Busy Bee

That's exactly what I've been today. Travis went out of town today with his brother, Stephen, and his dad to work on his Grandpa Joe's farm. During Elizabeth's nap (around 10 a.m.), I watered the garden and picked peas. After she woke up, we ate some lunch with my mother-in-law and then shelled peas. We went from there to the liquor store (to get orange liquor for a recipe...no, not a drink recipe, either!) and HEB. After unloading the car and putting everything away, I made an excel sheet to keep up with who's-getting-what for Christmas. I should say we made an excel sheet because Elizabeth wanted to sit on my lap and help type the whole time! By that time she's getting fussy and hungry. I fed her a little and then gave her a bottle. Then I let her play with the bottle and she got soaked in milk! Bath time! After her bath (it's about 5:30 now), I put her in her crib to play while I picked up her room, got clothes out for tomorrow, and put her laundry away. She's had a long day and not much of a nap this afternoon, so she's really getting sleepy. As the angels were singing, the clock said 6:00 and she's asleep!! Oh, I am so lucky because I still have tons to do...

We have another Thanksgiving tomorrow and I'm bringing the sweet potatoes. Ok, no problem. Well, they usually have something to snack on before dinner, but it's usually shrimp or a crab dip. Since I can't go anywhere near those things, I decided to make a bacon cheese ball to take. No biggie, I'm up to 2 dishes. Well...I should bring a dessert, too. I've been wanting to try the Barefoot Contessa's recipe for Chocolate Orange Mousse. The recipe says that everything should be at room temperature, the eggs, the butter, and the chololate. Great. You have to get the chocolates hot to melt with the liquor (see, I told you it was for a recipe) and then let it cool down to room temp. How long is this going to take? So I did the heating up part and then was going to jump in the shower real quick while it was cooling...but, my landlady called and wanted to bring over some hot-out-of-the-oven apple pie. Crap. I'm naked! Throw on a robe, meet her at the door, talk for a second (which actually turns into a few long minutes) and then to my shower.

I end up working on all 3 dishes at the same time, because they all have a little down-time. I'm just glad I kept them all straight. My whipping cream was a little overbeat, but it doesn't taste like butter. And my egg whites were a little on the dry side, but everything was finally finished and I got to have a long waited for taste. Delicious!! (The angels sang a little chorus here, too, when I finally had it all finished!) All of the gently folding was soooo worth it! Oh, my goodness it took me a little over 3 hours to make everything! My poor feet are tired. Luckily I washed dishes as I went, or else I'd still be standing at the sink! Hopefully everyone will just love the things that I've made. If they don't, who cares! I get to bring it all home!!

I've got 2 baskets of laundry to fold and then it's to bed. Whew!

Sitting Up & Peek-A-Boo

We finally saw Elizabeth sit up all by herself today! It's so funny because it takes her what seems like forever to go from lying on the floor to sitting up. She is just getting so big and getting to be her own little person. The last few days she's also learned how to play peek-a-boo by herself. She's been playing when I hold a cover over me, but now she'll just grab anything that covers her face and want to play! Ooo, she's also started giving kisses and small quick hugs. Of course, a kiss right now is her coming at your cheek, mouth open, with drool, and a hug ends with a wad full of my hair coming out...but hey, it's a start! All of these changes and she just gets more and more fun everyday.

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and got stuffed! Hey, if we're miserable from eating too much, you all should be, too!!

Fixing Fence & Counting Trees

Elizabeth got her flu shot this morning. She cried a little because I was holding her arms and cried for a minute after the shot, but nothing horrible. She then took a nice long nap on our way to Danbury with Travis to check on the Chinese Tallow trees he's got planted for work.

It was nice to get out of the house today and Elizabeth was pretty good the whole trip. When we got there, there were 3 bulls inside the electric fence that surrounds the 7.5 acres of trees. So while Travis drove them out, Elizabeth & I put the insulators the bulls had knocked off of the rods back on and bent the rods back straight. While Travis walked the fence and put a gate in, Elizabeth played with the toys on her booster seat and I started counting trees for the plot map. After a few pictures for progress reports, we were back on our way home. It took us 2.5 hours to get there to do 2 hours of work, but hey, I get paid for it!! To get to spend the day out with Travis makes all of the driving worth it!

Nothing Exciting

Nothing really exciting happened today. Travis was out of town all day working in Weslaco and won't be home until 10 or so. Elizabeth was a pretty good girl all day. Ate all 3 solid food meals and hardly any fussing. I hope you all know I'm jixing it for tomorrow just to tell you this! I laid her down for a nap this morning and went back to check on here and there she was, just sitting up in her crib all by herself! Travis had seen this once before about a month ago, but she hadn't done it since and neither one of us have actually seen her go from a horizontal position to sitting up. I wish she would do it in front of me! I'd like to see it. She's getting so close to crawling, too. It's almost time for the baby gate to go up!

I watered the broccoli today and checked on my poppies. Travis & I planted 6 rows of poppies and all we've got coming up is a bunch of henbit! Grrrr... So I think we'll replant and hope that it's not too late for them to make in the spring. Speaking of things not making it are my onions. Boo! I'm not having much luck lately, but the onions will also get replanted and we'll hope for the best out of roughly 50 plants only about 8 survived. I'm going to buy a new bunch tomorrow and get them in the ground as quick as I can. I just hope the feed store still has some Texas 1015's. Mmmm...sweet onions.

Tomorrow Elizabeth gets her flu shot, so we'll see how she does with that. I'm not getting one and Travis won't either, but I think i'd just die if she didn't get one and then got the flu! Oh, I'd be such a bad mommy! So she's getting one, and it'll hurt...but then maybe she'll take a nice looonnnggg nap!!

In the Garden

We picked the garden last night and got our first little pumpkin! It matured way too late for Halloween, but just in time for Thanksgiving. The picture with me in it was taken a couple of weeks ago when it was warmer. I was transplanting broccolli Elizabeth was in her play pen fussing...she was very unhappy about not getting to be in the thick of things!

Here are a couple of pictures of Elizabeth with the little pumpkin and trying out the green beans. I'm sure they taste better cooked, but hey, at least she's eating her greens, right?!

Oops, my house is a mess!

My mom and dad are coming down for a short visit tomorrow (they are leaving Sunday afternoon) and my house is a mess! So today, I am cleaning!! Our house stays pretty picked up, it's just the vacuuming, mopping, and cleaning the bathrooms that I don't get to on a weekly (or even bi-weekly sometimes) basis. Oh, fun. And just last night Elizabeth decided to spit up all over her crib...even on the bumper pad...grrreeeaat.

I'm excited that my parents are coming since we haven't seen them in a few weeks and it really is my fault that I've procrastinated a little...well, all week... So, here's to hoping that Elizabeth will take a nap soon so I can be uber-productive!

If Everybody Jumped Off A Bridge...

No, I wouldn't do it! But Blogging isn't a bridge! I like keeping up with my family through their blogs and I hope that they'll like keeping up with us. So bear with me...here goes!