Crappy weather/food

Since my non-Montanan friends probably don’t know, we are being POUNDED with snow right now. It is absolutely insane—the roads were worse coming to work this morning than they have, literally, been all year. Roads are being closed all around us to the point that Helena is about secluded. So, silly me, I looked out the window this morning and thought “it doesn’t look too bad”. I didn’t pack a lunch thinking I would come home. I get all the way up the frontage road with no problems. I make it all the way past Custer and Costco with no problems (I realize this means nothing to the non-Helenans, but bear with me). I get up to make my right turn onto Cedar to go to the freeway and…disaster. It is completely backed up and SLICK. I get on the freeway, top out at 30mph, go to exit…only to find two trucks involved in an accident on the left shoulder, a car stalled out in the middle of the street, another car stuck and trying to get hooked up to a pickup to tow it out. It was a HUGE ugly mess, needless to say. Since our Accord is a stick (and as an aside and a brag, it got 36.5mpg last weekend on our Yellowstone trip—woo-hoo!), I was able to alternate pressure between the clutch and gas so I wouldn’t have to actually come to a complete stop. I knew if I did, I would end up like the stalled out/stuck vehicles. That really wouldn’t have been a good start to my day. I was 25 minutes late this morning since my normal 15-20 minute drive took 45.

So, the point of this ramble is I didn’t have lunch and there was NO WAY I was driving back home. We ate a lot of junk last weekend due to being out of town, and I really didn’t want fast food. I did some looking online at nutritional facts, and decided on McDonalds. Yes, I realize that’s fast food. I went with a Classic Grilled Chicken Sandwich with no mayo and a fruit and walnut salad. Total: 580 calories. Not bad for a fast food meal, and low enough that as long as I watch my snacking for the day, I should do fine with sticking to my 1800 total for the day. What pisses me off is that everything has to be made unhealthy. The walnuts in the salad are sugar coated. The yogurt is REALLY sweetened. I despise plain yogurt and was glad to see that it was vanilla, but it was seriously sweet. The sandwich was on a honey wheat bun. Wheat: good. Honey: good. Honey wheat bun + sweetened walnuts + naturally sweet fruit (apples and grapes) + REALLY sweet yogurt = A LOT of sugar in my lunch.

I guess it’s to be expected. It’s fast food, it’s not meant to be good for you. I know most people don’t scour the menu the way I do trying to find something to eat that isn’t going to clog my heart, but it’s frustrating to find something just to discover it’s been needlessly junked up. Plain walnuts are GOOD. Plain yogurt not-so-much, but lightly flavored vanilla yogurt is good. Doesn’t need to taste like ice-cream. Maybe I’m just irritable today…that’s always a possibility. ;)

Job update

I did get my promotion--woo-hoo! My raise was effective April 11, so I won't see a check increase until May, but that's okay! I'm just glad it all went through--phew!

I'm busy all day at work since I'm doing my "new" job and my "old" one until someone new is hired. So there is not much free time for me to blog anymore, unfortunately. I'll try and take a couple of minutes every-so-often.

Easter Weekend

Our Easter weekend has gotten off to a fun and interesting and chaotic start. But I suppose that's life. ;)

Hazen's little brother was over for Spring Break, so we took him to Mount Helena on Saturday for some hiking. We took the 2 mile trail up, and it was tough but a lot of fun. Poor Hazen had Ian in the jogging stroller, which wasn't the most convenient way to go, but it was the only way we had. The scenery at the top was beautiful, and if Ian takes a long nap I will update with photos of the hike.

After the hike, we headed to the park so Ian could actually move around on such a beautiful day (we were in the 60's--it was GORGEOUS!!). Since we'd been out since 9am and it was well after his naptime, Ian actually told me he wanted to go home. He wanted out of the park, and when I picked him up, he rested his head on my shoulder and let me take him to the car--we NEVER make it to the car without a massive fit. He went right to sleep for Hazen when we got home--we wore him out!

After nap, we had dinner and decorated eggs. After Ian realized the dye was not something to drink, he had a blast. He loved just dropping the eggs in and would do his "Woo-hoo!! Yeah!" cheer.

Unfortunately, he ended up getting sick around 11pm. We're not really sure what happened with that, but there was suddenly a horrible scream and when we checked on him he had thrown up all over himself and his bed. He threw up three more times while we were cleaning him up, too. :(

Sunday morning went pretty well. Ian was still not feeling great and had a bit of a fever, so he wasn't quite as excited by his basket as I'd hoped he'd be. We got him a couple of DVDs, some Hot Wheels, a Kite, and a bubble blowing lawn mower. He loves the cars the best--he's been carrying them around.

After we did the basket, Hazen took his brother home while Ian and I hung out on the couch. When Hazen got home, I started our turkey dinner and Hazen put Ian down for a nap. After nap, Ian was doing much better. We had dinner and then since his fever had broken and it was over 60, we went ahead and let him play outside for awhile.

So, overall, it was a great weekend. :)