It's elementary, my dear Watson!

Last week was kicked off by Valentine's Day. I honestly cannot remember the last time Matt and I exchanged Valentine's gifts. That's horrible, isn't it? We never go out for Valentine's because neither of us want to deal with the crowds and crazy people. It was the same this year. However, I decided that we needed a better meal for Valentine's than Hamburger Helper. So, on my way home from school I picked up some steaks from Publix and we (well, Matt) grilled them. I am still having a hard time cooking anything on the grill besides chicken and hot dogs. Anyway, I sauteed some mushrooms, baked some au gratin potatoes, and made a salad to round out our meal. Oh, I almost forgot! We had shrimp cocktail appetizers. It was my own version of 'surf and turf.'

The Valentine's dinner.

Also, Valentine's Day kicked off the three day tournament on Jeopardy! with Watson, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter. If you're not sure what I'm referring to, here's the run down. Watson is this super computer created by IBM to play Jeopardy! He processes the clues and then searches through his fifty servers to piece together the information from the clue and try to form an answer. It was pretty clear on day 1 of the challenge that Watson was a success. Matt and I continued watching for the three days just to see what would happen and, needless to say, Watson dominated. It almost wasn't fun to watch. However, Ken Jennings was pretty entertaining.

Watson's Jeopardy! avatar. (and Moose)

This week in the mail we also received some pretty cool gifts for Mr.Man. Earlier in the week a crocheted blanket from my aunt arrived. Then, on Friday his bedding came! His room is really coming together!! Also, I hit 37 weeks this week so he is now considered full term. I just need him to stay in a little bit longer!!

The blanket.

Us at 36+ weeks.

The comforter that goes with his bedding. It won't be used for awhile, but it's so stinkin' cute!

His crib with all of the bedding.

The rug in front of his crib.

Matt is now officially on vacation for the next week. I'm so excited! He never gets much time off and it'll be great to just have him around. We're trying to think of something fun to do this weekend since we don't have much 'us' time left. Maybe I'll be able to post later of something fun and interesting we did over the weekend. Bye for now!

Wow, what a week!! Part II

Okay, so I was hoping to post part II several days ago, but life got in the way. I will now try to complete "the rest of the story."

Wednesday was my school shower and Thursday rolled along merrily. Friday was going great and then it got better. My kids threw me a surprise shower!! It was so sweet. Somehow all 29 of them managed to keep it a secret! They were collecting money for awhile and went in together to get me several gift cards, a diaper cake, and a soft blanket/animal for Little Man. We even had heart shaped Krispy Kreme doughnuts to celebrate. They took down guesses on when they thought I would have the baby, how much he would weigh, how long he would be, if he would be born in the morning or at night, and name suggestions. Whoever gets the closest gets a prize after he arrives. It should be interesting! We had to give them parameters and even so I looked down and one child had guessed his length as being 8 in 2 cm. Yes, a small baby that will be measured using both systems of measurement. You've gotta love kids!!

The diaper cake made by one of the moms!

It's a mini-blanket with a teddy bear head from a student.

Matt was on call Friday night and when he got home on Saturday we made a trip to Babies R Us. I am proud to announce that we now have a carseat!! Sunday afternoon he put the stroller together, installed the carseat base in my car, and then put together the pack n play -- without being asked!!!

Yes, he installed the base and then decided to look at the instruction book to be sure it was done correctly.

Matt wanted to be sure it was secure. I was a little concerned he was going to poke a hole in my seats!

The stroller. Yes, he will be riding in style in houndstooth!!

There are external speakers. You plug in your iPod and you can jam out as you stroll along. Matt is a fan of this feature!

The pack n play is ready to go!

Well, that about wraps it up for the week of Feb. 7-13. I'll post again soon about our adventures of last week!

Wow, what a week!! Part I

As the DMB song goes, "I've got so much to say, so much to say, so much to say, so much to say," and because of this the blog from this week will be a two parter. This past week has been pretty awesome! So, let's just get right to it!


