Noite Brasileira

I finally found an affordable pressure cooker so I could get my Brazilian food fix!!  So, we had a little family dinner and I made feijoada (Brazilian style beans) with fresh limes,rice,  cornbread and salad.  Rice and beans was a typical lunch for us most days (and a lot of nights too…haha) when J and I lived down there.  If you were to eat this dish at a restaurant, it would usually be accompanied by Pao de Queijo (aka: heavenly cheesy bread balls)…but I didn’t have the right kind of cheese, so I didn’t want to risk it and ruin the experience for the first timers in my family…it’s like I needed them to love it as much as I did.

Instead of Pao de Queijo, I made Brigadeiro for the first time.  These little balls of chocolaty goodness are a really popular sweet that is SOOOOO rich.  The girls in our department and I ate one after lunch almost everyday!  I like to think of it as a very Euro way of eating (they had a lot of European influences there) but it could just be called gluttony.  You decide. ;)

I only got pictures of the Brigadeiro…so if you want to experience  the rest of it, you’ll just have to stop by our house!

I had my best taste-tester there to help me out…

…don’t bother him, he’s thinking….

Yes, a success!  Thanks, Drewski.

Sweet Cheeks…

I got to see our sweet cheeks last week for our total fetal screening!  Everything went well and she’s a healthy baby girl…except the doctor scared me for a bit when he said he couldn’t confirm her gender since she was sitting like a lady!!  She moved after a bit and he confirmed it! (Not that there’s anything wrong with a boy…it’s just that the dresses I have wouldn’t look as cute on a him =) 

Here’s a few pictures of her at 25 1/2 weeks. I know that we’re entering the realm of parenthood where most posts become your kids stats…SORRY!  However, seeing that probably 3 out of the 4 whole people who read this are either her 3 Grandparents or Daddy, it won’t matter too much ;).  Besides, J is training in UT and hasn’t even been able to see these yet!!

He got a quick 3-D picture of her face for us…don’t worry, the streaks are just the ultrasound trying to look through fluid and tissue.

Get ahold of those cheekies!  I love her sweet little features.

This is her fist. She’s starting to pack some serious heat behind her kicks and punches.  I started to feel her kick and move pretty early at 16 weeks…back then it just felt like a puppy was pawing or licking me from the inside…and now I see parts of my belly suddenly jumping out when she moves!  At the appointment she was 1 lb. & 9 oz. and by now she’s probably about 2 lbs.  It’s hard to believe how fast she is growing now!

You can see her little foot caught in a kick here…The doctors always comment how active she is.  In China they couldn’t even get her to stay in one place long enough to get her heartbeat…which was scary at the time but kind of comical now…so I’m pretty sure she’s either going to be a dancer or an ultimate fighter…what do you think?

Relay for Life

Cancer is a scary word…it usually is accompanied by fear, anxiety, pain and the memories of loved ones lost…

However, this week it took on a more positive light…especially with the word SURVIVOR added to it.

So that’s why I chose to celebrate with two very important survivors in my life this last week.  This is my Mom and her best friend, Darlene.  They’re both survivors.

There was a special dinner for Survivors earlier in the week and a relay on Saturday, where people pledge and walk for the fight against it. You form teams and take turns walking for the 24 hour relay, and have a dang good time doing it with all of the company and entertainment! It’s a great fundraiser for ACS.My Mom was out of town for the relay, so I walked to represent, plus it’s been a while since I’ve been in town to go.

They had a beautiful luminary ceremony at night and we walked around the track with a luminary representing each person.  We put out one for my Mom who survived and one for my Grandpa who didn’t.

