The countdown begins! Emma is a cutie, I'm getting organized and a recipe! WOW!

I had my doctor appointment yesterday. I'm a 2 and 70% effaced and the baby is at a -3 station. I was told that I have a 75% success rate of going through with a VBAC. I asked the doctor to strip my membranes and he did and told me that we would see what happens within the next 2-4 days. (By the way, isn't it funny how after you've had a baby and/or are pregnant conversations like this aren't a big deal?). I left the doctor's office kinda discouraged. I asked for a blessing and was given one and now I'm feeling better about it. Everything will be fine. I'm amazed at how many women said that their babies never dropped until after they were in heavy labor.

My previous doctor had mentioned to me that my pelvis might be shaped irregularly and consequently my babies wouldn't be able to drop. The doctor I saw yesterday (I have 7 that I see) mentioned something along those lines that my pelvis may be shaped in a way that the baby doesn't line up right in the canal. He also said that if the baby is more than 7 1/2 pounds I might not be able to push it out. Emma was 7 pounds 11 ounces. We will see what happens.

What's funny is my mom was able to push out some big babies. I was only 6 pounds 8 ounces but my brothers were 9 pounds at least. I thought I was shaped like her but maybe I'm not. My grandmother was also able to have babies naturally.

I'm just glad that I live in the modern world of medicine. If I were a pioneer Emma and I both would've died because they didn't know how to do anything with a baby that was stuck in the canal. YAY for modern medical knowledge!

My mom comes on Sunday and I'm really excited about that. I love having her around to help. She's such a good help and her and I are on the same page about most things. I honestly didn't think we would be when I moved out but it turns out we are pretty dang similar. Funny how that works!
Oh and my little girl LOVES DIRT! I don't think she's fully happy until she gets to get dirt all over herself. Such a silly little girl!

One of my main goals before Linnea came was to organize the toy room. Our friends had this cubby organizer that they got from target and Jacob and I decided that it was a must have for the toy room so we went and bought it. We got it on sale for $40 and it's normally $50. There are canvas boxes that you can buy to put in the cubbies for all the little toys and they are $7 each. Totally worth the money! I had Emma's toys in old diaper boxes before this so it looks much better.

And I was talking to my friend Ashley the other day about meal planning and I've decided to get organized again. Her and I have the same system and I have just been slacking on it for the last few months. Here's what you do: write a list of all the dishes you make, print of a blank calendar page (or just use your wall calendar) and write down a recipe for each day of the month. I write down the side dishes too so it kinda looks like a school lunch calendar when I'm finished. Then you can make a grocery list of of the ingredients that you will use. I try to make recipes with some similar ingredients so I cut down on the cost of groceries.

This week my calendar had on it Chocolate Chip pancakes (Emma requested them), BLT Sandwiches and 5 cup Salad(I'll post the recipe below), Chilli and Corn Bread, Baked Potato Bar with green salad, pizza, sweet and spicy chicken, and pork chops with apple stuffing and green beans. I have the recipe for the Pork Chops with Apple Stuffing on my blog as well as the Sweet and Spicy Chicken and Chilli recipe.

I set it up so that tonight we will have chilli and corn bread and then tomorrow night we will do a baked potato bar where I will use the leftover chilli for a topping. I also make homemade pizza every other week. We were doing it every week but that got to be too much pizza too often.

Here is the 5 up salad recipe:

One cup of each:

shredded coconut
sour cream
minni marshmallows
bananas
strawberries, peaches or mandarin oranges

Mix everything together and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

I made this last night and didn't refrigerate it sicne it was a last minute thing. I love the salad because it's so easy and really tasty. Don't use fat free sour cream though because it will taste like crap. I use light sour cream. Of course regular sour cream would taste best!