2008: The Year in Review

I think I did this last year, but I was reminded by Alicia's post at how much fun it is to reflect back on the year you've just lived!

2008 has pretty much been ALL ABOUT THE BABY - go figure!!! She is our love, our lives and what our world revolves around now. This year was full of many firsts as we celebrated becoming a new family.

In January we attended the wedding of Randy and Katie which was a nice break from the norm. We also said goodbye to Don Dunn, my brother-in-law's father who passed away after a long bout with lung cancer. We spent much of the month in prep mode. Organizing our spare room to prepare for the baby's arrival. We bought new furniture and had lots of sorting to do of all the clothes we had been given.

February was more of the same. Here is my belly shot from Valentine's Day. I was 28 weeks here, 12 weeks away from my due date of May 8th.




March was a much busier month than I knew it would be! Don came through his second back surgery very well which was a huge relief. My company had a big round of layoffs which was very scary. We hosted a BBQ at our house with some friends and neighbors and we said goodbye to dear Cooper. The beginning of the month brought SNOW to North Texas. What a treat!

On March 28th, I was surprised by a doorbell ring and my mom, my sister, Toby and Heather were at my door!!! They flew in to surprise me for my baby shower the following day.

So blessed by many friends and family that day.

This belly shot was taken at 34 weeks and is the last official belly shot I have. I had plenty of time to take more, right??

Or not. April brought the early arrival of Harper Belle Hanes. Born at 35 weeks, 1 day she weighed in at 5lbs 2ounces on 4/4 at 2:16pm. Severely low amniotic fluid forced her delivery by emergency c-section after being checked at a routine appointment.

Because of her early arrival, she had a 10-day NICU stay which was the hardest 10 days of our lives, by far. After a rough start with some trouble breathing, she then had a bit of a tough time keeping her temperature up.

One of my favorite pics. Our little sea creature so tiny compared to Daddy's hand.

On Sunday April 13th we were finally able to bring her home! So tiny in her crib but she had worked really hard for this day. Such a relief.

May brought my first Mother's Day and Mimi's first visit to come meet Harper!

Which means June was Jon's first Father's Day!! He finally got his long-awaited grill. I went back to work this month and Grandma and Grandpa began watching Harper 2 days a week while Jon was a stay-at-home dad 3 days out of the week.

In July we celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Here is us on July 29, 2006.

And July 29, 2008.

In August Mimi came to visit for a second time. I also barely survived another round of layoffs at work and began working in my new department, which would turn out to be a huge learning experience. Our foundation was repaired and left lots of scars all around for us to remember it by.

In September Jon's schedule got switched back to nights. It's a blessing in disguise because while it's nights which is tough on his body, he now had weekends off which meant much more time together! The last week of September we started Harper on solids, 1 week shy of her 6 month birthday. She wasn't sure what to make of the whole thing but quickly caught on!

October was a very fun-filled month. We took Harper on her first plane ride and visited all our friends and family in Las Vegas and California. I also turned 30!

On my birthday

Meeting Auntie Wendy and Uncle Kevin
Hanz and Debbie

Amy and the clan: Noah, Sydney and Holly with Harper.

In November Harper took her first "big" bath, which means she graduated from the sink to her ducky.

We also celebrated Harper's first Thanksgiving.

December of course meant Harper's first Christmas and all the other adventures it brought with it: meeting all the extended family at our family Christmas parties and hosting Mimi and Poppy at our house for the big occasion!!

What a year!!! We really look forward to what 2009 has in store for us!

Food!

I made my very first ham for Christmas dinner. Turned out pretty good, too! Yes, I actually ate some. I'm trying to follow my tastes and eat what sounds good as far as meat goes. This is as far as I've gotten and I still get a bad stomach ache if I eat anything more than a bite, but I'm working on it!
This was our pecan pie. Isn't the box cool?

And I made round 2 of Nanny's Apple Cake. Fred had the strange idea to put the Las Vegas sign in the middle. And we were strange enough to actually do it.
For some reason blogger keeps turning some of my pictures sideways. Here is a sideways picture of all the junk after 4 days and counting....

Adventures in Cooking

Since Thursday I think I've well made up for my lack of cooking the past year.

Thursday I made Nanny's homemade apple cake. Read about it more in a previous post here.


This led to making homemade applesauce for the first time. (did you know it turns brown??)


Saturday morning I made 5 lbs of potatoes for mashed potatoes. Yes, 5 lbs. It made A LOT of potatoes. And they are GOOOOOD.


