My apologies.

Sorry about the lack of posts last night, but I really didn't have anything too exciting to blog about.  Not that I ever do, but you get to hear about my life regardless.  =)   

I think the highlight of the day's meals was lunch.  We had some pulled pork in the fridge, and I happened to have 2 ancient grains tortillas left.  So I made a pulled pork quesadilla.  Sprayed some PAM on one side of a tortilla, put it in a hot skillet and layered some pork, pepperjack cheese and bbq sauce on top.  Covered it with the other tortilla, sprayed the top of that tortilla and placed the grill press on top.  Flip it and cook a little more, and you have a delicious little treat.  With a side of baked beans.

For supper I used up the rest of the spinach and had another taco salad, WITHOUT the ranch dressing this time.  Go me.

Now on to today.  Nice early morning with Tyler and and a conference call.  Started with a sourdough English muffin with peanut butter and low sugar homemade raspberry jam.  

Caught up on this week's Biggest Loser with my buddy Erica, we ate cookies and watched them workout.  =)  Don't worry, she went for a run in the morning and I made it to the gym this afternoon.

Over the lunch hour I had a much needed deep tissue massage that I had been putting off for awhile now.  I made sure to chug chug chug the water today so I won't be cursing tomorrow.

On my way home from the massage I stopped at our local produce stand and got some of these:

Exciting things to come this weekend!!

Like I said, I did make it to the gym to complete a shoulder workout.  I also did another super quick treadmill workout.

All at incline 0%

7.0    5 min

4.0    1 min

8.0    2 min

4.0    1 min

9.0    45 sec

7.0    30 sec

6.0    30 sec

4.0    1 min 15 sec

3.5    1 min

Like I said, super short.

For supper tonight, I had one pound of extra lean ground beef to use up, so I decided on some meatloaf.  I tweaked a recipe I found in my Taste of Everly cookbook.  

My Favorite Meatloaf

1 lb ground beef

1/2 onion, chopped

2 small green peppers (I used some sweet red peppers too, check out the produce picture), chopped

2 jalapeno peppers, chopped

pinch of minced garlic

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup old fashioned oats

salt and pepper

Topping: 1/2 cup ketchup, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 T mustard

Combine all meatloaf ingredients and mash together well.  Press into loaf pan and spread topping on top.  Cook for 45-60 minutes in 350 degree oven.  

So nice and moist, and full of flavor.  I forgot, I dumped some Cookies seasoning as well.  Lawry's would be a good addition too.  We had some steamed green beans on the side.  

What a good helper.  

Can't believe it's already Friday... big homecoming game here against Decorah.  If it's not too yucky out, we might venture out- depending on the babe. I kind of remember what a big deal homecoming used to be.  Man, that seems like forever ago...

Apple cinnamon oats

I've been waiting for awhile to cook this one up.... today seemed like a nice cool morning to do so.

Thanks to Tyler I was up and at 'em at 5 o'clock.  Fed him while pumping, then got my butt to the gym to do a legs workout.  Got back home around 7, and decided to make some apple cinnamon oats, courtesy of Happyhealthymama.

She makes a good point about too much sugar in the processed packages of instant oats.  This recipe has NO added sugar.  And it's yummy.  Hubby even thought so.

The link will take you to her recipe, I changed mine up just a smidgen.

1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup water
1 cup milk (I used coconut milk)
1 banana, thinly chopped
1 apple
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
2 T chia seeds
1/4 cup golden raisins

In a saucepan over medium heat, combine oats, water, milk and banana.  Stir and let sit a couple minutes.  Chop up apple and place in small bowl with raisins and a little bit of water, then microwave for about 45 seconds to soften.  When oatmeal is bubbling, stir mixture and try to mash up bananas until they blend in with the oats.  Stir in apple and raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and chia seeds.  Continue to cook and stir until oatmeal is the desired consistency.  The longer you cook it, the thicker it will be.

