" Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies"

These are one of my favorite things to make. Ever. Whenever my mom decided to make some growing up, ( if my brother asked, or was coming home from college, or his friends were coming over) they always disappeared very quickly. When I was getting married, I remember talking to my mom about all the recipes I needed and got the most amazing shower gift:



This is a collection of recipes from my entire family. Cousins, grandparents, Aunts, they all contributed with their favorite ( and easy, they know me) meals/desserts/salads/side dishes. Shortly after we were married, I tried to make home-made from scratch chocolate chip cookies. That was a fail. Who knew there was such a difference in baking powder and baking soda? After a few more tries and calls home, I mastered the art. I can whip up these home-made-from-scratch cookies and put them in a basket to send with C to work ( Marines love their sweets) or I can make a batch to eat after dinner if we're having company, or else I'll eat them all! When my mom was here with me while C was deployed and I was pregnant, I wanted to make them and asked her about the recipe. " That's Grandma's recipe right?"" Which one? "
"You know, the cookies you always made. Was that yours or Grandmas or one of your Aunts?"
" Oh the one on the back of the crisco can?"
Cue the disappointment! The cookies I thought I was soooo awesome for making, any one could make. It's on the crisco can. All disappointment aside, I still make them and have figured out a way to perfect them.

One word: Foil.

If you bake your cookies on foil, the bottoms don't burn! See?

Even all the way around, all chewy every where!

The Sweet Pea Monster

She looks innocent enough, I know. " Oh, I'm sorry Mom, did things get a little messy in my love for sweet peas?"

Truth is, she's adorable. Scrubbing down that highchair after every meal isn't that bad. Add a look like this to it and I will do it singing. I love to see her try new things and embrace them! She also went swimming on base today! Well, as swimming as a 5 1/2 month old does. She loved it. She was kicking her legs and splashing and smiling, it was precious! I was too scared to bring my camera though, clumsy is what I'm all about.

A visit from Nana/ Japan update

My mom came to visit sweet Ava this last week ( thank goodness, too. She is a big help and a great encourager). They did all sorts of fun things! Ate bananas with Nana ( get it?), they laughed a lot, smiled at each other and snuggled.

By the end of Nana's trip, she kept on saying that " If mommy says it's ok, you can come home with me, I have extra room in my suitcase!" This morning when I woke up, Nana tells me, " look! I made room!" And we got this picture:



She fit right in! But I think I would miss my baby too much even though I know they would have fun and Nana and Papa would take good care of my little darling.

I'm sure going to miss Nana. Especially when I'm folding the laundry or cooking dinner, or taking a shower and drying my hair. She makes those things a lot easier to do if she's holding my sweet (energetic) Ava. Hopefully another visit will be in order soon.



An update on Japan:

Since receiving orders, we have gotten all of our paperwork, done tons of googling and gotten more and more excited. We headed up to Medical and got a run through of who has to sign what. We have to go to dental on Tuesday and I'm going to try and figure out what sized housing we'll be able to get and what exactly we need to sell, what we need to keep and what we need to store.
In September, we'll have a month to take leave, visiting family, storing vehicles etc. Our flight will leave the first part of October hopefully, and a couple of weeks before that, hopefully, TMO will come and pack up our belongings and separate them into two different shipments, Express and Standard. There is a weight limit on what they will ship overseas but apparently in Iwakuni, you can only ship 75% of what that is, and no vehicles ( every one walks or rides bikes!) so it looks like we have a lot to figure out.

Things sure are moving along quickly! September is really only a little over 3 months from now, looks like things will be getting busier and busier. I just have to keep on thinking that God surprised me with Ava, and she is such a blessing this is going to be awesome too.

Japanese

We really like Japanese food. So much that we find any excuse to go eat there. " Ava's 3 months old today! We should go to a habachi grill!" " We've been married 1 year, 4 months, Let's go eat Shogun!" " Ava scooted!" You get the point. We love us some Japanese food.

You know what else is Japanese? Our future home. A few days ago, I was thinking back to our wedding. The theme that Judge Lincoln was set on, was " Expect the unexpected". 4 months later, we found out about Ava. 3 days after that, Iraq. I turned to my wonderful mother who is visiting her favorite grandchild and said " I think that whole wedding theme was just for the first year. Things are going to settle down." I was so sure of it too.

Later that day, C was looking up the status of his recruiting package he had put in a few weeks ago. He was hoping to be a recruiter in Texas, a job that he's been looking forward to since he joined the Marine Corps. He says, " What is this? I have orders?" I perked up. My mind said ' Could it be?! Texas. Oh Texas, I see you in my future. I see your happy people and big trucks. I see your love for all things big. I am coming, don't you worry, I missed you too.' He continued on. " Weird, it says October, that's not a date for the class, what is this code?" He googled the code that was next to October and read it out loud- " Iwakuni, Japan." Um. whut?! He calls IPAC, the orders are right, the next day he was to go and sign for his orders and get directions on what to do next.

