It's heating up here big time and our menu is reflecting the temperatures. Thank goodness for that A/C unit in our bedroom. It's already begun to save my life some. How was everyone's 4th of July week? Ours was such a busy week and I got all turned upside down with my days of the week. Suddenly it felt like the weekend but yet, I was still trudging through a work week...rather begrudgingly too, I might add.

This week we're having some company over! Josh's siblings will be coming over for dinner one night because my in-laws are out of town for their anniversary and then our friends Jared and Karen, whom we stayed with in San Francisco are coming over for dinner Friday night! I'm super excited to see them...which reminds me, I really need to email Karen back, lol!

Happy 4th of July Week! I love any holiday that makes all the banks close which  means I get more time with my hubby. Of course, I also love it because it stands for our Country's freedom. But to be honest, I'm not a huge 4th of July person. I like the decorations and any excuse to have a BBQ, but it's not a holiday I get super stoked about celebrating. I know, I'm such a downer right? Okay, I'm not a huge firework person. When I was little, we would go down to my family's beach cabin every year and celebrate the 4th there and watch their really cool firework show. It's the best firework show on the Oregon Coast and I got excited about that one. But to be honest, I get kind of bored sitting around watching the little fireworks sputter and blast loud annoying sounds. I would rather spend my money on fun foodie ingredients, lol!

This week, I'm feeling better. I actually got out of the house yesterday (Sunday) and probably over did it a little bit. My back behind my rib hurts today, which is making everything a bit more painful, but I made the bed and put the clean dishes away and Josh got mad at me for that, because, Man, those plates are heavy! But I'm not stuck in bed anymore. Well, I'm sitting in bed now, because the pillows are propped up against my back and it helps alleviate some of the pressure. But I got a lot accomplished for me in this condition this weekend.

The weather is still somewhat cool here, High 60's low 70's. But by Wednesday, it's heating up, so I planned my menu accordingly to the weather. And Yes, I do plan to attempt to get back in the kitchen and make dinner. Grace, will be my sous chef though. I think this whole thing has been good for her; teaching her more responsibility and to really help out a lot more around the house, which she is more than happy to do, bless her heart.

I had a fabulous menu all planned. I had been working on it all week. It was going to be a diverse and exciting menu of new dinners I had yet to make before. I was excited. Did you notice the key word there..."WAS" yeah, I was excited. Now...I'm hung up in bed with a rib fracture. Oh, lucky me!

How the heck did a rib fracture happen you may be wondering? Well, it's kind of a not so funny story. Unfortunately, I can't I defended the honor of anyone close to me or did any kind of heroine act. Nope, what happened to me was I just coughed, sneezed, and blew my nose to the point where my body said, nope...can't take this abuse any longer and decided to give out on me.

You may remember that I mentioned that I was suffering from this awful cough that's been going around. Thursday morning, (last week) I woke up fine and dandy coughing up a storm as usual. I got dressed and walked downstairs, reached for the cereal box and OUCH! I was suddenly overcome with this excruciating pain, so bad, I could cry! I thought it would go away, but I woke up the following morning and the pain was still there. So I did what any girl would do. I called my Mommy to whine and complain and it was her that suggested that maybe I pulled a muscle or cracked a rib and that if I was in so much pain, I should call my dr., so begrudgingly I did. I was able to see a very sweet midwife who told me that she thought it could be a fracture and gave me antibiotics to help get rid of the cough and Tylenol with Codeine so I could sleep at night. However, if this doesn't get better, they want to do an x-ray of my chest and lungs, UGH!!! REALLY?!

So I was told to take it easy and not do a whole lot because they don't want the rib or the cough aggravated because it could slow down the healing time. Josh is of course taking this to a whole new level. He's allowing me to lay in bed or walk around downstairs and do a few things around the house, but that's it. So...I'm laying in bed, writing this right now. I just finished my soap opera and the good news is, I actually finished my coffee without reheating my coffee once!!! And so far, I haven't had to many coughing fits. Dare I hope that my cough is slowly going away??

As far as the menu goes, Josh did all the grocery shopping yesterday and DID NOT follow my list at all. Instead, he picked up some things that would allow him to cook some easy dinners for the week. My hope is that next week, I will be back with a menu and functioning a little bit better and able to cook and bake.

XOXO
Chels

I have to apologize for not posting last week. I had every intention of posting. In fact, I had several posts ready to go. I just never got around to it. You can blame it on my pregnancy hormones, this cough I'm STILL battling, and now...drum roll please....allergies have been thrown into the mix! I'm just a ball of fun right now.

Despite that fact that I'm still dealing with all of the above, I'm not going to let it get in the way this week. Grace is back home from her week of camping and Eden has her buddy back. So all is good in my world again. I have both my babes under my roof and that makes me a happy mommy, even if I look and feel miserable, I promise, there is happiness bursting inside me.

Last week, I had typed up our menu for the week. Would you believe we only ended up cooking one of those nights? Something came up every night and we were either given food or had the opportunity to be with family. So we only had one family dinner around the dinner table. I got a week off, so I'm not complaining, lol!

This is not my typical week in the kitchen. Grace has left today to go camping for the week with my parents and like I've said many times in the past, cooking without her, isn't fun. So Josh and I are trying to plan easy nights, because we don't want to make a ton of food. That being said, this week is also a little up and down. Josh has a dinner meeting Wednesday night, so it's just going to be me and Edie and I have no idea what to make or what my craving will be for that night.

I guess this should be preparing me for when Grace and Eden leave me to go camping for another week with my parents. Josh and I are already freaking out slightly about what we're going to do with ourselves. For 8 years, we've always has our babies with us, except for a few weeks here and there in the past when it was just Grace and Josh and I went on a few vacations without her. But we've never been without both kids for more than a night. I don't know what to do! I feel like I should be celebrating being childless for a week, but for me, it's kind of lonely. Other than going to the gym while it's still light out, I'm not sure what I'll do to occupy myself during the day. At least Josh has to go to work. I'm a stay at home mom...so where does that leave me? I guess I could go shopping one day. But, that's not to exciting, and because it's going to be full on summer when they are both gone, I can't do a lot of baking or cooking (unless it's a lot of no bake) because we don't have air conditioning...well except in our bedroom. I'm going to have to find some activities to keep myself entertained with I guess. Any suggestions? I don't want to do anything to fun because I know I'll just want to share it with Josh. Sooo, what's a pregnant girl to do with herself?