Updates: Nursery and Fatness

Hey, I said I'd have the room finished by March 1, and I made it (well, pretty much)!  This weekend I had a super surge of energy that allowed me to do almost everything around the house that I could do to avoid grading essays, AND to grade essays.  Of course, I did too much and my body hurt like hell afterward, but it's a small price to pay for the feeling that everything is in its place.  Now, this new pelvic-bones-loosening-up-to-make-way-for-Matt's-son's-giant-head sensation is, well, less than pleasant.  Oh well.  I'm 36 weeks, so only a few left to go, right?

Okay, so here's how fat I am at 36 weeks.  And that is a professional hairstyle and those are designer yoga pants.

Try, if you can, not to be too jealous of my mad fashion skillz.

But let's be honest, fatness if far less exciting than a super fun little kid's room.  Here we go!

The view from the hallway.

View from the door.

The closet.  Totes took the doors off and hung curtains so that we could access the entire closet all at once.

Boy clothes as far as the eye can see. . .  Matt says that the kid will just wear an outfit and then we'll throw it away.

We left the bed in the room so that we can still have a decent place for guests to sleep.

I want one of these for myself.

And, now, my totes favorite part of the room.  And our boy's name!  (Trying to keep people from being able to stalk him on the world wide web until he at least has some teeth.)

 Notes: name banner idea from here (I used Georgia font size 500), dino-brite instructions here. The cradle is the same one Matt slept in when he was a tiny little baby.  I'm in love with it.

Stole the wall idea from Sassy Curmudgeon. Our boy's picture will go in the middle (If he's cute.  If he's not cute, we'll probably just get a picture of Scott Baio.)

Well, there you have it.  Isn't it the most fun?

Hey There!

Well, looks like I'm back to slackogging (that's slacker-blogging, for those of you who aren't linguists).  Oh well. I've actually been relatively productive/busy in real life, so let's use that as our excuse, shall we?

We have 4 1/2 weeks left until the boy's due date, which means that I only have 1 1/2 weeks left until I'm considered full term and the kid can just show up whenever he wants.  Matt and I are both really punctual people, so hopefully this kid will have inherited that from us and will get here on time, but not too early.  The actual due date is March 28, and Matt and I decided that it would work out nicely for us if I could start having contractions on the afternoon of the 24th, and then boy can make his grand appearance on Sunday, March 25 in the early evening.  That gives me plenty of hours of labor to guilt him with later in life, and it's convenient, and it means that I won't have some gross situation where my water breaks at school and I have to ask a custodian to please mop up my amniotic fluid (hopefully it's not like this).

Shit's getting real, y'all.  I mean, I have dairy products in my refrigerator that will still be good when this kid gets here!  And Matt realized the other night as he watched Survivor* that by the time the tribes merge, we'll have a baby.  I've got a big thick binder full of lesson plans for a sub, the nursery's just about finished, and today I whipped up (and by whipped up I do mean gave myself carpel tunnel with all of the veggie chopping) a triple batch of bolognese so that we'll have some backup meals in the freezer.

Hmmmmm, so what else has been going on?

Oh, I went to Augusta for Cassie's shower, which was super fun.  And I took blackberry pie bars, which were delicious (and good for you because they have fruit in them).  There may have been a slight parchment paper/broiler fire episode that prompted me to eat a few bars myself (quality assurance--didn't want to feed people charred pie bars!).

I had a doctor's appointment this week and had gained 9 pounds in two weeks.  I maintain that that weigh-in doesn't count because Matt and I had just eaten lunch at an Indian food buffet (and I take buffet eating VERY seriously--remember the Fattest of the Fat contests?), but it's possible that it counts more than I'd like to admit because of the aforementioned blackberry pie bars and random feeling-sorry-for-myself-because-I'm-uncomfortable-and-have-to-birth-a-human-soon treats.

Ooh!  We went and saw Stephen King, which was completely awesome.  Matt's a huge Stephen King fan.  I wish I was, but I'm not because I'm the worst reader ever and I don't like to be scared.  But I am a big fan of the man himself.  I was also excited when someone asked him what books he would recommend to teach to high schoolers, and he basically rattled off every book I teach my kiddies.  Matt will have to tell you more about that later (In his new Matt Attack section of the blog!  Get excited!).

