Set Timer: January 2014

If I haven't told you in person, or if you don't follow me on facebook or instagram you may not have heard the news...

We are pretty thrilled.  Everyone knows it has always been my dream to have another baby.  My first pregnancy was so stressful and really just dreadful and I have always wanted a chance to have a "do-over" to enjoy things more.  Although, with an 8.5 year old on my hands, it is a little intimidating to jump back into the world of diapers and middle of the night feedings. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Due Date? January 2.  But it will probably come before then since I am having another Cesarean.

Really, C-Section again?  Yes.  I really don't want to try for a VBAC.  Don't try to convince me I should.

How are you feeling? Exhausted.  After 5 o'clock I am done for the day and by 9:30 it is a struggle to keep my eyes open.  Now that I am on summer vacation I have been trying to squeeze naps in whenever I can and that has helped.  But seriously, I have no energy at all. I hope things pick up soon as I am heading into the second trimester.

Are you barfing constantly? No.  With Isaac I threw up all the time.  This one I feel a general sense of nausea and ickiness but much less throwing up.

What about cravings?  Nothing really sounds good to me except French Fries, which I consistently craved during my first pregnancy.  And I find myself wanting lemonade more than I have ever have before.

Did you plan this or was this an oops or what?  Yes, we got pregnant deliberately. But it happened quicker than we assumed it would.

Are you going to find out the sex?  Yes.  I don't like waiting.

Are you hoping for a girl this time?  Not really.  If I had my way, I would have another boy. 

Is Isaac excited?  Moderately.  His dad has two under two, so babies have lost their novelty for him. 

Also, fun fact.  My sweet sister in law Deb is also pregnant and her baby is due January 3!  One day after mine!  Built in best friends!!!

Random Thursday - Easy Recipe Edition

I am in love with the topic today.  I can be sooooooooooooo lazy with cooking and I can't be bothered with weird ingredients or too many steps, especially on busy nights after school.

I like to eat a lot of chicken and I like anything with Mexican flavors, so I pretty much always keep cheddar cheese, black beans, taco seasonin packets, etc. on hand.  Here is a little list of some of my go to dinners with links from the interwebs.

Ranch Cheddar Chicken - this one is easy and yummy and is one of those rare meals that everyone in the family will eat.  I have used Fiesta Ranch mix before instead of regular ranch and that was yummy too.

Chicken Enchilada Pasta - this is SO YUMMY.  Don't be intimidated by the longest list of ingredients.  It is not hard to make.

This is my go to pasta salad for barbecues or picnics.  We also have it as a main dish quite a bit.  I always leave the olives out BECAUSE OLIVES ARE DISGUSTING!

This isn't a main dish but I posted here about ridiculously easy pumpkin muffins.  I made them last Thanksgiving and people were so impressed and they are really almost embarassingly easy.  

These two recipes are from a cookbook and are also easy go tos.

Fiesta Quesadillas

1 (11 oz) corn with red and green peppers, drained

1 (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles

1 cup fat-free refried beans

8 (8 to 10 inch) fat-free tortillas

1 cup (4 oz) shredded colby-Monterey Jack cheese blend

1. Mix up corn, chiles and refried beans. Spread 1/4 of the mixture on a tortilla. Top with another tortillas

2. So the book tells you to put these on the grill, but I don't have one. It also suggests the broiler. I usually just put it in a frying pan with a little Pam on low heat for about 3-5 mins. I turn it over with a pancake turner and do the other side for about 3 minutes, making sure all the cheese is melted.

3. Cut into wedges and eat. I had mine with tomato soup. I'm a big soup person.

Makes 4 quesadillas (450 calories each).

Nacho Bean Soup

1 (14.5 oz) can ready-to-serve vegetable broth 1 cup of milk 2 tablespoons all purpose flour 1 (15.5 oz) can pinto beans, drained, rinsed 2 cups (8 oz) shredded taco flavored cheese blend 1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (I didn't have any, so I just used dried) 1 cup broken tortilla or corn chips

1. In large saucepan, combine broth, milk and flour; blend well. Cooke and stire over medium heat until mixture comes to a boil.

2. Stir in beans, chiles, cheese and cilantro. Cook 5 mins or until thoroughly heated and cheese melted, stirring constantly. Sprinkle individual servings with tortilla chips.

Makes 3 (1.5 cup) servings.

While it doesn't exactly fall into the "healthy" category (590 calories!) it definitely was easy and delicious. 

Linking up with Lin and the other girls.  Can't wait to some new recipes. 

Hey there,

So blogging every day in June didn't happen.  I think I need to replace that item on my 101 in 1001 with something else.  Oh well.  Onward!

I have been crazy busy and also just feeling quite tired and run down so I haven't made time to do anything beyond the bare essentials of keeping up day to day life, let alone blog.  Poor Ryan has been wearing sneakers with no socks, so I figured I had better make time to do some laundry and Isaac has been eating cereal for dinner more times than I care to admit.

