Snow Week 2009

We took a trip to Virginia last weekend and were supposed to stay through Tuesday. Our plans changed, however, when we saw the weather forecast, which predicted snow on Tuesday all along our route back home. We left Monday afternoon and got home around 10pm without any bad weather on our drive. Bedtime followed soon after, and we woke up Tuesday morning refreshed and ready to start the week.

To our surprise, Monday night into Tuesday morning brought several inches of snow - and the snow was still coming! I called into work and the boss decided I should check back in when the snow slowed down a bit. About an hour later, the office lost power - no work for me that day!

The snow late Monday night was followed by ice and freezing rain all day Tuesday. Wednesday brought more inches of snow. Trees and powerlines remain covered in ice, causing damage to limbs and leaving thousands of people without power. Today is now Saturday, and the office has been without power all week. We've been helping my in-laws take care of their place, which also doesn't have power. Fortunately, we haven't lost our power, but thousands of other Kentuckians weren't so lucky. In fact, this is the second worst power outage in the state's history (second only to the outages that occurred about 6 months ago when the winds of Hurricane Ike came through town).

This morning the temperature outside was 7 degrees, so as you might imagine, not much has melted. Today and tomorrow should provide above freezing temps, but Monday or Tuesday might bring more snow! Tomorrow starts February - but where is SPRING?

I'm praying that when the ice starts to melt, more people don't lose power. Fingers crossed...

Seek and Ye Shall Find

We've been looking for a church off and on since I moved here.  I say "off and on" because we search in little spurts - we'll try a few and then get discouraged, taking several weeks (or months) off until we try again.  We're looking for a place that we can have fellowship with our peers, but also worship in a traditional setting, with hymns, prayer, and Biblical teaching.  

I'm beginning to think this church does not exist.  We've found that most of the people our age aren't into hymns, and would rather plan the Easter pageant than serve in the community.  If the music is traditional, the preaching is radical.  If the music could be interrupted at any moment with women speaking in tongues (no kidding), the preaching is right on target with the B-I-B-L-E (yes, that's the the Book for me).

Our goal is to find a church by the time Baby Sears arrives.  After more than 2 years on the hunt, I can see that we haven't prayed enough about it - and that prayer is the only way we're going to find what we're looking for.

Hi MOM!

My mom told me she didn't know about my blog, so I'm sending her the link right now and dedicating this post to her.

I LOVE YOU, MOM!

P.S. If you have any suggestions for what my mom should be called when she becomes a grandma, let me know.  We're in the brainstorming phase :)

Congrats, Jodie and Tony!

Our friends Jodie and Tony got engaged on Saturday!  We're so happy for them and the exciting times ahead.  We were even a part of the scheming to make it a surprise.  The four of us were supposed to go out to a fancy dinner, but I "got sick on the way to the restaurant" and couldn't make it.  Lucky for Jodie I was sick - lucky for me I actually wasn't!  

It was only by coincidence that I saw "Bride Wars" with a few girlfriends on Sunday.  I confess that there were more than a few teary-eyed moments during the movie.  I was skeptical about the likelihood that an Anne Hathaway character and a Kate Hudson character would be friends, but I think they pulled it off.  As far as chick flicks go, it was quite a bit more tolerable for men than "Mamma Mia," if that gives you any idea if you should bring your significant other along.  Definitely rentable, possibly even worth a matinee in the theater!  Save all the other good movies out right now for the dinner-and-a-movie date night.

Another Reason to Drink Almond Milk

I thought I should expand on the comment on the last post about soy milk and estrogens. I've read in a few places that soy milk has enough estrogen to mimic birth control pills, which is particularly scary for babies fed soy. In her book The Garden of Fertility, Katie Singer says, "Infants who are fed soy formula receive the equivalent of three to five birth control pills each day." Sorry, but my baby doesn't need to be on birth control, and I wouldn't say anyone needs to take 5 a day!! Want proof online? Google "soy milk birth control" or "soy milk estrogen" and see what you come up with. If anything, it'll make you think twice about what is marketed to be a "health food" and what is really healthy.

Got milk?

