A Letter to my six month old

A very excited Ella and her aunt Rebecca

 Dear Ella,

A couple of weeks ago you turned six months old.  It is very very hard to believe that you are already six months old, and that you have been in our lives for over a year already!

You continue to astound me with how much you are growing and learning all the time.  You are still my baby girl, but you are no little baby anymore.  Some of your more recent accomplishments include:

• Sitting up. You do an awfully good job at this by yourself, and only tumble occasionally.  Sitting up by yourself playing with toys is now competing with the Jolly Jumper as your favorite thing to do.
• Talking. You often say 'mumumumumum',  and we are just working on getting you to say 'dada'!  You are constantly telling us happy (or sad) stories.
• Walking. You still want to be on your feet, all the time.  You have a gift for 'walking' while holding onto someone's fingers.
• Your social skills.  You love being with others and making them smile - whether it be your Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papa, your aunts or uncles, your cousins, or those playing with you in the nursery, you are always very good for them and don't seem to miss your father or I at all.  I even catch you looking at strangers in a store, just waiting for them to turn and look at you so you can smile at them, and brighten their day!
• Your empathy. Whenever I am sad, you give bigger hugs, more frequent kisses, and are very accommodating to the many kisses and hugs I give you! 
• You know where your food is.  This is a good thing for you, and a not so good thing for me.  You are constantly trying to find your food and get your mouth to it, which means I have to be constantly watching my shirt!
• The end of the swaddle.  Recently, we stopped swaddling you.  I used to love to see you all bundled up in bed, but you wouldn't have it anymore and wanted to roll around and be mobile, which is another very indicative sign of how much you have grown!

Sleeping Ella

You love your toys.  Your bunny is by far your favorite, you always reach for it when you see it, and you cannot sleep without it.  You also love playing with hard toys, hitting them on things, or eating them!

You also love your father, and he loves you.  You and him get to spend about three mornings a week alone together while I am at work, and I know he makes you smile like no one else can.  You guys play together, and you laugh and smile all the time for him.  Seeing the bond you two have makes me extremely proud.

You are the light of my life.  I wouldn't give you up for the world - even when I am exhausted, and the house is a disaster, and all I want to do is have some time to myself, I am so glad to have you.  Your smile can dissipate all my stress and worries, and I am so thankful that God has given us the great responsibility of caring for you.

I have already experienced in great vividness the many ways I will fall short as a mother. I am sorry that I won't be able to be the mother you deserve.  I am worried about the day where you will wake up and not want me around any more, but I just pray that no matter what that you will know that God in his infinite wisdom created you just the way you are, and will love you no matter what - and that I will too.  I love you more than you will ever comprehend and I cannot wait to see the beautiful toddler, child, teenager, and women that you turn into!

Love,

'mumumumumum'

Mmmm Rocks

A Letter to my Two Month Old

Photo taken January 27, 2012.  9 days old.

Ella,

Today, you are 9 weeks and 2 days old.  Nine weeks seems like such a short period of time, and yet I feel like you have been a part of our family forever.

I remember the first time I saw you.  I was so absolutely ecstatic to meet you, but one of the most wonderful things was seeing the look on your daddy's face as he held you.  It was instant love.  That night, they took you to the nursery to sleep, and I remember waking up the morning and not being allowed to get out of bed, but wanting so badly to have you there with me.   Your daddy slept in, and so I couldn't ask him to go fetch you, but I just had this huge desire to have you close to me.  After all, you were mine.

Photo taken February 11, 2012.  3 weeks, 3 days old.

You have done so much growing since you were first born. You weighed in at 11 lb, 4 oz at the doctor's today.  This is a far cry from the 6 lb 10 oz that you were when you were born, or 6 lb 5 oz that you were when you left the hospital.  You have chubbed right out which I am happy about.  I am glad you are healthy.

I now know the answer to many of the questions I had in my last letter to you:

Photo taken February 3, 2012. 2 weeks, 2 days old.

You absolutely love the bath.  You have one every night before going to bed, and you start crying as soon as we take you out.  You haven't learned to splash yet, but I am sure the experience will be all the more enjoyable for you once you figure that out.  After your bath, we get you dressed in your pj's, and read you a Bible story.

