Calling All Codes!

I have a confession: I love Diet Coke!!! I have been on and off the Diet Coke bandwagon for years now. I cleaned up while pregnant with Jonah because of the aspartame and caffeine but it didn't take long after delivery for me to pick it up again. Now don't get me wrong...I'm not drinking like 2 liters a day or anything. It's more like 2 liters a week--or 2 cans a day. Is that bad?

Long ago, before I started working at DENTRIX (or as my mom calls it "the great and abominable church") I was drinking regular Coke and you couldn't have gotten me to drink Diet Coke for anything (or as Jake would say, "I'd rather drink my own urine"). But when I began my inspiring career at DENTRIX I decided that I'd better switch if I was going to be buying so much of it from the vending machines to keep me awake at my desk. So I did...and now I really can't stand regular Coke. It coats my teeth with a sugary film.

There is one flaw to Diet Coke, however. You cannot drink it with a sweet snack. It is really much better if it follows something salty. The best way to drink Diet Coke is with fresh lime. The bottled version of Diet Coke with Lime is good but it's really so much better if you use a fresh squeezed lime.



Anyway, to get to the point (the reason my post is called what it is)--I have started collecting Coke Rewards. This is my reason for posting. I NEED YOUR POINTS!! If you throw those little precious caps away without sending them to me...you're so cruel. I am currently saving enough points to get a Coke t-shirt with Paris paraphernalia on it.




So the moral of the story is: If you would like to donate your Coke Reward Codes (underneath each cap of Coke products, including Sprite), please email them to me or post them on my blog.

Sock Monkey

I don't pride myself on being very handy with a sewing machine but I am pretty proud of my latest creation. I went to Target the other day to find a pair of socks worthy of becoming a sock monkey. I used a pattern online and this is what I got!!

I wasn't sure how Jonah would like this strange toy but he immediately took to wrestling with it. I guess it was a success. By the way, I purposely gave it two different colored eyes. I thought it added to the vintage/home-madeness factor.










There are a ton of great socks at Target if you're interested in trying out this little project. It took me about 2 days to finish. There was a lot of hand-sewing involved with all the appendages.

Bon Appetit!

Our Valentine's was superb yesterday. Jon took me to 26.2 (a marathon store) and had my stride and foot impact analyzed so I could get the right running shoe and then bought me a killer pair of shoes. What a great present! I call them my magic shoes because they're gold and they have this small gold detail that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings. Here's a picture:

I'm excited to get out there and see just how magical they are (come on...dream a little, people)!
So, in return, I slaved away in the kitchen all day. First, my friend came over and we made chocolate and caramel covered pretzels. It was messy but a lot of fun! They turned out to be quite delectable!

After cleaning up after that mess, I moved on to other things--like putting this little guy to bed. He looks beat, doesn't he? Maybe it's the crash after the sugar rush induced by the leftover chocolate and caramel drippings.

With my hands free, I finally moved on to dinner. You have to understand the situation first. February 13th is Jon's birthday so I attempted to make stuffed pork chops for dinner. They were horrible. Besides the case of trichinosis we picked up from eating raw pork, the stuffing was disgusting. We ended up microwaving the pork and scraping out all the salty, dry stuffing. You can understand now my slight hesitance in attempting another new recipe for Valentine's Day. I hadn't quite recovered from the embarrassment from the night before...or maybe I was just nauseated and tired (hey, aren't those symptoms of trichinosis?). I made a trip to the store for the ingredients and laughed as I walked into Smith's and nearly collided with a long line of men holding all the ridiculously marked up, half-dead carnations (all the roses were gone). You wanna know my opinion of flowers on Valentine's? FORGET THEM! They're so expected. I'd much rather get flowers on any random day of the week. That tells me my husband thinks about me even when it's not required! I'd much rather get a Diet Coke and Peanut M&Ms for my gift! Thanks, Honey-Babe!
So here is what I made for dinner:

This is a rib eye steak, pan-seared, over portabello mushrooms and topped with a red wine, garlic sauce. It got raving reviews! One even commented, "This is better than going to a five star restaurant!"
I hope you all had successful Valentine's Days. If you want to wow your spouse, go here and try this: http://www.gastronomyinc.com/recipes/steak_ny.htm.
The recipe is from the Market Street Grill.

