Weekend Tidbits

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Maria C

Homeownership kept us pretty busy this weekend. It was the first weekend we’ve been able to just futz around the house and get outside in the yard. We spent a lot of time at Home Depot and World Market.

When we bought our house, we inherited a TON of garden space.

I wasn’t joking. When I first saw the space I was overwhelmed and immediately wanted to convert it back to a yard. The only thing I’ve ever grown is a baby! Then, during our second walk through I thought, “Well maybe we’ll take out the first three and keep the three beds behind the garage.” After the previous owners accepted our offer, I met with the Mrs. and she informed me that the 100 heads of garlic were growing in one of the beds that I wanted to take out.

I finally got back there this week and saw the garlic starting to sprout. I got really excited and started to plan out what else I’m going to plant back there. I planted some carrots in the same bed as the garlic. I’m not sure of how they’re going to come out: those seeds are tiny! And I thought of a better way to plant them after I kind of just spread them around. The rest of the planting and gardening will resume after I get back home in the beginning of June.

Another project I wanted to get done before I left at the end of this month was the accent wall in our bedroom.

bedroom wall before

I used a wall stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils to transform our wall into this:

It was a really tedious job but I’m really happy with how it turned out. The color is Special Gray from Sherwin Williams. All the walls were painted with a matte paint and the accent wall was painted with a high gloss paint. I used the matte paint to go over the high gloss paint. I’m really glad I stuck with the same color. Unless you’re a stenciling expert, if you’re going to do this, I would recommend sticking with similar colors. There were a few little mistakes but it’s really hard to see them, which I’m very thankful for.

The very BEST part of my weekend came today when I was reunited with my sister. She’s been deployed for two months and we’re so happy to have her home. Madelyn has missed her auntie!

When Melissa and I found out the date and time of when she was scheduled to come home we decided to not tell my mom, but rather surprise her at work. Thankfully, everything fell into place and we were able to pull of an awesome surprise homecoming!

Welcome home to my sister and best friend! We have some wine dates to catch up on

Rolly Polly

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Maria C

Happy 4 months of life to my blue-eyed beauty. The girl LOVES to smile at her mama, but as soon as the camera is in front of her face, she does this:

Time seems to fly even faster when you have a child. This past weekend, I was putting away all of her clothes that she’s outgrown and I couldn’t believe how small she started out. When I look at her now, it’s hard to remember her as a 7 pounder. We took her to her 4 month check up and all is well. She’s in the 80th percentile for weight and 70th for height.

Sleep. Since baby girl’s been 3 months she’s been averaging about 10 hours of sleep a night. This is great, except the new bed time has moved from 9:30-10pm to 8 pm. What does this mean for mama? Getting up at about 6:30 am on my days off. It’s hard to be mad about it when you’re waking up to the happiest baby ever.

Eat. Two weeks ago, I gave her formula for the first time because I didn’t have enough breast milk stored up. We gave her a milk-based formula and the daycare lady told me that she had been unusually gassy. For the most part, I try to stay away from dairy because it’s pretty hard on my stomach, so she hasn’t gotten a lot of exposure to it. I told the nurse about the gas and she said it could be the dairy in the formula. I try to breastfeed and pump as much as I can on the weekends to help increase my supply for the week. Even though she’s intrigued by the act of sitting down and eating dinner, our doctor told us to hold off giving her solids until she’s at least 6 months. The longer I keep her on just milk, the better. She said that if she’s sleeping fine and seems satisfied after eating, there’s no need to rush it. I was happy to hear this. On one hand, I’m really looking forward to that stage and watching her have fun with food, but on the other hand it’s just a reminder on how quickly she’s growing up.

Play. Madelyn loves rolling over from her front to her back. I’m still waiting for the feet in the mouth moment. She knows that they’re there, but she hasn’t made the connection. She’s a really good supported sitter and can hold herself up pretty well before she falls over. She prefers to stand and can pull herself up like a champ. Madelyn is a little mover and a shaker. When she is put on her stomach, she tries so hard to crawl and clearly gets frustrated when she doesn’t go anywhere. I have a feeling that when she does start crawling we’re going to get a run for our money.

What she loves. She still can’t get enough of those fingers. Her Winnie the Pooh activity bouncer-we put her in it for the first time yesterday and even though she’s still not tall enough (we prop her feet with a pillow), she has a blast in that thing. She even knows how to turn herself around in it.

Another big love? The Christmas tree lights! Here’s a video of her babbling away when I laid her under the tree for a photo sesh This is pretty much how she is every single day. My heart melts.

Happy 4 months to my baby girl! I love you more than you’ll ever know.

