Time Warp

I could have a baby within the next seven days. Holy. Cow. Or this baby could decide that he is perfectly content in there and stay for 2 weeks longer. I didn't feel like including my puffy face in this one. I've had enough ugly pregnant photos taken (i.e. new ID cards) to last me a lifetime.

Time is both flying and dragging. Reasons:

--Flying:

1. I am already 39 weeks pregnant. 
2. We have almost been living in Minot for a year already. Never thought that phrase would come out of my mouth. Ugh...Minot.
3. Did I mention I'll be having a baby soon? I still can't wrap my head around it. 

--Dragging:

1. I still have one more week before I meet my baby.
2. Um...reason #1 is pretty much the only reason right now to why I feel time is dragging. 9 months of pregnancy is a long time, let me tell you. 

Speaking of pregnancy being nine months long, you would think that it would give you adequate time to prepare and get used to the idea that the alien movements that you are feeling in your stomach are actually going to turn into a real life child some day. For some reason I just still have to grasp the idea that soon I'll have a baby in my arms, instead of in my stomach. It's a weird feeling. I am baking a kid in there. You can buy diapers, crib, butt paste...everything that you need that would suggest, Hey -- there is a baby coming soon. But it still is a crazy notion. And I thought my 38 week paranoia was bad.

Finally finished up the baby's room. It was pretty much finished already, I just had been using the crib as a place to store things that hadn't been put away yet. My mother made the amazing crib bumper (*gasp* I know, crib bumper...get over it)!

 I finally found a 20 quart stock pot and finished boiling pre-folds. Thank goodness. This one fit at least 6-8 a time, which is way better than the 3 that I had been using previously.

 Now to look like a crazy pregnant person, I spent the day half an hour googling how to fold the pre-folds and practicing them on poor Gentle Giraffe. Now Gentle Giraffe has a huge bum, so it made the practice interesting. Here he is wearing a newborn diaper cover and pre-fold, and of course Athena had to get in on the action.

Two weeks to go.

Why do people feel the need to insert their random pregnancy comments into any situation when there is a pregnant woman involved? I spent three days in a briefing about Transition Assistance, which basically was a workshop for interviewing skills, resume writing, and some random knowledge that would have been helpful if I were getting out as a disabled veteran. The interview and resume stuff will actually be helpful some day down the line when I need to go back to work.

Also...individual leading class referred to a stay at home mom as a "Domestic Engineer". Totally going to try that one on my next resume.

Anyways, my being pregnant came up randomly way more than it should have. On day one, it was used by my mini-group as an example of what NOT to get out of the class -- Child Birth. It was even written on the board. Ugh. I don't know why these people thought I was going to go into labor righthatsecond. But they did.

Throughout the three day period, one extremely moronic man...you know the type I'm talking about -- the one that feels the need to insert a comment all the time and must think he is the most hilarious person on Earth. Yeah...that guy felt the need to tell me every single day not to go into labor. Why? Because he didn't want to get his catcher's mitt and help deliver a baby. Let me tell you something, sir...you are in no way getting close to anything related to the birth of my child. Delusional idiot. On the last day, with two whole hours to go, he tells me that I just have to keep the kid in until the end, and after that "I don't care if you go into labor." Nice dude. Real stinkin' nice. I don't care if you fall and slip on the ice when you leave the building.

People are dumb. D-U-M.

So, crabby pregnant lady rant over. I will be 38 weeks tomorrow. I have no signs that the baby will be coming any earlier than his due date, despite what people say and I am definitely ok with that and prefer that he stay in until then. However, I am getting to that extremely uncomfortable point where this little boy would be doing be a HUGE comfort-related favor by exiting my uterus. 

Lately I had been having cravings for cinnamon-sugar doughnuts. Which is awesome, because this whole pregnancy I have been plagued with the feeling of having a craving but never being able to figure out what the craving was actually for.  Which is REALLY annoying! 

So, not one to deny an actual make-able craving....I made some doughnuts. (And yes, I can convince myself they were better for me because I baked them.) 

Baked Cinnamon Breakfast Bites

Never in my life have I purchased shortening. I sort of felt myself getting fatter as I added it to my cart.

The three stage process:

 1. Roll into ball. 

2. Dip ball in butter. 

3. Roll buttered ball in cinnamon sugar goodness.

Right before baking. Size was not an issue here. The freakishly large 

one in the corner I attempted to fill with blackberry jelly per my husband's request. 

End result...ummm.....not really sure what happened? 

Totally not shaped like the doughnut hole/bite it was supposed to be. 

Actually more scone-ish than doughnut-ish. 

They were still very tasty and are no longer in existence. 

I kind of want to make some more right now. As a note, the recipe did call for 1 cup of crushed crisp rice cereal. I was not about to buy a whole box of rice crispies for one cup. So this part got left out, which could be why they were so droopy. That's my rationalization. It's not because I'm not that good of a baker. 

SrA Haswell has left the building!

Today was my last day of work. What a strange and exciting...and downright terrifying feeling. Going to my final-out appointment on the 20th will probably give me a stroke. But I promise you...

I MADE THE RIGHT DECISION.

So stop asking me, "Are you sure you want to get out?" If you had any part in the payment of our family's bills or in the raising of our son, then perhaps I would take your unwelcome advice and questioning into consideration...but you do not. Therefore: butt out! 

