Mini Shower!

Who knew my Aunts and Cousin would shower us with gifts this weekend! My parents came up to love on us and we had dinner at Holly and Mark's newly remodeled house-- wonderful weather, wonderful food (Mark smokes a mean BBQ chicken), and wonderful company!

My other Aunt Kay (just moved to Brisbane) sent Baby Brewer the sweetest little memento from Australia! FYI- Brent says koalas are in the "Marsupial family"... the Discovery channel coming in handy!

Pregnancy Thoughts

As my third trimester comes creeping up on me, I have been in a reflection mode these past few weeks. Seeing my pregnancy ticker go from tripple digits to two digits makes it seem this pregnancy has flown by! I do believe, however, we have just entered the "dog days" of pregnancy-- everyone looking at my belly instead of my face when they talk to me, asking me if I want a boy or girl, talking about the Texas heat and pregnancy all the while as Brent and I eagerly wait for our baby's arrival. To that end, I thought I would put together a list of what I will miss during pregnancy, what I won't miss, and what I can't wait for!

What I will Miss:
- When the baby gets hiccups in my belly and my stomach moves up and down for minutes at a time (makes me feel so connected to see baby breathing and reacting to environmental changes)
- Vivid pregnancy dreams (what entertainment I have had while sleeping!)
- Thick hair (those prenatal vitamins and extra blood flow isn't all bad!)
- Friends/ Family touching my belly with excitement
- A sense of smell that is CRAZY strong... this is really helping me at work to distinguish spices, etc. (Brent thinks it is crazy I could smell rotting grass in our neighbors trash pile after a rain, I could smell our "house odor" at work this morning from the tollway (a good mile away), I also smelled Cinnamon mints through the plastic container as I was unloading my gorceries in the check out line yesterday which was pretty cool!, AND if you want me to pick out good, ripe fruit for you by smelling it, I won't stear you wrong!)
- Strangers giving up their seat when there are none available
- My coworkers letting me pick the lunch spot EVERY Friday so "baby" is happy
- Going to bed at 8:30, no questions asked!
- Eating Wendy's (This is usually a restaurant I boycott, but those chicken sandwiches are irresistible!)

What I Will not Miss:
- Pregnancy Brain (I have never been more forgetful in my life! I am throwing away important stuff at work, forgetting whole conversations I have with people, getting half way to the mailbox and forgetting why I am outside... everything!)
- Stranger's comments about "Pregnancy Glow" (they don't know what I looked like before-- BUT I know they are just trying the be complimentary)
- Clumsiness (I have never dropped more in my life!)
- Eating plums and Miralax
- Hearing everyone's awful pregnancy stories (this is not the time, folks!)
- The Pregnancy Waddle (I just realized I fell prey while we were in Chicago)
- Sleeping in seperate beds (5 pillows, a dog, a husband, and a wife no longer all fit on a queen bed)
- Walking up a flight of stairs only to be breathless at the top

What I can't wait for:
- Seeing the child that will look like Brent and me
- Celebrating Christmas with our sweet baby
- Baby giggles
- Brent getting to be a kid again (finally going down the toy isle with purpose!)
- Firsts: all of them!
- Teaching our child about Jesus
- Stepping on the scale and seeing weight come off instead of packing on :)
- Making our parents- grandparents

Stay tuned... our 4D sonogram is this Monday!

Softballs Aren't Soft

Brent and Wade were invited to play in a softball league with some men from our church, so naturally their pregnant wives set out to support them in their new found sport! They won 3-1! Funniest moments: 1. I made a new best friend in Clayton when I showed up with FRUIT SNACKS... he dropped one on the sandy ground, crawled under the bleachers to retreive it, and ate it while Sarah was begging him not to... it was a little crunchy, but nothing that the water fountain he later licked at the bathrooms didn't wash down! 2. Wade was covering the outfield and looked up to the bleachers to get some moral support only to find Sarah, Clayton and I were not there... we must have been at the water fountain!

Allie is 3!!!

Our sweet Allie turned three on Friday! We had a little birthday party for her (mostly because I still felt guilty from boarding her while we were in Chicago AND I didn't realize it was her birthday until FRIDAY). I must say, I can throw a dog's birthday party together pretty quickly!

