dialated o_0

just had an appointment with the doctor, this baby might appear this weekend after all. I am 2 cm dialated and she was very hopeful about this working this evening.  Tony came with me and heard the baby's heartbeat too and stayed with me for the appointment. Having smallish contractions every once and a while. Might go for a walk tonight to see how it goes. Have my bag packed and so ready to go. Might vacuum again.

a baby maybe tomorrow ish?

Going to the doctor tomorrow. Shes doing sweeping the membranes to see if this baby will happen. I am game for it cause I feel as ready as I will ever be, but I am still nervous. There's still 2 weeks before the actual due date, but at 35 weeks ish things were already almost ready. She told me that its not necessarily gonna work, especially with first babies, but I have suspicion that it will. I get weird painful contractions every other day, just one a day, but it hurts and then I feel all icky and kinda crampy but not painful enough crampy. So we shall have to see. Maybe baby will stick around a bit.

A friend of mine for like 14 ish years --(man its been that long) had his baby a couple days ago. That was super exciting and now I just want it to be so I can meet my baby.

So today I was up at 7 am, went to the store at like 8:30, hit up Starbucks ( I am starting to really like latte's) to kill some time and then went home and made super breakfast for Tony and his friend and cleaned the house. Still have the gross things to do like the bathroom and take out garbage, but I can get that done tonight.

I think its time to relax my brain and watch some tv.

Pictures on the walls for baby

Finally got these up on the wall. Took a bit to figure out how I wanted them put on the wall. Used those awesome picture hanging contact strip things so there are no holes in my wall. 

Baby's space is ready to go. I forgot to make soup today, and I was really wanting soup. :( Tomorrow it will happen. Lentil soup mmmm. I think baby's space needs a few more pretty things for the walls. I have an idea for it, but it will wait until I get organized.

rain rain go away

its making me feel all bleh today. Dinner hopefully will make me feel better. Found steak in the freezer, yay! Garlic rosemary potatoes and carrots and steak. Trying to watch Dances with Wolves cause I haven't seen the entire thing. Man, Kevin Costner was not hired for his narration skills thats for sure.

Woke up early this morning at 4 am with crazy contraction pain. It happened once and then didn't appear again.  Scared me a lot and then after it went away I couldn't stop thinking about what I had to do today as well as its not the best timing as Tony's robotics exam is tomorrow at 7pm. It took me 2 hours to fall asleep after that. We were talking today and he told me to hold it in as best I can until after the exam. Hopefully I can and that way I can go to my next dr appointment on wed.

They're done baking!

Unlike this baby who is still baking...these cinnamon buns are done. They took a long time to make, but they were worth it.

I added more icing to my personal one. I think I made the filling a bit too sweet in the first batch, but thats ok, it was my first time making it myself and the recipe was pretty vague on the measurements for the filling. Recipe is here. I halved it again cause we should not eat 4 trays of these beauties.

I made the drippy icing with milk, icing sugar, vanilla and coffee cause I didn't have maple flavouring. I also didn't have baking soda (so weird), but I had baking powder. Maybe thats why they didn't get as big as they could have.

pastecakes

The first time I try to make pancakes from scratch and this is what happens. The batter looks like paste. I used a recipe that got really good reviews and said they were fluffy and good. I am not so keen on fluffy, I like my pancakes to be a little flatter, but I was willing to try it out.

Tony laughed at the batter, he also said it looked like paste. There was a lot of baking powder in it and someone mentioned that they sifted their flour twice. I was not going for fluffy, so I figured wisking the flour would be better than sifting it. They were pretty puffy. I added a lot more water and milk till mine were flatter. Tony ate the puffy ones.

I am sure for all those who want extremely fluffy pancakes will like it. I will remember to add more water to it, and try it again maybe.

really excited

It didn't hit me until this morning that baby should appear in less than 20 days. Man time flies. It does and doesnt feel like its been 9 months.

Tony has an exam today, so its a good thing baby hung on for now, cause I would hate for her to come while he has an exam. I cant control that really, but its just good that way.  Found some of those sticky-non-damaging-your-wall type things and so I am almost ready to put up her pink art. Gotta figure out where I want them all though. My goal is to get that done today. The house is still pretty clean, and this surprises me because normally by now its a disaster. Tony has been making an effort to help keep the living room clean, and I have been keeping up on dishes now that I have nothing to do.

