Legoland!

I am going to post pictures this weekend, I promise! But Diana had quite an exciting time this week on our family vacation to Carlsbad. Her first airplane ride, three days in a hotel, visiting the Borchert-Badilla clan in SoCal, two days at Legoland...it was all a great time. There were many more firsts along the way, but they require photos to go along with them so stay tuned. Just know that we all had a great time and in about three months, we will have another adventure! :)

Don't judge a house by its pests

Ever since Matt brought home about 50 cardboard boxes from Solano last year (OK, it wasn't 50, but it was a lot)due to him having to clean out his storage facilities, we have seen some not-so-friendly cockroaches out by our garbage cans and sometimes in our garage. Matt brought a lot of the boxes back to school in the last 6-9 months and we are Solano box free now. But, the cockroaches are still around. They must have laid eggs or something. I haven't seen a lot, but one is enough for me. I feel like I am living in the ghetto or something. It was the last straw this morning when I brought the newspapers in to our room to read with my breakfast and upon opening it, was greeted by a crawling cockroach. Matt jumped so high that if he jumped any higher, he would've gone straight out of the roof.
Once I got rid of the little creep (the cockroach, not Matt), it was back to normal, but Matt wasn't quite himself. We have our regular pest company coming out on Monday to further survey the situation but something has to be done this weekend.
Matt took Diana to school later that morning, went to work, ran some errands and headed back home. He had set out some cockroach traps earlier in the morning and when he returned home in the afternoon, the traps caught two roaches. Argh...they still exist.
He texted me and said that our weekend project would be re-organizing the garage, getting rid of all the cardboard boxes that we have and putting their contents in plastic storage bins. Great. That's exactly what I want to do when I am 25 weeks pregnant and three days away from my first vacation in more than a year and a half.
It's gotta be done though. I said that I would go to Target after work and get the storage bins. They wouldn't all fit in my car though so I needed backup.
Who could I call? Dad. Yes...Chris? Sure. He gets off work the same time as me, is coming through Fairfield anyway and can meet me at Target in no time. My wonderful brother in law agreed.
I called him later to tell him that I think we can storage bins cheaper at Wal-Mart and to meet me there instead. After a huge sigh (which I completely understood) he agreed.
We found storage bins in no time...and they even had wheels! Score! We each grabbed five and rolled on out. And boy were we loud. Wal-Mart is a busy place, but of course everyone is so focused on getting what they have to get, it's not a loud place at 4:45 on a Friday. We made a huge commotion with those stupid rollie bins. Then, to add insult to injury, my brother in law decides to start skipping through Wal-Mart to attract even more attention to ourselves. As I grabbed my stomach to prevent the urine from leaving my bladder because I was laughing so hard, I looked around and realized that, oddly enough, no one was staring at us. Was this normal Wal-Mart behavior? I guess so. I moved on to the checkout line, paid and we left. I was then stopped abruptly by the woman at the exit who asked to see my receipt. Do so many pregnant women try to steal 10 storage bins? Seriously lady. Chris proceeds to yell "Make a run for it!" Oh, thanks, that's helpful. She gives me the all clear and we head to the car where Chris again skips to the car, well ahead of me.
I am sure I will post this weekend with an update as to how the re-organizing of the garage is going. It's quite an adventure around our house lately.
Stay tuned!

Voila!

As the Little Einsteins would say: Mission Completion!
Even though I know that maybe deep down inside, Matt can see 100 things still that need to be worked on. It took a lot of urging on Matt's part for me to get rid of a lot of things, re-organize things and really become an adult and start cleaning up but we got it done.
As the Wonder Pets would say: What's gonna work? Team work!

So, here are photos from the finished project which is now the baby's room/office/scrapbooking room. I seriously think it would've been easier to buy a new house and just start all over again. Se la vi!



