What Have We Been Doing?

Millie has been enjoying her new blocks.

I've been roasting tomatoes for my soup.

I could have eaten this entire tray of tomatoes. 

Recipe for this soup can be found here.

I have been craving a lot of tomato soup lately. After buying tons of it from Fresh Market, I decided to try my own.  I ate four bowls of it on Monday. It goes great with saltines. 

Notes on soup: It said to use 4 cups of basil. I thought this was too much. I probably used about 2 to 2.5 cups. The recipe said to use a food mill, but I used my sister's immersion blender. My way was a lot simpler. 

She has been recovering from the stomach virus. Saturday night was the worst. Millie and I ended up sleeping together on the couch. After getting sick in her bed twice, this seemed to be the best situation.  We fell asleep watching Thomas the Train (my least favorite kids' show and one of Millie's favorites). It was precious sleeping with her and being able to keep an eye on her all night. However, she does move around a lot in her sleep. I will never be one to let my kids sleep in my bed with me on a regular basis. 

Thankfully my parents were here for the first night of her illness. It is always good to have a pediatrician in the house. It is also good to be stocked up on stomach virus meds. Like my mom said, 

"the sign of a good doctor's kid is having all the necessary medicine handy at all times." There is nothing worse than needing medicine in the middle of the night and not having it in the house. We also travel with nausea medicine. You never know when it will hit. I am thanking God that I have not gotten sick, and I am praying that it stays that way. 

I am 15 weeks today! I'm actually feeling a little better with the second trimester. I have more energy, and I started drinking coffee again. With Millie I didn't feel bad until the second trimester, and I was able to drink coffee the entire pregnancy. This time around I have also been getting a lot of fast food drinks. Sweet tea from McDonald's and Diet Dr. Pepper from Sonic have been my favorites.  I've also been enjoying asiago cheese bagels from the Panera around the corner (they have a drive-thru). We will find out if it is a boy or girl on April 1st! I have recently read that you can tell the sex of the baby by looking at the first ultra-sound picture. It all depends on the position of the placenta (right-boy or left-girl) compared to the baby. My problem is that I can't find the placenta in my picture. I'll just have to wait til April. 

We are not completely done with our home repairs, but we have come to a good stopping point. Here are a few before and after pictures.

LAUNDRY ROOM

Doors still need to be put on our new pantry, and we want to put up hooks to hang bags and coats. 

We even have a place to hang our brooms. 

KITCHEN

(Click on picture to enlarge) 

  We are loving our new stove. We went from a cook top to a whole oven. We had to use a lighter to start our old stove, the eyes were slipping out of place, and the white was impossible to keep clean.  

 We still need a new chandelier above the table. I am taking suggestions. 

The double ovens will come out and become a cabinet. The microwave will eventually go in that cabinet. 

We will also get new hardware in the kitchen. 

And one of my favorite parts.....the ceiling!

No more popcorn ceiling (just in the kitchen, hope to do more of house later), and no more fluorescent light or ceiling fan. 

DINING ROOM AND LIVING ROOM

DEN

I know it doesn't look much different in here, but the paint color changed from a light blue to grey. Now the front of our house is all the same color. 

 I'm also loving my new candles. My mom brought them from Mississippi. They are square candles, and I love the fun colors!

Millie and I are also glad Nick is coming home today. He has been in Denver (for work) since Monday. I have the Flight View app on my phone to track his flights. It even shows me exactly where he is while in the air. It also tells me how many minutes he has left on the plane and if it is delayed or on time. 

He is now flying from Atlanta to Montgomery. Isn't that a neat app?

Millie and I mostly stayed home (due to her illness). However, on Tuesday morning we had a nice walk and spent some time at the park. We also ran some errands, and I tutored a few times in the afternoons. 

The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend. We have ordered a play set for the backyard, and we are anxiously awaiting  its arrival. I hope your March is off to a good start, and I hope you are avoiding the stomach virus. Even the queen couldn't avoid the illness. 

Morning at the Zoo

We spent Saturday morning at the zoo. The zoo is a wonderful outdoor activity. Even though it was cloudy and a bit chilly, we had a lovely morning. We took our lunch, and Stephen and Stephen met us there.

Millie refused to wear her jacket or get in the stroller. She enjoyed walking.

We spent the rest of the afternoon resting and watching movies. We plan to make many more trips to the zoo this spring and summer.

I hope all of you have been enjoying a nice weekend.

And thank you all for the congratulations about Baby #2. We are very excited!

Coming in August

 We are excited to announce that this little guy or girl is joining our family in August!

Isn't that a neat ultrasound picture? I have never seen one with this view of the baby. We are looking at him/her from the front instead of the side. Below is what it usually looks like. Both of these ultrasounds are from 4 weeks ago.

 I went to the doctor this morning, and he said everything was perfect. Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow I will be 13 weeks. I'm due August 29th! Good thing I have a pool because the thought of being 8 and 9 months pregnant in the hot hot summer is already making me uncomfortable.

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127: 3

Thanks for Coming

Thanks for coming Lynn!

Lynn is my aunt and faithful blog reader. Lynn lives in California, and she came to visit for a night. It was good to see you!

Back to Normal

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is one of my Valentine's. The other one is at work. I bought that balloon on Saturday, and it has provided great entertainment. I don't really get into Valentine's Day. Nick and I don't exchange presents or go out to eat. I would rather celebrate big for our anniversary. However, Valentine's Day can be sweet, and Millie and I will probably share some Reese's later. 

