First thing in the morning

I come in to my desk, Starbucks in hand, ready to greet the rainy day with a SIGH and a pep talk to myself -- "Okay now, this can be a productive, nice day..." -- trying to gear up, you know, instead of being grumbly... and Yatt is next door telling her cubemate all about the history of her bladder infections. First thing in the morning. She got up to pee, and then, not one minute later, she had to pee again, and she thought, "This is a bladder infection." I'm sorry, but GROSS. I don't want to hear about that. Seriously. I'm sorry boutcha, but gah. Of course she uses some herbal remedy that is wwwwwwuuuuunnderful, because she is so smart.

I have a pair of yellow earplugs at my desk that I employ frequently.

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I woke up this morning at 5:30 thinking of work. Remember a filing system that we used to use at my old job, and that I had intended to put it in place here. That stupid work-thought wouldn't let me even wait the 6 minutes until my alarm went off.

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I have decided that DH and I deserve, and need, a cleaning service. Not this week, maybe not for a few months until we take care of some other financial things (BTW, we just paid off our 2004 Highlander. Woo! Now if the old one can only last another year, we can really make some headway in our checkbook balance). But sometime this year, I think we should explore hiring someone to do the vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms and kitchen once a week, or maybe every other week. I am documenting that thought here. DH is even on board with it. I believe it would not only help our cleanliness, but also our relationship. I think we both stress about the house not being clean, and it really wears on us. Isn't that weird? That a little dust and dog hair can take its toll on a marraige? But I really think it can, and does for a lot of couples in different ways. I can't believe it's taken me this long to figure out a possible solution for us. I'm anxious to start price shopping. Where do I do that? Craigslist? Does anyone use a house cleaning service regularly? Please advise. :)

Pre-holiday weekend, Pre-K graduation

This morning Yatt is talking about POLITICS. She seems to be slightly opinionated. She presumes, I think, that all her cube-mates share her views. And maybe they do... but maybe I don't. Guess no one ever told her that talking politics is not what we do in POLITE COMPANY or PROFESSIONAL SETTINGS. Also -- Harry Potter! Oh Noes!! It turns out that one of the things that bugs me the MOST about Yatt is that she and I share an interest in certain topics. iMacs, Steve Wozniak, for example, and now HP, too?? Is it because she's the polar opposite but EXACT SAME as me that I dislike her so much?? Am I pointing a mirror at MYSELF? ohhh, too much psychobabble for a Friday morning and holiday weekend.

Hello, how are you? I've been swamped this week, I guess, or more than that, uninterested in sharing what I have in my brain. But last night we went to Pre-K graduation and it warmed my little heart. I mean, just look at this:



Kills you dead, right? DEAD. CUTE. And he got the certificate for Best Reader. :) I knew that's what he'd get. He IS the best reader EVAR. *mom pride* *preening*

What upsets me is the anticipation of having to go through this whole "graduation" thing again 3 more times before we're out of high school. I know they'll have Kindergarten graduation, further proving (like we don't already know) that the bay-bees are growing UP!!! ...and then 8th grade graduation, THEN a real graduation from high school! Crazy. I only feel worse for MY parents, who had to do 6th grade and THEN 8th grade, because we moved to a new town in between the two. (Although they didn't have to endure the little kid versions. I think those MUST be the hardest. Well, no, I take it back -- high school graduation will probably be AWFULLY HARD as they'll (hopefully) be leaving the NEST, zOMG... we can't even think about that yet.)

New Topic!! We're going to (great) grandma's house! Leaving tonight or tomorrow, I can't decide and it's been left up to me. It depends on whether I can get all my laundry done, and then packed, before 5 pm today. I'll leave work early today, attend Kindergarten Orientation (how neatly that lined up!), then take the kids home and attempt to wash, fold, and pack everything up while they destroy the place. Then we'll sic them on Nanny's house and they'll likely destroy IT, too! I tell you what, we leave a TRAIL wherever we go these days. There are always THINGS -- toys, shoes, fridge magnets -- decorating the floor at our house. ALWAYS. Here's an example -- don't mind the adorable moment in the foreground, I'm uploading this to show you the MAYHEM behind them:



And that's nothing -- you should see the kitchen. Happy Memorial Day, everyone.

