And now I’m back.  I’ve been struggling a lot lately with feeling like I’m working so hard and I’m not losing weight.  Then I question whether I’m really feeding myself sane portions and I question what I eat.  I think it really helps for me to write down and take pictures of what I eat so that I have PROOF that I’m eating like a sane person.  So here goes.

I already forgot to take a picture of my piece of toast that I had before taking Lu to daycare but it looked just like this:

I’m working from home today and I decided to go to Target in the time I usually take for commute. I got to Target before the doors opened!!  I just had to get some toiletries there but I also scored some cute rain boots:

And some new Chucks for Lu:

As I was checking out, the cashier asked me if I had an coupons.  Sadly, I said no.  One of my goals when I move to Boise is to be MUCH better at coupons.  I’m really horrible at it right now and I could be saving SO.MUCH.MONEY.

When I got home from Target I made some oatmeal:

-1/2 cup GF oats
-1 cup homemade almond milk
-dash of salt and cinnamon
-2 tsp maple syrup
-1 TBSP homemade almond butter

I figure getting back to showing what I eat will show people that being Gluten Free ISN’T awful.

And?  If I get funny looks for taking picture of my food at work?  I’ll just tell them I’m working on my photography skills and to SUCK IT!

It turns out that I was only able to eat about half of the oatmeal.  Here’s what was left in the bowl:

Ahhh…it feels good to be back 🙂

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I haven’t been as chatty about my personal life lately.  There IS a reason.  Back in February we made a HUGE life changing decision that I could NOT talk about on the blog.  I am a HORRIBLE secret keeper and so I just stopped talking about life for fear of spilling the beans.

Well…now I can tell you.

We’re MOVING TO BOISE, IDAHO at the end of June!!!!

Why? You ask.  Well the main reason:

We’ve actually been talking about moving for a VERY long time-WAY before we even had Lucy.  Living in the Bay Area is great but it’s EXPENSIVE and not sustainable.  Even more so now that we have Lucy. 

We have a list of what’s important to us and when I went to Boise in February for Tessa’s birthday in dawned on me that Boise fit our list.  Before that, we had always said that we would move to Pennsylvania by Shaun’s family but the fact that we couldn’t find a town near his family that fit our list always stopped us. 

Here’s the list.  What’s highlighted in purple is what Boise has that Pennsylvania does not:

-Family (Pennsylvania actually wins out here since Shaun’s ENTIRE family is there and his brothers live within 3 miles of each other)
-Affordable
-4 seasons
–Lots of sunny weather
-Good public schools
-Good place to raise a family with lots of young families (Something the Bay Area IS NOT!)
-Walk-able downtown with nice houses nearby
-Access to ethnic food
-College Town
-Mountain biking nearly year round
-Very outdoorsy community
-Natural grocery store
-A nice gym where I could imagine working out
-Jobs! That PAY!
-Short commute

Another thing Pennsylvania had but that Boise does not is a big city within driving distance.  In PA we would have been close to New York City, Washington, DC, and Philadelphia.  In Boise?  Not so much.

When we were making the decision, we first did a pros and cons list for staying vs. leaving and the pros WAY out weighed the cons.  But then when we were deciding between Idaho and PA we sat down and PA almost  won out.  Shaun and I were willing to overlook all of the things that Boise had that PA didn’t because of his family.  Shaun REALLY misses his family (as do I) but then we sat down and did a budget and looked at housing.  It turns out that it is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to rent a nice house in Boise than it is in the Wilkes-Barre-Scranton area.  When we were comparing Shaun said “This isn’t fair-there’s no comparison.”  Add to that our projected heating bill and gas bill (for a long commute for Shaun) and the decision was made with the stipulation that we visit PA at least once a year and for at least 2 weeks per year-it got built into our budget.

So Boise it was!  Before we could move forward though I had to see if I could work remotely.  The only way we were willing to make such a huge life change was if I could keep my job.  I was SO nervous going into that meeting to talk to my manager BUT she gave me a resounding YES!  She fully supports this move and come July 1st I will be working from home!  Shaun will be a stay at home Dad while he looks for a job in Boise and we’ll be sharing a baby-sitter with my sister for about 20 hours per week.

When we went out earlier this month, it was to scope it out and make sure that this was the right decision.  We went to look at neighborhoods to see where we wanted to live, I went grocery shopping, Shaun went mountain biking (everyday), we went hiking.  We did things that we would do if we were to live there.  And, even though the weather was absolutely miserable, we LOVED it.

