Already a Daddy's Girl

Austin is a total Mama's boy.  This girl on the other hand is going to be her Daddy's girl.  Austin and I neither one are morning people.  We both like to sleep late, I will usually sleep until 7:30am-8:00am without an alarm and he will sleep past 9:00am if left alone.  We both aren't much for eating breakfast and usually do a 9:30am-10:00am brunch on the mornings we spend together.

Dustin on the other hand is an early riser, and often wakes up at 5:00am ready to roll.  He also loves to eat a hearty breakfast right off the bat and gets so hungry the mornings Austin and I sleep in.  For a couple of months now I have been waking up SO HUNGRY.  I just can't wait to get up and eat, sometimes I would even wake up at like 4:30am-5:00am and be starving.  Also in the last couple of weeks even the mornings I try to sleep in, like this morning, baby girl is in there kick boxing or dancing or something, but giving me a total roughing up right at rib level.

When she comes out she is going to be all Daddy's in the morning and they can go have their breakfast and quality time while Austin and I sleep!

Thursday thoughts

Here are my thoughts on this fine Thursday:

• Only 14 more days of work provided I make it to the date that I have been thinking about taking off.  I am so ready to be home and rest and prepare for Katy's arrival. 
• In spite of the bad news I got yesterday one positive thing that came from it was I looked up my boss from the Boys & Girls Club to make sure she knew about what happened.  I haven't seen or spoken to her in all those years.  Turns out she is still in touch with the family and is planning to attend the services this weekend.  Even though she was the Director of the Club she was my age and a student at CSU, so we were also pretty close back then and hung out outside of work a lot, so it was nice to reconnect with an old friend.
• We had a book club meeting last night to wrap up our discussion of A Prayer For Owen Meany.  It's funny how your perspective of things changes as an adult.  I first read the book my senior year of high school and loved it.  This time around not so much.  It had it's funny moments, but overall I didn't care for it. 
• I'm really disliking the newer word verification to leave comments for fellow bloggers.  When I did the A-Z Challenge they strongly encouraged everyone to disable that feature, and I have to concur.  I haven't had word verification on my comments in a long time and only once have received a spam comment which I deleted, easy peasy. So come on and jump on my bandwagon and turn off your comment verification if you write a blog that I like to comment on PLEASE!
• This morning when I went to get a shirt out of the closet for Austin I couldn't help but stop and look through the new clothes for Katy.  I haven't organized her stuff yet, so I just put it in the closet, but I just love all the little bitty pink and purple clothes!
• I am ready to hit the pool tomorrow.  Last week I was having some swelling in my hands and legs and the pool took care of it, so I know it will feel good this week too. 
• Conditions for our monsoon are starting to show up.  We haven't had any rain at home yet, but there are clouds in the sky again and it has been windy which are both signs of the monsoon.  I am so ready, bring on the rain!

Hug your kids

I have a sad and heavy heart tonight.  When I was in college, about 10 years ago now, I worked at a Boys and Girls Club for a year as one of my many part-time jobs.  My sister called today and said she heard on the radio that two of the kids I worked with there were in a car accident this weekend and both suffered fatal injuries.  Their Mom is a DJ on the country radio station for northern Colorado and they made the announcement since D often talked about her kids on the radio.  My heart is broken for their family, I can't imagine losing two children, they were 16 and 17.  It's hard to wrap my head around why this happened to such a great family, why it happens to anyone for that matter.  All I know is I couldn't wait to wrap my arms around Austin and give him lots of hugs and kisses. 

Back to class

Last Saturday it was back to school for Dustin and I as we went for an all day childbirth class taught by one of the Labor & Delivery Nurses from the hospital that we plan to birth at.  We actually were a tiny bit late since it started at 9:00am Utah time, and we live in Arizona so it was 8:00am our time, and we had a 75 mile, 1.5 hour drive to get there after dropping Austin off at our friends' house for the day. 

