Rivers of Hot Fudge

I am not one of those people who will ever deny the fact that I have cravings. Pre-pregnancy, I occasionally found myself "needing" some good Haagen-Daz ice cream or a good steak or whatever happened to suit my fancy at the time. Of course like any good craving, it doesn't good away until satisfied (at least not very often). My poor husband really had the hardest time understanding this, and still does. It's just not a problem that many guys face, but especially not Jon. So I had long prepared him for the day that I would begin craving prego foods. I have been very aware of what foods I seem to be wanting to eat with more regularity than normal, but to my surprise there was nothing...until recently. I did find myself craving mostly crap. Things that I would never allow myself to eat simply because I know that they are terrible for you. However, it was never one specific thing.

A few weeks ago, I had what I consider my first official craving. I was so excited to recognize it! Jon and I were on our way home from Denver I think, when we both wanted some ice cream. It was kind of late and none of the regular ice cream places were open. Now a craving for ice cream is not at all unusual and Jon is aware that it will simply increase with time, so we were searching for a place to get some of the glorious white stuff. We finally settled on McDonalds, although I was hesitant because I really cannot stand that place, but alas a good ole' cone actually began to sound good. We pull into the drive thru and at the last minute I changed my order to a hot fudge sundae, knowing in my head how ridiculous this was since I really don't like hot fudge, but my order had already been placed.

Much to my surprise, that was the best hot fudge sundae I had ever eaten! A few days later, I found myself in the sonic drive thru at home requesting another one of these chocolate delicacies. It was like I had never tasted hot fudge before...except I had and in the back of my mind it was really weird for me to be so mesmerized by the stuff. I even went so far as to buy a jar of Smuckers hot fudge for the house, so that I would not have to make so many frequent trips to McDonalds and Sonic. That was a mistake...did I really think that it would be safe to have a jar of this stuff in my fridge?? The weird thing is that it wasn't about the ice cream at all. I really would have been happy with a couple of spoonfuls of ice cream (just enough to melt into the fudge and make it extra tasty) and mostly fudge. Why I didn't do that, I'm not sure...I could have saved some major calories that way, but it didn't come to me until several days later. So after devouring what I still claim is a very small jar of hot fudge (Jon may have a difference of opinion) in about a weeks time, I made a wise choice not to replace it when I was at the store on Monday.

While the craving hasn't gone away, it is much harder to justify getting in my car and driving all the way to Sonic, so I am beginning to learn how to manage this fudgey monster so as to avoid blowing up like a blimp before this kid arrives! It will be quite interesting to see if I still enjoy this new found friend after the baby arrives or if it will just be a fleeting desire. Only time will tell.

Busy, Busy...Busy Bee!

Isn't Jon so cute?? That's my husband for the next 3 1/2 months. He will be one busy bee! He decided at the last minute that he was going to take an extra course this semester so that he could actually be done with his masters in May. Otherwise he was going to take a summer course to finish up. We both thought about him having to take another class over the summer and kind of cringed. He is pretty much ready to be done and done for good, we are certain his graduation and graduation party would just reinforce his desire to be done. Basically it would be a really bad case of "senioritis." Aside from that, he will be able to start working in the summer hopefully, and then just study for the CPA exam. So that means that he is taking 15 hours of graduate level courses. For those of you that aren't aware, 9 hours is full time at the graduate level, and 12 is usually the maximum. Super Jon is taking 15! I think he is actually happy about it though...and he will really be happy to feel the relief of never having to do any more school, ever, come May. I am proud of him though because he is actually making time for himself this semester. I think that is so important and he really didn't do much of that last semester. It caused the time to drag by slowly and he got rather burned out. He has started playing soccer a few nights a week. He really LOVES soccer, and seems to be really happy to go each time. UW has an indoor football practice facility that they open up three nights a week for students to play pick up games. He always plans to stay for just an hour, but ends up staying the whole time. It makes him happy, which makes me happy! So despite his business he is still managing to find time for the things that are important...of course that is only two weeks into the semester, but I am just so proud of him for attempting to finish the task at hand well. I hope that will continue to be the case over the next three months and that we would be able to enjoy these last few months of no responsibility!

Hannah Happenings

I did go to the doctor last week, and believe that I have reached a milestone. I'm not totally sure, but I think I am officially in the third trimester! Some say 28 weeks, and some say up to 30, so since I am right in the middle of those weeks, I am going for it. I will be 29 weeks tomorrow and cannot believe how quickly the time has passed. The doctor told me that the last trimester would fly by, but I am not ready for that! It snuck up on us so quickly that we suddenly realized that we have lots of stuff to do! I am ready to hit the breaks a bit on the flying time!

