perfect ten

10 things that gave me joy this season:

1. My husband bringing me his evergreen tree soaked hands and letting me take in deep breaths for as long as I'd like.

2. New York style pumpkin cheesecake ice-cream from Kroger.

3. Fresh clean warm sheets just on the bed on a cold winter night.

4. Being pregnant with my sister, every girls dream.

5. Picking oranges fresh off the trees and making Christmas wassail with them.

6. Feeling our baby girl roll from one side of me to the other and watching John's eyes get as big as silver dollars when he feels her too.

7. Seeing people with Christmas trees a top their cars.

8. An unopened pack of Christmas cards waiting to be written in and sent off.

9. Homemade ornaments on the tree.

10. The anticipation of adding a new little person to our family and trying to imagine how beautifully different Christmas will be next year and all of the rest of the years to follow.

(graphic)

hello number 3

Well, hello there 3rd Trimester.

This is all going way too fast.

I'm pretty sure we just found out we were pregnant and then BAM, I can now feel a tiny human moving around in my tum.

I could literally lay in bed all day and wait for EJ to kick me.  It is the thing that brings me the most joy at this time.  Its weird, I remember waiting and waiting and waiting to start feeling those little movements and now I can't remember a time when I couldn't feel her.  It is unlike any other feeling in the world.  I love knowing that I am her home right now.

*I am finally back up to my pre-pregnancy weight from all that I lost in the beginning.  I wasn't super sick or anything, I just had a massive aversion to sugar.  Now I could sit and eat a whole thing of orange cinnamon rolls by myself.  And I do.

*I only have one little stretch mark on the left side of my tum.

*The happy trail is still enlarging its borders.

*The right side of my lower back is beginning to give me quite a bit of trouble.  So long sweet sleep.  At least I have Mr. Murphy to rub my head and tell me to take 3 deeps breaths and relax my body from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.  I tell ya, this man is going to be a natural by my side at the birth of our baby.

*My pregnancy brain gets worse by the day.

*The boobs are are more out of control than ever.  I broke a size 40E new bra the other day.  I went to put it on for the first time and it just snapped in half like a twig...these things cannot be contained.

*Sneezing is pretty dangerous in these parts.  Bad things happen.

*Feeling EJ move is great.  Watching Mr. Murphy feel her is even better.  The other night we were laying in bed and he was resting his hand on my belly while we were having our night time conversation.  EJ rolled to a spot in my belly and it got really hard where she was.  He looked at me with huge eyes and said, "Thats her!!! I can feel our daughter, its like I'm holding her!"  I love his excitement for this baby girl.  He is going to be a stellar daddy.  (And quite protective I might add.  He bought a sword this weekend which no doubt will be used to ward off future boyfriends.  I love my nerdy husband)

time

Last night I told John it seems like time is speeding up.  

He said "Its because time wants Evaleigh to get here".
Its true, but lets give it another 15 weeks emkay?

Last night Mr. Murphy came home from playing bball in an explosively happy mood.  He had a million things to tell me about what he had learned about Bob Dylan yesterday while watching a documentary on Netflix.  He was on fire and excited to show me new music and to play some of it for me.

I was on fire for something too...pizza.

So, he showered up and we ventured off to Kroger to satisfy a craving.  The whole way there he chatted with me like a giddy school girl.  He gets so excited about music.  I am so happy to have a companion who loves music as much as I do, we are the perfect fit.

Did you know that Like a Rolling Stone's organ part was just some one messing around in the back ground while they were recording and it is actually an eighth note off beat for the whole song?  But Bob loved it so much that they left it.  Cool right?  He is a genius.

We got French Berry Soda and a Stuffed Crust Digiorno. 

Its romantic simple evenings like this that I want time to just go a little slower for a while.  I am soaking in these last months where "we" are still only a little family of 2.

I swear, if these things get ANY bigger....

Last night Mr. Murphy got home from work at 10:15.  

He walked in to the bedroom and I pretended to be asleep, but I am really bad at that game so after 5 seconds I just started laughing.  

He did a flying jump from across the room and landed on the bed and I screamed, "DOUGHNUTS" at the top of my lungs.

I haven't really been one of those pregnant ladies that has a lot of cravings but last night all I could think of were doughnuts.

Glazed Doughnuts...

Powdered Doughnuts...

Chocolate Frosted Doughnuts...

He is so wonderful about complying with my pregnant needs.  So we watched an episode of Friends, put on our clothes, and ventured off to the grocery.

We were walking around the fruits and veggies and I passed by the honey dew melons.  Do you want the truth? This is how my body feels right now...

A lot of pregnant women look forward to the perk of slightly bigger tots when they are preggs.

NOT

ME.

I repeat, NOT ME! Things are getting a little out of control over in these parts. And my biggest fear...its only going to get more ridiculous...

We made our purchase of:

strawberries

french twists

martinelli's apple juice

martinelli's passion prickly juice

and

POWDERED DOUGHNUTS...my pregnant heart was singing

We came home and watched more Friends and I made a simple delicious dessert that everyone should try.  It needs a name, but I don't have one for it.

