It's A Girl!!

I am so lame--we found out on March 11, but for some reason, anytime I want to post pictures, I put it off and put it off. We are so very excited! (We would have been happy with either gender, seeing as how we have a goodly number of each kind. . .)

The Sunday before my ultrasound, Justin asked each of the children what they thought the baby was. Ashley and Christina were hesitant to say for sure, but Christina wanted another brother "like Jeremy", and Ashley, annoyed by Christopher, finally voted for a girl. Then Justin asked Christopher and Emily. Christopher immediately said it was a boy, and Emily said the baby was a girl. They were both pretty adamant about it.

So on ultrasound day, I was trying to find a good time to tell Christopher about his new sister. He sat down next to me, and asked excitedly, "Did you find out about the baby?!" I cringed, then smiled and said, "Yes! The baby is a girl!" Christopher's face immediately melted into the biggest frowny scowl (with angry eyebrows) I've ever seen (well, at least on anyone but him. . .). I chuckled and said, "What's the matter? Don't you want a new little sister?" He turned away from me, folded his arms, and with the same frowny face, shook his head deliberately back and forth. I had to laugh! (He is getting more used to the idea now!)

Then I went to tell Emily. She listened to me tell her that she would be having a little sister, and she said, "I already told you." Yes, you did! (These little ones always do seem to know. . .)

So now we look forward to meeting our new little girl at the end of July!!

This ultrasound picture was taken in February.

And here's one from our most recent ultrasound:

Whine? Never Mind. . .
(Note: This entry is in no way intended to minimize the suffering of someone with lasting depression, whether it be clinical or caused by other situations--another reason I have no right to whine!)

I am a person who tends to get depressed as winter drags on and on, especially when winter happens to fall in the first part of pregnancy (always a time I struggle with depression). Naturally, I've been looking forward to spring, so I've been a little whiny lately because of the "teaser" 70's weather we had before plunging back into winter-like weather. However, sometimes I just need a little perspective. . .

Ah, spring! The sun is shining, the flowers are beginning to bloom, and I hear birds singing in the early light of the morning! I can go outside without a coat! I love to feel that fresh spring air on my arms, and I love sending the kids outside to jump on the tramp and swing on what's left of our swingset!

On a beautiful-and-in-the-low-70's Saturday, I am heading to Great Clips to get my hair (which has reached the middle of my back) chopped off like a sheep being shorn. Ah, the sun, the breeze, the wonderful day! We are going to Draper to meet some friends for delicious pizza at Nevole's (if you ever have a chance to stop there, DO!!). Justin asks if I'm bringing a jacket. "What for?" I laugh. But as we head toward Draper, the dark clouds loom over the mountains ominously. I nervously hope that they'll stay over the mountains--I really don't want a storm again. As we head further south, the day turns darker and the breeze turns into a brisker wind. I begin to grumble.

In Draper, the wind has really picked up, and the temperature has dropped dramatically. We grab the kids and run into the restaurant. We sit toward the front, where every time someone opens the door, the wind whips through the place and blows all over our table (and that's pretty frequent, considering it's the one of the best pizza places in the valley and it's a Friday night). I scowl at the weather and growl when Justin's friends tell me that Phoenix (where they live right now) is in the 80's and even the 90's. Grrrr. By the time we leave, the wind is blowing an arctic blast right out of the ski resorts and the clouds are almost black in the east. "Welcome to March in Utah! I don't know why I'm surprised--it's always like this!" Justin's friends laugh, and tell us about the homes they've been looking at in Draper. They miss the snow. I snicker.

The next week is filled with storms. Woe is me! The kids have to stay inside, the sky is gray, and I wish for this to just END. The week ends with a beautiful, slightly chilly day in which the kids can finally play outside for a little while and get their wiggles out just in time for. . .

. . .the next day's "light snow," which turns out to be snow dumping so hard I can hardly see the neighbor's house diagonally from us! We get at least 3 inches of snow. Spring? I hardly think so! We wear boots and coats to go to Grandma West's to visit the grandparents and also Uncle Reed and Aunt Sherrie who are visiting from Sutherlin, Oregon.

It's dark, it's cold, it's wet, it's muddy; it's not fair! I want sunshine, I want warm days, I want the birds not to freeze, I want glorious weather with moderate temperatures!!

