Scrub-a-dub-dub, get this preggo in a tub!

Goal #21: Shower every single day for 2 weeks.

As of yesterday, I have showered every day for the past 14 days! Success. CHECK!

This may seem like a silly goal, and in reality it isn't a very serious one, but it is one that I had to be very intentional about completing! I just don't like to shower. It's not that I like to be stinky or sweaty, which I really don't like, it's just that showering is such a task to me! Kind of like running, getting started is the worse part, but I am always thankful that I did it when I'm done. :)

Most people are caught off guard by this thought process of mine and think that this means that I shower like once a week. Not true! I just don't enjoy the process of actually getting into the shower [especially in the winter because we keep are thermostat low], I still do it, for everyone's sake!! I have an idea inspired from another blog that might make showering more fun and not so mundane, so if I decide to incorporate that, I'm sure their will be a post to follow!

Perhaps if our bathroom was as serene as this,
I'd enjoy showering more! Doubt it! :)

Oh, and I was deliberate with this goal and would plan out when I'd shower. Not always did I feel like I needed a shower, but would take one anyways. I actually made it to Day #11 once, but because of our camping trip, I had to start over! I guess there's worse things that could've happened. :)

Goal #20: Brush my teeth twice a day, every day for 30 days.

Due to having to start over, I also completed a second goal yesterday! Yesterday also marked the 30th day in a row that I've brushed my teeth twice a day. I know this may be gross as well and I have friends who like brushing their teeth so much that they do it 4-6 times a day. Not me. I don't like bad breath, but no one smells my breath while I'm sleeping anyways so it just didn't make sense to me! I'm also convinced that when I do brush my teeth right before bed, I'm so much more thirsty in the night than if I don't so my laziness used to win out there too. Anyways, 2 goals completed in one day!

Keeping Track of my Goals.
One tick at a time!

So am I alone here or is there any others out there who don't particularly enjoy the task of actually getting into the shower or brushing your teeth [but of course do it anyways for everyone's sake]?!  I know I have one friend out there who's in a similar shower boat, especially in the winter, anyone else?! :)

Deep-fried Baby Jane?!

What does deep-frying, a baby, and Jane have in common? Well that would of course be 3 of the highlights of my last three days!

Sunday we went out to the Massie's house for our "2nd Annual Deep Frying Extravaganza"! Last year we had a little deep-frying fun and I think this will likely be a summer tradition! After waking up from a Sunday afternoon nap by claps of thunder, I was a bit worried that we'd have to postpone it for another day, but thankfully we didn't! So what did we deep fry you ask? Anything you can think of! After Course #1 of brats and potato salad [which were unnecessary, but enjoyed since we could easily fill up on deep-fried goodness] we started off with the veggies. That makes it healthy right?!

Course #2: Deep fried broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, onions,
sweet potatoes. 

 Everything except the sweet potatoes were battered. The sweet potatoes and the zucchini were my favorites! Of course we then had to have some dessert, as if we weren't full enough! We had quite the arrangement and everything was delicious! [The marshmallows, as suspected, instantly turned to liquid and didn't turn out but everything else did!] The batter for this was the equivalent of funnel cake! My favorite for this course was the deep-fried peanut butter Snickers bars!!

Course #3 Desserts: Oreos, Twix, Milky Ways,
3 Musketeers, Snickers, Peanut Butter Snickers, and
apples. [See it's not all unhealthy!]

It was all delicious! And our arteries are still clear!


Jane: After eating to our fill and beyond! I only had about 40 pages left to read in Jane Eyre. This is the first of the 43 books off the BBC list that I'll be reading for my goals! It took me longer to read it than I thought it would as it appears to be a small book, but in reality it was over 500 pages. It addition to the plot line, my favorite thing about the book itself is a little handwritten note inside the front cover:

My dearest Carrie, I found this in a cute little bookstore & thought you'd like it. I love you & will be home very soon! Love, J. 

How sweet is that?


