The Chocolate Devil

Since I'm so domestic and all (ha), I decided to try this recipe I found via Mom the Intern (momtheintern.blogspot.com). I'm not a big sweet eater, and I definitely am not a chocolate fan but this was pretty dang good if I may say so myself. And so easy (which is why I made it).

They are chocolate cookies with peanut butter frosting in the middle and you make them like whoopie pies.

THE RECIPE:

1 Box Devil's Food Cake Mix
2 Eggs
1/3 Cup Oil
Add water as needed

Mix the first three ingredients together. If it's still a little dry, add a T of water at a time until it's just gooey enough to roll the batter into 1 inch balls.



Put about 12 balls of dough on a pan at one time (1-2 inches apart). Flatten them slightly. Bake 6-7 minutes at 350* (Don't over bake these; you want them to be soft)



The Frosting:

1/4 Cup Butter (softened)
1/2 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
I just rinsed out the bowl I used for the cake mix. Save yourself a dish!



Mix the two together with an electric mixer until smooth.



Add 2 Cups of Powdered Sugar
1 t. Vanilla
2 T. Milk (or less...add one T at a time. You just want it to be creamy enough to spread)

Frost one side of a cookie and sandwich with another.


Flush down with a glass of milk and these guys are so so so good! Fast, easy, delicious. What more could you ask for when looking for a good afternoon snack? They keep well, too. And I heard you can freeze them if you wrap them individually. Hope you try it and I hope you like them as much as I did!

Time for Happiness

The cat is out of the bag.

I'm 10 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Who knew??? (Danica...)

I was actually pretty good at keeping it a secret! Our pregnancy was not planned. We weren't trying, just not avoiding. A couple of days before we found out, we decided to kick up the protection level so we don't get pregnant until September or so. And such is life...

We were excited nonetheless. And when I made an appointment with the doctor here in Georgia, I was almost an entire month further along than I realized. Still can't figure out how I missed that... ha. So we saw that little jumping bean this morning and here she/he is: (we think it's a girl, who will be named Claire Elise Hargrove. Yeah, we have had names picked out for like a year. We're weird.)



I had an appointment 2 weeks ago and they didn't really specify why they wanted me to come back so soon. They had seen an abnormality in the ultrasound. When I went in today, she had explained that it looked like I had 2 gestational sacs in there (twins?!). Yikes. But there was no baby in the second sac. So she went on to say it must have been what's called a subchorionic hemorrhage when there is blood between the uterine wall and chorionic membrane. (??? It's jibberish to me, too). The "twin" cell runs rampant through both of my parents' blood lines so I was fearing the worst but a little bit secretly masochistically excited like, "Bring it on!". Yeah, forget the bring it on. I realized I'm not sure I could have done that. Not right now.

So since I wasn't planning on this baby, part of me would get a little down and think, "I can hardly take care of myself! How can I do everything right to take care of this baby in my belly?!" And my stress level has been so high that I can feel my pelvic pain go wild and often wonder if I will lose this child if I'm not careful. But today at my appointment (after an obviously sad and pathetic night last night. Thank you for all your wonderful words of encouragement- you have no idea how much they make me smile and uplift me) I realized I was SO excited for this appointment today. If nothing else but to get my mind off of feeling lonely. I have two babies now! And one in South Carolina. What a beautiful thing! Our little family will have doubled in 3 years!

And as I came home from this appointment I realized how this baby is not a hinderance at all, but it's giving me a reason to hang on and realize that it's time for some happiness around here.

This man.

In my heart I honestly feel there isn't another human being more perfect for me and complimentary to me than my husband Derek. We aren't the type that fights and yells, or gives each other the silent treatment for long. We are never glad to have time apart even if it means just a little alone time. Which is something I used to enjoy before marrying Derek. I've always been very independent and I liked it that way. It was the only way I knew. Once we met up again (after losing contact for a couple of years), we were glued at the hip. When we were married, it didn't change. When we had a baby, it didn't change. And now he's gone for training and...there's nothing we can do about it.

