sore ladies.

Oh, I am so sore! I think my trainer is trying to kill me. I didn’t know I was actually capable of doing 30 regular push-ups, but apparently I am. It was fun, though, and I feel pretty good overall. I definitely couldn’t have done all that I did today when I started going back to the gym a few months ago.

Speaking of sore, I made an appointment for Firefly with the chiropractor this afternoon. I was going to call her closer to the time to give her specifics because I didn’t want to wake her to tell her. Which I remembered about 10 minutes before she was supposed to be there. Oops. I called her, then called them to let them know she was running late. The office is close to the house and everything was fine, but Firefly was a bit frazzled by it all and I feel horrible. They did a consultation today and she’s going back in tomorrow after they review everything. She said they have this neat table for pregnant women that they can adjust parts of to accommodate bellies, which they do while you’re standing up and then they lower it down. How cool is that? Anyway, next time I’ll call her rather than run the risk of forgetting again.

My dad was going to come over tomorrow to work on some of the final things for the bathroom, but we’re postponing to Thursday to give Firefly’s back a bit more rest and to let her get some sleep since the appointment is going to keep her up. Hopefully we can get the wood trim up quickly. We’ll still need to do a few small things like hang towel bars, but after that it’s pretty much just inspection and we’ll be done!

After I talked to him we got started on dinner. Apparently we’re on a roll with the tasty meals. Tonight we made this:

Firefly cleaned up and grilled some chicken breasts while I made mashed potatoes and sauteed up some asparagus in olive oil with lots of garlic and a few other spices. Yum!

ticket to ride.

Hey, guess what someone left for us while we were in the grocery this afternoon?

Hooray, we got a ticket to heaven! Unfortunately we only got one, but Firefly is so gracious she told me I could have it. It seems, though, that neither of us will meet the requirements spelled out on the back. It’s that whole gay thing. You know how it is.

We had a really busy day yesterday and were out of the house for most of it between a hockey thing, something else that I can’t remember (anyone seen my short-term memory?), the home show, and Dee and Pia’s for some hanging out. In the evening we headed down to a fundraiser for a local theatre I used to do a lot of work with. We were so pooped by the end of the day, but we had a good time with everything. We were both very happy to climb into bed, though.

Today was pretty busy, too. We went to church this morning, had brunch out afterward, and then went to the grocery. We came home to put everything away and were thinking about going out to play a round of disc golf, but Firefly’s back has been really bothering her the last week or so and it looked like rain so we decided against it. I need to call tomorrow to make an appointment with a chiropractor for her. I think one the one near our house does prenatal appointments–and they’re family-friendly, if you know what I mean. We stayed in and got a little bit done in the bathroom, then made this for dinner:

Apparently we’re on a roll with the tasty food. And I’m still taking crappy pictures of it. We’ve got some asparagus that needs cooked up, too. I think we’re going to have that tomorrow with some chicken breast and pasta.

Oh, I remember! Apparently my memory was right here after all. We got our hair cut. We are some hot lesbians now!

Oh! And I can see the baby moving from the outside now, although it’s not too obvious yet. If I wasn’t looking for it I wouldn’t be able to see it. So weird, but so cool!

i didn’t even notice…

I realized earlier today that the one-year anniversary of this blog passed this week without my noticing. When I started it, we were just embarking on the process of becoming parents. We hadn’t gotten a referral to the RE yet. Heck, we hadn’t even finished the demo on the bathroom that we are so close to finishing completely. We had no idea what donor we were going to choose and hadn’t started the serious search through the list of possibilities yet. Our son was still something we dreamed of, not someone we were waiting for.

I wasn’t sure what this was going to be like or where it would go, but I’m glad I started it. And I’m glad you’re following, or just passing through.

i love evenings like this.

I must say I have had a very lovely evening with my wife. We sanded down the wood that will go up on the wall outside the bathroom to replace what we took out when we moved the doorway. Wow, that was a long, odd sentence. I’m not even sure it makes sense. But that’s not the important part; the important part of it is that we were a little productive.

We also had a very yummy dinner. Did I tell you about the chicken we had at Firefly’s cousin’s house on the 4th of July? How it is the best chicken ever? Yes, I believe I did. What I don’t believe I mentioned, though, was that he sent us home with a crazy amount of it to eat later. Like no less than 15 chicken quarters. No, I’m not kidding. Well, we ate a few pieces, but we were never going to make it through all or it so we took the rest and pulled the meat off the bones. We froze some of the meat (four whole freezer bags worth), used some of it to make some chicken burritos, and made chicken tenders with some more.

What we also did was take the bones and cook them down with some carrots and garlic and spices to make our own chicken broth. We froze it in ice cube trays so we could thaw it easily later for some tasty homemade meals.

