Birthday Party Countdown

Yep that’s right the kid’s big day is coming up and I’ve already started thinking.  When did kid’s birthdays get so complicated?  When I was little your mom whipped up a homemade cake and the local neighborhood kids came to devour it with ya.  Yeah not anymore.  There’s decorations, food, the table scape (I totally channeled my inner Sandra Lee there) and let’s not forget the oh so important cake.  Oh oh and I forgot, since he’s one he has to have his own cake…ahhhh.  Now with this in mind why would anyone be crazy enough to make their own cake, or in my case cupcakes?  I have no idea but make me an appointment with a shrink cause I am crazy.  Today marks day one of the great cupcake recipe hunt.  I’m thinking it was a fail.  Actually let me back up a bit yesterday was actually day one of the great cupcake.  Long story short…I overfilled them and they didn’t cook quite right.  SO today I gave it a go again.  Well they just aren’t working for me.  First let me say that the batter, yes I know we aren’t supposed to eat it since there are raw eggs in there but screw we only live once, anyway the batter tasted like a mix between cake and sugar cookie dough, smelled that way too.  Oh I thought I had hit the jackpot on the first try.  Well I’m not digging the texture.  It’s almost like a softer version of cornbread.  Oh they are moist, and pretty tasty, but not tasty enough for me to overlook the texture.  I want light and fluffy, this is not.  Actually the top got a crust almost like a chewy sugar cookie.  I so wanted this one to work too.  I’m not saying its the recipe I mean tons of people used it and loved it.  I’m inserting the link, not to hate on it, but for those who would like to give it a go, because I’m sure it’s the cook not the recipe.  And I really wanted it to work for me so maybe it will for others.  And to be fair the two (yep two) I’ve already eaten weren’t completely cooled yet either.  So again I encourage everyone to have a look and see what you think, but let me speak from experience when the chick says half full she means it, don’t overfill these bad boys.

So on to cupcake recipe number 2.  I can already see this is going to take a while.  I haven’t even started on an icing yet.  Joy.  I think this might be recipe number two.  The only problem, who knows what cake flour is?  I looked for it yesterday at Publix…no “cake flour”.  Is it self-rising?  Guess this is a question for google.  Oh well on to the next cupcake….

Rookie makes a comeback

So I’m starting what will more than likely soon be my sad attempt at blogging again.  C has arrived, over 6 weeks ago at that.  That’s pretty sad, it’s been well over 6 weeks since my last post.  I had high hopes of capturing the moments through this here blog.  I even took the ole laptop to the hospital.  I guess it’s pretty obvious that it hasn’t happened yet.  So you are all witnesses I’m making it offical…I will blog at least once a week.  (ha ha ha ha ha)

Anyway I’m not going to go into all the details of the last 6 weeks, let’s face it that would get pretty boring pretty quick that and I hear the little man crying.  I’ll just leave you with some pictures I took last week and say life has been great and I’m looking forward to every upcoming minute of it.  C was exactly 5 weeks here.

Sumo or no?

I’m liking this whole time change thing.  Although I haven’t been sticking to my morning routine that I mentioned in my last post I have been getting up much earlier.  This morning I grabbed a couple pieces of cinnamon toast and a cup of hot chocolate then sat down to catch up on Been There Seen the Movie.  I’m so happy that I have a new blog to read and it’s someone I know personally, even better.  I actually added Garden State to my netflix queue this morning after reading her post on Jersey’s movie.  Don’t know if I’ll be able to do the westerns though.  I can watch pretty much any movie of any type, I’ll even watch the newer westerns but the old school just doesn’t cut it for me.  The Mr. is a big fan of Clint Eastwood’s old movies, I dread the days when he finds one on tv.  John Wayne might just be a bit worse than Clint Eastwood, as far as old westerns at least.

