Home Made Marshmallows

This week I tried my hand at making marshmallows! It was pretty easy, considering the end result. They pared with hot chocolate just as well as you may imagine. Eating them out of the bag was just as good! :)

The only thing I recommend is having a stand mixer. You can do it with a hand mixer, but the mixing time is 12 MINUTES!!! So it may be a little hard on you're hand mixer.

Here we go....

• Nonstick cooking spray
• 3 (1/4-ounce) packages unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2/3 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (or more if you like)
• Corn Starch, and Confectioners' sugar, sifted, for coating (I did a cup of each)
• 
  
• Prep...
• Take a 9X9 inch pan (or 9X13 depending on how big you want them) and coat it with cooking spray. Then take you're parchment paper, and line the pan so that the edges go up the the rim of the pan. Coat the paper with cooking spray too.
• 
  
• Like this...

After that, take your gelatin packets, and cold water, and combine them in a bowl. Now ideally this will be you're stand mixer bowl, but if you're not using one, a regular mixing bowl is just fine.

Then in a heavy medium saucepan, combine you're sugar, corn syrup, and 1/4 cup of water, and turn you're heat on med/high. With a wire whisk, stir to make sure all is incorporated, so your dry sugar doesn't burn. Stir it even couple of minuets until it boils. Now, I didn't have a candy thermometer, but you're goal is a 230-240 degree boil. This is a really hard boil, and should take you about 9 minutes to achieve this boil. Don't let it burn!! This means not walking away from it at all!!

Once it has reached that hard boil, let it boil for appox. 1 minute. Then add you're salt, and take you're pan to you're mixer, and pour the molten sugar into you're mixing bowl. With your whisk attached to the mixer, turn it on low. I draped a kitchen towel around my Kitchen Aid so it didn't spatter all over my kitchen.

Once it has combine, flip it into over drive!! Turn you're mixer on it's highest setting, and set you're timer for 12 minutes. YES, 12 MINUTES!

When it's done, it will be cooled enough to touch. Remover the bowl from the mixer, and pour into you're greased pan. Take a greased spatula, and smooth it out. Cover it with cling wrap and put it aside for 4 hours, or until it's set and completely cooled.

The next part is up to you. I flipped the pan and let it fall onto a powdered working surface, and dusted the top, and a pizza cutter with my corn starch/ powdered sugar mixture. At this point you could use cookie cutters. Then I proceeded to cut rows, then cubes. I then threw them into a bowl with the dusting mixture, and then a zip lock baggy. They will keep for 3 weeks.

My plan, when I make them again is to pour half of the "dough" into the greased pan. Then make a mixture of red food coloring, and peppermint extract, and drizzle that over whats in the pan. Then pour the remainder of the "dough" on top of the drizzle. Then take a butter knife and swirl it in the pan, to make a candy cane looking treat.

I would really like to give these to a few neighbors inviting them to the Christmas Eve service. We'll see. :)

Enjoy!!

NOTE: Because of the nature of the REALLY REALLY hot sugar, I would suggest you wait to make these until the kids are asleep!

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CVS Couponing Trip

Okay, so while the rest of the drugstores were having a pretty boring week, CVS was pretty good!! I guess it's all in what your looking for.

They were having a sale on Air Wick products. Originally the couponing web sites were saying that product that was on sale for $7.99, then a $4 off, which is pretty good. But then on top of that, if you spent $20 on that product, you got 10 ECB's back. That made the deal even better.

When the circular came around, people were discovering that a) the ECB deal worked for the $4.99 Air Wick kit, b) also the $4 off coupon worked for the 4.99 Air Wick kit, and c) if you bought 4, even though it only rings up to 19.96 it still gave you the ECB's!!! So essentially this could be a money maker of $6.04 after sale, coupons, and ECB's!!

Unfortunately for me, I could only get my hands on 2, but I still got a great deal!!





This is all the stuff I got. Before sales and coupons, it rang up to over $38.




These were the 4 Air Wick products I got.




This was on sale for .99, i had a .75 off coupon making it .24!!!I was so glad that this went on sale because we were out.

So here's the breakdown...

4 Air Wick products at 4.99 = $19.96
-(2)$4 off coupons = $11.96 before tax

Dawn Dish soap at .99
-.75 = .24
For everything = $12.20

-5.99 previous ECB's I had.

My out of pocket cost with tax was $7.83!!

But 10 ECB's printed out on my receipt!!

PLUS- a $4 off 20 coupon printed on my receipt too!!

This also sets me up for an amazing deal next week on diapers where I plan on paying less than $3 a pack!!

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Couponing week 8/14

Couponing this week took a bit of a back seat as Adah was sick, and we went camping with my parents for a couple days. I haven't even finished clipping my coupons yet. :/

And... Unfortunately, I don't have pics of what I got because we tore into it when I got home.

