Waiting....waiting.....

They're coming home today! Yay!

It's time to clean up the house one last time, finish up the laundry, poop-scoop the backyard (or the hallway, depending on how Cooper does today), and put away the cereal, pancake mix, skittles, and Haagen-Daaz in lieu of fruits and vegetables, and actual meals.

Actually, I'll probably just finish off the Haagen-Daaz....you know...so the kids don't get fat.

Just Cooper

Here he is...the flea bag, in the flesh. Definitely grown out of the roly-poly fuzzy puppy stage and is quickly entering the gangly, ridiculously awkward leggy stage of life. Like me, in 7th grade.
I thought I'd take his picture to remind myself that he is very cute and lovable, despite his many aggravating habits, like picking up fleas, pooping in my house, chewing on shoes, and stealing my bras and hiding them in his pet bed.
He's worth the aggravation, doncha think??

38 Weeks

For Emily...who has been asking for a preggo pic for awhile....this is as good as it gets, for now. Maybe one of these days I'll put up one with my face in it. :)

Labor-Inducing EggPlant Parmigiana

We're eating this this weekend.

----------------------------
Eggplant Parmigiana Alla Scalini's
From restaurant owners Bobby and John Bogino

Nearly 300 baby pictures decorate Scalini's old-fashioned Italian restaurant in Cobb County, Ga.


All of the babies pictured on the Italian restaurant wall were born after their mothers ate the Scalini's eggplant parmigiana. The $9.95 plate of breaded eggplant smothered in cheese and thick marinara sauce is "guaranteed" to induce labor, the restaurant claims.

The eggplant legend began not long after the restaurant opened 23 years ago.

"Two or three years after we began, a few people had just mentioned to us they came in when they were pregnant, and ate this eggplant and had a baby a short time after that," said John Bogino, who runs the restaurant with his son, Bobby Bogino. "One person told another, and it just grew by itself by leaps and bounds."

To date, more than 300 of the pregnant women customers who ordered the eggplant have given birth within 48 hours, and the restaurant dubs them the "eggplant babies." If it doesn't work in two days, the moms-to-be get a gift certificate for another meal.

We make no promises, but the restaurant has graciously shared the recipe.


Ingredients

3 medium sized eggplants

1 cup flour

6 eggs, beaten

4 cups fine Italian bread crumbs, seasoned

Olive oil for sauteing

8 cups of marinara sauce (recipe below)

1/2 cup grated Romano cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 pounds of mozzarella cheese, shredded

2 cups of ricotta cheese

Directions

1. After you wash the eggplant, slice them into 1/4-inch thick slices. You may choose to peel the eggplant before you slice it. However, you may want to leave the skin on since it contains a lot of vitamins.

2. Place the eggplant slices on a layer of paper towels and sprinkle with a little salt, then cover with another layer of paper towels and hold it down with something heavy to drain the excess moisture. Let them sit for about an hour.

3. Working with one slice of eggplant at a time, dust with flour, dip in beaten eggs, then coat well with breadcrumbs.

4. Saute in preheated olive oil on both sides until golden brown.

5. In baking dish, alternate layers of marinara sauce, eggplant slices, ricotta, parmesan and Romano cheeses, until you fill the baking dish, about 1/8 inch from the top. Cover with shredded mozzarella cheese, and bake for 25 minutes in a 375 degree oven. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving.

12 Months Pregnant

Went to the doctor this morning, and apparently I have the gestational period of an elephant (how ironically apropos, since I strongly resemble one as well). Dr. says baby's head HAS NOT dropped, cervix HAS NOT thinned, IS NOT dilated, blah, blee, blah, blah, blah, blah.

*sigh*

Looks like we're in for the long haul.....again.

Mmmmm......Gyros

Been having a MAJOR craving lately for gyros......and since we live in middle-of-nowhere-country-USA now, it's not like I can just drive my gigantic self over to Greek Town and pick myself up one to devour.

Yesterday I was practically salivating at the idea of eating one and in a very whiney and pathetic voice, I asked Casey if there was anywhere, ANYWHERE in this God-forsaken town that I could possibly get a gyro. He said that yes, there is ONE place.
(*cue Hallelujah chorus*)
So we're going there for lunch today. I hope it doesn't disappoint. I'll let you know....