So how about a Sook update?  At my visit about two weeks ago I learned about how I could possibly be cooking a sumo baby.  The doc’s exact wording after measuring me was “he’s growing”.  How would I get sumo from that you ask?  Well add to that the fact that at the end of the appointment he mentions that he’d like to do an ultrasound a bit later just to get a measurement.  Yeah I know still doesn’t mean sumo, however the Dr. never mentions anything when he measures me so the simple monotone “he’s growing” and the extra ultrasound had me terrified for two weeks.  Yesterday however, he made me feel slightly better.  When he measured me he claimed “he’s measuring good”.  So two more weeks and we’ll know if for sure if we’re going to be having a sumo baby or not.  This is the second scare I’ve had about the whole birthing process during this pregnancy.  The first was after our 20 week ultrasound.  My mother was looking at one of Sook’s pics and very nonchalantly mentions how he has his father’s head.  Oh My God!!  The Mr. has been in denial for quite some time about this, despite me telling him quite often, but he has quite a large head.  I would have actually liked to have seen the look on my face when she said it.  I know my eyes probably got as wide as they have ever been.  So this mama may be cooking up a sumo baby with a ginormous head, that should be fun.

Rookie gets organized, or at least gives it a go…

With Sook’s arrival right around the corner I’ve been trying to get things a bit more organized around here.  You would think that after 5 years of marriage I’d be a pro by now, but with the title of my blog and all you’ve probably figured out by now that I’m far from pro status.  Anyway part this whole get my rear in gear thing is that I’m working on a few new routines, starting with my morning.  Oh yes I once thought the get up whenever, stumble into the kitchen, grab the first thing I could find to eat, plop down in front of the tv and watch  the Today show until I finally decided that it wouldn’t kill me to grab a broom, routine was working great too but I’m thinking maybe just maybe I could be just a tad bit more efficient in the morning.  So goes it:  Make the bed, shower and get ready, let out and feed the indoor pup, grab breakfast, start a load of laundry, put dishes away if needed, and feed big dogs.  All this is going to be completed before 8:00, no excuses.  So that’s the first one I’m going to be working on, other than that there’s few things I’m going to start trying to make a habit of.  I really want to update my blogs once a week, I’m going to try getting back on track with my grocery list and dinner menu making, and last (at least for now) is try a new dish once a week.  Chicken Tortilla Soup is up first.  I have wanted to make this for a while now but have just never gotten around to it.  So tonight’s the night.  It’s been nice and cool around here, perfect weather for soup and stews, then for some reason it turned warm today.  Oh well I bought everything last night to make it today so I’m going for it.  I’ll let ya know how it turns out.  So anyway, follow along as I get my rear into gear (less than two months before the deadline), or fail miserably (which is more likely).

A Loaf of Bread?

If you’ve never been pregnant or haven’t tracked another’s pregnancy you may find yourself a bit clueless to the fact that for some reason your growing child is compared to fruit and vegetables all the way through.  I haven’t quite figured this out yet.  I mean I’d really like to know who got together and thought this whole fruit thing would be a good idea.  Ok in the beginning it makes some sense but come on it starts out with a grape then moves to a kumquat (which I did find slightly amusing and used as a nickname until Sook came into play) then before you know it you’ve got an apple and soon a cantaloupe in there.  I, however have found a website that dares to be different.  Right now I am carrying around a load of bread, yes you heard that right no butternut squash here.  Also he’s about the weight of a Macbook Air laptop.  So if you, yourself are pregnant and would prefer a Macbook to a honeydew, check it out.

So yesterday we completed the Comprehensive Birth class that my hospital offers.  I have to say it was pretty interesting.  We learned all about effacement and dilation.  The part that I really enjoyed, seriously, is seeing how the baby makes it way out.  How he twists and turns to make his way through the pelvis.  We didn’t get to see the video of a baby coming out, guess they figure if you missed it in middle school health class you have to wait until the big day to see it, I’m not complaining.  We also got a tour of the hospital including the nursery.  While the Mr. and I were a bit surprised by them allowing us in the actual nursery, I mean what if someone in the class of 12 was sick, we saw the prettiest little baby boy awaiting his fate.  If Sook looks half as cute as that little guy I won’t be complaining.  All and all some might say that the Mr. and I are more prepared for this whole delivery thing, definitely not us but some.  Frankly I’m just as disturbed by the whole thing as I was before.  I am so ready to see him and more importantly, or selfishly, be able to bend over and suck in, oh how I long to suck in even if it’s just a 1/4 of an inch, but I’m dreading the laboring process and the actual being in charge of another human being part.  I mean I’m liking the fact that right now he’s pretty much self sufficient.

