Rainy Day

Saturday morning brought rain, and this is what was going on in our house....

Because it was rainy, we weighed our options and thought about where we would rather spend a rainy day....at home, or the lake house....so we went to the lake. Why stay home when the view at the lake is better, even with the rain?? So we went. And it was chilly, but a few hours there is always good to recharge. Here is one of the ONLY pictures of all three of us. I'm going to change that soon, and get some more pics of all of us....especially since Carson is smiling so often now!

While Kenny dinked around outside preparing to go fishing, Carson and I snuggled inside and he cooed away and I got some cute pictures of course! He's so animated and happy all the time so his personality is easy to capture. He's so loveable!

Work

My classroom is finally put together. I threw away SO MUCH stuff away and I had the mind set that less was better, and I think it's the best classroom setup I've ever done. This will be my 8th year of teaching and every year I don't change my room around too much, however this year, I just minimized. And it looks and feels great! I took Carson with me on Tuesday and struggled with accomplishing the setup, so Wednesday I left him with my MIL and went in for a full day and got it all done. I HATED leaving the baby in the morning but I know he was in good hands and I thought about him continuously for about 3 hours. And then I focused on work and all was good. His cute little face kept popping up in my head and I would count down the hours to go home and kiss his face. Before I knew it I was home and holding him! So I guess I survived a work day away from him, so when I do go back to work, I should be able to handle it. Boohoo:(

I have a DVR confession....the latest obsession I have and MUST watch on a daily basis.....

Little House on the Prairie!

This has been going on for about a month now. I get 2 new episodes a day to watch and I can't wait to sink into my chair every night and enjoy!

My new favorite picture:

Chili Recipe

The chili I made the other day R O C K E D !!!!!!!! I've never made chili before and Kenny said I hit a homerun the first time! Yay! The recipe I followed comes from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook....

Serves: 6 to 8
Advance Prep Time: 30 minutes
Slow Cooker Time: 6-7 hours on low, 4-5 hours on high

2 tablespoons
vegetable oil
2 onions, chopped medium
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and chopped medium
1/4 cup chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt
6 garlic cloves (I used garlic powder instead)
2 pounds ground beef (85% lean) (I used 93% and it worked just fine)
1 can tomato puree (28 ounces)
1 can diced tomatoes (28 ounces)
2 cans red kidney beans (15.5 ounces)
Pepper

1. Heat oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add onions, bell pepper, chili powder, cumin, cayenne and salt. Cook for about 5 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Stir in garlic and cook for about 15 seconds.

2. Add the beef and increase the heat to medium high. Cook while breaking up the beef until no longer pink for about 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the tomato puree and diced tomatoes with their juice, scraping up any browned bits. Bring to a simmer, then pour into the slow cooker.

4. Cover and cook, on either low or high, until the meat is tender, 6 to 7 hours on low or 4-5 hours on high. Stir in the beans during the last hour of cooking. Before serving, season with salt and pepper to taste.

My tips.....we always use the 93/7 lean meat, and it worked just fine. I HATE garlic, which is why I refused to put chopped garlic in it and used a TEENY bit of garlic powder. I used the crock pot on high and it was ready in about 3 hours, obviously that will depend on your crock pot! One more thing, we didn't use cayenne pepper because I couldn't find it in the store, so we used regular pepper instead. I know cayenne is hotter than regular, and neither of us like hot stuff, but if you do, use the cayenne! It was seriously the BEST chili ever!!! Oh yeah, I took american cheese slices and layed on the top of the bowl of chili was it was still piping hot before we ate it and YUM YUM YUM!!!! Next time I will double the recipe so it lasts longer:)

Grrrr

Lori was right, I didn't get much done in my classroom yesterday. I had Carson with me and even though there were other people around occupying him, I still didn't get half of what I had expected to finish done. The other reason was because everything in my cupboards and shelves was pulled out and stacked all over the furniture in attempt to "clean" the shelves. Who does that???? I don't need my storage shelves cleaned!! They are completely covered so there's no place for dust or anything! That basically set me back a good 8 hours on top of the baby being with me. So next week instead of taking him with me both days, I'm leaving him with Grandma for one day so I can get that room back in shape. I purposely didn't take much down in June so I wouldn't have so much to do now and then my room gets ripped apart.....grrrrrr. Not happy!

