A Peek at the Poulsens

First of all, this is what Peanut does when I'm at my parent's house: He lays across my lap as if he is protecting baby : ) Anyway, my 13-year-old sister is a fabulous swimmer and got to go to Lawrence, Kansas for a swim meet this weekend. We decided to make it a mini vacation and instead of just the normal Mom and Annie, my dad, Sam, and I tagged along too. Any Plumb trip, regardless of length or occasion, is guaranteed to involve inappropriate amounts of food, and this was no exception. We loaded up at a gas station for the 3-hour drive (passing around Dad's mustard pretzels and my Skor bar and praying that Sam wouldn't eat his Salsitas in the car) and upon arrival at our destination, dropped Annie off to warm up at the pool and immediately proceeded to find a suitable feeding place. The Salty Iguana caught my eye and I convinced everyone it was a good idea to try and experience the "local" and not chain restaurants...turns out I was totally right. E...

I promise I will talk about more exciting things than the weather, but I need to start off with a little pity party: 100+ degrees with humidity and no cloud cover has made for a HOT summer for this baby-carrying girl. In the United States,  3,215  daily high temperature records were set during June. That is just too many hot days around the country. I realize others have it far worse than I do in my air-conditioned, healthy, safe condition, but all I know is I don't think my pores will ever be the same after this summer.  (I live in a brown area. Great, 105 degrees, AND the ugliest color.) Phew. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let me tell you what the Poulsens have been up to this week! (Sorry it's been so long.) Our friends had a DARLING, PERFECT, HEAVENLY little baby girl last Wednesday and Austin and I have had a ball visiting them and spending time with this precious newborn. We are SO very happy for the new parents; when I got the first picture o...

Okay, this isn't Michael (yeah, we're on a first-name basis, no big deal), but it is my fabulous husband who supports me in practicing. He brings a book and reads as I bang out Beethoven and Scriabin. He's such a winner : ) (And, incidentally, ten times more ripped than Michael Phelps.) And this is just a funny picture - for some reason the placement of this peel cracked both of us up. Okay, now to the big guns: U.S. Olympic Swim Trials 2012! My sister won tickets from her swim team so we split them up (thanks Shoogs!). My mom and I went to the Tuesday morning session at the CenturyLink Center in Omaha and it was the BOMB! Naturally, we got treats for pre-, during, and post-trials, but Miss Five-Minutes-of-Power standing at the front doors wouldn't let us bring them in. (As if I'm going to be carrying a bomb in a Panera bag...sigh.) I was ready to let it go but then they wouldn't let me bring in my water bottle full of ice cubes and delicious freezing ...

"I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you; but may I just say..." "Hiiii." Haha, I can't get enough. When Austin is at work and I am fiddling around at home (because that is what I do all day every day, and I'm running out of projects - you know it's bad when I'm reorganizing the snat bowl "no, Reese's need to be equally spread out over the top of the Jolly Ranchers and the 100 Grands should be hidden a little, we don't want to eat those too fast...wait a minute, why do we have SweetTarts?") I like to have background noise, so I trade off movies. Tangled is my current favorite for this task, and it is seriously in our DVD player at least once a week. Don't hate. We do watch movies other than Tangled (and Matilda, Pride and Prejudice, and Heavyweights, all of which can brag about prime-time viewing privileges in the Poulsen household), however. In fact, excluding ESPN, both of us much prefer movies to TV. And I ...

All of my life, I have thought of myself as a skinny person. Every once in a while I get a little chubby around the edges, but it's never anything serious. I'm a pretty active person, and I can lose weight fairly easily. Unfortunately (and fortunately, I guess), Jessie is the greatest cook that this world has ever known, and I have had a really hard time saying no to second, third, and even fourth helpings. Needless to say, I put on quite a few extra pounds in the first few months that we were married. Then one day, my self-image was drastically altered: I was fat . Like I said, I have always thought of myself as a skinny person, so to realize that I wasn't anymore came as a rather unpleasant little (or, rather, big) surprise. This was me. After a few days of moping around in my obesity, I finally realized that I could do something about it, so that night I went for a run. I went to the lake that is right behind our apartment, and I did the whole 2.3 mile revolutio...

What is more satisfying than finishing a delicious, witty, interesting, 5-star book? Nothing, in my mind. Austin and I adore reading and spend a good amount of our time discussing, browsing for, and sticking our noses in the latest read. You've already seen my husband's Star Wars collection, but today I organized (or, rather, attempted to find places for) the rest of the books in our apartment. I have two large boxes bursting with more books waiting at my parent's house - I miss those friends but they have nowhere to go! A bookshelf lamp...cool, right? (These pictures aren't doing it justice - I promise that the effect is more overwhelming in person.)  All my juicy piano books!   Our small (but growing!) children's section My dad has a dream that every member of the family will own a Kindle, so he bought Austin and I our own this past year - thanks Dad! Admittedly, I haven't fully conquered the I-prefer-actual-books-i...

I forgot to mention a couple of things in my Les Mis/boredom/awkward pictures stupor, so forgive this extra post (or don't read it if you want to be that way!). One of the reasons I love being at my parent's house is the time I get to spend with my siblings. They are all the best , the best the best. Jack (21), Max (19), Sam (17), and Annie (13) make me laugh, sometimes make me cry, and always make me proud. Yesterday Annie and I went to Target to look at baby things, nail polish, and office supplies, and then she played Call of Duty (no joke) and I read my book next to her. I can't believe she'll be an 8th-grader this fall! Last night we had Domino's pizza for dinner (woooo Mom left the credit card, the only time we ever get the extras like parmesan bread bites and cinnamon stix!) I made a comment that I felt bad for the 50-year-old delivery boy (man?) and Jack said, "At least he has a job," which prompted Sam to segue (<-- the spelling for the...