Closing Time

Today we are closing on our DREAM HOUSE!!!! I can't even contain my excitement! This is a day I never thought would come and a house we've been pining over for two years! (that's not even an exaggeration). Martin and I used to drive by the house on Sunday afternoons and Martin would say If we ever get that house it is going to be the best story to tell the kids. How we drove by it every Sunday just lusting over it.

And today is the day! We have a really busy weekend ahead of us before we go back to work on Monday so I have really high ambitions of getting everything moved in today. Wish us luck!

And a few fun packing stories:

Me: (taking pictures off the walls on Tuesday night and putting them in a box)
Martin: What are you doing?
Me: Packing up our pictures.
Martin: But then the walls will be bare. I've grown accustomed to looking at nice walls!

Me: (packing up the way too many wine glasses we own on Wednesday morning while Aubrey eats a bowl of cereal. As I pack, I'm wrapping the glasses in paper I'm ripping out of a magazine)
Aubrey: Whatcha making?
Me: I'm packing up these wine glasses for when we move to our new house on Friday.
Aubrey: Oh.......but whatcha making?
Me: I'm not making anything, I'm just packing these glasses.
Aubrey: Oh.....thanks mommy.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the house to post at the moment. But I'll be sure to take some and post them as soon as possible. I have so many great plans for every room and I can't wait to put them into action!

That was close

This evening when I picked Aubrey up from my mom's house on my way home from work the sky looked very sinister and it was pretty windy outside. All signs pointed to a rainstorm.

As I pulled my car into park in front of our apartment:

Aubrey: Oh no...it's gonna rain. Mommy! Open door! Hurry!
Me: All right let's beat the rain (opens car door)
Aubrey: Mommy! Gonna rain! Run! Run! Gonna rain!

We safely enter the house and shut the door behind us.

Aubrey: wipes the brow of her forehead Oh phew...that was close.

Seriously...where does she get this stuff?

And It's A...

After putting off finding out the gender of our coming child for weeks for no specific reason...I finally made an appointment for an ultrasound yesterday to figure out what this little peanut is going to be. My original plan was to have a gender reveal/house closing party when we close on our house, but the closing is taking so long that I scratched the whole idea and decided to just find out the regular, boring way.

 



SO.......

We are having another girl! I am super excited for Aubrey to have a sister that is close to her age. Probably because I never had a sister, I have a really idealized version in my head of how amazing having a sister close in age will be for Aubrey. I picture them being the best of friends (yes, I completely understand there is going to be a number of years when they hate each other, but eventually....best friends!)

Martin is excited too! He has had a lot of responses and things to say about the topic.

Martin: I'm glad we're having another girl. You're going to have four more kids so we have plenty of time to have a boy.

four more kids???? oh boy.

Martin: We have to fill up the house. I figure the two girls can each have their own room and then we can put four boys in one room.
Me: Why would the girls get their own room and then four boys be all in one room?
Martin: Because they will be daddy's little girls, of course.

Martin: I'm excited to have another girl. I want another Aubrey.

Playing Footsie

Aubrey has a way of sleeping where no matter how many times in a dead of night sleep you turn her body so it is laying up and down like a normal person in the bed, she will immediately rotate so that she is laying perpendicular to everyone else in the bed and her head is jamming into your back like a knife. Last night Martin got home late from a bachelor party and climbed into bed. Somehow...my foot was touching his across the abyss of our kingsize bed.

Me: Now I know where Aubrey gets her sleeping habits from.
Martin: What?
Me: Your foot.
Martin: Huh?......oh! I thought you were just trying to play footsie with me.
Me: No, that's just where my foot lands when I'm sleeping pretty much in a straight line.
Martin:Hmm. I guess I do have quite a bit of room over here.

*disclaimer: I don't know if that is the exact position Martin's body with, it's just my best guess based on the placement of his head and foot.

Two Songs and their Accompanying Conversations

The first song is Paradise  by Coldplay. Such an amazing song.
Me: (calling Martin during a drive between stores) Hey what's up?
Martin: Oh this is such a good song... Paradise.
Me: Hey! I'm listening to that song too!
Martin: Is it bad that I almost didn't pick up because of this song?
Me: Yeah. I almost didn't call you because of this song.
Martin: I'm surprised you did.
Me: Well, I remembered its The Drive and it will probably be on again tomorrow.
Martin: Yeah. I remembered I could just look it up on YouTube if I want to listen to it later.

This second song we heard on the way to church one morning.
Martin: They should just stop making country music now. I mean, it doesn't get any better than this. A beer with Jesus. We've definitely hit the top.

