updating soon

OK, I will be updating soon. I haven't had much time and have been writing a litttle here and there when i have a moment and just saving it. But i will update this soon.

What I learned in 2008

Last night I went to a fun party themed "what I learned in 2008". We each had to bring a couple of things. 1. A list of 10 things we learned in 2008. 2. A recipe we found in 2008 and if possible bring the food item to share with the group. 3. A basket (or for us New Yorkers a Bag) of 3 or 4 things or places that we found in 2008. We then drew names and we each took home a different basket of Finds. We had a good turnout, even though it was the coldest night we have had in the last couple of years. It was wonderful to hear what everyone learned over the last year. Many people got really personal and it made me wonder if perhaps I am so reserved that I cannot share with friends things I have learned that have made me a better person. I kept my list pretty empty of all those things and it was more a list of things I learned how to do. However I thought I would share with everyone a few things I learned in 2008.

I learned:

• To sew an "Original Hem". This was a very exciting thing to learn because it is hemming your pants while keeping the original hem that came with the pants. This is great for most jeans nowadays with the slightly worn hem or for designer jeans that have very specific looking hems. You really can't tell at all that the pants were hemmed. Totally Fabulous
• About Natural and Home Birth. Seeing as I am pregnant we jumped on the "let's learn all we can" bandwagon early. We have completed our Bradley childbirth classes (I think they are a wonderful childbirth educators. They are very thorough in teaching you what you need to know whether you birth in a hospital naturally or with medication and the implications for you and your baby or whether you choose to birth in a birthing center or at home.) and we made some important decisions to have a home birth with a midwife. Corey was a little skeptical but supportive at first and is now a very strong advocate for a natural drug free birth. He is really excited as he learns more of how to coach me through the birth and support me and not just be a bystander waiting anxiously. The more we learn how my body is going to labor and birth and how I can most effectively help it along with being relaxed and without fear the more confident we are that we are going to have a wonderful experience. I have been reading some pretty amazing books that have really assisted me in having a positive attitude about childbirth and becoming a mother. I am very excited.
• Much to my husband's delight, I have been learning football rules and jargon. I now know what an interception, an incomplete pass, roughing the kicker, and holding are, what happens in a touchback, and sometimes I can even follow the ball through a pass and a tackle. Yes, I am getting the hang of it. I am practicing because I know my son will follow in the footsteps of his father and I am going to need to keep up.
• I have learned some new things about nutrition. I have eliminated from my kitchen any vegetable, corn, canola, or really processed way overused cheap oils. I now use only coconut oil for my main cooking, and depending on the food I'm making I will use sesame oil, peanut oil, walnut oil or other gourmet oils which are much healthier for you. And they don't leave a yucky horrible film on my pans anymore. I also learned that I can substitute most white processed flour with oat flour in most anything, and have had fabulous results. With my new coffee grinder I am able to make small quantities of different grain flours to use in making our food healthier and more nutritious, and with no noticable difference in texture or taste.
• I have learned some very personal things as well, such as how to have hope and faith in the face of challenges. I was laid off earlier this year and had applied for some jobs here in the city, to no avail. We had decided before the layoff to add on to our family and after much talking decided that even without a job it was still the right thing to do. So in August we found out we were expecting. With Corey's art business not quite booming as we would like and me without a job we have much to be stressed about. However, we had prepared ourselves as best as we could over the last couple of years financially and having learned how to trade the stock market we felt confident that we could make things work. We had just signed another lease before all this happened so we knew we would continue to stay in NY. It can be such a stressful thing to not know where the money will come from in the next 6 months and with the financial market crashing here in NY and seeing so many people move away because of lost jobs, and many people losing their retirement in the market it was definately a conscious effort on our part to not get suckered into worrying about the future or worrying if we could make our trading support us. However, we continued to see wonderful blessing come into our lives and knew that we are in the right place. All this just promoted the feeling that if we are in the right place and doing all we could to follow the commandment and help those in need, that the Lord would not let us fall into ruin, and so what need is there of despairing and worring about the whole situation. We still don't know what the future holds for us but we are consciously being grateful for the wonderful things we have and letting the rest take care of itself. Sometimes I wonder why I haven't done this my whole life. It is much more pleasant than always worrying and freaking out when things change in life or became unstable or uncertain. I keep thinking about a letter my dad sent me on my mission reminding me that the Lord will remember us in our time of need, refering to Mathew 6:28-34.

