3.31.2011

ten for thursday.

I told you I am no good at getting into a routine, especially on this blog. I have missed the last 2 weeks of ten for thursday. My sincere apologies for my lack of remembering and following through.

Here we go with another week:

1. I am in a different state.
2. After some chaos and some really quick actions I have been transplanted from Maryland to stay with my family for awhile.
3. Our neighbors are awesome and are staying with our dogs and watching our house. Normally I don't post things online about us being away but the house is in good hands.
4. I insanely miss my dogs! It might be an obsession but they are precious and I miss them! How could I not miss this sweet face?
5. I'm not quite sure what to do with myself these days.
6. 8 weeks until we get to meet our sweet little boy! Cannot believe it. Cannot wait!
7. My brother made a chocolate cake last night- it is delicious!
8. I'm loving making progress on Jack's nursery! So excited to have his room all ready and waiting for him.
9. I saw snow yesterday-- seriously? Hoping that was the last flurry to cross my path until next winter!
10. I'm sitting here typing this as watch the fluid flow, drop by drop, from the bag, into the tubing, and into my arm. Glad to know it's making life better for Baby Jack!

3.28.2011

a productive weekend.

We've had quite a weekend over here. My amazing husband quickly flew home to be with me Saturday morning at the crack of dawn after I had a bit of a breakdown on Friday. I am now on IV fluids and medicines for my nausea/vomiting. It's helping a lot! I feel a lot better after a few days of this. I also feel a lot better with my husband taking care of me. What I haven't shared here before is that he has been spending a chunk of time away for work, and by a chunk of time, I mean 3 months. It has been rough! Especially with so many challenges throughout this pregnancy. But we are nearing the end of Tommy away and this pregnancy! So excited to meet this guy!


So anyway, with this extra time we had together this weekend we did a lot of IV-ing it up. He hooked up my meds, my fluids, cleaned my IV site, and brought me lots of food and drinks. Such a good man I have! :) We also worked on Baby Jack's room! It is looking so good! Here's a sneak peek picture-- but really it's VERY IN PROGRESS!




And we of course had lots of puppy time!




Look at my talented boy! He fetches the paper.

3.24.2011

healthy with a side of ice cream.

If you were a Registered Dietitian, what would be one of your nightmares?

I think I'm living it. Ok, that's dramatic. No need to be so extreme. But seriously, it's hard. I am in the home stretch-ishness (wow, made that up) of my pregnancy and what has returned? The sickness! I am so sick! I am so nauseous, I randomly throw up, and have generally no appetite. Guess what I particularly don't have an appetite for? Pretty much anything healthy. In the last couple of weeks I every "good and healthy" meal that I have had, or I guess should say attempted, has come back up. I have seriously resorted to eating ice cream as a main staple of my diet now. That probably explains why I don't have much weight loss for all of this vomiting and not eating. Things will get better; I know they will!


In the meantime, I am frustrated. While I am certainly one of the least healthy RDs out there (meaning I seriously value my chocolate) I have really missed eating and living a healthy lifestyle through my diet. Early in my pregnancy I was repulsed by most fresh fruits and vegetables. Seriously repulsed. Around 25 weeks that improved and I spent a few weeks eating salads and enjoying some fruits and vegetables again. Now that is gone, and I'm back to just getting by. On ice cream. I'm excited to move beyond this, and I think getting some good meds in me and some fluids will help. Thank you Dr. for understanding how miserable I feel and doing something to fix it! Ultimately, I want this little guy to be healthy and strong, and then beyond that I am so excited to get back to my old ways of eating :) Healthy with a side of ice cream.


3.22.2011

amazing beef sliders.

During the last 7 months I have hardly cooked at all. A random meal here or there is the best I've come up with. This has been a rough pregnancy, and I have let cooking go by the wayside. Now that I have some more time on my hands I am excited to get back to cooking! This weekend I kicked it off with an awesome recipe from Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen.


I'm out of practice so I don't have pictures of the process {because I forgot to take them} but the finished picture is awesome enough. This was easy to make, very delicious, and full of incredible flavor! I highly, highly recommend this meal!


