Natalie Quote

Natalie was being fairly uncooperative last night, going into "noodle" mode as I was trying to convince her to get her pajamas on.  Finally I just had to groan, "Natalie, you are not listening to me!!!"

She looked up at me and said, "Hm.  My teachers say that to me all the time."

And then went back to being a noodle.

She cracks me up.  Spoken like someone much older, so I forget she's still not quite 3!

It's Birthday Party Season!

We have a whole wave of birthday parties this time of year.  You heard about mine already.  Saturday we attended our friend Ethan's birthday party at Pump It Up.  Ethan is 3 and LOVES monster trucks!  He is one of Natalie's best friends, so you know we couldn't miss it!

We had a GREAT time at Pump It Up!  The kids ran and bounced and went crazy.  I got to go down the huge slide a few times -- awesome!  It wrapped up with pizza and a monster truck cake.  The cake was pretty awesome.  Apparently they have a family friend that owns a bakery who created the cake especially for Ethan.  I thought it was delicious.  I think Natalie just ate the fondant.  :)

I grumble a lot when people schedule young children's parties for 1:30 pm.  Shouldn't all good 3-year-olds be napping at that time?  We survived, but barely...  there were an awful lot of tired 3-year-olds leaving the party!  Natalie crashed as soon as she got in the van, which I knew would happen.  She was pooped.

Thank you Ethan and family for a fun party!  Next up is Natalie's party this Saturday, and then our neighbor Gavin's party the weekend after.

Soccer Time

Only one more week before soccer season starts!  Katie played 2 seasons at the Y and decided she really didn't like it that much.  She prefers basketball, and that's fine.  But now that Natalie is old enough, she wants to try her hand (foot?) at soccer.  We've already bought her some shin guards, so this girl is almost ready to go!

I can't believe she's getting so big!  I think those shin guards make her look more grown-up, don't you?  :)

Natalie - Poop Chart Champion!

We are so happy to announce that Natalie is done with the poop chart!  Created as a tool to keep her on track when she was not always so interested in going #2 in the potty, she ended up getting a little bored with it.  She was doing so well, that when she made it seem like a total drag to put stickers on there, I knew we would just finish out the remainder of the chart and be done with them.

Her last prize was a coloring book and a lint roller.  That may seem strange, but she loves my lint roller, and is so pleased to have one of her own.

Great job, Natalie!  We are so proud of you!!!

34 and Ready for More

I know, I've posted my weight on here, and now my age as well!

I was so impressed when I came home Friday -- as an early birthday present, Colin had already done most of the laundry!  I usually spend most of the weekend on laundry, so it was super-sweet of him to do that for me.  He and the girls took me out to supper at Macaroni Grill on Friday night.  Due to some behavior issues (right on the verge of being BAD), we decided to skip out before dessert and just enjoy some cookies back here at the house.  That worked out pretty well, actually, because our service had been kind of slow and I don't know how much longer we could've hung around without some sort of meltdown.

Saturday morning, my family gave me several gifts at breakfast time.  I got an exercise mat, some candles, a book I'd been wanting, and a sweet framed photo of Colin and the girls, taken at his office.  How cute!

Much of our day was like any regular Saturday.  Colin's parents did come over for supper.  We grilled steaks and finished off the meal with this tasty Cookies N Creme Torte from Publix.  Yay, Publix!  (Why is this delicious cake not on their website!?!?!)

It was nice to have Colin's parents stay with the girls while he and I went to see a movie.  Here I am with the girls before we went out:

My movie choice was The Town.  I bet Colin is glad it was filled with drama and car chases and the like, because I think I spent the majority of the 2 hours drooling over Ben Affleck.  It was a good movie.  I liked all the backstories for the characters, as well as all the action.  And it totally renewed the mega-crush I had on Ben through most of college.  Totally.

So that was my birthday!  Thank you for all the phone calls and emails with birthday wishes!  They are much appreciated.  :)

Early Birthday Lunch

Since several of us have to work at a seminar tomorrow, my co-workers took me out for birthday lunch today!  We were quite a sight leaving the building, 5 women with Walter tailing behind.  :)

My choice for lunch was Pane Rustica.  I've been there a couple times before, and it was just as delicious as I remembered.  Plus, I love eating in there and smelling all the delicious baked goods.  Mmmmm...   We had a great time!  I had one of the daily special paninis, and I even got a complimentary cupcake for dessert.  Yummy!  JoAnn and Crystal also had gelato, so we were pretty stuffed when we walked out.