Chicago

Brent and I just returned from our last adult trip-- I took him to Chicago to celebrate his 30th birthday to watch an Astros game at Wrigley Field. Yes, we did this a month early since I will be into my third trimester by September 5! This had to be our strangest vacation yet! We arrived 11:00 Friday night to our hotel to be told our room was a fire hazard because the fire sprinklers were not working, so they relocated us to a hotel about 4 miles away in Grant park... they compensated our hotel stay and gave us cab fare to get there... okay, no big deal! We got to our second hotel and saw tons of raggidy high schoolers and loud college students to find out we were in the MIDDLE of Lallapaloza Chicago (no wonder all of the hotels were booked!)... however, it turned out that this room was WAY nicer and our view was breathtaking- one wall of windows looking over Grant park, and one wall of windows looking over the city. We relocated to our original hotel Saturday morning and continued with our vacation plans! Minor blip. Saturday, we walked the Magnificent Mile,
ate Chicago's deep dish pizza at Gino's East, and took in the sights:

That evening, we met up with Brent's long time friends Nick and Catherine and they showed us their town! We had good conversation and good food, ending the night at the waterfront watching the big sailboats passing through the harbor:

Sunday, we toured the Field Museum and went to the Planetarium:

Monday, we walked the parks, got rained on,

and went to the Astros game at Wrigley Field. This was the strangest game we had ever been to... just as we had completed the 5th inning, a torrential downpour hit and the ground crew covered the infield (I am used to Minute Maid already being covered, so it was a treat to watch how quickly they can get a field covered in the rain)! We waited for 2 and a half hours, watching lightening hit the field like fireworks, cheering when the tornado sirens sounded, singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" with Cubs fans, and watching a guy dressed up like Elvis running onto the field to play slip and slide before he got tackled and arrested! What a night! They started up play agian, but as soon as they did, had to exit the field, so we ended up catching the train back to our hotel. By the time we got back, they attempted one more play and by midnight called the game since the weather was so scary. We will never forget that game! Astros won 2-0!

Must Try Chicken Recipe

About a month or so ago, I tried a new recipe that I found somewhere online... it was so good and out of the ordinary for chicken enchiladas-- please try... you won't be sad that you did! Tastes homemade with very little effort! Love that!


Chicken Chilaquiles


1 can fully cooked chicken breast (next to tuna)
2 green onion bulbs, chopped (6 total)
1/2 c Monterey Jack/ Colby cheese mix (divided in half)
1T Parmesan cheese
1/2 envelope taco seasoning
1/2 c milk
1/4 c cilantro
1 can (7 oz) Herdez Salsa Verde Mexicana Picante
1 fresh tomatillo
8 corn tortillas


Directions: Mix chicken, onion, 1/4 c cheese, Parm cheese, taco seasoning in bowl. In food processor, mix milk, cilantro, salsa, tomatillo and blend until runny. Put half of the milk mixture into greased baking dish. Spoon chicken mixture into corn tortillas and place seemside down in baking dish. Cover with remaining milk mixture and top with 1/4 c cheese. Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes until cheese browns on top. Makes 8. (This dish is not spicy, but you could sub out the cheese for monterey jalapeno cheese and add half of a fresh jalapeno to milk mixture to give it kick... I may try this next!)

24 Weeks

My 24 week check up went good. My Dr. had to go into emergency surgery, so I had to see the MAN on call... luckily he was just measuring my belly, blood pressure and baby's heart beat! Most of our discussion hinged around round ligament pains that I had last week (thought my appendix was bursting at one point!) and soreness... apparently the baby is moving and kicking so much that my organs are getting bruised internally-- Tylenol seems to be the best answer. I asked him if this would go away when baby gets bigger when there won't be so much room in there to move around to which he replied coldly "No, it will probably get worse and stronger as baby builds more muscle." Thanks for those kind words, Doctor!

On a side note, I was on the phone with Tiffany the other night and noticed baby got the hick-ups! It is so fun to watch my belly move around and feel little hands and feet remind me of the life that we will soon get to enjoy!

Nesting Begins

Last weekend, Brent painted our nursery- mint chocolate chip green! I think he can tell I am getting antsy to see it start looking like a baby's room, so this was a big help! We have come a long way from the storage room it was a month ago!

This weekend, we registered at Baby's R US! We had so much fun-- I momentarily lost Brent at the breast pumps, but he quickly recovered by the time we got to the bath time section. We went to dinner afterwards and Brent said he was ready for Baby Brewer to be here... music to my ears!

