S W I M M I N G

Jessica asked about my swim background so I thought I'd devote a little time to it! I don't know how early I was in the pool, but I know as a child, at least by age 4, my mom always took us swimming. I remember being scared of the holes in the wall. They still kind of freak me out.


I started swimming on a team when I was 6 and swam competitively all through high school. I was really good when I was 9 in winter swimming, and when I was 12 in the summer swimming. After that, it all kind of went downhill, and I was a mediocre swimmer but never awesome.

In high school I swam the 200 free, 200 IM and 500 free. The team at my school wasn't very good, so I was one of the top 4 swimmers on the team. I've always been a long distance swimmer. I did backstroke in the summers and I've done the mile in a couple of meets.

I kept up swimming every now and then during college, and picked up Masters swimming a couple of years ago. The best thing was that it was right at my high school that I teach at, so I could do it right before work (5:30-6:30) and then go to work! I swam with the fast people and continued in the summers at an outdoor pool - this was great! They are rebuilding the pool @ my high school so this fall/winter I swam with another team which wasn't as fun, mostly swimming alone. Right now, I'm just swimming on my own! The masters program at the Y starts at 5:30 but Nick gets up between 5:30-6:30 right now, so this hasn't worked for me yet. I hope soon.

My sister is a really good swimmer and swam in college at Delaware. My brother swam up until he had to wear a speedo, and then he quit.

The biggest thing for me was the drains in the pool. Some drains still scare me. I don't know what it is about them - are they going to suck me down? On all of my meet programs I have the drain lanes written on the front page ("drain lanes 1 and 5.") If I happened to be racing in a drain lane, the anxiety was awful!! I think I kept my eyes closed and went crooked. When I brought Nick swimming and stepped on a drain by accident, I still was kind of freaked out! It's so weird!

I think that Nick will like the water too. So far, he enjoys it!


Monday's board workout was ENDURANCE. It was mostly 400s and 3 and 200s. To me, that is easy. I don't like doing fast 100s. Today's workout was a bunch of fast free. I feel like a slacker but to motivate myself to go fast somedays, I need to be swimming with someone in the lane next to me!


In other news, I had my first GREEN smoothie (aka green monster) yesterday. Spinach, banana, almond milk and some protein powder. Not bad. You can taste the spinach (I used frozen).




And I'm working on some healthy breakfast muffins.

Post 5k

POST RUN
1 day post 5k - holy crap, I am sore. I have shin splints and my hamstrings and quads are sore!! I need to get training faster! I walked a bit today w/ Nick & my sister and her dog, and was seriously breathing heavily walking up hills (What?!) and swam 3000 yds. I'm still waiting to see if I placed in my age group on Sunday, it was a small crowd. The results aren't posted yet.

TRI
Thanks for your help with the tri questions - a tri is in my future, but not sure when/where yet. I always said I'd do a tri in waters like Hawaii. I might look for an indoor one for now, or just a local one that is cheap.

WORK/STAYING HOME/BALANCE
I decided I'm bipolar in terms of how I feel day to day about being home. I want to be working and doing what I love, but I know that that means leaving Nick, which I don't want to do. Sometimes I think about how by next September I'll be dying to go back to work and sometimes I think it will be impossible to go back after being home for a year and a half, and impossible to leave Nick and I consider the thought of taking as much time as possible to watch my kid(s) grow up while I can. Other days I think how can I minimize the time that I am not working. Some days it is hard to leave Nick in the gym daycare for an hour and other days I need the life that I used to have. I think I am struggling to make the connection that although I'm the same person, my life is totally different. Some people can go on working and resume their old life, but for some people, the old person ceases to exist and the baby changes everything. I'm somewhere in between and seeking some balance and I'm getting there (most days).

FOOD
I made more hummus today. This weekend I made stuffed peppers for the first time (with bulgar, parmesan cheese, and mushrooms) - these were really good! This week's plan is to make some black bean brownies. I haven't found the recipe that I want to use yet - there are tons out there. Let me know if you have seen a good one!

I made Nick homemade brown rice cereal today (thanks Mama Simmons for some help with that). He seemed totally into it! I was pretty excited to give it to him. THe video is too long and wouldn't upload.

seconds from a PR!