Since we got home today, I've cooked and/or prepared tons of food for Harper: mangos, green beans, broccoli, carrots, pears and peaches. We're set for a while! Since the peeling my own mangos thing didn't go so well, I opted for frozen which worked out really well. Harper looooved them even said "mmmMMM" with no prompting then swiftly smacked her lips together and opened up for more. I also got frozen green beans and broccoli and am really happy with how everything has turned out.


I realize that preparing baby food does not technically count as "cooking". But, hey - I'm standing at a stove, boiling water, using a collander, blending things, using pots.. It counts in my book. And Harper loves it, so that's all that matters!

I got to dust off my mixer for the potatoes. Love to get to do that!

No, the mangos were not green, but I forgot to take a picture of those. The green are the green beans which churned up surprisingly easy and smooth.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I don't think I have an excessive amount of Christmas decorations. Last year I went a bit nuts since it was our first Christmas in our new house and we were having the family Christmas party here - I felt like nothing was "enough" and I was constantly rearranging things. But this year, I've really only put out a few select things and have gone pretty minimal. And I love it!! I don't feel overwhelmed or claustrophobic by Christmas and it's worked out great with Harper becoming more mobile. In honor of my minimalist Christmas, I'm dedicating a post to a few of my favorite things and sharing stories about each.

This lit grapevine reindeer was one of my few "had to have" items we purchased last year. I'm not really a fan of lawn art, but a tasteful display by the door suits my fancy just fine.

This nativity scene deserves its own post, but I'll try to just give you the edited version. I have started a mini collection of Willow Tree figurines and fell in love with the nativity scene. Jon found most of the set last year and bought it for me - after we agreed we wouldn't buy each other anything. I insisted he take it back because I knew how expensive it was, and it was something I could easily collect over time. We went to visit my mom in Las Vegas before Christmas last year and she offered to give me HER Willow Tree nativity scene - the whole thing!! She had no place to put it, so it was going to remain in boxes, and since she knew I wanted one, I made sure to squeeze the set in with all our luggage to bring home. Jon actually had purchased one extra piece to the set that she didn't have, so we took back the new duplicates (along with another set I had been given - yes, I got 3 total combinations of sets last year), and voila!! It goes so perfectly in our art niche that I'm considering leaving it up all year.

These were Hallmark's bags last year and Jon used them to wrap my nativity scene in. I loved it so much, I saved the bags and had him wrap up a different box this year so I could look at it.

This silly tree was made by my Grandma (I think) and it's one of those things I can't throw away.


I'm not a fan of displaying Santa, so this is the only thing you'll find. Another item from my childhood that I enjoy looking at. They're tea light holders and are just a fun folksy display.

These were gifts from my mom last year and I'm an absolute love with them. They're two scenes from The Grinch and are even animated. Too perfect.

Last year I was on a mission to fine a fake mistletoe ball, but had zero success, so I ended up finally buying real mistletoe to hang from our perfect spot on the chandelier by the front door. I found this ball at the after-Christmas sale at Target for 60% off and couldn't wait to hang it this year.

One of a few ornaments from our tree growing up that I've kept. Jon's family has the same one, which just gives me the warm fuzzies.

One of Jon's gifts from me last year. Kind of speaks for itself, doesn't it? If you can tell what it is!

The Letter D

Continuing with what Alicia started, I'm participating in a list of things I love. Alicia assigned me the letter D and it's taken me almost a week to come up with a list. It's been a lot of fun, even if it's been harder than I asked for (I specifically asked for an easy one - hmph). I've taken a few liberties with a couple items in order to come up with my 10.

Here's how it works: You leave a comment on this post, and I'll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter and you post it on your blog. When people comment on your post you assign them a letter and the fun continues.

Here we go!

1. Dallas: As in Alicia. And she represents all those friends who I've been able to get to know better through this crazy blog world since I've moved away. Alicia, Alyssa, Freida, Kristin, etc... All people I feel I've gotten to know so much better via their blogs. These are all beautiful women I was never particularly close friends with "in person" back home but who bless me abundantly by allowing me to share in their lives and who share in mine.

2.Dirty Jobs: Jon loves to watch the Discovery Channel, which means I usually end up watching it too. I don't like most of the shows he does: Mythbusters, Storm Chasers, to name just two. But Dirty Jobs is something we both love to laugh and get disgusted at together. Mike Rowe subjects himself to some nasty situations and we find great pleasure and entertainment in this.

