Team Blue!

So just in case you haven’t already heard… baby# 2 is officially on Team Blue! I personally was very surprised when the ultrasound tech told us we were having another boy, I had thought all throughout this pregnancy that it was a girl. Goes to show that I have absolutely no intuition at all!

Nevertheless, we are very excited that Donovan will have a brother to share his life with! I suppose its very fitting that I am going to be having 2 sons, as I was always the tomboy growing up, caring more about soccer and tagging along with Damon then dolls and makeup! It’s a very good thing we have a large backyard so that the boys will have a place to run off all that energy!

As far as we know, everything anatomy wise looked good! Baby is measuring almost a full week ahead which makes for a nervous mama when labor and delivery comes around! I did 92 hours last time, I can do 92 hours again! (ok, hopefully it doesn’t last that long this time!)

Please help us come up with some names for Baby #2! Justin is stuck on the name Tyler but we would like some alternatives! Suggest them either here or on FB or you can email them to me at WNTfanM9@msn.com!

Hope all is well with you all!

Its been a while....

Fall is here! I always judge Fall’s arrival by the appearance of Pumpkin Spiced Lattes at my local Starbucks. I’ve been trying to be good with my Starbucks allowance, but when you’re tired from first trimester hormones, a pumpkin spiced latte is just what I need to help me start my day.

Oh you didn’t know I was in my first trimester? Surprise! Donovan is going to be a big brother! My due date is March 18, 2011, just one day after my mom’s birthday. I guess Justin and I have a knack for planning babies near relatives’ birthdays! Anyways, since this the last baby that will “Spring from my loins” I am trying to enjoy this last pregnancy and not gripe so much about the aches and pains; regardless of how much time I’ve been spending staring at the inside of a toilet bowl lately.

Despite not writing for a very long time, not much has changed around here. We spent a few days at Lake Chelan with Justin’s family, sun, water, and camping; always a good combination. Unfortunately for me, I spent most of the days lounging in a chair, trying not to throw up my stomach contents (Do you see a pattern emerging around here?) Donovan fell asleep on the boat almost every time, something about the purr of a motor and the motion of the waves lulls that little man to sleep! We had a great time and hope to do it again next summer.

We also spent almost a full week up at the Whistler Condo, a time spent walking, swimming, and generally just being lazy. It was GREAT! Donovan loved swimming for the first time and they have a great children’s play ground right outside our door. We didn’t really do much outside of that, but just being away from work and home made for a great vacation.
I will try to update this blog more often, don’t hold your breath though…life is always crazy in the Avara house!

A wonderful weekend

First off: Wow. That was a horrible game for the Sounders, losing to the L.A.Galaxy 0-4. I think I have seen some youth teams organize the field better than what the Sounders did on Saturday. In a bright spot for me, Landon scored one goal and had three assists. Not too shabby!

I’m not going to talk anymore about the game because it really was dismal. The rest of Saturday really was fantastic though, it was nice to spend a full day with Justin, just the two of us. That hasn’t happened for over a year. My parents took Donovan for the day and Justin and I were free as birds to roam as we pleased. We ran to Southcenter mall and picked up a Sounders FC jersey for Justin, went to the game, bought a new WII game (Mario Bros) got some Ban minh, and then worked in the yard a little bit. The weather was fantastic and we even got a bit of color from being outside!

As great as the day was, spending it with Justin, I missed Donovan from the minute we dropped him off. One kind of gets attached to the little guy, I mean he’s so cute and cuddly and likes to make you smile.

Mother’s Day was very laid back. Justin was amazing and let me sleep in a little and then made me “Eggy in a basket”. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a piece of seasoned grilled French bread with an egg cooked into the a hole in the middle. Its delicious stuff! Then Donovan and I headed off to my parents where we ate some delicious food courtesy of my brother. He made handmade ricotta ravioli with English green peas, pancetta, morel mushrooms and sage browned butter. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

After lunch, Donovan got to play with Maya and Kona, surprisingly doing very well! Usually he is afraid of those big, black, slobbery beasts, but yesterday he was laughing at their antics and didn’t mind one bit if he got sprayed by a swinging wet tail, or kissed by a slobbery tongue. It was cute, I should have brought the Nikon but obviously wasn’t thinking. He also had a lovely time walking (ok tripping) up and down the deck stairs. A very Happy happy boy!

