Pregnant and miserable...

With 20 days until my due date, some days are definitely better than others. And some days I struggle to make it through. The other day just happened to be one of those days. I was having terrible neck pain. Not to mention that it never feels like I can get enough air these days. And then I started feeling light-headed. If only I would feel this way from the moment that I woke up, because then I would call into work and sleep it off for a couple more hours. But of course it never sets in until I’ve been at work for at least half an hour or more. Then I am stuck at my desk trying to keep my head up. Not so easy when all I feel like doing is laying down for a bit. But when I do try and lay down, I pinch nerves in my hips which cause more pain. I’ve really started to master “the waddle” too. Oh sweet baby, I know this is definitely all worth it for you, but would you please make your grand entrance soon. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.

Last week we preregistered at the hospital, so now when the time comes, it’s straight to labor and delivery. Yay! I was really impressed with the hospital. Everything is so new and clean. We can get complimentary valet parking when I come to deliver the baby. The rooms are nice and big with a pullout couch for Brad, free Wi-Fi, and a whirlpool tub that I get the luxury of enjoying after delivering. All in all, it should be a wonderful place to deliver.

My fourth and final baby shower with some of the ladies from the Brewery turned out perfectly. I was so very excited to be able to spend some time outside of work with them. It was such a wonderful and relaxing evening filled with laughter, awesome food, and great friends. I feel so blessed to have had so many wonderful showers from so many wonderful people. It’s nice to know that I’m loved.

Yesterday we ventured out to a water park with some friends. I wasn’t too sure what I would the whole time there since I can’t go on the slides. Luckily, despite the nasty weather in the morning, it cleared up to be a beautiful sunny day and I spend many hours floating on the lazy river. I have a very red belly to prove it too.

Tonight marks my last stretch of 3 days working at the Brewery. I’m looking forward to having my afternoons off to enjoy our recently opened pool, washing and sorting Brynlee’s clothes, and just getting everything in order before she gets here. Until next time, I will continue to try and get comfortable and get enough oxygen to my brain so I can function. J

Flying through June...

We are already a week into June and the time has just flown. This excites me so much, because I know the rest of the month is going to fly by too. I don't have a picture of my calendar, but it looks something like this:

I have something written on practically every day. Here are some of the things that I have planned for this month:

• A shopping day with my sister
• Volunteer work day at camp
• My cousin's wedding in Atlanta
• A 4 day Primerica convention in Atlanta
• Father's Day
• My friend's wedding
• Dr's appointments
• Helping out with VBS
• Another baby shower
• My friend's wedding shower
• Etc.

I think you get the picture. I have to squeeze everything in now so that I can relax all of July. :) Speaking of relaxing, I decided to take the night off from work and just relax a bit. Last night I think I pushed myself a little too hard and went home in a lot of pain. I woke up not fully recovered so I decided not to overdo it and take a little break. What would be a nicer way to relax than laying out by the pool. Unfortunately ours hasn't opened yet.

They were supposed to open it Memorial Day weekend, and apparently ran into some problems. A week and a half later, and it still isn't open, while I've been melting in our record-breaking high temperatures. Yes, it has been a fun summer so far. :) I've been staying cool by munching on ice (my new favorite thing). 

It has perhaps been my only real craving during this pregnancy. I've been stocking up on Sonic ice at home. You can buy a bag of it for less than $2. That has been my life saver. 

In other news.... yesterday for the first time, a stranger touched my belly. She was one of my customers at work. It really caught me off guard. It was a very uncomfortable moment for me. If she hadn't been so nice, I think I would've been far more bothered by the incident. Hopefully that doesn't happen again.

I feel so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family in my life. I have had 2 baby showers in the past week. The first one was a surprise thrown by my work. It was such a lovely little cookout and I received some wonderful gifts. The next one was thrown by all our friends at church. We had a lovely breakfast bar with pancakes and dozens of toppings. It was so nice. And I still have one more shower thrown by all my girls at the Brewery. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to be surrounded by such love.

I'm having my maternity pictures taken this weekend. Stay tuned for the finished product. :) 

Saying goodbye to May...

Last night I had the most vivid dream that I had my baby. I was calling everyone and telling them that Brynlee was here. People were visiting me in the hospital. I got to hold my precious baby for the first time. It was so wonderful and real. Imagine my disappointment when I woke up and realized that it was all just a dream and I still had about 7 weeks until that becomes a reality. I've dreamed several times already that I have had Brynlee, but none of them were as real or emotional as this. It just made me more excited for when that moment actually arrives. I really can't wait to hold my baby for the first time, to kiss her perfect face and hold her close.

I've been telling myself that if I could just make it through the month of May, I would be set. May was a rather uneventful and drawn out month for me. I didn't have much going on or much to look forward to. June, however, is packed full of all sorts of weddings and showers and other events to keep me entirely too busy, and I absolutely can't wait for all the distractions. Because once June is over, then July is here, and with it comes my sweet Brynlee.

