We’ve been talking about getting a new vacuum for a while, we just haven’t gotten around to it because vacuums cost, y’know, money. But we finally bit the bullet and got one, because our old one (a very generous hand-me-down wedding gift for which we will always be grateful!) has been on its last legs. We found a Eureka that seemed promising, and a little internet research later, Husband came strolling out of Wal-Mart with one as I sat in the car (it was right after my bout with flu so I was resting while he and Kiddo shopped) wide-eyed, mouth agape.

He likes to do that to me. Surprise me, that is. It’s one of his chief delights in life.

The first night we had the vacuum home, we turned into total giggling nerds playing with it. But then we had to stop because we had just put Kiddo to bed and didn’t want to wake him vacuuming the stairs with the fun attachments.

But I’m now addicted. To vacuuming.

There’s something slightly intoxicating about a carpeted room of fresh vacuum tracks. And I love the sound of dirt being sucked up. This afternoon I worked on the stairs while Kiddo napped – door closed, music on, humidifier running – getting deep down in the corners and crevices.

Nesting has taken hold, people. Beware!

Now if I could just get addicted to sweeping the kitchen floor we’d be good to go.

Mommy’s turn to visit the hospital, that is! All’s well now – it was just a quick trip, I didn’t have to be admitted. But it was quite the adventure.

We got a snow day from Jazzercise babysitting on Thursday, and the streets were so icy Husband didn’t make it to work – he walked back in the door a little before 8. I was feeling fine at that point, a little wonky but I thought it was just regular pregnancy ick and I’d feel better after my breakfast started to digest. Well, the snow day and Husband coming home ended up being a HUGE blessing in disguise because I suddenly got very, very sick. Some kind of stomach bug had crept into my body. I couldn’t keep anything down. Which is scary when you’re incubating a little human who needs nourishment!

I called the nurses’ line at my OB’s office a couple of times, tried taking some of the Zofran I had left over from my 1^st trimester, and sipped very slowly on Gatorade all day. Nothing helped. By early evening, when I still wasn’t keeping anything down, Husband convinced me to try half a dose of Phenegrin, also left over from the 1^st Trimester Blues. I don’t normally like taking Phenegrin, because it throws me for a huge loop, but I was desperate at this point. So I took the dose and crawled into bed, where I spent about the next four hours in la-la land, slowly sipping on my Gatorade.

I am so, so sick of the taste of Gatorade at this point.

Husband was getting pretty worried about dehydration, and my friend Kim who is kind of my medical sounding board was too. She was texting me like crazy, urging me to go to the hospital to get an IV. Husband called the front desk at the birth center in our hospital and described to the nurses what was going on – they told him to bring me in, because at that point I had been cramping for a while and that’s a sure sign of dehydration.

He called my mom, who we had contacted earlier in the day to see if she’d be available to come get Kiddo if we did end up making a hospital trip. She hopped in her car and started our way while Husband packed a bag for Kiddo (it was after his bedtime by then, so we decided to just have him spend the night at my mom’s house) and for us, in case we had to stay the night at the hospital.

To Kiddo, this was all just a big adventure! He was so excited when Grandma showed up, and when we told him he was going to spend the night at “Katie’s house”. Katie is my mom’s little shih-tzu/poodle dog, and she and Kiddo are just the very best of friends. Every dog in the world is “Kay-dee!” to Kiddo. We are all chopped liver compared to Katie.

I cried when my mom and Kiddo left. I admit it. I hadn’t touched my Kiddo all day, because I didn’t want him to get sick. He’s such an affectionate little guy – we normally cuddle and hug a fair amount. I missed him. I wanted nothing more than to snatch him up and smother his chubby cheeks with kisses. But I couldn’t.

We got to the hospital and went straight up to the birth center – that’s where they send you anyway if you’re past 20 weeks pregnant. And the funniest thing, my awesome nurse from when I delivered Kiddo was there! She got me set up in a triage room and hooked up to all the fetal monitors to make sure the baby was okay and I wasn’t having contractions – which the baby did NOT like! He’s not a fan of having his space invaded. Any pressure on my tummy results in some very assertive movement!

