The weekend!

Happy Friday!

(Friday=Laundry Day for us!)

Bean Burger

I LOVE veggie burgers. But they are expensive. Remember how I have committed to being a vegetarian for the months of June, July, and August, since being a vegetarian for February was such a success? Anyway, the point of this story is that I want to eat veggie burgers all summer long, but I think I should learn how to make my own. My first try was a half success:

They looked good, and tasted good, but did not hold together AT ALL! They were like sloppy veggie burgers. I read a lot of recipes, and then pretty much followed one, with parts of other recipes mixed in.

Bean Burger

- 1 c of mashed black beans

- 1/4 c of oats

- 2 T of BBQ sauce

- half a sauteed chopped onion and 2 sauteed chopped mushrooms

- salt and pepper

I fried one up in a skillet right when I made the mixture. It kind of fell apart in the pan, but then those pieces held up ok in the bun. I froze the other patty. When I fried that one, it held together perfectly and I thought I had succeeded! But when I bit into it, it completely lost its shape and became a huge mess. But both times it tasted good!

So, has anyone ever made meatless burgers that held together well? And will share their secrets with me?

5 Mile Run!

Yes, we ran 5 miles this morning! That is easily the farthest I've gone since Violet was born. And my goodness, do I have a blister to prove it!

I didn't think we were going to make it far this morning, not because I didn't have the stamina, but because Violet was acting like a crazy person. She literally fought every piece of clothing as I dressed her. She screamed as I put on her diaper, and flailed wildly as I put on her dress, and threw a tantrum for each of the socks. The she arched her back and wailed as I put her in the carseat. My goodness, such a drama queen! Then, we started to run, and she relaxed! She was in the stroller for over an hour, and was so happy and calm the whole time! Such a sweetheart. (The reason she was in the stroller for so long was I had to walk to my friends house, which is a couple of blocks away, then run the 5 miles, and then walk home).

(upon finishing the run. I was feeling pretty triumphant!)

Glenn and I run about 2.5 miles every Monday and Friday, but I didn't feel like I was getting in any better shape going only twice a week. So I asked my friend if she wanted to start running on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and it turned out she is training for a half marathon that she runs in two weeks! Anyway, we ran 3 miles yesterday, and today she ran 6, but I stopped after 5, which was my plan all along, because of where the route took us. It was just better for me to stop after 5, and I'm glad I did, because my blister is pretty bad!

Incidentally, book club was a huge success last night. 8 girls came, so plus me there were 9 of us! After we discussed the book, we were talking about running, and it turns out all but 2 of us had run half marathons! I thought that was pretty cool.

Oh no...

This happened yesterday:

My baby can climb furniture now, I guess. She didn't even act like this was hard. We really have to keep an eye on her these days!

Progress!

Getting Violet to eat anything (besides breast milk) has been a challenge. She just doesn't love any of the baby foods enough to keep her attention long enough to eat more than a few bites. In the past, when we've tried to feed her pieces of solid food, she would gag on it. But yesterday everything changed! At our ward dinner, she ate a few beans! It was the first food she has ever chewed and swallowed. Then today at lunch she ate every piece of avocado out of my salad! Maybe she won't be a picky eater after all! When she had finished all the avocado, I gave her all the yolks of hard-boiled eggs, and she loved those too.

(This picture was taken long before we had any success getting her to eat anything.)

I'm so excited she is finally figuring out how to eat some real food. Now we can bring her some snacks to church, and maybe even get through the whole three hours without having to nurse her. Which would be awesome because it is going to be absolutely impossible to nurse her in my easter dress.

Afternoon at the park

The other day, Violet woke up from her nap, Glenn wasn't due home for a couple of hours, and I was tired of being in the house. So I put Violet on my hip, grabbed a blanket and her sippy cup, and walked to the park.

