Grape: Part 1

Remember last year when I picked our grapes and made grape jam? Well, honestly, it wasn’t very good, and I didn’t even finish the tiny bottle that I made (it got moldy!).

This year we got a TON of grapes. I was just hoping for twice as much (last year I got about 3 cups of good grapes). There were probably 10 times as many grapes this year. Unfortunately I was a slacker and only got around to picking them on Saturday. All the leaves had fallen off the vine, and a lot of the grapes had, too. Probably half of them had been sucked dry by something (dry air? bugs? birds?). I spent a few hours going through them to separate the good grapes from the bad grapes. I ended up with 3 colanders full of grapes!
I used most of one colander (4 ½ cups) to make this pie recipe. I used the pie crust recipe from that red checkered/plaid cookbook that everyone has for the bottom crust. I was super nervous because of the jam turn out last year.

Here’s how it turned out:

Beautiful, huh?

Well, I didn’t get a chance to try it that night, because we were already late for dinner, and then had a birthday party to go to afterwards. So I had some for breakfast this morning, of course.

IT’S DELICIOUS!!!!!

Who ever thought grape pie would be so good!? I was a doubter. It tastes like cherry pie (consistency-wise) but flavored grape. I want to make another one, but squeezing the skins off each individual grape seriously takes forever. I’m going to try to make grape jelly with the rest of the grapes. I hope it works. Stay tuned for the results.

Turkey Week

Happy Turkey Week! :)

This year, it's technically my family's turn for Thanksgiving, but I'm not travelling anywhere 8 months pregnant, and my parents are going to Denver for my cousin's wedding.

So Dave and I decided that it would be fun to do Thanksgiving by ourselves this year. I bought a 10-12 lb turkey for $6! I bought other things, too.

I figure the best way to approach this is to have a plan of attack so everything gets ready at the same time. Here's my plan of attack. Let me know if you see anything terribly wrong or missing!

Menu:
Turkey
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Gravy
Stuffing
Stove Top Stuffing
Rolls
Peas/Corn
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Sparkling Apple & Cranberry juice

Monday:
Get Turkey out of Freezer to thaw in fridge
Buy final supplies from grocery store:

• Celery salt
• Stove Top Stuffing (check pantry first!)
• Peas/Corn (check freezer first!)
• Cranberry Sauce

Tuesday:
NOTHING!

Wednesday:

1. Make pumpkin pie
2. Make stuffing, set aside in bowl to dry out
3. Call Daddy for turkey cooking advice

Thursday:

1. Stuff & dress turkey
2. Put turkey in oven
3. Set rolls out to thaw/rise
(a few hours later)
4. Set table
5. Peel potatoes & sweet potatoes
6. Boil both potatoes
7. Dave mash potatoes
8. Sarah prepare to candy sweet potatoes & set aside
9. Make stove top stuffing
10. Take turkey out
11. Bake rolls
12. Make gravy
13. Take out rolls/butter tops
14. Cook sweet potatoes
15. Make peas/corn
16. Open cranberry sauce

Waffle Dreams

Last night we went to bed at 9pm and it was heavenly. I could have gone to sleep at 6pm, but I didn't want to wake up in the middle of the night, so I made myself stay awake for a few more hours.

Since I slept for so long, I had multiple dreams. I can't remember most of them, but the one this morning before I woke up was very influential.

I dreamed about waffles! (One of my co-workers has a hamster named Waffles, but that's not what I dreamed about.) When I woke up, I really really wanted waffles. I got up and checked the pantry for Bisquik, but we didn't have any. So I got out my red checkered cookbook and looked up the recipe, and I made waffles!--from scratch! Have you ever put vanilla in waffles? It's yummy. I didn't have time to make the whole batch since we only have one waffle maker with only two waffle slots. I also dreamed that there were fresh blueberries all over the waffles, but we didn't have any of those. It's still a treat to have waffles for breakfast though! :)

**UPDATE** - Now that I've tasted the waffles, there's definitely something wrong with them. I thought at first I may have put the wrong amount of salt in, or maybe I need to sift together the dry ingredients instead of just stirring them. After thinking about it for a while, I may have used baking soda when the recipe called for baking powder. Whoops! I guess I need to work on reading recipes and ingredient boxes more closely.

Dream Documentation

Because I should write them all down:

Last night I had two dreams. The first dream I dreamed I was in St. George or somewhere warm and desert-y, and I was with a family from home at their house in St. George that they were trying to sell. (No, they don't really have a house in St. George, but the are trying to sell their house.) Anyway, I suddenly gave birth (no pain! that's strange), and he was so cute and perfect and wonderful. Then they all left, and I was at their house all alone.

In the second dream I gave birth as well. This time I was in the hospital with doctors. The baby came out and he kind of looked like a gremlin or E.T. and he was missing his feet. My first thought was "whoa, why does he look like that?!" and immediately felt like a horrible person for thinking my baby was creepy looking. Then these teenage boys came in the room and started squirting him with squirt guns, and I chased them around like a mad mama bear, yelling things like, "GET AWAY FROM MY BABY!"

I was a grump when I woke up.

Goings On

I feel like all I write about on here is pregnancy. It is a huge part of my life right now, but there are other things going on as well. For example I go to work every day and sit in a cubicle for 8 hours or so. I then come home and look at the mess gathering in our house. Usually I then plop myself on the couch and watch TV or read.

Sometimes I get ambitious and tackle a project. For example, on Saturday, I cleaned the kitchen. All the dishes were clean, the counters were wiped, the garbage was taken out, none of the food in the fridge was growing penicillin, and I even mopped the floor.