This is the closet. Diana's dresser now becomes the baby's dresser and we moved it into the closet because that's the only place it fits. Matt said that if we have a boy, someday this office will strictly become his room because Diana and a boy are not going to share a room. I agree, which makes the downstairs area a lot more cluttered.

Princesses Attack

The princesses have attacked Diana's room. Well, in a matter of speaking, at least. Diana got a big girl bed today. I just checked on her five minutes ago and she is still napping in it...hasn't fallen out yet.
Thanks to Gramma V and Grampa D for putting it together, although Gramma V insists that there was nothing to put together. Then why, Gramma V, did it take over an hour and a half and why did Grampa D have to go over to his house to get his electric drill because Matt's wasn't working right? Hmmmmm...?
Anyway, Diana is set until she leaves for Stanford in 14 years. This is the forever bed.
It was quite an adventure putting it together. I had nothing to do with it. It was all Gramma V and Grampa D. They even kicked Matt out of the room after a while and he did some other chores around the house.
Some of the highlights: While bringing the biggest box inside, poor Grampa D got his feet caught underneath him and he fell into the bush in our front yard.
When the box finally made its way upstairs and into Diana's room, Matt opened it and there was a cockroach inside. Sheer panic ensued, Raid was brought upstairs and we got rid of the nasty creature quickly. All order was then restored.
I did my wifely duties and ran out to Subway to get sandwiches for the clan who were very appreciative after a tough morning of work. Here are some images of the new bed:





Gramma V also hooked Diana up with a new trash can, new area rug, new hamper...you get the idea.



Gramma V had to try out the new bed. I admit I am looking forward to sitting in the bed tonight to read books before bed time. No more floor for me! Yay!

Swim Lessons

Diana's first week of swim lessons was awesome!
She was always very eager to get in the water, not one tear was shed and we think she's the next Natalie Coughlin. OK, just kidding about that part.
The class is a little more advanced for her level, but that's OK. I would rather have her challenged than doing something that's too easy. They are using a kickboard, learning to swim freestyle and even spend the last five minutes of class jumping in the water. For some reason, Diana felt the need to hold her teacher's hands when she jumped in. I was shocked by this because she NEVER does this at our pool here at Dream Street. She's always done it by herself. Hopefully this week she get a little more brave and trust that her teacher will, in fact, catch her.
She really loves it and even remembered her teacher's name all week, which is a miracle for Diana. We are looking forward to week 2 of swimming this and seeing how much more improvement she can make.

This is Diana learning to float on her back. She doesn't like water in her eyes, so her eyes are always closed the tightest they can be.



She was really good at using the kickboard and made very big splashes.



After she jumped in the water, she looked at her fingers and said "Mommy, I got prunes!" The other moms thought it was adorable!

Long distance Mother's Day

My mom went to Washington, D.C. for vacation so she spent Mother's Day jaunting around our nation's capital. Good for her, I say! I talked to her yesterday and she was having the time of her life.
Meanwhile, I was online tracking the status of some flowers I ordered on Thursday from ftd.com that were supposed to be delivered to her hotel on Saturday. FTD didn't let me have them delivered on Sunday even though their website advertised differently. That's OK...Saturday is even better, I thought. She can have a two-day Mother's Day. By Saturday night, they still hadn't been delivered and my order status said they were going to be delivered on Monday. Huh? What? Monday? That's not going to work. I paid a lot of money in shipping to have them delivered speedy so she would get them on Saturday. Not happy with FTD at this point. I consulted my husband and sister who said I should definitely call FTD and see what was going on.
I checked the tracking number on Sunday, even though I knew they wouldn't be delivered and I knew my mom was still flowerless. So, first thing when I got to work on Monday, I called the customer service number. Their on-hold messages made excuse after excuse as to why I was going to be on hold for so long and why they wouldn't be able to do this and why they wouldn't be able to do that. Geez. OK already! I get it, you're lame!
After 22 minutes of being on hold, a woman finally got on the line and I told her my predicament. She asked me if I would like to cancel my order. Uh, no. I told her I wanted some sort of reimbursement for the shipping since you guys didn't deliver when you said you would. She said because of the high volume of orders placed on the holiday...blah blah. Basically, they didn't realize they would be so busy on Mother's Day. LAME!
She offered a 20 percent discount on the shipping which would be credited back to my credit card. Sweet deal, I guess. I would rather my mom just get her awesome flowers at her awesome hotel on her awesome vacation. She will get them today...hopefully. If she checks out of that hotel before the flowers get there though....I am going to be one mad pregnant lady!
UPDATED (3:15 p.m. PT)...Flowers delivered, Mom very surprised and happy. And there were more flowers in the vase than were ordered so I guess FTD came through.
UPDATED (11:25 a.m. 5/13/09)...Mom decided to tell me that when she got her flowers, four of them were wilted. The next morning, three of them were wilted. I called FTD and got a full refund for the flowers. Never using FTD again!

