Mom & Dad's visit.

I'm pretty sure I've eaten enough calories in the past 5 days to keep me alive until the end of 2011.  Mom and Dad came to town and we ate our way through it!  Well, we did lots of other fun stuff too.  We started with lunch at O'Sullivan's, an Irish pub that was having a Mexican food special day (random, right?) but we just partook in $2 Mexican beers and the typical bar food spread.  After letting mom & pops rest up after a long flight (note sarcasm), we walked back down to Madison St. for dinner at The Duckfat Tavern & Grill.  Yum yum.  Started with duckfat fries with yummy dipping sauces.  By the end of a day filled with booze and grease, I opted for the grilled vegetable plate, which was actually pretty amazing.  Grilled veggies drizzled with balsamic vinegar...DELISH!  Dad and Tim indulged in the bacon mac & cheese (YUMMY).  After stuffing ourselves at dinner, we thought it was only appropriate that we end the evening with ice cream at The Brown Cow Ice Cream Parlor.  I think I was in a food coma, because I forgot to pull out my camera for day one!

On day two, Tim had to work (sad face!) so the three of us donned our Cubs gear and hopped on the train towards Wrigley Field.  It was a PERFECT day for a baseball game - 80 F weather, clear blue skies, sun shining...

We had hotdogs with grilled onions, beer, and smiles on our faces - even though the Cubs suck - and had a fun afternoon.  Later on, we decided to give our tummies a rest so we went to Whole Foods and made a yummy dinner at home -amazing Icelandic salmon, sauteed asparagus and a mixed salad.

Day three - Tim was still working (super sad face!) - we hopped back on the train and headed to the city for some tourist action.  We walked down Navy Pier and had a beer at the Landshark Beer Garden.  We also decided it was necessary to get some pictures with the Bean.  Again, beautiful weather.

 

The Bean!

That evening, Tim finally got done working (happy face!) and we had an amazing dinner - again on Madison St. - at Francesca's Fiore.  We thought we were just going to sit on the patio for a bit and have a drink before Tim met up with us, but the weather was amazing (again) and the menu looked pretty good, so we decided to make an evening of it.  Our waiter was fun and the manager liked us (who wouldn't !?!?) so they took very good care of us.  After a few bottles of wine and some amazing Italian cuisine (calamari, insalata caprese, pasta, etc.) we were officially stuffed (again).  Somehow, Dad and Tim found the strength to finish the evening back at the Brown Cow for ice cream (even though we got a mini dessert for celebrating my birthday - which is in November - at the restaurant).  We decided to celebrate early because I probably won't see my parents again until Christmas!

Maybe that was three bottles of wine...

My birthday dessert.

They treated us with Limoncello after dinner!

Dad had to fly back Saturday, so Tim and I took mom around Forest Park a bit more.  We did a bit of shopping, had lunch and saw a movie - Crazy Stupid Love.  It was awesome - go see it!  After a lazy afternoon, we mentally prepared ourselves to eat (once again) good ol' Chicago deep dish pizza - per mom's request (she didn't have to twist our arms).  Dinner at Edwardo's Natural Pizza was the best decision we had made all day. 

I took mom to the airport this morning.  It was such a fun five days and I knew it would fly by.  I'm one lucky gal to have such fun, cool, awesome parents.

What I learned being a vegetarian.

Many of you who know me well, know that I've been a vegetarian for about the past year and a half.  I made the choice mainly based on how I was feeling during this time in my life where I was making significant changes to my diet.  I noticed that whenever I ate meat, I felt a "heavy" feeling in my stomach and sometimes stomach pain/discomfort.  So I just decided not to eat meat.  I felt much better (well, I still do) when I didn't consume meat.  I also started reading a really cool book (The Kind Diet) and found a lot of information I wasn't aware of (basically, where some of our food comes from...eeek!), so that also helped me make my decision to become a vegetarian.

So, fast forward to this summer.  Around the end of June, I was in class one morning and noticed my neck and upper back were super sore (more so than normal).  Towards the end of the day, I was in a lot of pain and then my arms, hands and fingers started going numb and felt really tingly.  Yikes, that was not a good feeling.  I called the clinic on my campus and made an appointment with an intern.  A few days and a few x-rays later, we determined that anatomically, everything was looking okay.  That was a big relief.  I mean honestly, I was really worried since my arms were going all tingly and weird on me.  After reviewing a few other things in my file, my intern (Jenny) decided it would be beneficial to do some lab work.  We talked about my diet and supplements that I take, and decided it would be important to check my vitamin B12 level.  Jenny thought this was important to do because I had a few symptoms that were indicative of a B12 deficiency.  I had my level checked about 2 years prior, which happened to be a little on the low side then, so I started taking a B12 supplement and I continued to do so, especially since I was a vegetarian (you basically can only get B12 from animal products).  I told my intern I would be surprised if it was low, especially since I was taking a daily supplement.  Well, we got the results back and they were REALLY low.  My levels had dropped about 200 points since I had become a vegetarian.  I did a 7-day diet diary and we determined that my diet, along with supplementation, should have been giving me the adequate amount of B12 (with my diet, I was still consuming cheese and yogurt, which does contain B12).  So we did some additional lab work to try and determine why my body was not absorbing the B12.  One major concern we wanted to rule out was pernicious anemia.  Pernicious anemia is an autoimmune disease where your body produces antibodies that attack these cells in your stomach that help absorb the B12.  My antibody levels for this came back elevated...high enough to cause concern, but not abnormally high. 

To make a long story short, I'm taking a different form of the B12 supplement (the one I was on before had to be converted in my body before it could be absorbed, so for some reason my body was not converting it, or just simply not absorbing it) so hopefully this new form, which is immediately absorbed (no converting!) will help raise my B12 level.  I also started to eat meat again, which has actually been okay.  I don't eat it everyday and I when I do it's usually fish, sometimes chicken or pork.  I'm starting to feel better, i.e. no more tingly arms!  I'll have more lab work done in a few months to see if the new supplement and changes to my diet are helping increase my B12 level.  I'm happy and relieved that I found someone in the clinic to help me figure out what in the world was going on, and I'm glad that my intern didn't just stop at my back/neck pain.  A B12 deficiency left untreated can cause many problems and unfortunately if treated too late, the damage is irreversible. 

If anyone has more questions about a B12 deficiency, just let me know.  I have information for days and I didn't want to make this blog post any longer than it already is.  I included links in the body above, so hopefully that can help with any questions as well.

Date night.

Tim and I finally had our first date night in Forest Park.  Last night, we grabbed one of our finest bottles of wine and walked about a half mile to Madison St. and had a yummy Italian dinner at Jimmy's Place.

On our way to the restaurant.

The food was great and the atmosphere was fun.  This date night was much needed because Tim's been working a lot and I've been studying my buns off getting ready for finals.  The wine we had was amazing!  It was definitely ready to drink...which is what we did and we didn't leave any behind!  Everything in moderation, right?  Even moderation!  (I have to admit I stole that from one of my professors...)  Anyways, a mighty fine wine it was, courtesy of my awesome father-in-law.  2003 Guigal Chateauneuf du Pape if you're interested in the delicious details.

I wish we had another bottle.  It was SO good.

Just four more days of tests and I'm ready for a super exciting, fun-packed, 2 week break.  I have a lot to blog about, including pictures of our new place!  Stay tuned!