Monday, January 31, 2011

Miscellany Monday

Miscellany Monday @ lowercase letters


{1} This morning I'm beating myself up a bit. I had a real estate buyer that had contacted me back in December about buying a house and then I found out I was pregnant, have been feeling sick and exhausted and basically lost touch with her. Plus, she didn't seem to be in a hurry and what they were looking for seemed hard to find. I found out on Facebook that her and her husband submitted an offer on Saturday and I'm just sick about it. It's my own fault really but still, I'm super bummed and trying not to let it ruin my day. UGH.

{2} This weekend we received an unexpected blessing. My friend posted on Facebook that she was selling two twin beds with trundles.....

(How ridiculously adorable is this bedroom?? My friend has amazing taste)

Anyways, she offered to sell one of the beds for $100 which was a great deal. I'm pretty sure I've seen this bed at Costco and they are usually around $500 or so, especially for the trundle. When we got to her house, she said that the bed was a little more dinged up then she remembered (one of the beds had been stored in her attic) and she said we could just have it. I was ecstatic!!!! It needs a little elbow grease and some touch up paint but that's totally doable!!

{3} I painted Emersyn's nails on Friday night. Since then some of them have chipped. Yesterday morning during church, Emersyn yelled "you need to fix my nails" during a quiet moment of worship. Ha ha!


{4} I'm really digging Cinnamon Life cereal these days.

{5} I cannot wait for warmer weather!! I longingly look at the expensive fruit at the store and can't wait until it's not so freakin' expensive and I can get it fresh at the farmer's market. I bought a cantelope a couple weeks ago and it was $5!!! Holy cow!! You know I can't afford that?! I crave fresh fruit though and that's a good craving to indulge in!

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Saturday Morning

This morning I woke up ready to seize the day. I feel like I have been in a bit of a funk lately with being so tired and lacking energy. I haven't been the wife that I should be and I know I am more then entitled to take it easy these days, however, it's important that I not put my marriage on the back burner for the next 8 months. When I'm not feeling well, I tend to throw a giant pity party and that doesn't accomplish anything except make myself and those around me miserable.

Ever since I became a mom, I'm unable to sleep in once Emersyn is awake. Even when Brett gets up with her, I still have trouble falling back asleep. Brett, however, does not suffer from this same phenomenon. So this morning I decided to get up when Emersyn started playing with her GloWorm, her morning ritual (she presses it like ten times before she calls us to come get her, ha!). I got Ems out of bed, changed her diaper, put some boots on over her jammies and we headed to the store for some roast ingredients and breakfast ingredients.

I made eggs with peppers and onions, bacon and pancakes from scratch! The recipe is just too yummy not to share for the pancakes but I can't take credit for it....my BFF's husband makes them and I'm not sure where he got the recipe from.


Buttermilk Pancakes

2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups butter milk
1/4 cup melted butter
Mix dry and wet ingredients separately, then whisk together
Ladle approximately 1/4 cup of batter into skillet
Makes about 10 pancakes
**This actually made quite a bit more then 10 pancakes for me but I didn't mind, I'll freeze them and reheat for Ems this week. I could have halved the recipe though for just the three of us and that would have been plenty**

We had real maple syrup too. I'm ashamed to admit that I have NEVER had real maple syrup before. We got it as wedding favors from Brett's cousin who got married to a girl from New York and they had these darling maple syrups brought from the east coast. Now that I've tasted real maple syrup, I'll never go back. It makes the Mrs. Butterworth stuff seem like flavored high fructose corn syrup. BLECH.

After a super busy morning I am kinda pooped but there is a toddler to play with, a kitchen to clean up, and a day to enjoy! I thank God every Saturday for the gift of having Brett home with us for the weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone!!


Friday, January 28, 2011

Fill in the Blank Friday

1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab I'm going to assume that everyone is safely out of the house because obviously Emersyn would be the first thing I grabbed. However, if we are talking about inanimate objects I would grab my laptop/external hardrive (going to count them as one item), my wedding album since I got married in the dark ages before everything was digital, and the painting that my Gigi painted with my daughter shortly before she passed away.

