• 12 needle sticks in my arms, hands and wrists
• 11 awesome friends that came to visit me in the hospital, thanks!
• 10 different nurses who cared for me during my extended stay
• 9 meals I rotated through from the cafeteria’s menu…and the food was pretty good!
• 8 loooooooong days in the hospital
• 7 more days of ‘anti-contraction’ medication
• 6 extra, unplanned visits to both my doctors
• 5 medications to take everyday – one of them a shot in the stomach twice a day. Blah!
• 4 weeks total of mandatory bed rest (unless Baby decides to appear sooner)
• 3 DVD’s about childbirth, breastfeeding and infant care to watch before baby comes
• 2 little arms punching me in the belly button & 2 little legs kicking me in the bladder
• 1 cute little sock that I can’t wait to put on her foot

The past 6 weeks have been a challenge. I started having horrible headaches, then got sick with a sinus infection, went in to preterm labor that landed me in the hospital for a week and now I am on bed rest for three weeks. Phew! This is a good time for me to catch up on my blogging – and I have about five or six posts that I need to do : ) So here is the first of a string of many.

Greasy Tacos
Mmmm, mmmm, good! My mom would make tacos when we were young and I always loved them. She would lightly fry corn tortillas and we would stuff ‘em the way we liked them. That was how I knew tacos. I have never been a fan of hard taco shells for several reasons (that I won’t go into now), so now that I’m all grown up and married I make greasy tacos, too!

My Mother told me she also grew up on greasy tacos, too, thanks to her Father who happens to be from Mexico. I wonder if that is why I also grew up eating a lot of beans! Chime in on this discussion, Mom.

I use a small cast iron skillet, lightly oiled, to fry the corn tortillas for about 60 seconds on each side. Once I flip the tortilla once I add cheese and allow it to get all gooey and melted. I place the tortillas on paper towels to soak up excess oil then top with whatever I like. So good. You need to try it. I promise you that you will not be disappointed.

Five years ago I was taught how to (properly) make whole wheat bread. And when I say whole wheat bread I mean not using a drop of white flour. I had attempted whole wheat a few times many, many years ago and ended up with wheat bricks. My next attempt was the type of whole wheat bread recipe that used half white flour. And that just does not count.

So here it is, a mouthwatering picture of my whole wheat bread (that I can eat now that I’m over most of my preggie sickness – finally!) and the recipe for you to try:

Ingredients:

• 6 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup gluten flour
• 1 ¼ Tbsp active dry yeast
• 2 ½ cups hot water
• 2/3 cup honey (may use 1/3 also, but the more the better)
• 1/3 cup oil
• 1 ¼ Tbsp lemon juice (enhances dough)
• 1 Tbsp salt

Tips: follow the directions exactly. Gluten flour needs to be refrigerated to keep freshness.

Directions:

• Grease 2 bread pans using non-stick cooking spray.
• Combine 3 cups of wheat flour, gluten, yeast and warm water. Mix for 1 minute. Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Add salt, oil, honey and lemon juice. Mix for 1 minute. Add remaining flour, 1 cup at a time.
• Mix for 10 minutes. While dough is mixing, turn oven to warm (200 degrees).
• Turn oven off when dough is done mixing.
• Place dough on greased counter. Divide to make loaves and place in greased pans.
• Place pans in warm oven and let rise (double in size, about 30 – 40 minutes).
• Bake on 350 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes or until tops have browned.

*optional: brush butter on top of baked loaves as soon as you take out of the oven. Not only does it add flavor but it keeps the tops soft and not hard and crunchy. Spray butter works well too (that is what I use – no fat, but all the flavor).

WHEN I KNOW IT’S TIME FOR A HAIR CHOP

Sometimes long hair gets in my way when I sleep; it gets CAUGHT UNDER MY ARMS, it’s in my husband’s face, it it’s in a ponytail or in a tight bun, but then it’s annoying when I lay on the pillow and there is a LARGE BUMP in my way.

When a  PONYTAIL becomes my everyday ‘do’ and having it down is annoying then it’s time for the scissors to pay a visit and do some snipping.

Using a flat iron on extremely long hair is time consuming, and I didn’t want my time consumed by my hair.

And when my hair is CURLY I can’t brush through it without ripping out half of it.

Because of the large amount of time I have spent swimming my ends got dry, brittle and turned a different color than my roots. Ew. I hate that.

My husband can’t play with long, tangled hair. Not fun for HIM. Not fun for ME.

I go through this about every two years. I grow my hair out and keep it that way for a couple of years then chop it. This time I said goodbye to 10 inches and it feels so good

Where have I been? Since everyone has been asking, I’ll tell you: making bread while I bake my bun. Three two-loaf batches in 10 days, that is. I even went to a friend’s house and taught her how to make bread and after it was done she said “I love you and I hate you”. I understand. It’s a great skill but then if you are anything like me you’ll eat it all. Really. Fast.

So here is my bread along with a recipe that you can try. Oh, I must not forget to add the Raspberry Jam that everyone has been asking me about, too. Good stuff. Bon appetit!

Traditional White Bread

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour

Directions

1. In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in warm water, and then stir in yeast. Allow to proof for 5-7 minutes, or until yeast is a creamy and foamy.
2. Add salt and oil into the yeast.
3. Mix in flour one cup at a time until flour in fully incorporated and dough is smooth.
4. Place in a well oiled bowl. Cover bowl with a cloth & allow to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
   Remove and punch the dough down into the bowl.
5. Divide the dough in half, shaping one piece at a time into loaves and placing into well oiled 9×5 loaf pans.
6. Allow to rise for 40 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F  for 30 minutes.
7. Remove pans from the oven and brush with butter. Remove from pans and cool on a cooling rack.