While out on our neighborhood scouting trip, we came upon a house that was for rent and Shaun called.  The property manager said that he was having a open house and that we should come to meet him and tell him what we like so that he could look for properties for us when we came out.  We were planning to go back in June to secure housing.

Well…we went to the open house and we fell in love.  Shaun kept looking at me like OMFG.  When we got back in the car, my super conservative, hates to waste money, husband said, “We’re renting that house and just swallowing the 2 months that we can’t live there.”

Before I agreed to that, I said that we had to look at EVERYTHING in that price range (inside and out) and if we still thought this house was the one, then we would get it.  That house was still the one.

We sign our lease TODAY!

Welcome to my new home:

It’s set off the street and the street is not very busy.  It’s half a block from the mountain biking and hiking trail heads (yes! HALF a block!), 2 miles from my sister, 1 mile from downtown, and 1/2 mile from the Greenbelt-which is a running/biking path that runs along the river.  It’s also about a mile and a half from the Y and I’ll be riding there with Lucy in the bike trailer A LOT!

The upstairs has been recently remodeled. And the kitchen is BEAUTIFUL.

Large living room:

Master bath with a deep tub with JETS!

Master Bedroom (which has a walk in closet):

I didn’t get pictures of the down stairs but there are 2 bedrooms down there, a den, an OFFICE, and a laundry room.

The other thing it has? A HUGE backyard (that needs some love and care 🙂 ) and 2 car garage with extra storage:

And an AWESOME deck that is right off the kitchen.  This house is PERFECT for entertaining.

Goodbye 1200 square foot condo with almost no storage and NO yard.  Hello 1700 square foot house with an additional 2 car garage and HUGE yard.  I love you!

Needless to say, we are VERY excited.  I wish we could move now but Shaun is working through the beginning of June and then his brother and nephew are coming to visit and THEN we drive to Boise, Idaho to start our new, less hectic, more family oriented life.

Are you ready to join me on this ride?

…is something you need to be when you’re a working Mom.  I had plans last night of making stuffed cabbage but I had to stay at work later than expected so a quick chicken stir fry had to suffice.  Stuffed cabbage tonight!

I went to the gym again this morning.  I’ve decided that I really hate weight lifting.  My reason?  I hate staring at myself in the mirror.  It’s a good idea to look at yourself in the mirror while you’re lifting weights to make sure your form is correct but ugh I really don’t like what I see when I look in the mirror.  At least I’m working on it, right?

I’ve been making green smoothies every morning using some new protein powder that I got from my doctor.

It’s not cheap and it’s kind of chalky but it gets the job done.

In that bad boy:

-1 scoop protein powder
-2 TBSP ground sunflower seeds
-1 cup homemade almond milk
-~6 frozen strawberries
-~2 cups spinach

Since there’s nothing SUPER sweet in it, it kind of tastes like a savory smoothie.  Which sounds disgusting but really it’s not-I think it just takes some getting used to and, as I said above, it gets the job done.  It’s interesting.  I overall enjoy most everything I eat but I’m okay with just eating something if it is nourishing.  Is that weird?  Should I be striving to be excited about every meal?  I kind of like that I’m not stressing to LOVE every meal.  It means I don’t eat as much-ha!

As for the homemade almond milk, a lot of you commented yesterday on how brave I was to try it.  It’s REALLY easy.  I followed Tasha’s instructions.  With the addition of a nut bag, I think it’ll be REALLY REALLY easy.  It tastes really fresh and like almonds-big surprise.  It’s not quite as sweet as the milk you get at the store (even the unsweetened) but it has a LOT less ingredients-only 2-almonds and water.  And now I have almond meal!  I’m ready to try some soy milk and cashew milk!

Next up on my almond adventure? Almond butter.  I think I’m going to tackle that on Thursday. First I need to have some oats in a jar to clean out my almond butter jar and get it ready for some homemade action!

That’s the amount of calories that I burned this morning.  YAY!  I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not but I have NOT been talking about working out.  That’s because it hasn’t been happening :(  I was exhausted, then I got sick, then I went to Boise.  But now?  It’s on!

I went to spin class and it was a good one! I have plans to go back tomorrow. WOOO HOOO!