It was an extra crazy end to the school year.  All of the elementary schools are being renovated, and my particular elementary school is being closed, so absolutely everything had to be packed up.  I am being moved to a new school (again) next year, and teaching a new grade (again), so the last few days were extra hectic and then it seems like summer school started before I knew it.  I do get my own classroom again next year, so although I had to pack and move everything, at least I don't have to worry about sharing with someone.  I also got these beautiful roses from a student.

We are in full on summer vacation mode here.  I am teaching summer school a few hours a day which has been keeping me quite busy.  They have given me about 3 times as many kids as other years and a handful with intense behavior needs.  I feel like this will probably be my last summer I agree to do it.   I am also working about 10-15 hours a week at my mall job.  So far I have resisted using my discount, but  we will see how long it lasts.  It is terribly kind of boring but  it is a nice little bit of extra cash for really not much work, so it works for now at least.

I have been asked to be a Den Leader for Isaac's cub scout troop.  Ryan has been called to be a Cub Master.  I am not at all fluent in Scout language or programming, so I really have no idea what is going on or what I am supposed to do, except apparently Ryan and I are teaching knots on Friday of Cub Scout Camp.  Ryan had expressed interest in participating in the Scouting program with Isaac but he was sort of unfamiliar with the Mormon cultural phenomena of "getting a calling".   He was a little surprised that it is a essentially one way conversation along the lines of , "Yeah, we're just going to need you to go ahead and be Cub Scout Master.  Thanks."

Also, I just discovered that all of the e-mails explaining what I am to be doing have been going to an old defunct e-mail account which explains why I feel so lost.  I finally managed to get into it and am overwhelmed with everything I need to catch up on.  Ryan and I just spent a half an hour simultaneously completing an online Youth Protection training.  Nothing says date night like watching a movie about how child molesters groom potential victims. 

Wednesday was teacher appreciation night at the Fightin' Phillies (minor league baseball team in Reading), so I got us five free tickets.  We took Ryan's girls along.  It is always a fun night to go there.  I am so not a baseball fan, and I usually enjoy myself.  The weather has been beautiful the past week or so, mid 70s and breezy.  It has been nice to have the air off and the windows open. 

 This weekend looks to be a busy one with friends and family.  Happy Friday!

oops

I fell asleep before I could post yesterday.  Ryan came home from work a little before ten and found me asleep in bed with all of the lights on and my laptop in my lap.  Which ruins my 30 day streak.  Booooo.  Hiss....  I am going to post twice today and call it good. 

Update to 101 in 1001

9. Try 50 New Recipes

• Secret fruit salad - I ended up accidently hosting a Mary Kay party (long story) and I made this for the girls to eat.  I am not a fan of fruit salad, but it got rave reviews from everyone who tried it.  This recipe is making it's way all over Pinterest.  The recipe says it serves 3-4 but I think it makes WAY more than that. 
• Chicken enchilada pasta - This recipe was from Mel's blog which is a great one for easy family friendly recipes.  This was SO DELICIOUS and it will definitely be becoming a part of our regular dinner rotation.  I did skip the olives though (blech!). 
• Taco Casserole - was from this blog.  Ryan randomly requested a taco casserole and this was one of the first hits Pinterest yielded.  It was very easy to make, but it almost seemed like an appetizer more so than a main course.  We all liked it though, so I will probably make again.
• Breakfast pancake - This was one of those dead pinterest pins with the recipe in the description and no link.  I made it on a random Saturday morning for breakfast when we had Ryan's sister Katherine staying with us.  At first I thought I must have done something wrong because it looked like this when we pulled it out of the oven:

          but it was actually delicious!  It is kind of a cross between French toast and pancakes. 

33. Read 50 Books

• I brought Jodi Piccoult's Lone Wolf to take along with me to Florida.  It was just okay.  I enjoy her as an author, but this was my fourth book in a row by her and they are  all pretty much the same.  Her characters have some sort of unsolvable dilemma which culminates in a court case where a big secret is revealed. I think I need to move onto a different author for a while.

Quickly

1.  Isaac's dad called twice and asked for extra time with him.  And then, when I picked him up, he asked for extra time next weekend too.  That makes me happy.

2.  Today Isaac said "Who am I?" and did a hilarious impression of one of my dad's random mannerisms.  It made me laugh so hard.

3. I got a nice little check from my second job when I worked Friday.  I left feeling pretty good about it. Then I went to return a pair of shoes I had bought for a wedding and never wore and I expected them to give me store credit because I bought them forever ago and they said, no prob, we can give you back the cash.  Extra bonus cash! Then I went home and checked my e-mail and saw that I owe almost three times that much in travel soccer expenses. Bonus money gone.  Grrr.  

4.  Last day of school tomorrow!  Wahoo!!!

5. I am having lunch in two Saturdays with some best girlfriends and I CAN NOT WAIT.  These are the girls I can talk to about anything. 

