Home From The Hospital

I got home from the hospital last night and Kyle and I are doing great. We're both still tired like zombies though, so for now I'll just show you a few pictures of our stay at Memorial.

This is me at 4 something on Sunday morning.....less than an hour away from delivering Kyle.

And there he is....my little jelly bean.

Then it back over to the nurses to get weighed and have his footprints taken.

Then straight into daddy's arms.

Conked out.....zzzzzzzz.

Tyler is in love with his new little brother. Love love love.

Cute as a button.

38 Weeks

Today marks the start of my 38th week, which is also the week that Tyler made his debut 6 years ago. The baby is 'cooked', as they say and so am I....or fried. I'm tired and soooo ready for this boy to be born. So now that we're at the end, I thought I'd do a good old fashioned side by side comparison to remind myself what I looked like 6 months ago.

On the left, I'm at 3 months and on the right, 9 months.

Yeesh, I think I know where those 20 lbs went! I'm not too worried about it though. Once I get my hands on Cathe's new Low Impact series that comes out in late August or September, I'll get myself right back on track.

This Week

Pure exhaustion has kept me from blogging for the week, but Tyler and I have still been busy. So here's a quick look at some of the things we've been up to over the last few days.

Earlier in the week I took Tyler back to the pool for another session of swimming. That's makes it our third trip this summer, but probably my last....I'm not sure I can squeeze in another visit before the baby is born.

I spent most of the time lounging on the pool deck because I found the water to be just a little bit too cold. The temperatures have been hovering in the 70's all month long. I can't believe that it's already half-way through July and it hasn't even reached the 90's yet. Crazy!

On another note, I've really been enjoying the new bathing suit I got to accommodate my large belly. Too bad that in a few weeks it will no longer fit. That means I'll be back to my old suit, which now that I think about it, I bought at Troutman's in Chico. Not only has it been forever since we lived in Chico, but Troutman's went out of business how many years ago? Yeah, I think I'll be treating myself to a new suit next summer.

Tyler didn't seem to mind the cooler temps or the sprinkles here and there, he was having a great time in the water. 

On Tuesday we made it over to Randall Park for the art in the park. We missed the last two weeks because of his rocket classes at the art studio, but this week we were back at it.

This time the kids were making flags in a sort of Papel Picado style. First they folded up pieces of colored tissue paper and cut designs out, as you would with a paper snowflake, and then glued the paper to a wooden skewer turning them into flags.

Tyler made his a double decker flag.

Then for breakfast this week I made some Blueberry Belgian waffles using my new Belgian waffle maker.

Love! Didn't they come out nice? But then Tyler told me that on a scale of 1 to 10, they tasted like a 5. What!? They were way better than a 5! Hmmpf, we'll see if he's invited to the waffle party next time.

Back to land of arts and crafts, Tyler and I finished working on a bird feeder/house....a project that took us forever! Boy and I glad to see it all done.

Now those birds had better move in, or else!

And finally, a story that's almost too strange to be true. I got a package in the mail the other day, which appeared to have scrapbooking stuff inside. Since I didn't order anything and it's getting kind of close to my birthday, I figured it'd be best to just leave it alone. So Rick opened it up when he got home from work....turns out he didn't order it either. Guess what it was?

Apparently I won the grand door prize at the scrapbooking convention I attended last November. Huh!? I obviously wasn't in attendance at the time of the drawing, but they waited this long before sending it to me? Wow, what a surprise out of the blue!

Recipe Review

This week we had a great line-up of delicious meals.....that's my feeling anyway. Rick would probably say otherwise since I used mushrooms and/or onions in every dish.

First we had Knife and Fork Beef Stroganoff Burgers.

I saw this recipe on Rachael Ray's talk show and new I had to make it. I love stroganoff and this was a great variation of a classic dish. But knowing Rachael Ray and her portion sizes, I ended up trimming down the size of the burgers to 1/4 lb patties instead of 1/2 lb, which was plenty enough meat for us. I also never have all the fresh herbs she calls for, so I left out the chives and dill and it was still good.

Next we had Steak Tacos with Grilled Pineapple-Avocado Salsa.

With this meal I was using some leftover grilled steak from the freezer, so after warming that up, all I had to do was make the salsa. Quick and easy, just how I like it. The salsa recipe is from a recent issue of Cooking Light and I thought it tasted really good with the steak. But it was best the night of...the leftovers got kind of soggy sitting in the fridge overnight.

Keeping with the salsa theme, we also tried Blackened Tilapia with a Mango Salsa.

