In which the toaster oven goes up in flames (literally)

A few days ago I got a call from Alison asking if I could babysit Andrea so she could go to her sister Katie's Endowment. Absolutely! Since Dave told me Tuesday that he needed to bring a treat to work on Thursday, I knew I needed to get some baking done, so I decided to do the baking in the morning rather than in the afternoon when I had two babies. Wednesday is also laundry day, so I thought I could easily get this done while juggling two loads of laundry.

First I started some Rocky Road Brownies for Dave's work. We created the recipe last week, and just can't get enough of them! While they were baking, I started a batch of Samoa Bars (think Girl Scout Cookies). While in the middle of baking the cookie layer, I started mixing up a batch of Banana Bread (mini loaves to bring to neighbors with two other flavor breads). Then I remembered I needed to toast the coconut to go on top of the Samoa Bars.

And here is where I got overwhelmed... Logan decided it was time for a nap, so I put the coconut in the toaster over to brown, and carried him into his bedroom for nap time. As I was in the middle of telling him Andrea was coming over so he needed to rest so he could play later, the fire alarm goes off! Then the second one starts blaring and Logan starts screaming.

I run into the kitchen and the coconut had combusted, flames were lapping the glass door. So I grabbed the baking soda and dowsed the fire. Needless to say I spent the rest of what started as such a productive morning cleaning up my fire. And the Samoa Bars didn't even turn out! All that work for nothing.

We had fun playing with Andrea when she came over. She danced like a mad woman! With 3 teddy bears, but they weren't jealous of each other. Nap time for her was interesting. Mike said to read her a story, then wrap her up tight in a blanket and she would fall asleep. So I did so, walked out, and a few minutes later went to peak. She was inch worming herself to the edge of the pack and play I put her in, then she managed to stand up burrito style and peak out at me. So I laid her back down and we tried again until she fell asleep.

As for the Rocky Road Brownies, they're super easy, and well worth the work

Rocky Road Brownies

1 box brownie mix
ingredients to make brownie mix
1/2 bag marshmallows
1/2 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/3 c slivered almonds

Make brownies according to directions, but remove from oven 5 minutes before done. Sprinkle with marshmallows, chocolate chips, and almonds. Put back in the oven for the remaining 5 minutes. Let cool most of the way before serving. To cut, use a butter knife and dip in water after each cut.

5 days until Christmas!

Dave finished his finals! It was a stressful 3 weeks or so, but we survived. There were three days in a row that Dave left before I got up and came home well after I'd gone to bed (try two in the morning). And with Logan being in a fussy phase (crying from 6pm to 10pm or 11pm), it was a hard time for the whole family!

But now he's home by 6:30 every night and can help me put this little guy to sleep... covered in toys. Suffocation hazard if I didn't find out this is Dave's idea of putting Logan down, but Logan loves to play with Dad before bed.

Friday night my parents babysat so Dave and I could go to dinner and a movie. It was so nice to not have to fight Logan for my plate of food or pause the movie to put him to sleep. When we got back it was well past bedtime, but Logan was laying on the floor with Mom, Dad and my cousin Emil all playing with him. Logan was in heaven with so much love and attention. I think it was a letdown to have Mom and Dad come home and put him to sleep!

Dave just loves to pick out what Logan's going to wear, and he always picks one of three super hero shirts we made before Logan was even born. So if you see Batman, Wolverine, or Venom, know that Dave dressed the little guy!

It's just been so nice to have Dave home! Last night Logan and I met Dave up at his work and we went over to Temple Square to see the lights. It was fun, and I think Logan liked it too. He certainly looked around a lot. We drove home and Dave surprised me by stopping to get some peppermint hot chocolate and a redbox movie. So a happy ending to a great FHE!

December is here!

Thanksgiving went by so fast! I can't believe it's already December! I've got most of our Christmas decorations up, and and trying my hardest to finish our stockings. I also have several ornaments my mom got for us last year after Christmas that I attached to a wreath for the front door. Hopefully I get that done in time too. I did complete the beanbag Nativity set I've been working on, and it looks too cute!

Joseph, Jesus, Mary

3 Wise-men

Shepherds & Angel

As for shopping, we're pretty much done. We aren't buying a ton for Christmas this year, so it was pretty easy. I just have to pick up a few gifts for our family gift exchanges and once Dave's out of school for the semester we'll need to buy about 2 more gifts to complete our little family giving.

Dave surprised me with the need for a monster stuffed animal over Thanksgiving. Fortunately I had picked up a book from the library on how to make toys, and there was a pattern I tweaked. I worked like crazy, but was able to get it done for the photo shoot he had "scheduled" for Friday. The book's called "Wee Wonderfuls" and I know Heather would just LOVE it! I plan to make a few of the other toys for baby gifts and presents for Christmas (so if you get the book Heather, I'm making some of the Mermaids for our Christmas exchange). Just one more project to complete, but it should be a fun one.

I scheduled Logan's 4 month immunizations this morning. I found a Government run clinic that's 15 minutes away and they only charge $5 total for all 5 immunizations he needs. That's better than the $20 copay when we were insured! We applied to get Logan into CHIP (government subsidized insurance), but haven't heard back yet. And since it's time for Logan's next immunizations, I figured it was time we took him in.

Ready for Thanksgiving!

It feels like we've been preparing for Thanksgiving for a week now! And I guess in a way we have. I went shopping last week for everything because I have no desire to go shopping this week at all. I hate shopping to begin with, and I don't want to have to deal with the holiday crowds. So I've got enough food in the fridge to last us a week, as long as the milk lasts.