After a lovely dinner with my family of Provincial Leg of lamb, roasted potatoes with garlic and mustard and sautéed Brussels sprouts, Justin and I took a very exhausted little man home for bed.

26 years

So I will officially be in my late twenties come Wednesday. I know everyone says that 26 is still mid-twenties, but I beg to differ. To celebrate my late twenties, here are a list of things that I am proud of over my past 26 years.

*Played way too many sports; included in this list: Soccer (duh), horses (Duh), gymnastics, water polo, basketball, softball, volleyball, and ice skating. Unfortunately, I was not very good at any one sport.

*Got to meet and hang out with some cool people; Landon Donovan, Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, Brandi Chastain, and Kristine Lilly are just a few of them.

*Traveled. I’ve been to Canada, Belgium, Denmark, and France. I hope to add to this list in the future.
Future Travel List: Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, England, Scotland, Italy, Portugal, Greece, China and Japan.

Within the United States, I have been to: WA, OR, ID, CA, NV, AZ, MT, WO, WY, CO, TX, IL , WV, NC, FL, MD, DL, DE, MA, AK, and HI. That’s a lot of states.

*I have a Associates degree from Highline, and a Bachelor’s degree from Central Washington University

At the top of all the things I am proud of, I am most proud that I am married to a wonderful man, have a beautiful, healthy, son, and live in our own home which we unfortunately have to pay the mortgage on.

All in all, I believe that I have lived well my past 26 years. I hope to continue this trend, Life isn’t even half over yet..

Goodbye for now,
Stacy

Pioneer Woman

…Is Effing Amazing! Excuse my French, but seriously, I truly aspire to be as creative and wonderful as she is! Ok, so maybe I don’t want four kids, but I wouldn’t mind living on a cattle ranch, riding horses every day (Sailor would have to be kept in an arena safe from the *Scary* cows), making scrumptious food, and documenting daily life with a camera.

I met her on Saturday April, 17 after a short wait in a long line with many other Pioneer Woman fans. I made the trek up to Lake City with Donovan, my mom, and my old co-worker Emiko; I felt like I was 13 again when I met Mia Hamm (I really miss those days with the WNT!)

Our anticipation built as we saw countless numbers of women holding PW’s cook book in the crook of their arms, chattering excitedly about the event. Emiko, Donovan, and I waited in line and we chatted it up with the ladies around us. Ironically, one of those ladies happen to be one of the mom’s I used to be on a message board with, but we didn’t find this out until later! Donovan had a great time charming the ladies and getting a chance to roll around on carpeted floor, a vast improvement over his everyday life on hardwoods!

So finally the moment came to meet PW and let me tell you, she is beautiful! I’m serious, I hope to look that good in 5 years, not to mention 15! By then I’ll have probably let myself go with platters of bacon and Gilmore Girl reruns, be as big as a house and have to shave my head because never bothered to pull a brush through it!

Ok getting back on topic. PW and I chatted about the origin of Donovan’s name and smiled and Emiko took pictures. There isn’t one of us posing because, yeah I get embarrassed by posing and much rather have candid pictures taken. Let’s be honest, I was kinda haggard looking from the book store heat and I have yet to lose the baby tummy. I didn’t want to be the sore spot in the picture next to PW’s glory! I will post pictures as soon as I have time to pull them off the Nikon, but I have been super busy the last couple of days with Pony surgery (it was gross, you don’t want to hear about it!) and other life adventures.

Meeting PW was the highlight of month, maybe even the next couple of months. If I get tickets to the Sounders FC vs LA Galaxy game for my birthday, that might top it, but still, PW Rocks! (hint hint Justin if you are reading this! You only have 2 weeks left!)

Thanks for reading the ramblings!

Oh hips, how I loathe thee

Attempting to lose weight sucks.

At least if you are a woman. I’m sure if Justin tried to lose weight, testosterone would kick in and he would lose a couple of pounds after just thinking about it for a few minutes.

I on the other hand, have issues.

