Welcome to our new house!

We moved in on March 5th, and I was completely unpacked and organized in 5 days.  These pictures were taken before we started moving everything in because I wanted to show the house as a clean slate.

First room that you walk in to from the front door. We refer to it as the lanai.

 Living room with fireplace

Looking in to the dining room from the living room

 Dining room with built in cabinets on both sides, looking in to living room.

Dining room looking in to eat in kitchen on right and lanai on left.

 Eat in Kitchen

 Kitchen

 Kitchen

 Huge Pantry

Laundry Room/toilet closet

We have 2 small bedrooms off the laundry room that is called the servants wing of the house.  

Shower that sits in between the 2 small bedrooms

Hallway on the right wing of the house that leads to the bedrooms

Front Bedroom that is now Monkey Doodle's room

 We have 2 large storage closets that are located at each end of the long hallway.

Linen closet that is located in the hallway

Middle Bedroom that is now Miss Priss's

 Master Bedroom

Bathroom

Back Porch/Back Lanai

Back to Monterrey!

I will be 5 months post op on March 8th, and I have decided to go back to Monterrey this summer for a few revisions and possibly a mini arm lift.  I knew that I was going to need a revision on my thighs before I even left Monterrey after Dr Sauceda and I spoke about it.  I also ripped my belly button stitches while in Monterrey, so he is going to give me a new belly button as well.  I am going to have him look at my tummy, and he said he could take off a little more skin if I want, but I would still have skin/roll when I sit down because I need the anchor cut.  I just cannot commit to having the anchor cut, but I am thankful he is going to take a little more off for me.  He is also going to do some lipo on my hips and thin those out a little as well.  I will be there for a week, and I am scheduled for June 8th.  Chief is possibly going with me if we can work it out for the kids to stay with my mom and grandma while we are gone.

We will be attending Mookie's high school graduation on the 6th, fly to Monterrey on the 7th, and surgery on the 8th.  I am excited to do this again, but I am not looking forward to the recovery and swelling!  I am still swollen now at almost 5 months post op, but it will all be worth it in the end!

Getting closer!

We are just a couple of weeks away from moving in to our house! I drove by this morning, and it is in the process of getting new outside paint. I didn't get to go inside to see if it was painted yet. I thought I would share a picture of what the outside looks like at least.

The picture below is take from the alley across the street from ours. It is also nice to have this empty space right across the street to take the kids to play soccer, baseball, and just let them run.

My Dream Home

My dream home is a wide open floor plan,  floor to ceiling windows, the flood of natural light, and a beautifully preserved character of the space where memories are made.  When we lived in Colorado Springs, we lived in an old farm house with a beautiful massive open staircase, fire place in the entry way, bay windows on 1st and 2nd floors with a turret, a walk in pantry, and a church window that the Christmas tree fit perfectly in front of.  It was on an acre of land and a creek that ran through the back of the property.  The house sat about 200 feet off the road, and the driveway wound around trees to get to the house. This house was pretty close to what I want in a dream house.  I found these pictures when surfing the net, and I am in love. It is an old church that has been converted to a house  This is exactly what I want and dream of.

 

 

 

  

 

 

Now that I have the love for cooking, I constantly think about what I want in a kitchen.  I want a HUGE island that stretches all the way across the room, and it opens to the entire family room where all of our friends and family gather when we get together.  I want to be able to lay out Thanksgiving dinner across the entire island and still have room left over.  I recently came across pictures of Ina Garten's kitchen, and I fell in love!  It is everything that I want in a kitchen. Now, just transplant Ina's kitchen it to the church converted to a house kitchen, and it is perfect!  Here is Ina's...

 

  

What does your dream home look like?

Moving

Currently, we live in a 1300 sq ft. A-frame tree house.  No, the house in not in a tree, but it sure feels like it because it is on stilts.  When the waves are huge, we can actually feel the house shake and the waves rumbling throughout the floor.  We are about 2 blocks from the water and beach.

