I can’t believe that it is still the same week.  It feels like so long since I dropped my mom off at the airport to go back to Pittsburgh… but it was just four short days ago.  How is that possible?  And how is it possible that Christmas is just one week away?  We are almost in the very last week of 2009, that is so scary.

I was really hungry when I woke up this morning, so decided to go all out for breakfast.  I had three Kashi GoLean blueberry waffles, with some yogurt and maple syrup on top.

It was so good.  Totally hit the spot, and kept me full through lunch.

I haven’t been running at all lately.  I have been ok at hitting the gym, but not running.  So today I put together a schedule for my next marathon.  I hope to run the Pittsburgh marathon on May 2, 2010.  It would be nice to run a marathon in my hometown, plus be able to visit my family at the same time.  And my Mom and Dad could actually be there to cheer me on (although not together, of course….)  S hasn’t seen Pittsburgh yet, and I would love to show him where I grew up.

I drew together my schedule to train, starting on January 2nd.  So even if I don’t end up doing the Pittsburgh one, I will be ready for a spring marathon, and there are plenty around this area to choose from.

Lunch was a turkey salad:

• romaine lettuce
• zucchini
• red peppers
• egg whites
• turkey
• cheddar cheese
• edamame
• olive oil and balsamic vinegar

I have been having a tough week, with quite a few meltdowns occurring.  A lot of little things have gone wrong, such as stressful activities at work, the dryer breaking again, regular holiday stressors and gift worries, etc.  I have also just had an emotional week since my mom left on Monday.  It’s always hard for me when she leaves.  I have such a great time while she is here, but it goes by so quickly and then seems harder after she leaves then it was before she even came.  So it’s been quite the emotional roller coaster this week, with a lot of yelling and a lot of tears.  And unfortunately, S has gotten the brunt of most of it (simply because he is the closest person to me and the person who is always around.)  I don’t know how he puts up with me sometimes, I honestly don’t.

Mid-afternoon, I snacked on some medjool dates.  I love these… so sweet and soft.  Taste like chicken candy!

I also had my first BlueBran Vita Top.  As predicted, I loved it.

So far, the only Vita Top flavor I haven’t been wild about was the AppleBerry.  But I only had one, so I might have to try it again to make sure

S came home early today, which really made my day.  Of course, early for S is getting home a little after 6pm, which is about average for many other people.  But whatever.  And, for the second day in a row, we hit the gym together!  I did the elliptical, while S did the stepmill.

And afterwards, since we were both really hot, we made a quick stop at Powell’s Sweet Shop in Los Gatos.  I had a coupon for a free birthday gelato that I hadn’t used yet.  I got pistachio, and gobbled it up right on the spot.

I don’t know exactly what the difference is between gelato and ice cream… but I love them both!

Despite having dessert first, I had a healthy dinner when I got home.  Spaghetti with tomato sauce, roasted brussel sprouts, tofu, and cheese.

I think I could eat tomato sauce on top of anything and it would taste good.  I heart tomato sauce.

And yes, I had a second dessert.  A piece of ice cream cake.

It’s a dessert sandwich:  Dessert -> Dinner -> Dessert!!!  Yay!

G’night, ya’ll

If this sounds like it’s a repeat, that’s because it is.

Our freaking dryer is broken. Again. At least it’s a bit of a different problem this time – variety is the spice of life!  But I can’t take this anymore.  I do laundry wayyyy to much to have a broken dryer.  Just normal clothes and gym clothes each day… and then there is all of S’s stuff.  More on that in a little bit.

Breakfast was a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese.  I don’t love this breakfast, it is just ok.  But I haven’t had a bagel for a while so I decided to go for it.

I took a mid-morning break from work and snacked on a braeburn apple.  I also watched a few minutes of the latest Survivor episode on my laptop   I love that show!

For lunch, I had a turkey salad.  I absolutely love those mixed, marinated olives from Whole Foods.  I love olives in general, but those ones are particularly amazing.

Mid-afternoon break – a plum (and more Survivor)

I also had a clementine.  I love the “Happy Juicydays” sticker on it!

