Saturday's Waffle on a Wednesday=Best Wednesday Ever

 I am a huge fan of good food. Today my mouth and belly had a party with some REALLY GOOD waffles. 

Authentic Liege Waffles with the most amazing toppings from....

SATURDAY'S WAFFLE 

Most of you know that I love to eat food, but I also love to learn about the history and science behind food.  Allow me to enlighten you. Liege waffles are dough based rather than a batter base and are usually cooked on an iron with a thicker grid pattern to offer the dough a richer, sweeter, denser, and chewier waffle. Saturday's Waffle uses irons imported from Europe to offer their customers a true experience. 

 Meet Mike, Richard, and Collin. A bunch of fun guys who know how to make killer delicious waffles with all the trimmings. I know some of these guys from way back and they are cool but the waffles they make are even cooler. :) 

They were voted Best Waffle in Utah and have been featured in blogs, local news spots, and podcasts. 

 Plus they have the most superb service out of this beautiful gem, a vintage mobile trailer.

 Try a naked waffle or go for the gold and create your own. They have tons of different specialty toppings and creations to choose from. Did I also mention that they have hot chocolate with homemade marshmallows. YUMMY!

Here is what I had:

The Benny 

The S'mores

The Benny is their take on Eggs Benedict. Poached soft egg topped with a buttery lemon Hollandaise sauce and bacon. Since it is my life goal to try Eggs Benedict in all their forms this was my top choice to order and is also one of their most ordered waffle. It was a fantastic mix of savory from the egg and sauce to sweet from the waffle. The ingredients were of high quality. It was tasty and I loved whatever spices they used. 

 I love S'mores and eat them in every form; from pop tarts to cereal to candy bars and now waffles. 

Saturday's Waffle S'more has a melted chocolate center (which was epic), Speculoos (a peanut butter type sauce that was amazing, first time trying that), Toasted Marshmallow Cream that they toast right in front of you with a blow torch, & Graham Cracker Crumbs.  

It took me 20 minutes to eat both of them because I was savoring every chomp. I kept bouncing back and forth between the two of them. I couldn't decide which one to have be my last bite because they were both so good with every new bite.  I ended with S'mores and to be honest I haven't had anything else to eat since and I don't want to. I want this after taste to stay in my mouth for as long as possible. 

 

You better believe I licked those clean afterwards. 

On my next visit I am want to try their Lumber Jack, Lemon Curd & Raspberry, & their seasonal Canadian Apple Pie, & the Caprese. 

Want to try these waffles for yourselves. It is worth your time and effort, I promise you will not be sorry. Send your belly and taste buds to a party that they will surely thank you for. 

Fine them located at Olympus Hills Shopping Plaza. 8 am-Noonish at 3900 S Wasatch Blvd. on Saturdays! Rain, snow, or shine they are there. They put out heat lamps so you can stay toasty. Just another thing they do to provide excellent service next to their amazing food. 

Find them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/saturdayswaffle

Become Twitter friends with them: https://twitter.com/saturdayswaffle

Check out their website: http://saturdayswaffle.com/

Oh and did you know that they cater!

Maybe I can get them to set up and cater in my backyard until forever.

I Got My Butt Kicked

A lady in her 50's kicked my butt.

I have a friend and old co-worker in her 50's but she is fit like she is in her 20's. True story. She eats right and cycles and works out for enjoyment. When I worked in downtown back in the day she and I would sometimes walk together on our lunch breaks. I invited her to run with me again. She told me she didn't run but she would walk with me. Her definition of walk is very different than mine. I met up with her and told her about the 5K and she said, "Well let's run 3 miles right now then." I thought she was kidding. She wasn't. We sped walk 1.5 miles, with hills, and then jogged 1.5 miles. All under 40 minutes. I was exhausted to say the least. Yet at the same time it was completely refreshing. I am repeatedly being told that I need to really push myself if I am going to be fit in time for the race. Her kicking my butt absolutely motivated me to push harder and not just mosey along.

