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.