Tag, I'm it!!

My sweet friend Emily tagged me to answer the following food questions. She definitely asked the right girl - I'm all about food..(or was, and I hope to be again as soon as this pesky morning/afternoon/night sickness passes)..

1. What is your favorite dessert? This is fairly easy for me - Creme Brulee, no doubt. Yum! All variations are welcome with this girl. :)

A more distant second would be Tiramisu... mmmmm.....

2. Ever try to cook something and fail miserably? Absolutely, without a doubt. I think that's what makes cooking so fun - it's all about trying, failing, learning, tweaking, and starting over. I doubt there are many self professed cooks out there who never get it way wrong.

In fact, as I search my brain for an awesome example, I look no further than the above answer. Tiramisu is tricky. :) On Petesie's birthday one year we had over his best friend and his then girlfriend (now wife) for the first time meeting her. It was my first time cooking dinner for the group, and while the dinner was okay (just okay), the Tiramisu was literally a liquified mess. Great first impression. Another funny time was another "dinner party" - our friends came over and I roasted a chicken... upside down... and by the time I realized it, it had been resting for about 30 minutes and the bottom (ie, the breast side) was so slimy and undercooked. Awesome. :) I pretended nobody noticed, carved off the breast, cranked up the oven and stuck the breast pieces back in. Salmonella be damned!

3. Is there a dish you haven't made yet, but really want to? Only about a thousand. I collect recipes and always have a list of dishes to try. Petesie got me a Creme Brulee torch for my birthday (in August....) and I have yet to use it. I blame the babe - haven't done much cooking the last 14 weeks!

4. What is your favorite food? Hardest question ever. The homemade chicken stock and stars pasta I'm gobbling down right now is pretty darn awesome. Fresh rolls and bread straight out of the oven is also hard to beat. I think I'm kind of a purest sometimes when it comes to food, but will try almost everything! Emily answered "pastries" to this question, and she may be right on - Croissants in France are divine! We had some amazing ones on our honeymoon...

5. What is your least favorite food? Slimy stuff like Oysters, Snails, etc... can't stomach them. In fact, thinking about it is making me want to vomit. Again. (it's been a rough day!!)

6. Do you have any seasonal meals you like? ooohh... what a question. The Talley family is long known for our amazing holiday dinners - Thanksgiving, Christmas. Both are amazing. My mom makes a Christmas brunch, and while pretty basic, is worth the 365 days wait. And Easter brunch. We celebrate at our friends farm and the spread is AMAZING! So, I guess I pretty much like all seasonal meals. :)

7. What is your comfort food? Certain casseroles (picked up the ingredients for Green Bean Casserole today!), meatloaf, binky beans (what's that, you ask? Sautee some bacon and onions, add green beans, cook down, add balasmic vinegar and salt to taste. Cook til mushy. Or less mushy if you like. Yum!). Fresh bread, Mac & Cheese, spaghetti. Again, I call out the chicken stock and stars I'm eating right now.... all amazing.

8. Chocolate: milk, dark, or white? Okay, call me crazy, but I'm not really a chocolate person. I think from all the above answers, it's pretty obvious I'm into savory. Sorry for the lame answer!

Thanks for the tag, Em! I'm tagging Kelli next. :)

Soo..... long time..... much to say!

Sorry everyone for going MIA there for a while. :) I swear I wasn't trying to blow off the blog entirely, but, well, life seems to have gotten in the way.

With what, you ask?

Well, first of all, there's this:

That's right, Peter re-did the floors. They look so pretty now. Thanks Petesie!

Then there's this:

We went to the cabin one weekend. Chilled, lounged, found petrified mice and did inappropriate things with them (mom....). Isn't my lil' sis so darn cute??

Then, there's this:

Aren't they cute? Some of the loves of my life, we've had lots of good days lately snuggling. :)

And lastly, there's this:

Oh yeah, that. :)

Spilling the beans - I'm somewhere in between 12-13 weeks pregnant! Ahhh!!! (I say somewhere in between because it changes depending on whose measurements you use. I like the date that says closer to 13 weeks - it makes me just one day away from the coveted second trimester....)

Our littlest one is doing just great. We saw him today (we call it him, but have no idea what gender he actually is... and won't be finding out until he comes out in May!) and he was jumping all over the place and waving hello (swoon.... I just love that lil' guy).