I'm so sad and lonely that I find myself just HOPING I'll miss that green left turn arrow so I can sit in the car for a few more minutes before going home to a quiet and empty apartment. When I put Titan to bed, I wait for him to cry so I can turn back around and have someone to lay with for a while. And when he doesn't cry...I make the long trek back to my room, alone. I even sat on the edge of my bed tonight feeling so sad and down that I dialed Derek's phone JUST TO SEE if MAYBE he would answer his phone by some miracle. But it went straight to voicemail. And that's when I cried harder than I ever remember crying in my entire 24 years of life. I went through names of family and friends that I could call just to have someone to talk to and then I remembered that I'm just digging up things to get my mind off of being alone. I'm running from it!

Today I filled our schedule with TONS of things. We went for a walk, had breakfast, did the laundry, played outside, had a snack, watched TV, wrestled, played with toys, played hide-n-seek, checked the mail (3 times...), went out to lunch, went grocery shopping, folded the laundry, did the dishes, took 2 naps, took a shower, did puzzles, made dinner, watched more TV and then finally I put my worn out child to bed. After I put Titan to bed is the loneliest time of the day for me. I just walk around wondering WHAT to do! There is only so much you can do, you know! (And cleaning the toilets doesn't count as something to do at 9 pm...)

I miss you, Derek! And sorry everyone for such a downer post. Nobody likes a whiner. But man, this is so new to me and if you have suggestions on how to not stay bored (but trust me, I'm pretty convinced I've tried it all...) let me know. Or suggest some good books or movies! Thanks!

New Beginnings.

This morning, Titan slept in until 8! I was definitely happy about that. Last night could probably go down in history as one of the most annoying nights' sleep of all time! Some parents let their kids run free like wild heathens in our parking lot until almost midnight (by the way, apartment walls are about as thin as printer paper so remember that next time you decide to speak loudly outside!), then at 2 Titan must have had a bad dream and woke up crying, at about 5 the train blew past us- honking its horn the entire time, about 10 minutes after that ended someone's car alarm went off for a while, and finally at about 6 our neighbor tried starting his car over and over and over and OVER (that rickety noise where it won't turn over) and to no avail (thank GOODNESS he finally gave up or I was about to shoot him). And there you have it. So if Titan hadn't woken up at 8, he might have gotten strangled. Which has already almost happened to him this morning actually because he figured out how to unscrew the Gatorade cap and spill it's orangey juice all over our tan carpet. I screamed at him, cleaned it up and then shut myself in my room to avoid having a heart attack. Does being a mom come so UNNATURALLY to anyone else?! Man, I am having to re-learn everything about being a stay-at-home-mom. And let me tell you- after being on both sides of the fence, getting dressed up and going to work every day is about a million times easier than this.

I titled my post New Beginnings because we've had some new experiences! This morning, Titan woke up and came into my room with his wubby dragging behind him and his eyes all puffy and just-woke-up-like. Next to me was a body pillow and another pillow that Derek would have been using had he been here. I asked Titan, "Where's Dad?". He went and tackled the body pillow as if Dad was on the other side of it and realized he wasn't there. So he lifted up the pillow and still didn't see him. So he lifted up the OTHER pillow. Dad wasn't under there. He thought it must be a joke so he started digging through the covers. I quickly realized I shouldn't have asked him that question because now tears were forming in my eyes and I had to distract myself by saying, "He's not here. Let's go get a bite of breakfast!" But he keeps saying Dad and looking for him. When he saw Derek's picture on the fridge, he started crying and calling for "Dad". Yeah, very sad. I've used up my fair share of tissues already.

On another note of New Beginnings, Titan started talking more! Just the other day I was looking up what most kids do at 17 months old and felt discouraged that Titan hasn't learned more words. Two days later, his vocabulary shot up to the moon and these are all the words he says and how he says them:

Cracker: Ca-koh
Diaper: a-po
Dad: Dad or Dadda
Mom: Mum or Mumma
Grandma: Gammah
Titan: Ty-tee
Thank you: Da-kyoo
Water: Wahgong (this one is crazy. Water is so much easier to say than wahgong)
Baby: Bay-bee
Jesus: Cheese cheese
Shoe: Sho

And finally, when Derek was giving Titan his final goodbye he said, "Titan, I love you" and Titan said, "La yoo". We looked at each other with raised eyebrows and I said, "Good boy, Titan!"

There couldn't have been a better time for him to start saying that. I think it made Derek's day. So here's to a new beginning.

Family Pictures!

