Female friends are amazing and I went to London

I wrote a very long blog post yesterday about a particular friend of mine who recently got married. I went into detail about how we met, how we remained long distance friends before the Internet (and email, FB, text, etc) and where we ended up in life. However we've been friends for almost 25 years, so it was getting really long, and it was getting kind of sad towards the end which was NOT my intention at all.

So, to summarize my very long (now deleted) post, female friends are amazing. You have crappy ones in middle and high school who make you feel like you're a dumb (or too smart) fat, pimply loser with bad teeth and no personality (which sucks no matter where you may have fallen in that spectrum of truth), you have friends who you swear are BFF's but your friendship fizzles out with time, distance and/or life experiences. And then you have those friends who you may not talk to all the time, may not think about every day, but when you are together it's like time has stopped and you pick up the conversation right where you left off. THOSE are the friends I'm talking about. Those people are amazing. Everyone should have at least one. I highly recommend it.

To celebrate the most recent life event of said Forever Friend, a mutual girlfriend and I went to London, England for 6 days. We had a blast. I love the history mixed with modern that maps out this great city, the restaurants we went to were Ah-mazing! and London-towners are extremely friendly. I feel like I completely sabotaged two stereotypes I heard both from acquaintances when I told them I was going to London, as well as from fellow Americans on the way back. Plus my liver hasn't worked out that much in years.

On the Double Decker bus after the wedding. Unfortunately I couldn't find a pic of us in Middle School (or fortunately, I don't know if I want that floating around the Internet)

We took selfies everywhere. This was before the wedding with our Fascinators. We're almost locals. 

Other than the fact that I always have a good time when I visit her (pausing for a moment to recollect visits to Venice Beach, CA; NYC; Bali/Hong Kong; previous trip to London; the Denison, IA Pizza Hut to get white sauce for our breadsticks, etc), I didn't really get to spend much time with her this trip. She had a wedding in a few short days with 50 of her closest friends and family and there were a ton of visitors in town. As much as I'd like the trip to be all about me, she had other things going on. So we bonded with her siblings and some of the London friends.

But thinking back, here are some ways to have fantastic food and a really good time in London-town:

1. Know someone who lives there who can show you around. Failing this, find someone you know who has been there who can provide recommendations. Can't think of close friends or family who've been? Use Facebook, it's the new thing these days.
2. Stay at a nice hotel. This time we stayed at a boutique hotel, The Hoxton on Shoreditch, because that's where the groom and his friends were staying before the wedding. Other than regular amenities, people at the front desk are key in providing directions, where to find coffee shops, and instruction on how to use your converter (which in this case led to a conversation about how we're really intelligent women, contrary to what they might have been thinking). 
3. Stay away from chain restaurants. The worst food I've had in England has always been at chain restaurants. For lunch/coffee/afternoon snack places like Eat or Pret are fine (sandwiches, salads, etc) but if you're looking to sit down for a meal stay away from the chains. Would you recommend someone visiting the US go to Applebees? I wouldn't. Probably the best meal I had was at The Rivington Grill, which is "standard" English fare done up all fancy. I almost licked the bowl clean with my Shepard's Pie. 
4. To save money, use the tube. Our hotel gave us a map of London, which included a map of the tube. Sometimes I needed help from the front desk to point me to which stop I needed, but from there I could figure it out when/where I needed to make changes. The first time it was kind of intimidating, and we ended up going the wrong way, had to jump off and get on another train, but after that adventure it was no big deal. 
5. When you do have to use a cab (like you'll have to do 5 train transfers and it's going to take 2 hours...or it's late at night), use the black taxi's or hire a private car. Restaurants will often call a car for you, and the black taxi driver's have to pass certain tests with their knowledge of the city before they can drive. And all of them were extremely friendly. BTW, you can tell a taxi is for hire when their light is on, and just step towards the street with your arm all the way up to flag them down. In case you're from an area where taxi's aren't that prevalent (like me).
6. Hit up the tourist spots. Yes, you'll have to wait in line, but most of them are worth it. I have every intention of going to The Tower again, Borough Market, Trafalgar Square. I've done a double decker bus tour in Oxford, I would say do it once but guided tours get boring to me after a while. This time we went to Kensington Palace--and seriously, whenever am I going to get the opportunity to walk through a freaking palace again? (Probably next time I go to London to visit, but that's beside the point). 

