Rhode Island gets "Moxie"fied!

My lovely friends from Moxie Media asked me to host their friend Moxie Mona as she made her way across this wonderful country of ours. I am always down for house guests so I said, "What the heck, give her my address and have her look me up when she rolls into town". You never know what to expect with house guests, but Mona didn't disappoint. We all thought she looked vaguely familiar, but she said people always tell her she strikes an uncanny resemblance to a certain super heroine. She seemed a little tired so we chatted over a Dunkin Donuts coffee (no pretentious Fourbucks for this small state household). It seems she was quite pooped from all of her traveling. I assured her that we'd keep it pretty low key. It's not like you can go far in the nation's tiniest state anywho. You can drive through the whole state in an hour (if you drive like my husband, that is).

My son took to her right away. For some reason he called her "Ginger Woman", but she thought it was cute, so the nickname stuck. They became fast friends and he wanted to show her all of the happening places toddlers like to hang. Our first stop was Roger Williams Park. Nate showed her his favorite animal on the carousel.
She was getting a bit lippy about the whole seat belt thing, but Nate is big on safety so he gave her a stern talking to.
When she still wouldn't listen, he showed her exactly what happens to chicks who don't obey the rules.
She pretty much fell in line after that, so we headed to the playground. Rhode Island is the home of Hasbro and when they heard Mona was coming to town they sent their best representative to greet her.After running around all day at the park we were all a bit hungry. We decided to hit up one of the local farms to get some fresh apples, blueberries and veggies for dinner.

She was a little miffed that she actually had to do some work, but no one gets a free ride in this house, not even guests! She later admitted it was worth it when she gorged herself on homemade apple pie and Blueberry Apple crumble bars!

After all of the toddler time, Mona said she needed a girls night out. I had to go to my friend's wedding so Mona came as my plus one. She got a bit tipsy and wanted her picture taken with the Eiffel tower. I didn't have the heart to tell her it was just a cake, so I obliged.

Since I am pregnant, I told her I'd be the designated driver. Man did she take advantage! By the end of the night I was looking all over for her, and half expected to hear she went home with one of the groomsmen, but I found her passed out in my purse.
After she slept of all of the champagne, we relaxed for the day before we headed to one of Providence's coolest events, WaterFire. She was amazed by the 100 bonfires that are lit in the middle of the three rivers that run through downtown Providence.

We watched the fire dancer light some of the basins, ate some classic RI food like doughboys and hot wieners, bought Natey an annoying laser gun (oh wait, that was all daddy's doing), and listened to the relaxing music while we breathed in the smell of the wood burning and Autumn approaching.
It was a nice, relaxing end to her trip through the Ocean State. She bid us farewell and said if she were ever in Long Island again she'd come to visit. I didn't bother to correct her, everyone makes that mistake. But just for the record, Rhode Island is a state & Long Island is in New York!

Visit Mayhen & Moxie to see where else Mona has been!

Random Ramblings

Thursday.



Super Busy.



Need to ramble real quick.



Then I need to get my 32 week pregnant butt in gear.

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I just got home from my midwife visit and can report that Baby girl has turned herself head down. I will keep going to the Chiropractor so my back stays loose and she doesn't decide to flip again. I love getting my back cracked anyway, so that's nice!

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I won Brooke's giveaway for a Paul Robinett candle and it smells divine! He definitely has a new fan and I will be buying more soon! She is also the sweetest thing on the planet because in the box with the candle was a knitted baby blanket for baby girl. Oh, just a little something her MIL "whipped up"! I wish I could just whip things up that were that awesome!! Can you see that in each square is a letter of the alphabet? So sweet! Thanks Brook and her crafty MIL for the wonderful present. :o)

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My dryer is broken. I am irritated because we got the fancy Kenmore Elite he4 front loading set from Sears and, after only 3 years, the dryer's control panel has already crapped out. Why bother to buy the expensive washer and dryer if they are going to die after 3 years of service? The part to fix the dryer is 200 bucks and if we want someone to come put it in, it is another hundred and something bucks. Kenmore and Sears know this is a problem with this set and yet take no responsibility for it. There's even a video on You Tube showing how to replace it yourself since SOOOOO many people have had the same problem with this dryer. The worst part is, the part is the SAME as the one in the dryer currently, so I may have the same problem in another 2-3 years. I'm pretty sure my mom bought her dryer for 200 bucks and the thing lasted for 10 years. You don't always get your money's worth!