It was a beautiful day; we have been having wonderful weather here! I just sat on the blanket and watched Violet explore. She never went more than a foot or two off the blanket, I think because she isn't used to crawling in grass. Mostly she just crunched leaves in her hands and occasionally tried to eat them. It was such a nice afternoon. I have a feeling you'll find us spending a lot of time at the park in the coming months!

The time I saw my first celeb since I've lived in LA (not counting Sanjaya)

Of all the weeks for Courtney and Judson to come with me to story time, this was the right one!

On Tuesday morning, we headed over to the library for story time as usual. But when we got to the childrens' section, there were security guards outside and the librarian stopped us as we went in. She told us we had to sign a release form for story time today because there would be cameras. Well, long story short, The Mayor of LA and Jennie Garth (of 90210) (the show, not the zipcode. But maybe the zipcode too) read the stories! Here is a super flattering picture of Violet to prove it:

When Jennie walked in, she walked right up to us and said, "OH, A BABY! SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!". And then they interviewed me after story time, but I didn't say anything interesting, so I doubt I was on the news that night.

The ant smasher

We are still just hanging out with Courtney and Judder-dudders!

As you can see, Courtney brought her ipad, along with some freshly-downloaded baby-friendly apps! Violet is surprisingly good at the ant smasher! It was fun having the ipad at church. Just one more thing to keep her entertained!

This is funny?

Courtney and Judson are visiting us right now! So fun!!

The other day Glenn got out his tech-deck (tiny skateboard) and was playing with it. And Violet thought it was HILARIOUS! See for yourself:

Farmers' Market again

I haven't been to any of the farmers' markets for a few weeks, so Violet and I went to my favorite one downtown yesterday. We rode the bike! It is funny riding with her, because when people see me, they don't notice her at first, and then when they do, they exclaim, "OH, HOW CUTE!" when I'm already a little past them. And riding through downtown you pass a lot of people on the sidewalk, and literally about half of the people do this. It was pretty funny. As I've mentioned before, people here are all so nice!

There was a new vendor at the market this week:

Cool, huh? There were probably 100 different spices! I really wanted to buy a couple, but I only had two dollars to spend. (Incidentally, I only spent one of those dollars. I got the biggest carrot you've ever seen and some kale.) The ones I probably would have bought had my funds allowed it were tumeric and tikka masala. There was also some really pretty pink himalayan sea salt! Fancy!

Also, Glenn and I went on a date last night! Last week at church, the relief society teacher taught about service, and at the end of the lesson we all had to write on a piece of paper a service we needed done for us. Of course, I put babysitting. Then we all drew a paper and got to do that service for someone! So a girl from my ward came over tonight and watched Violet. We went to a restaurant in Chinatown that my friend told me was really good called Yang Chow. She also told us that the slippery shrimp was amazing. I know, such an unappetizing name, but it was delicious! Glenn said it was the best shrimp he has ever had in his life.

This picture

Yesterday, this picture popped up on my newsfeed on facebook:

Anybody recognize that crazy guy on the right??

(Dental school looks hard, huh?)

2 New Things

New thing #1: I hearby excuse myself from posting when Violet wakes up four or more times the night before. Which is why I didn't post yesterday.

New thing #2: I miss being a vegetarian. During February, I rarely craved meat, and I loved all the food I was eating, but as soon as it was March I went back to eating like I used to. We don't eat a lot of meat, but usually a little at dinner in a stir-fry, pasta, or on a pizza. Here is the thing: I feel like I eat meat for two reasons. 1. It makes cooking easier, because I don't have to be creative and come up with good tasting-vegetarian meals and 2. Meat tastes good, although my diet is significantly less healthy when I'm eating meat. So if you think about it, I eat meat because I am lazy and I'm a glutton.

I've just started reading this blog: No Meat Athlete. I read an article about how to transition from omnivorism to vegetarianism, and I have been inspired. It talks a lot about making the transition gradually. I know I'm not ready to commit to a lifetime of no meat, but it was easy to commit to being meat-free for February. Anyway, the point is I have decided that I want to be a vegetarian this summer. Doesn't the Word of Wisdom say something about eating meat in the winter and not in the summer anyway? So for June, July, and August, you won't find meat around here! I will use these next couple of months to prepare.

