Stay-at-Home Wednesday

Happy Wednesday! Halfway through what is probably the first full work week of the year (you know, for those will full time jobs). Terry is back to work in a big way, but, in a dramatic plot twist, he came down with a cold over the weekend and opted to stay home to work today. It's lovely having him here! I try not to talk to him or interrupt his work, but at least I can gaze lovingly at his handsome face. And I can ask him which laundry is clean versus dirty. You know, that kind of thing.

Last night I arrived home from work around 11:45 pm. It was inventory night at the store where I'm working part time for the holidays, and I got to experience the joy of helping to scan and count every single item we carry. Fun, right? Actually, it wasn't so bad. It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and since we had no customers we could wear what we wanted and chat while we worked. Sadly, pregnancy brain resulted in multiple mistakes on my part, so I took longer completing some tasks than I thought possible. Who knew counting would be so difficult?

But all the squatting, sitting on the floor, getting up and down, and awkward (although, thankfully, not heavy) lifting has left me feeling suuuuuper sore today. Guess I should add "working in retail" to my list of pregnancy workouts, huh?

Today I slept in a bit (shockingly, no teachers have called in sick to work this week, so I'm making the most of my days off to get things done around the house) before making myself some blueberry pancakes. I whipped up the batter on Monday morning, and I think that was one of the best decisions I've made all week. I have a super simple meal each morning, plus a serving of berries, and all I have to do is cook them on the stove. I even made one for Terry as a "dessert" for his breakfast. I sliced up some banana on the side, too.

I spent a good portion of the morning exhibiting what I would call my first signs of nesting. I reorganized two bookshelves, cleaned out some boxes we've been storing (unnecessarily) for years, and tidied up the kitchen. Then came snack time: Greek yogurt, honey, and peanut butter.

Lunch today came in two courses. Believe it or not, I started with a kale salad. I made it yesterday, based on Terry's favorite kale salad from True Food Kitchen: lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, salt, and Parmesan. 

And then a pork tamale from our farmer's market (we bought a dozen last week, and it was brilliant on our part if I do say so myself). These tamales are phenomenal. 

After lunch and researching some baby registry stuff (um...I'm overwhelmed), I picked up Jenn and we headed to a park by her place for a long walk and some catching up. According to my FitBit, we ended up covering almost five miles (11,000 steps)! It felt awesome to get some exercise and chat with my buddy.

When I got home, I sliced up an (unpictured) apple and some gouda, which Terry and I shared. Then we finished getting dinner ready (I had done all the chopping while heating up my lunch): Our favorite vegetable kabobs!

 I served them with grilled sourdough bread, warmed feta, goat cheese, and burrata cheese.

My recent favorite drink: half sparkling pomegranate, half sparkling apple.

 YUM.

Another highlight of the meal: we got to try a gift from our friends Heidi and Ed, who gave us some fancy garlic olive oil and aged balsamic vinegar for Christmas.

Soooo good!

Tonight we've been lounging, catching up on the DVR, and chilling on the couch. Believe it or not, I have virtually no sweets in the house, which is completely unacceptable, so dessert will be graham crackers with peanut butter and chocolate chips. It's either that or going out for a milkshake, but we're already in our pjs, so there's no way that's happening!

Hope you had a great day! What was the highlight? Mine was a tie between catching up with Jenn and getting a foot massage from my husband. Perks of being pregnant!

Check out the other WIAWs!

Of possible interest:

• 18 Things Women Shouldn't Have to Justify
• How Much is an Original American Girl Doll Worth? (I have a Kirstin and a Samantha at home...)
• 25 Times Anna Kendrick was Painfully Accurate (I have added Anna Kendrick to my list of fantasy best friends, along with Mindy Kaling and Kate Middleton. We would make quite an eclectic bunch!)

Second Trimester Update: Weeks 14-18

I work at the store tonight from 3 pm to 11:30 because we're getting crazy with some inventory madness. I have no idea what it will entail, but I'm very excited. Er, maybe I'm just excited for it to be over, because getting home at midnight sounds pretty horrible!

