Saturday, May 21, 2011

Molly's Musings


Random thought's pop into my head on a daily basis and I've decided to write them down, investigate them and get the facts.

For example:

Do you know the nutritional difference between Greek and regular yogurt? I know that the Greek yogurt tastes sweeter to me but I don't know a bit of the nutritional difference between the two.

Do you know the difference between cherry and grape tomatoes? I am guessing grape tomatoes are a little bigger and that is the only difference.

These are just two items on my grocery list this week, so it got me to wondering.

If you know the difference, please share. If not, I'll be Googling later today and will share with you my findings!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Chicken Little and my Friday the 13th

Chicken Little. This is a nickname that Chris has for me. I guess I can be a bit of a pessimist at times, although I like to think of myself as a realist. But who can be an optimist ALL the time? Those people can get on my nerves. Anyway, I digress.

The most recent "Chicken Little" incident occurred on Friday the 13th. I woke up and my left eye looked like the eye of an 80 year old great grandma. Seriously. It started the evening before with a bump (like a pimple), under my skin, right below the inside area of my eyebrow. You know the under the skin pimples that hurt? That is exactly what it felt/looked like. Then POOF I wake up on Friday and the entire area between my eyelid and eyebrow is droopy, sagging. I immediately made a mental note that I was heading right to the plastic surgeon if this did not resolve. Then I texted Chris, with a picture.

His response: I'm sure it's just an ingrown hair.
Me: Ingrown hair, my a**. I think I have cancer. I'm going blind!!!!! (Hence, the reason why he calls me Chicken Little).

Fast forward an hour...he met me and the boys at the clinic on base. I had a Dr's appointment to get some moles checked. Why I scheduled this for Friday the 13th, God only knows, but I did. So Chris met me there to hang out with the boys while I got stuck with 4 lidocaine needles. Fun times.

When he walked up to us, I said: Look at my eye.
Chris: Whoa. You are right, that does look bad.
Me: I know. The sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!

I brought it up with the Dr. who said it is probably just a bacterial infection and gave me some antibiotics. Could be a case of cellulitis. And I thought cellulite only hung out on the backside. Shows how much I know. BUT the good news is that my eye is getting better. I have not even started the antibiotics yet but it is already improving. Which is a relief. The Dr said to come in immediately if there is pain in my eye. So far, no pain. Just the pain of looking at it in the mirror. Bizarre, so bizarre. So I have a droopy great grandma eye and 4 bandaids covering up scars from 4 removed moles.

Fingers crossed those removed moles are benign! And more fingers crossed that I'll wake up in the morning looking like 32 year old Molly and not an 80 year old great grandma (in one eye)!

Our recent adventures in pictures

 Sitting on a blanket in the backyard. Our backyard out here is one of our absolute favorite parts of this house. The shade is perfect and it is the perfect size. We are out there every afternoon.
 At United Gymnastics Academy. Busy, busy, busy. This child is: ON. THE. GO!!!
 Being silly!
 Walking on the balance beam. He was so proud of himself.
 All eyes on Luke and his chunky legs! Michael's were exactly like this at his age! We call Luke our "20 pound sack of potatoes." But this week he has just started sitting up on his own, which makes life a little easier now that the sack of potatoes can hold himself upright.
 What's going on over there? Probably another fun thing Michael is showing me!
 At Mother's Day brunch. I love this picture of Luke. He looks so big though!
Michael and his "cool" sunglasses. This child never stops making us laugh!

The Perfect Mother's Day weekend





My Boys were extra sweet on Mother's Day weekend. I did not just get 1 day to celebrate, I got 2! On Saturday, we went Fresno and I got to go shopping! To MY stores! And MY pick for dinner! We went to Ann Taylor Loft and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Everyone was well behaved (mostly) and we made the drive with only minimal fussing in the car from Luke. As my devout readers know, Luke hates riding in the car and usually just fusses and cries the whole time. He did better on Saturday, but maybe we just timed it up better too.  You know (feedings, poops, pees, burps, naps).

