What have I been up to???

This summer has been one of the busiest for us on record with all the travelling we've done, but for the first time I'm not preparing to get ready for school. Instead I've been filling some of my time with finding ways to use garden goods. Here's what I've come up with so far!

Okay, so I didn't grow these peaches, but I put them up for the rest of the year. I LOVE frozen peaches, so I got to work and froze a couple boxes.
Cucumbers were growing like crazy when we got home from Nebraska for our last trip of the summer. I decided to try something different with them this year.



PICKLES!!


I've never made pickles, but decided this year is the time to try. We'll see how they turn out!






We had some of the largest zucchinis that I've ever seen when we got back from the trip as well. Some of it got chopped and frozen for later in the year. As for the rest, you can see that I found a way to create a lot of dishes for myself.

Reason for those dishes: zucchini bread, chocolate zucchini bread, and zucchini bars. This is only half of the results. I was able to make 4 more loaves of bread and one more pan of bars.

YUM YUM!

We have a ton of beef from this past year's butcher and Tony and I have been trying to decide what to do with all of it. We can only eat so much at a time. Well, we came up with a DELICIOUS solution...one of my all time favorites!

JERKY!!!

We now have piles and piles of it! Since it has been so rainy and chilly these past few days/weeks, I have been able to open up the house and crank on the oven and let it go to town all day long. What a treat!

Baby Bump

Some of my distant friends have really been on me to see the progressing baby bump. So...Here you go Krista and Stacey...a special post for you two! It stinks that we didn't get to see either one of you when we were down in Nebraska. The plan is that we'll be back down there for Christmas with baby in tow. You'll maybe have to come pay us a visit in Hastings!

This is my less than obvious baby bump at 20 weeks, the morning of my ultrasound. I also felt baby move for the first time this morning.
Here is my baby bump at 24 weeks. Not too much of a change. Dr. Bell started measuring my bump and I was right on track.
Now I'm at 27 weeks. It's really starting to stick out there more. I definitely feel pregnant now. It's hard for me to imagine what I'm going to be feeling and looking like with hopefully, atleast 10 weeks to go. My next appointment is next Friday, so I'll have to keep you posted.

All in all I have felt GREAT and cannot complain one bit. I got a bit of a cold right before my brother's wedding down in Omaha, NE on August 1st and that made the trip down there a bit uncomfortable, but I'm feeling much better and only dealing with a minor cough.

LOTS of movement. Makes me anxious to get to finally hold baby. We're SOOO excited!