When we had Austin we actually drove just as far the other direction to have him at a much smaller hospital in Arizona.  They also offered childbirth classes, but they had 5-2 hour sessions in the evening, so we were only able to attend one session that was about pain management and the intervention tools they might use like forceps and the vacuum extractor.

I have to say that this class was very intensive, but so worthwhile!  The nurse that taught the class has had a very full and rewarding career in her field and was so knowlegable about all the topics.  Unfortunately because she had to cover so much info in such a short amount of time, she really didn't have a lot of time for questions or discussions.

At the very end of the day she took us over to the hospital for a tour of L&D and they have a seperate area for postpartum recovery.  It is going to be a way different experience this time around, this hospital is massive compared to the one we had Austin at that just had one little wing for all childbirth and recovery phases.  I was pleased to learn that this hospital has an extremely low c-section rate at 9%, which is MUCH below the national average, and even below the average for the whole state of Utah. My favorite part of the tour was that some of their delivery rooms have laboring tubs, and I so hope they have one available when I get there.  The unfortunate thing though is that since I will be attempting VBAC my OB insists that I get an epidural once I get to about 7-8cm, so after that I can't use a laboring tub anymore. 

The class and tour really got me excited about the whole process and feel so much more prepared to deal with it this time around.  I think both Dustin and I felt like our experience at the other hospital was just awful after attending this class, they really have limited resources over there which resulted in the negative outcomes that were associated with Austin's delivery.  Don't get me wrong, in the grand scheme of things I am thankful that Austin arrived in this world healthy, and I came through in one piece, it just by far wasn't my ideal birth story.  It's exciting to think about how much support I am going to have this time and how I really hope that Katy's birth is a much more rewarding and healthy experience for all of us.

5QF

  1. What do you keep a stock pile of?


I keep a stock pile of canned food.  I live in Mormon country and they have this wonderful thing called the "case lot sale."  I always stock up on canned tomatoes, green beans, corn, tomato sauce, mandarin oranges, peaches, beans- chili, kidney, black and pinto, olives, chicken and beef broth, and whatever else I need.  Those are things I like to have on hand and not have to think about picking up a can here and there for a certain recipe.

2. If Ben & Jerry asked you to invent an ice cream, what would it be?

Man, B&J is SO GOOD, how do you improve upon their perfection.  I tend to be a chocolate and caramel girl, so they already have a lot of flavors that have wonderful concoctions that appeal to my taste buds. 

3. How do you blow off steam?

I tend to be a bit of a crier.  It's hard to because it is often interpreted as a weakness, but if I'm really upset I cry. 

4. What would you do if you had an hour to yourself anywhere within a ten mile radius of your home...no kids, no hubby, just you?

There isn't much to do around here so it would be something at home.  I love to sew and would probably just dive right in to my baby girl's quilt.  Or I might pull out my scrapbooking projects and hammer away at the albums I need to catch up on.

5. When you were 16, what was your curfew in the summertime?

I lived out in the country, so I didn't really go out a whole lot as a teenager.  I did have a car, but my parents were pretty strict that it was to be used for school transport and not running around.  If there was a specific event I would get permission on a case-by-case basis and it would have those restrictions attached to it. 

I'm also trying to think of where I went that summer, every year in high school I spent a month in another state.  I think that was the year I went to New Jersey and stayed with my big brother for a month.  He definitely did not allow me to drive there, and everywhere we went we went together, so I never went out that whole month alone.  We did a bunch of fun stuff though, it was a fun trip.

Doctor Appointment

I had yet another doctor appointment yesterday.  Everything is still good, I can't find my pregnancy journal to see exactly what I weighed last time, but I'm pretty sure I didn't gain any weight this time after gaining 9lbs at the last visit.  My BP was good and Katy's heart rate was in the 140's.  She was measuring right on. 

I actually saw the Nurse Practitioner and she pointed out that she thought my ankles looked a little swollen.  I hadn't even noticed, but now that she pointed it out today I feel like a swollen whale.  It has been super hot here, so it's no wonder that I am having swelling issues.  She said we will watch for other symptoms, but for now she wasn't too worried about it. 