Walgreens... Believe it or not, I have yet to coupon at Walgreens due to the fact that I really wanted to get to know their rewards program. I glad I did, because Walgreens will double their own coupons with manufacturers coupons. The only catch is, you have to have as many items as coupons, i.e. If you want to double a coupon on one item, you have to get another item to even out your coupon/ item ractio. Its REALLY easy to do that right now with all the back to school stuff that is literally pennies rit now.

I'm not going to do a price breakdown because I broke the #1 rule of couponing... NEVER take your kids, this resulted in paying way more and getting Adah a pair of Tinker Bell socks that she didn't need. Oh boy!

Anyhow, Huggies has a new diaper product that is onesale at Walgreens for $9.49 right now, with $2 Register Rewards. But, to make this deal even better, as with most of new products, there is a $3 off coupon out right now, making it essentially $4.49!!

I also got Skippy peanut butter. The price was $3.49 each, but there was an in-ad coupon (2/$4). I also had a $1 off coupon making it $1.50 each. Because you had to buy 2 for the offer to work, I didn't need to get an extra item, but I did. :/

This was a great introductory trip to Walgreens. I really like their rewards program because you don't have to sign up for anything, or remember to bring a card. It just a coupon program.

CVS... I am becoming very aware of CVS's rewards program and Extra Care Bucks, (and cashiers lol!), and am really getting the hang of how to split up the transaction to keep my OOP (out of pocket) really low.

This week there was a really good deal on Revlon Lipstick. They are $6.99 regular price, but you get 5 ECB back. There is also a $1 off coupon making it $.99!! Unfortunately, I only had one coupon, and I would have bought more had I known that it included lip glosses too. :/. So I only got 1.

While in the cosmetics, I found a gem! Cover girl colorstay lipstick for $2.24 clearance. There were a lot to choose from, and I had a cover girl $1 off coupon, making this normally $7.99 lipstick, $1.24!! I didn't know if it would work so I only got one, but I think I may go back with e remaining coupons I have.

I am also finding that the one of the three drugstores will almost always have a deal for a nice razor. Sometimes as low as .99! So I got Jon a schick hypro 3 razor (8.49) for $1.49 with ECBs and coupons.

This weeks was okay, but I didn't have a whole lot of time to prepare for this shopping trips, but still made out pretty good!


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Couponing week 8/7

This is from almost 2 weeks ago, but we have been busy with the Harvest Crusades, Adah being sick, and camping, so I'm am just now posting some of the deals I scored from that week.

So my main objective for this trip was to get Pull-Ups. Adah is just about potty trained, but we were headed to the crusade, and I didn't want to take any chances with accidents while we were away from home.

I had a couple of other things I wanted to get to so this is what I got...



Pampers Easy Ups, renuzit, and Dryers dibs.




This was the best deal I had gotten on diapers. Generally I think think a sale price of about $8.99 is good on diapers. We use to get Adah the big Costco box of diapers, but because she is so close to being fully potty trained, it's not worth it. So when I saw this deal I had to take advantage.
Diapers on sale= $8.99, I had a $2 off coupon, and I got ECBs back.

Final price= $3.99 about 14 cents a diaper.



This was a splurge I was not proud of, but we both wanted ice cream, and it would have cost more if we went somewhere to get it.

Sale price= 3.99




Renuzit, this is why I need to post soon after I go shopping, I cant remember the deal with these, but I do remember they came out to be about 56 cents each. I don't love these types of air fresheners, but I wanted to get something to freshen up our house, so these will do for now.

My bill came out to $7.43 with coupons, and ECBs! Not too shabby!



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Churnin' the Butter

No, your eyes have not deceived you, I am getting 2 blog posts out in 1 day!!

My Mother in-law's birthday was this week, and she is really into very thoughtful gifts. I decided to make her home made butter, and get a really nice loaf of bread from Panera Bread to go with it.
This is making butter in the most modern way imaginable, but it is fun to make your own butter, and I found it to be really really easy. Adah had a great time watching it too!

You will need...

A food processor
1 pint Heavy whipping cream
Cheese cloth
Whatever kind of seasoning you want. (this could be just salt, or you could make a sweet butter with some honey)

Start by emptying the pint of whipping cream into your food processor. If you have a normal sized processor, it will cover the blades. Flip it to the on (not pulse) position, and leave it on for several minutes.



This is the first phase in the cream. It will begin to look like whipped cream. I snagged a little bit to put in a bowl, and mixed it with powdered sugar for Adah and I to dip our strawberries in. YUM!!!




Then it will look like this. Very thick, but it's still not done. You are looking for it to separate. You will know when it does. It will do it all of the sudden, and it will be almost "slushy."

