The baby doesn't like milkshakes :(

Well, I guess I didn't knock on enough wood last time. We have progressed into a bit more than just feeling sick :( I felt so much better after the fact though so that was nice! Instead of 'morning' sickness I have more evening sickness; it starts getting worse around dinner time and lasts until bed most days.I had made a chicken pot pie for dinner (I make a killer one!) and by the time it was out of the oven and Brad set the table and served it up and I walked into the dining room, I wanted nothing to do with it. So, he insisted I eat something and offered to get fast food even-something I hadn't had in a while. I always want McDonald's when I'm sick so I asked for that plus a milkshake. It was so good and I sat and took my time to eat and even left a bunch of it and actually felt full for the first time in FOREVER. But, it didn't last long sadly. Brad was excellent in my time of need (he came RUNNING) even though I wanted him to be anywhere but watching me ;) He got me ice water and put a cold washcloth on my forehead then on my neck...what a sweetie. I have found two things though that the baby does like and I feel better after eating: rice krispies with milk (surprisingly milk doesn't bother me in this instance) and Lunchables of all things. My stomach settles so much after eating a cheese and meat topped cracker. So, for the next few weeks I think I will stick to eating breakfast and lunch foods whenever I feel like it!

We've killed a rabbit :)

Well, if you haven't heard by now (you must be deaf!) Brad and I are having a baby. I have been putting off posting anything about it on here for weird personal reasons. We've told everyone but putting it in writing just scares me for some reason. Anyways, it's out there now! I am doing fine, Brad is doing fine and based on what everyone tells me about the sicker I feel the better the baby is, the baby is FANTASTIC! I am very queasy all day every day...some days I get a break for a few hours and I am grateful. I am not throwing up and am knocking on every type of wood when I say that. I get tired easier so I sleep alot but I try to stay active too. I get out for walks when I feel up to it and I make myself take care of something at the house everyday. I have already seen the doctor, the day after the home test actually, and everything was right on target then. I am reading all my books and eating good and Brad helps remind me everyday to take the vitamins. As far as we know I am 7 weeks now and due January 14. I never thought we would get it on the first try and was shocked when I saw that little plus sign. I kept telling myself that the second line wouldn't appear; even up to the point of taking the test and the strip turning pink! I was not optimistic! Boy, am I happy I was wrong. So, the pictures below are quite obvious...the one of me I took myself and sucked my fat gut in so you could get an idea of what was or wan't there yet :) that was taken two days after we found out so at four weeks. I have another doctors appointment next week and hopefully all will go well for that too. Please continue to pray that everyone stays healthy and things continue to go well. We are very excited and so excited to share this special time in our lives with everyone.
(Hope the pics don't freak anyone out or seem gross...doing them mainly so Brad's family can stay in the loop too since we won't see them as much during the pregnancy...so I apologize if I offend anyone else!)

Our Hero.

This past weekend was one full of celebrations for our family. We chose Memorial Day weekend as the perfect time to have our going away celebrations for my brother, Larry. You see, on May 31 he will be shipping out for Kuwait. He has been in the Navy reserves for 3 years now and his time is now to serve his country overseas. He will first go to Virginia for training for several weeks but we aren't able to know his exact date of departure from there so we have to say our good byes at the airport next weekend. He also went and got engaged a few weeks ago and is planning to marry when he returns next summer so there is a lot going on with him. Please keep him in your prayers until he returns home safely to all of us sometime next spring. We were able to host a going away party for him and had a special blessing for him at church in which the entire congregation participated over the weekend. I've never been prouder of my baby brother!

We're still here!

So, more than one person has mentioned to me the fact that the blog hasn't been updated. Well, we've been busy and I've let myself be lazy :P So, you probably already know that a LOT has been going on at our home..but give me a while before I post on that. There is more than that going on right now. For instance we have been living in our guest room for almost two weeks now and our house is a bit cluttered. But, for good reason...we've finally changed our bedroom. Now, our bedding matches the rest of the room. We picked out paint and Brad got to work and it looks so much better. Plus, we both love it. The last piece we need is to make our valances and that project will be closed. Next, Brad plans to replace our railings on our stairs to be safer and then we will begin on transforming/updating our 'guest' room ;) I didn't take any pictures before the painting started but this is the best I could do:
The blue on the trim piece is what ALL the walls and trims used to be...the wall is with the first coat of the new color.
And this is what is looks like with the walls and the trim done!!

Maybe it's because I'm Polish?