The weekend was okay.  I had a horrible migraine on Saturday that basically put me out of commission.  I think it was caused by allergies and it sucked.  Allergies are hitting my household HARD this year.

What else happened this weekend?  Lu moved from high chair to booster!  She now sits at the table with us.  Check her out!

She’s becoming such a big girl.  It makes me happy and sad all at once.  She’s growing and learning everyday and that is exciting but I do miss my little newborn from time to time.

I didn’t cook this weekend-it was strange but we ate leftovers and sushi.  I usually cook a BUNCH over the weekend but with the migraine it just didn’t happen.  I did make some of my own almond milk.  It was really easy but MESSY.

I got almond meal everywhere!

I used a cheese cloth and will be using a nut bag from here on out.  I already bought one on Amazon and it should get here on Wednesday.  I also want to go and get some of the local milk that comes in a glass bottle.  I’ll then use the glass bottle to store the milk because my container up there is HUGE and takes up too much space in the fridge.

Up for tonight?  Stuffed cabbage-look for a recipe 😉

Do I really think agave nectar is evil?  Only about as evil as high fructose corn syrup.

..Agave plants are crushed, and the sap collected into tanks. The sap is then heated to about 140°F for about 36 hours not only to concentrate the liquid into a syrup, but to develop the sweetness. The main carbohydrates in the agave sap are complex forms of fructose called fructosans, one of which is inulin, a straight-chain fructose polymer about ten eight to 10 fructose sugar units long. In this state, the sap is not very sweet.

When the agave sap is heated, the complex fructosans are hydrolyzed, or broken into their constituent fructose units. The fructose-rich solution is then filtered to obtain the desired products that range from dark syrup with a characteristic vanilla aroma, to a light amber liquid with more neutral characteristics. [source]

Sounds eerily similar to the way high fructose corn syrup is made:

High-fructose corn syrup is produced by milling corn to produce corn starch, then processing that starch to yield corn syrup, which is almost entirely glucose, and then adding enzymes that change most of the glucose into fructose. The resulting syrup (after enzyme conversion) contains approximately 90% fructose and is HFCS 90. To make the other common forms of HFCS (HFCS 55 and HFCS 42) the HFCS 90 is mixed with 100% glucose corn syrup in the appropriate ratios to form the desired HFCS.                      [source]

I think that agave is a highly processed sugar that has been marketed really well to make people think that it is healthy.  In fact, “Amber” or “Dark” agave nectar is just parts of the plant that have burned in processing.  That’s some great marketing-that I totally fell for.

I had done all this research but was still using agave (maybe because of the hype?) but then my doctor told me to stop using it immediately and to only use natural sources of sugar-honey and maple syrup.  So that’s what I do.  I don’t miss it and I find that just replacing agave with honey works perfectly in recipes.

What do you think?

A sampling of articles on the topic:

http://www.westonaprice.org/Agave-Nectar-Worse-Than-We-Thought.html

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/30/health/he-nutrition30

http://www.living-foods.com/articles/agave.html

http://www.foodrenegade.com/agave-nectar-good-or-bad/

It was too cold in Boise for Lu to wear her Easter outfit so she got to wear it today.  How cute is she?

And, showing Mommy her tummy:

She’s also at the stage where she likes to lift MY shirt up to show me MY tummy.  I’m pretty sure the plane full of strangers didn’t want to see that!

I’ve gotten many questions about Lu’s new bike.  Daddy is taking her after work to the park to try it out (with her helmet).  We’ll see how she does.  She saw him put it in the car this morning and REALLY WANTED to play with it.  So she obviously likes it. 

The way a Strider works is that it has no pedals and no brakes.  Kids are supposed to run with it and then put their feet up.  It helps them learn how to balance correctly on a bike.  Using this, she’ll probably be able to graduate straight to a real bike (with NO training wheels) much faster.

Want to see something ridiculous?  Here’s our laundry room, with our bike storage:

We recently sold my mountain bike (I’ll be upgrading once Lu can go with us) and so there was a spot available.  Lu’s bike now has a place 😉

When I got to work today, I had a VERY exciting package.  Remember when I raved about Fil-Fil? Well the executive chef, Ryda contacted me and wanted to send some of their new bottles (with the new label).  It arrived today!

I have some cod marinating in the lemon herb now!

YOM.

They’ll have to wait because I have MORE pictures to share.  A broken computer sure does SUCK.

