Belly & Buckeyes

Most people in the area planned on a snow day Friday due to this big winter storm/blizzard thing - and they have already called it off in most places. But today was a little bit of a surprise! We got a snow day today too! My school called it kinda late (6:30AM-ish) but apparently it was bad out there. Big Rapids Public Schools didn't close in the morning and ended up closing down early and sent kids home at noon. 

I spent my day doing things around the house. It's days like today I wish our dog could come in the house and keep me company! Since we're renting and the lease clearly states "No pets indoors," and our landlords live right across the road :) , we can't really break that rule. Junebug had to stay in her kennel in the garage. 

Even if my dog couldn't keep me company, my bulging belly did! Ha ha! She was moving around in there a whole lot today!

24 weeks

Zach still had to go to work; he made appointments with customers and they had to install a new tank of some kind at the office - which had to be hauled up way into the air by a crane - which had to be unattached by someone in a harness when it got up there- which happened to be Zach... I don't think I would have worried as much on any other day but with the rain/sleet and high winds today, I was not thrilled to get a picture via text of this huge tank going up into the air... then when he came home he told me that they didn't have a harness so they rented a lift. But the lift didn't go high enough. So they used a ladder on top of that... in the high winds and rain. Good grief!

Later this afternoon I went down to my in-laws and helped make buckeyes! MMMMM! My favorite Christmas treat! Tyler, my brother-in-law, is usually the one in charge of rolling up the little peanut butter balls but since he was living out of state last year, I took over the job. He's since moved back home so we both sat at the kitchen table rolling buckeye balls. Once the chocolate on the stove melted, I dunked them in and put them on a cookie sheet to cool. I had to dip mine into the chocolate because I rolled the balls too big and they kept falling apart & making things difficult on mom. Whoops! They looked small when I rolled them!

Buckeyes

Currently, Zach is in the basement putting a coat of polyurethane on a buffet table we ordered from a local store called "Bare Furniture". The store sells wood items such as tables, beds, end tables and orders everything "bare" aka: no stain or polyurethane. So you either have to pay for them to stain/polyurethane it for you or you do it yourself and since my husband is so handy, he is doing that job in our basement. He must be enjoying it because I can hear him whistling and humming as I sit upstairs on the couch. :) Anyway, the buffet table is a light wood and will go in our kitchen. We commissioned a family friend do a set of paintings (which turned out AMAZING!) for us to hang above it. 

Four Seasons Paintings by Deb Rutkowski

It's a series of four paintings; each canvas is a season with countryside trees or a house or barn or tractors. They're very neat and we're so happy with how they turned out! Can't wait to hang them up!

Yesterday Zach said that if they cancel school Friday then he would take the day off work too - and they did! So we'll both be home tomorrow! This does NOT happen very often at all so I'm very excited. 

Our Christmas Tree - 2012

Well, I'm off to watch the last Christmas movie on our list: The Grinch with Zach. The others included: Elf, Home Alone, and A Christmas Story - which I had never seen until this year. Thanks to Katie & Kyle for renting it and bringing it over while you were here!

Love,

Sarah

Early December Update

Well, well, well. Another post! And so soon after the last!

Things have been moving right along around here. We finally got our first big snow of the year that stayed on the ground. We got a snow day out of it on Monday - it was debatable whether school should have been cancelled or not, but I'm not complaining!

June was hilarious in the snow for the first time! She just kept running around getting mouthfuls of snow and eating it! It didn't seem to bother her that it was cold or wet, she just wanted to eat it. But what doesn't that dog want to eat?! Then later that night when the snow was falling again, we walked her around and she kept jumping up in the air to try to catch the snowflakes in her mouth. It was quite the sight and I wish I had a picture or video of that.

June's first walk in the snow!

Trying to eat the snow 

Sunday afternoon we cut down our Christmas tree and put it up. We didn't get the chance to decorate it until Tuesday night... oh well. It's done now. I'm always so torn between wanting a pretty, matchy-match tree and wanting the nostalgia of a hodge-podge tree.

Hodge-podge.