Totes took the wrong lens.  Oh well.

The weather's been out of control beautiful.  We've had our windows open almost every day this week.

Pretty sure I wore my hair like this in the '80s.

The dogs have been out of control cute.

Mitch likes to feel his brother kick.

I have one million pictures just like this and I love them all. 

Here's how jealous Mitch is of the computer.  Can't wait to see how he responds to his human brother. 

And, finally, I am really uncomfortable.  I'm trying not to be one of those annoying complaining constantly pregnant people (because, honestly, what did I think was going to happen as I made the decision to try to gestate a human being with my Hagrid genes?), but I can tell you that I am very much looking forward to a day in the near future where I drink many margaritas and then pass out on my stomach.**  And maybe there will be a cold club sandwich in there just for fun.

We've got a full week ahead of us.  Next weekend is jam-packed with fun and friends and family and food, so get excited, peeps!   I know I am!



*Baby, if you are reading this far, far in the future.  Your dad totally watched Survivor.  By the time you read this, Survivor will be in its 248th season, and your dad will still be watching it.  Don't judge him for this.


**Baby, if you are reading this far, far in the future.  Sorry, your mom's totally a lush.  But you probably knew that already.  Hey, at least I don't watch Survivor!

This and That

1.  Made a birthday cake for my teacher friend's mom's 95th birthday this week.  She wanted caramel icing, which I'd never made and was, quite frankly, a little afraid of.  I used this recipe, and it took a while.  But that was okay, because I had Brothers & Sisters streaming the whole time.  And apparently the icing was exactly what they wanted.  Shoot yeah!

2.  Also, I am completely out of Brothers & Sisters episodes.  I don't know what makes me more sad--that I don't have any more episodes to watch, or that I spent days of my life watching like 110 episodes of that show.  But, since it's over, I need something new.  I'm trying out Parenthood, and I've ordered season 1 of Six Feet Under.  It needs to be something I haven't seen already because I need it to to keep me interested during ellipting, but it can't be too brainy (looking at you, The Wire) because I also want to watch it as a precursor to nap. Any suggestions?

3.  Oh, also, while I was making caramel icing, I was on the step where I had to melt sugar in a cast iron skillet.  I know caramel can be temperamental, and I didn't want it to burn, so while the sugar was bubbling, I decided to stick my finger right in it to check if it tasted burnt.  Yeah, that felt good.  Blast sure is learning some interesting language now, isn't he?  So I've been spending some time nursing my poor finger lately.

4.  Totes did some home repair work last weekend in the guest room/nursery.  I read in a book that you're not supposed to feed your baby a diet of paint chips, so something needed to be done.  Well, shoot.  So there was scraping and sanding and hole-filling and sanding again and painting and curtain rod and new curtain hanging. Now the room looks clean and inviting instead of like some evil alien lair.

5.  Remember how I went all bananas for my Tempurpedic travel pillow?  Well, I lost it for a while, but found it under our bed last weekend while cleaning.  Then, a couple of mornings ago, I woke up to find that Mitch had snagged my pillow and was using it.  I guess we need to get a new one?  Also, what kind of spoiled dog needs a Tempurpedic pillow?

6.  Started a youtube playlist at school because they blocked Pandora.  I added the 500 Days of Summer theme song to my list, but when it started playing, it played Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind."  Well if that isn't a wonderful Friday surprise, what is? She leads me to moonlight, only to burn me with the sun!

7.  I think I might be starting to look actually pregnant instead of just pregnant with garlic bread and sandwiches.  My jeans still fit and stuff, but I think there might be a little bit of a uterus lump now.  Anyway, yesterday I went to try on some of the maternity jeans that Ann gifted me (thanks, Ann!), and I realized that they were insanely comfortable.  I mean, they were basically all of the comfort of pajama jeans, but with the look of actual jeans!  So I wore them, and I slept in them, and I haven't really taken them off since yesterday.  Is it appropriate to wear maternity jeans for the rest of my life?

