Pictures! - new couch, marathon, Lexie's birthday, and baby stuff

Alright, here are the pictures I've been promising.

First off, the before and after of our living room. Basically, nothing has changed except the couch. There's a lot more space in there now, and the new couch definitely looks a lot nicer, and gives the room more color. I'm pretty happy with it.




We're going to get an ottoman for the couch, and a really nice stuffed chair from Target (thank heaven for left over gift cards :) ), but I have to wait until the shipping prices go down - I refuse to pay 80 dollars to ship.

Next, Matt's marathon. He ran the Top of Utah marathon in Logan. This was his second time running that one, and his third marathon overall. He had a hard time with this one, because with school, work, and a family to take care of, he didn't have hardly any time to train, but he only finished about 10 minutes behind his fastest time, so I think he still did great. He ran the marathon with PJ. Lexie and I mapped out where they'd be when, and basically stalked them the whole time so that we could cheer in different places.

Matt and PJ the first time we saw them - at about mile 17, as they came out of the canyon.















Matt at about mile 21.















Matt running through the huge crowd to the finish line.















Me and Matt afterwards.















Next, pictures from Lexie's birthday. We had a bunch of people over for cake to celebrate her 21st birthday. It was pretty fun - our apartment isn't quite big enough for big parties, but it was great to get to talk to everyone. I didn't get great pictures, but here are a couple.

Lexie and me lighting the candles.


Lexie directing the singing right before she blows out the candles.



...and last but not least, baby stuff. We got our crib set up with the cute bumper set, and we also got our stroller/carseat in the mail and assembled it the other night. We're just about ready to go!

Matt assembling... my job was to hand him parts and read the directions. Hence the reason there's no pictures of me actually assembling.



The finished product, with the cute bedding set.


Sweet new stroller with the carseat attached.

Another view of the stroller, with the shades up so you can see the pretty colors.

Anyway, that's about it. Lots of fun things have been happening. We just finished our prenatal class last night, and only have a couple weeks left till the baby's due, so I'm pretty darn excited about that. We've got lots of cleaning to do, but it'll be fun. :) Hopefully at my doctor appointment next week they can give me a better idea of how big he is, and when they think he'll come.

Grumpy...

So, remember my post a few weeks back about how much iron I'm taking (1261% of the daily recommended dosage)? Well, apparently, that's not enough. My doctor told me yesterday that at the rate I'm going, I'll be headed for a blood transfusion and/or being denied any pain medication during delivery because my iron is so low. So in order to avert what would be not a very good situation, I get to go to the hospital twice a week to have a bag full of iron juice (think rootbeer... that's what it looks like... without the bubbles) pumped into me for an hour. In addition to the many pin pricks on my arms that are sure to make me look like a drug addict, a brightly colored piece of medical tape and swollen feet and ankles (side affects of the massive injection of fluid) will be permanent fixtures until the delivery.

So I'm a bit grumpy. I probably wouldn't be as grumpy, except for the fact that I'm supposed to stay off my feet so that they don't swell worse. I'm on my third movie of the day.

Anyway. Pictures of the new living room arrangement (with our pretty new couch!) coming soon. And, Matt is running his third marathon tomorrow up in Logan, so I'm sure there will be stories and pictures from that. I'll endeavor to be happier by the next post. :)

New couch!!!

So for the past little while, Matt and I have been discussing the seating options in our house. With a new baby coming, we wanted somewhere comfortable for me to sit with the baby in the middle of the night or during the day or whatever. There's no way a rocker/glider would fit into the baby's room, and the only way we'd fit one in the front room is if our couch was smaller. That got us to thinking that perhaps we could just get a new couch, and that would solve our seating problem altogether - we'd have more room in the front room, it would be a lot prettier and more comfortable, and we wouldn't have to get a glider. We've been looking around at couches, and everything that we liked cost much more than we wanted to pay. But today on Craigslist (because I'm kind of a Craigslist stalker), I found a great deal for a brand new microfiber loveseat. I went and checked it out with Matt's dad while Matt was in class, and decided to buy it. We'll pick it up tomorrow night, and we'll have a pretty, brand new loveseat for our front room. I'm so excited!!! (of course, that leaves the problem of what to do with our old couch... perhaps that will go on Craigslist. Or maybe we'll just take it to the dump.) I'll put up pictures of our new couch/living room setup once we get the couch inside.

We won!!!

For the first time ever, we won a raffle prize!! Neither Matt nor I have a stellar history of winning raffles, candy-jar guessing games, etc. (and by that I mean we've never won anything. Ever.) But today at the Wymount opening social, we put our name in the door prize raffle, and we won a sweet BYU stadium blanket! Woohoo!!

Boring...

I decided our blog was boring, so I randomly picked a new background. We'll see how long it lasts when Matt gets home from work and finds that I've picked something relatively non-masculine for the background of our blog. Oh well. At least for a couple hours it will be pretty. :)

1261

1261. That's the percent daily value of iron supplements that I'm currently required to take by my doctor. Almost two weeks worth of what a normal person would need. Doesn't that seem kind of ridiculous? I feel like I'm going to turn into a solid chunk of iron any day now. Matt says it's a good thing Magneto from Xmen doesn't exist, otherwise I'd be in big trouble.

Confession: a weird obsession

Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved to rip things. We're not talking just ripping paper - it's got to be perforated so that it rips nicely. When I was younger, my sisters and I used to put on plays that we'd write. I used to collect the tags off of new clothing (you know, the kind where the price rips off the bottom) and use them as tickets. Well, that habit has never died. After I go shopping, I can't throw away the tags unless I have checked every single one and ripped it at the perforation. In fact, if I don't have enough time to nicely rip each one of them before I throw it away, I keep the tags on a pile on my dresser until I have time to go back through and check and rip each one. Today was a great day - I was organizing baby clothes and things, and got to rip tags off of all the baby things. It was lovely. :)



Note: No, the above tag was not mine. I don't think I've ever spent that much money on one thing in my life. It was a google image. :)

New recipes in my own kitchen

So one of the things that I missed the most about our apartment in Provo was having my own kitchen, with all my gadgets and all my spices and the things that I'm used to cooking with - not to mention Matt as a captive audience for whatever I create. So in honor of being back in my own kitchen, I decided to try out some new recipes. Two of them turned out really yummy, so I'm sharing them. Without further ado:

Applesauce Bread

2 1/2 c. Bisquick
1/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. butter
2 eggs
1 c. applesauce
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and sugar a 9x5x3 loaf pan. Beat everything together on medium until blended - about 2 1/2 minutes. Pour into pan. Bake 35 minutes, or until toothpick in the middle comes out clean

Notes: Don't try to use a smaller pan; this bread expands a lot, and you'll have batter baked on to the bottom of your oven (like I do). Also, I had to bake it a lot longer than 35 minutes, but then my oven tends to undercook.



Creamy White Chicken Chili

1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breast, cubed
1/2 onion, chopped (use the full onion if you like onion)
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder (I used more - I love garlic)
2 (15 oz) cans Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
1 (14 oz) can chicken broth
2 (4 oz) cans diced green chilies
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 c. sour cream
1/2 c. whipping cream
1-2 T jalapeno juice (optional - if you like it really spicy)

Brown chicken, onion, and garlic in oil. Add beans, chicken broth, chilies and seasonings. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, or until most of the juice is gone. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and whipping cream (and add the jalapeno juice at this point). Serve and enjoy!

Notes: I didn't add the jalapeno juice, and it was quite spicy enough for me. Very yummy. :)


Well, that's it! Hope you enjoy them.