   

   Kensington Palace. Where my new BFFs Prince William, Princess Kate and Prince George live.

   

   The Tower. It's awesome.

   
   

   

   Parliament and Big Ben

7. Don't be obnoxious. I'm not saying I'm never obnoxious, but don't be one of those people who stands in a large group right in the middle of where everyone else is trying to walk. Or expects everyone to speak exactly in American-style English. My travel partner and I would often joke to each other, "Why are things so hard?" and then laugh hysterically. London is a crowded city, so restaurants/bars are often loud, and when  you have difficulty understanding the dialect anyway...we smiled and nodded a lot. There are a lot of different nationalities and cultures living in London, so as long as you're not a jerk most people won't be one back. This can be said for pretty much everything though, regardless of where you might be in the world. 
8. Things can be harder than you think considering you're visiting an English-speaking, first-world country. Like the converter--did you know you need the third prong to be included? It's not like in the US where it's two prongs and the third one is optional. When paying, you get money back in actual change. Including single and double pounds (instead of dollar bills). I bought a coin purse to throw in my bag because it was all jangling around in the bottom of my purse, and my pockets were starting to bulge out. 
9. Be careful when going shopping, or buying pretty much anything. One, have a credit card with no international fees or you'll probably get hit with some kind of transaction fee for each thing you purchase. And two, remember about the currency exchange. It takes more per dollar to equal a pound. For example, piece of an actual conversation, "70 Pounds for this dress! Totally worth it!" Two seconds later, "Oh wait, what's that in dollars? Crap, is there Wi-Fi in this place so I can Google it?" I still am not quite sure how much I spent on that dress, but it was really cute and no one else here will have it, so totally worth it.
10. Last, but not least, is focus on having fun. Don't do things because you have to (i.e. the London Eye--if you don't like heights or ferris wheels, it's a total waste of money. I sat in the pub with a pint of cider beer while the fools I was with went up in that death trap. I don't like heights or ferris wheels.) At the end of the second day, walking around London in the rain, I was definitely wishing for a Hover Round but I was having a great time. We stopped and had Pimms at Borough Market, I bought an umbrella where the polka-dots change color in the rain (oh yeah, wear good walking shoes and bring an umbrella), we watched Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace in the rain...we had a GREAT TIME. It doesn't matter that it rained, or that we had to dress in layers because it was cold, or that we couldn't ever tell the temp because it was in Celsius. We were there to have fun, so we did. The rest just helps make it all a good story. 

I just like this picture

You can tell it's planting season when...

Every once in a while I see the lists people put together around being married to farmers. Honestly, I mainly see them because Vachel shows them to me. So I decided to do my own around planting season. The same may be said for Harvest as well, but as it's not yet Harvest I haven't really put a ton of thought into that one.

1. The answer to any attempt at making plans is, "Sure...if it rains." This is usually followed by me saying, "It's an outdoor event. If it's raining I don't want to go."
2. You start to make plans every weekend that include things you can take the kids to, and at some point have to remind yourself to invite your husband again because you get so used to running solo + 2. Speaking of this, the kids and I had a surprisingly good time at the Des Moines Farmer's Market last weekend. G loved it, and V loves any time she gets to hang out in the Baby Bjorn. Success!
3. You start to make plans with friends based on the weather report for the week. Example, "It looks like Thursday it's supposed to rain with possibilities of hail and severe weather. Can you watch the kids so I can go out to dinner with some friends?" 
4. You look outside to see your weed garden and try to calculate how bad it will be before he can watch the kids so you can go at it with a machete and back-hoe.

   

   You thought I was kidding about the weed garden.

5. Family Fun Night (Wednesday) is the best night of the week. I don't have to cook and we get ice cream sundaes. 

   

   Vachel and G making dinner for Family Fun Night.

