Bringing "Sexy" Back to Power Walking

I know that when I walk down the street I'm turning some heads. Yes that's right, I'm bringing sexy back to power walking with free weights.  Just give me some sandals to wear with my socks, and I will officially be rocking the neighborhood with my chicness.

I'm walking tall, not just swinging my arms alongside mind you, nope I'm pumping, punching, and curling those bright blue 3 lb. weights to get the most out of my two miles.  If I see you on the street, in your car, or at the ball field, you better believe I will give you a big wave.  But don't be ashamed if you don't wave back, its okay, I know my hotness is pretty intimidating, sneakers, holey shirt and all.

Incredible Itinerary

Are there travel agents any more?  I really don't know.  With the creation of online booking and sites like Trip Advisor it seems a little unnecessary.  It's really too bad, because I think I would be an exceptional one!  I'd like to go back to 1980 and find out.  I could totally rock the perm, but I think the stirrup pants and blue eye shadow might kill me. 

We are back from NYC, and if the sore muscles from walking 15-20 miles a day wasn't enough reality for me, the three and half hours of email clean-up certainly snapped me back.  I'm really glad to be home, and missed my sweet baby a ton, but it was a FANTASTIC trip, and I'm incredibly glad that we did it.  It was a first NYC trip for my Aunt Hope and I, and a second run for Lillie (but her first experience was a high school band trip, so that doesn't totally count.)  For weeks I poured over Trip Advisor reviews, and Fodor's 2012 NYC guide and created an itinerary that I thought was a rough outline of what we might get to see.

Saturday
Arrive in NYC at 5:45 p.m.

Walk through Times Square

Supper at John's Pizzeria on 44th

Sunday
Walk through Central Park to the Met
The Met – Opens at 9:30 a.m.
Lunch in the Met cafeteria

Madison Ave window shopping

Somewhere fun for supper - This ended up being "Hell's Kitchen" on the corner of 9th and 39th.

Monday
Walk through NBC Studio area - wave at the Today Show cameras (which we did and saw Al Roker and Sasha Baren Cohen as "The Dictator")
NBC Studio Tours – 8:30 a.m.
Walk through Rockefeller Center

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island – Noon

Ground Zero
St. Paul's Chapel

Dinner at Bouchon Bakery - The best carrot and orange soup, and grilled cheese sandwich ever!  Not to mention a great view of Rockefeller Center.

Tuesday

Standby Tickets for The Chew – 7:15 a.m.

Taping from 9:00 – 10:30 a.m.

Walk through Central Park to the Guggenheim
Guggenheim
Afternoon Tea at The Plaza – 2:30 p.m.

5th Ave Shopping

Light bite at Famiglia Pizza

Wednesday

Home!

This itinerary worked remarkably well and we saw everything on our list and more!  Except for getting caught in grid-lock traffic on the way to the Battery Park for our Statue of Liberty tour and almost not making it, and a brief mix up on the lines for "Live with Kelly" versus the line for seeing Clinton Kelly on "The Chew," it all went off without a hitch.  Even those moments were true quintessential New York moments that made for a great experience.

This is the first in a series of posts about our trip to The City!  Tomorrow more on the food...yummm...

Blessings of Produce and Cousins!

In my opinion this past weekend, was nearly perfect.

Saturday mornings have become one of my favorite times of the week.  Jett and I usually sleep in and roll out of bed at the bright and shiny time of 7:30 a.m.   Just in time to catch some of the best Food Network shows like The Pioneer Woman, and Aarti Party (although they have recently moved the times of her show or heaven forbid - canceled it!)  I usually fix pancakes or amish oatmeal for breakfast, and then the rest of the morning is filled with quality play time, walks, basketball, sandbox, and sometimes running errands. 

On this particular Saturday, Jett crashed for a nap at about noon, and mama caught some snoozes too.  Around 3:00 p.m. we were invited on a Costco outing with my parents, who had not been to Costco in months.  It was an amazing trip filled with samples, bulk produce, and "The World's Greatest Granola" it said so on the box, and it is!

Sunday morning we went to 8:00 a.m. church which we have found works so much better than late service for Jett's napping schedule.  He's much more chill and willing to play quietly early in the morning.  We were blessed to have lunch with my mom's side of the family in celebration of my cousin Ian's 10th birthday.  I truly can't believe that he is 10!  It seems like only yesterday that my biggest concern about his arrival was that it would occur on the day of junior prom.  He missed prom and we've loved our sweet, funny redheaded boy since day one.  I love all of my cousins dearly, but Ian's arrival was extra special as he was my first cousin on my mom's side with a gap of 10 years between him and my sister as the next oldest grandchild.  My aunts and uncles made up for that time very quickly after Ian and we have since added eight cousins in total to the clan.

