My hubby's first day of work!

Praise God, this day has finally come! Today is my hubby's first day of work. Which also means that this is the first day that it's just me and Moby, the dog. I'm going to miss being with my hubby every day, but I'm glad that he now has a job to bring home the bacon :) It's been a grueling month and a half of applying for jobs everyday with little or no response back from places. Praise God, that He is sovereign and controls all things and He always provides.


Since my in-laws work at the same place, they will be carpooling together while I stay home and manage the house. They drive an hour drive to Omaha to get to work, so they have to get up while it's still dark. This morning it was raining too, so it added to the excitement of today. I'm a very proud little wifey :)


My bible passage of choice for the day:

- Psalm 34 -

1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul will make its boast in the LORD;
The humble will hear it and rejoice.
3 O magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.
4 I sought the LORD, and He answered me,
And delivered me from all my fears.
5 They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces will never be ashamed.
6 This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him
And saved him out of all his troubles.
7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear Him,
And rescues them.
8 O taste and see that the LORD is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
9 O fear the LORD, you His saints;
For to those who fear Him there is no want.
10 The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;
But they do not seek the LORD shall not be in want of any good thing.
11 Come, you children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD,
12 Who is the man who desires life
And loves length of days that he may see good?
13 Keep your tongue from evil
And your lips from speaking deceit.
14 Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
15 The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous
And His ears are open to their cry.
16 The face of the LORD is against evildoers.
To cut off the memory of them from the earth.
17 The righteous cry, and the LORD hears
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
18 The LORD is near to the broken hearted
And saves those who are crushed in the spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones,
Not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked,
And those who hate the righteous will be condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned.

Photo shoot for Sprouts maternity...

This past Sunday we finally got to take photo's for my etsy store!!! We drove up to Omaha early Sunday morning so that we could make it to the first service for church. In between first service and the church picnic we went to my sister-in-law's to snap some shots of the fall line for my maternity shop.

While we waited a little bit for my sister-in-law to get prepared for the photo shoot, I was able to sneak out to adjust the settings on the camera for better lighting. Then we were all set for the photo shoot... we first started with the grey french lyocell dress and looked for places with yellow back drops to photograph. Here's some of my favorite shots from the day:


One of my favorite shots was in a near by corn field. I know, I know, it's pretty stereotypical for Nebraska, but the photos looked great. We just had to pay for it with bug bites.


One of the nice things about Nebraska is that there is a lot of nice scenery pretty much anywhere you go... it's really easy to find a nice place to photograph. I really liked this scenery for this dress especially, it looks very classical with the ivy in the background.


Next we went on to photograph the silk/linen upcycled top. I chose more of a woodsy landscape so that the colors in the top really popped in the photographs. I really liked this series of photos... when my sister-in-law turned her head away from the camera and was in a forest setting, she could almost pass as Evangeline Lily, the character who plays Kate Austin on LOST. What do you think?


This is part of the series of belly band shots, I just liked this one because of the contrast in colors with a few changing leaves in the background. I love the fall!


Here's one of the photos for the purse which I think looks pretty nice as both a dressy, and in this case, a casual look with the green silk and brown linen top. This picture was taken just outside the corn field... I like how the yellow in the field seems to brighten up the picture a bit.



Here's the cover shot pose for an album. Love it!


Here's a fun one... I wanted to show that the jacket was fully lined so this is what we came up with. This was one of the last shots at my sister-in-law's place and it was getting close to the time we needed to leave for the picnic. The following two shots were taken at the picnic with my sister-in-law, her husband, and their son.




Such a cute family shot! In case you can't see, my brother-in-law is wearing the "espresso bean daddy bag" which is a diaper bag that even men can carry. With a racing strip in the front, this bag could almost pass as a men's messenger bag.



Here's another cute shot of the family... my brother-in-law at the bottom of the slide, sister-in-law at the top of the slide, and my nephew is going down the slide...

