Fuquasophy

What we've been up to lately (with lots of pictures)

2012-01-29T21:18:00.000-08:00

I hope by now I don't have to explain my long absences from Blogger. It's the usual-life, time management, sleep. crawling baby. Here are some pictures to catch you up!

Posing with Mama.

Snuggling with Mama at Thanksgiving.

Meeting Uncle Austin for the first time!

Enjoying a delicious turkey feast!

Learning valuable life lessons from Grandma Bennie.

Loving on cousin AliBrooke.

Rootin' for ol' Rocky Top!

Enjoying the jumperoo. Mama enjoys it too!

Visiting with Mama's closest friends at Christmas.

Loving on Papaw Shepherd in Hot Springs.

Opening Christmas presents with Nonna in Hot Springs.

Christmasin' with Mama and Daddy.

Cheesin'.

Playing with Addie Pearl while Mama and Daddy enjoy the company of the Breedens!

Getting more teeth. Six total now.

Thumb-suckin'. It's the new latest thing, or didn't you know?

Visiting with Grandaddy.

Standin'! And fortunately for Mama, not walking yet!

7 (almost 8!) months of Locke

2011-11-13T19:24:00.001-08:00

Whoops I didn't realize I hadn't put an update here yet. This last month has been pretty fun and challenging at the same time. I'll break it down.

Sleeping: Locke sleeps from 6:30 pm to 6:30ish am. We had a few weeks where I was trying to adjust his schedule before the time change, and it messed him all up. He would wake 4-5 times during the night crying, playing, rolling around, etc. We finally started putting him to bed at 6:30 and it fixed the problem immediately. It sucks for us socially (really who am I kidding here? We don't go anywhere.) but we like our sleep so this is our life right now. He takes 2 1.5 hour naps during the day plus a catnap in the evenings. I wish he would do the "2 2-hour naps" every day but he has some kind of built-in timer that prevents this. He sleeps mostly on his back at night and sometimes for naps on his tummy.

Eating: Locke nurses 5 times a day, always with the option of feeding him more often if he acts like he's hungry. He has a certain "hungry whine" so I'm pretty good at figuring this out. He bit me several times really hard a few weeks ago when he was getting his second tooth and at one time I yelled pretty loudly at him. Not my finest moment as a parent, thank you Lord for forgiveness! Anyway I got my dues because he wouldn't nurse at all for about 2 days and I was freaking out a little. Self-weaning before a year old is pretty rare and I knew it was my fault. He wasn't taking bottles well either at that time. I prayed that God would give him a healthy appetite and he did! Last week I couldn't feed that child enough. This week we're back to him being distracted and not eating well. I'm going to try feeding him every 3.5 hours and some other tricks and hopefully that will help. Most days I feed Locke table food after 2 nursing sessions, usually around 11 am and 5 pm. BLW suggests working up to feeding them 3x/day. Honestly I haven't done this just because of the mess, but I need to do it. Some foods Locke has recently enjoyed are zucchini, yellow squash, butternut squash, chicken pot pie, cinnamon apples, and O'Charley's rolls. We took him to O'Charley's and he LOVED that roll and Erik and I were able to enjoy our dinner!

Milestones: Locke rolls all over the place now. If you put him on the floor and walk away, chances are when you come back he'll be across the room. He really loves being on his tummy now. His second tooth is all the way in. He is learning he can grab and hold things with his teeth. Last week he waved to me and my mom and I was confused at first. Apparently Erik taught him how to do it; I certainly didn't. We had our first "play date" with another mom and her kids. A girl I'm in Bible study with and her two girls went to Chick-fil-a with us last week. Locke did ok, but we left after about 45 minutes because it was time for all the kids to take naps. My big boy is sitting up all by himself now. He can do this for a long time unless he decides to reach for something far away and then he falls. Locke has been recognizing his own toys for a while now. If we're sitting somewhere and his toy is peeking out from behind a pillow he reaches for it. He loves Brown Bear, Brown Bear and The Gingerbread Man books. He recognizes their covers and gets excited when I get them out. I don't let Locke watch tv so we read a lot of books.

Diapers: I'm using cloth diapers during the day when we are at home but I've been dissatisfied with the poop situation. When he gets poop on the diaper covers, and he frequently does, I have to wash them immediately then wait til they dry. Granted he doesn't get it on his clothes but it's just as much work to clean the covers. I still use disposables when we go out and at night. I try to tell myself that once Locke is eating solids all the time his poop will be different and hopefully we won't have as many problems with this. By the way, I got a great deal at Kroger on diapers so I bought some of the Huggies Slip Ons. Don't waste your money. After an hour and a half of wearing the diaper the gel stuff in them was all over his behind. I'm going to take the unopened package back and I'll stick with my cheapo Luvs.

Daycare: Locke still goes 2x/week so I can sleep/work nights. He is really loved at daycare. He doesn't sleep well at all there and BLW has been an issue but otherwise he is very well taken care of. I will be so sad when he moves up to the next class because I just love his teachers. I feel very safe with him there.

Weight and height: I don't know exact measurements because we haven't been back to the doctor since his 6 month appointment. However on Halloween when I took him for his second flu shot I asked the nurse if we could weigh him and he was 18 pounds 4 ounces. You have to take off a little for his clothes so I figure somewhere around 18. I guess I could get my tape measure and measure him, maybe I'll do that at 8 months.

Taking off his sock after naptime so he can chew on it. Silly boy.

Sitting up.

He loves this book. All I have to say is "Run run as fast as you can!" and he just lights up.

My sweet boy really is a joy to take care of. I love my days at home with him and I wouldn't trade this time for anything. It's flying by too fast. I work on a high-risk L&D floor now and I'm reminded every shift that not everybody gets to take their baby home, and not every baby comes out healthy. I feel very undeserving of this precious gift God gave me in my son.

Happy Halloween 2011

2011-11-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well Halloween came and went without much hoopla. We didn't go to any parties, didn't do a family costume theme, and we didn't go trick or treating. Locke had to get his second flu shot earlier that day (apparently they make babies get 2, double the torture), so that allowed Locke to be in a gggrreeaaattt mood for wearing his costume and helping mom and dad pass out candy. Seriously though we've had a rough week with teething, a nursing strike, and then the shot so I had low expectations for Halloween night. We actually did take him to a fall festival Sunday night to see some people I used to go to church with and he had a good time. I didn't manage to get any pictures because we just walked around and didn't partake in the festivities. I thought we would have lots of trick or treaters because of the neighborhood, but I don't think we had even thirty. It doesn't matter that we had a bum Halloween because it marks the beginning of my favorite season. First there's Halloween, then my birthday, then Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years', and Erik's birthday. Love it!

Poor baby. He only wanted to be held and was not in a costume kinda mood.

Smokey the Dog (UT Vols mascot) and Daddio

Lil Smokey (haha) and Mom

What I did not get a picture of was him trying to eat the pumpkin.

My glitter punkins.

Baby-led Weaning in Action

2011-10-18T20:05:00.000-07:00

Let me just start by saying that I have nothing against traditional baby food and feeding technique. I was all ready to make my own purees and even looked into those fancy-schmancy baby food makers. It just so happened that one day I discovered baby-led weaning (BLW) through a link on a blog I follow. It sounded interesting so I did some more research. The main website I use as a reference is this one http://www.babyledweaning.com/. Gill Rapley, a community health nurse in the UK wrote a paper on it here http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/blw/engels.html and also wrote a book about it. I checked the book out from the library and was eager to get started, but we waited until Locke was six months old to introduce solids.
The basic gist is that you wait until baby is at least 6 months old AND can support himself in an upright position. This doesn't mean sitting up unsupported. For us, Locke can sit in a highchair in the most upright position it will go without falling forward. You offer baby large pieces (think chunky french-fry shape) of soft food and just let them go. Baby is always supervised, but you are not putting food in their mouth. This is what our feeding sessions look like: I nurse Locke and then 20-30 minutes later I put him in the highchair and put a large bib on him. Usually I cook something ahead of time and reheat it for him, but part of the beauty of BLW is that baby can eat essentially whatever the family is eating. Anyway, I give Locke a piece of food at a time. Too much food on the tray can overwhelm him. At first I thought this rule was dumb until I experienced first hand my son swiping all his food on the floor because there was too much on the tray. Go figure. Locke typically takes 30-40 minutes to eat. And it's messy. Very messy. That's just part of it. He definitely eats some of the food because the consistency of his poop has changed (hey it's the circle of life), but he doesn't eat very much. One of my favorite things about BLW is how laid back it is. I get Locke all set up and then I putter about the kitchen cleaning up, folding laundry, or cooking. I never worry about how much he eats or doesn't eat because he still gets 100% of his nutrition from breastmilk and everything else is just extra. Once he starts throwing everything on the floor I know he's done and then I get him cleaned up. The dogs take care of the food on the floor and I use a cheap Walmart washrag to clean Locke and the highchair. I wash off the tray and the bib. Seriously it takes like 5 minutes to clean up, not bad at all. The foods we've tried so far are sweet potatoes, acorn squash, carrots, broccoli, banana, toast, apples, pork roast, chicken, noodles, and mashed potatoes. Everyone is afraid of baby choking. As long as you follow the guidelines listed in the book it's really a non-issue. There is quite a bit of gagging involved. Note gagging, not choking. A baby's gag reflex is located in the middle of their mouth, not the back like adults, so it makes sense that they would gag some when they're learning how to move food from the front of their mouth to the back. On a similar note, every parent needs to know infant and child CPR and the Heimlich maneuver. You never know when your kid is going to put something small and dangerous in their mouth so learn how to do it. Ok, now on to the pictures!

Sweet potato

Broccoli (he didn't like it)

Avocado ( a little too slippery)

And a movie!

I've really enjoyed BLW so far even though I haven't given Locke much of the food we normally eat. It's just very easy for me to bake some sweet potatoes and apples along with our normal food. We eat a lot of soup and spicy Italian stuff and I can't see giving that to Locke. At some point he will develop his pincer grasp and be able to pick up small pieces. BLW will be really easy by then and I look forward to him sharing our meals and eating as a family.

Six Months of Locke

2011-09-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

Six months have come and gone since sweet baby Locke arrived and that's hard for me to wrap my mind around. He's getting to be such a big boy and it makes his momma sad! Every time I see a teensy newborn I get nostalgic for those first few weeks of Locke's life. If I could describe him in one word it would be busy. He is always on the move, although not really because he isn't crawling yet. He gets so distracted when he's nursing so I've had to feed him in a dark room where it's completely quiet and NO ceiling fans can be on! Nothing distracts him like a ceiling fan! At his appointment last week he weighed 16 pounds 8 ounces and was 28.5 inches long. He gained almost two pounds in two months and grew two inches. He's 97th percentile for height and just under 50th percentile for weight. I hope this means he's going to be tall. He is getting a tooth! His bottom right tooth (I don't know the name) is coming in and man that was so much fun-not! Of course it started coming in when we went out of town and poor Locke was fussy and irritable. He's chewing on anything he can get his hands on and drool is pouring out of his mouth. It has finally popped through the surface of the gum so I hope the worst is over. We've entered the babbling stage. He's conquered the "da" sound, and he says it all the time. We're not counting "da da" as his first word because to him it's just a sound and not a person. I'm pretty sure the other day he said "geese" but I don't think this counts either. He also loves screeching at the top of his lungs. I call it doing his scales. You can tell he enjoys hearing the sound of his own voice.We still haven't started solids yet so I haven't written a post on baby-led weaning because we haven't put it to practice. Right now Locke loves: peekaboo, more specifically being startled by one of us jumping out at him, the dogs, his exersaucer, the bumbo at daycare, people, and eating books. His dislikes are: getting dressed in the morning and when I put his pjs on, tummy time, having to take a nap at daycare, and removing boogers. Trust me, he has an abundance of boogers. Now on to some pictures.

He looks so much like my brother Ethan in this picture.

Isn't this the cutest?

Locke loves his feet.

My walking buddy. At some point on our walks he always fall asleep.

I think he's done taking pictures.

In the middle of babbling.

My little chatterbox.

Cute pictures of Locke with captions by Jessica

2011-09-27T18:42:00.000-07:00

"Say whuh?"

"Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now"

"She wore WHAT to the Emmy's?"

"Help! My mom won't stop taking pictures of me!"

"Cankles"

"Nom nom"

What we've been up to lately...

2011-09-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

We've been busy here at the Fuqua household so here's a rundown of our most important events.

Cute t-shirt wearin'

Actually we haven't been doing as much ball throwin' as normal. Sorry Roxy.

Football watchin' with Daddy. Locke isn't allowed to watch tv when Mommy's around so he convinces Daddy to break the rules.

Nappin'. Hallelujah for 1 1/2 hour naps!

Book readin'/ eatin'

And some more sleepin'. Being cute is exhausting. Just ask his mother. :-)

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-12T18:45:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty low-key Labor Day weekend. I am so fortunate with my new job that I don't have to work any holidays-yay! I wanted to visit Cheekwood in Nashville but the weather was going to be really hot so we decided to go an indoor museum. I highly recommend Lane Motor Museum in Nashville. It's a vintage car museum and it was only $7 for an adult. We had a great time looking at all the cool old cars, mostly European, and it's small enough that we got to see everything even on a baby's schedule.

This is how Locke spent most of his time. He was very content to chew on his straps.

I LOVE this scooter! If only I had a need for it/place to ride it/money to spend on it!

World's smallest working car, I think.

We also got to see one of Erik's old friends, Jessica Maloan, and eat at San Antonio Taco Co. It was good and seeing Jessica was great as always, but it wasn't the Texas Mexican food I know!

My little old man

2011-09-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

One of the things about having a boy is that the clothes just aren't as much fun. With fall just around the corner I washed all of Locke's winter stuff plus some stuff that my dad and stepmother so kindly sent to us. I got such a hoot out of seeing Locke in pants. I don't know if it's the diaper but the pants make him look like an old man! We keep calling him "Eddie Sr." because he looks just like Erik's late grandfather.

I love this picture because it looks like he's saying, "Hey gimme a break here!" in an Italian accent.

Old-man pants in action.

Here he is in his football outfit! Cheering on the Vols, the Baylor Bears, the Skyhawks, and the Titans!

Post-Bath

2011-09-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

This dude has some serious baby-abs.

Five Months of Locke

2011-08-31T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a whole month since I last posted but things have been busy around here. I started back to work part-time and that coupled with various projects around the house have kept me away from blogging. I think I'll say it every month-I cannot believe my child is another month older. I mean, five months? Didn't I just give birth to this kid? Sometimes I miss the days when Locke was nothing more than a lump of baby-fat, but now he's Mr. Personality. He's very social, loves attention, and loves people. He also loves Daddy. His daycare teachers still give me compliments about his easy-going attitude. I've figured out that your kids behave better for other people than for you! He's also very demanding, which I'm sure is common with most babies.
We haven't been to the doctor since his four month appointment (yay!) so I don't know his weight, but if he's on track with where he has been, then he's probably over 16 pounds by now. He's definitely gotten longer because his feet come out the bottoms of his 3-6 month sleepers and we've bought him some 6 month ones. As far as milestones, he can hold his own bottle now. He has started grabbing at anything we are holding, like yesterday he grabbed Erik's Chick-fil-A cup right out of his hand. I'm still holding off on giving him any food, and I'll explain why in another post about Baby-Led Weaning. He is talking so, so much. Of course it is just babbling, but sometimes it sounds like he's trying to have a conversation with himself. He is mouthing everything! He especially loves his set of baby keys, and has recently acquired a taste for board books. It makes reading to him a challenge because he gets upset and wants to eat the book. When I give him a book to chew on it ends up breaking down the board and I'm afraid he'll swallow some so I'm not sure what to do about that. I really enjoy reading to him and I know it's a huge boost to his brain development, but I'm afraid I've created a monster. Locke is still not rolling over yet, and honestly it concerns me. I know every kid is different, but deep down I wonder why it's taking so long to accomplish something most babies have mastered by now. If he's still not doing it by 6 months I'll let the pediatrician know and he can guide us on what to do. I'm not sure if it has to do with Locke's tortecullis or not.
As far as sleeping we have hit either a major breakthrough or fluke, I'm not sure. Last week he took several 1.5 hour naps, sometimes even two in one day. I didn't know what to do with myself, because normally he sleeps for 45 minutes and then we play or try to find something to do with the extra time. Don't think that he's doing this at daycare. Oh no, he keeps to his 30 minute naps there, I guess because there's so much going on. He's still sleeping through the night, although last week he had a couple mornings where he wanted to eat at 4:30 (AM people!) so I got up and fed him. He wakes around 6, but I continue to let him play in his crib until I get up at 6:30. His bedtime is around 6:45, meaning if he's had a bad day with terrible naps I put him to bed at 6:45, and if he's had a good day then it's more like 7.