You love to look at the pictures of the story when you are not too preoccupied being upset about getting out of the bath or it being bedtime.  After that, we swaddle you up so you are cozy and pray with you.  I think you have yet to not scream through a prayer, but I cherish that time tremendously anyways.  You go to sleep fairly fast after that though, which is nice!

Photo taken March 17, 2012.  8 weeks, 3 days old (1 day shy of 2 months!)

You also love church.  For the most part, you have slept through every service, but whenever you are fussy and we go and listen to your daddy practice with the worship team you always calm down.  You seem to love the music.

I hope you always know how beautiful you are.  Everywhere we go, people tell us how pretty you are.  And they are so right.  Your collection of small features (inherited equally from your father and I) make you absolutely stunning.  And I know you will just become more and more beautiful as you grow.

Photo taken March 9, 2012.  7 weeks, 2 days old.
Her headband is a Posie, they are so cute!

You are kind of sassy.  I never knew that a 2 month-old could have so much personality.  But yours bursts forth from you!

You love the mornings.  Lying beside you and smiling and having fun with you just after you wake up is my favourite part of the day.  I am going to miss this when you move into your own crib for the night.

Photo taken February 3, 2012. 2 weeks, 2 days old.

Before you were born, I wrote about how much your daddy loved you.  But at that time, I really didn't know how much he would love you.  You are the light of his life.  He comes home from work and asks to hold you immediately.  And I know you love him.  You look at him, and smile at him, and have so much fun with him.

Photo taken March 19, 2012. 8 weeks, 5 days old.

Ella, you need to know that I love you more and more every day despite believing that there is no way I could love you one bit more than I already do.  I don't think you will be able to comprehend how much we love you until you have your own little ones, but I hope that someday you do.

Photo taken March 19, 2012. 8 weeks, 5 days old.

I thank God daily that He lent you to us.  We love watching you grow, and cannot wait to see all the things you will accomplish with your life.

Love always,

Your mom.

Some Of My Favourite Pictures From Your First Two Months

Photo taken March 21, 2012. 9 weeks old.

Photo taken January 21, 2012. 3 days old.

Photo taken January 27, 2012. 9 days old.

Photo taken March 14, 2012. 8 weeks old.

Photo taken March 22, 2012. 9 weeks, 2 days old.

Photo taken January 27, 2012. 9 days old.

Love,

The 10 Best Things About Being A New Mother

To balance my last post on the 10 Hardest Things about Being a New Mother, I wrote this post.  Again, they are in no particular order.

Ella smiling at us.  Photo taken on February 22, 2012 (1 month, 4 days old)

1.  Having my daughter smile at me. (whether it is intentional or not).


2.  Seeing my husband interact with and love our daughter.

3.  Watching my daughter sleep beside me at night.

Ella trying hard to stay awake.  Photo taken on January 26, 2012 (8 days old)

4.  Kissing her precious little head.

5.  Feeling her breathe on me while she sleeps on my chest.

6.  Watching her learn new things every day.

Dave & Ella. Photo taken February 22, 2012 (1 month, 4 days old)

7.  Being needed by her.

8.  Listening to her make her wonderful little noises.

9.  Watching her grow bigger and bigger and develop more into her looks each day.

Ella & I.  Photo taken January 18, 2012 (1 1/2 hours old)

10.  The way it feels so right, her being a part of our family.  I wonder how we ever felt like our family was complete without her in it.

My Daughter's Father

Photo credit to my brother-in-law, Dan O'Rourke!

I married a great man.  I have known this for a long time.  Dave immediately grabbed my attention when I first met him, and it took much longer for me to grab his.  But recently, I have been reminded of how amazing he is, and in a blog that contains all aspects of my life, I would be remiss not to write about one of the most important people in my life.

So today I have decided to list just some of the things that I appreciate about Dave.  This list is by no means exhaustive, as there are so many more things about Dave that I just don't have the space to list.

Dave watches out for me.  To be honest, sometimes this drives me nuts.  If I feel pain somewhere, and I tell Dave, he will automatically suggest we go to the hospital, or insists that I call a doctor.  I, almost always, dismiss his advice.  However, I know that his concern comes from a place of deep concern and care for me, and I appreciate that.

Photo credit to my sister-in-law, Leanne Pike!

