Andrew Kevin Barnes

Ok, I know... my last post was in August. Sorry. I would say it's been crazy around here, but it hasn't... just me adjusting to a continually changing schedule :) Speaking of which, Andrew is trying to wake up from a nap so instead of posting his birth story I'll just post photos for now. Birth story coming soon...

James held Andrew while they finished my surgery (yes, I had a c-section, no it wasn't planned, no it wasn't the scary emergency kind)


James & Titi, our midwife, who scrubbed into surgery after 20 hours with us...



James feeding Andrew so I could sleep for a little while.




First family photo outside of the OR!



One of my favorite photos of Andrew!




Beautiful eyes :)



First sponge bath @ home.




Love this photo... chillin' with Daddy in Aunt Grace's shirt :)




I love my boys!!!

Menu Monday... on Tuesday

I've been told by several people (midwives, birthing class teacher/coach, etc.) that I need to be eating a lot of protein right now. More protein and less sugar. Oh boy! So, in an effort to get my husband eating better, me eating more in line with what the experts suggest, setting myself up for being able to lose "an undisclosed amount of" baby and whacked-out-thyroid weight once this sweet boy is born, and being more diligent to stay on track with my grocery budget, I have recommitted myself to planning our meals weekly and shopping for only what I actually need. Mission: clean out the freezer/pantry, save money and calories while feeding the baby what he actually needs.

A few of my blogging friends post their weekly dinner plans with some of the recipes and I always find it interesting and educational... so here's my version :)

PS - Lunches consist of leftovers and salad (goal being a combination of some raw and some cooked veggies every day).

Last week:
Monday - Roast Chicken, baked potatoes, salad
Tuesday - Crock-pot BBQ chicken, broccoli, homemade whole wheat rolls
Wednesday - Chicken Tacos
Thursday - eat out
Friday - Steak, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Saturday - Taco Salad

This week:
Monday - Chicken Spaghetti
Tuesday - Pesto Chicken, organic whole-grain Texmati rice, green beans
Wednesday - leftovers (James has Open House at school)
Thursday - Sally's Meat Loaf, broccoli
Friday - leftovers or eat out
Saturday lunch with my Dad - homemade whole-wheat pizza

I've also decided to start making all of our bread (cheaper and no high fructose corn syrup!) and to not have dessert stored in the house. Any baking I do will be taste-tested here and then shared with James' school faculty or friends/neighbors :) James and I both really like yogurt parfaits with frozen blueberries and granola, so that will be our go-to for dessert.

Today I made chicken stock with the carcasses of several chickens I've been saving in the freezer for the past couple of months - it was surprisingly easy and made the rice for tonight's dinner so yummy!

Crock Pot BBQ Chicken - dump a package of boneless/skinless chicken thighs into the crock pot. Cover with favorite BBQ sauce and a few Tbsp water. Add A1, Worchestershire, etc, if you're feeling creative. Cook for several hours, stirring about once per hour, until chicken is done. If anyone does this and figures out how long it actually takes, let me know :)

Sally's Meatloaf - just an ordinary meatloaf recipe... kicked up with horseradish. It's yummy... try it!

Pesto Chicken - I recreated this recipe after having it for dinner at my friend Jamie's house. Bake chicken breasts (boneless/skinless) with 1 Tbsp pesto on top of each (covered with foil, usually takes about 40 min at 350 degrees if they aren't crowded in the dish). Top with one slice mozzarella cheese and return to oven, uncovered, for 3-5 min to melt cheese.

Bon apetit!

Baby Shower!

My awesome Mom threw a double baby shower for me and my sister-in-law, Jenn, this past weekend. It was so good to see some family & high school friends, meet some of her church friends, and spend time with her, Grace, Jenn, and George! It was a fantastic weekend and a really fun party :) Here are some of the photos:

Aunt Grace, Aunt Jenn, me, & Mom


Fresh summer fruit and Turkey Hill iced tea - YUM!


Mom found fabric several years ago that says "Aunt Grace" all over it... she bought a fat quarter and has been saving it all this time! She is so thoughtful!


