Monthly Archives: August 2009

Nevermind, we’re only 5w4d

August 10, 2009
Nevermind, we’re only 5w4d

This morning I went in for my first prenatal appointment in almost three years. Jeremy was born exactly two years and eleven months ago. As I wrote in my pregnancy announcement last Sunday, I didn’t think we were as pregnant as my last period indicated. Since my last one was in mid-June, I tested a couple of times beginning in mid-July with negative results. Last Sunday we were positive, three weeks after my period was due meaning I was just about a month pregnant at that time. However, they calculate things differently down here and my doctor told us last week that I was 7 1/2 weeks. That didn’t seem right to me, but I figured everything would be sorted out at the first prenatal appointment. Well, turns out that I was correct. Per the ultrasound that I had today, we are at 5 weeks 4 days: The small circle in the center of the black oblong shape on the left is the gestational sac otherwise called the yolk sac which feeds the placenta until it works on its own. The other thing that you can’t see inside that black oblong shape is this: That’s what our kid looks...

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Menu Plan, week of August 10, 2009

August 10, 2009

Monday: Lunch — Tuna sandwiches. Dinner — Baked ziti with crescent rolls. Tuesday: Lunch — Quesadillas. Dinner — The Happy Housewife’s Cuban Chicken Salad with homemade bread. Wednesday: Lunch — Grilled cheese sandwiches on leftover homemade bread. Dinner — Loaded potato soup with plain green salad. Thursday: Lunch — Macaroni & cheese (from the blue box, my favorite!). Dinner — This amazing BBQ Pulled Pork recipe that was featured on Tasty Kitchen a few days ago, paired with corn on the cob. Friday: Lunch — Turkey sandwiches. Dinner — Cheese enchiladas and rice. Saturday: Lunch — I’m feeling soup, but I’m not sure what kind. Dinner — Hamburgers with What’s For Dinner’s cheddar potato strips. Sunday: Lunch — I’m going to try my hand at fruit smoothies alongside some sliced cheese and crackers. Dinner — The day after payday and after his first full week working at his new base on a new aircraft, I think we’ll go out to Chili’s or Cracker Barrel. For more menu inspiration, check out Menu Plan Monday over at The Organizing Junkie.

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Back in Church After 10 Years

August 9, 2009

It felt good, so wake up early on a Sunday, put on some presentable clothes, and show up to church. I haven’t attended services in just about ten years since I was last a member of a church with some friends in my senior year of high school. After I graduated I ran off and moved around, did a little college, rambled – more or less, and stopped attending. Jason said it well this morning when a friend of ours from California sounded surprised that we chose to attend services, Jason said: “I’ve always believed in God, just haven’t always believed in church.” I think that was a very good way to put it. I was raised in the Baptist church near my childhood home and went to its tiny school from preschool through second grade. Beginning in third grade I was enrolled in public school and only attended church with my great-grandparents occasionally. After a while, I stopped going altogether. As a teenager I met my close friend Kerstin and soon became a member of her very small church. I was baptized there and really enjoyed my years in that congregation. After a couple of years in my...

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Neighborly Visits

August 7, 2009

This week has been a big one for us. One of the supporting factors in our decision to make the move from California to Alabama was for the neighborliness. When we visited Alabama in May, it was the remark we kept making to each other, “These people are SO NICE!” In our first few days after moving in we received two calls to our home from our neighbors and met two others by chance. The Thursday that we signed the lease we met one of our next door neighbors, Jerry, and one of his sons (about our age). They saw Jason and I struggling to unload his motorcycle from the truck bed and came over to help. The Friday we moved in Jason met the neighbor couple across the street from us. He can’t recall their names, but he said they were very nice as well and the man offered Jason use of his tools. On Saturday Janet from the other side of Jerry’s house came by to say hello and bring us a gift of some bottled water along with a flyer from her church. We had a very nice chat and she seems like a sweet lady....

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7w4d

August 6, 2009

According to my new primary care doctor, I am seven weeks and four days pregnant. They calculate this differently than when I was pregnant with Jeremy. Instead of using the first ultrasound measurements, they just go by your last period. This method is fine by me, except that it’s misleading. This calculation adds another two weeks during which you aren’t technically pregnant (while you’re flushing and ovulating). So, by doctor’s standards, I’ve been pregnant for 7 1/2 weeks, but my body has been growing a baby for just over 5 weeks, meaning that this little one was conceived on or shortly after our wedding night. I think that’s pretty awesome. My primary doctor gave me a referral to an OB-GYN about a mile from Jason’s work so he can take off for a little while sometimes and join us for the ultrasounds. My first appointment is on Monday morning, Jason’s first day of work. It’s unlikely that Jason will be able to accompany me on that one, but that’s okay. We’re so excited! I downloaded an application (iPregnancy) for my iPod Touch that tracks everything about my pregnancy. I’m loving the weekly 3D ultrasound photos. With our updated information...