You know. The tree covered with macaroni ornaments, clothespin reindeer, and puzzle piece wreaths with your school picture in the middle that you made in elementary school?!

Yeah, that one.

It's fun to get out each ornament and remember why you got it or who you got it from. They bring familiarity to the season. But the matching ones look so nice! Maybe next year I can talk Zach into having one of each...

Teaching has been going well. That's an understatement; teaching has been going VERY WELL compared to last year. It's amazing how different the groups of kids are each year. This class has been so much more easygoing, independent, and advanced than last year. It's been fun to do more things with this class because they can handle it and I'm not dealing with downright rude & naughty behaviors every two minutes. That's not saying this year has been an entire cupcake, easy, breezy class. I've got a few who are challenging enough to make up for the rest of the class when it comes to behavior.

The countdown to Christmas Break is on! Only 7 more school days! Our last day is Friday, December 21 and we've got a whole bunch of stuff packed in there: regular lessons, plus Christmas lessons, students making crafts for their family members, plus a fun sledding day and a Christmas party... whew! Somehow it will all get done!

Zach's been a busy beaver. He's still working at CPS. He was one of six people from the whole division who got asked to be on a new technology team. CPS bought their salesmen iPads and Zach's really good with that techy kind of stuff so they asked him to be on this team. They have to meet and put together a presentation about new apps and the best ways to maximize the use of the iPad on the job. They have to present for their big conference this winter which I think he's a little intimidated by but he'll do a great job. Especially since it involves technology and farming and teaching others how to use it to their best benefit.

He also got asked to go a weeklong event in February out in California where they will tour a bunch of farms... and something else that I can't remember... whoops. I need to listen better and ask more questions.... All I know is that not many guys get asked to go and they asked him, so that is pretty cool! I'm super proud of him! He works really hard and puts a lot of time and effort into doing his job right, solving tech issues, dealing with unmotivated co-workers, helping the guys in the shop, keeping schedules organized, and taking care of his customers. So it's great that others have been noticing - not just me! :) Had to brag him up a little bit!

Zach's also been going through Fire Department Training since September. He has class two nights a week and then one Saturday a month (which thankfully went down to one night a week starting this week!). He carries a pager/radio thing around with him now and has gone out on a few calls: one was a garage fire and another was a single-wide trailer fire. Since he's still in training he has to wear a bright orange vest that says CADET on it over the top of his fire gear - and he can't really do a whole lot at the scene besides stand around and ask questions. But he's getting his face around the guys which is good. The class goes all winter and into the spring when they test out in April... April 13 to be exact. Which is three days after our baby is due... Here's hoping she's three days late or that he can pick a different test date!

Baby's doing good. She's moving around lots in there! Being kicked and poked and prodded from the inside is a straaaaaaaange and very unique feeling... Here's a picture from this week:

23 weeks

There's no denying there's a bump! As you can see, I need to buy more maternity shirts since the ones I have stick out at the bottom because they're not long enough. It turns out that Big Rapids doesn't have maternity clothes at ANY of the few stores we have (Meijer, Wal-Mart, Peebles, JC Penney) so I'm going to need a shopping trip to Grand Rapids very soon. Plus, as you CAN'T see from this picture, none of my pants really button anymore and are being held up by a rubber band around the buttonhole. :)

Moral of the story: none of my clothes fit. And that's okay. Because I very happy there's a baby in there that we get to see and hold in April!

Love,

Sarah

It's a Girl!

This year my birthday fell on Thanksgiving week (which meant a short work week for me) AND the week we got to find out the gender of our baby! The much anticipated ultrasound was on Wednesday afternoon (Nov. 21). I was supposed to have a half-day of school... until I threw up in my car on the way there... so 7:30AM I had to call in for a last-minute sub and drive myself back home and crawl into bed. It was the 24-hr flu. Ugh. But I was bound and determined to get to that ultrasound by 2:00PM because it would be another month wait if we had to reschedule. So I slept all day and tried to keep down as much fluid as possible, which wasn't much. Zach came home around 1:30 and we decided to just go for it. I almost made it. Not really. I puked in a bucket as we pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. But then I felt better so we went in anyway.... that was probably a huge no-no: going into a hospital while sick with the flu but, oh well. We did and its over. And we got to see the Little Cookie in there!!!

