Video - Halloween Dancing

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

This year we kinda blew it with the halloween costume. Last year was amazing, and we just couldn't top it so we let Connor pick. Shockingly, he wanted to be a baseball player. Fortunately, we had everything but pants so we were a go! I searched all over for itty bitty baseball pants-size 2t. no luck. we ended up just putting some black sweat pants on him and calling it good.

Friday at school they were having a party with snacks and stuff so we dressed him in his costume. Surprisingly, no one else in his class had their costume on, but maybe one kid. Who knows. That evening, his school, Kyrene de las Brisas had the pumpkin walk where all the kids displayed their pumpkins they'd carved earlier that week. I guess they gave the little kids shapes to place on their pumpkin and the teachers carved them where they landed. Here are some pics from school and the Pumpkin Walk.

connor's class at school

connor and aidan at the Pumpkin Walk

connor and dada checking out all the pumpkins

sitting by his pumpkin. his is on the left with the smooshed in face. Aidan's still has the shapes on it.

Every year on Halloween we go over to Steve and Jean's house. Steve & Jean are my BIL Ryan's parents. We're a big family so we all get toghether with the kids to trick or treat so they can all go with their cousins. It's a great time. They live in this amazing neighborhood where everyone actually knows each other. Shocking. The day or two before Halloween a flyer goes out to everyone who lives there with a code word...I guess there are issues of neighboring communities dropping their kids off in this area and hunting down "the good candy". Hilarity. So, the code word is used to get the really good stuff. Everyone else gets candy, but not the full size stuff I guess.

Jacob was Spiderman again this year. Here he's doing his best Spidey pose

Jacob, Isabelle, and Connor getting ready to Trick or Treat

My sister in law Megan, about 4 days past due. She had her baby girl yesterday btw.

This was Connor's third year trick or treating so he's an old pro by now. Zero patience though and he pushed to the front of the line each time. We'll need to work on his Trick or Treat etiquette before next year!

After every house he'd dig around in his bucket to see what he got

The Blum Family - Ryan, Jake and Megan...Kaden was with his dad this year

not the best family pic. i look largely preg and my kid is picking his nose or something. super.

After Trick or Treating, he dumped out all of his candy to see what he got

he got to pick one piece to have that night and so the blue tootsie pop won

Bella trying to make off with Connor's haul

and Connor subsequently freaking out

nom nom nom - candy

josh surprised the kids with his skelleton puppet that danced to Monster Mash. Hilarious. The kids were kinda freaked out at first, but then loved it and danced for a while.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

9 week update

Yesterday was my 9 week appointment with my OB. Nothing too exciting, but I was really thrilled that they didn’t decide to move my due date back. Last week at my ultrasound the baby was measuring a bit small so they said it was possible…so glad that wasn’t decided. I can’t really explain it but I feel like I would have lost a week somehow. This damn nausea/constant puking is really getting to me right now and I’m struggling with it—so if they’d moved the date back I think subconsciously I would have felt like that added another week of this crapiness to my life!

The appointment was pretty quick…after being kept waiting a half an hour in the waiting room-hate. After going over medical history for a while I met the doctor I was seeing that day. The practice I go to has 4 locations and each location has several providers so you never know who will be there when you deliver. I really don’t care who delivers, but I like to try and meet all the drs anyway. This guy was funny and pretty sarcastic which always wins cool points by me. We talked about whether I wanted to go the c-section route or not again this time. He asked if I wanted to try a VBAC (vag birth after cesarean) and I said, No Thanks. We discussed that we only wanted two children and then we got down to business. This damn morning/noon/night sickness. I threw up mid-appointment. He said that I should have a bagel before even getting out of bed in the morning and told me that it would “change my life”. Wrong. I tried it today. No luck. I threw up my bagel before even leaving the house. I’m just about consistently throwing up 6-7 times a day and I’m soooo over it. I’m desperately trying to focus on the amazing end result but am really starting to get down on how crummy I feel. I got another prescription but I’m just dreading filling it…I’ll try to not be too gross here so I’ll just say that it’s not an oral medication. There I said it. Gross. Sorry.

I asked about getting my H1N1 shot there and was told that the practice policy is to wait until mom is in her 2nd trimester since supply is so limited. He wants me to come back in three weeks to check on my nausea issues so I’ll be able to get it then. I feel like this pregnancy is going slower than it did with Connor. Who knows though!

I had a normal “lady exam” during the appointment, peed in a cup and had a bunch of blood drawn. There are a bunch of tests that you can have run on the baby during this stage of pregnancy. I think they call them screening tests-cystic fybrosis, down syndrome, and some other chromosomal abnormalities. We didn’t do the screening with Connor and we’re not doing it this time either. I’m not of advanced maternal age and neither of us have any contributing risk factors. Anyone reading this…did you do these screening panels? Why or why not?

Connor is being really sweet about the baby. He likes to say “my baby” and “goodnight baby”. He often forgets that he has to be a bit more careful with mommy right now though and will slam into me. We’re still working on that. In the meanwhile, we’re looking for toddler beds which annoys me. I want him to stay in his crib for as long as possible, but I really want to start transitioning him from crib to bed in January or so. I don’t want him feeling like the baby is stealing his bed, so I want him in and comfy long before BB2 arrives. Anyone have any pointers?? Help.