Beaming with pride

Moms are always beaming with pride about their kid(s). I am no exception to that rule. This has been a busy/hectic/crazy week. Matt stayed home for two and a half days with a really bad cold that turned into pink eye (sorry, Matt), Diana started a new sports class on Monday, she got evaluated in a new class at KinderCare and had a dentist appointment this morning. Lots going on.
The sports class (I will post a picture later) was OK. It's called Tiny Tots Olympics and they rotate the sport they play every week. Because of a scheduling gaffe by me, she will only take part in this class three times instead of five, because she has swimming lessons next week and the week after. Oops.
The first week of Olympics was basketball. Score! Something she's familiar with. She grabbed a basketball and must have shot 25 shots before the class started. At one point, she made four in a row and had a smile on her face the entire time. It was awesome. She did the stretching exercises and the up and back run to loosen her little muscles perfectly. Then the drills started...
Passing was good. Diana and I passed the ball back and forth and she had some great bounce passes. Then...dribbling. Let's just say that my daughter wants to be the shooter and not the point guard. We will leave it at that.
Diana visited the Preschool B class this week to get evaluated by the teacher to see if she's ready for the move to the bigger class. Since she was fifth on the list to get moved over to the class, according to age, they had to see if she was academically ready for the challenge of the new class. To make a long story short, she passed with flying colors. The "homework packet" starts next week and we couldn't be more thrilled! This is a huge step for Miss D and us and we are so excited about all that she is going to be learning and experiencing in her new environment. I feel like kindergarten is right around the corner.
The dentist this morning was awesome as well. Six months ago, she was crying, screaming and refusing at every turn. Today, she sat in the chair (with me, of course) and opened her mouth to let them look at and count her teeth. She didn't let them clean her teeth yet, but the dentist and hygenist both said that was fine. Her teeth looked great and they can tell she takes good care of them. She even got to wear these colorful sunglasses while sitting in the chair to protect her eyes from the light. How come I can't wear those?
Upon leaving, Diana asked if she could have some stickers. Well, of course! The hygenist took her over and gave her four Barbie stickers, a new pink toothbrush, a picture of her teeth to take to share day tomorrow and some other things. All in a cute little bag with teeth on it. She was beyond THRILLED and PROUD!
I was beaming with pride. I can't believe how fast she's growing up. I don't know how my mom is dealing with me becoming a mom again...I am her little one, for crying out loud! :)

THE project...no pic though

I have been working diligently on the office/baby room. I have thrown stuff away, re-organized spaces and made a very large garage sale pile. I am motivating myself by remembering the show "Clean Sweep" on TLC which I watched religiously while I was on maternity leave with Diana. I love that show! I don't have any pictures to share tonight because I have been working on taking over the Solano blog for Matt and exercising. My brother in law and father in law (no relation) are pressuring me to put a photo of the room on the blog because I don't think they believe I have been working on it. Trust me, I have. I sucked it up and put all my purses in a storage bin. It's just waiting to be moved down to the garage (which Matt has to do because it's too heavy).
A few Christmases ago my dad gave me a series of four black and white pictures of him and my mom at a masters swim meet three years before I was born. I have always been in love with those photos and I had Matt put it up in the house this weekend. Now, I can see it every day and it's not sitting in the closet collecting dust anymore. There's just a couple more things to get out of the closet and we (I) will be close to done. Diana's new bed has been ordered by Gramma V so the pressure is really on now. Diana reminded me tonight that we have to bring the changing table up from the garage. You think she's excited? yeah!
I will get a picture up soon. I promise!

