Halloween Candy Jars

As Halloween got closer I knew I wanted to do something small for the people I work with. Nothing major, just something fun to make them stop and smile for a second. I saw this idea for Halloween candy Jars on the Sassy Sanctuary blog. I changed it up a little to meet my needs, but the concept was the same!

This was such a simple project. I just bought mini mason jars, and some glass paint. Here's where I pulled a "megan" and goofed. It was a last minute decision to get the glass paint so I grabbed what I thought was black and headed for the line at Joanns. Once I got home, I realized I picked up "pewter" instead! I was able to come up with a quick fix: once the glass paint dried I just went over it all with black acrylic paint. No one will ever know!

I traced the discs from the lids on the back of some left over fabric scraps I had from this project and "mod-podged" them to the lids.

Next I painted the outside of the lids black. This is when I realized it would have been totally worth it to invest in a can of spray paint (if I recall, the tutorial I pulled this from made the same comment!).... 50 coats of acrylic (ok maybe like 5) paint later, there were still some spots showing through. I tied a ribbon around it and called it a day!

(Yay for finally remembering to use my camera!)

Sneak Peak of Projects This Week

So there are 2 main projects I am working on this week and they aren't done but I'm itching to share. The first project is top secret and I feel like I'm running of risk of even sharing but I'm about 99.9% sure the intended recipient doesn't read this blog so I think I'm good! I will hold off on revealing the full details until she's seen it. But... here's a tiny little clue!

The colors are a bit distorted (that bottom left fabric is extremely pink, not orangish as it appears here) but thats because I keep being lazy and using my iPhone to take pictures instead of getting my big girl camera out. Maybe some day I'll get with it! I can't wait to see how this turns out!

I am much more excited about the first project, but my 2nd project is fun, too...and its for Halloween so I've spent the last 2 nights working on it instead of the first. Here's a peak... I'll do a full post on the finished product once I actually finish!

I have a few other projects that I plan to do that I haven't even started yet. This includes curtains for Jack that I got the fabric for, cut the wrong length and had a minor melt down over, recovering Grandma Tino's patio chairs, and my good friend Chrissy has asked if I can recover her patio chair cushions as well! If only weekends were more than 2 days!!

Pretty Flower Wall Art

I'm starting to wonder if I'm creating a Friday night ritual. I spend all week finding crafts I want to try that come Friday afternoon I'm bursting at the seams and the Joanns & Michaels coupons I get each week are burning holes in my wallet. So Friday night off I went... first to get supplies for a top secret project I will be able to share after November 14th! Second, I got the goodies to make this cute flower wall art I found the tutorial for on Christina's Adventures. I will admit, it looks very home made, and I coincidentally wish it would have turned out more the color of the tutorials, because it would have matched our new bathroom much better! But all in all, I am pleased, and Kali telling me repeatedly how much she just loved it and it was so beautiful sure made my head large enough to keep it! Plus, it was so inexpensive to make, I could easily try for a new color.. maybe once I get a cricut. (in my dreams!)

Just for Brittany... here are my step by step (sorta) photos!

First I just painted a piece of thin plywood I got at Joanns.

Next I made a stencil heart with construction paper and traced it onto the back of some cute scrapbook paper I found, and cut them all out. My hand was killing me by the time I was finished. Oh how I long for a cricut...

Next I determined where the center of the board was and used a clear bowl to trace a circle around it so I could use it as a sort of guideline on where to start gluing the hearts down.

Then I got busy gluing. It's worth it to use a hot glue gun because the glue allows the hearts to stick up a little bit making it not so two dimensional.

Tada! I love the shimmer to the paper... I just wish the purple was a bit more muted. I picked out a fun button at Joanns and plopped it in the middle to finish her off.

All in all it came together in under an hour, fun Friday night project!

Yummy Pot Roast Stew!

So last night I did all the prep work for a Company Pot Roast Cooking Light recipe I wanted to try. It's very similar to a crock pot stew we probably all grew up with, but since we are doing Weight Watchers it is really helpful to be able to have the nutrition info right there so we can calculate the points. The prep work was way easy (the meat has to marinade so you are better off doing as much as possible the night before) and was able to pretty much dump it all in the slow cooker this morning, put it on low and crossed my fingers. Nothing is better than coming home from a long day, getting out of the car and smelling a yummy dinner coming from the open window. Anyway, it was a definite do over... perfect for the rainy day we had today!

