A Little Heart Beat

We went to the clinic to have our first ultra sound on June 15! I was 8 weeks and four days pregnant according to our initial calculation. It was so exciting to hear our baby's heart beat for the first time! What an amazing sound, and it was beating so rapidly! Suddenly our pregnancy is even more real. There really is a little human in there who is alive and has been given the miracle of life from our Creator God. WOW! The ultra sound technician determined that the due date for our baby is January 21, 2010! We'll see when the baby decides to make a grand entrance!? My mom says that she had me and my brother two weeks early, and so that could happen to me, too! I always hear that the last few weeks of pregnancy is when you start to really want to baby to come out. I guess the baby feels extra heavy and you start to lose your balance easily. Plus, it's just so exciting to realize the baby is coming out soon, and so anticipation builds and builds! I'm already SUPER excited, and I'm not even in the second trimester yet! The ultrasound technician also reassured us that there is only one baby inside me. The next thing we are looking forward to most is the ultra sound at 20 weeks when we are likely to find out if we are having a boy or a girl! That will be really exciting! Then we can start buying some items for the nursery and get more and more ready for his or her arrival! We have already started to talk about names--both girl and boy names! It's fun to talk about names--there are so many weird ones out there, and some really unique ones, and of course some great ones we like. We have plenty of time to think about names, but it doesn't hurt to start a couple of preliminary lists.

Top Ten Signs of Life

I'm PREGNANT! The true reality of it is still sinking in. I have been reading books and magazines about pregnancy and all the changes that take place. I have started experiencing some of them. And there will be many more exciting and frustrating moments to come...I'm sure!

Here's my list of top ten "Signs of Life...Inside Me"

1. Nausea (fortunately not combined with throwing up, but makes me want to nap all day)
2. Needing to eat, but not knowing what to eat...nothing sounds good...no cravings yet
3. I take that back...berries of all kinds "sound good" but that's about all
4. Oh, and I can't stomach corn very well, so there's a "non-craving"
5. People point at my stomach (which hasn't expanded yet) and smile...point, smile, point, smile, point, smile.... (fortunately no stomach patting yet)
6. I'm afraid to lift anything...even my cats
7. I'm praying for our baby
8. Jason and I are looking at name lists on the internet and in books
9. We went baby furniture shopping (no purchases yet, but we have some ideas of what we like)
10. People are telling me old wives tales about how to figure out if we're having a boy or a girl

For a little more background on our pregnancy, see the post "Our Memorable Memorial Day"

New Blooms in Front Flower Bed

These lilies are in full bloom right now, and add some beautiful color to our front flower bed beside the driveway.

We just recently got some ornamental garlic "Social Garlic" and added it to the mix of flowers and greenery in the front. They are delicate and elegant, and apparently bloom all year round! I'm looking forward to that! Thanks, Jason!

Jason's grandparents gave us these beautiful shasta daisies 2-3 years ago, and they have been blooming for about a month now. We started out with just two plants, but now they have multiplied to fill about a 2' X 4' area in the front of our yard. They have large blooms that last for weeks! I have cut a few to bring inside for bouquets, but I mostly like to admire them in vibrant clumps outside.

The shasta daisy group is almost done for this season, so they don't fill the front area like they have for the past few weeks, but here you can see the lilies and two plants of social garlic intermingled with green ferns and bushes.

Making Tamales

I have been wanting to make vegetarian tamales for quite a while. The process, so I've heard, is very lengthy and can sometimes take an entire day. When I lived in Keene, Texas, there was a "tamale lady" who came by the office and sold vegetarian tamales to those of us who worked at SWAU. I purchased them from her every now and then, and her's were the first tamales I had ever tasted. I was amazed by the delicious flavor and unique consistency, let alone the fact that they were made in corn husks. Having grown up in the hills of Kentucky, I had never heard of tamales...and actually I hadn't even had enchiladas until high school. We ate burritos and tacos at home growing up, but that was the extent of my Mom's Mexican food offerings. Now, as I live in Texas, eating Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban food is an almost weekly experience--and it's oh so yummy! Jason and I love guacamole, black beans and rice, vege-chicken enchiladas, quesadillas, nachos, and fajitas! We are vegetarian, so all our ethnic foods are made without meat. Here's the really great vegetarian tamales recipe I used to make our tamales on Monday night! This recipe was pretty fast and easy to do--I was pleasantly surprised, because I was imagining 5-8 hours of labor to make them. Give yourself about 20 minutes for prep-time, and then about 1 hour for cook time--since each "batch" has to be steamed for 30 minutes. If you have a really large steamer basket, you could perhaps steam them all at once--my steam basket is kind of small, so I had to do 3 batches of six-ten tamales to cook them all up. The recipe makes about 20-24 tamales.

(to see any of these photos bigger, just click on the photo and it will enlarge for you)

Here's the mix, which should be the consistency of crumbly cookie dough. You should be able to smear it onto the corn husks, but not with any stickiness (stick to your hand) or liquid shine. I guess it's almost like crumbly clay.

Here's my preparation station. I had cheese, chopped tomatoes, pinto beans (not in the recipe, but I decided to add a few to each one), chopped jalapenos chillies (mild, because Jason and I don't like them too spicy),m and the corn husks.

You have to soak the corn husks in water for about 20 minutes or so. I used my ceramic spoon rest to weigh them down, because they were not staying underwater very well in this bowl.

I just bought jalapenos in a jar, but you could use fresh ones if you wanted to. I was afraid to pick out fresh ones, because they might be really hot!

This Masa Mix is easy to find here in Texas, because so many people cook with it down here. I'm not sure if it would be available very easily in some parts of the country, but you could always ask your grocery store or health food store to order some.

Me in my favorite room of the house! --the KITCHEN! I love to cook, so this was a fun evening to experiment with a brand new recipe.

I used canned chopped tomatoes, but I made sure to drain them very well. The recipe says to use fresh tomatoes that have been blanched (dropped in hot water to loosen the skins), but I didn't want to mess around with that, so I just opened a can.

Here is the Masa mix, a few beans, chopped tomatoes, chopped jalapenos, and a little cheese piled on the corn husk. Then you roll it up and fold both ends up. Then you place it in a steamer basket in a pot of boiling water.

The filling just falls out of the corn husk beautifully! It keeps a firm consistency, too. I was worried that the filling would be mushy--like eating corn meal cooked cereal or something. But, it was a grand success! I was very excited that they turned out well, and Jason was happy to have such a delicious supper!

Tickling the Ivories

We got a piano! It was a wonderful blessing from God! We had been looking for a piano on craig's list--the online classifieds. There was one that was about $600, but we would have to arrange for a friend to help us pick it up and move it with their truck. The people selling it also had odd hours for viewing it, so it just wasn't working out. I was kind of discouraged about the whole thing, and was starting to think we should just look for a piano seller and get a new one. Then, I was talking to my parents on the phone and checking out craigs list again...and....I saw a listing with a lower price and delivery included! Delivery was half the hassle for us, since we don't have a truck. So, I immediately checked in with the seller, and they said they'd already had seven other inquiries, so if I was serious about it, I should come look at it that same day. So, after work, Jason and I went over to look at the piano. It was in excellent condition, and so we made a deal on the spot. It was delivered after the Memorial Day holiday. It is a wonderful piano, and we are enjoying it very much!