Tessa’s 34 Week Ultrasound

My daughter loves loves loves to hang out upside down in my belly. Every single second and third trimester ultrasound I have had (and I’ve had a lot with the whole RH negative / isoimmunization thing) she is upside down with her head planted on my cervix, her butt up into my ribcage, and her legs folded back over her face, so her feet or legs are usually blocking her face – like in the photo above, with her foot firmly planted on her chin.

She likes to flex and play with her toes A LOT. She has a huge, exaggerated pout and suckling reflex whenever she takes a gulp of amniotic fluid. She gets irritated by her hiccups and furrows her brow and flares her nostrils in frustration. She is cute and quirky and sassy and unique and she already makes me laugh. I mean look. She stuck her big toe IN HER NOSE while we were watching her on the ultrasound:

Who DOES that? My daughter, that’s who! I’m already plotting and scheming to show this to her future husband when I pull out the embarrassing baby book. Oh yes. Yes I am.

Also, my mother-in-law Connie Jo just sent me this yesterday:

We had decided to go halfies with my mother-in-law on the photo package they were peddling to Navy families at the Boot Camp graduation in Great Lakes. I was on the fence over whether I should invest the money in these stock / studio-esque photos, but when I saw my husband in his uniform in this shot, I couldn’t imagine NOT having this photo framed in my home. This is a frikkin’ heirloom. Our great grandchildren will look at that and know that’s their great granddaddy.

When Connie Jo texted me the image again last night to let me know they arrived in the mail, I started tearing up in the middle of an El Pollo Loco. At the risk of sounding freakishly slavish to my husband – I am so very much in love with this man! Yeah, I know, I repeat this every post. But it’s true. I will never know what I did to be so blessed with the man I married and the baby that is growing in my belly. God really is so good.

In other news: I leave this coming Tuesday (my birthday!) on a cross country road trip with my poppa to my new home in Pensacola, Florida. Keep us in your travel prayers my friends!

The Original Gino’s East Deep Dish Pizza in Chicago

When my sailor graduated from Navy Boot Camp last week on August 2, there was one thing he really really really wanted to try – Chicago’s famous deep dish pizzas. But not any! He wanted the original.

Now, the Chicago style deep dish pizza was invented at Pizzeria Uno in Chicago in 1943. A couple of years later, Gino’s East was opened in Chicago by a couple of cab drivers. They stole some cooks from Pizzeria Uno and went to war with the original deep dish location, fighting for the title of “best deep dish in Chicago”.

The controversy arises over who is the “original” deep dish and the “best” because no one knows WHO exactly invented the deep dish… we only know that it was someone in the kitchen of Pizzeria Uno. And when kitchen staff began to scatter and go their separate ways – like to Gino’s, claims began to vary as who held the “original recipe”, and different pizza joints employing original staff from Uno’s all try to point out their REAL claims of authenticity.

But historically, no ones knows who invented the deep dish. We only know I originated from Pizzeria Unos. So why did we try the deep dish at Gino’s East and not at Pizzera Uno’s? Well, while Pizzeria Uno has a stronger claim to the title of “Inventor of the Deep Dish”, Gino’s is almost universally acclaimed as the better tasting deep dish pizza of the two. In fact, it’s consistently rated one of the best tasting “original” deep dish pizzas in Chicago since it’s opening about seven decades ago.

Jonathan wanted an original, but he also wanted the best. So off to Gino’s East we went!

 

The legendary restaurant is right off of Superior Street and Michigan Avenue and the joint is moody, eclectic and low lit cave of a place, with thousands of scribbles all over the walls from past guests. Autographed pictures of famous patrons from celebrities to politicians to musicians who have tried the famous pizza litter the walls. It’s a great atmosphere for a dinner in Chicago!

Now, a deep dish pizza differs from a normal pizza in that it has a buttery, flaky golden crust upwards of three inches tall, rising slightly higher than the ingredients, and is coated in a second “crust” of cheese, then topped with toppings swimming in sauce. The crust acts as a kind of bowl – the first time I tried deep dish pizza in Chicago I called it “pizza soup” and to date I’ve found it the most fitting description. You simply cannot eat a deep dish slice with your hands (without looking like a barbarian that is), it’s a dish that really needs a fork and knife.

