Birthday Festivities

We celebrated my Dad’s 62^nd birthday this week which means Nate’s 4^th birthday is right around the corner! He’s super excited to not be 3 anymore because 4-year olds apparently think 3-year olds are still babies. I guess he could pick up worse things at pre-school. I’m sure I have mentioned it before, but we are going all out for a Jake and the Neverland Pirates theme this year. He is super excited and luckily it was pretty easy to find pirate stuff since they are so popular these days. He is especially excited about the goody bags which will contain a Jake reusable cup, Jake tattoos and stickers, a pirate pencil, eye patch (in red, blue and pink!), gold coins, compass and skull whistle. Each kid will also get a foam sword and I will have inflatable swords for them to play with at the party. I’m counting down the days!

I’m excited about decorating too because I ordered a treasure chest inflatable cooler for the kid’s Capri Suns, rubber duckies dressed as pirates for the tables and of course cold coins to throw all over the Jake tablecloths. I hope it’s not too hot because Long Island has been experiencing a heat wave for what feels like weeks now. Half of my yard is shady but Nate has a big wheel, wagon, tricycle, scooter, push car and ride on motorized trike and they will all be in the yard for the kids to use. I thought about putting his pool out but I think it just gets messy and is a bad idea for an afternoon party. The kids will have to make do with the swing set and balls.

I think Love should wear this for the party ;)

I had quite a quandary over what to get him this year since I doled out what few Jake toys they sell to friends and family so I ended up getting him a pirate ship…a GIANT one. I found it online and when I first saw it in Toys R Us I could not believe how BIG the box is. It just barely fit in the back of my car. I hope he craps himself when he opens it J Of course the response I expect is that he wanted another Jake pirate ship and not this one but too bad. I’ll be happy to play with the treasure chests and pirates and the big skull that it comes with. I think it will be fun to have 3 big pirate ships so we can play as a family and not fight over one ship…yes, I know we only have one kid but there are 2 other big kids living in our house!

The other present he is getting is a joint gift since I refused to spend the money on it. He has no idea yet but he is getting a red Power Wheels mustang (arriving any day now!) that my in-laws were nice enough to go in on with us. He has been asking for one for a while but it never seemed like a good idea but now I think he will love it. Can’t wait to see his little face!

Towels for Kids

I bet I REALLY drew you in with that title huh? My friend just called to let me know that she was reading my blog and laughing and I thought, “Blog, what blog?!?! Oh yeah, I have a blog!” Welcome to summer brain! There is so much to catch up on so I won’t even bother right now. Instead I am going to be a mom and give a little tip to my mommy following (I do have a mommy following right?). Well even if I don’t here goes…

When you have a baby shower you receive hooded towels which are wonderful for small babies. It keeps them warm and cozy while drying them at the same time. Babies hate to be cold so they are perfect. Once your kid starts crawling he has probably outgrown the infant hooded towels and can move on to toddler hooded towels which are usually animals or their favorite cartoon characters. Around Nate’s second birthday I realized that he was now too tall for the toddler hooded towels and wondered what to do.

Don’t get me wrong, he could have used the same towels that Love and I use but kids want fun washcloths and towels. I realized that I had a lot of beach towels that would make perfect bath towels and voila – problem solved! They are the perfect size, not too thick and come in every pattern and character you can imagine. They also normally sit in a drawer or closet for 9 months of the year. The kicker is that beach towels are usually around $10 which is cheaper than the toddler towels he outgrew so quickly. So ladies, take my advice, save some money and make those kids happy!

Summer Sickness

Last weekend was the beginning of the end for me and I had an ominous feeling going in. Friday was a long day at work...which ended in Montauk at 8pm...meaning I didn't get home until 10pm. I would have loved to sleep in on Saturday but Nate and I started parent and child swim lessons at 9:30am (Yay! I'm such a great mom! Pretend not to be falling asleep while waiting for class to begin!). Luckily class is only a half hour and Nate was SO good and did SO well! Several hours later we headed to my parents to see my great-aunt (who also happens to be my god-mother) and great-uncle and my brother and his family.

