Learning how to cook again & baby clothes

Life's been pretty busy lately with school and all the other stuff life throws at us. It seems like these days I only take the camera out with when we are on vacation, but I wanted to do a little life update with the pictures that I do have.

We were lucky enough to have Jake's Mom with us for several weeks after his surgery. She made dinner for us every night, took us shopping, stocked the fridge, took care of Jake, and kept us all entertained. Whew.. what would we do without great Moms? When she left I had to rediscover how to cook and grocery shop, it was tough stuff I tell ya! The first night she was gone we had Wendy's, the next night we ordered pizza, then I realized she wasn't coming back and I finally made dinner again lol..

Once I got back in the cooking swing of things I really got in the baking mood. One night I spent almost two hours making a double batch of "the best blueberry muffins ever." The recipe looked really good and involved a homemade blueberry sauce reduction and a crumble topping. When I pulled them out of the oven I had the flattest looking muffins oozing all over the place, KITCHEN FAIL.. (I'm blaming it on high altitude??).

After all that wasted effort, my cooking confidence really needed something to work out. So I was pretty darn happy when I found this recipe for butter bars. Let's just say I am not proud of how many I ate, but they were seriously so addicting and yummy! It was an added plus that they come from Paula Dean's restaurant, because when I try to do a southern accent I always channel Paula and talk about "butt-uh" so this was like a recipe match made in heaven for me.

I'm not usually the bread-makin type but I made some focaccia bread that turned out really good too! 

We found out a while ago that we are having a boy! My mom and Kimmy (sister-in-law) sent me an adorable package with baby clothes. Pretty much everyday I pull out a onesie and show Jake how cute and tiny it is. Last night I picked out a few things myself for the baby, I can't wait for them to arrive next week! {P.s. these aren't meant to match up as outfits and yes I indulged my love for stripes}..

all items from baby gap

More from our weekend getaway..

I left off yesterday sharing pictures from our little San Francisco getaway. We rode bikes from our hotel to pier 39 where we did some sight seeing, then Fisherman's Wharf where we ate the most amazing sourdough.. Next stop, Ghirardelli square. For someone who loves chocolate, but can't eat it due to the crazy mood swings it gives me, this was kind of a torturous place. I ordered a strawberry ice cream cone (which was really good), and watched everyone around me (including Jake) eat yummy looking chocolate desserts. Jake also stocked up on chocolate bars to bring home with us.

Jake is standing in front of a giant tub of chocolate. Can I get a big ol' straw please?

After we were officially stuffed with food. We rode our bikes along a trail towards the golden gate bridge. We could see it in the distance and it was looking pretty far away, but what I was really confused about was how we were going to get up to it, since we were down by the water. Soon enough we discovered the giant hill we had to ride up, or ehm..walk our bike up while our husband waits at the top. Eventually we made it to the bridge and where we walked, took pictures, and rode our bikes across. The whole time we were just taking in the beautiful day and beautiful views of the city. It was perfect.

When we got to the other side we followed some signs to this cute little town called Sausalito. All the houses and shops were so much fun to look at. Jake (my foodie) had found one of the best sushi places in the bay area nearby, so we enjoyed a yummy dinner there.  After a lonngg day of bike riding we took a ferry back to San Francisco because there was NO way my legs or bum were riding all the way home.

A trip to San Francisco wouldn't be complete without a ride on the trolley! So we hopped on one and got a great view of the city in an easier way than walking or riding bikes...perfect for our sore feet.

We got off the trolley and made our way to Lombard street. I dont know if it's the curviest road or what, but it was fun to see.

One night we had late dinner reservations and so we decided to head to China town. I think Jake was a little disappointed because he was expecting fireworks, dragon dancers, the works. Instead we found a found a pretty calm street. So we made the best of it and sampled a bunch of pastries in a Chinese bakery.. we realized they weren't really our thing and ended up throwing out most of them while they weren't looking, but we had fun anyway.

