Crafty Husband

Over the last year or two Ben has developed a desire to do some woodcrafts. We have slowly been getting him a few tools here and there. He really wanted to put some cool burnt designs into the handle of a tomahawk he had so here are a few pictures of his craftiness.

4 days

Ultrasound looked good. Alli is good and buried! She is head down and ready to go! Approximate weight is 7lbs 9oz. Sugars are good. They will check them while I'm in the hospital and as soon as that placenta is gone I might...MIGHT get to finally have some ice cream without feeling guilty. So 4am tuesday morning here we come!

Oh so Ben and I went to Lowes and bought a shelf. Then we glued a dowel rod in and made our own shelf with rod instead of buying one. So we have it hanging and the quilt is up. I will take a picture and post it here in a few. Thanks again for all the love and support. We can't wait to share Alli with everyone. Doc hopes she'll be here by early afternoon unless it happens over the weekend. Who knows...I was in a little pain last night and this morning. We'll see. Still only dilated to 2cm. So its all good.

As Promised

Food for Thought

Ashlie will appreciate this blog. She knows I have an addiction to cook books and new recipes. I get very bored very quickly with the same food week after week. I'm always looking for something new to cook. Ben is very agreeable to this as well. He loves to randomly pick a recipe and we'll give it one shot. If it's a keeper, then I type it up in my recipe book and we have a collection of all our favorites. The other night I decided to plan out the weeks meals and found two new recipes. We love them both and they are SUPER simple so I wanted to share them with you all.

Cheddar Chicken & Rice Skillet

What You Need

1/2 cup KRAFT Light Zesty Italian Dressing

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

2 cups instant brown rice, uncooked

1-1/4 cups fat-free reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 green pepper, cut into strips

1-1/2 cups chopped tomatoes

1 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Mild Cheddar Cheese

1/2 cup sliced green onions

HEAT dressing in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Add chicken; cook and stir 2 min.

STIR in rice, broth and peppers. Bring to boil; cover. Reduce heat to low; simmer 5 min. or until chicken is cooked through and rice is tender. Let stand covered, 5 min. or until liquid is absorbed.

ADD tomatoes, cheese and onions; stir until blended.

Marvelous Mini Meatloaves

What You Need

Take 1 lb. extra-lean ground beef, 1 pkg. (6 oz.) STOVE TOP Stuffing Mix and 1 cup water and mix & match your recipe from these options...

seasoning options	add-in choices	cheese possibilities
1 tsp. Italian seasoning	spaghetti sauce	KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
2 tsp. chili powder	TACO BELL® HOME ORIGINALS® Thick 'N Chunky Salsa	KRAFT Mexican Style Finely Shredded Four Cheese
1 tsp. dried oregano leaves	chopped roasted red peppers	ATHENOS Traditional Crumbled Feta Cheese
1 tsp. garlic powder	KRAFT or BULL'S-EYE Original Barbecue Sauce	KRAFT Shredded Cheddar Cheese

Then follow our 3 simple steps:

HEAT oven to 375°F. Mix meat, stuffing mix, water and seasoning until well blended. Press into 12 muffin cups sprayed with cooking spray.

MAKE indentation in center of each with back of spoon; fill evenly with 3/4 cup add-ins.

BAKE 30 min. or until meatloaves are done (160°F). Top with 3/4 cup cheese; bake 5 min. or until melted. Let stand 10 min.

TACO BELL® and HOME ORIGINALS® are trademarks owned and licensed by Taco Bell Corp.

Kraft Kitchens Tips

Serving Suggestion

Serve with a hot baked potato and steamed seasonal fresh vegetables.

Make Ahead

Bake meatloaves as directed. Remove from muffin cups; cool completely. Place in single layer on baking sheet; freeze 1 hour. Transfer to airtight container. Store in freezer up to 1 month. Thaw in refrigerator, then reheat in 375°F-oven 20 min. or until heated through.

Special Extra

For a little kick, add 2 Tbsp. A.1. Original Steak Sauce to meat mixture before pressing into muffin cups as directed.

Final Preparations

With 11 days to go I'm trying to get everything finalized and make sure we are ready for Alli's arrival. I've washed all her clothes, blankets, towels, etc. I'm putting together my hospital bag. I know I should've already had this done, but I'm a procrastinator. Here are some pictures of the room all put together.

































































































I would really like to put a decorative shelf on the wall here with a rod attached underneath. I want to hang the comforter as a decoration from the rod. I haven't been able to find what I'm looking for yet.