Nate is all about his cousin Charlie lately but he has major jealousy issues with him. Being the only grandchild on my side is suddenly posing some problems. Nate has had free reign of my parents for just under 4 years so he feels like everything there is his...even if it's actually mine (hmmmmm I wonder where he gets it from?) Our day ended at a friend's annual 4th of July party. I was really hoping that Nate would be into the fireworks this year since I missed them the last 2 years but no such luck. Instead he was screaming, "I want to go inside!" so we left the party early. Maybe next year will finally be our year.

Sunday was mostly a day of rest while Love worked. Monday was a crappy day and I got a lot done but it was stressful and I was distracted all day. Nate and I had dinner at my parents and then headed across the street for a play date for Nate and me! We went swimming with my friend Wendy and her son and it was so nice. It made me wish I lived with my parents so I could do it more often. Wendy and I made a pact to do it once a week and I plan on sticking to that. Tuesday at work was hell and I just wanted the day to end since I had Wednesday off. The bright spot in my day was free lunch and leftovers for dinner (no cooking!). It's the little things sometimes.

Wednesday was going to be a fun day with Nate and instead turned into day 1 of my sickness. I woke up with a sore throat and headache and my nugget let me sleep until 11am when he couldn't wait to eat anymore. I felt so sad that he let me sleep but I was grateful. We ate breakfast and we went out to go in his pool. Before Love got home I cooked dinner and I went downhill quickly. Thursday morning was awful but I really thought I could make it to work. After dropping Nate at school I realized it wasn't happening. The doctor gave me an antibiotic and told me to rest so I headed home to bed again. The timing couldn't have sucked worse because I was on a deadline for work that got blown to shit. Monday is another day. I'm no good at being sick so I'm glad I'm feeling better tonight. I hate missing work and it's impossible for me to ignore my messy house. The worst is not being able to hug and kiss my little nugget. It feels weird that it's the weekend again but I'll take it.

Days off to De-Stress

Well that was the plan anyway but things in my life rarely go according to plan so there wasn't much relaxing. Don't get me wrong, I had a wonderful 5 days off but I really would have loved one day to sleep in and do nothing. If only I could have imagined how shitty work would be this week (no time to blog because I'm back to running!). Here's the breakdown by day and I'll add photos later. I haven't mastered blogging via iPad yet.

Wednesday
Nate's moving up ceremony was one reason I decided to take a mini-break. We had to sit in ridiculously tiny chairs made for pre-schoolers so thankfully it was just a quick speech by his teacher and then the kids sang the bumblebee song. They were adorable. Nate didn't want to wear his hat and didn't want me to take his picture. He did however want his presents and lunch at Friendly's. I can't believe my baby is starting pre-k in September. We came home and took a long family nap which felt great.

Thursday
After dropping Nate at school we headed to Home Depot for mulch. My gardens really needed some mulch for both appearance and to keep the weeds out and water in. Overnight it got very hot (did I neglect to mention that this vacation fell during the first heat wave of the summer?) so I was trying to rush so I could get it done quick. Love went to look for something so I grabbed some bricks to finish one garden and headed toward the mulch. After a few minutes in the blazing sun I decided that it was too hot to wait around. One at a time I loaded 6 large bags of stinky mulch onto the flatbed cart. I paid and went to the car. Two guys asked if they could help load the car and I told them my husband was right behind me. As soon as they drove away and I began loading the bags in. Those suckers were heavy but I did it. I was in the yard for 2 hours and I don't think I have ever been so hot. Sweat dripped off my face, I had swamp ass and I got sunburn after 10 minutes. A shower never felt so good. After relaxing for an hour we picked Nate up and took him to the aquarium. Nate ran around loving every minute. It wasn't crowded at all and it was nice and cool...until we got to the butterflies and birds. That was rough. We went outside to visit the snow monkey and as soon as we got there Nate started yelling that he was too hot so we rushed back inside. He runs hot like his daddy and he cannot handle the heat. His whole face turns red and he looks terrible. He took a good nap on the way home.