Dave is proactive with Ella.  When he is around, he takes the initiative to change her diaper so I don't have to.  Dave bathes her for me, and even when he works first thing in the morning he tries his hardest to wake up and offer me things when I am up with her in the night.  If Ella is fussy at night, he takes her downstairs and sleeps on our spare bed with her so that I can get a good sleep.

Dave loves his daughter.  As we get into bed at night, Dave cuddles with Ella.  He even asked me once if I felt he was hogging her because I didn't get the chance to cuddle with her at night.  But what he didn't understand was that seeing him hold her close every night was the greatest gift that he could possibly give me.

At Ella's 1-week doctor appointment, one of the women commented about how helpful Dave was, and how rare that is.  He is so great, other people notice.

He works hard.  When Dave puts his mind to something, he makes sure it is completed fully and appropriately.  He doesn't cut corner.  Dave works hard to support Ella and I, and doesn't ever complain about having to work.

When Dave has an issue with something, he gets in and tackles it instead of ignoring it.  He confronts issues head on, instead of dancing around them (like I do).

Photo credit to my sister-in-law, Leanne Pike!

Dave makes me laugh.  It's funny how much I took this for granted before Ella was around.  It is harder now, because I am more tired, and more stressed, and laughing and letting loose is harder for me, but I love laughing with Dave.  He is so much fun, and I appreciate that.


I love my daughter's father - my husband.  He is a great man.  And I don't convey that to him enough.

Ella's Arrival

Ella Susan Margaret Pike.
Photo taken January 20, 2012.

Before I forget the whole thing, I thought I would write a post about Ella's arrival.  It isn't too detailed or gruesome - but there are some parts that are honest, so I thought I would warn everyone in advance!  This post is also quite lengthy, which I also want to apologize for!

In the afternoon on Monday, January 16th (Dave's 25th birthday), I got a call from our family doctor that she had scheduled me to be induced the next morning at 7:15am at the hospital.  That pretty much killed the rest of the day for us.  I was too nervous to do anything really nice for Dave so he probably had a pretty awful birthday (I hadn't even gotten him a birthday gift at that point!).

The next day, we woke up at 6:00 to get ready to go to the hospital.  Most things were packed, but we just grabbed the last couple of essentials, had some breakfast, got ready, and left.  We left the house at 6:45 (the drive to the hospital takes about 15 minutes), because Dave wanted to stop at McDonald's to get a coffee.  Well, of course we get to McDonald's and something has happened and there is an ambulance there and they are even more slow than they usually are.  Needless to say, I walked into the ward of the hospital I was supposed to be in around 7:16 or 7:17 (oops!).

I thought that they would monitor me for a while before inducing me, but the Doctor was in, and I had been given a dose of the gel by about 7:40.  I started to have contractions at this point, but I wasn't quite sure what I was feeling.  The nurses would ask how bad 'the tightenings' hurt, but given that I had nothing to compare the pain to, they all seemed extremely painful (later in the day I looked back at those early ones and realized how not painful they were).

Dave and I spent most of the morning walking around.  We played cards for a while and just tried to keep ourselves busy!

The doctor came back shortly after 1 to check on me.  In the morning he had thought that he would break my water at this point, but given my lack of progress, he just gave me another dose of the gel.  My mother arrived to be with me around the same time.  My mother was the first person to justify my pain as contractions, which I appreciated.  When the nurses kept calling them 'tightenings', I wasn't sure what pain I was experiencing or if they even were contractions!  My contractions slowly got worse throughout the day.  We tried to make the time pass throughout the afternoon as well - talking, walking around, watching tv, and playing Dutch Blitz (which I whooped Dave and Mom at despite the contractions).

As a side note, I wasn't allowed any meals (only clear fluids) during the day.  But even those did not stay down.  I was sick to my stomach 3 times that day.  Everyone kept telling me I wouldn't want to eat while in labour, and I didn't believe that that would be the case - but it was, I was not hungry once!

At 4:00, the Doctor came back and broke my water, which increased the strength of my contractions even more, but they started me on a Pitocin drip shortly after 7:00.  My contractions got ridiculously bad at this point, and lying in bed was the worst.  By this point in time, I had only dilated to about 3 cm.  The nurses let me sit up in a glider chair where they set up the monitors so I wouldn't have to be monitored in bed.