I have been eating healthy, drinking water, and exercising twice a day x 5 days a week.

Result?

+4lbs. Really? Are you sure?

I know that to lose weight, you have to gain muscle first. But it seems that every time I step on the scale, I see the numbers go up and I think what is the use? I might as well sit on my ass and munch on bacon all day while watching Gilmore Girls reruns

At least that would be a lot more enjoyable.

I’ve lost sight of my weight lose goals, all I see is platters of bacon. Who cares if I gain or lose weight, I’m married.

Justin will just have to suffer.

No more planes for a while

I’m back and we survived. Barely.

Messy boy did amazingly well on the way down to Sacramento. His little eyelids shut themselves on takeoff and didn’t open until about an hour into the flight. When he woke up, he played with pretzels and drank watered down orange juice. Not too shabby for a 14 month old!

My ma ma and fashion-savy brother picked us up from the Airport and we were off to my Grandparents house. Now my Grandparents have lived in the same house for as long as I can remember. I spent summers tanning myself on their back lawn and sleeping in the same hard twin bed, it hasn’t changed. Now I love my grandmother to bits, but let’s put some things out into open, just to clear some things up. According to grandma, Donovan is super cute because all mixed marriage children are. My brother needs to get married before she dies. And I look pregnant.

Yes you did read that last according-to-grandma-factoid correctly. I guess I need to start running again, stop eating junk food, and stop eating PW recipes. Yes to the first, yes to the second, and a HELL NO to the third. I’ll suffer with being fat. Hopefully one of these days I will actually be expecting and therefore looking pregnant would be acceptable. But until then, I’m simply going to work out to compensate for eating good food. I’m not 18 anymore with the stamina of a college soccer player AND I pushed a watermelon out last year. The cutest watermelon you will ever see, so my tiger striped, saggy belly is worth it. Maybe when I’m finished carrying babies in my womb, I’ll work on the getting back to my 18 year old’s body. Yeah right.

Oh yeah, back to the California trip.

We ate dinner with the family at my uncle’s house, consumed calories equal to Bill Gate’s bank account, and drove home with one VERY VERY tired messy boy. He didn’t go to sleep until 11:00, I believe this was the beginning of the end.

We woke up the next day, power showered and went back to my uncle’s for my grandmother’s 3 year service. The minister came to the house and gave a service right in the living room, chanting and all. When I was small, I didn’t understand Buddhist beliefs, what was all this crap about enlightenment and suffering? Now that I am older, I appreciate the traditions and beliefs of Buddhism, even if I don’t practice on a regular basis.

So after some more food with the family, pictures, and feeding my child an entire slice of apple time, it was nearly time to go home.

The plane ride home was HELL.

I mean that in the nicest possible fashion. I love my little man and I am so happy that he charmed up the passengers before getting on the plane because he would have likely ended up tied to the wing otherwise. I’m not going to go into details because it will just make my anxiety rise again, lets just say it took everything in me to remain calm and patient. 1 ½ hour flight and 2 temper tantrums later, we landed in Seattle where Xbox man picked us up and whisked myself and bawling, cranky messy boy home.

I think when we travel to Texas in October, Xbox man gets to deal with Messy boy and I’m going to sit in first class and drink my champagne.

I'm going to need a valium

Its Wednesday. Its not even the end of the week yet. I’m exhausted.

Its not like there is anything stressful going on in our lives, work is still work, home is still home. Messy Boy woke up three time last night. Teething I think. I made caramelized onion and prosciutto pizza last night, ode to Pioneer Woman. I also went to sleep around ten, I think it’s the earliest I’ve gone to bed in the past year.

I don’t know why I am so tired, but gosh darn it, I feel like I could sleep for the next decade! I need to snap out of it, drink some more Starbucks and jump start my ass. This coming Saturday I am going to attempt to take Messy Boy to California with me, a trip consisting of 2-2 hour plane rides. I must be nuts. I must be out of my horse-loving mind. I’m gonna need some coffee. I need suggestions on how to keep Messy Boy entertained on the plane, I REALLY don’t want to be tarred and feathered by my fellow passengers. Preferably these suggestions will not include tying the boy up and gagging him for the duration of the trip; I don’t want CPS called on me either. Messy Boy really is the sweetest boy imaginable. If you haven’t met him yet, he is an angel with liquid brown eyes with eyelashes as thick as a winter storm. I love him with all my heart, but as with all children, he does get loud and he does cry. Both things which are not kosher to most passengers on planes.

