Happy Valentines Day!

I'm looking forward to going home and having a special dinner with my husband. It's been a busy week, so a break sounds wonderful!
The Menu:

Grilled Surlion Steak
Veggies
Mashed Potatoes
White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake with Raspberry Sauce

Yummy!

of tofu and recipes

Tofu has been sounding awfully good lately. My doctor said I need to eat more, especially protien, so I'm blaming it on that. It sounded good to even put in sandwiches. :| Josh was my hero and found it at the store recently! I had this really yummy looking recipe I wanted to try it in, but since the weekend was so busy I didn't have time to try it out. Last night I was finally able to make it. It was basically this Thai noodle dish with chicken. I added some, but then I put in some stir-fried tofu to stretch the chicken. Both Josh and I really liked it! I think it will be come a family recipe. Sometimes I try stuff and it just doesn't work. Like the one time I made a Tex-Mex taco salad thing. It had waaaay to many red onions - even Josh thought it was too much. I also tried a broccoli cheese soup...Josh was the only one who would eat it again. I still have some in my freezer awaiting the right time to finish up. So needless to say, I was quite happy to find a recipe that worked! :D

Hamming it Up

The ham turned out really yummy! Though it wasn't beautiful, it still tasted great. :D It was too huge for Josh and I to eat by ourselves, so we had my parents and sister over. That was quite fun, since our table it only a small card table. It's perfect for the size of our apartment dining room, but when company comes we just eat in the living room. That was when I realized I neglected to dust the coffee table. It has probably a centimeter of dust on it...I dusted all the corners and things, but forgot that a coffee table tends to collect dust when left to it's own for weeks.

So we had lots of leftovers, which works according to my devious plan to make it last a long time. Thankfully, Josh likes it. ;)

Tonight I'm going to coffee with some girlies to hang out for a while. I'm excited! It's been a long work day, so a relaxing time of conversation and coffee sounds wonderful.

Shopping Newbie

So Josh was an amazing husband and took me grocery shopping after dinner last night - to 3 different stores! Now, if that's not love - I don't know what is. :)

The cool part was we went to CVS pharmacy and were able to get $26 worth of stuff for $7! We had a coupon, so we payed $22 and got some extra care bucks back to use next time we shop, so it was like spending only $7, since we'd get to use the "bucks" next time we go. :D It was quite nice. I've been following this blog for a while: www.moneysavingmom.com, and it has lots of great ideas on saving money on groceries.

So now I have an 11lb ham that I need to cook...I looked online and found some strange technics that people have used to cook ham. The one that I found most odd told me to wash the ham (that's a good idea) and put it in the oven with some water. You cook it until the water starts to boil, then turn the oven off for like 4 hours I think it was. After that the oven gets turned back on for 30 minutes. Once it's cooked for a 1/2 hour you turn the oven off and leave the ham inside the oven all night! It seemed like that would cause bacteria to grow maybe? Maybe the time it takes to heat the water to boiling kills the germs. Does anyone have any suggestions on cooking an 11 pound ham? I think I'll call my mom.

Marriage Does Strange Things to You

I looked at this blog and realized how little I've posted anything. Hmmm...Must be something to do with getting married and not having much time for such things. ;) Actually being sick for a while was what happened. I'm now getting lots better, though still the baby reminds me I have to be careful with smells or I'll lose my lunch. It's a great weight loss program, kind of. I was talking with a friend today and mentioned how I think I've hit a plateau in my pregnancy. It seems like the baby isn't growing any bigger (okay my tummy doesn't look bigger), and I've been the same weight forever. I think I need to talk to the little guy and let him/her know that they better start using that food I'm giving him/her. lol

And now for your random picture of the day:

lol...I love it.

