Adventures in the kitchen

This story actually begins last fall when the cucumbers were full and ripe and everyone was trying to get rid of all the extras.  Nick walks in with a bag full of cucumbers and Ben asks what are we going to do with all of them.  Being the every helpful Daddy he is, Nick started giving a list of things that could be made from cucumbers.  Of course pickles were on that list. 

So I've learned how to make pickles.  I found a recipe and how to online and two weeks later we had pickles, with quite a bit of pucker power.  For a spring break visit with my family, I took several jars and they were well received.  My nephew asked for a few jars for his birthday. 

 So first was to brine the cucumbers.  I found that the post thanksgiving day sales in the cooking section to be very helpful for this project, from the spice bags you'll see later to this brine bag, which has 12 cucumbers in it.

 Then cutting them up and putting them in jars with fresh dill and mustard seeds.  Figured a picture of me cutting wasn't needed.  I got one cuke per jar.

I thought this showed in the other picure but if not, here is my other project.  Homemade vanilla extract.  Remind me to relate the train that brought this one around. 

The spice bags I had previously mentioned.  The pickling mix has to be heated so needless to say, windows open! I did make two batches because I am trying to tame the sourness of the recipe but my nephew wanted some originals. 

 Filling the jars.

Then the water bath.  I've debated on getting a bigger pot so I can do more than 3 at a time but mostly decide it's not worth it for how often I would need it. 

 Some may not understand that little *pings* at this point are music to your ears, others are nodding their heads in agreement.


So in about another week, we will be able to pop the top on a jar and test to see if I was successful in taming the punch.  I did a little less pickling spice and swapped a third of the white vinegar for apple cider vinegar.  Won't know until you try right?

After a few months

It has been a while since I last posted.  I've gotten out of the habit of this really bad.  I can add a few things.  

I went to South Carolina in October and I did finish my certification.  I can now claim the title of Certified Feline Master Groomer, the first one in Indiana.  Of course this has led to the observation that I cannot stay where I am because I know I can do better than I am able to there with the products provided and the environment has become almost toxic.  So I will most likely be starting my own thing shortly.  We have to meet with some people so we have an idea where we are headed.  

On another note, it has been 90 days as a non smoker.  I know and realize that that is a huge thing but sometimes I just with for ONE.  But it'll never be just one, gotta think about it like an alcoholic does, one is one too many.  

 

My little summer journey

To start this story I have to go back to April/May.  At that point in time I had read about a different way to do eye shadow that I had never heard of, so of course I looked into it.  During my looking I found this website and it really got my attention.  That led to one of the basic problems that many of us face especially when we find something new that catches our eye, how in the hell am I going to pay for all this?  My answer was kinda simple really, quit smoking. 

However nothing is as simple as it seems most of the time.  I set everything up, got the patch and was ready to go.  I went 3-4 days with no problems, just the odd thought about going outside (since I've only smoked outside for years).  The Saturday after I quit was a whole different thing all together.  I started crying and couldn't stop and after a few days admitted I needed help.  I got into the doctor really quick and was put on Welbutrin and recommended a head doctor type.  The diagnoses on the insurance paperwork is Major Affective Depressive Disorder, single episode, moderate severity.  In other words I got thrown for a loop NO ONE saw coming.  Started smoking again and trying to deal with this issue now.  

After spending the summer seeing a counselor and trying to change things so I would have a different result, I decided to try again.  I can't very well step back in seeing her if I haven't quit so it was coming up on either quit or stop talking about it.  

I had my last cigarette Thursday the 16th at around 730 in the morning.  It would've been 10 or 11 Wednesday but Nick forgot to take them to work and I couldn't resist.  The rest however were flushed.  So at this point I have not had a smoke in 9 days.  

On Tuesday of this week, the 21st, I took the patch off for the last time.  I have been without any nicotine whatsoever for 4 days.  

So I think I can honestly declare I am a non smoker.  

I do recommend that for anyone considering quitting read a book by Allen Carr called the "Easy Way to Quit Smoking" I got a kindle version for less than $6.  It puts things in a different light than most of the sites you'll find out there.  

The plan now is to start tapering off my appointments, lets face it it can get expensive, and finish my cat grooming certification in October.  I've passed 2 of 4 written tests and have the practicals.  

Oh, and I have already rewarded myself.  Since this whole mess was started by make up, I got the Urban Decay Smoked palette.  Probably the only time I'll spend that much on eye shadow. :-)

First try from my phone, looks like it might not let me. I cant type anything except for the title so we'll see how this works.

