Recipe

So. I was a bit of a rock star in the kitchen yesterday. Since it was a little cooler and I had a bit more energy, and we HAD to eat, I decided to try a new recipe for dinner. I am so glad I did, because this is one tasty dish!! Much like me. . . ha ha. So kidding. Anyway, its from the red and white checker Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. Its low fat (kind of) and vegetarian. Not that we are by any means vegetarians. Chris's system gets a little out of wack if we eat too much meat. Plus, its healthy to eat more veggies and beans than fatty meat. Anyway, here is the recipe. Its called:

Black Bean Tortialla Casserole.
2 C chopped onion (2 large)
1 1/2 C chopped bell pepper (2 med)
1 14.5 oz can tomatoes, undrained and cut up (I use the petite diced tomatoes)
3/4 C bottled picante sauce or green salsa (I used salsa)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 15 oz cans black beans and or red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
12 6 in corn tortillas (Mine were a little bigger and I only needed 10)
8 oz reduced fat jack cheese (2 cups. i had some already shredded cheddar and used that with the jack. If you only had cheddar it would br fine! And my cheese was NOT reduced fat! hence the above coment about sort of low fat)
Sour cream, chopped up lettuce and tomatos, green onions, and chopped olives for garnish

1. In a large skillet combine onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, picante sauce (or salsa), cumin, and garlic. Bring to boiling; reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Stir in beans.
2 Spread 1/3 of the bean mixture in the bottom of a 9x13 (3 quart) baking dish. Top with apx 6 tortillas, overlapping if necessary. Top tortillas with 1 cup cheese. and another 1/3 of the bean mixture, then more torillas, then the rest of the bean mixture.
3. Bake, covered, in a 350 oven for 30-35 minutes. Sprinkle with remaning cheese, recover, and let sit for 10 minutes so the cheese will melt. Serve with desired garnishes. we just used sour cream, and it was perfect. Maybe tonight we will have salad too.

Nutritional info- 295 calories, 8 g total fat per serving. These figures are with reduced fat cheese, and probably very little if any sour cream. Still not bad. The recipe lists 8 servings, which allows for good size pieces! Told you it was pretty healthy! Enjoy!

Kade is HERE!!

Kade Michael was born at 12:36 PM on July 17th! I will post about the story soon, for now here is a picture!

Kade Michael

Our new baby boy arrived!! Its been 2 weeks, and a great two weeks at that. I didn't go to Church today, needed one more week home, but have had a great day with my two boys. Chris has been gone since 10:30 at before Church meetings, and its nice to know I will be able to handle it tomorrow when he goes back to work. I am totally rambling right now, aren't I? So, here is Kade's story.

Friday, the 17th, I woke up around 2:15 in the morning to go to the bathroom. I had been having contractions since, well, really since the end of April, but they hadn't gotten 'bad'. You know what I am talking about when I say bad, the horrible gut wrenching ones that make you think you are going crazy. Actually, most of my contractions had been very mild, I could barely feel them except for in my back. Anyway, as I am lying there trying to go back to sleep, I have a few mild contractions, really close apart. I realize after the third one that I should pay attention to the clock. After about an hour of contractions at 5 minutes apart, I wake Chris up. By now a million thoughts are running thorugh my head, mostly consisting of, "Oh my, its really happening!" and "holy crap, I have to give birth today,". When I woke Chris up he was in a really good mood. We both layed in bed and got really giddy at the thought of another baby being born in our family, TODAY!! I went and took a shower, he turned the tv on to wake up a bit. We got dressed, got our stuff together and I called my mom at 4:45 and told her to meet us at the hospital. As I was hanging up the phone, I heard her squeal with delight! She is so cute about things like that!

So, by the time we get to the hospital, the contractions are like, 2-3 minutes apart and hurting kind of bad. At the time I thought they were terrible, the worst. Now, looking back at rememering the rest of labor, I realize how very mild they were. I remember thinking that this was just what I pictured having a baby would entail-waking up in the middle of the night, waking a sleepy hubby up, driving (too slow!!) to the hospital all the while starting the breathing patterns to get through the contractions without snapping your husbands head off!! It was perfect!

