In the Oven

I made some really good Almond Joy cookies and wanted the recipe somewhere I could refer back to. I've included a picture which is the one with the original recipe. My cookies looked nearly the same, but I forgot to take a picture of my own. Yuuuummmm. 

Almond Joy Cookies

(Recipe from a Facebook share)

Preheat oven to 375

2.25 cup flour

1 tsp baking soda

.5 tsp salt

.5 cup butter

.75 cup white sugar

.75 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1.5 tsp vanilla

2.5 cup chocolate chips

1 cup sweetened coconut

1 cup chopped almonds

Grease cookie sheet (or put down parchment paper).

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars, beat in eggs one at a time, add vanilla.

Stir in dry ingredients until well mixed. Then stir in chocolate chips, coconut, and almonds. 

Drop by tablespoon on the cookie sheet and bake 8-10 minutes. 

I got at least 48 cookies out of this. You can certainly half the recipe (I actually halved it from a recipe calling for even larger measurements!).

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Also, we're doing the thing where we take a picture of me every week. Here's week 9. A grape baby was inside me.

And week 10, with a kumquat baby inside me. 

I don't like the idea of filling this blog with pictures of me, but since I do want a visual record with easy access, I guess this is what I'll be doing. Soon I'm sure it will all be pictures of Baby J and no one will even remember what I looked like before. Anyway, I'm still feeling good (no stomach problems whatsoever), just sleeping a lot more. I haven't gained any weight yet, but it's not due to a lack of delicious cookies!!!

Bart Is Gonna Be Mad

Photo Credit

On Tuesday, August 27th, Valerie and I drove to Tuscaloosa, AL for the Backstreet Boys concert. We were very excited. We got to Tuscaloosa well before the concert started because we were having dinner with a friend of mine from high school, Stephen, and his wife, Lily. I brought Lily a “Smart Start Parenting Kit”, which is an information packet assembled and distributed by my work for expecting and new moms. It was sweet to spend time with them catching up and learning all about their 6-weeks-away baby, Eli. I loved hearing their stories and was majorly relieved because Lily seemed so happy in her pregnancy and not physically miserable (she calmed a fear of mine that all pregnant women are miserable all the time). We ate at a delicious Greek restaurant and then they dropped us off at our concert. Val and I had an AWESOME time, Backstreet was back and it was larger than life. We got home around 1:30am – totally worth it.

I went to work Wednesday morning and had a normal day, I was excited again because my friends, Ryan and Joy, were coming to visit us with their toddler, Hosanna, and were (of course) bringing their 3-weeks-away baby, Haddon. Work was good, but I had some slight itchiness about my wrists, ankles, and hairline. I could see little bumps and assumed I had been bitten by something at the concert. I asked Valerie about it, but she wasn’t itchy at all. It was weird, but no big deal. Ryan and Joy arrived shortly before I got home from work and Shin cooked a fabulous dinner for all of us. My boss had lent me some toys for Hosanna to play with and they were perfect. I was so pleased to have a non-miserable, totally enjoyable toddler enjoying my home (they calmed another fear of mine that toddlers are unpleasant all the time). As the evening progressed I noticed that the bites had grown to covering my thighs with bumps. I rubbed some Benadryl cream on them during the evening, but just thought I’d gotten into some chiggers or gnats. I took a hot shower before bed because I felt dirty with all the cream I’d been rubbing on, I now had bright red itchy bumps all over my armpits and neck. After talking with my mom, we deduced I had hives (one of the worst things you can do with hives is to take a hot shower!). I took 2 Benadryl before going to sleep like the internet recommended, I awoke in the middle of the night itchy, and took 2 more.

Thursday, August 29th I woke at 6:30am to a completely red, horrifically swollen face and body. I was kind of terrified. What if I was contagious and gave something to Shin, Ryan, Joy, and Hosanna?! What about Joy’s baby? I couldn't get my rings off, my lips were swollen, and my eyes were swollen. I immediately looked up the number for the 24 hour clinic near our house, I called ahead to tell them I was on the way. I walked in to the clinic and the nurse said “wow, you are having an allergic reaction!” She comforted me by saying she had this type of reaction with allergies, but I was still scared. In the back of my mind I was thinking I could be pregnant... and what if the hives were related?!?!

Fortunately, there wasn't anyone at the clinic waiting before me and I was able to see a nurse and doctor fairly quickly. They confirmed that I had hives, but we couldn't ever pinpoint what had triggered them. I had to take a pregnancy test before they would prescribe anything and that’s how I confirmed I was pregnant! It was great news, and the doctor reassured me that he did not believe the baby was the cause of the hives. I must not have seemed very excited because I had to reaffirm to the doctor that pregnancy was good news, but I really wished it was the only thing I had to worry about at the moment. With my whole body itching and all my limbs painfully swollen, I’m sure I wasn't as enthused as I could have been.

Once I had been given a prescription, I called Shin out in the parking lot. I told him he was going to be a daddy and he said “I told you so!” (he’d been predicting it for over a week). He was making breakfast for Ryan and Joy while on the phone, so they found out right away. I had to wait outside my OB/GYN’s office until they opened so I could get their blessing before I filled my prescription. Thankfully the office opened just 30 minutes later and the nurse confirmed there was no problem with my prescriptions and pregnancy. I got my medicine and was able to get my rings off by the end of the day. We called parents (now grandparents) and other close family and a few friends, but decided to keep the news to ourselves until after meeting with the OB. We didn’t really know how far along I was or anything about the pregnancy, and wanted to share more once we were a little more confident.
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Yesterday we went to my first doctor’s appointment.We’d done so well to keep our little secret just among family. And then one of our good friends from church walked in for her appointment. When Paige found out why we were there, one of the first things she said was “Bart is gonna be so mad!” and laughed; I am SURE she speaks the truth. We were called back shortly afterwards. I got an ultrasound and we for really, real saw Baby Jeong inside me! It even twitched while we were watching! We found out that I’m 8 weeks along and due on April 19th. We think this is wonderful news. And that Bart will just have to get over it.

My Tri

Most of these have been on Facebook, updating the blog for grandparents! The tri was AWESOME! I'm so glad I did it and all of my equipment worked and the planning was sufficient. I totally praise God for getting me through, the biking was a really sweet time of worship as I had amazing pastoral views. My run even had butterflies criss-crossing my path. :-)

Also, thanks to Shin for getting up at 6:30 with me, driving me to the event, prepping my bike, photographing, and driving me back home!

 

My hope and dream was to finish in 2 hours. My official chip time was 1:52:25!!! Yaaaay!