WEEKEND UPDATE

Okay, I know that it has been almost a week since my last post and what’s the point of having a blog if you are going to leave it at home unattended, desperately hoping for a pat on the head or even a glance of acknowledgement when it could have been better off in someone else’s hands all along?

I am fully aware that I just typed a beast of a run-on sentence.

Friday night, I contemplated blogging, but I decided that the grogginess from a pasta coma extinguished any ability I had to form intelligible, multiple word sentences. Plus, we rented 17 Again with Zac Efron, and it was very important for me to weigh in on the artistic merit of this movie. Honestly, I thought it had some rather funny moments, but that could be the heightened effect of paying exactly $1.00 to see it. When you divide that by the two people who were watching it (Not going to name any names, but as much as he may want to deny it he was watching it too), this amount is reduced to $0.50 per person. So for fifty cents, not too bad.

Saturday, Jerm and I dragged ourselves out of bed and made it to our early morning run with Runner’s World. The trail that day consisted of six miles of intermittent, hellacious hills. Jerm hasn’t been running very consistently since his ankle sprain, and I was quite concerned when I finished and he didn’t arrive in a reasonable amount of time. So I grabbed him a cup of Gatorade and started backtracking along the course. About a mile in, I started to get worried that something had happened, only to discover minutes later as he pulled up beside me in the car that he had cut out at 4 miles and took a little trip to QuikTrip. You didn’t put that little bit on your Facebook status, did you Honey Bunches of Oats?

No picture was taken, but if you need some sort of image to help you get a better idea of the run, please imagine scar tissue forming bilaterally around my hip bones. Bloody hills!

Saturday I took a rather spontaneous trip to Stillwater to visit Courtney, a very good friend who has just started graduate school at OSU to pursue a Master’s in Family & Marriage Counseling. The trip was supposed to be a study-filled day with a rewarding evening of eating out and fun times. In our defense, there was a few hours of studying; however, most of the time was spent catching up and doing fun things like eating food and hanging pictures. Isn’t it funny how you don’t know how much you miss someone until you hang out with them?

This is Courtney and me in NYC. She used to live there, and I had an opportunity to visit her last November. It sure was cold but SO fun. P.S. – Madame Toussad’s is overrated. (Sorry about the teensy size of the pic. I don't know how to change it nor do I have the time to figure out how right now)


Well, that pretty much sums up the weekend. I've got a busy week ahead -- I start the first day of my Pediatric rotation tomorrow, and Jerm and I are planning on the arrival of some family members who live out of the country.

Stay tuned, folks. That is, if I manage to knick knack, paddy wack throw the blog a bone.

RANDOM TIDBITS

#1
I made my first experimental diaper cake last night. Unfortunately, diapers can be very expensive and so I had to limit my budget and cut out some of the ribbon and other decorative things that I might have used otherwise. Honestly, the gift was for someone that I barely know, but I love to try new crafts and couldn’t resist. Plus, what new parent doesn’t need diapers?


#2
I used some of the tofu spinach dip last night and made a spinach alfredo angel hair pasta. It was tasty, but the onions that I sautéed with the spinach were limp and translucent and kind of annoying after being defrosted. Next time I make this and decide to freeze it I will leave the onions out.

#3
Remember the post where I stated that the dogs were no longer going to be allowed on the couch?

"Please tell the cabana boy that I want my water on the rocks and that his banana leaf better be equivalent to air conditioning."


"I'm not sure if I can be up here, but I am going to go ahead and just stay up here with my ears perked until you tell me to get down in your firm man-voice."


#6
This month’s rotation is nearing an end, thank goodness. However, I must say that I like the physician I am rotating with very much, and the office staff is nice as well. It always makes boring less boring, ya know?

WEEKEND UPDATE

Laundry isn’t that bad, if there aren’t fifteen loads piling up by the laundry room door. A good friend nailed it after I texted that my laundry situation was desperate: “I hate it when it reaches that point. Resorting to looking for stains and smelling clothes to see if they pass for ‘work’.“

I laughed so hard when I read this because it is exactly what my laundry situation was before this weekend.

