Nothing Better Than Good Food

I love chocolate.  Unfortunately for me (and my husband's bank account) I don't care for what is traditionally sold in the united states.  Quite frankly, just about everything tastes better that hasn't come from the US.  The only chocolate sold commercially that I actually like in the US is the sympony bar sold by hersey's.  And is it actually a knock off of a european chocolate.  It should be no surprise that I've been looking into importing a few bars from overseas.  I found some that looked really yummy but it was 40 bucks for one bar of chocolate.  Not in this lifetime.  I'm actually at this moment sitting in bed devouring a 1/2 pound of a sympony bar with my daughter.  (yes unfurnately, it is her favorite as well)  At times like these I wish I was more adventurous with my palate.  But when I go out to eat, I like to LIKE my food and I'm always concerned that if I take a chance on some other dish that I've never had, I won't like it and I'll spend the evening annoyed and hungry.  We recently tried an Italian place that has the most wonderful Italian food I've ever eaten.  And guess what?  They immigrated here and make their food the same way that they would have back in Italy.  No wonder it tastes so much better than the crap at Olive Garden.  I've only had authentic Mexican food once and I swear it took a layer off my digestive system.  REAL nacho's are HOT.  I thought vodka packed a punch going down but it's got nothing on a plate of real nacho's.  There are many foods I will probably never try for personal reasons.  Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, those are unlikely to ever end up in my stomach or anything that closely resembles any of those.  I have issues with the way some of the countries produce and make their meals that I won't go into on this entry.  Mmmmm now I'm really getting hungry and Rocco's (the Italian place) closed almost two hours ago. 

Tags: chocolate, food

Setting it Straight

I'm sure there's very few of you out there that haven't heard that the UAW is on strike against General Motors.  My mother works at the H2 plant and my husband at the H1 plant.  These plants are NOT owned by GM but the people that work there are being directly effected by the strike.  The media had been told today that there was no immediate threat to H2 employees.  I set the record straight today.  I'm sick of them portraying themselves as a company that is always looking out for their employees.  They are only concerned with portraying themselves in a good light for the general public.  H2 employees were told TODAY that if the strike is still continuing as of Friday THIS week, they are not to return to work Monday or until further notice.  H1 employees were told TODAY that if the strike continues into mid October, they too would be facing immediate layoff.  Funny how AM General claims that no ones job is in immediate danger.  H2 employees were also told today that they may not be eligible for unemployment benefits due to the layoff being a direct cause of a UAW strike.  It's really frustrating to have my family in this circus and then read comments from people who only know what they hear in the media.  People who only believe what is said on the ten o'clock news.  They think by watching a half hour of news, that they know everything about a situation that they could know.  The media can only report what is confirmed.  They cannot report what is behind the scenes heresay.  It's upsetting to see people commenting on news cast websites about how the UAW is worthless and the people that work for them lazy.  They are talking about my mom and my husband.  That's a direct shot at me.  I think people should keep their comments to themselves till they've heard all the facts not just the ones that the corporate CEO's want you to hear.

Tags: GM Strike, AM General

I also heard someone say a quote today that I greatly enjoyed.  (I was easedropping on other diners conversations) He said "A sure sign of ignorance is a person who thinks he's smarter than everyone else"

Trippin

I started a pilates workout video today.  I thought I knew what I was getting into, having known a few poses and thinking they were fairly easy.  The video isn't that hard but my muscles are still shaking almost a half hour later.  Hopefully, they're doing something productive and not just whining about doing some work.