Monday we cleaned the house and made the Sweet Potato Casserole. Not that the house will stay clean all week... but it was worth a try. Tuesday I worked on the beanbag nativity set I've been making for Christmas. My goal is to have it done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend. I also raked all the leaves in the back yard into a pile and couldn't help but take a few pictures of Logan in them.

Logan loved the crunch of the leaves, but loved to taste them even more! Dave took a homework break to come out and enjoy Logan's first romp in the leaves with us! He insisted in covering Logan in leaves, which only made Logan more inclined to taste them. It was so hard to get Logan to look at the camera because he was so enthralled with the leaves! He ended up with mud on his face, looking like this

Wednesday we'll bake an apple and a peach pie, go to the library, and do the three loads of laundry that's been waiting to get washed! Saturday I went with my sister-in-law Angela to a baby clothing exchange in Provo, and ended up with a huge pile of clothes that need to be washed before Logan can use them. It will be worth all the work, but it's daunting every time I walk into the bedroom and see that pile.

Other happenings this week: Logan discovered the baby in the mirror and has so much fun smiling and "talking" to his reflection. It's too cute to watch. Sometimes it even gets him to stop crying.

We also introduced him to the big bathtub. He's always hated baths, but he's more ok with swimming in the big one than the baby tub. Every time he'll whimper when I put him in, but after a few minutes he's ok. He'll play with his toys a little, but we don't get down to business until he remembers he can kick and splash. I know he is enjoying himself, but his face is such a serious/concentrating face. He'll kick and kick for about a half hour before he's done and we have to wash him up and get him out.

Pumpkin Waffles for Girls Brunch

The girls in my family decided to start up a Girls Brunch once a month since we're all home most of the time. So last Wednesday we had our first one at my house! I made some pumpkin waffles to share, and everyone brough something (fruit, home made granola, muffins, etc).

We chatted about books we've read, exercizing tips, our families, Thanksgiving and Christmas, recipes we've tried recently... Just about everything under the sun! It was tons of fun and I'm looking forward to doing this regularly. We're going to take off for December, but start it back up in January. 

I've been working on the Pumpkin Waffle recipe for a little while now, because I really wanted a good one to have for Thanksgiving breakfast. I might make this a yearly tradition. There were tons of recipes online, and most of them required a million ingredients and just as many steps to complete. I'm sure whipping my egg whites to hard peaks would make for fluffier waffles, but I'm not going to make them if they take way too long.

So I read about 15 recipes, combined ingredients from each, tweaked it a few times, and came up with an easy pancake waffle recipe that has a subtle taste of pumpkin and in my opinion is just fabulous. Especially for this time of year.

Pumpkin Waffles

2 1/2 c. flour

4 t. baking powder

4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. salt

2 c. milk

1/2 15 oz can pumpkin

1/2 c. brown sugar

2 T. butter or margarien melted

2 eggs

Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Add in milk, pumpkin, brown sugar, melted butter, and eggs. Mix until lumps are gone. Pour into preheated waffle iron and cook according to desierd crispyness. The batter can be refridgerated over night for easy cooking!

The pumpkin is subtle in this recipe, so if you're a major pumpkin lover, this might not be the recipe for you. Dave and Heather think it could use a little more pumpkin, but Mom and I both thought it was fabulous this way. And it will make your house smell so good for days!

Millions of bulbs!

This was a productive week for Logan and I. We got all our bulbs planted! We had two home depot 5 gallon buckets full of daffodil bulbs we'd dug up in the summer we needed to replant, 100 red tulips, and a box full of iris bulbs from my grandma we needed to get in the ground. Logan didn't like sitting outside wrapped up in a blanket, so I had to get these done one hour nap at a time.

It might have taken all week, but we got them done by Friday! And just in time for it to start raining/slushing. I can't wait to see how good these flowers look in the spring. When Dave redid our bed, he gave it a two layer effect, and I think that will help show off the flowers. I'm especially excited for the irises! I've always wanted some in our yard, so it will be fun to see what colors we have.

Logan also hit three months this week! He weighed in at 11 lbs 8 oz and measured 23.5 inches. He's just growing like crazy! He's finally in 0 - 3 month old clothes, but I swear he's going to outgrow them soon. Just packing on the lbs lately. Logan's also slept through the night for 2 weeks strait now! Dave and I are SUPER excited about that.

Other than that life has been pretty normal. Dave is starting to feel the crunch of final projects and is ready for the semester to be over. I keep reminding him if he survives this one, and one more he'll be done with school and can just worry about working and coming home to spend time with Logan and I. He's so glad the end is finally in sight.

Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year. Friday night the festivities started by watching a movie with the Plastows. In years past we've watched something "scary", but this year we just watched Transformers 3. Scary to me, but not in the same way. Logan showed off his cute skeleton costume for Grandma & Grandpa before heading to bed (no fussy babies invited).

Monday after Dave got off of school we headed down to Highland to visit with the Brown side of the family. Cousins Andrea (ladybug), and Brier (lion) came down too and they had fun playing with the glow sticks Grandma & Grandpa were handing out.

Right after this picture was taken, Andrea decided she was tired of having these babies laying on her wings and leaning against her so she pushed the two of them over as she attempted to escape! I ran for the little ones, Heather just laughed, and Alison tried to get around me so she could save Andrea for the attack of the leaning babies. Needless to say, it was not happy time for any of the cousins.

Eventually we were able to get all the babies calmed down and get an ok family picture. It's so hard to get a good shot of all of us! Usually Logan's wiggling like crazy, or at leas one of us has our eyes closed.

The rest of the week went by fast. I wasn't working any more, so I was able to get the house back in order, make some meals, and even go to the library for the first time since Logan was born! Also, Logan decided this week to start sleeping through the night. He generally goes from 9pm to 6am. This was fine until daylight savings hit and now he's waking up at 5... so we're going to have to work on that!

