A little scarce

I'm going to be a little scarce over the next few weeks (I think) while we're in CO with family.

The last few weeks have been crazy. To see some pictures (you'll have to scroll through the album) go here.

The next 3 weeks will prove to be crazier and yet more relaxed. Places to go, people to see, you know the drill. I'm going to love every minute of it.

Evan turns 3 on Saturday and he's already had two parties! One with friends at a park, and one here at the house last night with Scot (since he won't be coming with us) and Jamie and the boys. Both were a lot of fun and it's great to gear up for trip (and big day) in such a celebratory way.






I had a friend, a friend of hers, and my friend's two little boys here for 4 days. It was a lot of fun. We played at parks, talked, watched movies (once all 4 boys were in bed), ate yummy vegan food, and had general good fun. The boys got along great, too, which is nice. Her boys are both 7 months older than mine!


They left yesterday morning, at which point I went into high gear getting ready for this trip. I did laundry, shopped, ran errands, picked up the house (why do we do that?), made sure that the freezer really did have enough freezer-meals in there for Scot, made lists, made more lists, followed the lists, packed, loaded the car, and now, except for making dinner tonight and giving baths, we're all set to go for our 9:30a flight.

Mountains, here we come! And hot, dry air, I can not wait to feel you!

Oh yes. Mom, Dad, Grama and a load of friends, too.

Someone's turning 3 and I can't believe it. Oh what a fun 3 years it's been. Here are some posts from his first few days if you're interested. As well as his first and second birthdays.

At a free music fest with friends and a picnic dinner

Scot is almost done with intern year - YAY - and starts his PGY2 year on Friday. It's been a long and sometimes rough year, but I'm so glad he's done with it! He starts managing the ICU now, and so with less on-call nights comes more responsibility. Lose some, gain some, right? Here's to another crazy year that we'll hopefully look back on with fond memories.

Oh, and I'm hooked on Owl City. It's great, fun, clean music. And Scot's happy because it's not country.

How was that for a random update?

And now for a couple favorite shots from the park (and one from the music fest).

It was cold and I was thankful for a hat and a long sleeve shirt in the trunk of the car.

Love and Respect

There are many things for why I love Scot, only one of them is his intense desire to never let our relationship become stagnant. His utmost care to keep us being better, to always make sure we're on the right path (both as a couple and a family), his detailed desire of how I'm doing -- what I'm struggling with, what I'm finding joy in -- his incredible loving and patient way of correcting me when I've been too short with him, and his willingness to forgive and be vulnerable. For this, and many many other reasons, I love and respect him.

When we first got married I had this crazy illusion that, even though he was in med school, we would live the American dream. We may not be living in a little house with a cute picket fence, but in my mind, he would come home from school, and I from work, and I would make a nice dinner and we would sit and chat and laugh together for the rest of the evening.

Well. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that didn't go as planned. My dreams were dashed on the rocks of reality and after about a week in this new world of reality, I started to cry. And I didn't stop for about 6 months.

That's right folks, our first 6 months of marriage (and maybe a little beyond that) were pure misery. Not the typical honeymoon phase I hear so much about. Oh no - our honeymoon ended when we both started work/school a mere week and 2 days after saying "I do".

More on this in another post if I ever feel like expanding.

But suffice it to say that we were trying our hardest to figure out what each of us needed (or thought we needed) and also what we could give (or again, thought we could give). There was a lot of trying this schedule or that schedule, a lot of me bottling up what I felt because he had to study and then having it all come out in one big conversation that involved lots of crying and questions neither of us could answer and having him leave frustrated because he had spent so much time when he needed to be studying, leaving me hurt and confused, which led to me bottling up how I felt again (something I've never been very good at). We were on this crazy cycle and it was not good.

After New Years, or Valentines Day, things started to clear up. In March we drove the 12 hours to Colorado Spring to visit family for the first time since being married (my folks had come to see us, but it was our first married trip back home). While there, my mom shared this wonderful book with me, and so on the 12 hour return trip I almost lost my voice as I read the book, out loud, cover to cover.

