Crazy Girl

Charlie is so active.  It’s funny because the books say to count her kicks and make sure that she kicks 10 times in 2 hours.  10 times in 2 hours is nothing for Charlie.  It’s more like 10 counts in 15 minutes (if that!).  She’s always so crazy.  I think she knows that I am a worrier, so she’s trying to keep my from worrying about her.  Either that, or she’s just trying to F with me.  And, with John and I as her parents, this may honestly be the case.

Her newest little trick is to lay transversly (side-to-side) directly under my diaphragm.  I don’t know how she manages to get into that position, but it hurts.  Really hurts.  And, I can’t breathe when she does it.  She did it for the first time on Friday night as John and I were walking around Target.  I had to stop walking and try to change positions to see if she would move.  The only thing that worked was sitting down, in which case she promptly dropped back down to her normal position.

She pulled the same stunt on Saturday and Sunday, but fortunately not today.

A bad influence for Charlie

Today was my 1hr glucose tolerance test.  I’m still waiting for the results, but I have to admit that it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  The clear fluid tasted like flat Sierra Mist and was easy to drink.  I hadn’t had much to drink with breakfast and had had a doctor’s appointment before the test, so I was very thirsty.  The phlebotomist kept telling me to slow down before I threw the glucose up, but I just wanted to finish it as fast as possible.  No problems from my end.  Charlie was a little acrobat in there once the glucose hit her!  I go back to the doctor’s in 2 weeks and will know the results then.  Here’s hoping they’re good ones.

Yesterday we went to the last regular season Phillies’ home game of the year.  We could have clinched the NL East title yesterday, but we lost to the Mets (The Phils are about to clinch the NL East as I write this post.  Actually, this should be the last pitch of the game…and we have our 4th straight NL East Title!!!!!!!! – But, I digress).  John had to buy his little girl this for her nursery:

The Phillie Phanatic

It’ll look lovely up there with her stuffed Pooh Bears.  Our next regular season game is April 3rd next year (the first game of our Sunday season ticks).  It’ll be Charlie’s first game and we can’t wait!  OK, we can wait, because now it’s the post-season!!!  I love October!!

Computer Avoidance

Yes, I’ve been avoiding my computer.  At least, I’ve been avoiding my computer in regards to blogging.  Why?  Two main reasons:

1) I’ve started taking all of the papers that John and I have been storing in our house for years and scanning them into the computer, then sending them over to an external hard drive.  This is taking a while to do.  It’s not hard, just time consuming.  More so than I thought it would be.  So far I’ve scanned about 500 documents.  But, I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface.  And the real kicker is that when I run the scanner it slows down my computer way too much to be able to use the internet.  I get my lectures and assignments uploaded for my students, but I’m not really surfing the web (do we still use this term?) or blogging much.

and

2) I’ve been a busy little baker lately.

Yummy Baking!

The recipes for these (pumpkin spice cakes, banana nut bread, dark chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, and carrot cake) will go up tonight or tomorrow in the recipe blog.

I hope to be back to a regular blogging schedule soon!

:(

So today, I wanted to make these

from The Brown Eyed Baker

I went here to pick up the ingredients that I needed.

I only needed two ingredients.  I keep a well stocked pantry for baked goods.

But, they didn’t have this

which is a pretty important ingredient.  One may say it’s the star of the show.  It won’t be in stock until the end of the month.  So, tomorrow, I need to go here

to buy it, so that I can make the cupcakes and turn the 😦 into a :).  YUMMMMMMMMM.

I missed a day!

Well, looks like my resolution to post everyday didn’t make it through yesterday.  Which means that I lasted all of 3 days.  But, I think I have a valid excuse.

I’ve felt like crap since Tuesday morning.  I think I have some kind of stomach bug and I’m hoping it goes away.  I feel a little better today, but I haven’t really put anything into my stomach yet.  We’ll see how it goes once I eat lunch (as I’m starting to get very, very hungry).

Hopefully, I’ll be back on track in both my health and the blog tomorrow.  TTFN!

Last 2nd Trimester Appointment

Had a doctor’s appointment this morning with a new midwife at the practice.  I had met her last time I was in (which was her first week), and I really like her.  After last month’s 11 pound weight gain, this month’s 3 pounds were so much better.  I’m still right on track for weight gain, even though I feel huge.  Baby’s heart beat is right around 150 and she seems to have flipped into the right direction (head down).

They found glucose and ketones in my urine this morning, so she asked me what I ate for breakfast.  I had to confess that I ate two of the chocolate chip bars that I made last night, along with a BIG glass of chocolate milk.  Yep, that would be the source of glucose in my urine 😛

I go back in two weeks for my glucose tolerance test.  Not looking forward to what everyone says is a lovely, sugary orange flavored drink (being sarcastic here).  But, since everything else looks great, I’m really not worried.

Walk For Hope 2010

Every year John and I volunteer at the Philadelphia/NJ City of Hope Walk for Hope.  John’s cousin, Harry, works for City of Hope and is one of the people in charge of the walk.  In the past, the walk was for breast cancer, but this year, the walk was moved up date wise, and was in support of all women’s cancers.  The walk starts at Campbell’s Field, home of the Camden Riversharks in Camden, NJ, walks up and over the Ben Franklin Bridge, which crosses the Delaware River, and ends on the waterfront in Philadelphia (from where participants can pick up the Riverlink ferry and ride back to NJ and their cars).  Most years, this one included, it seems like it rains.  But, that doesn’t stop people from coming out and donating to a very worthwhile cause.  Everyone, volunteers and walkers alike, deserve a big round of applause for what they do!