8.  Oh, also, my face has broken out like a sombitch.  My skin hasn't looked this bad since I was in ninth grade, before I realized that I can't use soap on it.  And this really pisses me off because in my special deal with the universe I got a few things: a decent level of intelligence (ignore the incident from #3), good hand-eye coordination, manageable hair, and nice skin.  And now, since I've been hosting Blast, my face looks like the before picture in a Proactiv ad.  This is some bull jive, universe!  We're in a fight.

9.  Don't forget to vote for the Savannah Humane Society!  Mitch thanks you!

May your week be free from injuries and full of candy!

Vacation Part Deux

So, for the second half of spring break, I flew from the ABQ to D.C. where Caitie picked me up from the airport.  It was great being able to hang out with her, even for an hour.*

And after we ate several pounds of pot stickers and Oreo crazy dessert at Friday's, Caitie took me back to Matt's parents' house.  Then I realized, at 1:30 a.m., that I don't know the garage code, and that I didn't have my keys.  So Caitie and I stood outside my in-laws' house like fools for like twenty minutes while I tried every imaginable code I could think of to get into the garage.  Finally, I just called and had to wake Matt's dad up.  And I felt like quite the a-hole.

Shoot.

But all was well only hours later because I arrived along with Matt's mom (after visiting Wegman's, a heaven on earth) at their lake house.

Now, I've already talked about the lake house a number of times.  This particular trip revolved around polishing silver, eating brownies, and flipping the TV channels back and forth between HGTV and news coverage of the upcoming royal nuptials.***

Because the lake house is so chill and so relaxing, there's not usually too much to share about visiting.  It's beautiful and peaceful and you never want to leave.  And you might think that because the air is so warm that the water is also warm.  Nope.  It's not.  You might discover that after foolishly jumping in without even having dipped your feet out to test the waters.  And then you might get hypothermia and die.  Or at minimum scream, swim faster than you ever have in your life (which is a bit of a challenge because of frozen limbs), and then spend the rest of the afternoon trying to trick other people to do the same.  "Oh, it's basically like a bathtub."

One of the best parts of visiting the lake is going on sunset boat rides.  Matt's dad is a longtime lover of sunsets, and seems to be at his happiest when he's on his boat watching the sun go down.  I've got to admit, he's on to something.
 

Oh yeah, and there was lots of grilling, because Matt is the grill master who travels up and down the East Coast demonstrating his mad skillz.

Grilled wings. . .mmmmmmmmmmm. 

Well, I'd share more, but I have to go because Matt is trying to make me watch the William & Kate movie on Lifetime.  That's really a thing.


*Um, you might remember that Caitie was the other participant in the fattest of the fat contests.  Recently, a friend asked me about the "fat offs" that my friend and I used to have, wondering if we still made gluttonous trips to Golden Corral.  "No," I replied, "We're both on Weight Watchers now."  Surprise, surprise.**


**It should also be noted that Caitie is much better at Weight Watchers than I am.


***Matt is so into the royal wedding that it's not even funny.  It's all I can do to keep him from calling out of work on both Thursday and Friday, making tea and crumpets, and speaking in a British accent.  If we were people of greater means, I am confident that he would be in England right now, draped in the British flag whilst stalking Will and Kate.****


****Also, Matt wants me to tell the internet that he is not into the royal wedding but at all.  He just said that in a British accent.

Dear Mary. . .

Sorry I've been MIA.  Nothing's really wrong, well, except for my absolute inability to complete a task these last couple of weeks.  As soon as I manage to finish some stuff, I'll have lots to share with you.

But I can't wait until then to share these little gems with you.  They're from Sapling Press.

And my personal favorite. . .

So if you just thought to yourself, "OMG!  Mandy's birthday is only two weeks away and I have yet to buy her a card and gift," then just get me one of these.  And maybe one of these.  And these.  And this.*

Well, shoot.  Now I'm being greedy. 

*Not really with the last one.  I'm terrified of needles.

Top 15 Recipes of 2010

I have been a worthless human being today.

