The best years yet

Yesterday I turned 30! Some would be scared or feel as though they're getting old….Yes, I am getting older, but more than anything, I think my 30s are going to be the best years yet! Turning 30 is also fun because you have multiple celebrations!

Thursday, last week, I met my two good friends, Traci & Traci for dinner. We ate yummy Mexican food and shared lots of laughs!

Friday night we went to my parent's house for a relaxing birthday celebration for me and my sister's fiancé. My mom ordered pizza from Grimaldi's and made an egg-less caesar salad, and had a very yummy lemon tart for dessert. It was a nice, low-key evening, which was exactly what I wanted!

Yummy lemon tart

Saturday we relaxed during the day and then got ready to go into town for an evening out with good friends. We ate at Backstreet Cafe and then went to the Hobby Center to see Wicked! I saw Wicked the very first time it came to Houston, which I think was about 8 or so years ago, and Mike had never seen it before, nor had our friends. It was a great production and continues to be one of my favorite musicals.

At the theatre...drinking Perrier, not beer...Looking a little larger!

Sunday morning we hung up the shelves we bought for Logan's nursery and then just sat in his room for a little bit. It's coming together, slowly, but surely! Today our glider chair is being delivered weeks earlier than expected, so that's exciting! We went to the pool mid-day Sunday, but only got in an hour or so. It started raining pretty heavily, so we decided to head home. That night we met Mike's family at Brio for dinner to celebrate his youngest sister's birthday and mine. It was a fun night, despite my nausea creeping in on the way there!

Yesterday I spent a few hours at the pool and then went to my good friend Melanie's house. She ordered pizza for our lunch and had mini bundt cakes for dessert. It was fun visiting with her and precious Avery! My mom stopped by on her way home work to say happy birthday to me, and then Mike and I went to dinner that night. We ate at Jasper's which is one of our favorite restaurants. We've been eating there for many years…all the way back to the first month we were dating! While we were eating, our waitress said "Guess who's eating in our restaurant right now?" "Rob Thomas!" I only got to see the back of his head, but it was still cool! Matchbox 20 is performing at the pavilion tonight.

My sister put this in our yard early yesterday morning! That lollipop was from drill team banquet, senior year of high school. I think this was my mom's idea of getting rid of it...or at least back at my house and out of her garage!

Birthday lunch at Melanie's house

Not a great picture, but oh well!

My 30th birthday was great and meeting our precious little Logan in 3 months will make 30 the best year ever! Thursday we have another serial ultrasound, so it'll be interesting to see how much bigger he is since June 20th. I know he's much bigger, because I'm much bigger! In fact, our waitress last night said "You're pretty far along right? What 7 months?" Just add that to the list of things you shouldn't say to a pregnant woman!

Have a great week!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

Grandmommie's BBQ Chicken

Over the weekend my mom and her sisters helped clean my grandparent's house. While cleaning, they came across my great-grandmother's personal box of recipes. My mom thought she already had a box of these recipes, but it turns out, there are many, many more! My great-grandmother, known as Grandmommie to me, was a fabulous cook! So many of her recipes have been passed around the family and most family events have at least one dish that was originally hers. 

I was looking for an easy, yummy meal to cook this week and I instantly thought of Grandmommie's BBQ Chicken. My mom made this when we were growing up and I remember how easy it was, not to mention delish! 

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken Thighs

Chicken drumsticks or legs

BBQ sauce

1/2 cup flour

3/4 stick of butter

Salt & Pepper

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Salt and pepper the chicken

Place 1/2 cup of flour in shallow bowl and dredge chicken in flour

Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat

Brown chicken in pan until golden brown on each side

Move browned chicken to a glass baking dish. Baste the chicken with bbq sauce and place in the oven. Bake for 30-45 minutes….basting chicken a few more times during baking time

ENOJOY!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

A Productive Monday

I missed my weekend update yesterday because I was too productive! I haven't been that productive since before the gender reveal party, which was over a month ago! After recovering from that party and then dealing with bad congestion, I finally felt good enough to work out again. I started my morning with prenatal pilates, spent 2 hours at the pool, did laundry, cleaned the house, went to the grocery store, and cooked dinner! It felt great to get all that completed and I was hoping I'd be so wiped out that I would sleep better….that didn't happen! I did however, get up before 7 am this morning and got a good walk in before it got too hot!