Jett loved running after his cousins, and my Aunt Heather's girls were so good to him.  Ivy especially played basketball all afternoon with him.  I could tell Ivy was wearing down as she plopped on the floor at one point, but Jett ran over and tugged on her with an "eh, eh" and a "Let's Go" look, and off they went again.

Kevin said he has perfect form in this shot!

If only rain would have come sooner, and UNL didn't have finals this week, the weekend would have been very close to perfect.  We missed Kevin and Lillie, but were blessed to have time together as a family (and grateful for that awesome Costco run!)

We ran a 5k (and we are mommies!)

Last Saturday my best friend and I ran our first 5k at the Nebraska City, Arbor Day Fun Run.  It was a beautiful cool spring morning, and we were pumped.  We had trained, which in my case meant sqeezing in a run at least once a week, and putting 12 miles plus on the stroller every week walking, and we had encouraged each other leading up to the event by exchanging goofy texts about our times and "competitiveness."

We left Fremont bright and early at 6:30 a.m. and left our sleepy kiddos with the grandmas.  Laughing all the way to Nebraska City, I wasn't sure we were going to have any energy left for the run.  The trail was fairly difficult, consisting of hills winding through Nebraska State Historic Park.  A beautiful view but a challenge when compared with the mountainess terrain of Lincoln and Military streets in flat, flat Fremont. 

With energy to burn we began the run chatting and laughing and comparing ourselves to the other "true runners" who actually had gear and brand name spandex.  About two miles in it started to sprinkle and we started to wilt.  Thankfully things started going downhill in a good way as we begun descending the hills.  We rounded one particular corner and a volunteer said, "You are doing great girls, only about 3/4 mile left!" to which Brandi replied "Oh Crap!" We laughed and I breathlessly replied, "We are doing great, AND we are mommies!" a mantra that began when we ran our first Turkey Trot and Frosty Frolic earlier in the year.

It's safe to say that 10 years ago neither of us would have classified ourselves as "athletic" or in my case even in shape.  For us high school did not include many team sports, and my particular lack of coordination was better suited for the music department.  Nearly 10 years later, I think it's fair to say that we are in really great shape and athletism is something we can now claim.  I don't know why it surprises me so much that this has occured now, as an adult, after having a child, but I never expected to be healthier today than I was in my teens. 

We finished the race right at 32 minutes and 10 seconds and placed 26 and 27 out of 79 women that ran and walked.  Personal best times for both of us, and not bad for two beginning runners (and mommies!)

Projects in Progress

I'm in a spring cleaning-redecorating-get organized kind of mood, and there are all kinds of projects popping up at the Janssen house.  I don't remember being this crazy since "nesting", but that's no kind of hint, things are just in need of a little sprucing.  Here are the projects in progress.

1. Fence.  Hallelujah the fence is up!  Oscar has been jumping for joy given his new found Freedom, and Jett loves running around the yard and playing in the sandbox.  I love the little extra privacy, and not having to chace Jett off the neighbors' decks.

2. Toy room.  This space in our house has been a variety of things since we moved in.  Storage, makeshift guest room, office/guest room/baby storage, and most recently the toy room.  Kevin painted the room a nice neutral off-white while I was pregnant and beyond that we have done nothing.  The old yucky window blinds are even still hanging. It's very much in-progress, but a couple of great inspiration pieces like my mom's old bench and this great zig zag curtain from Urban Outfitters and it's starting to take shape.  I'm now on the lookout for practical toy storage.

3. Basement.  This is going to take a little more creativity and cleaning than the others.  Our basement is a great open space that is currently being used for nightly basketball games, but not much else.  I would love it if it was a more funcitonal family space.  After three years the basement is do for some serious nitty gritty cleaning.  It's time to rinse the carpets again, relocate the spiders from their current home in the window sills and get organized.

Rhubarb and Egg Hunts

Since before Jett could start eating, I have been on a mission to entice and expand his tastebuds to include all kinds of interesting and diverse flavors.  I believe that it is important for children to try, try, and try again new foods so that they are able to eat a variety of colorful and wonderful foods. (And let's be honest, so that someday Jett will like many of the same foods that his mama does.)

