"Do What You Can With What You Have, Where You Are."

~Theodore Roosevelt

It was so nice to wake up to a Saturday morning with the freedom to sleep in and snuggle with my husband.  That being said, I was wide awake at 5am, but I liked the choice to go back to sleep (even though the pregnancy and morning bathroom routine has ruined me of that particular luxury). So, instead, I promptly woke up Tony (hey, if I'm awake, I'm sure not gonna be that way myself...), snuggled with my man, and enjoyed some leisure morning time in bed.

At about 6am, we were on our computers doing our normal morning traditions. To which we also adjusted our spreadsheet of expenses and bills now that my new paycheck schedule has commenced. We had to tweak a few items now that we have a new paycheck routine, and we also talked about the impact of Tony's mom moving out in three weeks and the effect that will have on our expense accounting. By 7am, we were ready for a breakfast of fluffy pancakes.

After breakfast, we "tested out" the ability of our Saturn to fit THREE car seats in the back seat. This will be the case when Monkey arrives and I am off of maternity leave in March and have her PLUS the two nanny boys in my care every day. I was SURE that three seats (with corresponding bases) would NOT fit in my backseat...to which Tony didn't completely believe my assumption. So, we crabbed the seat and the base from the "baby section" of our garage and headed to the car to see who was right...of course...there wasn't a chance that the 3rd seat would fit in the back...no finagling would even make it fit...but I'm glad Tony saw that for himself. The reason for this whole experiment, was to prove my point that we should start looking at a car to trade into because by March 3rd, we will need a different car and it doesn't hurt to start looking.

Some of our happy volunteers...look at all of those smiles! It feels so good to make others feel good!

After the "car seat" situation was confirmed (1 point for Lindsay, for those keeping track), Tony got to work on his motorcycle and cleaning the chains...can't quite elaborate on that, as it was a total "boy job" and I had no desire to hang around and pretend to be interested. While he did that, I opened all of the windows in the house and let the beautiful day in. Then, I was off to a community outreach car wash through a local church with Meghan. We were a little worried at the beginning as us two pregnant ladies appeared to be the ONLY participants for the first 15 minutes. Then we went inside the church to get a few more volunteers and headed out to the adopted neighborhood. We split off into three groups and got to work. It was really fun and a perfect day for a car wash! After some sun, smile, and suds, we were done with our community service by 12:30 with some very squeaky clean cars left in our wake. Tony and I may not be swimming in money right now, but I feel good that we can still offer up our services, our hearts, and our time to people who need to know that they are not alone. It felt good to help others and I really respect and appreciate Meghan for setting this up! What a great way to give back and to show that no matter how much or how little you have, you can always give to others!

I stopped for a mini-blizzard (cookie dough, of course) at Dairy Queen on the way home. Oh boy, did THAT hit the spot! When I got home, Tony helped me wash MY car (believe it or not, I wasn't "washed out" but I was experiencing a small bit of clean car envy after all of the cars we helped out earlier). Then, I watched the Heartbreak Kid on TV and had a total grooming afternoon with myself. I did my cuticles, buffed and cut my nails, exfoliated my feet, and took a long hot shower and deep cleaned my hair. It felt so good. I even shaved my legs while in there, realizing that in the next few weeks/months, I am probably going to lose the ability to bend over enough to shave as my belly keeps impeding on my flexibility. I came out of the shower so completely relaxed and feel like I really pampered myself this afternoon.

The last few days, I've been experiencing a strange sense of light-headed-ness (pregnancy related?) at random points ...at first I thought it may be from standing up too fast, but it has happened three or four times when I've been sitting, so now I have no idea as to why. Perhaps I'm just having strange drops in blood pressure, I don't know. Either way, I'm glad that I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, so I can ask my OBGYN about the faint feeling. According to all of my pregnancy books, it is to be expected that I would experience the light-headed feeling, so I'm not overly worried about it.

While I was having an afternoon of indulging myself, Tony made a delicious ground turkey concoction that he served with sauteed black olives and rice...oh, it was sooo good! My husband is the best marinator/flavorer west of the Mississippi, in my opinion! I wish I had his natural talent!

Now, I'm probably getting in trouble again, because I've been sucked into an evening of watching "Amazing Wedding Cakes" and "The Cupcake Girls" on WE-TV. So far, I have NOT been tempted into buying anything more, BUT...Tony was googling local cupcake stores when I looked over, so I think I may have created a monster...oops. There are worse things, I suppose.

Okay, I'm ready for bed. Tomorrow it MAY rain, but I am planning on going to church with Meghan again and then I am babysitting tomorrow evening, again.

I was surprised to see that ALL summer our pepper plants seemed to be just "existing" but now that the weather has been relatively cooler and shadier, they have just grown leaps and bounds in the last week. I forgot to get a picture before it got dark outside, but I will try to remember to take a picture to include in tomorrow's blog. Who knew...now that we have stopped watering it for the last 3 weeks and that the weather has changed-by California standards, anyway, it seems to just be taking off. I figure it won't hurt to leave them in and see what happens, and if nothing else, no veggies ripen and we pull the plants in a few weeks. Best case scenario, we have a few fresh producers of peppers/jalapenos and can make some fresh salad and salsa very soon. Time will tell.