We've been doing a lot of this: hanging out on the porch in the exersaucer and me trying to squeeze in a few pages of reading. He really does enjoy being outside.

Did I mention how much Locke loves Erik?

He's also in love with the dogs, more so Crockett than Roxy. Mostly just because Roxy couldn't care less about him but Crockett likes to be around me, and thus around Locke. He lights up when they come near him.

Ha! He's also been doing a lot of this, especially in the afternoon/evenings. It might have been mean for me to take this picture instead of attending to his ~~ridiculous demands~~ vital needs, but when he's 18 and thinks he has life figured out I want to be able to look back and see that there were times when he was just plain upset.

Random Things on a Tuesday

2011-08-30T07:42:00.000-07:00

1. Today I looked at how much my delivery, epidural, and hospital stay cost and I was blown away. Healthcare is expensive!

2. My son poops out the back of size 2 diapers (all brands). He poops out the sides of size 3 diapers (all brands). I'm seriously considering cloth diapering.

3. I am now officially a night nurse. So don't call me on Thursdays, Fridays, or Saturday mornings. You have been warned.

4. I am within 5 pounds of my pre-pregnancy weight!

5. My son has been sleeping for an hour and 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure that means Hell just froze over.

6. My dogs haven't been bathed in weeks and their nails are ridiculously long. Can you tell we had a baby?

7. Today I'm wearing a wrinkled polo shirt to Kroger because I'll be wearing Locke in a sling and it will hide the wrinkles. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

8. Last week I baked a cake for Locke's daycare teachers and I'm pretty sure the frosting I used was expired. Like at least by two years.

9. I'm living in a constant state of clutter and each weekend we try to chip away a little of it. Then my mom (who has moved out of her condo) gives me more crap and the clutter just gets worse.

10. Last week I went to get Locke up from one of his miraculous 1.5 hour naps and he smiled this huge smile at me. I was so overwhelmed I teared up and I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it now.

Four Months of Locke

2011-07-31T18:08:00.000-07:00

I've come to the conclusion that there's just about nothing sweeter than a four month old baby. They are so easy to take care of, so easy to entertain, absolutely melt-your-heart adorable, and so much fun. Locke has really come into his own little personality in the last month. He is "talking" up a storm! He talks when he's happy, when he's mad, when he's hungry, and especially when he's tired. He starting laughing last month and although it takes quite a bit to get him giggling, the payoff is well worth it. He is a baby of definites. He is either definitely hungry or definitely done nursing. Most of the time he is definitely happy unless he's super tired or it's past his time to eat. He is still sleeping through the night, although we have dropped the dream feed and he sometimes wakes up around 5 and talks to himself until he falls back asleep. His legs and arms are getting chunky and I just love the rolls and rubberbands! I get compliments from the ladies at daycare that he is such an easy baby, that he is so happy, and that he is rarely fussy even when he doesn't nap well.

That brings me to our major struggle with Locke and that's naps. While he is a great nighttime sleeper, he's a terrible napper. I tried going to a combo 3/3.5 hour feeding schedule and it was a disaster. Most days I'm lucky if he takes three 45 minute naps and one catnap in the evening. He can do this easily on a 3 hour feeding schedule, but when I tried to stretch that out it did not end well! It's nearly impossible to get a baby to wait for their food when they're not sleeping through the extra time. So we went back to the three hour schedule and dropped the dream feed and it's working great for us right now. I usually start Locke off in his crib for naps but if he wakes after 45 minutes I put him in his swing to see if he'll go back to sleep, because he won't if he's in his crib. This works about 50% of the time. The other 50% we just play and I try to make up the lost nap time by putting him down 15 minutes earlier for the next nap. I've just come to accept that Locke is not a great napper and move on with the day.

At his appointment he weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces, which is a gain of 3 pounds 2 ounces since his 2 month appointment. He was also 26.5 inches long, which is 2 inches of growth in 2 months. He's already started growing out of the bottom of his 3-6 month sleepers. I can't remember if I mentioned earlier but Locke has something called torticullis, which is a tightening of the muscles in one side of his neck. It's probably due to him lying a certain way in my uterus for so long, and it manifests itself in that he prefers to turn his head in a certain direction. We've worked with him, per our pediatrician, in his tummy time and stretching out the neck muscles on the tight side and forcing him to use them. We got a good report from the doctor and instructions to keep working on it. He also took some x-rays of Locke's head because it's pretty asymmetrical due to Locke sleeping on his back and therefore one side of his head plus with the torticullis he lays on that one side whenever he can. His skull is kind of "bulgy" for lack of a better word around his temple and the x-rays show it's just positional and will correct itself over time. Locke's sutures in his skull are open (this is normal) and will allow for shifting and normalizing of the skull in the months to come. As far as milestones, he is grabbing and grasping objects and putting everything in his mouth. He can roll from side to side but not over, although he wants to and is trying. He is really working on picking his head up and can hold it up very well. He sticks his right arm out when I hold him because I think it makes it easier for him to balance that big noggin! Now on to the pictures!

We had Locke's 3 month pictures done 3 weeks ago but since I haven't ordered any yet we took some pictures before church last weekend. Everyone says how much Locke looks like Erik but I think he favors me a little.

Locke and Daddy.

Look at that sweet face! He sure does love when Momma comes to get him from naps!

And....he's done.

And again, happy baby!

Every day I wake up at 6:45 and although I'd love to sleep in, I really enjoy getting Locke up from his crib. In the past few weeks he has really started recognizing me as his mom and his main caretaker. It's more than that, though. I'm reading a book by Penelope Leach (I highly recommend another book by her, Your Baby and Child) called The Essential First Year and it talks about how babies need that one person in their lives who care about their every need, someone who truly cares if they have a wet diaper, if they are bored, and if they need some cuddling. They are few problems that can't be solved by momma. I love that feeling!

Nature's Bounty

2011-07-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

We are very fortunate to live so close to our family members and they have been so generous to us since we moved back. My mom and her boyfriend planted a huge garden this past spring and we are reaping the rewards from it. My mom gave me tons of cucumbers, zucchini, squash, and tomatoes and I've been trying to find ways to use them up.

First I made Chocolate Zucchini Bread. Oh.my.word. It is amazing! I left out the allspice the recipe calls for because I'm not a fan but the cinnamon alone makes it taste wonderful. I do recommend tossing your chocolate chips in some flour before adding them in, because mine all sunk to the bottom of the loaf pan. You'll need one medium zucchini or half of a large one for this recipe.

1-½ cup Zucchini, Shredded
1 cup All-purpose Flour (or Substitute 1/2 C. Whole Wheat Flour And 1/2 C. All-purpose Flour)
½ cups Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
¼ teaspoons Baking Powder
¼ teaspoons Salt
½ teaspoons Cinnamon
¼ teaspoons Ground Allspice
½ cups Canola Oil
½ cups Granulated Sugar
½ cups Light Brown Sugar, Packed
2 whole Eggs
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
¾ cups Mini Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips (or Regular Sized)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in the center of the oven. Grease, or spray with nonstick vegetable spray, a 9×5×3″ loaf pan. Set aside.
Grate the zucchini using a medium sized grater. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the oil, sugars, eggs, and vanilla extract until well blended – about 2 minutes. Fold in the grated zucchini.
Add the flour mixture, mixing just until combined. Then fold in the chocolate chips.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until the bread has risen and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55-65 minutes.
Place on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and cool completely. Recipe courtesy of oneordinaryday.wordpress.com.

Then I made Homemade refrigerator pickles. Lawd, those are good! They don't keep as long as pressure-canned pickles, but you don't have to mess with a that boiling water and such. I omitted the peppers and only added onion and garlic. I used pint containers and I think this recipe made enough for 3 or 4 pints. Yum!

FOR 1 QUART PICKLING BRINE
3 cups Cold Water
1 cup White Vinegar
2 Tablespoons Canning Or Picking Salt, Up To 3 Tbsp (You May Use Table Or Kosher Salt)
_____
For Pickles:
Small Whole Cucumbers Or Peeled And Sliced Cucumbers
1 Large Onion, Sliced Into Rings
2 Tablespoons Whole Black Peppercorns Or Coarse Ground Pepper
4 Large Cloves Garlic, Sliced
Fresh Hot Peppers Or Crushed Red Pepper As Desired, Optional
Green Bell Pepper Sliced Into Rings, Optional

Stir brine ingredients to dissolve salt as much as possible.
In quart jars or any airtight container that can be used in the fridge, pack fresh whole cucumbers or peeled and sliced cucumbers, adding sliced onion, peppercorns, garlic and hot peppers if used, equally among the jars/containers. Stir brine again and pour over cucumbers to cover, then cover tightly and place in the fridge.
You may also use small zucchini squash in this recipe or in almost any pickling recipe that calls for cucumbers, including relishes, chow chow, piccalilli and my favorite, bread and butter pickles.
For the refrigerator pickles, I’d use equal parts cucumbers and small zucchini if using the squash in this recipe.
According to how many cucumbers you have, you may need more onion and garlic and more brine to cover your cucumbers. These have to stay refrigerated because they’re not processed in a canner for long storage. Recipe courtesy of dianesrecipeblog.blogspot.com.
Then, if you can believe it, I made Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Zucchini Muffins and boy, they are good! I left out the lemon juice (didn't have any) and added an extra tablespoon of milk. Instead of walnuts I used about a 1/2 cup of oatmeal. These came out so moist and not too sweet. Thanks to allrecipes.com for the recipe.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup shredded zucchini
1/4 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts. Fill greased or paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until muffins test done.

Locke's Room

2011-07-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

When we bought this house the first priority in decorating was the nursery. We did things a little backwards, by having the baby and then doing the nursery, but that couldn't be helped due to the move. Locke's room was originally a disgusting brown color. Seriously, it looked like the color of baby poop. There were about 40 holes in the wall that I had to spackle and sand, and the trim was partially painted the same color as the wall. Also, all the outlets and outlet covers were painted the same color as the wall. No, really. Who does that? Anyway, I went to Home Depot, picked out a nice green color and got my paint on.

We had to pile all of Locke's stuff in the center of the room and then cover it with a sheet. Our garage is still full of boxes so we had nowhere else to put it! Before.

After. My good friend Lori had these pictures painted to match some owl fabric I'm in love with. Originally I was going to have Locke's bedding made out of it but the lady was asking way too much and I haven't had the budget to make it myself-yet! We reused my old bench and dresser from when I was a kid. The white and blue blanket on the bench was Austin's when he was a baby. You can see the wreath a coworker of mine made for Locke when he was born. She did a fabulous job and I love looking at it because it reminds me of that wonderful day!

Another coworker of mine made the letters for Locke. I should have taken an up-close shot because they are too cute. The rocking chair was Erik's mom's when he was born. I'd like to get the cushion recovered because it's a funky (and not in a good way) orange color. I made the owl mobile from a pattern I found online and used baker's twine and a stick from our backyard. Locke really loves that thing.

So in this room we (I) painted the walls, trim, had the carpets replaced (knasty with a K!), replaced all the outlets and outlet covers, and bought a new crib. I still would like to get some of that owl fabric and make curtains and a fitted crib sheet. Then I'd like to get some coordinating fabric and make a bed skirt so I can hide some of Locke's stuff under his crib. We still need to paint the doors because they are painted an off-white color that doesn't match the trim, and replace the doorknobs. I'd also like to get a cordless blackout shade for the window. Not pictured is a wonderful owl drawing my mom's stepdad did and that my grandmother had framed. It's above the dresser, but I still have to do some touch-up painting around the light switch so I didn't take a picture of it.

I absolutely love Locke's room. I love the soft carpet, the color, the fact that we reused furniture, and the open space. Locke and I sit in there and read books, do tummy time, and just play. Now if only the rest of the house looked so put-together!

Like Father, Like Son

2011-07-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Three Months of Locke

2011-06-27T18:26:00.000-07:00

The last month has really flown by. We closed on our house, began updating it, and Locke got his first illness. My dad, grandmother, and little brother Ethan came for a visit Father's Day weekend and I could tell on that Friday that Locke wasn't feeling well. That night he woke up in the middle of the night crying and inconsolable. He had a low-grade fever so I gave him some Tylenol. He fussed the rest of the night and since he was sleeping in our room none of us got any sleep! His temperature spiked Saturday night but after a cool bath and some more Tylenol it broke and he started feeling better. Unfortunately his schedule got all screwed up and a lot of that is my fault. His nose was stuffy so it was hard for him to breathe and nurse at the same time, which meant he wasn't eating well, and therefore I let him eat whenever he wanted instead of on his schedule. It's been over a week since Locke got sick and we're still working through schedule issues. The bonus of all this is that he has moved to a 3.5 hour nursing schedule instead of every 3 hours. That extra half hour provides even more freedom for us when running errands, at church, going out to eat, etc.

I don't know Locke's weight because we haven't been back to the doctor since his two month appointment. I usually have to feed Locke in a quiet room without the ceiling fan on (very distracting for the little man!) so that he can focus on eating. I guess one of the downsides of breastfeeding is that Locke is very easily distracted and/or he falls asleep easily. His major milestones are rolling to his side, discovering his feet, and laughing. My child's laugh is one of the best sounds in the whole world! One of the bittersweet things about parenting is that you love the new things they do as they grow up, but it's so sad to watch them grow and know they'll never be that little again. Today I was putting away Locke's newborn and 0-3 months clothes and I almost started crying! I was remembering the little navy elephant sleeper that Locke wore his first day in the hospital. Or the blue gown I bought for him at Canton that he wore on the way home from the hospital . Or the Star Wars onesie that Erik liked so much. Such good memories!

I try not to let Locke fall asleep on me or take naps outside of his swing or his crib but on this day I had tried to wake him up to eat and this is what he did.

He's not super chunky but he's really long. He grew out of his 0-3 month sleepers because his feet were pushing out of them. I love the sleepers with animals on the feet!

Everybody says how much Locke looks like Erik. I'd like to think he has a little bit of me in him, too.

My toothless 7 year old brother absolutely loves Locke. He wanted to hold him the whole time they were here. I love these boys so much!

The Ten Pound Twin

2011-06-14T18:34:00.000-07:00

I thought when we had our first ultrasound back in early August ( or late July?) that we saw only one baby's heartbeat on the monitor. That baby has been born and is thriving but no one told me about his ten pound twin.

Ah yes, the evil twin that now resides on my midsection. I've been trying to get rid of this thing since March! It's made up of all those Carl's Jr. cheeseburgers, Chick-fil-A milkshakes, and ice-cold Cokes I was so fond of the last months of my pregnancy. In fact one of the first things I said to Erik after Locke was born was "I want a Coke." I gained a total of 40 pounds during my pregnancy and at 2 weeks postpartum I had lost 20-ish of it. Locke will be 12 weeks old on Thursday and in 10 weeks I only lost 10 more pounds and I'm at a plateau.

When you're breastfeeding dieting is pretty much a no-no. It messes up your milk supply and you shouldn't cut calories when you're using an extra 500 a day to feed your kid. So I've turned to exercise to help get this twin delivered and off my body. I bought Zumba for the Wii and I did it every day last week. I am so uncoordinated it's not even funny. Now I know why I've never been to a club-I can't dance! There's also a new group in Clarksville called Stroller Strides which is basically a work out group and you pay for the classes. I haven't joined yet but they have a sister club that doesn't require a membership fee and they go walking on the new greenway a couple of times a week with their kids in strollers. Locke and I are going tomorrow. It's during his first morning nap time, but he almost always falls asleep when I put him in the stroller so hopefully he'll be ok.

Also I'm on the stay-at-home-mom diet. It's not an actual diet but my new way of life. I can only eat what I've purchased at the grocery and brought home with the occasional take-out that Erik brings home for dinner. I lost 4 pounds the first week I went on this "diet." I'm not super comfortable taking Locke out to eat because it's hard to plan around his schedule so that he's a) not hungry and b) not tired and fussy. That leaves about an hour and 15 minute window every 3 hours. Plus I like to eat my meals without having to hold him too and that's best accomplished at home. Erik and I used to eat out at least 3-4 times a week before Locke was born and now it's more like 1-2. It's amazing how much cheaper it is to eat at home!

I'll try to keep the old blog updated on my weight loss progress. I've read that it can take 9 months to take off what it took 9 months to put on, but I hope that's not the case!