Side note.. we are NOT mushroom fans, so we completely omitted that step in the recipe, and it was still great!

Yummy Soup!

I don't know what came over me last night, but I made 3 meals! bah! It started with my chili recipe that I make all the time. Once I got that going, I realized that I had got a butternut squash about a week and a half ago so I had better do something with it soon or it was going to go to waste. So I yanked that bad boy out along with a recipe for Butternut Squash Soup I had been wanting to try. I figured it would make for a yummy lunch today. So I'm realizing I need to get better about taking pictures along the way. This was my first experience man handling a squash and needless to say I could see Josh's smirk from the other room as I dropped that slippery sucker a few times while trying to peel it! I took a picture of my end result and it looked like orange pudding. (festive, at least!) So here's the Cooking Light picture.

Since this wasn't my dinner, I didn't get a big ole bowl and dive in but man after one taste I wish I hadn't eaten yet! There is just something about it where I could pick up the whole pot and just slurp it down! It's not too sweet, the perfect amount of savory and waaaay smooth and creamy. Perfect for this rainy cold weather (that I love) that we've had all week!

If you are going to try to make this, I will say that I didn't measure out my squash and think I had more than it called for (and I may have thrown in an extra carrot & onion piece or two), so I ended up adding the entire carton of broth, figuring I could let it boil down if it was too watery. It turned out great!

The third meal I put together was a pot roasty-stew looking thing that I set up to cook in the crock pot all day today. So I just did the boring prep work last night so I didn't have to get up even earlier than the ungodly hour I already do!! It smelled awfully yummy already when we left for work this morning. I can't wait go home tonight and try it! If it was a success, I'll post the recipe tomorrow.

Happy Thursday!

Halloween Rag Wreath

When I found this Halloween Rag Wreath on the Sassy Sanctuary blog, I fell in love! It is so cute, and extra perk: it was way easy!! (Side note: There are like 50 things on the Sassy Sanctuary blog I'm dying to try... check it out when you have a minute, so many cute things! )

I loved it so much, I actually made 2. The first one turned out adorable, and Pattie (aka Nana!) seemed to agree so it felt right to hand it on over and make another! I skipped the black bow on both because I could not find cute black ribbon anywhere. 2 weeks before Halloween?! Whats up with that.

The process is really easy. These handy wire wreaths came in a few sizes, but having 4 rows really lets you get the wreath looking full. I bought 2 and a half yards of each. (Sassy's blog actually suggests 1 and a half but in Joanns, I was SURE it was 2!) So I had LOTS left over, hence my making two! Anyway, cut them down to 1x6inch strips and just begin tying them to the wreath... I was lazy and single knotted, but if you have the patience you'd probably be smart to double knot them so none slip out! After each row I'd change which fabric I started with so the pattern was random throughout.

After you paint your letters (I wished I had some glitter to add to them!) hot glue a bobby pin to the back to act as a hook, and you can secure them to the wreath. Way fun!!

Apologies for using camera phone pictures... not enough hours in the day!! I snapped these quick shots this morning while Josh was loading Jack up in the car and then we were off!

This was the wreath I ended up giving to Pattie.

This one ended up on our front porch!

I love Halloween! :)

Spooky Halloween Jars

I have been impatiently waiting for the girls to arrive this last weekend so we could try out a new craft I had found. I found these painted luminaries from Crafts By Amanda. Once I saw how simple they were I figured we had to try them out!

If I was more on my game, I would have pictures of the process including showing the girls having fun painting, but..... I forgot. :) We ran out of tea lights so not all are lit, but you get the idea! Super cute!

These came together really fast. All you need is some mason jars and acrylic craft paint. Side note: I was kind of surprised to find that Joanns didn't carry mason jars... however, Ralphs (next door to our Joanns) had them, 12 for $10. Not too bad!

Back to the jars. We did one layer of paint. I agreed with the blog I pulled this from that they looked more authentic and spooky to not be perfect and solid colored. I really like the way the glass still shines thru on some parts. Once the paint was dry we used a sharpie to draw on faces, then filled it in with black paint. One coat of a shiny sealer later and you are good to go! I love the way they turned out!

