Introducing Oliver!

Ok, I guess I am going to be an every 6 month blogger. In my last post I mentioned that we were expecting. Well we are now no longer expecting, but have an 8 week old baby! His name is Oliver and he is beautiful. My pregnancy was great. I actually loved it believe it or not. Everything went really well until I was 2 days overdue. That night I got a sudden fever and went to bed early. Around 11:30 I got some sudden cramps that kept coming 3 minutes apart. It took me about 2 hours to realize that I was in labor and my contractions (which I hadn't had all day) started at 3 min. apart. I told Sean and we went to the hospital. I still had a low fever, but it was causing Oliver's heart to speed up. They put me on IV antibiotics and lots of fluids trying to get my fever down and slow down Oliver's heart rate. After 4 hours my fever had risen to 102 degrees and Oliver's heart rate had risen to 200. My doctor decided that he needed to come out immediately, so they prepped me for an emergency c-section. The surgery went well and Oliver was born at 7:35 am at 7 lbs 12 oz. He had an infection (don't know what though) and had to go to the NICU for 6 days. I couldn't see him until my fever was gone which wasn't until the afternoon of the next day. It was horrible not being able to see or hold my baby for a day and a half. It was worse going home without him. Well he is home and perfectly healthy now. I can't believe it's been 8 weeks already. He is getting huge and is absolutely adorable with tons of fabulous crazy hair. I can't believe how much I love him. This Thanksgiving I just wanted to share how thankful I am for my wonderful family.

Introducing Oliver

Ok, so it's been like 6 months since I last posted. I can't believe how quickly time can fly. I can't really summarize all that has happened in the last few months, so I won't even try. I'll just say that things have been good. Our cat's name is Jack and he is getting huge. He can be so sweet and snuggly one minute, but then go crazy the next and start running around the house like a maniac! He makes me laugh. Even Sean is starting to like him.

The most surprising thing that has happened was we found out that the Lord has prepared a birth mom for us. As most of you probably know we have been trying to adopt and have been praying for the Lord to prepare a birth mom for us. We finally found out who He has prepared, and it's not who we thought it would be. It turns out that He has prepared me! That's right, I'm going to have a baby. It is a miracle. We didn't think this was even possible, but here I am, 10 weeks along. I've even had an ultrasound and heard it's heartbeat. We are calling it Waldo (my family has a tradition of making up prenatal names for our babies). So far things are going really well, so we are just praying and keeping our fingers crossed that they continue to go well.

Crazy two weeks!

Wow! How does life get so crazy? And where does the time go? It has been a great couple of weeks, but way busy crazy. It's getting to the point where I can't even remember everything anymore. There were a couple of highlights. Sean and I went to a Raptors game on Labor day weekend with some friends. They brought their little boy Ben who is a joy. Well, part way through the game I got up to use the bathroom and get a drink. When I got back Ben yelled out (across about 6 rows) "Did you go to the bathroom Kari?" Wow, what a thing I just wanted to share with the whole ballpark. The game was fun with the Raptors pulling out the win.

Labor Day was fun. We went to Monte Cristo and had a picnic with the family. It was a blast, cold but fun. Later we went to our cousins house for a barbeque and some fun. Sean and I marinated some steaks with Santa Maria seasoning and they were so delicious.

Work has been crazy this week. We have a retreat happening next week and so we've all been running around like headless chickens trying to get everything ready. It's fun, but a little stressful.

The most exciting thing that has happened is. . . Sean let me get a cat! I love cats and have been wanting one ever since we bought the house (we weren't allowed pets in our apartments). Our accountant at work had a cat dumped near her house, and it wanted to be adopted. She couldn't keep it, so Sean and I took it in. He is 4 months old and is very sweet and playful. Sean isn't so sure about him yet. He keeps climbing up him and Sean doesn't like it. I keep telling Sean that he is still a kitten and will mellow out soon. We don't have a name for him yet. I just can't decide.

As far as cookies go: I've made Jubilee jumbles - which were basically a brown sugar cookie. I added coconut and pecans to some, I also added chocolate chips to some of them along with with coconut and pecans. They were so yummy. I think Sean may have a new favorite. This last Sunday I made butterscotch brownies. They are really like a blondie, with nuts. They are pretty good. Unfortunately for some reason my gums swelled up on Sat. and it hurts to eat anything right now. Both these cookies were winners!

Molasses Jumbles

I would say that this has been an uneventful week, and for the most part it was. One exciting thing that happened was that Sean and I had our adoption profile published online. Now birth moms (and anyone who wants to) can look at us and hopefully pick us to adopt their baby. If you want to check it out go to itsaboutlove.org and look us up (you can do a keyword search and look us up by our names).

