Ultrasound

For info about our ultrasound, check out our baby blog.

What Celebrity Do You Look Like?

Compliments of Alison's Blog, check this out. It's kinda fjun, as you can see by what I did below.

Here are my results: Consuelo Velaquez, Anita Ekberg, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, Cate Blanchett, Sophie Loren, and below that it's less than 50% match. Not sure how much I look like any of them, but interesting nonetheless.

I did my friend Jessi and what I came up with for her is this message: Sorry, no faces were detected. Guess she has her own unique look.

When I did a picture of Kendra it gave me: Naomi Watts, Demi Moore, Olivia Newton-John, Julie Christie, Halle Berry, Sophie Marceau, Hillary Swank, Aaliyah, & Isabelle Allende.

I did the picture of Tim from their blog profile and here's what it gave me: Saif Ali Kahn, Kevin Smith, Marat Safin, Michael J. Fox, Billy Bob Thorton.

When I did Andy I got this: George W. Bush (Yikes!), Juan Antonio Samarach (Who?), Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Alain Prost. I don't think that Andy looks like any of these either.

I scanned in a different picture of me and got different results: Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Meg Ryan, Kate Winslet. Again -- I don't think I look like any of these.

Letting Go.....

It all started about 6 years ago in grad school when I was taking a class on CBT and I volunteered to use myself (in front of the class) because I was frustrated with the interactions with my brother. It was that moment that I chose CBT as my theoretical basis and began to apply it to my life. It started out slow with choosing how I react to being stuck in traffic and then started applying it to have I react to other people.

I think I have done a fairly good job at being able to separate what things I can make choices about and which things I have not control over, the latter mainly being other's people thoughts and actions.

Oh, I am certainly not perfect. Far from it. But I sit here at 5 in the morning thinking about how I am frustrated that people do not let go of things from the past and keep drudging it up. Honestly, I wish they would let things go, especially when things have changed. But I realize that I cannot make them do that. I can only change how I react to them. I do not know how I will do that exactly until I am in that position again, but until then I just have to remind myself that I can choose to react differently and find a way for myself to let go of the fact that some people may never let go of something.

You Gotta Get This!

This was one of my xmas presents from Andy and we love it. It's a Egg'n'Muffin from Back to Basics.

The toaster part is a wide slot, perfect for bagels. You can make toast by itself, egg(s) by itself, or and egg(s) and toast simultaneously. It's perfect. Well, plus you can heat up pre-cooked meats as well.

The toast gets perfectly browned, and you choose the level of egg hardness (soft, medium, & hard) by how much water you add. It basically steams the egg(s) to cook them.

You can make one egg poached (or scrambled if you choose to do that) or you can make 4 hardboiled eggs (2 separate trays). There is also another try to add your pre-cooked meats to, in case you want to have meat with your sandwich as well. We haven't done the meat thing yet, I think I'll pick up some canadian bacon so that I can try it out.

Both yesterday & today we both had egg & cheese breakfast sandwiches. So yummy! So quick! So easy! Almost every day I would make a breakfast sandwich to make and eat on the way to work, but it involved lots of steps and timing on my part. With this I can just start it and walk away and come back in a few minutes to a perfect egg & english muffin.

So, Steph - you definitly should buy this for Jason for his birthday. You will definitly get a lot of use out of it. And if you buy good quality english muffins (there are some light ones by Lakeland Foods, or WW ones -- which I like better), add an egg, and some LF cheese you can make a sandwich for 2.5 WW points (3 if you use regular cheese, 2 if you use egg beaters instead of an egg). So, you can definitly keep your points down for those of you doing WW.

My Weekend

Friday -- Christmas with the in-laws. We did the appetizer thing where everyone bring an appetizer to share. Good food. We both got some nice gifts, some for the baby.

Saturday -- Made nut brittle, divinity, chocolate banana bread, and 5 gallons of carmel corn (the 2 latter or gifts for co-workers). Of course after all that there was a lot of dishes to do. Watched Rudolph (have the tape) and then went to dinner @ Pizza Hut and went to Javalive for some hot cocoa & entertainment. Javalive is a coffee shop that has free live entertainment on most Fridays & Saturdays. Sometimes when you get free entertainment that is all it is worth. This lady (who did most of the singing) was pretty awful. She kept forgetting the words to popular Christmas songs. What the hell? The guy sounded fine and played nice. We have heard some really good performers while we've been there, so we keep checking out what's there. Plus it's smoke-free and something to do.