2. A smell I really like is clean laundry and my daughter's hair after it's just been washed.

3. Something you might not know about me is my inbox is ridiculously full. I currently have 15387 unread messages. I need to do some purging in my life. Keep in mind though, I am in real estate and 90% of the unread messages are related to that and are basically junk. :)

4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are blogger and Facebook. Not very exciting, I know. I like CelebrityBabies.com too.

5. This weekend I will taking it easy! We were supposed to get together with our neighbors but their little girl broke her clavicle. :( I am possibly going to make breakfast tomorrow morning and then I'm going to get a roast cooking in the crock pot, one of the free roasts I got from Safeway.com back in December. (I froze it obviously) :) We'll go to church on Sunday. We haven't been in several weeks, mornings are not my favorite thing but Ems has been asking to go "sing at church" and that's what we do Sunday mornings before we take her to the nursery so we are going to oblige her wishes. I also hope to get to Old Navy to get some maternity jeans. I don't *need* them yet but they sound pretty comfy. My midsection is definitely getting wider faster this time. :)

6. Nothing makes me happier than nap time these days, seeing the joy on my daughter's face when her daddy get's home, hearing Emersyn say "I love you sooooo much Mama!"

7. A bad habit I have is NOT keeping up with the laundry!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Miscellany Monday

Miscellany Monday @ lowercase letters

{1} I have officially reverted back into a toddler. I NEED naps and frequent snacks and get cranky when one or both of these things doesn't happen as often as I'd like.

{2} On Saturday night we went to Gymboree to spend our Gymbucks, you know, the $25 off a $50 purchase coupon. Get this though, there was NOTHING there that I liked for Emersyn that wasn't on sale. Even with a coupon, I still refuse to pay full price for things there. Anyways, I did find one cute sweater dress but it was only $11.99...not enough to use the $50 coupon. Soooooo we bought some 0-3 months baby BOY clothes just in case baby #2 is a boy! We got four darling shirts and a pair of pants. Seeing those sweet clothes made me kind of excited at the prospect of having a boy, although I don't think we are. I have felt the exact same that I did with Ems so I think my natural intuitions say girl but I'm totally prepared for either way. :)

{3} My man can GRILL. Last night he grilled us a flat iron steak and I nearly blacked out from the deliciousness. I had to eat my meal in two phases though. I am already feeling that "I don't have enough room in my tummy to eat a full meal", isn't that strange?? I know that's normal towards the end but in the beginning?? I only ate some sauteed mushrooms, half of a fairly small potato, and one small strip of steak. I hate the second half of my meal a couple hours later and it was amazing.

{4} I may or may not have had an emotional outburst or two this weekend. Hormones. Dislike.

{5} We are going to Hawaii in a little over a month!!!! We've been to Hawaii twice before but I've never gone while it's been cold here at home. Usually we go in September when it's still pretty warm here. Good thing I still have summer maternity stuff, although some of it might be a little big. I started this pregnancy out about 20lbs lighter then when I got pregnant with E. I'll be heading to Old Navy soon for some jeans.

{6} This doesn't seem very miscellaneous does it? It seems all pretty pregnancy related....oh well, that's what you get since I was quiet about it for so long! :)

{7} We have several friends who like the show "Outsourced". We tried to watch it last night and embrace it but it just didn't happen.

Happy Monday everyone!!



Thursday, January 20, 2011

Details :)

Sooooo. :)

I feel like I've been pretty quiet on here and even on Facebook because it's hard for me to keep a secret. I have to admit though, it was kind of fun having a secret. :) We were able to get into the dr. just one week after taking a positive home pregnancy test with Emersyn due to the fact that my last period with her was really irregular. We saw her on the u/s at just 5 weeks 6 days and that's when we told everyone. This time around we had to wait until 8 weeks to get into the dr.

So let's rewind a bit shall we? :)

For the past little while Brett and I have been practicing more along the lines of natural family planning. LeAnna knows what I'm talking about. ;) We knew that we wanted to have another baby sometime in 2011 but I was thinking more on the later side of the year. In December I told Brett we HAD to be careful. I did NOT want to make Emersyn share her birthday with a sibling. Plus, I love birthdays and wanted to spread them throughout the year. I even took an ovulation test in December (thank you Dollar Store) and when it was positive I said, okay NOTHING for the next three days!! I was sure that my efforts worked.

