Reason # 234 I Love Greenville

We aint never leavin this city!

I joke all the time (even though I'm kinda serious) that I prayed God would let us serve in a city with a Whole Foods and Starbucks.

Well he did!

I also found that Publix is a main grocery store in town, which I love as much as Whole Foods, for different reasons.

One reason I love Publix is because of their Apron Meals. They regularly sample full meals and always have a stand near by with recipe cards, telling you exactly what ingredients you need for a full meal.


These Apron Meals are super easy, quick and I've never tried one we didn't love.

BUT the reason for this post is to mention that this week Greenville opened it's first TRADER JOES!!!!!!
Hallelujer, Hallelujer!

Trader Joe's is a cross between Whole Foods and Aldi. If you can imagine.

The company is actually owned by Aldi, which isn't widely known I don't think....

Anyway, many items in the store are organic. They follow similar standards as Whole Foods such as no item has any artificial ingredients, colors or preservatives, no genetically modified ingredients, no MSG and no added trans fats. Basically this means I can shop without having to study every label!

Most of the items are Trader Joe's brand, which keeps the cost super low.

They also have super fun specialty items. I'm in love!

Good Glory, My Day

I've been sick since around Thursday. I have insane allergies that have been a thorn in my side all my life. I was even tested for Cystic Fibrosis when I was younger because I had so much snot!

I took 8 allergy shots a week up until the middle of high school. Anyway, you get it.

So now I manage my all this mess with Claritin D when I'm not pregnant and Zyrtec when I am knocked up.

This week I came down with some nasty funk. I've been up for the past three nights trying to cough this baby out.

I called my OBGYN nurse on call. She told me to sleep with a cough drop....sighhhh....

All my friends on facebook convinced me to see my primary Dr.

Since I've had Emery I've decided that the most convenient way for me to see a Dr. is to go to Doctors Care, the walk in clinics.

Yes I feel like I'm one step away from the Health Dept. Yes I use my hand sanitizer every five minutes there....BUT It's never taken me more than an hour to get in and out and they always, always fix me right up!

AND I can walk in on Saturday and Sunday! I love me some Dr's Care.

Most of the time I even see the same Dr. I had yet another sinus infection and ear infection. I think this makes #4 since we've been back in Greenville.

A steroid shot in the rear, antibiotic, prednizone pack and glorious life saving cough syrup made me feel like a new woman by that evening!

Praise the LORD I am so much better. Being pregnant, with a 2 1/2 year old running around, taking care of family business while trying to hold the baby in so he won't get coughed out is NO FUN!

I'm green as they come in many ways, but I want real drugs! No sleeping with cough drops in my mouth for me.

P.S. I really do love my OBGYN and the on call nurse there is a sweet heart. I'm sure if she really knew how sick I was she would have told me to go and see my primary Dr. There's a lot you miss in a few minute phone conversation. I also understand why they wouldn't want to see me themselves, I don't want sickies sitting next to me in the baby Dr. office, so I do agree with their policy for only seeing well patients.

On To Coffee

I finished my tea, broke down and took some Sudafed, (don't worry! Dr's approval) and now I'm on to drinking decaf.

I recently bought these boots at Target. I LOVE them! Cute, comfy and affordable. I'm so fickle about boots that I decided awhile back I'd quit spending huge amounts on shoes I don't wear all year.



Okay! Now off to shower, maybe the steam will help me breathe! Can you tell I'm stalling? I really don't want to break out the Neti Pot.

P.S. The pregnancy brain is in full effect still. Please excuse any misplaced words, incorrect spelling and random thought process.

22 Weeks With Jesse And Emery

Well, I'm up too early! Emery's at Benji's parents this weekend. Which is good, because I've got my second sinus infection of this pregnancy! It's so frustrating because when I actually have a day to sleep in, I'm awake trying to breathe.

I'm sitting here on the couch, (which has become my bed since my hip hates our regular bed).....drinking ginger tea, trying to decongest. I decided I'd update everyone on the awesomeness that is Emery. I really need to start blogging what she says more, because she is hilarious, clever, kind and super entertaining. :)

Yesterday Benji was in the garage refinishing the dresser for Emery's big girl room. She walked out there, (unprompted by me)...gave Benji a big hug and said "I love you Daddy bug, thank you for fixing my dresser."

I mean really? My kid is adorable.

