Menu

This week we are cooking:

Fajitas
Spaghetti & Garlic Bread
Mediterranean Minestrone Casserole
Peanut Sauce and Stir Fried Veggies over rice
Salmon and Roasted Veggies

The Past Week...

...has once again been uneventful but busy.  Some of the fun and busyness from this past week included:

• Andrew went to watch Solo and Ensemble Competition on Saturday, one of his trumpet students made it to State!
• Starting Season 2 of Lost
• Having a good appointment with my midwives, scheduling another one for Tuesday, and getting some referrals for a Naturopathic Doctor.  I'm excited to try something new!
• Dinner for a friends's birthday on Friday night
• Unsuccessfully looking for more clothes that fit
• Good laughs with another group of friends on Saturday night
• Starting another batch of beer, while playing a fun card game

The view from our back window January 22, 2011

My posts for this week include (I have to do this, otherwise I can never remember what I wanted to write about):

• The belly picture I've been promising forever...I'm working on it, in the next couple of days for sure!
• A delicious, nutritious, inexpensive and easy Lentil Chili recipe...but no picture.  I forgot and I don't want to make it again.
• This weeks menu
• Our thoughts on moving and buying a house, really I will get to that this week.
• The tasty Sweet Potato and Curried Lentil Stew recipe we tried this week, I forgot to take a picture of that too.
• An interesting article I read

Sweet & Sour Recipe

We got this delicious Sweet & Sour Recipe from Lynne, Andrew's mom. She makes it with meatballs, which I am sure are amazing, but not something we felt up to trying (see the story about the Buffalo Burgers). We modified the directions a little to make it work for just veggies, it turned out delicious!

1 sweet onion
2 cloves garlic
2 carrot sticks
2 celery sticks
2 peppers
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 can pineapple chunks
½ cup vinegar
2 Tablespoons soy sauce

Chop 1 sweet onion and mince 2 cloves garlic. Add a little bit of oil to pan and cook until the onion is soft. Chop 2 carrots, 2 celery sticks, and 2 peppers into 1 inch squares. Add them to the pan and saute. Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, mix 2 Tablespoons cornstarch with ½ cup brown sugar. Add 2 Tablespoons lemon juice, 1 can pineapple chunks (don’t drain), ½ cup vinegar, 2 Tablespoons soy sauce. Add the mixture to the pan and bring to a boil until it is thick and bubbly.  Serve over rice.

Note: This would be great with more vegetables when they are in season. We wanted to add zucchini, or cauliflower, but they are so expensive and not so tasty looking that we decided to skip them.

Big Baby Purchase

We got our first big baby purchase!  Andrew's parents were kind enough to give a large chunk of money that we could spend on a baby purchase however we choose (that makes shopping exciting!)  Look what we got!

Yes, that's right, we got a Bob Jogging Stroller!  We knew that a stroller was something that we wanted to buy new, and we knew we had some pretty specific requirements, and this was the one and only that fit all of our many requirements!
We wanted:

• To buy only one stroller (with the exception of maybe an umbrella stroller at one point down the road).
• Something that we could take on unpaved trails and gravel.
• Something that we could go running with.
• Something that has a front wheel that can rotate or lock, that way we can take it running and still steer when we are in a store or at the zoo.
• Something that works with an infant carseat in so that Baby Bybee can stay asleep, we got the car seat adapter!
• Something that folds up with one hand, this one really is easy to fold up!
• Something that gets good ratings, especially for being sturdy and holding up well for long periods of time.

The stroller is more than we wanted to spend on baby, but we decided that is was worth it to have something that we really like.  Especially because this stroller should last us for quite a while!

P.S.  Bob just came out with a new model (I can't find anything that is much better about it!) so, as long as they last, this model is quite a bit less expensive!

Note:  Lucy is terrified of the stroller!  We are leaving it up in the living room and trying to move it around every once in a while to help her get used to it!  It would be great if she was willing to walk next to us by the time the baby comes.  That way we don't have to walk to the dog and the baby separately.

