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I Taught Bootcamp – Yay Me!

bootcampteacherSo I taught Bootcamp on Wednesday. Our teacher was away for the week and she asked me and some of the more experienced campers to be in charge while she was gone and Wednesday was my day. I’d been to a peer-led class the day before so I had some idea what to expect and it was a blast! This isn’t like an aerobics class where I get my leotard and leg warmers on and adjust the mic just right. We have a prescribed workout and we do it. I was just there to demonstrate the exercises and double-check form.

The experience was great. I’m certainly no Robyn (or regular coach who is phenomenal), but I did a good job. And it was a real testament to how hard I’ve worked at Bootcamp. I am not the most senior there (in tenure or age) by a long shot, but I come regularly and I work hard and it was very nice to be recognized for that. I have no designs on coaching Bootcamp full or part time (our coach is mostly a one-woman show anyhow and I’m not leaving her gym anytime soon), but I’d be happy to fill in again.

It made me reflect on the fact that I really am good at quite a few things. I’ve talked about this before, but it seems to be such a problem with adults – we can’t admit when we’re good at something. Ben tells me once a day how awesome he is at something. And he is utterly, wholly, completely convinced. Adults brush off compliments and make self deprecating remarks. I think in part, it’s because with our greater breadth of knowledge, when compared to our kids, we know that there is ALWAYS someone out there better than us. And I think we also fear being found out as a phony.

So I want to, more frequently, take inventory of all the things that I’ve done well lately. From this week:

  • taught a darn fine bootcamp class
  • won my DietBet
  • got my project out of a logjam
  • fixed a coworker’s iPad
  • found a damn good bargain on backpacks and lunchboxes for the kids for next year
  • planned one helluva surprise
  • comforted my baby girl with an earache
  • made some awesome party invites that were a huge hit
  • successfully completed another month of daily Instagrams

Yay me! 🙂

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Kangaroo Poop

kangaroo

When it comes to what happens at school, Ben is a man of few words. We ask questions and we get monosyllabic answers. It’s like he’s already a teenager. Tabby was the same way and I wonder if it’s just because they enjoy it being their own world, away from us. I suppose that’s OK, but I’m curious too.

So I’ve always enjoyed the reports his school sends home. Sometimes they’re merely informative. Sometimes they’re hilarious. Ben’s personality definitely shines through. Recently though, they did away with the paper reports and now send us daily emails via an app called Tadpoles that is specifically for this sort of thing. This is even better because A) no paper to deal with and B) now we get photos.

So the photo we got yesterday was the only indication he’d gotten to see a live kangaroo at school yesterday! When asked about it, his only comment was (with a wry grin), “He pooped in the gym.”

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A Long Strange Trip (but we stayed home)

whiskeyThe past 24 hours or so have been… bizarre. See, Sunday, we had a ton of snow in the Denver area. Nothing like the blizzard of ’03 or the Blizzmageddon of ’07, but there was a good foot on the ground by us and almost 30 inches in some parts of the front range. And, as you might imagine, it messed around a bit with things like air travel.

Matt’s mom, who was scheduled to fly out on Monday had her travel plans go off without a hitch. She had a good time to fly out, a late-morning flight on the nicest day so far this week. Matt’s cousin’s wife on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. She and her brother had been in town for a Masonic ceremony celebrating her father’s achievements and their evening flight on Sunday was cancelled. After much back and forth, they finally were able to book tickets back to Nashville on Tuesday morning. But they were rapidly accruing rental car and hotel bills they hadn’t anticipated, so they reached out to us and we were more than happy to get to see our cousin-in-law and meet her brother.

So Monday we worked a relatively normal day and went home and did the mad-dash to swim lessons. As soon as they were over we went back to our ‘hood and met up with CIL and CBIL for dinner and then headed back to our house. They met the hedgies, we put the kids to bed and we settled in to visit. Much whiskey may or may not have been consumed by the gentlemen folk. We had a wonderful time – they are awesome, funny, interesting people – and I was up WAY past my bedtime.

Shortly after I fell exhausted into bed, a little girl came into our room complaining of earache. She was crying it hurt so bad. So we gave her Motrin and sent her back to bed. She was still in pain though and kept coming back to our room. We finally just let her sleep with us and so I was sandwiched and hot and uncomfortable and whatever. I didn’t really sleep past 3 AM and around 4 AM, I reached over, grabbed my phone and scheduled an appointment on our HMO’s website for Tabby at 10AM and sent emails to work letting them know my plans for the day. I got up with my first alarm (the one I hit snooze on about 3 times) at 4:20. I got dressed, did a little housework and headed to bootcamp. After bootcamp, I came home, screamed “WAKE UP BUTTERCUP!” in my hung-over hubby’s ear (that may not have happened – I’m actually a pretty nice person), and we got the kids fed and Ben off to school.