Like a mentioned before, Jake has become a total foodie so our trip to San Francisco was partially motivated by his love of food and all the good restaurants in the area [although we left the camera at home every night when we went to dinner]. When we first got there Jake called to make a reservation at a place that was on his bucket list, Gary Danko. Apparently people make reservations 3 months in advance, so we put our name on a waiting list and didn't get our hopes up. On our last day, Gary Danko called and we got the golden ticket. Jake was a on cloud 9. Being a little iffy on some foods these days I was a little nervous, but went because Jake was soo excited. I ended up being in heaven and loving every bite of my food. I didn't stop saying, "amazing," "so good," the whole time, and normally I'm not like that at all. Jake loved his 1st two courses until he suddenly got really sick (from his medicine for his back) and couldn't finish the rest of his meal. heart breaker.  He still enjoyed his time but was sad he couldn't fully experience Gary Danko, but it may have been worth it because he is one big step closer to converting me to be a foodie too.

San Francisco adventures

Last week Jake and I took an impromptu trip to San Francisco. We dreamed of going on a graduation trip in August but since I will either be huge or have a little baby when Jake graduates, we decided to take advantage of president's day weekend and have an early graduation trip. It turned out to be the perfect weekend, one of the best we've had together.

We ended up having the perfect location, we were loving our view when we got in at night. Not going to lie I thought it was the golden gate bridge until I woke up and realized it wasn't red. But it didn't disappoint because the ferry building had an awesome farmers market right across the street. We sampled different foods and got some yummy doughnuts, pear french toast, and a pulled pork sandwich.

The best part was we didn't make any concrete plans before we went so we just explored the city. The first day we went shopping down town and ate at a yummy Italian restaurant. Jake raved about his 'raviolo.' It was one big raviolo, that's singular of ravioli I think.  It really made me  laugh every time he talked about his raviolo. lol

Jake, knowing my love for Nordstrom, took a picture of this 5 story Nordstrom while I was shopping.. what a good husband. lol

The next day we rented bikes at our hotel and rode the bikes to pier 39. We got to see Alcatraz from far away.. Jake was pretty convinced he could have made a swimming escape from there. We saw some fire jugglers, lots of cute shops, funny looking sea lions, and happened to be there during the tulip festival.

Then we made our way to fisherman's wharf. I have always loved sourdough bread, but during my pregnancy I have really loved sourdough. So I was pretty darn excited to go to the sourdough factory and see how it was made. I was even more excited to eat a delish lunch there. Oh man, I would go back to San Francisco just for some more of that!

[This post is already getting long so I'll post the rest in another post.]
After this there was more food and lots more bike riding. Lets just say our bums were pretty sore when we finally got back to the hotel that night.

Going under the knife.

Well it sure feels like it's been a long time coming... 2 years to be exact..Jake finally had back surgery! A week or so before we got engaged Jake herniated a disc at the gym. Since then he's been in a lot of pain. It fluctuates off and on but it's been a really really tough challenge for him. He loves to be active so much,  so it's been really hard for him to take it easy. Not only that but just normal activity like sitting in class caused him pain. He tried physical therapy, cortisone injections, and spinal decompression, but nothing brought him any relief. So we finally came to terms with the idea that he would need surgery. Thankfully we were referred to a great nuero surgeon and we felt really good about moving forward with the whole thing.

Poor Jake has a terrible fear of needles. When the nurse told him they were going to draw blood, he looked ill. To his credit, it turned out to be a pretty terrible experience. It took 2 nurses, 1 anaesthesiologist, at least 6 pricks with needles, and about 30 minutes just to start an IV and draw a little vile of blood. Poor thing said it was the worst part of having surgery. I'm just hoping that means he's going to have a lot of sympathy when I get an epidural! lol

Jake's parent's came to town to support him and help take care of him. He had lots of company in his little hospital room while he was waking up and recovering.

He spent over 24 hours in the hospital and was not loving the hospital food. They brought him a tray of food for every meal, but lucky for him his parents delivered what ever he wanted. 

Although he was in a lot of pain and struggling just to get out of bed and walk across the room, we feel so blessed that everything went well and that we have such great support!

He is recovering so well, but still has a ways to go until he's back to normal, so keep him in your prayers! As of now he is taking a week (at least) off of school, watching tv, taking short walks, and enjoying his Mom's cooking!