Back Home!

My life as a working mom was short lived, and now it's over. I worked a total of 4 days before I went crazy missing my baby! There were more reasons than just that for my quitting, but that's the big one.  Fortunately I didn't have to stress about daycare, since my mom, Dave's mom, and two sister-in-laws were watching Logan while I was away. Lack of sleep played into it (I was getting about 5 hours in 3 and 2 hour chunks per night). But the more I got trained on what I would be doing, the more I realized what work wanted me to do wasn't exactly honest.

My job consisted of creating fake jobs/applications for people to fill out. If they "qualified" for the fake job we sold their information to some company looking for people looking for nursing/plumbing/whatever jobs. If they didn't qualify, we sold their information to schools looking for nursing/plumbing/whatever schools. With so many people needing a job right now, I felt really bad wasting their time with this kind of crap.

It was hard to quit, Dave had to give me several pep talks, and we had to go to the temple the night before. But I feel good about the decision now that it's made. It will be best for our family in the long run. So for the first time since I was 14, I don't have a job indefinitely (since I was 11 if you count my paper route). It's a really strange feeling knowing I don't plan to work for a while.

But it's good too. The house will not be constantly a mess (as it was last week). We will have real food on the table at night (not frozen dinners). We will have our laundry washed and put away ever Wednesday. I might even find the time to plant some bulbs in the front of the yard. Crazy, I know. But most of all, I get to spend every day with this guy:

Changes

I started work again on Monday. I thought I was exhausted before? Right. That's nothing compared to this! I have a new respect for the working mom, but more so for the working single mom. I don't know how people can do this for years! I'm completely exhausted.

I've been given a new job with a new boss. I'm sad to no longer work with my Affiliates, but I'm so glad to have a new boss! Two months before my maternity leave I had gotten a "new" boss and he and I didn't work well together. So I'm glad to be working with Dave (not the husband, my boss) and Dal. I mentioned I would like to work part time when we discussed this change, and I'm hoping that will be possible. We'll see how this week goes though.

I'll start my training this afternoon. Right now I'm just biding my time until the girl I'll be taking over for will have time to start teaching me. She's been really nice about this, and will be moving into a position she's been hoping to take over for a little while now. It's strange not having any work to do when I'm used to being so busy. But maybe I'll run to the bank or something to bide my time until I'm needed. I hate not having anything to do.

I'm busy, busy, shockingly busy!

I swear I never have time to blog any more! Logan keeps me pretty busy, and we've just had a lot going on!

Logan was blessed on October 9th and most of our immediate family was able to be there. We didn't get great pictures (we tried, but had a bad case of closed eyes), so this is the best I've got! First is Logan on the blanket I made him dressed in his baby blessing suit. Dave and I bought the duck in the picture the day before Logan was born.

What can I say, Logan was having a fussy afternoon, but we'll take more family pictures later!

The week after Logan's blessing was spring break. So Dave and I took Logan down to Zions for his first vacation! He cried most of the way down, had two diaper explosions and had to eat twice. Needless to say it was the longest drive to the cabin we've ever made!

But once we got there Logan slept better than he does at home! He slept through the night twice (he's only done that twice now at home, once before, and once two nights ago). He didn't love hiking (hates the baby backpack and doesn't nap well while hiking), but we're breaking him in!

Dave & Logan on Hidden Canyon Trail

We only ended up doing 3 hikes with him: Emerald Pools (he did great), The Overlook (cried the whole hike up, but was good hiking back), and Hidden Canyon (WHAT were we thinking!). We did Hidden Canyon when I was about 5 months pregnant, and I remember it being a little strenuous, but nothing impossible.

Observation Point

Well... it was a lot harder with a baby! Not physically, but the trail is narrow and there are three chained place to cross. Nothing as intense as Angels Landing, but still! I had to stop and feed Logan twice, and let's be honest, it was very difficult to find a place to sit down and feed him on that narrow trail! At the end, Dave went on ahead, because I wasn't comfortable crossing the chains with Logan in my arms. He said it wasn't as pretty as the last time we hiked it (the river and waterfalls had dried up). We learned our lesson!

Dave, Amy & Logan on Hidden Canyon Trail

We also got to bring Logan to my grandparents so they (and Aunt Dorris) could meet Logan. Unfortunately it was fussy hour for the little guy, so they didn't get to see him at his best. Grandpa said he'll hold Logan when he's big enough to teach hearts.

Now we're back, and I'm getting everything ready around the house so I can go back to work next week. I'm really not excited; I'll miss Logan like crazy, but unfortunately a necessary evil for a little while. I've got about 5 frozen meals in the freezer (mostly home made) that will help us get through next week, and now I'm working on getting the house spotless! That way I don't have to worry about house work or cooking while adjusting.

Two Months!

Logan had his two month check-up and is now in the 10th percentile! So all that eating is paying off. He's now 9 lbs 12 oz and 21.5 inches. The doctor says he looks perfect! He had to get his immunization shots, which was so sad! They made him drink one; he didn't like that but he didn't start crying yet. But when they gave him three shots in his little legs, he cried like crazy! It was so sad, I had to feed him to calm him down. And then his legs were sore for the next few days.

In other news, I won my first online contest! I thought it was my first contest until I remembered winning a radio contest back in my first year of college. But I don't think that counts since it was a school radio station, my friend was the DJ, and so few people listened to the station that it hardly counts!

One of the blogs I follow had a contest to win a free Martha Stuart book (with crafts for all of the major holidays). All you had to do to enter was share a crafting memory. It could be funny, a disaster, touching, whatever made for a good story. There were five winners and I was one of them!