I have tried to instill in her an attitude of thankfulness and gratitude. I also try and make sure to tell her how much I love her every time I think it, which is a lot.

But I've never seen her exhibit that kind of emotion with such clarity before.
I. Love. Her!

She has gotten into the habit of calling Benji "Daddy Bug", which is absolutely adorable. She gets it from Kathi calling Asher, "Asher Bug".

Of course something not so cute she did recently happened last week. She was in a totally foul mood. She was eating a snack out of a bowl in the living room. When she was done she threw the bowl. Not necessarily AT me, (I don't think haha) but it flew in my direction and hit me. Well I grabbed her and popped her hand. It was one of those times where she fell apart.

She looked at me through her tears and sobs, crawled in my lap, hugged me and said, "I think it's tap for a nap!" So....off we went to lay down. :)

I've been feeling pretty good with Jesse. I feel like he is way more active than Emery was. I haven't had a headache in about two weeks, hopefully they are not coming back! My hip has been bothering me a lot lately, which is kind of discouraging because I'm only half way through. My hip makes it very difficult to sleep already. I'm hoping that I'll get some relief for a few weeks before the heaviness of the third trimester sets in.

I've gained about 8lbs so far, which is much better than my track record with Emery. :)

Hopefully with in the next few weeks we will get Emery's room finished so that I can start on my boy nursery! I have to say that I am pretty excited about getting to decorate for a boy. I adore my girl (obviously) but I am super excited that I get to experience something totally new this time. It feels kind of like having another first child because I know it's going to be SOOO different.... Hooray for Boys!

Petunia Pickle Bottom

Baby Boy means a new one of these!Even Babies can never have too many bags. ;)

Halloween GNO 2010

I am super worn out tonight! I know, I know nothing new. We had a great but busy weekend. We had our family/Emery's 2year pictures taken this Saturday. Sunday after our normal church routine we went to Stewart Farms with Benji's small group leaders. It was so fun. We picked pumpkins, had BBQ, took a hay ride and walked a corn maze.

Tuesday was my monthly GNO. Our annual Halloween night. We ate out, IN our costumes then went back to Ange's house, had dessert and carved our pumpkins. GNO is a balm to my soul. I am so blessed to have these girls in my life.

In baby news, I realized I had not started taking belly shots yet. I felt like last night was the perfect time to start the series! Haha! I'm getting super excited about Jesse's arrival. I'm getting baby fever and can't wait to feel him in my arms.

Apple Cobbler-The Easiest Eva

We picked about 10lbs of apples when we went apple picking recently. Good thing is that apples last forever, especially when they are a little unripe, which ours were.

I made a batch of apple sauce to freeze, gave a few away, froze some cubed up for later use and STILL had about 10 left over. We tried to eat a few but each one I peeled was just too unripe to eat.

So I scurried to find recipes to use up the last few. I found this one in an old cook book I had and I had all the ingredients on hand so we tried it for dessert tonight, it was delish! I can't wait to have some for breakfast in the morning!

~Crunchy Cobbler~
This can be used as a recipe for any fruit cobbler, peaches, blueberries, etc.
I of course used apples. :p

3-4 cups fresh fruit or pie filling (two large apples or 3 small,peeled and sliced)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (I used juice of one fresh lemon)
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger (I used fresh minced ginger b/c it's what I had, but I'm sure this means powdered)

Place fruit into 7x11 inch baking dish. (I have no idea what size I used, I just found one that looked like it would work and it did! ha!)

Sprinkle fruit with lemon juice, cinnamon, ginger. Mix it all so that apples are covered evenly.

If you need add a light sprinkling of brown sugar (or regular) to sweeten the apples if they are very tart.

For crust mix flour, sugar, egg and vanilla until lumpy. spread over fruit. Drizzle melted butter over top and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 until browned and bubbly... (Mine took more like 40 minutes).

Serve w/ Vanilla or Caramel ice cream! mmmm.

So So good and so easy, it really took like 10 minutes to prepare.

My New Domestic Obsession

I'm a huge fan of sparkling water. "Water with gas", "voda mineral", "water with bubbles"...whatever. If it's water and it's got bubbles in it I'm happy.

In my former days when I wasn't buying diapers and gallons of whole milk at a time I enjoyed splurging on Italian and French sparkling waters.

Specifically San Pellegrino and Perrier.