Beef and Beer Stew Recipe

A few weeks ago we ate at Boundary Bay and I tried their delicious Beer Stew.  It was amazing.  So Andrew and I decided to try to make some ourselves.  It's not quite as amazing, but it was pretty delicious!  The picture, and honestly the stew, doesn't look like much.  It's not going to win any awards for most appealing looking dinner.  But it's very filling with a great, wintery flavor!

Beef & Beer Stew, cooking in our new pot!

• 1 pounds stew beef, cut in 1-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried ground marjoram
• 1/2 teaspoon dried leaf basil
• 1 medium bay leaf
• 1 16 oz box of chicken broth.  (Beef broth would probably be better, but I have a Costco sized portion of chicken broth)
• 2 bottles (12 ounce) beer
• 5 medium carrots, chopped in 1-inch pieces
• 5 medium to large potatoes, cut in 1-inch cubes
• 3 celery sticks, cut in 1-inch cubes
• 6 small onions, peeled and cut in quarters
• salt or seasoned salt to taste
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cold water

In a skillet brown the meat in the hot oil. Add the herbs and seasonings, beef broth, and beer. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Add the vegetables and continue cooking for 30 to 30 minutes longer, until vegetables are tender. In a small bowl or cup mix the flour and water until smooth; stir into the stew until hot and thickened. Add salt & pepper to taste.

From the Classroom

The group of boys who, when they heard I got it for Christmas, convinced me to read the first few chapters of The Hunger Games to them because they had heard it was good and couldn't get a copy at the library.  Now they are so engaged and involved involved in conversations around author's intent, inferencing, predicting, summarizing what we read that day, and character development that there is no way I'm going to quit reading this book to them.

The boy who carries my stool to the front of the room every day for me, without being asked, so that I don't have to.

The girl who requested to, set up, and followed through on spending A LOT of time studying with me for her science test.  Then, when her science teacher passed back the tests and she got a B+ (this is the first one she has passed on her own), she asked to go to the bathroom and instead came running to my room to show me.

The boy who asked, in the middle of my reading directions to them, "How much fatter are you going to get anyways?"

The girl who drew me a picture over the weekend and taped it to my desk (with a lot of tape) because I wasn't there when she dropped it off and she didn't want it to get lost on my desk.  Yes, my desk is a mess.

Menu

We have been trying to write a menu for meals every weekend, shop for those meals, and then stick to cooking them during the week.  It has cut down on our grocery budget a lot, more than I thought it would.  And I didn't think we spent a lot of money on food before.  There are a few reasons why I think it has helped:

1. We look around our house and try and think of meals that we can cook that use more of the foods we buy cheaply in bulk or the foods we grew and canned ourselves.  This helps us use those foods and saves money.
2. We don't just buy everything that looks good at the store. 
3. We don't buy more than we need and have produce go bad before we can eat it.
4. We don't (as often) stare at each other in the kitchen, not feeling inspired to cook, and then decide to go eat out.

We've been doing it for a couple of weeks now and I think we are starting to make it a habit, which means I'm ready to share our process.

Everyone has a different way they make a menu, you have to find what works for you. We try and schedule meals for a certain day of the week...but we usually end up switching once or twice during the week.  I think we do well with about 5 cooked meals, and 2 nights of leftovers.  I also usually eat leftovers for lunch, which helps.

The meals for this week:
Sweet potato & curried lentil stew
Potato Soup
Spaghetti
Salmon & Roasted Veggies
Canned Chili

We also usually try and come up with a few things we make that we can eat as breakfast, lunches, or just snack on between meals.

This week we are also planning on making:
Cornbread muffins
Cabbage Salad
A big batch of Oatmeal

The things we always keep on hand.  Most of these don't go bad, so we buy them in bulk and them just always have them around:
Homemade trail mix
Dilly Beans
Apples and some other fruit, right now its pears
Pistachios
Protein bars (this is a new one to help my current state, I eat one a day)
Whole Wheat crackers
Chips & Salsa
Popcorn
Dried apple slices
Veggies & Hummus

I would love to hear how you plan your menu and what favorite meals you rotate in, we always need new ideas!

