Easy Peach pie

Today I made one of the best and easiest peach pies. 

Take and either make a graham cracker crust or buy one (I bought one) 

Cut enough peaches to fill the pie.

On the stove take and melt 20 big marshmallows and 2/3 cup milk. Makes sure you stir constantly as it will burn very quickly. 

After they are melted let cool for a few minutes then add 1/2 cup of whipped cream. 

Mix all together, do not stir fast lightly mix in the whipped cream. Once all mixed together pour the mixture over the peaches. 

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours then enjoy. 

Update on Life

So it has been awhile but I thought it was time to update. Today we are at the 25 weeks mark! Only 15 more weeks to go.  Sometimes it goes by really slow and sometimes it goes by way too fast.  I absolutely love feeling McLean move around inside, it makes me smile every time. I could seriously sit and watch my belly move for hours. It seems that I am growing bigger every day, I measured my belly it is now 35" around.  WOW! I can now put music up to my belly and watch and feel McLean moving around.  

My ankles have started to swell, they get bigger as the day goes on. My back is almost always hurting me now days.  So far McLean is sitting very low in the belly, which can get uncomfortable depending on where he is.  I haven't had leg cramps yet, I do get heartburn every night though.  Right now he is sitting low on the left side giving me sharp pains right there every time he moves a little. He loves my left side, I feel him move sometimes on the right but mostly he moves and kicks to the left, must be more comfortable over there for him.  Some nights I am absolutely miserable, and nothing I do makes me comfortable. But despite all this I love being pregnant, I love feeling him move.  It will all be worth it.

Rory is working all the time, it worries me because he is sleeping at the arena a lot, it is very taxing on me because I really really want to trust him, but when I do he does something to tear at that trust.  So I have a hard time with him working so much and not coming home.  That was suppose to stop weeks ago after training camp.  He says he is going to start working at Jiffy Lube three days a week now to help bring in more money.  I am getting really sick and tired of being at his parents still.  We have the money to rent but are being hampered by his felony.  Plus I call houses for rent all the time but never get any call backs it is so frustrating and I can't seem to get any help from Rory at all.  I ask him to do things like call different places to get a feel of if there is any one out there willing to take us with his felony.  He never calls.  I ask him to stand up for us with Alyse and his son he never does.  Then when I get frustrated it is my fault, and the only way the fight will stop is if I back down and say I am wrong.  I hate it.  I now do everything, but get frustrated still because it is stressing me out and so he gets upset that I am stressed and not happy giddy.  But when I bring up why I am stressed he says he will help but yet never does.  It is like he doesn't want to leave his parents, he wants to be lazy and just let everyone do every thing for him.  If I don't pick up everything, clean everything and do the laundry and cook dinner I get in trouble for not helping him.  Yet all he does he sleep and spend time in the bathroom.  I am six motherfucking months pregnant I can't do it all!

We have so many things that are still needed before McLean gets here, I am getting stressed about making sure we have it all.  Rory keeps spending money like it is growing on trees which is frustrating because we really need to save money.  In 15 weeks I won't work or bring in money for 7 weeks.  

I applied for a new job, a dispatcher job for the city. It has taken a month I have passed two steps already, I have an orientation and testing to do Wednesday that is over three hours long, if I pass that then they will call for an interview.  I am worried because I clearly look six months pregnant I hope they don't discriminate against that. I could really use the job, it would be an off schedule which will make it harder to find a baby sitter when both of us are working, but the pay is better, the benefits are better and they have retirement.  All things that we really need. I wish Rory would get a different job, but he likes that Blaze and gets depressed when he isn't with them. 

I know I am frustrated and things seems down, but I really am happy to be pregnant I can't wait until I get to hold my baby, I love him already. :) I just have to hope that things will turn out how they are suppose to and that we can find a place to live soon.

Here are ultrasounds, doc says he looks perfect, and a picture of me at 24 weeks.

Turkey Casserole

The other night I made Turkey Casserole in the pressure cooker.  So far this has been the quickest meal I have made with the cooker.  But I do keep forgetting to add on ten to fifteen minutes for the pressure cooker to heat up. 

