A Whole Decade

That's how long my sweetie and I have been together as of today. I cannot believe that we've been together this long. Not only that, but we've never broken up...not once. 10 years is a long time. Here are some great memories:

2002 Fiesta Bowl...Go Bucks!

July 15th 2006...Two become one!

July 2006...10 days in Hawaii for our Honeymoon

February 2007...Buying our first house

(yes this picture is not from Feb...I couldn't find the one from when we first moved in)

July 2007...One year anniversary in Florida

July 2009...12 Days in Europe

August 6th 2009...Finding out we were going to be parents!

It's been a great Decade and I can't wait for the next one to come!

Pumpkin Carvin

Today was trick or treat. We don't get a ton of kids, so to help kill the time we carved our annual pumpkins. This tradition started long ago with my bff Mrs. Eigensee when we moved in together after college. We always stick to the patterns in the book. MY husband on the other hand likes to be a little creative. One year he did a Brutus Buckeye head. Then a Bengal Tiger head. Last year, in honor of his broken ankle, he did a handicapped sign. This year he was at a total loss for what to carve. Up until he actually started cleaning the insides, he had no idea what he was going to do. Then as he was pulling out the guts of the pumpkin he was inspired to make this beautiful creation.

Yet another reason I love him...who else could make me have to run inside and pee from laughing at their pumpkin carving. I myself stuck to the book and created this...

This weekend is our annual Halloween party. I'm sure I will have tons of fun pictures to share.

Death By Chocolate

About a year or so ago I thought I would tackle making a chocolate mousse. I figured it was one of those complicated desserts that would be really challenging to make. Well some recipes are, but I found this great, easy, delicious one. I made it tonight for a dinner I'm going to tomorrow, so I thought I would share.

Death by Chocolate: Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, broken into 1/2 ounce squares

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

3 egg whites

2 tablespoons sugar

1. Place chocolate into the top half of a double boiler. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow chocolate to melt slowly. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Keep at room temperature until needed.

2. Place heavy cream in the well-chilled bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a well-chilled balloon whip. (I throw both into the freezer for about 10 minutes) Whisk on high speed until peaks form. Set aside a few minutes until needed.

3. Whisk 3 egg whites in a large stainless steel bowl until soft peaks form. Add sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form.



4. Add 1/2 of whipped cream to the chocolate and whisk vigorously and thoroughly, then add to egg whites. Now add the remaining whipped cream. Fold all together gently but thoroughly. Refrigerate until needed. Enjoy!

Week in Review

So this week has been pretty busy. Last Saturday we spent the day hanging the wainscoting in the nursery. Thank goodness we were busy and didn't have to sit through the suckiness that was the buckeye offense. The only thing left to do on the room is give the paneling a coat of paint.
Sunday we had to sit through a miserable performance by the Bengals. They were simply outplayed. We're not too upset though cause we're still riding the high of beating Pittsburgh and Baltimore.
I had two days of mentor training this week to prepare me for the job of mentoring a new teacher. It was quite boring. I would assume that I was picked to be a mentor because I already have the skill to be a good listener, encourager, and I am capable of helping someone with things without being judgemental. The state of Ohio however felt I needed two days to teach me how to develop these skills.
Thursday my school had a flu shot clinic for the seasonal flu, so I took that hit in the left arm. Then The health department was having another day of H1N1 shots for pregnant women, so I took that hit in the right arm. Both arms are still sore today, but now, hopefully, the baby and I are protected from all my student's sick germs.
Thursday night we hung the tiles on the back splash. They look great! They just need to be grouted and that project is done as well. Two projects in one week. We are super homeowners!
Last night was Scary Movie night at the Duncan's. We watched 1408...one of John Cusak's worst movies ever made. Then we followed that with Lost Boys. I had never seen this wonderful product of the 80's. I've forgotten how much I love any movie with both Corey's in it.
Today we had tickets to the game, but I had been dealing with a cold all week, and not being able to take cold medicine kind of sucks. So I opted out and instead went to my Mom's to pick apples, eat bean soup and watch football. I also got to nap, which let me tell you all is the best ever when you are pregnant. I nap like I've never napped before. Tonight we have dinner plans with some friends we don't see a lot. That will be a nice wrap up to a busy week.

