The very watered down version of the past 5 months...

I have intentionally not blogged in a long while, but it’s time to get back to it. Things have been interesting to say the least.  Basically our life since July 31^st has been consumed by Ryan’s career, or lack thereof.  Ryan left Cellar Rat in July. The short version of a VERY, VERY long story begins with Ryan trying to buy his business partner out.  He had been trying to do that for almost 3 years, and they could never come to an agreement on price.  John (business partner) was asking way too much.  John also would tell Ryan to put together a proposal, Ryan would, and then John would take 3 months to get back to him (John lives in Hawaii).  Repeat this scenario for 3 years.  So earlier this spring, Ryan took a really hard look at the numbers and realized that the business would have to change a lot in order to actually make money.  They were making money, but not very much.  Overhead was pretty high.  The space was very large and they needed extra staff to run it.  John had also been pretty shady about several things, like many promises made to Ryan about getting more of a stake in the business and some other things I won’t name here.  When it was set up, Ryan didn't get an attorney (major problem #1) and he didn’t ask a lot of questions.  John forked over all the money and Ryan got a 5% stake in the business with promises of more when he built it up.  Well, Ryan built the business from the ground up, putting ridiculous hours of blood, sweat, and tears into it.  He has made Cellar Rat into what it is today, yet he never got more than 5%.  Ryan was fed up and he and John had some interesting discussions where Ryan told John he was going to walk away.  Then John came up with someone to buy the business.  I have a ton more to say here….but I can’t.  Just in case someone Google’s this and reads what I say, we could get in some sort of trouble.  What I can say is that Ryan totally got screwed.  The deal was supposed to close back in July…then August…then September…then October, etc… you get my drift.  Well, the sale supposedly (finally) closed this week, although we still haven’t received confirmation!  It only took them 5 months to get their crap together.  So frustrating because it has limited what Ryan has been able to do since he is/was still a shareholder in Cellar Rat.  He couldn’t do anything that ‘competed’ with the business. 

We are not sure what will happen now… Ryan is exploring a bunch of options.  Once again, I have a ton to say and I waited to write everything out until now, but now I’m realizing that I can’t write most of it out.  Or I probably could, but I can’t risk getting Ryan in some sort of trouble because we really can’t afford to be sued!  Ryan has been pretty hush-hush about the whole thing.  He is a genuinely good person and hasn’t told many people how badly he was treated, which angers me because I want to shout from the rooftops how terrible/heartless/gutless his former business partner and this new guy who bought Cellar Rat are….so I guess that is my mini shout-out.   ;) 

So what I thought was literally going to be a 10 page novel has turned fairly short.  Once Ryan has something concrete going, I will update.  

Nuthin

I am so behind, but I have no desire to blog right now...there is just too much going on and it stresses me out to think of writing it all down.

major changes!

Still way behind here… Things have been interesting to say the least.  Ryan is leaving his business (I am not going to say the name of his business here just so I can avoid it coming up in an internet search).  The short version of a very long story begins with Ryan trying to buy his business partner out.  He had been trying to do that for almost 3 years, and they could never come to an agreement on price.  John (business partner) was asking way too much.  John also would tell Ryan to put something together, Ryan would, and then John would take 3 months to get back to him (John lives in Hawaii).  Repeat this scenario for 3 years.  So earlier this spring, Ryan took a really hard look at the numbers and realized that the business would have to change a lot in order to actually make money.  They were making money, but not very much.  John had also been pretty shady about several things, like many promises made to Ryan about getting more of a stake in the business.  When it was set up, Ryan didn't get an attorney (major problem #1) and he didn't ask a lot of questions.  John forked over all the money and Ryan got a 5% stake in the business with promises of more when he built it up.  Well, Ryan built it from the ground up, putting ridiculous hours into it.  He has made it into what it is today, yet he never got more than 5%.  Ryan was fed up and he and John had some interesting discussions where Ryan told him he was going to walk away.  Then John came up with someone to buy the business.  This guy is overpaying for it.  We almost feel bad for him.  Almost.  There is no way Ryan would have ever paid that much because the business doesn't support it.  Yikes for this guy.  But what really sucks is that Ryan will be lucky to get a few thousand dollars out of the sale.  And yet, he IS the business.  So frustrating!