Fast forward a couple weeks. :)

On December 26th I got a really nasty chest cold and was feeling terrible. I noticed on my iPhone period tracker app that I was due to start in a day. I had two Dollar Store pregnancy tests in my bathroom drawer so I took one and it was negative. Whew. My parents were in town and I didn't really want them to see it in trash so I just put it back in the box and back in the drawer.

December 28th comes and I was a day late which is very unusual for me but again, I was so sick so I thought that might be why. I took another Dollar Store test and it turned positive. My eyeballs felt like they were going to pop out of my head. I was like in TOTAL shock. My mom and Emersyn were out to lunch, my dad was reading the paper downstairs, and I was about to take a shower. For half a second I thought about doing something cute to tell Brett but I was in too much shock and almost a panic. I quit my job in December. I didn't have health insurance yet and I had hoped to get it on my own which wouldn't be an option now due to a pre-existing condition. What had we done?!?! I called Brett and told him I had something to tell him. He was clueless and eventually guessed.



I have to say, the first few days of finding out we were pregnant weren't exactly joyous. :( Part of it was because of how sick I was and now I wasn't able to take any cold medicine. After weighing the options with insurance, we decided to go with my Cobra coverage which is *gulp* $450/month. Brett's insurance has terrible coverage and would end up costing us a LOT in the end due to deductibles and percentages that aren't covered. The money part really freaked us out for a bit. Our budget is already tight, we have no idea where the $450/month is going to come from but we ARE confident that the Lord will provide for us in a miraculous way.

After we got the insurance bit figured out we were able to relax a bit and start to get used to the idea. The other silly reason I was slightly disappointed was that my due date was sure to be SO close to Emersyn's birthday. Birthdays are really special to me and I would hate having to share mine. Plus, I have done this EXACT pregnancy before...I thought it would be fun to be pregnant during a different time of the year the next time around. I did LOVE my pregnancy with E though, loved the time of year that she was born. August was great, no huge cold/flu threats which is nice.

I made my first dr. appointment for January 17th, which was the day after I got back from visiting my Tiffany in Boise.

We decided not to *announce* the pregnancy until after we went to the dr. I did tell a select few friends and our families but for the most part we kept it a secret. Like I said, it was a fun secret. :)

As time went on between when we found and when the dr. appointment was, I started to warm up to the idea. I hope this doesn't sound terribly selfish or ungrateful but this was just SUCH a shock. That's how it was with Emersyn though too, although we were ecstatic to be expecting her. I think that I just LOVE my life right now, love my sweet little family and maybe I fear change under it all. I do know that I never intended to have just one child though so I'm not sure when we would have REALLY taken the plunge into a family of four if this hadn't happened. Plus, I know that many people in life have to pay a lot of money just to GET pregnant through fertility treatments, etc. It's easy for me to get pregnant (apparently) and that is a TREMENDOUS blessing.

It's just a LOT to process. :)



On Monday we had our dr. appointment. We met with a midwife that I don't normally see but my dr. wasn't available until this week and I didn't want to wait that long. The midwife went through the whole appointment and then went to do the internal u/s. She probed around in there for awhile and....get this....she couldn't find my uterus.

What?!?!?

I of course start internally panicking because I always fear the worst with early pregnancies given the sad statistics out there. The midwife assured me that it was probably fine, it's not like my uterus was empty, she just couldn't locate it. To her credit I suppose, my bladder was full and apparently that can make it hard to locate. She said that she would try to make me an appointment at the *real* ultrasound department over the next few days. Um, NO! I needed an appointment ASAP!! I was pretty freaked out. She got me an appointment for 2:45 that afternoon. Meanwhile my phone is ringing and texts are coming in and I don't really want to explain that they couldn't find my uterus because I'm fairly certain I have one. ;)

That afternoon I was not the most pleasant person to be around. My poor husband. I was just stressed and we were having friends over for dinner so we needed to grocery shop and clean up our house. I tried to channel my stress into energy to clean but I was pretty emotionally drained.