And if you think that outfit looks familiar, you are right. 

It was our Christmas outfit. You just replace the Christmas tree with the heart. Isn't that cute?

Our routine was off a little this week because Nick was gone from Friday to Tuesday. He went skiing with his dad in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They had a  good time. Jackson Hole is a beautiful place. It is cold, but beautiful. 

I felt like he was gone a lot longer than four nights. Millie was good, but it can be a challenge to be in charge of her day and night with no relief. Sunday morning alone was about to put me over the edge. I was supposed to be at church early. Of course, I was the last one there. Then Millie fell on the sidewalk three times just trying to get in the church doors. All afternoon I would see her legs and say, "your poor knees." Then she would rub them and say, "my knees, my knees." They weren't that bad. I just felt bad for rushing her. Thankfully my mom came to rescue me on Sunday afternoon. I know I couldn't have made it to Tuesday night by myself. Thanks Lovie.

Also while Nick was gone, my house looked like this. 

Remember when we got our foundation fixed back in October? Well, we finally got all those cracks fixed. I'm thankful to have a contractor for a brother-in-law. He was able to help us get this done quickly. While the guys were here, they also scraped off our popcorn ceiling in the kitchen and laundry room. We would like it gone from every room, but we didn't have time for that right now.

All the stuff on our dining room table is from the pantry that is still in process of being finished. The workers put up sheet rock for the pantry, and Nick is going to build the shelves and put up the doors this weekend.

Dust from sanding and scraping is everywhere. I'll be dusting and swiffering for days. But I am excited to see how it all turns out. I'll show the before and after pictures when all of this is finished.

I feel like our lives are getting back to normal now that Nick is home, and I can easily access my kitchen. Also while he was gone, it did not stop raining. We had already gotten over 5 inches of rain on Monday, and it didn't stop until Wednesday morning. It put me in a bad mood. Hopefully after this weekend I'll have a cleaner and more organized house along with some sunshine.

I hope you and your Valentine have a good day no matter how you celebrate.

Lately

I've been blogging at a slower rate lately. I have some things to blog about, but I either have trouble putting it into words or life just gets in the way.

I'll just hit the highlights of this week. 

Saturday I got some new make up and a hair cut. I decided to start getting nicer face make up. I don't really mind the drug store stuff, but I can never get the right color or product. At the clinique counter I got my face cleaned by a clarisonic (said to clean 6 times better than just washing your face with your hands). It felt like a face massage. Then the make up lady showed me how to properly apply my new make up (another reason I wanted to go get the good stuff is because that is something I should already know at the age of 27). I really think this make up covers better and stays put longer. I'm also using some new make up brushes. That makes a big difference too. I didn't get any eye make up because I still have a lot, and there are some eye products that I don't think I need to spend a lot of money on right now.  

I love my new hair cut. My old hairdo was in my way. It was always in my face, and I was wearing it the same boring way everyday. Now I don't even have to put anything in it to stay out of my face. 

It went from this...

 To this..

And I did not color my hair even though it looks different colors in the pictures. A lot of damaged hair was cut off. 

Millie and I have also been walking a lot in this beautiful weather. It was 70 degrees the past couple of days. 

On Tuesday I deep cleaned my kitchen during nap time. The dirtiness was driving me crazy. We are still in the middle of fixing up our kitchen. So I wasn't into cleaning the floor much because I thought it would just get dirty when the next project comes. However, it has been a while since any progress has been made, and our floors needed some heavy duty swiffering. Now it is Thursday, and the floors look like they did before I cleaned them. 

The other night I went to a consignment sale. I'm so thankful one of my friends gave me a pass to shop early.  I found some really cute things for Millie. It is easy to get carried away. There is so much stuff. I put back more than half of what I originally wanted. When I added up the prices of all my items, it came out to the exact amount of money I made tutoring this week. I thought that was a sign not to buy any more.
Some of my favorites are this cute corduroy dress. 

 And this precious pink coat.

She liked the modeling. 

I've been cooking a lot. But I haven't made any new dishes. I've been sticking to old faithfuls like, chili, stuffed shells, Mexican casserole, and steak and potatoes. Millie is a good eater. She usually eats what we eat. I was struggling with Millie's meal time, not because of what she ate but when she ate. She would want dinner at 5 when it wouldn't be ready for another hour or so. Then she would want to eat again when we were eating, and I was tired of fixing her dinner twice. I've finally gotten better at giving her snacks. Even if the snack isn't until 5, it is something that satisfies her so that she still wants dinner at 6:30. So for now the family dinner is working out ok. 

Millie has grown so much over the past couple of months. She will be 20 months tomorrow. She says a new word every day. It amazes me every time she learns something. She has also gotten really good at relaxing. 

She likes to get in our bed to watch Rella (Cinderella). 

She also likes to drag everything out of her bed and carry it to her relaxing spot. It may not look like a lot of stuff, but there are many stuffed animals under all those pillows. 

If it is nice this weekend I'd like to take Millie to the zoo. We went for the very first time last week, and Millie loved it. We saw all the animals and rode the train. It is a good place to burn some energy on a pretty day. 

It has taken me a while to even write this post because Millie kept interrupting me. Now she is asleep, and I'm hoping to get some things done. This time I think I'll read instead of mopping the kitchen.

Have a good weekend.