Here’s some pictures from this year’s event:

Entrance to Campbell's Field and the starting line

Christina and Harry, John's cousins. Harry runs the show at the walk.

Registration. You can see how wet it was today.

Me, my BIL Hus, and SIL Kim working at registration

Women from our family. Me, Christina, my MIL Toni, and Kim.

Kim and I (stolen from her FB page because I thought it was cute).

Kim, John, and Toni. Yes, John does like to be funny in pics.

Finally, here’s a picture of this little guy that showed up before the walk began.  You don’t see many of these running around Camden, NJ.  There’s not many trees for them to be hiding in.  I hope he found some good shelter and some good food.

A baby opossum. He was soaking wet from the rain.

Flowers, Bidding, and Chocolate Cake

Yesterday was John’s birthday.  He turned 31 this.  Last year, for his birthday, I threw him a surprise party at a local restaurant.  This year, back to low key family dinners.  We had his parents, sister, and brother-in-law over for dinner and desert.

John smoked a turkey breast on the grill (he’s a huge barbecuer).  I was responsible for everything else, including the homemade chocolate cake that he always requests.  This year, instead of doing a buttercream or chocolate frosting, I did chocolate ganache ontop of the cake.  Very over the top chocolatey.  Yay for vanilla ice cream!  You can find the recipe for the cake and icing on our food blog.

Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache Icing

I know it’s not the most amazing decorating job, but I’m planning on taking care of this issue.  I’m taking a 4-part class on cake decorating in October.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Today we went to the PA Horticultural Society Fall Garden Festival at the Philly Navy Yard (which is where John works).  This is the PHS that runs the Flower Show every year.  We met up with two of our good friends (one of which is the writer of the Cape on the Corner).  It was a gorgeous day in the city.  We couldn’t have asked for better weather.

While we were there, I bought a new African violet, which means that my spider plant, which is having over 30 babies, needs to find a new window.  The new African violet will join her two older siblings in my dining room.  I’ll have to write something up on them soon.

We also attended an auction to benefit the PHS.  It was our first time ever at an auction.

The auctioneer

Our auction paddle

We didn’t buy anything, although we did bid on a few things.  Huge, sturdy tomato plant cages, hydrangea, and a very cute garden gnome.  John was so intent on winning the garden gnome that he kept bidding even though it got to $45.  I had to pin his hand that was holding the paddle down!

One of my favorite bloggers was recently giving pointers to newer bloggers.  The one that caught my eye the most was to blog every day, even if it’s just a sentence or two.  I think I’m going to try to give that a try, so you might see a lot of new posts soon.

Favorite Movies

I’m sure I’m not in the minority when I say that I have favorite movies that I can watch again and again and again.  I have to admit that most of my favorites fall into the category of comedies.  Why?  Probably because I’m pretty serious and bookish IRL.  It fits in with the whole college professor profession 😛

I mention the favorite movies idea because tonight I’m having the pleasure of watching, yet again, what is one of my all time favorites, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, starring Nia Vardalos and John Corbett.  Pretty much every time that this movie is on TV I end up watching it.  We also own it on DVD, but that’s a whole different story.  I know just about every word and every phrase.  Lines of its dialogue end up in my everyday conversations.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding

I think that for movies to really resonate with a person there has to be something in the movie with which the person can relate.  Here, it’s pretty easy to see the similarities.  Toula’s big Greek family reminds me not only of my father’s family, which is huge, loud, and Irish, but also of John’s family, which is huge, loud, and Italian.  Toula feels out of place, at times, with her family, and there are definitely times when I feel out of place with mine (both my side and my ILs side).

So, what are some of your favorite movies that you can watch over and over?

On another note, I’m hoping to have pictures of the nursery up soon.  Once the furniture was put in place, we decided that we didn’t like the blue paint.  Therefore, we’re repainting the bottom of the walls with this color (Behr’s Gothic Amethyst, although we had it color matched at Sherwin-Williams):

Gothic Amethyst

A little grayer and less “happy” than the blue that it’s going to be painted over.  We’ve realized that “happy” paint colors don’t really make us too happy.

Happy Labor Day, Everyone!

Just a Quick Update

1) I don’t think anything is going to come of the interview.

2) Started a new semester and a new class yesterday.  Teaching Biosystems and Applications to a class of chemistry/chemical engineering majors.  They know atoms and molecules, but they don’t know a bacterial cell from an animal cell.  It’s going to be interesting figuring out exactly how to teach them.  (By the way, in case you don’t know and were wondering, the main way to tell bacterial cells from animal cells is that bacterial cells don’t have a nucleus to hold the DNA and animal cells do.  There are other differences, but that’s the big one).

3) I have a new best friend.  He looks like this:

Mr. Hunky Protractor

Yep, a protractor.  So glad that I picked him up as not one of the angles in the nursery is at 90 degrees.

4) We bought material to make Roman Blinds for the nursery

Winne the Pooh Day in the Park Toile

Love it!  Can’t wait until the new windows are put in and I can get around to making the blinds.  Which brings me to

5) New windows in the nursery are going in next Tuesday

and last but not least

6) Nursery Furniture is being delivered tomorrow.  WooT!!

BTW – Just want to give a shout out to a Mr. M living in Morgantown, PA.  Heard you like to read the blog.