Good News

Good news everyone- my brother-in-law John is a new dad! It's nice knowing there is one more child born into this crazy world that will be well taken care of. To John and Cassie good luck and Congrats.

Parenthood is awesome.

Iron Chef

EEEEEEEEEEEKK!

Brett! What were you thinking? Seriously?

OK everyone calm down. Just breathe. It's not really that big of a deal. ...but it sort of is.

Brett entered me in the Base Iron Chef: Fit to Fight competition... ok, I bashfully consented. (Me: Oh Brett, I'm not THAT good... I mean, I'm pretty good.. but I don't know! Brett: Yah whatever it's up to you. Me: We'll if you insist! )
They only choose 6 so I figure I wouldn't get picked. Wrong! Ironically 6 is my lucky number so I should have known.

So I know I won't win. Or place. But if I can get 2 compliments, I'll be stoked. Actually if  I don't make anyone barf I'll be happy. That's a good goal right?

But i need your help. I know this competition will be based on a healthy recipe... or at least "Fit to Fight" conveys that idea to me. I would be pretty mad if I made hummus and someone who made cheesecake won.

I think I'm ready for this. Last night I spiced up my Pasta Roni by adding sauted red onions, spinach and cranberries. Brett didn't finish it.... why did he think I would be good for this? Oh well, at least I liked it.


I REALLY WOULD LOVE YOUR HELP HERE NOW. I have 2 weeks to play around with different flavors. If you have a unique -healthy- flavor combination please post it. Especially in seafood or asian food... which i don't do.
I need to make (I think)
An appetizer
Entree
Dessert
In an hour and a half. (Churns my stomach just saying that. I don't do anything in an hour and a half.)
 Ange if you don't post I will be mad. I know you're a gourmet chef.

Now off to find my Sous Chef...

Inconclusive Evidence

We are always asking Marie if the "baby is a  boy or a girl." She has yet to allude to an answer. So I asked her little friend what it would be. He smiled and said "A Boy!" I said, "really? It's not a girl?"  He paused, shrugged and replied, "Could be girl."

That is pretty much how our ultrasound went today. At first the technician seemed to think it was a boy, but she couldn't get a good still picture, so she started thinking it was a girl. Our little pumpkin sat curled up, legs tight together, sucking it's thumb for the entire hour. It seems we were intruding on nap time.

When I got Marie's ultrasound it was super fast. She faced the camera for a picture. She rolled around and they took a picture of her spine. Flipped around so we could watch her dance. Flailed her legs to show off her very obvious feminine side. Did a yawn for a picture and we were out of there in 20 minutes.

This baby has been so different from Marie. Quiet. Little nausea. No acne. Minimal mood swings. Who is this kid inside me? So far we are getting along great, but I would really like to name him/her. Maybe I shall call it Ponyo.

After the ultrasound I went to Popeyes to get a chicken sand and a coke. I've been planning this trip all week. They were out of the regular chicken, tomatoes, mayo, and regular buns. Instead they gave me a chicken strip on a hoagie with two pickles. Today was just not my day.

 Brett made me post the crazy seventh-inning stretch.

A Dietitician, Baseball, And Gender Curiosities

A long time ago I stopped posting Marie's height and weight stats. It's pretty obvious that she is small. Weight-wise she has been off the charts since 9 months old. And technically even at 27 months she is not legally allowed to ride "front facing" in a car seat, bordering a meager 20.4 lbs. But until recently it never bothered me. However over the summer she lost almost 1lb. That bothered me. So we took her to a dietitian. Here is us waiting for our dinner table to come.



Not to be rude, but I wasn't impressed with her advice. At one point she suggested I feed her "Go-gurts." Really, lady? You think I haven't tried that. And I'm no sugar fearing, healthy person, but I try to limit her "crap per day intake." I went into the appointment feeling guilty that Marie likes 2 tablespoons of brown sugar with her 1 cup cooked oatmeal every morning. I was ready to take my lashings. Twas not the case. But I suppose it's the oatmeal that keeps her alive. She isn't really isn't into any other foods on a regular basis. Here's how the dinners usually go, Elmo and Marie fighting tooth and nail over the food.

But it seems now that the weather has cooled down she is eating more and I'm not worried. I don't care what she weighs as long as she is healthy enough to keep up with the other kids.

So to finish our stats she is 50% in height, 0% in weight... and 90% in head size.

However, just because Marie is all brains, doesn't mean she can't enjoy herself a baseball game.

We took a 4 hour... yes 4 hour bus ride to Sendai City to watch the Tohoku Ratugen Golden Eagles (whew, and I thought Energy Solutions Area was a mouthful). They are officially the worst team Japan has seen since the 1950's. However they only lost by 1 run to the Siebu Lions, one of the best in the league.

The ride was fun, but very tiring.

The stadium was smaller than most US major leagues, but the spirit was pretty awesome.

The Japanese love their chants. Everyone gets these mini baseball bats and hits them together while they chant for their favorite players. We had fun mumbling along and whacking the bats together.

You'll see in the above picture the 7th inning tradition. They blow up these balloons and wave them around and at the end of the last pitch they let the balloons go. The kids who collect the most get a prize (or so we are told). We refrained from picking up other people's spitty balloons. Call me crazy. 

Marie, again, did really well. She ate a hot dog and we got her some KFC nuggets. You can't go anywhere in Japan without seeing the Colonel. My brother once told me the Colonel was Asian. Thought he was joking, surely he is from the South.... but after seeing all these KFC's I think he is on to something.

Lastly we find out the gender of the baby on Thursday. I can honestly say I do not care which gender the baby is. It just means I either put Marie's old clothes in long term storage if it's a boy, or I get to keep them out and paint Marie's room lavender if it's a girl.
However, if it's a girl we are not doing so well on the name suggestions.  We've been brainstorming as of late (here comes the part where we list some top choices and then feel a little insecure about whether people like them or not.... oh boy, take a deep breath and here we go)

For a boy it is pretty simple. I've liked the name Ezra since we got married. We can tell him he is named after a Prophet. And if he doesn't turn out so well we will tell him he was named after a 90's grunge band and everybody's better than him.
If there's a second boy I'm thinkin Rockwell. Porter Rockwell ? He's awesome. Norman Rockwell? Classic. Rocky? Awesome, again.

But for the girls in our life...... we are having disagreements.
I love Ariel, and Brett likes Bell. Each finds the other "too Disney" to use. However for the record, Ariel means "Lion of God" and "Victory under God." It also makes me think she could be an awesome gymnast.
"Olive" is still in the running (to some people's dismay). However it's a super cute name and if we used it it would be like, as Brett puts it, "giving everybody the [hand] because we like the name and know that nobody else does." So true.

We will see. Weigh in now. Gender ultrasound comes in 4 days!!!

because it's Friday in Japan

5 Seconds in Korea

This blog post will be longer than our trip to Korea.

Brett had a conference in Korea so we tagged along for 1 night.

We got these two pictures.

Korean Facts:
The meat is awesome, sorry vegetarians.
They have a COLDSTONE!
The Coldstone's size's are smaller in Korea.
Don't complain about the sizes. Your husband will be embarrassed.
Not everyone is as handsome as Jin from Lost. (... kind of made me sad)
Koreans are not as quiet as the Japanese.
Sometimes they touch your baby.
Sometimes they touch you.
Walk fast on unlit streets.
Get a good deal on a Coach Bag.

Ok, ok, Korea is not really that sketchy.
The people are are pretty outgoing, but diverse, not unlike Americans. Seoul made me a little homesick.
Also, we're setting up an American number soon so maybe you'll get a call from us... in the middle of the night.