Thankful

2011-06-13T09:15:00.000-07:00

Today I was skimming through the blogs I read regularly and came upon one where a couple had just lost their baby at an early gestation. The day Locke was born a young girl was going through the same thing. Today I'm reminded to be thankful for the blessing of life God has given me in my son.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Locke that Erik took after an early morning feeding. Look at the way his hand is on my arm. So sweet!

The thing that has saved my sanity

2011-06-08T13:01:00.000-07:00

Locke started sleeping through the night around 8 weeks old and by that I mean from about 8 p.m. until 6:45 a.m. or so with a dreamfeed at 10 p.m. This was no easy task so I'm going explain how we did and also get to the point of this post.

Let me start by saying that getting Locke on a decent sleep schedule was difficult and we made a lot of mistakes on the way. First mistake-trying to get him on a schedule in the middle of packing and moving across the country. Not to mention the fact that we lived at my mom's the first week we were in Tennessee and then moved all of our stuff into our new house. I think for sure he felt the stress that we were feeling and that affected his sleep. Second mistake-unrealistic expectations and not enough research. I read Babywise front to back multiple times and thought I was ready. HA! Nothing prepares you for the battle your kid can put up when you try to get him to sleep!

Basically this is what we did minus most of the drama: From the beginning of Locke's life we listened to the pediatrician and during the day we didn't let Locke sleep more than 2 hours at a time (no more than 4 at night since I was trying to establish a milk supply) and followed the rule of eat, awake time, sleep. This was pretty hard since newborns get so sleepy when you feed them but we pressed on, and by the time he was 2.5 weeks old he was sleeping 3 and 4 hours at a time at night. After we moved and got into our house I pretty much holed up with Locke for 2 weeks and followed a 2-3 hour schedule of eat, play, and sleep. These weeks were really hard, mainly because every day I felt like I was losing the battle with sleep and I was very homesick for Texas. It's very isolating being home with a newborn all day when you've just moved and don't have friends to come by. At the end of those 2 weeks I really felt like giving up and waiting until Locke was older, like maybe 3 or 4 months old. One of the things that really helped at this point was the book The Baby Whisperer Solves All Your Sleep Problems by Tracy Hogg. I didn't read it but I read many of the points online and how to use them. She talks about how to help your baby sleep instead of just expecting them to do it on their own. Another thing that helped with daytime naps was buying a swing. Babywise says not to use a swing, but I'm here to tell you that in my opinion, if your baby will sleep well in a swing, let them do it.

Like I said before, Locke started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks old but he started sleeping 8 hours at night by 6 weeks old. It was great but his naps during the day were seriously terrible. For a couple weeks he wouldn't sleep more than 45 minutes at a time. It was screwing up the 2-3 hour schedule and then he would be cranky all the time. Now, let me tell you what saved us.....(dramatic drum roll)

This! The thumb-sucking! On the day Locke turned 2 months old two very important things happened: Locke discovered he could suck his thumb and he had his 2 month shots. The shots were significant because the next day he was feeling crappy and took a 2.5 hour nap. Up until this point he hadn't napped longer than 45 minutes! I think his body was like, "Hey, I actually like naps and they make me feel better!" He's been a pretty decent napper since then. The thumb-self soothing has a lot to do with it. When he gets sleepy that thumb goes in his mouth and he starts rubbing his eyes and I know it's time to put him in the swing.

Just in the last week or so he has also started sucking his fingers on his left hand. It's really cute when he tries to suck these and his thumb at the same time! If I could do it all over again here's what I would do differently: I would use a swaddle blanket. We had one and I used it the first night he was home and that was it. I would give it more time and use it again. Babies tend to fling out their arms and freak themselves out when they're sleeping and Locke did this a lot. Swaddling prevents this and makes them feel secure. I would implement Hogg's EASY routing along with the 4 S's to help Locke fall asleep. So many times I laid him down awake and expected him to fall asleep. I just don't think that was realistic for him at that age. I would have already bought a swing to begin with. We had a Mamaroo, but it doesn't have a swing feature, and he didn't really like it. I would not force Locke to sleep by himself all the time during naps. If I could take it back, I would have loved more snuggles with my baby. I was very afraid of falling asleep with Locke next to me and so he slept in the pack n play most of the time. They are only little for so long!

I still think with the next baby (many, many years from now) that we will start sleep-training from birth, just in a different way. The sleep we have been able to get is wonderful and Locke is a relaxed, easy going baby 90% of the time. Honestly, I think how a baby sleeps depends a lot on their personality. I can also say that I couldn't have done it without Erik's help. He encouraged me and helped me when I couldn't listen to Locke's crying anymore. Now he does the bedtime routine with Locke almost every night. Thanks babe!

Two Months of Locke

2011-05-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday my baby turned 2 months old and it breaks my heart. I never had this sense of time fleeting until Locke was born and in the blink of an eye he was a week old.

Things that I love about 2 months:

A) He learned to suck his thumb! I may pay for this later on in dental fees, but this kid refuses to take a pacifier and anything that soothes him that's not breastfeeding is fine with me!

B) His smiles. Oh, I live for those smiles. He can be having a crabby day (rare) and I get him to smile and my whole world lights up. There is just something about your baby smiling at you-I wouldn't trade it for anything.

C) He is sleeping through the night-almost. Right now I nurse him around 7, he has a bath, sometimes we read a book depending on his level of fussy/tiredness and lay him down. I dreamfeed him at 10 and then lay him back down. Sometimes he wakes up at 4 to eat, but the past 2 nights he has woken up, made a few noises, and then gone back to sleep on his own. He wakes up between 7- 7:30 and I let him hang out in there for a few minutes if he wakes up crying. I don't know why, but if he wakes up crying and I immediately go get him he is in a bad mood until it's time to sleep again. If I give him a few minutes to calm down on his own, he is as happy as he can be.

D) He got his first round of shots yesterday so now I feel comfortable taking him out in public. Since we've moved the only places he's been are church where I hold him the whole time, Berry Bear- a fro yo place that Erik loves, and to Martin for a family gathering. He's never even been to Target-that's a big deal because when I was pregnant I was there every week!

I was a little skeptical meeting our pediatrician yesterday because I'm not familiar with any docs here in Clarksville. However, he was really nice, spent a lot of time with us and addressed all our concerns. Sunday Locke developed a rash all over his tummy, around his mouth, and on his legs. I assumed it was because I ate a couple shrimp at a restaurant that day and was afraid he might have a shellfish allergy, but the doc said that might not be the case. Also Locke tends to look only to the right and has done that since birth. He can and will look to the left but really prefers the right and our doc said he has some tightness in his neck muscles and gave me some exercises to do at home.

We sure do love our little boy! When I was pregnant I was skeptical that I could enjoy or even want to stay home with a baby. How naive I was! I could spend all day talking and playing and taking care of this kid. Erik and I really love being parents and we love that Locke gets to be around his family. I still really miss Waco, sometimes so much that it's all I can do not to hop on a plane and go back, but I know that these days are precious and I'm glad our families get to enjoy Locke.

Birth Day!

One month old! I never did take a picture of just Locke on this day, which was Easter. It might have had something to do with the fact that we were moving, I was emotional, and we had no place to live! Easter was the last leg of our move and we stopped 2 places that day to see family.

2 months old! Just look at that face! I am still in love with those chins!

As of yesterday Locke weighed 11 pounds 8 ounces, having gained 3 pounds in 6 weeks. He was 24 inches long. 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height.

Adventures in Breastfeeding (Yup I said it!)

2011-05-22T19:18:00.001-07:00

Let me just start by saying that breastfeeding is the single most rewarding thing I do for Locke. Nothing makes me feel better than knowing that I've put every ounce of fat and chunk on that kid and that I can continue to do it until he or I chose not to. Let me also say that breastfeeding was the most difficult, painful, and exhausting thing about taking my baby home and caring for him. I did all the "right" things in the hospital, all the things I told new mothers to do, and all the things I was taught in a class taught by the lactation consultant at work. By the way there is a special place in Heaven for the lactation consultant where I used to work! That woman is an angel! Things like holding Locke skin to skin after birth (wonderful!), attempting feeding before his first bath, feeding on demand for the first 2 days, feeding at least every 2 hours for the first week, and watching for feeding cues-his most prominent cue we deemed "lizard tongue." Nobody told me that even though your body makes enough colostrum to feed baby, it really only makes enough to keep a normal baby's blood sugar from dropping too low and thus you feed for every two hours so it doesn't drop. Again, nobody told me how mad a baby can get when he only gets enough colostrum to keep his blood sugar at a normal level. I should have known better seeing as how ticked I would get as a preggo when I had to wait even a little bit for food! I won't mention certain other uncomfortable aspects of breastfeeding here due to the fact that some men (hi dad!) read this blog.

After Locke was about 3 or 4 weeks breastfeeding was a dream. So easy, not painful, and a really wonderful bonding time with Locke. The new obstacle became where to feed him when I actually ventured out of the house with him. Keep in mind, I rarely took him out anywhere the first three weeks because a) it was still RSV season, b) I was so dead-dog tired that I didn't have the energy, and c) our pediatrician put the fear of God in me about my baby being hospitalized if he so much as spiked a fever before 8 weeks. So after I crawled out of our little rabbit hole into the light again I had to figure out where to feed this kid. At first I would stop at work and go up to the nursery (keep in mind we never had any babies in there) and do double duty feeding him and seeing my friends. Then we moved when Locke was four weeks old. During that trip I learned to feed him in random parking lots, parked as far away from other cars as possible. Granted I used a nursing cover, but I was always afraid some weirdo was going to come up and look at me!

The worst, absolute worst place I had to feed Locke was at the real estate agent's office here in town. Now our real estate agent is probably the nicest and most successful one here in Clarksville, but she works for a group and they don't exactly have a nursing mothers' room in their building. We went to the office one day to take a look at prospective houses and naturally it became time for Locke to eat. Since they had a rather crowded parking lot (see above) I didn't know what else to do but head to the ladies room. Yes folks, I had to feed my kid in a bathroom stall. Now I know lots of mothers out there have done the same thing because maybe they're like me and can't just whip out the boob in public. I just can't do it, y'all! Anyway, I'm in there and this lady comes in to the other stall to do her business, which is what a bathroom is for-not to feed your baby. Then I stood there horrified as she proceeds to have awful, smelly diarrhea! I'm in the next stall over and Locke is not a quiet eater and this poor woman can obviously tell somebody else is in there while she has a very upset stomach. Yikes and yuck. Since then I vowed never to feed my kid in a bathroom.again.period.

While I'm on the subject I just want to say that I will never again judge a mom for not breastfeeding her baby. We brought Locke home on a Saturday and that Sunday was pretty much one of the worst days of my life. Of course we had gotten zero sleep Saturday night because he finally figured out that all he was getting was colostrum and dude was HUNGRY!! He cried all day Sunday. I mean ALL. DAY. Then I started crying because he wouldn't even latch on to try to get the five drops I had to offer. Anyway, early Monday morning my milk came in and we never looked back but it was the most hellacious 36 hours I've ever spent. So, if you're a mom who's exhausted and your baby is hungry you go ahead and give that baby some formula. I wish somebody had told me that. And if you feel guilty for it you call me and I'll recap the horrible hours I spent with a crying hungry baby and you can feel better about yourself!

Lots of Changes

2011-05-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

So in addition to having a baby, we moved back to Tennessee and Erik started at a law firm in Clarksville! We had quite a few things going on, huh? Not to mention that we bought a house about 2 miles from where I used to live here in Clarksville. I have to say that moving has been extremely stressful and emotional for me. I'm sure there are all kinds of hormones going on with a breastfeeding postpartum mom but I really, really miss Waco. I'm currently job searching for something part-time and I've found a couple of positions that I would like that aren't labor and delivery. Erik is enjoying his job at the law firm and working again after being in school for 3 years. Locke made the move with little trouble. He is a remarkably easy baby except when it comes to daytime naps. The child is just like his momma in that he does not like to nap! Now I'll get to the Locke pictures.

My first smile shot.

He's getting so big it makes my heart hurt! I don't think I'll ever get over how fast he is changing.

Right now his big tricks are sticking his fist in his mouth to suck on his knuckles and talking/cooing. The child will not take a pacifier and it took him a week to be able to get that fist in his mouth. My favorite thing is when he sneezes sometimes he'll coo right after. It's the most ridiculously cute thing you have ever seen! Maybe I can get it on film and put it up here.

This Boy

2011-04-15T12:35:00.000-07:00

I understood that newborns are a lot of work but I never knew how much fun Locke would be. Erik and I get such a kick out of watching his faces, listening to his sounds, and taking pictures of him. He is such a good baby and sleeps so well at night! This isn't a fluke. We have been working very hard at getting him on a schedule and it's still a work in progress. The kid loves to eat and is a great nurser. Getting him to nap during the day is a challenge, especially in the early afternoon and evening. At this point I'll take him being crabby in the afternoon and sleeping well at night! Hopefully with a little more effort on our parts we'll have this kid on a flexible schedule in the next couple of weeks.

About to go out for a walk. Because of his fussiness, we usually take walks in the neighborhood in the afternoon. What is it about being pushed around in a stroller that puts a kid at ease?

The dogs have really done well with Locke. They like to smell and lick his toes and they want to be wherever he is. If I take him into our room to feed him they'll lay right by me.

He seems to really like his bath time. At first he'll fuss but then he's calm and he seems to be in a better mood afterwards.

We spend a lot of Locke's wake time propping him up on our legs and talking to him. It's so fun to make up songs and move his little legs and arms. His cheeks are starting to get chunky and he's got a double chin. He's so squeezable! We are in love with this boy!

Locke's Birth Story

2011-03-31T14:11:00.000-07:00

Don't worry if you are a male or squeamish woman reading this-all the content is G-rated!

My due date was Tuesday March 22nd and I just knew I was never going to go into labor and was going to have be induced the following Monday. I was absolutely dreading the induction because as an L&D nurse, I've been told by numerous patients how much more painful the pitocin contractions are than regular labor and there's a significant increased risk of c-section in first time moms who are induced. Luckily I started having irregular but painful contractions at 5:30 Wednesday morning so I got up at 7:30, and starting timing them using my contraction timer app on my phone. That morning I cleaned the house and when Erik got up I told him I might be in early labor. Unfortunately throughout the day the contractions slowed down then stopped completely, so I went to my scheduled prenatal massage and then walked around WalMart for a while. Erik and I took two walks around the neighborhood that day to see if we could speed up those pesky contractions but to no avail. That night I made dinner and went to bed but I couldn't sleep. The contraction pain was tolerable but bad enough that I couldn't sleep.

Then at 2:00 that morning I woke up to seriously painful contractions, very different than what I'd been experiencing. I knew this had to be it but they were so irregular, ten minutes apart and I didn't want to go to the hospital until they were 5 minutes apart. Yes, even as an L&D nurse they would send me home if I wasn't dilated very much and having irregular contractions! I got up at 3:30 and called up to work to talk to my friend Brittainy and ask her what I should do. She told me to get in the shower and try a hot pack for my back. I don't know what the shower did but as soon as I got in there my contractions started coming every 5 minutes. I got out and waited until I'd had an hour of these and then woke Erik up and told him we were going to the hospital.

We made it up there around 6:00 and I had called ahead so all the girls at work knew I was coming. I was so nervous because I was hurting so bad and if I was still only dilated to a one I was gonna flip. Well it turns out I was a five! My mood immediately changed and they put me in a room and got me ready for my epidural. Now let me tell you I have helped with so many epidurals I can't even count them, but that is a weird experience when it's you on the other side! Around 8 that morning my doctor came in and broke my water and then they started a small amount of pitocin because my contractions had slowed down again. My friend Shawna was my nurse and my friend Lori came up to be with me and I felt so loved by all the staff on duty that day. I was able to relax and watch tv for a bit and then things started happening really fast.

I was dilated to a 9 around 11:30 but then Locke's heart beat went down a little and wouldn't come back up. I started to feel my contractions and they hurt so bad. All I could do was roll on my side and hold the bed rail and shake until the contraction was over. They called my doctor and had me start pushing soon after and thirty minutes later they laid this screaming baby on my chest!

I can't describe the feeling when Locke looked at me and Erik for the first time. It was like this baby knew me and knew I was his mom. I kept thinking he was so skinny, so when they said he was 8 pounds I was very surprised. We had the sweetest time afterwards with him skin to skin on my chest and just me and Erik in the room. I am so lucky that my coworkers/friends were able to be there and that everything turned out ok. We are so blessed!

Locke Henry Fuqua is here!

2011-03-29T17:58:00.001-07:00

We are so excited to announce that Locke Henry Fuqua was born on March 24th, 2011 at 12:38 pm. He weighed 8 lbs even and was 21.5 inches long. Here are a few pictures until I get enough energy to put some more on here.

