Back to Chi-town

Some of you knew I had a trip back to Chicago this past week. It was 5 days and 5 nights away from my family! That was really weird. Thank goodness for my in-laws who came and stayed with the girls the days Stephen had to go to work. You think you are indispensable as a mom, and of course you are in a lot of ways. But when I called that first night and no one burst into tears at the sound of my voice and Odessa only talked to me in "dog-speak" and Ada was interested in grandma and grandpa, I knew they would be fine and focused on my conference. I went for a Dietetics Association Conference and squeezed as many continuing education credits out of it as possible. Getting on the airplane and hanging out at the airports was so strange. No one needed me, I had nothing to do. I felt really hollow inside- kind of emotionless because usually with the kids I am in a constant state of change and this was just . . . nothingness. Of course it was also really nice flying without kids- I could just read and do whatever I wanted instead of trying to run a 3 ring circus keeping them busy.
I got to stay with my friend Nicole and her family while I was there. They were so nice to put up with me invading their space for so many days! Nicole kind of hosted a get together at her house Sunday night so I could see some old friends from the ward. Yes, some of my friends are taller than others although this photo exagerates it : ) Danica, you would have been the middle somewhere, right?

I had planned on, but missed seeing the Dubiels, who are in D.C. with an emergent medical condition- here are prayers going out to you, Leslie and Morgan.
It was nice to get to play with Nicole's son, Josh while I was there. He and Odessa were best buds and I was sad I couldn't bring her and watching him made me miss her. Here is an old picture of them at Navy Pier, the night before we left. Since Josh hasn't seen her since that night, he assumes she lives there now- how cute is that? They were so great together- I can only think of one time they ever fought over toys or anything else, mostly they giggled and could play for hours jumping on beds and laughing at each others antics. We miss the Kestens!
Other fun tidbits: I got a killer work out in with Hillary at Bally's on Saturday morning and then we went to Walker Brothers for breakfast- my favorite and the most sinfully delicious breakfast place I have ever eaten at. Saturday night after enduring a non-inspirational conference opening session with Chris Gardner (The Pursuit of Happyness) I got to go see our friend Erin's new place and eat at a Mediterranean restaurant in Hyde Park. I miss that about Chicago- the meats. The deep dish pizza, the gyros and Italian beef sandwiches at every mom and pop place, the Mediterranean restaurants. We are excited to have Erin and Ambrose come stay with us next week! We will have to take them to what Seattle does best- Asian and Seafood.

The really important thing about this conference was that I got so much new inspiration to start practicing some nutrition counseling on my own. I have been toying with a lot of ideas for awhile now about how to use my training and still stay at home. I am going to try just offering some of my services for weekly meal planning, basic cooking classes and some nutrition counseling sessions. A lot of it will be via the Internet. I got an awesome tool at this conference- a personality test I can give clients that takes their results and helps pinpoint their personality obstacles to healthier lifestyle choices. It graphs their weakest areas and then helps me know how to counsel them according to what eating, exercising and emotional challenges they are facing. I was thrilled with this session and tool. I have always felt I need more psychology training to help patients make changes. This tool will help me with that side of counseling.

At a conference with almost 10,000 dietitians in attendance, you can imagine what the food expo might be a little bit like. Here is an opportunity for every new health food product to push their stuff and hope that all these RDs will recommend it to their patients and clients. Of course, they know giving us all free stuff is the way to draw us in, and women cannot pass by a free offer or a good deal. Reusable grocery bags was "the thing" this year, I came home with 12 of them. Every day I just ate lunch on the Expo floor. By day 3, my stomach had had enough of the protein bars, the organic crackers, the fortified juice, the probiotic yogurt, the sugar free sugar, the Acai berry stuff and on and on. All the nut and bean and dairy and meat associations were there- thank goodness for pork kabobs and lamb stew to even out all the snacky foods. But I was still a gurgling, urbling mess- they fortify everything with fiber! It felt good to have a hot meal in the evenings! And waking up at 2:30 am Central time to return my rental car and make sure I was to the airport well before my flight just about did me in, but I am recovering. By the way, here is a plug for Alamo. My "Economy" car rental (that I pricelined for a steal) turned out to be a Toyota Prius hybrid! What a strange and nice car to drive. Hardly used any gas, doesn't have a real key- just a power and park button and a touch screen for audio, climate control, you name it. It was a fun experience.
After 3 days of conference, I got to end my time in Chicago with some shopping downtown and an evening with the Kestens (whom I actually saw very little of some days!). We ate at the Tavern on the Park, right on Michigan Ave and off Millennium Park. Then we went to a members only viewing of the new Aztec exhibit at the Field Museum. It was really fascinating. I love the Field because it reminds me of Night at the Museum and it is what Odessa remembers most about Josh- going there with him was one of their last outings together. Here he is waving a hello message to her.Thanks Kestens for a great time. I can't wait to come back as a whole family someday!

