This week I felt like selling all my clothes.

Then never leaving the house again. Seriously.

I promised myself and my husband I wouldn't freak out, then I did. Why? Because I got stuck in a dress. I'm not kidding. I put on a dress that I was convinced would fit and planned to wear it with leggings. I put it on and it was a little snug in the shoulders and belly.

"How do I look"?
"Fine".
"I'm taking it off... Ok, I can't get it off, so help me".
"Um, babe, I'm not sure how we're going to get this off of you".

Then I cried. I had a meltdown over the fact that things I thought were going to fit weren't. Was I completely crazy to think that I could wear my regular clothes throughout my pregnancy? And even a few maternity items that specifically said to order in your prepregancy size? Yes. Yes I was.

I'm not 23 weeks! I'm not sure where the time has gone but we're moving right along. He's a growing boy who is crazy active on a daily basis. I've been feeling movement since 18 weeks and he's getting stronger all the time. I can't say what he does and doesn't like, but he responds to hands on my belly. Most of the time he moves away from them. He responds by moving wildly when Zoey, our little long haired chihuahua, lays on my belly. Enough so that he's scared her because she could actually feel him moving underneath her.

Here's my 23 week gratuitous bathroom photo. My belly photos are simply not spectacular, but hey, I found out I was pregnant in this bathroom. It's kind of fitting.

I'm still loving pregnancy 100%. I get more and more excited for my little guy every damn day. I just can't wait for him to arrive in September. I'm off to dream land now. I need to fit in a nap before I head off for some local tourism today with my sister! I plan to post a food review of our lunch from today. It's the entire reason for the trip!

staycation

A couple weeks ago, when we had our anatomy scan, we invited my husband's dad and his wife up to join us for the appointment. They made a mini vacation out of it, and I was lucky enough to have an extra long weekend and made a staycation out of it!

Two full days chock full of tourism. We love being tourists at home and taking full advantage of places people travel to see. The little water front towns, the shops, the food and the ocean. So it was fun for us to take family along for what we like to do as often as we can.

The Skagit Valley Tulip Festival takes place in my home town every year during the month of April. We hit the festival on it's very last day this year. I haven't been since I was a kid and it was so fun to walk through the fields of flowers.

Row upon row, field after field. It was a beautiful sunny day with happy clouds filling the sky. Because of the crazy cool and wet weather we're having this spring, the tulips were late. There were still many that hadn't even made their break out of the soil. It's so rare. And though there were a few fields that had been topped, there were still plenty of flowers to see.

Tulips don't smell good. In fact, most of them don't smell like anything at all. So strange for a flower.

It was so nice to be "home". To walk through the fields and remember what it was like to be a child growing up there. Before the town grew to be a city. Before I grew up to be an adult. Before I became jaded.

Jaded, that makes me chuckle to myself.

Overall, it was just a really beautiful day.

The new neighbors upstairs.

Anyone who knows me in person would look at me strangely if I told them I had new neighbors upstairs.

{weheartit}

On the back side of our house, the mesh screen that covers the attic vent has long fallen off. Probably in one of our many wind storms since that seems to be the side of the house the wind likes to blow from best. Last year we heard birds in the ceiling above our bedroom. They often scratched and pecked and made all sort of ruckus. We'd just pound on the ceiling and they'd be done. No biggie, right? We kept saying we'd cover that hole with new mesh when they seemed to have left for the winter but never got around to it.

Yesterday I realized that we have new neighbors. I picture them like the cuties in the nest above. They're whiny. They chirp, chirp, chirp all the time. Where are their parents? I feel like I should be calling bird protective services or something. As cute as I imagine them, I sure hope they learn to fly soon and take off from my attic. That way we can patch the hole and be done with upstairs neighbors for good.

Recipes: Spaghetti with Olives & Lemon

This recipe was so easy and made for great leftovers. It literally only takes as long as boiling your water and noodles. It could be a one pot meal if you wanted to skip mixing the 'sauce' in it's own bowl and just dump everything on top of the noodles and mix from there. I think it would also make a pretty tasty cold pasta salad too!

