Alright, Folks! We've been eating at home more to save money and I've been trying to make the meals a little more "gourmet" to make it exciting. Here's a few recipes (some freshly tried and some old favorites) that we absolutely love. Hope you enjoy them too!
Super easy and QUICK Ribs
Yummy Baked Scallops (make sure you read the reviews and cut down on the sauce so they won't be too mushy)
Lauren's Favorite Shrimp Salad (use a little Kraft spicy mayo in place of some of the regular mayo)
Cornucopia Salad
(This is the BEST SALAD YOU'VE EVER EATEN **everyone asks for this recipe** Add shrimp or chicken to it to make it a dinner)
3 Tbsp sugar
½ cup sliced almonds
½ head green leaf lettuce
½ head romaine lettuce
1 cup chopped celery
4 green onions, chopped
1 avocado, cut up
1 apple, peeled and sliced
¼ cup dried crasins
¼ cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 large can mandarin oranges, drained
Dressing:
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
¼ cup oil
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
Wisk together
Melt the 3 Tbsp of sugar in a large, dry frying pan with the almonds. Stir until the almonds are coated and browned, being careful not to burn. Spread almonds on aluminum foil.
Put all ingredients in a large bowl. Add almonds and toss with the dressing.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sausage Fingers
Tonights blog entry is inspired by my friend Rachel and her fun method of linking items.
Ahh... so I just got back from an hour long walk. I've been walking here the past few days. I had been walking around the park near our house, but its only a mile loop so walking it three times can get boring. I've exhaused many of the loops around our house too - so this is a nice change. I noticed today I got a few funny stares. My t-shirt was pretty tight to my stomach so I'm sure people either knew I was pregnant or were thinking I needed to do a WHOLE LOT more walking. =)
One of the interesting things about pregnancy is the massive swelling that goes on in your body. I definitely think the heat (and the fact that I like salt) aggravates it too. At the end of my walk my fingers were like little sausages and my feet felt rather inflated. I've only really noticed this the past few weeks. That and a pain at the bottom of my stomach - which I've been told is ligament pain. For that reason, I've stopped jogging - it just hurt too much. I'd go out for a short jog around the block and be hobbling around the rest of the night as if I'd run a marathon. I thought riding a bike would be a bit better, but I paid dearly for that the next day - maybe I'm just bit too ambitious about how much I can do. =)
I'm sure at the end of the summer I'll be glad to have my body back, but right now I'm enjoying the aches and pains. I know, call me strange, but I guess after Joseph I'm just glad to have made it this far with a clean bill of health. Its almost as if these aches and pains are signals that the baby is getting bigger and my body is progressing as it should be. I had the realization tonight that I really only have 2.5 more weeks until my 3rd trimester! I dont know where I've been, but these past few weeks have really flown by. I remember the weeks crawling by in my first trimester thinking "am I really only 8 weeks?". I'm envisioning the summer going by pretty fast.
People have asked me if she moves a lot - and the answer is yes. She definitely has times in which she's active, though. The book I read said she has the wake/sleep patterns of a newborn now - which worries me a bit. Currently she's indicating that she's wide awake at 10am and 10pm!. Right as I'm winding down for bed she's ready to party. =)
Well, I'm going to go hit the sack soon. Night all!
Ahh... so I just got back from an hour long walk. I've been walking here the past few days. I had been walking around the park near our house, but its only a mile loop so walking it three times can get boring. I've exhaused many of the loops around our house too - so this is a nice change. I noticed today I got a few funny stares. My t-shirt was pretty tight to my stomach so I'm sure people either knew I was pregnant or were thinking I needed to do a WHOLE LOT more walking. =)
One of the interesting things about pregnancy is the massive swelling that goes on in your body. I definitely think the heat (and the fact that I like salt) aggravates it too. At the end of my walk my fingers were like little sausages and my feet felt rather inflated. I've only really noticed this the past few weeks. That and a pain at the bottom of my stomach - which I've been told is ligament pain. For that reason, I've stopped jogging - it just hurt too much. I'd go out for a short jog around the block and be hobbling around the rest of the night as if I'd run a marathon. I thought riding a bike would be a bit better, but I paid dearly for that the next day - maybe I'm just bit too ambitious about how much I can do. =)
I'm sure at the end of the summer I'll be glad to have my body back, but right now I'm enjoying the aches and pains. I know, call me strange, but I guess after Joseph I'm just glad to have made it this far with a clean bill of health. Its almost as if these aches and pains are signals that the baby is getting bigger and my body is progressing as it should be. I had the realization tonight that I really only have 2.5 more weeks until my 3rd trimester! I dont know where I've been, but these past few weeks have really flown by. I remember the weeks crawling by in my first trimester thinking "am I really only 8 weeks?". I'm envisioning the summer going by pretty fast.
