~Trying to move on~

To the baby that I carried, But never seen your face, Or tell you how much I loved you, Or ever to hear your cries. You will never be forgotten. The excitement we had for your coming. When I realized I'd never hold you, The feeling I had was numbing. My angel baby is who you are. My angel baby you'll always be. Your loving memory will live in my heart. So you will always be right here with me.

Sweet Pea is what we called our little darling when we found out we were pregnant.

So here i am making my return, i wanted to thank all of you who have emailed me and checked in on me. I decided i wanted a tattoo to remember my angel baby by something i would always have and could never loose. I went to my tattoo artist with a couple of ideas having NO idea exactly what i wanted... And this is what he came up with! I absolutely LOVE it! Its everything i wanted and then some, he did a fantastic job and i couldnt imagine having anything different.

I am still dealing with it in my own way, i have good days and bad days but i am taking each day as they come.

I am still alive...

Just wanted you all to know that yes i am still alive....

I am not feeling up to blogging much lately...

Reason being? We lost the baby :(

I will post about what happened.... at a later date when i am able too.

Hope your all well.

I miss you all!

A Recipe and Exciting News!

Lets kick this post off with a promised recipe!

Simple Easy Tasty Pancake Batter!

YOU wont be disappointed!

2 cups of milk (i used the milk left from making my own butter!)

1/4 cup of sugar ( i used raw sugar)

2 eggs

3 Tsp of honey

1 tsp of oil

1Tsp of vanilla

2 and 1/3 cups of flour (i used hlf wheat hlf white)

1 1/1 Tsp of baking powder

Nothing to it toss the wet ingredients into a blender then add your dry ingredients! Turn it on for a few mins making sure everything mixes up nicely! Depending on your choice of batter (thick or runny!) whether or not you add a little more flour or a little more milk! We like our batter to be a little runny as i find this recipe does puff a little! Use a large spoon and drop desired amount on to your griddle or frying pan! I let the batter sit a min or so then add a few choc chips to mine for my guys!

Give it a go you can add all kids of goodies to your pancakes which im sure you all do! This recipe does not disappoint there is no weird baking powder after taste like some recipes give you! Plain or jazzed up! I keep the batter in my blend and keep it in the fridge for a few days and its still tasty when i get it out and cook it up!

Now onto the exciting news!

So May 7th i turned 30........OH BOY! I had NOT been looking forward to this at all... Now leading up to my birthday we were extremely busy, April was Lochlan's Birthday... Then his big bash! Then it was my mother in laws birthday! Needless to say we have done a lot of celebrating in this time...After Lochlans party i was exhausted! Didn't matter what i did i couldn't get enough rest... We figured it was just all the celebrating! With 30 creeping up around the corner..... and the lack of a visit from mother nature....we decided to do a pregnancy test....expecting the usual....when im having "issues" it usually all starts with missed periods...In the last 6 years we have done plenty of pregnancy tests...all showing negative...and this is exactly what i expected this time...those of you who know me and my adventures in fertility issues know a couple years ago we were told from some of the biologic medicines i had taken for my Psoriasis had made me infertile....so missing a period or being "late" really didn't excite me at all.... so i sat by our window in the bedroom over looking the box like usual making sure they hadn't changed the signs or anything lol...grabbed the stick and went off about my business...told hubby "ok 3 mins tell me when its up" not sure exactly what i was doing....and then his like "ok its 3 mins babe" got up when to the bathroom picked it up glanced and about had a heart attack my throat felt like it was swelling up......my heart sped up.....i felt faint...i screamed a lil.... hubby was like whats wrong??? whats wrong??? my response "uh...um..i THINK im pregnant?!?!?!"......he was gob smacked...i ran in and grabbed the box and double checked...triple checked....gave him the box and the test and told him am i????? AM I??? Sure enough the pink line was there..... called my mum even tho it was 6am there in australia....and told her! Next i called my best friend Angie! We didn't tell EVERYONE till we had it confirmed seeing there was doubt in our minds that it was "REAL" but what a birthday present huh???

This is my "first" pregnancy photo lol 6 wks!

So onto my birthday celebrations! I was spoiled rotten! We celebrated the nite before at my fav restaurant "Carrabba's" with friends and family. And then friday morning we got up got Loche ready for school dropped him off and hubby took me to michigan! We went up and had a tour of the Mac store! That store is simply amazing! I was told we were going up there to get a cover for my birthday gift i had been given earlier! I Ipod Touch! So i picked out a hot pink cover! And was totally surprised when we left with a matching MacBook! *GASP*

After the Mac store we wondered around the mall and he bought me a bottle of Dolce&Gabbana perfume "The One"

Here is my other present he got me as well!