Off to go clean house…the life of a housewife…

Just Randomness

I love fall.  What’s not to love?  College football has started back…Roll Tide!!!  There are a ton of great festivals, not to mention the pumpkin farms, and the weather.  Who doesn’t love the weather?  So it doesn’t feel like fall down here yet but it will soon enough, hopefully.  For the past couple of years we would go visit my mother in Iowa in the fall, the weather was great.  This is the first year I won’t be heading up and I really am missing it.  I wouldn’t have thought I would miss it as much as I am finding that I am.  For some reason fall give me that kick in the ass to do a major cleanup of the house.  Something about opening the windows just gets me moving and itching to have a spotless house.

If you could see my house though you would know that it hasn’t been cool enough yet to open the windows.  I haven’t gotten that itch yet.  Cohen….oh yeah Sook has a name finally.  There’s no changing it, it has been embroidered onto a blanket and wooden wall letters are all ready to hang.Please disregard the door stopper thing.  Since they aren’t hung yet this is the quickest place I could get a picture taken.  I’m lying…they aren’t ready to be hung yet, I still need to get a clear spray or find one up in the shed and coat them a couple times.  Then they’ll be all ready for the Mr. to figure out how’s he going to do it.  So as mentioned Sook’s room is ready to go but that just means that all the stuff that was in there had to find a new home.  Where is that new home you ask?  Well it’s in my guest bedroom, all over the guest bedroom.  We have a path to the computer and that’s about it.  And that’s not the only room that needs cleaning.  My closet is screaming to be cleaned out and sorted.  Thanks to the new washer and dryer…wanna see?  You know you do.

LG Frontloads...

Oh yes this Rookie is slowly making her way up to pro, very slowly.  Anyway thanks to the new washer and dryer I’ve been keeping up with the laundry, yep the new hasn’t worn off yet, I’m sure it won’t be too much longer.  So it seems that we have twice as many clothes in the closet as we did before.  I am really liking the new machines though.  The only thing that I’m not liking about the frontload is when you need to dilute the fabric softener you can’t just fill up the cup with the water that is filing up the machine, so you have to walk all the way to the kitchen sink.  I know, it’s horrible having to take those extra 10 steps.  Well that’s one thing the other is that for some reason, and it’s only happened with the Mr’s work clothes that I put on a high soil level,  is that the jeans are discoloring other clothes.  Yes I know you aren’t supposed to wash jeans and whites together but I’ve done it before with my top loaders, I’ll grab some of the shirts he wears to work to toss in if I don’t have a full load with just his jeans, and I’ve never had this problem before.  So far two of his shirts have come out all funny, one might have had a slight blue tint but overall just not white anymore the other was just dingy grey.  Yep, rookie mistake.  Luckily they were just shirts that he wears as under shirts with his work shirts, but I’ve made a mental note to not wash anything other than darks with jeans no matter what.  Now that I’ve bored you with my laundry talk I’ll leave you with one last photo, Sook’s coming home outfit.  My guess is he’ll be swimming in it, but better too big than too small.  Well I’m off to go write some bills….