In other news, we went to the Calabasas Pumpkin Festival this weekend. The rain stopped for a few hours so we really lucked out. It was a blast!! Here are some pics:

My First Craft From A Blog

So last week there were about 4 or 5 blogs that really caught my attention. I spent a ridiculous amount of time going thru all the different posts, ooohing and aaahing over everything, and decided on this craft to try first... it seemed the least intimidating! I got the idea from The Bird's Papaya, here's the post that convinced me to try it: Jute Twine Vase. If you have some time, just scroll thru her postings, everything is sooo adorable!

You'll have to excuse my pictures, I had all good intentions of taking some good shots in the afternoon sun... but by the time we got Jack home, dinner made, cleaned up a bit... it was 8pm. I tried for some mood lighting... but that just looked cheesy! So... here's the pic I sent from my phone to my friend to show her. (please feel free to ignore the mess on my sewing desk!)

Here's a close up in some super bad lighting, but it helps give you the general idea. I'm simply in love with this and at a high risk of having twine covered bottles all over my house in a very short amount of time!

Jack, Jack... the Pumpkin King...

So we are big Disney buffs, with kids, it's sorta mandatory. One of our favorites is The Nightmare Before Christmas, and you can imagine with the arrival of Jack, we've had lots of Jack Skellington references. I fully plan to force him into a Jack Skellington costume soon enough (once he's willing to wear a mask) and naturally I'll dress up as Sally! :0) ya ya, I know.

Anyway, the girls seem to be going thru a phase of the hallway seeming dark and scary at night lately. I remember being a kid, and running down the hall, across the kitchen and dining room into my sister's room to ask her to go to the bathroom with me at night when I was scared. Never mind you, the bathroom was literally across the hall from me. It was totally rational to me at the time!

Back to the girls... we were at a Halloween store last weekend (got Jack's first costume, I can't WAIT to reveal that!) and they had this adorable nightlight. I hope the girls like it when they come this weekend!

I want to be a craft blogger person!

We need an official name here folks, I'll take any suggestions. As I mentioned last week, I discovered (How did it take me this long?) the wonderful world of craft bloggers. I am so inspired by all these women (Sorry, haven't found a dude yet, so I will generalize and say women) who create such neat, personal things that make their houses homes. This is a big deal for me.... it's something I place a lot of value in. You know that feeling you get when you've been away from your home for a while for whatever reason and all you want is just to be home? Then you get there and all the comforts and familiarities wrap around you like a warm cozy blanket? Anytime I add something to my home, I'm hoping I'm adding to that feeling for myself, and my family.

Anyway, the best part about all these friendly faces is that they are just as excited as I am to share, and to learn. Everyone is willing to spill their secrets and show you how easy something that looked so hard actually was. I've already made 2 things that I pulled from these awesome sites, and I'm going to spill my guts about it in a blog tomorrow.. I just need to go home and take pics tonight! You know me, whats a blog without pictures... they give such a better visual than my rambles. I hope you give my two cents back to the craft blogger community and post my trials and tribulations in my home decorating adventures. Hopefully I'll actually get some readers! Wish me luck.



Pattie sent me this picture of Jack yesterday... makes my heart smile!

Ohhhhhh I got the craft itch

I don't know if you noticed, but I added a lot of buttons to the page (scroll down, to the right) of some craft blogs I have recently stumbled on and have spent a ridiculous amount of time going thru, looking at all of the great ideas these women have come up with. I've started to print the ones I like, and am making a folder to keep at home, so that in the event I magically have some spare time, I can make a few of these!

I've just really been struggling with deciding what to spend my time on since going back to work. Every night of the week I'll look up at its already 7:30... and it just bums me out because half the night is already gone. There have been some (shhh, don't tell Josh) signs that we are indeed growing up. Josh and I are TV Junkies.. theres no use denying it. We may or may not have even made spreadsheets in the past of the fall line up to make sure we didn't miss shows. That was before the days of TiVo and DVR... now we are even more insane about it. However, this fall TV season I'm realizing... it's not as worth it. I'm beginning to feel like rather than veg in front of the TV, we'd rather spend a few hours with Jack before he falls asleep. (duh, right?) Theres also many more things I'd rather do in that little time after Jack falls asleep and I've still got a good hour or two before I pass out from sheer exhaustion. So... I'm not sure which ones yet, but we'll be letting go of some of our fall line up, in fair trade for crafts for me, and other hobbies for Josh. How adult of us. :)