I didn’t make it to my run on Saturday morning and have an army of excuses, but the truth of the matter is that I love me some sleep. 5:30 is just too early to wake up on a weekend morning. Is that such a crime? I am still running on my own during the week, but I will admit that I am slacking on my long runs.

Other than doing laundry, Jerm and I have had the laziest weekend. I cleaned the kitchen and then, appropriately, got in a cooking/baking mood and experimented with several recipes throughout the weekend. What better way to celebrate a clean kitchen than by messing it up over and over?

On the experimental menu this weekend: (I "borrowed" the pictures since I did not take my own.)

Blueberry walnut pancakes. There is no recipe; I just added blueberries and walnuts to a traditional pancake batter. We ate these with fresh strawberries and whipped-cream on top. Yum!



Spinach dip made with tofu. Yep, you read that right:tofu. I decided to try this recipe because it has lower calories and fat than other recipes. The tofu is blended with cheese and milk in a blender which results in a creamy mixture that you add to a spinach and onion sautee. I have to say it was pretty good with added spices. I ate some with baked tortilla chips and froze the rest for a future lasagna or pizza or whatever. I'll let you know how that goes. If you care for the recipe, shoot me an email.


And, last but not least, I was in a very peanut butter-y mood and just had to make these:




I may dislike laundry, but I will never dislike food. :)

IT'S A GIRL!

Majority of this week’s evenings have been spent making invitations to a baby shower that I am hosting for a cousin in September. I love making invitations and am glad that I had time to do it. I did consider buying them but learned quickly that I could make my own for less and they would look much cuter. I think they are adorable, of course, but cannot show the entire invitation due to the nature of the information on it. (Also, sorry it's blurry...)


This is my first baby shower to host, and I am pretty excited. Unfortunately, I am kind of worried that I may not be able to be off “work” that day since I have yet to start my rotation for September. If that is the case, however, I will just have to get everything ready and have my mom or grandmother take over.
I am thinking about trying to make my own fondant out of marshmallows and powdered sugar. I have used fondant before when I made a Guitar Hero cake for Jerm’s birthday last year but have never made it. I wanted to post a picture of the cake from last year, but Jerm put it on our external hard drive, and I cannot find it.
Oh, well.
I would love to post more, but I am going to get ready for bed so that I (knock on wood) get up for my early run in the morning. I’ll let you know how it goes!

BEFORE FRUIT GOES BAD, I DRINK IT!

I am a big fan of fruit, but sometimes I don’t feel like eating it. This is a problem, especially when I have a lot of fruit on hand and biological forces are threatening ruin.

So I drink my fruit instead.

A lot of times, I freeze fruit if I know that I will not eat it before it goes bad, but I will use it in the near future. Not because I like goopy, mushy, thawed fruit, but instead because it is absolutely perfect for smoothies. In fact, I sometimes peel and cut up bananas and stick them in the freezer as a way to have frozen bananas in stock. It helps give a more frozen consistency to the smoothie without using as much ice.

I love smoothies. They have the nutritional benefit of 3-4 pieces of whole fruit and you don’t even have to horse chew your way through each piece. I don’t like adding extra sugar or ice cream or sherbet because I think that it takes away from the nutritional value. Instead, I use light vanilla yogurt, which I find is more than enough. Yogurt is also very healthy for you, and I sometimes have a problem eating this by itself as well.

It is not anything complex or even a new, groundbreaking idea, but I wanted to share my base recipe. The best thing about a smoothie recipe is that it can be tweaked at any time with a variety of fruits, and each time you get a delightfully different but tasty result!

¼ c. of orange juice
Actually, for an even healthier version, use water. I found this out when I had no OJ on hand. I couldn’t even taste the difference.

Approx. ½ c. of light vanilla yogurt
I use Great Value light vanilla yogurt that has less than 100 calories per container. I even sometimes use half of a Yoplait Light 100-calorie yogurt. Heck, sometimes I even use a different flavor of yogurt. The possibilities are endless.