1 package of French Twists

1 carton of fresh strawberries

-slice up french twists

-top with slices of fresh strawberries

Has anyone else noticed the incredible list of women with child in the blogosphere?  Its a pretty impressive list.  Here are a few of my favorites:

her

her

her

her

her
her
her

Here's to bigger tots ladies! Happy child growing!

Flash Mob in Kroger

Kroger in Grayson had its very own and no doubt first flash mob dance breakout last night.

We strolled down the unexpected freezer aisle and them shamelessly broke out in to a terrifically choreographed dance number. 

We are happy because we dance in the grocery store in an aisle all to ourselves at 11 o'clock at night.

We left bearing goods of Pomegranate Pops and Ben & Jerry's 'Everything But The...' ice-cream.

(a little picture of our new bedroom, we still haven't found the nuts and bolts to put our bed together so we have been sleeping with our mattress on the floor. no doubt they will show up in the very last box i unpack)

We exited Kroger in slow motion to the sound of "Chariots of Fire" playing overhead. (dun dun dun dun duun duuun ch ch ch ch...you know what i'm talkin' bout)


(Kroger always seems to bring out magical moments in our marriage.)

I would always choose...

...a night in.

We are 

home 

bodies.

Friday came this week and we moaned and groaned about what to do.  I always feel some sort of unnecessary pressurized feeling to do something cool freaktastic awesome just because it's a Friday.  

So Mr. Murphy and I threw some ideas around.  We thought about going to Chicken and Waffles, we thought about going mini-golfing, we thought about venturing to the $ theater.  But all of these things required jeans or some sort of pants that are definitely not better than leggings paired with an over-sized shirt and tall socks.

So, we decided on a lovely evening with our new flat screen, ice-cream, and Hulu/Netflix.

I let the hubs pick out my outfit to go out for our evening trek to pick up our night-time treat.  I almost left the house in a purple shirt paired with some zebra heels. 

Almost.

I had to veto husband's shoe choice.

As we perused the ice-cream section in Kroger, Mr. Murphy came close to me and his warm soft hand slid into mine.  That moment may not have meant anything to him but to me it was unforgettable.  Everything got a little hazy and it felt so good. We stood there chatting about what flavors to get and in my mind I was saying this...

"I don't care what I am doing as long as I am with you. You make everything fun, everything interesting, everything exciting. Our life is amazing, is everyone this lucky?  The simplest thing makes for the most lovely of memories, and this is it. Having you makes every moment of life enchanting.  There is nothing in the world I would rather be doing than standing in front of the freezer section in Kroger holding your enormous comforting hand. Nothing."

The sound of New York Style Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream brought me back to reality.  So, then we ogled all of the new flavors and decided on these two gems.

and

You know whats cool?

Hanging out with your husband in sweats and leggings. 

Eating copious amounts of New York-Style Pumpkin Cheesecake Ice Cream and English Toffee Ice Cream.

Making-out every time the stupid Verizon commercial with weird lightening plays AGAIN, just so you have a reason not to have to watch it for the billionth time.

Watching old episodes of Felix the Cat and trying to learn the theme song.

Watching old episodes of Rugrats.  You know you remember Tommy, Chucky, Phil, Lil, and Angelica.

Eating maraschino cherries from a jar.

Staying up unreasonably late with the sweet sweet feeling of knowing that you can sleep in however late you'd like the next morning.

Yellow argyle socks that go half way up your calf.

Pillow Fights at 3 a.m.

Staying in on Friday nights, dare to be different.

What the *bleep* is cornstarch?!

Why did it take me 4 trips to the grocery to find

THIS?!?

Frustration.

What is it anyway? All I know is that I had a blueberry pie to make and I needed it.

Maybe this comes with being a new wife/homemaker but there are still some major things I am

learning about cooking and cleaning (john taught me to clean out the lent trap in the dryer and how to use dryer sheets. It's a wonder my clothes have made

it all these years.) Anyway, a few weeks ago I wanted to make a beef dish that called for cornstarch so I went to Walmart and it was no where to be found. I stood in front the flour and sugar for 15 minutes and stared and stared. I just knew that it had to be there somewhere! I called my mother...

"What the *bleep* is cornstarch???

She told me that I was in the right place and it would be near the flour. WRONG! So, I just assumed that they were out an I would just try again.

Kroger. No luck.

Kroger again. No luck.

Kroger again again!! Success!

All I had to do was turn around, it is NOT with the flour.

So, I got to do what I wanted to do, and here it is...

Blueberry Filling:

4 cups (570 grams) fresh blueberries

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar

2 tablespoons (20 grams) cornstarch (corn flour)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest

*I tried to make my own crust first but then I burnt it so I had to start all over and just went with a Pillsbury crust. But here's the recipe anyway...

Short Crust Pastry:

2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour

1teaspoon salt

2 tablespoon (30 grams) granulated white sugar

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, chilled, and cut into 1 inch (2.54 cm) pieces

1/4 to 1/2 cup (60 - 120 ml) ice water

The crust was amazing, I just don't know why it burnt in our oven.

Here is the demolished lemon which yielded a lovely zest.

The insides.

End product on my lap on the way to our new friends Adam and Kendra's house.

John's last piece.

Bye bye Miss American Pie.

The cornstarch was with the baking soda and powder by the way...