But anyway, I thought I'd provide a pregnancy update. I'm not doing the weekly thing, but a lot changes over the course of a month or so, and since my last update was in early December, I figured I can keep track of the major changes here.  

First up, the belly progress:

And the belly from the front:

I'm trying to stay consistent with my outfit, although I now realize that tank top isn't going to fit for much longer!

I get a lot of mixed reactions to my belly, depending on the person and the clothes I'm wearing. Most people claim I don't "look pregnant" yet or say I don't have a bump. But a select few say that my belly is obvious, which I appreciate. I'm loving the growing belly, so I guess it doesn't matter what other people see (or apparently don't see).

Food, Cravings, and Aversions
I've been struggling to get enough vegetables on a daily basis. It seems I'm only willing to eat them in a sandwich or at a restaurant. Given that we haven't been eating out much (yay!), I'm making a much more solid effort this week to increase my greens.

Veggie kebabs are on the menu this week.

I still don't have crazy cravings, but I've been all about cereal lately. I can go through a box in two days (!), and I am trying to prevent myself from buying more than a box at a time.

And no aversions! I just generally don't want to eat large quantities of meat on its own.

As for my appetite, I'm hungry all the time, but I get full super fast, so I've learned to eat small meals and lots of snacks. I'm also doing better on drinking more water! Aaaand I go to the bathroom every five minutes.

Workouts
Mostly, I'm just trying to stay active. Unfortunately, my lower back has been killing me, so running
feels rough. Walking feels fantastic, though, so that's happening a LOT. Luckily Terry and I have always been walking buddies, so we have awesome routes mapped out around our neighborhood.

I'm also still keeping up my strength training. The doctor wants me to limit my weights to 5 or 10 pounds, but I have plenty of exercises that challenge me at that level. I'm also avoiding abs in general, and I'm skipping anything that requires lying on my belly or back.

And I'm dabbling in some prenatal yoga, but I still haven't found anything I like. To be fair, I haven't yet purchased anything (I want to make sure I'll like it first), but all the videos I've tried are a lot more focused on breathing, relaxing, and stretching. While I certainly appreciate the importance of those exercises during pregnancy and labor, I still want a challenge! So I'm finding ways to modify my regular yoga routines to work for the next few months.

And I'm trying out some recommended prenatal exercises, like pelvic tilts (hopefully those will help my lower back, too) and cat/cow stretches. Plus TONS of stretching to try to alleviate the hip discomfort.

General Comfort
I mentioned the back pain, which is pretty constant this week, but I have a few other issues:

• Hip tightness
• Round ligament pain all the time--when I stand, sit too quickly, bend forward, roll over, or run downhill
• Breast pain in cold temperatures--basically I experience extreme pain if I get even a little bit too cold, so I've learned to bundle up! (apparently this is relatively common)

I'm also wearing maternity clothes almost exclusively. I think I've found a few cute outfits that work for me, and I'm grateful to my mom and a few Christmas gifts for rounding out my wardrobe. Maternity clothes are SO comfortable, and I'm already plotting how I can justify wearing them beyond pregnancy. Thoughts?

Emotional Temperature

Generally, I'm doing pretty well. I have experienced a few bouts of anxiety and some moments of apprehension about the future (where are we going to live? when are we going to move?), but I'm mostly happy and relaxed. Terry definitely helps me relax, talk through any stress, and focus on what's important.

Prenatal Reading

I bought Terry a few going-to-be-a-dad books for Christmas, and my brother and Ashley bought him one, too. We're also reading Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman, and we love it. I'm reading What to Expect When You're Expecting, and Ashley bought me The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy and Happiest Baby on the Block, my next two books! And, somewhat unrelated to pregnancy, I'm reading Jessica Alba's The Honest Life. I can't say enough about how much I love her philosophy on life and how much I'm learning from her book! She also co-created The Honest Company, and I definitely plan to try a few of her products.