After that good start to the day, I took Tyler to his 6 month check-up.  28 inches long and 18 lbs 8 oz.  Not too shabby.  His rash came back a couple days ago so we had to get cream for that, as well as drops for his ears.  Apparently he has too much ear wax.  Didn't know that was a big problem.  Maybe it's because we play our music and our tv too loud so his body is compensating for it.  Just kidding.

Lunch was not too spectacular because I didn't have a bunch of time to prepare anything, and after two salads yesterday I didn't feel like spinach.  So I make up for it by having no vegetables at all.  Two tiny pieces of leftover brisket, baked beans and sharp cheddar kettle chips.  And I had had such a healthy day up to that point.

After work tonight, I threw a couple frozen chicken breasts in the oven to bake.  After about 45 minutes I poured on some Budweiser hot wing sauce that we got from some friends, then let it bake another 10 or 15 minutes.  Accompanying the chicken was steamed broccoli and wild rice.  Not too shabby.

Since Tyler went to bed, I've been working on charts catching up on some blogs.  Sometimes it makes me jealous, reading about what they got at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods (looking at their pretty pictures is pretty depressing too).  I know I shouldn't complain, but we could try so many new things if we had one nearby.  The downside, I guess, would be that I would spend a ton more money.

Speaking of spending money, this morning on the Today show (always on in the background in the AM), they said they were going to talk to some extreme couponer's who save $1000 a month on groceries.  Do people really spend much more than that on groceries a month?!  That seems like a lot, but I guess if you have a big family...?

Ok no more tangents, time for bed.

Hubby to the rescue

Thanks to my wonderful husband, I found my camera cord.  After I looked what I thought was all over, he suggested checking between the couch sections.  I had checked between the cushions and underneath the couch, but our couch is all individual segments, and it was sandwiched in between two of them.  Don't know how that happened.

Today was a little hectic at first.  Tyler got up twice last night to eat, once at 11:30 and then at 3:30.  I don't know how he was hungry, he went through one and a half containers of food and drank seven ounces of milk before going to bed.  When he woke up, we just let him hang out for awhile, hoping he would go back to sleep.  He did not fall back asleep, and when I went to go get him he was smacking his lips non-stop.  He gulped down 6 ounces and fell back asleep.  Did the same thing at 3:30.  What a hungry man.

Since he didn't fall back asleep until about 4 or 4:30, we were a little tired.  Good thing hubby woke up, at 7:15!  That's way late for us.  Sure miss it being light out so early, that always helped.  Grabbed a black cherry Chobani and one of those not-so-great zucchini bran muffins I made awhile back (took a bag out of the freezer).

Had a pretty busy morning, then came home for another spinach salad.  I decided to leave out the pear this time, because it was a little mushy.  I like crunch.  This salad had spinach, sweet pepper, apple, walnuts, feta cheese, and poppyseed dressing.

Salad with dressing

Then came a busy afternoon and home for supper.  Hubby prepared some turkey taco meat, and we each made a taco salad with spinach.  Yes, two salads in one day.  This one hardly counts though, because I added crushed tortilla chips, cheese and a little dab of ranch dressing along with salsa.  Could have been so much better had I cut up the fresh tomatoes I have or added the black beans that hadn't been drained yet.  Too tired hungry for all of that.

I'm sitting here staring at a huge stack of notes... thinking that's not going to happen tonight.  Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow morning, the little guy goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 6 month checkup.  I'm excited to see how much he's grown.

Such a cutie butt.

Short and Sweet

This will be a short post, because I cannot for the life of me find my USB cord to get the pictures from my camera.  This actually works out well for me, since the pictures weren't too pretty.

I attempted to make some banana brown sugar pancakes for hubby, since they were so good in Vegas.  I didn't really know what I was doing, and they did not work.  They tasted ok, but looked absolutely horrible.  I'll try again someday.

Lunch was just a turkey sandwich.  Boring.  Followed it up with a quick trip to the gym for some work on back and biceps.

I did manage to go through Tyler's clothes.  I cannot believe how fast he goes through them.  There are some things he didn't even ever wear.

Supper was prepared by hubby, hamburgers on the grill.  I had some hint of jalapeno Tostitos and the leftover pineapple.

