Something looks fishy

Is it me or does this fish look like he is reading the lucky charms box? I swear he got pissed when I put it away a little bit later...

What a pain!

For the last hour I have been searching for a new background. I have been tired of the red for a while but was not eager to go through the hassle I knew it to be to change it. If you use blogger you may have experienced this. I had installed a ton of widgets (all those little photo slideshows on the side and the ad scroller) and because the red background was coded IN them it took it all with them when I tried to change it. EVERY. TIME. grrrr.

So this morning after 11 hours of blissful sleep (thank you hubby!) I was feeling brave. I headed to pyzam where I got the red background and started looking. I wasn't finding anything that I loved. Then I went to my SIL's blog who uses a different host for her backgrounds, the cutest blog on the block. SO MUCH EASIER!!! The way they have you install it is as a widget and it basically covers your old one, instead of taking out your old one!

If you have been on here and hour you may have seen my errors as they changed or went blank. But I think it is finally fixed and back to normal with everything intact! No more pyzam for me! Let me know what you think of the new background.

Sunflowers make me happy

Sunflowers have always reminded me of summer and of warm breezes and happiness.

And that is why they are my favorite.

20 weeks- Half way!!

I can't believe how fast these 20 have flown by. With Grayson it was so slow because he was the first. With Jonathan it was a slow crawl to the inevitable for obvious reasons. But this time with G to chase and working (a lot) I barely have had time to realize I am pregnant. There might be something there relating that to my lack of bonding... anyway, I am glad that I am feeling good and not vomiting anymore.

To date my stats are:
weight gain~ 1 lb (at my mw appointment on Tues I was exactly the same weight to the oz as last time!)
new stretch marks~ 0 yeah!
vericose veins~ 0 yeah!

Hopefully the last 20 will be as quick as the first and maybe it could even be 18 or 19 more, hint hint baby!

To that effect, after discussing it with my hubby I was telling my midwife on Tues that my plan is to labor as much as possible at home in hopes of avoiding as much medical intervention as possible and having a lovely unmedicated Vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean). If that means I have him at home, so be it...my neighbor/friend has had 5 babies the last one at home the two before at a water birth center. She can help.

My mw made sure I understand that I "should not try too hard at home or push it too far because my risk of uterine rupture is higher" (less than 1% of Vbac laboring patients according to vbac.com) as is her job. Having had a vbac with Jonathan I feel confident I can do it. With both Grayson and Jonathan I had medicated births, most because of the length. With Grayson I was in labor for 77 hours, having an epidural at about the 50 hour mark or so. Jonathan's labor was a little different in that the contractions were much harder and sustained, G's were very sporadic giving me time to rest (gotta hate pitocin) so for a 42 hour labor I had the epidural after about 24 hours, when I became exhausted... though both are a blur but that is the best of my memory.

Hopefully, in a perfect world, this baby will decide to come on his own. I will labor until I feel the need to go in (not the need to push! Thats too late, I know!) and we will have an uneventful labor and delivery without very much medical intervention.

For something that woman have been doing forever it sure has become a process to have a baby and I for one hate it.

Stay tuned for how it all goes.

Where?

Where oh where could my Grayson be?

(my duvet hanging over the playroom "wall" to dry.

This reminds me of the story my parents always told my od when I was this age. I used to hide my face or head and then say "I have my eyes closed, you can't see me!"

See I told you I was brilliant...

Guess what?!

What does one get when Gymboree has thier circle of friends sale and someone buys this really cute outfit for a possible baby girl she could be carrying?



She gets a boy!


I went to my midwife apt today and she asked one of the nurses to do a quick Ultra sound and see if we could tell the gender. Immediately we all saw boy parts with his little open legs so that's that. Guess there will be a next time... :)

Big Truck Day

Two weeks ago Beaverton OR had Big Truck Day at one of the rec centers. It was really cool. At our house big trucks and tractors are a hot ticket since my dad has always been a heavy equipment mechanic and sends Grayson cool tractors for his collection.