6. You get to play chicken with tractors and planters driving down the gravel road. And when I say "play chicken," I mean pull over as far as possible to allow them the room they need. Let's be real people: car vs. giant tractor, car loses and people get hurt. Don't be a jackass. 
7. During severe weather alerts everyone runs around trying to put all of the trucks in whatever covered place they can. Why can't they use the garage? Because that's where the seed is.
8. While in the car together you have to turn the radio to NPR specifically to hear the crop report and % complete. And then listen to mutterings about where they are in comparison. He might actually be talking to me at this point instead of muttering to himself, but I don't really have a lot to add to the conversation so I may not be paying much attention. I imagine it's what he feels like when I talk about...never mind, I can't imagine what he feels like. Everything that comes out of my mouth is pure gold. 
9. You feel the need to buy all of your single-parent friends flowers and chocolates, because having to be the one responsible for kids all the time and still manage not to be a zombie at work is exhausting.
10. Sometimes you get tired of the whole working/taking care of kids/cooking/cleaning thing so you do stuff to cut corners. Such as not do any dishes for two days (with the exception of the bottles that need to be washed for day care) knowing that it will drive him crazy enough that when he comes in late at night he'll eventually just wash them all. Oh, is that just me?

My favorite parts

Every night G and I talk about our day, as part of her bed time routine. We go back and forth telling each other our favorite parts.
"My favorite part was eating sketti for dinner."
"My favorite part when you put your jammies on" (this was actually pretty funny, because one of her arms was jammed up against her head, and I totally wasn't expecting her to try and put her jammies on herself).

Yesterday G stayed home from day care and hung out with me all day. I desperately needed to keep track of all of my favorite parts of the day, to focus on the good, and the amazing little angel by my side.

My favorite part was going to Casey's and getting doughnuts to share, and hearing her say, "Bye, Doughnut Store" as we drove away.
My favorite part was driving the Gator through the "forest."
My favorite part was picking up rocks and pine cones (and we have a gravel driveway so it was a lot of rocks, which are now in a vase in my house).
My favorite part was pushing each other on the swings.
My favorite part was snuggling together watching movies.
My favorite part was G showing V how to dance, and helping V dance along.
My favorite part was eating pizza with all the guys on the farm.

As I sat in the rocking chair in G's room, her arms and legs wrapped around me, her curly head resting on my shoulder and little voice in my ear whispering her favorite parts, I started thinking of all of my other favorite parts. And I prayed to the newest Angel in Heaven I knew would be listening.

Dear Grandma,
My favorite part was having you as a witness at my wedding.
My favorite part was the gift of a rosary said for my family every day for a year.
My favorite part was going to the Farm for Christmas and walking into the noise and love.
My favorite part was having tea together.
My favorite part was you and Grandpa coming to Hy-Vee and going through the drive-thru and my checkout line when I was in high school.
My favorite part was egg salad sandwiches at that lunch cafe.
My favorite part was when you would make us say the rosary if we were acting up in the car, until Dan and Kelly fell asleep and I pretended to fall asleep.
My favorite part was brushing your hair.
My favorite part were stories from when I was too little to remember.
My favorite part was sitting at the table asking you my math questions until my mom realized I was getting you to do my second-grade homework for me.
My favorite part was telling you when I was pregnant. Both times.
My favorite part was coming up for you to meet G.
My favorite part was Skyping so you could meet V.
My favorite part was helping plant strawberries.
My favorite part was helping shuck corn.
My favorite part was cooking together.
My favorite part was talking to you about gardening.
My favorite part was when you came out to see the farm.
My favorite part was taking Watson over to visit all through high school.
My favorite part was making your house one of my first stops when I got a driver's license...and promptly getting stuck in the snow.
My favorite part was filling your planters with flowers after your initial diagnosis of cancer.
My favorite part was growing up writing you letters, until we moved back to Mason City.
My favorite part was coming over for lunch--sandwiches and plain Lays chips.
My favorite part was when you regularly sent me chocolate chip oatmeal cookies in college.
My favorite part was the fact that you ironed pillow cases.
My favorite part was you.

Grandma and I in 1980. Scanned from a magnet I made, which G drew all over.

Image I made for Grandma when G was 5 months old.

Pirates, Princess, Superhero and Queen!

I pre-ordered Frozen from Amazon and had it delivered to my house the day it came out. I had wanted to see it in the theaters, but V came three weeks early and after that going to the movies didn't even cross my mind for quite a while. I'm a huge Disney fan, and I figured any cast that included characters from Glee...I mean, Broadway...ah-hem...had to be good. I was super excited when I saw the UPS truck pull up that Tuesday (I was working from home), but then realized I should probably wait until G got home before I watched it. So I waited. And waited. And waited. I waited at least 4 hours. Maybe 5. The wait was worth it. I've never seen G so entranced with a movie before, and she danced all around our living room to Idina Menzel's "Let It Go" in the end credits. I danced with her. We rocked that song.

