New Year's Eve

It's been a rough week with 2 sick kids. Initially, I was going to send the kids to school part time and take some time to myself, just to relax - but that didn't really happen. One or both of the kids were at home the whole week. That's OK. I just want them to get better before the baby's arrival.

My last day of work before maternity leave was Christmas Eve. My sister and Mel came over on that day and stayed for 2 days with us during Christmas. I was exhausted and was not much of any use but Reyko and Mel really helped with the cooking and all.

Our Christmas Eve dinner:
Clam Chowder - Rachael Ray's recipe - easy and yummo.
Spaghetti with tomatoes and artichoke

Our Christmas dinner:
Lobster bisque (in a crockpot) - this turned out easy and great.
Lobster - I did no work on this since Pat took the meat out of its shell for me.
Steelhead Trout
mashed potatoes with cranberry sauce - Terran's favorite
asparagus
dinner rolls (that we forgot to make)
pumpkin cheese cake - Reyko made it and I ate most of it. I saw her using 3 blocks of cream cheese....

Oh so yummy and happy but Sisi was sick and threw up on the floor during dinner - lovely....

Kids got endless amount of presents from everyone we can think of. They were happy but this was also overwhelming for me at the same time.

On Monday after Christmas, I had my weekly ObGyn appointment and the nurse told me that I had gained 5 lbs in 1 week. Pat's eyes popped out of the sockets. I just explained that I had a lot of holiday spirit.... At this same appointment, the doc told me that I am now 2.5cm dilated and everything feels very loose down there. She gave me a "labor warning" - meaning it could happen any time now. I told my doc that we want the baby to be born on January 12 - a couple of days after my mom gets here. She just kind of laughed as if saying, yeah, I don't think you can hold out that long....

So now, it's new year's eve. I've been sleeping a lot. Terran seems quite sick. Sisi is a little better. They are in bed now and Pat and I are quietly hanging out, enjoying the last couple of hours of the year.

Here's a glimpse of our 2009:
Feb: I left my family for the first time and went back to CA. I spent time in LA and SF. I took the CSE in CA to get my architect's license.
Feb: Sisi at 18 months finally stopped nursing.
Feb: My mom was here in NJ for a couple of weeks to take my place while I was in CA. That was really nice.
April: Got a letter from CAB saying that I failed my exam. This letter energized me to try to get a license in NY.
April: Found out I was pregnant for the 3rd time!
May: My mom was here searching for my sister Wako. After they found her in LA, they all came over to the east coast. Mom, Reyko, and Wako spend some time with us in NJ. It was stressful. Nothing really came out of this.
June: Went on a mini vacation to DC. Lots of fun.
July: Terran turned 4.
July: Got licensed as an architect in NY.
August: Went on a mini beach vacation to Ocean City, NJ. Absolute indulgence for the kids.
August: Sisi turned 2.
Sept: Dad got an email from Wako saying she's coming back to Japan. And now, she's
there - doing great.
November: Junko turned a year older and noticed herself lying about her age....
November: Getting H1N1 shots was a big deal. After going through numerous calls, I finally found a shot for myself through our township health department. Soon after, Terran and Sisi were able to get them through their doc. Pat had to get his nasal spray from my Ob.
November: Terran got really sick for a week while Pat's parents were in town. It was the first time he was in bed for 2 days with high fever and vomit. We were worried sick and sad....
Dec: Here we are. Awaiting the birth of our new baby. Looking forward to the new year that's going to bring us lots of joy and lots of work!


Terran loves to build. He's quite creative and often makes interesting structures with blocks, rails, lego pieces. He can be focused for a long time on this. I'm trying to find other building toys for him. Sisi likes to destroy....

School photo 2009: Sisi doesn't have an individual shot because she refused to sit by herself. So Terran sat and kissed her while she has a little tear drop from her eye.

My husband: Can you see why I love him so much?

Photos

I've been lazy and haven't really posted photos recently. It takes a while to upload so that's my excuse. But here are some very recent photos. Some from just this afternoon when the kids and Pat braved the snow storm outside and had lots of fun while I watched from the kitchen window. Hey, I'm knocked up and I don't need to be doing anything unnecessary like going into snow on a Saturday.

Talking about being pregnant, I officially have less than 4 weeks to go until my due date. I'm feeling that this little guy may come out earlier than that. As usual, Pat has been nagging about my going to work. Every morning, he asks why I'm going to work. Aghhh.... This is America, sweetie. Women work until we pop, and go right back after we drop off the baby that still looks like a chicken. But, that has not been the case with me. Pat makes me take off from work 3 weeks before due date, and I don't go back for a year. My colleague even asked me what century do you think you live in.... hmmmm.... And I also got a comment from my company officially stating that if I don't come back in 12 weeks, my position is definitely not guaranteed. OK. All that said, being a stay at home mom of 3 is going to be a challenge. The kids drive me crazy, I get so annoyed, but they are the funniest people I know. And they are full of surprises. And they are always my babies.


I think the temperature stayed in the 20s today. So we made a fire. I'm not really sure how well the fire place works. But it made the room pretty and cozy. We also have this awesome heater under that green rug. It just plugs into the wall and it warms the room and our butts. It's excellent for my kids who are always on the floor.


Terran in snow this afternoon. We had to open one of the Christmas presents early today; kids' new waterproof snow mittens, so that they could go outside and play in snow.


Sisi in snow this afternoon.


Here's me and my 3rd child, a couple of weeks ago. I feel as tall as I am wide. Terran and Sisi talks about the baby as if he is already here. When they play with his toys, they announces that they are just borrowing the baby's toys. Terran tells me that he is no longer the bad boy in the house. He points to my tummy and claims that the bad boy is in there! They also refer to the baby by his name. Pat and I were throwing out ideas, but one in particular stuck with the kids. And so they basically decided for us....


