Thanksvember

It is Thanksvember again!!!!  In case you forgot what that is you post something on your FB wall each day in November. Except I do it here.

Day 1: Husband. Cody is a pretty BA guy. He provides for us however he can and he takes risks. Starting your own business takes some serious balls.

Day 2: Kids. Our children are my world. Sometimes our world makes me crabby and have a stuffy nose, but usually it is just sunshine and rainbows and unicorns.....more about the unicorns later.

Day 3: Hot tea. Mild obsession, mmmmmm...maybe? Okay, yes! I love hot tea in fruit flavors- but not cherry, bluck! There 8th something do relaxing about a nice warm cup of tea and a good book.

PUPPIES!!!!!!!!

Maggie is our first child, we love her through and through. We love her when she gets in the trash, when she digs holes in my flower bed, even when she unexpectedly has puppies.

What? Is this an episode of "I didn't know I was pregnant?" Pretty much.

We have tried for 5 years to breed Mags to no avail. Then she is with her buddy Bo and wouldn't-ya-know she has puppies.

We noticed she was getting fat, but she tends to do that in the summer when Carly feeds her the other half of her PB&J or 15 dog treats because mom is in the other room feeding Aiden and can't see what she is doing.

Then she was under the porch two days in a row and Cody noticed she was lactating. Oh snap.

Two days later Cody noticed green ooze, called the vet, rushed her up there and one emergency c-section on our beautiful Mag-Pie later, 4 little black and white puppies joined our family.

Because I am supposed to

Guess who is a rule follower?
Yeah, me...unless it is grammar and punctuation. Then I make my own rules !!!!!

Sometimes rules are hard to follow, like when my daughter doesn't want to pick up her toys or sit still in church. Those are really hard because they are things that we are just supposed to do - if we leave the toys out someone might step on them in the middle of the night while going in to feed Brother.
We must sit still in church because if you stand in the pew you can fall down, also your noises make it hard for the elderly woman behind us to hear, even though she tells me EVERY WEEK that she loves it when you sing at the top of your lungs to words you don't know.

Now it is my turn. Lesson plans. Bluck!

After teaching for 6 years I have to write out formal lesson plans and it makes me absolutely batty!

Not because I think I am better than lesson planning but because in the hour it takes me to just write them out I am thinking about how I could be rocking my babies, or doing dishes or folding laundry or snuggling my husband. My time is already thin, using it to write out lessons is frustrating.

I feel like my time is better spent doing other things because I already have course outlines that are aligned to the standards. Why do I have these? Because that is what I was taught to do in college and those were the rules and that is what I am supposed to do.

So I sit and type and want to cry the entire time, but I do them, because I am supposed to do them.

The next time I tell Sister that she is supposed to sit down and be quiet I am going to hug her extra tight and hopefully she knows just how deep my understanding of her frustration goes.

Smiley Man

This little guy is all smiles these days. He weighs 15 pounds 7 ounces and is 26 1/2 inches long. He is wearing 6-9 month onesies and 3-6 month pants. He laughs at sister and loves to sit in the high chair. He watches you eat and loves rice cereal. He is beginning to nap longer at a time in the afternoon. He is "talking" and "squawking". Aiden has also found his feet recently. While they can't quite get to his mouth he does hold on to them and roll from side to side. He is not rolling from back to front yet but it will be soon, front to back is mastered and he doesn't stay on his tummy for long when he has decided enough is enough.

Bacon and Blue Onions

A new love has found it's way in to my life. These bacon and blue cheese onions. They are so stinking easy to make and so incredibly fattening tasty. I am not a photog, so don't judge the image below but it is my own.

This recipe is from http://www.jamesandeverett.com and was found on Pinterest.

The original post can be found at http://www.jamesandeverett.com/whatscooking/2012/09/23/grilled-blue-cheese-bacon-stuffed-onions/

Bacon and Blue Cheese Onions

4 onions, sweet. I used Vidalia 
1 stick of butter softened
4 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled
2/3 cup blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Cut the tops and bottoms off of the onions and peel the outer dried layers off.

Scoop out a portion of the insides using a melon baller or a small spoon. I used my strawberry huller from the Pampered Chef and it worked great, this product is no longer available, but the Core and More is. Be careful not to dig down too deeply

Mix all filling ingredients together and stuff in the cavity of the onion. Press it in really well so that the cavities are completely full.

