My New Love

This post will be a small break from my usual topic, especially since we are in the middle of what feels like a very long wait for our next ultrasound and there is no new information to report. So far, the first few days of the week have gone fairly quickly. My husband has been at home sick for the past 2 days, which makes me lose track of my weekdays. I keep thinking it's the weekend already, and then I remember it's only Wednesday! Next Thursday can't get here fast enough.

I wanted to write a quick recap of my birthday on Monday. After our doctor's appointment that morning, I came home and Chuck returned to work for the afternoon. I spent my time updating the blog and checking e-mail and stuff while I waited for him to come home. We had plans for dinner and a movie that evening.

It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to eat and what movie I wanted to see, but I finally decided I was in the mood for shrimp pasta and a romantic comedy (nice combination, right?). We had considered seeing Avatar, but decided instead on seeing It's Complicated, which we thought was really funny. I do love films from writer/director Nancy Meyers.


It was so nice to get out and enjoy some time together, rather than sitting around feeling nervous! There was an elderly couple sitting in the row in front of us at the movie, and we couldn't take our eyes off of them. I think older couples are so precious! Chuck and I were imagining ourselves going on a similar dinner-and-movie date in about 40 more years. :)

After the movie we went to Chili's and shared one of my favorite desserts, the molten chocolate cake. I don't let myself get it all that often, so it was a nice birthday treat!


MMMMMMM!

As soon as we got home I remembered that I still had a birthday present to open. My dear husband made me hide my eyes while he went out to the garage to get it. (The garage? I was going to be mad if he had gotten me a power tool!) When I opened my eyes, it was quite a shock! It wasn't a power tool. It was something I've wanted since we've been married. For almost 12 years I've had my eye on it and I couldn't believe it was sitting right in front of me! He had gotten me THIS:



I was (and still am) ecstatic! I cannot wait to break in this new mixer, and at the same time I'm afraid to use it because it's just so pretty! I have wanted a KitchenAid mixer for a very long time, but especially since this Anniversary Edition model was introduced. Also, I knew the color would look great in our kitchen! My sweet husband saved his Christmas bonus (which he kept entirely a secret from me) and some other cash here and there to buy this gift for my birthday. It was a wonderful surprise!

Just for fun, here is my look of genuine surprise:



And here is my look of genuine joy and complete adoration for the man that I married:



It was definitely a great day from start to finish, and certainly one of the most memorable birthdays I've ever had!

Now, what can I bake?

New Book List

Last year I very much enjoyed having a book list to follow. It really kept me on task for the most part. I love the feeling of crossing things off of a list! (HERE is the link to last year's list.)

Below is my reading list for this year. This is just a list I've compiled of books, some old and some new, that I'm hoping to get to in the next 12 months. I'll put a button over in the sidebar if you're a reader too and want to look back at the list for any reason.

I would love to know what you're reading or planning to read, and whether you've read and liked any of the books on this list. Last year I read 25 of the 27 books on my list, so I'm carrying over the 2 that didn't get read. Also, these are in no particular order. I like to choose the next book based on what I feel like reading at the time. I won't be removing any books from the list, but I may add a few if there's time or if something interesting comes up.
Okay, here's the list:

2010 Book List:

1. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger (January)
2. Eats, Shoots & Leaves – Lynne Truss
3. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
4. Lord of the Flies – William Golding (April)
5. The Great Gilly Hopkins – Katherine Paterson (August)
6. Sarah’s Key – Tatiana De Rosnay (June)
7. Frenchman’s Creek – Daphne Du Maurier (April)
8. The House at Riverton – Kate Morton (February/March)
9. Frankenstein (Book 3): Dead and Alive – Dean Koontz
10. Breathless – Dean Koontz (January)
11. A Grief Observed – C.S. Lewis
12. The Last Battle – C.S. Lewis
13. The White Queen – Philippa Gregory
14. The Constant Princess – Philippa Gregory
15. Watership Down – Richard Adams
16. Dracula – Bram Stoker
17. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman (July/August)
18. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman (February)
19. This is Where I Leave You – Jonathan Tropper
20. When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead
21. The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton (May/June)
22. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (September)
23. A Sweet & Bitter Providence - John Piper

From Last Year’s List:

24. The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
25. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

And as a bonus if I have time:

26. The Pilgrim’s Progress – John Bunyan

True Words

This weekend I came across a great quote that I want to share with you. I'll keep this post brief because I don't want to detract from the quotation itself. I agree wholeheartedly with these words. I hope that in life we can all encounter far more of the second kind of people than the first:

"There are two kinds of people - you know them.
As you journey along on life's track -
The people who take your strength from you,
And others who put it all back." -- Ralph Spaulding Cushman

I'm grateful for those in my life who consistently put it all back!

