Pictures

Macaroni Pork

I invented a dish tonight, and I am so enchanted with it that I must share it with the world! Yes, I will be linking my own blog post to Pinterest. Feel free to follow suit ;)

Ingredients:

• 2 lb pork; diced (I am not sure exactly which part I had, as it was purchased on sale and I didn't really care...according to this image, it was loin steak)
• Box of noodles or pasta of your choice (would be convenient if it were mac and cheese)
• 2 cans cream of celery soup
• Tbs Ranch dressing
• Salt
• Pepper
• Crushed red peppers
• Garlic powder
• Onions (I used dehydrated)
• Paprika
• Worcestershire Sauce
• A cheese packet from a box of macaroni and cheese

**All seasoning and cheese amounts according to preference**

Directions:

• Bring pot of water to a boil for the pasta; cook according to directions
• In a small pot, mix the cream of celery soup (rinse the cans half full with water and dump them in the pot as well)
• Add the Ranch dressing, pepper, crushed red peppers, garlic powder, and paprika. Bring to a hot simmer and add the macaroni cheese (I used maybe a quarter of a packet). 
• In a small skillet, cook the diced pork with onions, Worcestershire Sauce, salt, and pepper. I added a small amount of water to my meat to prevent the "skillet cooked" look...very small amount.
• Place both the sauce and meat on low while the noodles are cooking; drain noodles
• When everything is finished, combine it all and enjoy!

Okay, so I know that isn't the most professionally written recipe, but it's hard to put it into words when my exact thought process was something more like, "Uhh, yeah...some of thiiiiiiis, ooooh! Some of that would be tasty. Hmmm. Too much...eh, we'll just add more of thaaaat...".

So good luck. If all else fails, improvise. It would be hard to ruin this if you ask me!

Fried chicken

1. I made fried chicken and waffles for dinner tonight. I'm not sure what an actual connoisseur of soul food would think, but I tell you what: it sure fed my soul! Darren and I scarfed it down with wicked glee. No telling how thickly our veins run with Crisco tonight.

2. I am fairly certain that was my first time to fry chicken, and given that is was so successful I kind of feel like a rockstar.

3. Next time I will add more spice to my dry mix. It could have used more kick.

4. Emma has gotten into the habit of pinching the mess out of all my squishy flesh while nursing lately--so much so that I have several bruises. I have been diligently trying to train her away from this habit for the last two days, and I think it is going well. She is doing it less and less. I did thump her hand real good a couple of times (not in a row...like, 12 hours apart). The look in her eyes and the hurt I hear in her cry shreds my soul into a thousand pieces. I hate hurting her feelings. The plus is that she is more willing to let me hold her hand afterwards (something she fights when she is determined to pinch me), so I get hurt less. Yay for that.

5. My sweet baby rocks back and forth on her hands and knees a lot these days. It is only a matter of time!

That skirt. Love. 

6. Her smiles are captivating any time of day, but I have noticed that I have favorite smile moments:

• When I cheer and clap for her because of something she did, whether she knows it or not and she becomes very proud 
• Whenever I open the back door of the car after driving somewhere...it's like she's seeing me for the first time in hours!
• Any time I go to her after she wakes up
• Whenever I wrap her up in a towel following a bath
• Her sleepy smile when I swaddle her up before putting her to sleep (she will very often interrupt wailing tears to smile when I roll her up for sleeping...it's weird)
• When we are in public and I am semi-oblivious to what or who she is watching, but I catch her smiling up a storm for some lucky stranger
• When she watches other kids play. She finds great delight in this

7. I have several projects going on these days. Besides wrastling a chunk-a-lunk in all that I do I am writing my life story (personal history for the win!), making preparations for a rag quilt (squares are cut, just need sewing!), pretending to keep my house clean (hahahahaahahahahaaaahahaha), and making plans to pack for our upcoming move (I have the calendar organized into Stages 1-3 ...we will not have a miserable moving experience, even if it kills me).

8. Emma has become much more accepting of Darren over the last week or so, and it melts my heart completely. I love watching them together. She smiles the biggest for her daddy, and he becomes the biggest sap when she wants his attention.

9. In addition to my "I want a house" frustration, the age old restlessness I felt growing up has kicked in. Will I EVER get to move away from this place? That remains to be seen. The answer has always been "no" every time I have tried (after high school, after that year of college, after that boyfriend, etc...), so I gave up trying and became happy (and then found my handsome hottie...swoon). Anyway, despite the happy times I've had the itch to get out has struck again. Darren recently told me that he would like to leave, and that's what resurrected my feeling of being trapped here. The answer is still "no", but maybe one day it will change to a "yes"!

10. I am rereading The Help. It really is a great book. 

I have never adored so much

Last week was a very miserable week in regards to Emma's sleeping habits. Very miserable.

This week has been a great improvement, but OH MY GOODNESS. I am a wreck!

No, not really. I'm just back to missing my baby too much whenever she is sleeping well at night. I stare at her a lot (and duck like a ninja every time she flinches, because there's no way I am getting caught and being stuck on baby duty for the rest of the night).