Here is Grayson and daddy under a truck with its snow plow attachment.

Mommy couldn't help but see this heavy thing fall on them in her minds eye (morbid I know) as there were children in the cab pulling on every lever available... yikes. But luckily they escaped unscathed. :)

We went with our friends Jon, Jeremiah and their mommies too.

Grayson showing Grampa (his words) how big he is. He says he wants to drive one when he visits you dad.

G "driving" a Deere.

Playing at the back of the 'Cool bus. I think this was his favorite.
I love summer.

a stroller for my son

Not one day after telling a friend I had never seen a used doll stroller at a garage sale, that I was going to have to break down and buy a new one... I found one Saturday right down the street from my house. It was filthy and had "stains" I hoped would come out because to be honest they looked like baby poop. Eeew! But for a dollar I took a "risk". LOL.

So I cut off the cover washed it in hot and when I put it back on I installed snaps so it is easier to clean next time. I also reinforced the rip that was already in it. Many hours of good natured baby fun to come. :)

My child the genius

I had been a nanny for many years before I had Grayson and to be honest I don't think I ever have seen a child at two and half color in the lines like he does. He is very meticulous and careful.



First child or is he a genius?

We think he's a genius. :)

p.s. this is my 300th!!! post. yay me. thanks for reading.

Plum upside down cake

What you say? That isn't upside down plum cake? Oh right! It was supposed to be, but the plums I picked from my friends house were just too mushy once they were cut to sustain a cake on top of them. In fact the entire insides stuck to the pit, making them near impossible to make jam either. I am brilliant however and used my handy dandy Vitamix blender on very low speed which took all the pulp off the pits and then I just fished them out of the colander. :)

I did make some yummy jam, though the consistency is more like a sauce. Great for fish and chicken type recipes. (Sharon, you will be getting some of this!)

Anyway, here is the recipe for upside down cake, whether it be plum, pineapple, peach or pear (which I had canned in my pantry) I love this recipe cause it has a lovely crusty around the fruit of mostly pure sugar! :) P.S. I used my large round mold from Demarle.

Plum Upside-Down Cake
You can view the complete recipe online at:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/288

Plum Upside-Down Cake
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed golden brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
6 large plums(or whatever), halved, pitted, each half cut into 6 wedges

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup milk

Lightly sweetened whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir 6 tablespoons butter, brown sugar and honey in heavy medium skillet over low heat until butter melts and sugar and honey blend in, forming thick, smooth sauce. Transfer to 9-inch-diameter cake pan with 2-inch-high sides. Arrange plums in overlapping concentric circles atop sauce.

Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat remaining 6 tablespoons butter in large bowl until light. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in extracts. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk, mixing just until blended. Spoon batter evenly over plums. Bake cake until golden and tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool in pan 30 minutes.

Using knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake. Place platter atop cake pan. Invert cake; place platter on work surface. Let stand 5 minutes. Gently lift off pan. Serve cake warm with whipped cream.

Bon Appétit
June 1995
by Mary Jo Thoresen
1998-09-17 15:09:30.0

It was a monkey kind of day

Dont'cha just love it when your child starts wanting to pick out and combo their own clothes? Plaid shorts, monkey socks 4 sizes too big (recent hand-me-downs Thanks Angie!) and faux crocs. Oi.

The Melting Pot

If you have never tried The Melting Pot, I highly recommend going. We went to the Portland location for our 8 year anniversary. I love that its a longer meal with more interaction. They put a pot of cheese (ours was fontina, Gruyere and Gran queso) on your table on the burner to start you off. This you eat with a few kinds of bread, tart apples and raw veggies.

Next you have a salad.

Then for dinner they bring out your choice of bouillons to cook your meats and veggies in. We got the lobster dinner because well Zack's grandpa sent us money as an anniversary gift and we love lobster. Thank you Grandpa Merchant!

