Better Oats Oatmeal

Hello followers!

My new passion- OATMEAL. Now I was never a really huge fan of oatmeal before, but my SIL, (Emie) turned me on to this new brand of oatmeal that she's been enjoying. She told me that her favorite flavor was the dark chocolate flavor. I was like, "wait a minute.. there is a dark chocolate flavored oatmeal?" OH YEA... and it's DECADENT! It even has little pieces of chocolate in it so that when you make it, it has little chocolate pockets. This oatmeal is amazing. I found out that you can buy it at Target, so on my last trip I went to the food aisle and found many flavors of the Better Oats oatmeal! I bought the dark chocolate and the maple brown sugar with flax. Both of them are simple to make, (they even have you measure out the water INSIDE the oatmeal packet) and they are so yummy. They are also only 160 calories for a packet, which requires you to make it with water. I have enclosed a couple of pictures so you know what you are looking for at the grocery store. Pick it up! There is nothing better on a cold morning for breakfast than thick, chocolaty oatmeal! I'm being prompted to also tell you that all of their oatmeals contains 29 whole grains and 3 grams of fiber per serving! If you are looking to eat healthier, Quaker simply isn't cutting it anymore!

At least it isn't YOU! (But I'm the one enjoying awesome oatmeal this lovely morning!)

Amanda

Why I Hate my I Pod Nano

I'm sure you all looked at this title and went, WHAAAAAT? Miss Musical Amanda hates a piece of technology that enhances the ability to listen to music? Let me tell you WHY....

A few months ago I broke down and bought a new I Pod. After I had Violet I was suffering from some PPD and realized that that in part was because all of the music in my life was on hold because my awesome I Pod Video was broken. So I went to Sam's Club, (because lets face it... everything is cheaper there) and I sat there for like two hours deciding whether to just go with the new I Pod Nano or break down and get the I Touch. I decided that since I needed the Nano only for working out and for MY personal enjoyment I would go with the Nano. I figured it was smaller- fit in my purse better, and could now hold as much music as my old I Video could hold.

I got it home, tried to load everything and went .... WTF? The program for the new I Pod Nano is horrible to use and makes no sense! It doesn't allow you to just click a button and have it acquire a playlist. You need to manually click everything. SERIOUSLY APPLE? You come out with the I Pad which my MIL can use, but you make me manually click on every song I want on my I pod? You all know me, so you know how much music I have in my I Tunes. I have everything from Barney the Dinosaur, to Gangster wrap and Ska Punk. It would take me literally hours to go through and pick which genre's of music that I want on my I Pod. HUGE FAIL APPLE!!!!

I am now reconsidering my decision to buy an I Pad seeing as Apple has failed me. I am training for a 5 K and the Broad Street run and all I want is a fun playlist that will push me through my running. I used to love the basic I Pod (I had second generation.) Never had a problem with it until it literally died... Now I hate my I Pod and as a professional musician and music teacher- things are not looking good for Apple.

At least it isn't YOU!

Amanda

Sickness in the Gentile House

Hello Blog followers!

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while, but it seems to be that time of year where sickness has hit our house. For approximately over a month, Lily and Violet have both been down with colds that are not only creating runny noses and bad moods, but also they literally have SNOT coming out of their eyes since their congestion is backed up in their sinuses. I know... gross... sorry for the info.

On Sunday I started with a sore throat that progressively got worse as the day went on. By Monday morning not only did my throat hurt, but my ears hurt horrendously! I waited out going to the doctor on Monday thinking that maybe this weather was the cause and I was having an allergy attack. By Tuesday morning I really needed to get to the doctor. I waited over an hour to get in to see the doctor, (when I had an appointment at 10:15- and didn't get in until 11:30)for him to tell me that I had Strep Throat, and both of my ears were infected. I was given a prescription decongestant and a Z pak.

It's now Friday and my ears STILl hurt. I've been taking pain killers for them, but I think it might be time to call back the doctor and demand drops or something. I forgot how bad ear pain can be. I haven't had pain like this since I was like 12 years old. I have a new found compassion for my kids when they have ear infections. I was literally up last night from 2am-6am with a wide awake Violet and a throbbing left ear. I didn't even realize that I was crying from the pain until I was rocking Violet and felt all of these tears on my face. I know... woah is me... :-)

Chris is now sick, which just kind of amuses me. Men are such babies when they are sick. The world must STOP when they don't feel good. In his defense, he let me sleep this morning until 8:15 and got up to feed Violet. It was nice to sleep at least an hour last night. He visits the doctor today and hopefully they give him a strong antibiotic.

God bless doctors. They truly make a difference in people's lives. My SIL is a radiologist and although I don't have to see a radiologist as a primary, imagine where the world would be if we didn't have trained professionals reading our MRI's and X-rays for us? When I was being seen by a neurologist for my migraines and he was having me take all of those brain scans, I found out that a girl I went to high school with's dad was a radiologist at the center where I had my Brain Scans done. I put in a call to her and she assured me that her father would be the one to read my MRI's and let me know what was up. It was nice to feel like Doctors are people... not just DOCTORS.

I've had a lot of bad experiences with Doctors as well....but I would like to think that my good experiences out-weigh those bad instances. I love my OB- he's the typical hottie old man and he's very gentle-which is kind of essential as an OB. I also love that he's a DO and therefor is trained to treat the person as a WHOLE and not as a symptom that needs to be treated. He also told me with my last baby that when someone told me I was looking overly big being pregnant that I should tell them to "shut up, my Dr. says I'm fine!" LOVE HIM! If anybody needs the name of a fabulous OB/GYN in the Philly area, let me know!

I hope you are all healthy out there! Keep washing your hands. If you need a great exfoliation treatment for your hands because like me, you wash them so much let me know! Satin Hands is awesome!!! (and I just happen to know this fabulous Mary Kay consultant!)

Remember gang! At least it isn't you!! (seriously... my ears are killing me!)

Amanda