On Super Bowl Sunday Matt and I celebrated by making guacamole dip, grilling some burgers, watching Christina sing, and watching The Social Network. Yes, you read that correctly. The Social Network. Neither of us really care about the NFL and he rented the movie earlier in the weekend so we watched it. I hear that I missed some really cute commercials, but the great thing about that is I can look them up on You Tube. So, The Social Network. Hmm. It was okay. It entertained me. It received eight Oscar nominations. Really? Seriously? To each their own, I suppose.

Yummy guacamole!

The burgers!

Moose made some friends on Sunday. He was outside on the patio as we were grilling burgers when he discovered the muskrat babies. He wasn't so sure what to think of them and they weren't too sure what to think of Moose. It was quite cute. I gave them some bread and we watched them eat for awhile. I think we've adopted two new pets!

 Checking each other out.

 The muskrat is done with Moose.

 They enjoyed the bread I fed to them.

Our two new friends.

The week rolled by for me. Thankfully. I take it on a day-by-day basis at this point. I drove 40 minutes in the pouring rain to drop off my FMLA paperwork. Hopefully I'll get it returned before little man gets here. It's hard to fathom that his arrival is just around the corner!


Speaking of little man, I had a shower Wednesday afternoon at school. It was awesome!! We had a fantastic time and little man scored a lot of goodies. He got an awesome diaper cake, some gift cards, a pack-n-play, and many other awesome surprises! I work with some really fantastic people and am truly blessed.

 Posing with the cake.

 The cake was too cute! It had a strawberry layer in the middle. Yum!

 The suggestions were hilarious!

 The hostesses and me.

 He got more sheets and a blanket to match his bedding.

 Awesome diaper cake loaded with goodies!

 The rubber duck on top tells me if the water is too hot.

If you pull down on the bird toy it shakes and wiggles. So cute!!

Okay, that's enough fun for now. I'll post more details from the week a little later on!

"I pity the fool!"

Yep, we did it. Last weekend Matt and I rented The A-Team from Blockbuster Express and it was pretty good! I think I may have liked it more than Matt, but then again I did have Bradley Cooper to stare at for a few hours! At one point I commented to Matt that maybe we should name the baby Bradley Cooper in hopes that he would come out looking like him. I got an eyeroll in return.

Speaking of baby names, I think we may have actually picked one! However, we decided from the beginning of this pregnancy to keep the name a secret until the little booger arrives. So, you'll have to stay tuned to find out what we decided! I went back to the doctor last week and he seems to be doing well. His heart rate was 142 which is high for my mellow little man. The last two appointments his heart rate has been in the 140s. Before then, it was always in the 120s and I think the highest it got was maybe 132. However, the doctor informed me that as he moves around the heart rate increases. This makes sense--so does mine when I am moving around. Well, for the past two appointments it has felt like he was completing a Tae-bo workout as I was waiting on the dr. to come in so I'm thinking 142 isn't bad for the active little monkey.

He still has an influence over my diet.

We have entered the home stretch. They will not stop my labor if he decides to try and make his way into this world. We'll just have to see what happens over the next few weeks. I'm still not on weekly appointments since all is going so well. I will have to start those after my next appointment in two weeks.

He has a diaper bag, but still no car seat!

I also found out at my last appointment that he has dropped. Here is a comparison of before and after.

 Still up high

Now a little lower

In the meantime, things have been rolling along at home. I attempted to make risotto the other night and I think it turned out pretty good for my first try. I didn't take a picture of the risotto, but I did take a picture of the white lasagna I made. It turned out okay, but next time I think I may use sausage instead of ground beef. It needed a little more flavor to it!

Before

After ( I need to make a little more sauce next time, too!)

As I was trying to cook my lasagna, I discovered the dishwasher was not draining. When Matt got home I showed him the problem and he got straight to work. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

His method of getting the water out of the dishwasher.

All of the water is now out, so now we must check out the drain.

Apparently this tool would not get the job done, so I had to bring him a paper clip. However, all is well and the dishwasher now drains!!

And finally, sometimes we get bored around here. Matt came home the other night and dropped his scrub cap on my head. Jokingly, he suggested that I should dress up like him. So, I did. Let me just tell you, I should be wearing scrubs all the time! I put on a clean pair of his scrubs and the scrub cap just to get a reaction out of him and they were pretty dang comfortable! You might be seeing more pictures of me in the future sporting the lovely green scrubs!