There is no way to describe how I felt about that. Don't get me wrong here, I am fully aware that my husband is a U.S. Marine. Change is inevitable, they send him where he's needed. In this case, it was Japan. As a spouse, you really shouldn't get your hopes up. You shouldn't come near expecting things to happen. Homecoming dates, change of station, even when your husband ( or wife ) will be home from work. The government is in charge. Panic mode came really close to setting in, I won't lie here. All I could think about was the lack of anything Japanese I knew. Where exactly is this place anyway? What on earth will I do there?! The more I looked into it, ( and still am) the more I am realizing this is an opportunity. My family and myself get to go live in Japan. I get to experience an entirely different culture. Ava will know Japanese!

I think I am getting a little less anxious and a little more excited every day. It's not like I can stomp my foot and say no! All I can do is go with the flow, move to Japan in October, plan on entirely embracing the culture and thriving for three crazy wonderful years.

And for my brother: Just because I am moving to Japan, does not make me Japanese. Ava isn't going to be Japanese either. That's like calling you an Arkansan for going to school there for how many years has it been now?

Quick! Hide the chocolate chips!

I am blogging during naptime. Which really, I feel is much better than blogging during play time. Because then, I would lose out on the fun of singing, and scooting and "finding my voice" which in case you didn't know, can be very loud at times.

The thing is, C is getting healthy. Which, yeah I try to do most of the time but he's honestly just taking it a step farther than I thought he would. He's taking vitamins. lots of them. He's eating bananas for lunch and grilling chicken and eating broccoli. He bought fruit pops so when he was craving something sweet he could eat one of those. He ordered a grilled chicken Ceasar Salad when we went out to eat. You would think that this would get me on the bandwagon right? " Oh, he's so healthy, I should do that too." Honestly though, I want sweets more. I'm not even the one dieting hardcore and I am having the cravings. We don't buy too many sweets at the store, since they will get eaten too quickly, they are too tempting and too bad for you. I figure if I honestly want something sweet, I'll have to want it badly enough to take the time to make it, and then clean up my mess. I'm a really messy "cook". So instead, I grab a handful of chocolate chips, some almonds and some peanut butter. It cures me. I don't want something sweet as bad. I'm good now, I can drink a glass of water and be just fine. The only problem is, I can't do it around C. He just gives me this look. The kind of look that tells you, this isn't really healthy. Go get a fruit pop. I know it's my own guilt telling me this and not really C. But when he calls to tell me he's on his way home, I make sure the chocolate chips and peanut butter are nicely put in their cabinet homes and I'm drinking a nice big glass of water.

I think I'm going to have to go get some vitamins before our big Florida trip. And a spray tan.

I can not handle this! I think I need a swagger wagon!

This is complete hilarity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4

" I cut the crust off of PB&J.."

Ok, Here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1tsSzY1WGs

::Hyperventilates::

She is moving. She is scooting (forward) towards things she wants. It is the cutest thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life. Ever. I will upload a video soon.

But first: pick up the living room, change the sheets, mop the kitchen, vacuum the rest of the house, change my clothes so another pair can get puked on and get dinner started.

Yes, I realize it would be much more fun to upload the cutest video ever.

Shame on me!

I failed to mention some one very important in my last blog post about our family.

I present to you, ladies and gentlemen:

Izzy!


Izzy is 1 1/2 years old and a complete mess. Well, not completely. She just loves everyone. A lot. She'll tell you by walking in between your legs or licking you to death, depending on if you're standing or sitting. We built a fence so she could have a nice, safe, area to run and play in if we have to be away from the house and she just jumps over. She's super athletic.

She got hit by a car this past October, and is still goin' strong. A few days in the vet and being spoon-fed canned dog food and she's just fine. But she may be a little looney from that. She likes to chase reflections and shadows. She thinks foil is bad news and that she should cuddle up in your lap at night. I guess these are just the things that make Izzy, well, Izzy. Gotta love her. Even if she a nut.

Starting Over

I know, I know. The other blog died a slow, painful death. I promise I won't let that happen again! Well, at least I'm going to try.

A little back story:

C- A wonderful, loving man who chose to serve his country as a United States Marine. He gets up early, stays at work late, and sometimes faces leaving his family and comfort of his home to go overseas. He is strong, and makes me laugh really, really hard. He also tells me what I need to hear when I'm being stubborn.

Ava- The most precious, perfect surprise God has ever blessed me with. She is happy, laughs all the time and loves to be in constant movement. As long as there is movement, little bit is happy.

Then me- I married my best friend in December of 2008, had Ava in December of 2009 ( we don't like to waste time) and I'm still waiting on my 21st birthday. ( I find it necessary to include my age because I will probably touch on being a young mom through out the blog. ) ( I'm going to stop using parenthesis now). I am by no means a writer, photographer or anyone that has a certain talent I am going to showcase on here but my family lives really far away and I like to tell people cute things my kid does.