24 Weeks!

Okay. So forget about the countertops for a bit.

Today I am 24 weeks. I went to the doctor today and ran into a friend from church who is apparently also expecting a baby. :) Her youngest is about 9 or 10 like mine. She has two kids. She's now 12 weeks pregnant. We're also about the same age. We talked about being older, "going back" to babies, and just lots of stuff. It will be fun to have someone who is exactly where I am to talk to.

For the stats: I've gained 9 lbs so far. The baby's heart rate was 158. She ran from the doppler again, but didn't have as far to go this time. :) I could feel her shifting, but she obviously doesn't have as much space as she did before.

And here's the 24 week picture. It's so funny to see this picture. I feel really big! But most people still don't notice that I'm pregnant unless they already know. I guess I'm comparing myself to the pregnancy with the boys and I'm pretty sure I'm bigger with this one. And I know I definitely weigh more. Ahhh.... to be 22 again. 5 more pounds and I will be at the weight I was when I delivered Reid. :)

More Countertops!

Yesterday Mike worked really hard on getting the countertops that will fit into the corner measured and "scribed" (the process of getting them to be flush to the wall). He got most of the measuring and cutting done, but left the big piece of countertop a little too long. He was lamenting this because it meant carrying the mammoth beast back out into the garage again for cutting and sanding. But, the scribing effort was fairly simple and straight forward and the countertops are pretty close to flush against the wall. We're not worrying too much about that since I'm going to be tiling the backsplash once the counters are in.

So. Here are a few pictures:

This shows the smaller corner piece waiting for it's "mate" in order to get installed.

Here's Mike working diligently on the big, big counter which will house the sink.

And if you didn't notice all the sawdust on the floor in the previous picture, this is what our entire garage looks like!


This is our new sink (the one facing up) and our old one (facing down). The new one is about two inches deeper, which should be nice. It also is free of all the rust that you can't really see on the old sink. And if you're wondering what the white gunk is on the bottom of the old sink, it's a sound reducing material. (NOW YOU KNOW! - Bill Nye's Narrator) The new sink also came with a fancy little cutting board that is custom fit to the smaller side of the sink. Very fancy!

And when we're all done with the countertops, they will look something like the one we got installed last week:

Looks pretty nice, I think. And look how Mormon we are. :) Grinding our own wheat flour and everything.

If all goes to plan, I will be posting the final pictures tonight. This project just can't go on until tomorrow. No way. After a week without the kitchen due to tiling, we're weary of having it out of commission. And there's no rest for the weary, right? So we'll be up til dawn finishing this if we have to tonight!

My Little Jumping Bean

I don't know what's gotten into this little one over the past couple of days, but she has been kicking and turning and jumping almost non-stop all day yesterday and today. My stomach just bounces all over the place with her shenanigans. :)

It's been very cute, though. It has always been something I've missed when I'm not pregnant anymore. I love the movement inside me. Of course, later on, when it becomes semi-painful, it's not as difficult to have it gone. But during this stage, it's just so sweet.

And as Mike pointed out, it's just so amazing to think that this little life inside me is already living her life. We're still waiting, but she's busy doing her own thing, figuring out her world. We can't wait til we're a bigger part of that world. :)

Lasagna!!!

This is the week I've had planned for many moons to make the lasagnas for the beach trip. One month in advance was my plan. I was a little overwhelmed this morning by it all, but decided that there was nothing to do but to do it, so I dove in...


Two big pots of sauce. Want to know how much stuff goes into 8 pans of lasagna? Well...
This was empty yesterday. Except for the milk, orange juice, and kefir, it's all from the lasagna. A #10 can of crushed tomatoes, 8 cans of tomato soup, and some cans of diced tomatoes. That's a lot of stuff! And that's just the sauce! The 3 lb tub of cottage cheese, the 6lb of ground beef, the 5 lb bag of mozzarella, the 4 lbs of noodles... yikes!

So this is what I needed for four of the lasagnas. (The pepper was leftover from yesterday... don't worry, I'm not "taking liberties" with the recipe.) And I did remember to sprinkle Parmesan at each layer... it just didn't make it in the picture.

So here are four of the beauties. There are three more like these. I made one pan for my family for dinner. I think 7 pans should do us. Plus the one special one for John. They're all nestled away safely in my freezer now. And as I was wrapping these up, I though, "Wow. And I kept the kitchen clean, too." Then I turned around:


Okay... maybe not clean, clean. :)

So. Now it's on to mega list making for the beach.

More on the Pool

So today I took Reid, Jacob and Cole to the pool. Zach insisted on staying home. We got to the pool a few minutes after 10am and there wasn't anyone there! :) We had the whole pool to ourselves. Cole asked me to throw him up. I agreed to throw him up a few times, but told him that he should try jumping off the diving board so he could have that same fun over and over again. He decided he would try and within a few minutes, he was jumping off the regular board, the high board (about three feet off the water), and was having a great time! He went down the slide they have at the pool and everything. It was great. He was having a blast. And it wasn't until around 11:30 that other people showed up to swim, too. Nice to have some unexpected family time at the pool.

Chocolat - The book

I just finished reading Chocolat. I love, love the movie, so I thought I'd try the book. I am amazed at how different the two are. Not that the characters and much of the story isn't similar, but much of the time, I felt like I was reading a different story than the one I saw on screen.

One of the things I really liked was getting to know the characters so much better. I appreciated having background and more time with the characters. I liked Armande's character much more in the book. She was more real, I suppose.

I didn't like a couple of parts. Namely, the ending. :) While it wasn't disappointing, it was a bit confusing and I felt it was somewhat inconclusive. I know there is a sequel that came out recently, so I guess I'll have to seek that out. But my understanding of that, from an interview I heard with the author, is it's more of Anouk's story than Vianne's. I guess I'll have to read it to find out.

But, overall, I really enjoyed it. I appreciate the screen writers for adapting it into a wonderful, yet different story. Perhaps more "Hollywood" and thus maybe why I like it a tad more than the book... at least the ending.

Yummy Dinner - To Me, Anyway

Harris Teeter has London Broil roasts on sale for $1.99/lb this week. I went and bought four 2 lb roasts yesterday. I wanted to cook one while we were at church today, but I've been a little disappointed in the past at how dry they turn out (no fat... I know). So, I found a recipe that said to add a couple of cans of tomatoes in with the roast and cook it that way. So, I put the meat in the dish, seasoned it well, added the carrots and potatoes and then find that I don't have any cans of diced tomatoes. Only tomato sauce. So, I added two cans of Rotel tomatoes. :) The kids weren't too thrilled. But the meat was really, really tender, so I'll try again next time with plain tomatoes and see how that goes over. I cooked it at 325 for 3 hours. I thought the spiciness was really good, but like Mike said, "I don't like it enough to cook it when I know the kids won't eat it." Agreed.

And speaking of spicy recipes... I came across this yummy looking recipe on a blog that looks really good. I think I'm going to try it soon. I'll let you know how it goes.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/05/not-your-grannys-mac-cheese/

And if you try it, definitely let me know how it goes!