We are back over to the big city on Saturday for our all day childbirth class.

Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day.  I made Dustin an eggs benedict breakfast then we went to Lake Powell to go swimming at Lone Rock Beach.

It was so nice there, the temps were in the mid to upper 90's, but the water was perfectly cool.  After a couple of hours we dried off and headed into Page for lunch at the Dam Restaurant.  They have an amazing dessert they call cookie dough, they basically take chocolate chip cookie dough and lay it in the bottom of a bowl.  They then cook it to where it just starts to set up a little bit, but still basically soft, maybe like half the regular cooking time.  Then the add a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top and top that with whipped cream and chocolate and caramel sauce.  It is so good! 

We were so full from lunch that I made a quick and simple dinner, but all in all it was a great day.

Baby Shower

My friend Jess hosted a baby shower for me this Saturday.  Jess like me is a detail person, so I really enjoyed the party since she went all out to make it very nice.  Nine ladies attended and we held it at my house on my request since I love our back porch and thought it would be fun to hold it outdoors since Austin’s showers were in the winter and indoors. 

This was Dustin's wagon from childhood.

Sangria on the left, pink lemonaid on the right.

One of the games we played, everyone was supposed to bring a baby picture of themselves and then everyone had to guess who was who.   I was trying to be sneaky and put both Dustin and I's baby picture on the collage.

This is Jess, another game she did was she found celebrity baby pictures and put the head with their adult body to give clues and everyone had to guess who they were.

In this game everyone paired up and had to race to feed each other a bowl of baby puree.  These two won, but they are the recent Mommies!

Heidi couldn't believe how awful the baby food was, I told her I make my own baby food and she thought that was a better idea.

These other three ladies are Dustin's co-workers, next to me is Britt who gave birth to Paige 10 days ago, Korin who delivered Suzannah in March, and Missy with Lila who is 9 months old.

5QF

1. Would you grow your hair out to donate it?

I have done this three times already, twice to Locks of Love and once to Beautiful Lengths.  I will send off my ponytail this time when I finally decide to cut it too, probably to Beautiful Lengths again.

2. What song makes you think of summer?

I have a lot of songs that make me think of summer, the first ones that come to mind:

• Summertime- Will Smith
• Centerfield- John Fogerty
• Chattahoochee- Alan Jackson
• Fishin' in the Dark- Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
• County Fair- Chris LeDoux

3. Are you a flip flops or sandals kind of person?

I could go either way, but I suppose I tend to go more with flip flops. 


4. Favorite summer treat (ie ice cream, snow cones, etc)?

Popsicles!

5. Do you do something special for the father of your children on Fathers day?

I try to do something to make him feel special.  I have a gift and card, but am not giving the details as I am not sure that he won't read this.  This year I am thinking of taking us all to Lake Powell to go swimming and then out to either lunch or dinner depending on how the swimming goes. 

Thursday Thoughts

• I am so happy today is Thursday and I am READY for the weekend!  I have a lot of house cleaning on the schedule, but otherwise fun times planned.
• Saturday afternoon is my baby shower with my in town group of friends who are mostly co-workers of Dustin, spouses of his co-workers, or other Mommy friends who are in the same Mommy circle.  My friend Jess is hosting it at our house, thus the cleaning, and I'm not sure how many are actually planning to come.  Jess said she enlisted the help of our mutual friend Carragh, who happens to own a cake decorating business, so I am excited to see what pretty, amazing confectionery delights they come up with!
• We have been wanting to get a nice set of patio furniture for years now, and just haven't gotten around to it.  I was hoping to get some in time for the shower, and found the perfect set, but won't be able to pick it up until next Wednesday.
• I am almost finished cleaning our office/craft room so we can convert it to Austin's new bedroom.  We have company coming from Iowa at the end of the month, so I need to have it all done by then.  After they leave we will paint it and move him over.
• I'm still not sure what to do for Father's Day.  Dustin loves to hike, so we will probably do something outdoors. 
• Our dish washer started making a funny noise a couple of days ago.  We just bought the thing a couple of years ago, so it's still relatively new, enough so that it should not be making noises yet.  Dustin took off the bottom spinner thingy and it was FULL of calcium deposit.  The water here is so terrible and hard on appliances.  If I knew when we moved in what I know now I would have had a water softener installed because the water here is so damaging to appliances.  I am going to try one more cycle of vinegar to help clear it out and hopefully it will take care of the rattle. 
• My friend Amanda finally had her newest little baby, a third boy.  Her cousin put on Facebook that the name was Zebadia, to which I thought "what kind of a name is that!"  I know that she is very traditional and into strong names, so it seemed like an odd fit to me.  The only thing I could figure was maybe her Marine husband had a colleague who died that had that name. When I looked it up the name actually is Biblical, but when Amanda finally posted the official news his name is actually Jedidiah. 
• I think I have decided that I want to stop working on July 26, provided Katy doesn't decide to come sooner, which means I have 24 days of work left!

