MY GARDEN

Here are some pictures of my amazing garden that I enjoy from my covered patio (thanks to Ms. Dorothy Wilder, the little old lady who lived here before us...she planted a drip system and everything!). I just wanted you all to see how it's progressing. I didn't get any good pictures of the four fruit trees (we have peach, apricot, plum and lemon), but none of them are bearing any fruit yet (except maybe one), and I don't think they're going to. We had such strong winds that blew all the blossoms off. There is one that is looking promising, maybe apricot. I've put a picture of the beginning of the fruit below. And of course my favorite is our Jasmine plant that gives off the most beautiful fragrance and has been my favorite for as long as I can remember.



X&X's tomato plants and fresh herbs...not too great of a picture but I put it on here so they can show it off to those in California. :)

IT'S OFFICIAL

...I can't get my wedding ring off...

Some other "Officials"...

1. I can't roll over in bed by myself...but if I try to do it by myself, I have to sit straight up and then roll to the other side...

2. I can't do the dishes or laundry without the blood rushing to my head...(guess I just can't do them...oh, btw, my doctor told Brian the other day that I get out of a year's worth of housework for doing this...hahaha....I now LOVE my doctor...)

3. I can't take any more baths cuz Brian's not usually home to help me out, and I can't lift myself out.

4. I can't make it through a grocery shopping trip unless I use a Senior Citizen cart AND wear my Maternity belt.

5. I can't get up off the floor by myself...unless I get on all fours to stand up.

For such a "beautiful experience" as childbirth is supposed to be, it sure can be a bit degrading...

I Need a New Show

Facts: C-section is June 16. I'm not gonna be able to move for a few days when I get home, and am going to be pretty much an invalid for a few weeks.

I have magazines, I have books, and will have a TV hooked up. But what do I watch? Seen all the episodes of CSI, CSI:Miami, The Office, House, many of the three Law & Order series', and Alias.

I need a new show. Forget "Lost" cuz I have major issues with "stranded island" shows. I get anxiety. I've already been told "Grey's Anatomy". Any other suggestions?

I need a new show.

SIERRA VISTA BABY SHOWER PRESENTS

I've had a number of people ask me what I got for my shower here in Sierra Vista. Not only did I get a lot of fun things at the shower...there were so many people who dropped by for a visit and brought a gift. I have received baby lotions, the Aveeno bath line, formula dispensers, a bottle brush, a bottle warmer, clothes, stroller toys, baby books, a baby calendar, etc., etc. It's been so amazing. And a lot of it was off my registry which has been great too! Below I'm also posting some pictures of the baby equipment and some clothes, but it's only a small representation because Target and Babies R Us didn't have pictures of some of the things, and to post pictures of all the clothes would have been a bit much. But you get the idea. Thank you everyone!

Activity Center

(Babies R Us didn't have a good picture of the one I got. But this one is the most similar to the one I got so you can get the idea. Btw, I love this new Rainforest Line.)Bumbo Seat & Tray

Shopping Cart Cover

Surftime Tummy Mat

Some Fun Clothes (again, only a SMALL portion of what I got)

GRILLED SALMON WITH MELON CHUTNEY

I held onto this recipe for a long time. I kept buying all the fruit ingredients for it and then let them go bad. If I had known how easy it would have been, I would have made this a long time ago. I'm so amazed at how gourmet and delish it is. Way healthy too. It came from Denise Austin's Ultimate Pregnancy Book (a fitness guru) and although some of her recipes were not that great, this one is, I have to admit, amazing. And no, you don't have to be pregnant to make it. :)

The fruit gives you so many vitamins, and we all know how good salmon is for you. It's a great meal also for the summertime since: mangos are in season, it's light and refreshing, and you can grill it on your barbeque without heating the house with your oven. (Although, I prefer baking it since you put the chutney on WITH it while it bakes and it kind of soaks in.)

And yes...I know...my pictures aren't as savvy as some other people we know who post about food. I'm serious though. You need to try it. I served it over Brown Rice and made steamed broccoli.

