Sunday, January 31, 2010

ikea cinnamon rolls

did you know that if you eat half of one ikea cinnamon roll and hold the glaze it's only 200 calories? similarly, if you eat two whole ones with the glaze the calorie count hovers around 500 (uh, I mean 1,000...the grammy's distracted me from my math skills)....yeesh! most people get a tooth-ache just looking at them but me and my two cherubs think they're deeeelicious!

and we think ikea is a fun place to hang out...

maya insists on pulling her shirt over her head like this every morning. those neck holes are gonna give here soon...








Friday, January 29, 2010

*Play 60

OM started their soccer and munchkin sport classes today. My dear husband, their proud father, took an extra long lunch break so he could check out first day. It was so great. They both did awesome and had fun which is all we care about.

Getting in some kicks with dad before class:

He lost track of the ball and just kept on dancing:

They worked on using both feet to knock down and pull up the cones:

Maya's class is still parent-participation so we did everything together. This was pac-man where we had to stay on the lines but Maya wasn't thrilled with the prospect of one of the coaches "gobbling" her...she got freaked whenever they got near her.

This was red light-green light. They just called the red light but Maya kept bookin':

Ball squats:

As usual, the coaches @ Conestoga Rec. Center are awesome and adjust to every kids personality and temperament and so, it's fun for everyone. Yay! 

*That's what Woody calls it (play 60) when he takes OM to do anything active...ahhhh, my NFL-loving man:)

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

iMix me

Alright...serious crickets chirping over here regarding your running i-mixes. Maybe you're all shy and prefer I go first. OK, so here's the latest:


(iTunes only allows songs from their collection so actually the first track is Sugar on my Tongue by Talking Heads and they also omitted (track 10) Remote Control by the Beastie Boys and (track 12) Need Your Love by Little Willie John...why they don't sell those awesome songs is beyond me)

And here's some motivation: My dad (♥) sent me this little cartoon today (tee hee).

Seriously, get your booty movin' and let me know the tunes you're using to do so:)

Oooooo, and if you need to carbo-load before your next event (this is ours), make this!

Monday, January 25, 2010

It's a Monday, ugh!


It started off pretty good. No rain, the sun peeking out and overall sibling harmony. But soon the sibling harmony was replaced with sibling discord, the sun bailed, and then

Maya pee'd on the couch:



So, I got that cleaned up as best as possible and moved on to vacuuming. As soon as I got to our bedroom I accidentally sucked up the drawstring to a pair of running shorts. So the vacuum got very loud and cranky which scared Maya so she started crying. Then I turned it over to get the drawstring out and was met with this awful sight:


So, twenty minutes later I finally got it all out:


Then Maya found my lip gloss (again):


Ugh! So, the plan to quickly clean the house and then hit the gym and run some errands was abandoned.

It's raining now but I think the drama is over. Maya's sleeping, I'm going to do my Tracy workout at home and Owen is creating some (more) masterpieces.

Oh, and I worked on this today:


We've been having some trouble getting out the door on school mornings so I decided to try and put a little chart together. I was inspired my friend Debi who has something like this for her kiddos. OM loved posing for the shots so hopefully tomorrow morning @ 6:30 a.m. they'll love actually doing it:)



Thursday, January 21, 2010

Be The Match!

Here are a few photos I took from my little perch on a hill at the 'ole workplace. This is how PDX looks on a sunshiny day:


That's Mt. Hood back there:

And that's the tram:

And here's what I do:

Hip, happenin' and generous pregnant ladies that want to donate their baby's umbilical cord blood enroll in our program (I enroll them). Next they have their baby and the cord blood is collected (doctors and nurses do that part). Then it's shipped up to Seattle to the Puget Sound Blood Center to be processed and stored (I do that, the shipping part).

And here's why I'm telling you:

If you're a pregnant reader I urge you to donate the cord blood. If cord blood donation is out (you have an XY chromosomal pair, you're over-the-hill, under-the-hill or otherwise not inclined to impregnate) than I urge you to join the Be The Match registry.

I'm going to help out at a Bone Marrow Drive on Saturday for a little guy that desperately needs to find a match so he can get a transplant to cure his leukemia. And on a super bummer note, there are a lot of kids that need to find matches. Adults too.

To help, all you have to do is have a Q-tip swab in the cheek and you're done. Your tissues will be typed and if you're a match for someone they (The National Marrow Donor Program) will get in touch with you. It's kind of a lot to think about, but think about it.

This is a sweet (short) story written by a 12-year-old patient of Dr. N, our medical director. She was treated with the stem cells from a cord blood donor (all the way from Spain!).

And, one last story for you NASCAR-lovers (ahem, Dad:).

Sunday, January 17, 2010

food and fitney™


Fitney isn't my term. My friend Bree coined it and I like it:) She also brought this (↑) crazy woman into my life (more on her in a minute).

So, I'm not a big resolution person but I do like to (re)evaluate what my values and priorities are from time to time and a new year is generally a good time. I was hanging out with my dearest friend recently and we were discussing how buying, cooking and eating healthy, tasty food and getting exercise were our top two priorities/values, after the family of course.