People have asked me if she moves a lot - and the answer is yes. She definitely has times in which she's active, though. The book I read said she has the wake/sleep patterns of a newborn now - which worries me a bit. Currently she's indicating that she's wide awake at 10am and 10pm!. Right as I'm winding down for bed she's ready to party. =)
Well, I'm going to go hit the sack soon. Night all!
Monday, May 28, 2007
25 weeks!!
Well, someone finally knew I was pregnant this week! Let me tell you this is SO refreshing. Its come up in conversations before this week and people have acted surprised when they find out I'm pregnant. Hmmm... not so encouraging since my stomach has been sticking out for some time now. Maybe they just think I have a vice for Ritas. Here's a pic of the 25 week belly...
Thursday, May 24, 2007
What's in a Name?
So a lot of people have been asking us if we've picked a name yet (because peanut would be a bit odd). The short answer to that question? No. This has been the great debate as Kevin and I seem to be on opposite sides of the fence about the perfect name. I think that's the hardest part. If this was kid #4 or #5, it might be a bit less important to pick that "perfect" name since maybe we'd already have exhausted our favorites. But since we don't know how many girls we're going to have, this is our ONE shot at the best girl name we can come up with - no pressure!
Generally speaking, Kevin likes names that are bit more commonplace and I like names that are a bit more unusual - but not made up or bizarre (like Moonflower or anything). If you talk to us in person about it, Kevin will be happy to chime in that I thought the name Mordecai was a nice name at one point. Just to defend myself, I thought the name Kai was cute for a boy (although its not my FAVORITE) and I thought that Mordecai was a great character in the Bible. Retrospectively, if I really wanted the name Kai, I'd probably go with Malachi...but we've got girls name to focus on so it doesn't really matter. That's the hardest part - Kevin and I semi agreed on boy's names we liked (except for Mordecai, obviously) and had never really discussed girls names. Ah well, we have 3 more months to duke it out I guess. =)
Oh, just to let you know... we're not actually sharing what the contenders are. We WILL share her name with everyone once we've picked it out, though. It just makes it easier for both of us to weigh the choices in our minds. However, if you have any ideas for what you think her name should be, we're definitely taking suggestions. So, please leave a comment. We can use all the help we can get!
Generally speaking, Kevin likes names that are bit more commonplace and I like names that are a bit more unusual - but not made up or bizarre (like Moonflower or anything). If you talk to us in person about it, Kevin will be happy to chime in that I thought the name Mordecai was a nice name at one point. Just to defend myself, I thought the name Kai was cute for a boy (although its not my FAVORITE) and I thought that Mordecai was a great character in the Bible. Retrospectively, if I really wanted the name Kai, I'd probably go with Malachi...but we've got girls name to focus on so it doesn't really matter. That's the hardest part - Kevin and I semi agreed on boy's names we liked (except for Mordecai, obviously) and had never really discussed girls names. Ah well, we have 3 more months to duke it out I guess. =)
Oh, just to let you know... we're not actually sharing what the contenders are. We WILL share her name with everyone once we've picked it out, though. It just makes it easier for both of us to weigh the choices in our minds. However, if you have any ideas for what you think her name should be, we're definitely taking suggestions. So, please leave a comment. We can use all the help we can get!
Babified
Last week we did something we had never done - registered for baby stuff. I intended to go with a girlfriend of mine who was educated in the field of what you really needed to get by, but Kevin was determined not to be left out of the festivities and insisted he come along. So we made it a double date - Nathan and Heather (& Ella) and Kevin and me.
As we perused the aisles of highchairs and pack n plays, Kevin quickly became a "deer in the headlights" and proclaimed he was headed to the camping section. Ha! Ah well... at least he lasted 5 minutes. =)
I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed myself. Neither one of us want our home to be "babified" - a term we use to describe the virtual "taking over the house" by primary colored plastic objects. I'm sure its something that becomes rather innocuous to you after a while, but the idea of having our little cutie pie enter our life requiring much more stuff for a day out of the house than I have ever taken on a week long vacation is a bit horrifying to both of us. Ah, you say... "such newbies". And I have to admit - we really are.
