Education

School is starting up again on Thursday. My babiest girl is starting Kindergarten, and my big girl will be in 2nd grade. I can't believe it! Time goes so fast now, I sometimes don't know where the whole week has gone.
Today, we got to church about 45 minutes late. We caught a talk by a member of the congregation about how important education is. The Church teaches us that education is always beneficial. The only thing we take with us to the next life is what we have learned in this life, so anything we learn here can only be good. I remember once, talking to Aaron about my own education. I didn't have a clear goal, and I said that I didn't want to go to school and end up wasting an education, and he said that there was no such thing as a wasted education. I love that about him. Today, after church, he told me that he'd heard some political chatter about how college is not for everyone, and kind of discouraging people from going to school. Now, I know that college isn't for everyone, but I very much disagree with the notion that most people aren't cut out for a formal university education. I resent the notion that anyone's desire for an education is unfounded.
It's gotten me thinking. I always said that I'd go back to school once all our kids were in school. For a long time I didn't have a clear plan. Then, I did have a plan but I felt too overwhelmed to really think about what to do with it. When we moved to Georgia, Jack was brand new and most of that year is a complete blur. Plus, knowing that Georgia was temporary wasn't exactly motivating. Now, we're in Washington for at least three years. If Aaron ends up going Green to Gold, he's going to shoot for University of Washington (commonly referred to as U-Dub, of all things) here in Tacoma, which would give us 2 more years here. Now, I know I'll have Jack at home, but I have had a plan for about a year now, and I'm ready to make it happen. I'm jealous of all my friends who are taking online classes. I want to further myself. I've been thinking so much about my kids' education, which is a good thing, for sure, but I have been ignoring mine.
I want to be a Certified Professional Midwife. I want to help women birth at home if they so choose. I will need a Master's degree to do that. My Bachelor's will be in nursing. I want to become a nurse and work as a nurse for awhile in a hospital's ob ward, just because I think it'll only be beneficial to be well-rounded. I want to have the medical side and the natural side. After I've worked as a nurse for awhile, I'll go for my Master's and do whatever that entails to become a CPM. I think it's really really time for me to get back to school. I know there are programs for military dependents, and I'd like to take advantage of them, so anyone with experience in this area, your input will be really appreciated.
I'd also like to add that I want to become ASL certified in the process; that might be my first step. I love sign and I feel that having that certification will only help to make me more valuable in my field.

So that's my plan, and I'm ready to make it happen. Pray for me. It's been over five years since I stepped foot in a classroom that didn't have chairs that were only knee-high. I'm a little scared, a little nervous, and really really excited.

Wool Interlock Shorties

So about six months ago, I bought some 100% wool interlock and
then realized I was afraid of it and put it away. Last week I realized that all my PUL covers are uncomfortable for Jack and decided to switch completely to wool instead, so I figured now was as good a time as any to attempt some shorties for him. He's got 3 soakers; 2 Babyology and one JJBB interlock.
A long time ago, I believe my friend Juliea over at Gypsy Jewels posted a link to this blog that shows how to make a pair of pants out of a tee-shirt, and I tried it out and loved it. I was able to make a nice pair of stretchy pants with enough rise to cover his diaper! It was great.
So I was looking at Katrina's Pattern but I didn't know where my printer was to print out the template. I also found this blog with instructions on how to add an elastic waistband, so I kind of threw the t-shirt pattern and the elastic waistband together. The result was not as perfect as I'd like, but very decent for a first try, I'd say.
I used a pair of the baby's shorts to cut out the template, and left enough at the bottom for him to grow into. I also wanted them to be big enough to have some growing room. I also added an extra layer to the wet zone in the hopes that they would be nightworthy.


I cut a buttonhole in the waistband, as directed, and added some
3/4-inch non-roll elastic. They came out really well until the hem, which ruffled a bit more than I'd like. I think next time I'll just do the hem by hand.
I then used iDye in Gunmetal Grey, but I didn't have a pot and spoon that I could ruin, so I did them in the wash and they came out much lighter than anticipated:I still like them. They're really soft, and I threw them in the dryer and that was pretty awesome. I may re-dye them, but for now I'm pretty happy with them.