Still Cooking

2011-03-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

It's 1:00 pm on Sunday afternoon and yes I'm still pregnant. I think I'm going to start charging a dollar for every person who asks me "You still haven't had that baby yet?" What's with these people? It's my first baby and my due date isn't for another week. Why is there an expectation that this baby is supposed to come before he's due? I don't think people understand that I'm not miserable and breaking down my doctor's door to try to get him to induce me. I'm sleeping through the night, except to get up to the bathroom, and I'm happy to report that my hip hasn't hurt since Friday before last. I don't understand it, but I woke up one morning and the pain was far less, then the next day it was almost gone. I'm just going to take it as a blessing from God and not question Him! I have felt so great the past week, like I could run a marathon. My only true complaint would be my feet and ankles which are swollen to about 3x their size and I only have 2 pairs of shoes that I can stuff these boats into. Erik affectionately named them "Skeenkles" for ski-ankles because he says they look like ski boots. Har har. I would post a picture but I have a little more self-respect than that.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have this baby this weekend, preferable after Friday because I have a hair appointment and I really wanted to get my hair cut before he comes. I have both our bags packed, the cameras charged and ready to go, and the house is almost totally clean. Every night I go to sleep and think this could be the last time I get to sleep uninterrupted for the next few years. I can't wait to meet this little guy, see who he looks like, and share him with the world. However, if he could wait until after I get my hair did I would be much obliged.

Not Just Waddling

2011-02-25T20:05:00.000-08:00

I started having pain in my left hip almost 2 weeks ago that was just kind of annoying, not really that bad. It progressively got worse over the week to the point where walking, turning over in bed, and generally just bearing weight in my left leg was really painful and I started limping. I finally (at Erik's insistence) went to my doctor on Monday. I know that hip pain is not an OB problem but unfortunately when you're 9 months pregnant every doctor except your OB is scared of treating you, so that's who I went to. Since I work with my doctor we have good communication and I think he understood that I was really hurting, especially since I've had no problems at all so far. He sent me to the orthopedic doctor who saw me the same day and I was really impressed with this guy. He spent at least 20 minutes with me assessing my hip and range of motion with my left leg. I had an idea of what I thought I might have, but he blew me away with his diagnosis. I have Transient Osteoporosis of the Hip. Not at all what I was expecting, especially since I'd never heard of it before! http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00205 This website has some good info on it. Basically the bone density in my hip joint is severely decreased causing intense pain with weight bearing. It's uncommon and only occurs in pregnant women in their 3rd trimester and middle aged men. There's no definitive cause and the treatment is pain meds and trying to stay off the affected joint with crutches or a walker. The only positive thing about this is that it resolves within months after delivery and your bone density returns to normal.

So what does this mean for me? Well, because I work full time and I'm the only employed member of this family I have to keep working until my due date. I'm taking off for maternity leave starting on the 19th of March, which is not what I wanted to do. I wanted to work up until delivery just so I could save up my leave for when I actually have a baby at home. This shouldn't affect my delivery in any way. The ortho guy gave me crutches to use and I do use them at home but I'm too proud to use them outside my house. It's bad enough getting stared at everywhere I go because my stomach is huge, let alone being a huge preggo on crutches. I'm not going to lie, my hip hurts and walking is really painful. I can't do certain things like put my pants on standing up, pick up heavy stuff, or push a stretcher at work. The mornings are the worst and I want to cry when I wake up because I know how bad it's going to hurt to move around and get going. Once I'm going it's tolerable and when I'm sitting it doesn't hurt at all. I'm also really thankful that nothing is wrong with my baby and this doesn't affect him at all. I could have so many worse things wrong with me, I'm still a healthy pregnant person, and it will get better after I deliver. I also have the best coworkers ever who understand and help me out at work. Erik has been a huge help and picked up some of the slack at home with cleaning tasks that I just can't do. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude but sometimes it is overwhelming. I'm not used to having physical restrictions and it really makes you appreciate your health when you start having problems. It's possible that the pain might get worse before it gets better, but I'm a little over 3 weeks until my due date and I know I can keep on keeping on until then!

Things I never appreciated before I was pregnant

2011-01-23T20:02:00.000-08:00

1. Being able to get up from a supine (laying down) position in one move. This is no longer possible and requires several adjustments before I can actually stand up.
2. Bending down to tie my shoes, pick up something I dropped, bending in general.
3. My ankle bones. I sure do miss them.
4. Jeans with zippers.
5. Being able to hold it. You ladies know what I mean.
6. How cheap it is for 2 people to live. Have you people seen the price of diapers lately?!
7. Being able to walk around all day without needing to sit due to this searing ligament pain-by far my most annoying pregnancy symptom.
8. Not going to the doctor. I love my OB and getting to listen to the baby's heartbeat but drs offices are gross and loud. Before I got pregnant I had never seen a dr in an office in Waco.
9. This relates to #5 but sitting through a movie without having to get up to use the ladies room. It just ain't happening.
10. On a sweet note, feeling your baby move inside you is so awesome and I'd take double the annoying just to feel it.

christmaspic2010

2010-12-14T20:31:00.001-08:00

Peppermint Dots Christmas Card

Shutterfly Christmas cards

View the entire collection of cards.

Free Shutterfly Christmas Cards

2010-11-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

I love the holidays and one of my favorite things is making our Christmas card and sending it to everyone. This will be our fourth year to do a photo Christmas card and something special will be featured-my baby bump! I've tried to include our dogs in every picture, but I have a feeling someone small and precious will be taking their place in our next Christmas photo. These are the only 2 previous Christmas cards I could find. Neither of these came from Shutterfly, but this year I will definitely be using them. I've already made a wedding photo book using Shutterfly with my new printer/scanner, and if I get 50 free cards that's even more incentive to use them! We are having professional baby bump/Christmas pictures taken in December so I'm going to use those as double duty for our Christmas picture. I wanted to get belly pictures when I'm still cute and pregnant and not fat and pregnant.

You can find Shutterfly's photo cards here: http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-photo-cards . It's so easy to upload your pictures to their website. I use a Mac desktop and I have a tool where I can send photos to Shutterfly directly from my iPhoto pictures. I also highly recommend signing up for their emails. They send me discount codes at least once a week. Once this baby comes I know I'll be using their website even more to make baby photo books and order prints to send to relatives!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly http://bit.ly/sfly2010

It's a Boy!

2010-11-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

OK so it's been 3 weeks since we found out but I thought I'd go ahead and post this anyway. We can't wait to bring this little guy home!

Bun in the Oven

2010-08-26T08:58:00.001-07:00

Time to update the old blog with our wonderful news. We're expecting! Baby Fuqua will make his or her appearance sometime around March 22nd, 2011. We couldn't be happier. So far everything is going well. I've only had a little nausea and although I get very tired in the afternoons most of the time I feel great.

Had to put in the obligatory pregnancy test shot.

Our baby's first pictures! I think at this point he/she was the size of a blueberry.

Erik's parents came to visit in early August and we had such a good time telling them in person. I ordered a cake and they were so surprised!

My new hobby-experimenting with Photoshop

2010-04-18T10:05:00.001-07:00

I've been working PRN at an outpatient surgery center and I decided to buy a really nice camera with some of the money I saved up. Part of this interest came from the Pioneer Woman website that I've mentioned before. Not only does she have a cooking section, but there's an awesome Photography section as well. Many times she goes through how to take certain shots and how she edited them in Photoshop. She claims to have no professional photography lessons so I figured if she can do it then certainly I can too. I haven't gotten my camera in the mail yet so I decided to mess with some of my pictures from last year's vacation to California.

This first shot is straight out of the camera (SOOC) at the winery we toured. They had a gorgeous garden and I took some really pretty shots.

Part of Pioneer Woman's photography help comes in the form of Actions. These are free and downloadable from her website. You basically download it and apply it to your picture. The awesome thing is you can add multiple Actions on top of one another and it creates cool effects. I can't remember what all I did with this one except I know I did "Seventies" and some kind of texturizer. Mostly I'm just playing around at this point trying to figure out Photoshop. I believe you can click on the photo to enlarge it. I really love the Seventies action; it makes it look like this is a vintage summer photo.

This one I used "Fresh and Colorful" and "Boost" and "Edge Burn." I love how it makes the flowers look like they're center stage.

We are headed to Denver for vacation soon and I can't wait to take some awesome pictures!

We Interrupt this blogging strike to bring you a recipe...

2010-02-26T16:20:00.000-08:00

Make ths and you will not be disappointed. This is the best thing I've eaten in a long time.

Pioneer Woman's Twice Baked Potatoes

Ingredients-
baking potatoes, as many as you want, just be sure to adjust the other ingredients accordingly
cheddar cheese, shredded
seasoned salt
crumbled bacon, from a package or you can cook it
green onions, diced
butter
sour cream
pepper

Bake the potatoes (no matter how many) at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After they've cooked cut them in half and scoop out the insides. Be sure to leave enough on the skin so it will still hold up. Combine the potato you've scooped out with the other ingredients. I didn't use specific measurements because her recipe calls for 8 potatoes and I only used 2. Spoon the filling back into the potato skins and top with more cheddar cheese. Put back in a 350 degree for 10 to 15 minutes.

Here's the link if you want to see the original recipe.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/07/twice_baked_pot/

I could do an entire post on Pioneer Woman-she's amazing and her website is awesome. I've made many of her recipes and all of them have been great.

Meanwhile Erik and I are fine-we've been playing Rockband 2 and I've been working like a dog. I started a PRN job at an Outpatient Surgery center and I'm loving it.

Taking a Break

2010-01-13T15:56:00.001-08:00

As the title implies, I'm taking a break from blogging. There is a season for everything, and right now that includes not sharing in this forum. Thanks to everyone who has read so far, and I promise that I will return someday!

Jessica

Christmas Food Traditions

2009-12-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

There are a few things that I make every year at Christmas, and I've added one or two this year. Christmas would not be the same at our house if I didn't make Homemade Chex Mix. I think this stuff is way better than what you buy at the store and it lasts a long time. Hashbrown casserole is another dish I make for Christmas Day. I'll be working 7-3 again this year on Christmas so I'm going to do make ahead or crockpot dishes for our lunch/dinner. My easy Cheeseball is great to take to Christmas parties and I think I'm going to take it on Christmas Day to work for the girls to snack on.

This year I'm doing something I did last year, therefore (in my mind), making it a tradition: buying a 9 pound spiral sliced honey ham for two people. I didn't intentionally buy a ham that big just for me and Erik, but my local HEB (the best grocery store EVER) has a deal right now where you buy a ham or turkey and get $20 in other items free. When I went to the store yesterday to purchase this ham the 9 pounder was the smallest one they had, so that's what I got. Last year we ate ham for days and then I froze the rest and used it over the next couple of months. My last new recipe is one that I used to make with my grandmother (mom's mom) when I would visit her at the holidays: Peanut Butter Balls. Oh man. These things are dangerous! They are very easy to make and very rich so you only need one or two at a time!

Here's the link for Chex Party Mix.
http://www.chex.com/Recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=6709&CategoryId=343

Easy Cheeseball

2 pkgs cream cheese, softened

2 or 3 green onions, chopped

3 or 4 tablespoons real bacon bits

2 tsp Worchestershire sauce

1 tsp seasoned salt

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients except pecans. Form into ball. Roll ball in pecans, covering completely. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, best if overnight.

Peanut Butter Balls
3 cups rice krispies
1 jar peanut butter-the smaller jar (I think 14 or 16 ozs?)
1 lb powdered sugar, sifted
8 tbsp. butter, melted

12 ozs chocolate chips
2 or 3 tablespoons Crisco

Combine the rice krispies, PB, and powdered sugar. Next pour cooled melted butter into the mixture and stir well. Form into ice cream scoop sized balls. Melt chocolate in the microwave with 2 tablespoons Crisco. Stir until you get a thin consistency; you can always add more Crisco to make it thinner. Take a toothpick and stick it in the PB ball. Dip the PB ball in the chocolate and you can use a spoon to help coat it. Refrigerate the PB balls overnight.

Note* I used creamy and crunchy peanut butter and I prefer the creamy.

Black Cloud

2009-12-09T12:18:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you who read our blog regularly know by now that my grandfather passed away last Wednesday and the funeral was last Friday. On another sad note, Erik's maternal grandfather passed away early this morning. Both of our grandfathers had cancer. I was unable to attend Poppy's funeral due to work responsibilities, which seems cold, however when you are the main bread winner and paid hourly you just can't miss 2 days of work in a row. I was and am pretty upset about it, mostly because I wanted to be there for my grandmother. While Poppy's passing was very unexpected because his cancer treatment seemed to be going well, Erik's grandfather was very sick. We were fortunate enough to see him on our 1800 mile round trip during Thanksgiving. Both of these men had been married to their wives for 35 plus years and left a lot of people mourning their passing. Our community group at church has graciously volunteered to bring a few meals by our house over the next week, of which I feel totally undeserving and humbled. They have wrapped us in prayer and we are so honored to be a part of this church family. Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us.

P.S. I have been trying to post pictures of our trip from Thanksgiving but for some reason Blogger will not let me. I don't know if the file size is too big or what but I'll keep trying.

Pasta e Fagioli Soup

2009-10-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

It has been raining off and on for about a week here in Waco and frankly, I'm sick of it! We don't really have a fall season here in central Texas, but the weather is so nice and cool and usually very sunny. I miss that weather. If I can't have the beautiful foliage that Tennessee in the fall offers, I should at least get to enjoy the sun! What really stinks is that our back yard turns into a pool when it rains constantly, so we have to keep part of the yard blocked off so the dogs don't drag in all kinds of mud. What I am getting at is that even though this weather is stinky, it's perfect weather to make soup! I love, love, love this soup. It's so hearty and delicious. This recipe came from crockpot365.blogspot.com aka the Crockpot Lady's website and it's a crockpot version of Olive Garden's soup. So if you're having a rainy cold weather week drag out your crockpot and make this soup!

--1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
--1/2 large red onion, chopped
--1 cup carrots, chopped
--2 celery stalks, sliced
--2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes (and juice)
--1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
--1 can white beans, drained and rinsed
--4 cups beef broth (check label for gluten!)
--1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
--2 tsp oregano
--1 T tabasco sauce
--1/2 tsp salt
--1/4 tsp black pepper
--1/2 cup dry pasta, to add at end of cooking time

The Directions.

Brown the meat and drain well. Let it cool a bit.

Chop up the carrots, onion, and celery. Add it to the empty crockpot.
Drain and rinse the beans, and add them. Add the whole cans of tomatoes, and the pasta sauce. Add the beef broth. Add the salt, pepper, oregano, and tobasco sauce. Stir in your meat.

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. When the vegetables are tender, stir in the 1/2 cup of dry pasta.

Cover and cook for another hour on low, or until the pasta is tender. It will swell quite a bit.

(P.S. I copied the ingredient list and directions from the website!)

Because there's not enough pictures of my dogs on this blog

2009-10-02T13:38:00.000-07:00

Stephanie took this picture of Roxy while she was visiting. I think she looks a little like Master Shifu from Kung Fu Panda. By the way, if you haven't seen that movie, you need to. It changed my life. (J/K)

Crockett is getting so big! He's still smaller than Roxy and I think he's about done growing. His dad was small and I kind of hope he stays this way!

Frequently we fing Roxy "hiding" under the beds or bedskirts. Sometime just her face or nose is covered up.

I bought these adorable (and cheap!) Halloween t-shirts for the dogs at Target. This is Crockett reaction every time I put it on him. He mopes around as if he's being punished.

I took this picture when I first bought the shirts before Crockett could get depressed about it. Roxy actually really likes hers.

Rebecca and Stephanie come to visit!

2009-10-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

The week of September 11th my two best friends of all time came to visit me! Stephanie drove from Jackson, Tennessee to Tulsa, Oklahoma to pick Rebecca up and then they drove down to Waco. We had such a good time eating, hanging out, playing the Wii, and traveling to San Antonio and Schlitterbahn.

Rebecca hanging her head in defeat.

Steph and I got pretty competitive while playing Harry Potter.

I kicked both of their butts in Mario Kart.

At the Alamo! It rained the whole way to San Antonio and the whole day there. We couldn't even take the Riverboat ride since it was shut down due to the weather.

I had to take a picture of Crockett Street.

This was above the Mexican restaurant we ate lunch at. The food was sooooo good and I love their salsa!

We finally made it to Schlitterbahn! That was after Erik met us in Round Rock because somehow I put our tickets in the trash at my house. I am no longer in charge of tickets!

