something interesting...

the problem with a blog is that there is a nagging voice in my head that tells me I can't write something here unless I have something valiant to write about from "up there"....

and when my head feels blank and my stories seem trivial it's hard to get on the ol' blog and share my life.  I have fallen into the trap that I have to entertain you, make you laugh, cry or think and really that isn't what this is about.

this blog is a place for me to spin the tales that go round in my head, share them without fear and let the laughter, if it may, be from me only.  because life isn't about performing either, right?

So here goes. Some less than interesting but real life things that have happened....

i threw up. for the first time in pregnancy.  i've gotten off so easily this pregnancy and i am certainly not complaining.  i am more amazed at the human pregnant body.  again, i stand amazed at the way my body is changing and how my mind can't form complete thoughts and how this is all a part of hormones racing, heart thumping, blood surging and babies devouring the better part of who i am.  and what i mean by that is how the babies will get nutrients first and any part of my blood that will benefit.  again, certainly not complaining just amazed.  i am currently on iron pills so that i don't faint every time i stand up.

anyway, i digress. throwing up. ah, yes. so i waited too long to eat. i really shouldn't have done that. by the time the food got to the table, my stomach acids were extremely angry and raging. seriously, i could feel that this was not going to be good but i ate anyway, hoping to appease the stomach acids with the simple gift of food but it was not to be easily appeased.

so at a restaurant i threw up.

at home that night i decided to just head to bed and hope for better things.  but as I was washing my face i noticed tiny red dots...?!?! hives?  I called my doctor and found out that nope, not hives but broken blood vessel capillaries from the force of getting sick.

amazed at the pregnant body.  Who does that? Who breaks their capillaries?

while pregnant i've taken more time to read. i have recently fallen in love with jane eyre and would definitely name my first born rochester if mikey would let me. hmmm maybe i should ask. who knew a book that thick could be so captivating and amazing.  the page number really scared me off at first because i hate not finishing a book. i hate having the book linger over me for months and months, sitting on my bedside table begging me to finish it. i don't like that feeling and yet it happens. so i stayed clear of poor jane eyre.  But alas, i was pleasantly spellbound and surprised by how charming the story was.  two thumbs up.

i have been having some mild cravings these days.  i am easily enticed by my nose and eyes.  i've been daydreaming about cinnamon rolls (to which my dentist said, "oh joanna. not those.") and my dad's apple fritters. dancing delightful chicken tenders from DQ (only from DQ) topped off with a DQ blizzard.  I want my grandma's vegetable soup and hot wings from Buffalo Wild Wings....

don't ask me why, don't tell my I'm crazy.  I just see or smell or think about these things and I am half-driven to find the closet DQ and sit there for hours... or at least over the course of a couple of meals.  blizzards for lunch and chicken tenders for dinner.

and the funny thing is.... now, thinking about all those things makes me have heartburn. pregnancy is so intriguing to me.

overall, things are good. I am moving in to a month of nesting and rearranging our home.  I'll be sure to keep ya'll posted on how life (the interesting and the... not so) is going for us.

a recipe to make for dinner... (12)

This is a recipe to try.  I am not joking...

Go to your local grocers and buy some salmon because this is a recipe you will make more than once.

Miso-glazed salmon from the Weeknight cookbook (and p.s. it's made with bok choy but mine had already gone bad by the time I made the salmon. Cest le vie! No bok choy!)

Ingredients:
1/2 C white or yellow miso
1/3 C mirin or dry sherry
1/4 C sake or dry white wine
3 T light brown sugar
2 T soy sauce
4 Salmon fillets about 1 1/2 lbs.

What To Do With Whacha Got:
Marinate the fish
In a shallow glass or ceramic dish just large enough to hold the salmon fillets in a single layer, stir toether the miso, mirin, sake, brown sugar, and soy sauce.  Add the salmon to the marinade and turn to coat.  Let stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, turning the fillets occasionally.  Alternatively, cover and let marinate in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

Cook the fish
Preheat the broiler.  Remove the fillets from the marinade, reserving the marinade.  Place the fillets on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan.  Place under the broiler and broil until the fillets are caramelized and lightly charred on the edges, 3-4 minutes.  Carefully turn the fillets and brush with the reserved marinade.  Broil until the salmon is slightly charred on the outside and just cooked throughout, 3-4 minutes longer.  Divide unto 4 plates and serve.


Sorry I do not have a picture.  It was too delicious to pause and take a picture of.

Enjoy! And again, you have to try this recipe.