So you take egg noodles I put I guess just over 4 cups in.  Then two cans Tuna ( I used the bigger cans) then 3 to 4 cubes chicken base with about 4 and half cups water and one chopped red bell pepper.  Then close the lid and cook on high for 4 minutes. Do a quick release, add 4 oz cream cheese, 1 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, a small amount of Parmesan cheese, and about 1 1/2 to 2 cups frozen peas.  Mix this together until cheese is well melted then add crushed Ritz crackers on top.  For a crunchier top you could do saltine crackers.  I then steamed a mixed veggie bag in the microwave and there was dinner.  It was a good hit with the family, one that I fully intend on making again. Oh I added some Parmesan cheese to the top of mine.

Monday I hit the 16 week mark, haven't felt baby yet but she is about 4 1/2 inches now.  I am having trouble bending over as my belly is just a solid lump and doesn't work well with me.  I have also found that I get winded after two flights of stairs, and this is with only 11 lbs extra weight, I can't imagine what it will be like with 20 to 30 extra pounds.  We get to find out on Tuesday if we have an Elizabeth or a McLean cooking I am getting very excited.  It is better than Christmas and taking forever to come! I had to go buy new shoes yesterday so I don't have to continue to try to tie my shoes every morning, as I can imagine that chore will just get harder.

I am very worried about my 8 year step-son over the past few months I have been paying closer attention to his schoolwork and reading.  I knew he was behind in reading I just didn't realize how far behind he is.  He doesn't retain what he reads, he can't sound out words, instead of trying he guesses.  Apparently this is ok at his mom's house, but this leaves him very far behind.  I can have him read a page then ask what he read and he can't remember.  I can have him sit down to read a book and all he will do is thumb through it and look at the pictures and then try to tell me that is the story.  He won't play games with the family if it involves reading, he won't read the words or hints on video games and still thinks that "no signal" says "no single". We have started to have him do his homework on the weekday we have him.  He did it once and then when I went through it I realized that to him doing homework is filling out the answers right or wrong as quickly as possible so he can then go play video games.  I then had dad look at his homework, to give him the start to realize how behind son is. Dad finally caught on, we now do not allow any video games on the weekdays and only allow two hours a day on the weekends. Not that the weekdays matter he does his homework and it will take him the entire 3 1/2 hours he is with us to get his homework done.  

Last week he brought home work that had already been graded I was very sad to see where he is.  Spelling he is lucky if he gets half right, all that is, is repetition. His writing is atrocious, one he can't stay in the lines to write, spelling of simple words is not yet close to mastered, letters always backwards especially his N's. Sentence structure is almost non existent. And math he is struggling greatly with math, he doesn't like it because of the struggles, but when it is time for math homework all he does is guesses and hopes he gets it right or that we won't notice that it is wrong.  Homework is even 90% wrong when he brings it over on Tuesday and states that he worked on it with mom the night before.  It is very clear that she is not working with him or paying attention to his work.  It became very apparent that he is very far behind where he should be at 8.  This worries me greatly, one as a step mom I can't say anything.  Two his mom won't tell how he is actually doing in school, I wonder how many times teacher as talked to mom? Teacher has to be just as worried as we are.  But what can we do?  We are getting books so he can practice writing, spelling and etc. during the weekends. He has to read 30 minutes a day and explain what he is reading.  His grandpa has been a heaven sent on this one.  I don't know how he does it but he makes the reading and discussing it interesting and fun for him.  But we don't have him every day, what happens when he gets older? When kids start to tease more when he is doing harder work?  When he starts to actually fail, you know he is failing now but he is in second grade so he gets smiley faces or not. What happens when grades really start to matter? Not only will he have struggles with this but he has major social struggles that mom is not willing to get him help on.  All this is very frustrating and infuriating but what I can do.  Not really much more than what we are doing and it sucks. I am at a loss of how we can help him more, especially when everything is an uphill fight with his mom.

15 weeks!

I am officially 15 weeks now, haven't had morning sickness since 12 weeks, heard the baby at 13 weeks 3 days and we get to find out the sex at 17 weeks one day! In exactly two weeks, I can't wait.  Now if I could just feel the bugger move I would be much happier.  Not feeling sick or pregnant any more has me worried at least when I was sick I knew something was going on in there. Now I can only assume.