So we've managed to pick out fairly neutral baby gear just to make the initial impact a bit less shocking, but I'm guessing that this kid is going to be like all the rest eventually - brightly colored plastic toys in tow. And I'm guessing at that point (once they're here) we won't really care about that stuff anymore.
As we perused the aisles of highchairs and pack n plays, Kevin quickly became a "deer in the headlights" and proclaimed he was headed to the camping section. Ha! Ah well... at least he lasted 5 minutes. =)
I have to admit to being a bit overwhelmed myself. Neither one of us want our home to be "babified" - a term we use to describe the virtual "taking over the house" by primary colored plastic objects. I'm sure its something that becomes rather innocuous to you after a while, but the idea of having our little cutie pie enter our life requiring much more stuff for a day out of the house than I have ever taken on a week long vacation is a bit horrifying to both of us. Ah, you say... "such newbies". And I have to admit - we really are.
So we've managed to pick out fairly neutral baby gear just to make the initial impact a bit less shocking, but I'm guessing that this kid is going to be like all the rest eventually - brightly colored plastic toys in tow. And I'm guessing at that point (once they're here) we won't really care about that stuff anymore.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Happy 1/2 Birthday, Lib!
Today is a momentous occasion. It's my sister Elizabeth's 1/2 birthday - she's the big 21.5 today! I'm sure a lot of you out there probably don't celebrate half birthday's but my family always made it a point to celebrate those all important milestones with a little recognition, because lets face it - when you're little a year is a heck of a long time to wait! It all really got started from a kids book titled (The Half Birthday Party). You have to remember that we were the family who at one point discovered that the maximum amount of books one person could check out of the library was 100 because we ACTUALLY had that many kids books checked out. =) Celebrating half birthdays is a tradition that just stuck for us and I plan on carrying it into OUR kids' lives. I think that theres far too little celebration anymore. And with the ho-hum of our daily lives, there needs to be a little bit more to look forward to. Twenty-four weeks tomorrow...officially 60% of the way there! Lets have a party. =)
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Trip to Good Ole Springfield
During our trip to KC, I travelled down to Springfield, MO to hang out with two of my close girlfriends - Angie and Miriam. Miriam is hard at work being mom to her beautiful newborn twin girls and Angie is enjoying a really cool new house. I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it back to Springfield with a little one on the way, so it was good to catch up while I still could. I'm really dying to go to Silver Dollar City one of these days so (horror of all horrors) maybe I'll be able to talk Kevin into a family vacation to Branson. Ha! I never thought I'd see the day. =)
Angie and Me
Congratulations, Lib!
Kevin and I went to KC this past weekend and witnessed a momentous event - my baby sister graduating from college! Hard to believe that the baby of the family is out of school - we just couldnt be prouder. We all had a great time and my only regret is that we aren't in the same town to hang out more often. Love you lots girl!
Mommo and Poppo and Us
Prego Pic
Here's a pic of me at 20 weeks (officially 3 weeks ago now). But I thought I'd put it up here since I'm constantly getting reprimanded for not including enough pregnant photos. =)
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Stuck in West Palm Beach
I, Kevin, am stuck here in West Palm Beach. That doesn't sound so bad now does it? Imagine if you will, some possible way that being stuck a mile from the beach in south Florida could possibly be anything but grand and fantastic. Imagine it! Stuck! Wow that would be great, no? Well, it's true, I'm stuck here, but it's not at all the essense of my hopes and dreams. In fact, the reason it's not so terrific is because I'm on a Boeing 737, with 140 other passengers parked nicely in front of Gate B5 and we aren't going anywhere. Why? Because Baltimore ground has declared us grounded because of "traffic". How do you have traffic in a 3D airspace? Well, we're here for a good while enjoying each other's sweaty stench and cramped armrests while we wait...just to take off. :)
Oh well... I always heard of people being stuck on planes for hours and thought "wow that must be aweful". Yup.
-Kevin
Oh well... I always heard of people being stuck on planes for hours and thought "wow that must be aweful". Yup.
-Kevin
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