Recipe for Bacon Lettuce and Cherry Tomato Salad with Aioli Dressing

I also managed to get myself pretty sick. Today is the first day that I’m really starting to feel well again, so hopefully I’ll be getting back into the swing of things.

Before we left for Dallas and before we had heard the news about Nana, I had shaved a mohawk into Jude’s hair!

And then after we heard the news, we buzzed it all off since a mohawk didn’t seem like an appropriate hairstyle any longer… So now we have a bald baby that looks like a little man.

The good thing about Jude having no hair is that I can get sunblock on his scalp (since he won’t wear a hat) and food doesn’t get stuck in his hair any longer!

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day that we started dating. 10 years we have been together and we have been through a lot. Many celebrations and many mournings. I am thankful for each day of those ten years, especially the hard days. Those are what have made us who we are and a stronger couple. I’m learning that there is a reason for the pain that we go through as a couple and individually. It is a difficult lesson.

We are heading back to Dallas tonight to spend some time remembering Nana as a family. I think it will do my heart good to remember all of the good times we had with her. To cry and laugh as a family. I need to celebrate her life. I’m hoping that the melancholy that has settled in my household will begin to lift once we return. Until then, you may not hear much from me. If you are of the praying persuasion, I covet your prayers for healing. God hears them all.

One of my favorite descriptions of her was from a good friend of mine who described her as the grandma that she could picture swinging from the chandelier, wine glass in hand. She was always ready for a good time with friends and family. She was well loved and lived a full life but we are going to miss her immensely here. We love you Nana.

1/28/1914 – 7/19/2010

A co-worker gave me the Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp, back before Jude was born and it was by far the most helpful baby book that I read. Granted, I didn’t read many books but Happiest Baby had methods for calming Jude that worked every time. Every. Single. Time. It was amazing. I thoroughly appreciated how middle of the road this book was – it seems to fall in the middle of the parent spectrum which I felt good about. And because we had such great success with Happiest Baby, I used PaperBackSwap to get Happiest Toddler on the Block. I am so glad that I did. As with Happiest Baby, this book breaks everything down in easy to understand language, making the techniques suggested very easy to implement. He does a good job creating scenarios to better explain the methods he suggest. As Jude gets older, I am looking forward to having tools to be able to discipline as situations arise without having to resort to spanking. Click this to see a demonstration of his techniques as modeled on Good Morning America. I am still planning on reading a few other books on discipling toddlers, like Parenting with Love and Logic, but I am glad to have read this book as a good base to continue to learn about parenting. 9/10

I finally finished up June’s book club book, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and I have to say, books like this are the reason I am part of a book club. I would not have picked up this book on my own, but I was excited when it was suggested to be one of the classics that we read. This book has been mentioned in so many other books that we have read, like Reading Lolita in Tehran, that I was glad to have a reason to make it a priority for reading. I didn’t get to attend the book club that discussed this book because I was out of town and I’m sad I missed it. I would have liked to discuss this one in a group, but I’ll settle for talking about it on the blog. It surprised me how much easier this book was to read than I had anticipated. There were certainly parts that I know I didn’t understand because of the difference in cultures and speech, but overall, I felt like I was excited to read the book every time I had the opportunity to pick it up. 9/10

Now for this month’s book club book, The Host by Stephanie Meyer. I know. I know. Stephanie Meyer wrote the Twilight series. . . I almost didn’t want to like this book because of that fact. I have sworn to myself that I will not get sucked in to the Twilight phenomenon and I almost felt like I was giving in a little by reading this book. I mean, I’ve read Ann Rice’s vampire books in the past, not to mention all of the R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike and Stephen King. . . all in that same genre of reading. I don’t know that I want to spend any more of my time reading books like that! This book is not associated with Twilight at all – where Twilight is a young adult novel, The Host is certainly written for adults. It’s about an alien invasion where the aliens take over human bodies and continue to live in society, making the world a more benign place. I didn’t anticipate getting so wrapped up in this story, but I found myself reaching for this book every time I had a spare moment. Meyer is a fantastic story teller even if there were elements of the story that I found a little predictable. Especially the ‘love’ part of the story. . . Overall, a fun sci-fi read. I enjoyed turning my brain off and not having to work to read and enjoy this book. 7.5/10

Here’s what I came up with:

Cute right? I thought so. All it took was cutting off the top of the pillow case, cutting the arm holes, hemming the arm holes and creating a casing for the ribbon to run through on the top. Then I tried it on, marked where I wanted some runching and sewed three lines of elastic thread through the waist.

Too bad pillowcases don’t fit over my hips! Thank you childbearing. Lesson learned here: pillowcases do not make good tops for adults! I tried to add some slits to make it fit but the slits would have to go up too high to work. Other lesson learned? I wanted to attempt this again as both a top and a dress. Lots of potential here!

Recipe for Grilled Chicken and Peaches with Chipotle Peach Dressing

We are thoroughly amused that his front teeth are taking their time to grow in and both of his side teeth are already in. Who told this kid about the vampire trend that is taking TV and books by storm? I am not thoroughly amused that sometimes he tries to bite me with them. And no. I’m not joking. While trying to chill him out before bed, sometimes he will lay his head on my shoulder and act like he’s going to sleep. Then he will turn his head into my neck and try and bite. . . when I pull him away he just giggles at me.

Oh child.

I don’t generally consider myself a trendy dresser. I tend to try and purchase items that are going to last me more than one season and I’m slow to adopt any ‘current’ styles. This season though, I’ve been seeing a lot of those tank dresses around and tons of tutorials for them. Since I worked in an office pre-child, I really never bought many shorts and now that summer is most definitely in full swing I’m getting a little hot wearing jeans every day. Enter simple tank dress. Nice and cool. No need for a strapless bra. A throw it on and go type of style. The very reason I adore dresses.

Since I am still being very cautious on where we spend our money, I decided to try and and replicate one at home using items I already had. The only thing I bought was some wide elastic for the waist. I referenced a couple of tutorials to guide me, but really kinda made it up as I went along.

The tank top was one I bought years ago while I was still interning and it shrank up just short enough that it’s annoying to wear. I have a policy in my closet: if I haven’t worn it in a year, it gets given away. Well, I decided to give this one away until I considered repurposing it for a better use. So it lived in my sewing room until yesterday.

The skirt fabric is one that I bought on clearance awhile ago without any purpose because I loved it so much. It’s a sheer black with white embroidered flowers. Very fun. Because it was sheer, I lined the skirt with some black cotton.

I am really happy with how it turned out and that it only took one nap time to complete! Although, in my head it looked more casual that it ended up turning out. I think it looks more dressy than I thought it would. I guess I’ll just have to make another one with a ribbed tank top for a more casual look and next time I’m adding pockets!