I'm Glad There Are Cookies

When I'm stressed, I eat. Something gets hard? I'm all- where are the cookies? The wine? Need them..like now.

Unfortunately, I have indulged in both this evening. I'll let you in on a dirty secret about me...

While I love having the opportunity to stay at home with our boys, I don't love every single moment of my day. I get so incredibly jealous of J who gets to leave the walls of this house dressed in actual clothes, interact with other adults, and go on lunches and run other errands that he needs to do kid-free. I can't tell you how much that makes me jealous. Of course, there's another side to that argument, but you can spare me. I already know it. I've heard it...and I get it. 

The thing is, I have very very little time to myself. Moms, you know the drill. I don't get to shower in peace. Forget going to the bathroom without a toddler running in yelling "pee pee" and flushing before I can even stand up. Sorry for the visual. The point is that I'm an introvert and I crave alone time. As much as I want these cookies that are in my kitchen, that's also my desire to just be alone FOR THE LOVE.

I get so discouraged. I'm trying to change my life by eating healthier and exercising. Some days, I feel great, but others days (like today) I completely derail my progress by stress eating. I also didn't get to workout or run for as long as I would have liked. The babes' naps only coincided for about 20 minutes so I didn't get a long workout there. Then in the evening I went for a run with both of them in the stroller, but after two miles they were ready to quit. I suppose I could be attempting another workout right now, but after the night I just had, it's a miracle I'm not curled up in the fetal position! I'd love to shower, but I'm desperately afraid of waking one of them up after they both took turns crying for over an hour.

I'm complaining too much. I don't mean to. I have a great life. But for when I do get discouraged, I'm glad there are cookies.

(P.S. Here's the 20 minute workout I did. I was surprised at how it smoked me in such a short amount of time!)

Source: fitnessmagazine.com via Mrs. on Pinterest

The Finer Things In Life

I thought I'd let you step into my kitchen for a few minutes today. What's cookin'?

Our family go-to meal. And it's delicious.

Excuse the crumbs on the floor. Clear off a spot at the bar. You can move the baby chair to the floor to make room. Ok, are you ready?

I've got the easiest, tastiest recipe ever.



You will need:

• bow tie pasta (half box)


• peas (we use the steamer bags)


• sausage


• alfredo sauce (half jar)

That's it! But if you want to get fancy, throw in some spices to taste and add some shallots, too. YU--UM!

It's so easy, you could probably figure it out yourselves.

1. Cut sausage into bite sized pieces and just cook it up in a skillet. Brown it, ya know. Then drain the grease (This is where our dear, sweet Holly expects the grease to be poured over her dog food!). Note: If you're getting fancy, you can add the spices and shallots here.


2. While you're preparing the sausage, get some water boiling for the pasta. I trust you can follow the directions on the box/bag. ;)


3. Stick pea bag in microwave (What? I told you it was easy).


4. When the pasta is done, drain the water, and mix in about half of the alfredo sauce.


5. Add sausage and peas to pasta and voila! Tastiest, easiest dish you'll ever make.

You're welcome. ;)

We also like to have red wine with this, but you do what you want! On Sunday, we had this meal with some Malbec. Usually, we claim our house wine to be the Wal-mart brand of Oak Leaf. We're not picky. This particular night, however, we were feeling fancy. Instead of the regular 3 dollar bottle, we splurged for the $14. Classy, I know. Anyway, we were partaking in our wine tasting techniques we learned on the North Island of New Zealand-

Imagine the scene. I'm sitting in my crazy print flannel pj's with Valentine slippers on my feet, hair is in a high ponytail. And if I'm confessing it all- my hair was in a high ponytail that was slightly off to the left. Captain J approaches me with my glass and cheese in his hand (not on a plate). He might as well have just taken the cheese out of the pocket of his Carhartts. He hands me the glass. We swish it around. We hold it up to our noses and pretend to detect various scents in the wine. We taste it. We close our eyes and savor. Next, we eat our cheese slices. Finally, we take another sip. And it's confirmed.

We still can't tell the difference from the really inexpensive wine from the regular inexpensive wine.

Captain J summed it up when he said, "The finer things in life are sometimes lost on people like us."

City Life in Cali

San Francisco  wasn't ready for us....and boy (or girl), lemme tell you- we weren't quite ready for the streets of San Fran. These two Alaskans in our F350 just didn't mix well with the traffic and congestion in the hilly city. The first hour or so was quite stressful as we tried to navigate around the city and attempt to not  dismember any innocent pedestrians. Thanks to the help of Magellan, we found our way to our first stop: Wags Hotel.

We knew hauling two huskies up and down the streets of a busy city was just asking for trouble so we chose to board them for the night. I swear, their "hotel" was better than ours. You wouldn't believe the ammenities/goodies/extras they offered: One on one swim time, Yappy Hour, and more. I'm pretty ashamed of myself for pampering them so, but I'm sure they had a good time (Their report card said so! ;) ).

After Captain J and I decided on a location to rest our pretty little heads, we set out to explore the city...on foot. No more driving for us! We walked everywhere we went. I'm surprised I survived.

We strolled down to Fisherman's Wharf to walk along the water and view Alcatraz from a distance. Later we spotted Ghirardelli, which quickly became my favorite place in this whole entire world. I was in chocolate heaven!

