A 3 year old Master Manipulator

I have in my possession one very smart little girl.  I would never have imagined that someone at the tender age of 3 could know how to challenge a usually brilliant (me) adult.  But she does.  It happens every day.  The clock strikes 12:30pm and it's nap time in the Duke house.  Has been this way for the past year.  Something else happens at 12:30pm.  This beautiful little girl...

flips a switch and starts plotting.  "What's it going to be today?" she asks herself.  "Should I claim I have to pee and sit on the potty chair for 30 minutes, and when mom asks me if I really do have to pee, I say yes and squint my eyes and pretend to squeeze the pee out" 

Only she doesn't have to pee.  She is trying to get out of nap time. 

"Or should I pee right away, have mom put me in bed, then claim I have to pee again 5 minutes later so I can get out of bed, then sit on the potty chair for 30 minutes claiming I really do have to pee?"

I fall for it every time.  I am terrified of pee covered sheets apparently.

"Or should I have mom cover me up, read me a story, then when she leans in for a kiss, turn my head.  She'll walk out and claim she won't come back.  Then I'll cry that I want a kiss once she sits down."

I always go back.

"Or  will it be the old standby, Mom covers me up and walks out the door, I kick the covers off and scream for her to come back and cover me up. 3 times."

I really don't want to admit that I go back and cover her up. 3 times.

"Yep, today I think it will be all of the above."

It is usually all of the above. 

My child is a genius.  And I have created a monster.  But a cute monster.  I think I need help.

Holy Buckets of Energy...

is raining down on me!  I'm entering the second trimester. The good trimester. The little less stress filled trimester.  Bucket loads of glorious sun filled energy has been poured on me and I couldn't be happier! My butt is no longer glued to the couch, I get dressed most days of the week and my appetite has slowly began to resurface.  Hallelujah, Praise the Lord.  No really, praise Him.  With this new found energy has also come my absolute favorite time of the year. FALL!  Fall has puked all over my house in the form of fake leaves, pumpkins, tiny gourds and wreaths (I copied my friend Crissy's wreath, find the how to on her site here.)  Football is once again gracing my television (that's right, I watch and LOVE football. Born a Chiefs fan, Vikings fan by marriage, and it is once again a Cyclone state!)  Life is good.  Who doesn't love this time of year?  The 100+ degree days give way to 60 degree temps, cool Autumn breezes, pumpkin spice fill the air and our coffee cups, Columbus Day and Halloween are upon us.  Yes, it's a wonderful time of year!  I snapped a few shots of the house showcasing my love for all things Fall.  And you must know, I am not against decorating with fake sparkly leaves.

Old ladder back chair found at a garage sale for $5!

This year The Duke and I kicked off our season with a little vacation to North Carolina.  If there is one place in the country that I can totally picture myself living in it's the Great Smokey Mountains. God's work at it's best.  Such breathtaking beauty, even through overcast skies.  North Carolina is wonderful. The tea is sweet, the eggs are fried, and breakfast is served with grits and corn beef hash. Yes I think I've found paradise.  Not to mention we have some amazing friends who choose to dwell there.  Here are a few pics from our fantastic getaway.

Driving into the beauty...even with clouds

My future home. White house in a clearing complete with horses. SOLD!

The sun peeked out long enough to break out the shades

The only thing that could make this prettier was if the leaves were turning

This is how I hike, in ballet flats

Beautiful Crissy!  Such an amazing person and great friend. Only wish they lived closer!

I'm also back to whipping up culinary delights in the kitchen!  I found a list in one of my Rachael Ray cookbooks of things you should always have on hand in your pantry or freezer.  So this week at the store I stocked up on these items and along with a few meat purchases have found it incredibly fun and easy to create meals!  Here is a link to the list so you too can create!  Most of this stuff I already had on hand, such as spices, can goods, etc.  The rest is stuff you can get lots of use out of and is not too expensive to buy.  Great tool to make meal time easier. CLICK HERE

Tonight we are entertaining friends and on the menu is this Pioneer Woman recipe.  I had everything on hand to make it thanks to the above list.  Can't wait to give it a try!  YUMMY IN MY TUMMY
My great friend Monica is a vegetarian so she and I will be enjoying this dish as is. I will of course have to cook up some Italian sausage for our carnivore husbands to add to it.

Speaking of the fabulous Pioneer Woman, while in North Carolina, my wonderful friend Crissy taped her new show on the Food Network (since we do not have cable, it's a life choice.)  She is every bit as cute on TV as she is in her blogs. Solidifying the fact that we would indeed be friends if this where another world.

AND my beautiful sister in law Jacquelyn bought me a copy of Pioneer Woman's book...Black Heels to Tractor Wheels.  Can't wait to dive in and tell you all about it!

Well, I'm off to eat a pickle and start reading. Until next time party people!

