Baby Deaner

Look at how much bigger Baby Deaner is getting!! Apparently all that peeing really is the result of a growing baby! Everything went great at the doctor today. I am just so happy to have found a doctor here in Germany that I actually like and trust. I am a little weary of her anti-medication mentality but I'll get over that part. The baby was measuring exactly on schedule and I even lost a few pounds from a few weeks ago. And before anyone goes lecturing me about that, let me assure you that I have PLENTY of pounds to spare a few. The doctor asked if I was having trouble keeping food down and I laughed. The only problem I am having is that I want to eat any food that isn't NAILED to the table. No super wierd cravings or anything as of yet even though last night my mouth was watering for some Varsity onion rings! But really, that probably has nothing to do with pregnancy. Fried foods and I have always had somewhat of a love affair going on. Unfortunately the doctor says that there isn't much I can do for the insomnia. This is where the medication restrictions make me a little annoyed but oh well. She said that we probably had to wait another 8 weeks or so to find out the sex. UGH! I will never make it that long. When I stated this she said there was a chance at finding out in 6 weeks. Guess we will see. I don't have to go back for another month and I am sure that that time will crawl by. At least we might have some time to actually get reimbursed from our insurance company for the last visit. I never appreciated the fact that American doctor's offices billed your insurance for you. I will NEVER take this for granted again! Get this, we have to pay for the hospital admission/delivery out of pocket as well! Guess we aren't spending another dime for a long time! That and the long list of baby items that we are going to have to purchase are about to give me a stroke.

Anyways, we are heading out the door in a little bit for dinner at Steph and Jon's house. Which means that I have to go wrestle myself back into my normal jeans. These pj pants are really a lot more comfy! :) It's almost Friday!!!!!

Happy Hump Day

I really can't wait for it to start staying light longer. Darkness at 5:00pm is just depressing. Today has been a productive day. I met Deaner for lunch since he was in a training class in town. We went to the hotel to eat at Little Italy, a restaurant where we spent A LOT of time before moving out of the hotel. I have to say that it was a little sad that both guards at the front gate stopped us to chat, the lady at the front desk told us it had been too long, and we were greeted like old friends at the restaurant. I would say that means that 4.5 months living in a hotel is just too darn long!

After a nice lunch I came home, took a nice walk in the 22 degree weather, almost froze to death and then cleaned the whole house. Top to bottom. Everything is vacuumed and dusted and straightened up. I dare Deaner to come home and mess it up!

Tonight we are trying a recipe that I got from D.A.R. over at First Comes Love, Than Comes Marriage. We are having Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches that I have had in the crockpot since this morning. Can't wait to try them because they smell REALLY good! I'll let y'all know how they turn out. I really wanted to make the Hearty Tomato Soup recipe from One Preppy Day but of course the Commissary was out of Cannelini Beans (or any substitute like Navy Beans). What a random thing to be out of. I doubt that there was a run on these beans or something! I will have to try it once the beans are restocked. I was really excited about it too! Monday night we had a new recipe for Beef Burgundy and it was awesome! It was the perfect cold weather recipe and plus, it was MUCH easier than the Julia Childs recipe! Here it is for anyone who is interested!

Beef Burgundy

3 lbs. round steak, cubed
1 can tomatoes
5 carrots, quartered
2 onions, quartered
pkg. mushrooms
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 can beef consomme
salt/pepper
1/2 c. red wine
broad egg noodles

Brown meat. Add all veggies etc. Cover and bake 350 degrees for 2 hours.
Serve over noodles.

Promise, it was divine! Happy eating! I'll be posting more baby pictures tomorrow!! My appointment is at 11:45am and I am SUPER excited about it!