All it took was putting the beef in the crockpot and then 8 hours later we used 2 cups of the cooking juices to make a sauce and mixed up the slaw. One bit of advice-- I am not good at shredding stuff, so when I bought a whole cabbage thinking it would be fine for me to shred, I was somewhat mistaken. I'm sure I am just a bit lazy, as it's not that hard to shred cabbage, but for the future I will buy shredded cabbage. I bought shredded carrots and they look nice! My slaw is more liquid than it should be, I think, so next time I will also add more vegetables in. The apples in the slaw made for an amazingly delightful crunch surprise.


I loved the way the beef, sauce, and slaw all tasted together. The texture combinations were perfect! The flavors amazing. This was one of those dishes that was just screaming with flavor and had so much pop to it! Yum!


Our delicious dinner!


Recipe for Shredded Beef Sliders with Carrot Apple Slaw can be found here.

3.17.2011

happy st. patricks day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone and to my Irish family! I'm not at all Irish, but my husband's family is and that is cause for celebration! My father-in-law was the first American-born child in their family. The Irish accents still run thick in Tommy's grandparents, and it just doesn't get any better than that.

This picture is amazing!
This is Tommy's Fafa, and he is as Irish as they come. I adore this picture! We have it framed in our house. I think this is one of those pictures that just tells a story-- his story. My sister-in-law, Molly, took this. She is very skilled with a camera and really captured Fafa here.

And when I look at this picture of Fafa, I see my husband. I think Tommy very much looks like his grandfather.




In honor of St. Patrick's Day I made a little something. Because I need to cut back on the sweets I did not make cupcakes with green frosting like I had originally wanted to. Instead, I gave Irish Soda Bread a shot, and it turned out really good! It was actually really, really easy! Talk about a quick, inexpensive bread. I may just be making this one more often. I did add raisins to this one, but as I was putting them in I couldn't help but think "this would be so good if I was adding chocolate chips" :)



I think I am feeling especially excited about St. Patty's Day this year because I'm carrying an Irish baby :) Granted he's not very Irish, but 25% is pretty decent, right? And he will be carrying a very strong, Irish name. While I may have mentioned his name on this blog before, I don't know if I've done an official name reveal. We are so excited to meet Jack Thomas Morgan in just 2 months and some change! Fafa's {up above the bread} name is Thomas Patrick. My father-in-law is Thomas and my husband is Thomas Patrick. We are proud to keep the Thomas name going! Thomas is also my grandfather's name and is a family name in my family, so this boy is following after some very excellent men!

3.16.2011

march madness.

It's March Madness time people, and you know what that means. Days of watching basketball games, lots of good food, and some friendly wagers.


I will tell you this story... when I was in 9th grade, I came in 3rd in a pool of 50 people. Only 1 other girl in the pool, too! Sure that may have been a long, long time ago, but I take pride in that accomplishment, and to this day consider myself quite the picker. In March Madness brackets, that is.


So am I ready? You betcha!


Oh and Go Vols!

3.15.2011

this stuff is bananas.

And by bananas, I mean AWESOME! I am currently obsessed with this ice cream!



Like seriously, could eat it all day, obsessed.


And for the record I'm not a vanilla ice cream kind of girl. I'm a chocolate ice cream with extra chocolate type, but this stuff is just that good. So far I have eaten it plain, with chocolate syrup, made a milkshake, and had it with Oreos. Next, and I think more appropriately, I'm going to add some fruit. At least then I won't feel sooo bad about it. Hey, RDs aren't perfect, either :) .

3.14.2011

blender blender.

I really want a blender! We don't have a blender. When we got married we got so much wonderful, amazing stuff for our new home. We got a lot of kitchen stuff, including my all-time favorite, the glorious Kitchen-Aid Mixer. The thing I never thought about was a blender. I guess I didn't really use a blender that much before.


Product Image KitchenAid 56-oz. Polycarbonate 5-Speed Blender - Empire Red












This





This shiny red beauty would go quite nicely in my kitchen! I do believe it perfectly matches my mixer and food processor! However, it's also a pretty penny, so I will probably go with a nice, simple $30-40 one. {If I get one}



What would I do with my blender, you ask?