In the past Few Weeks…

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Maria C

One thing I’ve learned since going back to work full-time? Weekly blogging with a newborn is pretty impossible for me. My day starts out at 4am: I pump, get ready for work, get little miss up and ready for daycare, feed her, make myself some coffee and we’re out the door at 5:50ish a.m. I drop her off at daycare around 6 and am at work by 6:30 am. I work 10 hour days and am lucky enough to have an hour a day to workout-so really it ends up being about a 9 hour day. I leave work between 4:30-4:45pm to pick up Madelyn from daycare and I get home around 5pm. When I get home, I get settled in, make dinner, spend time with my husband & baby and start our bedtime routine around 8:30-9. I’m usually in bed around 9:45-10. Sleep & repeat. It’s a very long day but it’s worth the 3 day weekend I get to enjoy

Since my last post we’ve had some pretty eventful things happening here:

1. Madelyn came down with a cold and got so congested that we ended up at an Urgent Care. The little girl had such a hard time breathing it scared the bejeezus out of Larry and me.

2. Whatever germs Madelyn picked up from daycare, she decided to share with the rest of us and we all took turns being sick the past few weeks.

3. I celebrated 28 years of life. After a certain age, birthdays stop being exciting. I was at the tail end of a really bad cold this year and we had drill the following day, so I spent my birthday with my family eating pizza, drinking wine & snacking on birthday cake. It was perfect.

4. I ventured down to Chicago with my husband and mom and we ran The Hot Chocolate 5k. It was my first run postpartum and it felt really good. I ran with my mom whose pace is just a tad slower than mine-but I wasn’t trying to set any PR with this little race. My only goal was to have fun-which I did!

5. I’ve had a not so great few weeks of tracking my weekly weight watchers points. The good news is I haven’t gained any weight. Bad news? I haven’t lost weight either. Another blogger pointed out to me that MyFitnessPal DOES take into account breastfeeding so I may be switching back to that because A-it’s free and B-I had success with it before I got pregnant.

6. I found an “in studio” barre class to take in the Milwaukee area. I liked it, but I want to try another class during the week before I give a full review.

7. Hubs and I spent the night in Chicago this weekend for some much needed husband/wife time. My mom kept Madelyn for us while we wined and dined in the Windy city. It was hard leaving her behind but I had peace of mind knowing she was at home and in good hands. We found a good price on hotwire.com and stayed in a really nice hotel located right off of Michigan Ave.

Larry took me on a little shopping spree and out to dinner at RPM Italian. I’m a HUGE fan of Giuliana & Bill so I was super excited to try out their new restaurant. Like every other Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, it did not disappoint. The food was awesome, the service was spectacular, and the atmosphere was very Modern without being too pretentious. Their entrees were made to share which I like when you have a small group because then you get to try a variety of foods. It was a fun getting all dressed up to go out. It’s been a long time since I’ve done that and Chicago is the perfect city for it.

I’m off to browse through the Thanksgiving issue of the Food Network magazine. I’m hosting for the first time this year and I’m pretty excited/nervous! Wish me luck!

Pumpkin pie is a must-have at our Thanksgiving dinner. Larry loves it! I love mixing cranberry sauce and stuffing together the day after.

What’s your favorite/must have Thanksgiving entree?

Fun Photo Friday-a collage of pics

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Maria C

Happy Friday! Is it me or did having a holiday in the middle of the week (and then having to return to work) make the week seem longer? I swear it felt like the beginning of the week yesterday. So nice to see you weekend Anyone have any fun plans? Tonight, I’m doing dinner with my mom & sis. Tomorrow, hubs and I are going to Summerfest-the world’s largest music festival held at the lakefront in Milwaukee. It’s been a few years since we’ve gone, so I’m looking forward to it.

It’s also been a few weeks since I’ve done a fun photo Friday post. Instead of just focusing on one picture, I decided to put a few together into a fun little collage.

The first picture at the top left corner is of my friend and me. She’s expecting a baby girl in the middle of September, so we are only a few weeks apart. It’s been fun having someone so close to you going through the same things as you. It’s also been helpful to call her up and say, “This is happening to me. You too? Ok good it must be normal!” apparently Motherhood Maternity must only have one cute bathing suit because she showed up at my house on wednesday with the same exact swim suit as me. This was not planned and she even bought hers online while I got mine in the store. Great minds DO think alike

The second picture is of some pre-anniversary dinner snackage. LC and I spent some time at the pool, came back and had some snacks while he filled us up two delicious steaks and asparagus. The only thing I was responsible for was the baked sweet potato and snacks. We got the spreadable cheese from door county. It’s cheddar with port wine and cherry…very good! The strawberries were left behind from my mom who stayed at our place to watch Oliver.