Baby Prep
We're five months away! So that means getting serious about planning for this little one. Here's what we're up to:

• Figuring out what we need and registering for it
• Reading (see above)
• Narrowing down our name choices (we aren't finding out the gender before the birth, so we're going to head to the hospital with two boy options and two girl options and decide when we meet him or her!)
• Hopefully figuring out where we'll be living when baby arrives soon so we can move before my due date (wishful thinking?)
• Making lists, as always. I love lists.

Honestly, I'm loving this whole pregnancy thing. I haven't felt the baby kick yet, but everyone says it only gets better when that happens. Right now I'm enjoying time with Terry (unfortunately, he leaves again soon for one last business trip) and focusing on staying healthy!

Catching Up

First Monday of the year: Back to a normal blogging schedule! Since I'm not teaching full time this year, I'm starting to realize that I actually prefer a bit more structure in my days. Lovely as it is to sleep in a bit, take my time in the mornings, extend my workouts, I think I'm much more productive when I have a tighter schedule because it doesn't allow me to procrastinate. Does anyone else experience the same thing? Anyway, I'm going to try to tighten up my own schedule. Hopefully I can manage to wake up with Terry, work out right away, and then carry out whatever chores and errands I need to accomplish that day. (I say "hopefully" because I'm trying to be a little more relaxed and less Type-A now that I have a little person in my belly.)

Today was not an awesome example of tightening up the ol' schedule. I went to sleep much later than usual, thanks to working on my 2013 in Review post, so when Terry woke up at 5:30 I just rolled over and went back to sleep. But eventually, Scout convinced me rather rudely that I should get up to feed him, so I got my tush in gear and whipped up some blueberry pancakes. (I used my Buttermilk Pancakes recipe and added frozen blueberries to the batter.)

A delicious start to the first Monday of 2014!

I also got to drink tea out of my new mug, a gift from my mom. I love it so much!

Today I'm not subbing, but I am working at the store for a few hours this evening, so I won't be back to write later tonight. Instead, I thought I'd share a few highlights from the last few days.

Before we left for northern California the other day, we used up some leftover ham to make croque monsieur sandwiches. The recipe was surprisingly simple and not nearly as indulgent as I expected.

I also whipped up a batch of oatmeal cranberry white chocolate chip cookies. The recipe I liked best (least amount of sugar, simple ingredients) was actually from Oceanspray. They've been a hit!

Our trip to the Bay Area was a blast also. It was much shorter than our Thanksgiving trip, but it somehow felt less hectic. We dropped off all our Christmas decorations at our storage locker, took a long walk with my dad, and went out to dinner before staying the night at my parents' apartment. The next morning Terry and I went for a jog/walk and then enjoyed my mom's famous breakfast casserole. We all went to the movies (Saving Mr. Banks--good not great), and then we headed up to my brother and Ashley's house for our belated Christmas celebration.

The puppies were excited for our gift!

Some highlights from the night:

• Mom always says it'll be a "light Christmas" but then inevitably goes overboard buying us gifts, which I think just means she can't help but be generous. We're all totally spoiled.
• Last year, Chris wrapped our gifts super obnoxiously (boxes within boxes, and multiple layers of duct tape). This year, to get him back, we sent him on one of our scavenger hunts all over the house.

• Dad grilled lamb, and Terry and I contributed with our favorite grilled veggie kabobs. 
• Mom suggested a cake for Ashley's January 5 birthday, so I found a super simple recipe online. Let's just say it was a hit--we could not stop talking about how delicious it was! So easy, one bowl, and perfectly moist. Here's the recipe. You should make it for the next special occasion (or Tuesday) in your house.

Before leaving on Saturday, Mom and I went shopping for some more maternity clothes!

Success!

