Early Easter Linner

I know I still need to write about our fabulous trip to Las Vegas... and I will, but I think that will take longer so I'm gonna post about today first instead.

This morning Jeff got up at 6:30 so that he could get the car looked at... apparently it needed a brake flush or something. I got up at 7 to work on a paper (which though I've made some headway, is still not finished- this semester is killing me). I worked on the paper for a couple of hours and then it was time to get cooking. We were hosting an Easter lunch/dinner at our house. See, Easter is the first holiday that Jeff and I celebrated together as a married couple- it was the day after we got married. And we go to our families' homes for all of the other major holidays, so I thought it would be great if Easter could be our holiday. We decided to celebrate today and to do an early celebration due to a wedding reception we attended this evening (the same friends that we celebrated with in Las Vegas).

I prepared a ham. The ham was supposed to cook for two hours- instead it took about 4 hours. I also prepared some yummy, and I mean, yummy oven roasted red potatoes. I found a recipe online that looked really tasty and easy and decided to go for it. I then prepared fresh asparagus- baked with garlic, olive oil and spring onions. They were also delicious. Finally, I made a beautiful and colorful fruit salad (with the help of Jeff's mom- she helped me cut up some fruit- especially after I cut up my finger).

The meal was fabulous!! Everyone seemed to really enjoy everything that I made and I enjoyed it myself- usually I am pretty critical of my own cooking- I do love to cook though, and bake- I just don't have time to do it very much. Hopefully, one day, I'll have more time. Jeff's parents brought crescent rolls and cheesecake, my grandparents brought dinner rolls and eggs (their own eggs- not for dinner but for our refrigerator) and my mom brought pineapple upside down cake and green bean casserole. Unfortunately, not all of my siblings were able to come because they were either not feeling great, had to work or had other things going on... so Sarah was the only sibling there. Though I wished the others were able to come, it was still an enjoyable time with excellent food and wonderful company. I love, love, love being around my family.

Now on to make your mouth water:

The ham was cooked to perfection.

These are the yummy potatoes. They really were very good. They are roasted with butter, lemon juice, salt, fresh minced garlic and shredded parmesan cheese.

Asparagus- I knew nothing about how to make asparagus. In fact, I never really enjoyed it before. But, I found a recipe for it that sounded good and I thought I'd try it out. I think it turned out nicely. I enjoyed it.

Delicious fruit salad. I love how pretty it looks with all of the different colors.

Here's the spread on the table together... most of it anyway.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Easter by going to church and then enjoying lunch/dinner with more family and friends. I am looking forward to it. Happy Easter!

P.S. It's a tradition to listen/read/watch this talk every year on Easter. If you have time, it is definitely worth it. Enjoy! (Click the above link "this talk"... just in case)

The nursery

Recently, I made this for dinner:

Doesn't it look sooo yummy? It was. If I had all of the ingredients, I'd make it tonight. Ah well. Oh and I was so proud of Jeff- he at least ate some of the peppers in his fajita.

That was random, I know- anyway- now for the non-edible good stuff.

So, Jeff and I have done some more work on our nursery since last I've written. It is so fun to see it coming all together! I can't wait for the wee one to join our little family. I am so excited that I get to be a mom. Sometimes, like yesterday, I think about how in just a few more short months (11 weeks) my life will be forever changed. I will be someone's mom. It's kind of an overwhelming and humbling thought. Jeff and I are being entrusted with one of Heavenly Father's children. :)

Okay, so here are some pictures of the nursery. Tell me what you think! And if there are any suggestions, I am open.

Here's our baby's name. Kristen came over one night and helped me make these letters for his name. We modpodged scrapbook paper to the letters- I know the "B" kinda stands out a lot.

Here's the name from the front. :) (In case you can't tell it's polka dots and stripes).

Here is the bedding we ended up going with. I really love the little animals.

We added a tree (it's a wall decal). There are some white sheer curtains that have leaves on it to match that I really want to get, too, for the room. But I will wait until closer to when he's due.

Here is the little bookshelf/ cube organizer thingy. Do you think those cubbies look okay? Should I get another one for the top center- or do you think that's fine?

And the bookshelf and tree together. It was Jeff's idea to put the tree in the corner like that. I love it!

I also covered some small canvases with scrapbook paper as wall decorations. I kind of messed up the bottom one a little- but it doesn't look too bad on the wall. What do you think?

And here's the baby's dresser. We will get a changing bad to go on top of the dresser for a changing table.

(In His Constant Care- Simon Dewey)

I also love this painting so we ordered a print. Once we get it framed, I think we'll hang it above the changing table/dresser maybe? There is also nothing on the wall where the tree is (besides part of the tree) so we could put it there. But Jeff also really likes this painting- which we haven't ordered yet:

(Take My Hand- Greg Olsen)

And, as our beloved prophet suggested last weekend at General Conference, we want to get a picture of the temple to put in there- we'll probably just get a print to put on the bookshelf.

There are a lot of other things I want to update on, but time hasn't allowed for it lately. I've been really busy with school and work these past couple of days. I'm finding it more and more challenging to keep my head above water. However, this shall pass soon! I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to make it through mid-May when school is over. In the meantime, I keep plugging along. Spring break is next week and we're headed to Las Vegas! I'm soo excited- and before I know it, May will be here.

Happy Sabbath!

Hmm... this past week.

I've been meaning to update this... but I've just been so busy lately and tired. I don't really have too much to update on. Here goes!