It changed us. It made us realize that we had been on the crazy cycle and that we needed to purposefully get on the energizing cycle. It talked about how women desire love and men desire respect - that's just how we're created - and if those needs are being met, then things go a lot smoother.

Dr Eggerich also talked about how to handle conflict and many many other subjects.

So after being married almost 5 years, Scot and I decided to go through the book again. While we didn't read the book cover to cover this time, I skimmed the chapters for husbands and picked out areas that Scot excelled in and areas he could work on. Likewise, he skimmed the chapters written to the women about men, and honed in on areas I was doing a good job in, and areas where I needed improvement. It was good, it was hard, but most of all, it was encouraging to see that there were areas we needed to work on 4.5 years ago that we worked on and are now good habit. We still have some of the same areas to work on, and some new ones now that we've been married longer and have children, but overall, it was wonderful to dig into our relationship a little bit.

So now we each have lists that lay out how we can better love/respect the other spouse. It is amazing to me to see the change in our relationship and in me in just a week as Scot takes to heart things I mentioned. Likewise, I hope he feels more respected as I, too, try to remember to do, or not do, the things on my list.

So yes, this is a "book review", but not like my other ones. I can't tell you the plot of this book - except that it is written to better your marriage and help you understand your spouse better. I can tell you, though, that the writing is well done and you'll laughter at parts, and if you're being open and vulnerable, you may also cry. But no matter what, even if you don't think your marriage needs any help at all, I think that reading this book will change how you see your spouse and how you view your relationship.

Thus far, this is the best marriage book out there. Says me, and says Scot.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

If you have a boat, I have a little sailor-boy who would love to join you on it.

His mom, too, if you don't mind.

My own little fleet

Evan's birthday is in a little over a week, but seeing as we'll be in a state with lots and lots of beautiful mountains, and the little guy wanted a party with all his friends here, we're doing an early park birthday party much like his first birthday party which really doesn't seem like it was that long ago. And this year is plane themed. We're flying on an airplane, he wants a blue airplane for his birthday (check!), he wants a blue airplane birthday cake (check), and for his upcoming park party's cupcakes, he wanted all of them to be airplanes. No go little dude, no go. But I thought, cupcake toppers I can do!

So being the uber crafty stellar mother I am, I hopped on line to see what I could find. I found these, these, and really wanted these, but not for those prices. So I didn't think the little 3 year old was going to get any airplane toppers. I looked at Target for little party favors in the shape of planes, I looked at the Dollar Tree for little ittybitty planes to plop on top of blue frosting. Nothing.

So I hopped on line again (what we ever do without the Internet?!) to see if I could make something. And in case you didn't read the sarcasm up in the paragraph above, I am not crafty. At all.

So making things with layered construction paper was out. I can do scissors and glue just fine, but intricate cutting and gluing, and hello?!, I have a 14 month old who is teething all 4 of his one-yr molars at the moment and walking his little drooly face around and wanting to be held all. the. time.

So I kept looking and finally I found these little free cutouts. Ahh...paper, scissors, glue and some toothpicks I can do.

And this is what I did during nap time today. I think they turned out pretty cute, and so much better priced than the $1/topper for toppers that, while extremely cute, would have been taken out, licked off like a lollipop, and thrown away. Money. Thrown away. No go, there, too.

I hope he likes them!

How much can you buy for 50 bucks?

A lot. Or a little. Depending.

For us, $50 is a lot of money. We're still at a point in our lives where money does not grow on trees -- wait, you too -- and so we try to save as much money as possible. We save money doing little things to help out and also just saying "no" to bigger items that we maybe just want but don't need. Figuring out the difference between the two is key!