But then I think of my Aunt Martha and Uncle Mike. . .in Fargo, North Dakota. They are hoping their home doesn't flood from the record rise of the Red River. Aunt Martha's filling sandbags at the Fargodome. Their neighbors and fellow-citizens are riding around in boats and traipsing around the city in below-freezing temps to put up sandbags, pump out water, and to man the dikes to make sure all is safe. They could be flooded out at any time in winter weather that is still pretty bitter. I see a picture of a man with sandbags. He is bundled up in layers of clothing, and his legs and arms are covered in ice from water spraying all over him. I am sitting at my kitchen table in my warm and safe house, not having to worry about a flood or to fill sandbags in the snow or to wade through almost-frozen water. I feel pretty blessed.

Just heard on the radio this morning: after a brief hoped-for respite, Fargo is now being inundated with a two-day blizzard. I will whine no more!!

Dinner Update

I'm sure you've all been waiting with baited breath (ha, ha) to hear how our desperate dinner attempt (post below) turned out. . .

It was pretty good! I doubled the recipe (in a 9X13 pan) and substituted the head of cauliflower I had sitting in the fridge for the broccoli; I just made sure it was in smallish pieces before using it. I also used cheddar cheese and added a little onion and black pepper. In addition, I lightly salted the hashbrowns and baked them for about 10-12 minutes, as suggested. My casserole took about 10 minutes less to fully bake (my new oven--a story for another time--seems to be a little hot) than the lowest suggested time. I liked the casserole, and I thought the cauliflower complemented the different flavors nicely. My kids liked it OK, and Justin, after dousing it in hot chili sauce, pronounced it "edible," as in, "I'd eat in again, but I wouldn't ask for it." I think it would be even better with some nice chopped ham or a little bacon in the future. The recipe seems to be something that you can enjoy as is or use as a springboard for additional ideas.

Ah, the joys of dinner done! Unfortunately, there's always tomorrow. . .

What The Heck Should We Have For Dinner?!

That's exactly what I typed into the Google search box (minus the punctuation). Don't you ever feel like this? Sometimes I just get in a rut, or I simply just hate food. And for some reason, when I'm racking my brain to come up with dinner, the only things that come to mind are: tacos, chili, taco salad, enchiladas, fajitas, chicken enchiladas, or eggs and what Justin calls Super Pancakes (I'll post the recipe sometime). Boy, what a repertoire! Mexican and breakfast. Those must be my comfort foods or something.

We just had chicken fajitas last night, and I don't want anything with ground beef in it, seeing as how the majority of what I made last week contained that ingredient, so I had to go back to the drawing board, so to speak. I have a picky husband, didn't think far enough in advance to take some of the larger cuts of meat out of the freezer, and I'm pregnant, so that complicates matters. I forced my brain to think harder about things we like, and either everything sounded yucky, was too much work, required a trip to the store, or it was too much like something we'd eaten recently. Urgh! What to do?!

That's when I visited all-knowing Google. But did I find anything? Heck, no! I did find a good blog on the Woman's Day website, but if I was going to attempt to make any of the dishes posted there, I would need to go to the store, something I really don't want to do (I just love packing all my kids in and out of the car and the store just to get one or two things, don't you?). And none of the other choices really yielded any results. I'm sure other people have asked themselves the above question a time or two--why can't they be responsible citizens and post blogs containing the above words so desperate people like me can get dinner ideas? I mean, come on! :)

I finally went to Allrecipes and visited my recipe box, which is usually full of dessert recipes, so I wasn't expecting much (I mean, I would love to eat dessert for dinner, but that's not too nutritious. . .). To my surprise, at some point, I had actually picked some recipes besides dessert ones at some point! Good thinking, me! I scrolled down and found a few quiche recipes! Yes! I have a pie crust in the freezer! We haven't had an egg-based dish too recently! I have cauliflower I can sub for broccoli! We have cheese! We don't have cream on hand, but we have sour cream, which one of the recipes calls for! We have hash browns, which one recipe uses instead of pie crust. That sounds yummy! I love you, Allrecipes!

So here's what I'm going to make tonight, with a couple of substitutions! I'll let you know how it turns out. . .

Broccoli Hash Brown Quiche
Submitted to Allrecipes by Joy Vincent

Joy says that she likes to vary this quiche by adding ham or bacon sometimes.
Ingredients:
3 cups frozen hash brown potatoes, thawed
1 1/2 cups frozen broccoli cuts, thawed
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup shredded Colby-Monterrey Jack cheese

Directions:
Press the hash browns onto the bottom and up the sides of a greased 9-inch pie plate, forming a shell. Sprinkle with broccoli. In a bowl, beat the eggs, sour cream and salt; stir in cheese. Pour over broccoli. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-65 minutes or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

Note: A couple of reviewers suggested baking the hash browns for about 10-12 minutes before adding the rest of the ingredients.