Sunday -- Filled up Andy's trunk with a crib (we picked up from Raoul -- don't ask) that my parents will use and a bunch of presents. Andy picked up my car from the repair shop (finally got it back!) and I did some grocery shopping.

Tim & Kendra's Blog

Our friends Tim & Kendra (you might remember her from some pictures previously posted on here) are seriously considering on moving to Manila (in the Phillipines) for a year for a project for her work. They have started their own blog. I wanted to post it here, as I am sure my mom would be interested to hear how they are doing. Plus, I tried updating my sidelinks the other day and gave me an error and I just haven't had time to figure it out, so now I at least have the blog linked somewhere.

Molly Likes Loony Toons

Well, I am not sure if it is Loony Toons in specific, or just cartoons. Since there are no kids here yet we don't watch a ton of cartoons, rarely any except Simpsons, King of Hill, you know Fox cartoons.

Anyways -- HBO Family is Gremlins 2 and the introduction before the movie starts was a short Loony Toons clip and she was just fixated on the tv, once the Gremlins movie started she was back to chewing on her ball.

Anyone ever have a dog like cartoons or Loony Toons in specific?

Snow Day!

Well, not quite a snow day. We had a 2-hour delay start, which was nice as I could get some laundry & dishes done & ate a nice breakfast at home. So, I only had to work for a few hours, then had my 1-year follow-up for my Lasik, which was a good appointment. Then I visited with my neighbor Mary for a while, which was nice. And made a good supper -- Seafood ala King (with shrimp & scallops.)

Today has not started so well......I have been awake since just after 5 (due to the cat) and finally got up and did some dishes and surfed the internet. I have been feeling a little nauseated this morning, which I am not pleased with. And I forgot my cell @ home, I hate when I do that. It's sitting there in the charger -- bah! Tonight I was planning on going to the holiday party for our department, but we'll see how I feel later on. I am pretty tired and stomach is upset, so maybe I'll just skip it.

Now that's a Mouthful!

Wow! You gotta check out all the adorable pictures on this website: http://www.cuteoverload.com/

Weekend Review

Hmmmm.....this was a really laid-back weekend.....

Friday -- stayed home and watched movies on cable

Saturday -- took our time and finally went out and bought a couple of presents we need for this weekend, and then ate dinner @ El Tequila in Northfield. El Tequila is our favorite restaurant down here. We have never been to the location in Northfield, just in Owatona & Faribault. They also have a location in Farmington. Then home again.

Sunday -- hmmmmm.....ran a few errands and spent most of the day at home. Did manage to clean out the closet in the nursery which was over-run by photos and pictures we took down from that room and others, and donations to Goodwill & the humidifier that needed to come out and start being used. That was our one thing we set out to accomplish this weekend. We waited to the last minute, but we did it. Now it's just a closet with some baby things, a hamper and my maternity clothes.

Lunch-lady Memories

Alison gave me the idea for this post, as when I was commenting on her blog I started thinking of all those foods I liked that we had in our school cafeteria.

See, before you read this, you need to know that I went to a VERY small Catholic school for K-8, so there was not hundreds or thousands of kids to cook for. There weren't even a hundred kids at the school, yes it was that small. Most things were homemade. It was great. A lot of kids went back for seconds (in a small school you can do that). The head lunch-lady was also the owner/cook of a popular local restaurant/bar that was open in the evenings.

These were some of my favorite dishes:
* Pizzaburgers (not like a patty, but layers on a bun) Kinda like this recipe using the tomato soup, but on open-face hamburger buns.
* Tunaburgers (they were a creamy mixture on a bun, this recipe sounds like it.)
* Homemade pizza (crust & everything, this was a real treat!)
* Peanut Butter Dessert Squares (check out the Creamy Dessert Squares)
* Tater-tot Hotdish (recipe here)
* Pizza Casserole

I didn't care for the tacos. I was the weird kid that would take someone's refried beans on taco days in exchange for my taco, because you had to have a clean plate. I also didn't like peas and would try to get rid of those. Oh, and I detested these pork chopettes. A lot of the boys like the pork things so that was an easy thing to get rid of. I also didn't like when they made us take the raisin & peanut cups. I was not very fond of raisins thenand the peanuts were unsalted. What the hell? Who wants to eat unsalted peanuts.