Disappeared

Yes, I totally disappeared from blogging last week.  I don't know why, we were busy, but not crazy busy.  We did fun stuff, but nothing incredibly noteworthy.  Mostly, I just feel like we are on the brink of new and exciting things...but aren't quite at the point of doing and sharing yet.

Blog posts I have planned for this week (the hope is this will make me do it!):

• The menu for this week
• A tasty Beer and Beef Stew Recipe
• More stories from the classroom
• Update on our house buying dreams
• A big baby purchase
• An new belly picture and pregnancy update
• A Sweet and Sour Recipe that is delicious!

From the Classroom

Teaching is crazy.  It is stressful, you have to think on your feet, things never go as planned, it is high stakes, people always need you, and there is always more work to be done.  But it's totally worth it because of the kids.  When you like them, and like teaching them, they make teaching rewarding.  My students make me laugh everyday.  Everyday, they do something that lets me know they appreciate me, even if they didn't do it on purpose.  I love reading the funny things that my friend shares on her blog, the things that keep her going despite the craziness.  So I'm going to try and remember to write more of them down.  Which means writing them here and sharing them with you.  Maybe even once a week.

From this week, sorry most of them have to do with me being pregnant, my students are obsessed right now:

The really loud group that I walked in on.  I told them I could hear them all the way down the hall and rolled my eyes at the giggling pack of girls.  One of the boys piped up and said "Shh, guys Mrs. Bybee's here now.  You have to be quiet and talk in nice voices around the baby."  And they did, for the last 45 minutes of the period, which is unheard of for them.

The boy who leaves lunch 3 minutes early everyday to come to my class so he can get the seat right up front.  And give me a piece of gum.  Everyday.  And no, it's not because I have bad breath.  I asked.

The girl who asked if I would name my baby after her, even if it was a boy, just so that I wouldn't forget her in 10 years.

The boy who, on the first day back from break, walked in the room and said "Whoa, your belly is huge!"  Then quickly stammered and explained that it wasn't in a bad way, and that I'm really not fat, I'm just "for real pregnant now".

The group that, when we were discussing our weekends on Monday, asked if I had had the baby over weekend.  Because I had been pregnant a long time already.

Last week one of my boys asked me if I was craving anything in particular.  His mom is pregnant and he was telling me all about her cravings.  I told him that I was liking Mexican food, but I didn't know that it was really a craving, because I always like Mexican food.  This week, one of my Hispanic students, who I didn't even think was listening, brought me some authentic tamales that they had had for dinner the night before.

Baby Gifts

Note: We are using he and she interchangeably since we don't know if we are having a boy or a girl and it sounds like we are having an alien.

Even though we still have 6 months before our baby joins us, we have so many friends and family who have been spoiling us already.  Some of the gifts have been for the Andrew and I and some have been for the baby, all of them have been fun!  I don't expect to post about EVERY baby thing we buy, but it's exciting to get our first baby items and I thought I would share.

This first book is for Andrew, and I haven't read much of it yet.  What I have skimmed through seems pretty good though!  When he is done with it, I am planning on reading it and I will let you know what I think.

Love this!  The journal includes little notes for everyday, information about how other cultures view pregnancy, and room for you to write some quick notes about how you are feeling, if you've been sick, and how much you weigh.  There is some space every few pages for you to write more, but it's not so blank that you don't know where to start with writing things down.

An assortment of Burt's Bees Mama Bee products (someone knew we love everything Burt's Bees at our house!) came with a fun Baby magazine and a chocolate bar.  It was a perfect gift to get at work!

This book was great!  It was very factual and guides you through a lot of the decisions that you have to make in pregnancy.  It's not very opinionated, which was great because it left us free to make up our own minds about how we wanted to view pregnancy and what our hopes are for delivery.

Love, love, love this book.  It is my absolute favorite pregnancy book that I have read so far.  The main premise of the book is that the reason that women are scared of delivery is because we tell each other all about the horror stories of delivery and make each other more scared and fearful about delivery.  The more fearful and scared you are, the more likely you are to have delivery complications.  This isn't saying that all deliveries will be complication free, but that MOST will because a woman's body is designed to deliver babies.  And that there are plenty of wonderful delivery stories out there as well and that yours is more likely to be positive if you go in with a positive mindset.  I like reading this.  It made me feel excited about delivery, even if its long and even if it is work.

