Nice Meal

Ben and I both enjoyed this dish. This is the first time I've made it. I like making new recipes and trying them out. The problem I find with some of the Rachel Ray recipes is that you have to have so many ingredients that seem "exotic" to me. I mean, who grew up with their mom buying fresh herbs and shallots? Anyway... here it goes. I didn't use the thyme because I didn't have any. Also... if I were to make it again, I'd put slightly less cider vinegar in and I'd probably cut the chicken up into chunks instead of having the breast halves. Also... give the sauce a good 8-10 minutes to simmer to let the apricots get nice and tender. Enjoy!

Chicken with Sweet Raisins and Apricots on Toasted Almond Couscous
from the book "Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats"

3 T extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 6-oz boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 T fresh thyme leaves (from a couple of sprigs), chopped
1/2 C sliced almonds
3 1/2 C chicken stock or broth, divided
1 1/2 C plain couscous
3 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (a generous handful)
2 T unsalted butter
3 large shallots, thinly sliced
2 T all-purpose flour
12 dried, pitted apricots, halved
1 C golden raisins
2 T cider or white wine vinegar (eyeball it)

Preheat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 T of the EVOO (twice around the pan). Season the chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and chopped thyme. Add the chicken to the hot skillet and cook on each side for 5 to 6 minutes.

Toast the nuts in the bottom of a medium sauce pot over medium heat until golden. Transfer the toasted nuts to a dish and reserve. Return the pot to the stove top. Add 1 1/2 C of the chicken stock and the remaining tablespoon of EVOO, cover the pot, and raise the heat; bring the broth to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the couscous and parsley to the stock, then stir. Cover and let the couscous stand for 5 minutes. Fluff the cooked couscous with a fork and toss with the toasted almonds. Cover to keep it warm while you make the sauce for the chicken.
Remove the chicken from the skillet to a plate and cover with foil. Return the skillet to the heat and add the butter and shallots. Cook for about 2 minutes. Dust with the flour and continue to cook for 1 minute. Add the apricots, golden raisins, and cider vinegar. Whisk in the remaining 2 cups of chicken stock and turn the heat up to high. Simmer the mixture until thick. Add the chicken back to the skillet, coat in the sauce, and heat the chicken, about 1 minute. Serve the chicken and some sauce over the almond couscous. It makes 4 servings.

Baby Barreth's Room

Well... here is the final product of the footstool for the baby room.












Here are the pictures that are hung in the baby room. The pictures are bad because the flash is reflecting on them.











Here's another picture hung in the baby room.













Here's another... just in case it's a girl. :)













Here's a puzzle I glued together.













The changing table.


















I bought these floating shelves for one section of wall in there. I think they turned out pretty nice. The sign says "Home is where your story begins." I also have a 4D sonogram picture of Baby Barreth in the frame.















Here's the rocking chair area. This rocking chair was given to me by Ben's grandma. It was her mother's chair. I like the history behind it and I think it's beautiful. Notice the snazzy footstool. :) That lamp there is one I had in my room through high school and I used to love it because it gave a nice pink glow instead of a harsh light.














This is as you are standing in the door. The crib is not 100% together. You can see I have some pressed flowers in the window in a frame. My mom got me that one spring. This is the baby room so far.

Aerating the Yard - Ninja Style

Just when I thought I was getting the hang of all this do-it-yourself stuff indoors, Spring comes along and there are a hundred other jobs to do outdoors. The latest pain-in-the-butt has been the grass in our yard. We had several places where water accumulated over the winter and I thought we might have a drainage problem. However, I read on the Internet that I might be able to "aerate" the soil to remedy soggy spots and help grass grow deeper roots etc.

I could have rented an expensive super-industrial-strength-power-aerator from Home Depot. But I'm cheap. So first I bought a "garden cultivator" ..... basically a stick with cowboy spurs on. It's *supposed* to aerate your yard, but they forget to tell you on the box that you have to apply a great deal of pressure, as if a female hippo is wearing tiny little cowboy boots on your yard. Cute idea, but it takes a HUMONGOUS amount of effort to aerate a patch about as big as one lawn chair. Not cool.

Although it looks big and scary up close...













From far away you can tell it's just a little stick with some spikes on... pretty pathetic if you want to grind up 9000 square feet of dead grass in your yard. Admittedly this thing scared the poop out of my mom's dog Rusty, so that did give me some satisfaction.