I stopped eating dairy in August 2008 or so.  Why?  By process of elimination, I figured out that whenever I ate dairy, I would have an allergic reaction all over my face about 1-3 days later.  I knew I would have to find alternatives to dairy because there are a few things I can't live without:  cereal and grilled cheese.  There aren't too many non-dairy cheeses out there, so I have to stick with Veggie Shreds and Slices.  But the alternatives to milk are vast, and only a few will really serve as an acceptable substitute.  For anyone who is like me and doesn't eat dairy, here is my advice:  ALMOND MILK.  Here's why:

1. Soy milk has a terrible texture.  Almond milk is very smooth (the package says "luscious").
2. Rice milk has a funny taste.  Almond milk comes in unsweetened, unflavored varieties that have a very mild taste that won't overpower your cereal.
3. You can use almond milk as a milk substitute in recipes.  Add it to your scrambled eggs, or make your pancakes with almond milk - I find I like the taste of the almond milk versions much more than when prepared with regular milk.
4. Almond milk has 20% of your recommended daily calcium.  Drink a glass of calcium-enriched OJ with your almond milk cereal, and that's over half of your calcium for the day!
5. You would think almond milk would be very expensive (wouldn't it take a lot of expensive almonds to make milk?).  Not so.  In fact, the brand Almond Breeze is almost always on sale for cheaper than soy at our grocery store. 
6. I don't do dairy, and Shelby doesn't do sugar.  So we were delighted to try the unsweetened chocolate almond milk as a hot chocolate alternative!  Yummy :)

Almond milk is a must for anyone who doesn't eat dairy.  Even if you can eat dairy, try the almond milk - you might like it more than cow's milk!

Mon, Fri, Mon, Fri

I don't have much to say today except that I was off from work yesterday and LOVED IT.  It really was a great day.  I had an OB appt, so I just took the whole day for good measure.  And I got to spend it with the love of my life, which was the best part.  Rolling out of bed this morning for work was terribly difficult, though.  Just like another Monday.  But tomorrow is another Friday, so no complaints here!

Baked potato recipe

This week I became totally committed to organizing our growing stack of papers and receipts that I'm *supposed* to be filing regularly.  Some of these receipts are from September, so you can imagine the size of the stack.  My filing system had become a "piling" system, and I promised my dear husband I'd change my organizational habits.  What a chore!

So what does the man of the house do while I'm keeping our affairs in order?  He makes dinner!  He's a great cook, but has had some limitations recently due to the pregnancy.  So I found a few recipes that I asked him to try.  Last night we had baked potato eggs, which were DELISH.  He replaced the turkey sausage with nitrate-free bacon, which is supposed to be better than regular bacon during pregnancy (as it turns out, it is better tasting, too).  Mmm, mmm, mmm.  I'm still thinking about it actually - and in a good way.

How To Survive the KY Winter

Haven't we all had enough of winter?  It seems like spring is on everyone's minds.  Somewhat out of protest, we don't watch the weather at our house - we're tired of being cold and can't cope with more bad news.  One morning a few weeks ago, I took Woody for his morning walk when it was about 5 degrees out.  (Why did we have to go for a walk at such frigid temps?  See this previous post.)  By the time I got home, my mascara was all over my face and my nose was so runny I had to wash my scarf from all the mess.  I'm guessing that my face was so warm compared to the temperature outside that I literally began to melt myself, from my makeup to my nose hairs.  

So when I found this blog, I stopped complaining almost immediately.  Yeah, it's going to be in the single digits in Louisville this week.  But that's 7 ABOVE zero, which is quite warm in Tok, Alaska.  All I can think is that the blogger must really love her husband.  And that her life is really very interesting.  Quite an adventure, living at 50 or more below in such a small town in a remote little corner of the world.  I think it probably helped that she already lived in Alaska.  Moving from Anchorage, Alaska to Tok was probably easier than, say, a move from Anchorage, Kentucky to Tok.  I've read all of her posts, and am eager for more.  I only hope that she can keep it up, despite the outrageous internet charges and limitations in Tok.  

So how do we survive the winter in Kentucky?  Count our blessings! 

Hamburglar strikes again

So - FIVE GUYS BURGERS AND FRIES has made its way to Kentuckiana!!!!

That's right - New Albany, IN hosts the delicious burger spot that was once a Virginia trip treat. This new location has been confirmed by the Five Guys website and unknowing KY friends who raved about a "new burger place." Slowly, Virginia is moving west! Now if only we could get a Bodo's...