Melissa Ciacci made us portable-high-chairs. She took the pattern from one that her grandmother made her when she delivered Olivia! It fits on the back of a regular chair and ties around the waist of the baby to secure him in the chair. Great for friends' houses or restaurants without high chairs, and for using in the high chair instead of the clips :)



Poppy sent us beautiful silk scarves. I only have two photos of us with them - one I look weird in and the other Jenn looks weird in. So I posted the one I look weird in. Good thing the scarves are beautiful to make up for my weird face!




Mom's friend Ruth got back from a trip to Montana the day before the shower. Among several other gifts, she brought these shirts - they say "My First Montana T-Shirt." I promise to post photos of Baby Barnes wearing it when he comes!


Rebecca's mom, Laurie Hasselhan, is so thoughtful - she sent over a toy wagon with lots of baby toiletries and cow-boy themed items! I will definitely have to post photos of Baby Barnes wearing the boots, onsies, & pants, and playing with the wagon and toy horse! There's also a book about a new baby sheep on a farm and the proud daddy sheep gets to show off his new son - Mrs. Hasselhan knows me so well!



Wanda Stober picked out the cutest little space outfit. It has little spaceships and aliens all over it, and the feet are alien heads with little antennas!



Penny Mears gave us a little laundry basket full of baby items - one of them is a board book about Courderoy. I've never read the Courderoy books before, but this one is so sweet I might have to go buy the others!






Grace made a Curious George baby quilt for Jenn and George's baby out of a cloth book pattern. She sewed in the names of the animals when she quilted it! She's so crafty :) :) :)


This is the baby quilt Aunt Grace made - the dinosaur is fantastic! She's so crafty and makes such beautiful things!




Jenn did a bunch of sewing for my son - this is the sweet blanket she made :) Aunt Jenn is so sweet!



Mom made such beautiful baby quilts for us. Gramma Frank loves these babies so much already! Thanks, Mom, for a fun party and a great weekend! I love you!

Reality Check

I got a reality check earlier this week when I went to visit Aunt Cathi, Uncle Nathan, and Crystal (more about this visit coming soon, with photos :). Crystal has an adorable new puppy. Well, he's not really a puppy because he's 3 years old, but he's the size of a puppy.

Bentley is a 2.5 lb teacup poodle. I have decided that 2.5 lb is actually remarkably big. I now think that an 8 lb baby must be much bigger than a 2.5 lb dog and I'm starting to get nervous. I can imagine giving birth to something the size of Bentley, but unfortunately that would be a very unhealthy baby. How do I sign up for a 3-week-early-but-still-healthy-6-pound-baby?

Blueberry Syrup

On Wednesday morning I went blueberry picking at Moorehead's Blueberry Farm with a couple of friends from church and their adorable kids :) I picked 4.25 pounds in a little over an hour (between playing peek-a-boo with the kids and pulling branches down for them to reach). I'm going again on Sunday with the Mayers for a Father's Day outing for Nathan and the girls :) Those berries will become a pie/cobbler for a women's dinner I'm hosting next week, and the rest will be frozen for use later this year...

.... but the berries from Wednesday.... that's another story :)



They became Blueberry Syrup! I invited myself over to Kathy's house to share her canning equipment while her kids were napping. We used this recipe (the low sugar variation)... It came out beautifully dark, a little thicker than I anticipated (which was good - one little stir and it loosened right up and then clung very nicely to the pancakes!), and flavorful without being overly sweet. The first batch we made smooth and the second batch we added whole berries at the end. With the whole berries we also added lemon zest instead of just the juice... I haven't tried that jar yet, but the lemon was unnoticeable in the smooth syrup so next time I'd probably add zest to that one too - I think I'd like the added brightness of lemon flavor.

This is one of the cooking blogs I read semi-regularly... she's been experimenting in freezer jam and mentioned adding lime to black raspberry preserves. That sounds fantastically delicious too so I might have to try lime instead of lemon in the future!



But for the first attempt, following the recipe was definitely successful!

25 Weeks - All Healthy!

Yesterday we had our follow-up ultrasound to check out the parts of Baby Barnes that the ultrasound technician couldn't see effectively at the 20 week appointment.