GRILLED SALMON WITH MELON CHUTNEY

(You can cut everything down into your own portion size. I just make it for me so I don't make all 4 salmon)

4 salmon steaks

3 T. Olive Oil

Juice of 1 Lime

1 small mango, peeled and chopped

1/2 cantaloupe, sliced into quarters

Juice of 1 Lemon

1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped

Place fish in a bowl or large plastic bag and add olive oil and lime juice. Marinate for at least an hour. In a food processor, combine rest of ingredients and pulse a few seconds. The chutney should have a chunky rather than mushy consistency.

Grill fish fillets over hot coals until done, about five minutes per side depending on thickness. Arrange on plate, topped with chutney diveded evenly among the four fillets. Note: If you don't have a grill, you can bake this fish. Place fillets in glass baking dish, top with the chutney. Bake at 375 degrees until fish flakes easily with a fork, about 25 minutes.

Me, Myself & I

I have had many people ask what have I been doing with my time since Xanthe & Xoe have been gone since Friday, and Brian doesn’t come home until this Saturday. Peace & Quiet for a week! I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I’ve done lots of "nothings", and a little bit of "somethings". So, I’m providing a list for you all to let you know actually how nice it has been having them away (even though OF COURSE I miss them terribly). And of course, my beautiful time has been all because of my great family in California is entertaining the girls for me.

1. Emptying my queue in my DV-R which can hold up to 70 episodes of CSI, CSI:Miami and Law & Order EACH, 10 episodes of House, 25 episodes of The Office, and a bunch of mish mosh that the girls have. Just letting you know how big the queue is, not saying that that’s how many episodes I’ve seen…cuz of course I deleted a lot having already seen many of those episodes. ;)

2. Catching up on lots and lots of paperwork, which as you know is neverending...going through mail, filing bills, calling that company you were supposed to call six months ago to cancel that credit card, etc.

3. Reading more books in this short time frame than ever in my life. Pregnancy books, breastfeeding books, novels, Book Club books, etc. (I promise I’m gonna start Twilight. See my “Comment” to y’all about not wanting to buy it since I’ve bought so many already…so can someone send it to me? )

4. Taking 3 days to rack up enough dishware to do a load of dishes, and they’re mostly cereal bowls. I haven’t gone grocery shopping in two weeks cuz I haven’t had to cook dinner. Ya baby!

5. Going to bed at 2 a.m. and waking up at 10:00 a.m.

6. Trying out new recipes (see next post)

7. Organizing the baby room...washing crib sheets & clothes, hanging clothes, etc.

8. Blowing through 3:10 p.m. when I’m supposed to pick up the girls. Didn’t even realize it...when usually it’s the first thing on planning my day.

9. Working on projects/goals on my To Do List AND I actually DID do laundry, cleaned/scoured the bathrooms, countertops and some closets in the house, and changed the sheets on all the bed. Novel concept, huh?

10. Actually getting to watch the Season Finale of CSI:Miami and House WHEN they were being broadcast, rather than 3 weeks later on DV-R. (But I hated not being able to fast forward through commercials)

11. Watching about 15 “Deleted Scenes” from The Office on the computer. You guys should try this! If you miss The Office, this will keep you going. It’s so entertaining.

12. Taking things back to stores that I normally would have just kept and wasted my money on them since I hate taking things back.

13. Finding the most amazing show on CMT called "Redneck Weddings". I CAN'T BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE ARE FOR REAL! It is too funny. One guy thought of proposing to his girlfriend when he was rounding up all the hogs. And their wedding was in complete camo, and had mattress surfing and mud wrestling. PLEASE I need you all to watch it. And check out my sister Amber's blog for her White Trash Bunco party. I still can't stop laughing.

14. Going on my endless search for a rocking chair/glider (see future post).

15. Laying on my hammock enjoying the breezes that are coming in this time of year, clipping my rose bushes and watching the hummingbirds come in flocks to eat from our bird feeder.