My Stuff Bags Foundation

A few days ago one of the ACs (Admin Coordinators for you non Amgen readers) set up a volunteer day for us to go to. I'm actually incredibly embarrassed to admit I know very little of what is in the area in regards to volunteer assistance programs, what companies are out there, etc. Sure makes me feel a bit self absorbed to admit that! But, it is what it is for now. Anyway, she sent us to this place called My Stuff Bags Foundation. It's actually kinda cool, but sad too. They make care bags for kids, infants to teens, who have been pulled from their homes by child services and are sort of in that limbo state where the courts haven't decided what to do with them. The woman explained most kids are pulled in the night by surprise so the parents don't take them and run. The result of that is they have none of their belongings. So these bags are filled with a blanket, stuffed animal, and age appropriate items for them.. coloring books, reading books, games, etc. After giving us the lay of the land, we got lined up in an assembly line and began stuffing. I looked down, in my bin of stuffed animals were 500 "Spirit" horse stuffed animals. I just wanted to cry. Mackenzie has the same stuffed animal. She is obsessed with horses and went thru a phase where the only movie she would watch was the Spirit movie. I could close my eyes and picture her bed, half full (I'm not joking) of stuffed animals, Spirit right in the middle of it. Our girls have been thru a lot, but they have a home where they are safe, loved and not alone. These bags are going to kids who will feel like no one cares, they've been left alone, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I wish I could crawl into these bags, and go on the journey with them, hugging these kids, and telling them everything will be ok and they aren't alone. I just can't imagine any child going thru this.. and yet thousands do every day.

One of the things the volunteer told us they are most short on, is blankets. On their website is a simple way to make fleece blankets. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to Joanns and walked by the clearance table to see tons of fleece marked down for quick sale. I plan to keep my eyes out next time and buy a bunch... it's one of those things I could do while sitting in front of the TV at night and probably bust about 20 blankets in a week's time. With their goal being 30,000 bags a year, 20 bags isn't much, but it's a start. If you are interested in the foundation, here is their link: http://www.mystuffbags.org/

Let the worrying begin.... I sense a long road with this one.

Ask any parent, and they will tell you that from the minute their child is born, you'll never stop worrying about them. I had no idea how true this would be. It's not like a constant state of fear... but he is 100% always in the back of my mind. I've patted myself on the back up until now because I feel I've been pretty level headed about things. I haven't had sleepless nights where I am sneaking into his room 100 times to check that he's breathing or anything like that. Then I had this dream - nightmare the other night, and it has changed everything.

In the dream, I was giving Jack a bath just like we do now. He has a mesh baby tub, so we fill our tub up with just enough water that he can dab his toes into it while he sits in his bath. However, in the dream for some stupid reason I left the bathroom while he was in it and when I came back he was floating in the water. I was screaming for Josh but he couldn't hear me. I grabbed Jack, ran to find Josh and he smacked Jack on his back and his eyes popped open but they were black and glossy. It still gives me the chills to picture it. I woke up screaming Josh's name. Even now, days later, I feel a pain my chest just imagining this happening. Even though I know it was just a dream, it makes me feel sick thinking about it. Well, ever since this dream, I have caught myself having unrealistic worry moments about him. At night, I've not been sleeping well because my eyes pop open and I'm convinced I just heard something on the baby monitor and then I sit there in silence staring at the little green light waiting to see if it waivers. This is just getting ridiculous. He's fine and I need to realize that. I refuse to turn into one of those paranoid moms who refuses to have a toaster in the house because it causes more deaths per year than shark attacks. (apparently this is true!)

I'll deal with legit worries.. first day of school, first day he drives, first day he gets his heart broken... those are ones you sorta have to go through, they are like notches in life. Hopefully I can return to my level-headedness soon.. I'm too tired already to not be sleeping at night!!

Our "green" craft day

Ever since I bit the bullet and started using my sewing machine, I've become more confident in trying new things. I've got 2 partial quilts under my belt (and the instructions on how to finish them, finally! I can't wait to give it a shot!) as well as a few other projects. I made a new cover for Jack's boppy pillow. I am completely perplexed on how a baby item has the most stiff and uncomfortable cover on it. So I found a flannel material and it is much softer now! I give myself a pat on the back because that's a hard shape to do!

