Getting organized can be gross

This weekend I was an insane cleaning machine. I reorganized 3 closets in my house and cleaned up the basement…

 

rearranged the contents living room armoire…

 

created a much better system for my bathroom storage…

went through drawers, packed up clothing that no longer fits…

 

And also got rid of a lot of paperwork and documents. (BONUS: I found some hidden treasures under my bed.)

Now, when you throw away personal documents, it’s always important to rip them up and make sure that any confidential information could not be collected. People really do go through the trash for this stuff.

 

Therefore, when I found a slew of old checkbooks that were from an old account (no longer active) I just didn’t feel comfortable putting them in the garbage without ripping them up. So my mom and I ripped up all of the pages of about 10 checkbooks.

 

This morning I heard the garbage truck roll up, and I looked out the window to make sure they took everything. Then right before my eyes, the garbage man dropped a bag, it opened, and out came all of the ripped up check confetti. And as the truck drove away, and the wind from the truck scattered the paper EVERYWHERE.

 

Out I ran in my pajamas, into the street to pick up the pieces. I grabbed what I could and dumped it back in the pail. I went and picked up whatever else I could find in my neighbor’s yard and down the street. Then I realized that I should have been putting this stuff in a bag, and not just in the pail, because when they dump the trash the next time, the same thing could happen again. DUH JAMIE!!

 

SOOOOO..Since our garbage can is so big, I had to literally flip it sideways, climb in and pick up the rest of the pieces. DIS-GUST-ING.

So, lesson learned…make sure your personal paper shreds are always double bagged. It will save you from a crazy afternoon.

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It’s a…..

Today’s ultrasound was so much fun, well before we even found out the gender. The baby was totally on the move and we didn’t even think that we would be able to see “the goods” because there was so much going on.

 

When the technician finally focused in on the baby it was literally ROLLING around and moving its feet and hands like crazy. The tech said from the looks of it, we’ll have our hands full running after this little one.

 

This might explain while I’ve already been feeling lots of movement in my belly! Also, I found out that I’m ahead of where I though I was which means that I was 18 weeks as of Sunday. Woohoo!

 

After seeing our baby’s beautiful and healthy head, legs, arms, heart, kidneys, stomach and bladder the tech finally asked…. “Do you want to know the gender”??

 

YES MA’AM!! And then I saw it….evidence of my little lady!! We’re having a girl!

We’re so excited!

 

Here are some fun facts/old wives tales info:

Chinese Gender Predictor -was right!

Old Wives Tale Gender Predictor- was right!

How I’m carrying? – Kind of lower, weight has been distributed all over

Morning sickness?- Barely any

Baby’s Heart Rate?- Always above 160 until today

Cravings?- Mostly sweet stuff

Skin?- not looking good

Hair?- looks okay

I can’t even list some of the other wacky things I did to try and figure out the gender before today- I was desperate to know!

 

Thanks for sharing this exciting day with me!

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Week 17 Pregnancy Update

Another week in the books!

 

I can’t believe that this is the last pregnancy update where I won’t know the gender of our baby! (So long as we can see what we need to during the ultrasound next week). Lately I’ve been thinking it’s a boy.

 

This week, as you can probably tell from my recent posts, has been much different. I’m feeling energized and positive and much more like the old me!

 

I was back to cooking and working out, two of my favorite things.

So far I’ve exercised everyday since Sunday! (Except today, which is a rest day because my legs are very sore).

 

Here are some highlights of what I’ve been eating lately:

Lots of couscous salad

Sugar snap peas and white bean hummus

The return of peanut flour pancakes!!!

Babybel cheeses and cold granny smith apples

Toast, hard boiled eggs, and chobani 0% honey with blueberries (topped with more honey after this pic was snapped)

And some of the other snacks I mentioned in this post.

My favorite drinks of late have been citrus water

A slice and squeeze of all three fruits, lots of ice, and sometimes a bit of splenda (the doctor said it’s okay!)

 

And peppermint tea with honey (decaf of course). It helps with bloating and some stomach discomfort I have at night.

 

Belly wise, I feel like I’m about the same.  I thought there would be more growth this week, but not really. It’s still a mushy belly and I can’t wait for it to get firm!

 

I still can’t get over the size of my chest. Seriously.

 

Stats:

Size of the baby: 5.1 inches (the size of an onion)

Baby’s Weight: 5.9 ounces (up from 3.5 oz last week!)

Something crazy that *just* happened: As I am typing this post, I think I might have just felt the baby for the first time!! It felt kind of like a little bubble popping in my belly, a few times in the same spot. I’m not positive that is what it was, but my doctor said this would happen any day now!

