What's for Dinner

As I'm sitting here in my hotel room wondering if I should eat a PBJ or turkey sandwich I wonder which, if any of the precooked meals Zed will eat tonight.

While I was home this past weekend I made 4 crockpot meals and froze them. We had food storage that we needed to use or lose within the next month. All zed has to do is pull the gallon zip lock bag out of the freezer the night prior and then throw it in the crockpot before he leaves for the day. I made him beef stroganoff, teriyaki pork chops, pot roast, and a ravioli sausage bake. The beef stroganoff he will have to make either rice or noodles to eat with it. As he eats them I'll be sure to let you know how they taste and post the recipes and any tips.

To make these four meals (all family sized) I spent about $60 and 1hr into the kitchen. This is not bad considering these meals will last him, at minimum 10 meals. If this goes well, the plan so to continue this method and hopefully make it easier once baby girl #2 comes along.

If any of you have any recommendations, please share!

Week in Review

Another email from Maryland about Mia's week with G and Pappy.

Hello all lovers of everything Mia!

It was quite the week for Ms. Davies of Columbus, Mississippi.  As she dove into week two visiting her grandparents, the Berthiaume’s, so did the ice cold weather.  Week two of her cross country journey brought temperatures at -9 with wind chills much below that.  Across the state pipes froze, the Chesapeake Bay needed ice cutters, and Mia got more comfortable with her new bedroom.  Week two also brought 2 new teeth up top.  There was drool, drool drool as she tried to eat on everything around, books, plasticware, even the dog’s bone!  She was restless at night from all that teething, but alas…. this too shall pass.

Tuesday brought a winter storm that dumped 6 inches of snow for the Eastern Shore!  Mia got to touch snow for the first time… She was a little afraid, and not until we put it in a cup for her would she touch it!

Her Great Granny Fiddler watched her in the daytime while her Grandmother worked.  They played patty cake, went to Walmart, visited Miss Jan, a neighbor down the street and had a wonderful time.  Mia’s new BFF is Libby, her grandparents dog.  Libby follows Mis everywhere in hopes of a scap, a morsel, anything that might drop from her clothes or hands.  It does make for easy clean up around the house!

With the frigid temperatures the need for propane was great.  Apparently the propane company didn’t realize this, for Wednesday morning we woke up at 0400 to a house temperature of 42 degrees and the pipes downstairs were frozen solid!  Grandmom whisked Mia and Aunt Abby over to her grandparents for some heat while Grandmom returned home to wait for the propane delivery.  God Bless Great Grandparents!  With many apologies the propane truck deliver 300 gallons of propane and slowly the heat returned and pipes reopened…. 

One of the struggles with icy cold weather is the dry weather in the house.  The change in weather really bothered Mia.  She came to Maryland with a minor case of eczema which, with teething and excessively cold temperatures outside and the dry heat inside turned into a terrible case of eczema.  Luckily, Pop Pop Fiddler called a pediatric dermatologist who saw her Wednesday, prescribed a special cream for morning and night, recommended daily bathing with lots and lots of Aquaphor throughout the day….  Mia gets to visit her again in 2 weeks so she is all set to travel out to Oregon.  Within 24 hours of getting some nice cream all over her and a bit of anti itch medicine at night, Mia Davies was a new woman…. Sleeping well, eating better and beautifully clear skin!

She has enjoyed a plethora of foods, Cheerios are a great staple snack that she always has at the ready.  She loves peaches, pears, applesauce, pork, turnkey, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots.  Yesterday she has macaroni and cheese, home made by Great Granny.  She is starting to walk everywhere (preferably holding someone’s hand) but gets better and better each day.

Mia growing by leaps and bounds.  She fits well in 12 months clothes, weight 9 KG at the doctors (19.8 pounds) and will surely be up to 20 pounds by her birthday.  She loves to climb on everything! She has learned Patty Cake and Itsy Bitsy spider.  She loves to dance.  Yesterday she and Aunt Sarah spent some quality time dancing to the music of Queen!  She is also very excited to learn she will have a new sister this summer.  She cannot wait to share her food, her raisins, cheerios and drool!

Today we got up at 6:30, took a long walk up the street, ate a great country breakfast, and it is now kitchen playtime.  Libby is standing by to pick up, lest Mia drop a crumb.  Mia misses you all and cannot wait to see everyone.  FaceTime us when you can. She loves to see everyone!

