Memorial Day Weekend

On Saturday we headed downtown for the annual Memorial Day Parade. It's not as grand as some of the other parades that happen throughout the year, but it gave us an excuse to get out of the house.

Afterwards we crossed the street and went to Essencia bakery to have lunch and stock up on goodies for later. We had a turkey bacon sandwich on ciabatta bread that was outstanding and I also got a beehive and some biscotti to go. Yum!

On Sunday we basically stayed home and did nothing but boring housework.

I stayed inside doing laundry while the boys worked to clear out the garden boxes.

Tyler did a great job pulling out the 'crab grass', as he kept calling it.

Then on Monday we went to the hardware store to pick up the fertilizer and vegetables for the garden.  We got two tomato plants, some bell peppers, strawberries, and yellow zucchini.

By evening we had all the plants transferred to the garden and also planted several rows of peas and green beans.

For dinner Rick grilled up a few giant steaks from Costco. I was in charge of all the sides...baked beans, pasta salad, corn, watermelon, and chips with guacamole.

Delicious!

The Sad State

Here's how my garden is looking this year.

 Not so great.

I got out there probably a month ago and weeded all three of the garden beds, but a lot of the weeds are starting to grow back now. I just don't have the energy or the mobility to keep things moving. Usually Rick tills the dirt up for me, but this year he's been too busy. Spending 60 hours a week away from home doesn't leave much time to get things done around the yard.

Maybe this year we'll cut back and only do one garden box. I'd still like to have some tomatoes and peas if nothing else.

And Tyler's greenhouse plants have started to sprout, so we'll need a place to transplant those.

The box on the left is tomatoes and the one on the right is sweet orange bell peppers. I think they might have gotten wind of how our outdoor garden boxes are in a shambles because so far they've been the slowest growing sprouts ever.

Move Over Soft Serve

When I was pregnant with Tyler, there was really only one craving that I had and it was for soft serve ice cream or frozen yogurt. I couldn't get enough of the stuff! Looking back....it's funny. I lived in Los Angeles and had access to all those fancy trendy yogurt shops, but never went to any of them. I hated driving around and the only ice cream place near our house was Baskin Robbins. So I had plenty of that along with some McDonald's cones and frosty dairy desserts from Wendy's. 

With this pregnancy things have been different. In the first trimester I craved all sorts of junk food. Things like Easy Mac, Cup O Noodles, Onion Rings, and greasy potato chips. It's strange because those are things I would never normally buy, let alone eat.....except for onion rings on occasion. But thankfully that phase has passed and now my eyes (and stomach) are once again set on one true love.

Nuts and/or nut butters.

I had been eating almond butter before my pregnancy for the health benefits and a boost of protein with my snacks, but didn't really touch the peanut butter. That was more for Tyler and Rick. But now I've actually been preferring the peanut butter. I spread it on pancakes, waffles, apples....heck, I eat it straight out of the jar! And it's especially good with fig jam, but it has to be fig jam. Nothing else will do.

When I'm not eating peanut butter straight from the jar, I'm eating regular peanuts.

The cocktail kind. Not dry roasted or honey roasted or any of that other garbage. The cocktail ones are more oily and I like them that way. The only thing that makes them even tastier is a raisin with every bite.

And when I'm not eating that, I'm eating some of these.

I've gone to raiding my baking stash and have been munching on walnuts and pecans. Pistachios and cashews are in the mix too.

Normally I'd be a little concerned with the sheer number of calories and fat I've been ingesting on a daily basis. I mean, I've been eating nuts or peanut butter with every single meal or snack (except for dinner) every single day. I'm not kidding. But they're good fats....right? And the strangest part of all is that I haven't gained a single pound in 6 weeks. I still, nearing the end of my 7th month, have only gained a total of 15 pounds, which now puts me below my target weight gain zone. I'll have to ask the doctor about that tomorrow when I go in for my check up. But at this point, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if I ended up giving birth to a peanut butter smoothie, because you know, I've been drinking a lot of coconut milk right along with all those nuts.

What We've Been Reading

I've always enjoyed reading, but don't always set aside the time required to get through larger novels. Sometimes I settle for reading magazines or cookbooks, but usually I do end up reading something every day. Rick on the other hand, never developed a passion for books, but we both work to try and spark an interest with Tyler.

We used to read to him every night before bed without fail, but now that he's older and has started to read books on his own, we just don't do it that much anymore. But still, I want to keep the momentum going, so I'll try to read chapter books to him on days when we have the time and I can pull him off the Wii.

Most recently we've been reading Mr. Popper's Penguins, in preparation for the movie that's coming out next month. I hope Tyler's not too disappointed because I can already tell that the movie isn't going to be much like the book at all.

On his own time, he's been reading a book from his latest book order.

The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby. It's a comic book by the same author of the Captain Underpants series, which he loves.

I just finished reading These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf.

It was a decent read, but I just didn't care for the story line all that much so I was kind of glad to be done with it and move on to something else.

