New Kitchen Island

I am so excited to share our new island with you.  We ordered it three weeks ago and yesterday, Scott and one of my generous pitching dads (with a truck) picked it up for me and delivered it into my kitchen and straight into my heart.

Ok, let me first remind you of our kitchen.  It had a very open center and I had tried to use a kiddie table to usefully fill the space, but really that offered surprisingly little storage options...

...although it was nice for dancing...

Now...with the island...

I should have taken a pre-picture so I could flip back and forth like my friend Dana used to do to show off her new HDTV.  (She would pick the same channel and say, "See?  HD...No HD...HD...No HD..."  Until I agreed with her that it was well worth the extra expense.)  We don't have HDTV ourselves, as our TV set is ancient, BUT STILL WORKS!  Which allows us to buy other things...like our beautiful new island!!

I found the bar stools for a steal.  They're used, but we ruin almost everything anyway in this house, so I didn't want to spend a lot of money.  Last night, the girls sat at the "high table" for about an hour and colored and played.  

Elizabeth was interviewing Rachel on her favorite color and games and what she wants for Christmas.  I have no idea where she gets this, but we all get interviewed about once a day.

On the other side of the bar is storage...lovely, glorious storage with this handy dandy lock bar that Rachel can't seem to figure out yet and just rocks the doors back and forth with all her might.  (Well worth the price of good construction!)

Ahhh...this is happiness to me.  Everything that had previously been stored on the counter top or on the wire rack in the dining room found a home.  I was even able to fit my Dutch oven and cutting boards down here too.  The wire rack is now going to retire to some closet to hold diapers...since nothing really says fancy like having wire racks in your dining room with a George Foreman on top. 

So far, we've had breakfast and lunch at the "high table" and it's actually been a great time for us to talk and not have the TV on or be distracted.  At lunch, we had a conversation about rhyming words and what a bank was.  It makes me realize how much I've taken to going rogue during mealtimes to get my things done or check Facebook or email or sort laundry...all while they watch TV.  In one day, it's been a lesson learned for me.

Ok, now to answer "why white?"  I want to paint our cabinets white.  Slowly but surely, my husband is coming around to the idea.  But right now, our kitchen is just a lot of wood for my taste.  Here...I'll show you again.

So I want to do white cabinets with black pulls and (eventually) copper colored counter tops.  Basically, copying It's A Wannabe Decorator's Life.  We don't have a ton of light in the kitchen and I just  think this will make such a difference.  

I also love TomiAnnie's kitchen renovation over at Just What I {Squeeze} In.  How cute are all those little plates on top?  *sigh*  I wish I was crafty!

When are we going to do this?  WHO KNOWS??!!  Considering my difficulty bending over and the fact that I'm now working both days of the weekend with lessons, it may not be for a while, but the dream remains there...and I'm glad the island will too!  

Do you have any dream kitchens on the top of your list?  Mine are bookmarked and memorized.  And one day, if I ever figure out Pinterest, I'll take advantage of that as well.

Have a great one and stay warm!!

Desk Makeover

If you can't figure out why we haven't done too much work around the new house here, I will give you two little guesses...

Yeah, I know...I can't imagine either.

But if you can remember my Obsessing Post earlier this month, you may recall my husband knocking out a certain honey-do project on my desk.  And boy, did it need some work.

You see, I am a stacker - always have been.  I put things in stacks to go through later.  I have stacks to go through now.  I have stacks of recipes, coupons, books to repair...you name it, I stack it.  It would make my life so much simpler if I would just learn to take care of things as they come or put them away as I tend to them...but I don't.  Well, my stacks had taken over the desk area in our kitchen.

Oh, and if you think that is a sight, you should just look behind those cabinet doors there... *shudder.*  So I had asked Scott if he could go into the cabinet and take out the center shelf, move the printer up on the lower shelf and drill a hole for the cords to come through.  In doing so, we realized that the doors wouldn't close because the printer was too big.

So, my wonderful husband removed the doors.

And all that was inside...

 Elizabeth playing amongst my stacks...

And after a little organization and elbow grease...