My mom got to the hospital, took Zander home, and we went in at 5:30. The nurses checked me out and determined I really was in labor, so they called the dr and put me in a room. I told them right away I wanted an epidural. I learned my lesson last time. What lesson was that, you ask?? Labor is hard enough without all the pain, and a little relief is OK!! I wasn't going to get a medal of courage for doing it the old fashioned, no relief way.
**I started this right after Kade was born, and never finished it. Here is a tie- up to the story!**
I had the epidural, was able to rest for a few hours, then my nurse came in to check me out. I was at a 10 and ready, although I was so out of it, just tired. She had me push a few times but the Kade's head was still pretty high up, and he was faced the wrong way. And each time I push, his heart rate dipped. I don't know what it went down to, though. Another nurse came in checked me, and said, "We gotta get this baby out of there, you are having a c-section." WHAT!?!! I go from nice and resting to a c-section in like, 10 minutes. She gave me a shot to stop the contractions, went and called the dr, and they rushed in and had me sign all this paper work. I got pretty emotional because i didn't want anything to happen to the baby. She made it sound horrible, and looking back, i don't know if it was really that bad. They took me back to the OR about 30 minutes later and got me ready. Dr. Arora came in, did his thing and Kade was born at 12:36 pm. I felt NOTHING at all. . . until a few hours later. Thank goodness for Darvocet, let me tell you! My Dr. came in the next day to see how things were going, and admitted that if he would have been there things might have gone a little different. But hey, it was a Friday, one of his busiest office days, there was no way he could be there until he absolutly had to be, which I understand. As it was I caused a 4 hour delay that day for his other patience with aptointments. yikes!

So, recovery has been. . . long, to say the least. He is 7 weeks and 2 hours old, as of right now, and I have felt normal for less than a week. Every few days a new pain would emerge, and I know its because different nerves woke up at differnt times, and in phases. I have experienced a bit of the grieving process as well, which might sound dumb, but its very real. Things didn't go as I planned, and my plans were quite flexible, mind you, with the result of giving birth naturally, coming home, and enjoying my babies. Instead I was down for 2 weeks, unable to do anything, much less give Zander the attention he needed. I couldn't play with him, or even put him down for bed, which was/is one of my very favorite things to do. Knowing I forever have to deliver via c-section, and go through this long recovery process every time i have a baby makes me cringe. However- I am looking at the positives (I get to choose my babies birthdays, NO labor contractions, and much more planning) and am ok with more c-sections. My doctor said I can have 3 more easily, so I am ok. Lets just hope we get twins next time, and I can be done!!

Thats Kade's story, he is fussing now so i am going to post and be done. I appologize for the typo's!

Toilet paper, Toast, and Towels

Its been a while, and Zander has said/done some terribly cute things the last few days so I thought I would post. Yesterday I was in the office, on the computer, THINKING that Zander was watching Clifford, when I hear a faint "Ma Ma" coming from somewhere echo-y. I KNEW, as soon as I thought about it, where it was coming from. Our master bathroom is open to our room, except the toilet is in its own little area, with a door (thank goodness!). For some strange reason, Z loves to go in there! We put a door nob lock on it, but I had forgot to close it, so there he was, trapped in the toilet room. My biggest concern is the germs, and his touching everything, yuck. Never did I realize he was capable of THIS-


Yes dear readers, that is a WHOLE roll of tp, I know because I had just changed it at 2 am that morning!! He ran out of the bathroom as soon as I opened the door, but I made him come back so HE could pick it up, and so I could take a picture. He had put that hat on a while before, isn't he funny about his hats!?! So, our first toilet paper experience. Mommy has learned her lesson and BOTH bathrooms are shut!!

This morning I was searching for something for a snack for both of us and toast sounded so good. He was sitting in his high chair asking for more of something while the toast was toasting. I told him mommy was making him toast and he lifted his feet up, pointed to them and said 'toes?' I think he was a little confused, but I thought it was funny.

This morning I had a cup of water from last night on my nightstand and he grabbed it and of course it spilled on the night stand and the carpet. I told him to go get a towel and clean it up, not really thinking he knew what to do. I went to the linen closet and grabbed a towel for him and surprisingly, after I handed it to him, he went back in my room and sort of cleaned up the water!! What a cleaner! Then, the cutest part, I told him to go put it in the dirty clothes while I got ready. He came back in a few minutes later empty handed, we left for swim lessons, and I thought nothing else about it. I went to grab a towel for some other mess he made a little while ago and there was the wet towel in the closet! he had put it back where I got it! Not exactly the dirty clothes, but hey, he knew where it went! I think he might have inherited his fathers 'put it back where you found it cleanliness' attitude-YES!!!