This same week I did some walk/jog exploring around our State Capitol. Then on Saturday I did a Hop & Chop Skimble phone app workout. All in all I walked 4 days out of the week and did one strength workout. I like my new work schedule. I get off work early enough to beat most of the traffic home so my commute home is about a 40-45 minute drive when the weather is good. Roan has been going to bed between 8-8:30, this gives Lars and I some adult time before bed. Then I am up just after 5:30 and out the door for my 40 minute commute by 6:40. I have a snack around 11 and then workout on my lunch and eat my lunch at 2ish.

As far as eating...it has been okay. I was in a cheating mood but when I cheated it was only on cheap chocolate. If I am gonna cheat I need to cheat in style and eat the sweets that are gonna be amazing and of good quality. Otherwise the cheap cheats are dissatisfying. Wednesday I cheated and had not 1 but 2 Banbury donuts. OHHHHH I felt sick. Moderation is still the key. Besides that I ate good fruits and veggies and bought more of those to snack on.

I have already started making a list of all the sweets I want to eat after the race. Among the list is Farr Ice Cream Flavors: Brownies Over the Moon, Keebler Elves flavor Smores, Grasshopper, and El Fudge. I am sure this list will grow over the next month. I won't go crazy all at once or maybe I will just to be done with it and then back on the newly formed habits I have instilled in myself from this experience. Time will tell.

Friends and Prayer

I have a greatest group of girlfriends in the world. Seriously. Even though we live far away from each other we are still right there for each other. I am a true believer that friendship knows no distance. Just before my 30th birthday I was blue and they made me happy by sending me various packages. They get together for a monthly "Book Club" and still try to include me in the fun via phone and hopefully someday video chat ;).

I knew when we moved here I would miss them terribly and I do. My heart aches when I think about it too much. But we make the best of it and stay in touch. Usually I hear from one if not most of them weekly, if not daily, via texting, phone, Facebook  and blogging. Sometimes I play phone tag and I leave crazy messages on their voicemail for them to enjoy. I like leaving funny messages. If Shy Dial was a real thing then I would use it just to be goofy. We have periods where we all get busy with our families, work, elements around us. These times I don't hear from anyone and they don't hear from me. I still think of them often and when I don't hear from them for more than a 1-2 weeks then I get concerned. Concerned in the sense that I worry if they are okay. Not in the high school sense of "Oh are they mad at me...blah blah." We all have a good enough relationships that we tell each other how we feel if there is an issue. That I am grateful for. Being mature has its perks. :) 

Not communicating often is not the issue, I understand that we all have busy moments and are unable to chat often. This is the sacrifice I made when I moved away from them. I am no longer involved in the daily moment to moments. I am not there anymore to just give them a hug and make whatever they are dealing with better in that moment. I have to adjust to a new way of giving them hugs. That is the way it is and it is okay. Last night I realized this and that it is still going to be an adjustment. We still create new memories with these friends in our own ways with and without technology. We all still make each other laugh and virtually hug. 

Today I am super grateful for prayer. I pray every day for my group of girls. Sometimes as a group, sometimes as individuals. I love them all so much. I know that I am not physically there to hug them so God will hug them in ways that I can't. I know that He does. This isn't a pitty party post. Just a testimony that prayer works and that friends are awesome. I am grateful for both. 

For kicks and giggles please enjoy some of my favorite Book Club photos that I stole from Marly. 

Stake Conference Rubys After Party 

We read a Zombie book so we were being Zombies 

Ward Halloween Party 

It was a sad book 

5 favorite things at Christmas 

Karen's birthday outing 

Anti-Book Club get together.

I Wore A Belt Today

Remember this. Today I decided to finally wear a belt because.....I HAVE LOST 6 POUNDS since I started working out a month ago. I was shocked. When I started this I wasn't going to weigh myself for months because I didn't want to be disappointed. Well I didn't do that because there is a scale at work and I jumped on it for fun and loved it. Wearing a belt feels pretty good and I like not having to fight with my pants to keep them up.