I tried a new recipe for chili today in the crock pot. Let me correct myself, I TRIED A RECIPE. I can't say I tried a new one when I've never tried one before...ever! It's cooking as we speak, so we'll see how it turns out in about 4-6 hours. It was super easy except for the fact that as soon as I slice open the onion my eyes poured out tears and burned so badly I had to continue chopping onions on the patio, no joke, it was that bad. Other than that, we'll see how it turns out. If it's good, I'll post the recipe. That will make me feel like I've contributed to womanhood!

Now for the the important stuff, baby pictures:

6 Week Pictures

Oooooooohhhh I swear I'm more busy being home on maternity leave/summer vacation than I am during the school year. Sheesh. But I'm not complaining, busy is good!

Yesterday I took Carson for his 6 week pictures....our first professional pics other than our friend who took his newbie pics in the hospital. When I called to schedule his appointment, they told me to choose a time when he was sleeping so we could "mold" him for the pictures. So I chose 1pm since he usually sleeps all afternoon. Was he sleeping at that time when the camera started to roll? OF COURSE NOT! And he wasn't just happy baby boy like he usually is, he was pissy, like GIVE ME THAT BOTTLE NOW pissy. Ugh. The upside was that we got a couple shots of him smiling, okay, really only one good smiling shot, but still, it was worth it. Anyway, the here are some of my favorites. I'm already excited about the next photo shoot!

He was NOT having any of the naked shots.....guess he's a little self conscious!!

I'm actually going to work tomorrow. With Carson! Our professional development has already started, and tomorrow teachers get the whole day in their rooms. So I'm going to work in my room and hopefully get it all set up for the sub when the kids come back in September. Not sure how taking the baby with me to work is going to be, hopefully I will be able to get some things done while I'm there!!! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Sunday is not a day of rest

Before I talk about my day, jump on over to Lori's blog and send her hugs and prayers for her fur baby....her dog is sick and elderly, and she's facing a tough choice and can use all the prayers she can get!!

Sundays are supposed to be a day of rest, right? Not so much around here. Kenny planned on working all day (yes, even in this blessed heat & humidity) and I was going to go through paperwork looking for a trailer title that Kenny misplaced OVER A YEAR AGO so we can sell it and get a new one, that was my motivation for finding it! Anyhoo, I ended up going over to one of my bestie's places to see her new house, and ended up taking a carload of stuff to her new home. All of a sudden it was 7pm! Ah! Time flies! Carson was a dream baby all day long as usual, and cooperated through the packing and visiting!

Tomorrow is the start of professional development at my school, this year there is THREE WEEKS OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT. Why, you ask? I'm still wondering, I'm so irritated that it's three weeks long, as is all my coworkers. Anyway, I'm not going back to work until September 28th because I just had Carson, so on one hand I'm excited that I still have 6 weeks at home with my baby. On the other hand, beginning a school year and not being there leads to issues....I'm not even sure how many issues, but they will be there. I am going in for a few days next week for some new training so I won't be completely in the dark when I go back. It feels so strange knowing that for teachers, school starts tomorrow, and I won't be there. This is my 8th year of teaching, and I'm so programmed to that lifestyle....it just feels crazy. I am blessed and thankful for my job, and I LOVE teaching, however sometimes I wish I could stay home with my little man. I'm sure I'll be a mess when I have to go back in 6 weeks. Don't even want to think about that yet!

I've babbled on long enough tonight! Off to bed, temporarily....still getting up every 3 hours to feed the kid! I have to admit though, I love that time with him when the house is quiet and I hear Kenny and the dog softly snoring. There's something very sweet and rewarding about that. I'm sure I won't be so fond of it when I go back to work, but right now, any time spending holding my cute little chipmunk is awesome!

Smiley Sounds

These are some pretty cute sounds.....

My Baby Smiles!

He's been smiling for a while now, I just haven't caught it on film. Here he is!! He smiles a lot, especially if you talk in that high pitched voice. His mouth goes crazy smilin' so much!

Sunday we celebrated my dad and my cousin's birthday....Happy Birthday boys!! Here's another 4 generation shot and another pic of my grandma holding her great-grandson. We take these pictures every single chance we can get, they are precious!

