Eating My Way Through Seattle

I flew into Seattle early, early yesterday morning to spend some quality "girl time" with my BFF, Michelle.

Seattle is one of my all-time favorite cities to visit. There is just something magical about the water, the fog, the hilly streets, the stores.... I love it. I also especially love Pike's Market.

Every time I come into town, Michelle and I hit Pike's Market. We first head to the French bakery where we get lattes and baked goods. I got Katya a bag of her favorite bag of palmier cookies and I noshed on a chocolate croissant. We then headed to Beecher's for cheese. I love cheese. Adore cheese. Had to get some cheese. I got some frozen mac & cheese, some Flagship, smoked Flagship and aged Flagship. Good stuff. I also bought Katya her favorite, herb cheese curd. Two containers. I brought a collapsable ice chest to bring back with me in my suitcase for this stuff.

We then grabbed some fruit, some asparagus and Michelle popped for some Alaskan King Crab legs. Then I went to the magazine stand and got Katya her French Vogue and then we grabbed some cinnamon mini doughnuts and we took our haul to the truck because my arms were going to fall off from carrying all that.

I had never been to the Seattle Art Museum, so we headed down there and took a tour through the galleries. Not fabulous. I admit, the white Ford Taurus' that they had spiriling through the air with lights going through them was cool, but that was about it. The pop art displays were a bit wonky. Not to mention the ceramic toilet that had ceramic poop in it. Art.... really? On our way back to the car we stopped at some upscale chocolate shop in the Four Seasons and bought a couple of pieces of yummy dark chocolate and possibly the best chocolate covered orange peel I've ever had.

We headed to a late lunch after that (cause we didn't eat enough) in Mukilteo at Ivar's and I had some amazing clam chowder with sourdough bread. Delish.

Dinner was fruit and some fresh brioche from the bakery.

Today was three hours at the gym to pay pennance for the food yesterday. Lots of eliptical, abs class and yoga. I'm not so good at the yoga so I headed back to the eliptical for the last thirty minutes of class.

Then we had to have lunch... of course. It was some sandwiches on baguettes that Michelle bought yesterday morning. Yum.

After laying low for several hours and hitting the used book store we had to have dinner. The crab legs, steamed asparagus, leftover baguette.... waaaaaaaay yum!

We are planning our morning tomorrow to consist of more workout followed by lunch and pie on Widbey Island before I have to head to the airport at 4pm.

It's good here. I have to treadmill my little heart out all week to pay for all the yumminess here.

Sleep Deprived Mama

My little Logan has some kind of internal clock that requires him to fuss, cry, cough or do something that wakes him up between 2 and 3am almost every single morning. For him to sleep through the night is a rare, rare thing. This has been since birth.

This morning, I was in a HARD CORE deep sleep with a really vivid dream about "something" at 2:30am that I can't recall now, but after he woke me up I have stayed up. I tossed and turned and eventually almost drove Bob to the couch but I decided to relent and just get up, take a shower and start my day a mere 3 hours earlier than normal. I am going to die today.

It is one of my long work days, so not making up some sleep time while they nap.

When Logan was an infant my mom read an article that some French women had said that raising sons was harder than daughters. In many respects, boys are way easier than girls. But in terms of sleeping and being so darn "needy", they definately take the cake. Little girls will give you sass and attitude (at least the ones genetically related to me), but they sleep and like their independance.

So, as the rest of the house sleeps I sit here and type. I have lunches made, vitamins set out, notes written to Katya and Bob, checks cut for the company, and my car packed for work. I am merely waiting for the magic 4:30am hour when I can go to Starbucks and get myself a Venti Caramel Machaito or Vanilla Latte. Maybe both with how I feel right now.

Winter Formal

Katya has her Winter Formal tonight. Man, where did the time go? My little girl is attending a winter formal at her high school.

Anyway.... she looked beautiful!

She had her girlfriend J. come over early and they giggled, did their hair and got ready upstairs while Ginger and family came over bearing chicken enchilidas for the occasion. We all ate yummy Mexican food and waited for her grand entrance. She looked lovely.

Then her friend Smiley came over with his mom (just friends) and we made everyone pose for pictures and gushed over them in general. They looked so cute! They were meeting other friends for dinner and then going to the dance that started at 8 o'clock.

I can't wait to hear how the dance went. I hope she has a wonderful time!