2:45 finally came and we went into the ultrasound room. The tech found my uterus right away and in it was a sweet little gummy bear with a nice strong heartbeat. It was very reassuring to see and immediately I fell in love with that sweet little heartbeat. It's so different once you actually SEE evidence that a baby is growing inside you. For me it's like finding out I'm pregnant all over again. I felt like I had the weight of the world lifted off my shoulders. It turns out I was farther along then I though, 8 weeks exactly. My due date is August 29th, the day after my sweet Emersyn turns three. :) I suppose it is very possible that they may share a birthday and that's okay. The Lord knows what He's doing.



Emersyn seems to get the fact that there is a baby in Mommy's belly. We have a picture from our u/s on the fridge and she says thats "mama's baby". That makes me kinda sad when she says that because I want her to know that SHE is still my baby as well as the baby in my tummy. She talks about her baby sister and I tell her that it might be a baby brother but she doesn't seem as open to that idea.

So far this pregnancy has mirrored Emersyn's. I've been consistently nauseous but not to the point of throwing up (yet). I've been exhausted and have taken naps while Emersyn naps pretty consistently and I don't feel an ounce of guilt about it. I know there will come a day when I will have two little ones that might not nap at the same time so I might as well take advantage of this time.

I am SO grateful to not be working. I can't fathom being this tired AND balancing work. Thank you LORD.

Okay, I think that's it for now. Thanks again for all your well wishes and congrats. We truly are blessed and know that this child is a gift from the Lord.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Lately I've been...


*hanging out with my favorite girl in the world
*spending our mornings playing and being silly, versus me getting ready for work
*running errands leisurely with no pressure to get to work
*going to the library
*playing with friends
*stressing less about my house because I have all the time in the world to clean it up. Does this mean that my house is now spotless? Nope....but for some reason I am able to chill out about it more.
*NOT caught up on laundry...working on it. :)
*reflecting on God's sense of humor and blessings in my life
*taking care of business paperwork wise with insurance, bills, etc.
*getting excited about visiting my BFF in Boise NEXT week but nervous about leaving my baby girl behind. I know in my heart she'll be fine but I'll miss her and her daddy very much.
*making dinners for my family and loving it.
*learning how to stick to a budget. Still learning but I'm getting there. :)

For me it almost feels like my new year doesn't start until I get back from Boise, which is silly but whenever I have things like that on the horizon I tend to put life on hold in a sense. I'm going to work hard next week to get some meals ready for Brett before I leave. I've never really done that before when I've gone away, I was more of a "he'll figure it out" kinda wife but I want to be a "honey I made you some chili while I'm away" kinda wife. :)

I'm really enjoying being home with Emersyn. In many ways it makes me reflect on how much I missed while I was working but I can't dwell on the past, just be grateful for the future. I don't take a day of it for granted though. It's so surreal...feels like I am on a long vacation or something. :) Finances are a challenge right now with new costs being incurred by staying home (like my health insurance) but the sacrifices we are making are totally worth it.

Happy Thursday everyone!!

Sunday, January 2, 2011

White & Red Chili Recipes!

Chili is such a hearty and yummy winter dish. Here are my two favorite chili recipes:

Debdoozie's Blue Ribbon Chili courtesy of AllRecipes.com (link here)

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1/2 onion, chopped
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
2 1/2 cups tomato sauce
1 (8 ounce) jar salsa
4 tablespoons chili seasoning mix
1 (15 ounce) can light red kidney beans
1 (15 ounce) can dark red kidney beans
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, combine the ground beef and the onion and saute for 10 minutes, or until meat is browned and onion is tender. Drain grease, if desired.
2. Add the ground black pepper, garlic salt, tomato sauce, salsa, chili seasoning mix and kidney beans. Mix well, reduce heat to low and simmer for at least an hour.

Sooooo easy and delish. I like to add things to recipes too...for instance, I used an entire jar of salsa which is 16 ounces versus the 8 ounces. I figure might as well make a little extra. I also use more garlic salt and I use an entire onions because I don't think there is such thing as too many onions. I like this recipe a lot because of how simple it is. I have a crock pot of this warming right now for an event at church tonight.