One Step Forward....(and with only mild embarrassment)

I'm really poor at picking out Martin's truck when he passes me on the road. I'm not good with vehicles (I've mentioned this before) and I'm equally as terrible with giant tractor trailers. It may be a true story that Martin driven with his broad side right across from me when I was stopped at an intersection and then called to pick on me for talking on the phone while driving. It might be a true story that on that particular occasion I could not figure out how he knew I was driving and talking on my phone. It also might be a true story that Martin once told me what exit I was driving by on the thruway to be met by my being totally flabbergasted that he could figure that out, only for him to tell me that I had just passed him.

Needless to say, when I saw a truck with the logo of Martin's work coming I was very excited to seize the opportunity and wave. I was walking into the bank and so happened to be standing quite alone in the middle of the bank parking lot as the truck passed by me. I wanted to make sure Martin saw me so I was waving quite enthusiastically. And he honked! I was so proud of the interaction. Then I called Martin to confirm:

Me: So that was you right?
Martin: Who?
Me: That just drove by?
Martin: If you mean that was me sitting at Peterbilt in Henrietta then you are correct.
Me: Oh man! I was so excited because I thought I waved to you. The driver honked and everything!
(Martin then has me describe the details of the truck to him, which I do)
Martin:  That would be John.
Me: Oh. I've never met John, so he really has no idea who I am.
Martin: Well...maybe he's really puffing himself up thinking pregnant ladies are really into him.

...Later in the day during a completely unsolicited conversation between Martin and John.

John: So I was driving by the M&T in Brockport and someone was waving to me pretty enthusiastically. She was pregnant. Is it anyone you know?
Martin: Yeah...that's my wife.
John: Your wife is pregnant?
Martin: Well...you just said it. This is a pretty big day for her though. Usually she doesn't pick our trucks out at all.

French Dip and the Leftovers

Somehow this is turning into a food blog this week. I guess I've just been eating a lot of delicious food that I really think you should enjoy too! Last Wednesday I made French Dip for dinner. The meal French Dip sounds way to sophisticated to be so easy, but, for some reason it is very easy. It goes like this:

Start in the morning when you're eating breakfast (or in my case after your finished breakfast and you're waiting for your toddler to eat her cheerios faster than one at a time)
Find a crockpot.
Grab a chuck roast.
Salt, pepper, garlic powder on the chuck roast.
Sear all sides of the roast on the stovetop (I'm sure it will turn out fine if you skip this step, I just like to think it helps to hold all the juices in) (Also, Caton, sear basically just means to brown all sides in a pan on your stovetop)
Throw the chuck roast in the crockpot with 2ish cups of water.
Turn the crockpot on low and let sit all day
Come home from work and notice that your house smells amazing.
Shred the roast with a fork and knife. It will fall right apart.
Slice up some of that nice Italian or French Bread you picked up at the grocery store.
Place some meat between the bread.
Ladle some broth into a small dipping bowl.
Dip and Enjoy!


I didn't take any pictures of the original meal of french dip and sweet potatoes. I did take a photo of the following night's meal. French Dip Grilled Cheese.

Take two slice of that nice Italian or French Bread from the previous day and butter one side of each slice.
Place some meat from the previous days dinner along with some mozzarella cheese between the slices.
Grill on the stovetop like you are cooking a grilled cheese.
Warm up a bowl of broth from the previous day's french dip.
Dip your grilled cheese and enjoy!

What is Football without Great Food?

Like I've mentioned before, since attending a Buffalo Bills game last year - I've been much more excited about football. But the fact remains....I'm mostly in it for the food. This year I've been trying to have something delicious every football Sunday. One week we had chicken tacos. They were so amazing I made them again the following week. This past Sunday I made homemade mozzarella sticks.

I got the recipe on Skinnytaste and I pretty much followed it to a T (something I rarely do). It was well worth it. Besides being super easy to make. These really were delicious. Aubrey was so excited to eat them I couldn't even take a picture before she had her hand out there dipping! And Martin was really impressed that I warmed up the marinara sauce (he's sometimes too easy to please).

Mmm. Headed for her second cheese stick

Martin and Aubrey dicussig how delicious the mozzarella sticks are (I'm not even lying!)

Autumn

Driving from one store to another has its perks. Particularly during the months of September through November when the scenery is just so beautiful

Our Super Awesome (And Super Lame) Saturday Night

When I described this Saturday night to a few friends in person I didn't receive very good reviews - so I don't really expect anyone to find our plans last night the least bit interesting.

We watched the Jon Stewart/Bill O'Reilly Debate. Also known as The Rumble 2012.

I first learned about this debate when a fellow high school graduate posted about the upcoming event on facebook about a month ago. I immediately grew extremely excited and text Martin saying "I have really exciting news, call me when you get a chance"

When Martin called our conversation went something like this.
Me: So Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly are having a debate! We can watch it streaming live online.
Martin: Oh wow, that is awesome. I thought you were going to say someone is pregnant.

