One Year and 26 Weeks

Hey kids!  I swear this is still a food blog- I'm eating all kinds of food behind the scenes feeding myself and the bebe.  In lieu of my regular weekly update, I have a picture summary instead.

This week went by well in pregnancy-related news.  I went to the doc and I'm measuring on track and the little one's heartbeat sounded great.  I'm steadily gaining the pounds and everything is healthy in that department.  I met the last doctor in my practice and they all seem like decent human beings- decent enough to show up and catch the baby.

The bump is getting bigger and pointier by the day.  My newest party trick is getting my shirts splattered in water when I do the dishes.  Good times, people, good times!

In life news, we spent this weekend celebrating a very important family member- our Chino.  This weekend marked the one year anniversary with our favorite boy.  Adopting Chino one year ago was one of the best things that have ever happened to me and I can say with 100% certainty that he makes us smile every single day.   I get sad thinking about him not being an only child (and yes, he is my child), but I know we'll do our best to adjust to life with him and his little brother.

We took him to the big dog park on our day off and he ran around like a crazy little guy and we had a great time watching him

We loved walking around and watching the sunset.

And hubby took a belly picture for the week once the sun was setting.

I love these moments with my boys and it's great to take a break every once in a while and enjoy the moment, rather than wishing time away.  I think my boy agrees.

My Holiday Weekend

Hey ladies and gents!  A rare random post from me, but I'm off work for the entire week, and therefore, have a lot of time on my hands.  I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday weekend.  We don't celebrate Christmas but there is nothing wrong with plenty of days off and everyone getting together with their families :)  

If you've missed it, this weekend started off with my weekly pregnancy post.  I'm now at 18 weeks!  I have always loved the holiday time and this year all the lights seem brighter and all the food tastes better.  The best thing about this week is that I got my hubby a week long pass to my yoga studio so I now have a buddy to go with me.  I'm so excited to have him join the cult this week!

Here are a few of my weekend highlights:

Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe-Joe's. Oh mylanta.  Give me more!  I haven't quite regained my full sweet tooth, but a couple of these make for the perfect sweet treat!

Eggs on top of salad with mango salsa.  This kind of made my morning- try it!

Ice cream for lunch at the movie theaters.  Baby needs the calcium :)

A 5.5-mile hike with the family on Christmas morning.  We didn't see Santa Clause, but we did see this cool ornament display on our way.

A sweet puppy who lets us torture him.  I'm not sure what Chino celebrated before we adopted him, so we covered all bases, just in case.

I hope you had a great weekend!  If Santa visits your home, what did he bring?

Friday Night Date Night

Oh, look!  Another post from me.  It's been a week since I came back from my last work trip and my first real, live weekend in two weeks.  We kicked off the weekend with dinner at Lark Creek, a local restaurant that we have walked by hundreds of times but never went into.  The place prides itself on local, mostly organic cuisine and we sat down to some warm bread and ordered our starter, a tamale pancake.  The shredded chicken, avocado, and tortilla strips made this a perfect, unique starter.

 For our entrees, we decided to roll with a lamb special for the husband, who said it was perfectly done.

 I went with the seared scallops accompanied with butternut squash risotto and roasted kale.  It was perfectly prepared, salty, creamy, and full of flavor.

Just to prove that although I don't always blog, I still can't stop the picture habit, hubby caught me taking this one of my food.  Goober :)

We are off to enjoy the rest of our real weekend- we have a hike and movies on the agenda.  I am also going to be spending time with this little buddy.  (Another photo taken by hubby, don't be jealous of my glamorous outfit).

Oh Yeah - October

In the words of the pop princess, "Oops I did it again."  A whole month without blogging and now here I come crawling back.  In the last month I've been on a travel spree with almost a week in Atlanta, and just working away. 

Oh, and food- there has been food along with it all, because a young lady has got to eat!  I needed a lot of energy to focus on my trip.

Pumpkin yogurt in the airport

Ceasar salad in the hotel at midnight

Hotel room all to myself

In the last weeks since being back, we have been working away on the kitchen.  It's not quite 100% done yet- but here is a sneak preview.  I am 1000% in love with it and I'll post some good before and after pictures once we are all done.

Another couple of things that I am 100% in love with are my boys.  We went to an enormous dog park today and walked around and let the beast run free.  It was a fabulous day.

What are you loving these days?  If I have any readers left, tell me what's new in your lives.

The 'Before'

Hope this Wednesday is going well for you guys!  I spent my morning with the little furry boy (the dog) taking a walk around the park and doing some generally sniffing- you know how it goes.  I am slightly more energized and looking forward to a long weekend. 

Since this once used to be a food blog, I'm about to share the disaster that is my kitchen- we are in the middle of a remodel.  Fancy paint color, right?

We are so fortunate and blessed to have help from my father-in-law and eventually my dad in these renovations.  It is so.much.work and my only contribution has been accompanying the hubby to endless home improvement stores, tile stores, and other places that do not sell delicious food or shoes.  I also make and bring the boys lunch.  So very ladylike of me but we really do not want my 'services' in this part of the remodel.

And the husband?  He has been the project manager extrordinairre.  This man has been on top of everything and has been working his butt off to get things done.

