The Train is Rolling Ever Closer to the Station

Hey Party People!  How are you?

If you are one of the faithful who still stops by to see what's going on here, I truly love you!  Thanks for your patience as I've settled into motherhood.

Speaking of that, things are feeling like "the new normal" here, and for that, I'm so grateful!  The first two and a half months home were really tough in terms of exhaustion. Going from zero to two kids was a huge adjustment, and I know the kids were going through adjustments of their own, as well.  I have to say, though, that we all seem to have adjusted quite well to being a new family of four, and we love each other so much!  Of course, we're brimming over with love for our sons, but it is truly sublime to have Jeremy run up to me and throw his arms around me just because!

On a completely different note, let's talk about fitness and nutrition. Eight years ago, when my stepdad was dealing with cancer, he and I (and my Mom, too) all committed to doing a vegan diet together. The idea was that eating vegan helps the body to fight the cancer. Mom and I did it in solidarity with him. In the year-ish that I ate that way (with some cheating here and there), I lost about 20 pounds and two dress sizes. I felt great and looked great, too.  I was also living in Spain for much of that time, so all of the walking around that I was doing didn't hurt things, since I didn't have a car, and the European lifestyle is largely a pedestrian one.

All that to say, I have long felt that the vegan diet is something I'd like to get back to. It's like seeing a train rolling into the station, but the light on the train is still a looooooong way away. Well, the train is getting ever closer, I think I'm on the cusp of making a big lifestyle change.  So this blog's gonna be cranking back into gear soon, because I need a place to document what I'll be doing, how I'm feeling, and I'll need some measure of accountability, as well.

Since adopting my boys, my nutrition and exercise has kind of been kaputs-ville.  So I went to Target yesterday, and I invested in some new workout duds. Sometimes I think it helps if you feel good in what you're wearing to the gym. I also just needed some new stuff...I was down to two workout outfits for winter.

I'm not sure how to wrap up this rambling post, so with that I'll bid you adieu and head down to breakfast and then off to the gym!

Messina Hof: A Texas Vineyard and Winery

Who knew that in Bryan, TX there was a thriving winery? That's right, y'all--a little bit of Napa right here in the Lone Star State!

The parents of a good friend arranged a private wine tasting and tour for a group of us their friends. It was fun to see the vineyard, which still managed to be beautiful in its fruitless state.

The tasting was fun, mostly because it was served with some delicious cheeses. You may remember that as much as I want to appreciate and (dare I say it?) like wine, I just always seem to well, not like it. I always hope that a wine tasting will change my mind, or at the very least, introduce me to a wine that I'll fall in love with.

In truth, the list of wines I like is very short:

Lambrusco (My Spanish friends turned me onto this bubbly blush!)

White Zinfandel (My mother tells me that this shouldn't even be considered wine.)

Riesling (A nice, sweet white.)

Not a red wine in the bunch, but at least, if I'm out at a nice restaurant and I'm in the mood to have a glass of wine, I know of three I can order that I'll like. That is, if I don't just go with a Diet Coke. :)

Reunited and it Feels so Goo-ood!

I didn't really intend to be posting so sparsely in recent days. My only real excuse is that life got in the way, and to be honest, that's a good thing. I worry a little bit about myself sometimes that I spend so time on the internet that I might be missing out on "real life".

Well, lately, there has been so much real life going on!  In late July, Brian and I took a trip out to California for a friend's wedding. We thought that as long as we were going to be back in LA, we might as well make it a vacation!  It was so nice being back in a temperate climate.

As soon as we pulled away from the airport in our rental car, we drove straight to the beach!  We splashed and body surfed at Laguna Beach, and the next day we rented boogie boards and played in the water at Sunset Beach (I love that beach!).

Normally, I would be judging myself for looking a little heavier than I'd like to be in the above photo, but not tonight!  Brian and I just got home from seeing the wonderful movie Julie and Julia. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. Meryl Streep is flawless as Julia Child. The food in the movie was awesome and it looked so delicious that my mouth is watering just thinking about it!  What I loved about the portrayal of Julia Child in the film is that she was a statuesque woman who absolutely loved food!  While I am no culinary genius, I do appreciate good food.  I have also found that as lovely as a slender figure looks on a woman, I find a full-figured, statuesque woman to be a lovelier physical ideal.  So to heck with self-loathing!  Today, I am embracing my build and loving myself as I am.

In the spirit of the love of delicious food, we made a stop at the Crystal Cove Shake Shack, an Orange County roadside institution, known for its incredible milkshakes. I ordered a shake locals call the "monkey flip": a vanilla shake with chocolate, peanut butter, dates and banana. All I can say is, "Yum."

The beach bum in the car with me ain't too shabby either!

More on our vacation to come soon!

Celebrating TWO!

Thanks to all of you who left such sweet comments for us on our anniversary. I had to put a couple photos of the lovely roses I was greeted with when I walked into our kitchen on Tuesday morning!