This week I didn't do any running, just strength and conditioning and my abs hurt for days. I have a lot more energy and feel amazing. I can sprint from the house to my car (which is parked far away) and not feel winded or out of breath. Now I just need to do both workouts in the same week. I have been working out in the morning. This will change next week as I will be starting an earlier work schedule. I will be working in downtown for 8 weeks from 7:30-4:30, so I have to leave my house by 6:30 a.m. Which means I am up and getting ready during my normal workout time. What I plan to do is run during my lunch hour 2-3 days a week. Something I used to do when I worked downtown back in the day. They have a lot of hills and lovely view so it is a fun run. Then I will get up at 5:00 a.m. and workout only a few days a week to do strength and conditioning.

Here is hoping the weather will be warmer for my outside runs. Otherwise I will try and run on the treadmill when I get home since I will be getting home earlier, but I would rather spend that time with Roan. We will see how the new routine will work out.

As far as eating Monday was a terrible day. I more or less let loose and didn't care. I wasn't too depressed or anything, just wanted a candy bar so I had two. I figured since I was going all out I might as well make homemade corn dogs, fries, and donuts since I had the fryer out. I did just that and felt sick when I went to bed. The rest of the week was better. I even logged what I was eating here and there to count calories. Valentines Day should have been tougher since there was a ton of free junk food at work, but I didn't really have to think twice about it since I already had a binge day that week. Lately I have been craving taco salads. I had a homemade one last week and it was AMAZING! It had taco meat, lettuce, guacamole, sour cream, salsa, and deliciousness. I really want another one this weekend.

There is the progress report for the week. I am super excited about the weight loss and hope to keep rocking it from here.

Super Cute Stuff

Roan finally had his 12 month doctor appointment this week and his weight and height are way off from what I thought it was. He weighs 23 lbs, I seriously thought this kid was like 30 lbs+. When he goes through a growth spurt he fills out and then sprouts up. I think he lost a little bit of weight from this recent sprouting up. He is 32 inches tall, super tall kid now in the 92 percentile. I know I am not doing anymore monthly posts but I recently made a list of all the cute things he has been doing so I wouldn't forget them.

Roan and his cousin are hypnotised by the vacuum

He says "Pthiz" and points, it means "This"

He eats with a spoon and a bowl now, in fact he really won't eat unless he is holding a spoon in his hand, even if you are feeding him. He has to poke everything with a spoon then pick it up and eat it. His hand coordination with a spoon is impressively good. The first time I gave him a bowl most its contents actually made into his mouth. It takes him forever to eat with this method but he really wants to be a big boy and do it so I let him.

He loves bubbles and tries to catch them.

He screams louder than ever and it is more high pitched.

He is a million times more expressive from head to toe. The facial expressions his makes and the way he wiggles his toes are hilarious.

He will carry things around for you. It is a great help and fun to watch. He plays soccer by chasing the ball then picking it up and carrying it to you.

He talks through the language of grunts, like Tim the Tool Man Taylor. I seriously can distinguish a Yes grunt vs. a No grunt.

He mimics everything you do with his toys. The other day he was pretending a toy was lotion and poured it on his hands and then rubbed them together.

Roan hijacked my "30 year old" helium balloon and adopted it as his pet. We put a long string on it and he holds onto the end of it and carries it around the house from room to room. Sometimes he tries to put the string in bowls.

He will play drums on bowls.

He can dance, he has twirled 3 times and clapped at the end of his dance.  

 Roan is turning into a crazy awesome toddler.

5K Training Update

Meh! I fell off the wagon a bit, but not too bad. I am confident I will pick it up again. I am in pretraining mode where I am trying to workout each day but not go crazy and run 500 miles at every workout. That would kill my body. I want my body to get used to working out again before I go gunho. I scheduled out my Zombie training to finish that 2 weeks before the BIG DAY. That way I can have some rest or make up time if needed.

