It's a Girl!!!

Well, it's official. We are having another GIRL! Tonight we celebrated with a Pink/Blue Party. We took a sealed envelope directly to a baker yesterday, along with pink & blue gumballs. She put a pink gumball in the center to reveal our suprise!!! We found out with some of our closest family & church friends! Here are a few pictures of our fun evening. Everyone was asked to dressed in pink or blue, based on their guess.
We ate bell pepper and pesto crostini, egg salad pinwheels, and jalapeno rosemary cornbread muffins with white bean hummus. the cutest little cupcakes!we had lance & my baby books out for fun & redecorated the room with baby stuff. with pink lemonade of course!the grandmothers
separated by color, right before the "reveal". the majority was voting for boy!sorry to all in here caught in the picture with their mouth full (myself included). I just love the surprised happy faces!
girlfriends karina, kelly, me, danna & paige

21 Weeks

Tomorrow we find out if we're having a boy or girl and are celebrating with a Pink/Blue Party! I'm so excited that the pink & blue hydrangeas are in full bloom!!!! I'm sure I'll be posting the results tomorrow!!!

Pigtails

Her hair is getting long enough to "fix." Pretty cute, huh? Too bad she won't let me keep it in for longer than a minute!

More Beach Pictures

We went to the beach with some friends from our life group. We had a great time, although I got a little sunburned. Did you know you could get sunburn on your toes? our precious kids.kathryn. me, paige & kelly

New Camera & Beach

Just got a new camera & took it to the beach! More pictures coming soon!!!

My Very Own Cookbook

Here it is. My very own cookbook. I made this in December, but haven't shared it because I feared my organizational nerdiness would be mocked. But Lance is calling my blog "boring" again, so I need something to blog about.

Anyway, I have been working on this for about 2 years. My stack of magazine-ripped-recipes was growing ridiculously. So when I had a few minutes to spare here & there, I found the online version of the recipe and added it to a word document. If someone emailed me a recipe, instead of printing out another sheet of paper to add to my stack, I copy/pasted it directly into my document. Pretty soon, with a few minutes here & there, my little cookbook started to grow! It now has several hundred recipes in it! I've gotta tell you how much I love this. I use it all the time, and it's SO much easier to flip through than my recipe cards, or all those stacks of paper. I grouped them all by type of food (appetizer/main dishes/dessert, etc). I would highly recommend making your own cookbook!

Volunteer State

Many of you don't know a whole lot about Tennessee. But there is a reason why we're called the Volunteer State. It makes me weepy & proud to see all that people are doing to help their neighbors right now. My brother, who owns Baja Burrito, donated 50% of his proceeds from Monday to flood victims. My church family has been helping in countless ways, including putting together over 3,500 sack lunches to victims & workers in affected areas. My husband has been picking up & delivering furniture to people who need it. In my opinion, this is Nashville's Finest Hour. I am so grateful to live in a community which Loves Their Neighbor. I love this video. It's what I've been seeing every day since our flood hit.

click on the actual video for a new full-sized screen.

Pink Pancakes & Pea Fritters

I'm still making a slow & steady return to cooking. Not quite back to normal, but I have tried a few new recipes that I'm happy to recommend. First, I tried another one of Jessica Seinfeld's recipes. Aren't these Pink Pancakes beautiful? I was afraid my son would revolt to the pinkness, but everyone loved them! Also, Martha Stewart published these Pea Fritters in her "Kids" magazine, when it existed (oh, why did you get rid of that mag, Martha?) I've been hanging onto this recipe for 5 years now. And I'm so glad to finally get around to making it. As I was making it, I was sure that it was going to be a disaster. So I made a back up snack! However, we all thought they were delicious. It was a pleasant surprise. It does make a TON, so make sure you have a hungry family around for these guys. (Fritter Photo from Martha)

Peonies & Random Thoughts

And so life goes on. Unless your house was one of the many that was extremely damaged, things just return to normal. What a weird week has this been. We do own a rental house which suffered damage, so we're trying to decide what to do about that. We're certainly not filing a claim on that one.

So now I'm returning to thinking about simple pleasures, like my peonies that are in bloom in the front yard. And wondering if my plants will bounce back from the 14 inches of rain we received in 2 days. And thinking about what kind of terrible timing it was for our camera to die the week before the worst flood in Nashville history. And hoping I get my creative blood flowing again soon. I am missing the boring little tasks of everyday life & looking forward to its' return.

FYI: Although a federal natural disaster is completely different than a car running into your house, here's my TOP 10 LESSONS LEARNED ABOUT INSURANCE CLAIMS, in case some of these things apply to some of you reading.

Watch This

Nashville In The News

picture of our downtown, from here.It's a bit surreal to be going through what our city is going through, while it's barely being mentioned in the national news, due to other also-important world events. I have included a few news clips below which do pause to tell our story. If you would like to donate relief supplies or help with recovery, visit Hands On Nashville. If you would like to help in a more personal way, I would love to talk to you about specific needs of this community. Our church is collecting many donations, including gift cards for groceries, and other household essentials for community neighbors. I'm keeping it short, still, since there is much to do around here. But please take a minute to read/watch some on the below links.

