Minivan Envy!

'Twas one of those days.  Let me first say that I am so incredibly thankful for Brent's job and it pays better than my full-time job I had.  But it's a double-edged sword, since he has to use the car.  It's a part-time medical courier position and he has to use our most fuel efficient vehicle.  I would suck it up and use the big chunky van, but the car seat does not fit in it well at all.  I can't get the seat belts tight enough, so it can tip over.  Most days, it's fine.  My parent's don't live far away, so my mom will pick us up and we will get an outing.  When it gets cooler, there will be nice opportunities for walks.  There's a nice park close and a shopping center is not too horribly far away.  But today my mom had thing's she needed to do, so I was stranded at home with a particularly cranky toddler.  So I got cranky right back.  Not one of my finer moments.

Lord, I want a minivan.  Preferably a Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey.  I find myself staring at shiny new minivans and drooling slightly.  I will definitely need one by the time baby #2 comes, because the Corolla can barely fit the car seat as it is.  Forget 2.  Hopefully things will start looking up for us soon, and it can be my 30th birthday present.  Is that too much to ask?!

At least I did apply to something like 8 jobs on behalf of Brent.  A few here (free rent is nice), a few in Colorado (yes, cooler weather would be AWESOME), a few in California (because that's where a ton of Japanese jobs are) and several in Houston (I imagine my MIL singing the full Hallelujah Chorus in her head if she finds out).  When he got back, we worked together to get his book published on Amazon Kindle.  It won't be on in 24 hours, so I will be sure to put a link up when it becomes available.  So it was a productive day, just got stir-crazy.

Hence, the minivan envy.

Last few days

Thought I would share my favorite site for thyroid help.  It's Mary Shomon's http://thyroid-info.com/.  So full of information and you can subscribe to a newsletter too.  I have found it extremely helpful.

Audrey woke up before 7 these last 2 days.  Today she was quite the crank and I didn't get much done.  Oh well, I am hoping she will finally get straightened out.

It all started when we went to a party Saturday night, but I mainly hung out with Audrey and our friend's 4 1/2 year old daughter.  I think they had a pretty good time.  I made this award-winning recipe of bread pudding with whiskey sauce.  It turned out so good.  Let me know if you want me to post it.  Love the fact that our pastor of young adults took 2 large helpings.  He said he was taking one to his wife.  I will have to ask her if she got hers :)  I think I'll be making that for my brother Reed's birthday.  I think he would really like it.

1st Plane Trip/1st Beach Trip!

My Dad took my mom, sister, Audrey and I to the beach yesterday and we got back today.  It was Audrey's first time in the plane and her first time to the sea.  She LOVED both!  We had such a good time :)

Flippin' Annoyed...

So finally after over a month of waiting, Derek and Sarah's wedding pictures are all available online.  Yay! So I was just looking through them, especially excited to see the reception pictures, because I had gone up to one of the photographers and asked for a picture of the 3 of us and I was going to use it for our Christmas cards.  Sweet!  Professional photo without paying a sitting fee.  But I look just now, and there are only 3 pictures of us, only 1 including Audrey.  I am so flippin' mad.  Maybe they haven't gotten them all up yet?!  But seriously, I know I annoyed the photographer earlier for accidently getting in a shot when I was chasing after my 2 year old and I am wondering if this is just her way of getting back, because there are like a BILLION of Sarah's snotty little niece and none of my child.  Sorry, just annoyed.  If you like looking at wedding pictures though, it's www.jwbaugh.com/blauser.

Crab Stacks

I'm making crab stacks for dinner.  It's an easy, no-cook dinner recipe that my mom put together after having something very similar at some fancy restaurant.  Brent always wants something else to go with it, but I like it by itself.

For 2:
Get a couple of cups
Put about 1/4 crab at the bottom of each cup (I use imitation.  It's already cooked, so I just chop it up and put it right in.)
Cube about 1/2 a small or 1/4 large mango for each cup and that's the next layer.
Cube 1/2 an avocado for each cup and pack that in.
Top each cup with 1/2 diced small tomato.
Cover and chill.
Meanwhile in small bowl, add the juice of a lemon or a lime with a couple of tablespoons of mayo and stir it up.
Grab cups from fridge, take a knife along the edge and turn out on to plate.  Spoon sauce over crab stack.

Let me know if you try this out.  I was a little skeptical at first, but I really like it.  Plus, it has been just too dadgum hot here to cook!

CURSES!!!!

I got my blood tests back today.  My flippin' thyroid is normal.  NORMAL?!?!   Not even on one end, but right smack dab in the middle.  Argh.  So that means my issues lately don't have to do with thyroid, even though I have thyroid symptoms.

My cholesterol was slightly high and so was hematocrit (whatever the heck that is).  The only crazy thing was Vitamin D: 14.1 ng/mL.  It should be between 50.0-100.0, so yay I am extremely Vitamin D deficient, so my doctor's office called me up and gave me a high dose of Vitamin D-3 with Vitamin K-2 MenaQ (25,000 IU[!]).

I delivered my frozen poop to the lab today and that can take up to 3 weeks to process.  I hope since I hand delivered, I will get my results faster.  Then I will meet with Dr. Heidi and get to the bottom of whatever is my issue.

I am sort of bummed it wasn't my thyroid.  That would have been an easy enough fix. :/

You Know You're the Mommy of a Toddler....

When you discover spaghetti sauce on the back of your shirt, you've been like that all day and you don't even care.

Your dreams include full episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

You might not remember what you did this morning, but you can sing along with all the lyrics to Wonderpets.

You start talking to other adults about needing to go poopie and wee-wee.

Two words: minivan envy.

I'll be adding to this I'm sure.