Week 32 Pregnancy Update

This week I had another appointment. At my last appointment, I was told that she may be measuring a bit big - so this time I got another ultrasound. Dr. Christensen confirmed Dr. Rygiel's suspicion after measuring my belly and doing an ultrasound. She is measuring a bit on the big side, which means that she may come before my expected due date (October 5th). I'm half-and-half with this news. While it means that I'll see my little girl sooner, it is less time to get work done. On the bright side, she's got hair - Dr. Christensen pointed it out on the monitor when she was measuring her head. With 7 1/2 weeks to go, she'll probably have bunches of hair. It'll be a nice change from Tristan - he didn't have much and was practically bald most of his first year.

Besides my appointment, this week has been busy. I finally got back on board with weekly meal planning (I'll probably post it up weekly on this blog to keep myself in check - you can learn more about weekly meal planning at blog link in the bar to the right - I'm an Organizing Junkie). So, Monday night (I started late, so my weekly meal plan started Tuesday), we went shopping after dinner. This week's meals were tricky to plan because two of the days I had engagements to attend to in the evenings. So this is how it went:

Tuesday:
Pizza-dilla Margaritas (Rachael Ray recipe), tortilla chips, and salsa
This is a quick, tasty, meatless recipe. If you like quesadillas then this is a great recipe. It takes only a few minutes to prepare the tomato mixture and four minutes per quesadilla (total of 3 - 4 sliced up into pizza wedges). The basil and oregano really bring this recipe to life.

After dinner, I headed to our bi-monthly Toastmasters meeting. I wrote on this once, you can see my original post here. Since starting it has been a blast. I've done my first two speeches and numerous impromptu "table topics" speeches. I've been Toastmaster twice and evaluator twice. I thoroughly enjoy the structure of each meeting, the company (all from work), and the idea of improving my public speaking skills. Unfortunately, this is my last meeting until who knows when. Scott's schedule has been changed and he'll be working nights starting in about a week. This leaves me with no option for childcare. While I'll be missing out on the great meetings, I feel I already learned so much in my short stay.

Wednesday:
Bacon Cheeseburger Roll-up with Curly fries
This recipe is relatively quick and very, very easy. I got it from a Kraft recipe magazine that I get for free quarterly. There are a lot of great recipes I've tried and we've even tried our own variations. If you want the free quarterly magazine, just go to www.kraftfoods.com and click the sign up button in the upper right. When filling out your profile, you'll have the option of opting to receive the magazine. Great thing about getting the magazine is that you'll usually get some coupons for the products featured in recipes and such.

After dinner, I went to my friend, Rebecca's house. She's about a half hour drive away but it was totally worth it. She offered to do a baby shower for me and I'm so stoked about it. This was my first visit to her house and I have to say that I think it is absolutely gorgeous. I love her decor and there is so much room! I guess living in a two bedroom apartment, anything bigger would be much more impressive. Rebecca seemed to not think her house was that great, but I beg to differ. She keeps it so tidy. We sat at the kitchen table for a few hours chatting about stuff and planning the party. I found out that we have a few things in common - scrapbooking (but we haven't done it in a while), Guitar Hero (Yeah!!), and a need to keep things under certain control (she's probably more so than I - I just give up to easily). I didn't get home until 11:00pm! I'm usually asleep by this point.

Thursday:
Filipino Beef Steak served over white rice
This was a first for me, but a variant on something Scott came up with. Whenever steak is on sale, we usually stock up. Scott tried a simple marinade of Soy Sauce and minced garlic - which we absolutely love. When I came across this recipe, I had to do a double take. It uses the same ingredients, in addition to a few others. So, I thought, 'what the hey', let's try this. The lemon juice balances out the salty soy sauce and topping with onions just gave it that extra twist of flavor. I was going to make fried rice with it, but it recommended topping the rice with the sauce mixture. So, I'll do the fried rice tomorrow.

Friday:
Leftover smorgasborg.
This is to keep my sanity and have a night of no cooking, no pots and pans to scrub, and worry free night. This only works if you make enough for leftovers, though. Fortunately, we had enough. It is best to do this on a week day - towards the end of the week - so that when you get home relaxing can come immediately (hopefully).

Saturday/Sunday:
Tonight I will be making pork roast with roasted red potato wedges. Both new recipes that I am looking forward to. Tomorrow, is an unplanned night - good to have one of these because changes do happen - such as the fried rice. So, I'll make fried rice with something I can find in the freezer. Easy!

Tonight, I'll be planning out my meals for next week and preparing my grocery list for the week. I'm limiting myself to only $65! I hope this is doable. I've got some non-food stuff to buy - like wipes for Tristan.