And last but not least, today we got to one last glimpse of Baby Massie while on the inside! Today I had my likely final ultrasound with the goal of finding out how large the babe is and the amount of fluid in there. Everything seemed to be fine [I'll ask for sure on Thursday at my actual doctor's appointment, but the doc cleared me to go for today!

Also not that we wanted to find out the sex of the babe--I'm mean we've waited 36 weeks, what's another 4?!-- but again this child was not the most cooperative! We couldn't even get a good face shot as Baby M had its fist up over its face! Here's some pics from today's appointment nonetheless.

It may only be a little bit on the back of its head,
but that speckly line there is hair!

Hand over face.

Here's about the best that we could get with
the lil' ones lack of cooperation.

Based on the measurements that Jodi was able to get, despite the baby being balled up in there, its current estimated weight is 6 lbs. 9 oz. [This can be off as much as a pound and an half either way though.] Also at this stage of the game, the lil' one should be packing on an half pound a week, so in theory that means that in a little less than 4 weeks we should be welcoming a healthy 8 lb. 9 oz.

Hopefully the chub will stay!
I'd take a little sausage babe!

Can't wait! [Well once all my lesson plans are complete, I'm ready!! ;)]

Weekend Review: Quality Time with Chris & 3 Goals Accomplished

After spending 6 hours learning all about having a baby, I sent Mister the following text message on our 5-minute ride home:

"Your adventure, should you choose to accept it, is to pack your bags and get ready to head back out on the road. You will need to pack a bag including the following: change of clothes [nothing fancy!], swimsuit, toothbrush, flip-flops, older tennis shoes, and your pillow. Hopefully that's everything! Will you join me?!"

*I later realized that I put nothing in there about needing shorts to sleep in. Oops. Good thing our tent was secluded!*

He turned to me, smiled, and said I'll join ya!

Had this statement not be made, this weekend would've went to the toilet real quick!

Chris and I packed our bags and we were off in my preloaded car. I told him our ETA was about 40 minutes, but I didn’t really know because I’d been there maybe once and he didn’t ask many questions. [He’s much easy—better—to surprise than me! I’d been playing 20 questions the whole way!

Ten minutes into the trip: “Oh crap!"

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to pack something!” What’s that important “something” that I forgot… butter of course! J

As I thought a little more, I realized that I may have needed to pack a rubber mallet to drive in the tent stakes but didn’t want to ask because it would’ve given it away. [We ended up not needed a mallet.]

A quick $2.61 for butter and a bag of ice and we were back on the road.

It wasn’t until we pulled into Van Buren’s KOA that Chris knew what we were doing for the weekend! I patted myself on the back for this secret planning accomplishment! After parking, registering, realizing that everyone there hated their jobs and their kids, we were off to set up our campsite.

Later we would have to return to said hatey workers to buy wood from their empty wood storage which reiterated their passion for the job!

Campsite

 A quick tent set-up and change into our bathing suits, we were off to the swimming area. This pond likely had more chemicals and we were surprised our suits didn’t turn teal so we decided not to go under, but wading chest deep was refreshing and relaxing! They also had a big inflatable slide as well as a "spinning log", but you had to rent their life jackets to use them and it was pretty kid-infested attraction anyways. After relaxing in the water and on the "beach" we journeyed back to our campsite.

Snackin' on a pretzel after wading in the teal water.

For supper we made pizza pudgy pies. All carbon aside they were good! I think I should have taken some PAM along to help out the sticking to the iron and burning factor, but I thought butter is all we'd need. That's a downfall of trying to replicate what you did when you were 12. You don't always remember the details!

I had packed apple pie filling to make dessert pudgy pies, but because of the trickiness of preventing burning that we couldn't quite master, we stuck we the good ol' camping standard, s'mores. Toasted to perfection, they were delish! As we sat around our lil fire, Chris enjoyed a pipe or two and I decided to working on crossing another thing off my list. Borrowing his knife I went to carve my initials in a tree. It was difficult to find a tree in our little area with smooth enough bark to do this, and it ended up not being the prettiest of carvings, but I'm am amateur when it comes to vandalism so it sufficed!

Lighting his pipe, which was much more
successful than the last time he attempted.

