How About Them Apples

So almost a month ago, something crazy happened.  I turned 30.  Gulp.  For anyone who has been following this blog, you know I was having a bit of an issue turning 30.  I had made the conscious decision to not be in town for that birthday.  I didn’t know where I wanted to be, but it was not here.  About six months ago, I decided that I wanted to turn the big 3-0 in the Big Apple.  It is and always has been one of my favorite cities.  I wanted Brad to go with me, but he was in the middle of a crazy travel schedule, so he told me to bring my sister.  Shh, she was my first choice anyway : )

I am a sucker for “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” on Food Network and began compiling a list of places and things that I wanted to eat for the next visit.

Boy did we ever!  We visited both a grilled cheese and mac and cheese stand, had toasted marshmallow milkshakes at Stand, tried a really yummy Italian sub and some outstanding gelato at Eataly, ate pizza at Lombardi’s.  And even ventured over to a Greek restaurant which was phenomenal!  The donuts at Donut Plant were life changing and I’m not sure I can ever eat at a Dunkin Donuts again.  After three separate attempts, we finally got a table at Serendipity 3 and the Frozen Hot Chocolate was what I had always imagined it would taste like.  Of course if there was a cupcake place nearby, we had to try a couple.  You know, for the sake of research.  We hit up Magnolia a couple of times and tried a place called The Little Cupcake Shop.  We didn’t have a bad meal/snack/sweet the entire time we were there.

Of course, we did other stuff besides eat.  We went to Happy Hour with one of my high school friends.  Had dessert with Courtney’s college roommate and her now fiancé and grabbed pizza with my college Graduate Hall Director.  We went and saw “Newsies” on Broadway which was perfect.  It is one of my favorite movies and the playwrights did it right.  We burned up SoHo and Fifth Avenue and tried to boost the economy.  We conquered the subways.  We visited the 9/11 Memorial and went to the top of the Empire State Building (totally touristy, but we hadn’t done it before).  We walked along the High Line in Chelsea and explored as many neighborhoods as we could.  It was a perfect trip.  Although it didn’t stop me from turning 30, it was the best way I can think of to celebrate a birthday.

Since then we have moved out of our house and moved in with my parents.  We will be living here for 2 months and from now until we moved out I am taking a hiatus from this blog.  I’ve started a completely different one (and trust me, I’ve got plenty of material), so visit me at www.60moredays.wordpress.com if you want to know about the adventures of moving back home in your 30s : ).

Have a great rest of April and May and I’ll be back in June!

Our House is a Very Very Very Fine House

This was the last full weekend in our current house.  I would like to think that I’m not affected by it.  I’ve never really had much of an attachment to this house because I knew it was a temporary venture.  All of the walls are still white, we never even did much decorating because this house was looked at as a tax break and an escape from renting.  It was hardly a year after as we moved in that we were trying to find a better house to move in to.  The housing “crisis” hit within months of us closing and at that time the builder slashed prices by tens of thousands of dollars to get rid of the inventory, so there has been a lot of resentment towards this house.  We overpaid even in the craziness of the mid 2000s and we will never recoop most of our losses.

I haven’t had that much negativity the whole time we’ve lived here.  This was our first house as a couple.  It was one of the first we had looked at and at that time it was out of price range.  Within a month both of us had gotten raises, so we went back and took another look.  It was new construction and only the foundation had been poured, so we could pick out the carpet, cabinet, linoleum and counter colors.  We were grownups since we were finally making grownup decisions and a GROWNUP mortgage payment.  We were 23 and buying a house with our own money and a decent down payment we had scraped together.  We had lived very frugally in college and after graduation, so this was a reward for our sacrifices.