1. Milkshakes
I know as a Registered Dietitian this should not be my #1 on the list, but this pregnant lady
thing trumps RD thing right now. And pregnancy says "ya for milkshakes!"

2. Smoothies
Yummy yummy yummy I have fruit in my tummy. {Excuse my weirdness} I imagine that
I would make delicious smoothies full of fruit and milk and yogurt. Hooray for calcium!

3. What else could I make with my blender? What do you do with a blender?



The blender picture and information can be found here.




3.10.2011

a nursery in progress.

We are working on our nursery! Finally! It's been a long time coming, and I'd love to only have to put finishing touches on it now & fill it with sweet things, but that's just not our style :) So these pictures are very in progress. Tommy's been working really hard on it!

Sorry the pictures are so small and bad! But here we go...




ten for thursday.

One of my favorite things when reading blogs is learning more about the people writing them. I like seeing people share more about themselves and open up, and I hope to do that here. So in an attempt to share more, and expand my own thoughts, and get some regularity going on this blog I am introducing ten for thursday. Every Thursday I will try to share a list of 10 random thoughts, things about me, totally useless facts. I do not promise interesting information-- consider this fair warning. So here goes round 1...



1. If we lived in another city {specifically good ol' Knoxville} I know exactly what I would do for a living/my free time/my new hobby.

2. The exactly what I would do is flowers! I know nothing about flowers now but think I would love it and love to learn! Why do I need to live in Knoxville for that? That's where the best is! Lisa Foster is amazing at what she does! She did the flowers in our wedding, and they couldn't have been more beautiful or perfectly what I wanted! Her blog is great, too!

Look at those gorgeous flowers!!!


I love how the orange just pops!


I love this picture with my husband! The flowers are pretty, too :)


3. Today is so rainy. Hasn't stopped all day. My dogs are restless.

4. Speaking of restless, I am on bedrest. Not the dream I always thought it would be.

5. I am getting really really pumped for Baby Jack's arrival!

6. Speaking of his arrival, his nursery is in progress. Pictures tomorrow--- emphasis on the IN PROGRESS part.

7. My house is a disaster. I hate to admit because I wish I had a perfectly kept and beautiful home, but I don't. Especially not now with the bedrest and all.

8. I could really go for some chocolate chip cookies today.

9. My baby likes sweets! Not my fault that I need to eat so many sweets :) It's for the baby :)

10. I'm writing thank you notes today for some sweet gifts I got while in Knoxville. I love writing thank you notes! It's so fun and something I really enjoy.

3.08.2011

happy mardi gras!

This year, and for the first time ever, I am excited for Mardi Gras! I am feeling more in the Mardi Gras spirit this year. In light of my recent bed rest and pure exhaustion, I didn't get anything together for this year, but I'm mentally prepared for next year.

Next year--- King Cake!




I think the King Cake is the most amazing thing, and I might start implementing the King Cake philosophy for all cakes. Birthday cakes, yes please! Anniversary cake, yes please! Any random cake, again, yes please! What is not fun about finding a baby in your cake? A little disturbing, yes. And you do have to focus on eating so you don't swallow the thing whole, but it's worth it.

Getting the trinket (of course I will always use a little baby) means that you are the King or Queen for the day. Awesome, right? Sometimes that means that you have to host the next party and sometimes that means you are the next one to have a baby. Better make sure you know the rules where you're playing or that could give you more than you're bargaining for!



Happy Mardi Gras!

3.07.2011

a fabulous weekend.

We had an amazing weekend! I cannot even begin to describe how awesome it was to spend the weekend in Tennessee visiting with family and sweet friends! The trip was quick, but it was so fantastic! On Saturday I had the most beautiful shower-- I will post some pictures soon. I only have 2 right now and they're below.


My sister Lindsay (who did an amazing job putting this shower together) with Ms. Linda, our dear family friend.


We're not looking at all, but Tommy and I at the shower.


Mom and I just before we left to come back to Maryland.


Tommy and his mom.


Enjoying our time in TN.

3.03.2011

today.

and yesterday, and tomorrow...


via


Spending my days resting in bed. I think I always thought bed rest would be great. Hoping for a trip to TN to still happen!