Then take your cheese cloth and drape it over a bowl. Pour the mixture over the bowl, then squeeze out the buttermilk with the cheese cloth into the bowl. Keep the buttermilk for another recipe.

Put the butter in a small airtight container. You can leave it like it is, or mix salt, or anything you want into it.

I didn't get a picture of the finished product. :(

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New Drive

This has been a big week for us. We got a new (to us) car!!! As you can imagine, things have been tight in our 4 door Saturn Ion. We have a double stroller that someone graciously gave us brand new, but we havent been able to use it because it wont fit in our car. We recently took it on vacation up to Morrow bay, and it was really pushing it with al of our stuff and the stroller. We went with my parents who took their trailer, so a majority of our stuff went in it. There was no way we could have done that trip on our own in that car.
So that really got us thinking about a bigger car. We went back and forth about what to get. Most affordable, economical SUVs only have 5 seats. We knew we didn't want that because we wanted to be able to bring people with us on trips and so fourth. A bigger SUV is much more expensive, and cost a small fortune to keep gassed up. Our next thought was a mini-van.
I have always been against getting a mini-van. Jon would often joke about how I was going to eventually drive a mini-van with our kids. I would always say that would never happen. But as we started looking for a car, it would come up as the most practical in space, gas, and price.
Well, last week, never happened because we bought a mini-van, and I'm really happy with it. I understand that for some people, it's not for them, but this is so perfect for our family.



It a 2010 Dodge Caravan




This is the first car both Jon and I have owned that has power windows! Lol!




It also has power sliding doors. This has been a HUGE plus!!!




I folded down the seat so you could see that our ginormous stroller fits with no problem!! With the crusade being next weekend, I am so looking forward to be able to pack what we want and need for the trip, and not just what is a necessity, and have family members bring the rest!

I am feeling so blessed that the Lord provided for us! We had just paid out car off in January, and were hoping to not have a car payment for a while. That didn't happen, but we were able to get our payment lower that our previous car payment was.



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My version of Extememe Couponing

What would your guess be as to how much all this cost me?

First, let me tell you how much it cost before savings

2 small boxes of cheese it's = 4 boxes for $5 on sale
2 small boxes of wheat thins = 4 boxes for $5 on sale
1 box of Kotex $3.49 on sale
1 package of pens $1.99
1 half gallon of milk $ 2.29

Like I said, I have been couponing. In my research of getting good deals I started looking at TheKrazyCouponLady.com. The main driver behind The Krazy Coupon Lady is Joanie Demer. You may remember her on the first episode of Extreme couponing. She is the one who made us all cringe as she went "dumpster diving in that adorable Anthropology jacket. She has a great web site and a book, "Pick Another Checkout Line Honey." I absolutely love her and think she is adorable! I have signed up for her daily email, and get all the great deals spelled out for me.

I also get a daily email from faithfulprovisions.com, and the frugalgirls.com. All of this is so helpful because they do all the match ups for me.

So this week I planned out my CVS trip, and tees he above deals are the deals I got, but because CVS has extra care bucks(ECB), I was really able to keep my out of pocket (OOP)really low.

The whole point with ECB's is to use them, along with coupons to make your OOP to a minimum. They are printed on your receipt so you can't use them on the same transaction.


So this is the breakdown...

I went into the store with $8 ECB from a previous shopping trip so my goal was to keep my OOP really low.

The 4 boxes of crackers were on sale for 4/$5, but I also had a $1 off coupon. It also came with 1 ECB
.75 each

The box of U Kotex was on sale for 3.49. I had a $1 off coupon. It came with 2 ECB.
.49!

The package of pens was 1.99
There was no coupon for these, but I did get $1.99 back in ECB.
Free

1 half gallon of milk was 2.29
Because I had a whole 8 ECB from my last shopping trip, I needed this trip to be big enough to use the whole amount at one time. and we needed milk lol!

So my OOP for all 7 items was $3.19!!! A savings of 72% before sales and coupons!!! I also got 5 more ECB on my receipt!!!

Way Overdue Post

This update is WAY overdue, but I promise with good reason. Having 2 kids has been a HUGE adjustment. I really wasn't ready for this adjustment. I thought it couldn't be harder than it was being on beseech with a 2 year old. HA!!! What the heck was I thinking!!! There have been a few reasons as to why it's been a big adjustment.

Jude has been such a blessing. He is sleeping well, and has been since we brought him home. So that in itself have made things easier. But, Adah has defiantly had some trouble adjusting to a new baby. Not in the way you would think, sibling rivalry is not the problem. The problem is that I don't have her attention as much as before, and she is taking advantage of that. I am always having to be a step ahead of her. She is really smart so this is not an easy task, and it is very tiring! This is also a reason I haven't been blogging as much.