It was a gated community which was nice considering I spent the better half of the week by myself.  We had one connecting wall with our neighbor since it was a duplex, but in the years that followed, we’ve only heard them once.  It had three bedrooms, which was enough for a guest bedroom and a study (and possibly a baby?).  A huge walk-in pantry, two walk-in closets, two and a half bathrooms and an enormous master bed and bath.  There was a fenced-in backyard that was perfect to do some gardening, but no grass to mow (and the grass in the front yard was taken care of by our home owners association).  A community pool was just an added bonus.  It was the perfect starter home.

We closed six months to the day after our wedding and we moved out of our awful apartment.  I did cartwheels in the empty family room and we spent the next couple of months adding blinds, drapes, pictures and knick knacks.

There was a bit of a learning curve.  After spending my entire childhood on the other side of town, I had to learn where things were and how to get around.  Most of the area was farmland when we moved in, and we are miles away from the closest highway and when I changed jobs after living here for a couple of years, it took weeks before I knew the best way to go to and from work.

Flash forward six and a half years.  Although I still have some issues with it, I have to admit that this has been a really good house.  A very, very fine house even.  While we lived in this house we got a dog, I found out I was pregnant, Chase was born, and we’ve had fun get togethers and dinners.  We both started new careers while we lived here.  My love for baking blossomed in that kitchen.  My little nook on our oversized couch has been my area of comfort and solace ever since we moved in.   There are too many fun and funny stories to count (most of them involve me locking myself out of the house while in the backyard and having to jump our six foot privacy fence).  It has been a perfect size for us and if we had to, we could live here for many more years.  In the past couple of years we’ve gotten to know our neighbors and I am sad that we’ll be leaving them.  We’ve put miles and miles on the asphalt around our ‘hood.  When we first moved in, Brad and I would take walks when it was nice outside, since then Foster has sniffed every single blade of grass of our usual path, my pregnant self waddled around countless times (including at 10:30pm on a rainy night when I was super uncomfortable) and Chase loves the attention the neighbors always rain on him whether he’s in his stroller, wagon or walking on his own.

We’ve fallen in love with the area so much that we are only moving a couple of miles away.  There are running paths all around.  Part of the farmland was developed into a much needed hospital and medical park, more of it was built into a huge shopping center that has a ton of stores that I love and still isn’t packed all of the time.  The biggest concert venue is a couple of miles away.  Most of my doctors’ offices opened satellite offices around the area, Chase’s doctor is nearby and the school districts are good.  Our sitter lives less than a mile from our house and neither of us have to take the interstate to get to work.  In fact, just about any way I go to work I drive through mostly farmland.  It’s unusual in this day and age.

So while I would like to think that it’s no big deal that we’re moving and that we’ve basically been searching for a new place to live ever since we moved in, I will miss this house.  When I look back and think about it, this has turned into our home.  A home that has kept us warm and safe for the longest stretch that I have lived in a home full time.  A home that saw a couple grow into a family.  A home that despite it all, I have really grown to love.  I relish the last couple of days that we are here be grateful that we are not yet selling it.

I can’t wait to start building memories in our new house very soon.

30, really?

There are parts of my life that have dragged on and when I really think about it, it seems like I’ve been here an awful long time.  Then I realize that soon I will be thirty years old.  How did that happen so fast?  Not a teen.  Not a young adult.  Or a twentysomething.  Thirty.  It is still tough for me to swallow.  Most days I have to remind myself that I actually do have a real job and that this is my real house and I have a husband, and I did go through eight(ish) months of pregnancy and that really is my child.  I still feel like it is just me and my sister playing “house” and that one day I’m going to wake up and realize that I am still 13, not THIRTY!!!

If I were to think back to when I was 13 or even 18 or 20 when I thought about these types of things and wondered where I would be when I turned 30 or where I wanted to be when I turned thirty, then I would be pretty pleased with myself.  I’ve been happily married to my high school sweetheart for almost seven years.  We still enjoy each other’s company, make each other laugh and I can’t imagine being with anyone else.  We have a home that we both really like and we’re in the process of moving into our dream home (or as close to a dream home as you can get when you’re thirty).  We have a child that we couldn’t live without and a dog that makes us happy.  We both have jobs that we really love (95% of the time, which isn’t bad at all).  We both even work for great companies in the area.  We have been to a bunch of really cool places.  We both still have our health and there really isn’t anything I would change.  So I don’t know why I am having such a tough time turning 30.

