Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Fruit and Other Ramblings

I watched Food, Inc. about a year ago. I was disgusted with what I saw. I know that documentaries sensationalize things, but in the same breath, I am still disgusted with what I saw.  I can't get certain images out of my head when consuming some foods.  The only way I get around it is by knowing where my food is coming from. (Sorry Mom, total Portlandia comment there :) )

So you say, so what?  Well, I got lazy.  I needed to go to WinCo to get regular stuff, you know, diet soda, cheese (Tilamook cheese is about half as much there as everywhere else!), cereal, etc....more of a stocking up trip.  I didn't feel like going to another grocery store to get my produce.  I've complained about winco produce since we first moved up here.  You have to be careful what you buy because they aren't very good at getting rid of the yucky stuff fast enough.....but then again, neither is Safeway....that's another story.  Anyway, I bought produce there.  For about the past year, I had been pretty good about buying 97%+ of our produce at LifeSource (our local health food store).  I was pretty disappointed with what I got from winco.  We bought apples, oranges, bananas, cucumbers, asparagus (I can't get myself to pay $6/lb for this at the organic place), among other things.  All of it was disgusting.  Drew found some nasty brown spot in the middle of an orange, the apples were like big balls of air, the bananas were pithy and tasteless, and the cucumbers were bad within 18 hours.  I don't think I can ever shop there again for produce. :(  I have become a snob with my fresh fruits and vegetables.  It's to the point of, quality over quantity and I'm OK with that.  I'm just sad that I had to waste so much money on sub-par items to realize it. :( 

So that's my story.  I'll get off my soap box now and show you some pictures. :)

 I don't even remember what we were doing, but she's getting better at smiling for the camera...now to work on opening the eyes with the smile!

 Holy crap she makes me laugh! She's had a ridiculous amount of blueberries today. They make her so happy! She tells me if she's eating a little guy or a big guy as she puts them in her mouth...or at least tries :)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Spring Break

We've been having our delightful Spring Break this past few days.  Elisabeth and I have gotten to spend a lot of time with one another.  I've been pretty happy with our time together.  The older she gets, the easier it seems to entertain her.  I'm also grateful she'll watch Winnie the Pooh while I take showers. :) She'll have to teach that to a younger sibling someday!

This week we've been pretty low key.  We've (meaning I go, and make E tag along) gone to the gym, get cleaned up and do things.  One of the days we went up to the Children's Museum in Portland with one of my friends.  We went grocery shopping another day (I know this isn't fun, but just being able to hang out with my wee one and have little conversations is awesome for me), and we've done a lot of playing at home.  It's been pretty rainy, so outside time has been at a minimum unfortunately.  While Elisabeth has been napping, I've been re-organizing our attic.  It was a disaster. You could walk in, turn around and walk right back out. You couldn't move anywhere.  Disaster.  It's about 95% done. I have a pile of things I need to bring down and either sell or just donate to Goodwill.  I wanted to wait for Drew to be home so that I didn't have to haul them down the stairs by myself, cause handing them down is so much easier for everyone.  I think we'll do that on Saturday when he isn't exhausted from work.

 Really, she doesn't just eat cookies.  BUT Cookies+Elisabeth=smiley pictures!=totally worth it!
 We had a cuddle on the floor :)

 Drew showed E how to pull cereal out to "snack" on a while back.  She dumped this out while my back was turned with raw meat in my hands.  She was so proud of herself. I had to take a pic before I cleaned it up.

 see! She eats tatoes (strawberries that she insists on calling tomatoes) oh-els (oranges) :)

 She'll cuddle with you if it means she doesn't have to take a back...but really, once she's IN the bath, you can't get her out.

 Playing in the water room- she would have stayed here the whole day if we let her.

giant light bright!


and lastly, my before and after of the attic (at least a small portion) -forgive the quality, I didn't bring my camera up, so they were done with my phone in poor light conditions.



Friday, March 18, 2011

Senses

I found this interesting, so I wanted to share it with others in hopes of enriching other's lives as much as I hope it does with mine.  So it was suggested to me yesterday that when I want to eat food, but I know I'm not hungry, that some need is not being met.  Since we have 5 senses, try out another sense rather than taste and see if it helps curb the initial reaction.

Sight - I am now on a quest to make sure I have beautiful things to look at throughout the day.  I decided last night that as long as I'm in the same classroom next year, I'm going to paint this summer to make it a happy place for me.  My home is relatively good that way, but I've been itching to paint something (I just can't motivate myself to go through with it.).


Smell - Since I spend a majority of my day in the classroom, I think I'm going to go to Bath & Body Works and pick up a few more room scent sprays.  I love the 2 I have and realized I don't use them near enough.  I need variety, and I thought this would be a perfect way to increase my smelling sense!


Sound - I think I do a fairly good job of this one. I listen to upbeat music while I'm at the gym. I'm probably damaging my ears, but sometimes I think, the louder it is, the faster I go. LOL



Touch - this one is a little trickier.  I went to bed last night thinking of my sheets and how much I love them.  I also love our bed, it is like a giant marshmallow!  I also need to do a better job of going and getting massages since our insurance covers them.  I need to remember to get hugs often as well, cause sometimes the eating that comes from insecurity could be remedied with just a simple hug.


And lastly, Taste- if I really DO want something, I won't deny myself, but what I DO choose to eat will be high quality, and eaten slowly so that I can enjoy every single part of it.  I would be crazy to down a box of expensive chocolate without savoring every little drop!