We are also in the midst of potty training. This is a blogpost in itself, but she is doing excellent! I have some pretty hilarious stories too!

I have been couponing lately. We don't have cable, but I have heard of Extreme Couponing and was really intrigued. While I was trying to find some episodes online, I found a whole lot of info on it. Long story short (blog post soon) I started applying the info, and I have been saving quite a bit of money.


So I guess this is just a preview blogpost! ;)


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Birth Story

Well, I'm keeping to my word and posting my birth story...

As I had mentioned, on Sunday, I went to the hospital to get checked out because my blood pressure way too high. They ended up sending me home, and by Tuesday, I was back in L&D due to my OB sending me there. I waited most of the afternoon there being monitored and having my blood and urine tested. Everything came back normal but my 6pm that night my doctor decided to induce me. I was 38 weeks

If I haven't mentioned it by now I will. I LOVED my OB! I felt like he was so on top of all my complications and took all the precautions needed for my case. My previous doctor was good, but looking back I feel like she was a little too inexperienced for as many complications had, thus things got really out of control. From day 1 my doctor has been so aware of of my medical needs. It really has a lot to do with his years of experience. He has literally delivered thousands of babies.

So around 6:30 he came in and said that he had spoken to my high risk doctor, and they both agreed that even though I was not dilated or effaced, we were going to go ahead with the induction. He said we could wait until my cervex was softened, but at this point with my blood pressure in the condition it was in, I was a ticking time bomb for developing preeclampsia.

So they started the induction at 7pm with cytotech, (a little pill they put on the cervex) and got my IV going. The doctor didn't think I would have him until the next afternoon at the earliest, so he prescribed a sleeping pill for me.

At about 10pm my Mom went home, and I was getting really sleepy so I told Jon to go home and get some rest too. I wasn't having ANY contractions and I wanted him to be able to get some rest as well. Being the good husband he is, he didn't leave until 1am because he wanted to make sure I was good and asleep.

A luck would have it almost as soon as he left I started having contractions. They weren't horrible, but I couldn't sleep through them, so I started practicing my relaxation techniques with them. They continued to get stronger and stronger. Because I was so uncomfortable, and moving around so much, I couldn't get a good reading as to what my contractions were at on the monitor, but being that my labor with Adah was so much longer, I thought I was being a wimp and they weren't as bad as with Adah. So I "sucked it up."

By 4am I decided to text Jon to tell him they were getting pretty bad and just to be on alert. I still had the mindset that it was not as bad as Adah. Keep in mind, my labor with Adah was 21 hours from the time the started the induction, AND I was dilated to 2.

At 4:29am my water broke so I texted my Mom and Jon. Jon was already getting his things to go, and making sure Adah was okay (she was sleeping at our house with Adam staying with her) so thankfully he was on his way.

He arrived at 4:49am and I was in a lot of pain. He sat with me for a few contraction until the nurse came in and said that they were getting the labor room ready, and that I would not be able to get an epideral for another hour. When she left I told Jon I didn't think I could wait that long. She also checked me and I was still only at 4cm.

The nurse came in with a wheelchair, and in between contraction I got up to get in the chair and I had the feeling of everything inside me dropping. As soon as I started to sit down in the chair, a really strong contraction came on and I just started screaming "I HAVE TO PUSH!!!" The nurse quickly told the other nurse with her that the baby is coming and they needed to get me to the other room fast. A they were tuning down the hall I am still primal screaming! They got me into the room, and I got up on the bed, and Jon said he could see the baby's head.

I had one contraction with pushing that was not getting me anywhere, so the nurse told me how to grab my legs and push. The next contraction I pushed once and they were telling me the baby was coming, and I pushed again, and at 5:09am he came "sliding" out.

The doctor hadn't even gotten to the room yet so the nurse had to deliver him. Luckily, he was doing a C section, so he was there. As soon as he came in the room, he said "was that you I heard singing in the hall?"

It was all so fast, my Mom didn't even make it to the hospital. With this labor from the start of my induction to when he was born was 9 hours! My water broke a little more than half an hour before I had him! That was a HUGE difference from Adah. When my water broke with her, I didn't have her for another 5 hours.

So I got to experience a pain meds free birth! Its funny how we have our way of things in our heads of how our labor is going to be, but God has his own plan. And in the end I got me SWEET baby boy!

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Welcome Baby Jude.

I know this is LONG overdue... As you can imagine, having two kids is a lot of work!!! Things have been adjusting as well as can be expected. I'll start with the series of events from a couple days before Jude came, until now.