He's grown so much in 5 weeks! This I already knew, though, based on his movement... much stronger, more varied, and in many new places :) The ultrasound was awesome - we got to see him moving his arms and legs, watch his heart beat, check out his kidneys and other internal organs, and look at his face! He started to fall asleep at one point and had his hand resting across his nose - we needed a photo of his nose and lips, so the technician poked and jiggled my belly until he moved his arm away. It was amazing to see how much bigger he is and to be able to see movement at the same time as feeling it :)

We got to meet the 3rd of the four midwives - Theodora. She is SUCH a sweet lady! The first thing she said after coming in the exam room was "You have a beautiful baby!" How could I not like her?!? :)

Conclusion - we're both healthy and doing great!

Weekend fun!

This past weekend, four of my five best friends from High School came to visit me! Laura, Kim, and Amy flew down from PA & DE, and Rebecca and her husband Kevin drove down from TN. Jessica got stuck in DC and couldn't make it :( Boo for the courts giving her funky deadlines for legal documents! We missed you, Jess!

After picking the girls up from the airport, we drove down to Galveston Island for the day. It was really windy, which was a thankful relief from the heat!





After our picnic lunch we headed off to a museum and took a look at the historic ship, Elissa (a "tall ship").







Then we went walking around the historic downtown and did some window shopping. There were markers in some of the stores, and on the pier by the Elissa, showing water levels for various hurricanes. Ike (2008) was the highest mark, second only to the tragic hurricane in 1900 (after which the entire island was raised and the sea-wall was built.)


Amy's dad has a love affair with Hawaiian shirts... this photo's for you, Mr. Zieser!


After watching a short video about the tragic 1900 hurricane, we headed back to Sea Wall Boulevard for some fantastic seafood from Casey's (which is apparently a sister restaurant to Gaido's, which is James' favorite :)


The shrimp atop Casey's. Gaido's has a crab, but we didn't get a photo of that...


After dinner we went wading in the surf. It was MUCH cooler at dusk and the water was amazingly warm. A beautiful end to a great day on the island!



The rest of the weekend included a trip to the Chocolate Bar, Tin Roof Barbecue, Chuy's Mexican Restaurant, and Hobby Lobby, interspersed with Rock Band and card/board games (Time's Up, Yahtzee, Say Anything). We made breakfast tacos on Saturday morning, homemade pizza for dinner Saturday night, and enjoyed baked goods from my friend Kathy on Sunday morning. Kathy's husband, Dirk, preached Sunday morning and we were encouraged and challenged by scripture's description of our union with Christ (Colossians 2).











What a great weekend!

You Might be Pregnant If...

Your stomach starts growling and instead of it being right below your sternum, it's strangely somewhere several inches to the right, behind your ribs.

Your belly is now the easiest place to feel your pulse (thank you increased blood volume flowing to that area...)

You can go to the bathroom at any given moment of the day (or night)

Every time you meet someone new (or see the end credits of a movie) you have a discussion about whether this new name would fit your child

Your back hurts when you lie on your back, your hips hurt when you lie on your side, and... well... you just can't lie on your stomach.

You are suddenly the most important person in the discussion of where to go for dinner :) :) :)

You feel like an alien in your own body (not that all the goings on are bad/uncomfortable... they're just way different than what you're accustomed to!) - thanks, Mom, for that analogy - I haven't heard a better one yet!

That's All, Folks!

Well, yesterday I turned in my keys to the Band Hall at Pin Oak. After five years, I'm no longer a Middle School Band Director. It's a strange combination of relief, excitement, regret (at what else I could have done while I was there), and nostalgia. It's been such a strange/funny/weird/bizarre experience working with middle school kids that as I walked out of the building I really wanted to hear the end music of Looney Toons with a big "That's All, Folks!" I'm such a nerd...


Things I'm looking forward to this summer:
*Re-organizing furniture & setting up the baby stuff
*Having a garage sale
*Sewing baby room stuff and hopefully living room curtains
*Fruit picking and canning (peaches and blueberries first!)
*Regularly listening to symphonic music (Rimsky-Korsokov today :)
*Attending an entire Adult Sunday School series for the first time in 5 years!
*Eating produce from my little garden (LOTS of tomatoes today!)
*Finishing Kodaly class & certification!
*Visitors!!! Laura/Amy/Beck/Kim/Jess in June, and Laura/Sarah in August :)
*Visiting Mom & George/Jenn & having a double baby shower :)
*Quality time with James: walking, scripture reading, getting ready for baby
*NOT spending 2 weeks in the car for our annual road trip (I'll miss seeing people, but not the time in the car!!!)
*Scrap-booking shower for Shauna
*AIR CONDITIONING

Yesterday I took a bath and while I was sitting there enjoying the warm water, Baby Barnes started moving and I could see my belly move!

