about me

i love Jesus.
i love my husband.
i love my children.
i love my people.
you know who you are.
i am endlessly searching, wanting, praying, repenting, hugging, cleaning, planning, eating, writing, laughing, chasing, listening, screaming, dancing, and rejoicing.

join me.

You didn't really.....oh I did (converation with Greg as I told him this story)

I have some girlfriends from church coming over tonight to play cards. We get together once a month for dinner, drinks or a fun activity, and inspired by my hours of card playing with the grammas over Christmas, that's what we're doing.

And, being at the top of my organizational game, in my second trimester, I spent much of yesterday preparing two soups for my family and girls game night. I have several learnings from this endeavor.

Do not make two soups you have never made before when you are expecting company. You're liable to be disappointed. Do not try using new kitchen electronics for the first time to make said soups. Enter the immersion blender. Purchased with coveted William Sonoma gift cards several months ago and just taken out of the box yesterday, only to find it needs to charge for 5 hours. But, being at the "top of my game" I had plenty of time and plugged it right in, expecting blending magic later that afternoon. The first soup was a Curried Corn Soup. The first four or five steps were simple. Chop. Drop. Stir. Simmer. Maybe I should go to cullinary school? Step six...immersion blend! Didn't go so well. It made a cool noise. And I looked just like my favorite contestents on Top Chef, but my concoction hardly looked like a silky smooth puree. I blended and blended and blended anyway. Next step....pass puree through fine mesh sieve. My puree looks like corn oatmeal and.... I don't have a sieve. I've been meaning to get one of those for quite a while. I have a 1/2 cup size hand held one, maybe that will work (for about 2 gallons of soup!)....maybe not. Plan B. Let me start by saying that 1. Ben was sleeping so my resources were limited and 2. I've tried this trick with wine before to strain out the cork. Enter: thigh high stockings. I mean, pantyhose (although a creation of the devil) are kind of similar to a cheese cloth, sort of, which can be used to seperate solids and liquids. And although my old roommate Karin and I had a ceremonial "burning" of the pantyhose when business casual went out of fashion, I did manage to find one pair of black thigh highs deep in my under things drawer. Which I most certainly NEVER wore to work but rather were a gift from my husband who I'm sure wishes I actually wore them once. Where was I? Oh....pouring hot lumpy corn "puree" into the top pantyhose...obviously! Let's just say it didn't work. Liquid too hot to work through hose. Hose too thick to allow soup to strain out as I'd imagined. Abort mission. Throw away thigh highs. Never to be worn!

About this time, Ben woke up and we ventured to target to buy a sieve. Strained the soup, and he loved it. After straining, it was really thin. Which I should have anticipated. I usually like a little thicker soup. Anywho, good flavor, especially after I embellished with shrimp.

Second soup, black bean. Also required the blender. Didn't blend well. Watery, chunky, black bean yuck. I put 1/2 cup of sour cream, lots of cheese, lime juice and fresh cilantro and served it to Greg for dinner. :)

PS. I have yet to find a household use for garter belts.

it's a....

BOY! They are going to tie me up and take over the house aren't they?!?!?

really I am SO excited Ben is going to have a little brother and we are going to have another son.

can you guess?

Just like that....I am 18 weeks pregnant. And many of you (impatient, love a good surprise but can't wait long enough for one) know that most Dr.s recommend a full blown ultra sound at this point in pregnancy to make sure everything is developing correctly. They measure the heart, lungs, arms, legs, and who knows what else. AND, if you want to know (even if your husband would rather not know, but you really really want to know) you can find out the sex of the baby. Yea! So Monday morning, 10:00 am, I will be finding out if our little turnip (approximate size of the baby at this point....I don't really know how big turnips are) is a boy or girl! And as I type, it occurs to me that I have not even once looked at the Chinese calendar, tied a string with my wedding ring around my finger and watched it circle, or go side to side, or any of the other super accurate ways to tell the gender of your unborn child. However I did ask Greg repetitively (daily for two weeks) if I could go visit the "Shady Lady" who for a mere $25 will give you an ultrasound and tell you the sex of the baby as early as 13 weeks. My friends call her the "Shady Lady" and I have a mental picture of some woman with a ultrasound machine in her garage and a line of barley pregnant women knocking on the side door like a Speak Easy offering up some password to get in. But, since I have waited this long, and my appointment is in two days....I will resist.

We're having a baby....

As I am slowly settling into the reality of being pregnant and barely fitting into my non-maternity clothes, I have started to allow myself to enter into the early stages of planning mode. I immediately starting thinking logistics (b/c that's how my brain works): Where will the baby sleep? Do we really need another crib or will Ben be ready to transition to a big boy bed? How can I avoid having two kids in diapers with out actually having to potty train Ben b/c that whole process sounds exhausting (and messy)? Even though he would look adorable in Thom@s the Train underwear...yet all grown up at the same time. What do you DO with a two year old while you are nursing a newborn 8 hours a day? Who did we borrow that life saving swing from last time?

