Third post of the day....My tip to Edmonton

To break up my time from now to mat leave I took a week off to go visit my moms side of the family in edmonton for a few days to meet the newest member of the family..Nathan:) What a little doll this new cousin of mine is, and oh how I love to cuddle him and think, wow, I am going to have my very own in just a few months! Of course, the cat had to get in there to, so i had nathan, baby in my belly, and Jacob the cat all on me, or in me...it was a full house! but oh so fun!! I did a little shopping out there too because how could I not take advantage of the no sales tax!! One place I found I loved for childrens clothes was H and M, if you haven't been there check it out! The sizings are a mess, but such cute stuff at affordable prices!!


Mister Nathan

Nathan, me, baby and Jacob the cat!

just for a Laugh!

Two little kids are in a hospital, lying on stretchers next to each other outside the operating room.
The first kid leans over and asks, "What are you in here for?"

The second kid says, "I'm in here to get my tonsils out and I'm a little nervous."

The first Kid says "you have nothing to worry about. I had that done when I was four. they put you to sleep and when you wake up they give you jelly and ice cream. Its a breeze."

The second kid than asks, "what are you hear for."

the first kid says "a circumcision."

"whoa!" the second kid replies. "Good luck with that buddy, I had that done when I was born. I couldn't walk for a year!"

Oh the lovely Orange Pop!

so yesterday I had my 25 week check up and than went to get the lovely glucose test!
The doctors appointment went good:) I am measuring a little big at 27cm..but the nurse said its probably just fluid because the baby doesn't feel to big:) oh fun! Heart beat is steady, but she wasn't impressed with the monitor and kept kicking it or running away from it:)

The lovely glucose test. well I have to say the orange pop wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I like carbonated drinks so I just chugged it! sitting for the hour was tolerable, as I chatted with the people in the waiting room who all thought there was a big line up because I was sitting there so long! Dave came and met me just as I was getting in the chair, but I was glad he made it at the end to walk me to the grocery store. I was feeling a little yucky and dizzy. but I survived...hopefully all is well, or I am going to have to lay off my ice cream!! Oh my favorite right now...Nestle has a soft serve ice cream that is vanilla and chocolate together! yummy!
I will be back later tonight with some pics from my trip this week to the exciting land of Edmonton...it was exciting though because I got to meet my newest cuitest cousin, Mister Nathan:)

Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice

Ok, so Thanks to a friend I discovered this great Recipe book by a lady named Sandi Richards. Its colorful, easy to follow, gives all the equipment you need to cook and nutritional information. She also breaks down her recipes into meal plans, so basically if you used them all you would have 8 weeks of meals planned out! This is one of the recipes that I tried last night and we loved it!!! I am trying another one tonight so I will keep passing along!

Let me know if you try it and what you think!!!

SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN WITH RICE

Ingredients:

(they say to do this the night before, but I didn't and it was still great.)

Sweet and sour sauce, make night before.
1/3 cup of Dark brown sugar
pineapple juice, unsweetened(drained juice from a 14 oz can-reserve pineapple chunks in fridge over night)
1/2 tsp of ginger powder
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1/2 tsp of dry mustard
1 Tbsp of soy sauce
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1 can of stewed tomatos


1 1/2 cups of basmati or white rice
3 cups of water


1 tsp of oil
i medium onion


4 chicken breats, boneless, skinless

1 rib celery
1/2 of green bell pepper
1/2 of a red bell pepper


1Tbsp flour
reserved sweet and sour sauce
reserved pineapple chunks


DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine sugar, pineapple juice, ginger, garlic, dry mustard, soy sauce, cider vinegar and tomatoes, in a medium sized bowl. Cover and place in the fridge overnight(again I didn't and it was fine!, but probably even better if you do)

2. Combine rice and water...cook away!

3. Heat oil(I use extra virgin olive oil, recipe calles for canola), in fry pan, at medium high. Chop onion into quaters, adding to pan as you chop. Saute until translucent and caramelized. Cut chicken into bite size pieces, adding to pan as you cut. Stirl Occasionally until no longer pink.
Slice celery and peppers into chuncks, adding to pan as you cut.


Sprinkle with flour and stir.
Stirl in sweet and source sauce gradually, than add pineapple chunks. Sitr and heat through!

Serve over rice....enjoy!!!

24 Weeks!

Here's some pics of me and my baby at 24 weeks. the bottom one is us dressed up for our date with Dave for Valentines Day! What a special day it was for us:) She's very busy in my belly now, lots of kicks, that is for sure! I love my belly at this stage, or my watermelon as my mom calls it:)hehe I am so thankful to finally be feeling someowhat better and enjoying the process. I could do without the back pain and headaches...but hey, at least i don't want to barf every day!!

I am off this week and heading to the cold land of Edmonton on THurday to meet my cousins new baby born on the 10th! Going to learn what I am about to get myself into!hehe

I am excited to see my family and this baby but a wee nervous as I am flying by myself...and I will be gone three nights, which is the longest Dave and I have been apart! Anyways, good thing I have my little sidekick with me(in my belly), I am sure she will keep me enterained!

My Bucket List

There is a great movie that was released last year called the bucket List with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freedmon. Its a great movie about a guy who is dying and wants to complete a list of stuff before he does. I just read a friends, 25 Random things note on his facebook page and he mentioned the concept of a bucket list and it got me thinking of what would be on my list. So here it goes..I would love to hear whats on yours! If you do, just leave me a comment saying that you are posting, and put it on your blog for others to see! Good thing we are young and have lots of time to complete these things!! So Get started!!

1. I would love to become fluent in Spanish and teach my kids. I love little kids who can speak two languages, I think its great for brain development!