Sleepless Nights

I think that one of the worst things you could wish on someone is insomnia. It has been the battle that I have been facing lately. I have always had sleeping issues and Ambien has been one of my best friends for a long time now. Unfortunately the Ambien is out the window now that I am pregnant and sleeping at night has been a huge problem. I have never been more tired in my whole life. All I want to do during the day is nap but I don't let myself because I am scared of being up all night. The funny thing is, it doesn't really matter if I nap during the day because no matter what, I can't sleep at night. It is like we turn off the lights and my mind starts spinning. I can definitely think myself into a tizzy. Today I am SUPER sleepy so I am hoping against hope that I can sleep tonight. I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday so I am hoping that perhaps the doc can shed some light on what I can do but since she is so strict, I'm thinking she is going to tell me to gut it out. And what is up with having to pee so many times during the night. Really? Three trips to the bathroom a night? Not cool. Off to cook dinner! Before I doze off on the couch.

Making Our Way Home.....

To say that our trip home on Friday was stressful would be a great understatement. Traveling between Germany and England is one giant pain in the ass but Friday was a new level of awfulness. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 12:30pm with the gate closing at 12:00pm. It takes roughly 1 hour to get to the airport from the base we stay at and we have to return the rental car. We decided to wake up at 8am, leave the hotel by 9am, arrive at airport by 10:00am so that we had time to sit down and eat breakfast/lunch before heading to the gate. Good plan right? It's worked for us multiple times before now. We did everything right and were out of the hotel and on our way by 9:00am. The GPS said we would be at London Stanstead airport by 9:51am. Perfect. Or so I thought! As soon as we got on the M11 we came to a grinding halt. We have never had any trouble before with traffic but this traffic wasn't even moving. The ETA on the GPS kept moving further and further back. There wasn't anything we could do because there were no exits to even try and take a detour. When we finally came upon our exit, an hour later, we found out that the cause of the whole traffic jam was that the exit was closed all together. Oh lord! We were funneled onto another highway and the GPS made us get off on the first exit. After flying through several small towns we were sure we were never going to make our flight. The worst part of the journey came when Deaner got just a LITTLE too close to a car parked on the left side of the road. Our rear view mirrors collided and the noise made was not a good one. Our rearview mirror was dangling by a wire off the side of our car and was flapping against the door. Did I mention we were driving a BRAND NEW MERCEDES?!!? I was crying, Deaner was hollering and it seemed like we were not only not going to get home, but that we were going to owe a million dollars to fix this mirror.

Deep breath. The trusty GPS actually got us to the next exit onto the M11, where we needed to be and we pulled off at the normal gas station where we always fill up. Do not ask me how, I believe God was looking down on us, but Deaner fixed the mirror. He shoved the wires back into the car and threw his body weight against it. I heard a loud pop and somehow someway the mirror appeared to be fixed. We didn't test it and we didn't try to adjust it. When we returned the car to the rental company we held our breath while they inspected the car and signed off on it! I truly don't know how we got away with that one. We even had time to eat lunch before running to the gate. After our awful morning, we joined the line to board our flight. When we got to the front of the line I said to Deaner, uhhhh, why does the TV say this flight is going to Katowice? Hmmmmmmm. Long story short, we almost boarded the wrong flight. We would have ended up somewhere in Poland for the weekend. Thank god that didn't happen.

Thankfully we made it home. We had a nice relaxing weekend. Saturday we ate at a fantastic Thai restaurant and it was nice to get out of the house. I just can't believe the weekend is over already! I have been productive today already having been to workout, hit up the post office and the commissary. I'm about to start cooking dinner right now. When I was heading into the gym today a huge pile of snow (yes, it snowed about 4 more inches last night) decided to fall off the roof of the gym, three floors above, and fall straight onto the back of my neck and down my shirt. Nice. If I had seen this happen to someone else I would have peed in my pants laughing. Needless to say, it is not as funny when it happens to you! :) Anywho! I am going to start my new recipe for dinner. Keep your fingers crossed that it doesn't turn out to be a disaster!! We get to have another ultrasound to see Baby Deaner on Thursday and I CANNOT wait til the appointment!! Happy Monday everyone!

Interesting day so far........