Wrap in aluminum foil and grill on a medium heat for 30-40 minutes. We did just 30 because we thought the heat was too high, but 10 more wouldn't have hurt. Let the onions steam for just a little while and be careful when opening the foil.

Oh man were these good. My husband sure can man a grill!

Story of my Life

Often posed is a question of imense imprtance. Who would play you in the story of your life?

This came up when I watched The Vow a few weeks ago and then learned that it was based on a real story. I could total pick Channing Tatum for a husband.

In the story of your life you always pick a famous person that you like. I would pick a mash up of Zoey Deschanel and Jennifer Lawrence.

Quirky, witty, pretty, kind, amazing hair and wicked awesome fashion sense. I have half of these traits, the other half I aspire to.

Then I got to thinking how unremarkable my life has been and how no one would want to make a movie about me. It made me sad for a minute and then glad as I realized that most movies are based around a central crisis.

 The Vow = amnesia and almost loosing the love of your life

The Notebook = spending a few years almost marrying the wrong person because your mother kept your real love's letters a secret, just to end up with dementia and not remember your husband.

Love Story = Find true love, become estranged from your family, become reunited only because your true love is dying.

Why was I glad? To have the story of my life made into a movie it would require loosing something dear to me. I have the things most dear to me very near me, they are healthy and happy and while we do not live a glamorous life it is pretty good.

I would take Zoey Deschanel's fashion sense and nice hair in a minute though.

We grew a people and stuff

I had a baby in May. Yes, my husband helped with the production of the baby and was present and accounted for at all important events, but the having of the baby was all mine. I take the glory, BAHBHABA! (imagine an evil laugh sound)

So we went to the hospital at 6 am. BOOOOO! Pitocin started about 7:45 and we were off and rolling. Great nurses as usual, and it isn't at all weird to have a high school classmate check your cervix, not weird at all.

About 10:30 the contractions started registering pretty good. Cody started to ask me intermittently if I was alright. He is such a sweetie. He was watching HGTV and I was half paying attention to it.

The other nurse knew the contractions were getting stronger, I was most definitely not as smiley as usual. 

At 11:00 I was checked and told that I was progressed to a 4, I asked if she could order the epidural. At 11:30 the most glorious person in the whole hospital arrived - the anesthesiologist.

This epidural was MUCH better than the last one, but this time my left leg fell asleep, weird. Just like last time I had a "window" which is a spot where you can still feel contractions. No biggie to me, I just wanted some of the edge off.

I am a sissy and turn in to an incredibly unpleasant person under certian circumstances - hunger, sleepiness and unrelenting contractions.

Cody's mom brought him lunch. Some of my friends have demanded that their significant others not eat during labor because they can't eat. I am not that kind of person, my husband also gets hangry (hungry/angry) and I wanted him perky and happy. Also my body is a total machine when it comes to pitocin, I just crank out that baby.

At about 1:00 the nurse checked me and called the Dr. The nurse was surprised my water hadn't broken on it's own. Dr. broke it and I got my push on.

3 pushes later and we had a baby with NO tearing....Dr. did make a comment about my lady parts and road rash but I am going to pretend that didn't happen.

Per the usual, the placenta took about 1000 times longer to expel itself than our cute little guy did. So in between the Dr. tugging on the placenta and massaging my stomach to try and coax it out, we all continued to cuddle the baby and watch HGTV.

Aiden Lee arrived at 1:21 pm, weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces and 21 1/2 inches in lenght. He is a heck of an eater and took right to it. We were able to come home just over 24 hours.

Back in the swing of things

School is starting again soon.

In some ways it is too soon -  I love spending time with the kids and I will probably be very teary the first day without Aiden and Carly. Thank goodness it will be an inservice day.

In some ways it is going to be glorious - I am NOT the stay-at-home-mom type.

Back up, did she just say "thank goodness for an inservice day?"

Yeah, I did, I would much rather cry in front of other moms that get it, than in front of my students on the first day of school.

Who am I kidding, my students all know I am ubber emotional.

So while I am getting back in the swing of things. My kids are too. Here are a couple pictures of Carly, Aiden and I swinging together. Finding myself on this side of the camera is strange.

 

 

Big May

Now that May is over I should probably say something profound about all the exciting changes around here but honestly...I just want a shower and at least 4 consecutive hours of sleep.