16. Sulking in bed realizing that once the baby comes, my freedom with this beautiful peace and quiet is going to be gone.

If I think of any more I'll update this post. It's been nice being on my own, but I'll admit sometimes it's a bit lonely. Thanks everyone for calling and keeping me company with adult conversation! And your blogging is DEFINITELY keeping me company.

SIERRA VISTA BABY SHOWER

So my good friend, Danielle threw me such a fun baby shower for my friends here in Sierra Vista last Saturday. We had so many fun games and the food was awesome. Oh, and the cake was amazing, even the pieces I took home and finished off that night. :) Thank you to all of you who came and for your fun presents. We had some good laughs! And also thank you for those who dropped gifts by to my house, but couldn't make it to the shower. I have such great friends here!

And don't judge on my puffiness. The heat wave was hitting us too! :)

new features on my blog

Okay, so some of you are wondering what these random things are.

1. First, the freaky baby countdown. I'm not too bothered by it but Brian thinks it's weird. Anyway, this is the countdown til my c-section. For my due date (according to my doctor...read post "What a Bust" in April...), add a week.

2. Next comes the cool map to see where people are looking at my blog. It only updates once a day but if you click on it you can see a dot for where people are looking at it. There's one in Europe and that's hubby looking at it. Way cool, huh?

3. Lastly, I've added the "books i'm reading" part, updated the "about me" part to make it shorter, and added new friends and family. I'm wondering though, how "close" do you have to be with a person to add them to your friends and family? Do people get bummed or pissed if a person is to be so presumptious and adds them to their blog without asking first? Or is it a free-for-all when you find someone's blog that you know?

PATCH CEREMONY

So, I don't have too many good pictures of the patch ceremony. I wasn't taking picture and I'm waiting to get some more from other people. If I get some that are any better than the ones I have, then I'll post them. But I thought I'd at least get some of these on here since a couple people have asked how it went.

MAKE NEW FRIENDS, BUT KEEP THE OLD
ONE IS SILVER AND THE OTHER IS GOLD

That was the theme for the whole night. Everything was decorated in Silver and Gold.

You can't see this picture too well but the chairs in front all had their names backed with gold and silver paper X&X helped me make.First we ate food from a potluck the Food Committee organized...

This is Xanthe with Ms. Stewart, their Teacher's Aide in school, and Sis. Larson, their Activities Day InstructorThen we did the Patch Ceremony where all the Brownies earned their Patches. Here's how we presented them. Then each one of the girls had to speak into the microphone and tell what was their favorite one they worked on.
Then came the Bridging Ceremony where the Brownies "flew up" (or graduated) to Junior Girl Scouts. It was really cute. You don't have to read further if you aren't really interested, but I thought for history-sake I'd write what happened AND because I wrote the ceremony, I'm pretty proud of it. :) It was pretty touching though to all the parents and girls. They were all crying and really getting choked up.

Anyway, so all the Brownies started in a Brownie Circle at the beginning of the bridge crisscrossing their hands. Each individual Brownie who was Bridging would enter the middle, one at a time and would participate in the following ceremony. First, I asked, "Brownie Xoe, I give you your wings, do you wish to fly up to bigger things?" She would repeat loudly, "I am a Brownie and have had lots of fun, but a Junior Girl Scout I'd like to become."

Then the Brownies would all repeat, "As your Brownie friends, we say goodbye, break the ring and out you fly." And then they broke the ring and the Brownie got to exit and walk over the bridge. All the parents were crying. It was pretty touching.

Then when she got to the middle of the bridge, she said into the microphone what she's going to miss about Brownies and what she's looking forward to in Junior Girl Scouts, then walk all the way across. She was met by the other leader of the troop who presented each girl with her new Junior Girl Scout vest. It was a surprise to the girls. The troop secretly purchased their vests as a gift and the parents got all the insignia for them.