Not beautiful, but it counts. :)

 We decided to call it a night and retreated to our tent for the evening. Isn't it amazing how the sun dictates your sleeping and waking when you don't have electricity?! I had borrowed a friend's air mattress [ours took electricity to pump and they had a battery powered one] so sleeping was quite enjoyable. [One question that Chris did ask on the way up was if we'd be sleeping on a mattress that night. I told him I was, but I didn't know about him! This confused him a bit which was perfect! Later he realized why I answered that way.] We rested well and I dreamt about being on a WWF tag-team with Hulk Hogan against his evil twin and another guy. Quite a night. :)

The next morning we rose with the sun, trekked to the mosquito infested hole in the ground toilets, and then enjoyed delicious banana nut muffins cooked over the fire from Meijers. I still have a scar on my finger from the one time I remember making breakfast while camping, so I decided to go with a safer option! After devouring these muffins, we took a little walk around the campgrounds. We were drawn to a jumping pillow [never heard of it prior to this weekend] and saw a handful of kids jumping on it. We walked over intrigued, but I assumed it was a kids only kind of thing. As the kids got off and we got closer, a lady said that she had just turned it off, but asked if we wanted to jump because she could easily turn it back on. After some debating back and forth, the next thing we knew we were kangaroos hopping all over that thing!

I didn't have my camera and don't have Chris' near
to get the pic off his, but this is pretty much
the same thing!

After jumping to our hearts calves' content, we headed back to our site. [Sidenote: As we were leaving and she turned it off again, there was a 3-year old and a 13-year old that came over to jump. "Oh, I'm sorry you can't jump. I've already turned it off!" I felt bad that she turned it back on for us but denied the ones it was likely designed for!] We played several games of Crazy 8 Countdown and then decided weren't really hungry enough to build a fire to cook lunch and both of us were more than ready not to sit in a pool of our own sweat so we would go ahead and pack everything up.

Chris won all but one game of Crazy 8 Countdown.
I let him win since this was kind of like
his birthday celebration. ;)

 After a quick tear down of our campsite and packing of the car, we were homeward bound. In the air conditioning! It felt ah-mazing! Since we returned to Lima early enough in the afternoon [church was actually just getting out as we drove by] we decided to head to the mall to check a couple things out.

On Friday, my momma-cita had asked me to pick up her eyeglasses from JCPenney's and in doing so I saw a "gazebo" [canopy] discounted up on the second floor. Chris and I had talked about wanting to make our back yard a little more livable and have plans in the works for what we want to do to it next summer, but this gazebo seemed like a good option for now! So I looked at it a bit and did some online review research when I got home. Then when our mail came Friday we received a coupon for JCPenney's for 20% off if you used your JCP Credit Card and 15% anything else. Every have a feeling that a sale was made just for you! Yeah, I was feeling that way. So this is what we were going to check out and see if Chris thought it was as much of a good deal as I did!

He agreed.

At checkout they asked if I had a JCP Credit Card, which I did from when I purchased all our bridal parties' attire there over 2 years ago, but I was pretty confident that it had since been cancelled. I am glad that it had because my re-opening it, we were able to save another 10%. We left we our new gazebo canopy saving $398 overall! Cha-ching!

It only took about an hour to set it all up and now we have our own little backyard oasis. Okay not really but we have a back patio that we will actually use! It doesn't fit perfectly this year, but after our planned renovations next year, it'll fit much better!

Back Patio Before

Back Patio After
It has a mosquito netting that can be pulled around it.

Now I have a bit more motivation to pull all the weeds back there so we'll see how that goes!

So in additional to learning quite a bit about the birthing process, having a great getaway time with Mister, and bettering our home a bit I was also able to cross 3 things off my 101 in 1001 list.

40. Plan a surprise get-away with/for Chris.

57. Carve my name initials on a tree.

60. Go camping--somewhere other than our backyard. 

The bad news is I had to start over for Goal #21 even though I was on day 11 of 14. Drats!!

Easy as Pie

I'm crossing another goal off the ol' list, and oddly enough it's another food goal. [It seems like those are the only goals I'm checking off right now, but that will soon changed this weekend, so hold tight.

