Cafe 222

We're big fans of the food network. If you know us at all, you know this.

Turns out one of James' favorite chefs, Bobby Flay, was on the Food Network's "Best thing I ever ate" show and proclaimed Cafe 222's peanut butter french toast as the - you guessed it - best thing he ever ate (breakfast edition). Cafe 222 is in downtown San Diego.

So, when Desiree visited us in January we jumped at the opportunity to go and sample it. She's an avid Food Network watcher too. Though we've recently discovered discrepancies in our tastes I've chosen not to hold it against her.

Anyway. Here is the restaurant. It was much tinier than I expected. It was cold and rainy, so we didn't have to wait too long. Bonus - they had coffee waiting outside for those who had to wait in line! Yay!

I loved the bottom of the menu:

I also REALLY loved the lamps!

James sampling the coffee..... it was good, and in cute cups.

We chose to share the Eggs Italia.... which were THE BEST eggs I have EVER had in my life. With Pesto and goat cheese and all the goodness in the world.....

And two orders of the peanut butter banana french toast. I thought it was great. I'm not huge on french toast, but it was the best french toast I've ever had. I'd love french toast if it all tasted like that. Desiree and James sort of agreed it wasn't the best thing they ever ate, but enjoyed it nonetheless.

The Eggs Italia was tremendous. I'd go there every morning for those. But I just managed to squeeze into my skinny pants. So, maybe I won't.

The Dedication

Being a Pastor's wife means that I'm on my own on Sunday mornings. This may not seem like a big deal. I assure you it is. I get my kids (&me) ready for school, outings, etc, all the time. Often on my own, which is no small feat. But when it comes to Sunday mornings, there is nothing harder. Add in the fact that everyone has to look nice, really nice, like for Christmas or Easter or baby dedications the pressure mounts uncontrollable. This was my mindset (pressure!) this past Sunday morning. Fortunately for me my thoughtful mother swooped in and rescued my sinking ship just as it was going down. She got the girls dressed, handled Capri & her bad attitude and got everyone the 101 things they were asking me for while I was trying to get ready. The results ended up pretty good... thanks mom!

Here's Tella in her pretty dress:

And JD in his vest. Please notice the scrapes down the center of his face. Just when I was thinking how great it was that no one had a injury to present to the church when we were on stage, JD took a header into our carpet and there you have it. Still handsome!

Me & Tell. I felt great in my dress. I got so many compliments I felt like maybe I look like a bum everyday and this was so drastic it knocked people over. But, in reality I think it was just a nice dress! Please take a moment to notice my shoes. They are a rainbow-like snakeskin. I LOVE them. And interesting tidbit - they are designed by Carlos Santana. I think that's weird. But I still love them.

My dress had pockets, here's me taking my hands out of them while we were praying... ha ha!

Capri's bad mood passed just in time for me to take a picture of her after the service.

Capri took another picture of my dress. Next time I'll photo shop the car door out. It's still dirty from when we were in the mountains.

JD took this up-close all by himself.

This was a precious moment at lunch. That's my Uncle Mike. He's an awesome guy, a REALLY awesome Uncle. He's feeding Tella a tiny ice cream cone. A bonding moment for her and him I'm sure. Hope she doesn't expect ice cream every time she sees him. But that would be better than Capri's reaction to him - she runs screaming or hides from him! Not sure why... She has changed her mind about him now, but it's taken like 5 years.

A very sleepy little Tell loves the attention!

Bonus: Here's JD today. Love that little man!

Because you can't wait,

or maybe I can't.

The baby is being dedicated at church tomorrow. So, I did something so out of the ordinary. I bought clothes. For me. And for the girls. I made myself feel better by telling myself they are multi-use items..... namely for use again at Easter.

So, because I couldn't handle the thought of standing in front of the entire church, especially in my current "mom-ish" wardrobe, I bought a new dress at H&M. LOVE IT. LOVE IT. Which is weird because I am not a "dress" person.

Anyway... here's a preview of what's to come tomorrow morning!

I can't believe I'm excited!

JD's worst nightmare

Yesterday I was afforded a unique opportunity. I had the brilliant idea to arrange some things for Capri so I could take JD and Tella to Sea World. Sea World is JD's favorite place on earth. He can't get enough. We haven't been there in a long time, so of course he jumped at the opportunity... the first words out of his mouth were " I can do the Sham Slam!" (at the Shamu show).

The day was great, nice weather, not crowded AT ALL.

We saw the Beluga's. (my personal fav) Can you see Tella's little pointer finger?

The walrus, who was eating his lunch. Chewing on and then regurgitating his fish, JD was enthralled. Gross. Tella wanted nothing to do with this one.

