, but skip the salt for the rolls.
None of them came out worthy of rolls, so they all got butter and salt. They didn't rise any more in the oven and they were practically burnt by the time I took them out. They taste ok, kind of like hard pretzels do, but with a soft center. Andy has deemed them edible, but I'm still calling it a fail. Maybe next time I'll just go to the grocery store and spend the $5 for the kit. We did that once before and it turned out GREAT. I like to make my own food so I know what's in it, but I also like not wasting an entire morning and lots of ingredients on food that wont get eaten.
So I guess today's lesson is that cookbooks are just as fallible as Pinterest. Or maybe it's just me...
I think it came down to practicality. My bookmarks list was a mile long with different folders for different rooms in my house - 'dining room', 'living room', and now 'nursery'. It was so disorganized and hard to find things. Then there were the blogs. I love visiting other people's blogs and getting ideas and inspiration from them. But bookmarking different pages or keeping different tabs open in my browser window just wasn't practical. So ... Pinterest.
I love it, and I hate it. I think that's a pretty common opinion. It's super handy for organizing and sharing ideas and finding inspiration that I may never have seen before. But it takes up so much time! I got so sucked into looking at recipes one day that I forgot to do my hair before I had to leave for work. Not good. The day that I told my parents and sister that we were expecting, we literally spent half the day on Pinterest looking at anything labelled 'baby'. Fun, but time consuming.
And then there's the disappointments. So far, I have tried only recipes because it's silly to try and do crafts or home improvement things in a house that you know you will be moving out of in the next few months. Some of the recipes have turned out GREAT! Like the calzone I made for dinner the other night. Yum. But then sometimes things just don't turn out like you think they will. Thursday, I was teaching lessons, so I needed a good crockpot meal. I found a recipe for Meatball and Tortellini Soup, which sounded divine. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I couldn't handle how it smelled and only ate the tortellini part. Andy, bless his heart, ate his whole bowl and said that it was good, but maybe only a once-in-a-while meal. I don't know if I messed it up or if it was just not a food that we liked, but either way, we won't be trying that again.
So today I'm going old school and making something out of a COOK BOOK! My former church put one together a few years ago and everyone contributed, so I have a good feeling that this recipe has been tried and has been known to work. I hope. It's a recipe for Auntie Anne's Soft Pretzels. Pretzels are Andy's favorite food. Not favorite snack food, favorite food. My favorite sandwich is Turkey and Swiss on a Pretzel Roll. So I'm making us both happy and making some pretzel rolls today. I hope.
The very first thing I did (after getting the cook book out, of course) was dump flour all over myself. Good! At least now I look like I've been baking! Then 4 cups of it went into the mixing bowl. After that, I chiseled away at my brown sugar until I got 1/4 cup's worth and combined with a packet of active dry yeast and 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water (not too hot, you don't want to burn your yeast!) Gave it all a good stir and let it dissolve. Then I waited until it looked like the yeast had bloomed (don't panic, it's just a living organism going into your food, you'll be fine.) and dumped it in with the flour. Using my dough hook, I mixed it. Uh-Oh. The recipe doesn't say to use an electric mixer, but it also doesn't say you can't. Either way, something went wrong. I kneaded it by hand to try and get some of the loose pieces back together and then put it back in the mixer with a few drops more warm water. That seemed to do the trick. Now it is a 'stiff dough', which is exactly what the recipe wants. Crisis averted. I hope. Then I cover and let it rise for 20 minutes. Please rise. Pretty please?
During this time, I tried to clean up the kitchen a bit (I am SUCH a messy cook!), work on some laundry, and get the next steps ready for the pretzels. I may or may not have forgotten what I was doing a few times, gotten distracted by Pinterest, and let the dough rise for more than 20 minutes. Oops.
Well, it didn't really rise. So I rolled it out and cut it up the best that I could. I've got a bad feeling about this. It didn't really want to roll out, so I only got 5 usable strips out of it. The rest I made into smaller sized pretzels and pretzel bites. At some point I remembered to turn on the oven to 450 degrees, but it didn't get preheated in time so the pretzels had to go in anyway. Before going in the oven, they get dunked in a mixture of 4 T. (which I've always read as tablespoons) baking soda and 1 c. (cup, right?) cold water. Well I did that and the baking soda didn't completely dissolve, it just kind of settled to the bottom of the bowl. They go in the oven for 10 minutes and then get dunked (or basted) with melted butter when they come out. Then, if you're making regular pretzels you sprinkle on the coarse salt or dip in a cinnamon/sugar mixture, but skip the salt for the rolls.
None of them came out worthy of rolls, so they all got butter and salt. They didn't rise any more in the oven and they were practically burnt by the time I took them out. They taste ok, kind of like hard pretzels do, but with a soft center. Andy has deemed them edible, but I'm still calling it a fail. Maybe next time I'll just go to the grocery store and spend the $5 for the kit. We did that once before and it turned out GREAT. I like to make my own food so I know what's in it, but I also like not wasting an entire morning and lots of ingredients on food that wont get eaten.
So I guess today's lesson is that cookbooks are just as fallible as Pinterest. Or maybe it's just me...
