Breaking News....

Well, if you are friends with Michael on facebook, it's not quite so breaking...

Joseph is going to be a big brother!

Yep, another Riddell is joining the family. I had my 12 week visit today and heard the heartbeat. I'm due August 19th. The doctor predicted it would be a girl when he heard the heartbeat. I asked how sure he was....he said 50%. :) I am seeing a different doctor this time. The last one stressed me out about my weight too much. He only wanted me to gain 10-15lbs total..and well, I am an over achiever and did that in the first month or so. After that, he was on my back for every one of those nearly 70 lbs that I gained with Joseph. I AM trying to be better about my weight gain this time around.....but dang, I just crave the most unhealthy things. However, this doctor doesn't care...so I think we'll be good friends.

So now maybe all of ya'll who got so whatever about me not posting much in January will understand why.....I wasn't really feeling like it. I was zapped and after chasing Joseph around all day, the last thing I wanted to do when I got a chance to sit down was upload pics and write blogs.

To be perfectly honest, I've really had to come to terms with this new pregnancy. It was not planned. We were going to wait until this coming fall to start trying again, but I guess the man upstairs had other plans. I had big aspirations this year. I was going to run the KY Parks Race Series which consists of 5 or so 5K races at state parks across the state. I could still do some of them, but I wouldn't be able to guarantee that I would be able to do all of them since the last one is right around my due date halfway across the state. Probably not smart to "run" (more like waddle probably) a 5K in AUGUST while 9 months pregnant....esp being so far from home. I was also planning on running my first ever half marathon in October (inspired by my marathon running blog friend), but sadly, I will only be 8 weeks post partum (at the most) at that point and you have to maintain 13 minute miles or better or they disqualify you and make you stop the race. I would struggle with that time now. I was also going to do a lot more riding and I was going to do my best to get down to my college weight before we starting trying to get pregnant again. So, MY plans were shot to heck. I was/am pretty sad about it.

I also had the worries of how I'm going to handle a new baby when Joseph is SUCH a handful. I don't know why I said "had"...I still worry about how I'm going to handle it.

Anyway, I hope you are all having a good week. I hope to blog as much as I feel like, but PLEASE be patient with me. I do still plan to complete my Shaw family cooking challenge...just in case you were worried.

My Book Report - January

I didn't really do much as far as new year's resolutions go. I did decide that I wanted to read more this year. I thought 30 books in a year sounded resonable and also would be a vast improvement to what I normally read. I love books. I buy them all the time....I prefer used paperbacks. I will spend hours in a used bookstore in the bargain section snatching up books for one or two bucks. I have had to rein myself in though, since my books are taking up more than my allotted three shelves. I unloaded quite a few at a yard sale last year....and I've been going to the library more now instead of buying books. But anyway, I thought I would share my progress for the month of January. I didn't do too bad...I read 6 books. One of them was really short though. Here they are (and for good measure, I am sharing some of my thoughts on each book):

1) In the Presence of Horses by Barbara Dimmick
         I only borderline liked it. I didn't like the main character. She really just got on my nerves....always thinking that she should be unfeeling when it came to horses. I never quite understood or cared about where her issues came from. She also had a comment about western riders (she rode english)...that if they needed that much leather to stay on a horse then they really weren't good horsemen. Bleh. And, in the end, it was like the author got bored and just wrapped it up in a chapter....at least that was how I felt.

2) War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
         I just had to read this after I saw the movie. The book is for children and lets just say that it's a lot more toned down than the movie. I really liked it though....even if it is just another telling of Black Beauty...it's like Black Beauty in war time. 

3) Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris
         I love all the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I love True Blood on HBO...at least I did before we stopped getting HBO. This is I think the 6th in the series. They have all been good quick reads.
 
4) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 
         I seriously couldn't put this book down. Any time Joseph was entertaining himself, I would pick this book up. I think I read it in like 2 days...and for a mom with a toddler, that's saying something. I CAN NOT WAIT for the movie to come out in March. I had heard of this book before, but with the premise being a televised fight to the death, I didn't think it was up my alley....I was wrong. So good. Best book I've read in a LONG time...... 


5) All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris
        7th in the Sookie Stackhouse series.....Just as good as any before it. 


6) The Confession by John Grisham
        I love John Grisham. We went to the same college. I think his books are amazing and they really make you think....sometimes about things you don't necessarily want to think about. This book is not of my favorites, though. It was good, but I found myself skimming at times....just wanting to know what was going to happen....not necessarily caring how it happened. It made me cry a couple of times though. Unlike the last Grisham book I read that was about a wrongly accused man, I really wanted this one to regain his freedom. 