My prize winning story was when I was in Merry Miss and we were doing a craft for Mother's Day. Tanya Moe was struggling with her craft, and in frustration she turned to me and said "Amy, do this for me or I'll beat you up!"

Now, if you know Tanya, you know she really wouldn't beat me up, intact, she threatened of this several times in our childhood, and not once was I scared she actually would. She was just frustrated by her weakness. But anyway, this  is the prize winning story that won out over all the "When I was young I made xxxxxx with my grandma. Now that she's dead I cherish the reminder of our time together.

October Means Halloween

The past two weeks have been pretty busy for the Plastow household! Logan decided he needed to eat more (30 minutes per side every two hours), but this week he's back down to his normal 20 minutes per side every 3 hours. Which is good, because I couldn't get anything done when he was eating that much!

I did learn to hand sew while nursing, so I've been working on all kinds of hand sewing projects. I was able to finish Heather's baby Brier's crochet blanket this way. It turned out pretty cute! I also designed and finished a Halloween door hanging for the back door.

This project ended up costing $3.33 total. I got most of the felt free from my Grandma Yoder (just had to buy the orange), the ribbon I had left over from our wedding (used it to tie my bouquet), so I just had to buy plastic canvas to make the felt more sturdy and the thick black string. This made me want to create something out of felt for Thanksgiving (if I find the time).

Finishing this decoration made me feel the intense need to decorate for Halloween! I bought some candy corn in honor of my mom and put them in a glass jar on the coffee table. I pulled out our autumn wreath to put on the front door, put out a basket of decoration leaves and fruit I found last year after halloween for $2, and found some cool squash at the grocery store that I suppose you could eat, but let's be honest, these are going to be decorating the house until they rot! They're too cute to eat.

We've also taken to dressing Logan up in a variety of  costumes to practice for the big night. Dave's favorite is putting one of my bandannas on Logan's head and calling him a pirate. My favorite is this glow in the dark skeleton costume

What can I say, we had so much fun that day taking pictures! Logan has started reacting to our smiles, so it's now a lot easier to get cute pictures of him smiling or giggling. He's also started having "conversations" with us. If we're talking to him, he'll coo back when there's a pause in the conversation. It's so cute and we have tons of fun just chatting with him and getting him to smile.

This Sunday is Logan's baby blessing so I've been working on altering his baby blessing outfit to fit him perfectly. He's pretty skinny, so I had to take it in on the sides, and I raised the legs a few inches so he doesn't get his feet caught inside them. It should turn out well, and should be done by Sunday. I think for our next boy I'll just make him a little suit (or maybe a little tux with a bow-tie if I get ambitious). From the alterations on this one, I don't think it would be too hard.

Is there a little Hobbit in you?

As I sat yesterday feeding Logan yet again, I realized my son eats like a Hobbit! He enjoys breakfast (4am), second breakfast (7am), elevensies (10am), lunchon (1pm), afternoon tea (4pm), dinner (7pm), supper (10pm), midnight snack (1am), and sometimes even  more frequent meals!

He tends to eat non stop for 45 minutes to an hour. I can't believe how much time I spend feeding him. AND if he falls asleep or is in any way distracted during feeding, it takes even longer for him to eat. So he not only eats with the frequency of a hobbit, but also the volumes a Hobbit eats. But he's putting on some lbs, so I won't complain too much. I love that he's getting chubby cheeks. It's too cute.

Today my project is to peel and dry our nectarines. We have a tree that produces fruit, but the skin is less than desirable. Last year it had a hard shell that was tough to bite through, this year it's better, but still not something I would want to bite into. So my solution is to peel and dry the fruit so we can eat it as a snack or put it in granola bars. We'll see how they turn out.

I've been spending my "spare time" working on Brier's baby blanket. I remembered why I'd taken a break on it. I didn't like how part of it was turning out, and after redoing it a few times, I gave up for a while. Now I've decided the frustrating part isn't needed, so I'm doing my best to get the rest of it done this week. It should still be cute when done.

Sunday I'll be teaching Gospel Doctrine for the first time since Logan was born, so we'll see how that goes! It's been nice to have a break, but I've missed teaching. It's so fun to prepare the lessons, lead discussion, and see what I can learn in the process. Last week Logan didn't need to eat during class, although the week before he did. So we'll see if I can delay his 7am feeding long enough so he won't be hungry until class is over at 11. We'll see if my little Hobbit can handle it!

The week of Spaghetti Sauce

This week has been a crazy one! Monday I told myself I'd take a day off to do something fun, and here it is, Thursday and I don't think I'll get a day off this week. Man, being a mom is a lot more work than I thought it would be!

We've been blessed with an abundance of tomatoes in our garden this year! I'm done with the dicing of salsa, and since the tomatoes have kept pouring in, I decided to make Spaghetti Sauce with what we have in the fridge from last week (about a Walmart bag full). 

I used my mom's Italian Spaghetti Sauce recipe, multiplied it by 4, removed the meat (since I don't have a pressure cooker for processing) and added a few ingredients to make it a veggie sauce (carrots, squash, zucchini, mushrooms and purple bell peppers). It made 11 jars worth of sauce. According to Dave it's "not the best sauce you ever made, but probably the second best". 

Our garden is far from being done producing tomatoes, so I may have to do this again! It ended up costing something like 30 or 40 cents a jar to make (because I had all the veggies except the mushrooms, just had to buy that, tomato paste and lids for canning).

Wednesday Heather and Clancy had their baby girl Briar! She's 4 lbs 10 oz and is so cute. She has a little brown hair, and the cutest little face. I've already decided Logan and she will have to be best friends. They're only a month apart, so they'll go through all the stages of childhood together. I started a baby blanket for Briar, and now I HAVE to finish it.

