maternity leave!

First, the long ago promised belly picture! Joel finally helped me take some pictures, so although I kind of missed out on the whole "pregnant belly progression" here's me at 8 1/2 months!

Well, I got hit with the whole influenza thing and have been forced into early maternity leave. haha, which isn't a bad thing, except for the being sick part. But now that i'm feeling better I don't know what to do with my time! My apartment is spotless, laundry is done, no dishes, I even have lunch and dinner mostly ready, I just have to cook it...I don't know what else to do! I'm so used to never having any time and then being exhausted, not I have lots of time and energy to go along with it. This inbetween time of not working and not having the baby has me stumped. I did have a dream that I knitted little brian a blanket, so i may head over to the yarn place to see what I find so I can go ahead and knit him something. Anyone have any good ideas?



I went to the wedding of a really good friend on saturday and it was so beautiful! Katie was a young woman who helped us sisters out on the mission all the time! She was like our third companion and we could always count on her. Well now she's married and she was a beautiful bride! Plus I got to have some old companions/mission friends come stay with me for a couple days which was so much fun. It was nice catching up.

The other day my mother in law and I made a flan and it turned out so well I had to share the recipe!

Flan

2 cans Lechera (sweetened condensed milk, but you can find the lechera brand in the hispanic food aisle)

2 cans evaporated milk

4 eggs

2 tablespoons cream cheese

1 1/2 tablespoon vanilla

8 maria cookies (also found in hispanic food aisle, it should be the gamesa brand and it says galleta maria)

Blend the galletas maria first so it's like a powder.

Then blend it all together in a blender!

In a cooking pot melt some sugar! Melt a lot if you want a lot of caramel, just kind of eye it I guess. so melt it and stir it so it doesn't burn until it's like a caramel color.

pour your melted sugar in your flan mold or any round baking thing (like my professional cooking lingo?) You can let it harden a little so it doesn't mix with the flan stuff. then pour in the flan stuff! cover with aluminum foil. you want to put it in a bana maria. so put some hot water in a bigger container, the water should hit righ below the bottom of the flan mold. put the flan mold in the bigger container full of water. and you're going to bake it for an hour in the oven at 350 degrees. once it's done let it sit until it's cool then put it in the fridge, once it's chill, go for it! careful when you're turning it out of the mold since the caramel will spill all over the place.