I'm throwing this in cause she is so darn cute!

Hair a little wild and shirtless. Just perfect to me

Crazy Cravings

Disclaimer...this entry will not make you think in any way. It will not solve the debt crisis, world hunger, or affect you in any certain way.  This is just a pregnant chic talking about food.  Lives will not be changed. Carry on.

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One thing about pregnancy is it has given me some odd cravings.  No I'm not sitting around eating pickles and ice cream, but I am finding myself wanting to consume things I don't normally reach for in the refrigerator or pantry.  Here is a short list of the food I have been shoveling into my mouth in the past few weeks

Green Olives. Salty little buggers.  I've practically eaten an entire jar in a 2 days.  Ally, being an avid black olive lover, reached for the jar yesterday saying she wanted one and I about took out my 3 year old.  Mine. Stay away.  Luckily they didn't appeal to her taste buds.

Pickles. Not just any pickle. Must be dill and baby.  The smaller the better. The smaller ones crunch.  I might drink the juice when the jar is empty.  Don't judge.

Sweet Southern Heat Barbecue Lays potato chips.  This exact kind.  I don't want barbecue sauce on meat.  In fact, I could be a vegetarian during pregnancy. I want it on crunchy, salty fried potatoes.  I'm sensing a theme here.

Wine.  Don't worry. I haven't given into this craving.  It's no secret I am a wine lover.  And now that Autumn is upon us (with the exception of a few 90 degree days left) and it's about to be grape harvesting time my mouth is literally drying out at the thought of not having a glass of vino.  But I have found an alternative.  Sparkling grape juice.  My wine club friends are laughing hysterically.  Apparently the thought of going 9 months without a wine glass in my hand is too much so I bought a bottle of Sparkling Catawba.  Not bad.  There are a few other variates available.  It's close enough to bad wine to get me through.

Cereal.  Normally I don't really eat the stuff. And when I do it's dry as a little snack. Lately a huge bowl with ice cold milk sounds simply divine at 2am when I'm up for the 2nd time of the night peeing.  Not sure why my brain goes to food while I'm using the restroom, but hey, I'm a little crazy lately.  One thing though.  I do not drink the milk.  I have never liked milk.  I'm pretty sure I didn't even drink it when I was a baby. Don't quote me on that.  I just like it for the wet factor on my dry Fiber Choice cereal.

Apples. Apple slices, apple pie, apple crisp, apple butter, baked apples, applesauce, apple syrup, apple slush, apple juice, and so on. Yum.  Here is an easy recipe for Apple Syrup.  Delish with my pancake recipe.  Find it in the recipe section of this very blog.

Apple Syrup

2 tart apples, peeled, cored, and diced

1/2 cup sugar

1 TBS Cinnamon

2 TBS Water

Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes or until mixture is thickened and syrupy.

Would be good on ice cream too, but since I'm not craving that at the moment, I wouldn't know for sure.  Dare you to try it.

Cold Turkey.  Not the lunch meat, but the kind you can only get from roasting a whole bird and carving it up.  I made a whole turkey breast last week for dinner just for the leftovers.  Lots of mayo, white bread and lettuce.  Thanksgiving will be wonderful this year.


Cucumbers.  Have you ever noticed how lovely they smell?  I made this recipe up today to satisfy this craving...

Cucumbers and Onions - This couldn't be any easier

2 cucumbers

1 onion

2 cups of water

1 cup of white vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

I snapped a pic of what you will need, for those who are visual

Pour water, vinegar and sugar into a pot and bring this mixture to a boil, set aside.  Wash, peel and slice cucumbers, place in bowl.  Slice onion.  Here's a trick to make sure an onion doesn't make you cry, cut it end to end, like this

If it doesn't work for you, this tip came from Rachael Ray. If it does work, it came from me.

Place onion slices in bowl with cucumbers, give them a little toss, a chance to mingle.

They look happy

Then pour the sugar mixture over.  Cover and let refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I like it nice and cold, so the longer the better. 

I'll add these 2 recipes to the Recipe section for easy reference.

Hopefully as time goes on my taste buds will evolve from salt and fake wine so I can try out some more recipes to blog about.  Until then...happy eating!

One more thing...

I'm now a brunette with a little belly - which is a result of the above mentioned food consumption.  10 1/2 weeks!

Oh So Many Things...

It's been awhile. A long while.  I have been completely and totally unmotivated to write in this blog.  My precious blog has done nothing to offend me, we are still close friends, I have just had the longest and most ridiculous brain fart imaginable!  I am sitting here even now wracking my brain for things to write about.  SOMETHING exciting and blog-worthy must have happened to me in the last countless weeks since my un-manicured fingers last graced this keyboard!  Well, let's see if I can think of any...