Goal Accomplished: 7. Make a pie from scratch.

When I ran to the grocery store to pick up some odds and ends for this weekend, I decided to go ahead and get some on-sale-peaches to make my first ever pie from scratch. I almost bought pie filling, but decided that's cheating a bit.

I started out making the crust using a recipe in a Betty Crocker cookbook and did great with that until I got to the last ingredient: buttercream. Crap. I don't even know what that is, let alone have it in my house. Luckily for me, on the back cover there's a list of ways to make emergency substitutions. For buttercream it said to add lemon juice or vinegar to milk and let it sit for 5 minutes, then use as buttercream. End result: buttercream must be synonymous for chunky milk. :S

Crust was done and rolled our so I began cutting up the peaches [I also found the peach pie recipe in the same Betty Crocker cookbook.] Peaches are one of those fruits that I can't really figure out. Trying to slice them up and easily remove them from the pit is nearly impossible for me. I've only successfully done this twice! After staring at the peach and trying to figure out if you are supposed to peel them for a pie, I finally got all the peaches sliced up, and peeled. :) Only two slices fell to casualties flying across the kitchen as I battled the pits!

Crust ready & peaches sliced.

After completing the filling and spooning it on the crust, I made a lattice top and popped it into the oven. Forty-five minutes later and with twelve minutes to spare before I needed to be at spin class, my first ever [peach] pie made from scratch was complete.

Baked & Ready to Indulge!

Now I must wait until Chris gets home from work so we can try enjoy a slice a la mode!

Nursery? Check!

Yesterday we marked a big check on our baby-to-do list! And besides ordering our breast pump [back order on Amazon] and car seat base, I *think* it was the last thing to do! I don't have any other projects in mind at this point, so we may be done here! Of course if I spend too much time in the coming days browsing other websites I may find quite a bit to do in the next 6 weeks! [Yep, that's right, 6 weeks from today is our due date! It'll be here like *flash* that! Chris just said last week that he's ready to "get this thing started and for the baby to just be here"! :) ]

Back to the nursery. Because our little one is modest stubborn and we don't know if we have an Ainsley or a Jacoby in the works, it was much more difficult for us to decide what we wanted to do with the nursery. Add to that the fact that I am frugal and slowly things just kind of came about. The room was already painted tan--gender neutral check--from the previous owner so we left that alone.

Here's the first wall; the hand-me-down wall. We've got 2 dressers from my parents garage, a piece of photography that Chris took [it's actually just still hanging in there and has nothing to do with the nursery :) ] and a $6 clock my 'rents and I found on sale at Menard's. I actually debated quite a bit if I wanted the clock even though I liked the design. I wasn't sure if I'd want to know what time it was in the middle of the night while in the nursery! Dad convinced me that I wouldn't be able to read it without the light on anyways, so I didn't have to know! :) Between the two dressers is a cradle that will eventually go into our bedroom when I get that cleaned up and reorganized. It has been in my dad's fam for decades. My grandpa and his siblings, my dad and his siblings, and nearly all of my Clum cousins and my siblings have slept in this cradle over the years. For the sentimental value of it, I'm really excited for Baby Massie to rock to sleep the very same way that his/her Great-Grandpa Clum rocked many, many moons prior.

The short dresser has a changing pad on it,
and a basket of newborn diaps that a friend's babe
never needed.

Passed down cradle.
I was going to make mini-crib sheets for this,
but a package of gifted receiving blankets was
just the perfect size!

Heading around to the next wall, which is pretty boring, we have a lamp with a shade from IKEA [that I've had wrapped up for two years] and a brown suede ottoman from Ollie's that's already filled with toys and books. I was going to make one of these, and then I could only find black so I was going to make a brown cover for it, then I went back to the store and they had a huge stack of brown ones already there! I decided for less than ten bucks I couldn't make one better! Under the window there's also a rocking chair than was my Great-Grandma Mac's. Thankfully she was short too, so the seat is low to the ground! Perfect for my short legs! :) Currently hanging out in the chair is the pillow and elephant that I made and have a much better picture of here!