That’s really it for the updates right now. Please keep your fingers crossed that the puking stops and I can get into the fun part of pregnancy where I’m happy and enjoying myself. :)

Friday's Dose of Brilliance

WTF do you have kids - warning. lots of inappropriateness on today's site...but...that's what makes it funny. Thanks to my friend Lisa for the great recommendation of this site! It's pretty self-explanitory...funny/disturbing pics of people who probably shouldn't have procreated.

First Ultrasound

I think that anyone who has ever had a pregnancy-related ultrasound will agree with me that one of the most annoying things is the rule about filling your bladder before getting an ultrasound. Ugh. Kills me. I drink a lot of water anyway, but more when I'm pregnant because these darn prenatals are loaded with iron that causes unmentionable side effects. So, back to the topic. There are detailed prep instructions before an ultrasound. For this one I had to drink 32oz of water to be completed an hour before my appointment. So, my appointment was at 4 and so that meant I had to drink a buttload of water right before 3pm. The reason I had to do it so fast is because I am pregnant, which means that as soon as I drink something, I have to pee. Well, that's what I had to avoid because the goal is to have your belly full of water for the ultrasound. I've heard different reasons of why this is necessery--to check your cervix, to get the bladder out of the way to see the uterus better, to torture naive pregnant women. Take your pick. Regardless, it's so painful I was near tears as I waited with Jeffrey for our appointment.

At 4:15 Jeffrey asked the front desk how much longer and she apologized and went to check with the US tech. She came back and said it was going to be a few more minutes and that maybe I could just release "a little" to relieve the pain. She was very nice but really? really? Do other people have this skill where they can just pee a little bit? i don't. I'm an all or nothing kinda pregnant gal I suppose. I stayed put and was called back shortly. The US Tech then asked how far along I was. She apologized and said that because I'm 8 weeks along, I didn't really need to do the water thing and I could go to the bathroom. I fled to the restroom. BTW-I tried to release "a little" and it didn't work. When I came back the tech was looking really sheepish and she told me that she checked with someone and I was supposed to drink all that water as some new policy. She said she'd do an internal ultrasound instead, which would get better shots of the baby at this teeny tiny stage anyway. What a mess.

The ultrasound went great. As soon as we saw the baby, I could see the heart beating which is an amazing thing to see! I was afraid that it wouldn't feel like such a big deal the second time around, but it totally was. it made me wonder if that wacko family the Duggars with 19 or whatever kids gets excited everytime they see the baby for the first time. Then I remembered they get excited over everything and I had my answer. We heard the heartbeat and that's just such a relief. I can't really explain it, but I was really worried this time around that something would be wrong. When I was pregnant with Connor I didn't worry about anything, or not hearing the heartbeat. I guess maybe it's because I was kinda the first in our group to have a baby (besides Car) and so I hadn't heard any sad stories of loss. By now, I have and it seems that everyone has a sad story or knows someone who went through hell and back. Well, those start to weigh on you and scare the bejesus out of you.

But back to the ultrasound. Everything looked great. The heartbeat was strong at 143 bpm and I remember Connor's was 161 which is crazy fast. The old wives tale is that faster heartbeats are typically girls--that didn't really hold true for us the first time around so i don't really subscribe to that. If we believe that theory this time around, Baby Barnes 2 (BB2) is def a boy. We shall see. Speaking of gender, our friend Stephanie Calabretti is a big believer in the Chinese Gender predictor. I'm not. So, she looked online until she found the one that worked for her (strike one--having to find the one that works) and according to that we're having a boy. Who knows.

BB2 was measuring kinda small so they thought that my due date may be moved back a bit to June 6th or 7th. But then she asked how big Connor was and said that maybe the due date is right anyway. I do remember that while I was in surgery the doctor told me that I had a "petite uterus" (creepy) and that i'd have small babies. What a creeper, but could def explain the small baby in my belly. At this point, the baby is about 5/8" and has no discernable boy or girl parts :) There's still a bit of a tail and looksmore like a tadpole than a baby. The pics we saw on the screen were pretty great, but the ones we left with are lacking. Here they are anyway.

Everything you are seeing is my uterus. The dark part is the gestational sac and the white blurry stuff in there is the baby.

They did find two cysts on my ovaries, but nothing to be concerned with. One of them is a corpus leuteum (surely spelling that wrong) and that's a good cyst to have during the pregnancy. The other is so tiny that it will surely reabsorb itself before my next ultrasound. I had the same thing when I was pregnant with Connor. I'm still pretty pukey, but now that we've seen the baby it's a bit easier to handle. I found out that the meds they gave me to help with the nausea and throwing up are what is prescribed to patients going through chemo so clearly there's nothing stronger they can give me. Oh well, it can't last forever...right?

That's all the bb2 updates for now. Stay tuned for more!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

It's been a bit of a whirlwind week or so. Shortly after finding out baby barnes #2 was en-route, my dad went in for a pretty serious surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm. They found it several years ago and have just been watching it since. For the longest time it was small enough that the risk of surgery outweighed the risk of the aneurysm itself. A few months ago they decided that it had grown to a point where the aneurysm risk was great enough to warrant doing the surgery. After several tests and scans they determined that they should be able to do it the "easy way" and go in arthroscopically. Fortunately they were able to avoid open chest or open abdominal surgery which would be way riskier and would obviously increase the healing time ten-fold.