Dentist Take #2

We went to the Pediatric Dentist today for Austin's second visit.  I took him about 7 months ago for the first time.  He was definitely way more confident now and was a great little patient.  Last time he wouldn't even consider the x-ray chair, and today he hopped up like it was no big deal.  Last time he did ok with the hygenist, but sat up instead of laid down.  Today he laid happily in on the table and watched Robin Hood on the ceiling screen.  Last time I had to hold him in my lap while the dentist did the exam and even had to hold him down for a bit, but today he laid back and let the dentist take as much time to examine as he needed.  It was really great to see the difference in his maturity level.

All of his teeth were great, no problems.  The dentist complimented on how different his teeth were since after the last visit when he recommended then that we take away the binky, and we did and it really allowed his teeth to line up.  He said he thinks it's a great recovery and he will have no long term effects from the binky use.  He said the x-rays showed the permanent teeth are coming in nicely and will be large, so he will likely have some crowding at first until his jaw grows bigger. 

That was ironic!

Sorry, one more quick blog post.  I just hit publish on my doctor appointment post, then clicked back over to Facebook and saw that Britt just had her baby tonight at 6:56pm.  She was born after 10 minutes of pushing, I could have almost been catching a baby yesterday in my car, LOL!

Doctor Appointment

I had my 30 week doctor appointment yesterday.  It was the first time that my appointment schedule matched up with my friend Britt who will be 39 weeks tomorrow, so on her weekly appointments and we traveled the 150 mile trip together.  We went to lunch at a Greek restaurant before our appointment and it was a lot of fun.  I think it was a good thing I drove as she was having contractions the whole drive over and back.  I bet she has her baby girl this weekend.

Everything is looking great.  My blood pressure was good, I passed my gestational diabetes test and the fundal height still showed that she is about a week behind the original due date.   The one bad thing... I gained 9 pounds in three weeks!  YIKES!  The midwife that I saw didn't say anything about it, so I guess they aren't worried about it, but it blew my mind.  For a while I didn't gain any weight though, so I guess I'm just packing it all on at once.  Another thing that might have factored a little tiny bit into it is I have been having morning appointments and going straight in after driving the hour and a half over there without eating.  This time we had an afternoon appointment and went right in after I ate a huge lunch, so maybe (hopefully) it was that I just pigged out.  I'm not really that worried about it anyway because I plan to nurse this baby and if it goes like Austin I will lose a ton of weight. 

Make sure you read my 5QF post to find out baby girl's name!

5QF

Phew (wiping my brow in relief), thank goodness it is Thursday night and I survived my crazy week (over 600 miles later) of driving to the big city and beyond three days in a row.  It looks like I may be headed back on Saturday since we had to leave our pickup at the shop for a transmission rebuild, oh yes almost $3,000, but at least it will be back to a great truck again.  And yay, I have a four day weekend since I always take Fridays off and next Monday is Kaibab Paiute Tribal Establishment holiday!!!