Since that fateful day I've probably seen Frozen, or pieces of it, at least 20 times. I don't regret any of it, I still love that movie. Vachel, however, has seen maybe 10 minutes worth.

Cut to a few nights ago. After bath time, Vachel helped G tie her blanket around her neck like a cape and she was running back and forth across our bedroom.She and I had done this before, although my blanket-to-cape-knot-tying skills aren't quite as good as Vachel's.We had been Superheroes. We ran back and forth from my bed, down the hall to the bathroom, turned around and came back, yelling, "Superheroes to the rescue!" and then I would pick her up to fly around the room, tossing her on the bed, before starting the process over. However this night was a little different.

G was once again running around the room, cape flying behind her, yelling and jumping. Vachel stood in the entryway watching her, hope in his eyes, turned to me and said, "Do you think she'd want to watch the original Superman with Christopher Reeves?"

I looked at him and said, "Um...sure...why?"

"Because I used to run around with that blanket (yes, it's the exact same blanket) as a cape pretending to be a superhero, and I think the original Superman won't give her nightmares."

"Vachel, I don't have a problem with that movie...but are you listening to what she's saying?"

Vachel and I turn to watch G, as she continues to run around our room yelling, "I'm a Queen! Ice! (stomp foot, twirl cape, stomp foot) Ice!" The hope in his eyes died a little. This didn't stop him from watching Superman with her though, and she liked that as well. Just not as much as Frozen.

I try not to pass judgement on other parents too often, because this shit is hard and most people just try to do the best they can. However the "Princess Debate" baffles me. In my opinion, if your kid is using their imagination, playing, and not hurting anyone--who cares if it's a Princess or Superhero? My favorite is actually when we play Pirates, because I can just sit on the couch holding the baby and yell, "Arr! I'm Captain Hook!" every once in a while. I get dizzy when we play Princess because I'm usually Prince Charming and I have to twirl her around dancing. Really, I just can't wait till V is old enough to play and then G can boss her around instead.

We can play Pirates, or Princesses, or Superheros...none of those individually are going to have that much of an impact on her development. What really matters is that Vachel and I, and those around her, play with her. That each of us makes sure not to just spend time with her,  but help foster her imagination. Even if we have to spend hours drinking from imaginary tea cups, or crouched under a blanket with her to hide from the lions. However we won't be playing Queen anymore. That's my role, and it's not pretend play. ;)

Starting early--G helping V play tea party

G in her Princess Dress and wand

Yes, my dear, everything does always happen at once

Yesterday was my first day back at work. It almost didn't happen.

The day after President's Day Miss G came home from day care with a temperature of 103.1 (which was gone the following day) and a cough. Vachel promptly got sick, followed by Little V getting sick as well. V couldn't seem to shake a horrible cough, although her temperature wasn't ever really high. I finally took her to the doctor, where she was diagnosed with RSV. We were five days into a generally seven day illness. That meant no day care on Friday. Luckily my girls have an awesome Nana, who cleared her schedule for Friday to do the important task of snuggling with my baby in a room with a humidifier. Even though my mom immediately said she could watch V, my boss almost got a telephone call at 10 PM (11 his time) telling him I couldn't do it ("it" being go to work while V was sick). I was quite literally in tears thinking about leaving her when she didn't feel well. Pretty much the only thing that got me in the car pointed towards Des Moines the next morning was the absolute faith that my mom was watching over her and nothing would happen. And on Monday day care will just have to deal with my 15 minute lecture on how she needs to be kept propped up and what to do during a coughing fit, as well as my subsequent phone calls to check on her. The teachers in the infant room are great and have a ton of experience with babies so they probably don't need my lecture, but they're going to get it anyway.