Today has been a little bit different. Deaner got to sleep in more than usual and his morning meeting was over before 10:00am even rolled around. Which means that he busted me still asleep when he came home afterwards! Thank god it wasn't THAT late!! :) We got to hang out this morning and then had lunch together at a restaurant on base where I actually had a pretty good buffalo chicken wrap. Afterwards I returned to our room while he went out to another school for a meeting. I went on a short walk and came back and jumped in the shower. I was a little more than surprised to find the bathroom floor completely flooded. And it just so happens to be on the day that I got undressed IN the bathroom and left all my clothes on the floor. Ughhhhhhhhh. I called the front desk, who I might add was VERY rude, and they sent maintenance over. Unfortunately we had to switch rooms which means that I had to be the one to pack up all our crap and move rooms. Here is the best part.........Deaner has no idea that any of this has happened. He will arrive back at the hotel and I won't be in the room in which he left me! I left a note on the door but there are maintenance people in and out of there and I hope it doesn't fall off! It isn't like I had any tape to put it up! Moving on........

We have dinner reservations tonight at my favorite restaurant in Icklingham. It is called The Plough and I know I have told everyone about it before. I can't wait to eat a delicious steak with good company. Assuming my "company" is in a good mood. Who knows how long he will wander around this hotel looking for me!

I'm already looking forward to going home tomorrow. I have decided that I am done with England for a little while. Deaner has to come back in a few weeks and I am not allowed to come!! I mind only because he will be gone for a whole week but he will be traveling to all his schools here in England and I can think of things I would rather be doing than riding along in a car with a bunch of engineers!! :)

Alright, I am signing off to go and finish reading my book, The Help. And hope that my husband finds me sometime today!

Jolly Old England

Well we are finally here. I get more and more concerned about these Ryanair flights each time I take them. I'm just not really sure how they can be safe. I always feel like the plane is going to rattle apart in midair. Not to mention these pilots are a little sketchy. I seriously wonder how many hours they have to log before being turned loose to fly a Ryanair flight on their own. 10 hours? 20 hours? :)

In other news, I really got a kick out of this guy last night in the airport.The first time I saw him I figured that he must just be rolling that pink suitcase for his wife or girlfriend. Then I saw him again.and I realized that no, it was just his suitcase. Anyone else think this is wierd? I'm just saying. It IS a pink suitcase. I'm pretty sure my husband wouldn't use one. He'd rather carry his possession's in a brown paper sack. And don't laugh, because I think he has done that before! I was cracking myself up trying to take these pictures on the sly. Deaner said I would not be a very good private investigator!

I understand that this is a very random post but I was just sitting here on the bed in the hotel room typing on Facebook to my mom. I heard a weird rumbling noise outside the window (where I might add I have the blinds WIDE open). All of a sudden this buckets raises up and is right in front of my window with a man in it, who starts caulking the window!Thank god I was dressed! You don't see that happening everyday! Today has been a pretty boring day. I walked over the to PX to grab lunch and buy some shampoo and conditioner, which I forgot. Now I am back at the hotel watching TV, typing on my blog, and surfing the internet in general. Hopefully this afternoon will go by quickly!! I am readying a new book called The Help and I am REALLY enjoying it!! I would recommend it highly to anyone looking for a good read. Definitely better than Pat Conroy's South of Broad!! Also, way to go Massachusetts! Finally the country is coming to it's senses! Way to go Scott Brown. Happy Wednesday! :)

What the???

How is it that I'm sitting in an airport and there is not one single ticket couter open? And that we are two of about 6 people total in the airport? Oh yeah, thi I not Hartsfield in Atlanta folks! We are in a hanger, in the middle of nowhere (at least 100km from the actual Frankfurt despite this airport being called Frankfurt-Hahn) waiting on our death trap Ryanair flight. Say a little prayer for us if y'all have a chance. Our last flight on this airline was not pretty!! Maybe they won't forget the landing equipment this time!! :)