Another post

I left off two topics I wanted to blog about yesterday, so I decided that I would just publish another post. It's nothing important, but I just feel like sharing!

In an earlier post I mentioned the Pioneer Woman and her recipes. I still think she is amazing and that is because last night I made the BEST fried chicken strips ever. I mean Foosacklys (a chicken place local to Mobile) still wins for best chicken fingers, but I think the ones I made last night come in second. They were so good. Once again it was an easy recipe and didn't take too long. The only think you have to wait on is the chicken to soak in buttermilk, but while that it happening it gives you time to mix up the flour and get the grease hot. Josh was a little hesitant at first because he smelled the buttermilk whenever the chicken was soaking. He claimed I was soaking them in sour milk. haha We also had homemade mac n cheese, peas, and I had broccoli. I wish I had taken a picture because the chicken fingers looked as good as they tasted. :] Josh even had a full plate of seconds. The only time he has ever had complete seconds is when I cooked the chicken and cheese casserole. Needless to say, I will definitely be cooking that recipe again.

Rhonda, our robot vacuum cleaner, broke a couple weeks a go, so we had to order a part for her. Luckily she is still under warranty. During the time she was dead we had no way to vacuum our floors. We have a carpet vacuum cleaner, but when I used it on the bare floors it was shooting the sand back at my legs and it hurt. So we decided to purchase a floor vac. It does a great job and picks up sand, which Rhonda wasn't too good at. I missed Rhonda while she was out of service because I was spoiled by pressing a button everyday and coming home to a vacuumed house. However, Rhonda has been disappointing me lately. We think her battery is going bad because she isn't making it back to her dock before she dies, which means she wasn't done with her cycle. So I've been using the floor vac about every other day. It does a great job and it only takes me about 15 minutes to vacuum. Since I've been physically vacuuming more I've noticed just how dirty my house gets in ONE day. Yesterday Rhonda vacuumed and filled herself up with dog hair, dirt, and sand. Today I vacuumed with the floor vac and dog hair, dirt, and sand filled up the canister again! I'm sure you could take a guess at what color the dog hair was..... black. Oh Delta. I have no idea how you have any hair. It's a good thing she's such a good dog because her hair loss issues are no fun!

The End of May

I can't believe May is basically over.. just one more day and then, hello June! The first two weeks of June are going to be very busy for me. The first weekend (plus a few days) I'll be in Texas for a wedding. I'll be in Mobile about 2 days and then I'll be headed to North Mississippi for Lauren, one of my best friends, wedding. I am the Matron of Honor in her wedding and I am very excited. I might be most excited to see Grayson because it's almost been a year since I've seen him! Hopefully Josh will survive without me being here for so long. haha ;]

This week I am 19 weeks pregnant. I have been feeling Bryson kick and flip a lot more. I feel him several times a day now! It's a great feeling! This morning he woke me up because he was moving so much. I think he was hungry because my tummy was already growling and that never happens when I first wake up. We haven't really been craving anything specific this week. But we both love Warhead Extreme Sour ice pops. He does a lot of flips after I eat one of those! haha :]

This past week, we found several different cribs that we wanted, but nothing worked out. It was a huge headache. JC Penny was having a big sale and we picked out a crib and then found out it was unavailable. 10 more cribs we liked were also unavailable.. Finally we decided on one that was available only to find out they were going to add $100+ to the price for shipping. Which ended up not really saving any money. Basically the whole crib situation came down to shipping costs for everything. We finally decided on a crib we found in store at Babies R Us. When you ship to their store, it's free. It also has a matching dresser and they're both really nice and will last a long time. I just want to get started on his room! I need something to do to keep me occupied during the summer. I've also started on his registries. We are registering at Target, Babies R Us, and Tiny Town (a boutique in Mobile). I am going to finish the Babies R Us one when I am in Mobile. Last week I bought him a few things. I just couldn't help myself. I got a set of 5 onesies and a onesie, pants, and pj set. A blanket and stuffed animal/blanket, and baby book. It was all on sale and I paid half of what I would of paid if it hadn't been on sale. Josh only had minor heart failure when he saw it all. ;]

The Name..