Pumpkin Patch Trespassing!

Friday we went with Kate and Inge up to Kate's hometown, Snohomish to go to a pumpkin patch. The only one we could find had an entrance off a main road. When we pulled in, there were some farm workers leaving through the gate that had a closed sign. We asked one about the pumpkin patch, but apparently he didn't speak much English. He pointed and let us through the gate. We were puzzled by the closed sign, maybe this was just a farm entrance or something. How could a big pumpkin patch not be open at 11am on a Friday? We pulled up and it was obvious that they really were closed- no other cars, no workers. Hmmmm. What would you do? We had been in the car for about an hour with 3 little girls who were really ready to be OUT of the car. So we thought "what's the harm in getting them out and taking a few pictures?". So we did and we had a really fun time. There were wagons and lots of pumpkins and some good mud. The girls loved it and we snapped away taking pictures. We were there probably 20-30 minutes when a tractor pulled in through the gate. A farmer got out and started marching towards us. He was pretty upset, it turned out. Apparently he didn't like people just letting themselves into his patch! Once we explained (a couple of times) that someone had let us in and we had just meant to get some photos and didn't mean to create a liability for him, he finally calmed down a little and realized he'd sounded a bit foolish over-reacting. He even snapped at us in Spanish when he was pointing out his Spanish speaking workers wouldn't have understood anything we asked them! So we left under truce-type conditions, both parties a bit contrite (I am sure us more than he). I was surprised that him being mad at us didn't phase me more. That sort of thing usually gets my adrenaline up and shaking and gives me a sour stomach. It must be all that public tension I am witnessing with the political debates. Desensitized me.
It was a very fun excursion despite our mishap and my grouchy kids. Snohomish Valley is very pretty and it's always so refreshing to get out into some open country. I think that's why we were always going up to Wisconsin when we lived in the Chicago area! I told Stephen he has to go back with me to Snohomish (don't you just love saying that word?). But this time we will avoid the off-limits pumpkin patches.
We turned around and they were all spontaneously holding hands. So cute.

Tagged- again

Who started this tagging thing anyway? Some evil girl in Utah, no doubt, long ago. Is Bill Gates going to send me $100,000 if I do this? Alright, I will stop complaining and do it. This is for you, Candice because of all our fond BSU memories- sitting around at lunch trying to figure out why our boyfriends did the things they did!!

10 years ago . . .
1. I watched my big crush (Stephen) leave for 2 years in Italy.
2. I immediately started dating someone else (ha! um, I was not dating Stephen, it was just a crush)
3. I began arguably my most fun year of college
4. I think I got a C in Human Physiology
5. Married my third sister off so I could have the whole house to myself (along with my watchful parents)

5 things on my to-do list today
1. Take Odessa to the dentist
2. Weights
3. Put away all the laundry
4. Get the girls to somehow nap together
5. Make Coconut rice and "peas" for dinner (beans)

5 Favorite snacks
1. Cookies
2. Fruit- any
3. Cheese and crackers (same as you C)
4. Homemade bread (preferably toasted with honey or cinnamon sugar)
5. Cinnamon bears (currently cinnamon devils as that is what's in bulk at WinCo- Easter they will have cinnamon bunnies, etc.)