Anyway, fast forward to this weekend, and the girls and got busy with some "green" projects. Josh and I aren't huge tree huggers, but we try to do what we can. We are pretty diligent about recycling and not wasting water that kind of stuff. In the last year we jumped on the reusable grocery bag band wagon and stopped using so many plastic bags at the store. Well, it kind of opens your eyes to things you are wasteful about. Every morning we pack up milk and cereal to bring to work. So every morning I fill up a zip lock baggie with cereal, just to toss it an hour later once I've eaten. Seems a bit like a waste to me... and as much as I like to recycle I'm not big on reusing 'disposable' items either... I don't want to be that creepy person in the office with a zip lock baggie she's been using for 3 months and its crusty and gross. So call me a bit superficial, whatever LOL. ANYWAYS... that lead me to google "reusable sandwich baggies.." well who knew there was a whole market out there for that! Low and behold.. we made our own!

Once I had one under my belt, the rest came together quickly, and the girls love any opportunity to pick out some fabric and use the sewing machine. This offered great practice for them, straight lines are a cinch! They are lined with a water proof vinyl sort of material, and have a velcro closure. It's way easy to turn them inside out and wash them.

Another item I feel like I waste is produce bags at the grocery store... half of them I fill at the store just to empty into the fruit basket as soon as I get home. I started to reuse them at the store.. but again.. it just felt kinda icky. So sure enough I googled that and found an easy pattern. I like that I can make them any size... to fit an apple or two, or a stalk of celery. If they get mucky, I can just toss them in the wash!

So I don't think my little craft projects are going to stop global warming or end all of our problems but I think every little thing you do helps in its own tiny way, and if you end up doing lots of little things.. it's still better than doing nothing!

Besides.... its a fun excuse to make things :)

Acceptance

So as I'm sitting here with an hour to go to finish my first week back at work, I think I've finally accepted that this is my new reality. As much as I want to kick and scream to not have to be here and spend this precious time with Jack, I understand that I can't. I also understand I'm not the first, or the last parent to go thru this, and if they have all survived .... chances are I can too!

All in all actually being at work wasn't so bad. The days went fairly fast (except for today.. dang Fridays.) I will admit it was when I was home that it would kind of overwhelm me. I'd look at Jack and my heart just feels like someone is squeezing it in a not nice way when I think about just how badly I actually missed him that day. Thursday was the hardest because I went to see Phantom of the Opera (more on that in a bit) and essentially didn't see him all day. I came home, picked him off of Josh (they were snuggled up on the couch waiting for me to come home) and just cried while I held him. I think though you have to go thru these motions in order to get past them. So I try not to think to hard about it at work, so I can keep it together. I'm ok with sitting in the dark, on the couch, holding my sleeping baby and letting the tears flow for a minute. I know it will be ok!

I looked around the house for a minute this morning and just thought... My God. What happened? When I was home all day, I'd pat myself on the back for being able to multi task while being with Jack and still keeping the house in check. Well, that went out the window. Trying to create a new routine including baby and work... a little harder than I thought. I'm shocked at how fast the days go. Even with all the planning in the world the night before, the mornings are rushed and chaotic... and by mid week we were so exhausted that the planning the night before wasn't really happening, so those mornings were even more mayhem. Add to that, our week was a little out of the ordinary anyway. Wednesday Josh and I took a half day off of work to head down to Long Beach for Back to School Night. The girls have tough teachers this year, I'm excited for them though, it will be interesting to see how they react to teachers that keep them in check! So it was a late night getting home Wednesday. Then, as I mentioned earlier Thursday, Amy and I went to see Phantom of the Opera. O.M.G. .. it was A-MAZING!!! It was everything I'd hoped it would be!! However, what I had not hoped for was the 101 being shut down from an accident and Amy and I sitting there not moving for 40 minutes. That meant I didn't crawl into bed until a quarter to one. This all equals a very tired Megan. No rest for the weary though... as I write this Josh is on his way home from picking up the girls for the weekend... and since we get so little time with them, we end up jamming quite a bit into the time we do have.... never a dull moment!

So.... this is my reality and there may be parts I wish I could change but I think its important to always have things to strive for, otherwise you'd stop having that drive to work hard everyday. So right now, my goal is to get into a job where I can join the flex (work from home) program at work. I'll be excited to see what my next goal will end up being after that one! Wish me luck!

Wait.. no! This Sucks!