I ran a 5k today to benefit my school. Bill and his parents, and Nick did it too! I was huffing and puffing - it was a super hilly course!! I could not tell what my pace even was before I hit the first mile: 7:04. Mile 2 14 something, and finished 23:17. I thought my PR was 22 something but it is 23:14! I wasn't giving 110% at the end and definitely could have pushed harder. I remember letting myself off the hook in the first mile - I need to be more hardcore!! It was a good race, I didn't know what to expect and in April ran a low 25 5k for my first speed race back! It was also fun being for a good cause and having all of the "D" family participate!

Glonuts & Tris

Thanks for the tips from yesterday's post- especially that it is only temporary, I have to keep reminding myself this and make the best of it. I don't know why this adjustment is so hard for me!

Triathlon questions -
do you need a wetsuit/triathlon outfit?
How does it work with the bike - you bring it the day before?
I have a bike, I think it is a mountain bike. What kind of bike should I have?
Is the swim like dodging kicks the whole time or do you really swim?
I would love to do a pool swim tri - anyone seen any of those? Does that even count?

Glonuts - followed Angela's recipe but used Agave nectar for the sugar, and had no maple syrup so used brown rice syrup. My icing wasn't the best consistency, it kind of fell off to the side, but these were tasty! I want a doughnut pan now!

These look messy but were tasty!

Running - my run was heartless today. I just kept telling myself if I ran faster I would be done quicker, but that didn't seem to motivate me. I did 7 in the morning on the TM and 3 in the early afternoon. I couldn't wait to be done (which wasn't fun).

Kind of a rough one!

This week was kind of a rough week emotionally. I've been trying to keep super busy, but this week I was at school or school functions 3 times and it killed me! Tuesday I took Nick to school to see the kids, Thursday night was our department party, and today I was there packing up my classroom. I am hurting! I keep doubting my decision and thinking I should have returned in September. I feel so lost without teaching. I still haven't heard anything from the letter that I sent. Next week I'll be heading back in to finish packing my room and for an end of the year luncheon. I think some closure will be good, but also, I'm just all over the place in my thoughts.

SWIMMING
I had a really good swim on Wednesday and finished 3200 yards in 51:15. The workout had some good intervals on it, and even though I'm not as fast as I was, or maybe as I would be if swimming with others, I'm getting there. I really wish I could motivate myself to get up and go to the masters swimming. Nick's wake up just happens to be right in the middle of it most mornings, but when he sleeps later and we cut out that early morning feeding, I'll have to get going there!

RUNNING
Running has been blah this week. I haven't been very motivated to run fast, so I've been keeping it easy. Tuesday I did 8 miles before heading into school, 2 on Wednesday and 2 5 milers on Thursday. All of the runs were on the treadmill, it is so humid here, I plan to keep running on the treadmill until the humidity breaks!

SHRED
I've been doing Jillian's shred level 3 two or three times a week. I kind of need to switch it up, but I love this workout. It is hard and makes me sweat!

FOOD
I made some fun things this week, but I need to remember that even if they are healthier than the real thing (like chocolate chip cookies) - they are still a dessert, so go easy!

BAKE FOR DANA
I'm going to rename the bake sale auction to BAKE FOR DANA(Farber). There are some exciting things to bid on, and I'm getting really excited, even though it is more than a month away!

More experimenting

Smoothies - I've been having one every day. Yesterday's was a change up. I kind of wanted it to be green, because they look refreshing, but no such luck. In this colorful drink, I used

• almond breeze
• skim milk
• cooked broccoli
• cooked kale
• berries
• flax
• 1/2 a banana

It was good!

Today's powerhouse - more purple

• cooked broccoli (this was just leftover and I needed to use it)
• fresh kale leaves
  
• blueberries
• almond breeze
• skim milk
• flax

Yesterday I did some more baking and experimenting and here are some of the things below.
Hummus
2 c chick peas (soaked dry ones)
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (didn't have it)
Up to 3 tablespoon cold water
3 tablespoons tahini
1 small clove garlic, crushed
3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
Paprika
1 tablespoon olive oil
A little plain yogurt (depending on the consistency if chunky add more) - forgot about this

It still turned out pretty good, but not creamy enough. Now that I am posting this, I see I forgot yogurt and that would really help!



Raw chocolate chip cookies. I followed the recipe from here except used smart oil instead of coconut oil. I have never used coconut oil, and I'm not too sure of its nutritional benefits.
This was the part making the chocolate chips. They were delicious!


The dough was quite crumbly and oily, and some were hard to get into balls. I put them in the freezer so that I didn't eat them all, and in hopes they'd stay together better!