Or just because I'm anal....hmm. We're having some old friends come over this weekend and they have never seen our house. So, of course I am doing a major clean sweep. It doesn't matter that I just cleaned up for our company last week or that I told myself I woudln't re-do things that still looked good-yeah right. I am in overdrive. Even my everyday weekly chores (when we won't have company) are slightly outrageous. I need my house to be spotless and if it's not I apologize profusely to whomever sees it a mess. Even my mom said to me today that she doesn't know why I worry, I won't have much to do because my house is always clean! YAY!!!! I've succeeded. It's funny she should say this because she is probably the one to blame for my behavior :) We always joke about it being our old "Polish Mom"...we're 100% Polish in case you didn't know! This is a woman who wouldn't let us leave on vacation without a clean sweep of the house. After we were done packing us three kids had to be sure the floors were vacuumed, beds were made, clothes put away and dishes washed and I won't even tell you my parents' reasoning behind this! I have another purebred Polish friend and we lived together in college and I think her and I understand the best where the other is coming from. There is a book, a great piece of fiction for anyone raised in a very Polish household and it's called The Clarinet Polka. While at times it can be grotesque and brash it is also very humorous to a Polish child as myself. The first time I read it I picked one passage out the sticks in my memory today. The narrator, a young man living at home in the 60's talks about HIS Polish mother and her cleaning habits. How she insisted that the house always be clean just in case anyone dropped over. This would be fine he said but no one ever dropped by because they were all too busy at THEIR homes keeping them clean just in case anyone dropped by!! This is so true! And, as I moved furniture around to dust and polish the backside of it I realized that I had finally come to live out this personality trait that I so gleefully used to tease my mother with :) I am hoping that what everyone says is true: that when you grow older and once you have children you won't care if your house is that clean all the time anymore. Gosh I hope so.

If you've got kids you need to see this!

Or, if you are sans kids and are just a big kid yourself like me! I made this cake for a get together this weekend to suprise one of my friends for her birthday that had just passed. It's called Raibow Cake and when I first saw the recipe I couldn't wait to try it. Everyone at the get together thought it was great (even Brad was amazed!) so I promised to post directions and pictures.

Preheat oven according to the directions for the cake mix.

You will need to prepare TWO white cakes mixes according to the box directions. I did one box and divided the batter and then did the other box and divided it. Once you make the batter scoop one cup (or there abouts...just want it to be even) of batter into SIX separate bowls. Next you will color it and I highly suggest GEL food coloring not the liquid kind I grew up with. I wanted to do traditional rainbow ROY G BIV but for some reason my fancy schmancy cake decorating gel set didn't have a traditional orange and I didn't want to make it too weird with the other colors I had to choose from so I went with Pink. This is not something I would do again since it came out almost exactly like the Red color :( Anyway this is what you should now have. Yummy and pretty!
Next you will need two round cake pans sprayed and ready to go. Take your first pan and start with whatever color you want. I chose red to go in the order of the rainbow. Take about half of the dyed batter mixture and plop it right in the center of the pan. You DO NOT need to spread it or shake the pan or anything...just let it be a big blob in the middle! Now take half of your next colored batter and plop that right on top of the middle of the first color. Continue to do this for all of the colors....just keep putting it right on the top of the last color. Repeat for the second pan with the other half of each colored batter BUT go in the opposite order. So whatever was the last color you put into the first pan now is the FIRST color in the second. When you are done you should have two cake pans that look something like this:

Like I said you don't have to spread the batter. The more batter you add and the heavier it gets, the lower batter sections will spread out all on their own!

Now, bake it according to the directions on the box. When they are done and you take them out have a cake board or plate ready. You can use whatever kind of icing you want. I cofess I did actually do the canned route since I wasn't even entirely sure how the cake itself would come out so I put all my creative skill into that! I iced it with vanilla and added a bunch of rainbow sprinkles to the top.

Now, I didn't tell anyone what kind of cake it was so when I cut into it to serve it they were all pretty surprised and excited to see this!

Like I said, this was the hit of the party and it got rave reviews!! I am so excited it worked and I think it is so much fun! You can use whatever colors you want and have fun!!

Spring has sprung!

It's officially spring now...we went fishing and took the boats out this weekend! I was having a bunch of college friends over and having spent most of the week killing myself to get the house ready there wasn't much to do come Saturday morning. So, with the sun shining and the air warming up my hubby couldn't help but want to fish. We were out there for about 30 minutes but we officially kicked off the season; no fish though-I told Brad I thought they were still in hiding. That and the fish in our lake hate me :). He also spent a ton of time cleaning the paddle boat and the canoe up in case anyone wanted a ride that night. Well, they both went out and I can't wait for the warm weather to stay around now!