One summer day

Today was a pretty good day. 

We had an appointment with the doctor for Fred's well baby 18 visit. And he is healthy and still growing but thankfully not as fast as before. I am not sure if the new office takes more or less accurate measurements but his clothes are pointing to the fact that he isn't growing as quickly. 

We ate lunch and watched FROZEN. I think I like movie as much if not more than the kids. However, we have only seen it 4 times so I still might get sick of it.  

Now we are doing one of the many shaving cream inspired Pinterest has. 

Food dye and dollar store shaving cream.   Originally, I thought I would be the one to mix the colors but thought the kids would  like the experience and texture of doing it themselves. 

And they did like it. 

I even got in on the action. 

The kids are now playing in the wading pool.  And I am glad it is summer. 

Some recent clothes

Some recent things I have been wearing

A Recipe

Umm..  Yeah.  I have been doing stuff.  And uh... it's been nice?  And the weather is great (mostly) and I've started to meet people.  And the whole homeschooling thing is not my bag and if I ever really thought about doing it with Oliver, this Spring has shown me that I am not the best parent teacher.

At any rate, here is a recipe.

Saucepan Brownies*.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 cup sugar
2 eggs slightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F

Melt butter and chocolate together
Add sugar.  Let cool completely
Add the eggs, vanilla, flour, and nuts.  Mix together until there are no lumps

Pour into a greased pan either (8x8 or 9x9)
Bake for 25-30 min.


*  I am sure that this recipe is already floating around the internet.  However, it is the recipe that my mom got from my grandmother, who probably got it off a box (or something).  And this is the recipe that tastes like home.  Just like I only make the pancake recipe from the Joy of Cooking 1972 edition.

Check In

There are some really positive things going in my life right now:

Phil is potty trained.  And boy was that HARD!  It was months of false starts and me thinking he was ready when he really wasn't.  And then in the past month: BOOM.  Potty trained AND (mostly) night trained.  It is awesome.  I am sure that as soon as I hit publish, he'll regress.  But I doubt it, because it has been almost a month and he's pretty good.

I've lost 10 lbs since moving out here.  If I had realized what my daily Coke and weekly fast food habit has doing to my waist line, I would have stopped long ago.  And would never have gained the weight.  I'm hoping that my continued success at limiting sugar will last for a long time and with some excerise I'll be a weight I haven't seen since college.  I doubt I'll ever be high school skinny again, but I'll accept junior year skinny.  And healthier too, because I'll be able to run a 5k without stopping.

Generally, I feel really good about my life.  Except sometimes, when it gets overwhelming.

Since this a blog:  I leave the bad things to:

I am lonely.  I miss my family and friends, I miss dropping the kids off at school, and I miss that my kids used to get a lot more interaction with other people.

Just once

Just once, I'd like to leave the house wearing my bra correctly. Perhaps when I stop breast feeding.

Seattle Bucket List

Believe it or not, I actually have some "fashion" posts coming up, but right now I want to talk about Bucket Lists.  Normally, I think that Bucket lists are kinda lame.  But since we moved to Seattle and I bought a travel guide for Seattle, I've been thinking that maybe creating one would be interesting.  

This list is not complete.

Space Needle (Competed Jan 4, 2014)

Aquarium (Completed Dec   28, 2013)

Pike Market (Completed Aug 2014)

Woodland Park Zoo (Completed July 2015)

Watch Salmon run (Completed April 2014)

Go Whale Watching

Alki Beach

Discovery Park  (Completed Feb 22, 2014)

Gas Works Park (Completed July 2015)

Seaward Park

EMP  (Completed September 2015)

Botanical Gardens (there are two.  One is in Seattle and one is in Bellevue)

Seattle Art Museum

Frye Museum

Science Center (Completed June 2015)

Children's Museum

Olympic Art Garden

Native American  museum

Asian Art Museum

Pioneer Square gallery

A show at one of the early venues Nirvana played at

Kurt Cobain pilgrimage

Visit Jimi Hendrix's grave

Eat Geoduck

Visit the first Starbucks. ( Completed July 2014)

Major sporting event

Wander around Fremont and find: the troll, Lenin, the rocket, and other street art.

Visit Mt. Rainer, the Olympic Mountains, and the North Cascades.  (not in the same trip though).

There are some things I'd like to add: like find the good restaurant, the main road race for the city and participate, and some of the other pop culture stuff, find a really awesome coffee place, and shop the more interesting boutiques.  These ones are more nebulous but when I figure out what the are I'd like to do them.   

On a happier note

On a somewhat happier note:  Back in November, I wrote that I wanted to stop drinking soda.  And generally I have.  As a result, I have lost almost 10 pounds and all but one pair of jeans don't fit.  I am really excited about this weight loss.  And it makes realize that if I just hadn't started drinking soda how much better my weight always would have been. 

Now, it I could just not drink or eat as much sugar and carbs.