1. Did you do anything special for your kids on the last day of school? Or did you parents do anything special for you?

My little man is three and still in a preschool/daycare, so no summer break for him since I don't get summer break. 

I can't really remember anything special or a tradition associated with the last day of school as a kid. 

2. What's your favorite summer tradition with your children?

Definitely going to the pool, there is no better way to beat the heat here in Arizona. 

3. What was your favorite thing to do during the summer as a kid?

I can't think of one favorite thing above all else. I loved summer swim lessons even though we had an indoor pool.  I also loved attending the summer enrichment program that my school district put on in the summer for a fee you could take fun classes like art, drama, reading, science, etc. for a couple of weeks during the summer.  We would go camping and fishing a lot during the summer which was fun.  I also loved helping my Dad in his garden during the summer, and of course eating all the yummy fresh produce.

4. How old were you when you were married? Were you a Bridezilla?

I was 26 when I got married, but my 27th birthday was the following weekend.  I was definitely not a bridezilla, I am very easy going.  

5. What is your favorite girl name? (I'm needing suggestions.)

CONGRATS SANDY!  I am so excited for you even though I know you are proud of your MOB card!  So okay, we have also been working on girl names too, and guess what?  We think we finally agreed on THE ONE! 

Drum roll please.....

Kaitlan Grace

We may tweak the spelling a bit, but we are pretty sure we like it and will either call her Katy or Kate.  It still works in my middle name of "Ann" thus the different spelling.  The other spellings I could see us doing is Kaitlann, Caitlan, or Caitlann, what do you think?

So for you Sandy here is the list we were working from:

Shelby
Megan
Melanie
Miranda
Kendra
Tiffany
Andrea
Hannah
Morgan
Chelsea
Melissa

And even though we of course weren't considering it, Sarah is a great name that is all wonderfully biblical and strong!

Relay for Life

It was great to participate in Relay for Life last Friday.  I didn't stay the whole night, but we went up for the opening ceremony at 6 pm and hung out for a while and walked a few laps.  Then I went back and walked from 10-11pm for my team.  It was cool to partipate because I was also pregnant with Austin the summer I walked in Relay for my Dad's team.

I wasn't able to participate last year as I had a work conflict, but here is my post from the 2010 Relay. I have participated in numerous Relay's and couldn't even begin to figure out just how many now. Back in 1989 my Mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer and had to have a hysterectomy. It was detected during a routine pap smear and they were able to remove the cancer before it spread so she did not need any further treatments. For many years I would go walk with her at the Relay she would participate in in Colorado and cheer her on for the survivor's lap. She always says she feels like she is trying to take credit for something she didn't earn since they got the cancer out so quickly and she never really suffered or had to go through the nasty cancer treatments like chemo or radiation. I tell her that she is the PERFECT example and inspiration for what the American Cancer Society is all about since she DID get routine screening and they were able to act quickly.

Fighting cancer does not need to be an ugly battle!

In 2008 I lost my Dad to kidney cancer. He was the exact opposite of my Mom as he would never go to the doctor. By the time my Mom finally convinced him to go in it was much, much too late. Don't get me wrong when I say that I'm happy it took him relatively quickly, I miss my Dad and wish that he didn't have to die, but I am so happy his suffering wasn't long and drawn out. If you have never witnessed someone die of cancer it is a horrible awful death where you are reduced to skin and bones. It is incredibly painful for them and so hard as a loved one to watch. I was with my Dad the last two weeks of his life and helped my family provide his care. I shoveled so many super strong pain medications like Oxycontin and morphine into him and yet he would still quiver in pain and struggle to breath.

He died in February, the following June we put together a family team in his honor.  We raised over $1,000 for the ACS.  My Dad was a construction worker so we wore hard hats and tool belts.  We wore green and white lays because kelly green is the color for kidney cancer.