20 weeks

The ultrasound room was stinkin' HOT and we were in there for 45 minutes but we got to see the baby again! We asked the ultrasound tech not to drop any gender hints if she could tell what it was because we wanted her to write it down on a notecard we brought. She took a ton of pics and another tech came in and took more and they both agreed on the gender so they wrote it down and sealed the envelope. Baby didn't really cooperate until the very end -- all curled up and facing away from the camera then finally turned a little to let us see the profile a bit. But the chin was tucked down on it's belly so all we could see was the eyes and nose and barely the upper lip. Also, they both agreed NOT to change the due date based on the measurements and whatever else they look at. April 10th it is. They sent us home with a sealed envelope and a CD of pictures - that we couldn't look at until Sunday!!!

camera shy

All curled up with the chin on the belly

After my bout with the flu, the next day was Thanksgiving and we drove to Farmington Hills for Thorne Thanksgiving. Not much food cramming for this girl since my stomach was still recovering from the day before. The cool thing about Thanksgiving was that Zach got to feel the baby move for the first time! He's been wanting to feel it SO BAD and he finally got to! I still wasn't even feeling it much until that week. Anyway, one of those milestones that made me smile - just to see the look on his face!

 Zach went out at midnight on Black Friday with my brothers. They went to the Twelve Oaks Mall -- I think they're crazy!!! Then they got up early the following morning and went out again! I slept in. :) Later that morning we spent time with my grandparents in Westland.

On the way home, we took that sealed envelope with baby's gender written down and stopped at Babies R Us. We picked out a boy and girl outfit then we asked the cashier to open the envelope and wrap up the outfit that matched what the notecard said. We paid with cash and had him put the change and receipt back into the envelope then we went and walked around the store. After wandering through the super long aisles of strollers, car seats, and baby monitors we went back up to the register and took our wrapped up package home. So from Friday night until Sunday afternoon, we had a present all wrapped up waiting to be opened!!!

Somehow we waited until Sunday afternoon. With both our families standing around (and a few on Skype!), we opened it up with lots of screaming and saw the outfit was pink! There were a few tears shed all around. My mom just loves babies so she didn't care what it was. Zach's mom, the mom of two boys, was really hoping for a girl and she got her wish! The second wish to come true would be for her to be born on her birthday, April 6. We'll have to wait at and see! (You can check out the reveal video on Facebook.)

It's a girl!

I'm just glad I can stop calling the baby "it!" There's a "SHE" in there! :) And she's been quite active the past few weeks so I've felt her a lot and Zach has too. We're at 22 weeks this week: slightly over halfway there. 40 weeks is full term. Wow. My belly's got a lot of stretching to do before then! And we're got a lot of stuff to do & buy and books to read!

Love,

Sarah

Oh, Baby!

Well, I'm terrible at writing on here. Especially when school starts back up it seems like there's no time, or I don't make the time, to post. And I guess it's not really the end of the world, so I'm over it for now.

If you haven't heard, we're adding on to our family in April! This time it's not another pet or farm animal or piece of equipment... It's a baby! A real, live baby! We found out in August but decided to keep it a secret until our first ultrasound appointment just to make sure everything was okay in there. In reality, we didn't even make it that far because we told our parents 2 weeks before that appointment then they had to bear the silence with us! The first grandchild for my parents and Zach's so it was hard to keep the good news to themselves - but it's going to get plenty of love and attention.

Here's what we got to see at that 12 week appointment:

12 week ultrasound

It's really in there! :) And it really made me quite nauseous. Not really any throwing up (only when I had a bad cold) just ALL. DAY. NAUSEA. It ended around week 14 so I was glad for that because it made the start to my school year a not so fun. There's not really much to complain about because I know a lot of ladies get "morning sickness" a lot worse and for a lot longer.

Apparently growing a person is hard work because it also made me SUPER TIRED. Especially that first trimester was rough! I could fall asleep anywhere. As soon as I got home from work or cross-country coaching I plopped down on the couch and didn't move until I got into my bed. My energy levels have been back up though lately so that's been nice.