When I have a clean kitchen, I always get ambitious in my cooking. On Sunday (fast Sunday, sorry Dave!) I made two things I’ve never made before: bread and soup. I made banana bread with some ripe bananas I had put into the freezer and I made Sausage Corn Potato Chowder. Both were easy! Now the kitchen needs to be cleaned again.

Yesterday after work I made some cards for the stamping club I’m in. I even cleaned up my mess when I was done.

Let’s not think about the other huge projects that are still staring me in the face (cleaning out junk/clutter, the dust gathering on everything, rearranging the old office to be a nursery, finishing that couch project, etc.) I said, let’s not think about it!

About a month ago, my car died. Background info: We have 4 cars and a scooter currently. The Jeep is Dave’s toy that he’s owned since he was 16, but it doesn’t run right now. The BMW runs rough and would cost $millions to fix. The scooter’s starter is broken and the kick start is stripped. I drove the Nissan, which is a salvaged title, and Dave drives the Tahoe, which is technically a “company vehicle.”

Like I said, my car died. Today we found out it needs a valve job, new timing chains, and some gaskets. Yeah, it’s Greek to me, too. But I bet you’ve never seen an engine all torn apart before! Here are some pictures of my car all torn apart:

This one is of the inside of the engine block. The third one down is the one that needs to be re-machined because you can see light through those little circles, and that’s bad.

Here is what the engine looks like with the top taken off.

In this last one I accidentally found the parts that were taken out of the engine when I popped the trunk to get my stuff out.

Anyway. Turns out it’ll cost about $500 to $600 to fix it, which is what about half of its worth (because it’s salvaged). But then I’ll have my car back! YAY!

Pregnancy Update - Perinatologist Appt. #3?

I had the long awaited appointment with the Perinatologist this morning.

As usual, the ultrasound tech did the usual measurements. I made sure to ask for pictures this time. I even asked for a 3D picture, which I wasn’t able to get because baby boy was being a stinker. She said that according to his measurements, he’s about 5 lbs 1 oz, which is in the 65 percentile for 32 weeks and 5 days.

Then the Perinatologist came in and did some more ultrasound and explained a bit more about what’s going on. She said that he has a big head and a very long femur, which is really what pushes his weight up. (Surprise! Our kid has a large head and a long femur…who could have ever guessed!?)

On to the more important things: She tried to look at his neck, but he was shielding his face and neck with his hands, arms, and umbilical cord (which is why the 3D picture didn’t work).

She was eventually able to look at the neck from the back and the esophagus looks smaller from one angle, but about the same from another angle. She was able to clearly see the vocal chords, his swallowing, his stomach, and my fluid levels are still fine. Based on that she told us that we could deliver here locally but only if we go to that hospital, since it’s the biggest and they have a great neonatology, nicu, etc. However if we still want to deliver up at the U just in case, she can arrange that.

I’m scheduled for another ultrasound in 4 more weeks, and then non-stress tests weekly thereafter until I deliver to make sure that my fluid levels remain stable.

So now the big question is, where do I want to deliver? I think there are definitely pros and cons to either choice. If I deliver here, I can just go into labor when I naturally go into labor. If I deliver at the U, I have to be scheduled and induced. If I deliver here, there’s a chance he will need to be taken to Primary Children’s, and then I’d be transferred up to the U for recovery. If I deliver up at the U, I will be further away from home with a doctor I don’t know, and I’m not a huge fan of that.

I think I am leaning more on the side of delivering locally, but if needs be, I still have time to change my mind.

TIME! Is marching on. And time.. is still marching on.

I love calendars. I try to have several up, and I’m sure I’d love having 1 per room if I could. There are currently 5 in my cubicle at work. I always hope for at least one as a Christmas present each year (hint hint hint). I can just visualize time better if I can see the day on the calendar.

Tangent: For some reason I also am much better at reading clocks if they’re analog. If I see a digital clock, I have to convert it in my head to analog before I know what time it is. Backwards, I know. I’m analog in a digital word.

On that note, I like to plan my months out, and then I always have something to look forward to.

For example:

2 days until Thursday, November 4^th – Perinatologist Appointment – I get to see my baby again, and find out where/when I’ll be delivering him. (I hope they give me more pictures this time.)
Then 5 days until Tuesday, November 9^th – Stampin’ Up Club – I get to play with stamps!
Then 1 day until Wednesday, November 10^th – Book Club – Girls’ night! Oh I guess discussing the book will be fun, too.
Then 2 days until Friday, November 12^th – OB Dr. Appointment – …meh, measure vitals, weight, heartbeat, belly size, and then “see ya in two weeks.”
Then 1 day until Saturday, November 13^th – 1^st baby shower! Yayyyyy!
Then 12 days until November 25^th and 26^th – Thanksgiving!!!!!! (no work!)
Then 1 day until Saturday, November 27^th – 2^nd baby shower! Yayyyyy!
Then 4 days until Wednesday, December 1^st – December! White Rabbit! (Oh, and happy birthday, Alex.)
Then 14 days until Wednesday, December 15^th – Last day I absolutely HAVE to work if I use no vacation or sick time until then (knock on wood). Baby, stay in until then, please.
Then 10 days until Saturday, December 25^th – Due date and Christmas!

The longest stretches are 12 days, 14 days, and 10 days, but I’m sure those will be broken up by doctor appointments, etc, but I’ll add that to my plans and calendars when they’re closer and scheduled.