Oh I am also very excited because my washi tape is going to be shipped to me. Its Japanese masking tape that is coloured and sometimes has awesome patterns on it. Mine is lime green and pretty blue. Cannot wait to use it for cards and things. Still trying to think of a good idea for baby announcements. I am thinking I should get something going while I have the time. Same as Thank you cards. Must get something cute done for those. arrgg I wish I had been told of this awesome tape weeks ago.

I have been awake since 6:30 am today. Made breakfast and coffee and drank a tiny amount of coffee to stay awake.  I think I'd like to bake something bread like today with yeast. Since I tried it in paska bread, it doesn't scare me nearly as much as it used to. Maybe something like grandmas bun recipe. :) Tony would love that.

ramblings

Bad dreams are making me wake up earlier than usual. Dreams of deformed babies, blood, hospitals, and all that crap. End of pregnancy dreams are creepy. Tony thinks they are also creepy, but he isnt affected by this. I wish I could sleep as soundly as he does.

My mom is also starting to have these dreams. Poor momma, she wants this baby out almost as much as I do.  My doctor said that it could happen now anytime, so now its just a waiting game. Maybe some spicy food will help. I have a jar of curry sauce and hot curry paste that I am going to use soon to see if that helps (or if it just kills me with heartburn). Tony told me not to have the baby until sometime next week cause his next exam is this Saturday and hes got homework due tomorrow. I've been given a window of opportunity lol. We shall see how this works.

Some times I get terrified of what this will all be like, but I tell myself that she has to come out sometime, and its going to happen whether I like it or not. We are both ok with pain relief meds being used and thinking about that does make me feel better. I just dont think about the what-ifs like what-if its too late for the drugs...or what-if the pain meds dont help or work or something bad happens when I use them. Cant bother worrying about that stuff or I will just become a mess and cry all the time.

Its sears days this week, so my goal to keep my mind off things is to go shopping and see whats on sale. I've been needing some sort of pjs for a while. I also need to pick up more licorice as we kinda busted open the bag that was to be brought to the hospital for Tony. Normally he is responsible for opening things before they are to be opened, but today that was me hunting for a sugar fix.

Time to watch some more tv and wait for the last project runway show to be posted so I can see it.

more paintings done

Sorry for the poor quality photos. I cannot for the life of me find the card for my camera. Tony's iphone had to do :(

I also made one more cupcake one for Larissa ;)

blood pressure

I'm hoping today is just an off day for me. Had my doctors appointment this morning. Normally blood pressure is not a big deal for me and I am usually fine. Shes so fast with checking it too that I knew something was up when she did it again on this arm, and squeezed it harder. Then she checks the other arm and keeps telling me to relax. I'm relaxed and breathing all deep. Apparently it was high. Listened to the baby, baby is fine. Blood pressure laying down was fine. Just sitting up it was high ish.

This means no exercise for me right now and relative rest at home. The only thing I could think of that worries me is losing all this weight and the nightmare that I swear came out of a horror film last night. I dont even watch horror films, but in this terrible dream I was in the delivery room of the hospital, wasnt pregnant and saw many women, some that I recognized all screaming and blood was pouring from them and one was talking about the pain.......*shudders*.

Seriously, I saw the birth movies with Tony, they were not that bad, and I know that, but man, that was nuts. I didnt sleep after that, and just woke up extra early.

I hope this is just an off day for me, but now that I think about it, I was way more stressed I think when I was in school and had a panic attack about homework and projects and stuff.

I guess its good that we have a new show to watch and there are 5 seasons of it that we have to watch. Its "How I met your Mother". Neil Patrick Harris is hilarious. Tony loves this show, more than Glee I think.

This is my favourite picture of him. hehehe.

What's your favourite _______ ?

1. Favorite hobby? (this plus crafts)

2. Favorite tv show?

3. Favorite restaurant food? 

(pasta)

4. Favorite thing to shop for?

 5. Favorite animal?

6. Favorite song?

 

7. Favorite word? (leaving it blank cause I don't know)

8. Recent favorite youtube video?

9. Favorite movie?

10. Favourite childhood memory?

Any park that had a tire swing was the best park ever. I could spin around on those things forever.