I've gotten a few requests for "baby bump" pictures so here's one from a few weeks ago. Ignore the messy guest room background...

16 weeks

This week will be 19 weeks and I have another appointment on Thursday. Can't wait to hear that little heartbeat again pumping away!

The big news is that on November 21 (the day after my birthday!) we go for the 20 week ultrasound and get to find out the gender! As long as the little thing cooperates and gives the tech a good view, we should know what it is! Yes, we're going to find out what it is. Zach is convinced that it's a boy and the ultrasound will just be confirmation of it. I don't care what it is as long as it's got all it's parts, healthy, and growing in there. And I'll be glad to be able to call it "he" or "she" instead of "it."

Zach's excited too, which I'm really glad about! He keeps rubbing my belly because he wants to feel it move. The problem is that I don't feel it move very often in there and when it does it's just been a little flip-flop-flutter and then it's done. It must be pretty content it there because it's pretty calm. Let's hope that calmness of personality continues on this side of the womb! :) He also talks to it and has nicknamed it - which is a nickname I can't stand  - so hopefully that will change in a few weeks when we know if it's a little boy or a little girl in there.

Love,

Sarah

Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch

Pinterest is a wonderful thing. I get so many ideas for things on there. Whenever I tell Zach about some cool idea, he always says, "Did you get that from Pinterest?" and I nod. Mostly he does it to tease me a little. But there are a few times when he gives Pinterest the thumbs up - usually after I've found a cool new meal to try and last week I cooked up one of those great recipe finds!!!

Behold: Cheddar Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta!!!

All of Zach's favorite things in one dish.

It was SUPER easy and had GREAT flavor. The only thing I would do differently next time is to double the amount of sauce (liquids). There wasn't quite enough to make it creamy and cheesey. It was slightly dry and even drier when we reheated. I've adjusted the recipe to make sure there's enough sauce.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb pasta, approx. half a box (I used cavatappi noodles just because they look cool)
• 4 slices bacon, (now you can make this with only 4 slices... but I used about 1/2lb of it)
• 1 TBSP butter
• 2 large chicken breasts, cut into pieces and cooked
• 2 TBSP all-purpose flour
• 1 package Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix (I used the "Fiesta Ranch" packet, so if you want to give this dish a Mexican flair, use that!)
• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt & pepper, added to your taste

Here's what I did:

1. Cook bacon (Feel free to drain the grease; but save the pan and don't clean it out -you're going to need about 1 tsp. of it to cook the chicken). Let it cool. Chop it into pieces. Set aside.

2. Put a pot of water on to cook the noodles. Follow package directions.

3. Melt butter in large skillet with leftover bacon grease.

4. Cut chicken into bite size pieces. Season with salt and pepper. Put chicken into hot butter & grease. Cook until tender, no more pink in the center, and slightly browned.

5. Sprinkle the flour and Ranch Dressing mix over the chicken, stirring to coat evenly.

6. Stir in the milk. Cook and stir occasionally until thick and bubbly.

7. Stir in the cheddar cheese and most of the bacon. Stir around until cheese is melted.

8. Add hot, cooked noodles to the cheesy, chicken mixture.

9. Top with any additional bacon and serve hot :)

I served this with garlic bacon green beans and zucchini tots. There will be another post about each of these on another day.

Lots of Bacon-y Love,

Sarah

What's My Middle Name?

Toward the end of the school year, most of the kids in my class had figured out that they all have middle names. Some could tell me what it was, some could even write it down, and some could even spell it right. :) During the last week of school, I told the class that my middle name started with the letter "R."

(Now, my dad gave away my first name when he came into my classroom to visit for the first time. He walked in the door and said, "Hi, Sarah!"

And all the kids turned and stared at me and said, "Your name is SARAH?!" They seemed shocked to learn that I had a name other than "Mrs. Cook." )

After telling them the first letter, there came a barrage of names shouted at me. They kept guessing all day long and I started writing them down -mostly because a bunch of them kept asking the same name and mostly because I didn't want to forget some of their outrageous guesses!