What's Going On

Occasionally when it gets a little heavy in here, I like to do a post about some everyday things that don't have much (or anything) to do with infertility. My goal over the past few weeks has been to try to focus on some activities and hobbies that I've been neglecting lately. Unfortunately, that means less time spent blogging and reading blogs, but I've tried not to get too far behind.

Three main areas that have been keeping me busy for the past few weeks are reading, scrapbooking, and home improvements.

I'm still sticking to the reading list that I made at the beginning of the year. It has been fun yet challenging, but it has mostly kept me reading steadily each month. (I like to cross things off of a list!) The list has six books remaining that I want to read before the end of December. If you'd like to check out what I'm reading, there is a button right over there in the sidebar. Just last night I finished reading The Year of Living Biblically, which I found very entertaining. I'm currently in the middle of reading Crazy Love, and I think I'm about to start reading Little Women.

Scrapbooking has been my favorite hobby for almost a decade now. Each year I try to do a chronological album for that year, and I have several other themed albums apart from that (like for our wedding and special vacations). Truthfully, blogging has been detrimental to my scrapbooking! Since I started writing and reading blogs I've gotten very little done and am suddenly 2 years behind. Last week I eased back into it and was able to get 4 pages done. It was a slow start, but this week I picked up steam and completed 12 pages in 2 days! I'm still working on the 2007 album, but it feels great to make some progress.

Our current home improvement goal is to install crown molding in the 3 bedrooms. We've had the crown in our garage for at least 6 months now, waiting patiently for us to find the time to get to it. Last weekend we tackled one of the guest rooms. That room was once a nursery for our home's previous owners. Although I planned to use it as a nursery as well, I hated the way it was decorated. I remember when we moved in it was quite a chore removing the wallpaper border, repainting the room, and repainting the trim (the walls used to be a light aqua color and the trim was yellow). Of course, we owe the transition from carpet to laminate wood floors to the Great Dishwasher Leak of '08.

Anyway, back to the crown. Chuck and I worked together last weekend to get that room done. It always amazes me that he can learn to do just about any project around the house. My version of helping involved a lot of standing around and holding stuff, but we got it done and are really happy with how it looks. (The rug is a recent purchase that I absolutely love. Don't look too closely or you'll see my hubby's guitar case and amp peeking out from under the bed.)


Just a quick word about miscarriage here -- when we bought this house we were expecting our first baby. I miscarried in between the time that we closed on the house and actually moved in. For quite a while after that loss and a few others, this room remained mostly empty until we finally made the decision to put a bed in there and use it as a guest room. My nephews now call it their room. They sleep here when they stay with us, their toys are in the closet, and their pictures hang on the walls. It does make me happy that the room gets used by them and other guests. Hopefully we will get the crown molding up in the other guest room (which doubles as my scrapbooking space) and our master bedroom before the end of the year!

We are getting ready to leave town to visit my in-laws for Labor Day weekend. We have not been able to make that trip in way too long. It is a 6-hour drive, but Chuck will get off at noon on Friday and we will have the extra day on Monday. They've been having great weather there in North Louisiana and we have been so jealous! The cooler temperatures haven't quite made it all the way down to us yet. We have still been in the 90s every day and we can't wait for fall (neither can our electric bill!). Autumn is my favorite time of year.

There's a long and rambling recap of what's been going on here. How about you? What are you reading? Do you scrapbook? How do you use the room that you wish was a nursery? What's under the bed in your guest room?

Crawfish Season

Last weekend we had our first crawfish boil of the year. Chuck did the cooking for a group of about 40 people from our church. He did a great job! The tables were loaded down with crawfish, corn, potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and lemons, and it was delicious! I have been particularly homesick for Louisiana lately, so it was nice to have a little taste of home. We had a busy weekend of planning and shopping for the event. We were really glad that it went well and everyone enjoyed it.


Chuck manning the pots:

Our group went through almost all of the vegetables and 120 pounds of crawfish. Chuck and I claimed the leftovers, which we peeled and cooked in a wonderful crawfish casserole. I want to share the recipe here on the blog for anyone who might be interested. I got this recipe from my best friend's mom. She and I enjoyed this casserole many times when we were growing up! I was fortunate to have so many wonderful meals from her kitchen and my own mother's kitchen when I was younger.

Crawfish Casserole

1 stick margarine
1 med/small onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 small can Ro-tel, drained
1 can cream of mushroom
2 c. cooked rice
1/4 c. chopped parsley
2 lbs. crawfish tails
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
bread crumbs
additional seasoning to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
First, begin cooking rice. In a separate pot, saute onion and bell pepper in margarine. Add crawfish and Ro-tel tomatoes. Stir and cook 5 minutes. Add corn and cream of mushroom. Stir and cook additional 5 minutes. Stir in cooked rice and parsley. Add seasonings (I use garlic salt, a little black pepper, and of course, Tony Chachere's). Put mixture in a greased casserole dish and top with bread crumbs. Bake 30 minutes or until center begins to bubble.