Kathryn Fiddler

A little more GLITTER

We're having another girl. She currently weighs a hearty 9oz and her heartbeat was 147. 

Guns or Glitter

We invite you to make your guess in the comments and look forward to sharing the big reveal with you all on Friday!

Picture Post

All of us are doing well. I get to see Mia via FaceTime about once a day and Zed says it's too sad so he sees her via FaceTime or Hangouts on the weekends. School is going well for me, the first test is this coming Thursday and Zed is keeping busy studying for his next plane since he's done flying. We have been told that Mia has grown out of all the pants we sent her with...about to go shopping!

Enjoy the pictures and we find out if it will be more pink or some new blue on Friday!

Tabby and Mia

Pappy and Mia first thing in the morning

Mia and her cousins from Deleware

Auntie Ray and Mia

Pop-Pop Fiddler and Mia watching the game

A Family Separated

Mia is currently in Allen, MD enjoying 4in of powdery snow. She is doing well for my parents and we are so thankful that she is an easy going kid. When we FaceTime she lights up and wants to hold the phone, iPad, computer which usually results in her attempting to hit the end button. Mia has become best friends with Libby, my parents dog and is learning what gentle means. When I get pictures I'll them put up.

Zed has completed all of his flights for Phase II and is now studying up for Phase III and completing little tasks around the squadron. I was able to leave him with a large lasagna, some pork chops and chicken breasts. He should have some sort of food until I get home in 8 days.

I have started class...it is very low stress. Class goes from 6:00-3:00 and we have a two hour lunch. I'm the class safety officer so on weekends I track who is traveling and if anyone gets hurt I file the paperwork. Out of the 21 people in my class, I'm the 4th highest ranking and the person with the most on the job experience. I know I'll still learn a lot, but I'm more excited to make connections and learn how the guard does things, half of my class is guard and the other half is active duty.

As we learn how to be a family separated, we rely heavily on FaceTime and Hangouts. In today's world, we've learned that a quick call or a picture through a text makes being apart a lot easier. Though this is not the ideal situation, it is nice to know that as Zed and I's careers progress there will be more time apart and technology will make that easier.

The next post will probably be a picture post and the following will be announcing if we're having a boy or girl!

The first few days

Below is a note from my mom on Mia's first few hours/day with them.

Well,

Here we are - one full day with Mia under our belt and Abby and I are no worse for the wear.  Mia woke up Saturday night (sun early AM) a lot… But, it was a new house, new crib and she had been in the car and plane a lot.  She looked at me each time I came in to hold her and was perplexed….. Stared for a minute trying to figure out who I was as she seemed to be expecting her mother.  Abby got up with her a lot too.  She was wonderful.  Sunday brought a much better day.  We played, ate a good breakfast of carrots and cheerios, played with the kitchen.  She took a grand 1.5 hour long nap.  Ate well and enjoyed.  We walked outside and enjoyed the cold.

We went to Kate and Ron’s and had a lovely birthday party for 10 year old Sarah!  Mia was very well behaved, smiled cutely at the old ladies, and cooed, laughed and enjoyed.  She ate lasagne and LOVED IT! We then drove home - She was done… tired of being in the car.  Screamed the last 30 minutes, so we put on Barney.  Dear me… we buy a large SUV so we can watch Barney with out granddaughter!

We made is home successfully learning about manners and singing “I love you…. You love me….”  How does a big purple dinosaur have such control over the youth of today?

We had dinner at Grannys.  Mia loved the cat, Simon and played with Granny’s tupperware while Simon watched.

We had a fun bath in Granny’s tub after dinner of pot roast, sweet potatoes and carrots.  She went to bed at 8:30 and slept most of the night.

She loves Libby and Libby is her new BFF.  She got up at 0630 this AM.  We played kitchen, walked around the house, read some stories and had a grand morning.  She has a picture book with your pictures, Zed’s parents, and Abby in it.  She loves looking at it and squeals every time she sees the pictures of you and Zed.  Its adorable.  A tribute to the amazing parents you are.

She is now up in her crib, reading, lying on her side, chatting…. She finished a bottle and I thought she would sleep… Nope, just playing…… (Alas, as I write this I hear her snoring!)

We have 6 inches of snow forecasted for tomorrow!  She and Pappy should have some fun!

I miss you and love you.  We will take lots of pics of the snow tomorrow!:)

Mom!