Since our house cleaners had arrived to scrape 2 weeks worth of foot gunk off our floors, we ran a couple of errands and then it was off to our doc’s for me and Tabby. Her sweet pediatrician determined she was borderline on the ear infection. She could clearly see why it hurt, but it didn’t look bad enough for antibiotics. Since we’re heading out of town this weekend, we took a “just in case” script that we can have filled if things go awry and set off for work. Tabby played nicely in my office while I conducted a meeting and then we grabbed lunch, headed home and NAPPED FOR THREE HOURS. YES!

Normal is just a setting on the washing machine.

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Sizzling Asian Steak Salad

sizzlingsteakI haven’t been great about posting recipes lately. It’s because I’ve been busy, not because I haven’t been cooking. We cook all the time. I think we have some sort of bizarre street cred at Ben’s school because he is always bringing semi-“bizarre” lunches. But I have resolved to continue putting up the recipes that our family enjoys the most for one little reason. Tabby asked me to.

Well she didn’t ask my specifically, but she said something to me a couple of weeks ago about teaching her how to cook and her being about to make food for herself when she leaves our house (she sometimes has strangely long-range planning for an almost-six-year-old). So I resolved to make sure I post the recipes that have caught our fancy and someday, I will make them into a book for the kids.

This recipe has been on our radar for a few months now. It comes to us from one of my favorite food bloggers, Iowa Girl Eats. It is changed VERY little because it is basically perfect as conceived, but I will adjust quantities and some instructions to reflect how we make it.

Sizzling Asian Steak Salad

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the steak marinade:
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1/4 C  low-sodium soy sauce
2 T mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine)
1 heaping T brown sugar
4 cloves garlic
24 oz strip steak, cut into bite-sized pieces

For the salad dressing:
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
1/4 C low-sodium soy sauce
3 T honey
2 T lime juice
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons fresh ginger

For the salad:
1 small red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
12-16 cups baby spinach (or other lettuce)
1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
2 green onions, chopped

Directions:

This is a recipe made for the immersion blender! We stick all the ingredients for the marinade (except the steak, obviously) in a bowl and blend until smooth. It makes things super simple. But if you don’t have an iBlender, you can just grate or mince the garlic. Then you place the steak in a bag or a shallow dish and pour the marinade over it. 30 minutes or up to 2 hrs to marinate, stir halfway through. To make the dressing, you can do the same routine as the marinade. Place all ingredients in a bowl and iBlend or you will need to grate or mince the garlic and ginger and then whisk together or shake in a jar.

Once the steak is done marinating, heat a fry pan to medium high and then add the marinaded steak and onions. Saute for about 3-4 min per side (flank gets tough if you over-cook, so don’t!). Remove from pan and set aside. Combine salad greens, tomatoes and dressing (you will probably need less than 1/2 – just save the rest for next time) and toss until coated. Divide evenly amongst 4 plates, top with steak and green onions and ENJOY!

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The Weekend Thing

weekend2

Matt’s mom was in town this weekend from Nashville. She’s pretty low key so when she’s here we typically do basically what we do on a normal weekend … work around the house, have an outing or two, see my family and get ready for the week.

Saturday was very pretty, particularly early in the day, so we went to the zoo! We are members and so we never feel compelled to see it all which is nice. After the zoo, we grabbed lunch at a new-to-us restaurant, Park & Co. It’s sort of a hipster bar with really tasty food. Ben had chicken fingers (surprise, surprise), Tabby had french toast and the rest of us had some of their burgers and fries. All excellent.

In the evening my folks came over and we had some Mexican Stuffed Shells and Sopapilla Cheesecake.

weekend1Today was super snowy. The Denver area has had a lot of snow – 20 inches in some areas and probably a foot where we are. We had a nice morning at home and made blueberry muffins (above) and then went out for just a short while to the used book store. The kids have found a set of old encyclopedias on animals and they are slowly buying them up one at a time. We had long naps, did lots of cooking and laundry and prepared for our busy week.

Matt’s mom leaves tomorrow, assuming no flight delays. In a funny twist, a cousin of Matt’s is also visiting from Nashville and is stuck in our area until Tuesday and will likely be staying with us tomorrow night. Gotta love Denver weather.