Most would think I'm crazy, but I'm looking forward to this weekend…..I'll be celebrating my 30th birthday! Yes, 30!!! Some freak out over turning 30, but I'm looking forward to it. I love my life right now and I think my 30's will be even better! 

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

Grilled Veggie Sandwiches

Yesterday we celebrated Carly's 4th birthday…..she also happens to have a twin sister, Cricket, who my mom and dad have. We went over to my parents last night so that the sisters could play on their birthday. I picked up birthday bones and my mom got dogurt…doggy yogurt! It was fun to see Carly and Cricket play together, especially since it had been a while.

Today we're 24 weeks and had our appointment this morning. We're still measuring 2 weeks early, so I'm thinking Logan's going to take after his dad and be a big baby! My blood pressure was elevated, but not as high as it had been at my previous appointments, so that was good. Mike took the whole day off, which I of course LOVE! He's working from home, but will also be here when the refrigerator repair man comes this afternoon. We're really hoping it's an easy, inexpensive fix!

This post is all over the place, so I apologize! I wanted to feature one of our favorite, wonderfully delicious, easy meals! Back a long time ago when Cheesecake Factory first opened, my mom ordered the grilled portobello sandwich off their menu. She loved it! All the veggies were grilled and there was a roasted garlic aioli on the toasted bread. She told us all about it and of course tried recreating it at home……it was a grand success! When Mike and I got married, I was a little worried he would think it was gross or wouldn't try it. I made it anyway and to my amazement, he loved this sandwich! I made it one night last week and even spent the time to roast my garlic and make a roasted garlic mayo….actual aioli has raw eggs, so I can't do that preggo! This is an easy meal, that we usually pair with kettle cooked chips with parmesan cheese sprinkled on them!

INGREDIENTS:

1 garlic pod

olive oil

salt & pepper

mayo

Tony's Chachere's original creole seasoning

Easy to grill veggies of your choice: I used: zucchini, yellow squash, red onion, and mushrooms

Hoagie rolls

*parmesan cheese optional….but let's face it, parm makes everything a little bit better!

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400 degree.

Cut the top of your garlic pod off, exposing the inside…mine fell apart when I did this!

Drizzle olive oil over the top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 45-50 minutes.

While your garlic is roasting, wash and cut all veggies. On a cutting board or baking sheet, lay all cut veggies out and brush lightly with olive oil. Then sprinkle with Tony's.

You can grill your veggies on an indoor grill pan, or an outdoor grill….I would use a grill pan though so your veggies don't fall through the grates.

Grill veggies a few minutes on each side, or until you see nice grill marks.

Once your garlic is roasted, carefully squeeze the garlic pods out of their paper shells and into a bowl of mayo. Add some freshly ground pepper, and stir until combined. 

Spread the roasted garlic mayo on your toasted hoagie roll and layer your grilled veggies.

Feel free to top with grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

Good News

This past weekend was okay. I've been dealing with some bad congestion, making it hard to breath at times. I have bad allergies to begin with and being pregnant doesn't help them! I tried everything I'm allowed to try pregnant to make my congestion get better or go away. Thank goodness this morning my mom was able to get me into her office for acupuncture. I'm feeling better now and it's all draining more than it had been!

