A Day with the Boys

Yesterday, we drove down for a visit with Michael's sister and her family. We wanted to get there to see them since the way our schedules are, it's possible we might not see them again until mid- to late July. :(

It was a beautiful day, so we spent the majority of it outside, watching Brendan explore the backyard. We also discovered that Logan already likes the baby swing on the swingset--at three months old! They are both too cute and we can't believe how fast they are growing.

My photography "hobby" has really started to become a bit more than that. I have been practicing and working on it so much lately. I feel like I am constantly taking and editing photos. I'll tell you one thing--learning photography is so NOT easy. For any professional photographers out there--I give you major credit. MAJOR credit.

Fortunately, a lot of it is starting to click for me. I have a long way to go, but I've found that I've started to surprise myself. Photographing Hunter's birth, for instance. I was SO nervous, but when I was finished with the slideshow (sorry, can't/won't show it here since it captured such personal/emotional moments), I was seriously proud. And I did an actual newborn "session" with Hunter this morning, and I have to say, those images are looking pretty good for a beginner like me! (I'll show you some of those soon.)

Anyway, I leave you with some snapshots from our day with the boys yesterday. Nothing too special (if we're talking technically)... just a few for fun. The bright sun definitely posed challenges for me, so it was good practice.

Check out the "Big Brother" and "Little Brother" t-shirts on the boys. We bought them for them around the time Logan was baptized, and they wore them for us today. So cute.

Michael and Melissa with baby Logan (who was squinting from the sun!).

Max loved playing out in the yard, too. Next time, we're going to bring Tessa with us.

Brendan loves hats and sunglasses. He ran around with them on all afternoon. I've never seen a 21-month-old who will keep sunglasses on. I was amazed. This is a cool shot of him on the bench swing on their swingset. I got down below him, and he was looking at me like, "WHAT are you doing?!"

With both boys! I think this is the first time we've ever successfully taken shots like this.

Love little kids with juice boxes.

Logan, lounging on Uncle Michael's lap on the swings. He was so serious yesterday. Normally, we can get him to smile really easily. He wasn't so amused by us yesterday for some reason. I did have a pretty long "conversation" with him at one point where he was smiling and cooing at me (so much so that he ended up with hiccups), but we didn't get any pictures.

Love these boys!

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Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies

I'll admit up front: This isn't a "new" recipe on Heather Drive. Instead, it is a scrumptious variation on one I've posted before. Still, I wanted to share it.

These are so good, in fact, that I've made them twice in a week's time. Last weekend, I made them for my family BBQ at my mom's on Sunday. Last night, I made them again to take to Michael's sister's place when we drove down for a visit. I don't think I have to tell you how they were received, do I?

Chocolate & Peanut Butter Chip Cookies
(Slightly altered version of the Thick & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie from Baking Illustrated)

Ingredients:
- 2 cups + 2 tbsp. (10 5/8 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 12 tbsp. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
- 1 cup packed (7 oz.) light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (3 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 - 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (adjust amount to your taste)
- 1/2 - 1 cup peanut butter chips (adjust amount to your taste)

Directions:

1. Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. Either by hand or with an electric mixer, mix the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in the chips to taste.

4. Roll a scant 1/4 cup of the dough (since I weighed the dough, I did 2.2 oz. per cookie) into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface. Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2 1/2 inches apart.

5. Bake until the cookies are light golden grown and the outer edges start to harden yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (mine were done in about 13 minutes), rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the sheets. Remove the cooled cookies from the baking sheets with a side metal spatula.

Makes approximately 18 large cookies.

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The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff

I've been really slacking with posting this summary/review. I read this quite a while ago, so I'm not even sure I'm going to do it justice since it's not very fresh in my mind. Oh well... I'll give it a go.

This was a book club read that I didn't get around to finishing until well after it had been discussed. Whoops. I'm a bad book clubber. Anyway...

The Monsters of Templeton begins when Willie Upton, a graduate student studying archaeology, abruptly runs away from her life at school in San Francisco and returns to her tiny hometown of Templeton, New York. On the morning of her homecoming, a dead monster is discovered floating on the surface of the town's lake. As the investigation of the monster begins, so does an investigation into Willie's family history.

Willie's ancestors founded the town, so her family's history is intertwined in Templeton. Many of Templeton residents (or their ancestors) seem to play a role. All her life, Willie grew up believing that she was the daughter of one of three men her mother, Vi, had flings with while living on a commune in California (sound sorta familiar? it is. see "mamma mia"). As a way to give her daughter a project to keep herself busy throughout the summer months, Vi tells Willie that her father is actually also a descendant of Marmaduke Temple (founder of the town).

And so begins Willie's obsession with finding out who her father is. She digs into her family history, and as readers, we are treated to reading the historical documents she finds, learning secrets as Willie learns them. We read letters, book excerpts, or sometimes, first-person accounts of historical events that Willie does not even know about. These chapters are from different perspectives, all different members of Willie's family, and each gets us a step closer to identifying Willie's father. Some of these chapters are really entertaining, and others are boring as hell.