Putting the ingredients together on the stovetop:

Crawfish casserole ready to go into the oven:

I hope you get to try this out!

NOTE: I've been told that shrimp works just as well if you don't care for crawfish or have trouble finding it in your area.

Favorite Things

Tomorrow is my birthday. While I'm not thrilled about turning 32 (it's not so much the getting older part as much as the getting older while still childless part - age is so much more than a number when you're in this situation) I decided to do a post today in honor of the occasion. I want to tell you about a few things that I really wouldn't want to live without. Of course my family and friends would top the list, but I'm talking specifically about products here. No, I'm not being paid to promote any of these things, but if you have connections I would consider it. (Ha ha)

And now, a few of my favorite things:

1. Swiffer Products

I love any and all things Swiffer. The dusters, the sweeper, the Sweeper Vac, and the Wet Jet - I own all of them. Honestly, these things make cleaning up so easy. The main living space in my house has laminate wood floors, and we are working on phasing out the carpet in the rest of the house. Only the master bedroom has carpet now and it won't be long before we remove it. I go through the house two or three times a week with the Swiffer sweeper for a quick clean up. I love the Wet Jet for mopping because you don't have to wring out a nasty mop! It's seriously my favorite system for cleaning house. Have I convinced you to use it? I always say I should be on their commercials!

2. The Chi Flat Iron

I can't believe I made it through high school and college without this thing. It's not just a flat iron; it's a flat iron from heaven. My hair is relatively thick and wavy (really more like frizzy) but I always want it to be straight. Every time I wash it I use the blow dryer and then the flat iron to smooth it out. I wish I knew how to work with the wave and let it be natural some days but when I try it I just feel ridiculous! Anyway, this flat iron is pricey but it's worth every penny if you want straight hair. I love it.

3. Amazon dot com

Maybe I told you this around Christmas, but I love this website. The only negative thing is that I'm sure it has played a pretty big part in further enabling me to be a hermit. I do most of my Christmas shopping there and other various shopping throughout the year. I have my own wish list and I have created gift idea lists for my family members. I love it when I can look on the idea list or their own personal wish list (which you can search for by email address) and it makes shopping very easy. I think they have the best prices on books, and you only have to spend $25 to qualify for free shipping on an order. Love it!

4. Picasa

What if I told you that there was a fantastic and incredibly user-friendly method for organizing and editing your digital pictures on your computer? (Do you feel like you're watching an infomercial? I swear if this thing could be used as a juicer we'd really have something magical.) Seriously, my husband introduced me to the software application Picasa several years ago after we first got a digital camera. I thought I could never learn how to work with such a thing, but I am in love with it. Better yet, brace yourselves people, it's FREE. When it first came out we actually purchased it, but now it's owned by the nice people at Google and you can download it for free. No joke. It has the best features - you can correct red-eye, do all of your cropping, change to black and white or sepia, and so many other things. It's simple to email photos or add them to your Facebook or blog. In my opinion, the best things about it are first that it's easy to use and it is a great tool for organization. I never have to search long for a photo. When you empty your memory card you simply give the album a title and date and everything is right where you need it. Second, I absolutely love the Web Album feature. You can upload groups of photos into a web album and share the entire album with friends by email. The album is saved so that if I'm away from home and want to show an album I've uploaded to friends, I just sign in to my account from their computer and there is my album. Ok, one more thing that is awesome about it. Let's say I'm at my sister's house for a birthday party and we forgot our camera at home. She takes a whole bunch of great pics and uploads them to a Picasa Web Album to email to me. I can get home, open her email, and download that same album straight into my Picasa. There are the photos all stored neatly into my own computer, just as if I'd taken them myself. Picasa, will you marry me? Ok, even though Picasa is my fiance, he has lots of brothers who are still available. You can get your own here.

5. DVR
I won't spend a lot of time on this one except to tell you how happy I am that we finally got on board with digitally recording our favorite TV shows. We don't have the actual Ti.vo brand, but we have the DVR that comes through our cable company and we are thrilled with it. Maybe this sounds goofy but I think it has saved me so much time. Watching my shows when it's convenient for me (often late at night when I can't sleep) and being able to skip through the commercials is great, not to mention that I don't have to worry about looking for a blank tape or recording over something I want to keep. Anything that makes my life more organized and clutter-free is likely to be on my list of favorite things! This is not a photo of a DVR, but if Simon Baker doesn't motivate you to start recording or watching The Mentalist I don't know what will!


I'm sure I could go on but I think 5 is plenty for today. Market research shows that if you start using these 5 things, your happiness will increase by 30%. Ok, that's not true but it's worth a shot. These are definitely at the top of my list. Now it's your turn. What things have you discovered that make your life so much easier? Tell me all about it and I'll add it to my Amazon wish list.

