We're Gonna Party Like It's My Birthday.....

Probably won't get to "sip Bacardi like it's my birthday" but oh well!

My birthday present to myself is a new blog post (about anything!) so that I don't have to look at that picture of my running shoes every time I open up my blog. Let's look at this instead....

Cause they're pretty cute, right?

So far, for my birthday, I have done the following....

~ Woke up slightly cranky because my allergias are going crazy, and congestion kept me up for a while last night. I do not like for my sleep to be messed with! GRRR!!!

~ Quickly dropped my cranky mood after all the facebook messages, texts, and phone calls wishing me Happy Birthday. I have such sweet friends and family - thanks guys! Oh, and the first thing Noah did when he came downstairs was come hug me and say, "Happy Birthday Momma!!!" - I love it!

~ Took Liam to meet his Mother's Morning Out (hereafter referred to as MMO) teacher and see his classroom. So cute! He went straight for the trains and then the slide and then screamed when we had to leave. Don't think dropping him off will be a problem next week. He'll be all, See ya Mom!


~ That's it so far.... I have big plans to put Liam down for a nap, possibly nap myself (hey, it's my Birthday!), and then head to my Barre Fitness class this evening. And then - my fingers are crossed - come home and hope that Wes will surprise me with some sort of baked good with icing!!!!


Oh, by the way, just so you know - While I was typing this post, Liam was behind me doing this...

Yes, he likes to put a bucket on his head and then yank it off and giggle. We call that game Buckethead. Creative I know. But this time he was barking like a dog while his head was in the bucket.... Niiiiicccee!

Dear Running

Dear Running Shoes,

We need to talk. I know, that's kind of an ominous statement, but you can't tell me you didn't see this coming. I mean our relationship has been rocky for a while now - all summer long to be exact. Every time we hang out you leave me disappointed, and more importantly, on the verge of heat stroke.

(Photo, courtesy Noah Shealy)

So I guess it is time for me to come clean and confess to you that I have been unfaithful. I have been cheating on you for a couple months now. But its gotten worse lately and I can't live a lie anymore. So here is the truth.... I want to see other people. But we can still be friends. Right?

Ha, as if I could ever truely break up with running. I imagine running and I will always be in each other's  lives (you know kind of like those girls who have that one dysfunctional relationship that they just can't seem to leave in the past). I have been a runner for 5 years now and I can't ever see myself giving it up completely, but I have been exploring some other ways of exercising lately and it has been fabulous! The heat this summer really was what made me take a little break from running. Even if I woke up at 6am to fit in a run it was still 100 degrees with 95% humidity and I just felt awful afterwards. Before I knew it, I just stopped having the urge to run.

Here's what I have been doing.

#1: Barre Fitness on Wednesday nights. I am obsessed with this class. It is one hour long and filled with all sorts great stuff. We do use the ballet barre but it is not a ballet class. Just overall strength training using your own body weight as resistance. I have seen big results just going to this class once a week.

#2: Bikrim Yoga. They just opened a Bikrim studio downtown so I went and checked it out with a friend of mine. For those of you who don't know, Bikrim is "hot yoga" (the studio is kept at 105 degrees) and is a series of 26 poses done in a 90 minute class. I was skeptical because I have never thought of yoga as an intense workout but I was proven wrong. Just holding the poses made my heart beat like a I was running an interval workout and I have never seen so much sweat pore out of my body. I was soaked in the first 15 minutes. Needless to say, I will be trying to do this class on a regular basis.

#3: Okay don't laugh... I am taking an adult ballet class. (Never mind, laugh your ass off, it's kind of funny.) On Monday nights I have replaced my running shoes with these...

I have not put on ballet shoes since I was 13 years old, and I was a little nervous that I should not be attempting it at 28. But I have a friend (who is a legit ballerina) who teaches an adult class at the studio where I take Barre Fitness and she told me I would be fine. So I went. And it was fun! I wasn't the worst in the class and after being self conscious for a few minutes I finally relaxed enough to enjoy just being in the class and dancing. Let me tell you, when I was younger I never realized that ballet was an actual workout. I was more sore after that class than I was after the hot yoga! I have decided to keep going back - if I can brave the idea of wearing a leotard and tights!

And never fear, yesterday I went for a 3.5 mile run - and it was great! With Noah in school I only have to push one child in the jogging stroller and I am hoping that any day now the summer heat will start being less intense as we move into fall. So there you have it. I am still a runner - just one that also wears leotards and says, Namaste.

And, on a completely unrelated note, I had to put up this picture of my boys.

Yes, they really did ride all the way home from Noah's school holding hands - two days in a row! I love how much they love each other!

