A Few Good Photos

Why don't any of my pictures look like this? This gallery is a big thanks to my friend, Laura, and my mother-in-law... May you both find jobs at photography studios, and give me discounts...

Girls' Weekend 2007!

As you may know, every year since college a group of 7 of us get together for a relaxing weekend sans responsibility of husbands and children. We've been doing this for 7 years now, so we realized we've known each other when we were dating idiots in college, when we were making wise and sometimes less-than-wise decisions, and when we started dating "the one." We were there through makeups, breakups, engagements, and have been to each others' weddings. We seen the skinny, sexy stages as well as the fat pregnant stages, and our kids have played together. We've shared traveling experiences throughout the years and have been there through illnesses and deaths of family members. We've always committed to reuniting one weekend each year to reconnect, reminisce, and of course, eat a whole lot.

Here are a few highlights from this year:

Lounging by the pool takes up most of our Saturday every year (this is the only swimsuit photo that was approved publishing material due to 5/7ths of the group being pregnant...)


Lunch picnic by the pool: Summer salad, homemade chicken salad croissants, fruit, veggies and dip, and other such girlish sundries are usually on the menu.

Me and my other half, Sara (and apparently my bra) -- go check out Sara's brand new blog at http://queen-of-the-house.blogspot.com !

Grand tradition states that we get sassy and go out to dinner on Saturday night. Usually sushi is the menu of choice, but with so many pregnant ladies, we opted for meals a little less fleshy... We topped off the night with New Orleans Beignets paired with raspberry, white chocolate, and Jack Daniels dipping sauces. Mmmm.

The whole group: Christy, me, Sara, Jenny, Kelly, Ruth Lee, and Emily. Farewell until next year! Alright, fewer dramatics. I'll see most of you at Homecoming in October. :)

Old Friend, New Blog

Okay, so I'm currently on my college girls' retreat weekend (if you remember from this post last year; it's the second group of girls). Anyway, one of my very best friends, Sara, told me she just started a blog. Go there, right this minute: http://queen-of-the-house.blogspot.com/

She has yet to dedicate a post to me (though, ahem, it's how she got started blogging in the first place), but I'm working on it. Have a great weekend, and I'll write more about the retreat when I'm back.

One more thing, one of the other girls would like to start a blog but is stumped on a creative name for it. Any and all ideas are welcome!

Dog Tired

...or maybe I should just say tired of the dog.

She's sweet in the house, though she doesn't ever cuddle. If we so much as reach out to her in a manner that might suggest petting, she jumps up, wags the ole tail, and thinks it must be time for a 5 mile run. If we do not oblige, she sulks and takes to the ground once again, acting as though she might pass away from boredom. Similarly, anytime we're changing clothes, she thinks we must be getting ready to take her for that 5 mile run so she pants loudly, nips at our heels, whines, etc. and if she doesn't see us putting on running shoes, well, again with the sulking. The worst part is that as soon as we do leave the house to go for a walk, she is uncontrollable. She squeals and whines and pulls (even on a choke collar!) and refuses to actually do any walking. She doesn't listen to any commands when outside, and has made it impossible for me to take her for a walk and handle Noah in the stroller. Oh, and if she so much as sees another dog, she turns into this maniacal thing that starts humping the air at random. If our friends' dogs come over, she can't relax or sleep at night, but continues the humping and licking and sniffing and body gyrations. She also must be man-handled every time the front door is opened just to make sure she doesn't sneak out and chase neighborhood rabbits for hours on end. She doesn't know how to fetch anything, so all she does in the back yard is run in circles without regard to landscaping; she actually uprooted an entire crepe myrtle bush because she ran into it at full speed.

Aren't most dogs just happy to cuddle and be rubbed down and have their tummy scratched?

Yesterday she went to work with me because she had to go to the vet next door for a bath and a shot. She pooped on the floor in our clinic entryway! She hasn't done anything like this since she was a tiny puppy! I had 3 patients there, my boss, and 2 coworkers. I'm totally the girl with the dog who poops on the floor. Sweet.

