delighted to be

five weeks / july 16, 2012

I’m 32 weeks pregnant with Amelia today. We’ve got five short weeks left until her delivery day, which baffles me. Wasn’t it just ten weeks away yesterday? I’ve still got two-and-a-half months left to figure out how to deal with all of this, right?

This entire pregnancy feels surreal. I often forget I am pregnant (until I look down, that is) because we aren’t preparing for baby to come home like we normally would. I’ve avoided baby clothes and baby showers altogether, and other than a couple of my old baby gowns and a knitted hat we don’t have an ounce of pink baby clothing. I don’t even open my babycenter emails anymore; those go straight to the trash. There’s not really any nesting going on either; I’ll have the same amount of free time after the baby is born as I do now. There will be no baby shower, and I’m undecided on whether there will be birth announcements sent out at all.

More than anything, right now I feel kind of sad that though I’m carrying a baby, I’m missing out on preparing for a baby. Isn’t that the fun part of pregnancy, picking out clothes and tiny shoes and new pacifiers? I don’t get to repaint the balls on Jack’s old crib to be girl colors and I don’t get to pick out pink and red polka dotted sheets to sew. I don’t get to make bows and headbands for her hair. I don’t get to buy dozens of white newborn onesies or sew printed pink blankets. It’s silly considering the circumstances, but right now the hardest part about pregnancy is missing out on all of this.

I apologize if it seems that I’ve been somewhat of a downer lately here on the blog. I try really hard to be positive (and I am!) but sometimes life just gets to me, and it seems that my downer days are the only ones I post about! I’ll work on that. I’m striving for at least equal the amount of good days and bad days around here. After all, I have yet to recap Tyler’s birthday, which turned out to be quite unforgettable. More on that to come. :)

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blues / july 11, 2012

Today was difficult to say the least. After chowing down on an In-n-Out Burger binge, I put Jack to sleep, turned on Pride & Prejudice and spent the latter part of the afternoon lonely and in tears. I just needed a good cry and I really had no one to turn to.

Miss Alie, you have so much to be thankful for … so why in the world are you crying? You live in a beautiful house. You have the best landlords. The weather hit 100-degrees today but you now have air conditioning so indoors it can now be somewhat pleasant. Your body is able to grow a baby girl that kicks and wiggles and is perfect from the neck down. (It looks like you may even be able to donate those healthy, robust organs of hers to save another child’s life!) You and your husband have worked hard to get there, but are finally in decent financial shape. You have one beautiful little boy who may throw terrible-twos tantrums a wee bit earlier than expected but has the greatest thirst for knowledge and learning and has a constant smile on his face. You have the most wonderful husband who would do anything to make you happy. Your marriage is bursting with love. If you list it out like that, you’re actually doing okay!

But sometimes a girl just needs a decent cry. So I cried and cried and cried, and when I thought I had run out of tears I cried some more. I called my mama and she listened to me cry. How I wish I could give her a hug. And come to think of it she deserves an honorable mention in the very least, because that woman has listened to me cry much too much over the years.

I know it’s okay to be sad. Good days and bad days? Everyone’s got ’em. But three bad days in a row is enough. Tomorrow I resolve to be happy, cheerful, and dagnabit I’m going to plaster a smile on my face until I’m happy.

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Eat / july 10, 2012

The latter part of this pregnancy is kicking my butt. While I feel like I’ve been lucky (in terms of pregnancy symptoms, that is) in the first and second trimesters, the third is more challenging than I anticipated. So though my 31-week belly really isn’t big enough to complain about (see above) and my weight gain is itty bitty, my body constantly aches and I feel like I have a permanent hot flashes. I’m burning up ALL THE TIME.

But alas, since we got an AC window unit in our house I’ve been slowly getting back into cooking again. I probably only cook real meals four times a week, but it’s better than nothing, right? Here’s what we’ve been cooking lately:

Cheeseburger Pizza (We made this light on the meat/cheese, and heavy on the veggies. Might be better if we had added more meat. 7/10 if you’ve got a decent, flavorful pizza crust.)

Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps (10/10. These were amazing and had so much flavor. If you didn’t already know, you would never guess it was tofu. Avocado is a MUST. Surprisingly filling, so with the three of us we had plenty of leftovers for the next day. Leftovers microwave great!)

Baked Onion Rings (9/10…one point taken off for the amount of work these are to make. We cut the recipe in half and gobbled down the entire plate. Would definitely make again!)

Sour Cream Coffee Cake / Funfetti cupcakes (coffee cake homemade, funfetti obviously boxed)

We’ve also had White Chicken Chili (Yesterday Tyler called this his second favorite meal I make), zucchini and carrot fritters, bruschetta, and BLT wraps. I’ll try to post more soon!

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Chopped (family style) / july 1, 2012

A couple of months ago my parents visited my older sister Courtney’s house, where they recreated one of our favorite TV shows, Chopped (from Food Network). My sister has a hilarious recap on her blog. This round included a grandmother, homemaker, and 6-year old judge (the latter whom I’m certain took her job very seriously), who got the privilege to eat plates made of saltwater taffy, plums, cream cheese, refrigerator biscuits, plums, and vienna sausages. I love my family – we can always come up with something exciting to do when we’re together. The Jones family can’t wait to join in next time!

(Tyler and I were just joking that he better beware: once or twice a week he’s going to come home from work and I’m going to say, “Welcome to Chopped. You’ve got thirty minutes to make us dinner! Your ingredients are what is in our pantry: goldfish, walnuts, water (you heard me!), and rice milk. Your time starts…now!”)

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