For further information on any of these items in my fall line for 2009, please feel free to check out my etsy store at www.sproutsmaternity.etsy.com


To Nikki and her family; thanks for all of your help with the photo shoot. I had a lot of fun coming up with the different poses with you!

Leaf or bug?

Nebraska is full of various bugs and creatures that I'm not used to seeing in California. Since we leave our windows open on the warm nights to allow for air flow, we have been able to experience some of these creepy crawlies up close and personal.

This morning we woke up to find a leaf next to our bed, or was it? After closer examination I found it to be a bug. It almost looks like a grasshopper with a leaf on it's back.

Getting the house ready to put up on the market...

My in-laws are planning on putting the house back on the market this month, so we've been working hard to get it ready to show. We've gone through boxes of stuff, put things in storage and one of our more recent projects has been re-doing the small upstairs bedroom.

It used to be my husband's younger sister's room when they were growing up, but until recently it's been a catch all for random stuff, and it was where we were storing our boxes of stuff that we moved out from California.

We rented a wallpaper steamer and found ourselves peeling 4 or 5 layers of wallpaper off the walls before getting to the plaster. (It kind of reminded me of our time in Spain because one of the projects some of the guys did to the blue room).

We found a part of the wall that looked like it had at one point been a window before they added on to the house, and they had patched it up with a different kind of plaster then the original walls (notice the slightly lighter color and sheen to the patched up wall above). On the same wall someone had written their name and the date most likely when they patched the wall, or put wall paper over it. This is a very old house, among the others in Lincoln... it's neat to see little pieces of history in even your own house.

This is how far we got... my husband and father in law are putting up a new ceiling with drywall because the old plaster ceiling had cracked in an area and was starting to come down.

I can't wait to show you what it looks like when it's all done. We are going to convert this room into a nursery/toddler room which will be perfect for our little nephew when he comes to visit.

Kayaking with my hubby...

My in-laws have a Kayak that they like to take out on the lake from time to time. Today they let us take a turn. There are many lakes to choose from in Lincoln, but we chose Holmes Lake for this expedition... So we loaded up the car...

And off we went....

It was a really nice trip! The lake was beautiful. We got to see some turtles... one dead and 3 little ones on a log. There were a lot of areas with reeds in the lake, perfect for maneuvering around with a kayak.

Just as we were loading up the kayak, we noticed these people fishing, as many people do at this lake... what are they fishing you might ask?

The wind had blown their chair into the lake and my hubby had offered one of the kayak straps with a hook on it, so they could fish it out.

Fall is here...

It seems like as soon as September came around, we were hit with fall weather. We've had quite a few cold and rainy days here in Lincoln this week, but nothing a nice cup of hot tea and soup wont cure. I've used this as an excuse to make my favorite soup recipe again...

Potato, butternut squash and prosciutto soup

- 5 cups Chicken broth (homemade or ready-made)

- 5-7 red or russet potatoes (cubed)

- 1/2 a butternut squash (peeled and cubed)

- 2-3 long carrots (sliced in pieces)

- 1 fresh scallion/green onion (thinly sliced)

- 1 Tbls Cayenne pepper

- 1/2 brown/yellow onion (sliced very thin)

- a few sprigs of fresh rosemary

- a handful of sliced Prosciutto (1/2 " wide strips)

- Salt & pepper

- Drizzle of olive oil

1. Saute the onion in a stock pot on medium heat in the olive oil and season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper

2. Add the carrots, and potatoes when the onions start to get slightly translucent, stir. Cook for 2 min.

3. Add the squash, prosciutto, chicken broth, rosemary, and green onions and simmer for 20-40 min, or until the potato is soft enough to eat, but not over done.
4. Serve hot with salad, sandwich, bread and/or crackers.

This is the perfect mix of sweet and spicy for a cold fall day.

For dessert we are having some yummy and healthy Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I found the recipe on foodnetwork.com courtesy of eatingwell.com. It uses apple butter instead of butter, to make it a bit healthier, and it makes it taste like apple crisp.

Enjoy!