Our plan is as follows: Get her spayed this month, then get her into a round of obedience classes. If she doesn't calm down and start listening, we might have to find her a home on a couple of acres where she can herd other dogs and children all day. She is part border collie, after all. Am I cruel to consider this?

Big brother and little...

We found out Friday and are thrilled! Greg and I got to celebrate our anniversary the next day (7 years!) by getting massages and going to a fabulous steak restaurant. Coming up with girl names was the topic of conversation for most of the night! Any ideas?

Sour Cream and Chive Creamed Corn

Okay, a few of you asked for this recipe after I mentioned it in my last post. I have to admit that I made it up on the spot when I was cooking it a couple of weeks ago, so here's my attempt at recall. Please add/subtract ingredients to your taste!

Sour Cream and Chive Creamed Corn

1 can sweet whole kernel corn
1 can creamed corn
2 TBLS butter, seperated (I used light)
2 TBLS sour cream (I used light)
6 oz Whipped cream cheese, chive or sour cream and chive flavor
2-3 chopped green onions
Salt, garlic, and pepper to taste
Shredded cheese
1 cup crushed croutons, seasoned

Put corn into a soup-sized pot and heat on medium on the stove. Stir in 1 TBLS butter, sour cream, and cream cheese until melted. Stir in onion and seasonings, then gradually add shredded cheese until consistency is not to runny. :) Heat a couple of minutes until melted through. Transfer to a baking dish, cover with crused seasoned croutons, and drizzle with 1 TBLS butter. Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes or until croutons are browned.

It was really good and really easy, and basically was born out of my desire to serve a vegetable with our meal that was "gourmet" enough to go with steak! Also, I wasn't in the mood for beans... Let me know how your rendition tastes if you get around to making this!

True Holiday

Today has been pretty perfect, definitely the perfect end to a great holiday weekend. Here's a recap:

I woke up really early so I went ahead and got up with Noah at 6:30am so Greg could sleep in a bit. But at 7:20am, Greg took Noah and let me go back to bed. He fed him and kept him busy until I woke up at 9am, when I went out into the living room to find two generations of vaccuuming men:

Then I took a long shower and shaved my legs (I am having a mole cut out of my lower leg tomorrow so I didn't want nasty hairiness to distract my cute dermatologist). Noah was asleep when I got out, so Greg and I relaxed and had breakfast; I made homemade blueberry belgian waffles. I read 6 chapters in my new book, and then we all got ready for the day. Like Noah's new outfit? Sweater vests are totally in for baby boys.

Another added bonus for the day I noticed while getting ready today... Not to draw attention to my cleavage, but seriously, I have my boobs back. When I stopped nursing Noah, I dropped a whole size. Check me out now; all it took was 15 weeks of pregnancy to pump those babies back up!

We all left and Greg and Noah dropped me off to get a manicure/pedicure. I read a little more of my book before finally surrendering to the chair massage, paraffin wax bath, and salt scrub with hot towels. I've been doing pretty well with not biting my nails lately, and sice we're going out of town this weekend I decided to splurge. Greg took Noah to Sam's and bought some steaks for dinner, and when they picked me up there was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers in the car for me that he swears Noah picked out. There were enough for me to divide them into several vases for various rooms in the house:

After we left the nail salon, we went to Central Market and walked around and ate samples. :) Then we picked up some homemade tamales and fresh salsa (and of course a grilled cheese for the kid) and we ate lunch in their deli. Central Market is always a good idea, but even better on a rainy holiday.

When we got home, Noah and I took a nap for 2 hours! By the time we woke up, Greg had washed the dog, started the laundry, and was Resolve-ing various spots on the carpet. So as not to make him sound too domestic, I should mention that he's also been watching a marathon of The Deadliest Catch all day... Noah and I got dinner ready and we all sat down to a feast of steaks, baked potatoes, sour-cream-and-chive-creamed-corn, and garlic rolls:

I put Noah to bed after several games and stories, layed down on the couch for a bit, and felt the new baby moving around for the first time! Well, that about brings us up to the present. Now I'm going to go read a bit more, then we're going to watch Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller (and hot fudge brownies and cool whip).