(pictures taken from weheartit)

Wanna play along? Answer the 10q's with photos and link to it in the comments of this post :)

1. Favorite hobby?

2. Favorite tv show?

3. Favorite restaurant food?

4. Favorite thing to shop for?

5. Favorite animal?

6. Favorite song?

7. Favorite word?

8. Recent favorite youtube video?

9. Favorite movie?

10. Favorite childhood memory?

toast

Even though it doesn't make toasted sandwiches or mini pizza's, this toaster does what most do not, it sings to you when your toast has popped. It sings the whinnie the pooh theme. I don't think Tony realized that he would be serenaded at breakfast when it was ready.

"wow Miranda, just...WOW" was what he exclaimed from the living room.

I bought this years ago from london drugs along with a whinnie the pooh waffle iron. The waffle iron does not sing though :(

Baby will grow up to love it though. I know she will.

clean!

For the past 2 days ish I've been working on cleaning the house. Tony helped me today with vacuuming (one chore that I hate doing well, ever since I was small).  He did such an awesome job, I wouldn't have gone to the extent he did. I wish it could stay like this for a while. It took a lot of work though and laundry. So many dirty clothes were found all over the bedroom floor and in the bathroom and even found socks in the living room (Tony's fault, not mine).

I am thoroughly tired now. I just finished cleaning the kitchen floor and cupboards again. Go Magic Erasers! Mr Clean is my hero.

While cleaning the appliances, we checked out why the toaster oven doesnt toast the top of the toast. Like at all. Made me so sad when I had to toast it twice. So when we tipped it upside down, we saw one of the element things was warped and a piece was missing. Tony used a screw driver and tore it kind of apart, but we need a longer better screw driver to get to the issue of the missing piece. Its sitting in pieces on my table. :(

I hope he can get it to work, I love that appliance dearly. It makes the best toasted sandwiches and things. Using the oven sucks unless its for cookies.

The family is supposed to come visit tomorrow, and this is exciting! Tony has exams so we can't visit them yet. Baby time also approaches and I like being able to stay kinda close to home.

Our bedroom looks way nice for our baby to hang out in. I am thinking of moving the comfy chair in that room.

the set of 4

I thought they were cute. I have an extra cupcake one because I had one more canvas to use.

sneak peak at my paintings today

I started on this one, and it multiplied into a set of 4. Tomorrow the 4 will be displayed and hopefully on the wall in our bedroom.

obligatory bird photos

I was really bored today and the bird was being cute. He was getting really excited about seeing himself in the lens reflection, and being afraid of bird kisses on my lens, I stopped.

Its getting gross outside, so I am going to get going to the store to buy flour and drop of some mail.

Peanut butter thief!

Totally caught red handed. He was "going to use it on celery" but since I was there watching, he felt the need to do this.

Oh so wrong.

This is the picture of lies, he didn't use all that peanut butter for his celery...and had to eat the big left over glob on his spoon. He didn't mind. I think hes feeling a bit better, we were laughing a lot more yesterday about silly things, like this.

36 weeks

Getting bigger and bigger it seems. Still trying to go out walking, but maybe will cut down on it a bit more. I actually am curious about what my next doctors appointment will be like. Trying to cut down on the stressful things as well, but that didn't work out so well for me this morning.

This morning was particularly rough for me. I was trying to get some tax stuff sorted out from 2 years ago that needed to be dealt with. It was hard because it involved Tony's school stuff and forms I had no idea about. I ended up crying in frustration on the phone with the poor CRA person on the other end. It was so frustrating not knowing what to ask or what to say. I hated it when people did that to me on the phones, and even more hated it when they passed the phone to someone else without explaining. I did all that today. I felt so frustrated and confused I tried not to cry but it happened. I just handed Tony the phone and walked away. Tony ended up figuring out what the lady wanted and what he needed to fill out. Now after that whole ordeal, I just have to mail in some stuff and we should be all set.

Got to withdraw from school asap. That is something that I am going to get done tomorrow.

Tony has been talking to the baby when he feels it moving around. He thinks its funny that baby "purposefully" kicks his hand. Hes getting more excited I think. Its been feeling a lot like baby is taking over, and shes not even out yet. I think about her way more now and it feels like now that I am off from school, its all I have to talk about :P  I need something to do. I have some mugs and things that are almost done and I am planning on a Michael's trip on the weekend when its cheaper on transit.


Top model is on tonight as well as its baking night. Lemon squares

doesnt need starbucks anymore (at least for now)

I have been craving the black tea lemonade from Starbucks a lot. Its perfect for me right now, its nice and icy cold, I can chew the ice at the end, and I love black tea. Caffeine is my enemy though, and I have decided not to drink it at all now.