The surgery went perfect. The doctors said that it couldn't have gone any better. He had the surgery on Wednesday morning at 11 and it lasted about 2.5 hours. After a brief stay in recovery he went to the Cardio ICU where he remained until the next morning when he was released to go home. I cannot believe how fast he got out but I am so glad.

In all my worry about the surgery going well, it oddly didn't even occur to me that once it was over we wouldn't have to worry about a sudden rupture of the aneurysm. That had been our fear for years and it wasn't a concern anymore. What a relief!

So that's what has been going on over the past week. Glad it went well. Glad it's over. Here are a few pics from the week.

patiently waiting his turn in the pool at swim lessons

loving on his new Mickey Jack-o-Lantern from Corliss (aka Tashi) and Papa

monkey and his banana while visiting Papa

zoey. napping on my Marc Jacobs. never again.

Crockpot Tuesday

Today's recipe is a side item. I love carbs. and potatoes.

Baked Potatoes

potatoes

salt and pepper

butter

poke potatoes a few times with a fork to vent. rub some butter on skin of potato and sprinkle with salt and pepper--or whatever you'd like. wrap the potato up in aluminum foil and drop into crock pot. Cook on high for 3 hours.

Careful! These will be super hot--as will the tin foil. Perhaps this goes without saying. Well, i burnt my finger so maybe it has to be said. We did about 5 potatoes at one time and they turned out really well. I slathered mine with some garlic butter, cheese and some turkey chili. We served them with a salad and had a great, simple meal.

Added bonus--Zero cleanup in the crockpot!!

Random Thought

When I was pregnant with Connor I never did that thing. That thing where you take a photo of yourself at like zero weeks and then take photos once a month or something to show how you are growing into a fatty fatty pregnant person. I want to do that this time around but I have a serious question...is it ok to pull on a pair of spanx before my starting off picture? hmmm.

Letter to Dwell Studios

Dear Dwell Studios,

I love so much of your stuff. Why must you insist on charging $350 for a crib set? Why? My husband doesn't even want to paint the walls in the room--even if we have a girl. You expect me to convince him that I need another crazy expensive crib set!!? No way jose.

Thanks,

Notlovingtheideaofbuyingallnewstuff

Friday's Dose of Brilliance

No First Date - My friend Ashley forwarded this to me thinking it would be great for a Friday's Dose of Brilliance post. I must agree. I think I find it even funnier after working at the dating service for nearly 7 long, long years. Enjoy!

Barnes Baby #2 Update

So, I called my OB office and had an appointment scheduled for the 27th for pregnancy confirmation, a quick (gag) exam and a reminder of all the dos and donts of pregnancy. Yesterday morning I threw up about 6 times before 9am so I called and asked if there was anything that could be done now. One of my friends Angela (hooty hoot chi omega) is an amazing doctor and she recommended a couple Rx to me that should help me out with the constant well, you know. My dr office said they could get me in that morning and do a quick appointment to confirm the pregnancy and get me a script. score!

So, it's really feeling real now since I'm having doctor appointments. Anyone who has been pregnant can tell you that you feel like you spend your entire life in appointments-peeing on this, taking blood for that, having yourself weighed-and then staring off into space so that you don't see the result! Anyway, yesterday I went in, had my exam, was reminded of things I should and shouldn't be doing, told to gain 25lbs (eek) and given my flu shot. I also walked out with a couple scripts for my "severe morning sickness" and was very happy about that. We talked about having another c-section and I asked about them tying my tubes while they are in there. I think that's the route we're going to take...they'll be there anyway, right? They scheduled an ultrasound for next week and I'm still keeping my appointment for the 27th. Let the overscheduling begin!!

As of today I am officially 7 weeks and 1 day along...that gives us a due date of June 1st. It seems so far away, but I know it will just fly by like with Connor.

I'm excited about chronicling this baby to be on this blog. When I was pregnant with Connor I didn't really delve into doctor appointments on his baby blog because I felt like it was "his" and not really mine. Crazy. This time, I'll over share. So, I apologize in advance for that!! I'll still do the annoying posting of ultrasound pictures where no one can make out the nose, hands, etc. but will pretend like they can. I'll still be posting plenty of other stuff as well. We aren't private about names so I'm sure that will be discussed at lenght.

Another random thing about this pregnancy--I'm really going to strive to wear heels during the entire thing. We'll see. With Connor, I switched to flats about two seconds after the positive test result and stayed kinda sloppy the entire time. My bad. Hopefully, my miracle drugs will help me feel human this time around and I'll feel up to brushing my hair-everyday :)

Is it horrible that there is a part of me that is bummed that if the drugs work, I won't be losing 15lbs my first Tri like I did with Connor? Yes, that's bad. But I'm not going to erase it. Full disclosure folks.

Speaking of names, our girl name has been picked out for years. Caitlyn Grace. Boys...not so much. It was horrible trying to come up with a name we liked the first time around, so this is next to impossible. I'm open to suggestions, assuming you are open to being shot down.

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Nearly Wordless Wednesday is kinda lite today...I keep wanting to post pics from my Memphis trip but I do all my blogging during down-time at work and well...I just don't have a lot of down-time. It's a good thing, but it's really getting in the way of my blogging :)!!