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I bagged all of our clothes up this morning and headed to the laundromat to drop them off for fluff and fold service. No offense to anyone but I am NOT a sit in the laundry mat for 2 hours kinda girl. The first one I went to said we wouldn't have our clothes until late Saturday since they had hotel stuff to deal with and the second one I went to, the crazy lady behind the counter let me drag the bags in and then informed me that she ran out of tickets so I would have to bring my clothes back at 1pm. Seriously??? WTH??? I'm not sure what I'm going to do now since I am too ticked off to deal with it at the moment.

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Well, my Aunt will be here early Saturday morning and I need to figure out how a tornado managed to get in my house without my knowledge. Off to clean! Wish me luck since I am irritated and nothing good ever comes from that!

32 Weeks

Only 8 weeks to go! It is so fun to do these side by side comparisons from my 2 pregnancies. Although, I'm not sure they'd be as fun if the size differences were the other way around! I have gained almost the exact same amount of weight so far (maybe 1 pound less this time) but the shape of my belly is completely different! Maybe baby girl likes to curl up a little more than her brother did. Ooohh, or maybe she is smaller. That would be nice since Natey was 8 pounds! I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow and maybe I will get a little peek via ultrasound to check if she has flipped yet. From what I have been feeling lately, she seems to be in more of a transverse (side to side not up and down) position the past couple of days. Let's hope. Thanks for all of your encouraging comments about when your babies went head down. I am a little bit of a panicker (word? not a word? who knows) so my mind was put a bit more at ease after that!

I am also glad to hear that my pregnancy has gone by so fast for some of you. :o) In all honesty it has for me too. I imagine the next 8 weeks will fly by too with the start of autumn, 5 family birthdays (including my own), a visit from my aunt, 3 more Saturdays of the Providence Open Market, apple picking, pumpkin picking & carving, and Halloween festivities.

Save the day! Save the day! She saved the da-ay!

I'm playing along with Mahem and Moxie today. I hosted their wonderful mascot, Mona, over the summer and you can hear all about that on Friday. For today I will be talking about my summer vacation! I feel like I am in elementary school again, standing in front of the class with my carefully written out account of my summer fun. Please get an A, please get an A. Oops, sorry, old habits die hard. I always was an over-achiever!

I would talk about the weight I gained over vacation, but if you read yesterday's post, you'd see that I don't like ANYONE to talk about that...given my condition and all. So, I am going to talk about the person on my trip that saved the day instead!!

We went on a very impromptu (read: decided early Thursday morning, left our house 5 hours later) road trip from little Rhody (RI to you and me) to Montreal, Canada. I am a planner. My hubby is not. The idea of this trip was stressful to me, but I rolled with it (much to my hubby's and my own surprise). I do, however, have a mind like a steel trap and recalled that a wonderful bloggy friend, who just happens to be an amazing photographer, lives in Canada. She mentioned once that if we were ever in Montreal she'd do a photo shoot for us. It's not like we live close or anything. Poor girl probably thought she was safe in sayin' that! What are the odds that we would just up and road trip 8 hours to that very destination?? Well, I emailed her before we left calling her out on her promise. With only a day and a half notice, she drove the 2 hours to Montreal and took the most amazing family/maternity pictures a girl could ever ask for. Not only was she amazing behind the camera, but she is the sweetest and coolest chick I have met in ages! I wish we lived closer so we could hang out!



She truly saved the day. I got to have a tiny plan built in to the craziness of an unplanned trip. We got amazing pictures. Natey loved her to bits! I made a new friend. Thanks Baby Mama for making the whole trip for me! I'm serious, you really did.

A word of advice

I have been having some super fun conversations, and by conversations I mean unsolicited comments or questions with me just smiling in return, lately. Between my own experiences and those of my pregnant friends I have composed a list of the top 10 things NOT to say to a pregnant woman (In no particular order because all are equally annoying).

1. You have really ballooned in the last few weeks.


2. Are you having twins? No? Are you sure?


3. You not going to eat, drink, touch, or look at (fill in the blank), are you?


4. How far along are you? Oh, you look MUCH bigger than that.


5. How does the other person feel about that? (A very strange convo Amber had with a teenager about her baby name choice)


6. Are you going to breastfeed? (Asked by a complete stranger)


7. Was it planned?


8. Shouldn't you see a "real doctor"? (Referring to my choice to go with a midwife)


9. What's wrong with your face? (It's called breaking out...it goes away...)


10. You just keep getting bigger and bigger. (Really? Is that how this works??)

Oh yeah.

One last thing.

