20 weeks!!

Today marks the halfway point of our pregnancy!! Kinda hard to believe. As fast as the time seems to be going now, I can't imagine what it'll be like when the baby actually gets here! Every week we follow baby's progress on Babycenter.com - you can check out 20 weeks if you'd like.

We're thankful for a healthy, uneventful pregnancy so far. Everything was great at our last doctor's appointment 2 weeks ago. Also, I thought I first felt the baby moving right after Thanksgiving (around 17 weeks), but this week I've been feeling him or her like CRAZY! It's exciting and reassuring to have these reminders of the life that's growing inside of me.

Fall

People always talk about how distinct the seasons are here in the New River Valley. While I miss the mild winters of South Carolina, I'm learning to embrace the special place in which we live now, and am thankful for what it has to offer.

I took these pictures a little over two weeks ago (wow - time flies!). We had one tree in our yard that held out a lot longer than all the rest and was a beautiful bright yellow when all the other trees had already shed their leaves.

This picture may seem a little random, but the same day I took the tree pictures I went to a fun store called Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke with some friends. It's a really neat store - this bench was a favorite of some of things they had there.

This past weekend we finally got around to raking up all the leaves... and you can see how much help Gracie was! At least now when we look outside to call her in, we can actually see her - she was pretty well camouflaged with all the leaves!

Gracie's New Hangout

Introducing...

Baby Schloemann!!

This picture is about 5 weeks old, so baby's actually a lot bigger by now, as I'm starting to tell from how my clothes fit (or don't). :) Our due date is May 2nd... 13 weeks down! (That's the day before our anniversary!)

We're thrilled that the Lord is growing our family and are excited about all that lies ahead! I've thankfully been feeling pretty well lately, especially the last two weeks or so. Weeks 6-9 were probably the worst. We had our 2nd doctor's appointment yesterday and everything seems to be going well - heard the little heart beat so super fast. (It was about 150 BPM.) Oh and we're not finding out boy or girl, but if you believe the old wives' tale about heartbeats, I think that means baby is a girl! We'll just have to wait and see. :)

Current guess: Javier - boy, Rebekah - changes by the day

Soup!

I'm so excited that fall is here! I never really thought I was one to enjoy fall, but every year I seem to enjoy it more & more. The maple tree in our front yard is tinged with red & orange, and our neighbor's tree is almost at its peak color.

Fall also means pumpkin recipes and soup! I've held out a little longer than needed on the soup-making (it has after all been quite chilly here), but tonight I'm making Refried Bean Soup. Now, before you stop reading because of the name of that, let me just say how good it is!

This recipe came from Emily who got it from a friend, so I don't really know the real origin... here it is:

Refried Bean Soup
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp oil
1 31 oz. can refried beans
1 10 oz. can diced tomatoes with chiles (Rotel), undrained
1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 14 oz. can chicken broth

Cook onion & garlic in oil in a large pot over medium heat until tender. Add in rest of ingredients, stirring until smooth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat & simmer for 15 minutes.

Our favorite way to eat this is with a cheese quesadilla on the side - perfect for dipping in the soup!

The original recipe suggests that you cut tortillas into thin strips & bake at 350 until browned (about 15 minutes, stirring every 5). Then you can top the soup with your choice of cilantro, tortilla strips, sour cream or cheese.

I can smell it simmering right now!

Tomatoes

Sorry it's been so quiet around here! The lack of posts just means there's lots to post about - lots going on & me not taking the time to share.

So, even though this post is titled "Tomatoes", it's really more of a summer update post. Tomatoes have just been taking over our lives lately, so that's what came to mind first.

Our Roma tomatoes ended up being the size of large cherry tomatoes, and all my plans of making sauce went out the door with the sheer quantity of them and the thought of peeling that many... not fun. So, I was thrilled to find this recipe for slow-roasted tomatoes. Most of our Romas have gone that route, especially since you can freeze them once they're roasted.

We've had a little more fruit from our garden other than tomatoes... but you can see from this picture a little of everything else. I've enjoyed our mini red bell peppers - they're so cute & great on salads!
This was from way back in May, but I realized I never posted beach pics. We had a great time with my family at Edisto Beach.