Anyway onto our story. So I've been researching online about these sandals with spikes coming out that you simply wear when you mow your grass and they aerate the lawn as you walk. My grandma (fountain of all wisdom) said that my Aunt Jo tried something similar but considerably more red-neck by hammering nails through her shoes. This struck a certain chord with me that I can't explain. Maybe it's because I had previously glued sparking metal to the back of my shoes for fun on my scooter. Maybe it's because I'm cheap and didn't want to buy the real thing. Maybe it's because I need one more stinking project to keep me busy. Who knows.

So of course tonight I spent an hour hammering nails through my shoes to surprisingly pleasant results. Enter, The Dragon, baby! (Bruce Lee reference for those over 60 reading this)















... and here's a ninja pose for those who want to try this at home:


















Now all I need is about 8 hours to walk around my lawn in circles. Hopefully the neighbors won't call the police or anything. I know what you're thinking: what an awesome way to save a whopping $17 bucks right! .... And as long as I don't step a rock when I walk and the nails don't back-protrude into my heel it barely hurts AT ALL! Yet another home do-it-yourself project executed flawlessly.

New Projects

My newest projects included planting some beautiful pansies my mother-in-law bought for me this weekend. I have one pot on the back porch and one on the front. Aren't they beautiful?
Also... I am recovering and painting a little footstool for the baby room. I am going to paint the wood white and then I'm going to recover the cushion part. Here is the before shot.

and this is the fabric I chose. I know, I know, it looks a little like "hey! I'm eccentric!", but I don't care. Those things on there are little blue coral bushes. :)

Billy Belly

For those of you who may not know my husband that well let me tell you, he's really funny. Although I don't think he'd categorize himself as a musician, he is very musical indeed. He goes around much of the time singing some song that he has made up or modified. For example, the other day he got an e-mail from a job recruiter (he's trying to help my brother get a job) named Shane. He then spent the next 15 minutes singing "Shane Shane Shane...Shane the recruiter" to the tune of "Chain of Fools". What ended the 15 minutes of Shane the Recruiter was me laughing and telling him to stop. Below is a wonderful example of a song that Ben wrote. To get the full effect you need to hear the tune and all. I'm still working on him letting me film him singing it, but he's a bit reluctant to do that just yet. I tell him it could be the next craze on youtube or something. Oh, and by the way, I asked him to sing it to me a while ago so I could write down the words. Anyway... Billy Belly.

There was a boy called Billy Belly
He ran away from home
He wouldn’t listen to his mommy or daddy
Wanted to go it alone
Billy Belly barely bit a bit of jelly
Walking down the road
His mom and daddy calling out after him
Billy Belly come home

Billy Belly belly big
Billy Belly barely become
Billy Belly bad he be
Billy Belly come home

Billy Belly robbed a store that day
Stole a Cadillac
Needed money for the long journey
Wasn’t coming back
Billy Belly barely bit a bit of jelly
Driving down the road
Shiny car filled with lots of money
Billy Belly come home

Billy Belly belly big
Billy Belly barely become
Billy Belly bad he be
Billy Belly come home

(bridge) Billy… Belly… come home
Billy.. Belly… come away
Billy Belly’s gone alone
Billy Belly’s gone insane

Headin’ south toward the border goes Billy
To get away from the crowd
Feeling good, Billy’s on the Tele
Nothing to stop him now
Cross the road to get some fries says Billy
Hit by a truck
Falls over and dies poor Billy
Must have been bad luck

Billy Belly belly big
Billy Belly barely become
Billy Belly bad he be
Billy Belly come home

An Easter Story I Forgot To Share

The church we have been going to for about a month had three services on Easter morning to accommodate visitors. Ben, Pam and I went to the first service at 8:30. The pastor made a comparison between Jesus and the Passover lamb. He emphasized the perfect timing of all of that and much to our surprise he brought out a real 3 week old lamb. It was so cute! Right at the point where the pastor was reading how the Israelites would kill the lamb it started bleating! He took out a big machete and I thought it my head "if this guy kills that lamb, I'm not coming back here." Fortunately, he didn't kill it but used fake blood to show how the Israelites did the door frame and stuff. Something I didn't know was how well sheep can see. The human can see about 170 degrees around themselves, but a sheep can see about 270 degrees around themselves. Wow! After that service I told Ben I don't think I can ever eat lamb again, but today my mother-in-law bought lamb chops at the market, so I don't think it bothered her.