Here are some action shots:
I know where I made a few mistakes, so hopefully the next pair comes out lots better!

Randoms

I'm a terrible housekeeper. Most people know this about me and they either judge me for it or love me anyway. Maybe a combination of the two! Whenever we move, I re-pledge not to let it get that bad again, and each time I get a little better but not as good about it as I'd like. I refuse to be a slob. My house has been a disaster for weeks, and I just got up this morning and took on the downstairs. I made the girls help. They are really good little workers once you get them going! So the living room looks awesome, the play area just needs to be vacuumed, and then I'll tackle this kitchen! I hate a sticky floor. And all this with a sick baby and the worst cramps in the history of the universe. Now that it's served its purpose, I hate my uterus. I wish it would realize I'm done using it and it can just close up shop.

I miss my sister. She's 7 years older than I am, and she moved out when I was 8 or so. It was really hard to deal with that. I felt abandoned, and didn't realize at the time that it was exactly what she needed. Our home environment was not real conducive to her mental health. (That's a nice way of saying she was going nuts. Ha.) So for a long time, she kept treating me like a little kid, and I kept being afraid to stick up for myself because I was afraid she'd stop talking to me. I don't know why, I just was. When I got married, she came to the wedding and kept saying, "Someone's gonna be porkin' my little sister!" It was not at all embarrassing. So then when Aaron joined the Army, we were stationed three hours away from her, and I was so nervous about it. The funniest thing happened, though. She became my best friend. Something switched; maybe it was the fact that she went through a few years of nothing but changes, and needed someone and I was there. Maybe it was the fact that seeing me, living my life as an adult, made her realize that I was more than her baby sister. I don't know, but I do know that being stationed at Campbell was the best thing at the time, and I'm so grateful for the relationship we have now. I have other best friends, too; Laura, who I met at Campbell and is a darling, Tosha, who I've been friends with for ten years, Summer, who I met on Myspace and have only hooked up with twice but I can talk to her about anything and I know she'll listen and be supportive. But there is something very special about sharing blood with your best friend. I wish all sisters could know this bond we share. I miss her. While at Campbell we saw each other fairly often, every couple months at least. She drove down when Emily was burned. I drove up when Gracie was born. She drove down (about 18 times) when I was laboring with Jack. Almost got fired over it, even. Her manager told her, "It's not your responsibility to drive down there every time your sister 'thinks' she's in labor." And Teresa said, "You're obviously not a part of my family." Damn, I love her. I haven't seen her since June when Jack was 3 weeks old. I haven't seen my niece. They are coming to visit in November, and I'm so excited, but some days I miss them so much it's all I can do not to cry. My heart needs a seester hug.

November is also going to be amazing because my niece, Rhiannon, and her mother Patty are coming to visit me. I have never met either of them. Rhiannon's dad is my half-brother Josh, who I've also never met. Much drama entails that story so I won't get into it, but I can't freaking wait! Rhiannon is going to have her 17th birthday here. They're only coming for a few days, but I am so excited I could poop myself. It's going to be wonderful.

I miss Aaron when he's not here. It doesn't matter if it's a day, a week, or a month. (I can't say year because we've never been apart that long, but I have a feeling someday we will have to.) No matter how long he's gone, my heart aches till he's home. I don't feel whole without him.

I labeled and packed up all the girls' school supplies today. Still have to get Emily a pencil sharpener; that's the only thing we forgot. I can't believe she's in 2nd grade, and Libby is in Kindergarten. The time, she flies. Libby's so cute with her giant bag full of pencils and junk!
Also, I would sell my soul for some brownies right now. I'm not even kidding.

Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad Sandwiches

Boy, is it just me or is that really long? Anyway, this is kind of semi-homemade. My husband loves chicken Caesar but it doesn't really fill him up. So I thought I'd make sandwiches, using cheesy garlic bread. Sounds nom, right? Not, I wanted to marinate the chicken but I didn't really think the creamy Caesar dressing would work well. So I opened her up and sniffed it and then concocted a marinade. So these measurements are very approximate.

