OK Visit

In an attempt to get a quick get away in before school starts (which will be Aug 5th), Andy and I headed to OKC to see our Okie friends.

Saturday was spent in Norman at Wade and Meghan's house to celebrate the July birthdays.

The birthday kids.
The boys

The girls.

Moms to be. Mel is due in December.

The evening was spent with the boys playing games and us girls chatting it up in any room that didn't include husbands!

Sunday we headed to Marlow, OK about an hour and a half southwest of OKC, to Chrisie's brother's house for a shrimp boil...yep I said a shrimp boil in Oklahoma. Chrisie and Faron have done a great job of taking notes while attending crawfish boils here in south Louisiana....the shrimp were great!

Andy and Cole getting in a game of pool before it was time to eat.

Chrisie and Faron getting it done!

That evening we headed to our friends the Miller's to see their new place in Marlow...it's beautiful. The boys went to their lake to do some fishing while us girls stay home and dealt with a little thing called Bull Nettle...yeah, I had never heard of it. Check out Mandy's blog here to get the full story. Let me just say that those country Mama's (Mandy & Chrisie) were rock stars in dealing with that situation!!! Who knew oatmeal could be more than a cholesterol reducer!

As always, we had a great time. However, the car ride not so much fun for me...felt like I was going to lose it at any moment...only felt well when I was sleeping...I slept a lot!

1st Doctor's Appt. 6 Weeks

Well, today was my first Dr. appointment...it went well, pretty uneventful actually. The nurse asked a ton of questions about diseases and disorders I had never heard of and was wondering if I should know of them and then I met with my doctor...Dr. Whitaker. She is my new doctor...my old Ob/Gyn has decided to only be a Gyn...so now I am with Dr. Whitaker - I really liked her and her nurse, so I will be sticking with her. Due date is still March 20th.

My next appointment will be on Monday Aug. 10th at 4:00 and this will be when I have my first sonogram and we will get to hear the heartbeat.

So far, I have been really lucky with not being sick....just tired and a few moments of "yuckiness" that is usually cured with a granola bar..no mad dashes to the toilet...thank goodness!

Still Reading...

So I picked this little "chick Lit" novel, as my good friend Jess would call it, last week while in Barnes & Noble for $4.98 on the bargain books table...not a bad price and not a bad read. I finished it yesterday! Go me!

I also picked up this book...which was recommended by Amy from her Bookworm blog...check it out if you are looking for something to read.And then of course what every pregnant mother must have...the book of all books...the OMG is this all really true source for soon to be moms....I mean really, I had to put this down a few times due to information overload! Now, I just pick it up and read bits and pieces so as to not freak out...I haven't even turned to the back for the childbirth part!!!

And next on my reading list...Belly Laughs, Michelle has let me borrow her copy. I am really looking forward to reading this book. I have heard a number of people talk about it but I am trying to wait a little until I am really feeling pregnant...right now I just feel like I won the jackpot by not having a menstrual cycle for a month!!!

Cousins

Meet Sydnee & her cousin Ike!

Apparently Katie (Andy's sister) has been trying for a while now to explain to a 3 year old what a cousin is. Since she will now have a human cousin, Katie figured it would be much easier for Syd to comprehend right?!?! Well, now Sydnee wants to be the Aunt to our child in stead of a cousin!

I only wish I could hear these conversations first hand!

Testing, Testing...

ONE.....

TWO.....

THREE.....

WE ARE PREGNANT!!

I really had all intentions of waiting to blog about our exciting news AFTER I had gone to the doctor....but as you can see by the excitement from my husband's face...making four days after our first pregnancy test was a major task...we even talked about only telling our families, well....

After my afternoon nap...oh, you get to have those when you are pregnant--GUILT FREE--it's in my book...I can nap when I want as long as I want...woo hoo!! anyway, I digress....Andy informs me that he has made a post on FACEBOOK that he is going to be a Daddy!!! UGH!! I was going to be the first to tell the whole wide world on my blog (of which he says I only have four readers...damn good ones at that!! not to mention people that I ACTUALLY KNOW!!)...and on Facebook of all things- he knows how I am so not a facebooker...good think my baby making hormones where in check when he laid this news on me...so here it is: "The Baby Post" I was so hoping for it to be more poetic, more thought out...just more.

My first doctor's appointment is Tuesday July 28th...and that's a whole other story...look for that later. In the meantime, we ask for prayers for a healthy baby and a wonderful pregnancy.

Look Who's Cookin'! - Chicken

Well, I am still at it...trying new stuff to make life in the kitchen easier and a little different.

Chicken breast go on sale here at the Winn Dixie ALL the time buy one, get one free...sooooo we've been eating ALOT of chicken...grilled chicken to be exact and if I have to have a another week of 5 different flavors of grilled chicken...I might scream...who am I kidding I already did that!!! Anyway, since it is such a good price for chicken and I really don't have anything against chicken I decided if I was going to have to eat chicken all the time we better find a different way to eat chicken! So I started with this idea which I got from here.

That led me to this: Chicken-Macaroni Casserole

And then this: Marshall Field's Chicken Salad Sandwiches
And then some Chicken Tacos...no recipe, just a taco seasoning pack.

