Marni

back pain. numbness. yoga.

2011-11-22T13:53:00.000-05:00

i have a lot of issues. i know- everyone has issues- but my issues are becoming more and more medical. not only do i have 3 herniated discs in my back (1 lumbar, 2 cervical) but i have cervical stenosis, hyperreflexia, and weakness. seriously, the hyperreflexia is kind of cool- if youre the medical type. i'd be a prime subject for a med student neuro exam. hit my knee with your finger lightly, and watch out- you may just get kicked with not only one leg but both.
ive seen a lot of doctors. ive been punted from one to another to another, until ive seen the top of the top and there is nowhere else to go but down. i guess the concensus is that all of my symptoms are related to my neck. but, since its not so bad that i am bedbound, since im still able to shuffle my way through the day seeing patients and since im still seemingly surviving, there is nothing to do about it. YET.
ive been told if things get worse, i have to come back. if my symptoms progress, then maybe they'll fix me. the fix- a big ass surgery. do i want that? NO. but as the days and weeks and months pass, im not sure if my symptoms worsening are enough to jump up and say lets do something now. what is my breaking point? when are my struggles enough to warrant the risks ahead?
each night, i wake up 2-3 times with my arms numb from the shoulder to the fingers. im not allowed to run or jump or ski or bike or do anything with a risk of falling. i need to lose weight, and yes- diet has a ton to do with that, but the other huge factor is exercise and im finding it hard to do what i need to do without running into trouble. im so weak i cant lift things. i cant even open a jar of spaghetti sauce. i cant twist and turn and bend. i cant do anything with pounding on my feet. if i workout, the entire night and day following, my arms especially but also my legs are shaking and so weak i can hardly move.
im trying yoga. hopefully thats the trick. but will it hurt me more, trying to get my body in different poses? i'd love some advice. and a quick fix. i know i wont get that, so i guess i'll take all the advice i can get.

don't bite the hand that feeds you

2011-06-22T15:37:00.000-04:00

im heartbroken. i know ive complained about my crazy food obsessed dog before. ive offered her to a number of people- always with a smile or a smirk, *always* jokingly.
but now, its real.
the other night, levi got to feed trio as tali was "doing her business" in the bathroom (yes, in other news, we have a girl who wears underpants now!). tali comes running out of the bathroom feeling slighted that she didnt get to feed trio dinner. after explaining to her that it was levi's turn, she proceeded to stick her hand into trio's bowl to try to remove the food so she could put it back in and feed trio herself. trio, crack addict that she is, was incredibly threatened at the prospect of even a morsel of food being taken from her, and she snapped.
words were exchanged. blood was drawn.
end of story is that tali has a swollen finger and is on antibiotics.
i guess its not really the "end of story" because now we need to figure out what to do about trio.
i think we understand that once biter, always a biter. we are not letting the kids feed her anymore, thats for sure.
but what do we do? i know she felt bad after biting tali, but what's to stop her from biting tali again? whats to stop her from biting anyone else who tries to take food away from her, especially an unknowing child coming over for a playdate?
she is as sweet as sugar. she loves being pet, loves curling up and getting cozy, and has always been really good around the kids. she just has a food problem.....
i want to find her a good home, a place where she will be loved, cared for, and treated as a member of the family. help me, please!

triangles

2011-04-06T13:40:00.000-04:00

for Tali's birthday, which happened to fall on purim (the jewish holiday where you eat TRIANGULAR food to represent the three cornered hat of Haman- the bad guy in the story of Queen Esther), we had a bunch of people over to eat lots of triangles.....
jeff had a "make your own hamentashen" station (triangular cookies filled with jelly or chocolate).
we ordered pizza from dewey's (cut into nice triangular slices).
i *made* (heated) spanikopita.
and i *made* (heated) my NEW FAVORITE SNACK......

I had them at book club a few times and they were absolutely delicious. spicy, indian, easy! (and triangular, of course!).
they were such a hit, not a single one was left, and people kept asking where they were from (or if i had made them- i should have LIED and gotten everyone to think i was the best cook around!).
since that party, we have been back to the indian store once more, to stock our freezer with samosas for us to snack on or serve for guests. in addition to the spinach-paneer version, we also got the spicy lentil version which were just as amazing.
i think ive found my new food obsession. they come in little packs of 4, frozen, packaged, and perfect to take with me to work for lunch, to heat in the toaster. hopefully, i wont get sick of all the samosas i now devour.

dumplings

2011-04-06T12:42:00.000-04:00

Ever since Xuelei and YiJuen cooked real chinese dumplings for us, I've been craving them. I've been begging for the recipe, begging for a real chinese cooking lesson, drooling in my dreams about eating them again and again.
We went to their house for dinner a few nights ago, and although they did not make dumplings (the dinner was great- chinese tofu and cucumber salad, "bugs on trees", chicken curry, and tofu with tomatoes), they shared some secrets with me and i figured I would give the dumplings a try on my own.
Their new-found time-saver comes from none other than our favorite store- costco. Frozen UNCOOKED flour tortillas. They may not taste as wonderful as homemade dough, they are a close second.
Xuelei uses chinese chives and dried shrimp and egg as her filling, which i did not have access to, as i have no clue where there is a chinese store (i need to tag along with her next time she goes). i, instead, scoured the internet for recipe after recipe for turkey dumplings, just to give me ideas. since jeff refuses to eat pork (let alone have it in our home), i thought ground turkey would be a good compromise.
using a mixture of ground turkey, minced garlic, chopped scallions, chopped chives, egg, sesame oil and soy sauce, i made a concoction that i hoped would delight us (that is, me, jeff, and my mom, since i knew the kids wouldnt dare try something so delicious- i was right).
i stuffed the tortillas, folded them over, wet the edges so they would stick together, and pan fried them for 2 minutes before putting in a couple tablespoons of water and covering the pan to allow them to steam the rest of the way. the result was crispy on the outside, delectable on the inside, and a truly amazing dinner. not one bite leftover for me to eat for lunch today. too bad. I will be making them again. and now im thinking about what else i can add next time. any ideas?

FINAL RESULTS!

makes me regret my thoughts

2011-03-13T22:08:00.001-04:00

watching the disaster unfold and ongoing in japan makes me feel really bad about my rant in my previous post about moving, wet basements, etc.
it is true. it could always be worse. much worse.
i can not imagine what it must be like in japan right now. the devastation is unreal.
i thank my blessings every day. i am one lucky woman.

i have sex

2011-03-10T20:31:00.000-05:00

it could always be worse

2011-03-10T16:31:00.000-05:00

that seems to be the theme for the last couple weeks. this is definitely not the way i'm supposed to be feeling my first week in my new beautiful home.
we moved last sunday. a crazy day of stress and moving and organizing and cleaning and making beds. falling asleep in our new house was a feeling of relief.
then, 12 hours later- water in the basement of the new house. i started crying. as the brand new carpet was ripped up, i almost lost it. i couldnt go into the basement at all for fear of a total meltdown. even levi sensed i was on edge and was the best behaved boy around.
then, as i was getting ready for bed after a very trying day of unpacking, jeff calls my cell phone from the old house to report.....water in the basement there too.
i laughed out loud. seriously. of course there was water in the basement there too (for the first time in the 5 years we have owned the home). what else would i have expected?
not only do we have two houses now, two mortgages to deal with, but we now have two houses with two wet basements, carpet ripped up in both, both needing waterproofing and remodelling.
i feel like i am in the middle of the book "it could always be worse". you know the jewish folktale about the man complaining his house was too cramped until the rabbi kept telling him to bring more and more animals into the house, only to find complete relief when the rabbi finally lets him get rid of all the animals? except, i feel like we keep getting more and more things adding up, increasing my stress level and lowering my bank account, and there is no end in sight. we even had to take the other house off the market for a couple weeks until we have it fixed and ready to show again.
but, like they say. "it could always be worse".
we have our house(s), still intact. still livable. (at least, thank god, there wasnt a fire or anything like that- KNOCK ON A HUGE PILE OF WOOD NOW!). and since we had (literally) just moved, none of our stuff was ruined. nothing was in the basement of the old house. and nothing was unpacked in the new house.
we have our health. we have our family. we have our friends.
lots to be thankful for.
but how about giving us a little break now. we could use the relief.

can parent's magazine get the kids to eat?

2011-02-18T21:30:00.000-05:00

I found this Couscous Casserole on the pages of Parents Magazine. The recipes are supposedly easy and kid friendly. It looked good, so i figured I would give it a try.

I came home from work today excited to test out the recipe. what could go wrong with whole wheat couscous, tomato sauce, ground turkey, zucchini, spinach, onions? i figured it would be good. and healthy.

The recipe is extremely simple. took me about 20 minutes to prepare and then 20 minutes in the oven. voila! perfect!

the casserole was a HUGE HIT.

it HIT the floor from Tali's seat. (good thing trio is a vacuum).

it HIT Levi's plate and did not get touched thereafter.

it HIT the spot for me and jeff. we LOVED it.

so, kid friendly recipe? no.

worth making again? absolutely!!!!!

school?

2011-02-11T09:27:00.000-05:00

we thought we had it all figured out. then, more questions seem to arise each day.
i was stopped today on my way out the door after dropping levi off at school. his teacher wanted to "chat" about levi's progress and plans for next year.
we had decided, after much debate, to hold levi back one year instead of starting him in kindergarten. to give him a leg up when he finally starts, being the oldest in his class instead of the youngest. and we all think this decision will be the best one for him.
so, when the teacher approached me today, it was to tell me that in the last month, levi has been making leaps and bounds in his progress. he is becoming much more proficient at writing his letters, he is starting to sound things out, he is expressing his feelings with words instead of keeping them inside, and he is starting to really engage in cooperative play and imaginative play. she wanted to tell me that he really is loving learning and has finally opened up to her and is an absolute sponge when it comes to education.
its not to say he is ready for kindergarten- she also agrees one more year of preschool would be worth it. but, it is to say that she wants to be his teacher again next year.
we had thought, if we were going to keep him in preschool one more year, that we would move him to a different environment. its not that we dont love levi's school- we do. but three years was enough and we we not sure a fourth year would do any good. but his teacher (and the head of the school, who was overhearing this conversation) said that moving him for one year would be detrimental to his education. he is finally comfortable, learning well, that having him make a huge transition for one year, only to move him AGAIN for kindergarten, would really push back that progress.
it got me thinking. are they right? should we keep levi in his current school for one more year? should we move him to a different school for pre-k only, increasing the transition time twice instead of just once? what should we do. i need some advice.

sausage

2011-01-26T14:43:00.000-05:00

we now wake up to a chorus of "sausage" eminating from the little girl's room upstairs. over the monitor, we are treated to a delightful tune of "sausage, sausage, sausage" each and every morning, and sometimes after nap.
along the lines of "food, glorious food" from oliver, tali's new thing is "sausage, oh glorious sausage".
she stole a few bites of my turkey sausage at breakfast a few weeks ago, and that is how the story starts. it has been obsession since. levi wont touch the stuff. tali inhales it.
i bought turkey sausage by the ton from costco last weekend, and we are already halfway through the box. tali eats 4 links at breakfast (since the 2 we initially gave her were definitely not satisfying her increasing hunger for her new delectable treat), and she CRIES- WAILS to be exact- when she sees me taking a bite of my own measly two links as if she will never get enough herself and i better save her every last morsel of my very own breakfast.
each morning, as we trek downstairs to prepare breakfast, i'll ask the kids what they want. breakfast do you say? levi wants oatmeal or a bagel or waffles or yogurt or cereal. and tali just starts screaming sausage sausage sausage until it is sitting in front of her ready to be devoured.

a book club by any other name

2011-01-24T16:34:00.000-05:00

should we just change the name of our monthly club? book club, i mean.

when most (if not all) of us dont know the name of said book, let alone read the monthly book, can we really still call it a book club?

im not complaining. im not angry or mad or sad about it at all. im one of the common offenders. but who are we kidding? we get together once a month for "book club".

here is a list of other name ideas i can think of right now:

girls club
gossip club
lets drink wine club (except for the pregnant ladies which the number seem to be increasing each month)
excuse to get out of the house on a weeknight club

ANY OTHER IDEAS????

in the meantime- and probably forever after- we will continue to pick books, and some of us will read them, we'll talk about the book for 30 minutes, and the rest of the time will be catching up and chatting and gossiping and drinkinging wine with a wonderful group of girls. i wouldnt want it any other way!!!!!

meniscus

2011-01-21T12:38:00.000-05:00

right, medial. to be exact.

my right knee began hurting months ago when i started running. i kept telling jeff that it was hurting, but i would continue to push myself. i started running in a knee sleeve which seemed to help.

then, in florida, we went running and i felt my knee tighten, for lack of better explanation. and all that day, night, and the next few days, my knee hurt, was sore, just wasnt right. i could still walk fine, just once in a while i'd get a shooting pain, mostly with bending or twisting.

so, i stopped running. i tried my exercise videos, but my knee continued to hurt.

i stopped working out. (spending more time making hairclips- i know, im kind of crazy).

last week, i tried my videos again. i tried yoga. i tried jillian michaels. PAIN PAIN PAIN!

so, finally, after putting off the inevitable, i went to ortho. i thought he would tell me it was some kind of strain or sprain. i thought he would tell me i need to go to PT. or perhaps just do other quad strengthening exercises. or perhaps that running isnt for me and i need to choose another form of exercise. but he didnt tell me that. he told me he thinks i have a medial meniscal tear. and I have to have an MRI. beyond that, i guess we'll deal with it when it comes....

for now, im making hairclips in my office, trying to watch what i put into my mouth because i obviously cant do much exercise until i figure this whole knee thing out.

how ive missed you

2011-01-20T06:47:00.000-05:00

hello long lost blog. where have i been? actually im not that sure. i can not figure out if i havent visited because there is so little to talk about or perhaps there is so much to report but not nearly enough time.
i would think that there isnt enough time, but that may be because my choice is to sleep constantly. give me an hour or two while the kids are sleeping, and im off to dreamland myself.
why sleep so much when there is a LOT to get done. we are moving in a little over a month and packing has not even crossed my mind. that could be because we didnt hear about financing the new house until yesterday (YAY!!!!! its been approved!) so we havent thought about it as a reality until now. maybe thats the reason for my endless sleeping, knowing that im going to get very little once the packing and moving starts....
maybe its the stress of the fact that at this point, we are going to be carrying two mortgages. its kind of a long story about this new house hunt and purchase. it kind of happened out of the blue, fell into our laps, and then we found THE house immediately and had to jump at the chance. we would really like to sell our house quickly, but we are also being very aware of WHO will buy our house. we know its not possible to have a screening, a full exam of the new purchasers, but this house is where we started our family. this house is where we have made our best friends. this house we love! if we could transplant it to a different school district (house, street, neighbors, all), there is no chance we would be moving. but, alas, levi is turning 5 in september and we had to start thinking about school. thats for another day and time (if i take a few minutes and postpone my napping).
our decision to move actually was given some credence a couple days ago when jeff ran into a neighbor whose one child is in 1st grade at the local elementary school and whose other son will be starting kindergarten in the fall. the neighborhood school is now on a "watch list". ???? supposedly its one of the good ones in the district, so what does this mean? the school/district has actually given students the opportunity to leave this particular school and go to a different one in the district. weird- right? well, it gets weirder. this choice is only being offered to the "lower income" students, in an effort to rid the school of the kids who are bringing the test scores down. SERIOUSLY? is this legal? test scores, test scores. yadda yadda yadda. elementary schools should not care as much about scores. shouldnt the goal be to instill the love of learning? to have a good balance of education and play?.....but, too much to ask at this time and too many questions that may never get answered. its all for a different day and time.
so, hello blog. im back. i guess i'll write more often. i promise.

welcome to disney, my name is BOB

2010-12-06T14:17:00.001-05:00

jeff and i were ecstatic to be able to drive all the way to florida (i know, we're nuts, right?) mostly because we could then bring our jogging stroller with us. we have a BOB double jogger, the sport utility version, the king of all strollers. its WAY too big to bring on the airplane, so we were slightly thankful that flights were outrageously expensive, therefore making our decision to drive even easier.
we love road trips. in israel, we went to ein gedi and camped at the dead sea. we went to szfat, vered hagalil, and a kibbutz somewhere up north all in jeff's little beat up 1986 peugeot hatchback. our honeymoon was an awesome 2 week road trip through thousand islands, montreal, quebec, vermont, and the adirondacks. we road tripped to rhode island for vanessa's wedding, stopping at all the fun scenic places along the way. so, what better way to explore than to drive down to florida?
we made the most of our journey, stopping in new places along the way. charleston, WV was kind of a wash because tali was really sick the night we were there, and instead of exploring, we had to stay in doing breathing treatments and trying to prevent an out of town emergency room visit (which we were thankfully able to do).
savannah, GA was incredible. the cutest little city ever. we stayed at the hyatt, right on the river, and could watch boats, barges, sailboats, and sailors directly out of our window. the restaurants on river st were cool, eating crab out on the deck watching the boats go by. and historic savannah is adorable with great buildings all built around these little squares with fountains galore. for all of this, we were thankful for our BOB. a comfy ride for the kids. an easy accessory for our lives.
then we arrived at disney. we had heard from many people, many online reviews, many disney "experts" (or fanatics is more like it), that we should NOT stay at animal kingdom because it is SO FAR AWAY and you have to TAKE A BUS to get to the other parks. but what other hotel could you look out your window and watch giraffes and zebras frolick on the savannah??? so, we ignored the advice we received and booked the BEST place to stay at disney (for us, at least). OR----it would have been the BEST place to stay had it not been for "BOB".
the bus ride to the parks was nothing. so what that we had to jump on a bus. our kids LOVE buses and trucks and trains. no big deal. BUT, the big deal was that the strollers had to be folded up, placed out of the way of the aisle, and the kids could not stay in the stroller on the bus. i understand just as much as anyone the safety concerns, but frustrating it was. each time we needed to get on the bus it was an ordeal. we couldnt sit together because the bus was always filled to the brim with others on their own magical vacation and jeff had to be able to hold onto the mega-stroller out of the way of other people. it was hard. it was not fun. having the BOB at the parks themselves made the trip to and from more worth it, but it still was a hassle having to get there and get back.
so, my advice for disney. bring a couple small umbrella strollers that are easy to fold, easy to carry, but still do the trick. it wont be as comfy for the kids, but it will save some other trouble.
even more so than bringing small strollers is that even though it is far from the parks and you *god forbid* have to take a bus to get there, STAY AT ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE! our kids got drum lessons from some african men and got taught individually about pelicans and flamingos and how they eat from some african women. they got to see the giraffes and zebras and african bulls and birds and other types of animals just outside our window.

standard

2010-11-18T21:09:00.000-05:00

i got a flat tire yesterday.

on my 2 week old car.

i was driving levi to school when someone next to me honked and rolled down her window. she told me my tire was flat (the only indication was my "TIRE PRESSURE LOW" light that had moments before magically appeared on my dashboard).

i pulled into mr tire (luckily, a place i just KNEW would have air). but problem is, my new fancy car has tires that are filled with nitrogen and, well, most normal places dont have nitrogen.

panic stricken, with a fully flat tire, i called jeff. having a stay-at-home husband has never been nicer than when i needed him to immediately jump in the car and give me his car to deal with mine himself.

he arrived. called acura. arranged for them to immediately look at my car. and he took levi to school so i could make it to work not later than i already was going to be.

only problem with this fantastic scenario.
jeff has a stick shift car.
in theory, i know how to drive it. ive driven his car a handful of times, but mostly in the neighborhood, on a day when its not busy, in perfect weather, in no traffic, and NEVER on the highway. every time i drive it, it seems to stall at least a few times (i guess that means i really dont know how to drive stick). so, here i am, trying to drive his car ALL THE WAY TO CHARDON, 30 miles away. im late. im stressed. im mad.
but i did it! all the way, i did great! and i did great on the way home too! and i LIKED it! i was not scared when i was stopped on an incline getting off the highway, where previously i would have flipped out. i guess there really is truth to the theory that being in the situation is the best way to learn how to deal with it.

im not going to get myself a stick shift. BUT, maybe now i'll figure out how to use the paddle shifters on my car. all the fun without all the fuss....

i lo lo

2010-09-22T12:32:00.000-04:00

i used to comment on levi's little sayings when he was smaller, and i realize now, that even though i love all the little things tali says, i dont write about them! so, im going to remedy that today.
tali's newest and greatest thing ever is "i lo lo".
it is her way of saying "i love you".
she looks at me, gives me a smile, and says "i lo lo" and then opens her mouth as wide as she can to give me a giant wet kiss on my lips (that sometimes includes my nose and chin as well).
she says a lot of words- not as many as levi did at this age (i think he was in the 200's or more and saying lots of phrases by this point) but i know you cant compare children to each other. if we had to count (we actually have attempted it but keep coming up with new ones on an hourly basis), it would probably be around 100 words. some clear as day "eye, house, hi, byeee, tickle", others a little less clear, but definitely there.
she calls levi "leyee" and loves him more than anything in the world, even when he pushes her down, trips her, hits her, or takes her toys (a daily occurrance). she just gets right back up and follows him around trying her hardest to be just like him.
her favorite songs are "baa baa black sheep", "bim bom", and "wheels on the bus". i'll listen on the monitor some mornings to hear her singing "swish swish swish"- as in "the wipers on the bus go swish swish swish" complete with arm motions. and yesterday in the apple store, where i was buying myself a really nice gift (yay!!!!), she was singing loudly "baa baa black sheep, ha wah wah wah wool". people couldnt keep their eyes off her!
it is amazing to watch my children grow and develop and pick up new things everyday. new words. new interests. new accomplishments.
and just to do a little gloating over here, my big boy levi is learning how to write his own name! a little crooked sometimes, and slightly out of order occassionally, but there it is on paper. L E V I.
my babies are growing up before my eyes....

whats with the gnats?