Sometimes you just need a day like this, but the really cool thing is that I wasn't expecting or planning it. I have the sweetest husband and son imaginable, and wanted to devote a little post to them!

Events at Random

So I've been worthless, and I'm sorry. I have been reading up on your blogs, but have been to tired/busy/lazy to update my own so I thought I would tell you a little of what's been going on.

First of all, I don't know ho the weather has been for the rest of you, but Dallas has been slammed with thunderstorm after thunderstorm for the past several weeks. A couple of weeks ago, Greg and I were glued to the TV watching the "severe weather warnings" in our area when we heard a loud noise right outside the window. We opened the back door to find this:



Basically the umbrella caught a gust of wind, flew out, and shattered the glass top of the patio table. The specks you can see are a mixture of glass, rain, and nickel-sized hail. We, aka: Greg, got it all cleaned up but we still have no patio table on which to usher in Memorial Day and grilling season.

In other news, we went to an FC Dallas pro soccer game this past weekend. Noah is their youngest and yet their biggest fan:

We went with some friends, so after the game we let the kids run around the deck of the stadium. They started running around by this other cute little boy, and I glanced over at the boy's dad (I assume). It was Martin Grammatica - the starting kicker for the Dallas Cowboys! For us Cowboys fans, this was huge. I had to walk over and shake his hand, congratulate him on a good season, and wish him luck next year.

Well, that's all folks. Sorry nothing else fabulous or exciting has happened but I'll keep you posted...

California, Here We Come

Hi, my name is Jackie, and I need help.

I can't believe I'm admitting this; my sister will be horrified and my husband has rolled his eyes at me for days now, but I need an outlet of honesty...

Okay. Here goes. Tuesday afternoon I picked up all my maternity clothes from a friend who had borrowed them. As a little fun gift, she included her entire DVD set of The O.C., First Season for me to watch, because, as she said, "when you're pregnant and tired sometimes you just need to watch some mindless television." Little did she know.

I watched the entire first season--27 episodes--of The O.C., plus all the deleted scenes and special features, in 3 days.

I have this sickness. I can't start something and then just stop to go to bed or shower or eat lunch. Once I begin a project, it must be finished, and this counts as a project. I watched all the seasons of Alias over the course of about 6 weekends, and I have sworn myself off of watching 24 because I made Greg sit through like 8 episodes in a row and then got irritated that he wasn't "hardcore" enough to stay tuned. I don't really watch much TV at all anymore (I'm even less amused with Grey's Anatomy lately), so I don't know what came over me. I reverted back to my old self. I couldn't control it. I couldn't turn it off.

In my defense, I didn't watch it while Noah was awake and playing. He's been sick this week though so I've kept him home from daycare, he's taken naps each day for like 3-4 hours at a time, has gone to bed early, and has just wanted to lay on my lap and relax. And thus far he hasn't objected to watching a little Newport Beach drama himself...

Well I'm taking control again. At least for today anyway; she's bringing me the second season tomorrow.

Move Over Bono??

I'm wasn't having any problems with the fact that I'm turning 30 this year until yesterday at work. I was doing therapy on 2 patients; an 18 year old guy and a 13 year old girl.
Here's what followed:

18y/o: So I'm going to a Brad Paisley concert!

Me: Who's Brad Paisley?

18 y/o and 13 y/o in unison: WHAT? Are you an idiot? He's only like the most famous country singer of ALL TIME!

Me: Oh. I don't listen to country music. I do get to go see The Fray this summer, and maybe John Mayer.

18 y/o: Who's The Fray?

13 y/o: Who's John Mayer? Have you seen anyone cool in concert?

Me: Seriously? I've seen Dave Matthews several times and U2 and year and a half ago.
(actually I was too pregnant to go to U2 so my husband went but I was trying to make a point).

18 y/o: OK. I know one of Dave Matthews' songs. BUt if you asked anyone who they know better, I SWEAR 9 out of 10 people would know more Brad Paisley songs than Dave Matthews songs.