On another note, today when we went to the market I was looking at all these spices that this guy had and I saw one called "funugreek". I asked the man what you use that spice for and he said "well, it helps new mom's milk production." I had never heard of that before! He said to boil it and then eat it with honey. I happened to be going to a baby shower tonight, so I took some of that funugreek and put it in a baggy and put in a honey straw and an article as an extra present to the stuff I already got her. (by the way, you're not supposed to eat it while pregnant because it's supposed to be a uterine stimulant- don't worry I let her know) So when the moment came for her to open her present and she pulled out the little baggy you can imagine my face when she said "is this pot?" and then as I was laughing I tried to explain what it was!! Stuff like that happens to me all the time. Oh well....

Thoughts on a Thursday

Over the past few months I've been going to an aerobics class for pregnant people once a week. Last night before we started we were comparing belly buttons and talking about how we felt and about decorating baby rooms. Everyone's experience is so different and I was thinking last night before going to sleep that I need to try to write some of the small things down so I can remember what it feels like for me to be pregnant. How fast the time is going! I'm sure I'll feel that way when the baby comes too. Anyway... so here are some things to remember about how I feel at this point of my pregnancy.

1. It feels like I have a very large coconut lodged in my lower abdomen that I have to kind of figure out how to bend and move around.

2. When the baby moves it sort of feels like when your eye twitches. I often feel it move as I am waking up in the morning now. I like the gentle reminder that it is there and it is growing.

3. Although intellectually I know a baby will come out in a few months, I feel like when it does that it will be the biggest shock of my life to see a person with eyebrows and eyeballs looking at me.

4. Last night the aerobics leader was asking this other girl and me (our due dates are about 3 days apart) when we were going to a childbirth class. The other girl is going to one and I have decided not to go to one. My doctor said I could choose and the funny thing is that I don't feel guilty.

5. Naming someone is very difficult... so I hope our baby is happy with whatever we end up choosing.

6. I haven't really had that many cravings to speak of, but here lately I really want grapefruits really bad.

7. Sometimes my lower back feels very tight and warm showers seem to help.

8. The borrowed baby bed came yesterday and I'm anxious to see what it looks like set up.

9. I find some similarities to being pregnant and getting married. I used to say that if you go into a bakery and say "I'd like a cake" they'll say, "that will be $20." But if you make the mistake of saying, "I'd like a wedding cake" they will look you square in the eye and say, "that will be $300." I've found having a baby can be a time when a lot of people buy a lot of stuff for emotional reasons and I try to keep everything is perspective.

This is me on Easter morning.

The Hawk is Back!

... and he's hungry! (cue scary music)

So this afternoon I saw the hawk in our back yard again, only this time he was EATING SOMETHING! Not a brownie or popcorn folks, but something that USED TO BE ALIVE!

Since this hawk is clearly here to stay I think we're going to have to come up with a name. So I've preemptively named it (i.e. without Meredith's approval) "Bob" the hawk.

Very exciting stuff. Here's the video:

Another Joke Courtesy of Uncle Bob

A Baptist preacher and a Methodist pastor from two local churches are standing by the side of the road, feverishly pounding a hand-made sign into the ground with a large rock.The sign reads:

THE END IS NEAR
TURN AROUND NOW
BEFORE IT"S TOO LATE

As a car speeds past them, the driver yells, "Leave us alone, you religious wackos!" From the curve, they hear screeching tires and a big splash.

The Methodist turns to the Baptist and asks, "Do you think the sign should just say 'Bridge Out'?"

Segway Party!

When Meredith's family was here we went to Union Station near downtown KC. They had a really neat old style diner there that used to serve the travelers in the days when it was still being used as a station. They also had the "Bodies" exhibit where they have real preserved human bodies with no skin on them, posing in different ways.

There was also a lady giving Segway scooter demo rides for $5, so Preston and I decided to go for it. The smooth marble floor was perfect for zooming around and it only took us 30 seconds to get the hang of it. Here's some video's for you to enjoy. Pretty cool!