We are not sure what will happen now… Ryan is exploring a bunch of options.  Unfortunately, he wasn't able to start telling people until last week, so that means he has 30 days to figure something out.  I guess we will see what happens!  More to come… 

Not much to report...

Well, I haven’t been good at blogging the last month.  Mostly because all the stuff I want to say I can’t say yet….

Anywho, I have another triathlon this weekend in Topeka.  It looks like we might actually get to swim in this one, ha ha!  Ryan and I went for an open water swim on Monday at Longview lake in Lee’s Summit, and the water was way warmer than I thought it was going to be.  The swim was good, and I’m glad I got it over with.  Mentally, getting my first open water swim of the year in was good for me, although race day is always different.  Ryan’s age group takes off 3 minutes after me, so I will be trying my best to keep in front of him, although I know he will catch up to me eventually.  He is faster than me on all 3 sports, but I will at least make it my goal to keep him behind me for as long as I can.   J    

So much for the swim...Lawrence 5150 Triathlon

The weather over the weekend made for an interesting race on Sunday.  As per my previous post, I was nervous about the swim…but I was ready to put my game face on and suck it up.  I got up at 4:30am on Sunday morning so I could have my coffee and let it settle.  I had all my stuff gathered and I got it into the car.  It was wet outside because we had a storm roll through around 3am, but otherwise looked clear.  There was still a chance of showers but they were supposed to end by 7am (the race started at 7:30).  We decided to put the bike in the car instead of on the bike rack since it was wet outside, and since Ryan wasn't racing.  As we hopped on the highway, I could see a huge bank of clouds to the west where we were headed.  Then the lighting started.  By the time we got to Lawrence it was raining and lighting pretty bad.  We got everything unloaded from the car.  I started to put a trash bag over my handlebars to keep them from getting wet, but I looked around and realized that they were going to get wet no matter what so I gave up.  The walk to the transition area/race start took forever.  It was cold, windy, and wet.  They ended up delaying the race, and then they decided to cancel the swim and just send us on the bike and run.  I’ll admit, I wasn't disappointed at all.  Looking at Clinton Lake during the storm, there were big whitecaps and the wind was howling.  I was not looking forward to getting in that water!  The second they announced they were cancelling the swim, I was not nervous at all.  Not even a little bit.  They had us line up and do a ‘time trial' start on the bike, meaning each person went off one by one.  Our time didn't start until we crossed the mat, so there was no hurry to get to the front of the line.  Unfortunately this meant that there was congestion during the first few miles of the race, plus the wet roads made it tricky.  I'm sure the pro athletes were really annoyed too, because they had to deal with all of us 'age groupers' being in their way the whole race.  It had stopped raining by this point which was good, but there was standing water and debris everywhere.  By the time I was ¾ finished with the bike, the sun had come out!  It got really warm and super humid, and of course I hadn't put any sunscreen on.  I debated on whether to even wear my sunglasses on the bike, but decided to just to keep the water spray and junk from other bikes out of my eyes.  I'm glad I wore them.

I was hurting on the run, which was fairly hilly.  I thought I ran faster than my final time showed and I was disappointed in my time, but regardless I did okay.  The frustrating thing to me is that the gal that won (I got 2nd) beat me by 7 minutes!  7 minutes in a sprint triathlon is a lot of time.  So for the past day I have been trying to figure out what to do to make sure that doesn't happen again!  I know what I need to do; I just need to see if my body can actually do it.  My ultimate goal is to beat this lady, but she has years of triathlon experience on me… I still think I can beat her if I work my butt off.  Regardless, I need to be a faster biker and runner.  I know she will be at the next triathlon in June.  Obviously I would love to say my goal is to beat her at this race, but realistically my goal is to narrow that 7 minutes down as much as I can.  Looks like some more speed work is in my future!  

