New Things

Greetings from Pike Road during the ice storm of 2011!! I have to say that it was a bit of a let down for me, seeing as we didn't get any snow. We did, however, get a little ice covering here and there and I woke up in time to snap a few pictures of the ice covered pines before they returned to their normal state.

Now, on to new things....

First of all, we have decided on a name for our baby!! He will be called Mason Grant Lassiter. Mason is my mother's maiden name and Grant is Ben's middle name. Although we have thought this would be the name for a while now, it has been really hard for me to say it was a definite! It is just that he will be stuck with this name for the rest of his life and I wanted to be sure he would like it. I hope that he does! For Christmas my sister-in-law, Jessi, gave me some monogrammed cloth diapers with Mason's name on them and they are adorable! It was very exciting to get his first personalized item! I have officially bought all of the fabric for the bedding (that my friend Kellie is going to make, she, along with mom and sis have been a huge help) so now I can get going on the nursery!

With the new year comes new year's resolutions.... I make these resolutions pretty much every year with last year being the only exception. I thought, I never keep these resolutions so why make them? So, last year I was resolutionless and somehow I survived 2010....shocking. Anyway.... this year I went back to my old ways and decided to make some resolutions... I'll begin with the one I have actually kept:

1. I cannot order a beverage with any meal (other than water) unless it comes with a combo or a special (like at a bar-b-que place where tea is included, etc.). I did this back in 2007 and it worked well. Cuts back on unnecessary calories and saves money... two for one bonus! Ben and I make this into a competition to keep us motivated and so far we are doing a good job with this one.

2. Bedtime at 10:00 and wake up time at 6:00. So far this one is a no go. We have made it to bed at ten on occasion, but it is the waking up a 6:00 that gets me every time. I wanted to do this resolution because I feel that I will be more productive if I get on up and going earlier in the mornings. You know what they say, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man (or woman) healthy, wealthy, and wise!!!" I know that 6 is not early for many, but it is early for me!

3. Read my Bible more often. I set my goal for 3 times a week. I am not doing so well with this one either but it is going to improve!! I am going to start a new Bible study (a 90 day study) called "Becoming the Woman God Wants You to Be" focusing on Proverbs 31 and I am quite excited about it. I am waiting on my book to get here from Amazon so I can get started. My friend Shelley is doing this study with me and my mom has already started it with some of her friends. I think this study will help me with my "read the Bible more often" resolution for sure!" Now, if only my book would get here!!

4. Exercise more. This also has a 3x per week goal. So far I stink at this. What happened to those days in college when I loved to go running as a stress reliever? Now thinking of running causes me stress. Granted, I can't exactly run with this belly because it just feels bazaar, but I should be doing more exercise wise. Why is it that the older you get and the more exercise you need, the more difficult it is to do?? Life can be so ironic sometimes.

5. Thank you notes. I AM AWFUL. I mean, I did well with the wedding and showers and writing hundreds of thank you's for those things. However, I am really bad at writing sporadic thank you notes. I want to be better about this. Several friends have already given me little gifts for Mason that I appreciate so much but I only think of writing the thank you note when I am at work or driving or in some situation where writing a thank you note is completely inconvenient. Ben, who doesn't really see the value in or the necessity of a thank you note says I need to let this go, but I can't. I can't. It is good etiquette to let the gift giver know you are appreciative. Ben's reasoning is, "you don't expect a thank you note, do you?" Granted, no, I don't expect one and I wouldn't remember if I didn't receive one. But they are really nice to receive, aren't they?

So, there are some other things that I have been working on lately that aren't really resolutions but just things that I am enjoying and wanting to do more of:

First, pictures! We have finally purchased some wedding pictures (yes, over 2 years later). We decided to purchase the cd of all the pictures so we could do what we wanted with them. It was just waaaay to hard to pick and choose a few. I am excited about putting together a photo book and getting some of these pictures printed to actually HANG ON MY WALLS. If you have ever been to my house then you are aware that I have NOTHING on my walls and NO recent pictures displayed. It is pretty sad actually. We have been here 3 years in May! So, before Mason gets here, we have got to get some photos up. When we have a baby, we are officially no longer newly weds and it will not be acceptable to have no wedding pictures out. Here is one of my favorites! (Seems like it was just yesterday. Sigh.)

Another thing I have been wanting to do for a WHILE, and have recently started, is archiving recipes. That probably sounds lame. I love to read recipes but when it comes time to cook, I get so overwhelmed trying to choose a recipe out of the thousands on line and in the fourteen hundred cookbooks I have, that I freak out, mentally shut down, and then cook Poppyseed Chicken Casserole. That is always fine with Ben because that it is his all time favorite, but I want to try new things!! Thus, let the archiving begin! What I mean is, I will write down the best recipes on notecards and store them in my handy recipe organizer box that mom gave me (it has a bluebird on it in honor of Mr. Tweeters). Then, when I go looking for new things to cook I can just consult one consolidated place instead of searching the afore mentioned plethora of recipes. Ahhh, I can think better already. On a side note, if you have not checked out PW's Tasty Kitchen site, please do so! I especially love the Tasty Kitchen blog. The blog often features themes of recipes that have been posted on the site. The themes include Mac and Cheese recipes, Pasta Salads, various beverages, chocolate desserts, etc. etc. etc. I love it!

And last, PHOTOGRAPHY! I have enjoyed this hobby so much and I have so much to learn! Very soon my reason for taking up this hobby (my baby) will be here in all his glory for me to photograph for life!! Thanks for all the practice, Pete and Berkley, but I am movin on up. I am very appreciative to my friends Kellie and Lindsey and Jessi for letting me practice on their babies.

