On a Roll

Today I was a busy bee. I had a list of things I wanted to bake, and though I didn't get through them all, I did manage to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a batch of mom's dinner rolls. One reason for doing this is that, when Mike and I were first living together/married (I know, it makes it seem like we've been together for years!), we bought everything. We had a sweet tooth? We would buy Little Debbie cakes or packs of cookies or cookie mixes or containers of icing (yeah, we ate icing just out of the container). If we needed something to go with dinner, we would get tubes of Pillsbury biscuits. Well, we've found that we don't have the money for four dollars for a can of squeezy icing or three dollars for a pack of cookie mix. So, hopefully by baking my own stuff from scratch, we can cut back on our grocery money. Another reason for baking (aside that it's fun!), is it makes me remember what it was like baking with my mom. I remember when I was little, I would pull up the little wooden stool to the counter and watch while mom put in the ingredients, occasionally letting me help by putting in a cup of flour or a teaspoon of vanilla or, when I was a little older, cracking in an egg (that was my favorite part!). I'd then watch her put the spoonfuls of batter onto the cookie sheet (I don't ever remember her letting me do this...maybe I was too messy, I don't know). Once the cookies were in the oven, I'd help clean up...aka lick the batter off the beater and/or spatula! Duh, it's the best part of baking! I'd then go watch TV until the cookies were done, coming back to taste them and make sure they were up to par (which they always were!). Making the rolls today made me think about holidays, which is for the most part usually when this particular recipe was brought out. I remember after the dough rose, mom would ask if I wanted to punch down the dough (maybe not with this recipe, but with just about any bread she baked), which of course I wanted to! As I rolled out the dough, I saw the air bubbles in it and heard the little squeaks they emitted as I rolled them out, and I remember mom telling me to quiet down so I could hear them. I smiled a little as they popped, remembering how I'd giggle when they popped under her rolling pin (hey, I was a kid and easily amused...well, I guess not much has changed!). When I finally put them in the oven to bake, the warm aroma almost immediately began wafting from the oven to fill my house, and it took me back to me being upstairs in my room and knowing mom was making bread without actually having known what recipe she was whipping up in her mixer downstairs. While I was baking today, not only did I reminisce about the past, but I thought about the future, hoping that I will have as much fun baking with my son (and other children) as I had (and occasionally still do) with my own mom.

Extreme

Mike and I just watched an episode of "Extreme Couponing" on TLC. It's a relatively new show, but have you people seen it?! It's absolutely nuts what these people do! One woman had to have 18 separate check-outs in order for her couponing to work out properly! In the end, she had a total bill of $680 but only had to spend $6.46! Another woman had a bill of over $1,900 but had about 96% of it taken off due to couponing! (And I'm using a lot of exclamation points, but that's how ridiculous this is!) First of all, I want to know where the heck they're getting these coupons. I clip coupons occasionally when I think about it, and even went online to RedPlum.com and SmartSource.com, but they're all the same coupons, for the same products. Also, on the show they're double- and triple-couponing, which all the coupons I'm finding say on them "only one coupon allowed per person per transaction." I don't get it! These people are pros at it, I realize. They know where to get the coupons, some of them even call up the store to get a list of everything on sale, and they know roughly when things go on sale (for example, seasonal items...in January, everyone's health-conscious so oatmeals and the like go on sale). I don't know...I just have to say that it's kinda ridiculous. (Especially because these people stockpile products throughout their home, like the apocalypse is coming or something!)

These Dreams go on When I Close My Eyes...

