I just really can’t seem to get bothered with blogging recently. It’s on my mind.. things will happen, come up, etc that make me want to share.. but I just can’t seem to part with the time required lately. But I know I owe some catching up re: Easter and our getaway.

So our getaway was completely awesome and relaxing and way too short! But it was just wonderful. It was so nice to be able to spend some time with Chris and do what we want and not worry about whether we have diapers or toys or snacks or kids menus.. etc etc. Sleep in and get up when we want. It was just wonderful. But I did miss the girls like crazy and when we walked in the door that Sunday afternoon I just couldn’t get enough.

Our drive up there was rainy and windy and foggy. But it was completely beautiful as well. We stopped for lunch in a town called Ukiah where we split an absolutely delish Bison burger! It was so awesome and satisfying. Bluebird Cafe is where we went. So wonderful we stopped for lunch on Easter on the way back as well.

Chris had a work thing come up so we missed a couple of touristy stops on the way up there because we had to hurry to find an internet connection. But we got to town in time to relax in our cute little room (and I mean little, but who cares? It was just the two of us!) before we walked over to have dinner at a litte mexican restaurant. This whole town (Ferndale) shut down at like 7pm during the week. So we ate pretty early, like 6pm. Then we drove to find some Prilosec for Chris and ended up in the next small town over, Fortuna. Then we headed back to the hotel and watched a movie on the laptop and turned in early.

Saturday we had breakfast and then took a long bike ride to the beach, where we sat and relaxed for awhile before riding back. After lunch at a surprisingly GOOD pizza joint (probably up there with the best I’ve had) we drove to the Avenue of the Giants to do some sightseeing and some walking around to see the giants. Then we did the dinner and a movie date thing and thus ended another day.

Saturday I slept WAY in. Then we had a late breakfast and drove to find a souvenier for the girls and did some shopping around town. We visited The Loleta Cheese Factory  and then took a bike ride in the drizzle around town. We saw wild turkeys, which was very cool. Also got a chance to see some of the victorian style churches and homes around Ferndale. We ended up eating such a late breakfast that we didn’t end up eating again until dinner (other than some snacks).

Sunday morning we went back one more time to the place we’d had breakfast at everyday. Pappa Joes. Sigh, how I miss them already! This place was like straight out of the history books with it’s clientele and friendly staff and YUMMY food! It was very simple. Nothing fancy, but what they did was excellent. Excellent food and wonderful biscuits served with homemade blackberry jam (which I now have a jar of sitting in my fridge! yum!).

On our way home we wholeheartedly agreed that we’d be back with the girls this summer. It was such a wonderful retreat and a much-needed break. If I do say so myself, it was one helluva good idea!

The girls really enjoyed spending time with their grandmother! And she seriously spoiled them AND worked her tail off while she was here. We were entertained with Easter stories and whatnot that night at dinner.

In other news, we are coming to Phoenix for two weeks at the beginning of May. We’re looking forward to seeing good friends and spending time with family. Lucky girl Grace gets to have two small birthday gatherings (and if she gets better about cleaning up her toys, we may just let her open a present or two) and is SUPER excited to see her cousins! So am I for that matter!

Check out the flickr account. There are some new pics up!

We’ve had some beautiful weather this week, so the girls and I have really tried to get to the parks around here as much as possible. It’s been absolutely gorgeous. It’s been on the chilly side but still, very nice. We’ve gone to the park almost everyday, and have run lots of other errands which have been both successful and super epic fails. These two troublemakers are just not good grocery store buddies.

I had started a habit of going in the evening after Chris gets home from work. It just works better for me, especially since I generally have need to hit 3 different stores (Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Safeway). I just can’t drag them to 3 different stores. This week though, I only need to go to Safeway so I thought I would take them to the park first and tire them out and then ply them with a snack while I was shopping.

Unfortunately the snack distraction lasted all of about 5 minutes. One thing I’ve noticed about my shopping habits with and without the girls is my willpower for avoiding junk food and things I just don’t need. When I shop without the girls I manage to steer clear of things I shouldn’t be getting. Sometimes, I’ll even put something in my cart, but I’ll change my mind and put it back before I get to the check stand. But when I am with the girls, that willpower just goes out the window and I end up bringing home things that I really don’t need and that don’t make a big positive addition to my life. Like something from the bakery, etc.