I even broke into my fudge from Carmel.  I only bought a few pieces, so it’s very hard for me to watch my fudge dwindle away as I slowly eat it…

Dinner was kind of stressful because we were trying to decide what to do with the dryer at the same time.  I made a dinner with roasted brussel sprouts, egg whites, a Hebrew National hot dog, the remainder of my feta cheese and the remainder of my Whole Foods olives.  I am going to have to make another WF trip soon…

And you know I finished with a piece of my ice cream cake.  That too, is almost gone

So as I mentioned… our dryer is broken again.  This time, a metal piece broke… this metal piece holding the big drum (I have no idea what it is actually called) that spins around in the dryer.  This piece broke, so nothing is holding up the drum, so it doesn’t spin.  S wants to fix it.  He says he knows exactly why it happened, which he takes the blame for, surprisingly enough.  He says that when he put it back together last time he fixed it (which was the second time that it broke…) he didn’t tighten this part on properly so it was too loose and was scraping and slowly wearing down the metal until it broke.  He found the part for 30 bucks online, and wants to order it and fix it.

My opinion:  I want a new dryer.  I gave him a chance, TWO CHANCES in fact, to fix it.  First time, the exact same thing broke again.  Second time… something new broke.  This is a really old dryer, the one that was put in the house when it was initially built 20 years ago.   I looked it up, and found out that the average dryer lasts 13 years.  So this one has had a good run and I think it’s time to put it to rest.

The main problem is… we have a stackable washer and dryer.  Technically we could just replace the dryer, but would have to get the exact same model so that it fits together properly with the washer.  Since it is such an old model, that is really hard to find.  So I would have to buy a new washer as well.

For S, this is fun.  He likes taking things apart and putting them back together, he likes fixing things.  For me, this sucks.  I can’t dry clothes, I can’t rely on my dryer, and I have huge pieces of appliance sitting around my tiny townhouse where I have to eat, work, and sleep.  Argh!

The decision:  I told S this was his last try to fix it.  Three strikes and you’re out.  If one tiny little thing breaks after this, I don’t care how small it is…

RACHEL IS GETTING A NEW DRYER.

End of story.

G’night, ya’ll.

I am so exhausted.  I was hoping to catch up on sleep last night, since I only got a few hours the night before, but no such luck.  S is sooooo bad at going to bed early… even if I am actually in bed at a reasonable hour, for some reason that is our “quality talking” time.  We always end up getting into some major conversations at night, in bed.  I love them, but it is making me severely miss my sleep!

I couldn’t think about breakfast, too tired.  So I grabbed a bowl of blackberries,

And an apple.  Not exactly balanced, but helped me get my fruits in for the day

For lunch, I had a salad with Quorn Chick’n tenders, veggies, feta cheese, egg whites, olives, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar.

JB is really starting to love his hotel.  Previously, Mendy was the only one who ever went on it.  But now I catch him up in it a few times a day

Uh oh, the deer in the headlights look.

S came home happy from work.  He had an interview for another position in his company, one that he has been dreaming of since he got his job.  It went really well, and they are likely going to begin the transition to this new job soon.

That’s great news for S, and I’m really happy for him because he is happy.   But it is going to be tough for us.  He says it will be great for us in the long run.  It will open a lot of doors for him in the future, and will give him more opportunities.  It will also give us a little financial bump (although not too much at this point.)  But in the short run, it will mean longer hours and more stress.  He already doesn’t get home until much later than I’d like, due to his hour and a half commute to the city.  Now it will be even later.  There will be more working at home and on weekends (both from home and in the office.)  I’m going to try as hard as I can to be patient and accepting, and remember that in the long term, this will be a good thing.  But it’s going to be tough.

I have gotten better with him coming home late, though.  I used to balk about going to the gym so late, but tonight I waited for him and it really wasn’t so bad.  I think that the worst part for me is waiting for him, going late, and then having to come home and still make and serve dinner, make breakfast and lunch for the next day, do the dishes and clean up, etc.  I hate coming home from the gym so late knowing I still have all that stuff to do.   But I have started doing those things before we go, and that has helped a lot.

I did 30 minutes on the stepmill.  Love it.  S ran for 30 minutes – he hates the treadmill so wasn’t very happy.  But he was happy when he finished and we went home!

When we got back from the gym, Mendy helped S with our newest project.

We are going to mount our television on the wall, so we bought a swivel wall mount from Costco.  After a few minutes of watching Daddy, Mendy determined that the plastic bag that the mount came in was much more interesting

Especially when JB hopped in there with her!

They played while Daddy worked.  And Mommy took pictures.

Cutest little thing.

For dinner, I actually ate the lunch that I packed for S because he ended up going out for lunch and didn’t eat it.  I packed it in this Fit & Fresh container.

I love these little things, I have several of them in different shapes and sizes.  They hold a lot, have separate compartments to keep food fresh, and they have ice packs attached in the lid to keep them cool.