13 y/o: Obviously.

18 y/o: And U2 only has one good hit. Something called Vertigo I think. Do they even sing anything else?

13 y/o: Don't know any Dave Matthews. What's U2?

---------------
I had nothing further to say. Am I getting so old that teenagers today actually don't know these bands, or did I enter the twilight zone of two freakish kids stuck in a stereotypic Texas country music video?? Someone reassure me...

What a Weekend!

Friday, Noah got to play with his friend Carson all day long. They were adorable and had a great time, and they kept each other such good company that I could actually sit on the couch and relax!



Saturday, I got up ealy and went to our huge neighborhood community sale. I'm usually not much of a garage-saler, but this was the mother of all sales. I got something for each of my kids--yes, that's right, I can't believe I will have TWO kids soon. Anyway, a big wheel for Noah:



...and a double stroller, which is thus far the first official gift for the unborn:



I also got my hair cut and highlighted on Saturday so I am a blonde again. I didn't take a picture of this; I know you're all super sad about that. The rest of Saturday consisted of watching the entire first round of the NFL Draft (remember my New Year's Resolution?). Then I made an appetizer, got a sitter, and Greg and I were off to a work function for his office.

Sunday morning I had to pick up some cinnamon rolls from a food auction I entered to support a mission trip. We were going to have a small breakfast together out on the patio:



Seriously. Anyone want to come over?

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

It remains that there is nothing quite like an overcast Sunday afternoon at home.

The Daily Granite

At long last (well, to me anyway) I get to blog about my new kitchen! Pretty much for the last year Greg and I have been talking, saving, and planning to upgrade our kitchen countertops and backsplash. Finally this spring, after quite a bit of price comparison, we decided on a company and settled on all the details. Last weekend, it was made official! Below are pictures of the old kitchen, complete with a highly fashionable maroon stripe in the tile (I have no maroon in my whole house other than this).

Are you just wishing this beautiful display of culinary framework had been your kitchen?

We had to remove everything from the surfaces and the lower cupboards!

This island was the only part of the old kitchen I loved and will miss because my dad made it for us a year and a half ago. I love the slate top!

Remember when I said we had to remove everything? I never realized how much crap one can accumulate in 7 years of marriage when one has 42 cupboard doors behind which to hide things... Our poor office, however, will never forget.

Oh, the draping. And more draping. Futile efforts to discourage dust from settling anywhere but the kitchen floor. Futile I tell you. I still had to scrub the rest of the house, now I just had 8 sets of sheets to wash as well.

So was it worth it? Behold, the finished product:

Noah even helped us clean up afterwards. :)

R-O-L-A-I-D-S

Okay, so with my first pregnancy I only gained 24 lbs and didn't wear maternity clothes until month #6. With this one however, I am only at 11 weeks and my jeans felt a little snug today; no matter how many squats I did or how many times I told myself it's because I just washed them, still snug. Is this normal? I'm also here to tell you all that Rolaids, while having a slightly chalky aftertaste, are quite pleasing and can almost satisfy the occasional sweet tooth, especially if you get the assorted berry flavor. Well, that's all my bloated self can come up with at this time. I'll do an Easter post manana.

A Beautiful Vacation

Sorry it's been so long since I've blogged! I've missed you all, but had a marvelous time in snowy Colorado for the 4th annual Beautifuls Retreat. Remember the highschool group? Usually our retreat is at a farm in Texas where we become unshowered shut-ins who play X-box karaoke and eat dessert for 3 days, but this year we held the retreat in Denver to visit Amy's brand new 6-week-old baby boy. We took the husbands along but they did other things during the day so we could get right to our usual retreat-style 'talking and eating but not showering' selves. And of course, we had a blast (pictures below...).