Guess Mrs. Cook's Middle Name:

Renee
Riley
Rye
Rhonda
Rhondo
Ron
Rodney
Robin Hood -hmmmm
Romo
Read Meat - Really?!
Rock
Rose
Rosebush
Rocketship - somebody must have had outer space on the brain
Red Cardinal
Red
Rudolph - apparently my nose is a little red...
Rhona
Rommate
Reccos (because that's soccer spelled backwards)
Reese
Reginald - very handsome, don't you think?
Roger
Razor
Rex
Rosabelle
Robery
Robby
Rocko
Droid - yes, I know this one doesn't start with an R but if you knew the boy, you would understand :)


Any more guesses out there?


Love,

Sarah R.

June

Our puppy is looking more and more like a dog every day. She turned 4 months old on August 1st.

Junie, Juniper, Junebug

There's some things about her that crack me up: she chases butterflies, she eats plays with then eats bugs that she finds in the garage, she eats veggies from the garden (specifically beans and zucchini). She jumps in and out of the pool playing with anything that falls in there (sticks, bugs, toys) and every now and then she chases her tail.

When I go outside to play with her, she gets SO EXCITED that she jumps up and down at the end of her yard leash - except she can't go anywhere because she's tied down so she looks like a caught fish on the end of a fishing line!

She is also getting pretty good at playing fetch. I can throw her rope or toy and she actually brings it back! :) Woo! Progress! She has also dug two holes in the yard.... she got swatted on the behind for those so we're hoping she got the message as to what NO means!

I was gone for a long weekend to visit my best friend in Minneapolis and go to a childhood friend's wedding --- and I missed the pup! Plus, I think she grew about 2 inches in those 4 days! However, she got to spend lots of quality time with "Grandpa" Cook. Zach's dad LOVES to bring her down to the farm and play with her... and spoil her. :) Did you know there is such a thing as "Doggie Donuts"? I didn't either until Dad got her some. Ha ha! She's gonna be a good farm dog!

June is so goofy and too smart for her own good most of the time. I'm so glad we got her as a puppy, but I think Zach's more excited for the time when she will be a calm, adult dog.

Love,

Sarah

Secret Code Answers!

A few of you made some guesses as to what you thought my 1st graders were trying to write.

Here's the answers:

1. chramplen = trampoline

2. kinpeootr = computer

3. captin amarcu = Captain America

4. osum = awesome

5. gamekewb = game cube

6. deradid = decorated

7. crismis = Christmas

8. froo = threw

9. pedes = puppies    (this was a tough one!!!)

10. ceewt = cute

11. meezoom = museum

12. froup = threw up



As the school year is about to kick off, I'm sure I'll have many more of these to come!




Love,


Sarah

Secret Code

I came across a stack of papers at my house from this last school year... yeah, yeah the papers were still at my house. Oh well.

As I went through some of their writing, there were some words that jumped out at me and made me laugh. Then I laughed even harder when I asked my sister to try to read them.

Here they are. Leave a comment and see if you can crack the code!!!

1. chramplen

2. kinpeootr

3. captin amracu

4. osum

5. gamekewb

6. deradid

7. crismis

8. froo

9. pedes

10. ceewt

11. meezoom

12. froup


I'll post answers next time. :) Happy reading --- or should I say deciphering.


Love,
Sarah

Shopping Cart Drivers

This will be a short post.

Today at the grocery store, I almost got run over (TWICE!) by shopping carts! I was cruising down the main aisle and BAM! this old lady whips out of a side aisle in front of me -- without even pausing or a taking a sideways glance! The later, ZOOM! it happened again later on when a different person caused a near crash for the same reason.

Now, call me crazy, but it seems there's always been this sorta unspoken rule about grocery shopping to LOOK BOTH WAYS before you just merge into the main aisle. Main aisle people can't see you side aisle people coming due to HUGE SHELVES and lots of products on them. 

It's like driving --- when there's shrubs/trees/buildings blocking your view, you stop or at least slow down to check for oncoming traffic before you turn. You don't just go blazing through hoping that no other vehicle is careening towards you!!! Safety first, defensive driving, following traffic laws and all that jazz they taught us in drivers' education. Do these crazy people drive cars the way they push shopping carts?! Because if they do, I'm going to stay off the road... 

