Blueberry (Banana) Oatmeal

Everybody knows that breakfast is an important meal: it gets your body going in the morning! I love breakfast! In fact, I love it so much that I could eat breakfast foods at any time of the day and in place of any other meal, example: cereal for dinner.

Zach does not.

It is hard to get him to eat breakfast, although he has gotten better about it. His breakfast of choice is a granola bar and some coffee. Or occasionally a greek yogurt. (We've recently discovered greek yogurt and how delicious it is! He loves the fruit on the bottom feature and I love the protein content!)

Last week I found a blueberry oatmeal breakfast recipe on Pinterest, followed the link to the original recipe, gave it a whirl, and LOVED IT.

Loved the blueberries and bananas.

Loved the oatmeal & nuts.

Loved that it tasted like I was eating blueberry crisp!!!

Loved the low sugar. Only 1/4 cup maple syrup in the whole pan!

I recommend you make it today!

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 35-40 minutes
Serves: 6

Ingredients:
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup milk (I used 2%)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2-3 ripe bananas, peeled and sliced
1 cup blueberries or raspberries, fresh or frozen, divided

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. Lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish. (I used a 1.5-quart dish because I wanted a thicker finished product) In a medium bowl, mix the oats, half of the walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Stir to combine. In a liquid measuring cup, combine the syrup, milk, egg, butter, and vanilla.

3. Spread the sliced bananas in a single layer over the bottom of the baking dish. Top with half of the berries. Sprinkle the dry oat mixture over the fruit in an even layer. Pour the liquid ingredients evenly over the oats.

4. Sprinkle the remaining nuts and berries over the top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until the top is browned and the oats have set. Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

I made up a pan of this on Monday and ate it for breakfast every morning last week. YUM! If you're making it for a whole family it will probably be gone in one sitting. Since Zach doesn't stray from his usual breakfast foods, he didn't see this in the refrigerator until there was only one serving left. Which he tried and LIKED (even though it contained bananas, which he doesn't like) since it tasted like dessert.

Here is the link to the original recipe. 

Try it out!

Sarah

Quick Update

Easter weekend was nice.

Saturday we made a few last minute stops for baby items/exchanges in GR. Hung out and had dinner with friends in Hudsonville/Zeeland. And by hung out, I mean we went with them as they looked at a house and dairy farm for sale. :) Check out some of the cows!

I've got a wild look in my eyes!

Then we got back to their house and chatted and played with their little guy, Paxton.

Zach & Pax

Sunday, we had lunch with Zach's family here at our house. (My family was all spread out from Mexico to Illinois to Detroit.)

Snagged Zach some candy when it all went 50% off the day after Easter.

Peeps and jellybeans galore!

June's 1st birthday was on Monday so I made some homemade dog cookies. It's essentially a peanut butter, oatmeal cookie with no sugar or butter. So more like a cracker I guess.

Kiss Me Dog Cookies

sniffing her birthday cookie

June & Zach

Don't I look cute with my birthday hat?!

The beginning of this week I did all of my running around and errands. I even worked in my classroom most of the day Wednesday and had a few hours to go over things with my long term sub.

Good thing I got all that done because I started to have contractions on Wednesday night: 20-30 minutes apart so nothing to write home about. Thursday morning my contractions were 8-10 minutes apart so we thought the Little Cookie was on her way. Welp, contractions stayed that way all day, not getting any closer together. Plus I wasn't sure if my water had broken or if I had a high leak... anyway. By late afternoon with things not getting better or worse I just wanted to know what was going on so we went in to the birthing center for a check up.

They monitored me for about a little over an hour: baby's heartbeat sounded good, contractions were strong and 8-10 minutes apart, but only 2 cm dilated and my water hadn't broken. So we got to go back home and now it's just a big waiting game...

Contractions have been really random today - sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes 30, sometimes 15. My back has been hurting so my mom brought out a portable e-stim unit and hooked that up to me so that's feeling better. We're hoping that things start moving along here soon because I'm over these random contractions... apparently it doesn't seem to bother baby girl because she's still in there. :)

Here's my 39 week bump picture from Wednesday.

39 weeks

Hoping we've got a baby here to hold in the next day or so!

Love,

Sarah

Last. Day.

I don't feel like writing too much.

