Feeling a little better...

After spending nearly 3 days curled up under a comforter on the couch, I feel a little better. I even managed to do 3 loads of laundry. I am seriously jonesing for some comfort food (after living on tea all weekend) and was thinking about baking a batch of brownies (mmmmm melty chocolatey goodness) but decided to go a healthier route and I am making a big batch of vegetarian bean & barley soup instead. Originally it was going to be beef and barley soup but over the course of my illness, the beef I had set aside to cook up in soup went bad! Nooooooooooooo! So I found a recipe I had bookmarked back in October and I'm trying it. It smells wonderful but I might be the only one to try it. My husband said he hates barley. I needed to use up the rest of the beef broth anyhow... I also have some chicken broth and could make a chicken noodle soup but the chicken is frozen and I just didn't feel like defrosting it. I know, that isn't a big, onerous deal, but the thought made me tired. I still have plenty to do - vaccuuming and packing up the kids' bag for tomorrow (first day at the new sitter's) and more dishes - there are ALWAYS dishes - and laundry to put away... wow, reading all that IS making me tired! Maybe I'll just make some tea. One nice thing about being sick though - I actually finished reading a novel over the weekend. "The Other Mother" - good book and a perfect read on a cold winter weekend.

sick ... so sick...

I felt fine on Thursday - at least until about 9:30 PM. And then - wham! It just hit me - and I felt awful. Achy, tired, runny nose, headache... the works. I managed to watch "Chuck" before stumbling to bed for a restless night. I don't remember much of Friday ... I was curled up on the couch in a couple layers of clothes (so cold... just so cold) and a comforter while the little ones happily threw toys around and watched too much Noggin on TV. As soon as my husband got home he sent me to bed and I slept for nearly 2 hours. I felt better when I woke up - well enough to eat a bowl of oatmeal (my first meal all day) and after the babies went to bed we watched "Superbad" which he had rented earlier in the week. I still felt crummy though. I managed to find a nearly empty bottle of Nyquil and finished it off - and actually slept soundly. Today I still feel weak and exhausted. My husband ordered my favorite pizza (cheese / green peppers / tomatoes) for dinner to inspire me to eat - I have mostly just been drinking berry tea. I did eat 2 slices - but probably should just have eaten one as I now feel bloated and icky. I read online that keeping warm helps fight a cold or flu so I found our old heating pad and have been resting it on my tummy which feels very nice (even if my husband IS rolling his eyes at me!). I hope I feel better soon...

Happpy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday was my birthday! And it was a perfect day too. It was cold and snowy but since I didn't need to go anywhere, I was able just to watch the snow from inside my warm apartment and think about how pretty it was without worrying about icy roads. I made my favorite dinner for the family - pot roast, potatoes, carrots and dinner rolls and also baked a chocolate cake for dessert. I was lazy all day - I even took a nap! In the evening we watched "American Idol" with the kids and after the little ones went to bed, watched "Biggest Loser" and "Law and Order SVU". Couldn't ask for a more relaxing, stress-free day.

The kids even surprised me with gifts. With a bit of subterfuge at Target they were able to use some of the money left of Jared's gift card to buy me lavender bedroom slippers (my favorite color) and two pairs of fluffy socks - and put it all in a nice birthday gift bag. I actually drove them to Target and didn't suspect a thing!

Also, on Sunday I met up with some old friends from high school at Panera Bread - it was fun to catch up and the soup & hot cocoa were awesome! My parents will have a birthday party for me on Super Bowl Sunday.

American Idol tonight

Wow - American Idol is back already! I know I'll at least tune in these next few weeks to watch the auditions. Last year I lost interest somewhere between the top 24 being chosen and the finals - I just wasn't really rooting for any one contestant like I had in years past (Daughtry!). But I'll give it a chance again this year - and really, with the ongoing writer's strike there isn't much competition. Unfortunately American Idol is up against my new favorite show "The Biggest Loser" but I'll probably just DVR that. At least then I can skip through all the boring crying parts!