Friday
I still can't believe that Love and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary on Friday. We were married on a beautiful June day. It was perfect and we had such a great time. We celebrated a little differently than I imagined when we got married but we had fun. We went to breakfast at a tiny little local joint that is super cheap. It reminded us both of a place Love's parents used to take us called The Place. It's a throwback to another time which is a nice way to say the don't have air conditioning. It was so hot so we ate and hit the road. We did a little shopping and picked up Nate early. I had decided we should see a movie so we could be out of the house and also out of the heat. We saw Madagascar 3 and it was cute. Again, not how I imagined this day would go. On a side note, I buy cards for everything. I learned it from my mom and have always felt it is an easy way to tell people how you feel. Have I mentioned how stressful my job is in addition to Love's new schedule and Nate's new attitude? I realized how bad it really is the night before when in a panic I realized I never bought Love a card!!!!! The cherry on top was Love buying me TWO cards!!!!!! Worst...Wife...EVER.

Saturday
Our unofficial lazy day. Nate wanted to play on the computer which gave me the freedom to watch 2 movies while doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen. It was a reminder of what life was like before Nate was born. Weird. I dragged Nate outside in the afternoon to blow up his pool and sprinkler. Then it was 2 hours of playing in the water and cleaning up the yard.

Sunday
Nate and I joined a friend (and his girlfriend and her daughter) on a trip to Brooklyn to visit my brother and his family. We went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and it was a great afternoon. It made me realize how much I miss my brother. Good thing it's the summer so I'll have more time with him. On the ride home I realized my vacation was over and it was back to work in the morning. I was so happy to come home to Love and get some rest. If I knew what I was walking into Monday morning I would have opened a bottle of wine and savored my last night. Oh well. I'll have to remember that for next time.

Birthday Weekend!

Sunday was my birthday and I am embracing turning 35. Up until now I have viewed it as the mile marker in my life when my fertility goes down the toilet – more than it already was. My mother has been putting the pressure on for me to have a baby but I am just not ready. 35 is just a number and if we have trouble conceiving a second kid then maybe Nate was meant to be an only child. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Saturday we had the family over for a barbecue and the weather was perfect. I actually got to sit outside and enjoy my yard instead of cleaning it up for once. I am going to make an effort to do that again this weekend. On Sunday Love had to work so Nate and I were left on our own to celebrate my day of birth. We lounged around in the morning and I had chocolate cake for breakfast. Once I got a little energy I decided it was time to go to the beach. We went to a very small local beach because I knew we wouldn’t stay too long. We were one of 3 cars in the parking lot so it was perfect. An hour later when people began to arrive we left and went to Target…where I forgot the one thing I went there for. Another sign of being a year older. If it’s not on my list I forget it.

When we got home I put Nate down for a nap and headed outside to plant my birthday lily from my parents and put new bricks around my mailbox garden. Nate woke up just as I finished so we headed inside for showers and dinner. It felt so good to lay on the couch after dinner with my magazine. I could have fallen asleep but I was patiently awaiting Len’s arrival from work. I ended my day watching True Blood while drinking sangria. A great end to a pretty good day. Now on to a 5 day weekend! That’s a vacation in my book!

As usual there are no pictures of me from MY birthday weekend because no one took any. Maybe next year. At least I got some cute pics of Nate because we can never have too many of those.

Summer Stress

I feel like a broken record when I lament over how terrible the summer is for me. It is only June 14^th and I am ready to have a breakdown. I had to work Saturday at a dog walk (don’t even ask) which pretty much ruined my weekend because it is the only day of the week that Love and I have together. I had to call in Monday because Nate was burning up so I took him to the doctor and he has an ear infection. I had a huge issue at work Tuesday which I did not need on top of all of the crap I had to deal with from Monday. One day out of the office is a total disaster for me and I am scheduled to be off for 3 days next week. I don’t know how I am going to be able to get everything done when I get back. I’m ready to cry just thinking about it and it’s a week away. Ugh.

My “To Do” list gets longer and longer and I am drowning. My biggest problem is other people not doing their jobs. If you have ever worked at a large business (we have over 1,000 employees) you have probably had to deal with people in other departments (we only have 7 full time employees in ours) and outside vendors and that that is usually where my stress originates. I have been doing this job for a long time and I think I do a pretty good job. I am organized and am good with deadlines and I can also handle whatever is thrown at me on any given day…until June arrives. Then I lose my fucking mind.

I pride myself on being a multi-tasker. Even at home if you watch me clean you will see me go back and forth room to room for hours until everything is done. I have ADD when it comes to that. I start cleaning my room and go to the kitchen for something and get distracted and start cleaning something in there. Then I remember my room and head back and take something from my room to Nate’s and get distracted again. You get the point. At work I have lists and notes everywhere because someone will ask me for something and if I don’t write it down or do it immediately I have lost it forever.  It drives me crazy and makes me feel very off but that is usually how my entire summer goes. Every year I vow to be even more organized and get things done more efficiently and it never happens.

