goodbye first trimester..hello second!!

Monday marked a milestone, as far as this pregnancy is concerned -- we are now in the second trimester! This is seriously crazy to me. I am already three months pregnant. Where has the time gone?? Ryan commented today that in six months, we'll have a baby. What?! But, I've heard from several people that the second trimester was their favorite time -- so, I am looking forward to it! The nausea has already gotten better (yessss...oh, and KNOCK ON WOOD!!) which is wonderful!

I had my 14wk appointment yesterday. Much to our disappointment, our doctor STILL couldn't locate the heartbeat using the abdominal doppler. She tried four weeks ago, during my 10wk appointment (after much begging, on my part) and we couldn't hear it. I thought for sure we'd be able to hear it this time. Nope :( She didn't seem concerned though, but decided to pull out this extremely ancient ultrasound machine to check on the baby. The machine was seriously SO OLD -- but, we were able to make out the baby very briefy, saw a little movement (I think it was sleeping..lol.) and most importantly, a heartbeat. I felt better after that! I might just end up being one of those unlucky folks who NEVER gets to hear their kids heartbeat...only gets to see it flickering on the screen. Thank you for that, tilted uterus!

I finally purchased my first pair of maternity pants! Honestly, I'm still able to wear my regular clothes (though, my pants are getting a teeny bit snug) but, I had been eying up these gaucho pants on Old Navy's site. For a week or so, they had pretty much no sizes left in stock, except for extra-small (yea, right!) and one morning, I noticed they had re-stocked their sizes and also, had a 20% off special going for that day, so I jumped on it! I ordered two pairs -- one in black, one in coffee brown. The black pair arrived today and I LOVE them. They are SO comfortable! They are nicer than sweat pants, so I can wear them out in public without feeling TOO much like a bum ;)

Before I go, I leave you with my first belly pic (okay, I took one at 7wks, but it doesn't look like anything, I promise) Most of it is still not baby bump, but oh well!



Oh! Our next appointment is set for September 7th -- this is when we find out if Baby F is a little boy or a little girl :)

the secret is out!

I suppose now that the big secret is officially out -- we can share our big news with you! In February, Ryan and I will be welcoming a new addition into our family -- our first baby!



We first found out in the beginning of June (it was confirmed via blood test on my dad's birthday, to be exact!) and while it was a surprise, it was a wonderful surprise, and we're getting more and more excited about it everyday! We told a couple of our closest friends and family, but chose to wait to make the big announcement until we got our first ultrasound at 12 weeks, to make sure everything was absolutely okay.

Our first ultrasound/first trimester screening went AWESOME. It was truly amazing being able to see our little bean right in front of us! It's so crazy that at just 12 weeks along, it already looks like a little human. We saw it's little face, arms and legs -- it was wonderful! Up until that point, we hadn't been able to hear the heartbeat, so to be able to SEE the little heart beating on the screen was so cool :) The heartbeat was coming in at a strong 165 bpm. Then, the little one must have woken up, because it started kicking its legs and punching its little arms around in the air. Ryan was so excited, and couldn't stop staring at the screen (neither could I!) he even asked the tech if she could tell the gender yet, but she said it was way too early to even make a guess -- lol. We should be able to find that out around Labor Day! At first, I was up in the air about wanting to find out, but honestly, I don't think I can wait that long. Plus, I am not a huge fan of the color yellow, and I want to be able to go out and buy little outfits!! I'll be darned if my kid has to be decked out in yellow for the first six months of its life! haha! Speaking of gender, I made a post on a baby board for some ultrasound tech's to try and guess what they think the baby is -- and we got 50/50 answers, so right now, it truly is up in the air!

The other day, I was out shopping and spotted a clearance section of some baby stuff at Target. Normally, I try to steer clear of baby stuff right now because I don't plan on buying anything until we at least have the anatomy scan. However, that bib caught my eye! I have been a blogger for YEARS and that bib is absolutely perfect. lol. Not to mention, it was only 58 cents!! What a deal! Then, Renz spotted those little pants and even though they are yellow (ehhh) when I saw they were only $1.98, I couldn't resist! So, the baby officially has its first few baby items :) I promise, no more purchases for a little while!! That is, unless I run in to some more sweet deals ;)


Pregnancy news wise, I've been feeling a lot better than I have been the past few weeks (thank the Lord!) I never got violently sick, but I definitely felt nauseous a lot, and had some serious food aversions. Seriously, NOTHING sounded good. It was incredibly hard for me to even think of what I might want to be able to stomach, so cooking on my part was very scarce for those couple months! Luckily, my husband was a trooper and ended up eating A LOT of subway sandwiches during that time! lol. Now, things are a lot better in that department (I do get nauseous at times, but mostly when I go too long without having something in my stomach -- gotta work on that!!) and I've been cooking more, and food is starting to sound good again (yay!). The biggest annoyance right now, is headaches, but I can deal with that!

