Melanie's Baby Shower

Saturday was the main event of the weekend, my friend Melanie's baby shower!  We headed over to the party in time to see everything getting all set up.

In case you can't tell by the blue and green decor, Melanie is having a boy!

Yummy lemon cookie "flowers".

"Dirt" pudding served in a flower pot with "worms". 

The spread.

Lots of wraps!

The cake!  How cute is this??  She's naming him Isaac :)

Presents!

Baby paraphenalia from Melanie and her husband's baby days.

We didn't wait long before we were told to dig in.  Um, twist my arm ;)

I had a half a veggie wrap, veggies, crackers, cheese, dip, a mini cucumber sandwich with dill, and some chips.

After eating, and playing a few games such as "match the baby animal to the parent animal" (did you know a baby fish is called a fry??) Melanie opened presents.

I got Mel some fun monkey baby clothes, along with a baby food maker and storage containers for the baby food.

Someone else got her this awesome diaper cake and on top was a box shaped like a golf cart with a little golfer outfit inside!  Mel's husband is a golf nut, so it was very fitting!

She cut the cake, which was like a lemon poundcake with buttercream frosting, and I had some with a side of "dirt" pudding, which was awesome!

Mel and I went back and forth for months trying to decide if and when I should visit while she was pregnant, and this weekend almost didn't happen, but then I decided I should just get out there and be there for the baby shower about a week and a half ago, and I'm SO GLAD I did.  I kept thinking how wonderful it was that I got to see Melanie pregnant and be there to see her enjoy all her presents and celebrate having a baby.  I'm so glad I was part of it.  I got very choked up saying goodbye yesterday when I left to make the drive back to Charlotte.  I miss Mel a lot and it's sad that we don't get to see each other more often.  I am planning to go out to Indianapolis to see her sometime after the baby is born if I can swing it though.



A Friday Night In Dayton

Remember the 30 Day Challenge, and how I seemingly forgot the 30th day?  Well, really I didn't.  There are a bunch of people I miss, but one of them is my friend Melanie, who until this weekend, I hadn't seen since March of 2010.  We've been back and forth for months trying to plan a visit, and I decided to just make it happen and make the drive to Ohio for her baby shower this weekend.

Friday, by about 9:30am, I was headed out of Charlotte on my way to Dayton for the weekend.  The drive is pretty scenic, going through mountains and farmland. 

The weather was kind of nutty and I went through pockets of down pour as well as sunshine.

The eight hours went by pretty quick though and soon enough, I saw the city of Dayton on the horizon.

Melanie and I got to our hotel within about 10 minutes of each other (she drove from Indianapolis), so the timing was pretty much perfect. 

After regrouping for a few minutes, we headed out to an area of Dayton called The Green to find some dinner.

After scoping out all our options, we chose Choe's, an Asian place.

Melanie and "the bump" were craving sushi.

Melanie insisted I get a drink, since she couldn't.  I got a Red Panda, which was cherry vodka, PAMA, cranberry, and something else that I can't remember...

TASTY!

We started with some Edamame.

Then ordered three sushi rolls to split, all with cooked fish: smoked salmon, crab, and shrimp.

The one in the back right corner was actually a coconut shrimp roll, which was my favorite.  It had flash fried coconut bits on top, and the shrimp tempura was also coconutty.  Great combo!

After dinner we walked around The Green and stumbled upon a fro-yo place.  Melanie said this is not a big thing yet in the mid-west, and I told her that in Charlotte, it's HUGE.

I showed her the wall of self serve flavors and the bar of toppings, and we each got a cup.

After our big dinner we headed back to the hotel and watched a classic flick, She's Having a Baby, which I had brought on Netflix especially for the occasion.

Definitely a cheesy 80's movie, but we enjoyed watching it.  Alec Baldwin is so young and almost unrecognizeable in it!  Funny!

We passed out by eleven to get our beauty sleep for the baby shower.

Dinner at 300 East

Howdy friends!  I'm currently blogging from Dayton, Ohio!  I'm here for my friend Melanie's baby shower, and we're getting dolled up for the big event!  More to come on my Dayton adventures later.

Thursday night Greg and I had dinner plans with our friends Tim and Sarah.

The original plan was to go to Dolce for dinner, because Tim had a Groupon to use, but he realized it was expired and we decided we'd rather go somewhere more low key anyway, because Dolce is sort of fancy.  We thought about hitting up a Mexican spot in honor of Cinco De Mayo, but realized all Mexican restaurants in Charlotte were going to be insane and decided against it.  We were all in the Dilworth area, so we decided to head to 300 East.