Until I get it together to post pics of my trip, here are a few random ones from the past week or so.

his future's so bright...

this is what boys look like

the constant activity. seriously constant

i want to ride my bicycle...bicycle!

safety first...checking the tire pressure

Connor enjoying some of his favorite...mac & cheese!

Carly's Bachelorette Party invites-thanks again PD for coming over and helping me crank them out!! I am pretty impressed by us :)

self-portrait

Crockpot Tuesday

I completely spaced out on uploading the pics of this delish meal so I have none :( boo me. I'll do it when I get home and get them up here though.

I'm craving meat. All kinds...beef, pork, etc. We had some ribs in the freezer and I decided we'd try those out and see if they calmed the craving. Yums.

Sweet & Spicy Ribs

2 lbs ribs-ours were bone-in
1/2 cup coke-we used caffeine free diet coke because it's what we had
your favorite bbq sauce-we used devils spit from famous daves-it's no joke spicy!

Dump ribs in crockpot and season with salt and pepper. Spoon coke over top of seasoned ribs being careful not to splash the seasoning off. Cook for 6 hours. After 6 hours, pour liquid off and dump lots and lots of bbq sauce over ribs. Mix it around to be sure they are coated so they don't dry out. Heat for one more hour and you're done.

We served this with green beans and some mashed potatoes. The ribs were Amazing. So tender and delicious. I had them again for lunch the next day and they were really just as good as the night before. We'll def make this recipe again so let me know if you ever see ribs on sale!! :)

Here we go again!!

Well, we made it facebook official this morning, so I may as well blog about it, right? :)

Jeffrey and I found out yesterday that we are expecting our second baby!! Jeff is super thrilled, I'm sick again and still I couldn't be happier. Here's the quick story behind the news...

I've been feeling kinda crummy this week (hence the lack of blogging) and it got significantly worse yesterday morning. I got sick a couple of times and after being so incredibly ill with Connor, Jeffrey and I knew what it could mean. I stumbled into work and Jeffrey dropped off Connor at school. On his way to work, Jeff ran by the store, grabbed a box of pregnancy tests and dropped them by my office. I of course, drank a gallon of water and waited...and waited... When I took the test (in the glamorous bathroom here at my office) I was amazed, but not totally surprised at the same time. Here's a horrible cell phone shot :)

I decided that I wanted to tell Jeffrey the great news in person, and in a fun way, so I emailed him that the test was negative. Does that make me a horrible person? Possibly! I could tell he was bummed, so I felt pretty lousy...but I really wanted to be able to tell him in a fun, in-person way. I decided that it would be special to involve Connor and started my search for the perfect shirt for him to wear to announce the news. I found several great ones online but there is no way on earth that I'd be able to hold off telling Jeffrey until I received my order. I decided to have it made that day and tell Jeffrey the news that evening when he got home from work.

Connor and I picked up the shirt after work and it was so huge on him. I washed it really fast so that it would hopefully fit better--no such luck, but that's ok. He'll be able to wear it throughout my pregnancy probably!

Connor and I hung out at home waiting for Jeffrey, who unfortunately kept getting stuck at the office for one reason after another. Suddenly it was 7:30...Connor's bedtime and Jeff was still at work...with no idea when he'd be able to get out of there. I'm pissed at this point. I have this great surprise planned and all he has to do is show up!! :) I lay Connor down-in his shirt-and text Jeffrey that Connor is really upset that he's not there and that he needs to check in on him when he gets home to say goodnight. When Jeffrey arrived at 9ish we went into Connor's room and he's passed out completely-rolled into a little ball so that the shirt is completely hidden! typical! Jeff says Goodnight and gives him a kiss, then turning to leave. I said, wait look at him. I started trying to pull Connor's arm back so Jeff could see the shirt. Jeffrey looks at me like what the hell are you doing woman?!!? he's asleep lindsay!! I say, yes but I need to show you his new shirt. Jeff's eyes locked in on the shirt and he smiled huge. Then he looked up at me all crazy and said something about me lying earlier and we both cried a bit :) It was a great moment.

I wish it would have played out as planned so that I could get photos of his expression, but it was great the way it was. I think we'll do some family photos today with Connor in his shirt.

We figure that I'm about 6-7 weeks along so it's still pretty early. If that's correct, I'll be due at the end of May, early June. Since Jeffrey's 30th birthday is May 31st it may be fun to have a bday baby for him! I'm really looking forward to being able to schedule my delivery this time around rather than have to go through a full day of contractions!! Hooray for scheduled sections.

As for girl/boy...I can honestly say there is no preference. I wanted a girl when I was pregnant with Connor and now cannot imagine not having all boys. I think Connor would do great with a younger brother but he says he wants a sister...he also said he wants to name the baby Football. I can easily see us adding a girl to the mix just as easily as a second boy. We already have all the boy clothes we could need...but girl clothes are just so much more fun!

I've got my first prenatal appointment set up for the end of October, but there won't be too much exciting stuff going on at that time-just a confirmation pregnancy test, some blood work and other not-exciting stuff. I've got some prenatal vitamins at home that I'll start asap and try to be as healthy as possible!!

As for how I'm feeling it's oddly reminiscent of my pregnancy with Connor. I didn't want to tell my coworkers yet, but after two trips of running to the restroom to get sick I gave in! I've got some pretty angry heartburn and need to look into seeing what I can take for that. I'm pretty tired, but that's normal considering I spend hours a day chasing around a wild two year old!!