Recent pregnancy purchases: Thanks to a shopping outing with my stepmom I now own two pairs of maternity work pants, two work tops, and two wrap sweaters! Destination Maternity was having a great sale and we made out like bandits. Sidenote: Shopping in maternity stores is the best! They have a water cooler and a bathroom. If you are pregnant you know what I’m talking about- it’s not easy to focus when you’re always thirsty or have to pee.

 

Last chance to guess….boy or girl?

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Easy Couscous Salad

I’m excited to share this super easy and delicious salad recipe with you! It’s not only simple, but it’s also the kind of recipe that can be customized to your tastes. Basically this is a method, and you can add or remove whatever ingredients you like!

 

Ingredients:

1 cup dry whole wheat couscous (prepare according to directions)

1 container crumbled feta cheese

Kalamata olives (about 10-15)

1/2 can of garbanzo beans (not pictured)

Grape tomatoes (about 10)

1/4 cup fresh parsley

1/8 cup red onion

1/2 of a seedless cucumber

1/4 cup vinaigrette (or 1/4 cup olive oil and the juice of 1/2 a lemon)

salt/pepper to taste

 

How To:

Put the couscous on the stove and get it ready while you dice up the veggies. I peel the cucumber, but you don’t have to.

Once the couscous is done, fluff it with a fork and let it cool for a few minutes.

Then add the veggies on top

Add the feta  and the dressing as well- (I use about 3/4 of the container of the feta.)

At this point I realized I wanted to add some beans for protein.

I rinsed the beans and added those on top as well- along with 1/4 cup of dressing and a little extra cucumber.

Mix everything together and that’s it! I like to let the flavors "make a marriage" (as my mom says) in the fridge for a little while before serving.

 

This is great cold or at room temperature.

ENJOY!!

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Things I’m loving lately

The past few days have been full of happiness for me. Work has ended for the summer, the weather has been beautiful, I had another great check-up at the doctor, and overall I’ve been feeling great!

 

Additionally, I feel like myself again! There is a foggy-headed feeling that came with my first trimester. It’s hard to explain, but I know it’s something to do with dealing with all of the hormonal changes. Lately, I can just think clearer and I feel sharper.

 

I think my happiness has also been increased by a few things that I’ve brought into my life. So without further ado, here are some things that I’ve been loving lately!

 

Sunny, Happy, Sunflowers!

I picked up this bunch yesterday at Trader Joe’s (only $3.99 for a large bunch). They just make me so happy! Truth be told, I only like the ones with the yellow center (the black center creeps me out, like there are bugs in it). Fortunately these sunny guys were big, bright, and beautiful! I cut them really short and display them in an old pitcher.

 

Yankee Candle Fall Scented Tarts

For those of you that have never heard of wax tarts, you need to get on board! Basically it is a wax disc that goes in a tart burner (shown below), and a tealight warms the wax and it melts in the top of the burner. It can be used over and over and when you want to change it, just pop the burner in a freezer for a few min, and the disc will pop right out. The best part? The tarts are only $1.99 (You can get a cheap burner too). And if you don’t like the scent, it’s not like you committed to a whole candle. My current favorite scents are pumpkin pie, harvest, and cranberry chutney.

 

At Home Workouts

Recently I quit my gym. I wasn’t using it that much and I noticed that when I was in the mood to workout, I wanted to be outside. To add some variety, I’ve been using on-demand workouts and P-90X kickboxing videos. I just bought those little purple weights the other day too and found a great video on demand to use them. I’ve been getting a great sweaty workout and it doesn’t matter that I don’t have cute maternity workout gear. As you can see, it is getting harder to see my feet!

 

Healthy and Balanced Meals

During my first trimester, my food was all over the place. And I didn’t really care because I didn’t have control over when and what I wanted to eat. My body made some strange requests, but I honored them and hoped that normal eating would resume. It has. My meals have become much more balanced, and are including more protein.  I’m also digging whole grains again (phew!) because for a while there, the thought of any bread with more than 0.5 grams of fiber made me ill. (weird). Oh and for the record, I always eat the yolks in my hard boiled eggs. DELISH!

 

Better Snacking

Snacks are essential. And I knew I needed to come up with some much better ideas for healthy snacking- especially since I eat every few hours. Now that I’m not at camp all day, I have a lot more flexibility as well. Yesterday I organized my pantry and put a lot of the first trimester junk in the basement or threw it out. Honestly, most of it makes me nauseous at this point, but I heard the 3rd trimester can bring on some weird cravings- so I kept some of the stuff.