Why can't I remember the other foods. I remember getting tomato soup and grilled cheese -- that was good and chili. I don't remember a lot of other soups. I also remember eating ravioli and loving that. Mom didn't buy us canned ravioli, so getting it at school was a treat, although I don't like the ravioli in the high school I work in. We always had a fish or vegetarian main course on Friday -- as we were a Catholic school. On fish days she always made her homemade potato salad. It was good, but since you knew you were going to her restaurant that evening and would have it, it did get old. I never did like the fish fillets (like those Van De Kamps breaded triangular ones) or fish sticks. I gave those away too. Oh! And I never likes the mashed poatatoes -- they were instant. Still don't care for instant mashed potaoes. I did like baked potatoes, but as a kid I didn't like skins and would get hollered at for not eating my skins. But that is why we always traded, so you got to eat the foods you liked and didn't get hollered at for not eating everything, because they made you take one of everything.

I guess I didn't care much for a lot of the pre-made stuff, except the ravioli. I always liked the homemade stuff and have fond memories of those things. Even now that I work in a high school, I tend to eat the lunches that require more assembling (as nothing is "really" homemade when you have 2000 students to cook for). Although they make the tatertot hotdish homemade (can you get tatertot hotdish pre-made?) and this great homemade potpie. I tend to eat a lot of salads there. They have a great salad bar with tons of things on it. They also always have a few choices for fresh fruit, which is great to get a variety of melons in the winter.

The good thing I notice about the high school and about the public high school I went to, is that they don't make you take anything.

You know, now that I re-read this post I am starting to think I was a little bit picky. I never thought I was a picky kid, as there were kids who didn't like things A LOT more than me. As I got older my tastes changed and I like some of the things I used to not like (peas, tacos, ok mayeb that is it). Hmmmm.....I wonder what my kid is not going to like.......

Another Take on Vegetables

Ok - maybe this is someone else's idea of vegetable (& fruit too!) garden planning,

These pictures on "Tiny Grain of Sand" are hilarious.

Vegetable Gardening Plans for Next Year

This baby business is going to cramp into my vegetable garden planting this year. I am due right around the time that I need to be tilling and getting the garden to plant.

Do you think with a big belly with a baby ready to pop out of it I am gonna want to want to do any digging? Or after that when a 8 pound baby (I'm hoping it's not as big as I was when I was born) comes ripping through me (yes, I am scared of ripping! ouch!)? Or what if I need to get a c-section and am not going to be able to do digging stuff for a while?

So, I've decided that I am finally going to do something different with my garden. I started it last fall a little bit, but this spring I am going to do the whole thing. I am going to do a Lasagna garden. No, I am not planting pasta, cheese, & tomatoes (well, yes I will be planting tomatoes). It's a type of gardening that layers organic materials that composts and provides the plants with valuable nutrients, that my compact rocky soil is missing. There is no digging, no wedding & no tilling! Convinced yet?

I bought the 'original' Lasagna gardening book on the above link. I've had it for a couple of years and read it a couple times. I couldn't sleep last night so I read it again (a very easy read!)

Last fall I had Andy cover the garden with chopped leaves to see how just one layer affected the garden. I then had our tiller-guy (Tiller-guy went to college this fall and said he would probably not be moving back to the area until after 4 year.) go through the composted garden. It was amazing how just this layer of leaves composted over the winter made a difference in the garden. That was step one in my small test.

Step two was creating the small areas in my garden that were separated by walking paths made of an organic material (I used cut grass!). These paths cut down on my weeding tremendously. No longer did I have to weed in between rows of plants. I had also planted groups of plants in boxes rather than rows, which is supposed to allow more plants because you have less space for walking. Step 2 worked nicely as well.

What was also great was that I had some place to put my grass clippings and leaves and didn't have to bag them all. I have 2 compost bings behind the garage and both are basically full, so I don't really have room there for more clippings.

So, my plan is to go the Farmer's & Feed Supply Store and buy some straw, an inexpensive purchase. There is a layer of composting leaves and grass on it now, which I will rake to the side as I layer the bottom with newspapers (I actually did this newspaper things with some flower garden I put in, works nicely for most weeds, but somehow those persitant picker plants find a way to get through.) Then I will rake the composted layer back on, layer with some straw, and I'll have to make a trip to Wal-Mart or Lowe's to get some peat moss and maybe some bagged manure to add to the layers, then empty at least one of my compost bins on the garden and I have wood ask in the firepit, although I will have to be carefull sprinkling it as we have burned things with nails in there and such, so I'll have to watch for those things. And I imagine we'll have mowed the lawn once already and I'll throw that in the layers too.

