Creme Brulee:1, Self-Control:0

I like food, and I'm not afraid to say it. I enjoy preparing it & I enjoy eating it even more (especially if I don't have to do the dishes afterward). In my tiny family, I am notorious for my food cravings. During pregnancy it was gyros, grapefruit, grapefruit juice, milk, burritos, and lots of ice cream. I've been doing well on the 'diet' which I started along with my exercise/ get healthy program this week. It's nothing specific, just keeping a food diary (a first for me, and something I'm not terribly comfortable with), and eating less pasta & bread and more fruits and veggies. Well, after I made the angel food cake to go with my Strawberry Shortcake for Tuesday's party, I had 9 egg yolks left. I hate to waste good food, but couldn't think of much to do with them. Enter epicurious, and their genius search feature. You can enter an ingredient, and up pops a plethora of options. In my search for 'egg yolks', I stumble across Creme Brulee. I love creme brulee, and the recipe looked fairly easy, so I thought "why not"? Well...... I've had two servings today. They were not at the same time, and one was topped with raspberries (another fruit serving!). It was sooooooo good, but I am wrestling with my guilt about this, as I was beginning to feel a little pride in building consistency with better eating habits. I can rationalize with the best of them, but can't seem to do so in this case. I definitely didn't need the second serving, and I probably could have powered through it. But I know myself. I would have obsessed over it. And obsessed. And obsessed. I might have even ended up digging through the fridge in the middle of the night. I'm hopeful I can move on from this (the craving, the guilt), and view tomorrow as another opportunity to make healthy choices. Not every day can be perfect, and the great thing is that tomorrow always offers the chance to improve upon yesterday. Good news: I am feeling more energetic, and am enjoying the BBC class. Bad news: I am SORE (I didn't think I was so out of shape, but I was wrong. So very, very wrong).

It's a Des Moines love-fest

That seems like a very un-us thing to say, but both Matt and I admitted to each other this week that we really like Des Moines. When we had to decide which school to finalize our acceptance to, I campaigned hard for Des Moines. I just had a really good feeling about coming here. I thought it would be good for the family (mid-Western values), and good for his academic career (DMU is a top-notch D.O. school). As soon as we arrived here, I knew we had made the right decision. I know part of that confirmation was the joy of no longer needing to commute 2 hours every day (we spent a ton on gas money), but there's a lot going for Des Moines. First, we love where we live. I could trade in apartment living in a heartbeat, but I did end up choosing a great city and a good location (pat on the back to me). I love that everything we really need is within a 5 mile drive - 2 malls, Target, Wal-Mart, Costco, church, pre-school. And even better, there's a great trail that runs behind the apartment (which takes us right to the corner grocery). Plus just up the hill & through a small development there's a great park and the library across the street.

The weather hasn't really bothered us either. Snow, ice, freezing temperatures? We're OK with that (granted, we didn't have a driveway or sidewalk to plow). And although today is quite humid, the past week has been beautiful. 80 degrees, relatively low humidity, lots of sunshine. I told Matt that this is the first year since grade school that I have been really excited for summer to start. We've been so busy, and there's so much yet to do. I'm looking forward to 4th of July, swim lessons, visiting the wading pools at the local parks, movies on the lawn at the West Des Moines city hall, possibly going to Minneapolis for a few days, and just getting outside to enjoy the sunshine and cool breeze.

I know that we'll be moving next summer to start rotations, and I'm already sad about that. I wish we could stay in Des Moines, but we're pretty sure it will be better for Matt's career if we explore programs outside Iowa. But the good thing is that we now know how great DM is, and we can always come back. I always envisioned heading back west when we were done with Residency, but now I'm not so sure. Oregon is grey & rainy much of the year, and is getting so expensive. Nevada is a little too desert-y for my taste. California? Well, if it weren't for the traffic, people, smog and outrageous housing prices, then maybe. Utah? Too much pressure to be the perfect Mormon (seriously, I think I would crack under the stress of it all). Arizona: too hot, dry, dusty, and I hate scorpions. Colorado is a contender, but I haven't been there in years. I realize there is much of the country I am omitting - and that it's very early to even be thinking about where to settle. But the point is, DM might be a contender on the list of possibilities. Wait and see folks, wait and see.