On the tram between the sections of the park.

Rebecca and Steph I'm so glad you guys came to see me! I wish the weather (and my attitude) had been more pleasant, but next year will be even better!

What's Been Going On with Us Lately

2009-09-02T08:28:00.001-07:00

Not much, I can tell you that! Erik started school last week. I was told that 2nd year was supposed to be super easy, but it seems like Erik's reading assignments are really long! He is enjoying the content of his classes, though. I'm going to brag on him and say that he got really awesome grades last quarter. We both knew that going to school during the summer quarter would pay off! Also, he has some job interviews lined up for an internship next summer. We really want to go to Hawaii for vacation next summer, but that's not going to happen unless he gets a good internship.

Crockett continues to be a fun, wonderful dog. He loves to lick toes, chew on rocks (why I don't know!), and he follows Roxy around everywhere she goes. He is cuddly and sweet. Operation Leave Crockett Out of His Crate While We're Out of the House occurred this week, and I'm happy to report that other than bringing in grass from the backyard he left the house untouched. He occaisonally still has accidents at night, however we have his crate on top of a plastic mat so it's easy to clean up. These usually only occur on mornings when we sleep in, so I think he just can't hold it a full 11-12 hours. I don't know how to fix that, because when I've worked 3 -12 hours shifts in a row I am going to sleep in til 9 the next day!

For some reason when I go outside to throw the ball with Roxy, Crockett likes to bite her ears. I love the look on her face in this picture!

I included this picture of my new work shoes because I have gotten lots of comments on them at work. My wonderful purple Crocs with no holes have sadly been discontinued, which really stinks because they matched the color of my scrubs perfectly. I don't like to wear tennis shoes at work because my feet get too hot, so I was at a loss what to get now that my Crocs are really worn down. Anybody who says that nurses sit on their butts all day has never spent a day on my floor. I am constantly walking back and forth to my patients' rooms, adjusting monitors, messing with beeping IV poles, and catering to the needs of laboring women. It's exhausting! I wouldn't have it any other way. I could never work a desk job! Anyway, Crocs came out with these new Tilda's in a plum color and I bought some. They don't exactly match the purple color of my scrubs, but they are so comfortable. An added bonus is they are easy to clean, which is good in case I get some birth juice on them (hey, birth is messy).

In other good news, I got promoted at my part time job! And I never even worked a shift! Actually what happened is they called the night before I was supposed to do my first shift in the home to let me know the address had changed. I looked up the new address and it was in a scary, dangerous part of town that is known for crime and drugs. I called them back and told them I didn't feel safe going to the home and that I would not show up for the shift. This is totally legal by the way, it's only abandonment once you take report on the patient and then leave. The nurse who hired me called me a couple of days later to ask me if I would like to work 1-2 days a week doing case management for their Waco pediatric patients. This basically involves me making visits to the home every 60 days, chart auditing, and submitting hours to insurance companies. I did some training yesterday, but I still have lots to go. I am excited that I don't have to do home care. I am also excited for the extra paycheck!

A week from today Rebecca and Stephanie will be at my house! I am so. freakin. excited! I haven't seen Rebecca since we moved to Texas, and I saw Steph briefly when we went to TN before Christmas last year. I desperately need some best friend time. We are going to San Antonio and Schlitterbahn! I can't wait!

Lake Texoma and a family crisis

2009-08-25T07:51:00.001-07:00

Two days after we returned from California I drove Erik to the Killeen airport so he could spend the week in Tennessee with his family. I had to work 3 days plus I had an inservice that I had to attend so I couldn't go. At the end of the week he and his parents drove down to Lake Texoma, Texas which is about 1 1/2 hours north of Dallas. I dropped the dogs off at the vet/kennel (where the girls go crazy over Crockett) on Saturday and headed up there. We went to the pool and walked around some and just relaxed. On Sunday Erik's parents drove to Love Field airport to pick up Natalie who had been working in New Mexico. On their way back from the airport an SUV rear-ended them at a stop-light that wasn't working. No one was seriously injured, but Natalie was taken by ambulance to the ER at some hospital in Dallas. Erik and I were eating at The Jalapeno Tree (yummy food by the way) when his mom called us. So we drove to Dallas and spent the next 7 hours waiting for them to clear Natalie to go home. Unfortunately she suffered some bad whiplash and their car was in really bad shape. We spent the next 2 days hanging out by the pool, kayaking, and grilling out. It wasn't quite the vacation Erik's parents and sister had in mind!

Erik's parents car.

Our first time ever kayaking. It was hard work!

On our condo balcony. Can't you just tell how much Erik loves to take pictures?

Waiting for the elevator. Erik is too cool for pictures.

Our condo was really nice. Two huge bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms, a living room, dining room, and kitchen.

California Vacation - Days 5 & 6 (San Francisco)

2009-07-31T20:20:00.000-07:00

Jessica and I headed back down to San Francisco for the last couple nights of our vacation. Wednesday was our anniversary, so we decided to take a sunset cruise of San Francisco Bay. Sounds romantic, right? Well, considering that (1) our catamaran's dock was right next to some very stinky sea lions, (2) the fog obscured any view of the sun whatsoever and (3) we were accompanied on our trip by about 40 Australian students on a Contiki tour, it wasn't that bad. At least I got some cool shots of the Golden Gate Bridge when we passed under it.

Thursday, we took a tour of Alcatraz island. Not only is the prison facility and its very interesting, but the island provides some great views of the city.

We enjoyed our vacation very much, but we're both very happy to be back home in Waco.

California Vacation - Day 4

2009-07-28T20:15:00.000-07:00

Jessica and I headed out to Bodega Bay this morning. Bodega Bay is located on the coast and was the setting for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. We had brunch at The Tides restaurant and watched sea lions play outside the window while eating. Then we drove up California State Route 1 for a little ways, stopping to take pictures along the way, before turning back inland.

The little holes covered some of the bluffs, and every once in a while one of these critters would pop his head out. We're still not sure what they are.

After turning back inland, we stopped and visited a winery. It was beautiful.

After leaving the winery, we got some homemade ice cream at Screamin' Mimi's in Sebastopol.

Finally, we ended the day with a round of mini golf. After all, what vacation is complete without a little putt-putt?

California Vacation - Day 3

2009-07-27T21:03:00.000-07:00

Today, Jessica and I got up early for the 170-mile drive up Highway 101 to Humboldt Redwoods State Park to see some Coast Redwoods. The scenery along the drive was amazing.

These trees are huge. It was almost unreal to see them in person.

Jessica is helping here to provide some perspective. The center marker shows the size of the tree when the Magna Carta was issued in 1215. The second to last outer marker on the right was the size of the tree when the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776.

Here Jessica is getting ready to drive through an old Coast Redwood. Jessica did most of the scary mountainous driving during the northern-most part of the drive since I am a wimp. By the way, this tree is still mostly alive despite the tunnel through the middle.

California Vacation - Day 2

2009-07-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

Jessica and I started the day by visiting Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Santa Rosa. Interestingly enough, it has the same name as our church back in Texas (must be a popular PCA church name). Afterward, we changed and headed out in our Dodge Charger to Point Reyes National Seashore on the Point Reyes Peninsula north of San Francisco.

We stopped at this quaint restaurant for lunch at a little town in the Reserve.

The main thing I wanted to see at the Reserve was the Point Reyes Lighthouse on the tip of peninsula. The only problem about visiting the lighthouse is that you have to park about half a mile from the lighthouse. The walkway is then along the top of the cliffs in the cold, wind, and fog. The last obstacle is stairway of over 300 steps down to the lighthouse on the tip of the cliff. Jessica decided she didn't want to try it, but I really wanted to see the lighthouse...and I paid for it. I felt like such a wimp after having to stop to rest and catch my breath on the way back to the car...But I got some great pictures and saw some amazing sights.

This has to be one of the most beautiful areas of the country. The rolling hills/mountains, the diverse vegetation...it's amazing. It's also interesting how you can drive 10 miles from the cost and the temperature raises about 10-15 degrees.

We ended our day by walking around downtown Petaluma. We then ate dinner at Cattlemen's Steakhouse in Petaluma, thanks to a gift certificate from Tony. I had steak and Alaskan King Crab; Jessica had steak and lobster tail. It was amazing.

California Vacation - Day 1

2009-07-25T18:33:00.000-07:00

Jessica and I flew out of Austin this morning at 8:40 Texas time...making it to the gate just in time for boarding! (Who knew that many people got to the airport at 7:00? Not us!) We landed in San Francisco at 12:00 California time (2:00 Texas time) after a short stop in San Diego. We then caught a shuttle to Sonoma County, north of San Francisco, crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on the way.

After we picked up our rental car in Petaluma and checked into our hotel in Santa Rosa, we took a short drive over to Calistoga to see the Old Faithful Geyser of California (one of only three "old faithful" geysers in the world).

Note: It kind of pulses when it goes off, so its hard to time a good picture.

While we were there, we visited with some Tennessee Fainting Goats.

Afterward, we headed back to our hotel for some rest before Day 2.

Now you know I was gonna put some pics of the dogs on here

2009-07-20T14:39:00.000-07:00

Crockett is almost 5 months old and the last time I took him to the vet he was 13 pounds. He's lost most of his sharp little puppy teeth and he's mostly housebroken. He goes this week to have his "man-surgery" or should I say "un-man surgery"? Frankly I'm glad. He hasn't displayed any man-like behaviors yet, but I'm not waiting around for him to start!

Sleeping like a Corgi.

Out in the backyard near our pink shed that the previous renters left. I'd like to have it torn down, but there's no telling what kind of critters live under there, and they might want to take up residence in our home if we destroy theirs!

Wrestling with Roxy. They do this ALL MORNING LONG. And when we eat. And when we try to watch tv.

More wrestling.

Sweet happy psycho-man. Those little teeth are sharp and painful!

On July 3rd we had a fajita party with our friends Doug and Katie and I made Crockett wear this jersey-thing. He hated it and acted very depressed until I took it off.

Taking a much-needed nap with Erik after a hard day studying the law for finals.

Stay tuned for pictures of California coming soon! (Not really soon, though!)

I owe, I owe, so off to work I go

2009-07-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

Many people know I've been looking for a part time job to supplement my income as a Labor and Delivery nurse. Because of budget issues, the economy, and a brand new shiny hospital opening up 3 miles away from us and taking 40% of our patients, there is no such things as overtime anymore where I work. I've had my eye out for months looking for decent part time RN jobs, which is harder than you think. I got lucky with a home health agency based out of Killeen that has clients here in Waco. I've signed up to work two 8 hour shifts every other weekend. It's very part time, but the money's very good. I've never done home health before, and it's for a pediatric patient, so I'm not sure I'll like it. The good thing is, if I still don't like it in 6 months, I can quit. I still love my full time job (most days), but I only work 3 days a week. In this season of our lives where Erik is going to school and I'm the breadwinner and we have no children, it only makes sense that I work a little more. I am very thankful that I went through 3 years of pure hell-torture (nursing school) so that I could have a good job. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about being a nurse to just do it.

Prodigal Blogger

2009-07-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

I don't think I've written any substantive blog posts for a while because I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm still a weight loss failure. I've lost 6 pounds total, one-third of my goal weight, and it doesn't feel like I'm ever going to lose any more. It doesn't help that I only put in about half the effort of keeping tabs on my points and exercising. I cannot exercise on days when I work, I just can't do it. I have to be at work at 6:45 in the am, work my butt off getting women delivered, and then come home at 7:30 pm. Wanna hear other excuses? I've got a bag full. Erik is in the midst of finals right now so basically I'm a single woman for the week and we're going on vacation here soon. I think we're going to invest in a fold up treadmill (Erik's idea) to put in my office so we can work out whenever. We'll see how that goes!

Preciousness-ity

2009-07-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

Today Ethan sent me a letter (handwritten by a 5 year old, no less) that said, "Dear Jessica, I love you, I miss you." He put some of his preschool graduation pictures in there, too. Now doesn't that just melt your heart?

Enlisting Exercise Help

2009-06-29T10:09:00.000-07:00

I feel like a Weight watcher's failure. I have been on this program for 3 weeks and I have lost a total of 5 pounds. That's it. I think it's because I've been using too many flex points (the points you get in addition your daily points goal) and not enough exercise. I got a Denise Austin dance video from the library and did that for a while, plus a Tivo'd exercise show on PBS and the occaisonal walk in the neighborhood with Erik. Our evening walks are going to become less frequent because at 9:00 pm here in Waco it's still above 90 degrees and the humidity is stifling. Why does Texas have to feel like Hell's threshold in the summer? Anyway, I have decided to buckle down and get serious. I'm no longer going to use my flex points( except on weekends, and in that case, very limited use). I have also enlisted the help of this man:

Billy Blanks and his Tae Bo program are intense. I got a copy of the Ultimate Tae Bo workout from the library and did it this morning. I nearly died. I was sweating, something I hate to do but is necessary for weight loss, within 5 minutes of doing the workout. This big sweaty black man is going to get my big butt into shape! I hope it works!

Strawberry Cake

2009-06-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

I have issues with "Diet Food." The terms"diet," "lowfat," and even "healthy" mean one thing to me-missing out. So far I've tried a couple recipes from the Weight watchers website that are pretty decent. This cake recipe comes from a website that catalogs Weight watchers recipes. I must admit I was skeptical when I first read the ingredients, but it was suprisingly good. Give this recipe a try and don't tell anybody it's "diet food." They'll never know the difference.

1 box white cake mix
6 egg whites, freeze your yolks for another time
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup water
16 oz. frozen strawberries, thawed and drained and mashed up
1 packet sugar free strawberry jello powder

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Pour into bundt pan that's been greased and floured (or sprayed with Pam). Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. Once cooled I sprinkled powdered sugar on top. Enjoy!

Say What Amazon?!

2009-06-17T16:03:00.000-07:00

Note: This post contains adult content. Do not read if you wish to consume food in the next hour. :-)

Today I was looking up workout DVDs at my local library through their online search engine. I came across a DVD titled "Safe and Strong something or other I can't remember the other words." Anyway, I type in this title to my google search to see if this is a good workout video for me. Turns out it's for old people who need low impact, low energy workout. That actually might be me but I think I can push myself harder than that! The first link that pops up is for Amazon.com where obviously I can purchase said DVD. However........(pause for dramatic effect) in the top left corner I see the "People who viewed your product also viewed this" box. The title of that DVD was "A Young Man's Guide to safer Gay Sex." HELLO! Are you kidding me Amazon? I think I'll stick with my tivo'd PBS workouts, thank you!

Adventures in Weight Loss

2009-06-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

I'm coming out people. And no, I don't mean that. I mean I have been on Weight Watcher's for over a week now. At first I didn't think I was going to share this with the blogging world because I happen to be a little sensitive when it comes to the weight issue. However, do to the fact that this blog is about the life of the Fuquas and I'm a Fuqua and right now weight loss is my life I decided it would at least give me some material to blog about. I have started out with a weight loss goal of 18 pounds. So far I've lost 3 of those 18. My BMI is on the upper level of normal and I don't have diabetes, but I just feel gross. Everything seems to have migrated to my tush and gut area and that needs to go. When you're around pregnant people all day you see a few preggo bellies. However a first trimester belly ain't cute on someone who's not pregnant.

I have to hand it to whoever does the advertising for Weight Watchers, because they got me, hook line and sinker. I saw a commercial for Weight Watchers Online, a program they have where everything is done on the internet. You weigh yourself weekly, track your points and activity, get recipes, etc. They have a deal now where you can try it out free for a week. Since I successfully lost the 3 pounds in one week I decided to get a membership for 3 months.

I'll try to share my menus, good recipes, and progress as I go along the next few months. I hope I can encourage anybody who wants to get healthy and lose some weight. Here's to accountability!

George Strait concert

2009-06-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Erik and I were lucky enough to go to the George Strait concert in Ft. Worth. It was also the first event at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium. Let me just tell you, it was awesome. I still can't believe I got to go to this historic event. The bill was Julianne Hough, Blake Shelton, Reba McEntire, and of course, George Strait. The day of the concert Julianne Hough got sick and Lee Ann Womack flew in from her vacation in Florida to come sing. I'm actually really glad this happened because I love Lee Ann Womack, and she was awesome. We had decent seats, but you'll notice most of my pictures are of the jumbotron.

The view of the new stadium from the parking lot. It has the capacity to seat 100,000 and it has a retractable roof.

So excited to be at the concert!

The view from our seats directly across the stadium from the stage.

Everybody on stage looked really small, and our seats were $80! Those floor seats were $130.