Don't worry all you "no-more-recipes-tell-us-about-babies" readers.  There will be updates coming soon.  I had a weird-o weekend with feeling sick and back to square one so I wasn't in a mood to blog about throwing up in a Japanese restaurant. Oops! Did I just write that "out loud". Yeah, it wasn't my most glorious moment.  But pregnancy will do that to ya!

The good news is that March and April will be months for focusing on babies before I go on mandatory house rest.  So I'm sure I'll have puh-lenty to say and blab about in the months to come.

But just to wet your appetite until then.... here's a lovely little mental picture for you.

Hubs. I. Wrestling a double stroller in Babies R Us.
Yup, not one of our loveliest moments.

steaks with herb butter (12)

I am still working my way through the "Weekend" cookbook that Hubs and I chose to go through this year.  I took a break for awhile... from cooking in general because I was not feeling well with morning (all day) sickness and the thought of meal planning did not appeal to me at all.

So I opened up the cookbook and was REALLY excited to try this lovely little dish.

And did I mention it's in the "20 Minutes Start to Finish" section?

Oh yeah, baby!

So I give you the weekend cookbook and a recipe even my asian-loving-man-licked-his-lips-pushed-back-his-empty-plate and declared, "THIS was good."  And when Hubs says that, we all should listen. Cause he knows food.

steaks with herb butter

Ingredients:
3 T unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 T snipped fresh chives (we did not use these)
1 T rosemary minced
Salt
freshly ground Pepper
4- 1 inch rib-eye steaks

What to do now:
Prepare the herb butter.
In a small dish, stir together the butter, chives, rosemary, and a pinch each of salt and pepper.

Cook the steaks.
Meanwhile, prepare a gar or charcoal grill for direct-heat grilling over high heat and oil the grill rack. Or, preheat a broiler (grill). Season the steaks generously with salt and pepper, patting it firmly into the meat.  Place the steaks on the grill rack, or put them on a baking sheet and place under the broiler.  Cook, turning once, for 6-8 minutes total for medium-rare, or until done to your liking.  Divide the steaks among 4 plates, top with the herb butter, and serve.

the pregnant mind

 

Oh, the mind of a pregnant lady.  It really makes me chuckle quite often and I am definitely the entertainment of Hubs' day... well, when am I not.

But pregnancy has definitely made me more flighty and oblivious to things around me. 

I stammer and stutter.

I asked my Mom on the phone, "Wh-wh-wh-wh-when do you do that?" one time while talking.  Although it makes me laugh it can also make me quite frustrated.  I feel like my mind is twenty steps ahead of my mouth.

The other day I told Hubs, "I'm craving grupefrait.... grupefrait?"

To which we both just started laughing hysterically because I obviously meant "grapefruit" but was not able to say it. Oh man.

My dreams have also become a source of entertainment as I quite often have very distinct and memorable dreams.  Then when I wake up, I'm usually too scared to go to the bathroom, get a snack or even open my eyes.  Even if the dream wasn't necessarily scary I get really scared at night.

For two-three nights what we thought was our CO monitor beeping going off at short intervals throughout the night was waking me up and allowing my mind to run quite wild at the thought of what could be setting it off.  

Not only does my darling snore peacefully through all the beeps but he also doesn't have the even more heightened imagination like I do.

I was CONVINCED that there was a man by the CO monitor making it go off (did I mention it only went off at night) and even though my bladder was about to explode and I kept thinking, "You have to do this. You have to get up." I couldn't. I just couldn't. I mean, could you if you thought there was a man blowing on it to make it go off??

Oh pregnant mind.

So what did I do? Well, the sensible thing of course. I woke up Hubs (who shouldn't have been sleeping so peacefully anyway) and asked him to take me to the bathroom which is literally three steps across the hall.... but I had to walk near the CO monitor so it made sense... sort of, to me.

No man, and actually it was the fire alarm running out of batteries.

So Hubs thinks I'm funny... not necessarily in the moment but definitely the next morning.

Last night was one of the "scariest" dreams.

Okay, relatively speaking because I have definitely had worse but this was the strangest scary dream of pregnancy.

To preface....

You all remember Wilbur. My beloved Scarlet Finch that won't eat any of the seeds but the sunflower ones so we end up with a mess.  We're worried he was drawing up gang lines because he fought some other birds once and now has a lady friend.

Does that jog your memory?

Well, the other morning Hubs woke up and opened our blinds only to find a CAT staring at him from the perch of our fence. Hubs said it was so freaky.  I am so thankful that I didn't see it because I would have screamed. My man can handle that sort of creepy stuff. Ew. Anyway, apparently the cat likes to "watch" our birds eat. I'm sure it does, probably envisioning how fat and juicy they would taste.  It really makes me mad but I haven't seen the cat yet to do anything about it.

