23 Weeks

The last two weeks have been hectic with extra work shifts and construction starting on the house.   So far the construction is going well and we have have a whole new closet in the bedroom with drawers and shelves and stuff!  The room already seems much bigger now that there's not heaping piles of clothes and junk in front of it.  There should be just another week with the contractors here.  The bathroom was completely gutted and the rotting area was larger than we initially thought.  Also, a large rat nest was found under the old tub that was removed which explains a lot of weird sounds.  Turnip used to stand next to the tub and bark at the drain.  No more!

Jake and I celebrated our second anniversary and the San Jose plans fell though since I didn't end up working that Monday night.  It was actually a pretty bummer of a day since I was still sleepy from work and the hammering and shop vac noises were constant.  Just to get a little rest I made a sheet fort on the deck with patio furniture.  It didn't really help me sleep but at least I got to lay down and close my eyes.  We'll celebrate at another time when things have settled a bit.  The one nice thing that happened is that Jake got to feel the baby move for the first time!  Oh, and there were sticky buns involved since that's our anniversary tradition.  We ate them the morning of the wedding so I make them for breakfast for our anniversary.  A tradition of yum:

In my spare time I've been relaxing my favorite way, by cooking up a storm with farmer's market goodies.  Here's some chickpea tabouli that sustained me through 2 days of work:

I've been craving Ethiopian food like crazy and last night made a feast.  Instead of the traditional Ethiopian bread, injera, I made a similiar bread of Indian origins calls uttapam.  It's a simple batter made of soaked rice and lentils then blended with some salt and baking powder.  My mom used to make these all the time when we were kids.  She'd put jam in them, called the "roll-ups" and we'd eat them for breakfast.  They are so good and versitile!  Also, a perfectly easy substute for the more complicated injera bread.

I made all my favorite Ethipian dishes, the gingery mixed veggie dish (on the left), spiced red lentils (top right) and spiced collards.  I don't know why I only made this like once a year.  They are so easy to make once you have all the spices on hand.  (Oh, and Pat, I'm going to need to make a Penzey's run when I'm in town!).

I am currently OBSESSED with this cookie bar recipe!  They are seriously the easiest dessert I've ever made and they taste amazing.  The dough is like magic.  I am currently making a double batch right now with chocolate and butterscotch chips to take to work. 

I also can't forget to send well wishes to my grandpa who's in the hospital currently.  Fortuneately the surgery on his hip went well and he's in recovery.  Luckily there is family to dote upon him and I wish I could be there too!  My uncle was also in the hospital but is now out and I hope they can find him the right longterm treatment so he doesn't have to back to the ER for an urgent cardiac situation!  I'll be in Michigan soon to give everyone hugs.

I'm off to work now and will be staying in a hotel in San Jose for three days.  I'm actually kinda excited about it!  Jake will come visit me on one of the days and being me some food.  I'll probably be eating a lot of take out as well.  I then have a glorious week off and promised myself I won't pick up any extra shifts.  My last paycheck was spetacular, but I'm really getting burnt out and all that stress is probably not good for me.

21 Weeks

We had the 20 week ultrasound last Thursday and according to Dr. Salvay everything was normal and the right size.  Not that we were worried, but it's good to hear!  Pumpkin was positioned with the head on my right side, butt on the left and feet pointing downwards during the scan.  Because of that position he couldn't get a good view of the heart so we'll be going back in a couple months to get that view.  Pumpkin weighs 14 ounces (as of last Thursday) and I can't remember the length.  I'm now 140 pounds and hungry all the time!  My appetite is monstrous.  I really don't want to turn in a pregnant she-beast in the next few months.  This is my favorite picture from the ultrasound:

 It's a fist if you can't tell and makes me think I have a little Cesar Chavez in there!

Jake took this picture of me last week as well.  My porch tomato plants are almost as tall as me.  (And yes, I wear this shirt all the time.)

I hope everyone back in Michigan is staying indoors with the AC on.  This heat wave better break before I arrive in MI!

20 weeks! Half-way there!

Very excited to be half done with gestation.  Not that it's been awful, but with all this baby preparing I just want to see and hold the darn thing!  My 20 week ultrasound and first midwife appointment got moved to this upcoming Thursday.  We've still decided to not know the sex of the baby much to the frustration of many of my coworkers.  For some reason San Jose people really want to know while Santa Cruz friends think the surprise is fun.  Nonetheless, everyone thinks it's a boy!

Construction on the house starts in two weeks and we're still making Ikea trips and Jake and our landlord are making lots of design decisions.  I feel like it's going to be a mess for the predicted two weeks it's going to take to finish.  I'm going to have to stay at friends houses in San Jose to day sleep because construction starts at 8am and they said they put in 10 hour days.  I can't really stay with the neighbor because she has cats.  We're already planning on getting a hotel in San Jose on July 26th because I work the night before so I can go there right from work and sleep, then Jake will meet me there later in the day and we can go out to a nice restaurant for our anniversary.  Yeah, we don't really want to spend our anniversary in San Jose, but it's just going to have to be that way this year.

Friday we went to Ikea and on a whim I emailed my cousin Tracy to see if she was available for dinner.  Luckily she was and Tina and John would be in town as well.  So Jake, Tracy, Tina and I went out to eat Friday night in Oakland and had a really nice time!  Here we are after eating with my really fat tummy:

And here's a bonus Turnip photo during a dog day afternoon (tired after a long swimmy session at the local swimmy hole):