¾ - 1 c. of frozen fruit
I use this lovely 6-lb bag of mixed frozen fruit from Sam’s Club. It contains strawberries, pineapple, mangoes, and peaches and is a bargain at $9.00 compared to the 1-lb bags at grocery stores that sell for $3.00 or more.


3-5 cubes of ice
More, if needed.

In addition, I often add a banana, a whole orange or clementine, a whole peach, and practically anything I have on hand. Tonight I had the base with a banana, clementine, blueberries, fresh pineapple, and a peach.

Mix in a blender and Voila!

Suck on that, recommended daily allowance.

IT ISN'T MONDAY, IS IT?

“Can we pretend like this is a weekend night and just not do anything?”

This was a message I sent to Jerm via AIM today after work. He agreed and so we ordered Mazzio’s for dinner and rented The Soloist for a dinner movie.

This wouldn’t be such a bad thing, except we kind of agreed that we would start a short-term diet today that I saw on another blog. I blew it first thing this morning when I did not get up in time to make breakfast. Also, I am not so sure that I am a diet kind of person anyway since me and hungry don’t go together very well.

Nonetheless, it was a great fake pseudo three-day weekend, and I think we should do it more often.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Thursday was a rather unusual day. The physician I am rotating with had a cancellation which cleared her schedule from 10:30 until 1:00, and so she encouraged me to use the time as I needed. I decided to have lunch with Jerm, which was fun and all, but the real gem of the day was my finding this lovely treasure at Hobby Lobby. I saw it recently and fell entirely head over heels in love with it. It was on sale for 50% off at the time, but any Hobby Lobby aficionado knows that even paying 50% is basically like paying full price because everything is always on sale at one time or another.
On Thursday, however, I had an hour to burn until I had to be back at the clinic and decided to stop by Hobby Lobby “just to look”. (Let’s be honest...“just to look” is basically just an invitation for a binge purchase.) I happened to walk by the display and saw that it was now 66% off. Oh, happy day!


Unfortunately, the triumphant purchase of the day was overshadowed by a much more serious and emotional event. Jerm’s grandmother had a stroke and was transported to a local hospital. She was admitted, and things were pretty scary for us that evening. However, she improved dramatically over the next few days and was able to go home Saturday afternoon. It is because of this amazing improvement that I am able to mention it ever-so casually on this blog. I am so very, very thankful.

Friday evening, Jerm and I ran in a 5K run for United Way. The company he works for paid for our entry so all we had to do was show up. I was a little nervous because my activity level has steeply declined since Jerm’s ankle sprain. (Excuses, excuses…) He hobbled his way through the course, and I surprisingly felt great. It was a good night to burn off some Bluebell. (By the way, there is a coupon for $1.00 off a half-gallon at bluebell.com for anyone who is interested…) Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and have no pictures of this event. (Surprise, surprise...)

Saturday Jerm and I spent the most significant part of our day at the hospital visiting his grandmother, but I did manage to fall in love with a little pink-outfitted gadget that I met that day. I didn’t think that I wanted her at first, but I think that she is growing on me rather quickly.


Today, I got up early and headed over to Riverside to meet Kristen for a nice leisurely and leg-burning bike ride. I am not sure if anyone is aware, but St. Francis rents out free bicycles via an automated system that uses a credit card for collateral. They have stations at both 21st and 41s and there is no charge if you return the bike within 24-hours. It seemed like a lot of the bikes were unavailable to rent and some of them appeared rusty, but we managed to eventually find two that were in working order and they rode smoothly.


Goodnight!

TO MOW OR NOT TO MOW

We have been without cable, internet, or phone for the past two-and-a-half days. I’m not really sure if all three were in working order when I came home Tuesday because I decided to be a hero and do yardwork. Not cutesy plant some flowers in our flower bed like a lady yardwork --- no, more like the mow the entire yard and weed-eat until your hands morph into man-hands type. Why did I think that this was a good idea in the hundred-plus degree heat? Because I didn’t really want to do laundry. Because I wanted to surprise Jerm so he wouldn’t have to do it for once. Because, apparently, I sometimes mislabel just-plain-stupid ideas as good ones.

