Parting Gift

Thank you Minnesota for making it so incredibly easy to leave you. What a great parting gift.

Picture of my reality today (literally it snowed forever today):

Picture of my reality tomorrow:

Hasta luego! We are off to Cozumel tomorrow, and will be completely off the grid. Look for photos when we return.

In the meantime here are a few new websites that I am crushing on:

www.goop.com

www.eatmedaily.com

http://leslie-miles.blogspot.com/

Stay Warm! We'll be sending you beach-y thoughts...

Who has a recommendation?

As I have not put more than about 1 minute of thought into packing for vacation (which is in about 36 hours), I am wondering if anyone out there has any good BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS for the beach.

Note:

• I don't care for chick lit...so I get it..it's easy, breezy, and great for the beach. But not this beach bum.
• Keep in mind the size of the book. I am all for long books, but they can't be so bulky it takes the place of of my favorite pair of shoes. This pretty much cuts out hardcover.
• I don't want to cry on vacation. C'mon people... I read Marley and Me in Vegas and had tears streaming down my face by the pool. I am pretty sure Nate was concerned that I was suffering from severe depression.

Let me know by 6PM tomorrow! I will be swinging by the bookstore on my way to a packing extravaganzaa!

Nigella Express: Episode 6

Breakfast Bars was the name of the game this past week.

And I really cannot take any of the credit for it because Nate whipped these up while I was in class. We wanted to get another new recipe in before we left for Mexico, so we thought what better thing to make to take to the Dells for our family getaway.

Well.....turns out maybe not the best. The thing is they tasted good. But the condensed milk sank to the bottom giving the bars this weird texture of dry on top, and soggy on the bottom.

But on the bright side, Nate gets some mad props for his amazing food stylings. You can see the coconut, the nuts, the oats...

Wet 'n Wild Weekend

We packed up the car and met the whole family in the Dells this weekend for a little midwestern winter getaway.

It was so much fun to have a mini-vacation with everyone, in a new place, with new things to do, and to see Finn interact with all of the fun things there was to do. He got a little spooked by this giant buckets that unleashed hundreds of gallons of water crashing to the ground, so from there on out he needed his 'b-ball' for a water-friendly security blanket. Luckily, Grandpa was on the job to steal a ball from the big swimming pool for Finn to drag around.

In an effort to thwart further procrastination attempts on my part (I am working on a speech and a paper)...consider this a photo-journal blog post...

It was such a fun weekend, and reminiscent of the goold old Midway Motor-lodge days with the Ekern crew. We even got Mom to go on the waterslides with the 'big kids'..NICE!! Dad kept himself busy in the mornings with lots of Wall Street Journals, and the boys snuck out Saturday night to go to a movie.

I definitely look forward to these sorts of trips for years to come with the fam!

Diva Doug

Many of you know that I am a newly converted fanatic of The Firm. A few weeks ago, Nate lost a bet and the stakes were that if he lost he had to come expereience The Firm with me. Now, two short weeks later he is a convert too.

There are so many things about this gym that I love. The people/staff are incredibly nice. Every workout is a workout like I have never had before. And most importantly there is Diva Doug.

Doug teaches the Cardio Step class that we take, and he is incredible. He is aboslutely hilarious with his at-times inappropriate jokes, outlandish costumes, and practiced prancing. He plays good tunes, and always delivers an ass kicking.

He "took" to Nate on Nate's first day in class...and then I had to butt in and let him know we were married. :)

For those of you who may need a visual, here we are on this past Saturday. Doug has some great Valentine's day costumes, and gave..and I quote...."his new favorite" some special Valentines love.

So that's what Nate and I have been enjoying as we go to the gym together. Next time you're in town, I can take you. They have day passes so you can come and see Diva Doug live in all of his glory. You know you want to.

Nigella Express: Episode 5

Nate and I decided to take a lazy Sunday approach to Nigella this week and made a scrumptious brunch.

We made Homemade Pancake Mix with Blueberry Syrup and Chopped Fruit Salad.

The fruit salad was very good and extremely easy. It literally is exactly what you see here, fruity with yogurt topped with nuts. But the secret is that you steep the strawberries in pomegranate juice for a while before combining the rest of the ingrediants. I was suprised how much of a difference it made in the flavor.

The homemade pancake mix surprised us by making the equivalent to almost a full box of bisquick. So now we have plenty of homemade mix on hand for whenever the mood strikes us to have some delicious pancakes.

The blueberry syrup was the the hands down winner of this recipe. All you do is take a cup and a half of blueberries and combine with a cup of maple syrup and bring it to a low boil for 8-10 minutes. The result is a piping hot syrup that makes the pancakes perfect.

Let the Countdown Begin!

Let me tell you how excited I am that we have FINALLY booked our vacation! After many, many hours of extensive research, and deal-seraching we have booked our trip and are headed to Cozumel with Katie and Ryan! WHOO HOO!!!

We leave on the 27th.....Here is a little sunset shot from the pool at our hotel to set the mood.

Now we are working on our Spanish... playa, pacina, el sol, bano, cervesa....you know the important stuff. :)