3. Downpour: I absolutely love the rain. Dark, cloudy weather puts me in a great mood and rain just makes me giddy. I think it's because I love staying home in my comfies and rainy, cold weather is a great excuse to do that. I love thunder and lightning and walking in the rain is one of my favorite things to do. So much so that I never carried an umbrella until last year when I figured no one would think highly of a pregnant lady being stupid enough to let herself get drenched, and of course I now keep one close so that I can keep Harper dry. The only thing I don't like is wearing wet shoes or socks, which is the only snag in my love of the rain. But in my opinion, just a small price to pay.

4. DFW: I technically live in Fort Worth, but DFW is what the area is called, as well as the airport. I really love living in Texas and am so happy we made the decision to move here. Even though I miss my friends and family more than anyone knows, I wouldn't change my mind. And living only 20 minutes from the airport makes it even easier to get there for flights or to pick those up who are coming to visit - which we LOVE!

5. Dachshunds: Ever since my first Dachshund Lucy, I promised I would always have one. They are such funny, amazing, spunky, feisty, loving critters and I can't imagine what life would be like without them. Between my parents and I, we've been blessed to have had Lucy, Cooper, Peanut and Chuck in our lives and we miss them terribly. I of course currently have my Wylee Boy and she's the home for Maxine, Odie and BenE. All of these fur babies have worked their way into our hearts without much effort. (Side note: This is nothing to take away from Sarge, but I was trying to be more specific than just saying "dogs". Besides - everyone already knows I love all dogs).

6. Diet Coke: My one major vice. I don't smoke, but I am addicted to a different drug: Diet Coke. I drink one as soon as I get up and one or two more during the day. If it's a particularly sleepy morning, I'll stop for a fountain Diet Coke and I can swear there's nothing better at that moment.

7. Driving: I had to wait 6 months to get my drivers license when I turned 16 because my mom didn't want me being a new driver in the snow. Smart. But I definitely made up for lost time once I finally got it. I was off and running and drove down the hill as often as I could afford to or find reason for. I still love driving, though these days I spend more time in traffic away from my family than I care to. Road Trips have always been something I've LOVED doing and being a relatively new Texan, I always look forward to arriving somewhere new and seeing the sights along the way.

8. Decorations: As in holiday decorations. I enjoy making my home feel comfortable, and holiday decorations help me greatly in doing that. I love decorating my home for Christmas, as most people do. But since buying the house, I've also begun loving to put out little things for Valentine's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and other lesser-celebrated days. I usually buy my things on clearance after the holiday for use the following year, so when I go to pull out the next holiday's items, it's always a little like Christmas when I find things I might have forgotten about. Iit's the small things I love - but that's what this list is about, right?

9. Dramamine: This is a stretch, but bear with me. I can get motion sickness in just about everything. Cars, boats, roller coasters, buses - you get the idea. I used to take Dramamine but I didn't like how sleepy it made me feel so in recent years I've started using the pressure bands to put on my wrists and they work great. The reason I'm thankful for Dramamine though is that I can appreciate all the opportunities I've been given to have reason to take it. It seems the sickest I've been are places I've had some of the most fun in. On a boat in the Bahamas following wild dolphins spending precious time with my family (twice); on a plane headed to Europe where I first went in high school, then went to spend a semester in Florence, and third when I took an adventure with two friends backpacking for 3 weeks all over; on a big bus with my best friend Heather when she took me as her "guest" on her company incentive trip to Cabo San Lucas where everything was free - everything. Such amazing times and memories for each of these and reminds me how much I love to travel, despite my handicap.

10. Daughter: Saved the best for last. She by far is the light of my life and my greatest love other than God and my husband. She brings me so much purpose to my life and more joy than I could have ever imagined - and I imagined a lot. I always thought I had a good idea what motherhood would be like, but I truly had no idea. It's 100 times bigger than I ever thought: more love, more joy, more heartache, more frustrating, and more rewarding. I wouldn't change it for anything and I am so glad I was chosen to be her Mommy.

All Decked Out

Despite having a very clingy and cranky baby, we've managed to get quite a bit done this weekend. We got the house totally decorated and Jon is almost finished with putting the lights up. We also got most of our shopping done, believe it or not. This is a huge relief to me as I hate having the requirement of shopping hanging over my head at the holidays. We also stored away a bunch of things in the attic including a lot of baby things we're no longer using. Bittersweet since I'm so glad she's getting bigger and more active, but it's also weird to think that we won't be using things like boppys, swings or receiving blankets until the next one comes along.

