Hello again

Well hello again internet. It's been a while. Life gets in the way of life sometimes, but I'm always here. So here's a quick update since the last time that I posted:

- House - done! Moved in October, crazy painting ensued the first week we were in, and then just regular moving stuff. To date still have some things in boxes, but who doesn't these days? Latest projects around the house included three new trees planted (two in the back yard, one more to the front), Mo wall has been hung, new tv and new entertainment center, and installed cabinets/countertop/utility sink get-up in the laundry room.

- Sadie - so. much. fun! She's got a vocabulary that is growing exponentially on at a daily rate. Running all over the place. Loves giggling and making any animal sounds that you can name (if she knows it, otherwise you get a blank stare or a monster sound).

- Church - topic of long ago but is now up to date. We've started going to a church that just opened up really close to our house and Thomas has been involved in playing drums with the worship band on an every-other-week basis. Fun stuff. Still feeling it out but feels good to be around a group of people who aren't completely self-centered like the rest of the world seems to be lately.

- Food - no longer vegan. Kind of put that on the back burner when we moved. Things got fairly chaotic and that was just one thing that I thought could be sacrificed. I would love to go back, to have a more conscious decision in what I eat, how I feel, and how I impact the world. I'm just not there yet commitment wise.

Enough for now. I'll probably be keeping these pretty short for sake of time. But it's always good to get your brain empty once in a while from everything the world throws at you, you know?

Oh - and FLORIDA at the end of the week! Woohoo!

A record in the making

For nearly two months now, I have been writing down in a little daily planner/assignment book every dinner that I have eaten. If it was some great concoction that I whipped up of junk in the pantry to an actual planned meal (gasp!), great eat outs (love you Mochi Kitchen!) to run of the mill hungry and cheap Taco Bell, I wrote it down. Every night. Well, with the exception of maybe three nights in the span of the sixty that have gone by since I started - I was way too busy to remember three days back what I had eaten. Moving, building a new house, and chasing after my now one-year old daughter may have something to do with that.

Then, the few nights like tonight come along where I feel like I blew it. I ate dinner. I ate a vegan dinner, or at least knowingly vegan (some bread may have had eggs, milk, butter, in it, but I won't die...). But the fact that I have to write down that I ate an ENTIRE medium sized pizza from Domino's is a little shameful. Oh, did I mention the half of a box of bread sticks with marinara? Or the Dr. Pepper I had to drink with it? Yeah, that blew my whole concept of write-down-dinner-so-you-don't-eat-like-crap plan that I was aiming for totally out of the water. Oh well.

I have noticed though that I no longer have the guilt factor attached to my eating habits. Just because I may have even a bit too much (ok, way too much) tonight, I won't mope about it tomorrow and starve myself with just a measily lettuce and tomato salad. I realize that my body was telling me that I was hungry and it needed food. I may not have given it the best quality of food, and I acknowledge that. I no longer obsess about how many carbs or calories or grams of this or that I had and then try to balance it out with the items I eat the next day. I eat because I'm hungry. I eat because I need energy. And 90% of the time I'll eat pretty good. The other 10% can be split between the "could have added more veggies to that homemade pizza" or "should have had brown rice instead of white rice" category.

Maybe one of these days I'll be brave enough to post my dinners list on here. If I don't feel to put down at how the list started and turned ok, then not-so-good, then better. The typical rollercoaster of being busy. But that's for another post, when I have more guts to post.

Short post

Lame, I know. But better than not posting anything.

House status - the exterior only needs a sprinkler system, sod, and paint. The interior got plumbing finished out the other day so we only have electrical finish out, paint touch up, carpeting, and baseboards. Woohoo! (Of course, minus the few issues here and there that have to be fixed before I sign anything.)

Sadie status - insane. Lovable. Crazy. Sweet and giggly. AND WALKING! Well, you may not count a few steps on her own while chasing a her pink lego dump truck wagon walking, but I do. So nyeh. And she's a master at devouring birthday cupcakes, seeing she's already spoiled by having two birthday parties!

Veganism status - going ok. Not wanting to eat meat for sure. Not really missing cheese, although rather frustrated when certain Mexican restaurants have cheese in every stinking menu item. Even their rice had cheese. A litle overkill I think. On a more positive note, the cupcakes that I made for Sadie's second first birthday party were a hit! They were from a recipe for vegan fluffy white cupcakes (just Google it) and I added vanilla frosting on some, chocolate on others. I found that most frosting is vegan, as long as it isn't the cheesecake, buttercream, or milk chocolate variety. That leaves vanilla, "classic" chocolate, confetti, strawberry, lemon, etc. The list goes on and on. But I found that Duncan Hines had a better selection than Pillsbury or Betty Crocker. Go Duncan! (Probably not intentionally vegan, but I'll take it.)

Me status - pooped from birthday parties, travel, work, building a house and all of the financial finnaggling that's associated with it. And last night the house alarm was going off at 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning for no reason. Then I guess the U-verse went out because the alarm keep beeping the rest of the night. Luckily, Sadie didn't wake up at all - considering that one alarm pad is about 10 feet from her crib.

(No) fear of flying

Thank goodness we leave tomorrow for our trip to St. Louis. I can't wait! A break! Woohoo! A break from work, from new house stuff, from daycare, from laundry and household chores, from driving around with the same idiots on the roads. You know what I mean. This is the first vacation that we've gone on since February. It's going to be Sadie's first flight too and hopefully a peaceful easy-going one - so think the naive new parents. We'll see. She's usually pretty good. But then again there are those times that you can't prepare for. Luckily, the flight leaves around 7 pm, so Sadie should still be awake but getting sleepy. Just the right time to peak her interest quietly at all the new surroundings. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Too long, so busy

It's been a while - but no time lately to write, or even gather my thoughts. Between work, the new house going up, planning vacations, planning birthday parties (Sadie's almost 1!), being sick, bla bla bla. The list goes on. Unfortunately, I have let myself go a bit lately in the sense of no me time. No time spent enjoying the things that I like to do by myself for myself. Sans hubby. Sans kid. (Love you Sadie!) Sans timeframe. None of this have to be back by three o'clock so I can do the next thing. Just good old time wasting fun. And enjoying it. Nope, not much of that lately. Always go go go. Maybe I just need to find a book and go to some park to truly get away from everything, including myself. Not to mention the lack of energy I have lately, which could be partially due to my super crappy way of eating - still vegan (for the most part, the occassional milk-containing chick'n nugget may find its way onto my plate), but definitely not the healthiest. I think I have been eating WAY too many grains and breads lately and not enough veggies to keep up some particular nutrient that my body is screaming for to regain its energy. Oh, super food, where are you? Why aren't you on my plate right now, first and foremost, right on top of everything else that seems to be on top of my plate lately?