I wanted to officially announce our little boy's name on my blog.

Bryson Luke Pritchard :]

The story behind it..

Bryson is a name we heard on TV one night and we both looked at each other and I asked Josh if he liked it and he said "Yes, do you?" and my response was yes! Ever since then we were stuck on naming our future son Bryson. It's differnt, but not too different. It's not a name you hear everyday, but it's not too out there.
It took a while for us to decide on a middle name. Names that I liked, Josh didn't and vice versa. Finally one night I wrote down like 10 names and went through the list with Josh crossing out the absolute no's and circling the maybes. Finally it was between Bryson Fisher and Bryson Luke. I decided to take the time and read the book of Luke in the Bible. One verse that stuck out to me was Luke 1:37 - For nothing will be impossible with God. The next verse was Luke 2:40 - And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him. Obviously Bryson is a child of God and I love what those two verses say, so it was decided that Luke would be his middle name. We can't wait to meet our little Bryson Luke!

Surprise!

Today we had our ultrasound and found out we are expecting a baby boy! At the beginning of my pregnancy I thought he was a boy.. for a little while I thought possibly a girl, but the last week I have definitely been thinking boy! The whole day dragged on and on as I waited for 3pm to arrive. Luckily my doctor office basically never has a wait. They're very good with keeping to the schedule! As soon as the ultrasound tech turned the machine on, we got the bottom view! He was ready to show us that he is all boy! I knew it before she said it! He was super active and was moving all over the place. He wasn't enjoying being poked and prodded! At one point, he even turned his back to us! haha I did drink a glass of sweet tea and eat a piece of chocolate before we left because I wanted to make sure he would be moving so we could find out the sex! It definitely worked! His heartbeat was 153 and he weighs 8 oz. On babycenter.com it says that at 18 weeks the baby normally weighs in just under 7 oz, so he is healthy. haha His heart has all 4 chambers, brain development looks good, kidney, bladder, and stomach all looked good. He has 5 fingers on each hand and 5 toes on each foot. Just the most precious thing I have ever seen. We are very excited about our little boy!

Oh life

Today we had a doctors appointment to check on me and baby! At first it didn't start off too well.. (not the appointment). It all happened before the appointment. On Thursday I reminded Josh about our appointment today at 4. On Friday, I reminded Josh about the appointment. Saturday, same thing. Sunday, asked Josh "What do we have to do tomorrow?". Anyone wondering if Josh remembered? The answer is no. I'm not really sure how someone can be so forgetful, but he takes the cake! I called him at 3:45 and no answer, that was my first clue. I got ready to leave the house and tried to call him again and no answer. I decided no big deal, it's just a check up. I head to my car and try to start it. It doesn't start. Dead battery. I mean really????? Of all times, my car decides to not cooperate it would be when I have somewhere important to go. Not to mention last week, my tire got a nail in it and that had to be repaired. Camille (my car) is really getting on my nerves. So now that I've discovered that my car isn't cranking, I call Josh again. No answer. So I call his work number and his coworker answers and says Josh isn't there. I ask when he left, he said about a minute a go. Mind you it is now at least 3:50, so he never would've made the appointment anyway even if all would've gone well with my car. Finally, I get in touch with him and let him know my car won't start and he calls the doctors office to let them know about our car troubles. Thankfully they were flexible and I was able to come in at 4:30. The appointment went great. It took awhile for the nurse to find the heartbeat. Every time she would start to hear the beating it would disappear. Baby was moving around a lot and not being cooperative! Finally, we were able to hear it for more than a second and it was 140 beats per minute. Next Monday we go back for an ultrasound to find out the sex!!!!!!!!!! Next Monday will take forever to get here, I just know it! And I wanted to make it for the earliest morning appt but it was at 10 and Josh declined.. So I am going to have to wait until 3pm to find out. Grrrr. I am just ready to know!