Misc recent pictures

Some recent pics:

Birthday party fun for a school friend

Same birthday party as above - both girls were trying to imitate other gymnasts and doing a fairly good job of it!   

Same weekend, but another birthday party for one of Luca's friends

Ryan turned 41 on the 5th of May.  I made him an almond cake with lemon curd (gluten free!).  We re-used candles from other birthdays if you couldn't tell... 

Lola's first trip to the dentist.  She did okay...she was a bit hesitant but I think she will be much better next time.  

What do we do after the dentist?  Eat a cookie of course!  

Luca had to go to the ER to have her foot looked at.  She had some sort of weird infection that seemed to be spreading really quickly on her toe.  This was 11pm at night and she was wired!

We have some crazy stuff going on in our lives, which I can’t really talk about yet….I want to talk about it really badly but I’m not allowed.  We are very stressed out and we’re trying to work through it.  More to come very soon I hope.

On another note, the Lawrence 5150 Triathlon is less than a week away.  Thankfully the water temperature has warmed up considerably from a few weeks ago when it was in the low 50’s!   I am still very nervous since this is only my 2^nd triathlon but I’m ready to put my game face on come Sunday morning.  Bring it ladies…I’m going to be on your heels and then passing you.   J 

We went to my parents last weekend and Lola got to ride horses at April’s house.  She has been bugging me for a while to go ride so I finally bit the bullet and took them to Fort Scott.  They also got to bottle feed some calves which Luca really liked. 

You are what you eat!

I don’t care what anyone says…it costs more to eat healthy!  We generally eat fresh fruits, veggies, and meats most of the week.  We don’t go out to eat much at all.  Literally maybe once or twice per month each, and that may be Chipotle for Ryan after he biked 3 hours on a Saturday or Thai for me at lunch with a friend.  I have not gone through a ‘drive-through’ since I was pregnant with Lola.  The kids have had McDonalds twice I think but it was a while ago when they were with a friend and Lola doesn’t even remember it.  It’s not that we are against it (actually Ryan is but I don’t care), it’s just that we don’t eat it so therefore the kids don’t either.  I cook something most nights, and if I don’t ‘cook’ I usually bake the kids some tater tots and make them a sandwich.  We are trying to make some changes to our budget, but it is really hard to budget eating healthy.  Buying fresh veggies and fruit all the time adds up.  I do buy frozen sometimes too - the steam bags of veggies are a lifesaver when I get home with the kids at 5:40pm and need dinner on the table in less than 5 minutes.  Steam veggies and a cheese quesadilla are on the table once per week because it’s quick. 

We bought ¼ of a cow last summer and plan to do the same again next month.  I like knowing where my food comes from!  (http://www.raftergbar.com/).  We have eaten most of it up, but still have a few packs of steaks and burger to use up.  It’s been kind of fun to experiment with the different types of meats you get when you buy in bulk.  I wasn’t sure how the heck I would use up the hamburger because we got waaaaay more than I anticipated.  Actually, we got what we were supposed to but considering I only bought hamburger every once in a while it was kind of intimidating.   Although I have to say, when we had a birthday party for Luca and decided to grill burgers it was really nice to go to the freezer and grab a bunch of packs of hamburger and not have to go to the store.  We made 20 burgers and it hardly put a dent in our supply!  I have made a ton of meatballs which I really like, and I experimented with putting lots of veggies in them.  I finally came up with a really good recipe (below) and infused them with good veggies, minus breadcrumbs (gluten free) and cheese (dairy free), so they are pretty healthy too.  I have also made lots of burgers, meatloaf, stuffed peppers, sloppy joes, macaroni and cheese with beef, beef Bolognese, just to name a few.  I think we are going to start buying some pork in bulk as well.  We eat a lot of pork and I would really like to know where it comes from too. 

So back to my original thought…money, which I also covered in my last post when I was grouchy.  J   Eating healthy and whole food is important enough to us to sacrifice money in other areas to make sure we can keep a fridge and freezer stocked full of fresh food.  

