Tin Foil Dinners

These were so yum.
And since they were experimental, I had to bring out the camera.

So here's what we used:

Cabbage
Potatoes, cut into bite-size pieces (one medium potato per person. We actually had more but it turned out to be too much)
Carrots, thickly sliced (two med. or one large per person)
Frozen peas
Hamburger patty
Cream of mushroom soup
Salt and Pepper
Tin Foil
Grill

And here's what we did:

First, to make sure the potatoes would cook all the way through, we cut them up, drizzled them with olive oil, salt and peppered them, then let them bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. They're not cooked all the way through, but they'll finish in the tin foil packet.
We also cut them a little too big (about 1-1 1/2" cubes) so cut yours smaller.

Then get a large sheet of tin foil.
Arrange a few cabbage leaves like a bowl.

Sprinkle in some carrots, peas, and potatoes (you'll be layering these, so don't use all of it.)
Spoon a little cream of mushroom soup over the veggies.

Put the hamburger patty on top of that (salt and pepper the patty). I think next time I'd like to mix a little Worcestershire sauce with the beef, something to give it a little more flavor.

Slop a little more cream of mushroom over the hamburger patty, then sprinkle on the rest of the veggies. (We made one packet for each of us, but there was a ton of food so you could easily do one packet for two children.)

Adding veggies... doesn't he have sexy hands??

... moving on...

Cover it all up with more cabbage leaves.

Fold the tin foil around the food, pinching off the ends well. Then place the packet, seam side down, on another piece of tin foil and wrap that up too.

Go out to the grill, which is in the pool area, which is the only gas grill in the apartment complex, and forget to take pictures of the grill master himself.
Instead, take pictures of the various scenery because you're bored while the grill master went back to the apartment to get his laptop and your phone.

We heated the grill up to probably medium-high. Bret doesn't remember how hot it was. We placed the packets on the grill and let them cook for 20 minutes per side. The cabbage burned a little (and the cabbage is our favorite part!) so we'd probably cut it down to 15 minutes a side.
The rest of the food was peeeerrrrrrfect.

Turned out so scrumptious!!

Tin Foil Dinners... not just for camping anymore.
Mmm, I want to do it again!

Sick of Baby posts yet?

Well I haven't seen Hunger Games yet, so this is all the news there is.

I had a fetal EKG done last Friday and we're very happy to say that
our son's heart is perfect.
"Everything looks fantastic!" and "That is one happy heart!"
Those were the doctor's exact words.

I can't even begin to describe the relief.
It's almost as though I was denying myself the complete happiness of expecting a baby
in fear of losing him too.
"Don't allow yourself to get too happy. That's when everything crashes down around you," says a nasty little voice in my head.

It's hard not to let those doubts haunt my mind.

But now I feel like I can finally bring home baby stuff without jinxing myself, look at baby stuff, dream about baby stuff, and worry about being a good mother. Because it's finally happening.

Now for the sticky part:
I have to choose whether or not I want another c-section or a VBAC. The doctors and nurses have perfected the art of scare tactics.
On one hand, I could have another c-section and increase the risk of all the complications that goes with it. Future pregnancies are also at risk. I might not be able to have as many children as we want.
These people are talking hysterectomies.

On the other hand, I can do a VBAC, in which I run the risk of exploding my uterus and causing brain damage or death to my baby or death to myself. (Nurse practitioner even threw in a story of just such an occasion... they lost both the baby and the mother. Such a nice end to an appointment.)

Told you they were good at scare tactics.

Well, this kid has to come out SOMEHOW. It's not like there's a third option.
So what do I do? I still don't know, though it's definitely a matter of prayer.

I hear stories all the time of successful VBACs and successful multiple c-sections. I just wish someone else could make the choice for me, or that God would spell it out somewhere blatantly in the scriptures because my brain and heart can't agree.
"Thou shalt have a c-section!" or "Thou shalt bear thy child the normal way!"

I know the doctors have to give the worst case scenario otherwise they "run the risk" of a lawsuit. Thanks for ruining my peace of mind so you can have yours.
It just feels like such a heavy weight overshadowing the joy of this pregnancy. I'm trying to not let it be that way. I just feel so helpless and confused.

Boogers and things that go bump in the belly

I'm totally laughing at this story in retrospect
even though at the time I was pretty ticked off.