I can officially say it is awful being back at work. I mean that in no offense to my work people because all my complaining aside, I actually have a really good work environment... it's just still slow. (To give you an idea I was caught up on all my e-mails from being gone for nearly 3 months before lunch on my first day back.) But oh. my. god. I miss Jack. It's different than anything else I've ever missed before. I feel like my heart is literally breaking. Specially since, I was so caught up in how painful it was for me, it really didn't dawn on me that he'd have an adjustement period too. He doesn't seem to be able to get into a good deep sleep yet this week and the result is, we get home, he gets comfortable and passes out. NO! I just got home! Stay awake! Lets play! Oh it kills me. I cried for days leading up to going back. It suprised me that while at work, I seem to be OK. It's when I'm with him again that all the emotions come back up. I went to go say good night to him one more time last night and just burst into tears... I changed a mear 2 diapers... fed him one... ONE bottle that day. It just doesn't feel right at all. I know this is part of life and I'm not the first, nor the last parent to deal with this. But frankly, that doesn't soften the blow one ioda!

So since I can't change that... I'm trying to focus on why I'm at work, in the literal sense. One day Josh and I want to be able to buy a home... if I advance out of my position one day I'll be (and hopefully Josh will be, too) eligble for the flex program, which allows you to work half the week from home, which would mean we could be with Jack more, and if the girls came to school here, we could be there in the afternoons with them. We work for our lives with our familes... Christmas presents, summer vacations, college funds... I've got to focus on the big picture here, and hopefully it will make the time I am with Jack that much more special.

Back To Reality...

Next week.. gulp.. I go back to work. To say I don't feel ready is an understatement. There is not an ounce of me that feels ready to leave this little guy for 8 hours of the day. We are lucky enough that he'll be with family (Grandma Tino, and Nana.. aka Pattie) so that softens the blow... but it's tuggin at my heart strings. I'm not really in the mood to talk about that.... so I'll kind of dance around that subject because it is the ultimate reason for this post.. you'll see what I mean.

In preparation for the topic-not-to-be-named, I pulled out my work clothes a few weeks ago. Well. That was a blow to my ego! As I stood there looking at 5 pairs of pants that wouldn't button piled on my bed... all the 'You are pregnant.. have another scoop" and "eating for 2" ... or my favorite "I deserve this..." moments are rushing back to me, as I smack myself upside the head.. stupid stupid stupid! On top of that, my doctor also told me to take it easy for the first 6 weeks, don't rush back into anything, exercise or dieting.. my body needed to rebuild a lot of strength so now wasn't the time to cut calories. Fair enough, but the ice cream fairy still made several deposits at my house in those 6 weeks. My bad. The last 8 weeks have flown by. On top of just getting used to life with a baby, every other week the girls were here for summer break. I felt so blessed to be able to be off of work and spend the time with them, but I will be the first to admit my hands were jam packed full. So whats the first thing to go out the window? Healthy eating. It was way easier, those weeks especially.. to either get take out or just make something quick from a box.. that wasn't healthy. Call me a bad step-mommy... I can take it...sure in a perfect world I would have made us all balanced meals 3 times a day.. but the reality is, I was too freakin tired! So bite me. :)

Anyway, now that I've filled you up with my excuses, let me assure you, I'm done with those and am finally putting things into action. This week I have started exercising... alternating between Biggest Loser workouts on the Wii Fit (they kick my ass to next Tuesday!) as well as getting back into my neighborhood walks that I love and missed so much. (I'm actually not being sarcastic there!) It feels good to sweat and feel like I'm doing something healthy for my body. I feel like I've been sedentary for way too long. On top of that... we've also jumped (it took a few tries) back onto the weight watchers bandwagon. It's tried and true and has worked for us in the past... it just took us a while to be strong enough to stick to it! But now that we are seeing results... some of us faster than others (I hate you Josh) we are committed. So in light of our new found commitment... check out these 3 new recipes we tried this week and loved!

Sausage-Fennel Subs

These were a tad bit high in the world of points (9pts per sub) but worth it, in my opinion.. plus, this came together in less than 20 minutes!! You can't beat that for practicality!

Mongolian Beef

This was another super quick dinner, which is always a perk. Warning: if you are sensitive to spice, the chile paste with garlic goes a loooong way! Super yummy though!

