Recent Stuff

I made rice and bean tacos tonight, and Joanna ate almost three of them.  Natalie ate almost one, and they both had some salad.  Score one for dinner!  I love it when they both eat what I fix!  I made these rice and beans in the crockpot a couple of nights ago.  We ate them plain with cornbread for dinner (read: the girls ate cornbread).  Tonight I just added some taco seasoning to the rice/bean mixture, fried up some corn tortillas, and added a little cheese.  I figured lettuce would fall out of the girls’ tacos which is why they had a side salad.  Matt and I shoved lettuce in our tacos.  Yum.  They were really good, and you almost couldn’t tell there was no meat involved.

This is a bad picture, quality-wise, but I just love it!  I think it’s from yesterday; the girls were watching the rain fall.

A recent preggo pose.  About 20 1/2 weeks.

From this morning – I was really trying to get a picture of Natalie with a bow clippy in her hair.  I couldn’t get her distracted enough to forget it was there.  She does actually have enough hair to keep on in for a little bit though!

Natalie carried this toilet paper from the car to the front door and wouldn’t let me help!

She’s so strong!

It’s been a fun week with not a ton of work and no school, just hangin’ with my girls.  Love it!

Lazy Day

It's wet and a little dreary outside, and I just can't get any of us out of our PJs. Except Natalie, who spilled water all over hers. But she just in a diaper. :) So we've just been putzing around the house. I'm pretty proud of what I've accomplished though:
-Basically kept the kitchen clean. :)
-Cleared off my desk in the playroom. It was so bad. I'd basically just been stacking stuff on it that I wanted to keep out of reach of the girls or that went in that room but I didn't feel like actually putting away. I had stopped using it as a desk many weeks ago and moved my "base of operations" out to the living room. It's amazing to be able to see the beautiful wood of the desktop now.
-I filed. A lot. I had a (not very small) box of papers that had been stacking up for well over a year. Maybe I tackled some of it right after Natalie was born but nothing since. I have a perfectly good filing cabinet but clearly wasn't using it. I finally cleared out that whole box, most of which went in the recycle bin. It feels so good to be caught up on filing. So good. We'll see how long it lasts...
-Cleaned up the playroom. The girls have since taken out a lot of toys, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was! And we can keep up with a day's worth of toy litter.
-Made it through the boy section of one of my name books. :)
-Made breakfast and lunch, nothing fancy though.
-Organized some business cards.

I went to bed late last night (my own fault) and I'm feeling it today! I'm hoping the dreary weather and sound of the rain will make for long naps for everybody! I'm looking forward to Matt coming home and hoping for a little rain-free window so he can grill some chicken. I also have my Sola Gratia party tonight which I'm really looking forward to!

Beauty Queens

I took this picture this morning before we hopped into the car. Aren’t they GORGEOUS?!

You gotta start somewhere in the morning, though. This girl will dress up with whatever’s on hand.

I forgot to mention this -- see the shirt Joanna's wearing as a nightgown? It was Matt's soccer team shirt when he was 10 years old! I wasn't even born yet!

Just Stuff... mostly rambles

I'm up at the church, using nursery time to work. (Is blogging work, you're thinking?) Actually I finished everything that's hands-on, now I'm just watching the numbers count on the copy machine. The sanctuary bulletins are almost finished printing (506/600) and I'd really like to start the Impact bulletins before I leave. They can print over lunchtime and I'll come back to check on them another time. I think the timing's not going to quite work out though. Oh well! They don't take long to print. I can do it this evening or in the next couple of days no problem. They're ready to print, at least.

The girls are so cute today in matchy dresses borrowed from Lisa. I took pictures this morning but I don't have my camera cable with me. They'll have to wait!

My 10 year high school reunion is coming up at the end of July. That's less than two months away! I'm kind of a planner, so I'm already thinking about logistics. I'm not sure what time it starts but I'm thinking it's likely 7ish. It's at the House of Blues in Houston -- cocktail attire. I'm sure it will be nice, but I'd much rather a venue that I didn't have to find a cocktail dress! I'm starting to get antsy about finding a dress since I know my options will be limited and I don't have a ton to spend on it. I'm so picky and hard to fit that I really want to find something in person, not online, if possible, and I hate paying shipping charges. I can't really go shopping now though since I'm sure my body's going to change a lot in the next few weeks! Everybody will get 2 drink tickets at the reunion, and I'm teasing Matt about scalping ours since we don't drink. You know, to recoup some of the expense of the evening! Some members of the class are pulling together a family event for the daytime maybe at Herman Park. That seems like a good idea, but I'm not going to drive downtown (to a park in July 6 months pregnant), visit for awhile, drive home, get ready and leave the kids, then drive back downtown. Not fun! I guess a lot of people from our class live downtown these days.

Well enough rambling for now. The counter's up to 586. I'm going to go get paper for the Impact bulletins.
Pics soon.

Swimming and Streaking

We had to go to Wal-Mart anyway (really – I swear!) this morning, so I picked up this kiddie pool.  Joanna was SO excited.  I blew it up during naptime (by myself, with my lungs, thank you) and we filled it up this afternoon.

Next time we plan to swim I’ll fill it up earlier in the day and let the sun warm the water a bit.  It was chilly!  Didn’t stop the girls from having a grand time, though!

I folded the dry laundry while they played… ahhh….  I felt so domestic.

Then I got my suit on and joined the girls for a little dip.  I totally see myself in the pool later on in the pregnancy, just to sit.  Especially if the power goes out.  Then you’ll find me in there with all the ice I can find.  :)

I just took this one a few minutes ago.  Naked baby and naked baby carriage.  She doesn’t care, though.  She pushed it around and around and around until it was time to take a bath.  She didn’t leave any little pee trails either thank goodness.  :)

I got quite a bit accomplished (for me lately anyway) today and I am whooped!  I’m so thankful for the 2nd trimester, though.  I few weeks ago even thinking about some of this stuff would have sent me to bed.  I can’t get over how tired I was in the first trimester!

20 Weeks

20 weeks – no pic again; I’m such a slacker.

How Your Baby’s Growing (from Babycenter.com):

Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)
He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery).

How far along: 20 weeks

Pregnancy symptoms: forgetfulness, heartburn, headaches (maybe not preggo related?),

Food Cravings: Dr. Pepper, candy, strawberries

Sleep: good, although I do need a nap every day.  I’m a little addicted to it.

Measurement: about 38 inches when I let it all hang out.  :)  I weighed 163 lbs last Tuesday at the doctor’s office.

Movement: I feel him every day but not very strongly or regularly.  Update, Tuesday morning.  I actually felt him on the outside once yesterday.  He didn’t do it again for Matt though.

Labor signs: none 

What I miss: having one set of clothing, but it’s been about 4 years since I had that.  :)

What I’m looking forward to: feeling my little man move a lot more; also really getting started finding a name for him

Milestone: Halfway there!!  It seems a little crazy that I’m halfway to 40 weeks.  The biggest, hottest parts are yet to come!

Thoughts from the Girls: Joanna totally gets that we know it’s a baby boy in my belly, and she hasn’t tried to change our minds or anything.  Natalie has started pointing to my belly and saying baby.  But she doesn’t really get it.  She’ll point to yours and say the same thing, whether your preggo or not.

Doctor’s visit: My “20 week” appointment was actually last week and I already blogged about it in pieces, but I’ll put some stats here.  My weight: 163lbs; baby’s HR: 146; baby’s weight: 10 oz.  Everything looks great on the ultrasound and I got to hear his little heartbeat on Tuesday and Wednesday.  He’s perfect, I guess.  :)

June is Hot

We engaged in some summertime activities this morning.  Ew it’s hot outside.  Has anyone else noticed this?  And I have a feeling it’s just going to get hotter.  And what’s with all those mosquitoes?

The girls had fun for a little while on the water table.  I need to dig around for some more things to make it fun.  Amazingly, a couple of washcloths really added to the enjoyment.  Or I should just bite the bullet and get a little pool.  They’d love splashing in it, I know.

They really weren’t that wet, but who doesn’t like snuggling up in a towel?!

Joanna said, “Take a picture of me!”  So I did, and she smiled!

And the fruits of my labor this morning.  Hot, sweaty work, but my clothes will be dry very soon and I won’t have run the dryer!

Matt put my clothesline up yesterday morning.  Don’t tell him, but I may have cheated an hour or two on the 24 hours for the concrete to set.

This contraption is pretty cool.  When it’s time to mow (or you don’t want to look at it anymore) you just pull it out – it’s in a plastic sheath – and you pop on the lid.  Voila!  It holds a lot of clothes, too.  This is 2 pretty large loads of laundry.

I figure if I don’t do a single other thing today, that’s enough, right?  :)  We do have to hit the library though.  They haven’t been open for two days and they’re closed tomorrow.  We’re in withdrawal!  And we have a TON of books on hold.