calories, calories, calories

My goodness, what a gluttonous day. For lunch Zeb and I visited Kent on campus and got free Panera (very similar to kneaders) at a military lunch meeting. It was delicious and very unhealthy- but the meeting was super informative and beneficial. It got me even more excited for our options of living overseas eventually! There were parts of it that reinforced some of my nervousness with Kent being in the armed forces, but I'm definitely super excited about our future in the Air Force.
For dinner I made my very most favorite Teriyaki Turkey Sliders. Oh my goodness- I love them! and they were quite the hit with the ward. I actually made them as part of a "healthy cooking" life skills youth activity. The kids were so surprised that the cucumbers on them actually tasted good! Kent helped out by making his fantastic fruit smoothies in the magic bullet.
Finally this evening (after we got home from all of our stuff) we dragged Zeb out of bed to go and take part in the 31 cent ice cream scoops at Baskin Robbins (half the ward and Kent's med school class were there too). Z was such a good sport. No tears and immediately back to sleep upon return home. There was a ten scoop limit at BR- Kent got SEVEN. What a little piggy. In his defense I must add that the lady scooping our ice cream was extremely stingy and the scoops were beyond miniscule.

To top off the day, unfortunately Zeb has a horrendous little cough and I had this wicked sinus headache so we didn't go running either- which just added to my guilt while consuming the calories. Oh well, huh? You have to have a few days like this.

Here's the little guy hanging out watching blues clues. I don't like when he's sick- but he's really cute just lounging on the couch. And I love this ladybug blanket- thanks grandma O!

Just a reminder - Tonight is 31 cent scoop night at

Wife neglect

As the school year winds down all the students anxiously discuss 'summer plans'. The summer after first year is basically the last summer we will have off. Many people have research projects planned, have scheduled to work in community clinics, or have a job lined up. This summer is the last chance to get some experience to get into a good residency program. My summer is going to be a little different than most... I'm abandoning Leisy. Three days after our final exam I'm flying to Alabama for officer training. I'll spend most of the summer in a classroom learning about the Air Force. The link on the upper left is a six minute video of some of the things I'll be doing.

I also applied to go on a medical mission in August to Nicaragua! I just found out I got in and I'm super excited. We will be working in a clinic for underprivileged. We will have a dentist on the team so I may get a chance to pull rotten teeth! Who knows what I will see while I'm there. I hope I get to assist in a delivery or something outrageous like that! I'm sure it will be crazy and a lot of really hard work - It will be so cool. The summer should be packed with some really exciting experiences. Unfortunately I will be leaving Leisy home with the growing rugrat. I'll miss his first birthday and a few milestones, but I think I'll miss Leisy the most.

zeb loves animals. We went up to Michigan to visit some friends this past week and they had Ellie- the giant dog . She loved Zeb and he loved her right back! His mouth was wide open the entire time she was around him. He does that with the vacuum and blow dryer as well. It's what he does when he's super excited and fascinated- but slightly worried.

spoiled little rugrat

Here you can see Zeb in all his pre-toddler glory. He's in that stage where he wants to walk and talk- but can't quite yet- so he whines and squeals when he gets flustered. My goodness, it's obnoxious. He's still cute though. We got the walker at the used toy place for five bucks. Best five dollars spent in quite some time. He's in heaven and should be walking on his own this next month. He can stand by himself and even took a step today (the step ended in a faceplant, but at least he attempted). He also said "head" yesterday while kent and I were singing "head, shoulders, knees, and toes". We'll try to record it next time he sings it with us.


* please note how quickly he can go from utter despair to pure happiness. What a little faker.

this week....

Hi 82 F

Very warm

So, Friday nearly kicked my trash. 82 freaking degrees and something like 60% humidity. Can we not work our way into summer gradually? This is disgusting. We are supposed to get a rain snow mix on Monday- that should help a little.

The rest of the week wasn't as rotten! We actually had a few good days of 60 degreeish weather. Zeb and I took advantage with many outside runs. You may have to enlarge this picture to get a good look but as you can sort of see, there were deer EVERYWHERE- all along our running trails. I am still nervous about one of them attacking me, but at least I didn't see any big antlers (that tear through little babies) this time. I do however have greater reason to be afraid of the parks. Apparently there was a stabbing at MY park (Swan Creek) this week! Some crazy man was hitting his wife and a man with a dog tried to intervene and was stabbed! then the crazy man stabbed the dog too! the dog ended up dying. See the news story here.