After a quick snap of this photo (and J telling curious onlookers that I was a "chocolate fiend"), we strolled on down the street where we came to a wine tasting. Being in California and not tasting wine is criminal so we sat down to enjoy a few swigs of California's best aged grape juice.

Afterwards, we continued on down the road to Pier 33 where there were tickets to Alcatraz being sold. Knowing that I'm slightly obsessed with prison shows and culture, J hopped in line to buy us tickets. The boat ride took approximately 12 minutes. In no time, we were standing on the island- looking out at the bright lights of San Francisco. I regret that I didn't bring my camera during this time. How could I forget that?! All I had was the iphone and it doesn't have great capabilities in the dark. Oh, well...I'll have to savor those memories in my mind. I did get a picture of a quote from one of the wardens of "The Rock"-

I thought this was pretty profound especially when I think about all our soldiers who have given all. Did you know that before Alcatraz was a prison that it was actually a military base? Did you know that families occupied the island as well during the time the inmates were there? The tour was quite interesting and I'd definitely like to check out some more literature on the topic.

Around 8 o'clock that night, we finally had dinner. As suggested by my dear dad-in-law, we had dungeness crab and chardonnay. It was excellent! These Californians have it down a little better than Fairbanksians, I just have to say. We left the restaurant with our bellies full and began the long trek back to our hotel.

I didn't get much sleep that night because there were two women in the room to the left of ours that were having an excellent time together, if you know what I mean. Then to to right of us, there was a young couple who argued in German during the wee hours of the morning. Add in cars honking, tires screeching, and the hustle and bustle of city life and it's easy to see why I slept very little.

I woke up with a spring in my step, though. I was ready to get out of that hotel! Captain J and I put on our walkin' shoes and got to stepping bright and early. We had breakfast in the Wharf then headed to Lombard Street to see the crooked roads and beautiful gardens.

Photo Credit Here

Then we went to see the interesing Chinatown district where I wanted to snatch up a couple of those beautiful Chinese children and high tail it to GA and call it a day! (I promise I'm kidding) They were all so precious and it reminded me of the pull I feel to adopt from China. Maybe one day.

We followed the streets to Coit Tower. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to go to the top due to construction on the tower.

Note Annoyed Smile

I could go on forever. We literally went all over this city and by the end of the day I felt as if I had done a half marathon, at least. Then I began to ponder how San Francisco(ians?) stack up in marathons. I bet they win more often than not. You wouldn't believe the steep hills that I was huffing up. Whew! I get tired just thinking about it. I just know if I lived there, I'd look amazing with all that extra exercise I would likely get.

We loved this city, but were glad to drive out of the congestion and back into a slower pace. We definitely wouldn't make it as city folk! Tomorrow we're camping in Yosemite. The adventure continues...

P.S.- Does anyone else have the Full House theme song in their head now?

Wined and Dined

It's Sunday evening and I'm nestled in my warm house after a weekend of many activities. It feels good to relax and know that my Monday will be just as nice. My Captain is off work- He had a "three day" weekend! While I do have much to say, it might have to wait because eight o'clock is nearing and that means that it's time for The Amazing Race. I do have some time so I'll let you in on a few tidbits...

I've been nursing a cold, sore throat, and icky feeling for about a week so when J got off work early on Friday, we decided a nap was in order. During that nap, Captain J got a phone call from one of his buddies, asking if we wanted to join him and his wife for dinner. She is an amazing cook. I won't tell you what all we had in case you haven't eaten lately or are on a diet because it will definitely have you salivating. I will say that I drank the most aged wine I've had before. A bottle of French table wine graced the four chair table setting during dinner. They had a box of spirits that had been passed down from an older family member who was somewhat of a wine conoisseur. The two of them asked us to pick out a bottle we'd like to have which left us feeling pretty undeserving. We thought, "Don't waste good wine on us!" Our "house wine" is about 3 bucks at Walmart :) , if that tells you anything.

Anyway, we found a bottle that had 1971 printed on the label. We thought it must surely be spoiled by now. As we opened the bottle, we noticed some slight bleeding through of the cork, but we left the wine to sit for a few minutes. When we tasted it, it was delicious! Or maybe it wasn't? Because we really are quite cheap. Almost anything tastes good to us! I suspect it really was tasty because they drank it, too and seemed to enjoy it.

Captain J and I had a fun evening with this couple and left their house that night happy to have another married couple to hang out with. We made plans for next weekend as well. We're going hunting and camping, which sounds fun in most other states in October, but I just am not convinced that camping in Alaska in October is going to be up my alley. Sounds much too frigid for my tastes! I suppose we'll see what happens. I'm going to strap on my happy face and try to keep up with all these outdoorsmen(women). I'll be sure to come back and regale you with stories from that trip.

That's all I've got for you tonight, but I wanted to let you know about a fabulous new blogger who I just happened to get the priviledge of knowing. My dear friend, Nicole, can be found at her blog, Carolina North. I've mentioned her several times on this blog, but you'll know her best as the first friend I made up here in Alaska. She has moved on since then as many military families tend to do, but we are keeping in touch because we wouldn't have it any other way. She's a thoughtful and very witty writer so go check her out!

I'll be sure to write again soon.

Love,