I still haven't changed out of my pajamas, and my back hurts from lying on the couch for so long.  I'd love to be able to say that I'm sick (even though I don't actually want to be sick) or that I have some other good reason for being such a disgusting fatbody today, but I don't.  Just laziness.

What makes it even worse is that today is Matt's super long day at work, and my laziness draws a stark contrast to his grueling day.  If I were Matt, I'd be hating me right now. 

Maybe I'll bake him cookies. 

Or pour him a glass of bourbon when he walks in the door.

(Sorry, we're the last two people on the planet to get into Mad Men, and we've been watching several episodes a night.  Boy, that Don sure is dapper!)

Anyway, one of the only things I have done today (other than watch 16 and Pregnant on On Demand--which is much more base than just watching it when it comes on tv.  I had to seek out 16 and Pregnant to watch it, and I did, and that makes me a horrible person.) is read other people's blogs, and many of them have been doing these "best of 2010" things.  I actually kind of hate those posts, but I kind of love them, too. 

So, I've gone back and forth about whether I should do one, but now since I can basically either do this post or get off my ass and get on the elliptical machine, I'm going to do the post.  Ellipting is hard.

Okay, so these are my fifteen favorite new recipes from 2010. 

First up, appetizers.  My favorite appetizers from 2010 are: (click on the link to get the recipe)

Redipulous!  This stuff is stupid good, and I'm almost afraid to make it because it's so good and I would eat all of it by myself.  I think I'm going to try to make a healthier version so that I can eat the whole thing by myself and not feel as guilty.

Bacon Jam.  I know I've gone on and on about this lately, but it really is just so good.  Just remember to follow the directions.  And eat it on some fancy bread.

Okay, now for some entrees.

P Cubed.  It's just wonderful.  Matt hates peas and this is still one of his favorite meals. And don't skip the lemon; you'll regret it.

Kung Pao Chicken.  It was always our favorite thing to order when we ate Chinese, and now we can make it at home!  So good, and actually not all that bad for you.

Smitten Kitchen's Chicken Meatballs.  I will make these until the day I die.  Also not terrible for you.  (Oh, and did you know that you can grind chicken in a food processor?  I didn't.  Cassie told me, and it's super fast and easy.)

Ginger Pork Stir Fry.  Mmmmmmmmm.  It seems like pork tenderloin is always on sale, and this stuff is crazy tasty.  Add vegetables to your liking.

Guinness Steak.  This one's a grilling recipe, so you may be waiting until spring or summer to make it, but it's delicious, and it's simple, and you get to drink the other three Guinness beers.  Win, win, win.  (I actually hate beer, so Matt gets to drink the beer.)

Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pineapple Quesadillas.  So good.  So good.  I--I just love them so much!

Bitten Word's Lemon Rosemary Chicken.  Mmmmmmmm.

And now for the desserts.  Last year was all about cupcakes for me.  This year I changed gears a little and went bananas for ice cream making.  There's still some baking, but it's mostly frozen treats.  Just go buy yourself an ice cream maker and be an ice cream making pen-pal with me already.

Mandy's Famous Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream.  You'll just die, but in a good way.

Mandy's Famous Raspberry Sorbet.  It's the best, and it's beautiful, and it's good for you.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes from Annie's Eats.  My favorite vanilla cupcake.  Also Mitch's favorite vanilla cupcake.

Blackberry Pie Bars.  (Or cherry, or raspberry, or whatever fruit you'd like.)  It's Cheryl from Back in the Day Bakery's recipe, so you know they're delicious.  Make them to share, and people will love you.

Banana Puddin' Ice Cream.  Goes over very well with Southerners.  Use twice as many Nilla Wafers.  Mmmmmmmm.

And, finally, Thomas Jefferson's Vanilla Ice Cream.  TJ's just good at everything, wasn't he?  This ice cream has the best texture, and rich flavor.  It's a little bit of a labor of love, but it's worth it.

So, there you have it.  That took way more time than I thought it would, and now I must peel my body off of this couch before I order myself a pair of pajama jeans.  (They're the hot new fashion sensation, you know.)