We had a blast, but Terry and I had to head back on Saturday because we had tickets to the UCLA-U$C basketball game! We joined our friends Katie, Corey, their baby Ainsley, Heidi, and Ed for the game, shopped at the store, and grabbed some lunch. It was such a fun day!

Bump's first visit to campus!

Terry and I walked to campus for the game and stopped on the way home for the ingredients for one of our new favorite super easy meals: Daily Garnish's Crunchy Sesame Vegetable Noodle Salad. It took less than 30 minutes to make, and we essentially doubled the recipe, so we have plenty of leftovers for lunches this week. (Note: TJs was out of cabbage, so I subbed their broccoli slaw with carrots, and it worked perfectly.)

 

Terry also made me a fancy mocktail: sparkling apple and sparkling pomegranate, perfect for the end of the weekend!

And I think we're all caught up! Scout's begging for some attention (I could have sworn we adopted a cat, not a dog), so I'm off to play a few rounds of fetch and get some laundry done. Happy Monday to you!

2013 in Review

January 2013

• I made perfect pancakes (finally)
• We challenged ourselves to morning workouts--and stuck it out for awhile
• I put my new FitBit to use (and loved it!)
• I continued teaching at my new school

February 2013

• BLWB reached 100,000 page views!
• We started training for our first 10K
• I took my first SoulCycle class with Jenn and Fay
• I tried to bake bread from scratch
• We went to San Diego to watch my cousin play water polo
• We saw a play at UCLA

March 2013

• I donated blood at school
• We ran our 10K--and I made my goal time of a pace of 9 minute miles
• We left on our Spring Break vacation to Turks & Caicos!

April 2013

•  We spent five days in Turks & Caicos, and it was amazing
• We went on an awesome hike
• Terry tracked his meals for a week
• We celebrated Terry's birthday in San Diego and Santa Monica
• We attended a Science and Food event at UCLA
• Sprouts invited me to tour their new store in Westwood

May 2013

•  We experienced a sizable kitchen fail
• We attended the Rose Bowl seat exchange
• We celebrated Jenn's birthday
• I experienced a slight injury
• We went to Palm Springs to see my parents
• I got to experience an awesome Teacher Appreciation Day
• We spent Memorial Day at the delta with my family

June 2013

•  Terry, Heidi, Edward, and I went on a scavenger hunt all around LA
• I wrote out my 30 Before 30 list
• I was a dead body for my friend's biomed class
• I had a repeat root canal
• We went to the delta again
• I went with Terry to San Diego while he worked
• We spent a day at the beach with friends

July 2013

• We went to Hawaii for a week and had a great time
• We celebrated two years of marriage
• I got super angry at a woman at my gym
• We attended a family wedding
• We went on a beautiful hike
• I got super excited about the royal baby
• We went to the Hollywood Bowl
• I learned to love LA, after ten years
• I went to a movie by myself
• We started a puzzle (spoiler alert: we never finished!)

August 2013

• Went to the delta yet again
• Spent time in my hometown and helped my parents move out of my childhood home
• Turned 28, took salsa lessons with Terry, and took a cooking class with Mom
• Dealt with a LOT of Terry's travel
• Started a novel, which I did finish
• Traveled to Buffalo to visit Terry and ended up spending a day on Lake Erie with Jenn's family

September 2013

• We spent more time in Buffalo
• We took a day trip to Toronto
• I got super sick and ended up in the emergency room
• I got pregnant! Even though we didn't announce it, September was the lucky month. :-)
• We traveled to Luzern, Switzerland, to begin our Europe trip

October 2013

•  We continued our Europe trip with my parents in Salzburg, Austria
• We traveled on our own to Munich and then took some side trips from there
• My brother and sister-in-law visited and we all went to Disneyland
• My parents visited right before Halloween

November 2013

• I talked a lot about pizza one day
• I visited Terry in St. Augustine, Florida
• I started a new, seasonal, part time job at a kitchen goods store
• We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and ran a Turkey Trot!