Ok, I figured it out! This is a big deal for me since it has long been established that there is a conspiracy of electronic devices against me. Just last night I was trying to print something for my cat grooming certification and it would not work, until Nick took over and it printed with NO problems. How is that fair?

We have, so far, succeeded in reclaiming our bed from our two little monkeys. Ayla has been the easier one, she has only woken up the last couple of nights because of Ben. Ben is accepting it fairly well. The only way we could think of to stop him was to put the baby gate at about shoulder level on him. If it's on the floor he'll just climb over it and I have a mental block about locking the inside doors at night, can't do it. But it's now down to about once a night he wakes up and we are doing well with waking up and taking him back to bed. Maybe in a few weeks I can actually say I have my bed back.

Speaking of my certification, I have my first test scheduled for the 25th of this month. It'll be the first of four written tests and Nick and I have decided to go ahead and plan on doing the school in the summer. So by doing the written tests first, I'll only have to worry about the actual hands on part at the school. The price is a little steep but hopefully after getting my certification and title it'll make up for it in the long run.

I promise I will hup to with the pictures soon. We just recently found our camera after being lost for a while and have been using our camera phones and I don't know how to do all that kind of stuff with it yet. (hint hint if anyone does)

I think we hit another milestone today. I took the kids to the store so that we could get them some more winter appropriate PJ's and, of course, Ben said he had to go potty. So I actually let him go in on his own. EEEK. I wasn't as tense as I would have thought. There was only the one way in or out and he kept talking the whole time. Of course when he was done he kept insisting on washing his hands, which is good just not three times. So I had called him and hear someone else say "your momma's calling, you better hurry up." I couldn't help but smile at that one. So he is just that much older now.

It's been an interesting time around our house lately. Ayla just cut 4 molars almost at the same time and Ben has a few more episodes to his name now.

Today we are at sunblock and cleaning wipes. Both of which I found all over his room. Hope to get some pictures up soon. I just realized I'm quite behind.

Finally got it!


A picture of her standing on her own.
She looks rather please with herself, doesn't she?

After I got this, Nick and I sat on the floor with her and she took her first steps! So she'll be running along with her brother in no time.

We have our first word from Ayla!! Probably not a surprise that it's DaDa. The cool part is she looks at Nick when she says it so she knows who DaDa is!

It's official, Ben is three years old! This year I made him a lightning McQueen cake. This is the first character cake I've ever made. For his first birthday he had a monkey cake thanks to Grammie. Last year we ordered him Nemo cake from the local grocery store. So this year Mommy made his cake, even though Daddy was the one who picked out the cake pan months ago.

So we'll begin with how it looked coming out of the pan.


Very detailed. My mistake was I went ahead and did a crumb coating but oh well.


I told Nick to make the frosting since his is better than what I've made. Ben decided to help.


I really look like I know what I'm doing, right?


Starting to come together. I've decided that the auto flash isn't always a good thing, it kept reflecting off the foil.

My little helper.


Fair warning: Ayla unplugged the computer so I'm starting over at the auto save point.
Lightning's starting to come together better. Downside the numbers kind of blurred into the flame but again first time I've done a cake like this.


Here it is! I was happy with how it turned out. I have some things that will be changing if I ever do another cake like this, like I will have multiple tips of certain ones, but over all I feel good about it.


You didn't think I'd have so many pictures without one of Ayla right? She is going to be well acquainted with birthday cake for her first birthday.


His presents. We got him a game for the Wii that has Elmo and a controller that is the perfect size for his little hand.


Eating poor Lightning.

Here is a video of Ben blowing out his candles.

I finally got one of the computers to cooperate for a little while. I've decided that they have some sort of boycott going on when I try to do anything useful.

Ayla's baptism was a week ago and while Nick and I did take our camera, we forgot to see if the battery was charged. So we relied on Grammie to take the pictures so we could steal them.

Ayla is wearing the same christening gown I wore twenty some odd years ago, made by my grandmother, and now I just have to take care of it until the next baby needs it. Which may be another twenty years or so.


Mommy, Daddy, Ben, and Ayla with the Pastor after her baptism. Notice who is sleeping through the pictures.

Ben is working on joining his sister in sleep.

Shortly after her baptism since she fell asleep afterward and stayed that way until we were back at Grammie's.

Her pretty cake, I think there was only one finger mark.

We changed her into a cute Bambi dress after we got home.

A little while after we got back to Grammie's.

There are more pictures from the weekend but Ayla is up and Ben is being way to quiet.

Ayla's first food.

