Today was Nothing to Smile About...

I just woke up and knew it was going to be one of those days. The dogs were barking nonstop, everything I wanted to wear was too tight on my preggy body, and my hair was a total wreck from the get go. I figured it was Friday, it would be over quick enough and the weekend would begin. WRONG! I had popped a piece of gum in and was working for the weekend when it happened. My crown fell off. It was stuck in my gum. I immediately went and checked it out in the mirror. Totally horrific sight. I have only had one root canal and I never looked at it during the process. They had told me that they had to “file my tooth down” and I never had a desire to see it. Well...I saw it today. My tooth was about the size of a sunflower seed. I absolutely looked like a character off of Hee Haw (I love Hee Haw, but I prefer my teeth not to remind me anything of that show). Seriously, imagine normal size people teeth and smack in the middle of my pearly whites I have a miniature cat tooth. That is what it looked like (no pictures for the fear that it would scare people). Thankfully, I was able to get in to see the dentist (bless their hearts, they stayed open about an hour late today to fix my smile). I had the crown cemented back on but it is more than likely only a temporary fix. I am probably going to have to have a tooth implant on a titanium rod (which is drilled into my bone…sounds like fun). I am praying that this “temporary” fix will last till October when the baby gets here so that I don’t have to go through this without being sedated. I absolutely cannot imagine having something drilled into my bone while I am awake. I am starting to think dentures sounds like a pretty good option :) Happy Friday!

Peppers or M&M's? Thank you, I'll have both.

New recipe that I had to share! I was looking through one of my friend’s (Brooke's) cookbooks last night and everything looked so good, but I didn’t have a chance to copy any of the recipes. So it just kinda inspired me to make something similar but different. I have been having some odd cravings so I thought I would test one of them out tonight on Derrick. He actually ate it all up and wanted seconds! Which is surprising considering that here lately our tastes are very different. He has had to tell me more than once to stop recommending certain things to people…like two weeks ago when I insisted to everyone I saw that they absolutely had to go buy a big bag of the strawberry peanut butter M&M’s. I honestly think they might be one of the best candies I have ever had. I pretty much cleaned Wal-Mart out of them. However, I must say, Derrick is not as impressed. I will continue to eat them by the pounds and enjoy every minute of it (at least until I am no longer pregnant and then we will see if my tastes are the same). Enough about the M&M’s, here is the new recipe…



Stuffed Peppers
2 chicken breasts (seasoned with S&P and grilled and cut into cubes)
10 oz frozen spinach (chopped, thawed and drained)
1 cup Formaggio Trio cheese shredded (Parmesan, Asiago and Romano)
1 cup mozzarella shredded
1 cup sour cream
2/3 cup whipping cream
1 tsp garlic powder
3 red peppers cut in half and hollowed

So I mixed everything together and stuffed it into the peppers and cooked it at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes. Very yummy!

I also tried to make grape salad which was very sweet but made a wonderful dessert…

Grape Salad
3 cups grapes (red and green cut in halves)
2 oz cream cheese
1 TB sugar
1 TB brown sugar
1/3 pralines chopped

P.S. I overcooked the brussel sprouts, but the crunchy bacon helped me be able to get past their mushy-ness.

Flowers and Other Sweet Surprises!

We woke up to a wonderful surprise this morning!

I love getting flowers and these are beautiful! And they smell just as good as they look :) Our friends Elizabeth and Steve sent these over with a congratulations note. Very sweet and thoughtful and we really appreciated the wonderful gesture.


I know that all of our friends and family are really excited about our baby girl and they can’t wait till she gets here almost as much as we can’t. We have had a couple of gifts sent to the house and others are on their way. My Mom (who is already affectionately known as Chewmomma by her other grandchildren) is having our crib delivered on Monday! Yay!!!!

My Aunt Kay had bought this adorable rocker and although I haven’t seen it yet in person, I know is has to be just as beautiful as the pictures show. It is currently residing at my Mom’s until my next visit. I have already had a couple of phone calls from other family members who want to keep it. I can’t wait to get it safely home! Haha!

My sister, Katie, has sent several emails about the “surprises” she has found here and there. Sadly, she isn’t willing to tell us what they are. I did talk her into showing me a picture of one and that is this perfect white crib quilt. I can just imagine our little one cuddled up in it.

Today we did some garden shopping with Derrick’s Mom (who actually goes by Nana now) and she surprised us with these…

I love them and I can’t wait to get started on the nursery so I can find their permanent home. She also gave us this little beauty…

How soft! Why in the world someone doesn’t make grown up pajamas like this is beyond me. I would wear one all the time!

Oh wait…I just realized the do make them. It’s called a Duster. I think I will hold off on those for a little while :)

And lastly, Derrick and I went ahead and bought our high chair. We actually found this when bought our dining room table but didn't see any reason to buy it at that point. Thankfully the store was able to order it for us and it just came in this week (not that this is somehting we need immediately, but we really wanted it).

The PEARL is a GIRL!!!!

Yesterday was HUGE for us! We finally got to have an ultrasound to find out what the little “Pearl” was and…

IT’S A GIRL!!!!

We are both so happy! We thought it was a girl, but everyone…and I mean everyone…told us they thought it was a boy. From day one I have told all of my family and friends it was going to be a little bitty girl, so I had a few (and I think that was about two) people stick with “It’s a Girl” but we were completely outnumbered in thinking so.

