Beef Bulgogi

I made Beef Bulgogi for dinner and I loved it.  I have been exploring Paleo eating lately because it makes sense to me. Like my What Would Mary Do style of parenting I forged when I had Baylor.  I stumbled on this recipe on Pinterest, shocking I am sure.  I love fried cabbage and meat served on cabbage is awesome. And since there are no noodles to contend with it is lower in calories which is good for TTC weight loss project. I also discovered this week that pork and sauerkraut are as good in February as they are on New Year's Day! 

Left or Right

While he favors his right hand, he will use his left hand if it seems easier to get the job done. (sometimes I do that too!)  I did not get a photo of it but sometimes he used both at once. 

Water Beads

These tiny little packets hold wee beads.  These wee beads when added to water swell and create water beads.  I saw them on Pinterest and found then on Amazon.  They are quite cheap and shipping was from Boston so that was not a bank breaker either.  I purchased an assortment of colors and a mixed color bag.

According to the back:

1. add water 400g on the product about 4 hours it will grow up

2. one clear beauty satiety by face will grow up

3. when the flower want to oxygen and nutrition, I will help you too much

So I enlisted my assistant with number 1 because I am not too sure what 2 means and we are not using these for plants as in 3.

Basically pour into a large container.

Add a lot of water.

And wait for several hours. 

We checked on their progress thoughout the day.

And we have water beads.  Now we just have to find the time to play with them!

Spring is Coming

The yellow flowers are from under my grandparents copper beech tree.  They are one of Grandma's favorites and they always remind me of her.  I am very thankful to have so many plants from the farm to remind me of the good times we had there.

New Do

Not ready for this

Baylor was walking away from me and I noticed his pants were dragging.  I grabbed the camera and told him to pull up his shirt and saw this!  Really, it starts this early?  At least he was wearing Gap and not Thomas.

Now my son was not blessed with lots of booty and usually benefited from the extra thickness of a diaper to keep up his pants. Now he is not a back with a crack, just not much junk in his trunk.  Since he is rocking the underpants now we probably should look into tightening the waist on most of his pants.  Does anyone else wish their pants came with that hidden elastic band to let out or take in the waist?  I know I totally do!  But being in underpants now, I just love that heiney!

I was in the kitchen and he was watching TV and I came out to this.  Visions of Married with Children run through my head and I don't like it!! 

Fish Tank Update and New Fishy Babies

The new aquarium is doing well and all the fish have survived the move to the big tank.  I love the fish tank and we all like watching the the little guys swim around.

Two of the Emerald Catfish

Spud the Upside Down Catfish

A Silver Tetra, who is pink

Baylor wanted his photo taken also

The Neon Tetras

There are about 20 fish in there but you cannot see them

More of the Emerald Catfish and the Neons

Saturday we went to a small local fish store to see what they had.  It was a nice shop with a nice variety of fish.  Baylor loved it and was very interested in them all.  The shop keepers were not very personable but at least two of them asked if I needed help.  One of them kept looking at Baylor like he was terrorizing the shop, tormenting fish, and turning over tanks.  The dude was putting me off but we were there for fish and not to be his friend.  We picked out our new friends and headed home.  The fish were safely belted in too.  I don't think the fish were able to sleep but little man did, as usual.

6 Rummy nosed tetras.  They should have red faces and white and black tails.  They were so stressed out the were completely blanched out.

3 Glass Catfish.  The one we have needed friends.

3 tiny Panda Corydoras Catfish.  Was not planning on getting them but they are so cute and I love the cory cats. 

The Rummys are pretty sensitive so I did a really slow drip acclimation. We let the water from out tank drip in for 5 hours to slowing get them used to our water.  And we waited for Lori to get home so she could see them too.  She picked out the Rummy noses as the new kind of fish for the tank.

The little Pandas staying together in the bucket.