Lee Ann Womack still looking good and filling in for Julianne. I would go see her in concert all by herself.

I wasn't really looking forward to Blake Shelton, but he really surprised me. He's a really good performer and he's funny too.

Reba tore up the place with her singing. She is an awesome performer and man can she sing live. Her band was also really good.

In her red dress after she came out to sing an encore of "Fancy."

The stadium really filled up right before George came on. He didn't start playing until after 9:30 pm.

George's backside.

What an artist. He only has 50+ number one's to sing. I think he sang about 13 or 14 songs.

We had a blast. It was a little unorganized with the people checking your tickets, and they ran out of food several times. By the way, the food was outrageous. Five bucks for a hot dog! I still can't believe I was actually there and got to hear these singers live!

In which somebody FINALLY comes to visit us

2009-06-03T15:36:00.000-07:00

I guess my title of this post isn't exactly accurate, because my mother has come to Dallas twice and we've hung out with her and my aunt, plus my dad, grandmother, and Ethan stopped by here to pick me on my way to San Antonio. We were so happy Pam got to come and stay and it gave me an excuse to go to Canton. Let me tell you, everyone needs to experience Canton's First Monday Trade Days. It's one of the largest flea markets in the U.S. and it's pure awesomeness. Acres and acres of flea market booths, from crappy stuff you can get at any yard sale to really neat crafts, clothes, antiques, and too much to name. You have to take a trolley to get around all the different areas, it's so huge. At some point I'll post some pictures of what all I got there.

On Sunday after church we ran up to the law school to get on of Erik's books and decided to take some photos.

The building and grounds of the law school are so beautiful, but really all of Baylor is pretty. As it should be when they're charging so much for tuition!

Sunday afternoon I proceeded to kick Pam's butt in Wii sports. It was her first time playing and she did really well.

Crockett is officially 3 months old today and he has been a handful. He's so playful, especially in the morning after he's been in his crate all night. We've had trouble with housebreaking him, and I took him to the vet today for his next puppy shots and got some pointers from the vet. He's gained 3 whole pounds in the month we've had him. He is not the mellow dog I thought he was, but even when he's being bad it's hard not to love him because he's so darn cute!

Roxy has also adjusted well to Crockett being here. He tags along with her, bites her and barks at her, and she seems unphased. However in this picture it looks like she's tell me, "Please do something with this annoying little &^$*(%!"

My first and original baby.

Big smile.

We really enjoyed Pam's visit and wish that more people could come see us and that we could make more trips out to TN. Thanks Pam for letting me borrow some of your pictures.
Y'all come back now, ya here?

Crockett Boone

2009-05-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Our puppy is finally here! We picked Crockett up about a week and half ago and he is fitting in really well. He is so playful, has a ton of energy, and very sweet. He loves to play with the other dogs and annoys Roxy to death. The vet said he was a very healthy puppy. He's been doing well with going outside to potty and he sleeps all night in his crate.

First day home and a little sad to be away from his littermates.

First bath that he desperately needed.

Playing with toys. One ear up and one down in characteristic Corgi fashion. As I type this the other ear is almost up all the way.

One tired puppy and one tired mama after a hard day at work.

Our trip to Corpus Christi

2009-05-16T08:54:00.000-07:00

Erik finished his Spring Quarter at Baylor at the very end of April so we decided to take a little trip before he started Summer Quarter. Can I get an Amen for one year of law school down? Anyway, Corpus Christi is only about 4 1/2 hours south of us and not a bad drive at all. We left on Saturday morning and didn't do much that day because of the weather. Sunday the weather was gorgeous so we went to the USS Lexington, which is an aircraft carrier no longer in use and they use it as a museum. We also went to the Aquarium.

At the beach near our hotel. We actually stayed on Padre Island.

A tugboat that we saw while at the Aquarium. We didn't take too many pictures there.

View of the USS Lexington from the Aquarium

The captain's lounge on the ship.

There were several levels to the ship and you had to take these stairs everywhere. They were very steep as you can see. There was a disclaimer at the beginning of the museum that said there was no handicap access anywhere on the ship.

My absolute favorite picture from this trip. They had mini cockpits around the museum that you could sit in.

This is where the sailors slept. I think I would hyperventilate from claustrophobia if I had to sleep here.

Let me preface this picture. Erik has an irrational yet severe fear of driving over bridges. Corpus Christi is on the coast so obviously there are bridges everywhere. I did most of the driving in town on this trip due to this fact. However, when we went to the Lexington we didn't know there was a bridge so Erik drove. As we come around a bend in the highway we see this huge up ahead. I thought we were going to get run over because Erik literally stopped dead on the highway. He eventually did drive over this bridge because there were no exits.

Fun and easy baby gift

2009-04-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Our friends, the Shipps, had a baby on Friday and this is what I made them as a gift. In Texas it's traditional to hang an elaborate decorated wreath on the door of the mom's labor room with the baby's stats on it. I didn't quite go that far with this diaper wreath, but I thought it would be cute nonetheless. Rachel Shipp is the photographer who took our pictures a couple of months back. You can view her website here. Also Rachel's husband is graduating from Baylor Law School next week! Oh how I can't wait to see that day!

Here is the finished product. Not bad for 2 hours work?

A close up view before I attached the ribbon.

Just for fun, a picture of Roxy in the sunlight.

It is NOT Illegal to Pick Bluebonnets

2009-04-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

For those of you who do not live in Texas and wonder why it would be illegal to pick a flower, especially one growing in your own yard that you must mow (except in the summer when the grass dies)....and for those of you Texans who have been telling me that it is illegal to pick these flowers...

The Texas Department of Public Safety says it is NOT illegal.

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice. I am not an attorney. Believe whatever you want. Pick or don't pick as you see fit. I'm just posting a link to information that has been made available to the public.

Chicken Pot Pie

2009-04-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

I got this recipe from watching the Rachael Ray show, you can find the original here. Even better than the taste is the cost, and I've provided the breakdown below. Obviously, your cost is going to differ if you shop somewhere other than an HEB.

Chicken Pot Pie

1 onion-$0.52
2 carrots- $0.36
3 stalks celery- $0.50
1 pkg Jumbo Flaky Biscuits- $1.09 (you can use whatever biscuits you like)
2 cups chicken stock- $0.99
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken- $1.16 (I used a rotisserie chicken I got on sale and divided among 3 meals)
3 tbsp flour
salt
pepper
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp butter
(she uses garlic in this but I left it out)

Total cost:$4.62!

Cut up vegetables and saute in the butter and olive oil. Salt and pepper generously. After veggies have softened and smell really good, add the flour and cook for another 3 to 4 minutes. Add the chicken stock and let come to a boil until thickened. Add in the cooked chicken. At this point you may want to add more salt and pepper. Pour mixture into 8x8 pan. Cover top with biscuits. Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until biscuits are done.

Rachael Ray uses this as a freezer to oven meal, so in theory you could make 2 of these, freeze one, and use her directions for cooking it. Enjoy!

Ennis Bluebonnet Festival

2009-04-19T12:14:00.001-07:00

Every year in Texas between March and when it gets so hot nothing can live the bluebonnets start cropping up. The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas and I'm not sure if it's illegal to pick them. My mother and her fiance Tony flew down to Dallas this weekend and we met up with them at the Ennis Bluebonnet Festival, which is about an hour and a half north of us. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating and it was drizzly and humid.

There are trails of bluebonnets that you can either drive or walk. Right after my mom took this picture of Erik and me she stepped in a huge fire ant hill and one foot was covered.

Gorgeous. This is the background on my computer now.

You see fields of these beautiful flowers along the highways and interstates. So pretty!

A New Addition

2009-04-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Guess who's getting a puppy? The Fuquas! I have been wanting a tri-colored male Pembroke Welsh Corgi FOREVER and I finally found one! A lady in Bryan, Texas (where Texas A & M is located) has a litter for sale and I found them on a pet website. Today I drove down there to see him and it was definitely worth the 4 hour total trip! They call him "Tater" at their house but that's not going to be his name when he gets to our home. He was born March 3rd and we're going to pick him up the first week of May. He's so calm and sweet. He let me hold him like a baby and he didn't even care! Here are some pictures of my new boy!

Eyes closed; not in a picture mood.

How can you not love that face? So mellow!

As you can tell I got my hair cut really short. I mean really, really short, especially in the back. I'll try to get a better picture this weekend at the Bluebonnet festival.

Don't come to the Fuqua's front door...

2009-04-16T13:39:00.000-07:00

...Or you will be attacked by birds! Swallows make these mud nests in the crooks of the duplexes around here, specifically at the front doors. Once there are babies in the nests, it is illegal to destroy it. Swallows are migratory birds and annoying as they are, they're protected by law. I can't wait til the babies fly out of this nest so I can knock it down. Not only will they try to attack you at our front door, but they poop all over the front porch area. Yuck. This is the only shot I could get, as I was literally being attacked by one of the adult birds.

First Easter in Texas

2009-04-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

I spent our first Easter Sunday here in Texas at work. Of course you guessed this, seeing as I have worked every major holiday since we moved. I was actually a little upset and depressed about it. Easter is a time of celebrating Christ's sacrifice on the Cross and spending time with family, and Erik had to go to church by himself. For the past 3 or so years I have spent Easter at Erik's grandmother's house with his family. This year we both missed everyone so much! It doesn't help that I also worked Good Friday, and Erik was off from school. It's ironic that I work at a Catholic hospital, and yet I don't get paid holiday pay for Easter Sunday. Hmpf.

Thank you to Erik's parents for thinking of us and sending us this sweet (literally) basket of cookies! They were so yummy!

A Must Read

2009-04-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

Last week I read this book and literally could not put it down. Stephenie Meyer's (the author of the Twilight series, for the 2 of you who haven't read it yet) brother runs her website and recommended this book to her readers. I put it off for a while, as I had started the Diana Gabaldon Outlander series, so one day I finally requested it from the library and decided to try it out. Man, I wish it had a sequel that I could read right now. The book is listed under Teen Fiction, I think, but if you like Twilight you'll like this. The Hunger Games is about a girl in futuristic post-war American who participates in the Hunger Games put on every year by the Capitol. Basically 12 boys and 12 girls ( one from each district) battle it out in an arena as a way for the government to remind the people that rebellion will not be tolerated. I don't want to give too much away and there is so much more to the book than that. This book was so interesting I stayed up past eleven on nights when I had to work the next day! Read this book, and if you do leave a comment in this post.

Too funny

2009-04-01T17:08:00.001-07:00

see more dog and puppy pictures

Spring Cleaning

2009-03-23T12:36:00.000-07:00

Personally, I hate cleaning. I love the sense of peace and calm that a clean house gives me, but I don't like the effort put into it. Nevertheless I'm going to be using time on my days off to clear out some of the clutter that is in my house and do some of the deep cleaning that only gets done every so often. One of the ways I'm clearing out clutter is using an online service called PaperBackSwap.com. It's a free service where you list books by their ISBN numbers, then when someone wants your book you pay the postage and mail it to them. Also, when you want a book you just request it, and they send it to you. Erik and I have a lot of books lying around that we either don't plan on reading or have read and don't want to read again.

I have about 2 or 3 old cell phones lying around, and there are two services that I found online, Flipswap.com and Cellforcash.com where you mail them in your cell phone and they pay you. I got almost $18 for my old Motorola SLVR (which by the way was a piece of crap).

Woman's Day magazine is mailed to me free and I also get Southern Living. I have several old issues lying around, so I'm going to take those to work and put them in our nursery. When there's a baby in the nursery the poor nurse rarely gets to come out, so a little reading material is appreciated.

I if think of other useful spring cleaning tips I'll post them here. Happy Cleaning! (yeah right)

I'm Still Here.. and then some

2009-03-22T13:19:00.000-07:00

Erik and I are still alive down here in sunny Waco. The past 2 weeks have been a blur. We came back from Hot Springs while Erik was on Spring Break and then I had a crazy work schedule. This is what I worked. We came back on a Tuesday, and then I worked Thursday-Friday-Saturday, had Sunday off, went to ACLS class Monday and Tuesday, worked on the floor Wednesday, volunteered to work an extra day Thursday, then worked on the floor Friday. Friday was pretty horrible, because I had a patient who came in to deliver her 22 week baby. Babies at that gestation don't live outside the uterus. Needless to say it was a tearful, solemn day.

Currently Erik is battling sinus issues and I haven't talked to any of my family or friends in over a week! However, I think we've decompressed some this weekend and next week will be better. At least I hope so!

An Amendment

2009-03-03T18:19:00.000-08:00

Just in case any of my two readers out there think I was boasting in my last post, let me enlighten you. Tonight I heated up some garlic bread to go with our spaghetti pie. After cutting the bread I placed it in the oven. Easy, right? Upon taking the bread out of the oven I realized the knife I cut it with was in there too. So I've ruined one of my good Wolfgang Puck knives. I guess that's the price you pay for "having it all together!"

Can I get an Amen! for productivity?

2009-03-03T15:44:00.001-08:00

Every now and then I get an itching to be domestic and productive. Today was one of those days. Let me list what I've accomplished today:

1. Got up at 8:30 to walk and exercise Roxy for 30 minutes around the neighborhood.
2. Went to HEB for groceries, dropped off items at Goodwill, went to the bank.
3. Cleaned our guest bathroom including toilet and tub.
4. Did one load of laundry.
5. Put together ingredients for chili in the crockpot so I can turn it on when I leave for work tomorrow morning. I think my chili recipe is on this blog. If not, look up Jaime's Chili under Paula Deen recipes at Foodnetwork.com
6. Made Mongolian Beef Stirfry for my lunches for the next two days. See picture in below post.
7. Made a two layer vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. See post below.

All I have left to do is heat up last night's Spaghetti Pie and enjoy the evening with Erik. Trust me, it's not that often that I get this much done in one day. Especially on my first day off after working 3-12 hour shifts, I usually don't get up til 9:30 and then do practically nothing all day.

P.S. I wanted a cheap centerpiece for our table now that spring is in the air, so I bought some limes (5/$1), put them in a bowl, added some leaves from my Peace Lily, and an unused candle from this past fall. Not Martha Stewart caliber, but I'm working on a budget!

In the category of "Because I like to bake"

2009-03-03T15:35:00.001-08:00

My Southern Living magazine had a recipe in it this month for a "Basic Vanilla Cake" with accompanying recipes for "Ultimate Buttercream Frosting" and variations with flavors. I wanted to try it out and they actually have cake flour at HEB! It costs less than $2 for a box so I splurged and bought it. I followed the instructions for the basic layer cake recipe with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. Here are my results.

The two cake layers are cooling. Next to it are my two days worth of lunches for work. Mongolian Beef Stirfry is so good!

The frosting. It really didn't make as much I thought it would.

The finished product with my meager attempt at piping. I don't have a set of piping tools so a plastic baggie worked just fine.

I have to say that I've tried several homemade frosting recipes and I still like the canned frosting better. For one, it's smoother and easier to spread, and two it tastes better to me.

San Antonio with lots of pictures

2009-03-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

My brother Austin graduated from Air Force basic training this past Friday, so we had to make a family trip down to San Antonio to see him. These men and women spent a demanding and challenging eight weeks getting whipped into shape away from their families and most of life's conveniences. Erik had to stay behind for school, so my dad, grandmother, and Ethan and I drove down. My stepdad Greg was also there. We got into town on Thursday evening and had to get up at the crack of dawn on Friday for a briefing at the base. The graduation parade started at 9:00 am. The day started out a little cold and gloomy, but like most Texas days, it warmed up considerably in the afternoon.

This is Austin's flight walking past us. Even though I snapped this picture I could not tell where he was. They shaved his head and he put on 20 pounds of muscle while he was there, so it wasn't easy to recognize him. He is in the second row from the left, next to the black guy.

There he is! All graduated and smiling! It was seriously a mad rush to get to your Airman once the parade was over. Families had very little contact with the trainees over 8 weeks.

My dad's three kiddos. Look how much taller Austin is than me!

Austin and Greg.

The fam. Austin asked my dad to wear his uniform to the parade, and so everybody kept saluting him. It was a bonus though because we would have gotten bad seats if he hadn't been wearing his Lt. Colonel insignia!

Everyone who graduated got a coin. Plus Austin got another coin for being an Honor graduate-number 63 out of 800!

Austin's bed and living space.

Every material possession the Air Force let him have was kept in this small locker!

Ethan chilling out on Austin's bed.

