Last Weekend in North Carolina

Mike, Lloyd and I packed up after work on Friday and headed to Hendersonville to visit Mike's Mom.  It's a 5+ hour drive, but is a very straight line and once you get through traffic, really not a bad drive at all.  We were so excited to see her and catch up on everything going on in her life.  I got up Saturday morning, "dealt" with Lloyd (yes, it's dealing with him when he's THAT all over the place) and spent about an hour in the garden with Peg, seeing what she had growing-she has a banana plant that's actually growing bananas!!!!  Most.exciting.this.ever. in a garden in Hendersonville, seriously!  I had a beautiful banana plant that she gave me in Florida (don't get me started on the movers and our plants....) but it didn't get big enough for bananas, so this was really cool for us to see!!!  Anyway, after the garden tour, we had breakfast and I left the Mahoney's to head to Charlotte for a much-too-short visit with my BFF!

Ivy and I met Daniella for brunch and mani/pedi's on Saturday afternoon, it was the best way girls day ever!  I loved seeing my friends and catching up, I miss them both so much and wish we were closer.  I even talked them in to going to Trader Joe's so that I could buy Mike some wine, having one non-preggo in the group makes it less inappropriate to buy half a case of wine, right?! :-)  After our day out and about, we went back to the Berman's, took their lovely puppies for a walk (I miss my new BFF Emma, Lloyd just doesn't cuddle like he's supposed to!), and went out to Cantina for dinner.  It was a great day!!

And then Sunday was Ivy's baby shower!!  Such a beautiful shower for my very lovely Best Friend and her growing Bumpalina (Ivy & Adam's name for their child without a name still....:-) )!  It was a beautiful party, the food was delicious and the decorations and games were just too cute!  A great way to celebrate Baby Berman's arrival soon!!!

We had a great weekend visitng our family and friends, Lloyd especially enjoyed Grandma's house and the fantastic weather!  And it's always nice to see my Husband on the weekend's even if only for a little while in the car, driving I-40! :-) 

Feeding for One & a Half

Mike and I had our first child birthing class on Tuesday.  It was not nearly as "scary" as we expected and we're both happy that our teacher is fantastic and we think we're actually going to learn something over the next 5 weeks. 

We love food, we all know this!  It's right up there with alcohol, which we all know we also love!  A lot of this first class talked about nutrition during the Third Trimester, which I've wanted help with throughout the entire pregnancy so far (life is so much easier when someone tells you, 'eat this now').  I don't want Iris to be born with a tick or a bum leg because I didn't give her enough Vitamin Z, you know.  We are pretty good at eating well-balanced meals most days, but you just never know.

So, in an effort to absolutely hit all of the "necessary" servings of the "necessary" food groups (fyi, ice cream isn't included in the "necessary" food groups, not sure I should be entirely trusting of this system after all), and because I'm a neurotic over-achiever that wants to make my Husband insane, I'm working hard this week to keep my diet in the right place.  Here's what's happening with my lunch bag today:

Yes, the poor little lunch bag is bulging at the seams with tupperware.  Need a bigger carrier.

So, not including breakfast (which obviously happened 3.2 minutes after I was out of bed), which was healthy and included two servings of fruit, a serving of dairy and a serving of carbs, here's what the work-day snacks and lunch look like:

Included in tupperware heaven:
Leftover homemade chicken pot pie
Mixed green salad with tomatoes, cucumber, mushrooms, and avocado (and a tiny bit of spicy peanut dressing!!-mmmmm)
1/2 cup of cottage cheese with cantaloupe
Green apple and raspberries

How, I ask you, am I supposed to find time to do work when there's that much food to eat?!  And, to top it off, even with breakfast, this covers MAYBE 1/2 of what I'm supposed to be eating in a day to get the "necessary" amounts for each food group.  Holy food, Batman! 

Important to notice here, again, there is no ice cream or other overly sugared snack-I think the Third Trimester (which I know I'm not quite in, but still) diet is broken.  Mike is the boss and the boss said I'm allowed ice cream, so maybe I can squeeze that in as another "dairy" for the day!! ;-)  Hope you're all eating having a good Thursday!