But not too stuffed to walk next door to The Cupcake Spot!  I couldn't imagine buying anything, but several people did buy cupcakes to take home.  They look delicious!  I'd love to take the girls there, an all-cupcake restaurant.  They'd love it!  Walter certainly did:

Thanks, friends, for a nice birthday lunch!!!

Jalapeno Poppers

For our menu tonight, we planned on jerk chicken.  The recipe calls for 1 jalapeno pepper as part of the marinade.

So what does Colin do?  He buys 8 jalapenos when we are grocery shopping!

This afternoon, realizing we had 7 jalapenos and nothing to do with them, we started to brainstorm.  Eventually we came up with homemade poppers and consulted the internet, where I really just pulled off the first recipe I could find from Google.

Best Ever Jalapeno Poppers

Oh boy, were they good!

We followed the recipe pretty much exactly.  My only real tip for you was that I used a baby food spoon to get the mixture into the jalapeno halves.  It seemed easier that way instead of using a regular spoon.  They aren't kidding on the 45 minutes of prep time, either.  I kept working on these while Colin grilled the chicken, and the poppers did hold up our meal a little bit. 

Worth the wait, though!  And surprisingly, not even super-hot.  We loved them.  I can't see myself making them all the time due to all the prep, but they're delicious.  I won't hesitate to make them again!

Furlough Day #5: The One That Wasn't

Four unpaid furlough days down, one to go...  Or so we thought.  At the 11th hour, they cancelled our last furlough day of the fiscal year, scheduled for today.  Apparently we have realized enough cost savings through other measures during the year, and they didn't want the employees to have another unpaid day off.

So, we had to work like any usual Thursday, and get paid just like normal.  However, this posed a lot of problems for people who had scheduled appointments, vacations, and flights out of the country for furlough day...  A lot of leave paperwork had to be re-done to account for the fact that it's an actual day off with sick or vacation usage, not the furlough day.

I was personally bummed because I had grown to enjoy this time to myself, paid or not.  So, let's just use our imaginations for a moment and think about what I would've done today had I been home from work.  I would've:

• Taken the girls to school.
• Run 3 miles.
• Lifted weights at the Y.
• Vacuumed my car.
• Baked some cookies.
• Shopped for Natalie's birthday presents (which I've already done since I knew about the furlough cancellation before the holiday weekend).
• Eaten a big delicious burrito for lunch while watching The Young and the Restless with my feet up in the recliner.
• Gone to the mall for my gait analysis and running shoe shopping at the big fancy running store.
• Gotten my eyebrows waxed.
• Picked the girls up early and played outside until suppertime.

Sounds like it would've been a lovely day, huh?  :)

Eye Exam

Last week I had my annual eye exam.  Usually not newsworthy, I know, but a few things happened that I wanted to complain about:

• The old debate of monthly vs. daily disposable contact lenses reared its ugly head again.  This came up last year, and I chose to stick with bi-weekly disposable because she was being so unreasonable about not wanting me to try monthly contacts.  She claims it is a comfort issue.  Well, for me it is also related to convenience.  I have a hard time remembering to do anything on a bi-weekly basis.  Monthly is just easier to remember!  And last year, she prescribed monthly disposable contacts for my dear husband!  Harumph.  She is REALLY pushing those daily wears.  We finally agreed that I would get samples of both, a sample of monthly wear, and a 5-day trial of daily wear, and come for a re-check to make my final decision.  I can tell you that these monthly ones have been perfectly comfortable in the days I've been wearing them.  Further online research when I got home told me why she pushes those dailies so much:  Cost.  A one-year supply of monthly-wear contacts is roughly $160.  A one-year supply of daily-wear contacts is closer to $790.  Yikes!!!  I most certainly do not use enough contact solution to justify the cost of daily disposable!
• Fish oil.  Some days I should just keep my mouth shut.  Really.  I don't even remember how it came up, but somewhere in the course of conversation, I said something about ground flaxseed.  Apparently this is quite the touchy subject for my eye doctor, as she went on a big rant about how the fish oil that SHE sells is the one and only way to improve eye, heart, and brain health.  Goodness.  My family doctor isn't even that passionate about the stuff!  It was hard to extract myself from that conversation, but I managed to do so.
• I do like the fact that my eye doctor is young-ish, just a shade older than I am.  However, I think our similar age makes her feel a little too casual sometimes, and I was a little put off by the amount of foul language she used during my exam. I understand that those words slip once in a while.  (Guilty!)  But come on.  Be a professional and conduct your eye exams without the potty language.
• Cost.  I know, prices don't stay the same from year to year, but when I got the final number and handed over my credit card, I nearly fell out of my chair.  This lady is about to price Colin and I right out of her practice!