Yesterday afternoon, Bret and I had a very enjoyable time at a friend's house chatting away for over an hour and then going home with a bunch of free baby stuff she had wanted to get rid of.
(A bumbo, a swing, a playmat, maternity clothes, booyah! Thanks, Pam!!)

When we got home, I went to work making dinner.
Delicious chili recipe given to me by my SIL Cassandra.
(P.S. it has vegetables in it and TONS of protein!)

So I was up and down, moving around a lot.
I think it made baby Abraxas Fitzwilliam go to sleep.
And then after the super yummy but super heavy dinner of chili and cornbread,
(I'm having that leftover yum for lunch. Can't wait.)
I think the babe was content to while away the hours in his cozy home

and really freak out his Mama.

I'm paranoid, I get it. I have good reason to be so I'll make no excuses.
He moved a little, just not very much and not as energetically as he has before.
So I waited and waited and waited.

I couldn't sleep. Caught a sporadic hour here and there.
Finally, sometime after two a.m. he finally started dancing the conga.
I could find peace at last!

Until five a.m. when Bret nudged me out of sleep and said:
"Your nose is whistling really loud. Go pick your boogers or something!"

Well, at the time I thought, 'You BUTT! I've gotten horrible sleep and you woke me up because my nose was whistling??'
Didn't sleep much after that. Abraxas Fitzwilliam was kicking again and I was worried my breathing would be too loud.
Later that morning when we were still sleepy but it was almost time to get up, my sweet husband snuggled up to me to ask if I was mad at him. Snuggling, of course, makes all my angry melt away and I was able to admit that yes, I was mad, but not anymore and I could genuinely laugh about it.
Come to find out, my nose really was whistling loud. So loud that it woke Bret up and he thought it was the smoke detector running out of batteries.

I'd wake him up if he was snoring. So I guess he's justified to wake me up if my boogers are making fire warnings.

I shall teach him well.

First thing we bought for our boy:

Shoes.

Well, and a blanket. But mostly shoes.

I'm obsessed with shoes. I have probably 25+ pairs. And if I could, I'd own a lot more than that.

And it's not just me. Bret likes shoes too. Not as much as I do, but he's got more shoes than the average guy (12-ish pairs, I think. You know, a pair for basketball, a pair for running, a pair for baseball, a couple pairs for church, a few casuals, flip-flops, you know the stuff.)

The ones I got are a 0-6 month size and two size 4's. So I'm not really that weird.
Come on, he's a man child.
Can't be that accessorized.

But the really cool part is I got all this loot for 13$ at a consignment sale. Wahoo! Can't wait to slip my little guy's footsies into these adorable things.

A pair of church shoes and two casuals.
I hope the blankie isn't too girly. Bret said it wasn't. Being a man, he's probably a good judge of that.

Maxi Skirts!!

I finished them!
Here's the tutorial I used:

http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/2011/09/maxi.html

The first is a mint green one with a diagonal knit pattern, which I cut and sewed into a "chevron" zig-zag pattern. (that's what it's called, right?) I finished it several days ago. The second one is just a plain dark teal. The second one was way easier to make. Sadly, I don't have a picture of the first one. I... er... couldn't find it.

I think it's in the laundry. I'd have gotten it out, but I don't like digging through dirty clothes.

It just kinda grosses me out. I know, I'm weird like that.

Anyway, so here's some pictures of the second one, taken by photo booth on the Mac. SO much easier than taking pictures of myself with a regular camera!

The color looks a little off. The pictures make it look navy blue, but it's more teal. And SO comfy!!

And cuz I was having a good hair day and WAY too much fun on photobooth, here's more of me:

these two are my normal, un-effected face.

Mostly.

The rest of these are using the effects on photobooth, with hilarious results:

7

Sooo, I got tagged again.

This one is cute and fun.
You don't have to listen to me talk about myself.
Instead, I get to eat chocolate chips and tell you about some of my writing.

Here's the rules of this go-round:

1. Go to Page 77 of your current manuscript.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy & post the next 7 lines as they're written -- no cheating.
4. Tag 7 other writers.
5. Let them know.
For kicks, there were added two extra rules:
6. Eat 7 chocolate chips.
7. Tell 7 people you love them.




My current works in progress don't have 77 pages yet. I know, for shame.
So I thought I'd give you 2 others: One is the latest of my finished manuscripts, called Fathom, and the other is from the story currently posted on Chapterhouse Lane, called Amaranth. 

