For the Love

It's officially Valentine's Day in this Pacific Northwest state.  And so I am baking Jeremy's favorite dessert:  raspberry coffee cake.  And my house smells like really hot fat.  Not so good. 

See, Monday I made a pinterest recipe.  Because I had invited one of my counselors to come over and visit, and who needs a better excuse to make a deliciously decadent dessert?  Not me.  In fact, I made two of them...  Frozen hot chocolate (supposed to be copycat of Serendipity's in New York City).  It was bomb.  A keeper.  (I had to go to my mom's to 'borrow' ice.  We just don't keep ice here, and so I recently gave away my ice trays.  No room in the freezer anyway.  I'm thinking I'm going to regret that decision since I want to dream of making that frozen hot chocolate again and again.  The recipe is here, if you need it like I do ;).  Takes a little effort, but worth it.).  Anyway, like I was saying...  So I also made this recipe.  Chocolate chip cookie pie.  Oh my goodness.  It was rich.  Well, the thing calls for 3 sticks of butter.  Three.  Mixed with a few other ingredients and all in a deep-dish pie shell.  3 sticks of butter.  (Which is why I probably won't make it again, even though it was sinfully good).  And during the baking process, those 3 sticks of butter sort of overflowed.  Thankfully, I had lined the bottom of the oven with foil (saves scrubbing any messes in the oven later on).  Horrifically, I forgot to pull out the butter-coated foil before heating up the oven.  Twice.  For dinner tonight (taco pie -- yum) and now for Valentine's Day dessert (which will probably be Jeremy's breakfast ;)).  Oy.  So now my house smells again, after it was starting to wear off.  Boo.  And so I have the sliding door open - in Washington in February.  Thank goodness for my nice fleece Alabama blanket :).  It's keeping me toasty. 

I love my husband, though, so it's worth it :).  To make him his favorite treat for a day of love.  (Oh, and if you're wondering about that pie...  We ate about a quarter of it between us, and then I took it to the funeral home.  Saved us from eating about 2.25 sticks of butter ;)).

Today I took sweet Desiree out for her frozen yogurt birthday treat.  She turned 8 yesterday.  8.  Oh it's unbelievable.  Two years ago I took her to McDonald's.  How did she get so big?!?  I picked her up at school and we headed to BluBerry.  She'd never been, so it was a new experience for her.  She sampled the tart yogurt (which she surprisingly liked!) and the sea salt caramel pretzel (which she didn't like at all).  And she decided on some chocolate, vanilla, tart, and mango!  She's so funny.  And she topped it with chocolate caramel pieces, those pastel mints shaped like chocolate chips, strawberries, possibly some m&ms, and some marshmallow creme.  I'm always amazed at the mixture kids choose.  But she was thrilled with it, so that's all that matters.  Afterwards, we went to the Dollar Tree to get supplies for her birthday party -- beads for bracelets, flowers for the hats, and plates and napkins.  And then she went with me to Costco.  She is such a sweet girl.  She was just so happy and so pretty.  Sigh.  I still can't believe she's 8. 

And no post these days would be complete without some mention of my expanding stomach.  Haha...  Today (well, yesterday) was 26 weeks.  So I took the picture.  And let me say:  I meant to take it while I was still in my regular clothes.  But I forgot until after I was in my jammies; so there ya go!

It's funny, because I still don't see the difference day to day.  I just know I can't button any of my regular pants and have outgrown one of my church skirts.  I think I expected that my stomach would start to feel alien to me -- as thought it was something extra that suddenly appeared, and I'd bump into everything with it.  But that hasn't happened.  I barely notice it, really, as it gets bigger.  Just in the clothes.  I feel the baby a lot more, which means baby has gotten bigger and stronger.  My next milestone doctor appointment is the one where I have to drink that icky sugar stuff (the gestational diabetes test).  I'm dreading it, because I think I will hear bad news, with the way I love sugar and carbs.  Recall I just told you about how I made chocolate chip cookie pie and frozen hot chocolate in one day.  Ummm.  Yeah. 

I think that about sums it up!  Happy Valentine's Day everyone :).