...................................................................................................................................................................

Beef and veggie meatballs w/ no breadcrumbs or cheese  

Makes around 12-15 large meatballs

·        Extra-virgin olive oil

·        1 onion, finely diced

·        Salt

·        2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

·        Pinch crushed red pepper or more depending on how spicy you want them

·        2lbs lean ground beef (or any other ground meat)

·        2 large eggs

·        Around 1 cup of finely chopped veggies (carrots, peppers, zucchini, and spinach all work great).  You can also pulse in a food processer which works much better. 

·        1/4 cup or more to taste of finely chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves

·        1 cup almond meal (or ½ cup almond meal and ½ cup flaxseed meal), or you can use breadcrumbs. 

·        1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil, add the onions and bring to a medium-high heat. Season the onions generously with salt and cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. The onions should be very soft and aromatic but have no color. Add the garlic and the crushed red pepper and saute for another 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to cool.

In a large bowl combine all the ingredients, and add around ½ -1 tsp of salt (depending on how much you put in the onions and how much salt you like). It works well to squish the mixture with your hands. Add around 1/4 cup of water and do 1 final really good squish. The mixture should be quite wet so add more water if needed. Coat a large saute pan with olive oil and bring to a medium-high heat. Test the seasoning of the mix by making a mini hamburger size patty and cooking it. The mixture should taste really good! If it doesn't it is probably missing salt.  I don’t do this anymore because I just kind of ‘know’ but it is good to check if you haven’t made them before. 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Shape the meat into desired size.  Brown the meatballs on all sides. I typically work clockwise so I remember which meatballs went down first and I use tongs to turn them.  They won’t end up as perfect ‘balls’ because of being browned on all sides, or at least mine don’t.  Place them on a cookie sheet (if you make them fairly large, they will try to fall apart here so be careful) lined with parchment and bake them in the preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked all the way through.

Serve with pasta and marinara or you can substitute spaghetti squash for the pasta.  Take a spaghetti squash and poke holes with a knife (around 10+ holes all around).  Put in the microwave for 6-8 minutes (depending on microwave strength), then turn on the other side and cook for an additional 6-8 minutes.  Take out, cut in half and let cool for around 5-10 minutes.  Take a fork and pull all the seeds out, and then take a spoon and scoop the insides out.  If serving with something else, you can just eat as is, but if you want to eat as a side dish you can sauté in a bit of olive oil with some salt and pepper and then top with chopped parsley.  

................................................................................................................................................................

A few pics of what you can do with ground beef (at least in our kitchen):  

Add caption

Add caption

Triathlon season 2013!

My first triathlon is 3 weeks from yesterday!  Yikes!  It has really snuck up on me.  The majority (okay, 99.9%) of my anxiety is in the swim.  It’s a short triathlon, so the swim is ‘only’ 500 meters, but it will only be my 2^nd triathlon and the swim was pretty traumatic in my first one.  Plus I haven’t had an open water swim this year and I will be wearing a wetsuit, which I have never done.  I am very nervous about the cold water.  I have heard that really cold water will literally suck the air out of your lungs, and I am nervous enough about the swim that I don’t need that too.  Ryan keeps telling me that the water won’t be that bad, but we have had a really cold spring and not enough warm weather to warm up the water!  I have sprint triathlons (500 meter swim, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run) in June, July, and September.  I have already signed up for an Olympic distance (1500 meter swim, 26 mile bike, 6 mile run) tri in August.   Once again, it’s the swim that makes me nervous!  I figured by August I would have 3 sprints under my belt, so surely I could double my distance right?  Ha.  I know I can finish, but I am very competitive and just finishing is not good enough for me.  

money, money, money...

