Have I won?

No maggot-like beasties this morning! Would it be premature to think that I have won the battle?

In other good news...

Ate my first home grown blueberry last night! Super tasty! And we ate two more miniature raspberries from our new raspberry patch also!

Made this most delicious Jamie Oliver Mac n cheese last night that was out of this world! If I think about it, Ill post the recipe, but it contained fresh tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, two handfuls basil, Parmesan, an entire round of mozzarella and a pint of cream! Artery clogger!

Pets are so much fun!

Our weekend didn't exactly go as planned, thanks to PetSmart. How can that be? I hear you cry.

Last Sunday we stocked up at PetSmart; about 6 months worth of dog food, lots of chews (they were half price so I really stocked up!), a packet of liver sticks (our dogs bedtime treat), and a box of Milk-o-Mars (dog biscuits - they get one of those in the mornings when they go outside for the day). It was a pretty penny, but who ever said having healthy, happy pets was cheap, especially not when one weighs 110 lbs. The bags of dog food went into the garage, the chews into the pantry and the liver sticks and biscuits into the dog cupboard, in the kitchen. That was last Sunday. Friday night I noticed a little maggot in the draw above the dog cupboard where we keep our tin foil and sandwich bags and stuff like that. Just one, so I killed it. I was a little perturbed as we got these little critters last year from the Farmers Market on Old 7; you may remember reading about it on my blog, how I had to throw away lots and lots of flour and rice, and buy lots of locking tuperware to keep all of my new groceries safe. So obviously, I didnt want to have to go through that again, but couldnt for the life of me work out where they were coming from. Then neither dog ate anything all day saturday, and when I gave Tux his biscuit he took it, put it down on the floor and walked away from it. Since when did my dog not eat his treat?! They both showed evidence of having majorly upset stomachs. Then saturday night, as I went to get their bedtime treats, I noticed lots of little maggot-beasties. Lots. We took everything out of the dog cupboard and low and behold, it was teeming, with the highest proportion in the biscuit box. Ugh. So at 11pm saturday night, way past my bedtime, we were hauling things out onto the driveway (we didnt even want them in the garage) and spraying bleach all over the cupboard. I got up early sunday morning and donned my pink rubber gloves, grabbed a bucket of bleach water and a scrubby brush, setting to work on the walls, sideboards and cupboards. Ugh. We popped out for breakfast and finished the job throughout the rest of the day. Somehow Im still finding about 5 per morning to kill, but I have no idea where they are coming from as we havent put anything back in the cupboard yet, just incase and had thrown out all of the tinfoil and baggies and stuff. Hopefully this will be over soon, I dont really know what else to do. Ive bleached everything and taken the stuff outside, they must just be hiding in unreachable places. I even found two hiding on the underside of my sewing machine case, sneaky buggers.

Oh, and the other eventful thing that having dogs brought into play recently happened friday morning... we did everything as normal, as we do every day... I got up early, opened the garage door, dogs walked to the mailbox while I put my sneakers on... usually at this point they come back and get in the car and we go for a walk; instead, they took off. Then I heard sounds like a dog was dying, or at least in my head. I worried, for a minute, that they were ripping a neighbours dog to pieces, then I realised that was irrational and I started to check my veggies. Tux walked back to the driveway to see what I was up to, and wandered off again. Still it sounded like there is a dog dying in the woods, but there was no way I was walking off into the woods. 15 minutes later, Mojo comes sauntering into the garage covered in sand and blood, holding the biggest armadillo I ever imagined he could carry. It was almost the size of him! He dropped it down on the floor and wandered over to me to try and rub up against me, as he was very obviously proud of his kill. Closer inspection revealed its little tongue hanging out the side and its guts spewing all over the garage floor. Lovely. I couldnt tell him off, no matter how disgusting having armadillo parts on your garage floor at 7am was, he was just doing what dogs do and wanted me to be proud of him. Bless. So I had to go wake Danny up! Oh dear. He came wandering out in his boxer shorts, no glasses, inspected the mess, swore, went inside to get changed and came out with my pink rubber gloves on... He then had to take the dead animal and throw it into the creek, clean Mojo (Ive never seen a dog get scrubbed with a scrubby brush before!), he even cleaned Tux (who was not amused as he obviously had not been involved but had been watching and got caught in Mojo's sand cross fire!) and then bleach the blood up off the garage floor, all before 730am from the man who doesnt get up early! Oh dear. He was very good natured about it, I must say! The funny thing was that despite usually hating baths, you could almost see a smile on Mojo's face during his scrubbing down as if to say, 'it was still worth it!'.

