Sunday Sweets

I have never been much of a baker in the kitchen. If anything, I'd consider taking a premade mix, adding eggs and oil a huge baking success in the kitchen. But in the last 3 days I've made pumpkin bread and now banana muffins from scratch. WOW, I am sooooo domestic. But I'm learning that once you have the scratch ingredients (flour, baking soda, sugar) its VERY easy and cheap to do- its so frustrating when you spend 26$ for ingredients for one batch of bread! Now that I have those items I am baking baking baking!!!

Now if I could just overcome the extreme lack of self control with fresh baked breads...mmmm, one thing at a time.

Sunday Lolli-gagging

Well, it's Sunday. . . the end of another nice weekend which went OH way too fast!! Can we just have tomorrow off too? That was nice last week.

We had a lovely church service this morning and essentially came home to relax afterwards. It's kinda hot today and my energy levels are LOW! Adam is also lazy since he hiked 15 miles yesterday. So we're both in the lazy boat.

The problem with being lazy is that sometimes your brain isn't lazy...so your body doesn't want to go do anything but your brain is kinda antsy. Maybe when it cools down this evening we will venture out a bit.

My baby countdown on my phone says that I have 33 days left until my due date. Wowzah. I feel huge and all of my internal organs have made their way into my chest cavity...so uncomfortable. But still, I enjoy being pregnant and am feeling so blessed to have a complication free pregnancy thus far. At 35 1/2 weeks I think I deserve to be a little uncomfortable.... but still happy :-)

That's it for now! :-)

Fall

I enjoy the beginnings of Fall. Really, I enjoy the smells of Fall in a house: pumpkin bread, pumpkin candles, etc. It cooled down a little bit this week and we decided to create Fall here. I bought a new scented Glade candle with a coupon called Country Spice and it smells WONDERFUL. I decorated our guest bathroom with our Fall decor. And tonight, Adam came home with "fall colored flowers"- red/orange Sunflowers. We are making chili and cornbread tonight to eat. Yum.

A weekend in Houston

This past weekend we flew to Houston,TX for the wedding of my cousin Phil. I only have 2 cousins so it was important to go to his wedding. And it's a great chance to see family from Michigan who we rarely get to see anymore. We arrived at our hotel Friday evening after a full day of travel. We were starving and tired. Others had to go to the rehearsal dinner but we didn't so we had a date night! We went to the Yard House and had a wonderful, relaxed time sipping our drinks and eating some good food. Outside the restaurant (picture a shopping/restaurant center) there was a live band and people seemed to come from all over to enjoy the warm Friday night. We enjoyed chatting and people watching. We also went into Anthropologie and found some good finds for Ellery's nursery: a "E" wall hook and a cute stuffed animal donkey. We haven't bought much for her ourselves since much has been given so it was fun to choose something together for her. We also went back to the Yard House and picked up a yummy dessert to go and we ate it out on the grass area nearby the dancing.

Saturday morning we met up with everyone and made plans for the day up until the wedding. My grandma and great aunts (my grandma's sisters) were in town and it was a riot. Picture 5 eccentric and whacky 80+ year olds...they have such a zest for life (just look closely at the outfits...). After much discussion we ended up going to a somewhat unusual tourist attraction: The National Museum of Funeral History. It sounds morbid (and yes, in a way I suppose it is), but it was actually really interesting too.
We had a great lunch at a Mexican Restaurant (see pic of my mom with her mom and aunts) and headed back for the wedding. Ohhhhh the wedding: it was lovely. A classic church wedding and then we went over to a (what I assume) posh Country Club for the cocktail hour and reception. It was a gorgeous warm evening and the food & company were wonderful too. And in case I didn't mention my brother and future sister in law were able to fly in on Saturday and go to the wedding too (see pic of the four of us outside the ceremony).
My feet were killing me by the end of the wedding and we all headed back to the hotel close to 11pm I think. It was a great weekend spent with family in a new city. Love.

Oh and sidenote, the picture of the woman's dress, clutch, and flowers is my Aunt (mother of Groom). She is an absolute doll...reminds me of a Mrs Jackie Kennedy. She is sweet and classy. And I just love that picture.

the lovely effects of Ellery in my tummy

These are my toes. They aren't too bad- I expected little sausages by now. But it is important to keep them painted nice, especially in the Summer. Especially when I almost exclusively wear sandals.

There is one little problem with that... I can't reach them anymore. Well, I can touch them you know, but I can't reach them enough to paint them myself. I know, because I tried. It won't happen.

Yes, I try to save money by painting my own toe nails... not all the time, but sometimes when I am really inspired to be...how shall I say it, *cough* cheap *cough.

So- today I went to get a Pedi. I don't have "a place" yet out here. I saw a sign at Victoria Gardens for Mani/Pedi $20 if you come before 1pm. No prob Bob. So I got it. I don't usually get my nails done because they chip too fast. But I got clear nail polish. I wasn't impressed per se with the place (usually I judge places by their massage and if they seem at all interested in what they are doing) but then what can you expect for $20? My toenails are a little longer than I prefer which worries me but I think its fine.

Now, Onto some other EFFECTS of growing my precious daughter in my body. Pregnancy is by no means a cake walk, but it's also the easiest you are going to have it taking care of your little one... I mean, for the most part, my body takes care of everything and I only notice some little side effects! She eats, grows, sleeps, etc without my conscious involvement. So, ya, there really shouldn't be too much complaining about pregnancy. But I did have the classic first trimester nausea, vomiting, and exhaustion. In the second trimester I experienced the beginnings of Braxton Hicks and and irritated bladder thanks to the uterus growing in its space. Now, in the third trimester I have an achy breaky pelvis, I wake up sweaty (thanks dearest hormones), and I'm tired a lot again. But hey, no mood swings, outrageous cravings (some natural naughty cravings but I really can't blame them too much on the pregnancy), sciatica, etc etc... can't be too upset. All three trimesters I've experienced uncomfortable bloating and indigestion. Yaaaaay.

Well that's it! I just wanted to document this for documentation sake. I know it was OH so exciting for you too.

Stuff you could find in Ellery's nursery (or is in mail)

self conscious cat??

This is a common occurrence in our house. It has been for months. And no, its not because I'm a slob. For months now (approximately since I got pregnant) we have found little "gifts" from our cat Hobbes traveling around the house. They usually come from one side of the house over to the area near our bed. It started with a stuffed animal. Then it expanded into just about anything: gym shorts, shoes, hair ties, you name it. Now that we moved to the new house we leave our shoes at the bottom level (where you enter). Hobbes brings shoes from the bottom level and drags them up the stairs into the bedroom. Its frequently a sandal or two but sometimes he even brings Adam's dress shoes or gym shoes. Its hilarious. Now if only I could train him to bring a matching pair up to our closet... he's sooooo close! I wonder if he feels self conscious and feels he needs to bring us gifts. Its so funny, especially when you catch him mid drag.