Franks Pizza

We made homemade pizza tonight.  Yum! I made the dough and sauce, Chris assembled the whole thing (he even throws the dough in the air!), and Cole tasted the cheese as I grated it.  A family affair!  We decided that tonight's pizza is the BEST version we've made so far.  Yes! 

And yes, today is my due date.  December 30 and still no baby Frank!  I have to admit that since Cole came a week early I expected this one to arrive early also. Just goes to show how little of a clue I really have.  I go to the doctor tomorrow, so stay tuned!  Maybe the first baby of 2008? 

Cole is fruity...

Crispy Schokochef

For those of you who have joined our blog readership recently, Chris is CRAZY about chocolate.  His mom and sister sent him a fabulous array of chocolate items for Christmas, including this book you see above called Hot Chocolate. Chris has been perusing this book for a few days, and tonight he attempted for the second time to create a brilliant drink to enjoy.   Tonight's creation included caramelized brown sugar, pure vanilla extract, and a touch of cinnamon.  And of course, a chopped chocolate bar carefully chosen from Chris's decadent collection.   

Another note for those of you who are interested...Chris and I went to Paris in March.  We

visited countless chocolate shops and one factory. Chris carried home at least 50 bars of chocolate ranging in cocoa percentage from 50% to 100%.   He's STILL plowing through this chocolate, because unlike Hershey's, one cannot eat a whole bar in one sitting, let alone a day. It MUST be savored!  The concentrated caffeine and sugar in these kinds of bars would take you down.  

So forget Swiss Miss, folks!  Come over and Crispy the Shokochef will serve you up a cup of the good stuff.   

Dec 25 2007 - VID00011

The Flip

Chris and I received a VERY cool Christmas gift...a Flip Video Camera.  Seriously, this thing is amazing. Check it out. 

Merry Christmas!

We've had a full few days, but it has been so much fun! We spent last weekend with the Luginbills in Indianapolis. They came all the way from Iowa, California, and North Carolina. We decorated cookies, exchanged gifts, hung out, and enjoyed great food. We spent Christmas Eve with the Messerlies, which was also fun. Cole played Santa and passed out presents to everyone. He's learning to be so generous! We came back to my parent's house and Cole and Chris spent a while deciding which cookies to give to Santa this year. Then, off to bed! This morning, we opened gifts and enjoyed some family time together with my parents and Mike, who is home for a week from California. We even had homemade cinnamon rolls..YUM. One of Cole's favorite gifts was a Hot Wheel! Unfortunately, his legs are still a little too short to pedal! He had fun riding up and down the street, though, and down my parent's driveway.
We don't have much baby news to report yet, either. I am dilated 2 centimeters and everything is just fine. My actual due date is this Sunday, December 30, so we're just enjoying our time together until we meet our new little boy. I have to admit, I'm thankful that I wasn't in the hospital for these last few days of Christmas celebrations! It's been a huge blessing to be around so much family after being in Vienna the last three years. We'll be sure to post as soon as our BEST Christmas present arrives!

Crispy's Job Stats

Since working in Vienna...

86 applications to IU jobs (82 were actually forwarded to the specific department)

13 applications to non-IU jobs

6 interviews for IU jobs

3 interviews for non-IU jobs

1 IU job offered to me

1 non-IU job offered to me

My feeling of the job "success" rate: 0.00000001%

IU job "success" rate: 1%

Total job "success" rate: 2%

Grown application skills: lots of time, a little money

Improved resume: help from family and friends, a little money

Improved interviewing skills: time, confusion, humility

Actually having a full time paying job: priceless

Buzz Cut

I'm tired of scrubbing peanut butter out of Cole's hair. It had to go.

Snowy Saturday!

We woke up to lots of snow today, so we seized the moment and trekked outside in all of our snow gear. It was so much fun! Cole ate some snow, we threw snowballs, and we built a short-lived snowman. I guess destroying it was part of the fun, too!

No more TO DOs

It's official.

