14 weeks to go

I am 25 weeks people! Can you believe that?! In 14 VERY short weeks, there will no longer be a baby in my belly. There will be a baby, just most likely in my lap, Joe's arms, or Keech's crate. I'm convinced he's going to call dibs on her and not let Joe or I anywhere near her unless he deems it appropriate. What the heck are we going to do with a real live human baby?! ALL the time?! I've held babies, I've babysat and nannied, have lots of siblings, and some cousins, but I always got to give them back and they were no longer my problem. The reality of having another human being dependent on me is finally starting to kick in if ya can't tell :) I mean, 14 weeks isn't that long! We are still kinda floating through this pregnancy with no freaking furniture and now I'm starting to rethink the bedding I picked out. The original stuff is gorgeous. I love it. Its grey and yellow, and not babyish at all. I don't like the stuff that has ducks or Pooh Bear, or whatever. I mean, that stuff is so freaking adorable, but I just don't want to look at it all the time, and I know she isn't going to be a baby forever so I want her to have something to grow into. So we've been looking. We found some bedding at a specialty shop here, That's Our Baby, that is just so stinking cute. It's hot pink and lime green and it has elephants and giraffes on it. I mean OMG c'mon. Its adorable. And the good thing is is that solids are incorporated into it, so when she's a toddler and little, she'll most likely not want to change it. It's something she can grow into. But I dunno, we'll see. I'm leaving the original stuff on our registry for now until I get it together and actually make a decision.

So we've talking about how we need to go to church more for awhile now, and we finally started our process of finding a church home here in Columbus. We both prefer traditional worship services, and it seems like a lot of the Methodist churches in our area are moving more towards contemporary services, so we're struggling to find something. There isn't a thing wrong with that, its just not what we prefer or grew up with. So we went to St. Paul's UMC today and it was very nice. Its small, and its an older congregation like our church at home, and we really enjoyed the sermon, but it was a guest preacher today and they have a praise band. We weren't totally comfortable with that. Everything else about the service was perfect for us though. Everybody was beyond friendly, and we were even invited to stay for the congregation lunch. We weren't able to stay, but the invitation was so thoughtful. We enjoyed ourselves, but we're going to visit a few more places before we make a decision. Joe loved that he finally got to wear his 3-piecce suit. He looked nice in it :) I think that's partly why hes pushing this whole church thing hard. He just wants to wear that suit Haha

So Family Day and Graduation for Joe's company was this week. Family Day was Wednesday, and basically what that means is all the families of the baby soldiers come and watch them get to officially put their berets on for the first time. It's also the first time they've gotten to see their kid in 10 weeks, so its a big deal. The FRG sets up a tent and we provide snacks and drinks for all the family members coming in. Recon also sets up a table and they sell shirts, those cute little bears in uniform, videos, all kinds of stuff. What's really cool about what Recon does is each platoon gets to design a shirt, and then Recon actually puts it on a shirt and the guys have the opportunity to buy the shirt. No other class will ever have the same shirt. Its a really cool concept, and the dads eat it up. We'll have whole families buy their son's classes shirt. Afterwards the babies are free to go with their families and do whatever they want. They're officially free after that. So.... funny pregnancy story related to Family Day this time around. After Family Day was over, I hung out in Joe's office for a little bit waiting on him so we could go to lunch. We finally get up to go leave, and my pants are completely soaked through. We were both like "Huh... That's probably not normal" so we get down tot he car and I call the hospital and the nurse is like "Um, yes ma'am you need to come in right away" like duh, stupid girl. So we get to Labor & Delivery and they're waiting on us, we get put in a room, and hooked up to all kinds of monitors, and they run a bunch of tests. I was kind of freaking out on the inside, thinking my water had broken. So turns out, I sort of peed my pants. Dude WTF?! How would I not know I did that? I just stood up, and boom! Wet pants. The doctor informed me that, no I'm not a dum-dum, this is actually very common among pregnant women. Who knew? So watch out, all my pregnant friends. It could happen to you :) So that was our Family Day! Graduation went much more smoothly! The FRG hosts a Spouses Panel on the morning of graduation for all the graduates wives, fiancees, girlfriends, family, whatever, and we give them information that is important for them as a spouse or family member to have. We talk about our own experiences, and things we wish we had known, or advice that really helped us, and it gives them an opportunity to ask any questions they may have. We all vary in age, time, and children, so we're a very diverse and knowledgeable group of ladies I think. It went well, and I hope we were able to help some of the ladies. Graduation was great, and everyone who was involved did an excellent job.

I also made some fantastic Jambalaya this week. It's a recipe I got off my mommy blog, Alphamom.com, and it was excellent. Chris Jordan is the mom who's recipe it is. She is a mom of 6 boys and 1 girl, and they're all still at home. So the woman knows a thing or two about cooking to please a lot of people. Here's the recipe, it's too good not to share!

You will need:
1 lb sausage sliced, I use mild Italian sausage
1 large onion, chopped
2 small red bell peppers, chopped
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 1/3 cups long-grain white rice
2 2/3 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (adjust this according to your own taste)
1/4 tsp Cajun seasoning (adjust or omit according to your own taste)
4 scallions
Step One: Brown sliced sausage over medium high heat.
Step Two: Remove sausage from pan. Put onion, bell pepper and celery into the already hot pan. Stir until vegetables are cooked thoroughly and onions are soft.
Step Three: Add sausage back to pan. Stir in rice, broth and spices. Bring to a quick boil.
Step Four: Cover pan. Reduce heat to very low and allow to cook for twenty minutes or so until all the liquid is absorbed. The same way that you would cook plain rice.
Step Five: Once cooked add the thinly sliced scallions and fluff well with a fork.
Enjoy your one pan wonder.

I tried to use the picture online, but it won't let me, and there wasn't anything left of ours to take a picture of. I hope somebody enjoys it as much as we did!