Here in Miramichi, the nurses can't call in the anesthesiologist after midnight, so at about 11:30 the nurse came in and asked if I wanted an epidural.  By this point in time, I was pretty convinced that I did, and so they called him in, and I received it at about midnight.  He was great, and all my fear about the epidural was in vain!  It did not hurt a bit, and I definitely did not feel like I got a big needle in my spine!  Having the epidural allowed me to finally sleep a bit which was very appreciated.

After the epidural!  I felt much better.

At 1:30, the nurse came back to check how dilated I was.  I had not progressed.  I found out at this point as well that the babies heartbeat had started to vary greatly.  It would speed up and then drop sharply - the baby was obviously in distress.  The nurse stopped the drip, and my contractions stopped altogether.  The nurse called my family doctor in who decided I needed an emergency c-section.  She called in the obstitrican, who agreed with her - and they called in the OR staff (it was a snowy night) to come in so that our little baby could be born.

They were all very efficient, and we were in the operating room by about 2:00.  My mom could not come with us, so she waited for us back in our room, but Dave came down with me.  In order to have the c-section, I had to lie my arms out straight to either side so that they could work close to my side.  This ended up giving me significant pain in my shoulders afterwards which subsided after a couple of days.

I couldn't see anything while having my section.  Dave could though.  At one point, as they were just starting, Dave mentioned to me about how there was a tube that ran near him, and there was nothing in it and then all of sudden there was a large gush of blood through it.  I told him he probably should not tell me anything more like that.

I could not feel anything except pressure during the c-section.  I had no idea what they were doing, or even when the baby was out of me.  At one point, the anesthesiologist said, very calmly, to me "you have a little girl!"  I didn't believe him though as I didn't feel any lighter, and no one else seemed to be saying anything (nor did I hear any crying).  All I wanted was for someone else to confirm this for me but no one did!

Soon enough though, I saw her for the first time.  It turns out that the umbilical chord had been wrapped very tightly around her neck.  As I understand it, this had prevented her from descending, which made me not able to dilate as I was supposed to, so it is a very good thing we had a c-section!

Dave held Ella as they stitched me back up.  She was very good from the very beginning - she didn't cry, but just kept looking back and forth between Dave and I.   I fed Ella a bit and then brought her upstairs.  She stayed in the nursery that night - and my recollection between after the c-section and when I woke up the next day is very limited.  I couldn't get out of bed until the next afternoon so I obviously stayed in bed Wednesday morning!

Dave and I couldn't pick a name for her at first.  We had had three top names already: Ella, Emma, and Lucy, but after she was born, I really wanted to name her Lucy, and Dave really wanted to name her Emma.  Seeing as Ella was the second pick for both of us we settled on that.  Deciding on middle names was no issue for us though.  I knew I wanted to name her Susan after my mother, and Dave wanted Margaret after his (their middle names).

The worst part about the whole ordeal for me was probably when they would check how effaced/dilated I was.  No one told me how bad that would hurt!

The most surprising thing for me was how much I didn't care who saw me half naked.  People told me I wouldn't care, but being the prude I am, I definitely didn't believe them - but they were so right!

I was so happy with the care we received at the hospital though, and I am grateful for all of the Doctors and nurses who helped little Ella arrive!  I am also very grateful for Dave and my mom.  They were both extremely helpful and encouraging to me throughout this ordeal, and through the days that follow.  I will never be able to thank them enough!

Name: Ella Susan Margaret Pike
Weight: 6 lb, 10 oz
Height: 19 inches
Birthdate: January 18th, 2012
Birth time: 2:14 am

Ella's first picture.  With her Daddy.
Taken January 18th - sometime in the early morning.

Ella always looks perplexed!
Photo taken January 18th, 2012.

A letter to my little one

Picture taken on January 12, 2012 - 39 weeks, 5 days.

Note: I have been wanting for a while to put my thoughts together in the form of a letter for my unborn child.  Not that the baby will have any idea that I did this.  But I wanted my child to someday be able to read of the great joy that (s)he brought to mine and Dave's life even before his/her birth.

Dear Little Baby,

Today is your due date.  It comes as no surprise to your daddy or I that you have not arrived yet - we imagined you would be late.  I can imagine it is warm, and comfortable (getting more uncomfortable by the day though, I am sure), and familiar in there for you - so I understand why you want to stay!

