Jack and I had a pretty awesome day today. Woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast (Jack’s breakfast is ALWAYS leisurely… and like 8 courses) then headed to the Arboretum to play with friends. We’ve been neglecting our membership lately, between rain and illness and just being pregnant and lazy, which is just sad because it’s absolutely gorgeous out there right now.

We grabbed sandwiches on the way home and I had the genius idea for a backyard picnic. I’m being sarcastic, by the way- Jack spent the entire time refusing to eat and climbing in bushes…

While I spent the meal stiff-arming Chloe to get her out of our food.

Dinner tonight was SO GOOD. I planned on making bean soup on Monday, but then got that weird migraine thing so the beans soaked for 2 days instead of one and started to smell funky. Out they went. Instead I made the Eat Live Run recipe for Sweet and Spicy Barbecue Beans. I used to make this all the time, but then the recipe disappeared offline and I think I cried a little. But now it’s back!

Easy and healthy- sauteed onions, garlic, kale, cannellini beans, BBQ sauce, dijon mustard, cider vinegar. I could seriously eat bowl after bowl of this, especially with cornbread.

Speaking of, I modified a cornbread recipe I found online to make it a leeeeetle healthier. It’s really sweet and cakey, which to me is the best kind of cornbread for dipping in beans (a.k.a., my “hillbilly bruschetta” as Brian so nicely called it tonight) or chili. None of that crumbly, dry crap.

Sweet Cornbread

• 1 1/2 cups cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups milk (I used whole milk)
• 1 cup fat free plain yogurt
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbs baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Preheat oven to 375. In a small bowl, combine cornmeal, milk and yogurt and allow to stand for 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt and sugar. Whisk in eggs, oil and cornmeal mixture and combine until smooth (I used both the whisk and a spoon for this).

3. Pour into a greased 9×13 baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes, until knife inserted in center comes out clean.

So there’s a nice little southern meal for y’all.

Lots of camera phone photos coming at you, so get readyyyyyy….

Doctor’s appointment this morning. Jack was a perfect angel and reserved his one and only complete FREAK OUT for the 2-minute window when the doctor and I were discussing my weird blind spot/tingling hands/confusion symptoms. Brian made the fatal error of taking my iPhone away from Jack, because- god forbid- we may not actually need Arcade Fire as a soundtrack to the conversation.

Anyway, hysterics aside, my OBGYN is pretty convinced that all of said weird symptoms stem from migraines. Not implausible because I used to get them in junior high/high school. Let’s just hope this is a pregnancy thing and that they’re not here to stay.

After the appointment we met my parents at Ozona’s for lunch. It was a gorgeous day to sit outside. Wonder where Jack gets his cheekbones (and highlights… oh, wait)?

My routine lately- and by lately I mean the past 31+ weeks- has been to nap while Jack naps. However, the house looks like crap, I have a giant pile of projects to tackle, and I feel generally worthless. I took advantage of a tiny burst of energy today to work on a little craft for Baby Girl’s room:

Now we just need to get them on the walls. Baby steps.

Also, check out this shirt that my mom passed along… I wore it as a baby:

See that teeny tiny detail?

“Sunday.“ I don’t know what it means, but it’s adorable.

Tonight we met Jill and Bobby for dinner at Goodfriend’s. That place is so much fun… I can’t wait to go back when I’m not pregnant and have a beer or four. They had the patio garage doors open and great music playing. It was crowded but just enough that it kept Jack entertained watching all of the people (and dogs). He also LOVES Jill & Bobby, so that definitely helped.

I forget what my burger was called, but it was topped with a bacon-onion jam and blue cheese.

The jam was insane. Sweet-tangy-smoky… bacony.

Tomorrow is glorious because we have not one single thing on the calendar. I’m sure I’ll fill it up with worthless crap errands that seem super important at the time, but it’s nice to have the prospect of no plans… a nap, perhaps? Kidding.

Right now I’m watching Jack run up and down the hallway completely naked and it’s pretty much the cutest thing ever. Aren’t you glad I shared that with you? It’s just kind of distracting to blog when that tiny hiney is sprinting down the hall.