2010-09-20T12:15:00.000-04:00

What's with the gnats?

I initially thought it was just our house- like we were smelly or something. Like we had some kind of infestation problem. but, it is apparently all of cleveland. or all of northeast ohio. or maybe all of the midwest....

they are disgusting. in the evening and nighttime i cant even open my front or back door (so, you're out of luck trio, better pee before the sun goes down). and in the morning, the front porch and back stoop are just covered. i open the car door in the morning and some fly in, so im swatting them away while driving to work.

YUCK!!!!! when will they go away???

the evolution of a runner

2010-09-14T13:30:00.000-04:00

Jeff is teaching me how to run.

When I was in Israel, I was able to complete a 3 mile run a few times per week, and then came along the sad story named "plantar fasciitis" which has persisted to this day.

but, with orthotics, physical therapy, devotion to stretching, new sneakers, and just grinning and bearing the pain, ive decided to overcome my fear and attempt to run again.

i know that some people love running. i envy you people. i hate it. i hate every friggin' minute of the run. i hate the feeling of breathlessness. i hate that i start asking jeff how long we've been running when we've only gone 3 minutes.

but, i feel so good when im done that hopefully my distaste for the actual exercise will be overcome.

2 weeks ago we started slowly. 10 minutes. that was all. at 3 minutes, i thought there was NO WAY i would be able to finish TEN WHOLE MINUTES (i know, im kind of ridiculous, huh?).

well, low and behold, i persevered. i made it ten minutes without stopping. and it felt great!!! (afterwards, of course).

then, the next day 12 minutes. then 13. by the end of the week, i was at 16 whole minutes!

to you, my friends, this may not seem to be a big accomplishment. but running is hard. and 16 minutes in a row was really big news for me!

this past week, my goal was to be able to run all the way to Levi's school to pick him up. Jeff said i wasnt ready for that long a run yet, but i insisted on trying.

When i walked into Levi's school 22 minutes of straight running (jogging) later, sweating like a dog, probably looking dirty and red and disgusting, i was prouder than ever to pick up my boy and walk home.

so, here we are at week three. we took a little step back to 20 minutes and 21 minutes, but today, we are back up to 22 minutes....

when i get to 30 minutes, im going to buy myself a new lucky brand bag. its my treat to myself. and then i'll sign myself up for a real 5K.

i hope i can really do it. i think i can. i think i can.

i'll keep you all updated! wish me luck....

i am israel

2010-09-03T06:51:00.001-04:00

copper

2010-08-23T11:30:00.001-04:00

lets go back to the 7 year anniversary that jeff and i celebrated last week. Jeff has a thing about getting me a traditional anniversary gift each year. year 1: paper (he got me a book). year 2: cotton (he made a poster out of cotton balls), and so on. year 7: copper.
he wanted to get me a copper pot, similar to the type my mom had in india that had beautiful flowers floating in it. but copper pots are expensive and when in the world would i use such a thing? then, he thought about getting a copper firepit for the backyard. but recently, at work, i saw a kid who had gotten terribly burned after falling over the firepit in the backyard, and that scared me away from that sort of thing until the kids are older and know better.
so, he was at a loss as to what to get for me for our anniversary. (granted, this is normally a small gift, and we DID buy ourselves our nice Weber grill as our REAL anniversary present- but sadly, it isnt copper).
so, saturday, jeff decides he wants to take a drive to canton to look at some australian shepherd puppies. we had been talking about getting a new puppy for a while, but there is never a good time, and i get so angry at trio all the time, why would i want another puppy. but jeff's thought is that since he is home now, it would be probably the only time that anyone would be able to spent hour upon hour with the puppy, training it correctly as we obviously have not done with trio....and maybe at the same time, get trio trained appropriately too. i told him, fine- we would look- BUT we would NOT NOT NOT be getting one.
you probably know how the story goes from this point on. how can puppies be resisted? adorable puppies? generally, they cant. but when you put together an adorable aussie puppy that has bright blue eyes and a "copper" trimmed black coat, it was as if it was destiny.
so, september 11th, we will welcome a new addition to our family....
his name will be COPPER.

SASA yes, MELT no

2010-08-23T11:19:00.000-04:00

two dining experiences in the last couple weeks have left me with very different ideas about going out on the town.

we celebrated our 7 year anniversary last tuesday by having karina stay with the kids and jeff and i went to SASA Matsu at shaker square. IT WAS AMAZING. It is a Japanese Izakaya Asian Bistro- meaning a Tapas bar with japanese food. All the food is made to share, and the idea is to order one thing at a time and just continue to order until you are no longer hungry (or, in our case, until you cant stuff another bite into your mouth even though there are still a ton of things on the menu that look amazing and you want to try).
There were so many things we wanted to try, and we did try a good number of dishes, but our two favorites are the reason we will return again and again.
Kobe Beef Meatballs were so good, melt in your mouth delicious. in some asian style sauce with japanese broccoli rabe and grilled pinapple, they were on the plate no more than 3 seconds before jeff and i inhaled them.
AND, the daikon wrap. such an interesting concept. it came out looking like a summer roll (one of my favorites), but instead of being wrapped in rice paper, it was wrapped in a thin sheet of marinated daikon radish and was stuffed with lobster, crab, shitake mushrooms, and some other veggies. i wanted to order a second one of these, but jeff wouldnt let me. i guess now i have an excuse to return. it wasnt too expensive, either, surprisingly. maybe because we shared everything. it was a great way to spend our 7th anniversary.

We went to MELT thursday afternoon for lunch with the kids. I had taken Levi with me to work that morning as a special for him since he is on vacation from JDN for the week, and we decided to meet Tali and jeff for grilled cheese on our way home. Jeff got their early and got a table for us, so when we arrived, we didnt have to wait (jeff waited the 30 minutes before we got there, which was awesome). but the problem with melt is that even once you have a table, the wait is not over. im not too sure why it is as slow as it is- maybe it is the endless takeout orders they seem to cook before their sit down patrons meals are prepared- or maybe they just dont have a big enough kitchen to accomodate the endless stream of diners that seem to fill the restaurant. whatever the reason, if we go back, it will be without the kids, for a night that jeff and i can enjoy drink after drink after drink at the bar, knowing full well that we will have to wait 45 minutes for our simple grilled cheese sandwiches after they have been ordered.
dont get me wrong. the food is great. the beer list is fantastic. the ranch dressing is one of my favorites. the fries are great, especially with the spicy chipotle BBQ dipping sauce. its just not an acceptable place to go when the kids are hungry....but, jeff and i would love to make it a double/triple/quadruple date night (and we can walk there so we wont have to worry about the excessive amount of beer we drink), so anyone up for it???

famous dr turell???

2010-08-16T21:14:00.001-04:00

I am not sure how I got chosen to be the spokesperson for the new vaccine requirements for ohio schools (at least for the NE Ohio TV viewing area, BUT, im not complaining!
I was asked to talk about vaccines on NBC News a few weeks ago. We had the interview a few weeks ago and I got word today that it would be on tonight at 7pm. So, i get home to find that Jeff had ordered direct TV (long story) to be installed today. they were supposed to come between 12-4, so the fact that they were still here at 6pm had me slightly worried. at 7pm, when the TVs were still not working, i had a total meltdown. i screamed at the serviceman. i screamed at jeff for screwing up my world famous television debut. i was PISSED.....
so, i missed it.
on tv.
i was waiting for weeks to see myself on tv and i missed it.
stupid direct TV. (well, now i kind of like that fact that im getting all the movie channels for free- and we're paying less than we were with time warner!)
THANK GOODNESS that they put the video online!!!!
WATCH ME HERE

a prescription for discipline

2010-07-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

the terrible twos were nonexistent, but instead have turned into terrible threes and i fear they may persist to be named terrible fours.
levi has gotten to be quite a discipline problem recently and i fear im partially (wholely?) to blame.

if it isnt what he wants to do "im NOT doing it".
if it isnt where he wants to go "im NOT going".
if it isnt what he wants to eat "im NOT eating".

We try to be very consistent, not let him make the rules, not let him run the house. but sometimes its hard not to scream and yell, and then feel guilty about it afterwards.
Time outs dont work. Taking away toys doesnt help. The television has already been removed from our daily routine- back to no TV on the first floor of our house. Movies are only reserved for airplane and car trips, and as special treats for praisable behavior (which hasnt happened yet). It is as if nothing works, he is always "in trouble". Then, when he is getting reprimanded in one way or another, instead of crying or yelling at us or using his words, he HITS or KICKS or PUSHES tali, who then starts crying. I think he is trying to use it as distraction- maybe if we have to attend to tali, we'll forget about the details of his actions....
I am very strict with the food thing, so i dont have issue with that. If he refuses to eat what ive made for dinner, i dont push it. i let him choose not to eat. but when he tells me later that he is hungry, his only choice is the dinner he chose not to eat. most of the time, he'll end up back at the table eating what he had ignored before. sometimes he goes to bed hungry. yes, it breaks my heart. but im not going to be a short-order cook. im just not. ive seen families where kids only eat 3 things or the parents make three different meals for people at the table. im not one of those mamas.
its the behavior, the hitting, the negative attitude, the not listening that is making me crazy!

I was flipping through parents magazine (august 2010 issue) and there is a FABULOUS article. I think i wrote it (in my dreams. im a TERRIBLE writer). at least, reading it, it feels like the author is talking ABOUT me. SERIOUSLY!
I tried to find it linked on the parents website, but it isnt there. i wish i could just type the entire thing here for you (and me) to read again and again.

The byline under the title reads "Does a pediatrician always follow her own rules? One doctor confesses her struggles and revelations".

"as the words so freely flowed out of my mouth, i sensed the color rising in my cheeks- and i suddenly felt like it was somebody else talking and not me. I dispense advice on discipline so rationally to the parents of my patients that it seems as if it should be the easiest thing in the world to carry out. but its not (at least not in my home) so i cant help but feel like a hypocrite. its not that my three go-to discipline rules (time outs for tantrums, consistency from caregivers, and gentle but firm reprimands) are misguided. on the contrary, i think they're good ones. but having my own children has taught me that sometimes rules really are made to be, well, amended".

**the story of my life***.

now i have some insight. its not just me. and now i have a plan.
terrible fours, im stopping you before you start.

there is a fracture

2010-07-26T21:36:00.000-04:00

i know i just posted this on facebook, but i have to share it here too. it is incredibly funny for all you medical people out there.

the case of the warring neighbors

2010-07-26T13:36:00.000-04:00

we were only trying to do something nice, something helpful. we were only trying to organize a party that seemed lacking in the past (last years had a poor turnout and the four years prior, there wasnt one at all). we were trying to be friendly, meet new people, interact with the people in our area, and have fun....
but, it turns out, the outcome will be less than spectacular.

jami, abby, cara, and i all met at lopez under the premise of planning a fabulous block party. after a *little* brainstorming and a *LOT* of margaritas, we stumbled (literally) home. since then, we've made some progress, including distributing flyers to the neighbors on our block, and some more ideas being passed back and forth through cyberspace.

then, the comments started trickling in. "why is the block party only YOUR block? its supposed to be BOTH blocks", "why did you choose THIS DATE without consulting with the REST of the people on our street. WE want it to be a different date", "why didnt you consult with the people who planned it (so incredibly, i may add) in the past and run your decisions and ideas by the COMMITTEE"???????

The few positive comments I've gotten have been nice. I've started a really nice directory to distribute to the people on our street, just in case they want some contact info for their neighbors. but the negatives have been so annoying that i think we're just caving. besides, in 2 weeks, we dont have the time nor energy to finish the planning that obviously is unappreciated.

so, dear neighbors of the "committee": have your block party back. its yours. and the people losing out are the rest of us, since it will likely either be nonexistent OR it will be just as disappointing as last years bash.

clippie organizer

2010-06-28T14:58:00.001-04:00

i have never been creative. never. so when i started making clippies a few weeks ago, i figured it was a fluke. but when i ended up with the entire top of tali's dresser covered in clips, i figured i NEEDED to figure out how to organize them. enter google and etsy once again (dangerous how easy it is to discover things on the internet).

i made my way over to JoAnn Fabrics (twice in a couple weeks, amazing as i havent been there in a LONG time before that), and bought the materials i deduced that i needed to make this cool new organizer.

a little while later and experiment success!!!!

this is now hanging on tali's wall, and the top of her dresser is clear, empty, and waiting for something cool to adorn it.

dressing it up

2010-06-22T13:33:00.000-04:00

i am the first to admit it: i am a salad dressing snob.
invite me over and ask me to bring salad, and i'll come with a homemade dressing thanks to my mother's fine variety of recipes.
i have not found a bottled salad dressing that i've been "wow"ed by.
that is- until now.

i was invited somewhere for dinner (asked to bring salad!), and i didnt have time after work to go home and make one of my homemade blender concoctions. so, i went to heinen's and decided to try something new.

that is how i found brianna's dijon honey mustard . Not expensive and SO DELICIOUS! it is the bottle that has a big avacado on the front. a little sweet. a little tangy. a lot delicious.
my lunch today consisted of cut up romaine lettuce, sugar snap peas, red onion, pine nuts, crumbled goat cheese, and sauteed shrimp in *pampered chef citrus & basil rub* (which, by the way, ive been using on EVERYTHING lately), and a less than generous amount of the dressing just to give it some flavor. i think im going to have the same thing for lunch tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.
YUM YUM YUM!!!!

hair today, gone tomorrow

2010-06-20T15:10:00.000-04:00

I donated over 12" of my hair last week. I had been feeling that I needed a change, and since I hadnt had a haircut in about a year and the ends were split and my hair was so long it was unmanageable, i figured i would try something totally out of character for me.
I have ALWAYS had long hair. haircuts would really be more like trims. my go-to "style" was to put it up in a messy bun or ponytail or other easy, no frills, no mess, out of my face, dont need to worry about it hairdo.

I went to the salon thinking about cutting it short, cutting it all off, and perhaps donating it to "locks of love" that makes wigs for children without hair due to any number of reasons (chemo, alopecia, etc). i thought if i donated it, my hair would be chin length, maybe a bit longer, and that is what it seemed when the stylist confirmed i had enough to donate. i figured if i was going to cut off a lot, and the difference between 10 inches that i couldnt donate and 12 inches that i could give to a good cause (the minimum length for donation is 12 inches), then it would be worth it. what the hell. hair grows back, right???

i like it. i dont love it, not yet at least. i think as it grows in a little, i'll be happier. until then, im getting used to not having my hair up, trying out new clips and headbands, and feeling much lighter.

clippies

2010-06-20T14:58:00.001-04:00

so, im kind of obsessed with etsy. i search for things i know i dont need, but am intrigued by all the creative people out there selling their crafts....
my recent focus has been on baby girl hair clips. i have found some of the most adorable hair clips and gravitate to cute ones on real live babies i see, only to find out the clip the baby is wearing is from etsy. i was going to order a few for tali, but when i was searching, i realized that even though they are not terribly expensive, they arent cheap and when you add shipping into the mix, they get ever more pricey.
little miss UNcreative over here in university heights got this FANTASTIC idea in her head, and couldnt get it out.
i googled HOW to make the little hair clips and they didnt look THAT complicated.
i went to JoAnn Fabrics (a place i RARELY shop in) and bought little metal clips, a glue gun and glue for it, ribbon and buttons. and i came home and made these.
i used all the clips i bought and i CANT WAIT to go back and buy some more because i think they're pretty darn cute!!!! hairclips anyone???

hello, my long lost blog, ive been busy but ive missed you!

2010-06-15T11:29:00.000-04:00

i havent meant to take this long of a hiatus. i kept meaning to write, kept meaning to journal, kept meaning to take back control of my life, although ive been extraordinarily busy over the last few weeks....but finally, here i am. im back. and better than ever!!!! thats what a week of relaxing in the mountains can do for me!

lets start with memorial day weekend. i dont think i could have packed it any more full if i tried. busy busy busy.
we started out the festivities with our eaton rd decathalon, an idea that stemmed from some snooping and gossiping about new neighbors turned into a billy madison style boys vs girls game night, and still has a few more events upcoming so the results are to be continued....
score as of now:
euchre- GIRLS
trivial pursuit- BOYS (although, we really SHOULD have won and ALMOST did!).
Still to come: HORSE, Corn Hole, Wii, any more that i am missing???
The rest of the weekend went something like this:
SAT: turtle park with the kids in the morning, lunch, nap, dinner at legacy with friends followed by dancing on the lawn to the band.
SUN: "a day out with thomas" with some friends, including a fun train ride followed by the hottest little thomas carnival you could imagine, lunch, nap, hot air balloon festival in chagrin falls and picnic dinner with levi's friend, levi's first sleepover at our house (successfully sleeping once we separated the boys).
MON: boys made breakfast with daddy, Univ Heights memorial day parade, lunch with aunt sarah and uncle david, nap, and awesome BBQ with neighbors.
WHEW! that was a lot.....i dont know how i survived!!! probably because when the kids napped, so did i!!!!! (jeff was only around half the weekend since he had to work all day saturday, all night saturday night, and then came home and slept most of sunday!).

After a weekend like that, the week was hard since i was so tired out! but with vacation looming in the near future, i kept chugging along to happily reach relaxation.

