Play that funky music

What do you do when you're down? I've had a rough few days. I've got drama with Ari's school, and I'm AGONIZING over a decision I don't want to make. I don't want to face it. I want to take a nap and never wake up sometimes. I know that sounds suicidal, I just mean I want to escape, and it would be nice if it was for good.

OK, here's what pulled me through the last few days. First, thank heaven (literally) for that Tae Bo class I teach. I didn't even think I could get through it, but the music started and those great students were all there with their energy, and suddenly I was in heaven: moving so quickly, punching out my aggression, hitting right on the beat, like an extra reinforcement from the universe (--yes I know this sounds cheesy). Five minutes into that class and I was rocking a huge smile on my face. I love that cardio kickboxing. Love it. Yay for my students too. Yay yay. ..and spin class this morning was great. Something about that endorphin high I guess.

Second, I needed a little more than my "book on mp3" lately. I love the escapism of the stories I listen to, --I always pick YA fiction --cause that's the point for me --I don't need extra seriousness in my life, but lately I just scanned around the FM radio, and found this funky little station, that doesn't even work inside buildings sometimes, the signal is so small (90.90 for those of you in Utah). It has all of these hippie type songs, that take me back to all those times Kay or Fred and I went to the coffee shops with Norman, or that other guy? What was his name again? The big guy with the dark hair? I can never remember his name; and I got a huge bowl-like mug of hot chocolate, Mexican hot Chocolate if we went to the gay coffee shop,--cause it was the best (you know with that little cinnamon hit you get with that kind of hot chocolate?), and I would ask Kay which waitress was the cutest (and secretly wonder if she was cuter than me, but that's just my perennial insecurity that always crops up). We'd listen to that kind of music in those shops, and it makes me happy now to sing out loud to those songs when I hear them again.

Third, Jeff and I sometimes do a little cardio at night, while we're watching a show, and then late at night, when I'm taking a bath, it's so beautiful with the lights on the sparkly window (yeah, of COURSE it's privacy glass), and the big tub, and all my little decorations that I picked out as an expression of me (me and Jeff I guess, OK, and let's confess, I bought a lot because they were on sale), and the big big heavy cotton towels, and Jeff to snuggle with at the end of the day. Yum.

I know my problems are doinky compared to most people, and it makes it all the worse that they can plow me under like this, but, I'm going to be OK. I've got a lot to be thankful for.

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Cardio Party

I taught my first class last night at BYU. SOOOO fun! Decent sized crowd for a first class, and they were all whooping and counting with me and everything. I couldn't stop smiling. Then I had to get up early to sub-teach at UVU for a friend of mine, which was her first class of the semester, and -what the? The students all came in street clothes. I felt kind of bad for them and asked if they wanted to run and grab some PE issue before we started, but they all said they were fine --we're talking sweaters, and hats and earrings --I'm not kidding. OOOKAYYY. So I went through basics with them and then did like 20 minutes of real cardio. They signed up for it right? They were pretty good sports though. Nice people.

Today I run downstairs to check on Kai and his friend because I heard some clunking noises that sounded ominous. Kai is on the unplugged treadmill with weight lifting gloves on his feet, pushing the belt around , and his friend is on the stairclimber clunking down on one side and then another. Cardio's for everyone I guess.

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Playing House

I'm doing my hair and listening to Kai and the neighbor boy playing in his room. I hear the neighbor boy sing "happy birthday dear daddy...happy birthday to you!" then I hear Kai say: "some bombs! I've always wanted some bombs! " Neighbor boy says " no, they're jet packs" "Oh! I've always wanted those too!" says Kai. That isn't what playing house was like when I was little, but then I'm a girl.

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The Maiden Voyage

So we did a first run of the new nifty neato cool ice cream maker yesterday morning. We finished it all off in seconds flat I'm afraid, but the neighbor boy had seconds --so not just us. Here's what I put in there:
4 servings vanilla whey protein mixed with water(my one non-vegan food I may never give up)
1/2 cup date paste (dates soaked and blended)
1/3 cup coconut milk
2T orange juice concentrate
cinnamon 2 T
nutmeg 3/4 t.
ginger 1 t.
xanthan gum 1 t.

Yeah, I'm still on the gingerbread flavor kick, but I added in the orange because my BOOK

suggested it would be a good flavor pairing. It was lovely.

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Happy (gourmet!!) Anniversary!

Jeff and I never got our anniversary weekend this year, so we squeaked it in right under the wire. My brother and sister-in-law watched our kids for us on Thanksgiving night, but we really wanted a couple of days. Besides nothing was open that night. So we treated ourselves to two nights in the hotel we discovered that Thanksgiving freebee night. We love this hotel --it's a four star, but mainly we love it because the fitness room ROCKS! It's got all of these cardio machines with personal tv's and ipod jacks, and a full set of free weights, some weight machines, and a big view over the whole downtown. Big cool mirrors leaning against the walls too --you know like in those dayspa places? The beds are wonderful there too. Jeff said we could go for lunch wherever I wanted, so we smoked out Tony Caputo's deli. I'd read reviews of it in Gourmet magazine, and really wanted to check out the world quality chocolate they carried, as well as finally find smoked Spanish paprika that keeps showing up in my recipes lately. Found both. The chocolate bar in the picture above won third place in the International Chocolate People Secret Society or the ICPSS (OK I can't really remember the name of the group --but it sounded impressive). The cocoa beans it's made of come from Madagascar, and I'm not kidding, when I tasted it, I could taste hints of oranges, and anise, and plums and raisins...it was like when people rave about a fine wine. Caputos teaches chocolate pairing classes --like wine pairing. Any takers to go to one with me ? Like we all need an excuse to eat more chocolate... Tony Caputo waited on us himself, and I'm whispering to Jeff: "I think that's him --I think that's him!" It was like I met a rockstar. I also got some big huge Fava beans that I haven't seen since I was a kid, and some big ol' Lebanese couscous, and some Chilean Porcinis, and some fresh chestnuts for my sister who watched our kids this time --we used to have our Dad roast them for us as kids --kind of a neat memory, and two other gourmet chocolates that we ate there with lunch --one with a caramel with fleur de sel. Heaven.

Yesterday we had a million hours to wait for our movie, so we walked around Dick's sporting goods for a while, and then...Sur la Table! Jeff was REALLY spoiling me. That's not his idea of the best way to spend an hour and a half.Guess what I talked him into? "It's on sale for half off Honey..."

Yes! Now I can make all the protein, stevia, kabocha or pure fruit ice cream I want! Check out some recipes on HEAB.

Then when we got home, THIS was waiting for me. Jeff actually heard about this from a friend, and it has been on my wish list, until he ordered it for me. All of a sudden, it's like I know everything about food in the whole world. OK, I don't know, but this book does! You can look up any food: Fava beans, mandarin oranges, dates, and it tells you all of the flavors that work well with it. You want to create a new recipe using...savoy cabbage? This is a good place to start. Here I took a picture of a page..

Eh, not so good. Maybe if you click on it it will enlarge. I'm super excited anyway. Oh, and our movie? We saw Avatar. Beautiful! Highly recommend it. Beautiful world they created for that movie. Someone had a brilliant imagination. And there's enough fights for my guy to enjoy it too. And I want one of those flying animal things in the next life.

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