37 Weeks

Had my next to LAST dr. visit today. Finally there is an end in sight. I am now dilated to 2! woohoo. hah. We are definitely set for the 14th to be induced. Doesn't look like anything will change that now. We will have an ultrasound on the 10th to know what her progress is but it won't make me be induced any sooner. It will just give the dr a heads up on how big she is so we will know how likely a c-section might be if we run into problems during delivery. My strep-b test came back negative. yay. So that's one less thing to worry about.

I'm officially done with full time work now! It really feels weird. It will be nice only being PRN but I will miss the people I work with. They are begging me to work as much PRN as possible and they want to see Alli as soon as I will bring her. haha.

I now weigh 173. Of course this weight was taken after I'd been up all night and had eaten recently. So I'm still around 16-18 lbs of weight gain. Not bad eh? I can really tell Alli is getting cramped for space. Some of her movements lately have been so wild and almost painful. She's all over the place. Not long now!

36 weeks

I went to my 36 week check up yesterday. Alli's heart beat is good. Dr. didn't check me this week. He said he'd do it next week. He didn't expect there to be a whole lot of change from last week to this, so he'll check next week. We scheduled the induce date for July 14 at 4am! EEK. I guess that gets us there early enough to get things rolling...(and I'm sure part of that is for the dr.'s luxury. haha). Oh well. I went over to have another NST. Alli continues to perform just as we hope she would. Last three visits she's had us out in record time. Who knows why that first time she was asleep for so long and it took 1.5 hours while all the others it only took the 20 min to get to see her active and get out of there. The nurse told me that I was showing that I was having some contractions...could've fooled me. I guess I have noticed the tightening in my belly but not really knowing what I was feeling, I assumed it to just be Alli pressing out or moving somehow.

This week will be my last week at work! Scary thought. My co-workers got me some wonderful and very sweet gifts. Just a few short weeks now and Alli will be here. She is coming at a good time. Ben has been having to do pre-plans at work where they go to each business in Smyrna and draw layouts of the buildings so that in the event of a fire the department has a detailed plan of what to do. The Lt. over this has been less than understanding and does things which don't make sense. He makes them repeat certain offices over and over again. So these guys have been out in the 90 degree heat from 8am-4pm for the last 1.5 months going from building to building. Ben needs a break. I'm not sure being up all night with a newborn is the break he wants...but its a break nonetheless. I wish I could give him a nice vacation. Oh well. One day.

Alli's mother = DORK

I've decided that I am officially a dork. haha Here's why. I've been doing some research lately on how to save money with a baby. I want to keep our budget as small as possible to help keep Ben from having to work because "we need $" and instead letting him work because he wants to keep his skills up...anyway. One of the things I've found is making your own baby food. When I found some cost comparisons I was sold! One site showed the following comparison:

1 jar of baby food veggies at 2.5oz = $0.59 : price per oz $0.23
1 bag of frozen veggies at 24 oz = $0.89 (not sure if you can really get them that cheap) : price per oz $0.04

Another perk is how simple it really is. Yes there is a great convenience to having baby food in a jar but I'm willing to give this cost savings experiment a shot because of how much food it will make and how much we'd be saving. The idea is that you take some fresh veggies for example: cut them into small chunks and steam them until soft. Place in a processor (finally a use for a 4 year old wedding gift) and puree. Add water if necessary to achieve proper smooth consistency for baby and walah! You can serve it then fresh or freeze for later use. Take an ice cube tray and fill each section to the top. Each section = roughly 1 oz. Place plastic wrap over tray and freeze. Once frozen, remove and place in freezer bag. Label and date. Veggies and fruit are good in freezer for up to 6-8 months!!! HELLO cheap food storage for kids! Once your child is ready to mix and match food you can have pureed meat, veggies and fruit.

Now obviously there would be instances where it is just simpler to have a jar of baby food so you don't have to worry about transporting frozen food. So I wouldn't keep Alli from being used to the taste of jar food as well. But I just thought this was an awesome money saving idea and I'm going to give it a shot...so I now = dork! haha

On another note, all is looking good for July 1...my official start date of maternity leave. Everyone is on the same page at work and my last night of work will officially be June 30. Sorry Caitlin..I hate that it's on your birthday! Then when I am cleared for work again (whenever that will be) I will come back and work 1 or 2 nights. Paul said he doesn't care if it is even just one night. If I am breast feeding...which I hope I am, then I will only want to come back one night. Even if Ben is home to be with Alli, I know it will be hard for me to sleep through all her feeding times. So I figure we'll work 1 night, 2 at the most, just to satisfy the "full time" status and then write my official letter of resignation and go PRN! I can't wait! As the day looms near, I get more and more excited. As nervous as I am, I am so excited to be a stay at home mom and I can't wait to bring Alli into the world.