Library Again

I went back to the library today to re-check out a couple of books and pick up new ones. I haven’t quite finished my current book, Golden State. It’s really good, but I keep falling asleep in the evenings when I’m reading. I’m almost done but knew my hold on the new one ended today so went ahead and checked this one again and grabbed my new one! I can’t wait to finish this one and start The Hurricane Sisters over the weekend.

I also did something funny and re-checked one for Annabelle. I never know what she’s going to like, but she has absolutely loved this Quick Duck! book. She giggles and giggles on each page. I figured out most of that is because David does funny things and tickles her when he reads it. No wonder she always wants him to put her to bed. I hope she likes the next two I grabbed too.

 

Flowers and Hormones

This morning I had a little but of a bad morning. I hate to even say that because it was because of a very silly reason when I know people who had, in fact, the worst morning of their lives. 

My morning was upset by a leader in a meeting asking me in front of others if I was "due any day now."

Anyway, I held it together until later when everyone started asking me if I was okay and if I was embarrassed. Yes, I am embarrassed. And yes, my hormones are crazy and I'm tired and pregnant.

Anyway, I am trying to keep in perspective a couple of things. Although it's not really "any day now," soon enough I will be holding my daughter and not thinking about whether or not someone thought I was fat four months earlier:

And I have the most wonderful, adoring husband in the world, who somehow, even if I look nine months pregnant when I'm five months pregnant, makes me feel beautiful:

Do you think I cried more when the leader asked me that question or when my husband showed up to work with these? 

Indecisive

Oh boy - now I might be changing my mind! I was flipping through my magazine over lunch and might go back to old trusty. Purple! Maybe I should do purple walls with my coral sheets and yellow and green accents!

Help!

Belle'a Room

This weekend I am going to get some of the boring things completed on Belle's new room so I can get on with the fun things!

I need to do the following (without wine which is what I usually use to get through lame projects):

- remove the wallpaper border

- clean out the closet to prepare to move Belle's things in. Currently we have gifts and gift bags stored there.

- tape the trim off (my least favorite part of painting) 

- assess what paint supplies we need

Then the fun begins. I already bought one set of sheets - just plain coral - and a white bedskirt. We are planning to paint the walls light turquoise. I have grabbed about a million samples.

I want to use more blue than green:

I saw this darling little bird feeder in HGTV magazine and think it might be cute in a corner of her room.

http://m.anthropologie.com/mobile/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=30871958&catId=HOME-GARDEN-BIRDHOUSE

And I will definitely be on the lookout for all the yellow accessories we can find. She still requests yellow outfits each morning and proclaims that our baby girl's name is Yellow. 

Here are some cuties I found on H&M

http://www.hm.com/us/product/03964?article=03964-F#article=03964-L

 

http://www.hm.com/us/product/05020?article=05020-H

 

http://www.hm.com/us/product/17056?article=17056-B#article=17056-A

 

http://www.hm.com/us/product/17542?article=17542-B

Sweet girl.

What I'm Reading Wednesday

Remember when I used to post about books I'm reading? That was fun. I think I will pick it up again.

Right now I am halfway through this summer read:

It has been really good. And just how one of the reviews warns, it's been hard to put down. It's a quick read.

And I received this email this morning! One of my favorite things to get in my Inbox.

I can't wait to go pick this one up!

Reshared

My original post was all typed out when I read through this blog post and changed my mind. My original post was about the amazing Lilly Pulitzer sale going on now – and I’m not saying you shouldn’t stop by and browse for some Christmas gifts, I’m just saying, I found this one more interesting.

 

There is a blog post going around that quickly made me tear up in a good way. Especially when I found it by browsing my husband’s Facebook page. (I don’t have Facebook but every once in a while I get on his to see what I’m missing out on – which is usually nothing.) My sweet husband rarely posts, so when I saw that he shared something I knew it must be good.

 

This great man lives this article, let me tell you. I’ve never met a man more full of joy and more content and excited about his family than this man. And I’m the lucky one to spend each day with him. I fell a little bit more in love with him when I saw what he took the time to share on his page.

 

Read this post instead of mine if you get a chance today:http://momastery.com/blog/2014/08/11/give-liberty-give-debt/

 

My favorite line is her closing: Today I shall keep my perspectacles super-glued to my face and feel insanely GRATEFUL instead of LACKING and I will look at my home and my people and my body and say: THANK YOU. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. THIS IS ALL MORE THAN GOOD ENOUGH, ALL OF IT. Now. Let us turn our focus onward and outward.  There is WORK TO BE DONE and JOY TO BE HAD.

 

Thank you for sharing, Momastery. Here's some of my joy to share from this weekend:

Annabelle dancing in the rain:

Annabelle being comforted by her amazing dad (on our probably dated kitchen counter) because of a skinned knee - aka "howie"

Cousin time, cousin time, and more cousin time:

Have a joyful day!

Another Food Post

Bare with me. I'm 22 weeks pregnant so this is yet another food post. 

My husband grilled steaks for me tonight. I am always red meat crazy only when I'm pregnant. He had to work late and I seriously was dreaming about the steaks all day. 

