Something about a boy..

My sweet baby boy chose not hide anything during our scan earlier this week. In fact, it took less than a second from when the ultrasound tech put the jelly on my stomach and when the probe touched my skin to find out what was hiding between my baby's legs. I couldn't believe my eyes, I swear it was a hand or another nub!!! Te he he he..

The appointment lasted literally 10 minutes and we were out of there in no time. I sort of wanted to stay in there and watch the baby forever, but alas, our time was up! Not only did we find out the sex, but it was sort of a mini check up to see how he was doing. His growth measures up to par from our last scan at 12 weeks. He is now 17 weeks and 7 days.. :-) Our next scan AND last scan is at 22 weeks before we head off to the states. Sweet home Chicago here I come!!!

Feelings about the gender:

While growing up, I definitely thought about having kids one day. I always babysat kids when I was younger, and I can say that from an early age, I felt a strong maternal calling. I feel very very very fortunate to be in this position I am today, because I know how unlucky some women are. It's a lot of heartache, but SO worth it in the end to get such a beautiful, clear picture of a growing baby. So my initial preference was having a boy first so I could (hopefully) have a girl second after a few years but after some thought, I reevaluated what was important and decided that I didn’t care which gender I had and this was my feeling up until my scan. Now that we have the gender figured out, I'm super excited to start doing some shopping- baby clothes are the cutest!

Prior to my scan, T picked us up some lunch- a falafel salad for me and my mum (as the Brits would say). Hers included eggplant and mine had guacamole.

For dinner, my mom cooked me a really lovely salmon and Korean soup dinner.

I didn't think I was craving Korean food but this proves otherwise!!

salmon, brown rice, and spicy paste for my lettuce wraps.

a mix of Korean/Japanese influenced soup- she used red miso paste since she didn't have daenjang, which is a Korean bean paste. The veggies included pak choi, mushrooms, onions, and garlic. YU-MMY!!

scrambled egg and avocado breakfast prior to more Christmas shopping! I'm done w. all my shopping but my mom had a few more things to pick up. Time to do some wrapping! We stopped by the Korean store at Centrepoint to pick up some ingredients for dinner and meals for the week.

bulgogi- beef sweetened with asian spices, honey, and rice wine vinegar with onions, mushrooms, and spring onions.

http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/tofu-stew-doenjang-chigae

spicy doenjang chigae with the right bean paste, tofu, and veggies.

As usual, T made us a delicious bulgogi omelet with the leftover meat and additional yellow peppers. Excuse the shadow- it was too early in the morning for me to care!!

Time to get my study on... I still have finals to prep for!

I studied for that??

**I wrote part of this blog last night, but couldn't upload it because seriously, our internet still sucks at life right now!!**
Anyone ever watch a scary movie while studying for a test? Well that is exactly what I'm doing right now while watching Friday the 13th Part 2. Ha! I have a weird obsession with scary movies even though I close my eyes through most of the gory parts. Definitely have seen this movie before though.

Anyway, lucky for me, my Biology test tomorrow will be based on the formative assessment questions we can do online as many times as we want. I’ve done all 3 test assessments about 20 times each and the questions are becoming repetitive so I think I’m pretty much all set for tomorrow!

Dinner a few nights ago..

I love sauteing peppers in just three ingredients: Delicious!

• olive oil
• salt
• pepper

We had some jambalaya, and oven baked salmon along with the peppers.

I can't seem to cook my salmon right. It always turns out a bit dry and tough even though I marinate it 30 minutes prior to cooking. The marinade I used was honey, soy sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and a bit of sesame oil.

and my Korean lunch streak continues. On the plate are some spicy Korean noodles, leftover spicy bulgogi, kim chi, spinach, seasoned seaweed, and brown rice. My plan for this Christmas is to have my mom come teach me how to cook Korean food. Little does she know; her coming here has more purpose than just wanting to see her, although I am very excited to have her for the Holidays.

The plate looks huge but I swear it was just a little bit of everything :-)

I finally made it to the gym this morning after not going for a couple weeks. I tried out a different Virgin active gym near my school. It was nice since there weren't as many people there and I could move around freely in the weight room. There's also a ladies room only, so when or if I start to feel self conscious, I can always go in there. It felt SOOOOO good to be back, even though I couldn't lift as heavy, I still felt very accomplished. *pats myself on shoulder* Today's lifting session was back and biceps. 3 sets, 8-10 reps.

• lat pulldown
• barbell bicep curl
• barbell row
• hammer curl
• dumbbell one arm row
• incline bicep curl

My test this afternoon was a total bust, but in a good way. There were only 20 questions and I finished in 5 minutes!! What a joke!! I seriously studied my ass off for that?! Oh well, lesson learned. At least I think I got 100%!

Time for a nap!

Surprise 30th

My computer and internet sucks at life right now so these are the only pictures I can put up of T's surprise 30th Birthday party. I led T into thinking we were going to the Albion for a friend's husbands birthday dinner, and lo and behold, I manged to keep a surprise until the very end (or so he says!). Everyone gathered at the pub at 6:00ish and I brought him by at 6:30. I was pleasantly surprised that the group managed to get together and yell surprise as soon as he walked in. Props to whoever coordinated the group!

I was really happy with the turnout. Kudos to planning a month or so in advanced!

I ordered the roast pig for T since he had mentioned wanting to do that with friends. The event planner said it would be feed 15, but I knew it would feed more!

We ended up with a huge bag full of leftovers- ha!

Umm....

my plate with all the delicious sides.

they gave T the head to play with, and somehow it ended up being the star of the party for a while.

On Sunday afternoon, we went over to T's moms house for some home cookin. She always makes the most amazing spread of food. Drool...

T made us dinner last night with the beef I bought from the Korean grocery store.

spicy Korean marinated beef with bean sprouts and spinach.

Yum! It was so good and hit the spot for my craving for Korean food. Here's to hoping the next 2 weeks go by fast. I'm anticipating some good news next Thursday. Time to get my study on. Quiz in Chemistry tomorrow!