a day in the life

Linking up with Leslie today for a peek into my day.

6:15(ish) am: One of my 5 alarms go off.  I spend the 6:00am hour cuddled under the covers checking Instagram, Facebook, emails, and my pregnancy apps. All while Will and the dogs snore away. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day.

7:00am: Let the dogs outside, rush to get ready for work, and try to throw together some kind of breakfast, lunch, and snack to take to work. We have a pretty yummy cafeteria at my office, but it is also pretty expensive. If I can supplement what I buy there with some fruit, oatmeal, granola, and leftovers from dinner- it saves me a lot of dollars.

On this particular day, Will is traveling for work. So I am also responsible for prepping the basement/laundry room for the dogs, making sure they have food, and that the house is good and locked up for the day.

8:10am: Make it to the office, check emails, and prepare to hire the movers and shakers of the world. I work as a recruiting specialist in the corporate office of a material handling company. My coworkers are awesome and I am lucky to spend a lot of time at work laughing (sometimes because things are funny, sometimes because I am losing my mind) and enjoying my day. There is never a dull moment in recruiting.

12:00pm: Lunch with the ladies of the HR dept. We usually eat in the above mentioned cafeteria, and I look forward to this little break every day. Occasionally I work through lunch, or run errands. My office is about 25 minutes from our home, and there’s a whole different list of options for shopping in this area that I like to take advantage of from time to time.

5:00pm: Wrap up whatever I need to finish for the day, and prepare to brave the traffic to get home.

Normally I avoid after work errands at all costs, but on this day I have a 6:00pm pedicure appointment at the pregnancy spa down the road from my office thanks to my awesome husband. While I wait for the appointment I stop at Whole Foods for a slice of pizza and two mini pastries. They were absolutely delicious, and the perfect way to start my night of relaxation.

6:00pm: After work I let the dogs out, feed them dinner, check the mail, then decompress by sitting on the deck and catching up on blogs, social media, whatever it is. I also start dinner around now, and try to check off one thing from my to-do list. Dinner could be anything from frozen pizza or hamburger helper, to homemade pasta sauce or meatloaf or soup. Just depends on my mood. The to do list item might involve cleaning, prepping for the baby, or ordering one of the ten million little items we still need for the house.

8:00pm. After dinner I usually try to do something outside. Whether it’s go outside and chat with my next door neighbor, walk the neighborhood, or just spend more time on the deck. Fresh air is my best friend in the non winter months. If it’s raining or too humid, Will and I just hang on the couch until bed time.

10:00pm: I hit the sack (if I am lucky to make it this late). I’m not much of a napper, but when it comes to bed time- I don’t mess around.

And that’s all she wrote. We have an awesome weekend planned, so TGIF friends!

awesome recipe alert: one skillet sausage pasta

I recently saw a recipe on Pinterest that looked amazing enough to actually try.

Unfortunately, the recipe I pinned was a broken link. Fortunately, I found a similar recipe via good old Google, and it did not disappoint. I followed this recipe from damndelicious.net to a T, except for a few minor details.

their version:

-I used shells instead of elbow macaroni

-Used mexican cheese blend as opposed to pepper jack

-My sausage was of the smoked turkey sausage variety.

I also could have probably lowered the cook time by a few minutes due to shells cooking a tiny bit faster than elbow macaroni.

my version:

All in all, it was a huge hit! This made enough for dinner for two, and plenty of left overs for two (smallish) lunches the next day. Even better, it only dirtied one pan, a few utensils, and a cutting board.

I already had two friends tell me on Instagram that they tried it because it looked so good, and the recipe was a hit in their homes as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 onion, diced

1 package smoked sausage, thinly sliced

2 cups chicken broth

1 can diced tomatoes

1/2 cup milk

8 ounces pasta

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup shredded cheese

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.

2. Add garlic, onion, and sausage. Cook, stirring frequently, until sausage is lightly browned. About 3-4 minutes.

3. Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, milk and past.

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and summer until pasta is cooked. About 12 minutes.

5. Remove from heat and top with cheese. Cover until cheese has melted, about 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

list, to-do's, and random thoughts

To Do's

There are a few "major" things on my to do list before we hit the 37 week mark. I'm 33 weeks and a few days now, which basically means it's game time. The list includes:

-having the house cleaned

-having the carpets cleaned

-packing our hospital bags

-installing the carseat, and stopping by the fire station to make sure it's been done correctly

-writing thank you notes from my last two showers

Thanks to the long weekend I've already managed to wash all of Norah's clothes and bedding, make a "last minute essentials" trip to Babies R Us, and place an order from The Honest Company.

my little helper

Will assembled the swing and pack n' play, and I'm going to borrow a rock n' play from a neighbor to see if we want one or not. Things are really coming along!

Baby  Research

I've been trying to do all the research I can to prepare myself as much as possible to make Norah's first days, weeks, and even months home as smooth as possible. This research includes friends, relatives, books, blogs, and whoever else I can solicit an opinion from really. A few blogs that have give me a lot of perspective are:

Mother's Niche

Carolina Charm

Lucie's List

Spot of Tea Designs

I've used these blogs to help my create everything from my hospital packing list to our "must" have baby products.

I've also been CRAZY about reading birth stories. I've leaned more toward specific bloggers birth stories, as I find blogs specifically dedicated to birth stories tend to be focused toward natural birth or home birth and I want a good mix of everything Plus I will be at the hospital, and there will be an epidural, so those don't really apply to me. Mama and Mou has a ton of birth stories from different bloggers and they have been a huge help in preparing me for what to expect.

Third Trimester Thoughts

It really is true that your body will start "practicing" for sleepless nights around the third trimester. I swear whether it's me having to go to the bathroom, Will coming to bed late, the dogs wanting my attention for something, or no good reason at all- I manage to get woken up at least once a night. I don't even fight it anymore, and honestly, I don't really mind. I know this is only a small taste of what's to come. I actually almost enjoy the extra quiet time to myself since my day time hours are filled with so much hustle and bustle.

God bless the husbands of pregnant women. Obviously being prego is no walk in the park, but I also doubt it's fun living with a woman who packs on 30 pounds, can barley control any of her bodily functions, is raging with hormones, and is overall a mental basket case for the better part of a year.

Not sure if this is just me or not, but all of this baby-baby-baby on the brain has me thinking about babies plural. I am in no huge rush to have other kid, but I also don't want my kids to be too far apart, and I know we want 2 or 3. I also know I don't want to have any children past my early 30's if I can help it. Obviously I will take them when I can get them, but this is just what I think is best for me and our family. We will see how this first one works out of course, but I'm already excited to see our little girl interact with a sibling. After my body gets a break.

That's all for now folks. Thank goodness for a relaxing, fun filled three day weekend, and here's to another week of the grind.

Happy Monday! Linking up with Amanda.