Relay is an all night event to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.  People form teams that fund raise and then have a member walking the course at all times through the night.  Walking through the night symbolizes the struggle a person faces when battling cancer.  The opening ceremony is before the sun sets so the sun setting is like the diagnoses.  Through the night it's cold and lonely and the tiredness sets.  The sun rising symbolizes remission and the hope and joy of conquering the illness.  But it is also a celebration and mostly has a fun atmosphere. They usually have fun music playing and do fun little games to make walking more interesting.  At some point in the evening they all have a luminaria ceremony where for a donation they have a white paper sack that you can dedicate either "in Memory" of someone who has died, or "in Honor" of someone who won the fight and they line the track with the bags and light a candle, or glow stick in them.  It's very surreal to see the soft glow and think about how many people have been touched by cancer. 

The theme of Relay for Life is Celebrate, Remember, Fight Back.

Who I Celebrate:
Doris H. (Mom) cervical cancer
Candy H (cousin) melanoma
Lisa S (co-worker) breast cancer, just completed chemo and radiation
Miriam M (co-worker) some kind of abdominal cancer
Dolores S (co-worker) breast cancer
Gayle K (co-worker) ovarian cancer
Paul R (co-worker) some kind of abdominal cancer

Who I Remember:
Carl H (Dad) kidney cancer
Catherine T (Maternal Grandmother) breast cancer
Bert H (Uncle) lung cancer
Doris T (Aunt) abdominal cancer
Roger S (cousin) lung cancer
Mike B (ARS co-worker) male breast cancer, actually survived the cancer, but died from a heart attack
Harvey "H-Man" S (tribal member and softball team coach) some sort of abdominal cancer
Earl S (co-worker) lung cancer
Darlene M (tribal member) abdominal cancer

Fight Back:
There are a lot of ways that we can all fight back against cancer.  The number one thing that we can each do for ourselves it early detection.  Cancer screening varies widely depending on if you are a man or women and what age you are.  If you aren't sure what screening you should have you should visit with your doctor, and visit the American Cancer Society page to find out more.  If you need to have something checked out call and schedule the appointment today!

I know I get an annual well women check where they do routine pap smears, breast exams, and blood work.  I also worked up the courage this year to go to a Dermatologist and have my skin examined.  I was especially scared of that appointment because I had numerous sunburns as a kid and fake tanned in college.  At home I pay attention to my skin and do monthly self breast checks. 

Another way to fight back is to help a family who is battling cancer.  I know it was such a relief to have people come and visit when my Dad was sick.  I know it's incredibly difficult as it's hard to know what say to someone who is dieing, but it means a lot to the whole family to know that they are not isolated or alone.  If you are worried about what to say, then call the family ahead of time to express your concern (believe me they understand) and ask that they stay while you visit and help guide the conversation.  I think when you are there all the time it's easier to make conversation.  Another great thing you can do is bring food.  Often times the cancer patient can't eat much more than soft bland foods, but the caretakers are also grieving and working very hard to care for the loved one and often don't take the time to prepare food for themselves.  This is the best time for good hearty comfort food.  One other thing that is probably the most challenging, is to offer to sit with a cancer patient and allow the regular caretakers to take a break.  It is SO EXHAUSTING to be a caretaker and it is so nice to take a break, even if it's just to take a simple walk to get out and get a breath of fresh air.

Three times now I have grown my hair out long, then cut it short and donated it twice to Locks of Love and once to Beautiful Lengths.  If you are blessed with fast growing, healthy hair like me this is a way to give of yourself to help a cancer patient.

And of course it costs a lot of money to find a cure so a great way to help the fight is to participate in the various cancer events such as Relay or all the Comen Breast Cancer events.  If you can't participate you can sponsor someone who is participating.  I always think of it as an investment, help the fight today and find a cure, then someday I won't have to suffer if I do end up with cancer.  If it doesn't help me it will definitely help a loved one, so no cent is wasted.

Busy weekend!

We had an especially full and busy weekend.   It's being followed up by an equally busy week for me as every day after today I will be going to the big city and even beyond tomorrow for work.

