Hotlanta!

You thought we were done travelling? No way! We spent this past weekend visiting Candy, Marion and Ash in Atlanta. I thought it was hot in Chicago, but holy moly that was some heat down there! We had a great time together eating, shopping, visiting with friends and generally soaking up every minute of time we had together! I only took a few pictures (on my iPhone, so they aren't the best quality!)


For those of you bugging me to see the baby bump mountain... sorry, these pics don't really show off my curves!

Sisters!

We saved a seat for Allie :)

Cute couple at dinner

Cute not-couple at dinner :)

Rick had a mock-bday celebration at the Hibachi restaurant. Just cuz Mike Voticky isn't around, doesn't mean we don't get to embarrass someone!

Now that we're home, I've been busy at school setting up my classroom and finishing up the last few house projects that I've wanted to complete this summer (window treatments!!) I'll post pictures of both when they're complete.

I also had my 24 week doctor's appointment today and everything looked great. Baby is measuring on target and the doc had no concerns. I only have a few weeks left in my second trimester, which is so hard to believe. I'm going to try to make the best of every burst of energy I have and get things done before the third trimester slump hits!

Baby Stuff!

This weekend I'll be 24 weeks pregnant. 6 months!! It's so crazy to think that in nearly 100 days, our little peanut will be here. As many of you know, I'm a bit of a control freak/anxiety-ridden over-planner. Needless to say, I think my craziness has come in handy as a pregnant lady. You really have to think ahead when you're having a baby. Did you know it can take 3 months to receive a crib or rocking chair after ordering it?? And, all the cute bedding is back ordered until September! Well, good thing this mama has some time on her hands...and control issues :)

A few weeks ago, Mama and Papa so graciously bought Baby M his crib and dresser. The little guy isn't even here yet and he's already spoiled rotten! He's one lucky duck to be part of this family... he has no idea how much he is loved already. Here's what the crib will look like, even though it won't arrive until October:

Nanny and Pop Pop (aka Lynne and Jim) also overdid themselves and granted our wish of a brand new rocking chair to put in the nursery. It looks something like this (though we ordered it with a gray cushion, not pink!) We know we will be spending many hours rocking the little guy in this glider, and we'll think of Nanny and Pop Pop each time we do.

 

Finally, I recently ordered Julio's bedding along with a matching valance for the window and changing pad cover. I really struggled to find something that I loved. I'm not into animal/sports/tree themes, and I felt like blue is so predictable. While green isn't necessary unique or cutting edge, it felt a little different to me and this set screamed "masculinely shabby chic." (Yup, I just invented the word masculinely). I'm excited to see it all come together, and will obviously share the final results as soon as it's complete!

In the meantime, I'm preparing myself and our house for the influx of "stuff" we are about to acquire. You have no idea how many baby products there are today that "you can't live without!" Luckily for me, I have a sister who has been down this road before and is more than willing to guide me through the overwhelming list of things to buy and let me borrow the ones I'm just not sure I want to commit to.

Fancy's hosting a shower for me next weekend. Yes, she already has the house decorated, menu set, and I actually think she's waiting at the airport right now for our arrival next Thursday :) I am beyond excited to celebrate this little baby and spend some quality time with friends and family in the scorching 110 degree weather :) I am embracing the inevitable Baby Stuff Storm 2011 and have to admit, I'm a bit giddy about it. Whoa, baby!

Camera Dump

To say this summer has been a whirlwind would be an understatement! Of the last five weekends, we have been out of town for four of them. We are also going to Atlanta this weekend, and I'm off to Austin the following weekend so Julio's traveling adventures are by no means over yet! The best part is that I love traveling. I love seeing new places and old friends, I love the feeling of coming home at the end of a trip, and I am so grateful we get to do so much of it!

Needless to say, I haven't posted pictures in a little while so I figured I'd do a camera dump and lay it all out there.

To start, my mom, Rick and I spent most of June clearing out our house of all the junk we've collected. We then repainted the entire upstairs, the baby's room, added a door to make an official guest room of our former office, and fixed some other mishaps around the house. There's not much to show of the work because I didn't take any "before" pics to compare... however, I think the most noticeable and exciting part of the makeover upstairs is our new accent wall:

Don't mind the pile of towels :)

Here are some pictures from our "babymoon" in Cabo. We really did a whole lot of NOTHING which was our goal for the trip anyway. So most of the pictures are of us lounging, drinking, eating, reading and generally being lazy bums.

The view from our balcony

Lazy mornings in bed

One of the three pools we spent our days at

We really were adventurous and even went to the beach a couple days!

Rick read his book...

And I desperately tried to find a name for Julio

Last weekend, we went up to Lake Geneva to spend the weekend with many of our friends. One of whom, Jacki, has a lake house at which she so kindly let us all crash! Between 12 people and 5 dogs, it was a full house! We ate a ton, played games, soaked up the sunshine and enjoyed the company of good friends.

Doggies were in heaven!

Rick making breakfast for all!