We are sad to be moving off of the North Shore, but we are excited about moving on to the military instillation soon.  We are moving in to a historical home on Schofield Barracks that is 2600 sq ft, 5 bedrooms, 1 3/4 baths, lanai, living room, dining room, eat in kitchen with bar, walk in pantry, laundry room, fenced in patio, and all completely renovated!!  They actually filmed part of the movie, Pearl Harbor, in our neighborhood. 

We left a lot of our furniture back on the mainland because we thought we would be staying in this house the entire time we were here.  Our landlord ended up being a jerk and wanting to raise the rent substantially, kitchen way too small, and kids bedrooms too small for them to play in. So, now you know why we are moving!

We needed to find something to put in to the huge lanai that used to be open and only screened in.  It is now completely finished, so it needs furniture!  I started checking Craigslist for some Hawaiian rattan furniture, and I SCORED!! I found this for ........$50!! Furniture is way expensive here, and I haven't found anything close to this price.

I am going to recover them in black and white flowered print or teal.  I have even toyed with painting the rattan black to match the rest of our furniture. Most of our stuff is black and white with teal, red, or lime green.  Can you tell that I am in to these colors?  I love the colors of a peacock!  I will try to get some pictures of the new house soon!

18 weeks post op

I was 18 weeks post op as of Thursday, the 11th. I am sorry to say that I am still battling a lot of swelling on a daily basis. I still swell in my tummy and back, and I can gain 4 to 6 lbs per day from it. I am not wearing my garment anymore, and the swelling does go down while I sleep at night, but not completely.

I still have loose skin on my belly, but that is because I didn't want the anchor cut on my tummy. I will live with that because I would rather not have the scar and deal with skin. It is hard to see it in pictures, but it is definitely noticeable in person. I have a small roll when I sit down that is around my hip bones when I sit down. If I am standing or laying flat, it is not there because my hip bones stick out and stretches the skin tight. I don't know if he would even be able to fix without doing the anchor cut since it is caused my by my hip bones. I also still have wrinkles in my thighs, but that was known before I left Monterrey. We knew that a revision was needed there as well.

I will be going back to Monterrey the 2nd week of June to have my thighs revised, my belly button fixed(too small due to the stitches ripping), a little lipo on my hips that have pockets of fat, and possibly get a small arm lift. I am still very happy with my results even though I need a few small revisions. I could live without the revisions, but I am choosing to go ahead and get them fixed.

I am dreading the recovery again, but I it will be worth it. It is strange not having plastic surgery or weight loss consume my life anymore. It is great just living and enjoying life as a normal weight, normal shaped woman. I am about to bump up my workouts since I will be living 2 blocks from the gym on Schofield. We are moving in 2 weeks from the North Shore, and we are sad to be living 2 blocks from the beach anymore. We will be about 20 minutes from the beach, so that isn't too bad.

Mmmmm, Beer Dip!!

This is by far one of the best dips that I have ever made.  Every time I take it somewhere for a party or make it at home, it is gone!  It's a party in my tummy, so yummy so yummy!  I promise that you will love it!

Ingredients

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/3 cup beer

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and dressing mix. Stir in Cheddar cheese, and then beer. The mixture will appear mushy. Cover bowl, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, overnight if possible.  (I throw it all in my food processor, and it is done in 2 minutes!)

Strawberry Cheesecake Pizza

I was looking for a new dessert one night, and I remembered eating something like this when we lived in Old Town Alexandria.  I thought I would improvise, and I came up with this.  It is now a favorite with my family and friends.

Ingredients

•  2 pint strawberries, cleaned and stemmed (about 4 cups)
•   2/3 cup white sugar
•  2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1, 8 oz package of cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 can of sweet condensed milk
• 1 pizza crust
• whipped cream for topping

Directions

 

1. Bake pizza crust at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. 
2. Cut about 1/3 of the strawberries in half and set aside. In a saucepan over medium high heat, cook the rest of the strawberries, sugar and vanilla. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce thickens, about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Use potato masher and mash up the strawberries.  Fold the 1/3 cup of cut strawberries in to the mashed up cooked strawberries. Store in refrigerator.   
3. In food processor or with your mixer, mix softened cream cheese and 1/2 can of sweet condensed milk until smooth.
4. After pizza crust is cooked, spread cream cheese mixture on to pizza crust evenly. Cook in oven for 5 more minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes.
5. After the cream cheese and pizza crust is cooled, spread strawberry topping on to the cream cheese. 
6. Cut it in to squares with your pizza cutter and serve with a spoonful of whipped cream on top.