As you have gathered from my posts over the last few months, I have been seeing a high risk doctor twice a week for the past 3 months. Things had been going well, with a couple high blood pressure readings in the mix, but nothing too high. But the Sunday before he was born (May 1st) I woke up with a headache. During pregnancy, you can expect the occasional headache, but when you are dealing with high blood pressure, it's a high red flag. So, I just kept note and continued with my morning. At about 10 that morning, I was putting Adah's clothes on for church , and I started seeing "stars" or flashes of light. This is also a big red flag, especially since I had never experienced it before. So I went to take my blood pressure and it was 170/ 100 really high! So Adah and I went to the couch and relaxed and I laid on my left side with no avail with it going down.

My Mom was nice enough to take Adah to church so I could rest for a couple hours. Still almost asleep it was still really high. Throughout this whole pregnancy, my blood pressure has been an indicator that I need to slow down and rest, and it will go down. So it was alarming that it was not going down. So when Jon came home from church, and it was still high we decided to go to Labor and delivery.

While I was there they adjusted my medication, and waited for it to come down, knowing I was going to my high risk doctor the next day, and my OB the day after that. I was home by 10pm.

By the time by OB appointment came on Tuesday, my blood pressure was pretty high, so my doctor sent me to L&D again. I was there most of the day when they decided to induce me at 7pm that night. My birth story is a little bit long so I'll save that for another post.

At 5:09am Wednesday morning, we were blessed for our little Jude Michael! Weighing in at 5lbs 5oz and 17 1/2 inches long! Absolutely perfect!!!

This was the Saturday before I had him

This was shortly after I had him, after we got to our room.

Adah saw him very shortly after he was born, but this is the first interaction she got with him.

I had to be on Magnesium Sulfate (anti seizure) after I had him with added yet another night at the hospital. I was pretty upset I was not at home with Adah, and this is what my Dad sent me. It made me feel a lot better!

Adah was SO excited that she had company in the back seat with her!

He LOVES the sling!

Adah absolutely ADORES her brother!

It blows my mind as to what a big girl she is growing into!

He is seriously such a good baby! As long as he isn't hungry and his diaper is clean, he is content just to be around us. We are slowly getting into a routine with our he and Adah, and adjusting well to Jon being back at work.

Hello May!!!

I cannot believe how long it's been since I have blogged or posted any kind of update. I guess I don't usually feel the urgency to post considering most of the people who read is I'm friends with on Facebook. But here we are in May, and I haven't posted anything in a while, so we'll start with the basics. ;)

I am in shock that it's May! Fir a few reasons. 1) This year is flying by. 2) I honestly thought I would have had the baby by now. I am absolutely delighted that things have been good and he has been able to stay in for longer than I did with Adah!

My blood pressure has been holding steady for the past 4 weeks, and I'm am. Thankful for that, although, it got pretty high over the weekend, and I ended up going to the hospital Sunday evening. All day Sunday, I was feeling weird with a headache. Then, while I was changing Adah into her clothes for church, I started seeing spots. I took my blood pressure, and it was the highest reading I've seen at home. My machine tends to read high, but even if this was off a little bit, it was still way too high. S Jon and I headed to the hospital.

I know Parkview has gotten a really bad rep, but I really like it. It's small, the parking is decent, and I LOVE the L&D nurses! They are usually older, but very calm about thing, and very knowledgable. This visit didn't disappoint in the least. They were on top of talking to the on call doctor, and I was out of there by 10:30 that night. The main thing I got from going to the hospital was that all my blood work came back clear, and there was no protein in my urine. Very mind easing!

I have an OB appointment tomorrow, and I have a feeling he may induce me. My blood pressure has been so borderline, and I'm full term, I think (hope) that's the direction he takes. I am feeling ready to have this baby!

That's all I got for now! I'll keep updating about what happens tomorrow!



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Location:Hello May!!!

33 weeks

Sorry this has taken so long to get out. We had a crazy week with a lot of activity. Probably not the best thing for me, but with mild swelling, I did great!


Saturday, I had a small baby shower with great friends! It was exactly what I envisioned and so much better! My great friend Kristi headed it up with the help of my bother's girlfriend (and my friend) Carlie, and my sister Abbie. The theme was an owl theme, and they ran with it! The three of them are so creative, and it all turned out so cute! A soon as I get my dads camera, I'll upload some picture. I left feeling so blessed and loved my all my friends!

Monday started with my NST (monitoring) and it was okay. My blood pressure was a little high, but keep in mind, at my shower, I had no reserves about what I ate, so I'm sure that took a toll on my body. I did leave a little discouraged, but dinner with friends that night made up for all that!

Tuesday, I had my weekly OB visit. This was the highlight of my week pregnancy speaking. My blood pressure was the lowest it has ever been since I have been pregnant with this baby. It was so good that my doctor didn't want to see me for 2 weeks! He even said (in his most sincere voice) how good I was doing! I left so happy with that appointment. I haven't had a good doctor's visit in a long time, so this was sooooo encouraging!