Raspberry Butter

(original recipe from AllRecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 1 stick butter, room temperature
• 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons raspberry jam/preserves

Directions

Mix all ingredients. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Remember the fancy burp cloths? This is the fancy card that went with the cloths. And now I am working on more burp cloths (which by the way, have received a lot of positive feedback about starting a company called “Burp In Style”).  With all these fun little projects in the pipeline I kinda started thinking that I should probably register. I had a lot of friends ask me where I was registered and I have not yet. Nor was I planning on it until October. Apparently that is much too late.

Me and the hubby spent two nights this week at Target looking at and scanning baby stuff. Both nights were at different stores and both stores had different things. Both stores had one wrist rattle (boo!), and neither store had the bottles that I wanted. I wasn’t sure to just scan a bunch of things or just one of a few things. When it came to baby clothes the hubby and I decided that it wasn’t worth registering for because that specific little pink shirt would probably not be there in a month or two. So I suppose that we accomplished Phase 1 of baby registering (which has been way harder than registering for our wedding). Phase 2 will have to come later. I need some time to figure out what it is that I really need to register for in the first place. Any suggestions? I’m open.

Years ago I noticed a woman in church burping her baby over an adorable burp rag. To be honest I thought it was silly to have a baby spit up all over  something so cute. But now I think differently. I am not entirely sure what changed my mind, but I have started making them for friends more often and keep coming up with fun decorative ideas (and still searching). Why not burp in style?

PS – the “E” is for Elizabeth, my friend’s new baby girl

Every year I go through a phase where I need change. First, I need to explain to my faithful readers why I crave change. Bascially it all started when my parents moved me around from house to house, state to state, and country to country from the time I was very young. I have never lived in the same house for more than 2 years until now (going on five) which is not all my parents fault (I love you, Mom).  I just get so antsy and need change. This time I need to change other things.

• Hair: I usually cut my hair. I rarely color it because I enjoy being a brunette, but this time I am not in the mood to have shorter hair. At least not yet.
• Wardrobe: Buying new clothes is always a good way to change things up, unless you are poor as a church mouse. New clothes will have to wait (other than maternity clothes, that is).
• New Makeup: Nah. I’ll stick to good ‘ol Mary Kay. She has made my face happy for years and I can’t give it up.
• New Apartment: Well, as I mentioned earlier we are going on five years in this 1,000 sq foot apartment. We love it and believe me when I say that I will cry when we have to leave next year.
• Rearranging: This I can do and must do. Every year that I have lived in Texas I have rearranged our furniture. It makes me feel like I have moved.
• New Blog Design: Ah-ha! Done and done. It needed a face lift anyway I had great fun putting it together, especially the header. The hubby just invested in Photoshop CS3 and I can’t wait to finally be able to unleash all my deepest designing desires…and one day be a designer…of something…maybe blogs.

Now off to tackle my home…

Two weeks ago I bought a baby gift bag that came with some wall decor stickers. At first I thought the stickers were a matching card to go with the gift bag until I opened it up! The stickers were so adorable and perfect for card making, of course. I made three cards in 10 minutes only using card stock, adhesive chip board letters, one piece of ribbon (that  came from the wrapping of a box of greeting cards) and a white gel pen.

For all my blog readers who wish they could make cards too, let me tell you that it’s not that hard if you keep it simple. Enjoy!

This one is my favorite! I love the colors and the hippo, too

Oh yes, I finally get my own live baby girl to dress up and play with.  As most of you know I have five brothers and no sisters and I always wanted a sister. I subjected my younger brother to putting on my dresses and calling him ‘Waynette’. I think I messed him up for life. And before my youngest brother was born I made my Mom buy a pink pajamas just in case it was a girl (even though she knew it was a boy). What can I say? I was desperate. Now I get my chance to use all the pink frilly clothes I want.

Just for giggles, I am going to share a few things with you about this pregnancy:

• No cravings. Nope, none. Whatever I put in my mouth is whatever doesn’t sound nasty.
• Saltine crackers never eased my nausea – I ate them once and then could not look at them again.
• The term “morning sickness” is joke. Let’s try “all day, all night sickness”. That is much more appropriate.
• Everything smells bad, especially a large room of people who are all wearing perfume or perfumed  hair products. Ew.
• I am exhausted all the time so I sleep a lot. At first I felt guilty but then remembered that this awesome sleeping luxury won’t last after the baby comes. And I won’t get the luxury back until the kid is grown and gone, so I am going to sleep all I want

It’s been amazing to see the progress and growth of this little squirt. I have been pretty open about my pregnancy problems in the past (read post here), more specifically with two blood clotting disorders, and now with the right medications, two Doctors and a million appointments, all is well.

Surprisingly, my post about blood clotting is the most visited blog post every day (about 40 hits) which means that there are people out there who are looking for support and information. I receive private messages from women all over the country (and some from other countries) that have the same genetic disorders, which means that the education and information is getting out there

Juan and I are thrilled to bits and pieces about being parents. We are so thankful for modern medicine and my two fantastic doctors who are monitoring this pregnancy like hawks. I will do anything in my power to bring this little girl to this world healthy and whole!