first time in the woods in over a year and a really good meal

yesterday chris and i took max for a short hike in at Raccoon State Park - in the wild flower preserve. it was max's first trip to the woods, his first real experience in the Kelty carrier and my first time in the woods in over a year! while i was pregnant with max i was just not able to catch my breath most of the time so that meant that hiking was just not very enjoyable... so last night we kinda make an impromptu decision to pack up max and "the max pack" and drive to a nearby hiking spot for a short hike at dusk. max loved it! and so did i!

here are some photos:
i also made a spectacular dinner on saturday. i was inspired by an italian cooking show on PBS she featured a calamari salad that just sounded so good and a pasta dish with a simple pesto sauce. the pesto sauce was really easy and sounded soooo good so i made it that night.

ingredients:
a few bunches of fresh basil
about two cups or a little less of almonds
olive oil
garlic
red pepper flakes
really ripe cherry tomatoes - i used most of a large container of these from Costco, two small containers would be perfect.
in the food processor, you blend the almonds and most of the basil until it's a crumbly/pasty consistency, then you add garlic and red pepper flakes, olive oil and the cherry tomatoes, blend until it turns this nice light pink color then add the rest of the basil. meanwhile, cook your favorite pasta. once the pasta had been drained, drizzle with olive oil, then toss with the pesto and some Parmesan cheese and serve. oh was this good! no photo of this one this time... we were starved and it was 9 pm and we didn't have much to eat all day... i served this along side chicken breast that i just quickly cooked in a skillet with some seasoning. all very tasty.

the zoo

the zoo, was so much fun! yesterday max and i took a trip to the zoo and met up with (as previously mentioned) Annie & Marcus and Amy & Heather, we all wanted to get together one last time prior to the two of them heading back to work so we decided to make it special by going to the zoo.

i came away from the day with a tired baby, some cool photos and a good time.

here are some photos from the day:you can see 29 more photos here.

in other news... chris is almost finished with the semester, his first batch of seniors that he's had since they were freshmen are on their way into the real world, that's exciting for him. But most of all, it means that our summer is about to begin in a matter of days! we have so much planned including a few vacations, some day trips including a trip back to the zoo as a family prior to schools letting out so that will be soon... lots of walks to the park to let max swing, some home projects, craft projects, gardening, yard work, and there will be lots of relaxing on the front porch and back deck with drinks in hand. preferably margaritas! mmmm

an addiction

yes, ballband's are an addiction. i've completed the one mentioned below and two others. and i've now got a 4th on the needles... the color combos are just never ending and the pattern is so much fun! i plan on making a few sets, right now i'm kinda messing around with different needles and such, the first 3 were knit on metal 8's the pattern calls for 7's and the 4th one that is on bamboo 6's. these are brand new and i've never worked on bamboo straights before but i'm thinking i really like them. i have bamboo circulars that are 15's i think... i didn't really like them... but these are totally different. i think part of the difference is that i'm knitting with cotton on them... the cotton just glides, it's nice. Anyways...

this week i have a few fun things planned. Max and i are going to the zoo with Amy & Heather and Annie & Marcus. I can't wait! (i mean WE can't wait LOL). Amy and Annie are heading back to work early in May so this is going to be our last get together before they head back to work. max and i are going to miss our little get togethers :( i guess this just means that we'll have to plan some for weekends right? So, the zoo! Yes, i haven't been to the zoo in a long time and i'm very curious to see the polar bears and the new aquarium. should be a good time, photos to follow.

max and i will also take a few walks this week and swing on some swings i'm sure! the weather is supposed to be pretty good except for a few showers later in the week. i'll take it though because if it means we can go out without coats and winter hats on, i'm a'ok with that!

ooh, food.... yes food. i receive recipe's via www.bhg.com daily. a few weeks back, i got this one and i immediately shared it with Annie who made a variation of it. she substituted shrimp for the sausage and then raved about it. i have been in a MAJOR cooking slump so i didn't make it until yesterday since i was feeding my in laws. I made a variation that incorporated the original recipe and added Annie's shrimp to it! i figured it as cajun, jambalaya usually has chicken, shrimp and sausage in it so why not have those three meats in this too. it turned out SOOO good! i just made sure that i had a total of 2 lbs of meat, my sausage was just regular italian and was out of the casings and was frozen in a 1 lb bag, so since i had to defrost the entire thing, i had 1 lb sausage, 1/2 lb of shrimp and 1/2 lb of chicken it seemed to be a perfect combo with the rest of the veggies and pasta. also, since this recipe calls for lasagna noodles and thus needs to be baked, it heated up the house pretty well yesterday, when i make this again (at least in the warm months) i'll probably just toss the meat and veggie mixture with a short noodle and serve so that i don't heat the whole house up by cooking dinner :) anyways, it was good! this will be added to my list of favorites!

