Week in review

The week was full of rain. Rain and more rain. So much rain. It was very much needed by the garden but the sogginess just makes for a longer week. The ultrasound scan of our baby went well. It's robust and healthy and active. We got some great pictures, even one with its mouth open! Very strange to see that little one opening it mouth and moving its little hands around. We are still choosing NOT to know the sex of this child until birth. Whatever the mystery baby is we'll be very happy to welcome it home. My risk for abnormalities is very low and I'm even well below average for my age group. All wonderful news. The girls came along and were so happy to see that baby moving around. I'm glad they came because now it's so much more real to them. They are talking about this little sibling more and better yet Olivia presses her face up to my belly to talk to it. Very cute. As for the due date. That has been altered slightly, by a week. My due date has been pushed back a week based on the ultrasound measurements. The baby is 22 weeks old instead of 23. Not a big deal. But it is if you were say, trying to make a delivery date bet. My routine checkup also went well. My weight gain is great, actually more than great. I'm about 7 pounds total now. It sure is creeping up now that the little one is on the big growth spurt. The good news is that my blood pressure is excellent and that is always a big relief. So long as my weight gain does not jump too high I should continue to be in a good blood pressure range. I think I'm almost obsessive about this but I have to be. Heart health is imperative and especially while pregnant.

As the week went along we were preparing for a very special birthday for our favorite man, the Mister. Since he was working it was going to be a very simple celebration. The girls were quite excited to help make the cake. I found the most perfect cake pan EVER for him. He's a passionate doughnut lover, well of all breakfast pastry things, so that Williams and Sonoma Giant Donut cake pan was the thing for him. I noticed it in the catalog way back late winter, or early spring, anyhow I picked one up right away. Because I had it for so long I nearly forgot about it, I had to hide it, so when I found it lurking in the cabinet last week it was perfect timing. What a save that was. By Wednesday I was lacking the energy to make a layered carrot cake with frosting and prettiness. That donut cake pan made Keith's birthday cake so super easy. I made him the same carrot cake as last year but in the new pan and without the fancy filling. That pan was fantastic at baking the cake evenly. Putting the donut together was easier than expected. I had to cut some of the cake off to make an even edge to sandwich the donut together. (that unneeded cake sure makes excellent breakfast food.) I think because it was a carrot cake the cutting was so easy and not so crumbly. I can't say how the pan does with a white or chocolate cake. I spread some cream cheese frosting in the middle and added the other half. Done. It looked great even without frosting but it is a birthday cake and a giant donut so it had to have something. Glazing the giant donut with the remaining cream cheese frosting was a breeze. I thinned the frosting a little which made the glaze perfectly drippy. We added sprinkles which made it all come together. It barely fit into the cake stand with the lid on! That's on big donut. Keith was surprised to see that cake almost as excited as the girls. They thought that was the best cake ever. Since I didn't have any clue as to when the birthday boy could get home for his very own birthday selecting a birthday supper was difficult. I decided that I'd make sloppy joes, some macaroni and cheese and a salad. Keith has been asking me to make them FOREVER and I just can't bear to eat them. I found an easy recipe compliments of Emeril from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food June 2010 issue. You can access that recipe next month so until then you're outta luck buddy. It was pretty good and a perfect birthday meal for Keith. Although those sloppey joes were pretty darn good I just couldn't eat them more than once. Leah liked them without the bread but Olivia was very much willing to starve than eat them. She ate enough to satisfy me and I did have to respect her for her mother's taste being very apparent in her. By the time birthday cake was being prepped Keith said to the very big eyed little girls "Well, I see my donut, where are yours?" That stirred up a controversy and ended in a gaggle of people chasing the birthday guy around the house. Everyone got some of that donut and eagerly gobbled it up.