(P.S. I can't believe I'm actually letting you guys see a full body shot of me...)And because Xoe was last, she got to say the last part to say goodbye to the Brownies who weren't bridging (they have to stay back one more year). "Dear Brownies, we leave you, but we’re not far behind, You’ll always be in our hearts and our minds. We’ll see you next year when you bridge on your own, You’ve got one more year to earn wings to be flown. We love you, Kristina & Aleesia...And now I go to fly up."

Well, that set not only the parents crying but all these preteen girls were bawling. It was pretty funny. And of course Xanthe and Xoe and one or two other little girls were like, "What are they all crying about?" hahaha. Too funny. Anyway, it was a really touching ceremony. Hope you enjoyed these pictures. The girls really had a great time and I'm really proud of them for wanting to stick with such a great program for girls this age.

And one last treat for ya! Remember I said I wouldn't take any pictures from here on out. Well, here's one for you ONLY cuz it's so cute of Xanthe.

END OF THE YEAR GIRL SCOUT STUFF

CEREMONY OF AWARDS

So, the Girl Scout year is over, THANK GOODNESS. The end of the year was so busy for them all. They went to a Court of Awards Ceremony (think Eagle Scouts) where they were honored for being the only Brownie troop there and helped one of the Gold Award recipients to get her Award by attending her Baton Twirling camp. And because it was a formal event, the girls all got dressed up in nice dresses and had a really nice dinner. I was so proud of X&X cuz they already knew which fork to use first, how to put their napkin on their lap and had such great manners. They were teaching the other girls. It was great for some of our girls in the troop cuz we didn't realize how many of them have never actually been to a formal dinner and didn't even have a nice dress. The girls were lending theirs out left and right. Some of the moms were really crying seeing their "babies all grown up". hehe pretty funny.

FUNTASTICKS

For working so hard selling cookies, the whole troop voted to go to a place called Funtasticks, very similar to Scandia, but MUCH smaller. They had a really great time. We took the whole troop to Olive Garden beforehand and then spent a couple hours here where they had unlimited use of the whole park. They were all so beat afterward! Congrats girls on selling so many cookies! They earned a lot of money for our troop to use for next year.

BON VOYAGE XANTHE & XOE

Xanthe & Xoe are now in California. They made it there safely and are with Chris for his college graduation tomorrow.

I have to say that this pregnancy must have made me extra emotional cuz I couldn't sleep all night and have been nervous for this for awhile. That is just so not like me. But I made myself be calm and I'm only admitting this to my invisible friend, "My Blog". :) The girls were really nervous too, but wanna know what made them feel better about it? We bought them new luggage. And because of that, they packed up and were asking to go two days early. That was really good for me because I thought there was going to be major meltdowns at the airport. They were very scared up until a few days ago. But who'da thought luggage would do the trick? I tell ya....PRETEENS.

Plus, we had a lot to do with it being their last day of school and trying to get to the airport terminal (every little thing that could stall us...did...like a little old lady crossing the street that was probably only 30 seconds but felt like 5 minutes, or all the escalators in a 3 mile radius to get us up to the ticketing counter weren't working, etc.) that they didn't have a lot of time to be scared. We got to the gate right as they were boarding. I think they were actually a bit excited when the flight attendant escorted them down the ramp and closed the door behind them for security reasons. They felt all special when I saw them waving to me. I think I was more emotional than them. I could feel myself choking up and everything. AND THAT'S SO NOT ME! Damn baby. :) Look what pregnancy does to the best of us.

Anyway, I haven't talked to them much...they have a lot of Chris & Kathleen's family in town, but I know they got there safely and they're settling in. Thank you to everyone who is going to watch them when Chris leaves for Utah. They are very excited to see everyone...and I'm being totally serious. They love all their cousins and I've told them this is their fun "Summer Vacation". I'm going to miss them though since they'll be gone the longest they've ever been away from me...4 weeks. I did, however, get to read a book out in my garden, take a nice nap and clean off my computer desk. Niiiice. I could possibly enjoy this...especially since Brian doesn't come home for another week. Pedicure anyone?