 

I also headed to Trader Joe’s to pick up some of their great snacks. Here is what I plan to be munching on now-a-days

Pre-portioned trail mix (perfect for keeping in my purse)

White Bean Hummus (A few weeks ago I thought I’d never eat hummus again. Well, it’s back! I’ve been loving this on toast, or with sugar snap peas and carrots for dipping).

Peanut Butter (I’ve been loving this on cold sliced granny smith apples or smeared on a banana)

Bars and Quick snacks (these are good on-the-go snacks to keep with me, and the fiberful bars help with another not-so-fun pregnancy side effect)

Greek Yogurt (with some granola and raisins on top- it makes a filling and high protein snack. I used to eat the plain flavor mostly, but these days it’s fruit flavored all the way!)

 

It’s amazing how some of the most simple things can bring the most joy! I hope you are all having a great Tuesday!

 

What are your favorite go-to snacks?
What is making you happy right now?

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Week 16 Pregnancy Update

I kept accidentally writing Week 17, and I’m not sure why I was doing that. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves….

 

This week is going well, I’m feeling good and was even able to stay up past 10 o’clock on Monday and Tuesday night. That is a big deal, folks!

 

I’ve also been able to eat just about anything, including vegetables and all different kinds of proteins. I wouldn’t say that I’m craving healthy foods, but I’m no longer avoiding them like the plague.

 

This week also marks my last week of my summer camp job, which is nice and sad at the same time. I’ll miss the kids of course, and I’m also going to miss the stability of the same job everyday. In the fall my plan is to substitute teach, which means a lot of instability and a bit more anxiety.

 

The good thing about subbing is that it provides flexibility for anything that might come up, and it will help me gain more teaching experience. For right now though, I’m going to enjoy the next week or two of no work, and we’ll see how everything else turns out.

 

Body wise I’m definitely still growing a belly. I can’t wait for it to get even bigger and rounder. Right now I still don’t really look pregnant in my regular clothes, and I’m struggling with that in-between phase.

(oh and that little bump isn’t my belly button, it’s the drawstring on my pants)

Here are some other stats for you.

Size of the baby: 4.6 inches (the size of an avocado)

Baby’s Weight: 3.5 ounces (and this will supposedly double in the next few weeks!)

Weight gained: I don’t really want to post this anymore, everyone has different weight gains during their pregnancy and it makes me feel a bit pressured to post it every week. I know some of you probably will be disappointed about that, but that’s my choice. Thanks for understanding.

Times I’ve cried this week: About 3. One over my wardrobe, once when I read something sad in a book, and another time during a stupid argument.

Frozen treats currently in my freezer: 2. Frozen strawberry popsicles (AWESOME) and ice cream sandwiches.

Amount spent on a ridiculous pregnancy pillow to help me sleep: $50. I’m waiting on it to arrive in the mail. Please work, please work, please work!

Other recent pregnancy purchases: An adorable pair of skinny jeans from Old Navy that fit amazing. I figure with all of the flowy tops I’ll be wearing, it will be nice to have some skinny jeans. Plus, I’ll take anything right now that I can wear that also has the name "skinny" in it.

Amount of outtakes from this week’s belly shoot: A LOT

 

Here’s to another great week!

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Cedar Plank Trout

Have you ever used cedar planks to grill fish? If not…please try this ASAP!!

 

Last night Joe and I had such an awesome dinner, and it was mostly due to these special things.

We picked up this pack of Cedar planks at Costco. I think they were $10 for 6 planks. I highly recommend you look for them at Costco- we saw them for $10 for only 2 or 3 planks at the grocery store. (RIP OFF ALERT!)

 

The other thing you need to know, is that on the night you’ll make the fish, you need to soak the plank in water for a few hours to make sure they don’t go up in flames on the grill.

 

For our dinner we placed some fresh rainbow trout fillets on the planks-  topped them with salt and pepper and then brushed them with some melted butter mixed with fresh chopped parsley, a few dashes of garlic powder, and the juice and zest of 1/2 a lemon. (Sorry I didn’t take in process pictures!)

 

After that, just place the planks on a medium-high grill for about 8-10 minutes.

 

(I wish I got a picture of it outside, but we were so hungry that I barely even got this one (and that little piece taken out was done by me!)) We threw some garden tomatoes on the plank too to see what would happen. (They were too smoky for me!)

 

I paired my fish with roasted asparagus with olive oil and lemon and some brown rice.

A delicious dinner I highly recommend you try while it’s still grilling season!