Why the sleep changes?

WE GREW AND BIRTHED A PEOPLE!
Welcome Mr. Aiden Lee

Aiden weighed 7lbs 14oz and was 20 1/2 inches long.

Then I got a new phone on our first solo outing. Mom watched the kids for an HOUR AND A HALF! I forgot US Cellular takes for freaking ever but I love my new phone so much that this is my first post via smart phone.  

And last but not least (drumroll please) the Ulrich family came to see Kansas. Anja, Andy, and Cassandra are here for a visit. We are so glad to have them staying with us. 

Are those bricks?

I have a thing for bricks. My home town has brick roads around the historic town square - they were there before the Wizard of Oz made brick roads and Kansas THE COOOLEST THANG EVER!

 
See those fancy brick roads, red brick not yellow.



  

No one ever notices that there is red brick swirling with the yellow - where they heck do you think the red bricks go? Home, maybe? Perhaps.

Today we are talking about different bricks. Ones that my doctor thinks are in my purse.

You see, I have had some weight fluctuation this pregnancy. The day I found out we were expecting I weighed 146 pounds. The day of our 12 week appointment I weighed 131 pounds.

(did you hear the whann whann whann sound effects?) 

So my doctor has been keeping this as a point of concern and monitoring it closely along with my blood pressure to make sure everything is going well. Blood pressure has stayed low, heartbeat strong, and while weight gain hasn't been as good as with Carly, it is creeping up. Last week I weighed 157 with 3 weeks to go, this week I weighed 165.

"WHATTTT?" That can't be right, I have been eating the same. Strange.

As I lay down on the table to be measured and hear Little Brother's heartbeat I realized what happened and started laughing.

My doctor asked what was the matter and I told him I knew why I weighed so much. Because I had gotten on the scale with my purse on.

He sighed, smiled and rolled his eyes "What do you have in there? Bricks?" 

Hominy

My family loves hominy - well most of us. In case you live under a rock and do not know about this delicious treat I will provide you with some knowledge.

 Hominy is: field corn (maize) grain is dried, then treated by soaking and cooking the mature (hard) grain in a dilute solution of slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) or wood ash, a process termed nixtamalization. The soaked maize is washed, and then ground into masa. When fresh masa is dried and powdered, it becomes masa seca or masa harina.

 

(according to the smartest/least reliable website on the intranets)  - Wikipedia

We eat a lot of hominy - okay, I eat a lot of hominy, Cody will take a bite or two if it is in something and one day Carly eats it all and the next she doesn't like it. She's three - she is trying to assert her authority.

Why all the jabber about hominy? Today Carly was singing "He is hominy in all the world"  I couldn't figure it out. Then I realized she is singing "Peace and harmony in all the world!" She loves hymnals and we sing Kumbaya in church. Peppa Pig (cartoon) sings Peace and Harmony to the tune of Kumbaya.

Confirmed - she has her mother's musical ear. I know a tune, but not the words.

Strawberry Cream Pie

Sometimes we cook, sometimes we bake and sometimes we make food that is just yummy. This Strawberry Cream Pie is perfect to use for those early spring strawberries that are very tart.

Since I am prego and really wanted strawberries I kept my eyes out for a good deal - our local grocery store had 1 lb containers for $1.99!! So I got two and wouldn't you know, they were dissapointing. So I scrounged for a recipe and found one for Strawberry Cream Pie, sure to make any tart strawberries much better.

Strawberry Cream Pie
1 1/2 lbs sliced strawberries
1 sm box of instant vanilla pudding
1 sm box of strawberry flavored Jell-O
1 graham cracker crust (or make your own)
1 cup of boiling water
1 cup of milk

First - Wash, hull and slice the strawberries

Then mix the strawberry gelatin with the 1 cup of hot water and stir. Stir a lot - like 5 minutes until it is all dissolved. This is important because mine was a little grainy still and it wasn't so god.

When gelatin is mixed set it aside and in a separate bowl mix the instant pudding with the 1 cup of cold milk - again mixing for about 5 minutes. 

Then put them together and mix.

Put the strawberries in the pie crust (I made my own graham cracker crust because I am cheap) and slowly pour the pudding/gelatin mixture over it so that it has time to sink through the strawberries.

Refrigerate for an hour or two and you are ready to eat! 

