Hollis's hair

When I got pregnant, I stopped cutting Hollis's hair.  Now, six months later, he has a curly mop that I love.

I think it's pretty awesome.  It goes really well with his stylin' facial hair.

Once we get back, if not before, I do plan on cutting it back to it's normal attractive length.

Barefoot and Pregnant (in the Kitchen)

I'm a cliché!

I actually don't go in the kitchen very much anymore.  Since I've gotten pregnant, Hollis has done all the dishes and most of the cooking.  It's only very recently that I've started cooking again (sometimes).  But while I was there, I figured I better get my shoes off and take advantage of this photo op.

26 weeks

I don't really fit into my old swimsuit anymore. :)

Chicken Parmesan

I finally felt like cooking, so I made Chicken Parmesan.

I also made the marinara sauce by using a pizza sauce recipe and marinara sauce recipe.  It was SOOO good.

Recipe for Chicken Parmesan from the Food Network (with my changes):

Ingredients:

• 4 slices whole-wheat bread leftover bread
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 (6 ounce) skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 1/2-inch thickness
• Olive oil cooking spray
• 1 jar good-quality marinara sauce (about 3 1/2 cups) I made my own sauce
  
• 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Directions:
Place the bread in the bowl of a food processor and process until fine crumbs are formed, about 25 to 30 seconds. Put the crumbs on a baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, until golden. (You will wind up with about 1 1/3 cups toasted crumbs.)

In a medium bowl, toss the crumbs with oregano, garlic powder, paprika, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites and milk together. In a third bowl stir together the flour, and the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon black pepper. Dip each piece of chicken, 1 piece at a time, in flour, shaking off excess, then egg, then bread crumbs, shaking off excess.

Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Place breaded breasts in a glass baking dish and spray on each side with cooking spray, about 5 seconds total per side. Bake breasts until cooked though and crumbs are browned, about 15 minutes. Top with marinara sauce, mozzarella and parmesan and return to oven for an additional 10 minutes, until cheese is bubbling.

And the sauce recipe I used (from allrecipes.com, but modified by me):

• 1 can tomato sauce
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• 1 1/2 teaspoons dried garlic
• 1 can stewed tomatoes
• bay leaves

Mix all ingredients together in a pan and heat through.

25 weeks

Photo update!

Week 25 front

Week 25 side

13 Weeks

13 weeks

13 weeks

Mustache update

12 Weeks of growth:

First day I had to trim my mustache.

My Lunch

Four drinkable yogurts, barra de pan with meat, gouda cheese and apple. Yum!

Best bathroom sign ever

Found in a mall outside of Madrid:

 Mall security told us to not take pictures.  Oh well. :)

Galicia

Heather and Simon headed south to enjoy Granada while we used the Puente de Mayo to head north.  I knew this would probably be the last vacation that we could take.  I thought Hollis would really love northern Spain, so we rented a car to drive to Santiago de Compostela.  We paid extra so Hollis could drive too.  When we got to the car rental place, we were given the choice between a Mini or a Ford Ka.  We took the Mini.  And LOVED driving it.  Hollis is posing in our car at the gas station.

And this is me with the Mini after we got to our AWESOME hotel.

Just look at the view!  So green!  And just gorgeous.

Our hotel was built in an old farmhouse (600 years old).  It was very quaint and quiet.  And gorgeous.

The inside had beautiful beams.  And the rooms were located around an inner atrium that housed a community living room and stone oven.

Each morning they served breakfast - so much food that was so delicious!  Outside they had play toys for kids (that I would totally use if we go again with kids).

This is another view of the wonderful place we stayed.

And this was the view from our window:

Just gorgeous.

We went into Santiago each day.  We loved the city.  We visited the Cathedral (my favorite in Spain).  It is so rainy and humid there that the cathedral has moss growing on it.

The facade you see above is actually the "new" one they built to protect the old one.  You see, this cathedral is built over the burial place of Saint James (or Santiago), the patron saint of Spain.  The legend goes that people were led to the grave by a starry trail, and found St. James' grave beneath a field of stars, or Compostela.  This cathedral is the end of a pilgrimage to see St. James' coffin (pictured below).

There is a pilgrim's mass each day at noon.  It was full for ours.  I enjoyed the organ music.

The original facade is being restored, so we couldn't get any pictures of the whole thing.  But I did get a picture of the place where people touch to officially end their pilgrimage.  If you look above the head, you can see a smooth part with five indentations around it.  It is where hands have touched for hundreds of years and have worn an awesome hand print into it.

Behind the cathedral there are some awesome staircases.  I love cool stairs.

There was also a protest going down the streets while we were there.  I'm not sure exactly what the protest was about, but I'm sure it had to do something with the Spanish government cutting entitlements.  We tried to walk away from it, but every street we turned down turned out to be the one that they were going down too!

After finally escaping the protestors, Hollis and I tried to visit a few museums.  However, they all closed early because it was a holiday apparently.  But we found this awesome park instead and had a photo shoot.

And then there was this totally random statue.  I'm not sure why it is there, but it made me laugh.

And just a few more pictures of the awesome greenness that is Galicia:

I love the farms on the hills.

We used Heather and Joey's GPS again.  We wanted to go through Portugal on our way back, and this is the way their GPS took us.  Onto a tiny road.  We decided to just go with it.  I told Hollis that we would turn around if it turned into a dirt road.

And this was the little sign that told us where to go.

Down this tiny overgrown road.

I was worried that the road would end because there was a cliff on one side and the road was about as wide as the mini.  It did indeed lead to Portugal, and we got to see a lot of awesome small villages and BEAUTIFUL countryside.

We are going to go back someday.

Heather and Simon came to visit too!

On Saturday we went to Toledo.

We really like hanging out with Heather and Simon.  Too bad they live so far away from us.

We really liked getting to climb up through the thick city walls.

After a rather full day of walking around Toledo, the boys crashed on the train ride back to Madrid.

When we got back, we went to the Prado (it was free for the last two hours of the day).  Afterwards we walked to find a Thai restaurant.  On the way, there was this awesome wall all covered in growing things!  I loved it, so I took a rest from walking here for a wile.

After dinner, we took Simon to see the Ham Museum - a restaurant chain that specializes in Jamón sandwiches.

Yup.  The jamón in Spain is impressive.