Mothership Confessional

This is childhood-memories, warm-your-soul, polar-vortex kind of food, people! Start with a cut up whole chicken. Or just some bone-in cuts of chicken. Put it into a big pot.  Like, the biggest pot you have.  This time I am trying it with my pasta pot that has a strainer pot that nests inside of it. I thought that would be helpful to get the chicken and veggies out later.  Fill up the pot with water to just at the top of the chicken, or just under the top of the pot, whichever comes first.  If you have room, add some chunks of onion, celery, and carrots. I did not have room, so I'm going to add those after I take the cooked chicken out.  One good thing about not putting the veggies in yet is that you will end up with plain, poached chicken that could be used for other recipes.  Bring the chicken to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook for as long as you can, but at least 45 minutes to an hour or un...

...Girl!!! We had our gender reveal party tonite.  I think we need to have parties more often because it motivates us to clean house! Duke slept while we cleaned. I made this poster of Old Wives Tales of gender predicting. I made an area for posting votes. We ate Chipotle-themed food: barbacoa beef, beans, and cilantro-lime rice. The aftermath. The decorations! The cupcakes. Pink filling! I can't wait to meet little Ava Mckenzie this summer!!

Well, here I am! It is really hard to take these selfies. I feel like it will be easier to capture my belly once I am a little bit bigger. It is a talent to get the belly at the right angle, to figure out what to do with my arm, and to have a semi natural-looking smile. This was like photo number 6. We did a 4D ultrasound a few days ago to determine gender! I wasn't sure I wanted to spend the money on an "extra" ultrasound, but we got a good deal, and it was such a neat experience! I'm glad we decided to do it.  The room was dimly lit and had big couches in it for friends and family - you could have a party in there! The images were up on the projector screen, so you didn't miss a single movement. We spent about 15 minutes watching our baby on the screen, some 2D images, and some 3D.  At first, the baby had its legs crossed, so the ultrasound tech wasn't sure she would be able to determine gender. But baby eventually moved, so she was able t...

I am at 16 weeks today, and I have to say, I feel pretty great. On days that I don't work, I am interested in some sort of exercising, something I could not  imagine  wanting to do in my first trimester. I enjoy ALL food. I have lost the majority of my sweet tooth. Sad!  That does not stop me from wanting a good carbonated beverage or sweet tea. I have discovered that if I overdo it on the sweets that I really don't feel good afterward. I really enjoy my salty food though! I wouldn't say that I have cravings, but the majority of the time when I want a snack, I want something salty and crunchy. Or some fruit. Ha! So no real rhyme or reason to it. The majority of my clothes still fit. A few of my tight-waisted jeans are already going to have to be put away, as well as a few of my snug shirts. I have a bunch of maternity clothes already, some of which I have been given, some I have purchased, and some that I am borrowing. I have some clothes sorting to do in my future!...

Read Part 1 and Part 2 We talked for awhile that day. Like nonstop. He still couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that I was pregnant. I told him that I've had 4 weeks to process this, and I still couldn't understand it. Here's my theory on what happened: 1. I began my period on Aug. 30. I took Clomid as prescribed. 2. Clomid did not make me ovulate; the blood test on day 21 was correct. 3. I was testing for pregnancy between day 30 and 40. 4. I took Provera between day 45 and day 55 after taking a lab urine pregnancy test. 5. I ovulated on my own on or before day 45 of my cycle, October 11. We conceived shortly thereafter. I was NOT charting, so I have no idea what day was "the day". You can't know for sure anyway, unless you only try like once every 7 days. 6. I starting feeling pregnancy symptoms around day 55. Some of them were the same as PMS symptoms, so I was still expecting a period after ending Provera. 7. I got a positive p...

My brain was a jumbled mess. I am pregnant. And nobody knows . (To fully understand the context of this post, you may want to read my previous post first.) That morning, I was by myself at work for a few hours. It was the slowest  shift ever. God must have done that knowing I would need some time to think! It was sort of agonizing. My mind was going in a thousand different directions. I was trying to sort out what could have possibly happened. Was my home ovulation test faulty? Was there a chance the lab test was wrong, or maybe it was someone else's results? How far along was I? Do I tell someone? Do I tell Chris?! I never imagined that I would have to tell Chris over the phone that I was pregnant. And I hated the idea of it. He was in an area where there was poor cell phone reception, so there was no guarantee that I could even get ahold of him to tell him. And I was imagining me trying to tell him the news and then the phone cutting in and out. It would be so awkw...

I have debated for a long time about whether I wanted to include a post on my blog about the journey my husband and I have been on to achieve a pregnancy. It's quite personal. And some people may think that it's too much information. But without the other blogs I came across during my research, I would have felt MUCH more helpless and alone. And my hope is, is that another woman will stumble across this post and find comfort and hope in hearing someone else's story. Now, I will go ahead and include a disclaimer: men may find this post frightening as you will probably read way more than you ever wanted to know about the female body. It's nothing embarrassing, its just biology. I will warn you again when things get personal. For now, let's rewind the clock back to June 6, 2009: the day Chris and I got married! We both had talked during our dating years of if we wanted kids, how many, and when we wanted to start trying. We both agreed not to start trying righ...

Wow, it's been awhile! I think my last post was in October. I've been a bit...occupied...with other things! More on that later. ;) My favorite way of cooking it throwing things together. No recipe required! And that is exactly how I made dinner last night.  I had a little inspiration from from a pin on Pinterest for oven baked tacos.  I think this fact right here is why I prefer cooking over baking : you can take almost any recipe and modify it based on what you have on hand at the moment. I feel this is especially true for Mexican-American dishes. (I throw in American because I could not imagine my Guatemalan mother-in-law making ANY of these things. She'd probably laugh!) Anywho, I originally wanted to make those yummy looking tacos, but I didn't have the right stuff in the pantry.  So then I started making things up.  I had a pound of cooked ground beef in the freezer, so I started by thawing that quick and adding water and taco seas...