Did I mention the TWO hour flight? It could be worse, but with my current level of exhaustion, it still is daunting.

Someone help me. Please. I’m begging.

Ode to Pioneer woman

I am going to take a break from our regularly scheduled blogging to rave about someone who I have come to idolize over the past few weeks: Pioneer Woman.

This woman is fricking genius.

Seriously.

I aspire to be just like her in a couple of years…with a little Asian flavor of course. Though I don’t know if I can quite pull off the fabulous red hair and I’m quite sure that Justin would not appreciate being called Marlboro man. With all that aside, I can rock the stick straight brown hair and call him “Xbox man”.

Sounds kind of geeky you say?

Too bad, I can’t think of anything better. From here on out, Justin will formally be known as Xbox man.

Donovan will hence forth be called “Messy boy”. Simply because he is always in some state of a mess, peanut butter and jelly are the usual suspect. I find things in his hair at bath time that I don’t even remember feeding him. I don’t know where that boy gets his genes from….I’m going to go with Xbox man.

I can’t think of some trendy, catchy name like “Pioneer Woman” for myself. I’ll need suggestions. Until then, I will just sign everything “Sleep deprived, coffee loving, overworked, underpaid, mother of one; formally known as “OH NO!” Please someone give me some suggestions, that’s a pain the patootie to type all of that.

And while I don’t live on some fabulous cattle ranch with horses and dogs, I do live on a quarter acre behind Barnes and Nobles. As for the cattle, I will settle on trying to corral bipolar horse (aka: Sailor), one 14 month old boy, fat cat (Maui), and crazy (Pele). So in my own suburban fashion, I do kind of live on a ranch.

Not really. But I do aspire to be like her. In all her awesomeness.

I’m making red onion and prosciutto pizza tomorrow, for messy boy and Xbox man.

See, its already started.

Signing off,
Sleep deprived, coffee loving, overworked, underpaid, mother of one; formally known as “OH NO!”

Brrrr! its cold in here!

Wow, the last week or so has been crazy, I don’t know what more to say about it. This is just a short recap:
Last Wednesday, I woke up with soot in my nose, was planning on calling Justin later on in the day to call a repairman to look at our furnace. I got a call in the morning at work from Justin saying that our house was full of black smoke and that he was woken up by the carbon monoxide alarm. SCARY! Justin is a heavy sleeper and I don’t even want to think about what could have happened to the two of them, had the alarm not gone off. Long story short, everyone is ok but now we need to replace our furnace. Not so good, especially since I just filled the oil tank! We are going to convert to gas as it is actually less inexpensive than replacing our old oil furnace.
So as of right now, our house is an average of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit with two oil space heaters running in the bedrooms, ITS COLD. If you would like to donate firewood to our cause, please let me know! ;) I am very thankful that no one got sick or hurt AND that we don’t live in a place where the snow is lingering.
Donovan and I were supposed to go to Vancouver with my parents on Saturday but with traveling restrictions we were unable to go. I had to have had a signed and notarized letter from Justin saying that I was not abducting my child. I know these things actually occur, but really? Next time I go across the border with Donovan, I’m going to wear a ninja outfit just because I feel like it!
Donovan and Justin have little cold, complete with runny noses and constant hacking. I, on the other hand, am still healthy. Weird, usually I am the first person in the house to get sick! I really hope that the temperature of the house has nothing to do with the sickness, but I have a nagging feeling that it does.
Well I’m off to do some actual work at my job, wish me luck in finding some!

Cooking with Julia

Last night I spent almost four hours creating Beouf Bourguignon, a famous Julia Child creation that was immortalized in the movie Julia and Julia.