In conclusion, a very special shout out to my Auburn Tigers!!! Good luck guys and WAR EAGLE!!!! It is almost game time!!!!!

The Lame House and Other Things

Happy Halloween from the house who got 5 trick-or-treaters. Seriously. Ben and I bought 3 huge bags of candy because we had high hopes of handing out lots of it. However, a huge bowl now sits before me filled to the brim with Snickers, a variety of Reese's, and Sweet Tarts. I looked out the window of the front door and literally saw kids walking down the street past our house without even giving it a second glance. Is our lawn that unkept? Is it because I didn't carve a pumpkin this year? WHY ARE WE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU PEOPLE?!!!!

Next year I am going all out with fake spider webs, lifelike vampires, coffins, tombstones, etc. all over our pristinely manicured lawn. Then I'll bring back out this years candy and be like "There ya go suckers." I'm not bitter.

Moving on... FALL!! I love fall so much. I wish it would stay fall until December 20th and then it can be winter for 2 weeks and then fall can come back until Spring. I shall start praying this request now. Ok, check out this S'more....ahhhhh (that is a chorus of children (not snobby trick-or-treating children) singing in the background)

One of the lovely things that comes with this time of year is S'mores along with fires in the fire pit on our back porch. I love S'mores so much that I have been known to make them in the microwave when there is no fire around. It is easy... you just heat the mallow up for 10 seconds and when you take it out of the microwave, sandwich it between the other S'more parts and you are good to go. And, if you have never watched a marshmallow in the microwave then I suggest you do it now just for kicks. Except heat it for like 30 seconds. For an even bigger thrill, use Peeps.

Another Fall must have is Apple Cider. I have tweaked and perfected my own recipe from others and it goes something like this:

1 half gallon of apple cider

1-2 cups orange juice

the juice of 1/2 a lemon

4 cinnamon sticks

8 whole cloves

a squeeze of honey to taste

A few thinly sliced lemons and or oranges (for looks mainly)

Bring all ingredients to a boil (I am guessing on the quantities here... I just throw it all in there so you can add more or less as you like) and then let simmer for about 30 minutes. Store left overs in the fridge.

So, the news is pretty much out now that Ben and I are having a baby in April!! I mean, it is on facebook so that basically makes it official. Anyway, we are really excited! However, I think my parents are more excited. The week after we told them the news I found a beautiful bouquet of flowers on my front porch steps with this card attached....

I think mom and dad actually meant for the card to say "ThankS for making us grandparents," but apparently this was the last card the florist shop had. :) Their flower arranging skills far outweighed their card-writing skills. Anyway, Ben's parents are excited too even though this baby will be grand baby #5 on their side. The newest addition, Neely, was born just over a month ago! I am ashamed that the only pictures I have of her are on my cell phone but she is such a cutie! She and our baby may end up being in the same grade!

Here is my first "pregnancy" picture. I finally bit the bullet to pose for it. I am 13 weeks here.

Ben and I actually made it to Auburn for a ball game last weekend! Our friends Josh and Shelley came and stayed with us for the game and they inspired us to make the long 45 minute drive to campus. I am sad to say that we have only been to 1 game since we graduated! This past weekend we didn't actually go to the game because we didn't have tickets, but we did go and hang out on campus for tailgating. We had the best time and all of the new additions on campus have made it even more beautiful!

Before we came back to Montgomery to watch the game from the comfort of our couch, we grabbed lunch at one of my favorite Auburn places, Pita Pit. I love it!!!! While I was there I found this hanging on the cork board near the coke machine:

If you can't tell what that is, it is little pieces "strips" of paper with pictures of chickens on them. I laughed out loud for like 5 minutes when I saw it. It was sort of awkward because the game was starting so the only people in Pita Pit were me and Ben and the people making the pitas. The pita guy did not acknowledge me but I was laughing so hard AND taking pictures of the sign. I went to take my own chicken strip but then I saw what looked like a spot of blood on one of the strips and I changed my mind.

So, Auburn killed LSU which was AWESOME because the LSU fans are possibly the rudest and most obnoxious I have ever encountered. They were yelling at Ben and me all day long (on our own campus!) and it got old fast. We would just smile and wave or ignore them. (I'm sure there are some very sweet LSU fans somewhere out there.)

In other news...

I traveled to Mobile a couple of weekends ago for a baby shower for my friend and old roommate, Allison. The shower was great and it was fun to get to spend time with Allison. She is going to be a wonderful mom! I am very excited that our children will be close to the same age!

Ben and I got to keep our nieces Adalyn and Bentley for a little while one Saturday night while their parents went out. They are so good and we had a great time getting to play with them. They are just growing up so fast!

And lastly I leave you with a picture of my silly poodle. He is always into something! Lately he has been digging in the yard, not only with his paws, but also with his face, as you can tell from the picture. I open the door to let him back inside and this is how he greets me. I don't know what I'm going to do with him. He is going to be so jealous when the baby gets here!

Disclaimers:

1. I am not seriously praying "please let us only have 2 weeks of winter."

2. I am not really handing out this year's Halloween candy next year. That was a joke.

3. I have no intention of spending more than 50 dollars on Halloween lawn decorations such as coffins, tombstones, fake lifesize vampires, etc. Ever.

4. My lawn will likely never be pristinely manicured.

5. I am not responsible if you try to heat a Peep or marshmallow of any kind in your microwave and it explodes. (The marshmallow, not the microwave is at risk of exploding.)