Sometimes I think the problem stems from the amount of time I’ve worked here. Whenever there is an issue in the office everyone comes to me. “Do you remember such and such?” “Did so and so donate a whos-ima-wachit?” As someone’s assistant I also hear lots of, “When you get a minute” (holy shit no kidding – it just happened!) from my boss. I spend lots of minutes handling lots of things that sprout up and screw up my plan for the day. I usually start the day with good intentions of going through my emails and then moving on to my “pile”. I keep a neat stack of things that I need to get done each day on the side of my desk. A good day means I have gotten to the bottom of that pile. A bad day is when I have added more shit to the pile. Today is an okay day. I am really hoping tomorrow will be a great day…positive thoughts…

Yesterday I had piles everywhere :(

Jesus Walks

This week has been another rough one. Last weekend was a 3-day weekend for me but it flew by between the boys coming home Friday, my 5K on Saturday and my brother and his family visiting. I won’t even get into how many hours I spent outside doing yard work and how many loads of laundry got dragged up and down the basement stairs. By Monday I was exhausted and the rest of the week has been more of the same. The one exciting thing this week was getting Nate signed up for swimming lessons. I think it’ll be fun for us to take a class together. Of course it could be a disaster so check back with me next month.

Last week while Aimee was driving us to work she pointed out a man walking down the street carrying what appeared to be a very large wooden cross. We had been wondering why there was so much traffic and sure enough as soon as we passed him it was smooth sailing. I wish I had fished my phone out of my purse to take a picture because it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. The cross was as big as the man and it looked heavy although he carried it with relative ease. Aimee and I are sarcastic bitches so of course we started making jokes. I wondered if it would be easier to carry if his hands were nailed to it (I’m going to Hell already so may as well enjoy it while I can). Aimee tried to think of some religious holiday that he might be doing it for. The local church just up the road had just been named a Basilica so I thought that maybe he had made the cross for the church and his car had broken down so he had to carry it. He was dressed oddly (almost monk-like Aimee noted) so we were very perplexed.

We had a lot of questions that will never be answered:

How does he go to the bathroom?

When/where does he eat?

Where does he sleep?

Isn’t he tired?

Does he take breaks?

Did he train with smaller pieces of wood?

We got to work and of course no one believed us when we told them we saw Jesus on

Hill Street

. As we left work one of our co-workers drove past and told us that they were talking about Jesus on the radio. Turns out this man was dressed as Jesus, carrying a cross and he was walking all the way to Montauk…from Brooklyn! He wants to draw “attention to Jesus because everyone needs him”. The most interesting part is that he is a former male prostitute. Repentance anyone? I’m not religious so I don’t understand his need to do this, but good for him for doing something that he believes in. I think we could all be better people if we focused on something in our lives and gave it our all. Just don’t ask me to carry anything heavy.

The more casual side of "Jesus"



BTW the title of this post is also one of my favorite Kanye West songs.

GIRLS

Last weekend I finally got around to watching Girls which debuted on HBO in April. From the promos it looked good and I’m open to any new shows at this time of year. The first 5 episodes were good, a little quirky with some funny moments. The last 2 episodes really had me laughing though and I left them on the DVR so I can watch them again. Just like Sex and the City before it, I think that everyone will be comparing themselves to one of the 4 main characters. Marnie the best friend and roommate of the main character Hannah is the one that I understand the most. She’s been in a relationship with someone for 4 years and although she still loves Charlie, she has fallen out of love with him. Been there, done that and it is such an awkward situation to be in. It’s comfortable to stay in the relationship but at the same time it’s like your uncle touching you and it becomes weird (her words not mine).

I have never lived in New York City and it was never my dream to live there. I am a suburban girl all the way and I will never give up my car for public transportation. It’s just not me. When I was in college I had no problems taking the bus, subway, Metro North or LIRR. I was young and loved going to New York to explore and have experiences that only NYC can offer. It was one of the main reasons I chose a college a half hour away, that and the fact that my brother moved to Manhattan 2 weeks before I left for college. I thought he was so brave and cool to live on his own in the city at 22 while going to college. That was almost 17 years ago and he never left. Now he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and 3-month old son in a building with an elevator in a nice neighborhood with plenty of parks and families around. Things have changed for him over the years but he has remained a city boy (although he would like a change sooner rather than later).