In the end, I wasn't completely sure how to feel about this book. There was part of me that liked Willie, and there was part of me that was annoyed by her. Some of the historical chapters were interesting, well-written narratives, and those were highlights of the book. Then there were other parts of the book that came from so far out of left field, I couldn't suspend my disbelief. And then there were parts that were too predictable.

Overall, I did enjoy it, but I wouldn't put this on my shelf of favorites.

Have you read it? Tell me what you thought. Didn't read it? Give it a shot; see what you think.

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No Hugs Allowed

Here is my latest entry on a list of "Things That Make You Go, 'Hmm'":

An article in yesterday's New York Times discussed a new trend among teens to, get this: hug each other. Apparently a lot.

So often, in fact, that schools across the nation have started banning the action. Banning hugs. (Full article here.)

Upon Googling to find you the link to the NYT story, I learned that this isn't really such a new phenomenon. Here's a Time article from November 2007 that reports that an eighth-grader served two detentions in a week for hugging her friends.

Am I the only one who thinks this sounds completely ridiculous? They're hugging, not shooting each other up with drugs. Certainly this world (especially middle schools and high schools) could use a little more love and a lot less hate, right? What's the harm in hugging?

Remember this guy? He offered free hugs to people on the street and turned himself into a YouTube sensation. His "hugs campaign" sparked many other people to do the same, all around the world. Hugs are good, not evil.

School administrators claim that it's difficult to draw a line between appropriate and inappropriate hugging, so it's easier to place a ban on hugging altogether. Really? I look back at my high school days, and although we didn't use hugging in the same way (or as often) as it seems teens do now, it wasn't hard to see when innocent, platonic, friendly hugging turned into all-out groping (or heaven forbid, making out *shudder*). It seems to me that should the sexually charged touching happen, it would be pretty easy to pick out among the rest in order to tell the two lovebirds to knock it off, no?

Not only that, but my god... how much time and effort must they put forth into enforcing these stupid bans on hugs? One of the articles says that some schools have placed time limits on hugging. Anything over three seconds is unacceptable. Whaaaat? Again, I say... really? So, if two students hug in the hallway, is there are a teacher or administrator standing over them with a stopwatch?

I. just. don't. get. it.

Now, I'm not a teacher or an administrator, but I can only imagine that these people have much more important things to worry about. Like, say, THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN, for one. If I was a teacher, and I was told by my administration that I had to give detention to students for hugging in the hallway in between classes, well... I think I'd be pissed.

As far as I'm concerned... hug on, kids. HUG ON.

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Hunter

Let me just start off by saying that I'm not going to tell the whole birth story with all of the details, because well, it's not mine to tell. But I was lucky enough to get to be there throughout the whole thing, and so I guess there is a version of Hunter's birth that is my story.

Shall we start at the beginning?

On Sunday, we were all at my mom's house for a small family BBQ. It was another beautiful day, so we relaxed outside on the deck all afternoon and into the early evening hours. We talked a lot about the baby, when we thought he'd finally be born, and overall, we were just excited to know that, one way or another, he would be born within the next week. We all went our separate ways.

That night, Michael and I went to bed probably around 12:30. The next thing I knew, we were awakened by my cell phone ringing. I could only think of one person who would be calling me at 3:45 a.m., but I still exclaimed, "It's Trevor!!" when I saw the caller ID. I excitedly answered the phone to him telling me that Kara's water had broken, and that they were at the hospital waiting to get admitted into a room. It became clear at that moment that it was "go time," and that this was really happening. The baby was officially on his way!

After debating for a few minutes about whether I should try to get a little more sleep or head to the hospital right away, I realized there was no way I was going to fall back to sleep, so I might as well get going. I jumped into the shower, then packed up a number of things (including all my camera equipment and laptop) to take with me. Michael and I were at the hospital around 5:00 a.m.

By the time Kara had her epidural in at around 9:30 a.m., we had learned that she hadn't really made much progress from the time she was admitted. They decided to start her on a pitocin drip to get her contractions stronger and closer together.

About an hour after that, Kara was in excruciating pain, and as it turned out, her epidural didn't work. IT DIDN'T WORK!! Can you believe that? I guess I just never even knew that it not working was a possibility. There were many doctors in and out of the room trying to figure out how to manage her pain, and many different things were tried. They never did figure out what the hell went wrong with that.

Eventually, things started happening REALLY quickly. They ended up giving Kara a pain medicine through her IV, which I guess "took the edge off" and made her a little loopy, but from what I gathered, didn't really do that much of anything at all. And next thing we knew, they said she was ready to push.

I was shocked. She had been making such slow progress at first, that I had told my mom and brother to hold off on coming down to the hospital for a while longer, and that I would keep them updated. So I started frantically text messaging and calling them to tell them to head on down to the hospital. According to my text messaging timestamps, this was just before 1:30 p.m.

