Low-Fat Homemade Granola

I found an awesome recipe for low-fat homemade granola here.  I left out the raisins and apricots because I didn't have any and did a full cup of dried cranberries.  I also added a small bag of sliced almonds.  This added a little fat, but almonds are good for your cholesterol.  I also left out the maple flavoring...because who has that?

In other news, we are down to almost single digits with this due date.  I'm getting slightly distracting because of it.  Example:  While on my walk today, I couldn't figure out why my Ipod wasn't playing.  I kept pressing play, turning it up, etc.  But to no avail.  Then I realized that I couldn't hear it because the ear buds were in my hand and not in my ears.

Twenty-Five Years and Counting

Happy 25th Birthday to Katie! Last night we got to celebrate at Gram & Dun on the Plaza. Great atmosphere and great food, definitely recommend it.



Please note that in front of Emma is a large platter of Chicken and Waffles.  We're talking three huge breasts of fried chicken.  Johnny pointed out that it took more than one chicken to make her meal.  This was before Johnny, Mike, and Emma spent the last half of the meal discussing opening a Waffle House/KFC/Taco Bell. KenTacoHut better watch out.

It was great to have Emma and Sarah come in, but we missed Jane and Sarah Mann!  Over 15 years of friendship for some of us.  Baby Hutson is lucky to have so many wonderful aunties.

A Reese's Peanut Butter Day

Today is Katie's birthday (more to follow), and I got to make the cake for the celebration tonight.  She gave me free reign, so I decided to make a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Cake.  I combined two recipes from smittenkitchen.com.  The cake recipe is here, and the icing recipe is here.  I also chopped up peanut butter cups and put them in the middle as well as on the top.



Seeing all these Reese's reminded me of one day at little ol' Delaware Valley.  Delaware Valley Charter was the first school where I taught in Philadelphia.  Now this school had a million problems from the fact that I had to buy my own paper after two reams a month (try copying 130 five page tests on two reams a month) to firing people by putting notes in their mailboxes (including the vice principal).

Just one of these problems was the janitorial staff.  The school hired some cheap company to come in at night and sweep the floors, empty the trash and so on.  About two thirds of the way through the year, I was noticing that my trash was rarely emptied in the mornings and my floor wasn't anywhere near clean (including the strip in the middle that was just concrete because my classroom was actually two nursing home rooms combined and they never bothered to replace the floor where the middle wall was torn down).  I think at that point I had noticed that a few little things had gone missing as well.

So I decided to do an experiment.  One of the big fundraisers for almost every club at DVC was selling candy bars.  I had purchased a few Reese's Peanut Butter Cups from someone, so I decided to leave the package out on my desk after school.  I left around 6:00 and locked my door.  When I came back the next morning, the Reese's gone, and there were crumbs on the desk.  The janitor who had stolen them had not only stolen them but had sat down at my desk to eat them...and then didn't clean up the mess.  Classy.  So as I am wont to do, I loudly made my rounds to the other teachers and found out that other people had had various things stolen including money, and no one had spoken up about it.  I raised a huge fuss, an investigation ensued, and the janitorial company was fired.

The best part of the whole deal was that the vice principal (this was before she got a note in her mailbox telling her that she was fired and her nephew jumped the principal's nephew, and we had to pull them off of each other) came to my door and gave me a dollar to pay me back for my missing Reese's.  Sweet Victory.

**One caveat.  I don't publicly share the majority of my stories about my ridiculous experiences at DVC out of respect for the students.  A lot of my students worked really hard and succeeded, no thanks to the Philadelphia school system and the people in charge.

Fabric Recycles

I mosied into a new fabric store yesterday called Fabric Recycles on 92nd and Metcalf.  The premise of the store is that they sell already cut pieces of fabric that they've purchased from estate sales or from individual collections.  There are all kinds of sizes and patterns, and they say that the fabric is sold "at a fraction of the price" of retail stores.



Now if that "fraction" is 7/8 of the price, I would agree.  The fabric is slightly cheaper than retail stores like Jo-Ann's, but the selection is so large and smashed together, that I found it difficult to find anything.  And when you remember that you're buying used and randomly sized fabric, you wonder why it isn't cheaper.  I did think that it was a good place for getting really small pieces of fabric.  I was able to get a few pieces for $0.65 each since I only needed scrap sizes for the project I was working on.  Overall I would recommend that people check it out, especially if you enjoy searching through a lot of options for a good deal.  However, I personally will probably not be hurrying back any time soon.

And Another Pinterest Craft

After spending some time this morning snooping around Pinterest, I found this tutorial for how to make fancy burp cloths.  I have a ton of scrap fabric, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.



It turns out that these were extremely easy and only took about 20 minutes a piece to make.  They were also extremely free because Johnny's mom had already given me these burp cloths that she found at a garage sale, and I already had all of the fabric.  Best kind of craft there is.

Now we're ready for all kinds of spit up.

Day 260

Dear Baby Hutson,

        We are now on day 260 of this whole pregnancy thing.  I think that seven pounds is big enough now to warrant you coming out a little bit early.  I know you are having a lot of fun kicking my ribs and squeezing my bladder, but there are a lot of fun things to do out here too.  Also, you have made your mommy get so big that even daddy's shirts don't really cover you very well anymore.  I think we would all be happy if you just came out today.  Then people would stop asking me why it's taking so long for you to come.  And if you came now, Daddy might win his pool at work.  Double points.  Just think about it.

Love,

Your Mother

Last Ultrasound

Baby Hutson got to have his/her final close ups yesterday.  This is a picture of the face lying on its side.  You can see the little arm pulled up under the chin also.  I personally think Baby Hutson looks kind of creepy, so don't feel bad if you think that too.



Obviously, Baby Hutson is running out of room.  He/she is currently measuring 6lbs and 13oz.  Assuming he/she comes on the due date, add 1/2lb each for the next 3-4 weeks, and we're looking at an 8.5-9 pound baby.  This puts Baby Hutson more in the 38 week range rather than 36.  More good news is that I'm already dilated 2cm (too weird to share?).  The doctor said not to read too much into this as far as an early due date, but she did say it's less work that I have to do later down the road.  We're still looking at March 11 which is 24 days away.  My doctor also said that they wouldn't let me go beyond 41 weeks, so we will definitely have a baby in 30 days!  Gulp!

Tonight is our breastfeeding class (definitely weird), and I've got a list of things to bring to the hospital taped to our door.  Anything I've forgotten?