I promise to keep blogging during the pregnancy, so feel free to harass me if I don't! Please keep checking back to see what we're up to...and leave comments! They are so fun to look back on :)

Nearly Wordless...Thursday

Well, I took a lot of photos this weekend. since I posted lots yesterday already I decided to just post them today as well.

I love football. This is good because I married into a football-crazy family. We have a family fantasy football league that we all participate in--it gets pretty intense and competitive. I placed 2nd in 07 and last year I won. Yay me. Anyway, our entire family has been going to the Vine every Sunday for as long as I can remember-years. It's a very family-friendly place at 10am on a Sunday so the kids are all there too. Here are a few pics from this last weekend.

Connor and his look-alike cousin jacob

lovely

loves football

crazy jacob

kaden being sweet with connor while jacob crawls under the table.

now let's all get under the table. yes, please crawl on the filthy ground. super.

when the kids start to lose interest in the games that are on, we break out the dvd player

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

So I think I may need to rename this post title every week. It started as Wordless Wednesday, but then became Nearly Wordless Wednesday shortly after because I just couldn't handle not posting a caption at the very least. Now I've just abandoned the "wordless" concept completely and have somehow moved on to storytelling. Oh well, here are this week's photos...with a few words! :)

Our family is really big on the dentist-we go every 6 months religiously. I love flossing and get a new toothbrush every few weeks which I'm aware is excessive. I wasn't always good about the dentist...as in I don't think I went at all while at ASU. At all. I'll give you a moment to let that nastiness sink in. And I'm sorry :) Anyway, when your parents aren't pushing you to make the appointment and the other option is day drinking at the pool, guess which one I selected in college. Yes. So, I want to be sure Connor gets a good start with the teethies! His first appointment was in September of 2008 and he was about 16 months old. This past week we had his 3rd appointment and I was equally crazy with the camera this time around.

In his last two appointments, the dentist did Connor's exam while on my lap laying down. This didn't really allow for any picture taking so this time I made up for it. The dentist asked Connor if he wanted to sit by himself for his checkup and Connor not understanding at all said Yes! So, he got to have the exam in the actual dental chair. Here are some pics of us waiting for the dentist.

He did amazing, truly amazing. The hygenists were gathering to oooh and ahhhh at him because he did so well. I don't know...maybe they put this show on for all parents who look concerned that their child will spaz out at any moment. He laid there calmly the entire time and the dentist said he did better than most kids who are 3 or 4 who sit in that chair. He gave him a balloon (blown up dental glove reminiscent of a cow udder) and won him over for life. The dentist even let Connor hold his little spit sucker machine. It was so cute watching him decide when he had to use it. Hilarity.

The exam itself was positive too. Connor sat well enough during x-rays and even I hate that part. the pinching! He has all but 4 teeth-his very back molars which typically come in around age three. No cavities at this point, but we were told that his first molars have very, very deep crevaces so we need to pay extra, extra attention to them because it's going to be easy for food to get stuck there and missed by good brushing. He told us that it may be a good idea down the road to seal them just in case. I guess we'll consider it with the adult teeth and try to practice good brushing on these baby ones :)

(I took lots of pics this weekend, so I'll probably do another post tomorrow!)

Crock Pot Tuesday

i see recipes that call for brown sugar all the time and always want to try one out but I don't seem to have all ingredients on hand so I've skipped some. This recipe has 3 very random ingredients - things I wouldn't ever really put together typically. But I did. And it came out great.

Sweet & Spicy Pork Chops

2-3 bone in pork chops - though boneless would be fine too
1 cup italian dressing
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup spicy brown mustard
s&p to taste

Combine dressing, brown sugar and mustard in bowl and mix well. Lightly season chops with salt and pepper and then place in crock pot. Pour liquid mixture over and cook on hi for 2 hours. **I decided to marinate the chops for a bit so I poured my mixture in a bag and let the chops soak for about 5 hours. Overnight would be fine too.

we had our chops with green beans and some bread - so easy.

That's really it. Simple. The chops were really great. I've never been a big pork chop fan, so you've got to dress them up a lot for me to like them. I'll certainly have them again. The recipe I found called for 4 hours but after 2.5 they were looking a bit parched. I pulled the plug and they were great at that point...even though we ate dinner at ten minutes to five (blah). Next time I'll do it for two hours and just let it stay warm for a while until we're ready.

Bonus - Connor even ate some. Miracle.

Fridays Dose of Brilliance

One of my best, besties Patricia found this site. And since she's such a cool chick she sent me some of her favorites from it. The site has an interesting concept that I really like. You send in a saying...like a one liner and they create a design from it. The guy, Sam Brown...aka Adam Culbert also has books of his fun drawings and often makes them into shirts and other stuff. The drawings are done in photoshop I think and there's nothing complex about them, but I like.

I really like this one...You are no longer a supervisor

Patricia likes this one...I can't control you but I can love you

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

I took a week off of blogging this past week. I felt like a slacker for sure but there was just no getting around it. I was sick, super sick. I'm feeling lots better but still getting over the dry cough and grossness of a pretty bad cold. Here are some pics of our weekend...two weekends ago.