Window Wall.
Sorry for the crappy cellphone picture. The sun coming
through the window when I took it with my other
camera made everything else nearly impossible to see.

IKEA Lamp shade. Top left.

The next wall is the crib wall, which is one of my favorites. :) Instead of a mobile, I made some colorful tissue pom-poms to suspend from the one corner. Then of course is our crib with the crib sheets and skirt that I made. [Both crib sheets are layered on the crib with waterproof pads in between. We're ready for those middle of the night explosions! :) Above the crib is some wall art that I made. This is one of my favorite two things about the room! I debated and debated, searched and searched, picked up and put down tons of ideas and supplies for the wall art, but then ended up making this project in my head. For less than $15 and some creative juices, they were complete! I love 'em!

Here's where we added our big pops of color!

Close up of wall art.
It's difficult to tell from the picture, but the animals
stand off from the canvas due to the use of foam board
and then the elephant's ear sticks out a lil' more as well. 

Believe it or not, there is a method to
that organizational madness!

The last wall is the wall with the closet. A quick peak inside the closet shows the dozen or so outfits that the lil' one has waiting as well as lots of other supplies. We still haven't cleared all our stuff--Chris' shoes, old t-shirts and a couple storage tubs--out of the closet, but once we do, it won't look so stuffed. As of this point, we don't need a ton of closet hanging space since there aren't too many gender neutral clothes out there anyways. I'm sure the clothing department will be made up for in the coming weeks after Baby Massie's arrival!

We also have over 30 bottles of baby wash/lotion/oil/etc. stocked up on the shelves all completely free due to couponing! This was a deal I don't think I've ever mentioned on here because it was prior to the world knowing that we were expecting! :) The stash of baby wipes is pretty good as well, but those weren't free! :)



And now for my other favorite part. From the very beginning of "nursery talk", Chris and I discussed doing some sort of painting or such on one of the walls. We didn't know what, but we wanted something. Well after not know exactly what and not 100% confident in our artistic abilities, I began looking at various websites for vinyl wall decals. This is what we ended up going with! We know how to use stickers! :) After searching and searching, we found a colorful, geometric-ish tree that we really liked so then I began the search for the best deal! That lead us to tangtrade.com. Think Asian ebay. I was a bit leery about placing an order through them, but I've wasted money in a lot dumber ways so I went ahead. Now because our lil' package was coming Hong Kong it took nearly 3 weeks to arrive [a week longer than expected], but overall it was no biggie! On Saturday I had to go to the post office to sign off on the package, so yesterday we put it up!

We decided to put it on the closet doors to add color there are well. Less than an hour of putting up stickers and for $15 we completed the "final" nursery project! And we both love the fun that it brings to everything!

33 weeks and 6 days pregnant!

So there you have it! The drawn out tour of our little nursery! A big ol' check off the list and now all we need is a baby bundle to fill it hopefully in 5 weeks! [We're going to start having some conversations about coming a week early! ;) ]

Oh baby!

So with just over 6 weeks--holy moly that's like tomorrow!-- until our due date, I figure I could write up a post about my pregnancy thus far. So where to start?! How about the very beginning! [Considered yourself warned this will likely be a long post, but I'll try not to get excessive! :) ]

Thursday, December 16th, 2010
At our weekly girls night get together on this particular day, we all spent the evening at our house. In conversation, I mentioned that I had read that day on Facebook a pregnancy announcement of a mutual friend of Sarah and me. From there the question quickly switched to "my period update". With this group of ladies, there is no shame and anything is game when it comes to conversation! So Sarah asked about my timing and it was at that point that I realize that I was "supposed" to start the previous Monday. I was 4 days late. While she wanted me to take a pregnancy test right then and there, I dismissed such urgency because I was 2 days late in November and that was a bit devastating to Chris and I when I ended up getting my visit from Aunt Flo.