*Keith Obermann clip: In one minute, he sums up our situation, while actually acknowledging that it's a huge story that just can't be told because of other huge stories.

*A local blogger's perspective for why our story is not being told. "A large portion of why we were being ignored was that we weren’t doing anything to draw attention to ourselves. We were handling it on our own."

NBC Nightly News & Weather Channel
NBC Nightly News & Weather Channel

Here's a flickr photo stream.

A more pensive/moving videographic collection of images from Nashville & surrounding areas. It's a good one.

The Grand Ole Opry is submerged, as are many historical landmarks. Like Downtown's Bicentennial Mall, before & after the rain. Opryland Hotel is underwater.

Here are 2 cnn links. CNN News Link #1 and CNN Link #2

Aerial Photographs from the Tennessean.com

Watch as road collapses in real time. This is what the water is doing all over here. Massive amounts of water.

If you don't live here, are you getting this picture from your news stations? I'm just not seeing it!

Sandbagging Nashville

Pictured, about an hour ago, 7:30 pm, May 3, 2010. My husband took this of people waiting to surround areas of Nashville, an effort which is not yet completed. If you are available to help, please see hon.org .

Today has been crazy. There is tons to say about what's going on here, but not much time to say it. I love my husband, and am so proud of his efforts, working so hard to help so many. Of course he's not alone. I'm proud to be part of a church community which has come together to help those in need.

If you would like to assist in volunteer efforts for Nashville, please contact me or post here. We've got a team of major efforts going on right now & I can easily get you plugged into needs of Nashville.

In the next few days, I'll fill you in on life around here. I can't believe this isn't getting more National News. They are saying this is a ONE THOUSAND YEAR FLOOD.

More to come later. Am pregnant. Must eat.

It's as Bad as it Looks

(picture from tennessean.com). It's been a crazy, crazy couple of days around here. It's a major, major disaster in Nashville. Downtown Nashville is flooded and the waters are rising. It has been a relentless downpour for 2 days. Water is in short supply in many places, power outage, hotels are being evacuated, hard line & cell phones are out, the lakes are overflowing. Here's a slide show of photos on Tennessean.com. In evidence of where we live, Naomi Judd called the local news to warn of her 6 buffalo on the loose in Liepers Fork. We are fortunately safe, but many in our neighborhood have serious flood damage. Many people were stranded on the roads, as you will see here, where a building floats by the stranded cars. Or how about this huge carp, captured on Blackman Road? This guy, who may now be making his big break into country music super-stardom, summed it all up in this little ditty.

Hopefully in the next few days, the story of the damage being done here will be told more in the national news. The kids, on the other hand, loved the rain. We took a walk to check out the damage around our house.Below is a friend's house 2 doors down from us. Their home stayed relatively dry, if you can believe that. Keep our city in your prayers. There are so many stories of tragedy coming out of our hometown.

Monsoon Wedding

In case you are wondering, these are the shoes you wear to an outdoor wedding in a monsoon. If you don't live around here, we got more rain than I ever remember in my 31 years. The streets were flooding all over the place. Our house, fortunately, stayed dry. But Lance missed the wedding because he was helping a neighbor shop vac out their flooded basement. :(

If you are from my neck of the woods, did your houses stay dry?

Edited Note: This post was from Day 1 of our devastation. The worst was yet to come.

Flower Girl - A Preview

Here's a little preview of my little flower girl. I don't want to spoil the surprise, so this isn't the actual dress she will be wearing. But isn't she precious? This is her "cheese" pose. Katie Belle and Ethan will be flower girl and ring bearer in a wedding in a month and a half. Lance's great friend, Tommy, is getting married to a wonderful girl, Becca, and Lance will be the best man! We're excited to make the trek down to Estes Park, CO. Oh, how I dread going back to this place!

Still looking for ring bearer outfits. They are not going the tux route. So anyone have suggestions for finding dressy-casual little boys clothes? The guys are wearing J. Crew linen vests.

Deceptively Delicious - Recipe Review

I have been in a cooking rut - big time. But I'm slowly snapping out of it, and am very excited about all of the seasonal vegetables that are coming up! But I thought I'd share a few reviews of some of Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious recipes. If you aren't familiar with her book, they all call for veggie purees. And if you have leftover jars of baby food, there's no reason why you can't use these and save some time! There are a few others I want to try, but I thought I'd share these recipes!