Last night I read some articles on Girls and people are making a big deal about the 4 main characters all being white women. At first I thought maybe people were right. In a city as diverse as New York you would think they would have one friend who is not white. Then I thought back to my college experience. I went to an all girl’s Catholic college (I know, what the hell was I thinking? I’m not Catholic and I like boys!) and I was a minority. I never thought about it until we were discussing race in one of my social work classes and I realized that my professor was Hispanic and out of the 11 people in the class I was the only white girl. Looking back I should have thought about it more since everyone called me Christina instead of Christine.

 Me and my college friends...okay so Jenna is a 1/4 black...sue me

So what’s my point? All of my friends from college that I still see on a regular basis are WHITE. How the hell did that happen when we were the minority? We had plenty of friends who weren’t white so what happened to them? I still see them on Facebook but honestly I was never as close to those friends as I was to my white friends and I do not think that says anything bad about me. It’s not like we went out of our way to cut out anyone who wasn’t white. It’s just what happened. Maybe that’s another reason I like Girls. I didn’t have the same experiences as these girls (especially Shoshanna the virgin – most girls lose it in high school so how did this girl finish college and never get laid?) but I can still relate to them on some level. It’s entertainment people. Get over yourselves.  

Sleepless Nights

We are still struggling to get Nate to sleep in his bed. I feel like a broken record but all I want is a solid week of uninterrupted sleep and maybe I can feel slightly normal again. I have become accustomed to this new lifestyle but I am not happy with it. The longer it goes on the older I feel and I fear that I will never have another child because we cannot fit another one in our too small Queen sized bed. Besides the obvious other road block of course ;) Then again Nate started sleeping through the night at 10 weeks and continued until right before his first birthday. No, I can’t even entertain the thought right now.

The nugget has been improving lately which makes me really happy. He would never even go to his bed and lay down to fall asleep. He always fell asleep in my bed which meant that either Love or myself had to stay in the living room if we didn’t all want to crowd into the bed. I would let him watch his 2 shows and then the TV would go off. During his 2 shows I would grab my headphones and watch my show on the iPad. Not exactly quality time with your kid but at least we were cuddling. Last week I decided to try a new tactic. I gave him my iPod and pulled up his show and told him that he could watch his shows in his bed. He has fallen asleep on his own almost every night since. It is wonderful and I hope it continues.

The next step will be to bring a twin bed over from my parent’s house. I think he will like a big boy bed but I want to hold off a little longer until he is sleeping better and he’s not coming into our bed on a regular basis. He did so well with potty training and he doesn’t have accidents at night so we ditched the Pull Ups before he was 3 ½. I think I thought this would be easy like that was but I have to remember that he needs to master one thing at a time and that was more important (cleaning up pee versus less sleep…hmmmm).

We also need to get used to Love’s new work schedule. It is stressing both of us out and we need to accept it and get ourselves on a schedule at home that works along with it. He is now working Sunday through Tuesday 7am to 7pm and every other Wednesday 7-7. This is only the second week but we both had to work Sunday and then he didn’t have off for the Monday holiday and it threw everything off. The bonus to the schedule is that today was the first day of 4 days off for him. The bonus for me is that he took Nate Upstate to visit his parents so I could have some quiet time since work is stressing me out. I think it’s great that Nate will get more Daddy Time because lately he is too attached to me.

The bottom line is we need to be more “glass half full” kinda folks if we are going to get through this. Marriage and parenting is stressful enough so we need to keep it together and not let it get to us. I need to start making lists and make sure the little things like Nate’s bath don’t fall through the cracks (Holy crap I am a horrible mommy! My kid is unclean!). Sometimes things need to be one minute at a time.

Memorial Day Madness

It is Friday of Memorial Day weekend and for anyone who watched Revenge this season (holy crap how incredible was the season finale? I laughed, I cried, I wanted more than one hour damnit!) you know that this weekend is the official “kick off” to summer in the Hamptons. Which is great for people who live and vacation here, but not so great for those of us who merely work here. This weekend should be 3-days of hanging with my family at the beach and barbecuing. Instead I will have to wade through ridiculous traffic to get out of here at 5pm, work Sunday night until Midnight at our “kick off” event at Westhampton Country Club and try and recover Monday while Love works. Who wants to be me for a weekend?!?! Crickets…damn.