I started taking photos of the setup, of the process of pushing, etc. But after a while, I thought to myself, "Jeez, how many pictures can I really take at this point? Pushing is pushing..." so I let my camera hang loosely around my neck and I started pitching in. Kara's oxygen mask kept poking her in the eyes and was generally making her uncomfortable, so I tried to help out by holding it about an inch away from her face, so she was still getting the oxygen, but not the discomfort of the mask.

And she pushed and pushed and pushed. I'm telling you... after the failed epidural, the 10.5 hours of labor, and then ALL THAT PUSHING... the girl is my hero.

It's weird because you don't know exactly how it's going to feel to see all of it. I wasn't planning on watching too closely, but once she started pushing, it was so exciting and I couldn't help but get involved in it all. As soon as they came in and said she needed to start pushing, I got the biggest rush of adrenaline. My brother and I were laughing because we kept comparing our levels of "the shakes." We'd hold out our hands and try to keep them steady, but they would just shake uncontrollably.

After an hour of pushing, little Hunter was finally delivered at 2:32 p.m. We all (Kara, my brother, Kara's mom, and me) immediately started weeping. It was beautiful.

Once it was clear he was about to be delivered, I snapped back into photographer mode and started taking pics again. Once he was out, they had him lying down on the bed for a few minutes, wiping him off, and suctioning out his nose and mouth. My brother cut the cord, and then we heard those first few beautiful cries. Then, the doctor held him up to show Kara and give me my first real good photo of him:

As you can see, he wasn't too happy about it. :)

Trevor and I followed the baby over to the warmer where the baby nurse was waiting to examine him. Before she started doing too much, she let Trevor hold him for a minute. I love this picture.

Under the warmer. He was trying to open his eyes right away. I guess he wanted to get a real good look at all of the people who were responsible for removing him from his warm and happy home inside Kara's belly.

While the nurse was examining him, I quickly ran out to the waiting room to tell the fan club (I swear it was like 15 people!) that Hunter had officially arrived. And of course, I was totally unprepared for one of the most frequently asked questions: "How big is he?!" Hmmm. I had no idea. After giving everybody a quick peek at one of the photos I had taken on my camera, I ran back into the room so as not to miss any important activity.

Shortly after I returned, we got the answer everyone had been wanting and waiting for: 7 lbs., 13 oz.

Then they put goop in his eyes. He was pissed. (But look at him holding onto both of my brother's fingers... pardon me while my heart melts.)

And then he was finally all done being examined, and the nurse wrapped him up tight like a giant burrito. She then handed him over to his proud daddy.

Trevor took him over to Kara, who finally got to spend some time gazing at her new son. After a few minutes, she was nice enough to give her mom a turn, and then... ME!!!

I could not have been a happier auntie.

Shortly thereafter, the whole cavalry was allowed to come in. And everyone got their moment to hold the little guy. I think it was unanimous that our little guy Hunter is PERFECT.

It was around this time that my hunger hit me. It was probably at least 3:30, maybe 4:00, and it occurred to me that I hadn't eaten anything but a small bowl of cereal at 6:00 a.m. Trevor had only eaten breakfast, too, so we took a short break from the hospital and went to get some food.

Oh, and a few celebratory beers. (Notice the footprint stamp on Trevor's arm. When the nurse was doing the footprints, she said, "Let's give Daddy a tattoo!" and put one on Trevor's arm, too. So cute.)

After dinner, we went back to the hospital to see mom and baby settled into their new room. That was when the adrenaline rush really started to subside, and the exhaustion came. But I still couldn't resist spending just a little more time with this little one:





I love him so much!

Now, I am up to my eyeballs in photos to edit. I took something like 400 photos yesterday. Yikes! I'm hoping to finish editing and put together a slideshow for Kara very, very soon, so I'm spending almost all available time editing.

Well, all available time that's not occupied by visiting my beautiful new nephew. :)

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Houston...

...we have a baby. Nephew #3 has arrived.

Hunter Charles
May 25, 2009
2:32 p.m.
7 lbs., 13 oz.
21.25 inches long

I am in love.

He came out with a little bit of a conehead, but he is beautiful. Absolutely perfect. And his mother? She's a champion.

Have I mentioned I love him?

It was an amazing day. I'm still processing the whole experience. I'll tell you one thing, though--when they say "the miracle of childbirth," they aren't kidding. Wow. It was simply awesome.

I'll share some more photos and maybe some more story later... but now? SLEEP. I need sleep.

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The Great Outdoors

Today was all about being outside in the absolutely gorgeous weather we are having. All I have to document it is a few crappy cell phone pictures, but bear with me. :)

First, we went on a 17-mile bike ride. This pic is from about the 8.5-mile mark, where we stopped for a water break and turned around to ride back.

On the way back, we stopped for our first frozen custard of the season. I'm a kid at heart--always gotta go for the rainbow sprinkles!