Other than today was my LAST DAY of work!!! And of course we had to go out with a bang --- we took all three first grade classes to the Grand Rapids Public Museum for the day... thankfully we had lots of parent chaperones so the kids were in pairs or triples and I got to float between groups. I'm grateful to the other teachers and parents who rode the bus because this nine month pregnant lady was not about to ride the bus an hour each way with 60 screaming kids. :)

We have no school tomorrow for Good Friday and then next week off for Spring Break then my maternity leave begins! It hasn't really sunk in that I'm not going back because EVERYBODY is going on break next week. It will probably hit me next Monday morning when I'm home and everyone else is going back to work.

So here's some pictures and a BRIEF description.

The other day I went on a cooking spree. As in I started making some dinners and freezing them now so when baby gets here we'll have so ready to go options. 

One of the things I made was these egg casserole bites. I didn't follow a recipe or write anything down... so you'll have to bear with my explanation then experiment on your own.

Egg casserole bites

First, I cut up some whole wheat bread into cubes and put a few in the bottom of each muffin tin (which I generously sprayed beforehand with cooking spray). 

Next, came the bacon (cooked and chopped), a sprinkle of cheddar cheese, and some diced onion.

Then, in a separate bowl, I whisked up some eggs with a splash of milk and added spices that I like: salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic.

Finally, I poured the egg mixture over the top of the bread, bacon, cheese, & onion. It didn't take much to fill them up - don't overfill them because the puff up a bit when you cook them!

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I let them cool and froze them. They're easy to reheat in the morning and put on a piece of toast or an English muffin. I even got the Zach stamp of taste approval for these - and he's NOT a breakfast person!

Here's the past two weeks of baby bump photos:

37 weeks

38 weeks

Easter is almost here.

Baby is almost here.

Spring break IS here.

I'm a happy camper.



Love,

Sarah

Mid-March

Somehow we made it through two WHOLE weeks of school without any snow or ice days! 

(Shocking. I know.)

And I'm exhausted! By Wednesday night I was ready to sleep for 24 hours straight --- and probably could have if I got the chance.

Only two weeks until spring break, which means only two weeks left of work! Nine school days until I'm DONE! :) At least this class of kiddos has been better behaved so it makes leaving a little sad. Kinda. Especially when they write me notes like this:

 This Saturday (tomorrow) will be my classroom work day as I try to clean up all my little messes and piles of papers everywhere and get things all mapped out for my long term sub - who still remains to be determined...

March is Reading Month and our 1st grade team choose the Froggy books by Jonathan Landon as our book of the month. After reading a few Froggy books to our classes, here's a peek at the 1st grade bulletin boards in our hallway.

Mrs. Kostecki's Frog Life Cycle

Mrs. Seaver's Frog Facts

Mrs. Cook's Frog Reading Recommendations

During the month of February, Robert Munsch was our Author of the Month. Every day I read the class a different Robert Munsch book. They are SO funny and the kids always laugh because he has a great way of taking ordinary life events and turning it into something crazy! If all you know Robert Munsch for is the cute-sy "I'll Love You Forever," then you need to head over to your nearest public library and check out a a bigger stack of his books. Also, his website has audios of him reading his books aloud! Very funny to hear him read his own stories! All you have to do is try to keep up with turning the pages as he goes.

A few kids in my class recommend "Andrew's Loose Tooth" and here's why:

"I like this book because it was funny because the tooth fairy had a motorcycle."

"I liked this book because when the dentist tried to pull Andrew's tooth with a rope and his car fell apart."

In other happenings at home, my mother-in-law threw us a great shower on Saturday. A bunch of the O'Neill and Cook women came as well as friends and family friends. The basement was all set up with cute little clothes on a clothesline and an adorable diaper cake! Topped with a pink pig of course! The tables were red & white gingham and the food was delicious. Not to mention all the lovely gifts: things from the registry like the jogging stroller & bouncy seat. Homemade things, like a cool ABC crochet quilt. And creative things, like an airplane toy from the cousin who is a pilot and a children's story Bible. I had a really great time and was so thankful for all the people who helped out, especially since Zach's mom's back was still incredibly painful (this was before her surgery this past week - which went extremely well and she is now home recovering!).

This past week I had planned to make crescent rolls as a side with the spaghetti dinner I made. Then I decided to spruce them up a bit. My first thought was to spread them with butter and garlic before I rolled them up and baked them - kind of a twist on garlic bread. But then my mind really got churning when I saw the cream cheese in the fridge... so I scooped some of the cream cheese into a bowl, tossed in some salt, pepper, garlic, onion, and parsley and stirred it all together. I spread the mixture on top of the crescent dough. Next, I sprinkled a little mozzarella cheese on top of half of them and rolled them up. On the remaining four crescents I sprinkled mozzarella cheese and bacon bits. Those were for Zach. He loves bacon bits and I can't stand the taste/smell of them; not now, not ever, will I like them...

