Wild To Child

When I arrived home from work yesterday, our babysitter was sitting in our living room. To my surprise, my wonderful husband had arranged for us to go out to dinner sans children, which couldn't have come at a better time. He made reservations at Branzino, a restaurant which previously employed chef Ashley Merriman, a contestant on the most recent season of Top Chef. Once we arrived, we realized that she was no longer employed there, but the food was still amazing and the service was flawless. Proof that the food on Top Chef is every bit as wonderful as it looks!

I had Roasted Cauliflower Soup, Gnocchi (which included rabbit, mushrooms, and ruby chard), and for dessert...cannoli. While the rabbit meat could not hold a candle to the rabbit my grandmother makes, it's safe to say that it was one of the best dinners I have ever had. The only thing I didn't care for was the Heirloom Beet salad that Evan ordered. But to be fair...I never liked beets to begin with. He also had Duck Confit as his main course and Poached Pear Sorbet as dessert...each sample equally delicious.

For all you wine lovers like myself, they have a great selection...even featuring some from my old stomping grounds out in the Walla Walla Valley!

For all of you from and visiting Seattle I completely recommend giving their food a try! Here is their website for more information:

http://www.branzinoseattle.com/

Since our big move to Eastern Washington and back again, we have downsized considerably in space. So much in fact, that it is impossible to go anywhere in our town home and not hear a crying child...three out of five times they aren't even my kids! It's been really tough going from a 1500 square foot home into a 900 square foot town home in a complex.

The biggest mistake we made in choosing a place was not getting one with three bedrooms. I figured putting the girls together was the obvious answer, because they are both girls and we could save money at the same time. Needless to say, the girls each occupy a bedroom and Evan and I have been sleeping downstairs in the living room! I miss, miss, MISS having a garage, and a big yard, and the luxury of not hearing your neighbors walk up and down their stairs. The upside to our home now is that it does have a TINY (I mean super small...like a 10 foot square) yard, rent is pretty cheap, and they let us move in immediately. Now I know why.....

The moral of the story is...I will never try to get a one year old and a three year old to share bedroom again. Never. Ever. EVER.

As if you haven't read enough lately of all the "changes" that have been going on in our lives right now...just to have me pull a complete 180. I got a call the other day from a friend who told me she got me an interview at the company she works for in downtown Seattle. So I made the long drive back yesterday morning, showered, changed, and went to the interview. Of course, I dazzled them with my sparkling personality and not even 5 minutes after I left the parking garage, my friend texted me to let me know that the job was mine...if I wanted it.

SO, now we aren't moving...or technically we are moving back-since most of our stuff is in Eastern Washington already. Of course the timing couldn't have been worse-now Evan and the girls are staying with my parents and I am going to be couch crashing until we find a new place in the Seattle area! Stressful? You bet! But it's just WAY too good of an opportunity to pass up...especially in today's job market.

In other news...Noel is growing like a weed. In the 6 days I had gone without seeing her, she has three new teeth, a new mess of hair, and she said her first word (on Saturday)! Which was "mama" by the way. I cried when I found out that was her first word...for more that one reason. Not only was I not there...but her first word was mama...as if she missed me. Scarlet's first word was "dada", and he wasn't there for hers either. I haven't felt this guilty in my life...already knowing that I'm going to be missing a lot more because of other responsibilities. I know I'm stepping up for the greater good...but it weighs heavy on my heart every day.

I know this will pay off in the long run though. Evan is still going to be staying at home with them, although it's not the conventional home...it's becoming more popular. Househusbands of Hollywood...right?

We've finally arrived at our temporary home...after 5 hellish hours in the car. You would think that traffic should be fairly light on a Monday evening, but NO...given my luck we were stuck in the car for an extra hour because of road construction on Snoqualmie Pass. Not only were we stuck in traffic, but Scarlet and Noel decided to have their worst car ride to date. I learned that sitting an almost three-year-old right next to an almost one-year-old probably isn't a good idea! Something that common sense would tell you...."hmm...you may want to rethink that one." I didn't.

Of course the only reason that we put them next to each other was to maximize space in the car. So we got to haul a fraction more of the abyss that way...It. Was. Not. Worth. It. The girls must have cried for the first three hours, no exaggeration. But once we stopped at McDonald's and rearranged the backseat, had restroom breaks, a diaper change, a bottle made, and food-we didn't hear much out of them. Until, that is, we got pulled over. We had discovered that we had a headlight out on our car and the cop wanted to reiterate that fact to us. That along with our tabs being missing (apparently you can steal those). As we pulled over the bumper strips on the side of the highway woke Noel up and startled Scarlet. They both started to cry and Charlie seized the opportunity to bark and get away with it too. Meanwhile, I'm digging through the glove box to get our registration and insurance. I rolled down the window, and gave the cop our paperwork.

Now, I've been pulled over MANY times in my life and I have never had a cop nearly as nice as this guy. He didn't even make Evan find his license when he told him that his license was in the back seat somewhere. He had given it to Scarlet mid-fit to try and entertain her. The cop just asked for his date of birth, checked that our information was accurate, and let us go. He must have thought we were running a circus. The car being packed to the brim, two screaming children in the back seat, Charlie's piercing bark! I wanted to get the hell out of there too!

Ahem....can you please pass me the potato chips? I am planning on putting myself into a trans fat carbohydrate coma this evening because I've decided to make the "lifestyle change" and abandon all the junk food that's treated me so well the past few....I dunno...25 years. I've finally become tired of being tired. That's not to say that I won't eat a twinkie or two in the future, I just won't be consuming mass amounts crap and then wonder why I never feel like doing anything super active.

It seems like the perfect time to transition into better eating habits, simply because of all the other changes that are going to take place this week. We are going to finish moving out of our home, I'm going to be on a new shift at work, we'll be across the state, etc.. Might as well rip the band aid off quickly. I wish that there really was a pill that could cause you to lose weight without diet, exercise, and maybe even a clause that encourages stuffed crust pan pizza from pizza hut! I'm just not a big fan of voluntary exercise, it's NOT fun. No. Bueno.

Wish me luck with my journey to getting healthy. It's going to be a long ass trip.