I wanted Derek to have pictures of his family when he is at Basic Training so we decided to take some family pictures on our back porch. They definitely aren't professional but I kinda like em...

A Random Assortment of Things.

Thank you guys for your comments on my last post. You guys gave me the confidence-boost that I needed, which helped me feel like I really can do it. Knowing that I have great friends and family to help me along the way makes the journey much easier and enjoyable.

Well, I was fartin around getting ready for the day and decided to grace my pits with some deod (pronounced: dee-ode. We've always called it this in the Sikora family for some reason.) Deodorant has at times been a sore spot for me. My puberty-strucken body decided to go haywire in High School and I began to sweat like a faucet. This was obviously humiliating and I prayed to PLEASE take this curse away! And away it went! But the usual problems remained. What is a good deodorant that will help me not to sweat too bad and won't make me stinky when I do? I've gone through many. And I have found this one to be the best. Try it! (Even my husband uses it.)



Also, I wanted to share a cool idea! A few months ago, my husband and I took a vacation to San Antonio. There was an Anthropologie in a shopping center by where we were staying. I keep hearing hype about this store (which seemed way out of my price range and was too trendy for me- sorry but $75 dollars for a skirt "on sale" is just plain ridiculous). I walked in and didn't fall in love with their out of this world expensive clothing line...but I DID find myself obsessed with their home decorating section, whose prices were pretty awesome! I found these hooks and thought it would be fun to hang these above the stove with a mug. So that's just what I did!







The hooks were $8 and the mugs were $6. Not bad! We use our cups all the time and we don't have to go digging through the cupboards to find a clean cup. My husband told me the other day, "This was a good idea to put those mugs here!" so I thought maybe some of you would like to do it, too! I didn't end up putting them over the stove because they re-did the backsplash which consists of actual tile and grout. (It was easier to hang them over the sink). Anthropologie also had a ton of cute vintage doorknobs (some of them were $2!) and bath towel hooks. They have a plethora of affordable, cute things for the home with a lot of bright and fun colors. But in my opinion, you would have to go to an actual store because looking online, I found some not-so-cute things that were not-such-a-good-price. Have a good day!

The Final Countdown!

It's actually pretty sad. This is our final week together as the Hargrove family in civilian life...for the next 6 years! Part of me is excited for the new places we will see and new things we will experience. I can only hope (but I guess ultimately I choose) that these experiences will help us to grow! Derek reports to South Carolina on Monday and I will be reunited with him for only a short period of time in September. Then he will come back here to Ft. Benning to do his Officer Candidate School (which is why we are here, so he can be with us on weekends) until the end of November. And then it's off to Sierra Vista, AZ or Enterprise, AL. All this moving really makes you purge your house of junk you don't need. Trust me, hauling the necessary items is difficult enough. You don't want to drag more things with you!

I was zipping around the house this morning cleaning up things and I found myself wheeling an umbrella stroller into Titan's bedroom with one hand, balancing a sippy cup and a plastic dinosaur in the other and having a hundred more things to put away once I walked into his bedroom and noticed the disaster area. I thought to myself: "Wow, imagine doing this with TWO kids!" So that is another frightening fact I have to face. Being a military wife with a husband gone and having multiple children. Scary! I'm such a wimpy mother, how will I ever do it!? But the thing is, if we are only going to be in for 6 years, I should probably take advantage of the next-to-nothing cost of having children. 6 years should be enough time to pop them all out, lose my sanity and then regain it back, right? Let's hope so. And let's hope I can look as chipper as this guy all the time and have his attitude...

Happy Father's Day, D.

I did a Father's Day post last year so I think I'll keep up the tradition. And let you in on the story of how Derek and I met. Six years ago...ON FATHER'S DAY!

