Guinness Beef Stew

I've been wanting to attempt this Irish stew for a while now. In fact, ever since that tasty bowl we shared in a Dublin pub. I finally had the inspiration and motivation this week, and decided to try this recipe, with a few exceptions, of course.

I added a little extra Guinness (of course) and some salt (of course), and I used turnips instead of parsnips. I didn't have any bittersweet chocolate on hand, so I just threw in a tiny handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but, but wowee, it's great. It made a huge pot of soup, so I think I'll have to freeze some, unless we have someone over for dinner tomorrow night.

Week 24

Our Little Girl is quite the athlete. She throws some pretty hefty kicks and punches for weighing in at about a pound and half, and being about the size of a large ear of corn. It really has been fun to "see" her squirming around, but sometimes I think she gets a bit carried away. I jumped in actual pain for the first time today, when it felt like she grabbed a handful of the inside of her dwelling place and twisted, while somehow simultaneously karate chopping.

I'll admit I'm just a little bit nervous for what might mean for the inside of my body over the next few months .

Coming together.

After we learned that Baby is a Girl, I realized I needed a little project to work on. So I have this little blanket coming together.

New Furniture. Finally.

Bryan and I finally made the commitment and wrote a fat check for a new set of bedroom furniture. After three years of marriage, we finally did some research, lots of looking, and decided on this set by Ashley Furniture. Whew. We saved some money by buying from Model Home Furnishing in Pullman, and are quite pleased with the outcome. (I splurged and bought some new pillows since these pictures, just for that extra flare.)

Week 19.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was at week 19. I think I'm finally past the beer-gut stage, and might actually look pregnant.

Scotland and Ireland.

And... some more pictures from Scotland and Ireland.

England

I thought I'd put up a few of our favorite pictures from our trip to Europe last Summer. Just because it was awesome.

She's a Girl!

We had our Big Ultrasound on January 29th, revealing that we will, in fact, be having a little girl! It was a very long and thorough ultrasound, and we got to see every detail of our Little Girl, from the ventricles in her brain, to the ventricles of her heart. We even paid the few extra dollars for a DVD. We were a little disappointed at the short footage, but managed to get it loaded on YouTube, complete with a second-by-second description for those who may not know what to look for.

We got one printed picture. (I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get a few more, considering the price tag of the session.) In the second picture I outlined the profile of her actual face since it's not as easy to make out as the profile of her skull.


She appears to be very strong and perfectly healthy, with all the right parts in all the right places. Thank you, Lord. Everything is extremely proportional, with her calculated due date exactly one day earlier than the last ultrasound, and a whopping two days earlier than the first estimated date. I think we'll go with the average and call it June 16th, although we are entirely prepared for her to be at least a week "late."

We can't wait to meet her in twenty more weeks.

Welcome to our Blog.

I attempted keeping up with a blog back in my single days, but eventually got caught up with Nursing School and Some Guy. Now that we are well settled into married life with a babe on the way, we thought a blog might be a good way for friends and family to check in once and a while and see how things are coming along (without having to log into a Facebook account, of course).

We don't have any grand visions of what this blog will consist of, but hopefully lots of pictures and blurbs about what we're doing or planning or attempting.

Here goes.