Javier & I managed to get away for a weekend at the beginning of the month to go to Williamsburg. We had a great time - loved learning about all the history there and getting to interact with the tradespeople. It was a belated birthday present to both of us, of sorts, and also a fun time before school started back for Javier.

While this certainly isn't exactly a summary of our whole summer, it's a taste!

Garden!

We took pictures of our garden on June 2 and never got around to posting them. The fun part is that we then took pictures Friday (June 17) and were amazed at how much everything has grown in just two weeks! It's been so fun to watch everything grow and really just amazing. All these plants started as seeds!!

This part of our garden has lettuce (a couple different types) and then sunflowers across the back. You can just start to see the zucchini and squash poking up on the right.
This part of our garden has lots of tomatoes and peppers, with a few herbs and marigolds sprinkled in between.
And here's the lettuce, sunflowers, squash and zucchini a few weeks later. You can't really see, but we have a few beans and a cucumber peaking up in front of the sunflowers. They're not doing as well as everything else, but we still have hopes they'll be okay.

And here's our tomato jungle! There are actually a few teeny tiny tomatoes on the Roma plants, and we saw an itty bitty bell pepper on one of the plants today, too. So fun. :) So far we've been eating lots of lettuce and have used cilantro. I think we planted a bit too much lettuce, but hey, we're learning a lot this year.

Lately...

Since the last post on here has absolutely nothing about what we've been up to, I figured it was time for an update. :)

Back in April, I was able to take a quick trip to Greenville for Stephanie's baby shower. I really enjoyed my {short} time in Greenville and am so thankful I was able to go.

We had a wonderful time celebrating Easter at our church in Blacksburg. This was the first tim since we've been married that we've been able to celebrate a holiday at our church home, and it was great. We missed being with family but are glad we stayed put all the same. Thanks to Geneva for the great picture!

Then... we made a quick trip to Vegas with Bryce & Elissa. Don't believe me? Okay, you're right... we just went to the VT GSA casino night. :) Almost the same as Vegas... except we got to gamble with play money! Think I prefer that kind of gambling.

We've been working in our yard & garden. This picture is a little out of date - we've finished all our planting in the garden. I'll have to post an update soon. :)

This is a before picture of our deck on the side of our house.

And here's what it looks like after some lattice & new flower bed. This flower bed has sort of turned into an extension of garden though - we germinated more seeds than we needed for the main garden, so we've put some extras over here. We're also interested to see how the plants do in the two different places. We debated for a long time where to put the garden, so this is sort of an experiment so we can learn what's really best.

We celebrated our 3rd anniversary earlier this month - can't believe how fast these three years have gone! It's been wonderful so far and I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in all the years to come!

What better way to celebrate our anniversary than with homemade ice cream? (You can see it just a little bit in the bottom right of the picture.)

Finally we went on a vacation to Edisto Island in mid-May. Too many pictures to keep adding to this post... I'll work on those soon.

Food Picture Catharsis

Do you like pictures of food?

Yes, you!

You know who you are.

Well then, this is the post for you!

Back in 2008, I was living the high life in Puerto Rico - the view from my beachfront apartment was 3 swimming pools, a volleyball court, and the Caribbean.

That was the life.

Or, it was more like: working 60 hours a week and knowing about 10 people on the whole island, one of those not being my wife since she was back in South Carolina. Turns out, the inside of a building on a tropical island isn't really more exciting than one back on the mainland.

However, since I was already there and our 1st anniversary was approaching, we decided to take a Southern Caribbean cruise. And, what does everybody talk about when they talk about cruises? Food!

Here is just a sampling of some of the food we got to eat. I have to say, everybody's right - the food is fantastic!

Fresh sushi prepared on the spot as a snack on the first day.

Boarding day was Mother's Day - so Rebekah got a Mom cake.

Cheese platter...mmm!

The first day we got buffet breakfast. Good...but not as good as the sit-down breakfast we'd soon find :)

This is the cacao fruit! The real thing.

Some bananas in a forest of banana trees!

Rebekah loved the after-dinner cappuccinos.

To clean your palate between courses.

Ahh...the sit-down breakfasts, my favorite!

I ate these every morning...Eggs Benedict!

Cool little dessert swan.

And lastly, a picture with the really friendly guys who served us all week :)