Yet another reason....

...I don't let many people watch my kid.

"I clean the ears of kids that come over. If they are under 5 and dirty ears they will get the scrub."
"Am I weird because I clean the fingernails of the kids I nanny?! It makes me twitchy to see dirt under their nails."

 Sorry, but unless I ask you to, don't go diggin' around in my kid's ears... the nail thing doesn't bother me near as much, especially if they were diggin' around in the dirt like my kid does regularly... but still... who does this?!? Wash their face and hands, sure... but otherwise, good grief... the rest is the parent's job.

Oh, I wish!

While my weight has been on my mind, which was only exaggerated by my doctor's comments - I almost wish they would have said this:

"Well, we considered reinforcing the floors to prepare for your visit, but then decided that maybe that was overkill."

 This is a quote from a virtual friend's doctor. If she didn't live so close to Santa, I might consider switching doctors just for the humor aspect.

Why I live in Texas

 

Ok, well... I was born and raised here, so that has a bit to do with it. But, c'mon... can you beat this winter weather?? Thank you January!

I'll most likely be inside most of tomorrow trying to iron out the final details of Kaylee's new room decor, but I intend to be outside with her the rest of the week. This will be awesome because there's a lot of work to do in the backyard. She can play... I can weed. And hopefully Tuesday after Brian gets home from work, I can convince him to move all of the bricks and pavers to the backyard so I can start creating the border. Don't worry... I won't be lifting the pavers. And I'll have him spread the bricks out along the path so I don't have to go far with them. And since it's only getting to 60 on Tuesday night, that means I can do the brick work Wednesday morning and take a nap with Kaylee that afternoon. SCORE!

In other news, today we had our maternity/family pictures taken. I know they will turn out better than Kaylee's maternity pictures. No one can seriously do any worse. But, I also trust Lissette. Here's hoping I'll have something to post in a few weeks. Kaylee doesn't do very good with a camera in her face anymore. And with her being outside, she didn't want to sit still, so who knows what we'll get with the pictures of her in them.

Well, that didn't help...

Appointment number 2 where they got on to me about my weight. Sigh. I actually tried eating better the last few weeks and still managed to gain a bunch.

Things my doctor told me today:
"You've gained more than enough weight... you need to get it under control."

Great. I only 8 weeks left. Easy peasy......... /end sarcasm

"It only took 4 hours for you to go from 2cm to 10? Hmmm. I hope you make it to the hospital this time!"

Place of birth: Toll Road 45 (or Loop 1 depending how far we get before we have to pull over for me to pop out another kid).

HA!

Because I felt this appointment wouldn't go any better than the last, I scheduled a haircut and dye job. We have maternity pix Saturday. Hopefully, I can at least show people these. Last time, our photographer was an idiot. It's May and 100 degrees outside, but lets take pix at 2pm anyway... /facepalm.

This time, it's January and should only be 60. But, this time, I'm thinking of wearing a black top to hide any potential messes since I seem to sweat like a stuffed pig regardless of the temp outside. My attitude is just wonderful right now.... LOL

Anyway, hair appointment. Right. My hair is now more blonde than brunette. And to make that even more confusing, I only got partial highlights. I can only imagine what a full set of highlights looks like. Yikes! Not sure about the haircut yet. I'm about to go straighten it and see if that helps.

Wake Up Call

OhEmGee.

Ever see a picture of yourself and think, "That can't possibly be me??" Yea. Well, it happened to me yesterday. The yoga class I've been going to took a picture and then posted it on Facebook. Thank goodness my face isn't showing and that they can't tag me! It's awful. The doctor was right. I need to lay off the junk, which I have been for the most part since she told me that. I don't think I gained my "trademark" 9 lbs this month. I'll find out next week.

Last night, I actually had a dream where I stepped on the scale and it read 320. THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY POUNDS. On my frame. No way. I'm already struggling to hold up the 170. It really sucks when your "normal" weight is supposed to between 114-145. But, at the end of the dream, I somehow had managed to lose 200 lbs to reach my goal weight. My stomach was flat again and I didn't feel like a whale. Weird.

While I'm terrified of having two kids, I am ready to start really exercising again. I need my twice (or more) a week Zumba class. I need a once a week yoga. I need to figure out how to like walking/running. I need my body back. I can see how people get addicted to exercise. I feel the addiction inside of me, but I'm not allowed anything strenuous.