Plus, Grace went wild when she saw some kind of easter candy that she wanted and even though I NEVER just buy her candy and give it to her like that, she went totally exorcist on me when I said no. I was in the check stand paying and so it wasn’t like I could just say “okay, we’re going” but I swear as we left the building behind to walk to our car I heard a collective sigh of relief from inside. It’s not like she never gets candy but she NEVER gets to just pick out a candy, have me buy it and then she gets to eat it.. you know? Sometimes, I let her pick out 3-4 bulk pieces (like candy corn or gummy bears) but it’s been months and months, mostly since I just stopped shopping with her. When she does get ’sweets’ it’s generally something like 60% cocao chocolate chips or something (which she really likes). Or if we go somewhere that has cotton candy, she’ll have some of that. But never do we buy candy at the grocery store like that.. so the whole thing was just bizarre.

Anyway, it looks like the forecast is just going to continue to be awesome and I’m just drooling over all the sun we’re supposed to get.

In other news, our washing machine is going all Psycho on us again. So a few months ago our washing machine just started doing the scary bounce around during the spin cycle thing.. so I called the leasing/management office and they brought a new machine. Then, about a week ago.. it started doing it again. Chris keeps saying “you have to center the stuff inside”.. and I’m like “gee, remember when we had a washing machine that you didn’t have to stop 3 times during each washing cycle to ‘re-center’ the clothes?”

Of course I’m not sure if we should call the mgmt office again, because at some point they’re going to wonder just what we’re doing to these machines (though I swear we’re not doing anything weird). But I’m seriously just not sure I can deal with that for another 8 months.. On the flip side, only 8 months to go!!! At least until our lease is  up.. whether we’ll be ‘ready’ to move at that point is another story..

So enjoy the spring weather!

Other than us still feeling like we’re going to BUST AT THE mother-f***ing seams in this CLOSET I am pretty darned happy lately. So let’s go ahead and go through the list of goings-on and I’ll update y’all.

Chris: He’s good. He’s flatlined weight-wise and has added some weight training and gym work to his routine. He traveled to Kansas and had an increase in blood-pressure from a combo of medicine changes, a stressful trip, and dietery issues that week. We’re hoping it’s back down now. Otherwise he’s doing pretty good. If you haven’t seen his pic lately check out our flickr account and see how freakin’ skinny he’s getting.

Girls: Driving us nuts. As usual. Graces’ imagination is just at this all-time high. She is obsessed with Harry Potter (and yes, if you ask her she will actually tell you “I’m obsessed with Harry Potter”).. so we spend our days being various characters and pretending that our apartment is a castle (of course our individual apartment is more like a dungeon in the castle but oh well) and that our car is the flying car from Chamber of Secrets. It honestly.. really wears us down. But, it’s great that her imagination is so awesome.

She keeps talking about wanting to stop sucking her thumb. We’ve told her that she can do that if she wants but it has to be what she wants. We’ve given her the facts: that it can hurt her teeth and her jaw if she does it too much longer, but that she’ll stop when she’s ready and we’ll support her on that… but she does keep talking about it. So I’ve told her when she stops for good I’ll take her to Disneyland. Is that bad? Eh.

Cate is just pushing everyone’s buttons. But is so damned cute about it. She’s very much a hugger and a cuddler. Yesterday I was about at my limit and she could tell because she kept coming up to me and hugging my legs. But she is also the worlds’ biggest troublemaker. I challenge anyone to dispute that! Yesterday I went into the kitchen to see her ON the door of the dishwasher, NO diaper.. and she’d pooped on the door. Yes, that happened. And it was the GROSSEST thing ever! I had to re-wash all those dishes and mop her down too. She’s also not slowed down on the tantrum thing at all. At Borders today she FA-LIPPED out and by the end of it I’m surprised no one called CPS.. or a Priest. Whatever. But, man is she freakin’ cute.

I’m back into a workout routine and I’m loving it. I’ve discovered this wonderful machine in our gym and it’s called an elliptical. Why has no one told me about this before? I LOVE IT. I love the treadmill, don’t get me wrong.. but the other night I went in there and both were occupied so I grudgingly went on the elliptical. 30 minutes later I climbed off a changed woman. I find it so much easier to groove to my music, get sweaty and get my heartrate up and barely notice the time flying by. Of course, I’m WAITING for the rain to stop here so I can jump on my  bike a coupe times a week.. because..