You have been part of our lives for 9 months today.  I remember when I first found out I was pregnant with you.  Your daddy was at work, and I was so sure that I wasn't pregnant that I took the risk of taking a test while he was gone.  When the first test (and the second) both came back indicating that I was pregnant, I was so excited and absolutely terrified at the same time.  I picked your daddy up from work that night bawling because I just didn't know how I was ever going to be a mother.

And even though at that point I knew in my head we were going to have a baby, I never imagined we actually would.  It wasn't real to me.  But you are so real to me now.

You formed inside of me, and grew, and we saw you through an ultrasound three times.  I started to feel you kick and move around and that was so exciting for me.  And your daddy was so jealous that he couldn't feel it - until he did.  He loved it.  It still brings such a large smile to your daddy's face when you kick his hand, or you move in such a way that he can see.

You are your father's child though.  You are a little trickster.  You will move for me a lot but as soon as I tell anyone you are moving and they watch or feel, you stop.  But the moment they look away or move their hand, you start kicking up a storm again.  Your daddy and I laugh about this often.

I know how much your daddy loves you.  He talks to you all the time and tells you that.  He is so excited to meet his little son/daughter.  And from the moment I told him I was pregnant, whenever I have been afraid of what the future may hold, or doubtful of our abilities to care for you, he has been reassuring and supportive, and I can tell how much he cannot wait for you to be a full part of our family.

I feel like I know you so well.  I know that you either love or hate when I shower because you always kick lots when the warm water touches my belly.  You either love or hate movies (and or popcorn).  We went to see TinTin last night and you kicked me the entire time - you do this whenever we go to the theatre.  And you either love or hate church - from early on you kicked me constantly whenever we were there for a service.

And yet at the same time I know so little about you.  I don't know if you will have dark hair like me, or blonde hair like your daddy.  I don't know if your eyes will be blue, or green, or hazel, or brown.  I don't know if you will be born with a full head of hair or barely any.  I don't know what your name will be.  I don't even know if you are a girl or a boy.  But I love you.  I love you so much.  You are a part of me, and you have been for the last nine months.

And I know I will be far from a perfect mother.  But know that I loved you even before I knew you.  And I will continue to love you forever.

I promise you that.

Love always,

Your Mommy.

Our 2012 Canadian baby. Photo taken on January 11, 2012. 39 weeks, 6 days.

Photo taken on January 11, 2012. 39 weeks, 6 days.

A blogging slackface...

...that is what I am, a blogging slackface.

You can ask my sister.  She can attest to that.

You see, I keep thinking of things to blog about.  I have had numerous occasions where my husband has put his foot in his mouth: "I love your bum, it's nice and jiggly", or "I can't roll you over, you are too heavy".

And I have had some good cooking experiences and some bad cooking experiences.  But, I have just been putting it off.  I like blogging, though, so I thought I would write a new post today.

First, I shall start with the bad one (I will try to upload photos when I get my camera hooked up to my computer).

#1 - The Pannycake incident

A couple of Sunday nights ago I decided that we should have pancakes for supper.  I was tired and hungry, and didn't feel like cooking a lot.  But I also decided that I should try a new pancake recipe. I perused the web, focusing primarily on my two favourite food blogs: PW and annies-eats.net. 

And finally, I found one!  PW had a recipe for the Perfect Pancakes!  Perfect Pancakes, I thought, how can I screw these up?  I have cooked much more challenging things, and these will be the best pancakes I have ever tasted! 

Boy, was I ever wrong.

I was so excited to have pancakes, I heated up my griddle, and started pouring things into my mixing bowl.  I thought I did it perfectly.  But instead of looking like Pioneer Woman's batter:

Pioneer Woman's batter - her picture, not mine - please don't sue me.

it kind of looked like this:

Again, not my picture - I don't know whose picture this is - please don't sue me. I had to fix the exhaust in my car, I have zero  monies for you to sue me.

This picture doesn't even do it justice though.  It was just awful and lumpy and expanded and risen, and everything you don't want in pancake batter (I took a picture of how awful it was, I will try to update it later).