TAH-DAH!!  So much better!  I could actually bring the shredder that was hiding underneath the desk on top - eliminating the "needs to be shredded" pile.  I also spent a little bit of money at Hobby Lobby for the organizers for the shelves - they now hold printer paper, crayons, coloring books, stickers, etc. 

The basket on the top shelf is now hiding my stack of coupons and my cookbooks actually have room to stand up.  I was able to slide the baby monitor beside the printer and that is one of my favorite features because I get to hear Rachel sing and talk herself to sleep.

My best friend sent me a labeler as a house warming present...she really "gets" me...

Now, here's where I need your help.  This mountain of cords behind the laptop still bugs me and I need a solution for that eye sore there.  I looked at the Container Store...isn't that the most wonderful place on the face of this earth?  I was actually shocked that they didn't have a solution.  I was thinking some sort of raised box that I could cover them and then stack something else on...ha!  Just kidding...sort of...  

I'm also going to do the back wall in cork so I can just tack notes up there.  I just haven't gotten around to that part yet.  

So now you can picture where I'm sitting as I tell you my stories, as if you were dying to know.  Thank you to my wonderful husband for taking care of this project for his pregnant, obsessive wife.  Tomorrow, I'll show you another kitchen project.  

But seriously...any ideas on the cords??

Thanksgiving with my turkeys...

There are quite a few things that I love about holiday weekends.

I love being able to eat the holiday meal early enough that you can then have sandwiches for dinner.

I love waking up on a Friday and thinking that it's Saturday, but then realizing that it is INDEED Friday and that Saturday is a whole day away.

I love when our little children let us sleep until almost 7 a.m. before they start singing Lion King songs.  Normally "I just can't wait to be king" begins around 6:15.

I love seeing random people at the gym on their days off.  They're always happy and chatty and one older man made the comment to me this morning that I must have eaten waaaay too much turkey yesterday, pointing to my belly.  Funny guy...

I love shopping Black Friday deals online and scoring sales plus free shipping.  I made one attempt to go to a store and waited in line for 30 minutes just because I had a $10 off coupon and then decided that I was an idiot and the three small items I had in my hand weren't worth it. 

And I love having my husband home.  

Now, some of you may think that I'm running a little bit on the crazy side by celebrating a holiday weekend when I'm home with my small offspring all the time anyway - but having your spouse at home makes things totally different.  We are big on routines and rarely stray from our breakfast - Y - lunch - nap - activity - dinner - baths - bed schedule and just to have that other person around to share in the insanity and be another grown-up with you makes it a holiday in my book.

Or maybe you think I'm crazy for attempting to potty train on the biggest cooking day of the year...

But I digress...

I had these big master plans of getting the house clean and most of my cooking done on Wednesday so I wouldn't be in the kitchen all morning Thursday and, like most plans made by a 23 week pregnant woman, they went to the way side as I decided to take a nap instead.  My loving husband brought home take-out Wednesday night and the girls and I started on the cranberry relish after dinner because I wanted the flavors to fester together in the fridge overnight.  

They were very excited to help and squeeze the oranges and watch it all come together and that really kicked off a string of my little cooks helping me in the kitchen.

Thursday morning, I got my bird in the oven and decided to take the diaper off my youngest.  We've been reading a book on the potty and she's been telling that she needs to go sometimes so we thought we'd roll with it...you know, on one of the busiest mom days of the year.  With the potty in the kitchen...

We were about 50/50 on the potty...much better than the first time we tried this with her big sister.

I had debated on just getting a pie at the store, but I had all the ingredients on hand and figured I was just lazy not to make one myself.  Now, I had never made a pie crust before, so it was a little bit of an adventure, but it came out edible, even if I'm doing most of the eating on it. 

Battling for prime counter real estate...

I let them play in the flour and roll out the remnants of the crust dough after I was done with it.  This appeased them for a good 20 minutes, until I had to kick them out to do the dishes...which led to a good 20 minute double tantrum.

