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Putting More Eggs Into My Life

I love eggs. When I had a free meal plan they were part of my every day life by just going into the dining hall and saying, “I want this in my omelet please.” Thank you ISU dining!

Now that I have to make my own breakfast, I find I don’t have a lot of time to make my eggs in the morning. (I know first world grown up problems.)

Being pregnant reinforced the fact that I need to have these little nutrition packed items back in my diet.

I tried doing the hard boiled eggs, but Tom wasn’t so happy about me stinking up the house each week. And I generally don’t like to have eggs for dinner. (I am all for breakfast for dinner, except when it comes to eggs.)

Enter the casserole idea.

I could make one once a week and then package them as left overs for each day of the week. And one of my goals is try a new recipe once a month, so double whammy.

Here is my first casserole via a Pinterest find. I used this recipe. I did change some of the ingredients.

Spinach and Egg Casserole

Ingredients

  • 4 cups of spinach
  • 1 cup of mozzarella cheese
  • 1 cup of colby jack cheese
  • 2 tsp of olive oil
  • 8 eggs
  • salt and pepper

First, you will use the olive oil and saute for the spinach. This will only take a few minutes. You will stop when the spinach is a little wilted and shrinks up.

Put the sauteed spinach in the bottom of your casserole dish.

Cover with the cheese.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Then cover the cheese and spinach with beaten eggs. Stir up the entire mixture lightly with a fork.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Cook the casserole for 35 minutes or until the edges are slightly browning.

Let it cool for a few minutes before serving. It will sink a little bit as it settles. IMG_2703 IMG_2704

Here is my review of this recipe.

It was a little bland to be honest. I added salsa to the finished product, which helped. I didn’t have the onions or seasoning that she recommended in the original recipe, so that could be part of the problem. I also couldn’t taste the cheese, even with adding more. This is an important part of my egg experience, so I would probably want to add more. I also think you could add other things like mushrooms to make it even tastier. It also didn’t make as much as I thought so I would probably try to up all the ingredients so I can get through the whole week on leftovers.

Do you have any good casserole recipes for me to keep up with my egg intake?

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It’s a Wonderful Whitener Wednesday

Tom and I met about 7 years ago, and we are about to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary this summer. Our time as just a duo is quickly coming to an end, so I thought I would celebrate the last 7 years each Wednesday leading up to our anniversary. Every Wednesday I will tell just a small fraction of our love story and how we made it to where we are now. A little bit of focusing on us before George gets here!

So here is the first Whitener Wednesday and the story of how we met.

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No we didn’t meet in a water ride, but it was very close.

It was 2007 and the start of a new season at Worlds of Fun, which is an amusement park in Kansas City.

I was a Rides Supervisor and Tom was a Park Ranger.

Our department offices were right next to each other.

Tom came in to talk with some of the other rides supervisors that he knew, and I happened to be in the office.

My first impression of Tom was that he was fearless and not at all shy. He was/is one of those guys who can talk to anyone and knows how to work a room. And as you can see with “Talks with Tom” he has a one of a kind sense of humor.

Unbeknownst to me, Tom did some recon (stalked me) and found out which rides were in my area of supervision. For the next month, he found reasons to show up at ride calls so we could have a “chance” meeting.

He friended me on Facebook and started a Facebook poke war. (Those were the days huh?)

We both had been semi-dating other people at the time, but neither of us were serious or had committed to relationships with those people. We were both 22 when we met and were at the time of our lives where we were having a good time seeing what was out there.

So then came the night he asked me out.

We were always there late doing our supervisory duties, so it was well after the park had closed. I wasn’t surprised when he came in the office to chat, since he had found his way to our area quite often that summer. But the story after is one I will never forget.

Tom told me that he just pulled over my brother (who also worked at the park) for running a stop sign.

I thought he was joking so I just brushed it off, but then he was just so adorable because of the visible nerves he kept my interest. Nerves was not something I had ever seen in Tom.

He told me the full story of my brother going through a stop sign and the car coming up as my vehicle. (I had gotten the parking sticker for him). So Tom at first glance thought he was going to be catching the guy who stole my car. Jackpot right?

After he told me this whole story, he then spit gum at me as he asked me out to dinner.

From what I had seen from Tom in the past month I knew he was something special. He was different than any man I had dated before, so I was intrigued to see what I date would be like and finding out more about this Park Ranger outside of the park.

And I felt bad for him spitting gum at me, so I said yes. Hey it was at least a free meal right?

Then we had the date.

It was the best first date ever. The conversation just flowed naturally. There were laughs, and the nerves just melted away. There was just something different that neither of us could describe.

The funny thing about the date though was that Tom told me he didn’t really see himself getting married or having kids. And I told him that I would be moving in a year to go to grad school and had no intention of staying in Missouri. So with that, it didn’t really seem like we would ever get serious.