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
EVOO
2-4 cloves chopped garlic
salt
cracked black pepper
1/4 cup or so of red wine vinegar (lemon juice would also be good, or a combination of the two)`
1/2-1 tsp dry mustard
1/4-1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp dried thyme, crushed
2-3 tsp onion powder
3 romaine hearts
Caesar dressing (I like Kraft.)
1-2 loaves frozen Pepperidge Farm garlic bread. I like the five cheese.

Whisk together everything between EVOO and the onion powder. Pour over the trimmed up chicken breasts in a gallon sized Ziploc bag and stick it in the fridge for a day or two. It helps if you stab a few holes in the chicken breasts (and it's fun too.) Also, put the bag in a big bowl so it doesn't leak chicken juice all over teh bottom of your fridge.
Preheat your oven to 375.
Preheat a grill pan over medium-high heat. If you use cast iron, it'll infuse some extra iron into your food! Just a lil tidbit. Make sure your grill is good and hot so you get those nice lines. Then, transfer your chicken titties to an oven-safe pan (I used a cast-iron skillet that's older than I am,) stick a meat thermometer in there that'll go off when the chicken gets to 175-180*. When the timer goes off, take teh chicken out to rest a bit and turn the oven up to 400. Put the bread in.
Wash the romaine and cut it up for the salad, and toss with the dressing in a big bowl. Now, I stopped here, cut up my chicken, and served the salad with the bread on the side. But you could also toast the bread for just a minute or two longer and then make giant, delicious sammitches. The choice is yours. Let me know if you try out this recipe!

August 2010

So I haven't blogged in what feels like a million years, but my good friend April requested an update, so here it is. I have started a few times, but felt somewhat anti-climactic. Moving can be that way. You have the stress and excitement of finding a place to live, reserving the moving company, and all that jazz and then once you get there it's just like, Oh. Well, time to unpack of a bunch of boxes now. Fun. But we are settling in. Slowly. I've actually kind of lost my forward momentum, which I attribute to two things. First, I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of CRAP that we own. I thought I'd gotten rid of a lot, but there is much more work to be done. Second, Aaron has been working almost nonstop the last few weeks, to prepare for a 3-week training mission that he leaves for on Tuesday. Hopefully, after that, we will get to enjoy what I think of as "real" SF Support, which is a lot of long weekends and short days. We like this. So my plan is to put all my boxes in the garage so the area I'm in all the time looks decent and then just unpacking a box a day. Eventually it will become necessary to get some storage bins and shelving for the garage. It'll be slow, but some momentum is better than none.
I love my house, by the way. We have this huge, bright, eat-in kitchen with tons of counterspace and cabinets. We have a living room and a play area, and each of the kids have their own room (even if Jack sleeps with us, haha.) Two full baths, and a half-bath downstairs. It's really nice, but I miss having a yard. Someday soon I hope to live somewhere that doesn't share walls with strangers.
Aaron's doing well in his job. When he first arrived at this unit, he was assigned as a section sergeant, which is pretty cool for a new sergeant. He was told that they thought he'd been an NCO for awhile, which doesn't surprise me. He's a natural-born leader. He's got three soldiers under him, and is responsible for 9 billion dollars worth of equipment. Half of it doesn't work, hence the long long days, but it's still pretty great. He seems to enjoy his colleagues for the most part, and being in the position to him seems to come naturally. I'm very proud of him. He worried, at first, that giving him a leadership position was to set him up, but it doesn't seem that way. They want to send him to WLC in October and then to the board shortly after that. We may see E-6 before long!

