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Tuesday, May 26

Lovely



Lilacs are lovely.

I love walking outside in the morning, as my dogs run around to stretch their legs and do their business.... because all around my property, I have lilac trees. They fill the air with the sweet scent of their flowers, and it makes my morning that much better. They remind me that summer is almost here, it's just around the corner!

What summer flower do you love best?

Sunday, May 24

From humble beginnings....



13 weeks




And hardly showing at all. Believe it or not, my belly was actually flatter than that at one point.

Skinny little bee-with-an-itch.

By the way, aren't I rocking it out in my yellow tee and awesome pink pants? Aren't I?

Well, if I aren't, at least I was comfortable.

21 weeks



At last! Progress!
My shirt doesn't cover my belly anymore, and people can actually tell I'm pregnant! Wooo!

26 weeks




Beanie sure is letting the world know he's there, now! Although, I swear, sometimes my belly looks bigger in the mirror, and other days it seems to shrink away. I think it depends on how he's sitting, if he's leaning outwards or inwards or whatever.

Note to self: Get a hair cut.
Also: Get husband to take better pictures, so that you don't look like a dorkus malorkus.
AND: You're too cute.

Mwah.

Saturday, May 23

A little birdy told me



that, apparently, baby starlings fall out of their nest before they are quite ready to fly.




As long as a cat or other predator doesn't find them, they hop around and continue to practice flapping their wings, building their strength up.




And, if they're fully feathered, there is no reason for human interference.




They'll stay warm and happy, because not too far away from them,





their Mommy is watching! She will continue to bring food to her fledglings, until they can fly for more than a few yards and start to fend for themselves.


Cool, huh?

Friday, May 22

It's Friday!



I freaking LOVE these two.
Obviously, one more than the other.
But they're each Numero Uno in their respective categories - Human, and Canine.

Aren't they just so cute together? SO CUTE?!

Tyler likes to man-handle our dogs. He's kinder to Lucy, who is little and fragile, but Brady gets beaten up all the time. She gets hung upside down, thrown over his shoulder, curled into a pretzel, whatever. And she takes it all, because to her, it's affection.

Some kinda crazy dog affection.

He was holding her in a bear hug on the couch when I took this picture. Look how happy and serene her eyes are.... she's not all all distressed. If it were me, I'd be purple in the face, snarling, and struggling to get away.... oh well.

I think it's good for her. She'll be less apt to get annoyed by our soon-to-be toddler climbing all over her and poking her in the eyes, pulling on her lips, and jumping on her when she's sleeping. She be all like "Whatevs" when the little monster is using her tail as a chew-toy when he's teething. Such a good soul.



Now, because if I don't post these soon Adeena's going to go apoplectic on me, here's the pictures of the newly-painted bedrooms! Hurray!

The Nursery




Now, the colour isn't exactly right in the picture, because it was so sunshiney when I took this, but it's accurate enough. I knew I wanted a green in the baby's room, and when we found out Beanie has a weenie I knew I wanted a stronger green than the minty colour I was considering for a baby girl. When we were painting it, it was a gorgeous day outside, and I ecstatically realized that the colour of my paint was the same as the leaves hanging in the sunshine. The name of the colour is "Nature's Playground", which I think is very fitting, especially when I get my jungle animal theme going on up in there.

I'm going to use a lot of brown in the room to make it more boy-ish, brown curtains & comforter and whatever, and someday if we have a girl I can add pinks and yellows to make it more girlish. That's the plan, anyways... if I ever have a girl. Tyler's dad cursed him a long time ago, telling him he was only going to have boys, and they would all be like Ty.

So my question is, What did I do to deserve that?!?

Cruel, cruel Father-in-law.

The Master Bedroom




RED!

Yay!

I love my red bedroom. Honestly. What's not to love? LOVE IT!

The walls are red, and my secondary colours will be black and white. White linens & things, black fan, black lamps, black headbooard, black shelves.... yay!

It's going to be so cool when it's all done.


Wednesday, May 20

Last-minute Chili (that still tastes really, really good!)