We had Thanksgiving for lunch and ate around noon, which was a record for me and I was pretty proud of the spread.  I had one store bought item - the rolls.  And here you can see that it was all my children could think about.  We don't have rolls that often and I will have to tell you one day about how I gained 60 pounds in my second pregnancy AND made my daughter a picky eater all through the influence of having rolls with dinner.  But that's another post.

Long story short, the girls snubbed their noses at the plates of yummy Thanksgiving food and ate rolls.  And Elizabeth ate a little cranberry relish...I would say since she made it, but she also assisted with the sweet potatoes and pie and green bean casserole and wanted nothing to do with them.

Yes, I said pie...weirdo...don't worry, I ate her piece...so it wouldn't go to waste.

Scott shredding the turkey, under close supervision by the Master Drooler himself.

Amazingly, the scent of turkey must have had enough of a sleepiness effect to make both girls take a three hour nap, and I joined them for about a third of that.  Scott spent the quiet time doing manly things in the garage, like getting down the Christmas bins and putting together a shelving unit.

Out cold.

So that was our day and we consider ourselves very blessed to have been able to spend it together in a warm house with plenty of food to eat.  We hope you had a wonderful one as well.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Thanksgiving Spread!

We are in prep mode for the big turkey day in our house - which is extra interesting considering I'm also in nesting mode and (for the past two days) severely cranky, swollen and pregnant mode.  Is it surprising that my husband is working today?  I think not... ;)

This time last year.  Rachel was just figuring out how to pull herself up. 

Thanksgiving is easy at our house since it's just us and, honestly, I love it that way.  I hate the stress of rushing and traveling and, since we don't live close to any family, we have spent a lot of holidays that way.  Once we had the girls, we opted for traveling around the holidays (cue my trip North last week), but spending the actual days at home and creating our own family traditions. 

Well, and when you stay home you get all the leftovers...which is really what I'm in this for, people.

When we were planning our menu, Scott made the comment that we could really keep things simple with it just being us and not having a big spread.  I just laughed at him because I have been CRAVING Thanksgiving food and planned a menu based around my own pregnancy whims.  Not that he is complaining!  Here's what we're having (and there's going to be plenty if you have no place to go and want to stop by!):

Food Network's World's Simplest Thanksgiving Turkey - easy and yummy sounding.  That is right up my alley.  I had a Barefoot Contessa (who I love) recipe picked out, but like a dummy, I went to the grocery store BEFORE consulting my recipes and forgot lemons.  So this one covered everything that I have on hand.  

I'm planning on putting the bird in as soon as we get up so we can eat early...and still have room for leftover sandwiches later. The leftover sandwiches are truly our mission in life when it comes to Thanksgiving.  The first Thanksgiving that Scott and I spent on our own, we concocted sandwiches with turkey, mayo, cheese, lettuce, stuffing and cranberry relish...and oh my glory.  I remember making more stuffing just so we could have more sandwiches.  Scott's only Thanksgiving request was that I get good rolls for these beauties...oh, and that I don't ditch the sugar in his grandma's cranberry relish...but we'll get there.

Stuffing - My husband jokes that I am the only person on earth that would rather have Stove Top over something homemade.  And I would.  I love it.  This is the only time of year that I fix it and thanks to a BOGO special a couple weeks back, we shall have plenty.  Of course, I will probably doctor it up a little bit, but the little red boxes are our friends.

Paula Deen's Sweet Potato Bake - We love this sweet potato casserole, and it is all Paula Deen:  rich, sweet and yummy.  I omit the topping for mini marshmallows and it is still delicious.

Myrecipes.com Roasted Turkey Gravy - I'm not planning mashed potatoes, but I do like gravy on the turkey...and sometimes on the leftover sandwiches...ha!

Roasted butternut squash - Just plain and simple with butter.  I like the mix of tastes and colors this adds to the plate - especially against the red and greens.  This particular butternut is from my mom's garden and is just the perfect size.  It was still growing when we were up visiting in September and Elizabeth loved walking out to the vine every day with my mom to look at it.  In fact, they named it "Lizzy" and my mom saved it just for Elizabeth.  Let's hope she eats it!

Green bean casserole - ala from the side of the French's onion can.  mmmmm...this will be our green for the plate.  