Family Picture of the Day: Accessorizing courtesy of Malaina. I don't think this is the last time this is going to happen.

Getting Healthy

Tomorrow I start a Baby Bootcamp class. No, Justin hasn't joined the military (I don't think his Daddy would allow that). It's an exercise class you do with your baby and a jogging stroller. I found a great program through the Parks & Rec department, and thought that there's no time like the present. It runs for 6 weeks, and meets 3 times a week for an hour. I hesitated to blog about this earlier, as I have mixed feelings about this process. I don't doubt that I'll finish the class, and enjoy doing it. I'm not afraid of that. I'm afraid that I will once again fail to follow through with my good intentions to start living a healthier life. I'm not sure when I stopped having any sense of personal discipline. Was it when I had kids? Or when I started feeling really comfortable with Matt (last year)? Regardless of when, it seems to be a daily fact.

Every year as my birthday approaches, I always think "This is the year I get in shape. This is the year I get healthy." I don't think I'm afraid of doing the physical work. I know it's not easy but I'm not looking for a quick fix or miracle pill. I'm pretty sure I'm afraid of the process. Any person who is more than 10 lbs. overweight for more than 3 months can tell you that being heavy is complicated. Losing that 10, 20 or 30+ pounds requires patience, work, and introspection. It's the introspection that concerns me. Taking a hard look at yourself is never fun or easy, and it's been much easier to avoid that process and keep those feelings boxed up. Being a bit of an overachiever with a smidgen of perfectionist (thanks Dad!), I know all about engineered failure. It's far less of an ego blow to simply not try when you know a project is really difficult, and you will struggle. Why risk trying and failing when you can simply not try at all & keep your pride intact?

I had the above discussion with my sweet husband this morning, and while I think he empathizes with me, he also helps me to keep things in perspective. He pointed out that I need to focus less on the exterior, and more on the interior. It's really is about being more healthy. If I can work on that, the physical stuff will improve, too. Or as he put it: "You just need to decide exactly when you'd like to develop adult-onset diabetes". Nothing like thinking about losing your toes to make a walk to the park seem pretty appealing.

It was also inspiring to watch some of the Hy-Vee Triathlon this weekend. On Sunday morning the run portion was headed right past our apartment. Malaina got excited when she saw the runners & wanted to eat breakfast on the porch so she could clap & cheer like the other supporters on the street. I whipped up some pancakes & we all sat outside & watched the runners go by. We talked about what they were doing & why, and I watched the variety of sizes, shapes & ages jog to victory. I'd love to do a triathlon some day, but don't have access to a pool right now. I'm going to have to settle for running in the Race for the Cure in October - which must be important to me, as I actually planned my vacation so that we'd be home that weekend. If Baby Bootcamp can start me on the path to better health, then I'll have another 10 weeks to train before RFTC at the end of October. October 25th is highlighted on my calendar. Good luck to me?

Not much to say, but blogging anyway

We're stuck at home on a Saturday afternoon, as our street is closed down for the Hy-Vee Triathlon. No car traffic until 5pm on both Saturday & Sunday. It's really not a bad thing because Justin is actually taking a decent nap in his crib. Yep, we finally reconfigured the bedroom and put up the big crib. I think he never slept well in the travel crib because the bassinet insert would always shake every time he moved, waking him up even more. Last night was the first night with the crib and he went to sleep there but I ended up bringing him into our bed to eat at around 12:30am. But at least he slept for a good 4 hours in the crib! I know that one day he'll go all night in his own bed, but I certainly wouldn't expect him to transition to his crib AND stop eating at night all in one fell swoop. For now I'm just taking small steps to smooth out the process. If anyone has any advice on getting him to sleep all night, I am all ears (except the cry it out method - I don't agree with it).

Justin also tried rice cereal over the last 2 days. I know it's early, but sometimes he just seems so hungry and I don't know if I'm producing enough milk to keep him satisfied. It went relatively well. He's still not sure he likes it, but at least he didn't spit it all back out. I've been feeding it to him for dinner, then nursing him one last time before bed. I think he's been sleeping a little more deeply, so it may be doing the trick! I forgot how messy those first meals can be. We had to break out the bib, and it was completely soaked by the time we were done.