Well, for this tea drinker, its been hard to avoid all my pretty special black teas that sit in the cupboard, but I am surviving on no name brand decaf tea.

In the past I have made my own iced tea, and it didnt turn out that great. I either steeped it too long or not enough and then it was either too lemony. I think I got it how I like it.

I steeped 4 of my decaf tea bags in 6 cups of boiling water for 5 minutes. Let it all cool down in the fridge. Then cause I hate unsweetened iced tea, I boiled equal parts sugar and water for 2 min until it was a syrup (its now in a jar in my fridge). Added a few lemon slices and ice and my tea, and then a little splash of syrup and its done.  I love this cup, it keeps things all cold and has no condensation on the outside. I bought it last year when I became kinda addicted to the black tea lemonades.

So I am going to try my best not to do Starbucks this summer at all, and stick with this mix of awesomeness.  So far I am on my second cup of this.

Probably not smart to drink too much more of this, especially when a baby sits on your bladder. Speaking of baby, baby seems to have moved far down. It seems to hit all my nerves, especially when I get up or sit down. I have a bag that is packed now with some things, and we have been keeping our phones charged. I have to charge the camera battery and keep the camera in the spot with the bag just in case.

Paska

Oh its hundreds of millions! Those hundreds of millions are also on my kitchen floor. Trying to fling them onto the sides of the bread was hard.

I ate some of the small one yesterday so I only iced one of the little guys. They don't look the same without the sprinkles.

No fear

Larissa was over today. She brought carmel cupcakes from Whole foods as well as berries and juice. I had the banana bread and we had treats. It made my day :) I need to do that more often. We got on the topic of food and trying new things. People get really baffled at the fact that we try making foods that are scary sounding to make but in reality are simple but different. Like when I made marshmallows. People were amazed that I made them homemade. They loved them, they were fluffy, and they were like a small amount of ingredients and took much whipping, but in the end were awesome as presents for Christmas.

Well, I was thinking about what to bring to my mom in laws house for dinner tomorrow. We are doing late Easter dinner there. She is making the turkey dinner and things. I thought I would bring something that's traditional from my family Easter dinner to their place. I don't know if they've had it or heard of it before, but Paska Bread it is.

No fear was going through my mind as I went to the store. I've never used yeast before, never ever. Yeast scares me.

Grabbed my orange, hundreds of millions sprinkles, and yeast and home I went. Called Aria before I started to get down the basics. She is the baker one in the family and she made this a couple weeks ago.

(also printed Lovella's paska recipe from Mennonite Girls Can Cook). It was super good when Aria made it. 

Multiply my pretties!!!

My pretty little dough ball after kneading it.

Called Aria again to make sure I was doing things right. I hate screwing up food. 

It grew!

All my cute loaves ready to go.

And done. The little ones look a little pale, but I tested them and they are done. The big momma one is pretty but lopsided like the others. Once they have icing on them, they will look better. Icing them tomorrow with their sprinkles yay!

its a little late but...

I bet you can tell what I am about to bake.

I've never used yeast, but citrus fruits have been tempting me every time I go shopping.

I get to use 2 of my favourite flavors! We shall see how this goes...

new fav sandwich

Living without sliced meat has been so not fun. I never appreciated it until I stopped eating it. I've made things with cooked chicken breast and veggies. I've done pickles, tomato and cheese, but my favourite so far is pesto, tomato, avacado toasted with melted mozza cheese on top. I fired one of these bad boys in the oven this evening after a walk and it was awesome.

I also baked banana bread this afternoon in my mini loaf pans. They are way better than my ugly big one. That one I use for meatloaf cause it looks terrible.

Tony is home. He crashed an hour ago and I expect him to sleep until tomorrow. I think he needs to catch up a bit, hes only been awake for 72 hours or so.

easter in chilliwack

Aww sibling love. We had fun shopping at the Cottonwood mall surprisingly. I think it has to do with the lack of crowds and smallness of mall. These sillies were posing for photos on my phone so that this appears when they call me.

This is me feeling a little too fat. I like this top though, its cute and has cute little pockets at the bottom that I am covering up. I am feeling super tired today and may just have a nap. I despise naps, but I know I will learn to love them.

Someones spine and legs is making my belly lopsided right now as they are taking up all the space. I have a little space hog that seems to be filling out too nicely and now is making me feel too full of baby. I certainly hope that the doctor was right in saying that this baby would come early. Not too early, but early-ish is good for me.

