My Quarterback

First of all, this is Matt blogging. I realize that due to my lack of blogging, the readership of Pennyrile has become mostly females. However, I still have hope that there is at least one or two guys out there who are still faithfully reading in hopes that they can hear from me.

I want to give you a glimpse into an amazing phenomenon that has arisen in our society over the past decades or so: fantasy football. It has become something that is not only for sports fans, but for anyone who knows a sports fan or likes numbers or knows what a football is. I recently had two fantasy football drafts (last Friday and Saturday). And over half the participants in the leagues were people who I wouldn't consider football fans. They don't regularly watch the NFL or have a favorite team, but they are enticed to participate in fantasy football.

So in this blog, I want to tell you about an unknown football player who will be my starting quarterback for both my fantasy football teams. I normally don't draft quarterbacks very high and this year was no exception. I stocked up on running backs and wide receivers and then picked up a quarterback in a later round.

Without further ado, my quarterback is.....Matt Schaub of the Houston Texans. Wait....you've never heard of him? You have no idea who he is? Well, let me tell you why he's going to be amazing this year. He has the best wide receiver in the league (Andre Johnson), he has a young, dynamic running back (Steve Slaton), and his team has a bad defense meaning he will be throwing the ball a lot to keep his team in games. All that adds up to a steal. Now one question mark about him was that he got injured last year. But I believe that was a fluke. I see him breaking out this year and leading my team to 2 fantasy football championships.

Good night.

4 Months Old

Playing on her tummy

Picking out sweet corn with dad at the farmer's market

Hanging with cousin Jenna

Playing with her toys. She loves to roll over on her side and play.

Grace is 4 months old today! She has changed so much in the last month it is unbelievable. I'm just going to make a list of the things she does now that she has started doing in the last month in no specific order. She can roll over both ways, she plays with toys, brings them to her mouth, reaches for things, grabs and plays with her toes, laughs non-stop, and fusses for attention. The fussing for attention is a new thing that I'm not as pleased about but I do it too and I'm 29:)

One thing I regret not doing is writing down our schedule over the last 4 months. When it comes time to have another baby I will probably not remember what Grace's schedule was like and it might be helpful to reference. But another baby might be so different it won't matter what Grace's schedule was. I tried to follow the simple eat, wake/playtime, then sleep schedule from the very beginning. If Grace sleeps longer, acts hungry a little earlier, or gets tired early I'll stray from the schedule but she usually sticks right to it. She did a good job getting onto a feeding and nighttime schedule right away and I just let her nap schedule naturally develop. Naps didn't naturally develop until about 12 weeks (she's 17 weeks now).

Here is her schedule she's been on for about 4 or 5 weeks...

7:00 am - Wake-up and eat
9:00 am - Nap for about an hour (This is when I do chores around the house)
10:30 am - Eat and play until next nap
12:00 pm - Nap for about and hour (My lunch and prep that I want to do ahead of time for dinner)
1:30 pm - Eat and play until next nap
3:00 pm - Nap for an hour or a little longer (Me time. I like to rest, read, or watch TV during this nap)
4:30 pm - Eat
(somedays 5 or 6 ish pm - short cat nap)
7:30 pm - Eat
8:00 - Off to bed

I had been feeding Grace around 9 pm and she lost interest. She barely ate at all for about 3 weeks so one day I just dropped the feed and she did great. I probably could have dropped it earlier but I didn't want to deny her the chance to eat more.

The Glass Castle

I recently finished reading the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and would highly recommend it. Matt's mom gave it to me to read and I had no clue what it was about but picked it up out of my love for reading. I was gripped by the story from the first page. The author wrote a memoir about her life growing up with an alcoholic father, moving around the country, and not having any money. Her parents were extremely smart but chose a non-traditional lifestyle. The story is fascinating. I was amazed by the children in the family and how they stuck together through the challenges their family faced. This is easily one of the best books I've read in a while (granted I've been reading a lot of books about parenting and those can get old).

P.S. I'm still loving my Kindle and have read 6 books on it since I got it just over a month ago. It definitely has fed my reading habit!

Website

2 years ago I created the website www.mrsahrens.com to use for my students at school. It was fun making it and I enjoyed having it to communicate with parents but I don't need it anymore. For the last couple of weeks I've been getting notices that the website is going to expire and if my credit card on file is not updated then the website will not be renewed. I assumed that the credit card I used to purchase the domain was one that had recently expired until this morning when I got an email that my website had been renewed with my debit card. So I have the domain for 2 more years and it cost a hundred bucks. Now I need to think of something to do with the website. I'm not wasting that money! Any ideas?

One Year Ago

It's amazing to think how much life has changed in the last year. One year ago today I peed on a stick and found out that we were going to have a baby. I promptly called Matt at work and asked him what time he was going to be home. He said 5 or 6 like normal and I decided I couldn't wait several hours to tell him I was pregnant. So, I just blurted it out. He promptly came home for lunch to celebrate. Of course Matt knew we were trying but he was unaware of the fact that I was going to take a pregnancy test that day so he was quite shocked when I called him. If God should bless us with more children I think I will always choose this method to inform my husband that we are expecting.

What's for Dinner? BBQ Chicken Pizza

I really enjoy cooking if it takes 45 minutes or less. If I'm in the mood I enjoy spending more time on the meal but who has more time than 45 minutes. I also don't believe in Rachael Ray's 30 minute meals. Every time I've tried one it took me at least an hour and was enough to serve 10 people. One time I even woke up in the middle of the night sick after making one. I don't think that was Rachael's fault but I tend to blame it on her:) This post is dedicated to one meal I've made a couple of times this summer. You could make this without a recipe but I've decided to post some things I'm cooking every now and then to give some ideas to my blog readers. I always like new ideas for meals so I'm starting a new segment of the blog called What's for Dinner? Feel free to send me recipes and I'll try them out and post it if it is good:)

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Ingredients:
1/2 poundish of chicken
One pre-made pizza crust (I usually buy generic products but for pizza crusts Pillsbury is the best and someday I might start making my own)
1/2 a can of black beans
Lots of frozen corn
Red onion


Directions:
Cut the chicken into bit sized pieces (Feel free to cut it earlier in the day and marinate in BBQ sauce. I also just started freezing chicken cut into bit sized pieces so for things like pizza and stir fry it would be ready to go.)
Cook the chicken in EVOO on the stove for about 5 minutes
Grease pizza pan and spread crust
Pour/Spread BBQ Sauce all over crust
Add cooked chicken, black beans, corn and onion (I don't add onions because Matt doesn't like them but they would be good)
Top with fiesta blend of cheese (or whatever you have on hand)
Put in oven and bake according to pizza crust directions (for my dark pizza tray I cook it at 400 for 17 minutes)


Serve with watermelon and a spinach salad

YUMMY!!!

Wisconsin

Matt's Grandma, Josh, Grace and Jenna (the three great grandkids)

Grace finally got to visit Matt's favorite state last weekend. We went up to Wisconsin to celebrate Matt's mom and Grandma's birthdays and Grace got to meet lots of new people. She did a wonderful job traveling and was really laid back about the whole thing. I don't really have anything else to say about the weekend but I had to document Grace's first trip to Wisconsin.