To plant you just pull apart the layers and put in you plant or plant seeds on tops of the layers and cover with another layer. Oh, you do plant in blocks and have the paths too.

The first year is when the greatest cost is involved because you have the most layers to make and if the supplies are not all available for free to you, you make have to go buy some. After the 1st year you just keep adding more layers. It doesn't get all tall and huge because it composts down. You start out with an 18-24" pile when you start, and it composts down to 6" in no time at all and continues to compost after that even further.

So, that's what I am going to do. And now that I told you all about it, you can do it too.

My Sleeping Boys

Camera phone doesn't take the greatest pictures, but here are my sleeping boys, Andy & Larry.

Holiday Traditions

Andy & I have talked bits over the years of our own holiday traditions and those that we would like to have with our kids.

I just thought it would be nice to reflect on the good things from the holidays that I remember enjoying.

* I always liked having Christmas Stockings from Santa
* I never noticed it growing up - but Santa presents came in Santa wrapping paper, that's a neat idea.
* I liked that Santa always gave us a gift to the "Family" which was something we could do that night or the next day, like a movie or a game.
* I like listening to the Disney Christmas albums, it's what my mom played (on record) when we were young. It always cracks me up when Goofy sings "Five Onion Rings"
* I like how we take turns opening presents, so that when you are done opening you pick something from the pile for someone else.
* It made me laugh when my dad would put on a clown nose and a santa hat, like he was Rudolph & Santa all in one.
* I like that we do a bunch of appetizers (Andy's family does this too) for xmas Eve, and then a dinner on xmas day.
* I like that we have my grandpa say prayer at xmas day dinner and I always liked that we invited them over for that day. Since everyone else has to share them on the eve, we get their full attention on the day.
* I alwas thought it was nice that mom made people pies, fruit cakes, candies, cookies, etc. for holiday trays as gifts and delivered it to them. They always seem to appreciate it. I like to do that too.

Ok - it's time for lunch. But I will have more to comment on. What holiday traditions do you like that you did with your family?

Bah Humbug?

If I don't xmas cards this year - or maybe ever again - does that make me a Scrooge?

I hate the feelings of guilt about having to send out cards to anyone & everyone.

Does it make sense to send out cards to people just because they send me a card?

Honestly, there are some people I would want to send cards, but do you need to send a card if you will see them in person? Isn't a verbal greeting as good or better?

Isn't it ok to just send cards to people you want to but cannot give a verbal greeting to? Or maybe I should just call those people instead -- I'm thinking of those people out of state that I do not have the opportunity to wish a Happy Holidays to.

I feel a little like the card business has made such a push at commercializing the holidays and making you feel guilty if you don't buy a $5 box of cards and send it out.

Really, what is a card if all it is, is a card with no letter or anything and is just a signature on some pre-printed words.

I'm not doing xmas cards this year, well, I might send out to a couple of friends out of state I will not see and call them too. But other than that, I am giving myself permission to not feel guilty about not doing cards. And maybe next year I will feel even better about not doing it.

Bitterly Cold

Andy took this picture this morning and sent it to me on his way to work. Yikes! The joys of living in Minnesota.

First Weekend in December

Friday night I met Linda for an early dinner at the Peppermill, early for me is anytime before 7pm, we were there around 5:45. It was nice conversation and good food. I was home and in bed around 9:30.

Saturday I put up some Christmas lights in 5 windows and an illuminated hanging snowman and 2 illuminates hanging hollys, and some non-illuminated holiday decorations & a wreath & holiday flag. It looks even more Christmasy here. I like it. The colorful lights make me happy. That night Andy & I went to an early dinner, coincidentally the same time as yesterday's early dinner. We decided to check out The Pinecone Restaurant, which is a truck stop restaurant in Northfield. We saw a sign saying they had a huge salad bar and that sounded good to me. For $7.95 we had the buffet (salad bar, soups, and hot foods including fried chicken, ribs, turkey, all the turkey trimmings, mac&cheese, & macaroni casserole). Pretty good and pretty nice inside. Although we ate too much food. Then we came home and watched The Longest Yard, which we picked up from Redbox. I did make some holiday rice krispie treats that are very good.

Today I ran some errands and did grocery shopping. Yup, that's really it. I don't plan to do much more than make dinner for us in a few hours.