Cupcake Party

Last weekend we had a little BBQ get together thingie to mark and celebrate the babies birthdays. They are too young to have friend parties, so we just use it as an excuse to have our neighbors and friends over for good food and some visiting.

Things I learned at the party:

1. The babies are very VERY good at opening presents now

2. Alexis really, really, really likes to blow out candles. In fact, she blew out her cupcake candle four times before she let us sing for her and THEN blow it out. Then later that night she blew otu the same candle about another ten times.

3. Cupcakes are evidently best eaten from the top down.

Another Birthday Bites the Dust

Thirty nine. 39. Three ... Nine ... The ten year anniversary of turning 29. Yesterday was my 39th birthday.

Uuuugh. That is a big number. Next year is a BIGGER number. But I am getting ready for it.

I joined a gym and went and worked out this morning. Lets just say that as a person who used to be in rockin' good shape - I've got a lot of work to do. But my head is in the right place for it finally.


I find it funny how we have the eve of big birthdays and the BIG birthday itself. You know, 29 and 30, 39 and 40.... At least I don't have the huge list of expectations for turning 40 that I did for turning 30.

So, here is to a healthful year full of toddler fun, teenage sports, travel, work, making new friends and visiting with old ones.

Happy Birthday, Logan!

Today my sweet little surprise baby turns 2.

Man...it goes so fast. One day you bring them home from the hospital and the next they are running around and dramatically telling you "no" (with a hand out and everything).

It has been crazy having a little boy after two girls. He is a rough and tumble kind of guy. He loves to jump on you, hang on your arms and bounce on your stomach. He loves to hug and cuddle and share his toys with you. He will eat just about anything (unlike his picky sister) and likes his chocolate Ovaltine milk. He LOVES his binkies.

So, happy birthday to you little man. Love you lots!

Mom

Think Hope - Not Hate

Our country is in such turmoil right now. People are losing their jobs left and right. People can't afford their mortgages and so many are losing their homes. We are in two wars. Our schools are out of money and some are closing. The cost of gas may be half of what it was over the summer, but food prices are still high. Medical costs consume so much of our money that even with insurance, our 20% equals hundreds of dollars a month.

The world economy is on fragile ground. The effects of global warming are evident even to those that don't believe in the science. Natural disasters are commonplace every year with flooding, tornados and hurricanes. Extremes of nature bring all kinds of problems from long periods of sub-freezing temps to long extremes of hot weather in the 90's and above. People get sick from both and trying to afford to keep you house comfy costs money too.

So now we have a new President. Because of the election, it seemed like not a whole lot was done to try and fix what was broken because of the new faces that were going to take office. Everyone was waiting to see what personalities and opinions would be pushing policies through. I'm not just talking about the presidential office, I mean governors, senators and representatives.

The pomp and ceremony of the Inaguration is over. The realities of a new face of this nation is real. It is a nice side benefit that he happens to be black. Or kind of black or whatever - the dude ain't white and it's cool with me. I like his agenda for this country. I have spent a lot of time reading whitehouse.gov and I hope that his team can move us forward to a better place. The hope that people have is great, even knowing any change will take time.

Then I read that Rush Limbagh is spouting his rhetoric of hate. He actually said that he hopes Obama fails. What?? He is letting his partisan POLITICS take priority over the good of the NATION. He wants the whole country to continue on its downward spiral just to feel better about a Democrat being elected? Give me a break.

I didn't vote for Bush and I sure didn't like his agenda. But he was the President and I hoped that he would make good decisions for the country. That the country would be better because he took office. I never hoped that he would fail. Why would I when his decisions would eventually impact my life? He fails, I fail.

The same goes with Obama. If he fails... the country fails. And in some ways so does the world.

So, I can only hope that people out there who harbor great hatred towards Obama because he is a Democrat or because he is a person of mixed race/African American/whatever - think about the bigger picture. You may not like him and I'm not asking you to. I never liked Bush myself.

But I am asking you to think hope and not hate. Think that you hope he makes decisions you like. Hope that his decisions help to bring back jobs to your city, affordable housing to your area, respect of the US to the rest of the world, stability to your bank, money to your kids schools and brings your military family home.

Get involved. You have the opportunity to speak your mind through the change.org website. Let your voice get heard. State your opinion. We don't all agree and that is a great benefit not a disadvantage. You can't move forward as a person or a country without people challenging your ideas. It makes you think, educate and re-evaluate.

I for one have great hope for this country to pull ourselves up, dust ourselves off and put things back together ... only better.