My husband doesn't like spicy food.
It's true! It's true! You can ask him! He says it upsets his stomach.
I, however, like it hot. So, when I get it into my little head to make chili, I make two different kinds: Hot & Spicy, and Baby chili.
Hahahaha.

Last night I wanted chili. Because I didn't know I wanted chili first thing in the morning, I didn't do what I usually do, which is prepare it the day before I want to eat it, and have it simmer in a crock pot for a good 24 hours to get all possible goodness out of it. So, I give you, the two recipes to my Last-Minute Chilis!

First Up: Awesome Spicy Burn-your-tongue-off-with-flavour Chili



Capital M, little m little m little m.

Dramatis Personae:
1 lb ground beef
1 can brown beans
1/2 can red kidney beans
3 cloves minced garlic
2 tablespoons Franks Red Hot (or three.... or four..)
1 can diced tomatoes, drained of all juices (you don't want chili soup, do you?)
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 generous shaking of ground pepper shaker
1 red pepper, sliced into 3 inch long slices
about 10-12 mushrooms, sliced
1 teaspoon of butter

Directions:
Cook the ground beef in a big ol' silver pot (or black pot, if that's what you have) on low, especially if you're pregnant and prone to forgetting things, and especially if you are busy vacuuming or watching "Ellen" whilst you are cooking.

Add the minced garlic, and if you want to cut down on the fats, drain all the juices off the meat. If you don't want to cut down the fats, leave that flavoury, oily goodness in the pot.

Once the beef is thoroughly cooked, and the garlic is soft, add the beans, tomatoes, red hot, chili and black pepper.

Since this is last minute chili, do not add the veggies. Grab a separate frying pan, and put it on medium heat. Melt that buttery goodness, especially if you don't care about the fats. If you do, just.... Use olive oil or something. Yuck.

Fry the sliced red pepper and mushrooms, stirring often so you don't get any burnt bits. Once they are soft, add them to the chili pot.

Cook that chili goodness, still on medium heat, for about 20 minutes-1/2 hour as you get the rest of your meal ready, whatever that might be. Garlic bread, toast, whatevs.

If you have a husband who doesn't like all the spices of life, simultaneously cook up a pot of Baby Chili as you are putting together the Awesome Chili.

Baby Chili



Not a capital m, little m little m. But Tyler liked it, so whatever.

Dramatis personae (I'm not even sure what that means, but it sounds cool):
1 lb ground beef
1 can brown beans (Heinz is good)
the other 1/2 can of kidney beans
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can of plain ol' tomato sauce (especially if your particular baby doesn't like chunks of tomato)
A little bit of chili powder, not too much, dangit!
And that's it. Wow, not nearly as interesting.

Directions:
Cook the ground beef in a similar fashion to what was described in recipe # 1. Same goes for the discussion about the fats, and stuff.
Add all the beans, tomato sauce, and little bit of chili powder. Simmer on low heat for 20-30 minutes. Weep at the waste of potential for this pot of chili to be awesome, then remember that your sweet baby really doesn't like it unless it's mild-mannered and doesn't make a fuss in the stomach. Stop your blubbering and move on to more important things, like cheesy garlic bread.





Or, take pictures of your husband doing a Scottish jig whilst he grates cheese for you.
It really does look like he's dancing! He's actually perched on the counter, hanging on by a single butt-cheek, not at all dancing... but still. Tis fun to imagine.





I'm not giving you the recipe for garlic bread, because it sucked. I really need to learn how to make good garlic bread, and then I will share the recipe with you. Unless you have a good recipe for Gluten-Free garlic bread, then share! Share! Don't be a good recipe hog!

But the chili was AWESOME.

Especially mine.

Tuesday, May 19

I deleted the post about Katie because I just can't deal with some of the feedback right now.

ttfn

Tuesday, May 12

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

My big sister is 29 today!

She's still a kid at heart, though... you can tell from the following photos.

This is Rachel with her daughter Heidi, playing good ol' fashioned peek-a-boo.






"Where's Heidi?"



"There she is!!! Haha!"





"Blarb!"


I didn't know what else to put under that last picture.
'Blarb' seemed to sum it up pretty well.