(segue into my next update)

I planned a trip for Chris and I to go up north for a couple days for his birthday next month! AAAAHHH!! SO excited! So, it started as a surprise! And I planned the whole damned thing before he found out (I told him because he was feeling particularly down one day and I knew it would cheer him up). I emailed his boss to get time off, arranged with my mom to fly up to stay with the girls, made reservations at a hotel in Ferndale, Ca so we can visit some of those famous redwoods.. we’re taking the bikes so we can go on a couple rides together. We’ll be going for 3 days and coming back on Easter Sunday, which also happens to be Chris’ birthday this year. My mom is excited to spend some time with the girls and Grace is super excited to see grandma. Cate doesn’t understand yet. hehe. It’s about a 5 hour drive but it’s really going to give us a chance to see a part of the state we haven’t seen yet.

We’ve started incorporating some new things into our diets. Some new grains like quinoa, bulgar, wheatberries, wheat germ.. We’ve been adding wheatberries and wheat germ to our oatmeal, bulger to soups, chilis and pasta sauces (it acts as a thickener, it’s awesome!). We’ve been doing more meat-free meals as well. Quinoa is (in my opinion) a mix taste-wise between brown rice and couscous. It’s high in fiber and protein. It’s actually a source of complete protein. It’s not really a grain at all either, it’s a seed. Interestingly enough.. also it’s FUN to say! Quinoa = Keen Wah. Come on, say it. You know you want to!

I’m still in the midst of my love affair with oatmeal. It’s just so YUMMY! We’ve gone through a HUGE box of it in the past 3 weeks or so. That’s a lot of oatmeal! I’m starting to incorporate some Soy milk into my diet too. I am making our oatmeal with half-water and half soy milk. I’m also making iced coffees (with the help of my new cool french press) with soy milk. It’s pretty good! Very creamy. I don’t think I’m ready to give up my moo juice for cereal yet or to go with cookies.. but I’ll glady swap for some other things. We’re also going through a ton of spinach. Like two big boxes a week. Amazing the things you can add it to. I have to admit that I like baby spinach better than regular spinach and I like it cooked and IN things better than raw in salads. I do like it in sandwiches though.
Anyway, maybe it’s the working out.. but I’m just feeling so good lately! I’m not losing any weight (bleh.. ) but I just seem to be more patient and less sensitive about things, more positive.. etc. I think I’ll keep this. hehe.  Plus, since Chris has been coming home at lunch to eat, giving me a chance to go work out.. it’s a nice break in the middle of my day. I love it!

We took a trip to the Monterey Aquarium this weekend. Our membership is up at the end of May, so I’m going to get us good and tired of that place since we won’t be re-newing. Anyway, it’s such fun with the girls, especially with the membership. We can go see exactly what we want without worrying that we’re not getting our moneys worth. Especially since, at this point we’ve paid for the membership many times over.

My favorite exhibit has become the Sea Dragons and Sea horses.. so beautiful. And I didn’t take this pic.. our camera doesn’t do the ‘through the glass’ shots so well. But aren’t they just gorgeous?

Anyway, the point of my post was to post some pics of Grace. This first one is from 3 years ago when we first moved here, and first visited Monterey. She was about 10 months old here.

This next one is from this past weekend, at 3 years and 10 months.

Such a big girl now! This trip also marked the first “I have to go to the bathroom” stop for her. Most of the time she waits until she’s  home. Not a big fan of the public potties, this girl. I don’t blame her.

Here is Catherine, with daddy at the aquarium. Yes, I dressed them in matching sweaters. I wanted to be able to spot them in the crowd.

I think, one of the things I would miss about this area (one of the *few* things) would be Monterey. I just adore the town, and the ocean… It’s way up there in probably the top 3 things (not including the friends we’ve made here).

I’ve been trying to eat a good, hearty breakfast every morning. Don’t confuse ‘hearty’ with ‘huge’. It’s not necessary to eat a large breakfast just to get the benefits of breakfast. I’ve also been trying to eat within 30 minutes of waking, or at least taking a few bites of something.. fruit or whatever, if I can’t quite get to breakfast in that time. After all, changing diapers, dispensing milk and breakfast for the girls, can sometimes take longer than 30 minutes depending on everyones mood.

My latest obsession for breakfast? Oatmeal!! All thanks to Kath over at Katheats.com. She has it just about every morning and from reading her site I realized that oatmeal doesn’t have to be the boring old thing we ate as kids. Even brown sugar doesn’t dress it up very much for me to want to eat it regularly. But after coming across her site I’ve realized that the sky is the limit and it can very much be just the thing you want to eat, as well as need to eat (it’s SO healthy!). Seriously, now? I start thinking about my breakfast oatmeal around dinner time the night before! haha.