Hey kiddo!

I have been looking forward to today's ultrasound for quite a while. The only other one I had was when I first found out I was pregnant at 9 weeks and that came as a shock because the baby wasn't so much of a pea as it is when most people find out they are pregnant.
So, Diana and Gramma V came with me to Sacramento today for the Baby Show. I had to go to Sacramento because I requested genetics counseling because of the medication I take for epilepsy. I did that with Diana too but went to Oakland for the ultrasound. Nothing against Oak-town, but Sacramento is much more convenient.
Anyway, the Baby Show went well and we got lots of pictures to take home. Diana was a little freaked out I think because she wasn't too conversational (she was also very tired from being up the previous night with a little sicky tummy). But she told Au Bob later that "we got to see the baby on the TVs" so that was encouraging.
The doctor said the baby looked really good and we don't have anything to worry about as far as genetic defects. Not that it mattered and not that I was worried, but it's good to hear.
The best part of the appointment was the ultrasound tech, the doctor and the genetics counselor saying that it was easy to get great images because I am so thin! OMG! If I am glowing for the next 20 weeks, that's why! THIN? I have never been called that in my life. So awesome.
Here are a couple pics of Baby Borchert...Enjoy!
Here's the baby "blowing a bubble." It's the embilical cord, but they were going to take a copy of the picture and put it in their wall of fame. Cool, huh?


Here's the baby looking at its big feet saying "Whoa!"

Valuable Reading

When I went to pick up a copy of a book that I ordered earlier this week at Borders, I noticed a Newsweek magazine that I just HAD to have. The cover story was about finding a cure for epilepsy. I picked it up and as I waited in line, read a few paragraphs. Very interesting reading. Later in the afternoon, after Diana went down for a nap, I read the entire thing - an editorial, an article about a neurologist in New York and some of his patients and a senior advisor for President Obama whose daughter had suffered with epilepsy for more than 20 years.
All enlightening. If you don't know much about epilepsy, I highly recommend picking up this week's copy of Newsweek magazine and taking the 10 minutes to read the three articles in it. It's got some very staggering figures about the number of Americans who struggle with this disease, and the many people who even die from it. I was especially encouraged by the editorial which stated that while many people know someone with cancer and jump out to help that cause (which is great) by donating money, walking in a walk, etc., the signs of an average person with epilepsy aren't as apparent so we don't run out to donate money to find a cure for epilepsy because we don't think it's that common of a disease.
If you don't think you know someone with epilepsy and are thinking that this is a random post...it's not. You DO know someone with epilepsy...me!
I am not asking you to donate money or log on to one of the many "find a cure for epilepsy websites." I just want to make sure everyone is informed about epilepsy and understand what it's all about. 10 minutes, read the articles. I promise it will open your eyes!

THE project

It's coming along. This picture is not indicative of how the room is coming along. It's a mess I know. This was about a week ago and I didn't want to leave out any steps because I promised to give a blow-by-blow. Plus, I saw my brother-in-law for the first time in forever last weekend and he politely reminded me that I hadn't put up a recent picture of THE project. He walked into the room and said, "Whoa! What happened in here?" He was expecting a disaster and it wasn't that bad.
The photo below is the room as of today. Mostly, I just have some cleaning up to do and then we can start bringing in the changing table and moving some other things around. You can't see the closet from these pictures, but I did some work on that as well. We, er, I am going to have quite a garage sale in June.