Happy Birthday, Rachel!

Love, Rara

Saturday, May 9

Just some babbling... I'm disoriented and tired and sore, so not very good at writing today. My apologies.

My camera's batteries are dead.


Therefore, I cannot take pictures of our bedroom and nursery, that are freshly painted and are just too freaking awesome! I LOVE my red bedroom, folks. Love, love, love it. It's going to be so nice with black and white accents in it, so warm and sexy and inviting... ah. And my nursery is green! I finally settled on a green. It's not pale, it's actually pretty bold, but I can add brown accents to make it suitable for a boy, and pink or yellow to make it more girly for a baby girl someday. Hopefully... I don't want to be surrounded by boys. I'd like at least one on my side.

Maybe tomorrow I will get batteries and take some pictures to put up on here. Of course the rooms will look even more spiffy once the floor is done and the trim is put on and the furniture set up, but you will be able to see the progress.

I hurt my hip this week. It kinda sucked. I had to leave work early on Thursday, and I didn't even go in on Friday. And I'm not a wimp. I've hobbled my way through the workday before. But this time, it honestly felt like my hip was going to fall out, and when it didn't feel like that, it felt like there was a tiny man with a knife inside my body, stabbing up into my hip bone with every step. The little bastard.

Apparently the little bone between my hip and my spine came out of place, making simple things like walking extremely painful. I went to my first-ever chiropractor appointment, which was interesting.... I wasn't completely comfortable with the man putting his hands on my hips and telling me to wiggle my butt. But I understand he needed to see if the joints were doing their job properly. Turns out, one wasn't.

He cracked it back into place, and it made a huge difference, I was actually able to sit down and stand up! Amazing! But it's still really, really sore.

I'm just glad it's not Sciatica, which is what I suspected it was. Sciatica would be a huge bother. This will be gone within a couple weeks, as long as I don't re-stress the joint, and keep doing the exercises the chiropractor showed me. I guess time will tell.

The biggest pain is that every time I go to roll over in my sleep, I wake up because it hurts. I roll over a lot, so, consequently, I'm awake a lot. So I'm pretty sleepy.... I'm going to bed early tonight, even though I've "slept in" for two days in a row now. I don't think it matters if you sleep in until 8:00 in the morning if you've been up sixteen times during the night. I'd rather have 6 uninterrupted hours of sleep than 10 horrid ones. And I don't think I'm the only one.

Monday, May 4

It's Monday, actually the end of Monday...

And I'm whooped.

I was so grouchy when I woke up this morning, it was unbelievable. I grumbled and grouched all the way from my bedroom, to the bathroom, downstairs, to the truck, to work, and even a little bit at work. I think it's because I didn't sleep well last night. I don't know why I didn't, it just wasn't my night, folks.

It's definitely getting tougher to get out of bed in the morning. It wouldn't be so bad if I started work at a normal time like every other human being, but I get up at 5:00 am. That no so much fun.

I do have something to look forward to this week, though. Tyler has all the mudding and sanding done in our two bedrooms (yes!), so now we get to the part I like best, the painting! I chose my red paint for my bedroom today, but I've been having a little bit of trouble choosing a green for the nursery. I brought home a couple paint chips from the paint store today, just to see if I could make up my mind. I think I've narrowed it down to the one I want.

The trouble is, I had a green picked out in my mind, but that was when I thought the baby was a girl. Finding out he's a boy, that colour (light & minty) went down the tubes and I was thrown back to the starting point, knowing only that I want the room to be green.

The green I have now is stronger, but still a little too light for my tastes. I think Tyler is worried that I won't like a stronger green, but I love bright colours! I really do! No taupes or beiges for me.

Ah well, I still have time to mull it over. Meanwhile, I have to get my big big booty over to Rachel's house, because even my most comfyest jeans don't fit right anymore. They pinch my belly when I'm sitting if the button is done up. I really hope she has something khaki... I love khaki. Or cotton pants. I could use me some cotton pants.

I know I've used a lot of bad grammar in this post, but frankly, it's fun. Ha!