Today was two tuna salad sandwiches.

It was a good dinner, I haven’t had tuna salad in a while!

For dessert, I had a scoop of Cake Batter ice cream with Heath mixed in from Cold Stone.  I had picked it up earlier in the day because I had a coupon for a free birthday scoop!  I can’t believe that I actually managed to save it the whole day until dessert time!

Thank goodness it is finally bed time.  G’night, ya’ll!

This morning we dropped off my mom at the airport at 5am.  It is always so hard to send her off to go home – I miss her every single day.  S got up with me at 4am to take her.  Then we came back to the house and relaxed for about an hour with a cup of coffee before work.

For breakfast, after S left, I munched on some blackberries,

And a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

Mid-morning I was hungry, since my breakfast was pretty early.  I ate a braeburn apple.

Lunch was a salad with turkey, feta cheese, lots of veggies, edamame, egg whites, olives, and olive oil/balsamic vinegar.

Mid-afternoon snacks included an oatmeal banana cookie,

A bowl of granola,

And a plum.

At 7:30, it was time for my basketball championship game!  It’s pretty cool.  My team, THE WARRIORS, is new this year.  I have played in this league in the past, on another team, but this season most of the players on my old team decided not to play so the team was disbanded and I was put on the Warriors.  We had a bit of a rough start, since we had never played together and had to get used to eachother’s playing style and learn strengths and weaknesses – and how to work well together as a team.  But after a few games, we started to kick butt!

We made it to the playoffs, and won our last playoff game last week.  So tonight was the championship game.  We were playing against the team that has won the league every season for the past few years… they are really good.

We tried our best – S came to the game and took a few snapshots.

Unfortunately, we lost.  But it was a close game, and really fun.  A great end to the season!  Second is the best, anyways

We ended with a team picture.

I hope that everybody decides to play again next season so that we can be a team again.  Go Warriors!!

When I got home, I was starving.  Dinner was a veggie and hummus plate,

And some huge golden raisins and medjool dates that I picked up at the roadside market on the way to Carmel on Sunday.  Soooo good.

Finally, I finished off with some vanilla ice cream for dessert.

I’m sad that basketball is over for a few weeks, but it’s nice to take a break and have my Monday nights free again.

G’night, ya’ll!

This morning we woke up relatively early because we were making a trip to Carmel.  I have only been there once before, but it was absolutely beautiful so I was very excited to go again.

I had some quick toast while we got ready.

Then we headed south.  It was about an hour and twenty minute drive, and was raining pretty hard when we left.  The forecast said rain for Carmel too, but since this was the last day my mom was in town we decided to brave it anyways.

On the way down, we passed a little roadside market.  It was selling avocados 5/$1.00, zucchini for 59 cents/lb, red bell peppers for 79 cents/lb, and so much more.  I got a 1lb bag of HUGE golden raisins and a 1lb bag of medjool dates each for $2.99.  It was like heaven!

The good news is, by the time we got to Carmel, it had stopped raining!  I found (unbelievably) a parking space right in the middle of downtown, and parallel parked.  And, it was meant to be…. I was parked right in front of a Coach factory store!  Now, I have been looking for a new Coach handbag for a few months now.  I am not a big spender, but one thing that I do like to spend money on is handbags because I use them every single day for years and years.  I have a Coach bag that I have had since high school, and it is still my favorite.  It is extremely worn and dirty, which is why I have been looking for a new one.  I was trying to find one for less than retail price, but have been striking out the past few months and was about to give in to paying MSRP.  Until today.

I left the store with this:

Inside the bag??

Pure beauty.  And the best part?  The MSRP on this baby was $328.  But it was on sale for $169, and then 20% off of that!  So I ended up paying a total of one-thirty-something.  Incredible!  I think I floated out of the store.

After the Coach store, we cruised around Ocean Avenue.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I took some pictures with my Mommy,

And S and I tried out some of the funky color features on my camera.

Oh yeah, and I went to a sweet shop.  I bought me some homemade fudge!  Here was my excited look outside the “Cottage of Sweets”

We saw lots of cute Christmas trees, too.

When we were hungry, my mom wanted some seafood since we were right by the sea.  So we went to a cute little restaurant and I got the cold seafood platter.

It was AMAZING.  My favorite foods ever!  Prawns, shrimp, crab, smoked salmon.  And raw oysters!  I had never tried them before, and loved them.  S and my mom were totally grossed out

Afterward, I ate a piece of the fudge that I got.  I chose rocky road first.

