December already

Isn't he cute? So big too.

We built a miniature snowman

A walk to the park to work off our turkey dinner - Thanksgiving night
Not too cold for a swing!

Old Man Winter

Old Man Winter came last week and I think he is here to stay this time. Jackie got her first sled. It's funny she doesn't remember last winter so everything feels like firsts again. It is kind of sweet that way.

Saturday sled ride to the library

Elmo came with

Sledding on Sunday


Roxanne and Finn fly down the hill

We end on a high note

October Came and Went

It has been so long! Here is a recap of our month...Nana came out and helped us out in the beginning of the month. Here she is snoozing with Elliot.

At the pumpkin patch - visit to Tia's in Utah


Late October

Halloween

Popple and Busia for the week too!

Jackie and her friend Carsen

Week Two Recap

Starting weight: 160.8
Thursday's weigh in: 157
Total loss/gain: -3.8

Despite not getting in ANY workouts since last week, I did keep up pretty healthy eating, portion control, and managed to lose one pound. I'll take it. We went to the Great American Beer Fest last Friday night so of course I was indulging a bit over the weekend. We've also had more wine in the house lately, but with breastfeeding I conservatively keep it to one glass (thank you Elliot!). I hope to get in more workouts this next week. The box of produce delivered to us each week is helping us get our fruits and veggies in - it's great! Does anyone have any good suggestions for what to do with beets and radishes? This is out of my cooking comfort zone, but I'm feeling adventurous.



So, on to the topic of good food. You might be like me when it comes to food shopping, I have a list, but I'm trying to accomplish a lot in one trip. Then I can't seem to remember which fish are the ones to avoid, where should they come from, and which fruits/veggies are definitely the ones to buy organic when you can, etc. So here are two great resources to keep them straight.

Seafood Watch Guide

The Best Produce to Buy Organic (get the pocket guide here)

The Dirty Dozen (in order from most pesticide-ridden):
1. Peach
2. Apple
3. Bell pepper
4. Celery
5. Nectarine
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Grapes (imported)
11. Carrot
12. Pear
(Here’s the list for the 47 worst and their pesticide rating)

The Clean 15 (in order from least pesticide-ridden)
1. Onion
2. Avocado
3. Sweet corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mango
6. Asparagus
7. Sweet peas
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Papaya
12. Watermelon
13. Broccoli
14. Tomato
15. Sweet potato

When all else fails, we make it our golden rule to buy organic milk, eggs, and meat. As much as I hope Jackie is more endowed than I am as a woman, I don't want it to be a result of crazy growth hormones!

Slice of Life

This is from an email my daycare provider sent me this week. I just had to share it because you always wonder what your child is like with other people. To be a fly on the wall...

Nicole,

Everytime I go to bed I think about the day, and most the time remember what it is that I forget to tell all my parents, like what happened that day. Thus, I am writing you to tell you of the recent things that i have forgotten to tell you about Jackie.

Funny things she has been saying:

Jackie: Hi, my name is Rina!

Me: oh, really...nice to meet you Rina, where are you from?

Jackie: Walmart.

Me: Walmart? hmm....ok what isle?

Jackie: The store you silly goose!

she actually introduces herself to parents as Rina.

(Jackie and Trout running back in forth between the Playroom and the couch)

Jackie: Trout c'mon let"s go....READY, SET, SPANISH!

Leigh, why do you have a number on your shirt? Is it from a bike race?

Is everybody happy? k, Let's Dance...RUN FASTER!...(cough, cough) K STOP...let's drink water..(gulp,gulp) K let's go...RUN FASTER!..

Jackie: Leigh, I'm hungry

Me: Ok,well i am cooking lunch.

Jackie: Ok, well can I have dinner right now?

Me: In a few minutes lunch will be ready, let's wait.

Jackie: Ok, can i have a snack?

Me: We will be eating in about 5 minutes ok? why don't you get everyone to go wash hands?

Jackie: After i wash my hands can i eat?

Me: Yes jackie

And this lunch talk goes on for days it is absolutely hilarious!