I am really enjoying the weather. It's so nice and cool here, and the overcast really doesn't even bother me. It's so cool that most of the homes up here don't have air conditioning. Growing up in Houston and then living the rest of my life in the South, this was completely unbelievable to me, but it's true that you don't really need it. There are so many trees here. The air tastes different. People are really nice, and there's a 10% LDS population, which is the most concentration I've ever experienced. It makes me more aware of myself and helps me to behave. :) I have met a few really nice people at church. I have adopted a practice: when I go to a new ward, I try and leave myself very open to impressions about people. In the past, when I've done this, and then followed the impressions I get, I am not disappointed. If I have the urge to say hello to someone, then I do it. I have a playdate scheduled for this week with a woman I was impressed to talk to. She seems very sweet and I'm excited to get to know her better. I still miss Steven's Creek like you wouldn't believe, but I think that ward will forever be the standard that all other wards are compared to. Steven's Creek felt like home. This ward is very nice, too, though. Also, some friends from Campbell, the Allens, are here. It's really nice to get to hang out with people who are comfortable. They also did us a HUGE service when all the moving BS was going down. Without Travis, this whole situation would have been even worse. Hard to imagine, but it's true. I also need to find my local LLL! Plus, I have several friends I've known online for years but never met that live in this area, so that's really exciting. I'm especially excited about meeting Kaaren in real life. She is this sweet, wonderful person I met online when Aaron and I were dating. We wrote while she was on her mission, been there for each other through a lot of rough times, and I can't wait to hang out with her. A part of me is afraid I won't be what she expected and she'll be disappointed, but I think that's just my insecurity and the fact that I think she's so great.
The kids are doing great. Emily and Libby want to play outside with the neighborhood kids alllll the time, haha. There's a little wooded area near the playground that they love because there are fruit trees and they can do a little exploring. School doesn't start till September 2 and I need to get on top of getting birth certificates and vaccine exemptions which I definitely need to do. I'm excited that they have had such a nice long summer vacation. They love having their own rooms again, and we have lots of decorating plans! Libby wants her room painted purple, and we're going to make Emily's room all polka dots.
Jack has gotten used to the stairs. When he comes down, he kind of slides down on his belly. It's hilarious. He fell down them once, but he was alright. I kind of think that I fall down the stairs sometimes, too. It's just part of having stairs. He's more careful now.

Someday I will post pictures of the house. I thank you all for reading, and I will do my best to get caught up on all your blogs soon. I miss you!

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

This is so good. It's adapted from a recipe in Better Homes & Gardens, and today I just layered it like a lasagna because I forgot to heat up the tortillas and they were stiff and cracked. It was sooo good, and my kids loved it! (Which is super rare.)

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2-1 chopped onion
3 good-sized garlic cloves
a few tbsp. EVOO
1 bell pepper, chopped
3 oz cream cheese, softened
1 tbsp. milk
a little bit of ground cumin
a couple handfuls of fresh spinach, chopped
corn tortillas
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 8-ounce carton of sour cream
1 cup milk
shredded "fiesta" cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the chicken and toss with salt, pepper, and a tiny bit of cumin (a little goes a very long way), then cook over medium to medium-high heat along with the onion, garlic, and bell pepper.
Meanwhile, stir together the cream cheese and 1 tbsp milk with about a 1/4 tsp. cumin. Then add the chicken and veggies. For traditional enchiladas, warm the tortillas roll up about 3 tsp. of the filling mixture in each, and place seam down in a greased baking dish. For the layered kind, cut the tortillas in half and layer like a lasagna. Then, for the sauce, combine the soup, milk, and sour cream in a bowl and pour over the top. Cover the pan with foil and bake in a 350* oven for 30-35 minutes, then remove and cover the top with cheese, then return the pan to the oven to melt the cheese for a few minutes. You can serve with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes on top, I bet that'd be really good.

The Plan.

May 21--Em's last day of school.
May 22--Daddy flies in from Houston.
May 23-27--Pack up the POD and clean up the house.
May 28--Hop in the car and head to southern Indiana to visit my sister.
June 1--Head to Campbell.
June 2 (maybe 3)--Head to Texas.
June 15--AARON!!!
June 21--Head to Washington.
June 27--Arrive in Washington.
June 30--Our 9th anniversary.
July 3--Lilith Fair.


Wow, this summer's going to leave me exhausted.