I've already read one book this month. Wow..I know. I also picked up another Grisham and another Sookie book today at the library. They are on the same isle of books and Joseph doesn't usually give me much time to look before he spontaneously combusts. Lets just say that you get some pretty dirty looks when you have a crying kid in the library. I want the next book in the Hunger Games series so bad but it's NEVER in...and the list is soooo long. I will probably end up buying it. Also on my want to read list are The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Help....those are also ALWAYS out. Woe is me...

Not quite heavenly...

The house smells like perfume.

I don't know if Joseph thought that the house stunk tonight...
it wouldn't be beyond possibility.

Maybe he thought I stunk.....
I hadn't had my shower yet.

Maybe he wanted to smell all womanly....
his father would love that.

But whatever the reason, while I was fixing his pre-bedtime snack, Joseph snatched up a bottle of perfume and started squirting. I started smelling something that smelled nice at first...then I realized what it was and ran to grab my bottle of Victoria's Secret Heavenly from Joseph and took him to the sink to rinse him off. To add insult to injury, he has JUST gotten out of the bath. How he got the perfume, I don't know. He's a little Houdini when it comes to stuff like that....he seems to make it materialize. But let's just say, it doesn't smell so Heavenly....

This child is a mess a minute. Earlier he had a piece of sidewalk chalk (his art instrument of choice) and decided to try it out on the wall...for one, it's just chalk, and for two, it's about the same color as the wall, so I didn't freak out. But I didn't want him to try out eyeliner or something on the wall, so I told him "No, not on the wall." So he went to another wall and made a little mark and looked at me. Again, "No, not on the wall." He went to another section of wall and looked at me...."No, not on the wall." On and on...Then he tried to color the dog with it. I told him if he could work with a moving canvas, more power to him. I asked him if he wanted paper. He said, "no." Thankfully chalk is easy to get off of pretty much everything. I was talking to another mom at gymnastics today and her daughter has just started coloring on the walls and I was helping her out with cleaning solutions. She was having trouble with eyeliner. Been there....that's one of J's weapons...err art supplies...of choice. Baby oil will take that off pretty much any hard surface. I am quickly becoming a cleaning expert.

Well, I've got a movie to watch and laundry to fold. Later!

Yes, I've been AWOL....

"You've got to pucker your lips, like this...."
 

It's been a while, I know. I haven't been in much of an internet mood lately. Aside from checking facebook occasionally and reading the blogs that I follow, I just haven't done much on the computer. I've been reading a lot of books, watching a lot of movies, and doing a lot of yoga....and getting behind on lots of housework.  But I'm back now.....and I have lots of interesting and delicious posts in the works.....starting probably tomorrow. Unless something weird happens.....which is not beyond the realm of possibility.

My MOPS group went to Monkey Joe's on Tuesday. It's kinda like Chuckie Cheese except with more bouncy houses and less games. Joseph loved it.

Riding the merry go round is very serious stuff...

So, I'm glad those of you reading this have stuck with me. I will try my best to do better. But for now, it's getting late and we've got a big morning of gymnastics tomorrow. There are 5 kids in the class this session....which means Joseph has to take turns....something he is not used to and he doesn't like it AT ALL! It can make for a LONG 30 minutes. Check back soon!

Happy New Year

It was a wild and crazy year for my family. We started off 2011 with one of the worst cold/flu/sickness seasons that I can remember. I think it had something to do with having a germ incubator living with me. We survived that, luckily. We also survived the worry that came with Joseph not growing.

Joseph turned one and started walking then running (seemingly the day after he started walking!). He can almost sit on a horse without assistance and ride around the arena which amazes me. He loves to ride just about anything and has developed an obsession with all things tractor and horse. It seems that every day he learns a new word. He learned to give kisses and say "bye" and "HEY!" He knows the name of just about every animal and what they say, but still not so hot at ABCs.  We went on a roller coaster with naps and night sleep. Finally got everything straightened out just to have him climb out of his crib. Now he prefers to sleep in the glider. I can go in and move him back to his bed but it's not long before I hear the pitter patter of little feet heading toward the chair.

As far as I go, I ran some races....not as many as I had hoped. I did some riding...not as much as I had hoped. And I lost some weight....but not as much as I had hoped. I see a trend here.... I did a lot of cooking (probably has something to do with not losing as much weight as I had hoped). I did quite a bit of crafting. We adopted a dog. I discovered that "How I Met Your Mother" is a fantastic show and I can't believe it's taken me so long to watch it. The funny thing is that I started watching it last year during a New Year's Eve marathon. This year I discovered a new (old) show right around the end of 2011 (it was actually Dec 29th)..Big Bang Theory. Where have you been??? A show about a bunch of science geeks? As a closet science geek, myself, I was in love. There was an episode where Sheldon was making scrambled eggs and his roommate asked if he was cooking breakfast and he said it wasn't cooking...it was an experiment. I was hooked. You can see how geeky I am by the type of pajamas I put my kid in. You have no idea how excited I was to find those at Oldnavy.com. Then a friend of mine pointed me toward iheartguts.com and now all I want are plush organs. I just wish they had a ruminant division because I would love a lifesize plush rumen (cow stomach). Now that's a pillow pet!!! In case you needed any other proof, here's a tshirt I made a few years ago when we had an "I heart tshirt party":

 

Ahh...those were the days...back when I had friends. But we won't go there tonight...that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

So, anyway, I don't have any plans for 2012. I plan to be the best mom that I can be and enjoy every moment that I have with my family. I hope you all have had a great Holiday season and are ready to get back to the non-holiday season which is Jan 2- Nov. I will be recharging and getting lots of tasty food blogs ready for your enjoyment!!

