An Update and Salads

Hi guys.  Thank you SO MUCH for your kind comments, emails, texts, cards, etc... on my last post on my miscarriage.  I was seriously touched.  You guys are so wonderful and I felt so loved and encouraged.  The last week has been sort of surreal.  A lot has happened in a short amount of time, and I guess I'm still sort of processing it all.

I'm actually doing fairly well despite the grim circumstances.  For better or worse, I had a major project going on at work that I kind of HAD to be there for last week and thus, I actually worked pretty much all week, even putting in overtime two nights, so it kept me pretty occupied.  I guess in a way it was good, because I was so busy I didn't really have time to break down a lot or be completely mopey at home.  It was good to feel useful and needed.  Obviously you might be wondering if I've had time to really grieve.  I think I kind of have.  I've talked with quite a few people about it, wrote the blog post, and had some meltdowns a long the way too.  I've thought a lot about it.  I am not in any way ignoring what happened, I am dealing with it, but I am also moving forward with a hopeful attitude.

The other major thing happening (talk about timing right??) was that my sister-in-law's baby shower was this past weekend.  Initially, when my miscarriage happened, I wasn't sure if I'd want to go to a baby shower.  As the week went on and the weekend got closer, I decided I wanted to go and it would also be good to get out of town for a weekend, even if it was to celebrate a baby.  I feel like a baby is a great thing to celebrate, even if I haven't yet been successful in carrying one to term.  I wondered if I would still want to read pregnancy blogs and think about baby stuff when the miscarriage happened.  The answer is yes.  I liken it to training for my marathon.  At that time, I was engrossed in reading and researching marathon training.  This is the same kind of thing.  It's the goal I have in mind right now, and there's still so much I want to learn about pregnancy and babies until I have my own.  Seeing other people successful at what I want is inspiring and makes me hopeful that I will have that too.  I had a great time at the baby shower and I'm glad I went.  I'll have more on that later.

Anyway, I think I'm ready to get back to more of my regularly scheduled programming ;)

Before the miscarriage, I had started the following post on salads, but hadn't hit publish.  Here's the post.

I've been eating quite a lot of salads lately.  I guess it's normal that in summer, you want that light refreshing bite of leafy, healthy goodness.

A couple Sundays ago, I met up with Katie for a stroll around her new neighborhood, with Clyde in tow.

Clyde didn't last long walking in the heat, so we decided lunch was a better idea, and Katie introduced me to Crisp, a salad place I've been wanting to try!

They have a good amount of outdoor seating, and it's dog friendly too!

I ordered a build your own salad with four different kinds of greens, tomato, carrot, cucumber, chick peas, and artichoke hearts, with chicken and balsamic dressing.  It also came with a little crostini bread.

Hit the spot!

Katie in food blogging action with her new camera.

It was a great salad and meet-up with Katie.

A few different times I've made this next salad.  I think it's pretty much the perfect summer salad, and I will probably eat it a bunch more times this summer if I can still find beets, as I hear they are really a spring root vegetable.

Orange slices, roasted beets, goat cheese, and toasted walnuts over arugala and spinach.

My mom and brother turned me on to this Trader Joe's Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar and it goes perfectly with this salad as a dressing.

I used the roasted beet technique I learned at The Liberty, washing and drying the beet (skin on), then cutting off the top and bottom off, drizzling with olive oil and salt and pepper, then folding in a foil packet and roasting at 375 for about 45 minutes.

Delicious....

Make it!  You will love it.