Today going on here is an auction similar to what I will do. If you aren't a baker, by the way, considering donating anything you are willing to donate! Remember it is for a great cause and anything helps! I think a fun running pack of your favorite running items (gu, powerbars, clif blocks,etc would be really fun! ) I donated a homemade wedding countdown board and homemade necklace to the auction going on there. Check it out!

Help me out locals - places to run in Philly - Kelly Drive - what do you have to add?

More food and running

Today I was trying to work on speed. I forgot I have a 5k at my school this Sunday, that I'd like to run fast for! I haven't done a 5k since April, so I'm looking forward to this! Today I decided I'd work on speed. I like working on speed in terms of the workout going by quickly, but I don't in that it is difficult! When I did my 2 miles warmup, I thought, ok, I'm going to run mile repeats. I didn't make it through the first mile, and cut it back to 1/2 mile repeats. I did one of those and then decided 1/4 mile repeats would be fine. So I worked on them and did 2 1/2 mile repeats and 3 or 4 1/4 mile repeats. They were decent but not as great as I was hoping for, and by the end my legs were tired and I was kind of out of breath!

I went into school today to see my students, this was hard but we had a great day there (and then Nick slept for 3 hours) ! The sup't hasn't responded yet.

Some experiments this week so far: (Note: somewhere along the way my pictures went back to being small on the default, so click on them for a big picture)

Granola Bars
These turned out way too sweet, here is what I used:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 c honey
  
• 1/4 c hemp oil
• 1/4 c nanners almond butter
  
• 2 c. oats
• 1/4 c ground flax
  
• 1/4 c sunflower seeds
  
• 1/4 c flax seeds
  
• 1/4 c coconut
  

Lara Chocolate Chip Cookie Bar - I liked this! I followed the recipe exactly. These taste like chips ahoy to me. And Lara Bars.





Veggie Burgers
I didn't make the dressing, which would have made them better. These were a little dry. Here's what I used:

• Burgers
• 1/2 cup dried lentils
• 2 Tbs. olive oil
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced (1/2 cup)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tsp.)
• 15-oz. dried/soaked chickpeas
  
• A bunch of dried parsley leaves
• 3 egg whites
  
• 2 tsp. ground cumin
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup oatmeal
  
• 1 piece whole wheat bread
  
• 3/4 cup grated carrots
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder

I mainly used the food processor to process everything together. These turned out a bit dry and definitely would have been better with the dressing. It made 10 burgers, I'll make the dressing for the rest!


Tonight's dinner: Veggie Burger, baked sweet potatoes, kale and spinach frittata


Where'd everyone go? Not many comments lately. Maybe the food stuff is boring, I just need something to keep me busy! I'm still looking for bakers. I have around 6 amazing souls but hope to get more from some of you talented people out there!!

more OWATER & CREAMY homemade nut butter

If you read about infused Owater here or here, I'd like to tell you about unsweetened owater. The kind people at Owater sent me this to try and a fun t-shirt! The infused owater has 9g of sugars, of which I wasn't huge on. Bring in the unsweetened water! The taste is not as sweet (obviously) as the infused owater, but it still has that hint of taste. Think watered down Fruit -2 - 0 without the artificial sweeteners. I found it tasted better mixed with some pomegranate (too sweet) juice. It gives it some extra flavor and makes a nice mix. It also contains electrolytes so still makes for an excellent post run drink.

The sport water is another option, made only of purified water and electrolytes. I had this after my 10 miler on Saturday and it just tasted like water - but the extra bonus, I was getting electrolytes in there too!

I think... give it a try if you are on the market for a post run/race drink and want to switch it up from your high fructose gatorade and stay away from sugars! It is VERY refreshing!

_______________________________________________________________

This weekend was busy, but I made some bean patties on Friday night and sweet potatoes.


Tri-ing: Well, I was into looking for one until I realized how expensive these things are. I was kind of turned off. I'll keep thinking about it for now.

Next up - I'm looking for a recipe for veggie burgers. Not bean burgers, but veggie burgers like Dr. Praegers at Trader Joes. They seem hard to make, so I might just keep buying those for now.

HOMEMADE NUT BUTTERS - Nanner's nutters
In the past with my nutters, I've added pecans at first, and then hemp oil to make the nutters more creamy. This morning I added in 1/2 crazy richards and 1/2 of my already homemade flax peanut butter. Well today I discovered that the more you food process it, the creamier it will get. So this means patience is the key! This took about 8-10 minutes. See figures 1-8 below: Almond butter. Very creamy, and allover YUM.

