Happy Monday, Ab!  Hopefully you had an easier time getting out of bed this morning than I did.  Between my coughing and Seth's snoring (he really can't help it when he's so congested, poor guy) I did not sleep real well last night and that made getting up this morning pretty difficult.  Tonight I am going to bed much earlier and Seth has to wait to come to bed until I'm completely out so that his snoring doesn't wake me.  It's really only a problem if we go to bed at the same time because he always falls asleep faster than me.

I spent a TON of time in the kitchen this weekend.  It was easy to do since Seth was out reffing all day Saturday and Sunday and I'm super pleased with the results.  I bought a soup mix at the Amish market on Saturday and made a delicious and quite hearty soup for Seth and I on Sunday night.  After reffing in the rain all day, I thought it might be something Seth would like.  The mix is so awesome.  It has red and yellow lentils, green and yellow split peas, long grain white rice, wild rice, and navy beans in it.  I added celery, carrots, green onions, tomato paste, chicken, and two salt-free veggie bouillon cubes and turned out really yummy.  I like that the Maranatha market sells soup mixes like that without the seasoning because the commercials seasoning is what's always so full of salt.  I never would have thought of combining all those things on my own.  I made a double batch and I have five containers pre-made for lunch all week.  I also made those granola bars I told you about (SO good!) and some homemade fruit-by-the-foots (kind of).  I used frozen mixed berries and a banana, boiled them down, then pureed them in the blender.  The only bad part was that the recipe said to leave the door to the oven open a crack, which I don't think was a good idea-- they ended up kind of mushy on the one side and overly crispy on the other.  Still good though.  I baked them on parchment paper and then just cut the paper and the fruit into strips and rolled them up.  Seth looooves them :)  I read that you can also make them outside in the summer just by leaving the pan with the puree out in the sun all day.  I'll definitely be trying that once it warms up, I'll do a whole bunch all at once and then freeze them.  Frozen fruit was on sale at Pic N' Save this weekend so I stocked up on cherries, strawberries, blueberries, and mixed berries.  This is step two in my plan to get myself to eat more fruit.  I'm concerned that my kids will end up being super picky eaters like me if I don't model good eating behavior, so I've got to do it.  Baby steps... baby steps...

In other news, after stepping on the scale over the weekend and finding my weight down to 165 lbs, I tried on my new bikini again and I looooove it!  Not quite ready for prime time yet, but I think by the time we go to Mexico it's going to be awesome!  It's a strapless top and fold over bottom (perfect for my belly) and I got it in a rainbow stripey pattern, it's very fun.  I can't wait to wear it and get my tan on!  I might actually order another one just so that I can mix it up a bit while I'm down there, that's how awesome I think it is!

Btw... here's some news... Seth asked me on Saturday night how long before we want to start trying I should go off the pill.  We're definitely thinking that Cabo is going to be our last hurrah (I want to be able to drink pina coladas in the pool, after all) and then we're going to give it a shot!  How exciting, right?  And I feel like this year is FLYING by so it'll be here in no time.  Yay!!  Also a new house just came on the market that we are trying to get into immediately because we think it might be perfect.  It's right across the street from the other one we were interested on Heide Lane next to that big park.  So it would be across the street from that park and it looks really nice.  I hope Lowell gets us in there ASAP.  Seth emailed him first thing this morning and stressed the urgency, so perhaps this is it!  We really like that area a lot, we're going to drive by tonight even if we can't get in there yet-- fingers crossed!

Hope you have a happy Monday, Ab!  I love you!

Rachel