Megan's Baby Shower

Yesterday was my friend Megan's baby shower. Megan and I have known each other since freshman year of high school (about 15 years now!)-we were on cheerleading together and worked at Putt-Putt together. We also went to Daemen College together and pledged for the same sorority. We both ended up transferring to Buffalo State halfway through and both became teachers! She's still teaching though-and of course I'm not now. But now we're pregnant together which is very cool-I hope our kids end up being great friends in the future!

Megan is due at the end of April/beginning of May (she has 2 due dates a week apart) so she has about 4-5 weeks left to go. She's about 8 weeks ahead of me. Her Mom threw a nice shower at Orazio's in Clarence. It was a brunch with very good food! It was great to see a lot of friends that I haven't seen in awhile and to see all of the cute baby gifts she got. I only wish I took more pictures-my camera has been acting up and my batteries were dead (even though they were fully charged-long story) so I didn't take too many because I knew the camera was about to die at any minute. Sorry Meg-I wish I could have taken more!! Here are the few that I did take:

The cake:


My gift to her-the clothesline idea I stole from Jessica's shower (I think it was a hit and it turned out so cute!):

The two of us-Megan at 35/36 weeks and me at 27 weeks:

The next shower will be mine-yikes!!

27 Weeks

So today I'm 27 weeks along-officially now in my 3rd trimester! It's hard to believe it's 2/3 of the way done now-the baby will be here so soon now! I'm still feeling good-no issues or anything so I can't complain. Baby is very active during parts of the day-mostly at night when I'm relaxing. I've actually seen my stomach move a few times when he/she really gets going which is pretty neat. Here's to another 13 weeks to go!!

Sausage, Broccoli, and Noodles

I found this recipe yesterday while at work. I saw we had a new Family Circle magazine so I looked through it. They always have these really yummy looking desserts on the cover, but then I get disappointed when I see the recipes-they either take 8 hours to make, or have 6 sticks of butter in them (not joking!)-thanks, but no thanks! So I saw this in there and thought it would be good to try-so I ran to Wegman's today after work and made it tonight for dinner.


Sausage, Broccoli, and Noodles

3 packages (3 oz each) Ramen noodle soup, chicken flavor
1/4 cup sour cream (I used "Light")
1 tbsp. corn starch
3 links sweet Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
3 cups frozen baby broccoli flowerets, thawed

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles for 2mins, reserving seasoning packets for later; drain and set aside. In a small bowl, stir together sour cream and corn starch, set aside.

2. Cook sausage in a large skillet over medium heat, breaking up with a spoon, for 5 minutes or until cooked through.

3. Add broccoli, 1 cup water and 1 1/2 tsp of ramen chicken seasoning (basically 1 packet) to skillet with sausage. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 3 minutes or until broccoli is cooked through.

4. Remove cover and stir sour cream mixture into skillet. Cook for 1 minute or until sauce thickens. Add noodles to skillet and toss to coat with sauce. Serve immediately. Yields 4 servings.


Notes: I couldn't find sweet Italian sausage that was turkey sausage. So I used mild Italian turkey/chicken sausage and it tasted fine. The store also didn't have broccoli flowerets so I used whatever the frozen broccoli is that they sell. Mine took a little longer to cook then it said-my broccoli wasn't thawed so that took longer and I think the sausage took longer than 5mins. (I was doing several steps at the same time so I wasn't paying attention to my timing).

Overall, this meal was yummy! We did have leftovers after we both ate so the servings they say it makes was pretty true. I didn't tell Gabe it was turkey sausage until after the fact and I don't think he noticed at all. I told him after dinner and he said I tricked him :) This meal's a keeper, that's for sure!

Catching Up

It's catch up day on here-after being home for the week, I spent most of the week back-posting about our trip so I haven't really put current news on here. So I figure I'll do a catch up post and then go from there!

Wednesday this past week we met with a 2nd pediatrician. It was a tough decision, but Gabe and I both agreed to go with the 2nd one we met with. It's not as new and flashy as the first office we went to, but we felt more comfortable with the doctor at the second place. It's a slightly smaller practice (4 docs compared to 7) and you're guaranteed to see a doc everytime you go in-as opposed to possibly seeing a NP or PA instead. So I'm glad that's finished-our next big decision will be daycare-which we meet with in April.

Friday we went to Buffalo for the weekend. My Great Aunt Anna (Grandpa's sister) passed away back in December and they didn't have a service for her then-she was living out of town and most of her family is out of town so they decided to wait a few months until most could travel in for it. So the mass and breakfast were on Saturday morning. My Grandfather flew in from Vegas for the week so we got to see him twice over the weekend which is nice-he hasn't been in since our wedding in July. He plans to try to come back this summer to meet the baby, so hopefully all goes well and he can make the trip back here then. By the way, he's predicting it's a girl! Saturday night we met our friends Megan, Todd, Renee, and Paul at Friendly's for some ice cream and to catch up. Then today we just hung out at my Mom's before heading home-we stopped at Gabe's parents for dinner and are now home to watch The Amazing Race. Then starts another work week...woo hoo!

So, I think I'm pretty much caught up at this point-I can't think of anything else exciting that happened during the week to post about!

Busy Day Off!

Gabe and I decided to take today off to regroup from vacation. We landed in Buffalo around 3 yesterday then went to my Mom's for some early dinner. We came home and unpacked, but neither of us was ready to go back to work already. So Monday off it is! It ended up being a busy day. We were up early to meet with our first pediatrician-it went well. We have one more to meet with on Wednesday this week and we'll decide between the two. After that, I had my OB appt. I was there over an hour because I had to do my glucose test as well. It wasn't as bad as I thought and all is going well so far!! We're good to go for another month. After my appt I came home to have a snack and then went grocery shopping since we had no food in the house. I was going to go to my usual workout class, but it was so beautiful outside that Gabe and I decided to go for a walk instead. We went about an hour and it was nice-I love being outside when you've been cooped up all winter. After dinner we finally did some relaxing and got ready for work the next day!

Last Day

Our last day in FL-boo hoo! I hear we missed some crappy weather back home so that's always good when you're on vacation! Our weather here was amazing-80s everyday and it rained maybe 10min one day and that was it! And it's supposed to be in the 50s when we land back in Buffalo so I can't complain about that. So on our last day, Gabe and I went for a nice long walk on the boardwalk. Then we went to the beach-which was pretty rough today. We still went in the water a little bit, but it was definitely a rough day out there. Later in the afternoon we rented a 4 seater bike which was fun-we had it about an hour and went up and down the boardwalk. It was a good time and we had some good laughs!
This is when we picked up the bike:
Here is Owen working hard ringing the bell:

Gabe Sr, Bianca, Gabe, Owen and I after our bike ride-time to eat!

After riding, we got some mexican takeout which was yummy. Then packed a little bit and went to bed! Part of me is ready to go home (I hate living out of a suitcase) and part of me is dreading it too. Just like the end to any vacation!

25 Weeks

So today I'm 25 weeks along! Hard to believe I only have 15 more to go! I keep saying this, but I feel I popped again! I swear I feel bigger each day now! It's funny how that happens. I have an appt on Monday so hopefully all is going well! I'll keep ya posted!