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Side Effects May Include...
So let's talk about side effects. So far I've heard them referred to as pregnancy symptoms, but I really think that side effects is a more appropriate term. Symptoms are kind of standard, like a runny nose for a cold or a fever for the flu. But what I'm learning with pregnancy is that there is a whole host of possible side effects that may or may not strike you at random. So let's talk...
I'm weird. In a lot of ways, but one of them that pertains to this topic is that I have a legit phobia of throwing up. I get panic attacks about it. It's bad. So bad that when I was younger, I made up my mind to NEVER get pregnant and ONLY adopt children because I didn't want to have morning sickness. I couldn't handle the thought of it. Then, my mom said something that changed my life.
"I never had one day of morning sickness with either you or your sister."
Seeing as how I take after my mom in almost all possible ways, this basically gave me permission to never fear the morning sickness ever again. Sweet! I can have babies! (Side note: I still have huge heart for adoption and would love to do that someday too, I'm just glad that I can have this experience as well.)
Well, true to form, I have been VERY lucky to not have one case of morning sickness so far. And seeing as how the first trimester is rapidly coming to an end, I think I can safely say I'm out of the woods on that one. But don't worry, I think I've still had my fair share of side effects that disrupt my life.
First there was the nausea. When I was full, I was nauseous. When I was hungry, I was nauseous. When I smelled something, I was nauseous. When I was SLEEPING, I dreamed that I was nauseous. Some people may agree that that's a little worse than the throwing up. You know, when you get to the point where you start begging God to allow you to vomit so the nausea will just go away. Yeah, had that. Next, there were the bouts of dizziness that would strike while I was at work. Walking across the sales floor was enough to make me have to sit and breathe deeply for 10 minutes or so until my head cleared. Combined with the nausea, this made working pretty difficult there for a few weeks. And there's my complexion. I'm breaking out all over the place. I've already got 'young skin' that makes me appear years younger than I truly am, but this breaking out is just awful. Combine an increasingly difficult to hide bump, the fact that I work in what is practically a toy store, and the face of a 15 year old and I'm likely to have some very interesting stories to tell in the future. Stay tuned for those! Then, of course, there's the ever popular constipation. I won't go into details, but check that one off of the list.
But none of those are anything compared to the dreams. Never in my life have I had dreams like these. Dreams so vivid and detailed that they seem like memories of actual events. Except that most of them make no logical sense whatsoever. It doesn't sound like such a big deal, until you realize that my brain is getting such a workout while my body is sleeping that it doesn't actually rest at all. This causes serious problems in daily living. I lost my keys twice in one week. And one of those times, I searched Target for a half hour before finding them IN MY PURSE. Seriously. In the middle of my shower, I forget if I've already washed my hair. Leaving work the other night, I needed to type in my 4 digit password to set the alarm. I typed in two different atm pin numbers before I figured out what numbers I needed. Just in time too - one more wrong code and the alarm company would have called the police. It's getting a little ridiculous. And this is the only side effect that shows no signs of slowing down or going away.
So I haven't been sick. Just a zombie, looking for someone else's brain to steal because mine is in a coma, where it is still having crazy dreams about the different houses I've lived in.
Tell me, what was your most prominent or bothersome side effect?
I'm weird. In a lot of ways, but one of them that pertains to this topic is that I have a legit phobia of throwing up. I get panic attacks about it. It's bad. So bad that when I was younger, I made up my mind to NEVER get pregnant and ONLY adopt children because I didn't want to have morning sickness. I couldn't handle the thought of it. Then, my mom said something that changed my life.
"I never had one day of morning sickness with either you or your sister."
Seeing as how I take after my mom in almost all possible ways, this basically gave me permission to never fear the morning sickness ever again. Sweet! I can have babies! (Side note: I still have huge heart for adoption and would love to do that someday too, I'm just glad that I can have this experience as well.)
Well, true to form, I have been VERY lucky to not have one case of morning sickness so far. And seeing as how the first trimester is rapidly coming to an end, I think I can safely say I'm out of the woods on that one. But don't worry, I think I've still had my fair share of side effects that disrupt my life.
First there was the nausea. When I was full, I was nauseous. When I was hungry, I was nauseous. When I smelled something, I was nauseous. When I was SLEEPING, I dreamed that I was nauseous. Some people may agree that that's a little worse than the throwing up. You know, when you get to the point where you start begging God to allow you to vomit so the nausea will just go away. Yeah, had that. Next, there were the bouts of dizziness that would strike while I was at work. Walking across the sales floor was enough to make me have to sit and breathe deeply for 10 minutes or so until my head cleared. Combined with the nausea, this made working pretty difficult there for a few weeks. And there's my complexion. I'm breaking out all over the place. I've already got 'young skin' that makes me appear years younger than I truly am, but this breaking out is just awful. Combine an increasingly difficult to hide bump, the fact that I work in what is practically a toy store, and the face of a 15 year old and I'm likely to have some very interesting stories to tell in the future. Stay tuned for those! Then, of course, there's the ever popular constipation. I won't go into details, but check that one off of the list.