Everyone keeps telling me that their 30s are the best.  Eventually I will come to accept it.  I keep reminding myself that any day on this side of the dirt is an accomplishment whether I’m 10 or 100.  Until then, I’ll enjoy the last couple days of my 20s (and they really are numbered).

We’re Moving, God Help Us

We’re not very good at moving.  After the inevitability of moving every single year in college, we did a pretty good job of settling down after graduation.  We lived together for nine months, got married, bought a house 6 months later and I sit writing on a couch in that same house six and a half years later.  We’re quickly outgrowing our “5 year house,” but the economy tanked, my job became a little less secure, and I wanted to make sure we could actually start a family before we moved into a house suited for one.  But the time is upon us, we have found a home.

Unfortunately, this moving process isn’t as easy as it should be.  We are renting our current house out starting in the middle of April (money talks, people), and the sellers of our new home are renting it back from us until the end of May.  That leaves us homeless until the beginning of June.  Of course, we aren’t homeless at all, we’ll be moving in with my parents, which will prove to be an adventure, I’m sure.  It will be wonderful to have built in babysitters, but it will double my commute to work and the sitter isn’t “on the way” to Brad’s office any more, so I think I will be doing a lot of the picking up and dropping off.  Plus we are used to having our own space, time and privacy.  Brad is traveling most of the time we will be living there, so he will have his own reprieve and I will appreciate the help while he’s gone, but I think it will be a long two months.

Don’t get me wrong, I am so excited about this new house!  Chase will have a playroom, Foster (and Chase) will have a backyard, I will have an ENTIRE PANTRY just for my baking stuff, we will have an attic, a room for an as yet conceived second (and third?) child (not to make an appearance until LATE 2013 or early 2014), and a fireplace in the master bathroom.  Yes, in the bathroom.  I am so excited to get in the house, I can hardly stand it, but we do have mere 79 days in between now and then.  Not that I’m counting.

Wish us luck.  We are going to need it.

Rainy Day Blondies

This past weekend was disgusting!  An entire weekend of rain and mud and cold.  I’m supposed to get in at least two more long runs before the half marathon in two weeks, but it was too gross to run either day.  Oops!

On Sunday I was tired of being cooped up all weekend, so I fixed one of my favorite treats, Triple Chip Blondies, then dumped a scoop (or two) of ice cream on them while they were still hot and they warmed me right up from the nasty weekend.  Next time it’s yucky outside, whip yourself up a batch.  They are super easy and super delicious.  Oh, and I promise they taste just as good on a hot summer day : ).  Enjoy!

Triple Chip Blondies

1 c. butter

2 c. packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 t. vanilla

2 c. flour

1 t. salt

2 c. chips (you can use 2/3 c of 3 flavors of chips, but I usually max out at 2)

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease a 9×13 pan.  Cream butter and sugar.  Add in eggs and vanilla, mix well.  Throw in flour (ok, you don’t have to actually throw it) and salt, mix until just blended.  Mix in chips.  Evenly pour into 9×13 pan.  Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Ugh, not again!

“Can you make yellow cake with chocolate icing?” If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it a million times.  For some reason this is the most requested cake/icing combo that I get.  I guess I should be happy for multiple reasons:

1. Apparently people like the icing recipe I use

2. It is my least favorite cake/icing combo, so with my very lofty (and often ignored) weight loss goals, I should be thrilled to make it because I can resist it if/when I have the opportunity to partake in whatever I’m baking.