What am I talking about, you ask? When you are pregnant, the Air Force is kind enough to give the mother the option of separating early. I still have 3 more years in my contract as of December 9th, but now that I am pregnant I have chosen to take the option of separating. Done. Clean split. Bye bye, Security Forces! Now, don't get me wrong. I did not take this decision lightly. In fact, it took pretty much up until the first week of December to finally make the decision. I talked with two Air National Guard recruiters, and would have talked to the Reserve recruiter had she bothered to email me or call me back. In the end, it was a simple question: What is the best decision for our family? Faced with two AD Security Forces members, one with the worst schedule on the planet (that would be my husband's) and my schedule of 4 days in the field, it made it an easy choice. I refuse to let a babysitter raise our child -- and basically go to work JUST to pay for child care. 

While this decision may not be best for everyone, it certainly is for me. Things will be tight for awhile just living on one paycheck, but knowing that either my husband or I will be home every single night with our child makes that decision simple to live with. 

Now begins the out-processing! 

When I got home I celebrated by taking a nap. And it was a-w-e-s-o-m-e. Then I made dinner:

The Pioneer Woman's replica of Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana

I love this lady. Not only can she make a fantastic recipe, but is very entertaining. Here are some photos of my creation:

Yeah, this looks pretty gross, I know. It's my fault for not reading the directions when I was meal planning. I did not have whole milk--or any milk for that matter. What I had was leftover BUTTERMILK from yesterday's magical cake adventure. So I used a cup of that instead. 

 A bowl full of Kale. Never in my life have I purchased kale before this recipe. To me, it was known as the garnish used when I worked at Texas Road House..."each plate is finished with a golf-ball sized piece of kale". 

 The finished product! I turned the heat up too high, so it sort of coagulated the buttermilk/half & half. Oh well. I'm on my second bowl. It is delicious. So I assume that made correctly, like The Pioneer Woman intended, it would be heavenly. Take that Olive Garden!

37 weeks...it's the final countdown.

Today I am 37 weeks pregnant. Depending on who you ask, this is considered full-term. Or 29 weeks is. Or 40. Who knows. All I know, is that in three weeks I will have my baby here. Unless of course he decides to come early or would like to stay in and cook a little longer. The cooking longer part is just fine with me. So let's just say by Valentine's Day we will have a newborn around the house.

Yay pregnancy! Here is my most recent bump picture, it was taken in the middle of last week, so not quite technically 37 weeks yet. I feel like I look incredibly tired...which I am.  Turning over in bed has become an Olympic Sport. Exhausting. We are getting very anxious for this little one to arrive! Right now it is comparable to being in some sort of purgatory. You wait and wait...9 months of waiting! Car seat base is in the car, clothes are washed, nursery is ready, diapers are prepped. Oh, did I mention we are doing cloth diapers? Hahaha...this should be interesting. You get everything ready for baby, and then you play the waiting game. All the while, little one is perfectly content inside my ute beating me up from the inside out.

 I love him already.

I also have a black eye in this picture, but you can't really see it. Thankfully it was only on my eyelid, so I could hide it with make-up. It was given to me by one of my dogs.

Yep, this little angel, Athena, bruised and battered my face.

This is what happened -- As stated before, I'm 37 weeks pregnant. So the nesting phase has definitely kicked in. Last weekend I am doing laundry. Boy, do I hate laundry. Yet love it at the same time. Weird. Anyways...down to the last load. Finally! I tend to toss dirty dishcloths down the stairs so they land on the floor in front of the laundry room so there were a couple laying on the ground for me to bend down and pick up. Apparently this was a secret signal to Athena.

 Bending over for rags = time to race up the stairs at full speed. 

Except...my face was in the way. Holy pain, I tell you. Stars dazzled my eyes. As did tears. My wonderful husband hugged me until I stopped crying then got me some tylenol. I love that man. So that is the story of my black eye. Silly puppy.

Later today I am going to attempt to bake a cake. From scratch. Pregnant fat kids unite!

Black Magic Cake

Yeah, yeah -- my presentation leaves something to be desired. It's a work in progress, ok? This cake was amazing, by the way. As you can see by that sizeable portion that is missing. I cheated on the frosting though, I only made powdered sugar frosting and added a couple tsp of cocoa powder. I didn't feel like buying the chocolate it called for. 

And today I begin...

Right. Ok. I have no idea how to blog. I can't even keep a diary/journal, because I will write something in it and then later I'll realize what a moron I sound like and tear the page out. So this should be fun. We'll see how long it lasts.

I guess I could start with some sort of mini-intro. So I'm pregnant with my first child. I belong to a group of other women on FB (originally started on thebump.com) where quite of few of them have blogs. I read through a couple and thought, "Hey...maybe I could do that". Soon I'm going to be at home with a newborn, what better way to document the daily happenings of the life I lead. Once again...we shall see how long this lasts. File this one under "Maybe Boring".

But hey, I have a fantastic digital camera and a newly gifted (thank you to the fam) video camera that I am going to try to put to good use. I have two idiotic, never tired huskies that are extremely entertaining. Plus a future outside baby.

Let's take it one day at a time.