{Spaghetti with Olives and Lemon}

1 pound spaghetti
1 can black olives – drained, halved
juice of 1 fresh lemon
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
handful fresh basil – roughly chopped/torn
salt

pepper

Place a large pot of salted water onto boil. Cook spaghetti until al dente. Drain, place spaghetti back in pot.

While the noodles boil, add olives, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and basil to a bowl and stir. Add to the noodles and toss to combine.

19 Weeks: It's a...!

Here's the baby bump just 5 days before our gender appointment. I swear I feel like I've already doubled in size from this picture. Oh my.

We had my husband's dad and his wife up for a visit and to attend our appointment with us. We couldn't have had better weather to act as tour guides and well, the appointment wasn't half bad itself. My parents and sister joined us for an early lunch, and when my sister headed off to work, we took our parents on a drive to the hospital where they patiently waited far too long to join us in the ultrasound room to see their little angel.

Here's our adorable little guy. Yes, it's a boy! I had mother's intuition the whole time. I was so sure he was a boy and there he was, in all his glory, showing off the goodies. The tech says, "As a disclaimer, I can't promise you 100%. But come on, you see what I see, right"? She was quite funny. He's active and healthy and already measuring ahead of schedule. We are so excited and  blessed to be waiting on a little boy.

I've already been so spoiled by wonderful family and friends with baby gear and hand-me-downs. We started organizing it today and I was shocked at the sheer number of items already. It's awesome. My most favorite gift as of late was a little package I received in the mail... I was beyond exicted to see the most recent installment of penpal packages and this one did not disappoint! If my computer was agreeing with  me, I'd post pictures right this moment, however it's not. So I'll save that for another post! But I must say, thank you so, so much Ashley. You're truly the best!

Numbers and such.

1 day until my weekend is over. Technically.
4 days until I'm off work for an entire week.
6 days until my father-in-law and his wife arrive from Oregon for a few days.
9 days until I find out whether the baby is a he or she!
11 days until shift change at work and I go back to the 'busy' days each week. Yay!
13 days until I'm half way through my pregnancy. WOW!

I've got a pretty exciting two weeks ahead of me! I'm very much looking forward to it. I am so lucky to have a job that literally only has been working half the days of the year. Yes, I work 12 hours at a time. Honestly though, anything less that 10 feels like a waste of a day to me.

Pregnancy weirdness. My milk allergy has lessened. So weird. My tolerance for gluten? Horrible! Even more weird! It's totally miserable. My stomach doesn't handle bread or pasta well at all, and I pretty much hate meat. I sound like a ton of fun, huh? Thankfully I love fruit smoothies, oranges and cold cereal with lots of fresh strawberries sliced on top. I had high blood pressure at appointment #2, but I cut back on my salt and increased my water intake and I'm great. Total weight gain so far is 6lbs. Not doing too bad at all. The belly has lessened my love handles and I love that!

Speaking of gluten intolerance, guess what I'm making for dinner tonight? Pasta. I've gotten myself some digestive enzymes to help with the stomach ache that comes with carbs. But seriously, I can't starve my husband, and I can't pass up this vegetarian pasta to save my life!

{Spaghetti with Olives and Lemon}



Today I'm going to try and motivate myself for greatness. I'm napping with my husband for a bit this morning (he works tonight), I have some overtime today for a few hours this afternoon, I have this crazy delicious looking dinner to cook, some laundry to wash and a house to clean! I can do it! What is everyone else up to this weekend?

17 Weeks: Baby bump

Here's a 17 week photo I took at work today. Sorry about the lame bathroom background, but I don't have a full length mirror at home. I use my husband's most honest opinion for that!


I was told belly and baby are measuring right on track. This is one of the only times I'll ever get away with a gut. I'm taking full advantage!