From the Week

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Monday

Well, yay. Wes woke up at 2am. It was just for a feed, but I could NOT get back to sleep afterwards. Our bedroom was super warm, so I tried to catch some shut eye in the guest bedroom, but it just wasn’t happening.

The good news is that Wes then woke up on the right side of the bed later that morning. We got the usual done then headed over to my hot yoga/spin place to pick up something.

It was snowing out, so no walk for us. Besides, we had the good fortune of having to wait for the person come to fix the water heater. And guess what? After I had to run outside and chase him down to not leave our house- he looked at the heater for all of .2 seconds before stating that he needed to order a part and he would be in touch tomorrow. UM GUY I can’t wait until tomorrow. Cold water in snowy weather is not ideal. Especially for more than 1 day. Insert all the rage.

Anyhoo- we had salsa chicken for dinner which turned out freaking delicious. Afterwards, I put on THREE layers and took the dogs for a long walk around the neighborhood in the dark. I HATE WINTER PEOPLE. Cold + dark + no hot water = SEND WINE AND DRY SHAMPOO AND WET ONES.

Tuesday

Ok, so maybe going ‘real’ showerless for a couple days is good for my sleep? Because I slept for 9 hours and 10 minutes without a single blip. Or so says my fitbit. I woke up feeling amazing! And to top it off, I had prepared a bowl of brownie batter overnight oats the night before, so breakfast was all ready and waiting for me. BA-BAM.

I ran out real quick to run some errands before the guy came to fix our hot water tank. Now for the bad news: the HVAC people didn’t come. Which means another day sans hot water. Don’t even get me started-it is the worst customer service EVER. RAAAAAAAAAGE.

To combat this evil (and my stink) I made a giant peanut butter cookie. I should mention I was wearing my oh-so-sexy mom uniform.

It was DELICIOUS. Wes had a nice long nap and we did some reading and lots of jumping in anticipation for Tyler to come home. You know, so we could all sulk together about our lack of hot water.

I made us a super easy and quick Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry for dinner. It was really good! I highly recommend it AND adding sriracha 🙂

I got the coolest package in the mail, too!

One of my friends asked me to be her bridesmaid! Amy is one of my New York high school friends and we have been through A LOT together: matching tattoos, an apartment in Boston, boyfriends (yeah, we may have dated some of the same people. whoops), and lots and lots of drunk stories…which are the best kind. She still lives in the town where my parents live and her wedding will be in that area next October! Bonus: she already sent me a pic of our bridesmaid dresses and they are THEBOMB.COM. I can’t wait!

Wednesday

The day started off with some blood work. Ewww. It was just for my annual physical, but it had to be fasting, which made me a hangry lady at the lab. Thank goodness it was done quickly, so I was able to get home and have a shake for breakfast. Note: it was 7:30AM. WHO AM I THAT 7:30 IS LATE FOR BREAKFAST???? Ahh.

Wes was great the whole day- his afternoon nap even lasted 2 hours! Tyler and I were a bit grumpier because of some hiccups with getting our hot water tank repaired. The customer service was TERRIBLE and the tech was absolutely clueless on what to do (we even heard him on the phone with the tank manufacturer who was actually upset with him for not having any tools to properly diagnose the problem). Yikes.

Once the guy was gone and the tank was fixed (hooray, it only took him 3 visits!!!!) I took Wes for a nice long walk. It felt really good to get some fresh air and I was in even better spirits knowing that a HOT shower was in my near future.

Dinner was chicken and dumplings- my favorite dinner growing up. It was delicious.

I took the dogs for an evening walk- the double dose of fresh air felt unbelievably good, we bathed Wes, then I laid in the tub for as long as my body could take it. I might have even had a glass of wine too. Ok, well only a few sips because the hot water + wine made me a bit buzzy.

Thursday

It was a pretty great day! Wes slept in, I got my workout done…and I put on real people clothes! Gasp.

Only downside is that my hair dryer bit the dust. I think Tyler and I are having the worst luck with things ‘working’ for us.

After Wes woke up from yet another long nap (kid’s on a roll this week with tons of 90 minute naps!) we ran some errands, had lunch, and I did the ever important task of baking a DELICIOUS ginormous chocolate cookie.

I got some good smiles out of Wes throughout the afternoon. So nice, since we are pretty much stuck in the house! I really really HATE this cold weather.

I made spaghetti pie for dinner before meeting up with Susie to go to a local comedy club. It was a pretty good show, but not as vulgar as I was expecting (is that a good thing?!)

TGIF!!!!

Do you have any fun plans this weekend?

Winesday Wednesday 11/4/15

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey there, friends! Happy Winesday Wednesday. Again this week I have nothing new to share- it’s lame.

As far as alcohol consumption goes- I had a few Angry Orchards on Friday night, a Pyramid Apricot on Saturday, and……..nope that’s it.’