Trader Tuesday - Kung Fu Panda Noodle Bowl

Tried a new recipe last night that I had seen in Southern Living. Of course, I didn't have all the right ingredients so I substituted and modified, actions my husband usually fears. Last night it turned out pretty good, though. We told AJ we were eating "Noodle Bowls, just like on Kung Fu Panda." So that's what I'm naming the recipe. It was SUPER-EASY since I had cooked the chicken a couple days ahead of time.

KUNG-FU PANDA NOODLE BOWLS
(serves 2)

Chicken:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, thawed
1/4 cup-ish Teriyaki marinade
several shakes of the bottle of light soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil

Marinate chicken breasts in a ziploc bag with Teriyaki and soy, for 30 minutes or several hours in the fridge. When you're ready to cook them, sautee chicken and marinade in olive oil on medium-high heat. The sugar in the sauces puts a lovely brown coating on the chicken. (Somehow I managed to cook it long enough without going too long.) Slice. There will be PLENTY of chicken for your noodle bowls, and probably enough for a salad the next day, too.

Noodle Bowl:
2 pkgs Oriental-flavored Ramen noodles
2-4 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2-4 Tbsp chopped green onion (or substitute white onion like I did)
1 cup sugar snap peas (or sub fresh broccoli like I did)
chopped peanuts

In a large saucepan, combine 4 cups water, 2 flavor packets from the Ramen noodles, cilantro, and onions, and bring to a boil. Add noodles, and snap peas if using. Boil another 3 minutes. (If using broccoli, sautee/steam it in a bit of water, soy sauce and teriyaki).

Assemble noodle bowls with noodles, broth, broccoli then chicken. Garnish with chopped peanuts (we even subbed honey-roasted, because that's what we had).

This was yummy and felt virtuous. The cilantro came through sometimes but didn't overwhelm. It's definitely going in my rotation. Thank you, Southern Living!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1-- I think I'm fully conditioned to the demands of my job, finally. Know how I know? I'm back to my normal amount of (too much) time reading blogs. Ha! And, hooray!! It was awful when I felt so overwhelmed that even 10 minutes in the morning was too indulgent/guilt-inducing!

2-- I know you're disappointed, but my friend Yatt has been mostly out of the office this week. I think she was sick. Unfortunate. Your entertainment will just have to wait.

3-- I read a whole book last weekend. It was "Happens Every Day" by Isabel Gillies, which I thought was going to be a good book to review for my job (we recommend books to our audience of women). It's not a good recommendation, though. We try to showcase uplifting or informative books. This book was interesting -- I definitely dove into it and ignored my children to flip its pages last Saturday -- but uplifting? No. It's about a divorce-in-progress. I was mad at the main character because she never lambasted her jerk husband the way she should have. ANYWAY, I'm back into reading books, too, I think. This weekend I'll be reading three if I can manage! I just started "The Last Lecture" by Randy Pausch; Book Club's next selection is "Edgar Sawtelle," which I'm anxious to buy, maybe today; and I need to read "Nordie's at Noon" for work. I think all three are going to be awesome. ALSO on my list for the next month or so: some of the great books I got for Christmas, and one that SDW lent me AGES ago! I have big dreams of 28-hour days, apparently. Buth hooray for reading!