The beautiful sunset picture was taken on our last night in Door County. We ate a restaurant by the water and this was our view. It was breathtaking. Hubs said he could retire up there…definitely a change of pace from Chicago, which is where he was planning a few months ago

The big salad at the bottom was taken at today’s lunch. Some of the girls and I went out to lunch today at Sven’s Cafe in Bayview. This was my first time here and I loved it! Any lunch place that offers gluten free bread options is a friend of mine. My salad had goat cheese, walnuts, tomatoes, grilled chicken, craisins, and grapes. Perfect summertime lunch.

So far, this year’s summer has been pretty great. We’ve been pretty busy but it’s all been so fun. It’s flying by though which makes me realize that baby will be here before we know it…the perfect ending to our summer

Enjoy your weekend!!

A Year Ago Today…

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Maria C

I spent the morning with my family and closest friends getting ready for the biggest day in my life. My mom walked me down the aisle and gave her little girl away…

We took vows in front of our family, friends and God to love each other through sickness & health, good times and bad.

After it was over, we celebrated with our awesome bridal party and I savored every moment of that day.

And then, we danced the night away

And ended the night with fireworks

Happy one year anniversary to my best friend, companion and wonderful husband. Who no matter what kind of day I’ve had always makes me realize how lucky I am. Who can manage to put a smile on my face even when I might be upset with you. Happy anniversary to the man who encourages me to chase after my dreams and supports my decisions 100%. It’s been one hell of a crazy year and I wouldn’t want to share the experience with anyone else.

Sunday Funday

Posted on June 17, 2012 by Maria C

Has a whole new meaning these days I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I actually went into work for a few hours on Saturday to earn some comp time for when the baby’s born. Hubs works nights and when he comes home on Saturday mornings at 6am, I’m wide awake so I figured I’d just go into work for a few hours and get some stuff done. Afterward, I went to the South Shore farmer’s market with my mom and bought some beets, kale, pea pods and shared some kettle corn with my mom. LC and I went to the pool later the day, but our pool workout was cut short due to scattered showers :-/ So I came back home and did my prenatal Bar Method DVD instead. I’ve been doing this DVD throughout my pregnancy, but not consistently (they recommend 3-5 times a week). I NEED to bring this into a regular workout rotation now, because today is the first day I woke up and didn’t have extreme lower back pain after a night of sleep and I think the pool and bar method had something to do with that.

Today, I started our day off with blueberry waffles with a little help from Better Batter. Of all the gluten-free pancake mixes I’ve tried, I like this one the best so far. All you have to do is add water or milk (I used rice milk) and an egg. They were very good and very light and fluffy.

After breakfast, hubs and I met up with my sister and her friend down at the lakefront for the Festival of the Arts. It’s a big arts festival that’s put on every summer at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Most of it is under tents so that if it rains, the art won’t get ruined. Of all the years I’ve lived in Milwaukee, I’ve never made it to this festival until today. We got there expect to pay admission, but were surprised to find out that it’s free for military and families. The art exhibit on display right now at the museum is Posters of Paris, so there was a huge sand sculpture in front of the festival honoring that theme.

We walked around for a few hours admiring the art pieces that we couldn’t afford and enjoyed the day. After we had seen enough, hubs and I headed back home and went straight to the pool since our visit yesterday was cut short. it was hoppin’ with people today. We went for a little swim and then went back to our chairs to lay out in the sun. We must have both been super tired, because before I knew it, I was waking from a nap. It felt amazing to sleep out in the sun

In baby news, I found out that an old college friend is expecting a baby in December! So that makes what seems like a million babies born this year…when really it’s 10 including myself. Craziness. I thought it just seemed like the whole world is pregnant because I am and maybe I’m noticing it more, but everyone really is pregnant! I’ll be back tomorrow with a 30 week baby update!

Getting back into the Groove of Things

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Maria C

Happy hump day everyone! This week is going by so quickly. We’ve been pretty busy over here so that probably has a lot to do with it. On Monday, not only did I get a new computer and pre-register at the hospital, but we got a new car as well

For the past few years, we’ve been a one car house. Now with a baby about to be on board, and both of us driving to work, we decided that we needed a second car. Plus, my dilly-dallying in the morning was making hubs irritated and late for work :-/ We went to the dealership set on getting a newer used car. Because cars depreciate so quickly, I thought it was a waste of money to invest in a brand-new car. But when the dealer priced out a new car vs. used car and we saw that our payments would only be about $40 more with a new car, we decided to go with a brand-new car. So, I’m the proud owner of a 2012 Volkswagen Jetta.