C'mon end of March! Or... honestly, anything after March 10th. I have plans that day. :)~

Pregnancy, Motherhood, Doulas and Birthplans...

Needless to say, it's been a bit busy around here for a while. We are finally in a lull of activity. Not a whole lot going on and I'm honestly enjoying being able to relax a little bit. The weird thing is my body seemed to recognize when I became less busy because it has shifted into "I will make you miserable so you have to sit and rest" mode.

I have 66+- days left of my (hopefully) last pregnancy. I'm not good at being pregnant and I'm looking forward to moving on to being "just" a mom and not having to worry about how to be pregnant and take care of children at the same time. I am having some awful round ligament pains which is making walking difficult. I think it's worse since I fell when pregnant with Kaylee and injured myself, then fell again during this pregnancy and reinjured myself. The baby is also sitting pretty low. I've sorted to a maternity belt, which isn't the prettiest thing under clothing.

The other night we had our first doula meeting. Karli came over and talked with us about what her role was and got a sense of what we wanted from her and my LDR. Brian seems to feel a bit more at ease with the idea. I'm thankful that he understands that I'm the one going through the physical pain of labor and delivery, so if this is something I think that will help, then lets go for it. I'm excited because I think Karli will be able to help guide him and give him suggestions of how to help me. It's hard to think when you are stressed out, so she can be an extra thinker in the room.

During the meeting she gave me a book to borrow. It's all about pregnancy and birthplans, etc. I had a simple birthplan for Kaylee, but the doctor didn't want to hear about it, so I wasn't sure what to do with this pregnancy. Do doctors even look at them? Are they really discussed? Or was my last OB just a royal B? I'm hoping for the latter.

Last night, I went through some of the sample plans and started making some notes on things I may or may not want. The plans they had were pretty detailed. Right down to visitors, which is great. I think I want to do it like last time. No visitors until the 2nd day IF I'm feeling ok. If not, well.. the baby isn't going anywhere and people can just come to our home.

Last time we did this, I got a lot of flack. Mostly from my side of the family. A bit from his. I'm sadden by this. While I understand the excitement of a new baby coming into the world, I also understand the process of bringing that baby into the world. I'm sad that people said I ruined their moment. The gall of me.... ruining THEIR moment of ME giving birth. It almost makes me laugh now. So, here I go again... being selfish while giving birth. No visitors until we call/text.

66+- days. Yikes. I need to start cooking and getting things in the freezer!

Monday's To Do List - revisted

I haven't gotten to all of the days yet, but I figured I would do them one at a time so I can easily refer to them.

Here's the original list:

Monday
Global - floors (dust/steam mop), vacuum baseboards, vacuum carpets, dust shutters/furniture, vacuum sofa
Dishes
Laundry (if needed)
Walk 20 minutes
Gym 30 minutes

Here's the revised one:
Make bed(check)
Get Kaylee up and dressed(check)
Get Kaylee milk and something to eat(check)
Get dressed, have some tea/water/coffee to get me going(check)
Playtime - together(check)
Playtime - by her lonesome(check)
While she's playing by herself, dust mop floors(check - Saturday)
Naptime - around 11am(check)
During naptime, steam mop floors(check - Saturday), dust furniture/shutters
Lunchtime
Playtime - together
Playtime - by her lonesome
While she's following me around trying to figure out the vacuum cleaner... vacuum carpets and wherever the baseboards may need(check)
After vacuuming, get stroller, walk with Kaylee for 20 minutes. Let her walk when she wants. If we make it to a park, let her play for a bit...

By this time, it should be about 4:00pm. This is where I reward myself with Jeopardy because I'm apparently old now. Kaylee will play in the living room, sometimes using me as a jungle gym. :)~ After my break... it's time to start dinner. After dinner, do dishes. After I'm cleared for real exercise and if it works with the new baby's schedule, I need to hit the gym for a few minutes of weights.

I'll try this out Monday and see how well I do. I plan to have some friends over for lunch and then later a playdate, so I might not get everything done. However... I have no vehicle today, so I might vacuum and dust mop the floors today.

ETA:
So far so good... I have a few more things to do, then we have to go get Kaylee's haircut. And then naptime should begin so I can start getting lunch ready. Woot! Lists make me more productive, apparently. Playdate was canceled. I'm bummed about that, but am still going to try and go out anyway. It's only 11:30a and I'm almost done with everything! It did help that I did a lot of stuff this weekend though...