Growing Up

Time is such a funny thing. It can go by so slowly - like when you are getting a cavity filled or listening to Wes talk about the intricacies of the eye (I kid, I kid!) - and then other times it seems to race by at warp speed. For instance, like when I look at my boys. There is Liam, who is off and running. Literally. The child no longer walks anywhere. And Noah, who started elementary school this week.

Here he is on his first morning of Kindergarten. He may have been smiling big but I can promise you he was nervous. And so was I. The parents are allowed to walk them in the first week so that's exactly what I did, and despite his nervousness Noah did very well being dropped off. I think I am the only one who would have known that he was not 100% sure about being there. It did help that he has a good friend, Abby Grace, in his class who sits right across from him AND that he got to purchase a brand new Mario Brothers lunchbox!

And a side note: Me being me, I dealt with my Kindergarten anxiety by purchasing some new things that  got me excited about the first day. These reusable sandwich bags with dinosaurs are not only environmentally friendly, but they just make me happy!

I am sure that they amuse me way more than they do Noah!

So anyway, after I dropped him off Wes, Liam and I went out to breakfast. I thought about ordering some sort of healthy-ish veggie omelet but decided that I would eat my feelings instead, and ordered a big plate of Peanut Butter, Banana, and Honey French Toast to make myself feel less sad about my oldest growing up so fast.

It kind of worked. What is really good though is that I still have sweet - and feisty - Liam to keep more than busy during the day! He is missing his partner in crime a bit. He went from days filled with this.....

.... to days filled with having to keep himself entertained without Big Brother.

I don't know how long the spatula and the contents of my cabinet will keep him happy. I think I'd better get on arranging some play date!

Chicago Trip, Day 4: This Is The Last One, I Promise!

Our last day in Chicago was on Monday. Since we didn't fly out until Monday evening we had most of the day to finish up playing in the city! We got all packed, checked out of the hotel, and hopped into some cabs to head back to Navy Pier.

We used our tickets that we had redeemed earlier in the trip to enjoy the attractions at the pier. Here we are on the most slow moving Ferris Wheel in the entire world!

It was seriously so slow that it never actually stopped moving - you just jumped off as it rolled to the ground!

After the Ferris Wheel the boys decided to ride the swings. With Amy being pregnant, and Andrea and I wanting to keep our breakfast down, the girls opted out of riding and decided to take pictures instead.

The last thing we decided to do was the putt-putt course and OF COURSE it turned into a battle of the sexes. The boys started off strong and had us a little worried. 

Really, the girls just needed to get warmed up a bit. We were way better on the second half of the course. Especially once we found a caddy to carry our 30 extra pounds of purses!

Alas, we did not win, but I did manage to have the best mini golf game of my life. I got two hole in ones and my score was tied with Wes and Adam. I mean, I should probably have earned a medal or something! :)

So that's about it. Our Chicago fun came to end after that as we gathered up all our luggage and headed our separate ways.

By the way..... I could do a whole separate blog post on the fiasco of getting from the hotel to the airport but I won't. Suffice it to say, it involved a lot of heavy bags being hauled up flights of stairs, getting stuck in train station turn styles, and my white jeans getting very dirty. Forget the golf medal - I told Wes I deserved a medal for putting up with all of that! Oh, and I told him next time he was forking out the cash for a cab!

It was a great trip with great friends and I hope it is not another 5 years before we do it again!

Chicago Trip, Day 3: My Favorite Day

Sunday morning I managed to drag my butt out of bed to do one of the things on my Chicago wish list. I wanted to run around the lakefront path on Lake Michigan. It was literally just across the street from our hotel and I am so glad that I didn't let laziness get the better of me and miss out on it. Wes came with me, despite the fact that his ankle was still nice and swollen, and we did 3 miles in the morning "heat". I use the air quotes because I think it felt hot to the people of Chicago, but to us the low 80's temp and cloud cover with low humidity felt positively refreshing! I wish I had brought my camera - but alas, it is pretty annoying to run carrying that. That lake is so amazing. It makes the lakes here look so.... dinky, unimpressive, small potatoes, etc. I mean, it is so vast that you cannot see to the other side and I really felt like I was running next to the ocean!

After getting cleaned up from our run, we met up with the gang to head for our next adventure: An architectural boat tour along the Chicago River. Of course, as we boarded our bus ominous dark clouds were building in the sky. And, you guessed it, as we were hopping off at our stop the sky literally opened up and it started POURING! Wes, Amy, Andrea, and I immediately ducked into a small doorway off the sidewalk to wait it out. (Adam and Jeremy kept walking for reasons unknown. I can only assume that they don't know their wives as well as Wes knows me. No way was I going to spend the morning looking like a drowned rat!)

We waited a while and killed the time checking the weather apps on our phones (what did we do before technology?!). Amy assured us that the rain was supposed to pass through by our 11am boat tour.