We are planning to spend the weekend up in my hometown where we got married.  Of course, I love an excuse to "drag out" celebrating anything (birthdays, anniversaries etc.)!  We're going to stay at the hotel where we had our wedding reception, and we're also going to take a cooking class.  The class is called "Date Night in Rio de Janeiro", and all the recipes we'll be making are Brazilian!  Then we get to sit down and eat the delicious meal we cook!

Happy 4th of July weekend to all!

Day 6-Zaragoza: Nothing brings friends together like a delicious paella cookout!

Oct. 11-

We were privileged to have one of our Spanish friends from the region of Valencia cook us a "Paella Valenciana". If you have never had the chance to eat paella, I highly recommend going to a Spanish restaurant straight away and crossing it off your list of "to dos in this life". There are different varieties of paella. The one constant is saffron rice with veggies. Then you can have whatever type of meat you prefer--paella often has seafood in it, but since my tummy reacts badly to seafood, ours had chicken and rabbit. That's right people, I ate rabbit!  Sorry to sound cliche, but it tasted like chicken.  

Part of what made this trip back to Spain so different was finding my group of friends (myself included) in new stages of life. When I lived there, the majority of us were single. Now, most of us are married, and many have kids. Our paella lunch had so many kids, there was even a kids' table (notice the princess and the ballerina seated at the head of the table).

There was a grown-up table too.  :) 

It was a lovely afternoon with friends. That evening, we went over to my former boss, Toti's house.  He and his wife Paloma are wonderful and warm people, and it was great to see them. Toti is an artistic kindred spirit to me. He is always so encouraging to me in my artistic endeavors, and he is an incredibly talented painter and poet himself. 

Thirty-Four

Today is my 34th birthday.  Since I have rehearsal tonight for my play, Hubs took me out for an early birthday dinner a few nights ago at one of our favorite restaurants, The Melting Pot.

The Melting Pot is a special place for us because we had our third date there, and it was kind of a a defining time in the early days of our relationship. We both knew during that dinner that we were diggin' each other. 

If you are ever looking for a place to go for a leisurely dinner, I can't recommend this place enough! Our favorite thing about it (besides the fact that the food is divine) is that the dinner is four courses long, so you have plenty of time to talk. No rushing, which I love!

Many thanks to Alice, who gave Hubs a gift card to The Melting Pot over a year ago! We had a lovely evening!

"Oh, the food there is GREAT!"

This is my first time to come to this retreat center, but Hubs has been here once before.  When I told him that we would be coming here for our retreat, he mentioned several times how good the food would be. In fact, he mentioned it so many times that it became a running joke.

Now that I have had breakfast here, I understand what all the fuss was about. If this retreat is about opening my heart to God, breakfast was a completely religious experience:

-Cheese stuffed crepes drizzled with strawberries and strawberry sauce.

-Fresh fruit—pineapple, banana, and pear

-A ginormous cup of freshly brewed coffee with heavy whipping cream and splenda (Let’s just be honest and call that dessert.)

It is a gloriously sunny and clear day.  I’m off to enjoy some time in the great outdoors (with sunscreen on, of course!).

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Afternoon Update:

Have mercy!  I just had lunch, and it was another spiritual experience. The food at this place is divinely inspired. Today’s lunch:

-Beef Stroganoff

-Gingered Carrots

-Granny Smith Apple Cobbler with whipped cream

Mrs. G, if the chefs at The Women’s Colony are in need of recipes, they need look no further than this dear little retreat house snuggled cozily on a hill in Santa Barbara!

"I" is for Ice Cream

Yesterday, I told Hubs that I was having a major craving for ice cream--chocolate chip cookie dough...mmmm. Then Jelly Jules went and wrote a post about ice cream, and that pretty much sealed the deal for me. A few hours after lunch, I announced that the train to Baskin Robbins would be leaving shortly if anyone wanted to join me. No answer from Hubs, which I assumed meant "no thanks" in manguage (the international language of males). However, when I said "good-bye", he asked where I was going. Come to find out, "Where are you going?" is manguage for "I want to come, too!"

So, Hubs and I had a mid-afternoon date to Baskies! Yea!  We each had two scoops! I had one scoop of Baseball Nut and one of Pralines'n Cream. He had one scoop of Peanut Butter'n Chocolate and one of Makin' Cookies.

The result?  

Sweet tooth: Utterly Satisified!

Nanners and Oatmeal

This morning, Hubs made me oatmeal with ground up flax seed in it. YUM! Only problem was, we were fresh out of brown sugar, and Starshine doesn't do unsweetend oatmeal. What to do? I savagely scoped out the kitchen for some sweet salvation, and gloria in excelsis!...I spotted a banana. I mashed it up as if I were making baby food, and mixed it into my oatmeal, added a splash of vanilla organic light soymilk, and MMM-MMMMMMMMMMM! It was delicious! Not too sweet, but just enough to keep me feeling healthy and my sweet tooth satisfied.

Now, scroll down to yesterday's post to see pics of my Thanksgiving in Virginia! (I'm feeling a little bossy today--don't mind me!)