Easter Weekend 2009

What a great weekend! It was a time to remember a loved one who is no longer with us, spend some valuable time with those we may not see every day and celebrate a fun holiday.
The weekend started on Saturday morning with Matt and Diana coloring Easter eggs. Matt may not be the craftiest guy but he sure does take a lot of pride in being the one in our family that colors Easter eggs with Diana, decorates and bakes cookies, carves the pumpkins, etc. I love it and I definitely don't mind being behind the camera to capture all the father-daughter moments!
After the Easter eggs, we headed up to the local Dream Street park to take part in the annual Easter egg hunt. The community leaders put thousands of goodie-filled eggs all around the park for the kiddos to grab. Diana was a star this year. She was ready to go and did a fantastic job looking in every nook and cranny for the eggs. After that, Gramma V, Grandpa D, Diana and I headed into Sausalito to catch the ferry boat into the city. It's an Easter tradition for three years now to take the ferry to San Francisco, have lunch and remember Nanny. It was a great time. I must say that I had the best hamburger I have ever had at Neptune's at Pier 39. I know I am pregnant and all, and that may sway my decision-making a bit, but holy cow (pun intended) it was great!
We got home late Saturday and recovered from the busy day with a quiet rest of the evening. (for those wondering where Matt was...The Masters was on this weekend and he didn't remove himself from the couch).
On Sunday, Diana woke up to find the Easter bunny left her quite a few goodies in her Easter basket. She was most excited about all the plastic eggs he left her and about the candy (that she can't eat). It's very colorful though. She later discovered her love for jelly beans. :)
The family came over for a great breakfast cooked by Matt, Diana hunted eggs in the backyard and we played around the house the rest of the day. We had quite a lot of fun playing with Diana's new bubble collection that we used up in all of an hour. It was awesome weather, but we came back inside and did some projects around the house.
We were most excited to get a visit from Uncle Chris, who stopped by when he got off work early. We haven't seen Uncle Chris in a really long time and it was great to have him around again. Things haven't changed...he still cracked jokes, turned Diana upside down and hung her from her ankles and made himself right at home. We wouldn't want it any other way.
In the baby world: The baby has been having parties in my belly over the last week. It's been a lot of fun. The baby definitely likes its space because it moves around the most when I bend over at my belly when I am on the computer at work or something. I have an ultrasound next week (where I will NOT be finding out the sex of the baby) and have a regular checkup tomorrow. I have been really tired so not working out as much, but when I do have energy I try to hop on and do a run-walk for at least 30 minutes. It's not easy, but I know it'll be worth it in the end.
Check out pictures from the weekend here.

Leader of the Pack

It's been interesting to observe Diana at KinderCare lately. There are definitely girl groups and boy groups. I don't see a whole lot of girls playing with the boys and vice versa. The girls play in the home living area and the boys are usually doing their own thing off somewhere else in class. This is definitely not something set up by the teacher, but very interesting to me.
Diana has developed friendships with all the girls in her class. Where it used to be just one girl has now turned in to a friendship with about three or four other girls. One day when I went to pick her up, all the girls yelled out to Diana that her mommy was here. "Thanks, girls," I said. Sometimes they go get her jacket for her and another day they gathered up her Cabbage Patch doll which she brought for Share Day and all the clothes that were strewn across the room. Very helpful, I thought.
Over the last week, the friendships seem to have grown and blossomed a bit more. The other day, every girl in Diana's class gave her a HUGE hug before we left and some even kissed her (so gross, I know). Diana, normally shy before and unwilling to say goodbye to any of her friends, returned the hug and even waved through the door when we left.
Matt and I talked a couple nights later and he said that he watched her for about five minutes the next day (not knowing about the departure hugs that occurred). He was amazed at how much of a social butterfly Diana is in her class with the other girls. She showed them her homework and they talked about their outfits, he said, to one another.
He thinks she's the leader of the group, but I think that she plays with everyone fairly and treats everyone the same instead of getting into clicks and the sort. At least I hope so.
It's very fun though to see her open up and socialize and have these little friends. We have no idea who these girls are, where they live, who their parents are, but Matt thinks it would be a good idea to invite them to Diana's birthday party in June.
I see where he's coming from, and Diana has said that she wants to invite them all, but again...I have never met their parents. Who am I to invite strangers into the house? I don't expect them to bring a present for my kid who they don't even know. Diana talks about her friends at home, but do the other girls talk about Diana? Do the other parents know of this "Diana"?

