Corn

Corn is taking over the world. Seriously. It's in everything. I don't have a problem with this, I like corn in many forms: popcorn, cornbread, corn chips, corn flakes...but I don't really like the original version. Corn is probably the only vegetable I don't like. I am, however, intrigued by corn. I first started to think about corn back when they started using it as an alternative fuel for cars (ethanol). Last summer at my sister-in-law's wedding, all of the dinnerware (plates, utensils, etc.) were made out of corn. If you read the label of any processed, packaged food, it is bound to contain corn in some form. But why?

I am reading a book right now that has helped to cure my corn curiosity. It is called "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. Pollan is a Berkley professor, and I don't normally endorse anything written by anyone with ties to Berkley, mostly because it attracts radical people that do crazy things like tie themselves to trees and and lock themselves in cages to "prove a point" or "protest" and I think they just prove that they are crazy. This book, however, was surprisingly good. Very clever. I did have to skip over some parts, but the chapters on corn were fascinating. Everyone should read them. Here's what I learned:

If the adage "you are what you eat" is true, then we are all corn. Corn is the cheapest commodity in agriculture, and as a result we have a corn fed food chain. We feed it to our cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, lambs, and even farmed fish. Subsequently, our eggs, milk, cheese, and yogurt are made from corn. The following ingredients found in processed food are all derived from corn: high-fructose corn syrup, modified corn starch, maltodextrin, ascorbic acid, lecithin, dextrose, lactic acid, maltose, caramel color, xantthan gum, etc. Corn can be found toothpaste, cosmetics, matches, batteries, pesticides, magazines, and much more. HFCS was invented in 1980 and has replaced sugar in just about everything, most notably in soft drinks. If you eat at McDonald's, just about everything you will get comes from corn. There are 38 ingredients in a McNugget, 13 of which are derived from corn. After being measured in a laboratory, this is the breakdown of the amount of corn in menu items: soda (100 percent), milkshake (78 percent), salad dressing (65 percent), chicken nuggets (56 percent), cheeseburger (52 percent), french fries (23 percent...because they are fried in corn oil).

Ok, I'll stop now because I'm pretty sure I'm the only person on the planet that is interested in this subject and most of my readers have probably already stopped reading. If you want to know more, check the book out at the library. If you are as captivated by this subject as I am, give me a call, we'll talk corn.

Max and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I'm always complaining to J-P that my life is mundane. I tell him that once in a while I like a little drama to spice things up. After yesterday I changed my mind. I don't like drama. Give me laundry, give me diapers, give me a messy house to clean. That's all I want. I promise I'll never complain about how uneventful my life is again. Here is the breakdown of my day:

5:00 a.m.(like clockwork)- Max wakes up with a swollen, rash covered face.
5:30 a.m.- Screaming ensues as Max's 5th tooth struggles to break through.
11:00 a.m.- I feed Max lunch and his lips swell up bigger than Angelina Jolie's. I call his pediatrician.
11:10 a.m.- The nurse calls back and asks if Max is drooling. I tell her yes and she tells me to hang up and call 911.
11:11 a.m.- I start to cry.
11:12 a.m.- I tell her that he is teething, and explain that he is laughing, playing, and seems ok. She explains that he is in grave danger and that I can't go anywhere without a cell phone and benadryl, and that he needs to see an allergist right away.
11:13 a.m.- I call the allergist and luckily the first available appointment is in the middle of September. I though I would have to wait.
2:00 p.m.- Our air conditioning goes out. Not to worry, it's only 111 degrees.
5:00 p.m.- J-P leaves for San Francisco.
6:00 p.m.- Our house is over 90 degrees and climbing so I pack up Max and drive to our friend's vacant house in Queen Creek to spend the night. On the way I realize I didn't eat dinner. We stop at Subway and I give Max a piece of bread. Poof, two minutes later the Angelina Jolie lips are back. I take him to the car and force some benadryl down his screaming throat.
6:15 p.m.- I rush Max and his expanding lips to urgent care.
7:00 p.m.- They tell me he is pretty sick, he has a fever and some strange virus. They say they can't help me with the allergic reaction and that he needs to see an allergist. I manage to get a prescription for a steroid that "should prevent him from stopping breathing during the night."
7:01 p.m.- I start to cry again. What am I supposed to do, not feed my baby until September?
7:30 p.m.- Max screams for an hour while I wait for his prescription at Walgreens. I call local hotels (queen creek is too far from hospitals) and only smoking rooms are available.
8:30 p.m.- My arms are aching from Max's hour long tantrum in Walgreens. My nerves are frazzled. I don't know where to go. I call Sarah (my sister-in-law) and ask if she and her roommate will let us crash at their place. She can barely understand me because by this point I am sobbing. Gotta love those pregnancy hormones.
9:30 p.m.- Max spits out all of his life saving medicine and screams in protest at Sarah's until 1:00 a.m.
1:01 a.m.- I collapse into bed and call J-P. I tell him to come home right away and that he isn't allowed to go on anymore business trips.

