More Room Renovations

And we're making progress. Becky came to help with Savannah's room. We are doing the lower part the dark purple and the higher part the light pink. We have a beautiful border that we are going to put up with Joe's Mom. More pictures soon!

Thanks for the help Becky!

xoxoxo
Samantha, Joe, Saavy

Savannah's Room Renovations

Joe and "Uncle" Josh patched up Savannah's ceiling yesterday evening so that we can start painting and getting her room ready over the coming months. They did a great job. Now a few more coats of mud, some sanding and some ceiling paint- Good as new!

More pictures of her room as we get it done....
xoxoxoxo
Joe, Sam and Savvy

It's a GIRL~

Savannah Grace LaCouture will be joining us around our due date in March!
We are very excited and plan to paint next Sat.

We'll post more pictures!
Samantha, Joe and Savy

18 week belly

Here is it - the 18 week old belly. Appointment on Thursday went well. Doppler picked up his/her heart beat at 150. Very normal. Also baby was down VERY low. This indicated(old wives tale) that it's a BOY. Who really knows though. Our Doc will tell us on December 10th. We can pay and go in town as early as November 2nd. We're not completely sure what we are going to do but we think we'll be going into town. Gives us an extra month to prepare.

You may also notice Samantha is missing about 8 inches of HAIR! I found an organic salon near the house and chopped it off. Since it was still falling out- I thought smaller pieces would be less depressing(And I was right!). Cut is easy and soft- and I truly love it even if I was worried. I haven't had my hair this short in a while! Joe claims it's very soccer mom"ish". At my instance for clarification- he back pedaled and claimed he meant.. " you know...the stylish soccer moms who are busy mom but still hot". Not sure if I buy it- but whatever. He's never been one for complimenting words.

That's all from us!
Samantha, Joe and the Baby (Who right now is the size of a turnip- until Monday when he/she will be the size of a green bell pepper)

A Special Project.

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Here is the latest project, its small and not anything crazy but is one of the most important to me. Its a much better tobacco pouch, it should hold about three pipes full of tobacco. This project was made from some of the leather that my Great Grand Father had. By the time I came around he was not doing leather work anymore since his eye sight had degraded. My mother still talks about the coin purses he made out of leather with the hair still on. He did do a lot of wood working, and he forgot more then I could every learn about it. He built 13 of the 19 houses on the street he lived on. He lived in three of them, two were taken by the bank, the last one he got to keep. He ran two green houses and a good sized garden up until he died. His home also butted against a good track of woods with a brook going down the middle, what more could a young boy ask for? Some of my best memories as a child are getting out of school early on Wednesday, it was a half day when I was in grade school, and going there. It was free day care and it was great. Grandpa didn't talk a lot but when he did you listened, and he liked to show you how to do things once and then let you figure out how to do it from there. I never really watched TV as a kid, they didn't have cable and the outside was way more interesting. I know I get my love of learning from those times. Much to my wife chagrin I get my desire to try a bunch of new things from him too. I learned wood working, cement casting, figure carving, gardening, hunting, fishing, and the list goes on and on. I also learned a lot more. My work ethic comes from that time in my life. It's hard to stop weeding when the 70 something guy is there doing it with you. You can't really complain when something breaks because he would just take it as a challenge to fix..
Turns out you learn a lot about things when you take them apart to fix them. I get my love of quiet contemplation from him too, I think that's why I love motorcycles so much, I don't have a tree in my front lawn to sit under and just think, but I do have the bike. I know I got my love for apples from him. It just made me think that I miss him. I wish that he and BooBoo (That was what we all called my Great Grand Mother, that's a whole other post) could be here for me having a little one of my own. I remember how important they were in my life and all the great influences that I had growing up. I hope my kid gets that, the Navy life is going to make it hard. The soon to pop out kid will have a Great Grand Meme, so they won't totally miss out. Still its good to go back and think of those influences that got you where you are. I know he would be proud.
I also get my habit of walking around in stocking feet from him.
-Joe

Sam's New LEAF -Cooking

There are SO many things we're doing to get ready for little miracle- One is understanding that both Joe and I will have new roles.