Hubby and i before we hit the Mac Store!

Yup this is meee! Lol this was taken before we headed to Carrabba's!

Hubby and I!

My fav 3 men in my life!

This was taken at Red Lobster after we returned from Michigan! After dinner we met Kev at the movies and watched Iron Man 2! What a birthday!

These are my beautiful mothers day flowers my hubby got me!

So yes these are some of the reasons i have been MIA :) that and we are still preparing to move back to australia! It has been something else i tell you we have some life changing things headed our way and we are trying our best to spend as much time as possible with friends and family while we are still here in the States!

Lochlan's Birthday Bash!

Remember all that planning for Lochlan's HUGE BIRTHDAY BASH?!?

It almost got rained out.... It was terrible all that morning it just rained and rained and then about 10am the rain stopped the sun came out and it was pretty nice the rain held off until 3:30 (hlf an hr b4 the party ended!)

Here was the high light of the party! And this was almost not going to be apart of the event cuz of that pesky rain i mentioned!

What does 150 plus sponge bob cup cakes look like u ask???... No i did NOT make these i am not super mum :) i had enough on my plate to do i was not adding baking to that long list!

This is the birthday boy blowing out his candles.....shortly after this photo he fell off the bench...BUT not to worry dad was quick on his heels and grabbed his arm b4 he hit the floor! Loche got up laughing all was good!

MHMMM...look at this boy....7! And he lives up to that shirt too! In all it was a fantastic event! Lots of compliments and questions about who planned and organized the event! That would be ME and my wonderful hubby! We had 150 plus RSVP's due to the rain not everyone showed up but there was 130 plus according to the rough head count :) I have to say a great big thank u to Nathans step dads sister Janet and her husband Bill who did face painting and air brush tattooing for the adults and kids lol!

Tasty Mouth Watering Lamb Chops

Hello, Hello my lovelies! I am trying to return to the wonderful world of blogging! I have missed you all dearly!

I have lots to tell you all BUT i am returning with a extremely tasty and SUPER easy marinade for lamb chops!

What you need;

9 lamb chops

4 Tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar

3 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

3 Tablespoons of water

2 Tablespoons of Minced Garlic

2 teaspoons of dried rosemary

2 teaspoons of cumin

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

1 teaspoon of ground black pepper

a pinch of salt

Combine all the above ingredients into a bowl and pour over the top of your lamb chops! I marinaded my chops over night.

Heat a pan nice and hot with some olive oil in it place each chop in one at a time u want to seal the chops to seal in all those delish juices! I cook my lamb chops to about medium well you want them to be pink in the middle you never want to over cook lamb you will loose all the lovely flavors!

Happy 7th BirthDay My Handsome Lil Man!

I can hardly believe you are 7 today.... It has gone by so fast! You have grown so quickly! Not to mention how tall you are! Wont be long before you will be towering over me! 7 years old and you are 4'4! I hope you enjoyed your morning! And i know you loved your Plasma Car! I cant wait for your BIG BIRTHDAY PARTY! Next week! I know you will have a blast even though it willbe your last Birthday Party here in the states for a few years!

Sorry for being MIA but i have been SO busy since my guys finally finished with their jobs! I have loads of recipes to share with you all and i hope you all can forgive me for my absence!

And the WINNER is......

Okay Okay Okay I KNOW im late annoucing the winner... Im a slacker.. i know...This has been a busy weekend! My girlfriend and i launched our business this weekend so we had a some what busy week and weekend! More to come on that Adventure! So according to Random.org the grand winner is # 24 let me go count down the comment list! I know i have one in there...but i will not count it :D And the winning comment is *drum roll pleaseeeeeee*

angela jiniel said...

I'm not going to pretend I looked at EVERYTHING thry had, but something I'd really like is this cutting board.

http://www.csnstores.com/Catskill-Craftsmen-Inc%2E-1318-KL1122.html

my email is angelajiniel (at) gmail (dot) com

Congrats Angela! What an awesome scale to win! I know you will definately use this! I will be in contact soon! Didnt win this give-away? Not to worry! I will hopefully be having another soon! My best friend has just started his own Jewellery Line Called "Sheer Elegance In Chains" he doesnt have anything up in his Etsy store just yet as he is working on some custom made pieces that someone ordered! You can check out some of his pieces threw his FaceBook page threw this LINK.

These are a couple of his pieces his made and sold so far!

Someone will be lucky enough to win a Bracelet! More to come on this at a later date!