Christmas shopping is done.
Gifts are wrapped, but NOT under the tree yet. We want them to STAY wrapped until Christmas Day!
Packages to California are sent.
Cookie baking is finished.
Cookies have been delivered.
Baby clothes are washed.
Hospital bag is packed.
Call list is made and posted.
Hospital preregistration is done.
Husband has a job.
Insurance is no longer a problem.

Baby Frank #2, come NOW!

I want to fly!!

Wow!!! This is so amazing, and I would love to do this someday. Heilige Fleischbaellchen!
Now, THIS, is flying.

I still need to tell you about my new job.  Coming soon...

3 weeks to go!

It's a rare day when I put myself on the blog, so today I used this nifty Photo Booth program that our computer has to show you my belly AND my face. Only a few more weeks until we get to meet Blank Frank #2! I bet you can't wait to hear his name...

HUGE Blessings

Chris is going to post more pretty soon, too, but I can't help but share about the awesome things happening to us right now. Some of you may know that Chris has struggled since August with a job search. He has had several interviews and a lot of positive feedback, but nothing came from any of it. It has been discouraging for us, especially because our health insurance expired at the end of November, and we were counting on a job by then that would cover us as a family. Our baby is due December 30...soon! So November 30 came and went and nothing was changing.

Until last Friday! Chris interviewed for 2 jobs last week on Wednesday and Thursday. BOTH opportunities offered him a job on Friday! He chose to accept a job with NWS Enterprises. It's a small accounting company downtown Bloomington. He will have to share more later about the details. All I know is that we are SO thankful! I even find myself excited to iron his shirts and make him lunch. I wonder how long THAT will last! So I've been Christmas shopping this week, too, now that we know we'll have some income coming soon. Yahoo!

The other piece is about insurance. Chris's new job doesn't cover us until April 1, 2008. No luck with this pregnancy, unfortunately. So, we applied for Hoosier Healthwise Medicaid. I found out yesterday that my doctor does not accept this form of insurance, so I was fretting about switching doctors 3 weeks before my due date. I called what seemed like a million people and offices, including my doctor's office, to get this to work somehow, and nothing came of it. So I went to my regularly scheduled appointment yesterday afternoon, and when I arrived, the nurse told me not to worry because my doctors would accept Medicaid just for me in this situation. NO PROBLEM after all! Another HUGE blessing. Our baby can be born without our stress of paying for it out of our empty pockets, and Chris has a job that is a better opportunity than he could have ever designed on his own.

Thanks for sharing in our joy!

Cookie Time!

A favorite family tradition! Chris and I decorated these the other night while we watched White Christmas. Cole and I delivered them to our neighbors today. Unfortunately not many were home, but we did manage to surprise a few!

Go Hoosiers!

beat Kentucky!

Oreo Truffle Day!

Cole and I made Oreo Truffles today. Mmmm mmm good! Someone should change that saying "They're going like hotcakes" to "They're going like Oreo Truffles at the Frank's house." Here's the easy recipe, just in case these pictures make your mouth water.

1 package OREO cookies
1 8oz. container cream cheese
2 8oz. boxes semi-sweet baking chocolate

Blend cookies and cream cheese together well. Chill for a little while until the mixture is easy to handle, maybe an hour or so. Form mixture into 1 inch balls. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Once melted, remove from heat and dip each ball in the melted chocolate. Place each truffle on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or foil and let dry in the refrigerator. It's easy to dip if you use 2 forks to handle each ball. That way your hands don't get all chocolatey. Enjoy! These don't last very long!

No Filter Cole-man

Cole definitely is the highlight of our activities, laughter, and lives. You can imagine, I'm sure.
So, over the past weekend, we had a couple friends visit (Lauren and Phil) who we know from Vienna. We were all eating dinner around the table and I think Cole was sitting on Anne's lap, right next to me. We were done eating, just talking and laughing at Cole.

Then, out of nowhere and silence, Cole announced, "Daddy farted!" Of course that was really funny, but in my defense I hadn't. Plus, there hadn't been any noise for Cole to even confuse it with a fart. That kid is going to embarrass me in public sometime - I can just see it. He's great, isn't he?