Figure 1: almonds in the food processor - period.

Figure 2: getting grainy and looking dry

Figure 3: hardening and looking dry still

Figure 4: breaking up and getting more creamy

Figure 5: oh, yum

Figure 6: even more yum!

Figure 7: with some added flax and scraped down the bowl

Figure 8: final product into an old peanut butter jar
Love the recycling

You can bet nanner's nutters will be involved in the bake sale auction coming up July 20!!
Any more bakers? Several people have volunteered with some fun things - thank you thank you !!

4 months post partum

4 months ago today, Nick was born! It has been a quick 4 months but it also seems like so long ago he came into our lives.

RUNNING
4 months later, I feel in a good place with running and fitness. I am just starting to work on speed and get some speed back and do some harder runs. I think that if I didn't run Boston in April, that maybe I would have been able to start speed training a little bit earlier. Lately, my knees have been bothering me a bit so my schedule has been to run 3-4 days a week, with longer mileage. I'll try to do 7 miles in the morning and 2 or 3 in the afternoon so that I'm taking more days to swim and do strength (Jillian). This seems to give my knees a break and is working so far.

WEIGHT/BODY

Finally here around 4 months just like some of the moms out there told me, I'm starting to drop weight. It feels awesome, and my arms are getting toned from carrying around the baby and some help from Jillian. My abs are getting back into shape too - I really feel like Jillian workouts are helping! Yesterday I did the shred level 3 and the trouble spots one and I feel it today - I love that! I'm enjoying my bigger rack.... but there are times when I miss my flat chest.

June 2008

June 2009

TRANSITIONING
Most days I am happy with my decision to stay home with Nick. I think it was the right one for me, however, some days are hard. It is hard for me to drive by schools during the day. I feel sick doing so. I feel like that was the old me and now this is the new me, but I will somehow find a place to combine the two as Nick gets older and more members are added to our family - I definitely want to be a teacher for life and don't plan on giving that up. I can't believe I have not been teaching for 4 months! This has been a transition but I don't think that I will regret this in the future. I just miss my job for sure!!

All in all, Nick has been a fantastic addition to our lives. :)

I hope that you will consider participating in my bake sale for Dana Farber coming up in July. I think it is going to be really fun!

Friday Foods

OSG's PEANUT BUTTER FLAX GRANOLA BARS

Granola bars are Mmm... mmm... good! I started with THIS recipe and ended up adapting and using THIS one. These were amazing!!





Dinner last night: Kind of boring
Green beans and potatoes
Dr Praeger's veggie burger
Portabello with breadcrumbs and Locatelli cheese
Barley cooked in vegetable broth w/ a tad of butter

Bake Sale Auction

Bake sale time! I am soooo excited for this!

I have raised over $3800 towards cancer research for Dana Farber as I trained for the Boston Marathon this past April. Now is the home stretch, as the money is due July 31st, and I would REALLY like to meet my goal of $5000. In an effort to do so, I have decided to host an online bake sale auction here at Lil Runner July 20th. Check out a sweet example of this here.

Do you like to bake?? Do you like to share what you've made?

Donate baked goods! Or fun running things!

(Email me @ tosha25italia@yahoo.com if you will donate!)

Cookies, breads, muffins, bars, granola, homemade peanut butter, cake, cupcakes, etc. Any fitness gear, gently used running gear, & "care" packages of nutritional items: GU, PowerBars, LunaBars, Clif Blocks, Luna moons, fun running needs!

When someone wins an item, you would send it to the winner.

How you will benefit:

You will be donating goods to a fantastic cause - Dana Farber is all about cancer research and also works with children cancer patients through the Jimmy Fund. It is an awesome charity and they do great things. You will also be able to promote your special baking talents!

If you aren't a baker, you can bid on items

On July 20, visit Lil Runner and bid on items! You only pay if you win the item, and all funds will be donated directly to Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

If you have any items that you would like to donate, shoot me an email - tosha25italia@yahoo.com ! Include a picture if you have one or send that later.

I really appreciate your consideration and help!

SAVE THE DATE - JULY 20th!!

Thanks so much!

Natalie

Jillian abs, kale

My abs are sore today from Jillian round 3. Yeha!! Love working on getting my abs back!

RUNNING
Today I worked on speed for the first time. I did a bunch (didn't count) of 1/2 mile repeats with 1/4 mile in between recovery/slower jog. How do you work on speed? What types of workouts do you do?