I have really enjoyed not eating grilled chicken in a ten different flavors. I actually had for baggies of shredded chicken, but we left one out for Andy to use during the week to make chicken quesidillas for lunch. I will definitely be shredding some more chicken to have ready to eat and prevent the grilled chicken overload.

Reading

Well, you know that I am numbers person...after all, I am a math teacher. So reading...yeah, not so much my thing. I can't actually remember the last book that I actually finished! I am more of a newspaper, magazine, blogger, short to the point (unlike this post ;) kind of reader.

In my recent adult life I have held in my possession a few books: Andy got me Bill O'Reilly's "Cultural Warriors"...I started it- didn't finish. Mrs. Peggy (Andy's mom) got me O'Reilly's "Kids Are Americans Too" - started it - didn't finish (sorry Mrs. Peggy). Oh and then I got Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover"- GREAT BOOK...but didn't finish it, I'll have to go back and finish when my "snowball" is melted.

I always think people sound so sophisticated when they say "I just read blah, blah, blah" or "The book was so much better than the movie" or so relaxed and stress free when the shoot off with "I just love to curl up with a good book"

Just before school got out for summer, in the teacher's lounge - ya know the place where teachers go and just lounge during their free time in the school day- one of our English teacher's had cleaned out her room and placed some books out -"free to a good home".

Before I picked this book up, I thought to myself...am I really a "good home" for this book? Would I be doing the "reading world" an injustice if I took this book and it just collected dust at my house? What if a real reader wanted it? I picked it up and put it back down a couple of times before I actually took it with me...I mean really, it was free...I wasn't going to lose anything by taking and it's not like the whole free world hasn't already read it....like 5 years ago!!!

It took me a couple of weeks of summer, well, the whole month of June, before I actually started to read the book and well I am proud to say that I have finished the book ...seriously the whole book. I think I liked it so much because it took place in Louisiana and Sidda was close to my age and it was somewhat relatable...no aliens or witches ya know, real life (this is why I was never an English major my left brain wouldn't allow it).

I am now looking forward to watching the movie so I can be one of those sophisticated people that read and then turn my nose up to the movie's injustice to the book! (I bet the movie is a 99 cent rental a Blockbuster by now!)

Nothing like curling up with a good book and your best four legged friend!

Now, what to read next?

Look Who's Cookin'!

If you know me, I am not one of those people who say "Oh, I just love to cook and be in the kitchen!" But I give it an honest attempt...every now and then. So in blog world, I have found few new places that I am really loving right now and thought I would share. If...err I mean when I attempt to cook some of these I will share with you my experience and let you know if it was worth it. Since I have just learned how to use the linky thing on this site there will be no copying and pasting...Just click on the title below

Mexican Stuffed Shells

This was really good!

If you look at the recipe the author says she freezes it first and then takes it out at a later date to cook it. I actually just cooked it right away. However, with just the two of us (I ate three shells and Andy ate 5), it was WAY too much food.

We will eat on it twice this week..however not back to back nights (only b/c we are freaks and don't like eating the same thing 2 nights in a row).

I think that next time I will freeze half of it before I bake it and then I will have another meal ready to go for the next month.

Oh and my taste tester...he approved of the recipe and then politely said "but not for another month or so"...poor thing, he knows how I think:

"Oh, oh, he likes it, then we must have it every Tuesday!"

July 4th Weekend

Thursday:

Back: Andy and Paul

Front: (L-R) Me, Sarah, Mrs. Susan, Mr. Bowen
We headed out to Hammond, La Thursday night to meet up with long time family friends the Morris', who were passing through on their way to Bogalousa, LA (yes, that's really a town name) from San Antonio. We met up at The Crescent Bar. Mr. Bowen and my dad were friends since the 6th grade!!! This is the bar that my dad and all of his Sigma Tau Gamma brothers hung out at during college and is still a popular place for all Sig Taus old and young. It's so cool to see pics of my dad and his buddies hanging on the wall of this place...it's a special group of men!

Friday:

Andy and I decided to do a little patriotic site seeing here in Baton Rouge. We visited the USS Kidd and veteran memorial at the Mississippi River.

Andy getting in some shooting practice on the barges coming down river.

It was so HOT!!! We went through the warship pretty quickly...not much reading of the plaques posted...mostly a "Look at this"..."cool" moving on kind of tour in the middle of the summer in south Louisiana. We should try again in the fall or spring.

Saturday:

A toast to Airman Mike Dumestre and Soldier Jeff Dumestre! Love you both!!

Jamie, myself and Jocelyn being silly at Big Mike's house. We spent the afternoon and most of the evening at Mike's house to watch the Daytona 400, grill some burgers and dawgs and celebrate the 4th.

Jamie and her Race Dawg...aka Birdie. Also known as Team Amp! Yes, these two STILL insist on being Jr fans!?!?! They were fired up for the race.....

And then it was over....yep, Jr OUT! AGAIN!!!
So it was time to blow some stuff up!!

We went to Mike's neighbors house because allegedly, we were all going to pop fireworks together...well, I think our rowdy group might have intimidated these folks a little so we just popped out stash and then left. All in all it was a good time!

I hope that you and yours had a great 4th of July!

God Bless America!

4th of July

While you are celebrating 4th of July this weekend, please remember all of those men and women who are serving our great country home and abroad.