But, since I didn't have anything else to have for supper, I plopped that batter/dough stuff onto the griddle and hoped for the best. Well, it was far from Perfect Pancakes, and it was far from the best pancakes.  To be honest, I would have been better using a mix.  My dear husband pretended to like one, but as soon as I said I wasn't going to dare stuffing another one of those gross things in my mouth, I think I heard a sigh of relief from him. 

They turned out kind of like biscuit, pancake, thick, needs 2 cups of maple syrup to taste remotely good type things.  And maple syrup is expensive, y'all.

I will also try to update a picture of those gross pannycakes later.

I think the issue with it was that there should only be 3 tsp of baking powder in the recipe, BUT I might just be deflecting because of my embarassment at failing at making pancakes.

#2 - The Cookies
So this weekend I decided we should make some valentine cookies.  I was also going to make whoopie pies, bread, and all sorts of other delectable treats - but the cookies are the only ones that ended up taking place.  Maybe I will talk about my dissapointed with the other things later, but for now it is COOKIE TIME!

Dave reluctantly helped me make these cookies.  Dave doesn't have a very large sweet tooth.  He complains when things are too rich and he didn't want me to get him any candy or chocolate to put in his stocking at Christmas (I thought this was very selfish, and so I filled his stocking with candy anyways - because we both know that I get to eat half of his candy and if he doesn't get any candy at all I lose out!).  I think the man is ludicrous.  But anyways, he ended up helping me make these cookies.  Surprise, surprise it is another PW recipe.  I chose this one because it looked simple, I had all the ingredients at my parents house (where we were), and I like chocolate AND Valentine's Day.

Again - not the cookies I made.  These are PW's.  I made the same kind of cookies.  Stop threatening to sue me for stealing her pictures!  All credit goes to her!

I don't have any pictures of the ones I made, and I didn't adjust the recipe at all, so I will make this long story short.  They turned out fantastically!  Even hubby likes them.  We decided last night (2 days after making them) that they are not too hard, not too soft, and not too sweet, but not too not sweet.  They were a hit!  I didn't decorate them as nicely as PW did (I actually didn't decorate them at all) but they were great!  If you want a quick, yummy, cookie to make - try these ones!

#3 - Friday night supper

Thanks to my wonderful parents, I got Friday off!  Hubby wasn't scheduled to work Friday (only Saturday), so when he got off work on Thursday night (at 10:00!), we made the trip down to Saint John to my parents house.  We ended up arriving at about midnight.  Friday morning I woke up to help get my sister off to school (although she did a great job doing everything herself), and then I got to sleep in.  But since I had all day to do pretty much nothing, I decided that I would at least make a good supper.  I told my husband that he could choose between taco salad (one of my absolute favourite meals) or a new recipe I had found on Annie's Eats. 

He chose the new recipe, of course. So, I made a quick trip to the grocery store and then set out to make Crispy Baked Chicken with Teriyaki sauce.  Let me preface with the fact that I don't normally like home crispy baked chicken.  It doesn't seem legit to me.  To be honest, chicken is really only crispy in my mind when it is deep fried (but that kind of makes me feel sick).  But I made it anyways.  Because I am cheap, poor, and I don't drink, I didn't use the alcohol that it called for in the teriyaki sauce.  I substituted the sake for rice vinegar, and the mirin for apple juice, and I added some orange zest to the sauce as well, and then I took a whiff of my concoction and almost threw up.  Literally, it smelled kind of like vomit.  I persisted and finished making the recipe, and outfitted the table with lots of other prepackaged sauces to dip the meat in (plum, sweet and sour, etc).

When we sat down to eat, I forwarned my dinner guests (husband and younger sister) about my worries about what I had done to the sauce, and told them to approach with caution - but my younger sister (who is a picky eater) was courageous and tried it and said "this is actually really good Amy".  And then my husband tried it and agreed, and so finally I built up the courage and tried it myself and they were right!  It was phenomenal.  My husband even took the leftovers to work the next day and told me to keep making it!

(He also told me the crispy part of the chicken tasted like shake and bake, which I think was a compliment).

Anyways - those are my adventures for today.  I plan on cooking something for Valentine's day Supper tonight, so if I work up the energy I will take some photos and post them for you!