We just got back from Boise and we had SO.MUCH.FUN!  The weather was awful (it snowed almost every day we were there) but we made the most of it.  Shaun still mountain biked 3 times and we went on walks and hikes-we just bundled up!

Onto PICTURES!

There was lots of this happening:

Anytime I picked up or held Tessa, Lu got jealous.

There was also LOTS of eating.  Yes, my daughter is shirtless.  She was “hot, hot, hot”.

She was still hot after dinner when she took Tessa’s bike for a spin.

After the girls went to bed, we had dinner.  My sister and her husband made real Corned Beef from scratch.  Since it was cured in beer I couldn’t have any but it smelled DIVINE.

With the requisite veggies:

I did NOT go hungry though:

And afterward we had a vegan, gluten free, and refined sugar free cake that I made.

Gluten Free desserts DO NOT have to taste like ass.  Who knew?

It was seriously amazing.  I ate too much of it throughout the week, but OH WELL 🙂

Enough food porn (for now) and back to cute kiddos!

Riding in Tessa’s wagon on the way to the park.

At the park:

How cute is Tessa??!?!?!

Lu went down the slide all by herself with NO injuries!

Later that night, a bath was had!

With crazy hair!

On Easter, the Dads took the girls out on a hike while the Easter Bunny did her magic.  It was a cold hike and Lu had to borrow some clothes from Cousin Tessa.  If you didn’t already notice, Tessa is a colorful dresser.  This is what happened when Lu visited her closet.

OH but it gets better!

She’s stylin’!

The Easter Bunny did, in fact, do her job.

Lu’s garden boots:

And Tessa’s:

Mimi sent rolling backpacks with horsies.

Mimi also sent some bunnies to be taken care of:

Lu’s face upon seeing the loot!

Checking it out.

My sister’s crazy Mom face in this picture cracks me up.

The backpacks were a HUGE hit.

Then we headed over to Grandma Sandy’s (Tessa’s Grandma) for an Easter Egg hunt and brunch.

On the way to the hunt:

EASTER EGG HUNT!

Lu LOVED IT!  She went running around saying “Egg? Egg? Egg?!?!?”  She totally got it.

Tessa was more interested in that blue plate of water you see in the lower right hand of the picture.

Lucy almost got ALL the eggs.

The basket got so full it started overflowing.  Amber would be so proud!

Once inside, we gave Tessa half and Lu half and they discovered what was in them.  STICKERS!

Then it was time for brunch.  I made a gluten free, refined sugar free Dutch Baby.  It was very puffy when I got it out of the oven but I didn’t get a picture until it deflated 🙁

EVERYONE loved it.

We also had a fruit salad.

The gluten eaters 😉 had snicker doodle bread:

Wonderful eggs made by Grandma Sandy.  Why are eggs so much better when someone else makes them?

The whole spread:

Later in the day, Lu discovered that Tessa’s toy box (that Papa made her) was a great “boat”.

They were quite proud of themselves:

That night my sister made halibut en papilloute (wrapped in paper):

YOM.

Uh-oh, Daddy picked up Tessa.  This resulted.

On our last night, the girls got a bath and wrapped in hooded towels that Mimi made them for Easter.

My old college roommate came over for dinner (LOVE that she lives in Boise) and I made taco salad for everyone.  Here’s Shaun’s:

Shaun, Lissa, Willy, Luke, and Megan:

We flew home today and Shaun got a bug in his butt to go get Lu a “running bike”.  Shaun’s brother sent a very generous gift certificate for the local toy store for Christmas and Shaun earmarked it for a Strider.  He decided today was the day.

We tried it out.

LU LOVED IT!!!  We got her pink.

We didn’t take her helmet to the store (though we should have) but from now on she WILL be wearing a helmet!!!

Picture overload, eh?

I’m just having fun in Boise with my sister and my computer is broken!

I’ll be back SOON! (with a gluten free, milk free, refined sugar free chocolate cake that is to DIE FOR!!!)

Wow was this weekend ever busy!  We had a blast though.

Saturday was pretty warm and we discovered that Lucy needs some clothes for warmer weather.  I put her in a dress that her Aunt Kelly and Uncle Ricky got her.  How cute is she?!?!?!

Shaun’s comment was that she just melt his heart everyday 🙂

Yesterday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  It was pretty cool.  It wasn’t as big as I was expecting but we still had fun.