Yolanda's Famous Chicken

I don't know who Yolanda is, but she makes some bad ass chicken. At first, I was a tad under impressed with the seasonings.. but each bite I took, it just got better and better. I'm thinking its all in the way its cooked.. I have never fried a chicken breast on the stove and had juice squirt out when I jabbed my fork into it. I'm usually cursed with dry chicken.. so I am SOLD on this!

Anyway, those are my offerings to you for now... next week should be challenging... with my daily routine taking a huge turn (in the wrong direction, if you ask me! Bah!) Wish me luck... and not just on the WW stuff.

Still Here!

Ok so maybe I made a bunch of empty promises about writing blogs all the while I was on maternity leave and then I never did. But can you blame me?! Rest assured, I go back to work a week from tomorrow (kill me now) and I will have lots of time (assuming work is still slow) to catch you up on all sorts of things!

I honestly can't believe Jack is 8 weeks old this week. It has gone so fast, just like everyone warned me it would. But I'll tell you, I have absolutely loved every minute of it. I don't think I realize how tired I am. I'll be going through one of my normal days home, revolving around when Jack is hungry, wants to play, wants to sleep, and plan things in between. I will feel like man I have GOT this! I could so do this stay at home mom stuff. Then Josh comes home from work and I run an errand and I'm standing at the check out counter wondering why the credit card machine won't accept my driver's license as a form of payment. It's a whole new level of tired I didn't even know existed! But I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Among the millions of things I have been blessed with in this experience so far... knock on wood so I don't jinx this.. Jack has slept thru the night the last 4 nights now. I'm talkin around 8pm to 6-7am... UNREAL! He went from waking up at 2am and 5am, to just waking up at 4am.. and now this. The first night it happened I woke up at 5:45 am flying out of bed thinking the monitor was broken or something was wrong because Jack hadn't woken up yet. But alas I opened his door and there he was, sound asleep, fists above his head (his favorite sleeping position). If he can keep this up it will help Josh and I out tremendously, specially when I go back to work!

I have managed to sneak in a few craft projects in these weeks home. The infamous polka dot quilt that Pattie and I were making is coming along great. It's on hiatus until our additional class we talked the teacher into giving us happens in October. I am so so so pleased with how it looks so far, I can't wait to be able to use it!

I've also ventured into a new thing in the sewing world - using a pattern. I have never tried to follow along and put something together, let alone something with a zipper, so I was a little intimidated. But alas, in about 2 hours I had created something! We use Jack's boppy pillow in a lot of ways, but I wasn't overly crazy about the cover that came with it. I looked up alternate covers, and they all were at least $25. Sure enough, good old google brought me to this adorable blog, www.vanillajoy.com that had step by step instructions that lead me on my way! I am so stoked with how it turned out!

Well I'm amazed that its 10pm, I've had a glass of wine, am still awake, and have managed to write a blog that might actually make some sense. So if I still have any readers that might be checking, thanks for sticking around and hearing what I have to say in my little world!!

Jack's here!!

I've read more birth stories than you could possibly imagine and now I feel like I have entered a secret society, and it's finally time for me to get to share mine.

I really thought the night before our scheduled c-section would be impossible to get through, but oddly enough it wasn't. I worked ferociously on my quilt, getting as much done as I could (I got quite far thank you!) and before I knew it, it was almost midnight and I was stuffing my face with the last morsels I could before my doctor-ordered-cut-off-from-food-before-surgery began, and then I was ready for bed. The next morning wasn't as easy to get through! Our bathroom was still being remodeled so once everyone was up, we packed up our shower stuff and headed over to Grandma Tino's where I got ready. I was really emotional. All the sudden I had this overwhelming feeling that I would miss being pregnant terribly. I cried in the shower: This was my last pregnant shower. I cried getting dressed: this was the last time I would wear this dress pregnant. Little didn't know I what was so close on the other side was going to be way better! FINALLY it was 11:15 and Josh and I were giving the girls hugs and heading to the hospital. Every step I took felt surreal.. I just kept thinking it's almost time. He's going to be here!!

