It went great! We had an awesome ultrasound tech! They changed my due date to July 30th. So we will see when the little one decides to show up since they keep changing the due date on me. Baby was cooperative for finding out the sex! Other than that baby was pretty stubborn! Hee Hee I think that is the Ronk/Ford side in her!!! Thats right I said Her!!!! All of my guessers were right!! We are both so excited and we cant wait to meet her! Today she weighs 1 lb!

Heres the money shot!!
This is her face. She is covering it with her hands though.

Thats her foot!

This one you can really see her spine!

This one is good because you can see her heart! Its the dark spot in her chest.

Look at that hand!

Those are her clenching her fists!

Im Anxious!!

I have to leave for work soon... and then come home and get Brian... and then go get our ultrasound! I am so anxious! I wish that it could have been first thing in the morning so I wouldn't have to wait all day!!!

Any one care to cast their vote on whether its a boy or a girl?

We bought it!

It was such a good deal we couldn't pass it up!!! Yay I can't wait! And we are going to get our old roomba battery fixed and then sell it! So yay for win-wins!!

I really really want this...

really really bad. Today only woot.com has Roombas for $150. What a good deal! I want it. Im not going to get it. But I want it. I am going to save up for the next time they have these though.

And this one is Brian and his heep.

The chorus is me. :)

Tomorrow is....

The big ultrasound! YAY!!!

Please make me stop buying strawberries

GRRRRRR
I keep buying strawberries and they keep going bad instantly. I bought a pack saturday night. They were bad by this morning. It is soooooo annoying.

Pregnancy Cravings

I haven't had any "weird" urgent pregnancy cravings yet. I have really been wanting vegetables lately though. Maybe my body is lacking a nutrient or something but tomatoes really just seem to be calling my name! Avocados too! And nuts! I spent like 20 minutes in the nut aisle yesterday trying to decide if I wanted pistachios, almonds, or cashews. I really wanted all three but I am to cheap to buy them all so I settled for pistachios. :)

Oh I have also had a lot of heartburn recently so I have been "craving" tums :)

So I am wondering if anyone else has had any interesting pregnancy cravings???

How to make Laundry Detergent

My friend Melissa showed me how to make this liquid version of homemade laundry detergent and it is awesome! It will yield a little less than 5 gallons and costs a little less than $2. Not bad!!

Here's what you need:

1 Bar Ivory Soap (Grated)

3 Pints Water

1 Cup Borax

1 Cup Baking Soda

Dish Soap

Rubbing Alcohol

2 Gallons Hot Water

2 Gallons Cold Water

5 Gallon Bucket

Jugs to store in

Here's what you do:
-Melt 3 pints water and the Ivory soap over low heat.

-Once melted add in borax and baking soda

-Pour mixture into your 5 gallon bucket

-Add 2 gallons HOT water and 2 gallons cold water (I store my finished detergent in cleaned out milk jugs so you can just fill those up at the tap and then pour into your bucket.)

-Add a squirt of dish soap to act as a de-greaser and a squirt of alcohol to kill germs

-Stir mixture together and then let it sit for 24 hours

-Then fill your jugs. Leaving a little bit of room at the top so that you can give them a good shake before each use. I just press the jugs into the bucket to fill them and then rinse the sides off. Does that make sense?

Now you are done! Use 1 cup per loadand shake before each use!

Jewelry Organization!

I saw this great jewelry organization idea and knew that I wanted to replicate it. It was really simple. I just bought a cork board, painted the edges, added pins, and then added my jewelry. We are painting our bedroom this weekend and the paint color that I used on the edges was actually the color that we decided not to use for our bedroom because it was too dark. The color is Autumn Gray by Valspar and its actually the color of John and Amy's master bedroom! They have more windows than we do. Its a really great color though. I also am working on painting the frame of our mirror that color as well. I really love this jewelry idea because it can be so easily changed to accommodate for different jewelry. I didn't notice how much pearl jewelry I had until I put it all on the board!

20 weeks!

The halfway point is here! I am so glad! I am getting big enough that random strangers ask when I am due too! I feel like my belly has grown so much even in just the past 2 weeks! Its crazy!

Notice Conehead Sadie in the corner :)

Do you know what this means? That is a blossom on my plum tree! I am so excited in just a few more weeks we will have plums!

Sadie is back!

and totally traumatized. I feel so bad for her, she has had a rough week. First with the hair cut we gave her, then with getting spayed, and now with having to wear a cone on her head. Poor girl.

We took her to The Kindness Clinic which is a "low cost" spay and neuter clinic. Low cost spay and neuter here is still so much more expensive than the places in Washington! My mom got Pepper spayed for like $25 dollars, it cost us $110 which is still way less than what vets here charge. The people who worked there were really nice and helpful.

