Stranger no more

We're back! We've been without internet for a few weeks since the people who had a reliable open network connection moved. Bummer. We actually have to pay for the internet now. But that means I finally get to play again!!


We really haven't been up to too much exciting just everyday stuff. Victory is hopefully at the end of his football season. This is the last game unless they go to play offs. Is it terrible that I'm hoping his team won't make it to play offs so that we can have an awesome week long fall break?  I've already started making a list of things we can do to fill up the week. I think I'll be a disappointed girl if they actually make it to play offs.

(Her poor fat lip she got yesterday when she misjudged the distance between herself and the end table.) :(

She has been definitely been keeping me busy. She's been waking up mulitple times a night. If I don't just nurse her she absolutely loose it and I'll still end up feeding her. Sometimes she won't nurse so then I think she is teething, so I give her orajel. When that doesn't work I give her tylenol. And when that doesn't work I go back to trying to nurse her. She is Ca-razy! Sometimes she takes me to my wits end!

But then I get her fun, happy, silly side and I'm completely filled with joy and I can forgive her for going crazy and keeping me up for hours during the night. 

I hopefully won't be stranger anymore and be able to view and post on all of your blogs. I'll catch up, Promise! I have very much missed the blog world.

Birthday Fairy

I had a birthday. And I have to praise my husband because he did a fantastic job.

 Growing up my mom and dad were wonderful at making each of us feel special on our birthdays. It was like the birthday fairy came to visit while us while we slept so that when we woke up the kitchen would be decorated with ballons and streamers. Andyour gifts would be so beautifully placed in the center of the table and the smell of our favorite breakfast would fill the air. And that wasn't all, my mom would make our favorite dinner and dessert that evening.  It was a special day.

And even though I'm 27, I still want the birthday fairy to come and visit me in the middle of the night. Last year was a rough year since I was pregnant, Victory was extremely busy in his first year of teaching, and we started our move to our new apartment that day. So needless to say, it was a bummer birthday.

Victory tried especially hard to make sure that I had special day. He took the morning off so that he could take me to breakfast and spend sometime with me, which was lovely. We had another hour to spend before he went to school so went to the Children's museum since he hadn't been yet. I think he had more fun than Bekah did. :)

He wrapped my present, bought me a flower and a ballon and decorated the house with streamers. It was beautifully done.

I was extremely satisfied with my birthday celebration. Thanks dear for making me feel special!! YOU'RE THE BEST!

Chugga-chugga choo choo

Victory and I went on a date! Yes, an actual date! Babysitter and all! I know it's only been really only  a month that football has been in full swing but it seems like forever.

He took me on the Fremont Dinner Train. They serve a five course dinner during a three hour train ride. We didn't do the mystery dinner so we pretty much just had ourselves to keep us entertained...which was actually quite enjoyable until my sleepy eyes came upon me (darn those sleepy eyes) and all I could do was rest my tired head upon his shoulder.  Victory and I haven't had a solid three hours to ourselves for a long time so the three hour train ride was quite enjoyable. 

Waiting...

Hey, I'm just sitting here waiting for Victory to get home from his football game in Norfolk. I might give up soon and go to bed but I thought I might try and make the most of my time waiting and blogging sounded like a better idea than putting away that pile of clothes on the bed. :)

Ever since my second trimester of pregnancy with Bekah I have increasingly been enjoying cooking and trying new recipes. I usually stick to the simple but completely yummy recipes. I don't necessarily consider myself a good cook. I just TRY to follow the recipe. I think that anyone can cook if they want to. Don't get me wrong we all screw up sometimes and I most definitely have messed up my fair share of dishes...especially cookies. I think a good cook is someone that can improvise and be creative and make new dishes. I can only follow someone else's creativity. Anyways, there have been a few recipes that Victory and I have enjoyed this week that I wanted to share.