Seriously though - I will be doing more frequent updates now that there is something very exciting to update with. It's just that for the last 10 weeks I've barely had energy to get my head off the couch, and when I do lift my head off the couch, it's usually to throw it over the toilet. So, yeah - they aren't kidding when they say morning sickness is rough. I had NO idea.

I'll update more soon - lots to talk about! How we found out, what happened leading up to the whole "positive pregnancy test", how I'm doing, how Peter's doing, etc...

Okay, that's all for now. :)

The Strangest Thing

The strangest thing happened to me this morning.

It was 7am. On Sunday morning. And I woke up - inexplicably* up early and ready to start the day.

*maybe not entirely inexplicably - my back has been hurting a lot lately and it was throbbing when I woke up. I assume this was the reason I was wide awake as the sun came up...

Nevertheless, I'm one of those people who will sleep 12 hours if given the chance (which is exactly what I'd done the night before). After a wonderful date night** last night, maybe I just felt rejuvinated in life?

**our date night was really quite perfect, a special treat to ourselves to make up for a rather rough week. We went to one of our all time favorite restaurants Serious Pie, but because it is not only our favorite, but half of Seattle's favorite, we had a good hour long wait to kill. So we walked around downtown and stopped into Nordies, where my mom (thanks Mom!) bought me these boots:

I'm still deciding how I feel about them, but I'm leaning toward loving them... Cute with leggings, skirts, long slouchy sweaters, etc.... We (okay, I) got big sissy a fabulous birthday pressie she will die for (can you say Chanel? I promise I didn't give it away!!). Anyway, after quickly shopping, we headed back to SP, where we devoured the best appetizer I've ever had - Peaches and Burrata cheese with pinenuts and a drizzle of basil-oil, shared a couple glasses of wine and two Serious Pies - Garlic, Broccoli Rabe and Cured Ham as well as the go to favorite Chanterelle Mushroom and Truffle Cheese. Added perk - at SP you sit at a table with other guests of the restaurant. We were squeezed, sitting across from each other, between a couple of other couples. One of the couples was leaving and had a couple glasses of Chianti left in their bottle, and handed it off to us to finish off. Score!

I digress though from The Strangest Thing that happened to me this morning - also titled "Why It's 10:45 am and I have completed many chores already". So, I was awake, early. Came upstairs, rolled out the yoga mat and did some stretching in the peaceful quiet of the stillness of our home. Did some work on the computer and eventually Petesie came up to meet me. We had coffee, he had eggs and toast and I went to the grocery store. At 9am. LOVE grocery shopping at 9 am, seriously. Nobody there, I can get in and out in under half an hour and finish shopping for the week. Which is what I did, plus I gave myself a treatsie. Breakfast Maple Bar, anyone? Yes please!

Came home, and in the true spirit of fall, which I am quickly catching (proof - I wore my red wool jacket out last night and felt just so darn festive. Plus, Husky Football started yesterday! LOVE these fall weekends!) busted out the dusty crock pot and whipped up some beef stew for tonights dinner. Should be lovely - carrots, potatoes, onions, diced tomatos, beef, chicken broth, salt, pepper, mustard, fresh thyme and fresh rosemary bunches.... It already smells delicious.

Then, I decided to take my meal preparation one step further and boiled up a whole chicken - we'll have shredded chicken on hand this week, plus chicken stock. These kind of things make me Very Happy.

So - that's the strange thing. I have already been more productive today than I usually am in a whole 12 hours. We're going to enjoy the rest of the day hanging out with my boy George Clooney (aka The American, aka, we're going to see a matinee, which we rarely do) and adoring my boots. And sissy's chanel. No, I promise I won't take it for myself. (Big sissy - come up and visit and I'll give you your pressie!!)

(I'm not above bribery. I learned it from my mommy).

Happy Sunday, ya'll.

unexplained leave of absense

Sorry to leave ya'll hanging there - it's been several weeks and well, I just haven't felt much like blogging.

Not that there hasn't been a lot going on either - the usual summer activities (dinners at the lake, bike rides, etc...), my birthday (27!?!?!), "Week of Julia" (so dubbed by my darling husband, who went above and beyond all week), a wedding, a concert, work, chores, etc...

I think one excuse is that my camera died. And who likes a post without pictures?

I'll try to be better. Fall is here. School started today and even though its been a while since back to school for me, it's still so bittersweet. Today, I "celebrated" by staying home sick. No really - I've been fighting this cold since last week, stayed home Monday, reluctantly went in to work Tuesday and this morning felt knocked on my ass. Yuck.

