Girls Weekend

Okay, okay... I know it's been forever since I've added any pictures and I'm sorry... I'm still trying to get back into "regular" life after market. And I was lucky enough to get to the beach for af ew days last week. Yay for vacations! It was a girls weekend for me and Ella with our friend Carrie and her two precious girls, Riley and Logan. Pictures will be coming soon.... after making sure I charged the battery for our camera and triple checked the suitcase to make super sure I had packed the camera when I got there I couldnt find it in the suitcase. Darn it! So I called Bryan to see if I had acidentally left it on the bed when trying to make room in the suitcase for the monitor... he couldn't find it. After unpacking my whole bag I found it, it had slipped to the bottom. How happy was I!? Well, Bryan called back about 10 minutes later to tell me that he still could not find the camera, however the camera BATTERY was still in the charger. Great, Cameron, good job. Ugh! I had to make do with a disposable one from the gas station. Hopefully I'll get to Target tomorrow to get them all put on a disk and post them. Please keep your fingers crossed that they turn out okay, it's been so long since I haven't used a digital with the screen I'd almost forgotten how to use a view finder! Guess I'll find out tomorrow...

Standing Ovation

I just wanted to let all the working moms out there know that you deserve an all-expense paid vacation... I'm sure it gets easier but this week has been such a struggle for me. I think the fact that Ella is not sure if she wants to sleep through the night is not helping either. The whole go to bed at midnight, get up at 2AM to deal with her for 45 minutes, go back to bed, get up at 5AM to deal with her, go back to bed, and have the alarm go off at 6:30AM then work till 6:30PM only to come home to be a mom till midnight and start all over again is so freaking hard! I feel fortunate that tomorrow is my last day for a while so I can get back to getting more than 4 hours of sleep. So to all you working moms, my hat's off to you. Give yourself a huge pat on the back and tell your husbands you deserve a spa treatment this weekend, lord knows you've earned it!!

Ella's 4 month check-up

Is it totally pathetic that I was glad to miss Ella's 4 month appointment with the pediatrician yesterday? I'm such a wuss I just can't handle the shots... I know, I know, it's worse for me than it is for her. Since I'm working this week Bryan had the pleasure of taking her and I'm so happy she was looking at his face when the pain hit and not mine.

On a brighter note, everything looks good. She's growing right on target, weighing in at a hefty 12lbs 3 oz and strong as an ox. Dr. Vapne was very impressed watching her roll all over the exam table, she's such a little show-off. We've been cleared to start feeding her rice cereal, which we tried (unsucessfully) last night. I mixed it with formula, which she has not tasted since she was 4 days old, and she did not like the taste or smell one bit... but the face she made was hilarious. Today my mom mixed it with water and I think that went over a little better with her. I have to admit the formula smelled straight up nasty so I can't blame her for not wanting it. I also realized last night as I was preparing to give her the cereal that this child only has silver spoons. Ha! How appropriate for my little princess!

One last home-cooked meal for Bryan

Market's a crazy time and since I don't get home till 7 usually cooking dinner is out of the question. Unusual for me because I love to cook and make dinner at least 4 or 5 times a week. Anway, to prepare Bryan for a week of take out, frozen pizza, and turkey sandwiches I made him a "last supper" so to speak, of course it was his favorite- flank steak. I got the recipe from Rachael Ray (I love her recipes but she bugs me to no end) and it was easy, the hardest part was grating the ginger and juicing the limes... and thanks to my super cool christmas gift from Bryan juicing the limes was simple.

Ginger Flank Steak and Wasabi Smashed Potatoes
2 inches fresh ginger root, peeled and grated
1/4 cup tamari aged soy sauce
2 limes, zested and juiced
3 tablespoons vegetable oil, eyeball it
2 tablespoons grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning by McCormick)
2 pounds flank steak
2 1/2 to 3 pounds Idaho potatoes, 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
Salt
1/4 to 1/3 cup cream
1 to 2 tablespoons wasabi paste - how hot do ya like it?
4 scallions, root end trimmed Handful cilantro leaves

Preheat a grill pan or indoor/outdoor grill to high.

Combine ginger, tamari, lime juice, oil and grill seasoning in a large sealable plastic bag. Add meat to marinade and coat evenly. Let stand 10 minutes then grill meat 6 to 7 minutes on each side.

Place potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, salt the potatoes and cook until tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain potatoes and add them back to the hot pot. Smash the potatoes with a masher to desired consistency with the cream and wasabi. Adjust salt, to taste.
While potatoes and meat cook, finely chop the scallions together with cilantro and lime zest.
Let meat rest 5 minutes then thinly slice on an angle against the grain. Serve meat on mash potato mounds with a garnish with a generous sprinkling of the chopped scallion-cilantro-lime zest.

Working Woman

Ahhhhh, back to the grindstone that is employment. Market is upon us again so I find myself immersed in the grand old world of the furniture industry yet again. Here I am sitting at the front desk of Fine Furniture Design & Marketing for the next seven days. How sad to leave Ella for 10 hours a day, how nice to have adult conversations while the sun is still up. But the best part is I get a paycheck at the end of the week!! Yippee!

The showroom looks fantastic, as usual and it seems that the buyers are very excited about the new product, so that's good. It's very cool to see and hear their first impressions of the front setting. So far so good. However, I do have some downtime between shooting people with my laser gun (well, it's not a laser exactly, but a scanner so all the information on the buyer's company is recorded into the computer) so I thought I'd share a funny story... Furniture is a bit of a "boys club" and I'm surrounded by men here. Okay, I can handle that. One problem, I'm still nursing Ella so I need to sneak away every three hours or so and "take care of some things" so that she will have food for the next day. As luck would have it there is one room in here that actually has a door on it. The wall doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling but there is a door... with a lock. So I've been sneaking up there and turning on the machine to take care of business, I don't know how many of you have experience with Medela pumps, but they are loud and it's a weird sound.

This afternoon I discovered that the lock on the door doesn't so much lock the door. Actually, the FFDM sales rep from TN found that out for himself. Like I said, the wall doesn't go all the way to the celing so you can hear the machine in the showroom and he wanted to check it out and make sure there wasn't something wrong. What did he find but me, hooked up the breast pump! I wish I had a picture of his face, boy he backed out of that room quickly, apologizing the whole way. hahahaha! I was covered so it was no big deal, but I don't think he stuck around long enough to realize that. Too funny. Later he came by my desk and apologized again, saying he heard the noise and never in a million years would have guessed that's what it was. I don't know anyone who would have, so I can't fault him for it. Thank goodness he has kids so I guess it made it easier for him and a little less awkward.

And no, before you ask I do not have pictures of this to post. :)