Earlier in the week I was contacted by a soccer coach asking if Olivia would like to join a tournament team. Olivia's coach put her on the list as a kid worth trying for the tournie team. It's for a Father's Day weekend tournament. Olivia was very excited to join another team and meet new girls. She was nervous at first. Maybe I should not have mentioned that the team was made up of the best players. That made her feel a little pressured to do good, maybe too good than she thinks she could do. She and Daddy had a nice talk about team. She finally decided that if her coach thinks she's good enough then that's all she needs to worry about. Her first practice went well. She's on a large team that will be split up for the tournie. There are many girls all very good and some are older and some are younger. As I see it this is the perfect way for Olivia to gain skills, play hard, and get serious about the sport. Between the two girls she by far is the most serious about soccer. Whereas Leah enjoys playing for the sake of playing Olivia is playing to win. A difference in passion I guess. It's too bad that Leah is losing interest, she's quite good and has tremendous endurance which would put her at an advantage over several of her peers. Although right now she is enjoying the the midfielder position she has become very fond of keeper. As it stands Leah's coach has a gold mine in her. A speedy midfielder who is a quick sneaky goalie. He gets a great big two-fer with her on the team. I'd like for her to enjoy playing and be successful. But she hasn't scored much for a midfielder. Only once and that is looming over her. I think that her interest in goalie is a result of her not being confident in scoring. She can charge that ball down field weaving in and out of players but once she gets near the goal she gets timid. I can't say why there's that pause every time. That's why she tends to play like a winger and less like the striker her coach wants her to be. If she were on a different team it would be more noticeable. She's fortunate to have a friend on the team who is equally speedy (actually both of them are long and lean) which is why they play so well together. Her friend plays more like a striker and together they make a great offensive duo. Leah has no problem dragging that ball up field for her pal just to pass it over and let the striker go for it. It's fun to watch how they both run at the same pace and work so well together. Leah finds just as much joy and pride in her teammates success as they do. I'm glad because seeing her be the first to congratulate her teammate is quite nice. In other soccer news Olivia scored her first hat trick in Saturday's game. All within the second half and all using her left leg. She's right legged but Keith has been hounding her to use her left leg so that she's be able to score on the opposite side of the goal plus factor in her right leg being injured she just has been using that one more often. She scored the last goal in sheer determination. She was on the other side of the pitch and charged over to the ball and her speed was amazing. She took all she had to get that ball. She was so proud and even more excited to see Mama toss that hat onto the field. We've waited a long time for her to get that hat trick. Every weekend for about a year now she'd talk about how she wants to get a hat trick at the game. Finally she reached her goal.

Our nursery is nearly finished. We painted last weekend and the furniture arrived this past week. Keith brought the crib upstairs and it too is set up. Our glider we ordered turned out to be a major defective piece 'o crap. We can't take it back to the store, no, can't do something that makes sense. No not the store. We have to set up some sort of they come pick it up and we wait for when that would ever happen. I just want our money back so I can just go buy a better piece of furniture. We're not going to keep the glider's potential full replacement. We don't want a darn thing to do with Bergamo and its piss poor product line. Not one person I know who has bought this company's gliders has anything good to say about them. Everyone has had to return it several times before they got one that actually was usable. I thought it would be nice to have one but now I see it's just foolish and a clear waste of time and money. I want our money back and want no more to do with this company. I have my eye on this chair but I know that I am delusional to think my husband will ever spend that much on a chair. I also like this rocker but doubt I'll go for something like that since it's not much to be desired for late night comfort.

On Sunday I killed my hairdryer. It died while I was drying my hair before church. Thank goodness I had a spare or that would have been a very interesting hair day. All this humid rainy weather does no woman good without a decent hairdryer. I'm glad that as the days warm up drying my hair will be less important and that means the spare hairdryer will actually survive. I never knew how demanding I am with hairdryers. Later on that day the Mister took the girls to the store to pick up some groceries. He came home with a gallon of milk, sour cream and onion potato chips, watermelon and some Lego sets that were on sale. Good thing he wasn't making supper. Good thing I had supper planned prior to his visit. We ended up going to the Washington Freedom game. The rain held out until the game was over which was so perfect because wet socks and bottoms is not a fun way to end your weekend. I liked watching the girls see those ladies play with a full field and a full team. They were fascinated with how the keepers were protecting the goal. Maybe a little inspiration for them both.

Comments

Carolyn said…
I wish we lived closer to you. I would love to come see Leah and Olivia's soccer games.

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