I realized this is getting to be way too long and will end this post. I definately learned many more things but these are some of the really important ones. Corey and I were talking about making a list every year so we can go back and reminisce about how we learned to use a cd player or walkman, or learned to play nintendo's original mario brother and duck hunt. :) It could be quite fun in years to come to see what we have learned in years past.

Here is a beautiful picture of our christmas tree in Kentucky.

And we had a visit from Santa which was fun. Here is Corey telling Santa what he wants for Christmas. (we all did it to show my nephew that Santa isn't scary)

And Here are the stocking I made this year and last year.

They turned out pretty well and were fun to make.

The holidays

The last few weeks have been busy. After an adventurous drive to Kentucky (thanks to my genius I froze the windshield wiper fluid and wipers and we weren't able to clean off the blowing snow, salt, and grime of the highways being splashed on our windshield by the bigger cars for about a half an hour. We literally could barely see out our windshield and had to find a place to pull over and clean it off. I have tried to block that part of the trip from my memory) we spent Christmas with family and enjoyed the adventures of the "Amazing Pace". Corey and I were of course the Champions, and celebrated much!! It was wonderful to see family and enjoy their company, especially our little nephew whose only thought right now is for Thomas the Train. He eats, sleeps, and bathes with his Thomas the Train Toy. Luckily for him he got more of the collection, and to our suprise he knows every single train by name. He even associates the color blue with Tomas. Although he doesnt' call blue "blue" he calls anything blue "Thomas". It is quite adorable actually.
After a grueling 15 hour drive (the last few hours were the worst because we were stuck in the Holland Tunnel, so close yet so far away!) we finally arrived home.
We spent New Years with good friends party hopping just a bit. It was fun eating a very delicious ham, playing games, chatting, and delving into pie.

After much deliberation and debate on if we should do the ultrasound, I finally made a decision, much influenced by Christmas shopping. During Christmas as we wandered through all the stores in the mall we couldn't find a single "Gender Nuetral" outfit. Even the greens and yellows had some embroidery indicating wether it was for a boy or girl. After only finding neutral clothing at Target (Winny the Pooh on all the yellow and some funky green color with generic embroidery) I came home a little more determined to find out what we are having.
Some of you may not know, but because I am having a home birth it is not forced upon me to have all these tests and what not, so the ultrasound is a very elective option for us. Corey and I talked it out, he was still hesitant about getting it done (when we first found out we were pregnant he wanted to know and was determined that we would find out). After we had watched some amazing birth videos("the Business of Being Born" and "Orgasmic Birth") it was so awesome to see the baby come out and to see the joy and suprise on the parent's faces when they looked to see if they had a boy or girl. Well after the eye opening shopping experience we decided to do the ultrasound. I found a clinic in Brooklyn and we went yesterday and found out what we are having. He gave us a very clear shot the moment she put the ultrasound to my belly, before I had time to look at the computer screen, she was announcing that we were having a BOY! I guess he really wanted us to know:). We got a few head shots but he was moving around way to much and his hands were up by his head most of the time so we didn't get clear pictures of his head. In one of the pictures we got he actually looks angry. I don't think he liked the ultrasound much, as it is a very noisy thing in the womb. Sending sound waves into your stomach is totally amplified to them and can be very terrifying. But we survived and now can plan a little better what we need.
However for baby #2 we have said we will not find out. We do want it to be a suprise with the rest of the kids we may have.
Also i'll post pictures a little later of our holidays as soon as I get them off our camera and organized:)

Do we find out or do we not find out?????

