Perambulate (per-AM-byuh-leyt)

So here's the deal... this little girl has flown more before her birth than I have before I turned 21. Her trips include flights to Michigan, Nashville, and now Minneapolis. I will admit, for the most part, she's a decent traveler. Her Michigan flight had some ups and downs literally and her most recent trip to Minneapolis left her kicking and moving all afternoon but for the most part, I can't complain.

I had to go to the cities for a work trip, representing ND opportunities at local college job fairs. Similar to what I did in Nashville but a little different audience. I got in on Tuesday, got settled and went out for a bit. I had dinner at The Local - a vintage pub feel. As much as I wanted the fish and chips, I did go with something that was better for me and had tomato with melted cheddar soup and chicken pot pie. Was a good meal. The second night, I went out with the other recruiters from North Dakota - we went to a place called Crave (not like in St. Maarten), I had a chicken pesto flatbread and chips and guacamole.

Due to a bit too much activity, the next day after prepping the show, I had Pizza Luce. MMMMM. I enjoyed 1/2 the boss and saved the other half (fresh veggies) for breakfast the next day - I also grabbed a pint of izzy's PB and Yah ice cream. What? I need the calcium.

On the final day, I enjoyed Chick-fil-a in a nice cushie spot in the airport with a number 3. This was the start to a slow weekend. I had some pinching sciatic pain which left me on the couch. Matt's still going stir crazy as it's too nice to do winter activities but yet not spring yet. We've had an incredibly warm spring... hardly any snow on the ground.

Whenever I travel alone, I'm very easily reminded how much I like going places with my husband.

Name of the week: Vada
Cravings: milk, taco bell
Pregnancy Symptoms: breathlessness, return of sciatic pain. larger feet, mucus-y,

third trimester bump

ALR: We need a mobile.
MJR: A what?
ALR: The thing that hangs above the crib and can play music.
MJR: Why?
ALR stares.
MJR: What is the purpose?
ALR: Is this a real question or like when you actually thought we could put milk on a plate?
MJR: I don't get it, this is a real question.
ALR: It's for visual stimulation and soothing.
MJR: Oh. Okay.
ALR: I'm having trouble picking one out.
MJR: Well so many of these are completely unrealistic.
ALR stares.
MJR: Elephants don't fly. That's just ridiculous. We need to get one that is realistic.

Avocation (av-uh-key-shun)

Well the critics have reviewed the blog and they have deemed we are boring. I feel like I should add a disclaimer to our page... never have I stated that I live an exciting life! In fact, I often tell people these are our daily happenings of an old married boring foodie couple! Lucky for the critics, it's been a much more interesting week.

 It was a week that Matt looks forward to all year... no not Valentine's Day.. Butchering weekend! He plans and researches and digs out all the crap and reviews recipes and gets excited. I love that he has hobbies but sometimes they do amaze me. Butchering weekend officially kicked off with three pigs on Friday night. Matt, Dad, and Michele took on a lot of the butchering! I did not think I could stomach the process so I prepped items at the house! By the time we came out on Saturday we were in full go mode. Saturday we broke down all the pigs, packaged the main cuts, made sausage, and cleaned up and hauled it all home. By the end of Saturday, we were exhausted! Matt and I ended up with sage breakfast sausage, beer brats, and country sausage for our half.

On Sunday we had a few other things happening, we took in the sport show briefly before Matt and I went home for him to begin smoking. His smoker hasn't had much of a work out since the pregnancy and now it's making up for it. He has smoked 20 pounds of polish sausage, almost 70 pounds of Country sausage, 5 pounds of summer sausage, 5 pounds of trail bologna, and 12 pounds of polish game sausage. The game sausage came from Matt's waterfowl hunts this past year. Him and I had that prepped and then finished out on Sunday as well. TonyDanza liked sausage making real well at first until he ate two casings and some floor meat....then he got an upset stomach. Poor thing! Lola was just happy the smoking was happening because she snuck out the door whenever Matt opened it to check, adjust, etc.

Monday was another day of smoking. Aside from that we also squeezed some baby things in... we took a tour of her day care. Matt wasn't too sure about the noise and the whatnot but I credit that to us not being used to how noisy kids really can be. We also had our 28 week check-up. She's doing really well. Heartbeat was 151 and she was very active during the appointment, it could have been during due to the glucose orange soda drink but while we were listening for her heart she kept kicking or hitting the Doppler. I passed my glucose test but they were concerned about my iron levels - which given my family history isn't a huge surprise. Either way, it was a good appointment and it's hard to believe that we are officially in the third trimester....we have a lot of stuff to do to prepare but I think mentally prepare is the biggest for the both of us!

We did have to modify our Valentine's Day tradition. I will admit I miss the surf and turf (we only had the surf) but it was good to connect with my wonderful husband and enjoy things together - I guess that's the most important thing.

Best meal: We took Randy and Michele to Fireflour...I love that place! Runner up was turkey dinner during butchering, I didn't really get to enjoy turkey this past holiday and made up for it with this meal and the leftovers!