Tonight we heated up some broth with carrots and left it cooking for a while, then threw in some frozen noodles and left it cooking on pretty high boil for about 10 minutes, then simmered it for another 20 or so (while we went outside to sand the wood). When we came back in we shredded up some of the chicken and put it in the pot to get nice and hot, added some more garlic (you can never have too much garlic), threw in some other spices, and had this for dinner:

Oh my goodness, so good. So good. Firefly had two helpings–hey, she’s eating for two, right?–and we’ve still got enough left for another meal.

Then we watched a movie.

Now I just need to find something to do with the buttermilk in the fridge before it goes bad…

working toward the weekend.

Well, Firefly and I are very ready for the weekend. She’s worked 12 nights in a row, and I know she’s looking forward to not having to be on her feet all night. She’s starting to have some swelling in her ankles, which I’m sure isn’t helped by being on them so much and working in a hot place. She’s been propping them up for a while before she leaves and during her breaks which seems to be doing some good, but she needs a real rest.

We’ve still got a busy weekend, though. There’s a thing for our hockey team on Saturday morning that we’re going to. We get to pick our season package and seats, which will be fun. We’re also going to try to go to this fancy home tour thing that’s going on. I’ve never been, but it’s supposed to be cool and Firefly wants to see if we can get some ideas for our kitchen, when we finally get around to it.

We will also, at some point this weekend, get in a game of disc golf. We haven’t been able to play much lately because we’ve had so much going on–although we did get in a round at a course near her parents’ over the weekend of the 4th. We’re probably not going to be able to play for too much longer as it’ll get more and more difficult for Firefly as her belly grows. We need to get it in while we can!

Oh, and here’s a cool thing: a friend of ours got one of those Doppler listen to the baby’s heartbeat things when she was pregnant. She still had it, although she had loaned it to a friend. Well, she got it back and passed it on to us yesterday, so this evening we spent some time lying on the bed and listening, and then I felt him move around for a bit. So amazing. I think I forgot to mention it here, but one of those weekly this-is-what’s-going-on emails that I got said that we should be able to hear the baby’s heartbeat with a stethoscope soon, so we tried it (this was before we got the Doppler). We weren’t able to hear anything, but at one point he kicked or something, and the stethoscope jumped. It was so funny!

ahem.

*taptaptap* Is this thing on? I have an announcement to make. It’s very important.

Okay, not really. But it is important to me, and this is my blog, so that makes it important in this context at least, right?

Anyway…

I have officially scheduled our last big credit card payment for Friday. After Friday we will be debt free.

Okay, not really. We do still have the house and one car payment, and of course the regular monthly bills, but…we will have no more credit card debt. Zip. That? Oh, that is so awesome.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Remember the weird charges to my account? Well, the ones that were pending were rejected by the bank so they’re no longer tying up my money, and the charge that had actually posted has been credited back pending their investigation. Hooray!

at least it’s not second.

Firefly and I work opposite shifts. She works nights, I work days. It’s not so bad really, all told. We have our evenings together during the week. She sleeps while I’m at work and I sleep while she’s working, and we both have some time on our own in between. Weekends are our time together.

Some days, though…

Some days I wish we had our nights together; that we could go to bed together and wake up for breakfast together, that we could stay up late watching a movie or cuddling or playing a game of cards. Even just crawling under the covers together with our kitties snuggled at our feet.

This is one of those nights.

what’s the buzz?

Well, Firefly has officially moved into the 23rd week of pregnancy. She’s still not showing too much (although there are a few shirts and shorts that she isn’t able to wear comfortably at this point), but I expect that will change in the next few weeks or so. She’s feeling him move more and more, and it’s getting stronger every day. He seems to be most active at night while she’s at work, and in the mornings when I am, so I only get to feel it occasionally. I’m sure that will change soon, too.

I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend working on finishing wood. Bean came over and helped yesterday with the sanding, and over the last two days I’ve finished all but five boards–and those are only left because I had limited space to work in. I even managed to go to a softball game with Firefly and spend some time with friends today. I should finish the last of the boards tomorrow. By next weekend, as long as things go according to plan, the bathroom itself will be done. I do still have a bit to finish in a darker color for the bedroom rather than the natural that’s in the bathroom, but there’s not much of that. We’ll need to finish the wall in the master bedroom, put up that bit of wood trim, paint the room and do a bit of furniture rearranging, and then we’ll be able to start on to the nursery. We will both be so happy to be done and moving on to other projects.

I’ll tell you what I’m really looking forward to, though. Our annual camping trip with friends in two weeks. I can’t wait!

hey, you know what today is?

Four years ago today I went putt-putting. I flirted and joked and sat up until 4 in the morning talking with the woman who would become my wife, even though she had to be at work two hours later. I love her more every day. Amazing.

good thoughts.

I want to just take a minute this evening to congratulate SupersammyG and Shazam! on the birth of their daughter early this afternoon. Baby EGG was born at 30 weeks 3 days–almost 10 weeks before she was expected–and weighed in at 2.5 lbs. She and her mommies could use all the thoughts, prayers, vibes, and whatever else you could send their way.