Thursday was Adah's birthday! It was so fun to see her start to "get" the idea of a birthday! We have been celebrating other family member's birthdays for a few weeks now, and she has gotten really excited for them, but now it was her birthday. I kept telling her it was her birthday, and every time I would say that, she would say Daddy, or Noah, or Abbie, all of which had recently celebrated their birthday.
It wasn't until dinner that she really got it! I let here wear her Tinker Bell costume that my parents got her. When we got to the Spaghetti Factory (her favorite) she was running and skipping around the entrance, going to any kid that would let her give them a hug. It was the FUNNIEST thing ever! She had a great day! Again, pictures to come!

Friday, I had my last NST for the week. It wasn't bad high, but not nearly as good as Tuesday. But honestly, we had such a good week, I wasn't discouraged at all!

Saturday was by far our busiest day. It started with us leaving before 9 to go to Rancho for one of Adah's buddy Cooper's birthday. It was at a place called Pump it Up. An indoor place with about a dozen blow up bounce houses. With obstacle courses, and slides. I wasn't sure How Adah would do, but Jon was there, so she did everything with him. It was so fun! Adah liked it so much, we are thinking we'll do her birthday there next year. This one, unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of.
That day was mostly spent in the Rancho area. I had a bridal shower for my cousin after that, then we headed out to Victoria Gardens for a birthday dinner for my dad's friend at Lucille's. It was a CRAZY day, but really good!


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Location:Home

32 Weeks

Yesterday I had my OB visit for them to check m y blood pressure, and again, it was borderline. When my doctor came in he asked how my blood pressure has been and I said, just that, it was borderline. So he said to up my dosage to every 6 hours, of the medication I have been on.

He is concerned about my blood pressure, but I did bring up the fact that I I am having very minimal swelling. I can still wear my wedding ring, and it's not tight. With Adah I started swelling at 25 weeks and had to get a fake ring, and was pitting by 33 weeks (you could press hard on my leg and he pressure would leave a temporary pit). That right there is a good sign!

So now I'm assuming that I will be going to my OB once a week from here on out. You would think that if they want me to rest they would have me going to three appointments in one week every week. Sometimes I think that can contribute to my blood pressure being high when I get there.

Adah has really been acting out the last few weeks. I don't know if it's because I have to leave her more than normal, (not like she doesn't LOVE spending time with her grandparents) or it's because she scenes a big change happening. Everything is a fight with her. I have been reading a few books on parenting, and they advice that in a loving and controlled way, spanking can be a tool for certain punishments. Everyone has their opinions on spanking, and I respect that, but for us it does work. However, society doesn't condone spanking of any kind, so when we are out in public it is really hard to be consistent in our discipline. So it's even more important that Jon and I are 100% consistent at home.

I have 1 more appointment for this week, and then we start all over again. I'm feeling a lot more relaxed as the time passes. Yes, I'm getting very uncomfortable, but the idea that the baby could come at anytime because of my condition is not as scary the further we get.





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Big Family Changes

The last time my grandpa came to my parents house for a visit was July 5th. Being that the 4th was on a Sunday, the church staff was given Monday off. My grandparents came and we had a BBQ with the family. It was nice and relaxing, and created for great memories. Obviously we had no idea that 20 days later, my grandpa would pass away.

My grandparents have always wanted to move closer to my mom and dad, but they have been living in their house for 50 years (I think) and that kind of change has always intimidated them. On that day, we deiced to look at a couple of houses in the neighborhood just up the street. One was a foreclosure that was in not great condition, the other was in pretty decent condition, but was a short sale. No one was living there so we decided to just look anyway through the windows. It was beautiful! 3 bedrooms, 2 bath, with a pool. Everyone just loved that house! But, again, it was a short sale so no effort was made to look into it any further.

With the rapid decline of my grandpa's health, it was forgotten...

Fast forward 8 months later, it had become very evident that my grandma's living conditions needed to change. She was having a hard time keeping up with her house, and got into a car accident, and can no longer drive. Being that they live 30+ minuets away without traffic, if has been extremely difficult for my mom to care for her in the way she needed. She has been staying with my parents for over a month now, due to the fact that she can't drive. We had looked into 55+ apartments and such, but my grandma, the money savvy lady she is, found it pointless to pay that much money when she didn't get to own anything.

Last week we caught wind of a few houses for sale in the neighborhood. So my grandma (on her own) called up a real estate agent she has know for years to come and show us the houses. I say on her own, because my grandma hates being pushed to do anything, so her calling him up was a huge step. They looked at two, one being a scary house up the street that still had people living in it, and the beautiful house we looked at with my grandpa. It had gone into foreclosure, and when the bank gained it, they painted it, put new carpet in, and cleaned the pool to sparkling condition. It was again, beautiful!