But none of those are anything compared to the dreams. Never in my life have I had dreams like these. Dreams so vivid and detailed that they seem like memories of actual events. Except that most of them make no logical sense whatsoever. It doesn't sound like such a big deal, until you realize that my brain is getting such a workout while my body is sleeping that it doesn't actually rest at all. This causes serious problems in daily living. I lost my keys twice in one week. And one of those times, I searched Target for a half hour before finding them IN MY PURSE. Seriously. In the middle of my shower, I forget if I've already washed my hair. Leaving work the other night, I needed to type in my 4 digit password to set the alarm. I typed in two different atm pin numbers before I figured out what numbers I needed. Just in time too - one more wrong code and the alarm company would have called the police. It's getting a little ridiculous. And this is the only side effect that shows no signs of slowing down or going away.
So I haven't been sick. Just a zombie, looking for someone else's brain to steal because mine is in a coma, where it is still having crazy dreams about the different houses I've lived in.
Tell me, what was your most prominent or bothersome side effect?
Monday, July 9, 2012
Welcome!
Welcome to my little corner of the internet! If you're here at this point, you probably know me in person and have come to find out more about our journey into parenthood. If you don't, please leave a comment - I'd love to 'meet' you!
Here's some background to get you up-to-date on our Baby story...
On May 25th, I went to work not feeling well at all. Came home, took a test, and it came out positive! Being the creative person I am, I wanted to find a memorable way to tell Andy the good news. So I taped the positive test to the shelf above the toilet so that when he got home from work and went to the bathroom (like he does every.single.day.) he would see it. Sure enough, he got home and didn't have to use the bathroom. (sidenote: this is how most of my plans seem to work out. be prepared for many disappointments in the future.) So I lied and told him the shelf was broken and he needed to go fix it. To which I got, "Ok, I'll take care of it later." (someday I will tell you our engagement story and this next part will make more sense) I basically had to scream at him to fix it now, after which he stomped into the bathroom, noticed it was there, DIDN'T READ THE RESULT, and came back out yelling at me for yelling at him. Like I said, this is how my plans go down. It took five minutes of calming down before I could convince him to actually READ the test and then of course he squealed and jumped up and down and hugged me, just like I wanted in the first place. Success.
So since then, I've been to two appointments and been to the lab twice. Everything seems to be going well so far. I'm 12 weeks (and 2 days!) along as of today and we are 'due' on January 18th. Yes, I said 'due'. With my family history, that's likely to be February, so I'm not taking that date too seriously.
Today we heard the heart beat for the first time. I was panicking that I hadn't heard it yet, but all is well. Baby beat out a lively 160 for the nurse. I cried like a proud Momma should. Hubby hugged me like a supportive Daddy should. Success.
So here we are, finally able to tell the world about our little Nugget and loving every minute of it. My mom, over at CJ's Sewing Room is already busy getting fabrics together for our nursery and we've already started buying some furniture. None of it felt real until today though when I heard that precious little *WHOMP whomp whomp whomp*. Being a music teacher, I've heard and been a part of some incredible music, but that tiny little heart beat has to be one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.
Thanks for joining us on our journey and stay tuned for more updates!
Here's some background to get you up-to-date on our Baby story...
On May 25th, I went to work not feeling well at all. Came home, took a test, and it came out positive! Being the creative person I am, I wanted to find a memorable way to tell Andy the good news. So I taped the positive test to the shelf above the toilet so that when he got home from work and went to the bathroom (like he does every.single.day.) he would see it. Sure enough, he got home and didn't have to use the bathroom. (sidenote: this is how most of my plans seem to work out. be prepared for many disappointments in the future.) So I lied and told him the shelf was broken and he needed to go fix it. To which I got, "Ok, I'll take care of it later." (someday I will tell you our engagement story and this next part will make more sense) I basically had to scream at him to fix it now, after which he stomped into the bathroom, noticed it was there, DIDN'T READ THE RESULT, and came back out yelling at me for yelling at him. Like I said, this is how my plans go down. It took five minutes of calming down before I could convince him to actually READ the test and then of course he squealed and jumped up and down and hugged me, just like I wanted in the first place. Success.
So since then, I've been to two appointments and been to the lab twice. Everything seems to be going well so far. I'm 12 weeks (and 2 days!) along as of today and we are 'due' on January 18th. Yes, I said 'due'. With my family history, that's likely to be February, so I'm not taking that date too seriously.
Today we heard the heart beat for the first time. I was panicking that I hadn't heard it yet, but all is well. Baby beat out a lively 160 for the nurse. I cried like a proud Momma should. Hubby hugged me like a supportive Daddy should. Success.
So here we are, finally able to tell the world about our little Nugget and loving every minute of it. My mom, over at CJ's Sewing Room is already busy getting fabrics together for our nursery and we've already started buying some furniture. None of it felt real until today though when I heard that precious little *WHOMP whomp whomp whomp*. Being a music teacher, I've heard and been a part of some incredible music, but that tiny little heart beat has to be one of the most beautiful sounds I have ever heard.
Thanks for joining us on our journey and stay tuned for more updates!
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