I haven't seen one of them since my wedding.  It is sad that we are so busy now that we have to pencil in get togethers so far in advance. 

6. I am volunteering two days at Cub Scout camp this year.  Isaac is mortified and is begging me to have Ryan rearrange his schedule to do it because I am sure to embarrass him. 

That's all I got for tonight. I almost forgot to blog!

Feminist rage

Ugh... this was for sale at Shady Maple's gift shop.  I am so disgusted I can't even explain and am thinking of writing to the management.

Fishing in Orlando

We recently went on a trip to Orlando.  We did Sea World, Aquatica (a big waterpark) and downtown Disney but Isaac said his favorite part was fishing with his Uncle Drew.  These are pictures I swiped from my sister. 

 

The resort has a beautiful lake stocked with fish.

 

Not a fan of the worms.

 

 

 

Success!!!

Random Thursday - Photo Dump Edition

Yay... it's that time to link up with the girls for another

 

 

This week's topic is a good one for people like me that can spend an hour going through facebook photo albums of people I have never even met... (Please tell me I am not the only one).... 

 

Most of my recent pictures are from my trip to Orlando.  I will try to choose more of the "random" ones to share, as well as some others.  I am actually in the process of trying to upload all of the pictures from my phone because I am almost out of memory.  BUT ANYWAYS...

 

This was Ryan's random purchase from a vending machine at a rest stop in North Carolina.  It's a little can of baked beans and hot dogs, a package of crackers and two pieces of candy.  I thought it was revolting but he was rather tickled by it.

 

Favorite vacation picture of the trip.  This was our first morning at the hotel pool.  Tell me my kid is not ADORABLE.

My sister made this for me and I LOVE it.  (In case you don't know, Horne is my new married name).  We have to find the perfect spot for it. 

 

This is a groundhog(??) that lives with it's family outside my classroom (and by classroom, I mean trailed parked outside of the school).  I see him a few times a week.   The kids love spotting him.

 

This was during my brother's wedding.  Isaac was getting a bit restless during the reception and asked if it was okay to kick his soccer ball around the terrace.  I said that would be fine.  Soon, all of the groomsmen had ditched the reception and were joining him.

 

 

Today is my last full day of school with kids.  That is, the kiddos have early dismissal Friday and Monday, although I have to work full days.  I will  be busy packing up my classroom and moving to a more centrally located one (yay!).  I am also teaching ESY (summer school with special educations students) so there is lots to do to prepare. 

 

Have a happy day!

 

Kinetic Derby Catch Up Post

A few weeks ago Ryan, Isaac and I went to join my friend Becca and her ridiculous adorable baby William Frances Wolf for the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby.  Here are a few pictures from that day. 

There was a huge group of people wearing these metallic helmets.

 

Hula Scultpure

Say Anything car

This guy was legit playing the piano while his friend pedaled him along.

It didn't photograph well, but that guy has rows and rows of pinwheels on those yellow boards. 

Ten on Tuesday: Back from Florida Edition

 

 

1. I am finally adjusting back to post-Orlando vacation life.  I will blog lots more about my trip later, but for now I will say, that was the first time I have driven to Orlando (from the Philadelphia area) and it will absolutely be my last.  I am not someone who is cut out for long car rides.

2. My allergies are horrible lately.  My students had a field trip to the pool today and I had to carry around a box of tissues with me all day.  My nose won't stop running, my eyes won't stop watering, and Ryan just informed me that my face "looks like it was stung by, like, six bees." I feel so attractive.

3. Right before we left for Florida, my brother got married!  I will write more about that later, but my sister snapped this picture of us at the rehearsal dinner and I think it is my new favorite picture of our little family.

 

4. It is so, so close to the end of the school year.  On the one hand, I am so pumped for summer break.  But on the other hand, I have sooooooooooooooooo much to do before the end of the year, it's stressing me out. 

 

5.. I know I am a few days late, but I am going to finish up this challenge:

 

 

and add a few more days so I can blog 30 days in a row.  That would knock another item off of my 101 in 1001.  I have been rather absent from the blog lately, but I have a lot I could write about.

 

 

6.  We got our wedding pictures back from the photographer.  I will be featuring them on the blog in the future, but if you would like to take a peek at some of them, click here.  Randomly, the most commented and liked photo is one of my mom and her sister. 

 

7. Quote of a lifetime by Isaac "Who would say that their indie record was cooler than Taylor Swift's?  That is ridiculous."

 

8. My sweet sister in law Deb is expecting a baby in January.  I am SO excited to have a niece or a nephew.  Also, she asked me and Ryan to be the godparents.  We were so honored.

 

9. Isaac lost another tooth yesterday.  This time I remember to go and get some cash to put under his pillow.  Last time, I accidently forgot and it was tragic.  Ryan and I had to make up a lame story about how the toothfairy couldn't come because it was raining.  So I think I redeemed myself this time.  Whew!

 

10. This is so true.

Happy Tuesday!