This past week with Scot home, we went shopping. And when I say shopping, I mean we raided the local Goodwill. I am not a big thrift store shopper, but I think this particular Goodwill must be a secret becasue every time I go in there I always walk out with something name-brand and in mint condition. This shopping trip was no different, except that we walked out with a lot more than usual. $50 worth of stuff! Eeek! But the deals were fabulous!

And because I'm so shocked at some of our finds, and because I know some of you out there reading this love a good deal as much as I do, I thought I'd share.

6 quality, mint condition, dress shirts! Gap, Structure, Banana Republic (2), Calvin Klein, and A&F


Brand new Hilfiger dress slacks for Scot and some lightly used Gap jeans


As you can see - never washed since the button "jacket" is still fully intact!


A couple tops for me. The red one still had the original tags on it and was only $1!


Cute Old Navy khaki skirt and a sweet little black dress with fun ruffles by Express, because seriously, everyone needs a good little black dress!

I'd say we shot and scored. Big time.

I also think we're good on clothes now. Scot at least.

By Train, trolley and bus

We have been back from our little get-a-way in Chicago now for a few days, but I'm just now getting the time to upload pictures and sit down to blog. It's been a few packed days with Scot around and oodles of fun things to do as a family.

We left for Chicago on Saturday morning and after a very pleasant 6 hours, arrived in the Windy City and drove directly to Lou Malnati's Pizzeria to meet up with family to help celebrate my (second) cousin, Tracie's, graduation from grad school. It was a blast to see and catch up with so much family! We stayed at my great Aunt Dana's house about an hour out of the city in what you could almost call the country. It was such a treat.

Sunday we went to a family BBQ and on Monday, we were out to see the city.

By train.

It was an hour and a half ride in, but the look on Evan's face, and the fact that we didn't have to hassle with parking was totally worth it. We sat on the top level (yes - the train was a double decker!) on the way into the city, but as you'll see in pictures, we stuck to the bottom level with the double seats on the way back to accommodate tired kids.

So Monday. We took a bus to Navy Pier from Union Station and walked up and down, played in the funny mirrors, ate Garrett's Popcorn, rode the Ferris Wheel, and then took a trolley to Michigan Avenue where we walked to Millennium Park. There, we met up with Tracie and Kainoa. The boys had a blast together playing in the kid tents and looking at themselves in "the bean". We had a picnic lunch in an open amphitheater where a Chicago Blues band was playing, we watched an amazing 40 minute performance put on by the Chicago Areal and Acrobat Company, and then ran off even more steam playing in the fountains. We made the train back with 3 minutes to spare (a little too close for me), and the boys fell asleep within minutes of taking off.

Tuesday morning we drive into the city to go visit the Shedd Aquarium. It was a free day and I was very thankful we went early, when we left, the line to get in was as least an hour long and it was getting a little bit on the crowded side. I was glad to be leaving. We grabbed a Chicago dog from a food cart and plopped down near the lake to eat before heading back on the road to head home. It was a great trip.

Since being back, we've gone strawberry picking (almost 14lbs!), made strawberry rhubarb pies, strawberry rhubarb puree for pancakes, ate lots of strawberries (are you sensing a trend?), played at parks, explored the Children's Museum, gone shopping, went to have our annual "photo booth pictures" done, gone to eat at Tommy's, had lazy mornings, watched movies, and all of this with Scot.

It has truly been amazing to have so much time with him. The Lord also saw fit to give us nice cool weather for this week so that all our outdoor activities were very enjoyable.

Still on the docket for the weekend - Shaker Farmer's Market, a train museum, more family time, games, church...the list goes on and on.

For now - here are just a very few pictures of the trip and our time on vacation. All of them, are here, for easy perusing.

Riding Lessons

If you haven't guessed, I'm on a Sara Gruen kick. No pun intended. With that being said, this was my other June book.

This is Sara Gruen's debut novel. She went from being a technical journalist to being a fiction author. You can read her story here.