This is going to be a whiny post...just a warning.  Maybe this is just more of a vent.  There are no pretty pictures to add to this post.  Just complaints.  I hate money.  I hate dealing with money.  I hate not having money.  I know I should be grateful for what I have, but lately I have been wanting to "keep up with the Jones'".  I want to re-do our bathrooms which are literally falling apart.  I want to renovate our kitchen.  I want a house with a freaking garage!  I want to go on a 'real' vacation.  I want to not live month to month.  There's nobody to blame but ourselves though.  Could I have bought an older car?  yes.  Could Ryan have kept his old car instead of buying a brand new one?  yes.  Could I have stopped shopping on Zulily EVERY day?  Yes.  Could we have watched our spending much more carefully?  yes. Could Ryan have not registered for 2 expensive Ironman events this year? Yes.  Could I stop getting allergy shots?  Yes.  Could we get rid of our gym membership?  yes.  Could Ryan stop going to physical therapy for his foot and shoulder?  yes.  Could I have not taken Luca to get food allergy testing?  yes.  Could I have let the fillings that needed to be replaced in my teeth wait a little longer?  Yes.  Could I have lived without a new retainer since I recently broke my old one?  Yes (but my teeth would have moved).  Could I have not gone on girls trips each year which I always end up putting on credit cards?  yes.  Could I spend less at the grocery store?  yes.

I'm sure there is more that I can't think of in this moment.  I am just frustrated with a lot of things right now.  Ryan's business is up in the air and he hates going to work every day, and our kids have been acting so bad that we don't like being parents.  I know it will all pass and we will look back on these days and maybe crack a little smile...I am just ready to be at that point right now.  Okay, vent over.   :)

Eggs and trips!

I’m way behind on blogging!   Easter was a few weekends ago.  It was a bit bittersweet because we have had our friends go to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt with us for the past 3 years.  They moved away last July so this year we planned on going solo, but my parents and my friend April came up to go with us so that helped me not be as sad.  That and the fact that Lola and I were going to visit them a week later (more on that below).  It rained last year but thankfully the rain held off this year.  I thought Luca was going to be terrified of the Easter Bunny.  I guess I just assumed this because she hated Santa a few months ago.  But it was the complete opposite...she kept wanting the Easter Bunny to hold her and she kept running back to him (or her).  We had to keep going to get her, since other kids were trying to get their pictures taken with him.  We also had an egg hunt at our house on Easter morning.  Lola loved it…Luca was a little slow collecting eggs but she still had a good time. 

Lola and I took a trip to visit her friend Julia, and my friend (Julia’s mom) Elizabeth last weekend in Memphis.  I was just there in September for a girl’s trip, so I had seen them then, but Lola hadn't seen them since they moved last July.  We were supposed to arrive on Thursday evening at 6:15pm and leave Sunday at 2pm.  Perfect trip time – 3 nights and almost 3 days.  On Thursday morning just before 11am, I got an e-mail and phone call from Delta saying my flight had been cancelled!  Apparently the crazy snow and ice weather in Minneapolis had messed up flights all over the US, but I wasn’t expecting my flight to actually get cancelled.  After an hour on the phone with Delta, I booked a flight that same evening but it went through Atlanta and didn't get into Memphis until 10:20pm.  Kind of a bummer, and Atlanta is not exactly on the way to Memphis, but whatever… Then my dad calls not even 30 minutes later and says that Atlanta is going to get pounded with Thunderstorms right around the time we are supposed to land there.  So after some weather channel watching, I decide that it would be smart to re-book for Friday morning.  The problem with Friday morning though is that the flight is at 6:15am.  It is direct though, but still…6:15am flight with a 4-year old.  Turns out I was smart to re-book because the Thursday night flights were delayed and the plane didn’t get into Memphis until almost 12:30am.  So Friday morning, I get up at 4am and I get Lola up at 4:15am.  We get to the airport at 5:20am, look at the board, and our flight is delayed over an hour already!  I never got a notification from Delta either.  If I would have received something, we would have hung out at home for a little while longer.  Fast forward, we finally arrive mid-morning.  We had a great time overall!  We went to the zoo, the park, went for a run on the trail, and we played in the back yard.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect – 70’s the whole time.  Elizabeth and I went out to dinner on Friday night by ourselves which was a nice treat.  

