My birthday dinner/day was on Friday. It was a really good day. Josh made me a really awesome dinner, as you can see. I know most people go out for such occasions, but I am going to throw this out there how much do you think that meal cost that Josh made. Now if you need a refresher read his post to see all that we had for my birthday dinner. I will post later how much that dinner cost and elaborate on our food choices.
My present this year was a combination present from my Stringer Family (Josh, Dean/Judy, and Andy/Caitlin). They got me a gift certificate for a day at the spa. I am super excited about it. It is at my favorite place here in Louisville too, Z-Salon. I am going to save it for after the baby comes and go veg for a day. Totally looking forward to that.
So I had a really good weekend. I worked at the Sunglass Hut on Saturday (people are still buying crazy expensive sunglasses like mad in this economy). I am not kidding, I sell a lot of expensive sunglasses.
Sunday was the best Sunday in a while. Josh was home all day (he has had to work Sunday since the winter semester ended). After church we headed to the grocery store to pick up some last minute things we needed for the week, not to mention a newspaper because my new home delivery service obviously wasn't working (emailed about that this morning). Well, on the way to the Kroger we passed the Pizza Hut, I have been craving the Pizza Hut buffet. The only problem is I am not hungry enough to feel good about going to get my money worth ever. Well, Sunday after church I was really hungry, blood sugar dropping like crazy. So, I said lets go to Pizza Hut for lunch. Well after attempting 2 different Pizza Huts that didn't have buffets, I found out that the ones that do have buffets don't do them on the weekend. I was totally bummed at this point, and hungry beyond crazy. So, we ended up at KFC. It was good still. I ate a ton of cole slaw, it was really good. After we ate lunch we went home and I took a power nap while Josh vegged a bit. Then Josh wanted to work on our to-do list before baby came. I was all for it. So, he cleaned all the mold/mildew out of the windows and doors and most of the bathrooms. I cleaned the kitchen and all the floors, as well as helped a little in the bathrooms. It was a really productive day. We had some nice together time and we also went outside for a while and played with the pups. It was a really great family day of rest. OO not to mention the awesome dinner we made together to top it all off. We had a really good time using all the produce from our stairway garden. It really was awesome, and not to mention super good for you. I was Josh's sous chef for this meal mainly, but I think we were a good team. Josh is the expert with executing the flavor combination, but I was there to execute the prep. We had a lot of fun.
P.S. I think we might try and find a Pizza Hut buffet this week somewhere, can't wait. I hope I am hungry.
Yesterday was my birthday. It was a pretty normal day. Josh had to work, which we really have no control over, so tonight we are celebrating. He is making me a special dinner and I think I will get a present too, I will keep you posted.
All in all it was a good day. Work was long, but that is normal. I came home and took the dogs for a good walk (starting early on the labor inducing). While walking the pups I ran into Ben and Cynthia. Ben and Cynthia were walking their dog too. They have been on vacation so we walked our pups together and caught up a little. That was good times. Then I went home and stared into the refrigerator because I was not hungry but knew I needed to eat something. I am transitioning into the mood where I am in no mood to cook anything anymore, too tired. I am not hungry enough to want to make anything either. I feel like I am never hungry. Kind of weird, guess my stomach is being squished to the side. I decided on an egg sandwich. Figured it was good protein and fats. I did a little housework, mostly laundry, and put the infant head rest into the car seat. So, my birthday evening was just a little bit of this and that.
I was glad when Josh came home. He was really sweet, he brought me home some flowers. Said he didn't want my actual birthday to pass without anything special. That was sweet. He is really good at picking out flowers too. They were a bunch of multicolored roses. I will have to post a picture of those later. I got a couple cards in the mail from family, and a card from my girlfriends from back home (atl). It was really sweet of them to think of me and send me a present. I was totally surprised. Work gave me some money and my boss gave me a gift certificate to the subway, that was fun too. I got lots of phone calls today as well. Seems like every time I got off the phone I had 2 or 3 missed calls and voice mails. I managed to call everybody back at least and leave voice mails I think. I really felt loved even though it was a lot like a normal day. Thanks for all the phone calls it really made my day feel special amongst all the mundane. Then when Josh and I went to bed, he was gracious not to put the TV on ESPN and I got lots of rubbing on my legs. It felt good. So I fell fast asleep, which is pretty normal for me anyways.
Well, that was my great birthday yesterday. Now I am 29. I am really feeling like an adult now. This year is my 10 year high school reunion. I wish I could go, but o well baby and school are more important right now. Next year I turn the 30, wonder what that will be like. This year was a really good year. I feel like the Lord has been really gracious to me in showing me his love and that I am his child in abundant ways. He continues to mold me into the image of his son day in and day out. Who could ask for more. Well, I will enjoy my last year in my twenties and look forward to what God will do in my life next year.
P.S. Does anybody know the rule as to when I have to cut my long hair off? I figured I would keep it long as long as I could because I figured I would be out of date soon with long hair. I know it isn't cool to be old with long hair, so when is that exactly?
Went to the midwife/doctor again today. She gave us the official news that her last day at this practice would be August 19th. Not to worried since we are due the 9th. I am pretty sure she'll be around for our baby; most likely with one foot out the door, but she'll be here. Although that makes me sad if we were to have baby number 2 here.
As you can tell probably with my previous postings we are ready for baby Stringer to be here already. So, I am hoping this will be a fun post. Does anybody know any wise-tales or things you can do at home to get your body rolling into labor? Don't be afraid, please let us know. I think we are going to give them all a whirl. I was walking pretty hard this week and felt a few contractions while doing so, Jesse (my midwife) assured me that would be real helpful to get the ball going. So, going to really try and get a good hard walk in everyday till the baby comes then.