If you don't ask first.....

A word of advice,

"You look wonderful"

will suffice.

A little piece of Heaven

I used to be a pre-made kinda girl. I ate jarred spaghetti sauce, boxed dessert mixes, canned veggies and frozen meals. That all changed after I met my (future) husband. The first meal he made me was 8 days after we met. It consisted of pasta with pink vodka sauce, shrimp, scallops and lobster. Did I mention that he made the sauce from scratch? He even blanched the Roma tomatoes and peeled the skins off before crushing them into the sauce. I'm pretty sure I had to sit down to keep from passing out from the wonder of it all. How was I going to impress him now? Luckily I still had my wit because he had me whipped in the culinary arts! Don't get me wrong, I could make a mean meatloaf, the best mashed potatoes this side of Paula Dean, and some heralded deviled eggs, but that was about it from scratch.

Fast forward 5 1/2 years and I have come a long way. I now appreciate the differences fresh and locally grown (when possible) ingredients make in a dish. I have an arsenal of authentic Mexican dishes, some with Asian flare, I am even rivaling him in the Italian department now with my homemade marinara. I wanted to start my own garden and this year joined the gardening club at work and we planted 2, 4'X8' raised beds. Being our first year, we made some logistic mistakes as far as where to plant things and how much space they need, but we had a lot of success (and a few failures) in our venture. I can't wait for next year!

There are also many wonderful farms and orchards in our area that have farm stands or the ability to pick-your-own fruits in season. In the past we have gone strawberry, blueberry, apple and pumpkin picking. I love eating things straight from the source! Last weekend we did a little early apple and blueberry picking so I had tons of fresh fruit in the house. My favorite thing about blueberries is how well they freeze. Just rinse them and dump them in a freezer bag and you are all set. I had 4 pints of blueberries on hand and several apples left (even after 2 pies) so when I had to make something for our Gardening Club's pot luck, I decided to hunt for a recipe that used both of these fruits. What I found was a little piece of heaven! I got the recipe from Farmgirl Fare and everyone who has tasted it today has asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share it with you too! Do not let the 3 layers scare you off. This is so simple to make and takes less than 20 minutes to put together!


Apple Blueberry Crumble Bars

Bottom Layer
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 Tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks/6 ounces) butter, melted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Top Layer
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick/4 oz) butter

Middle Layer
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
3 generous cups unpeeled chopped apples (I used 3 large MacIntosh)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (1/2 teaspoon if pre-ground)

For the Bottom Layer:Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease a 9" x 13" pan with butter. In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the melted butter and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Press this mixture evenly into the bottom of the pan with your fingers. I also used the bottom of a stainless steel measuring cup to help make the crust flat and even.

For the Top Layer:Place the flour, brown sugar, and butter in a small bowl and use a fork or your fingers (works best) to combine until the mixture resembles large crumbs (some pea-sized clumps are okay). Set aside.

For the Middle Layer:Place the blueberries and apples in the bowl you mixed the bottom layer in. Add the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg and toss until well combined. Layer over the bottom pressed crust.

Sprinkle the top layer evenly over the fruit mixture. Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake until the top is golden and looks "dry," but the edges aren't too brown, about 25 to 35 minutes (I did 35 min). Let cool in pan on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, with ice cream if desired. These bars even freeze well. Wrap them individually and whala!

Try not to drool on your keyboard. I know it's hard. I'm salivating just thinking about them again. Luckily I still have some left!

Random Ramblings

Thursday's here again and so are all my random thoughts. Aren't you just dying to hear them? No, too bad. :o)

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I had been having pain in a specific spot on my belly since Friday afternoon. It is up on top, just below my right..well, um, boob. I figured it was probably normal and didn't think too much of it until it continued all weekend and Monday. It would be a sharp pain and then feel like a deep bruise. After whining talking about it with the hubbs, we agreed I should call my midwife, just in case. I went in yesterday afternoon and she pulled the Doppler out to get the baby's heartbeat. She started down low, nothing. Moved it up a little higher, still nothing. She got almost 3/4 of the way up my belly and there it was. The tell tell position of a breech baby!! Ahhhh! We did a quick ultrasound and sure enough the back of baby girl's head is in that painful spot.

I have been having sciatic pain anyway so she sent me to the Chiro, where we discovered that my left leg is almost an inch shorter than my right because my hip joint is so compacted. When your hip is like that your round ligaments, which hold the uterus to the pelvis, cause the uterus to be out of position. Basically it is twisted slightly to the left and she doesn't have the room to turn head down. I now get to go to the Chiro 3X a week for the next 2 weeks to see if my hips will open up enough for her to turn herself around. Let's hope it happens...and soon!!