After reading her latest 2 books, it was indeed fun and insightful to read her first book. Of a non-technical matter, that is. I didn't know what I would find, since I was sure that her writing had most likely matured over the years, but I was not disappointed. The imagery wasn't quite as strong as in Water for Elephants or Ape House, but it was better than most authors out there. It was fun to see the start of what I feel is her trademark. The ability to really let the reader see and hear and feel what is going on. She had a good voice, and also showed her wonderful grasp of humanity. The characters all had great depth and she connects you to the protagonist well. As with the other books, she obviously did a lot of research on her subjects (horses) and her hard work is evident in the writing.

The story is told from only one point of view and while there is a little jumping back into memories, it's pretty strait forward. Slightly predictable at the end, but the storyline was decent. The first couple chapters were hard as she tried to pull me through about 20 years of history to get me caught up to present day, but once I got past that, it was smooth sailing. Very few (if any) slow parts, and actually, I read through it like water. In two days. (I will say, though, that my car was in the shop for one of those days and I stayed up til midnight the first night...and the boys took 3 hour naps both days. And all my housework was already done.)

The storyline is essentially the telling of the struggle of a woman who hasn't gotten past the drama of her past. It's about finding herself 20 years too late. It's about love and hate and life and forgiveness. It's about realizing what truly matters in life and second chances when you mess up the first time. It's life on a ranch with a woman who is broken and doesn't even know it. It's about the relationship between mother and daughter and daughter after that. It's sad, sweet, funny, and victorious.

My only complaint about the book was the language. I don't mind a little bit of language here or there if it's in context, but out of context just-to-use-it foul language is not my cup of tea. And especially when it's taking the Lord's name in vain - that I can not stand.

Overall - a really good read. Not absolutely fabulous, but good. Above average writing skill and a solid storyline. I now will be reading her second book (that follows this one in story, I think) next month while I'm on vacation in Colorado.

1...2...3!

He's our little fearless climber.

Helmet Head

Scot has been riding his bike to work the last week or so and Evan loves playing with his helmet.

I think he looks so much like Scot in this picture, it's crazy! But it also doesn't really look like him, if that makes any sense. Funny how that happens, huh?

Classic cheese.

Some helps

I don't know how you process information, but I like to write things down and make lists. It's more manageable that way. This is part of the reason I balked so much when Scot suggested this new diet. It was just this big ball of nothing and I had no idea where to put it. There was no list to look at, no recipes to scan, no how-to on how to switch. So it took days of talking and processing and lists and endless hours of research (that is still on-going) for me to realize that it was indeed manageable.

It has also helped that I have had people pour love on me in the way of encouraging emails, blog links, recipes, and the occasional "I'm crying with you" comments! Thank you to all of you who have helped me through the last 2 weeks. I am not alone in this new venture and neither are you if you're deciding to eat healthier!

If you are thinking of changing your eating habits, too, here are some lists for you to look at.

Blogs:

Poor Girl Eats Well - not all vegan, but because this gal is on a tight budget, she does a lot of vegan meals.
Fresh365 - A vegetarian blog. A lot of these recipes would be very easy to make vegan.
101 Cookbooks - a blog with all natural whole foods. A lot of great information on this blog as well as a great looking cookbook!
Oh She Glows - Was sent this blog last night and stayed up too late reading it! It's a vegan based blog with a little personal twist in it, too. Right now, it's my favorite.
Annie's Eats - Has a vegetarian section
Rebecca's Kitchen - A small little personal blog with vegetarian/vegan dishes
Beth's Blog - a friend of mine who has also gone vegan.
And of course, my blog.

It's really not that hard. The hardest part for me is know that I could be making delish cheesy meals and I'm not. But I'm getting over that. Cheese is, sadly, starting to loose its appeal.