On Monday we headed to Turkey Run, just outside of Crawfordsville, IN.  It's a hiking/campground/Inn.  We used to go there often as kids.  It's a bit of a drive (little over 3 hours) so we haven't been in about four years.  We took the old favorite trail when we first got there.  (myself, Jasmine, my mom and brother)  Trail 3 is considered rugged.  And had we completely read the brochure before taking the trail, we would've realized it might not be the best trail to take a two year old on.  There are two very steep wood ladders.  Beneath/around said ladders is nothing.  There is a tiny cliff and then nothing.  I was terrified to carry Jasmine down.  I kept seeing myself falling, or dropping her somehow.  My brother went down in front of me, backwards to catch her if something happened.  I went down on my butt to try and keep my balance.  On the first ladder, you can't see that there is a second, steeper ladder just around the corner.  By the time we got down the first ladder, it was too late to turn back.  There was no going back up the way we came and no other choice but to go down.  (I will have pictures later) Again, my brother went first and I, second.  It was slow going.  I would move down a step and he would have to move his fingers so I didn't smash them and so on and so forth.  Thankfully, we made it down and afterwards, realized it was easier than it seemed.  Jasmine did really well.  She did a lot of the hiking on her own.  We typically take the most rugged trails and this time was no different.  (See you can STILL do things when you have small children) There were a few spots the first day that she asked to be carried.  (across the suspension bridge for example) She learned a lot and asked a lot of questions which we encouraged.  The second day was much of the same, minus the ladders.  It was a bit hotter the second day and everyone's muscles were sore from the first day.  Jasmine was noticeably slower in pace.  =)  Between the two days she saw very large caterpillars, two blue tailed lizards, squirrels in abundance, butterflies, two very large centipedes and chipmunks.  She also heard a woodpecker or two.  She stopped at various leaves, picked them up and said oooooh poor tree.  =) All in all it was a good trip, too bad it takes so long to get there.  This weekend we'll be back to Chicago for one more visit Brookfield Zoo. 

Tags: Turkey Run, Pilates, Brookfield

I had bad bad day

When your day just goes from bad to worse you can't help but wonder why you bothered to get out of bed in the first place.  Woke up way later than I would've liked to.  I decided to be nice and let Jasmine watch a dolphin show from sea world on youtube.com.  I left the room to talk on the phone with my mom.  When I returned to the room, she had taken off 85% of the keys on the keyboard.  Now if I had a regular computer I'd be like whatever not a big deal but I have a laptop and the keys can be difficult to get back on and then once they're on sometimes they're not positioned correctly.  (like my spacebar is now)  It took two hours to get them all back on.  Four of them were completely dismantled so I had to use a flashlight to put the very tiny pieces back together.  And then of course, there were a few that I put in the wrong place.  I realized about an hour before the pharmacy closed that I had a script to pick up.  I had to rush to the ATM (in a not so great neighborhood) and then get into CVS before they closed.  By then it was almost 10 and we still had not eaten for the day.  Only thing open was Hacienda so off we went.  That didn't go so bad.  I know every server and all the managers so it's more like visiting with friends than going out to eat.  Afterwards I had to go to Walmart to get some things.  No sooner do we round the corner to the pets section than Jasmine takes a hard fall on her face.  She's screaming, I'm by myself, hands full, flustered.  I'm thinking she's probably just bumped her head and she'll be fine.  Then she starts spitting blood everywhere.  Her top two teeth went threw part of her lip.  After getting her binky, she's fine but now that I'm sure I don't have to go to the ER, I become NOT fine.  This is the first time she's really hurt herself.  Sure she's fallen a million times but never to the point of that much blood.  I begin to feel very faint and hot.  The whole time I'm thinking oh hell no, not right now.  Thankfully, after a few minutes of not moving, it passes but now I'm shaking like I just got into a car accident.  The shaking continues for the next two hours.  Who knew I was such a wuss when it came to a little blood from my kid.  I took her to the toy department and bought some cheap toys.  We go home and I'm probably being a little more lenient than normal.  After getting out of the shower, I don't make her wear a diaper for a while.  If she has to pee, she typically tells me.  Not today.  She decided to go pee on as many things as she could in an hour span.  She peed on my bed, my clothes, my floor, the couch, her clothes and I'm sure a few other places I'm not aware of.  While I'm cleaning up that mess, she dumps all her books over the living room floor.  (she has a LOT) I'm finally sitting down to relax when I step into something warm and wet.  Great, now the dog has peed on the floor but not just in one spot.  She peed in the hallway, the living room and the kitchen.  I guess she didn't go when I let her out earlier.  Oh, I forgot.  (shocking since I can't stop smelling it and it's given me a migraine)  She got into some clear nail polish, managed to get the lid off and emptied it's contents into my bedroom.  I hate the smell of nail polish.  It makes me sick.  She finally fell asleep sometime after 4:30am.  If the terrible twos don't end soon I'm never going to want to have more kids.  If someone told me you only have 200 more days left, I could live with that.  Everyday I'd wake up and say only 199, 198, 197 left.  There'd be light at the end of the tunnel, an end to the constant no's, don't, stop. 