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After a disappointing first Saturday of the Providence Open Market, Liz and I are crossing our fingers for good weather for our second day this Saturday. We set up our booth in the pouring rain and the rain barely broke all day. If it is sunny, this place is mobbed and we really would like to have a successful day to encourage us along in the sewing department.

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My friend Cristina just had her baby girl yesterday, 3 weeks early. Our due dates were 6 weeks apart. I got a random picture message yesterday while I was waiting at the Chiro. I am now even more antsy to meet mine!!!!

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I really need to get a move on this weekend as far as Natey's room and baby girl's room are concerned. All I have left in Nate's room is to get something up on the walls! It is the easiest part, yet I am at a loss of what to put up. Maybe I should post some pics and get your opinions on the final accessories!

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We are going to attempt to let him take a nap in his big boy bed at some point this weekend and see how it goes. If he doesn't go right to sleep I think I might move the crib into his big boy room while we paint the girl's room. He is just too good of a sleeper to sabotage myself at this point in the game!

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Nate at 2 years & 3 months

Oh my active and crazy child. I wish you would share some of that energy with mommy. And by share, I mean give me some of it to use, not pounce on me when I'm not looking or fling your insane-o karate arms in my general direction.

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You are getting so much more independent. You tell me you want to do it, "All...by....myself!" in the most drawn out way possible. Ok, we get it! You want to climb into the car, get up on the stool, take off your own undies to go potty, and load your bankalee into the washer. I find it funny when I ask you if you can put on your own Crocs and you want me to do it. It's pretty much the only thing you don't want to attempt for some reason.

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Everything is "Bad, Bad" or "Big, Big" right now. Spiderman is bad, in your dinosaur book there is a "bad, bad bedactyl (pterodactyl)", the hill we go down is big big. It is pretty funny, but I wish you wouldn't always want to be the "bad transformer".

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We have been unsuccessful in breaking you of your superhero fetish. You now run around shooting webs at people and singing the entire Spiderman theme song. I will have to get that on video because it is amazing that, at 2, you know all of the lyrics to such a long song.

You are becoming much of a momma's boy, telling Daddy no when he wants kisses. You usually give in and give him hugs and kisses, but it takes a few times of asking. Not so much where mommy is concerned. You would smooch me all day if I'd let you.

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You have decided that you are a big boy now. You're not a baby or a little boy and you will correct anyone who says otherwise....even the elderly man sitting behind us at breakfast. "Me BIG Boy, not little boy".

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We have begun the final phase of potty training. Mommy finally ditched the Pullups crutch. I think they were too much like diapers and you had no incentive to keep them dry. We are now only in undies all day except sleep times. Let's pray this seals the deal. We only have 9 weeks left to prefect this before the diaper mayhem begins!

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You have stopped the naughty words for the most part. I think it helps that all of us around you are really trying to watch the things we say.

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You are really interested in people and things and want to know more about them. You want to know every one's name, people in books, walking by in the market or anywhere for that matter. I have started making up names and it is kind of fun. You want to know "what flavor" or "what kind" everything is. I love your curiosity and you always repeat what I tell you.

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You and Daddy play wonderful imaginative games. You have recently been "Captain pirate Big Boy" and you and captain pirate daddy sail around on your bed with a makeshift flag composed of a Swiffer handle and your bankalee. Daddy tells stories and he pauses and lets you fill in the blanks. I love listening to the things you come up with.

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Whenever we leave the room and you are comin' you yell, "Wait up!" which you started off saying "Speed up" until we told you what it was supposed to be.

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And finally, my new favorite thing is your knack for remembering things and repeating them. Daddy told me I looked pretty the other day and for the last 3 mornings when I have gone to get you out of bed, you have smiled up at me and said, "You look so pretty mommy". It melts me every time!

Now I leave you with a song courtesy of Natey!

Random Ramblings

A quick hop to Thursday this week thanks to Labor Day! I love 4 day work weeks. They really seem to go by faster. I vote that there be no more Monday's in the work week and we always do 4 days. What? I don't get a vote?? Sheezeee! I feel so much more productive when I get 3 days off! So what's on my mind this week?

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We are almost done with Natey's Big Boy room! The paint is up, accessories have been purchased. The bookcase has been assembled. Two cute lights that we bought in Mexico on our babymoon (when I was pregnant with Nate) have been hung. All I have left to do is hem the ridiculously long curtains I bought at IKEA and get something up on the bare walls! It's funny how naked walls seem when the furniture and accessories in a room are pint sized!