Dad, Corliss, Jeffrey, Connor & I were supposed to go to Las Cruces to meet up with some family we never get to see. My dad's step-mom Jean is my last grandparent...connor's last surviving great grandparent and she lives in Arkansas. One of my dad's step-siblings was going to drive her across country to visit family. Las Cruces was as far west as they were coming so we decided to meet there. Unfortunately, Wednesday before we left town my grandma got pretty sick and it was decided that they wouldn't make the trip. Besides the obvious reason, we were really disappointed. I want to see her badly, and really want Connor to meet her. We were all also pretty hell bent on getting out of town that weekend. I'd had enough of sweating it out in AZ and needed a bit of an escape-even if just for the weekend.

We decided to touchbase with Dawn and her mom and see if the Payson cabin was available that weekend instead. It was! So we packed it up and the 5 of us planned to spend a weekend relaxing up north!

So, the plan was for Jeffrey to get Connor from school and pick me up at work at 3pm on the way out of town. My dad and Corliss went up earlier that day to do some shopping. In true fashion, at 2 something I got a call from Connor's teacher saying he had a fever and some pretty disturbing diapers (read: cold, infection, awesome.). We acted fast, got him a 3pm appointment at his peds office and got out of town right after. It's just a cold and he was acting fine. No plane ride, no crazy activity so we just figured anything we do up there is like doing it here at home. And we were off!

The drive up to Payson is pretty easy. Unless I'm the passenger. I hate the twisty mountain roads when I'm not driving. It freaks me the crap out.

We met up with dad and Corliss at the cabin and unpacked all the food and booze we'd brought up for the weekend. We decided to try out one of the little diner places in town and picked the Cafe 260. It was a cute place-exactly as you'd imagine. We all had the catfish special and Connor ate all of our fries. The owner and waitress were wonderful...continually reaffirming my desire to live in a small-ish town... They tolerated Connor's wildness and even made him a special little plate. He dipped everything in ranch as is his trademark way. They gave us a free piece of pie and asked us to come back sometime for breakfast-swearing that their pancakes were the best.

After we got home from the restaurant, dad and Connor threw the baseball around a bit. (like we could go out of town w/o bringing the ball, bat and glove along.) After Connor went to sleep, we broke out the Trivial Pursuit and Jeffrey and I kicked the crap out of them. Not really. I think we won by a pie, but a win all the same. :) I freakin love trivia.

Saturday morning we got up, had coffee and cereal out on the porch. That porch is one of my absolute favorite things about the house. The view is amazing. Truly amazing. If I lived there, I'd do nothing but eat, drink and relax on that porch. There's even an owl on the porch-meant to be! There was lots and lots of baseball playing this weekend. "play baball with papa", "play baball with mama", "play baball with dada", "play baball with tashi (somehow tashi=corliss)". He gets so excited and it's difficult to refuse him. :)

After lots of coffee and baseball we decided to head into town to do some shopping in the stores along Main Street. My dad and Corliss are both big collectors. My dad has an amazing collection of brass antiques, and other pieces that he's been collecting for decades. I could say that they are Chase and Frankart pieces...but I don't know if that means anything to anyone. :) He's been dragging me to antique stores my entire life, but i've only recently started to enjoy it myself. The first store we hit my dad ended up educating the store owner on items he was selling. Amazing. The guy was also a retired professor like dad (except he was a Wildcat-boo) and is somehow related to other Van Hooks. Small world folks. We toured a few more shops until Jeffrey and Connor just couldn't take it anymore. Connor did find a few things he liked including this old school catchers mit (shocking) and a little red car. I considered getting the red car until I remembered that my name isn't Lindsay Rockafellar and that he'd surely break the pricey little "toy" before we got it out of town.


Saturday evening we had bbq and it was great. I started feeling pretty yucky sometime on Saturday and wasn't too surprised. When you're the person pulling the boogers out of a sick two year old, it's not long before you start to feel it too. Plus, i'm no good at holding back my hugs and kisses when he's sick. Oh well. By Saturday night I was full-on sicko but I dealt with it with only occasional complaining.

I said "go stand by the tree" and this is the pose he struck. Holy senior photo.

Papa and Connor playing on Carol & Todd's toy

Papa, Corliss & Connor lounging in their sock money pajamas...and Connor with his baseball of course

Connor started getting really sick when we got home from Payson. I think the cool, clean air up north was doing him good but then we got home and the fever really spiked. The kid doesn't stop running around when he's not feeling well, so we could tell it was somewhat serious when he laid in bed for 6 hours just watching The Sandlot over and over again-right in the middle of the day. His fever got pretty high-104 on and off for a few days which is concerning as the kid is pretty low. The nurse at Connor's ped office told us that if it got to 105 we were to call 911 or head to the ER ourselves. Not great news. Long story short, he stayed home from school a couple days and then went back and has been fine. Here's a pic of him at the height of the fever. We had to change the bed sheets pretty often because he sweat so much. :( Even super sick, he manages to be adorable.

Crockpot Tuesday

Italian Chicken

2 large chicken breasts

one 28 oz can/jar of pasta sauce

1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning (or whatever-see below)

1/4 tsp minced garlic

1/4 tsp black pepper

Spray slow cooker and place chicken in pot. Combine all other ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook for 6 hours.