Like I said, my grandma hates being pushed, but the agent was very real with her in saying, its a great property, and the price is great too, so you need to do something now because it won't last. So my grandma put in an offer, and her agent wrote a letter to the bank about her circumstances, and how my mom lives in the neighborhood.

We were all praying not that she would get the house, but if it were the Lords will, He would make it very clear. The next morning, her agent called to say they should up the offer a little bit, and by noon, he told her that she got the house! Not 24 hours later, and she was signing papers!

To make it more evident that the Lords hand was in this, she decided when she was making the offer to put up her house for sale in Montclair, and it was to go up on Friday. To all of our shock and amazement, it was sold by noon on Friday! And.... She sold it for more than she bought the house in Riverside for! We have been so thankful for the Lord's hand in this, and I know it will make my Mom's live a whole lot easier, just in not worrying about her, and being that 30+ minutes away. Not she's only 3+ minuets away!

Please keep us in prayer as we move her to Riverside. It will be hard on her and all of us as that was the home that we all grew up at, and the home my grandpa passed away at.

Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Psalm 37:4

Abondigas Soup

Jon and Adah have been sick the last couple days, so we are having a sick day today (and possible tomorrow). I wanted to make soup for Jon and Adah. My great friend Shainie gave me this recipe last year, and we LOVE it! It's supper easy and you can add as many veggies as you want. You can also substitute the beef for ground turkey. With the meat and veggies, its a really well rounded soup!

Enjoy!

Albondigas (Mexican Meatball) Soup by Shainie Rickard
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. dried oregano
1lb ground beef/turkey
½ cup rice
2 tbsp. vegetable/olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups water
2 (14 ½ oz) cans beef broth
1 (6oz) can tomato paste
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup sliced carrots

In a large bowl, combine eggs, cilantro, salt, pepper and oregano; beat well. Add ground beef and rice; mix well. Shape mixture into 1 inch balls. Set aside.
Heat oil in large pot over medium heat until hot. Add onion and garlic; cook until onion is tender but not brown. Stir in water, broth and tomato paste. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes and carrots. Simmer 5 minutes.
Add meatballs to soup; return to boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer about 30 minutes or until meatballs are no longer pink in the center.
Serve with flour tortillas.
Makes 6-8 servings

31 Weeks

Monday marked 31 weeks in my pregnancy! This is exciting because if I had this baby around the same time as Adah, I have 6 weeks left to go. Obviously I am praying for a full term pregnancy, but based on this weeks doctor visit, I don't know that that's going to happen.

Monday, I had my NST (monitoring) visit, and my blood pressure wasn't good but wasn't bad. My systolic number is getting high. Which is weird because it was diastolic number that went up with Adah. I told them I had a OB appointment the next day, so they didn't make a big deal about it.

So yesterday, I went to my OB, and sure enough it was 148/72. So they made me wait, and took it again and it was 128/84! I don't get it!! One thing I love about my OB is he approaches everything in a very calm manner. While the nurses may make comments about how high it is, he approaches the facts, and tells me what he wants me to do. That's exactly what he did. He said that he knows with a 2 year old it can be hard, but he wants me to rest as much a possible.

I hate that most of them time when I go to the doctor I leave discouraged. I can't help it. This is not the way pregnancy is suppose to be. I feel robbed of having a "normal" pregnancy. Plus I feel good, with Adah, I didn't feel good at all. Every fiber in my body wants to rip into the closets, and get things ready for the baby, but I can't. I can keep up on the day to day things for the most part, but that's about it. In know this is a season, and I will be holding our baby boy very soon.

So, now I rest. I'm not on full bed rest. Adah and I hang out I in the living room for the most part. We play with her toys, color, watch TV. She is very compliant, yet still a 2 year old. ;) My family has been really helpful with taking Adah for a few hours, or coming by to help me out. Just wrapping my brain around who can watch Adah for my NST appointments has been (for me) daunting. My mom has been really helpful at figuring it out. It's only about an hour and a half, but its at 1pm, right at her nap time. Usually she stays awake and plays with whoever is watching her, but it's never 100% that she'll go to sleep when I get home. That can be hard because I have always been insistent on naps.


I need to rely on the fact that things are good right now. But I also know it can take a swift turn at anytime, so I'm preparing myself for that.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Home

Lets Do Lunch

Going grocery shopping is a love and hate thing for me. I love filling out fridge and pantry with food and having that feeling of accomplishment, but I really don't like going grocery shopping. When I'm in the store, I get really overwhelmed. In my head I want stretch my dollar as far as possible, but that is a daunting task by itself, even when I have a list. I just got the grocery IQ ipad app for my ipad, so I'm gong to see how that goes.