We had a pretty eventful weekend, Friday night we got my step-son for our weekend.  My husband ended up throwing his phone which resulted in him shattering the front of the phone, he sure doesn't do things half way the phone wouldn't turn on after that. And the best part is we had no insurance on the phone and our upgrade isn't until October.  I was fine with getting a cheap phone until then, but his dad worked it that we were able to use one of his upgrades and a friends upgrade so we both ended up getting new phones and turned my old one into a back up in case my husband decides to break this one. We got the Samsung Galaxy S III so far I love it. It does tons of stuff which I am excited for it will be nice to have it when my husband is out of town so we can video chat.  Plus it will be nice when baby comes it will be easier to share the pictures with the whole family.

Other than that it was a pretty relaxing weekend, we ended up staying up late and watching Pitch Perfect on Saturday.  My step-son quite enjoyed it and so did my husband he sang along with the whole movie.  It ended up being a very cute and fun family film, I admit I was surprised by that. 

Last night I made Chicken Marsala in the pressure cooker, now mine doesn't look as good as the picture in the book but it was still delicious. 

In the cooker you add some oil, and 2 tablespoons butter melt it.  Coat the chicken in a mixture of 1/2 cup flour and salt and pepper then brown the chicken on both sides.  Add 1/2 cup Marsala Wine, chicken broth (one cube with 1/2 to 1 cup water) and 16 oz sliced mushrooms cover and cook on high for ten minutes.  Do a quick release, pull out the chicken then add 1/2 cup Marsala Wine and 2 Tablespoons corn starch mixed with 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk to thicken the sauce.  I served it with instant potatoes, which I added garlic powder to and parsley, and asparagus.  It ended up being a very good dinner with no left overs, next time I will cook more chicken with it.

Dinner

Last night I made Mac & Cheese in the pressure cooker using my new favorite cookbook Bob Warden's Slow Food Fast. 

I have a really hard time following recipes so I get the jist and then make them.  My husband gets frustrated when I make dinner and don't add meat so last night I browned a pound of ground beef then added three cups elbow macaroni, chicken base ( I have the cubed ones so I added two with two cups water) added 2 more cups water and 3 tablespoons butter.  Then I turned the pressure cooker on high for 6 minutes. In the meantime I did a steam in the bag veggie, broccoli for 6 minutes. 

After the broccoli was done I moved it to a bowl with some butter and let it sit.  When the pressure cooker was done I quick released the steam. Then added yellow mustard (the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon, I guessed). I then added about 2 and half tablespoons of cream cheese and 3 cups shredded sharp cheddar.  I added the cheddar one cup at a time.  I did find that because I added the beef I needed to add more cheese to it.  Next time I will need to add some more cream cheese and mustard. But in all it was very good and my step-son wolfed it down.

   My step-son is also the one that wanted the broccoli, I try to have a side of veggies with every dinner I make.  Not only do I think that we were too unhealthy (eating fast food almost everyday) but I am trying to make sure I get my veggies in for baby. I also try to mix them up so we aren't always doing green beans and corn. I really like the frozen veggies that you just stick in the microwave.  We get the broccoli, asparagus and mixed that way.

Today I am 14 wks 2 days.  In just a few short weeks I should be able to feel baby move and learn the sex.  This is getting exciting.  It stills feels unreal since I can't feel anything, all I see is that I am gaining weight (8.9 lbs, Yikes!) and inches in my waist (4), we did hear the heart beat so I do feel better knowing that there is something in there, but worried too because if something went wrong right now I would have no idea.

Here is my baby bump this morning, I can tell that I am preggers, but I think to others I may just look fat. :)

Chicken

Two posts in one day aren't you lucky? 

Did I tell you that last Thursday I got to hear the baby's heart beat?  The doctor said the heartbeat is about 160 which is good and healthy.  I would post the recording on here but I can't figure out how to get it from my stupid smart phone to  my computer.  I know I need help.

