Food Lover

I am a lover of recipe books. A crazy lover of recipe books, food magazines and cooking shows on Foxtel, recipes on the internet and cooking some of the recipes I see. I especially love cooking for friends and family and love having people over for dinner whenever I can. I love nothing more than good food and good company.

During the week our dinners aren't that exciting (well I don't think so anyway). I try to provide a variety of meals but generally they are meat and vegies or pasta or something along those lines. I save the really good stuff for weekends or when friends are coming over.

One of my favorite TV shows is Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers on Foxtel. Last week he made the most amazing looking Chocolate Cookies with Scarlet fruit.

Today, William and I made them too. OMG they are divine. If you love chocolate, you'll love these.

They are big and chocolatey and gooey in the middle, they are a bit like brownies and best eaten warm. The recipe says to serve with cherries and raspberries, but we left those off.

I think William's favorite part was licking the beaters.

Things are looking up!

So, the reports on baby Hayley are getting better everyday. I get text messages every so often and a photo and I talk with my sis every night about her day with her new little bundle of joy.

So, Hayley came off the ventilator yesterday and was doing a great job of breathing on her own.

She has started moving her arms and legs a little bit and poking her tongue out. She has started weeing and pooing - something that we take for granted with a newborn, but to them, a huge milestone! And hiccups! She's been getting hiccups which they say is brilliant!

They were able to tube feed her some of sis's own milk which she was super happy about! All that time on the pump was worth that one feed she said!

The lumbar puncture results were clean but they are now waiting for EEG and MRI results. But so far she is making progress and the Dr's and nurses are really happy about everything.

I can't believe how strong Sis sounds on the phone when I talk to her. She's really positive and feels really lucky that Hayley is in the best possible care and everyone at the hospital are so fantastic.

I sent her the nappy covers I made and she can't wait to get them.

Still wish I was there though. Stupid sinuses!

I'm joining Wordless Wednesday

A day of reflections

....

Holding our breath

One of my sisters had her second baby on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately the birth didn't go to plan. Baby Hayley had been having high blood pressure before birth and was being monitored by Doctors.
On Saturday my sister hadn't felt any movement from bub for a fair while so that night she rang the hospital who asked her to come straight in. After monitoring her for a while they decided bub had to come out.
My sister has a rare blood disorder so had to have a general anesthetic to have the Cesarean. She had trouble coming out of the anesthetic and her baby was really struggling. She has been having seizures and then stops breathing. She has not woken since birth and yesterday was rushed to Royal Childrens Hospital in Melbourne.
Doctors are doing test after test to determine what is wrong, but so far nothing is known.
My sister has had to stay in her local hospital as she is not well enough to go to Melbourne yet. It all seems so surreal to me. Being on the other side of the country and not there with her is really awful, it almost seems like it isn't happening. Ben has told me to fly over but I have a bad sinus infection and can't go yet.
I am holding my breath every minute for her in hope that Hayley starts to improve. I want to ring her every hour to check on her but I know that I'd start to get annoying!
We can only hope and pray that she stays strong and fights to get through this.

A few days later

This photo was taken three days after the little fella was born. It's amazing how fast they grow!

And this photo was taken three days ago.

They grow just as fast!

A new arrival

This little fellow arrived yesterday morning. It isn't too often foals are born during the day, but yesterday we were lucky enough to be driving past her paddock to catch Eliza in labor.

A lovely colt who may one day be a super racehorse for someone (I hope!)