Living for the Weekend on Hump Day!

Happy Hump Day Everyone! We've made it half way through the week! Also being that it's Wednesday, I figure if I'm going to get a weekend recap in- I need to do it now before another weekend gets here.

This last weekend, Sam and I went up to Wisconsin with some of our friends for a weekend gateway. This trip is a yearly things for our friends, but it's just the second year Sam and I got to go. What I love about this trip is that it's cheap and we get to hang out with great people! Our friend Lindsay, her dad lives off a river in Wisconsin so we get to camp right on his property- so it's at no cost to us and there are no other campers to deal with!

 

We had up there on Friday so we could really enjoy the whole weekend. We started with some group food shopping, setting up tents, making dinner, and just hanging out for the evening- over all it's just a chill day/ night.

 

 

Saturday was "Float Trip Day!".  We got up in the morning ate some food, got in our swim suits, and then headed out for an afternoon on the river!

 

 

Like every year, we enjoyed just spending a number of hours floating the river, hanging out, and of course drinking (except for me- but I survived).

 

 

After the float, some of the boys got in some fighting practice. This went on for about hour, so everyone got in some free entertainment.

 



 

Sunday- We decided that our group would make a final field trip to a local brewery- New Glarus Brewery- before everyone parted ways.

 



 



This place was really cool. This is a Germany style building and had beautiful grounds to walk around on.

 

(Don't mind the squinty eyes- that is what happens when you face the sun without sunglasses)

 

 

All in all is was another great trip with great friends marked down for our history books (or blog in my case)! 







Baby Bucket List

I been meaning to write this post for 2 months, but I guess it's better late than never! Being that we just have under 4 months until our lives are changed forever, there are a number of things I hope to do. Some of the things are for me because I know there won't be much time for that once this little man arrives, and some of the things are what I want to get done for him (and some are for both). Also, being that this list is being made later than I wanted, some of things I have already done or have planed. So lets get down to the list...

For Me:

1. Use up our movie gift cards (which are still from Christmas). I was told that once the baby comes trips to the movies just aren't going to happen, so you better enjoy them while you can.

2. Visit with my Michigan family. Now, I can check this one off this list because I have already made three trips since I found out I was pregnant. However, I would love to get in one more trip if I'm able to find the time.

3. Go to a baseball game. This one is also done, but again it might be fun to go to at least one more before the end of the session.

4. Use up my gift certificates for the two massages I already have. I've kind of been waiting until I have felt like I "really needed" one. However, the bigger I get the more aches I have, so I don't think it will be an issue making sure they get used.

5. Go to  Wisconsin with our friends. This is the plan for this upcoming weekend so hopefully we'll have some nice weather and I don't get eaten alive by mosquitoes.

6. Enjoy & celebrate with my friend Anna with all the wedding plans that are coming up, including her bachelorette party, wedding rehearsal, and (oh course) the wedding!

7. Go into Chicago, visit Joe's new place, and make it a mini weekend vacation of it! There isn't anything I really want to do, but it would just be fun to spend a weekend in the city.

 

For Baby:

1. Create a baby registry. I think my plan is to register at Target and somewhere else (Buy Buy Baby, or Babies-R-Us).

2. Get nursery ready. Now there is many things that go into this one project which includes painting the room,  picking out & buying furniture, and just getting the room organized/ set up so it's ready when he comes home.

3. Get the air ducts in our house cleaned out. Now this is kind of for both. I've been wanting to get that done since we bought the house, but now with a baby on the way it's something I really want to make sure get completed so we have as clean of air in our house as possibly.

4. Get our carpet and couches (both sets) cleaned. Again this is really a "both" category, but it's something that needs to get done more because the baby is coming.

I know there are probably more things I'll come up with to add to the list, but for now it's a start!

22 Weeks: Pregnancy Progress Update

Happy Friday Everyone! This the last Friday of my "Summer Hours" at work and it feels like it went by really fast. I also can't believe it's been 5 weeks since I did a pregnancy progress updated.  In these last 5 weeks there has been a number of changes so it was about time to get this updated done.

Weight Gained: With these summer hours, I've working longer days at work so it been a lot harder to go to the gym. However, when I did go to the gym on Monday, I was up about 12 pounds from my weight when I found out I pregnant. Being that you should gain a 1/2 pound to a pound a week, I'm still "on track" which is good. However, I have to say considering I lost all that weight before the pregnancy, it's more mentally challenging to watch the scale go back up because just a few months ago that would have equaled "failure" on my weight lost goals.

Symptoms: Pregnancy brain... I found myself checking last night that I put the leftovers away because I just really couldn't remember if I did or not. Another example- I was eating peas last week and I called them carrots. I mean I was looking right at those bright green peas and was like "I hope the baby likes these carrots!". Yup- pregnancy brain! 

Movement:  Oh yes! It was kind of special because my first two really good kicks came the night of Sam's birthday. Also, this kid thinks that my bedtime is his party time. However, I now feeling more and more kicks through out the whole day and not just at night.

