A few weeks back, we went to a friend’s house on a Friday night for dinner and a backyard fire. Greg is a great cook, and we were thrilled to discover he was making us pizzas. But they weren’t just any pizzas–they were grilled pizzas. They were so good that we stuffed ourselves!
Shortly after, I opened my Google Reader one morning to see that Annie had posted a little tutorial on grilled pizza. The timing was interesting… were the stars aligned?
It’s not as if I had never heard of grilling a pizza before, but I just never had the motivation to really try it. It seemed like it might be a bit difficult. Looking back on that attitude now, I laugh. It really couldn’t have been any easier! It actually cooked up way faster than it does in the oven.
Plus, you get these pretty little grill marks on your crust. Fancy schmancy.
Annie’s Eats has everything you need to know about grilling pizza, so I won’t go into all of the details. Essentially, all you need is a sturdy (not too sticky or flimsy) dough, and if you want to make things easy on yourself, make personal-size pizzas so they are simple to transfer on and off the grill. Oh, and as Annie says… don’t forget to oil the grill grates so your pizzas don’t stick! And watch your pizzas carefully–they cook up really fast!
We used our favorite, no-fuss bread machine pizza dough and it was perfect. We can’t wait to make these again!
“Throughout our history, it’s been our cities that have helped tell the American story.
It was Boston that rose up against an Empire,
and Philadelphia where liberty first rung out;
it was St. Louis that opened a gateway west,
and Houston that launched us to the stars;
it was the Motor City that built the middle class;
Miami that built a bridge to the Americas;
and New York that showed the world one clear September morning
that America stands together in times of trial.
That’s the proud tradition our cities uphold.
That’s the story our cities have helped write.”
-Barack Obama
June 21, 2008
Miami, FL
I probably should’ve saved this for the 4th, but it was the quote on my daily desk calendar today and I just couldn’t resist. Plus, aren’t we all already in the spirit of the 4th, anyway?
Happy Independence Day, everyone.
All that I ask is for you all to stay safe.
Oh, and please, for the love of all that is holy, enjoy a few beers on my behalf. ;)
Sweet lord, I think we found “The One.”
THE daycare provider, that is. THE perfect person for us and our baby.
She’s everything we ever dreamed she would be.
From the beginning of our search, I had this ideal picture in my head of what we wanted in a daycare provider. We have family and friends who have had really good luck with in-home providers, and we liked the idea of one person getting to know our baby throughout his/her early childhood. We hoped we’d find someone who would not only care for our baby while we’re at work, but someone who would LOVE our baby.
We had high hopes for the first in-home provider we met with, but that was a disaster. We were not comfortable with her or her house at all. So then we thought, maybe we don’t want an in-home provider. Maybe a center would be a better fit for us. So we visited one of those, and actually did love it–but couldn’t stomach the cost of it.
My coworker, with whom I share a cubicle wall, recommended that we look into the woman who watches her kids. Her daughters are 3 and 1, and her oldest has been with this woman since she was just a few months old. Because my coworker works part-time and has family that pitches in to care for her kids, she only uses this woman one day per week, and she mentioned how she was looking for some more permanent, full-time kids. I gave her a call, and we just now had the time to meet tonight.
And she. is. AWESOME.
She LOVES these kids. Like, truly loves them. She has relationships with the parents outside of her business, and she attends events in the children’s lives. She has a couple of school-age children who come for a couple of hours after school, and they’ve been with her since they were infants. She has a background in child development, so she plans a mini curriculum with related activities and “lessons” for the kids. She bakes cakes and cookies with them; she does arts and crafts projects. She proudly showed us handfuls of photos she’s taken of the kids she cares for. Her house was cluttered (lots and lots of toys!) but clean. She has a big, fenced-in backyard. She values nutrition and feeds the kids as healthy as they’ll let her (some kids are really picky). She is a freelance children’s book illustrator, and works at a children’s museum on the weekends.
I mean, seriously now. LOVE her.
She is a talker, for sure. We sat with her for an hour and 15 minutes, just chatting and getting to know each other. We bonded over our dogs, and she told us all about her grown children.
She is PERFECT, people. Just perfect.
It’s true what people say–you’ll know when you know. It’s right when it’s right.
I am so excited I could scream. We plan to call her back tomorrow, fill out her paperwork, and put down a deposit. And I cannot even tell you how good it feels to know that this weight, this thing that has been causing a ball of stress in the pit of my stomach for the last few weeks? It will be gone.
Because we found her! We really found her!
On Sunday, I was given a baby shower by my sisters-in-law on my side of the family–Kara and Marie. It was a nice, but REALLY HUMID day, so I was definitely grateful for the central air conditioning at my mom’s house, where the shower was held. It was a bummer we weren’t able to be outside on the deck, though!
Everyone arrived around noon. The guests were all women, but we managed to recruit my brothers and Michael to attend so that they could grill for all of us. There was a lot of good food, and good times were had by all.
I’m so glad that I was able to split things into two showers this time. For my bridal shower, I just had one big shower, so there were about 40-45 people there. It was nice, of course, but it was overwhelming. I felt like I didn’t really get to see or talk to anybody, and I felt badly that people had come to celebrate with me and had seen so little of me. This time, each side of the family offered to throw a shower, so I was able to split the guest list among two dates. Today, we only had 17 guests and it was fabulous! I actually got to visit with everyone.
