In less than 24 hours, my in-laws will be taking care of the kids and Travis and I will be here…
Look out Big Apple, I’m planning on taking a HUGE bite out of you! See you soon!
Archive for August, 2009
Here I Come…
Wednesday, August 19th, 2009A Year In Pictures Days 22-28
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009Another week down…This week Travis was in San Jose for business and a much needed break. All I have to say is it was great to have Abby help me out. We went to the zoo, got some pictures taken at Kiddie Kandids, went to the botanical gardens and the Harley Davidson Museum. It was quite a week. Brook also had a fever for a couple days and now Blake has some type of head cold again. Hope you all had a great week too!
A Year In Pictures - Day 22
This is the first day that Brook broke her fever. We don’t quite know what was up since she showed no other symptoms. But, she is a trooper and was even able to go to gymnastics class. Notice the hip faux fur vest that she just had to have!
A Year In Pictures - Day 23
This is one of the few days that Brook let me do her hair. Abby and I took the kids to the Milwaukee Zoo and had a blast looking at the animals and chillin’ with the sea lions. We closed the zoo down.
A Year In Pictures - Day 24
This is obligatory pajama shot. We ended up getting Brook’s 4 year old and Blake’s 6 month pictures taken this day. We also went to the botanical gardens called “The Domes” and hung out with Shannon and Mom Fermanian. Blake sat up by himself for the first time today…he also mimicked walking while we held him.
A Year In Pictures - Day 25
Abby took the kids swimming today, which allowed me to finish reading The Time Traveler’s Wife and then I promptly went to go see the movie! It was some awesome alone time!
A Year In Pictures - Day 26
TODAY DADDY CAME HOME! We all were so excited to see him. We hung out in Milwaukee and met Travis’s cousins at the Harley Davidson Museum. It was actually pretty cool…Unfortunately, Blake ended up getting quite sick this night…mucus, mucus, mucus everywhere…at least he didn’t get a fever!
A Year In Pictures - Day 27
Blake is sick today, so we just chilled at the house…he doesn’t sleep very well right now, due to his lack of easy breathing.
A Year In Pictures - Day 28
Poor Blake is miserable in this picture. He’s soooo plugged up. Hopefully, this will only last a couple of more days!
Pretty much done with one whole month of pictures…Yippee…only 11 more to go!
Fueling This Fire…
Monday, August 17th, 2009Yesterday we were in Milwaukee and had some time to kill, so we went into the bookstore Harry W. Schwartz to peruse the bookshelves and find me a new book. After watching Julia and Julie, I decided to bulk up on some culinary reading. I used to read cookbooks like they were the latest New York Times Bestseller. I got away from that after I started college and had to start reading text books. Then I went through another learning process once I started working at Aramark, so I could be smarter than the chefs I was bossing around. But, then Brook came into my life and I put down the learning material once again.
Well, I was drawn into the culinary section yet again. I decided one book just wasn’t enough, so I settled on three. Now I am going to start reading through Julia Child’s autobiography about her time in Paris called My Life In France. I also bought, We’ve Always Had Paris…And Provence by Patricia and Walter Wells and finally I bought a cookbook called Clean Food by Terry Walters.
The books about cooking in Paris are obvious…I mean one day, I will go back and figure out a way to take some small courses (one’s that are just for a day or a week) so I can then say that I studied in France.
The other book is to help me get in the mind of properly fueling this body…
I had an epiphany yesterday about why I think most women have a ridiculously hard time losing the last of their baby weight. I myself have only 13 more pounds to go, but they are so hard to let go of and this is why…
As a new Mommy, life isn’t routine and just when you think it is, the children surprise you.
I always have the intention of going to the gym five days a week…but, usually it ends up being three…this is because during the week Blake shifts his sleep schedule, Brook gets a fever and chores do indeed need to eventually get done. My life isn’t black and white and my workout intentions reflects that.
I’m the last to eat becuase I feed everyone else first, so I rush through my plate, which makes me overeat…I skip meals because I get involved with the kids or stuff to do around the house…I eat out of stress from lack of sleep…I eat out because it is date night…I just don’t properly fuel my body.