I've been to 300 East quite a few times, but never for dinner.

The actually had a margarita special, so we each got one.

We also started with a black eyed pea hummus, which was kind of unique and delicious.

It was almost like a cross between hummus and a falafel, sort of cooked.  Yum!

I opted for the grilled shrimp BLT with a potato cake on the side as my entree.

Loved this!  The shrimp with the crispy bacon, sharp cheese, lettuce, and tomato, was an awesome combo.  The potato cake was like smashed potato formed into a cake and lightly fried.  Tasty!

At Sarah's insistance, we got a dessert to split, which was a strawberry cobbler with goat cheese ice cream.

It was not the standard Cinco De Mayo meal, but we all enjoyed it and a good time was had by all.

My First Book Club

Last night I attended my first book club meeting!  I joined a bunch of Charlotte bloggers (and readers) to read a book a month and discuss it.  I'm pretty excited about this!  The only thing close to a book club I ever participated in was the Book It Program with Pizza Hut when I was a kid!  Did you guys do that?

I totally had this exact same kind of button with the yellow sticker stars, and would get all excited to get my personal pan pizza when I'd reached my book quota ;)  This is not that kind of book club though- although, there is a Mellow Mushroom close to FABO where we held our first meeting, if we were so inclined to involve pizza at some point!
Caitlin had suggested bringing some ideas of books we could read, and I had actually sought out a list from my mother-in-law who is in a book club, but forgot to bring it.  On the drive over I was talking to my mom on the phone, who is also in a book club, and she told me about the book they are currently reading, which is called A Friend Of The Family, by Lauren Grodstein.   She said it was the best book she's read with her club and recommended it.  After a few other options were thrown out to the group by other members, I brought up my mom's recommendation, and we read the synopsis of the book:

As the book opens, Peter Dizinoff, a successful New Jersey doctor, is struggling to adjust to the aftermath of his actions as the foundation of his personal and professional life crack beneath his feet. At the center of his troubles is his beloved son Alec, who deflates his father's high expectations when he drops out of college after just three semesters and moves into the apartment above their garage. And when his son begins seeing Laura, the troubled daughter of Peter's best friend who is ten years older than Alec and lives in the tainted shadow of being acquitted for an unspeakable crime when she was 17, Alec's ambivalence to his father's hopes in living a good life turn into a simmering rage. Dizinoff, a man with a clear definition of right and wrong, flips back and forth in time as he narrates the history of events that build their way to a layered, emotionally wrenching climax. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Everyone seemed really intrigued by this book.  We went over a bunch of choices...

And settled on my mom's book as the choice!  Hope it's good!

Our meeting was at 6pm last night, which left me rather confused about how to handle dinner.  It was Kate's birthday, so we had cupcakes!  Hey, dessert before dinner works for me...

I arrived back home to my husband and pup eagerly awaiting my return.  That's the best :)

Greg and I had dinner plans tonight, so we opted for an early Cinco De Mayo celebration last night.  Sidenote- my brother Mark calls May 4th- Quatro de Marko, because it's his birthday :)

I made some veggie tacos from leftover grilled vegetables and quinoa combined with black beans, more onion, fire roasted tomatoes, and a packet of taco seasoning I had in the pantry.  Topped with a little shredded cheddar, cilantro, plain yogurt, and lettuce.

Greg made us margaritas too.

Well I'm excited for the book club.  None of entirely know what we're doing, so if any of you guys have any thoughts, book ideas, suggestions, etc...  Let me know!

Addressing The Slump

Okay, okay, I have to admit it.  I've been in kind of a running, yoga, cooking, and um... do much of anything kind of slump lately.  I definitely blame most of it on trying to get pregnant, but some of the slump is just because of life in general being busy and feeling uninspired to do much else but try to get knocked up.

So let's see where we're at with these things.