The week ended with me getting really sick though. I woke up Friday morning at 4 running to the bathroom, then couldn't get back to sleep because of pain in my back and more trips to the bathroom. I then spent all day on my back. I stayed that way because every time I sat up I ended up throwing my guts up. Mom finally was able to come over at about 2:30 and bring me some Gatorade. That helped a lot. By that evening I was finally able to sit up and although I felt queezy, I was no longer vomiting. I felt off all weekend, but so much better. I still feel a little off, and my back and shoulders still hurt but I'm at least functioning.

Saturday was a blast because I was able to go to lunch with a bunch of high school friends, most of whom I haven't seen in years. It was so much fun. I can't wait to do it again soon.

Well, this weeks cookie was Molasses jumbles. They tasted a little like soft ginger snaps. I wasn't too fond of them, but I don't really like those kinds of cookies. I shared some with some friends who came over yesterday for dinner, and they loved them. Well, I need to go and get ready for work. Enjoy the rain and cooler temps, and I'll have more next week with more cookies!

Cookies and the Zoo!

Okay, we didn't eat cookies at the zoo but that would have been fun. Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. Jared and Erin came up with their kids for a visit. It was really fun to have them around. It's amazing how quickly kids grow up when you only see them once every 6 months. We have had fun playing, watching movies, etc. The other week we went to the zoo. It was so much fun. My favorite Sophie comment (she is 6 yrs. old and can say the funniest things) was when we were looking at the rhinos. She looked at them eating and said, "Wow, they must poo a lot" then when one of them turned she said, "Ooh gross! I can see it's boogers!" I thought I would pee my pants laughing. I love the zoo, especially with little kids.
We also went to Bear Lake. That was fun and CRAZY! We had 9 adults and 6 kids under the age of 8 who wanted to play Harry Potter all the time. We went to Minnetonka Cave and watching the kids reactions to everything was so much fun. They thought it was all so cool. The Lake was gorgeous! I'm glad to be back though but now I need to catch up on all the stuff at home, like getting back to making cookies!

The last ones I made were Oatmeal raisin. They were so yummy, and I don't even like raisins! They came out so soft and chewy. Sean scarfed them down and took some to work. He said they got lots of compliments. I think these were Sean's favorite cookies so far. I guess I will need to make these more often.

Cookies, cookies, and more cookies!!!

When I was growing up some of my favorite Christmas cookies came from one of my mom's old cook books, the "Betty Crocker Cooky Book" from 1963. By the time I was a teenager, the book had fallen apart and my mom saved our favorite recipes in a binder. In 2003 the book was reprinted and Mom gave each of us kids a copy. I saved mine until we got married when I needed it to make my own Christmas cookies. A couple of years ago I realized that I have this book full of one of my favorite foods - cookies- and I have only made a couple of them. I finally decided I would go through the whole book and make each recipe, and all the variations of them. I'd toyed with the idea for a couple of years now, and have now decided to put this into action. I also wanted a record of this so a la "Julie and Julia" I have decided to write about this in our blog. I have done several recipes so far so I have some catching up to do and will hopefully keep on top of this from here on out. We'll see how well I do.
Week one:Ok, I skipped the first recipe in the book as it called for coffee, and given Sean's and my religious beliefs, this obviously was a bit of a problem. Perhaps one day I'll make it and give them to my non-LDS, coffee drinking friends. The next recipe was Orange drop cookies. They were actually really good. They had a nice cakey texture with a yummy orange frosting that wasn't to overpowering. Sean loved them. I probably wouldn't make them all the time, but they would make a fun change.Weeks two and three: Chocolate drop cookies
These have been Sean's favorite so far. They also had a cake-like texture, chocolate frosting (is it possible to have too much chocolate? I don't think so!) and were really yummy. There were so many variations that it took me two weeks to do this one. The first week I did just plain ones and some with chopped pecans. They were so good. The next week I put coconut in some and chopped maraschino cherries in some. I loved the cherry ones. I was surprised they were so good. I'd do them again in a heartbeat.Week four: Brown Sugar drops
These were OK. They would be really good with chocolate chips, but that wasn't one of the variations. I did some plain, some with pecans, and some with coconuts. They were all good, but not as good as chocolate chips would have been. I didn't get pictures of this one, but I'm sure I will make them again sometime.
A couple of weeks later: Pineapple cookies
I took a couple of weeks break because we went on vacation to San Diego! It was a blast. the next week we had a family reunion, so I finally got back to making cookies the other day. These cookies were surprisingly good. They tasted very old-fashioned. I did half a recipe of just pineapple and half with pineapple and coconut. I can't decide which I like more, they are both so good. I took them when we hung out with friends the other day and they ate them before I knew it. They were obviously a hit. I have to make these again some time.I can't wait to see what this week brings for us and for my next cookie!