Upside Down

Rob decided this past weekend that he wanted to make a pineapple upside down cake from scratch. I didn't think he was too serious but he found a recipe online, went to the store and bought the ingredients and started making it Sunday afternoon. The hubs is a pretty good cook but I'm not so sure that baking is his thing so this turned into a team effort. We make a great team and this team makes a pretty tasty pineapple upside down cake.



We haven't been up to much lately. It's January and the weather is less than cooperative so it is tough to get out even to the grocery store a lot of days. There have been two snowstorms this week- the first was more than I think anyone was expecting and the second one (this morning) is pretty light. I haven't gotten too many pictures of Rex lately but here he is, doing his new favorite trick for the camera.



I am 23 weeks along today. He is getting to be a pretty big guy and I can feel him move around quite a bit. Taking a picture this morning was tough because Rex was right in the middle of everything. I was trying to take the photo in front of the closets in the master bedroom and Rex kept opening the doors and getting in the photos (see him behind me?). My shirt wouldn't lay down flat either- it kept bunching up on the side (notice how I'm trying to pull it down?). It's a great shirt in person but apparently not so great for photographing. I was having a hard enough time and was not in the mood for a wardrobe change. Anyhow, this was the best of the group so here you go.

Ice, Ice Baby

We have been having quite an assortment of weather here for the last week or two. The previous two Januaries that we have spent in Iowa have been all about snow. We had snow early in the month and then we had fog last weekend. This week we had freezing rain which is the worst. This is what it does.

Solid ice covering our hydrangea


The worst of it came on Wednesday and on Thursday our driveway looked like this.



Thursday is also the day they pick up trash so Rob had to get our trash can down this driveway to the street for pick up! He managed okay only to find out later that afternoon that because of the ice on Wednesday, they were a day behind on pick up. Ugh!! Getting it back up the driveway was impossible so it just sat there until Friday. Thursday and Friday were both warmer with no additional ice so things were much better by yesterday afternoon when I had to go out to the doctor. (The baby and I are both doing very well.) I skipped Bunco group last night because there was more freezing rain expected but I think it was warm enough that it just ended up being regular rain. Crap- I hate missing Bunco and I have been on a hot streak lately! Now today it is raining a bunch which is actually great because it helps melt the snow. However, when the temperature drops below freezing, everything will probably be an icy mess again. Here's one last picture of our house, with icicles hanging from the siding and everything else. You can probably see the icicles a lot better if you click on the photo and enlarge it.



The one nice thing about the weather lately is that it has been pretty warm- for here anyways. The high today is 37 and the low last night was about 31 or 32. Not too bad.

Remember What I Said?

If you recall in my last post (on Tuesday), I said I would be scrapbooking on Wednesday during Rex's nap. Well, not quite. I worked on this instead.



I made a big pot of chile verde yesterday afternoon. Rob and I both thought it was something that was really tough to make. I wouldn't say it is difficult, it is just incredibly time consuming. It took me over an hour to cut up everything- the pork, onions, peppers, chiles and tomatillos. I did cheat and used canned tomatillos- you are supposed to get fresh ones and roast them. Try finding fresh tomatillos in Iowa in the middle of winter. Anyhow, once everything is chopped and ready then you have to cook up the pork in a pan. After that, you have to cook up almost everything else in that same pan. Finally, you put everything in the nice big pot and it cooks for 2-3 hours. Here's the good news- it tasted great and made a ton so you can put it in the freezer and enjoy it later. I would say it was worth the trouble. I just have to make sure I have plenty of time to devote to the process and get started early. Rob was so excited about it and insisted I take a picture of his plate.



Naptime today is mostly definitely reserved for scrapbooking!

Please, Oh Please, Let It Be Plan B or C

Remember foggy day school schedules? If not, you probably didn't grow up in California's Central Valley like I did. During the winter, I would always pray for foggy day school schedules so I could sleep in an extra two hours. You wanted Plan B or C to come up- Plan A was basically "Yes, we know it's foggy but you kids better still get to school on time." Anyhow, we've had dense fog advisories here lately which make me chuckle. I am sure it is more foggy out in the country than it is here in town, but I still doubt it is anything like what Rob and I grew up with. If you can see the house across the street, or even the street itself, it's not that bad. The fog does do something pretty cool here though; it kind of freezes on all the trees and bushes and makes everything look beautiful. It looks like it has snowed on everything in the photos below but we haven't had any snow for a while. This is all from the fog and its moisture. When you look at it up close, it looks different than snow or ice. It is fuzzy and looks really cool.