They even showed me this great tip for saving money on Frontline (flea preventative). What you do is you buy the Frontline in the largest size they have (for big dogs) then you measure out the ounces and dose your dogs with the proper amount for their size. The great thing about that is that because of our dogs sizes I can buy 1 box that will last us 3 months for both dogs rather than buying 2 separate boxes for each dog! That is a savings of about $160 a year! So that is going to be a huge money saver! If you would like to do this and are curious what ounces for your dog shoot me an email and I can get the size/ounce list for you!

Thin Mint Knock-offs

Oh my goodness. These are so good, so easy, and really do taste like the Girl Scout kind!

All you need is some Ritz Crackers and a bag of Andes Baking Chips (Which really are just chopped up Andes Mints). Melt the chips in a double broiler and then dip your crackers in halfway. Place on Silpat (or parchment paper) to cool. When cool dip other side. Simple as that!

Dear Mom,

Im sorry that when you came to visit I wouldn't go with you to Mario's Pizza. We went there for lunch today. The pizza slices are gigantic and actually really good. When you come to visit we can go. I'll even buy you a t-shirt. :)

Poor Sadie

So taking Sadie to the groomer costs us like 45+ dollars each time we take her. So... We decided to cut her hair ourselves. She is wiggly so it was hard. She looks ugly. But in our defense she always looks ugly after a hair cut.

In this one you can really see how bad her ears look.

And if that all wasn't traumatizing enough for our poor dog, we are taking her to get spayed tomorrow. Yikes. Poor Thing.

Totally Blessed.

God keeps continuing to bless us. We dont deserve it at all but I am certainly very thankful for it.

Today we got a check in the mail from our mortgage company because we were over paying our escrow. That check alone was such a huge blessing because now we can afford to pay cash to get our ceiling fixed and re-floor baby's room and hopefully buy some baby furniture!

Upon further examination of the letter that came attached the check I saw that our mortgage will be going down by $200 dollars too!

That is such a huge amazing blessing. God has been too good to us!

New Tires for Brian

Yesterday we drove up to Raleigh to get Brian some new tires for his Heep (Thats what we call his Jeep). The area we picked them up in was a total college town and it reminded me a lot of the "college area" of Seattle.

Here we are with the beasts. Thankfully they fit into the back of the silver jeep.
I was trying to capture his genuine excitement for getting such a great deal on these 35 inch tires but he decided to be a big dork.

Surprise, Surprise :)

These we at the house we picked the tires up from. We pulled into the neighborhood and it was like gee, I wonder who is selling the huge tires. :)

We passed this Whole Foods on the way there so Brian said we could stop on the way back. I love nice grocery stores. I could have spent all day reading labels and looking at all the natural goodness but it was crowded and Brian was following me around making fun of everything there so we didn't stay long. :) It totally reminded me of the Skagit Valley Co-op though. Made me miss Washington!

While we were in there, Brian overheard a lady talking and she said... "Wow, people who shop here really do act like they are better than everyone else." That made me laugh.

19 weeks!

1 week til the halfway mark! This week I have been craving veggies! Especially Tomatoes!

I am really excited right now because I found the fabric that I wanted to use in the nursery for almost half off! The company that I was looking at (fatquartershop) had the fabric but then when I checked this past week it was gone, so I called them to see if they would be getting it in again. She said that they wouldn't but told me about this great site called QuiltShops.com basically you just type in the name of the grouping of the fabric you are looking for and it comes up with a bunch shops that sell that fabric. Best of all it is great for comparing prices because some shops charge way less than others! So yeah I am super excited about that right now!

Ultrasound Update

I had to change my ultrasound appointment from the 20th to the 24th because Brian couldn't get off of work because of a change of command. Bummer. But thankfully they were able to get me an appointment just 4 days later. I was seriously worried that they would make me wait another month.

Have you heard of Picnik?

It is this really cool FREE photo editing website. This is a picture of us at the Marine Corps Ball that I was playing around with.
Heres the Original:
Heres the Obama-ized one. (They dont call it that but thats what it looks like) :)

The Polaroid

The black and white with a color section. This is cool.

I dont remember what this one is called but I think its fun.

I like this one the best because it makes it look like an old photograph from back in the day.

Wipes Clutch!

Today I made a Baby Wipes Clutch. I followed this HomemadebyJill Tutorial. It was pretty simple but I did burn my fingers a bit with the hot glue so I am going to hold off on making anymore until we know for sure know whether or not we are having a boy or a girl. I love this sweet bird fabric though. I think it would make a super cute liner on a purse like this or a zippered pouch like Kim made!

Cool Online Tool

I was online today and found this neat activity calculator where you punch in your weight, what activity you were doing, and how long you do it and then it will tell you how many calories you will burn. Vacuuming is on there and I did that this morning so I burned 65 calories just by vacuuming! :)

Salmon Pie

This recipe was given to me by my good friend Lisa Bergeron. Its really good and goes great served with corn!



