Cooling Down

For the past week or so we've been experiencing some excruciatingly hot weather.  I mean, we're talking in the high 90s.   A month ago I thought we'd reached the end of summer, but man, we hit a surge in temps and it was miserable.  I've been in hotter places, but this is the first time in a long time that I've experienced this kind of humidity; the kind where you're soaking wet within minutes of walking to work.

To our delight, it cooled down significantly this weekend and it looks like it's going to continue from here on out.  It'll still be in the low 70s, but at least we won't be miserable (there are no air conditioners in our offices or homes here).

It cooled down so much that I had to bundle Sina up to go downtown yesterday.  Our friends, Anna and Mike, visited from Belgium and we took them downtown for the Stuttgart Wine Fest.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took that day.  I ended up leaving the camera at home.  I'll have to beg them to send me pictures, but it was a great time.  There was about a 30 minute window where it just poured rain like crazy.  After that, it was a beautiful afternoon and we had a blast--great wine, great food and great company.

This will be a bittersweet week...Malu will be leaving for some training in the states, but my best friend Chrissy will be here at the end of the week for about 3 weeks.  So at least I won't be totally solo!

I haven't forgotten that I owe you guys pictures from Rome, so I'll try to get to those soon.

Have a great week...we're keeping all those on the East coast in mind as they continue to feel the effects of Tropical Storm Irene.

Weekend...

I hate making posts without pictures.  And I'm doing that today.  And it's not because we didn't do anything exciting this weekend, but because we did do some fun stuff and I just forgot. the. camera. at. HOME! Bad Michelle!

Yesterday, we went to the Amigo Airsho in town and it was just fabulous to be out there and see those performances and aircraft static displays.  Hardly a cloud in the sky and no winds!  And it wasn't too hot either.  Our friend, Melissa, got us some VIP tickets where we had a free Rudy's BBQ lunch and a shady place to view the air performances.  I really hate that I didn't bring the camera to this event.  There were planes doing loop-di-loops (that's what I call them), all kinds of cool planes to see, and Baby V in her strawberry shortcake-looking hat.  It was was so adorable. Another cool thing was that I was able to snag Baby V one of those lady bug umbrellas I saw on Kidorable.  Now I just have to get her everything else in the collection :) 

Last night, we went to Sunset Pizza on the west side to surprise our friend, Matt, for his 30th birthday.  We had a great time and the food---if you live in the El Paso area you have to try this place.  It's the best pizza I've ever had!

And today...we've done absolutely nothing.  As a matter of fact, I just woke up from a nap.  And my two loves--the hubby and Baby V--are napping in her nursery rocker.  I love it.

And that's all for now.  I'll try to have pics for you guys next time.  Have a great week!

For me this week...I'll be doing some of my clearing appointments for our move to Germany.  I'll tell you guys all about it soon!

Labor Day Weekend Wrap Up

While Baby V is sleeping (in her car seat no less; we returned from our evening walk a while ago--and she sleeps so well in that thing!), I figured I'd try to knock out this post to quickly wrap up the Labor Day weekend.  Boy, it flew by!

~Friday~

Went to the outlet mall with my friend, Jennifer.  It was absolutely gorgeous out.  About 80 degrees, no wind and hardly a cloud in the sky.  It was just a great day to be outside and shopping of course!  The sales were out of control.  I walked out of there with bags full of baby clothes and maybe one or two things for myself.  I have the feeling it's going to be like this for a very long time :)  I'll be dressed in rags while I continue to get the cutest of outfits for this girl!  I spent over $100 at the Carter's outlet store.  In my defense, a good amount of that were gifts for two of my friends' kids.

~Saturday~

Spent the entire day at home with Baby V.  This is the most television I've watched, like, ever.  It's the only thing to do when you're breastfeeding every two hours or so.  I've probably seen every season of Friends (all over again) and The Office (which I love).  There were also some really good movies playing.

In the evening, I went over to Jennifer's house for dinner.  Her mom made homemade enchiladas.  Delicious!  We also watched The Last Song.  My second time watching it.  It's a cute movie.

~Sunday~

Went to my friend, Laura's, house for her son's birthday.  Joey turned 3 this past week and she hosted a party. 

I absolutely adore this little guy.  He's going to be a great big brother in a few months.  Laura hit her 33rd week today! 

I made a killer Baked Bean dish that day. 

Here's the recipe, if you're interested.

~Monday~

Baby V is one month old today! 

I almost hate the fact that she's already this far along.  She's gotten so big!  Today, we met up for lunch with our friend Katie and her son, Baby Gage.  I met Katie through a mutual friend at work.  When I met her and her husband about a month or two ago, she and I were very pregnant--only Katie was about 2 weeks behind me.  Well, nature took its course and Katie ended up having her baby on the same day we did. 

Baby Gage was born about four hours later than Baby V--and at the same hospital.  And we got to visit a little bit during our hospital stays.

So Katie was so kind enough to send me an invitation to celebrate our babies' one month birthday at the Olive Garden today.

Unfortunately, neither child was wanting to be photogenic today, but what a great way to spend the lunch hour.  We exchanged stories and anecdotes about our experiences in the first month of motherhood--and had quite a few laughs and I know I walked away with some good tidbits of advice.  We plan on getting together some more!  You know us new mommies need to unite!  And thanks to Melissa for introducing me to a great new friend!

The rest of today was spent at home with Baby V.  She and I took a very long nap together this afternoon.  And now it's about time to wake her up to feed her and put her back to bed!

Another day closer to seeing Malu again. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  He does his first two jumps tomorrow.  You have to jump a total of 5 times to complete the course.  And while it's all fun and a great rush, it's very dangerous.  So please pray for his safety.

Have a great week everyone!