Tuesday is the new Monday

"Sounds like somebody has a case of the Monday's"...No, I have a case of the Tuesdays.  Let me note: that is the worst phrase ever and thank you Office Space for putting it out there.  But Tuesday's seem like the low point in the week, for a person that is still new to this "Monday-Friday" gig.  On Monday's, there's lots of catching up to do, things are busy, the day goes by quickly.  Tuesday, that mess is done and you're on to the week at hand, and the week feels like it's going to stretch on forever (this is bad news, fyi).

Today is no exception.  It took ONE HOUR to drive the 15 miles to work that normally takes 30-35 minutes, 40 on a really Nashville-kind-of-morning.  But an hour?!  Are you serious?!  You know I didn't leave the house with an hour to spare, I can barely manage the 40 minutes that allows me to be in the door and at my desk on time, let alone 20 extra minutes of staring at some stranger's personal license plate that makes no sense.  I tried to stay calm, for Iris' sake, but heavens above, it was pretty Tuesday even for Tuesday.

Then, there's the whole work thing. Two-three meetings plus the regular shenaningans and that's Tuesday.  Really exciting, eh?!  But, at least I have a job that I like, most days :-) 

This Tuesday also marked the beginning of Mike, poor baby, having to be AT work by 6:00am-how un-fun is that?!  And, to top off his Tuesday, I signed us up for child birthing classes that start today.  Props to Mike for being a wonderful Husband and doing it all to keep Lloyd me happy!

So, that's my feeling onTuesday right now. I'm venting writing a blog instead of working.  On the really bright side, they are starting a new downtown farmer's market on our block at lunch time on Tuesday's, so fresh produce to the rescue!  And dinner is already cooking at home, so we'll be ready to go when we get in! :-)

Here's to learning lots of really "interesting" things this evening!  And keeping a straight face through it all, fingers crossed. ;-) Happy Tuesday, people!

What happened to July?!

In my mind, August is the "end" of the summer somehow, so what the heck happened to the summer?!  July apparently flew by, because it came and went without us really noticing, and now we're in August ( yes, that is how the months works).  Two things: 1) Summer is "ending" and I don't have a tan, 2) blogs are boring without pictures and I've been useless with a camera lately, so sorry about that.

What did we do for the second half of July, you ask?  Well, we had a great trip to Vincennes to see Jack and Sharon's play, Happy Dayz (and to celebrate Mike's birthday-yes, more celebrating!), it was a great show and a huge success overall for the OTP! It was a REALLY quick trip, because we had to take Lloyd and ended up only staying one night (he had been pretty sick for a few days), but well worth the drive for a fun time with family! 

Puppy on the way home from Vincennes-worn out!

After that, well I don't know really.  Mike and I took a drive to Leiper's Fork last weekend to see what that was all about.  It was cute, spanned about 2 city blocks maybe, so we ate some BBQ (what else would you eat at Puckett's in Leiper's Fork), and came back to civilization to run some errands (cue: "we have a nice little Saturday planned...maybe Bed Bath & Beyond, I don't know...I don't know if we'll have enough time..."). 

BBQ was amazing!  FYI, that is Mike's beer that I stole for the picture!

Mike, Taryn and I ventured to a Nashville Sounds game last week.  The company was fantastic and the San Diego Chicken-google him, he's famous-was visiting, so he basically took over as entertainment for the night, and I believe the Sounds won the game (we left early it was still a million degrees at 10p)!  VERY different than the Durham Bulls, who apparently really care about playing baseball at a baseball game, but still a great night! 

   Enjoying the chicken :-)
That's it for July.  I'm sure we did other things, this is the entire purpose of the blog, to ensure we don't forget what happened, but what can I say, I forgot. Here's to being more up to date in August!

Attemped shot at Nashville at night

                                          24 Weeks

Iris is a Michigan fan!