So far I have walked/jogged a mile or so twice a week since signing up, except for last week. I puked my guts out instead. But hey, I lost a pound or two in the process. I would rather have energy than to be in bed sick and losing weight. I have been focusing more on running and I think my legs need some balance. This week I am going to focus more on strengthing workouts. I have also been taking the stairs everywhere I go. At one of my offices we jump around between 5 floors and yes I took the stairs everytime. I felt amazing that day. The last locations I have been too have been keeping me on my feet ALL DAY. So I am ready for some weight lifting and yoga or something.

I have been working out in the evenings mostly. I want to start working out in the morning but it is so hard to get up any earlier than I do. I might try it soon. Roan has been sleeping better, not all the way through the night, just up once.

As far as eating goes. I haven't been too bad but not amazing either. I have said NO to a lot, A LOT of free food, even at Costco, which is such a big deal for me. Even at Roan's birthday I was good and only had 10 cakepops instead of 20. :) But then we had like 50 million left over cupcakes (I made my family take them into work) and I got caked out so I asked for pie for my birthday but now I am pied out. Overall I think I am sweetened out. But I don't think I have been too bad so I don't feel terrible and I think it will be easy to just healthy up a little more and cut back on the sweets. I have been snacking with only fruits and veggies and I can already see a slight difference in my waist line. WOOT!

Goal this week is to focus more on strength excercises and to cease eating sweets...except for your MOM. Oh SNAP!!!

Then and Now

THEN

 NOW

 THEN

NOW

 THEN

 NOW

 

 

Moral of the story is that it is easier to take pictures with kids when they are lumps instead of toddlers. :)

Birthday Surprises for 30/30

I am 30 now and I want to say that everyone has been really really nice to me. I don't know if it is because they could tell I have been sad or they all know something I don't about turning 30. I have always felt that my birthday was a month long party. This is a good and a bad thing. Good because I spread the fun and bad because the fun sometimes can be spread so thin that your actually birthday day is just another day. Now that I share a birthday month with Roan I pass most of the attention onto him and I am fine with that. It turned out to be an eventful fun month.

Probably one of the best gifts of all was a surprise from Lars. I had a hunch about this surprise because I can put two and two together. He has many secret phone calls with our friends and when I confronted them about it they denied it and lied to me about their plans.  I was veered away from it so many times that I believed it but deep down inside I had hope. Anyway, Lars had my best friend from California drive up with her family the weekend of Roan's birthday party. He woke me up in the middle of the night upon their arrival and I saw them as I walked upstairs in my rob half asleep. LOL we embraced and I cried and was soooo excited that I didn't go back to sleep for hours. This was not only special for me because I love being with my friend but our sons are 3 days apart and are like brothers. Seeing their reunion was special. Having Dane, Aaron, and Marly at Roan's 1st birthday party was the best thing ever. They have been apart of our lives in CA and our pregnancy from the get go that I couldn't imagine having the party without them.  It was really what I wanted from the time I found out we were moving and Lars made it happen.

We partied all weekend with them. The girls had a reunion with Jamie and Shawna.

Then we went to the temple and downtown to check things out in the cold cold weather.

 My parents let us borrow their van so we were call in the same car

 The boys first traxx ride and it lasted like 30 seconds

 Dane all bundled up. I love this kid and he has a crush on me and it makes me giddy. 

Playing at City Creek

The boys had a blast playing together.

Here is a cool video of their 1st 5 minutes together. They seriously picked up where they left off.

Lars also got me a really cool flip waffle maker, like the kind at hotels. I love it and will be hosting a waffle party soon.

We tried to throw a really small birthday party the week of my birthday and it failed. I don't want to go into the details but lets just say I don't want to even try and throw myself another birthday party until I am 40. Maybe then more than one person will come. It was just a bad day and snow balled into worse but I have moved on from it and have learned that I am a big party girl and not a small intimate party girl.

My actually birthday was full of lots of well wishes from blogs, facebook, texts, and phone calls. I received a special box in the mail from my friend Rebecca and a package from my Anaheim girls full of beautiful hand made birthday cards. I had dinner at my in laws and when I got home my Mom had a cool balloon and a pie for me. I was so caked out from Roan's birthday that I only wanted pie for mine. It was a super delicious Village Inn pie, my favorite place on the planet these days. I haven't had a chance to dig into yet because the next day I got sick with either food poisoning or the nasty 24 hour flu puke your guts out bug. Needless to say I stayed home from work and Roan was still able to go to the sitters while I got better. Hence all these updated posts.