There is just something so refreshing and cleansing about a nice chilled bottle of Pellegrino, poured into a frosted glass with a slice of lime....that is perfection! Trust me on this and if you've never experienced it, try it.

Any way tough times called for a cut back on my international imports.

But, since I'm preggo I've tried to drink more water instead of my beloved Diet Coke....Which is why I was super excited when I stumbled across this gem at my Publix recently.

Way cheaper than my Italian and French loves and way more convenient since it comes in a can.

La Croix Sparkling Water comes in fun natural flavors as well. Yum!



P.S. I felt bad after dissing my Italian love, so I do admit that when Costco mails me coupon books with $$$ off of cases of Pellegrino I DO splurge and load up on a case or two. I mean who can pass up a Costco deal????

Benji's Birthday Week

Benji turned 31 this past week! Finally, he's not quite as far away from my age. :)

I'd say he had a great week! He killed the biggest deer of his life, got the phone he has been obsessed with for months and we went to a GA game and they actually WON!

I had a blast at the game as well. I really hope we can get down to at least one game every year. Of course it helped that they won, but I would have enjoyed the time with my man regardless.

Happy Birthday Benji! Love you more today than last year!

Now I Can't Remember.....

Seriously. Pregnant brain. I just was in the bath thinking of a post....now I can not remember what I wanted to say!

Anyway, I'm kind of not feeling great now, it's late, I've had too much Coke and chocolate today. :)

Now I think I'm feeling the effects of the sugar let down.

I wanted a candy bar after dinner something fierce. A Skor, those toffee and chocolate goodies. I can not tell you the last time I had one, I mean it's been years.

Okay so 20 dollars later I left Walgreen's with 2 Skor bars, a bag of Halloween pumpkin Reese's Cups, a bag of mini Snickers (those really were for Benji. Really) AND three bags of candy corn. Gah.

I don't even like candy corn. Who is this person growing inside me??????

A word of caution. Don't go to the drug store at Halloween if you're pregnant.

I ate one candy bar right after dinner. Then waited until later to move on to the peanut butter pumpkins.

Let's just say I had a few.

I also had a coke, real, not diet, with dinner. That's probably what sent me into this diabetic coma.

Well, that's totally not what I intended to say, but that's whatcha get. :)

Give me insulin if I pass out. Okay.

P.S. WHAT is it about peanut butter and chocolate that is SOOO irresistible??? Seriously!

W.W.

J.W.L

Oh! P.S!

I finished reading The Help.

Please everyone read this book.

Amazing read! One of the best I've read in a long time.

Brain Dump

Here's my summary of all the things running through my pregnancy brain this week.

I finally made those P.W. Vanilla bean scones.

Two things I learned: 1. Vanilla beans are freaking expensive! 2. Confectioners sugar is different than powdered sugar. Unfortunately I learned number 2 AFTER I was done. It didn't really change the taste I don't think. They were great, but the icing turned out to be more of a glaze.

I am super blessed to have had a healthy baby girl and I am equally blessed thus far with a healthy, (relatively) easy pregnancy with our boy Jesse.

I can't quit buying Target shoes for Emery. Target gets on my nerves for a few different reasons, but their toddler shoes are adorable.

I want to sleep all day. Still. I think this is the hardest thing for me to deal with in pregnancy, (which I know is NOT a huge deal in the big picture)...anyway. thank goodness Emery has MMO two days a week. Here's the confession part, today I dropped her off at 9am. Came home and ate breakfast, went back to sleep at 10am. Woke up at 1230 to pick her up. She fell asleep on the way home so at 1pm I put her in her crib. I tried to stay awake, but at 230 I feel back asleep and slept until 4pm when she woke up.

That is pitiful! I swear! Babies really do suck the life out of you. :)

Hopefully this will post this time. I tried last night, but lost half of it when I tried to post. Blogger is being very sketchy lately.

Blogger, Hello???

Blogger is really gettin on my last nerve recently. Any one else having problems logging in and posting? I keep getting a service error response 503.

Boo blogger. Boo.

The Name Game

I would recommend The Baby Name Wizard book to anyone trying to decide on the name of a child. What an emotional task! Here's the name description the book gave for our little man's name.

Once I read this description how could I resist such a perfect name. :)

"like many Old Testament favorites, this name carries echoes of an earlier America, a land of farms and frontier. But while Jeremiah and Joshua were splitting rails and tiling soil, HE was robbing stagecoaches. Timeless, lawlessly cool........