This week at work has been exhausting and I am not in the middle of hell like a few other people in the office. This is one time that my job title is actually a plus because Special Events is not in there so I try and help out as much as possible while lying low at the same time. Just being in the office is stressful so I really enjoy going home at the end of the day…and drinking…a whole bottle of wine. Yup, I drank a whole bottle of wine last night and I don’t care who knows. It was my way of coping with a hard day and it helped me drift off to sleep and stay asleep instead of waking up and mentally making notes on what I needed to get done today. That is the worst and my summer will be filled with plenty of those nights so I was thrilled that last night was not one of them.

You would think that after almost 9 years in this job I would be used to giving up my summer to stress and exhaustion so people in the Hamptons can party. Drinking basically becomes a second job for those of us dealing with the rich and not so famous. I could write a book about how people treat us normal folk. I’d love to be a fly on their walls and see how they treat their hired help. Even other people who work here think we have nothing better to do than cater to them and their needs. If people did their jobs ours would be much easier. Enough bitching for today…I’ll be back Tuesday J

Spanx for Nothing

I, like most curvy women out there am a fan of Spanx. I have been wearing them for as long as I can remember, long before Spanx was even a company. I’m actually not a huge fan of the Spanx brand (except of course the crotch hole that magically opens when you sit to pee – magical!) because they always seem to go all the way up to my boobs which is not comfy. I prefer mine to just cover my belly and suck it and my butt in enough to stop the jiggling. I don’t think that is too much to ask.

I have worn them the last 2 days because it got hot and humid and I decided to wear dresses. I don’t remember the last time I wore a dress without some sort of undergarment. Mayhaps it was 6 years ago when I still weighed 145 pounds (oh, those were the good old days) but damned if I remember so lets move on. I feel better than I have in a long time about my body and I’m actually looking forward to dressing for summer this year. It’s nice to drop Nate off at daycare and have the ladies tell me how nice I look. The same thing happened at work this week but it is always a double edged sword. On the one hand I am being complimented for looking good which is fantastic and on the other it makes me realize that I must look like a slob the rest of the time. Everyone has assured me that I always look nice but have looked even better this week. I will push aside my worries and take it as a nod to my increased effort to get out of the house without looking like the mother of a young child.

 Even famous people wear Spanx...Lisa Lampanelli has a WHOLE drawer devoted to them!

Now that's a lot of Spanx!

 This is my new back yard garden which is still a work in progress as of today - the lily was supposed to be pink!!!

(sorry for the awkwardness of the photo, I was looking down off my deck)

This is my original back yard garden. Once everything blooms it will be really pretty :)

Done…and Almost Done!

I “ran” my first official 5K on Sunday…and I made it to the finish line! I made the mistake of choosing this particular 5K because it was local and early on Sunday morning so it was easy to drop Nate at my parents and swing back a couple of hours later to get him. When I arrived I realized that I should have probably looked into other races. I have only been to 2 other 5K’s and they were both fairly large, well attended events with both runners and walkers. This was about 40 teenage boys from the track club and some of us older folks…all of whom have clearly been running a lot longer than I have.

I didn’t let that get me down though. I psyched myself up and promised myself that I would keep to a comfortable pace for me and not be swayed by the rush of the crowd. Well that didn’t happen. I tried to keep up with the pack and ended up running faster than my normal pace and I was still dead last. Until the woman walking her Boxer ahead of me had to get out her bag to clean up after his mess. So I passed her…a woman with a dog…who was walking. It was not my proudest moment but I was happy to get ahead of someone and I was even happier a mile later to cross the finish line. It wasn’t easy but at least I did something that I never thought I would do. Scratch that off my bucket list!

I also finished my front and back gardens on Saturday…and then immediately proceeded to start a second back garden. I still have to finish cleaning out the area and add some top soil and the flowers and mulch…I can never be satisfied with what I have outside. Honestly though it is a small square that I had once planted stuff in and it all died off. Grass has never grown there and it is right next to my deck steps so I needed to make it more attractive. Now I need the rain to stop so I can finish my latest project. Then I will post pictures of my lovely flowers.