I like my Carbs!

After visitng Melody and Justin, we were "inspired" to eat a little better. They are big into cross fit and zone dieting, so we kind of observed their eating patterns... the main thing is NO Carbs (no rice, pasta, chips, minimal bread). The idea is to minimze the amount of complex and simple sugar stores into your body so that your body directly burns fat stores from proteins instead of sugar. In place of carbs is vegetables, fruit, milk, and meats. Brent wants to give it a go (and I hesitantly want to support him since we are both pretty picky eaters). We have ventured out to try new foods-- asparagus!, cantaloupe, Mahi Mahi, oatmeal based granola bars, whole wheat pita bread, almonds... I would say we have come pretty far. Yesterday, we were discussing my hesitations and the conversation went something like this:

Brent exclaiming: "I am really starting to feel better lately with our change in diet... what is for dinner? I am starving!!!"
Abbey unenthusiastically: "Spaghetti with whole wheat pasta"
Brent: "Why is this so hard for you?"
Abbey: All my life I have loved and been loved with food... I go to Honey's house, I get banana pudding, I go to my parent's house, I leave full, we have dinner parties, I go all out. I think that a fat husband means his wife loves him more than a skinny husband's wife!"
Brent would disagree :)

Maybe I am hung up on this because I am the only one with the expanding waistline, but I am doing my best to get on board and support my hubby through his desire to be healthier. Thanks, Mel and J!

Two Wolves

Honey sent me this email... thought it was too goo not to share!

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, ' My son, the battle is between two ' wolves ' inside us all. One is Evil. - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.The other is Good. - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. ' The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: ' Which wolf wins? 'The old Cherokee simply replied, ' The one you feed. '

Seattle!

We went to Seattle this past weekend to visit Melody and Justin... they showed us a good time start to finish! We stepped off of the plane and immediately smelled coffee... I have NEVER seen so many people drinking coffee than in this city! SO, we had to visit the first Starbucks:



We went to Pike's Market and the fishermen pulled Melody behind the counter to catch a flying fish!

We toured the Museum of Flight and walked in the old Air Force One plane that Kennedy, Nixon, etc. had flown in:

We took in the sights (Mt. Ranier in the background):

We ate at Salish Lodge sitting on top of Snoqualmie Falls and enjoyed "honey from heaven":

We toured Theo chocolate factory:


And watched boats cross the puget sound from fresh water to salt water (something I new nothing about!) We also watched salmon swim upstream through the ladder system in place that allows them to swim between fresh and salt water.

The food was wonderful from eating chowder on the pier at Elliotts and steaks at 21 in Kirkland, we feel completly spoiled! For our last trip together as all "grownups", it was one we will never forget!

July 4th weekend

What a nice LONG weekend! Thursday night, we were headed up to Southlake Town Square to watch the fireworks show with friends, but REALLY misjudged the traffic jams-- we knew we would never find them with so many roads blocked, so in an attempt to be patriotic, we went to Home Depot instead and bought a flag for the house and watched the fireworks from the parking lot!

Friday afternoon, we crashed the Harris household to love on Tiffany, Ben, and Addison... we got some much needed sun at their pool and ate wonderful hamburgers (thanks to Mike) and all of the fixings (thanks to Wanda)!

Saturday afternoon, Brent put the baby's crib together (after we cleared out the room- daunting!) Half way through us clearing out the room, Allie needed to go outside, so I let her out the backdoor as usual. About 15 minutes later, I heard her bark and ran to the backdoor (totally forgot she was out in that heat), but no Allie. Brent had mowed that morning and forgot to shut the gate so he headed to the front door-- our sweet Allie was there panting and waiting to come in. This no doubt scared us half to death because she was not wearing a collar and confirms our parenting skills STILL need work! We are glad she is a scardy cat and didn't get adventerous.

Saturday night, we went to another Cats baseball game. Brent laughed at me when I went back for a second snowcone... I seriously just wanted to get through all of the flavors ;) Now, I can make an informed decision the next time we go. My favorite is Strawberry, then Blue Coconut, Cherry, Grape, then Banana. A lady in front of me told me they can add cream to it also, not sure about that, but I may be up for trying that too! We concluded the night with another great fireworks show.