Tick Warning

A friend emailed this to me last week and I can't stop laughing at it...

TICK WARNING
I hate it when people forward bogus warnings, but this one is important.

So please send this warning to everyone on your e-mail list.

If someone comes to your front door saying they are checking for ticks due to the warming weather and asks you to take your clothes off and dance around with your arms up...DO NOT DO IT!! IT IS A SCAM!! They only want to see you naked...I wish I'd gotten this yesterday. I feel so stupid.

Derbylicious!!!

Berkeley caught her first fish on April 28th! One of the local lakes hosted a fishing derby for opening fishing day and my dad really wanted her to catch a fish so we took her. I love these pictures of Berk and grandpa. Her expressions in the second and third pics crack me up. In the second one she looks kind of surprised/freaked out and in the third one (if you click on it to enlarge it) she looks completely appalled at what they are doing to the poor thing. After each kid caught a fish, they would put it in a plastic bag and seal it up so they could take it home and fry it up. In the 5th picture down she is looking at the fish flopping around in the bag gasping for air. We all felt really bad for it. They told us not to let it go because it probably wouldn't live, but we did it anyway. We all felt horrible that it was dying such a slow and painful death and we certainly were not going to eat it so we did the humane thing. Can you imagine the uproar it would have caused if someone caught a bird or a squirrel and stuck it in a plastic bag until it stopped breathing? It would have been all over the evening news. I know it's just a fish, but it really was sad to watch it suffer. Hopefully it lived and is still swimming around. With my luck, as soon as we walked away a bird swooped down and ate it for lunch.

Before I was a Mom...

A friend emailed this to me the other day and I wanted to pass it along to all of you wonderful moms out there. In my delicate and very emotional pregnant state, I became a bit misty-eyed and weepy as I read it. You’d be wise to have some tissue handy when you read it.

Before I was a Mom

I never tripped over toys or forgot words to a lullaby.

I didn't worry whether or not my plants were poisonous.

I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom

I had never been puked on. Pooped on. Chewed on. Peed on.

I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.

I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom

I never held down a screaming child so doctors could do tests.

Or give shots.

I never looked into teary eyes and cried.

I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.

I never sat up late hours at night watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom

I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn't want toput them down.

I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when Icouldn't stop the hurt.

I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.

I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom

I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.

I didn't know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.

I didn't know that bond between a mother and her child.

I didn't know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom

I had never gotten up in the middle of the night every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.

I had never known the warmth, the joy, the love, the heartache, the wonderment or the satisfaction of being a Mom.

I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much, before I was a Mom.

Praise The Lord For Pickles!

I can’t sleep…again. That seems to happen a lot when I’m pregnant. I think it must be God’s way of preparing me for little to no sleep when the baby is born. This time it’s not due to a nightmare. I just happened to wake up and couldn’t go back to sleep. I’m out of books to read so I thought I’d turn to some of my favorite comfort foods for guidance which reminds me of a funny, albeit, embarrassing story I’d like to share with you. These sleepless nights and midnight cravings are taking a toll on my husband. The other night he came downstairs to find me sitting at the dining room table amongst all of my comforting friends with pickle juice running down my chin and powdered sugar in the corners of my lips. He was utterly baffled at the sight of me as I quickly (and guiltily) explained my sleepless dilemma. He shook his head and raced right back upstairs. I know what you’re thinking…you’re thinking “Wow, it’s a good thing she’s already pregnant, otherwise he would have whisked her up those stairs and taken advantage of her.” I know, I stand in awe of his self control as well…it takes a strong man to resist that kind of temptation :) Since I’m on the subject of comfort foods I thought I’d share just a few of them with you.

#1 on my list right now is Claussen pickles. They are unbelievably delicious and I would have never discovered them had Chris and Laura not “referred” them to me. They are in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store and are much too fabulous to be in the aisle next to all the every day, ordinary pickles which explains why I never knew about them until recently. You have to get the ‘Kosher Dill Spears’ cause they are super juicy and fun to eat on the side of your plate next to your sandwich. Well, any time really, day or night! At one point I had 3 jars of them in my fridge. I know what you’re thinking…a bit excessive, right? Wrong! Thomas and Berkeley are both hooked on them now, so I must have a multitude of reinforcements in order not to run out. It all makes perfect sense inside this head of mine!

#2 on my list is those little Hostess donuts that come in chocolate or powdered sugar. If I’m really honest, I crave these even when I’m not pregnant, but I NEVER EVER get up in the middle of the night to eat them when I’m not with child. I am now returning home with multiple boxes of them after each grocery shopping extravaganza. Again, Thomas also enjoys these delectable little morsels which explains at least part of the depletion of them. I don’t think he has ever had them in the middle of the night, however! At least he’s never been caught!

#3 on my list is home made chocolate chip cookies. I think I have made cookies twice in my 6.5 years of marriage, but during this pregnancy I have become impressively domesticated and have probably made 8 dozen of them. I can’t get enough of them. I like to microwave them for 10-15 seconds to get the chocolate all warm and gooey. And who knew those Kitchen Aids worked so well? We got one as a wedding gift and after my husband showed me how to work it a couple of months ago I can’t get enough of it. No more messy flour mishaps with the hand held mixer in my future!! I love kitchen gadgets. I love how shiny and pretty they look on the counter and heaven knows they certainly come in handy for making sure my lip gloss is in place when I’m running out the door and don’t have a mirror handy. See how resourceful I’ve become since being a mom?

#4 is a tie between clam chowder (only if it’s made my Verl or Ivar’s), Caesar salad, turkey sandwiches, poor boy sandwiches (again, made by Verl) and mozzarella sticks at Red Robin. As you can see, I’m not real picky. I just really, really like food. My thighs are proof of that as they inch closer and closer together with each passing day. That’s okay. You know what I say to that? I say “Let the chaffing begin.” I enjoy being full figured, bootylicious, having some junk in my trunk! I also notice myself getting a bit winded when I walk upstairs carrying Berkeley. A little embarrassing, yes, but again, it’s only when I am carrying Berkeley. So far.

Ooops, hang on, my oven timer just went off. Gotta go get the brownies out of the oven…ok, I’m back. Mmmmm, they smell heavenly. Wish they didn’t take so darn long to cool off!