While they were getting used to our water, I was working on the new 10 gallon I got as a trade for the 20 gallon we used to have.  My friend had a 10 and I gave her the one we had before the 75.  I asked her what she was going to do with her 10 and said she did not know.  I said I would take it and that was fine with her.  It was a real mess until I put the huge filter on it and after a few hours and few rinses of the filter pads, the water cleared up. 

I bought some Java moss at the fish store too and put the Easter Island head in there with a moss do.  Lori calls it our Aqua-Chia Pet. 

Here is our glass catfish.  He is pretty shy because he was alone and it was weird to see him swimming in the middle of the tank. And that was before we added the three new fish. 

The Rummys starting to get their color back.  They are hard to photograph because the flash reflects off the tank and the lighting is pretty dim to use without a flash.  But you can see their red faces and colored tails.  That is a good sign!  The like to hang out in this corner of the tank and will probably stay there until they get more comfortable to their surroundings. 

It was a good trip and some nice additions to the tank.

They are mine now

The vials are ordered and in storage.  Am I crazy?  I am 41 and would be 42 by the time a baby would come around.  I have friends my age who are grandparents for goddess sake!  I can barely move now in the mornings because of creaking bones.  But I will be in better shape by then right because in order to even try again, I have to lose weight and keep it off.  And I would go through it all to give him a sibling.


On a hopeful note, going to check out a local gym on Monday and go walking over lunch.  It will be cheaper than the shopping I tend to do at lunch now!  And I am not waiting until Monday as in the I will start Monday, we are having a business lunch today and I cannot go today! 
 
There is hope and that is what I will pin my dream on. 

She said Yes!

So I told Lori and she said Yes!  She said she could not  say no to this but it will be our last try.  I will be calling tomorrow to buy the vials and put them in storage and then get my butt off this couch! 

Don't know what to do

This must be some kind of joke being played on me by this crazy universe we live in. Last year, or even late 2010 when we were trying for another child. I put my name on a waiting list for Baylor's donor. He has been out of the program, as they call it, for years and once those 40+ vials disappeared two years ago and I bought the last 6 he has been out of stock. I was getting used to the idea of just one child because it seemed that is they way life was going for us.  The donor was gone and although we found another donor, I was not as committed to him as I was Baylor's.  When I got the last BFN and months went by without losing any weight, I put it out of my mind.  Baylor was, and is, and can be enough. 

Well, guess who called today?  The cryobank and they have 2 vials available and I have until Monday to decide if I want them.  I wanted to whip out my credit card and buy them on the spot and tell them to store them.  But somehow a level head prevailed and I said I would call by Monday.  I know I need to ask Lori about it.  I don't know what she will say. 

I know in my head, if I don't do it, this will follow me forever. I don't hold on to much, assimilate and move on is my motto. But in this case I don't think this is something I would be able to let go.  I had to try with the last vials I had and when they were gone, I was able to let it go.  Today for the last few hours, it is all I can think about.  There are a lot of things that will have to happen for me to try again and the biggest one is the hardest one for me.  Losing weight.  And that is a whole other blog post.  Or maybe another blog all together!!

Snow, it is about time

Baylor has been asking when it was going to snow again for the last few weeks.  I told him hopefully it would snow again soon.  Today his wish came true.  It started snowing late this morning and kept snowing all day.  I called house around 4 and I could hear Baylor asking to go outside.  We told him he had to wait until I got home because Lori's back was bothering her.  I was home and in minutes we were dressed and out the door.  Someone was super happy about the snow. 

His favorite snow shovel is the red plastic pooper rake.  I guess it goes through the snow really well with the rake in the front.  He made paths and had me following him around as we were getting away from Captain Hook.  He is trouble that Hook and we are usually covering him with bed pillows or something or other. 

We made a nice big pile of snow in the middle of the yard. 

After we evaded Captain Hook, we had to rescue the Octonauts from the bottom of the pile.  He used a large water squirter as his drill to find them at the bottom of the snow pile. 

We stayed out until we could no longer see the snowballs we were throwing at each other.  It was a super fun way to end the day!