Tags: terrible terrible two's

Stupid and Contagious

I am my biggest critic.  I used to be different.  I used to look in the mirror and think I looked good.  Now, I look in the mirror and see a chunky girl who is uncomfortable in her own skin.  How did that happen?  I've been working out... sort of.  It's not like I've been going to a gym, I just do stuff in my living room.  I like to jog but I fell off my mom's porch a few weeks ago and am still having pain so it's not as enjoyable as it used to be.  I tend to be the type of person that works out till I'm in so much pain I can hardly stand it.  I guess it's a type of self mutilation without breaking the skin.  It makes me feel better to work out till I hurt.  Right now, I weigh more than I did a month after Jasmine was born.  I didn't work out that whole month, I did nothing but sleep.  Here I am two years later and I've been working out and I'm not losing any weight.  I would be happy if my stomach was just flat again.  I'd be happy if it was as flat as it was last year.  I'll probably end up in a bikini this week.  *sigh* We're going on an overnight vacation and there will be a pool at the hotel.  I can sit in my room and be bored or I can go with everyone else down to the pool and try my best not to be self conscious.  I'm just feeling sorry for myself.  I should really just get off my ass and work out and quit my bitching. 

Dr. Doogie

Last night I began thinking about the night Jasmine was born. (I suppose I should say morning but for me I had been up all night, it was still night) My doctor was in the room getting ready to delivery Jasmine.  A nurse brings in a sleepy looking young doctor.  He seems excited.  Turns out this is the first labor and delivery that he will be seeing from beginning to end.  He's excited, I'm mortified.  At the time I was thinking you aren't touching my kid Dr. Doogie. (for those of you who don't know I'm referring to Doogie Houser, a show which has a very young doctor I think it was a 90's sitcom)  No way no how.  And he didn't.  =)  The only thing he was in charge of was watching, asking questions and getting the placenta out, which he failed at miserably but that's because my body wasn't giving in very easily.  Now looking back on it I think it's really neat.  I know he'll never forget that. 

Tags: Jasmine's birth, Dr. Doogie

Busy as bees

It was a busy weekend.  Saturday we went out for my husband's birthday to Hacienda.  He had fun.  I was sick with a bad cold so it was more a so/so event for me.  Sunday my mom, my brother's g/f Koda and myself all went to the Blueberry Festival.  It's the first time I've gotten to go.  There was a lot of neat stuff there.  Lots of crafts and more food than I could even process.  If I'd had money I would've went crazy at that place.  The fireworks were pretty good too but very loud.  I prefer them to be pretty with little boom.  =) The ride home was... interesting.  I've been very stressed out lately and sometimes it comes out in... odd ways.  I was driving and usually I know my way around Plymouth fairly well but I've never driven there in the dark or when there were 300,000 other people trying to drive away from the same area.  I got lost.  We ended up in the middle of no where, no cars, few houses.  It was pretty silent in the car.  Jasmine had fallen asleep not long ago.  Suddenly I brake hard.  I immediately hear Koda go what the hell???  My mom's looking at me like I've lost my mind.  They see nothing in road, no eyes peering from the cornfield.  That's when I proudly exclaim I didn't want to run over the baby frog.  "Omigod you almost got us killed over a baby frog!!!!"  =) I saw him at the last minute.  I saw a little hop hop hop and decided there was no way I was going to end his little life.  Apparently, the others in the car thought I may have made the wrong choice.  (looking back, I realize had I never hit my brakes at all, I never would've hit him that way either) It's instinct people.  I see living thing and I stop.  Sometimes I stop for dead things, just to make sure they're dead and not a suffering animal on the side of the road.  Once again the car becomes quiet after a lot of chickens clucking at me for my bad driving.  *eye roll* Suddenly I burst out laughing, tears streaming down my face.  The kind of laughing that you can't even get out the reason why you were laughing.  Eventually I told them I was laughing because I kept seeing the looks on their faces when I told them I'd stopped for a baby frog.  For the next twenty mintues the car was filled with cackling hens.  =)  Sometimes getting lost along the way makes the best part of an evening.  I'm just so glad that Koda fits so perfectly into our family.  It just feels right. 