That is.

Until last night when the cat and I first encountered.

Prego dream #1: the cat was sitting on the fence eating a duck.  I was yelling for Mikey to help the poor duck out.

Prego dream #2 (the worst one): the cat was actually eating the fallen seeds from the ground and had more of the yucky wild animal (like it's a rat or something) feel to it.  I DID NOT FEEL IT. I mean that the feeling you get when you see it was more like a dirty creature rather than a sweet little animal. Anyway, I tried to scare it from the pile and it ran away but it was actually a "mutt" or a "mixed race" cat.  It had the tail of a raccoon, the fur of a beaver and the mobility of a cat.

Anyway, it ran away but it woke me right out of sleep and I was fuh-reaked out.

I could not go back to sleep.  I wasn't necessarily worried the cat was inside or anything but I was just too "riled up" inside to do anything logical at that moment. I could not relax to fall back asleep.

So I almost woke up Hubs to let him know that I had figured out why the cat was hanging out but I figured it could wait till the morning.

I'm sure Hubs is grateful for that.

So I'm not sure what it is about prego minds and their ability to focus so keenly at night and then get totally lost during the daytime. I forget my phone and later find it in my pocket. I lose my keys. I walk out of the house almost everytime thinking that I forgot something. It's crazy really.

But the nice thing about being me, is that I can laugh most things off.  Yesterday for example, I gave an announcement at church and ended it with, "Okay, talk to you later." as if I was leaving a message on the phone. Sheesh!!

 

I tell Hubs, I happen to think I'm very funny.

The nice thing about thinking I'm funny is that I'm able to laugh at myself and many of my situations.  Take for instance, going to a Packers superbowl party when I am a Bears fan.  There is clearly only one solution to that dilemma.  And that, is to have a sense of humor.

And he would agree... unless of course it's at 2AM and my bladder will explode unless he protects me from the beavcooncat.

I don't think he would even humor me if that were the case.

as promised

As I promised, here are the baby bump pictures we've been waiting to post till word got out. 

Six weeks! 

I like to think that I am one of those flat belly ladies but truth be told I always have had that little pudge where a baby should and does now live.

So although I would never show this ever for any other reason, I guess I have nothing to hide now.

 10 weeks

And today's photo!

14 weeks!

Welcome to the Second Trimester.

Overall, pregnancy has been decently good to me.  I get extremely tired some days.  I still get really hungry although I've stopped waking up in the middle of the night for a snack or two. I'm still able to walk and get around where I need to.  I feel mostly energetic at this point.  Not back to 100% (will I ever?) but definitely more energetic than the start of the first trimester.  Around Christmas I literally laid around all day just sick. Blech.

Yesterday I was laying down for a quick rest when it occurred to me that I am going to be a mama to these sweet babies.  When I walk in their room, it's me they'll stretch their arms out to.  For a little while they will need and want me.  When they cry out in the middle of the night and finally learn to talk, they'll cry out "mama" and that. will. be. me.

Maybe this hit every other expectant mother right away when she was waiting to get pregnant or when she found out she was pregnant but it's just hitting me.  Things hit me in stages. When we found out we were pregnant and then the surprise of twins, I think I was still trying to believe that I had someONE inside of me. SomeoneS I should say. :)  But now that the belly is growing and there is no denying it's not just holiday cookies and treats, it's two little lives growing up inside of me.

Wowzers. God is good.

On a lighter note, I saw a lady I knew from church at the grocery store and she said, "You're really starting to show."

To which I could happily reply, "Yeah and did we tell you it was twins?"

I know I'm going to be huge and lovingly stretched to my limits but there is something nice about being able to tell people, "Oh it's twins."  and it's especially nice to know it's twins when I read my "where you are at" stages in my pregnancy book and it says, "You should just be starting to notice a bump."

hahaha That makes me laugh.  I'm pretty sure I had a noticeable bump like a month and a half ago.  At least noticeable to me.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.

wilbur and his lady friend

 Wilbur has been sharing his feeder with a lady friend.

Hubs thinks they've been ...um, up to no good but I haven't seen any shady business yet.

So far, Wilbur has been a perfectly good gentleman.

and just in case anyone thinks I am exaggerating when I say that Wilbur is a picky eater, I caught him in the act of spitting out a seed.  He will only eat the sunflower seeds and he spits out all the other seeds.  See?