Quesadillas (with Butternut Squash & Navy Beans) - Everyone loved, kids and adults alike.
Chicken (or Turkey) Pot Pie (with Sweet Potato) - I was surprised with this one. I thought it would be gross, so I made a backup meal! But everyone raved, and Ethan asked if he could eat it every day! It's not every day that you get those kind of reviews. Plus, there is no "cream of..." soup in it!
Mozzarella Sticks (with Cauliflower) - Maybe I didn't do these right. Katie Belle liked them, but no one else did. I didn't quite "fry" the sticks right, so they weren't crunchy. Still, KB is hard to please, so that is worth something...
Italian Meatloaf (with Carrot) - Meh...I must first admit that I've made meatloaf probably one other time in my life, so maybe I don't have the technique quite right, but when I made this, the meatloaf all fell apart. I won't make it again.
Sloppy Joes (with Carrot, Squash, Red Pepper- Delicious! Of course the meatloaf was hard for my little ones to eat, so I probably won't make it again for a while. But we all loved the flavor.

Have any of you tried any of Jessica Seinfeld's recipes? WHat about any recipes from the Sneaky Chef?

Turning Off

Starting today, there will be no tv-watching in this household until the fall.

It's not something we were really planning on. I mean, we've been talking for 7 years about getting rid of cable, but it has never happened. Until last night. My husband said he was returning the cable box to Comcast. Honestly, I didn't think much about it. We've had these conversations before, but nothing ever came of it. But today, during the kids' naptime, I went to return to my tv-and-laundry-folding routine, and the cable box was gone! Now that we have one of those fancy tvs, we can't even watch the basic channels! So there will be absolutely no tv watching for us until fall. We plan to get it back in time for Lance to watch football (although i could go the rest of my life without ever having to see football on tv.)

Today, I looked at the tv selection on hulu. It's just not the same. I think I'll be okay, but I do have a few shows I like to watch. And I really do enjoy my folding-clothes-and-watching-tv routine. But I'm excited about the quiet, and the family time, and all that fun stuff.

What about you guys? What's the longest you've ever gone without watching tv?

Affection

Katie Belle loves to give kisses. I can't say that I mind. I don't know if it's a boy/girl thing or what, but hugs and kisses were never part of Ethan's repertoire. If E ever took a spill, my favorite part was that he actually wanted me to hold him or kiss his boo boos. So it's pretty fun to have a little one who can't seem to get enough. Will I get tired of this? I can't see that happening! She is so cuddly!

Early Morning Smiles

These are old pictures, I know, but I just love the faces of the kids first thing in the morning. These are their faces as they uncovered their Easter baskets!

Gardening Blogs

I found a new gardening website that I like! It's awaytogarden.com. It's a good one, and even has a great section for beginners. Do you have any favorite gardening websites? I've had trouble finding good ones!

Wild Violet Arrangement

I love flowers in the house, but you know what I really love? Free flowers in the house!This floral designer, featured on Design*Sponge, shows how to use these "weeds" as a pretty arrangement. Free pretty stuff that God made: It's right up my alley. Enjoy!

Asparagus

A few weeks ago, these guys started sprouting up in the garden!!! Gardening is so cool!!! Ethan said, "Looks like Veggie Tales!" We can't eat the asparagus for another year, but they should come back every spring for about 7 years. I'm looking forward to eating them...in another year!

Zoo Trip!

Last week, Ethan's class got to go on a very special zoo trip! When I say "special", I mean it. We even got to go to the giraffe's (barn?) and feed them. These elephants played harmonica & danced for us!

Uninspiration

As you've seen, I'm still waiting. Waiting to finish planting my garden. Waiting for the baby #3 to arrive. Waiting to have more energy so I can do something creative with my free time. Waiting until I have free time.

In related news, I broke a tooth on Grape Nuts about a month ago. But I couldn't have it fixed until I was in my 2nd trimester, so I'm waiting until that appointment so I can eat normally again.

Until I have something more interesting...
-Carrie.

Flexibility

In an effort to make our daughter more a flexible sleeper, Lance has become passionate about trying to get them to sleep in the same room. Most nights have not been successful, with 2 nights even including finger biting. But we have had one night where they fell asleep in the same room. It was so cute to see them side-by-side! Yes, I know KB is under the bed.

Like His Daddy?

People tell me all the time that Ethan looks like his Daddy. I can't look at those eyes without thinking I'm looking in a mirror!!! Lance gets all the credit for our kids genetics. It's not fair!This is another picture from the boy's recent hiking/climbing trip. I love the dirt on E's face!!!

Lilac & Irises

Our yard is looking so colorful these days! A few years ago, we planted this row of irises along our fence. It's looking so lovely, alongside the most amazing-smelling lilac bushes! We are spending lots of time these days in our flower & veggie gardens. We're pretty optimistic about our veggie garden this year. I'll be posting pictures soon!

Any of you trying any new flowers or veggies this year? I'd love to hear about it!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebration. We had a great weekend. Katie Belle, upon realization that there is something in the eggs!! At that point, she was no longer interested in the hunt. She just sat in amazement of this egg.

Flag Bunting

For ages, I've been eyeing this project, a sweet little flag bunting. You may have seen these all over the web, but I went roughly by these instructions. It was pretty easy to make, and the kids love it!

Easter Party

Ethan attended the most awesome Easter party on Wednesday. Ethan and his classmates had an awesome time! We're looking forward to a weekend of praise, celebration, family, and Easter egg hunts!