Hot, Hot, and Hotter

Summer is in full force in Iowa. I'm not a hot weather person.  I've decided that summer was a lot more fun when we were children.  This is especially true in my case seeing how my family had a pool.  No we weren't wealthy as I am sure you are thinking all pool owners are, it was one of those above ground round pools that my parents built a deck around.  It was heaven.  I spent my pre-teen days floating about the icy cool water, sipping kool-aid from wine glasses with my friend Jessica and talking about the latest boy crush I had.  There were a lot.  The summer nights were filled with sleep overs, catching lightning bugs and playing outside until it got dark and was time for bed, only to wake up and do it all over again.  Oh what a charmed life it was during summer in Missouri!  Summer was good for me until I had a child.  My carelessness was replaced with panic that the gallon of sunscreen I put on her 20 minutes ago was already wearing off and her delicate skin was going to burn to a crisp.  I don't even remember wearing sunscreen in my day.  And since the blow-up alligator pool my daughter has is not large enough to accommodate me, her, and 4 of her barbies, lounging in the pool is out.  Plus there is the sweltering, take your breath away, want to vomit heat wave we endured for months and months.  It seemed like months, I'm ranting.  Yes, summer is just not the same.  But I still do love the longer days, although not when trying to put Ally to bed at 8.  Her 3 year old brain can't comprehend that it's bedtime when the sun is still up.  I do love getting out on the boat, and grill outs with friends.  I love that my teacher friends are out of school and this stay at home mom has someone to talk to during the day.  But I must say, to the disapproval of my mother in law, once August hits, and the Iowa State fair is past...my mind drifts to cooler temps, football, sweatshirts, jeans, pot roast, and pumpkin spice.  For yes, dear friends, that wonderful season is upon us. Fall is just around the corner.  I just wish it came a little sooner on the thermometer!

School House Rock

Speaking of cooler weather and summer being over, that only means one thing. It's back to school time.  Usually this means nothing to me, except an increase in commercials for JC Penny and Macy's showcasing the latest back to school trends.  Which by the way, why don't kids dress like, oh I don't know, KIDS!  I can't believe some of the clothes out there made for children.  Wow I am getting old.  Anyway, back to school this year means the start of school for my little one.  Ally is going to preschool!  GASP! Tear :(  Two days a week for 2 hours a day I will have to let go of her tiny little hand and send her off to the Methodist Church to get educated.  OK, so 3 year old preschool is not so much for the education, but more for socialization.  Which she needs.  Staying home with momma all day may be great for her (and me) but she also needs some time with other kiddos.  Time to learn how to share, interact, and listen.  Despite the knot in my stomach I know it will be good for her, and me, to have this time.  I'll try to keep the tears to a minimum. Think happy thoughts, like how stinking cute she's going to be with a little backpack full of school supplies!  Better clear some space on the refrigerator for lots of crayola masterpieces!

Complete and Utter Exhaustion!

OK, here is a test to see how many people actually read my blog.  For the past few weeks normal Amanda has been taken over and replaced by tired, grumpy, nauseous, make-up and hair straightener free Amanda.  This is not a good looking Amanda.  This can only mean one thing.  I have a tiny sea creature growing in my body.  In other words, I'm knocked up!  (hoot, holler, let's make some noise!)  Yes, despite Ally's best efforts at making me want to never reproduce again (only at nap, bed, and tantrum time does this happen) we decided it was time to bring another Duke into the world. I'm in my 9th week and couldn't feel, well, worse.  I'm tired, my back hurts, my stomach hurts, and my once love for bacon has now turned into complete and total disdain for all things pork!  Pregnancy this time around is also making me irrational.  For example.  I've had sleepless nights over the fact that the hubs and I can not agree on a name for a boy.  I know how ridiculous this sounds, seeing how I have 31 weeks left to be pregnant.  AND, we don't even know if it is a boy and won't know until November.  But still, in my head it makes total sense that a name should be agreed upon in the first weeks of pregnancy.  Don't you think?  Don't answer that.  But we couldn't be happier and more excited!

So for all of you who read this you now know why you haven't seen me in the wine section at the grocery store for a while.  I know your typically not supposed to share this kind of news until your at least 12 weeks along, but I'm an atypical kind of gal. And who can wait that long, really!?!  Keep me in your prayers for a healthy go at this!

OK, so apparently I had a few things to write about.  Promises to not go so long until I grace your computer screen again!  Peace out peeps!

A Shout Out to My Home Girls!

I have some uber talented friends!  I love that some of them have blogs so I can keep up on every little thing they do! I'm kind of snoopy :) It's so much fun to see that side of people you are close to.  Here are a few of the blogs that my lovely lady friends own. Follow them.  Despite what your were taught, it is good to be a follower!

Crissy...

