Our Happy Little Family

Rediscovering Food

jessie — Fri, 22 May 2009 09:30:55 +0000

Recently, I have been having some serious stomach pains after eating. Last Sunday, it got so bad, I couldn’t even stand up straight. I went to my doctor hoping to hear it was just stress, or something else, ends up they aren’t sure what it is exactly, either Pancreatitis or an inflamed Intestine - either way, it affects the way I eat, and could be the reason why I haven’t been able to lose weight the past few months, even though I had been trying.

Since I won’t be able to find out the exact diagnosis until Monday when they run more tests, they have me taking medicine to control the acid in my stomach. Which means I am on a strict No Fat, No Acid diet. Which is incredibly hard. Sure, it is easy to give up things like Coca Cola, meat, and junk food, but the hardest is giving up most fruits and some vegetables – when I snack, I tend to eat strawberries and pineapple, when Stephan and I cook, it usually always has onions and garlic in it – well, not any more!

After several days of limiting myself to lettuce, rice, and potatoes, I have been searching for recipes online that are suitable for my diet. Unfortunately, I can only find things that are No-Fat with acidy elements, or No-Acid with fat in it. Grrrreat. I have been trying to experiment with foods, and make things the healthiest way possible.

Example of the day: I normally eat a Granny Smith apple for breakfast every morning. Granny Smiths are full of acid, so I remembered my old roommates famous recipe – Cut up 2 Granny Smith apples into large chunks. Boil them in water with lots of Cinnamon. Totally easy and delicious. Boiling the apples take away most, if not all of the acid in them. As I discover more No-Fat No-Acid foods, I will be putting the recipes up on a new page on this blog so that other people with digestive problems might somehow be able to find them!!

Sunday Fun-day!

jessie — Sun, 17 May 2009 19:06:21 +0000

Today has been such a great reminder of the things I love in Munich. Stephan and I slept in, which was desperately needed (I have been sleeping terribly the past few weeks). We then bummed around the apt for about 30 minutes before we realized how beautiful it was outside. We immediately left the apt and went on a long walk through the English Gardens, stopping by our favorite beer garden Aumeister to enjoy a Radler and some Bavarian food.

We walked all the way from the North of the Garden to central Munich (a good hour and a half) and decided to finally use the movie tickets I got from work for my birthday (in January). We saw ‘Angels and Demons’ in Original version, and I scarfed down some “salty” popcorn. After the movie, we went to Muenchener Freiheit and watched old men play super-sized chess.

We walked through the gardens home, and are now cooking some delicious dinner from scratch – Spaghetti Bolognese alla Stephan with caramelized green Asparagus. This has been the exact kind of day I have needed for a looong time.

Song of the day: I am Waiting

it’s here! it’s here!

jessie — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:37:37 +0000

We finally got the last delivery full of furniture, so we will finally have a dining room table and wall unit for the living room. So exciting!! Stephan has been working hard putting all the furniture together, while I am helping where I can, giving moral support and basically trying to stay out of the way. (I’ve also been doing more girly things – laundry, cleaning, etc – so don’t call me lazy!!)

I am absolutely ecstatic to eat on our new table. We have been “roughing it” for the past month and a half, and it will be so nice to get everything together. A housewarming party is also in the works.

I’ll hopefully be posting pics and/or video of everything once we get it all up. Hope everyone else is having a successful weekend!

busy bees

jessie — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:51:56 +0000

Now that I am doing enough work for 3 people in the office with no end in sight, things have been, well, a little hectic to say the least. 55 hour work weeks are not fun, and don’t leave much time for fun things, like writing in blogs.

Stephan has been busy too – getting everything prepared for his semester in Spain, sorting out his Master’s thesis, and trying to manage a full class load AND a full work load.

Rosie keeps herself busy batting out stuff off of the table and showing us that she is indeed very aware that we are spending less time at home.

But so is life, right? The past weeks have really flown by, even if the days seem months long. Stephan’s brother’s wedding, his mom’s birthday and Mother’s day have kept us out of Munich and in the country, which admittedly has been really nice to get away, even if it is only the weekend. In such chaos, it is really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel – but once you do remember to slow down (even if it is sitting on the subway) things seem a bit more manageable. I just need to keep reminding myself to slow down and make time to smile.

Poor Rosie

jessie — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:56:42 +0000

I took Rosie into the vet this morning to get her spayed. She is such a curious cat, she jumped right off of the table and into one of the nurses arms. This is Rosie’s second vet visit, and she was pretty nervous – with reason! They were poking and prodding her, but were really sweet. The doctor had studied in the US for almost 10 years, so his English was near perfect – lots of Germans love getting to practice their English, but I was really impressed with how good his was.

I can’t believe how expensive it is to get a cat spayed here – that including shots and a microchip cost over 200 euros! I figured we should go ahead with the microchip while she is under, esp because it only costs 30 – apparently cats aren’t allowed to travel without one? Not that we are planning on crossing any borders any time soon, but I think it is a good idea for just in case situations (like her jumping off of our 3rd story balcony and running away).

I also asked the doctor if it was possible to get her front claws declawed. Growing up, all of our cats were at least partially declawed; and since she is an indoor cat, I thought it would be a good idea – but apparently in Germany, declawing a cat is illegal due to animal cruelty. I had no idea how invasive the procedure was and how harmful it can be. Good thing I have a friend who studied Zoology to tell me all about it before I spoke with the Vet – he was able to give me a lot more info about it bc I kind of had an idea of what it was.

My two “sick” days that I got off for my wrist have been incredibly busy – with Rosie, doctors appointments and tons of errands, I am exhausted. Worst of all, I have to do everything one handed. My wrist is better – the swelling has gone down a ton, and it hurts less, but I can totally feel if I had used it too much. Oh well. I am really excited about getting back to work tomorrow – there is so much to do at work, I feel guilty for not going in! But doctors orders overrule my need for stress.

Music of the Day

jessie — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:11:38 +0000

We always have music playing in our house – here is a sample of what’s playing today!

(Cat Stevens – If You Want to Sing Out)

(MGMT – Time to Pretend)

(Bob Dylan – Subterranean Homesick Blues)

(Rilo Kiley – With Arms Outstretched)

Enjoy the music and have a great Saturday morning!

Hello world!

jessie — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:46:22 +0000

Welcome to our new life – Jessie, Stephan and Rosie (our kitty) just moved into our first apartment together. We have been so busy buying furniture, building furniture and unpacking boxes, there has been little time for anything else! Things were hectic at first, one of my old roommates was having emergency surgery, Stephan was in the middle of a difficult internship and studying for tests, but everything smoothed out pretty quickly and we are getting into our own routine. Rosie moved in a week after we did, and she had no problem adjusting to the new apt – she has a lot more room to run and play, and has had a great time hiding in boxes.

No big weekend plans except for building up more furniture and nursing my wrist – I got a tiny fracture during my first Gaelic Football practice – looks like I won’t be too much help while installing the new Ikea stuff! I’ll make sure to take some pictures and post them for you to see our new home!