ooooooo BABY!

I'm not sure what else to say except....WE ARE HAVING A BABY!

Around the beginning of February I was not feeling good At all. First I considered just the stomach flu but I decided to take a pregnancy test. and instead, I took 3 and they all came out positive. It was quite the night! Ryan and I just looked at each other with blank stares but we are SO excited!!!

We went to our first ultra sound appointment today and it was awesome! I am exactly 9weeks along and I'm due on October 30. I'm realllllly wanting the baby born on Halloween. That means, candy and cake and decorations and costumes EVERY YEAR!! It is a pain to leave this wonderful Women's Clinic and get a new doctor for the summer, but all is well.

Baby's first picture! My heart just burst open when I saw that little baby. I honestly didn't believe I was pregnant when we took the tests, but right now, I am so excited. I had to wipe away a few tears because there is nothing, Nothing more special than seeing that little baby! He/She did a couple little wiggles and I just laughed the whole time. It was crazy! Ryan kept saying, "Holy cow, look at it....that's a real baby!" The baby is growing perfectly and his/her heart rate was perfect. I couldn't be more happy!!

The baby is 1 inch long, so about the size of a golf ball. Ryan thought of that analogy (obviously) and has nicknamed the baby "GB" aka Golf Ball. Go figure!

Our goal is to keep the sex of the baby a secret...for everyone! I just feel like the "cool" thing these days is to have everything prepared before actually having the baby, but where is the excitement!? I am up for the challenge. So sorry y'all but as of now, no one will know!

Today, March 25

Ok. we are only 5 days into "spring" time.

When it's like THIS everywhere else:

It's like THIS here....JOY

and of COURSE no pictures

As expected, Ryan and I make an AWESOME meal and I have no pictures to prove it.

So, lately, I have been super craving steak. I don't care what the cut, just get me a big slab of steak and I'd be happy. So, while at the supermarket today I picked out a relatively cheap steak and decided...umm mashed potatoes and brown gravy....and then we went to the produce section and there was a cheap bundle of asparagus!! I was so excited!

I watch the Food Network everyday to get inspired...and I saw someone grilling asparagus on the George Foreman!! Brilliant!

And, I made mashed potatoes for the first time. I know, right? Weird! Every time we have them for dinner, Ryan makes them. And he makes them SO good so why fix it if it ain't broke....right? But today I did it! And they were fluffy and delish!

So imagine, peppercorn marinated steak, fluffy mashed potatoes with grilled asparagus on the side...yummmmmmmmmmmmmm

Why we build Temples

This video is beautiful.

I am so sick and tired of hearing about this Big Love fiasco.

And I won't say anything more.

You Go Girl!

My sister, Jillian is awesome.

This girl right here has been accepted to Xavier University for grad school.

We are still waiting to hear on some other schools, but we were all so excited she was accepted!! She is such a hard worker and I truly admire her dedication. She has such a passion for helping people to stay in shape and be nutritious. She has had a pretty rough 6 months with some scary doctor visits, but she is doing fabulous right now and is definitely loving life! For those of you who have no idea where Xavier is, it's in Cincinnati, Ohio and only 8 hours to my parents house in NC! How exciting....anyways, my sister is amazing.

It's Official!

It is Official!

Ryan and I are moving back to North Carolina for the summer. These changes have been such a blessing for us. Ryan's home teaching companion is one of the managers for APX and he told Ryan a bunch of information about it and Ryan felt really good talking to him. We set up a time to go out for lunch to talk further about it. Ryan and I were planning on selling next summer before going to Law School but honestly, nothing is set in stone with 2010 Law School anyways, so we decided, right now is a perfect opportunity to make some serious cash to keep us a float for the next year. I can't wait to pay off some debt!

So, we leave sometime after the semester ends, like, April 12th. We might pass through Chicago to see Ryan's parents and sister but I guess the APX team carpools out there so we may not be able to. It has worked out perfectly to leave because our apartment managers have started a new thing for people who go sell for the summer. You pay half rent for the months you aren't there, so I am so happy to not have to move our crap out into a storage unit and back into the apartment 4 months later!!

I am So excited to see these people:


and this girl:


And my wonderful brother David, his wife Tiffany and their son Benjamin:


and go swimming here with Benjamin:

Dreaming of a North Carolina SUMMER!

I won't say much...

but we may be in NC this summer.

Conversation with my Mom:

Ingrid: You could live at home with us!
Me: Mom, we'd be in Winston-Salem. (3 hrs north of charlotte)
Ingrid: Well, you could live here while Ryan's up in Winston working.
Me: Mom, we're married, we aren't dating anymore.
Ingrid: Then can you guys come and visit a lot?
Me: Of course!

Oh, Ingrid! She is such a delight.

I will keep you posted!

It was so good I'm even going to share....

I haven't had the best of luck with cooking elaborate meals for Ryan. I can follow recipes pretty good so I made a goal for myself to try 2 new recipes every week. Today was Braised Beef with Sweet Potatoes. I found it in Real Simple last week while we were playing James Bond 007 at our cousins place. It took about 5 seconds to prepare, dump it all in the crock pot..."set it and forget it...." and 4 hours later....we were in heaven.

Here's the recipe:

1.5 lb of beef (buy already in chunks which are my favorite or cut into inch by inch squares)
2 sweet potatoes
1 small onion cut in wedges
1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
1/2 cup dried apricots
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne
3/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 10 oz box cous cous
1/4 cup roasted almonds, chopped

Inside slow cooker, combine beef, potatoes in chunks, tomatoes plus juice, onion, apricot, cumin, ginger, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and 1/2-1 cup water

Cook covered: High= 4-5 hrs OR Low=7-8 hrs

Ten minutes before serving prepare cous cous
and sprinkle almonds on top

And Wallah!!! YUMMY!