Now, because my sister will complain if I don't post a picture of Vi:

Buddies

Violet has really started to play with other kids the last few days! It is so fun to watch. This picture was taken at our married couple institute class on Friday night, where she played with Parker and Isaac a little bit. But yesterday at church she was especially friendly. Sofia, who is about a year old, was in relief society, and Violet was really loving her, but Sofia can walk so Violet couldn't keep up very well. Then Parker came in after relief society, and he still crawls. He was much faster than Violet, but she followed him all around the room, and every once in a while he would stop and pat her on the head and then keep moving.

It was so cute to watch her play, and Sofia kept Violet entertained through all of relief society, so I got to sit and listen!

At the beach

(I know, picture overload! But how could we not take a million picture when she looks so cute in a bathing suit??)

Glenn had yesterday off from school, so we celebrated by going to the beach! It has been such nice weather around here lately. I think the high yesterday was in the 80s! Violet has pretty much gotten over her sickness, and she was so good. We only stayed at the beach for about an hour, but Violet really seemed to have fun! She loved crawling through the sand, and even stood in the cold water for a second.

The downside to her crawling around the beach? A diaper full of sand. Before we left, we stripped her down naked and put her under the outdoor shower. She was a good sport about it.

I can't wait to spend a lot of days of this summer at the beach!

Stuck

(poor girl, realizing she is stuck under there!)

I'm feeling stuck today too. Violet is sick. Her nose started running yesterday and she is worse today, and SO fussy. I am always a little jealous that Glenn gets to go to school right now and I don't, but today I am super jealous. I dropped him off at school today, and it was hard to let him get out of the car with Violet crying at the top of her lungs in the car seat! What would I give to be the one going off to class for the day!

She is napping now, thank goodness, so I'm going to relax and read my new book for as long as she will sleep!

The seat

I promise we only went a few feet down the sidewalk with her in the seat with NO helmet! We just wanted to give it a little try, and Violet seemed to really enjoy herself! Unfortunately, the bike is now retired until her helmet comes in the mail. Well, I did ride it to institute today, but Violet wasn't in it.

p.s. Something bad has happened. You may remember that for about ten years of my life I teased my hair A LOT. And I was kind of addicted. Then, because my hair was so broken and awful from all the teasing I finally stopped. And for the last eight months my hair has been flat and ugly, but healthy at least. Then yesterday on a whim I teased my hair for church, and like 10 people told me my hair looked pretty! So now I'm hooked again. I teased again today and I'm pretty sure it is going to continue indefinitely.

Friday happenings

Happy Friday! Today, instead of doing the laundry, I'm heading off to a stranger's house in Redondo Beach to possibly purchase one of these!

I've been looking on craigslist for the one I wanted to pop up nearby, and one has! And he is selling it for only $25. So if it is in as good as condition as he says it is, it will be mine by early afternoon!

If you can't tell, it is a child seat to go on my bike. Violet and I are going to bike everywhere now!

Update: Success! Woohoo!

I can't wait to get it installed!

Happy Meat March!

Just kidding, we are not going to binge on meat just because it isn't February any more. But I might have a tuna fish sandwich for lunch!

Yesterday, I met Glenn for lunch, and we seriously had NOTHING to pack for lunch. So I had to get creative. This here is the last meal I cooked for vegetarian month. That doesn't mean it is the last vegetarian meal I will ever cook! I have loved so many of the things we've eaten this month; there are some I will definitely make regularly, like the lasagna and the enchiladas.

Disclaimer: I got a new cell phone (wahoo!) and it is really nice, but the camera is terrible! Worse than my last one! We really need to get our real camera working again. Until then, just bear with my terrible photos.

Four tiny pizza crusts...

the toppings...

The pizzas! Yum! I really wish I had better picture of the finished product, because they were really pretty.