We spent this last week at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in the mountains of PA. A ski resort in the winter, it turns into a hikers/swimmers/bikers paradise come summer. So many things to do, perfect for kids and adults alike, it was the perfect (semi)relaxing vacation that we all needed.
Our original plan was to rent a cabin. We arrived to our cabin, and besides the fact that it was dark and musty, it had this central very open spiral staircase to get to the upstairs bedrooms. a very fun attraction for our children made me have a mini panic attack, and i made jeff call the front desk to request alternative accomodations. SO- they moved us to this AMAZING townhouse for no extra charge!
3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, full gourmet kitchen, gas fireplace, balconies galore overlooking the mountains, and something hopefully someday i'll own, we couldnt have been happier!
The highlight of the vacation (for me at least) was the alpine slide. Levi was old enough to take the chair lift up to the top of the mountain (a fact that he happily talked about the entire trip, mentioning frequently that tali was a baby so she COULDNT go) and once at the top, we took an alpine slide ALL THE WAY to the bottom, twisting and turning with big drops and LOTS of speed, it was AWESOME. levi rode twice with me and twice with jeff (because someone always had to stay at the bottom with tali who was happily exploring the lawn and saying hi to everyone who walked by totally oblivious to the extreme adventure the rest of us were having on the mountain).
We spent some time at the beautiful pool. We also went to an indoor model train museum on the one day the weather was rainy.
The busiest day of vacation was surely IDLEWILD- the amusement park meant for little kids (under age 10). it was so much fun to walk around storybook forest and climb in jungle junction. the train ride was fun and the trolley ride through mister rogers neighborhood land of make-believe was also great. there was an entire section of rides specifically meant for little kids where levi was able to drive a hand crank car all by himself, although he chose not to do some activities where we wouldnt be right next to him the entire time. After idlewild, we went to nearby ligonier to eat dinner at a national history landmark italian restaurant (desalvo's station) which is a converted original train station with an original train car in the middle, and model trains chugging around the entire diningroom. too bad the kids were so tired, they slept in the stroller during dinner and couldnt enjoy it!
on our way out of town, we stopped in ohiopyle, at the youghiogheny river where i went white water rafting twice during camp lakeland days, and ate lunch at a cool outdoor restaurant and walked down the river to see the rapids and the waterfall. it brought back lots of memories and i was so happy we spent some time there.
We went to fallingwater (frank lloyd wright's most famous house, built right over a waterfall) but could only see the house from the outside and walk around the grounds because children under 6 were not allowed inside.
all in all, it was a fabulous vacation. great weather. great activities. lots of relaxing and fun. we will definitely go back there.

one other great find we had on this vacation was a restaurant in pittsburgh's squirrell hill neighborhood. we were wandering around looking for a place to eat for lunch on our way to seven springs, and we came across the "rose tea cafe" which is "taiwanese style food". it was lots of noodles, and we enjoyed two huge noodle soups for lunch. it was so good, we had to return for dinner on our way home, and ate the most delicious beef short ribs and kim chee fried rice among other things. we need to go back to pittsburgh just for that!

now, back to reality. back to exercising. back to weight watchers. back to work. it was a great time, but its also nice to be home, sleeping in my own big comfy bed, back to the routine of life.....

i love summer

2010-05-25T15:01:00.001-04:00

during my lunch today, i walked to heinens, picked up a pound of the most delicious looking strawberries, and sat outside on the lawn and ate the entire container.

i have the shades in my office pulled up and dont even need the light on to see because it is so sunny and beautiful outside.

levi played hookey from school today and went to the zoo with tali and karina.

im feeling good because i have almost finished weeding the front beds and they finally, for the first time in the 4 years we have lived in the house, are starting to actually look nice!!!! (now i just have to get someone to help me carry the big brown bags to the curb because they're too heavy for me to move).

jeff is having a great time in "new laurens" (as levi calls it) and although i miss him and want him to come home, he is enjoying some MUCH NEEDED fun and deserves every minute of his little vacation with his friends.

those are my good thoughts for the day. hope you're having as bright and sunny a day as i am!!!!

spin it up

2010-05-19T21:37:00.001-04:00

i dont "do" my hair.

only once in a great while do i put any effort into my long locks- and generally that is for a specific reason. the last time i remember actually drying my hair or doing anything special to it was a few months ago when i had a photo shoot for work.
every morning, i shower, wash my hair, and white it is still wet, i put it up in a bun or ponytail. and the days i leave it down, i let it air dry.

maybe i am lazy.
maybe i dont like the heat of the hairdryer.
maybe i dont have time. (or i would prefer to spend the extra time i do have sleeping a little more).
or, maybe i just dont really care.

i am always trying to find really simple ways to make my hair look nice with minimal effort and time. it is the reason i dont have layers in my hair. anything that requires effort is an automatic no-go in my world.

i saw a commercial the other day for these:

They are called "spin pins": corkscrew-shaped pins that you can use to create a chic messy bun that'll stay all day. The coil contraption really grabs the hair, and in a good way. All it asks you to do is gather, twist, and tuck. You take one pin and push it into the bun from the top, and the other from the bottom. It's easy and makes your hair feel secure.
I am normally not one to be swayed instantly by commercials, but for some reason, after seeing them on TV, i HAD to have them. i went and bought them yesterday.

They are EASY. SIMPLE. IT TAKES 1 SECOND TO MAKE MY HAIR PERFECT!!!!!
Goody's Spin Pins are your hair's best friend.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2010-05-07T13:37:00.001-04:00

This is probably my new favorite book. It is one of the best books I've read in a while. I go through these phases where I am really into reading, read a book each week for a month or so, and then, I taper off and dont read anything for another month.

I have been on one of those reading rampages, devouring book after book after book. and i just finished THE HELP yesterday. i could NOT PUT IT DOWN. and now that it is over, i think i will start at the beginning and read it again. i didnt want it to end, and i think that is one of the best ways to explain how much i loved it.
The book is about the black maids in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi, and the white households they work in. I can not explain it any better than the synopsis I have copied below.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

It is so unbelievable to me that things like this truly occurred, and not so long ago. It is crazy to think that my mother and my aunts were alive during these times. It feels as if it shouldnt be true.
It is making me want to go read about segregation. i want to watch that movie about Medger Evers that i remember seeing a few years ago- Ghosts of Mississippi. i want to see that other movie with Gene Hackman about the civil rights workers getting killed- Mississippi Burning. I want to see the movie of this book when it comes out, sooner rather than later.
I think about what it would have been like living in those times. I wonder what kind of person I would have been. Would I have had the courage to help stop segregation? To help protect the civil rights of every person, no matter their race, their color? Then I wonder what it would have been like to be Jewish in those times. Probably no better off than the black maids of this book.
Curious. Disturbing. Intriguing. Depressing. Heartwarming. Enlightening. Those are all emotions I have felt reading this book. I wonder what I will think the second time around. In the mean time, if you have not already read this one, go get it. get started. about 500 pages and i read it in 5 days. and let me know what you think. I am curious to hear other thoughts about it.

and to the book club- lets read this for the month of July. i think this will spark tons of discussion and i cant wait to hear what people have to say!!!!

just when it gets good

2010-05-05T13:38:00.001-04:00

i go and screw it up somehow.

i had been using my newfound slowness at work as my exercise plan. i had been doing exercise videos during my lunch hour daily, and i was feeling great! i had been sticking with weight watchers, counting every morsel of food that went into my mouth, and making every consciencious effort possible to get healthy, be active, and lose weight.

my weekend exercise plan was walking. now that the weather has been nice, i have been walking with the kids nonstop. this past saturday, i took the kids in the double jogger and walked to visit my sister in law. its about 2 miles, maybe slightly more. on the way we pass the RTA, so levi loves stopping to watch the trains. there are some hills, lots of beautiful houses, and its a really good walk. we walked there, hung out for an hour, and then walked almost all the way home before we met jeff. THEN, we walked from our house to our favorite neighborhood dessert spot (ben and jerry's) and back home again. it was a day outside, in the sunshine and the breeze, good for my body and my mind and my spirit. i loved it. the kids loved it. all was well.

it was, until, that evening my right shoulder started to hurt. ache. tingle. then it was followed by some numbness. i figured i must have strained it somehow but just couldnt figure out how. i did not remember hurting it. it had been 4 days since i had done the "30 day shed" video that had me combining cardio with weights involving my shoulders and arms. if it was related to that, the pain would have started sooner, or so i thought.

i took ibuprofen and went to bed. but as the weekend went on, so did the pain. and since then (today is day 5 of said shoulder pain), it hasnt improved. its really weird, and very hard to explain. it doesnt hurt to move my arm or my shoulder most of the time, but it is as if it hurts to twist it, to put pressure on anything, to hold my arm tightly. if i rest my arm on the desk or while lying in bed, it feels ok, but if i have it hanging at my side, its numb within minutes. it is this constant aching feeling, alternating between tingles and numbness.

it is truly amazing how much i actually use my right arm. its not that i cant use it- i can- i just cant use it normally. and im hating this!!!!

so, step back a number of years. i used to have major problems with my shoulders. i had "subluxed" them multiple times, due to laxity in my ligaments. i had an MRI a while ago, spent numerous months in slings and immobilizers, had hours and hours of physical therapy. the last time i had any issue with my shoulders was before i was pregnant with levi- over 4 years ago. nothing since then. and now- WHAM. back to the beginning. the thing is, i just cant explain what i did to it. it must have been something with that stroller and walking and turning that heavy thing with both kids in it. i just dont know.

i tried to get an ortho appt right away, but i have to wait until friday. 2 more days of pain, of stress, of not knowing what to do and what it means.....and hopefully the news will be good and i can get back to my regularly scheduled life.

like mother like son

2010-05-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

he calls himself dr borus turell

his services are available at the Lee Rd Library Literacy Playroom. Appointments accepted Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

it is amazing what the brain can do

2010-04-26T14:48:00.000-04:00

have you ever woken up to some long sought after knowledge?
or something you never knew that you knew?
or info you didnt even know you were looking for?

i woke up at 4am a couple days ago to nurse tali. as i was sitting in the rocking chair cuddling with my little girl, a syndrome i have never seen and really didnt know anything about started flashing through my brain. it was really weird, actually. why then? how come it just came to me?

the only time i have thought about this particular genetic syndrome was when i was studying for the pediatric boards. the boards require you to learn all this esoteric (or so i thought) info to test your knowledge, even though at any time you could just look in nelson's or smith's or zitelli's to find the info you are looking for. it doesnt always have to stay in your head. but, i learned it at the time, and then proceeded to forget about it like a million other rare pediatric diagnoses.

after i put tali back into her crib, instead of doing the normal thing and going back to sleep myself, i felt i had to do some research. so, i turned on the computer and did a search. i read and read and read. i emailed myself so when i woke up in the morning, i wouldnt forget about this middle of the night revelation.

fast forward two days. i have since looked in smiths, and confirmed my middle of the night thoughts about a particular patient's diagnosis. i guess sleep is good for something. maybe i should do it more often!

its not that i wish harm upon people,

2010-04-21T14:59:00.000-04:00

but isnt anyone sick?
seriously???? where are my patients?

it has been incredibly slow over the last couple weeks. It seems odd, because normally March is one of the busiest months of the year, and then April tapers off slightly. This year, March was steady but not crazy, and April- it seems we have just stopped. dead.in.its.tracks.

i normally have my journals pile up, waiting for me to find time to read them, catch up on CME, pediatric news, updates, etc. now, my journals are read (all of them!), and im sitting here twiddling my thumbs. i guess it means i should get back to reading something fun.

ive already finished the book club books (tonight's book club is about "people of the book" by geraldine brooks, and next month's book is "handle with care" by jodi picoult).

I bought "the help" by kathryn stockett in hopes that the book club would read it sometime soon, so im about to go out to my car to get it and then i can probably finish 100 pages before i get out of here.

its that slow.

normally, i see 26 patients per day. today, i have 9 on my schedule. 9. NINE. that wont even pay my bills!
this morning, i had nobody after 11am until 1:30pm, so i worked out in my office.
I bought "kettlenetics" which is an exercise video with a 4 pound funky looking weight called a "k-bell". i shut my door, changed my clothes, (i keep exercise stuff in my office now to help motivate me to get moving) put on the DVD, and worked hard. good thing i have a DVD player on my computer AND an office big enough for aerobics!

i guess this could be a good weight loss plan. no patients, so workout at work instead of doctoring....i guess we'll see what happens!!!!

music with memories

2010-04-20T12:06:00.001-04:00

I think I wrote a while back about OyBaby and how amazing their CDs are (although for some reason, I cant seem to find that post). Levi repeatedly asks to "play the temple songs" in the car, and will break out into his own versions of David Melech Yisrael or Hinay Matov or Tzena Tzena Tzena or any of the rest of them in the middle of restaurants and stores or in his bed when he wakes up in the morning.

We have listened to OyBaby and OyBaby 2 so much that i can probably sing the CDs start to finish without any music or prompting. They are great and I love them! and so does Levi. I joke frequently that Levi will be a rabbi someday. He loves synagogue and rabbi hal and shabbat and "temple songs" more than anything else (even trains!).

When I heard OyBaby was coming out with another CD, i was thrilled. when i realized that CD would be songs we sang at camp way back when, i was ecstatic and couldnt wait! I have waited (not)so patiently for my copy to arrive, and arrive it did, yesterday afternoon. Less than 24 hours later, I am already obsessed!!!!
some of the songs i know (flagpole time singing rad hayom, heveinu shalom aleichem, ba shanah haba-ah, and of course down by the riverside, leaving on a jet plane, into the mystic, and blowing in the wind), but the others i am already loving even though i didnt know them way back when (specifically the version of ma tovu, salaam, and am yisrael chai).

If you do not already have OyBaby (and you're jewish and have kids, or just like cool hebrew music), run out and get it. order it immediately. all of them. its worth every cent and will be part of our lives (and hopefully yours) for years to come.

(and really, it may be the spark that turns my little Levi into a rabbi).

with a side of burger

2010-04-19T13:29:00.000-04:00

my new favorite beer. hands down.

we went to B-Spot for dinner last night. It was Jeff's choice. He hadnt been before and he wanted a big juicy burger, so we decided we would see how long the wait was and if it was too crazy to wait with the kids, we'd wander our way down to taza or pacific east.
it turns out, sunday night is a good time to try to michael symon's burgers. we had less than 15 minutes to wait before we were seated....
Jeff ordered the chocolate banana marshmallow milkshake that came to the table complete with toasted marshmallows on top- it tasted like a campfire!!!! (in a good way) and he had the 'shroomage burger which wouldnt have been my choice, but he liked it.
The kids split a plain jane burger with only ketchup, and it was so cute watching levi eat his half of the burger with grease and juice and ketchup dripping down his chin and hands and cover his train shirt (which he then HAD to clean himself with a bunch of paper towels). Tali thought the whole thing was a game and would pick each little piece up off the table and almost throw it into her mouth and then laugh and chew and laugh some more. (and she went crazy for the lola fries- its a wonder jeff, levi, and i had any at all).
I had the Lola burger- with bacon, a fried egg, pickled onions, cheddar, and mayo. and i then covered that in the coffee BBQ sauce and i was a happy gal.
The food was good- the fries (as always) were amazing. but my favorite part of the meal was my beer.
I am a big fan of wheat beer. i choose wheat beer over anything else, especially in the summer. and while it is not seeming like summer at the moment, i jumped at the chance to try a new kind of beer that sounded delicious! watermelon wheat. it doesnt taste sweet. just has the littlest hint of watermelon and it is so good, i want to run to whole foods and see if they carry it!
but i wont.
over the last few weeks, ive slipped. more like FALLEN. fallen off my weight watchers diet into oblivion. and now im back. today, as if it is day 1, diet restarted, exercise regimen revamped and kicked into action. lets just hope it works!
so, while i wholeheartedly recommend B-Spot and my new favorite beer, i wont be enjoying them myself for a long time!

danger, aka shopping

2010-04-13T14:06:00.003-04:00

having a girl is dangerous.

there are so many cute brands, so many cute clothes, so many cute shoes and clips and accessories.

I am obsessed with Nordstrom Rack because at least when you buy the expensive brands, they are slightly discounted there. But, there are those times (like sunday when the natural history museum didnt open until noon)when you NEED to pay full price for an adorable pair of green shoes with little pink flowers and pink ruffles around the edges.

I love dressing Tali up in little cute outfits. I like dressing Levi up too, because he looks so handsome in a nice sweater vest and plaid pants, or in a throwback thin t-shirt with the rolling stones logo on it and faded guess jeans, but its just not the same with a boy.

I like dressing Levi in "real clothes". Pants and shirts that an adult would wear- not the cutesy little baby boy clothes (except for the truck and train shirts that my son obsesses over and wont take off and begs to sleep in and wear over and over again).

but with a girl, the little dresses with matching bloomers covering her little bottom, the ruffles and the tights, the flowers and bright colors, the over-the-top matching head to toe outfits are just so much fun!!!!

Here are some of my favorites brands:

Baby LuLu

Mini Boden (which, by the way, also has awesome boy clothes)

Kissy Kissy

See Kai Run (shoes)

Lucky Brand

Tea Collection

Sweet Ivy

Janie and Jack

What are your favorites? I am always looking for more ways to spend $$$$. (dont tell jeff).

sugar mama

2010-04-07T14:07:00.001-04:00

as of july 1st, this will be my new title. its not as if it isnt already my title, BUT, it is going to have a lot more meaning come summer.

NO- im not getting a raise (i wish!)....rather, our lives are changing and hopefully this little blip in the road will be a laughing matter in years to come, a distant memory when we're older....

jeff's residency contract will not be renewed at the end of june.

it is a very long story, way too long to go into here, with many twists and turns and ups and down. It is also rather personal, so im gonna keep most of that to myself (to be shared if and when jeff and i choose at some later date).

When the possibility of this arose a few months ago, Jeff and I decided that if it came to this, he would stay home with the kids. He would not try to find meaningless, mildless, or medically unrelated employment just for the sake of being employed. We would make the best of this time, and allow him to spend quality time with Levi and Tali. And, when the kids are in school full time (it seems so far in the future, but i guess it really isnt!), he will re-evaluate the situation and make decisions about his future plans.

Ive been exceedingly panicked over the last few months, trying to grasp what this really means. Trying to figure out if we will be able to afford to live the life we currently live. Making sure Jeff understands that taking care of the kids will be his "job", and that comes along with schedules and housework and errands. We have had fights and hugs, screams and kisses, tears and compassion. I know it will be fine in the end, but for now, Im sad. Im scared. and I know he is too.

I also know that over the last couple years, Jeff hasnt been around much, and there have been weeks when Jeff worked so much he would go days and days without seeing the kids. Jeff is a great dad who gets right down on the floor and reads books and plays continuously, even well into nap time or past bed time when the kids really should be sleeping. Jeff will do everything right when he is home with them, so they learn and socialize and continue to be the wonderful children they are. It will be good for the kids for Jeff to finally be home spending time with them.

Levi will stay in preschool, but it will be half days instead of full days. And Tali will eventually go to preschool too, but probably not until she turns three.

besides the obvious, the absolute worst part of this whole situation is that we will have to let karina go. i told her a couple days ago, amidst tears pouring out of my eyes, because i wanted to give her as much notice as possible so she would be able to find another perfect family. really, i dont want her to go at all. she is part of us now, and we love her, and the kids love her, and she loves them. we will continue to see her, have her babysit and come hang out on a regular basis, just to keep her part of the family.

but in the meantime, if anyone out there is looking for a FABULOUS nanny (starting only after july 1st), coming with the best references and HIGHEST recommendations possible, give me a call.....she is truly amazing.

Potatoes

2010-03-30T13:11:00.001-04:00

i NEED to try these. I have never seen anything like them before.

i LOVE potatoes. LOVE LOVE LOVE. maybe too much.
I found my favorite potato recipe way back when (crash hot potatoes) and i make them pretty often, always getting rave reviews from whomever ive made them for.
and today, just randomly searching on the internet, i found these Hasselback Potatoes. I think I am going to have to try them, and soon.
It is passover after all, and what better way to celebrate passover than with POTATOES!!!!!

what do you do with the chicken?

