Toast 2 Mom

Cap 10

Did my first "big" race since the last "big" race last fall. With injury after injury, I took a much needed time-out. Today's race was a 10K. It was a great day - cool, overcast and a crowd of over 30,000 people! I joined a friend for the run. We were great pace partners. We started off slow, partially due to our choice and partially due to the crowds. We picked it up mid-way and then sprinted to the finish. It was a rare sprint finish for me. I'm usually done, especially after 6 miles. I'm not sure what is next on the race schedule, nothing planned. That's OK. I was just glad to get out there and get through it and feel good.

 

My Favorite Thing in the Morning

In the morning, just as the day is beginning, the girls come into our room. It's wake up time. Still in their jammies with that still-sleepy, yet fresh face. Moods are happy from a good night of sleep. No arguments have started yet. Just good morning time. I like that.

 

It's A Hoedown Y'all!

Sydney got to embrace her inner cowgirl today as her school put on a hoedown show and a barbecue lunch. It was so cute, as always, to hear the kids sing their songs - country style today. I even enjoyed hearing her sing, "Deep in the Heart of Texas!" -  (gasp!!) The show even ended with Happy Trails....to you....until we meet again....

 
 
 

Spicy Asian Tuna

I've had this craving lately for tuna salad. Not just any tuna salad, but this spicy, Asian tuna salad that my gym has in their cafe. It is SO yummy. I finally did some digging around on the internet to see if I could come up with a close substitute to make at home. And I think I found it. I made my version for lunch today. It was delish. I know tuna salad has an "ick" factor to many people, but don't rule this one out. It's got a nice kick. See how I prepared mine below.

2  7oz cans of tuna
2 Tablespoons of Sambal Olek (spicy chile paste found in international aisle at supermarket)
1 Tablespoon of sesame oil
5 Tablespoons of Kraft Olive Oil Mayo
1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon of Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon of black sesame seeds
1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon of honey
1/4 cup of Craisins
2 stalks of green onions
2 Tablespoons of cilantro

Mix all together in a bowl. I served mine on an everything bagel thin with mixed greens and some sliced avocado. Delicioso!

 

The Girl Doesn't Lie

Just a funny, short story to tell today.... Been kind of busy this week, doing the norm of getting ready for our house guest, school, dance class, swimming lessons and meetings about a new kitchen remodel (cross your fingers, folks. :)

Anyway, got home from swim lessons tonight. The girls are pooped. It was a busy, no-nap, on the go kind of day. On the way home, Sydney asked if they could watch a Baby Einstein show when we got home. Wow, that is a sign of tired when they want to whip out a show they watched, um, years ago. They must want to zone out.

So anyway, I set up the show and then headed out of the room to go start some dinner. I'm pooped as well. I've been picking up stuff all day, just not sitting down. How is this different from other days you ask, well it's not... but I digress.

On my way to the kitchen, I stopped by the stairs and saw the girls' shoes all over the stairs. I kind of have an obsessive compulsive (I know, me, crazy, right?!) thing about the shoes being lined up "nicely" on the stairs. So as I walked by the shoes, I said, "Uh, girls your shoes are all messy." I got no reaction from the next room. So with sarcasm I said, "oh, don't worry, Mommy will get 'em. I'll straighten um... I got it!" - with my kindest, passive aggressive tone. :)  And Sydney quietly responds, "that's why you're a great mom."

What can I say to that? The girl doesn't lie. And now....onto dinner.

My Spring Cleaner

I have had some email exchanges lately with my great aunt. She enjoys my blog and reading about what my girls are up to. I've enjoyed her filling me in on some of her childhood memories that surface from some of the things she reads that I post. One thing she told me about recently was how when she was growing up, she and her sister (my other great aunt) would have special chores given by their mother - my great-grandma (who has passed away, but shares the same birthday at Cheekers).

Growing up, my one great aunt was in charge of cleaning and decorating. Her responsibilities were to clean up after dinner and to decorate the tables when my great-grandma had bridge parties. My other great-aunt was the cooking and entertainment side. The interesting part to this story was that these growing up chores seemed to last as they grew. My one great-aunt has kept her interests in cleaning and decorating her whole life. When I recently hosted our Sunday rib dinner for a big group, that was when my great-aunt told me I must have inherited my cooking and entertaining interests from my other great-aunt, her sister.

Now we move onto another generation, my mom and my aunt. I think it's safe to say that of those two, my mom got the interests in cooking and that her sister, my aunt, definitely is interested in cleaning. My aunt is so interested in cleaning, that I am working particularly overtime this week because my aunt is coming to visit us next week. And since I got the cooking/entertaining gene - cleaning is not so much on my "want" list. So I'm doing my best to get our house in tip-top shape. Luckily I have a back-up...

And now we move on to yet another generation....my two girls.

It seems that my Cheekers has not fallen too far from the cleaning tree either. She LOVES to keep things clean and is constantly walking around with a wipe in hand, doing the circular motion to keep things neat.

I'm not quite sure if Sydney is going to take over the cook and entertainer interests yet. I know she entertains us in other ways so far.

It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out. For now, I'm going to keep my wiper very busy this week. Because, believe me, there is a lot of wiping to be done!

 

Bulldogs and Geckos

It's been a pretty laid back weekend. Well, let me take that back.... Mommy's heart has been a-flutter during this crazy basketball March madness. The alma mater Butler is showing their stuff again....and it's very exciting. So we've just been hanging around home this weekend with no real plans but basketball games.

It's also been a beautiful pre-spring weekend. Our trees are about all green down here. And our little friends are starting to come out. While trying to get a little yard work done, I was out blowing leaves off the patio today and spotted a beautiful green anole. (By the way, I'm not a lizard expert. But the girls are fortunate to have a reptilian expert cousin who informed us our green friend is an anole...not a gecko :) We had a family get-together with our friend. He/She particularly liked Sydney's dress.