So I dismissed the idea with the girls, but of course it was the back of my mind the entire night and the next morning! So when I woke for school in the morning [this was the last day before Christmas break] I got into the hall closet and pulled out a pregnancy test. Quietly opening the package, careful not to wake Chris, I took the test... It wasn't but a few seconds and it read POSITIVE! I was the quietest giddy person that morning! As routine, I gave Chris a good-bye kiss and was out the door. [Note I hid the positive test in my underwear drawer and left the box/wrapper in the hall closest as if it had never been opened. :) ]

Luckily that day at school was an early release because it was  very difficult impossible to focus! In addition to dreaming about the lil' one I had just "discovered" growing inside of me, I thought about how/when I would share such awesome news with Chris. I decided that I'd wait until Christmas morning. 8. long. days. Oddly enough that night my wonderful niece Sondra stayed the night with us to go to OG's breakfast with Santa the next morning and it was more difficult than one can imagine not to tell her. Obviously it's a big secret to keep, but for whatever reason, I just so desperately wanted to share the news with a 3 1/2 year old. [Obviously I didn't. My logic overruled and I knew if I told her there'd be no chance it'd be a secret. Although I did rationalize that I'd be able to dismiss Sondra as making up one of her stories if she did call me out on it!]

So that's how it all began. Well that's how I found out about everything in the beginning. I promise I won't describe every other day of my pregnancy in such detail! :)

Looking back over the last 7 months if there is one thing I can say about my pregnancy, I would say that it is nothing like I'd imagine it would be. I expected mornings full of sickness and days full of aches, pains, and cravings! Let's not forget swollen kankles and a miserable summer [that's pretty the first thing everyone "warned" me about after telling them of our August due date]. I have had none of it. Not a morning--or afternoon or evening--of sickness. Not any more aches or pains than an average person--usually if I did have any, it was due to spin or running! No cravings--although some assume that I have pickle cravings, but I just really like pickles even pre-pregnancy! I intentionally eat less pickles now that I am pregnant so that I don't have to hear the "Oh give the preggo lady a pickle" conversation! This summer hasn't been miserable, although we did "break down" and turn our air on on July 3rd! And I don't have any kankles! Oh, and I always have to pee so that is nothing new to me. I've known where every store's bathroom is and the best place to stop along the side of the road anywhere this side of the Mississippi! Commonly I tell people that if my pants weren't getting tighter, and recently if I didn't have to hold my breath to tie my shoes, I wouldn't even know I was pregnant!

Hormones are another thing that I was "warned" about, but I don't think they've been too bad. Maybe because I can be moody to begin with. :) If you throw out the Sunday morning that nothing fit right and my hair didn't do a thing I wanted it to so I sent Chris on to Sunday School without me and I started my morning over with a shower and yet a different set of clothes and if you throw out just the other night when I was a bit weepy over the possibility of having a boy because I don't know anything about teaching them not to play with themselves [just being honest], I haven't really noticed much out of the usual. Don't worry, I admitted last night that it's just fine if we have a boy, I just had to express my fear to Chris!

What I have had this pregnancy is an amazing experience. I am more regularly active than I was a year ago today and despite having a healthy weight gain, I'm only a few more pounds heavier than I was last summer. Additionally as amazing as it was for Chris to feel our lil' one for the first time the day before Easter and for my momma-cita to finally get a feel of her newest grandchild just a couple of weeks ago, getting to feel the baby move inside of me is one of the neatest, weirdest, most awesome-est feelings ever! Just the other night I mentioned to Mister how much I'm going to miss feeling the baby move about inside of me!

Furthermore I've been amazed at my body. Each week--or nearly each week when I'm on time-- I give Chris something that represents the current weight/length of our lil' one. This is how I initially told Chris the baby's size and I've continued it pretty much throughout. It's baffling when I hold a 14 inch cucumber or hold a 2.5 pound butternut squash next to my stomach and imagine a baby, a real life baby that size somehow inside of me growing longer and heavier every day. [At 31 weeks that baby is "supposed" to weigh 3.3 lbs., but ours weighed in at 4.1 or it's made it a bit difficult to have accurate coordinating visuals since knowing that!] Even more as I've read a few pregnancy/birth books, it is absolutely fascinating to learn what my body is truly doing and the gradual adjustments that are, in most cases, unknowingly occurring to prepare for the birth of this lil' one. I guess God knew what He was doing, eh?! :)