I will post pictures of our finished projects soon.

Movement?

So last night I was experiencing this weird sensation that felt like I had gas...but I didn't. Then I realized...it's probably the baby moving around. I did a little research and apparently the first movements you can feel are like bubbles in your stomach. Well needless to say, I am just grinning ear to ear. What an AWESOME feeling!

Home Improvement

So we have a few projects that are MUST DO's before the baby comes. In effort to get them done before I get too huge to help, we are getting started this weekend. The first project is the nursery. I got my inspiration from the photo showing the bedding set I want to get.

Today I painted and the goal for tomorrow is to put up the wainscoting. Here are some before pictures.

The next project is the kitchen back splash. This will be the last change we make to the kitchen. We special ordered the glass tiles. They turned out fabulous.

Here is a before picture of the kitchen. We are loving the new counter tops and I think the tile will look great with them.

We also have remodeling our master bath on our wish list...we'll see if that happens before the baby or not.

Book Review

In true Jodi Picoult fashion I was hooked into this book by page 10. This is a heart wrenching story about a little boy who is sexually molested and his mom's journey to protect her son. After the abuse Nathaniel goes mute and his mom Nina has to struggle to find what is wrong with him. She begins to teach him sign language so he can communicate. He finally names a suspect, but is misinterpreted and the wrong man gets blamed. In order to reverse the damage, Nathaniel works up the courage to name the true offender and then Nina takes things into her own hands.

I can't believe how much I got into this book. I should have known considering how much I've loved all of Picoult's books in the past. I picked this one up on a whim and was not disappointed. Being with child myself I had a lot of time to reflect on what I would have done if I were in her shoes and found out my beloved child had been abused. I don't know that I would have taken it as far as she did, but I do know that a part of me would be changed forever. If you're looking for a book that is as endearing as it is suspenseful, I would definitely check out this book.

Cough Etiquette

We fight a huge battle with our middle schoolers keeping their germs to themselves. We showed this really funny video the other morning to help encourage proper cough and sneeze etiquette. It's worth watching the full 5 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao7eyqoiIYs

(side note: many of you are way cooler than me and get the video to show up right in the blog. I would definitely like some pointers on how to be cool like you)

The best part is how the kids started rating each other's coughs and sneezes after the video. I was awarded a perfect 10 just this morning. :)

Parenting 101

In college and grad school I had to take A LOT of classes...most of them I don't use the information, but some of them still come in handy. One class that was no wear in the course registrar listings was how to deal with parents at parent teacher conferences. I could really use some tips on some tactful ways to say the following things:
*your kid is lazy as hell
*you enable your child to be lazy by defending his laziness
*you shouldn't believe your child when they tell you they finished their homework already...your kid is a liar.
*If your kid is failing, it is not my fault, it's mostly your kid's but also yours.
*You need to give your kid consequences for not doing what they're supposed to...otherwise how will they learn.
*Just because your kid has always gotten an A and now isn't doesn't make me a bad teacher. They need to work harder to get an A in my class, deal with it.

The bonus to all of this is I am learning many things about being my parent myself. I already have a growing list of things that I will not do or allow my kid to do:
1. Don't believe the kid when they say the teacher said or did something...it's probably a lie.
2. Don't give my 13 year-old a cell phone.
3. Don't be more of a Friend to my child than a parent.
4. Don't let my kid stay home for two periods cause they don't want to go to one class, but make sure they get there in time that they can still play their football game that night.

I'm sure there will be many more, but that's all I can think of at this time. For all you parents, or wanna be parents, what things are on your list?

Happy Birthday...

... TO ME! I love birthdays. This one has been great so far. I got to catch up on about 4 hours of DVR television that I missed during this crazy week while the hubs slept in. Then I got presents. It's amazing how at 28 you get very excited about a body pillow and the warmest slippers I've ever owned. Seriously, my feet got hot and I had to take them off, that's how awesome they are. Then the baby and I felt it was time for a nap so we wouldn't be too tired for the rest of the evening. We have reservations at Marcella's in the Short North. They have the most authentic Italian food outside of Italy. We are excited to relive some memories from our Summer vacay. Then we're headed over to a friends house for the football game and celebrating his 30th birthday which is tomorrow.

A definite great day!