Today we had a fun playdate at Allison’s with Harper, Ellie and baby Caroline. Jack enjoyed spending time with all the laaaaadies. This afternoon was not so awesome as I started having low blood sugar problems again which eventually turned into a sinus headache/migraine. Luckily my sweet mom came over and played with Jack so I could get some rest. I also have an OBGYN appt tomorrow so I can ask her what the heck is going on.

I threw together a quick lunch today for Jack and I which actually turned out to be a BIG success. It’s always exciting to find something that he actually will eat without a bribe:

It doesn’t look very exciting, right? I should have gotten a picture of it in the pan… basically I adapted one of my favorite recipe from my Nigella Express cookbook, the Spanish omelet. It’s awesome because it takes less than 10 minutes to make and you can add whatever fillings you want.

Ham, Cheese, Mushroom and Potato Spanish Omelet

Adapted from Nigella Express

• 1 tsp butter
• splash of olive oil
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup diced potatoes (I used canned)
• 1/4-1/3 cup diced ham
• salt & pepper

1. Preheat broiler.

2. In an ovenproof skillet, heat butter and olive oil until melted.

3. Whisk together eggs, cheese, mushrooms, potato, ham, salt & pepper. Pour into skillet and cook for 5 minutes (just leave it alone- do not stir).

4. Place skillet under broiler for about 3 minutes to set the top. Omelet will puff up.

5. Remove from oven and turn the skillet over onto plate. Allow omelet to cool for a few minutes, then cut into wedges and serve.

Jack LOVED it. I’m not even a big egg person and I really like it, too (with ketchup, of course). It tastes a lot like a crustless quiche.

Still not feeling 100% so I’m off to rest… I finished Bloom yesterday. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Such a beautiful book and it makes me even more excited about baby girl’s arrival in exactly EIGHT WEEKS. I just started The Paris Wife and it seems like it’s going to be a great one, too.

It really feels like we crammed 4 weekend’s worth of activities into the past 2 days. We were up at 6am on Saturday to start setting up a garage sale, which was kind of a big fail- we didn’t sell many “big” things, but at least it forced us to clean a lot of useless crap out of our house. I’m hoping some of the furniture will sell on Craig’s List.

Saturday night I requested a fun night out. Brian’s been working late a lot lately, so it feels like so many nights it’s either just Jack and I eating dinner together, or we’ll meet Brian somewhere for the fastest meal possible before he has to go back to work. We ended up driving to one of our old favorites in the Bishop Arts District, Veracruz. I forgot how ridiculously amazing their mole sauce is:

Mole sauce is something that I’ll never, ever make myself, because it involves 400 ingredients and lots of time. But if done right it’s SO GOOD.

The Bishop Arts District is always a fun atmosphere- there are a ton of great restaurant options and all of the cute stores are open late so you can just wander around. But my FAVORITE part are the tableside s’mores at Tillman’s Roadhouse.

Homemade marshmallows (raspberry, mint and maple), cinnamon graham crackers and chocolate bark, served with skewers and a little fire for toasting the marshmallows. Jack was covered in chocolate by the time we left.

Today we headed out in the pouring rain to see Thomas the Train in Grapevine. It was crazy… the directions were crappy and we very nearly missed our train. But we made it! Barely!

I think Jack was just overwhelmed. He was excited to see Thomas and loved the train ride, but it was crowded and a lot to take in. I almost threw down when we waited in line to get our picture taken in front of Thomas, and after waiting for 15 minutes in the rain, they cut off the line DIRECTLY in front of us. What??? My parents ended up running up to the train really fast with Jack and I snapped a quick picture before anyone could stop us. Ugh.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I had a big, long list of IMPORTANT errands to run while Jack was at Mother’s Day Out (like returning lip gloss to Sephora), but today ended up being the day that the painter could come paint baby girl’s room. That meant that I was pretty much grounded to the house all day… on the other hand, it gave me no excuse not to clean. So our house is sparkly and the guest room is all ready for crib, changing table and cute girly stuff.

Brian just had time to meet us for dinner and then had to head back to the office for a while, so we opted for an easy meal (i.e., no dishes): Tony’s for pizza.

Jack and I got to the restaurant about 10 minutes before Brian, and thank God I still had some stickers in my purse from Easter Sunday church to entertain the little man- because he was craaaaaanky.

