Now that's good marketing!

Last night Andi came home with two pints of ice cream.

Haagen-Dazs coffee-flavored ice cream

And this new Haagen-Dazs ice cream called FIVE - which is all-natural and made only of 5 ingedients: milk, cream, eggs, sugar and coffee

We curled up on the couch, ripped off the tops of each container and dived in, switching pints mid-bite just like we always do.

Me: This new FIVE brand is so creamy and good. It tastes way better than the regular kind.

We switch pints again so we can taste the difference.

Andi: Mmm, this is good. It's better for us too because it doesn't have all those extra ingredients. Let's read the labels and compare. Mine has milk, cream, eggs, sugar and coffee. What's yours say?

I flipped around the regular container and read the ingredients: milk, cream, eggs, sugar and coffee.

Wow, we were duped. Apparently, milk, cream, eggs, sugar + flavoring is how you make ice cream.

Two marketers by trade took the bait. Now that's good marketing!

A few randoms for Tuesday ...

So ok, the pulled pork sandwiches I made last night- disgusting. I don't know what went wrong with them - I don't think I left them enough time to cook in the crock pot so Andi had to take over the cooking to pull it all together (I tried, right?) Since the meat wasn't done, Andi finished the meat on the skillet on the stove and then put a slice of American cheese on top of the bun. I'm not sure how to describe it, but it tasted like a fish sandwich from elementary school. And yes, it was suppose to be pulled pork. An epic fail on my meal planning but I'm still trudging forward. My groceries arrive today from Coborn's Delivers so we should have fresh salad, veggies and well, just plain OPTIONS for dinner tonight. Yay! Love, love, love that delivery service.

Andi's been making a big effort to come home and hang out at night which has made me so, so happy. Lately he's been home between 5:30pm and 6pm so we've really had the chance to spend time together, eat dinner together and catch up on our day. It makes a WORLD of difference to me and how I feel about our relationship. I really appreciate that he's been making that effort even though I know he's got a lot of work on his plate. Thank you honey!

Speaking of Andi, he's mentioned babies 3 times in the last 2 days. Not that I'm counting or anything! Love that he's talking about our future babies. For those of you keeping me to my promise, I'm still trying not to bring up the baby topic anymore and so far I'm holding true to my word.

I watch the Today Show every morning when I get ready for work. Despite the risk of getting virtual rocks thrown at me, I'm going out on a limb to say I HATE THE OLYMPICS. I am sooo not excited for all the coverage to start this weekend. I guess I'm not really that into sports and watching all day coverage is not my idea of good tv. And now there'll be nothing else on but olympic coverage especially on the Today Show (see I'm coming back to it, you were wondering where this was going I know) every single morning. Not excited.

Guess that's all for today.
Thanks for hanging out in my bubble.

Menu Planning 101

I'm pretty proud of myself for taking charge of our eating style around our home. If you'll remember, Andi and I made a commitment a few months back to eat more healthy foods, organic foods as well as meats produced in a more sustainable way. I've also taken the advice of my dietitan friend Laura to set a goal of at least 3 meals a week so Andi and I can focus on more homemade meals vs. eating what's most convenient.

The last few weeks I've purchased all my groceries from http://www.cobornsdelivers.com/ which helps me search for and purchase the groceries I need and not a lot of bad-for-you foods we don't. I've also been searching recipes online at http://www.allrecipes.com/ which helps me find recipes that use ingredients already in our cupboards.

This new system is really working for us, although I have to say, I've spent waaay more on groceries than I have in years! It's nice to have food in the cupboards though and as cheesy as it sounds, it makes me feel so good when Andi has all his favorite snacks to eat.

Here's what I have in store for this week:

Monday - BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Tuesday - Broccoli Chicken Divan

Wednesday - Butternut Squash Ravioli

Thursday - Beef Stew

Friday - take-out

Saturday (my birthday and our Valentine's Day celebration!) - steak

Sunday - leftovers

I'm becomming quite the little wifey, right?

I'm on time-out

Andi got a few phone calls from his friends this weekend wondering if we were having a baby. I guess all my joking about new tv = new baby spread like wildfire. And while I initially thought it was funny, I think it got a little out control. To set the record straight - we're not pregnant and not trying. I think I need to put all the baby talk on hold - it's starting to make everyone a little uneasy.