Now I'm just waiting for my Christmas cards to arrive so I can then mail them out and check that off my list.

Weekend Wrap-Up

Well, unfortunately Jon turned out to be sick all weekend. I was crossing my fingers on Saturday morning that he'd have made a full recovery overnight and be 100% healthy again so we could get things done. But it was not in the cards and he spent most of the weekend in his comfies, coughing and trying to sleep. He's back at work tonight and we're praying he makes it through okay.

This meant that I played single parent all weekend as Jon was being very careful about not spreading his germs. It's a tough job, being a single parent. But it meant that I got to give Harper double the lovin' because I had to make up for what Daddy couldn't give. We had lots of fun and lots of laughs, but we both hope daddy makes a speedy recovery so he can join in soon!

I was able to accomplish most of the things on the list, though I refuse to climb a ladder so I couldn't get the Christmas decorations down. And there was no way I could start the cabinet project (again) without anyone else to watch Harper, so that didn't get done either. The clothes are in the back of my car waiting to be dropped off tomorrow, so I believe I can check everything else off the list! Feels good even though I'm completely wiped out and can say that I definitely would have chosen being curled up in bed with a bowl of ice cream most of today instead of doing all the cleaning and picking up.

As inspiration for what we may hope to accomplish in the near future, I'll post a few pics of Jon's latest project: the garage. Being the frugal couple we are, we're always looking for ways to save some cash. My company has been clearing out the building of extra supplies we don't need and giving the things away to anyone who will take them. One of the items that is in great abundance are these wire shelves that attach to the sides of cubicles for storing papers and things. I brought a couple home hoping Jon might be able to use them for something, and with a little intuition and help from brackets he bought, I present to you -- STORAGE!!

Now, I realize this may not look like a big deal. But imagine the work bench in the first picture covered in the things that are on the shelves. All his tool bags, tools, chargers, batteries, paint cans, etc... Just piled up everywhere. Now they're out of the way and it's awesome!!!

I'm so proud of him for figuring out a way to make something free and non-workable into something that so perfect! He'd probably hang these all over the garage if we had the wall space for it. He's done a really great job and it's so nice to have the space by the door so I can have a place to set things down when I'm trying to come in the door with my 10,000 bags and Harper. Love it!

That's Life

The holidays are coming. Life is about to get a little bit busier.

Things have already been a little hectic and I feel more tired than usual. Things throwing us off our routine, lots of projects to get done for the holidays, trying to figure out where in the world all the time to get those things done is going to come from...

Blogging unfortunately has taken a back seat to some of these things, but I promise I will try to get on here as often as I can and at least post pictures. If not here, then on Harper's blog.

Todays' plans are pretty ambitious, but I think we can manage:

• Laundry
• A thorough dusting (with wood floors comes lots of dustbunnies, I've realized)
• Dropping clothes off at goodwill
• Starting the final phase on the cabinets
• Pulling the Christmas decorations out of the attic
• Making a dent in the aforementioned Christmas projects

Lots to do!! Here's to hoping that life doesn't swallow me whole.

"Papa"

I need to be better about posting on this blog. So much of our life is all about Harper, it's hard to come up with things to add here. But today I have one!

When I lived in Italy for a semester, we ate at one restaurant for lunch every weekday as part of our cost included in studying abroad. By far my favorite dish to eat was Papa al Pomodoro and I was so excited whenever it was on our fixed menu that day. It actually looked like the cook would take all the random leftovers at the restaurant and throw them into a pot and served it. But it was the yummiest concoction I could've ever hoped for!

A few years ago I found a very similar dish in one of Rachael Ray's cookbooks and was so excited to make it. Her version runs a very close second to the authenic one I was used to, and has easily become one of Jon and mine's favorite dishes. We've actually been waiting for the weather to get colder so we could have a good excuse to make some. This weekend we got our wish and he whipped it up last night. We got into our comfies and curled up on the couch with our bowls and I think we said "MmmMmMmM" about a hundred times each! I'm posting the recipe below with some of my own suggestions.

Enjoy!