Then we hit the beach in Carmel.  It had rained a little bit, but wasn’t raining at the time.  So it was cold but beautiful.  Carmel has the most beautiful, old trees.  I loved this one.

And you know I had to climb it…  which meant that S had to climb it too…

S and Rachel sitting in the tree…

K I S S I N G…

First comes love, then comes marriage….

Ok, nevermind.  Lets distract ourselves with the ocean.

After the beach, we were all freezing so we went to Mission Ranch to warm up with a cup of coffee.  Mission Ranch is Clint Eastwood’s ranch in Carmel.  It was really dark, and we drank coffee by candlelight.

After we were warm and toasted, we bundled up and started the 1 1/2 hour drive back home.  Then the rain started.  We were so happy that it held off until that point!   By the time we got home we were starving.  I started off with a plum I had bought at the roadside market.

Then I cooked up some onion, zucchini, avocado, turkey sausage, olives and feta cheese:

And finished it all off with a slice of ice cream cake!

Tomorrow morning my Mom has to leave bright and early   We will be taking her to the airport at 5am, which means waking up at 4.  I am so sad, and will be so tired tomorrow….

G’night, ya’ll.

Today we went to the improv!  I looove going to the comedy improv.  I have only been a couple of times, but it is a total blast every time.  And I was really excited to take S and my mom there, because neither had been to a comedy club before.

Meals for the day were kind of snacky and random.  I had various fruits throughout the day, including blackberries,

ruby red grapefruit,

And an apple.

I also tried these Crunchmaster crackers.  They were pretty good!

They were salty (which I like) and have a nice flavor.  They weren’t really substantial enough for me, though… I prefer my Kashi crackers.

I also snacked on some dried persimmons – I made them myself in the Excalibur!

I also had several (ok… three… but SMALL) pieces of ice cream cake throughout the day.

We went to the improv in the evening.

We walked in and checked out the menu.  We ordered some snackies (a salad, chicken tenders, and drinks.)  I got a Coors light, my favorite

You can almost see the improv stage in the background…

The comedian for the night was Alonzo Bodden.  He was HILARIOUS!  I loved the show.  I was a little nervous because the guy who opened for him wasn’t so great.  But I could not stop laughing once Alonzo got on stage.  What a great night!

Afterwards, when we were walking back to the car, I walked through San Jose Christmas in the Park.  I had never been before, and it was so cute.  There were little displays and some rides, lots of lights and music.

My favorite ride was the big ferris wheel.  It had beautiful lights!

I was all bundled up like an eskimo.  It gets cold in California!!!

Overall, it was a night of laughter, light and love.  Having my mom here is so wonderful.  I can’t believe tomorrow is her last day.

G’night, ya’ll!

I had a berry kind of breakfast.  Started with raspberries, continued with blackberries.  I looove berry season.

Mid-morning, my mom and I went to the gym again.  My mom wanted to try the stepmill.  She had never even seen a stepmill before, let alone been on one, so she was really nervous and really excited.  And let me tell you, my mom is a CHAMP!  I set her up to do five minutes, and after that was done, she wanted to do five minutes more!  After 10 minutes on the stepmill, we did 20 minutes on the elliptical and then a little bit of weights.  This is the second time in a row I have done weights at the gym while my mom is here.  She is a good influence on me!

Lunch was another salad similar to yesterday’s, with lettuce, veggies, marinated olives, veggie italian sausage, and avocado.  Drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I snacked on an apple:

And a few oatmeal banana cookies.

For dinner, I used the leftover chicken and vegetables in tomato sauce from last night and put it on top of steamed broccoli.  Then I topped it all with melted mozzarella cheese.

The chicken tastes better when my mom makes it!  I made it the exact same way, but it didn’t have that mommy love in it.

For dessert, I had a cup of Butter Almond Crunch ice cream from Baskin Robbins.  I’d never had this flavor before and it totally hit the spot.  It was a birthday scoop, so I got it for free!

JB is starting to get a little more interested in his birthday present.  Today he hung out in it for a little while.

Then he noticed I was taking his picture, so gave me some big, glow eyes.

Finally, I couldn’t go to bed without a slice of my DQ ice cream birthday cake.  Lord… that is heaven!

G’night, ya’ll!

It is my first full day of being 27, and I have a birthday hangover.

