our life today (in all of it's boringness!).

Some nights Zeb just can't wait up for Kent! He tries and tries- but usually zonks on the floor. This past Thursday night he was trying to stand up to stay awake and ended up like this dead asleep. His all day whining for "papa" has worsened this week. This morning on our run it was NONstop so I called Kent and made him come join us so that Zeb would let me finish! It was insanely nice to run without a stroller for awhile.

This weekend kent has completely free because he finished his pediatric surgery rotation yesterday- and starts general surgery on monday. It should be equally as crazy- if not more- but also very interesting. He really enjoyed peds surgery- and saw some INSANE crazy stuff. He let me know that our kids won't be riding atvs EVER.

Ike is moving around like crazy. He'll be crawling anyday now I'm sure. For the time being he's like a steam roller and a merry go round all in one. He can spin in circles (pivoting from his belly) and roll around the house like a little machine! He can also shove his behind way into the air and be up on his tip toes- but still won't try to get up on his hands. I'm hoping that since his back half already has it figured out, he won't be a crazy army crawler like zebbo. Zeb was always soooo dirty from his chin to his toes.

this is DIVINE

If you don't like rich rich chocolate- then this is NOT for you. I LOVED it. They (I got it off the pioneer woman's website) call it baked fudge- but that is not a good name for it at all. Maybe "rich and gooey chocolate bake" is a better name. It comes out with a hard crusty top- and gooey soft center. Not runny like molten cake- but gooey like half cooked brownie batter.
This picture is from the internet. Mine is a little different.

2 eggs
1 c white sugar
2 tbs flour
2 heaping tbs cocoa
1/2 c butter (I did cut out about 2 tbs of the butter)
1 tsp vanilla

beat the eggs until fluffy (about two minutes). Add in the sugar and beat it some more. Then add all of the other ingredients and blend well.

Pour the batter into four ramekins (or pyrex baking dishes or whatever oven safe dishes you have). Place them in another baking dish that is half full of water.

bake at 325 for 50 minutes. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out gooey- but not runny. If it doesn't look ready- give it a few more minutes (5-10). I took mine out of the water for the last five-seven minutes and they sprouted up. They ended up being insanely DELICIOUS so I'll probably do that again.

It was really so warm and so good.

I'm in love with my almost six month old. I enjoy this baby waaaay more than I enjoyed zeb. He's at that perfect roly poly smiley phase. He can move-but not very much. He is entertained by ANY object I hand to him. He's got the fattest chin ever. He loves to giggle. At night he sleeps better than Zeb. And best of all- he NEVER whines or chucks trains at me. Don't be fooled though- Zeb knows he's my favorite :)

our day of wild animals.

So, post call days (the day after Kent's 28 hour shifts) aren't all that shabby. Usually he gets in 3-4 hours of sleep at the hospital and then a nap here at home in the morning and then he can play with us the rest of the day!
Today we all went to the Lucas county fair. Every year they have a free day and we lucked out with it being on Kent's day off this year.
Last year we went and Zeb didn't love the animals all too much. This year he was super duper excited about ALL of them. He couldn't believe the roosters and chickens and goats and pigs.

He heard real live turkeys gobbling and roosters cockadoodledooing. It was so fun to see his reaction to them all. When a giant horse neighed he got all excited and kept neighing back to him.

This grand prize winning turkey was insane HUGE. It also had the strangest looking face you've ever seen.



Here's zebb-o staring down a heifer.

Fair day also ended up being playgroup- so zeb got to run around with friends. He loved climbing fences and jumping in puddles with them all.
The giant cow was a big hit. Zeb was interested by the nightmarishly humongous udder and the letters on the dairy sign.


And then came the elephant! The elephant was actually at lunch. We got a great coupon in the mail to a place called "The Elephant Bar and Restaurant" and so we decided to check it out. It was AMAZING. I'm not sure how we made it two years in toledo without ever going. The place was very family friendly- the food was super delicious- and the price (especially for lunch) was very reasonable. The ambiance is really fun as well. We'll definitely be taking visitors here!

I've posted twice today to make up for missing yesterday. I got home late last night after watching "Slumdog Millionaire" at a friend's place. She has clearplay (a definite investment someday when we have a little more discretionary money) and so we had a little party to watch it. Besides the fact that everything goes wrong almost the ENTIRE movie- I really enjoyed it. The casting was definitely the highlight of the movie. The characters were perfect. I also especially loved the music. I'm definitely going to have to get some of it for my running playlist!

Kent had to leave before six again this morning and I think that Zeb is starting to stress that he doesn't see him in the morning. All day today he kept pleading with me for "papa". Kent's surgery schedule hasn't been nearly as grueling as I thought it would be. He's gone a lot- but we are busy and I have good kids (and great friends) to keep me company.

Tonight Kent is on call so we went and visited him at the hospital for an evening snack so that zeb could see him and quit pestering me! Zeb loved running around the place and getting free juice from the resident's lounge! He also loved the ice cream. He wasn't so happy about leaving Kent there for the night though.
I love that Kent is starting to really have fun. He is weird and loves school and usually even enjoys studying- but now he's doing the exciting stuff. He gets to wear his white coat for real patients and not just paid actors or cadavers :)

thanks mom! and two great summer meals.

I hate cooking dinner in the summer! especially since I was almost out of Mr. Yoshida's teriyaki sauce. Luckily mum sent me the the costco GALLON jug of it in the mail! thank you so much, mom! I can't believe it didn't explode on the way here- it was ginormous.

I'm posting two of my favorite summer meals. They are pretty basic- and pretty non original- but so fast/easy/delicious. They are perfect for summer.

#1
honey mustard teriyaki avocado chicken sandwich. these are my favorite flavors EVER. this sandwich was so good that we had it two nights in row. I swear that ours were better than red robins.

chicken breast marinated in mr. yoshidas (or other teriyaki sauce) -sliced in half lengthwise so they are thin. We pounded them a little bit too so that they were super tender.
whole wheat buns ( I hate buying buns because we never eat them all and some go bad- but I've started packing them in ziploc bags in twos and freezing them)
avocado thinly sliced
tomato thinly sliced
red onion sliced
honey mustard sauce - I make my own with sour cream/mustard/honey. It is really good.

Just grill up your chicken (we did it stovetop) broil/toast your buns and voila. Best sandwich EVER.


#2
bbq chicken quesadillas
I thought I came up with this all on my own- but apparently Wolfgang Puck makes them too.

tortillas
any cheese you've got
red onions
bbq (sweet baby rays hickory and brown sugar) chicken (made mine in a crock pot)
tomatoes
put them all in your tortillas and make em up! we are lucky enough to have a quesadilla maker (thanks laney and taylor!!) but you can do them in a pan too.
top with:
avocado (we made our into guac)
ranch or sour cream
fresh salsa

surgeon in training