I had definitely underestimated how dehydrated I was. My mouth was dry and cottony-feeling. I felt like I did one night long ago during a “missions training” exercise, when I was so thirsty due to a salt-laden dinner that all I could think about was a tall glass of ice water. Long story. Don’t ask. My nurse brought me some apple juice to sip on, since that was the only thing that sounded even remotely palatable and I was desperate for moisture in my mouth.

They hooked me up to an IV with another dose of Phenegrin. It didn’t take long before the Phenegrin began to kick in and make me drowsy. I ended up sleeping for a good hour or two while Husband played games and watched Star Trek on his smart phone. They pumped 2 liters of fluid into me, then let us go home to sleep in our own bed. We left the hospital about half-past midnight, went home, and passed out into a blessed deep sleep.

I woke up feeling much better but still pretty tired the next day. Husband went and picked up Kiddo from my mom’s house (where he was nothing short of a complete and total angel!) and then worked from home again to keep an eye on me. I’m so grateful he has a job that allows him such flexibility. His company has really treated us well in the four years he’s worked there.

Today we were going to go to a fun couples’ event at church, but decided it would be best for me to go to bed early and sleep in today. I’m glad we did – I slept like a rock last night, for the first time in weeks! I’ve been waking up sometime during the second half of the night and having a hard time going back to sleep lately, which makes getting up early to go somewhere in the morning difficult. But last night, I slept the entire night without waking up until our little alarm clock (aka Kiddo) began making joyful noises from his crib. Oh blessed rest!

So, that was my adventure. I’m feeling great today, but I’m going to be careful not to over-do it. We might take Kiddo over to my in-laws’ house for a while this afternoon and let him play while we go do something. I’ve got cabin fever big time.

And we really need to get Kiddo a haircut. He’s beginning to look like we’re trying to grow him a mullet.

I have an addiction.

To tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Ever since I discovered spelt bread, I’ve been in sandwich heaven. Spelt is sort of a cousin of wheat – tastes very similar, behaves very similar. It does contain gluten, but is often tolerated by people who are gluten intolerant. I’m not technically gluten intolerant, but spelt does not aggravate my acne like wheat does, so I eat it like crazy to satisfy my carb cravings. I buy spelt bread, spelt English muffins, spelt pasta, and I keep spelt flour (whole grain and white) in my freezer for making pizza crusts and thickening soups and stews. Husband even found me spelt cereal! The heavens opened up and sang in the natural grocery store. No, wait, that was me singing. And dancing. And hugging the cereal box. Yep, it’s true.

Spelt works extremely well as a thickening agent, as mentioned above. Recently I gave it a whirl in tomato soup. I now shall make tomato soup every week, so I can have it with grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch as long as the leftovers last!

Tomato soup is impossibly easy to whip up. And homemade kicks canned soup’s butt any day of the week. This recipe comes from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, with a few minor modifications. I also double the original recipe. Because leftovers are my friend.

You will need:

3 Tablespoons olive oil

3 Tablespoons butter

*I do the half oil/half butter thing by choice – the original recipe calls for only butter. So if you’re brave enough for 6 Tablespoons of butter, go for it. I won’t judge you. I tried it with just olive oil once, and the soup seemed to be missing some richness. So I don’t recommend that.

1 small to medium onion, chopped

6 Tablespoons flour (this is where I use spelt, but regular flour is just fine)

2 cups chicken broth

Two 28 oz. cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (or half that amount dried)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon pepper

2 bay leaves

Heat the butter and olive oil together in a heavy pot over medium heat.

Add the onion and cook until softened, just a couple minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly.

Add the chicken broth and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened and bubbly.

Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, and all the seasonings.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for at least 30 minutes.

You do have to stir it regularly – it likes to stick to the bottom of the pot, so give it a really good scraping. Rubber spatulas work well for this.

When it’s simmered long enough – this is important now! – fish out the bay leaves and discard them.