The bump (which has suddenly popped this week) got to sport this…I’m eternally grateful that my Mom fought it and was blessed to beat it…there were times when we both thought she wouldn’t be around to see her last two kids get married or enjoy her grandchildren. Miss Amelia-Jayne is a lucky little girl to have her Grandma…

and so am I. : )

Love these Kids…

I got to see my favorite kidlets (and their parents :) last month for a fun time in San Diego…

…miss them already and will post more about our little trip soon. :)

Have a fabulous Friday!

xoxo

Preggo Dreams

A little glimpse of what's been playing in my head the last couple of nights:

Dream 1-

Jordan and I were at our friends, Audrey and Andy's, new house having a fun triple date dinner (Ironically, Audrey is buying a new home and if it's anything like this one in my dream....it is NICE). The baby was with us and for some reason she was a few weeks old and I hadn't started nursing her yet. So, as if there couldn't be a better time to learn that "how-to," I excused myself and went into their master bedroom. It was sort of like a sunroom that was surrounded by redwood trees, and the master bath was like a marble and tile shrine.

Anyways, I took the blanket off the baby and what was supposed to be our baby girl was a MALE PUPPY....sort of....kind of part pug and part baby boy.... a Humo-pug (and you thought labrad00dles were scary). I was weirded out a little but tried to nurse anyways, only to find that it had one fierce barracuda latch (this pup already had incisors). Ouchies. I was clearly upset and all of the sudden Audrey's cute little Latina maid popped out of the shower (like I said...her house was swanky) and handed me a breast shield- as if to say "didn't you know? this is how you breastfeed a puppy."

Needless to say, I was glad the doctor confirmed that she was indeed, still a baby girl at my appointment the next day.

Dream 2-

My mom and I got up to watch the royal wedding waaay too early Friday morning. I fell asleep while watching the procession back to Buckingham Palace.

In my dream I dreamt that Jordan and I were dating again. J was British all of the sudden, and apparently Harry and William's middle brother. It was all about us waiting in Westminster Abby to leave for the big reception and trying to get Camilla to tell me about how long it would take to get to Oxfordshire, where I was born. She and Charles seemed pretty out of it and it was by far one of the harder conversations I've ever had. In the end, we were done waiting and tried to walk back to the palace (those minivan budget cuts, you know) only to get stuck in a freak snowstorm, where other ladies put pop up laundry hampers over their heads to protect their hats. Classy.

So, anybody have any ideas for what should be playing in my head tonight? These hormones are quite entertaining.

Monterey

A few days after we got back from China, we got to enjoy a little family reunion with some of J's family near Monterey...here's some pics of our fun little trip:

We went to Santa Cruz's Mystery Spot. It was my first time discovering some of the crazy things that it does to you. This is us standing "upright," but as you can see, we're hanging waaaaay over that table's edge.

Besides messing with your center of gravity, it does funny things to height differences too...This is J standing as the tallest person in this line ranging from 5'2" to 6'.

And this is the same line of people standing at opposite ends. They were all 5'2"!!

Nice one, Jordo.

As a surprise for the trip, J's brother, Bryce, asked his sweetie to marry him in the Redwoods. Congrats and we're excited to have you in the family, Breanna!

Checking out the fishies at the aquarium...

My favorite part of the week was on the last day, when Uncle Marshal took us for a tour down the coast and we got to stop at Point Lobos. We ran all the way in and out through the rain to visit the spot where J asked me to marry him not so long ago...

We love this place, and as you can tell, the knees of the Hastings boys really like to hit the ground here in California! :)

The Latest and Greatest...

So, let's face it...I'm a horrible blogger....the last time I blogged was *cough* Christmas.

Whoops.

I blame it on pregnancy and genetics (my mom puked for 9 months and it doesn't seem like I'll be that different). It's all your fault mom...just kidding. It's just your genes...but if I can fit into your jeans (we share clothes) at your age, I guess I'll take your genes too. :)

However, I wasn't a great blogger/journal keeper before, so it can't all be because of our little package on the way.

But, to save the one or two people that still read this from one REALLY really long post, this is only a semi-long post about what we've been up to since the last time there was any action on here:

-We had a wonderful Christmas in China and found out we were pregnant! It happened much faster than we ever expected and we were and still are just beside ourselves with excitement.

-Pregnancy was a dream until 6 1/2 weeks (haha)...then I started puking and couldn't stop. Most days I couldn't keep anything down and some days I couldn't even keep water down. It was pretty rough trying to deal with that and keep up a 40-60 hour workweek at Wizard China. For a while they let me manage with a mixture of Skype at home and going into the office part time, but that changed and you'll hear about that later.

