Food Glorious Food!

My Pinterest habit is getting out of control. I just love it so much. I love that I can find all sorts of things for Arthur and I can look at pretty things and get ideas for the house and my closet and travel and oh my.

I ESPECIALLY love the recipes.  It's super going to help do #27 on my 30 before 30 list.

Try a new recipe at least twice a month (0/72)


A total of 72 recipes seems like a whole lot, especially because up until the last few weeks I haven't been keeping track of any new recipes I've tried.
That's another thing that Pinterest is helping me out with...remembering things. I created a board to put the things that I've actually DONE. I'm calling it "Tried It, Made It, Ate It, Did It".


I wanted to share with you the best recipes I've posted to that board so far and also write down the tweaks that I did so I'll remember them in the future.


First Up:


The Pioneer Woman's Spicy Whiskey BBQ Sliders

Seriously. 

These were to die for. 
I made them for Super Bowl Sunday. Skyler and I have a tradition where we make absolutely no plans for the Super Bowl and then decide last minute that we really want to watch the game (and the commercials) and what's our DVR for if not to record Downton Abbey so we can watch the Super Bowl but what's a Super Bowl with snack food and will you please go to the store and pick some stuff up? This year we did our tradition around 3 pm. Kickoff was at 5. I had food on the table by halftime! 
We don't eat a lot of beef in our house...steaks and burgers in the summer, chili, stew and roast in the winter and the occasional goulash. Football without a hamburger though? Sacrilege! This recipe I could happily make again and again. I scaled it down for us, using a little less than a pound of ground beef. I also substituted canned jalepenos for the jarred she used because I live in Wisconsin and while there are shelves and shelves and shelves of pickled herring and sauerkraut there's not so much a selection of peppers. 
The other big reason I love this recipe is that I can have two hamburgers and not feel bad, because they're sliders and they're little :)
Try it. Tonight. 


Our other favorite recipe I've tried is My Recipes Fish Tacos


Yum Yum Yum
I don't even like fish tacos. At all. I usually scrunch my nose up at Skyler when he orders them.
When I saw this recipe I knew it would make him happy. Who knew it was going to make me happy too? I didn't use red snapper, I used tilapia, because honestly I was at the store and forgot what kind of fish I was supposed to buy.
Incidentally I misspelled tilapia just now and the suggestion on spellcheck was "tipple". What's a tipple?
I also used plain greek yogurt instead of sour cream...I don't really ever use sour cream anymore. Greek yogurt works the same way and it adds extra protein!

So there we are! I'm cooking! And not the same 25 recipes I always ALWAYS cook.
Awesome sauce.

UPDATE:
***Try a new recipe at least twice a month (8/72)***

I Was There To Hear Your Borning Cry

We baptized Arthur on New Years Day.

Baptism is one of the two sacraments we practice in my denomination (the other being Communion). It was important to me that we did the baptism in our new church community but it was ALSO important that my mother perform the baptism and Arthur's godparents be there. This presented some problems. Both my mom and A's Godfather are ministers themselves which makes it hard for them to be away on a Sunday. However, since our families normally spend the time following Christmas together, it was decided that this year WE would host the two families and we could do the baptism then. So our (pretty small) rental house in the middle of nowhere Wisconsin had 11 people in it for a week. 13 on the days my sister and her boyfriend came over from the Cities. We had a VERY VERY full house. It was wonderful.
We made a traditional Christmas dinner one night. On another night Skyler and I went into St. Paul to meet up with two of my best friends from high school with a team of babysitters back at the house with Arthur. The kids played a lot of Wii and Rock Band in the basement. We consumed so.much.coffee. We went to the Leine Lounge and did a brewery tour. The Holsts were able to head into Minneapolis and see friends that they don't often see since they now live in Illinois. It was busy, and crowded and oh-so-wonderful. I feel very lucky to have such a great extended family and I know Arthur will grow up with a whole lot of love surrounding him.

Damon and Arthur are going to be great buddies. 

In His Traditional Gown

Those Cheeks!

Micki, Adam and Arthur before the service. 

Nana, What are you doing with me?

Even though this is blurry, it might be my favorite of the day

Ashley and Baby

That's a lot of God Parents!

Damon and his girlfriend Brooke. We were so happy she came too!

This Is A Story All About How

I know, I haven't posted in awhile. And there are so many subjects I could post about. How cute my baby is. All the amazing things he's been doing lately. How we FINALLY finished Star Trek: The Original Series. How amazing our holidays were.
Instead, I'm going to post about something that's been on my mind for a long time. A little over seven months, actually. I just haven't wanted to write about it before.
However, inspired by my friend's post HERE, I think it's about time I set down in writing our birth experience.
So here goes.