Now, there are two ways you could do this next step. You could either ladle the soup into a regular blender in batches, or…

You could get one of these little babies. I got this one for Christmas from my in-laws. I love it. We had a crappy plastic one before that made me angry whenever I used it. But this little stainless steel wonder makes me happy. Very, very happy.

Wait, where was I? Oh yeah.

Blend the soup. I wish I had a picture of the actual blending, because it looks really cool, but it takes two hands for me, and Husband was taking care of Kiddo and I didn’t want to call him into the kitchen to take pictures of me blending soup.

Serve to your happy family with grilled cheese sandwiches. Store the rest in the refrigerator for as long as you can. It never lasts long at my house. Because I eat it. Every day. Until it’s gone.

Speaking of grilled cheese sandwiches, my husband says I make the best in the world. Should I do a grilled cheese sandwich tutorial sometime? Okay, you don’t have to beg. I’ll do it.

The first time I heard this song on the radio it captured me. It took a long time for me to track it down, since it always came in a lineup of songs where they didn’t announce the name of the artist. And do you know how many songs there are out there with the title “Hallelujah”? A LOT.

When I heard the story behind the song, I finally understood why I was so captured by it. This is not just a song of worship – it is the gut-wrenching heart-cry of a person who has been through an unimaginable loss and has yet still chosen to cry out to God. “Meet me here, where I’m at, in all my mess. Because no matter what, I’m still going to sing Hallelujah.”

I just wanted to share it with ya’ll tonight.

Didn’t I say I would give you some bump pictures? 28 weeks!

…back in December! And I have been a slacker and have not shared the adorableness of my son enjoying the fishes.

Daddy took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off, and we decided to drive up to Denver to take Kiddo to the aquarium. He loves animals, and is about at the age where he’d really love the zoo. However, it was December. Hence, it was cold. And the zoo is, y’know, outdoors. And we wanted to do something extra fun with Kiddo while Daddy was on vacation!

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This was before the bad haircut. I could still pull it back on bad hair days!

You should have seen him jump when he saw that huge stingray swimming up in front of him!

He kept saying "Whoa!" at everything.

"Let's go!"

"That was fun, Mom and Dad! Let's do it again!"

You can’t see much of my baby bump in that last pic, but I promise it’s there! I’ve been growing a lot the past several weeks. I do owe you some bump pictures, don’t I? We’ll do a big fancy bump photoshoot sometime in the next several weeks and I’ll post those, when I’m all posed and Photoshopped.

Anyway, we had such a good time at the aquarium! It’s not very big – it took us about an hour and a half or so to get through it at Kiddo’s pace, which was just about right for us. Afterward we went to lunch at Chick fil A, and then were home in time for an afternoon nap!

We’re planning on going one more time before the baby is born, just to have a special time for Kiddo before his little world is turned upside down by his baby brother!

Oh, did I mention we’re having another boy? I don’t remember. So I’ll do it now. We’re having another boy!

So Kiddo and I are both sick. We got hit at the same time with some kind of creeping crud that turned into croup for him, and a mild case of bronchitis for me. Like, literally, at the exact same time. Monday morning his nose started running like a river, and I woke up with a slightly sore throat. Throughout the week, his nose kept running but he was acting fine otherwise, and my throat stayed just sore enough to be annoying but not enough to do anything about it.

Then, last night, Husband and I were jolted awake from a nice, deep sleep to the sound of The Dreaded Croupy Cough coming from Kiddo’s room. We both sat up slightly as we awoke, then flopped back down on our pillows with a simultaneous sigh of “Oh crap.” We know this sound. We know it well. Even though it sounded pretty heinous, it apparently wasn’t enough to wake Kiddo up all the way because he never cried, just coughed for a bit and went back to sleep.

This morning, I had gone from a mildly annoying sore throat to having no voice and the beginnings of a chest cough. Today being Friday, I didn’t have time to “give it a day or so”. Going to the regular doctor is way cheaper than Urgent Care or, God forbid, the ER. So I arranged visits to the pediatrician and the OB’s office. God bless both of them – even though they’re both busy, they always manage to squeeze us in when it’s urgent.