Pregnancy has been becoming slightly more uncomfortable and tiring with each passing day. I find myself out of breath all the time. It's quite an effort to climb the stairs to my apartment. I'm finding it more and more difficult to get comfortable when I sleep, probably because I have a honeydew melon inside me. And so on and so forth. But I just think of the day I get to hold my baby and somehow it's all worth it. 47 days and counting...

I would walk 500 miles...

I recently downloaded a pedometer app on my phone because I have been so curious as to how much I end up walking at work. Last night was a pretty busy night, but when I finally checked my pedometer at the end of it, I was happy to discover that I had walked 3.8 miles. That's pretty crazy. I'm not sure how accurate my pedometer is, but atleast it's a ballpark figure.

On to other news in my life.... I am now 29 weeks pregnant and getting bigger every day. My sweet little Brynlee is kicking and moving all the time. I can't believe that I'm on the last leg of this pregnancy. I really can't wait to meet her. I'm so excited about my baby shower this weekend. It is going to be awesome!

My new love is for this website called Pinterest. It has literally become my drug. I can't get enough of it. It has become my online dream/idea/motivation board. It is soooo awesome. You have to request an invite to join, but they'll send you an email in about a week. Let me just warn you, it's fantastic for wasting hours of time.... everyday. :)

I'm going to attempt to knit a baby hat very soon. I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday to buy the yarn, and was very disappointed to not find the kind I was looking for. Joann's is definitely the place to go. They have about 6 rows of yarn. It's incredible. I'm hoping to stop by there after work today and find something awesome.

That pretty much sums things up. Stay tuned for updates on my ever increasingly interesting life. :)

Oh yeah....                                                        HAPPY

Exhaustion from Kleenex...

This weekend could have (and probably should have) been a very relaxing time. Instead, I somehow picked up some bug from somewhere and have spent the last 5 days quite miserably. It started out with the soar, achy throat. Then I got the runny nose, and watery eyes. Now I've moved on the the scratchy cough and hoarse voice. I'm hoping that I'm on the up side of things now. I must've used over 500 Kleenex this weekend.

That is the main reason that I haven't posted anything in awhile. I've been trying to recover. I was hoping to get my house in order, but it's just gotten worse this weekend. You somehow loose every bit of motivation when your sick. It's not fun. I'm struggling with the fact that I have to close tonight at the restaurant. I barely have a voice, so we'll see how this goes. I'll keep you posted. :)

New Food Friday - Caprese Lasagna

I've decided to try something new. Every Friday I'm going to try a new recipe and let you know how it is. At least that's what I'm going to attempt to keep up with every week. So today, I decided to try a Caprese Lasagna from Rachel Ray. It was absolutely fabulous!

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
A few grates of fresh nutmeg (I left this out because I didn't have any)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 box oven-ready lasagna noodles
4 Roma tomatoes, thinly sliced
Half a bunch basil, chopped (about 30 leaves)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
Place a large saucepan over medium-heat and melt the butter. Add the garlic to the pan and cook until aromatic, about 1 minute. Sprinkle the flour over the butter and garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk the milk and chicken stock into the butter-flour mixture and bring up to a bubble. Add the nutmeg, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and simmer until thickened, 3-4 minutes.

Assemble the lasagna by ladling a small amount (about 1/4 cup, just eyeball it) of the sauce into the bottom of a 9-inch x 13-inch baking dish and laying three lasagna noodles over the sauce. Top the noodles with about a third of the sliced tomatoes, a third of the basil, 1/4 cup of sauce and about a third of the shredded cheese. Repeat until all ingredients are used up, topping the lasagna off with a final layer of sauce and shredded cheese.

Cover the pan with foil and bake the lasagna for 30 minutes. Remove the foil from the baking dish and bake another 15 minutes until the cheese is melted and the sauce is bubbly. When ready to serve, top with the remaining chopped basil leaves.

The only complaint I have is that I don't think there was quite enough sauce. I'll definitely make more next time. But all in all, it was a success. Will definitely make this again. I couldn't find fresh basil leaves anywhere so I ended up buying a basil plant from Fresh Market for $2.99. It is awesome!

The perfect housewife...

Just recently I've been craving the chance to quit my second job and just be the perfect housewife with my extra time. Those people used to drive me absolutely crazy. You know the ones.... their house is always spotless and they always have perfect homemade, 5-course meals prepared. My dear sweet sister-in-law is one of those. :) It's always made me feel guilty and depressed when I came home to my small little place that is piled high with dirty clothes and dishes, and the fridge is always empty. I used to loathe those activities. Now I long for the chance to be able to stay at home in the evenings and cook and clean and piddle around doing crafts and whatnot. Ha ha. But alas I am stuck going to work, to serve food to people that I could care less about and forced to run around for hours on end. Oh for the simplicity of cleaning my bathroom and dejunking my closet. Someday soon, this will be my reality. Then I will count myself truly blessed to have the time to do my dishes and organize my filing cabinet. But until then....

I finished knitting my baby hammock. I was surprised at how simple and quick of a project it actually was. Besides fudging around to figure out a certain stitch, everything went extremely smooth. I forgot to take a picture of the finished project before I handed it off to my sister. You will just have to be patient with me and wait until she gets to put it to use for a picture. Until next time, I shall be dreaming of doing my dishes. :)