The Airmen got a town pass from 2 pm til 7:30 pm for good behavior. So, after lunch we headed back to our hotel to change and then see some of the major attractions in San Antonio. Here we are at the Alamo. You could only take pictures from outside, but the atttraction is free. They even had a storyteller who gave a speech on the events at the Alamo. It was really cool. Also, by this point it was 90 degrees outside. Another great thing about San Antonio is it's very military friendly. They get a discount on just about everything. There is an Airmen graduation every Friday and they all hit the town for the first time since arriving at the base.

Interesting fact: the historical society of San Antonio ruled that no building would cast a shadow over the Alamo as a means of respect. So even though sometimes in pictures the Alamo looks like it out in the middle of nowhere, it is actually in the heart of downtown. There was a Fuqua who fought at the Alamo, but it's TBD if Erik's family is related to him.

You can't go to San Antonio without going to the Riverwalk. It was so much fun! We stayed right downtown so everything was in walking distance.

This was actually taken on Saturday before we left. Before this we had been to Ripley's Believe it or Not and the Wax Museum. Both of which freaked Ethan out so he didn't go in.

We took a boatride on the riverwalk on Friday before it got too hot. So much fun!

I have to say the Air Force has really changed my brother for the better. He went in a rowdy boy with all the smarts in the world and no motivation and came out a man with a purpose. I'm so proud of him and what he's accomplished in just eight weeks. He's headed out tonight to Mississippi for technical training and it will be at least another month and a half before I see him again. I can feel a trip to Buloxi in the works!

Mom's Tortilla Soup with cost breakdown

2009-02-19T14:04:00.000-08:00

Currently Erik and I are saving up for our 1st real vacation since our honeymoon, so I'm trying to make some cheap but good meals. One of the best soups you will ever eat is my mother's Tortilla Soup. I don't make it as often as I should because it's a little labor intensive, but it's so worth it. I'm working all weekend (Yuck!) and I usually try to make something with lots of leftovers, because there is no way I'm coming home after working 12 hours to do more than reheat food in the microwave. Enjoy!

Mom's Tortilla Soup
1 or 2 large chicken breasts- $1.00 ( I only used 1 with skin on and bones in)
2 zucchini- $1.01
1 yellow squash- $0.82
3 big carrots- $0.35
2 McCormick taco seasoning packets- 2/$1
32 oz. chicken broth- $1.99 for 1 box of organic HEB brand chicken broth
1 can Rotel- $0.65
1 onion- $0.89

Boil your chicken breasts in a big pot with salted water. Skim off any weird chicken foam that floats up. (Seriously, what is that foam?) Take out chicken breasts and pick chicken clean of any meat. Set aside. Reserve the cooking liquid. You can do your veggies 2 different ways. I finely chop all of mine in my mini food processor. If you don't have one of these just chop them up however you like. Saute your chopped onion in a separate pan in a little butter and olive oil. After a few minutes add the carrots, zucchini, and squash and saute for 5 minutes. Add your two packets of taco seasoning to this mixture. (I guess if you wanted to be really cheap you could add your own spices, but it would alter the taste.) Add back your shredded chicken to your reserved cooking liquid, plus the sauteed veggies. At this point you can judge to see if you need all 32 ozs of the boxed or canned chicken stock. You may not, so just add what you think you need. Simmer this for about 20 minutes and it's done. I serve mine with sour cream, cheese, and tortilla chips, but a big slice of avocado would be great too!

Final cost: $7.71
Erik will eat this tonight for dinner because my boss is taking me out to eat at Buzzard Billy's for getting employee of the month. We'll definitely eat this Friday night for dinner and possibly lunch on Saturday. That's 3 meals worth of soup for less than 8 bucks!

Best Brownies EVER

2009-02-15T14:16:00.000-08:00

Ingredients:
1 box of brownie mix
oil and eggs required to make brownie mix
2 candy bars, whatever you like ( I used 2 Cadbury milk chocolate bars)

Make brownie mix according to directions on the box. Pour half of mix into 8x8 inch pan. Unwrap candy bars and lay on top of brownie mix. Pour the rest of the mix onto the candy bars, completely covering them. Bake as directed. Eat some and horde the rest.

I love this idea for brownies because you can put your favorite candy bar into it, although you probably want to use one that is relatively flat. Thanks to my coworker Lori for this idea.

25 Random Things

2009-02-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

1. I don't mind housework, but I will NOT wash dirty dishes. That's Erik's job, along with taking out the trash, and I can't even remember the last time I hand washed a dish.

2. When I like something, I get really obsessive for a while. When I finally read the Twilight series, I think a part of me freaked out with a need to read all four books as quickly as possible. Of course I saw the movie, too, and perused the website, got the soundtrack for Christmas, etc.

3. I am an introvert with an occaisonal need for socializing. I'm perfectly content to be at home by myself (with the dogs) and I often make trips to stores by myself. However, when a social event arises I'm always excited to go and see people. I also love having people over for dinner.

4. I get really uncomfortable when people discuss politics around me. I do have a political view and no, I didn't vote for Obama, but I don't like to talk about it.

5. Foods with mushy textures are revolting to me. I can't stand applesauce or anything like that.

6. I have been best friends with the same three girls for 10 years. No one gets me (except Erik) like they do, and I can be completely myself around them. I miss them so much!

7. I met my husband Erik at the Weakley County Soybean Festival at the library book table. It wasn't love at first sight because I was all hung up for some other guy, but a month later we were dating and 2 months later I knew I would marry him. 2 years later Roxy won Most Photogenic at said festival's pet contest!

8. I was criticized by many people for getting married at 20 years old. My response is, I know what I want and I know that marrying Erik at 20 was God's plan for me. I don't necessarily believe in being engaged for 2 years or something like that just because one of you is still in school. I'm a testimonial to the fact that it can and does work!

9. My two hobbies are cooking and reading. I don't cook a three course meal every night for dinner, mainly because I work 3 12-hour shifts a week. I do love to use my crockpot. I have made some real doosies-one I particularly remember is Paula Deen's Mexican Chicken casserole. It was so gross!

10. I used to never eat anything with the word "casserole" in the title. Occaisonally now I do.

11. People ask me all the time if working in Labor and Delivery has made me not want children. The answer is no. I do want kids someday and now I have a "birth plan" sorta thing in my mind of how I want my labor to go. Unfortunately there's something known underground as the "nurse curse" which is basically when nurses have bad labor experiences, like an emergency c-section.

12. I went into L&D because it was the "least gross" area of the hospital in my mind. While there are certainly no bedsores or trachs on my floor, there are some really gross things. Fortunately for me we starve the ladies in labor so when they puke it's just bile. I can deal with that. But there are grosser things than vomit!

13. I am a dog person. If it were possible to have dogs without the mess and fur, I'd have at least 5. Corgis are my favorite and since they tend to shed a lot, I will definitely never have 5 at one time!

14. I am also a tv person. Now that we've cut our cable down to just basic (you wouldn't believe how much money you save, and you don't even miss those old shows) I have my main shows that I watch like The Office, 30 Rock, Fringe, Lost, Biggest Loser, and Regis and Kelly.

15. I would say I like living in Texas, but I don't love it. It's hard living so far away from your family and old friends. Texas does have its perks. There are lots of places to visit, people are friendly, and the economy is pretty stable compared to the rest of the country. The Mexican food is not as good. How I miss you Don Pancho's!

16. I am an avid reader. I espeically love books in a series because I always want the story to continue. I love our library because I can request the books online and they have them ready for me at the counter when I go. When I don't have a book going I feel like a part of my life is missing. Books I have recently read are: The Private Patient, Multiple Blessings, and The Thirteenth Tale.

17. Walmart, you are the devil. I hate your low prices and your rows and rows of your store brand. Of course you don't have the brand that I have a coupon for. I hate your self check out lanes and your produce. I hate that I can't beat your dog food price anywhere else. You are the bane of my existence!

18. On the other hand, I love shopping at my HEB Plus store. I can get organic milk for $2, great produce, and a variety of cheeses I've never heard of.

19. When it comes to movies, I love sci-fi, adventure, and comedies. This is one of the reasons Erik and I got along so well to begin with. I will not watch romantic comedies except Return to Me, which, if you haven't seen it, you need to.

20. I have one of the most dysfunctional families of anyone I know. For my family who is reading this, I love you and love that you visit my blog. However, we are dysfunctional and it's a fact.

21. I have dreams or nightmares almost every single night. I have never been a good sleeper and this may be part of it. If I'm dreaming something particularly disturbing I can usually wake myself out of it, but I can't ever change the dream.

22. One of my OCD tendencies is chapstick. I must have a tube of Blistex medicated chapstick at my side at all times. This includes my scrubs at work, on my nightstand at night, and currently on my coffee table as I write this. At any given point I have 2 or 3 tubes floating around my house. Sadly, I have roped Erik into this fetish now he's the same way.

23. My car is always messy. There are usually cups or glasses, papers, and trash in my car and I never clean it out. Finally Erik gets so fed up with it that he cleans it out. I love him.

24. I am a very loyal person. I'm people loyal, brand loyal, restaurant loyal, and patient loyal. Unless of course they are an absolute jerk, then I just don't care. A lesson-be good to your nurses! We work hard not to get fired by putting up with your crap!

25. If you know me, you know I have opinions. About everything. I've gotten better about thinking before speaking, but sometimes I still slip up and insert my foot into my mouth. I mean well but I'm just saying out loud what everyone else is thinking.

Thank you for reading this exhaustive list. If you have a blog I would love to read 25 things about you!

How do you like my new look?

2009-02-09T15:49:00.000-08:00

It's an understatement to say that I love viewing other people's blogs. That includes friends of my friends and people who actually blog for money. For a while now I've been seeing these adorable layouts and yes, I have been coveting them! This great website thecutestblogontheblock.com helped me redesign my blog and I love the new look! Even better, it was free! Now that I'm an administrator for this blog I've added some new links so check them out!

Our whirlwind 2 weeks

2009-02-08T18:03:00.001-08:00

It's been a while since I posted but we've been very busy here in Texas. Because Erik is on the quarter system at Baylor, he takes final exams every 3 months. Basically that means for 2 weeks Erik spends all his time studying, breaking only for meals and we don't see very much of each other. I thought that would be a good opportunity to fly to Arkansas for Ethan's 5th birthday on Jan. 31st. Before that, though, Roxy desperately needed a bath. This is her hiding under Erik's desk before her bath. The shot I didn't get is when she ran out of the house after her bath and rolled in dirt.

So on Friday Jan. 30th I drove to Dallas Love Field ( can I just say that I hate Dallas? The traffic is so bad!) by myself and flew to Little Rock. On Saturday Ethan's party was at his daycare which also houses a gymnastics place.

Here is the birthday boy! He had a pirate themed party complete with a pirate hat, eyepatches, and swords.

Ethan and his friends got to play at this huge play-place, (think McDonald's x 10), an obstacle course, trampolines, and a treasure hunt. This is my favorite shot of Ethan jumping off the huge bouncy-thing. He had such a good time!

5 years old! I just can't believe it!

I had such a good time and I got to see my grandparents as well. We watched the Super Bowl on Sunday, played lots of Wii tennis and ping pong, and then I had to fly back. The flight back was really terrible. Every single seat was full and a rather, um, hefty lady sat next to me. Plus the plane kept dipping and shaking. At one point I was so nervous I spilled my ginger ale all over the flight attendant. I'm not usually a nervous flyer, but I was so ready to be back on the ground! Immediately I went back to work on Tue-Wed-Thur. On a good note, I was Providence Labor and Delivery's Employee of the Month for January! You are nominated by your peers, and I found out later that my preceptor Karen nominated me. I was actually quite surprised, because I had such a hard time adjusting to these people when I first started. It will look great on my resume someday!

Today (Sunday) after church Erik had to go up to the law school to work on his next quarter's assignment, so I thought I would do something nice for him. For me, doing something nice for somebody always means cooking or baking them something. I had a pint of strawberries in the fridge and some chocolate chips so I made chocolate dipped strawberries! I actually added some butterscotch chips because I didn't have enough chocolate, and they were great! Yum!

Recipes from this week

2009-01-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

Last week I got a free magazine in the mail called Food and Family and I decided to try out some of the recipes from it. Here's what I made this week:

Spaghetti Pie-
enough cooked spaghetti for a 9x 13 pan ( I used about 6-8 oz.)
Velveeta, 1/4 lb.
1/2 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 jar tomato sauce ( I use Newman's Own)
shredded Italian cheese blend
red pepper flakes (optional)

Mix together your cooked spaghetti, Velveeta, pasta sauce, ground beef, and 1/2 cup of the cheese blend. Add red pepper flakes if you like. Pour into 9x13 in pan. Top with more cheese blend. Bake at 400 for 20 mins. I serve mine with salad and bread.

Breakfast Bake

4 oz. can crescent rolls
leftover ham (from Christmas that was in my freezer)
3 eggs
1/4 c. milk
pepper
salt
cheddar cheese
mozzarella cheese

Press crescent rolls into 8x8 in pan. Make sure to cover any holes and seams. Sprinkle ham over crust. Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper together then pour over ham. Top with cheese. (Instead of mozzarella I just used some of the leftover Italian blend from the recipe above.)
Bake at 350 for 25 mins. YUM!

Original Taco Spoup
recipe courtesy of A Year of Crockpotting

--2 cans of kidney beans

--2 cans of pinto beans

--2 cans of corn

--1 large can of diced tomatoes

--1 can Rotel

--1 packet taco seasoning

--1 packet ranch dressing mix

--1 lb browned ground turkey or hamburger

--shredded cheese and sour cream

--brown meat if you are going to use it

--drain fat and add to crockpot stoneware insert

--sprinkle seasoning packets on top of meat

--drain and rinse the beans and add

--add the ENTIRE contents of the corn and tomato cans

cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 4-5. I think the longer you cook soup, the better, so if you have the time, opt for cooking on low.

I didn't add any meat to mine, so to make up we ate ours with Fritos-delicious!

If you have time and you like to cook with your crockpot ( i really do!) I really recommend this website.This lady cooked something in her crockpot every day for a YEAR! Each recipe she gives you ingredients and directions, usually a picture, and then she gives her opinion on the dish. I've made several things from her site and they're very good.

Kickin' off 2009

2009-01-11T20:31:00.001-08:00

The year started off great with a visit from my dad, grandmother, and Ethan! They brought us our Christmas presents and Myra put together an awesome Italian themed cooking package for me. We went to eat and played our new Nintendo Wii that we bought ourselves for Christmas. I wished we could have visited more but my stupid work schedule wouldn't allow it.

Here's Erik 3 days after getting his wisdom teeth removed. He had no swelling and kept his pain controlled. Look at that sweet smile on my baby brother!

It was so good to have family around! I didn't know I'd miss it this much!

Erik and Ethan playing baseball on the Wii. Ethan did really great and it was so fun to watch him play!

We didn't get any pictures of New Years' Eve, but our friends Doug and Katie came over and we ate junk food and some awesome cake Katie made. I did up passing out on the couch from exhaustion as I had worked from 7- 3 that day, but I did wake up in time to get a kiss from Erik at midnight!

First Christmas in Texas

2009-01-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

I know this post is really late but we've had a busy two weeks! Christmas was relatively uneventful here in Texas. I worked from 7-3 on Christmas day and Erik helped cook some of our dinner. We exchanged presents after we ate-somehow the smallest spiral ham I could find was seven pounds! Needless to say, we ate ham for four days and I still have some in my freezer.

Even though we were in our PJs it was around 6:00 pm on Christmas night. Erik with his Albert Einstein "I love coffee" mug. He's my little scholar!

Again, I look exhausted because we did have one laborer on Christmas Day and guess who was her nurse? Erik bought me a purple watch to match my uniform.

Roxy got a new squeaky toy as well as a leopard print ball and treats. I don't have kids so I fill up the dogs' stockings!

Sasha "opening" her stocking. Notice how fluffy she is.

Roxy passed out after opening presents. Actually, this picture could have been taken any day after she gets fed.
"Merry Christmas everyone! Okay enough with the pictures, woman, and give us our treats."

Fast forward two weeks and we got Sasha shaved. I think she weighs at least two pounds less!

Our trip to Tennessee

2008-12-24T14:12:00.000-08:00

Erik and I went back to our roots with a much needed trip home to TN. We flew out of Austin and spent almost five hours at the airport due to flight delays, but we made it home! On Saturday Stephanie and Jennifer Ryan came to see me in Nashville and we went shopping at Opry Mills and Target, as well as a stop for Mexican food. The only thing missing was Rebecca!

An off-center shot of the three of us in Greg's huge truck that he let me drive while we were in town. Opry Mills was insane and it started raining like crazy while I was trying to take this!

