Duathlon!

Representing MSU Wrestling at CMU.

Mike and I completed our first duathlon over the weekend.  It was a fundraiser for the Red Cross held in Mt. Pleasant at CMU, the Out for Blood Duathlon & 5k.  We completed a 5k run and then a 20k bike.  I'm super proud to say that we both had respectable times.  We really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to the next challenge! 

I was very surprised by many things that day.  First, was the weather.  40 degrees, windy and rainy... not particularly fun.  The rain let up during the 5k which was nice for the bike, but it still sucked and the road was wet.  Secondly, I found out Saturday morning when I was getting around to head to the race, that I had over-indulged in alcohol the day before.  I was pretty rough around the edges and my 5k certainly showed it.  Running a 5k hungover was a bad idea.  I need to amend that for the next race.  Lastly, I had forgotten just how nervous my husband gets before competition.  I understand that this was his first ever race of any sort... but I was taken off-guard.  I mean, I get nervous, but he took it to a whole new level that morning.  He was just fine until we were in the car on the the way to the race and then he started asking questions.  That lead to a horrible puss on his face and anxiety about being ready in time.  Once we had gotten squared away he lightened a bit, but not really smiling until after we were done.  Thank goodness, for my sake, that he was smiling after!  We waited around for the results, but they were having difficulty, so we took off, grabbed some wings and a drink before heading home to watch some rugby.  It was a very nice day that we rounded off going out to watch the Squids live with some friends before collapsing in bed.  Triathlon here I come!

Muddy, wet ride.

Perspective

Sometimes you really have to stop and reflect on the past just to realize how far you've come.  Anyone who's ate with me or even had an extended conversation with me would know one thing about me.  I don't eat everything.  Most would remember varying degrees of gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance, or food allergies.  None would be completely correct, but close enough for me.  I don't usually relate my entire long boring story of illness and treatment to many people for a couple of reasons, 1. it's gross and 2. I don't really like to dwell on it.  When I tell people I don't eat this or that, they always react or over-react as the case may be with some sort of comment like, "How do you live!?!"  This has never bothered me though.  I usually just say, "I'd rather not eat those things and be healthy."  Maybe this is rude, but I figure if they can't imagine a diet without, say, strawberries, they certainly aren't going to understand the 5 + years of illness I went through (or sympathize with me).

Yesterday a friend remembered some mention of illness and gluten/food allergies in our past conversation and asked me about it as one of her friends is very ill.  She obviously is a terrific friend to seek out a random conversation from many years ago that we had.  It was a simple enough request and when I started writing her I realized just how much I had pushed the actual experience out of my life.  My life now is about living with these parameters I know I have and trying to enjoy everything that comes my way.  I gained so much wisdom from that experience that most people will never be able to.  Not that I wish my experiences on anyone but you learn so much about yourself, your body and what matters most when you have to struggle to make it through a day without knowing if you are ever going to feel alive again.  Very few people were let into my world at that time of my life.  Did I have many friends? Yes.  But only a handful knew how very sick I was.  I didn't then and still don't like to show any weakness, period.  So my family, my boyfriend, now husband, (lord only knows why he stuck around with me being as icky as I was) and a few friends saw me as sick as I really was.

As I was writing it dawned on me how everything in my life now is the antithesis of what it was then besides my family, my husband and my closest friends.  Then I was too trapped by being ill to try anything new, now I huger for it.  I was too blinded to really access my feelings and push for what I wanted or to push away what I didn't want.  I was floating in a sea of mediocrity.  The biggest factor in me getting well wasn't the food, although the diet change made it possible... It was me taking control of my life.  The day I cleaned the over 40 different tried prescriptions out my medicine cabinet was the day I started getting better.  And at that point I still didn't even know what was wrong with me.  I just knew that I wasn't going to sit around and be sick anymore.  So anyone who wants to know... ask me about my former illness.  I'll tell you about how I healed my body and my mind.  Perspective is a huge bonus in my life and I realized yesterday how much I value it.

Freddy's Birthday

Freddy was officially 18 on March 25, which is oddly enough only one day different from our first exchange son, Felipe's, whose is on the 24th.  Eighteen for a Finnish kid, doesn't mean a whole lot here in the US, but when he gets back to Finland he will be able to drink alcohol.... legally.  It was a busy weekend but we squeezed in lots of birthday activities.  The morning of his birthday we had American breakfast, pancakes & sausage, before school.

That night Freddy had a birthday party with friends.  Saturday we went to Birch Run for some birthday shopping and a birthday lunch.  We finally went to Tony's.  It's famous for HUGE portions.  Freddy got the BLT (bacon lettuce tomato sandwich) with 1 full pound of bacon!  He ate much of it but could not finish it.

That night we had a family birthday dinner.  Freddy chose and we had steaks, frites and salad.  Huge sirloin steaks of which Freddy ate the entirety of.  Mike and I split one.  The frites were sweet potato and I made a smoked paprika butter for the steaks. Very delicious meal.