If I had used a regular sized pie pan the strawberries would have fit, but because it is an 8 inch they did not - nor did all the pudding/gelatin mixture. What did I do with the left overs in that small bowl? Poured it over some vanilla greek yogurt before it was set up and Carly and I had a snack

Are The Beetles making a come back in Kansas?

Carly is into names and relationships. She wants to know what everyone's name is and how they are related - example: "What is Maggie's middle name? Is she my big sister or my little sister?"

Well...Maggie is the dog, she is registered so her middle name is Mae "Her middle name is "Mae". Maggie is older than her but she is bigger than Maggie. "Maggie is your big sister"

"I like her being my sister, she has blonde hair like me."

The minds of children!

The other day Carly and I went on an adventure to check baby calves with my step dad - Mark. She wanted to know the baby calf's name. Mark told her it was "George". She was happy with that and on occasion asks to go see "George". We will probably have to have a  heifer or cow named George until she is old enough to understand that baby calf George will be sent to sale in a few months.

Monday we went to check calves again - there was a brand new one and Mark gave it an "ear ring" which is just a numbered tag and you write down in a book which cow the calf belongs to for record keeping purposes.

After giving the calf the "ear ring" Carly asked Mark what the calf's name was. He said "George" she said "no, there is already a George" so Mark smiled and said "How about Paul"

My daughter thought that was a great name and waved bye-bye to Paul.

If the next calf is named John or Ringo I will no be surprised.

Supper is ready!

We have an awesome daycare provider. Bonnie lets the kids help in the garden, she does crafts, works with them on letters, colors, shapes, manners, shoe tying, sharing. All this from a homebased daycare - we are blessed.

We are also blessed that Bonnie teaches the kids things like properly washing hands after pottying, sneezing into the elbow instead of all over the person next to you, using a fork and spoon for the appropriate foods and sit in a chair. We do it at home but reinforcing it at daycare is such a help.

Bonnie also does fire drills. In Kansas this is required and you have to keep track of them, just like we do at the school I teach at. So when Cody opened the oven door and the heat set the kitchen smoke detector off Carly knew what to do.

She promptly said "We need to go outside. At Bonnies you go outside by the tree when it goes BEEP BEEP."

My husband responded "Well, at home when it goes BEEP BEEP, supper is ready."

Valentine's day "craft"

Just look at that title, she has the quotation marks out, I bet there will be other instances of incorrectly used and overused punctuation through out this entire post. 

Yes, yes there will be....and poor grammar too.

So why is "craft" in quotation marks?

Because this is a Crafts for Real People valentine, for a toddler, it is not an actual craft.

It is a package of Goldfish brand crackers with a pink note masking taped on to it and I let her use a felt tip pen to make some marks on it. She even got to tape the note on the goldfish crackers by "my owned self".

Lame....yes. Easy.....yes. Not candy......yes. Excited toddler.....yes. Win....OH yes.

This idea originally came from Pinterest. I found this idea on Just Jilly when I was looking for valentines that don't involve candy - here is the link to her blog post  http://justjilly.com/10-non-candy-valentine-ideas/

Wishing you a very enjoyable Valentine's Day - crafty or uncrafty.

The Walrus Stage

               

Typically there are three trimesters of pregnancy (first, second and third). My mind doesn't work that way and I have them divided differently.

There is the "We are pregnant but not telling people so stop asking me if I want a glass of wine because I really just want to throw up then take a nap" stage. This stage lasted extra long this time.

There is the "We are having a baby, see my clothes kind of don't fit and my Pinterest board is overflowing with cutesy baby stuff" stage.

Then there is the "Walrus" stage. Guess where I fit?

 **DING DING** Walrus!! YOU WIN!!

In the Walrus stage you feel hairy because your body naturally sheds less. Parts of your skin turn darker. Areaolas darken of course but some women get the mask of pregnancy and the linea negra down the front of their stomach. My freckles tend to get darker and more apparent.

You also feel huge because you are getting huge. Nothing seems to fit right, there is a lot of chaffing in strange places that never used to touch. 

You are finally hungry again and grunt a lot getting around.

Most of the grunting occurs when going from a lying to sitting position.

The disposition of a woman in the latter part of pregnancy is also similar to a walrus. Irritable, unpredictable, and willing to throw her weight around. 