Sunday we took Logan to church for the first time! He did well (ate through Sunday School, and slept the rest of the time). We're planning to have his baby blessing on October 9th, and the bishop is getting everything set up so we can do so.

Logan's been good this week, just eating like crazy and doing his best to catch up with his cousins in the weight department. He's got a ways to go, but he's doing his best!

Sassy Salsa Recipe

For as long as I can remember my Dad has loved two things about summer: working in his garden and making his own salsa. Well, he loved more than just that about summer, but that's what this is going to be about! 


Dad would always make two kinds of salsa. One he called Sweet Salsa because it was more mild and the one us kids liked, and the other he called his Sassy Salsa because it was far more flavorful and had peppers!


Over the past 30 years he's improved his recipe, and this year he gave a copy to Dave and I so we could try our hands at it! Next time we make this, we would add more Bell Pepper and Onions, but the base flavor is FABULOUS! Dave might have already eaten 7 of the 48 jars we made.

Sassy Salsa 13 C. peeled, tomatoes - crushed with blender 2 large sweet peppers(red or green) 2 bell peppers 20 jalapeno peppers - chopped and seeds taken out 3 large chili peppers - chopped and seeds taken out 8 crushed cloves of garlic 1 1/2 c. onions - chopped 4 1/2 teas. salt 3 1/2 c. apple cider vinegar 3 (12 oz) tomato paste

When you're actually making this, you'll have to adapt it to what you had on hand (ex. for our first batch we had 15 cups of tomatoes, so we added a little extra of everything and with our second batch we had 20 cups and ran out of jalapenos, so we substituted with other peppers). But it all works out! Just be creative.

Also, yesterday Logan was officially a month old! I think he's going through a growth spurt because he wants to eat every hour and is pretty fussy if I don't feed him immediately. But he's so cute, although it's exhausting for me, he's worth the work!


He's now 7 lbs 4 oz, which is a lb more than his birth weight of 6 lbs 1 oz. So he's packing it on and doesn't fit in his premie clothes or diapers any more! Just newborn sizes from here on out. Maybe by month 2 he'll actually fit into his 0 - 3 month clothes. He's generally a happy baby. Full of smiles and loves to cuddle.

Surviving Week 3

This past week has been long! I'm starting to get the hang of being a mom, and although Dave and I are still exhausted, we are getting used to that too. We now both fall asleep when we watch movies. So I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

It's been a very not healthful week for me! Last Friday I'm pretty sure I broke my toe. I kicked the wall accidentally when rushing to try to get Logan to an appointment (we were running late), and it's now black and hurts to move. So I've got it taped to the toe beside it and hopefully it will heal well. I haven't seen a doctor, because there's not really anything they can do for toes, and then I'd have yet another appointment I'd have to get Logan to on time. See the endless cycle there?

Monday I thought I was going to die of Migraine! I used to have killer migraine headaches every once in a while when I was super stressed, but haven't had one since I got pregnant. I could feel it coming, but haven't taken medication for 9 months now, so I didn't even think to take anything until well after Dave got home. Logan and I just laid on the ground for most of the day and I would feed him when he started crying and I would sleep until then. I found it easier to be on the ground because when he spit his pacifier out of his mouth, I was right beside him to plop it back in. It was a pretty pitiful day, but we survived!

Yesterday was a ton better. I got to finish up the quilting squares I've been working on for the class I'm taking with Mom! They turned out really well and I like 3 out of the 5 a lot. I didn't pick the colors, so there is one that is just ok, and one that I really hate. Something about putting purple in with fall themed colors drives me a little crazy (purple and orange?!?). But oh well, when the whole quilt is put together I'm sure I'll like the end results.

As for this Labor Day weekend? We've got big plans to make some more salsa (we have two grocery store bags full of tomatoes and another bag full of peppers and bell peppers). We're hoping to do this on our own, so hopefully it goes well. This will be the first time we attempt without the help of our parents. Besides that we'll probably make it to a park some time, and I know Dave wants to do some painting some time this weekend (the gazebo is in desperate need of a coat).

That's pretty much been our past week! It's all about Logan again, but hey, that's going to be life for a little while. I did the math and I spend at least 8 hours a day (sometimes up to 12 hours) just feeding him! That doesn't count time I spend changing him, playing with him and putting him on his belly for tummy time. That's a full time job of just feedings. Add that to the 5 hours of sleep I get a night, and I don't know how anyone has more than one kid. It actually makes me wonder how in the world my Grandma had time to take care of 10 kids when one was an infant!

Two Weeks Old!

I swear my life now revolves around Logan! Today Dave got home and I realized I had woken up, gotten ready, fead Logan, took him to the Doctor, fead him again, ate lunch, took a nap, fead him again, and that was pretty much my day. Holy cow little guy! But at least he's cute...

The Doctor's appointment went well! Logan is now 6 lbs 4 oz, so he's gained back all the weight he lost in the hospital and has even put on 3 oz. The doctor says we can now stop waking him up to make sure he's eating. So if he decides to sleep through the night, we can too! Horay! He also lost his belly button scab over the weekend, and the Dr said it looked like everything was healing well.

Most of the time Logan's a quiet little cuddler! He loves to be held, but is also content to lay in his basinette and stair out the window (probably can't see anything yet, just the bright light of the sun). He's such a good little guy.

We've made it out of the house a few times in the past week. We went on a few walks, took Logan to the golf course down the street from the house and had a picnic, and took him over to my parents house to make some salsa. That's pretty much all we've been up to lately. Next week we'll introduce Logan to both our jobs.