It was such a nice weekend for us. The long weekend gave us the chance to get out of the house and head to Des Moines for a little shopping. I think we all needed a little road trip and to get out in the world. Rob and I each had Old Navy gift cards and both needed new jeans so we were on a mission. I had some luck but Rob did not. In fact, after going to two Old Navy stores and looking online, we still can't get the jeans he likes in the right color and size. They will have them again so we'll just hang on to the gift cards for now. We picked up a few other items at the Jordan Creek mall and had lunch at the food court. Sadly, we waited too long to get something to eat and by that point, I had no patience for waiting for my food. Somebody feed the pregnant lady now! We wore Rex out that day and had to head back home before we made it to all the places we wanted to go so we will have to go back soon.

I managed to sneak out yesterday for a few hours to run a few errands while Rex was napping. I really wanted to go to a scrapbooking store in the Des Moines area so I headed back that way for a little funtime mommy shopping. It was overwhelming. But I get a little crazy just going through the 4 or 5 aisles at the local arts and crafts store. First I wandered around the store and just looked at everything then I went around again to make my selections. They had a lot of items specific to Iowa and even central Iowa which was really cool. I picked up a lot of fun paper as well as some stickers and embellishment items. I was all excited to get some pages made during Rex's nap today but after my chores and blogging, I don't think there will be any time. Don't expect any posts tomorrow though because I will definitely be working on my scrapbooking then!

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

"Extreme" makeover may be stretching it, but I hope you like the new look of my blog because I am loving it! The options Blogger has for templates are all kind of blah and I always wished I could have one that was a little more jazzy and interesting. It certainly isn't something I could come up with on my own so I figured I was stuck with what Blogger had to offer. I never even thought to look online for premade templates you could buy until Nanette recently did just that. It was pretty inexpensive and I just love the templates that are available. The designer was extremely helpful when I needed a little assistance even though the process of uploading the new template is really easy. She was also very quick in responding to my queries and I would just like to say thanks again to Delicious Design Studio and recommend it to anyone else who would like an awesome, new, affordable template for their blog!

A Call For Help

Somewhere in the city, a call for help is sent out. Our vigilant superhero looks to the sky and sees the plea for his assistance.



Always a man of action, he quickly checks his supplies and prepares to save the day once again.



Well, maybe not. But aren't Rex's new pajamas the coolest? I love them! I had to return a shirt to the store on Wednesday and I swore I was not going to buy anything else. But when I saw these, I just had to get them. Let me tell you, it's pretty funny to read bedtime stories to a little boy dressed like a superhero and drinking milk from a sippy cup. At first I could not stop laughing- I would lose it every time I looked at him and those red boots!- but I pulled it together eventually.

What Can Brown Do For You?

We had a little trouble getting the package of Christmas presents that Rob's parents sent us. The UPS tracking online alleged that it was out for delivery on December 23rd and I waited until the 28th to call to see what was going on. There have been lots of phone calls, they put out a "lost package tracer" on it and finally we were filing a claim to get reimbursed. Just when we had given up and were waiting for that claim to get processed, they found the package at the UPS office right here in our town. It turns out the label had come off the box so they had no idea where it was going. I guess they figured out it was ours by matching the claim we filed with the contents of the box. I picked it up this morning so we get to open Christmas presents tonight which is kind of fun although it probably would have been more fun Christmas morning. We all learned a lot from this crappy experience and I just wanted to share a few things that may help when you ship items too.

It didn't look quite like this, but you get the idea.



1. Buy the extra insurance. I think UPS insures package for up to $100 and then you can buy additional coverage. Luckily, Rob's parents had done this so we were never too worried about them losing our stuff because, fortunately, everything in there could be replaced.

2. Keep your receipts of items you ship. They will need proof if you ever have to file a claim for a lost package so you can get reimbursed. You may even want to take a picture of the box with your items in it to help support your case.

