This weekend definitely goes down in the history books as a really great one, despite some hiccups. The highlights (and some lowlights):

• went shopping with the kids, my mom and my cousins on Friday ... got some cute stuff at Old Navy, including some new running pants WITH pockets. Also, am finally a size smaller, even in pants. 'Bout damn time.
• We were supposed to go see Despicable Me with my cousins, but Tabby was running a fever and about the 10th degree of WRECKED. So we went home. Matt and I got to put the kids to bed and veg out at our computers.
• Saturday Tabby was right as rain (gotta love kids), just a little tired.
• We went to the Paris Street Market. We didn't buy anything, but we sure had fun looking. I saw some cute kids shirts, but could not justify almost $30 for t'shirts. Sorry. Also saw an AWESOME retro kitchen set in RED. Would totally have bought it (just $200), but I really don't have a spot for it. Boohoo!
• After the market, we went to a b'day party for our friends' son who is just a bit younger than Ben. She is a crafty-whiz and it was a great party!!
• After naps, my family came over and we celebrated my b'day. I requested fried chicken, squash casserole, green beans, corn on the cob, etc. A perfect summer meal ... my sista also made me confetti cupcakes. Yum.
• I got awesome presents, including a GPS watch, great purse, camera bag, necklace, and Popsicle maker.
• We also sang a buncha Karaoke.
• Sunday morning we did our normal trip to the gym.
• Followed by errands.
• After lunch and naps, we went on a loong bike ride with my sister and the kids.
• So long that we ran way into dinner time and ended up picking up Arbys on the way home (I later regretted this as my body is not used to such crap).
•

I asked Matt and the kids not to get me anything and instead, I gave myself a few b'day presents. I bought some stuff off Etsy (a vintage pickle jar, some headbands for running and some cloth napkins) and some new PJs at Target. But the biggest gift I gave myself was a day off.

It was oddly hard to get over the guilt of 8+ hours of uninterrupted "me time." I felt bad about sending the kids off to our sitter while I played, but then I reasoned with myself that I hang with them every Friday, so I got over it.

It was a very nice, super relaxing day. I got up at my normal early hour and instead of beating it to work on the double, I drove up to a trailhead and had a 10 mile run. It was very nice not to have the clock hanging over my head. It was a new trail, beautiful and wonderful weather. I even saw two blue herrings in a tree on my way back.

When I got home I skipped the shower and jumped right into a craft project. I wanted to use my new Silhouette to make a couple of things ... I made two, one turned out. The gals at HowDoesShe? are always making cute signs out of decoupaged 2x4s. Since our neighborhood is a magnet for door-to-door salespeople, I've wanted a no soliciting sign for a long time. My awesome Aunt Peggy has had a sign that reads "No offense, but no solicitors, religious or otherwise." on her door for as long as I can remember and so I fashioned my own version. It was a lot of fun. It still needs to be hung up though.

After crafty time, I had lunch with my sweetie. Then I finally had a shower and settled in to listen to my audio book for a while and play some solitaire. I think I napped for a while and maybe goofed around on the internet.

It all went by very very fast. I had a great time, but I was happy to see my kiddos ... and Matt too.

We all really enjoyed our Fourth of July. Tabby had spent Saturday night at Grammy and Papa's, so after I ran with some friends that morning, Matt and I got to hang out with just Ben, which was a really nice treat. We even got naps!

I had a minor disaster while preparing my potluck contribution, Squash Casserole. The pyrex dish (one of my favorite sizes with a nice plastic lid!) cracked and broke in the oven. I was only able to salvage about 1/3 of it. Boohoo.

We went over to our friends' house for a BBQ in the early evening. We were hoping the weather would improve so we could do our BBQ out-of-doors and have our outdoor movie. Neither really happened. We got maybe 30 minutes of outdoor picnicking before we had to move it inside and it rained all evening, so the movie (The Great Race) was shown indoors. To add insult to injury, the fireworks display was called off.

The kids didn't seem to mind. They got to play with their friends, wear their cute 4th of July outfits, eat way too much sugar, and stay up LATE. Not a bad deal!

I stopped at Target on my way home last night to do the dreaded task: swimsuit shopping. All I've got right now is my old maternity suit that (thank god) no longer fits. So I had to get a new one and quick because we had plans. Is there any woman on the planet that ENJOYS swimsuit shopping?? I mean aside from the unnatural supermodel ilk? I doubt it. But I managed to find something acceptable and home I went.

We actually (*gasp*) went to our neighborhood pool. We packed a picnic dinner and walked over for some fun in the sun. The kids could hardly eat they were so excited. After "dinner" we turned them loose on the sprayground.

