Tuesday TOP TEN!!!

TOP TEN of this moment...

I havent' done a TOP TEN for a while now, and although I don't really know what the heck to say, I figured I would benefit from a little optimism ahora.

So, here goes.

1. This morning I slept in until 8:00! Nice, right? How many people with a kid get to do that?? Or people in general, for that matter? Probably not many. I am pretty lucky.

2. I am not a cook. Like, AT ALL. However, I am a good baker. I can make killer lemon bars, scones, cake/cupcakes, aebelskivers, and cookies.

3. I have a car that runs well, fits all my crap, and ain't too shabby. I am pretty lucky.

4. I was off doing something a week or two ago when Jane came running up to me to tell me "Mom! C'mon, fouw me! C'mon Mom!" "c'mon". She proceed to lead me, holding hands and glancing over her shoulder to make sure I was following her the whole way, into the living room. She had set two placesettings for a fantastically fat-free (albeit imaginary) meal for the two of us. So stinkin' sweet!

5. Another cute jane story: check out how she was pushing around her baby stroller the other day: while riding on her Hover-Round: the surfer dude-speaking turtle rider.

6. MOPS. Mothers of Preschoolers. I desperately need an outlet like this (time to just hang out with other mamas sans our darling little darlings). I also really thrive in leadership positions (I am a control freak I suppose). I also just love these ladies:

7. I have a "new" house with lots of projects to keep me busy for the next year or twenty.

8. Let's just say it out loud: Jane is adorable. And she is my kid. Lucky me!

9. On thursday we will get a better look at baby #2, and *hopefully* find out if it is a boy baby or a girl baby, and a healthy baby most importantly.

10. I get to eat delicious food nearly every day of the week. Blaine is an excellent cook. If you don't believe me, come over on Thursday night at 6:30. Find out the answer to TOP TEN #9, and eat from a magnificent nacho/taco bar!

Seriously. Quite a charmed life, dont'cha think?

Signed,

Queen Stacey

Addison Louise: my first newborn photo shoot!

Yesterday afternoon Jane and I drove down to King City (on a b-e-a-u-tiful day) to meet Tiffany & Marc Silva's new little baby girl, Addison Louise.

She was one week & one day old, and COMPLETELY irresistable. She follows in her adorable sister Hannah's attractive footsteps, that's for sure.

Oh, don't believe me?

Take a look for yourself.

There are way more than these (like almost 200-yikes!), but these are my top 24!

Yesterday afternoon Jane and I drove down to King City (on a b-e-a-u-tiful day) to meet Tiffany & Marc Silva's new little baby girl, Addison Louise.

She was one week & one day old, and COMPLETELY irresistable. She follows in her adorable sister Hannah's attractive footsteps, that's for sure.

Oh, don't believe me?

Take a look for yourself.

There are way more than these (like almost 200-yikes!), but these are my top 24!

MOPS Retreat TOP TEN!!!

MOPS.

It is not a cleaning device.

It is an acronym for Mothers of Preschoolers.

Which I guess is actually a cleaning device.

Hmmm.

- Deep Thoughts by Stacey Wilson

So I am attempting to recover from a raucous 24 hours + with most of the leadership team for the Salinas Valley Community Church's MOPS group. 15 amazing women were able to leave behind husbands, kids, responsibilities, and chores overnight! It totally ruled.

We sunbathed.

We laughed.

We swam.

We ate. A lot.

We talked.

We shared our histories.

We prayed for one another.

We ate some more.

We watched a certain mothers of a preschoolers try to get the rest of us to guess "prostitue", "proctologist", and "pasties" during a rousing game of charades. Don't worry, we had other words, too. Those were just the most outrageous.

We relay raced with t-shirts.

We plan on having an awesome year of MOPS in 2010-11!!

I know that is more than ten things, but it was a pretty awesome 24 hours.

Yet I still don't know what "the secret $#% challenge" was all about. But that table of women were laughing pretty hard!

Love ya like a sista,

SW

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

Just in case I was imagining things.

Which I am NOT.

Here are some photos of me & my 16 week/5 day pregnant belly.

These were all taken yesterday.

Seriously. One day.

AFTER BREAKFAST

AFTER LUNCH

AFTER DINNER

Now, on a normal day I grow from 4 months to 8 months in appearance. yesterday was an anomaly since I didn't eat any really big meals. But after that last picture I ate two slices of toasted, buttered monkey cinnamon bread. It was seriously good.

BUT, if I keep this up - those jeans are not going to fit for long.

Whew,

All this talk about food is making me hungry.

Ciao,

Stace

Oye vay! Just pray!

Today I am sitting at work, staring out at the beautiful sunny day (finally!), and enjoying my first top quality Bagel Corner bagel dog. YUM. I should not have discovered this thing. Way delicious.

Although I have been removing, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, painting, and painting the old kitchen cabinets in my new house - I have also been thinking.

Don't even say any "wow, blondes think"... or some such comment please.

I have been thinking and reflecting. Yesterday's entry in the fantastic daily devotional book - My Utmost for His Highest was exactly what I needed. Much like it is every time. It was about praying without ceasing (2 Thessalonians somewhere). Although I am not eloquent whatsoever, as you well know if you are reading this blog, I will attempt a Stacey paraphrase of said devotional.

Essentially, praying should be as breathing, as your heart beating, as your eyes blinking. Natural, constant, and consistant. Awesome, right?

