Random ramblings from the Texan in London.

That's right, folks. One baby. Not two, as my rapidly expanding belly might suggest. Thank goodness. *lol* My due date has been changed to three days later than originally predicted, JB's estimated date of arrival is now October 9th based on the measurements they took during the scan. In this picture, he's 49mm long. How something that tiny can make so many changes in my big ol' body is beyond me... That said, his antics on screen were hysterical. I'm talking fish out of water, random electrocution kind of movement in there. Himself's comment? "If that's what he's doing in there, it's no wonder your stomach hurts." *lol* JB wouldn't pose for his measurements (which proves he's related to Himself, who refuses to pose for pictures as a rule) until the technician had rapped on my belly a few times with the machine. Of course, Himself says JB's related to me because he won't hold still... guess he's ours, eh? I...

So, Jelly Bean has become physically active. On Saturday I was sitting on the couch watching TV with Himself, and all of a sudden I became aware of a fairly strange feeling in my lower abdomen. Sort of like a butterfly trapped in there, sort of like bubbles zipping around... Jelly Bean must have been particularly enthused by whatever we were watching. It's been a pretty rough start to the week, health wise. I've had some serious headache action, yesterday being the peak of the awfulness. We're talking dark room, horizontal kind of headache. No fun. The cats didn't mind, of course, it just meant they had a human heat source upon which to pound and purr. I've managed to get a couple of bits done though, our new furniture came toward the end of last week and Himself spent pretty much all of Saturday putting it together (to the point that he now has a screwdriver handle shaped hole in the palm of his right hand, flat pack's so much fun!). I've unpacked a ...

Years and years ago, my Aunt Janie sent me our family recipes so that I'd have a little piece of home here in the UK. I've delved into it on many occasions, most recently Norma's chocolate cake with white between layers for a friend's birthday. In the making of the cake, loads of childhood memories swamped me, and it turns out that some of you have the same memories about the same foods that we shared back in the day. I've decided to share the recipes now and again, there's no good reason I can think of to hoard them all to myself. Share the love, right? *grin* First off, for Kelley, Italian Cream Cake. Enjoy. Italian Cream Cake 2 cups sugar 5 eggs, separated 1 cup buttermilk 1tsp baking soda, dissolved in milk 2 cups flour 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 sticks margarine 2 cups coconut 8oz cream cheese 2tsp vanilla 1 box powdered sugar Preheat the oven to 325. Grease and flour three round cake pans. CAKE: Cream the oil, sugar and one stick of margarine. Add the s...

So, this morning has been fairly productive. Is it sad that I count managing to sleep until twenty to ten as productive? I don't care if you think it's sad. I haven't been able to sleep much lately, and I had to get up to pee three, count them, THREE times last night, so the lie-in was particularly welcome. So there. I also managed to change the cats chip details to the new address. Yes, we moved here in November. Yes, it's now halfway through March. It's still on my list of productivity. Stop being so nit picky. You'll have to forgive my slightly crotchety attitude these days. While the nausea hasn't been as horribly overpowering this week, several other symptoms are vying to take its place. The current front runner for the role is... wait for it... ocular migraines! That's right, folks, the few I had a couple of years ago weren't the end of that particular story. Pregnancy hormones increase the amount of blood in your body, which causes...

So, nausea sucks. Luckily (please, touch wood on my behalf RIGHT NOW) it seems to be tapering off. Bad timing, considering that I sort of quit/sort of got sacked from my temp job last week. Let me explain... The "office" was actually a donated shop front in a local shopping centre here in Uxbridge. Seeing as how I was working for a charity, you can't really complain about the surroundings. So, the one thing about this "office" is that it didn't have a door, it was just the gate that pulls down out of the ceiling. Which means every smell passing that gate wafts into the room. Which means the cafe next to the butcher across the hall had combined smells seemingly simply to make me urp. It had me running for the ladies a little too often for me to be a reliable employee, so the charity and I had to part ways. Anyway, I've been home again for a week, which sounds fab and all, but I have a significant amount of guilt about not working, which added to f...