-We enjoyed seeing what Chinese New Year was all about with the Year of the Bunny. (I'm a Bunny circa 1987 and our little baby will be one in 2011 too!)

-Our bunnies turned out to be two females, which meant they kept peeing on each other and started to bite each other after bunny puberty. They also lost their potty training we were so proud of. This didn't work so well with my over-sensitive nose...so we sadly got rid of them. We decided to take them to a local pet store for someone else to love, but a miraculous thing happened. Just as J was leaving to take them, he met our neighbor and her 14 year old son in the hall and they wanted them! We were happy to give them to our "Ron-Charlie" friend, who is actually a student of ours at school. Hopefully they keep them as pets for a while and they don't end up in some one's soup...but they had a good home for a little while longer- so we felt good about it.

-Jordan had a birthday on Valentines day and officially got older. We celebrated with a day at work after a cinnamon roll breakfast (probably the one thing I've made since being preggo...poor J), our little kid students singing "Happy Birthday" to him, and came home to the best pizza we'd had there via the delivery woman. J's one birthday wish was to become a Dave Ramsey lifetime member. And now he is...so look out world. :)

-We successfully ran two last minute "Winter Camps." These were two whole weeks of kiddy day care from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm (that ended up being sold cheaper than most babysitting or free)...but included intense English lessons, multiple meals and cooking classes, dance and singing lessons, games, cultural lessons about America and a Road show at the end of the week. It was fun for me to plan (but would have been more fun with more time in advanced notice and if I felt better) and thanks to my awesome teachers and J, we pulled it off. I did like teaching dance for the road show... and we did have some mighty cute kids at it. The theme for the week was "From Sea to Shining Sea" and we stopped in different regions of the United States, singing, dancing and teaching our way through. Overall, it was a rewarding experience. (This pic is actually from a different event, but still...you get the idea)

-As you could tell, things at work were getting pretty rough. We were sent from Brazil to manage and to make sure that everything was happening according to Wizard's franchise standards. Since day one, Wizard China didn't seem to understand what a franchise was or want to have anything to do with Wizard school standards. They also didn't want any American or Brazilian input, which makes it difficult for a Brazilian based company that teaches American English. To make a long story short in the end, the health of our baby, my health, little financial benefit and no opportunity for advancement made our decision to come home the most logical choice. We still have great feelings toward Wizard Brazil and the opportunities they've given us, but know that China might not be their best opportunity for growth right now. Overall, we've chalked up China as a really positive experience, as we often learn more from rough times than ideal ones. It has given us invaluable leadership and management experience, further international experience, taught us how to deal with difficult personalities, and helped us see a different side of the world....which we'd like to keep doing and go international again someday. We walked away with lifetime friends and memories that we will cherish. We wouldn't trade our year abroad for anything, and as a couple it brought us closer together than anything else in our first year of marriage could. Being on three different continents and dealing with the changes we did in one year is enough to make or break you. And it made us.

Here's a little sentimental trip through a few of our China highlights...

-J and I enjoyed a couple of days in Beijing before we left to see the sites and get ready for the long flight home.

-My mom picked us up from LAX and we were only on the ground for a few hours when J and my Dad couldn't take it any longer...they called up "My First Peekaboo" and made an appointment for that night... we found out WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!!!!!!

-A few days later we went to Aptos/Salinas/Monterey area where we got to be with J's family for a little reunion for a week. It was beautiful and we had a great time together.

-J is now in Utah interviewing and I am staying with my parents trying to learn some domestic skills from my mom until we know what we're doing and where we'll be. It's fun to be so well taken care of at my parents, but I'm really missing J! Hopefully we'll get some plans in concrete soon.

That's all of our news for now...we're back in the States and have been having a great time reuniting with family and friends, eating wonderful food (finally!!! good food and it's staying down!), and exploring the opportunities that lie ahead. We're not exactly sure what is next for us, but as long we put our faith in the Lord and get to be together (all 3 of us now :), it's sure to be an adventure.

xoxo, MJ & J