Some cool pictures:

Jelly Fish!

Seahorses!

These aren’t plants-they’re sea horses!

No, really!

Feed time!

Hello shark!

Lu just kicking back:

Cute Lu pics!

She went around yelling “FISHIE!!!!” It was very cute.

Daddy and a very tired Lu:

Here’s Lu this morning playing with a new toy I got her.  It’s magnets and it sings the ABC’s.  When you put the letters into the big thing you see there it says “B goes buh, B goes buh. Every letter has a sound, B goes buh”.  She played with it in the cart yesterday at Target and listened to the ABC’s about 100 times.

This morning I woke up to Lucy singing “A B C D” hum hum “G” hum hum hum hum “L M N O P” hum hum hum “T” hum hum hum hum hum “Z!”  I about crapped my pants. Seriously.  The letters that she did remember were said in the correct place!  That was INSANE!  I have a kid-she’s no longer a baby!

Her 18 month appointment was this morning and here are her stats:

Height=30 3/4”-25th percentile
Weight=19 pounds 8 ounce-Less than 5th percentile
Head=19.25”-95th percentile

She’s trending exactly where she was at 15 months. She’s a peanut but she’s a just right peanut. She’s still pretty advanced in terms of language and talking and HOPEFULLY the tantrums will start to subside as she can communicate more.  All in all, it was a great visit.  She only had 1 shot and she cried briefly and then was okay. She was VERY proud of her sticker that she got.

In short, she’s awesome 🙂

The recipe?

This:

Plus this:

Plus this:

 
[source] (I wish that was my bathtub!)

Plus this:

 
warming sock treatment

Plus this:

castor oil pack

= 10 glorious, blissful, amazing hours of much needed sleep!

I needed it!

You read right on that first picture.  I got an hour long massage for $25! At Happy Feet. A new one just opened down the street from my office.

Did you see the Amazing Race a few seasons ago where they were in Beijing and had to endure a traditional Chinese Reflexology Massage?  This was pretty much like that. 

I saw the sign outside and walked into a waiting room and asked about the $25 massage.  I was told that they do a foot/leg massage for 35 minutes and the rest of your body for 25 minutes.  CASH ONLY.  I said I was interested and they brought me into a big room with about 15 leather chairs (covered in clean white towels) that fold into bed-like things.  The room is dim and there is relaxing music being played and relaxing scenes on a flat screen.

I was told to sit down and my masseur brought me out a wooden bucket, lined with a plastic liner of warm water.  I soaked my feet and he reclined my chair and started on my face, head, and neck.  The guy said maybe 2 words to me the entire time but he did a really great massage.

After my face, head, and neck he moved to my feet and legs and then finally had me turn over for my back.

You are fully clothed the entire time and you’re in a room with other people getting the exact same thing done to them.  They don’t ask you about pressure and this guy was STRONG.  Holy shitballs was this ever a deep tissue/shiatsu style massage!!  Holy wow!

For $25 (+$10 tip)-I would go back in a heartbeat!

The cons?

-The atmosphere-it’s like a massage fast food chain or something-but the chair is amazing and the place is CLEAN.

-My masseur was a smoker and while I couldn’t smell smoke on him I could smell the mixture of baby oil and cigarette hands. BUT my grandma was a smoker and it reminded me of her (strange, eh?).  I could imagine this really bothering some people though.

-Lastly, and this was STRANGE, at one point my masseur went to get more towels and I looked over to my right.  There was an old dude getting a massage and he was on the back part of the massage.  He was rubbing and kneading his masseuse’s legs (she was a woman).  It was quite sexual and for one moment I thought I had gone into one of those “happy ending” massage shops that you only hear about.  Thank goodness none of that happened to me!  I think the guy was just being highly inappropriate and the masseuse didn’t deal with it and just let the dude be inappropriate.  I felt bad for her 🙁

Overall it really helped relax me and got me started down my road to relaxation.  Tonight, I’m going to do steps 2-5 and Saturday night I hope to only have to do 3-5. I HATE taking sleeping aides!

We’ve got a really fun weekend planned.  Swim lessons tomorrow, followed by a trip to the pet store, bike store, and mall.  On Sunday, Shaun is going for a mountain bike ride down in Monterey and I’m going to meet him after and we’re going to take Lu to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  Can’t wait!