Valentines Day...

Valentines Day 2010 began early in the morning for mama - I thought this year we'd do a little less commercial stuff and a lot more home baked/made goodies... So, I made the boys (and hubby) hand-dipped milk chocolate and white chocolate strawberries...

I made homemade sugar cookies and cut out hearts, then iced them with some red/white and sprinkles... and finally, used the remaining chocolate melts to dip some pretzels!

The boys each got a tiny gift bag with some Russel Stover chocolates and a little bear with a card, and hubs got his favorite candy in a box w/ a card; little J decided that he wanted to make a homemade card for daddy this morning, so we did that and then presented all of the homemade goodness to daddy as a super special Valentines Day surprise.... and mama got a ONE HOUR MASSAGE GIFT CERTIFICATE at a local Wellness studio!!! I am STOKED!!!

5 years!

Today marks 5 years for my husband's heart attack and 3-bypass surgery survival! No words can explain how horrified I was to hear the words "you need to come to the hospital quickly, it doesn't look good" from the doctor who called my cellphone at 815am that morning.

He had went in for a routine physical, he asked me to schedule it after having helped a friend move and seemed overly exhausted. The physical threw the doctor a bit of a red flag, so for precaution he scheduled him for a stress test. This exhaustion didn't stop him from playing with our oldest in the back yard and running a relay race with him the night BEFORE the stress test. The stress test did him in, within 5 minutes he had a massive heart attack.

Pure genetics and a fairly sedentary lifestyle (his work is a sit down at a desk type of job). He was slightly overweight, I say slightly because maybe 20#. Otherwise, healthy. So, 815am heart attack, 230pm open heart surgery. There were many obstacles along the way, but the end result is that he's healthy and has a new lease on life. Now we live by the Mediterranean diet, 95% of the time, and he walks almost daily on the treadmill. So far, in the 5 years, he's been told his heart is doing GREAT! We even managed to have a baby almost exactly 1 year after his heart surgery!!

So - 5 years, and his heart is stronger then ever! Whoohoo!

Go GET a CHOLESTEROL TEST! Ask for a lipid profile to show you ALL of your cholesterol and make sure you're healthy!!

We learned alot from the American Heart Assosication books that the nutritionist provided us with after classes we attended. Read up, it's not hard to make some changes and make your heart a healthy heart. We eat this way, our kids eat this way - so we're passing it forward to our kids since genetics (for both of us) plays a MAJOR role in heart health in our families.

yummy goody delivery day....

We received our yummy fruits and veggie delivery today early, and big E was exited with this weeks contents!!! His favorite - the kiwi! Little J's favorite... nanners and grapes and apples.... he's a fruit boy. My favorite??? Baby spinach!! Big J likes whatever he's fed usually, so he's not too picky ;).


1 container yellow cherry tomatoes - local -2nd time receiving this and these have been outstanding in flavor!
2 large crowns broccoli - local
2 jumbo red onions - local
1 bag of baby spinach - local
6 fuji apples
7 kiwi
1 pound seedless grapes
5 red plums
6 bananas

This afternoon after a doctors appointment, big E and I stopped at the local market to pick up some fresh rainier cherries.....

MAN we love summer for it's yummy produce! We were excited when we saw my mom recently and she brought me lots of yellow squash and a cantaloupe the size of a soccer ball! The kids are enjoying cantaloupe or honeydew melon almost every day and little J is going through 2 apples and 2 nanners a day on most days. Those boys love some goodness!!

today's goodies...

Today's delivery included:

1 gigantic red onion - local
a big family serving of green beans - local
tons of squash - local
carrots
green leaf lettuce - local
blueberries - local
gala apples
d'anjou pears
bananas

There were several recipes they included in my notice of delivery email.
I may have to give THIS one a try and substitute fat free butter..... sounds very yummy!!!