Poor sick kiddo

 In the midst of all of the sickness that hit my house (how I escaped I'll never know, but I'm knocking on wood as I type) all I could think about was how much everything would SUCK if I was trying to deal with all of this while working. I was sleeping in a recliner with V to make sure she was propped up. We could at least give G an organic cough suppressant designed for toddlers to help her sleep, but she was still waking up throughout the night. Vachel was no help. He worked from home one day and I came into our room while he was on a conference call to see him face down on the floor next to the phone. He was awake and participating when he had to, but he felt so horrible he couldn't even sit at his desk. Our kitchen sink started leaking all over the floor and into the basement. All of this is beside the point. My point is that in the middle of the night Tuesday I decided I needed a reward for making it through this week and going back to work so I ordered a box of Godiva Ultimate Dessert Truffles from my good friend Amazon, and due to the fantasticness of my Amazon Prime account knew my truffles would be here when I got home from work Friday. Vachel was feeling moderately better last night so I asked him to watch both girls while I went up to our Jacuzzi bath, lit some candles, poured a glass of wine, grabbed a book, opened my truffles, and set about relaxing.

Bath + Wine + Chocolate = Heaven

Did I mention this was Vachel's first time taking care of both girls without me running interference?

There I was, sitting in my well-deserved bubble bath, drinking wine and eating chocolate, when I can hear V start to cry. Then I hear Gus, the dog, sprinting past the door and down the stairs, followed by Vachel. A few moments later, V is still crying, and I hear, "Daddy, I have to go potty." Next thing I know Vachel is coming in, holding G's hand, trying to coral her towards the potty. G, however, was distracted by the fact I was in her bath tub. Vachel's face was absolutely comical. He was clearly stressed, trying to push one kid towards the toilet and help her while the other one was crying for a bottle. I had no intention of getting out of the tub, and he didn't ask me to. He looks at me, half panicked, and says, "Everything is happening all at once!" I started to laugh. He didn't find it that amusing. Welcome to my life!

I've noticed you can go for long stretches of time with nothing major happening, and then all of a sudden everything happens all at once. This isn't just with kids; you'll only spill coffee on your clothes when you're already running late. The dog only pees on the floor right before people come over to the house. I'm pretty sure it's one of Newton's Laws.  While this phenomenon isn't restricted to those with small children, I've noticed a definite increase in this type of situation with two kids. For example, while attempting to potty train G (while Vachel was gone for eight days--I was stupid) she pooped in her underwear. I plopped her on the toilet and ran to get wipes to clean her up. She then got off the toilet and finished her business on the floor. V started screaming because she needed a diaper change. My phone rang. Gus started barking. Trying to clean up her mess I clogged the toilet. Before that? Totally calm. G and I playing, V napping, Gus laying on the couch. 15 minutes after that, back to the status quo. But that 15 minutes...if there would have been any other adult in the vicinity I would have handed them both kids and the dog, told them there was a mess to clean up in the bathroom and I would be back in a few hours.

It's amazing how two people so skilled at prioritizing and dealing with multiple issues of increasing complexity at work can be so out-of-sorts when dealing with two small children and one dog. I at least have a measly 12 weeks of experience to fall back on when it comes to prioritizing (hint: the one who needs to go to the bathroom and not wearing a diaper always wins). But the look on his face as he tried to herd G towards the toilet while V screamed in the background...

Dinner: Where's Alice when you need her?

Over the last year or so one of the things we've struggled with as a family is dinner. During the week it's really the only meal we have together, and during certain times of the year (i.e. Fall Harvest and Spring Planting) it's often just G and I having dinner together. You would think with just one meal a day to worry about (thank you, Day Care, for providing breakfast, lunch and snacks!) it wouldn't be an issue to plan ahead to have a delicious, nutritious evening meal four days a week (we go over to my parent's and they take care of the delicious, nutritious meal one day a week). In response to that thought, I will tell you that our 2.5 year old knows how to make Easy Mac. (If anyone is reading this and then saying, "Oh, Katie, that's horrible"...feel free to come to my house and make dinner. I'll even let Vachel pay you).

The root cause of our dinner problems stems from the fact that I never plan ahead for meals, and Vachel is rarely available to cook by the time G needs to eat. For some reason I feel the need to justify his availability here, so I'll just say that between the farm and his full-time day (and some evenings and weekends) job he's promised to be available for either dinner or bedtime, but can't consistently do both. I've chosen bedtime because that process causes me more stress. I've decided I need to get better about planning ahead for meals, make them in advance and just put them in the freezer/fridge to eat through the rest of the week. Or at least have the ingredients on hand if it's something quick. We'll see how this works out, as I've been saying the exact same thing for the last year.