2. I would love to take a photography class just for myself so I can get the full potential out of my camera.

3. I want to finish my business degree. more than half way there!

4. I always thought I wanted to be a nurse, but I think really would have preferred to be a doctor, but don't have the brains or the diligence. but I would love to go back and get my midwifery degree..i think it would be the best job in the world!

5. I want to have three kids.

6. I want to go on a missions trip to either Africa, China, or somewhere down south!

7. I would love to visit every continent at least once..excluding Antartica!

8. I would love to go to Greece just with Dave.

9. I want to take more dance classes. I took a drop in dance class when I lived downtown and started one up again just before I got pregnant, and than had to quit. I love hip hop and Street jazz the best!

10. I Would love to own a BMW, even for a day!

11. Dave and I's big dream is to start a children's Hospice in the Fraser Valley, So I definetly would like to compete that.

12. I would love to own a ranch with a big ole house.

13. I want to hold a kahula(sp) bear in Australia.

14. I want to swim with the dolphins again..did it in Mexico, but it wasn't long enough..I would do it time and time again!

15. I want to go back to New York city and find some under ground Salsa night club and dance the night away with Dave.

16. I want to celebrate new years eve in Times Square one year, and Skate on the ice rink in central Park.

17. I want to renew my vows on our tenth anniversary in hawaii.

18. I want to be debt free for at least one year of my life!! No Mortgage..nothing!

19. I want to own my own little store, a boutique filled with all my favorite girly things!

20. I want to have the courage to go Parasailing! and to learn how to surf!

21. I want to go on a wine tour in italy, or Napa valley, or somewhere fantastic!

Ok, there you have it...so lets here yours now!

Bye Bye Starbucks...ok well, not goodbye, but see you less...hopefully??!

yes its true...I have a starbucks addiction. My drink of choice, A soy, earl gey, vanilla tea misto. I am not a big breakfest person so I love my tea in the morning with my milk to give me my substance. I really want to make an effort though of cutting back on daily little purchases such as starbucks and grabbing lunch,. ect, as they are big money waisters...but just wasn't ready to give up my starbies until I found this!! I went to an Epicure party last nigth with a friend. I went for fun and to maybe pick up a few little things, but when I saw this, I thought this could be my new best friend! Its a frothing machine. Super easy to use, and now I can make my tea at home everyday in the morning, and save going to starbucks as a treat! All you do is pump away, and beautiful foam is produced! I am excited to try it out, and I will let you know how it goes:) It will be hear in two weeks, so I will be back in a month to update on this! so far my husband doesn't have a lot of faith in me on this one...so I am bound to prove him wrong!haha

Baby loves Bath Time:)

So I took a bath tonight, after one of my coworkers told me about how when she was pregnant her baby loved bath time! So after not having one for a while(don't worry I still shower) i decided to have one tonight...its good for the achy body as well! Well, turns out babies do love bath time! She starting kicking right away! This little one went crazy in my belly:) She was so busy that Dave could see her kick, not just feel it, see it! I can't wait to take her to the pool and lake one day soon! Can you tell this is my favorite part about being pregnant?? And i Figure I better enjoy it before I start getting kicked in the ribs, than my story might change:)

No One thought Boy!

So I didn't really have a chance to give detail on our fabulous friday... a week and a bit ago of finding out the sex of this little monkey:) What an awesome day it was! It was such a neat experience just enjoying that moment and soaking it all in....and of course telling everyone! But here is the crazy part of this story. So when the doctor caim in and of course asked the question I am so sick of being asked....do want a boy or a girl? and we gave him the same answer we give everyone, and how we truley feel, we don't care, we are just so thankful that so far everything looks healthy! after that I did say, but....I can tell ya what everyone thinks it is. He asked, and I said a girl...and I mean everyone! He laughed and said, oh well they are pretty smart! I just started laughing. Because I knew what was to come next;) I have to say everyone being so adimit on what this little one kind of stole my thunder...but at the same time I still overwhelmed how so many people had such strong feelings as to what it was. So my brother and sister in law were on their way out for the evening so my first thought was I will wait till they get out here to my parents and tell all of them. So we thought we would try swinging by Dave's parents to tell them..and of course the one time they aren't home! So I called my mom because I had to tell someone. Now they live two minutes away from us and my in laws...but i couldn't even get to the house...she needed to know on the phone right away! So I told her, and she screamed..."I knew it"! The first of many of this response;)hehe So she said with tears in her eyes come over..so we did:) We were greeted with a hug and a row on the table of baby girl clothes! SHe was serious when she said she knew it:) So after that we were going to go down to the church to tell my dad. While we were driving we saw my dad drive by. We called him and said we were just on the way to tell him the sex...all he said was "hows my granddaugter?"....cheeky monkey!
So we drove to Dave's sister's place to tell her, and again got a big "I knew it" and a handful of girl clothes! Later on we told my brother and his wife...same response, my in laws...same response! Seriously....was anyone suprised:)
LIke I said, I am overwhelmed at how strong of feelings everyone has had about our little one, and all I can think is, man, does God ever have a plan for her! He really did know her before she was created....and if not this, than God really does have a really good sense of humor and come June..our little girl will actually come out as a boy! and than we will all have a really good laugh!

Anyways, thats our story of our special day...and really no matter what this little one is, one that I will always cherish, and I know as soon as I see this baby's face I will be in love, and thats all that matters!!

Fireproof

Dave and I had a different type of Church this morning...we decided to sleep in and rent a movie...sounds religious, I know:) But we really did have a great God experience! We rented the movie Fireproof, and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it! If you want to be challenged in your marriage, and be challenged with your relationship with God...this is a such a great inspirational story. Do you have a loved one that needs encouragement with their marriage, needs hope, and some tools to try and salvage what's there...than see this movie! Seriously, it really touched our hearts. Now its time to get the book!!