Waiting on a delayed flight...

First time in an airplane (that she can remember).  She flew when she was 6 months, 15 months, and 18 months  

Multiple drinks!?  Yes please!

Waiting for our ride to pick us up in Memphis!  

Riding in the very back of the car

William is just shy of 2 (he is 2 weeks younger than Luca) yet he is as large as Lola!  

The best park I have ever been to...huge sand pit with a waterfall.  Lola was in heaven!  She loves building rivers in wet sand.  

Lunch break...

Maxing out the stroller at the Zoo

The water feature at the sand park

Who doesn't love a bounce house!?  

Making their own pizzas

Plane ride home...still too excited to sleep

Exhausted

Still exhausted...

2 and 4 year pictures

I had the girls’ pictures taken late last week.  I wanted to go to the same photographer that we went to right after Luca was born.  We have an 11x14 framed print of the girls from this session on the wall of our TV room and I wanted to put another one under it with a similar format and frame.  Since Luca is getting ready to turn 2 I thought it would be perfect timing… Boy was I wrong.  Luca was not happy from the get-go.  Granted, she has been pretty grouchy lately.  Her molars are coming in, and she entered the ‘terrible 2’s’ several months ago.  “No” and “mine” are her favorite words.  She spends a decent amount of time at home walking around and crying, wanting to be held.  Luca spent the first 30 minutes hiding and crying, while Lola hammed it up for the camera.  Finally, after 45 minutes, Luca started to warm up.  It was about this time that Lola decided she was going to stop cooperating.   After 1.25 hours, we got a ton of pictures of Lola, a couple pictures of Luca not crying, and 2 pictures of both girls together (with Luca not crying).  Needless to say, I was flustered and frustrated.   One of the 2 pics of the girls was just okay, and I like the other much better.  In a perfect world, we would have gotten even better pictures but at this point I will take what I can get.   J   

This is the picture we had taken almost 2 years ago!  

This is the picture I ended up liking the best of the two of them.
Lola's feet crack me up!  

I love the picture of Lola on the right

Moooooo (for several reasons)

Yesterday was day 20 of no dairy… And this morning I gave it up.  The last straw was when I swam on Saturday morning.  I had to stop mid-lap several times because there was so much phlegm (sorry, gross I know) in my throat.  For the past 20 days, I still wake up with my ears full, nose stuffy, and crap in my throat.  It was then that I realized that the congestion, drainage, etc… has nothing to do with dairy.  Ugh.  I am glad on one hand because I missed my greek yogurt and skim milk, yet still frustrated on another.  Not sure what I am going to try next.  The only other thing I can think of is giving up tree nuts which can also cause these symptoms, but I think that will be 1000x harder to give up than dairy.  I might try it for a week.  I would assume that if it’s going to work, I would notice a difference after a few days.  I need to finish up my almond milk first though.  When it comes down to it, my problems could truly be an anatomy issue, like the specialist told me.  I really don’t want to have surgery though!  Or it could be the fact that although I get allergy shots, there is still enough crap in the air and in my house to make me stuffy.  I do live with a cat and dog, and I’m allergic to both! 

My sister-in-law Sara’s heart surgery was on Thursday and it went well!  She got a new cow valve and stem to replace the defective valve she was born with.  This surgery has been on the radar for a long time, but it was finally time.  Apparently the valve and stem looked worse than they thought so it was good she got everything fixed.  It was a really scary time for everyone because it’s such a major surgery.  I felt like I was going to throw up for days, I was so anxious and nervous.  She is going home today and the road to recovery really begins…

We watched the Jayhawks beat North Carolina last night!  Awesome game!  We watched it at my sister-in-law Gina’s house.  The girls played with some other kids while we watched and they were pretty good.  But that is mostly because Gina has a whole closet in the basement filled with toys.   J  

This hat is a jayhawk head, but she insisted on
wearing it backwards 

This is Lola, although it's difficult to tell...   :)  

Went for a 'snow run' yesterday in 5" of snow.
I wore my new Cellar Rat socks
and Yak Trax.  The Yak Trax work best on
packed icy snow, so I ran in the middle
of the road for most of the run.  Even uphill I
didn't slip at all.  It was a really nice peaceful run.
There were not a lot of people out!  Ha.  