            Fathom

thoughts. 

The image of the victim’s red hair remained fixed in my head. What if it was the same woman? Her last act could have been giving me the sea shell. But why? Why me and why a sea shell? Who was she? Was she a local, as Samantha thought when we saw her on the beach? 

The beach… remembering it gave me a sudden epiphany: if I wanted to find answers to my questions, there was someone I could ask. Someone who knew the woman, or at least had spoken to her. 

and Amaranth

Merek nodded, looking humble and utterly adorable. 

“I don’t get it. Why me? What’s the big deal? You could have gotten my phone number or something.”

“I don’t have a phone.”

“Oh. So why did you want to see me?”

He looked away from me as if he were embarrassed. “I’m afraid now’s not the time for that conversation.” 

Niether of these would make much sense because I went from line 7 to line 14 without cheating. 

Here's where I'm going to break the rules. I'm not going to tag 7 writers. I do know some. Very good ones, in fact. Some have blogs, some do not. Some write only children's stories and therefore do not have 77 pages worth of manuscript. Some are blog writers. Some are published authors and I don't know them personally... only by reputation of their super awesome work. 

So forgive me, but I'm not going to spread this love.

I don't have 7 people to tag who would be able to participate.

But I did eat chocolate chips. More than 7 of them. They were tasty.

Lazy butt

Oh my poor riveted readers. What do you do with yourselves? Wondering every day when Amy is going to post.
I should be ashamed of myself to keep you waiting.

Right?

...

Anyway.

I've been super lazy with blogging lately. I've been reading other blogs, just haven't kept up on mine. I even have pictures to post. But they're on my phone. And posting them would take effort. Wow, I'm a real trooper, aren't I.

So here's the dish:
Okay, okay I'll upload the pics.

I got this cute H &M shirt from Rubbish, an online thrift store by Meredith. 5 bucks, including shipping! Thanks, Meredith. I loooove my shirt.

1. 20 weeks. Little Abraxas Fitzwilliam (I came up with that this morning. Facebook friends will have seen it before. Brilliant, isn't it?) is getting more active. It seems like just when I start feeling concern about him being still for too long, he gives me a little jab or two as though to say "still here, Mama. Stop your worry-warting."
This is the "cute" side of my belly. The rest of me is so not cute. Trust me.

2. We celebrated Oreo's 100th Birthday this week. We never buy Oreos. Like, ever. But we caved when we saw a commercial and thought, ohhh that looks good. One quick run to Wal-mart later, we were happily dunking and eating those delightful little cookies.
And I wondered if the guy discovered the recipe by burning the brownies.
Because even though Oreos are delish, that's kind of what they taste like.

"Woops, I burned the brownies. Dangit, what am I going to do? Ah ha! It'll be okay, I'll just soften them up by dunking them in a cup of milk first."
*chomp chomp*
"Mmm, this is actually really good! But it would be even better with a little bit of creamy stuff on it. Just to sweeten it even more."
*smearing cream*
*chomp chomp*
"Mmmmm.... I got three words for you. Ur-eek-ah!"
And thus the Oreo was born. From a burnt brownie.
Okay, I don't think that's true, but you never know.


3. I'm making two maxi skirts. Those things are just too fun. The first one is sea-green and has a diagonal knit pattern to it, so I tried to make it into a chevron-type zig-zag pattern.
And I cut it too small. Yeah, take the measurements the girl with no butt and a pre-pregnancy size 2 gives you and double it.  It'll be okay though. I bought more fabric and intend to add more panels. It'll add to the style of the skirt, I'm sure. And I'll just hate my butt for a sec.
I'll post pictures of that when they're done and include the link for the tutorial. I got it off Pinterest. Wow, look at me! I'm actually doing something from Pinterest instead of just pinning and admiring and commenting on it! Yay!

4. Speaking of Pinterest, I want to create a "tried and true" board, but with a cuter title. It'll be things I've tried and were successful. And opposite that, a "tried and denied" board. (I like that title) It'll be stuff that I made an attempt at and it didn't go so well.
Like drying fresh strawberries in my oven. Meh. They were good when they were hot, but once they cooled, they were half dry and half cold strawberry mush. Yuck. Going to try fruit roll ups next time.