5 jobs that I have had
1. Wendys! love it
2. WinCo bakery- croissants and cakes
3. Movie theater- lasted 5 weeks?
4. Distance learning camera operator
5. Hospital Dietitian and Contract Dietitian for psychiatric hospital (yes, I have good stories)

5 things I would do with a million dollars (um, can I have a million dollars to do each of these things?)
1. Pay off student loan
2. Buy a house
3. Retirement!!
4. Tour of Europe
5. Help out my grandma

5 things that made me laugh this week
1. making jokes about Facebook with Hillary (do they send people you don't know a note that you "ignored" them??!!)
2. Watching Odessa dance around in her new Curious George underwear- and only her underwear.
3. Ada picking up her bowl to show me her food "seeeeeee?" over and over
4. When I ask Ada to do something with a little exasperation, she huffs back at me "allwright!"
5. Stephen's morning antics as he gets ready for the day

If you would like to do this, you are TAGGED.

the beginnings of Halloween

This week marked some activities that are getting us in the mood for Halloween. First of all, I was in charge of a Halloween activity for the ladies at church. The purpose was to swap old Halloween costumes with each other and brainstorm ideas for homemade costumes so we could all save money. I used it as an excuse to make all the fun Halloween treats and some decorations that get me so excited about this holiday. We had wormy apple punch, mini caramel apples, dirt cups with worms, eye ball deviled eggs, bone breadsticks, ect. Our family got to carve a pumpkin too as a centerpiece that had dry ice induced fog rolling out it's face. Ada really got into pulling the seeds out, Odessa would only touch it with a spoon. It's so funny to see the differences in one child and the next.

We also looked into moving this week. Crazy, I know! But we got curious about some cheaper apartments in the area. We are paying a little more in rent than we would like (we didn't realize when we moved here that groceries were going to put us through the roof!!) Plus we really would love to have a place with a yard or a couple other amenities. I am including this picture of our duplex in Chicago (Park Ridge) last year when we had it decorated for Halloween. I didn't realize how nice it was to have a front of a house to decorate for holidays or an alley to try and garden or a little fenced yard for the girls to play in. I don't really have a place for our yard decorations here, so we had to get creative and just play with them. Here Odessa is saving me from an attack of a giant spider. So we did go and look at an apartment yesterday that is quite a bit cheaper than ours and came away realizing why we pay more! Once you feel you are not really getting ripped off, it's a little easier to handle. Stephen really wants to stay close to work for now and so we will stay here at least a year. It may mean a few more really budget savvy meals, but ok.

Probably the most life changing thing that happened this week was that Odessa finally turned that corner in potty training. She went more than 5 days without any accidents and got to take 3 straight rides on the Seattle Center carousel as reward. Whew! We finally found something that motivated her enough to keep her excited about getting up on that throne. Now I have entered that realm of mothers of children who are wearing underwear and just maybe, they shouldn't be. That realm where you find yourself asking your child all the time if they have to go, where you worry about accidents at the store and bringing extra clothes and an emergency pull-up (I have to carry a larger diaper bag!) where you DO NOT HAVE TO BUY DIAPERS EVERY WEEK (ok, at least for one kid). It's amazing, it's liberating, it's very time consuming. Now I understand why those moms do the things they do, because I am doing them now. Big step, we hope mom can handle it.

Ready for rain

I hate Money

I wanted to mail a small package as a thank you to a speaker for a church function. Her office is downtown, so not far. I needed a box to protect the items, an envelope wouldn't work. I honestly don't know where a close postal office is, but there is a UPS office down the hill from us. I took my items there to be mailed. It weighed a half of a pound. After taking all the information and figuring on the computer for awhile, (I told him to use the cheapest method possible, this was just a "Thank You") he looked up at me and said "that will be $22.00". Ha!!! I said "no way". More figuring by his teenage coworker and then it was "$14.00 - we won't charge you the 7.00 for the bubble wrap". Seven dollars for BUBBLE WRAP? I said I was sorry for taking their time, I was sorry for chasing my kids around their store, pulling all the cards and shipping tubes out of their displays, I was sorry for the quarter I wasted on parking. I gathered up my little items and said to myself I would walk them downtown myself for $14.00. I was very polite, I was just being scandalously sarcastic inside my head. So the next morning I put them in a big envelope with the address on front and pointed my husband in the right direction- a place a few blocks from his work! What a pain!

Next foible of mine: Odessa had a follow-up appointment for her tooth at the dentist. Never schedule an appointment on the 1st of the month. If you haven't flipped your calendar page, you might miss it! That's what happened to us anyway. I called to apologize and see about rescheduling and heard on their message that they require a 2 day notice for cancellations or it's a $75 bill! Ack!! I expected some sort of fine for missing the appointment, but $75! Her first appt after insurance cost us $32. I was so mad at myself, you should have seen me. Thank goodness, when I talked to the receptionist later in the day she informed me that a letter explaining their policies had been sent out, but not a bill. Whew! A first warning of sorts.