Every second of the night, I live another life!
This is so true. I've always had pretty...elaborate, we'll say...dreams. I still remember dreams from when I was little, like when a vampire was attacking me in the living room while my brothers were all around me.
Well, I guess because I'm pregnant, the hormones or something are making them even crazier, it seems. When I first got pregnant, I had a dream that Obama's wife was very pregnant and going into labor and I had to help deliver the baby because I was the only one around.
Two nights ago, I had multiple dreams. The first one, I was Harry Potter, only not in a castle...my friends and I were in some sort of boarding house. We found a secret door that led to a basement library that was haunted. The ghost kept leaving us clues, but the woman in charge of us kept finding us and interrupting our investigation. We finally found out the ghost wanted us to "Send her a letter." We didn't know who "her" was and I woke up before we could find out. That same night, I had another dream that my brother Eric challenged my brother Chris to...well, a challenge. You know those little floating rings that you see little kids wearing around their middle in backyard swimming pools? Well, the "challenge" was to throw a floating ring out into the ocean as far as they could (tied to a rope), then swim out to it and stay on it the longest. Yep, that was it. Very challenging, ya think? Well, it had to be called off because huge waves started rolling in and the crowd that had accumulated to watch the event all had to hurry to get to safety. So the next day, they tried again in a different location. At this location, there was a HUGE dune right before you get to the beach. The crowd scaled the dune to get to the beach, only to have a stories-high wave start to roll in. We all managed to get back on top of the dune safely. I heard a woman next to me ask her friend, "Is that a human skull?" I look over to them and see down in the sand, sure enough, there's a human skull semi-buried. I look all over the beach below and see human skulls everywhere...I guess they got trapped when a wave came in. Then, I noticed one below that had piercings all over (I'm not sure why the skull itself would have piercings). I pointed it out to my brother Steve. I then switch to his point of view in the dream and he's/I'm down there pulling out all the rings that look like they have diamonds in them. Then I woke up.
One final one from last night...My brother Jimmy and I were living together in an apartment. I was on my way home one night and a man asked me if I wanted to buy something. I said I had to get home, so he then pulls out a knife (a kitchen knife, of all things...not even a switch blade or anything!) I guess to mug me, but he fumbles and drops the knife. So I feel a burst of confidence and start pushing him, saying things like, "Yeah, pick on me, why don't you?" Then Jimmy comes out of the apartment and whips out a handgun and puts it on the guy. The man runs away and alls well the rest of the night. The next night, the same thing happens. I'm on my way home and the same guy comes up, with a friend this time. They start closing in on me when Jimmy comes out of the apartment and shoots them in order to save me. Scared, we hurry to get all of our things packed so we can get away before the cops come, even though it was self-defense. Well, the cops come, so we're hiding in the oddest places. And then I woke up.
I've been having dreams of old classmates that I don't talk to anymore, or very rarely. I dreamed briefly of my late grandmother last night (that was a nice one...kind of on the funny side). Pretty much any scenario, I've been dreaming it! Some are funny. Some are just odd.

How Much is That Kitty in the Window?

What is it with cats and open windows? Well, I guess they don't necessarily have to be open. But cats are always in windows. They just stare out into the outside world. Thinking of one of their past nine lives, when they used to roam this earth wild and free? Or maybe thinking of when they used to be worshipped as gods in Egypt. Well, I guess, technically they weren't like gods, they were just highly revered and sometimes feared for their mystical powers. Of course, they were so revered that once the pharaoh died, they were killed as well to lead the pharaoh into the afterlife (which kinda sucked for them). Or they could be thinking of when they were royalty, living in the palaces, eating from crystal dishes and doing nothing but lying around all day on soft velvet cushions being pampered. Or maybe, just MAYBE...they could be thinking of cat nip and fish.

Who knows?

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

...Or not...
I have a few pet peeves. Okay, so everyone does. Well, I don't know if it's the hormones of pregnancy or what, but it seems like things are really irking me here lately.
Like at work, for instance. It's little things, like when the scrubs aren't folded neatly and stacked. Or the microwave door is left open. Or the doctors don't clean up after themselves. I mean, how hard is it to put a paper towel in the trash can that's a foot away? The same goes for home. Mike will leave a piece of trash out or not rinse the sink down after shaving or brushing his teeth. It annoys me so much! Oh, and also when people chew loudly. That just grates on me so bad!
Well, now that I'm pregnant, I will announce up and front: Please, please, PLEASE no one call me prego, preggers, or anything other than pregnant ("With child" is okay!). I have always hated those terms. I don't know why. I know some people think they are cute, but I think they are--I don't know--degrading? That's not exactly the word I'm thinking of, but I just really do not like those words.
That may sound weird that something so small gets on my nerves so bad, but there are people that have even stranger peeves. Any others?