Creamy Chicken Alfredo (from Easy to Bake , Easy to Make)
This is the third recipe I've tried in trying to make a good Alfredo sauce. However, I didn't serve the chicken alfredo with noodles I served it with potatoes. I know it sounds weird, but there wasn't a lot of sauce... and it was just pretty good chicken and it didn't necessarily need noodles. p.s not necessarily budget friendly.

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
6 boneless, skinless, chicken breast halves (about 4 oz each)
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 T Olive Oil, divided
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T minced onion
1 1/2 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 t coarsley ground black pepper
1 T coarsely chopped fresh parsley

1) Preheat oven to 375. Place flour in a shallow dish or pie plate. Sprinkle chicken w/ salt; coat with flour. Heat 2 T olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken; cook, turning once until golden, 2-4 minutes per side. Remove chicken from skillet; place in a 13x9 baking dish.

2) Heat remaining olive oil in same skillet over medium heat until hot. Add garlic an onion; cook until garlic is fragrant and onion is tender, 1-2 minutes. Increase heat to medium-high heat; add whipping cream, parmesan and pepper. Cook until sauce is bubbly and slightly thickened, 2-3 minutes. Spoon sauce over chicken in dish.

3) Bake Chicken 8-12 minutes or until done. Sprinkle with parsley.

Oatmeal Waffles (serve it with cinnamon syrup or my favorite fruit and whip topping or if you want to be healthy with yogurt which is good too.)

1 1/2 c. flour
1 c quick-cooking rolled oats
1 T baking powder
1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 1/2 c milk
6 T butter, melted
2T brown sugar

IN large bowl, stir together flour, oats,baking powder, cinnamon and salt; set aside. In small mixing bowl, stir together eggs, milk, butter and brown sugar. Add to flour miture; stir until blended Pour batter on to grids of preheated, lightly greased waffle iron.
***
Victory is home now and waiting for me to finish typing up recipes. So Good Night folks!!

Its good.

I often get asked how I like being a stay at home mom. I'm never really sure how to answer it. I like it, I guess.  I really don't have a choice but to like it, do I?  :) It has its ups and downs like any other job. Victory often seems concerned about making sure that I feel appreciated being at home which honestly, isn't a problem. A baby can't say thank you for changing that yucky diaper, or feeding her despite her blowing raspberries as you place the spoonful of food into her mouth. But every giggle, cuddle and and smile is thank you enough!...as long as they aren't too far in between too many cries and mischief. :)

WHAT I LIKE
I like that I don't always feel frenzied and tired. It was exhausting every morning to try to remember EVERYTHING and get out of the door by a certain time. If I wrote out the to-do list for the mornings and the don't forget list, I would only bore you but it was just TOO much. I laugh at myself when I think back a couple of years ago when it was just me and I could barely get myself to work by 8:00. Oh, how pathetic!!!

My mind is much more relaxed. My mind was ALWAYS on hyper mode.  It was always thinking about what I needed to do next. I was trying figure out the details of home AND work. I would try listening to other people but in the mean time my mind was often searching, thinking of "what next?" AHHH.  I had almost forgotten about that feeling until just now.  I seriously felt that if someone had spent just ten minutes in my head they would have gone crazy. 

My heart feels more at peace. That could be the direct effect of the mind being calmed down. I feel like I can enjoy and love the time I have with my little girl and husband.

My body is feeling GREAT! I hadn't regularly exercised since I started dating Victory back in the summer of 2007 where I willing gave up any free time I had. :)  Now, I've been exercising and/or walking 5-6 days a week. Feels awesome! My goal is to get rid of the baby belly...does that ever go away or am I trying in vain?

 (ha ha! Laugh if you will, but I love exercising with Richard)

SOME OF THE DOWNS
My house is most definitely NOT cleaner. I thought it would be but who am I joking with a little girl out and about taking EVERYTHING off the shelves, out of the drawers and spreading toys, books, dvds, and anything she can get her hands on all through out the house. So when I decide to clean it is cleaning up those messes instead of other cleaning and organizing. Oh well. I'm not too worried unless I get an unexpected visitor. Then I might FREAK out. :)

It can get a little lonely.  It really hasn't been too bad so far. I attribute that to a friend who lets her son come over and play with Bekah for a couple of hours on Monday and Tuesday while she is in class. And then she goes walking with me on Thursdays and then we go to the Children's Museum on Fridays.  It is SO helpful to get out once a day otherwise Bekah and I go a little crazy. She needs new things to explore and I need to feel like I have something to do each day.