For dessert they deliver another pot of whatever kind of chocolate you chose. We chose the flaming turtle. Anything with flame in the name has to be good and this didn't disappoint! They mix the chocolate and all its ingredients in the pot and then light it on fire. Yum. Its served with cheesecake, marshmellows, rice crispy treats, bananas and strawberries.

This was our second time coming here and I love it just as much! I think I need to organize a girls night of just cheese and chocolate... whose in?

Peaches galore!

So it turns out when I published my Pasta sauce and Peaches blog tonight I referenced canning peaches before, but I had gotten ahead of myself a bit. Sorry.

On Tuesday my friend Jenny and I went to Jossy's Peach farm and picked peaches. 70 lbs of peaches! $60 later... I went home and started processing my peaches. My first time. I am cold packing them in a light syrup which is what my friend Di does and they are SO good!

I must be slow or a newbie though cause in 2-3 hours I only got 8 jars done. :( They look so good! I am very excited to do the other 55 lbs! :)

Now, please return to your regularly scheduled blog posts. hehe

Pasta Sauce and Peaches

I am not sure when it happened but somewhere along the way I realized I was born in the wrong generation. I should have been born in the 50's when canning and "putting up" your own food was cool. ;) I always felt like I wanted to fall into the more traditional role of being the wife and mother and hopefully staying at home to raise my children. For me there is great satisfaction in seeing my handy work from day to day in the pantry and eating something that I had my hand in completely. And knowing every ingredient in them is a lovely bonus too.

I hate picking up a jar of pasta sauce at the store and seeing all the crap on the ingredient list that I can't understand or read. So I set out in the last week to find out how to make it. Turns out its about the easiest thing on the planet! I called my friend Tisha's grandma who lives next door to our old house (we call her Gramma Pat, she is like my Nana that lives in San Diego and just as spunky. We love her) she told me that she just puts all her ingredients in a big stock put/roasting pan and bakes them at 400 until the tomatoes are done and cooked down a bit.

Into my turkey roaster went a bunch of tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh garlic cloves, a pack of sliced mushrooms, half a yellow squash, 2 zucchini, 2 onions, 2 red bells, 2 green bells, EVOO and salt and pepper and Italian seasoning for good measure. I put it in for about an hour at 350 cause I wanted it to take a little longer.

Here is one of the tomatoes I put in, maybe its trying to tell me something. :)

After you roast everything, you put in the blender for just a bit. We have a vitamix that lets you go really slow and barely chop which is lovely. I love a chunky sauce. I just love how it looks! So good. *edit- don't forget if you are making this it needs to be water bathed to seal the jars properly, otherwise store in bags in the freezer*

We had a great speghetti (actually linguini) with italian sauce (baby allowed it) and my sauce and a little bit of left over classico mixed it. It was delish!

When Grayson went down for his nap at 12:30 I got started with the ripening peaches. This time, whether it was because they were riper or because it wasn't the first time, I got 20! jars done before he woke up 430... he never naps that long but boy was I grateful.

Very productive day, if I do say so myself.

Baby oh baby 2 of 2

Well I survived. But barely.

Maybe we are more sensitive this time around but when the tech spends AN HOUR checking the baby and continually returns to the heart to take more measurements and when asked if everything is okay she brushes you off, we tend to freak out a bit.

We still don't know if anything is wrong with babe's heart, but I left a note with my midwife to call me as soon as she learns anything.

The other thing that kept us there an hour is this sweet little still genderless baby. It refused to uncross its legs which were so tucked under its buns we couldn't see a thing! For a while we thought maybe girl, then it uncrossed and it might have looked like a boy but then the legs went right back! With both Grayson and Jonathan it was an immediate ITS A BOY, at 17 weeks. Maybe that means its a girl. *sigh* So until further notice this baby is still unknown. :(

And darn if the big sale at Gymboree doesn't start tomorrow. I already put a cute little clearance sweater on hold too. Now to buy or not to buy?

Here is the bean, you can clearly see the spine and round (yay!) head .
And on the right, the bent/crossed legs.

And a foot, or two, I am not sure. It might be both when they were crossed together.