Take a deep breath, and just imagine you are communing with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit through each little molecule. Aaah, is it filling you up?

I need to be filled, and have been asking "where are you God?" lately. Praying without ceasing is making me more aware of His presence, even if I don't understand my circumstances.

I often sing this short song "Yes, Lord" to Jane and around the house. She actually told me (with eyes rolled up) "Mom, no more Yes, Lord"!! Little stinker. Later I heard her singing it outloud to herself - even the "bottom of my heart" part. Man, that was awesome. Makes me get all teary eyed just thinking about it.

The point of telling you about that song is that I want that to be my prayer all day. Rather than, Why, Lord?/When, Lord?/Who, Lord? I want to cry out "YES, LORD!"

Please, send me a text. Call me. Email. FB. Leave a comment. Encourage me, love me, hold me accountable! I will answer...



YES, LORD!



If you want, you can just read the devotion here! Isn't that cool?



And, these are the lyrics (at least what I sing :) to "Yes, Lord" -
Yes, Lord
Yes, Lord
From the bottom of my heart
To the depths of my soul
Yes, Lord
Completely Yes
My soul ... says YES!


And, please don't ask me to sing it. I think my singing voice is awesome. But a relative/music teacher disagrees :)


Have a YES kind of day,
Stacey

Hawaii Top Ten

I should begin with saying that #1 is leaving your kid(s) at home. Vacations just aren't the same with your kid(s) dictating the entire schedule and agenda items.

For a quick contrast:

Vacation WITHOUT kid(s): sleeping in at your leisure;

Vacation WITH kid(s): wake up to "mama, beach?" "MAMA, BEACH!!"

Vacation WITHOUT kid(s): dust the sand off your feet as you meander slowly out to dinner;

Vacation WITH kid(s): drag your kid into the bath tub immediately to try to remove millions of sand particles from every possible orifice (including ones you really didn't think of)

Vacation WITHOUT kid(s): eat out at a lovely restaurant every evening, watching the sun go down;

Vacation WITH kid(s): force feeding mac-n-cheese in the hotel room

Vacation WITHOUT kid(s): explore the island and sunbathe

Vacation WITH kid(s): take a ride on the "Pineapple Express"

with that little disclaimer complete,

here is my Hawaii Top Ten!!!!

1. Eating Dole pineapple frozen deliciousness at the pineapple plantation.

2. Watching the amazing sunsets from our perch on the 35th of Trump Towers.

3. Taking the kids to the infinity pool at Trump. Wishing triplets on anyone who dare sneer at us with all 5 cousins screaming.

4. Playing on the beach with Parker, Trevor & Jane. (note: cleaning up from playing on the beach NOT in the top ten: see above disclaimer).

5. Kylie's adorable matching dress gift for Jane & Jocelyn. They were both nap-time zombies in this photo.

6. Aunt Kylie's weekend visit & playing with the kids so I could try to sleep in a little longer. Try.

7. Jane really took to the ukelele (sp?). She was rockin' it all week.

8. Jane and I woke up Tuesday morning to an amazing full rainbow as we sat on the balcony to eat our breakfast. What an amazing reminder of God's promises.

9. Also on Tuesday (Jane & I were rollin' solo that day) we ate a super delicious lunch on the patio at Roy's. She's showing off the seasoned edamame that she pretty much ate all of by herself.

10. Last morning. Savoring the view from our suite in Amanda's amazing apartment in the "tallest building". THANK YOU AUNT JODI & AUNT AMANDA for a fantastic trip!

So there you go.

Hawaii.

I swear I was there, I just was behind the camera. Trust me: be thankful.

Aloha & Mahalo,

Stace-in-your-face

Keeping in with this week's Peeps theme...

PEEPS KRISPY TREATS!!

(please note that the excellent photography in this post is copyrighted by Stacey Cheatham Wilson, thank you very much, and not stolen from any foodie website)

Can I get a 'what-what'?

Step One: Gather all your Peeps (the store was out of pink, bummer)

Step Two: Prep your generic box of Raley's Fine Foods Crispy Rice Cereal by opening it up and placing it by the stove.

Step Three: Melt your two tablespoons butter on medium heat. I usually use more, but this is seriously all we had in the house. Costco run tomorrow!

Step Four: Put all your peeps (at least 35 little critters) into the melting pot. Just as with Peepshi, ignore the silent screams of the poor little peeps.

Step Five: Look in that garbage and be amazed at the amount of peeps I will consume tomorrow when I eat all these peeps krispy treats by noon. Err.... ah... um, I mean not ME.... but perhaps the collective "you"?......

Step Six: try to keep both the burning sugar, as well as the mixing of colors, to a minimum by smooshing the peeps down within their own color group.

Step Seven: Add your Raley's Fine Foods Crispy Rice cereal to the melting pot (add as much as you want to keep it as marshmallowy as you like).

Step Eight: Now you can mix all those glorious colors together. This is the point that I really wished the store still had pink peeps. It would have made a less-puke-colored-and-more-rainbow-looking Peeps Krispy Treats.

Step Nine: Press the Peeps Krispy Treats into a greased (I had too use pam spray since I was out of butter) 13x9" pan. If it sticks, just lick your fingers. The reason is two-fold: one, the PKTs* won't stick to your fingers anymore; two, no one else can eat them since you essentially just licked the whole tray. Bonus!

Step Ten: Go into a diabetic coma from consuming more sugar than is humanly possible. Call your doctor.

*PKT = Peeps Krispy Treats, duh!