I have a hard time menu planning in general, for a few reasons... 1) Jon is gone 3 (sometimes 4) nights a week. So I'm not going to cook a whole meal for just Adah and I. 2) like I said before, I get really overwhelmed, and end up forgetting something. 3) This is the biggest. I like to include (like most people) every meal, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Breakfast is easy, but lunch really throws me for a loop. I never know what to make. I am so sick of sandwiches, and being that I can't eat cold meat, it limits my options even in that area. And, we are not really salad eaters.

So, I am curious... What do you do for lunch at home?


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Location:Home

30 weeks

This week got off to a rocky start. I went to my dr appointment on Monday, and my blood pressure was a little high. This wasn't surprising to me because i noticed it started getting high on Friday. It doesn't usually bother me because when i lay on my side, it goes way down. So they took it again after laying on my side, and sure enough it went down. With Adah it was so high, that when i would lay on my side it wouldn't go down that low.

I was pretty discharged because last week was so good, that the high on was on came to a crashing fall. But I managed to keep it together. We went to my parents for dinner and i forgot about it.

Today, i have been working on the kids room. I don't want to push it too much, but i got a lot done. Throughout that time i was working, i would take my blood pressure, and it was more normal that it had been in days. Yesterday, before my appointment, I really took it easy. But then today it don't, and i have normal readings??!! I don't get it. But I'm not going to complain.

While working on the kids room, Jon and i decided to turn Adah's bed into a toddler bed. She did great for her nap, she was really excited. She is totally getting the boundary thing. When she woke up from her nap she called us instead of getting out of her bed to find us. I know that will change quickly, but it's funny for now.

Not much has changed, Jon leaves this weekend for the jr high retreat. I'm not going this time. It would just be too much with Adah and all the walking, so i decided to stay home.

I hope to blog about Adah updates soon. She is getting so big and mature it is unreal!


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Location:Home

29 week Ultrasound

Today we went in for my 29 week ultrasound. I was nervous (as always) and anxious to see our little bambino. He has been way more difficult to see during ultrasounds than Adah ever was.

My blood pressure was good, and it has been good with all my monitoring appointment so far, and i am really grateful for that.

I was expecting this ultrasound to be like the last few we've had (lasting only about 3 minutes) in that they just start shooting ultrasound lingo left and right without telling you what s going on and at the end saying everything looks great, here's your pictures.

I was delightfully surprised to walk in to 2 techs, and a NP in the room. The NP started asking me a lot of questions pertaining to my pregnancy with Adah and what i went through with the preeclampsia and such. She really let me talk about it. She was really happy with my BP. Then while she was letting the techs do their work, she said " I'll narrate what's gong on for you." in my mind i was thinking, i really like her! They looked onerous his spine, bone structure, brain, brain fluid, organs including heart valves, face and mouth. I can't even begin to tell you how good that made me feel! I have noticed such a disconnect (with communication) with doctors and nurses with their patience, and she was so informative. She even made mention that his cord blood flow looked really good. Apparently the blood flow in the cord can indicate whether or not someone may get preeclampsia because decreased blood flow can pop up before symptoms even occur.

All in all, it was a great visit. I am so thankful to all of you who have been praying for me. The Lord has really been showing me the power of prayer throughout this pregnancy. I really feel like the Lord is taking care of us, and guiding us a day at a time through this.

From the bottom of our hears,
Thank you!!!


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Fetal monitoring

I decided to take my iPad to my appointment today. I thought I would walk you through what I do 2x a week when I'm here.

-I start by waiting in a very warm waiting room where I obsess about if my blood pressure (my face gets really hot when it's high and I cant tell in that office).

-Then they call me back, (and about 6 other women) in to a large room with a TV. I get to sit in a big comfy reclining chair! They put 2 monitors on me, 1) for the movement 2) for any contractions. The last two times I have been here I have asked them to take my BP after because adrenaline is usually serving through my veins. It has been good!

-After that, I just sit there and wait till the nurse approves me to go. It has been really fast because the baby has been really active. I have been the first to be let go.

That's about it. It is kinda relaxing. I can't take Adah so I don't have to worry about her, and I sit with my phone, or iPad.

As I have said before, I get really anxious, and fearful. Through this I have discovered what spiritual warfare takes place inside me. I was prepared Monday when I went in and i was fine. Thursday I went in and had not been as prepared as i should be spiritually and i was a nervous reck.

Pastor Greg said in yesterday's message, that fear and faith don't mix, it one or the other. So i am clinging to faith throughout this process! And i refuse to let the enemy take hold of any part of my body, including my emotions, and fears.


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Location:Specialist Doctors Office