And as I said before, if nothing else, you can always bet on me reading a cookbook. These are the latest that I've added to my collection.

I ordered the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook from Doubleday earlier this month and I just got it in the mail yesterday. After looking through it, I realized that it wasn't the book I meant to get. This one is a reprint of their original cookbook, which is done in a more old fashioned sort of way....it reminds me a little bit of The Joy of Cooking. The book I meant to get is the newer All Purpose Baking Cookbook with the red and white cover. Oops, my mistake.

Then the other night I ran over to Borders with a 50% off coupon in hand and bought Gluten-Free Cupcakes. Not that any of us follow a gluten free diet, but most of the recipes in the book use coconut flour, which I happen to have on hand and could use some more recipes for. I think I'll make the marble cupcakes first and see how well those go over.

The Third Trimester

So here it is, I'm finally in the third trimester...only 12 more weeks to go.

This is me last week and it's my best and most recent 'belly shot', but I'm actually 28 weeks now. Nothing has changed much in terms of size though, so you get the idea. My weight gain has held steady at 15 pounds, for the last month, which I don't mind one bit. At this rate, even if I gain one pound per week until the end, I will still come in under the 30 lbs I gained with Tyler. The girth of my stomach however, has increased, and now measures 37 inches around.

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but this baby is VERY active....way more than Tyler ever was. And not in a gentle sort of way, but in a violent 'I'm going to kick my way out of here or else' kind of way. The sort of kicking that makes me cry out in pain multiple times a day. But on the up side, Rick and Tyler are both able to feel the baby move without a problem. Heck, forget about feeling...all they have to do is watch my stomach gyrate about.

Over the weekend I visited the hospital for the first time since we've lived here. That kind of makes it sound like a social visit, but really, I went in for a blood test and a shot of rhogam. I have O negative blood, so the rhogam prevents my body from fighting or rejecting the baby, who likely has positive blood. I thought it was going to be simple and take no time at all, but I was there for nearly two hours! Probably because I went first thing in the morning and they didn't have that many people on staff. It took forever for the results of my blood test to come back from the lab, which they needed to confirm my blood type before giving me the rhogam. I should have brought a book to read!

Recipe Review

The bulk of my new recipes this week came from the Southern Living cookbook I checked out from the library a few weeks ago. I marked quite a few pages, so we'll see if I can get through them all before the book is due back. The other two recipes came from my go-to sources....Rachael Ray and Cooking Light.

First off, we tried Cincinnati Sloppy Sliders from the May issue of Rachael Ray's magazine.

I didn't bother with any of the recommended toppings like onions, jalapeno, or cilantro....we just topped ours simply with shredded cheddar. And obviously, I chose to make regular sized sloppy joes instead of sliders. As far as taste goes...eh. You can always count on Rachael Ray for great chili recipes and that's what this was, another great chili recipe. I just didn't care for it much in burger form. I think I'd rather eat it on spaghetti or just straight out of a bowl.

Next we had Hoisin Marinated Pork Chops, with a side of couscous and Tyler's carrot pennies.

After one bite, I was declaring, "OMG, these are so good!". I'm telling you, there is nothing better than a grilled pork chop. They come out so much more juicy and tender then with any other cooking method. And the glaze....mmmm, so good! I'll be making these again for sure.

Keeping with the grilled theme, we also tried Chicken Thighs with Thyme and Lemon.

I wanted to love this recipe, especially since chicken thighs make for such an affordable meal, but I just didn't. The chicken was okay, but nothing special.

Finally, we tried Beans with Smoked Sausage.

Thankfully I read the reviews online ahead of time, so I knew that cooking the beans on high for 8 hours was going to be WAY to long. Instead I cooked them, which were great northern by the way, for just over 3 hours. The flavor was alright in the end, but I think the fresh thyme was a little bit overpowering.

From the May issue of Cooking Light, I made a half batch of Pistachio Chai Muffins.

The flavor of these were actually really good. The only chai tea I have in the house are some single serve brew pods for my tassimo machine, so I cut one open and used that. My only complaint was that I noticed a slightly bitter taste in the finished muffin, which I assume was from the baking soda. That probably means I didn't thoroughly mix the dry ingredients....I should have used a whisk.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

As soon as he woke up this morning, Tyler surprised me with the present he made at school. I say 'surprised', but really he's been telling me about it all week, so I knew perfectly well what it was.

It was a pot holder or oven mitt, as he's been calling it, that he colored in with fabric markers.

And even though I knew what it was, it was still a surprise to see how good of a job he did. I was impressed to see how colorful it was and how much time and effort he had put into it. I love it!

The boys also got me some flowers.....a mixed arrangement from Rick and an orchid from Tyler.

Breakfast was a joint effort. I'll give credit to Rick for making the french toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon. All I had to do was keep the potatoes from burning and cut up a few pieces of fruit.