enjoy the weather!

ballbands and cats

i completed what will be the first of many of these, i can just feel it.... the ballband dishcloth in Mason Dixon Knitting. this was such a fun item to knit and once i knit a few "bands" it became somewhat mindless but still a lot of fun and very enjoyable. i did make one mistake on this one and it was due to my inability to count correctly. there should be two more bands and i had such high hopes for those bands, there were to be bright pink. however in my wondrous counting ability i managed to miscount not once, not twice but yes three times... don't ask. anyways, i plan on giving this one to my mom, regardless of the missing bands, she'll love it!

so last night something really gross happened. but it was so funny that both chris and i thought that i needed to share this story. we were watching tv and i was knitting, another show was about to start and the two of us were chit chatting when all of a sudden morris, our indoor/outdoor kitty, came into the room jumped up on top of the tv, and started that noise... whech whech whech... and then out came his little tongue and then out came his dinner... all down the front of the tv, the tv stand, all the components, and then found it final resting place on the brand new carpet. it was so gross... yet so funny in the same breath. he just jumped up there and it was like he was announced, "hey guys, i'm going to be sick but instead of doing it upstairs in the dark where you will find it barefooted when you go to bed, i'll do it right here in front of you on this thing you're looking at so that you can clean it up right away!" this might be one of those things where the statement "you had to be there" applies, sorry if it is... we just both thought it was really funny. for those of you wondering if morris is ok, he's just fine, he sometimes eats too fast then looses his dinner, it seems to be normal for him to do this.

plans for today, shopping and a small meeting later this afternoon. then the rest of the weekend, i plan on sewing a few more curtains for the bedroom (photos of that project to follow soon) and then on sunday i'm hosting a small knit & stitch get together which should be enjoyable!

Absorba is finished

i finished it, it looks good, in my opinion. i'm not 100% happy with my color choices but they'll do. you also can't even notice where i changed my cast on method - which is great!

I ordered my double worsted from here. i chose white, ecru and light green as my colors. but in retrospect i should have used the peacock instead of the light green... oh well it still serves it purpose as a bathroom rug. maybe i'll just have to make another one sooner rather than later :)

here's a photo:

in other news, it's cold... it's looking like the weather should warm up a bit by the end of the week. but that's not soon enough.... as it NEVER should have dipped this low in the first place... all the pretty spring flowers died and look horrible now... those are important to help lift us out of the winter funk that i so suddenly sunk back into this week...

i also totally forgot that today was story time until seriously two minutes ago at 9:43 am... sorry annie and marcus!

i have to work out of the house tomorrow at a professional HR expo. hopefully i will meet someone or someone(S) there who will need our services and this won't be a complete waste of time... wish me luck, i'm a little nervous...

other than that.... i haven't cooked a damn thing that was actually worth blogging about in forever, i don't see it happening anytime soon. i need to clean my house up a bit and i'm still combating that damn mt. laundry... does it ever go away? can anyone tell me how to make it go away on its own? are cats trainable? i really really hate the thought of doing more laundry....

until next time

almost gone

the little bald spot on the back of his head is almost gone. i'm glad in a way, the annoyingly obvious comments from others will now stop (hooray!) but it's also a sign that my little baby is getting bigger and turning into a little boy more and more.

knitting, i've finished another set of potholders and coasters, however i did something different by accident... i used one needle size smaller so i lost a bit in the width, so i added a single crochet around their edges and it looks pretty cute actually and it compensated for their thinness. i have to pin the cloth on and sew them up for friends who just bought a new house, we're going to see them on friday.

i've also got pretty far on absorba, i only have to bind off the 7th panel and knit the last three - it's going very quickly and if i can get a good few hours of knitting time in the next day or so i should have it done by the end of the weekend. Chris will be happy that his little feet won't be cold on the tile floor in the bathroom anymore :)

so that's all really, aside from this COLD weather.... the wind is whipping around my windows like it's january... max needs a diversion and needs to get out of the house.... walking is out of the question it's too cold.... booo.....