So delicious. I looooove frozen custard. It was melting quickly, though. Right after taking the photo, I had to work on the sides to get it "under control." It's a difficult job, but someone's gotta do it. :)

Once home, we were on our way back outside as soon as we had our bikes stashed in the garage. Next up was a 3.5-mile walk with little Tessa girl. We couldn't leave her inside all day!

All of this activity left me in dire need of a shower and a little rest. My legs were exhausted. After dinner, though, we hit the pavement again and took Tess out for another little walk. We let her off the leash at a nearby school and ran her around the sports fields. She was in Heaven.

We definitely made the most of the sunshine today, that's for sure. The temperatures were perfect, too. Love, love, love this weather.

And love, love, LOVE three-day weekends.

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The Windy City

We are certainly making good on the promise we made on our honeymoon to travel more.

I booked the airfare for our next trip this morning. Our destination? Chicago.

We're going for a long weekend trip in September. I can't wait.

I've been to Chicago a few times, but it was always for work. I've never been for fun. Whenever I was there, I did get a chance to experience a little bit of the city, and what I've seen, I've loved! I've always wanted to get back there, and Michael wants to go for the first time.

We weren't planning to book so soon--We thought we'd wait until we got back from our Seattle/San Francisco trip (coming up in just a few weeks now!), then book Chicago in maybe late June or sometime in July.

For whatever reason, though, I had the urge to plug our preferred dates into Sidestep this morning, and I was shocked when $139 popped up for roundtrip airfare! When I checked in the past, the prices were more around $240-270. We didn't want to miss out on such a great deal, so we quickly decided to just go ahead and book it. Plus, the flight times are absolutely perfect for us.

We'll leave on a Thursday night after work, getting into Chicago around 9:00 p.m. Then we leave on Sunday afternoon to come home. It should be a lot of fun. We still have to find accommodations. There's a possibility Michael's uncle may be able to get us a deal at a particular hotel, so we're going to check into that. If not, I'll be hitting up Priceline again!

This year has been awesome. It's so nice to always have a vacation to look forward to...

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Eleven Months

Well, how about that? This is the last monthly installment of our "mini anniversaries." Next month, we'll officially start counting in years. Pretty amazing.

I've found myself reflecting on where I was in my life one year ago. Have I ever expressed just how happy I am that I started blogging? At first, I started Road to the Aisle just for me. I was so excited to be engaged and getting married, and I wanted to chronicle the whole thing. I never expected anyone to read it, but once people started doing so, I remained motivated to blog because of it. I have always sort of felt an obligation to keep it up because of all of you, and I am just so glad I did.

I love going back and reading it all, but I especially love the entries in the month leading up to the wedding, and of course the wedding itself, and then the honeymoon. For whatever reason, those posts take me right back to that time, and I can feel the feelings--I can relive it all.

It's possible I might touch on this stuff again once we hit the one year mark, but when I look back at this post, sent from my BlackBerry, right before I went inside the church to get married? I feel the anticipation all over again. And it's funny, too, because I was standing there by myself just waiting, and trying to pass the time, and when I first thought about taking a photo and posting it on the blog, I laughed at myself. Noooo, certainly I shouldn't do that. How stupid of me, to be thinking about my blog at a time like this. But I did it anyway. Now, it's probably one of my favorite posts I ever put up on Road to the Aisle. And it doesn't even contain any words! Oddly enough, it happened to post at the exact time my wedding ceremony was scheduled to start--2:00 p.m. I look at the timestamp and I can't help but smile.

One year ago, I was preparing for a bachelorette party. Making jewelry. Hunting down late RSVPs. Designing rehearsal invitations. Trying out a spray tan. Doing funny things in my sleep. Getting licensed. Running into issues with programs (then fixing issues with programs). Indulging in a glass (or two) of wine almost every night. Bidding adieu to work for three weeks. Losing weight without even trying.

What a crazy time that was. I don't have any desire to do it again (except for maybe the effortless weight loss; that, I could live with). I'm grateful to be living a more relaxed lifestyle this year. But wow, looking back on all of that? F-U-N.

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Fun Mail

Three weeks to the day after we mailed in our passport applications, I received mine in the mail today.

Just mine for now--we're still waiting on Michael's. Mine was faster because it was a renewal, while Michael's was a first-time application.

And apparently our DIY passport photos were approved just fine, which was a relief. (I was just a teensy bit worried.)

The new passports are weird. Instead of having the photo and information on the inside of the front cover, it's on the back of the first page. So it's paper thin, and the photo isn't actually pasted in there--it was clearly scanned in and printed directly on the page. According to the paperwork that came with my passport book, it also has a computer chip embedded in it somewhere so that it can be scanned to reveal all of my information. Ah, the wonders of modern technology.

I'm now free to move about the country WORLD!