We saw the sharks. We were the only ones in the exhibit so JD got personal attention from a Sea World educator. He got to touch shark skin, which I'm surprised to say he was hesitant about. I think he thought she wanted him to touch a real shark, which he was NOT about to do since we've had long conversations recently about what sharks and whales do, eat, etc.

Mommy got him a special treat! Pay attention to the progression of pictures here.

Wow! What an ice cream!

Yummy!

Then the unimaginable happened. They CANCELLED THE SHAMU SHOW! This is him trying to comprehend what cancelled meant. He had been waiting all day to see it.

We got there at 10:30 that morning, and the Shamu show wasn't until 2:30 that afternoon. I couldn't believe it, but I gathered my strength and we took our time thru the park to make time pass. He asked me about every 20 minutes if it was time for the show yet. Finally around 1:30 I told him it was so close, we just had to be patient. Then the announcement was played over the loudspeaker. "The Shamu Show is cancelled for today, sorry for the inconvenience". JD was so confused. He kept asking "why did they do that?". I tried to present reasons - shamu was sick, shamu was tired.... I had no idea. On the way to the car he was fuming mad, and suggested we call the police! HA HA HA HAAAA I was dying! Who taught him to call the police??? LOL

I, of course, found out the real reasoning for the cancellation..... the shamu in florida snatched and killed a trainer! JD does not know this.

Anyway, this tired little boy hopped into the car and hugged his shamu and took a nap on the way home. Good thing we have the shamu show on dvd. Yes, we do. He loves it!

Want a fun fact about Tella? She can't stand to have anything on her left foot. Her right foot she doesn't care about. The left is non-negotiable. Nothing can be on it. I have to keep a real close eye on her or we'd lose all our left shoes and be stuck with only the right shoe of each pair. She's a quirky little girl!

Five on Friday

1. Grandma sent Valentines!

Valentines with chocolate are the best!

2. We spent the week up in Big Bear. My little man just loves the snow, and he really loved the snow fort my dad built!

3. We went bowling at the bowling barn! JD loved it, Tella was amused, Capri was stressed. But I am pleased to say that a little talk regarding 'thinking about others rather than ourselves' helped out drastically and she finished the game!! And later was bragging and so proud that she did it.

I can't get over how handsome he is....

4. My hubby returns tomorrow!

5. We got a surprise check in the mail! Hello new windshield for my car, hello getting my hair done. I need my hair done so bad. Like real bad. Really really bad. I need a new windshield for my car too... but that's not fun. No, that's not fun at all. Anyway, back to the hair.. light, dark, shorter, layers.... oh the possibilities!!

Happy 1st Birthday Tella!

Today is my baby's first birthday, my little Donatella Valentina. She's wild, and hilarious and likes to play rough.... and she's very attached to her mommy!!!!

Here is a little collection of pictures of Tella's first year of life..

She surprised us three weeks early, but boy was I happy not to have another 10 pounder!

She didn't open her eyes for like a week....

finally open eyes, and a fuzzy little head!

She put on weight fast (lol),

But lost a lot since she's always moving, even running in her sleep!

She's got the brightest eyes,

and the girl can't get enough milk, ever.

She lets mommy put the headbands on her,

and actually really enjoys the snow.

Happy Birthday little Tell-Tell. Mommy loves you so much!

Six

Six points of potential interest for you:

1. James took the older two to the movies today. They're seeing "The Princess and the Frog" at the cheap seats in Temecula. This leaves a couple hours for me to do some things I should just get done. Like cleaning the bathrooms. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to clean a bath is with Scrubbing Bubbles.

2. In reference to #1, maybe you remember that my husband is supposed to be in Costa Rica (or maybe you don't know??). His flights got cancelled and the trip postponed to Monday.

3. The other day at the mall I saw a guy spit on the escalator. He looked around to make sure no one was looking, but CLEARLY missed me and the horrified look on my face as he spat on the moving steps while going down. Why in the world would anyone do that? I realize guys like to spit, but I've only ever seen it done outside..... I was so disgusted. Gross.

4.Tella has her first pigtails today!

(please note that in the time it took to load this picture on here I was able to clean my bathtub and shower. That gives you insight on how long it takes to get pictures up here sometimes!)

5. Did you watch the opening ceremonies of the olympics last night? We did, well some of it anyway. We found ourselves absolutely hilarious making fun of the people - did you catch the french guy with the painted on moustache? Hilarious! Unfortunately I fell asleep, so I missed a lot of the action after the parade of athletes.

6. I've been on a carb-free diet for two weeks, with the exception of three meals (all three of them were birthday celebrations...give me a break). If I had a scale I could tell you if it is working, but I don't. Somehow the diet switch has clicked to "on" though, and I feel motivated. A little trip to NJ in the summer seems to be doing the trick for me. But I gotta tell ya - a carb free diet for an Italian is hard thing to do!