Baby oh baby 1 of 2

I am sitting in my car at the dr's office 30 minutes early because I am cronicly early.

And I am sobbing my head off.

We are supposed to find out our 3rd babies gender in only minutes and all I can think of is Jonathan.

1 year ago I was finding out my baby boys gender and diagnosis/ death sentence all in one fal swoop. Part me can't help but feel like it's going to happen again. I'm going to walk in and lose another child in one apointment.

I know it's not logical, and I have tests and pictures to prove to myself and yet...

I have not been able to bond really with this baby. It's so hard to make myself feel like it's really going to happen this time. I have bought only 1 new baby outfit, and it was at Goodwill and last week.

Wish me luck. Time to face my fears.

Happy 8 years!

Happy Anniversary to my dear sweet hubby of 8 years! May we have another 50 happy ones together!

Pics to follow tomorrow!

Thanks Kelli!

GeoTagged, [N45.52632, E122.90218]

Last year I made a dinosaur sweater for Grayson using an upcycled wool sweater and wool roving. I showed my friend Kelli who had seen the same Martha Stewart show I had but hadn't made any yet. She set right to work making sweater after sweater for her 3 yr old daughter Molly.

Lucky for us she got this one done and it just "didn't feel like a Molly sweater". Now it's Graysons! Isn't it cute?! I love the tail.

Kelli is so creative and has such great follow through! ( and her house is spotless! Yes I want to be her :)

Thanks again Kelli!

I suck I know!

So there once was a gal who had a blog, she wrote all the time and built up a pretty good following. And then one day she dropped off the planet or maybe she just got pregnant (again) and forgot to post.

Sorry. I have had posts in my head all week and I will try to work on them tonight now that my child isn't a cling-on. He has been sick since Monday morning. He is on the mend now and I am turning over my lazy leaf! Come back to me dear friends! :)

Zack Got a Job!

Yippee!
Zack got a job yesterday and started today!

It is a small but growing quickly (one of the fastest growing in Oregon I am told) firm that helps insurance agencies go over their billing and make sure they are being paid out accordingly and under the right codes. etc. I think. Its very complicated.

The last time he got hired I listed the name of the company, and the next day because you all had hit my blog and their website and their server announced all your presence to them and they found my blog when they traced it back as the source of the traffic. :)

I won't do that this time.

I would rather remain anonymous for a little while.

So for now, Zack got a job. We are very excited and hope to save the house. Fingers and toes are crossed. And for those of you that pray, cross your fingers (toes and hairs), do rain dances, or wish on stars, please if you will do that now for us. Thanks! I will keep you posted.

I have been working about 20 hours a week at Target and this week I was able to pick up a few more, getting closer to 35. And my babysitting job on Fridays. I am a tired girl and looking forward to cutting back just a bit once Zack's checks start coming in.

Some have said 2009 is going to be our year...
I might actually start to believe it.

Whats in a show?

A whole lot it seems. I have been working at T for about 3 months and have been wearing my new balance athletic shoes. All has been fine. The first day or two I was a little sore for um being out of shape and just general working hard, but today.

ah today. I worked my normal shift in the WAY TO EARLY FOR HUMANS TO BE MOVING hours and then was scheduled to take a shift for someone coming back at 4pm. I was asked at the last minute to switch that and stay until 2 on the register.

About 12 I realized I had stretched my back about 10 times and could not seem to get comfortable. Standing. Those don't seem to fit in the same sentence... I stand on a mat but its not at all helping. At 145, I left my register and hobbled up the stairs to clock out wondering if I wasn't better off doing flow and truck unload. At least there I know what my pain is from, but since I have turned in my water bottle note which states I have a 20lb weight lifting limit (um my kid is 30...) there is no going back.

So off to find new shoes. I would prefer not to spend $100 (since I don't have an extra $100) but want something that I can be in for 8+ hours straight and not feel my whole body groan when I move. I know I am pregnant so that is a tall order but if you have a recommendation please fess up now!

Thanks!