I start visiting the doctor every two weeks instead of once a month and I have to start looking into classes for us to attend. Jon and I decided to go down to Ft. Collins last weekend to purchase a car seat, just in case she decides to grace us with her presence earlier than planned. I mean really we only have 11 weeks until my due date. A lady in my office delivered all three of her kids at 36 weeks, which is only seven weeks away, so Jon and I decided that we better get ready! Along with the car seat purchase, we got a cute "going home" outfit for her and proceeded to actually arrange the furniture in her room. The bed got the boot due to the lack of space in her little room. Jon and I made about 50 trips to the garage with stuff (well maybe not fifty, but that's what it felt like) that we will not be needing until after we move. Our office/guest bedroom really has been transformed over the last few months...so fun!

As far as the doctor goes, she says I am progressing along just fine. I had some questions regarding the intense amount of mucus that I have been having. I don't know where it's coming from, but it just keeps coming. I can't complain too much other than the fact that I am flying through kleenex like crazy. I really don't feel bad or anything. Apparently it is just a normal occurrence for many pregnant women. Also last week, I was up all night feeling incredibly nauseous...like I was going to spew at any minute. Jon had a theory that I was so sick that night because Hannah was moving around like crazy and apparently for most of the night. She was keeping him up even! I asked the doctor about it and her response to me was, "do you get motion sick?" I don't really get car sick, per se, but I do get motion sick...sitting too close to the screen at the theater, boat with big waves, and occasionally circling mountain roads. That was why I was nauseous. Her moving around was making me motion sick! Good theory Jon! Totally normal for some women during pregnancy. I've also been having a hip issue...again, totally normal for some prego people!

So aside from the "normal" ailments, everything is going just fine. They did the tests for gestational diabetes at my last appointment too. They said they would call if there were problems, but would just talk with me about it at my next appointment if not. Being that it's been a week and I haven't heard a peep, I am assuming that went fine too.

The next big thing on my agenda to get myself ready for D-day is to begin training another lady in my office to do my job. We have started doing a few things here and there, but it's go time now. Depending on Jon's start date with his job and such, I am not totally sure that I will be coming back after Hannah's born, so I have to really train this lady well so that she can train my replacement. While I don't look forward to this too much, it does help to make it all sink in!

So I guess we have nothing else to do but begin the countdown! 11 more weeks!

A Fun First at Chili's

Jon and I went to Chili's last night for dinner. It was kind of on a whim because we ended up leaving work/school late and I didn't really want to cook or wait for food to be cooked at home. So we went and were being seated, when I saw my favorite little "nephew," MD (and his parents of course) sitting in a high chair. He was the only one in the high chair...his parents were in the booth. He's a little over a year old and I just love him because he always makes my day when I see him. We usually walk in the door and he comes running to me first and clings to me for about five minutes. I quickly lose his attention to "Uncle Jon" who throws him in the air and stuff, but it makes me feel really special. He recognizes me and is excited to see me. Well I didn't have high hopes last night because we have never really seen them "out." Usually we hang out at one of our houses, so I wasn't sure how MD would react to seeing us. I walked up and pretended that I was stealing his food and he looked at me...kind of stared for second and then got a big smile on his face. His big, mostly toothless smile melts my heart! He knew me and was equally excited to see me, although he was distracted by his mom's hamburger...he wanted it, she wouldn't let him have it...it was quite the ordeal! So they invited us to sit with them, but we decided not to since they already had their food.

We talked for another minute and then Jon and I took our seat. I could hear MD "talking" to the waiter, the people at the next table, his parents and it made me smile...I just love that kid! So Jon and I looked at the menu and ordered our food. At some point I looked up and noticed that they had gone. I figured they might have come over to say bye or something, but it wasn't a big deal. On a side note, restaurants in Laramie (or most of WY for that matter) are different than most. Chili's in Edmond or anywhere else for that matter would be pretty fast. You don't usually have to wait long because the service is so good and you can pretty much count on the same, good quality. Now put that same restaurant in WY and the service tends to drop, along with the quality. Last night it was just the service, which is always better than poor food quality, so it was no big deal. We were used to waiting forever in Chili's. So we chatted and eventually ate our dinner. Jon had finished and I was taking my time because I knew it would be a while before the server ever came back to give us our check.