Carson kept me up all night last night. He would eat, burp, sleep for an hour (not a full hour) and then be up again. Holy crap am I tired. Kenny had to get up to work this morning so I finally gave up trying to get the baby to sleep in the basinet and moved him to the swing in a move of desperation. It didn't work. I swaddled him, found the 40th binky that hadn't been shot out of his mouth, and laid him on the couch next to me. Just about the time the sun came up, he fell asleep. Me? Up for the day at that point. And let me tell you, I've done pretty good in the last 5 weeks on little sleep, but this morning? Not so good. I have the sleep deprived headache going on. Ugh. And my little guy is just bouncin' and cooin' away in his bouncy seat, oblivious to how sleepy I am!!! Any advice from you mommas about how to keep him sleeping longer? He eats 4 ounces during a feeding, and usually during the night it's every 2 hours, maybe once in a while I'll get 3 hours, but not lately. I'm sure it's par for the course, but if you have any thoughts, throw them my way!

Yesterday I spent some time with Tasha and her crew. They got to meet Carson and Alanna loved on him! Her baby, Ben, is now 1 and he is a cutie! I was impressed how happy he woke up from his nap. Tasha made BLT pizza for lunch, YUM! I know she put the recipe on her blog a while back, check it out if you have time cause it was scrumptious!

Off to try to catch some more sleep if it's possible while my cute little baldy baby isn't looking!

Check out Tasha's giveaway!

Time Flies!

Carson turned 1 month yesterday. Holy crap!

FINALLY

We finally made it to 8am. As is, having a bottle at 11am, 1am, 4am, 6am, and then not again until 8am. And there was sleep in between 6 and 8am, on BOTH our parts (me and Carson). I have been struggling with the lack of sleep (duh, baby=no sleep), however, what was driving me nuts the most was that this little dude likes his bottle at 6am, and then he's up for the day. Me? I'm on summer vacation/maternity leave here! I want to NOT start my day that early because that's the time I leave for work 10 months of the year. I realize the baby doesn't care, but I'm new to this mommy world and I'm still believing that I can train him for those extra couple of hours...is that true experienced mommies? Anyway, we finally got to 8am. Don't let me fool you, I'm still pooped and groggy, but the accomplishment of getting to that 8am hour is overwhelming! Like I crossed the finish line and won a medal. Will it last? Who knows. But it feels good this morning! I actually did something once we got up that I fantasized about doing before Carson was born. I made his bottle, made my coffee, and took the dog and we all went outside and sat on the patio to enjoy the morning. It's going to be humid today, I can already tell, but right now our backyard is shady, cool and there are plenty of pretty flowers to look at. I have wanted to do this every morning since he was born (except on the rainy days) and just didn't have the energy or didn't have coffee (that's another story). And today, we did it! And it's so enjoyable! Carson is in his bouncy seat on the patio, I'm sitting at the table blogging and drinking coffee (he already had his bottle!!) and the dog is happily chewing on my watering can. Things are good!

I thought I would address the bottle feeding thing, Lori asked me about it through email and I wanted to write about it anyway. We are exclusively bottle feeding because I didn't produce much breast milk. About 10 years ago I had a breast reduction due to back problems and I knew that it would be challenging at best to breast feed. While I was pregnant I leaked a little, so there was hope, but when I had Carson I pumped and pumped in the hospital and got a teeny tiny drop or two of colostrum (sp?) and then when I got home I pumped several times a day and MAYBE produced 1/8 of an ounce ina day. That, to me, was no where near enough milk to spend that much time pumping. So we continued on with formula and that's my bottle story. I really gave breast feeding a try, but I have known for a while that I probably wouldn't produce the milk, so it wasn't devastating, I just accepted it and he is doing fine on formula!

Here's a picture of the roses Kenny suprised me with on Sunday. They really are the most beautiful red roses I've ever seen. They are different, a deeper red and velvety, unlike any red roses I've ever seen before. The picture doesn't capture the beauty, but it just makes my heart sing when Kenny does cute stuff like this. He is such a good husband!

Visitors

We had a busy day yesterday with family. So may visitors to see Carson! Most everyone has already met him but they can't stay away for long! My grandma is 88 and is now a great-grandma, and very proud of that! She held Carson several times yesterday, a perfect picture opportunity. The second picture is a 4 generation shot, priceless!

Kenny surprised me with 2 dozen roses yesterday in honor of the baby being exactly 4 weeks old already. I can't believe he's already that old, not that it's old, but it seems like just yesterday my water broke. Time is flying by! Everyone said it would and it is.

This is a typical scene in our house now....Kenny working and Carson napping next to him. Oh the joys of self employment....there are some perks in it like this!

A few more pics....