Logan Aaron Plastow!

Monday, August 8th at 6:18pm Logan Aaron Plastow joined our family! He was 6 lbs 1 oz, 18 inches, and 100% adorable! He has a little bit of blondish hair, dark gray eyes, and a little button nose.

He's such a great baby! He doesn't really cry much (except when we bath him or make him wake up to eat). He loves to cuddle and is always content to be held, which we're doing an awful lot of lately. We can't really help but want to just hold him all the time.

He had his days and nights confused for the first couple days, but he slept most of the night last night (just waking up for 3 feedings), and has been pretty active today. So we're really hoping he will now sleep through the nights mostly.

Dave and I are so exhausted, but it's been great being parents for 4 days now. We're looking forward to all kinds of future adventures with our new little guy.

I hate waiting!

It feels like we've spent the whole day waiting for  6:00 so we can call to find out what time to come in to start the induction process. We went to church, ate a huge lunch (wasn't supposed to eat or drink after lunch today), took a little nap, went on a walk, checked our bags, read a few Ensign articles, checked the house for the millionth time to make sure it was clean, I showered, painted my toes and ran out of things to do.

So it's finally 6:00 and we finally spoke with the hospital. They'll be ready for us at 7:30. So one and a half hour more of waiting! I'm just dyeing here to get there and get things going. We've had a pretty relaxing weekend so far, and feel mostly ready for our little guy to be joining us soon.

Friday we celebrated our anniversary early. We made some chicken alfredo with broccoli and garlic bread, then we headed over to Barnes and Noble with a gift card in hand. We bought the complete Sherlock Holmes collection, a book with italian cooking recipes, and a little duck stuffed animal that was too cute and only $2! After that we went home and watched No Reservations, and to Dave's delight "camped out" in the living room (ie. set up an air mattress on the floor and pretended we were getting our summer camping trip). It was a casual year, but we had fun!

So now we just have to find something to fill the next hour of our time, and we can slowly meander over to the hospital. Hopefully we'll have great pictures to share of our new little addition soon!

Induction: August 8th

I went to the doctor for my weekly checkup today and we discussed (for about the 4th time now) induction. My doctor's been monitoring our baby for over a month now (we have weekly non-stress tests and every other week ultrasounds). They were concerned because the baby dropped from the 23rd percentile to the 15th percentile, and is now in the 14th percentile.

I've had a sinking feeling I'd be induced since they started monitoring, it was just a matter of time. I told my doctor when we started monitoring I wanted to give the baby as long as healthily possible to grow in the womb before being induced. If he's already small, let's give him as much time as possible to pack on some lbs.

Basically our visits have gone "well, you're looking good this week, let's hold off scheduling an induction for another week." Today we got my last ultrasound info back, and the ultrasound doctor (my absolute favorite of the three I've met with) had pointed out certain indicators that the placenta was deteriorating. Her recommendation was that I could hold off on induction until my due date, but not go over that.

This is because if the placenta deteriorates too much, and then is put through labor, it will detach and an emergency c-section results. I'd much rather be induced than have a c-section, and since the baby is looking around 6 lbs now, he's probably big enough to be born healthy.

So unless I go into labor this week, Sunday night at 7 I'll go in and have cirvidal administered to prepare my body for labor, we'll spend the night, and Monday morning they'll start administering pitocin to induce the labor. My doctor is on call Sunday night, so if anything goes wrong, or if drug #1 puts me into labor, she'll be already at the hospital (bonus). She said we should have a baby by 5pm Monday. So it looks like we'll be having an anniversary baby (8/8/11)! We'll do something fun this weekend to celebrate early, since we will not likely be up for much Monday night.

Last day of work!

Being pregnant leads to so many awkward conversations! Some I walk away from thinking they're just funny (like explaining to an insistent programmer the biological and medical reasons why it's not possible to get pregnant a week after I have the baby), to the retarded questions, and all the way to the ones I tell the co-workers I'm not comfortable discussing.

This week the HR ladies approached me about finding a room to pump in when I get back. Recently some law was passed that requires them to provide a room with a lock that isn't a bathroom for pumping milk. So they let me know they had been thinking about it and had decided the Safe would be the best place (our office used to be a bank, so think old school walk in safe with counting tables). I would head in, have someone outside lock the door for me, and call them when I wanted out!

Because I'm totally concerned that I'm just going to go stir crazy while pumping and require someone to make sure I'm locked away safe... So I told them I wasn't comfortable being locked in from the outside and just trusting that nobody would come see why the safe was locked. Besides, there's a peep hole. Kinda creepy if you ask me!

Second try, the server room! I would have to walk through the programmer's space every three hours to pump and they would have to put a lock on the door so none of the programmers needing to access the servers would accidentally walk in. I conceded that it would probably work, but wasn't too excited about the idea.

Finally they came back saying they talked to our building manager, and there's already a designated office space in the basement for nursing. It has a lock, no windows and a couch. Perfect. Good thing they talked with the office manager, because I'm liking this option!

In all honesty, I wasn't really pushing for this. I was fine with going down to the basement bathroom where nobody ever goes, or even into my car back seat in the parking garage with a nursing shield, but it's nice that they're watching out for me.

There are so many things to think about with this little guy joining us soon that I never considered before (like using disposable diapers until the belly button scab falls off). I'm sure there will be a million more to figure out before we're done, but for now I'm taking it as it comes! I'm just excited that today is my last day of work and I can now focus on getting ready!

Broccoli Beef in a half hour

I've been so exhausted, but still feel the intense need to eat healthy. This has been a major challenge since preparing healthy foods usually takes time. So I've enlisted Dave's help! Every other Thursday night we browse that weeks sales papers to decide on our menu for the next two weeks. Last week we did this Wednesday before our trip to St George, and it went something like this:

Amy - Ooh, cherries are on sale at Sunflower Market! We'll have to get a few pounds of those!

