Life Bulleted

• Las Vegas is not for a pregnant lady with gestational diabetes
• Life will go smoothly until you return home; then child reverts to poor sleeping habits and crankiness
• Mini eggs are even more tempting after Easter, when they are on sale and a diabetic no-no; so are creme eggs
• Apparently corona (or any other alcohol) is an acceptable form of breakfast in Las Vegas
• Preparing for the vacation always takes longer than adjusting back to regular life
• Even though it feels like your belly can not get any bigger... it always finds a way to surprise you, making you feel even more hippo-tastic
• Three days of 80 degree weather have quenched any desire for a warm summer. Please keep it to the 70's and everyone around me will be better off
• Outlet shopping is never as fun when you are pregnant
• May 23 can't come soon enough, yet at the same time I don't want it to ever come
• Hiring a personal grocery shopper might not be a bad idea
• Chocolate cheerios and fresh raspberries are awesome for breakfast or any time of day
• GD I rue the fact that I must live with you and not enjoy chocolate milk, ice cream, key lime pie and all other forms of sugary goodness (chocolate cheerios and raspberries included)

Problems and Solutions

One loaf down....many more to go!! The bread actually turned out. I don't think it was the world's best bread but it wasn't as hard as a puck so I will chalk that up as a success! Not sure I would make the same kind again, but you have to start somewhere. Today I am contemplating making challah bread. It's so good. The only restaurant on Roosevelt Island served challah bread french toast, YUM! I don't know how it would be coming out of a bread machine, but it might be worth the effort. I realize making bread in a bread machine is like painting a picture using paint by numbers, but it's okay by me. Why continually fail at a task if there is something to help you succeed? It's a win win situation!

My only dilemma now is how do I store the bread to keep it from turning into hockey pucks? Ziploc bags? Are there Tupperware-esque containers specifically made to store homemade bread? We don't eat it fast enough to just wrap it up in a dish towel or something. Maybe some of you Marthas out there can help me out with this quandary.

My other quandary is finding someone to come on a vacation with me!! Girls only! Anyone interested in a few days somewhere a little warmer than the northern states/Canada? 4 days on a beach, relaxing, pools, food a-plenty, good books, good friends......let me know! I'm thinking February or March maybe?

Deep Thoughts

Here's what's been on my mind lately.

I don't think I can get to any of those places on one tank of gas can I?

North vs North

The wee one and I will be heading off for an international escape tomorrow...wish me luck on the drive, any hints for well behaved 10 month olds in a car for 7 hours would be welcomed! Perhaps I will treat you all to some foreign words of wisdom as we explore all that the great motherland has to offer, well that which is located in our city anyway.Hopefully the spouse survives without us...as I suspect he will, albeit with dirty dishes and unwashed clothing! But survival nonetheless. Perhaps he will keep our readers occupied with his political blatherings, sports statistics or random ventings since there will be no one here censor or shut down such ideas!!

To the North!!

Leaving On A Jetplane

Anyone seen this show?
http://www.aetv.com/airline/index.jsp

I love it!! Nothing better than watching irrational, drunk people try to board their flights. Oh how I feel for the employees of Southwest Airlines. Does not make me want to work at an airline, ever. The best was a guy who wanted to jump onto an earlier flight and there was some sort of fare difference or something and he had to pay $1. $1. He would not do it, threatened some guy in line who said he would pay the $1, yelled at the ticket guy (who also offered to pay the $1) and had them call the cops because he felt threatened. Once there, he went off on the cop about Southwest charging him $1!! Oh alcohol, what a fickle fiend you are.

So entertaining.

You Go Right Ahead, I'll Meet You In The Car

Tonight Mark asked me if I would bungee jump off of this, the Verzasca Dam in Switzerland, for $1,000,000. My answer is an unwavering NO. Not for a million dollars cash, a million dollars in shoes, not even for a million pairs of shoes.
There is no chance on God's green earth that I would jump off anything higher than a normal height stair. I'm pretty sure it would take plenty of coaxing...and the promise of many pairs of shoes...just to get me to walk across this dam.
Yet another reason why you won't see me as a contestant on any installment of The Amazing Race. I am happy it's back on for my entertainment though, and to read the awesome recaps on EW.

Sounds of the Season

So I guess it's time for the obligatory post-Christmas post.

Why does it seem like Christmas was 6 months ago already? There is so much lead up time and then it is over just like that! We were able to drag it out a little with Christmas in Idaho, a mini-Christmas in Fargo and then Christmas here in Minnesota.

This year we decided our Christmas would have a theme; the winning theme was Sharing. We thought it would be best to extend this theme to Mark's entire family, not just with the three of us. So we began on Christmas...with a niece and nephew. By that evening Mark and a few others had taken part. I was the lucky recipient the day after Christmas. We were all more than happy to share with others, but those on the receiving end were not too happy about the sharing. Isn't Christmas all about sharing and giving?? I guess when you're passing around some form of the flu, people would prefer that you kept it to yourself.

Mark asked me a good question after this hit me...he asked if I was more upset that I had become sick or that I had put an end to my 18 year streak without throwing up (not even while pregnant did I vomit. Yay me!). I was obviously more bothered that I had to reset the streak. So I am now happy to say it's been almost 2 weeks since the last incident!!

Other than our bonding over flu bugs, Christmas was a lovely time. Idaho was continually dumped with snow while we were there, we lost a day to travel (thanks a lot low visibility at Idaho Falls airport and thanks Alamo for ridiculously high one way car rental prices), but we enjoyed hanging out with family and friends. We weren't able to get down to Utah to visit with everyone we wanted to due to the pesky snow, winds and difficult driving conditions that plague Idaho in the winter months, hopefully we can get out to visit this summer!

We were even able to visit with some of my family when we returned home; We jumped back in the car for a 3.5 hour drive to Fargo for New Years. I have to say, Fargo might be the rocking-est town to be in on New Years Eve. Spectacular. Ok, not really. Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve is lame no matter where you watch it, even if it is in a hotel room in North Dakota. But when you have a very over tired, stuffy nosed 6 month old, what else can you do?

I guess all that is left to do it to look forward to next Christmas and hope and pray that you're spared by the gift of sharing!

Here are a couple of Christmas pics. Out of all of T's gifts, the tissue paper was her favourite by far!