This was really good. The chicken ended up really tender. I didn't have any of the Italian salad dressing packets left so I used an onion soup mix packet for the Tablespoon of seasoning. Italian seasonings are really made up of equal parts of oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, sage and savory. Do you have savory in your spice rack? I don't. You can really dump anything in there, so no worries.

We had it with a box of rice a roni and some yummy carrots. It was a pretty great meal all around. Connor on the other hand had a hotdog, pineapple and a couple slices of cheese. Super.

Friday's Dose of Brilliance

Today's post is kinda a three in one deal. I love FML (F My Life) and GMH (Gives Me Hope) but never posted it here for some reason. Recently a coworker, knowing my love for funny websites, sent me a new site that I'd never heard of. It's similar to FML, but I think it's way, way funnier. It's My Life Is Average (MLIA) and is full of hilarious, average happenings. This is one of my more recent favorites:

Today, I locked myself out of my house. Knowing that my parents had hidden a key in the backyard, but not knowing where it was, I invited a couple friends over and turned it into a treasure hunt. I gave the guy who found it a piece of cake. MLIA

Here's a quick sample from FML:

Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML

And lastly a sample from GMH:

I work in a childcare center and, while telling the children what to play with, a teacher inadvertently knocked over a young girl's blocks. A boy from across the room yelled "HEY!" and he ran over to where the teacher and the girl where. He started setting her blocks back up for her. His care GMH.

(Warning: do NOT spend time on GMH if you are at work...the stuff will make you cry so you'll look like an idiot. Lesson Learned)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

we found a shady spot in the park this weekend and played some baseball. i think we lasted about 45 minutes because it was still too damn hot.

just like mama - totally enamored with the rain. that's what happens when you're an AZ native!

showing off his ribbon for advancing to the Starfish swim classes. Please ignore his shoes...Jeff puts them on him because he's mean and knows how much I hate, hate them.

I named this photo Obsessed in the computer...he won't go anywhere without his ball and glove. the kid is truly obsessed with baseball. you can't really truly understand it if you haven't seen The Obsession in action.

It's a Pajama-jammy-jam

Today is PJ day at Connor's school so he's rockin his sock monkey PJs from papa!!

Crockpot Tuesday

Ham & Cheese Casserole

1 lb of cooked ham, cubed

1 can of cream of whatever soup-i used mushroom

2 cups of shredded cheese

1 can of green beans

1 pint of sour cream

12-16 oz cooked pasta

super simple ingredients - all of which we had on hand. that's a deal breaker with me

Spray bottom of crockpot. Dump a third of the ham, cheese and pasta in bottom. Next layer green beans over that. Spread another layer of ham, cheese and pasta. Continue layering until ham, cheese and pasta are all in crockpot. Combine the soup and sourcream until smooth. Pour this over last. Heat on Hi for 2 hours.

Because this is such a quick cook, I came straight home from work and started this rather than cook it while I'm gone for the day. Since I'd be rushing to get it going after work, I did lots of prep work the night before. After I cooked the pasta, I cut up the ham and combined them. That made the layering process lots easier. I combined the soup and sour cream ahead of time too. This was a really simple recipe and it was really good. I think next time I'll vary the type of soup I use...maybe go for cream of asparagus, broccoli or celery since those are my favs. I'll also add seasoning like minced garlic or something to it for more flavor. It was nice and simple as is though and great to mix it up with the ham.

Friday's Dose of Brilliance - but different

This weekend is all about Chi Omega recruitment for me. I loved rush when I was in college, but I love it even more now that I'm an alumnae. It's so great watching the college girls meet potential sisters and fall in love with them.


Those of you that I'm personally close to know that I'm pretty involved with my college sorority and the local alumnae group. I have been a Chapter Advisor for the ASU collegiate chapter for a couple years now and I really love that. Getting to know the women who are continuing all of our traditions and sisterhood has been amazing. On an alumnae level, I spent the last year as Membership Chair, recruiting new members to the alumnae chapter here in Phoenix. I also lead a book club for our group and serve as Active (collegiate) Relations Chair. So, clearly I'm kinda involved. Just this year, I was elected President of the Alumnae Chapter and retained the rest of my positions other than Membership Chair which my 'grand big sis' Jamie took over.


I'm really loving being so involved with the sorority. Of course, I had a blast while in college doing the whole sorority thing, but I think I enjoy it on a completely different level as an alumna. When we were in college, I wasn't too involved beyond the parties, rush, meetings, philanthropies, etc. I didn't do the leadership thing which is strange for me. I had a long term bf already (hubs now!) and worked full time while in school. I think that I'm striving to make up for that now that I'm alum. Now...i'm uber-involved.


My great friend and sister Jill nominated me to attend the Alumnae Chapter Leadership Conference being held at the Chi Omega Executive Headquarters in Memphis. I submitted my application and then held my breath, crossed my fingers and waited for an answer. They were only selecting 16 women from all over the US so as much as I wanted to go, I didn't have really high expectations of being selected. I received an email a couple weeks ago telling me Congrats! You've been selected to attend the ACLC in Memphis! SO EXCITED. I never went to Nationals as a collegiate but I've seen amazing photos and I am really looking forward to the opportunity. It's being held in the beginning of October and my flight is booked! I plan to take lots and lots of photos so you can expect to read all about it coming up. I'm so excited to visit this place!