Now that we have such big changes going on in our lives, I promise to update this more often than I do, because there will be many updates in the coming months!!

Until next time...

naan bread tomato & basil pizza

When I first started this blog, I fully intended to share lots of recipes -- because they are fun, I enjoy seeing other recipe blogs and since I've been married, I've been experimenting much more in the kitchen than I ever have before. This is mostly because it was no fun cooking new, fun things for one person. You need another critic in there! And, whats better than a husband who eats almost anything?

A few weeks ago, the husband and I were at the store and he spotted a pack of Naan bread. He started talking about how great it was, and how he used to eat it all the time during his deployment to Iraq. I had heard of it before, but never tried it. So, we decided to buy a pack and see what kind of stuff we I could make with it.

Has anyone ever heard of those new Philly creme cheese cooking creams? I kept seeing the commercials, and was intrigued and bought one today. There was a recipe on the container for a pizza using the cooking cream, so I decided to adapt it to the Naan bread, and see what happened. Results? Delicious! And SO easy! If you're interested in the recipe -- proceed forward :)



The supplies you need:

- Naan bread (we got ours at GFS, but I'm pretty sure it can be found at almost any grocery store, in the bread aisle, or "international foods" section)
- Philly cooking creme in Italian Cheese & Herb flavor
- tomato
- onion
- fresh basil leaves
- mozzarella cheese


Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Then, start off by spreading a thin layer of the cooking cream over your bread. Use your judgement on this. You can use as much or as little as you want! I recommend a thinner layer, because I'm not sure if it would get too soggy otherwise.


Next, sprinkle on your cheese. Again, you choose the amount. They always say less is more..but I don't think that rule applies when it comes to cheese ;)


Cut up some onion slices, and put them on the pizza.


Thinly slice the tomato, as much as you want, but obviously enough to cover the surface of your pizza.


mmm fresh basil. Normally, when a recipe calls for basil, I always use the dried stuff from my spice collection. However, when it comes to a pizza like this, you have to use the fresh stuff. I just don't think it would taste the same without it!


Rip a couple basil leaves into smaller pieces and put on the pizza. I think for two pizza's, I used 2 full leaves. A little goes a long way, when it comes to herbs.


Before putting in the oven, I sprinkled a little bit of parmesan cheese on top -- just for effect ;)


Place pizza's directly on the top rack of the oven. You could probably bake it on a baking sheet, but I don't think it would get as crispy. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, depending on your oven and how fast it bakes. Just watch for the cheese to start melting and the bread to start getting brown.


Voila!! Eat & enjoy :)


And, oh yea, it's critic approved!

its all in the coupons.

I said I'd report back about our coupon saving game..and, well, there is not much to report unfortunately. I've definitely been reading up on and looking for the good deals, but I have yet to work up the courage to go out and do it. Except for once. Ryan and I went to Walgreens to take part in a good toilet paper sale. One always needs toilet paper, right? I was nervous of course, and tried to be discreet about it, as I didn't want to appear like a crazy coupon person. My husband? Oh no. He walks right up to a store associate and starts asking her if she's ever seen that show "Extreme Couponing" and that we were here to get a good deal. OMG. I about DIED. I swore I'd never take him on a couponing adventure ever again!! Luckily, they were cool with it and helped us out. We ended up walking out of the store with 96 rolls of toilet paper, a box of tampons and 3 greeting cards for $18. Not bad for our first time! My goal is to try and save money (and stock up) on things we ALWAYS need -- like toiletries, non-perishable stuff, etc.

I've got to say though, that show is definitely inspiring! We watched it recently, and Ryan looks at me and tells me I need to start doing the same. HA! That's honestly like a full time job in itself! Maybe someday, but right now, I simply do not have the time (or patience) to go through and organize HUNDREDS of coupons. Oh my!

In other news, the husband and I have decided to join a gym! We actually went last night to sign up and we even got a workout in. We're both excited about it, because we want to start getting in shape. Plus, if we go together it will serve as a motivator. After I leave the gym, I just feel so much better!

Other than that, we're gearing up for summer! The weather around here has been much nicer, which is always a welcomed change. We don't have anything big planned for the summer. A few weddings, including a weekend trip to Hershey. We *may* try to get our honeymoon in before our first anniversary (God willing) and my brother-in-law will be moving here mid July for college. Hubs is definitely looking forward to that!

Until next time..

coupon mania!

I have never been one to cut coupons. For deals, I've pretty much always just relied on the in-store specials with your store card or for retail stuff, the sales racks (even then, I'm not the best bargain shopper). However, lately I've been thinking that maybe I SHOULD look into coupon cutting. I mean, with a crappy economy -- why not try and save a few bucks off a grocery bill? Plus, with coupon saving blogs and now, even a coupon saving show on TLC, its hard not to be curious!