I went to the doctor on Wednesday. My blood pressure keeps raising each time I go. My weight looks great though, my stomach is measuring perfectly, and the wee one was moving around quite a bit. His heart rate was anywhere from 136 to 150 while we were listening, but she said he sounded great.

I have to go do my glucose test sometime in the next couple of weeks. I am kind of nervous about that. I really don't want to "fail" it and have to go back for a three-hour test. I tried not eating sugar, except for only on certain days, but I've failed miserably. I just like sugar too much... plus it's really easy. Now, because my blood pressure keeps getting higher, I am trying to eat less sodium. I just don't want to end up on bedrest- but that's also really hard. It's hard to find time to make things and not use processed foods. So, for now, I am just trying to eat things with less sodium in them and not add salt to my foods- which I didn't really do too much of anyway.

I've also decided that I need to try to get outside more. I think some Vitamin D will do me some good, and it just feels good to be outside, especially on days like today. Today, Jeff and I made chocolate chip cookies together and then sat on the back porch and enjoyed them with milk. It was so nice and relaxing.

I probably should exercise also, but I am always just so tired and finding time to exercise stresses me out- I'm open for ideas... but first, let me tell you how my week goes:

Monday- I get up around 6 or 6:30 (depending on how I slept... I've not been sleeping well at all lately, tossing and turning throughout the night and waking up and not being able to get back to sleep- so usually in the mornings, I feel exhausted still). I shower, eat breakfast and head to work. I work until 4, then head to class. Class ends at 6:40, which means I get home around 7:10 or so.

Tuesday- pretty much the same schedule, except that this class ends anywhere between 6:30 and 7:10, whenever the professor likes to let us out. This means that on these nights, I usually don't get home until around 7:30 or later.

Wednesday- same work schedule, of course, but I don't have class on Wednesdays. Usually, I use Wednesday for other things, like I try to schedule most of my doctor appointments Wed. afternoon, go shopping, food storage stuff, etc. Lately, I've been working on administering some assessments to a darling girl when I get home. She's usually at my house from when I first get home until about 6:30.

Thursday- same work and class schedule. I usually get home around 6:30 or 6:45 (this teacher lets us out early, oh and we don't always have class either, which is a nice reprieve).

Friday- just work, no class.

Saturday- I usually spend the day doing homework for my online stats class, taking breaks every now and again. This Saturday, I actually spent far less time doing homework during the day (and worked on it until 11:00 at night- which is sometimes the case anyway even if I had worked on it all day).

Sunday- I go to church, spend time with my wonderful husband and relax.

So as you can see, I already have long days- somewhere in there, I have to include making dinner, finding time to do homework and definitely finding some down time. Each of my classes are big ones for my program- so they all require a lot of work and reading. I am doing okay in most of them, but I am definitely behind in my Research Methods class. I really need to get caught up this week- so that's my goal.

Along with all of this, this is an extremely busy time of year at work for me as well. So, I often find myself bringing work home or sometimes I will go into work a little early or stay a little late on Wednesdays or Fridays if I can manage.

Sometimes, I feel like I am up to my neck in things to do- so throwing in exercise or figuring out what to cook for dinner, is just too hard for me and I find it quite overwhelming. Jeff and I started this week preparing better dinners for each other. We made a list of dinner choices, which included trying out a new recipe this week- which was quite tasty. So, this past week, Jeff prepared dinner on Monday and Tuesday and I prepared dinner on Wednesday. Thursday, I was just too exhausted and was starting to come down with a cold or something, so he just ate leftovers. For the weekend, we figured we'd either eat leftovers or figure out dinner together. Hopefully, we can keep this up. It's nice to have a good meal sometimes, instead of just cereal, which is what I would eat a lot of times.

Anyway, so yesterday, I got to get out of the house and it was wonderful. I went to a Lia Sophia party that my sister-in-law was hosting. Then Jeff and I did some errands, headed home so I could work on a talk and do some homework and then we headed out again to go play mini-golf with some friends. It was a beautiful Saturday evening and I really think it did me some good. I really hadn't gotten out to do anything fun in so long, it seems, because I just don't have the time. We had a great time! It was just what I needed.

Afterwards, we headed home, both exhausted, but I still had homework to finish and a talk to write. I worked on my homework first because it is always due by midnight on Sunday night and I really try hard not to do homework on Sundays. When I went to take the quiz though, I realized that my homework wasn't due until next week because of Spring break. That was a nice surprise. So, I didn't complete the quiz... instead I started working on my talk. I went to sleep at about 1:30 and got up at 5, when Jeff came to check on me to make sure I could get my talk done. It wasn't much sleep, but afterwards, I was able to get a better grip on what I should write about and I think the final product turned out okay.

Anyway, so for what started out as not much to update on- this has ended up being kind of a long post. Just to remind you of the suggestions I'm looking for- easy meals that are low in sodium? ways to incorporate exercise into my already busy and tiring day? Sleep tricks? Any ideas are welcomed. Really.

And now for some pictures.

Natalie and Me after we were finished golfing.

Jeff's ball looks like it's going to go in, it was so close, but he missed. Jeff won the game, by the way.

Apparently, I really have no shame. I don't know why I keep posting these bad pictures of me. There's Natalie's husband in the background.

Oh the lovebirds.

Okay, let's be serious. My wonderful husband and me.

Here's a shot of my 6 month pregnant belly! :) I am 24 weeks and 5 days in this picture. I only have 15 more weeks to go (on Monday, I will be 25 weeks pregnant.) I can hardly believe it.

At home, getting ready to work on homework and exhausted... Jeff decided to take a picture. (Again, I have no shame)