Leading up to Arthur's birth was a crazy time in the life of our family. Skyler was sent to Wisconsin in February for work and despite visits (me to there, him to home, us to Missouri) I was feeling pretty sad about not having my husband there for the vast majority of my pregnancy. I also had gallstones, an incredibly inflamed gallbladder and a baby growing right in front of that organ (thus, inhibiting my doctor's ability to operate). Then, I got laid off in April. Suddenly, our plans for the future were completely up in the air. Luckily, he got an offer for a permanent position in Wisconsin. They wanted him to start July 1st. My due date was June 6th. So now we needed to sub-lease our house, find a place in Wisconsin, move across country and oh, yeah, have a baby sometime in the middle of all that.
I felt so prepared for birth. I was scared and nervous, because you'd have to be sort of crazy not to be, but I was prepared. I was educated. We had made very informed birth decisions. After a lot of research, discussion and planning we were prepared for a home birth. We had found a midwife and created an outstanding relationship with her. In fact I think she was one of two reasons I stayed sane in the time Skyler was away (the other being my co-workers...well, former co-workers). I had confidence in my bodys ability to birth. I was having a normal, healthy, pregnancy (aside from the gallbladder issues). I was motivated to have a successful, natural, love-filled, at-home birth.

Our Home Birth Set Up. I was feeling pretty organized!

Getting in and out of bed was getting pretty difficult. 

When Skyler came home he took a lot of pictures. This is what I thought of that. 

WARNING: THE NEXT PART TALKS ABOUT BIRTH. BIRTH CAN BE GROSS. JUST FYI.


3 days before my due date, Skyler came home. My due date came, and no baby. My mom and sister had come to Colorado, but after many days my big sister had to leave. The next day, my little sister (who's not actually related to me...long story) came out to replace her.

Finally, on June 14th (remember when I said my due date was on the 6th?) I began to go into early labor.  It was like nothing like what I expected. It was so uneventful. Painful, yes. But more exhausting than anything else. I was in just enough pain so that I wasn't able to sleep. But not enough pain to actually make any progress. I was feeling nauseous too. Eating was the furthest thing from my mind. My midwife came and went. It wasn't time yet. Get some sleep. Rest. Let your body do the work. Let go.
None of those things are things I'm good at, it turns out. In any case, I finally hit "active labor" although, to me, it didn't FEEL much different. I was told it was different. That I was making progress. I was spent a lot of time in the shower. A lot of time on my birth ball. A lot of time in the birth tub. And on the birth stool. I sweated. I whined. I groaned. I rocked. I whined some more.

Notice all the boxes behind me. 

Finally, sometime in the afternoon (Skyler could tell you when, but I sure can't) my midwife asked me if she could break my water. I said yes and she and the assistant midwife got to work. It seemed easy and quick and wasn't painful at all. Unfortunately it gave us bad news. There was meconium in the fluid and that meant a transfer to the hospital. I was crushed. To me, this was a failure. I think this was the point where I gave up the idea of my body being able to this great, powerful thing called Birth.

Things went quickly. I gathered up some clothes and things, because of course I hadn't packed a hospital bag. I was so sure I wouldn't need it. My mom and Peyton drove separately and my midwife, Skyler and I piled into our car to head to the hospital. The assistant midwife stayed behind to clean up. (She did a phenomenal job at it too, according to Skyler...which is amazing because she had come to our house after an overnight labor and delivery).

We got to the hospital and they were surprisingly nice and accommodating (with the exception of one nurse). They let me continue laboring naturally. Which I did. For hours. Still no progress. After I time, I was told that my best chance of having a vaginal birth was to be given Pitocin. I was not happy about this idea. Not at all. At this point, though, I really didn't feel like I had a choice. I had literally exhausted every other option. And myself. I was so so so tired. Since Pit creates unnaturally strong contractions, I insisted on getting an epidural before they administered the Pitocin. I figured, at this point I knew I wasn't going to have a natural birth so why not be comfortable? I refused to go through Pit contractions without help.

After an hour on the Pit I had progressed to 10 centimeters. It was time to push. So I pushed. Or, I thought I did. I couldn't feel a thing I was doing. I couldn't feel much pain, true. I also couldn't feel my body. I pushed for an hour. The doctor said I could go for another hour and then we would have to talk about surgery. I pushed for what felt like 3 minutes and 3 days at the same time, he came back and said it was time to perform a C-Section. He insisted it wasn't for his convenience. He told me he would do everything he could to make sure I could have a vaginal birth next time. I asked for a few minutes to decide and I asked Skyler and our midwife what they thought. They both said it was time.

The next thing I really remember is being strapped down on the surgery table, both arms spread out to my side, telling the anesthesiologist that  I was going to be sick. That is the only feeling or emotion I can remember about the birth of my son. Naseau. It's all that comes to me. Skyler came in and talked to me but I can't remember what he said.
They told him he could stand to see the baby being born. He says by the time he stood up he was almost completely out. They took him over to clean him up and continue working on me. They were worried about bleeding. The nurses call Skyler over to be with the baby. I think they showed him to me, but I'm not sure. Then the two of them were gone and I was wheeled out to do preliminary recovery stuff. After about half an hour, Skyler came with Arthur and I finally got to hold my baby and try to nurse him.

I look how I felt.

He's awfully beautiful. 

We stayed in the hospital for four days and then we went home.

And now, seven and a half months later, I'm putting it all down in writing. I'm still so sad and disappointed. I know that I did everything I could to avoid the outcome we ended up having. However, I don't really know how to not be disappointed, mostly in myself.
I'm healed. My baby is happy, healthy, and developing way ahead of normal. I'm still nursing him, if not exclusively.
I catch myself thinking about next time. Hoping that it will go differently, thinking that it probably won't.