Ought Oh

I popped on the scale today and was horrified. I ate a LOT of junk over the past week. I will be walking today and am starting fresh with healthy eating. I made my husband take the remaining swedish fish and nut rolls to the office. NO MORE SWEETS. I'll post my 20 week belly photo tomorrow...

The Story of Our First Thanksgiving

The Pohl family's first attempt at hosting the big Thanksgiving Day meal began like this..

Wednesday evening, 11:30 PM
I crawled into bed exhausted and set my alarm for 6:00 am so I could get a jump start on the preparations for the day. The meal is planned for 1:00 sharp. 18.5 lbs of turkey breasts sleeping soundly in the fridge, properly thawed.

4:00am Thanksgiving Day
Woken from a deep sleep by the sound of static coming from the baby monitor. The same static that only results when the base monitor in his room is not plugged or, much much worse, when the power goes out. Confirm that in fact, there is no electricity, then decide to fall back asleep.

5:00am
Wake to sound of one of my two nephews crying in the next room and my sister's voice telling them they were not allowed to get out of bed yet. No electricity. Fell back asleep.

6:00am
Phone alarm goes off. Still no electricity. Some panic beginning to set in. I was planning on looking up on the computer how long to cook the turkey for, but I had estimated 6 hours in my head. crap. Too dark to do anything without lights, so decide might as well go back to sleep.

7:00am
Still no power. Hear nephews and decide that I might as well get up and try to get some items prepped in the dark. Nephews both up, sister still sleeping. Panic again that no electricity means no cartoons. Wave of relief when I remember gameboys which had been recharged before we went to bed. Begin making stuffing with help of massive flashlight. Mother-in-law reassures me that turkeys will only need 3 hours in roast bags. Husband gets the fire call that there are in fact transformers on fire, but at least returns from the call with hot coffee for all.

8:30am
Still no power. My mom arrives to help with Patrick while I was supposed to be slaving over a hot oven. Five minutes later, lights are on! Oven set to preheat and we are in business.

1:45pm
Thank you, Lord, for all of our blessings, including electricity. Dinner is served. Made our big announcement about baby and enjoyed the bliss of a full belly surrounded by family.

My neighbor from our rental house joined us for Thanksgiving and brought us this centerpiece which she made herself!

The boys were NOT cooperative in getting their photo taken. This was my fourth attempt.

Pap pap was worn out by all the festivities and the amazing cooking-we caught him cat napping.

5:15Pm: Head over to Tom's parents for dinner number two. Turkey came with us and was luckily spared.

The day after Thanksgiving: Our family's annual early Christmas present exchange for the kids who live out of state and won't be up at Christmas. This way, we are able to see them open the gifts we picked out rather than just shipping them. I ate way too much junk. I am scared to hop on the scale. Luckily, my next doctors visit and weigh in isn't until mid December.

A must have: a shot with all of the cousins. Patrick refused to cooperate.

How cute is my lone niece?(my half-brother's daughter)

All the siblings and spouses (except Tom who was hard at work downtown).

Patrick in his gift from his D.C. cousins- his very own castle.

which he loves and has been using constantly since I set it up.

What will baby Pohl be made of?

For over a week, Tom and I have kept the secret of Baby Pohl's gender so we could make the big announcement at Thanksgiving while family was gathered together. So now that the cat is out of the bag, can you guess?

Frogs and snails, and puppy-dogs' tails, that is what little boys are made of...

It's a BOY! Not a huge shock when you understand the trend on my mom's side of the family to have only boys. Every single one of my 5 cousins who have had kids (7 between them) have had only boys. My sister, 2 boys; my other sister, 2 boys. I am excited Patrick will have a brother, a best friend to always buddy around with.

Baby seems healthy and on track, something to most certainly be thankful for yesterday and each day. No, we don't have a name yet, but even when we decide, it will be a closely guarded secret.

Weekend Recap

Exhausted. Tom and I spent all weekend completing projects - some of which were never on the "to-do" list, but somehow took priority (like rebuilding a portion of the stone wall along our driveway). One big one completed was the installation of my new chandelier. I have ALWAYS wanted a crystal chandelier in my dining room, and now I have one thanks to my handy husband who put it up himself. I love it and I think even Tom is admitting it looks great in the space.

