I Believe You Now, Betty

Wow, when you don't eat the cookie dough along the way (aka "the one scoop on the cookie sheet, one scoop in my mouth method"), it turns out recipes really do yield numbers such as 3 dozen cookies. Who knew?

I know it's generally "frowned upon" to eat potentially salmonella-laden doughs and batters, but it is indeed one of the food groups I look forward to having a relationship with again down the road. Ah Peanut, if you only knew what mommy gave up for you for the last several months.

We Are Accepting Bets

As the date nears, we are starting to question more: What is this little guy going to look like? We chose not to get the 4D ultrasound to leave an element of surprise and I'm glad we are holding out. This time next month, we will know - in the grand scheme of things, we can wait. We made it this far, right?

Time will tell if he has Erik's high cheeks (gnome cheeks, as I like to call them) or my pronounced eyes (google eyes, as Erik likes to call them). We are pretty sure he will have light eyes, but will he be a brunette or blond? Or - gasp! - will some of the red head genes on my mom's side somehow make an appearance? I keep thinking he will look like a mini Erik, but we shall see :o)

Night Flights

After a temporary hiatus due to a clogged ear, Erik is back on the flight schedule! And not just any flight schedule... but the night flight schedule. He now gets to fly with the birdies bathed in moonlight. That's just my poetic take on things, though. Erik hasn't historically been a fan of flying at night and I can't blame him - I'd get the heebie jeebies maneuvering in the dark skies, too!

Regardless: Kudos for another milestone! This leaves him with a few form flights to complete and then hopefully he will be able to officially reselect for the jet community within the next couple weeks. Again, his hope is to eventually get back into the Prowler/Growler community so "graduating" here in primary with a jets bill would be the required step for that direction. I am 99.9999% sure that is going to happen, but it will be nice to see it on paper in the next couple weeks since the military is really good about playing around with those 0.0001% possibilities.

Don't Judge the Bright Pink Pants - At Least They Fit

Seriously, we have 6 more weeks of this (or more)? Things are still moving along uneventfully which is a wonderful thing, but lordie oh lordie I've been falling into the standard third trimester woes. My toes and fingers have taken on a sausage-like appearance and Tums have become my personal candy of choice. And you just can't feel that great about yourself when roaming the aisles of Target looking to purchase a "butt pillow."

Erik's excitement always puts things into perspective, though. His daily chats with my belly reminds me how special everything really is. And it's little moments like that or looking at Peanut's little clothes all lined up that put me back into the "attitude of gratitude." This experience deserves the utmost reverence!

In an unrelated note, we hope everyone is enjoying the football season thus far! There's nothing like lazy cooler weekends with lots of fun comfy foods (and Tums, of course!) to say that Fall is here. I think our heat index dropped under 95 degrees this week - great success!

Let's Go for a Spin!

We put together the strollers the other evening and they are looking pri-tty pri-tty spiffy. To put things into practice more, we strapped in Tutu Teddy (Erik's old bear) and Doug (my trusty sidekick stuffed dog) to test out the straps and everything. Assembly passes with success!

Sand Between The Toes

Sometimes in the hubbub of everyday life, we unintentionally ignore the fact that we do, indeed, live along the Gulf Coast. The beach is a simple 20 minute drive away and there isn't really an excuse to not visit and plop our butts in the sand more often. My only stipulation is that I like to be there and back before 11a to avoid the super heat. [Kate's Meteorological Scale: "Regular" heat is an index of 95 or 100. "Super" heat is above 100.] Erik isn't as much of a morning guy on the weekends as he still has the option to imbibe in the evenings, so its up to Peanut and I to make things happen. He was a trooper!

Afterwards we stopped by Snoopy's to get some fish and chips and sit along the water just a taaaad longer before we proclaimed our love for air conditioning and headed home.

Yummy in the Tummy Pot Pie

Erik was sweet enough to offer to make Sunday dinner this week and he was eager to try making a pot pie again. The homemade crust turned out great and the recipe has been perfected. Check!




















(Miller Lite is not part of the recipe.)

I Need More Twigs

This past weekend, I found myself up at 4:00a baking banana bread and sorting out all of Peanut's new clothes for their first wash. By 5:30a, I was wishing that Babies R Us was open so I could go get more supplies (enter: Kate's face and hands smushed against front windows of store).

This must be part of the "nesting" instinct. We still have a couple months to go, but I have this itch to have it all done!

Side Note: The amount of little plastic tie thingies they put on baby clothes collections is ridiculous. It took me 10 minutes to take apart a package of little socks since they were all individually connected to the cardboard piece and then individually connected to each other. Oh, but what cute little itty bitty snuggly wuggly socks they are!!! They have little dinosaurs on them! :o)

Furniture: Check!

We were excited to receive the baby furniture on Friday. Erik and I had a hard time pulling the trigger on a set we liked and it was ironic in the end we picked something very easily. For as many options as we mulled over, it came down to the Babies R Us guy going, "Well what about this one over here?" And its like a halo of light shined upon Peanut's furniture. Done. Check!

Click on the photos to see bigger versions.

Before: The nursery filled with boxes and goodies.

During: Chubby girl in the corner relegated to reading directions and handing over screws as needed.

After: Build massive cardboard and styrofoam pile to discreetly take over to Target's recycle dumpsters that we occasionally sneak stuff into.

As for the "after, after" photo? Well we didn't quite finish it all this weekend. Plus the nursery is still functioning as my home office for the next 6 weeks or so. So hopefully in the coming weekends we can take some more pictures as the final transition occurs! So very exciting!

Local Wildlife

I feel like this is the only place we will ever live that I will encounter a crab, a cockroach, a gecko, a crow and a seagull... all by 8am on a random morning. And all around the perimeter of my house. Ick.