This sock money jack in the box was a gift from Grandma Bybee and will be a fun reminder to our baby of his sock monkey collecting grandma.

This little lamb snuggler is so soft I want to sleep with it.  One side is fleecy fabric and the other is satin.  It is perfect for a little baby to snuggle up to and carry around with them.

Aren't we lucky to have such supportive friends and family! Thank you everyone!

Buffalo Burgers

Did you know that pregnant ladies are supposed to eat a minimum of 60 grams of protein a day? Some people recommend 100 grams! You should try adding up how much protein you eat a day...we are no where near that close!

So, in an attempt to get more protein, which will make me and baby healthier, and could possibly make my morning sickness better, I've started eating meat again. Our midwife suggested buying buffalo meat from a local farm in town because 1) it's super clean meat with no added hormones and 2) because it's local and inexpensive.

Saturday we picked some up, planning to have Andrew cook it while I was at work (the smell of meat is grossing me out) and then add it in small bits to different meals throughout the week. Then on Sunday night we were both craving burgers.

So Andrew went and got briquettes for the grill (and some Thomas Kemper sodas for a treat!), made some patties and grilled us some buffalo burgers. Outside where I didn't have to smell it.  I grilled some onions and sliced some leftover canned pineapple we had in the fridge. And I made these delicious fries...here's the recipe, I would half it for next time.

Delicious Battered Baked Fries
* 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled
* 1 cup flour
* 1 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1 teaspoon onion powder
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1 teaspoon paprika
* 1 teaspoon Johnny's seasoning salt
* water as needed
* 1 Tablespoon vegetable oil


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Slice potatoes into French fries, and place into cold water so they won't turn brown.
3. Grease a cookie sheet.
4. Sift the flour, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, Johnny's, and paprika into a large bowl. Gradually stir in the vegetable oil and enough water so that the mixture can be drizzled from a spoon.
5. Dip potato slices into the batter one at a time, and place on the cookie sheet so that they aren't overlapping.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, then stir and toss potatoes. Bake for another 15-20 minutes until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

So, with our delicious dinner prepared, we sat down to eat.  I was able to eat about 3/4ths of my burger before I was just too stuffed.  But for the most part, I thought it was delicious.  Of course, it was smothered in BBQ sauce, pineapple, and grilled onions.  Andrew had a harder time with the meat flavor, but ate about half of it.  Next morning, I had terrible morning sickness.  And we both had angry stomachs all day long.  Next time, we skip the burger idea and go with the small bits of meat at a time plan.

Wine Update

Disclaimer: No I am not drinking while pregnant. I just had a hard time writing this post with me in the past tense and Andrew in the present tense. And I had a hard time moving between saying we and referring to just Andrew. So I gave up trying and just went with we. Didn't want anyone to panic.

These are all the wines we have bottled thus far. We did a little bit of cleaning and reorganizing of the bottles on Wednesday and I thought it would make for a perfect recap.