Ah, I love my kid. We are very excited for this next baby to fill our hearts even more. Can there possibly be room?!?! I think so. . . 2-3 weeks and we will find out!

The Time to Prepare

I have been having nightmares for a few weeks now all consisting of the baby coming early and me not being ready. This may stem from Zander actually coming 2 weeks early and I wasn't ready! Although it wasn't that big of a deal when he was born, Chris is pretty competent in filling the list I made of things I needed from the hospital, and my mom more than happily obliged to pick up some clothes for him (sort of a good thing I wasn't ready because he needed premie clothes) I fear more this time because I also have Zander to take care of and prepare for what to do with him while I am in the hospital.

These crazy dreams are driving ME crazy! What starts off as a middle of the night potty quickly turns into me laying in bed for 2 hours making mental lists of everything I still need to do. I figure if I break it down into small tasks, I won't get too tired and in the 5-7 weeks I have left, everything will get done.

Today's task was going through Zander's dresser and making room for baby stuff. I put away (actully I made a pile on the floor) all the winter and too small clothes and got out the newborn stuff and washed it. I had a trial size packet of Dreft left over and as I opened it, the smell of newborn krept up my nose!! I love that smell! I used that soap for a while with Zander. Actually, someone gave me a big bottle at my shower and it lasted for about 5-6 months. I will have to look for coupons and add it to my list!

Anyone have any advice on the use/need for a double stroller, and good, sturdy brands? I really think we are going to need one, but there are so many options! Any thoughts would be great!!

This Week's Favorite Desert

I have decided I REALLY enjoy desert. So much so that I can't say I have only one favorite. I thought the orange one a few posts ago was it, then I tried this. Thinking back, I can browse through cookbooks all day looking for my favorite and I only get more excited to try new things! We had an Enrichment activity at Church last week and had cold deserts for refreshments. I practically begged Angie (the leader) to let me make something, because I was dying to find the next best thing! I found this recipe and am SOO grateful for it. SOOo amazingly good, and you can totally alter it to your preferences. Here goes the original recipe:

Butterscotch Ice Cream Squares
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c oats (uncooked)
1/2 c brown sugar
1 c (2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
1 c chopped nuts (I like pecans)
1 12 oz jar butterscotch topping (I used a 16 oz jar of Mrs. Richardson's Carmel)
1/2 gallon English Toffee or Butter Brickle ice cream, softened (I used Pecan Praline)

* Mix the flour, oats, and brown sugar together in a 9x13 baking dish. Add butter and continue to mix well. Add nuts. Press mixture into pan evenly, making a crust.
*Bake for 15 minutes at 350. Stir while warm to crumble mixture then let cool. It will look like granola.
*After crum mix is cool, press down half the mixture into a 9x13 pan, I used the same one I baked it in.
* Pour half the carmel/ butterscotch topping over the crumbs.
* Spread the softened ice cream over the topping.
* Pour the rest of the carmel/butterscotch topping over the ice cream, followed by the rest of the crumb mix.
*Freeze for several hours, and serve!

** I used too much carmel topping, but didn't want to waste it!! 12 oz would have been pleanty. The recipe says you can use hot fudge or chocolate syrup and any flavor of icecream. Really its the crumb mix that makes this wonderful! I didn't freeze my desert long enough, so when we ate it at the activity it was kind of soupy. Then, after it had more time to freeze, it froze weird beacuse it had kind of melted. So it wasn't the prettiest desert, but so tasty!!

KFC Coleslaw Recipe

This is my grandma Patsy's favorite thing, and I was thrilled when I found the recipe for her. I made it last night and Chris liked it a lot. I am not a huge fan of the stuff, so its just ok in my opinion. Here goes:

8 cups shredded cabbage
1/4 cup carrot, shredded
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teas. salt
1/8 teas. pepper
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonaise
1/4 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tbls. white vinegar
2 1/2 tbls. lemon juice
Combine cabbage and carrots in a large salad bowl. Mix remaining
ingredients together and combine thoroughly. Pour liquid ingredients
over cabbage and carrots and stir. Refrigerate at least two hours
before serving (overnight is better). Stir well before serving.

** I think of myself as a pretty good cook, but do NOT know how to shred cabbage!! Do you use a grater? I just chopped it up pretty fine (well, I thought it was pretty fine until i was done and had bigger than planned pieces of cabbage). Also, I just used my peeler and peeled the carrots, when i should have grated them. So, the texture was a little off, but the taste was good according to Chris. And hey, if he is happy, I am happy!!