Colin has his eye exam coming up in a couple of weeks -- we'll see how he feels afterward.


So what do you think?  Remember, I had a break-up with my dentist during the past year, so I'm not opposed to having a break-up with my optometrist as well.  I know I only see her once a year, but I don't like wasting my time with people who are not pleasant to deal with.

Long Weekend Report

Labor Day weekend is drawing to a close...  Back to work and school tomorrow.  It was a fun weekend for us -- hope it was for you, too!

Saturday

The girls and I went to the Y in the morning while Colin did yard work.  After 2 miles on the treadmill plus 30 minutes of weights and core, I got cleaned up, and the girls and I did our Target shopping.  We had lunch and a short nap, then went to Lily's birthday party!

Lily graduated from the same preschool as Katie, and they now go to different elementary schools.  Her party was a nice mix of kids from both preschool and her current kindergarten class.  Her parents rented a bounce house for the party, but things started to get a little rough out there, so they were eventually directed to indoor play until it was time to eat cake.  We had a fun time celebrating Lily's 6th birthday, and were glad we were able to attend and see so many of our friends.

Sunday

We went to church and got groceries, so pretty much our usual Sunday routine.  I did my workout DVD as the girls napped.  After that, the girls went to sew with Grandma.  Colin was busy with a woodworking project to help one of our neighbors, so I went to Target and knocked out Natalie's birthday shopping.  And I'm a month early!  I feel so on top of it, but you know that will change as the day draws nearer.  :)  Colin grilled some delicious hamburgers for supper, and we were so proud of Natalie for actually trying one (Katie still won't).

Monday

Again, the girls and I went to the Y in the morning.  Colin had to go in to work for a little bit.  This time I did 1.5 miles of running, 20 minutes of bike, then weights and core.  After we were home and I'd cleaned up, the girls and I went out to Party City to start buying invitations, decorations, supplies, etc for Natalie's birthday.  They had a big Dora the Explorer cupcake stand, which Natalie REALLY wanted for her party.  So we got it.  And I guess I'll be frosting all those cupcakes for her party instead of one big cake, which is OK.  We also went to Michael's to get some small supplies for Colin's project, then came home for lunch.

This afternoon, we went to Colin's parents' for supper.  We had pork chops and all the trimmings, plus homemade chocolate frozen custard.  Again, I asked Colin's dad for the recipe (for you, Elisa!), and again, he doesn't remember because he half uses a cookbook and half makes it up as he goes along.  It sure is delicious, though, so maybe one of these times he will write it down for us!

And now we're relaxing and getting ready for our short week tomorrow.  It will be busy for me -- we seem to have a lot of people taking vacation this week, so I'm sure I'll have to assist on a lot of other things while they're out.

Have a great short week!

New Refrigerator!

It was time...  the fridge that was in the house when we moved in was slowly, slowly going downhill.  After six years of wondering how long it would last, we started monitoring its internal temperature a couple weeks ago and decided, "Hm.  Maybe we should get a new one before we wake up in the morning and everything is melted!" 

This also explains why my yogurt wasn't lasting as long as I thought it should.

After some shopping around, Colin and I decided on this Samsung.  We did a little price shopping and got it delivered from the local appliance store.  It was delivered on Friday, and so far, we love it!  The girls are also able to get their own water, which we all think is fabulous. 

Here's a toast to the new refrigerator! 

SWELT Conclusions

Today was our final weigh-in for the SWELT weight loss program in our office.  Congratulations to Cindy and Crystal -- co-winners, each with 15.5 pounds lost!!!  To celebrate, we all went to lunch at the Taco Bus.  It was my first time at the Taco Bus, and it was DELICIOUS!  I will definitely be going back.  That cochinita pibil is fab-u-lous!

And as for my own performance?  Well, I will not be winning any weight loss contests any time soon.  Despite recent changes to my diet to help my cholesterol and stepping up my weekend exercise with my new Jillian Michaels DVD, I stayed in the 142-144 range the entire time (minus a 1-week foray into 141).  I was happy that I didn't gain anything!  But I know I'll have to work a lot harder if I actually want to lose anything. 

There's some talk about having SWELT 2 this fall -- I'll let you know if I sign up!