Today is a better day. Max is asleep and after spending a small fortune, we have a whole new AC system. Bring on the monotony!

We're back...

We just got back from a quick trip to CA. It was a much needed vacation. We finally celebrated Max's 1st birthday and took him on a trip to the zoo and the beach. He played in the sand and helped his dad build (knock down?) a sand castle. Most of the beach and zoo shots are on my mom's camera, so I'll have to wait until she gets home and emails them to me before I can post them. In the meantime, enjoy these shots from our trip...

busy, busy, busy

Max has been very busy loading all of his toys in the trunk of his car and pushing them around the house. He is always in a big hurry, as if he were late for a very important meeting. Then he unloads his car, loads it back up and repeats the drill. I love it because he wears himself out and takes a good nap. Hooray for naps!

Happy Birthday Max!

I'll never forget the sheer shock I felt as they placed Max on my belly after he was born. He was huge. I could barely breath when the nurse called out his stats: 9 lbs 1 oz, and 22 1/2 inches long. How in the world did this baby fit inside of me? In my highly medicated, sleep deprived condition I kept muttering "I can't believe I had a 9 pound baby" over and over like a broken record. I probably said it at least a 100 times a day for the first week of his life.

I can't believe a year has gone by since that day. Max doubled his birth weight by 2 1/2 months, and outgrew his infant car seat by 3 months. Luckily for us his sense of humor grew as quickly as he did. He has been lighting up our lives with laughter since he was 6 weeks old. He has taught me how to laugh at things that would normally make me cry (poopy messes, food covered floors, eating bugs and dirt...). Enjoy some of my favorite pictures from his first year...

2 months

3 months

5 months

8 months

10 months

It's a...

BOY!

We had our ultrasound this morning and the baby seems to be healthy, but a little small so my due date might get pushed back a couple of weeks. Not so happy about that. I also have a low laying placenta (very bad news for an already paranoid person) which I'm praying will move up. Other than that things at chez scoville are going well.

A Great Day...

Max is terrified of the dog and cow you see in this picture. He believes they
are alive and won't touch them. If they come near him he screams like a girl. I use
them to guard my folded laundry on the couch from a Max attack.

Today is a good day. I finished all of my errands and grocery shopping by 8:00 a.m. I finished my laundry by 9:00 a.m., and I finished dinner (and put it in the fridge) by 10:00 a.m. Aside from the haphazard explosion of toys that covers the living room floor, my house is clean. I feel great. Don't worry, this not a typical day. I usually end up chasing and entertaining Max all day long and not accomplishing anything.

Due to some unfortunate symptoms that result from a mangy intestinal parasite that both Max and I have, I have decided to cut dairy and wheat out of my diet. Not an easy thing to do. I have to improvise and be a very creative cook. My dinner inspiration today came from a blog I just discovered. I love it when I am trying to search for a great picture or recipe and google directs me to the archives of a fantastic new blog. I was searching everywhere for a soup recipe that had white beans, kale, and Italian sausage and...voila. Google introduced me to chez megáne. She has some great recipes and some exciting links to other food blogs. Click here for the soup recipe. I would recommend using spicy chicken Italian sausage that is nitrate free, it gives the soup a fantastic kick. You can find it at most health food stores (and trader joe's).

Sold!

Yesterday was a bittersweet day at chez Scoville. Bitter because J-P had to bid bon voyage to his vintage 1966 Landcruiser...sweet because he was able to talk someone into paying $900 for a car that doesn't run. We were ready to run out the door and go buy a new T.V. when we discovered our salt water pool mechanism needs to be replaced, which will cost much more than what we earned from the car. Oh well, hopefully the rest of our stuff will sell soon. Thank goodness for the internet.


Max and I had fun playing with babies at our play group (friends from school). The host had a dog and Max was screaming at it the whole time. He also had fun stealing everyone's toys. We had to watch everyone swim because my burgeoning belly has a horrible rash (happens every time I go through a growth spurt) that is rendered intolerable by chlorine.