Spruced up crescent rolls - pre-bake

Post bake - cream cheese & cheese on left -- cream cheese, cheese & bacon bits on right

They turned out delicious! I suppose a shortcut would have been to just use an onion and chive cream cheese but I was cooking and inventing on the fly.

The Little Cookie is still in there a-growing away! The top of my stomach is really starting to hurt/ache because I can feel my ab muscles pulling apart... that's going to be fun to try to put back together after she's born... 

In some ways I feel like I'm back at the beginning of my pregnancy again: the frequent bathroom trips, waking up feeling ravenously hungry even though I just ate something before bed, and the tiredness... except now my belly is 10x bigger!

Doctor appointments are now every week. This week her heart rate was 144 bpm and she still measured right on for 36 weeks. The doctor also did the Group B strep swab and checked my cervix, which to my surprise is already dilated to 1 1/2 cm. Now, I know it can be dilated like that for the next four weeks, but I had quite the reality check that she really could come at any time now! 36-40 weeks is considered full term so now they won't do anything to stop labor once it starts!

35 weeks

36 weeks - 9 months!

So much to do and so little time - like prep my classroom, clean up the nursery enough so a person can actually walk in there without tripping, falling, and dying, write thank you notes, spring clean, and oh yeah - I should probably think about packing a hospital bag! We have the outfit all picked out that she's going to come home in!

Anything you were glad you had at the hospital (for you or baby)? 

Leave a comment!

Love,

Sarah

Moo-ving Along

The title will make more sense when you see this picture:

Cattle on the loose!

A couple weeks ago the neighbor's cattle got out. Zach called me on my way home from work and said to be careful when I turned onto our road because the cattle were out and a van might have hit one. I drove VERY slowly - 1. because I didn't want to hit a cow and 2. because the road was so icy - and sure enough I saw two of them off to the left side of the road against the fence where the other group of cattle were. I honked and chased them onto the road and slowly drove behind them as they limped down the road. Poor fellas were the ones who got hit --- and to think the van didn't even stop!!! There were pieces of their vehicle laying in the road; you'd think they'd stop to assess damage and try to find their owners. Anyway, you can see Zach's truck and more neighbor's vehicles in the road with hazard lights flashing! Then there was me, cattle ranching in my Vibe... After a little while, they were all back in the pasture and everybody went home.

In other news, we have a crib and carseat! Funny story about the carseat is how we got it. One of Zach's customers from work gave him a hard time about having kids and offering to pick up baby gear: "Zach, I saw carseats on sale at Wal-Mart. Want me to get you one?" and comments of the same sort. Zach always said no. Until the day came where we were actually having a baby and when his customer asked Zach if he wanted him to pick up a carseat, Zach said yes! Needless to say, the guy was a little surprised and then congratulated him and said he would really get the carseat for us! :)

The other funny thing about the carseat was that when we looked at it in the store, we couldn't figure out how to get the gosh-darned thing off the base! Zach said, "I hope we get this thing soon so I can read the user's manual!" Oh my. My husband and I are SOOOO different in personalities! I would have just kept tugging and pulling until I got mad and figured it out or broke it --- and he wants the user's manual. At least one of us is logical. :) And once we got it, we did figure out how to get it off the base. I have a picture of Zach reading the user's manual when we opened it up but he threatened many bad things if I posted it anywhere. Ha- ha!

I suppose the little lady can make her appearance any time now because we've got a way to transport her home and a place for her to sleep.

We also have a SWEET changing table/dresser that Zach refinished! Here's the before and after photos:

Before

After

It used to be Zach's when he was a kid and I'm really glad with how it turned out! He did all the sanding and painting the past few days (even with a sore back and two nights of fire department training!). The only things are the knobs. They used to be wooden drawer knobs painted red to match the rest of the dresser and these are white ceramic. Slap a changing pad on top and we're good to go! Cute table and ensemble for such an unglamorous job of changing dirty diapers!

The Little Cookie - she's getting quite big! She's been getting the hiccups almost every night for the past couple of weeks. It is the weirdest and coolest feeling all at once! She's still as active as ever: wiggling, kicking, elbowing, scraping my ribs with her little knobby knees and feet, and I'm pretty sure I've felt her little fingers tapping away too. Only five weeks left to go - give or take - and I'm hoping (well, my ribs are hoping) that she slows down a bit soon because things are starting to get uncomfortable!

