Peanut Butter-illas

I plan to include cooking posts on this blog, but with a tiny and pre-furnished kitchen I'm in minimallist mode for dinners. Thought this might be worth a post, although I'm not going to glorify it by actually calling it a recipe. I take no credit/blame for the idea, Jonathan came up with it at some point and we supplemented with a quick internet check to see if it was a workable culinary experiment or doomed for messy failure:

Peanut butter-illas! Exactly what they sound like, slap some peanut butter on a tortilla, fold and apply to frying pan, dip in jam. Allrecipes recommended using butter in the pan, but I think it added more grease and mess than extra flavor.

It was a fun varation on our standard pb&j! I'd like to try some variations next time--maybe use whole wheat tortillas and add sliced banannas or apples to the mix.

The two jams are wild blueberry and lingonberry, which we picked up on our trip to Ikea last week. Both are very tasty. I'd never had lingonberries before; they have a bitter bite that reminds me of cranberries.

Aquarium Trip

We went to the Seattle Aquarium last week and it was a huge hit! Sam enjoyed the fishtank at the Children's Museum (also awesome), but when he saw the full wall of fish at the Aquarium entrance, he was absolutely entranced. "Fishies! Fishies! FISHIES!" For awhile I was afraid we wouldn't get any farther into the exhibits, because he was about ready to camp out all day. Every few minutes he'd run back and drag me to the glass, just to be sure I wasn't missing anything ^_^ He kept trying to count the fish, but his grasp of counting isn't quite ready for anything that wiggly.

My pictures didn't turn out so great, boo!

Eventually I lured him away with the promise of more fishies, and we found the tide pool/shoreline exhibit. This tank had a wave generator and every 15 sec or so a big wave would go through. The waves surprised him, every time one went by he would yell "hey!" I hope it didn't bother any of the other guests; I thought it was hilarious.


Then we moved on to the hands-on pools, where you could touch starfish, sea cucumbers, sea urchins and I don't even know what else. Sam was mostly interested in the water ("splash splash!"). We didn't hang around too long, but I did find a star fish for him to touch. Dunno how impressed he was though, since it neither glittered nor wiggled.

He also really liked the jellyfish exhibit, but just like the hands-on pools, I suspect he found the media more interesting than the inhabitants. It was a big transparent ring with jellyfish rotating through and a color-changing backlight on one end. He plastered himself to the light and informed me of all the color changes.



We wandered around for a bit after that but were starting to run out of steam. Sam liked the otters, especially once I pointed out that they were kind of like our puppies if Millie could swim. Hopefully that doesn't lead to confusion down the line.

The problem with going to the Seattle Aquarium via public transportation is that our bus dropped us off waaay up on Pike Place (in front of the Market) and we had to trek down a looong stairway to get to the aquarium. It was doable first thing in the morning and going down, but I wasn't about to attempt it going back up afterwards. That meant a long, roundabout bus ride with a (level) walk to catch our original bus back home. And guess what happened on the first bus?

Yeah, sleepy baby did not wake up through several blocks of being juggled through the city, onto bus #2 and all the way back to the apartment. He's a heavy boy! 'Course, it's his mommy's fault for not leaving sooner or bringing a stroller, but wheeew it made for a long haul back. Totally worth it to see him at the aquarium though!

Downtown living

As far as I'm concerned, big cities are terrifying. Alien planets, foreign soil; too many people in too little space, too much misery and crime in the bad sections and too much money and high fashion in the good ones. Growing up we made a general progress from suburb to small town to middle-of-nowhere and I loved it. Soooo, now we're smack dab in the middle of downtown Seattle for a few weeks and I'm resolved to enjoy the experience instead of just surviving.

Pre-move thinking went something like this: Lots of people enjoy living in the downtown areas of big cities, gotta be worth a try, maybe we'll really like it! It was a sound theory, with several promising points. For one thing, Jonathan's commute is only about 10 minutes of walking, and there's a good bus system for Sam and mommy to use when exploring the city.

But my first impression, after a long day of travel and stress, was less than positive. Mentally and physically exhausted, I puttered around our new apartment home, frustrated at what felt like every turn. Why would anyone choose to live like this?! How do people raise children in this building?!

After a night of sleep though, I had to recant my ill-tempered musings. For one thing, this is the view I get with my morning coffee:

On the other side of the table, Jonathan also approves of his view:

It's not like I can fault Amazon's relocation arrangements--it's a fairly new, generously-sized two bedroom apartment--as much as I complain, we're not exactly (nowhere near!) slumming it here.

So, on our first morning in Seattle, fortified by sleep and a little relaxation, we started our first weekend of bravely facing big city culture shock!

I'm totally lying; we turned tail and ran for the suburbs. In our defense, we needed to stock our new apartment with a bunch of odds and ends, which required the car's hauling capacity and big box stores like Target and Ikea with plenty of parking. But yeah, other than walking the dogs I didn't venture outside my comfort zone much for the first couple of days.