Overall I've made it my goal to not allow pregnancy to be an excuse. It's not an excuse to eat twice as much. It's not an excuse to be a hag. And it's not a handicap that necessitates everyone to be at my beckon call! It's a wonderful experience and this particular great pregnancy experience, I hope to have for many babies to come! ;)

Honkin' Truck Drivers

There is certainly something I don't understand when it comes to truck drivers and I am hoping that someone can enlighten me as to what is going on!

Nearly everytime that I drive on the interstate [more than just a few miles], I get honked at! No it's not flattery and no I am not that crazy woman cutting you off. If either were the case, I wouldn't be so baffled! I honestly can't figure it out. It happens when I am in the left lane and there is a semi in the right lane. I commonly get a single toot as I slowly pass it.

Here's the reasons I've come up with:

1. I have been on my cell phone. While this isn't always the case, probably 25% of the time it was so I thought that perhaps this was the driver's way of saying "Yo! Lady! Get off your phone and pay attention to the road!!"

2. My tire is flat. I left the gas tank open. My head/tail light is burnt out. Or something of the sorts. This is what I commonly think is going on because it's very Rachel-ish, but I continue driving for the next several miles paranoid and looking around! It's not the case though.

3. I have invisible ink visible to only truck drivers on the top of my car that says "Honk at me, please!" This is the more realistic of the three options, because it's the only one that I can't disprove.

Nevertheless probably half the time I am on the interstate for more than a few miles, I'll have at least one trucker honk at me as I pass them. It drives me bonkers! I then spend the next few miles having the conversation in my head that I just had here! [This happened again this afternoon after dropping my lil' bro off at Country Concert, so that's why it's fresh in my mind again!]

So any suggestions? What's going on? Am I just crazy?!

#9 Freeze ten meals before the arrival of our first child.

Today I spent all the majority of the day in the kitchen, but I was able to practically knock out another goal for my 101 in 1001.

Goal #9: Freeze ten meals before the arrival of our first child.

The reason for this goal may seem obvious, and the obvious reason is my reason for it. I don't know much about what it takes to be a mom, but I do know that it will take a lot timewise, especially the first few weeks. The hope is that we can have meals ready in the freezer so we can focus our attention on our lil' babe versus answering the ever-so-common question of "What's for supper?!"
Now I say that I practically knocked this goal out because I am not 100% sure that I made ten meals. I certainly didn't make ten different things, but I think that it's enough to last us over ten meals. :)

First off last night to jumpstart this project, I cooked 4 unnaturally large split-chicken breast and picked the meat off them. This was the most disgusting process and I recognize why my momma-cita is a vegetarian! Meat is gross! Chris also helped me chop up some onions and peppers that would be used in today's recipes.

Cookin' Chicken--Those white chunks are onions.
We added some "pizzazz" to our meat!

Anyways without further ado, here's the food that is now occupying our deep freeze:

Chicken Roll-Ups 2 meals
This was the last thing that I made this afternoon, so conveniently Chris and I ate a couple before freezing the rest for future meals. At least we know they are tasty! And boy were they tasty!!


All rolled up. Pre-cooked.


Inside the crescent rolls is a shredded chicken, cream cheese, mozzarella cheese mixture that has some salt, pepper, and some other seasoning off the spice rack that "looked right". [In case you didn't know, I'm no chef!]

After lupper [lunch/supper]--that's what we have on Wednesdays because Chris has 2-4pm off between jobs--I was able to freeze 11 roll-ups for future meals. I'd say that's easily 2 meals or more, especially if we eat something else with them.


Chicken Spaghetti 2 meals
This is a chicken and spaghetti--profound I know--combination with cheese, cream of mushroom soup, onions, and peppers. Furthermore I used whole wheat pasta because I don't really care for it so I'm hoping in "casserole" form that wheaty taste will be masked a bit more. Overall it reminds me a lot of turkey tetrazzini that was served a lot in college, we'll just hope it's a little more flavorful!