This weekend, we got the babys room straightened up. We got rid of the things we didn't want, put stuff in the attic, and got the rest organized. It felt good to get that accomplished. That was our main project of the weekend.

This week I am headed to Mobile and I am so excited! Josh is going to Arizona to pick up his friend and help him drive the way back to Dothan from AZ. So I get to go to Mobile and hang out! Josh will join me in Mobile for the weekend. I'm so glad I'll be there for longer than a day. :]

Pioneer Woman

I have just discovered the goodness of Pioneer Woman. I had noticed her name coming up, but never really looked into it. However, the other night I saw on facebook where two people were talking about her recipes and I decided to look at her website. I spent at least an hour looking through her recipes and finally decided to email myself two recipes, one for chicken, the other pork. There were MANY dessert recipes I wanted to try, but I convinced myself that I didn't need any monster cookies or frozen cappuccino cups.. etc etc (at least not a the moment with only me eating it..) I only chose two recipes for now because I wanted to test out what I thought sounded good against Josh's pickiness. Tonight, I made pan fried pork chops. Since we got married, I have had zero luck with cooking pork. At first the fried chops just tasted plain... and then I would fix them grilled and Josh doesn't like them that way... or they would be brown on the outside and pink on the inside. So tonight I decided to change my luck. I started heating the oil before anything, so that it would have time to heat up before I put the chops in there. The batter consisted on 3 easy ingredients; flour, black pepper, and Lawrys. Josh is real picky about seasoning and if there's too much of anything, he tastes it. I also have to be real careful about salt because I love salt and he does not. Anyway, I cooked the pork chops along with mashed potatoes, green beans, and dinner rolls and we sat down to eat. I always wait for him to say something because if he doesn't it normally means he doesn't like it. He put a bite in his mouth and said "this is the best thing I've put in my mouth besides the chicken stuff." (Chicken stuff is referring to what I made last night) Yay! Success! He finally liked the way I cooked the pork!! And he doesn't even care for pork, so this is saying a lot. And I had to agree, those were the best pork chops I have ever had. Pioneer Woman saved the day! I had decided that if they didn't turn out, I was never cooking pork chops again. Now I can't wait to try her other recipes. I am going to make fried chicken tomorrow and I can't wait to taste it. I know it will be good. And the best part of her website is that with every step in the directions, she includes a picture. So for a visual person, like me, I am able to see just exactly what I am suppose to be doing. I highly recommend checking out her website!

www.pioneerwoman.com/cooking

16 weeks

Today begins my 16th week of pregnancy! It's going by so quickly, yet so slowly at the same time. If I can just make it to 18 weeks so we can find out the sex I will be satisfied! I am definitely hungry the majority of the day.. I'm trying not to eat to badly, but I did make some brownies last night. Ooppss.. lol Well Josh asked for them.. so I couldn't say no. ;] I've got to go to Publix and buy some fruit, so I'll have something healthy to snack on. I really want more strawberries from the farm, but that's something Josh will have to go get me. Right before I started writing this blog, I felt the baby move. I was laying down with the computer resting on me and apparently he/she wasn't too happy about that! I keep my macbook on a lap desk and I guess the lap part was squishing into his/her space! I tried to wait to see if I could feel any more movement, but I didn't so I switched positions. I find that the times I can feel the baby move is when I am laying more on my back (not flat on my back as that's bad for blood flow). I can't wait to be able to feel the movements a little more strongly. I probably can only feel them right now because I am literally waiting for any movement!

