It's been a while...

Oh wow! It's really been a long time since my last post. I had no idea. I've been busy. School recently started, and I am totally and thoroughly exhausted every afternoon. But the main reason for my lack of posting and exhaustion is this...

This little guy (or girl) has my body all in a tizzy! I have experienced morning/all day sickness that I never experienced with AK. I am SOOOOO sleepy and in bed by 8:00 p.m. every night. I am currently dealing with dizziness, and actually vomited for the first time of this pregnancy just this morning. What?? I'm 13 weeks along today. Aren't all of these symptoms supposed to be subsiding by now?

Even with all of these things, we are really looking forward to this journey. AK is over the moon with happiness. She's finally getting that sibling that the Easter Bunny kept forgetting every year :)

Summer Activities

I have tried to keep AK busy this summer. We've been visiting the water park a lot. She had theater camp for two weeks, and starts art camp and VBS next week. However, there are days where we have little to do, so I try to get creative. We decided to make slime the other day. It's a mixture of borax, glue, and water. Add a little food coloring to spice it up!

Motivation

I haven't had much motivation to post anything lately. I've been feeling very tired instead. So I thought I would just post a few pictures from our 4th of July weekend with our family. We had a very fun time!

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

I am excited to say that the two veggies I planted this spring are growing! I have documented my tomato plant over the past couple of months. Look at it today! One red tomato :)

There are 4 other little green tomatoes beginning to grow too.

I also planted containers of lettuce this year. Fresh lettuce sounds so appealing to me. Look!





I think I need to thin out the lettuce, but it's so pretty!

What's for Dinner?

I used to make a very yummy chicken pasta salad. Everyone who ate it seemed to love it. I haven't made it in about 5 years, so I decided to make it the other night. I got the recipe from All Recipes. It is the best chicken pasta salad I've ever had! Here you go...

Best Chicken Pasta Salad

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 3/4 cup steak sauce - I use Heinz 57
  
• 1 (12 ounce) package fusilli pasta
• 2 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1 Vidalia onion, diced - I use about 1/2 of this
  
• 2 avocados - peeled, pitted and diced
• 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup Ranch-style salad dressing - I use Naturally Fresh Lite Ranch
  

Directions

1. Preheat an outdoor grill for high heat. Place breasts into a glass baking dish and marinate in steak sauce for 15 to 60 minutes.
2. Grill chicken until no longer pink and the juices run clear. Remove from grill, and chop into bite-size pieces.
3. To a large pot of boiling water, add bouillon cubes and pasta. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain, and rinse under cold water.
4. In a large bowl, combine chicken, pasta, onion, avocados and tomatoes. Mix in salad dressing, cover, and refrigerate until chilled.

ENJOY!

Sick Day

AK is sick today. She spent most of last night with a high fever, sore throat, and vomiting. Yuck. She seems to feel fine today, but the doc says it's strep throat. The first thing AK said was, "That means we have to stay at home all day." She did not say it with excitement. So to make her day a little more fun, we made these.

We used the shells we collected at the beach a couple of weeks ago. From the top we have a spider, a butterfly, a whale, and a girl (for some reason this one reminds me of Janice from the Muppet Show!)

Playing Catch Up!

I feel like I haven't really blogged about much lately. I've been taking lots of pictures, and have lots of stories to share, but I just can't seem to find the time.

I have become happily obsessed with the little wrens nest just outside my kitchen door. We have had wrens for the past 3 or 4 years nest in our cat head bird house. They are there this year too! I love watching the mama and daddy birds build the nest of twigs and whatnot.

See the mama's eye peeking at me?

Then before I knew it, they were bringing food to the nest, and I realized there were babies in there. They are really good about us going in and out of the door less than a foot from their nest, but they sure do fuss when they see me looking out of the window at them!

The bird is hard to hear because the door was closed, but if you listen carefully you will hear her!

On Sunday I got several glimpses of the babies, and then that afternoon they were gone! I guess it was time for them to fly away. Here are some pictures...ignore the blob of poo at the entrance of the bird house. I think mama dropped it because she was too busy fussing at me and my camera!

Then...this afternoon, I heard the familiar sound of the wren's song just outside my door again. I like to think it's the same pair of wrens, but I'm not sure. Anyway, they were going in and out of the nest. Taking things out, and bringing things in. This is how I found it this afternoon. I'm not sure if they gave up for good, or just for the day.



I will be watching and listening for their return :)