Derek was assigned to speak in church. His topic was naturally on "Fathers". He was going on about how his Dad would grill steaks for the family on Father's Day. The girl behind me said, "Mmmm steaks" and it was not in her sacrament voice. It was pretty loud! So I laughed and turned around like...??? And that's when Derek paused his talk and looked at me. Way back in like the (I don't know) 15th row or something. Then he went back to his talk. I was SO embarrassed. Surely he didn't hear me chuckle? Maybe he heard the girl behind me when she reverently threw in her 2 cents about steaks? Well now I was feeling totally sheepish because I don't like drawing negative attention to myself. And I felt like by capturing the attention of the Sacrament Meeting speaker in the middle of his talk to where he pauses to give you a "shape up while I'm speaking" look, that's negative attention. I don't think I could concentrate the rest of the meeting. As SOON as Sacrament Meeting ended, I pursued him as he was coming off the stage. I said, "I am so sorry". He said, "For what?". I said, "So you didn't hear me?". He said, "Hear what?". I explained and told him I was so embarrassed and he laughed and assured me he had no idea what I was talking about. We went our separate ways to Sunday School and our 3rd hour meetings and then afterwards, he approached me in the foyer while talking to a handful of other girls. He pulled me aside and asked me if I'd like to go over to his apartment complex and play games with a bunch of his other friends that lived there. I said sure! When I returned to the group of girls, they were upset! There were at least 2 other girls who were supposedly pursuing Derek. I didn't know! And I wasn't the one who asked him- he asked ME so how could they be so mad?! They said I was too young for him. He is 3 1/2 years older than me. I brushed it off and thus began a summer of spending almost every day together. I never knew what love was until I met Derek. And I never knew love with anyone BUT him. Sometimes I think we know exactly the dynamics of love and what it means through and through. But we don't! I think until we find someone that compliments us, that makes us better individuals, that pushes us to our potential and respects us completely...we don't know love. This is Derek to me. I truly believe he is my Soul Mate. I don't think there is another human being in the history of life that would make a better eternal companion and friend to me than Derek does. I believe Heavenly Father made our paths meet because we are a killer team! If you ever want to know our entire story and how we went in a humongous circle and came back to one another, comment and I will do it in series because it is long but it is awesome! I can really see the Lord's hand in our being together.

So, with that being said, Happy Father's Day to the world's best person ever.

Love,

Lauren

I stooped.

I had a huge blog post a while back about how much I despised Walmart. And guess what...

I went there today. And last week- twice.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a relationship with Walmart. My husband was confused when I told him this. Ha! I just said that it makes me sick to think about how terrible they treat their employees but I love their low prices and the fact that it's a one-stop-shop.

But when I went today, a Walmart worker told me that she had a customer return meat that was over 2 months old (expired April 11th) and didn't realize the expiration until she got home. Turns out the meat didn't have the wrong date on it...it really was TWO MONTHS past expiration! Sick! So the lady said from that day on, she decided she will never buy Walmart meats again. Gross. Something to think about!

Also, I made some delectable homemade salsa tonight. I used a little over half of a yellow onion, three small tomatoes, a big clove of garlic that I roasted first in the toaster oven, 1 1/2 jalapenos, 1/3 bunch of cilantro, lime juice, salt and pepper. Just eye-ball it and make sure the ratios are good and voila! Delicious salsa. I kept it chunky instead of throwing it in the food processor. It was good like that. I ate it with some nachos! And if you're a carb free person like Derek, make nachos out of original flavored pork rinds. Yum!

Oh, Atlanta.

Last night we ate at this little joint. Doesn't it just SOUND delicious? Who doesn't love carbs?


Even though Derek loves carbs, he is on a carb-free diet (bad place to go for dinner, I guess). So he settled with a Cesar salad while I indulged in this number:

I didn't say much about how good it was until he asked and then I just stared at him for a while before I said..."It is SOOOO good." Poor guy. But this diet has lost him between 25 and 30 pounds in a short amount of time so if anyone is looking to diet and still eat like a champ, let me know and I'll tell you his secret!

The restaurant above is called The Atlanta Bread company, but they are all over Georgia, so we have one close to home. We did, however, go to Atlanta the other day and here are some pictures:

The Braves Stadium


The Atlanta Skyline (or some of it)


Some weird shaped building downtown


And I had to take a picture of this...

I mean seriously. This is an intersection with NO SIGNS! There were so many like that, too! Four way stop lights, six way stop lights- no sign, no problem. It's like you have to be a psychic in Atlanta to know where you're going! And the rumors are true. EVERY SINGLE STREET starts with Peach. Peachtree Dunwoody crosses with Peachtree Industrial. And make sure you find Peachtree Lane because it's not the same as Peachtree Circle or Peachtree Way but they are 2 bloody streets apart! It is by all means insane. But somehow my master navigator husband found his way hahaha. What would I do without him?

