An Amish Weekend

We decided to take one of our last weekends (6 weeks to go ... eek!) and take a day off of work and go to a Bed & Breakfast. So, we were off ... to Shipshewana, Indiana, a 2.5 hour drive from our home and home of one the largest Amish communities in the country.

We started off by driving through some backstreets where we saw the Amish farmhouses with laundry drying on the line and horses and buggies everywhere! We ate some great Amish cheese (yum! - any vacation that includes cheese must be a good one!). We visited the Menno-Hoff Museum to learn more about the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites. We shopped at all kinds of cute stores full of beautiful Amish furniture and quilts and all kinds of other knick knacks. We had a fabulous Amish dinner. And we stayed at a great bed and breakfast!

We didn't really take any pictures - a) because it feels kind of weird (and disrespectful) to take pictures of people like they are zoo animals, just because they are different culturally then you, b) also it was very rainy/misty.

But it was SO relaxing to go to sleep hearing the clip-clop of the horses going down the street, at least as often as hearing cars.

We also stopped by South Bend, IN on the way home to look at the Notre Dame Campus and visit the College Football Hall of Fame. Was that an adventure! The place was surrounded by teenage girls - I couldn't figure out why they were so interested in football, but it turned out there was some kind of prom dress give-away in the hall of fame. Thankfully, we went into another entrance and were able to see the Hall of Fame. Katsu loved it. This is a picture of Katsu outside there.

It was a great weekend!

Congrats to Me

I just found out this weekend that I won a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. I really didn't think I could possibly get it but I applied because my advisor wanted me to. And I am still in shock that I got it. Basically it covers tuition and a $30000 stipend for three years and makes it so my advisor doesn't have to find funding for me and I don't have to teach. Maybe I will get my PhD after all ...

The exciting news ...

My award

Funny (?)

As I was on the computer yesterday, Katsu (out in the hall) said something to the effect of "I can't wait until we have our second child". Considering we are still waiting for the first (6.5 weeks so probably 5-8 weeks more), I'm not sure how funny I thought that was. I guess he really likes the girl name we picked out and since it's probably 90% likely to be a boy based on what they said at our ultrasound, he'll have to wait till #2 (at least). I think he'll have to be patient. :-)

Tour of our apartment

After having been inspired by my friend Melissa we decided to give you a tour of our apartment. Unfortunatley, no voice over and no explanation b/c our digital camera doesn't have noise and we are not that cool. But here is our apartment - outside to inside. A nice little one bedroom.

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

A Sunday Evening with my boys

Menus

Over Christmas break as Katsu studied for his quals, I mostly rested and such. But I did get one thing done - a meal menu.

I have always been interested in doing this. Before, as I was thinking of going to the grocery store, I would pull out my cookbooks ... at least 5 or 6 of them ... and then a few hours later after imaging all the delightful dishes I could make, I would finally come up with a list of 7 or so dinner recipes and what to buy at the grocery store. A grand way to spend an afternoon, but perhaps not very efficient.

Then, during my first trimester, I was so tired that basically Katsu cooked every night. Katsu is a great cook, but after a few months, I was feeling tired of pasta with homemade sauce. So, my plan was to come up with a few weeks of planned menus with a variety of healthy foods. My goal was :
1 fish dish, 1 mainly vegetable dish, 1 easy (crock-pot or such) dish, 1-2 rice/pasta dish, 1-2 meat dishes, 1 bean dish.
I originally planned on coming up with four weeks, but we had too many favorite recipes, so we have a list of 6 weeks of recipes.

Then, I created an Excel spreadsheet of everything we normally shop for at the grocery store. I copied this sheet for each week and then underlined each ingredient that we needed for that week's recipes. Now, I just print off the grocery/menu list, go through the cupboards and see what we need and highlight it, and voila a week's worth of menus.

Right now, we just finished up our first six week run and it worked! It usually takes us a little longer than a week to get through a week's worth of recipes because things come up - ward dinners, busy evenings, eating out, etc. And sometimes we are lazy or things are out of season so we switch it up. But overall, it has made meal planning, cooking, and shopping so much easier.

And by the way, for those who didn't know, yes, I'm pregnant and I'm due May 4th, with probably a boy.

Pregnancy

Yesterday, we attended our first Lamaze class. I am excited about this - we really enjoyed the first one. I like our instructor. I also think it will be great for Katsu to learn more about the birth process. I am excited to learn positions and relaxation techniques to use during labor as well.

One thing I realized in my class is that I have had a super great pregnancy. We went around and shared good and bad things about our pregnancies. There was only 2 good things on the list (being excited and feeling baby's movement) and tons of bad things! Honestly, besides the atrocious round ligament pain I had in the second trimester and being tired in the first trimester and this yucky cold I've had for the last two weeks that I can't take medicine for, everything has been great. I don't have too many aches and pains, I didn't get too bad of nausea and only threw up once, I sleep pretty well, I still have plenty of energy to walk to school or do my Fit Mama pregnancy video, no cravings, not too moody, etc. etc. So, today I am feeling grateful.

Free things

I love getting mail and I also love getting things for free. So, I have become the freebie master of getting free things on the web. Mostly, I just visit a couple sites everyday and sign up for free things - mostly things like little shampoos, lotions, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. Sometimes, I get more exciting things, like a years supply of contact lens cases, a whole box of candy bars, a free turkey breast, or a free Rachel Ray cookbook. If you are interested:

www.absurdlycool.com
and
www.heyitsfree.net

Another thing I really enjoy doing is filling out surveys for some cash online. I only do this through one company because they are very reliable and I enjoy giving my opinion of products. It is called Pinecone Research. For every survey I get $5 sent directly to my PayPal account. It's an extra $20 a month which we put directly into savings. Every little bit helps, right? So, if you ever get a chance to do surveys for this company, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, you can only sign up when you see an ad for it and when they are actively searching for new people, esp in a certain age range.

www.pineconeresearch.com