BUT, like I said, no post is complete without pictures, so I give you my first meal of the day (it's now 2:58 and I'm just now getting around to eating something). Maybe this'll make me feel better?

(it actually IS making me feel better)...

Sweetie's Green Smoothies:

1/2 c. yogurt

1 banana

1-2 cups Spinach (I promise - can hardly even taste it!)

combo of fruits (I used a handful of frozen mixed fruit and half a can of pineapples in their juice)

liquid (usually I use juice, today I used water)

*put all the stuff in the blender and blend. Load of vitamins, lots of calcium, potassium, etc....

I know this post is exciting and thrilling. While we do have some stuff going on in our lives right now, I just don't want to put everything out there on the world wide web - yet. Maybe sometime soon. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a short video from last week (a snippet of the life in the Lacy household - real DRAMA here people!) and a promise to be better. Note the psycho dog in the background...

Fun Things

Let's summarize the Many Fun Things accomplished by the Lacy fam this weekend:

I'll be brief, our moments of much fun are interrupted from around 6am-5pm by this little thing called Work on Mondays through Friday. After which, we try to get back to our lifestyle of Good Times.

To Recap:

1 - Took Several Naps (Fri & Sat)
2 - Grilled Tasty Dins (Flank Steak Kabobs and Cilantro-Lime Chicken) (Fri & Sun)
3 - Visited with our Friends in The West Wing and Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce (Fri & Sun)
4 - Ventured into the magical world of Skype with our London based friends (Sat)
5 - Made fresh scones (Sat)
6 - Ate Scones (Sat & Sun)
7 - Ate Scones and Drank Coffee with favorite Auntie J on her garage-top Garden Deck (Sun)
8 - Watched sweet Doggies (Monty & Milo) romp/frolic/pant from heat exhaustion/lap up lake water (Sat & Sun)
9 - Enjoyed Beef Taco lunches (Sat & Sun)
10 - Floated on/in The Lake in 90+ degree days (Sat & Sun)
11 - Swam about in The Lake(Sat & Sun)
12 - Sailed about on The Lake (Sat)
13 - Enjoyed Ceviche and Cream Cheese/Pesto/Sun Dried Tomato spread appetizers and wine with Auntie J (Sat)
14  - Dined on Tilapia and Pasta Salad (Sat)
15 - Watched a Music Documentary (Sat)
16 - Made S'mores over gas grill flames (Sat)
17 - Watched the night sky for meteor showers (Sat & Sun)
18 - Slept to the sound of Loud Bullfrogs (Sat pm)
19 - Woke to the sound of Panting Dogs (Sun)
20 - Rode Bikes and Got Very Sore (Sun)
21 - Watched a Cute Kitty Sunbathe in a Sandy Beach and Frolic in the lake (Sun)
22 - Read in The Shade (Sat & Sun)
23 - Obligatory Target Run (Sun)
24 - Obligatory Eddie Bauer Outlet Run for Replacement Shorts (Sun)
25 - Minimized Sunburns with Extra Sunscreen (Sat & Sun)
26 - Drank Lots of Water (Sat & Sun)
27 - Cooled down Hot Kitties with Damp Washclothes (Sun)
28 - Slept Soundly in Our Bed (Sun pm)

Full, happy weekend enjoyed by all. :)

rainy day

It's a dreary and drizzly rainy Saturday in August. Oh Seattle, you have robbed us of the summer for sure this year. Despite this, I still love you and promise not to leave.

And, despite my love for the sun and for all things Summer, I am allowing myself to embrace the rain. I'm hoping this is just a momentary blip in our Summer, but it sure feels like fall is about to begin. And I do love the Fall. Fall means new backpacks and sharp pencils and boxes of crayons that smell like fresh wax and anticipation. Fall means football Sundays and Monday and Thursdays and sometimes even Saturdays. Fall means Birthdays and Anniversaries and pumpkin spices and cinnamon sticks and pot roasts and beef stews and crockpots and baked goods just because. Fall means new shoes and sweaters and red wool jackets because even if you aren't going back to anything, one must still enjoy a back-to-school pick me up.

I'll embrace Fall when it arrives, but I'm still hoping for more days of Summer muggy warmth and wet hair, flip flops and salad for dinner because it's too hot for anything else, crisp white wine and sun dresses and neighbors at the park and splashing in the water. Summer is magic.