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Strawberry Love

I didn't like strawberries until I was about 16-17 years old. I know, *gasp!*

But I grew up as an extremely picky eater. In fact, I'm still kind of picky, but I'm not even remotely as bad as I used to be. I don't really remember any "bad experiences" with strawberries from my younger days, but for whatever reason, I hadn't given them a chance in years. Then I was at a friend's graduation party and the strawberries just looked SO GOOD. So I decided to give them a shot, and well, I've never looked back. In terms of fruit, they have easily become one of my favorites.

And so it is always a pleasure when I walk into the grocery store this time of year and see the HUGE displays of strawberries right as I walk in the door. It's also around this time of year that the prices drop to 2 lbs. for $3 (usually $5 throughout the rest of the year). Not only that, but the strawberries get GOOD. So tasty.

I've picked up 2 lbs. of strawberries each week for the last few weeks, but we've been going through them too quickly. So this week, I decided to go big... 4 lbs.! Check out this huge box of delicious-looking berries:

Hell yes. Breakfast, lunches, snacks, desserts... so many possibilities.

One of my favorite things to make with strawberries is a light dessert... a little strawberry shortcake. I was turned onto this dessert a few years ago, when I was on Weight Watchers. I loved how I could "indulge" in a little something after dinner, and for so few points!

It starts with a little dessert cup, sold pre-made in (I think) most grocery stores. I top that with some fat free whipped topping, then a handful of sliced strawberries. YUM. And so... summery. I love it.

Summer is almost here... I can't believe Memorial Day is this weekend. Wow. We've started summer hours at work, which is obviously awesome. We come in a bit earlier Monday through Thursday, but then we get half day Fridays. It's quite the perk.

Other than that, not much else going on around these parts, which is why I've been kind of quiet on the blog for the last two weeks or so. Last week, I was mostly dead tired and didn't feel like doing much of anything... going into work earlier every day took its toll. But this week, I'm feeling much more adjusted.

Oh! And I am constantly thinking about and waiting on that baby. Sounds like he will be here early next week at the latest (will likely resort to induction). I can't wait!

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Anticipation

For the last two weeks or so, I have been on edge. Waiting, watching, hoping, willing, praying. I'm excited and impatient. I'm expecting a very important phone call, you see.

I'm waiting to hear that my sister-in-law is in labor, and heading to the hospital.

It's true that I normally get antsy whenever someone close to me is about to give birth. This isn't unusual for me. I'm just always anxious to meet the babies! But this time, my excitement is increased tenfold. For one, this is my brother's baby... which just seems so weird. Not only that, but little Hunter's birth is going to be very special for me.

It's going to be my first time witnessing a baby being brought into the world. That's right; Trevor and Kara have asked me to join them in the delivery room.

I am beyond excited. My primary "job" is going to be to take photos--lots and lots of photos. We want to capture the emotions and the experience of the whole process, from the beginnings of labor, all the way through the aftermath of delivery (i.e. everyone getting to meet the baby).

I'll admit that I'm a little bit nervous. Not so much about the medical stuff, but as an "amateur" at photography, I just want to make sure I don't screw this up. The kid will only ever be born once! I am feeling the pressure to do a decent job.

More than anything, though, I am honored to be asked. I'm going to have the opportunity to watch a person take his first breath. That's pretty freaking amazing. I'm also going to witness the moment my "baby" brother becomes a father. I sort of get all misty just thinking about it! I hope I don't bawl. I should at least be able to hold myself together well enough to get some good pictures. :)

So now it's just a waiting game. Kara's doctors seemed to give the impression they thought the baby would come a little early, so they kind of set the expectation that there wouldn't be long to wait. And well, that was like two weeks ago! The waiting has been a bit torturous!

The official due date is on Tuesday, and Kara is ready--more than ready--for this little guy to make his debut. It seems as though he might be a little too comfortable in there. We went to my cousin's graduation party today and everyone gave the baby a good stern talking to (especially my grandma--if he doesn't listen to her, I don't know that he'll listen to anyone!).

Here's hoping he starts to make his way out very soon. He's been baking in there long enough; he should be good and done by now. It's eviction time.

The world is ready for you, little guy. We can't wait to meet you.

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The Adventures of Heather & Tessa: Downpour

It started off well. I skipped the gym today in favor of enjoying time outside, opting instead to take Tessa for a long walk. When we left the house, it was really nice out. Warm, and even a little bit sunny.

But just as we reached our halfway point, just as we were the furthest away from home we could possibly be while on our route, the skies decided to open up.

At first, it was just a few drops. I didn't think much of it.

Then it started to sprinkle. It actually felt refreshing.

Then? Pretty steady rain. I thought, well, we'll probably be pretty wet by the time we get home. But I continued to listen to my iPod, and figured we'd be fine.

But then things suddenly changed. The wind picked up, and all of a sudden, it started pouring. I was getting pelted in the face with rain, and I had to continually wipe my eyes because I was getting to a point where I was dripping wet.