Here's Sisi helping me make chocolate banana bread. She only helped because she had access to a bag of chocolate chips as we did this.

Crockpot creamy mac and cheese

Oh goodness. This stuff is good. I thought I'd never say that about mac and cheese. Having grown up in Japan, mac and cheese is not one of my comfort foods. In fact, looking at the yellow messy glob is not appealing to me at all.

But Terran likes it. And his friend was coming over for dinner. So I made it.
It came out so right. There are certain dishes that I can make now that makes me feel oh so American. Apple pie, chicken pot pie, cupcakes for kids' parties, and now, mac and cheese. Yay!

Crockpot creamy mac and cheese: adapted from Paula Deen's recipe.

2.5 cups elbow macaroni - cook for 6-7 minutes only
1/2 stick of butter - melt in microwave
8oz block of sharp cheddar cheese - shred
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
1 can Campbell condensed cheddar cheese soup

While mac is cooking in the pot, turn on the crockpot to low and throw in shredded cheese, melted butter, sour cream, milk, pepper, and canned soup. Mix all. Add macaroni that has been cooked for 6-7 minutes. The mac will still be hard but it's going to continue cooking in the crockpot so that's OK. Mix everything.
Cook on low. Mine was ready to eat in 1 hour - the macaroni still had a bit of bite to it. After 1.5 hours, the macaroni was pretty tender. I wouldn't cook more than 1.5 hours in my crockpot.

I can only eat a few spoonful of this stuff but it was still really good. Sisi has never liked mac and cheese but she actually wanted to try it so I gave her one macaroni and she said "oh yummy, yummy." And she ended up eating 2 bowls of it.

Terran got a little sick tonight. And his friend was a little sick, too, so the dinner was canceled. Terran would have liked this but he just didn't want to eat tonight. There's still lots left over so maybe tomorrow.

7th Anniversary

Dec 6 was the 7th year anniversary of our wedding in Hawaii. We had both completely forgotten about it. I was cleaning out Terran's closet to make space for our baby due in January. I was going through Pat's old race T-shirts. Those shirts are really annoying. He probably has 20-30 of them. They take up most of the space in his dresser, And he doesn't like to throw them away. He wears some over and over again. After awhile, he decides to ignore them and they get stuck in the back of a closet - worn and faded. When I tell him that I am getting rid of them, he freaks out and desperately stops me. This time, I told him that we can't keep so many of his nasty shirts and we needed to make space for the baby. So he let me throw out some. As I was going through the old T-shirt stash, I came across the yellow tank top he wore during the Honolulu marathon 7 years ago. He ran with the AIDS marathon team and they require the runners to write their name on the front of the shirt so the cheerleaders can personalize the cheers by saying "Go Patrick Go!". And so Pat had his name on the front, and on the back, he wrote "Just married - December 6, 2002".

I saw that date and I said,
"Pat, look, today is our anniversary."
To which he said
"really?"
And to which Terran asked,
"What's anniversary"
And I said
"That's when Dada and I got married."
And Terran responded,
"Oh, I remember that!"

Then we celebrated the rest of the afternoon by remembering the days we spent in Honolulu, just the 2 of us.
And now, 7 years later, here we are. We will soon be the 5 of us. There's not a quiet moment, not really a time to fully relax. But definitely so much more....

Creamy Chicken: pretty yummy and really cheap crockpot recipe

I usually prepare dinner the night before. Just doing simple preparation saves a lot of effort when I come home with 2 kids after work. With crockpot, I would preassemble everything at night and plug it in in the morning. With fish, I salt and pepper and oil it, put it on a pan, and cover it with a wrap and stick it in the fridge so I just pop it in the oven the next day.

Last night, I was exhausted - and this is what I always do when I'm exhausted - it turns out to be really yummy and really really cheap.

Creamy Chicken over rice:

5 chicken drumsticks ($1.80)
1 can cream of mushroom soup ($0.79)
1 bag frozen vegetables (about $2.00)
3 cups of cooked rice (i'm guessing $0.50)

Put frozen chicken, frozen veg, and cream of mushroom in the crockpot. Mix it all up and cook on low for 8 hours. When you get home before eating, take out the chicken and remove skin. The meat will also fall off the bone so get rid of the bones as well. Put the meat back in the pot, mix everything, serve over rice. The chicken and the cream of mushroom gives enough flavor to the dish that I don't salt or pepper it.

This will serve 4. The total cost of meal is about $5.00. That's pretty amazing. It feeds the 4 of us at night and gives Pat and I some lunch for the next day. It will probably cost less using fresh vegetables. But again, this is for absolutely exhausted nights so frozen veg is a must! No chopping required and no dirty dishes left after assembly. Yay!

Terran

Terran get's scared watching Dora on TV. He gets scared of the witch and he gets scared of the fox. He doesn't want me to know that he's scared. So now when he gets scared, he runs into the kitchen and says "Mama, I love you, I love you, give me a hug".
He's my baby.

Steelhead trout

I love steelhead trout. It sort of looks like salmon - the same color. But I think the flavor is a little more subtle and the meat seems more tender. It's perfect for a quick dinner.

Tonight's dinner:
steelhead trout
artichoke w/ mayo(i can't believe the grocery store had artichoke in this season. I just had to get it!!!)
rice
left over vegetarian noodles

Super simple recipe for steelhead trout
- 1 slice of 1.5 lb steel head trout with skin on
- salt, pepper, and olive oil on both sides.
- broil, skin side first until the skin bubbles, crusty, and slightly burned (10 min?)
- broil the other side until done. (3-5 min?)
That's all. Simple and so good with rice.