Such An Irish Lover!

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY!!!

Ahhhh, one of my favorite days of the year! Unfortunately, today was a little different than usual. The past 3-5 days have been a little busier than I expected, so I didn't get to do any grocery shopping until today. Result? A fairly simplistic St. Patty's Day feast. It was still NOM, though! Just not traditional. That's ok, though!

Here's the menu:

Reuben Sandwiches
Tater Tots (Hey, at least it was potatoes! haha!)
Juice (with special "sprite cubes" that didn't quite work out)
Coleslaw
Lime Cheesecake

And here's the pics:



Here's the table partially ready to go. It wasn't quite ready when I was taking pics, but I knew I had to do it so I didn't forget!



Corned Beef and Swiss Cheese. I took a shortcut today and just went to the deli at QFC. Of course that was after I tried the deli at WinCo and Safeway. I missed Wegman's today like crazy. Mainly because I went to FIVE different grocery stores looking for everything on my list.



Here's the (homemade) Coleslaw and Rye Bread, along with sandwich toppings.



Here's our special juice. Pineapple Starfruit Limeade with fizzy soda and Lime Sherbet. OH what I went through for that sherbet!

And here's our little Irish Pixie all dolled up and celebrating!



She fell in love with my Irish Bears, both gifts from awesome friends who know of my deep love for St. Patty's day. :D

My lime cheesecake (another experiment) is still in the fridge. I'm nervous about it. I really don't experiment that often in the kitchen, but the past month or so I've been going a little crazy. Overall, dinner turned out nicely. It was definitely "St. Patrick's Day Lite" at our house, but that's ok! Next year I think we'll host a huge party and invite lots of friends. Mark your calendars!

A Few Things

I have some things to throw out there and there is no good way to segue between it all, so bullet points it is!

• Caroline had her arm tugged by mommy yesterday for trying to hoard all the snacks instead of sharing with our friend. As a result, she suffered something called Nursemaid's Elbow. Basically I yoinked her elbow out of socket. We went to the doctor (luckily they were able to get us in 15 minutes after I called) and it was popped back in. She's fine now and I think I'm over the "you're a horrible mother" feeling. It helped that the 3 medical people I saw all informed that it was normal and happened all the time. No one tried to cart me off to prison, so hooray for that!
• Caroline has learned to unzip her pajamas. Safety pin time is here! I'm having flashbacks to Soren stripping himself and pulling his diaper off. This would be why Caroline still wears a onesie underneath everything. So far so good there.
• I just finished my second week of the Couch to 5K program I'm doing. I know I went further today, too, so that was an awesome feeling. I'm almost to 2 miles now and over halfway to a 5k. I start week 3 on Monday!
• Jogging in the rain isn't so bad. Really. I've done it twice this week. Today I had a shower before I took my shower because I got that wet! Haha!
• I'm so grateful that Soren cuts through the church parking lot on his way to school. Three kids were hit (in a crosswalk!) yesterday at the intersection that short cut allows him to avoid. Ugh, I hate that intersection.
• I have an amazing husband who loves me, supports me, and is just generally awesome. My prayers are always with him, but especially today. I will share more if/when I can on this.

I think that covers all of my bullets for today. :)

Don't forget - Wednesday is St. Patty's day! Dust off your green and celebrate!!!! I've got to figure out what the feast will be this year. Woot!

Baby

I want another baby.

Isn't it kind of sad that after so many years of waiting and longing, I can't just appreciate my handsome, amazing, wonderful little (big, really) boy and my sweet and spicy little princess and not long for more?

I suppose it's because they are both so awesome. I want to add to the awesomeness.

Quite a few of the people around me are (apprehensively and most of the time saying DO NOT TELL ANYONE) announcing the impending births of additional children. I want so much to be in that crowd, to know that I'd have a baby for their babies to have play dates with and all of that fun stuff.

But here's the thing.

I know that my body doesn't do that whole "baby" thing without plenty of drugs and doctor intervention. And I know that at this point it would not be a good time (for various reasons) to go through all the treatments that would enable another kiddo to join our family.

So that's annoying.

Oh well. At least I have other projects to keep me busy. Like my running thing (week 1 went very well, by the way). And I'm knitting. Have I mentioned that? Well, yeah, I'm knitting. Once I finish my second project, I am planning on taking pics and posting all about my new found hobby.

I also have my kids. And just the two of them keep me plenty busy. Especially since Soren now wants to start wrestling AND rugby. He's already quite busy with his other activities, but that's ok, right? Oh, and Caroline is getting older and more opinionated, so that's fun.

But they are both so cute and fun!

Anyway, just needed to dump. :) Can't be too sad, though.

It's March, after all!

March

I love March. It brings with it a few things that I adore, including Spring and St. Patrick's Day. March is also when we went in for treatments 2 years ago so we could have our beautiful Caroline join our family. March is all about new beginnings and hope for me. And green. Lots and lots of green.

Man, I sure love St. Patrick's Day. Did you know? Well, if not, now you do.

So it's fitting that in March - actually on March 1st - I started something called Couch to 5k. Now, goodness knows I don't spend all day on the couch, but the concept is that you go from a sedentary lifestyle (which, unfortunately, is more true than I'd like it to be!), to being able to run a 5k. In 9 weeks.

Yeah, I said run.

I hate running. I don't want to hate it, but I hate it. Maybe because I've never done it correctly or because it's too much work or . . . who knows. But seriously? Running is so easy compared to some of the other options I have chosen in the past to be active. For example, I love swimming, but I don't have a pool. I've never had a pool! I've had access to pools, but that doesn't mean it's as easy as walking about my front door. My point is - running really isn't as horrible as I like to tell myself it is.

So I loaded up the IPod and off I went. And I actually liked it. I liked being out in the crisp, Spring morning air. I liked listening to music that made me want to dance. I liked the silence of the world at 5am. I liked being able to think and have some time to myself. So far, this program is pretty awesome. And I know, it's only March 3rd. But remember what I said about March?

New beginnings.
Hope.

I don't need January for that. I just need March.