Oh Boy!

A baby update:

 ♥ It’s a boy! ♥

 Wahooooooooooooo!

Many ask, is that what you wanted? SURE, but if it was a girl I would say the same. We are just thrilled to the core!

We are super excited for our baby boy to be joining our family in April!  It is hard to believe that I am already 5 1/2 months along!  He already weighs over a pound, but needless to say, we are both growing!

This whole baby thing has me pretty excited, but I have to admit, I find myself in a whole different arena… a different world!  Traditionally, I will sit down and make a list of things I need for whatever is coming…  like today I am making a list for Christmas shopping/packing etc. while working on my grocery list.  When we got our puppy, making that list was pretty simple. I made a list and “went to town” on what of this or that to get, which crate would be best, what food etc.  I did my research and had us completely set up for him to come home probably an entire month before we even got him.  I have done dogs, been around dogs and have a pretty good idea what is needed so it kind of just came natural to me.

But, how do I make a list of what I need when I have no idea what it is that I need?  At this point, I have a partial list of very obvious things that a 4-year-old could give me.  So, guess what?  I have nothing!  That is a complete exaggeration and I can’t say that I have nothing because his sweet “grandma” already sent him a little package with onesies,  and a few other cute items (which I look at all the time because I can’t get over how tiny and adorable they are)!  Also, I have one infant diaper and a pile of random coupons the health department gave me as a “yay, you are pregnant” starter kit.  I know we have some time to get everything done, and what really matters is that we already love the little guy so much!  We will slowly acquire the necessities that we need and all will be just fine, and at least we know where to start – at the very beginning!  Get this, I have yet to even acquire any maternity clothes!  The clothes that will work are dwindling almost daily it feels like.  If I put it on and it is too tight or does not look “right” I fold it up and put it directly into a tub labeled “pre-maternity” clothes… I think I just started my 3rd tub this morning.  For me, if I can’t wear it, it is much easier to get it out of the mix.  I figure any day I will wish that I had a stock pile of maternity clothes ready and waiting for me because this morning found me staring at the closet like – ummmmmmmmm….well… this will work, I guess, as I put on the same pair of work pants that I have worn the last 3 days!  That is a bridge I will be forced to cross soon I fear because it is not like my tummy is shrinking!

I probably sound negative, but I don’t mean to. It really it is a super exciting time and is not meant to stressful and overwhelming time… so I should probably not freak out, right?

Wanna help my list grow!? Don’t be shy! What should be on my list?

In the meantime, I will try to lay off the cookies.

Forida Caverns State Park

Our adventure for this past Saturday was going to the Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna on Saturday with some friends! You can click on the link for additional information, because honestly I don’t have details about it, we just had fun! It was a good study break for Greg I know, who has finals week right around the corner.

We went on a tour of the caverns which was pretty neat.  I have been in a few caves to date (my favorite being Arnold) but this was my first time being in a cave with lights! The cave literally had lights and cemented walkways throughout… and this Oregon girl is not used to that. Usually caving means you get dirty, cold, hungry, thirsty and thrilled out! The tour guide asked the group – “Now, how many of you have ever been in a cave and the lights were turned off (like in a creepy weird and crazy voice)?” I laughed out loud on accident then hid behind Greg. I wanted to say that I had never been in a cave when the lights were turned on!

We did the cave tour, then all (along with Chaco) went on a little hike around some of the park! It has been very dry, so a lot of the places that usually were full of water were dry (swampy areas), which was fine with me… less critters and bugs. But it was overall really neat to see the landscape and a totally different type of cave! I am so glad that we went!  We would like to go back again and spend more time walking around and seeing some other features the park has to offer. Enjoy the pics below… it was hard to get good pictures inside (even with lights).

Fresh Squeezed Florida Orange Juice…

Sunday was a nice stay-at-home day for me.

Seems like we have been on the go so much that home has been more of a crash pad that anything else.  If you know me, you know that I love my home time and do best with a steady amount of it.  Even if I am not doing much of anyting, it is just nice to be home.  I spent most of the day doing a lot of nothing, but managed to roughly clean the kitchen, do dishes, pick up Chaco’s toys, sort through a few piles of papers that have been stacked up here and there, do about 5 loads of laundry, enjoy coffee in the sun with Greg between his studying for tests, enjoy some doggy time, bake a big batch of very tasty cookies (which will hopefully appear on a later post), and for the punch or should I say juice project of the day… I made some fresh squeezed orange juice… from local oranges (much thanks to a friends with an orange tree)!

Now, to many peoples’ surprise, I do not own a fancy juicer, not even a unfancy one… I own no juicing equipment. Where I am from juicable items do not grow on trees, just pile up at the local grocery store. All that to say, I do have willing hands to juice… so that is just what I did – juiced them by hand. I gave them all a good massage, rolling, beating and more, then chopped them in half and squeezed as much juice as I could out of them. Seems like I completely demolished them to be exact… but the whole house smelled of orange zest as did my entire front side.

 The result: wonderful, fresh, sweet orange juice. 

Did I already mention it was so, SO yummy!  The fresh squeezed juice made such a wonderful companion to our “loaded omelet” breakfast this bright and early morning!

Folks, this juice does not need a long shelf life because it will be gone before long!

Have a wonderful week and try to make time for something you love!

My first turkey…

This Thanksgiving I got the wild idea to try a turkey… yep!

Even Greg told me this, and I agreed because I thought the same thing… It seems weird that I have never done a turkey before or at least helped with one after all the cooking done by my mom growing up… but it is true, this is my very first experience with a turkey!  Grandma usually took care of the turkey department… which now I am more thankful for!