My Mother’s Day

It is Thursday and it has been a whirlwind of a week. Still busy at work (and will be until December), finally ran 5K, had an amazing massage yesterday and even took a bath last night. It has been rainy most of the week so I have been so achy and I could not wait for my massage yesterday. I saw a new therapist and she was amazing. I felt 90% better when she was done with me. I need to be back in shape to run my first official 5K on Sunday. My mother agreed to watch Nate so I can go it alone and zone out to my music instead of worrying about pushing a stroller with a 35 pound kid and having no music to push me through. I’ll let you know Monday how it went.

This weekend Love starts his new work schedule (Sunday through Wednesday 7am to 7pm) and I am not looking forward to less time with my husband and all day Sunday spent alone with Nate. We have become accustomed to tag teaming him so we can both get things accomplished around the house. Now I will be on my own and he will be tagging along for every load of laundry. Fun.

Last weekend however was a great one. Saturday morning Nate and I headed out to get my Mother’s Day presents…flowers for my gardens! I love gardening and it is another thing that relaxes me and gets me some fresh air. This year is the first time since we bought our house six years ago that my garden in the front yard didn’t need to be filled in with more plants. Everything is finally well established and I only added a few begonias in the front for some more color. I also decided to use more potted plants this year in the front yard. I always have one on either side of my deck but I decided to add a hanging basket and 3 pots to the deck. I love the way it looks.

My back yard is a whole different story. Unlike the front yard where the builder of the house put in the garden beds and I just added the flowers, in the back I had to dig out grass. Two years ago I took Mother’s Day weekend and dug out the grass in front of two sections of fence, put in a border and planted everything. Last year I ditched the vegetable garden and added more perennials. I love this garden because when I wash dishes I can look out the kitchen widow and enjoy the view.

Growing up with my Mother I guess I caught the green thumb and it is something I hope to pass on to my children. I wish I had taken a picture of Nate this weekend with his elephant watering can helping to water all of my new plants. He was so cute and proud of himself for being my helper. He was equally adorable Sunday morning when he woke me up with cards and flowers. Love was sweet enough to let me sleep in and even took care of Nate while I watched 3 episodes of Revenge and the last Once Upon a Time. It was a great weekend and I wish we could spend more time together this summer. Sometimes being a grown up sucks.

 Once my Lillies and Roses start blooming it will be so colorful out here!

 I love my $5 hanging basket...I got a yellow one for the back yard (pictures coming soon)

I love the snapdragon in the big pot because it is so different from everything else I have

Soon this bed will be filled with red, orange and more purple once everything blooms :)

I’m NOT Sporty!

I have always joked that the only way that I am going to run is if someone is chasing me. I run a lot in my dreams because I usually am being chased and my adrenaline never fails me. In reality I have always been a fast walker but never thought about running. I have a friend who is now a runner and 2 years ago when we would go for a walk in my neighborhood he would be begging me to slow down. Walking has always been a nice form of exercise for me because I love looking around and taking in the scenery and it doesn’t take any coordination. I am one of the clumsiest people you could ever meet. I have never played a sport, I can’t roller blade, ice skate, ski or snowboard and even tubing down a river is an adventure to me. I simply am not sporty.

I think that is why I am enjoying running so much. It doesn’t require any real skill and it makes me feel great. My mother constantly worries about my asthma and my bad back, but honestly I have not had an asthma attack since I started running in January and my back feels better on days I run. I am really happy to get out and get some exercise and running has a calming affect on me too. I get to clear my head and just let go for an hour. Plus I get some fresh air and I’m getting tan!