I started in the front yard because I figured that if I wanted to quit at any point, it would be best to mow the portion of the yard that people actually see. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure this was the greatest idea. You see, when you mow the grass too low, it reveals a nice yellow patch that was previously hidden beneath a former lush, long, and beautiful greenness. Jerm usually mows the backyard at a lower level for the same reason that I decided to mow the front yard first: no one sees it. Also, it means we have to mow it less. He always mows the front yard first and then the backyard second.

So this means that when I went to mow the front yard, the mower blades were still set at scalping level.

I started the mower (wishing fervently that the neighbors weren’t at their windows mocking my multiple girl-arm attempts) and then proceeded to walk with the mower on the side of the house, closest to the fence. I smugly thought about how I was probably one of the few ladies in the neighborhood that would even dare to mow, not realizing that my calloused hands would later make a statement as well. And then I stopped mowing.

There it was -- a newly butchered lemon-colored grass strip next to its innocent, untouched counterpart. I decided to finish the side yard just to equal things out a bit, but I knew one thing for sure: Jerm was going to kill me! I also figured that if the neighbors weren’t mocking me before, I am sure that they were at that point. (And there was no way I was going to get my camera out and take a picture, either…)

I thought that I would attempt to mow the actual front part of the yard at a higher blade level so that the grass wouldn’t look as stupid. After I was finished, not only did the side yard stand out terribly, but I also mowed in some ridiculous pattern. I thought it would be a good idea to start on the outer perimeter of the yard and mow toward the center; however, even that was a colossal mistake. Let me say it again: Jerm was going to kill me.

I decided to move to the backyard and give the whole front yard failure a rest. Oddly enough, it went very smoothly. (I would like to add here that Maisie followed me around the entire time with her tennis ball in her mouth, occasionally dropping it in the direct path of the mower. Every time, I would have to yell at her to pick it up so that I wouldn’t have to stop the lawn mower and create any façade that we were going to be playing ball. So annoying but melts my heart at the same time….) Anyhow, the back yard actually looked good when I was finished, and this gave me confidence to go back to the front and try it again, even if this meant that the neighbors would be ROTFL (if you will) at my second attempt to mow the front yard.

This time, I decided that I would mow the yard in a vertical pattern at the same blade level of the side yard. My thinking was that it would be better to endure the embarrassment of mowing a second time in order to have a uniform yellow yard than the hot mess that was currently our front yard. And so I mowed again, and this time it looked pretty good, if I might say so myself.

I weed-eated and then the thunderstorm started to roll in. It didn’t really matter that the internet, cable, or phone were out that evening because I was in bed by 9pm. Maybe I should mow the yard more often.

Or maybe not.

DANG, IT'S MONDAY ALREADY?

I am not sure if it is my taking Jerm to the airport last Monday at the unholiest of hours or the fact that this month’s rotation is so unbelievably boring that it is sucking the life out of me, but I have been absolutely exhausted this past week. As in, get home and lie around and not do laundry or blog or run or do anything but watch TV exhausted. In fact, the only thing that I have done consistently this past week is consume more than my daily allowance of calories. Bluebell has two new ice cream flavors out: nutty chocolate and southern hospitality and I just had to try them. Bloody hell I have no self-control!

And before you even think it or ask – no, I am not pregnant. I think that I am just lazy and gluttonous.

I am going to go to bed now so that I can try recover from this feeling of tiredness. I promise that this week will be full of new posts and, hopefully, pictures.

Goodnight!

RANDOM TIDBITS

#1
Jerm is in Houston this week for training. Sadface.


#2

This is the alarm clock when I woke up yesterday morning, shortly after Jerm informed me that we were going to be leaving in 10 minutes for the airport. Unfortunately, I stayed up until 12:30 and had convinced myself that I was going to take a short nap when I returned home; however, I was too excited about the first day of my new rotation and could not go back to sleep.