Week One Recap

Elliot slept until 5am. He got up to eat and then went right back to sleep. I love him. I know you're not going to believe this, for those of you who know how I cherish my sleep and have all my life, but I was at the rec center this morning by 6:30 am. I did a half hour on the elliptical trainer, soaked for a solid 15 minutes in an awesome bubbly hot tub and came home before anyone else was awake! That is a nice start to your day when you have two children who still cry (quite often).

Weighed in yesterday:
beginning - 160.8
9/24/09 week one - 158
loss/gain: -2.8

Yippee! I successfully made it to two Pilates classes, snuck in additional workout on an elliptical trainer and took a couple of nice walks last week. Also, and more importantly I cooked at home A LOT last week since we got our frig. Feeling much better. As delicious as onion rings and Chinese take-out can be, trust me, they only feel satisfying when you have them once in awhile as a treat. Having to eat out for a week or more really starts to make you feel gross. One of the delicious recipes I tried this past week was for pan-fried Halibut. This is my new favorite go-to way to lightly bread fish. The recipe's secret ingredient is Panko breadcrumbs. Another dish was surprisingly easy and looks good enough for a dinner party was Rachael Ray's Chicken and Feta with Heirloom Tomato and Watermelon Salad. Both meals were refreshing and light for late summer, but hearty and satisfying too. I would make them over and over again. Oh, how could I forget, we also made these awesome garlic burgers (another RR recipe). If you're not familiar, RR is a burger fanatic! If you need inspiration beyond the ordinary, her website is the place to look for burger ideas. The trick was we made mini-burgers to entice Jackie and keep the portion size small. Ideally you only eat one and load up on veggies to round out the meal- which I did. Paul on the other hand managed to eat two at dinner and two more as a late night snack! Totally 4 burgers in all, we estimate that he probably ate about 3/4 lb. of red meat that day. But he's a big guy, working out a lot, and it was lean ground sirloin. He can handle it every now and then.

OBR deserves a post of its own!

Congratulations!

I didn't intend on overshadowing Paul's OBR post with my verbal vomit on weight loss/health, but I just had to get all that off my chest first. So, it's time to celebrate the accomplishments of 10 runners.

This is Paul's 8th? time running OBR and 3rd time as Team Leader. With a renewed sense of energy and some fresh faces, his team came in 5th in the Open Division this year! Well over 100 teams participate in the whole thing. It's a pretty incredible weekend of mountain running. You get the relay experience, variables of weather, course variations, and how your body will react to eating in the middle of the night AND running by moonlight! Oh, the craziness of running culture. It certainly mixes it up.


Danny Holland from the team shared all his photos from the weekend. Not only can this guy run, he has a good eye too.

Sexy Runner - my girlfriend Roxanne


Post Race Goodness

Clean Slate

Today we get a new refrigerator. We came home from our Labor Day weekend away to find that our frig had broke some time promptly after we had left the house on Saturday. Everything was spoiled. So we quickly began the quest of finding a new one. Unfortunately the reality of living in a more remote town really only becomes an inconvenience at times like this. While we quickly selected one from our local Sears, it could not be delivered for a WEEK. And that was one of the faster ones. The frig I really wanted wouldn't have been here for 3 WEEKS! So we compromised. Anyhow, this leads me to my thought for the week.

Elliot slept for 7 hours straight on Monday night (I hope this trend continues!). Consequently, Momma felt like a million bucks on Tuesday and had her own epiphanies as a result of a clear and well-rested mind. I'm going to use this new frig as an opportunity to start fresh. It is time to buckle down and get my body back into shape. Many of my friends and family have been kind and keep saying, "but you just had a baby!" but the reality is I had a baby 10 weeks ago. I have plateaued on any weight loss without doing something about it. Maybe I was inspired by the new season of Biggest Loser? Or the interview of Jenny McCarthy on Rachael Ray? She weighed 211 the day she gave birth to her son! Or the really good book on healthy eating by Jillian Michaels I just read. Or the photos of me from last weekend. Ugh. Or the fact that people who meet me now just think I'm a fat girl. I had to buy size 14 jeans. I'm tired of maternity clothing, but don't fit in any of my old stuff. It doesn't really matter. It wasn't any one thing. But it all adds up.