2010-03-30T11:09:00.000-04:00

marsha, my mother in law, always told me that she saves the breasts to make chicken salad after she makes a big pot of chicken soup. I have never done this. As I strain and skim my soup, the carrots/onions/celery/sweet potato/ and chicken are so covered with disgusting fat and grease, that it all goes to garbage or disposal or compost. YUCK.
This time, as I made my 8 quarts of chicken stock, I put my 5 pound amish farm raised chicken into the pot whole. When I was straining and skimming, I was able to put the chicken out essentially intact (at least the bones and breasts were still attached), so the skin was covering deliciously tender NOT greasy breasts.
I rinsed the breasts gently, and put them in the fridge to cool.
I have never made chicken salad, but i do like chicken salad, so i figured i would give it a try. I should have called Lori who makes the BEST chicken salad Ive ever had, but I didnt. I just decided i would make up my own recipe and see how it goes.
PERFECTION! I LOVE IT! (and so easy- except for the 5 hours it took cooking and straining and skimming the soup!).
I cut the chicken into chunks and salted and peppered it (using the rosemary and rosehip sea salt that jami gave me- from henri bendel i think). Then I cut up a granny smith apple, candied pecans, and some celery. I added some light mayo with olive oil and mixed. SO GOOD!
What is your favorite thing to do with the leftover chicken? and what is your best chicken salad recipe? (and lori, if you're reading this, FEEL FREE to pass on your incredible chicken salad recipe!).

the great grocery smackdown

2010-03-26T15:47:00.001-04:00

Will Walmart, not Whole Foods, save small farms and make U.S. healthy?
read this article about whole foods vs walmart.
FASCINATING.

stainless steel

2010-03-25T10:55:00.002-04:00

is it really possible i havent written about my new found love yet? it cant be so. i went back through my posts looking for the information i posted about my new pots and pans, but there is nothing, nada, not one little bit of praise for the best addition to my kitchen ever.

how in the world did i ever cook before??? i think i take myself as a pretty decent cook, and i like to cook which makes it that much better, since i attempt creativity in the kitchen and continue to perfect it as i go. i never follow recipes, rather, i look at a recipe to get some ideas, and then i put in a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and voila! dinner! that is why i could never be a baker. baking requires perfection, or maybe its perfectionism- perfect measures, perfect temperatures, too much work for the busy mom and doctor i am.

my dad gives the best gifts. he always asks me what i want for my birthday, and i always give it some good thought. things i really want but am not willing to shell out the big bucks for. in the past, he has bought my king size bed, my precor elliptical machine, my leather couches in the living room, and the 46" flat screen samsung in the basement. this year, there were a few things i came up with- a new coffee table for the basement, a sofa bed for the guests we dont have room to host anymore, or new pots and pans. all practical. all expensive. but i figured out that i am willing to pay for the coffee table and the sofa, since those are necessities, but i just couldnt justify paying all that money for new pots and pans. they are expensive!!!!!

i told my father my idea and he agreed- a cook needs good things to cook with! (so, cara- the new pampered chef dealer-, you'll have a lifelong customer down the block).

my nurse, debbie, has a son, Chuck, who is an owner and chef at the restaurant "good luck" in rochester, new york. he recommended higher end stainless cookware because they are leaps and bounds above the lower end stuff. in the restaurant they use ALL CLAD but when i started doing the research, ALL CLAD is incredibly expensive, and im not sure it would be totally worth it for me- NOT a real chef, just a mom who likes to cook- so i chose CALPHALON instead.

i CANT BELIEVE i used my old disgusting nonstick pans for so long. HOW did i EVER cook a real meal???? I am obsessed with my new pots and pans. i LOVE LOVE LOVE them! and i think jeff is happy too, since now im happy to cook at home every night, and im not begging to go out or have take out.

so, anyone in the market for new pots and pans, take my advice- get THESE. you'll never regret it, not for one second.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LITTLE CUCA

2010-03-23T14:44:00.000-04:00

I can not believe it has been a year since my little girl was born...I think back to that day, remembering the way it felt (between the constant bouts of vomiting) to hear that cry as she was pulled out of my belly, the tears of joy i felt when i learned she was a healthy little GIRL!
I think back to how absolutely crazy i was about keeping my blood sugar in control, checking a million times per day, eating exactly what i needed to, and what that perfectionist attitude gave me was a little peanut, a perfect little 6 pound 6 ounce beauty.
and she is still a peanut (and still a beauty too!).
At her last dr visit, she was only 17 pounds 13 ounces, meaning she will be rear facing in her car seat for at LEAST another 3 months.....5% for all of her measurements. how did i get a little peanut when i am the absolute opposite? and its not for lack of trying on her part too- she eats like me. she LOVES food. she cries and grunts to get more. She can eat tofu like a sumo wrestler (bowl after bowl after bowl) and loves tortillini and steak and any kind of vegetable imaginable. salmon is one of her favorites. ive had to start buying an entire extra filet of salmon just to satisfy her manly appetite!

at 1 year, she is almost walking. she scoots on her butt with her right leg under her but wont crawl. and she is into everything- EVERYTHING- and climbs up stairs and pulls up and walks around anything she can get her hands on. we will definitely have our hands full when she finally makes the leap and takes her first steps.
She loves dolls. she loves books. she loves dogs. she LOVES levi and claps her hands whenever he walks into a room. She thinks one of the most fun games ever is to stand up and say "up" and then bend down and say "down" (although it sounds like she says "up" again).
the words she can say are "clap", "dog", "mama", "dada", and a bunch of other things we can not figure out yet- all variations of "gaa"...We cant figure out what she will call Levi- we were hoping for "lay-lay" or "Vee", but nothing is consistent yet.

most of all, she loves her mama. She wants to be held by me and only me. she frequently just wants to cuddle with me, her head on the bend of my neck, her nose nuzzled up against me, and cries when anyone else tries to take her from me. and for now, thats absolutely fine. i'd hold her all the time if i could!

Happy Birthday my beautiful perfect amazing wonderful TALI!!!!! to a million more years of fun and love and special times!

microwavable lunches

2010-03-16T12:36:00.000-04:00

until today, i had yet to find a frozen packaged microwave meal i actually enjoyed, one i would actually choose to eat again and again for lunch.
part of my downfall with bringing lunch is that i pack it in the morning, think it looks good and i'll be happy with it for lunch, but by the time lunch rolls around, i dont want it. i want something else instead. something more yummy, more delicious, and generally, more fattening.
ive been searching for a perfect alternative. something i really like that is healthy and easy and something i wont look at and decide i want something else instead.

success!

i found it!

jeff and i saw the frozen kashi meals in the organic freezer section of giant eagle a few weeks ago and we each picked out a couple that we would want to try. i just let them sit in the back of my freezer each day, not sure i wanted to eat them for lunch. but today, without any healthy alternative to pack, i grabbed it out of the freezer and threw it in my lunch bag.

when lunch rolled around, i had to keep encouraging myself that i would eat it instead of going out....so, as it came out of the microwave steaming hot, i knew instantly i was going to love it. it smelled delicious. absolutely wonderful. that lemony coconutty sweetness of the meal was incredible.

Chicken with broccoli florets, carrots, and sugar snap peas are all served over our Kashi Seven Whole Grains and Sesame® with red quinoa pilaf. It’s then topped with a lemongrass coconut sauce and coconut flakes.

When i finished my lunch, i craved more. i think thats going to be my problem now. wanted more when my perfect portion size is finished. but hopefully, i'll continue to be good about my eating and my choices.

now, i am on a search for the recipe for me to make this delicious creation in my own home. it was so good, i cant get it out of my head (or my taste buds!).

and next up- for lunch tomorrow-

Chicken breast with fire-roasted sweet potato, bok choy, red peppers, bamboo shoots & kale. Served over Kashi 7 Whole Grains & Sesame® pilaf and topped with zesty Thai red curry sauce.

I hope it is just as good!!!!

tea with hezbollah

2010-03-15T15:40:00.000-04:00

Through powerful narrative Tea With Hezbollah will draw the West into a completely fresh understanding of those we call our enemies and the teaching that dares us to love them

i picked the audio book up at the library, just because it looked interesting. within the first few minutes, i had second thoughts (and thirds and fourths too) because i thought it was going to be religious from a christian perspective, and that is something i am not as interested to hear. BUT, it turns out this was a piece of history, an examination of the groups in the middle east from a totally different perspective.

the book is a travelogue of two christian men from the US who start in Egypt and then travel on to Saudi Arabia to Lebanon to Syria to Jordan to Israel and the West Bank. In each of these places, they interview people whom any major news organization would give two arms to meet and the US (and Israel) would love to assassinate and probably have tried.

meetings were arranged by their well connected contacts and interviews were conducted with Osama Bin Laden's two brothers, a Hezbollah leader, Hamas fighters, multiple religious leaders, and others on the journey. The authors put themselves into very dangerous situations to ask some interesting and some weird questions. The real purpose was to ask everyone what they thought about Jesus and his greatest teaching- to love your neighbor as yourself even if he is your enemy. They started out each interview with questions such as "what makes you laugh", "what is your favorite movie", "what car do you drive and what color is it", etc. and then they moved on to the question about jesus. It was interesting because everyone answered pretty similarly on the jesus question- that jesus is a prophet in the muslim religion just as mohammed is and that jesus' teachings are very important, but then they move on to say how it wont work in the middle east.

it is also interesting to note that they ALL mention in one way or another that they have no problem with christians and jews but that they do not like the druze or the zionists (so, in other words, they dont mind jews but they hate all jews who believe in israel).....

i am not sure i would recommend the book, but i enjoyed listening to it in the car. i enjoyed hearing about the middle east conflict from a different perspective and seeing another side to the people we call terrorists- who all have families, children, laugh, cry, and live their lives.

losing an hour

2010-03-14T21:06:00.000-04:00

i finally feel like spring is here. not only has all the snow melted due to the wonderful weather we have been having, but today, we went for a walk AFTER dinner and it was still light out!
All of my facebook friends are complaining of losing an hour, complaining about daylight savings, but i think it is wonderful. dont get me wrong- i like time and i like sleep too- and losing an hour of the day isnt exactly great, but the benefits of it so outweigh the negatives and i love it!!!!
the weather is warm.
the snow is gone.
its light out in the evening so we can actually see the neighbors once in a while since walking is now possible.
and im happy....
happy spring everyone!

cous cous

2010-03-08T15:29:00.001-05:00

i think i wrote a while ago about how much i enjoyed my dinner at darna, and since then ive been back twice and have been equally impressed if not more blown away by my meal!
a few months ago, i tried to emulate my favorite cous cous dish that i had there. moroccan food uses different spices than ive ever cooked with, and i had to do some experimenting. i made it once, it came out OK- edible but perhaps not outstanding- and i was on a quest to make it perfect.
i made the cous cous again, this time without chicken, when i had the neighbors over for dinner. i turned it into a vegetarian moroccan meal, with not only the cous cous with root vegetables but also a moroccan lentil soup. using cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, garam masala, honey, and others in a dish all together with curry powder and tomato paste just didnt sound so good, but i think it all came out great- but still, it wasnt exactly the same as darna.
we went there for dinner again about a month ago, and this time i examined my meal- wrote down what i saw, tasted, and experienced...
and last night, i tried one more time to make the amazing sourtani cous cous with chicken and root vegetables, and it was AMAZING!!!!! absolutely perfect! delicious. and while levi only wanted to eat the chicken "plain" and he made me take everyone else off of it so there was not even one morsel of cous cous present on his plate, tali devoured every last bit and begged for more....
im going to try to write down the "recipe" for how i made it here, just in case anyone is interested, but really so i can remember how to do it the next time i make this dish. and there definitely WILL be a next time!

marni's chicken cous cous (i think the amount i made will serve us for a week of leftovers for lunch, or perhaps 8 adults for dinner)

1 pound chicken
1.5 cups whole wheat cous cous
1 red onion
4 carrots, diced
1/2 lb green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 zucchini diced
1 yellow squash diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
1 can chicken broth
1 can chick peas
1 bunch chopped green onions
juice of 1/2 lemon
handful of pine nuts
handful of raisins
honey
cinnamon
curry powder

saute onion for a few minutes, then add the chicken broth, carrots, zucchini, squash, green beans and simmer for about 20-30 minutes. add diced tomatoes
and tomato sauce. add chunks of chicken and continue to simmer x 10 minutes, until chicken cooked. add honey, cinnamon, and curry powder to taste.
cook 1.5 cups of cous cous according to package directions. i cooked mine with chicken broth also, just to give it extra flavor, but that is not necessary. once it is cooked, fluff with fork and mix with chick peas, lemon juice, raisins, pine nuts, and green onions.
immediately before serving, pour the vegetable and chicken stew over the cous cous mixture and stir.

it is delicious. totally on my diet. and is just as good leftover the next day and the next....

this post

2010-03-06T11:03:00.001-05:00

this post at mothers in medicine today really is making my blood boil. BOIL. im on FIRE. talk about nerve.
i could say a lot. i DID comment on the post itself, but I just felt the need to vent here.

what do you think?????

car repairs

2010-03-03T13:36:00.000-05:00

i love my 2008 pilot.
i love honda.
i love motorcars.
particularly, i love how motorcars gives free rental cars even for simple service such as an oil change.
and i love how motorcars is open until 3am (yes, you read that correctly), so generally you can get a service appt same day instead of waiting a week or so like jeff has to do at subaru.

all that said, i really dread that little orange wrench turning on in my car. it makes my heart skip. perhaps it is because my first car (a 1986 white peugeot turbo station wagon) had everything under the sun go wrong with it and i remember leaving the repair place heartbroken when they told me the engine was going to "fall out"- literally. fall to the ground. and i couldnt drive it anymore safely. and all that after getting special accomodations to have my car on campus as a freshman because i had an off campus job.

i know my pilot is wonderful and im not going to get the news that the engine is falling out (or so i hope) but cars are something i have no idea about and i feel i get swindled all the time.

today, i dropped off my car for routine service (oil change, tire rotation) and drove out of the dealer in a peppy little 2010 red corolla. less than 1 hour later, my phone rang to tell me that my front brakes are rusted out and if i dont replace them now, i'll also have to replace my rotors at my next visit. oh, and your tires are getting low on tread, you really need to have a formal alignment and balancing, in addition to the rotation i was getting with the service i THOUGHT i was getting today.

so, my answer is: ok. i guess we need to do that then.

i dont like feeling so vulnerable. im not sure that is the right word, but i cant come up with another one.

i have NO IDEA if what they are telling me is true. i would hope that they are trying to keep my car happy and in good working order, trying to keep me and my children safe in a well maintained automobile.

maybe this is the way it feels to go to the doctor without any medical knowledge. a feeling of total helplessness. ok- i guess i'll listen to the doctor, i dont know any better. and generally, i think (or hope) that is the right way to go, but how are people to know besides just taking a doctor's word for it, or looking on the internet.

it makes tons of sense to me now that people come in questioning vaccines or antibiotics or diagnostic tests. how do people know what is told to them is right? look at all the garbage that is on the internet. maybe the only true answer is to become in expert in absolutely everything.....

i wonder if i could look up on the internet how to fix my own car, or at least how to fully inspect it so i could go into my next service appt fully prepared about what needs to be fixed and what really is ok to just leave for now.

maybe next time.

for now im $700 poorer and i have a pit in my stomach.

rainbow

2010-03-01T21:14:00.001-05:00

so, like i said before, tali was sick.

it turns out she was pretty darn sick.

after 7 days on antibiotics for an ear infection, we were back at the doctor for fever and trouble breathing, and my little girl ended up in the hospital overnight. how come the pediatrician's kid is the one who gets admitted to the hospital- not ONCE, but TWICE- in her little 11 months!!!! lets hope this is not a trend. no more hospital admissions for us. we're done with rainbow. we are going to stay healthy and happy and home in our own beds.....

all in all, the admission was as smooth as could be expected. she had to have an IV for fluids and more antibiotics and she also had oxygen for a little while, but the rest of the time she cuddled with me and nursed. i felt so sad seeing her in the hospital crib, not understanding why she had to have this stupid thing in her arm....she kept trying to bite it and shake it and cried for three hours trying to get the thing off of her. she had a hard time getting comfortable enough to sleep. and once she fell asleep, there was another nurse or aid or resident coming in to check her temperature or listen to her lungs....
and then, voila! 20 hours later and she was a new woman! no trouble breathing, normal temperature, normal oxygen level, eating, drinking, and playing....

during the whole process, and amazingly, during the three hours of constant screaming, there was one brief period of quiet and smiles. it was when the therapy dog came to our room to visit. the med student was in there taking a history from me, getting all the details of tali's illness, and tali was just crying and crying and crying, hysterically. and then, someone knocked on the door and in came "ryder" the chesapeake bay retriever, and total silence ensued. i could have heard a pin drop in that room.....tali starting reaching for the dog saying "ga, ga, ga" and she was smiling and laughing. we got down on the ground and she pet the dog and he rolled over so she could rub his belly. it was amazing. even the med student was shocked. dumbfounded. amazing! therapy dogs really do wonders. or else, its just that my little girl likes dogs? is she a vet in the making?

now we've been home for three days and she is back to normal. she is eating like her mommy (everything in sight) and sleeping well at night again (knock on wood), and she plays and laughs and smiles and entertains....my perfect HEALTHY baby girl is back!

*** and since im talking about this, i have to mention how absolutely amazing my little levi was through this whole ordeal. he happened to be with me at the doctor appt that day for another reason, and after 4 hours in the doctors office (and me feeding him mini muffins from the vending machine to keep him happy), missing his nap due to the afternoon of craziness, ending up in the ED waiting room for 45 minutes before the bed was ready, and then walking next to the wheelchair up to the room while I was being wheeled with Tali in my arms, he was a vision of perfection. he was so good, did not act up, listened intently to everything i said and made sure to follow all directions, and was genuinely concerned about his little sister which was expressed with intermittent kisses to her cheeks and belly...i was amazed at how well behaved and grown up he acted and couldnt have been prouder...***

do you believe in ghosts?

2010-02-24T11:32:00.000-05:00

sophie kinsella is one of my guilty pleasures. i love the shopaholic series. ive read them all and loved each and every page. the movie was so-so, but the books are genious!
her newest book is called "twenties girl". i got it from the library on CD and have been enjoying it in my car on my way to and from work. I love listening to books in my car. it makes the 40 minute drive pass so quickly. i almost dont want to arrive at my destination so i can keep hearing what is going to happen next.
well, this book is hysterical. kind of maddening at times, but really funny at others. and ive been laughing OUT LOUD in my car at least a few times per day. It is so funny! it is the first one of hers that is truly "out there" and impossible (or so i think). its about a girl who is "haunted" by the ghost of her great aunt and how she makes people do things and say things that they wouldnt normally and they go on a hunt for her missing necklace. it
is really cute.
i just had to confess. definitely not book club worthy, but fun and entertaining nonetheless.

when it rains, ....

2010-02-23T11:07:00.001-05:00

there is a huge weight on my shoulders. one thing happens, and then they all sort of fall down into this pile of stress, and i feel like no matter how hard i dig and push through the mess, it just keeps piling up.

jeff and i are a bit stressed at the moment. some stressful things are going on at his work and we're trying to work it out, work through it, and are aiming to overcome (with some help along the way), but in the mean time, im feeling it now and i just want my shoulders to feel free and airy!

did someone say massage????? i think that probably would help....(anyone offering???)

on top of that, i have been sick. really sick. i got sick with a bad cold when i was in virginia (sadly) but as the days and weeks passed, it did not let up. the cold turned into a cough, and then a fever with shortness of breath, and finally ended up down in my chest with a *gasp* walking pneumonia. Within 24 hours of antibiotics, relief finally arrived, but I was totally wiped out. I did not get on the elliptical for over 3 weeks. I gave up on my diet right when I was doing well. And I just slept a lot.
Now, I am trying to get back together. Ive gotten back on the elliptical and am working really hard, finally feel good. Im back on weight watchers and am down 2 pounds in 1 day!!!! (amazing feeling, lets hope it keeps going!). and now that the REAL LIVE american idol has finally returned, it will give me incentive to jump on the elliptical every night at 8 to enjoy the singing and hopefully will just stay on until i cant move anymore.