When the downpour finally let up we decided it was time to make a break for it. We came out of our hiding place and eventually caught up with the other two. We made it to our destination and ended up waiting under a bridge overpass by the river. Yes, I am sure you can imagine my delight at having to do that! And it was not made any better when Jeremy started telling me that there were pigeons waiting right above my head waiting to swoop down and attack me.

But let me tell you, Amy and her smart phone were dead right. At the stroke of 11, as we were boarding our boat, the rain stopped and the sun came out and the day was beautiful!

See? We were very happy! Oh, and this is right about the time that Andrea was explaining that Adam does not "lean in" for pictures. Apparently he is way too macho to execute a lean for the purposes of a cute picture.

See? No lean. Andrea is always the one doing the leaning. I think that makes her a very good wife :)

Wes and Jeremy are clearly comfortable enough with their manhood that they don't mind a lean in for a picture with their wife. (Adam, take notes!)

So back to the tour. It was awesome! It was an hour and half of riding down the river listening to facts and history about the buildings of downtown. It sounds a little boring I know, but it was actually a really great way to learn about the city.

After our boat tour we ate lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing - and possibly some of us did some more shopping. That evening, on our way out of the hotel, we took our only group picture.

(Thanks Andrea for sending me this group pic!)

That night we headed to see a performance at Second City. This is the improv theatre were literally all the SNL cast has come out of. Tina Fey, Chris Farley, the Belushis, Dan Aykroad, etc. I had not realized how prestigious this place was until we got there. Needless to say I immediately got really excited about seeing the show.

We were shown to our seats - front row, center thank you very much! - and ordered drinks and prepared to laugh our asses off. Which is exactly what happened. There were 6 cast members that put on a 2 hour show of sketch comedy. (Similar to Saturday Night Live, but each sketch had a unifying theme.) Sitting in the front row was quite the experience, especially when one guy was playing a horse and chewed up an apple and spit all over Wes. Or when another guys randomly took of his robe to reveal his hot pink bikini underwear and started dancing complete with high kicks!) We were not allowed to take pictures or I might have taken a few. Or maybe not. It probably would have taken away from truly enjoying the experience. After the main show the cast came out and did an extra hour of straight improv using suggestions from the audience. For this they brought out some special guests who were Second City alums. One was a writer on SNL and the other was Jason Sudeikis! Wes and I got really excited because we had just seen him in the movie Horrible Bosses and it was the closest we had ever been to a real celebrity. The improv was hilarious, especially when it got so ridiculous that even the cast started laughing. We were very sad to see the show end - I think we could have gone and watched it all over again. I highly recommend going if you are in Chicago.

After that it was late and most of us were tired. Poor Jeremy tried to persuade us to go out and party but he was met with much resistance. He informed us that at this rate if we go on another vacation in ten years, all we would be able to handle would be heading out for the early bird special at 4:30 before crashing in bed at 7:00. I think he was trying to call us old. Whatev. Call me old all you want, but a big beautiful king size bed with feather pillows was calling my name!

Chicago Trip, Day 2: Using Our "Stop" Pass

On Saturday morning we woke up bright and early.... just kidding. Ha, we were on vacation people! This means that Wes woke up bright and early - and wandered aimlessly around the hotel - while the rest of us used the opportunity to sleep in a bit. After a little breakfast we all met up to begin our day of being tourists in Chicago.

We had all purchased a "Go Pass" which was a little card that featured something like 28 tourist destinations, and you could go see as many as you wanted in one day. Following Adam and his trusty map we hopped aboard the bus and headed to our first stop. The Field Museum.

Now, I should stop here and explain that even though I was very excited to be there I had HUGE guilt about seeing this place without Noah. Why? Well, for those of you who don't know what the museum has here is a little peek...

The Field Museum is Noah's idea of Mecca. There is an entire exhibit filled with dinosaur bones and the museum is home to Sue, the most complete skeleton of a T-Rex ever found. I know! And we were there without Noah! I am telling you - the guilt was extreme. (Which was probably why I went a little crazy in the dinosaur gift shop.)

The Museum was great - we could easily have spent all day there - but we had that "Go Pass" and we wanted to fit in some other places before the pass expired for the day. We ate lunch at the museum and then hopped in a cab and headed to Willis Tower.

It was crazy busy! And, according to Jeremy, Willis Tower got the award for being the most inefficient at herding tourists through the site. He was right. First you had to wind through a line, take an elevator down, get your tickets, wait in another winding line, get your picture taken as a group in front of a fake backdrop of the city, be herded like cattle into another elevator (this might have been where poor Amy started to be a little nervous), ride up almost all the way to the top, then get out and switch to yet another elevator and ride the final 4 floors to the top. Phew!