Yummy Guacamole!!

I have worked at getting my guacamole right because it is a staple in our home. I think I have finally perfected it now, and I wanted to share it with everyone. So, here it is! Let me know what you think!

Ingredients


3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/2 medium onion, diced
2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced


Directions

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain a little of the lime juice off after all of the avocados have the reserved lime juice. Using a potato masher, add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Place the seed in the middle of the guacamole to help keep the avocado from turning brown. Serve and enjoy!

Our miracle baby is 6!

It is hard to believe that our 27 weeker is 6 years old today. I remember every detail of that day....from the contractions, to driving 63 miles to the hospital in sleet and hoping we would not get stuck in DC traffic, feeling his little feet kicking the table while I was getting prepped for my C-section, getting stuck 4 times for my spinal, hearing the Dr's screaming at the top of their lungs that he was stuck and they needed the Chief of OB/GYN to come save him, listening to the NICU Dr's and nurses saying that he barely had a heart rate and wasn't breathing, hearing them say that he was alive and intubated, feeling the Dr's sew me up because the spinal wore off, and waking up in recovery hearing that they think they had damaged his liver and broken his arm during delivery.




Monkey Doodle, is 6 years old today and is the sweetest child you will ever meet. He has a way about him that makes everyone he comes in contact with fall completely in love with him. He started life on this earth also too early, on 02-03-04 at 11:11 am. He was born 13 weeks premature at 27 weeks gestation, but is completely without long term issues. Praise the Lord! We were given a less than 3% chance that he would live, and an 80% chance of having Cerebral Palsy and long term disabilities if he did live. He is over 4 foot tall already and is over the 95%ile for his height. By the charts, it looks like he will end up being around 6'2-6'3 when he reaches maturity. He is our miracle baby and by all odds should not be on this earth. He continues to amaze us every day with his intelligence, tenacity, and his precious heart.


Taken this morning before school. He informed me that he wanted a "fauxhawk", not a "mohawk". He told me that a mohawk is when you shave your head and a "fauxhawk" wasn't. He is so funny!


This child is meant to be on this earth, and his life has a purpose. Realistically, he should not be here, but God does perform miracles! He is living proof of that. Monkey Doodle has such a sweet and gentle spirit about him. Monkey Doodle started out wanting to be a Rockstar Astronaut when he grew up, but now he says he wants to be a Dr that takes care of sick babies like he was. He is always there to help his classmates when they are upset or in need of something. His teacher even sent me a note saying that she did not think there could be a sweeter boy than Monkey Doodle! He is a perfect student, best reader and student in his class, very rarely gets in trouble, feels very guilty if he does something wrong and ends up telling on himself, and loves God with all of his heart. He tells us that he is a good boy because Jesus is in his heart, and He helps him be a good boy because He is in there. He is such a prayer warrior too! He will be the first to ask to pray when we eat, tell me he needs to pray when he did something wrong, will pray for people when he thinks they need it, and has no inhibitions about praying in front a lot of people.

He is becoming quite the athlete too! He played soccer this past fall, and he scored a goal every game but 1! He is currently playing T-ball and is loving it. He is learning the fundamentals and doing better and better each practice and game. He is all about doing things right, so that can get in the way sometimes, but he comes out a winner in the end. He has a photographic memory, so he never forgets anything he learns and tells us stuff he did before he could even talk! He learned how to ride without training wheels this past summer, and now he is a pro. He still loves to ride his scooter, and now he is ready to move on to skate boarding! Lord, please help us and watch over him!

Thank you, Jesus, for blessing us with this amazing child!