We started something new today at work. Every hour in our office, my co-workers and I take a break from whatever it is we’re doing and we do some sort of exercises. Today, it was pushups. I did about half on my toes and finished the rest on my knees. Tomorrow’s exercise of the day is wall sits. I haven’t done those since high school track practice, so that should be interesting.

Since we’ve moved into our new home, I’ve been lucky in that hubs LOVES his new grill and wants to take over in the kitchen (errr, yard?). With the way I’ve been feeling this week (super tired) be my guest hubs. But tonight I was feeling pretty good, so I took over in the kitchen and whipped us up a pretty easy and tasty meal.

There’s really no recipe per se. I cut up 3 chicken breasts into cubes and cooked them in olive oil and seasoned the chicken with pepper and garlic powder. Then I cut up some mushrooms, and sliced up a red and green pepper and sautéed the veggies. I added a jar of spaghetti sauce and goat cheese and boiled some penne pasta and voila! A perfect tasty, week night meal!

I’m off to catch up on some blogs and prepare the menu for our Mother’s Day dinner! Have a great night.

Belly Up to the Bar

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Maria C

Sometimes, the weekends with no plans end up being the most productive. Yesterday ended up being one of those days.

I started my morning off with a bagel from Against the Grain and an orange. While I LOVE their pre-made pizza crusts, I’m not such a huge fan of their bagels. They’re airy and very light, not the kind of consistency I look for in a bagel. Udi’s is still my fave.

After breakfast I tackled our filing cabinet and got rid of old papers that we didn’t need anymore. That turned into a monstrosity that I wasn’t expecting. I found leases from my first apartment, which was 8 years ago, and cell phone bills from 2007. I apologize to my husband and my step-dad for having to move that thing from apartment to apartment for me…love you guys

When the paper shredding fun was over with, I headed over to Bar Method in Lakeview for my first official prenatal class. It was awesome! I’ve taken the regular classes since being pregnant, because the prenatal is only offered one day a week. I tell the instructors that I’m pregnant and they help me modify the poses. The prenatal class teaches you ways to modify the poses on your own so that when you do take a regular class, you’ll need little help from the teacher. It was also nice, working out along side with other fellow preggos

There was one women there, still working out and she was 36 weeks pregnant. Very impressive to say the least. Bar Method is, hands down, my favorite toning workout. It helped me shed inches for my wedding day and now I’m hoping that it keeps me in shape during my pregnancy. When I’m in WI, I use their DVDs. While they are very good and comparable to a class, I prefer the motivation of a real-life instructor. I feel a little giveaway in the near future

One of the things that I miss about being in Chicago on a full-time basis is my kitchen. I enjoy cooking, and now that I’m at a point where most of my food aversions are out the window, I like to spend as much time in it as I can. Pre-Wisconsin during the week, our weekends were spent dining out. Now I much prefer to make dinner at home. Last night I made hubs and I grilled salmon over a bed of greens & quinoa with olives, artichokes, mushrooms and goat cheese.

LC told me that I could make this every day if I wanted, it was that good

I seasoned the salmon with olive oil, lemon, rosemary, oregano, pepper and sea salt. I agree with him, it was probably the best salmon I’ve every made.

I also got some use out of pampered chef chip maker and turned these sweet potato rounds

into these crispy sweet potato chips.

The key to getting a crispy, instead of chewy, chip is to make sure that all the moisture is out of the sweet potatoes before putting them on the crisper and then into the microwave. I’m happy that I made enough of them to snack on through the week. Maybe next week, I’ll explore with apples.

Today’s not going to be quite as busy as yesterday was. We have our Bradley Method class where tonight we’re discussing the first stage of labor. This morning I’m headed to Bar Method and off to enjoy the rest of this beautiful Sunday! Have a great day.

Jumping one Hurdle at a Time

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Maria C

Source

Today, I can breath a sigh of relief (ahhhhhh!) feels good I completed a course for the Air Force and today, I passed a test that I have spent the last 3 months studying for. Three months to study for a test seems reasonable, but most people get a year to complete the course and take the test. As much as I love being in the military, sometimes it can be completely unorganized and so up in the air. Somehow my training records got screwed up and I had to file an extension to get them completed. The pressure was definitely on, but I got through it.

One big personality trait about me is that I’m a planner, almost to a fault. I have a daily to-do list (sometimes even on the weekends), I plan out my workouts for the week, my meals, I feel lost at the grocery store without a list, I love taking trips just because I get to research and plan an itinerary, and I received lots of comments about how organized and detailed our wedding was. Like I said, almost to a fault. I thought the military would help with my type A personality, but I don’t think that it has. (Every day, I amaze myself that I’m completely okay and even excited with not finding out the sex of our baby.)