Furniture Frustration

Spending money stresses me out. That’s why I never buy anything. When I was a little girl my mom always filled our cart with brand name foods at the supermarket, which immediately prompted me to give her a lecture about how we could save 37 cents if we bought the generic ketchup. I also took things out of the cart and put them back when she wasn't looking. In college I ate lentils almost everyday and never updated my wardrobe so I could make it through without asking my parents for money or taking out student loans. I even cut my own hair and wore wet n wild makeup. Gross, I know.

Last week I took the plunge and bought a couch. I'm still recovering from the stress of the purchase. Buying a couch is a big deal. Right now I'm super stressed, not only because I dropped a bunch of cash, but because the couch doesn't match anything in our house. It looks hideous. We have to buy all new stuff. I would just take it back, but we already sold our other couches and there is nothing else in our price range that I will allow in my living room. Right now all of our furniture is for sale on craigslist and I am practicing deep breathing to help prepare myself for more major purchases.


Yesterday we decided to go to IKEA to see if there was anything that might possibly go with our new decor. It was only after we got there that I realized that only crazy people go to IKEA on Memorial Day. Max loved it. I've never seen him so happy. He was screaming, laughing, flapping, clapping, pointing, and waving at all the people. He was in IKEA heaven. He created such a diversion that we were distracted from our mission: finding something, anything that we could cut, refinish, paint, or tweak to make it work for our new living space. After a very discouraging trek through the maze of home furnishings we dined on Swedish meatballs and lingonberry juice and headed home with nothing more than a salad spinner and some kitchen scrub brushes. Can someone please tell me where I can find chic, yet affordable home furnishings? We are also in the market for a new t.v., where is the best place to get one? Also, is it ok to mix a dark, chocolate brown couch with black accessories? (curtain rods, frames, lamps, etc..) I am in major need of some design therapy.

Playing Tag

I've been tagged by Dandee Designs.

What was I doing ten years ago?

I was getting fired as the editor of my high school newspaper two weeks before graduation. It's a long story that involves a crazy teacher, me sitting in a "punishment" room everyday with other banished staff members, and my parents appealing the ordeal all the way to the superintendent so that I could get credit for the class and graduate from high school.

What was I doing one year ago?

I was teaching Spanish, giving finals, doing prenatal yoga, speed walking for hours on end at the mall to try to go into labor, eating at least one whole pineapple a day to try to go into labor, eating lots of really spicy food to try to go into labor, massaging all the acupressure points that are supposed to help start labor, etc... Nothing worked. I delivered 4 days late (after 3 days of labor).

Five snacks I enjoy:

-Red Hot Blues organic tortilla chips
-Luna Bars
-Hershey's Extra Dark Chocolate bar with cranberries, blueberries, and almonds
-Mangoes
-Afternoon tea with scones and any other appropriate pastry

Five songs I know all the words to:

-El Muelle de San Blas -by Mana
-Ballad For My One True Love - by Mason Jennings
-Aserejé- by Las Ketchup
-Bizarre Love Triangle - by New Order
-Pick Yourself Up -by Diana Krall

Five things I would do if I were a millionaire?

-I would buy a bigger house with a beautifully landscaped backyard and a mini-van. I would put what little was left in our savings account (we have a great interest rate). I would also consider hiring a housekeeper.

Five of my Many bad habits:

-Procrastinating everything
-Going to bed too late
-Watching too much T.V.
-Being judgemental and bossy
-Reading Ann Coulter's weekly column instead of things I should be reading

Five things I like doing:

-Floating (in my pool, the ocean, in a kayak, on a boat...it's so relaxing)
-Going to the Library or Barnes and Noble to read magazines I'm too cheap to buy
-Trying new restaurants and recipes
-Going to a spa or staying in a fancy hotel (doesn't happen that often)
-Travelling

Five things I will never wear again:

I can only think of one: a tucked-in shirt. My torso is just too short and I've been laughed at too many times. I'll never say never about anything else because you never know what will come back in style. I never thought the 80's would.

Five of my Favorite toys:

-my garlic press
-the internet
-our saws (although I won't touch them, I make J-P do the cuts)
-my dyson vacuum
-all electronics (Tivo, digital camera, cell phone, etc..)

I didn't follow all the tagging instructions correctly (adding the previous links) because Max just woke up and my free time is over.

I'm tagging (no pressure):

alex and anna
scoville clan
warren family
sarah