Friday night Mike and I had a nice dinner at our favorite little local Italian restaurant. It was a relaxing evening! Saturday we ran errands and then I cooked Mike a "congratulations on your promotion" dinner! I grilled steaks, made a cheesy potato casserole, and salad with homemade dressing and croutons. Sunday we were hoping to go to the pool, but it wasn't very sunny and I started to feel worse. I'm really looking forward to the day I feel 100%, but I'm beginning to think that's not going to happen until Logan's arrival!

The good news…..we just got home from the veterinary ophthalmologist and Pasha's corneal abrasion is completely healed! I knew it looked better, but I'm no doctor. All the medication applications every 6 hours for the past week and a half, her wearing the cone 24/7, and lots of TLC worked! She's so much happier and so am I! It's also nice knowing we don't have to pay hundreds or even thousands for anymore procedures and no major surgery was needed!

In other news, we're 24 weeks Wednesday! Time is flying by and I can't wait for our little Logan to be here!

Hope you have a blessed week!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

Not a happy 4th!

This past 4th of July was NOT fun!

Let me back up to the day before. Wednesday was a good day. I spent all of it at home. Took care of some things around the house, watched daytime tv, and spend quality time with my pups. That evening I went to dinner with one of my good friends and Mike went to the gym while I was gone. I was halfway home when Mike called and said Pasha wouldn't open one of her eyes. She was in her kennel while we were gone, which is nothing out of the ordinary. She loves her kennel and is a great kennel-trained dog. We immediately thought a bug bite since she had been fine all day. I told Mike to give her half a benedryl and when I got home, I knew we needed to go to the emergency vet clinic.

After over 3 hours there, seeing multiple critical dogs come in that made me cry a few times while I was in the waiting room, we found out Pasha had an abrasion on her cornea. We left with 3 medications and a very drugged up dog. When they carried her out to us, I almost lost it. I had NEVER seen her like that before. She stayed like that until mid-day the next day…couldn't stand or walk on her own. I slept, or tried to sleep laying on the floor in the family room next to her. Her breathing was labored and it was just so sad. She also needed meds every 4 and 6 hours, so I didn't sleep much at all. Our 4th of July consisted of taking care of our precious Pasha and ordering delivery pizza that night. No fireworks for us!

Friday I called the vet when they first opened and got Pash in. The vet dyed her eye, turned on the blacklight, and showed me the abrasion. It was so terrible! She basically scrapped off almost her entire cornea. We don't know how it happened, or if it was a gradual thing, or if there's an underlying cause called KCS, which is doggie dry-eye. They can't test for that until her cornea heals and it will heal assuming no infection occurs. I've been praying like crazy, giving her the now 4 medications she's on, and watching her very closely, to make sure no infection happens.

Saturday night we decided to put her back in her kennel with the cone on her head and go out to dinner. I was worried about her, but she ended up doing just fine! It may have helped that a new dose of pain meds were given right before we left. It's crazy how quickly she goes to sleep after being given those meds!

Sunday we were bored since we had stayed home so much over the past 4 days, so we left to go register at Babies-R-Us. We went in prepared. One of my great friends who's expecting her second  child and is also a stay-at-home mom, made a list of registry must-haves. It was such a helpful list, along with the research and reviews on products I read about. Even though we were prepared, it was so exhausting!!! It could have also been the fact that I've been sleeping on the couch in the family room and up at all hours of the night with Pasha.

Today we go back to the vet. They wanted to check her every few days to make sure the cornea is actually healing. I hope it is! I want this healed and now! I hate to see her uncomfortable with the cone on, and unsure of herself…not to mention, she probably can't see very well and is in pain! I'd also like to sleep through the night. I feel like this is what life's going to be like with a newborn/infant. I guess I'll be prepared for that after dealing with giving meds every 4 hours!