Potty Training

Day 4

I think we can say he is potty trained. He had both shorts and underwear on today and we only had one accident and that was because he wanted me to get him a cup of juice before he went potty and he didn't have that much time.

It seems that now it's just consistency and some fine tuning, such as aiming and making sure he's done before he pulls his pants up. But I'll take it, it's not on the living room floor or in a diaper. I can also look forward to at least a two year break before I have to do this again.

Potty Training

Day Two

I was convinced that by noon today I would be ready to pull my hair out and toss him back into a diaper. Neither of those happened yesterday.

Ben only had about 4 accidents yesterday, total. He started off in the little potty we have for him but around 1030 I'd noticed it had been a while, over an hour, since I'd seen him go potty. So of course I was convinced that there was a puddle somewhere in the house. I was wrong, after a few minutes I noticed Ben was in the bathroom and I assumed he was playing in the sink like he normally does in there, again wrong. He was using the big potty! Is it bad that my 2 year old is tall enough to stand and use a regular toilet without a stool? That was it for the little potty, it's still in the living room but hasn't been used since then. He'll run for the big potty.

So in some aspects so far, easier than I was expecting, but I also know we're not out of the woods yet.

Today on being Mommy

Potty Training

Day 1

We're at the end of day one of potty training and my overall thought is, who the hell came up with this bright idea?

Ben has been giving a fair amount of I'm ready signals. He can recognize when he has the need, he'd get a diaper and actually cooperate when you put it on. He has used the potty a couple of times before, etc. So we decided to go for it and actively try potty training him.

This morning started out on a high note, he ran to the potty (currently located in the living room) flipped open the lid and stood over it and went potty. Amazed me a little that he is standing, but hey it's in the potty. Then we started to hit a few bumps. We would ask him if he had to potty every 20-30 minutes and the answer became a consistent no or he would say yes and we would ask if he wanted to sit on the potty and it would be a no.

We had several accidents in a row and I think we've washed about every pair of underpants he has. Needless to say I was wondering "what are we doing? he's not ready". But I said why don't we just leave him naked after an accident after nap time. No more accidents. None, nada, zip, zilch, every time after that was in the potty (more or less). So it seemed that the big one for today was to back off.

A couple of other issues have popped up, such as how to keep him from dumping the little bucket type thing that catches everything, into the lid and other stuff along those lines. But there is hope. I'm just not sure how it's going to go once we have to put clothes on him again.

She's here

As most of you already know, Ayla Jeanette was born on April 17 at 8:53 AM at 6 pounds and 17 inches.

For the long version

On Friday my Dr. decided that she wanted to go ahead and induce labor so my choices were today, tomorrow, or Monday. Most other thoughts stopped at the word induce and I told her I couldn't say just yet until I talked to Nick. Well, of course he couldn't answer the phone when I called at that time so I told her we'd go ahead and plan for Monday. Talked to Nick on his lunch break and we decided to go with the next day.

Called the Dr. to let her know and was told 5:45 am to be at the hospital. Called my parents to let them know and my Mom was on the road within hours - a 12 hour drive give or take. Called Nick's mom and our friend Ellen so that we would have someone to watch Ben while we were at the hospital. Stopped in at work to let them know to take me off the schedule for a while. Realized how much was still left to do, so we did some cleaning and a little bit of prep work. Got another call from the Dr. the time was now 5:00 am, so that meant both of us would have to be up at 4-430.

Grammie and Ellen both got to our house that evening and Ben was so excited to have everyone there and it took a little bit longer to get him to go to sleep. My Mom got in about 3 in the morning and had just started to get settled in when Nick and I had to get up and start getting ready.

We got there and luckily the nurse only needed one try at the I.V. (they stuck my 5 times with Ben and the I.V. ended up in the side of my wrist) and got the pictocin started about 5:30. I was a little worried because of the stories you hear about it taking over 24 hours to deliver a baby with an induction, but I was hoping that already being dilated a little would help. I got in the tub and that was the easiest part. I did ask for something to help take a little bit of the edge off and was at 6-7 at that point. Nick notified the mothers and they started to get moving, but they did have to deal with Ben so it was a slow process. It got a lot worse very quickly and Nick had picked up the phone to call again to let them know it would been soon and was told They can wait get over here. Less than 5 minutes of pushing Ayla was born. I went ahead and called the house and let them know "we have baby" which kinda surprised everyone. NO ONE was expecting less than 4 hours of labor, but I'll take it.

They let us go home Sunday, which I was really happy about, it's a nice hospital but it's still a hospital. We also learned to make sure the infant seat fits in the vehicle before you choose one. The baby fit in Nick's truck but Mommy wouldn't, so I ended up coming home with my mother while Nick brought Ayla home.