Some photos:
Kara and Marie decided to do a bee theme, because they came across an idea online for a unisex shower that was, “What will our baby bee?” It was cute. Kara made the cake.
Obligatory diaper cake!
Little man Hunter brought up to the male to female ratio a little bit, too. Here he is, hanging out with Uncle Michael.
The guys left him inside when they were out on the deck grilling, and Hunter wanted to go out there with them SO BADLY. He just stood at the window, staring at them. They eventually gave into his cute little face and brought him out to join the guys.
He was sleepy, so he was toting his blankie everywhere. He reminds me of Linus from Charlie Brown. :)
After we ate lunch, we played a couple of games that Kara and Marie set up–they were fun, “brain-teaser” type games that I really quite enjoyed (I’m not usually a huge fan of shower games!). For one, we were given names of TV shows and had to name the kids that were on each show. For example, The Simpsons–we had to come up with Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. Or The Cosby Show–we had to come up with Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy. It was actually quite challenging! Whoever got the most correct answers won that game.
For the second one, it was a word scramble, and all of the words were baby items. Whoever got all of them solved correctly first won. I had most of them done pretty quickly, but was stuck on one last one, and my cousin ended up beating me out! Damn! (The word I was stuck on? “Sunshade.”)
Games were followed by presents:
We received quite a bit of stuff. Everyone was so generous. Hooded towels and wash cloths, diapers (we actually plan to use cloth, but we’re still going to need disposables for the first few weeks at least!), onesies, pajamas…
…the baby bath tub, a bunch of Johnson & Johnson bath products, little toys, pajamas, blankets, and more. So much more! Notice my little helper in the pictures. That’s my little cousin, Mia, who is almost 3 years old. She’s going to become a big sister in just a few short weeks, and she’s going to be the BIGGEST mommy’s helper! She’s hilarious! She retrieved all of my gifts for me, and helped me open them, too.
My mother-in-law crocheted this beautiful blanket. I love it!
After presents, we did cake, and soon after that, people started to take off. I was proud of myself and my hostesses for keeping things moving–I hate when showers drag and you’re forced to sit around for hours. We were all business and got things wrapped up so that people could get on with their Sundays!
My good friend, Carrie, and me. We’ve been friends since high school and even though we very rarely get to see each other, I love her dearly!
And of course, my lovely hostesses and me. They did a great job and I’m so grateful to them for all of the work they put into everything. It’s so nice to be “pampered” with a baby shower and I feel very lucky that I had these two to do it for me!
Alright… 28 weeks into this, the suspense is getting to me.
The baby has a room now. We have a baby’s room in our house. With a crib. And a dresser. And a glider.
The baby bedding is officially done and in the crib. Today, the crib mattress arrived.
To top it all off, I had my first baby shower yesterday. So we have baby gear–a pack n play, a bath tub, a bouncer. And tiny pajamas. And itsy bitsy socks. Receiving blankets and hooded towels.
I’ve been going into the nursery just to look at it all. Now that we have all this stuff, I am so extremely anxious to have the little person to use it all.
I want to know if it’s a boy or a girl. I want to know if we have a son or a daughter. I want to know whether we’ll have a closet full of blue or pink. I want to know which name we’re going to put up on the wall.
I want to meet my baby!
28 Weeks Pregnant
But there are 12 weeks to go. I know they’ll “fly,” but it just seems like such a long time to wait. After all, 12 weeks ago, I was only 16 weeks pregnant. And that seems like it was an eternity ago!
I need to exercise patience. Thankfully, we’re keeping very busy, which helps.
The search for daycare is still on. I forgot to mention in my update last week that we went and looked at a daycare center last week. It was perfect. It’s two minutes from where I work, the director of the infant program was amazing, all of the kids seemed happy and engaged, and we were comfortable there. Then, they handed us the price sheet and we realized that this place was just NOT GONNA HAPPEN. It costs more per week than I’ve ever even heard of. I’m pretty damn sure it’s THE most expensive in the area.
And so we continue. We’re interviewing another in-home option tomorrow. I so badly want it to be everything we’re looking for and more. I want it to work out perfectly so we can stop worrying about this and move on with our lives. Please, pretty please oh please, let this work out. Please.
As I mentioned above–after the new carpet was put in on Thursday and Friday and we put the house back together, we moved the nursery furniture into the house on Saturday. We put together the crib, the dresser, and the glider, and I *LOVE* them all. We have everything in its place and it’s so exciting.
Pregnancy-wise, I still have a miserable cold. Baby is active throughout the day, and it’s still amazing to feel and see. Michael felt a couple of really strong kicks last week, which was funny. Baby is over two pounds now and can apparently open/close his/her eyelids.
We signed up for birth preparation classes, which start on July 12, and we also registered for our hospital orientation/tour. Things are getting done!
This week, I go for my last 4-week appointment, then I start going every two weeks. Crazy to think that I’ll be there on Friday and then back again in just TWO WEEKS!
All of this demonstrates to me that we really ARE getting close. So WHY does baby’s birthday still seem SO.FAR.AWAY?! :)
Keep growing in there, Baby, but just know that I can’t wait to see your sweet little face!
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
