don't stop till you get enough.... desserts!

Last night we held a Michael Jackson party. Katie organized the party as part of her Incredibly Strange Movie nights she's been feverishly holding.

I started out baking Black or White cookies from the Martha Stewart Cookies book. But we decided to also assemble a cake in honour of MJ modeled after his famous glove.

The fingers are twinkies and the palm is a store bought pound cake.

I iced.
Nuno dragee dropped.
It turned out great!

We watched Moonwalker and cut it short without watching Captain Eo (which we've all seen recently). But Moonwalker was just horrible - in a very good way. The production was completely over the top with claymation, elaborate sets, super-involved dance routines (to be expected) and a computer generated MJ transformer! But for all it’s pomp and showmanship I kept asking, “Who wrote this?” There wasn’t a story - at all. It was basically a MJ worship film with bad guys trying to kill MJ and kid’s following him through his perilous journey. The movie was inter cut with his music videos which further baffled the story. I guess the best reveal is when the credits roll and the entire movie was written by Michael himself. I love the idea that we are left to assume no one could collaborate on this or edit his vision - just dump tons of money into Micheal's self obsessed fan film.

I had my first pregnancy meltdown!

I feel as though I've spent a lot of blog time talking about how wonderful and exciting it is to be an expectant mom, and I don't really draw to any not-so-great points. Trust me, you don't want details on some of the embarrassing changes, you'll just have to go through it yourself to see where I'm going with that. But I thought I'd share with you a horrible moment yesterday when I felt totally out of touch with myself.
Now, I have to stress here - when your pregnant and your hungry you must eat. I don't even play with this one. I have to eat at certain key times during the day so I'm always doing well.
We decided to go to Olson's for lunch yesterday. By the time we arrived it was 1:30 (I usually eat right at noon), so I was famished. Then there weren't any tables, so we decided to wait it out till something cleared. The entire place was a zoo and you could feel the stress from all the employees madly racing around. Olson's has recently changed since we've been there last. We used to go up to the counter and order our food and they would eventually bring it out to you. Now there is full table service. Once we found a seat, I was feeling really strange and I couldn't really talk. Since we had been standing waiting for a table by the counter, I was set on their turkey sandwich (which I always order, no fail). At about 2pm we were finally waited on and we decided to place the full order on the spot and I asked for one of their sandwiches. GET THIS - The server said I couldn't have it! It was a take-out menu item only and I had to order off this fancy menu (which might have been OK at any other time but since I'm totally pregnancy obsessed craving over sandwiches on a daily basis - this just was totally devastating). I looked up at her and said I hadn't considered the menu and begged her to please see if she could bend the rules for me since I was so set on just this one item. She looked at me and barked - OK THEN, SANDWICH! Yes, I felt like such a primadona. She pulled quite the attitude. Given their volume, I'm sure someone like me just made her day all the more aggravating. So after she left I basically sat there wishing I'd never arrived for lunch there, totally mortified and basically tearing up. All these feelings were compounded by this intense starvation like I'd never felt before. Nuno said I should have explained that I was pregnant and unfortunately starving and he was sure she'd understand. I was too embarrassed to make excuses for myself and play that whole "I'm pregnant" card. But after the way I felt yesterday I have quite an understanding of the out-of-touch emotions an expectant mom can feel. Yeah, maybe if you explain to people they will infact understand. Oh well, I'm still so embarrassed this morning and I'm not really sure I want to show my face at Olson's again.


edit: I just have to say, in telling a story like this on a blog - it would be very different if I was telling this to you one-on-one. In recounting it I would be cracking up and if you are close to me you'll understand it's quite funny because of my obsession over "sandwiches".

the results are in....

And here HE is! Yep, our little baby boy!! The ultrasound technician isn't allowed to make a positive i.d. on the spot, but she decided to give us the money shot - and clear as day was our little guy's wenis. He's quite the wild little guy. Of course, I always feel him squirming around in there, but the technician was getting a kick out of how active he was. My biggest fear was that the baby would be asleep in an awkward position and we wouldn't get a clear sex determination. So I thought I'd try something I read which recommended drinking some orange juice because the babies love it and go wild. I can definitely say there is truth behind it.

So I'm just absorbing the idea of raising a boy since I don't have any brothers and most of my cousins are female, I grew up in a female dominated family. So our son is definitely evening the sides a bit. I've got tons to learn and I can't wait to meet him!

20 weeks

Here we are at week 20! Half way through, half way to go.
Dispite taking this photo before ironing my shirt, I must admit, my bump is pretty cute. Don't worry, I haven't turned into a frumpy pregnant girl - at least not yet. Still in all my normal clothes and I'm not sure how long this will last. My mom said with me she was in maternity clothes by 5 months. I'm four and a half now, so we'll see.
Tomorrow is the big ultra sound. We find out if it's a boy or a girl *hopefully*. I'm not sure if I'll be able to think and dream of much else for the day.

baby's first stuff

I'm really excited to share our first items for the baby. The baby's first onesie is from Aunt Katie! Yep, she has the honour of saying that she was the first person to buy something for the baby.

Nuno and I bought this change table from someone on Kijiji last night. We are both really adamant about buying some specific items used. What we've been finding is that most people only need certain baby items for a short period of time and there is a lot of great, barely used items available online. The whole baby industry price gouges on so many things just because they know people create registries and family and friends love to buy for babies. You should see the joy on the Bay (for weddings) and Babies R' Us when you tell them you'd like to set up a registry *ka-ching!* I want to save our friends and family from wasting their money on a $500 glider.