And it's making my job of teaching 20 six-year-olds quite difficult! Mrs. Cook doesn't tie shoes or pick things up off the floor anymore. :) Good thing I don't sit down much during the day because that's when she's all crammed up in the ribcage! Standing up, reclined, or laying down seem to be the most comfortable lately.

Anyway, I suppose it all comes with the territory. I'm still doing okay. No bad swelling in my feet, ankles, or hands and I'm hoping it stays that way! It's starting to get more uncomfortable now though. She pokes and jabs harder against my ribs - ouch! There's no more "just suck it in" to get through or around somewhere because my belly is permanently out. :) Also, doing the dishes is a bit rough because the counter & sink are right at belly height. So I either have to bend over funny or stand on my tiptoes so my belly goes over the counter. But you know what? I'm still glad she's in there. She's healthy and growing and has a strong heartbeat at each appointment. She's active and wiggly and gets hiccups. And I can't wait to hold her on the OUTSIDE.

Here's the last few weeks of belly photos I haven't posted:

32 weeks

Somehow I missed 33 weeks in there. Oh well.

34 weeks

35 weeks - with a fresh haircut & color! 

 35 out of 40 weeks. Whoa. Time is a flying past! She'll be here before we know it!


Cheers to the last bit of good sleep for awhile,

Sarah

Fast Forward

Fast forward a few weeks and here we are at 32 out of 40 weeks! Wow! That's eight months! Months eight and nine are left to go and my belly's got a lot of stretching to do during that time...

I would have kept the belly photos coming but both our laptops quit working. Mine died about a month ago. When you turned the computer on, everything would start up/wake up like normal except the screen didn't work. We took it to a local computer place and still haven't heard back - I'm guessing it's bad news or else they would have contacted us sooner. So when the same thing happened to Zach's laptop a few weeks later, we said, "Forget the local place. We're taking it to the Apple Store." And we're SO GLAD we did! They had great service and we had our laptop back all fixed, cleaned, and shined up in THREE days! Now to get mine back and take it to Apple too. Hmmm.

28 weeks

29 weeks

Somehow I missed a 30 week belly photo, but you get the idea - it gets bigger each week.

31 weeks

She wiggles and squirms in there just about all day. She's had the hiccups several times! :) Her favorite spot is under my ribs on the right side. Which I think pushes some other organ out of place because I've been getting an annoying pain in my back/shoulder muscle on that side.

It's starting to get to an uncomfortable point - it's hard to tie my shoes because I can't bend over so well. Sleeping is getting harder for several reasons 1. side sleeping is my only option and I haven't found a good pillow to prop the belly up yet so it sags and feels weird and 2. I have to go to the bathroom more often oh, and 3. I wake up SUPER hungry. In all honesty though, I really can't complain much. I'm not nauseous and vomiting, my ankles (or other body parts) aren't swollen, I'm not on bedrest, and she's healthy.

I do find it interesting that I'm touching or pushing on my stomach all the time now. I used to wonder why pregnant ladies were always touching their bellies and now I know. For one, the belly is just in the way of all the old places you used to put your hands: in your lap, on your hips, arms crossed. And now when you do those same motions, you touch the belly almost by accident because it's just there. The other reason I keep touching my belly is to try to move her pokey little body out from under my ribs! She's constantly in there and it hurts! The only problem is that when I try to push her, she pushes back - which hurts even more! I'm hoping this is not a sign of what personality type she is going to have...

Enough baby talk for now.

My best friend, Candace came up to Michigan from South Carolina last weekend to visit for the weekend and come to my baby shower! (I'll post some pictures from that later.) Her connecting flight from Cincinnati to Grand Rapids got canceled on Thursday so she had to spend the night in Cincinnati then fly out Friday morning. It all worked out okay and we were still able to meet up with some of our college friends for lunch! We all went to Michigan State and were in Spartan Christian Fellowship together. Some of us lived together our junior year. We live all spread out too but it worked out that day to all meet in Grand Rapids.

Candace holding Liam & Addy

Candace & Liam

Now we're all at different stages: dating, married, expecting, and almost one-year olds! I love these ladies so much!

Carlyn, Sarah, Sarah, Candace, Lo

One last thing, while Candace was here, I made a version of grilled cheese that Zach and I tried awhile ago. It's called Turkey Pesto Grilled Cheese and if you like pesto then you will definitely like this twist on a regular old grilled cheese!