When we were a little more than half a mile from home, I started to worry about my iPod and BlackBerry. I took out my earbuds and stuffed everything deep down into the pockets of my shorts. And then? We made a run for it.

Part of a shortcut to get home cuts across a school's property, and when we were running down past the school, I started to hear thunder and saw small flashes of lightning. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, it was still teeming rain.) I decided that it probably wasn't a good time to go running across an open field, so I made a quick decision to bolt down toward the school and seek cover under a small overhang by one of the doors.

We waited it out for about 5 minutes, at which point I wasn't hearing much thunder anymore. The rain was still coming down, but not quite as badly as before. And so we ran. And RAN. We took the quickest, most direct route we could, splashing through ginormous puddles and cutting across muddy grass. Don't forget--my little dog is 11 lbs. and has approximately 6-inch legs. But she was a trooper.

When we got home, I couldn't resist taking a few photos and a little video of just how wet we actually were. SOAKED! Completely and utterly soaked (including my knickers!). I actually wringed an impressive amount of water out of my socks, shorts, and t-shirt.

But in the end, my iPod and BlackBerry survived (thankfully!), and we made it home safely. So it was actually kinda fun. It was quite the adventure.

Oh, and for the record? It's no longer raining. And of course it isn't. Why would it be, now that we're inside?

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S'mores Bars

When it comes to dessert, I don't know that it ever gets much better than s'mores. Not only are they tasty, but they immediately evoke feelings and memories of summer, campfires, and fun.

So when I saw these s'mores bars, I just knew I had to make them... and soon. I knew they would go over really well with my family, so I decided to make them for Mother's Day.

I have seen several different recipes for these floating around, but I believe that this one is, by far, the easiest. I was originally going to make one of the more "complicated" versions. But when Melissa shared this recipe with me, I decided that since I was already going to be busy preparing other things for our Mother's Day meal, I'd save myself the extra work and keep it simple.

And as it turns out, in this case, easy = WINNER. In every aspect of the word. These things are amazing. Not only were they delicious straight out of the oven, when they were still warm and ooey and gooey, but they were just as good (but in a different way!) the next day, when they were cold. When cold, they almost reminded me of a really good candy bar. Yummmm.

S'mores Bars
(Source: Betty Crocker)

Ingredients:
- 1 pouch (1 lb., 1.5 oz.) Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
- 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
- 1 cup butter or margarine, melted
- 3 cups milk chocolate chips (18 oz.) -- I used the candy-making wafers found in the bulk section since they are easier to melt
- 4 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

Note: I didn't measure out the chocolate OR the marshmallows. I just spread them over top of the bars until it looked right to me! So I think I ended up using less than what was called for.

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. In large bowl, stir together cookie mix and crumbs. Stir in melted butter until soft dough forms. Press into ungreased 13" x 9" pan.

2. Bake 18 to 20 minutes or until set. Immediately sprinkle chocolate chips over crust. Let stand 3 to 5 minutes or until chocolate begins to melt. Spread chocolate evenly over crust.

3. Set oven control to broil. Sprinkle marshmallows over melted chocolate. Broil with top 4 to 5 inches from heat 20 to 30 seconds or until marshmallows are toasted. (Watch closely; marshmallows will brown quickly.)

4. Cool 10 minutes. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Serve warm. Store any remaining bars tightly covered.

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The Pretty Peacock

A few weeks ago, I hopped over to Amy's blog and saw a post about personalized gifts she had been purchasing off of Etsy. The jewelry she posted caught my eye, since I had just started to think about Mother's Day gifts.

Not only did I want to get something for my mom, but I wanted to get something for my sister-in-law, Kara, as well. She and my brother are expecting their first baby and I wanted to give her a special gift for her first Mother's Day.

Since Amy had purchased a necklace from a seller called The Pretty Peacock, I started there. I browsed several other Etsy jewelry makers as well, but ended up back where I started. For Kara, I was looking for something simple and affordable that I could personalize with the baby's name.

I found this "Circle of Love" pendant, and thought it would be perfect. Clearly I'm not the best at taking photos of jewelry, but this is a beautiful sterling silver charm on a sterling silver chain. Ana (the artist behind The Pretty Peacock) hand-stamped Hunter's name on the charm, and a Swarovski crystal dangle hangs in the middle. It is the emerald color to represent Hunter's birthstone. (For May. He better be born in May!)

It comes on an adjustable length chain so that the recipient can wear it at whatever length they prefer.

On Saturday, we were over at Trevor and Kara's place and we were talking about the necklace I got my mom for Mother's Day. Of course, I kept the fact that I had bought something for Kara a secret. When I told her about the necklace for my mom, she asked about where I bought it, saying she had been looking for a necklace with a really small pendant she could personalize with Hunter's initial. I was dying inside! Needless to say, when she opened this gift the next day, I think she was pretty surprised. And I'm pretty sure she loves it!