Scott's Grandma's Cranberry Relish - Elizabeth and I are going to make this today and she is excited about helping.  Scott has asked me repeatedly if I'm going to put sugar in it and it really is a little too tart without it.  It goes something like this...2 bags of fresh cranberries (thank you Publix BOGO this week!), 1-2 oranges (zest and juice).  Chop it all in the food processor and add sugar to taste...normally about 1/2 cup...you still want it with a little zing.  It needs to balance the sweet potatoes, after all!

Potato rolls - Again, thank you Publix.  I know my battles, and decided to let someone else make the rolls and I'll do the pie.  Talking about rolls always makes me think about when we had Scott's wrestlers over for Thanksgiving dinner and I made at least 6 cans of crescent rolls and they devoured every one.  Poor guys had to spend the rest of the evening sweating them back off, but they assured me it was worth it.

$5 Dinner Mom's Maple Pumpkin Pie - You all know that I love the $5 Dinner Mom and recently purchased her ebook on Holiday Entertaining and it really does not disappoint.  In fact, if you're interested, it's on sale now for $1.99 and I'll just link this entire sentence to the book for you to find it.  We're also going to make her pie crust, although I think I'm going to add cinnamon to it, like she mentions in another article I can't find right now.

I also have enough cider to last us the day spent inside and we have visions of getting out Christmas decorations...shew!  So...what are YOUR plans?  Whatever they are, I hope you have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!  We are thankful for all of you!

 

Stuff running through my head...

We just got back from our pre-holiday excursion up to see my family...and when I say "we" I mean the girls and me...and the DVD player, thank goodness.  Scott couldn't take off work and really, we are fine to travel, although you wouldn't believe the looks you get as a pretty pregnant woman walking into a truck stop with two toddlers.  

Today, we are happy to be home safe and sound, but I have to admit that my head is a little fuzzy.  So don't expect anything earth shattering here, my friends.  

Because of our traveling, I took a week off working out and decided to eat my weight's worth of brownies and cookies at my mother's house instead.  So much for my staying off sugar kick - I blew it all.  What is it about going home that makes you want that stuff?  Therefore, it is not surprising that my legs each felt like they weighed 50 lbs apiece on the treadmill.  Although, I was able to run for 20 minutes...so perhaps the week off wasn't completely horrible...we'll see what my hips say tomorrow.

And speaking of hips...

I weigh in every day.  I know you're not supposed to, but I am really trying to keep my weight under control while carrying this little guy and I'll write a post about my opinions on pregnancy weight gain when my thoughts are more together, but for the purposes of this random series of thoughts, it's important for you to know that I venture on the scales at the Y.  Every day.  And I was a little nervous after afore-mentioned brownies that I would be above the dreaded 150 mark.  Now, don't get me wrong here, it's not a bad number, but I was never at 150 before I began this pregnancy streak.  

Normally, at 5'3", I stay around 130.  A little lighter in the summer, a little over in the winter.  That's been me since probably the 9th grade.  So I always dread when the nurse at the dr's office has to slide that little marker on the scale up to the 150 mark to read my weight.  Well, today, I was sure I had hit it.  I mean, I was dreading it.  So I stood on the scale and slid that little top grove all the way to the end...and it didn't move or hint downward at all.

Oh no, I was WAY over.  

Then, I happened to notice that the little bottom notch thingy was only on the 0, not the 100...so I happily moved that puppy over and realized that I was still under the drop zone.

For now.

Which means I am totally legitimate in eating this handful of chocolate chips... :)

I swear, back to the no sugar tomorrow...or after Thanksgiving...I am human after all.  

And speaking of things that stick to my thighs, I'm trying out these Reebok shoes with the little balance things on the bottom.  I think they're called RunTones and I never thought that I would buy leg toning shoes, but I was in the market for new running shoes and found these for a terrific deal.  I figure if they can do anything with this fast-forming flub, they are well worth it.  I'll let you know... have you ever tried any of the toning shoes?  These had good reviews and were highly rated for their comfort, so we'll see!