Swimming
Yesterday I was very unmotivated after doing around 300 yards, and I trekked through the workout that was on the board, but I think it was a crappy workout. It called for 12 x 100s. 12? I can get through maybe 6 and not be bored, but 12? So I had to make up my own thing to get through the yardage. I did 4 total laps of fly yesterday - I know I'm getting there when I can do one lap straight of it, so I was able to do that 4 times for 75s - we're on our way here! I really need to swim with other people. I might try to go tomorrow to the masters - but I say that almost everyday.

Eating
I found a yummy kale recipe. It called for cannelini beans and kale. I used my soaked pinto beans instead. Boil the kale - a bunch of it - for 8-10 min or till firm. Put aside. In the same pan, use olive oil and a clove of garlic (minced). Add a couple sprinkles of rosemary(this is terrible, I rarely measure things out unless I'm baking). Then add in 1/2 cup of white cooking wine. Cook until the wine cooks down a bit, and it is a little bit syrupy. Add in the beans and kale and cook till heated through and the wine is soaked up. YUM!!

I went to the store today (gave in) but mostly for next week. I bought some brown rice syrup and I plan to try these out later. I passed on the agave nectar for this time. That stuff is expensive!

I'm thinking of doing an online auction similar to OSG to see if I can raise anymore money towards my Boston Marathon. I'm short of my goal of $5k by around $1200 and really believe in the cause.
Stay tuned for that.

Rock star jumps

Check out the rock star jumps midway through. I am unable to do these things! I think I think I'm going to fall. They are intense! The shred was much easier to do with weights instead of using Nick (when I could) - he is heavy!! (It became a little much holding Nick when they were doing punches, so I had to use no weights since I was away). This is just awesome they are on Youtube!! Is there another level or just three levels?

A meal to share

Tonight for dinner I had some angel hair pasta w/ broccoli, mushrooms, white wine and garlic. After that, I was determining what Bill could have for lunch that we had - since I am trying not to shop this week, and we have all this produce, and many beans and grains. I prepared some lentils yesterday and had leftover quinoa, and here is what I did:

Sauteed some garlic in olive oil, added in the lentils, quinoa, couscous and some brown rice. Add in cumin, salt and pepper. I didn't really measure much...

Voila - Nanners multi grain lentil salad:
The only bad thing is that it was so good, I was eating it at 10pm!! (not even hungry!)

Thank you for all of the ideas for what to use instead of butter. I do already use olive oil, but I should probably get butter out of the house!

Running today - 7.25 miles in the morning (nick asleep whewww!) and 1.35 until Nick woke up in the afternoon.

FOOD EVERYWHERE
You've probably noticed lots of pictures of food, recipes, etc. Since I am not working, I need to focus on SOMEthing.. so that thing is Healthy eating!

IDEAL WEIGHT here I come
I was on the scale this a.m. and was 132 something! It was after running, and yesterday was mid afternoon. Either way, I feel like I'm on the way down. Whew!

Owater & Granola Bars

Addie at Owater sent me some waters to try out. The infused owaters are "your healthy sports drink." They are made with all natural flavors and no fake sweeteners. The different flavors are made with natural flavors, electrolytes, antioxidants and pure cane sugar. Here is a label from the blueberry flavor:
You can see the ingredients and nutritional facts on the website for each flavor.

Taste : Lemon lime tasted like watered down gatorade. The other flavors tasted like water with a hint of flavor - just enough to be tasty, but not too sweet.

Nutrition: Not only does it contain electrolytes, but also antioxidants. I don't like how it has 9g of sugar, but it is better than using aspartame or another type of fake sweetener

Cost: From what I've looked at, Owater costs a little over a dollar per bottle. It is around the same price as Vitamin Water, and now that I think of it, has a similar taste to Vitamin Water.
So, it is a bit pricey, but has more going for it than gatorade (which also has high fructose corn syrup in most flavors).

Overall : I like how the waters contain both electrolytes and antioxidants. It is 'good for you' water. Like most special waters, the price is on the higher end. But unlike other waters, owater has all of the good stuff in it. I wouldn't replace owater with my everyday water drinking, but I will try it out for long run nutrition. If I buy a case, I will save it for before or after long runs or races.

You can find it locally by using the store locator tool or buying online through amazon or other retailers. Check the website for more info!