Sunday we had birthday cake.  When we asked Freddy what kind he wanted, he stated that he wanted an American cake.  Isn't cake American period??  No?  Oh okay.  Epicurious was a big helper and I found a decidely American cake, Devils Food Cake.  We topped the three layers with a caramel frosting and it was mouth watering.

 The final part of the celebration was the following Wednesday.  We bought Red Wings tickets for Freddy's birthday present.  We had a great time even though the Wings got slaughtered.  Not a bad replacement for the drinking birthday that he would have had in Finland.

Sushi!

Mom & I with our hard work.

Many, many years ago I took my first trip to NYC with my now Mother-in-law to pick up my now sister-in-law, Patricia, from college and do a bit of sight seeing.  We ventured to Rockefeller Plaza and ended up getting lunch.  Patricia wanted to get sushi.  She got a harmless California Roll.  I, after just having discovered a slight liking of fish, was obviously curious but very frightened.  "Isn't it raw fish?" I asked.  Of course, I tried it after many "Fear Factor" faces and was not pleased to find that it was very very fishy tasting.  "It's too fishy for me," was all I could muster to say but in my head I was saying "Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!"  I came to learn after giving it a try again and again once back at MSU that it actually was the seaweed not the fish that had put me off that first meeting with sushi.  Though I couldn't have predicted in NYC, seaweed and I are now friends and sushi and I have become the closest of friends.

However much I love cooking, sushi is a bit intimidating.  It takes a lot of skill to do what chefs do at the best of sushi restaurants and I do not think I have the education to be able to achieve the artistry that is on my plate at those restaurants.  That however will not stop me from trying to learn more about this yummy food.  Not too long ago my Mom called to tell me that a local chef was doing a sushi class and wanted to know if I wanted to go with her.  Without a doubt I was going.

We had a great time and I earned a ton of confidence making three rolls all by my lonesome.  Our teacher was good and took much of the intimidation factor out of play.  The scariest was flipping the rice covered nori to make a roll with the rice on the outside.  If a drum roll could have been conjured it would have been quite appropriate as I stared down at my soon-to-be spicy tuna roll trying to work up the courage to flip it over.  Of, course my rolls were not restaurant caliber, but they were tasty!!  I cannot wait to get some sushi rice and start practicing on the boys at home.

Adventures in Finnish Cookery

I really love to cook and my husband might let you know that with recipes I have the attention span of a gnat.  I hardly ever make the same thing twice, I'm awful at following recipes (I'm always improvising due to pantry supplies or food allergies) and I always like to try something new.  I'll make/try anything once.  So, it is no wonder that along with our exchange students come new cooking adventures for me.  I wonder if my sons ever get tired of me asking how things taste, if they've had anything similar before and what kind of recipes are close to it in their country.  I'm so curious about food and I love to eat!

So, below are some of my adventures in Finnish cookery this year.  I haven't done a ton of Finnish cooking, because one of Freddy's goals is to try EVERYTHING American.  But, it has been really nice to try some special things at Christmas and recently for Fat Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday).

New Apron and Oven Mitt from Finland for Christmas.

Christmas I made something that was a wide step outside of my comfort zone, Gravlax.  For a very long portion of my life I never liked fish.  Sounds ridiculous now, but I think I only did fish sticks a couple times as a youngster and I decided that fish and I would not be friends.  My Dad wasn't a fan either, so I never thought it was a weird thing to pass on food with scales.  When I got food allergies, I realized how fortunate I was to be able to eat any food, so I took a new position in my food life...  try everything that I'm not allergic to at least once.  That philosophy has had a hand in leading me to the land of fishes and while I like most of them, salmon is just not one that I'm a fan of.  Gravlax is cured or marinated salmon.  I'm currently wrinkling my nose thinking about salmon.

But, fortunately for me, once finished Gravlax doesn't taste very salmon-y.  I liked it quite a bit.  At Christmas time we also made the traditional gingerbread, rutabaga casserole and Christmas pudding.  Pictures coming....

Freddy's parents sent me a note telling me of a Fat Tuesday pastry that they normally have and how much Freddy liked them.  They offered to send me the recipe if I wanted to try to make them.  Really... did they have to even ask?  Below are pictures of making the fastlagsbulle.  Freddy said they were great and Mike rather liked them too.

 Then on Sunday after our drive back from Columbus we told Freddy that he had to cook dinner for us because he has not cooked a thing here in the US (really we were just feeling lazy!).  The closest he's gotten to cooking is stirring something for me on the stove and putting together peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.  He said he had the recipe for Macaroni Casserole that he hadn't made.  We of course all went into the kitchen and made it together.  Quite tasty.

Freddy even made his own "head chef" hat.

Doing dishes while Freddy was watching the stove.

The finished product!

Happy Holi-daze!

The holidays were amazing, but all too quick.  Unfortunately just before Christmas, I had a big project (that I'm still drowning in) come up and it zapped a lot of my time and energy right at holiday time.  It was stressful, but in the end it all worked out and we still had a great couple of weeks.  

