It's getting close!

This morning Nate and I made the dreaded trip to Rio with 100 bags in tow. I could have stayed home but Nate has a business meeting in Manaus which takes a day of travel on each end. That would mean that I would be home alone at 35wks without a car 4hrs away from MY hospital. We both decided it would be best for me to cookout in the hotel in Rio for a week pending any unexpected arrivals!

The car seat fits is installed and Belle's bag and my bag made the trip for 'just in case'. Better to be safe than sorry. Nate predicts that Belle will come in two while I don't have a clue!

I would like to be one of those mother's who are intuitive and just know but really I feel lost. To even make a prediction I can't.... Maybe I run the fear that she will come on her own time and if I try to predict it then the opposite will happen.

For now I am going to enjoy my time in Rio and patiently wait for our little gift.

Tchau,
Sara

Blogger Limit

So according to Google who is responsible for Blogger I have reached my photo and storage limit. With 400 posts and 1GB of photos I now have to down size unless I want to pay them 10-30$ a month. Needless to say I will be deleting all the old posts from 2009-2010 leaving only 2011 available for back reading. The old posts will not be deleted permanently but turned into a book that I am creating through Sharedbook who partners with Blogger. I am beginning to think that Google rules the world of internet.

Anyway, while this process is going on I have had to change some of the privacy settings and alter the layout of the blog. This will not affect anything for you other than cosmetic changes. Hopefully, when all is said and done, you will have better photos to browse through as I intend to place a slideshow on the side.

I really am kind of excited about being forced to do this now. I managed to create the book full of all the blogs before Belle was announced which will leave me with room to make a blog book just of the pregnancy and then again just of her first year! What a great way to scrapbook without having to scrapbook :) I evaded that task! I think these will make great memories for her and keep our family story throughout the years.

Bare with me for the next couple of days while I work on the new layout.

Tchau,
Sara

Drunk Chickens

The other night we cooked out with some friends but tried a new technique to spice things up a bit! It's called the drunk chicken.

Steps:

1. Clean your chicken

2. Open a beer of choice and either cut the top off of it or just open the beer and drink a few sips

3. Place the beer in the chickens bum

4. Cook the chicken on an open fire grill or gas grill with the bottom of the can facing down 

The results were similar to frying your chicken with less the mess but also not as juicy. We will be doing this method again!

The chickens on the grill- one chicken down but the beer can in it's place for representation.

 The boys quickly figured out that it would take more than one person to get the chicken off the grill. The leftover beer in the chicken dripped and burned Nate during the first extraction.

 One person to hold the chicken, one for the cutting board and one to take out the can....

 Notice the beer can in the bum? Nate is going for it :)

Good job boys for a great meal! 

Tchau,

Sara

Humidity

This is what happens when the humidity gets to your spices and powder goods. Gross huh? If you can't tell in the picture the powder is rock hard!!

Tchau,
Sara

Maternity shorts

While I was getting ready to leave for some lunch on the beach with the hubby I realized I never showed you my maternity gear! Here are my favorite shorts of all time! They lift and hold everything in. Not to mention they avoid the awkward moment of me showing my belly when I don't mean too show it. Plus on the cold nights there is an extra layer of warmth! Sorry for the belly shot but you need to see it to understand. I hope these things fit until the end!!

Tchau,
Sara

Ps- yes it's winter and I am wearing shorts. Please don't hate :)

Seriously?

Five hours in the dryer and this little load still isnt dry... If I had any more room to hang dry I would have. Guess I was wrong about cleaning the lint trap and seeing an improvement! Ugh just wanted to vent because I can't pick up the dryer and throw it off our deck letting it crash to the ground four stories below.

Mom can you fit a dryer in your suitcase when you come down? I will gladly pay you for the oldie that you have because it drys stuff in less than and hour! Oh and the washer would be great too :)

Tchau,
Sara

Pretentious Much

Last night I was talking to a mother who used baby sign language with her children. Apparently the way of communicating can be accomplished before the first year of life. Can you imagine being able to communicate with your child other than the type of cry or temper tantrum given? The conversation got me thinking and so I have been researching the subject.

The are several 'how to' books and dvd's with flash cards to help in the process. If all goes well then the first sign should be mastered by 7 months. The signs are not complicated communication but very simple: sleep, eat, change (for diaper), milk, hold, and a few others.

The book I am looking into bases it's teaching on the American Sign Language so technically the child would be learning a second language.... really it would be the first language.