I hope the exercise will help the stress also.

I feel for Jeff right now too because i know he is also incredibly stressed, but he is working so hard and stays at the hospital so late that he has no time for himself, no time to relax, not time to work out, and its just a sad cycle.

To top it all off, Tali has been sick too. I fear it may be my fault- I got her sick after being sick for so long myself. After night upon night of no sleep, we finally visited the doctor who diagnosed her with an ear infection. But even in the 6 days since starting antibiotics, she is not better. and last night, vomit- all over me- twice. My poor little girly. I feel sad- I just want to take away her pain, cuddle with her, and make her better...

Thankfully Levi is not sick. And i know he is concerned about the rest of us because he was very attentive to tali last night, making sure she was OK after she covered me with sickness. He told me last week i needed to go to the doctor. he told me tali needs to go back to the doctor to get better. and now, he has taken to calling himself a doctor- perhaps hoping that he can cure us himself.

when i got home from work last night, i went into levi's room to find karina, levi, and tali on the floor, surrounded by stuffed animals. levi had a stethescope in his ears and he was meticulously "examining" each animal and tali too. he looked at me and told me that he was making everyone healthy. i asked him what kind of doctor he was and he said "im dr borus" (his pediatrician). and when i asked him what kind of doctor i am, he said "youre a mommy doctor".

vacation

2010-02-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

i havent gotten it together to download from my real camera the pictures i took in virginia beach, so i guess that post will have to be put off yet again....but i did email myself some from my iphone so here goes nothing!

we went to virginia beach to visit vanessa, sean, and eesa. eesa was born in november and ive been absolutely dying to meet her and cuddle with her! she is so cute!!!! Jeff and I planned it so we could both take a week of vacation together and make a road trip out of it.

we started out in pittsburgh visiting some of jeff's college friends....and then made our way to VA Beach. Too bad this time of year is not appropriate beach weather (the first snowstorm hit the day before we arrived, so bad that the roads were barely passable and schools were closed for three days).

But the weather did not stop us from exploring! We went to the aquarium, the childrens museum, Nauticus which is a naval museum and science center, and walked on the beach and hung out at the really cool indoor pool. We even made a little stop at colonial williamsburg on our way out of town.

The only bump in our little vacation occurred as we left. "Snowmaggedon" started as we left virginia beach. Vanessa tried to steer us clear of the worst of it as we decided to go due west to try to get to west virginia before the worst of it came, but 8 hours into what should have been a 3 hour drive, we decided to stop in charlottesville. Since we knew we would get stuck, we figured charlottesville would be the place to do it. AND, we made the best of our extra 2 nights in a hotel because of the snow. Charlottesville is an adorable town with great restaurants and shops. too bad most everything was closed. we still had some fun.....

AND, we made it home just in time for kickoff for the superbowl.

A fun vacation, so nice seeing friends and babies and spending time together as a family....

and so nice eating lump crab and crab cakes and oysters fresh from the local waters.
next time, we'll go back when we can actually go in the ocean instead of watching the waves crash from a distance while wearing ski coats, hats, gloves, and still freezing!

some good reading and two movies in one week!!!!

2010-02-09T14:09:00.000-05:00

It just so happens that as a girl who never (never ever) gets to go to the movies, I saw two movies in one week. We went on a double date with friends a couple weeks ago to Darna for dinner, and then went to see Extraordinary Measures. The movie was good. Interesting. I liked that it was a true story about a real medical genetic disease. Nothing fancy. Just a good entertaining movie. And then, a few days later, on my 32nd birthday, I was able to enjoy a day off from work, fun with jeff and the kids, and while they were home napping happily with the nanny, a daytime date with jeff to see avatar.

First off, I have to say: I LOVED AVATAR. LOVED it. It was incredible. I had no idea what it was about before I saw it, but it didnt really interest me anyhow since I dont really like science fiction. BUT, after all the media hype and all the fabulous reports from people with whom i share similar tastes, i decided it would be worth checking out. I had low expectations. I also was a little leary of wearing the 3D glasses because I get motion sickness in IMAX movies, how would i be able to watch this movie in 3D without puking all over the theater. I am the type of person with a weak bladder than needs to pee at least once (and perhaps twice if the movie is longer than 2 hours) during a movie, so i always choose to sit on an aisle. this movie was long, and i didnt get up once.
And i had no issue with the 3D either. It is a MUST SEE in 3D. I almost wonder why movies are not all in 3D (i guess perhaps the expense???). After this movie, I think there will be a million and one more that are in 3D, and after witnessing the previews in the movie (alice in wonderland and toy story 3), it looks like i will be correct! If you have not seen Avatar 3D yet, go see it. There is a real good reason its the highest grossing movie of all time....

I just finished two good books that I can recommend to anyone interested in something entertaining without much thought necessary.....
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve was really good. It is about a young married couple who live in Kenya. The man is a physician who is doing a study on equatorial medicine, and the woman is a news photographer at a local paper. They, along with other expatriates, climb Mt Kenya, there is an accident, and the book is about coming to terms with what happens there, moving on with life, and all interspersed with details of life for expatriates and natives alike in kenya. It was a really interesting book. Happy. Sad. Informative. It was an easy read but it was also gripping. I would love for the book club to read it because I can imagine interesting discussion on the differences between white expatriates and black natives in Africa, on the effects of tragedy on a new marraige, and on government control over reporting events, etc etc etc. This is the kind of book I really like to read. Not hard language. Smooth and fast flowing plot. And some history and education in it too.....

The other book I read also would definitely inspire some good discussion, although perhaps it would cause some unwelcome debate in our little easygoing bookclub. Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult is another one of her classic stories with the plot surrounding a big ethical dilemma. It is about a girl who has Osteogenesis Imperfecta type III (a brittle bone disease) who suffers from multiple breaks and lives a life limited by her physical development, and her mother who is her primary caregiver and has given up her career and essentially her independence to take care of this little girl. When the mom discovers the fact that her OB (who also happens to be her best friend) could have discovered the girl's diagnosis early enough to terminate the pregnancy, the mom sues the OB for "wrongful birth" and so goes the story. The lawsuit breaks apart the family and the marraige and the friendship and makes the reader question who is right and who is wrong and if there is any blurring of that line, a kind of in between. I liked it. If you like Jodi Picoult, as I do, I think you wont be disappointed in this one.

Next up- the virginians and the snow. When i get some time (after i catch up with my life after being on vacation for 10 days), i'll write about our fantastic (but cold) visit to see vanessa and meet baby eesa and to introduce levi and tali to the mighty atlantic ocean......

tankless

2010-01-25T10:56:00.001-05:00

hot water supply is a very important issue that has become paramount in our house these last few months.
Our hot water tank is old. It was old when we bought the house. The inspector told us that it was so old, it was surprising it was still working well, and he would expect it to die anyday. As the years have passed, our supply of hot water has diminished but it was never truly gone. In the last month, if jeff took more than a 5 minute shower, i couldnt take a morning shower unless i wanted it to be lukewarm. If i gave the kids a bath at night, i couldnt take a bath later since it wouldnt be hot enough for me. We could never take more than one shower at a time, and not for lack of water pressure. the hot water tank was slowly losing its last leg.
When jeff approached me with the idea to get a tankless water heater, i told him he was nuts. it was so expensive. the unit itself was expensive, PLUS the installation was just as expensive (or even more expensive). He did more research, contacted a bunch of plumbers and dealers of the things, and came to me with the results of his extensive search- and finally convinced me we needed to get one. It has amazing energy savings. It takes up less space. and it provides an ENDLESS supply of HOT water.
It was installed last thursday and I can not explain what a difference it has made in our happiness! Morning showers can be enjoyable, relaxing, and not rushed. A nighttime soak in the bathtub is hot up until the last drop. We can run the dishwasher, do the laundry, take a bath in one bathroom and a shower in the other and still not run out of hot water. I eat my words to my husband. He is not nuts. He is the smartest man alive.

comparing

2010-01-25T09:56:00.001-05:00

as a physician (and as a mom), i know that comparing kids can cause problems. when your friends have kids exactly the same age, and you put the kids together, one of them is undoubtedly going to be doing something the other isnt. i remember our weekly playdates when levi was teeny tiny- cole was (by far) the most "advanced" of them all- sleeping 12 hours at night when levi and jesse and noah and sarah and darius were all still up 2 or 3 or 4 times to eat. he was also the first to crawl, walk, eat table food, etc. sometimes, i felt our conversations were almost competitive.- i remember one such phone conversation where my friend expressed disappointment that my kid got his first tooth before her kid. i was a resident at the time and absolutely knew that kids progressed at different rates and i had no concerns at all. my little levi's superpowers (as jeff calls them) were "first to get teeth" and "the biggest talker of the bunch" which, as it turns out, he still is.
something i also hear a lot about from parents, and now am finally realizing it firsthand, it is also problematic when you compare one sibling to another. but it is almost impossible not to compare!!!! i am realizing this now as tali, at 10 months old, has finally started to teeth. by the time levi was this age, he had 10 teeth. maybe even more. his first tooth came when he was about 5 months old and they came regularly after that. the only sign he ever gave that he was teething, and the reason we knew to check for a new little white tooth popping through his gums, was that he got a diaper rash. that was it. he never had diaper rash except when he was teething. no waking up at night. no fussing. no screaming in pain. maybe a little drooling but what baby doesnt drool???? i have always known (and see frequently in practice) that some kids really have a hard time with teething. screaming in pain. pulling ears constantly. pulling their hair and hitting their head and face from pain. waking up at night. refusing to nurse. i have heard it all, but never gave much thought to it since "that wouldnt happen to us, levi was an easy teether". well, i eat my words. tali, in many ways, but this especially, is different than levi.
i should have guessed she would be different from levi since from the beginning i knew she was more fiesty. levi moved around in my belly, but never had those big "knock your socks off" kicking moves. tali was a kickboxer and people could feel (and sometimes even see) her kicking my belly from across the room. Levi was a laid back baby, easy going in every way, and tali just isnt. not that its bad- its definitely not- but she is different than he was! levi couldnt handle table food until he was 11 months. before that, only purees for him, otherwise he would choke and gag and vomit. tali, at 8 months, refused pureed food and now eats anything that is put in front of her. anything. she LOVED my moroccan lentil soup. she DEVOURS salmon. she SAVORS pickles. I think if i put disgusting olives on her tray, she would eat every last bite. Levi knows he doesnt get a choice if he doesnt like what i make for dinner, but he doesnt eat everything the way she does. He prefers to starve himself and not eat anything rather than eat something he doesnt find interesting at dinner time.
with all the differences, I guess i should have expected that Tali not teeth as easy as levi did. and not as early as he did either. The last few days have been miserable for all of us. Tali doesnt want to nurse. She doesnt want to sleep. She wakes up 3, 4, 5 times at night (and this from a girl who normally sleeps 11-12 hours at night without waking) and then screams and screams even if i give in and pick her up to soothe her. she is in pain and makes everyone around her know it. the one thing that hasnt changed is that she still eats everything....
so, as we all know, the comparing wont ever stop. its impossible not to compare. but at least now i'll expect the differences. its becoming more and more clear by the day. levi is just like his dad- his looks, his behavior, his laid back ways. and tali is her mama's girl- her looks, her appetite, and her chili-pepper attitude!

500 Days of Summer and The Lost Symbol

2010-01-18T10:07:00.000-05:00

I rented the movie: 500 Days of Summer on Christmas. I needed something to do after the kids went to sleep since Jeff was working and the rest of the world was celebrating, and there was definitely nothing good to watch on TV for a happily Jewish girl. I hadnt heard anything about the movie. I had seen some quick commercials and it looked cute, so I figured I would give it a try. UNEXPECTED SURPRISE was that I totally fell in love with the movie. LOVE with a capital heart. What a cute and quirky little movie! It is about a writer for a greeting card company that falls hopelessly in love with this quirky girl who doesnt believe love exists. It jumps around in the 500 days they have known each other, starting at day 488 (or something like that) and going back to day 1 and bouncing around the rest of the movie to follow a very cute plot. I watched the movie again the next day, and I think im going to buy it. It is just one of those films that i think i could watch time and again and still find it adorable! I havent found one of those movies in a while. I seem to rent movies, expect them to be great, and then they are OK but nothing special, nothing I would truly recommend. And the one time i rent a movie that I know nothing about and have no expectations, I am truly delighted. I guess I shouldnt try to find good movies anymore. I should just pick blindly and hope for the best! OR- i can take suggestions. any cute movies you have seen lately? (that are available to rent since its kind of hard finding time to go to the movies with two little ones and a husband that works 80 hours per week).

I also have finally gotten myself back into the reading mode. I had taken a break for a while, not sure why- perhaps it was due to lack of a good book in hand- but I am back. I just finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. "EHH" is really what I have to say about it. I read the DaVinci Code when it came out 6 years ago and devoured every page, drank it in with intensity. I LOVED it. I LOVED it so much that I immediately went out and bought Angels and Demons AND the rest of Dan Brown's books. I loved Angels and Demons but the rest were just OK. I had high expectations of The Lost Symbol. I am the kind of person that waits until a book comes in paperback, or I get it from the library or half price books, but when I saw this one at BJs for the amazingly cheap price of $14 (when list price is actually $29) I figured I could afford it and bought it for myself. I immediately dug in. I just really couldnt get into it. Perhaps the reason I really liked his other books was because they were about religion and were controversial about christianity (something i find fascinating- the controversy against i mean), and this one was more about freemasonry and just wasnt as interesting. I really like the symbology stuff and couldnt really get into it myself- I like puzzles and brain teasers and stuff like that, but this book just didnt blow me away like the others did. I finished it. I liked it. there is it again- maybe when i have high expectations, i am frequently disappointed. i guess i need to find some books that i am not excited about and then i will find one i totally love!

I am loving the two books I am reading now. I am not done yet so I wont write much about them, but I think they're great. and I am looking forward to another couple books that I keep hearing great things about. Maybe I shouldnt get my hopes up and then they will surprise me!

Currently reading:
Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
A Change in Altitude by Anita Shreve

Hoping to start soon:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Day After Night by Anita Diamant

Recent book club books that I have finished:
Patty Jane's House of Curl (ok but nothing special)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (pretty good. will probably get better for me when we actually discuss it at the february book club because i find i like books better when people start to talk about their feelings and actually get into it a little more).

Book club book that I have yet to start:
Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities by Alexandra Robbins (i think this book will be awesome and I cant wait to read it).

I would love more recommendations, so comment away!

broccoli, yum

2010-01-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

I cook on sundays. it is my thing i guess. i sometimes come up with a new recipe to make, but mostly i make something that will last longer than just one night and we can eat for lunches during the week. most of the time, its a soup. a big steamy pot of some kind of delicious concoction that satisfies and fills me up (with the least calories possible). I love vegetable soup, tomato soup, (non-creamy vegetarian) potato soup, lentil soup, chicken soup, mushroom barley soup, and combinations of all of the above.
yesterday, i went to friends for lunch and they had made the most delicious portabella mushroom lentil soup that i devoured two bowls and was too modest or embarassed to ask for a third bowl, although i wanted a third and a fourth and a fifth serving! they said it was easy to make, but i couldnt ask for them to write down the recipe because it was shabbat and they probably would not have appreciated me transcribing the recipe in their house since they keep the sabbath and you're not supposed to write on shabbat. so, i emailed when i got home, and emailed again today, and while i just received an email back with the recipe (and it appears to be so easy!), i didnt get it in time to make it for dinner tonight. so, it will have to wait until tomorrow- and tomorrow it will be for sure, since i cant wait to eat it again....
instead of a soup this time, i decided to make sauce. i know, im a little white jewish girl- we're not known for making great sauce, but i have a little secret. i have obtained a secret italian family sauce recipe from a great friend who, after months of enduring my pestering, gave in and let me have it. and i made it. and made it well. i made enough for dinner today (over tortillini per levi's request), and for lunches this week, and to freeze for another time. the sauce is so delicious that even before it was done i put some in a bowl and ate it with a spoon (like it was a soup) and dipped a big crusty roll into it savoring each bite.
i thought broccoli would be a good accompaniment to tonights dinner and i remembered reading on a blog long ago about "the best broccoli you will ever taste", so i googled it and found the blog i had originally read. and it seemed i had all the ingredients in the house to make this "best broccoli" so i figured i would give it a try.
now, i like broccoli. i eat broccoli pretty regularly. but i would never say "i LOVE broccoli". today, i have changed my mind. i LOVE broccoli. i LOVE this broccoli. i think i may even want to marry it. it is "the best broccoli you will ever taste" for sure. As i finished making it and tasted it, i just had to have more. I think i ate 2 whole bunches of broccoli myself, and for the first time ever i didnt care (nor did i ask twice) that levi didnt want any- and i didnt offer tali any. i even told jeff that he didnt have to eat it if he didnt want to, since i wouldnt mind finishing it myself. i licked the bowl clean. it was so good. i think im going to have to buy some more broccoli tomorrow.
the broccoli recipe is barefoot contessa and my altered version is below. ENJOY!!!!!! run - dont walk- to make this broccoli. i KNOW you wont be disappointed.

2-3 bunches of broccoli, washed and dried well, cut into spears.
3 cloves garlic chopped
a few tablespoons olive oil
handful pine nuts
shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 small lemon
salt/pepper

toss broccoli with olive oil, garlic, and salt/pepper to taste
put on cookie sheet and roast in the oven at 450 for 20 minutes.
then toss with pine nuts, as much parmesan cheese as you would like, and the juice half a lemon.

the real recipe called for chopped fresh basil but i didnt have any, and honestly, it wasnt missed. it was perfect without it. so, add it if you want, or dont.

is it in the genes?