Anyway, this morning I made this beautiful bowl of oats

The basic recipe is the Whipped Banana Oatmeal recipe from Katheats.com.

So, I put this in the small sauce pan

1/3 cup oatmeal (not quick cooking, because I wanted it to have time to cook with the banana)

1/3 cup half 1% milk and half vanilla soy milk (I’m trying to get where I’ll eat all soy milk in this)

1/3 cup water

1/2 small banana, very thinly sliced so it’ll mix all up into the oatmeal

1/4 tsp cinnamon (did you KNOW how healthy cinnamon is?)

1/4 tsp brown sugar (I sometimes put a little more, sometimes a little less..depends on my sweet tooth that day)

1 tbls wheat berries

1/2 tbls wheat germ

After this was all cooked together I stirred in 1/2 tsp vanilla (I LOVE vanilla!) and topped it with the other half banana, sliced up and 2 tbls (1/8 cup) of the maple nut granola I made this weekend. So good!

I’ve done all kinds of things with oatmeal since I re-discovered this breakfast food. Ask Chris and he’ll tell you he never wants to go back to the boring old plain bowl again! Try it out, check out her site and all her yummy combos!

So I made some granola last night, and tweaked a recipe a bit to try to make it a bit lower in calories. So, here you go. I’m actually sharing the recipe plus pictures!

Maple Nut Granola

1 3/4 cups Regular Oatmeal (not quick oats)

Chris’ Grandmother passed away this past weekend. She was 87 and she was feisty right up until the end. Chris’ folks got to be with her, Paula just missed her. But we’re all happy that she’s in a better place now and won’t be burdened by a body that couldn’t keep up with her sharp, witty mind. So Chris will meet his parents and Paula in Kansas tomorrow and the funeral will be Friday. She will be missed, but I have to say she was such a smart, smart lady who I had a chance to get to know when I spent some time with her over the years. She gave me lots of advice on loving my husband and being a better person.

In the meantime, Chris is at the doctors this morning, having a follow-up to his bad-news appointment back just after New Years. He’s lost 30lbs since then. So it will be interesting to see how things go with his tests and his doctors reaction to such a dramatic weight loss in such a short period of time. Amazing though, what happens when you cut out ALL processed foods and bulk up your diet through a variety of vegetables, fruits and other heathy stuff. We now bake our own tortilla chips, he makes his own hummus and salsa. We eat lots of whole grains, etc. I haven’t had the dramatic weight loss he has (bastard!) but I am seeing a teeny tiny loss. Heehee. He’s been able to keep up with riding, doing shorter rides 3-4 times a week.

Grace and I had a mommy date last night! Just us big girls. Pizza My Heart, which is an AWESOME local pizza chain here, had a kids night last night (This location does them every Tuesday, though I’m not sure about other locations). For $5.00 she got to make her own little individual pizza and she got milk to go with it. The server, who was awesome with kids, brought over a plain pizza crust, a bottle of sauce, cup of cheese and she got her choice of toppings (2). She picked ham and pineapple. She had such fun spreading around the sauce and cheese. We shared a salad and had a fun fun night! Sometimes she just needs some one on one time with mommy and/or daddy.

I finally got some pictures uploaded from Christmas and the past month. We did quite a bit! Visiting farms and museums and whatnot. But the camera was being weird and wouldn’t let me upload them but I tried again the other day and it worked. There were 155 pictures on there!

Happy Wednesday!

So this blog is turning into more of a bi-weekly update kind of blog. bah. I’ll try to be better about that. But once again I have some updates for you.

Graces’ BFF moved out. Sigh. They were just here in our complex temporarily as they looked for a house to rent higher up on the peninsula and closer to the east side of the bay where it’s a little less expensive. And closer to dad’s work. But we’re going to miss them. M was here this morning for a last playdate.. well, not *last* but the last truly convenient one. Ironically enough, Grace was more composed at the end than she normally is. She normally gets very dramatic about M going home.. but today she just said “bye!”. They actually might get another playdate at M’s mommy comes to finish up in the apartment.. but today was the day the movers took their stuff.. sigh.

In other news, health news Chris is quickly wasting away to nothing. Eye Witnesses report disappearances when he turns to the side.. but quickly realize it is just a trick of the eyes when he turns back towards them. Haha. Just kidding. But seriously he is rocking and rolling at losing weight and getting his body healthy again. I will be very surprised if he has to be on this medication for cholesterol and blood pressure very long.