And hope they learn to have a little common courtesy to stop and look before pushing a giant shopping carts full of food out into a main aisle. :)

Love,

Sarah

New stuff!

Welp, if you haven't heard already, we've gotten a lot of new "stuff" since winter.

We know have 6 chickens clucking, pecking, and laying eggs! Yay for not ever having to write "eggs" on my shopping list ever again! The whole story is a bit long.

My family had chickens when I was growing up (25 of them) and ever since I've wanted them as an adult. Now that we're in a home where we won't be moving anytime soon, Zach built a coop, we picked out some adorable chicks at Tractor Supply, and brought them home and kept them under a heat lamp for several weeks.

My little peepers!

We finally moved them outside into the coop but didn't let them into the fenced in part for a few more weeks. They finally went outside but that was only to their demise because a few days later a raccoon dug under the fence and killed them...all of them... A few days later we pulled in the driveway and the stinkin' raccoon was running away from the coop! Zach went running inside for a huge flashlight and I drove the car around the side of the barn. It climbed up to the top of a ladder in the barn. Zach could see it through a crack outside the barn and I could see the whole body. So, I ran inside and got my .22 rifle. It wasn't loaded and I was in such a rush that I fumbled around with the shells for what seemed like forever until I got about 6 of them in and called it good. It's a semi-auto so it holds about 12 rounds. I told Zach I was taking the shot (he was on the outside of the barn) and kept trying to tell me to bring the gun to him because he could see it --- and I kept responding that I could see the whole body and that I was taking the shot. He came around the side as I yelled, "Fire in the hole!" Baha ha ha! This is hilarious to me as I write this because it sounds so redneck! It took a couple tries but I finally hit it and it fell down. Unfortunately I only wounded it and there was blood everywhere and Zach finished it off. It was HUGE and had sick nasty mangey fur and NO TAIL! But at least I avenged the death of my chickens. :)

Boom! Take that 'coon!

A few weeks later, we got some full grown chickens from a friend and they've been laying ever since. There's 3 white ones and 3 black ones. I'm open to name suggestions.

The other new thing we have is a DOG! And not just any dog - an adorable yellow lab puppy! It took awhile for Zach to warm up to the idea of getting a puppy but once he did he set right to researching what kind of puppy to get and where. He's a details kind of guy. :) He located a lab breeder close by and went to look at the pups then took me back to pick out the one for us! There were three female pups to choose from: two of them ran around causing trouble and chewing on everything in sight so we picked the more calm one.

Baby June!

We paid the breeder and put the adorable (but very stinky) pup in a kennel in the back of Zach's pickup. Well, she yipped, cried, and howled the whole way home... I felt terrible but with the way she smelled there was no way she was sitting on my lap for 45 minutes. The 45 minutes also gave us a chance to figure out what the heck to name her.... we had always thought we would get a boy dog and had all kinds of sweet names for boy dogs so a girl name was hard to think of. As soon as we got home and opened the kennel door - she puked. Ick. After cleaning that up we filled up a tub with warm water and gave her a bath. She was so tiny and fuzzy and cute! We played with her for a bit outside and finally decided on the name June. We wanted a short name that sounded mellow and June seemed to fit.

Zach and June

Finally got my puppy!

Her birthday is April 1 so she's already over three months old and growing SUPER fast. So far she has learned to SIT on command. We're working on STAY and COME. She likes to ignore the COME command, especially when she wanders through the hayfield looking for bugs and other disgusting stuff to eat. She likes to eat poop. And bugs. Gross. But she also likes to run through the garden and chase butterflies which is adorable. Nothing cuter than a puppy chasing a butterfly!

June also loves tennis balls.

Third new thing, paint! Our living room and one wall in the kitchen got a fresh coat of blue/gray paint. It's called "Van Courtland Blue" by Benjamin Moore. Thanks, Pottery Barn for the inspiration. I'm working on a photo gallery wall in the living room and a friend is doing a 4 canvas series of paintings for the wall in the kitchen. I'll post pictures soon.