2010-01-09T22:58:00.000-05:00

levi's nickname (given by laura one night while eating at ho wah) is "tofu turell". for as long as he has been eating real people food, he has LOVED tofu. tofu in soup. any kind of broth, put some tofu in it and its gone....vanishes within seconds and another bowl is requested immediately. when asked his favorite food, tofu is his answer.
i remember when levi first started school at JDN and the teacher asked me if levi really ate tofu because that is what he kept telling his friends he wanted for dinner.....yep. he loves the stuff...
he has started to branch out a little bit when we go for japanese....not only does he eat two entire bowls of miso soup (with extra tofu), he eats half an order of edamame- probably the whole order if i let him- AND "chicken on a stick" otherwise known as chicken yakitori.
things are changing in our house, and we may have a battle for the true "tofu turell". tali is just as in love with tofu as levi, and she's is giving him a run for his money. tonight was the second time that i had to order an extra bowl of soup with extra tofu JUST for Tali (and then even had to order more tofu to put in it since she ate the whole first bowl). TALI! she is only 9 months old and eats tofu like a sumo wrestler. i think we have "tofu turell" and now "tofu tali" so they dont have to share nicknames.
the waitresses were totally mesmerized by the little white kids shovelling tofu and edamame and yakitori and rice into their wide open mouths. we got comment after comment and lots of smiles and stares as our children ate more food than some adults in the restaurant. the same thing happens when we're at korea house and we have to order an extra kalbi just for levi....
i know times are different now than they were when we were growing up and the variety/availability of ethnic foods have changed, but i know this is not how i ate when i was a kid. jeff told me the first time he ate sushi or any japanese food was in college. the first time i ate sushi was with my dad and sue at kuni's in buffalo and i have been hooked ever since. i think i was in my senior year of high school. i started eating thai food a few years before that. and the ever daunting (yet incredibly delicious) indian and korean i didnt try until college. i used to joke that i should have married an asian man since i could live on asian food for the rest of my life. but, then came jeff, and while he is neither asian nor an asian chef (too bad), he can eat japanese and thai and korean and indian food with the natives and that's good enough for me....
jeff and i made the decision from the beginning that we wanted our children to eat everything the way we do. we wouldnt force things on them, but we would introduce different types of food early and let them grow up with them. our niece and nephew (up until this last few MONTHS- and they are 14 and 11) had such limited tastes that we could never go out to a restaurant that did not have a kids menu with the normal kids choices of chicken fingers, pizza, hot dogs, grilled cheese, etc....i do have to say things have gotten better with them and food, and ive been incredibly impressed that in the last month alone we've gone to chinese and japanese and korean with them and they've actually eaten the food and not just complained that they didnt like anything....but jeff and i never wanted to get to the point that we had to restrict our restaurant choices.
i will admit that when levi was 20 months old and we went to india, he wouldnt eat anything except ice cream and pancakes. literally. nothing else. (thankfully we stayed in nice hotels that had these available and when we were at my mom's her cook made levi pancakes for all three meals). BUT, since then, his tastes have expanded and he tries things (most of the time).
i sometimes wonder if our kids eat the food we like because we expose them to it so much now and dont really give them much of an alternative, or if it has anything to do with how much asian food i ate when i was pregnant and nursing....i cant tell what the answer is, but im not changing a thing. we're doing something right and our kids will definitely be asian food junkies just like their parents.....

will it ever stop?

2010-01-05T14:11:00.001-05:00

This is the view from my office window today.
That is a LOT of snow, and its coming down making it total whiteout conditions outside. Its beautiful from where I am sitting, but I dont want to go outside in it!

i know i work in chardon (the snow capital of ohio) and i know im from buffalo (the snow capital of the country) and i love snow, dont get me wrong, but i dont love to drive in the snow in the dark, which is what this really amounts to because i get out of work at 5pm and the sun is already setting, and i have to drive so slow it takes over an hour to get home in this blizzard!

i do love to play in the snow, though. on new years day, another day like this one, jeff and i took the kids sledding. we put their snowsuits and hats and gloves on, bundled tali up in the jogging stroller with the plastic cover blocking the wind, and put levi on the red sled and went for a walk. we walked around the neighborhood (checking to see if levi's friend ke-fan wanted to come sledding too), and then went over to canterbury school to their small hill and went sledding! i went first. then jeff and levi went together. then levi went by himself again and again, and wouldnt even let us take the sled back up the hill for him- he had to do it "by my own self"......we ended the little adventure with both me and jeff on the sled together going slowly slowly down the hill to the bottom- i guess we weighed too much to go fast!

it was a lot of fun, and jeff told me it was his first time ever sledding! isnt that amazing? something i guess i always took for granted growing up in a place like buffalo. sledding every winter was something that never seemed to be a luxury- just an obvious part of growing up.....but for a texan, i guess its a novelty!

every rose has its thorn

2010-01-04T13:34:00.000-05:00

i used to love "hair" bands.
heavy metal, hard rock, whatever you want to call it- i LOVED it.
5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade- i think those were the years.

It may possibly have started when paul taefi bought me "appetite for destruction" by guns-n-roses.
maybe it started when my cousin leslie was married to a rock journalist- richard- and i thought it was so cool that he knew all these famous rock stars.

i used to have this jean jacket with all these rhinestones on it. really ugly, gaudy, totally 80's. i had these skinny jeans with multiple rips and shreds with plaid and checkered fabric under them so people wouldnt see my naked legs...and i had this short permed hair that made me look like jennifer grey exactly in the time of dirty dancing. i think back to those times and i cringe and how i must have looked!!!!

leslie and richard came to stay with us once and richard's close personal friend called to talk to him on our phone- DUFF- from guns-n-roses called MY HOUSE! we took pictures as i said hello to him on the phone. i wonder where those pictures are now! i should go look for them. i remember telling the entire world that duff called my house. i got to talk to duff on the phone. i was so weird!

i used to have all these demo tapes and signed pictures of skid row, poison, trixter, motley crue, def leppard, guns-n-roses, warrant, gosh- probably a million more. i had them in this folder that i kept under my bed so my sister or a robber trying to rob my house wouldnt take my prized possessions (who would have actually wanted them, i wonder)! im sure i just tossed all of them when i realized how totally ridiculous it was, but now looking back it would have been fun to see them.

the reason i bring this up was that i was driving marsha's car to work the other day and since it doesnt have XM radio in it, i HAD to listen to the regular radio (i know, poor me)...106.5 had an 80's rock weekend on and it was playing great song after great song. the entire way to and from work, i was rockin out to my old favorites......and it got me thinking.....there are some (just some though) good songs from those awful bands.....

patience.
every rose has its thorn.
i remember you.

c'mon. you know you love some of them too. what are your favorites?

tali's naming

2009-12-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, Tali was given her Hebrew name. Her Hebrew name happens to be the same as her English name (Tali Ariel) but the naming was for us to symbolically welcome her into the Jewish community...Boys get to have "weenie whackings," aka circumcisions, when they are 8 days old, but there is nothing that is required or special for girls at that age. So, frequently jewish families have namings for their daughters. We wanted to do it earlier but we had to come up with a date that worked for Me, Jeff, my mom who lives in Mexico City, and Jeff's mom who lives in Houston. Put all of those incredibly difficult schedules together, and add some hope that other members of the family (or at least some of them) will be able to come, and voila! tali's naming was on the special date of december 20th- Jeff's 35th birthday.....
The ceremony was beautiful. Lots of prayers, poems, readings, songs, all led by our friend Rabbi Hal- and we were surrounded by lots of friends and family to help celebrate Tali....(and even some of Tali's baby friends were able to join us too!).
The ceremony started with Tali being passed down the generations, from family member to family member, (during which her crying started), and ended with Levi leading everyone in the Hamotzi (the prayer over the bread), (during which her crying continued)....Crying during the entire ceremony was my adorably dressed beautiful little girl with a big bow in her hair, and she only stopped the tears when we gave her a big juicy pickle to eat....she is just like her mama. food makes everything better.
The food was great- thanks to Jack's Deli- and we truly enjoyed ourselves....

haircut

2009-12-28T09:51:00.000-05:00

levi had his first haircut when he was 2. shortly after his 2nd birthday, we decided that since he seemed to get EVERYTHING in his hair (particularly syrup which he drinks as if he is buddy the elf), we would cut it. we went to ladies and gentlemen and i told them i wanted to keep it shaggy and long, just trimmed up a bit...we left with the same haircut all of levi's friends had....cole, jesse, and levi- they could have all been hair twins....not that the haircut was bad, it was just NOT what i wanted. i wanted the shaggy look, accentuating his adorable curls, his shiny beautiful brown hair....he looked like such a boy after that haircut, and it made me sad that he lost his little baby look....
well, that was about a year and a half ago. and since then, levi said he did NOT want another haircut. he likes his curls because people call him "curly" or "curyee" as he pronounces it.
we would ask him once in a while if he wanted to get his haircut and he always would reply "no. i do NOT want to cut my curls mommy".
then, a few days ago, he told me he wanted to get his hair cut. "only a little bit though, i want to keep my curls". but he would constantly be tearing and asking for a wipe to clean his eyes because his hair would always be in them making them water.

so, before he changed his mind, i made an appt at cuts & curls in solon. i figured a place that was really child friendly would make the most sense because i knew levi would be nervous about the whole thing.....we made a big deal about it and he got excited.

he chose to sit in the "racecar" chair.

he chose to watch Thomas on the TV/DVD player.

he did so well!!!!!

and afterwards, we taught him how to play skee ball since they have a big skee ball machine there for the kids! and he got pretzels and twizzlers and lollipops....

he looks so cute. and its exactly the haircut i wanted for him. shaggy. curly. but out of the eyes. perfect. we'll be going back here, and i dont think it will be hard to convince levi to get a haircut this time.

oompa loompa doopity doo

2009-12-23T10:04:00.001-05:00

my favorite movie of all time is Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

When i was a child, i would go over to grandpa aaron and grandma june's house and watch it, again and again. i even loved the opening credits with the chocolate candies racing across the screen during production. i knew (and still know) all the songs. i used to be scared of the boat ride scene and the slugworth scenes, and to this day those are still the parts of the movie i dont like that much, although they're less scary than just unnecessary parts.....

in college, when vanessa was working in the library until 2am 2-3 nights per week, carmen would come over to my room, we would do "something" that would make us extremely hungry and sometimes cause the RAs to come pounding on the door to tell us to STOP, and we would watch willy wonka and fall asleep on the futon.

i was so excited when charlie and the chocolate factory with johnny depp came out. i saw it in the theater the first day. i had been waiting and waiting for this movie. and it SUCKED!!!!! it was creepy. weird. and it made me so sad because i really wanted to love it! so, now i just stick with the original gene wilder version.

it was on TV last night, and I just had to watch it. so, jeff, who is not as overly enthusiastic about it as i am, decided to go to the basement to watch something more to his liking, and when he came upstairs, i was sleeping in the bed with willy wonka still playing on the TV. i guess some things will never change.

dad, episode 483, continued

2009-12-22T10:08:00.001-05:00

i think that little glimmer of hope that comes every once in a while is what is my absolute downfall.
my dad disappoints, then surprises me and gives me hope, but that hope is undoubtedly followed by more disappointment- why do i even dream/hope/wish anymore????
he first met tali when she was 6 months old, came and visited out of the blue, and stayed for a couple hours getting down on the floor with levi, reading books, singing songs, cuddling and playing. it was a fabulous visit and at the time, i couldnt have been happier. my dad finally made an effort on his own (im not sure if he read my blog post or not, but it didnt matter, he came, he visited, he played).
he called pretty frequently (for him) after that, giving me more and more hope that he had changed for the better....he called just to "check in" and to hear how the kids were doing, what was new with us. he made somewhat of an effort to be in touch....
on his birthday, in october, i wished him a happy birthday.....didnt hear back. then, i sent him an invitation to tali's naming.....didnt hear back. then, i sent him another email asking if he was ok because i hadnt heard from him and he hadnt responded- and he replied that he was sad he wouldnt be in buffalo until december 19th and that he was leaving to go back to st thomas on december 24th....
i knew what that meant. i knew he was trying to tell me he couldnt (or wouldnt) come to tali's naming- the 20th of december....but i wanted to put him in the position to TELL ME HIMSELF that he wouldnt come to his granddaughter's big day and not have to just assume or figure it out for myself.....so, my immediate response was- "oh great!!! you'll be arriving in buffalo just in time to drive up for tali's naming!".....i knew that had a BIG FAT CHANCE of happening, but I wanted to make HIM say that he wouldnt make the extra effort. i wanted to put that responsibility back on him, perhaps giving him some reason to feel guilty....
i never heard back. not by email. not by phone.
we met with the rabbi for tali's naming to set up the ceremony, prepare the program, discuss the family tree, talk about specifics, and i told him i did not want my father mentioned at all. he doesnt deserve to be mentioned.
i arranged the program, with help from the synagogue i designed it beautifully. the front of the program had our names on it- "tali ariel", daughter of jeffrey and marni, granddaughter of marsha and betsy, great-granddaughter of claire and irv, aaron and june, and belle. not one mention of my dad.
when the phone rang on saturday night at 10pm, my heart almost skipped a hundred beats when my father said "hi marni". of course, the call was to apologize for not being able to make it the next day for tali's ceremony. "life is just too crazy" was his excuse, as if i really thought he would come anyhow, he had to make it seem like this was a last minute decision on his part. although he then went on to tell me his personal life with his girlfriend rayna is perfect and his health is excellent....i guess its the other things in life that are just too "hectic" and much more important than his grandkids (or his own kids for that matter).
hindsight is always 20/20 but i wish i had thought to mention to my father on the phone that night how incredibly wonderful it was that my aunt marcy (my dad's sister) and her boyfriend ron had driven all the way from DC to be with us at Tali's naming, to spend time hanging out with us, getting to know the kids....it meant the world to me that she came...how come he couldnt have done the same?
after i hung up and told jeff it was my dad, he reminded me that it would have been a total disaster had he decided to come- his name NOT mentioned anywhere on the 75 programs we had printed....but, it was a non-issue since i knew he wouldnt come anyhow.
jeff's father would have been a great grandfather to levi and tali, but he isnt around to be able to do that. and my father has the opportunity and the means to be there for my kids, and he has no interest whatsoever. what a sad thing.
i almost wish my dad had come, just to see that it doesnt really matter that he is virtually nonexistent in our lives. to see how perfect my children are. to see all the family and friends that we have around us to support us, to love us, to share all the ups and downs and celebrations in life with us. to see that life does go on (and goes on very well) without him in it.
i do think its sad that our kids really dont have grandfathers, but when i see what they do have, that sadness disappears and i have pure love and happiness in my heart. my kids have 2 amazing, caring, loving, wonderful grandmothers, 3 perfect great-grandmothers, 2 incredible great-grandfathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, more aunts and uncles and cousins, and many many friends that are so important to us and are loved as if they are part of the family.....

when life gives you apples, make applesauce

2009-12-15T11:23:00.001-05:00

so, lets talk about my diet. and then, lets add some hanukkah in there too.

you're right. they just dont add up correctly. they just dont fit together very well, do they?

hanukkah is all about oil. potato pancakes fried in oil. donuts fried in oil.

then add some chocolate coins, fatty brisket, and delicious chicken soup with matzoh balls, and it is a recipe for a heart attack, a few extra pounds, or a total disaster when it comes to my goals.

everything can be justified. its hanukkah after all. it only comes once a year (or 8 times if you're really counting) and when else can i eat latkes and/or soofganiyot and not feel bad about it? Then its christmas and all those christmas cookies are staring me in the face- but its christmas and that is only once a year and when else can i eat christmas cookies? and then comes new years- and you have to drink a champagne or three on new years...and then, my birthday- well i have to eat thai food and have cake on my birthday, right? and then, its probably someone else's birthday (Cara- february, Jami-march), and so on and so forth.....excuses excuses. the story of my life.

I had the neighbors over for hanukkah dinner on sunday.
saturday night, I spent 4 hours making homemade chicken soup. i started with an 18 quart pot (not 18 gallons as i had some people- including myself- convinced i owned), 2 soup chickens, 2 pounds of carrots, 2 pounds of celery, 3 large onions, a huge bunch of fresh parsley and a bunch of fresh thyme. after lots of boiling and simmering and straining and cooling and straining again, i ended up with 10 quarts (i know, its a lot) of perfecly seasoned, non oily, delicious chicken stock. it took so long, i probably wont ever do it again (but the good thing is that i have so much soup, i'll just freeze it and use it at my leisure). i watched saturday night live almost in its entirity while i was standing in my kitchen straining soup.

Sunday, i made 16 matzoh balls- light, fluffy, and scrumptious- as only matzoh ball mix can be (yep, thats my secret).....as a 5 pound brisket with Montgomery Inn BBQ sauce and liptons onion soup simmered away in my slow cooker (probably a little too long as it didnt fall apart and melt in your mouth, but at least it tasted good).

I shredded 10 POUNDS of potatoes and some onions in the cuisinart, and mixed up the gooey sticky latke batter and spent 2 HOURS at my stove frying all the pancakes in hot oil....doing minimal tasting and smelling more and more like a fast food restaurant as the day went on.

total success of a dinner. good food. (too much good food). great friends. happy babies. lights of the menorah. some wine for the boys, some beer for the girls (doesnt that seem the opposite of how it should be?). jami's famous salad and cara's fabulous christmas cookies. life doesnt get much better than that!

up until this point, i had total diet success. as of friday, i had lost 9 pounds. 9 WHOLE POUNDS!!!!! and jeff told me that every 10 pounds, i can get a massage as my reward....did hanukkah get in the way of my ladies and gentlemen spa treat??? monday morning i was up one pound (after that incredible oily jewish dinner, one pound isnt THAT bad). so, this week ahead will entail NO POINTS at all, and working out for 40 minutes each day (started last night while watching "sing-off" on NBC), so that when i get myself on the scale on Friday morning, I've lost my first 10 pounds and i can go get my body rubbed!!!!

happy hanukkah everyone!!!!

2009-12-12T13:03:00.002-05:00

the gas we pass

2009-12-11T14:15:00.000-05:00

i always wondered why people thought passing gas was so funny. but you know, boys will be boys, and it seems that farting for boys will always be something of a joke, a laugh inspiring event. maybe it is because they have no idea how to hold it in, so they need to make a big fuss over it to hide their embarassment.

levi cant quite grasp the difference between a fart and a burp. sometimes he'll sit on the potty and try to push and then he'll report happily that he didnt poop but he burped instead. or else, he'll drink something really fast and make a huge burp, and then laugh saying "that was a LOUD fart". it is very cute.

babies, when they're too young even to smile socially, will smile when they have gas- gas is funny even then? parents will swear up and down and left and right that the baby is smiling at them. my mom was one of the believers SWEARING that levi smiled right at her when he was only 2 weeks old, and how smart he was just because he knew that she was his safta...and yes, he is one smart boy, but he didnt smile at her intentionally at 2 weeks old....it was gas. plain and simple and stinky. (and obviously funny).

traditionally, girls are more delicate, hide their "passage" much better than boys, BUT, is that a learned trait? is it because theyre taught the be "girly" that they dont just let it all out?

i was nursing tali the other night and she suddenly unlatched and stared up at me. she squeezed her little body and let out a big-long-strong fart. then she started LAUGHING hysterically. big belly laughs. on and on and on the laughing kept going and going. i couldnt help it- i had to laugh too. my little girl couldnt multitask- she needed to give full attention to the task at hand and stop nursing to pass her gas- and then, as if she were a toddler boy or an adolescent male or even an adult man- she thought that fart was the funniest thing ever....

one day.....the olympics

2009-12-09T11:01:00.002-05:00

the first time i saw matisyahu was in 2005 at the grog shop with jeff, sarah, and joel. the show had been advertised by the young leadership division on its monthly newsletter as a hasidic reggae artist. sarah and i checked out his website online and decided it would be kind of cool to check out. jeff was slightly skeptical but we decided to go anyhow.
we were four people out of maximum 30 people total in the grog shop that night. a very interesting mix of people. older couples wearing yarmulkes, some college age kids, but not the type of people you would find at a matisyahu show now.
the show was amazing- what a great performer and singer and beat box rapper and reggae artist. such a unique musical style and content and we all loved him. we bought his album (not on a label yet) and immediately fell in love.
as the months and years passed, matisyahu became much more well known and started selling out shows as he toured across the country. what started as a novelty due to the unique jewish content in a mainstream artist became very popular in both jews and nonjews alike. I have seen him a few more times, but that first time was definitely the most memorable.
Jump forward to December 2009- the olympics are fast approaching in vancouver and NBC is starting to advertise. When I first saw the commercial promoting the upcoming winter olympics in vancouver featuring snowboarder Shaun White and other famous winter athletes, I nearly fell over. From that totally unimpressive turnout at the grog shop 4 years ago to a primetime NBC olympics commercial, matisyahu has really made a name for himself and it makes me really happy that this hassidic musician has become so successful.
what a great choice of NBC to choose "one day" by matisyahu as its theme song for the winter olympics.