Saturday night we headed to Murfreesboro to Erik's great-grandmother's house. Most of his mom's family was there. Erik, myself, and Stephanie (now Henry!) were part of the green sweater club.

Sunday after church we opened presents with Erik's mom, dad, and sister. I love my Corgi calendar!

Sunday night we had dinner with my mom and family and opened presents. My brother Austin leaves on the 28th for basic training with the Air Force in San Antonio!

Erik had to take his picture with Elvis at Opry Mills.

Monday we headed to Martin and stopped by the Breedens to see our old friends, Gavin and Shalaine. We miss them so much! Hopefully we'll all be back in TN in the future!

Monday night we went to Jackson to have the Fuqua Christmas at the Casey Jones Village Old Country Store. Erik's dad's family live all over the place and it was so nice to get everyone together and not have to worry about cooking and cleaning up! Thanks to Erik's mom Pam for putting that together.

As you can tell, we had a whirlwind trip, and even though I was sad to leave, it's nice to be back in my own house with my dogs and my own bed! There were so many people we didn't get to see due to time constraints, but we'll be back again soon, although we don't know when. Merry Christmas!

Our Trip to Austin

2008-12-14T18:55:00.000-08:00

I have wanted to go see the Lady Vols play for a long time, and lucky for us, they played in Austin Sunday against Texas. We live about 90 minutes from Austin and the tickets were only $14, so it was an easy decision to make. We went to Austin Saturday and stayed at the Hyatt in downtown. This is the view from our room. It would have been perfect except there was a Christmas party going on in their ballroom with loud booming music all night.

We had great seats. 12th row back!

The starters this year are young. Three freshman and two sophomores, I think.
Erik before the game. For some reason people who got our Christmas cards think Erik has gained lots of weight. I can testify that he is as skinny as ever and that it was a bad angle in the photo.
I am blurry but excited before the game. I have also not gained any weight since moving here. Ahem.
A giant blimp of BBQ sauce. It must be a Texas thing. By the way, I've had Texas brisket which is what people eat here for BBQ, and it's nothing compared to TN pulled pork.
The score at halftime. Tied up.
Blue cotton candy. Yum. I enjoyed this while TN proceeded to LOSE. C'mon girls!
We had a great time and stopped at World Market in Round Rock on the way home for lots of goodies.

Christmas Fun with the dogs

2008-12-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

I bought these adorable elf hats at Hobby Lobby for the dogs to wear in our Christmas picture. I don't think they were too happy about it. I think I might submit Roxy's photo to loldogs. If I do and they post it I'll be sure to link it here.

How we spent our Saturday

2008-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Let me preface this post with a statement of fact: when I get sick, I get really, really sick. I had been battling another sinus infection (or the remnant of one that was never treated) all week long. I went to work on Thursday with a croaking voice and thankfully I got one of our OB-GYNs to write me a prescription for antibiotics. Friday I went back to work with almost no voice and a weepy right eye. By noon I had full blown pink eye (this is in addition to the sinus infection) and I looked like crap. My boss so graciously let me go home at 2 o-clock where I had eye antibiotic drops left over from my last bout of pink eye about 5 months ago. Erik got out of class and brought me movies to watch and gatorade, and we spent Friday night on the couch watching Wall-e and Juno. I still felt like I'd been run over with a truck. I even spent Friday night in our guest bedroom so Erik could get some sleep.

Ok, so on to Saturday. I woke up Saturday with the worst sinus pressure on the left side of my side of my face that I've ever experienced. I got up and took a shower hoping that would help. It didn't. Erik woke up and I told him I was going to the minor care ER at the hospital where I work for a steroid shot. Typically this shot coupled with antibiotics is the only thing that helps my sinus infections. We both got ready and went to the hospital and even though the ER waiting room was busy I only had to wait about 30 minutes before they triaged me and put me in a room. Luckily, the minor care ER doctor on that day is a friend of ours from church and we have community group at his house. I was so glad to see him, and he let me get the steroid shot. I will say this, I am a total wimp when it comes to pain, so when I go requesting a shot that hurts as bad as that one, I am desperate. The nurse gave me the shot and we went on our way.

The law school hosts Law Prom every year and I really wanted to go. I bought a super cute dress (everybody usually wears cocktail dresses and the guys wear suits) so I was determined to go, even if I was sick. The party didn't start until 8 o'clock, and we got there about 8:45. Here are the only 2 pictures I took.
This is Erik and his friends from school, Greg, Kevin, and Nick.

And here are their dates, Mandy, Maggie, me, and Lori. Greg and Lori came over to our house the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and ate and then Erik went to their apartment Thanksgiving day to hang out while I was at work.

We had a good time. They had casino tables where Erik and I played badly, a bar, food, and dancing. I can't wait to go again next year!

Our Thanksgiving

2008-12-01T08:06:00.000-08:00

One of the things I did not fully anticipate when considering a move so far away from family was not being able to see them for holidays. So far we've missed on July 4th, Halloween, my birthday (which isn't a holiday), and now Thanksgiving. I worked from 7am-7pm on Thanksgiving day, and to be truthful it was depressing. We only had one patient on the floor and guess who had her? That's right, me. I did cook a small dinner on Wednesday night for some friends of Erik's from law school as they weren't going home for the holiday either. By the way, a turkey breast in the crockpot in insanely easy and very moist. Friday I got up at 4:20 am and hit Belk's for a Christmas tree, Wal-Mart, which I walked into but then quickly walked back out, Target, and Hobby Lobby. I was done with everything by 8:30 and came home and read New Moon all day and put up my new pre-lit 7.5 foot Christmas tree. I forgot to mention, I'm now a little obsessed with the Twilight series. It's so good, so if you like love stories and/or vampire stories, read it! The movie was good too!

I bought new stockings for the dogs and these have a little slot where you can put the dog's picture in it so here are a few that I took.

Here is my Christmas tree. I went back to the first set of ornaments that I have that I my mom bought me before we got married.

Since we are shipping most of our presents this year to Arkansas and Tennessee, I haven't really wrapped very many. However, when we got home from church Sunday, I found this.
Thanks, Roxy. It's our fault really. When she was a puppy we gave her cardboard paper towel holders to chew on, and she loves anything cardboard.

I'm really excited this week because the law school is hosting a "law prom" and Erik and I are going. It's a casino theme where you play real casino games and you trade in your chips for raffle tickets that go towards cool prizes. Also the law auxilary is having craft night Thursday and we're making ornaments. It should be a fun week!

Game On

2008-11-24T08:51:00.001-08:00

Just as I was beginning to think our mouse problem was under control I found this:

Do you see the bite marks on my new bag of flour? Then I found a trail of flour bag paper under the sink where the dishwasher hose comes out. He also tried to eat some of my powdered sugar. Needless to say, I was livid. Erik bought some foam sealant stuff and sealed up all the holes under the sink, so essentially the mouse was trapped. On Saturday we braved HEB (it was insane) and bought some more regular mouse traps. Not 30 minutes after we went to bed Saturday night I hear "SNAP" and I knew the little sucker was caught. Sunday morning I get up and I found a tiny little field mouse with his neck snapped in two. I didn't take a picture this time because he was staring up at me with a death stare. I briefly felt bad, but then I recalled the previous Friday night where I had to clear out and bleach the entry pantry after working 8 hours on the postpartum floor. Then I didn't feel so bad. I caught this mouse in the exact same spot as the first one. We still can't figure out how they're getting in the house, but we live next to an empty lot, so I know where they're coming from. We have some more traps set out for when the next one comes, as I have no doubt there will be more mice.
On another note, we will be in TN in about a month! We are so excited to see our families again and have an early Christmas with them!

If you get a chance

2008-11-11T09:52:00.000-08:00

If you're like me and enjoy looking at cool/nifty/odd blogs, click on over to cakewrecks.blogspot.com and check out all the professional cake gone wrong. My personal favorite is the Naked Baby Mohawk Carrot Jockey cake.
http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/06/naked-mohawk-baby-carrot-jockeys.html

Sopapilla Cheesecake

2008-11-11T09:42:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a Mexican potluck at work and I was nominated to bring dessert. All the girls wanted Sopapilla Cheesecake, so I googled it and this was the recipe I found. I warn you, this stuff is ridiculously good.

Sopapilla Cheesecake
2 8 oz. pkgs cresecent rolls
2 8 oz. pkgs cream cheese, softened
1 cup sugar
1 stick of butter
1 tsp vanilla
more sugar
cinnamon

Roll out 1st can of crescent rolls onto a 9x 13 in pan. Pat it out to cover the bottom of the pan. In a medium bowl combine the 2 packages of cream cheese, 1 cup of sugar and vanilla. Spread this mixture over the crescent rolls. Take the second can of rolls and spread on top on the cream cheese mixture, stretching it out to fit. Melt the stick of butter in the microwave and pour it evenly over the second layer of rolls. Sprinkle the top generously with more sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Devour and go into a sugar/butter coma.

I'm an old woman now

2008-11-02T17:02:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday and also the first day of Erik's law school finals. I slept in til 9:30, shopped at Hobby Lobby and Target, got a Frappachino at Starbucks, and poor Erik took a 3 1/2 hour long exam. He made it through and is preparing for his next final as I type this. For dinner we went to Shogun here in Waco, which is a Japanese steakhouse where they cook in front of you on a hibachi grill. The food was so good! Afterwards we came home and ate some leftover Halloween cupcakes that I made and I opened Erik's present to me, a bathrobe that I've been wanting. I had a great birthday and I'm so thankful for my family and friends for remembering me on this day!

House of Mouse

2008-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Note: The image you are about to see may disturb you.

Last Tuesday I found small droppings in the cabinet under my sink. I suspected mice, but I thought the droppings were too small to be mice. I googled "mice poop" and in fact, it was mice poop. I bought 4 mouse traps, 2 of the De-Con traps and 2 old fashioned wood traps. I set one De-con trap in the cabinet under the sink, one in the space between the fridge and the wall, and an old fashioned one between the fridge and the wall. Thirty minutes later I hear a "Snap!" and one of the De-con traps was closed. Erik was asleep so I made him throw it away the next morning. I thought the mouse was caught. I was wrong. I worked from 7 am until 11 pm on Thursday and came home exhausted and went straight to bed. Friday morning I get up around 9 and just casually glance at the remaining traps I left out just in case. To my horror, the old fashioned trap was flipped over with a mouse carcass sticking out. I immediately texted Erik and told him to come home as soon as his classes were over, and that I had caught the mouse. Well, Erik calls me at lunchtime and said, "I saw the dead mouse this morning but I wanted to leave it for you to see since you wanted to catch the mouse." Hello!!! Can you feel the love? Here is the picture I took of the dead mouse. Dee-scusting.

Just too funny not to post

2008-10-20T20:08:00.001-07:00

Crockpot Chicken Paprikash

2008-10-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

In a effort to save money and stick to a budget, I've been building a list of 30 meals that I can cook during the month. I got to #10 and realized that I was about 20 meals short! Now, I can cook a lot of things and put meals together, but I wanted 30 easy to make meals. So Monday I traveled through the blogosphere and found some new recipes. One of them was Crockpot Chicken Paprikash. Let me tell you, I love the crockpot. I am always in search of good crockpot meals, because they are so easy! This dish tasted great and I made homemade mashed potatoes to go with it. You can always throw in a green vegetable side to round out the full meal. Here's the recipe.

cooking spray
2 c. mushrooms, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp. garlic
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 tsp. paprika
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 c. chicken broth
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 T. flour
1/2 c. sour cream

Saute mushrooms, onion, garlic, and bell pepper in a pan coated with cooking spray for 5 minutes. Stir in paprika, salt, and pepper. Put mixture into crockpot. Put chicken breasts (they can even be frozen) into crockpot. Add broth. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Stir in flour and sour cream and allow to cook another 10 minutes then serve.

This recipe makes really tender chicken and a nice sauce. Yum!

Note: Some of the recipes I try don't turn out great. This week I tried making "Chili spaghetti." Um, it wasn't the best, and it tasted like cheap canned chili, which was appropriate because that was a main ingredient.

Pictures

2008-10-10T15:57:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Erik and I got up before 9:00 (yikes!) and had professional pictures taken by our friend Rachel Shipp. Her husband Andrew is a third year law student and we met them back in March when we came to visit. They are also the ones who set up the guys to come help us move, so we became fast friends! Rachel stays home with her two adorable boys and has a photography business on the side. We haven't had any professional pictures taken since our wedding day, so I figured now is the time. You can view a few of these pictures at Rachel's website, www.shippphoto.com and then enter her blog and scroll down. We had a great time taking the pictures and then we when and got sunburnt at the Baylor game, which they lost.

I've Been Tagged....

2008-10-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Meredith Westmoreland tagged me to list 7 random things about myself so here I go:
1. I'm a very "homemaker" kind of person. I really enjoy decorating, especially for holidays, and cooking. I prefer to have people over and cook for them in my home than to go over to other people's houses. Every now and then I get cabin fever, but for the most part I'm a homebody.
2. I am not a morning person, nor a late night person. I admit it, I'm a bear in the morning until I've had a shower and some coffee.
3. My pets are my babies. We always had dogs and a cat when I was growing up, and it was just natural to have a pet around. Today Roxy and Sasha keep me company during the day when I'm home and provide lots of love and fun. I wish I could have more pets, but right now I'm doing well to keep the fur under control.
4. I am so glad we moved to Texas. So far I have a job that I enjoy ( most days), a husband who is enjoying school, a nice place to live, all kinds of shopping available, and a great church. What more could we ask for? Maybe some family near by?
5. I know lots of random pop culture trivia. I can take anybody down at Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit. I dare you to try and beat me.
6. My favorite meal of all time is my grandmother's fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn bread, and black eyed peas. I can make everything like her except the fried chicken, which I don't even attempt to make so as to avoid gaining tons of weight.
7. One of my favorite TV shows is Jon and Kate plus 8. I TIVO all the episodes and watch it religiously. I think families with lots of kids are so interesting, but trust me, I'm not getting any ideas about big families!

We're still here....

2008-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

It's true. I haven't posted anything in a while. No, it's not because Erik and I live this exciting life in Waco, TX (haha). Actually it's just the opposite. Erik goes to school 5 days a week from 8-5 and then studies a couple extra hours after that. I go to work 3 days a week and then try to recuperate after that. He studies, I cook, we play with the dogs, and most weekends we have people over to eat and play cards. This is our life right now and it's not too exciting. Add in the fact that I've had a sinus infection this past week and that leaves no blog posts. But I promise you, readers, we will be back!

Roxy and the Dog Door-a love/hate relationship

2008-09-06T09:18:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Erik and I went to Lowe's and bought a storm door with a built in dog door. We (mostly Erik) installed it on Saturday and then taught the dogs how to use it. Roxy wasn't really a huge fan and when we would push her out, she would spend most of her time doing this. Finally by Monday she got the hang of it and now uses it like a pro.

This is our new dog Sasha. Molly went to live with a sweet family in Arkansas, so my stepdad Greg sent my brother down to Texas with Sasha to become part of our family. Sasha is part Pomeranian/cat/squirrel/yoda and is the most loving dog ever. She and Roxy are still trying to figure out who's the boss between them.
In other news, I'm officially off orientation at work and completely on my own! It's kind of scary, but so far no one has died! Seriously though, I just try not to think about it and do my job like I would if I still had a preceptor. Also, my 90 day trial period is up and my supervisor said I'm doing a great job-lots to be thankful for!

Being a Labor and Delivery Nurse

2008-08-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

For the last three months I have been training as a Labor and Delivery RN. Let me just say this is the hardest thing I've done next to learning how to be married. It's been a rough three months adjusting to a new schedule that begins at 4:55 am three days a week and doesn't end til 7:30 pm. I used to have nightmares every single night that I would do something wrong and I would constantly wake up. Thankfully during this training period I've had a great preceptor with 28 years experience who's taught me so much about this field. While the birth of a child is magical, it is by no means pretty, and I have learned to be comfortable in this setting. One thing I was deathly afraid of in the beginning was catching babies, which is nurse-slang for the nurse who takes the baby from the doctor after it is born and attends to it. In the past 2 weeks I have come to love this job and often request it during assignments (usually I'm rejected and given a laboring woman instead :-) One of the toughest parts of this job was learning to fit into a group a women who have been doing this much longer than me and aren't accustomed to newbies. I tried to do this by working my tail off and rising to challenges. Hopefully I can continue to earn their respect. My absolute favorite thing about this job is meeting couples who truly desire a baby and experiencing the joy of the birth of their child with them. Whether by c-section or natural labor it's an awesome experience every day. By the way, I love having 2 days off every week!
P.S. Erik started law school this week and it's going well!