Ben has warmed up to her very well. He'll bring you the diapers and burp rags. He does not like it if she's fussing or crying and makes sure you know she is. So it looks like we might have a break before any sibling rivalry comes into play.

My Doctor has decided that she wants to induce me and gave me the choice of today, tomorrow, or Monday. So we chose tomorrow so it'll be less time Nick will have to take off work and less time for waiting for me.

A success of sorts

We've had a kid's potty for a while now just because Ben had shown an interest but not enough to really go anywhere. Tonight, after his bath, we let him run around a little before we diapered him. But before we did, I recognized what I knew to be signs he's probably got to pee soon. Then he started "asking" for his diaper, handing it to me and laying down. So I encouraged him to go on the potty, got a confused look in return. A very short while later I hear "uh oh" and he had started to pee so I picked him up and he finished on the potty. We clapped and said yea good boy and all that. He repeated pee pee in the potty.

So although it wasn't a complete success as in he sat down and did it all on his own, it has proven a couple of things-
He does recognize the urge to go. Since he did ask for the diaper
He now knows he can pee pee in the potty and that's what it's for
and That it's a good thing.

So hopefully this will help the process along a little.

First trip to the Dentist

We had Ben's first trip to the dentist today. I think it went really well. It was more of an introduction into it and they only really checked his teeth and gave me advice on what we should try to do and shouldn't. Some of it was old news to me (and every other Mommy) like, don't let him fall asleep with a sippy cup, some of it was new like we should try to floss the back teeth. Ben took everything really well, he only got scared once and the Dentist saw it and backed off a little. So it's a good start.

Everything baby wise is going good. I'm on iron supplements too since, it turns out, the trip to the blood doctor wasn't a complete waste. She's active and kicking, a lot. Ben is really cute about it too. At least once a day usually he'll crawl up into my lap, pull my shirt up to expose my belly, and pat my stomach and say "Baby". We're working on Baby sister, but not quite there yet.

The aquarium

Yesterday we took Ben to the aquarium for the first time. We knew he'd love it since he's been all about "ishys" for a while now.

At the first tank it was a bunch of cat fish in the Amazon Rising area. It was a little hard to get him to move on until he realized there's MORE fishys. (and you can see the belly a bit)

The big tank in the middle. Ben did learn to differentiate between a fishy and a turtle, thanks to Nickel, the sea turtle.

He really like the exhibits with the ledges so he could get up close. He did very good though, he didn't bang on the glass, just pointed.

He did a decent job of going between Mommy and Daddy. We were never sure who was going to hold his hand and who would get to push the stroller.

Their wild reef section was pretty cool, this had a wave pool thing going on. It really made Ben pause and he wouldn't go near it without Nick. Video at the bottom.


Waiting for the animal show to start.

They ask for no flash photography so no pictures during the show. Ben liked the Sea Lion, Penguins, and Dolphins the best. I thought it was ok, a little too heavy on the theatrics and not enough on the animals, but oh well.

They have a polar play zone for the kids. No real animals in the tanks, Ben for some reason didn't like to get his hands wet this time. Though he has no problem with it any other time.

Ben and the otter.

We weren't even out of the parking lot before he went out. Yes, we let him get a stuffed animal and he went straight for the Dolphin. He slept for a couple of hours after we got home but that was good since Mommy needed a good rest too.

Christmas

Ok, I tried to post these on Facebook, but apparently the site has something against me putting pictures up because I'm almost never able to. So here are some of the Christmas pictures from Grammie's house and ours.

Ben had to help Daddy put up our tree. He also made it the first priority in the mornings to turn on every holiday we have.

Just had to include this one of the stockings. I managed to find the blank one Nanny made so even though the baby isn't here yet, we still have it's stocking. Gotta remember to send it to my Mom sometime between now and next Christmas so she can put the name on it.

Since I mentioned baby, here's a belly picture. I'm about 5 months now and I'll be finding out on Monday what it is, as long as the baby cooperates.

Ben really likes the Christmas trees. He was pretty good about leaving the ornaments on the tree, but not perfect.

Ben and Grammy, he didn't take too long to warm up to everyone.

I've just decided I don't take good pictures anymore.


Didn't take him too long to figure out what to do.

Some more

His new inch worm.

He got a vet kit. He's been having fun figuring out which keys open which doors, there's 6 keys and 6 doors. And the puppy and kitty it comes with have gotten a very good look over.

That's it for now, I think I'll see if Facebook is feeling any more like cooperating.