TGIS

I'm minutes away from the weekend.  (Yes, I sometimes blog at work.  Scratch that - I usually blog at work.)  I'm pretty sure most people would pick Friday as their favorite day of the week.  Not me - Saturday takes the cake, no question.  Why would you pick Friday as favorite, when you still have to get up early, go to work all day, do whatever you do at work, and wind up tired and cranky by quitting time/freedom?  Saturday, though, I can start out whenever I want, do whatever I want, for as long as I want!  Maybe I'll want to blog tomorrow.  Maybe not!  It's Saturday!  I can't wait.  TGIF, sure.  But tomorrow, I'll sing it from the rooftops:  TGIS!!!

My House Is Worth What?

We've been in our new house since the end of September and I love it more and more each day.  So when I read about a woman in Seattle who refused to sell her house to developers for $1 million, I asked myself how much I really love our house.  Would I consider selling for $1 million??

Edith Macefield simply did not want to move.  I know how she feels, even after only putting in 4 months of heart, soul, sweat, and money into making the house our home.  When we bought the house (a 4000 sq.ft. ranch), I said that we could potentially live in this house for the rest of our lives, after raising our children and our hips have given out.  After the runaround it took to actually buy the place, never moving again sounds like the perfect plan.  But if offered $1 million?  We could pay off our mortgage, buy the next house with cash, and still have money left over for a sizable renovation, not to mention our baby's (or maybe even babies') college tuition down the road.

Edith's stand against the destruction of her home and commercialization of her property seems like a noble venture.  For a woman of her age and experience, I would have probably taken the same stand.  What a tough cookie!  Escaped from a concentration camp, for crying out loud.  No wonder she put up a fight when someone threatened her nest.  I admire her.  But in my current stage of life, I'd sell our house for $1 million.  Ask me again at 80.

The Ambitious Mom-To-Be

Our baby is due on June 16, 2009.  I found out I was pregnant fairly early, so I've had most of the past 17 weeks to really start thinking about what I'm going to be like as a parent.  I've already realized that no matter what you do, someone is going to think you're crazy.  Two examples of ideas I've toyed with:

1.  Cloth diapers

2.  Making our own baby food

Go ahead - call me crazy.  I'm still on the fence about the cloth diapers.  Doesn't quite seem worth it to deal with poop on such an intimate level.  Disposables seem much more user friendly.  The eco-friendly argument for cloth?  Not enough to persuade me, especially when washing the diapers uses a lot of water and energy (my energy and the power company's).  I heard about a diaper service in Louisville that takes care of it for you - but that could get expensive.  Also, did you know you can buy second-hand diapers? That means someone else used them!  Sorry, but some things you just buy new.  Sort of like buying brand name toilet paper - sometimes you have to splurge.  But if you do buy cloth and wash them yourself, you have to be saving money and the environment, right?

As for idea #2, I'm completely sold on making our own baby food.  I'm actually excited about it.  You can get a baby food maker that I've heard really helps makes it easier.  Then you freeze the mush into little servings!  Seems like it would save a ton of money, be better for baby, and could be fun for mom!  

I admit I may be slightly naive.  Did I mention this is our first baby?

Purse Burglar, Hamburglar

Over the past year, someone has robbed more than 50 homes in our subdivision and surrounding neighborhoods.  The MO:  he breaks into your home (usually by kicking open a door), walks in, takes your purse, and walks out.  He strikes at 9am, midnight, 6pm - even the safest daylight hours could leave you without your purse.  I have become slightly obsessed with the Purse Burglar, even dreaming that I caught the perpetrator, who turned out to be a middle school girl in my slumber.  Coming very close to sleeping with my purse, I take every precaution to limit my exposure.  I won't deny that I have slept with a light on, or that our entire house exterior is completely illuminated from dusk until dawn.  The police have been on at least one foot pursuit, but PB escaped through a system of drainage tunnels underneath the East End.  I wish they'd catch him so I could find something else to worry about.

In other news, my reoccurring absence from blogging is always multi-faceted, but this time I really have been up to something big...  MAKING A BABY!  It seems appropriate in the Purse Burglar post that I mention that pregnancy has completely turned me off to chicken, and my arteries must ache with how much red meat I've consumed in the past 4 months.  Purse Burglar's got nothing on my Hamburglar tendencies.   BEEF.  IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER.  AND LUNCH.  AND BREAKFAST.  AND A SNACK.  AND....