Out with the Old and In with the New

Projects this past weekend included replacing the ceiling fan and the A/C vent.
 
Both really needed to be updated, and now they look so pretty on the white, clean, popcorn texture-less ceiling. 

 Beautiful. 

A Shower from CCC

Working at Compassion Care Clinic was an invaluable experience.  I grew immensely as a physician assistant and a Spanish-speaker, and I will never forget some of the experiences I shared with the office staff, the PA I worked with, our office manager, and my supervising physician.

The clinic threw a small baby shower for Daniel and me this past weekend, and it was really nice to see the medical assistants, Juanita, and Silvia again.  I am extremely grateful for the experience of working at CCC during my first year as a PA.   

P.S. - Pregnancy updates: I am officially entering the third trimester!  Midwife visits become more frequent now, and I had my first Braxton Hicks contraction the other day!

Progress in the Nursery

This week Daniel and I cleaned out the room and the closet and removed all the baseboards in preparation for painting!

Removing the baseboards is a 2-person job, I think.  It was easier than when we did it in the dining room, before installing slate flooring.

On Monday the wonderful crew of DFW Painting came out and removed the popcorn ceiling texture on the ceiling, re-textured the walls, installed a chair rail, and painted.

The two colors of green are in the bedding set - like on this pillow.
Doesn't the closet look nice?

Our First Ever Baby Shower!
 
My two awesome sisters in law threw us our first ever baby shower this past weekend. 

It was lovely. 

The details were adorable. 
 
The food was delicious. 
 

Another friend is hosting a shower in May, so this one was mostly relatives and friends of our families. 

In fact, there were a few people I'd never met before - and it was nice to put faces with names. 

Daniel and I got such nice gifts. 

Lots of onesies, and lots of other baby necessities. 

The laptop is my sister Heidi, skyping in from Louisiana for the whole shower :).  
I was afraid nobody would try the registry at NellsNaturalBaby.com because the internet is intimidating to some--but not so! 

We got our first cloth diapers--some pre-folds and cloth wipes.  Haven't seen the BumGenius Organic All-In-Ones we registered for in person yet, but I'm excited about them. 

They are pricey at $25 each - but I think they will be worth it, since you don't have to stuff them and they can go in the washer and dryer.  Plus, they grow with the baby.  After much internet searching, they are the ones we settled on to use after the first few months (which is when we'll use pre-folds with diaper covers).

This is my adorable niece Abby, being held by Daniel's grandma.

And this is adorable nephew Jonathan, Abby's sister.  He talks like a 4-year old and has the memory of an elephant. 

My SIL Heather with Daniel.

Baby Lucy's future Nonnie, Mommy, and Mimi.  

Did you catch that??  Daniel decided tonight he is definitely in favor of "Lucy" as baby's name, and he gave me the 'okay' to put it on the blog!  Yay--she has a name!  Baby Lucy.  Lucy Pruessner.  I have only been in favor of that name for 3 years :).  Middle name is still up in the air, but we both like "Lynn". 

A Change of Pace


This week I visited my aunt and uncle in Tennessee.   It's amazing a quick trip to a different part of the country can reveal such a radically different way of living.

In the part of TN where my aunt and uncle live, there are a lot of do-it-yourselfers, and a lot of people who could survive for long stretches of time all on their own.
My aunt and uncle are joining that crowd. 


They have 2 goats, 13 chickens, and 2 rabbits.

Actually, while we were there one of the rabbits gave birth to a litter of bunnies, so they have more than 2 rabbits now.

And they have a really large garden and their own water supply from a spring.
I got to spend some quality time with my brother Thomas, my sister Ginnie, and one of my adorable nephews, Jack.  This is us, watching a movie.

We spent part of our time scavenging for rocks for this makeshift walkway.  Nice, isn't it?  It required more effort than you'd think, from looking at it. 

I didn't realize what a city-girl I must be. It was nice to be out in the country... but things are hard out there!  Suburban living is so convenient.  I am glad to be home.

Super Simple Black Bean Soup

This is Rachel Ray's recipe, and it's a recent hit in our house, so I wanted to share the recipe with you, Pioneer Woman style. 




The ingredients you need are pictured above. Black beans (3 cans), Petite diced tomatoes (1 can), onion, celery, red bell pepper, jalapeno, garlic, chicken broth, olive oil, salt, cumin, and ground coriander.


Start by pouring about 3 Tbs of olive oil into a soup pot and heating to medium-high.

Now dice up all the vegetables:

That would be 1/2 onion.

 
About 3-4 ribs of celery.


2 Cloves garlic.  1 Jalapeno (remove the seeds if you are not a fan of spicy).

 
1 Red bell pepper.


Add each vegetable to the pot and cook about 5-10 minutes, until soft.


Season with about 1 and 1/3 tsp of coriander and about 2 tsp of cumin.



And add some salt in there.


Next add the three cans of black beans, lightly drained.


Now add the can of tomatoes with liquid.

 
Add as much chicken stock as you want, depending on how thick you want the soup.


This step is optional, but I think it improves the soup's texture.  Remove about a cup of the soup.


 Pour it into the blender.

 
And blend until smooth.


Then add it back into the soup.


You're done!  Super simple, right?  Serve with sour cream and tortilla chips.  Delicious, cheap, and easy.  Enjoy!