I saw Paula Deen making this fish on her show, but she was putting them in sandwiches. Nothing wrong with that, but I thought it would be just as good on its own...and it was. I modified the recipe slightly and didn't use the full amount of blackening seasoning because I was afraid it might be too spicy. I didn't cook the fish in a full stick of butter either, just a drizzle of olive oil. Delicious!

And for dessert we've been enjoying a cherry pie that I made with some of those cherries we picked last weekend.

That's my piece. Yum!

Art and Science Class: Rockets

For the last two weeks Tyler has been spending his mornings at a local art studio where he's taking a class all about rockets, launchers and space stations. It's a mixture of art and science, so he's creating different things while also learning about chemical reactions and pressure.

Last week he was working on a space mobile.

And also made a few types of rockets....one made out of rolled up recycled paper (that's it in his hand) and another made out of a short fat drinking straw that he used in conjunction with a water bottle launcher.

This week he was working on a space station made out of rolled up newspaper tubes.

The rule was that it had to be big enough so you could get inside and as you can see, he did a great job with that.

He also made a telescope during free time, which I think came out really cool.

Then he made another rocket launcher...this time using a soda bottle instead of a water bottle, which was much sturdier and worked way better.

Later this week, the class is going to experiment launching cork rockets with the help of chemical reactions created from mixing ingredients such as vinegar/alka-seltzer, vinegar/baking soda, and lemon juice/baking soda. Sounds like a blast!

Baker's Choice

The only problem with encouraging Tyler to get in the kitchen and learn to cook and bake is that now he's always trying to hijack the kitchen for his own purposes. I find myself suddenly having to compete just for a chance to use the oven. For example, I already had plans to make a batch of bran muffins - a recipe I've had sitting on the top of my to-do stack for weeks. Then the next thing I know, Tyler comes in with a recipe for banana muffins that he found in the back of a Blue's Clues book.

Well I wasn't about to switch and make banana muffins...I wanted bran muffins. But Tyler wouldn't budge....we were making banana muffins. So we compromised and made a 1/2 dozen of each.

Yep, it's starting to look like a bakery around here.

Now to show off the winning muffin - just as soon as we figure out the timer on the camera.

If you ask Tyler, his was the best muffin. If you ask me, mine was the best. Oh heck, they were both good!

Pool Side

Last summer Tyler was lucky to be able to swim nearly every day during July and August while he was at school, but now that he's done with Oakridge, we have to find a different place for him to swim.

That means it's back to the public pool for us, which wouldn't be so bad, but it's kind of far away from the house. Still, we got over there yesterday and had a great afternoon.



At first I didn't think I'd be getting in the water because I didn't have a bathing suit that fit, but I ended up finding one at the last minute so I was able to get in after all. The water was so nice....my belly felt so much lighter, I could have stayed in there all day.

Rick took Tyler over to the deep end of the pool and down the slide a million times while I continued to bob around in the shallow water.

Ahhh, I'm already ready to go back. Hopefully Tyler and I can make it back over there sometime this week. I won't be able to take him down the slide, but we can still hang out in the pool.

U-Pick Cherries

Every year Barrett Orchards has a cherry festival during the 4th of July weekend, which is usually when we go pick cherries. This year, however, since the weather has been cooler and the cherries ripened later than usual, we decided to skip the festival and wait another week for the prospect of sweeter cherries.

I think our patience paid off because we had no problem filling our bucket with juicy delicious cherries this morning. And I would know...I sampled more than few while we were out there.

Rick was in charge of getting the cherries up high. The best ones always seem to be just out of reach.

Now with over 10 lbs of cherries to our name, we have plenty for making a pie, giving away some to friends, and enough to eat until we pop! So you'll have to excuse me while I go take care of the latter.

9 Months

Here it is - I'm entering the home stretch. Today marks the start of my 36th week and also the beginning of of my 9th month.

The doctor is estimating that the baby weighs about 5 lbs right now and that he might put on another pound or so before he's born, but that he certainly won't reach the 8 lb mark that Tyler did. And it makes sense. Although I feel as big as a house, I'm smaller than I was with my last pregnancy....coming in a full 10 lbs lighter.

I'm not sure if that has to do with the fact that I continued to workout all the way through to week 32, at which point I became too sick with that cold/cough/ear infection. Or if it has to do with overall better food choices. Or if it was just bad timing - being so sick for the majority of my 8th month, inhibiting weight gain for me and the baby. Who knows...it was probably a combination of all three.

At any rate, I'm ready to be finished with the process, minus the fact that we still haven't come up with a name yet. Yikes, we'd better get on top of that!

Donut Bakers

For Christmas I got a gift certificate for King Arthur Flour, which I hadn't used until last week. Isn't that shameful? The problem was, not that I couldn't find anything that I wanted, but that I couldn't make a decision. So I finally sat down, marked a bunch of pages in the catalog, kept debating back and forth until Tyler declared the decision for me.