Last new thing, Zach turned 25 and Mom Thorne turned 52 on July 16. I surprised Zach by inviting friends and family over for cake & ice cream in the afternoon. :) Zach was definitely surprised!

Pig cupcakes for the farmerboy

Happy 25 Years!

We also surprised my mom with tickets to a Tigers Game! My brothers got her a Tigers t-shirt and my sisters gave her spending money for at the ballpark and we went to the game on Thursday afternoon!

Can you believe she's 52!?

It poured rain -- the two days it's rained all summer and we had tickets to a ball game on one of those days --- but luckily our seats were just under the upper deck so we didn't get wet! And bonus - the Tigers won! After the game we stopped at Astoria Bakery in Greektown per the recommendation from friends and bought some delicious pastries for later. We also got to visit with our Thorne grandparents after the game which was so nice! I love hearing their stories.

That's all for now.

Love,

Sarah

Birthday Month & Bread

February brings several birthdays for our families again. January is packed full of them but February had a couple notable ones.

My youngest brother, Michael turned 12 years old on February 6. I am twice his age this year... crazy. I remember watching when he was born - how blue his skin was and how he didn't cry for awhile until the nurse rubbed some color back into him, how we really wanted him to be the 7th kid born on the 7th of February but he came at 11:50PM on the 6th, how he didn't have a name for almost a week because my parents couldn't decide what to name him. Some of the options on the table were: Harrison, Jason, Michael, and Travis and Justin's pick: Roly-poly-poop-and-pie. Thank goodness mom and dad didn't go with that one! :)

Anyways, Michael fits him perfectly and our family wouldn't be the same without him. He's in 6th grade this year and plays soccer, basketball, and baseball. He plays oboe in band and loves polar bears and the computer game Madden. He's still got HUGE eyelashes, adorable freckles, and shock blonde hair. He loves to tell you stories but he takes forever to get to the point... And he's still pretty small and cries at the drop of a hat.... maybe we babied the baby a bit too much. :)

Love you, Peanut! He was so small when he was born that I started calling him Peanut and it stuck. His other nicknames vary depending on which sister is talking to him.

If it's Katie, she calls him Sonny.

If it's Rachel, she calls him Babushka (which I realize is Russian for "grandmother" but who knows where she got it from)

If it's Amy, she calls him Bubba.

blowing out candles on his Superbowl cake

Mom & Dad with their baby

Mike & sister Rachel

Mike's birthday guests, who also may have been in town for the Superbowl...

Me & Zach, Trav's friend Jake, brothers Travis & Justin, Mom & dad, Rachel & Jared

The other milestone birthday we celebrated was Grandpa Cook's 92nd birthday on February 17. Yes, you read that right 92, as in ninety-two, as in 9 tens and 2 ones!

We went to Harbor Beach to their farm on Saturday for a birthday dinner and gifts. Zach, me, & my in-laws spent the night so it was nice to get some extra time with them when it wasn't so stinkin' loud from the rest of the Cook family chatter. :)

Grandpa Cook is doing so well for a man of his age. Actually, he's doing a lot better than most 70 year olds I know! He just wears glasses and has NEVER had a cavity in all his life! He sailed the Great Lakes as a young man, married Minnie, had 5 children and ran a farm complete with crops and cows for many years. He's also got a memory for dates like none other! He can tell you the date to the date when he started sailing one season, or the exact date and year he bought out the neighbors farm, or how much sugar beets cost in the spring of 1952. It's pretty ridiculous but also pretty impressive!

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Cook! You are loved by many!

Singing Happy Birthday!

It's probably a good thing they didn't put 92 candles on there!