December 2013

• We announced that we're expecting a little one in June 2014
• We redeemed a Groupon with our friends Heidi and Edward at LA Market 
• We had an epic dinner with Jenn and Justin 
• I gave two short updates on my pregnancy
• We celebrated Christmas--our last just the two of us!

Plus so much more! 2013 really brought more blessings than we can count, and I am so grateful for this beautiful life I get to lead. I know 2014 promises to bring more change, more challenges, and many, many more blessings. Happy belated new year!

Start of 2014

Happy 2014!

I'm working so hard to finish my 2013 in Review post, but I am not quite there yet. Rather than wait another day to publish anything, let's catch up on the last few days of last year and the first day or two of this one.

Mostly, I've been on cloud nine because Terry is home and took two full weeks off work. While I've still have a few shifts at the store, we've spent tons of time together, with friends, and with family. I can't help but feel so grateful for the mere presence of my husband, since he was gone for work for more than three total months last year.

On New Year's Eve, Terry and I stopped by our friends' apartment after work but ended the night snuggled up on the couch--and fell asleep almost immediately after midnight. That seems to be the way the cool kids are doing it these days, so I'm cool.

An Old Fashioned for Terry, a mix of sparkling apple cider and sparkling pomegranate (Trader Joe's) for me

On New Year's Day, we headed up to see our friends for a very belated Friendsgiving, which evolved into Friendsgivingmasyears to combine all three recent holidays. Heidi and Ed hosted, and Katie and Corey brought their adorable little one, Ainsley. We all had a blast playing with her. :-)

Among the day's festivities: a quick brunch to start the day, a walk to the park to play Bocce, a gift exchange, Rose Bowl viewing, and cooking. Plus, of course, lots of food!

Appetizers

Pan-seared scallops

Brussels sprouts

Popovers (homemade--mmmm)

Steak, salad, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, plus (unpictured) sweet potatoes

It was such a fun day! And we get to see the group again on Sunday for the UCLA-U$C basketball game! 

And today we woke up early, took a short walk, and packed the car to get on the road. We arrived at my parents' apartment around one in the afternoon. After some lunch, dropping off all our Christmas decorations in our storage locker, and letting my parents see the ol' belly, 

Terry and I took a long walk with my dad and then we all went to dinner at Chianti's in Pleasanton. 

Lesson of the evening: after dinner, it's best to use the restroom. You shouldn't just say to yourself, "Eh, we're only ten minutes from home," especially if your driver is a retired police lieutenant who attracts all sorts of problems. Needless to say, we ended up ensuring an elderly lady's safety before finally heading home half an hour later. Of course, I'm glad the woman is okay, but man, my dad can't go anywhere without coming to the rescue for someone! 

And so we're off and running in 2014. It's going to be a big year, to say the least, and I'm so excited to see what else it has in store!

Happy New Year!

Last Weekend of 2013

It was another wonderful weekend. On Friday, we headed down to the South Bay area to see Jenn and Justin and their families. We ended up chatting and playing a trivia game for a few hours, and we had a blast. I love hearing details about Jenn's upcoming wedding and seeing how excited she is. Seven and a half months to go!

Saturday, Terry and I slept in a bit before hitting up the treadmill for an incline walking workout. Here's what we did for a total of 40 minutes:

I ended up reducing almost all of the 4.0 speeds to 3.5 to keep my heart rate at a safe level during pregnancy, but I still felt very challenged and loved this workout. Terry found it tough, too!

We kept the rest of our morning pretty mellow, and then I had an eight-hour shift at work. It may have just been me, but I found the day stressful and the customers a bit rude. I think a lot of people are tired of shopping and need to take a little break. I was quite glad when the day ended and Terry picked me up!

Last night we headed to our neighbors' house for dinner, where we enjoyed steak, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and homemade ricotta gnocchi. Plus, for dessert, we dove into a Nutella tart and a brown butter apple pie. Everything was phenomenal!