A standard donut pan plus a few mixes to go with it.

And so it was. I placed the order and all we had to do was wait....and wait....and WAIT. Wow, am I spoiled with Amazon's prime 2-day shipping. Waiting the 12 days for KA shipping made it seem like our package was riding the slow boat from China.

But it finally arrived yesterday.

And we started baking immediately. First we tried the chocolate mix, which we whipped up and had in the oven within a few minutes.

After about 10 minutes in the oven they were ready to come out, so I made a quick batch of chocolate glaze. Tyler was in charge of decorating with sprinkles and coconut.

Don't ask me why he needs to have a silicone cup suctioned to his mouth. It must be some 'artist at work' sort of thing.

Yum! That one has my name on it.

So how did they taste?

Like a baked donut....or in all honesty, a cupcake. I never expected them to taste the same as a fried cake donut because it's impossible to get the same crispy exterior in the oven. Still I thought they'd be more substantial, with a dense coffee cake or pound cake sort of texture. Instead they were really light and delicate like a cupcake, which is fine for dessert, but not my idea of a breakfast donut. Well I guess once we finish baking the mixes, I'll have to be on the lookout for a recipe that yields a firmer donut.

Irredeemable

Last week when I was grocery shopping, which I do according to my weekly meal plan, I was looking for fresh green beans. Normally I buy the bulk of my groceries at Walmart and then go to a local store for all of my fresh vegetables, fruit and meat. Well, the smaller store had no green beans that day so I decided to go the frozen route. Frozen green beans aren't my favorite anyway because they tend to be too soggy, so I thought I'd go with one of those steam packs that you just throw in the microwave, thinking it'd be of slightly better quality.

Boy, was I wrong!



Yuck! Are you kidding me! Those are the most unappetizing green beans I've ever seen. All I could think was - what in the world do you have to do to a green bean to make it look like that!? Needless to say I wasn't about to serve those with our meal. I had made Tequila Glazed Grilled Chicken with Coconut Rice and there was zero way those beans were going to hit the plate. I ended up throwing them straight in the garbage and heated up some frozen peas instead. And a more respectable brand at that.

After dinner I got right on the computer and wrote an email to Western Family expressing my disgust. Surprisingly, both Western Family and their distributor wrote back to me the very next day.

Both letters included apologies, but the distributor actually provided a cash refund and tried to assure me that this was a fluke incident and that I could trust the quality of their products in the future.

I almost wanted to believe them because I'm a fool like that, until I remembered the time I'd bought some frozen Western Family edamame.

Not quite as horrifying as the green beans....at least the edamame were in the ballpark colorwise, but I'm pretty sure I'll never buy Western Family frozen vegetables again. Why would you, when you can get other affordable brands that are a much better quality?

4th of July Weekend

On Sunday we went over to the fairgrounds for the 4th of July carnival that was running through the weekend. In the past we've always gone on the 4th, but we decided to go earlier this year. Turned out it was a pretty good decision because we beat the crowds and Tyler didn't have to wait in line to go on any of the rides. 

We arrived almost 45 minutes before the place even opened up....I guess you can blame me for not double checking the time, but darn, 2:00 seems kind of late for a weekend carnival to open. Anyway it gave us a chance to take a few pictures.

As usual we got Tyler a wristband and let him go crazy with the rides, but it occurred to Rick and I that he's starting to outgrow the kiddie rides, but he's not quite big enough for the adult ones yet. Hmmm, well at least he enjoyed the roller coaster, fun house and the slides.

And for the first time, he actually got to play some of the games. He tried the one where you throw darts at a wall of balloons and get a prize based on the number of balloons you pop. Then he tried the ring toss, the sledge hammer, and a few others.

He didn't do so bad either....he came away with these cute little guys.

Then on Monday we stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream.

Tyler was all talk about getting Strawberry Shortcake (a flavor I've never heard of, but he swears he saw last time) or Strawberry Cheesecake, but was ultimately swayed by the flavor of the month. I kept calling it Captain America, but I guess it's really called Soldier Swirl or something like that. It's vanilla with blue chips and a cherry swirl.

For dinner we had a BBQ with the usual suspects.

Bacon cheeseburgers on ciabatta rolls, baked beans, corn and chips. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a picture until I was already halfway through my burger. Oops!

And for dessert we had cupcakes and chocolate covered strawberries.

Then it was back to the fairgrounds to watch the fireworks display. We pick a different viewing spot every year and this time we crossed the freeway and watched from the arboretum. It turned out to be a great spot, except for the mosquitoes.....we'd better cover up a little better next time!