Also along the random front, I just have to tell you that Rachel can now say her name.  It is the most precious little sound in the world...something like Rah-too...but she is very proud of herself.  The girls are thrilled to be home and have their daddy back, even though they had a great time with the grandparents, aunts, and friends.  They got to open a couple early Christmas presents and received a little toy power drill from one of their grandmas.  It was a huge hit and Elizabeth couldn't wait to get home to show her daddy how she had tools just like him.

It really is cute and has a little block with bolts and screws that you can turn and then flip a switch to take out.  My little Bob the Builders love it.

So I wasn't surprised when, this morning, I heard the drill start up while I was fixing oatmeal.  Pretty soon, Rachel woke up and upon coming down the stairs, went through her cranky, wake-up period and then wandered in to find her sister.  

"Hey Rachel!"  Elizabeth said excitedly when she saw her.  "Wanna come in and screw with me?"

I almost spit coffee out my nose. 

And because, I could never top that, I will sign off and promise to write more coherent thoughts tomorrow.  ;)  Well, that and if anyone is Googling "butt toning shoes, brownies and screw" this post will pop right up.  I'm not sure that was a life goal of mine, but I do find it pretty funny. 

Have a great night!

Shots from the Weekend...

Geez, Mom...stop screaming.  You said to brush my teeth...what's the problem??

My Husband's Thoughts: Injury Update and New Motivations

I have a had a good couple of weeks.  I love the fall in the Midwest, football games are becoming meaningful and the college wrestling season kicks off in earnest.  My girls are healthy and active and my beautiful wife is doing great, twenty-two weeks into her third pregnancy since late 2007…  I am continuing to learn and contribute at work and I expect 2012 to be a great year.  Our family has found a great church to attend here and we are continuing to develop incredible friendships and learning a great deal from the leadership.

My back is healing up thanks to the treatment of a wonderful chiropractor and I have been back in a more consistent training regimen.   I am at the gym 4-5 times per week and have been getting back onto the grappling or wrestling mats 2-3 times as well. 

I have always enjoyed coming back from injuries and have found solace in the challenge of getting back to where I was at pre-injury.  During my recent stint on “IR” I was able to do some body weight exercises and some light running / drilling / cardio training.  As my efforts at the local Y have picked up over the past couple of weeks, I have found myself in a number of interesting conversations with my gym buddies.   I love the effects of training on the body but I have always enjoyed the challenge of physical tasks more.  I love feats of strength, tests of athleticism and skill development, gymnastics, plyometrics, and every type of conditioning activity ever created. 

I was in the middle of a workout last Thursday, when a guy asked me why I was doing box jumps onto the 42 inch platform that we have in my local Y.  My answer surprised him, but not my wife, when I told her my reply.

“I just found out today that I am going to have a son.”   

We had just found out that morning, that number three baby is a boy and I now have another reason to train to stay in shape.  I began to think about my motivation for training and I realized that I have always had a unique trait of being easily motivated.  This trait served me well during my years of competitive training and has continued to be a factor in how I have managed to stay in pretty good shape for a man my age (37).

I thought some of you may get a kick out of some of my current training motivations:

·         I have daughters.  Therefore I would like to keep a neck measurement of 17 inches in order to help deter possible suitors for as long as possible.

·         I have been able to do 20 pull-ups, unassisted, since I was 8.  I would like this streak to continue until I turn 80.

·         I have been able to squat / dead lift over 400 lbs since 1994.  I would like that streak to continue until the year 2041.

·         I can still score points on college wrestlers and I would like to be able to do this until my son is done wrestling.

·       Bald, fat guys with cauliflower ears do not sell a lot of I.T. Consulting Products and Services.  Scary looking, caveman-types, that can speak intelligently and look good in a suit can do ok for themselves…

·         I have never failed in opening a jar for my wife – why start now?

·        I’m an still pretty confident in my ability to protect myself or my family if a physical confrontation ever develops.  I hope this never changes. 

·         My wife still thinks I’m attractive with my shirt off – why would I want that to change?

Your motivation may be different than mine, but I hope there is something inside of you that keeps you moving.  Is there?