To celebrate finishing my project I took the kids to the mall yesterday. I had to get a gift for the Favorite Things party, and Malaina wanted to go to the Play Place, so off we went. I found what I was looking for and more! I've been wanting to have the kids' picture taken, and I finally found Malaina a white dress to coordinate with the blue and white shirt I got for Justin. I also picked up a few onesies for the Fall, and some jelly sandals for Malaina (Do you remember jelly shoes? The ones I had were never this cute!)

After our time at the Mall, we headed to Old Navy so I could look for a rashguard for Justin. I found swim trunks for him last weekend, but Matt suggested we get a rashguard to help keep him warm in the pool. Being cheap, I wasn't happy with the price of what I found at Old Navy, but I did rustle up some good stuff in the 50% racks. Malaina scored 4 new t-shirts, a sweater, and new jeans, and Justin got 2 pairs of jeans. It seems weird to be buying long sleeves and heavy pants right now, but I know that when October rolls around I'll be happy I squirreled those away. Seriously - when long sleeved t's are $2.50, I can't say no. I think I take even more pleasure in finding bargains because I know that the kids' clothes will not always be so inexpensive.

One more thing.....

I found this story while online today. Ok, first, Kudos to you Jenny Masche. I can't imagine dealing with 6 1-year olds all day every day. And the fact that you found the time to train for and run a marathon within a year of giving birth to those little ones? Amazing. But seriously, as much as I admire you Jenny Masche, I'm too busy feeling crappy about myself because I can't even muster the energy to brush my teeth every day much less run for 2+ hours every evening. (Seriously, I don't know what's wrong with me - sometimes I'm going about my day and suddenly realize that it's 2 pm and I haven't brushed my teeth. Thankfully those are usually the days when we haven't left the house yet. Usually).

Thanks for making the rest of us moms feel inadequate, Jenny Masche. Thanks for making me realize that I don't have any real excuse not to exercise. Time to get my behind in gear and start exercising on a regular basis. (I have a related story about this, but am holding off for a few more days. The delay and related story is shame-based, and more about my own laziness and poor self-image than anything else. Stand by for more personal revelations on that. But don't hold your breath, it's really not that interesting. I hope. I haven't read it yet, but I feel like this holds shades of Such a Pretty Fat).

DONE

I just finished my project,and I am both relieved and exhausted. Not to bore you, but....I essentially re-wrote the company's yearly marketing plan in 4 days. It should have taken me a minimum of 2 weeks to do this, but I had 4 days. It turned into a 50 page PowerPoint complete with financial breakdown by product, etc. etc. etc. Yay for me. I shouldn't complain about the work, as generally it's not too stressful. But I felt incredibly guilty when I was done because Justin seemed so excited to have me cuddle and play with him for a while (he must have been staying up for me, as he didn't fall asleep until 10:30!).

I think I must be delirious from the stress of the week, because Matt and I have been talking about getting a mini van. I never thought I would be That Mom. But after taking the drive to Chicago in the confines of the Jetta, I think it's time. We've even gone so far as to talk to the bank about financing. I'm partial to the Odyssey or the Sienna, but am still not 100% on taking the plunge. As my cousin Stephanie said (in reference to driving her own recently acquired Sienna) "I feel like such an old bag driving it". I guess it's all in my mind. Right? Maybe if I go for this, I won't feel so inadequate:

Chicagoland Fun

We had a great time in Chicago last weekend - when we finally got there. My plan was to leave early on Friday morning so that even if the drive took a little longer, we'd get there with a little time to shop before having dinner with my Aunt Rose & Uncle Kurt. We did manage to hit the road by about 6:15 on Friday morning, but Plan A quickly turned into Plan B, as we started seeing signs saying that I-80 was closed at Iowa City (yes, I did check the roads the night before, but I didn't see anything about this). Around Altoona we decided to be smart and turn around to take the 35 up and over to the 20. Definitely a better move, but a 6-6.5 hour drive ended up taking 11 hours. Oh yeah, take 4 people, add 11 hours of travel and do it all in the Jetta. That's a recipe to either bring you closer together or make you want to kill each other. Thankfully, we made it there in one piece, and were impressed that traffic wasn't that bad for a Friday afternoon. I also made the mistake of not having a complete Illinois map with us, so we didn't know we could take the 20 directly into Chicago, and ended up taking the 61 down to Davenport & across the 88. At that point, what was a few extra hours, right? Helpful hint: if you're going to the Chicagoland area, make sure you bring your quarters and dimes. I didn't realize we were going to hit 5 toll booths on the way to our hotel, and I was glad I had a few dollar bills that the toll takers could break for me (instead of the cash -free wallet which is my SOP).