So, calling all wise-tales. Please post things you have heard or read. If you are afraid to attach your name to it no worries do it anonymously, either way we still get the information going. We'll let you know if they work.
So here I am in all my glory. Not to bad if I don't say so myself. :) I will say though I am still ready for this baby baking to be done. I was sharing the other day with a friend that this is kind of bitter-sweet. I don't want to be in a hurry because these are the last days to be just Josh and Shana, but I am so done being pregnant! I am soo uncomfortable these days. I am seeing the doctor/midwife every week now and it feels like they don't ever come soon enough. I am also soo tired these days. I feel like after I get up and get ready for work I need a short nap again. Josh is being a fantastic husband in taking care of me. He has one more paper to finish (tonight, woohoo!) for his summer classes and then we are seriously on break until Fall semester starts or baby gets here, which ever comes first. Josh is still voting for baby before school starts, we'll see. I wouldn't mind the baby coming early one bit either, but at the same time that bitter-sweet thing you know.
We only have a couple of classes left in our Bradley class, and we are still really enjoying it. We have met some really nice couples in there and hopefully we will have a reunion class when we have all had our babies to tell our delivery stories. That would be so much fun. We'll see. Weirdly I am at a loss for words today so I will leave this short. Maybe Josh will post something on this later. He was going to post the picture, but I got to it first. Sorry sweetie.
P.S. So sleepy!
What if Michael Jackson is faking it? What if this is some ploy to kick off his comeback? He would just pop out of the casket and moonwalk across the stage at his memorial for which tickets were sold. Sounds like a concert doesn't it? I don't really think he is but what if?
I'm just sitting here writing another paper for school...this time in the library and here's my view out the 2nd floor window where my desk is. Sunset off the clock tower. Nice.
Work has picked up a bunch, which I am so glad about. I was getting a little bored and really didn't like wasting all my time on the internet. You feel kind of groggy at the end of the day when your brain doesn't do anything, it is like the same feeling when you watch TV all day one day. It seriously rots your brain out. Does anybody else know what I am talking about?
July is here, HALLELUJAH!! Already feeling the relaxing effects of it. Josh and I have trimmed tons of fat in our schedules (well fat means stuff that isn't necessary, and more like just taking a break from necessary thing I guess). This good. This gives us good time to get ready for baby, physically and mentally. We watched a movie last night, Defiance. It was pretty good. We like real historic movies based on truth, has all the more impact. I am sure Josh will do his critic thing on it later. We also splurged, since it is a new month, and ate out. I know, we were excited to experience a local restaurant for a change. We ordered take out from the Frankfort Beer Depot. It is kind of like a bar, and not the best looking place to want to go eat, but we heard they had amazing food. I really only eat two things when it comes to bbq restaurants, pulled chicken and smoked turkey. Has anybody ever eaten at Sonny's? OK, I know that is poor mans bbq, but I LOVE THAT PLACE!! So, wish there was one here because that is where we would have went last night for way less money. Gosh I want some of that right now.
Here is my review on the Frankfort Beer Depot. It was pretty good food. Josh ordered a 1/2 rack of rib plate that came with 2 sides and texas toast. Well they forgot the texas toast. That made me mad obviously. Josh got 2 sides and since my belly is getting really big my stomach is getting smaller. I just ordered a pulled chicken bbq sandwich and had a few bites of his sides. They had really good onion rings, and good spicy green beans. Josh is a wiz when it comes to flavors and he could spout off what was in them, I have no clue. I just know they tasted good. He is way better at flavors then I am. They were really different then anything I had ever had before, really good. Josh loved them. I liked the bbq sauce too, but Josh said it was very vinegary. See I had no clue, I just knew it tasted good. So all in all it was pretty good. I was in the mood for some bbq when I got home from work and was in no mood to cook because the kitchen was still a mess from the night befores dinner. So I only had energy to either clean or cook.
So you might be wondering if I am not good with flavors does Josh do all the cooking in our house. Actually, no. I do most of the cooking. I think Josh is way better at flare when it comes to preparing meals. I am good with recipes and things I have done over and over again to perfect them. I know this is essential to cooking, but I don't really like tasting things in the cooking process until they are done. Don't know why, but just don't. Josh is great at sauces, gravies, spices, and stuff like that because he has a tongue for flavors. I guess you could say I don't. I can make a mean honey mustard and peanut sauce for chicken wraps, but see those are both recipes that I found. So, really they aren't mine. Most of the time when Josh cooks it is all stuff he thinks up in his head. Now, when you talk about throwing pasta and casseroles together, now I can do that. I can also cook pretty efficiently on a little budget; Josh is getting better at it. So, all-in-all Josh and I definitely even each other out in the kitchen when it comes to our strengths and weaknesses. I will say one thing, it has been awesome that he learned how to cut meat and what is a good cut of meat because he preps my meats almost all the time if I need it cut a certain way. He is the best at steaks too, pretty much prefer his steaks over any steakhouse I have ever been too. Which leads me to my birthday coming up. The past couple years he has made me really good steak for my birthday, and I think that is what I want again this year. Last year he made me filet mignon with goat cheese and a sweet glaze sauce, it was awesome. So, here is my request babe for dinner on my birthday. Something with a filet please :) The way he cooks we could never go to a restaurant and get that kind of food on our budget, so it is a treat when he cooks at home for way less then eating out prices. A lot of times we tag-team cook. He will cook the meat and I prepare everything else to go with the meal. Occasionally he'll wonder in the kitchen and taste things for me and give me a pointer or too if he thinks it needs something else, remember I don't like tasting things.
I had no clue this post would turn into a post all about food and cooking, crazy. If you aren't familiar with Josh's culinary skills, he has done vlogs on it. I think at the bottom of our blog is a link to his youtube page where he has videos he has made. They are entertaining.