Mish Mash Apple:This is the first wine we bottled, almost a year ago now!  It was made from apples on all of the different trees in our yard.  We drink it chilled, and it is delicious!  Tastes like a slightly fruity white wine.  Very nice and crisp.
Premier Peach: This wine was bottled last April and is made from peaches that grew on the tree in our yard.  We also drink this chilled, and it is wonderful! It is slightly sweeter than the apple, but not overly sugary.
Apple Wine:  We made this wine from apple juice we bought at Haggen.  This apple juice is made from local gala washington apples, has no preservatives and is amazing.  We bottled the wine in September and isn't quite aged enough to be considered done yet.  Soon though.  When we tasted it at bottling, it was similar to the Mish Mash Apple, but maybe not quite as much apple flavor.  We will have to do a side by side comparison at some point.
Dandy Wine: This wine was made from dandelions picked in our own yard and was bottled in November.  It won't be ready to drink until May but it was mighty tasty when we bottled it.  It wasn't very sweet at all but it had a unique flavor to it that reminded me of summer.
Super Strawberry:  Made from strawberries we picked at Boxx Berry Farm and bottled in December, this is probably our best wine yet.  We just had a little taste when we bottled it, and it's no where near done yet, but already we think it's our favorite.
Coffee Wine:  Made from locally roasted coffee beans and bottled in December, we are somewhat at a loss with this wine.  When we first went to bottle it, it tasted terrible.  So we went sweetened it, waited two weeks, and went to bottle it again.  It was better, but not much.  It has a very bitter first taste that Andrew says just slams you (I haven't tried it).  We bottled it anyway and he is debating ways to make it into some sort of mixed drink or reflavor it make it palatable.  Maybe it will be better when it ages?  Any ideas?
Carrot Hop Wine:  Made from carrots picked at Half Acre Farm and bottled just last week, this wine is definitely not ready yet.  We had a first sip last week and it was very good.  It was interesting to have the hoppy flavor in a wine, but I think it goes very well.  And it definitely doesn't taste very carroty!

Still left in process:
Cherry Wine: which can be bottled as soon as we get more corks
Green Tomato Wine: which will be ready to bottle beginning of February
Pear Wine: which has stopped fermenting, but is taking forever to clear
Blueberry Wine: which is our newest wine and is taking forever to quit fermenting

I think we are hooked!  Winemaking is such a fun, different way to use local produce.  It feels like and experiment every time.  And it's saving us money, another bonus!

Snow Day!

And we didn't go out in the snow at all!  Snow days, where school is completely canceled, are pretty rare around here.  The snow, however, was not the exciting part of the day to us.  Snow day to us meant:

• Getting 12 hours of sleep last night.  Seriously, we went to bed at 930am in prep for our 530am wake up, then gratefully slept in until 930am.  This pregnant lady needed it!
• Watching an episode of Lost while I slowly ate breakfast.  We are starting over in an to watch the whole series (we've only seen through season 4) and are currently on season 1.  And we are loving it, again.
• Cleaning out our guest room, craft room, storage room, brew room.  Since it is our catch all space, it gets chaotic quickly.  It's much better now!
• Watching an episode of Lost while slowly eating lunch.  Notice I eat slowly?  Things stay down much better that way.
• Looking at deer checking out our chickens.
• Getting some work done that I need for tomorrow's school day.  Yeah, I know, it was a day off.  But I had planned on getting paperwork done at work today and I need it done to survive tomorrow.  
• Andrew knitted a ball for Lucy, which she is treating so very gently.  Crazy dog.
• Making a delicious taco/burrito/fajita dinner together.
• Folding laundry and catching up on some photos and blogging and drinking hot cocca while Andrew is at a Whatcom Wind Ensemble rehearsal.  

Essentially, a low key yet productive day.  Perfect.

To make you smile....

A photo of Lucy at daycare today. They always get the amazing shots ;)

The Things That Don't Get Mentioned...

...in other blog posts. Every once in a while I feel the need to do a mini update and share some insights into our life, things that don't seem to make it into their own posts but are usually more important to us than the things I blog about daily.

• Andrew finished taking classes at Western! He received his diploma in the mail yesterday, very exciting. Technically, he has a Bachelor of Music in Music Performance and when he finishes his student teaching in June, he will add a teaching certificate with an K-12 Music Education Endorsement. Complicated enough?
• Speaking of which, Andrew is starting his student teaching this month. He is working with a really great Middle School Band teacher. He has been in a few times and really likes it so far!  And yes, we are the crazy people who like middle schoolers.
• Andrew is still making lots of beer, he usually has a batch going or is planning on starting a batch.  Some of them he makes with a friend and he made a few batches on his own over the holidays.  He makes it look pretty easy!  We've still been plugging away at our wines too!  We bottled quite a few, but haven't started any more lately.  By the end of summer we had 10 different wines going, which was our max.  We are letting it slow down a bit before we pull out anymore frozen berries and get them going.  Maybe soon, I will do a beer/wine tally post to sum up what we've learned in the past year.
• Andrew is still teaching trumpet lessons, he has about 8 students right now.  The plan is to try and keep teaching all of these students while he is student teaching, and then start trying to pick up a few more.
• We signed up for a first time homebuyer class that takes place the end of January.  The class is supposed to help us figure out what first time homebuyer grants and credits we qualify for and how to get the most of our purchase.  We will see how it goes, we would love to buy something this spring...but we still have a lot of learning to do!
• We have been trying to be better about planning food and following a menu.  Andrew has been awesome at doing it with me, it makes it so much easier when it is both of us doing it together.  Give us a few more weeks of sticking to a menu and maybe I will start posting what we are eating!