Past Posts Added

I just wanted to let you all know that I just added my posts from my own blog (which has been abandoned) to this one. I back-dated them so they will show up in the past. If you want to look at them, feel free. They're a little different style than our current blog.

Jonah Every Day

Here are some adorable pictures I have captured of Jonah over the last month. He is our little explorer and is constantly keeping us on our toes. We count our blessings everyday to have such a happy, healthy boy.


Mimi got Jonah new pants from Lucky.


Jonah immediately took to his model poses.




Jonah loves bath time. He eats the bubbles, splashes, and plays with all his ducks!

How To Awaken the Inner Child

Go sledding!


I took Jonah sledding yesterday for the first time.


It was also the first time I'd been for about 7 years. It was cold, icy, and snowing but it was so much fun!

Jonah had 3 layers of clothes on and looked like a marshmallow. His face was squished and he had rosy cheeks and nose. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed himself until it was just too cold and we went home.

I even took him down a pretty steep hill in the saucer and he just giggled at the end!

Nun's Puffs

Do you know what Nun's Puffs are? Take a look:

And they go amazingly well with this:

This is my favorite hot chocolate. I have a mug almost every day...and sometimes twice a day. You can only get it at Harmon's in Utah and it's pretty hard to find in other states as well.

Jon and I ate these for breakfast this morning. They're really good when you put some honey on them.

Here's the recipe:

1/2 cup butter
1 cup milk
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 eggs
1 tablespoon sugar
Cinnamon-sugar or honey, optional

Generously grease twelve 2-1/2-inch muffin cups (use the giant muffin cups with 6 to a pan), covering the edge and around the top of each cup. In a 2-quart saucepan melt the butter. Add milk; bring to boiling. Add flour all at once; stir vigorously. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball that does not separate. Remove from the heat; cool slightly, about 5 minutes.

Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating with a wooden sppon after each addition for 1 minute or until smooth. Fill the prepared muffin cups half full of dough; sprinkle with the sugar.

Bake puffs in a 375 degree oven about 30 minutes or until golden brown and puffy. Remove from pan and serve immediately.

Good Old-Fashioned Green Family Christmas

Actually, this year wasn't exactly "old-fashioned" but it was really wonderful to be with everyone. This year we went down to Puerto Penasco (where's the ~ over the "n"?) with the whole crew and had a blast.

Of course we all gained about 10 lbs eating the "Treat of the Season" and all the other novelty snacks which one usually doesn't keep in the house on a regular basis...hence, the novelty. We mostly just ate it because it was there. Gosh that sounds an awful lot like...well...does that mean we have an unhealthy relationship with food? One could argue that it was necessary to build up the fat stores as it was bitterly cold most of the time. Yes, we were in Mexico but don't let that fool you. That blasted wind cuts right through the clothes. Next time I'll have to bring my winter coat, a hat, gloves, and galoshes (for the beach).

Jonah was 9 months old this last Christmas and had no concept of the tradition of opening presents. Boy was I excited to jump in and help!

Regardless of the weather, we got some great pictures and ate some good food and had a great time on the beach.

Let's Blog

Gosh. Who'd have thought we, the Bush's, would become so conforming? Just kidding. This is a fantastical way to keep up with everyone. I hope you all enjoy this. I'll be posting some things from the past so as to update you thus far. Mmm k.