On this Summer Saturday, you can find us here:

Yeah, that's P taking a nap :)

And cleaning here:

While baking this because blueberries were on sale at Costco: 

and flipping through these because it's almost been a year, which means we are no longer "newlyweds" but just "happily marrieds".....

Happy Saturday!

Renovations and Changes

Been gone for a while - sorry to anyone waiting with baited breath. :) (oh, no one? okay then!)

We've been busy around here though, for sure. I've been very productive the last couple days (some might say rather manic) - so much so that my boss told me that I was "high-strung" and should "take a nap." This was at 9:30 in the morning. Needless to say I didn't take a nap right then and there but pretty much collapsed when I got home....

We're discovering how to take what's old and make it new. Also I've been revisiting my past and am very excited to say, have rediscovered the joys of this:

That my friends is a speedo swim suit and swim cap. Yep, I've decided to take up swimming again (it's been so long that lil' sis doesn't believe I actually ever WAS a swimmer. But I was, I swear I was. And the people at the swimwear shop can prove it - when I gave them my name, they found me in the system and asked if I was still on swim team. Uh, do I look 17? Nope, haven't been on the swimteam for 10 years, but they gave me the "swimteam discount" anyway..).

I redecorated the wall at the bottom of the stair case and put up some family pictures. I think it's glorious.

Petesie took down the old blinds in our bedroom and put up some pretty new ones. When we use the term "eighty-six" in our house, it has more than one meaning. Yes, to remove/take away the old stuff, but even more so, because everything that's old is all from 1986...

And we decided to pain our living room. And by we, I mean me, and my "decided to paint" I mean I tested out a patch, decided I wasn't crazy about the color, looked up at the high ceilings and decided I wasn't crazy about the work involved, but then was told by my darling husband that it was too late and I had committed myself with the one color patch. Fantastic.

What else? My mom, in her quest for grandkids has decided to practice patience and instead, dote on her "grand-dog".. what is the world coming to? She picked up Monty when we were at work last Wednesday and took him to the groomer, got him shampooed and groomed and got him some "pressies" as we like to say - a shiny new blue collar and a sweet bandana. Petesie is having some difficulty with the new "adjustment" and has taken to calling poor Monty "Fancy Boy." I, on the other hand think he looks darling and am happy to have less dog hair to vaccuum up. :)

See Pretty-Boy in action:

On a side note, I hope today we are seeing the beginning of something big, which makes me very, very happy. I squealed out loud when I clicked open CNN and saw this today at work: Judge strikes down California ban on same-sex marriage.

Please refer back to my post on the Declaration of Independance wheere I highlighted that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Well said, Thomas Jefferson, and well argued Theodore Olson (who, although argued for Bush in Bush v. Gore is now the darling of liberals everywhere...).

Here's the thing: I've spent a LOT of time thinking about this and wondering why it is we want to get married, what marriage means to me, what a family means to me, etc... I believe my very core that marriage should be available to EVERYONE - whether those couples be interracial, homosexal... May/December Couples.... My choice to marry Peter was never contested by anyone and has never been considered illegal, but in our own right, we are also a couple outside the norm. And nobody, anywhere (legally speaking at least) at any stage in United States history has blinked an eye at our choice. So why did we have the right to get married when other dear friends of mine would either have been thrown in jail for their marriages at certain points in time or are still banned from marrying? It's so deeply unfair. And please, when I read that "children do best in homes raised by their own mother and father" I want to vomit. Like 50% of marriages today don't end in divorce already. Like half of children today are raised in homes where they do not have one mother and one father who are married to each other. When I read that and hear that, I want to show them MY family: Mother, Father, Step Mother, Step Father, Big Sister, Little Sister and Brother (who I would never dream of qualifying as anything less than my full sister and full brother)..... Need I go on? Okay, I will: Second Step Mother, Second Step Father (sorta!), Step Brothers, Aunt, Faux-Uncle, etc...

Needless to say, I have a non-traditional, blended, family and I was raised in many homes by more than one mother and one father. It takes a village and children most certainly do equally well, if not better, when they are surrounded by many, many people who love on them and love each other, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.

There. I said my piece. I am hopeful that when my children grow and choose to get married, they can choose whoever they want, regardless of the shape (or quantity!) of their chromosomes.

Getting off my soapbox. And going swimming!