The best pesto you will ever eat in your life

I have a brilliant plan for this week. I'm going to make the following pesto sauce, and then we're going to eat it all week:

Monday: pasta with pesto sauce, broccoli, grilled or baked fish (tilapia I got on sale)

Tuesday: grilled cheese sandwiches with pesto spread on 1 of the slices of bread, carrot sticks

Wednesday: leftovers from ... last week...

Thursday: hamburgers with the neighbors before they move

Friday: grilled chicken sandwiches with pesto, lettuce, tomato, and onion

Saturday: pesto pizza (spread pesto on the pizza dough, then add red onion, feta cheese, whatever else you want, and mozzarella cheese), salad

So this pesto recipe is from my friend Rena. It is TO DIE FOR; you will hear angels singing when you eat this stuff:

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 Tbsp pressed garlic (9 cloves)

5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed (washed and dried thoroughly)

2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 cups olive oil

a food processor

1 cup freshly grated parmesan (the Kraft kind is not good enough for this recipe)

To clean basil, remove the leaves, swirl them in a bowl of water, and then spin very dry in a salad spinner. Place walnuts, pine nuts, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store in the fridge or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

Prepare your eyes for pure glamour

First of all, make sure you're sitting down. Then, prepare your eyes to see me as you've never seen me. It is purely glamourous and beatific. In other words, I look darn good. I haven't looked so good or felt so pretty since my own wedding.

This is me in Chad's sister Amanda's, wedding. Chad was an usher, I was a bridesmatron (which is a truly horrible word; it sounds so matronly), and the two boys were ringbearers. The wedding was fun and the kids did great. We were very impressed. It was fun to have my hair done and my nails done and have fancy make up.

Okay, here it is. Are you ready? Ta da!

Do I not look AMAZING?

And here is the lovely bride Amanda with my two adorable children:

Ouch!

No one appreciated my latest blog post?? I'm offended. I'll have to try harder and be better.

A new reason to love Trader Joe's

Because they have THIS on the wrapper around their toilet paper.

"If you thought the brisket was good, you should try the toilet paper."
"Did someone remember to bring the toilet paper?"
"This amazing bath tissue is a must-have accessory for the modern bathroom. Set on a high-tech cardboard tube, you simply place it on any bath tissue holder and watch it magically roll away your cares! If you're the kind of Joe that likes to be up on the latest in modern gadgetry, you really must stock Trader Joe's Bath Tissue in your WC."

sushi, etc

Let it be known that I tried "good" sushi for the first time last night, and I didn't like it. Well, I did like the avocado roll and the california roll (neither of which had fish in it). As for the salmon roll and the fresh tuna ... it's a no go. Sorry, folks, I just don't like raw fish. However, I have now tried sushi, so I can scratch that off my list of things to do before I die. Only 585 to go, the least important of which is to try bungee jumping.

Ethan is on his 9th day of potty training. We went straight to underwear. The first day, there were 7 accidents, the next day 5, the next day 3, then about 1 or 2 each following day. Yesterday was the first day of no accidents. He even woke up 3 times last night to go potty, without prompting from us, and woke up with only a slightly wet diaper. WHAT A CHAMP! He has now earned the Buzz Lightyear toy that he's been asking about 12 times a day that was sitting on the top of the China cabinet just waiting for him to complete his star chart. Rewards work!

Another important day in the lives of the Kidds is Monday, June 8th, the day of Benji's first haircut. It was a sad day as the baby curls fell from his angelic  face and he graduated on to his testy pre-toddler years. Oh boy, I can't wait.

Finally, I think something might be wrong with me. Or possibly, this is a common problem with anyone who is an anxious type. I was at Disneyland yesterday, and it was very crowded. I found myself repeatedly annoyed and irritated at the people who stepped in front of my stroller, causing me to stop suddenly and give my children whiplash, and the man who wasn't looking where he was going, ignored my warning of "Sir, sir!" and ran into my stroller, knocking us slightly sideways, and then sarcastically said, "I'm okay, don't worry about it." I got very agitated with the large clusters of teenage kids who stood in the middle of the street, blocking the way, and the populous families consisting of 3 strollers and 8 adults who were sauntering casually down the walk as if they  had nothing more important to do.

Is this is a normal frustration? I know that my anxiety and ability to stress over nothing is something I need to work on, and I am working on it. Anyway, I think anyone who tends to stress easily (i.e. NOT Bridge) does get annoyed with slow people and lack of common courtesy. Oh the days of common courtesy! Are they gone forever?

Bikini ready!

Just kidding! I had you fooled, didn't I? I'm not bikini ready, but I DO need advice on where to get a good, supportive one-piece swimsuit (or tankini) that will hold my breasts up and isn't so low-cut that it shows cleavage. (It's okay that I say this on here, because no men read my blog...not even Chad).

Anyway, any advice??

Half-Marathon Success

On Monday, May 25th, I ran the Laguna Hills Half-Marathon. I had been training for this for about 6 months. My goal time was anything under 2 1/2 hours. I kept up with my friends Michelle and Miles for 3 miles, then they sped along on their merry way. I stayed with my friend Rena till mile 10, then she went on her merry way.  I finished the whole thing in 2 hours and 16 minutes (and 7 seconds). Woohoo! I was (and am) unbelievably proud of myself.

A huge thanks to Bridget who came out to cheer us on at mile 4 and at mile 11 (when I REALLY needed some cheering on). And to Chad who brought the kids up there to the finish line, and who let me rest, ice my feet, and take a really long bath later in the day.

This race was SO fun. Finishing was one of the best feelings. I want to do another race; someday, I'll even tackle a full marathon. I'm sad that this one is over.

Anyway, here's me immediately after finishing; I laid down right away because everything was spinning:

And here's me about 3 minutes later, feeling much better.
And since Chad didn't catch me coming across the finish line, we did a fake finish.
Miles of Miles, Michelle the Gazelle, Hope, and Rena the 6-month pregnant lady who can still run 13 miles.
Me with my supportive children who came to see me across the finish line.

Here's Benji the next day, who prefers to think inside the (toy) box.
And here's Ethan who made a collage the other day. He used more glue than tissue paper.