Then, I don’t eat right…aLthough at home we are good. I don’t buy junk and I purchase mostly fruits, veggies and meats. I do this in order to “keep out” foods I would eat if they were here, but I don’t want to eat because they work against my goals of health, fitness and body. At home, I just have a problem with portion control.
When we go out, well…I have no will power. I love to try different places, different foods and have new and unique experiences…plus, add in the beer or wine I have with that dinner and well…you know the rest.
Anyway, back to the point. I bought Clean Food in order to start fueling this fire differently. I want to incorporate the philosophy of eating locally, eating minimally processed food, and eating seasonally. I want to have new ideas about health and well-being and I want to lose this damn weight!
I know diets for me don’t work for the long term, I know balance is the key…but, knowing and doing are two different things. Hopefully, this jump starts my “balance”.
I don’t intend to live “clean” 100% of the time. But, if I can incorporate it into at least 50% of my day to day eating, I think that is a great start. I’m still going to love Julia Child’s philosophy of, “if you don’t love butter, substitute cream for it!” But, I will try to love that mindset much less. Fat is flavor, but it’s only one type of flavor…there are so many more out there to experience, to experiment with.
So, in the coming weeks, I am sure I will write more about this, I will probably share some recipies and tell you what is working and what isn’t. And hopefully I can fit back into my skinny jeans!
This is all going to start of course after I come back from New York. One can’t go to the Big Apple and not take one huge glorious bite out of it…that would be so very wrong 
.
Me and My Obsession With Pictures…
Saturday, August 15th, 2009Yesterday, I decided to get Brook and Blake’s picture taken. This would forever document Brook turning 4 and Blake being 6 months old. There wasn’t an appointment available till later in the afternoon, but I was hell bent on getting it done, so I made the reservation.
Brook 4 yrs and Blake 6 mos
Since I was going into the city, I decided to make a day out of it…This was a good/bad idea. Note to self, do not wear your children out before getting pictures done and also do not schedule it around dinner time if you want them to be happy.
So, we started off the day by going to the Botanical Gardens called “The Domes“, because I love me some flowers and Brook has been showing an interest in gardening lately, so I thought she might dig it. We actually had a fun time going through the man-made tropical rain forest and the sunflower exhibit…two different exhibits people…there are three domes, three exhibits…should have said that earlier. The last dome was a desert dome which made me so desperately homesick. It also made me chuckle, because I know that a lot of Milwaukee folk think the desert is unusual and unique and I just think of it as home.
There is a hallway that connects the Domes and we stopped in there so I could feed Blake. Brook has been obsessed with High School Musical lately and she did a little show for all the “grandma” type ladies that were wandering around the exhibits too. It was cute… so cute, that I feel like running out and buying a Flip Video Camcorder so I never miss those moments again. I actually think I will soon, because I’ve been patiently waiting for one, thinking I can wait till my birthday, but in fact I feel like I’m missing out on “the moments” by waiting.
Side Note: I think I am the last Mommy ever to realize how addicting High School Musical is for children…it’s like kid crack!
Brook's Picture
Back to the original story…
So after the Domes, we went to visit Shannon and Mom Fermanian. Both are in town helping Nicki build a fence around her house. It was nice catching up with my buddy and talking with “Mom”. Blake did two new things while we were there…two new milestones. He sat by himself unassisted for a decent amount of time…yeah Blake! He also with assistance, practiced moving his feet and legs which almost looks like walking! He is getting sooooooo big! Yet another moment the Flip would have come in handy!
Blake at 6 Months
Then it was time for the pictures. They were actually great during the process. I had to buy Blake a new outfit, because he got so very dirty and full of cat hair at Nicki’s house. It was fine though since we went to Kiddie Kandids and they are located in Babies R Us…convenient.
Okay, note to all you Mom’s who I know are smarter than this…Hell, I am smarter than this, but I really didn’t feel like driving 40 miles again to do this at a more child friendly time…DO NOT GET PICTURES TAKEN AT 5:30pm…Don’t do it…Don’t. Brook was starving, Blake was in desperate need of a nap and the photography chick was about to lose her mind.