Lucy's New Coat

If you are new and are visiting from the Blog Hop, welcome!  At the bottom of this post are some of our favorite Lucy posts!

Now that Lucy is getting somewhat close to full grown (she is 10 months old now!) We decided it is time to buy her a coat and help her start getting used to it. So far, despite some of the freezing cold weather and snow we have had, she never acts cold. But I don't know if she is smart enough to realize she is cold, or if she just loves being outside so much that she would stay outside until she freezes. So far she isn't too impressed with her coat...baby steps right?

From the beginning:
Getting Lucy
Puppy Preschool
Lucy Swimming
First Doggie Social
Doggie Daycare
Lucy's Couch
Lucy's Agility Moves
Lucy's First Snow

Lucy on the Couch

We've done a decent job of training Lucy not to get on the couch. She still jumps up every once in a while, but she knows that she isn't supposed to be up there and she hops off as soon as you look at her. She does do her funky lean/half bum sit...but it's hilarious and we are totally okay with that. Lately though....we have been letting her sit on the couch with us, on our lap, ONLY if we invite her. Sounds like we are cheating, but so far she hasn't decided to take over the couch...which was our worry. And it makes movie watching, book reading, or being sick much more enjoyable for us as she lays perfectly still and vegs out.  Letting her sit on your lap though is definitely a two person job!

Homemade Gifts

Like I mentioned yesterday, our only holiday regret was that we didn't end up making more of the gifts we gave.  The hustle and bustle of the mall, and watching the attitudes of all the stressed out people shopping their always bum us out.  We are so much happier when we spend our time making meaningful, personal gifts for the people we love.  And it's so much more memorable to receive a homemade gift that you really couldn't get anywhere else.  We just need to plan a little bit better and start working on ideas a little bit earlier.  Andrew did really well with his knitting this year though and made two nice gifts, his knitting is getting pretty impressive.

This hat he is modeling for his brother Tyler.

And these fingerless gloves for my mom.

Next year...we will do better.

14 Weeks

I am 14 weeks today!  Here are a few pictures of me at 13 weeks, 4 days...in my new maternity pants.

• I am still throwing up, but not anywhere near as bad as I was.  Every few days I have a bad day, instead of everyday being a bad day.  It's getting better so I'm hopeful that it won't last through the entire pregnancy!
• With the throwing up slowing down and all of the holiday eating, I've gained back about 5 of the 10 lbs that I originally lost.  Sounds crazy, but I'm actually happy to see the scale going up instead of down.
• I bought a pair of maternity jeans while I was shopping with my mom and sisters!  I could probably have lived without them a few more weeks, but they are SO much more comfortable. Weirdly enough, I think they actually make me look smaller. And they are cute!
• We started a baby registry on Amazon...I know, it's super early.  But I like having the time to really research and pick each product out ahead of time.  You can search for us on Amazon or click here to see what we have picked out so far.  Let me know if you have any must have suggestions!
• We have decided not to do any of the genetic testing...there is such a high risk of a false positive, and we wouldn't do anything different if our baby does have a disability, so we just decided not to risk any unnecessary worry.
• We have also decided that we aren't going to find out if we are having a boy or a girl.  Why ruin one of life's biggest surprises?  People always ask how we are going to decorate if we don't know what we are having...but we aren't really big into pastel baby colors anyway, so we are just planning on using bright primary colors, probably a Dr. Seuss theme to the baby's room.
• We have our second appointment with our midwives this afternoon, so far we really like them!  The appointments are low-key, and they spend lots of time with us.  Our last appointment was about 1 1/2 hours and they were in there chatting with us the whole time, they never seem rushed at all!  Unless there are any unforeseen complications, we are planning on delivering at the Bellingham Birth Center, which is where all of our appointments are as well.  The atmosphere there is very relaxed and homey, I love it!
• We signed up for birthing classes, starting in February.  We were taking the Bradley classes, and then are planning on doing some research and practice into some other methods on our own.  I like the idea of having as many options and techniques available as possible, instead of only learning about one.  Just in case that one doesn't work for you for some reason.