To distract myself I made salads with green peppers from my neighbors garden, radish, carrots, cranberries, and almonds and then these yummy twice baked sweet potatoes. I am obsessed with sweet potatoes but David is just okay with them. Even he loved these though! 

http://m.kraftrecipes.com/recipedetail.do?recipeid=111250&cn=US

I actually didn't have pecans but that would have been a tasty touch.

I forgot to take any pictures of our wonderful meal - forgot, or quite possibly just didn't have time because I was dying over the steak.

Library

Our little public library is my happy place. Last night I took Annabelle to a literacy event there and she had a blast coloring, playing play dough, playing with puppets, and dancing.

Then today, on my lunch break, I ran by to grab one last summer read and a few books for her. I try to take her with me to pick out books as often as I can, but usually she doesn’t have the best time. She’s not a quiet girl and the library is not so conducive to her favorite behaviors (those being running, screaming, singing, and talking about babies).

 

Coffee

Too soon?

22 Weeks

I have really been trying to cherish this pregnancy and not wish away the time, but it’s so hard because we are so very excited to meet this baby girl. I am already more than halfway and feeling better. I’m still very tired and thinking that at any point I should regain my energy. It’s really hard for me to be so tired. I am always on the go and feel like I’m being lazy, but I cannot stay up at night. After work and spending time with our crazy and fun little Belle, I am exhausted and falling asleep on the couch by 9! I’m not kidding. My husband is amazing. He works all day, picks up all the slack with the household chores, and has unending energy with our daughter.

I do feel much better and have for about 4 weeks. I am still vomiting every few days, but nothing like earlier in the pregnancy or with how I still felt around this time with Annabelle. I have been either walking or using the elliptical instead of running in the last ten days, because on my last run I really started having some weird pains. I’m sure it was nothing, but it scared me a little bit so I decided maybe I need to try something else – maybe this little girl doesn’t appreciate the jogging because I haven’t had those pains or tightening when walking or using the elliptical.

 

I haven’t had crazy cravings and I haven’t been as hungry as I was a few weeks ago. I have to admit something silly though, I truly have been craving and missing having a drink on the deck with my husband. I am not a big drinker or anything, but in the summer and early fall especially, I miss putting Belle to bed and having a glass of wine or a beer with David. I know this is a ridiculous complaint, but I really do look forward to it!

 

Even though I’ve been so tired, I cannot sleep great at night. I’m already feeling uncomfortable and toss and turn. This is way too early for this to kick in. I’ve been telling myself to buck up since I have at least 4 more months of this!

I am wearing maternity pants and shorts, but I'm still squeezing into my non maternity work dresses because I hate buying expensive maternity work clothes. As you can see though, I can't keep that up much longer - they are getting a bit too small for this growing bump.

Other than missing the booze and sleeping on my stomach, things are going great! We think this is my last pregnancy so I am trying to remember each and every detail. And I don’t want to wish it away because by the time this little one gets here, it will mean Annabelle isn’t an only child anymore and that she is 2 years old! Let me tell ya, Annabelle is going to be the BEST big sister. She is baby crazy! I love thinking about these two together.

 

And we might have picked sweet baby girl’s name this weekend! Although, we thought that a few different times with Annabelle and then didn’t truly pick hers until the day she was born so we will have to see.

 

Happy Monday friends!

A Great Weekend

We had a fabulous weekend with my best friend in town with her sweet family. Friday night they got here after work and stayed until Sunday afternoon.  We spent time just hanging out, eating, and catching up. Saturday we swam and Sunday we let the kids run around the mall because this weekend was actually pretty rainy. That ruined our plans to go to the park or orchard, but I think everyone still had a great time!

 

Annabelle has been so much fun and so flexible lately. Friday David took the day off and took her to the lake. I love the relationship they have; it’s really indescribable. And all weekend she played and played with her two little visitor friends and had the best time. It’s so special to me to see her with my best friend’s daughter. They are 21 months apart, so you know David and I spent the weekend daydreaming about our two girls running around playing just like them someday since ours will be 24 months apart. Neely and Belle’s favorite activity was to run, run, run. They were so cute running as fast as they could through the house and up and down the street. I love how much joy they find in just running and playing.

These sweet friends live just 4 hours away but we can only seem to figure out how to get together about 3 times a year. It’s tough, but each time I am so relieved to see that it really doesn’t matter – our girls are great friends somehow and it feels like Emily and I pick up right where we left off months earlier. I am so thankful for this friendship.

Quick Side Dish

Last night I had every intention of making the bacon and brussel sprouts mac and cheese that I posted last week (http://pingandpal.blogspot.com/2014/07/delicious-new-recipe-to-try.html ). I took an even shorter short cut though, and it turned out delicious as a side dish!

 

I had a Velveeta shells and cheese in my cabinet, some brussels sprouts, and bread crumbs. I made the shells and cheese and steamed the brussels sprouts and threw those two things together in a bowl and dumped them in a pan. I sprinkled bread crumbs on top. And just like that, I had a yummy and quick side dish to go with our BLTs and salads. It was a really delicious, simple, summer dinner.

We have been BLT obsessed lately because of all the fresh garden tomatoes people keep giving us. And our salads included fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from my mom’s garden. I don’t want summer to end!