Tips to Making Fantastic Cookies

 

My little man "baking." His accuracy is not so good.

My boss at UK always told me that he wouldn't hire a lab tech who couldn't cook. I remember being like. "What?" Of course it made perfect sense,,,, cooking is simply following instructions. A recipe is like a protocol. It's all about measuring, temperature, timing, and doing things in a certain order. Maybe that's why I like to cook so much now. It reminds me of all the lab work I used to do. Ha ha. No really, while I don't miss my job, I did really enjoy the lab experiments. There was something about going through all those steps and then finding out an answer to a question at the end. Of course there were also the times that I would follow about 500 steps for an analysis that would take 2 days to complete and it wouldn't work. Now that was maddening. But my lab has become a kitchen and my experiments have become cookies.

Really dang good cookies.

 I wouldn't say that my cookies are perfect but I've worked pretty hard over the past couple of years at making them pretty close to perfect. I've always been told that baking cookies is hard. I wouldn't say it's hard. Cookies can be a bit...well...kooky, but you just have to know how to work with them. I've compiled my tips to making your cookies be the best cookies they can be.

- Start with the best ingredients. It doesn't have the be the most expensive, but if you don't like the way store brand chocolate chips taste alone, nothing magical is going to happen in the oven to make them taste better. I personally have no problem with store brand chips, but I like the more expensive brands better and will use them if I'm making cookies for some sort of special occasion. Crappy ingredients in = crappy cookies out.

- Kind of along the same lines...invest in some good vanilla extract. I like Spice Islands.

- Get your ingredients to room temperature before beginning. Everything mixes better and your dough will be better.

-I can't say this enough when it comes to anything baked....measure, measure, measure. Don't just willy nilly scoop ingredients out and throw them in the bowl. Crappy measuring = crappy cookies. Use a knife to level off dry ingredients. If the recipe calls for packed brown sugar, be sure to pack it down into that measuring cup.

- Cream the heck out of the butter and sugar. It could take 5 minutes or more. You will get better results if your butter is room temperature. This is when it's handy to have a stand mixer. I usually get it creaming and then start mixing my dry ingredients.

- Even if the recipe doesn't state for you to do so, mix your dry ingredients separately. This would be your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. etc. I use a whisk to stir it. This both combines the ingredients and sifts at the same time.

- Don't overbeat your dough once the dry ingredients are added.

- OK, this one is a biggie. Get some parchment paper. I won't bake a cookie without it. Using parchment has made the most improvement in my cookies.

- Invest in a cookie scoop. It allows you to make uniform cookies and it also cuts down the time and mess.

- I always bake my cookies on the middle rack of the oven.

- Unless you are really familiar with a cookie recipe, do no walk away from the oven and leave the cookies at the mercy of a timer. Check cookies often...starting a couple of minutes before the recipe recommends. Once they look a little brown around the edges take them out. Leave them on the hot pan for a few minutes to cool and then put them on a wire rack. If the cookies are already brown all over, go ahead and get them off the pan to a rack. You will want to put some cooking spray on a metal spatula to do this.

I hope this helps ya'll make some awesome cookies. Now, you know I would rather eat the dough, but there is something so nice about a soft, thick cookie.

I have about 500 cookie recipes to post coming up. And I'm picking the worst time to get them ready.....after Christmas no one will be wanting any cookies. We will all be sick of them!

The Little Man is a Natural

I have a born equestrian on my hands. I know the picture is kinda crappy. We made lots of trips around the arena last night. He even did a few by himself with me leading and Michael on "balance" duty. But he hardly needed any help staying up there. Spice has a very animated walk so that's saying something. He already has the riding bug. Spice keeps trying to remind me that she is not a "kid horse" and would appreciate it if we would get him a pony ASAP.

I hope you all are ready for Christmas!! I am enjoying being pretty much done with everything. I made some oreo truffles today and Joseph and I spent the afternoon playing with play doh. This was the first he has shown any interest in it. I was so excited. It's been a good day.

Oh, I have a friend who has started a new blog showcasing failed pinterest projects. I think it's going to be pretty great. Check it out at Your Pin Broke.