He may go hungry….

but he won’t be naked…

Sook's Closet

see.  I hit the mother load having a boy.  Oh I haven’t mentioned that yet have I.  Sookie officially has a turtle, that is what the ultrasound tech called his manly parts when looking at it from a side view.  It does indeed look like a turtle, I must say.  Anyway we were all a bit surprised over here, since the Mr. swore he was a she and had convinced pretty much everyone else, including myself, of that as well.  Every time he would refer to Sook as a she I would say it’s going to be funny when your she turns into a he.  Well she did apparently.  Sook is a boy.  Anyway so a friend of mine has a little boy that will be right about two years older than Sook and boy did she hook us up.  Now I can admit it there are tags in that closet but most of that is what she handed down, not to mention this doesn’t include the two drawers full of onesies, sleepers, and other random clothes that we also got from her.  I believe we got 4 (if not 5) big black yard trash bags full of clothes.  So like I say he may go hungry but he’ll definitely have clothes on while doing it.  As for the tags, my mother came in the day we found out about the turtle so of course we went shopping then she went over to my sister’s, who by the way is due to have a girl just 2 days before me, and they went shopping.  My sister went a bit overboard here is one of the outfits she got…

Outfit from Aunt Heather

I love it.

Sook’s (yes everyone thinks he needs a new name but hate to tell them Sook is staying, for a nickname that is) room is coming along nicely.  All clean and pretty, after the two different colors we put on the wall.  Yep the first one just wasn’t working.  I’m not thrilled with the second but I’m not painting it a third time, hell I wouldn’t have painted it a second but the first color was going to need a second coat so I figure I might as well try a new color since I was going to have to paint it again anyway.  His bedding, thanks to Grandma, is nearly complete.You can see just a bit of the fabric here.  I wasn’t loving it but it was the best I could find, there is nothing out there for boys to fit my taste.  I didn’t want anything too bright and Mom just kept saying “No not for a boy” to everything I looked at, so this is what we decided on.  Don’t ask why I was set on sewing it myself.  I think I was dead set on some lovely Amy Butler fabrics for a little girl and sewing it just stuck even after we found out it was a boy I guess.  I’ll have to get some more pics of it when it’s all done.  I just have to finish two sides of the bumpers and this bad boy will be complete.  My Mom did the blanket, skirt, and valance and they all turned out great.  And I’m liking the fabric more now that it’s pretty much finished and all the different patterns are together.  Well I better get started on those other two sides of the bumpers since you are all so anxiously waiting for completed pics, ha.

Redemption is sweet

I finished the fridge yesterday.  The Mr. came home early so I didn’t get to post the pics yesterday so all you out there in blog land went all day knowing how nasty my fridge was and thinking I didn’t do anything about it.  Yeah I know, who am I kidding I don’t have repeat visitors, ha.

See all pretty and clean.  Same goes the freezer…

Yes I realize I just posted pictures of my fridge and freezer, twice.  But hey after I made the jump yesterday I couldn’t not put up the pics today.  There was no way I was leaving that image in your head.  And while I’m showing off…About a month ago I finally pulled out the fabric I had gotten over a year ago to make the Amy Butler Nappy Bag.  I had gotten it to make a knitting bag out of and never did but then shortly afterwards I made one for a friend of mine to use for it’s intended purpose, a diaper bag.  Now she very well could have been lying but she said she liked it so I decided to give it another go.  After all I love this fabric.

…the outside.  This is the fabric I love.  If Sookie is a girl (a week and a half to go) this very well could be her bedding fabric.  I did add the large outside pocket, which shhh…is a bit off center.  I also left the cell phone pocket off.  Now for the inside…

I did the inside pockets differently.  I’m not a fan of the original placement of the bottle pockets.  They cut off so much of the side pockets, so I placed them in the center of the bottom pockets, then on one side made that middle pocket a bit narrower to sturdy it up, the other middle pocket is the same width as in the pattern but it also has the bottle pocket on it too.  I’m pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out.  Won’t know until December if I really like it or not though.  It is pretty darn big, and I’m not a big bag gal.  I mean my purse is big but not this big so we’ll see.

And last but not least, you didn’t think I was done showing off did you.  No, no I must add this, mainly because it is a really neat pattern.  With Sook coming in December and Mr. and I not being much for concerts, she won’t be getting any of the uber cool gowns.  But they turned out so cute I couldn’t help but make one so I scrounged around in our closet until I found a red thermal of mine that would work.  The color is a bit washed out here, it is actually a true red.  For the first one I think it turned out pretty good.  I’m not used to sewing on stretchy fabrics so I was happy with how it came out.  I’m thinking a nice sweatshirt material one would be nice and cozy for a December baby so that’ll be the next one I try my hand at.