I never go running at night so I'm not too worried. There are plenty of senior citizens on the trail looking out for me :)

Zeb also decided to take advantage of the weather. We made him a little swimming pool on the deck. Initially we just filled it with a little water so he could dip his hands in and splash around. He ended up getting over excited and going in head first. At that point we stripped him down and added more water. If you enlarge this picture little Zeb looks like a miniature Quasimodo.

our last day

Our last day in Chicago was one of our most eventful and luck filled. We started off the day by piling onto the bus to go shopping downtown! We strolled the magnificent mile and could have stayed all day. We didn't even get to a small fraction of the stores! I really want to go back and go to the ghiradelli ice cream shop. There was way too much to see and the weather could NOT have been more perfect. Rain was forecasted for everyday that we were there- but the only times we got rained on was late in the evenings while we were headed back to the hotel!

We were with skyline high school (my neighbor's sister is in the choir) but wanted to shop longer while they headed early to the Cubs game, so we decided we'd take the "L"/subway to Wrigley Field. The L is NOT stroller friendly. We had to pick up our strollers and carry them down all the dingy stairs and down the dank train corridors. I think that the L man felt bad for us (perhaps we looked despondent and motherly?!) and he told us we didn't have to pay for our ride!! The trains were all jammed with Cubs fans so we had to wait awhile but eventually got on one.

Once we got to the game we searched for tickets to scalp. The game had been sold out and we were going to try to get them there. Apparently Cubs tickets are a hot commodity. The cheapest tickets we could find were thirty dollars a piece (we needed tickets for the two of us AND our rugrats) so we quickly succumbed to the news that we were not going to be going inside the world famous Wrigley Field. We wandered around the outside of Wrigley field (apparently looking more despondent and motherly than ever) and some man approached us with four tickets that he just wanted to GIVE us at NO charge! FREE. ZIPPO. ZILCH! We were beyond ecstatic. We grabbed the tickets and scurried in! The tickets ended up being just a few rows from Lindsay's family!! out of the 41,000 other seats in wrigley field- we got the tickets next to her mom and sis!!! it was outrageous and wonderful.
We enjoyed some great hot-dogs and a near blowout game! The cubs pummeled the pirates 13-1. I had never been to a Major League Baseball game. It was CRAZY and so much fun. If you look closely at the seating behind me in the above picture you can see people sitting on the roofs of buildings and house surrounding the stadium! People sell tickets from their roofs!!! Zeb loved the game- but was getting pretty pooped. We took the L back to our hotel and little Z crashed as soon as we exited the riotous stadium.

Once at the hotel we went swimming to tire the kids out for the ride home. Zeb used his new walmart special floaty (only three bucks!) and loved the swimming to death. We only had one near drowing! A little girl in the pool with us flipped him over and he went head first over the edge of the floaty. He came up sputtering but never cried :)

The ride home wasn't bad at all (only four hours) minus the last thirty minutes (as aforementioned in "day one's" post). Chicago is definitely a future vacation destination.

day 2

Good fortune seems to follow me wherever I go. I'll attribute it to the positive energy I emit into the universe :) The powers of fate always seem to give back and this trip was no exception. My mom has the same luck- maybe it's genetic.

On day 2, we went to the famous Chicago Field Museum of Natural History and I was in heaven! If I only I could have taken my Biology students to this place. It was incredible. Even better than the great exhibits was the price. Tickets run 14.00- kinda pricey. We have a Coyote Point Museum pass that gets us into many museums across the country for free, but I didn't think this museum was one of the participants. I pulled out my card to see if it would at least get us a reduced rate and the guy let us in FREE. Hip-hip-hooray. That pass has more than paid for itself already!! I can't wait to use it this summer to go to the new Utah Children's museum!

I loved the evolution exhibit (pictured below) and zeb loved the dinosaurs!








We got to see Sue- the largest and most complete T-Rex in the world! Quite impressive. There was also a really cool children's area where Zeb had a blast. He crawled around and touched EVERYTHING. I've included a picture of him studying the fungi and poppies. I really want to go back when he's a little older and can enjoy it more, and when we can go with Kent.

