Full Moon Hocus Pocus

Another weekend down, no child has arrived. I am officially due on Wednesday and I don't think I need to express anymore how ready I am for Evans to make his appearance. I am heading to the doctor tomorrow and I am really hoping that all the walking in the vineyards has helped move this along. It nothing else works I am going to put all my eggs into the basket of tomorrow being a full moon. Hey, whatever works right?

This weekend was pretty relaxing and uneventful. Deaner and I went to Chili's in Ramstein AGAIN on Friday night. I'm sure we won't be able to go for awhile and it is nice to be out of the house for an extended period of time. Saturday early afternoon we went to the Wiesbaden wine festival for lunch again as well. It was pretty much a Groundhog's weekend! Saturday night we ate Mexican (which does not compare to the States but we have found a restaurant that is acceptable here!)and Sunday we lounged around and took our last swim in the Deaner Country Club. Sadly enough, I felt as though it was time to take the club down yesterday or else I'm afraid it would sit out there and get all gross once the baby comes. It is all drained and sitting outside waiting to dry out (of course it is raining) before it gets put in the basement for the winter. I will really miss the pool but I am relieved that it is down and handled. I'll look forward to swimming in it next summer with my son! (who may or may not be here by then).

Today I met Deaner for lunch at the base and then did a BIG shop at the commissary. I hate it when we run out of everything all at once because it makes our shopping A LOT more expensive. On the list today were essentials like toilet paper, paper towels, soap, water, deoderant, listerine, detergent etc etc. All the things seem to run out at once! Plus I had to pick up things for our guests that we don't typically buy like coffee and breakfast foods etc. I just want this baby to get here before they all arrive!

So, keep me in your thoughts tomorrow and say a little prayer that it is day! I am really hoping so!! I'm going to start my new Giada de Laurentiis spicy macaroni casserole recipe for dinner and listen to the new David Gray double CD that I just downloaded on itunes. I'm super sad to be missing him playing in Atlanta tonight alas, 5,000 miles is a little far to fly for a concert the week you are due with a baby! Later!

Use Sparingly

I need Evans to arrive before the end of this toothpaste tube is completely gone. You see, I bought a new toothpaste tube several weeks ago but packed it in my hospital bag, which is now gathering dust in the back of my car. I don't feel like rooting through it to get the new toothpaste out because I know I will never remember to replace it when it is time to go to the hospital. Nor do I really feel like purchasing another one. So the only solution is for the baby to hurry the hell up so that Mama doesn't have to worry about her dire toothpaste situation. AND I have to share what's left of this with Deaner! Happy weekend to everyone!!!!!!

Operation Induce Labor

Happy Wednesday to everyone! 39 weeks today and counting! I couldn't feel LESS like I was about to have a baby if I tried! No pains, no cramps, no nothing today to indicate that a baby might be on the way! :) I'm posting so late tonight but the day sort of got away from me. I went and met Deaner for a really late lunch at the PX because he is in a conference all week long. When I got home I started some homemade spaghetti sauce to make lasangne for dinner. Deaner requested it and I figured I should make it completely from scratch if I was going to do it. I also decided to make two while I was at it and freeze one for after the baby comes. It turned out really well and I was happy with it.YUM!! However along the way I had to do something really ghetto. I made the second lasangne in the smallest pyrex I had but it still didn't fit into my gallon size ziplock bag that I was planning on sealing it in. So I had to improvise. I put one ziplock on one end and then a second one on the other end and sealed it with MAILING TAPE!I think it is ghetto fab and that it will work out just fine! Sometimes you have to use your brain! :) Dinner turned out delicious and I am nice and stuffed!

Backing up a little bit and in reference to my post title today I have decided to do everything that I can to help get me a bit closer to giving birth. Today I made myself walk up in the vineyards for over an hour. I have to admit at the end I wasn't sure I was going to make it back but it was pretty nice and I am glad that I did it. I snapped these shots because the vineyards are starting to look really pretty before harvest.I am excited for all our parents to be able to see the vineyards while they look so gorgeous. At least Evans is coming at a pretty time of year. Unfortunately all I have to report is that my heels are killing me and I don't feel any closer to having a baby. I guess tomorrow I will just have to try a little bit harder! The weather is supposed to be nice for the rest of the week and weekend so maybe I can take advantage of it. I just hope it doesn't mean that it is going to get hot again.

That is about all for today. I have to go clean up the kitchen now. Sometimes I wish I had a cleaning robot.

