Special Titi Weekend

This weekend was such a great one.  Not that last weekend, a three day weekend, wasn't amazing too, but this one was jam-packed with fun activities.  I actually got out for a run on Friday night and it felt amazing.  We ended up going kinda late, like 6:45pm, which means we didn't get home until almost 9pm.  No, I didn't run for 3.5 hours.  I did 3 miles and then we played at a playground for over and hour and then we ran 1.5 miles home.  It was cool and crisp and the perfect running temp.  And Evan had a blast at the playground.  Pretty much all of our runs have a playground attached to the these days.

Saturday started off the same: golf.  It's fun waking up and spending the first four hours outside.  I love the outside and when it's nice I would be happy to spend the entire day out there.  Then I had a special day planned with my niece.  I have been looking forward to this all week.  We ended up not having a lot of time because I had to be back at the golf course for Mother/Daughter golf.  I wasn't playing (obviously, because I have no daughter), but I was helping run the event with the other coach.  So, my niece and and I headed over to Barnes and Noble for a special day at the bookstore.  It wasn't the most ideal place because Evan was with us and he doesn't sit and listen to a bunch of stories like we would have preferred.  However, it wasn't't too bad, he entertained himself with a chair for a while.  My niece and I picked out a short book for her to practice her reading and then we picked out a chapter book that we could read together.  I was really hoping for Little House on the Praire, but my niece is all about princesses and faires.  It was funny actually.  She would pick up every pink book in the store and wanted all the books about princesses and faires and it was even better if  the book was covered in sparkles and glitter.  Haha.  I wanted Anne of Green Gables or The Secret Garden, or Little House on the Praire.  Since I didn't want to buy a book that she wasn't going to read, we ended up with The Never Girls: In a Blink...which has faires in it.  And the book was pink and glittery, but she loved it.  Maybe God new what he was doing when he gave me a boy!  We read the first chapter while eating soup and a cookie.

On Sunday we headed to the zoo again.  This time with my other niece.

We had such a fun time.  It was funny because my sister had actually texted in the morning that my niece didn't want to go anymore (she was nervous going without her sister or parents), but I didn't get the text and showed up anyway.  We convinced her to come with us and she had a great time.  She didn't cry once!  And when she started to say she wanted to go back to the car and go home, we were walking back to the car anyway.

We pet the goats, which is my favorite thing.  Evan loves it too, but my niece was very hesitant.  She was fine until the goat turned suddenly, then she jumped a mile high and refused to pet them again.  As you can see in the picture (above), Evan was all about the goat food.

We also took the little zoo train which she loved.  Evan loved it too, he just doesn't like to smile on command.  We saw the giraffes, rhinosourus, elephants, chimpanzees, monkeys, cows, polar bears, and many other things.  We never have time to see everything, but we still had a busy day.  And both kids refused to sit in the stroller, so Ivan and I pushed around bags and drinks.

At the end of the day both kiddos were exhausted.  My niece fell asleep with her new polar bear in her lap.  It was adorable.

Then I got home, made a batch of chicken soup for Ivan and pumpkin soup for Evan and boiled some black beans to freeze.  That is my new thing.  I cook a bag of dried beans in the crockpot for five hours, separate the beans from the liquid when they are finished, freeze the beans and make Sopa de Frijoles with the bean water.  So quick and easy and now I don't have to buy any canned beans.

This is what Evan does while I'm cooking.

And between all these fun activities I even managed to do all the laundry and fold the clothes and even put them away.  Amazing.

How was your weekend???

An Entire Pan of Brownies in Two Days

My name is Kattrina and I am a complete sugar addict.

Since I have no photos to go with this post I am going to intersperse a bunch of photos from the zoo instead,
we went on Sunday and had a grand time.  I know it is not going to make sense to see zoo photos
when I am talking about something entirely different but I don't care.

 I am not sure why I crave sugar so much but it is outta control!  On. Monday night Ivan wanted a "snack" so I made brownies at 10pm.  I happened to have all the ingredients, so I whipped up my absolute favorite brownie recipe.  I always think of Ivan when I make brownies because they are one of the only sweets he likes.  When I would go visit him on Honduras I always made brownies and brought them with me.

They have a polar bear exhibit and it was amazing!  There is an underwater part and we got to see the polar bear
swimming underwater and catching fish.  I loved it!  Also, these polar bears remind me of
Dolce and make me miss my sweet puppy.

The thing is, he only eats a few.  He doesn't like sweets all that much so he doesn't eat them constantly.  I, on the other-hand, scarfed them all down.  We finished the pan up yesterday night!  It was a 13x9in pan and all the brownies were gone in two days!!!  I wish I could blame Ivan, but I polished at least two entire rows off all by myself.  And this was after polishing  off two birthday cakes last week (and eating a few large nibbles of wedding cake too).  Yikes!!!  At least it's all gone now, right?  