THE Project...Week 2

By first look at the picture, you can't really see much difference than the first week of cleaning the office, right? Well, trust me, there's a big difference. I have sorted all the bills from the past...ahem, nine months; and am ready to disassemble the table formerly known as my scrapbooking table.I am going to try to have Matt do it, but we'll see how lucky I get with that. Once that's down, I can start to put together the new Ikea bookshelf that's still in a flat box in the back of my car. (Matt just mentioned that he would like to get in the office to do the taxes on Sunday so yipee! I have a goal of trying to get all this done by Sunday).
I am typing this on my knees because the chair has some scrapbooking supplies on it. I have one minor purchase to make from Amazon for some of my scrapbooking supplies (Crop in Style PSB Binder--unless someone has one they want to part with for less than $20) and then I can start to put the desk together and reorganize this office.

Wish me luck.

On to Soccer

Diana started Just for Kicks soccer class today. It's an eight-week class for a half hour each that teaches the fundamentals. They do some kicking drills and just work on kicking. They did a lot of that. It was great. Diana was awesome. I was most proud of Diana during ballet on the days when she really listened to her teacher and followed instruction and didn't get influenced by the other girls who were off running around and doing her own thing. She's in a soccer class now with 3-4 year olds, boys and girls. While it is a Mommy, Daddy and Me class, Matt and I stayed behind for the most part and just let her do her soccer thing. She listened, she kicked the heck out of the soccer ball, she got a great workout and most important, she had fun! She had a huge smile on her face after we left...and that was even when she realized that she had some fans there - Grandpa D recorded the whole thing on video (in addition to my standard picture taking), and Gramma V and her friend Linda stopped by on a covert mission to spy on the little one in her class. It was a great way to start the morning!
Here's some photos from the class...Enjoy!

This is Matt putting her cleats on.


This is Matt and Diana warming up.


More warming up.


Diana scoring on an open-netter. :)


I think I need one more barrette next time, Mommy.


Is there anything better than seeing your kid smile so big?

Gramma V, the rock star

I have preached over and over how awesome my mom (aka Gramma V) is. She helps us out with Diana at the drop of a hat and supports my sister and I and our families 100 percent. She's just awesome. I could go on and on, but she truly is the best lady in the world.
Today, I am not the only one to believe that. My mom was named California Adult Education Adminstrator of the Year today. I don't know the name of the organization that named her that because when her secretary called me this afternoon, I was in tears and didn't hear. I will update this when I find out for sure.
The Fairfield-Suisun Adult School is such a special place to my mom. She's been there for a very long time and it's a very dear place in her heart. She works extremely hard and this award comes as no surprise to me. She's the bomb! It's nice to know that someone gets rewarded for working hard and truly caring and being passionate about something.
I hope my mom gets recognized by the school district, the local community and other organizations for this honor because it's truly deserving. The number of people she's touched in her time at the adult school is humongous and the list will keep growing!

Congrats, Gramma V! We are so proud of you!