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On a less than thrilled note about the BB room...I am completely scared to death to let him sleep in that bed. He sleeps sooooo well in his crib that I fear he will keep getting up when we move him in there. I really don't need the crib for a long time still, so I might just have him play in his room and sleep in the crib for a while longer. I can't decide. Any advice on that?

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I have hit the 30 week point in my pregnancy! Only 10 weeks left to go. It is going by so fast that my head is spinning. I am feeling great. I have moments of discomfort where I swear she is going to erupt from my belly button instead of coming out normally, but other than that we're just trucking along.

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Liz and I have our first day of the Providence Open Market on Saturday. I have been sewing like mad and don't really feel stressed like I did for the balloon festival. If you are in the area come check us out at the Material Mammas Booth!

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I hate potty training. Nate seems to have stalled. He will go pee in the potty every time I take him in there, but he NEVER tells me before he has to go. He will tell me when he has to poop, so I guess that is good, but when is he going to tell me before he wets his PullUp? Mommy did something stupid and let him sit on her bed with no PullUp on. Yep, I look over to see a tiny fountain of pee going right onto my bed. I should have taken him right to the bathroom since I think he stopped when I freaked out, but wasn't done peeing. I stuck him in his crib while I frantically tore off my sheets only to come to get him and find he had finished peeing in his own bed. Ugh. Totally my bad. I'm an idiot.

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Wordless Wednesday - Sneak Peek

I have been trying to wait for all of the pictures to be done and in my hot little hand, but I am dying to share the awesome work of Blog Baby's momma! So here is a sneak peek of our photo shoot in Montreal to whet your whistle!

I love her work and can't wait to share the rest of the shoot with you guys!!

Remorse

I'm sorry.

No, I mean it. I am truly sorry.

The sad kind of sorry. The remorseful, I cried a few tears kind.
I had good intentions. I really did. Once I started I just got in too deep.I realize now that I shouldn't have done it.
I even apologized to you and Daddy for my actions.

I will make you a promise.

Mommy will never

EVER

come near your curls again.


I'm a hack and cannot be trusted with scissors.

Your beautiful curls are but a memory of what they were last night.

They will grow back.

Soon.

I hope.

Love, Mommy

Random Ramblings

Thursday, Thursday, Thursday! Yeah for Thursday. Where has this week even gone?? I have been super busy at work and at home so the days are just flying by. Time to rid my brain of it's cobwebs before I dive head first into the long weekend ahead of me!

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Nate has been cracking me up with his imagination lately. He is starting to get imaginary play and wants to be a different character all the time. Some of his recent ones have been: (Pointing at me) "You mommy robot & my Iron man" then we proceed to talk like robots and move our arms in that jerky robot way. My least favorite is: "My Bumblebee (some sort of transformer apparently) and you bad transformer! Let's fight!" No doubt this is coming from the almost 4 year olds he plays with at daycare, but I got punched in the eye last night when Nate was showing me his new "moves".

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He is growing to be such a big boy! Speaking of that, I finished painting his walls last night. I am loving the color we picked! It is such a fun color without being too overwhelming. Now, to touch up the trim and paint the doors (which never got painted when they were installed 2 years ago!!!) and then I can start to decorate! I promise pics will be coming as soon as I get it done!

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I have been on a sweets kick the past week. There are 2 half mostly eaten Ben & Jerry's pints in my freezer that I have dove into more than once this week. I have eaten cookies and even broke down yesterday and got a coffee roll with my iced coffee. To make matters worse I haven't worked out all week. I brought my gym bag to work and it has sat in my cube staring at me longingly, but I have not picked it up until this morning. I stepped on the scale at the gym prepared for the worst. Guess how much I have gained since last week..... a whopping 1/2 pound! How in the world is that possible??? I will not complain, but am still going to try to do better this week!

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I have exactly 9 days to sew until the Providence Open Market. Why can I not get motivated to do something until I am in a time crunch? Granted I have had a lot of other things going on, but I told myself, after the Balloon Festival, that I would work a little at a time. So much for that! Wish me luck as I have to get to some major work on my sewing! Oh and throw out ideas for baby or toddler items you think people would buy. I am making crayon rolls, diaper/wipes cases and possibly wet bags to keep in the diaper bag. Any ideas you have would be helpful.

Wordless Wednesday

Do I have something on my face?