Last night while making dinner, cheese tortellini spinach bake, chicken and corn I couldn't find the can opener.  I was getting very stressed about this because the chicken was almost done and I couldn't open the corn so something was not going to be hot when dinner was done, I hate when this happens.  So I made my husband come help me look, I had it just a short ten minutes ago because I had to open the dog food. He came up to help me look we again looked in the garbage, in the fridge, in the drawer they are usually in, through the clean dishes I had just washed.  He then took an old camping style opener and opened the corn for me.  All the while I am telling him that I couldn't have lost them because I just had them so I could feed the dog. When he gets done being my hero he walks over to the dog drawer (where his treats and food that he can no longer eat) is stored and low and behold there is the can opener.  Oh boy, I totally blame this on my pregnancy brain!

Last night I made chicken using the pressure cooker, this is the first time I have made a meat that was not included in a meal like Stroganoff (delicious), chicken with peaches, meatballs with sauce.  So I was a little worried it wouldn't would work out.  I can't seem to make chicken on the stove top with out drying out the chicken no matter what I do it is dry when done. Like most people I hate eating dry chicken! So I figured I would try the pressure cooker.  I seasoned the chicken like normal added the chicken and 1/2 cup water to the pressure cooker placed it on high and set it for 10 minutes (because the chicken and peaches I cooked last week had to cook for 10 min). Let me tell you I love chicken in the pressure cooker! A few things I learned is that the seasoning needs to be a little heavier especially with the salt and pepper.  The chicken is cooked in water, it is not fully submerged but maybe a fourth of the chicken is in the water, which did make some of the seasoning come off in the water or steam.  The chicken was very tender, I was able to put it in turn it on and do the dishes while it was cooking, it is great not having to check on the chicken, turn the chicken and getting frustrated in the end because the chicken is dry.

Yesterday morning we woke up to a very sick dog, the poor dog is already sick with diabetes and being blind.  He had been urinating in the house again and yesterday when trying to get him off the bed his whole backside couldn't move.  He tried to get up a few times but couldn't manage to pull himself or stand.  Which is weird because 15 minutes earlier the dog had jumped up on the bed and was just fine. I took him into the vet yesterday morning.  Come to find out the poor thing is in kidney failure, and his glucose was over the roof (571).  So we are trying a new diet, flushing out the kidney's and hoping we can stabilize him so he can stay around for a little bit longer.  After the vet he seemed to be doing much better walking around, had some spark in him, finally eating again after nothing for over a day and stopped throwing up.  We had a very scary morning, hopefully one we don't have repeat again especially anytime soon.

About Us

So let's see if I can keep this up, I have tried blogs before and keep up pretty well then after six months stop. :)

About us: I first met my husband in March of 2011, to tell the truth I was a little iffy with his Mohawk and all to accept the first date. But I did and we went out April 5, 2011 and I was completely sold on him after he kissed me for the first time.  He remembers the kiss completely different than I do, but it was a sweet awkward kiss the poor guy was so nervous and my heart was stolen. After that we then ended up spending almost every day together.  We tied the knot in Paris (ID) on July 13, 2012 yes we did get married on Friday the 13th on purpose, I figured that the day needed some good mojo.  When I married him I also became the step-mom to 7 (now 8) year old boy.  This brings it own challenges but also brings great joy, I couldn't imagine life any other way.

We found out we are expecting (my first) on November 14th.  I was so excited when the test came up positive I couldn't even wait for Rory to come home from work. Shortly after that the morning sickness set in, but I must admit that I have been pretty lucky.  Each morning I would feel nauseated and throw up from brushing my teeth (cinnamon toothpaste was the only flavor I could handle) after eating I would feel pretty good until evening then I would be nauseated again.  In all I threw up less than 20 times and morning sickness faded in between week 11 and 12.  By the beginning of week 12 all nausea and throwing up disappeared. I do get headaches now, but for the most part they are manageable so far only two have sent me to bed.  We are now 14 weeks 1 day along with a due date of July 22.

Since feeling better I started using my pressure cooker (I received it for Christmas), let me tell you I love this thing! I use it almost every night for dinner the meat is always tender and the food is great, along with it being done in an hour or less! And so far I haven't had any complaints from my step-son on the taste of the food. 

I currently sell cloth diapers for a living (clothdiaper.com) and as such, we plan on cloth diapering our little one when they arrive. 

We have already been through many ups and downs in our relationship causing us both to adjust and realize what really is important in life. I am ecstatic to be married to my best friend and continue to grow and raise our family together.