This weekend was more on the low key side. We mainly hung around the house.. Josh was pretty busy. He mowed, edged, and weedeated the yard on Saturday. Finally we decided to get out and drove 30 minutes to Enterprise to eat at David's Catfish House. We had heard it was worth it and it was very good. Unfortunately there is nothing to do over there, so after we ate we had to drive back. We watched Life as We Know it and it was a really cute movie. On Sunday we went to church and ran a few errands... we came back home and Josh got back to work. He finished sanding a few places in the baby room and repainting. Then we..I mean he... decided to move around some furniture. I got to sit and watch all this since I can't paint or lift heavy furniture.. hehehe :] The guest bedroom is now full of furniture. Let me clarify, this was not my idea. Josh wanted the stupid corner piece in the room for the printer so we have this huge piece in there that's totally unnecessary! Josh wouldn't listen and doesn't want to get rid of it, so for the people who stay in there.. I am sorry it's so crowded. He did a lot yesterday.. I can't even remember it all. Sometimes just watching him exhausts me. Once he starts, he just won't stop. He gets that from his Dad.. he would not just sit down last night. He sat for about 5 minutes as he inhaled his supper and then he was back doing whatever he was doing. Finally at 10:30, I said Josh it's time to stop. He worked in the baby room all day, but you'd never be able to tell.. lol It's because the stuff needs to go in the attic.

Today was my first day off the job. I was quite bored honestly.. I kept thinking what do I need to do.. where do I need to go..? I decided today would just be a rest day and tomorrow I am going to zumba. I know as soon we figure out the sex of the baby I will be busy with the nursery, so until then I'll have to find something else to occupy my time.

Tonight I am making Josh's favorite meal as a thank you for all the work he did over the weekend! It's chicken and cheese with breadcrumbs on top and some other things.. I have to leave out the best part (broccoli) because he doesn't like it. lol

Last day

Today was my last day with my 3P class. I can't believe it's already over.. It feels like I just started! It's crazy how the time is flying by.. I am so glad I had this job for the past 5 months! It was a lot of fun and nice to have something to do each day. My kids were so sweet and threw me a pizza party today and I received numerous gifts. It was also Teacher Appreciation Week, so I was showered with flowers, candy, and cards all week long. It was a great ending to my time with them. The teacher's on the preschool hall were also SO very gracious and gave me a gift card to Babies R Us. I can't wait to find out whether it's a he or she growing in my belly!

Last weekend we went to Thunder on Tholocco on post at Fort Rucker. It consisted of a lot of good food and boat racing. The weather was great and not too hot. Sunday after church we decided to go buy car washing supplies. $30 later we exited Target. We started washing our cars, which wasn't too bad.. but then we got to the wax part. An hour and a half later I was cussing the idea of ever washing my car again and Josh was right a long with me! I do believe the $5 car wash is worth it now. I told Josh we made a mistake, but now that we bought all that stuff, we are going to stick with it till it's gone. The waxing was the worst, so luckily we don't have to do that each time we wash the cars!

I want to share this book that I am currently reading. It is called "Heaven is for Real" by Todd Burpo. It's a true story about a 3 year old little boy who went to heaven during a surgery. His name is Colton and after surgery to remove his appendix, he started telling his parents about Jesus and heaven. He shares what Heavens gate looks like, people he met, how he sat in Jesus' lap, what the angels look like, and many other details that perfectly match the Bible even though he has yet to read the entire Bible.. (obviously as he's only 3) This story will give you chills! It's a fast read and a book I highly recommend! It's just a great story of a child's innocence and faith. I have about 20 more pages until I am done and it's one of those books you can't put down!

Josh is busy with his next graduate class. He has already turned in two projects and they were both A's! One of the projects, he even received a 100! Yay! Go Josh!

As for the pregnancy, everything is still going well. My craving this week was strawberries and Josh even surprised me with a quart of strawberries from the local strawberry patch!! They were delicious!!!! I already ate them all and am wishing for more! The teacher's I worked with all said they spied a baby bump, so Mobile folks you'll have something to look forward too. Some days I feel bigger than others (it all depends on what I eat and the time of the day) but there is a baby bump there and it is growing! Only a few more weeks till we know if it's pink or blue! :]

We want to wish our Mom's a Happy Mother's Day! We wish we could be in town, but we will be there in a couple weeks! Have a great weekend y'all!