After the museum we went and walked down "Navy Pier" and Zeb loved the water. Chicago really is an amazing city. I think I loved the food most! We ate dinner at this really great place called "Fox and Opel's". We had the greatest sweet potato fries and turkey paninis. I found out that Zeb is obsessed with pickles. He LOVES them- he ate quite a few whole ones on the trip. I also got Kent a fabulous souvenir there- a Bacon-chocolate bar. Kent likes bacon and I love chocolate so I thought it would be a great treat for the two of us! We ate it when I got home and it was DISGUSTING.

the WINDY city

We are back and ever so happy to see Kent (and our beds). We had an adventurous weekend to the Windy City! One of my neighbors here was headed up to see family and at the last minute asked if Zeb and I could accompany her on the drive! Having never been to Chicago, we eagerly accepted. We had a blast- but I would NEVER wish to be a single parent and will NOT go on a trip of any sort without Kent when we have more than one child (unless of course, for some odd and exorbitant reason, I have a full time nanny).

Baby Z was so good. I dragged him through the windy streets and museums of Chicago, neglected his naps, and even forgot formula one day! but the little rugrat didn't ever cry until the last hour of the car ride home (he did at that point nearly hyperventilate however).

Chicago has so much to offer- and I think that we got a piece of everything. After the first night I could have gone home happy. We got Chicago deep dish pizza and saw WICKED (I wore my green coat for the occasion)!! I am the last of us (family) to see it (the least loved as well) but the wait made it all the better! It really was AMAZING. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed it. The talent of elphaba was unreal. This woman had one of the best voices I've ever heard. I'm still listening to the music (as you can all hear). The pizza was equally as astounding. Pizza is my favorite food anyway- and this just cemented the preference. Chicago deep dish spinach and cheese stuffed pizza- TO DIE FOR delicious.

I'll continue with the rest of our adventures later tonight after the house is clean and the rugrat is rested!

history lesson

We are back home! and finally back into the norm. I'll post about the trip soon.

Yesterday we took a walk at Fort Meigs- an old fort built for the war in 1812. It's just a few miles from our house and something new. There was a good sunset and kent rolled down one of the hills and got sick (no throwing up though) so we had fun.Here are the boys on one of the canons that overlooks the river. They (the canons) were protecting the Maumee river against invasion from Canada. My knowledge on history is severely lacking and I had no idea that the brits had taken Detroit and most of the area Southward down to Toledo during the war of 1812. Pretty boring stuff (in my opinion) but a really great place for a Sunday walk and another great place to visit while in Toledo!

new zeb news

Oh, and in other news Zeb has added a new word to his lexicon. Zeb said "*Doctor". I have two adult witnesses. He wasn't just mumbling either! The word was being repeated in a discussion and Zeb looked up and chimed in with "Doctor". It was quite impressive. Perhaps he'll take after his dad. He's also standing on his own for brief periods of time. He's got to walk in the next month and a half so I'm hoping this standing is good news! He loves to walk along everything in the house and LOVES his stroller.

*the spelling of the word he said is actually Dockter. The pronunciation is the same as for the word Doctor. The discussion was actually about the neighbors' last name.

zebby's fave song!

-

Don't mind his dirty shirt, red cheeks, or the shaky camera work. He LOVES this song! and loves the actions!! This video may have to tide you all over for the next few days- Zeb and I are headed on a last minute road trip today and Kent has two tests (friday and monday) so I'm not sure if he'll have any spare time to blog. We'll be back on Saturday- hopefully with some good pictures.

He's chubby - but graceful

Looking through the camera tonight I found this picture Leisy had taken earlier in the week. I laughed for a few minutes. Apparently the boy was in pursuit of a graham that had almost escaped being devoured. Don't worry - he got it. He's not starving.

two in 2

Yep, two new recipes in 2 days. This one was GREAT. Kent gave it a ten! I reserve my tens for "favorites EVER" meals and gave this one just a nine.

Green apple Jamaican Jerk Cheeseburger

Doesn't it's name just make you hungry? Before continuing I must confess that I didn't actually use Jamaican Jerk seasoning. Many of you are very aware of my extreme aversion to "hot and spicy", so we found some great "sweet and tangy" bbq grill seasoning to take the jerk's place. I am sure that the Jamaican jerk seasoning would be quite delicious. This recipe did win the "Everyday" (with rachael ray) burger contest after all.

We changed ours up to make it a little more pocket and figure friendly. We also halved it and it still made three good sized burgers.

• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, grated and patted dry
• Zest of 1 lemon plus 1 1/2 tablespoons juice (I just used bottled juice-no zest)
  
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat works great)
  
• 1/3 cup chopped chives (or green onions)
  
• 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup, divided (or regular store bought syrup)
  
• 2 tablespoons Jamaican jerk seasoning, such as McCormick, divided
• 1- 1.5 pounds ground pork (ground turkey)
  
• 8 slices applewood smoked cooked bacon (turkey bacon!)
  
• 4 ounces smoked cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
• 4 kaiser rolls, split and toasted

toss the apples with the lemon zest and juice. Add the mayonnaise, chives, 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup and 1/2 tablespoon jerk seasoning. Stir to combine and refrigerate.

whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup and 1 1/2 tablespoons jerk seasoning. Add the ground pork and combine. Shape into four patties and cook them up-adding the cheese near the end.

top burgers with cooked bacon, slaw, and put on toasted buns!

penne with spinach sauce- thanks Giada.

I feel like it's been ages since I've posted new recipes. This week I'm determined to try some new ones!
Thanks to the food network for showing me today's simple dinner. It really was outrageously easy and pretty tasty. It will also most likely be our St. Patrick's Day dinner in years to come. It turned out ultra green.

I abhor cream (just ask cousin Justin who snuck it into my food once) so usually my pasta must be topped with marinara, but this lovely pasta sauce was made without cream and I decided it was worth trying. All in all it is a very healthy and tasty pasta. I'm rather uncultured and very non-gourmet so the goat cheese spooked me a tad. When all was said and done it tasted just fine- not goaty at all.

1 pound whole wheat or multi grain penne
3 garlic cloves
2 ounces goat cheese
1-2 ounces reduced fat (I used whipped) cream cheese
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 ounces fresh baby (or grown up) spinach leaves
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan
I also added (without these additions it's more of a side than a meal):
sauteed yellow squash and zucchini
cooked chicken pieces

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the penne and cook until it is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 12 minutes.

Mince the garlic in a food processor. Add the goat cheese, cream cheese, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and half of the spinach leaves. Blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Set the cheese and spinach mixture aside. I did it all in the trusty magic bullet!

Meanwhile, place the remaining spinach leaves in a large bowl.

Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Spoon the pasta atop the spinach leaves in the bowl. Scrape the cheese and spinach mixture (I didn't use all of the sauce) over the pasta mixture and toss to coat, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten (I didn't use too much of it). Season the pasta, to taste, with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the Parmesan over and serve.

faces of Zeb

Just a happy wake up face of Zeb. It is WONDERFUL when he wakes up from naps like this! all smiles and freaky hair.

I can't stand when he tries to slither out of his high-chair. He gets in these precarious positions and then FREAKS.

hey- and all you cheesy cousins - Robert and Laura have a bloggy now! Check out their link on my sidebar :)

the crawler.

For some reason our weekends have been so mellow lately (Kent may beg to differ- his weekends still include much studying). The dullness is actually pretty nice. There's nothing better than having no obligations and having Kent home to relax with. With that being said, here is the height of our excitement this weekend.

disclaimer: the video is pretty dull unless you have a vested interest in Zeb.



I have been requested to show the rugrat in motion. Here he is heading for the sound of water- always his greatest motivation to move. My favorite part is watching his little bum move back and forth. I also love the phase he's been going through- he looks for our approval for everything. He also shakes his bum when he gets really excited. You can see it at the end when he's standing against the tub. He wanted in so bad.

Why is it so cute when babies do this? You'd think we'd be accustomed by now- but it just gets cuter every time we find zeb in this position.

Today playgroup was at a park on the Maumee river- and was great. It was a little chilly but Zeb didn't seem to notice. I miss the Utah mountains tremendously but I love having the river here.

The rugrat LOVES to swing- here is he is with his pals Sam and Hailey. He was in heaven swinging and crawling around the playground. I think he may have Pica. The boy eats everything. Not only will he eat anything, but he'll actually choose toilet paper or woodchips over grahams or cheerios. I guess since him eating these weird things is "at an age where eating such objects is considered developmentally appropriate," he may just be going through a phase! I feel like he is growing and developing in leaps and bounds everyday lately. I'm sure that Kent is going to come home after his month away (in June) and have a different little boy than the one he left!