Meredith's Solo

With the Kansas City Chorale singing "She Moved Through the Fair" arranged by David Mooney, conducted by Charles Bruffy.

Here's another one of the whole choir together:

More Random Sightings

Here are some more random sightings to keep you all entertained.

Who cares about fuel-efficiency when you've got fashionable 100 pound metal piping for a bumper? What an eye-catcher aye? Front and back baby! ... and don't forget the custom sporty roof rack, perfecting for transporting those expensive ski's to the slopes.

Sometimes I think keeping up with the Jones's has never been so easy since we moved to Kansas.







One of the other things we've seen a lot of here in Kansas and Missouri is HAWKS! This afternoon I looked out of our kitchen window and there was a hawk RIGHT THERE! Sitting on one of our Christmas trees. Here's a really crappy picture of it for you to enjoy.


At first I thought he was eating a chicken because he had his head down, but then I guess he was just smelling his wingpit or something.




Finally, here is my niece doing a salute while I was doing a Segway test drive with Preston (she learned that from me). Somehow when I salute though I kept getting it wrong and I felt like Hitler or something. One more reason why I never joined the military I guess - they would have flunked me on that one for sure.

And "No", those aren't custom Star Wars Segways we're driving with lightsabers welded on the front ... those are just really bright reflectors that serve no purpose driving indoors during the daytime.

We've Come A Long Way Baby

In the last few days our computer monitor died. Instead of having to buy a new one God provided one for free!! Ben's mom had an extra she wasn't using anymore and my motto (one of them anyway) is "you can't argue with free." So here it is. The first time I saw it (and mind you, this probably says something about my true colors) I said "whoa, look at the butt on that thing!" Technology has definitely come a long way huh?

Oh, and by the way, Olya, does my pencil holder look familiar? I've used it for years!


PS.. Contrary to this photo I actually do dust our house. This is more popcorn ceiling dust! ha!

OK, so today I got a lot of funny e-mails!

I Just HAD To Share This

I played trombone, but I never played it quite like this.

Albino Peacock

Seven Months and Counting

Today I begin my seventh month. I am 28 weeks along. I am feeling the baby move all the time now and it sure does kick sometimes. I also in the past few days have felt very tired. In the middle of the day it will just hit me like it is midnight or something and I must lie down. It is hard to believe that by the end of this month the baby will be about 3 pounds. In this picture I'm wearing my new shirt my mom bought for me. I call it my "African distraction shirt." It's supposed to make you look at my legs instead of my protruding stomach. Is it working? Naaa... and that's ok.

Baby Barreth Update

On Tuesday morning my family and I went to have a 4D ultrasound. What an amazing experience. (and NO we still don't know the sex of the baby) It's about 2 1/2 pounds I suppose and the lady said it had hair. She also said she could see it blinking. I couldn't see that though.

Doesn't this face look like Ben? I just hope it has his personality!





Look how it's smiling! The lady said that some babies do not smile but make the most awful faces when they are not happy. I'm hoping our little one will be happy. It sure has had lots of music to soothe it. My sister says this picture proves it has the Morris big lips.






You can see the arm and hand better in this one. It was moving around quite a bit the whole time. By the way, I saw a dimple in its chin.











It must like to cuddle up with its hand near to the face. These pictures made me very excited and I'm looking forward to holding it and getting to know if it is a boy or girl! God has blessed us so much and we are so grateful!!

Family Time

This week my parents, sister, niece and nephew and my brother came to visit. We did a lot of things for four days! I will post some movie clips I took from their visit later, but here are some still photos.

They got to see my choir sing. We sang a concert of all Irish music. In the picture I am the short one in the front middle right beside the harp. The other women in the choir are SO TALL!





Among other things we visited a restaurant with dinosaurs, shopped around, went to the river market, and we also visited this place. It's called Union Station and it is an old train station that they have restored. It's really beautiful inside and they have all kinds of exhibits and things to do. Here is the grand hall.














Ben and my brother decided to try out driving a segway. It looked like lots of fun! Doesn't Ben look cute in the helmet?

















While they rode around on their segways Clay and Chloe ran beside them. (great for burning off some energy) Here they all are. Chloe is saluting and Clay is acting silly.

Skidboot - this dog knows English!

Get ready for an emotional video. Both Meredith and I teared up on this one.