Doctor's Update

First of all, this has been a very trying day for me. I feel like I have been on a roller coaster emotion wise but I'm starting to get over it. Starting with my doctor's appointment this morning. We had to wait FOREVER before I was seen. They couldn't find Evans at first on the fetal heart monitor and while this never made me nervous (because I could feel him moving the whole time) it really annoyed me because it ended up taking a lot longer than it should have. Deaners leaves work for these appointments and while he is happy to do it, it makes me mad when we are in the office for two hours. That just seems a bit over the top to me. And the thing is, sometimes it doesn't take nearly as long so I can't tell Deaner to come later because you just NEVER KNOW when I'll be seen. Anyways, onto my exam results. As soon as the doctor checked me out she told me that she was pretty sure she would be seeing me next week as well. NOT what I wanted to hear at all. I'm still only dilated 1cm and apparently nothing has changed at all. What happened to her telling me that I would deliver around 37 weeks? Liar. Evans is now just over 8 POUNDS! At this rate I'm going to give birth to a two year old! So it is another week of waiting. I'm due a week from tomorrow and the doctor told me that IF I have progressed some more by my appointment on Tuesday she MIGHT try something that MIGHT make me go into labor. Doesn't sound too reassuring to me. Sigh.......

After the appointment taking 20 years to establish NOTHING new Deaner didn't have time to have lunch. He went back to the office and I headed over to the base to check our mail since I have been expecting several packages. To make a very long story short, the mail guy refused to give me my packages at 1:30pm because he wasn't supposed to be open until 3pm. Seriously? You are standing right there and you can't just give this 10 month pregnant lady her freaking packages while she is standing in front of you? No go. I was so angry that I went and ate lunch alone and then sat in my car for 65 minutes waiting until 3pm. At which point I went to collect my mail and had the mail guy slam my packages on the ground before giving them to me. Needless to say, Deaner was furious and a complaint will be made about him. Then on my way out to the car, I snagged my jeans on a pole and ripped them.

At least at this point things started to turn around! I received my book order from Barnes and Noble so thankfully I do not have to read What to Expect In The First Year ANYMORE in bed at night. I am over it. I can indulge in a new trashy series. My second package was from my friend Emory and contained Evans monogrammed burp cloths and a monogrammed outfit that I had given her to do. They all turned out fabulously!!!Now we are just waiting on a little boy to get here and put them to use! Then my last package was the best surprise ever!! It isn't every day I get presents in the mail that look like this!That contain all of these goodies!!!This package from my Aunt Dee and Uncle Butch really made my day! After a boring doctor's appointment, a rude mailman and ripped pants, getting all this really turned the day around!! This sleep sheep, stroller blanket and Bundle me bunting are all from my registry on Pottery Barn Kids and I'm so excited to have all of them. The bundle me is awesome because it fits into the baby's carseat or stroller for the winter and it a permanent blanket. Knowing the winters here we are going to be using it A LOT. I also got some pictures of Evans' nursery from Shutterfly so if I have nothing else to do tomorrow I can work some on his baby book. Things are definitely looking up as we head into the evening!

I'm just waiting on Deaner to get home from the gym so I can start dinner. I'm going to ask for opinions again on the FLIP HD camcorder seen here.From comments I got yesterday it seems like everyone who has one really enjoys it and feels like it is worth having. My aunt disagreed but like I said, she never uses anything to it's fullest potential! :) My dad told me last night that they sell them at Costco now so I am going to have him keep his eye on them. It might be my next gadget purchase. Of course, if Evans never arrives, I'll never have anything to film! Happy Tuesday to everyone!! Seriously? Is it only Tuesday??

Question???

I should have posted about this in my first post of the day! I meant to but it completely slipped my mind. Don't forget to read my first post of the day! I have really been debating whether or not to get this Flip UltraHD High Definition Digital Camcorder. My aunt has one and I am not convinced that she uses it enough to make it worthwhile. However, she also never uses anything like she should and I think that I might really enjoy having this with Evans arrival swiftly approaching. I just think that maybe it would be nice to be able to send little clips of videos to our parents as Evans starts to get bigger. But I know we have Skype so I'm just not sure. The camcorder gets great reviews and I think that it can take/hold 120 minues of video before you have to put them on your computer for safe keeping. At $199 it is much less than a normal camcorder and it could travel with me in my purse. We were planning on getting an external hard drive anyways so that I can backup all our pictures etc so I could store them on there if it gets to be too much for the laptop. If anyone has one I would love to hear your opinions on it!!! Thanks!