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil - plus some for drizzling
4-6 cloves garlic, chopped -we use at least 6-8, but we really love garlic
1 medium to large onion, finely chopped
1 can diced tomatoes (15 ounces)
1 ocan crushed tomatoes (28 ounces)
Salt and pepper
1 quart chicken stock
4 cups stale bread (about 1/2 pound), chopped or torn - for our latest batch we used a sourdough baguette and left it out for 3 days. We weren't able to make it as soon as we had hoped so I tossed it into a ziploc and froze it. It's been our best bread yet.
2 cans small white beans – smaller than cannellini beans (15 ounces each), such as Goya brand
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, to pass at the table (we use plain' ole shredded parmesean. Cheaper and easier to find but just as good)
10 fresh basil leaves, torn (optional) - not optional in our opinions. :)

Preparation
Heat a medium soup pot over medium heat. Add 3 tablespoons of EVOO, about three turns around the pan, garlic and three quarters of the onion. Cook for 7-8 minutes, then add the diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Add the stock and raise the heat to make the soup bubble. Reduce the heat to simmer and add the bread and beans. Stir the soup as it simmers, until it thickens to a stew-like consistency. Turn off the heat, adjust the seasonings and ladle the soup into shallow bowls. Top with grated cheese, an additional drizzle of EVOO and a spoonful of reserved finely chopped raw onions. Torn basil is an optional garnish.



This is a 30-minute meal but you really need to let all the flavors simmer for a good 20 minutes in order to get a really good batch.

Turning 30

I had planned the vacation specifically so it would be on my birthday. About 5 months ago I realized that 30 was going to be tougher than I thought, so I figured any sort of distraction and/or added celebration would make it easier to swallow. I think it was one of my better decisions.

Jon woke up early and went to run some "errands" which included buying me Einstein's for breakfast and bringing home 30 roses. So sweet and such a nice thought. I loved them.

I made an appointment for an overpriced mani/pedi at the fancy salon down the street. My last pedicure was in August when mom came to visit so needless to say I was long overdue. Never ever again will I pay $75 for a mani/pedi - but mom had gift cards (that we think I had given to her when I never used them in the first place - overpriced salons just aren't our thing) so it was "free".

Went to lunch at Island's (YUM!) then back to mom's where we took Harper swimming for the first time. I had been looking forward to this for so long, having practically grown up in the water, and was so glad to discover that she loved it. I even dunked her twice under water and she never cried.

We eventually got out and started to get ready for our date: Dinner at Zefferino's, then The Blue Man Group. Zeff's is the place we went for our first official date together, so it holds a special place for us. It's at the Venetian and we both love to walk around there - it's such an amazing hotel. The Blue Man group is currently at The Venetian and we had both always wanted to see them, so it all worked out great. It was a fun night - great dinner, and such a treat. Never again will we spend that much, but it was a special night and will be remembered. The night started going downhill a bit when I quickly realized that I hadn't adequately broken in my shoes enough. The next morning I had huge blisters on my pinky toes, and they hurt so bad that walking to the parking garage I actually took them off to walk barefoot - gah!!! If you know me, you know I'm a semi-germaphobe and I was so disgusted that I might get a foot disease... but they hurt so bad that I didn't even care. That was Mistake #1.

Mistake #2 came when, after a nice lovely dinner and two glasses of wine, I realized that the 10pm show was going to be a very bad idea. They're a very entertaining group of guys, but man... it was late. Such a sad realization that I was getting too old.

Mistake #3 isn't actually a mistake but an accident. Somehow the stars aligned just right, and as I was turning my head, Jon was raising his arm to put it behind me, and he elbowed me square in the eye. Adding the blurry eye to an already tired Mom was just the topper.

Great night though, and really nothing but good memories from the whole day. Here's to 30... should be interesting to see what it brings!!

Does That Make Me Crazy? Part 2

I can't have milk unless it's ice cold. Since I don't have mugs to freeze then put milk in (which is awesome, by the way), I must have ice cubes in my milk. It really isn't right otherwise.

I also must put ice cubes in my orange juice. Anything other than ice-cold OJ is just gross.

Also, there is an offramp I drive everyday with 2 arrows made from those mounded "turtle" light reflectors on the pavement. I can drive over the 2nd arrow without having my tires touch them, but never the first. Every day it's my goal to try not to make my tires touch them, and when I don't, I'm always so happy that at least I can do it on the 2nd arrow.


Does that make me crazy?



(To give credit where credit is due, I got the title of these posts from the morning radio show I regularly listen to on my way to work. They play the song "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley and have listeners call in to tell about the weird things they do. It's one of my favorite things to listen to, probably because it makes me feel sane. I'll be updating this post as I think of more things. I'd love it if you continued to share what makes you crazy. Again, so I can feel sane.)