Next week we will hopefully know the gender of our baby which will kick the baby's nursery into high gear. Since the weather forecasts rain all weekend, we hope to sort and empty the guest room to prep for painting. Nuno is starting to think about a wall mural, which won't be one of those cheese-ball ones, but will hopefully turn out really cute. I can't wait to see the nursery come together.

ISMN: The Wizard

I wanted to quickly post about the third Incredibly Strange Movie Night held this past Saturday night. OK - this one was my favourite of all! Maybe because we actually got to go to somewhere else other than my own backyard for the screening of The Wizard. Katie went all out with a special 2 page quiz on Nintendo and the Wizard. I'm proud to share that I came in second place and won the Lucas Barton prize of Twizzlers and Twinkie lipgloss! Actually, all the prizes were pretty awesome.

I've seen this movie more than any other and I really didn't think there could possibly be any more jokes to be made...but I was wrong! There were a bunch of new things to laugh hysterically at. I remember at some point I was losing my breath and unable to stop laughing at every dumb joke, it was so much fun!

I can't possibly begin to cover everything Katie did to make this event so much fun, but she blogged a full account of the event here!

red hot shop

Target has given us even more reasons to shop with their web feature, red hot shop!

banana chiffon cake

Here is my first attempt at baking a chiffon cake. I didn't really put much thought into the cake before baking it, other than making sure I had the ingredients. Pretty silly of me. For starters I didn't have the right pan. I really wanted to use the angel food cake pan Nuno's aunt gave me. It's not your typical angel food cake pan since it has fluted edges, no feet and doesn't have a removable bottom. And therein lies the problem with my finished cake. I guess you need to cool your chiffon upside down (hence the cake pans with feet), so I improvised and sat it on a bottle with boxes and containers to support the bottle.

Actually, this worked really well. The real problem was that you don't grease an angel food/chiffon cake so it can climb the sides of the pan as it bakes. So to use a pan with scalloped edges instead of smooth makes the cake all the more difficult to remove! So the cake looks quite shabby, but a lesson is learned. One the bright side, I'm quite lucky to have had the cake itself turn out. I read online how so chiffons many overflow while baking, never rise... the problems seem endless.

thinnest crust pizza is a success!

I just have to spread the word about this recipe. We had Thinnest Crust Pizza earlier this week for dinner and it was incredible! I was resisting the idea behind it - pizza toppings on a whole wheat tortilla wrap. I just couldn't put out of my mind being young and eating pizza topped english muffins at a friends house. But, I can assure you, this recipe is a hidden secret waiting to be spread!

We followed the recipe word for word, but of course, it can be applied to any toppings. We actually grabbed some leftover roast beef from the fridge and made a one with barbecue sauce, blue cheese, caramelized onions, cheddar and roast. It was great also.

The reason I'm pumping this up so much is because the cheese gets nice and crispy on the edges (and who doesn't like that toasted cheese flavour?) and it's like having a pizza where all you can taste is your toppings. So if you use a little pricier cheese, such as an asiago, the flavour comes right through. Not to mention, I'm sure it's just a little more waist line friendly than your average rising crust pizza. Not that I know much about a waistline these days.

the paladium projection

Nuno and I started hanging out in 1998 when attending Sheridan College. For fun one weekend we went to Sega City Paladium and decided to try a "See Your Future Child" morph. We did it twice - once for a girl and once for a boy. We were pretty horrified by the result. I remember being so unimpressed thinking, "Our future kid might look like this freak? Maybe I should break it off!" Lucky for both of us, our chemistry and compatibility has kept us together dispite this future projection. So, we'll see if I give birth to a blotchy skinned little boy without a neck.

bump time?

Alrighty, ask and you shall receive. I definitely think that this is the real baby bump! I have been feeling a whole lotta stretching in my tummy this past week (17). I think the baby is growing bigger, even right now as I type this. But it's still quite undetectable unless I'm wearing tight fitting shirts. I don't know how many times I walk into work and have people asking why I'm not showing yet. Oh well, soon enough I'll be a house and wishing for these days of wondering about the bump.

One really cool thing that's happened since getting pregnant is the craziest flexibilty. For years during yoga I had my limitations, but now - woah, different story. Not an ounce of resistance in my joints. I love the feeling of being able to stretch my arms far and wide in every direction and have pain free squats for hours.

incredibly strange best worst movie

Katie had her second Incredibly Strange Movie night at our place this past Friday night. It's the one year anniversary of our legendary Troll 2 Party. The party that made it into the documentary we watched, Best Worst Movie!

As you can see we had everything set-up outdoors, but right before 9pm, the rain started. It was a wash-out, but it wasn't a problem to move everything indoors.

I was happy to be able to make it through most of the movie this time around. In the evenings lately I end up getting exhausted without even realizing how tired I really am and I barely remember getting into my pajamas and into bed. Pregnancy can be exhausting, but I know I'm a pretty energetic expectant mom in comparison to what most women go through. Maybe it's my morning coffee - the one habit I just can't drop.

Sunday my brother & sister-in-law flew in from Calgary. We held a shower for them and their soon to be baby girl. It was exciting to see an expectant Sara and compare pregnancy notes. Come to find out there are very few similarities between my and her pregnancy. I think mine is just atypical. I had a lot of family mentioning how they'd never know I was expecting - no baby bump. Trust me, I wish it was there. Last night at prenatal yoga, the instructor calls me the 'big belly of the class'. But I was reassured by the instructor and every mom in the class that I'll be there soon. One day I'll just pop.