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The Haps

  • mangostickyriceThis marks week 4 of crazy swim lessons for the kids. Getting them there hasn’t been easy and they are EXPENSIVE, but they are paying off. Tabby is swimming like a fish (backstroke, elem backstroke, front crawl) and during the last lesson, Ben didn’t cry once! I’m really hoping we’ve turned a corner with him.
  • Went to Ace yesterday for lunch with coworkers. Their food is awesome and we tried a few new and amazing things, including their take on Mango Sticky Rice (above) which was awwweesssome.
  • And then for dinner, we had this amazing CROCKPOT Thai Green Curry. Matt, Tabby and I loved it. Ben complained that he wasn’t hungry and that his tummy hurt, but ultimately ate quite a bit.
  • We found out today that Ben (seemingly deliberately) peed his pants at school twice yesterday. These were accompanied by assertions that Daddy would have to bring him clothes. This follows closely on the heels of him saying that his ears, stomach, feet, neck and nose hurt in order to try to get a sick pass from school. This transition continues to be a bit difficult and we’re 6 months in! *sigh*
  • Matt’s mom is coming in tomorrow to visit for the weekend. Initially we’d hoped to have Tabby’s party this weekend and share that fun with her, but it couldn’t be scheduled. So we’ll be inventing some other fun and I know the kids are excited to see their grandma.
  • And speaking of Tabby’s party, things are going quite well for the most part. We sent out invites last week and we’re slowly getting some RSVPs in. People seem to be getting into the theme, with one mom noting in her response that her son like his juice shaken, not stirred. We are going to go over to the space this weekend and make some further plans for the games, etc.
  • And speaking of Tabby’s birthday, SHE WILL BE SIX in just a couple of weeks!!!! How is that possible? She’s growing up way too fast.
  • I’ve been quickly making my way through the Irish Country books but I’ve taken a break to enjoy the last of the Inn Boonsboro books. They’re lovely.
  • On the TV, we are just about finished with S3 of Downton. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m hoping that S4 will bring a bit more happiness. But I also got caught up with all of my less-often watched favorites like The Mindy Project, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls and Bunheads last week while Matt was out of town and I was banished to the treadmill.
  • In related news, we have just purchased our third Roku box. If you’re into streaming media content, this is an investment well worth it (they start around $50). It streams quickly and simply from most of the major streaming players (Amazon, Netflix and Pandora) and I think it’s a real contender to take over from satellite and cable. But possibly, we have a problem.
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Winter Fun

winter3A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of visiting my aunt and uncle at their mountain home in the pretty town of Granby, CO. The big feature of Granby, CO is Lake Granby and their house is right on the lake. In the summer we have a wonderful time boating, but in the winter, the lake is frozen solid and covered in snow which makes it perfect for snowmobiling. Continue reading “Winter Fun”

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Things I Love

matt+kids reading

Valentines is almost here and it makes me think about what I love. Love is so much more than sappy cards and candlelight dinners. Love is the little things that go on 24/7. Just a few of the many things I love:

  • waking up with Matt snuggled around me
  • taking care of myself by working out
  • a hot shower
  • an excellent cup of tea
  • the satisfaction of a job well done
  • a good book
  • picking up my babies from school
  • hanging around the kitchen with my family
  • doing homework with the kids
  • watching the kids succeed and excel at new skills
  • a tidy kitchen (really a tidy anything, but I’m most meticulous about the kitchen)
  • a quiet house
  • peeking in on my sleeping kids
  • settling down with Matt to catch up on TV or plan a project or talk
  • a warm bed on a cold night

Happy Valentine’s Day to you and the ones you heart!

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Valentine’s Fire Drill

TabbyValentinesThis morning just after we dropped Ben off, Tabby told me her Valentines needed to be at school today. I was confused. “Today? But Valentine’s Day isn’t until tomorrow!” But in the back of my mind, I remembered reading that on the Valentine’s instruction sheet. We’ve just been so busy, darnit. Ooops!

I contemplated leaving the whole thing until tonight and bringing them tomorrow, but it didn’t seem fair to put an undue burden on her hardworking, amazing teacher – she wants them there early for a reason! I contemplated being tough love mom and telling Tabby that this was her responsibility and she’d just have to do without, but that wasn’t really fair either since she has been busy with swimming all week. Many why does this stuff always happen when I’m playing single mom?? I’ve been trying sooo hard to keep it all together and something had to slip through the cracks, I guess. At least it wasn’t something critical like picking a kid up from school.

We had almost an hour before school started (much less time before I needed to be at work). So we hightailed it home and did a Valentine Fire Drill. Tabby had colored all of her Valentines and cut most of them out. I finished cutting the remaining ones and stuffed them with lollipops as she addressed them, me verbally spelling her classmates’ names for her to speed the process up.

All in all, it went pretty well and pretty fast and I was only about 5 min late for a pretty loosey goosey meeting. But I have a question … when do kids get a sense of urgency??

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The Hedgies go to Kindergarten

hedgiesK1Friday in the midst of running around, getting ready to go on our trip, Tabby’s hedgies made their big debut at Kindergarten. Tabby has, of course, been talking nonstop about them since BEFORE she got them, so the whole class (possibly the whole school) was very very excited for them to visit.

hedgiesk2But before they could visit, Matt had to finish a project … namely a permanent home for the hedgies. The had heretofore been living in a plastic storage tub, modified with little holes to hold their water bottle and heat lamp. But they needed more space and we wanted an environment for them where we can view them while they’re going about their daily business. So Matt and I researched hedgie environments and Matt came up with this. It’s a wood frame with acrylic on the front and bottom and protecting the wood inside, glass on the back (so we can have a heating element back there – acrylic is not compatible) and screens on the top and left and right sides for good airflow. It also opens on the front for easy hedgie retrieval. It is a great looking cage and it is also dog secure since it latches. YAY!

Matt was up late many nights finishing this baby and whereas I usually help at least with finishing, I was inundated with swim lessons and other concerns and he was all on his own for this one. I’d say it definitely merits him Dad of the Year!

Continue reading “The Hedgies go to Kindergarten”