Joe really wants me to be a SAHM. That is something that I don't want to do but before we got married I said that I could compromise and work less. That started a whole train of job/career switching and brought me to the wonderful world of contract work. Contract work I love- Inspiring High School students year round as a motivational speaker. This gives me the ability to have all holidays and the summers off! I've worked in a little boutique in Mystic to stay busy since we didn't have kiddos yet-but that will soon end(or decrease). The job with Making It Count allows me to have adult time, reconnect and network with the other speakers (about 280 of us in the US) twice a year at trainings and feel like I'm participating financially. We've eased into it and it's been great. It should be easy to co-op with another parent and be able to keep my same speaking schedule. Some months (September, January) are really busy and others(May,December) aren't. All in all - I'll only be away from my peanut a maximum of 15 hours a week. How blessed am I? It's like having that cake and eating it too! And Joe feels good about the compromise as well.

Well this little compromise I made two years ago has come to bite my little behind. We have realized that I will now be the chef of the house. I thought Gift buyer, card sender, laundry do"er", bill payer, finance manager...etc was enough. But after much thought and deliberation- We realized that chef will need to be added. Well, those who know me... You know this is VERY new uncharted territory for me. I am (of course) up for the challenge though. I got out cook books. I made lists. I made menus. I am diving in head first. (What other way do you dive in?).

And...so it has begun. Right now - I'll be making 4 "dinner" dishes and 1 dessert dish every week. We may add more in the future-but right now, this is what I am starting with. My new chef job started on Sunday(9/27). I had an assistant for my first day(he was really cute too!). I learned a lot. I'm actually really excited to provide for my family in this way too(Who would have thought!!!).

So my first main dish was Prosciutto, Spinach and Pasta Casserole. It was YUMMY. Not bad to make either. 25 minute prep. 25 minutes to cook.

Ingredients- 2 and 2/3 cup of dried pasta, 2 medium onions(thin wedges), 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon of butter, 1/2 tsp of anise seeds, 1/2 cup flour, 1 and 1/2 of chicken broth, 1/4 cup of grated parm cheese, 1 10 ounce pgk of chopped spinach (thaw and drain), 2 ounces or prosciutto, 1 medium tomato (seed and chop).

Cook Pasta and drain. Rinse with cold water.
Cook Onion and garlic in hot butter until onion is tender. Stir in flour and anise seeds. Add milk and chicken broth. Cook and stir until slightly bubbly and thickened. Stir in Parm Cheese(I added more then called for!). Stir in cooked pasta, spinach and prosciutto. Spoon mixture into 2 quart casserole dish.

Bake covered for 25 minutes at 350. Serve with chopped tomato (optional)

It smelled the house up something very YUMMY. When reheating -we've enjoyed it with some provolone cheese melted on top.






My first dessert dish was Brownie Pie. A little longer on the prep(40 minutes) and longer cook time(50 minutes). My husband is a chocolate nut- so this was a must for my first dessert.

Ingredients: (1/2 cup butter, 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate, 1 single pie crust, 3 eggs(beaten), 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup of flour, 1 tsp of vanilla, hot fudge topping and 1 cup chopped walnuts(optional, hubs doesn't like them-so I didn't)

Filling First- Melt butter and chocolate in saucepan. Cool for 20 minutes
Preheat oven to 350. Prepare/Make/Roll out Pie Crust. Use 9 inch pan. Crimp edges
For Filling - Combine eggs, sugar, flour and vanilla. Stir in Chocolate mix
Pour Filling into pie crust. Back 50 minutes. Add fresh fruit or hot fudge sauce.
Yum

Khaki Ball 2009

Khaki Ball was a nice evening out filled with khakis and many different semi-formal cocktail dresses. This year it was held at the Mystic Marriott. The guest speaker was Big Al. He passed on some great words of wisdom and kept the speech short and sweet. And we're always proud when the CPO's raise enough money to make the entire night open bar. Joe was happily telling everyone he had a built in designated driver. The funny part was he was ready for bed after just three drinks. I guess since I haven't really drank anything lately, neither has he. And as we're not big drinkers to begin with...well.. Yeah. My husband was home and asleep by 11:30.

It's a wonderful evening steeped in tradition. A good time for the Chiefs to reconnect with each other. A great time to honor all of the new CPO's and welcome them to the mess. A fun time for wives to dance with one another. The best part is hearing the newly frocked CPO's sing the star spangled banner. We had a nice table. The picture is of Joe and I and then Joe and a long time friend of his- Labue.