Post number 500

This is my 500th post. I've been watching my number of posts slowly increase, and I always wondered what post #500 would end up being about. I'm still not really sure what it's going to be all about. You get one of those posts of random things on my mind... which are really my favorite to write anyway!

I've started nesting pretty hardcore. In the past few weeks I've deep cleaned my fridge, freezer, oven and stove. I got down on my hands and knees (while I can still see them) and cleaned the baseboards that I could reach. And our bath tub is pretty clean now too. I took apart our humidifier and scrubbed it pretty good, but that was mostly because it was making a funny sound and I wondered if it had hard water spots built up (it did) and so now that it's clean it doesn't just spew water everywhere and it doesn't make funky noises! We got our stroller and carseat recently and put them together last weekend. We bought them while Target was having their big January Baby Sale, and knew if we waited to open the box til closer to my due date there would probably be some missing part or something would be broken and it would be too late to return them. So now the stroller is folded up and in the closet, and the carseat is sitting in a corner for a few more weeks.  My rocking chair and ottoman has been ordered, but not received yet; and the dresser that we bought almost 2 months ago is still sitting in its box. We want to get those things all put together and arrange the furniture so we can figure out how big of a rug we want to get for the nursery. We still haven't ordered the crib yet, but that will be happening any day now!

I organized one of the closets in our hallway so that I could start stockpiling things like tooth paste and toilet paper. I made a list of different things to stock up on, and at the end of every month when I see how much money I have left in my grocery/household budget I make purchases accordingly. I also use that extra money to stock up on the canned goods that we use often. And in April I'll probably use it more for stocking up on meats for our freezer. Wanting to do this has helped me be even more diligent in my meal planning, and grocery shopping. It's kind of a fun game to see how much I can have leftover at the end of the month to use to stock up on stuff.

A few months ago Chris and I started listening to Harry Potter audiobooks again. This is like the 2nd or 3rd time since we got married that we've done this. He listens sometimes while he's at work and I listen at home, and then at night we listen to it together. Well, he's on book 6 now, but most of the time that he was working through book 5 I was working more heavily on my class so I hardly listened to it at all. So I'm on book 5 now while he's working on 6. I'm hoping to take my final this week (if my proctor calls soon to say she has it!) and then work super hard on catching up. Book 5 is not my favorite, but the book sure is WAY better than the movie.

For Valentine's Day we kept things pretty lowkey, which is how I prefer it. I let Chris pick whatever he wanted me to make for dinner that night, so we ate Manicotti and Garlic Bread. We each got each other a movie (I got him Heavyweights, he got me You've Got Mail), and then we spent that evening watching the newest episode of The Biggest Loser. It was awesome.

Several weeks ago we got two of these for the babys room. The boxes have been sitting in the room, just waiting to be cut up small enough to fit into our trash can. Last night I had the urge to destroy something, so I took a knife and went to town. I felt pretty good as I ripped that thing apart. I got one of the boxes and all of the stuffing from the inside of it to fit into my trash can with plenty of room leftover, so depending on how much other trash accumulates before the trash goes to the curb tomorrow night I may start destroying the second box as well to fill the trash can up. I love accomplishing something. Also, it is fun to have those organizers set up because we've started getting some little things here and there and now we have somewhere to put them all!

Chris has had headaches/migraines for the last week. I'm super nervous about this because it reminds me all too much of how he felt back in May when his whole chronic illness thing started. Hopefully we can get these headaches under control and get back to life as normal. We don't really have 3 months for him to get better this time, and I don't really have 3 months where I can just take care of him and his health.

I'm reading President Monson's biography right now on my Kindle. I have LOVED learning about his childhood and growing up years. It has been really cool to learn more about him as a normal person, since most of what I know about him has been of him as an apostle.

We decided that if we can't decide on a name for our baby, we'll just name her Hermione. Probably because we are a little too obsessed with Harry Potter. Guess that's motivation for us to decide on a name.

I could live off of grapes and baby carrots. And Bosco Sticks.

I recently rewatched the first two High School Musical movies on Netflix as I worked on other projects around the house. Netflix didn't have #3, so I requested it from my library. It is in transit now, so sometime this week I will get to watch #3. This is ridiculous and I know it, but whatever.

Chris is going on a business trip in a few weeks and I decided that while he is gone (for 6 whole days) I am going to invade our kitchen table and scrapbook our wedding. When I created our baby registry at Target I got a little gift bag with some coupons and baby samples. Included in that gift bag was a $20 gift card to Shutterfly. I decided I'll use that $20 to print a bunch of pictures from our engagements and wedding pictures. I figure if I don't do our wedding now it won't happen for a REALLY long time. Also, why not take advantage of the free $20? I also got a $20 shutterfly gift card when I bought something at the local maternity store... apparently Shutterfly really is trying to lure people in and are happy to give away $20 gift cards but then people end up spending a lot more ordering/printing birth announcements (which is what they suggest doing). I can order a lot of pictures from them for $20!

I was going to make "Better for you Banana Bread" which is from one of my healthy ATK cookbooks today, but as I opened it up I realized I didn't have anymore sour cream, so it has to wait til tomorrow. This is our favorite Banana Bread recipe. With the size loaf pan I use it makes 2 loaves, so I'm planning on making one loaf of bread and turning the other half of the batter into muffins! The recipe is pretty healthy and is pretty darn low sodium, and it still feels like a good snack/treat to Chris. Plus when I cleaned out my freezer I found a bunch of bananas hiding in it. I can't wait to make banana bread again!

Oven roasted cherry tomatoes are delicious. I roasted some a few weeks ago to throw together with some pasta and chicken for a delicious healthy dinner. I will definitely be roasting some more soon, along with some other tasty veggies. I'd like to thank ATK for giving me some good ideas of what to roast them with. Balsalmic vinegar, olive oil, shallots and garlic belong with tomatoes. YUM!

And one final thought...

I made these for Valentine's Day and had to make a second batch the next day because I was obsessed with them. They are the perfect combo of sweet and salty. Also, with the ingredients I used they had 25 milligrams of sodium per treat, so Chris could have a couple without totally blowing his low-sodium diet.