The End of a FUN Four Day Weekend...

A Prelude to our Summer

With the beautiful weather we have had in the last week, life has been a lot of fun. And all that kept running through my mind was, "summer is going to be so much fun!" Technically it doesn't start for another 22 or so days, and as for summer vacation, that doesn't start until June 30th. But since Elliot is still in preschool, and we are staying up much later than usual, I might consider summer is here. I love summer and do my best to make it last as long as possible. Life is happy when you are outside and wearing shorts.

Our plans for the summer in pictures...

Eat popsicles


Play in Grandma's pool










Relax while we eat dinner outside






Play with friends and neighborhood kids and their dog in the greenbelt

Grandma's Birthday!

Happiness is...

Tea Parties and Hats


Birthday Lunches with Grandma


Green Frosting on Birthday Cakes


Grandma Hugs


Playing with Papa


Auntie


Sharing Dessert




Evenings on the Beach







Unhappiness is The Oprah Winfrey Show ending after 25 years. I rarely even watch her, but I have watched and learned so much since I was a teenager. She is an amazing woman.

A Sick Day

Since Elliot was coughing ALL night long and had a fever last night, we took a sick day from school today. I have the cold too, so thought movies in bed would be a great way to spend the day.

Not sure if this is chilling out, but it was fun!







Snack in bed...


Getting comfy watching "Dinosaurs"

It's a Wonderful Life in California

Every day that I wake up to a sunny day, I am so grateful for living in such a beautiful place. Since January 13 we have had many more sunny and nice days, than we have had cold ugly days.

Catching Up

So I am figuring out that the amount of take out I eat is much more disturbing than the amount of meat I eat. And using cheese as a replacement for meat is probably not the best idea. But I am also learning that having a toddler in the house is a great way to lose weight. Alex is everywhere and so much work, that I rarely finish a meal.

My commonly eaten foods, while being meatless...

- Trader Joe's frozen low fat Mac and cheese. This is my favorite easy meal, and I
think it only has 5 grams of fat in it's small serving.

- Cream Pan's egg salad sandwich.

- Mountain Mix Mojo Bars.

- Black Beans.

- Rubio's fish tacos.


Some favorite meals so far...

- Chipotle's vegetarian tacos with lots of their corn salsa and guacamole.
Total favorite!

- Costco's frozen tilapia. The spicy one is so so yummy with rice and avocado. It
would be great with some of Chipotle's corn salsa.


Today's cabbage covered fish taco at Rubio's


So going meatless has definitely made me more aware of what and where I am eating. Maybe April will have a no take out theme. One step at a time, right. It's not all bad, I am, eating loads of fruit, because berries have been so delicous.

Cream Pan

Meatless March Day 4

Much better than yesterday, until a barbecue at friends this evening. What could be better than Cream Pan for lunch. I know it's only egg salad sandwiches, but it is very yummy egg salad, with cucumber. And with a banana pastry for dessert, pure heaven. Thank you to the lovely Carol for recommending it and bringing me samples a few weeks ago.

Dinner at a friends was salad, taquitos, guacamole(I think for the taquitos) and really delicious smelling grilled chicken. I wanted to cheat. I really really did. And I quite easily could have, but the rest of the month would have been ruined, and I wouldn't be able to take myself seriously in the future if I did. So ate what little salad was left at the bottom of the bowl. Luckily that is where most of the kidney beans and peppers ended up. I also had a perfect blend of fruit salad (bananas, blueberries, strawberries and apple) and guacamole. It was dark so nobody could see me eating guacamole with a fork. Is that strange? It was really good and chunky, and without tomatoes, just the way I like it.

My yummy sandwiches from Cream Pan (I didn't eat the ham one)


The most amazing, scrumptious best ever in the world pastries


These pastries really are perfect. The custard cream is not overwhelmingly sweet. I think it is the secret ingredient to making their pastries the best. And the croissants are perfectly flakey . There just isn't a better word for them than PERFECT!

Meatless March day 3

Not so easy today, but I did it.

Bean and cheese burrito with no sauce or onion from Taco Hell, and a tuna sandwich and salad from Kenos. And I still feel hungry. I think my life saver in being meatless is my mountain mix Mojo Bar.

Not my meat free meal, but my sulfate free, paraben free, gluten free and vegan shampoo. (I had no idea that shampoo had meat products or gluten in it)


A very nice and smart mom at Elliot's swim lessons told me about this, most amazing shampoo and conditioner. I have been picky about my shampoo ever since I was a teenager using Vidal Sassoon in the 80's. I have spent up to $25 on 8 oz of shampoo at times, and am currently spending about $5.99 on 8.5 oz of Neutrogena triple moisture professional shampoo. But I could not be more grateful to this mom, for recommending Kirkland hair products. It is just as good if not better than the Bumble and Bumble I used a few years back. I love it and it smells just like some shampoo that I bought multiple bottles of when we visited France about 8 years ago. Try it! It's worth the $7.99, for 33 ounces.

Meatless March Day 2

Lunch was easy today. I love this Italian salad from Trader Joes. Dinner was a bit tough. We went to El Torito, and you would think Mexican food would be easy. I wasn't really wanting a cheesy quesadilla, but anything with seafood was double the price of chicken and they didn't have a meatless burrito. So I went with the salad and quesadilla with a side of avocado. The salad was delicious, and the quesadilla was good with the avocado and salsa. Alex, as usual ate and ate and ate, cantelope, beans, rice and some avocado. To top off the meal, just right was super yummy churros.



The salad was made with romaine lettuce, white kidney beans, green and red bell pepper, romano cheese, carrots and cabbage, topped with a garlicky oil and balsamic vinegar dressing.

Meatless March Day1

So I had been planning for a few weeks to try to make March meatless. But March 1st came around and I totally forgot. It was about 4:00 when I was waking up from my dehydrated stupor, not from beer but from pizza, Chuck E Cheese cheese pizza, when I realized I had been meatless so far. And I wasn't going to ruin it, because I felt so awful from that horribly salty pizza and 4 Diet Pepsi's, that I didn't want to eat another thing, so meat never hit my mouth.

Not my cheese pizza, but my good boy who earned a trip to Chuck E Cheese for filling his responsibility chart up. The reason I was meatless today.