Another Side Note: It is crazy hard to get two kids to look into a camera and smile at the same time…even with all the tricks…it’s almost impossible.
Brook's 4 Year Old Picture
But, nonetheless, we got some cute shots and now this moment is documented for them to see when they are older. My goal is to have so many pictures of them, they will be forced to remember their childhood. If not from memory, then from the pictures and stories we tell them. I am doing this because so much of my childhood is lost in my brain somewhere and I can’t find it. So, other people telling me stories about me is the only way I can “remember”.
And this is why I am obsessed with taking so many pictures of them and trying to write everything down…I don’t want to forget and I don’t want them to either.
Last Side Note: So Kiddie Kandids does something with the CD they give you that makes the photos blurry unless you buy them!!! So, I can’t post them, cuz they look like crap!!! Also, they let you view them online, but a non-tech-savy person can’t get them over here…here is the link for any interested.
Last / Last Side Note: Okay, maybe it wasn’t Kiddie Kandids fault. After being amazed that they found my blog and wrote to me…oh, and because Travis (the tech dude) is back home…I figured out what I did wrong. Without realizing it I was trying to enlarge a smaller picture which was making the picture look blurry. I was “over-pixeling” the pictures. I have sinced mended the problem and posted the pics. So Kiddie Kandids does give you a CD you can use…yeah for them!
All Is Quiet…
Saturday, August 15th, 2009Today I scheduled Abby for a full day thinking that I would get an enormous amount of work done and seeing that Travis has been on his business trip for 6 days, I thought I would need the break.
Well, I am really good at having the break, but not so great at the work part.
I should have gone to the coffee shop again…where my head could focus and there wouldn’t be anything to sidetrack me. When I am at the house, all of a sudden cleaning, eating, reading, watering the garden…all of those things sound soooo much more important than sitting at a computer writing about how to use on-line mortgage calculators. I know who wouldn’t want to write about such fascinating things…I really should get right to it!
But there is something so calming and seductive about a quiet house. Once Abby loads up my precious cargo into her car and wisks them away for a day of fun, the house turns into my little haven. Especially since even Travis is now absent…the quiet and unique sense of being alone lures me to stay here. It isn’t very often that I am left alone, here to do as I please. In my mind I think I should go out and do things I can’t do when the kids are with me…get my hair done, go shopping, sit by the water with my thoughts, etc…but, then the quiet just engulfs me and next thing I know I am convincing myself that being at home is where I need to be.
And, maybe this is where I need to be. But, then I think that I should be productive. Use this time to clean, work, organize, underwater basket weave…whatever. Then, the lazy side of me says, “maybe you should read your book for awhile. Then you can work. Treat yourself.”
I do exactly that…I curl up in my favorite chair here and read my book. My amazing, glorious book that I am now sad that I finished. You know the kind of book you wish the author just kept on writing. But, I read the whole thing and it was great and now it’s over. And this is something I used to do before children. I used to read for hours sometimes, or I would watch mindless t.v. while lying on the couch. Those used to be my two favorite things to do when I got lazy. Honestly, this is the first time I’ve read this long during the day, well in forever.
What did I read? The Time Traveler’s Wife. I know, how cliche of me…reading a book right before the movie comes out. See, I bought it last year and never got around to reading it, so it sat on my shelf. Then one day Abby asked me if I liked the book and I realized that I didn’t know, seeing that I forgot to read it. And she only mentioned it because she knew the movie was coming out. So, I decided that I should read it and then if I liked it, I would go and see the movie.
I loved it and since I finished today, I made plans to see the movie tonight. I made a date with myself and a small bag of popcorn. I know that the movie will not be like the book, I know that this is someone else’s version of their views on this book, so I am prepared. I will share my views on the book and the movie after I see it.
Some people hate the sound of quiet. They feel isolated and alone. To me it is a well needed breather and a way to get in touch with my former self. I am so lucky that once in awhile there is silence that surrounds me.