I don’t know what’s fun about peeling stickers and putting them on a white piece of paper, but it keeps Jack entertained for a remarkably long period of time.

So Jack doesn’t know this, but on Sunday we’re taking him to see & ride Thomas the Tank Engine in Grapevine. He is going to FREAK OUT and I can’t wait.

Sorry for the short post! We’ve got a busy weekend planned (garage sale on Saturday in addition to Thomas on Sunday) so I’m hopefully going to head to bed early. Night!

Hey! So first thing’s first- Jack did GREAT in his bed last night! He went right to sleep. The only hiccup was that he somehow managed to fall out of the bed (despite the rails) around midnight. No harm done, luckily. I climbed into bed with him after that and he went back to sleep immediately… I woke up at 2 and went back to our bed, and he kept sleeping until 9 this morning. I’d call it a success! Though he’s in there crying right now, so we’ll see how tonight goes.

Today we drove back down to the lake with my mom to do one more ring search. While my mom was scouring the house, I made a few calls to local pawn shops just in case. One of the shops in Athens (about 20 minutes away) said that two women had come in on Saturday trying to sell both an engagement ring & wedding band that fit my description. Unfortunately they were asking more money than the shop was willing to pay, so they didn’t buy them.

We ended up driving to Athens to check out a few more pawn shops, jewelry stores and Cash for Gold places, then all the way back to Gun Barrel City to do the same. Poor Jack was SUCH a champ in the car all day.

All of the employees and owners I talked to were really sweet and helpful. I’m sure I just looked sad and pathetic, waddling in there at 30 weeks pregnant looking for my wedding rings. I found one more store just a few miles from our lakehouse that, when I showed them pics of the rings, said that two women (matching the same description as in Athens) had come in yesterday trying to sell them.

So I guess on one hand it’s good to know that we can stop searching the house… on the other hand it’s REALLY FREAKING CREEPY to know that someone came into the house while we were there (possibly while Jack was asleep in the next room) and took them.

We didn’t get back to Dallas until 5, so we ended up going out for dinner. Brian and I took Jack to the new Sweet Tomatoes that just opened on Greenville Ave. It’s a lot smaller than the one in Addison, but a lot cleaner and nicer, too.

The employees were all really friendly and helpful, bringing around warm cookies for us to bribe Jack with enjoy. And let’s be honest, I’m a fan of any restaurant that includes dessert with your meal. Like chocolate soft serve topped with chocolate syrup and chocolate cookies. That’s just a hypothetical, of course.

Okay, I’m REALLY off to bed now. As good as Jack was on our sucky little road trip, he turned into a crazy devil child when we got home. As in, I spent a good part of the evening cleaning crayon off the couch and yelling at him to quit putting stuff on the dog.

All of this detective business really takes it out of you…

Hey guys! Yeah, major bummer about the rings. My mom and I are actually heading back up to the lake tomorrow to do one more look-through just in case, and probably will check out any local pawn shops, too. The police officer who came to investigate seemed to think that whoever stole them would be most likely to pawn them in or around Dallas, rather than try to sell them near the lake… meaning that they could be anywhere, really.

On a happier note, look what we have here!

Big boy bed! Eeeeeek. I was hoping that it wouldn’t immediately occur to him that he could get out on his own, but that went out the window when he climbed in and out about 50 times in a row. He also tried to stand up and run back & forth (his favorite crib game)… let’s just hope he survives the night.

Slumber party!

It’s been a busy, busy day. We played Little Gym hooky because Jack couldn’t bear to be separated from his new train table. We did meet my sweet friend Katherine for lunch at Taco Diner and also took dinner over to Lauren, Robert and baby Caroline. Jack gave me a little preview of what life will be like when the baby gets here by wreaking havoc all over Lauren’s house while I cuddled Caroline.

For dinner I made 2 batches of BBQ Chicken Enchiladas (recipe here)- one for Lauren & Robert and one for us:

I used the Market Pantry red enchilada sauce and Stubb’s original BBQ sauce. It was SPICY (sour cream helps). This is one of my favorite recipes, though. I just cook the chicken in the crock pot for 4 hours on high with a little chicken broth and taco seasoning, then shred it before adding to the recipe. Using whole grain tortillas helps keep the enchiladas from getting soggy- though corn would probably work, too. It makes a big batch (8 large enchiladas) so you’ll have leftovers.