I thought it would be fun to try one and Greg encouraged me to do so… I mean why not? … You have nothing to lose and if it does not work nobody will care! This is true, since we did not have a huge gathering or anyone to impress or disappoint. So off to the store I went with my thanksgiving list which included a big ol’ turkey.   Thanks to the advice from my mom, I got one that was already thawed because trying to thaw out a huge turkey shaped rock was not on my list of exciting things to do for thanksgiving prep. Plus, it was already Tuesday evening.   Finding a bird NOT frozen was more difficult and there was either huge turkeys or baby turkeys… so I went with the baby of the huge! We still ended up with a hefty 18 pounder.

Here are some of the thoughts that ran through my head through my turkey experience before I move on to the dramatic process:

 What on earth am I doing? What was I thinking?

What if I just got a rotisserie chicken already cooked and present it on a platter?

Why does pizza sound good at a time like this?

What day is thanksgiving again?

Who would want to work in the turkey factory (if there even is one)?

I’m glad this thing does not really have a smell.

I wish mom was here.

Someone or some…thing missed a few feathers.

This is heavy and slippery, bad combo

I should move the pie to another room, it does not deserve to watch this.

Greg is really missing out on a show!

but really… OH MY GOODNESS!

So, back on track: I have my turkey… now what? For started I tucked it in the fridge and tried not to worry about it, but honestly somehow I saw a very fast-forwarded version… basically in the bag to on the plate.  I knew it would not bake itself, but I had accepted a chore it felt like.  I love to cook, don’t get me wrong, but I think most of all I like to bake, and create things… or use pretty, colorful and clean ingredients…not wrestle with raw, cold and rather icky things.  So, help I needed indeed.

I did my research at least so I was not completely in the turkey dark… I looked to my Food Network Magazine, which I love getting in the mail and milking over the month until the next one comes (thank you mom)… and there was a whole section on thanksgiving which included ideas, meals and directions and more… Let me tell you, the page that talks turkey has some stains and wrinkles on it needless to say.  There were all different options for brining the turkey, different selections of butters, glazes, gravy and seasonings but since I am a new-bee, I went with the most basic “dry brine”.  It involved rubbing the bird down thoroughly with salt (lots), pepper and some herbs and letting it chill in the fridge overnight… uncovered, there to greet me every time I opened it up.

I have to back up a little bit, my whole process started with having to remove the bird from the fridge, unwrap it and wash it off…  I wanted to be done after the first feather I saw once I peeled back the plastic.  I am such a baby, huh? I pressed on and got over it pretty quick… So here I am alone in the kitchen, just standing there with a huge ugly naked bird in my biggest bowl staring at me (although he was headless of course) just sitting there in the sink. Oh man….

What does one do? CALL MOM !!!!!

(and pray she answers immediately even though she is in a different time zone and almost 3,000 miles away)

She answered…thank goodness and gave me a little pep-talk and help, which is just what I needed.  She told me to remove the neck and giblets and laughed at my response: huh? She told me to reach into the “cavity” and there would be a packet in there. Phew, a packet of guts is better than I was expecting. What a relief that I did not have to gut the thing.   Next, she said I needed to find the neck and remove it… it is in there… just feel around. Finally finding that long nasty thing was half terrifying. At a time like this it is easy to forget turkeys even have necks for crying out loud. Sorry folks that use all that “stuff” inside the cavity because I tossed it.  Yes, wasted it without a thought. Too much to deal with at once.  After our talk and a lot of strong laughter, I was ready to tackle this thing.  I will master you turkey!  I washed it off, inside and out… dried the thing and made my “brine”.  I rubbed that turkey down like nobody ever has ever rubbed a turkey down… put it on a pan and tucked it in the fridge for the night (Wednesday night that is). It really stared at me every time I opened the fridge.  It is not everyday you open the fridge and see that!

Here is the birdy, early early Thursday after a chilly night.

A fresh new day helped, I was ready to tackle this bird again.  As the directions told me, I was supposed to rinse it off , dry it and then rub it down again, this time with butter butter and more butter galore.  I made my “butter rub” out of well, butter   and some herbs (thyme, sage and a little bit of clove I believe) and again gave that bird the rub of its life.  I rubbed the butter all over the outside and as much of  “under the skin” that I could get to and sent him to the hot place.

About half way through (~2 hours later) the house started to smell of turkey so I snapped a picture of it baking and texted it to mom… who informed me that I forgot to tie the legs together… ummmm. Well? Great! It was probably too late at this time so I stuffed him with onions! If a next time finds me, I will go further and stuff him with carrots, onions and maybe potato too!

So, I really have went off on this whole turkey business but it actually worked out pretty good and was pretty tasty too!

Check out that roasted bird fresh out of the oven!  Greg’s grandpa and aunt joined us for thanksgiving late-lunch and we had a good time!  I was a little nervous about making a thanksgiving meal but there is a first for everything! It all worked out pretty well and we had a good time! Everything seemed to go smooth… but I have to admit, they arrived to our home about an hour early which as many of you know is “prime time, rush, go crazy time”… ya know, just as the turkey was coming out of the oven, before the rolls were baked, before the table was all pretty, before I wiped food off my shirt and before I could get the dog out for a potty break!  Can you imagine me trying to carve a turkey alone, let alone with company present? Well it was rough, but like I said worked out pretty well. I did not get many pictures, but I managed to snap a few of my made by Beka rolls just out of the oven… and my pumpkin pie that exited the oven just before the turkey hogged it for hours.   I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and finds themselves overwhelmed with stuff to be thankful for!

Thanks for reading my blog and my dramatic turkey expereince!