I lose...

Ha! Not at anything horrible. I picked today for Baby Schallmo to get here (well I'd rather pick early than late, right?) but he/she is just hangin' out, kicking around in my belly.

I have to say that while I enjoy being in North Carolina, no where seems like "fall/autumn" except for NY. No offense North Carolinians, I didn't feel like that in Texas or Virginia either! Beak and Skiff, I miss you terribly. No apple picking at 90 degrees for me, thanks. Still lighting my favorite scents of candles - macintosh and pumpkin spice - watching college football, and starting to make some fall type foods!

There are some good things about the still-warm weather, like getting to enjoy the pool at the Jones' after ours closed. Levi is pretty hilarious in the water! Daniela did my toes yesterday (and I don't mean slapping on some polish like I would, she did pretty much a full blown awesome pedicure!) which was SO great because they looked pretty bad and the last time I did them I almost passed out from lack of oxygen (probably not so good for the baby) trying to reach over my belly. Very thankful and blessed to have pretty red toes!!!

I could write some more but just for the sake of writing - so I won't bore you all! Maybe I'll have more news soon! :)

C'mon Baby Schallmo?

Went to the doc this morning and this baby apparently likes to be with it's momma - not showing too many signs of going anywhere yet! It's okay Baby Schallmo - take your own sweet time.

Last weekend we got to go to the Greek Festival in downtown Charlotte. Jonathan and I have been to the one in Syracuse twice and we love the culture, the music, the dancing, and most definitely the food! I've had an itch to go to Greece ever since spending some time with my college friend Denise and her family - all from Greece. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is definitely near the top of my movie list and I may just bring it to the hospital with me since I think they have VHS players still?!?! I also had a great professor in Potsdam who was from Greece and introduced us to some Greek food, dancing, and history. Someday hopefully we'll take a trip. :)

At the Greek festival Saturday it poured - we needed the rain so badly but we were with some fun friends with little ones in strollers - so it made it a little more challenging. All in all we had a great time and a lot of delicious food.

Here is the Jones family ready to finally bite into that lunch!

And the Bopp family - the littlest Bopp is due at the beginning of December - so we had two stroller babies and two preggo ladies! Sorry we were sitting so tight Lindsay Bopp...close up!

Greek dancers!

Gracyn (sp?) and Levi were dancing and having fun - where's your nose? :)


On our way home...Jonathan was practicing, he's pretty much a pro!

One last note - our cute little boy, Otto, knows that SOMETHING is going on. I've heard all different things about what dogs can/cannot sense about a baby coming, but he definitely has acted differently since I've been pregnant! He sticks very closely to me and lets Jonathan know a lot that apparently he's claiming me - as you can see when Jonathan took this pic at lunchtime today!

We have let him see and sniff the new baby things coming into the house and we have a plan for him when we go to the hospital - so we're not too worried. I tell him that when the baby comes he will still be our #1 dog (I know, geek, but he understands some things!). He's also been my walking buddy as much as possible in this heat - and hopefully we'll figure that out with a stroller, too!

Happy Birthday MOM!

Just a quick post to say happy birthday to the BEST momma!

I know that because I grew up with her for a mom, I am much more prepared to be a mom myself!

Here is my mom with her 2 sisters and all of their daughters. Both my cousin Katy and I are having babies with the next 5 months, so we might (we'll know both soon) have some more girls to add to the group!

Each one of these ladies has claimed a date for when they think Baby Schallmo will be born. Unfortunately I don't think that Baby Schallmo and "Grandma" will be sharing the same birthday - no signs of anything happening today (sorry Jill!!!). If you have a guess of your own (date, girl or boy) - leave a comment here!

Happy Birthday Mom, I love you and we can't wait to see you when the baby gets here!

Baby Schallmo's Nursery

Happy Birthday to my cousin Beana and my uncle Terry! Terry said that if the baby was born today, whether it was a boy or a girl, it had to be named Terry Kristina or Kristina Terry - I'll be lucky if this blog entry is finished before it is the end of 9/10, much less having the baby come! Sorry guys.

Here's a bump pic a couple weeks closer - taken this past Sunday in front of our house - with 18 days til the due date!

Our nursery is finally "complete" - minus what will go on the walls - I plan to do a few projects once the baby comes and we know the gender and the name! (Don't doubt, I know I'll be busy but just a little at a time.)

I spent hours (okay, closer to days) searching in stores and online and being very frustrated by bedding that was "too boyish", "too girlish", or just plain TOO EXPENSIVE! We finally ended up ordering these cute things online, a discontinued set that was very inexpensive but fairly good quality, even after washing/ironing and all that good stuff! Here are a few pictures of our nursery, complete with Jonathan putting together the crib - as well as the pack and play in our room where Baby Schallmo will sleep at first. I know the pics will be so much greater when the baby is actually in them! :)

Pizzaaaaaaaaaaaa

Tonight we had the chance to share dinner with some sweet friends and I promised to post my pizza dough recipe - which was given to me by the family of another great friend in Texas. So here you go!