Hope you have a blessed week!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

Pasha's defiance

So that dessert I said to watch for…..didn't turn out like when my mom made it when I was growing up! I should have bought 2 cartons of frozen strawberries, but only got one and it just wasn't the same. Oh well! What did turn out however, was the painting done in the house yesterday! The tape joint that was cracked in the ceiling in the family room was fixed and painted and Logan's room was painted! His room looks great and it's just how I imagined it in my head! I'm not going to post pictures of it quite yet. I want to gather photos of the nursery coming together and then post all the before, during, and after shots!

 my family room during the ceiling fix

 So, I thought today's post would be dedicated to the pups! I wanted to share a story from several weeks ago when Mike and I were out of town. My sister stayed at our house so she could help take care of the pups. She's always liked Pasha a bit more, because Pasha's always more calm than Carly. Carly's always been a bit hyper and is always trying to lick attack people with her long, lizard-like tongue. However, after a few days at our house, her perception of Carly has totally changed. Below is the first email I got from my sister after I asked her how the first night when.

A bit rough….

I slept about 30 minutes last night :/ Carly slept with me and she only moved if I moved and it was so she could readjust to be up against me…..I have a totally new perspective about that dog! Pasha on the other hand….decided she would walk across the bed on top of me several times, lick her paws, growl as she threw around a toy by herself, or she would stand above me and breathe on my face. I tired to let her out at 4, but she wouldn't go, but she finally did around 4:50. She also decided it was finally time to sleep once I got in the shower.

I woke Carly up at 4 and got her off the bed and told her to eat her food and potty, but she ended up curled up on her puppy pillow near the fireplace and wouldn't budge until I have to leave and said kennel up. Neither one of them ate this morning. Hopefully they'll eat when mom lets them our this afternoon!

Is it too hot out to take Pasha on a walk this evening or should I just let the two of them run around in the backyard a bit? Apparently playing fetch only wore one pup out last night!

 Carly peeking around Tam's laptop

 Pasha looking defiant...cause for 3 nights, she was!

 Tammy took this video of the pups in bed one night....I LOVE these dogs!

There were a few text messages over the next few days explaining how each night, she got a little more sleep than the night before. I swear, you would never ever know that Pasha's technically a senior dog! She acts so funny and puppy like! Tammy definitely needed to catch up on her sleep after watching the dogs…..Thanks again Tam!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany

And the spending has begun!

This past weekend we figured there would be some 4th of July sales starting up and we wanted to take advantage of them when buying our nursery furniture. We were going to wait until this coming weekend, but were too excited, so we went out on Saturday afternoon to begin looking! 

We started at Baby & Kid's 1st Furniture. The store was bigger than I thought it was, and more expensive than I thought too. We weren't really looking to spend $1000 just on a crib They had a good selection, but some of the more affordable furniture didn't look like great quality…maybe it was because it was the floor model, but we didn't get the warm fuzzes! We also weren't offered any help, which I always take into consideration. After we walked the whole store, we looked at each other and said "And we're done!" and left! I wasn't impressed and Mike wasn't either. Off to Pottery Barn Kids we went. We were greeted and offered help right away and were given the 411 on all their nursery furniture. It was great customer service! They were also having a sale on the furniture we were interested in! Gretchen, our great sales lady, suggested we start our registry that day because it would be an additional 10% off the furniture. So we did! Mike didn't realize he would get to use the scanner gun again like he did when we registered for our wedding over 5 years ago.....he had a little fun with it...at one point we had 211 towels, that was fixed though! We only registered for nursery items and room decor. We bought a crib, dresser/changing table combo, and a glider chair. I can't wait to register this weekend at Baby's R Us for all the necessities……especially with this being our first baby, I want to make sure we have all the must haves when we bring home our precious Logan from the hospital!

Tomorrow we have painters coming to paint the nursery and to fix a spot in our very high ceilings in the family room. We weren't about to get scaffolding ourselves for that fix! I LOVE that we're finally able to start the nursery and get things going. I think little Logan is going to have the best looking room in the house!

Hope you have a great week! Be watching for a yummy, easy 4th of July dessert that is perfect for any summer picnic!

pups & kisses,

  Tiffany