And obviously I wasn’t sure how I stood a chance when he often saw me looking like this:

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or this…

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Nothing like pocket protectors, bow ties, skorts, and brown tennis shoes and constantly being a hot sweaty mess to grab a guy. Oh and did I mention that I was wearing braces at the time? Real winner…

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Some days I did look half way decent in the Missouri humidity, but still that pocket protector…

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I don’t have any pictures of Tom his Park Ranger get-up. Let me tell you though, there was no surprise that I was attracted to that guy on bike patrol.

So while it may have seemed like there was no future for us, I continued to say yes to Tom’s dates. We were 22 and enjoying hanging out with each other. Plus as I said, there was just something I couldn’t describe pulling me towards him.

I mean he did have a vase full of flowers waiting in my office the day after our first date.

It was very soon after that we became exclusive and started our journey towards the couple we are today.

Come back next week to see how our relationship blossomed into something more serious than a summer romance.

Things have changed so much since that summer of 2007.

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Half Marathon Recap-Yeehaw

This last weekend I accomplished something I never thought I would do.

I completed my 5th half marathon.

Not only did I complete it, I finished it 20 weeks pregnant.

(I really must be crazy.)

I have to say thought that it was one of my favorite races to date.

I signed up for this race back in December long before I knew that George would be in my belly at the time of the race.

Even then, I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to ever beat my PR time. So I came up with the idea of just having fun with this race and doing a scavenger hunt with my sister-in-law, Emily.

But then life happened, and the pregnancy took it’s toll on my body during the first trimester. I debated whether it was even a good idea to keep this race on the docket. Finally though, the morning sickness lifted, and I could exercise again. I began testing how far I could walk. The most I had done in the past month was 6 miles. Even up to last week I was unsure if I could do this. I talked with my doctor about running, and she said as long as I listened to my body and stayed extremely hydrated she was not concerned because I have an active past.

Emily and I decided to just go for it. We knew our options if we wanted to stop and knew that a truck would pick us up if we went too slow. I had been feeling great the past couple weeks, so we figured why not give it a whirl. We just wanted to have fun with everything!

And we did it full out! (Get ready for a ton of photos.)

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Emily and I before the race began.

I have to say the costumes were the best part of the race. About every 5 steps someone shouted/pointed/showed their extreme jealousy at our awesome cowgirl get-up. We pretty much won the best costume award! We are waiting for them to ask us to be the next year’s poster girls! (only slightly kidding)

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This is our favorite shirt from the day.

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This was at the beginning of the race. 30,000+ runners (and walkers)! Such a beautiful day for 13.1 miles!

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The first band of the day.

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Some of the bands were good, and some were not so good.

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It is a naked statue behind us.

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Walker selfie in front of the Brooks man!

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In front of Belmont University! We ran about 20% of the race, which were mostly on the downhills. It gave our legs a change of pace every once in awhile.

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This was one of our favorite signs. And yes, we both pooped that day. There were also a lot of signs about peeing. This was the first race that I used a Port-A-Potty, and I used it three times because I was chugging water like there was no tomorrow to stay hydrated. Each time there was no toilet paper…awesome.

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There weren’t many of us in costume for the day. These were some gals we passed a couple times before they eventually left us in their runner dust.

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Giddy Up!

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This was our favorite!

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No beer for the preggo. Sad day.

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One of the coolest parts of the race was going through Music Row where all the recording studios are. We were starry-eyed so we didn’t take pictures of hardly any of them. Whoops. In our defense, this part of the race was also on a downhill, so we were taking advantage of that momentum.

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You can’t read it, but this is a wedding chapel.

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A little praise band action!

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Very cool!

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Just a little bit country.

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And a little bit rock and roll.

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I think this was around 8 miles.

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The studios were surprisingly small.

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This is where we both started hurting a little. Also, I was starving. I needed carbs. I got some snicker-doodle cookies from a stranger and some jelly beans I had. I eventually had to ask a medical tent if they had a granola bar. George was hungry! And then soon after they had orange peels. They need to space this out more.

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The bump making an appearance with this lovely cop who was cheering us all on!

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This was a pleasant surprise! It was fun to shout a little Clemson love! Tiger Nation!

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Only two miles left. We can do this!

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The capital building.

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Emily tried out for American Idol here.

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We did it, and with smiles on our faces!

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Knowing there was food at the end got me through the last 2 miles. I took two of everything.

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I just have to say, I love my husband for coming and capturing our moment of crossing the finish line and also driving us back to our car. However, what this picture captures was my least favorite part of the day. The guys said this was the only way back to the car, barring walking another mile or so around the road barricades. This was a steep hill that I had to take my concrete legs and pregnant butt up. Not a happy camper! Tom loving braced me and pushed me up the rocks as I muttered curses at him all the way up. We did make it safely up this hill, but it was not a pleasant experience! I really am thankful for them coming though!

All in all, we had a blast. I feel really accomplished after this. It is funny that each race has brought it’s own challenges that I have had to overcome. It is one of the things that I love about race days. You really get to see what you are made of.