Delicious!

So normally when someone promotes a specific diet, I kind of look the other way. I don't like "diets." They don't work. Lifestyle changes, however DO. I humored this particular person and checked out a site for a primal diet they have switched over to. It's definitely an interesting concept, but I seriously doubt we'll go full steam ahead on all of it. For one, it requires a bit of prep work and cooking. Neither I am good at. But, I picked out a few recipes that had similar ingredients. Things that I could cook a big batch of and freeze, then piece together later.

The first was just an ordinary cobb salad. I *love* cobb salads. Always have. But, I've never made one for myself. I baked a full package of bacon. Bacon can be frozen after it's cooked, then just pop a strip or 2 in the microwave for 30 seconds and bam! Yumminess all the way. You can also make hard boiled eggs ahead of time. My problem is once boiled and shelled, it's hard for me not to just sprinkle with salt and pepper, then nom on them right then and there. That may or may not have happened to my extra 2.

The next recipe I tried was a bacon, chicken, avocado sandwich. Here's the recipe:
Ingredients:
4 medium boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into strips
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
8 slices bacon
2 ripe avocados (they should feel firm, but yield to gentle pressure)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp fresh basil, finely chopped
1 medium red onion, sliced
2 large tomatoes, sliced
8 slices of spinach bread

Method:
Place chicken strips in a lightly greased shallow casserole dish (large enough so that the pieces don’t touch so that they can cook evenly) and drizzle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place in a preheated 375 degree oven and cook until the juices run clear when pierced and the chicken begins to brown (about 30 minutes depending on your oven).

Once the chicken is in the oven, line a baking tray completely with foil (including the sides… trust us, it makes cleaning up a heck of a lot easier!). Place bacon strips on foil and place on top shelf of oven. Bacon is cooked when it crisps up and turns brown.

While all that is cooking, take each avocado, cut in half and, using a spoon, scoop the flesh out of the skins. Discard skins. Using a fork, mash the avocado until smooth. Add finely chopped basil to give it a flavor kick and lemon juice to prevent browning.

Assemble all the ingredients between the bread – 2 slices of red onion, 2 slices of tomato, a quarter of the chicken, 2 slices of bacon, and a quarter of the avocado mixture – and dig in! Serves 4.

Nutrition Analysis:
Calories per serving: 692
Fat: 36.3 grams (46% calories from fat)
Carbs: 23.6 grams (13% calories from carbs)
Protein: 68.4 grams (41% calories from protein)

First of all, I don't know how much chicken this person is putting on their sandwich, but this will make WAY more than 4 sandwiches. I've had 3 between lunch and dinner and there's still 2 of the 3 BSLS CB left in my tupperware. Secondly, I also couldn't find spinach bread, so I got cranberry walnut bread. I love cranberries, chicken and avocado together for some reason.

This was just a really yummy sandwich. One of which I'll be having tomorrow for lunch and dinner again since there's so much. I'm trying to get Brian to take some of the chicken to work because frankly, I don't think I'll be able to eat all of this. Note to self for next time: only make 1 BSLS CB and freeze the rest for later use.

So, my week of living off of $50 worth of groceries is going well. So well that I'll have food for the weekend and we won't have to scrounge around. I haven't even made many snacks because I feel more full having better meals.

I'm a bit more excited about all this.

You know what is frustrating....

And maybe it's just pregnancy hormones, but omg I'm at my wits end. So, I dunked my phone in a cup of water while in a glucose drink induced high last Friday. Not my proudest moment. But, seeing how I've had a cell phone since I was 16, I think it's pretty awesome that this is the first time I've ever broken one. Unfortunately, I also decided to switch carriers to lower my bill while I had the chance. Because of this, they couldn't just take my SIM and put it in a new phone, which led to me losing all my contacts. I sent out an FB and email message requesting phone numbers if you wanted me to have them. If not, ok...

Today I get a text. I have no idea who it's from. There's a picture attached of a sonogram. I would really like to be excited for this person, but they refuse to tell me who they are. I told them who I thought it was, but apparently I was incorrect. I have like 7 friends/family pregnant right now. It's hard to keep up. I told them I had no idea. Their reply "I guess you'll never know." Really? So, ya know what. Screw it. I'm over it. I don't have time for games. We've been sick the last 3 weeks. I've been dealing with my grandfather's stroke. I just got done dealing with the SCH not too long ago. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. It's been busy and stressful since like August.