For now, here are the 'before' pictures.  The kitchen has been functioning and livable and I have used it for the last 3 years.  I realize there is nothing wrong with it, but we are upgrading it for a more modern feel and to customize it for ourselves since we plan on being in this house for a long time.

Did I mention it will take 4 weeks or so and we will be without a kitchen for 4 weeks?  Yep- it's true.  There will be a lot of wraps, salads, and sandwiches in our future but it's all worth it.  It's another excuse to get in one of my favorite (and excessive) treats- pomegranate arils.

One being not particularly impressed with the renovations is Mr. Chino- he doesn't need much as long as he has his food and his bone.

Boos, Apples, and Catching up

I am long overdue with my recap of Mexico and everything else that has been going on around these parts.  There has been a lot going on here on the life/house/fitness front, so let's get going!

Boos
We kicked off last weekend (not the one that just happened, but 2 weeks ago) with a blog meetup with Amanda and Andy of Two Boos Who Eat.  Amanda and Andy were staying in the city for Andy's work-related conference and I scooped them up and took them on a train adventure with us into the Oakland/Berkeley area. 

Mr. Apple and I lived in Oakland for about a year and thought it would be nice to walk through the area and of course, explore some of the food.  We had Ethiopian food at Asmara on Telegraph Avenue and ended up at Ici for ice cream.  These two places contributed to a good weight gain when we lived in the area as a recently-dating couple (me mostly) but are well worth it.  Amanda eloquently posted so I encourage you to read her recap here.

We had a fantastic time talking food, travel, mixed martial arts, and the functional fashion of men's skirts together ;)

This past weekend we took a little break from our remodel (more on that later) and went to a party at a friend's house.  I brought my easy mango shrimp ceviche with plantain chips.

In other exciting news, Hello Kitty has appeared at my yogurtland. It's pretty amazing.

Chino has discovered a new hobby- mud diving.  He did this not only once, but twice and I kinda loved watching him.

Now that I've ripped off the posting band-aide, I'm going to try to update more. 

P.S. I'm obsessed with instagram...every picture looks really cool with it.

What's new with you?

Weekend In Numbers

I'm always just about a couple of days behind so it's perfectly appropriate that I post about my weekend on Monday night at 10:00 PM, when most of my readers will get to it on Tuesday morning.  I'm smart like that.

Anyways, I hope you had a nice weekend!  Mine was not really relaxing, but we got shiz done and for that I am thankful.  Here is my weekend in numbers:

2: Number of waffles consumed this weekend for breakfast

6: Number of home improvement stores visited this weekend.  If anyone knows me, this is a big deal.  I get the cold sweats and feel sick to my stomach in these places, but it had to be done and I'm so excited for the renovations coming to our house!

I got a little bit of cabin fever in the car if you can't tell ;)

4: Number of walks taken with my furball.

11: Number of miles walked this weekend

3: Number of favorite creatures in this picture taken at the farmer's market

Countdown till next weekend: 4 more days!

Scenes From a Weekend

Thanks again for hanging in there and coming back to see my blog and to read my trip recaps.  Before I bombard you with another posting of gratuitous photography, I'm going back and doing a regular post.  This weekend was so good, SO good!  I spent time outdoors with a hike each morning, took 3 yoga classes (even one with my mother-in-law!) and worked out with the husband. We ate delicious food, got help on remodeling, and got to see both of our families.  My heart was so happy ;)

These boys- they are obsessed with Angry Birds and ended up playing together for much of the evening.

This boy found a new friend at his grandparents' house and snuggled with him while looking out the window.  I'm just happy he didn't follow his typical dog park behavior on this little stuffed friend.

We took home leftovers and made delicious grilled wraps and I may have hit a new veggie consumption high.  I may have also hit a new popsicle high this weekend too.

My favorite breakfast this weekend was a slice of quiche from Costco with salad.  It worked and I was powered up for the day.  Veggies for breakfast is the new black.

Anything you are looking forward to this weekend?

Our First Race

Thanks for all of your feedback on orthotics (um over a week ago, BAD blogger).  I'm happy to hear that none of you really have much personal experience with them.  Believe me- that's a good thing. It also means you aren't 80 years old or anything so give yourself a high five!

I ended up going to my favorite running store and got fitted with new shoes and insoles.  I figured $40 for insoles was a good test run before I go with the $750 version and I am feeling tons better.  So good that I participated in my first organized walk last weekend and wanted to tell you guys about it.

First we fueled up with waffles.  The best waffle topping is vanilla Greek yogurt, almond butter, and banana slices. Seriously.

After carb loading, we were off to our local downtown shopping area for an event called "Animals on Broadway".  The event was sponsored by ARF. I should probably start by saying that you can skip this post if you have no interest in dogs and such, but who doesn't like puppies?  Also, the only food in this post are my waffles but now that you read this far, here are the cute pictures:

Getting ready for the big walk

Race gear on and ready to go:

Checking out the adorable competition:

Walk time- keeping a good pace:

We did it! A mile only takes so long to walk!

I have had more laughs, snorts, and smiles in the last few months we adopted little guy and I am now totally a dog person and go to dog events.  I admit it and it's fabulous.
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I've got lots planned this weekend since it will be in the 70s and perfect.  I hope you guys enjoy yours!

I leave you with the cutest picture.  Puppies and babies =)