A few lessons that I learned while cooking this legendary dish:
1. Read the recipe ALL the way through before even thinking about turning on the burner. If I had followed this elementary rule of cooking, I would have saved myself some tense moments and realized that I was missing half of the recipe! (I enlisted Justin to search the interwebz for the missing half of the recipe). This simple step would have also brought to light that I didn’t have enough beef stock, nor did I have a bay leaf. This was solved by substituting more red wine (I used a whole bottle!) and sprinkling Italian seasoning on top of the stew. Shameful I know.

2. Browning stew meat in bacon fat smells amazing but leaves a mess that is a hassle to clean up later. I think I still have bacon grease on my kitchen FLOOR!

3. Do not try to make two meals at the same time. I made filet mignon for dinner at the same time as the Beouf Bourguignon and it was difficult to coordinate the two, not to mention a hungry, whiney toddler in the high chair next to me!

The ingredients seemed basic, the instructions looked simple. However, while I was standing in Safeway’s meat aisle, I suddenly realized that I had no clue what in the heck a bacon rind was. I suppose I could have gone to an actual butcher’s shop to find proper bacon for the recipe, but seeing as I am a full time working mother, a half of slab of bacon from my freezer was deemed appropriate.

In light of my bacon discovery, I decided to take a few short cuts during the cooking process, hopefully Julia didn’t mind. Instead of boiling the bacon first, I just decided to brown it in a pan as I usually would. The reality is, I’m not a complete foodie and have no clue what boiling the bacon first is supposed to accomplish. Someone, please tell me. I also ignored the instructions on how to sauté the onions, I just used a little butter and actually lost count of how many onions I used. The recipe calls for 15-18 small onions and that just seemed like a lot to me. Instead of bringing the stock, wine, and meat to a simmer on the stove, I just shoveled it into my borrow Rachel Ray casserole dish and placed it in the oven; the extra step seemed superfluous.
So 2 ½ hours later, after eating the neglected filet mignon and putting my sleepy child to bed, the Beouf Bourguignon was finally done. It smelled amazing and after a tiny portioned taste test, I finally left it to cool (and later be put in the refrigerator by Justin) and went to bed.

In hindsight, although Julia had good intentions to help housewives learn to cook French recipes, I don’t think this recipe was intended for today’s housewives. You know, the ones that work 40-50 hours a week, come home, take care of the children, cook dinner, and try to have a life. We just don’t have 4 hours a day to cook dinner for our husbands. All in all, this was a good experience, but maybe better left to an occasion that is special in meaning or when I have the need to impress someone with my “Skillz”.
Tomorrow nights dinner? Takeout!

Stir fry made easy!

Food is life. This simple statement summarizes my upbringing. My mother is an amazing cook and I owe her everything for teaching me to be a good cook (and to not chop off my fingers). Stir fry is my fall back dish. When I'm exhausted and burnt out from 8 hours of work and a little boy that just won't quit, this is the dish I make to save myself a lot of trouble. Its easy, I swear.

By the way, I don't use recipes. I tend to cook by taste and whatever meat and vegetables I have in my refrigerator.

1. Use garlic and lots of it! A couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil and chopped or sliced garlic. Easy no?

2. Brown your favorite meat, sliced thinly. Here I use boneless chicken breast that I defrosted out of our freezer.

3. After the meat is thoroughly cooked, add your favorite vegetables. I always like to use any combination of onions, bok choi, bell peppers, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, celery, and cabbage. Use whatever you happen to have, remember, we are keeping this dish simple! Here is my favorite mushroom to use, bunashimeji. You can find these in Asian food marts and are simple to use. Simply wash, cut off the bottom that connects all the mushrooms and voila!

4. I use three seasonings to flavor my stir fry: Soy sauce(shoyu), oyster sauce, and sesame oil. All these are added to taste, but go easy, you can always add more but you can't take them out!

5. Finish cooking vegetables and your done! Seriously easy? You betcha! Just serve over steamed rice or cooked noodles and enjoy! I hope you have a chance to try this out, you will be surprised over how simple and delicious this dish is!

This will be my second attempt to document all the craziness that is my life. We have survived our first year with a child, purchased our first home, and have two new jobs. Our lives change every day and I hope that I can use this blog as a tool to help document everything from daily life to new recipes to crazy adventures! With a toddler and two adults just along for the ride, there should not be a lack of entertainment! Thank you for following my blog and keep tuned in for updates!