So there you have it- my new goal....to stimulate other senses in attempts to rid myself of the habit of always going to food for comfort and safety.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Conferences

We have parent teacher conferences this week, and spring break next week.  We don't have any traveling plans for the week since Drew's vacation time is a bit more limited than mine.  Since I'll be home for a short while, I'm going to go pick up some storage shelving from Lowe's this weekend and work on trying to organize the attic a bit.  Let's hope it helps because it's a disaster up there right now.....too much baby stuff. I'd go so far as to saying at least 65% of it is baby clothes+infant equipment (stroller, rocker, bouncy saucer,etc) - I'm kind of excited for when I can get rid of it, but right now it just seems silly to have to re-buy them in the future.

I got my beautiful camera back from Seaside yesterday! I was soooo happy.  I didn't realize I had so many pictures on there that I hadn't downloaded yet. I'm so glad to have that back.

So updates on us:
Elisabeth is learning new words and phrases faster than I can remember them.  She is a sponge of knowledge, and I adore her.  She is the light of my life.  She loves to cuddle, and probably could never get sick of me singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (I know, she's crazy!) She's obsessed with strawberries, but she calls them 'tomatoes'- but really it sounds more like 'turtles'.  She could devour a pound of them a day- maybe more...I haven't given her the opportunity to do so!  She can count to 10, sometimes in order, sometimes skipping numbers. :) She likes to pretend to count in sign language...I love seeing her little fingers going all over the place.  She loves singing her ABC's and X is her favorite.  She loves to watch Max and Ruby and rock in her little rocking chair.  I absolutely love the little lady she's growing up to be.

Drew has been working hard. I appreciate the fact that he can take off at various times to help out with scheduling conflicts. I like his flexibility that way. His work is pretty redundant and stressful, yet he handles it very well.

With me, I think my job is safe for now (keep your fingers crossed)! I've been working really hard at the gym lately with running.  I purchased the 10k program on my phone since I completed the 5k one. I was able to run 45 minutes without stopping(first time ever!) (an incredible feat in and of itself in my opinion considering what my legs have gone through!).  Last week, I decided to push it a little further.  My runs have been about 15-18 minute intervals with 1 min in between x3.  I decided to run through the breaks and last week. Once I had run a solid 5 miles (first time ever as well!)-I decided to see if I could do 6.2miles (a 10k) and I was able to!! I'm a slow but steady runner and it took me a little over 72 minutes, but the fact is, I did it, and I didn't struggle, and my legs are still perfect! It's amazing what stretching consistently and good shoes can do for you! I'm 1lb away from my lowest weight as an adult, and I don't plan to stop there. I'm proud of myself and what I've been able to accomplish in a few short months. Life is good

 STRAWBERRIES!
 She's so good at tricks ;)
 Cheese!
Family pictures are getting trickier and trickier

Friday, March 11, 2011

Blessed

I had my 29th birthday one week ago, today.  I have been blessed with great friends who humored me enough to go drive up to Seaside and hang out with me over the weekend.  It couldn't have been any more perfect (other than being able to stay longer!)

When we were out playing in the water, there was a chill that picked up suddenly, so I wanted to go in (after the grumbly lady said, "No kids in the hot tub under 6 years old" blah blah blah)- so I didn't want to stick around in the kiddy pool any longer.  Anyway, I mindlessly left my camera by the side of the pool.  I didn't realize it was gone until we got home the next day.  That evening when I called up with very little hope of it to be found, I was pleasantly shocked.  Some kind individual had turned it in!!! I don't necessarily believe in karma, but I do feel as though some kindness has been re-payed somehow.  I am forever grateful for whomever it was that was kind enough to turn it in rather than take it. Thankfully, it was my waterproof camera instead of my $$$$$ Nikon, but it's still my camera that has priceless pictures on it- all I wanted were the pictures if it came down to it!  So the kind people at Worldmark are sending it down to me.  When I get those pictures I'll post some. :)

Also, not that I'm at all happy about the tragic earthquake in Japan, but I am relieved that we weren't planning on going up today.  That would have been scary, and I can't even imagine what I would have done.

On my birthday, I ate a lot of cake.  It's my one time a year I get Konditorei cake.  For those who haven't had it, you are definitely missing out.  I chose the After School cake.  It is pretty much D.I.V.I.N.E.  It may also have been worth the no weight loss on the scale this week.  I had been planning that though, so I'm OK in the fact that I didn't GAIN any weight. :D





(Please note the beautiful "attack." My child loves chocolate. She loves sugar. She loves cake.  Add those together and you have stealth.  I had opened the fridge to put the groceries in, and somehow her hand was in the cake and out of it, with a fistful of deliciousness before I even realized it.  Next thing I hear is, "Mmmm...Yummy Coco!!!" I couldn't agree more little one!


Speaking of accomplishments, I have been able to run further and longer than I ever have in my entire life.  I absolutely love that my legs are behaving and working with me.  I am so very grateful.  I am also grateful for an uncrowded gym so that I can be in charge of 1-3 tv's at any one time.  If I can watch cupcake wars, house hunters international, and some random game show, I could probably run for 2 hours! 

Our View from our room. It was pretty great.  It would have been fantastic if the other side of the building wasn't there. :)








Just being cute




Showing her boyfriend how to do things




Now he's showing HER!




I guess this is what you do when you have blinds?