The Wallisers

I am so ready for today to be over with!

This morning started off by dropping Nora off at Grandma Judy’s (I got to hang out until around 8! yeah!).  I had an appointment for an NST (non-stress test) downtown near the hospital at 8:45… that went well.  The little one was super active and everything looked great.  She probably enjoyed the BK breakfast that I got (croissanwich, OJ, and a Mocha Joe)… hehe

I then headed in to work where I had to park way out in the far parking lot and walk in carefully in the rain… Not fun!  But, when you get here late like that it’s highly unlikely that you’ll find a close parking spot.  Oh well.  I spent most of the day working on finalizing the data in this database that has to be ready ASAP so that it can be reviewed – meaning… I spent the day looking at the computer screen and doing tedious busy work.  Oh well.  It must be done.

Saw a message that Whitney had posted on Twitter that they (her and Mom) had taken Nora to this new park somewhere in Madison.  Apparently the kiddo had a great time and Whit got tons of pictures.  I can’t wait to see them… I just wish I could have gone and hung out at the park with them too.  Oh well.  I’ll have to find out where this park is too I suppose.

Anyway… after work I’m headed over to Mom & Dad’s for dinner.  Jeremy has to work a little late but he’ll eventually make it over there too.  Maybe I can even find a little time to work on some quick scrapbooking project or something while I’m there.  We’ll see.

Once I get my hands on these park photos, I’ll be sure to share them here.

Looking forward to relaxing at home tomorrow, watching Alabama beat Tennessee (hehe – Roll Tide) and then heading out for our Anniversary date night – dinner at Melting Pot.  We’ve never been there before… I’m quite interested to try it though.  I’ll review the experience later

Had my 35 week appointment today… all is going well, we are both healthy and that’s really the most important part. I’ll be going in twice a week for NST’s (non-stress tests) beginning this Friday – I think.

In other news, the Dr. went ahead and checked me today and I’m currently at 3cm dilated, 70% effaced and she’s at the +1 position. So… there’s progress… which normally is a good thing but, I’m trying to hold out until 11/18 as that is when I’m good to go out of work in regards to FMLA. Before that, I’m not covered.

We’ll just see what happens – that’s all we can do at least.

Here’s a photo… it’s a crappy cell phone pic, but you get the idea.

Even though Saturday ended up being a wet, cloudy, windy, cold day… we headed out to Tate Farms to the pumpkin patch anyway. I really didn’t realize how cold it was until we got out of the car there… oops. I guess next time I better check a little better. It was our last chance weekend to be able to go though (too much stuff going on this weekend and the next), so it was then or not at all. I’m glad we went!

We bundled Nora all up in her stroller and luckily she didn’t fight it. Lately she’s had this thing about not wanting to sit in her stroller for too long… I guess because of the cold and wind she decided that it wasn’t too bad after all.

We invited both sets of grandparents to come with us but because of the timing Grandma Kathy wasn’t able to make it. It was nice that Grandma Judy could be there though. A great help having an extra set of hands around to help push a stroller while I was taking pictures and Jeremy was pushing around the pumpkin cart. Next year hopefully we’ll be able to have everyone come and enjoy the day.

There were so many different kinds of pumpkins and gourds that I had never even heard of. It was really cool to go around and see all the different varieties.

These are the ones we went home with…

It was really nice to have an extra person there… allowed us to take some family photo ops

We had such a great time… despite the nasty weather. I really hope to plan much better next year so that we can get the girls out of the stroller and allow them to play. There were lots of cool fun things for kids to do that we’ll try out next time!

I’m so excited for tomorrow! We are taking Nora to Tate Farms to visit the pumpkin patch!! Lots of fun photos to come over the weekend!!

Believe it or not… I had 5 days off of work in a row! It was absolutely wonderful to be able to hang out with Nora so much and also get to spend time with family and friends!

Originally, I had requested two days off of work (in conjunction with a 3 day weekend) so that we could go to the beach with Jeremy’s family.  Well, the plans for the beach got changed and so the family isn’t going until Thanksgiving so needless to say, we didn’t go to the beach – but I figured that I’d still keep the vacation days and get to spend some time with Nora before her little sister makes an appearance.

I must say, I definitely had it easy – we spent a good bit of time hanging out with each Grandma so I did have some help (Thanks Grandmas!!).  We spent some time shopping on Thursday and Monday – got some ideas for Birthday and Christmas gifts for Nora. Jeremy and I just need to figure out a time and actually do some of that Birthday/Christmas shopping.   Oh, and I seriously MUST start getting some plans for that birthday party together!  Time is running out!

On Friday, I met up with an old friend from High School and we spent several hours on the square in Athens eating, shopping, and just general catching up.  Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

There’s not a whole lot in the way of photos from my 5 days… except I did get some great ones that will be perfect for scrapping about my days off.  I’ll share those once the pages are done – I’m thinking that a digital page is in order as it’s been awhile since I’ve done any digital scrapbook pages.  Anyway, check back in a day or two and hopefully I’ll have those pages to share.

Oh, Sunday night I tried my 2nd attempt at making my own baby food.  The first time, Jeremy didn’t think that the peas were pureed enough so he wouldn’t let me feed them to Nora… this time, no argument.  We had some flank steak with fresh yellow squash and zucchini – so I decided that Nora could eat some pureed veggies with us   Honestly, if I had just peeled the veggies then she would have likely done just fine without them being pureed – but whatever.  Here’s what I did…

Steamed the veggies

Dished several of each type of squash into the chopper (I only have a chopper, not a food processor… but it worked just fine).  Then blended it all up…

It’s nice and neon green colored… haha – almost looks a little scary, but she ate some of it.  I don’t think that the taste was an issue for her – she didn’t really want to eat anything that I tried to give her.  I’m blaming her teething on that one, but I saved the jar and we’ll try it again tonight.