I am so ready to get started Thinking Pink and buying hair bows and dainty dresses and miniature tea sets. I have been holding back a little…okay not too much. I happened upon another sale and bought a couple more baby dresses (and by a couple I mean 18). The Pearl likes the dresses…she wanted to raise her hand and give us a sweet wave…

We just had a basic 2D ultrasound, but they lady was kind enough to flip the machine into 3D/4D a couple of times so we could see our little Pearl a little clearer. Here she is sucking her thumb...

And here she is saying a little prayer...

                                    

It is no secret that from day one Derrick and I were both over the moon for our first (only) niece Amelia. We are proud as punch because we can already see some family resemblance…
HAHA!

Finishing Up Spring Break

Spring Break is almost over! For Derrick that is. He has to go back to work on Monday so he has been a busy bee trying to finish up some small projects around the house. Yesterday when I got home from work he had cleaned…seriously…cleaned. He bleached the kitchen and the bathrooms, swept the floors, did laundry and even dusted. I admit I was a little shocked when I walked in after work and my house was sparkly. The only real chore I have this weekend is mopping. YAY!!! So to say thank you I got up extra early and made one of our favorite breakfasts…sausage pillows. I am not sure if that is what they are called, but they are so fluffy they remind me of pillows. Here is how:

Cook your sausage. I just go ahead and chop it in the pan with a wooden spoon while it is cooking, but I supposed you could chop it afterwards. Either way, it should look like this…

Then add a ½ cup of shredded mild cheddar and one brick of cream cheese. This is definitely not a recipe for someone who doesn’t love cream cheese. It’s packed full of the wonderful stuff. You could cut it back to ½ a brick and it would still be delicious.

After you mix the sausage and the cheese, spoon the mixture into crescent rolls... Then roll them up just like you are making a crescent roll. Just close up the seams of the rolls around the sausage, but it isn’t a big deal if some of the sausage peaks out because the rolls will puff up and enclose most of it (two packages of rolls should be enough for one roll ofsausage). Then just bake them according to the crescent roll directions.

Here is the finished sausage pillow. And they warm up wonderfully – I have been snacking on them ALL DAY.

So after the most important meal of the day, Derrick started working on this beast…

Last year, this actually looked somewhat pretty. Not anymore. Firstly, you could actually see the swing. There were a few roses peaking out and the top had a little touch of honeysuckle. It smelled heavenly. Now it is completely overgrown, top heavy and I don’t even want to think about how many snakes call it “home”. After we get this all tore down I think we are going to plant some climbing roses here. But for now, I just feel the need for all of this to be cleared away.

Maggie is helping Derrick out with the clearing – or at least she is getting some of the brush out of his way and moving it to the other side of the yard.

With the exception of this momma rose stem….smart dog.

On another note, I realize we need to mow our yard. It is happening tomorrow. You know it’s bad when you can barely see your enormous dogs…

These were taken the other night while we were throwing sticks for the dogs. They could do this for hours…

This picture kind of makes me feel like I am watching the movie Jaws. Something about the size of that mouth…

And this just makes me laugh...

Thanks, Katie!

My sister, Katie, did me the favor of making me a new banner for my blog. I have been wanting a new one for a while now but I really haven’t had the time to fix one. I didn’t tell Katie so I think she read my mind. That’s the blessing of having a sister :)  Thanks, Katie! I love it!

Easter Extended

I just realized how horrible of an aunt I am. I have had these Easter baskets ready for almost two weeks and I forgot to send them out. Two of them should have been in Atlanta for Amelia and Jack. Whoops! And the third was should have been given to Corbin yesterday. I even saw him. I am slacking. I had put them in our spare bedroom so the dogs wouldn’t help themselves to a chocolate buffet. I completely forgot about them! My mission is to get them sent off TODAY. I know they already have plenty of candy from yesterday, so when they get these in the mail it will just extend the chocolate rush. I am sure that will make everyone’s parent very happy. Haha!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! This is quickly becoming one of my favorite holidays! We have a wonderful reason to celebrate, warm weather and good food. We had a very low key Easter this year…unfortunately I woke up very early around 4:30 am and after messing around in the kitchen for a couple of hours I fell back asleep and overslept. Derrick, sweet as he is, just let me keep on sleeping. I must admit, I felt great when I woke up. There is just something about that sleep, the kind where you’re not supposed to be sleeping, that is so relaxing!

After I woke up we made a quick trip to see Derrick’s family but I forgot to take any pictures (once again) and then we came home and did a little sun bathing and I intentionally forgot to take pictures. Derrick went and bought a blow up pool. That’s right. We are officially rednecks. But it sure is fun.

So for Easter dinner this year it was just the two of us. We have lots of leftovers and I think we will be eating ham sandwiches all week. The ham was just a basic honey, dark corn syrup and butter sauce. It did turn out very juicy this year…

I have also been craving sweet potatoes. Of course I don’t want them baked and healthy. I want them stuffed with brown sugar and butter and seasoned with cinnamon. This time I hollowed out oranges and put the sweet potato mixture back inside. Then I added a little more butter, sugar and pecan to the topping. I put them back in the oven and baked them for about 15 minutes and they were great. I love the orange flavor that the peel gives them.

We had entirely too much and should have stopped eating…

But we had to have dessert. A white cake with fresh berries and a pudding cool whip icing.

We are stuffed and have been laying on the couches since…ahhhhhh…..