3. Put the addresses of the sender and recipient inside your box. I just realized when I picked up our package that had lost its label that this could come in handy. If they had been able to open the box and see where it had come from and where it was going, I'm sure that would have helped them track us down faster. I usually do this with any luggage I check rather than trusting the luggage tags on the outside of the bag. Those little paper tags could easily get ripped off your luggage so I always make sure to tuck them inside my bags.

Everyone at UPS was very helpful and good to us so I have nothing bad to say about them. The label fell off- it could happen to whoever you ship with. Given how much I HATE Fed Ex (they have dropped off packages I sent to the wrong location twice), you can bet I will still use UPS.

Walk On

Rex is now walking all over the place, all the time. It took several months from the time he took his first steps to walking being his primary method of getting around. He could do it just fine, he just didn't seem that interested. Crawling was so much faster for him. The more Rob and I tried to work with him, the more he resisted. In fact, he seemed to think it was a big game and would laugh and do whatever he could (stiffen up, sit down, turn to Jello legs, etc) to avoid walking when we wanted him to. We still kept working with him as best we could and it has paid off because for the last few weeks, this is all we see now.



He weighs a little more than 29 pounds now so carrying him around is getting pretty tough for me to do. As we both keep getting bigger, it's going to be even more difficult so I'm very happy he has decided that walking is the way to go. Yay for Rex!

Brr, It's Cold Outside

It has been crazy-cold here. It's hard to believe the average high for now is 27 degrees and the average low is 9. Our latest snowstorm gave us another 5.8 inches, mostly on Wednesday, and then Thursday was so windy and that snow was just getting blown all over the place. We now have as much snow as we usually get the entire winter and it is only January 8th. The high today is 0 and our low is -23 and that is without the wind chill. Yikes. It is supposed to be getting better and be more like the average next week. I'm just praying that will actually happen and trying to stay positive about that. Here's something funny that we taught Rex for when it's cold outside.

Halfway There

Yesterday was the halfway mark- 20 weeks down and 20 more to go. I was going to take a picture of that milestone but it was laundry day so I waited until today to take the picture when I had something a little better to wear.



It looks like the bump is kind of high but really I just have a long shirt on. I'm doing great at this point. Things are moving around and that causes some soreness occasionally and I also have a little heartburn but nothing too bad. It's nice that it is starting to be an obvious baby bump and not just look like I need to back off the Hostess snacks!

New Year's Blog-olution

I have made one New Year's resolution and that is to be a better blogger. I was so terrible last year. Only 48 posts for the whole year- Yikes! My goal for 2010 is to do 8 posts a month. At first I thought I would do 10 but I don't think I can come up with that much material. So I think 8 posts per month is a good number. I do reserve the right to post less during May and June since I will be giving birth around that time. I think that I deserve a little break from blogging during that time. I still plan to post during those months, I'm just not sure that I will meet my goal of 8.

Yesterday was a pretty good day for me. Rob watched Rex while I went out to the arts and crafts store to get some scrapbooking supplies- always fun for me and just a little nicer when I can go alone. When I got there, I saw signs for 80% off all Christmas items. I have been wanting to get stocking holders for Rob and me but I don't want them bad enough to spend $30-$40 for them. Lucky me, I found two that are perfect and I paid less than $6 for the two of them! Rob gets the snowman one to go with his snowman stocking and I get the tree one to go with my Christmas tree stocking. I also got some spools of ribbon because I like to wrap presents with nice ribbons. However, I'm not going to pay $10 for only 25 feet of ribbon like they usually charge for the good stuff. Yay for after-Christmas sales!



Rob and I have been on a big Scrabble kick lately but last night, we decided to play Yahtzee instead. After getting my butt kicked twice, I won the third game. And when I say I won, I mean that I obliterated Rob. He says he won't ever play Yahtzee again because he has seen it all now. I managed to roll FOUR yahtzees that game and ended up with a score of 531. Here's my proof. I realize I could write down anything I want, but I swear that this is the truth.



Finally, Rob and I watched Miss Congeniality last night and Rob foolishly made a bet with me that Hugh Jackman was in it. He thought he was the dance instructor/pageant director guy. I knew there was no way that he was right and now Rob had to go out this morning to get me my special cinnamon toast bagel that I love for breakfast. It sure was good and I think Rob learned not to challenge me when it comes to Hugh Jackman knowledge.