As for my mom's necklace, I'll have to post about it at a later time. When it came, it wasn't exactly what I had been expecting, so Ana is going to fix it for me. It was a small misunderstanding, but big enough that I decided to tell her. She was awesome, offering to redo the pendant portion right away. I still have to mail the necklace back to her, but that's only because it's too difficult for me to attach the new pendant myself. She has been great to work with, and I know I'll end up with a beautiful necklace for my mom.

I highly recommend Ana at The Pretty Peacock! She can also work with you to create custom pieces. Not only is she on Etsy, but she also has a website with an online store of its own.

Happy shopping!

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My Mama!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there. Especially my mom.

I seem to recall her telling me that this photo was actually taken on Mother's Day. So that would've been 26 years ago! Don't judge us for our '80s attire (at least my bonnet is cute).

We went over to my mom's for an early dinner this afternoon to celebrate. We made three batches of pizza crust and made three homemade pizzas, and brought cards and gifts in appreciation of mom. Now, with all of our significant others, it's like my mom has six kids! So she had a lot of love coming her way. :) Overall, we had a good time just catching up. We also decided to throw in a couple bucks each for a birth pool for Hunter. We all guessed birth date/time and weight. Not a big pot for the winner(s), but we figured it'd be fun.

I'll post more about the gifts I bought for my mom and mommy-to-be Kara in the next few days, since I want to show pictures and I'm too lazy to transfer them off of my camera right now. I'll also have to post the recipe for the dessert we had today, because it was scrumptious!

In the meantime, I hope you're all enjoying the day with your mothers!

Happy Mom's Day!

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Thank Heaven for Little BOYS!

How cute are my nephews?

Answer: So. Damn. Cute.

They were up for a visit at my in-laws' today. We got together with a bunch of family to, well, just get together. We also "celebrated" Mother's Day.

Michael's aunt gave Brendan a baseball set, and since it was such a beautiful day (at first, anyway), we had to go outside and try it out. I think he had a good time.

And I got to enjoy baby snuggles. I loooove when they smush their little faces into your neck when they sleep.

Love. it.

You know what else I love? Baby smiles. Especially when said baby is only 10 weeks old and is already this happy. Little Logan? LOVE HIM.

In related news... our third nephew should be joining us very soon! I am on high alert over here, for we could get the call at any time. He will hopefully be here any day now. His mommy is certainly ready for him to come out and meet us all (I think daddy is pretty anxious, too). So c'monnnn, Hunter! We've waited long enough! :)

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You're killing me, America

On Tuesday, Oprah announced that in order to "help people out" in this time of economic suffering, she was going to give everyone in America a free dinner. Or, rather, KFC was going to give everyone in America a free dinner.

All people had to do was go to Oprah's website, download the coupon for a chicken dinner within 24 hours of the announcement, and drive to the nearest KFC. Next?

Cue pandemonium.

My eyes and ears can't believe what they've been seeing on the news. People waiting in lines for HOURS to get their free KFC dinners. Lines of cars forming down the block. All for a meal that I'm told costs $4.00. And not only that, but it's f-ing KFC, for crying out loud. It's not even good.

Are you kidding me, America?

I find myself trying to understand why people are driven to do this. Is the economy so bad that people are that desperate to save four freakin' dollars? Do people love KFC that much? Is it just because the almighty OPRAH is behind this?

And now, KFC has had to go so far as to cancel the promotion since they couldn't keep up with the demand.

I like a good deal as much as anybody. I'm a bargain hunter. If I can avoid paying full price for something, I do. But, two things: 1) You will never catch me redeeming a coupon for KFC. I don't care if it's free. 2) $4 worth of savings anywhere is not worth the hassle of waiting in a huge line. Time is money, people. Time is money.

Couple all of this with the fact that overall, America is overweight and seemingly addicted to fast food, and this whole story just kind of saddens me. It's ridiculous, really. I'd even go so far as to call it embarrassing.

Have no idea what I'm talking about? Full story here.

(Photo from ew.com)

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Co-Sleeping

When we have babies some day, we don't have to worry about them taking up permanent residence in our bed. There's not much room, because we already have a warm little body who sleeps between us.

Her name is Tessa.

She's an 11 lb. miniature dachshund who undoubtedly thinks she is a human baby. And this is how she sleeps with us. No joke. All cuddled up, on her back, completely passed out.

In the cold winter months, she usually burrows under all of the covers and sleeps curled up next to our legs, but now that it's too hot under there, she's back up right in between us. And even after three years with our little "baby," we still can't get over the hilariousness.

I have to say, though... she is an excellent cuddler. Top notch.

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Go Green... or Go Home!

I suppose this post would have been more timely if I had posted it a few weeks ago (Earth Day!), but I guess there's really never a bad time to talk about "going green," is there?

Within the last year or so, I've become more and more conscious about "being green." Thankfully, I live in a county that has always had recycling, so it's not that I was ever ungreen. But I've started to realize that we can definitely do more.