Last week I got back on track after 2 weeks off and I had a break through. I ran 2.9 miles (in a row!) on Friday. I was so excited when I realized how well I had done. I started jogging in January to prepare for a 5K next month and it has seemed like a pipe dream for the last couple of months. I have been able to run a mile straight but then I lose steam and have to walk for another half mile to mile before I can run again. Last week was different and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. A year ago I walked a 5K and I was wiped out. I was 20 pounds heavier and I felt like I could never run a mile let alone 3.1 miles. Now I am going to run that same 5K this year with my friend Brooke who just lost 70 pounds (okay, she’s going to run while I jog) and I am planning on running one next weekend to prove to myself that I can do it. I think it's a thing that they have to have medics at all races so I'll be fine :)

Call me Charlie Sheen

If you know me well then you know that I lose my shit sometimes…okay a lot of the time. I have no patience and I can thank my Dad for that. I see it already in Nate and it kills me that my nugget is as stubborn and emotional as I am. I internalize everything and then eventually something small lights my fuse and it is only a matter of time before I explode. The last 3 weeks at work have been extra long, super stressful and just plain weird. I can’t get into details here but believe me when I say that you would never believe me if I told how bizarre my work environment is. We are all feeling it lately but this morning I lost it…snapped…and then I wanted to sit in my bathroom and cry for the next 5 hours (because I don’t want anyone to know I snapped silly).

Of course that is not a rational option so instead I went for a run in and came back feeling better. I was not ready to go all Charlie Sheen or whoever that Kony 2012 guy is (remember the guy who was running around naked a few months ago touching himself – yikes) but I wanted to scream and scream and scream some more. I hate this feeling and I hate that things get to me so much. Running really helped because I had a goal to run more than 2.5 miles and I ran 2.9. Getting so close to my goal of running 3.1 miles (5K) really made me happy and cleared my head.

It’s the weekend and I really need some time away from work. I’m not sure what this weekend will bring but hopefully some much needed rest on Mother’s Day J

Back on Track

The last 2 weeks have been so long…I didn’t think April would ever end even though I dreaded May beginning because now I will officially be swamped at work for the next 5 months. I think the never ending rain last week really washed out my spirits and I still feel down. My job has been very stressful recently and that is weighing heavily on me.

I make a bold decision Thursday night and took home the Magic Traveling Tracker from my Weight Watchers group. It makes you accountable for the week and you have to track everything you eat (which of course is the whole point of Weight Watchers) and be honest with yourself. I love tracking online because it is easy and I don’t have to keep track of a paper tracker. I can update it as I eat using the PC, iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch and it is great. The problem is that I am lazy. I have no other defense. The plain old truth is that my laziness has derailed my weight loss. I did hypnosis and started jogging and was steadily losing weight because I was on program. Then it all stopped. I started snacking at work and at night and the last 2 weeks I didn’t jog or even walk.

I decided last week that I had enough and I needed to stop throwing money down the drain. Weight Watchers only works if you track. I’m not going to be able to run the 5K in June if I don’t get back into my training. I am now on day 4 of tracking and I feel great. I made a promise to eat more fruits and veggies and drink lots of water. I also promised myself that today I would go for a jog at lunch and I did and got right back into it like I never stopped. Two weeks ago my back and leg were really hurting so I took the week off and then last week it rained every day. Days like today make me feel so much better and realize that I have it in me to keep going and hit my goal. I never thought a Monday would be a good day but there you go! One day at a time is the only way I am going to be able to lose the weight. I am going to fall down on this journey but I need to get right back up and keep going.

 Here she is!

I was very honest and my first day I used 10pts. of my Weekly Points Allowance :(

 I even weighed my wine! Wah!

My hero :-)

Pictures...Finally

I am in slow motion this week and I don't forsee it getting better anytime soon. I feel like I did at the beginning of my pregnancy with Nate. A little foggy at all times, forgetful and TIRED. I am NOT pregnant but I am in the midst of getting Nate to sleep in his own bed finally and we have 5 days behind us so far. The first 3 nights went very smoothly and nights 4 and 5 hit a rough patch. I think we're getting there since both of those nights he insisted on going back to his bed to fall back asleep (can you hear me screaming with joy?!?!). He is obsessing over the fact that he wants everyone to be proud of him (he is his mother's child afterall) especially Grammie. I will continue to let you know how that turns out.

 I began the weekend with a little Mad Housewife...I'm not a red wine fan but this was yummy

 My nephew Charlie is adorable and I miss him so much

 The boys :)

I bought them matching mats...Charlie will grow into his lol

 We tried to get a decent pic with the grandkids...

 This was a little better

 Nate loves the sharks at the aquarium

 My favorite boys

 Nate liked the coy fish because they have moustaches lol!

 The birds liked us

My favorite part of the aquarium is the butterflies and I was rushed out by Nate :(