My parents came over for dinner and to help Brian assemble the bed. My mom brought Caesar salad and green beans to go with the enchiladas.

Fingers crossed that Jack stays in the bed for at least a solid 8 hours. We’ll see how this goes…

It turned out to be a great Easter, but the weekend started out REALLY badly.

First the good.

Jack had a wonderful Easter. The bunny was great to him:

As were Gia & Baba. What, you never got a GIANT TRAIN TABLE for Easter? Lordy.

Plus Uncle Zach & Aunt Lulu had us over for lunch and organized a giant Easter egg hunt just for him.

It’s good to be Jack…

Yep.

And now the BAD.

Jack, my mom and I headed up to the lake on Friday afternoon. When we got there, I put Jack down for a late nap, but first I took my off rings (engagement ring, wedding band and silver band stamped with Jack’s name) and set them on the dresser. Went on with the rest of our afternoon- Brian and my dad arrived, we played outside in the neighbors’ driveway, walked down to the water, cooked out and then Brian and I made a late-night Wal-Mart trip while my parents watched TV.

We got home around 11 and headed to bed at midnight. I was getting ready for bed and noticed that the rings weren’t on the dresser. I figured my mom might have moved them, but no. Checked the floor- nope. Although Jack naps in our bedroom at the lake (it’s darker), at night he sleeps in the room next door. We even crept into his room and checked the Pack & Play to see if he’d swept them off the dresser during his nap. NO.

At this point I started to freak out. We even called the police and they came out around 1am and dusted for prints. The optimistic explanation seemed to be that Jack snagged them off the dresser when he woke up from his nap, but we literally crawled on our hands and knees across every inch of floor, emptied every bag, shook out every blanket and pillow and have even checked Jack’s DIAPERS to see if he swallowed them (highly unlikely), yet found nothing. It just seems like if he grabbed them, we would find a trace of at least one of the three rings. And believe me, we spent ALL weekend looking.

SO. I’ve come to the conclusion that someone must have actually come into the house while we were outside or upstairs (where the living room/kitchen/deck are) and taken them off the dresser. The bedroom is just inside the front door, and it would have been so easy to just walk in and grab them. And, stupidly, the doors are always unlocked when we’re there. The police officer seemed to think that was a likely explanation, too, which is never a good sign.

The whole thing just makes me ill. Obviously there is a huge sentimental attachment to those rings, and the idea of some shady person selling them to a pawn shop makes me want to puke. And our homeowners insurance only covers a fraction of their worth (Note to you guys: INSURE YOUR JEWELRY!!!! We were so, so stupid).

So that definitely put a big damper on the weekend… and pregnancy hormones do NOT help the situation. I keep randomly tearing up thinking about it. Ugh.

Hope everyone had a fabulous, uneventful Easter!

Wow, you guys made me feel SO much better about the crib-to-bed transition! Jack even seems pretty excited about the prospect of his big boy bed. Fingers crossed that Sunday night goes well- I’ll keep you posted.

Today I had a giant list of to-do’s to cross off while Jack was at school… and, yet again, I spent the vast majority of the day wandering Northpark and officially accomplishing NOTHING. I ended up dragging poor Jack to the fabric store with me after Mother’s Day Out. I’ve been drooling over this project on Pinterest and was itching to find some cute swatches:

Adorable, right? So we headed over to City Craft to check out the fabrics. Oh lordy, thank goodness the owner was there because I would probably still be there trying to coordinate patterns. She took a quick look at a picture of baby girl’s bedding immediately pulled 8 perfect options while Jack sat on a pillow and played with my phone.

So, so nice. If you’re around Dallas I highly recommend this place! It makes me wish I could sew… which I can’t. At all. Maybe someday, though?

Tonight we grabbed dinner at Dixie Lakewood (which is actually just Black Eyed Pea, but shhh…). Apparently God wanted us to eat there, because as luck would have it, it was CHICKEN & DUMPLINGS night!

Mmmm. I love dumplings in any and all forms.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter weekend!