THINGS THAT I LOVE
I love that I get to watch Bekah grow up. She is SO much fun right now...well, oft times a pill but so fun! She says "uh-oh". It is so cute! Another milestone, she took her first steps August 29th and has been working on improving it since. It is so cute to see her waddle around. She sometimes tries to go faster than her feet will take her and stumbles.  I think she is attempting to run before she has mastered the walk. :) I love that I just get to be there. Sometimes I don't think it's fair that Victory has to be the one that is off making the living so that I can stay at home. :(  Life isn't fair, is it.

I finally feel like there is time. There is time to breathe. Time to serve. Time to think. Time to plan. Time to sleep. Time to read. (yes read! I've already read two books! do you know how long it has been since I've read a book?!)  Time to learn. Time to become a better person. And most importantly, time for relationships.

I have come to believe that Satan tries to make us too busy that there little time for anything but the essentials (if even that).  I realize that at times that is how life is sometimes but hopefully only for a little while.  And even though it was hard to quit my job, I'm glad I did. I was tired of being too busy.

I guess that is how I'd really answer the question "how do you like staying home?" instead of my short answer, "its good."

A penny saved...

So today, the Haines enter the world of budgeting. Blgh. I've loved being able to do whatever we wanted with our money. Not that we ever went really crazy or anything, we often saved more that we spent but it was the freedom that I loved.  And even though I feel like I'm going to hate counting pennies, I'm going to try and see this as an exciting challenge of being effective with our limited resources.   Anyway, so here's to a new life of budgeting!

If you've got great tips on budgeting please let me know! Also, if you've got great budget friendly recipes send them my way...especially ones without meat. (I feel like we have so many dishes that center around meat and meat tends to be expensive.)

Also, I want to share a tip with you. Have you happened to notice that your dishes are coming out of the dishwasher with white spots recently?  I had a friend over for dinner and I was apologizing for the sad state my dishes were in and she told me  she had been experiencing the same thing. Thankfully, her husband was listening to the radio and just happened to hear a discussion about why this was happening. Cascade has stopped putting Phosphate in their detergents. Apparently, it's not very good for the environment so several states have banned the use of it.   And since phosphate was the ingredient that made our dishes look clean we are all left with a nasty residue on our dishes. However, there is a product called Lemi Shine you can add to your dish washing detergent that works wonders!

I'll try to only put in every other few loads so I'm not completely ruining the environment. YAY for clean looking dishes!

Dear Friends

Friday was a fabulous day! I was able to see some dear friends from Utah. My friend from the high school years, Christina, paid a us a visit since her husband was doing some training her in Lincoln. Awesome. So with our friend Krissy, we went to the Zoo. These ladies are so much fun! Its weird that we are all grown up (well I'm not sure I'm there yet) but we all have kids!

I hadn't been to the Lincoln zoo in a very long time but I actually enjoyed it. It often gets compared to the Omaha Zoo, with which there is no comparison, but I like the Lincoln Zoo. Its small enough you actually pay attention to the animals where at the Omaha Zoo it's so grand with too much to see.

Then later that evening my friend Shandy and I went to Northstar's first football game of the season.

I love just sitting and chatting it up with Shandy. She is so inspiring and highly amusing. If I had any say at all she would come back to Lincoln for grad school. please.....

I can't fail to mention this was Miss Bekah's first football game. She did pretty well but she did not like it when I cheered. So Shandy held her so I could cheer on the team. ...which by the way they won!! Not by as much as Victory would have liked but they won none the less. GO GATORS!!!