We were both stuffed and just wanted a to-go box and our check when our server came back to our table and said that he had dessert on the way. At first I thought that he had a pretty clever way of asking people if they wanted dessert. We declined and he persisted with, well can I just get them to-go for you? We said no thank you again, trying to be patient with this guy, but we had both been waiting for about 10 minutes for our check! Then he said, but it's already paid for, so you should at least let me put it in a to-go box for you. What? Jon and I were apparently pretty dense last night, probably because we were both really tired, when it finally clicked. Khalid and Rheem (MD's parents) had bought dessert for us! We asked the waiter to box it up for us and we would take it home. It just made me so happy...not so much because of the dessert itself, although I wasn't complaining about having to eat it (I am pregnant you know), but mostly because no one has ever done that for me before. I have never had anyone buy something for me at a restaurant without telling me about it. That just happens in movies and bars, right? It felt like we were in a movie...so fun! So we waited for another ten minutes for the desserts to come out in a mondo-sized bag, and brought them home.

I couldn't wait to see what we had gotten, so I pulled them out of the bag while Jon called Khalid to thank him. I told Jon that Khalid must have had a pregnant wife recently...although we are pretty certain that it was Rheem's idea because she is the thoughtful one of the two of them. So it was the first time I've had someone buy something for me at a restaurant without me knowing first. It was great...and the dessert wasn't half bad either...

Hannah Marie Haddenham

It's official. Baby Haddy has a name! Hannah Marie...and no she is not being named after Hannah Montana. Let's start with the middle name. It's the easiest to explain. My middle name is Marie...I was named after my dad's favorite aunt. Jon's mom's middle name is also Marie, along with his grandma, and it was going to be Jon's middle name if he would have been a girl. So, it's a family name, and only natural. The girl was destined to be a Marie.

Hannah, on the other hand has lots of sentimental value. While we debated other names, we kept coming back to Hannah because we had so many reasons for picking it in the first place. We had talked about this as a girls name for some time (a few years at least). First of all, it is Biblical. Hannah was the mother of Samuel. It's a cool story...she promised to dedicate her child to the Lord is she would conceive (she was barren), and she did.

We wanted our kid to keep to her Japanese roots (you didn't know she would have them, well she does), and Hannah means beautiful flower and nose in Japanese. We love the Japanese and have a very dear place in our hearts for them, so we thought it would only be appropriate. Pretty sweet, huh? I think we talked about it once with our friend Aya and she told us all of this stuff about it. And of course it is a palindrome...same spelling forwards and backwards. I have to admit that I didn't actually know what the word was (it was on our list of things to google), but thanks to our neighbor, Ashley, I've got it down now.

So there it is...we are ready to welcome Miss Hannah in just a few short months! We actually have less than 90 days...I can't believe it!

New Year's 2009

Jon and I rang in the new year differently than we ever have. We were home! We had thought about calling up some friends to see if they wanted to get together, but ultimately we just decided that we wanted to hang out around the house. I spent the majority of the morning reading a book while Jon did some studying. Each day I tried to do some things around the house too, so I also put away all of the new dishes that day too. Overall it was a nice relaxing day.

We had decided earlier in the week that we wanted to try duck. It all stems from my Spanish teacher last year. He had mentioned that his family does some kind of du-goo-key (probably not at all what it's called but who cares). Basically it's a duck (or pheasant) stuffed inside of a goose, which is then stuffed inside of a turkey...oh and then deep fried! I assume this is largely a Wyoming thing, since hunting of each of these birds is abundant, but I don't know. Anyway, so Jon and I have discussed this concept a few times, and we are just certain that despite the heart attack on a plate, we would love it. Especially Jon...super moist (some might say greasy) meat all deep fried to perfection. We considered this for Thanksgiving, but just opted for a regular fried turkey, especially considering we didn't have nearly enough people to eat all that meat! so it has been a topic of conversation once or twice since then. I wondered aloud one day, as to whether or not you could buy a goose at the store or at a butcher or something. Jon said he saw some at the grocery store around Thanksgiving. So we were at Albertson's last week picking up a few essentials, when I thought...I should check to see if they have a goose. They did have some! But first of all, do you know that a goose is a big bird?!? Seriously! You'd have to have quite the large turkey to cram a goose inside of it! Second, the ducks were next to the geese, and on sale! So we figured, we haven't ever had either one, so why not try duck this time. So we did! Five pound bird, ten bucks...not a bad feast, we thought.

So we made duck, for our New Year's Eve dinner. Check it out...duck with an orange marmalade sauce. It came out so pretty! So what's the verdict on duck? I cooked it in a glass cake pan type of dish, and well, it was a good thing that I did, because when it was finished, there was about two inches of grease that had drained out! Let's just say it was moist! It was great because the meat was definitely tender, but we didn't love it. There wasn't much flavor other than the sauce that we used. We kind of expected it to taste a little different than turkey or chicken, but not so much. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we made a whole meal out of it.