After breakfast we headed downtown for the opening day of the Farmer's Market. I wasn't expecting to find much and I didn't. I wasn't too interested in kettle corn, asparagus, or the baked goods that were offered. Instead, we just walked through and continued on to the Cinco De Mayo festival that was going on on the adjoining street. By then it was after noon, so we grabbed a few tamales and some churros. Tyler got some strawberry horchata to drink, but I opted for a cup of coffee from Essencia Bakery that was right around the corner. Delicious!

So Many Choices

There were so many events going on today around town, we didn't know what to do. There was the Family Field Day in Sarg Hubbard Park, the Mother's Day building craft at Lowe's, the yearly giant yard sale near the airport, a birthday party in the park, and a slightly belated Cinco De Mayo festival downtown.

Of course the most important option, for Tyler anyway, was the birthday party since it was for one of his classmates. So we decided to do that and also check out the yard sale.

The yard sale happens every year, on the same weekend, at the same place, but this was our first time attending. Tyler and I should have brought some sunglasses. It was kind of bright out there!

Tyler was pretty much bored to tears by the whole thing. I'll admit, it wasn't the most exciting yard sale ever, but we did come across several booths that had some nice baby stuff. We ended up with a few clothes and some toys, so it wasn't too bad. And as a strange side note, I found that two other ladies at the yard sale had the exact same due date as me. Strange!

Then it was off to the park for his friend's 5th birthday party. The boys dropped me off at home, but I insisted they take photos so I could see what the party was like.

And as you can see, it looks like everyone had a great time. They had cake and ice cream, opened presents, opened a pinata, feed the ducks at the pond, and spent the rest of the time playing around and being silly.

Birthday Festivities

It was Rick's birthday on Wednesday, so to celebrate, or rather to spend any time with us whatsoever, he took the day off from work. Tyler and I were up early, since it was a school day, but Rick foolishly attempted to sleep in a little bit. Nice try, but everyone knows that Tyler likes to get the party started early. He marched right into the bedroom at 7:30 and presented Rick with the first gift of the day.

Some potted flowers. Tyler had been positively stuck on the idea of giving Rick flowers, so earlier this week we stopped at the garden store and he picked out some marigolds and a nice pot to put them in. We also grabbed a mini mylar balloon at the grocery store to complete the package.

Later in the afternoon, after Tyler came home from school, it was time to open the rest of the gifts.

A new shirt, gardening gloves, a hair trimmer, a fishing license, and a bag of raspberry dark chocolates.

Then it was off to dinner at a restaurant of Rick's choosing.

We went to Russillo's, an Italian place that specializes in pizza. Tyler was confused as to why we didn't go to Xochimilco's for tacos, like we did on his birthday, especially since Rick loves tacos. Just trying something different, I guess.

Huh? How is it that the non-birthday boy got an Italian soda and everyone else had water?

For dinner, we all shared a pizza with a side of Caesar salad. It looks good, but a strange concoction if you ask me. Rick ordered half pepperoni and olive and half ham and pineapple, then he had the entire thing covered with tomato and pepperoncini's. Weird and hot.

Then it was back to the house for cake and ice cream. As usual I made a carrot cake, but this year instead of using the tried and true King Arthur recipe that I've used for years, I used a recipe from one of my Cooking Light annuals. Kind of risky, but it turned out good. Still, I'll probably go back to King Arthur next time.

See Spot Run

Today was the day of the big race. The 5K run/walk benefiting the Humane Society of Central Washington was Rick and Tyler's first ever race and my second. I say 'race', but really, we were never in it to win it. Due to the size of my ever growing belly, the best we could manage was a brisk walk.

We arrived at the Humane Society around 10:45....15 minutes before race time, and as you can see, there were plenty of dogs in attendance.

We quickly pinned on our racing numbers and found a place behind the yellow starting line. Tyler is not the best at waiting patiently, so he tried passing the time by dangling from Rick's arm. It's a bad habit he has...dangling from Rick's arm in moments of boredom. Hopefully we can break him of it soon.

Ready for the race to start!

Tyler is either getting the last few ants out of his pants or practicing his start....I'm not sure which.

Finally the race started and I have to admit, it was kind of chaotic in the beginning. With so many people trying to funnel into the narrow pathway and dogs barking or crying at each other, it was a little overwhelming. But once we were past the first 1/4 mile, most of the crowd had thinned out and it was pretty easy going from that point on.

About 45 minutes into the race, we rounded the corner and started the final leg....the finish line was in our sights. At this point Tyler was complaining about how hard the race was and how tired he was. Pah! Like he should talk! Anyway, we gave it our best and even jogged our way across the finish line and came in at almost exactly 53 minutes. Not the most impressive time ever, but we did our best.

Now that the race is over, all I can say is....Ouch, my toes! I ended up with blisters on both of my pinkie toes, but I guess that's what I get for wearing the shoes I did. I didn't want to wear my nice running shoes because those are indoor only and I've never set foot with them outside. Instead I wore and old pair of Sketchers that I grabbed on clearance several years back. Not the best choice. Live and learn, I guess.