RANDOM MEMORY

Anyone remember when Xanthe morphed into Spiderman for a good 4-5 days?

She was about 6 years old and we were living in Sherman Oaks. She found a random Halloween costume at her friend Cooper's house and, at once, morphed into "Spidey". She let us know that she wasn't "Spiderman" cuz she was a girl... and she wasn't "Spiderwoman" cuz she was a LITTLE girl. So she called herself "Spidey". And I love that my friend, Lisa (Cooper's mom) was on the phone when Xanthe came to tell her this. And without even missing a beat, nodded her head and said, "Welcome to our house, Spidey".

After that, she would not answer to "Xanthe"...she wore the costume the next day to school and even though she wanted to wear the mask, she didn't (if it wasn't for those darned school rules) but she kept it at arm's length the whole time. The other days that she didn't wear it to school, believe me... it was in her backpack ready for her to morph on a minute's notice, and she put it on the MINUTE she got home from school. She also wore it to bed and...no joke...was very serious about wearing the mask to sleep too. (And I'm not a horrible parent. I lifted it up over her face the minute she was asleep so she didn't suffocate).

The best was that when she was going to her dad's on the weekend, she had accidentally forgotten the Spidey costume. She about had an emotional breakdown...in fact, I'm sure she did cuz the next thing I know I'm driving it down to Orange County (I'm pretty sure I DID have another reason to go to OC, but all I remember was having a SERIOUS conversation with myself of why I was doing this...:) ). She must have been having one serious identity issue at that time. Luckily, it was in October, and as soon as her mind was on thinking about what she was going to be for Halloween that year, she forgot about Spidey. And we've never talked about it again. :)

You're all invited...

Through the Virtual World of course... :)

To Xanthe & Xoe's Girl Scout Patch Ceremony. It's like the Boy Scout's Court of Honor where they receive all their patches for what they've been working on. Nan and Amber and Heather will remember these. And guess what the theme is they chose? "Make New Friends". For those of you who don't know that Girl Scout song, the first verse goes, "Make New Friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold." So, they are decorating the whole ceremony in, of course, Gold and Silver.

To get prepared, the troop split into committees. Xoe is on the "Decorating Committee" and they were getting ready tonight by painting a banner and stuffing the gold cups with silver napkins and silverware. They're VERY into this.

Xanthe is on the "Invitation Committee". (There's a "Food Committee" but we're not on that one). Anyway, the girls on the "Invitation Committee" got together at the Leader's House to each design an invitation and then the rest of the troop voted on it. And guess who's won? Xanthe's! Woohoo! And of course, check out the second page. She even insisted that it needed to be sewn. I don't know where these girls get it from! Too cool. So the whole troop was sewing, stamping and gluing their invitations the other day.

The Ceremony is on Wednesday, May 14. We'll let you know how it goes and post pictures. They're also "Bridging" which means they are moving up (or in Girl Scout talk "flying up") to a new level (like moving from Webelos to Cub Scouts...or is it the other way around?). They're no longer "Brownies". They're going to be "Juniors", which are considered "real" Girl Scouts and they'll be receiving their Brownie Wings to Fly Up. They get to say this little poem about accepting the challenge and then walk over a Bridge which symbolizes their "Bridging" to the new level. They're all very excited!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ME...

My girls are the best. This is what I was awoken to...breakfast in bed. AND they even helped me clean it up. Then they presented me with a red carnation corsage they made at Faith In God. It really was a wonderful Mother's Day. Brian called from Germany and I had received these from him on Friday.

I know there are lots of moms who hate Mother's Day because they want their kids to appreciate them all year, rather than just one day. But I am blessed with kids who, for the most part, are amazing all year round and make me so happy. And I enjoy Mother's Day because it's a day where the rest of the world acknowledges all the wonderful mothers and all the hard work they go through. Happy Mother's Day to everyone!