Miss Southern Belle.  Crissy is a Texas gal living in NASCAR country.  Her husband Mike made her do it.  She has an awesome blog about her family, friends, decorating, cooking, and her wonderful  photography. Her hubs and mine are great friends and Crissy and I have become great friends as well. She is beautiful inside and out, smart and funny! We are planning a trip to North Carolina in September to see them, I can not wait! Check out her site,  I think she's pretty fabulous!  http://smothersfaminnc.blogspot.com

Kelly Nicole...

This is my sister from another mister.  We are Missouri gals with a love for all things country.  We believe we are related.  Digging into some old family documents I discovered one of my relatives shared her last name and lived in the same area her family once lived.  We are cousins. There is no other explanation!  Kelly understands me and all my quirks. She is my sister in Christ and constantly helping me be a better me.  AND she's a fabuloso mother and 1st grade teacher!  Check her out! http://allinafirstgradeday.blogspot.com/

My (real) cousin Katie...

My beautiful cousin Katie and I didn't spend too much time growing up together, she lived in Iowa, I lived in Missouri. When I moved to Iowa, she moved away. I didn't take it personal.  She was always the cousin I looked up to, she is beautiful (I heart her hair), fun, adventurous, smart, funny, the list goes on and on.  She lives in Texas now with her wonderful husband and beautiful son Harper.  Through the powers of Facebook and some wonderful visits we've gotten to know each other a little better and have decided that we would be inseparable if we lived closer to each other!  She is a fabulous baker and all together awesome person! Check out her two blogs. ovenlovinbakery.blogspot.com 

http://everytomdickandharry.blogspot.com/

Cheryl...

Cheryl is a friend of Kelly Nicole and I have the privalge to know her. She now lives in St. Louis (Nelly songs are running through my head right now) and has started her own children's clothing line. She is amazingly talented!  Check out her stuff. http://lionsandlilypads.blogspot.com/

Hope you all enjoy these ladies as much as I do!

My Struggle Within

We are all human. We all have wants, and needs, and desires.  I struggle with being happy with what I have.  There is always someone with a bigger house, more money, better clothes or a nicer car.  Instead of asking "Why can't I have that?" I need to consider what I have instead.  So I did a little soul searching and jotted down a few things.  Just a few...my list of wants is long.  Not something I am proud of, and something that I am constantly working on!  Here goes it...
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I WANT a child who is disciplined, listens when I ask her to do something and polite.

I HAVE a child who is free spirited, has already mastered the art of selective hearing, polite when she wants something, independent, and beautiful!

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I WANT a body that is lean, chiseled, and stretch mark/scar free

I HAVE a body that soft, strong, healthy, and shows the signs of a beautiful and interesting life.
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I WANT a home that makes people talk. Beautiful decor, nice furniture, and smells of lavender and sunshine.

I HAVE a home that is perfect for my family, with room to grow and memories to make, decorated with things made by my own two hands, furniture that will last through children and pets, and smells of life, with a little black raspberry vanilla scent thrown in to cover up the sometimes not so good smell of life.
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I WANT money in my pocket to spend. To not worry about the price tag or always shop in the clearance section.

I HAVE an understanding of money and pride in knowing that the things I am able to spend my money on are needed and a satisfaction in being thrifty and creative.
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I WANT a husband who is romantic and spontaneous and sings to me.

I HAVE a husband who is practical, steady, provides for me, and loves me.  I have the radio to sing to me and as long as I don't watch too many romantic comedies, he is perfect.
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I WANT adult conversation and interaction. To feel needed and respected. To be good at a career.

I HAVE an amazing opportunity to stay home with my child. To feel her need for me and take in her love. I have a career that directly benefits my family in a most positive way.  I am fluent in toddler and an expert play dough artist.
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I WANT to not want all these things and to be happy with who I am and what I have.

I HAVE a Heavenly Father who is constantly seeking the good in me and in my talks with Him is helping me become the best version of me I can be.

I have everything. I just need to get my head out of my butt sometimes and realize it!

Enjoy what you have today!

Fun Family Fourth!

This year on the 4th of July we were invited by some very good family friends to their lake house in the Ozarks.  We had a fabulous time floating in the water, cruising around on a boat, and watching the amazing fireworks show put on by the neighbors across the lake.  The whole family was there and it was wonderful to see some old friends who I will always hold dear to my heart. Check out some pics!

Ours friends amazing lake home. 

Jon and I before heading out to float our cares away on the lake.  This is a rare glimpse of me without makeup and no tan.  You can open your eyes now.

Our wonderful hostess Jennifer!

Indulging in some snacks.  This isn't even half of who was there, 18 in total!

The kids watching the ice cream maker do it's magic

Such excitement!

A few sweet pics of my baby girl

Long busy day relaxing at the lake

Melissa and Nathan, hands down the sweetest people you will ever meet.  I heart them both.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July and took time to remember our heroes past and present that make it possible for us to celebrate this wonderful holiday!