New Books for a New Year

One of my resolutions (or goals, if you prefer) for the new year was to keep a log of the books I read in 2009. As 2008 drew to a close I had several books stacking up on the nightstand that I wanted to eventually get to. Then I received some more books from my wish list as Christmas gifts. I've compiled a list of those books, along with a few that I'd still like to purchase and a couple that I started last year and didn't finish. I don't normally start books and not finish them, but I guess a couple of hurricanes and a kitchen remodel are enough to disrupt anybody's schedule! It was a crazy year, my friends.

I like a variety of books, but I mostly read fiction. I also enjoy children's books and books geared toward younger readers. Recently I came across a quote by C.S. Lewis that described how I feel about children's books. He wrote, "It certainly is my opinion that a book worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then." I agree - a good book is a good book at any age!

Ok, here's the list I'm working on now. I may add a few but I'm not planning on removing any.

2009 Reading List:

1. Brisingr – Christopher Paolini (currently reading)
2. The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne (begun in 2008)
3. The Year of Living Biblically – A.J. Jacobs (begun in 2008)
4. Middlemarch – George Eliot
5. The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot
6. Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
7. Your Heart Belongs to Me – Dean Koontz
8. An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken
9. Crazy Love – Francis Chan

Young Reader Books:

1. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane – Kate Dicamillo
2. Coraline – Neil Gaiman (Thanks, Andrea for the review on your blog. It made me want to read this one and Stardust!)
3. Stardust – Neil Gaiman
4. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – C.S. Lewis
5. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
6. Jacob Have I Loved – Katherine Paterson

After posting this list on my Facebook page and asking for recommendations, these are the books that some of my friends like that I'm considering reading this year as well:

1. Blue Like Jazz - Donald Miller
2. The Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
3. Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
4. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt

There were a couple of other books recommended but I don't want the list to be too overwhelming at first! These are the ones I thought I would enjoy most if I get everything else read.

Another general rule I have is to read the book before watching the movie based on the book. This list includes a few books whose movies I've already seen (in most cases I didn't realize it was based on a book). Also, the list contains books I've never read before, with one exception. I read Jacob Have I Loved back in junior high. I don't remember much about it, so I recently bought an inexpensive paperback copy and it made the list.

I thought it might be a good idea to post my reading list on my blog to find some other readers out there! I'd love to hear what you are reading, and please let me know which of these books you especially liked or didn't like. Also, go check out my pal Andrea's book blog for some great book reviews and suggestions.

Ah, I just love books! Happy reading!

January Girl And My Favorite Piece of Furniture

I can probably count on one hand the amount of things I have leftover from my childhood. The few things I do still have are very special to me. Among my favorites is this little January figurine that represents my birthday month. I didn't know much about her until I started working on this post. Now I think I'm starting a collection! After some searching on the internet today I've found her sisters December and August. I think it will be sweet to have the whole set someday.

I've had Miss January for as long as I can remember. My mom thinks she bought her at a local drug store in the early '80s. If you look closely, you can see that she has been glued back together in a few places. That's ok. I still love her. I have picked up a few scars over the years as well. I normally keep her on a shelf in one of the guest rooms, but as you might have guessed, January is her month to shine. This month she is proudly displayed in the entryway just inside our front door atop my favorite piece of furniture - a buffet we bought at a cute secondhand store a few years ago.

It's funny how I use my infertility journey as a calendar of sorts. I remember how we went shopping to buy that buffet after our third miscarriage in 2004. We were feeling very discouraged about the news and it prompted us to do two things - get out for some neighborhood shopping one evening, and plan a trip to New England. The shopping trip resulted in what I consider one of the best purchases we've ever made. I love this buffet, and I love to decorate it each season with favorite dishes, figurines, and photographs. Also, the inside holds so much stuff! I have candles in one drawer, placemats, cloth napkins, and table runners in another, and other decorative odds and ends in another. The cabinets hold vases, a punch bowl, and tons of seasonal decorations. It's easy to change stuff out as the year moves along. At Christmas its top is completely full but other months it displays just a few precious things. (Click here to see a picture of it decorated at Easter with my favorite antique teacups.)

Last month I didn't think I could fit a single extra thing on the buffet. Now it's January. It's my birthday month and it's a time for new beginnings and fresh starts. I have only a few special things on the buffet this month: a table runner made by Chuck's grandmother and some plates and glasses she gave me a few years ago that look like Depression Glass; an antique postcard given to me by one of my dearest friends, postmarked on my birthday (January 25) but in 1910; and of course, my January girl is front and center. I even found a cute little pedestal for her to stand on.

I love decorating with sentimental things from around the house. It's just a simple thing, but it makes me happy.