In related news, I’m getting healthier too. I’m battling my soda addiction and my caffeine addiction and have only had 3 diet sodas in the past week. Normally I hate anything with artificial sweeteners, but I wanted to wean myself off of regular soda and I am watching my calorie intake. I tend to get frustrated when I try to lose weight because often it doesn’t work.. But a few different things came to light in the past couple weeks.

Chris’ diet is expensive. Buying separate things for everyone to eat is even more expensive. So, in order to keep the expensive-ness to a minimum, I eat what Chris eats.. well, in smaller amounts that is.

I often think about the effect my diet has on my daughters. It’s all too easy to get lost in their sea of mac&cheese and chicken nuggets and whatnot.. but for my sake and theirs, I’d rather them get lost in a sea of spinach and carrots. Granted, they eat less because they refuse a lot of that stuff.. but they do eat better all around. I do still get a few things for them that I know they love, like their fish crackers and whatnot. But now, for example.. In the car we snack on carrots, sugar snap peas, and celery instead of crackers and whatnot.

I had a physical to double check some of my numbers in the wake of Chris’ unfortunate ones.. wanted to make sure everything was okay. To Chris’ frustration they are. My HDL (good cholesterol) isn’t as high as it needs to be.. by 2 points. So I need to work on that. But my bad cholesterol and my triglycerides and my blood pressure are all right smack dab in the center of normal. My thyroid is shockingly normal.. I was actually quite surprised given some of my energy issues. In that light, I’ve decided to look at that as being a side effect of all the soda/coffee and wait and see how I feel after I’ve weaned off of all the caffeine.

Next week, Chris is going to start coming home 2-3 times a week for lunch to give me a chance to head over to the fitness center here. So he’ll eat lunch here with the girls and I’ll get 30-45 mins over at the gym. I also have a ton of options for exercise on the Wii and lots of yoga videos. We haven’t been as good about doing our nightly videos as we should be. Our nightly routine with the girls just varies so much.. But it is something I want to work harder at. It’s also hard to get dinner done early enough. I can’t exercise on a full stomach, but I really can’t eat dinner so late (neither of us can wait unti 8pm). So hopefully we’ll figure out something that works. Maybe in the morning it will work better. We’ll see.

Anyway, thats about it. I just got the Spring/Summer schedule for the Sunnyvale Parks and Rec classes for kids and so I’m thinking about doing some things with the girls. Their classes are really affordable, and now that Grace is potty trained (!!) she is eligible for alot more than she was before she was trained. So in the next couple weeks I think I’ll be registering them for a couple. There is a music one that Chris or I could do with Cate and a soccer one that I think might be fun for Grace to try.. or gymnastics, which she also likes. We’ll see.

Grace has a new BFF. Don’t get me wrong, she’s got lots of friends who she behaves very “bff” with. There’s Parker, Evan, Ari, C, and a few of the girls from her school. But up to now there has been no one that she’s talked about day and night even to the point of acting very desperate in her attempts to see them.

Until M moved in across the hall. They lived here for a full month before we realized there was a child living there! When Chris ran into M’s mommy on the stairwell one night, he ran in to tell me the news.

Chris: Her name is H, she’s got a 4 year old girl and she’s a stay-at-home mom!

I think he was quite excited. All weekend long he pushed for us to walk over there and introduce ourselves. I’m a bit socially awkward when it comes to this sort of thing. I get very anxious about being forced to meet people. But I knew it was going to be a good thing for her to have a friend so close.

So first thing Monday on our way out to run some errands we walked over to knock on the door. No answer. Grace was crushed, but I assured her that we would keep trying until we met them.

After we got home I dropped the groceries off inside and we walked the 30 feet or so to their door. Grace knocked and H answered. Immediately M walked up and said hi to Grace and invited her in to play. Before H and I had even had a chance to officially meet, Grace ran with M into the apartment and they’ve been best friends ever since.

It’s been awesome having them so close. We’ve had playdates and M has come over here to play and they’ve both gone to M’s house to play. Which means we’ve had some quiet time while the girls are at the others’ house. They play so well together too. They are very sweet. We walked to Pump It Up across the street and they held hands the entire time.

They are here for another month, as they just moved in while they’re looking for a house to rent in Union City. Luckily it’s not so far that we won’t still be able to get together, but we’re going to take advantage of the closeness for easy playdates while we can. It’s always great to meet new friends.
Welcome to the neighborhood BFF!