~Irish Feast Part 2 the conclusion!~

Let me start off with saying how sorry i am that it has been longer then i expected getting my next blog post up! Things got hectic Friday was a busy day for us we had doctor appointments and then we rushed home i cleaned house and baked 2 chinese style pot roasts with carrots and rutabaga and gravy and irish soda bread to go along with it (recipes coming soon!)! Sat was a VERY busy day we picked up my sons best friend and we headed to a really cool place called "Imagination Station" Loche and his best mate Ethan had a BLAST! They explored the cartoon network exhibition where they learnt how cartoons are made! They played in the water works exhibit which was awesome! They ofcourse were a lil wet but well worth it :) I will put up a post at a later date of some of the great pics we took! We ended the day with a fab meal at "Spaghetti Ware House" the boys really had a teriffic time! I would have to admitt this was our first offical "play date" since Lochlan started school this year :)

I was up LATE sat evening baking a cake....from scratch....which is something i have NOT done since high school.....cake baking is NOT something i do...or really enjoy doing :) but i must admit the cake turned out great and was a huge hit at Kevins parents house! I made a strawberry/blue berry sponge cake with home made strawberry jam filling and home made whipped cream in the centre and i frosted it with vanilla whipped cream! Kicking myself for not taking pictures but to be honest i thought it was going to suck! So i will hopefully be makin another this week to send in with the boys as a treat for some of the people they work with :) So now onto what you all have been waiting for.....The last part to the Irish Feast!

First off is a recipe i have already shared with you all you can find the recipe for this

HERE

This is my super easy Fryed Cabbage and Bacon!

In this one below is i used peppered bacon and it turned out so dang delish!

Up next is a super duper EASY Irish Soda Bread! Its not pretty...BUT it sure tastes good!

~Irish Soda Bread Recipe~

2 Cups of all purpose flour

2 Cups of whole wheat flour

2 Tablespoons of raw cane sugar

1 Teaspoon of baking powder

1 Tablespoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

1/2 a cup of softened butter

1 egg

1 cup of buttermilk (maybe a lil more depends how the dough turns out!)

extra buttermilk and egg for a "wash"

Preheat your oven to about 375'F I took a cookie sheet and place a piece of parchment paper down so the bread wouldnt stick :)

In my KitchenAid Mixer i threw in the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and the butter! I slowly mixed it up, it gets a lil tough but thats ok the egg and milk will make it all better! Slowly add the egg and milk mix them in well once all added if the dough still looks dry add more buttermilk a little at a time though! You want it to be a lil sticky i found it works better when its sticky! Once mixed turn it out onto a lightly floured board and knead a little into a round shape and place onto your prepared tray/sheet, in a small bowl mix up the egg and extra buttermilk for a wash! I dont have a brush so i just used my fingers i dipped them into the bowl and then rubbed said fingers over the laof coating it in the slimmy wash! Now take a nice sharp knife and mark and "X" into the top of the loaf :) Place your tray into the oven and bake your loaf for 45-50mins in your preheated oven! If unsure take a tooth pick and just like a cake and check the centre of the loaf to make sure its done! You can also add more of the egg/buttermilk wash threw out the baking process :)

Now onto the Last of the feast!

Silver Side/ Corn Beef!

1 piece of silver side/corn beef

2 whole oranges

1 Tablespoons of Golden Syrup

40 whole cloves

6 bayleaves

50ish whole pepper corns

and enough water to cover the meat!

Now make sure you a a big enough pot for the piece of meat and the whole oranges!

I usually take the meat out of the plastic and wash it off seeing its so slippery and slimmy *ICK* sorry not one of my fav pieces of meat to work with! Take your whole oranges and slice them in hlf and squeeze some of the juices out of them into the bottom of the pot and toss em on in there then throw in the cloves and bayleaves! Now place your piece of meat in move the oranges around so they all sit in nicely :) Now toss in the pepper corns and add your Golden Syrup once everything is in the pot add your water make sure there is enough water in there to cover the meat! Now bring the pot to a boil and turn down to a slow simmer straight away! Now i let mine cook for atleast 2.5 hours and it turns out so moist and full of flavour! After its done cooking you can leave it in the pot untill your ready to serve it! Remove it from pot about 10 mins before serving let it stand! Then slice it against the grain MMMMM! This silverside is DELISH cold on sandwhiches as well! ENJOY!

I hope i have made up for being MIA the past few days! Dont forget to get yourself entered into the giveaway i am hosting! You could win yourself a brand spanking new Estilo Kitchen Spring Scale! Go HERE and enter to win!