Food Cravings:  Still- not really. If I do get a craving it is just like before I was pregnant- if it's something I want and if it's in the house, I'll eat it. I do find myself eating ice cream pretty often (ok almost everyday). However, even when I was losing weight, I never denied myself ice cream; I just made sure I ate smaller portions... now that has changed. Now, I have no problems making myself a good sized bowl of Cookies and Cream with chocolate sauce- which is my current favorite!

 

 

(Also, black raspberries with vanilla ice cream is also very tasty!) 

Food Aversions:  Things have gotten better in the meat department so I have slowed down on the pasta intake. Also, I'm trying to make sure that I have at least 2 salads a week for lunch. I'm never very excited for the salads but I can eat them without really any issues.

Sleep:  Is ok. I have no problems falling a sleep when I go to bed. However, when I get up for my middle of the night bathroom break, I find it takes me anywhere from 15 minutes to a hour to fall back to sleep. So this morning I was up from about 4:30am until 5:15am... so if for some reason you see me on Facebook at 3am-5am, that's what's up!

Stretch Marks? None- yet. However, I thought I saw one a few weeks ago which freaked me out so I been putting a lot of lotion on my belly these days in hopes it will help (even a little bit).

Miss Anything?  I do miss getting to do some of the "fun stuff" that my friends are doing. For example- I didn't go to the Jimmy Buffet concert this year because we figured it wouldn't be the best idea to have a pregnant lady in the hot sun with a bunch of drunk people all day.

Or another example- was playing on the "slack rope" with my cousins at our family reunion last week. The last thing I would want to do is fall off and get a rope in the gut.

 

I know those seem like silly things, but you just realize that you have to be more careful about what you do when your carrying another life in your body.

 

Looking forward to: To some of the exciting things we have planned over the next few weeks including a trip to Wisconsin with friends, my friend Anna's bachelorette party and wedding! I want to really enjoy the last bit of summer before we get in full on baby mode this fall.

 

Belly Button in or out? Still in, however I can tell it's not as deep as it normally is. A few days ago I told Sam that I think my belly button is more "cute" because it's not this crazy deep cave like it normally is.

Happy or moody most of the time? Good question... I'll say happy. However, my tolerance for stupid people and their BS is definitely lower than normal. My coworker commented after a situation at work "So those hormones are kicking in really good I see."- yeah that's about right.

New Baby Items: I have some great people in my life who are already showing their love for me and this baby. Here is a picture of all the different gifts we gotten in these last 5 weeks.

 

However, I still haven't personally bought anything. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I'm really going to try and hold off as long as I can because I know there are probably many more gifts to come because we are very bless to have great family and friends in our lives.

Exercise: Yeah...about that... like I said earlier with these longer work days, it's been a lot harder to get to the gym. However, I'll be getting out of work at my normal time starting this upcoming week, so I hope to get back in the swing of things because I know the healthier I am the easier things should be.

Other questions: I know some people have asked when my due date is. Currently it's set for November 18th. This is the second date I was given (the first was November 10th) so I'm just hoping that this little boy will show his face before Thanksgiving! But we'll see what happens....

Have a great weekend everyone!

Mid-July Already?

Happy Hump Day Everyone! Can someone tell me how the heck is it the middle of July already? So far July has been a busy month (hence the lack of posting), and it really has no plans on slowing down. So I figured that I would do a quick recap of what's been going so I don't lose this month in time to my junky memory.

The 4th of July wasn't a very exciting weekend for us- we mostly did a bunch of house work. However I did take a little bit of time on the 4th to visit with family. I first started at my mom's house...

I got to see my Sammy cat who celebrated his 16th anniversary as part of our family. After getting some kitty love, mom and I headed out to her pool to get some sun and refreshing dip in the water once we got too hot.

After visiting with my mom, Sam and I spent some time with his family which included a lot of baby conversation, dinner at the BBQ place by our house, and our town's fireworks display!



The best part about going to see the fireworks- they are close enough to our house that we could just walk there and back. I love not having to try to fight for parking at those types of events.

As for work life, it's been going good. It's been a little busier than expected for the summer, but I guess that keeps me from getting board. I have however found time to enjoy the nice weather and views that my work can offer on my lunch breaks.



This last weekend my mom and I made a road trip to Michigan. My mom's aunt passed away so we went up early on Friday so we could attend her funeral. It is nice to get to spend time with a lot of my extended family, but it sucks when it's because someone has died.

After the funeral my aunt Sue, my mom, and I went back to my grandpa's farm to visit and do some black raspberry berry picking.



Let me tell you- black raspberries on vanilla ice cream is so tasty!

After visiting with grandpa, we headed to my uncle Richard's house where we spent time with more extended family having pizza, more ice cream, and family game night!



We play a game called "The game of things..." and it's a pretty awesome game. It's a game that allows you to be as PG or R rated (maybe even X rated) as you want to be which make it such a great game.

The Michigan trip was originally plan because of our family reunion was this last weekend, so come Sunday we again got to see a ton of family again for a happier reason. There was good food, fun times had, and even some more berry picking!



 





 

So far July has been a pretty good month, and I'm excited for all the events we have planned for the rest of it!