Finish Line - Outward Bound Relay 9/12/09

Here are my stats: I'm 5'4". I weigh 160.8 this morning. I've been hovering at this number for about 3 weeks now. I did weigh 187 the day I gave birth. My pre-baby weight was 143, but even that was not really what I want to weigh long-term. My goal weight is 130. So once a week I'm going to update the blog with my progress on my road to losing 30 lbs. I'd like to get there by Christmas.

Not only do I want to do this for the way I look, but also for the way I feel. I pretty much feel like crap right now. I'm tired, and fatigued (granted more sleep will help with this), but so will exercising and eating better. I'm also doing my best to hold it together with a demanding 2 year-old, but she can really test me. I think my irritability and feeling of being overwhelmed will lesson if I start taking better care of my body. I also am motivated to provide better food for my family. Eating out for a week while we have waited for the new frig has not helped. While Paul is naturally gangling, he needs to eat better to feel better too. And Jackie certainly could benefit from some extra veggies in her diet. We've begun to seriously slip in this area. My plan is to get our fruits and veggies delivered to the house weekly like we did last winter with Door to Door Organics. We ate much better while we had this service, removed toxins from our diets, and were more adventurous about what we ate.

July 2006 - my more usual size 8

Any tips, encouragement, ideas that you have I would love to hear about as I begin this journey. I'm using today as my day to get organized, get my shopping list together, work out clothes washed, work out tapes at the ready so that I can jump in tomorrow on Day 1.

Run Daddy Run!

Nearing the Finish Line

This past week was the final push for Paul to ready himself for the Colorado Springs Marathon. Nothing like sick children, sleep deprivation, and poor diet to ready yourself for 26.2 miles eh? So he remains injury free, but we came to the conclusion that training for a race like this with a newborn and a 2 year old is well, quite a bit more challenging than it was before kids. Things at Bluechannel have been nuts as well. Paul's real goal is to have a full set of teeth by the end of the year. Honestly, if that can happen, we'll all be thankful.

So we took this one...

and this one...

loaded up the car Paul no longer fits in... and went! We wondered many times over the weekend why had originally thought this family trip was a good idea
(Jackie never stops talking -which is a lot for a 4 hour car ride),
but in the end we're making memories. We all slept in one hotel room, each with our own bed. Jackie on an air mattress she loved, Mommy and Daddy each with a double bed, and Elliot on a cozy blanket on the floor. He seemed no worse for wear. We got to eat and drink at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company on Saturday night. We all enjoyed this meal immensely. If you're ever down this way, I highly recommend the food and beverages.

Sunday was our day of exploring. We took Elliot on his first summit of Pikes Peak. At an altitude of 14,110 feet above sea level, Pikes Peak is the 31st highest peak out of 54 Colorado peaks. Jackie got a kick out of the Cog Railway. It was a pretty cool train ride up and down the mountainside. She learned a new song courtesy of mama - "She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes! Toot! Toot!"

We stopped at Coquette Creperie in Manitou Springs, CO for a late lunch after the Cog. Cute, funky little place in this equally hippy/artsy town just outside of Colorado Springs. We would have bummed around the town longer, but an afternoon nap was needed by all.

Monday was the marathon - appropriately held on Labor Day. We met Paul at the finish line at about 10:30 am. It was a HOT morning. It took its toll. This was not his best time, but he gets to do it again next weekend and make up for that (Outward Bound Relay). After a brief recovery, we checked out of the Hilton and made our way back to "Steamboat Baby"(Jackie's name for her hometown).

A week with Busia!

Busia came out and spent a week with us. We were so thankful she was here because Jackie came down with a respiratory infection during her stay. She was A LOT of help to us. We did get to go to the pool and "Bike In" Movie under the Stars - Caddy Shack. This was before sickness set in, so it wasn't all moaning and groaning.

We drank our fair share of wine and cooked some good food during the week. Busia got to meet the infamous Dr. Ross, our pediatrician. He calls every few days and gives us the Swine Flu update. I've started to call him Dr. Death. He says he thinks we appreciate this information because we're "academic" types. I don't think he knows us real well. :)

We know you want more!