~4th of July Weekend Wrap-up~

Time always seems to fly by when you don't want it to.  I really did not want to see this weekend come to an end and I am NOT looking forward to going back to work.  But enough about that.  Let me just fill you guys in on my weekend. 

With me trying to get this baby to flip before the 13th, my goal this weekend was to relax.  And I did...and also found time to have fun with some good friends.  I also can't thank my hubby enough for being such a good sport with me.  He's been waiting on me hand and foot and putting up with my pregnancy woes, complaints, etc.  His patience and understanding truly amazes me, because if I were him and looking at how I've been acting, I probably would have given up by now :)  Anyway, I digress. 

Let's start with FRIDAY:

Went to a matinee showing of Eclipse with Malu and my friend Jennifer....and LOVED it.  Malu recently became interested in the movie after I told him that some of my friends think he looks like Jacob.  Since then, he'd watched New Moon and memorized all of Jacob's lines (mostly making fun of how cheesy his lines were).  So he was happy to tag along to the movie.  Or at least I think he was.  Do you guys see any resemblance?  Maybe it's just their hair and skin color, or their eyes.  Who knows.

With Malu home, it's been easier to do a lot of home cooking.  But we wanted to make Friday nice and simple.  So, to go with all the movies we rented, we whipped up a homemade Hawaiian pizza, complete with fresh pineapple!  Malu gets a kick out of me taking pictures of all the food we prepare...so here he is being silly :)

Saturday

This was pretty much our errand day.  We took our old car to get inspected and oil changed.

Went to the commissary for groceries.

Spent a ton on clothes for Malu, which he desperately needs.  A lot of his clothes are still packed in boxes in the garage since our bedroom closet is so teeny.  And he's not a big clothes guy anyway.  He'll make big purchases for clothes literally every other year and wear the shirts he has until they have holes in them.

And picked up our Lucy girl from the groomer.  We had her hair trimmed down just to help cool her off and I think she now looks like an adorable Akita, maybe even a Rottie, even though she is a German Shepherd mix. 

Closed the evening out with dinner at Red Lobster since I had worked up a craving watching scallops being made on the Food Networked.  I bugged him the entire afternoon about wanted steak and seafood.  It didn't take long for him to cave in.

Sunday

Enjoyed a lovely 4th of July show at the Abundant Living Faith Center church.

Went to the Finch's House for their 4th of July Celebration.  Here's Maddie decorating one of the many cakes we had on-hand.

And we ate...

and ate some more...

...and had a blast with our friends.  Of course, we didn't forget to take our signature "chick" pic!  Love ya ladies!

Monday

Today, we slept in until 11:00 a.m.!  I haven't done that in ages.

And we pretty much stayed home all day and I watched a bunch of Real Housewives of New Jersey episodes--which Malu is starting to get addicted to as well (even though he won't admit it in public). 

I dread going back to work tomorrow.  But it shouldn't be bad considering the entire brigade is on block leave! Yay! Quiet office!

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed your weekends as much as I did!

Have a terrific and blessed week!

Winding Down on a Sunday Afternoon

What a day. I'd gotten off to a late start after taking Lucy out for a walk and catching up on some other people's blogs. It was just too nice a day to stay in, so after taking a shower and getting dressed, I headed out.

First stop, pedicure. I have been itching to get my feet done, mainly for the baby shower. And since I don't foresee any other day in the week to do it, I figured I'd go today. Nope, these are not my feet. My feet aren't very pretty in general, but I will say that I got my toes painted fire engine red. Yeow! I like it.

While I was sitting down in the massage chair at the nail parlor, my lil' bug was kicking like crazy. Since I was starving, I figured she must've been to. So I headed down to Pei Wei Asian Diner. I'd always been curious to try the place and figured it was the perfect time. Did anyone else know that this place is run by PF Chang's? I sure didn't. It was written on the door to this restaurant and since I LOVE PF Chang's I knew this was going to be a hit with me already. I was more ecstatic when I found out that they serve the same Chicken Lettuce Wraps that PF Chang's does. Oh, I totally ordered some. That and some pad thai. Everything was delicious. I was so stuffed from the lettuce wraps that I ended up boxing up most of the pad thai. Guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow? The only thing that sucked was eating alone. I usually surround myself with good friends, but sometimes I just want to be by myself, but it doesn't make eating at restaurants any fun. I suppose I could have done take out, but after waiting in line, I thought my stomach was going to eat itself. Or the baby (ooh, how gross). But it was especially an excruciatingly lonely experience because there were all kinds of couples around me kissing and making googly eyes. I miss having my somebody with me wherever I go.

Next stop, Michaels. It's just next door to Pei Wei's and I still needed some things to get the baby shower decorations done. I swear, I must have been in there for almost an hour. You kinda get lost in there with all the cute scrapbooking stuff and $1 deals. I also ended up spending just under $100 for stuff. Uh oh, but it's all for a good cause right? And Malu told me to have fun with it. And speaking of Malu, he'd called me [extremely] early this morning. Finally! He was out "visiting with the locals" for the past few days and finally had a chance to break away. It was so nice to hear his voice and to know that he is safe and well.

Final stop, Walmart. I had to get some food for Lucy, or as I tell to Lucy--"Lucy food". She understands that. When I say that and pull all the bags out of the car she jumps up and down and starts sniffing wildly. Aw, the simple things that bring me joy.

Now all this stuff has made this pregnant lady extremely tired. But somehow, I have to muster the energy to take Lucy for a walk, vacuum and sorta tidy up this house, and get started on some of these decorations. Yikes! Maybe a nap would do me some good. Yes, I'm taking a nap.

Stay tuned...I'm going to blog about my 22nd week here later on.