As I go back to work in 10 days, this whole dinner thing has been weighing even more on my mind. I'm assuming things will be a little bit harder, require more planning, etc, once I go back to work full time. Other than the normal challenges associated with dinner that I'm used to, we'll have the added challenge of V. Whom I'm primarily nursing, eats on demand, and not on any particular schedule. I'm imagining she'll decide it's time to nurse while I'm in the middle of handling raw chicken and using the stove, while G is hanging on my leg crying because she's hungry and I've moved the Easy Mac from it's regular location so she can't feed herself. It could happen.

 I don't do this

Or this

 I've spent the last few days scouring cookbooks and recipe apps for quick, easy meals that include things like ground beef. I live on a cattle farm so most recipes that include ground beef don't require me to plan ahead, as I have an entire freezer full. I also have a lot of steak and pork chops, but no idea how to turn on the grill or how to make anything with those that doesn't require a grill...let's be honest, I can make things with ground beef or chicken breast. And most desserts, because that's the best part of every meal. Not only is planning for dinner a challenge, I'm not a big fan of the cooking part either. Vachel loves to cook, he finds it relaxing. I do it because eating pizza for every meal will make you fat. 

In addition to cookbooks and apps, I've spent quite a bit of time on Pinterest's Food & Drink page. Apparently the last time I spent quality time on this section of Pinterest I was pregnant, because the number of decadent chocolate desserts on my own board is a little ridiculous. Although I highly recommend the ice cream sandwich cake.

Any recipes or good apps anyone knows of that can easily help me plan meals ahead, come up with a grocery list and will help make sure I actually make the food? Or does anyone know where I can find Alice from The Brady Bunch?

That one day I did stuff

Two weeks from tomorrow I return to work. Which means that two weeks from today will be my last day of maternity leave, and last day at home with the amazing little girl who just discovered smiles. All of a sudden realizing I have a deadline, I felt like I should start doing more than hanging out in my pj's watching Netflix and snuggling with my baby. Not much more, mind you. I'm still in my pj's while V alternates between smiling at herself in the mirror and napping on her play mat.

Best looking girl around!

Last night hubby returned from an eight day trip to two separate conferences, one was an APEX conference designed for networking and leadership training for agriculture leaders. The second was for U.S. Grains Council, which helps determine both national and international grain policy. He may be out making a difference in agriculture for our farm, the state of Iowa and the nation, but I kept a 2.5 year old and a 2 month old alive for eight days and didn't lose my sanity. Beat that!

To celebrate his homecoming, G and I made a cake. She wanted a pink Abby Cadabby cake, but I'd already bought the chocolate cake mix and my culinary skills don't extend to actual decorations. My best friend Duncan Hines does all of the work for me. We made this last night and when he woke her up this morning to go to day care her first words to him were, "Hi Daddy, I made you a cake. Can we eat it?" Those two are definitely related. I was shocked there wasn't a piece missing when I went downstairs this morning.

Decorations of a 2.5 year old

This morning I was super ambitious and decided to make banana bread with my old bananas, treats for day care's Valentines Day party tomorrow AND do the dishes. Normally I just pick one thing a day and today I aimed for three.V was in her swing looking at the poster G and I made for her, so I started with the banana bread since that takes longer. This was only interrupted by V spitting up all over herself, requiring a bath and outfit change. Back into the swing to finish the banana bread, and onto the pink heart shaped Rice Krispie treats. Since she was still entertained by the poster and swing combo I decided to clean up after myself instead of piling all the dishes on the counter and waiting for my husband to come home.

All of this before noon! I'm not quite sure how I'm going to manage any "extras" such as cake, Rice Krispie treats and banana bread for the first few weeks back at work. Adjusting to life with a newborn and toddler without working was hard enough, the extra stress and hours away are just going to mess with what little routine I've established (this current routine does not include getting up at 5 AM and getting everyone out the door in a timely manner). With this in mind, I want to get in as much as I can now. That way when my husband complains about me not making dinner or something I can reply with, "Hey remember that one time I made stuff? And you didn't have to do the dishes afterward?"