As far as recycling... we have always been extremely diligent about recycling every single thing we possibly can. All paper, cardboard (including cereal boxes, pasta boxes, etc.), packaging, plastics, etc. All of that has always gone out to our blue recycling bins to be taken away by the recycling collectors. The nice thing is that we don't have to sort. All recyclables go in the same blue bin and for us, there is no fuss.

In addition, we have to pay a $0.05 deposit on soda and beer cans/bottles, so we've always recycled those, too. We have to return them to recycling centers at our local grocery stores to get our $0.05 deposits back! The $0.05 on every can and bottle really adds up over time, so it's so worth it to return them--not only is it green in terms of the environment, but it results in a bit more green for your wallet, too!

When we moved into our house in 2005, we installed a programmable thermostat right away. In the winter, we keep it at 68 degrees when we're at home, but drop it down to 56 (yes, 56!) when we are in bed (under our nice, fluffy, cozy, completely warm down comforter), and also while we are gone to work. The thermostat timer bumps it back up to 68 degrees about a 1/2 hour before we wake up, and again 1/2 hour before we come home from work, so we are never freezing waiting for the temperatures to come back up.

In the summer, we do the same for the air conditioning--keep it at 78-80 degrees when we're at home, but let it get up to 85 degrees while we're at work. I'll admit that the main reason we installed the programmable thermostat was for money savings, but it's certainly good for the environment as well.

OK, so those are things we've been doing for years. Now onto the changes we've made more recently.

We have started using reusable bags almost exclusively--for groceries, trips to Target, BJ's, etc. We have four of them, and it is the perfect number for my weekly grocery trips. The groceries for the two of us always manage to fit inside the four bags (aside from gallons of milk, bags of apples, cartons of soda, etc. which we never bag anyway). We bought the reusable bags probably a year ago now, but we weren't always great about using them. We've recently become really committed to it, and I feel great about that--especially after seeing a special on TV about how horrible plastic bags are for the Earth. I was actually quite horrified by it, to be honest.

Related to the plastic grocery bags... for several months now, we've been buying biodegradable bags to clean up after Tessa outside. I know, I know! Paying for bags to pick up poop with! It sounds crazy, but we have to use SO MANY bags for this. Previously, we were using the plastic grocery bags we collected, or the plastic bags that our newspapers come in. But again, I learned how absolutely horrible those are for the environment, so we wanted to stop using them. Not only that, but with the reusable grocery bags, we don't even have enough of them on hand anymore to do the dirty job.

Since we live in a complex and we don't technically have our own yard, we are required to pick up after Tess immediately after she goes--every time. We don't have the choice to conserve bags by only doing the clean-up every couple of days. SO we're doing what we can by using the biodegradable bags.

Currently, I'm on the hunt to "green" our lunches. We already use reusable lunch bags, but we are still guilty of using ziploc bags for sandwiches, baby carrots, grapes, chips/crackers, etc. This week, I've been researching reusable containers for these items so that we can stop using plastic bags for this, too.

I know what we're doing isn't much, but we're trying. Unfortunately, a lot of the eco-friendly stuff is more expensive than the norm, and we don't exactly have a lot of extra cash to be throwing around for this stuff. Therefore, budget friendly options are always well received in this house!

So, I've told you what we've been doing... what are the things you do that are green? I'd love to hear other ideas that we can perhaps add to our routine.

I challenge all of you to look at ways that you can make small changes in your lives that will help make a BIG difference.

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Beware of the Swine

I am finding the whole swine flu issue to be extremely interesting. Well, I'm actually more interested in the public's reaction to it than I am in the flu itself.

Sure, when you hear about an outbreak, or worse, a pandemic, it's a bit scary. Because in all likelihood, with the way our current society uses and abuses antibiotics (I used to work in a pharmacy, so I know all about that, and don't even get me started), there is bound to be a super bug that comes along and kills a LOT of people some day. I just don't think swine flu is going to be the bug to do it.

But, of course, the media turns everything into a huge deal, even if it's not.

My favorite example of the media frenzy surrounding the swine flu occurred last week. I turned on the morning news to hear: "First U.S. Swine Flu Death Confirmed." It was sad to hear that an infant had passed away, and the news kept going on and on about how big of a deal it was that someone from the United States had died.

When I got home from work that day, I turned on the evening news, only to find out that the infant who died was actually a Mexican baby who was visiting Texas. She had not received the medical care she should have, and had basically just come over the border from Mexico. So, I mean... does that really qualify as a "U.S. death"? I don't think so. But leave it to the media to take something and run with it.

Truthfully, I think this swine flu thing has been blown completely out of proportion. From what I've seen and read (repeatedly, since it's such a huge story), this flu is no more dangerous than the regular strains of flu that circulate every year. So why are people freaking out?

Wash your hands. Often. Try to reduce the amount of times you touch your eyes. Keep your distance from people who are ill.

Isn't this all common sense? C'MON, America. Get a hold of yourselves. This isn't the bubonic plague.

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