I woke up this morning with my incredible gift still on my wrist.  I realize that I didn’t post any pictures yesterday, so here you go.  The first thing I saw when I opened the wrapping paper was:

And I opened it to find this:

So beautiful.  So, so beautiful.  Movado is my favorite watch brand.  My mom and S went in on it together as a special gift for me, and I just do not ever want to take it off!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

I got other wonderful gifts as well.  A lot of Steelers stuff, including a stocking:

Two christmas ornaments,

A Terrible Towel with all of our superbowl victories (which looks like it will be good for another year……..),

And a handbag!

I also got a pair of cute pajamas and a beautiful necklace from my mom, and the book The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown from S.  I have really been wanting to read that book.  My dad and his wife got me a beautiful necklace with my birthstone, too.I am so excited.  I have the best family and boyfriend in the world!

I continued my Nutella for breakfast kick this morning with Nutella toast and some blackberries.

Lunch was a great salad.

Mixed salad greens, marinated olives, avocado, grape tomatoes and an Italian veggie sausage.

And a bowl of raspberries on the side.

Then my mom and I did a little shopping.  We stopped by Whole Foods again, because she needed to pick up a few more things, and I finally tried a Green Superfood bar.  I have never bought one before, because they are so ridiculously expensive, but have wanted to try one so bad.

I got a chocolate one and chocolate peanut butter, and today I ate the chocolate.  It was definitely GREAT.  But it is just really hard for me to spend $2.50 for one bar, on sale.  Argh.

My mom, bless her heart, cooked dinner for S and I.  She made delicious chicken breasts with eggplant tomato sauce.  I ate mine on top of whole wheat pasta shells and broccoli.

All topped with parmesan cheesy goodness.

And finished off the night with a slice of my birthday ice cream cake.

The remainder of this cake is NOT going to last long.  Despite the fact I am the only one eating it, as my mom doesn’t eat sugar and S doesn’t like dessert.   Oh well, *sigh*, more for me.

Ok, off to bed again.  These days with my mom here are flying.  The good news is that S and my mom love eachother – they are really getting along well and I am so happy!

G’night, ya’ll.

Here is the rest of my birthday in pictures.  Here’s the rundown.

Spongebob Squarepants.  Everywhere.

Steeler’s stuff.  Everywhere.

A brand new Movado watch… with diamonds!!!  My mom and S went in on that one together.

A Dairy Queen, chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream cake.

And waaaaaay too many candles.  27 is too many.  I barely could blow them all out in one shot.

I’m way overwhelmed, way happy and way tired.  More tomorrow.  G’night, ya’ll.

Today is JB’s birthday, and… well…it’s my birthday too, yah!

This marks the day on which I have officially seen the earth revolve around the sun 27 times.  That’s a lot of times.

JB has only revolved around the sun 3 times.  I’m really not kidding when I say that today is his birthday.  When I adopted him almost three years ago, they estimated his date of birth as December 9th, the same as mine.  Isn’t that crazy?  That’s how I knew we were beshert

This morning, when I came downstairs, this is what I saw:

In the middle of the night, S had decorated the living room!  I have no idea how he did it, because I usually am a pretty light sleeper and thought for sure it would wake me up if he tried to do anything.

It was so cute, all the spongebob stuff!  Complete with a balloon, of course.

And some Happy Birthday ballons.

I was really surprised and so happy.  You know you love me rocking the cookies and milk pajama pants.

JB liked the Spongebob table cloth.  He kept trying to eat it.

Since it was JB’s birthday, S got him a present!  It was actually the biggest present, bigger than all of mine.  Heavy, too!

We helped JB open it… a kitty hotel!  Mendy instantly jumped in.

JB took things a little slower, sniffing it out.

There was lots of playing…

Until Mendy tuckered herself out.

Can’t…. keep….. eyes…….. open…………

Goodnight.

After watching the cats play for a while, I made everybody a quick lunch of a yummy salad – romaine, cheese, ham, avocado, tomatoes, and marinated olives.

I even took my Mom to my gym.  That’s right, I went to the gym on my birthday!  I forgot my sweat towel, though.  I HATE when I do that.  I did 30 min on the stepmill, while my mom did the elliptical.  I’m so proud of her – she started going to the gym regularly about a year ago, and is now an official gym rat!  She even goes to other people’s gyms while on vacation!

For my birthday dinner, I chose sushi.  I actually tried to choose Subway, but S said no way.  Ha!  I got my favorite, the sashimi dinner.

And ate every. single. bite.

Heaven on a plate.

Afterwards I got my little orange boat.

Fun times for all.

This is me and my mommy!  Do we look alike?

How about in this one?

Soon I will update with part 2 – presents, candles and cake!!!