Summer

In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned that Joel and I are trying a new thing for dinner. The 4-week meal planner. It's actually going really well aside from my 'random craving' days. Having a meal plan for the whole week has really helped us both financially and nutritionally. We spent right around $60 for two weeks of groceries. That's pretty good if you ask me! The fun part has been being able to try new things. We've made a home made alfredo sauce for fettuccine alfredo (way better than canned stuff!!!!), we made a salad with lime vinaigrette last night (had a new flavor but definitely way healthier than smothering it in ranch...plus we made the vinaigrette ourselves), we made a spiniach lasagna that was actually pretty good (and if you know me you know I'm not a lasagna fan). Overall, I think the best part of the meal planning is that we have side dishes with our meal instead of just a main dish. It's helped us eat smaller portions of the food as well as incorporated a bigger variety of food groups. A balanced diet definitely hasn't been my forte in the past.

As for the vacation I mentioned earlier as well... wonderful!! We left early on a friday (I mean, we were packed and on the highway by 6am) and drove the 9 hours to the coast. What a long drive!! Luckily my hubby was kind enough to let me sleep if I needed, so I only suffered through half the trip. Each day in Newport, we did something new and had so much fun. We really enjoyed the free things we were able to do because they were surprisingly the neatest things. By the time Tuesday came though, I was pretty tired of seafood. We had a great time going to beaches, exploring tide pools, eating the food, visiting the shops.. it was great. The ride home was another story. We made it safe, don't get me wrong. But I was so ready to be home. Joel and I were pretty tired of seeing the signs that said "Road Work Ahead, Fines Double"... Oregon, take down the construction signs when you're NOT using them anymore. We got caught in quite a bit of construction on our way back too. My favorite part of the whole trip was talking to Joel and being able to laugh at ourselves. We are strange people when we're by ourselves. We discovered that we both felt a "bond" to a car we'd been following for a couple hours. Strange, I know. I guess we were both just tired of being tourists. So... Car that we followed that was also from Idaho AND the same county as us- we enjoyed following you and getting annoyed when slow pokes got between us :) ...haha... As fun as going on vacation was, it was nice to be home. Your own bed, your own dishes. It's just nice.

My baby shower is getting close. Eeeee! Am I excited? Oh yes! Registering was lots of fun. The things people have invented just for a baby are sometimes neat and sometimes- well, lets just say my mom and I would say "seriously... someone is selling this?" I enjoyed it though. I wish I could be there when the people I invited go shopping. I just want to buy things so I would live vicariously through my guests :) I guess that's what presents are anyways. (Things people buy, haha)

My summer is luckily busy! Starting with the weekend of Joel's birthday: Vacation to Newport, Joel's work party/ Father's day, Mom's birthday, 4th of July, Baby shower, family reunion, Sister and 2 brother in laws birthday. I mean, June- July is packed every weekend. I'm so grateful for that because I know I'm going to be miserable in the heat and in the anticipation. August... that's another story. August will probably go by way too slow for my liking (since Bentley isn't due until the first week of September). That's it for now.