Evan refuses to look at you when you take a photo - he's amazing at staring right at you until you snap the photo,
then he can turn his head at lightening speed.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who can eat an entire pan of brownies in two days (aside from my sister, because she is as addicted as I am)???? I am going to have to start showing a bit of restraint thought because two days in a row Evan has thrown a fit at the dinner table when I told him he couldn't eat brownies before dinner (my friend made me beet brownies so he's been eating those).

He was really entertained by the gazelles that were on the other side of the fence - he stood here forever.

Speaking of gazelles, guess what I did yesterday??  It's pretty much on the complete opposite side of the spectrum as my sugar addiction.  I got up early and did speed work.  One of my friends from TNT and I decided to meet one morning a week (very early) and do track or hill workouts.  It sounded fun all the way up until we were doing it.  Then we couldn't remember why we had thought it was a good idea.  We did 4x400s.  That means we sprinted once around the track, walked a cool-down mile, then repeated it three more times.  My times were 1:28, 1:32, 1:30, 1:32.  Not too bad.  I was tired though and my legs are a bit sore.  It felt great afterwards - nothing like finishing a track workout!

And I don't think I told you my news.

I decided to go to University of Maryland for nursing school.  I paid my deposit and sent my acceptance note in for the scholarship (along with my photo and CV - I understand the CV but an nervous as to who will see my photo).  I am excited and glad I chose that program.  Let's admit it, I am probably more of a state school type than an exclusive private school type. Hopkins mailed me a letter stating that since I didn't pay the deposit that they have withdrawn their invitation and financial aid.  Obviously.  The letter was a bit rude, in my opinion.  I wonder how often people reject their program.  I am happy with Maryland, although it is a longer and slower program, and there is no Nurse Practitioner program attached to it.  I think it will work out good in the end.  I start 2 September and I'm so excited.  I feel like I've been working towards this goal forever and it feels so great that it's actually going to happen.  Yes, I'm sad that I had to pass up the Hopkins program with their amazing Returned Peace Corps Volunteer program, but I really think that Maryland was the right program for me when I looked at everything (program, time, money, etc.).  It's still one of the top 10 nursing programs in the country, so it's not like I sacrificed that much!

Evan loved these - you could climb inside and then spin around.  He was not happy when we made him leave.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is the right path for me and that I am making the best decision for my family and me.  Life is funny that way, right, you never know how your decisions are going to impact the rest of your life until there's no turning back.

Family Fun Weekend

We finally did something different this weekend and it involved leaving the house.  Where did we go?  Does this give you a clue?

We went to the zoo!  We had been talking about going to the aquarium, since we became members, but it was supposed to be a nice weekend and the aquarium is all indoors.  So we decided to venture to the zoo instead. 

I had to pose sideways so you could see Evan...
I don't normally pose sideways for photos.

I still had golf in the morning so we didn't head out until the afternoon, but it was perfect.  The weather in the morning had been cool and cloudy so the zoo wasn't too crowded.  However, by the time we got there the sun was out and it was perfect weather.

I carried Evan in the Mai Tei the entire time and he loved it.  For some reason we are not stroller people when we go out.  I always take the stroller when we head out for a walk, but if we are going somewhere like the football game or shopping we just always carry him or put him in the baby carrier.  I'm not sure why.  But the baby carrier was the way to go here because it was easy for him to get close without having to maneuver the stroller between people.

He really loved brushing the goats.

They were so cute.  Ivan's favorite part was the farm exhibit, of course.  We ended up with a lot of pictures like this.

And this,

We saw a bunch of giraffes but since we were there so late we couldn't feed them.  They were still fun to,look at.  Ivan also really liked the penguins.  I'm not sure why but we stood and looked at them for along time.

They were eating, so it was fun to watch them scarf down fish.  At the end we had somehow missed the crocodile (Ivan's favorite animal) so we had to rush back to the chimp exhibit and fine the one lone crocodile in a tank.  We made it and on our way out we snapped a photo together (a rarity).

We had so much fun.  Ivan wants to go back next week, but at almost $18 a person to get in, I don't think we'll be going every week.

Sunday was a normal day, except I subbed for another First Tee coach so I had to work again.  Melissa and I went for a 4.5 mile run in the morning.  It felt nice because it was such a beautiful morning.  I then took at trip to the grocery store where I was able to keep our bill to close to $100.  Then I went to Costco and spent $60, so there goes that budget.  It was important that we buy 30 rolls of toilet paper, 900 baby wipes, and 32 cans of coke....

And the Ravens lost.  Boo.

But I made chicken soup and Evan has a new tooth.

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What did you do this weekend?

What's your favorite zoo animal?

 - Mine is the gorilla and chimps.  I love to watch them because they are so human like.  I also like the elephants.