*********************************************************************************************

White Bean Chicken Chili (serving size: 8 or maybe a little more) Prep Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
2 cans white beans (northern)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion (chopped fine)
1 stick butter
1/3 cup flour
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup half and half
1 tsp Tabasco sauce (optional)
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
½ tsp white pepper
3 cans mild green chilies (4oz drained)
6 medium chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)
1 cup Monterrey Jack cheese, grated --- I usually use whatever kind of cheese I
have on hand

Directions:
In a skillet, cook onion in olive oil over moderate heat till soft and
translucent. In a large pot, melt butter over moderately low heat and whisk in flour.
Cook roux, whisking constantly for 3 minutes. Then stir in the onion and gradually
add the broth, half and half, whisking constantly.
Bring mixture to a boil and than simmer, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes
or until thickened. Stir in Tabasco, chili powder, cumin, salt, and white pepper. Add
beans, chilies, chicken and cheese. Cook mixture over moderately low heat for 20
minutes stirring occasionally.

I usually serve it with some cheese on top, but you can also serve it with sour cream
and crushed up tortilla chips on top as well!

I got this recipe courtesy of my friend Rachelle. Her mom had made it for years and it's SO good. Like most chili's and soups, I think this is even better the second day reheated!

Sorry I don't have any pictures but take my word for it, both of these are super yummy. Let me know if you try one, okay? :)

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Year!!!!

This is one of the first holiday seasons where I haven't been a little bit bummed out about transitioning from the holidays into the winter months. Usually I sadly take down my tree, put away the decorations that I love so much, and feel like the house looks empty. This year I'm actually looking forward to taking down my tree (hopefully tomorrow) and getting the house re-organized. I'm excited for all that 2011 will bring and I'm fairly certain it will be a life changing year for our family as I transition into this new role as a full time stay at home mommy. :)

Highlights of 2010:

* Lost some weight. Not as much I would have liked but some is better then nothing. I Shredded for 25 consecutive days in January which was quite an accomplishment for me!
* Emersyn hosted her first Valentine's Day Party, which will now be an annual tradition!
*In March my BFF came to town for a visit and found out she was expecting her sweet baby boy while at my house, SO exciting!!
* In May I gained a sister when my brother married the love of his life. <3 Brett and I also celebrated 7 years of marriage.
* In July we had an amazingly fun family vacation to Minne-soh-tah where we made some incredible memories with my parents and sweet Gigi.
* In August my precious baby girl officially turned into a toddler and turned two years old.
* In September the Lord miraculously made a way for my grandma Gigi to come out to Portland for one last visit and the painting that she made with Emersyn is something I will treasure for the rest of my life.
* In October my parents came out for a visit to celebrate my Gigi's life. We made a lot of fun memories that week too.
* In October Brett got promoted to a manager and thus God answered my prayers of two years to become a stay at home mama.
* In December I worked my last day at The Standard on December 16th and entered into the full time ranks of mommy-hood.

As you can see, God is SO good to me. This year was full of many events, both happy and sad, but at the end of the day I am so thankful.

As I go into the new year, I don't feel an overwhelming need to make resolutions other then just one. To remember that my daughter and my family are my new "career" and that they come first. I want my husband to come home to a place that is warm, friendly and well taken care of. I want my daughter to live in a house where she is accepted, encouraged, and adored. My resolution is to be less selfish, and be the best possible wife and mom that I can be. I have been entrusted with a gift in Brett and Emersyn and I don't take them for granted. What does this mean more specifically?

I resolve to:
*make my husband lunch every day
*make Emersyn nutritious meals and snacks
*get on the floor and play with Emersyn daily
*read to Emersyn daily
*take care of my home to the best of my ability while maintaining the balance of paying attention to my husband and daughter
*have quiet time every day, even if just for 5 minutes
*lift my husband and daughter up in prayer every day
*be a wise steward with our finances

Okay, so I know that sounded a whole lot like a list of resolutions but they aren't...they are just outlined goals....or is that the same thing??? :)

Anyways, I am excited to head into the new year with a fresh perspective and, thank you Jesus, NO JOB!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Day! We had Brett's family over for our annual tradition of quiche. I LOVE quiche...it is seriously delicious and easy to make! It's terrible for you though so it's a once a year kinda food for us. We had brunch, played games and had a nice and laid back day. I am feeling a LOT better, still have a bit of a cough so I'm not sure we're going to church in the morning but I think we'll go at night.

Happy New Year everyone!!!