'Spaghetti' and meatballs!  Not actual spaghetti, but spaghetti squash was subbed for the noodles.
I made the meatballs with no cheese or breadcrumbs, but instead used carrots and red peppers.  Tasty!  

Day 14 and other things

Day 14 of cutting out dairy…and I still haven’t noticed a difference.  I am actually not starting to mind the almond milk, it’s pretty neutral tasting.  It does offer more calcium than cow’s milk; however, it has a long list of ingredients.  Coconut milk is the same way.   I thought for a brief moment of continuing with the Almond milk even if I continue to not notice a difference, but I think that cow’s milk offers less ‘processed’ ingredients so I will probably switch back in a few weeks if I don’t think its helping to ease my stuffiness and drainage. 

I’ve found a really good clean eating cookie recipe here:  http://www.runningtothekitchen.com/2012/10/chocolate-chunk-paleo-cookies/.  I was very skeptical but you really don’t feel like you are missing out on anything when eating these cookies.  If you total up the calories, they are still ‘high’, meaning just because they are fairly good for you doesn’t mean you can eat 10 of them in one sitting.  The almond meal, which is the main ingredient, is somewhat high in calories, but overall healthy calories. 

Ryan has been coming up with some really good healthy recipes lately.  Getting the kids to eat them is another thing…although he did make some green curry last week and it was way too spicy for the kids so we just cooked their chicken separately.  We do try to get them to try everything we cook though, green curry being the (spicy) exception.  It goes on their plate whether they like it or not.  I figure if things just keep showing up on their plate they will eat them eventually right?  Ha ha…

Lola's dance class...they were trying to put the mats away
and all the kids just wanted to play!

Luca has crazy hair when she wakes up!  

Lola is fearless...

day 10 of no dairy...

Day 10 of cutting out dairy…so far I haven’t noticed a difference in decreased stuffiness or congestion.  I am going to give it another couple of weeks though because I was sick last weekend so that didn't help.  I am really missing my frothed milk with my coffee.  Almond and Coconut milk don’t froth at all! 

I woke up Sunday morning feeling really crappy, but it thought it was because I ate too much the night before (anniversary celebration), stayed up too late, and we lost an hour for daylight savings time.  The kids were with my parents so I laid around and drank my coffee.  I run on Sunday mornings, usually around mid-morning.  I was not feeling good at all, but finally decided to just get my run over with.  What a terrible idea!  It was probably the worst run I have ever had.  I stopped 4 times because I thought I was going to throw up, and I had chills the whole time.  I got home and went and laid down and slept on and off for a few hours.  I finally took my temperature later and I had a fever.  I’m pretty sure I had it the whole day.  Nothing like running 6 miles with a fever.  Not smart!  I still had a fever on Monday, but it broke by Tuesday morning.  That’s when my stomach got really mad at me and I could barely eat anything.  This morning (Thursday) I am finally feeling somewhat back to normal!  I feel like I've gotten sick way more this winter than ever before.  The kids haven’t been sick very much though.  Very frustrating!  

Allergies and more allergies!?

Luca didn’t react to any of the tree nuts or peanuts during her allergy testing.  They want us to get blood work done as well, but I haven’t scheduled anything yet.  I need to call the lab and try to schedule but it is just one more thing to do!  I feel like it was something with the pistachio shells so I will just keep her away from them, which isn’t really a problem most of the time. I am really glad she didn’t test positive for anything, yet I’m even more confused because of the previous reaction.  I have a feeling the blood work is going to come back okay, not sure why just a feeling.  