Then (after hours of looking at adorable nursery bedding on-line), I start to think about maybe the more important questions. What will our family of four look like? How do you love and support a husband and two children in only 24 hours a day? (Who will mop the floor?!?!) How do you prepare a 2 year old to be a big Brother? Is this a futile effort? We have talked about the "baby in mama's belly" and I was starting to think he kind of understood until yesterday, when trying to express great delight with his dinner he smiled real big, rubbed his belly and said, "mmmmmm.....baby." Does he think mama ate a baby? This can't be a good start.

Maybe this week I'll start with trying to find a swing to borrow.

and a.....

nutella crepe with sauteed bananas and ice cream.

I might need to open a restaurant (in my kitchen) for pregnant women craving CRAZY good food.

everyone should have...

a Gramma Dorie. Most of you know that my Grandmother recently moved to California (from Texas) and is living with my Aunt, about a mile from us. Gramma Dorie spent most of her life in Southern California before moving to Texas to be near my family growing up. I'm not sure how long she intended to stay, but she was there almost 25 years. And for a beach loving, sun worshiping lady, that's a LONG time! I remember the DAY she moved to Texas. I was 6 years old, and I was having a birthday party at my house. All my friends were there. Cake. Presents. Everything a girl could ask for. But I was not interested. Gramma Dorie was on her way from California and would be pulling into the drive way later that day!! I just stared out our living room window, looking for her blue Datsun hatch back.

So fast forward lots of years....I have Sweet Ben, who Gramma Dorie fell in love with the first time she met him. And year and a half later, she's here in Costa Mesa. More specifically, at my house today during nap time so I could go to the market with out my Sweet Ben. And Tuesday she was here so I could go to a Dr. appointment. And she folds laundry. And plays cards. And mends holes in sweaters. And watches football games with us. And likes to talk with me. And is good listener. And above all else, she dearly loves my Sweet Ben and provides him HOURS upon HOURS of entertainment each week. Especially in the back seat of the car when we are running errands. She sits with him and talks and laughs and sings, and I run in and out of banks, post offices, dry cleaners....all with out having to unbuckle (and really buckling back in is the challenge) my almost 2 year old. She has taught him songs and rhymes and letters and numbers. Why am I so lucky? This, on top of Auntie (my Aunt Carol Ann) that is asking for Ben to spend the night every month! Seriously?!?! I have to be careful or Ben's going to start calling one of them mom.

did i mention....

that I ordered not one, but two pizzas from Papa Johns yesterday? And one day and about 10 meals later, I have just about polished both of them off. Thank goodness Greg pitched in and ate a couple pieces for dinner tonight so I did not have to admit that I'd eaten them by my self.

Do all pregnant women eat like this? And just not talk about it? Or is it just me?

I did have my monthly OB check up today and did not sound any alarms when I stepped on the scale, so.....what should I have delivered tomorrow?

shopping spree

I know some people are making wise financial "resolutions" this time of year...with the sad state of the economy, rising unemployment, home foreclosures, etc. But not me!

This week I bought:

A radiator. Which I was SO excited about. I mean, who doesn't want to spend a "nicer than any pair of shoes I've ever owned" amount of $ on a part for your car that you just assumed would work for ever? But had apparently cracked and started leaking mysterious fluid....everywhere. Yea! I LOVE my new radiator and will NOT roll my eyes in disgust when I have to pay the credit card bill this month.

A vacuum. Which I also thought would run forever. Which it kind of had if you consider my mom owned our vacuum for at least 10 years before gifting it to me when I moved to California 10 years ago. But it finally threw in the towel so to speak a couple months ago. Which was perfect timing with my first trimester b/c I didn't want to clean anyway. But the dust was starting to build so high the ceilings felt lower. Anywho....I did a Greg-worthy amount of research and bought myself a German engineered Meile vacuum. Top of the line. HEPA filter and all. It's like the BMW of vacuums. Maybe I should have bought a BMW instead of a new radiator and a vacuum.? Regardless, I take my cleaning very seriously (and miss my dear Lisbeth terribly!!!!) and couldn't resist getting the best and knowing that all the dust would be GONE (for a day or two before I needed to vacuum again). Greg will choke when he see's the credit card bill this month.

PIZZA on-line!!!! Did you know you could do this?!?!? It's like groceries but better b/c it's hot. I can't lie....I was sitting here watching the food network (shocker) and there was a commercial for Papa Johns...com! click. click. click. and 35 minutes later I am eating hot pizza. Terrible, I know. But I was starving. And it's Texas Football game day. And Ben is sleeping (was sleeping until the Papa Johns guy knocked AND rang the door bell) so I couldn't go get a hot pizza. So, I had it delivered. Having food delivered during nap time feels like something I should not do ever....or often....or very often.