Hunger Games

I try not to post about books on here too much, I've been keeping track of my reading on Goodreads, and I find that it is much more organized and then my reading doesn't take over the blog.   But I can't help mentioning this series.  I loved, loved, loved these books. Just like I knew I would. I had been hearing about them for so long, but I was holding out until I could have all three books in my hand at one time. I got them for Christmas (thanks Matt & Carina!), it's just now a week later and I've read the entire trilogy, twice. I couldn't stop thinking about them. I put the books in Andrew's hands and he hasn't stopped reading either. Sunday night I went to bed at 10, with him telling me he was going to read one more chapter.  He got into bed at 1....having stayed up to finish the second book.  They are good.  Really good, they have a way of sucking you in so that you always want to know what happens next.  I'm glad I waited until all three books were out, otherwise I would be frustrated! If you haven't read them yet, you should!

Holiday Highlights

As part of my effort to eliminate anything unnecessary over the holidays, we didn't do any decorating this year.  We didn't get a tree, we didn't put up lights (except for the white lights we have up all the time), I didn't send out Christmas cards, and we didn't do tons of holiday baking.  Sounds scroogey right?  Normally I enjoy all of the holiday festivities but this year, with being sick, it just sounded overwhelming.  So we cut it out.  And we didn't miss it at all, we feel much more relaxed than usual.  Next year though...holiday festivities are back!

We were able to spend time with both our families over the holidays and it was lovely, low-key, and relaxing.  Unfortunately, we took absolutely no pictures, so you just get a wordy recap.  My slacking does have some negative consequences.

Friday, Christmas Eve: We drove from our house to the Bybee's where we ate delicious homemade soup and shrimp, worked on a puzzle, drank wassail, and watched a Charlie Brown Christmas.  During which we all fell asleep.

Saturday, Christmas Day: Opened presents where we were spoiled with new stainless steel pots and pans, glass snapware, gift cards, books, money, cds...the list goes on.  We had some extended family over for the afternoon while we lounged, ate, and enjoyed each other's company.  That night we all headed out and saw True Grit in the theaters, a big treat for us!

Sunday, December 26th:  Andrew went hiking/snowboarding up a Snoqualmie Pass for the morning while I headed to my parent's house.  He joined me later in the afternoon along with the nearby extended family on the Ward side.  Again, we spent the evening lounging around, eating, and enjoying each other's company!  After the extended family left, we opened presents with my immediate family.  Andrew and I were spoiled again with new shoes, money, books, gift cards, and perfume.

Monday, December 27th: We spent the morning at my parent's house, reading and watching tv, then in the afternoon we headed to Centralia to meet up with the Doty side of the family for a quick dinner celebration at the Mexican Food restaurant.  It was brief, but it was so good to see everyone who could make it!

Tuesday, December 28th:  My dad took Alec, Andrew, and Taylor skiing for the day at Steven's Pass while all the girls went out to eat and went shopping.  Fun spending time together!

Wednesday, December 29th: Home again!

We were very, very spoiled this year in all of the gifts we received...our families are very generous!  Our holiday's were perfect, with only one regret....that we didn't make more homemade gifts.  Every year we talk about how we wish we had given more personal, homemade gifts, but we never plan very well.  Andrew made a few things...posts to come...but next year, we are going to try to do better!  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season!

Sorry...

For leaving you all with a post about mice....all through the holidays!  I know I have been terribly lax about blogging, but I have been trying to be better about letting things go and giving myself a break.  And we took a nice long break over the last two weeks, it was perfect!  Stay tuned for some updates!