OWATER review

________________________________________________________________
Last night I made some granola bars using a recipe from Allwhites.com that I happened to clip from a magazine. I made some changes to the recipe - and they turned out pretty good!
They were chewy and not too crisp. Some of them fell apart, but overall, pretty yummy! I would add in some cinnamon and maybe cut the honey. I also added in some water.

I halved the recipe and made the changes below.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup chopped dates
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water
  
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds
• 1/8 cup ground flax
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 of 1/3 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 2 egg whites

Mix it all together and spread on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 16-18 minutes. Enjoy!







Marathon Recovery Article - anything to add?

So long, Kashi Go Lean

Well, this is unfortunate, but I can't eat this stuff anymore. It was great for my protein but I couldn't figure out what was giving me terrible gas problems! It was this!

I went to the produce market again (Gentiles) and spent around the same amount ($25) - this place is great! I'm trying to only use what we have this week plus the new produce. Poor picture of the produce drawer. I bought - strawberries, grapes, nectarines, zucchini, kale (new one), broccoli, mushrooms, portabellos, potatoes, sweet potatoes, a jalapeno for Bill, and apples.
Last night I made my weekly spinach frittata but overcooked the spinach, I'm still going to try that tonight. I am planning on pairing some veggies with quinoa, bulgur and couscous, but these are like sides. I don't have any main meal ideas? Do you have any main meal ideas using beans, the veggies above, and grains listed?? I've never used kale before and tried it in a smoothie today - but how about for dinner? Pass along!

Today I had my oatmeal w. almond butter and oatbran, and sometimes in a rush I just eat it out of the pan - did that today.

On the way home from the Y, I realized I hadn't packed anything to eat so I ate a Luna Bar that was stashed in my car, and had a Dr. Praeger's veggie burger for lunch w/ a nectarine. Mid afternoon snack - smoothie w/ frozen berries, aria protein powder, kale and banana. I feel like smoothies are treats!


For swimming, my new thing is going to be to see how quickly I can do the masters workout that is on the board. Today I did 3100 and it took me 54 min. As I was swimming and totally just thinking, I was kind of getting inspired to try a triathlon - it was inspiring reading Mama Simmons great job yesterday and I think it would be cool to try one. So - if anyone has a good local one to try out for a start, let me know! Great job all of the SD marathoners yesterday! Run to Finish, Julianne, Aron, Danica... awesome!

This afternoon my sister called and was here for the day (from DC) and wanted to go running!! The three of us went running the loop - 3.3 miles around 33 minutes. Bonus workout! : ) I am starting to feel less thick around my middle and went on the scale, and I finally lost a pound! whew! I was stuck at 135.2 and today midday 134! Maybe I'm heading down! 128 here I come!! 3 pounds from pre-prego weight now, let's keep it up body!!! Good eating!!

Dinner - Boca chicken patty, spinach frittata, lentils, quinoa, sweet potatoes and ketchup. Check out that rainbow!!!

What do you use instead of butter?

We're down the shore for the weekend and I realized I've been using a whole lot of butter for veggies, bread, pasta... I love butter! In fact, my sister made it a point to tell everyone at my wedding that my mom used to catch me eating STICKS of butter behind the curtains when I was little. Hard butter does not appeal to me, but melted butter on bread.. mmm. But I need to move away from the butter (and the cheese!) We used whipped butter at home, but I didn't buy any when we came to the beach. What do you use instead of butter for veggies? pasta? on bread when you just want the taste of butter?

I ate 2 bowls of ice cream last night! Ahh!!

We took Nick to the beach for the first time today - so much fun!

BOB IRONMAN

The bob on the right.
Travel system on the left

I have a few complaints about this thing. Maybe it is just things I don't know about it - anyone that has one, let me know your thoughts?

* The storage thingie under it - I can't even fit my diaper bag in it without having a war with it. It doesn't fold down or anything to get things in there?

* Making turns - can sometimes be kind of rough, especially right angles. Does the swivel wheel one (revolution) work better?

* The plastic thingie up top - I can't even see Nick's face using this thing. Now he is in the infant contraption, but when he is bigger, what will I be looking at - the top of his head?


On the positive side, it is versatile, but he does bounce around quite a bit on poor roads. Down the shore, I've had to tip toe over curbs at the end of each block so that he isn't bouncing everywhere!

A friend of mine - Lauren - has the travel system by Graco. The bottom part folds down to fit things in, and it still has a cup holder, and the plastic thingie works perfectly to see the baby!

What do you have to add?