Monday Updates

Happy Monday to everyone out there in blog world! I hope that everyone had a great weekend and are not depressed that we have arrived back at Monday again! We had a great weekend here in Germany. No, there is no baby news to report but I just have a feeling that it is getting closer. I feel pretty funky but I'm hoping that is a good thing. I go to the doctor in the morning and I am hoping that she will tell me that I am much farther along than I was last week. Say a little prayer for me if you can! I don't know how much longer I can do this!

Friday was a really great day! I have been getting REALLY bored with our normal weekend routine lately. I'm sick of eating in the same mediocre German restaurants and coming home early for bed since I can't really do anything fun (ie, have a DRINK). I met Deaner for lunch on Friday afternoon and we ate at a great Chinese restuarant that we both really liked. It is always nice to find a new restaurant that we (I) find acceptable. After lunch I came home and did a bit of internet shopping for Evans. I know I know, I am going to stop but really, I couldn't once I found these.Game Day Baby Gear is a GREAT site that I stumbled across when searching for Colonel Reb items (which come off the shelves at the end of the month!). I thought that these overalls would be super cute for Evans next football season and he will be so vintage with his Colonel Reb Gear. And the price was extremely reasonable. These overalls come in most all schools as well so check out the site. I also couldn't resist picking this up since it won't be available after August!After my purchases I felt obligated to try and find something for Evans in UVA but they didn't have the overalls. The thing I love about smaller businesses like this is that I was able to email them and ask if it was possible to get the overalls with a UVA logo on them. About 30 minutes later I got this mock up and ordered them!Voila! Now Deaner can't say that I am biased! And I will not being buying anything else for football season for a long time!

Friday evening Deaner and I decided to bite the bullet and drive over to Ramstein to enjoy some American food at Chili's. We hardly ever do this and it was really nice. Like I said earlier, I was really sick of eating at the same German restaurants and it was really nice to get out of the house and do something different. I mean, I know it was only Chili's but I thought it was great! Saturday we got up early and hit up the wine festival for lunch. It would have been a lot more fun with actual WINE but still. I snapped a few pictures because I just think that the festival is so much fun.Next year I plan on enjoying the festival to the fullest! I did get to eat some delicious Flammkuchen and Deaner got to eat his favorite sausages. Saturday night we got to enjoy our favorite Greek restaurant with Steph and Jon and it was a beautiful evening and very pleasant! Yesterday it was rainy and gross and we pretty much laid around all day after eating lunch and doing a bit of last minute shopping.

Today is a bit crappy too. I met Deaner for lunch at the PX, went grocery shopping, started a giant pot of homemade lentil soup (since the high today is 62 and it is supposed to rain all day), emptied the dishwasher and now I have blogged. Whew! I think it might be time for a nap. I don't know why I am so sleepy but I really am. Maybe it is that whole pregnancy thing?? :) Hope that everyone is having a great Monday and that this week is more eventful than last! Come on Evans!

Waiting for the Weekend

We are almost there! I feel like all I do is count down to the weekends and then when the weekend is over I count down the days until I go to the doctor again! My life is turning into Ground Hog's Day! I've eaten lunch with Deaner everyday this week and then I head home to try and occupy my time!! Today I got Evans' Colonel Reb Jon-Jon's from The Divine Children's Show and I am thrilled with them. As most of you Rebel fans know, Colonel Reb is no longer going to be around so we are all desperately gathering up as much merchandise with him on it as we can! So, I had to have these as soon as I saw them!I mean, he is just so GREAT!I can't believe that I will no longer be able to buy things with him on it! Boo!!

I'm hoping that Deaner will check the mail again on his way out from the office because the mail guy told me that I might have more packages coming! I sure hope so! So, we have no big plans for the weekend but that is okay. Maybe we will get lucky and come out on Monday with a baby! If I don't post tomorrow I hope that everyone has a great weekend! I'll post the roasted potato recipe underneath this post. They are SO easy and super delicious!

Roasted Garlic and Onion Potatos

3-4 baking potatos diced into bite size pieces (for just Deaner and me, I only use 2)
Olive Oil
1 packet Lipton Onion Soup Mix

Place cut up potatos into a zip lock bag.
Lightly coat with olive oil
Add onion soup mix
Shake bag up until potatos are coated.

Before adding coated potatos to a pyrex pan, spray with pam and place pyrex in preheated oven (350 degrees) to heat up pam. Maybe for 5-10 minutes. This will prevent potatos from sticking. Pour potatos into pyrex and put back in the oven. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until crispy. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Delicious!