Baby Shower

My cousin Jen's baby shower was Saturday. Her first child - a little girl - is due on March 19. Her sister Joy is due at the end of March and their sister-in-law Megan is due April 9th. Wow! Anyhow, Jen lives in San Francisco so I hadn't seen her since Tom & Megan's wedding in 2005. Jen looked great! I wish I had looked that good ANY of the times I was pregnant. We only played two games - we decorated newborn diapers with markers and we competed to see who could make the most words out of the Baby (Lastname). My mom won. Then Jen opened her gifts - lots of darling clothes, homemade blankets, towels and bibs, and plenty of toys. Next - snacks. Chocolate cake, peanut butter chocolate brownies, chips, veggies, chex mix and pop. Lorene had fun playing with her (second?) cousins and even felt comfortable enough to let Jen pick her up. Jen assured us she completely intends on using whatever pain relief is available for her delivery. I can't wait to hear what she names the baby - I think Sadie would be cute personally. My aunt thinks Jen and her husband are leaning towards Irish names so we might have a little Saoirse or Sinead or Niamh in our family.

Old Navy Sale

Old Navy is having another one of their famous 75% sales this weekend! I had some Christmas money leftover so I had to stop in. I bought a striped long sleeved tee for myself ($6.53), a long sleeved tee shirt for my 5 year old ($1.79) and a pink fleece sweatshirt for myself ($3.14). I debated about buying a tunic style fuschia top for work - I wasn't happy with the fit. It was not on clearance - if had been just $6 or less I would've bought it no problem. But it was $19.99. I guess I'm between sizes - the one size was a little too big and I know I'd be uncomfortable and constantly adjusting it, but the next size down was a bit too small. I'm not 100% happy with tunic style tops anyhow - they seem too "maternity" to me or something. I also tried on a puffer vest but it fit weird too - which was unfortunate since that was one thing I was definitely planning to buy. I also looked at jeans but I had already tried the baby's patience with the first trip to the fitting room and didn't want to push my luck. Oh well - I got 3 things for less than $12 so all in all it was a good trip!

The Buckeyes

So.... the Buckeyes lost. Again. sigh. My 5 year old has spent the rest of the week playing his big brother's NCAA football game on the GameCube and coming up with scenarios that have the Buckeyes winning by margins of 100 points (or more). Then he will excitedly exclaim "And NOW Jim Tressel will be happy!"

The Biggest Loser

My husband and I have just started watching "The Biggest Loser" this season. We had never watched it before and the couples premise sounded interesting. I had expected it to be made up of married or dating couples and in actuality, most sets are of non-romantic partners (parent/child, siblings, best friends, etc.) I think they should have used "partners" not "couples" personally. Anyhow, the contestants seem mostly likeable - no one stands out as getting a "villain edit" - yet. A few aspects of the show are somewhat concerning though - they seem to ignore the fact that EVERYTHING shows a sensible weight loss should be about 1 - 3 pounds a week. They act shocked and disappointed when contestants lose in that zone and act like weight losses of double digit numbers are normal and expected. Also this week a contestant ate 200 calories worth of M & M's in a challenge - she gained 1 pound at the weigh-in and the host seemed to blame the candy for the weight loss. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 200 calories does not equal 1 pound of weight!

But those quibbles aside I think it will be a good show to keep watching - and I am enjoying rooting for the contestants to get healthy. I wish the show would spend more time focusing on healthy eating though.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year's! We had a very quiet evening at home - both the little ones were sick. I was going to let PJ stay up until midnight but by 10:30 pm he was begging to go to bed poor kid. We had plenty of snacks for the four of us: pumpkin pie, a huge veggie tray with dip, mozzarella sticks, pigs in a blanket, melon, and chips. We watched videos on MTV until we put the baby in bed. My husband amused us all by showing he could, indeed, "Vogue". Then we watched our new Prince Valiant dvd - three episodes in all. PJ loves Prince Valiant! We wanted to play wii games with him but he didn't feel up to it. After he went to bed, we played Guitar Hero and to my great pride I scored the 2nd highest score on "Barracuda"! Not too bad for someone who could barely complete a song on practice mode just last week. At 11:30 we turned to the NBC New Year's show and watched the countdown... then went to bed. Woo-hoo!! Next year we have the older kids with us again - although they will be 13 an 17 by then and might have exciting plans of their own... plans possibly NOT revolving around eating celery sticks and pie with mom and dad!