Moving and Shaking

I felt the baby move a few nights ago! I was in the kitchen making dinner and talking with Josh, when all of a sudden there was this tiney fluttering/tickling sensation inside my tummy. It was so amazing! It's neat to think the little baby is just growing and moving around inside. In a couple weeks I'll have an ultrasound and will actually get to see the baby! I wonder if it's a boy or girl...Josh says it's a boy. ;)

The other night we were eating salad with dinner (I'm trying to make sure we have veggies a lot) and the dressing I wanted was almost gone. I started shaking it to get some out...which it did - all around my bowl! I think salad needs patience just as much as people sometimes.

An Encouraging Verse

I read this yesterday and found it encouraging...

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

~1 Thessalonians 5:9

Heart Still Beats Inside

Okay, so it's been really way too long since I've posted. Sorry everyone! I was sick for about 3 months (yes I'm pregnant!) and so writting a blog post wasn't my first priority. :) Let's see if I can catch up on what's happened...

Christmas was great. We got up at 2:30 am to open presents and then went to sleep again. :D Saw my parents and siblings and grandparents and had some amazing ham from my Grandma. My contribution was carrot cake. It was so fun to make using my new food processor. Josh has been trying to train me to use it since I didn't grow up with one. It certainly makes grating FOUR cups of carrots a lot faster! It turned out very nice I think - even though I kind of made them fall a little by pulling them out of the oven too early. Oops.

New Years Eve I didn't feel well, so I stayed home from the festivities. :( I didn't even hear noise at midnight to wake me up! Josh wasn't feeling well either I dont think. Hmm...We've either had to cancel plans or not make plans because I'm sick or Josh is sick. Usually two different kinds of sickness. ;)

On New Years day we celebrated my sister Jessica's birthday. :D She's 19 - I can't believe it!

Patrick turned 18 this year too. So he and the guys went paintballing. Josh was so excited to go. He had been before at various times, but not in Texas. I guess the rules were different than in Oklahoma, but they still had a grand old time. They got back and that was all they talked about the whole night. They were comparing welts and talking about how they shot so-and-so and how this person got them out. Josh was pretty tired after that, since he was/is fighting a cold. Thankfully it's getting better. :D I'm soo glad I asked Josh not to go paintballing for his bachelor party!

We've mostly been trying to keep up with things. This last week was incredibly long. I had a dr. appointment on Monday morning, but we got there and found out the dr. was sick with a cold. So I had to go back on Wednesday. Tuesday I had jury duty, and was picked to be on a panel (pre-jury) for Thursday morning. They didn't pick me to be on the jury once they found out I am an emotional pregnant woman. Yay!

On Thursday Josh and I got to hear the baby's heartbeat!!! I nearly cried. :D It's so exciting to actually hear the baby and not worry that something went wrong like I have heard so often. The Lord is sooo good to us! The little baby's heart was going twice the speed of my own - poor little guy must have been nervous. j/k I don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, but I'll keep you posted. haha Pun intended.

So now it's Monday and I'm feeling a lot better (usually) so I've been trying to get back on track with cleaning and making menus for each week. We're going grocery shopping tonight. I hope we can find some chard for Josh...he really likes it. I'm hoping to find some apples! :D

Holiday Cheer

We had our office Christmas party on Friday. It's always fun to dress up and spend time visiting with the families. We all brought different dishes to share for dinner - some people brought amazing mashed potatoes! We brought rolls and pumpkin pie. :) We all enjoyed the different skits and songs - including "the Twilight Zone" with a GFA twist. I hope someone taped it.

Today we are thinking to go Christmas shopping for family gifts. We searched almost everywhere for wrapping paper in Walmart...to no avail. I think they hide it so you have to look at all their stuff on sale while looking for just wrapping paper!

Last weekend we made some paper snowflakes to hang up on our window. I think I'll finally put those up today. ;) Plus most of our Christmas cards are signed and stuffed! I feel so accomplished. I'm telling ya, any small task finished is amazing for a first trimester pregnant woman. :D

The Tree

Friday after Thanksgiving we had a nice time visiting with Katie and decorating our Christmas tree. It's so pretty. :) We didn't buy lots of ornaments, because those tend to add up through the years. I look forward to adding little handmade ornaments our children make (and me too!).