Big Things To Me

A couple of things that are priority in my life are being a momma and cooking! Today I would like to share something on both of those.

Last night I got home from work after my little one had gone to bed, and this morning I left for work in the morning before anyone was awake (sad, right?) So Nick was in charge of the bedtime routine with little man, and he informed me that he did not put on his nighttime diaper--he left him in his undies. We have been trying this out on nap time with success, but not bed time yet. This morning when I finally got to talk to Nick he told me that Brad woke up dry and went potty first thing! Yay! I am so proud of my little guy.

I was wondering if he was comfortable with peeing in a diaper so that's what started us trying out the undies. He has been perfectly potty-trained for almost a year now but still wet every morning (in a diaper). We are trying it again tonight. I had read that some boys' bladders aren't mature enough for staying dry at night until 5-6 years old, so I wasn't in any hurry to rush it. I am elated that his potty training has gone so perfect this far and didn't want ruin a good thing.

As for cooking...I tried out a new dish tonight and it turned out superb! A 10 out of 10--will definitely make again. It was a take on crockpot chicken and dumplings. I saw the original recipe on the cooking channel on my Roku and knew I had to try it. I put my chicken out to thaw last night, but the problem was I didn't have any time this morning to put things together in the crock.

I improvised as soon as I got home from work this afternoon and the results were wonderful! I ended up cooking the soup a total of about 2hrs and every drop was eaten. Next time I will try it out in the crock just to make it easier. Here it is: (my stovetop version)

4 thawed chicken tenders (or 2 large breasts)
1 can cream of chicken
small diced onion
2 tbs minced garlic
EVOO
2c frozen peas/carrots
1c frozen corn
4c chicken broth
1 can 5ct buttermilk biscuits
salt/pepper

Saute the garlic and onion in the EVOO in a dutch oven until tender, then dice up the chicken and add. Season with salt/pepper and cook for about 10min stirring around, then add cream of chicken and broth. Stir in veggies and cover with lid. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally for 1 1/2-2hr. 15 minutes before serving, quarter biscuits and stir into soup. Cover with lid and reduce heat and serve!

New Toys!

The past week we have gotten a couple new toys that we enjoyed trying out. The first is a Mossberg 12g shotgun that Nick feels we need for home defense. We loaded up on ammo and hit the gun range with my stepdad (an avid gun collector) to get familiar with it. It definitely packs a punch!

Yesterday a toy for the kitchen was delivered--an electric citrus juicer! There is nothing quite like the sweetness of fresh-squeezed orange juice. It has a cone for grapefruits and oranges, and one for lemons or limes. It holds 32oz and works like a charm!

We have a lot of family birthdays coming up soon. My mother's birthday was Sunday and I spent the whole weekend having fun with her! On Saturday I took her to a little French cafe for brunch and dessert, then we came back to my house for awhile where I gave her some presents--a coffee grinder and a bag of whole coffee beans. The next day I arranged for us all to meet at a diner in the city where I bought her and my stepdad dinner. On Monday we hung out at her house where I cooked lunch, then she watched Brad while we all went to the gun range. She cooked dinner for us while we were gone, then we all ate when we got back. Today my brother and SIL bought everyone lunch at a new steakhouse then we all came back to my house for coffee and chat. Whew!

My nephew Cameron's birthday is Sunday, my stepdad's birthday is Monday, then my dad's SIXTIETH birthday is next month! I think I already have presents and cards for everyone, I just need to wrap them.

In other news, I found out by chance today that the public schools in my area start taking applications for preschool in one week! I had no idea they did registration this early but I don't want to miss out on anything for Brad in case we are still here in the fall, so I guess we will all go up to the local elementary school soon to do paperwork. Luckily it is one of the best schools in this city and only 4 blocks away from our house! I just can't believe my little guy is going to be in school. It is a half-day class and we are going to do the afternoon one.

That's about it for now! I head back to work for the next few days, then our little vacay to Seattle is only 2 weeks from Saturday!

Planning

In some areas of life I like to be spontaneous and adventurous. Examples would be how I got married (engaged for a month then married on a day I didn't have school), catching a great deal on a flight and going on a last minute trip, going skydiving, buying a stock I caught a good tip on, etc. But in most things, I am a major planner. I have to have a 1 year plan, 5 year plan, 20 year plan, and so on.