Currently his growing list of favorites includes red pepper, garlic, mango, spinach, pears by the fist full, chicken Alfredo pizza, tandoori chicken, and add a new food to the list...drum roll please, this is a good one...rhubarb! 

My parents just moved to a beautiful new house that has an abundance of rhubarb growing in the back yard.  My mom sent home a bunch for me to use, and I've only gotten through half of that harvest.  Jett helped me bake, and as I was chopping, he was begging for a taste.  Knowing how bitter and sour raw rhubarb is I gave him just a little teenie tiny piece to try, and to my surprise he loved it.  Even better than the raw fruit, he loved the dessert that I made from it, a recipe from none other than The Pioneer Woman.  I can only begin to describe this rhubarb cobbler by saying that the recipe (like many from the Frontier) is not afraid of butter or sugar, but after all this is dessert.  The rhubarb itself doesn't get much dressing up, just simple granulated sugar, which gives the fruit's zippy tanginess a chance to shine through.  The cobbler part is like biting into a sweet fluffy biscuit and the two together yield almost a pudding like consistency.  Amazing!

(By the way, did you know that rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but is largely considered a fruit in the U.S.  You can wow your party guests with that one.)

I'm also excited to share some adorable pictures of Jett's first egg hunts!  Last week we joined in the fun of my dad's company egg hunt, which was fantastic for a beginner.  Lots of eggs, few kids in the 0-2 age category, and great weather.

Today we were invited to join my best friend and her daughter in Tekamah for their annual community egg hunt.  It was a huge event complete with a petting zoo, pony rides, and a train.  The 0-3 category was the opposite of the week before.  Nearly a hundred parents and kids lined up on both sides of a field and when the guy said "go", they went!  Our inexperience shone through, yielding no eggs until a kind man revealed one that he had hidden under his foot, for the pathetic hunters. It was literally over in about 20 seconds. But not to worry, it was really the petting zoo that our kiddos were most excited about.

Reagan with her egg!

 Happy Easter everyone!

Crockpot Confession and a Great Use-It-Up Night

I have a confession for you.  My crockpot scares me.  Okay - it's not just my crockpot, and it's really not like "Ooh I'm so scared I'm going to sleep with the lights on!" That would be really weird. It's more like I'm intimidated by the idea of using a crockpot.  I know the whole point is that you leave them plugged in all day, and tada when you get home supper is ready.  But you know what, they get really, really hot.  I'm not sure how I feel about leaving something  that hot on my counter all day while I'm gone.  And I feel like the idea of slow-cooking is unpredictable to me.  When I put something in the oven at 350 I know how long it will take to cook depending on what it is that I'm baking.  When I cook in the skillet, same thing.  But the crockpot I have to trust...

All of that to say, that I used my crockpot today.  I put my qualms about it aside, plugged it in and left for eight hours (you see it sounds really weird when you see it in print, very unnatural.)  But the results, I will admit were very good.  I had one final package of pork chops to use-up, so I put those in the pot with half of a chopped yellow onion, a can of cream of mushroom soup, and equal parts water to reduce the gravy a bit.  Even though I loath having to use cream of something soup (see Use-It-Up Post 25) in this case it worked.  The chops fell apart and had a really great dense meaty flavor, and they stayed very tender, which can be a tricky thing for pork chops to accomplish.

The whole meal was a great example of a Use-It-Up night.  In the morning before I left for work I also made a batch of bread dough and put it in the refrigerator.  I'm learning the tricks of baking as I go, and today was a really good lesson; while it may seem convenient to make a batch of dough ahead of time, you must give ample thawing and rising time if you intend to make bread.  I did not, and tried to hurry it along with no luck.  So when life hands you cold dough, make breadsticks.  I buttered a 9x13 pan and pressed the dough along the side, as if I was making a pizza crust.  I then drizzled a tablespoon of butter on top and sprinkled garlic and oregano.  The breadsticks then went into a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.  About half way through I used-up some Parmesan cheese and sprinkled that on top while they finished baking. 

The results. Yumm!

On the side we had coleslaw and snow peas.  Dessert was an extra special treat because I also had apples to use-up.  Apple crisp on a Monday does not usually happen in this house, but it must have been fate because it did.  Here is the recipe:

Apple Crisp

6 peeled and sliced apples

3 Tablespoons granulated sugar

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 stick of butter (or 8 tablespoons)

Coat apples in granulated sugar and put into a 9x13 pan.  For topping, combine oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Using a fork or knife cut cold butter into small chunks and combine with topping mixture until you have small granules of butter incorporated into mixture.  Pour topping over apples and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes.