Girl stuff!

Check out all these girlie clothes!  I've heard that many new moms will buy their child a special outfit (or at least something "girl" or "boy") once they find out the gender.  Last Wednesday we found out we are having a girl!  Wednesday night my mom and sister went to a consignment sale for baby stuff and hit the jackpot of affordable clothes.  I then went home with a bag full of girl clothes (not to mention some pants and two dresses for me). 
Today I went out to lunch with my good friend Ashleigh and we went to two cute baby stores.  I decided it was time I buy something for our girl, and I love the new stuff we have!   I bought those two little new born hats, aren't they adorable?!  I bought the two yellow onesies and two long sleeve striped shirts.  And the other outfits are just an example of the big bag of goodies my mom found at the consignment shop.  And the head band is from my friend Alisa!  Our nursery is not even close to being ready, but I know it will be great to get a new dresser for her, and then to start filling it with all of these cute clothes!

It's official!

We are pregnant!  If you are any kind of family member or friend of ours you already know this, and if you happen to see the good news proudly stated on facebook then you know this as well.  But I don't think I have officially blogged about being pregnant, and not that I need to get it out there in blog world to make it real, but it is definitely the biggest thing happening in our lives right now and it's worth mentioning.

This past Wednesday we found out that we are having a baby girl and we could not be more excited!  Seeing her kick and move, and punch, and snuggle her arm next to her face live was... definitely the most amazing thing we have ever seen.  Hearing her heartbeat will remain one of the best sounds ever.  And every single day has become a new wonder in her growth or my belly appearing more pregnant.  With the second trimester I have had more energy and am finally getting to some of the housework I have been meaning to for a while now, and that feels good.  Matt and I are both still shocked when I am the one who says "slow down" while on a walk with our dogs and then when we come home and I have to sit down for a while before thinking of doing something else... then I remind myself a human is being created inside of me at this moment and she needs a lot of my energy, not to mention my brain power.  I have had several slip ups while talking where my brain and mouth have somehow moved miles apart and really have trouble hearing one another.  Matt has done a great job of staying on his toes, handling my weird moments and interpreting almost every thing I say.

Things that used to bother me a little have amplified.  I love our dogs very much, but with all of this rain they come in the house with mud caked on their paws.  One of us sweeps the hard wood floors up, and about twenty minutes later while walking barefoot in the house I step on pieces of dirt.  I look at Jaxon who is the best at getting mud clumps in between his toes, he likes to save those pieces for later, for after we have cleaned the house several times, he makes himself comfy on the rug with a path of newly dropped mud chunks behind him. 

I am getting more of an appetite than I have had since before we got pregnant.  I cleared out all of our winter clothes, or items of clothing I know I won't be wearing for a while and now feel good when I look in the dresser drawers and find only tops that fit me now or that I will grow into. 

I have felt our little girl move around, or kick or punch, not exactly sure what she is doing but I know I have felt flutters unlike anything I have ever felt before.  It almost feels like I swallowed a tiny butterfly. 

My mom bought us some little girl outfits ranging from newborn to 12 months and it is so wild to try and picture our little girl and that she will be wearing those clothes in just a few short months!  Until we get to hold her, meet her and see her beautiful self we will revel in the continuing changes that we will go through on this crazy awesome journey.

Update!

What up!  All of my other days are far greater than that last post, but those days happen too and make me even more grateful for the days I wake up feeling goooood!

Let's go back to my birthday dinner that Matt made for me... He grilled these huge mushrooms after letting them soak up some flavors for a bit.  Grilled bread, mashed potatoes and asparagus.  I mean, what!?  He would not let me even enter the kitchen until he was done creating, it was pretty cute and very tasty.  

And then for my weekend birthday celebration we had some great friends over.  Even Dale and Jamee came to town for the occasion.  It was great seeing everyone and we had a blast... despite what this picture shows:  (the boys took over the living room at one point and got really into a video game, I thought it was funny to see Jamee smashed between the guys on the couch.  Matt looks very intense while playing too.  We didn't let this go on for too long before we had the boy's join us back in reality... still fun though).

This weekend I went to two baby showers.  It is fun to have such a big handful of friends who either just had a baby, or will have a baby in the upcoming months.  I thought this cake was so cute.

My friend Kathleen is having a baby boy in May and I loved the brown and teal colors that were picked for her shower.  So cute!

Here is a picture of us girls at Kathleen's shower, three of the five ladies are preggers (Kathleen on the far left, Lisa in the blue dress and me!)

Not a great day....

So, today was not awesome.  And as my day moved along and things just kept coming up that were not going well, I entertained myself with a pretty humorous dialogue in my head.  I woke up leisurely (which is great of course) but I stayed tired all morning long.  I got dressed in an outfit I began to despise the second I left the house.  I had some interesting road rage for a few fleeting seconds.  I hated the way my hair looked.  My first appointment that I left the house early for I was not able to see my client at school due to a stupid assembly (no idea if it was actually stupid, just stupid in my opinion because I was not aware of it before going to the school).  I then went into work and could not log into my work server to check email, do anything productive or even get on the internet at all, therefore I drove all the way to work to use the microwave in heating up my soup and then ate it at my desk as I stared at the wall.  I went to my next appointment and things went fine there, however I am pretty sure I wrote I was there for an hour on the sign in sheet when really I was only there twenty minutes.  It is a tiny little thing I know, but it still was frustrating because my "baby brain" lapse of thinking has started coming up at very odd times.  I have trouble getting the words that I am thinking connected to my mouth to say them.  I have told many stories to friends and family members recently and in the middle of speaking I say "Did I already tell you this?"  I can't remember what stories I have shared, I feel as if I am repeating myself and I lose my train of thought every so often.  Then I was on my way to my next appointment and thankfully I called ahead to find out the kid was sick before I had to drive all the way to his school.  I was still feeling irritated and decided what I really needed was a hair cut.  I told Matt over the phone I went to get a hair cut spontaneously and he said "oh no, did you cut it all off?"  He was already anticipating a crazy quick decision made by his pregnant wife feeling particularly irritated on any given day.  I calmed his fears and said "no but I do feel a little off today".  I ended my afternoon with a quick hair cut and was at least happy that the sun was shining.

Now that I am home I have changed out of those miserable clothes, my hair looks great :) and I had a delicious snack.  Ohhhhhh, this day had to be documented somehow to remind me how very thankful I am because a "bad day" does not happen very often at all. 

Seattle!

Because I am so late at posting a blog about our fantastic trip to Seattle, I decided it would be best to just show some of the awesome pictures we took while there.  We had an incredible time!  We spent some much needed friend time with my good friend from high school, Alisa and her husband Ryan and their son Owen!

We soaked up every second of the mountain air and beautiful nature that surrounds their neighborhood.

We got up one morning and walked on this path, it was gorgeous!  And then we went out to breakfast just the two of us.  Very fun, and notice the baby bump starting to form.... :)

Gift card date night, what!

It's been a while since a good post, huh?  Well maybe I have had really important things to worry about recently and I don't have time to sit around all day writing to you, ever think of that?!  Woah, let's take it back a bit.  I apologize, that is no way to start a new post.  The truth is I have not been all that busy and that I have thought of writing about great things many times... I just didn't do it.  Sometimes I do things, and then other times I just don't.  I don't think there should be any guilt or shame attached to that, ok?  As if I feel any of those things coming from you anyways, I don't.  You are the one who takes time out of your day to read from me, and I appreciate it.  Let's just jump right into this as I fear another rant coming on.....
So last night my husband and I stumbled upon 5 to 7 (I didn't feel like counting an exact number) gift cards that we have yet to use.  I suggested we go out and use every single one but that felt like a little much.  Matt did agree to using two of them and so our date night began.  We first went to Border's and looked at books, games, and magazines for quite a while.  Matt got lost in a comic book which he ended up reading the whole thing so we did not have to buy it, that's legal right?  And I found myself engaged in the Buddhist section skimming through several books that I could relate to, you know, I'm down with that whole inner peace, outer peace, enlightenment thing.  I then got lost in the kid's section as I gathered a few ideas for a gift that I will be getting soon for a good friend of mine who is due in May.  I loved reminiscing through some of my favorite childhood books and then I stopped to look at a few I had never seen before too.
Next we went to Whole Foods for dinner.  They have so many delicious, fresh, and healthy choices for dinner that I was very pleased with everything we purchased.  Matt got a bbq chicken sandwich and pasta and I delighted in a warm roll with my spinach veggie lasagna.  So good!
And on our way home we could not just drive past the Sheridan's, I mean who does that?  Plus we had a gift card that was dying to be spent.  I got my favorite... mint chocolate chip ice cream with chunks of oreo, otherwise known as the grasshopper.  Is there anything better than mint chocolate chips with CHUNKS of oreo?  Matt had a hard time choosing what to order as he does at most places because the man likes everything!  I mean, I don't think I have EVER heard him say he didn't like some piece of food (within reason of course) and I mention at least three things a day that I don't like.  I wonder if that gets annoying...
Moving on, he chose butter pecan ice cream with caramel.  I am sure this sounds good to some of you, but to me, I just don't think pecans belong with ice cream.  There I said it.  I also have no desire to ever eat caramel again. Ever.
We got home after driving around through some cold foggy weather and watched some shows together.  A very successful and fun date night.  No pictures to prove it, but I assure you, it was nice.

Spit. it. out.

So I have had trouble recently connecting my thoughts to the exact words that I want to speak.  Even trying to explain a very simple ab exercise to the girts that I coach.... I  had to find a girl that I knew, she knew what I was trying to say and I had to ask her to just do it visually for everyone else to get it.  I am telling you this because I can almost guarantee that if I am having trouble speaking the words, I am sure I am having issues typing them as well.
I was watching a cooking show over the weekend and saw a meal that I wanted to cook, and then we bought the right ingredients AND I actually cooked it!  So if you want a delicious sandwich here goes: get some yummy bread (sour dough, italian, whatevs) get some big ol' mushrooms (especially if you are cutting back on meat, it is a good meat substitute) grill the bread and mushrooms on the skillet, add veganaise mayo and honey mustard, cheese (if you want of course) fresh basil leaves chopped up, and a fresh avocado on the side and add your favorite chips on the other side.  Oh I promise you, sooooooo good!  And for dessert, reese's peanut butter cups!
I was going to take a picture and show you, but I swear it was not on the plate long enough, so fresh and delicious!