Have Creativity...Need Project

I need something to do. I know, you're probably thinking that I'm blogging right now. No, I don't mean I need something to do right this instant! Just in general. I'm getting into a little rut, and I'm kinda feeling creative, but not exactly sure where to put this creativity. I want to take pictures...but it's really cold outside and the scenery is pretty bleak with it being winter. I have all kinds of supplies, but I'm not sure what I want to do. I'll get stuff out to start drawing, then not really feel like it (and I can't force myself to draw...I've tried it before and it's not my best work). Or I can't find a subject that I like. I have stuff to draw, paint, scrapbook, make cards...but I don't know what to do!
I know, I'm weird. It's one thing to want to do something and not have the means to do it, but I want to do something AND have the means to do it...I just don't know what to do! Then, of course, part of me wants to try something new, like knitting or cross-stitching or jewelry making, all of which I don't have the means to do. And Mike and I are trying to save money with the baby coming and all, so we don't have the means to get the means. Know what I mean?
I'd like to do something for the nursery, but the nursery isn't anywhere near a nursery yet (not sure when we're going to start on that...here soon, I hope). As far as scrapbooking goes...that goes back to the not being able to take pictures issue. And I don't have very many pictures already to scrapbook.
I have some ideas...like collaging picture frames (I have a bunch of scrapbook supplies and I just found more when I cleaned my room at mom and dad's...and you can do a lot with scrapbook supplies besides scrapbooking) or doing drawings to decorate the nursery.
Anyhoo...just a little vent. All I do, it seems, is work, come home, watch Ghost Whisperer, kiss Mike goodbye when he goes to work, and sleep. I'm addicted to Ghost Whisperer, but I'm almost done with it! (*sigh*) If anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears...

Auld Lang Syne

What exactly does that mean, anyway?
So, I kinda liked what I did at the end of 2009 when I recapped the year and put down what I was looking forward to this year, so I believe I shall do it again. It was really interesting going back and reading it and seeing everything that had happened and then seeing how close I came to getting all of my goals for this year.
So, as for the year 2010:

1) Mike and I bought our first house in Culpeper!
2) My second oldest brother, Steve, and Anna got married in a gorgeous church in Pittsburg.
3) At said wedding, I realized that I was at my highest weight and decided to join a gym and go on a diet. The diet went pretty well...I lost almost 30 pounds. But then it got "screwed up" when I discovered...
4) I'm pregnant! Yep, Mike and I found out in October that we are expecting our first child in July of 2011. We're really SUPER excited!
5) I got a raise at work.
6) Mike joined the Culpeper Fire Department.
7) Lost a camera to Sprite...possibly acting out against mommy's changes!
8) Mike and I celebrated our first anniversary...It's been a wonderful year, and we can't wait for more to come!
9) I became an aunt again! Eric and Anna had their first child, Britt Louise, at the end of November.
10) Mike and I traded in Alex, my 2005 Hyundai Santa Fe, for Billy, a 2009 Dodge Ram 1500. (Yes, I name my cars...I've had George, the Ford Escort, and Fred, the Saturn SL2)

Looking forward to next year...

1) Mike and I will have our first child...Jacob Thomas or Juliette Grace (Grace is still up in the air, but a major possibility)
2) Hopefully we will be spending our first Thanksgiving with the Kestners at the beach (if I can manage to get enough time off and still be able to pay the bills!)

That's all I can think of for the new year. Not very many goals, I know! But as my husband just told me..."It'll come as you go!"
Happy New Year, everyone! 2011 will be a good one!