Last night, me and Shawn were getting ready to pull out of the driveway to go get some food for dinner.  We live on a fairly busy road.  I immediately said omigod shawn do you see them?  There were two dogs in the road, a basset hound and a pit bull.  The basset hound having smaller legs just barely missed getting hit by a car.  My husband quickly pulled the car into the road and put it across both lanes of traffic.  =) Yes we are the people that you hate if you don't care about animals, we will go to any means to save an animals life, even if we have no idea who it belongs to.  Eventually we get them to go down a side street and we drive down there with them.  I get out of the car to try to coax them into the car till I can find their owner.  The pit bull warns me very quickly with a low growl that he isn't going any where with me.  However the basset greets me with his deep arwwwwwl bark.  He's slobbery but sweet.  I get up to walk to the car to tell Shawn that I'm not sure what I should do.  Something tells me to glance back at the dogs... mr. pit bull was just getting his teeth around my calf when he saw me and quickly ran back behind a tree.  Woooooosh.  Take a big deep breath... calm racing heart... you know you have to go back to those dogs.  Husbands advice is just knock on that door, their lights are still on.  Hmmm yeah it's 9:30 at night in a neighborhood that is very wary of people knocking on their doors.  We live quite close to bad neighborhoods.  I knock on the door, trying to look and sound as unitimidating as possible.  A man walks around the corner of the house and has a tone, "Can I help you?' I say yeah I was wondering if these were your dogs?  Obviously they're not, stupid question otherwise he would know why I'm knocking on his door.  He says no but try his neighbor they've got a lot of dogs.  Another tone?  Definitely not a fan of his neighbor.  Take a deep sigh and trudge over to the next house with dogs in tow, apparently mr. pit bull has decided he won't eat me... yet.  Another knock on another door.  baroooof ruff arf Many dogs come rushing to the door, more in anticipation of a visitorthan an intruder.  I'm told to go around the side of the house.  A big jolly man walks out with a cell phone up to his ear.  Immdietely asks where I live.  Normal circumstances would've had my hackles up and ready to lie but I knew why he was asking.  I told him just down the street on the big hill.  He says oh I brought back you doberman and I say oh, you're Bill.  He puts both the dogs away I can only remember the pit bulls name was Pogo, the basset may have been Pip.  After we've been talking awhile.  (he's lived there since he was a kid and knows a lot about my family, even back to when my grandpa owned the station) It was easy flowing conversation.  He had a demeanor that made me like him immediately.  Too bad he keeps trying to get my husband into his internet business or we might stop by there once and a while. 

Two days before that, I was getting ready to leave and Shawn had to move his car out of my way.  He comes walking up the driveway with a tiny puppy.  I exclaim we got a puppy!  He says No I found him.  I quickly scoop the dog up into my arms.  Definitely not a puppy, this one is getting up in his years.  Sweet but shaky, I take him to the only house I know that has small dogs, my next door neighbors.  Now at first I wasn't sure if she was going to open the door or not.  They have made it pretty clear from the beginning that they want nothing to do with us.  We live next door to eachother that does not make us neighborly. She eventually realizes the dogs aren't barking outside for no reason and opens the door.  Had a slightly puzzled look until she zeroed in on the dog.  The only words that were spoken was her: omigod  me:he just wandered on up to the house her: thanks and closes the door.  Hmmm, must have interrupted a load of laundry that just had to be finished right this minute. 

Like I said, it was a long weekend. 

Tags: blueberry festival, lost dogs, crazy women on a car trip

I am not going on big brother.  haha  The next season doesn't even start till next summer and even then, I don't think I could leave my kid for 3 months.  I'm getting my hair cut today and getting my bangs cut like Danielle's.  Yes, she's my favorite on the show but that's not the reason I'm doing it.  I just like the way it looks.  Though what I wouldn't do for half a million. 

BB is for ME

Ok I'm officially a big brother 8 freak.  It'll all be unveiled soon enough.  muhahaha                                    And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY HUSBAND.  HE'S A RIPE OLD 26!!!!