3. It is really, REALLY easy to make!

Everyone I know is having babies, just NOT ME!!!  I had yet another baby shower to attend last weekend, so I made this obscenely popular cupcake combo and didn’t have any to bring home.  You can use just about any cake recipe and the icing recipe is on the back of a Hershey Cocoa can, but you can also get it here.  This is a double recipe which is enough to ice two dozen cupcakes or a two layer cake.

1 1/3 c baking cocoa

1/2 c butter

1/2 c shortening

2/3 c milk

2 t vanilla

6 c powdered sugar

I mix all of the ingredients together and mix it for about 5 minutes.  The original recipe only calls for butter, but the shortening helps it spread a lot better and not melt in your hands when you’re piping it.

Enjoy!

Shake it Up

I am having a tough time turning 30 (more to come on this, I am sure).  I have always had some issues with this age , so this isn’t something that just popped up out of the blue now that I’m thisclose to turning 30.   So as with most things in my life approaching this “enormous” milestone, I am having some insecurities/doubts/crisies related to this blog.

When I started it, which let’s be honest, wasn’t all that long ago, I wanted it to be a funny yet cute way to express my feelings on being a mother, going through life events, baking, traveling and working out to lose baby weight.  Continuing with the brutal honesty, there are millions upon millions of blogs that have to do with all of these things together or separately.  Most of those blogs have millions and millions of faithful viewers.  Although I love each and every one of you, I have devoted my career path to media and advertising, so one would think I would have a pretty good understanding on how to market myself and this blog.

With that being said, I need to take a long hard look at what I want to accomplish and what I want this blog to be about.  I need to set myself apart from others that are out there or decide who I want my audience to be.  Is this blog just for me or is it for everybody else?  Do I want to devote my entire website to my new existence of being a mother (because there is no lack of those out there)?  Should I be just sharing baking ideas and recipes (again, take a look at Pintrest, there are already a lot of them)?  Will this blog be my opportunity to spread my writing wings?  I love to write, I think I’m pretty good at it, but there are MUCH better writers out there.  I can write about my weight loss journey, but right now there haven’t been very many milestones to celebrate.  As of four weeks ago, I was still carrying some pounds of baby weight in addition to the 20 pounds I had put on the 4 years leading up to pregnancy.  I can’t really write about running either.  Even though I have almost 14 years of experience under my belt, I still don’t love running and a 3 mile run will still elicit as many moans, groans and procrastinating as a half marathon.

Maybe my biggest issue about turning 30 (and this blog) is that I am living a pretty normal life.  I have a job, a house, a husband, a child and a dog.  I have the same struggles as most everyone.  There is never enough money, time or energy to accomplish everything I want to accomplish.  There are always bills to pay and pounds to lose.  Don’t get me wrong, I am immeasurably blessed in my life.  I have a wonderful husband with a pretty compelling love story to back it up, a son who is perfect in every way (at least in my eyes), the sweetest dog ever and we live a very, very comfortable lifestyle.  We go on trips.  More trips than most people, but less than others.  I have a job that I enjoy the majority of the time, but I still have gripes and grumps about it.  I wish I had more time to hang out with Chase and to write and to workout and to bake and so far there are dreams and wishes that have fallen by the wayside, but that’s normal.  I am so happy in my life and I have nothing to complain about (again with the brutal honesty).

So, excuse me while I have this bit of an identity crisis.  If you see a bit of a blog makeover, now you know why and for all of you faithful readers out there, thank you for your loyalty and I hope you enjoy this glimpse into myself and my life as much as I enjoy writing about it.

Some Would Call it Progress…

I would say my biggest (no pun intended) problem with trying to lose weight would be consistency.  I have been known to work out for a week, not lose any weight, stop working out, lose 2 pounds, so then try to do it by changing my diet, then proceed to eat without consequences, gain 4 pounds, then start the cycle all over again.  This has led to my current 7-10 pounds worth of baby weight that won’t budge on top of the 20 or so pounds that had crept up over the 3 years before that.