Husband is still well, and gosh darn it, he’d better stay that way. Someone has to keep this place running!

I had my turn taking care of him yesterday – he had his bi-annual colonoscopy, which involves being knocked out, so I had the fun of sitting with him as he woke up from the anesthesia and messing with his head. Then I drove him home, where I made him a grilled cheese sandwich and got him a bowl of cereal (I almost typed “bowel” instead of “bowl” – LOL!). Poor guy had fasted for about 36 hours before the procedure and had to endure being under the same roof as a very hungry 2 year old and a pregnant wife who eats everything in sight. He was a saint.

I gotta say, Kiddo was a champ taking his Prednisone tonight. He’s responding extremely well to having things explained to him before the event. Instead of sneaking the meds up on him, I explained as we waited at the pharmacy drive-through (after Husband took us over to Garbanzo’s to get dinner for me – oh happy day!) “We’re getting medicine for you and Mommy so we feel better soon. I know you don’t like taking medicine – Mommy doesn’t like it either – and that’s okay, but if you hold still and cooperate when we give it to you, it’ll be all done really fast! Okay?” Kiddo popped his thumb out of his mouth long enough to say “O-Kay!”, which is his new favorite word these days. He was settled in Daddy’s lap watching How to Train Your Dragon when I brought the syringe dropper of Prednisone and his juice cup to him. “Say Aaaaaaaahhhh!” I said, he opened his mouth wide, let me squirt the meds in, made a face, and then took his cup and gulped down some juice. Yikes! Wow! Can every time we have to give him medicine go that easily??? Please??? I sure hope so. It’ll make the next few days more bearable as we’re housebound.

We’re watching Finding Nemo now. Dory is one of my favorite animated characters of all time. “P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney!” Hee hee hee… “Just keep swimming…just keep swim-ing…just keep swimming…”

Or the seagulls.

“Mine?”

“Mine?”

Pre-Pregnancy:

I’d beg Husband to run to the store for ice cream or some other treat after kiddo goes to bed.

Pregnant:

I beg Husband to run to the store for antacids after kiddo goes to bed.

I know, I’m the stereotype. Just go with it.

I’m so glad I can use that title correctly today. It’s the little things in life, y’know?

So do you remember this?

The mass of disorganization that way my spice cabinet? We had outgrown it. Every time I took one jar out, three fell along with it. Horrible. We needed to come up with a solution. I couldn’t live like this any more.

So now, that cabinet looks like THIS:

And the cabinet where the glasses and mugs and cups formerly resided now looks like THIS:

Ahhh…I feel so much better! Husband attached the rack to the inside of this cabinet door. The wire shelves do decrease the amount of space available inside the cabinet, but it’s still more than enough space for our collection of oils, vinegar, vitamins, and various other little things. Things are less cluttered and crowded, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

So what’s my next pre-baby-arrival project going to be? Well, we do have to get the kids’ bedroom ready. But that scares me. A lot. So we’ll just not talk about it yet. Okay? Okay. I’m so glad you understand me.

On to other business!

It has come to my attention that some folks are demanding awful haircut pictures. So I took this one:

You’re probably thinking it’s not that bad. And maybe it’s not. It’s just not what I wanted. Which, in my book, is reason enough to despise it. The ends are really blunt along the sides of my head, which leads to a “helmet hair” kind of look if it’s not styled juuuuust right. Now that it’s had a couple weeks to grow in, it’s a little more manageable. I’m going to let it grow for a while, then go get it softened up.

But on the plus side, I am not wearing a single stitch of makeup in this picture and I don’t look terrible!!! My skin has been behaving so well lately. It’s nice.

My Pinterest addiction is growing. I’m having a phone tutoring session with my mom this afternoon to show her the glories of Pinterest. Why aren’t we doing this in person?

Because the weather is doing this:

And ain’t nobody goin’ nowhere they don’t have to!

Have a fantastic day. Stay warm, stay cool, whatever this lovely February day necessitates!