[Sorry the pictures aren't great, my battery was about to die]

Salmon Pie

Ingredients:
4 Cups Mashed Potatoes (I add butter and cream cheese)
1 Can or Packet Salmon
Pie Crust*
Melted Butter
Salt and Pepper to taste
White Sauce

Preheat oven to 350*. Combine mashed potatoes and salmon, season to taste. Place part of pie crust into pie pan. Fill with mashed potato mixture. Cover with remaining pie crust. Brush with melted butter. Slice into top to allow steam to escape. Bake 30 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

While baking prepare your white sauce. I usually just place 2 T butter & 2 T Flour in a saucepan over low heat. Once the butter is melted and the flour is combined. I add milk. I don't measure but I would guess that I add about 1 cup. Then I stir with a whisk over the heat until mixture thickens. Season w/ Salt and Pepper and serve over slice of the pie.

*** For the pie crust I usually just do a refrigerator one but this time I decided to make my own and I think that the flavor turned out better! Here is the recipe I used from Cooks Illustrated.

All Butter Pie-Crust
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (12 1/2 ounces), plus additional flour for work surface
1 teaspoon table salt
1 tablespoon sugar
16 tablespoons unsalted butter (2 sticks), cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes and frozen for 10 minutes
3 tablespoons sour cream
1/3 cup ice water , or more if needed

1. For Pastry: Process flour, salt, and sugar together in food processor until combined, about 3 seconds. Add butter and pulse until butter is size of large peas, about ten 1-second pulses. 2. Using fork, mix sour cream and 1/3 cup ice water in small bowl until combined. Add half of sour cream mixture to flour mixture; pulse for three 1-second pulses. Repeat with remaining sour cream mixture. Pinch dough with fingers; if dough is floury, dry, and does not hold together, add 1 to 2 tablespoons ice water and process until dough forms large clumps and no dry flour remains, three to five 1-second pulses.3. Turn dough out onto work surface. Divide dough into 2 balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk; wrap each disk in plastic and refrigerate until firm but not hard, 1 to 2 hours, before rolling. (Dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours. Let thoroughly chilled dough stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before rolling.)

Sunshine Therapy

Its 83 degrees and gorgeous here today! I love this time of year because it is warm and sunny but it isn't humid yet. I also love this time of year because we can have all of the doors and windows open. The breeze is so nice!
This is the view from the trampoline :) The best place to soak up some sun!

More Exciting News

Amy started a blog! Link over in my blog list!

Exciting News

Brian got to feel the baby kick yesterday!

18 weeks!

18 weeks today! I am two weeks away from the halfway point! That is so crazy. The baby has been really active recently. Definitely a kicker! Only 15 more days until the ultrasound!!!

Egg Souffle

This dish has always been a favorite of mine that my mom would make for us growing up. She gave me the recipe a long time ago but I have just recently started making it. Brian now loves it too!


Egg Souffle

6 Eggs
1 cup Milk
1 cup Flour
1 pint Cottage Cheese
1 lb. Cheddar Cheese

Mix in order in a mixer. Blend well. Pour into a greased 2 qt. casserole dish. Bake @ 350 for 45-55 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. I bake mine a little long because I like it to be nice and brown on top! Enjoy!
We like to eat it with bbq sauce!

Sewing!

Well I finally got my sewing machine out of the box today! Todays project was burp cloths! I used the tutorial over at homemadebyjill. I love her blog! I did change the dimensions up a bit though because I have small shoulders so my dimensions were 17 1/2 like hers but I changed her 8 to 6 and her 9 1/2 to 7 1/2. Anyways I got one all finished and then when I was working on the second one my machine got all weird and long story short I broke the feed dogs. :( The Singer help line was closed so I will be calling them tomorrow when I get off of work.

Oh and I realize that I used girly fabric and that I dont know if I am having a girl or not, But chances are pretty high that either Amy or I will get a girl! So if I dont get a girl she will. Hopefully :)

5 Reasons why I love Awana

1. The kids say funny things. For instance we were playing a groups game where they had to come up with the names of the 12 disciples. One kid shouts to his team, "Job! Job was an disciple!!!"

2. It helps me to memorize Scripture better! When I am helping a kid learn their Awana verse I usually end up learning it to! And if a child is really struggling with a verse I have to think up new ways to help them memorize it which also helps me to memorize.

3. It is convicting! Some of the knowledge questions that they ask the kids I can't even answer. So it lets me know that I need to go back to the basics sometimes!

4. We get to share the Gospel with kids who might not have heard it otherwise. Our church has a bus ministry that goes and picks kids up bring them to our church. A lot of the kids come from rough homes so they really need the Gospel.

5. It is preparing me to be a parent. Many of the kids who come to Awana have no discipline in their life so they don't know that they are supposed to close their eyes and not talk or run around during prayer. So we get to teach them how to act in church, and while this is so so frustrating at times it really is good practice for me for when the baby comes out and isn't so obedient. :)

Im Pregnant

did you all know that? Some days it just hits me and its like whoa we are actually going to have a kid.

Yesterday I went to a Belly Basics class on base and they just talk about everything that goes on during pregnancy. We watched a video that shows what happens from conception on. It was truly amazing. I dont understand how you can see how something like that occurs and not believe in God. His handiwork is so amazing.