But the night wasn't over yet: Our friends Fay and David who now live in DC stopped by for a quick visit after they attended the UCLA basketball game. I absolutely love those two. They are also getting married next year, in July, and it'll be another incredible one! They are just such a cute couple, and I loved even a short visit. I also can't wait because in January I'll be visiting them in DC for a whole weekend!

This morning, Terry and I slept in before we headed to the gym for a leg workout. After a 5 minute warm up, we did two rounds of 10 reps plus pulses to fatigue of the following:

• Dumbbell split squats
• Dumbbell plie squats
• Hip abductors on stability ball
• Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts

Then we walked about 3 miles to the farmer's market for a few items, ran some errands, and baked Smitten Kitchen's salted caramel brownies. We had some company for dinner and made tri tip sandwiches, Ina Garten's roasted potatoes, a simple winter salad (pears, pecans, gorgonzola, dried cranberries, salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and spinach), and those brownies. Games were played, conversation was had--it was a good time. 

We're ending the night with some couch time, 30 Rock, and cereal. I'm just thrilled that Terry has another week off at home!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! How are you going to make the last two days of 2013 incredible? 

An Unconventional Christmas

Well I love that you all loved my photos from Christmas! I kept last night's post short--and entirely photos--because we were exhausted. Here's why:

On Monday, the 23rd, I worked a full eight hours at the store (a little reminder: I took a seasonal job at a kitchen goods store for the holidays), and it was pure chaos. Thankfully, our customers were still friendly and not exactly frantic yet, but we were packed and I remember several dashes through the store to grab items for my fellow employees or customers.

Then, on Christmas Eve, I woke up early to work a quick four-hour shift, eight to noon. This time, the store wasn't crazy, but I was pretty beat from the previous day. I came home to wrap up a few last-minute Christmas chores and then we headed to Orange County (in tons of traffic) for dinner with Terry's family.

That day, I got my first fun experience with major aches of pregnancy. I think it was related to not working out in the morning, but my back and legs felt stiff and sore no matter how I tried to stretch, stand, or sit. I don't think I've ever felt so uncomfortable! (My mom warned me that it's going to get much, much worse...yikes!)

But still, we had a wonderful time with Terry's family and stayed the night at Terry's parents' house for Christmas Eve. Christmas day was all about presents, relaxing, a quick jog (which turned into a walk because it was SO HOT), watching Miracle on 24th Street, and Terry's parents' classic Christmas dinner of a Honeybaked ham, candied yams, mashed potatoes, and Brussels sprouts.

Yesterday, Terry and I woke up a little later to exchange our own Christmas gifts. I whipped up some French toast, we opened stocking gifts, and then we started in on the regular gifts. Then, sadly, I was off again for another eight hour shift at work, which was smoother and calmer than the previous days. When I arrived home at 8:30, I started in on Alton Brown's Overnight Cinnamon Rolls, which needed to rise for two hours. We ate tamales and relaxed with some TV while we waited.

And today turned out to be fun, too:

Those cinnamon rolls rocked

We busted out a quick, in-the-apartment arm workout and then took a 30-minute walk

Terry started a turkey (half breast and two legs) in the crock pot

We drove up to Thousand Oaks to visit with my friend Amanda and her mom for a quick chat, then went to Lazy Dog Cafe for lunch with Amanda

We talked about going to a movie but chose to chill on the couch instead. I started planning my 2013 in Review post (here's the one from 2012), and Terry worked on solving his 5x5 Rubik's cube (yep).

Tonight we're chowing down on that turkey Terry made, and then we'll head down to the South Bay to see Jenn and her family and hopefully see some Christmas lights (yeah...a little late). It's been an unconventional Christmas in some ways, but I'm just so thrilled because A) Terry's home and B) it's our last Christmas just the two of us (though I know we might miss these quiet mornings sometimes).

Hope you're enjoying these last few days of the year! I'm starting to think about goals for 2014 and reflecting on what a great year it was. Hope you are, too!