So now the question is, is it worth it to teach this or is it just some pretentious worthless thing to do? We have all seen the scenes in Meet the Fockers where little Jack signs for milk by squeezing his hands like he's milking a cow. I remember how ridiculous I thought it was for him to be doing this but now I am kinda curious!!

Also I run the risk of the first word being A##... hole.... check out the video clip below. I really can see this happening to Belle if I go forward with the sign language! 

All in all if I do decide to teach her sign language it would only be to ease the communication between her and the rest of the world. Trust me, I will not make Nate wear a breast to feed her to prevent nipple confusion! Plus, who is to say that I will even have the time to teach her or the energy. I still have 6 months to think about this and I am sure that Nate will have some input about the situation. Maybe I will make the decision after she gets here but the idea is floating around now to be honest.

Tchau,

Sara

Cutie Nephew Colson

How cute is this picture?? Not only does Colson look great but he is making me miss the corn on the cob from the states.... Brazilian corn just doesn't have the same appeal. It's almost like the corn is feed corn for chickens because it's definitely not the sweet corn from the south that we are used too!

I can only hope that Belle mimicks her cutie cousin! I can't wait for the two of them to meet this Christmas :) and possibly sooner....

Tchau,

Sara

IADC Golf Tournament

The long awaited pictures from the golf tournament. Unfortunately in my efforts to not stick out to much I didn't take pictures outside the course with my fancy camera. These were all taken last Friday for the tournament which is a three-four man scramble. 

Nate was paired up with two of our friends from Macae so we didn't really meet anybody new. The teams usually consist of different ranking players that way no team is stacked to win. Although the same people win quite often. 

Below some of the caddies waiting for the tournament to begin while the players hit balls on the driving range. 

Nate with one of his teammates and a good friend of ours.

Nate is already sick of the pictures :) The day has just begin sweetie.

More golfcart/caddie mixture. The course does not provide golf carts so the ones that are in use are privately owned. Rumor has it that one of these babies is around 20,000 USD..... ridiculous. We always laugh because most of the owners of these carts really could use the walking!

 

Geting ready to go.

and were off with me trailing behind at my own little pace. I walked the 18 with them just sitting out 4 of the holes at the rest stops. Of course I got a few comments about having the baby on the course. Some guy even said he had clean towels- Gross if you ask me. NO thank you, I will deliver my own baby before you touch me with your clean towels.

Nate evaluating the putting position.

I assume that he didn't make it because another shot has to be made.

Go team.

Trust me that I asked Nate prior to taking these shots if he would mind the clicking of the lens. Of course he said no he didn't mind but I should have known better.

Probably a good shot with a slice to the right.

The dreaded 17th hole. A nice chip over the water to the green.

Right after this shot I was told no more pictures.... I do believe the ball almost skipped it's way across the water to the green :)

So I stood really far away to take pictures.

Eventually got bored and took photos of trees and scenery. If you look closely you can see the ocean. Most of the time the sky isn't clear enough to capture all of this so consider yourself lucky.

Different settings same tree.

Different tree

One last shot before I call it a day.

Well that's about it for the tournament. The team ended up 3+ over par and with there handicaps included it reduced the overall score by 12. It wasn't enough to pull them in contention for anything but a fun day was had by all! Trust me, I was exhausted and sleep good that night.

Nate currently has plans to golf again this weekend with some friends but I think that I will stay home rather than make the trip up through the traffic. I am just glad that Nate has the chance to let off some work stress and have some fun. 

Tchau,

Sara

What to do?

The only books and web searches I do these days involve being pregnant and what to do with a baby. I haven't turned on my Kindle in weeks for fear that I will fall asleep the moment the words show up on the screen. Today is the day the Kindle makes it's way back to my heart. I fear that once Belle gets here I won't have time to read for pleasure anymore. Besides, all I do is sleep anyway so what's the harm of falling asleep while reading?

Right now the little monkey, aka Belle, is cooling off from her kickboxing lesson by doing a post workout stretch. The only explanation that I can come up with for being so tired is that she uses up all of my energy with these little workouts of hers. I wonder if I will ever gain my energy levels back?

One of the things that I fear the most after she gets here is that I won't be able to keep up with all the things she does. Once she gets old enough I want to take her tons of places and go somewhere everyday.... even if it is just to the beach/pool. Only time will tell and I guess I will deal with the situation when it arrives.

Off to nap. I mean read.

Tchau,
Sara