First stop: Trader Joe's! Have you ever been to Trader Joe's? Oh, I love it! I know, it seems weird to make our first Chicago stop at a grocery store, but Trader Joe's is not just any ol' store. First, it's very reasonable. Second, they have some sort of fancy gourmet items, but nothing too outlandish. And Finally, they carry my very favorite soap, lotion, scrub, and shave cream. And again, it's VERY reasonable. I happily stocked up on all my fave bodycare stuff, as well as snacks and water for our trip (including the most awesome dark chocolate covered pretzels - delicious, but they don't exactly agree with Justin. Maybe I shouldn't have eaten half the bag in one day. But I digress). I also picked up a bouquet of flowers for Aunt Rose - again, beautiful & reasonable (and I always try not to arrive empty handed to a dinner invite). We jumped back on the freeway, and after paying a few more tolls, we made it to the hotel - the Courtyard in Schaumburg. I was disappointed that they didn't have a mini fridge in the room, but otherwise it worked out well. Malaina got the sofa bed, they had an indoor pool, and everyone was happy.
We headed to Elgin to meet up with my Aunt & Uncle, and had a great time catching up with them. My cousin Stephanie was there, too, and her two girls. All three girls had a great time running around, riding bikes in the basement, making cards on the computer, and just being young girls. After a delicious dinner, we headed back to the hotel, and fell into bed.

We got up on Saturday morning to a bright, sunshine-y, humidity free day! We drove down to the Aurora outlet mall to do the shopping I missed out on Friday night. I found a few good deals, and then it was back into the car and over to Lincoln Park Zoo. Parking was crazy, as half of Chicago decided to head out to Lincoln Park and the North Shore of Lake Michigan. We finally unloaded the troops and cruised the zoo for 3 hours. It was free! And it's a great zoo. We saw polar bears, tigers, lions (Malaina was wide-eyed at the lion gnawing on a giant bone right in front of her), giraffe, ostrich, rhino, monkeys, birds, and my favorite: the river otter. We loaded our weary travellers back into the car, and went exploring to find the cupcake shop I had been obsessing about: Sweet Mandy B's. Located in the Lincoln Park/ DePaul neighborhood, it had a sweet little store front, and zero parking. Matt dropped me off and circled the block while I ordered my 'cakes. I found the staff to be a little lacking. The girl was a little irritated when I wasn't ready to place my order within .03 seconds of walking through the door. She gave me the stink eye while I looked over the goodie case (cookies, cupcakes, cakes, pie), and seemed irritated when I asked a question or two. I completed the transaction, and was glad that I was the only one who made the trip inside - the interior was tiny, and claustrophobic to me. As I walked past the cafe on the corner to wait for Matt to pull up, I chuckled to myself when I overheard a lady at an outside table exclaim to her young daughter "Ooooo...look! She went to Sweet Mandy B's and got cupcakes!". Unfortunately, my cupcake bliss had to wait, as we were both starving by the time we got back to the hotel (Saturday evening traffic - not so good, especially when we were going OUT of the city). Saturday must have been my lucky day for the month, as we ended up trying the Weber Grill Restaurant. I've wanted to try this place for years, and I was not disappointed. It was a bittersweet experience, as the food was fantastic (we shared prime rib, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, a chopped chicken salad, and onion soup), but the kids were both super cranky by the time the food hit the table, and Matt ended up walking Justin back to our room while I finished eating. We finished the night with Matt & Malaina at the pool - one of their favorite things to do together. I didn't even have the energy (or the stomach space) to truly enjoy a cupcake, so I saved them for another day.