Of course, once at the top the view was totally worth it. It was a great way to see the city - even if it was very crowded.

We decided we had better hurry if we wanted to make it over to Navy Pier so we got in line to ride the elevator down.... and waited. Forever. Cause one of the elevators was broken. I must say that being at the top of the tallest building in the western hemisphere and seeing repair guys there working on one of the only ways down made me slightly nervous. And, it was at this point that a very frustrated Jeremy decided to rename the Go Pass. He was now calling it the "Stop" Pass since we had only managed to use it for 2 places all day long!

Needless to say, we made it down, hailed some more cabs and made it to Navy Pier. We redeemed our pass for the tickets to the attractions there and were told that those tickets did not expire. Score! We decided to come back another day and instead of trying to cram it all in with the crowds, we sat down and had some refreshments instead.

Hmm, margaritas, chips and guac, and Garret Popcorn - cheddar and caramel mix! 'Nuff said.

After being rejuvenated, we went back to the hotel to chill out before dinner and a trip to the top of the John Hancock observatory. Even though that building was 9 floors shorter than Willis Tower I enjoyed the view from there better!

We had dinner at a cute little local spot called Bijean's and it was delicious. I ordered the Chickpea and Sweet Potato Cous-Cous and it might have been my favorite thing I ate the whole time we were there!

That, combined with a really delicious bottle of wine, and I was suddenly very tired from our busy day!

Chicago Trip, Day 1: The Fun Begins

I have not been a very faithful blogger, but I have a good excuse! We were on vacation!

Last night we arrived home from a very fun-filled time in Chicago with some dear friends. I am very tired - traveling really takes it out of you - but want to recount all the fun we had before I forget. So here goes.

We flew into Chicago at 9am on Friday morning. At the airport we meant our friends Adam and Andrea, gathered our luggage, and proceeded to head to our hotel. We had to navigate from Midway airport to downtown, and of course we had done absolutely no research ahead of time as to how to that. But hey, we figured that if we successfully navigated around freakin' Puerto Rico 4 years ago, we could find our way in a city that spoke English as it's official language! Sure enough we followed the sign that said, "Train to City" and we were not lead astray. Thirty minutes later we were dropped off a few blocks from our hotel.

Sadly, we started off the trip with a bit of a mishap. While walking down the sidewalk - hauling a million tons of luggage - Wes accidentally tripped over a curb and rolled his ankle pretty badly. He limped all the way to The Drake and when we got to our room proceeded to ice that bad boy up!

Here he is on the phone with our friend Jeremy making plans about where to meet. We could all hear Jeremy cackling on the other end as Wes recounted his accident!

Swollen ankle or not, we were ready to explore. We waited for Jeremy and Amy to arrive and then the 6 of us headed out to do a little damage on Michigan Ave. Well, the girls did anyway. The boys got a bit bored and wandered off back to the hotel bar.

That night we headed out to eat at a local Italian place.

Honestly, when we walked in I was a little scared. I mean, it seriously looked like a scene from a mafia movie. When our waiter finally came we didn't know what to do with his unsmiling, grunting demeanor. Finally Jeremy decided to be unfriendly right back and that seemed to make our waiter happy! So we communicated with grunts and one word answers and by the time we left we were fast friends!

I will say that when they brought out the A1 Steak Sauce I had my doubts, but the food ended up being very good - just way too much for me to even make a dent in! (It was a family style restaurant.)

After such a big dinner we elected to skip the cab ride and enjoy a leisurely walk back to the hotel through the busy city.

A Little Denial Never Hurt Anyone

Last night I got an automated phone call from Charleston County Schools reminding me that the first day of school is August 16th, and that was a mere two weeks away. I don't know what else they said after that - I frantically disconnected the call and tried to erase the words from my mind and go back to my happy place. (Otherwise known as my kitchen full of friends, cheddar corn snacks, and wine.)

As if I needed a reminder that school starts in two weeks! Heck, what I need is all that aforementioned wine to calm me down cause I have been thinking about it too much. (I mean seriously, don't you think 5 is just a touch too young to expect a child to navigate from the carpool drop-off, through the winding halls of a huge school, and find his classroom all by himself?!)

So for now I have come to this solution. I will voluntarily remain in denial. It's a valid form of dealing, right? For now - in my world - it is still summer. We are still children of water and sun, and the gang is still all here!

Weekend Recap: Friday Fun

Here is a recipe for Friday evening fun. Jump in car, head to Freshfields, grab a spot on the green....

Enjoy a refreshment

Listen to the band - dance when they play James Taylor

Spill ice cream down your face and shirt

Dance some more - feel the music!

Pose with some funny frog statues

And last, make sure to spend a little time honing your pickpocket skills. Those could come in handy one day!