I need to know what I am aiming for, what I am working for, what I can expect, and what to do if things don't go as planned. I like to think that I can stay flexible because life is not predictable and therefore plans can not always be concrete. However I still try to plan for the unplannable! I will share my current plans with you:

1 year: be moved to NY, possibly in a rent house, Nick with a full time job, me with a part time job, Brad in school, working on baby #2, active in a local church

5 year: live in and fixing up an old Victorian house, plan for nice trip to Europe, own a 5th wheel vintage Shasta trailer, own jet skis, have chickens and large garden, get my BSN

20 years: children gone (or almost gone) from home, work as little as possible, home is paid off, retirement accounts are growing nicely, talking about where we want to retire at

For now, this is what I am basing my choices and actions on. I am trying to do the things today that will bring me to where I want to be. The downside of this way of life is that I occasionally feel at a standstill because I am waiting for "the next step" to happen and I am helpless until then. Examples are when we wanted to have children but suffered from infertility for over 5 years and had to do IVF, or now when we are ready to move to NY but have to sell our house first.

It is times like these I have to continually tell myself that it is all in God's plan and His will be done, not mine! He has given me the wisdom to make good choices and the courage to carve my own path. I owe my success and happiness to Him and I trust what He has in store for my life.

On a slightly different note, of course I am already planning on what we will do if we do not sell our house by August (even though it has only been listed for 1 1/2 wks). I presented my plan to Nick and he has agreed with it :) If our house has not sold by August, we will take it off the market. I will go full-time at work and carry health insurance for all of us. We will go see our Reproductive Endocrinologist Dr. Haas (who helped bless us with Bradley) and begin our TTC journey for #2!

We have always talked about having children 5 years apart, and we still 200% believe that is the right thing for us. We already know what our infertility issue is so we can cut right to the chase and begin necessary treatment for it. We are going to try some different things (read here) before jumping into IVF again. I haven't quite factored that expense into our plan....people say having a kid is expensive but $15,000 just to get pregnant is a bit excessive, ha!

I can safely say I have gotten to a point where I am ready for another baby, and I just LOVED being pregnant so that is no trouble for me! Brad will be starting school soon and independent enough to help out with little things.

So hopefully by the end of this year, I will either be in NY or pregnant :)

Up for Purchase

It has been a busy week here! On Monday, Feb. 4 we OFFICIALLY listed our house for sale! Here is the link to our listing -----)here

The very next day we had some one come look at it! The photographer didn't even come until Wednesday! We have had 3 more showings to total FOUR showings in the first week! I hope that is a good sign.

  

The yard doesn't look all that great since it is so dry and dead here. But the inside looks great! We have worked our behinds off to clean it from top to bottom and put away all of the clutter. That is not too easy with a three year old running around! Now we just have to keep that way until we sell it.

Our realtor is very sweet, and she feels that we have a great chance of getting a good offer within a few months. We signed a 6 month contract with her so if it does not sell by the beginning of August then we will take it off the market and wait another year. That way Brad can start preschool and not have to get interrupted for a big move.

We are hopefully--but cautiously--optimistic about getting an offer. We know we have done everything we possibly can to make it desirable. Right now we just have to wait for the perfect person to fall in love with it like we did! The good news is that our balance on the mortgage is less that I thought it would be, so if we get an offer on it close to what we are asking for it then we will get a good return on our investment! That money will go straight into the savings account until we buy our final house.

There are a million little things that will need to be done if and when we get an offer before we can move. Unfortunately nothing can get done right now until we have a time frame to be moving. Hurry up and wait!

Bugs and Dinosaurs

 Today was a fun day! A museum here in Norman opened a new exhibit on bugs this weekend. Admission was free today so I invited my brother and his kids to go with us to check it out! We met there in the afternoon and let the kids run around checking out everything.

In addition to the bug displays, they also had the usual dinosaurs and such to see. The kids loved it all!

Brad just has a blast whenever he gets to hang out with the big kids. After we were done there, we all went to get ice cream together! Of course the kids loved that.

We got a lot more cleaning and house projects done today. The outside looks a bit awful because it is so dry and dead here. Whenever the weather gets consistently warm I am going to clean out the flowerbeds and plant a bunch of nice flowers around to brighten it up. I also have to plant grass because we can't even get that to grow on its own....