Maybe Aria can either post the Easter pictures or send them to me. I want to see them. ARIA, do this! LOL

working too hard

I woke up without a Tony in bed beside me. We talked a bit last night and I figured he would be at school all night. This happens a bit, the end of this project is near. I am so thankful for that. I called him this morning to see how things were going. He is the leader of his group, they have to build a tank that can maneuver obstacles and is directed by signals from flexed muscles. This is why he comes home with sticky electrodes on his arms.

So I called him this morning when I woke up to see how things were going. The answer was not good. He explained that nothing was working today even though they've had it working before. Poor guy was super tired from staying up all day and night and frustrated that nothing worked and that everything was due tomorrow.

I felt helpless, but he did remind me that he could use some food and coffee. I cant use my brain for engineering like this, but I can engineer him some food. I packed up sandwiches, granola bars, fruit and coffee along with candy for his group mates and lugged it all to UBC.

This is what I found in their lab when I got there:

Apparently 2 litres of pop is required for their project...well, obstacles anyways. Yay for being practical and getting 2 uses out of one item.

This was taped to the floor. Lack of sleep and anger will do this to boys.

This was done by another group. Everyone is stressed obviously. I saw some poor guy sleeping at a desk. He looked like he had as much sleep as everyone else in the lab.

Hello sleepy husband. He and his friend (I think his name is Arthur) were working on a tiny piece of circuitry. Notice the mess of crap everywhere. I don't know if I could work like that, but apparently most of them do. Surrounded by wires, capacitors and computers.

Hes looking like hes about ready to fall asleep. I warned him that his brain would stop braining if he did not get a couple hours of sleep. He needs his brain for tomorrows final thing. There is a better picture of their tank on his phone or somewhere.

While I was there, I watched them work for a bit. The 2 of them got the tiny piece of circuit to work (for now). I've been praying for them and their project ever since I talked to him this morning. We went to get him some better coffee from Starbucks and we talked a bit. He was so out of it. Poor guy. One more day, and then you are done this silly thing. Oh I hope it goes well tomorrow for him. I have to bring him some clothes and a toothbrush tonight as he will be there all night again...I know it.

the forces of evil

These are the awesome stickers that my sister kept and gave to me a long time ago. They were part of an ingenious ad for Volkswagen. Volkswagen being the force of good, and these stickers being the force of evil. Speedos, terrible nails and more are just the start of the evil that I made into magnets. The pictures of the other ones weren't too great. These were the first ones.

I am feeling crafty again. I also cleaned and organized most of the cupboards in my kitchen. Have yet to do the pantry ones. Those scare me a bit.

hair sans product

also didn't brush it either that day. It was a fluffy frizzy mess that day. Today its braided again because there was a threat of rain. I didn't really want to deal with all something that would end up like this after putting effort into making it nice.

So I finished that tiny watermelon today for lunch. It was awesome. I cannot wait for summer so that I can get the huge ones and have them all to myself. Tony is a hater, and although it shocked me at first, I now see the benefits to this.

I have gotten some things on my to do list done:

• Dishes
• clean bathroom
• organize cupboards
• take out garbage

The cupboards have to be done, especially the one that holds all the Tupperware and plastic crap. I fear an avalanche of lids when I open it up. Mikaela did an awesome job before but it is up to me now :(

I want some of this so bad. Maybe Tony will agree to a treat tonight.

food and robots

I *heart* watermelon. I cannot resist them. I was bad because I bought those small ones at the store that are expensive (cause its not watermelon season). I've eaten quite a bit of it already and I bought it only a couple hours ago.

Today I also made lasagna for dinner and one for the freezer. Tomorrow or a few days later I shall try stew. It smells really good.  *edit: it tasted really good as well*

Tony is napping, and hopefully shall join me for dinner. He was awake for 48 hours before he came home today at 12 pm.

We tried watching Dances with Wolves. It didn't work because the subtitles weren't working on my computer and so we missed a lot of dialogue.

This is what he looked like when he came home. He had his arms covered in these little electrodes.  He's the test subject for his project. The electrodes read his muscles flexing and can steer his robotic tank thing. I know I am probably not 100% correct in explaining this but oh well. I shall get a photo of the tank as well. Its very cool.

He refused to retake this picture even though he had his eyes shut. Maybe they were too tired to stay open.  He was yelling as he pulled them off his arms. Apparently they stick and rip out hair like crazy.