A few highlights include:
-Eating Bison burgers at Ted Turner's restaurant
-Curling up in a chair every morning to drink coffee next to a kitchen fireplace, and staring out the window at the swirling snow
-Enjoying the world's best Kolaches
-Seeing Greg in his snowboarding gear (he looks hot)
-Relaxing all day long with the girls
-Eating Brooke's fabulous chocolate-brownie-pudding-cake layered dessert concoction
-Eating arugula, proscuitto, and mozzarella gourmet pizza
-Watching Noah discover the snow
-Watching Noah get spoiled by all my friends and love it
-Watching Noah play WWF all day long with a teddy bear bigger than him
-Seeing the 12 crosses at the Columbine cemetary memorial
-Holding sweet baby Brett for hours


Me, Brooke, Amy, baby Brett, and Cheryl


This is what he did the whole time. He was so good and so yummy!


The only two little members of the Beautiful clan; we call them The Handsomes.


Thursday morning we woke up to several inches of snow! Noah had never seen it before, so we put on his, yes, snowpants, and let him romp around.

He loved it until he fell down (without mittens on) and realized his hands were like burning from cold. He loved it anyway.

Greg and I learned a valuable lesson on this trip: athough the airlines say that kids under 2 can fly free if they sit on your lap, the truth is that 17 month olds should never have to sit on your lap for 2 hours in a confined space. Noah reached his limit right about the time the pilot asked the flight attendants to prepare for takeoff. He decided to poop and flail about in our row. Two very longs hours later we arrived and made a pact to never put ourselves through that again. We begged the gate attendant and got him his own seat for the way back. The kid slept in his carseat on the plane for the entire flight home! We were so excited we almost became members of the mile high club...

Well, time to do all the things that suck after vacation: 3 loads of laundry, vaccuum dog hair off the carpet, take the dog to the groomers to get shaved, go grocery shopping, etc. But first, a nap.

To-Do List

Greg and I have been talking a lot about things we'd like to do in the house in the next few months. We've talked about it all so much that it seemed like every conversation began with, "You know what I'd really like to get for the [insert room here, ie: kitchen]? A new [insert object here, ie: rug]." We finally decided to make a list (actually, Greg surprised me by asking if we could please make a list so we could prioritize our spring and summer projects. I happily complied of course, knowing that I'd be in charge of said list and would then get to implement many of the items therein without nagging budgetary conversations because, hey, it was his idea anyway. :)

I truly can't believe how much crap we came up with; and our house is only about 6 years old! In our defense, almost everything will add to the value of the home when we sell, so it should all be good use of money. Here goes:

-New vaccuum
-New dishwasher (ours sounds like a dying animal)
-New lighting in the master bathroom
-New tile for the master bathroom shower
-Paint in the kitchen and master bedroom
-New rug under the kitchen table (Kona chewed ours when she was a puppy)
-Tile the floor in the guest bathroom (it currently has carpet--strange)
-Garage refrigerator (Greg's idea)
-New doorknobs throughout the house (I'm not a fan of plastic-brass)
-Possible staining of the master bathroom cabinets

Does anyone else have a to-do list like this one? Are we crazy? Is this even possible? I guess if there's an upside to this ginormous list of "upgrades", it's that I'm pregnant; so there will be no painting or heavy lifting for Jackie!

N-E-W-S

Well, here it is! Noah shows off his NEW slide...



...and his NEW shirt!




Yes, that's right. Noah will be a big brother; the question is whether it will happen before or after he turns 2. His birthday is November 2nd, and I'm due November 6th! Guess we'll have to wait 7 1/2 long months and see...

A Few More of My Favorite Things

A few of my current fads and shameless plugs for some more of my favorite things...

1. Crest toothpaste with scope

2. Boston Market kid's meals for $2.99 - I get meatloaf with mac & cheese and creamed spinach; Noah gets sliced turkey with green beans and mashed potatoes.

3. Sports Documentaries - just watched Dust to Glory about a several-decade-old race in Mexico called the Baja 1000. Very interesting. Also got Step into Liquid (surfing), and an early history of the Dallas Cowboys.

4. Of Course #3 above leads right into Blockbuster Total Access being one of my favorite things right now. Tonight we're going to watch Some Like it Hot (Marilyn Monroe) but I can hardly wait until Blood Diamond comes out on the 20th!