That's all for now... just pumping and catching up on some DVR.  Hopefully I'll find that cord for tomorrow.

BTW, how annoying is Anna Kournikova on the Biggest Loser?  Right, Erica?!   =)

Gym QT

Today actually ended up being pretty darn productive.  Yippie!!

Saw a patient this morning and worked on some paperwork in the clinic for a couple hours.

Folded tons of laundry and did some dishes.

Played with Tyler and got to see him lift himself into a sitting position all by himself.

Made this awesome salad for lunch:  chopped spinach, chopped apple and pear, chopped sweet red pepper, feta cheese, walnuts and poppyseed dressing.

I like how everything was chopped and the same size, really need to do that more often with the spinach.  You can get more spinach in that way.  Today I read on someone's blog about how she puts the lettuce and spinach in a tupperware container and then uses a pizza cutter to chop it up and puts the rest of the salad ingredients in the tupperware.


I finally made it to the gym a little before 3, and spent some quality time (QT) there.  As I mentioned earlier, I'm starting a new weight training plan.  I hate just going and lifting randomly- I need structure.  I came across this free plan from bodybuilding.com and thought I'd try it out.  I'm not following the diet plan right now, because it's not too practical for someone that is still breastfeeding.

Sidenote- Besides training for the triathlon (keep in mind I didn't train as much as I should have), I haven't really pushed myself, workout-wise, since Tyler was born.  I let the weight come off gradually, and it has.  I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I know it's not good enough.  I have lost tons of muscle tone since the pregnancy.  So even though my weight is within a healthy range, my body fat percentage is 26.7% (just measured it today).  Which technically, is considered within the healthy range for a female my age, but I'm used to being at about 22 or 23%.  I can just tell my muscles are not as strong as they were pre-baby.  That kind of scares me, because the weaker I am, the more prone to injury I am.  In my line of work, I can't afford to get hurt.  Plus the more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is.  So this is what is jump-starting my new weight-training plan.

Today was Day 1, chest and triceps.  I really tried to push myself, so of course I could hardly lift my arms halfway through the workout.  I didn't have much juice left over for the triceps portion, but I finished.

Trying to take it quickly so no one notices I'm a big dork taking a picture of myself

I know the plan doesn't include any cardio at this point, but I'm not following that either.  I whipped out a quick 20 minute interval workout on the treadmill after the weights.  I know there is probably a better way to display this, but I just typed it out for ya.

(first 10 minutes at incline 0)

6.0   1 min

6.5   2 min

7.5   1 min

4.0   2 min

7.5   1 min

6.5   2 min

6.0   1 min

4.0  Incline 2.5%  2 min

       Incline 5.0%  1 min

       Incline 7.5%  1 min

       Incline 10 %  1 min

       Incline 7.5%  30 sec

       Incline 5.0%  30 sec

       Incline 2.5%  2 min

4.0  Incline 0%  1 min

3.5  1 min  

Of course I stretched afterwards, which felt great.  The whole workout took 1 hour 13 minutes.  Let's hope I can lift my kid tomorrow.

Want to hear an embarrassing story?  I was totally exhausted by the end of my workout, and walked out to my car in a brain fog.  I got in my car, and realized... this is not my car.  There was only one other guy in the gym by the time I was done, and he happened to drive the same color SUV as me.  He parked in the place I usually park, and apparently does not lock his door.  I jumped out the car and walked fast to mine, praying that he did not just see what happened.

Now for supper.  I bought some jalapeno hot pepper cheese chicken grillers from Fareway the other day, so hubby grilled those up.

For a side, I cut up a sweet potato and two russet potatoes, threw them in a ziploc and dumped a little olive oil in the bag.  For some flavor, I dumped in some Cookies seasoning mix.  I put them on a foil-lined pan and roasted them at 400 for about 50 minutes.

Holy hotness.  The jalapenos were super hot in the chicken, someone left some seeds in.  My mouth was on fire and my nose was running like crazy.  I didn't realize the Cookies seasoning mix was also quite spicy, and had crushed red pepper and chile powder in it.  All in all, it was still pretty good.