Finally, I must add a couple recipes that have turned out amazingly well! The first is a lightened up version of creamed spinach. It's made with Boursin (or Aloutte) light spreadable cheese and was so simply delicious!

Creamed Spinach - Lightened Up
Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes
Servings: 8 • Serving Size: 2/3 cup • Old Points: 2 pts • Points+: 3 pts
Calories: 95.8 • Fat: 4.9 g • Protein: 5.9 g • Carb: 8.2 g • Fiber: 1.8 g 

• 2 tsp butter
• 1/2 cup shallots, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 cups fat free milk
• 2 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp fresh pepper
• salt to taste
• 4.4 oz Boursin Light
• 16 oz bag frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained of all moisture

In a large saute pan, melt butter. Add shallots and garlic and cook on medium about 5 minutes. Add flour to shallots, mix well and cook one more minute. Reduce heat to low and slowly add milk, whisking well. Add parmesan cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix well. Add boursin light and mix with until smooth. Add spinach and combine well with sauce, cook one minute, until heated through. Adjust salt and pepper if necessary. Makes 6 1/2 cups.

Then there's this:

Tomorrow night is one of my book club nights (yes, I belong to TWO book clubs! Nerd alert!) This book club is all my teacher friends from Hoffman who like to use "reading" as an excuse to get together to eat and drink. We usually do appetizers and desserts, and I wanted to take a stab at homemade, from-scratch pie. So, I figured this was the perfect opportunity. This is Martha Stewart's Peach-Raspberry pie recipe. The dough and pie filling were both so simple -- which I love. I love that sometimes the best tasting (and looking) things come from a simple list of four or five ingredients. I used all organic products for this one and from the looks of it... I think it turned out just peachy :)

Click here if you want the recipe.

And, finally, while my summer days have been full of cooking and baking, cleaning and errands, they've also been full of a very fluffy and very sweet companion. I never thought I'd enjoy so much  the time I have spent with this one:

She and I had a rough start last summer. It's amazing what a year can do to a little pup and her stressed out mom! Maizey has grown up a lot this summer and I've really enjoyed our daily walks together and afternoon snuggles. She's a great help in the kitchen, too! We have been working all summer long on getting rid of her crate so she can roam the house when we leave her alone. While we've had a few sad casualties (like my brand new gold wedges and a few of our baseboards) she has learned quickly (thanks to bitter apple spray!) and the crate has officially been disassembled for a week or so now! I can't lie... my heart pounds a little excessively as I come home. I never know if I'll find paper torn to shreds on the carpet or her laying on the couch. So far, we are very proud of our first baby!

I can not get over how fast this summer has flown by. It has been one of absolute balance. The perfect amount of work and play, laziness and productivity.  I still have a couple weeks left before the first day of school, and I plan to soak every minute of them up until that first bell rings!

Comfort Cooking... and Eating

It's gloomy out today. Rainy, humid and dark gray skies have parked themselves over Chicago. Days like today call for cozy blankets and good books, and baking of course.

We are headed up to the lake tomorrow with friends for the weekend. I thought this was the perfect excuse to try a new recipe I found. You see, Rick's all time favorite food combination is peanut butter and chocolate. So I'm always on the hunt for something new to make involving the two ingredients. This one is a Cooking Light recipe (I know.. crazy!) and can be found here with detailed pictures and directions. The basic recipe is below.


Ooey-Gooey Peanut-Butter Brownies
Recipe from Cooking Light, Sept. 2010 

3/4 C sweetened condensed milk, divided (fat-free is fine)
1/4 C butter, melted and cooled (1/2 stick)
1/4 C non-fat milk
1  box devil’s food cake mix (18.25 oz)
1 large egg white, lightly beaten
cooking spray
1 7 oz jar marshmallow creme (about 1 3/4 C)
1/2 C peanut butter morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With an electric mixer, combine 1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk, milk, butter, cake mix, and egg white.  Mixture will be very thick.  Spray 9×13 pan with cooking spray.  Press 2/3 of the mixture into the bottom of the pan.  Use either floured hands, or spray your hands with cooking spray in order to press it down without having it stick to your fingers.  The layer will be thin.  Bake for 10 minutes.

Combine 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk and marshmallow creme in a bowl and combine until smooth.  Stir in PB morsels.  No one will tell if you stir in some extras.  Spread marshmallow layer over brownie layer in pan.  Carefully drop remaining brownie batter by spoonfuls over marshmallow mixture.  Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes.  (The original recipe calls for 30 minutes, but many readers have noted that 20 minutes was perfect, and I usually only bake for about 20-25).  Remove from oven and cool before cutting into squares.


Here's how mine turned out. We'll see what the verdict is on taste this weekend!

And for dinner tonight, we're having Low Fat Spinach Baked Ziti from my favorite cooking blog. Sometimes, you just need some comfort food... and why not try to cut the calories in half??

www.skinnytaste.com

Julio's Mexican Adventure

We just got back from a most relaxing getaway to Cabo! It was the perfect escape, and though it was HOT, we spent most of the day, every day, in the pool. There was a lot of lounging, reading, spa-ing, and talking. We went to Mexico with a couple goals and came home very pleased with our success!