Grains:

Also, there are more grains than quinoa (which can be expensive). If you've been on my food blog, then you're probably wondering if I really know that since quinoa seems to be my staple, but seriously, I went to Whole Foods in their bulk isle and got a bag of Millet, Bulgar, and two different kinds of lentils! Except for the red lentils, it's all about a bulk a pound compared to a little over 3 bucks/lb for the red lentils or quinoa! So I'm going to be experimenting with non-quiona dishes here very soon. Also, as long as you have super yummy sauce, whole wheat pasta is not that bad and it's a very easy way to get whole grains in your diet. Just have a good sauce. :)

If you're like Scot, though, and you want to go all-out on being super heart healthy, it's possible, and it's easy. As long as you don't mind eating the same thing over and over and over and over again.

I make a double batch of my hummus and he uses it in wraps or on bread (instead of PB). It lasts him a little over a week. I don't use any oil, instead I up the amount of chickpea liquid, or substitute some balsamic vinegar. This last time, I added flax seeds. It takes me about 10 minutes to whip this up.


We bough a lot of steel cut oats (as in a 50 lb brown bag was mailed to us and it's all down in an airtight plastic container in our basement now and should last us a whole year kind of a lot) since it's pretty much one of the single healthiest things you can eat. The downside - it's takes a while to cook up. So while Scot was just microwaving his old fashioned rolled oats in the morning, now I'm making a big ole batch (6 servings!) at one time. It takes about 45 minutes, but it's worth it. I add cinnamon, bananas, and flax seeds to it, too, to give it a better taste and to save him time in the mornings. It keeps really well in a big glass bowl and he just scoops out what he needs in the morning and nukes it!

He will occasionally take a PB sandwich or some left over quinoa salad to work, too, for a lunch to "switch things up" if he's getting bored. I feel so blessed to have a husband who cares about our health and who doesn't mind eating the same things day after day.

Ape House

Anther book by the wonderful Sara Gruen! This was my June book, and my goodness, it was addicting! I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I was done with it in three days. My children got fed, we didn't live in filth, errands were run, but, clean laundry sat on my dryer for three full days because the book was just that good. I also stayed up an hour late on Saturday night to finish it because I was just so close to the end and I had to know what happened!

Set in present day, the book chronicles a few main characters and their connection to a family of Bonobo apes. Sara Gruen did two years worth of extensive research on Bonobos before writing this book and you can tell. Like in Water for Elephants, some of the situations in the book really did happen to other people or to Sara herself while doing her research.

I liked the book just as much as I liked Water for Elephants, but for different reasons. The writing is of the same caliber, but the strengths in this book differed from the last. There wasn't as much strong imagery, but the relationship between the humans and the Bonbos was expressed in such a way that as a reader, you were excited or worried along with the character.

The story was told from multiple perspectives, delineated by chapters, which gave the reader a fuller comprehension of the storyline. I am really enjoying reading these books - I'm enjoying them so much that I have Riding Lessons, one of her first books, waiting for me.

But before I start reading, I need to make sure all my laundry is done and that the house is clean.

A busy last few days

We've had a pretty fun-filled past few days. Lots of parks (one of which we drove almost an hour to - but it was well worth it!), lots of friends, and lots of hot sun. Thankfully, it hasn't gotten as hot as it could be. That's later this week. on those days, we'll be found enjoying the AC of the library and Children's Museum. :)

Since, as always, pictures do a better job at telling you what we've been up to, here are a couple to tease you. You can see all of them in my FB album here!

Lots and lots of fun at this new park we went to! It was quite the hike to get there, but totally worth it. The boys both had a blast and all us moms did, too.


The E-club! It's going to be so much fun this summer!

Dreams

I saw another one of these today.

It's true. This is my current dream car.


I say current because my taste for a dream car is like the current - it changes. Every few years, though. I've gone from loving the Eclispe Spyder back in early highschool, to drooling over the Z3 in college, to wistfully looking at the Audi TT Roadster after getting married, to now dreaming of one day sitting in this. Funny how until now, all my dream cars have been convertibles...I wonder if having children has anything to do with that?

Can't you just see me pulling up to soccer practice in it, though?