Ain't having pets fun!

Photos and update

38 Weeks now! Can you believe it!

The doctor told me today that he couldn't believe I was 38 weeks as Ive been such a stress-free, easy patient! I can't help being super healthy! eh!

Blood pressure a little higher than normal but still good for 38 weeks pregnant; 128/76, no weight gain again this week, baby's heartbeat sounded strong. Nothing going on in the 'getting-ready-for-labour' area of things though. Encouragingly he said if I stay as healthy as I am, he wont talk about induction until at least 41 weeks, so that's good.

On other subjects, got a rolling supply of the most delicious tomatoes and green beans ever out of my garden! Also got to make some pesto this weekend, though it will be walnut pesto since the price of pine nuts in this town has gone through the roof!

These pics are from 37 weeks out at the Lake. If you can drag your eyes away from the belly, check out the serious number of freckles!

Oh no!

The end is so close, just two weeks to go, and my maternity swim suit is looking like its about to start developing holes! C'mon! Ok, so I use you every single day, but can't you last just a little bit longer!? Then for a few months after the baby is born until I can fit into my regular clothes... I guess I might have to buy another maternity suit... boooo!

W O W !!!

I know, Im a little slack about blogging lately... working really hard, since its only another week!

I just had to tell you how delicious my lunch is today! Its simple, so don't get excited about a new recipe or anything... an open faced tomato mozzarella multi-grain bagel, and I didn't even make the bagel. But that's not what is exciting... proudly placed atop the cheese are three slices of the largest, most delicious tomato ever to have been born of my sweat and soil. I cannot believe I grew that tomato (I say that, as it is now no more, mmmmm!).

I almost cried

If I thought that losing the vast majority of my cucumber vines to deer in one night was as bad as it could get, I certainly adjusted my thinking this morning. Last night I lost most of my sunflower heads, pole beans, butter beans, zucchini, squash, heirloom tomato plants and yet more cucumber vines. I really wanted to cry, but I was a big girl and held it in. Then to add insult to injury I found two huge tomatoes on the floor with giant caterpillars in them. If I ever had thoughts of owning an organic farm where I relied on my produce, those thoughts were quickly banished from my mind this morning. Everything can just go in one foul swoop. So yes, we are heading straight to Home Depot today to buy some fence posts and to see if we can keep these pests with meal tickets to my front yard away from my vegetables, so I actually get to eat some of them.

The Ultimate Embarrassment!

This morning, getting my stuff out of the car for work, I dropped my sunglasses case, and yes, it rolled under the car. I then had to scour the lab looking for an able body who wouldn't mind getting on the floor for me to retrieve my glasses, or Id be walking round inside wearing sunglasses all day! Trendy! The thought of getting down on to the floor and then having to get myself back up, was just too much to consider! Thankfully Ibrahim didn't mind, but how embarrassing!

Talk about sneaky!

So I do believe there is a rabbit sneaking into my back yard at night, when the dogs are safely asleep in the house. I was starting to wonder why I hadn't had hardly any lily blooms this year and was beginning to worry that they were not getting enough light. This is worrying as it is my understanding that lilies don't especially like to be moved. But no! This is not the reason! I found several lily stalks (good, strong, thick stalks) that had been bitten off about 8-10 inches from the ground, then the heads eaten off the lilies themselves and the stalks left lying on the ground. No caterpillar or slug has that kind of skill! I cant get down low enough to get under the hydrangea and see if in fact the critter is living under its canopy, but when that man of mine gets back, his primary job (after giving me a cuddle and telling me how much he missed me, of course) is to seek out this darned lily predator and secure my lilies! Interestingly, it is choosing not to eat the many many hostas that look so beautiful in my back yard.

Two more grape tomatoes are ready to pick! Now my tomato vines are taller than the stakes that support them, so Im a little stumped. It was suggested to me today at work that you just loop them round and let them grow down the other side, so I guess Ill be giving that a go. There are also lots of flowers on the speckled butter bean vines, however the pole beans don't seem to be making it thanks to a combination of rabbits and caterpillars, and don't even get me started on my inability to keep soy beans from getting eaten! Megan suggested Critter Ridder yesterday, so I guess a trip to Home Depot is in order here shortly, that is if we want edamame this year!

