"Becky Home Ec-ky"

[This title is courtesy of one of my co-workers, who called me "Becky Home Ec-ky" after I brought in some homemade cinnamon rolls (which were still nothing compared to my mom's, by the way)]

Yesterday we had a "snow day" off of work, so I decided it was the perfect time to try my hand at making homemade bread. My mom gave me a bread mixer (not to be confused with a bread-maker) for my birthday last April, so I thought it was high time I put it to use! You may not know this, but my mother is an excellent baker and cook, and is known for her breads and rolls. She even has a title, "The Bread Lady," and for years she sold her goods at a local grocery store at home. Her cinnamon rolls are the best! Anyway, I have her recipe for whole wheat bread, and though I didn't have any wheat flour, I thought that using all-purpose flour might still do the trick. The above picture is the end result; however, don't be fooled by that skillfully posed picture, for that is only one angle of my homemade bread attempt. The dough didn't seem to be as smooth and airy as I remembered, and it wouldn't shape itself into a nice, smooth loaf, but I figured it would all come out better after rising/baking in the oven. This is the full picture of my finished product, and yes it's as hard as a rock (a chewy, edible rock):

And for the best angle yet:

I am still not quite sure what happened. I think I added too much flour, or should have used bread flour, or didn't let it rise long enough. Something went wrong! Bread making is much more of an acquired skill than I thought. Apparently it will take a lot of practice. I can't just get away with my "follow-the recipe" cooking skills. Also, for those that live here in memphis, have you had trouble getting things to rise very well? Everything I rise and bake seems to come out too dense, and I'm not sure how to fix it. Less flour? More yeast?

Also, I took my first successful pregnancy-belly photo. This is me at 20 weeks, and no, it's not the same pink shirt that buddy didn't like. That one was "too ruffly":
It doesn't really look like a pregnancy belly yet, just that I've gotten thicker around the middle. Oh, well, I'm sure the real belly will come. I can still button my pants, but it's pretty uncomfortable when I sit down, so I've been wearing those bella bands over my unbuttoned pants. Much more comfortable. Though I still have to unzip my pants all the way when I'm driving. Good thing no one can see through the car, except there was one time last week that I got out of the car and forgot my pants were unzipped; I almost lost them running up the stairs at our apartment complex. My goal for the rest of the pregnancy is to make sure I don't actually lose my pants. Hope I can make it.

Finished Voting? Because we have our answer...

And it's a.........




BOY!! Who knew? I certainly thought it would be a girl. But I guess Buddy wins, and I'm actually fine with losing a bet in this case. The pic above is from a baby generator, and I hope our little boy doesn't look quite that fruity. But we'll love him no matter what ;) We're really excited, and we also found out that I am farther along than we thought. My original due date was June 14th, but it's now been moved up to June 8th. Since everything is a competition, the goal is now to see if the baby will be born on anyone's birthday. Papa Hulet used to be closest with June 13th, but now Momma Hulet and Papa Beazer are edging in with June 2nd, and June 1st, respectively.

The ultrasound tech was not very friendly, but after I told him that Buddy and I were competing-Buddy thinking it's a boy, and me thinking it's a girl-he was more than happy to choose sides with Buddy and announce "Congratulations! You're going to have a REAL baby!" Pu-leeze.

The funny thing is, even before we were pregnant we spontaneously bought a little boy's outfit from the nike outlet (it's a little air jordan outfit with basketball shorts and matching shirt and jacket). We couldn't resist because it was so awesome. I'm glad that we will actually get to use it :) Also, my mom went shopping before we told her and she bought a lot of boy things. We're both lucky, I guess. And apparently that's where I get it from.

We got an ultrasound picture printed off, too, but I need to find somewhere to scan it in before we can post it. The tech said that the baby's nose was kinda pointed up in the air, too. Like a little snooty Beazer. What fun...

I posted a link/button on the side of our blog so you can all vote on what to name our l'il bundle of boy. We probably won't listen to what you vote for and will name him whatever we want, but I thought it would be interesting to see what you guys think. Enjoy!

I may not have been sick...

So today I was going to be such a good blog co-author by taking a picture of my newly showing pregnancy belly for the world to see. I hadn't known what I was going to write about, but I figured it would come. I was feeling fat today, but I figured "so be it" since I was supposed to be proving how big I was getting anyway.

I showered and picked out my outfit (which I thought would be cute but tight enough to show my belly), did my makeup to match the outfit, and did my hair. I was gonna look good for this picture, no matter what! Excitedly, I took the camera out to buddy, asked him to take my picture, and proceeded to pose in the best best pregnancy shot I knew how. The first thing buddy says to me is "I think that shirt is too ruffly to show off your belly." A good point, actually. But I had taken so long to get ready, and I was frustrated that I didn't have any other good shirts to wear.

I put on a white shirt that buddy approved of, but I realized when buddy was about to snap the photo that I had a scowl on my face. Instead I said, "this isn't going to work, because now I'm mad" and then stormed off to the bedroom, where I proceeded to cry. In the other room, I could hear buddy faintly ask, "so no more pictures?"

And, that, my friends, is how my pregnancy is going. I may not be sick, but I think maybe buddy would prefer that to angry crying attacks. And yes, no pictures. At least not today. :)