I’m trying to work on sticking with it.  I’ve decided to go at it focusing on both diet and exercise.  I’ve started keeping a food journal and I am very honest.  So honest that I feel bad writing down that I had 2 glasses of wine and four servings of Oreos at 10pm.  Or even a measly fun sized candy bar at work.  I realize that it has only been a week, but for me that is pretty groundbreaking.  I am also doing more exercising.  Tuesday and Thursday I worked out on the elliptical for 40 and 45 minutes, Wednesday I ran 3 miles, Friday I lifted weights, then yesterday I ran a 14K (8.7 miles).  I took off today because I know I won’t be motivated to run tomorrow if I did anything tonight (I do know that about myself).

As I have mentioned in an earlier post, I have already registered for a half marathon in March (5 weeks from today), and the registration for the Marine Corp Marathon opens on March 7^th and if I am feeling really motivated, I will register for that.  That way I can cross something off of my bucket list, hopefully get into great shape, do the majority of my training over the summer and maybe lose some weight in the process.

I am not weighing myself this seventy-second attempt at weight loss since Chase was born because it hasn’t served much of a purpose up until this point, so if/when my clothes start feeling a bit loose, I will eventually step on them again.  I’ve had seventy-one failures behind me though and I would like this to be the one that sticks.  I’ve got a monumental birthday coming up next month, I would like to be able to wear my wedding rings again, fit into clothes that I enjoy wearing and also enjoy a baked good every now and then without feeling so guilty.

Wish me luck!

Winter Got You Down?

There is one and only one saving grace to winter, and that my friends, is skiing.  Well that and maybe Christmas too.  But after the hangovers of Christmas, New Years and then Brad’s birthday (all a week apart), there is nothing but a vast expanse of cold, illness and untanned skin.  Cue winter fun!

This January 8th was Brad’s 30^th birthday.  He had wanted to go skiing “locally” (i.e. within a 3 hour drive of the flat, flat tidewater area), but since it was kind of a big deal that he was hitting a big birthday and since my ever so enterprising sister had an ingenious idea to go west (complete with hotel recommendations), we decided to do it up!  This would prove to be a very good idea because there has been no snow whatsoever practically east of the Mississippi and south of DC this winter.  We had gone out to Colorado before, love the mountains, hated the two hour drive from the airport and had only heard great things about Utah, so we hit the skies on converged on Park City!

My sis’s high-school-boyfriend/close-friend-ever-since met us there as did Courtney and we had three amazing days on the slopes.  Everyone out there was very apologetic about the lack of snow, and it was such a major issue that at least half of the trails at every resort were closed, but it was so much more than we have had or were expecting that we didn’t mind at all!  Everyone got along so well, we loved the resorts out there and I think Brad had a pretty good 30^th birthday.  Of course, four days after we got home, Park City had an extra 3 FEET of snow on the ground.

I can’t complain much about this winter because even today it is supposed to be 60 with a weeklong forecast that includes only 50s and 60s, but hopefully my main man Punxsutawney Phil won’t see his shadow next week and we will be in for an early spring rather than pushing winter into April.  Phew, are we there yet?

Sisters!

Me and the Birthday Boy!

Oh the holidays…

I’ve been baking and baking and baking some more these past couple of weeks! With Thanksgiving kicking off the start of the madness! I fixed some pumpkin cupcakes for a friend. Then made some treats for my fam. Followed by cupcakes and a cake for a co-worker’s daughters 5th birthday. Then breakfast cakes for our realtor to hand out to his clients. Finally more treats for the holiday, which will really start today! On the hopper I’ve got Poor Man’s Toffee (so yummy and so easy), Buckeyes for my native Ohio in-laws, Coconut Orange Snowballs and finally Cheesecake Brownies. I plan on spending most of today in the kitchen and I am so happy to do just that!

Have a happy, healthy holiday season! Merry Christmas to you and your families : ). See you in the new year!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Cinnamon Breakfast Cakes

Birthday Cupcakes