Thoroughly enjoyed a lunchtime swim at the outdoor pool today, and getting quite the little tanned and freckly face! Hoping for a photoshoot when that man gets home as its been a while. Poor guy is run ragged. I wonder if he reaslises he needs his rest for the arrival of the little one too... hmmmmm. I wonder why said little one feels the need to sleep with its legs straight out? I look very square with a butt out one side of my tummy and feet out the other.

How lucky I am!

Not only did I get to see friends from far away places this weekend, but I had my big baby shower! I had so much fun, and received so many wonderful gifts and got shown just how much the wonderful people around me love me. It was truly overwhelming! More so, I think, because they don't have showers in England. Not that people don't wash, but that there is no gathering of women before a large event in a young woman's life such as their wedding or the birth of their first (or subsequent) child where gifts are exchanged. I think that is a huge shame and perhaps something that should be introduced over there.

Lots of family members came and friends from around town. Lisa also flew down from Maine and Summer drove in from Nashville. The day started with a walk with my dogs, then the three of us, Lisa, Summer and I (not the dogs), went to the Bottletree for breakfast. I consumed more sugar than I generally do in an average week in the form of a giant cinnamon roll! We got home just as people started arriving.

There was fantastic food made by Ibrahim, lovely carrot cupcakes (the best flavour of course!), fruit salad and other delicious goodies. Though I did have to stash a cupcake as Id already had too much sugar for one morning!

I received so many wonderful present and to you all I am so grateful! I even managed not to cry. I did get emotional after everyone had left and I was thanking Tasha and Megan for throwing me such a lovely party because to me, it just showed how much I must mean to them. I think sometimes we forget to appreciate our friends, what with the rat race that we call life. It was so nice to realise how much I must mean to them and to appreciate all that they do for me.

There was a jungle gym, a baby rocking chair thingy, books, beautiful handmade blankets and these adorable Annes Geddes style swaddle cocoons that will make the baby look like a mini giraffe and lady bug (but not at the same time!). There were newborn nappies (thankfully, I can stop panicking about early labour now!), clothes, a high chair and feeding stuff, a nursing pillow, a scrapbook and super cool hooded towel, a musical mobile, touch lamp, an adorable hamper, baskets, cloth nappies (taking us up to a sufficiently respectable 26 thank goodness!), toys, wall art... please forgive me for not remembering everything, like I said, there were so many wonderful and useful gifts, its almost overwhelming!

The rest of the weekend was sort of a blur after so much excitement! We went to the City Pool and I got some exercise. Then the others played Risk with Rory dominating the World, while I went to bed!

Sunday was a little disappointing for Lisa, who came to find out that Delta had sneakily canceled her flight and she wasnt flying until Monday. So to cheer her up we went to the pool again, had Root Beer floats, took the dogs to the lake, ate delicious salads, watched tv and crashed into bed!

Today I can honestly say that I was exhausted! I yawned all day! So Im making an effort to be asleep by 830pm, the problem is, I have to at least wait until its dark out to go to bed! So Im going to go read and try and calm it down as I had lots of Braxton Hicks today and a stomach ache from eating heavy meat at Volta for lunch.

There are lots of guesstimates of baby's arrival date, gender and birth weight, so I shall post those as soon as Ive had some rest! And when that man of mine gets home, perhaps I can post a picture or two of the nursery and all of the lovely gifts we received.

Thank you everyone for came on Saturday! I really enjoyed myself!

Almost full-term! 36 weeks this Thursday!

Oh and I ate two more tomatoes off my grape vines!

It's official

I can officially rest food and drinks on my belly! So much fun!

It's sort of square these days!

Why do people feel the need to tell pregnant women just how HUGE they are and that they must be due any day!? Thanks so much folks, nope... 5 more weeks to go. Why is it socially acceptable to tell a pregnant woman she is huge, but not to tell a fat person they are fat? I honestly don't care, I'm huge because I have a baby in my belly, but just getting a little tired of hearing it! Oh, and for all of those people who like to comment on how HUGE I am, everything I am wearing today is a regular size, not maternity! ha! Target mediums!