The participants were great. Besides Disney, you really can’t beat the atmosphere and environment Nashville brings (at least of the races I have done, I am sure there are other great race destinations). The organization was fairly good for the race. My only complaint is the lack of food throughout the race and the location of port-a-potties.

We didn’t really follow our scavenger hunt list we made previously. Instead we just took pictures of whatever moved us, and looking back we did get a lot that was on our list. We also saw a lot of things but didn’t take pictures of it like a barefoot runner, cheer team, and every water stop we took advantage of. We finished with a time of 3 hours and 41 minutes, which I would say isn’t too bad for walking pretty much the whole thing and making a ton of stops!

Who knows if I will ever do another one, but this was a great one to add to the books.

**As a caveat, if you are pregnant and planning on doing races, I would seriously think about your past activity and talk with your doctor. It is an individual decision, but it can be done! Just make sure you are taking all the necessary precautions and doing what is right for you and your baby’s health.

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Talks with Tom #23

To our group of friends here in TN, Tom and I are considered hipsters. I smile at this each time it is referenced because I would never personally call myself a hipster.

I guess I don’t really know what the technical definition of hipster, but regardless, I would not say Tom and I in that category.

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image via

When we were in Indiana, we knew we would see a lot of hipsters since they are more prominent in a college town.

While we were getting ready for one of our outings this is a conversations we had:

Me:  Do I look ok? (I have just recently started wearing skinny colored jeans, so I get a little self-conscious still.)

Tom: Yes your red pants look great. It’s like hipsterflage.

And then Tom proceeded to put on these sunglasses.

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We were ready to blend I guess by standing out.

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And You Shall Be Called

name

Naming a kid is hard y’all.

There are so many things to think of. Some of these were a fleeting thought, and others were reasons why names got crossed off.

  • Do you want a family name? If so how do you explain to the other family that you didn’t go with theirs (if this is even a concern)?
  • Does someone close to you already have this name? And do you want them to have the same name?
  • Does someone in your past have this name? Is that a good or bad thing?
  • Is there a connotation that goes along with this name? (ie stripper names)
  • Could there be bad nicknames associated with this name? (ie Josie Grossie)
  • Do you believe in the meanings behind names?
  • Do you want to be original or more traditional?
  • Are you ok with it being a common name?
  • What about spelling?
  • Will their initials spell something? (I mean seriously do you want your initials to be COW, DUD, or BUT if you had a say?)
  • And above all else, you both need to like it and agree.

We have been keeping a running tab of names that we like for the past couple years. Whenever I heard a name that I liked, I would run it by Tom and then add it to our list on my phone.

To be honest, I have kept a list since I was a little kid. I was totally that girl who envisioned being a mom from pretty much day one. I often got the name books in the Scholastic Book fairs in elementary school. So one can say that I have always been interested in names.

Once we found out we were pregnant we got serious about our list. We narrowed our boy names fairly easy to a couple that we really liked. The girl names were much harder.

We both had our likes but we kept having to restart because we knew someone with the name (student I wasn’t fond of or someone Tom hated) or it just didn’t feel right to one of us. Namely, we had issues with the connotations that go along with some names…

This is so stressful people.

You want to pick a solid name that your child can be proud of. You don’t want them to hate their name. (I went through a phase where I hated my name because it was so common, and wanted to change it to Crystal. Why, I have no idea. Parents, I do love my name now, so thank you.)

The name is the first identifier for someone. So much is revolved around a name such as memories and their experiences. I mean think about it when you say someone’s name a lot more comes to mind than just that one word.

So how do you pick a name that can mean so much to someone before you even meet them?

You just kind of wing it to be honest. (While thinking about all the questions above of course.)

And once you know, you know.

And without further ado, our little guy will be…

george

George is a name that we both have loved for a long time, like before we were pregnant long time. So that part was easy. And neither of us have had bad encounters with a George or has it been stolen by someone close to us (I kid about the stolen part, well only sort of.) Really, we just know famous George’s:  George Washington, George Brett, Prince George…Tom and I actually played a game of “Last Word” with who can beat the other with famous Georges. Just try to see how many you can come up with!

The middle name proved to be a little more interesting of a conversation. (We considered for a time to name him after George Brett-we love our Royals. Also the middle name “America” was discussed…sadly.)

But we finally settled on Lawson.

Lawson is Tom’s middle name. (If we would have had a girl, she would have had my middle name.)

It is so great to call him by his name.

Our little George.

Also George has been dubbed as our ninja baby (thanks to our dear friend Sandra) since he surprised us with his sneaky entrance into the world. The nickname has kind of stuck, and he keeps pulling out little surprises for us. At our appointment last week, we found out that we are actually more than a week further along than we thought. George is growing so steadily and like a champ, and the last two ultra sounds have not been consistent with our previous due date. So we are actually 20 weeks tomorrow, which means we are half way there! Our new due date is September 15th instead of the 25th.

Do you have names picked out already? How would/did you go about picking a name?