Dave - And look, broccoli is on sale there too! I love fresh broccoli!

Amy - (silence)

Now being my mother's daughter, I couldn't figure out what we would DO with 2 lbs of fresh broccoli. I didn't have any plans to  bring a veggie tray to an event, so why in the world would we buy it?!? But my silence did nothing to curb Dave's enthusiasm.

Dave - We could make Broccoli Beef! I love that dish

Amy - I guess I can look for a recipe online. But if it's too complex, it's not making next week's menu

So I started digging. I went through probably 7 different online recipes from the painfully simple but not tasty sounding, to the ones with gorgeous pictures and 200 ingredients that I would never use on any other recipe. Eventually I decided to combine an easy one with some of the more simple ingredients of a more involved one (ie. what we already had on hand).

Before purchasing the broccoli, I stepped back and had Dave commit to help me with the prep work. We'd need to slice and marinate the beef the night before, as well as for ease of cooking the day of, chop up the broccoli. He agreed, and we have now discovered one of our new favorite dishes! And because we prepped the day before, it only took a half hour to actually prepare the day of. Not too shabby.

I didn't take a picture, because I wasn't expecting much from this meal, but here's the recipe:

Broccoli Beef

1/4 c soy sauce

2 t oil

1/3 c white grape juice

1 t sugar

2 t cornstarch

¾ lb beef round steak (cut 1/8 inch thick)

3 T oil

1 slice ginger root (or caramelized ginger from the spice isle)

1 garlic clove (diced)

1 - 2 lb broccoli (cut into florets)

Whisk together soy sauce, oil, grape juice, sugar, and cornstarch in a bowl. Stir until dissolved. Place steak pieces into a shallow bowl, pour the mixture over the meat and stir to coat well. Marinate 30 minutes to overnight.

Heat vegetable oil in a wok over medium high heat, and stir in the ginger and garlic. Let them sizzle in the hot oil for about 1 minute to flavor the oil, then remove and discard. Stir the broccoli, and toss and stir in the hot oil until bright green and almost tender (7 minutes). Remove the broccoli from the wok. Set aside.

Pour a little more oil in the wok. Stir and toss the beef with the marinade until the sauce thickens, and the meat is no linger pink (about 5 minutes). If the sauce doesn't thicken, add more cornstarch. Return the cooked broccoli to the wok, and stir until the meat and broccoli are heated through (3 minutes).

Serve over rice or noodles.

We ate this over ramen last night (actually better than it sounds), and are planning to eat the leftovers over rice tonight. It made 4 servings for us. It's a winner, as is prepping the meal the night before! I usually get home exhausted, cook dinner, Dave gets home, we eat, Dave cleans up while I relax a little, and now we've started prepping the next day's dinner together. Then we can relax by reading (if I want to put Dave to sleep), or by watching a movie (if I want to fall asleep). Pretty laid back, but it's what we need right now!

Wedding and Work!

It felt like the beginning of this pregnancy went so slow, but now that I'm down to my last 3 weeks time is just flying by! I've got way too many unfinished projects! I have too much cleaning to do! I just can't get caught up! And it doesn't help that by the time I make it home at night, I'm so exhausted I don't feel like doing anything more than eating and watching a movie (or just going to sleep for the night).

But the end is in sight! I've told work I need to start Maternity leave on August 1st, so two more weeks of work. If the baby cooperates, maybe he'll decide not to make his appearance until I get caught up on a few things. I'm not asking for much, just a week to clean and catch up. And if it's healthy for him, I'd give him a little longer!

Part of the problem stems from how busy we've been lately. We haven't had a weekend to stop and work for a while now. Something always seems to be going on! Last weekend we were in St George for Dave's brother Jon's wedding. It was great to be down there with all the family, but now I'm trying to play catchup on everything! I didn't get our grocery shopping done, so we'll have to do that tonight (if we want to eat for the next two weeks).

The wedding went well. It was in the St George Temple, so we stayed at the cabin with a few of Dave's siblings (Blane & Angela, Lucinda & Aaron, and Tim). Friday the gang went to hike Kanarriville falls, and I hung out at Grandma & Grandpa Yoders. They had tons of fun, even made it to the rock water slide and took full advantage of that! Saturday was all things wedding (family breakfast, sealing at noon, and reception at 7). We were able to squeeze in some swimming between the sealing and reception! It was great since it was so hot outside. 

So this week it will be back to the grind. I'll be trying to get the house cleaned, finish up stuff for Heather's baby shower (next Saturday), trying to find a place that can deliver a load of dirt for the front flower bed, and trying to convince myself I want to clean out the root cellar. Maybe I can convince Dave he wants to head up the last one at least! It's the only one that's actually labor intensive, and I could use a break from that.

4th of July and catching up!

Life has been so busy lately! I swear I don’t know where the summer has gone. We’ve been busy with yard work and baby preparation. The yard work is never ending (Dave’s project), but I’m at the point this summer where I can’t help with much of it any more.

Our garden is doing well, we get a little bowl full of strawberries about every other day, we have some green tomatoes growing, killer onions, a few peppers and some green raspberries that are going to be so tasty! Our strawberries are small, but so tasty!

Dave decided several months ago what our front yard really needed was a raised flower bed in the front, so we’ve been slowly putting that in. The structure is put together, now all it needs is to be filled with dirt and for us to replant our daffodil bulbs in it (waiting for the fall to tackle that project). It looks good so far, but will look even better when we get something flowering in there.