I honestly don't know why I'm so obsessed with this topic. I seriously think about nothing else. It's just that I've wanted to be a mom for so many years and that day is finally coming my way. When most of my friends and family in similar age are parents already, are pregnant or about to be, it's hard not to be jealous and wishful that it was me. And I'm so overjoyed for them, please don't think I'm not, but it hurts my heart to watch from the sidelines.

This entire topic is like a double-edge sword. I'm so interested in pregnancy and babies that I want to share my thoughts with basically anyone who'll listen. Yet sharing my thoughts and dreams leaves me feeling exposed like I'm crazy for wanting a baby. I feel happiest when I'm reading fertility books and talking with friends, family and all of you about babies, but it's also contributing to my overarching obsession with all of this. While I thought talking to Andi about babies is helping him 'warm up to the idea' of having our own, it might be doing the opposite. Today I looked into his face when I was telling him a fun fact about reproductive systems I recently read, and he seemed completely overwhelmed. I think it's time to put all this on hold.

So, I'm hereby challenging myself: stop counting down the minutes until we're ready to have a baby. Focus on being married and enjoying our life today. This is going to be really hard for me, but I need to wait for Andi to settle in with the idea of parenthood and let's face it, he's just not there yet. You're all holding me to this! I promise not to talk about babies anymore. No more wife/husband trades for electronics = babies! I'm on baby time-out.

Running out of time

I may be a little bit screwed when it comes to planning this Valentine's Day. For these reasons I've neglected to devote any time or thought to the holiday this year:

1) Andi has to work on Valentine's Day at one of the pond hockey tournament he's producing (um, are those over yet?) so he arranged it so we could spend time together on my birthday - the day before Valentine's Day (because, uh, that's not optional). Because it's my birthday and I'm sliding all planning responsibilites over to him, I haven't even thought about how we'll celebrate Valentine's Day. Will it be part of my birthday celebration? Eh, that kinda stinks but there's really no other option.

2) I decided a few weeks ago that Andi really deserved a massage for Valentine's Day. He's been working like 76 million days straight and doing quite a bit of manual labor for these pond hockey tournaments every weekend. A relaxing, soothing massage = perfect gift. I suggested we do this on my birthday and that'd really kill two birds with one stone for celebrating and gift giving. Except he won't confirm if we're really going there on my birthday making it absolutely impossible for me to rely on that as a gift giving opportunity. When I ask him about it, he acts all coy-like and says I better come up with another idea.

So this brings me to you. Have any great gift giving ideas for me for Valentine's Day?

Confession Time

I better set the record straight for those of you who might not know my sense of humor (or lack there of). It's time I confess a few things:

You know I'm just teasing about the whole baby thing, right? I mean, sure I CAN'T WAIT until the day Andi and I finally take the plunge to parenthood but ya'll know I would wait until both my husband and I are in that place. I tease Andi about having a baby all the time - mostly because it's fun to watch him squirm and it's my way of 'warming him up to the subject' if you will. Please know I would never make a life decision like that without him on board. And no, I don't think a 42" flat screen tv = baby green light.

Speaking of the 42" tv ... it's actually growing on me. Ok, not so much yesterday when I couldn't figure out how to turn it on and I had to call Andi at work to walk me through it. But seriously check this out - you'd have to be blind as a freaking bat to not be about to see this thing. Damn, it's big and clear. Feel like Amelia is right in my livingroom!

To illustrate this point, I've placed Chloe on top of the DVR box to demonstrate the size of the tv. Now you see what I mean? Wow, huge. 

*No dogs were harmed in the shooting of this photo.
Although, she wasn't happy about participating.

You made your bed

This is the post where I get EXCITED.
For what you ask?



This.

Know why?


This.

That's right. Last night, Andi came home with this gigantic 42" flat screen tv for our living room. And remember, I wrote about what kind of deal would be required if he made this purchase. Yippe for little babies!!

ps, think we should have a Super Bowl party? We now own a massive tv for watching the Colts kick the crap out of the Saints!