4-- My very LEAST favorite part of being a grown-up is managing health insurance plans. First-world whine, I know, and even in the U.S., so many people don't even have insurance, or have red-tape Medicare/caid... I really shouldn't complain. But because we both work, we're always having to compare plans (see, one-working-parent-families? Betcha didn't think of that bonus - no analytic work for insurance, just fill out the forms of your one option!). Currently we're all on DH's insurance. But I'm now eligible for my company's plan. Naturally, Open Enrollment is not conveniently scheduled at the same time of year for both companies, so the problem becomes: Do we switch in the middle of the year? I feel like we're always on new insurance anyway lately, with the way businesses are having to renegotiate rates every year because health care's so expensive. But all the COMPARING of PLANS. GAH. HAAAAAAATE. I'm apt do the easy/lazy thing and just stick with what we have, and not even investigate which plan is the most cost-efficient for us. (That loud THUD you just heard is my Dad falling out of his chair in dismay... sorry, Dad.)

5-- This is a Trader Tuesday item but I can't wait 'til then. I have a low-fat trick for great-tasting green beans (canned of course). Simmer them with 1 cube of bouillon. To me, they taste every bit as rich as when you cook them with butter and S&P. But -- no fat! Does everyone know that or is it just my genius mother?

6-- 138 today and I have been hungry a lot this week. But I'll take the loss!

7-- Does anyone else like Chadwick's? I do, but their prices seem higher than they used to be. I mean, $29.99 for a blouse (sleeveless, no less)? That feels to me like a Talbot's price, not a Chadwick's price. Disappointing.


More Quick Takes here. Happy weekend!

Prophecy

I posted yesterday about Julia simply because I hadn't read her in a while, and when I took the 10 minutes to do so, I was happily reminded how awesome she is. That sentence in particular made me laugh out loud.

AND THEN KT WAS AWAKE FROM 11:51 LAST NIGHT UNTIL 2:00 AM AND I THINK IT WAS BECAUSE SHE HAS MORE TEETH COMING IN.

So now evolution and intelligent design also owe ME an apology, because my alarm goes off at 5:40.

ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

A snippet from Julia

I state now for the record: the process whereby baby humans acquire teeth is seriously flawed and as far as I am concerned both evolution and intelligent design owe me a written apology. --Julia L.

She's bar none the best sentence-put-togetherer on the planet, as far as I'm concerned.

In lieu of a good mood

I've been grumpy (stupid pms) the last 2 days. For no good reason. SO instead of wallowing in wordy, whiny words here, which is what I was dying to do a while ago, let's post something cheery.

Like a SWIMSUIT GIVEAWAY! Go and enter and you can win a Lands' End swuimsuit. For FREE. Then wear it at the beach or the pool with sunscreen and a cute floppy hat!

Now, THAT's a good mood.

Thanks to Nicole for letting me know about it!

More about Biggest Loser

I can't say enough about how this show inspires people. Most of this season's contestants were previously inspired by watching the show, and that's fantastic. I think it's a service NBC is providing to Americans, for sure. (I know that on Wednesdays, I'm guilted into working out after spending two hours watching every Tuesday! Sometimes I even lift hand weights while watching, I'm so guilted!) And I'm always glad that they show the doctors and ensure that everything they're doing is safe and medically sound. Basically the contestants are taken from couch potatoes to professional athletes in just a few months, for those of you who don't watch.

So, I know it's about the drama, and that the contestants are obese, not just a little overweight, and it's the visual impact of the stunning before and after photos that makes the show so compelling. But I wish they'd spend some time emphasizing that not everyone has to have such dramatic results like these. They need to remind the average couch potato that just taking a walk every day will HELP THEM, will improve their health and lengthen their lives. It's not just about being skinny. And that most of us won't have 6 hours a day dedicated to working out -- and SHOULDN'T, unless we're medically supervised.

I haven't done a lot of looking around on the BL website, but I hope they have sensible advice for regular people. I'm sure they do. I just wish they'd say those things on the show a little more.

An update on my own "weight removal journey" -- I saw that recently and thought it was great. If it's a "weight loss," there's the possibility of finding it again! "weight removal" seems more permanent -- Anyway, I am 7 pounds away from my weight goal. And I can TOTALLY remove another 7 pounds. I haven't been logging calories in a long time. And I haven't been doing cardio as regularly as I should. BUT if I start this week and really try to lose 1 pound per week, I can do it by Beach Week. Wouldn't that be awesome?! Isn't this the looooonnnnngest stupid 15-pound weight-loss-journey that ever WAS??