Anyway. I miss her. 

A little while ago, I was out in the living room working on the computer on some things when she began crying (about 2 hours after she'd gone to sleep). It was a super sad, super sleepy cry that I knew, given a few minutes, would disappear into a silence. I even investigated, and her sweet little eyes weren't even open, so I knew she was still asleep. 

I couldn't help myself. I reached in and scooped her up so that I could have some sweet rocking chair cuddles while she nursed her nightmare sorrows away. 

My love for that baby makes it hard to breathe sometimes. What did I do with my life before she blessed our little family?

And why why why why WHY do I have to feel so helplessly in love with her, yet so smothered all at the same time? Some days I really mourn the passing of the me who didn't know what it is like to be a mom.  I don't wish I were still that girl, but every once in a while I miss the light weight of not having to devote so much of my very being to a life for which my husband and I are solely responsible. It is stressful to love so much. It is a sacrifice in some ways. A beautiful sacrifice with such a sacred purpose. I don't know how to process it in my heart, so I guess that makes me sad. 

I have never adored so much.

The peace of a late night, combined with missing her demanding and adorable antics as she sleeps, has left me with way too much time to think. I'm going to bed. 

Why I hate apartment life

Do you know why I hate living in an apartment?

The same reason I didn't particularly like being 18, 19, or 20.

The same reason I hate when my hair is stuck between short and medium.

The same reason I prefer to let my bread dough cook before I partake (okay, that analogy may be a stretch).

I HATE BEING INBETWEEN.

I have this sense of "our life will really start when...". When we have our own space. When we have more space. When we have a yard. When we can paint things the color we want. Etc.

If you have ever been to our apartment, you may have noticed how poorly things are decorated. The truth is that I have such a hard time motivating myself to do all the hard work that goes into decorating just to decorate an apartment. As if.

We've had a move-out date set for nearly 18 months now, which means I am capable of developing senioritis...which means I care less and less.

I crave the independence that comes with having more space/our own space. I crave having more than one bedroom. I crave SPACE.

Pinterest kills me, because I don't have space for 1/100 of the things on there that I would love to have for my home.

Apartment management is also super annoying. So is having to walk a hundred miles just to retrieve my mail. So is having to carry a dang key with me everywhere I go. So is having to give really complex instructions to anyone who wants to visit me so that they can get into our gate and find our apartment.

Also, I hate people, so neighbors more than 3 steps away from my front door would be lovely. Darren and I are prone to hermit-like behavior, so the idea of wiggle room in regards to neighbor proximity is appealing. Like chocolate fudge brownies appealing.

7 months!

I cannot believe I forgot to do a 7 months post! Man, I'm a slacker.

Don't you just want to gobble her up? So much fluffy cuteness.

Our little sweetie is able to do so many things now:

• sitting up
• scooting/"crawling"
• climbing
• pulling up on low things (such as, my criss-crossed legs when I sit on the ground). she is remarkably quick about moving into a "standing" position (ofttimes hunched over)
• hold her frozen celery sticks in her mouth and chew on them*

She loves to eat:

• Mommy's milk
• avocados
• carrots
• applesauce
• pears
• rice puff snacks

Things that make her smile and laugh:

• when her stuffed animals "walk" or "bark"
• silly noises
• silly faces and scare tactics from Daddy
• Daddy's tickly beard (this is also on the list of things that make her cry)
• Mommy's funny faces and sounds

Things we love about her:

• Her squishiness
• Her laugh
• Her hair (it is finally growing!)
• Her smile
• Her funny faces and sounds
• Her cuddles

Excerpt from an email I sent to my family this evening describing her current behavior and personality development:

Emma is indescribably adorable. She is learning so much, and it is fascinating to witness. She is very close to "real" crawling. In the meantime, she has developed a lovely Ursula crawl (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uqCsLQnkRA ...skip to the end at the 7:30 mark). She has become a momma's girl....I didn't know it was possible to become MORE of that. She loves to be close, and is always trying to find me when I walk out of her sight (I like to watch her when she can't see me). She loves to eat.  She is still a fantastic nurser, and loves her little snacks, purees, and canned pears. If you eat in her presence be prepared to either share, have a little something made up for her, or listen to lots of pitiful and angry begging and crying. I love to eat during her nap times. 

She follows me around the kitchen a lot. It is pretty sad listening to her wimpers and desperate "running" to catch up with my feet if I take a few steps. It is also hilarious. She will hold on to my feet, desperately trying to hold me in place. Sometimes she gnaws on my ankles. It's like having a puppy around, really. Today she had a first: she gave up on following me around and actually left the kitchen. She proceeded to explore the great beyond of her "bedroom" (dining area near the kitchen), which made me smile. It was one of those bittersweet she's-growing-up moments.