Unfortunately I got some disturbing news about a close family member on Friday and it hung a grey cloud over the events of the weekend for me as I pondered it and tried to wrap my head around what had occurred and what it means for their future.  I have strong faith and believe that God has a plan for everyone, and it's not always meant for us to understand his reasoning for certain obstacles in our lives, but I find it's still hard sometimes to accept those purposes and understand the meaning that will come from our trials. 

Friday night was our local Relay for Life. I started to talk about it here, but it was long enough already to merit it's own post, so I will do a separate post a little later on that.

Saturday we decided to beat the heat and go to our local pool.  We didn't even go to it once last summer because the town to the north of us has a newer and better pool that they built about four years ago.  Two summers ago we tried to take Austin to our pool, but he was bored since it's a standard pool and he kept trying to get out of it and go play with the gate of the fence, so we skipped it altogether last summer.  This summer the newer pool is closed because they discovered severe structural problems because the contractor did not compact the ground enough during construction, so the city decided to close it until the issues have been resolved in court and their pool is fixed.  Our pool ended up being very nice and Austin stayed interested because he was able to play and interact with us.  It wasn't crowded at all and the water felt so good. 

Saturday afternoon I had a book club meeting.  I recommended our current book A Prayer For Owen Meany as I read it back in high school during Senior English and remembered that I really enjoyed it. I had forgotten the first part of the book is a bit slow and not so interesting as it sets the plot for the end of the book.  Everyone in my club was having a hard time engaging in it, but I promised that it picks up and gets better.  We met at a local ice cream shop.  At first when I looked at the menu I was going to get something along the lines of my usual tastes which involve chocolate, but instead I went out a on a limb and got a dessert called "Miss Muffet's Tuffet, A Twist On Strawberry Shortcake. A Scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream Sits Atop Special Bread Pudding, Covered With Fresh Strawberries" I don't think I've ever had bread pudding, but I can't say it was really great, just kind of bland, I wish I would have stuck with something chocolate. 

Sunday we went to the park in the town north of us as they have a splash pad in addition to the playground equipment that is always at least partially shaded.  At first Austin wanted to activate the splash pad and stand back and watch it.  We finally told him he couldn't just waste the water anymore if he wasn't going to play in it so we went to the playground and he enjoyed the swings, slides and rock climbing wall.  A little later more kids showed up at the park and got him engaged in the splash pad and then he was all into splashing around and got totally soaked. 

That afternoon while Austin napped I finished cleaning out our old metal desk in our office and Dustin painstakingly moved it out of the house to his shop.  It's a huge old Army surplus metal desk that weighs about a million pounds.  I told him I remembered when we finally got it in our office that we swore it would stay with the house, but he managed to maneuver it out after removing two doors and banging up his body.  It's amazing how much space it took up in that room.  I still have some stuff to sort through and put away, but I should be able to finish up the clearing out of that room by this weekend.  We are going to move everything out besides the full sized bed for now until we have company at the end of the month, and as soon as they leave we are going to get rid of that bed and paint the room so we can move Austin over.  Hopefully we will have that all done so that Austin has a month or so to adjust before the baby arrives. 

I also got Bountiful Baskets this weekend which is a produce coop where you can get a lot of produce for pretty cheap.  This week I got a "tropical pack" as an extra item.  It had mango, pineapple, lemons, a coconut, fresh mint, lychee, and two vanilla beans.  I asked my boss if she ever used vanilla beans for anything since she likes to cook and she told me that you can make your own vanilla extract.  She told me about how she did it, and I googled it and sure enough it's super easy.  You sterilize a glass jar and lid then add some type of hard alcohol to it and chop up the vanilla beans and add them to the booze.  Shake it up and put it in a dark place to sit and extract for several months.  I went ahead and used vodka as the websites I referenced said that vodka just leaves the vanilla flavor, whereas other types of alcohol impose their own flavors on top of the vanilla.  My boss said when she made it she used spiced rum.  I have to admit that I went and bought the vodka myself and felt like I had a bunch of condemning eyes on me being that I am seven months pregnant, but maybe it was my own self-consciousness!