16 weeks

   It was hard going back to work this week. It seemed more tiring than usual. However, my coworkers are very excited for me and have been so thoughtful to look out for me and how much lifting I'm doing. One of the speech therapists is 2 weeks farther along than me, so it will be nice to share the experience with someone. 

   On Saturday we watched the Titans game and took down the Christmas decorations. Ryan had the tree back in the box in the blink of an eye! We sold an item on Craig's list and made $140, so that was a nice treat. I made dinner and Tony and Shaina came over. I made one of my favorite dishes from "Southern Living," and I'll include the recipe at the end. The guys wanted a Trivial Pursuit rematch from last week. We dominated once again! We had 3 pie wedges before they had their first turn. We have a pretty effective strategy of thinking through the questions and figuring it out together. The guys had a long talk and their strategy for next week is to answer more questions correctly :) I was excited to watch SNL to see Taylor Swift perform, not because I enjoy her; quite the opposite. I think her voice is pretty awful and in a sick way I'm entertained by how bad she is. I think my face was frozen in 

a grimace during both songs. I really don't get it. 

   In baby news, you might be interested to know that the baby is about 4 1/2 inches long and weighs about 3 1/2 ounces. I think I've felt it moving, although I usually dismiss it as something else. The sensation I feel does sound like descriptions I've read. We picked out the bedding we'd like to use for a boy or girl. I want to get something that we can use again, even if the next child (down the road!) is a different sex than the first. I don't think I'm going to get the whole set, probably just the bumper and a couple of accent pillows. Another thing I like about this set is that I can accent with different pillows. I can use the floral pattern if it's a girl and more of the circles if it's a boy. 

   Hopefully this week will be a little easier and I'll get back in the groove at work. We have professional development on Friday and I 

think the workshop I'm going to will be pretty interesting. It's called "Every Move Counts" and it deals with reading signs and cues from non-verbal children and should help me better understand their forms of communication.  

Here's a picture of Annie in her announcement shirt. She was not too enthused at 2am. 

   

   

Creamy Almond Chicken

4-6 chicken breasts, best if 1/4" thick

2/3 cup sliced almonds

1/4 cup butter, divided

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. orange marmalade

1/8 tsp. red pepper

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1/8 tsp. salt.

Melt 1 tbsp. of butter and saute the almonds. Set them aside and melt the rest of the butter. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper. Cook chicken on medium-high for one minute on each side. Reduce heat to medium and add cream, marmalade, red pepper, mustard, and 1/2 cup of almonds. Cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. Top with remaining almonds and serve over brown rice. 

* This works best with thinner chicken breasts. I know Tyson sells them in thinner cuts, or you   can pound them with a meat mallet and have a free therapy session.