If the little highlights of my children are not enough for you, and you'd like to see every stinkin' photo Paul and I take, feel free to check our gallery page at:

http://decrette.no-ip.info/gallery2/main.php

Little Toots Park - napping

Also, a quick Blogger tip~ you can "subscribe" to this blog so that anytime we have a new post, it will automatically go to your email. Just go to the bottom of the main page and select "subscribe to". You have to use a FEED service, so if you're not already hooked up just sign up for one that is supported and it is a snap! One downside to the direct feed is that videos I post will not show up in your email.

Off to the Fair!

Sunday we went to the 95th Annual Routt County Fair. Unfortunately, we missed the "big" events. I guess the best day to go was Friday or so some fair-goers told us. We kept telling Jackie how she was going to see all kinds of animals and then we arrive and... there is a petting zoo? Well, thank God for that because otherwise this would have gone down as one of those promises your parents make that can't be kept. I kept thinking about Charlotte's Web and the prize pigs. We really thought we'd see lots of livestock. Not this year. Five bucks later and about 15 minutes in the pen and that was enough for a two-year old. Jackie said her famous, "I'm done. Let's go home." After a few hot dogs and lasso events we did.

Goofy Smurf

5 1/2 Weeks Old

A few thoughts on our little boy as the weeks have gone by... he is very easy going and pleasant. He only cries bloody murder when he is hungry - 60 seconds. He does not like being wet, that bothers him too. He likes movement in the car or stroller. He grunts and snorts - a lot. He is starting to smile! He is not photogenic.

Yesterday he was just so cute in this outfit his Aunt Tia gave him. I had to take about 50 photos, but the kid just looks a bit goofy in pictures. I'm his mom and I can say that he is super cute in person, but this may not come across in images, maybe not ever. We'll see as time goes on. Tia noted this on the last post where he was in the car seat with the white hat on.

The other thing I'd like to take a moment to clarify... LJ didn't stick. Many people totally misunderstood Paul's very first email and have written us cards to El-J. We've laughed about this, saying he has a Spanish secret identity. Or we've called him THE J because of it. We will remember this nicknaming attempt fondly, but it didn't work out. He is Elliot, two Ls, one T.

Goodbye Dear Friend

Shelley DeCrette
1997 - 2009


It was heartbreaking, but we had to put Shelley cat to sleep this past week. She was suffering with kidney failure. Many family and friends remember our kitty. She was unusually small, quite playful, and a good travel companion. She has lived in many homes with us, two different states, and also had some extended stays at both Grandma and Grandpa Northway's and Yvette's house over the years. She used to play fetch with her toy "kitty bird". She loved to log roll on us in our sleep, and you could often find her keeping the laptop computer safe while curling up on top. Paul reminds me of the day I took him to the shelter in Chicago when I told him I had chosen a kitty to adopt. He said, "you want to adopt that?". Shelley was bouncing off the walls in her cage and nipping at us. She wasn't allowed out of her cage to play with the others because she didn't do well in group settings. She seemed like the perfect cat!

She did like being the only pet and she was the only one for us.

Jacqueline - 11 Days Old

Elliot - 1 Month Old (same hat)

Is homemade pasta really worth the cost? Our vote, yes. I should clarify, we did not make our own, but have recently been buying Pappardelle's from our farmer's market and have been cooking at home. The last two recipes we made were better than what I've had in restaurants! Delicious. Hands down. We are reigning it in and cooking at home more since all our guests have gone. They make really interesting flavors of pasta too! Next week we're going to try their Dark Chocolate Linguine.

It has been a relaxing weekend after putting our house back together and caring for the kids on our own for a few days. We miss those extra helping hands, but we are enjoying the quiet too. We managed to get up to Rabbit Ears Pass on Saturday for a leisurely hike. Much to my delight, the wildflowers were still in full bloom. Jackie chatted the whole way while taking a ride on dad's back.

A busy month comes to a close

Jacqueline and Elliot August 2009

Nana, Grandpa, G.G., and Aunt Tia all have gone home. Now it is truly four in the mountains.
Here are some highlights...