Almost as tall as a polar bear (OK, not really, but don't tell her that)

"Uh Mom, what exactly do you think you're doing to me here?"

Mmmm... Weber Grill Restaurant. I give it 3.5 out of 4 stars.

On Sunday we were poky about getting up and out of the hotel, and didn't make it downtown until about noon. Of course first priority was to shower Daddy with presents (a customized Starbucks card with his favorite drink on it - a Grande Hot Chocolate - & the promise of NCAA '09 Football for the Wii). We parked at Soldier Field, and walked over to the Shedd Aquarium. This was a great idea in theory, but not quite as awesome in reality. You see, Sunday being Father's Day, the main floor of the Aquarium was free to everyone. Needless to say, it was a tiny bit crowded. We decided to pay for tickets to see the entire Aquarium, and even sprang for the SpongeBob movie in 4-D (quite an experience, and probably more fun if you are under the age of 8). We managed to find good seats to the dolphin show, and really enjoyed seeing all the fish, turtles, frogs, and other marine animals. The Caribbean Reef exhibit in the rotunda was very cool - a huge sea turtle, manta rays, sting rays, tarpon, and more.

This is the Field Museum, which is located adjacent to the Aquarium (and the Planetarium). We did not have a chance to visit on this trip, but will another time.


When we were done at the Aquarium, we headed back out to the suburbs to find some dinner. We were going to take the 20 out of Illinois, so it made sense to head towards Schaumburg to eat before we made the killer drive home. (Seriously, if you're going to Chicago, I advise staying in this area. Woodfield Mall is right there, along with a ton of restaurants, hotels, IKEA, and several major freeways. Plus we saved at least $150 a day by not staying downtown).

Daddy requested Chicago-style pizza for his Father's Day dinner, so here's where we ate:

I panicked a little when we were driving to the restaurant. There were 2 Lou's in the area, and the first one we stopped at was take-out and delivery only. I was so glad when we pulled up & discovered this was a sit-down restaurant. And that they could seat us right away. Justin was cranky again, so I didn't get a shot of the pizza before we dug into it. I can say that it was DELICIOUS. We took the rest to-go and after a last, hopeful check of the Iowa roads (I-80 STILL closed), we started the drive. I finally had the chance to sample my cupcakes, and here they are:

The upper left corner is Banana Chocolate Chip. Below that is Creamsicle. The yellow are Lemon, and the far right 'cakes are Red Velvet (they didn't have a huge selection of flavors). First, I'll say that I did not eat them all in one sitting. I may be a cupcake fan, but I am not a glutton. Very often. I even shared! What I liked about them: The Lemon were the very best. The cake was light & moist, and tasted like lemon, but not in an overwhelming or chemical way. The Red Velvet were good, but the batter didn't seem smoothly mixed, and they weren't quite as tasty. What I didn't like about them: The Creamsicle were not good. The cake was bland & flavorless, and the frosting was sickly-sweet. The Banana Chocolate Chip was just not cupcake material. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't really good either. I also thought that the frosting application was sloppy. I really like it when the frosting is piped on the top of a cupcake. Net/net: These were not nearly as good as Valley Junction's own Carefree Patisserie.

The drive home was both faster and uneventful. We stopped outside of Dubuque and grabbed some soda to help us stay awake, but otherwise there were no delays or problems. Malaina watched Annie on the DVD player, Justin slept, and Matt and I talked. That's the one advantage to road trips: I feel like Matt and I get to catch up on so much stuff that we don't chat about on a daily basis. We stopped outside Ames so I could feed Justin, and finally made it to our front door at about 2:45am on Monday morning. The drive home took about 7 hours - much better!

The only downside to the trip is that I have not gotten to bed before 2am any day this week. Part of that is due to this monster project I've been trying to complete, but I'm not happy about reverting to my night owl ways. Justin is usually wide-eyed & awake at 7 am, and I don't operate well on 5 hours of sleep (at least not unless there's a nap during the day.....and there never is). Now I'm hungry & craving cupcakes. I may have to rustle one up when I finish this project tonight (they added more stuff to it and gave me a 24 hour extension. Thanks). I definitely deserve it!