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A Weekend Walk

Happy Monday!

 

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I had a great and relaxing weekend.

 

Friday Joe was out of town so I was home alone. I was actually looking forward to a nice quiet evening, so it worked out well.

 

Around 6:30 I had an overwhelming craving for wonton soup which HAD to be fulfilled. It was then I realized how ridiculous it is that there is no local Chinese food delivery in my immediate area.

 

Hence why some of you probably saw this tweet go up:

 

I ended up driving about 15 minutes to the town over to pick up some wonton soup, steamed dumplings, and Hunan chicken (spicy chicken in a brown sauce with veggies). The food was awesome, and made fabulous leftovers on Saturday.

 

The highlight of my weekend however, was probably the 5 mile hilly walk I took on Saturday afternoon. The weather was cool and sunny, and I just couldn’t wait to get outside.

 

I packed up some of my old running buddies:

and hit the trail

5 miles later I was tired, but I felt great! I was so happy that the workout bug seems to be back!

 

Saturday concluded with a trip to the movie theatre to see Horrible Bosses.

It was okay- pretty funny, but not great. A little too long. The best part was probably the huge box of Jujyfruits that I snuck into the theatre. Yes, I even like the black licorice flavored ones. (Actually, those are my favorite)

 

Sunday was rainy and lazy. We pretty much just sat around, except for a short 25 minute kickboxing on-demand workout. (woohoo!)

Seen any good movies lately? I saw Bridesmaids at the beginning of the summer and LOVED it.

What is your favorite movie theatre treat?

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Taboo

Whenever I tell someone I’m pregnant, one of the first questions they ask is, "Are you going to find out the gender?"

 

And yes, of course I am. I’m way too much of a planner to NOT find out. Plus, I don’t really want to limit colors and items to gender neutral stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I like ducks and green and yellow, but isn’t it fun to shop for some ridiculously boyish or girlish stuff?

Trust me, I’m in awe of people that can wait to find out. I think it’s incredible. But sometimes I’ll hear people say that they don’t want to know the gender of their baby because "It’s one of life’s only real surprises" or something like that..and I just seriously want to roll my eyes very far into the back of my head. Sorry!

 

For me, I feel like every day life holds surprises. And while I agree that waiting to find out the sex of the baby is a huge one, and a true one, it’s not one of life’s only surprises. Hey, I’m surprised that there is a child growing inside me! It’s certainly not a given that everyone can have children, so that is enough right there.

But my last reason for wanting to find out the gender of the baby is a little taboo. I will admit, that there is one sex that I’m kind of rooting for. Maybe it’s the clothes, the mother or father/child relationship, the name I have picked out, or just a weird feeling, but yes it’s true. And I feel like women everywhere would want to punch me in the face for saying that. I know that right answer is, "I just want a healthy baby", which is TRUE!! That really is all I want! But is it so wrong to have a little bit of a desire one way or the other?

And while I know that  Baby C will be an incredible miracle that I will love more than anything in the whole entire world…I just want to be prepared with that knowledge. Once I know, I will be totally fine with the news, but on top of everything taking place during delivery day, I don’t need any more NEW information.

Call me crazy, but I’m putting it out there.

 

When/if you have kids, will you find out the gender?

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Week 15 Update

Wow, another week down! I feel like the time is starting to move faster now. I think because the first 12 weeks were so nerve wracking and also because I had to keep my pregnancy a secret from many, it felt like FOREVER!

 

This week I’m really starting to feel bigger. My belly popped out last week but mostly it was at night. Now I’m starting to notice that it is bigger and rounder all the time. And I’m liking it for the most part. I also see that my face looks rounder and I’m not loving that.

 

Overall though, it is exciting to be getting to the point where I will look more “pregnant” than just bulkier.  I’m also feeling better, not so out of it which is how I would describe the first few weeks. I’m still going to bed at 9:45 or so every night (sometimes earlier), but in most other ways, I feel a bit more like myself.

 

This week the baby is developing bones in it’s ears which make it able to hear things outside the womb. (Which means it will probably be born with a desire to watch the Food Network). The baby has also developed eyebrows and eyelashes. Cool!

Size of the baby: 4.5 inches (the size of a navel orange)

Weight gained: 6 pounds

Main Symptoms: tired, a little cranky, and prone to crying over stupid things

Recent Food Cravings: Potatoes, sour cream, salads with white balsamic dressing

Days Left Working at Camp: 6 (thank goodness)

Days until we find out the gender: 20!!

 

Still taking your gender guesses Lately I’ve been thinking it’s a boy…

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