So we say goodbye to this chandelier (which is actually now hanging from the big gaping hole that had been in our kitchen's eat-in area)...

and introduce this beautiful girl

Patrick enjoyed the lunchtime entertainment as he watched his dad work. We are working on getting the ketchup IN his mouth.

Ahh...can't wait for Thanksgiving (and the formal dining room set that will one day replace my set)

And in the stealth of darkness, armed with nothing but a flashlight, Tom finished building our firewood holder out back.

Boys Will Be Boys

Where has Saturday gone? We spent the day hard at work both inside and out getting ready for the big Thanksgiving Day feast we are hosting. Three out of my four siblings will be here, and we'll have some out of town guests staying at our house this whole next week.

Tom's crowning achievment? His peg board which he custom fitted to the bay window bumpout in the basement. Oh, Patrick helped a little.

And although we have 10,00 things to accomplish between today and tomorrow, you can't blame a guy for wanting to start organizing his tools right away.

After all, the lawn is leaf free and freshly cut...

...and those two chores entertained Patrick for at least 30 minutes as he stood at the back window watching his dad.

But the day wouldn't be complete without Patrick learning something new, and that something happens to be how to operate the water dispenser on the fridge. Thank goodness for the "lock" button feature.

18 Week Belly

Tom took this one instead of my usual self-timer after church Sunday-still growing! Feeling great and no complaints.

Lazy Weekend time in his chair...

And my buy of the month: two framed magnetic boards on clearance at the baby store for $5/each (Reg $30). Patrick loves the magnets and we are slowly working on our letters- he knows "M" now.

The Bad with the Good

The good: Date Night! The BEST date night-I am not so sure what specifically made the night so perfect other than I had forgotten what it is like to eat at my own pace without having to be constantly checking on Patrick. I even had dessert. And coffee. The kicker? Our reservation was for 5:30. That is not a typo. We were the first couple in our area seated, to be followed by two sets of seniors, both with walkers. Still, didn't bother us any, and we were able to pick Patrick up before his bedtime.

Got a long overdue haircut Saturday. Finished up some yard work Saturday morning with Tom and Patrick in above average temps-so nice!

The bad: The poison ivy I have on both my wrists after wrangling vines for the past three days. Seriously, in November? I am about to go calamine-lotion-up my arms before an early bed. Also, why can't I find any Thanksgiving decorations 2 weeks before the big day? It is only Christmas- like they just skipped over the whole thing.

Still, hope everyone had at least a little "good" going on this weekend.

Moms-In Case You Need a Laugh

If you haven't seen Anita Renfroe's spoof on the Taylor Swift song "Love Story", you have to watch this-clearly she gets motherhood! It had me laughing...and appropriately, I am about to start ironing while my husband is asleep on the couch. Ahhh, romance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLjWDKu0jfM

17 Week Belly

Here is baby at 17 weeks. I feel huge already, but otherwise in good health. In fact, I haven't made much mention of it, but my weight is perfectly on track with my goal of a pound a week, at least as of today. My doctors appointment is tomorrow, so we will see what the official record says... And in a few weeks, we find out the sex. That will be a fun blog to post. My thoughts? I think it is a girl (as does the Chinese gender prediction chart). So we'll just have to wait and see. I haven't lifted a finger in the nursery yet, so that project may need to wait until after Thanksgiving when we aren't expecting anymore guests for a while.

Mama, Mia!

The opportunity to visit with my two dearest friends from my days in South Bend, IN presented itself recently, and I couldn't pass it up, so off Patrick and I went on our own roadtrip (Tom had to work, sadly). You may recognize Elizabeth (on the right) from other posts since she is P's Godmother, but I haven't seen Bethany since my wedding over two years ago. Back then she had just had her third boy, and since has added beautiful MG, rightly decked out in pink. My favorite part of the trip? Maternity clothes shopping with Elizabeth who is expecting her first just a week before my due date! I know she is impatient to start showing, but I was JEALOUS of how great she looked.

Elizabeth and MG

Bethany and her little girl-in pink of course!