I have yet to recover.


#3

We have recently decided that we are going to train the dogs to stay off the furniture. Though it has been difficult and saddens me when they look up at me like, “Mom, what did I do?” when I have to speak to them in a firm and authoritative man voice, it is in the best interest of our couch and any guests visiting wearing black or dark colored clothing. I couldn’t help but snap this picture of them on Sunday.

#4
It is only the second day, but I am pretty sure that I am going to die of boredom on my rotation this month. I am working in a pediatric Psychiatry clinic, and this is the summary of my day: Follow the doctor out of her office while she calls a patient’s name; go back into her office and sit on a couch and watch her review the patient’s medications with them; follow them out and repeat the scenario with a new patient. I am not getting to look at the chart beforehand to know the patient’s history. I am not getting to see what the heck she is writing after the patient leaves. I don’t even get to see what she is writing on the script pad. I just sit there, and I am thinking that maybe that it is fate that I was placed in this type of setting because it is completely obliterating any desire I would ever have to choose this specialty.

#5

Did you know that the PAC is giving out twenty orchestra tickets for $25.00 each two hours before each showing of Wicked? Well, I have been to the lottery three times and haven’t won one single time. I went today thought that maybe if I willed them to draw my name then it would be done. Guess what? I was wrong.

#6
40-oz bag of peanut butter M&Ms, why can't I quit you?!?!?!?!

WHAT DO I HATE MORE THAN A MESSY HOUSE? CLEANING A MESSY HOUSE!

I've decided that having a messy house is analogous to a bald spot in the ol' brows after an overzealous tryst with the tweezers: it's only a problem if someone else notices.
*************************************************************************************
Saturday, Jerm and I experienced an unprecedented, hell-froze-over event in our marriage. In the almost three years that we have been married, the possibility of day like Saturday would have evoked a mutual scoff, a roll of the eyes, or, like before, absolutely no acknowledgment at all.

We cleaned without being provoked to do so.

That’s right. No upcoming big family-get-together, no social shindig, no hurry-someone’s-at-the-door-put-the-three-week-old-pizza-boxes-in-the-trash moment. Nothing. We cleaned for absolutely no reason other than just to clean.

It’s not like we planned the event, but a few glances at these pictures will quickly give you an idea as to why it was time to be proactive. (I can't believe I am posting these!)

How did all of this crap get on the counters and table?


...and the living room?


And so it was our mission to convert the frat house back into a home...

Jerm is sweeping up Puffy, our third dog who comes to visit us every once in a while.


I mopped the floor by hand (by hand!) after Jerm swept, but did I get a picture as a reward for all of my low-back-pain-inducing, joint-aching hard work? Nope, because somebody was in the office on the internet while I was ever so painfully slaving away. I believe the conversation went something like this:
Me: “Jerm, if you are going to sit on your butt while I am pulling a Cinderella, the least you can do for me right now is take a picture of me mopping the floor for the blog!”
Jerm: (crickets chirping)

My response came about 20 minutes later when I had moved on to vacuuming the furniture. Jerm grabbed the camera and took about fifty million pictures like this one.

Me: “Are you being a smart ass?”
Jerm: “No, because if I were, I would be doing this….”
And he proceeded to move in front of me, crouch down on the floor like some fashion photographer, and snapped a million more pictures of me while shouting, “Vork it, girl!” in a crazy accent a million times over.

I couldn’t help but laugh.

He also left me a little surprise on the camera just for the blog. I had no idea these pictures were on here until I uploaded them yesterday evening. They are totally LOL-tastic.




I also thought that since he was so willing to take those pictures, he wouldn’t mind me posting a link to this lovely video. (Copy and paste it in a new browser...you won't be sorry!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfCagw9R_0g
He thought I was taking a picture, but I secretly was video recording. : )

So what did a whole day of heavy duty cleaning get us?
A clean kitchen!

...a clutter-free table!

...a clean living room!



...and one heck of a relaxing Sunday.