THE project

The baby that's cooking in the oven has inspired me to get down to work and do some home improvements. No. 1 task is the office, which the baby will share after it's grown out of the bassinet which will be in our room for the first couple months of its life. Eventually, we would like Diana and the baby to share a room, but that's not going to happen until the baby is sleeping through the night. There's no need to deprive Miss D of a good night's sleep.
Anyway, I am going to shame myself by posting a picture after day one of work in the office. This was taken Monday night, but it was mostly after work that was done Sunday night (for all of 1 hour and a half). I know, it's not a lot. But this task is monumental. I am a) a pack rat; b) a slob; c) suck at putting stuff (i.e. paid bills) away. Go ahead, judge me! I pay for it later...like now.
I have months of bills to sort through and file away not to mention all the scrapbooking stuff that has to be organized. I have to disassemble the big table that used to be my scrapbooking table and bring that into the garage (OK, Matt will bring it into the garage). But this is my project. Until I am done, he's not allowed in here. Mostly because I know he would have a heart attack if he sees the mess I am making in here.
I also have to clean out the closet and make room for stuff that matters. For instance, we have team photos from when Matt coached at Hartnell and DeAnza in the early 1990s. Do the math. They have been in some type of storage space since 2001 when we moved in to this house. They have never been put up on the walls. When I asked Matt what he wanted to do with them tonight...he actually suggested we keep them in the frames because he would like to hang them up eventually.
"Uh, sorry, hon...no." This is the baby's room now. Team photos from the 1990s with the scary hair-dos are not going to give my kids nightmares for the rest of their lives. That's what yearbooks are for!
So, here I go. About an hour to an hour and a half every night and I hope to have this project done in two weeks. I will post pics on the progress.

In the meantime, I have to find time to run. I want to do the Run For Good 5K in Fairfield on April 18 with some girls from work so I have to make sure I can still run 3.1 miles without having a heart attack.

Leprechauns Attack!

The leprechauns invaded our house on Monday night...well, I think it was Tuesday morning because the house was perfectly fine when we all went to bed on Monday night. The rascals, one of which was named Angus, left the house in shambles.
They got into Diana's cookies and Cheerios, tore all the blankets and pillows off the couches and played with her dolls and turned the toilet water in all three toilets green.
I have a feeling this is just the start of it all and we are going to be seeing a lot more of Angus and his little friends every year. We will have to be prepared....

Pay it Forward

How it works:The FIRST THREE people to leave a comment on this post will receive a free photo session from me to be used by the end of this year as a gift from me. UPDATE: Please keep in mind that this gift covers the sitting fee only. I will offer all the photos from our shoot to you on a CD for a small fee.
The CATCH is that YOU MUST PLAY TOO! Before you leave your comment here, write a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (you can cut and paste these instructions).
Then come back and let me know that you are going to play. Then sit back and wait to see if you are one of the lucky winners. I can't wait to see who I am going to be taking photos of!
It's THAT easy!
Remember, only the FIRST THREE comments will qualify.

Good luck!

Chef Pregnant Lady

It's not a news flash that Matt is the chef in the family. He's older than me, grew up in a family where the dad did the cooking, Mom did the baking and just has a knack for it, I guess.
He does the cooking, I clean up afterwards. No biggie.
Well, in the last year, I have been experimenting more with recipes and cooking. Tonight was the big one...a recipe I got off the San Francisco Chronicle Website last week...Penne pasta with meat and sausage. No biggie, right? Wrong. The recipe called for something I think was called cremini mushrooms (I was lucky to find them at Raley's), Brandy (though I didn't use it), marjoram and other spices that I had either never heard of or never used in cooking before and Gruyere cheese (which Raley's also had, luckily).
Preparation took forever and mostly because I grated the fresh parmesean and Gruyere. It took about an hour and a half from start to finish, including 15 minutes in the oven to bake. It was delicious.
I found some plain noodles in the dish to give to Diana for dinner and though she just had a couple, she told me that it was very good. Huge compliment.
This is only a dish I will be making on the weekend, because it was way too involved. And now, being pregnant, I can't see myself standing on my two feet for that long period of time in the kitchen. It made a large dish though so we have enough probably for the rest of the week. Yummy! Yay Angela...you goo girl! :)