Now that we've had a few days though, we're finding plenty of other good things about our temporary abode. Jonathan is enjoying his walks to and from the office (not to mention the new job!), and after a couple of nights Sam adjusted wonderfully to his new sleeping arrangements. St. James Cathedral isn't too far, and mass on Sunday was beautiful. I took Sam to the Children's Museum yesterday, and he had a blast--we'll be going back for more! (and posting pictures)

The weather our first few days here has been a dream--highs in the mid-70s or high 60s, with the autumn chill and color changes just starting up. We've only had one and a half cloudy days so far, but those were almost better than the sunny ones! (This is the only area where I feel sympathy with vampires--full sun is highly overrated. But ask me again after a few years up here and we'll see if that holds)

On the whole, we're still putting a lot of effort into finding a good rental house out in the scenic suburbs, but I'm glad we have this opportunity to experience Seattle up close and personal.

The Move

Made it to Seattle! It was a little crazy at times, but we're safely installed in our temporary apartment. The first stage of the move was pretty easy, the moving crew swept in and boxed anything that stood still for too long then loaded it up in an impressively short time. I only had to beg for reposession of one forgotten item (dog medicine), and it turned up in the first reopened box, yay!

We spent our last night before the move in a hotel near the airport; I can highly recommend the Euless La Quinta hotel for all your dog-friendly hotel needs. Then it was up at 3 am to head to the airport! That was the tricky part, luckily my dad was there to help, not only the day before to help with errands and getting to the hotel, but then again at 4 am to get us to the airport. Thank you Dad! Between six checked bags, carryons, two dogs and their crates, and (not at all least) The Sam, we had our hands full.

 The flight was actually the most relaxing part of the day! We got Sam strapped into his carseat (which I'm very glad Jonathan was willing to lug through thr airport) and he just took everything in and read his book until we could turn on the electronics. Then he was absolutely thrilled to have 3.5 hours of uninterrupted iPad time, and I took a nap.

Just a little bit like his daddy :-p

Once we landed, things were not so relaxing. We managed to pile all our stuff and the dogs in a corner of the airport, and I waited with an somewhat bored Sam and two nervous puppies while Jonathan picked up a rental truck. (Interesting note: in Texas, it's cheaper to rent a minivan, but in Seattle, cheaper to rent a crew-cab pickup--yay supply and demand) I can't even imagine how strange we looked, but luckily (I guess) we were noticeable enough for a porter to come over and offer his help with the loading process.

Once we were all loaded, the hard part was over! Sam fell asleep almost immediately, and we took turns walking the dogs and waiting with Sam until check-in time at the apartment.

Crunch Time

Two more days! The movers start tomorrow, and Thursday morning (early morning!) we'll be getting on the plane. It still feels a little unreal, but suspect that won't last much longer--things are about to get very real indeed.

We had an open house this weekend with several interested parties, so fingers are crossed for maybe hearing about an offer! That would be wonderful. You know it's bad when my non-Catholic husband suggests that I get a St. Joseph statue to plant in the yard :-)

Last week we actually had a rainy day, so we took the opportunity for a quick picnic! This may sound counterintuitive unless you've lived through a Texas summer, but it was wonderful--a short walk through the woods and light rain to covered picnic tables. Sam splashed in a few puddles, explored, and enjoyed being allowed outside after 9 am!

Trip to the Park

Well, our move dates have been set; we're officially less than two weeks out from the big date! Gotta spend the next few weeks getting ready and spending as much time as possible with family and friends :-)

I'm playing catch-up with the Sam pics, here's some from a trip to the park a couple of weeks back.

Climbing up the mountain! I was really impressed (and scared!) the first few times he did this, but he's a real pro at it!

Made it to the top! Complete with dramatic lense flare (or bad lighting, one of the two).

He always gets excited about slides, but then gets nervous about the actual letting go and sliding down part.

Going up is much less scary. "This is how it's supposed to work, right?"

"Okay Mom, that was fun but now it's time to go!"

Smoothie Adventures

So, in an episode of truly awful timing, I had my wisdom teeth removed last week, the day before our house was officially listed on the market. o.0 Luckily we survived the weekend (thank you Oma and Grandpa!) and now everything is coasting back to normal, except that I'm supposed to be on a liquid or semi-liquid diet for the next week and a half.

Guess what I made for lunch yesterday? Would you believe a chocolate avocado smoothie?

I have yet to master the art of taking pretty pictures of food, so I stole this one from here

It was an idea I'd seen bouncing around Pinterest and Facebook, and I decided to finally give it a try! Final verdict: much tastier than expected, but not to be mistaken for the non-healthy variety. A great way to get nutrients that aren't easily available in pudding, jello, or cream of chicken soup.

Here's the recipe I used, I've also seen variations that include bananas and/or peanut butter:

1 ripe avocado

3 Tbs cocoa powder

1/4 cup plain yogurt

2-3 Tbs Honey

1 cup milk (more or less, depending on desired consistency)

Next time I think I'll try making it with Nutella!