News!!

I have Big News!! There will soon be a new addition to our family. That's right, a new baby!! We are expecting Oct 30th. I will be honest by saying that when I first learned I was expecting, I had mixed emotions. In my opinion, Dan and I had always wanted a third but we were too busy with two small children, traveling and life as we all know it. In some ways, we were selfish too. Babies are not small for long and we were both happy to be out of diapers, bottles, and sleepless nights. Then before you know it, your small children have entered the double digits. Megan will be 13 and Rachel 11 when this baby is due.
Yeap.. my life will soon change from what I know it. Tennis on Monday, Tuesdays and Wednesdays will no longer be on the agenda. That's OK.. (wait that's me convincing myself again) I'll be fine. But just like with the other two, this baby will grow and time will fly as fast as it has flown with Megan and Rachel.

Next month, we will find out if we are having another little girl or a boy. I'm not sure I realize the realization of how life will change, but I think once we know the gender, it will set in even more.

What does Megan and Rachel think about all this excitement? Megan is very excited!!! She can't wait to start buying things for the baby. (Megan loves to shop)Rachel is afraid she will lose the title of BABY. Those were not her words but she is jealous and is afraid mommy will no longer have time for her. I think she will change her mind when she sees how innocent and tiny this little human being will be.

Stay Tuned, it's about to get really interesting!!!

Germantown Mayor's Cup

Last Sunday I ran my third 5K in the Germantown Mayors Cup. I had not trained the week before because we were in Utah skiing. Actually, the skiing more than likely helped. I finished the 3 mile race and one tenth in 37:46. It's not what I had wanted but I did actually shave two minutes from the 5k I ran in San Francisco. The weather on Sunday was beautiful, 70 degrees at 7:30am when we started, and 80 by that afternoon. Unfortunately we are back in the 40's this week. The runners who ran the half marathon complained it was too hot. I can understand that. I want to continue training so I went ahead and signed up for the next 5K April 3rd at the girls school. I had wanted to train this past week but unfortunately Rachel had strep and was home two and half days. I played tennis two of those days but I can not count tennis as training. Anyway, so I'm left with one week to train. I should be ok. I know three miles isn't far to most but for me it's my limit. Mentally, I'm not ready to do more. More being a Half. Right now, I don't love running so I don't see running more than 5 miles in the my future. I did run/walk a 4 miler on Thanksgiving two years ago. It's called the Turkey trot. Great morning to burn some calories! I regret not doing it last year but it is hard to run and cook for people arriving at lunch. We may need to move Thanksgivng to dinner instead of lunch.

A few updates

First.. Congratulations to Rachel, she will star in Kids Kaberet in April. She found out tonight that she and four other friends made it!!!

Second.. You may remember me telling you that I follow a blog of someone in New Zealand. I'm happy to report that she's ok. She actually lives in Dunedin and the Earthquake was in Christchurch. I believe it's a few hours away.

Third- if you have a 12 year old daughter you may or may not appreciate what I'm about to share with you. Let me first explain that she has a huge passion for Make-Up/bath products. Frankly, I find it annoying! I just wish she would take all that energy and put it into her academics or playing tennis. This week I receive an email from Megan for a special request. I might add this week is Mid Term Exams. Just a side note.


Dear Mom,

Each month I receive 48 dollars. I would like to receive 38 dollars.
In this exchange I would like to have a subscription with birchbox.com.
Birchbox is a website that sends you high brand samples each month.
Some brands are Nars, Stilla, Too faced, Benefit, and Bare minerals.
Each month would cost 10 dollars. Rachel recently joined Fantage as a member. She may not
be lowering her allowance 6 dollars, but I would like to.
I think it would be nice to receive a little box each month with beauty samples. The box is pink
and I never get mail, so this could be kind of cool for me. If I don't like it the first time we can cancel.
This may sound silly and NO I did not get this idea from Juicystar07 or her sister, Allthatglitters21.
Thanks so much Mom. Please take this into consideration and remember I would be
lowering my allowance a whole 10 dollars.

Love, Megan (:



My kids get their age in allowance. Megan washes her own clothes and puts them away. I don't help at ALL!!! She also helps with walking the dog. I don't always think they deserve their allowance but I do think it sometimes help with money management. When they want something really bad, I tell them to save their own money. Anyway... I thought this email was cute. She's quite the negotiator. Her email makes it seem like she's lowering her allowance but technically she's still getting 48, she's just spending 10 on make-up. I agreed to the subscription. I'm hoping it will lose it's appeal after the first package arrives. She is referring to a Youtube site in the email that she follows. It's a girl who strictly talks about make-up. The girls have had so many hits on you-tube, companies now send them free make-up for helping advertise. I've accused Megan many times for wanting something just because JuicyStar07 says we should go buy it.
Anyway..so this is my life living with a 12 year old.

My Veggie lunch

When I was in Utah and also San Francisco, I had a grilled vegetable sandwich. So I thought I'd try to duplicate the same sandwich; and although not exact, my sandwich fulfills what I have been desiring.

Ingredients:

Eggplant
Roasted red peppers (you can buy fresh red peppers but what I use comes in a glass jar from Schnucks)
Butter
Wheat bread
Pesto (I bought a jar of basil pesto)

First, peel your eggplant. For lunch I use half of the eggplant. Quarter your eggplant once you have sliced. Place eggplant and roasted red pepper in a skillet with an generous amount of butter. (this is where it becomes less healthy). Add a small amount (1/2tsp)of pesto to the veggies. You can also wait and add it to the bread. As it cooks, take a slice of wheat bread and place on top of your veggies while they cook. This will just toast the bread, you could also use a toaster but why bother. I only use one slice of bread because too much bread can take away from the veggie flavors. Plus, I don't need all those carbohydrates. If you want to avoid the butter, you can cook your veggies on the grill but I'll wait till it warms up outside.
Very simple lunch and quite tasty!! I hope you will try it. I made this for my mom one day and she really enjoyed it and she usually doesn't try many new foods.