OLGA ODABASHIAN'S PIZZA DOUGH

Ingredients:

3 CUPS FLOUR

3 TABLESPOONS OIL

1 TABLESPOON INSTANT YEAST

PINCH OF SALT

1 CUP WARM WATER

Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix - knead with hands or use the paddle attachment on a standing mixer and watch for dough to pull away from sides of bowl. Shape into a ball and allow to rest/rise 20 minutes. Roll out to desired shape on a floured surface (you might stretch with your hands or toss it at this point, whatever you want to try!). Transfer to pizza pan or cookie sheet and shape pizza edges with your fingers. Lightly brush the pan and the edges of the crust with olive oil - or I think you can use cornmeal(?) on the pan - I never have. Top with whatever floats your boat and bake at 400 degrees until your cheese is melted and edges are lightly browned!

Here is a pic Jonathan took of our dinner tonight - the rectangular pizza was 1/2 pesto/tomato slices/fresh basil and 1/2 tomato sauce/sauteed spinach and garlic - with mozzarella and parmesan over all. The round was pepperoni on 2/3 and green pepper on 1/3 all with tomato sauce and mozz/parm.

It seems to me that with the cookie sheet you get a softer crust, and with an airbake pan (holes in it) you get a crispier crust. You could definitely try grilling it, a pizza stone, whatever! It is also great dough for making calzones and strombolis, both of which Jonathan and I have enjoyed! The dough recipe makes 1 pizza crust, 2 strombolis (LARGE) or 3 calzones (also quite large!).

On another note, Baby Schallmo and I had a great mile swim today and we will be SO SAD when the pool is closed on Tuesday!

Nesting?

Jonathan and I are trying to get the nursery really "finished" today - we've been back and forth about a million times to Target and Babies'R'Us and anywhere and everywhere online...I am so excited that we are going to be surprised with the gender of Baby Schallmo, but it is HARD to complete a nursery that isn't "too boyish" or "too girlish". We are super blessed to be in the house we are in, and we are learning quickly that all of the baby STUFF makes it seem a LOT smaller! We are also really blessed to be able to have all of these things from family and friends before the baby's arrival - I've been driving around a few days with an empty carseat in the back of my car, inspected at the police station and ready to go!

As I type, apparently my husband is feeling this "nesting" instinct - HA! He decided that beyond our swiffer, he was going to get down on our kitchen/dining area floor with a sponge, some buckets, and a few towels. I have to admit, it's sparkling! He has done a great job of helping get things ready - we have to haul a few things to the attic today to make some more space.

Baby Schallmo is still managing to find a little space to move his/her hands and feet around - and we are still swimming laps until the day the pool closes! I had to give up on flipturns about 3 weeks ago, so it's slowed us down a little. Earlier this week I was swimming and stopped for a break and one of the two cute old ladies in the pool (with water weights, who had already grilled me on when I was due) said, "How many laps did you just do?" I answered, "40." The other lady said, "Well, you just want that baby to pop out right here in this pool, don't you?!" Ummm....no. HA! Considering the facts that that would be totally uncomfortable/awkward and probably really unclean, I don't think so. Of course then they started sharing horrible labor stories with each other and I decided it was time to keep swimming!

Enough story telling for one day...I'll be back! :)

Take your mark...go!

Jonathan and I are loving life in NC - but we miss getting to be around most of our family and friends. This is blog post #1 so that I can (hopefully) keep everyone up to date on the birth and the daily shenanigans of Baby Schallmo! If you didn't know, I am expecting baby #1 in about 3 weeks. We have not found out if baby will be a boy or a girl, so we are very excited to know (and YES you will know what names we are choosing, WHEN we name the baby!).

My pregnancy has been pretty smooth (thank you God!), and has included a lot of travel. For 11 weeks, I was living, teaching, and coaching in VA while Jonathan was starting a great new job in NC - close to 4 hours away. I made it through some long, snowy drives and found out that being pregnant definitely made me more emotional than usual! I got to move down in April - filled in at an elementary school that needed a music teacher for the last 5 weeks of school, and I'm now finding out what it is like to actually not be employed. I am so excited to be able to stay home with Baby Schallmo, but it is a very new experience for me since I have worked multiple jobs at a time through high school, college, grad school, and married life!

Jonathan and I have gotten to have a lot of visitors so far in NC and celebrated his graduation (as well as his sister's) from seminary in May. I got to go on our annual "Girls Beach Weekend" with family in May, and recently found out that my cousin is also pregnant - getting ready for two beach babies next summer! In June we traveled to TX to be in Marla's wedding and see friends that I had not seen in 2 years. In July we took a huge trip with students from our church to Syracuse, and also spent vacation time with our families. We sang in 2 weddings between July and August, both for sweet friends, and we are now done with traveling for a while and getting things ready for baby! We're looking forward to having visitors after Baby Schallmo gets here - so let us know if there's a time you want to come down!

So...post #1 turned out to be a catch up/update, hopefully I'll have more exciting things soon. I'm going to try to post a "belly" picture - here goes nothing!