My friend Ashley sent me a pic of something she enjoyed last week:

Yum!

OK SO- I’m planning on putting together a wine/beer lover’s Christmas Wish List. If you know of any cool gadgets or products that should be included in the list, please email them to me! I’m going to try to get something posted in the next couple of weeks. (email: jennifer(dot)L(dot)Linton(at)gmail(dot)com. Thanks

Weekend Recap

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Friday

YASSSSSSSS finally made the best batch of pancakes- no better way to start off the morning! They look a bit Seussical, but maybe that’s just because I have Dr. Seuss brain from all the books I’ve read with Wes this week.

Speaking of, the baby actually woke up in good humor so I was able to get my workout in (PS: why is it called Dirty 30 workout when it’s not even 30 minutes long???) and some stuff done around the house. We then made attempt #2 at walking over to the UPS store to pick up my package…which ended up being the best package ever!

I’m still getting used to it but I love it SO MUCH already- quite the upgrade considering I’ve had my existing iPhone for over 3 years.

Tyler came home from work a bit early because I had to drop my car off at the dealership for an oil change. PS: I’ve had my car for just over 2 years now and have only put 7,000 miles on it. Crazy! We headed back home and Tyler got to work on the basement for a bit while Wes and I (and Layla) hung out upstairs. We weren’t on speaking terms with Reggie since he ate his way through a big bag of dirty diapers while we were gone.

We had frozen pizza for dinner and watched the newest Terminator movie before heading to bed.

Saturday

It’s sad that I don’t need an alarm clock anymore. Even if Wes is still sleeping, I’m wide awake no later than 6:45 every morning. In a way, it’s kind of nice because I have some quiet time to myself (HAHAHAHAHAH not to myself- I end up doing all the ‘quiet’ chores around the house). Sometimes I kick myself for not getting back into bed after pumping, but it’s almost a sure thing that Wes will wake up as soon as my head hits the pillow. Why jinx it?!

It was sorta yucky out, so we stayed indoors until it was time to go to Wes’s pool class. It was still Tyler’s turn to be in the pool, so I was able to snap a pic of them.

We ran a bunch of errands afterwards, mostly only to find a couple of pumpkins because I’m a terrible mother and didn’t get them early enough. Just my luck, every store was out. Instead, I bought a bag of mandarin oranges and tried to be a festive as possible.

I got Wes in his costume for a couple of pictures before he freaked out (I would’ve tried to take him to a couple of houses just for fun, but it was freezing and drizzly out. Plus he got super tired and that just would’ve been the perfect storm for a meltdown.)

Tyler made us fajitas for dinner and Wes fell asleep super early. It was sort of a shitty night because we had to be on high alert for any trick-or-treaters so that we could contain the stupid dogs and keep them from waking the baby.

We watched an episode of Walking Dead before I needed to get in bed- I was so nervous I’d get screwed with an early wakeup from Wes because of the time change.

Sunday

Wooo for Wes taking this whole daylight-savings into consideration! The kid slept 13 hours and got up at his normal-isn 7:30am! AND GUYS- EVEN TYLER GOT UP PRETTY EARLY! He made me breakfast too, which was umm SUPER.

I watched the rest of Bridget Jones’s Diary while Wes took his nap (ummmm how have I never seen this movie before? It was pretty good!). We played and read through some books before heading out for a nice long walk. It was overcast, but warm enough to tolerate being outside for some time. I rounded out the walk with a stop at the library to return some books and pick up another dozen- SO important for the days when it’s too yucky to go outside! I made it home JUST as it started to drizzle.

The afternoon was pretty eventful- so far as Sundays and not really leaving the house goes. Our pilot light went out and we couldn’t get it re-lit, so we have been without hot water for the whole day. Poor Tyler spent the entire day trying to remedy it, but just couldn’t get it to work. WOMP.

I made some brownies with a few leftover candy bars. We bought tons of full sized candy bars and only had about a half a dozen trick or treaters. I’m not complaining- most of the candy is stuff I like.

The picture of the final product isn’t very appetizing, but these brownies are SO fudgy. Aka: SO yummy.

I did a T25 workout, about 7 loads of laundry, and just a ton of other household crap. Wes started a new thing where he scrunches up his face and raises his eyebrows which is absolutely hilarious so we had a good laugh attempting to have him do it over and over again for us.

Dinner was some roasted sweet potato and the rest of the fajita filling.

I took a very cold shower before getting to bed.

Super exciting weekend, I know!!

How was your weekend? What’s the best thing you did/ate? Favorite candy??

…From the Week

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Monday

So we think we’ve figured out why Wes was so grumpy- the kid is just like the dogs and likes to go OUTSIDE everyday. He was just having a nasty bout of cabin fever! After our usual morning routine and his nap (which lasted AN HOUR!) we bundled up and headed outside for a walk/run errands. He stayed awake the whole time and seemed to be so happy to look at all of his surroundings.