We were going to go to The Aquarium (largest in the world) but decided against it since I woke up feeling crappy and Titan was a little on the cranky side. So we just went to the Mac Store and to Costco, then checked out downtown before coming home. I asked the guy at the Apple store if they ever got celebrities coming through their store (since Atlanta is a pretty famous city and there is only one Apple store). He said he sold a computer to Tom Hanks and that he's a pretty cool guy. He also said Justin Bieber graces them with his bratty presence every now and then and is a huge douchebag. Haha. He threw a fit because Apple wouldn't sell him their little kid chairs for $1,000. Anyway, Atlanta is a pretty happenin place. Maybe we'll go back before Derek leaves.

I'm already having a nervous breakdown just thinking about him leaving. In fact, yesterday I blacked out while driving and hit a curb before it shook me out of it. Weird. So, again...any takers on coming to visit me so I'm not so crazy and lonely? Haha

I'm baaaack!

I have been without internet until TODAY so I'm glad to be back in the blogging world! You never realize how much you rely on the internet until uh, let's see...you don't have it! So here is us as of late:


We didn't get a good night's sleep before this picture was taken so...please excuse the way I look!




We made the 11 hour drive to Terrell, TX (just outside of Dallas) the first day and we were exhausted. The next morning we headed for Montgomery, Alabama which was only 2 hours from our final destination but we had just done about a 12 hour drive with a child that had a fever and was breaking 3 new molars (which equaled stop and go, stop and go over and over and over!) so we parked it at a hotel and made the 2 hour drive to Georgia the next day. We were so glad to be "home"! Our apartment is old as heck (unbeknownst to us) but there is something homey about it. The door doesn't shut right, the oven looks like it belongs in my great-grandma's old house and the kitchen is beautifully decorated with peach and pear wallpaper. But we love it! It's kind of like on Miss Congeniality when she has to shove a wooden spoon into the door of her microwave for it to work. Ha. We've decorated it so that it is nice and cozy, though! Here are some pictures:

This is a picture of the birthday present my hubby got me! It's kind of a present for the whole family, too : )

A view of our kitchen from the living room.

The dining area.

Living room area.

More living room area.

I haven't taken pictures of the bedrooms yet for some reason. But our apartment is 800 more square feet than our other apartment, so we aren't always sure how to fill in the spaces! (Which is good because less junk is better, especially when you know you'll be moving often over the next few years.)


This place is most definitely NOT El Paso. There are only a handful of Mexican restaurants, which really taste a little Tex-Mexy but they're not too bad. There are a TON of Chinese restaurants and a PLETHORA of fried food buffets. Did you get that? BUFFETS. We have received coupon after coupon in the mail for "Buy one get one buffet free" and in the fine print it says "Includes fried fish, fried chicken, baked chicken, french fries, salad and a drink". Holy fried. And yet there are a thousand more obese people in El Paso than here. And hey- everyone here speaks English! It's...strange. : ) However, there are a lot of African Americans and Honkey Tonks here and with their accents, they are equally difficult to understand. Overall though, we are enjoying it here! No complaints from the Hargrove end! (Is that new or what?!)

Some pictures for fun:

This is Derek bobbing his head out of the water, but behind him is our apartment complex.

A sign I saw while filling up with gas in Mississippi.

Titan and Dad at the local motorcycle store which happens to basically be our neighbor! Derek was thrilled : )



Titan watching his favorite Sesame Street DVD grandma gave him. I wonder if he could get any closer to the TV.

He discovered the old Mario Brothers game at a place here called Trade n Play (like GameStop) and wanted to dink around with the controller the entire time.

One of the first places Derek wanted to go to was PetLand (haha) so we took out a baby Boxer and let him nearly eat us up. That was the stinkin most hyper dog I've ever seen!!!

Before Leaving El Paso:

Derek lighting my birthday cake with trick candles!

Saying goodbye to family for the next little while.

Grandpa reading to Titan.

Freestylin it at grandma and grandpa's pool.

The girls and the grandbabies.

Grandma taking Titan on his first train ride. He loved it and he had a cart all to himself. He just sat there and looked around!

We are looking forward to having visitors so if any of you are looking for something to do, come visit me! And to my dear family, I miss you and am so excited to see you! I'm getting fat over here because I keep eating at the local restaurants so that I'll know where to take you when you come! Ha!

The End.