For dessert, I've always wanted to try to grill pineapple.  Pineapples were only $2.99 this week, so I bought one.  I cut all the skin off, and then sliced them into approx 1/2 inch slices.  I threw those in a ziploc bag as well, and added about 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of melted butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon and yes, a sprinkle of cayenne pepper (looking back that was stupid, but I didn't know about the raging inferno of a dinner we would create).  Then I put the bag in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Hubby grilled them up, about 4 minutes on each side.  They were tasty, and I ate way too much.  I suppose you could eat them with some ice cream or yogurt, but I liked them plain.

So that was my day.  Phew.  Tomorrow I'm tackling more laundry and organizing Tyler's clothes.  He's getting so big, he doesn't fit into most of his 6 month stuff anymore.

Hope you're having a good weekend... look at me, sitting on the couch at 9 o'clock on a Saturday night.  Party animal!

All you can eat lessons

Friday went as anticipated.  Super busy in the clinic, tired afterwards.

Tyler did great at daycare, took a couple naps, ate like a champ, and played.  No more "sad" on his report card.  He did get a "sleepy" in the afternoon.  I would get a "sleepy" most days too!

Started my day off with a good ol' Chobani- black cherry style

Lunch was left-over meatballs and sauce, hubby made some whole wheat spaghetti noodles to go with it.

As usual, we were pretty tired after work, so we went out to the country club for their all-you-can-eat fish dinner.  Fried fish of course.

I forgot to take pics, but it wasn't pretty.  Wasn't as bad as the Vegas buffet though.  I think I had three pieces of fish- huge fillets- and plenty of baked beans and mashed potatoes.  I didn't feel uncomfortable afterwards but I was plenty full.  Hubby and I commented on the lack of vegetables (no- cheesy mashed potatoes don't count) at this buffet and most other buffets in Iowa.  How hard would it really be to steam up some broccoli or carrots and throw them on the table?

For some reason, when the words "buffet" or "all-you-can-eat" are involved, I can never just have one plate.  You know what I mean?  I think it's the cheapskate in me, always wanting to get as much as I can for a buck.  I know I should just avoid them period, but it's tough when there's so many in our small little town.  Need to learn that lesson.

source

So now it's Saturday.  I'd really like this to be one of my ambitious Saturdays, so we'll see how that goes. I'm going to be starting my new workout plan today, which I will share with you later.  I'm really hoping to try out a new recipe too, since it looks to be a gloomy day out- which means good day for working in the kitchen.

Already started out with another Chobani- pomegranate!

Back on track

Did something today that I've been meaning to do for a long time now- bought a gym membership.  I usually avoid gyms in the summer because I like to be outside.  Turns out this summer I was inside most of the time anyways, so should have done this earlier.  I have a lifting program that I'll be starting soon, so stay tuned.  Today was just a run on the treadmill and some ab work.

This morning breakfast was just a whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter and raspberry jam.  Most of the morning was spent taking care of Tyler.  He is much better today, still a runny nose but no fever.  He was generally really happy, but the second you put him down, he started crying.  I think between him being sick and us taking care of him, and the weekend at home with Grandma and Grandpa, he is used to being held.  Which isn't a bad thing of course.  He just prefers to cuddle now.  =)

He's a quick little dude, and we've discovered he needs constant supervision when laying on the couch now.  He was hanging out with hubby on the couch, and in the time it took for hubby to simply stand up, Tyler did a quick roll and rolled right off the couch.  Thank goodness there was a big blanket right under him, so it was a cushioned landing.  He was a little scared, but no bumps or bruises.  Let the fun begin.

Oh and here's a good shot of the little guy and his two teeth.  We did a little 6 month photo shoot today since we were gone on the actually day.

Ignore the crazy snowflake blanket background

Lunch was all my hubby's idea.  I didn't protest much though.  He thought it would be a good idea to support a local business, Main Street Market.  On Thursdays they have gigantic pork tenderloins.  Two times the size of the bun.  It came with some veggies and banana cake.  There were also some potato wedges underneath the sandwich, but I didn't eat them.