Name of the week: Ainsley
Cravings: taco bell food, fish tacos, seafood,
Pregnancy Symptoms: breathlessness, arms that fall asleep at night, weird dreams, sleepless nights, night sweats, frequent trips to the bathroom,

MJR: Perry, this is all the sidepork that you have.
Randy: What is side pork?
Perry: Side pork is just like bacon..
ALR interrupts: If bacon were gross.
Perry: It's uncured, unsmoked bacon. It's like taking any piece of pork, frying it up, adding a little bit of salt.You could do it with any piece of the hog but it's the same cut where bacon comes from.
Randy: I love bacon.

Languid (lang-gwid)

A slow weekend... so there may be a trend as we've been taking it easy the past couple weeks. It may also be because I'm small-condo sized and enjoy the homebody ways lately. This taking it easy has also been killing Matt who has cabin fever and travel fever. I get the travel fever, I want to go places too... after all we really don't have a trip on the books until this coming fall - we never go this long without some sort of plan. 

We started the weekend at my parents' house, catching up on our herd. Matt keeps track of the comings and goings and I came along for the company and supper. Saturday wasn't too exciting. We ran a few errands around town but mostly crashed with the cats. I tried to catch up on some sleep so I napped a bit. Matt and I ended up doing pretty well for dinner though. It's been nice enough to grill as the weather is still in the 20's, 30's, and 40's. I made popovers Matt grilled the chops and asparagus. Sunday was the Super Bowl. We didn't have anything else planned either. I ended up getting a little sick so I took it easy. We are nearing the end of the second trimester... which means that it's going to be an uphill battle from here on out! 3 months left but they'll be the hardest! I still have worries but I'm assuming that may never go away.

Best meal: Mom made me potato soup which is always a favorite in  my world. Matt's not a fan so she made him tacos. 

Name of the week: Aileen
Cravings: milk, skittles
Pregnancy symptoms: frequent trips to the bathroom, night sweats, increase in size, tight shoes (which could be a result of growing feet), lack of sleep, absentmindedness (mom-nesia), baby movements

MJR walks into kitchen: Is that my shirt?
ALR: Yes.
MJR stares back
ALR lamenting: I wanted to be comfortable!! All my t-shirts are getting snug and don't feel good!
MJR: It's fine, I just didn't know we were to that stage yet.
ALR: Well, I'm not tickled about it either. (looking pathetic)

Inquietude (in-kwah-yi-tood)

It was a beautiful week, weather wise! We had temps consistently in the 40's. Reminded me more of March than the end of January! The snow melted, the ice went away, Lola got to go outside more!

Regarding things at home, we were busy too! Matt's been going to the gym and working out to avoid sympathy weight and also keep his doctor happy. I've been organizing things at home a bit and trying to keep ahead of laundry and house cleaning. Even now, I look back and am not sure where the last week went. 

Some updates on being pregnant. Sometimes it can be hard - sometimes you break into tears when you come home because your husband has left you a beautiful card and your most recent craving sitting on the counter. Sometimes you don't realize how much you sweat at night either until your husband tells you he's freezing to death at night. So you rig up a new system. You put more of the covers on his side and then even given him an extra blanket. the cats don't seem to understand.

Mini-us also received her first package via mail from Great Aunt Judy. She had her own little clothes care package. Included were outfits and sleepers and shoes! Matt and I loved looking through them and can't believe it's she'll actually be here to wear them. We don't have a count down to the day yet. Here's hoping everything continues to look good.

Matt has been struggling a bit with the weather. He's got cabin fever so bad and if I see him watching another fishing video I am going to scream. I attempt to provide suggestions of things that he could do but I get a lot of wrinkled up "nos". At one point I looked at his sad pathetic face laying on the floor. I thought I might be the only one with disdain for this sadness but Lola walked up and sniffed him and wandered off.  


Best meal: we had fish/walleye tacos this week. Typically we don't use the walleye for tacos but I wanted fish tacos so bad and they were so amazing. 

Name of the week: Morgan
Cravings: milk, caramel apples, fried chicken (preferable from my grandmother's kitchen)
Pregnancy symptoms: Wonderment of what sleep is, night sweats, larger belly, groaning, sore ankles at the end of the day, crankiness/harping (this is added per definition of MJR

MJR turns around and sees "kitty room" where litter boxes are kept.
ALR looks. Sees that litter has been spilled from box. And there are "kitty presents" laying in spilled litter.
MJR's second rant begins:
MJR and ALR take totes to basement for storage.
MJR: WHO DID THIS!? WHO!!!!!
MJR rant begins:
NO RESPECT
WHO DID THIS
SOMEONE BETTER FESS UP
WHY CAN'T YOU JUST FOLLOW THE RULES
WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME
AHHHHH
I SWEAR KITTIES
ALR interjects with: Did we learn our lesson?
LESSON?
I DON'T HAVE A LESSON TO LEARN.
I UNDERSTAND BASIC CIVILITIES.
I DIDN'T SPILL THE LITTER.
AND THEN PROCEED TO USE SAID LITTER AS A PERSONAL WASTELAND.
I HAVE MORE RESPECT FOR RULES OF SOCIETY UNLIKE SOME PEOPLE!
Shopvaccing begins.