Here are a few sites worth checking out! Have a wonderful long holiday weekend.

Arizona State University Chi Omega Chapter

Valley Chi Omega Alumnae Chapter


Chi Omega Sorority

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

We added it up and Connor has been to nearly 20 dbacks games in his two years. amazing. he is just obsessed with baseball. he freaks out during commercials when we watch games at home and wanders around saying "play baseball" until someone will play with him. the teachers at school tell me that they now have to play daily, as he's pretty insistent. hilarious. Here are a few pics of our last game we went to.

hanging out in baxter's den seeing how he measures up

running the bases with daddy


wow, he is obsessed with that little magazine you get at the games. he 'reads' it in the car, at home, anywhere. i see him reading it to aidan when they are at school.

hot dog time

probably my favorite photo of all time

We celebrated my dad's 67th birthday a couple of weeks ago. Connor decorated cookies for him which i am positive my diabetic dad looooved. We then packed a big picnic and went swimming with my dad (papa) and corliss. It was a great day.

well, someone had to taste them to be sure they were good enough for papa!

stained fingers for two days. smart mommy.

enjoying some fruit at papa's birthday party

We had our friends Adam and Andrea over to hang out earlier this month. Jeffrey and I set them up and this past weekend Adam popped the question. Success!! Congrats to them. Anyway, we just hung out and drank a ridiculous amount of booze, played games and caught up. It was the perfect evening!

These next ones are just some random shots at connor's school. He's still at Kyrene de las Brisas and he and Aidan are still bff. I love that they will grow up with each other and have been close since they were just a few months old. I think that's great.

Connor, Aidan & Marcus - these three are inseparable at school. Not sure about the kid eating his hand in back.

and we'll end with a cheese ball pic of my little man :)

This just happened

backstory: connor has a bit of a black eye and as usual, we have no idea how he acquired it. boys.

Jeff: did you get hit in the eye?
Connor: no
Jeff: did you fall down?
Connor: yes
Jeff: did you fall down at school?
Connor: yes
Lindsay: do you think it'll last until picture day?
Connor: yes

Crock Pot Tuesday

Ranch Chicken

3 chicken breasts, halved
1 can cream of whatever soup
1 envelope ranch mix
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp ranch dressing
2 Tbsp flour

Spray bottom of crock with non-stick cooking spray. Drop chicken pieces in crockpot. Mix together soup, dry ranch mix and water and pour over top of chicken. Cook on hi for 4 or low for 8. Remove chicken from the pot and stir in sour cream, ranch dressing and flour. Once it's all mixed together (watch those flour clumps) put the chicken back in and cook for last 30 minutes.

This turned out really great. Our family is big on ranch dressing and so this was an easy sell. Connor even ate it and he rarely eats anything not shaped like a nugget or hotdog. or a yogurt. The chicken was really tender and so creamy. I used cream of broccoli soup but really anything would work here. If you wanted, you can always substitute chicken broth for the water for added flavor. Enjoy.

Book Club Picks

At our XO alum book club last week we picked the books for October, November & December. Here they are...

Juggling Elephants by Jones Loflin & Todd Musig - In this fun parable written by corporate trainers Loflin and Musig, the hero, Mark, gets more than just an afternoon of family time out of a visit to the circus with his daughter—he gets a new way of organizing his life. Using the extended metaphor of the three-ring circus, this short volume is written as a dialogue between Mark and his ringmaster mentor, who teaches him how to better coordinate the activities happening in each ring. Readers who take themselves too seriously might have trouble getting past the large print, circus illustrations and a dialogue style more commonly found in children's books. But the book passes along several circus maxims that easily translate to balancing professional and personal relationships as well as one's personal pursuits, such as the ringmaster cannot be in all three rings at once and the key to the success of the circus is having quality acts in all three rings. While the advice is not new, the presentation helps it stick in your head, increasing the odds of keeping your act together.

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White - Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she's going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he's the smitten one...It turns out Jack's search has caught the attention of a malevolent ghost. Now, Jack and Melanie must unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak and even murder.

Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh - First presented in Freakonomics, the story of a young sociologist who embedded himself in Chicago’s most notorious gang and captured the world’s attention. Gang Leader for a Day is the fascinating full story of how Sudhir Venkatesh gained entrance into the lives of a group of drug-dealers and went on to witness—and participate in—events that have rarely been described in print. A brazen, page-turning, and fundamentally honest view of the morally ambiguous, highly intricate, often corrupt struggle to survive in an urban war zone, it is also an emotional and complicated look at the friendship that develops between the sociologist and a gang leader, two ambitious men a universe apart.

Fridays Dose of Brilliance

Dear Keiko,

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Lindsay

Keiko thought this site would be great for today's post and I really must concur. All my really close friends know how much I hate Walmart. I hate everything about it. Seriously folks, it gives me visible anxiety to be in one...in fact, I didn't enter a Walmart for nearly 5 years until just under a year ago when I broke down and purchased a cooler there. I'll spare you the details here and just tell you that the cooler was twenty bucks cheaper than it was at Target and I just couldn't fight the obvious discount. Since then, I've slowly allowed myself to make a trip here or there but today's site really just affirms my feelings on the place. That's it, Walmart ban is back full force.

Anyway, so here is today's site: People of Walmart. It's brand new...as in it just started yesterday I think so get ready to love it.