Check out the sweet rainbow I caught this afternoon.

After working out and hitting the grocery store, we got started with supper.

Look at this grocery bag... Chobani is back in stock at Fareway!!  And broccoli.  And I don't know if you can see them, but aren't my toenails cute?  I love the polish I used for Vegas, lots of purple and blue sparkles.

Anyways, I bought two New York strips to cook up, cast-iron skillet style.  We rub some olive oil on each side and sprinkle each side generously with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Put them in a super hot cast iron skillet and press down.  You want to get a good seal so you can form a good crust.  After a couple minutes, flip them and press down again.  We usually throw them in the oven for a minute or two after getting a crust on each side, then let them sit for awhile.  

I only had 1/3 of the smaller steak.  Accompanying the steak was an old favorite, a baked sweet potato.  Hubby had a regular baked potato. The potatoes were rubbed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt (and poked with a fork couple times over), and put in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour.  I cut mine open, put a little yogurt spread on top and sprinkled with cinnamon.

I threw this picture in so you could see portion size.  Steak was about same size as fist, potato bigger. 

We also had the leftover green beans as another side.

So excited.... season premier of Parks and Recreation tonight!!  Definitely my favorite show.

Tomorrow is (surprise surprise) going to be a crazy day in the office, so look for a post late tomorrow or Saturday morning!

The Help

I didn't really have too much to say last night, meals were nothing special-leftovers, forgot to take pictures of most of them anyways, and I was exhausted from being up the night before and working all day.

On a happy note, Tyler is doing much better.  No fever at all yesterday, but still not acting like his usual happy self.  We kept him with us at work in the morning then took him to daycare in the afternoon.  His first report card that said "sad".  We didn't think any kids ever got that remark!!  No "happy", "playful", or "busy".  Just "sad".  They said he was fine as long as someone was always holding him.  Let's hope he's not sad today.

Since I don't have any good food pictures to talk about, I figured I'd do a quick pitch for the book I read over our Vegas Vacation.  I started and finished The Help, by Kathryn Stockett.  In case you live in a hole in the ground, it is a New York Times bestseller, along with a hugely successful movie.  I haven't seen the movie yet, but I can tell you the book is for sure worth reading.

It follows three women in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights era- the 1960's.  They give you two sides to the story- one is a white socialite while the other two are African American maids.  They set out to write a book about the maids and their experiences working with white families.  It's such a moving story and kind of disturbing actually, to see the way some of the maids were treated.  I know it's all fiction, but it wouldn't surprise me if these things actually happened back then(or similar instances at least).  It's a very heartwarming and thought-provoking novel, so read it!

I usually don't like the movie versions of books that I like, so it'll be interesting when I see this movie, since everyone I've talked to absolutely loved it.  Stay tuned for the movie review.

That's all for now, I'll get some food pics going later today!

Return of TV!

So excited... tonight is the premier of The Biggest Loser AND Glee!  Get those DVR's ready!

On a not so happy note, little Tyler is still not feeling great.  His fever goes up and down, spiked to more than 104 today for a little bit, but at least he's eating more today and sleeping a little bit.  He just kept crying unless you held him.  A tiny little part of me likes it because he usually doesn't like to just sit still and cuddle.  It's awful to see him so uncomfortable though.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow, looking like he'll be coming with us to work.

This morning when I had a chance, I had a bowl of old fashioned oats with a scoop of almond butter and a dollop of homemade raspberry jam.  PB & J oats!  Made the oats with almond milk.

Lunch was a piece of Ezekial bread toasted, with a wedge of garlic and herb laughing cow cheese and a couple slices of cracked pepper turkey.  I added a side of Doritos.  That was our stress relief today- emotional eating.  Of Doritos.  Sorry no pic.