After playing at the park Zeb trucked along with me to our favorite park for a run. He was so good. He waved and yelled to the people we ran past and babbled to himself the whole time. He loved all of the dogs that were out on their walks too. We even ran through a group of snakes! It was such a great day for a run. Even the bridge was totally water free.

toilet baby

oh, this guy makes me so mad sometimes. Last night we played in the front room from 2-4, yep, that's AM. He woke himself up coughing and then coughed so hard he vomited all over himself. He was entirely awake at that point and the crawling around and reading books helped the mucus loosen so he could go back to sleep (2 hours later, of course). Other than the nighttime cough and mucus this kid has no symptoms of being ill.
Besides making me so mad, he really makes me laugh so hard. He is the master mimic-er (is that a word?) and has begun to speak! He now says mom, dad, up, and hi. He also just yells a lot. We are working on the word "ball" but he can't seem to master the "L" sound. His favorite room is still the bathroom. He especially loves when I flush the toilet. I absolutely love watching him dart for the toilet as fast as he can when he hears the flush. I got it on video this morning for you all to enjoy as well. You can also hear his fabulous elocution of the word "hi".

Conference has NEVER been so difficult to listen to. I'm pretty sure that part of it was because I kept waiting and anticipating President Hinckley's talk- and it never came. It was really weird to not have him speak- I missed him. Perhaps more than that, this conference was so difficult because we have "the little hellian that whined" (instead of the little engine that could).
He is such a busy body, crawling everywhere, attention seeking, slobbering, teething, coughing, fun, and crazy little rugrat (I still love him, I promise). He cannot be appeased right now. He wants EVERYTHING constantly. He's got bruises all over his forehead (I'm sure somebody has already called DCFS on us) and yet continues to pull himself up on everything and then fall head first as he reaches for faraway objects or tries to walk away from his handholds. He somehow manages ubiquity as well. There's toilet paper all over the bathroom floor, the pots and pans are out of every cupboard, my sock drawer has been completely emptied, and ever cord near the computer desk is out of place. The only room not a disaster right now is his bedroom- funny how that works, huh?
Here's a little video of him doing his stuff- kinda boring but good stuff for gmas, gpas, nanny annies, aunts, and uncles.


Even with Z's antics, I did love the last session of conference. Elder Ballard's talk could not have come at a better time- and I'm so excited about elder Bednar's talk.

and we also had the lovely chance to go on a long walk between sessions! Our favorite park has finally thawed out (only a few puddles left) and we, along with the rest of toledo, decided to head over for a nice Sunday walk. It did turn into quite the adventure! The bridge was out of commission due to the raised raging river waters (okay, it's just a slow moving creek, but the bridge was slightly covered) but we decided to cross anyway! I made Kent cross first to make sure it was safe and sound and then followed with Zeb and the stroller. He zonked halfway through our trek- it was quite pleasant.

Two wonderful conferences!

This morning I (Kent here) attended the 10th annual medical missions symposium. Students for Medical Missions is a student group here at UT that focuses on medical missions to developing countries. I was always impressed with my Utah doctor, Dr. Bingham, who took time off of work every summer to serve in Africa. We have a few amazing doctors like him who help keep this club functioning. I have been excited to get involved in this group and was recently elected to be an officer in the club next year! (Not a huge accomplishment by any means but I'm hoping it will give me a chance to go on one of these missions. It's harder for first years to go since we basically have no clinical experience).

During the symposium a number of doctors were inducted into the Medical Mission Hall of Fame. They shared experiences and stories from their lives and service to medical missions. The keynote speaker was John Bul Dau. This man is amazing and his story helped me to see that my training as a physician is more of a calling than it is a career. John fled his native country of Sudan during civil war, lived as a refugee in Ethiopia, traveled to Kenya as one of thousands of Lost Boys, and finally was selected to come to the States to be educated. He wrote a memoir, God Grew Tired of Us, which was also made into a movie. The movie was presented after John's first hand account. It was emotionally moving and inspiring! He is working now to set up a medical clinic in Sudan. It would be so amazing to be involved in something like that!

Another great thing about the conference: free breakfast and lunch for Leisy and me!! Leisy was there while Zeb was compliant. He had to go home for a napski, but I really enjoyed being with Leisy so much today! I guess I should have studied, but I came home to listen to general conference. Our church leaders are amazing and it's neat to receive direction and guidance from them. Two amazing conferences - and three more sessions to go!