Before our adventure to Fresno, I was nursing Luke in my super comfy rocking chair and Michael walks in with a card and behind him Daddy is carrying some beautiful flowers. Flowers and a gift card to get a massage. Yippee! Which means another "me" day is in my future! So thoughtful and sweet. Michael couldn't just hand me the card, he had to open it for me. I loved it.

On Sunday, we went to brunch at one of our favorite brunch places in town: Irwin Street Inn. The food was yummy and Michael was entranced by the singer that was doing cover songs and walking around playing his saxophone. We all got to enjoy a nice meal outside with nice music. Naps were in order after that meal! Then off to the circus! Yes, that's right! We went to the circus on Sunday afternoon!

It was a really fun time. It was certainly not Barnum and Bailey's big top, but it WAS the perfect size for our kids. Luke was mesmerized for the first 30 minutes, until he fell asleep in my arms. Michael was completely entranced. I don't think he even blinked once during the whole show. It was a perfect Mother's Day weekend.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

I've decided...

That the no sugar diet is no fun. I made it to day 10 and I'm done. Technically, I did not make it. I had a Diet Coke yesterday afternoon (day 9) to try to garner a little more energy to make it through the afternoon with my 2 monkeys. But it was an interesting, self-imposed experiment. My life is much more fun with sugar (in moderation) in it!

Here is a picture of Michael at Easter brunch. Happy to have had some sugar too!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Groupon



I've been receiving Groupon e-mail's for well over a year now. 99.9% of them I just move right into the e-mail trash can. I'm not interested in cardio-kickboxing for $15 a class or eye brow threading. What catches my eye are the events. Groupon is great if you are new to an area, which we are every 3 years. I have found a couple of things to do with Michael and as a family through these daily e-mails.

For example:
Bounce U
Our Playroom
Sequoia Foodie Fest

Today, I finally made my first purchase through Groupon. The way Groupon (typically) works, is that once the daily deal is announced, you only have about 24 hours to cash in on the deal. So I just went online and ordered the tickets to the Sequoia Foodie Fest. The tickets would have cost us $20 at the door, I just paid $10 ahead of time.

So, we are heading to the Sequoia Foodie Fest in two weeks. I'm actually pretty excited about it because there are not many festivals in this area. There is also going to be a kids area that should be fun for Michael. I'm expecting the food to be pretty fabulous too. The central valley of California grows some of the best produce in the the nation, so I have high expectations for some fabulous food finds!

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Sunday, May 1, 2011

Day 7 NO-Sugar!



I'm doing great! 7 days so far and no sugar. I feel great! Although the temptation is still there in the early afternoon! I have been drinking green tea to avoid eating any sweets. One addiction is traded for another. I wonder if anyone can actually say they have zero addictions. We all have at least one, right? Caffeine? Sugar? Sodas? Working out?

I will provide Chris's update to the no sugar diet: every day has become day #1 again. He can't pass up the Diet Coke, Coke Zero's, or the frozen fruit pops. I think he looks fabulous anyway. I was just trying to get him to try the experiment with me. No such luck, I guess.

The more I make sugar the enemy, the more food label reading I have been doing. As a snack the other day, I had an apple with peanut butter. I thought, PB is a good source of protein, I wonder how much sugar is in there. 3g. More than I thought there would be, for sure. So I started looking at more labels. Milk 12g! Wow!  So I Googled it. How many grams of sugar equal how many tablespoons of sugar. 14g=1tbsp. So (approximately) in every cup of milk you drink, there is 1 tbsp of sugar. Never knew.

Technically, I have not been able to eliminate sugar completely from my diet. I WON'T give up milk. I am not a fan of the almond or soy milk products. There is no substitute for good, cold, fresh milk. But, for all intents and purposes, I have given up sugar in the "sugary/sweets" form. Only 3 more days to go. Who knows, I may keep on going. I did get on the scale on day 5 and I had lost 1/2 lb. Which I think is a lot considering I am at my normal weight. Kinda crazy. But I feel good and have more energy. Maybe the energy is coming from getting a tad more sleep at night though. I did go to bed last night at 8 pm. I'm a real Saturday night party animal :)

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