Made up for it tonight with a healthier supper.  We're playing a little game of "clean out the freezer before we go get groceries".  So I defrosted a bag of tilapia and baked it.  First I dredged them in eggs and then coated them with some dry batter that my parents use every year for their fish fry.  Bake them at 400 degrees until they flake.  For a side I used a bag of frozen green beans, steamed them, added some slivered almonds and then drizzled with roasted garlic grapeseed oil.

We make our own tartar sauce, no specific recipe.  Just dump some Light Miracle Whip, dill relish, dill weed and a splash of lemon juice together and stir it up.

Dinner is done, charts are finished, baby is in bed (for now) and Glee is calling!

Sleep? What's that?

Our first day back did not go well.  We should have known something was up with Tyler because he hardly slept all night.  Very fussy and uncomfortable.  Took his temperature around 5 am or so, and it was only 99/100.  Not too bad, so we packed him up and took him to daycare.

Less than 45 minutes later, we get a call asking us to come pick him up because his fever is almost 104!

He was just not himself, very unhappy and not playing.  He was starting to get a rash all over his face, which was probably from the fever.  I tried looking in his ears but he wouldn't let me look enough to see if they were red.  I gave him an adjustment (which normally he doesn't mind but he did not like this one) and then took him in to the doctor.

By the time we got there, his fever was down to 101.  They asked me how much Tylenol or ibuprofen I gave him, and I said none!  (I didn't go into a long speech about the power of chiropractic, saved that one for another day)

The doctor had to clean out his ears to see in them, and said they weren't red or anything.  Did a strep test and that was negative.  Everything checked out ok, so he just said call if it gets worse.

Luckily our schedule at the office wasn't as crazy as we thought it'd be, so I stayed home with him in the morning and hubby stayed with him in the afternoon.  Poor little guy, I hate it when he's sick.  The only good thing is that he lets you cuddle with him more.

So needless to say, we had a pretty sleepless night last night.  I stayed out on the couch with him, probably got about 3-4 hours of sleep combined.  He seems like he's doing better today, but still not eating too much.  Praying I can get a nap in before the afternoon.

Meals were pretty random yesterday since we still haven't gone to the store.

Breakfast was a piece of cinnamon raisin Ezekial bread.

Lunch was a piece of regular Ezekial bread with cracked pepper turkey and a piece of provolone cheese.  I accompanied that with some super healthy baked Cheetos.  Dessert was a chocolate chip brownie Larabar.  Guess I forgot to take that picture.

Supper was going to be spaghetti, but we had a couple whole wheat buns that we needed to use up.  Earlier in the day I was wanting Subway, so I decided to make my own meatball sub- on a whole wheat bun instead.

I defrosted some extra lean ground beef and got to work.

Italian meatballs (courtesy of my Cooking Light cookbook)

1 lb ground beef
1/2 c Italian bread crumbs
1/3 c skim milk
1 egg white
1/4 c parsley (called for fresh but I only had dried)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp minced garlic

Combine ingredients well and form approximately 24 one inch meatballs.  Place them on a broiler pan and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

After they were done I tossed them in some heart healthy spaghetti sauce and heated them on the stovetop for a couple minutes.  Toasted the whole wheat buns, put a couple meatballs and sauce on top, then sprinkled with crushed red pepper, Italian seasoning and some chopped up banana peppers.  Hubby added some provolone cheese to his.

Need to go get some sleep, so that's all for now, try to get another post up tonight.

Las Vegas

I'm pretty beat, so here's my pathetic blog attempt to cover our trip.  It was tons of fun, lots of indulgence.  Unfortunately we didn't hit it big, but on the other hand we didn't lose a ton of money either.  I sometimes forgot to take pictures.  Here are some food and drink highlights:


Pizza from the secret pizza place at the Cosmopolitan

Blueberry pecan pancake from Hash House A Go Go (Hubby's brown sugar banana was better)

I ate about 3/4 of it... even though it was way bigger than my head

Yummy bloody mary on Fremont Street!

Chocolate ice cream with almonds and coconut from Icepan

My favorite: braised shortrib with truffle teriyaki and celery root puree from Blue Ribbon Sushi Bar and Grille

My least favorite: orange chicken and spicy shrimp from Panda Express (a poor decision after too many cocktails)

Harrah's buffet... look, something green!