We’ve now got most of the baby prep done (my project). We bought a curtain rod a few weeks ago while on an Ikea shopping trip with my Aunt Kathryn ($15). She was visiting from North Carolina while dropping her son Emil off at college, and of course that warranted a trip to the big blue store! So now I just need to get the curtains and put them on the rod, and everything is pretty much done in there.

This weekend we took a trip down to the Cabin for the 4^th of July. It was relaxing and fun, although the drive was killer! And I want to do this again in 2 weeks?  We did a little hiking, searched for petrified wood (got a huge piece for the front yard), visited with my mom’s side of the family (Sunday BBQ with the uncles, aunts, and grandparents), and generally relaxed.

We went down to Kanarriville Falls and got to go see the waterfall and slot canyon. It was our first time going, and it’s definitely a hike we’ll want to do again when I’m not pregnant. We hiked up to the first falls, and even trekked up the make shift ladder to the second falls, but didn’t complete the 3 total miles of the trail (it was 104 out and by that point were in serious need of some Dairy Queen). 

Also, we had my niece Andrea with us, and although she loved the water, she had a harder time with the heat and the hike, so we didn’t want to stay too long!

So things have been pretty crazy for us! Work’s been pretty rough for me lately, which consumes a lot of my time and energy, but in 4 – 5 weeks I’ll get a long break from that. So I’m just hanging in there for now. I can survive another month! Crazy that we’ll have a baby in about a month!

The baby room is officially done!

We've been projecting around the nursery! I didn't love how the furniture was placed previously, so I was hesitant on hanging up our pictures or do anything that would leave a mark. A few weeks ago my sister Heather sent out picture of her nursery, and it motivated me to rearrange yet again. Now I just love the layout, so I've started hanging up pictures, calendars, etc. 

Dave made the cutest hanging shelf for the baby room! I hung it above the crib and placed the pooh pictures he painted on it with the 4 classic pooh stuffed animals on it as well. It looks just fabulous! It was intended to go over the window, but looked too cute over the crib on the longest wall of the room.

We were also given an antique bedside table that Dave refinished for me! When we got it, it was painted this horrible 70's green color, and it had all kinds of dings and dents on the side that showed it used to be painted white. But when I saw it, I envisioned this sitting beside the rocking chair in the baby room with a low wattage lamp on it. So Dave stripped it, sanded it, and white washed it. It turned out just perfect!

I wasn't a big fan of Dave's plan to white wash it originally, but it ended up looking good with the wood grain just barely peaking out of the wood.He's got a great knack for wood working so I really should learn to trust his judgment on these things.

Also, I've had all the supplies out to finish sewing a new cushion for the rocking chair for several months, and yesterday I sat down and actually finished making it. I've been waiting to do it because the material I chose for it was too thin, so I was avoiding sewing it onto another piece of material. But it ended up turning out great.

Also, my Mom finished making all the bedding for the nursery and gave it to us a few weeks ago! Doesn't the quilt look just perfect with the light greens the nursery is decorated? The crib is on the wall to the left of the rocking chair  and the little end table now, and it works so much better there than before.

That's pretty much the last thing I wanted to get done for the baby room. So we're now officially ready to have a baby move into our house! Too bad we have two more months before he should be joining us.

Life as a Daymaker

Yesterday I had a revelation. It's the little things in life that either make or break your day. When someone goes out of their way for you, it just makes the day go better. When they are selfish and make your life harder, it can turn your day sour fast. This isn't REALLY anything new, but I had several examples of this come up yesterday that lead me to these thoughts.

First, one of the business associates I work with gave me a call yesterday. He really prefers emailing, and I generally only hear from him over the phone when something major is wrong. So when I saw his number, my stomach started to churn. I knew I didn't have time to clean up a major problem, but picked up anyway. He had called to tell me he had two NBA playoff tickets he'd purchased for me and a friend to use, expecting me to attend a certain conference. By the time he called, he knew I wouldn't be attending, but since he wasn't able to find anyone else to use the tickets, he wanted to offer them to me to give to a co-worker or someone else.

This made me smile because:

1. he valued our association enough to buy tickets worth a lot of money

2. even though he knew I couldn't use them, instead of selling them he offered to let me use them

3. it just made my day

Right off the bat I thought of two of my co-workers that were attending the conference that would love to go. One is the most hard core basketball fan in the world, and the other used to work for the Utah Jazz and loves sports in general. So I offered the tickets to these two and made their day! I could see their faces light up as I explained the situation. They talked about how excited they were to go in meetings (driving jealousy from the general male population).

Second, when I got home from an extremely long day at work, I found a chocolate cake, bagels, and a loaf of french bread on my back steps. There was a post-it note on the cake saying "Happy Birthday Amy! Frank". Which made me smile. I didn't know who Frank was right off the bat (I know at least 7 Franks), but it was nice to know one of the 7 was thinking of me a few days before my birthday. It ended up being an elderly couple from church that attend my Gospel Doctrine class, even though I don't really know them well. And Frank forgot to add his wife's name to the post-it!

I started thinking about a book I read about 8 years ago "Life as a Daymaker". It's about finding ways to bring joy and hope to people around you. Great book; I think I'll read it again. The author, David Wagner, really is committed to this. He gave me a copy of the book as I was on a plane home for Christmas one year. 

Since I've had this revelation and tied it back to this book, I've been more determined to let the little things slide and go out of my way to make the life of those around me easier. I've been so focused on getting my projects done lately that I haven't stepped back to look out for others lately. Hopefully this will change things!

"No matter what I face each day, I remain determined to find a way to bring joy and hope to people around me. I focus on having calmness, compassion, humor, and a positive attitude." - David Wagner