I was able to go to the bank, pick up some groceries and round out our walk to the library and get both Wes and I library cards! (Seriously, non parents friends- I know this is such a snooze fest, but I am beyond thrilled to bring up to 99 FREE books home for Wes at a time. Not 100…only 99 at a time. That’s what the library said.)

Since outdoors and activity seem to be a constant need for the wee one (at what point do they transition to wanting-to-do-nothing kids…college?) I waited a bit after Wes’s lunch to throw in the Happy Baby Workout DVD that was gifted to me (thanks Athena, Liz and Ashley!)

Good news: he only barfed twice! Thank goodness it wasn’t during the bench presses.

I was a sweaty mess after this workout- a 21 lb baby is quite the workout equipment. This tired him out enough for his second nap of the day.

Fast forward a bit, and we had stir fry for dinner, I walked the dogs and that’s the end of that.

Tuesday

Today’s objective was to keep Wes as busy as possible to alleviate any grump attitude. Our morning went by pretty smooth, so after the breakfast/play/workout/nap, we went over to the mall to pick up a few more fleece pjs for Wes. Size: 24 months. INSANE.

After we got back, we had lunch then walked over to the library to check out some books. I quickly grabbed a ‘Quick Picks for Baby’ bag and it wasn’t until I got home did I notice one of the things I checked out was a CD of lullaby renditions of Madonna songs. Day= MADE.

I put Wes in the jolly jumperoo and played the CD and entertainment was had by all.

For dinner, I had a salad that I put together the day before and let marinate in the fridge overnight. It consisted of shaved brussel sprouts, walnuts, mozzarella, raisins, apples and a homemade maple honey vinaigrette. YUM. We also had some cheese tortellini (but that was mostly for Tyler).

I took the pups for a nice long walk after dinner. Mostly to help my digestion. But I guess in a sense it was also to help the dog’s digestion as well. Aka: Layla does her major pooping on our walks.

Wednesday

Another pretty good day in the books! I did a pilates workout in the morning and even managed to do my hair/makeup while Wes took his nap! GASP. We then ventured out to the mall because there was a vest I wanted on sale.

I guess I wore a vest to go out and buy a vest.

It was a successful trip and I wanted to get more steps in, so we kept walking the mall for a while. Wes told me when he was done browsing, so we beelined to the nearest exit and got outta there.

Mr. was HUN-GRAY! He ate with a wide open mouth and was so happy to eat eat eat.

We played around for a bit and before I knew it, it was time for Wes to nap again. I’m trying to get as much as possible done around the house when he sleeps but sometimes I think I just need to nap too. If only I could fall asleep as fast!

To get more fresh air, we walked back over to the library to return yesterday’s books and pick up some more. We are really lucky to live so close to practically EVERYTHING. After I picked out about a dozen books, we left and I wound up walking around our neighborhood for an additional hour.

Dinner was turkey burgers and roasted potatoes.

Thursday

Ugh. I don’t even want to talk about it. Got a 3:30am wakeup courtesy of THE BABY. He didn’t go back to sleep until 5:30 and then still woke up at the usual 7:45. My whole day started out of whack, because I wound up eating breakfast at 5am and then when back to sleep when he did. I guess I can’t complain because I did get a cumulative 8 hours of sleep from the night, but those early morning hours are very headache inducing.

I didn’t get my workout done in the morning because mum SEE ABOVE. But it’s all good, I’m rolling with this *off* day. As close to tears as I was over the course of the day, I am super appreciative to have a happy and healthy baby so I’m just taking it all in stride.

I bundled us both up around 10am and walked over to the UPS store to pick up a package only to find the store was closed due to an emergency. WOMP. Trying to make the best of it, I walked around the neighborhood for another hour and Wes slept for most of the ride. Phew.

His second nap of the day wasn’t until 3pm at which point Tyler asked me if I wanted anything from the liquor store on his way home. My response? “ALL THE ALCOHOL”. My lunch consisted of some fruits, some veggies, some cheese, and a POT of coffee. Ay yay yay.

Again, not upset about this off day because I mean….CUTE MAN ALERT.

I ate leftovers for dinner, did my workout, then headed to bed. I am all about hitting the hay as soon as Wes does. I need sleep to function!

PRAISE JESUS THE WEEKEND IS ALMOST HERE!

How was your week?

Wines day Wednesday 10/28/15

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Jen @nutcaseinpoint

Hey there! I have nothing to share this week that I’ve personally tried. (Sad face? No..just trying to save money. And I have practically zero tolerance to booze these days.) But I do have some boozy Halloween recipes from The Chew that I wanted to link to!

Thrilling and Chilling Ghost Shakes

The Party Time Pumpkin

Bone Chilling Tequila Pucker

Spooky Sweet Lemon Twist

Diablo Martini

Is anyone going to a Halloween party this weekend? If so, are you making any Halloween themed food/drinks?