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Menu Plan, week of August 3, 2009

August 3, 2009

I want to start off by saying that it is extremely difficult to plan a week’s menu when all of my cookbooks are still hiding in a box we’ve yet to unearth from the stacks and my only source of Internet is my cell phone (which we’re giving up once our router is delivered). With that, I’d like to present this week’s menu at our house: Monday: Lunch — Turkey and cheese sandwiches. Dinner — Spaghetti with ground turkey meatballs and green salad. Tuesday: Lunch — Leftover chicken noodle soup from Sunday’s dinner. Dinner — Beef stew in the crock pot with homemade cornbread and my lemon pie for dessert. Wednesday: Lunch — Hot dogs at Sam’s Club. Dinner — Italian chicken (tenderloins marinated in Italian salad dressing) with Rice-a-Roni corn on the cob, leftover green salad from Monday, and leftover cornbread from Tuesday. Thursday: Lunch — Macaroni & cheese (from the blue box, my favorite!). Dinner — The Happy Housewife’s Simple Crock Pot Pork Roast sounds great and we’ll pair it with mashed potatoes and carrots. Friday: Lunch — Tuna salad sandwiches. Dinner — Jason requested my chicken pot pie. This will be my first attempt at my...

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I’m Pregnant!

August 2, 2009

I didn’t want to wrap up this news into my previous post because this deserves it’s own web space… Jason and I found out this morning that we’re expecting a new addition to our family! We are very very excited and have barely been able to contain our happiness all day. We’ve been off birth control since the wedding and at some point in the past month and a week, our miracle happened. I’m three weeks late as of today but I took home tests a couple of weeks ago when I was both one and two weeks late. They were both negative. Yesterday I was nauseous after a really delicious lunch at Cracker Barrel and got very dizzy whilefollowing Jason up and down the aisles at Home Depot, so I decided to test again. First thing this morning I took my last test and it was a very clear positive! As soon as we have Internet hooked up tomorrow I will search for a local OB-GYN who takes our milirary insurance and schedule an appointment. If our calculations (math-based guesses) are correct and our baby was concieved at some point during the past two weeks (after both negative...

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Day Three in Our New Home

August 2, 2009

Today was another wonderful day in our new home. Jason, his mom, and I mostly puttered around the house unpacking boxes and attempting to find places for everything. I made my favorite chicken noodle soup to rave reviews. I added 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder which really made all the difference. Jason hooked up the big stereo down in the basement in his “man cave” area where the pool table is and found our VHS/DVD player to connect to the tv in the family room. Tomorrow the Internet router will be delivered by AT&T, so we should have web access by dinner. On Tuesday afternoon the DirecTV is installed and we’ll be pretty well finished. We had a few too many items of furniture for the moving truck, so we are still waiting on about ten or fifteen things (a few bookshelves, the top hutch to my curio cabinet, my mother-in-law’s sofa, a coffee table, our grill, the top to our roll-top desk, and a few other things I’m not thinking of. My kitchen is totally assembled and functioning beautifully. Our living room and dining room look great. My mother-in-law’s room looks fantastic (needs lighter paint though). Jason’s pool/man...

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Realizing Our Budget

August 1, 2009

Last night Jason and I went over to the mall to pick up four new iPhones for our family (him, his mom, his sister, and I). We found that Sprint had horrible to no service at our new house and a quick call to Customer Service had us out of our contract. AT&T has great coverage at our house, Jason’s work, and all over the county. We were set on iPhones and had the funds to make it happen, so we went for it and fell in love with them as we played last night. Unfortunately, looking at our budget, it is very clear that we can no longer cover the cost of fancy cell phones. Our plan was difficult for me to swallow, but it’s necessary: we’re dumping cell phones altogether, lowering our cable service to the cheapest $30/month plan, and cutting out a bit more fat from the budget. I thought we had put together a really solid budget to account for moving here and relying on just Jason’s income. However, a few things didn’t go exactly as planned so we are now left in a lurch. We’re going to have a land line phone with unlimited...

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