ONE DAY

sometimes I lay
under the moon

and thank God I'm breathing

then I pray

don't take me soon

cause I am here for a reason

sometimes in my tears I drown

but I never let it get me down

so when negativity surrounds

I know some day it'll all turn around

because

all my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

for the people to say

that we don't wanna fight no more

they'll be no more wars

and our children will play

one day

it's not about

win or lose

we all lose

when they feed on the souls of the innocent

blood drenched pavement

keep on moving though the waters stay raging

in this maze you can lose your way (your way)

it might drive you crazy but don't let it faze you no way (no way)

sometimes in my tears I drown

but I never let it get me down

so when negativity surrounds

I know some day it'll all turn around

because

all my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

for the people to say

that we don't wanna fight no more

they'll be no more wars

and our children will play

one day

one day this all will change

treat people the same

stop with the violence

down with the hate

one day we'll all be free

and proud to be

under the same sun

singing songs of freedom like

one day

all my life I've been waiting for

I've been praying for

for the people to say

that we don't wanna fight no more

they'll be no more wars

and our children will play

one day

i am happy

2009-12-07T13:42:00.000-05:00

i have been so good this past week. ive been really careful to stick to my diet. ive been exercising 3-4 times per week on the elliptical. i have my meals totally planned out, and i am very obsessive of tracking EVERY SINGLE MORSEL of food that goes into my mouth.

ive come to realize that it is much easier for me to be successful at working out AFTER the kids go to bed vs waking up early in the morning before the kids get up. I sleep better after I've exercised and then I am not hitting the snooze button and coming up with excuses about why i dont want to get out of bed so early in the morning! This current routine is allowing me to sleep an extra hour in the morning and i feel SO MUCH BETTER!

as i said in a previous post, im going to be very open about this whole weight loss thing this time, in hopes that i will feel accountable to the world in addition to myself and my family. i think once a week i will actually post in real words what ive been doing. and if it doesnt appear, comment away. ask me why i didnt post. did i fail? am i off track? i want YOU to hold me accountable to my goal.

as the title of this post says, i am happy.

one week down. the rest of my life to go.

and 7 pounds are gone never to return again!

drool

2009-12-03T22:19:00.003-05:00

i think i may be in love with this man.
im kind of obsessed.

simple salmon

2009-12-02T15:50:00.001-05:00

i officially started weight watchers on monday.

looking back, it probably was not the best time to start a crash diet, because i am the kind of person that needs an incredible amount of motivation and support to continue such a thing....and with jeff out of town, i do not have the necessity to make a well thought out and balanced meal...normally, if i'm alone (with or without the kids), i take the easy way out and either pick up dinner or make something so simple it takes no effort at all (tortillini or mac-n-cheese).

this weight watchers thing isnt so bad, but since im cooking for one, i had to really think about what i was doing for dinner and lunch each day (lunch hopefully being leftovers from the previous night's dinner).

One of the things I have decided to do to keep me motivated is to announce my new diet and my exercise plan to the world....im shouting it from rooftops and writing about it on facebook and my blog, ive told my coworkers and my family. Not only am I accountable to myself (and jeff) this time, but I have LOTS of people looking out for me and hopefully that will keep me in line.

so far so good. ive stuck with it even by myself and i KNOW i am going to succeed this time. I want to be healthy. I want to lose weight and have more energy and feel better about myself. I want to live to see my kids grow old and I want to have grandkids and great grandkids and travel the world. and i know if i continue on the current path i am on, i wont be able to do all those things. hence, starting this diet- or rather- this new lifestyle change.

A few weeks ago, I put a request out on facebook for new salmon recipes. I try to cook salmon (or at least some type of fish) at least once a week, and I felt stuck in a rut with the same old salmon recipes week after week after week. Dont get me wrong- I really LOVE the salmon recipes I make (Mango curry salmon, honey mustard/dill/garlic salmon, teriyaki salmon, dill-butter salmon, panko crusted salmon, salmon with roasted tomatoes), but I wanted something new (and simple) to add to my current line-up.

A long lost friend from hebrew school (shayna), who also happens to be a chef, gave me a recipe that I think i am going to make more and more and hopefully i'll be able to alter it to give some more variety in my menu.

this week, being on my own, I wanted to make only simple dinners that were weight watchers compatible and this salmon was just perfect!!!

Take a filet of salmon (i always choose skinless just because the skin grosses me out) and put it on a piece of tinfoil. sprinkle a small amount of brown sugar (i use the splenda variety) and generously sprinkle montreal steak seasoning over the salmon, and then wrap the entire thing in the tinfoil. Put it in the oven at 400 and cook for 20 minutes (the time may need to be altered depending on how big a piece of salmon you have).
When that salmon comes out of the oven, it literally melts in your mouth. Dee-licious.

I served it with a concoction of small red potatoes, green beans, onions, rosemary, and garlic that had been steamed together....

My incredibly easy dinner was a total success. Too bad I didnt have anyone to share it with! (good thing for me though was that meant I got to eat the rest for lunch today!).

my security alarm

2009-11-30T11:16:00.001-05:00

jeff and levi took a road trip to vermont to visit one of jeff's college friends. they left a couple days ago and will be gone for 8 days. ive had very mixed feelings about this entire adventure. im so excited for jeff and levi to have some boy bonding, to get to spend so much time together having fun, playing, talking, and exploring. but on the other hand, im kind of sad that my little boy is growing up and is old enough to take a big boy trip with daddy (without mommy) and i miss him so much!

im home alone with tali and trio. trio has decided that since daddy is gone, she can sleep in my bed. unfortunately for her, this is really not an option as she KNOWS she is NOT ALLOWED in my bed, and i am continually kicking her out and she repeatedly jumps in when im not paying attention.

tali and i are having fun with our girl time. we spent some time browsing around nordstrom and nordstrom rack- surprisingly not spending ANY $$$$- but having fun nonetheless. we went for a really long walk in the neighborhood yesterday and we've arranged a few playdates and dinner dates with friends and family while we're alone (and even got to help decorate a christmas tree, listen to christmas songs, and watch ELF like the good jews we are).

when jeff is in town, i dont seem to be scared of things. even if he is coming home late from work and im in the house alone with the kids, im fine. but when he is out for the night (on call) or away for 7 nights in a row on this road trip with levi, i have this feeling of dread and i wont be in the house without the door double locked and the alarm on. why is this? why am i so afraid?

one of my favorite TV shows is law and order...i would watch it all day and night if i could. but when im alone in the house and i know jeff wont be home that night, im too scared to watch it. i cant rent scary movies when im alone, but with jeff im all for it. when im alone in the house at night, i wont go to the basement....as if there are monsters in the closet or people hiding in the laundry room....so, last night when jeff wanted to skype, and i wanted to read levi his bedtime story over the computer video chat, i had to brave the basement at night by myself. it wasnt so bad, but i wouldn't turn off the lights when i was done- they just had to stay on all night because i was scared of the dark....

why am i scared in my own skin? in my own home? in the dark? in the basement? at least i have ADT (and trio) to protect me.

ballsy

2009-11-27T09:14:00.003-05:00

ive been pretty impressed lately with two particular ballsy moves that i have witnessed or heard about....and hopefully both turn out to be successful in the end.

for months, my receptionist/MA/secretary has had her eye on this really attractive UPS man that makes regular deliveries to our office. She always smiles at him, makes small talk, but has never gotten the courage to ask his name or really have a conversation with him. She does her hair and makeup extra special on the days she knows he will be stopping in.
a week ago, he walked into the office without a delivery. no box in his arms. no little machine to sign. not on a regularly scheduled delivery day.
his cheeks were bright red and he had a really big smile on his face as he walked to the reception desk and handing her a card. he said to her "i hear it is your birthday this weekend and i wanted to say happy birthday to you with this card". and then he left.....
she opened the card and inside were lottery tickets (she won $12) and his name and phone number.
i think it took a LOT of guts to do that- this guy knows he will see my receptionist multiple times per week, every week, and what if it didnt work? wouldnt that be embarassing???
well, she texted him thank you. he texted her back. and now, 1 week later they have had two successful dates and they talk daily. lets hope for both of their sakes that it works out!

and the other ballsy move- (J- if I'm not allowed to talk about this, let me know and i'll remove it) has to do with my cousin who writes the blog "im high on cooking" which is linked on my blogroll at the right side of the screen.
He is 25 (or something like that) and has been working in investment banking in new york. he has gotten very into cooking and started this blog about his interest....well, he just decided to up and quit his job (at the end of the year) and make a very drastic career change.
his ultimate goal is to start his own organic farm and restaurant, but in the meantime, he is looking to be an unpaid apprentice on an already working organic farm that also has either a restaurant or hotel. he wants to learn the business so he can eventually develop his own.
He has been on my mind lately, and yesterday when i spoke to him and the rest of my family who were all in florida for thanksgiving (i couldnt go since i wasnt allowed to take the day after thanksgiving off work) i just had to post about him. he was in charge of preparing the dinner and everyone overwhelmingly reported that it was the BEST dinner ever- what an incredible chef he has already become! if you're interested in reading more (or seeing pictures of the already famous thanksgiving feast which will be posted in a couple days), check out his blog here. If what everyone is saying is really true (and lets hope i get to experience some of his divine creations first hand next thanksgiving in buffalo), i KNOW this very bold and exciting change will really pay off....

pocket, revised

2009-11-24T10:52:00.002-05:00

for anyone who missed the post i have since deleted, it was the BEST picture of levi with his hand in his underpants.

he was getting dressed one morning last week and looked down at his adorable blue hanes boxer briefs and saw a hole. he put his hand inside that "hole" and told me "mama, these underpants have pockets!"....i couldnt resist. i had to take a picture, and then share it with the world.....

boys will be boys. having their hands in their pants starts early, i guess.

jeff made me take the picture down because he said i could get in trouble for it. i think its just an adorable picture, but he does have a point.
ever since those parents had their kids taken away from them (albeit temporarily) due to a naked bathtub picture that prompted a walmart employee to report them to child protection, i guess i should be more careful.
so, a written explanation will just have to do.

this morning, levi did another wonderful underwear display but i resisted my temptation to memorialize it on film.

he has this routine of picking his underpants in the morning, spending an inordinate amount of time staring at each pair to find just the right one for the day. today, he decided on thomas underpants.

he put them on backwards and i told him that he was putting them on the wrong way.

he said "this is the way i like to wear them MOM, because then i can SEE thomas". (the underpants have the thomas design on the back, but he wanted the design in the front so he could sneak a peek during the day).

hand relief

2009-11-18T10:55:00.004-05:00

When you are a physician seeing patients day in and day out, you wash your hands A LOT.

I am very close, intimate friends with Purell ("P"-rell as levi says).

I purell when i walk into a room, i purell before i actually examine said patient, i purell after i examine the patient, and i normally purell after i leave the room (sometimes even putting it IN my nose, in my hair, and on my face especially when that patient was coughing on me!).

this is, of course, all interspersed with actually washing my hands with soap and water every couple patients and definitely after using the bathroom or eating/drinking anything. Then, in the winter when the weather is cold and the heat is on and the house/office is dry, the skin on my hands is dry to begin with. Adding the constant alcohol based hand sanitizer and the antibacterial soaps i use obsessively, my hands are red, dry, cracked, and painful.

So, I was on a search for the perfect hand lotion that would help soothe and calm my eczematous, dry, painful hands.

The administrative assistant in my office had a big tube of this on her desk, and i would find myself in there time after time putting it on my hands. Her mother happens to own a salon so she gets aveda products at cost, and she offered her wonderful deal to me. I never thought I would want to spend so much $$ on hand lotion (with the discount, its not THAT bad), but I am NEVER getting a different one. This lotion is so soothing and is actually started to heal me!

The only problem is- and maybe someone has a good solution- i put the lotion on and rub it in and massage my poor achy dry hands only to have to wash my hands or purell them again soon after.....maybe i should just wait until the work day is done to start the hand repair i so desperately need.

festival of delights

2009-11-17T12:31:00.002-05:00

levi is getting to the age where he likes to help with everything. So, ive been trying to come up with something fun to do that he can help with in the kitchen. something we can cook together that will be easy to make but fun to eat (and not too much off my diet either).

i was looking through parents magazine today at work and i came upon a hannukah recipe that i think will be perfect for me and levi to make!!!

Hannukah Sweet-Potato "Fries" made with dreidel and star shaped cookie cutters....with a greek yogurt and honey dip on the side. I think they sound AWESOME!

I definitely have to come up with more of these "mommy and levi" ideas because jeff is trying to one-up me now. He is taking Levi on a week long road trip to Vermont to visit his friends Josh & Michelle, and their children: Ruby, Jaden, and Hazel. It is two weeks away and i am already starting to panic about having Levi away from me for so long.....I know they'll have fun, but I'll be sad all the same.

I guess it will be "mommy and tali" time for a week....i think she's a little young to help me make sweet potato fries, maybe we'll just do lots of reading and playing....

before you boycott israel

2009-11-14T05:53:00.001-05:00

what an awesome video!!!! i think i need to watch it again and again to catch it all because they speak so fast......ENJOY!

i feel like a new aunt

2009-11-13T10:43:00.005-05:00

vanessa and sean had their baby last night and i am so excited i cant contain myself!

a beautiful baby girl, Eesa Marin, 7#12oz, and of course my best friend in the world couldnt have done it any better- going totally natural in only 7 hours!!!!!

I cant believe that I have to wait until February to meet the little darling. I want to jump on an airplane right now, or perhaps skip out on the rest of today's patients and just drive all day to see her! (in a perfect world, that is exactly what I would do, but its just not possible in my real life)....

Vanessa, I know you are going to be a wonderful mom. and Eesa is one lucky little lady to have such a beautiful funny amazing perfect mommy!

Welcome to the World, Eesa Marin!!!!
We can't wait to meet you and watch you grow....

marnify

2009-11-10T10:18:00.004-05:00

ive been in a slight funk lately. i go through phases where i feel great and energetic, and then i have a few days where im just down and tired and want to stay in bed.

i was doing really well until last week. ive gotten myself in this great routine- i wake up early and get on the elliptical for 35 minutes. then i shower, dress, feed tali and put her back to sleep, get levi up, make breakfast and lunch for both of us, and then take him to school and head out to work. By the time I get to work, im energized and ready for the day.

This last week, I was rounding in the hospitals and I was stressed. I was very busy, and to top that, the new hospital just opened so I had to learn the new place and the new system. I got the hang of it by the end, just in time for my rounding week to be done, but i think it really took a toll on me.

i would round on the newborns in the morning, then make my way to the office for an afternoon of seeing patients. it would be busy and rushed and tiring. most of the days were fine, and i would go home and make dinner, put the kids to bed, and read and relax.

that is, it WAS fine- up until friday.

friday was a day from hell and i was a fire-breathing dragon. It was just a comedy of errors with multiple things going wrong, angry people, sick kids, and even a helicoptor landing in my parking lot to pick up a sick kid that needed to go to the hospital IMMEDIATELY (or the day before). I think putting it all together on top of an already stressful week just broke me! i got home, refused to cook, refused to do anything except drink beer and go to bed. and i think that probably put me over the edge and i havent gotten better since!

now that my rounding week is finally over, i feel like i have to do something to get me out of my funk. i need to spice up my life a little.

i got out of bed this morning and decided to "marnify" my outfit. i hope it will jump start me to get back in a better mood. so this is what im wearing today:

a very very pink tiered skirt over striped knee socks (and a boring brown shirt on top). im getting lots of comments from people already. and im loving it!

changing

2009-11-08T22:50:00.003-05:00

i saw kelly post on facebook today that she was looking for a new blog template. it got me thinking- i need one too!
so, i searched for way too long and i found the perfect one. what do you think?
the only problem is that i lost all of my little "gadgets" on the right side of my blog- my lists and pictures disappeared. i guess that means i need to update it, so here goes.
what else do you think i should put on the blog?

oh, and hopefully this little blog change will get me back in the groove of blogging more often. ive been rather delinquent lately.

bribes

2009-11-08T21:45:00.002-05:00

is it bad to bribe your kids?
i had to take levi to the eye doctor a few days ago. i tried really hard to prepare him by telling him that the doctor looks in his eyes with a bright light, asks him to look at different things in the room, etc. but you can never really prepare a three year old for the true feeling of having your eyes examined.
i went there because levi had been doing a lot of blinking. i initially thought it was a tic, but it seems to have gone away, and now i think perhaps he had some allergies this fall that were making his eyes itch. it turns out his eyes are perfect- and that makes me feel better- although the doctor did say that it looks like he will be nearsighted in the future (not sure how he knows this, but then again, im NOT an ophthalmologist)....we figured as such- glasses are destiny for our kids since jeff and i both cant see....
well, back to the bribe.
levi was very skeptical to follow directions, so i told him if he was good, i'd give him some chocolate.
then he freaked out when they were putting the eye drops in his eyes so, again, i told him he could have chocolate. (i still had to hold him down to actually get the drops into his eyes).
since he was so scared about the eye drops, when his eyes had finally dilated 30 minutes later and we went back into the exam room for a better look, he wouldnt open his eyes so the doctor could look, so again, i promised chocolate.
it is a good thing i thought ahead and put a milky way, M&Ms, and a hershey bar in my diaper bag. (and good thing it was a few days after halloween and we actually had chocolate in our house!).
we made it through the exam solely because of the chocolate bribe. is that terrible? i kind of feel bad about bribing my son with candy just so he will listen.
i just hope it doesnt become a constant. i dont want food or candy to be a reward- i think thats part of my problem......enough said.

mistaken identity?

2009-10-26T21:37:00.003-04:00

have you ever recognized someone, and no matter how much you racked your brain, you just couldnt figure out how you knew this person?

well, recently this scenario played out in my head.

i was looking at a photo album on facebook and i recognized this guy- a friend of a friend- you know how it goes....

i just KNEW that i KNEW this person, but HOW???

I was driving myself crazy trying to figure it out. I couldnt get it out of my head. I started going back over my life, trying to figure out where he fit in. camp? elementary school? hebrew school? high school? college? israel? residency? a patient of mine, perhaps????? i just couldnt get it right....

THEN IT HIT ME.

"he" is not really a "he".

seriously.

"he" USED TO BE a "she".

and now i KNOW how i knew this person. (and I have confirmed this fact too, just to make sure im not making up some crazy story).

H1N1: get me out of here

2009-10-21T14:20:00.002-04:00

Since we dont have any of THESE in our office yet

and we have H1N1 cases by the boatload,
I figured I had to make light of this absolute disaster and find some funny H1N1 pictures.

Lets hope we get the vaccine soon, because honestly, I dont want to get sick and I dont want to bring it home to my family....

a perfect fall day

2009-10-20T20:37:00.003-04:00

This past Sunday, Jeff and I decided to take the kids to enjoy some fall activities Northeast Ohio has to offer.

Since we moved here, we have gone to patterson's fruit farm to pick a pumpkin and get apples and cider donuts. So, let this year be no different!!!!
Patterson's was totally jammed with people but the experience was like no other. Hot cider and donuts is one of my most favorite fall treats! (Especially when the donuts are hot too!).

We also went to Patterson's family fun fest which is about ten minutes away from the fruit farm. We've been there before, but I think this was the first year Levi was old enough to really enjoy it. He had so much fun running from one activity to the next, riding on the big tractor and the horse and carraige, going on every single slide, swinging on the tire swings, and playing on the child size tractors.....Tali enjoyed watching the people while warm and cozy in the sleepy wrap...

After a fun filled morning of apples and pumpkins and such, we went to Boo at the Zoo. Levi dressed as scooby doo and tali dressed as edamame (really a pea pod, but this is what levi called her! i think its so cute!), we waited in line to ride the zoo train, saw some lions, watched fire jugglers, and walked around a bit before it got too late and we had to go. next year, i think we'll have to skip the train because waiting in that line took too long and we missed out on seeing more animals. (although the first thing levi said when we told him we were going to the zoo was that he wanted to ride the train). it was still fun seeing everyone in costumes. levi got a real kick out of everyone calling him scooby and telling him they loved his costume!