Seriously, you could plop some cooked pasta noodles in your deep dish, and the toppings would work as a perfect sauce – they are that consistency. While I enjoy a Chicago deep dish, I wouldn’t classify it as something better than a regular pizza. It’s too different to be lumped into that category, really. And while it is good, it’s nothing I’d go out of my way for back home. It’s just a cultural flavor that I’d indulge in while in the Chicago area. Jonathan felt about the same. It was delicious and definitely something we’d do again, but not a must-make dish for our kitchen back home. But all in all, it was a yummy excursion! And a fun graduation day dinner!

I’ve said it a million times, and I’ll say it again – I’m so very proud of my United States sailor!!!

Jonathan’s Graduation from Navy Boot Camp

My husband is now a United States Navy Sailor. I am proud beyond words. No, really, beyond words. I have started and stopped typing at this blank screen for a good 15 minutes now, and I just can’t find a way to express the pride and the joy and the excitement I feel. Or just how amazing Friday, August 2, 2013 was. So. I’ll just let the pictures share what my words cannot. Because really guys, I don’t even know what to say.

Just Landed in Chicago

After a LOOOONG day of driving, waiting, more flying, more waiting, delayed flights / connections, waiting some more, rental car mishaps, driving some more, and finally, hotel sweet hotel at 2am – my dad and I safely arrived in the Windy City.

The adventure was long and action packed. By action,  I mean, my feet swelled up like marshmellows stuck in the microwave during the flights. I have come down with edema that would be fascinating if I were observing it in others, but simply freaked me the eff out when it was my own feet trying to eat my toes. My dad the coroner kept squeezing my ankles to see the pitting from the fluid retention and commenting, “That’s what ankles from corpses that died from congestive heart failure or deep vein thrombosis look like when I get them in the morgue.” My feet inflated so much that my shoes would not fit after the flight and I had to walk barefoot off the plane and through baggage check. So that was fun.

But it’s another day, my legs feel much better, and while my ankles and feet look like those stuffed Halloween store limbs you buy to stick out of the trunk of your car, the swelling has massively gone done. I just woke up from a delicious 8 hours of sleep, and am about to embark upon the great “Jonathan’s Navy Graduation” adventure. Which I insist starts with food, since I slept through the complimentary breakfast here at the hotel.

Anyhoo, this is more of a post to say that I won’t be posting in the next few days. Sightseeing, deep dish pizza, Lake Michigan and most importantly, my handsome sailor man awaits.

I can’t believe it’s here.. Sarge’s Meet in Greet is in just 6 1/2 hours, and then my honey graduates tomorrow morning. I’m in a kind of numbed emotional state (or maybe I’m just really hungry and still partially asleep), but I expect to explode in a frenzy of tummy tickles and pent up emotions any moment now. I’ll wrap this blog post up now before that occurs and spare you all the excessive caps, exclamation points and made up words I spew when I’m hyper and excited. ^_^

Thanks to everyone for all your love and support, and thank you to those reading my blog and keeping me busy during these last two months when I’ve been lonely and restless and pregnant without my husband! I appreciate you more than you know! See you guys after the weekend!!  ^_^

It Feels Like Watching Him Cosplay A Sailor

I watched my husband perform live in the Navy Drum Line this morning during the Great Lakes Boot Camp graduation. I am very much enjoying this aspect of his being in the Performance Division! Getting to see him two weeks in a row prior to graduation? *faints with happy* And I will be there, watching him perform in person, in just ONE WEEK!!! It’s finally here! I can’t begin to express how proud I am of my handsome husband.

Jonathan looks so different with his hair gone… and I somehow can’t quite wrap my head around the concept that his looked has changed – and will remain changed – for the duration of his service in the Navy. He’s not going to snap back to his normal “look”. His hair isn’t going to be shoulder length, he won’t be sporting facial hair.

It’s odd! I feel almost as though I’m watching Jonathan cosplay a sailor, and I’m waiting for the realization to sink in that this is my new military man, lol. He isn’t just putting on the costume of an American hero… he is becoming one!! In our relationship ,he has been a man of many costumes and many faces. But of all his looks, I think I like this one suits him best. I AM SO PROUD OF HIM!!

Don’t I have a handsome man?!