Grandma Cook, Sue, & Aunt Marge prepping the cake for eating

If I back up to January for a bit, I got to make a few exciting purchases! And they're only exciting because I waited and waited and waited to get them and now I'm so glad! One was a cozy down comforter. It's the best. Sinking into our pillow top bed with that comforter on top is SO lovely. I could stay in there all day! Well, at least all morning, which I've gotten to do a lot of lately due to our snow days and Presidents' days. :)

The second thing was the duvet cover for the down comforter. I went back and forth on colors, patterns, and designs but finally went with a complete bedding set from Pottery Barn. I was not disappointed at all! It gives our room a little pop of color which it desperately needed since all the walls everywhere are white. Plus it fits over the comforter perfectly too since we also got that at PB. I'll be sad when summer's here and the down comforter will have to go away. But until then, I'm enjoying it!

And last but not least, I have found a WONDERFUL bread recipe! I've made it twice now because the first time I didn't bake it long enough and the middle was still doughy, whoops! Anyways, I made it again Monday and it got my in-laws stamp of approval when they came over for dinner last night. Zach loves it too! I got the recipe from here. I followed her directions exactly. Bread is too sensitive for me to go messing around with the ingredients or doing my usual measuring method of estimating... I learned that the hard way.

Just beware, it makes 2 big loaves and it was pretty tough on my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. Probably because there's between 6-8 cups of flour might be the reason it was a huffin' and puffin' away.

But who cares.

The machine lived and we got yummy warm bread!

I usually eat as many slices as possible when it comes out of the oven because it's only warm and fresh once. Reheating is just not the same. My recommendation is to slather butter on it then drizzle some honey on top. Or put raspberry preserves on it. That's good too. Actually, just about any way you eat homemade bread is good.

bread straight from the oven

It might be weird to say, but I was super scared of making bread from scratch. It just seemed so complicated and too many things could go wrong then I would have wasted lots of time and ingredients. But it's not so bad after all. The result was worth the risk of learning how!

homemade bread success!

Love,

Sarah

A General Update

The large florescent light above our kitchen island has been replace by these little lovelies! Zach installed three pendant lights that we picked out over Christmas break. The pendants are tan and brown with a kind of stoney looking pattern and the fixture is a darker bronze. We like more of a brushed nickel look but none of the other fixtures in the house look like that. :) Trying to keep it simple and neutral around here since it's not technically our house.

Travis' 17th Birthday was January 3rd. Hard to believe he's 17... I still remember his chunky body and spikey, mushroom cut blonde hair as a toddler - hence he got the nickname Spike for awhile. Travis had quite a few nicknames in his life, (Trav, Travie, T-man, T, TJ-My-Buddy, and Bumblebee) the most common being T.J. Since he was the first son to my parents he got my dad's name for a middle name, Travis Jeffrey (T.J.). He got called that for A LONNNNNNG time. Now it's just Travis or Travie. :) Whichever we feel like yelling to him when we see him.

Love it when he really smiles.

We went to an AGR wedding a few weeks ago in Livonia so we made a weekend out of it by staying Friday and Saturday night at a hotel in Novi. We made a quick trip to Twelve Oaks Mall on Saturday morning before the wedding and got a down comforter for our bed. At first I was slightly disappointed at how thin it was, thinking there's no way it was going to keep us warm at night. I was completely wrong. That thing is stinkin' hot! We have to turn the furnace WAYYYY down at night to keep from sweating under it! But is super soft and cozy and it's never going to leave our bed - except maybe in the summer when we can't turn the heat down... I got way off topic. Anyways, Zach got to talk with a lot of former housemates and AGR alum and it was a good catching up time.

Matt, Zach, Dave, & Will

It's been really great getting together with our small group again after a break during the holidays. We've been going through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace series and it's been incredibly helpful, challenging, and encouraging for all of us. The last week, our group's dinner theme was Thanksgiving - main dish was turkey, sides were stuffing, salad, corn, etc. and we signed up to bring dessert. I wanted to make something pumpkin-y but not quite an original pumpkin pie so I made pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I added some white sugar sprinkles and mini chocolate chips on top for decoration.

They were delicious! Fall inspired but not totally typical Thanksgiving dessert. You can find the exact recipe I used by clicking here.

That's all for now. Parent Teacher Conferences are just around the corner again so I'm off to work on report cards. Oh happy day. It'll be okay. Later in the day we're going to hang out with some friends at their family cottage. I see games and cocktails ahead!

Love,

Sarah