I love the fall. The leaves are changing and the weather is brisk but sunny and clear. Apples are crisp and sweet and cider is fresh. This is my favorite time of year. Too bad before we know it the winter will be here and the snow will surround us. But until then, Im going to savor each minute watching the leaves fall to the ground and take nice long walks during my lunch hours....

i love this quote

2009-10-07T16:02:00.001-04:00

"There is always something to look forward to, but the art becomes enjoying where you’re at while you’re there"

I just read a really nice post on a blog i read regularly and that quote was in it. it doesnt just apply to being a mother or being in medicine or both for that matter. i just really love it and want to share it with everyone who reads this.

the things that i procrastinate with

2009-10-07T10:16:00.005-04:00

My office gives me a continuing medical education budget that if i dont use (for medical books, conferences, etc), i lose. So, i try hard to order as many books as possible for pediatrics to make the most of this extra money. I have three packed bookshelves in my office with all types of pediatric books- from parenting advice books, puberty books for kids, medical journals and textbooks, review books, and all types of pediatric subspecialty books.

Since we started this new electronic medical record, we have had to start doing real coding instead of having actual billers do our coding. it is a BIG JOB that we never realized how complicated it could be (hence the need for medical billers and coders- which for some unknown reason our hospital has decided we DONT NEED anymore???). All of a sudden, our billing is our responsibility, so i want to make sure i am doing it right- so i figured- why not use my CME money to buy some pediatric coding and billing materials. i went to amazon.com to explore my options.

what did i end up getting???? well, i did get the coding materials i wanted, but i ended up with a bunch of extra stuff too.....

Jami mentioned in her baby fever post that her sister bought jackson the "B is for Bob CD" which is children's bob marley album.

It sounded pretty cool so, of course, i checked it out online and decided i HAD to have it....

Then, as I was in the mood for finding some more cool children's music, i decided to look for some kids jewish music. we borrowed a cd from shiri a while ago (i think we actually still have it) with kids hebrew songs- even some american songs in hebrew which is pretty fun. levi loves that cd so i wanted to get something different to add to the collection. ive been searching for a while for good hebrew music that i knew when i was a child- mostly from camp. songs like shalom rav and such, but i never found anything that was perfect....well, i found it yesterday.

Oy Baby is a collection of well known hebrew songs that we used to sing at camp, in hebrew school, in temple, that is directed at children. I was able to hear a preview of each song online, and I totally fell in love, so much that i had to buy BOTH albums!!!

As I was exploring hebrew music, I realized that Matisyahu had recently come out with a new CD. Jeff and I both love Matisyahu's music- jewish themed reggae/beatbox- and we had talked about getting the new album. what better time to buy it than when i was actually supposed to be working??? so, it was ordered with the rest of them.

I had to confess to jeff last night that even though i didnt actually go to the store, i was doing more shopping. I confessed to facebook last week that i shop too much and i decided i was going to stay out of the stores that i spend too much money in, but this weekend i found myself back at target and nordstrom rack. help! i think im a shopaholic!!!!

during my adventures on the internet yesterday, i also discovered this fabulous website which is a jewish and israeli themed online toy and book store....SO COOL!!!! i DID NOT order anything from them (surprisingly), but I am sure i will someday soon.....sometime when im supposed to be working or reading or doing something other than procrastinating by online shopping.

learning to share

2009-10-02T15:30:00.002-04:00

i would love to be a fly on the ceiling of levi's classroom just to see and hear what happens everyday.

we walked into school this morning and levi's friend "M" says- "hi levi, want to see my new dress?" and proceeds to run up to levi and show him her new dress, lifting it all the way up in the air to reveal the naked little belly and chest underneath (more like showing levi what was under the dress instead of showing him the dress itself).

levi, wanting to show her up i guess, says "M, im going to show you what underpants im wearing today" and proceeds to pull his pants down to his ankles, lift his shirt up, and pronounce to the world "im wearing my green thomas ones today" all while staring down at his adorable little body wearing only underpants.

miss maver- his teacher- comes running to try to intervene, all the while laughing hysterically (as am i) at this adorable little show put on by the cutest 3 year olds ever.

some days i wish i could be a 3 year old preschool teacher- how much fun it be to listen to the stories they tell and watch the interactions that they surely have with each other all day...

i smell yummy-yums, perhaps we can share

2009-09-30T14:15:00.005-04:00

how come i cant ever stick with a diet?

i realized that my weight loss from nursing has unexpectedly (and unpleasantly) stopped, so i decided i needed to start watching my intake and start exercising again...

a couple months ago, i started weight watchers- yet again- probably for the 5th time. i was so good for the first couple weeks- and then disaster struck. (my mom's visit, levi's birthday, the jewish holidays)

why? why do i give in to my cravings? why do i lose all motivation when nobody is looking over my shoulder every second of every day?
when someone brings donuts to work, why do i have to eat one? (or two?)

i am disgusted with myself that i just cant keep it together. i wish i had a personal chef to cook for me, a personal trainer to make me workout more, and a personal assistant to keep me in check, watch what goes into my mouth, and doesnt let me cheat. (and while im wishing for things, how about some extra free time so i can actually spend more time exercising without having to wake up at 5am?)

so, here i am, starting again. and this time, im motivated. im totally there. i am putting myself out there in the world so everyone knows im on a diet- keep your eyes on me people and make sure i dont fall prey to the yummy yums....

the case of the missing voice

2009-09-22T10:04:00.002-04:00

i have strep throat.
im getting better now, but let me just tell you, strep SUCKS.
i see cases of strep EVERY DAY. and im so good about washing my hands and cleaning my stethescope and keeping my face away when kids sneeze and cough....but this time, i lost that little battle with the germs...

last thursday, at night, i started to feel my throat was sore, but i thought nothing of it. no fever. acting fine. then, friday, all morning my throat hurt and i had a headache. i grabbed an otoscope to look at my throat in the mirror and BAM- my throat was beefy red....
i did a rapid strep on myself (i hate when anyone else sticks anything in my mouth- i have a very strong gag reflex), and of course, it was positive.

I immediately had my nurse call in amoxicillin for me and started it right away. but as the day and the weekend started to pass, my throat got worse and worse. the worst part about it was that jeff was working all day and night saturday, and although i love spending time with my children, its kind of hard when youre sick and they need constant entertainment.
good thing that it was rosh hashanah, because at least i had a morning activity to occupy our time. we went to childrens services at BJ which were fun, and then it was time for home and lunch and sleep the rest of the afternoon.
levi kept asking me if i was sick, if i needed to go to the doctor. i felt so sad....

i was counting the minutes for jeff to get home so i could have relief.
sunday morning arrived and jeff called when he was on his way home. his report: "i have a fever and sore throat. i think i have strep."
AAAARRRRRGGHHHHH!!!!

back to temple we went (sorry if we infected the whole synagogue with our throats) and then home for lunch and naps....

monday- both of us were so sick we couldnt work. we couldnt talk either. we couldnt swallow.
jeff went to the dr and had a rapid strep- which was OF COURSE positive. karina came and i was happy for some relief, until the first words out of her mouth were "my throat hurts and i have a fever"-----i immediately gave her a prescription for zithromax so we could fix this as fast as possible.

now, here i am at work on tuesday morning. im not perfect but im much better. the only thing is- my voice is totally absent. missing. kaput. i can hardly speak loud enough for people to hear me. i hope my patients have some patience today. (and good hearing).

how come all the adults in the household got sick but the kids are fine? i guess i shouldnt ask these questions for fear that i may jinx myself. lets just hope that levi and tali stay well, and that i dont get a call from school to tell me that levi has- you guess it- a fever and a sore throat.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks

2009-09-16T11:48:00.003-04:00

I read a lot of books, and lately, I read three books at a time. I've had one book that I've been reading at my desk at work (between patients), one I read in bed at night before i go to sleep, and one i listen to during my long drive to and from work in Chardon.
Normally, i feel like the books on CD are just for mindless entertainment- to make my drive go faster, while the other books i actually read are for pleasure or education or history or book club or a combination of all of the above.
but recently, ive discovered some really amazing books by listening while im my car, and i find myself eagerly anticipating getting back in my car to listen some more. i like hearing the story, sometimes even more than i like reading it. if the narrator is obnoxious or has an annoying voice, i guess i could get aggravated, but mostly, the narrators are great and i love the books on cd.
one such find was a book i would actually like to read again (book club ladies, this IS a hint).
It was called PEOPLE OF THE BOOK by Geraldine Brooks. I picked it up because it looked kind of interesting, and i became addicted almost immediately. i would even sit in my car during my lunch break just to hear more.
Because I couldnt put it better myself, i decided to "borrow" the synopsis from the website.

Inspired by the true story of a mysterious codex known as the Sarajevo Haggadah, People of the Book is a sweeping adventure through five centuries of history. From its creation in Muslim-ruled, medieval Spain, the illuminated manuscript makes a series of perilous journeys: through Inquisition-era Venice, fin-de-siecle Vienna, and the Nazi sacking of Sarajevo.

In 1996, Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of the famed manuscript, which has been rescued once again from Serb shelling during the Bosnian war. Priceless and beautiful, the book is one of the earliest Jewish volumes ever to be illuminated with figurative paintings. When Hanna, a caustic loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—she becomes determined to unlock the book's mysteries. As she seeks the counsel of scientists and specialists, the reader is ushered into an exquisitely detailed and atmospheric past, tracing the book's journey from its creation to its salvation.

The book bounces back and forth between the book conservationist in modern day to different stories of the people of the book's past- the people who saved the book, the people who used the book, the people who created the book, and the people who painted the pages of the book. It truly is an amazing portrayal of different historical events and the intimate lives of people in the recent past and as far back as ancient times.

When the book ended, I almost wished it wasnt over. I wanted to keep hearing more and more and more. It seems that Geraldine Brooks has written a few other books. Im definitely going to have to pick them up. If they're half as good as this one, i know i'll enjoy them.

the moral of my little listening adventure is: a book on CD (as long as it is unabridged) is as much a book as one that is read from paper, so Im going to continue listening to other books in hope that i'll find more amazing literary treasures.

Darna

2009-09-13T21:23:00.002-04:00

Jeff and I have been taking advantage of our parents who have been in town and offered to babysit.

Last weekend, my mom stayed home with Levi and Tali, and we went to Moxie for dinner. Dinner was great, but the real highlight was the dessert. Ive NEVER had a better dessert in my life! We ordered the campfire creme brulee which was chocolate creme covered with toasted marshmallows served with homemade graham crackers. so good!

and yesterday, Marsha (jeff's mom) came over to watch the kids, and jeff took me to Darna- the relatively new moroccan restaurant at shaker square (where luchita's used to be).
We really hadnt heard anything about the place, but jeff wanted to try moroccan food so we decided we would give it a shot. We sat at these low tables in the front of the restaurant on cushioned benches. The ambiance was great, low lights, deep colored walls. It kind of reminded me of being in a restaurant in israel.
Since we wanted to try a few things, we decided to order a couple appetizers and a cous cous dish and share them.
They started dinner by serving warm toasted fresh homemade pita with an olive spread- jeff and i both do NOT like olives, but we dipped the bread in the spread anyhow and it was OK- we just wouldnt eat any big chuncks of olives. but the bread was so warm and fresh and delicious, it negated all the yuckiness of the olives!
we ordered the moroccan salad which was very much like any israeli or lebanese salad, very good but nothing out of the ordinary.
We ordered the moroccan beef cigars which were AMAZING! filo dough wrapped around kobe beef, fried and served with some white sauce and greens. almost like egg rolls but filled only with beef. they were great and had us desiring more.
the hummus plate was one of the best ive ever had (and i did live in israel for 2 years, so ive had a LOT of hummus). We asked for it to be served without olives but it seemed as if nothing was missing. the hummus had a generous helping of olive oil on top of it and also some peppers and marinated mushrooms. it was soooo good, we needed to ask for another basket of fresh pita, and there was not a morsel left on the plate by the time we were done- im salivating just thinking about it now!
and the last thing we ordered was the cous cous. Sourtani cous cous with chicken, raisins, parsnips, and tomatoes. There were also chick peas, zucchini, peas, and squash. It came in this curry-like sauce, although im not sure it was curry. It was amazing. unlike anything ive ever had before. the cous cous we normally eat is out of a box, and while i sometimes doctor it up a bit with cool additions (mango, candied pecans, green peppers, etc), i dont normally have it in a sauce. Now, im trying to figure out how to emulate this in my own kitchen, because i want to eat it now, and again and again and again!
We liked the restaurant so much, jeff is taking his mom there in a couple days, and we're plotting to bring our family friends there the next time theyre in town....
if anyone else wants to go to darna, give us a call. we're in! (and we may even venture there with the kids sometime too, as long as we do an early dinner!).

EClinical and going live

2009-09-13T21:15:00.002-04:00

So, the time that we have been dreading for months finally arrived this past tuesday (9/8/09). We have known about this since before I was even hired at this office (it is government mandated that all health care providers have electronic medical records by 2010 or 2011- something like that), and it always seemed that it was so far off in the future....but, here it is, upon us, and i think we're going to be ok.

We have been meeting every week for months to adjust the system to fit the way we practice. We have spent hours and hours learning the software and exploring on test patients so when we "go live", it wouldnt be so horrice. all that work has definitely paid off. The last four days havent been so bad. at least for me, its been running smoothly. Lets just hope its smooth for the rest of my partners as well.

Tensions have been high in the office, about everything it seems, and since we've been focused solely on this transition, we have essentially ignored all other issues. instead, people seem to be bursting at the seems with aggravations and when they are about to explode, the outlet is an email to the rest of the group listing all the things they think need to be addressed. sometimes these emails are directed at another one of us, sometimes at the office staff, but always theyre not terribly friendly and happy. i think once things are a bit more settled with the electronic medical record, we'll all calm down a little. i think (and hope) that once we're all adjusted, we can actually talk to one another in a normal fashion and discuss all the issues.

but until then, lets just hope we survive!

update on previous post: dad

2009-08-29T15:05:00.003-04:00

not sure if my blog post was leaked to my father or not (a number of relatives read this thing), and he made no mention of it, BUT, he obviously got the point. i received a phone call from my dad yesterday afternoon. He asked if it would be OK for him and his girlfriend Rayna to drive up to cleveland today to see the kids....just stay for a few hours, then head out.

I, (of course), said absolutely.....first off, i WANT him to know his grandkids. second, if I said no, who knows WHEN he would ever offer this again!

so, we rearranged our morning plans slightly (we had to leave the beachwood pool slightly earlier than expected, but the weather was a little cold and levi wanted to get out of the pool anyhow), and waited for him to come.

and, he DID come!

he got right down on the floor and started to coo with tali. he played trucks with levi, and puzzles with him. he warmed up to the kids so well, and the kids loved him and rayna. we had a great couple hours with him, and im just so happy....tali even took a nap in his arms. (and i know everyone keeps telling me that tali looks just like me, but i didnt really realize it fully until i saw how much she looked like my father while she was sleeping in his arms).

so, i have no idea what to expect in the future, but this came without my calling and begging. and he did admit he had been feeling a little negligent that he hadnt met tali yet...so, we'll see. im not making any bets (nor am i listening to any promises).

but, for now, im happy.

health care on you tube

2009-08-26T20:58:00.002-04:00

A popular alternative to Obama's proposed health plan.

I hated the book

2009-08-25T14:45:00.002-04:00

A couple months ago, for book club, we read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, by Lisa See. I even write a blog post about it because i really loved the book and couldnt stop thinking about it. It was so good, such a great glimpse into Chinese life, including footbinding, arranged marraiges and relationships. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of reading it. Therefore, I decided to read Peony in Love, also by Lisa See, and fully expected to become immersed and obsessed with it as I was with the previous one.

(***warning*** there are spoilers below, so if youre planning on reading this book- which i DONT recommend- perhaps you shouldnt read this post).

The book started out good, really good actually. It was about a girl named Peony who loved an opera called "the peony pavilion" and the opera was being put on in her family's home. she meets a man and has a brief interaction with him- just two small conversations- and decides that she is totally in love with him and becomes obsessed so much that she dies "of lovesickness".

It turns out (and she realizes this right before she dies) that the man she became obsessed with was, in fact, the man she was arranged to marry, but its too late and she dies anyhow.

First off, that sucks. You read about her becoming obsessed and writing about her love for this man, and you just know they will end up together, and then BAM- she dies. I was really mad. Normally, I just go with the flow of the book and think that the book will make up for its total disheartening shocker, but this book just didnt do that.

The rest of the book was about peony as a ghost, still obsessed with the same man, haunting his other wives, making them write about her lovesickness, and just watching him. It talks a lot of the views the chinese have about their afterlife, and that was interesting to some degree, but i just didnt like it. It was weird and I dont like weird books. Im not too much into fantasy, things that cant really happen. I like books about real life situations, whether fact or fiction, at least they COULD be fact. This book just really made me mad.

I finished it because I wanted it to be redeemed somehow by the end, and i just kept waiting for that to happen. Maybe she would come back to life. maybe something would change. but no, it didnt get better.

so, unless you want to read about a stupid lovesick girl who becomes a ghost, i would pick something different.

the LONG dinner at Crostata's

2009-08-25T14:24:00.002-04:00

If you haven't been to Crostata's, you are really missing out. It is this fabulous little italian pizza place in highland heights on bishop rd.
Matt and Cara took us there in February and it was, of course, incredible- with these thin crispy crust pizzas baked in a real italian pizza oven, and really good marinated eggplant appetizers.
We hadnt been back since February but kept trying to plan a date to go back with Matt and Cara. It was a long time coming, but we made that date for this past Friday night- marked it on our calendars, and craved the deliciousness all week in anticipation.
The restaurant does not take reservations unless the party is 8 people or more, so we just had to go and hope it wouldnt be too long a wait.
We arrived and they told us 20 minutes before we would be seated- fine. we brought a bunch of trucks and books for levi to play with, so we figured 20 minutes wouldnt be such a big deal. but when 20 minutes turned into 40 minutes, and then into an hour, we were all not so happy campers.
finally, an HOUR after arriving for dinner, we were seated. We had already checked out the menu and made our decisions (especially since we had Levi with us who was beyond hungry), so when the waitress came to our table to get drink orders, we ordered everything.
The appetizers came relatively quickly- marinated eggplant that was so good, we all wanted to lick the plate clean (probably, the deliciousness combined with our ravishing appetites is why we wanted to lick the plates), and we also ordered fried zucchini which was very good.
after the appetizers, we waited for the pizza.
and waited.
and waited.
and waited.
and you guessed it, continued to wait and wait and wait.
we understood it was friday night and it was busy, but the wait was just ridiculous. finally, cara got up and said something to the owner, who (magically) had our pizzas delivered to our table 5 minutes later. But, before we let the waitress leave our table, we ordered our dessert (a nutella pizza) so we could expedite the seemingly horrific wait for food.
As she was walking away, i made a comment that we had to order our dessert when our food arrived because we didnt want to wait ANOTHER HOUR for it to arrive. Im sure she heard me....as soon as our plates were cleared, there was the nutella pizza, hot and crusty and incredible and gone in 5 seconds! (and free, thanks to our complaining about the long wait for pizza).
If the food at this place was not so absolutely amazing, we wouldnt go back. but honestly, even though the wait was atrocious (we arrived at 7pm, and didnt get out of there until 9:45), we'll be back for more.
but our new strategy is this- WEEKNIGHTS ONLY and ONLY WITH A PARTY OF 8 or more (and then we'll reserve a table, waltz in, and be seated!).
So, who's in for the BEST pizza around?