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Yatt's BAYBEE is in da house!! (I will reluctantly admit that she's a pretty cute baby, AND I'm slightly jealous because she is named "M e gan," which is a name I love but DH wouldn't let me use. On the other hand, now I have a reason to like the name slightly less.)

Note 1 and Note 2

I go to bed every night completely and utterly exhausted. So much that I usually miss getting to kiss my hubby goodnight, even. I sort-of hate that. And I can't decide if it's because I'm Living! Life! To the Fullest! or if I'm just not Getting! Enough! Exercise!

Speaking of exercise, Biggest Loser! I'm a total sucker for the before and after pictures, I guess, but MAN, do I love that show. Amazing people. I'm voting for Mike if I can get on the site today. I was excited to see him wearing a Something Catholic High School sweatshirt on last night's episode. They're that awesome and Catholic, too? Nice. I have more comentary on the show but will save it 'til tomorrow. Note 1 has gotten awfully long.

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Yatt's topic of the day: Istanbul (used to be Constantinople) -- because no one but Yatt has ever heard the song by TMBG.

Just saying

Nothing to SAYYYY, nothing to SAYYYY, I have exactly NOTHING TO SAAAAAAAY! (So I'm singing.)

Of course that isn't true; I guess I have plenty to say, or that is what a friend of the family indicated this weekend when he said he had NOTHING to say in a BLOG, and he doesn't know why anyone would want to maintain one of those BLOGS for heaven's sake, ugh. Or to that effect. Well, pish posh, family friend, no soup for YOU! Hee hee. I am only kidding, it is funny to hear the older generation (for that is what he is) trying to understand our LANGUAGE. Our MEDIA. I'm sure his parents and their friends pooh-pooh'd sitting and watching those crazy television sets with comments like "I don't know why ANYONE would want to do that." Heh, heh. How do you like me NOW?? Oh well. I didn't think I cared one whit about that comment but evidently I did. LOL.

I have to tell you guys something that will NOT fall under the "Kindblog" badge, and I'm very sorry about that. But I have to get this OUT! It's killing me. I have a cube-neighbor -- actually she's at least 3 cubes over but she is SO LOUD that she feels like she's right next door -- and she is An Expert On Everything. Have you ever known someone like that? OH HOLY HELL. It is so obnoxious. Since I came here in February, she has pontificated on no less than all of these topics, usually more than once a day:

• Twitter


• iPods


• iPhones


• DSL versus the Dish


• House Cleaning (I think she owns a business)


• MOTHERHOOD - lord help me, she has a 7-month old and guess what else? She's the only person ever on EARTH to have had a BAY-BEE. Did you know bay-bees babble? And coo? They sure do. Hers more than most.


• Steve Wozniak


• Mac computers


• Elmo


• The Honda Fit (recently bought one)


• Menses (there's an app for that)


• Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

I am so not even kidding you. It's like she actively chooses the topic for the day and then tells everyone in her line of vision how much she Knows. I have to start giving you a daily update. Yatt's topic of the day (not her real name). The Reese's discussion was yesterday: someone brought in the white chocolate version of mini-Reese's to share. You or I would say, 'Oooh, chocolate! Thanks!" The end. This woman went into a 10-minute discussion of why she likes the PEANUT BUTTER part of the Reese's, and the chocolate part is immaterial slash ineffective in overpowering the peanut butter part. That's why SHE eats them, the peanut butter. And she feels the white chocolate DOES overpower the p.b. so that's why she doesn't like them.

AS I TYPE she is telling her teammates that she records the first day of her period using an app on her iPhone. I SWEAR TO GOSH she is.

Oh! Oh! She also walks around her area BAREFOOT.

You guys are going to love her.