Turkey Pesto Grilled Cheese

What you need:

• bread
• butter
• sliced provolone (or mozzarella) cheese
• sliced deli turkey
• pesto (about 1 tablespoon per sandwich)

What you do:

1. Butter one side of the bread just like you were going to make a regular old grilled cheese.

2. Spread pesto on one side of the bread (opposite of the buttered side).

3. Place a slice of provolone on top of the pesto.

4. Warm up the turkey a bit by putting it in the pan you are going to cook the grilled cheese on for a few seconds. Trust me - if you don't, you'll wait forever for the turkey to warm up while it is cooking and risk burning the sandwich. OR you eat it with cold turkey in the middle.

Place the warm turkey on top of the provolone cheese.

5. If you love cheese, put another slice of provolone on top of the turkey.

6. Put the second piece of bread on top and put the sandwich on a griddle or in a pan on the stove until both sides are crispy and golden brown.


That's all for now!

Love,

Sarah

Fun Nursery Finds & Baby Pics

 Since I've decided on a red, yellow, white country theme, it's been much easier to pick out nursery things. Either the item goes with the theme or doesn't. But it also means a lot more things catch my eye now and I can't go too crazy buying things until I know where they'll go or how I'll use them.

nursery items

The old red glass piggy bank I found it at Goodwill for $1. It's scratched up on the inside but apparently it's pretty rare that I found it in tact since children actually had to break the bank to take their money out (no rubber plug on the bottom!). And it's adorable! This gal has one for sale on Etsy and she took much better pictures: http://www.etsy.com/listing/104630296/christmas-red-glass-piggy-bank-by-anchor#

Another white lamp, some antique milk glass vases (I found four 6-inch rosebud vases at Goodwill for 99 cents each!), and a wood box with red heart detailing. It needs some cleaning up too.

Then there's this little guy I found at an antique store for 50 cents. I don't know if it's an antique but it's tiny and pink! It's maybe 2 inches long and 1 inch tall. For 50 cents I couldn't resist.

We're in week 28 we've entered the third trimester! Crazy to think there's only 12 weeks (3 months) left! The first three went by so slowly - I felt nauseous, we couldn't tell anyone yet - it felt like forever. The past 12 weeks have sped past and now there's only a little while left! Yikes!

At church this weekend, I got a lot of, "You finally look pregnant!" comments... Welp, we're in the last trimester now so I'd hope so!!! :)

Anyway, here's the picture from last week:

27 weeks

Many of you didn't know but at the 20 week ultrasound, the doctor saw a small cyst on the baby's brain. I got the call about a week after the ultrasound. She said it was a developmental thing that sometimes happens around 20 weeks and not to worry about it. They scheduled us a second ultrasound for 6-8 weeks later to check on it and most of the time the cyst is gone but if it's not, we would have to go to a specialist in Grand Rapids. So, after about 15 minutes of freak out mode (she called me at work) I decided not to Google it or worry about it and just pray about it. Pray that in six weeks the cyst would be completely gone but if not, that He'd prepare us. It's really hard to pray those prayers "God, Your will be done," especially when it's something hard.

That being said, the ultrasound was last week on Wednesday. The tech asked if we knew the gender and we said yes, they told us it was a girl. Zach asked, "But you're going to check again though, right?" :) He was still holding out hope for a boy. But the first thing the tech saw when she put that wand-thing on my belly was her little butt and she said, "Oh there's no doubt about it; she's definitely a girl and she's showing it to us!" She even took a picture and labeled it "BABY GIRL :)" but I'm not going to put that one on here for her sake.

27 week profile picture

The tech tried to get a 3D shot but the little lady kept her hands and arms up by her face the WHOLE TIME! This was the best we got: hands and forearms with a little nose peeking through. I guess she wants us to have some mystery left!

27 week 3D picture

Immediately following the ultrasound I had to go drink the "glucola" drink for my glucose test (checks for gestational diabetes). It tasted like drinking a cupful of melted orange popsicles: super sweet and syrupy. Ick! My stomach felt AWFUL after drinking that and I sipped water for the next hour, bound and determined NOT to throw up and have to repeat the whole process over again....From there we went to our regular monthly OB appointment and then back to the lab for them to draw my blood. Only  two little vials this time and I didn't throw up after. :) Success!

At our monthly appointment, the Doc told us the results of the ultrasound and blood test wouldn't be in until Friday - and then she was going to be out of the office on Friday - so we'd have to wait until early this week! I was a little frustrated about having to wait for all that info but God decided this wasn't a time to grow my patience and they called the NEXT DAY to tell us the cyst was gone! Praise God! And I passed the glucose test! Phew! What a load of my brain!

Now all we have to do is keep praying she grows strong & healthy and there's a smooth, uneventful delivery in 12 weeks.

Love,

Sarah