All ready for the oven freezer!
Two pans for "four" servings.

Meatballs ? meals [32 meatballs]

When reading through a few websites looking for recipes for freezer meals, meatballs was one thing that popped up quite a bit. Now in and of themselves, they aren't really a meal, but since they can be easily added to other simple ingredients--pasta & sauce or a bun?--most sites suggested having them in the freezer.

When I mentioned to Chris last night that meatballs is one of the things I'd be making, he inquired, "Have you ever made them before?!" To which I of course answered "Nope, but I'll eat them!" "Oh, okay because my mom has made them and they don't always turn out." [Sorry Nancy!]

Well because I've never made them before and the recipe suggested making them in a skillet, I went ahead with that method and consequently burnt 10 of them. So instead of burning cooking the rest in the same manner, I heated up the oven and baked the rest. I didn't take a picture of the "good" not carbon-coated ones, but they looked much better!

Carbon-coated Meatballs.
I ate one eventually and it was pretty good
despite its darkened exterior! :)

Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas 3 meals [13 enchiladas]

Usually when I am looking for recipes to cook, I'm drawn towards Mexican. Now I don't particularly like spicy, hot Mexican--especially the last few weeks everything seems hotter than it was previously--but I do enjoy Mexican in general. So when I came across the "recipe" for enchiladas.

This recipe consisted of shredded chicken, black beans, enchilada sauce, onions, red peppers, and cheese. I wrapped them in foil with 2 per foil to be able to "portion control" later on. I'm hoping these are delish, because I'm certainly looking forward to them!

Chiptole-style wrapping with enchilada filling.

"Chicken" Parmesan Meatloaf 1 meal, with leftovers :)

Just like I've never made meatballs before, I've never made meatloaf before either, but I went ahead and gave this recipe a try because the picture looked delicious and anything chicken Parmesan has to be great right?! [I put chicken in quotes because I actually used ground turkey to make it instead of ground chicken. It was cheaper!

After making it, I put it in a silicone foil-lined loaf pan and froze it for a while until it held its shape. Then I took it out and put it in a Ziploc bag to store in the freezer.

I didn't take a pic of this because it was just a raw meat mixture that didn't look so good, but I'm sure once it's baked and covered in sauce/cheese, it will be picture worthy.

BBQ Chicken Pasta 2 meals

The last meals to mention are actually the ones that I made first. If you followed the link in the meal listing, you'll see that the recipe isn't super clear. I am not 100% sure what this meal is supposed to be like. I don't know if it is a sauce or more of a bake, so it will be interesting when it's time to cook it. I just made the BBQ chicken part, not that pasta, and it's kind of an odd consistency. Not real thick, but also not really sauce-like. My thoughts are when its eatin' time to  just cook some pasta and then put the BBQ Chicken concoction overtop it and bake. We shall see. :)

So there we have it: 10ish meals plus the meatballs in the freezer before the arrival of our first child. It was fun to make so much in one day--even though a bit odd not to eat what I made--and I'm sure I'll be making some more in the near future. We'll see if we can avoid eating these meals until after the arrival of our babe. That'll be the real challenge!!

#11 Accomplished.

Yesterday I was able to officially mark off one of my 101 goals! It wasn't too difficult so it doesn't demand a long post, but I have successfully done the following:

11. Eat an entire bag of popcorn, one kernal at a time.

It took me 27 minutes and spitting out second pieces that I discovered sticking together after they were in my mouth a couple of times, but I did it. :) I also did a little double-dipping as I read Jane Eyre as a part of Goal #45 as I ate the bowl, kernal by kernal.

Why did I put this as a goal, or waste your time telling you about it?! I'm the kind of gal that enjoys a large--thinking the biggest sized mixing bowl and then make it a little bigger!--bowl of popcorn and usually when I eat it, I grab a handful at a time and continually shovel it in. This goal caused me to slow down a bit--which I am not usually too fond of--and actually enjoy each morsel. :)

So there you have it, first simple goal accomplished and I am currently working on several others!