Last week a few of James' students gave him baby gifts. One night he got home really late from a school function and I had already gone to bed. He was SO EXCITED about the baby gift (a super cute pair of cargo shorts and ADORABLE little sweater vest) that he came in and woke me up to show me! He was so cute :) And another couple of kids got a 3 month t-shirt that says "My Dad is the World's Greatest Statistics Teacher." Gotta love those gifted and talented high school students :)

I would be remiss to not mention how thankful I am for the all of the service men and women (and their families) for their service to our country, especially this Memorial Day Weekend. Frustration with the political issues at hand put aside, this really is a pretty great place to live. THANK YOU to all of our family members and friends who have served in the armed forces!

It's a Boy!

Technology sure is an amazing thing! This afternoon we not only found out Baby Barnes is a boy, but we got to see all sorts of neat bodily development too!

We watched his heart beating - we could see all four chambers! That was totally unexpected and really cool :)

He had one arm behind his head most of the time - he looked so comfortable just hangin' out! I was a little disappointed in how little movement we saw because he was very active in the car on the way over to the office, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless:) We got to see him opening and closing his mouth and we could see his stomach (which is good because it means his is able to swallow). His spine was very visible, and when the technician zoomed in on his arms we could see both tiny little bones! We also saw fingers, feet, ribs, thighs, and a nice plump belly (it matches mine :P ) and the placenta.

What an amazing thing the human body is! The intricacy is just incredible!!! What an awesome God we serve... creation bears witness to his glory and power and certainly also his lovingkindness!!!

Baby movement

I'll make a bigger post on Monday after we've been to see the midwives for our 20 week appointment... I'm so excited to see the ultrasound!

I just have to say, though, that feeling the baby move has to be one of the coolest, most amazing (and weirdest) feelings ever. Last night James and I watched North by Northwest (which was fantastic, obviously) and an hour-long documentary on Carey Grant's career (which was also really interesting) so we were up about 3 hours later than normal. The baby was moving so much! I wonder whether I've been sleeping through the most active times. Lots of movement as I'm sitting here typing... feels like somersaults, although I have a hard time imagining how that would actually work.

I can't wait to see the baby on the ultrasound on Monday! Emily, a friend from school (who is due 3 days before I am), went on Tuesday for her 20 week ultrasound and she said it was cool to see her baby moving - a lot more movement than she could even feel at this point! She said it was amazing to see family traits already - she has Emily's long fingers and when she went to sleep, she laid her hand across her forehead just like Emily's mom does!

It's so exciting to share this experience with other Christian women - what an amazing God we serve!

Hands-free touching

About a week and a half ago I started feeling baby movement. It was very exciting, but very sporadic, and most of the time I wasn't sure I was feeling baby or intestinal movement. When I say sporadic I mean that I would feel the same thing two or three times in quick succession and then never again, and then another different movement two or three times maybe 12 hours later or maybe not for a day or two.

Well... I'm pretty sure I felt the baby moving all day yesterday. I think I was getting kicked! It felt like a little tap-tap-tap very low in my pelvis a little on the left side.

It's a very strange concept to have an entirely different person growing completely enclosed within my body. It's kind of Star Trek or Men In Black - ish. Could anybody other than God have come up with this system? It's pretty amazing.

Pretty amazing and certainly educating! I'm having to learn how to touch and feel without my hands. Every time I feel movement below my belly button my impulse is to put my hand on my belly... except that usually makes the baby stop moving. So instead of reaching out and touching with my fingers, which has been the norm for all 28 years of my life, I'm trying to learn how to touch and feel with the inside of my belly. It's not part of my body that I'm accustomed to thinking about as a "sensory input" area, but it's exciting to learn!

What an adventure!







Update - I think I've just had the first "touch-communication" with the baby... a small press against the lower left side of the belly resulted in a relatively large movement on the upper right side! And then we did it again! So cool!!!

18 weeks on my 28 birthday!

Thanks, Grace, for the cute birthday shirt! I got lots of compliments on the flower and buttons :) And thanks, Mom, for the birthday skirt(s)! So comfortable....