Have a great valentine's day - I hope you get lots of loving! (in a completely PG appropriate way of course)

ฮันนี่ไก่ไทยถั่วลิสง

orrrr... Thai Honey Peanut Chicken.  For those of us who aren't fluent in Thai.

Last night's yummy supper!
Eaten January 24th, 2011

That is what we had for supper last night - Thai Honey Peanut Chicken.

I had found the recipe a while ago online, and I pretty much love anything with "Thai", "Honey", "Peanut", or "Chicken" in the title.  So when they all came together in a title, I figured I had struck gold!

There was only one problem.

The recipe calls for the chicken to be marinated for two to three hours before cooking.  And, well, you see, I work 8:30-4:30 everyday, and my dear husband works (usually) 9:30-6:00 everyday - and he gets the car.  So, I don't get home until about 6:30 from work everyday, and by then I don't have time to marinate chicken for two to three hours.  If I tried, I am pretty sure my husband would resort to eating his own arm or something.

So, I took the chicken out to start thawing before I went to bed on Sunday night, and made the marinade.   Yesterday morning before leaving for work, I cut the chicken up, re-mixed the marinade and threw the chicken in with it.  So instead of marinating for 2-3 hours, the chicken marinated for about 11.  This fact is somewhat important, because I think it led to some of my problems a little later on in the recipe.

The good thing about marinating it in the morning was that it made a really quick supper when we got home.  I just threw the chicken (and the marinade) into the skillet and cooked it up.  The only issue is that my chicken didn't come out looking perfectly like the chicken in the recipe picture.  Mine looked much darker, almost burnt.

But - don't worry - it wasn't burnt.  The marinade had just gotten lumpy around the chicken and made the chicken look a lot darker.  It also meant that I didn't have all that good sauce to put on my veggies and rice.  Which was kind of lame.

I think there are most likely two reasons for this faut pas.  The first is that I let it marinade longer than I was supposed to.  Luckily, it didn't break down the meat, but it might have done funky things to the sauce.  My second hypothesis is that when I turn my stove on to a setting higher than the lowest - it gets really hot.  And I imagine the pan was too hot and that did funky things to the sauce too.

I also didn't have sesame seeds or chopped cilantro.  So my chicken looks a lot less appetizing than in the recipe picture.

But, let me tell you - it was some good!  I don't like Curry Powder all that much - so I only used the mild stuff - and I could barely taste it!  I think my poor husband was slightly upset that I hadn't used the hot stuff, but I don't have that kind of balls.  So I didn't.

Even though it looks awful and didn't have yummy sauce to go with it, this is definitely a keeper.  I am pretty sure Dave told me four times while he was eating it that he really liked it and wanted to have it again.

Hopefully next time I can try to get it right.

Edit: For those of you like my sister who didn't know the sweet recipe link I put up top (look for the word 'recipe' in blue).  You can also find it here.

Blackheads and other imperfections

I love my husband, I really do.  But he is no Mr. Darcy.

Well, maybe I should say he is a Mr. Darcy.  Think back with me to that first dance, when Bingley tells Darcy he should dance with Elizabeth, and Darcy says:

"She is tolerable, I suppose, but not handsome enough to tempt me; I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men. You had better return to your partner and enjoy her smiles, for you are wasting your time with me."


For those who haven't read the book or seen the movie, this comes back to bite Darcy later.  But the quote sums up my husband pretty well.  Dave is always saying things that are somewhat offensive and yet humorous when he says them, because I know he does not mean to be offensive (or at least I hope).  There was the time he rated me on a scale from 1-10 and then proceeded to rate himself higher than me (in real life and on our wedding day).  And then there was the time he told me I looked really good, but he wasn't really sure why.

Last night was no exception to Dave's daring dialogue.  We were lying in bed reading as we normally do, and then Dave decided to point out a flaw on my nose.

D: What are those dots on your nose?
A: What? I have dots on my nose? (Rushes to look in the mirror only to discover he is speaking of my blackheads)
A: Umm, those are my blackheads
D: Eww, they are gross - can you get rid of them?
A: I could try, but I don't have the right stuff for it.  You know, you have blackheads too.
D: I do? That is disgusting.  But yours are just so, so distracting.  I can't keep my eyes off of them.


I guess I shouldn't be complaining.  At least I have a husband who 'can't keep his eyes off of me'. Ha!