Then I told me sister-in-law, Ingrid, about the event.
Ingrid: So who are you cheering for??
Me: I don't even really care. I just think they're both really smart people and neither of them are running for office so it should probably be the best debate we've ever seen.
Ingrid: Yeah. I guess that sounds pretty cool
Me: You can watch it too. It costs five dollars to buy an online ticket to view it live.
Ingrid: Well.......it's a Saturday night so I'm probably not going to do that.

Then I talked to one of my best friend's, Amanda about the event.
Me: I am so glad that Brad posted about that debate. I am so excited about it!
Amanda: Oh yeah! That sounds really awesome. I was going to go see it with him but I couldn't make it work.
Me: You can still watch it online!
Amanda: Yeah.....(her voice trails off and she changes the subject).

When I excitedly told my mom our plans for Saturday night her response was "Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a weekend"

Finally, I sent a text to my friend Kerri inviting her and her boyfriend over to watch the debate with Martin and I. I even tried to entice her with the menu of mini pizzas I planned on making for the viewing.

She never responded to my text messages at all.

Even with the lack of enthusiasm from all my friends, Saturday night came with much anticipation. And it was great!

And the mini pizzas were amazing! Here's the line up of varieties.

Beef with Boss Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese and Onions
My classic favorite - Marinara Sauce with Mozzarella Cheese, Mushrooms and Pepperoni
Fried Egg and Bacon - I've been wanting to try fried egg on pizza for months. It was delicious.
Another classic - Marinara Sauce with Mozzarella Cheese, Pepperoni and Onions
A new favorite for both of us which will definitely make it into our pizza rotation! - The chicken from chicken tacos, cheddar cheese, onions, black olives and cayenne pepper spice.
Another favorite - Sundried Tomato Pesto, Mozzarella Cheese, Diced Tomatoes and Artichokes.

Was your Saturday as awesome/lame as ours?

Bedtime Shenanigans

Me: Aubrey, you're way too close to me. Move over closer to daddy.
Martin: Daddy stinks.
Aubrey: Oh no! Daddy's pooping. Pee Yooo!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

Don't be fooled by the title of this post, it's really just an instagram drop disguised as a song from the Sound of Music. Also, a few of my favorite things are also a few of Aubrey's favorite things....mostly because I love watching her smile and hearing her laugh. Oh and when I get home from work late in the evening and she looks up from her dinner plate and shouts Mommy! and then 'Meer Mommy! when I leave the kitchen for a moment.....that's another one of my favorite things I was unable to capture on instagram.

 

 

Also, since my post on hashtags, I've really been trying to embrace the hashtag. I'll include then with the photo....some are good, some are okay, some are weak. Go ahead, weigh in. 

 

#aspiringathlete #barnyardsports

#eatingasmanyaswepick

#cuddlingismyfavorite #intentonDora

#addictedtomilkandsugar

Football Sundays

Sometimes lazy Sundays spent at home watching football with your family are perfect......but they usually result in something similar to the above photo. Which is to say, a lot of sleeping, not too much actual game watching and NO social interaction.

So a Sunday spent watching the game WITH FRIENDS is oftentimes a welcome change to a string of family Sundays (don't worry I'm still obsessed with our little family). This past Sunday we went over to watch football with our friend Evan and his girlfriend Lisa. And a few other friends came and joined in on the fun too! It was the perfect afternoon of laughter that I needed. I mean, I still had a less than focused concentration on the game, but thankfully this time it was from talking and laughing instead of sleeping the afternoon away.

Aubrey was absolutely in heaven with three dogs running around the house and the candy corn dish positioned at a coffee table on her level kept her pretty entertained for a while (until I decided that three giant chocolate eyeballs were enough and being an expert unwrapper wasn't a lifeskill she needed to learn just yet). Of course, in all the excitement she refused so succumb to a nap until after the game when her body got the best of her and she past out on the hardwood floor sleeping on the floor and in my arms from 4 till close to 7! (allowing her to do this was really a terrible parenting tip because she was then awake until almost 11 on Sunday night)

A few of my favorite moments of the day:

Melissa: How are you feeling? (reaches out and touches my belly)
Me: Oh, pretty good
Melissa: I'm sorry, I'm going to be one of those annoying people that touch your belly.

Martin passing out and then waking up with an Irish Carbomb in his hand (and for some reason I have a feeling that falling asleep at Evan's but being awoken to do some type of shot has happened before)

Jared: (telling some sort of story that involves a boner) And then you get a (voice goes very high pitched) HONER
Everyone: What are you saying
Jared: I'm sorry, I'm just really uncomfortable with the kid here.
Everyone: She's sleeping!
Jared: Yeah, so anyway.....you get a (voice ONCE AGAIN goes very high pitched) HONER
Everyone: (hysterically laughter)
Jared: It's just weird to say with the kid here!