Goal #1: Agree on at least a couple of names for baby. While Rick and I have a LONG list of names we are luke warm about, we were really struggling to find a name we both loved. Well, we left Cabo yesterday with two solid options, and like I told Rick, I kind of have a feeling we won't actually know what we want to name our little peanut until he arrives.

Goal #2: Relax. We are about to embark on a whirlwind of an adventure, and we both know that carefree vacations are going to be hard to come by in the future. Our purpose of this trip was really to just spend time with each other and do absolutely nothing. Mission very accomplished.

We tend to think of ourselves as overachievers, so it shouldn't be surprising that we came home accomplishing more than we set out to do! 1) Rick felt the baby move for the first time, 2) I came home with a nice golden hue and 3) Rick didn't burn to a crisp! I think we finally found the right sunscreen for our Casper... thank heavens!

All in all, it was the perfect retreat, but we were both embarrassingly excited to come home last night... we really missed Maizey and the comfort of our own bed and shower. There really is no place like home.

Oh... who's Julio you ask?? Well, since dining out at Uncle Julio's the evening we found out Baby M was going to play football for Michigan instead of cheerlead, we've been referring to the little guy as Julio. Though Mama calls him Junior and Adrienne still calls him Poppy, and Fancy changes her name every week depending on what vegetable size the baby is measuring at (this week -- spaghetti squash!) We really don't have a "womb" name, so feel free to call him whatever you want. :)

We have a VERY busy few weeks ahead of us full of travels and plans so I'm off to catch up on laundry and cleaning and errands... oh my!

Clearing Out and Getting Crafty!

Yesterday, Rick and I held a garage sale to get rid of the years worth of stuff we had piled up in our storage spaces, closets and hiding in corners. Believe it or not, we had a lot to get rid of and I have been looking at the enormous junk pile for weeks waiting to sell it, donate it or just plain throw it away. So I woke up motivated and ready to put on my sweet sales-lady smile!

We woke up early to set up the space...

The morning started of pretty busy with a few customers who each bought an item or two. We even had one woman return after leaving initially because she really wanted our laundry hamper... go figure.

To pass the time, Rick and I perused a baby name book and shouted out names to each other across the garage. Each time one of us suggested something, it was usually met with a prompt, "Nah" or "Seriously?" or "bleep NO!" from the other. Once we gave up on that pasttime, I decided to get crafty. I had seen on a website earlier in the week a cute idea for baby closet organizers. Essentially they were expensive dividers to separate baby clothes on the hanging rods of closets. I thought I could totally make those myself, so I went to the craft store, bought some supplies and here's what 6 hours of garage sale monitoring led to:

I plan to use the ribbon to tie it onto the closet rod and hopefully start out with a very organized, very green storage space!

Meanwhile, the sun was blazing and it was a crisp 90-something degrees outside, so by 2:00, Rick and I were both exhausted and so hot we could barely speak to one another. We decided to post an ad on Craigslist advertising that the last hour of our sale would be a free-for-all. Literally... come take whatever you want for FREE! Well, a sweet little family must have read our minds and came by. They were about to have a baby and just bought a new apartment and needed stuff. We helped them load their truck full of everything we had in the garage... seriously they took EVERYTHING! They were so sweet, they didn't want to take it all for free so they gave us a $20 and we thanked them profusely for taking this junk off our hands. Everyone left feeling very accomplished and very happy!

The "After"

All in all, it was as successful as I could have hoped -- my house is now de-cluttered which means my mind is a little less cluttered as well.

Hope everyone's staying cool out there!

Go Blue!

You guessed it... it's a BOY! Rick and I spent the afternoon at the doctor today and we have a perfectly healthy (and kinda stubborn) little boy! He made it tough for the tech to do her job and get all the shots she needed, but in the end it was determined that he is indeed a boy and weighs about 12 ounces right now! Rick screamed and shouted, and I cried... par for the course.

We came home to feed the pup, and Rick poured himself a cocktail to toast to the next Michigan quarterback (and the first ever vertically-challenged, Jewish one for that matter)...

We then headed out to dinner (baby was hungry!) On our way, we stopped at Target to buy baby boy his first outfit...

This morning, Rick and I decided that if it turned out to be a girl, we would go to dinner at an Italian restaurant called Rose Angelis. If it was a boy, we'd do Mexican at Uncle Julio's. All day, Rick kept telling me, "I really, truly don't care if it's a boy or girl... but I'm soo craving Mexican!" Low and behold, he got his queso and cerveza! We enjoyed a very giddy dinner out talking about baby names and the adventures of parenting a boy...

And when we came home from dinner, we were surprised to find a little package at the door waiting for us...

And inside we found the sweetest card, beautiful flowers and my most favorite cupcakes in all of Chicago (with blue frosting, of course!)

 We are so lucky to have such thoughtful and caring friends who are just as excited about the beginning of our new family as we are. Thank you, Adrienne and Chris for satisfying our sweet tooth and loving us so much.

Yay for little boys!