If I’ve learned anything so far with being pregnant, is that some things are out of my control and that I can’t plan for every moment of my life. And that’s okay. Some of life’s greatest moments are unplanned LC and I are over the moon about this baby. We’re excited and our families and friends are just so happy for us. But the past few months have been very stressful for me and I’ve been doing everything I can to reduce that because I know that stress can effect the baby. Lesson learned? My body is no longer my own, it belongs to the beautiful baby that is growing inside of me. Food, workouts, lifestyle all revolve around my baby and his/her best interest.

Last night I was crying (a pretty usual occurrence over here in the 2nd trimester) to my parents about how overwhelmed I was. The Air Force test, the job, a possible 2-3 week deployment for my husband, where are we going to live, should we cancel our bradley method classes if LC is going to miss a few, where am I going to have this baby…blah blah blah. My parents basically told me that I’m getting ahead of myself and that I need to calm down. They told me to take it one day at a time and maybe some days, one hour at a time. Advice I’ve heard before but never really followed, it’s just not how my brain works. But my step-dad put it into to terms that made a bit more sense to me. All these things I am worried about are hurdles and you can’t jump hurdles all at once. It’s impossible to do. He told me to take it one hurdle at a time and I’d eventually make it over all of them.

My mom advised me to stop worrying about things that I cannot control and to step out of the negative frame of mind I was currently in and focus on the fact that I am pregnant with my first baby, something that only happens once in a lifetime and to realized what a gift it truly is. As happy as I am about being a mom, I never thought of it that way. So today, I started singing to the baby again and spending some quiet time today just focusing on my pregnancy. For a few minutes, I sit back with my eyes closed and my hand on growing belly and think about what the baby will look like, if it’s a boy/girl, and I think about what kind of mother I want to be.

From today on, I’m trying to focus on taking it one hurdle at a time and to step back and enjoy the moment now instead of worrying about the future. I’ve also learned that you’re never too old to take your parents advice

An Oscar-worthy Meal

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Maria C

Good Morning! I hope everyone’s weekend was a good one. We hung out in Wisconsin on Saturday because we had a friend’s 30th birthday party to go to. I picked hubs up from the train station in the afternoon and we headed to the Third Ward for brunch. I wanted to take him somewhere he hasn’t been yet, so we headed to Cafe Benelux.

I love this place, along with all of its sister restaurants. If you’re ever in the Milwaukee area, make sure to visit one. The restaurant has a European feel and was named after the Benelux region (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg). I knew LC would be a fan because of their extensive bier menu. While he enjoyed a beer with his brunch, I enjoyed a virgin Mary.

I would say it’s just as good as a bloody Mary with the exception of the heartburn afterward, a new to me pregnancy symptom that decided to show up this week.

Their brunch menu is pretty extensive and I had a hard time trying to decide on what I wanted to eat. I finally went with a polenta dish. It was polenta, which if you’ve never had it is the same consistency as grits, wild mushrooms, leeks, greens, and two eggs topped with hollandaise sauce. It was very good and very filling.

We came home last night and I wanted to cook us a nice meal, since it has truly been awhile. With my current living situation, I don’t get to tinker around in the kitchen as much during the week and I miss it, especially now that I want to eat more than cereal and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. So last night, in celebration of the Oscars, I made us what I believe to be an Oscar worthy meal, with the mashed sweet potatoes being the main winner.

On the plate we have asparagus baked with olive oil, pepper and Parmesan cheese. Scallops sauteed in butter, garlic, and lemon. And last but not least, the best mashed sweet potatoes I’ve ever made. They were mashed with goat cheese, milk, onion powder, and infused with truffle oil.

I boiled the sweet potatoes with the skins on until they were soft enough to mash with the hand mixer. I placed them into a bowl with a little bit of milk and mashed away. I then added some goat cheese crumbles, just a sprinkling of onion powder, and a drizzle of truffle oil and continued to mash. I placed them into the oven to keep them warm until it was time to serve them. When they came out, I sprinkled a little bit of Parmesan on top. Hubs said they were the best sweet potatoes he’s ever had. A winning night for me and my sweet potatoes.

After dinner, we watched the Oscars and concluded that we really need to add Hugo along with some others to our Netflix queue. I thought it was a pretty classy awards show and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t get teary eyed when Octavia Spencer won her award for The Help. I blame the pregnancy hormones.

I’m off to get a workout in and then run some errands. I’ll be back later with a week 14 pregnancy update!

Healthy Tidbits

Tidbits from my life, the kitchen & everything in between

Category Archives: Ramblings