James took me to the Houston Symphony last night to see Berlioz's Symphanie Fantastique. It was pretty fantastic! I got a workout jogging through downtown trying to make it there on time (left the wedding a few minutes late then got stuck in traffic for some sort of festival downtown, then had to park really far away... pregnant lady in heels jogging across the street after climbing 3 flights of stairs must be pretty funny to see...! So thankful we made it in time!)



The first half was a guest pianist (Simon Trpceski) who was incredible... he played Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, which totally blew us away. He got a standing ovation for about 6 minutes straight and then came out and played two encore pieces! The first time back out he sat down and thought for a minute and then turned to the audience and said "It seems like the whole world is celebrating the anniversary of Chopin," and the audience let out this delighted little sigh/giggle. Out of however many hundreds of pieces the man knew, he chose to play a "little waltz that [he] learned when [he was] 6 or 7 years old." It was so sweet to watch him play this piece that was a perfectly nice little waltz but was obviously one of his favorites. There's something about learning a piece as a child that makes it feel precious to you - it was so sweet to hear him play it!

And then, of course, Symphonie Fantastique was... well... fantastique! I've never seen it live before - the third movement calls for FOUR timpani players! They shared two sets of three drums and it really sounded like thunder!!! The two harps were also pretty cool, and the off-stage oboe solist was a neat effect. Then in the fourth movement (March to the Scaffold), which is my favorite, the snare drum is apparently revolutionary because it hadn't been used in orchestra before, and he wrote for 2 tubas (well, the tuba's predecessor), which was also revolutionary. And movement 5 (Witches' Dance in Hell) was super spectacular with two timpanists, two antiphonal bass drums (one on either side of the stage), and orchestral chimes (also revolutionary) off stage that were so tall the guy had to climb a ladder to play them. It was spectacular! Definitely one of the best concerts I've ever been to!

So I told James that once our kids are grown and we have money again I want season tickets :-P We'll see if he remembers in 30 years...

Buttermilk Biscuits and Strawberry Jam

Last week Kathy Littlefield and I made strawberry jam. Actually, Kathy made it and I helped. The strawberries are so red that if I was served them in a sauce or jam at a restaurant I would assume there was food coloring in them! And SO SWEET! Anyway, I was inspired to make buttermilk biscuits to go with the jam :) (btw, Kathy has also made jalapeno jelly and orange marmalade, among other delicious things. I'm going to start inviting myself over to her house more often...)

Buttermilk Biscuits - recipe found in Fannie Farmer Cookbook. It's the same as a Baking Powder Biscuit recipe, but cut the powder in half and add 1/4 of that new amount of baking soda, substituting buttermilk for regular milk (ex - 4 Tbsp powder becomes 2 Tbsp powder plus 1/2 Tbsp soda).

In lieu of a food processor or pastry knife, I used a whisk to combine the shortening/butter with the flour/dry ingredients. It worked pretty well, although if your recipe calls for cold butter this would be difficult. Hopefully I'll get a food processor at some point in my life!



Then, after adding the buttermilk, the recipe instructs you to knead the dough 14 times (folding it over on itself to make the layers that become flaky buttery goodness). 14 times worked pretty well the first time I made them - they rose nicely and were fairly flaky. But when I made them yesterday morning they didn't rise as much and were kind of lumpy. Right around 10 folds the texture of the dough started to change. My plan for next time is to fold the dough until the texture starts to change and then stop, whenever that is.



I used a square cookie cutter yesterday. I was excited that it wasted less dough, so you have fewer "lump biscuits" with the trimmings, and more of them fit on the pan because there was less wasted space. I know, I'm a nerd, but it was exciting to me nonetheless.






I packaged some of them up to take to my friend Amy in the hospital who just delivered her baby Thursday morning. She was induced at 7, had an epidural shortly after 9, and baby Holton was born at 9:15 (before the epidural took effect... oh boy!). Amy's doing GREAT, baby Holton is adorable, and the two older sisters are already calling him "my baby" and doting on him! Poor daddy has less hair than the baby, lol :) Congratulations Shale and Amy!








I also took some to Kathy, for her to try with the strawberry jam. Her husband, Dirk, appreciated the square biscuits for the same space-saving qualities that I did. Thanks, Dirk, for not thinking I'm crazy!





Enjoy :) :) :)