5. The KFC Chicken Fried Steak meal every Wednesday! It's only $1.99! Chicken fried steak, 2 sides, and a roll! Our Wednesdays will never be the same.

6. NutraGrain bars - either regular Cherry or Strawberry yogurt. I eat one every morning.

7. Corner Bakery's Swiss Oatmeal. If you haven't tried this, you must.

8. Cover Girl Outlast lip color. Mellow shimmery gloss that really does stay on all day.

9. Calendar Pictures for decoration - You can change your wall art regularly by buying a calendar with really interesting pictures, choosing a few that go with your decor, and having mattes cut to fit. Right now I'm trying to find a good series for Noah's room that's either Normal Rockwall or a something with vintage black and white photos.

10. Medical Dramas. I'm done with ER, but Bones, House, and Grey's Anatomy more than fill that void.

A Few of My Favorite Things...

I would like to share my new favorite things with you--handmade stationary and baby accessories made by my two most talented friends. My good friend Emily started her own handmade card business last year called Chocolate Blue. She designs and makes cards and notecards; they come individually or in a series, and there are tons of options to choose from. She actually won the national handwriting contest for her category last year; her writing could really be a font. I bought some of the individual cards for stocking gifts last Christmas, and just ordered the Baby series to give to my friend who just had a baby boy.


Chocolate Blue, created by Emily E. Ogle, 479-799-6297

My other dear friend, Sara, also started her own business called 2 Blonde Boys. She designs and makes baby clothes and accessories. She made the cutest "taggie" blanket for Noah to match his nursery, and I also ordered some items from her for my friend's new little baby boy (I know, I've already spoiled him and I haven't even met him yet!).


2 Blonde Boys, email Sara at 2blondeboys@gmail.com

So pass the word! This is my shameless plug for my dear friends' businesses; if you want to give a personal, unique, fabulous gift this year, look no further!

Here they are at one of their recent Craft Fairs. They are like those beautiful, talented people that we all know. I'd say they make me sick except I love them both too much! Incidently, they're part of my college group, The Ramrons, that I blogged about last year.



So go buy something! :)

Getting Screwed

Last night I got screwed. And I don't mean in the romantic way that I know it sounds. :) Here's a recap:

We hired a babysitter! We got all dolled up and were going out with friends. I had been craving Steak Quesadillas from this particular restaurant all day long. When we got there though, the restaurant had been replaced. (Screwed #1) So we all decided on another Mexican place, and I got steak quesadillas; they were very good.

During the course of the evening, we realized it's Daylight Savings and we were going to lose an hour of sleep! This wouldn't be so bad except that we had agreed to get up and do nursery duty at the early service at church this morning meaning an extra early wake up. Furthermore, it was Greg's morning to get up with Noah and my morning to sleep in a few extra hours. This did not happen and I was up at the buttcrack of dawn. (Screwed #2)

This is the best part though. In the middle of the night, I started feeling a little queasy. Hmmm. To save you from the gory details, I'll just say that 3 hours later, after the worst food-poisoning vomit session in my history thus far, I was finally back in bed. I actually had to wake Greg up at one point because I had those miserable cold sweats where everything goes black around you and I thought that if I pass out and actually fall head-first into the toilet he might just sleep peacefully all night while I drown. What a way to go. (Screwed #3)

During my hellish wretching extravaganza, Greg said that I could just stay home this morning and he would take Noah to church and take care of our nursery duty himself. Great! I can eat saltine crackers and sleep in afterall, I thought wishfully. As the fates would have it, after I went back to bed, Noah started coughing--a lot--all night--until his poor throat had just about had it. So while Greg is at church this morning, I am home feeling incredibly sorry for myself while taking care of Noah, who doesn't seem to be phased at all by the coughing because he is pulling my hair from behind the computer chair and trying to put plastic balls down the back of my shirt. (Screwed #4)

I guess on the upside, yesterday was a beautiful day and I got a bit of a tan.