So, the kids snack cupboard got an overhaul (if there were more than 10-15 ingredients and if any of the ingredients were not recognizable or pronounceable they got tossed [thanks for the pointers Michael Pollan]). Poor Maya could not fathom at all how bright pink fruit chews shaped like princesses could possibly be bad:( Luckily she likes real fruit and I'm also willing to buy the fruit leathers from TJ's. And so vegetables dominate the dinner table (for the hubby and I) and real butter is back on the menu (even my organic, vegan "buttery spread" had 15+ ingredients, so au revoir).

Regarding fitness: owen and maya are my gym buddies now and hang out in the kid room while I run. AND, I got the Tracy Anderson video which Woody and I do together:) I beg for mercy every time we get into the "piking series" and typically berate her for being crazy. She is. She's crazy to ask us to do such things and worst of all she makes it looks so easy while I'm writhing in pain. But it does have something going for it...it works! I already feel so much stronger in my abs and I can do a lot more since the first time, so we'll keep chugging along.

Oh, and for a bad fitness story: I was running last week, silently cursing 24-hour fitness for being so cheap and not turning on the AC, when I heard a very loud thud and saw someone fall out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and a girl I had noticed earlier (for running very fast and wearing the same Hood to Coast shirt that I had on) was sitting on the edge of the treadmill, staring blankely, not looking good at all. So I went over to her and asked if she was okay, she said no and I could tell she was still seeing spots. She said she got dizzy and fell so I got her some water and then two (male) employees came over to check on her. One guy asked her if she hit her head and as she was trying to form a sentence I started to explain what I saw.

He then looked at me and asked if I was her mom!!!!
She was a super cute girl but she was at least 18 years-old!

'Uh, ya beef-head, me and my daughter like to wear matching shirts to workout and then run 5 treadmills apart from each other.'

Ugh, totally ruined my day. And, they seemed more concerned about their liability (I told them it was too hot in there) than the girl. Lame.

But, I'm motivated. And I'll be even more motivated if you lovely readers will share your iMixes with me. Do you know you can do this? I just learned how (from her) and I'm so excited. I figured there had to be a way to do it and so there is. The first iMix

I made for ginger h. (b/c of this☺) but subsequent ones will be running mixes.

So, what gets you movin'?
Do share!

My brother brought Owen this super great advent calendar which turned in to this great scene that O spends a lot of time playing with.


Here they are in their Christmas outfits from Grandma and Grandpa May:)




Hey Owen, let's call little mermaid and see what she's doing:

I got the phone:

Hey little mermaid, how are you? Oh, the sea witch is trying to get you? OK, we'll be right there to help you!


So, to recap: because food and fitney are the priorities (and balance and family), blogging and sewing aren't happening as much; but, I'm hoping to mix them in more. Right now I need to go focus on getting the Chargers a win...go Bolts!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

week in review


Every year for Christmas my especially lovely sister-in-law C'Sue gets OM organic, all-cotton, kinda-matchy hanna anderson jammies. They love them, I love them, we all love them:) This is this year's version: unicorns for Maya and dinosaurs/dragons for Owen.

This is what Maya got for Christmas: a doll house! Yay! I've looked at every possible version and style of doll house and settled on this one and am so happy. They love it and I love it too. (It's a love-fest around here) Since we were in Florida for a lot of the month we never got around to getting dolls or furniture so lately it's inhabited by dragons, knights, queens, kings, and random Playmobile people.

They also got a keyboard. They're both very interested in playing so hopefully lessons will be a part of their future.



We made them this little kitchen for Christmas last year (my friend Elise blogged about it:) out of a random cabinet in the garage. But I always felt it was missing a microwave. So, Grandma Ginger got them a little microwave and teacup set. Maya serves us tea everyday, and yes, we love it!



Owen's been quite the artist lately. We're running out of space to hang everything up...

They also got matching tie dyes this year:

Oh, and here's the week in review part:
- early in the week I found out that both Owen and Maya's preschool teachers will be going to Reggio Emilia, Italy this spring to study the schools/education philosophy for a week! While that is totally awesome on it's own, it also means that they will be offering babysitting services to raise money for their trip!! I would never dare ask them to bbs after everyday, all day with preschoolers so this is a dream come true. Plus it will be nice to support this cool opportunity for them.

-I had to give a presentation with my supervisor and coworker to the OHSU OB/GYN grand rounds Friday. UGH! Public speaking! To Doctors! In front of my supervisor! Crap, I was freaking out. It's not my thing. At all. So, I'm sitting there Friday morning, in this auditorium, filled with smart people staring at me. About 20 seconds before I was about to start my part, my inside voice started screaming at me to get the heck out of there:

RUN, GET OUT OF HERE, GO!

Sweet, a panic attack.

Next thing I hear is my supervisor introducing Lauren and me (as the princesses of the program...awwww:) and I find myself walking up to the podium. And then the most amazing thing happened. I was fine. I was talking like a normal person, slow and controlled and was making eye contact and had zero fear. It was like a huge public speaking chill zone bubble surrounded me and I was completely fine. Then Lauren did her part and I still had one more section to do and I sat there that time totally relaxed. I was hoping I wouldn't leave the presentation cringing every time I thought back on it but I was  not expecting to feel good about it, even great about it.  Phew!

2010 is off to a good start!

- there are more week in review items but this got long so I'll work them into future posts. Speaking of which, I'm gonna try and start blogging more again. And, I've been doing a lot of sewing so photos of that are coming up. I LOVE sewing.
Gotta end on a love note:)