Milestones of Motherhood

I've been a mom for just over three months now...which makes me a pro right? No, probably not. But at least I can say that I know more about Jonah than anyone else in the world. Since I am a "stay-at-home mom" I spend nearly 24 hours with my son. I believe this is the single longest period of time I have spent of my life with one person; only to exclude the time I probably spent with my own mother as when I was a baby. I have come to a point in my relationship with Jonah where I sometimes miss him when he's napping and I have to keep myself (its not really that hard to keep myself) from waking him up just to try to make him smile or laugh or just to laugh when he cries.
I'm really not insensitive and I'm sure it's a pretty common thing among new parents that when you finally get past the point where you break a sweat and begin to panic every time your newborn cries, that you eventually learn to laugh at the funny faces and squeals that come from them and be more patient with the inevitable crying spells. That's a great point to get to. In fact, here are a few other points in my experience of motherhood that I'd like to consider milestones:

IPPD or Inevitable Post-Pardom Depression is quite possibly the most horrible feeling on earth. I call it "Inevitable" because I truly believe that every mother has or will experience this to one degree or another. I'd like to believe that this frightful condition is only worsened when your baby decides it wants to be born right-smack-dab in the middle of the freaking night. In my case, my water broke at 12:30am and Jonah was born 4 hours later. It could have been 3 hours but since he was coming so fast and the doctor wasn't there yet, I got to sit with my numb legs in stirrups for an hour while his head threatened to come out (sorry for the graphics, gentlemen). After he was born I was wheeled to my recovery room and Jonah was taken to the nursery to be cleaned up and to have his breathing monitored for a while. My husband went with him to make sure everything was ok, so I sat alone in a quiet room while fighting off nausea and the oh-so-empty feeling in my midsection. Those aren't exactly great sleeping conditions. The following day, of course, was peppered with visitors, nurses checking my blood, etc. and the time I spent looking at this new baby with utter amazement that it was mine. The next night was horrible. If you've never tried sleeping with a newborn in your room, I'll tell you right now that its nearly impossible. They make all sorts of grunts, squeaks, sighs, and toots and after ever single one I sat straight up to make sure he was still breathing. When I finally got past the guilt and let the nurses take him to the nursery so I could get some sleep, the longest stretch of sleep was but two hours because they'd bring him back in to be nursed or to take more of my blood. The day I got home from the hospital my mom decided that Jonah was looking rather yellow. I called the doctor in a hidden panic and they told me to bring him right in to have his biliruben levels checked. The minute I hung up the phone I started bawling. My mom and sister just sat there staring at me. This was the ultimate low point. My husband caught a horrible cold the day Jonah was born which left him in a drugged, slightly comatose state for the first week. So as you can imagine, he wasn't much help (no offense, Honey). For you pregnant ladies out there, don't worry. This stage passed after about a week.
The Real Smiles for Jonah came at about 4 weeks. This point is wonderful because previous to this point he only smiled when he was gassy, which was cute but wasn't in any way an acknowledgement of our futile attempts to rouse him. The weeks leading to this moment were also difficult because you feel as though you're giving every ounce of energy, time, and love to something that has no idea that you're there except for when its hungry.
The Six Week Sleep Miracle occurred one random night around six weeks after Jonah was born. Up to this point I believe that the longest period of sleep I got was about 3 hours long. One night, my husband and I went to bed expecting to be woken up about 1 and 1/2 hours later for a feeding. Of course we didn't budge until we heard Jonah cry which was a magical 7 hours later. We actually managed to get 5 hours of sleep that night which felt amazing. That one night gave us a hope that fueled us through the next few days. Jonah started sleeping 7 hours and 8 hours at a time and eventually it got up to 9 or 10. At this point I began to enjoy motherhood even more because I realized that there would be a day, maybe not in the near future, that I wouldn't be over tired and need a nap.
Jonah is now almost 15 weeks old (a little over 3 months) and it is most rewarding to see him grow and change. He opens and closes his hands and even tries to reach for things. He smiles, talks, and giggles when he's happy and has quite the personality when he's mad. He holds his head up (although still a little wobbly) and looks around and is ever so observant. I love being a mother and I can't wait to do it all over again (I mean I can but I can't...you know what I mean!)!