I had a 20's bucket list full of random stuff like write a musical, become a Mom, and go sky diving. I love my life and all I have done in it thus far. I want to keep on living it up into my 30's and beyond. Maybe this decade I will go sky diving. :) Thanks all for making this birthday special.

It's A Muppet Birthday Party

For Roan's First Birthday we threw him a Muppet themed birthday. I had a Muppet Baby Shower so naturally he got a Muppet 1st Birthday. It turned out amazing, more amazing than I ever dreamed. Special thanks to Lars, my Mom, sister, & friends Marly & Aaron for helping making it possible. And for Lars's family for assisting in the clean up. 

Here is what went down. Everything had to do with The Muppets and I started planning this in October. Each week I did something birthday party related so I wouldn't get stressed out the day off. I scaled back a number of times in the process but it was still so amazing. I got a lot of the ideas from various websites and just pulled a little of this and that together from each one to mash it together into this...

Decorations: 

I used some decorations from my baby shower, a banner and signage that Marly made. The color skeme was centered around this. I also printed a ton of Muppet pictures and had them spread throughout the venue. 

I had a cool welcome sign, that we didn't take a pic of. And then as people left I had this sign on the door. It had quotes from these characters about how the show stinks, LOL. 

Food:

All the food had signage right next to eat to tie it in with The Muppets. 

Plus we had really yummy cupcakes that my Mom made with her super delicious special frosting. 

Cake balls that my sister and mom helped me make and decorate. I was given a babycakes cake pop maker for Christmas and that sped things up. These were really really really yummy. I had like 10 of them. 

Activities: 

My fabulous sister in law had a booth for face painting and she created Muppet/Sesame Street characters. They were awesome. 

I also had a color station where kids could color Muppet pages and faces to put on sticks for a puppet show. There was also a fold your own Muppet that I got off the Disney website. 

Then I had a Fozzy Bears joke shop photo booth. I did not get a picture of the table but I had various props; rubber chicken, Muppet glasses that I made, large bow, green wig, giant flower, mustaches, whoopie cushion that my sweet nephew begged to take home (his parents must love me, hey I am a cool Aunt, what I can say), a large hat,  just a bunch of goofy stuff. I had a backdrop set up that I made out of Muppet pictures and balloons. Each guest will be sent a picture from the booth as a thank you card. (Still working on getting these out). 

Here are just a few fun pics from the photo booth

Epic fail to get all the kids in one shot

 Kermit so made an appearance

 Anaheim Ladies yo

 Cake Balls Rock!!

Everything was a hit and worked out better than ever. My niece and nephew were the first to arrive and they totally picked up on what I was trying to do. My nephew played with the rubber chicken in the puppet theatre and was having a ball. Success!!! Kids are awesome!!

I made a 3-tiered cake for Roan to dig into. He was taken back by all the singing and would only dig into the cake if he was on my lap. He was so sweet and gave me his first bite from his cake. Eventually he got comfy and made a mess. We cleaned him off in the sink and he loved it. 

On the invitation I suggested in lieu of gifts to consider donating to Roan's mission/college fund. I was nervous about this at first but it went over pretty well and thanks to everyone's generosity we have a great start on his fund. 

We had a wonderful time and appreciate all who came out and all the well wishes from those who couldn't make it. I was so happy during his party and totally crashed afterwards. I think his next few birthday will be super low key until he is like 5 and then we can really go crazy with sleep overs and stuff. 

Here are more fun pics from the party:

Having a dance off 

 Smiling painted faces

 FaFa Madesen 

Look at all that snow. I need to note that Aaron helped shovel snow around the clubhouse which was the second time in his life he has ever shoveled snow. 

Roan reading a card out loud

The birthday cake

Sharing his first bite

 The Mess

 

The clean up. This kid loves water faucets so much.