Finnish Christmas Dinner

For Christmas, I wanted to make sure that I did something special for Freddy.  So, I sought out advice from his Finnish parents (Erik & Anki) about what Christmas is like in Finland.  It was very easy for me to get in touch with them because they are so very helpful and communicative.  They were quite pleased to help me with traditions, recipes and all other things Finnish.  Mike and I planned to have a three day Christmas celebration.  

We began on Christmas Eve, with our first trip snowboarding/skiing for the winter season.  We all had a great time.  Freddy showed me a few tips (this is only my second year snowboarding) and I did very well for the first trip of the season.  I even did one of the steepest hills with Freddy by my side.  Freddy really is an exceptionally great snowboarding partner.  He always stayed behind me or slowed down to make sure I was all right.  And, of course, when I hit the ground he'd make sure I was all right.  We all had so much fun and it was a great start to the holiday.  That night when we got home I began putting together all of the "top secret" Finnish food I had been working on.  We had told Freddy that we were going to have Finnish Christmas on the 24th, but I left many things out.  I warmed up the glögg, ham and put the rutabaga casserole into bake.  I also made up a bit of a smorgasbord for us with multiple other things (salmon, especially for Freddy).  It went great.  We also got online to skype with Finland after all of their festivities were over.  It was very nice to chat with Erik, Anki, Mimmi and Oskar.  After chatting and dinner we opened presents from Finland.  We got some amazing gifts and we're so thankful for a little piece of Finland!  The best gifts I received were cookbooks!  Freddy brought me a book from Greece and the rest of the Boijers sent me a beautiful Finnish cookbook.  I am so excited to make something out of both.  Although, technically, I've already made rutabaga casserole that is in the Finnish book.

We continued with American Christmas the next morning.  Freddy had his first American stocking and we had nice relaxing day at home.  I got an AWESOME present from my husband.

A mazel t-shirt!  So fantastic along with my immersion blender.  Freddy became a normal American teenager with a new iPod.  iTunes was tough for him to learn, but he's clearly got the hang of it now.  

That evening after a couple of skyping sessions Mom, Dad and Dana came over for dinner.  We had leftover Finnish Christmas dinner with some American added in.  Eggnog, etc.  We played a couple of good natured games of Scene It and then we were off to bed for day 3 of the festivities.

Day 3 was Christmas with the family at my Mom & Dad's house.  It's always a long fun day of food presents and games.  We did stockings as always and then a little breakfast before the big presents and opening of gifts to/from each other.  My Mom apparently needed kitchen supplies this year because she got 2 waffle makers and 2 food processors!!  We finished the day with Freddy's first time playing Pit.  Sooooo much fun!  I'm pretty sure he thought we were lunatics when we all began shouting at the top of our lungs, but it took him only one game to be shouting louder than all of us.  That game is definitely a favorite!  Misc pictures below.

December Gone & January Going... Going...

December and January have flown by.  Wedding, hockey, holidays, work and training have gulped up the days and I just finally got my act back together this week.  Hopefully I can keep it together for the next two months and then the pace shall slow down a bit.  (Only a bit, mind you.  Too slow and I'd be restless.)  Hockey is quite a commitment for all of us and it has been taking over the majority of our time besides work.  Yes, work, don't forget that!  It is my busy season and my desk is drowning in paperwork.  This week began with an attack of misfortunes and phone call after phone call of unpleasant things in the office.  I've pulled some very long days and today I am reaping a bit of reward from them.  I'm sure my relief will not last long, as I can now still only see 33% of my desk.  But, I must savor it while it lasts.

Well, December started off in spectacular style with, my brother, Ben's wedding.  It was a big homestead affair and went wonderfully.  The ceremony was cold but incredibly romantic and the reception of around 400 people was a great party!  Freddy had his first taste of a big American farm wedding and even found a couple of girls to dance with.  Although, I will say that he could use a few dance lessons.  He needs some more groove.  Unfortunately though, our camera quit working after one unfocused photo at the wedding.  Not sure what's wrong with it because I haven't had time to find out!  So, we've been getting by with Freddy's camera... When he remembers it!  Hopefully I'll be able to look at the warranty information tomorrow and get it sent in to be fixed up.  We'll never have enough pictures if we're relying on Freddy's picture taking skills.

December then disappeared into a whoosh of hockey games and holiday celebrations.  The hockey games went well and Freddy shared time with Alex, the other Senior goalie.  As some of the teams they've played weren't too challenging, Freddy kept saying that we hadn't really seen him play yet.  We finally got that pleasure when we watched DSJ play East Grand Rapids.  Whenever the puck heads down towards Freddy I get all tense and say things like, "Watch out Freddy!"  or "Heads up Freddy!", which of course Freddy can't hear but it makes me feel better saying.  Freddy blocked so many goals this game I was practically talking to myself the entire game.  Luckily for us and them, Mike's parents happened to be visiting that weekend and we all got to root Freddy on through a terrific game for him.  They ended up losing in overtime, but they would have never made it to overtime without Freddy.  Good fun and certainly the upside to driving all over Michigan for hockey games!

To be continued...