So Corey and I have really been debating getting the Ultrasound thing. Do we find out what we are having or not? We have been researching the risks to ultrasounds and just thinking about it. At first Corey was very adament about wanting to know ahead of time to plan, but the more we researched and talked about it the more we kind of want it to be a total suprise. I talked with a friend about it (she didn't find out until the baby was born) and while she was laboring she said that was one of the things that kept her excited to get the Baby OUT!! It would totally be exciting to Birth your baby and then be "what is it?"....
However, I know that my Mother-in-law has been working on a baby quilt, so by us not finding out is it inconsiderate to Grandmas who are making things for the baby of unknown gender? does it make the preparations harder?
We have a couple of weeks to decide.
Hmmm.........

Mary Poppins on Broadway

I got the awesome opportunity to see Mary Poppins this week. We also got upgraded in our seats. How cool is that. We were 14 rows back on the left aisle. Ya!! it was awesome. I loved this one. (i am not the biggest fan of seeing disney on broadway, but this one actually looked like it would be good) It has a few twists that the movie didn't which was cool. Loved it. And we totally forgot to be touristy and take pictures of us in front of the theater or poster.....Doh!!...

Rolls to Die For

I found the BESTest of the BEST roll recipe and I have to share because it was so delicious. (It is actually for cinnamon rolls but i used it for Thanksgiving and they were fantastic)

Also for anyone health conscious i have substituted 1/2 the flour for Oat Flour which made the dough even softer and very moist but slightly heavier (but nothing like whole wheat)........but no one complained as they were still delicious. I have not yet played with the recipe using Whole wheat flour because Corey doesnt' really like Homemade wheat bread (usually comes out to heavy and dry) but i plan to eventually play with it and perhaps make a bread using no enriched white flour. But I digress......

Here is the Recipe
1/2 C. Lukewarm Water
1/2 tsp Sugar
2 Packets yeast (4 tsp Yeast)
Disolve yeast in this until yeast gets that "bubbly, I'm Growing" Look
Add Remaining Ingredients
2 C. Lukewarm Milk
8 1/2 C All Purpose Flour (if you use combination flour depending on the gluten amount of the flour you can susbstitute usually 1/4-1/2 the amount of the All Purpose Flour) We really Like the Oat Flour (which i made by grinding up oatmeal in my spice Grinder
1 1/4 C Sugar (if you don't like this much sugar you can cut some out but remember you might need to cut back some liquid as well
1 Egg Beaten
1/2 tsp Salt
1 C. Butter (I have substituted 1/2 c of butter with applesauce which worked well,although i needed a slight bit more flour which i added in when i kneaded it)
1 TBSP Gluten Powder (this is a great addition to any bread making adventure because it helps the bread stay intact and not get too crumbly (in NYC good luck finding this, i have no clue where you would even look. I got mine at a place in Utah.))
1 Tsp Dry Malt Powder (optional) - I have no idea what this even is.....so i have never used itand don't know that i ever will as these turn out wonderfully.

once you have mixed all the ingredients in a large bowl and the dough is not really sticky to the touch put dough on lightly floured surface and knead by hand 10 minutes. Put back in bowl and let rise, punch down and either make cinnamon rolls or bread or just Dinner rolls by shaping and letting rise till double in size and cooking.
Bake on 350 25-30 minutes for rolls or cinnamon rolls and 45 minutes for bread or until it is golden brown on top and has a hollow sound when tapped

Also you can put all the ingredients in your breadmaker and i always put it on dough setting cause i don't like the shape the breadmaker cooks in. But it works just fine. Depending on your breadmaker size you might have to cut the recipe in 1/2 because when it is on the rise cycle it will overflow in your pan. (i usually do cut the recipe in 1/2 when i use the bread machine)

You can also take the dough and make dinner roll shapes out of them and put them on a cookie sheet and freeze for about 1/2 hour and then put them into a freezer bag and store them up to 2 months. When you are ready to make rolls out of them take them out, set them in your roll pan and let defrost and rise till double and cook like normal. and now you don't have to buy the frozen dinner rolls with all the preservatives or nitrates and junk.

I made these for Thanksgiving Dinner and then a few days later Corey asked if I would make them again. Here is the Pic of the Cinnamon rolls i used with the leftover dough. YUMM!! my mouth is watering just to eat them

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