So what’s on this Rookie’s list today you ask?  Too much.  We have the termite man coming next week so the house has to be spotless and since I’m still in the middle of cleaning out Sook’s room I better get to work, not to mention the rest of the house.  Good thing I have a week.  I figure if I get our bedding washed and a couple more loads of clothes done, finish painting Sookie’s closet, and do the two bathrooms I’ll be doing great.  So here goes nothing….

Hey I admit I’m a Rookie…

Today I go to grab myself a glass of OJ and am disgusted at how bad I have let my fridge get. It’s horrible and I am so ashamed. So I’ve decided that the only way to ensure that it gets cleaned is to use this here blog to hold myself accountable. Do you see how bad it is?

And I must say I don’t think the picture shows just how bad it is.  I don’t have anymore room what so ever.  I mean how do you redeem yourself from this?

I figure there is only one way.  I will have to clean it, and I mean it will shine, then post my pretty fridge pics.  This is one area that I’ve been falling short lately.  My fridge was always clean and uncluttered, but not lately.  I’m bad about not getting rid of the leftovers, I don’t know when the last time was that I wiped down the shelves, and don’t even ask me about the 20 bottles of salad dressing that we haven’t even looked at in the past 4 months.  If this works you may get to see a new picture of my dirty house every day.  On the list for tomorrow…the laundry room.

The big news

Yes I can admit it I’m a wee bit of a slacker when it comes to blogging. There’s been so much that has happened since I last posted and moved my blog. This Rookie Housewife is becoming a Rookie Mom. Scary I know, hey just think of how the little guy/gal has got to feel.  I’m due the middle of December and have finally gotten that kick in the ass that I needed to start getting the guest bedroom and Sookie’s room straightened out. I’m so proud I condensed two closets, one with scrapbooking and the other my sewing, into one. I never thought that would happen. Hell this is probably why I put of having youngens for so long. The guest bedroom is finished, thank God. Sook’s room? Not so much.  Close though, I only have a bit more to go through and then it will be all ready to paint, when we find out the sex (July 28th, only two more weeks!!). I finally got the knitting baby bug a few weeks ago…I know why Newbs has the chunky love, this only took me maybe and hour and a half to finish.  Notice no ends left to weave in either.  I’ve also started a Baby Surprise Jacket.  Yeah I don’t know if I’m loving them or not, but from what I hear it an interesting project to tackle and definitely a must knit.  No pictures yet though.  I also started a pair of knit longies/pants but had to rip them out due to using the wrong needle size.  I am anxious to start them again though because I’m going to try the magic loop method so it should be interesting.  The Mr’s mother also passed down a cradle that she used for him and I’m pretty sure his brother as well as any grandchildren that made there way over there.  So I put the Mr. to work sanding it down; I would have gladly tackled this project myself but who knows if there’s lead in that paint.  Good excuse isn’t it, no seriously I’ve done my fair share of refinishing and to tell you the truth I’m getting antsy and wish I could do it myself but I figured it best to err on the side of caution for once in my life.  Anyway my mother and I decided that since the rails were a bit far apart (it’ll only be used in the living room while I’m in there, Sook will still have a crib) that bumpers might be a good addition.   Come on if you’re going to have bumpers you need a blanket to match right?  Yesterday I made the blanket, I’m waiting until the cradle is finished to have get goo measurements for the bumpers.  Here is the blanket.

The Mr. has already expressed his dislike of the fabric so feel free to share your disgust too.  After seeing the fabric all he had to say was “Why did you pick this fabric?” and not in that hmm..I would’ve never choose it but like it way, no no more the what the hell where you thinking way.  That’s ok though I like it.  It was the first time I did a binding around a blanket, it wasn’t pretty but hey it’s finished and there’s no turning back now.  I’m planning on using the binding fabric for the bumpers and the green paisley print for the ties on them.  I guess that’s enough for now, hopefully I’ll be back before the little bug arrives.