A Little Bit of Everything

Just a few things I thought I'd post about while I have a minute:

Yesterday Westin enjoyed some playtime with his friends Camden and Nate. Both Camden and Nate are about a year older than Westin, but he definitely held his own and I loved watching him interact with the "big boys." They had a great time playing with cars, balls, trains... and eating pizza. Seriously, does a day get better for a kid (or an adult) than hanging with friends and eating pizza? I love those kind of days.

Camden, Nate & Westin

Also yesterday, we had a church enrichment activity that was all about healthy living. I think it was the first enrichment night I've been to where I was not accompanied by Westin and I was able to stay for the entire evening. A-mazing!

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In addition to information about how to sleep better, tips to de-stress, ways to take better care of your teeth, and why it's important to drink lots of water, there was an entire class about blended drinks/soups/etc. using a high-powered mixer (like the ones at Jamba Juice). The main drink the teacher was talking about was her "green drink" that she drinks EVERYDAY. It included: spinach leaves, lemon, green apple, banana, agave nectar, maca powder (a supplement that's supposed to do something for your hormones - apparently I needed to taste test less and listen more), water and ice. In the awesome $400 blender, you could add the ice, lemon with seeds and the apple with skin, and it blended it perfectly smooth. So cool! (Yes, I left coveting the blender, but knowing that Ryan would just laugh at me if I even mentioned someday getting a blender that expensive). Anyway, the drink was actually quite good so I decided to try it today (minus the maca powder) with my Average Joe blender - and it came out almost as smooth. However, I did slice, core and peel my apple and lemon. Since I won't be getting the $400 blender any time soon, I do need the one I have to last a while.

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In addition to the green drink, the one other blended recipe I liked and have also already tried is the homemade chocolate syrup (think Hershey's flavor and consistency). This one is way easy and is really good!

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*2 cups agave nectar

*1 cup cacao powder (available at Whole Foods)

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That proportion makes a lot, so I just did 1/2 c. agave nectar + 1/4 c. cacao powder. Blend it for about a minute or two and you've got your very own chocolate syrup. I'm dying to make Ryan chocolate milk or a milkshake to see if he notices a difference. The teacher also said that if you add avocado to the mix, it turns into a pudding. Apparently the avocado doesn't add flavor, just texture, so it comes out creamy and still chocolatey.

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And today I've received this picture, along with this text from Ryan: "Hey, I'm in Seal Beach at some army base on a tour today. Random turn of events."

Yes, I would definitely call driving to work in Century City for a day at the office and then ending up at an army base in Seal Beach a "random turn of events."

And apparently he just fired a real M-16 automatic machine gun. What the what!

Dying to hear what that's all about. I'll let you know.