It's a Girl!

Oh my goodness. We're having a daughter!! Found out yesterday at our "big" ultrasound as we've been calling it. Unfortunately duty calls and I have my 2013 4th of July photo shoot today, but I have so many funny moments and great photos from yesterday that I'm just going to have to post again later.

A GIRL!!!!

Lately.

I had really high expectations for this blog when I started it months and months ago. One of the reasons, if not the reason, is that I knew that this would be the year that we'd hopefully be on our way to the Nichols 2 becoming the Nichols 3.

So let's see...last post was in February. Let's do a quick catch-up.

March: Our nephew Jackson was born!

Also in March, we enjoyed the craic in Chicago for St. Patrick's Day. Best weekend getaway ever.

April: Pretty uneventful. But I did get my identity stolen! Oh just $500 or so from the ol' checking account. No bigs. (Ugh.)

May: We were in....I was in...Costa Rica mode. Beth and I were practically throwing every spare second of our time to wrapping a year's worth of details for a week-long trip. But when there are 20 other people on that trip, well there's just a lot of details.

June: COSTA RICA!!! Zack and I tacked an extra day onto the beginning and end of the trip to celebrate his birthday and our 5th wedding anniversary. The mission trip part of the week was hard, hard work, but one of the most gratifying and best things I've ever done. This is about 3 posts in itself, so in the meantime, I'll jump to the good part.

Also in June: Was running into the craft store a few days after we got home. Felt like crap all of sudden. "It's the 105 degree, full humidity day we're having. That's all." That wasn't all. A few days later the dizziness and indescribable exhaustion had gotten so bad, there was literally only one thing I could chalk it up to.

Yep. June 27th our life really changed. Baby Nichols will be here in early March of next year!

July: I slept, puked, and cried all month. One time I beat up Zack in a hormone-induced rage.

August: I slept, puked, and cried all this month too. I also had to get through my 10th high school reunion sans alcohol.

September: Things started to turn around, but it's only be in the last week and half that my condition has significantly improved. And I'm so grateful. There were a lot of weeks that I truly believed I'd be in the small percent who was pregnant for their entire pregnancies. Minimal tears, still some nausea, but still a good but of sleeping, except at night. I don't think I've slept a full night since the day we found out. Not expecting that to change for a few more years!

So now that we're somewhat caught up, all those super fun posts that really only I care about can start! Not sure what this blog will eventually become. Likely I'll forget about it again. Possibly I'll become a super famous blogger and I'll get a book deal and become a speaker on the blog circuit because the blogosphere just can't get enough of my wisdom and super writing skills and iPhone photos. Ha. But really, I just want a place where years from now, I can pull up all of these fun memories with my son(s) and/or daughter(s) and all of the adventurous Mom and Dad had along the way, and it will serve as a great and permanent reminder that our life is full of more blessings than we'll ever deserve. (Cheesy. And true.)

Old Jobs & New Jobs, Part 2

Z started his new job at Event Operations Group today. He sent me a pic of his office. Well isn't he so fancy?

Lent Meal: Bacon-Gruyere Dutch Baby

After fighting with a whole raw White Oak Pastures chicken after work (thanks to mom for Facetiming with me and giving me some pointers on cleaning + brining the bird), I decided to do a Dutch Baby recipe from the current issue of Taste instead of the lemon spatchcocked chicken. That'll be tomorrow night and hopefully worth the wait.

When I told Zack I was making a Dutch Baby, a look of complete confusions and disgust was on his face. He said...forgive how crude this is...that is sounded like you took a poo under the covers. Yeah. That's Zack Nichols for you.

Anyway. It didn't rise up all dramatically like it's supposed to. It fell a bit flat actually. I think I had too much bacon grease in my cast-iron skillet. (Apparently there is such a thing as too much bacon grease. How offensive.) Z said he liked it. I thought it was ok. In any case, half ended up in the garbage.

Old Jobs and New Jobs

Today is Zack's last day as Art Director at Amerson Engraving! So bittersweet! He had the opportunity to do all kinds of awesome things over the last couple years, including working with the top college and football teams in the state. So proud of him and what he has accomplished! But, we're so excited about what's in store for him at his new job at Event Operations Group as their new Project Manager! Seems like he's going to work with a pretty impressive group of people!

I made Z send me a pic of his desk at Amerson :)

Español

Also, started this today. Haha. Yeah. For Costa Rica. It's really weird because I used the same program to learn French for the trip I just went on with my mom. It's all the same dialogue, with the same guy but with a different girl. When I was learning French, I kept slipping into German. Now that I'm trying to learn Spanish, I'm inevitably already slipping into French SINCE IT'S THE SAME DIALOGUE I USED TO LEARN FRENCH! Oy.

Lent. Let's Do This.

Zack and I joined Church at Cahaba Bend about 3 years ago. We both were raised Baptists, so while we had heard of Lent, we never practiced it. We had never given anything up, or taken on something, or really ever even considered it. But our church...a Methodist church...takes Lent and all the events surrounding Easter very seriously, which I love. Two nights ago Zack and I participated in our second-ever Ash Wednesday service. (last year we were unable to attend because we were flying home from a two-week trip to Europe, more on that later.) During the service, our pastor, Lyle Holland, talked a lot about the importance, as Christian, to participate in Lent. It really struck me this year, for some reason.

That said: here's what I decided to do, and why. I think Zack is pretty much on board, more or less, in doing this with me. Truth is, we eat out...a lot. Whether it's an awesome local burger or bbq joint or Domino's Pizza on Valentine's Day, many meals, and many dollars, are spent this way. Also, why I am a pretty solid baker, I'm not the best cook, simply because I don't cook enough! I work for a food magazine, and everyday of my life I'm surrounded by gorgeous food and food photography, and I also figured it's high time to learn my way around the grocery store (past the baking aisle anyway) and get to cooking fresh, with in-season ingredients, and (relatively) healthy. I figured in the process, we'd save some money that we can put towards future things like a bigger house and a bigger family :)

Also let me say that the there are some exceptions to this: Wednesday nights with our students at Little Italy's is a tradition that we can't break! And next month we're going to Chicago for a long weekend.

So last night officially began all the fun, and I was really excited to get started! I kicked off the season with an adaption of a Jamie Oliver recipe: linguine with slow-braised leeks and crispy pangrattato. I was a little leery of the leeks, but thought I'd give it a go no less. The results were fantastic. Zack loved it, and even tweeted about it. The resulting comment thread made me laugh :)

(the ahpatatas bravas bit was a reference to the aforementioned Europe trip. Still makes me laugh a whole year later :)

Anyway, photos from dinner:

Leeks: cut lengthwise, then on the diagonal at 1/2" intervals. Ok Jamie.

Leftover French bread from a shoot last week. Perfectly stale enough to go for spin in the food processor with some S+P to make breadcrumbs for the pangrattato.

Toasted with olive oil and some rosemary sprigs. 

Terrible photo. Good food.