In all reality, I'll be pulling up in this. And since I like it, I'm not complaining. Now to just find one.

Once residency is over, that is.

And once the boys are actually in soccer and our trusty little Civic is truly too small for us.

Until then, I can dream. Right?

Settling

I know only 10 days is probably too soon to have settled into the new diet, but I feel like we're almost there. We've made some changes from the original plan and we're all on board now. (read: Sarah's actually doing this because she wants to now, and not just because it's something Scot wants to do.) The boys are both finally eating it without complaint and I'm finding my way around loose vegan cooking/eating.

The changes, though.

Only dinners in the house. Scot does the diet (what we're referring to as loosely vegan/heart healthy) for breakfast (steel cut oats with apples, bananas, cinnamon) and lunch (hummus sandwiches, fresh PB sandwiches, or a quinoa salad with veggies) as well, but the boys and I still eat like we did (cheerios/milk, oatmeal, toast and jam...PBJ, grilled cheese, black bean quesadillas...). This has made it easier on me and less stressful.

Scot switched to Almond milk, but the boys are still on regular milk. That may change, though, I'm not sure. The whole dairy thing is where I'm most torn. Seriously, how many other countries drink milk after being weaned? And how many animals drink milk after being weaned? Don't get me wrong, I think dairy products are a great way to get calcium, but we may be sticking to yogurt and cheese consumption and limiting our actual milk intake. I don't know, though. The jury's still out on that one. I keep telling myself: Moderation in everything is key!

We are also going loosely vegan. We are going light on the meat and dairy and being very particular about the meat. We had sloppy joes Monday night (to try and get rid of the 10 lbs of frozen meat I had in the freezer) and we both felt terrible after eating it. It didn't help that we each had a brownie, too. But it showed us that after just a week, something was different. It's for this reason alone that I'm fully on board now. If felt so good to eat the Southwest Bean Soup and quinoa last night. Filling and not heavy. Healthy and tasty.

With all this good, though, I am sad.

I'm sad to go "back to square one" and feel like I did when I was newly married with only a handful of good recipes in my box. I've worked hard over the last 5 years to get my recipe box full of yummy and healthy meals and I have so many that we don't repeat a lot. Well, not anymore. I think I may have to go back to creating a month long meal plan like I did when we got married. Cycling through the same meals every month (with a spot for a new meal each week) until I build up my repertoire again.

I just need to find some different recipes. I'm all ready getting a little tired of the multiple combinations of beans and corn and tomatoes and quinoa that we've had with different spices. They don't taste bad at all, they're actually really good, but when you compare them to some other meals I've made....I get sad.

Sigh. It could be worse.

I'm still going to cook "normal" meals once a week, I just have to figure out my absolute favorites and make sure those are the normal meals I make. :)

In case you're wondering how this is effecting our budget, right now, it's good. I'm actually spending the same amount or less since I'm not buying meat.

I've found that the grind your own PB at Whole Foods is better priced per/pound than the canned natural PB. And the bulk quinoa at Whole Foods is the best priced anywhere (3.60/lb) to my knowledge. You can't even order it in bulk for less than that. I also noticed that Whole Foods sells raw sugar in their bulk section -- I still have to think about that one and check prices and do some research, but it's good to know it's there.

Trader Joes is where I go for whole wheat pasta and the Almond milk. I also will get some dried fruit there as a treat - Scot and I love mangoes, so I'll typically come home with a little packet or two of those for us to snack on. :)

Thankfully TJ's and WF are right next to eachother so I make that run about once a month and call it good.

Everything else I still do at Aldi (produce and canned goods) because you just can't beat the prices.

So in short - I'm not freaking out like I was over a week ago. It's still a daunting task and I'm still spending a lot of time looking for good, different recipes, but it's getting to be more manageable.

If you have any recipes you think would fit into our diet - please please please send them along!

If you are interested, Dr Esselstyn now has a movie out, Forks over Knives - you should check it out and see if it's playing in a theater near you.