She loves to sing and talk and gripe.  I know she is fully awake in the morning usually whenever she begins talking and singing to the window curtains by the bed. Whenever she is angry she cusses. Somewhere in the land between sobbing and whining is a place that has no name. When she is in that place she holds firm eye contact and gripes in a language I don't understand--but I have an idea what she is saying. She uses consonants, emphasis, and inflection while yelling.  I laugh in her face because I can't help it. She also loves to slap things. She has a lot of persistence. She'll crawl over a million obstacles to reach whatever forbidden objects she desires. This usually means she ends up bumping her head or otherwise hurting herself, so then we get to hear all about that injury while she tells us about how offended she is that we caused it all by not letting her do whatever it is she wanted in the first place. She can be defiant (she has a "look").  Sometimes her cries deteriorate into hilarious babbling.  She rarely sits still, and has become an acrobatic nurser--hilarious and frustrating. She loves to smile and laugh, and she gives the best post-nap cuddles in the world. She laughs when she watches older kids play.

We are so in love with this little beauty we are lucky enough to call our daughter!!! We love her and her personality, and I cannot wait to see how it continues to develop. She has a bit of an attitude, so I think we are in for it! Our parents will sit back and high five themselves for all the heck mine and Darren's attitudes gave them growing up.

She is ours, and we are so lucky :)


*frozen celery sticks are genius solutions to teething woes. a friend suggested it to me, as it had worked for her daughter, so I took her word for it and gave it a shot. Holy moly! Emma loves to chew on them when her teeth are bothering her or she is fussy. She smells like celery more than Darren would like, but I'm okay with that!

Emma Emma!

1. Friday night Darren and I went to a football game at my old high school.  The fans are still crazy, but it was fun. We actually beat the team we were playing (which, if my brother is correct, we haven't done that since 1996. WHAT?)

2. We left as half-time was ending. Emma needed to go to bed, and we were very tired.

3. I have baby fever, and it needs to shut up.

4. I have a million crafting ideas that I want to attempt. Most of them cannot currently be attempted because I do not have one or more of the following: funds, space, know-how. Boo on all three accounts.

5. I spend a lot of time daydreaming about where we will live next, even though we don't know where we are going yet. I'm a daydreamer, and not being able to picture the location of my Christmas Tree properly is awful. Knowing we will be in a new place by Christmas is very exciting!

6. I have finally pinpointed the object of my passion for breastfeeding: knowledge and education. I don't particularly care whether or not a mother chooses to breastfeed, but by golly, moms on both sides ought to at least know the correct information! It drives me crazy when I hear people share incorrect information, whether it is about the actual process of lactation/breastfeeding or the law that protects breastfeeding mothers. For example, I've had more than one person tell me that babies only benefit from breastmilk within the first 4 weeks/3 months/6 months/1 year (I've heard several time frames), and that simply is not true. Breastmilk is never not beneficial (it always contains nutrients and antibodies) (Reference). I think that is my draw to lactation consulting. I want to educate about the facts. I find it all so fascinating, and I can't seem to stop talking about it.

7. I painted my nails yesterday. For the first time PROBABLY EVER I didn't mess it up while it was drying.

8. Emma's napping/nighttime sleep habits have become horrendous lately. I instituted a new bedtime routine today that will hopefully alleviate the problem. I'm sure I also need to develop a morning routine so that we don't laze it away in bed. It probably doesn't help that neither of us are morning people. I'm sure she just wants to stay up late because it's in her blood, just as it is in her mommy's blood, and her grandma's blood, and lots of her aunties' blood...

That's a lot of blood. And a lot of people not going to sleep on time.

9. Darren bought me some dynamite running shoes. I am in love. They are the same shoes as the ones I used to train and run all my races (too many miles were put on those shoes...). Once upon a time I bought new running shoes to replace the originals, but there was a big problem: I bought a different brand that my feet apparently hated. I have never run comfortably in those shoes. When Darren surprised me with the NEW shoes, I nearly fainted. I love how they feel! It doesn't hurt that they are a very excited explosion of color. Like a crayon box vomited on them or something.

10. My 17 month old niece Rachel calls Wonder Baby "Emma Emma!". It is so cute! She sounds like the seagulls from Finding Nemo, quite repetitive with her "Emma Emma!", and always aggressively pointing with her finger lest we mistake who she is referring to. My sister-in-law has told me that she calls other babies "Emma Emma" sometimes.  Yesterday we went to the play place at our mall, and a little girl there was quite enthralled with Emma...AKA "Baby Xavier".  We have now been on the receiving end of the all-babies-look-the-same syndrome.

11. I went to a surprise birthday dinner for the sweetest girl on earth last night. Aaaaaand I was the only mom who brought her baby. Yay for drawing attention to myself! I shouldn't complain, because she really was very good. She's just so dang curious, so I kept shuffling my stuff, and my neighbors' stuff, all around the table to keep it out of her reach (social boundaries destroyed...I never touch other people's plates or cups!). She wants to play with everything. I also got sloppy and accidentally left her snack bowl within reach...she dumped most of it on the floor. I felt like I was wrestling her the whole time (even though it was really my friend Amy who was wrestling her....she entertained her for a long time, for which I am very grateful!). Memo to me: next girls' night, Emma Emma stays home so that I can enjoy myself properly.