We ran into a hiccup while doing the paperwork for admittance. She finished up and said "ok you are scheduled for 3, come back at 1:30." Ahhh no we aren't! We are scheduled for 1:30, and due to come in, NOW! So we stepped outside and called my doctor's office. Ten minutes later her nurse called me back and said go back in, they are ready for you! Then the whirlwind began. A nurse got us settled in a room, asked a bunch of questions and said it would be a few minutes. The next thing I knew, they were having me walk to the OR room to get an epidural. This was the only part where I got a little scared because Josh wasn't allowed to come with me and all the sudden I felt very alone. However, I had a really nice nurse (ya for awesome nurses!) and it really didn't hurt to get the epidural. As soon as he was done, they flew into action, and the next thing I knew Josh was standing there in scrubs, camera around his neck and holding my hand. 5 minutes later, I heard Jack cry for the first time and my eyes just filled with tears instantly. (They are now, too, as I write this.) I will never ever in my life forget that moment and how amazing it was.

Backtracking a little - it was almost funny from my perspective because I could not feel anything and all I could hear was my tiny doctor (they had to provide a step stool for her) grunting and panting and all these comments that wow he's big.. man he's really in there. All along my doctor had estimated he'd be around 7 lbs, but he was a whoppin 9 lbs 2 oz! I think if it was acceptable she would have straddled me to get him out! Either way she did an awesome job.

The next few days morphed into one. The nurses continued to be awesome and every few hours I felt better than the hour before. In the mornings Josh came and we had about 3 hours just the three of us and it was really nice to have that. Then from noon to 8pm we had a steady stream of visitors and Josh left to have dinner with the girls and would come back with them until 8. Then, selfishly was another favorite part of the day for me. Jack and I were on our own. I'd lay him to the side of me in bed and just watch him for hours. The nurse always left the door cracked for me so I could hear life beyond our room but other than that I kept the lights low, and the TV off and Jack and I just stared at each other (or at least he stared at a blurry version of me).

Since coming home from the hospital, our lives have changed dramatically. Our routines, needs, desires... everything is in a new perspective. It was incredibly hard to wave goodbye to Josh after being home for just two days and he had to go back to work. I was grateful for Pattie to be here that morning because I was a wreck! There are times that I'm up at night feeding Jack and I'm so tired but I'll look down and see him and all the sudden, I don't feel tired, I just feel an insane amount of love - as cheesy as that may sound. He just makes it all worth it!

So stay tuned as life continues with Josh, Jack and the girls, we are bound to have a few great stories along the way!

5 days from now..

I'm gonna be a mommy!! Holy crap when did this happen?! I think I can officially say that I am excited. That word doesn't even really seem worthy of the feelings in my heart right now. This week has flown by. Last Friday when we scheduled the c-section, I thought for sure time would grind to a stand still, but it actually hasn't. I think being off work, Josh being back to work and the girls being with their mom this week had something to do with it. Initially I'd think this scenario would have the opposite effect! However, I've been a busy bee! Pattie and I had our 2nd installment to the quilting class last night, so I spent the week (mostly at Pattie's, in the air conditioning!) finishing up my blocks. When I wasn't doing that, I was sneaking in lunches with Josh, spending way too much time at Target and running other fun errands where normally I have 3 people (who I love) less than a step behind me asking if we are done yet! So this was like a whole new world. On top of all that, our bathroom (with the only shower!) was gutted this week! You can tell we Dix's don't like dull moments. So, needless to say, the week has flown by and I can hardly believe that next Wednesday Jack will be here. I am so thrilled words can't even describe.

So to back pedal a bit I have to tell you that I am having so much fun learning how to make my first quilt. Pattie and I left class last week with the assignment to create 36 blocks. I will post pictures soon, I promise. So last night, we showed up with our blocks and began to assemble what our quilts will look like. I think everyone, self included has stereo types about quilting and who does it.. .namely... our Grandmas. Well this just totally blew that opinion out of the water for me. I looked back and forth between Pattie's table and my table where our blocks were spread out. Pattie's looked like Pattie - these frenchy bistro sophisticated gorgeous fabrics... it's stunning! Then you look at mine, which is ALL over the place, bright colors, stripes, polka dots... I absolutely love it! So while we use the same mold... you can make it however you want, whatever you want, in any way you want. It's been SO FUN!

I'm aching to show you pictures, however I am seeking refuge at Dad and Pattie's house again today... mainly because the water is off at my house for the bathroom, and it's hotter than all hell in our house this week! I promise to take pictures tonight if my camera hasn't melted beyond oblivion so you can see how the quilt is coming along!

So, I feel all over the place with excitement and I think the scatteredness of this blog reflects that today! I'll keep you posted and hopefully fill you in a few more details before the madness begins next week!! TTFN!