Why do people have make something so simple so frustrating?

Groceries

Ok. So, my first list yesterday was for groceries. I spent $120, but all except $50 of that was one time or once a month type purchases. If I'm able to keep at this up, we'll cut our grocery bill by $200! If I could wean Kaylee and Brian off of their energy drinks (B) and smoothies (K), that'd be another $80 I could save. We'll see.

The items up on our menu for this week include:
Crab rangoons - We've never made them, but Hungry Girl did an episode on baked ones. Honestly, they are better fried. I ate mostly the baked ones, but I did indulge in a few fried.
Fried mushrooms - ok, so we're not going super healthy, but we had mushrooms we needed to use and I had enough of sauteed and fondue'd ones. Plus, who doesn't need a little ranch in their lives? :)~
Cobb Salad - See? I can try to be a little healthy! Bacon is a meat, right? I baked it, although I don't think it matters how you prepare bacon, it's just not going to be great for you. But the rest of the salad had egg and tomatoes and just a little bit of cheese, so with the spinach, I think I did ok here.
Spinach salad - I still have spinach left over, so I'll finish it up this week as well.
Chicken Avocado Sandwiches - I plan to do this Wednesday and Thursday. Don't worry, the chicken will be baked and this recipe I have doesn't even include cheese, which makes me a bit sad.
Bacon, Avocado, Tomato Salad - The last three recipes are from some "primal" diet plan a friend is doing. But, they sound good... we'll see how this goes.
I also plan to make some zuke, banana and strawberry chips and have a few fruit smoothies (from frozen fruit I have in the freezer) in as snacks. I still have my plain popcorn that I lightly salt, so that'll be a decent snack as well. Oh, and trail mix.

The weekend will probably be something out of the freezer. No real plan there. But, I'm hoping to only buy groceries for the weekdays and scavenge on the weekends. We have 2 freezers full. There's no reason we can't eat out of them.

I need to start thinking about next week's menu. I'm not sure if you noticed, but I grouped a lot of ingredients so I didn't have to spend a bunch on a ton of things. Plus, I figured it would help us from wasting any food.

Lists, lists and more lists....

With the bridal shower forcing me to clear out as much space in my fridge as possible, I decided this was as good a time as any to take a fresh look at our grocery list. I still don't have a whole lot in the way of processed food in the pantry, but there's enough in there that I want to get rid of it asap. So, in order to do that, I'm going to start making things to freeze for when the baby gets here. There's a bunch of stuff I can get rid of doing that alone like the cream of chicken soups and rice. I'm going to wait a few weeks before I start that process though. There's way to many other things on my to do list that need to be done first. I'm supposed to be switching out the white stuff for the brown stuff anyway. Booo. The white stuff just tastes so much better to me!

For this week, I made my grocery list. And for the most part I stuck to it. It's rare that I can go to the grocery store and buy exactly the items on the list. There's always a few "Ohh! I forgot to write that down!" or even worse "I really want that." My goal is to make it a functioning grocery list with prices and what my grocery total should be. I've wanted to do this for a long time but always get sidetracked. Here's hoping that doesn't happen this time around.

I am also going to update my daily to do list. While the general one I posted early works fine, I want a more detailed version with the approximate times it takes me to do each chore so I can prioritize my time a bit better. One where I can print out each day and go off of.

And finally, I want to finish up my yearly budget spreadsheet. That's right. Every bill we have is synced up to our bank account total by the due dates all the way through the year. There's extra spaces in there for surprises and what not. The sad thing is, we had the potential to save a lot of money this year. But, our credit card has a heavy balance from the remodel of the old house and moving to the new house. And few more surprises popped up in between all of that. We could still save a bunch, but we're going to have to bucket down.

Brian has already made the suggestion to eat lots of sandwiches this year. I can make bread and certain things are cheap to load that bread up with... like PB&J or tuna fish salad. Plus we have a lot of meat we can throw in the crockpot and make shredded beef and bbq sandwiches. It's just a matter of doing it and hoping that our pallets won't get so bored that we drop the idea altogether.