In the past, I've always just tossed the coupons and store inserts we constantly get in the mail. I found them bothersome as they just sit on my dining room table and start piling up until they get thrown out in one foul swoop. But, the past few weeks I've been glancing through them, and putting some aside that I thought we might use. About 60% of the coupons we get are useless to us anyway, but some caught my interest!

So, I decided to join the coupon saving game! Okay, so I haven't actually done it yet, but today, I starting cutting some out for our next shopping trip! I'm actually kind of excited about it. I was surprised at how many different coupons were out there, and coupons for stuff we actually use.

I do not, however, plan to be a crazy coupon cutter that gets $1,000 worth of stuff for $70. Thats awesome, but really, a little insane. Who needs 30 bottles of Maloxx or 10 packs of lunch meat?

At any rate, as soon as I get my coupon saving game face on, I will surely report back about how it goes/how much money is saved!

Stay tuned.. :)

time to get crafty!

I used to pride myself on being a crafty person. When I was a kid, I was always the one getting the fun little "craft" sets like window clings or some other type of artsy thing. Over time though, I've kinda lost the drive to WANT to be crafty. Once in awhile though, I see something that strikes me interest, and I just have to do it.

Like the other night, for example. I was reading through some blogs and stumbled across this adorable wreath the blogger had made, out of her husband's old Air Force BDU'S. PERFECT! Not only have we been needing a neutral wreath to keep on our door in between holidays, but, my husband just so happens to have TONS (and I do mean tons!) of old ACU's in his foot lockers in our basement.



The wreath itself looked easy enough, so I got to work on googling exactly how to make one. It took a little research, as I stumbled upon several sites where women were offering up the instructions via a PDF file -- for a price. Really? Or, I could buy a pre-made wreath for $40+ if I wanted. Again, really? Luckily, I found another blog nice enough to list the steps for FREE (honestly, after all was said and done, I probably could have figured it out on my own) so I was grateful for that!



Last night after work, I headed to the craft store to pick up a few supplies I needed. Once I got home, I had Ryan dig around for a uniform that he wouldn't mind I chop up. After that, I got to work! Originally, I planned to just focus on the cutting of the pieces, and construct the actual wreath the next day. Once I finished dissecting the pants, I had quite a large pile of fabric squares, so I decided to maybe stick just a few pieces in the wreath, just to see what it looked like. Well, just a few turned into the whole wreath! lol. At one point, Ryan even joined me on the floor, helping me cut material and get even more fabric out of the tricky parts of the uniform (mainly the pocket and hem areas) -- teamwork! I am very pleased with how it turned out, and I think it looks great on our door :)

april showers bring may flowers...hopefully?

Our trip out west was wonderful. Exactly what we needed! It was a quick trip, but trust me, it was great for both of us. I got to get away from work for a few days and Ryan was on spring break, so he was already away from school -- but otherwise, he would have sat at home all week. Not to mention, the sunshine did wonders for us! We returned home with color while the rest of the city was still pale! It was sooo nice being able to take off some layers and soak in the vitamin D after months and months of cold weather and snow!

I got a chance to see & explore gorgeous San Diego, and also Arizona! I had never been to Arizona before, so that was a new experience for me. I actually enjoyed it, though my husband talks down about it all the time! One day, we even ventured into Mexico for a few hours. Even though we were literally just miles from the border, it was still neat to see! I left with a gucci wallet and a prada bag ;)Getting that bag took some SERIOUS bargaining skills. I refused to pay what the guy was asking (I mean hello, you NEVER pay full price for a knock off!) and kept trying to walk away. Eventually, the guy followed me out the store and finally offered me a price I couldn't refuse. WINNING! haha. It was also nice to spend some time with the in-law's and get a glimpse into my husband's life before me. Much to his disbelief, I still want to be married to him after seeing Yuma. LOL. In all seriousness though -- how could you not fall in love with a sunset like THAT?? I always thought Erie had a beautiful sunset (it still does, I promise) but I'm pretty sure Arizona has a one up in that department!

Ah, California. This was my third time there, and as usual, it did not disappoint. I absolutely love it there. LOVE IT. I've now been to three different parts of the state, and I've loved each one. I truly wish it were not so far away from my family because I would totally move there in a heartbeat. I don't even know what it is about it that draws me in, but I feel very content there. Probably the palm trees? We don't have those up north! lol. Much thanks to Rainier hosting us and being our (well, my) tour guide while there! I definitely got my fill of In-N-Out Burger and Pinkberry (for the time being, anyway!) I hope that someday soon, we can make it back out there! It's definitely a bonus having a husband with friends and family in fun places :)