The Bird, above.
Our little feast. The potatoes on the left are "Flemming's Au gratin" potatoes. We ate there on Christmas Eve and LOVED the potatoes. They've got some kick to them, which we found out is because of the jalapenos! Tasty treat my friends, tasty treat!

As it turned out, we ate our yummy dinner, watched a movie, and celebrated New Years with our OK, TX, & LA peeps because by eleven our time, we were pooped! I am sure lots of people would find that kind of New Year's Celebration boring, but we loved it. It was the icing on the cake to our week of relaxation. New Year's day I was contemplating the fact that 2009 will indeed be an exciting year for Jon and me, with the baby and the move and stuff. So I say bring it on, 2009 will be fine!

Christmas 2008

Jon and I spent Christmas with his family in Denver. We actually left a day early and went down to Colorado Springs to check things out. Jon and I are convenience people, especially since we have now lived without conveniences for so long (think wide open spaces of WY). So we were pleasantly surprised to find that the area that had lots of houses in our price range, happened to very close to a Wal-mart, Super Target, a mall, lots of strip malls, and of course great restaurants. Of course we aren't going to be making our decision on where to live solely on the convenience factor, but it sure moved the area up in our books! It was kind of snowy off and on all day, so we didn't really get to do a lot of house hunting, but it's still early anyway. We were just so excited to see that the town we will be moving to is actually a city with things to do...and believe it or not, although it is only three hours from our house now, it is MUCH warmer, and not nearly as windy. We are finally starting to get excited about it!

We met up with Jon's parents and grandparents that evening in Denver. We had a great time just relaxing and hanging out with the family. We got to do lots of shopping, which I loved because Wyoming and all shopping within one hour of me seems to be devoid of any good maternity clothes. I was like a kid in a candy store when I saw Gap Maternity! I also found out that there was an Old Navy Maternity across town, which we stopped at on the way home. Overall it was a very nice, relaxing Christmas.

We of course, exchanged gifts, although I am pretty certain that I got the best gift. Technically Jon got it too, but we all know that it was really for me. Long story short, Jon and I saw these dishes at his grandma's house at Thanksgiving. We both thought they were so great, but weren't sure what she was going to do with them (they were all boxed up). So I guess Jon did some investigating and it was quickly decided that I would get them for my Christmas gift, as a surprise. I guess she wasn't sure what she was going to do with the dishes, hence why nothing had been done and they were just being stored. They (Geneva & Cindy) are very sentimental about the dishes, as they are the dishes that were used when Cindy was growing up, so they wanted them to "stay in the family." So I guess everyone was pretty happy about it when Jon mentioned how much we liked them. So I warmly welcomed my new (to me at least) Franciscan ware dishes. Aren't they great?

Sorry, I had to take lots of pictures. I was just so excited about them!

The whole slew of them. There's definitely more dishes there than what we had in our cabinets, so it took some serious re-arranging. We did manage to find room though!

My favorites. Teapot, coffee pot, and water pitcher!

Now, I would hate for you to think that I was the only one that made out like a bandit this year. Trust me, my dishes have paled in comparison to Baby Haddy's loot! This is her combined loot, from all family and friends so far, and she's barely 2/3 baked! I am sure that her wardrobe will continue to increase as her arrival gets closer and closer. A friend of mine from work also gave me a lot of clothes for her (not included in the picture), so needless to say, I am pretty sure she already has more clothes than me! It was a lot of fun receiving these things...miniature sweaters, fleece, footed jammies, and onsies. Yea, for already excited grandparents and friends!

She did finally get her first Broncos garb. I was getting worried, as my mom had already gotten her a few Saints items, and my sister Yankees stuff. The kid needed some Broncos stuff! So this is one of her items, and cozy Broncos blanket. The rest will have to wait until she's a little older. It was purchased in season sizes!
I am already beginning to fill up her dressers! The first drawer is already full of blankets, hats, and miniature socks! You can also briefly see the Radio Flyer that Mom get her in NY.

Speaking of dressers. Finally a picture of the finished product. Remember the $30 dressers that we found?? Here they are, and already functioning! We got a lot of stuff done over the Christmas break, which was really nice. We also have a crib now, which Jon has already put together. It's not ready to be displayed yet, so you will just have to wait for pictures of that! We are slowly beginning to move things out of the extra bedroom (baby's room) and moving her new furniture in. We are going to leave our guest bed in the room as long as possible (although I suspect it will go sooner than Jon thinks). I mean we have to be able to start decorating and stuff. We've only got three more months! So anyway, we are really excited and the reality of it all is starting to hit us. Yea for baby making, right?!? :)