I'm also pricing out veggies. I have a lot of fruit in the freezer, but not much in the way of veggies. I just prefer those fresh, so I am trying to figure out what is cheap and go with those so we don't lose out on the good, healthy stuff.

Baby's Down!

So, the breech phase is over. Baby's head is down. But, my reign of terror on chocolate is also over. No more. In fact, the doctor said I need to get it out of the house. Does this mean I can eat it on my porch? Because the thought has crossed my mind. I've also been instructed that if I'm well enough, I need to start walking daily for 30 minutes. Good thing I've already been thinking about this. Now to put the plan into motion... Monday... :p

I'm measuring 28w5d and am actually 28w6d, so we're right on target. The doctor gave me some info on a coping skills classes for L&D. Here's hoping I make it further than 2cm before getting drugs. While I like not being in pain, I really don't like taking meds. This won't be an unmedicated birth though. I know myself well enough that even with coping skills, I'll cave and want the epi.

If I can survive the weekend, I'll be good to go. I'm so excited about this shower, but I'm fearing how exhausted I'll be when it's over.

Daily To Do List

Ok, so I decided to break things up a bit differently. Before I had a list that went hour by hour. But, after looking at all I needed to do and factoring in 2 kids, I figured it'd be better to just make a list by day. Once Brian gets home from work, he can take over while I finish up anything I didn't get to.

Here's my list of stuff to do and the break down by day:

 

Room	Chore
Master Bedroom	Make bed
	Change linens
	Tidy up nightstands, etc
Guest Bedroom	Make bed
	Change linens
	Tidy up dresser
Baby's Bedroom	Tidy up dresser
Playroom	Pickup Toys
Living/Dining	Tidy up
	Clean off table
Kitchen	Sanitize counters
	Clean sink
	Clean front of appliances
	Dry dust cabinet doors
	Dishes (DW load/unload)
	Clean stovetop
Kid's bathroom	Sanitize counters, sink
	Dry dust cabinet doors
	Clean toilet, bathtub
	Change linens
Guest bathroom	Clean toilet, sink
	Change linens
Master bathroom	Sanitize counters, sinks
	Clean toilet, bathtub
Global	Steam mop/Vacuum
	Dust shutters, furniture
	Vacuum baseboards

Monday

Global

Dishes

Laundry (if needed)

Walk 20 minutes

Gym 30 minutes

Tuesday

Master bathroom

Guest bathroom

Kid's bathroom

Dishes

Laundry (if needed)

Walk 20 minutes

Zumba

Wednesday

Master bedroom

Guest bedroom (if needed)

Baby's bedroom (if needed)

Kaylee's bedroom (if needed)

Dishes

Laundry (if needed)

Walk 20 minutes

Gym 30 minutes

Thursday

Living/Dining

Playroom

Dishes

Laundry (if needed)

Walk 20 minutes

Zumba

Friday

Kitchen

Laundry (if needed)

Walk 20 minutes

Gym 30 minutes

Saturday

Dishes

Sunday

Dishes

Yoga

Some days have a heavier load than others. And for now, all the exercising minus the walking and yoga will have to wait until after da bebe gets here. Some of the things are really easy. Like the kids rooms. I've decided they don't need really anything in there except for their beds. All of their clothes are in their closets and their toys are in the playroom. Simplify, man! Once Kaylee is old enough to help me clean (for real), I'll consider putting some of her toys in her room. But so far this has worked out really well as far as keeping her room tidy.

Other things are time consuming. Like the floors. I put all of the global things in one day, but realistically, I'll probably have to break that down into 2 or 3 days. There's just 3,000 square feet of floor and I'm not sure I can steam mop, vacuum and clean the baseboards all in one day with not 1 but 2 kids. I'm hoping to be able to wear this baby. But if it's anything like Kaylee, I won't be able to.

My arch nemesis is the kitchen. I hate it and it hates me. But, I think some of it is just retraining Brian. Like when he fries. We have to cover the stove so he's not splattering grease all over the place. And little things like putting any dirty dish/pot/pan/utensil in the sink so I know it needs to be cleaned. I'm hoping that since I'll be trying to keep up with the dishes better that it will mean the kitchen itself will be easier to keep up with.

This has been the perfect week to start all of this as well. I have a bridal shower here this weekend and I'm a nervous wreck when I have anyone over. So, I've been cleaning all week. I'm not really using this schedule. I'll start that Monday.