Running
As much as I thought I could get back on the running band wagon and at least pound out a couple miles a week, I haven't run since NJ with my bro.  Yes, I'm still paranoid about rattling a seedling, if there is one in there, even though I swore I would try to get past it.  All the stuff you see about running and pregnancy says you can continue to run if you've been running, but doesn't encourage you to start running if you haven't been.  So now that I'm in this cycle of not running, it worries me that it'll potentially throw things off if I start, you know?  Also, I'm busy.  I've had a lot going on and encorporating running into my routine again would take some adjustment, now that I'm not prioritizing it and using a training plan like I was when I was training for races.  So the jury's still out on whether I'm really going to run much.  For now, while I'm on the fence, walking just seems to make more sense.  I can get exercise, but I know it's lower impact, Clyde can come with me, and it just works for me right now.  I do a pretty good long walk with Clyde about every day, and look forward to it.  Yes, I do miss running, but I can't help that I feel paranoid about it.

Yoga
Cost and paranoia are my reasons for my yoga dropping off as of late.  I had taken advantage of some great deals when my yoga studio opened and was spoiled by sub $5 classes for months.  Once my passes expired and the reality of $16 a class set in, I shied away and got too busy to go.  I also did some research on yoga while TTC and found some stuff on the fact that certain twists and moves can be bad, which scared me a little.  Luckily, I received this from Jen for my birthday:

I plan on trying this out really soon to get my yoga flow going again!

Cooking
I'm definitely doing better with cooking than running and yoga in terms of actually doing it.  Okay, so I had popcorn, a pear, and half a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios for dinner last night (hey, it sounded good!).  Usually I'm good about cooking though, I swear! Creativity is definitely down though, hence why I probably haven't been posting many recipes lately. 

Tonight I made a pretty delicious dinner.

This was a bed of Quinoa, with grilled veggies.

I LOVE kabobs, and when I surveyed my fridge for dinner tonight, I saw these babies looking at me:

Fresh peppers and zucchini!

I think they wanted to become my dinner...

I chopped them into big cubes, added some onion, then par-boiled them in some teriaki sauce/water in a covered casserole dish in the microwave for about 2-3 minutes to cook them slightly before grilling.

Then I tried to be all fancy and skewer them.

Ooooh la la.

Turns out that skewers don't do that great on the grill pan.  Without the flame from a real grill, it was hard to get them to cook right.  They ended up like this...

Served over a bed of Quinoa with a sprinkle of soy sauce.

Oh yeah.  Loved this :)

The bottom line is that my exercise has definitely changed a lot, and I'm aware of it.  I'm okay with it if the end result is a baby and hopefully it will be.  I'll try to keep moving, even if it's not like it was last year.  And I'll keep trying to eat more meals like this instead of Cheerios.  Sometimes Cheerios do hit the spot though!

A Lovely Little Birthday

Yup, I had another birthday!

I kicked off the day with a batch of pancakes using CarrotsNCake Really Good Pancake Recipe.

Wow, they were delicious!  I haven't had pancakes in a while, and these did not disappoint!  I think the secret ingredient is the yogurt, which makes them kind of light in fluffy.  I inhaled them!

Since I haven't had a weekend home in almost a month, I actually had kind of a lazy morning at home.  I watched some Tivo'd shows and I may or may not have watched the Royal Wedding again...

I took Clyde on a long walk.  Oh my it was a gorgeous day!  Deep blue skies and fresh air.  It felt so nice outside!

I made a lovely sandwich for lunch: turkey, havarti cheese, avocado, tomato, and spinach on grilled rye.  With a side of carrots.

After lunch I ran some errands, then got ready for a night out with my friends.

I went to Mellow Mushroom with Katie, Jen, Cindi, Caitlin, Diana, and my friend Michelle.

I started with a Sweetwater IPA that Cindi recommended as my birthday beer.

Yummy!

Jen, Cindi, and I arrived early to get a table and ordered some hummus while we waiting for our friends to arrive.

The pita was warm and delicous, as was the hummus.  I need to add paprika to my homemade hummus sometime, I love the added spice it provides :)

For dinner, Cindi and I started plotting to split a pizza and salad.  We went with a Greek salad, which was hard to photograph

And a pizza with artichoke hearts, roasted red pepper, and mushrooms.

I had some serious point-and-shoot lighting issues (decided not to bring the DSLR tonight), but here's my girls :)

After we carbloaded, we went next door to Yoforia for a treat.

This was pomegranete, pineapple, banana, strawberry, and taro with fresh pineapple, mochi, and strawberries.

Bloggers in action!

Then I did this...

(photo stolen from Katie)

That's my best I'm-a-white-girl-and-party-like-a-white-girl move.

I had a blast last night.  Low key pizza and fro-yo with my buddies was just want I needed to ring in a new year!