Third foible: Going to the thrift store. Yes, you are pretty sure you are saving a whole load of money by paying only $1 for those rain boats and $2 for that shirt, but you end up buying more than you were planning because things are cheaper. Then there is the parking: I only had 30 cents on me- that got me 14 minutes. My friend showed up and reminded me that the parking meters here take debit or credit- but I thought I would come back out in 14 minutes instead of paying for the same minutes again. Ack! What's wrong with me? I came out a few minutes too late and what do you know- a $35 parking ticket. The cops and parking enforcer were casing the street the WHOLE time we were there. I saw 3 other people getting tickets. I am sure one of the officers stood by my car the entire 14 minutes!!

I just hate it when stupid mistakes (or poor willpower) cost me money. My mother was right (isn't she always? ughh). You really are more poor out of graduate school than when you are in school. Ah school loans, where are you now? Demanding payment, that's what!

Well, here are a couple of recipes to brighten the last of this mesage. We enjoyed them so much last week, I shared with my family and thought I would post them here as well. They're from Rachel Ray- supposed to be 30 min, and they are not too hard.

Smoky-Spicy Sweet Potato Soup
4 sweet potatoes (2 1/2# peeled and sliced 1 inch thick)
Salt
1 Tbls Olive Oil
4 slices smoky bacon, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded (I added more)
1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, chopped plus 2 teaspoons adobo sauce*
5 sprigs Thyme
1 bay leaf
32 oz chicken broth
1 tsp grated orange peel and juice of 1 orange
1/8 tsp cinnamon
honey or maple syrup for drizzling
pepper
sour cream for serving on top

1. In a large saucepan, add the sweet potatoes and enough water to cover, bring to a boil, salt the water and cook until tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain and return to the pot.
2. While potatoes cook, in medium pot heat olive oil. Add the bacon and cook over medium-high heat, stirring often until crisp, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate. Discard all but 2 Tbs fat. Add the onion, carrot, chipotle chile, adobo sauce, thyme sprigs and bay leaf and cook until onions are softened 6-7 minutes. Stir in the chicken broth, orange peel, orange juice and cinnamon; drizzle with honey or syrup and season with salt and pepper. Simmer about 5 minutes, discard thyme and bay leaf.
3. Add the broth mixture to the drained sweet potatoes in the pot and blend in batches in the blender or food processor. Serve the soup with the bacon peices and sour cream on top.

*I learned somewhere if you get a can of Chiles in Adobo sauce you can freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays lined with plastic wrap and then you have one chile cubes to use in future recipes.

Grilled Eggplant Subs with Mozarella and Tomato Jam
1/2 cup Oilve Oil
2 cloves garlic
1 sprig rosemary
1 small red onion, chopped
1 15 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (I used regular diced and then added a frozed chipotle pepper with adobo sauce, I took out the pepper when it was finished cooking, it would have been really spicy)
1 TBS brown sugar
2 TBS balsamic vinegar
2 eggplants, cut into 8 slices each
salt and pepper
1 cup packed baby arugula (I used romaine although I know it's way different)
1/2 cup basil leaves, torn
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 crusty sub rolls
1/2 to 1# ball smoked mozzarella (I had to use a smoked white cheddar b/c no smoked moz at the store)

1. Preheat grill pan to medium high or broiler to high. In small saucepan, heat the oilive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and rosemary and let steep for 3 minutes.
2. In large skillet, combine 1 TBS of the infused oil and red onion over medium heat and cook until softened, about 6 minutes. Add the tomatoes, brown sugar and vinegar, lower the heat and cook until thickened, about 7 minutes.
3. Brush the eggplant slices with the infused oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill or broil, flipping once until tender, 2-3 minutes each side. Do this in 2 batches if needed.
4. Dress the arugula and basil with the lemon juice and remaining infused oil, season with salt and pepper.
5. On each roll bottom, layer 4 eggplant slices, a handful of green and smoked mozarella. Grill or broil to melt the cheese. Slather the roll tops with the tomato jam and set in place.