Attack of the Fleas...and Where's the Tylenol?

Holy crap. What a day.

Over the last week, I've been being bitten by something in bed at night. I'll wake up with small itchy bites on my arms, but strangely, Steve was never being bitten, cruely, it was just ME (as if I needed something else to add to the miserable sleeping patterns I've been enjoying, courtesy of baby, for the last 4 weeks). Anyway, I mentioned it in passing to my friend Lisa at volleyball practice this week and she oh-so-calmly informed me it was probably fleas.

WHAT??!?
Thank you, Lisa, for 2 sleepless nights in which I wore long sleeves, long pants, and socks pulled up over my pant legs to alleviate the anxiety I had at the thought of being attacked by fleas in my bed.

Enter in a HUGE case of paranoia and constant heebie-jeebies whenever I'm in my house or bed now and you have my life for the last 3 days. I turned my suspecting eyes on Cooper, that pee-and-poop-nonstop-in-my-house adorable birthday gift of a puppy and declare war. And hey...he sure IS scratching a lot more, now that I'm noticing that he may be infested with a flesh-biting insect. *shudder*

So this morning, I get up at 7:00 and start to work on finishing up my "little" project on the crib....which took about 3 hours. My back is hurting, I'm sweating from the blazing inferno that is summertime in south Georgia, but Cooper (and my house) MUST be completely sterilized or I will not be able to relax at all until it's done.

I break out the kiddie pool and wrestle Cooper in there and lather him up with flea-killing shampoo that I picked up at the store at midnight last night ( I told you, this is war). The directions said to let it set on there for 5-10 minutes - I set the timer for 11 (better safe than sorry). After I hosed him off and he seemed to be squeaky clean, I dried him and put him in his crate (with fresh bedding) and set off to tackle the house.

1. )I started off in our room, with our bed. Pulled the mattress and the box spring off the frame and sprayed it down with flea/tick killer (also purchased at midnight last night).
2) Then I vacummed under the bed and cleaned the wood with furniture polish.
3) Decide that while I'm at it, I should rearrange the furniture in the bedroom, so I moved the bed around....about 4 different ways until I decided I just liked it the way it was, only moved over to the left by about 6 inches, just to make myself feel like I accomplished *something* after all that manual labor.
4) Put the mattress and box spring back on the bed, and then put all our sheets, blankets, pillowcases, etc (and the boys') in the washing machine on the hottest setting.
5) Spray down all the carpet (with the flea spray) in the bedrooms and the hallway.
6) Curse loudly at all fleas in general, in existence, in the entire world.
7) THEN I steam clean all the carpet in the whole house.
8) Put up the baby gate to block off the hallway so Cooper can't go back there and (a) pee or poop on the clean carpet or (b) get any fleas on the now flea-less carpet
9) To the living room: Spray down all the furniture in the living room with flea killer, which by now is getting alarmingly low.
10) Wonder if all this hard work could make the baby come early. Decide that that wouldn't be a bad thing and return to work with gusto
11) Let Cooper out of his crate to go outside and adminster monster dosage of doggie flea killer to his fur. Chase down cat, (who, by the way, has become rather cranky since Cooper's arrival) and give her a flea treatment as well, just to be safe (also purchased at midnight last night).
12) Sit down and watch tv for 30 minutes. Eat cereal. Start to feel the effects of the day on my back and decide to lay down in bed for a nap.
13) Cooper jumps over baby gate and brings his sorry butt over to the bed. No way doggie...outta my room flea bag.
14) Put Cooper back in his crate and drive to Target. Pick up powder flea-treatment for carpet and upholstery.
15) Come home..sprinkle said powder all over carpet and furniture in the entire house.
16) Wait an hour, vacuum it up.
17) Revel in incredibly clean (and fresh-smelling!) house.
18) Notice Cooper scratching at himself in the corner.
19) Consider crying. Curse instead.

What does this mean?? How long does it take for the fleas to die??

Somebody shoot me.