Ryan has been eating Paleo for 2 months now (no grains, wheat, dairy, pasta, rice, bread).  He has lost a few pounds, but his main goal was to feel better.  I think I previously mentioned some GI issues he was having last year, which went away when he stopped eating bread, pasta, wheat and grains.  His bloating went away when he cut out dairy.  He has always been lactose intolerant but would sneak dairy here and there, but once he cut it out he felt so much better.  I have adopted his eating habits for the most part, but I haven’t cut out dairy.  I don’t have much dairy, only yogurt and some skim milk in my coffee each morning.  But…the other day I was reading about how dairy (specifically cow) can cause stuffiness, congestion, and extra mucous in some people.  This would technically be considered an allergy, different than being lactose intolerant though.  I guess similar, but instead of the gastro issues, it just triggers the nasal passages to swell up.  I am constantly stuffy and while my allergy shots appear to be working, there is a lingering stuffiness each and every day.  I also have a bit of a cold right now, so once my cold is gone I am going to cut out dairy for 30 days and see if I can tell a difference.   I will miss my greek yogurt the most.  I will be subbing with coconut milk, which is what Ryan has been drinking.  Back to the paleo thing though…I have had no problems giving up bread or pasta for some reason.  I thought that would be really difficult but it is proving to be easy for me.  I guess it helps that we don’t eat out very much, and the fact that I already cut out pasta during evening meals because it made me feel gross (aka uncomfortably full) the rest of the night.  I didn’t eat much bread before, just the occasional sandwich.  I am lucky to have a good cafeteria at work that allows me to eat healthy.  I don’t have to think about packing a lunch in the morning before I go to work, which helps a lot. 

So today is day 1 of cutting out dairy.  I just have to be careful that I get enough calcium, so I will be watching that closely.  Wish me luck!  

All about Luca

Luca is about 1.5 months from turning 2 and we are well on our way to her being potty trained.  I would love to have her completely trained by the time she turns 2 but I’m not sure if it’s realistic.  We didn’t initiate this in the first place so we are encouraging her but not being overly annoying about it.  She has been going on the toilet since 18 months and she keeps her diaper dry a lot, even after nap and overnight.  One problem is that she is still in her crib, so she can’t get out and go if she needs to.  She will sometimes wake up before we do and play quietly in her crib (so quietly we can’t hear her on the monitor) and since she can’t get out she has to go in her diaper.  I’m just not sure I’m ready to let her be ‘free’ in the house yet at night, and I would even have to leave her door open since she can’t open a door yet!   But I might have to if she keeps this up...It’s just hard to gauge because Lola wasn’t at this point until she was 2.5. 

Last week Luca had a reaction to Pistachios.  She was trying to open the nuts in the shell, and less than an hour later her hands were swollen up.  She didn’t seem to have a reaction in her throat but it’s difficult to tell…she might have had a little reaction and we just didn’t know it.  I am taking her to my allergy doctor in the morning for tree nut and peanut testing.  It should be an interesting appointment because they have to do the prick test on her back for the 7 tree nuts plus peanuts.  They did say that she can sit up after (adults have to lay on their stomach’s and stay still for 15 minutes) and they will just monitor her.  I am seriously crossing my fingers and hoping that it was just a random isolated incident! 

Not the best picture, but you can kind of see how swollen her hand is.
It was really shiny and red which you can't see very well in the picture.  

Luca is really starting to talk and her (stubborn) personality is starting to show!  She says “no” more than any other word and she wants to do everything herself.  If you try to help her she yells “no” and gets really angry.  But when she can’t do something herself she gets really frustrated and has a meltdown.  She is pretty active and very coordinated…both girls are!  She can walk down the stairs really well, without holding on, which scares me!  We have never had a gate at the top of the stairs, so both girls got really good on the stairs really quickly!  She sleeps with her lovey, ‘Bunny’, which is a little bunny attached to a little blanket.  It is disgusting, even though we wash it once per week!  I think the problem is that we waited too long to wash it initially so it seems to be permanently stained and smelly.  She chews on it just like it is a binky which is why it is so gross.  She leaves it at home when she goes to school and she is really good about it.  She just puts Bunny “night night” on the way out the door!