So yes, lots of indulgence.  I don't want to know how many calories I took in.  At least in Vegas we walked everywhere so I figure we burned off about 1/10 of the calories.

I had so much fun, but always on the back of my mind was our little guy.  I know he was in good hands, but it was hard not to worry about him.  Even in the couple days we were gone he changed.  He had another tooth come in and I swear he's about 5 pounds heavier... just like his mama!

That's all for tonight, sorry about the lack of posts and the shortness of this one, but I am beat and tomorrow is going to be crazy.

Good to be home!

Hey baby let's go to Vegas

Couple hours 'til Vegas!  Yesterday was a crazy day in the clinic, as to be expected.  I know it's important to take some time off now and then, but I still can't help feeling a little guilty taking a Friday off.  I always think of those people that are hurting and need to get in.

Yesterday was not a good day for picture taking.  Or eating for that matter.

Breakfast was a quick Larabar- carrot cake flavor.  After we dropped Tyler off at daycare I did manage to get a piece of whole wheat toast in with some peanut butter.  I hate not starting my day off without any protein.  No pics since I was super rushed.

Our lunch was whatever we could find in the kitchen.  I didn't have enough spinach for a salad, so I improvised and made a little chicken taco.  It started out as a chicken tostada, as hubby made sure to inform me, since I did not fold it.  Not an ordinary taco, took an Artisan tortilla and spread some roasted red pepper hummus on it.  Sprinkled some spinach leaves on the hummus and topped it with a little leftover grilled chicken.  It was too hard to eat as a "tostada", so I folded it up.

Since I didn't put any cheese on it, I validated the pile of baked Cheetos I added to my plate.  =)

Hubby and Tyler- he's wiped after a busy day at daycare

After work we got on the road and set off to meet my parents to drop off Tyler.  We had to eat quick, so we just stopped at a gas station and got Godfather's mini pizzas.  I had the humble pie, which was sausage, onions, and green peppers.  I only had 3 pieces, gave 1 to hubby.  I almost forgot to take a picture, but managed to remember with one piece left.

We met my parents in Webster City and made the exchange.  Thank goodness he slept through the whole thing or I probably would have been bawling.

I really miss the little guy, it's weird waking up without him.  I know he's in pretty good hands though.  If my parents could handle four kids for how many years, I'm pretty sure one little baby will be no problem.  I'm sure he's getting plenty of hugs and kisses.

So... have a couple hours to get some stuff packed up and ready to go to Vegas.  I've heard it's hot during the day and pretty chilly at night, so that means I have to have a variety of stuff.  Have to rethink my clothing selections or see if I can cram any more clothing items in.

Not sure if I'll get any blogging done, because it'll have to be on my phone.  We'll see, not promising anything.

Hope lady luck is on our side!

Roller packer or stacker packer?

Lots of mommy and daddy time for Tyler today.  Tomorrow he goes to daycare then off to Grandma and Grandpa's for the weekend.  

Breakfast today was a "fried" egg (just in a skillet sprayed with PAM) with a toasted whole wheat English muffin.  

This morning while Tyler took a nap, I started packing my Vegas bag.  We're not checking any luggage, so I have to fit most of my stuff in a little carry-on bag.  So the question is, what's the best way to cram as much stuff as possible in a little bag?  Is it better to roll everything up or just stack it?  I decided I could get more in with rolling it, but we'll see how wrinkly my clothes are.  

For lunch we went downtown and ate at F & M's customer appreciation lunch.  Didn't grab a picture, but it was a sausage patty, potato salad, fruit and Blue Bunny ice cream!!  We took Tyler and he had a pretty good time looking at people.

Here's an updated picture of my Snooki tan, probably looks worse to our pale little son.

Supper was pretty late today because I played with Tyler after work.  Trying to get as much time in as possible with him!

Supper was steamed broccoli and some grape tomatoes with a couple chunks of smoked turkey.  Best part was dessert: fresh peaches and raspberries!

One more post before Vegas!