This being said, it would be a good idea to proceed with extreme caution when approaching a woman in the Walrus Stage of pregnancy.

Things that are making me feel old

With baby #2 on the way and things aching more than they used to I have been thinking a lot about being old.

I know that at 27 this should not be on my mind but it is.

There are several things that are making me feel old currently - here is an abridged version.

1. I graduated high school 10 years ago in August. 10 years ago right now my biggest worries were finding the right dress for prom, deciding on a major, getting my STAR Event finalized for competition, finding a birthday present for my boyfriend and hoping I would be accepted into Clovia. Occasionally I still worry about finding a dress for prom and what I am getting my husband for his birthday.
.


2.. Facebook is almost 10 years old...as it the same year I graduated high school FB was born. (February 4th to be exact)






3. My husband is going to be 30 in less than a month. I always felt like hitting the big 3-0 was more adult like than being 18 or 21. This means I am married to an adult. YIKES - good thing he is cute.

4. Things that happened in my lifetime that I think were just yesterday are no longer in the "miscellaneous" category for scholars bowl but in the "science", "history" and "language arts" portions of the scholars bowl meets. They are novel things that the kids don't know. WTF?? How do you not know that we used to have nine planets and that it was called Pluto?
  This is not the only Pluto that once existed.

5. You have to SUBSCRIBE to the Boomerang channel to watch "old" cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Looney Toons, Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, Sylvester and Tweety. This seems borderline blasphemous.

6. My former students are getting married and/or having children ON PURPOSE! They are actively procreating. That is so weird.

7. My students have heard of Usher and know a few of his newer songs but have no idea he had some sweet raps back in the day and was full of soul on his My Way CD. I have kept very few of my CDs. I am going to make like Rick Astley and never give that one up.

8. Radio stations now call it "Classic 90's" music.

9. I blew a kid's mind one day. They had this awesome rap song from "a cray long time ago" so I listened to it. Oh Marky Mark, be still my beating heart. When the kids learned that Marky Mark was Mark Wahlberg they were aghast. Then to find out his brother was in NKOTB. OMG!!! It was a day of true revelations - I am proud to have brought them to the light.

 


The list could go on and on for days but I am tired and that is 10. I am so stinking tired all the time. When did this happen?

In love with an appliance!

The fact that I am proclaiming my love for any type of kitchen gear should surprise no one. Anytime someone buys me a kitchen or house tool is fine with me. My husband once brought home a new vaccum and I jumped up and down. Maybe I was born in the wrong era.

I have wanted an immersion blender for a gazillion years but could never justify buying one (even though they are relatively cheap).

The reasoning "I have an 8 cup food processor, a blender and a 2 cup food processor. If I can't grind or chop it now there are bigger problems at hand."

Then something wonderful happened. My husband decided to make Snickers Blizzards! He is awesome at making frozen treats, if his business doesn't work out I want him to work at Dairy Queen, or Coldstone, yeah Coldstone!

Anyways....so he opened an ENTIRE bag of mini snickers and put THEM ALL in the blender with the milk and ice cream and began his magic. Then everything stopped and the notable stench of appliance death filled the kitchen. I was so sad - not for my beautiful blender (a present from him the year earlier) but for the loss of a delicious treat.

I immediately ran for the basement - THE FOOD PROCESSOR! The larger capacity and hefty motor did the trick, as did blending in two batches. It was delicous, but not worth the loss of the blender. The food processor became a counter top staple even past it's high point of use during garden harvesting time.

I couldn't justify buying a blender with summer coming to a close and my pregnancy - ice cream treats, smoothies and alcoholic delights are pretty much all that the blender is used for and the food processor was doing just fine with the first too.

And then there was Christmas - I have a hard time finding things to ask for at Christmas time. The list was quite short this year: black dress socks, scarves, cardigans, maternity dress pants and an immersion blender.....the holy grail of cooking show tools.

When that box was unwrapped and it was apparent that the contents of the box matched the exterior of the box I was estatic. Since the Friday after Christmas (1 week since today) I have used this delightful tool 5 times! The roasted red pepper linguini wasn't the best but it was a lot of fun to make. I was giddy while blending!

Smoothies for Carly and I are so easy now and take so much less clean up. This handy tools breaks into two pieces for easy storage - much less space than the blender.

I don't know that I will ever buy a blender again. I am in love.