Ben, my BOY, went at it with great gusto. He delighted in all of the sprinklers and waterfalls and fun. He ran around on the foamy surface, laughing and growling and screaming. He was a sight to behold. Timid Tabby held back and it wasn't until I agreed to run around with her that she would get very close to any actual WATER.

I sincerely regret that I didn't take my camera with us. Ben was especially hilarious, running around soaked, grinning up a storm. I apparently need it surgically implanted on my person (anyone got a good reference?).

Slowly, but surely, we're tackling our summer to-do list. Hard to believe this weekend is the Fourth of July!!

PS My new toy showed up yesterday, but as I was knee-deep in website edits (done on the treadtop? walkstation??), I hardly got to play at all. Hopefully I'll have some show-and-tell soon.

An interview with Tabby, age 3.25 about her daddy:


What's your Daddy's name?
Daddy! Also, according to Tabby, I call him "baby" ... which I don't.

What's his favorite thing to do?
Work! At his computer. And in his shop!

What does he like to eat?
Pancakes and bacon ... and macaroni and cheese!

What does he drink?
Coke.

What makes him happy?
Me.

Who does he love?
Papa (my dad). And Grammy and you. And Tabby and Ben and Loki (when prompted with "who else?").

What makes Daddy mad?
When I talk when he's on the phone.

What does he like to watch on TV?
Football!

What does he like to do for fun?
Play games ... bad games (Oblivion, presumably, where things blow up).

What do you love about your daddy?
He's nice to me and tucks me in and snuggles me.


We all like that about him and we are all truly truly lucky to have such a nice daddy and husband!

When I saw The Princess Bride on Film on the Rocks schedule, I knew it was time to initiate Tabby into one of Denver's best summer traditions. Film on the Rocks, for the uninitiated is a summer even series sponsored by The Denver Film Society. They rent out Red Rocks and show second-run or cult classic films. The setting is absolutely magical: a gorgeous amphitheater carved out of amazing red stone, combined with Colorado's perfect, 0-humidity, 70 degree summer nights.

So we packed up our picnic dinner (complete with movie candy) and headed out to Red Rocks. Tabby was less than enthused about the inevitable traffic jam to get to parking. But once we got there, she was keen to get going. It's a hike into the amphitheater, but a pretty one and besides, she was carried for about half of it.

We got in and found some seats and got all set up. Tabby was too excited to eat her PBJ and we passed the time until sunset with people watching, potty-going and the coloring supplies I'd brought for her.

She got a little antsy with the sponsor commercials at the start of the movie, but rallied nicely when Bugs Bunny showed up for the traditional pre-movie cartoon they always show at FOTR. She had *gasp* never seen Bugs Bunny. I felt as though I was failing her as a parent. It was The Barber of Seville and she laughed like crazy.

I'd offered to give her a synopsis of the movie beforehand so she would know the general plot, but she refused and watched the movie with RAPT attention. The eels and ROUS kind of scared her (as they did me at that age), but she loved the story and told me all about Buttercup and Wesley yesterday.

It was great for all of us and I wouldn't hesitate to take her to another FOTR ... though probably not Superbad.

Summer is officially here!!!

Sorry for the lack of communication ... but we had a very interesting start to our (my) weekend. Thursday night a little storm blew up. It was over with in a very short period of time but Mother Nature showed us some of her best fireworks. One of them went astray and hit our house.

We were down in the playroom (basement) after dinner, hanging out. We knew the storm was blowing up and we'd nixed our after dinner walk. There'd been a couple of booms and cracks and it was obviously a pretty powerful storm. Then came another very very loud crack, immediately followed by our alarm system going off. We assumed it was a vibration thing, but it didn't stop. So Matt went to check it out and in our master bedroom, he smelled burning, so we evacuated to the car with the kids, dog and fileserver and drove around to the front of the house. Matt had called 911 and four firetrucks showed up.

A while passed, chatting with neighbors, etc. and the firefighters (hot ones) geared up and checked out our house. They were up in our attic and surveying the roof with their infared tools. They could show us the studs, sans fire, happily on their displays and we were pretty lucky.

The lightning struck through our eve, not into a room. Pieces of our roof were all over the neighborhood, up to a half-block away. It took out a speaker in the ceiling of our master bedroom and traveled through the speaker wire to burn out the volume control. It took out my Tivo (waaaah!), upstairs TV and most of the electronics attached to our main-floor theatre system as well as our networking equipment (wireless router + switch). It took out cable, phone and internet as well as killing our phones themselves and our alarm system and the light fixture in the master bedroom. It tripped a few breakers and took an entire GFI circuit (had to be replaced).

All in all we got off easy. It will be a bit of a pain to right everything, but nothing irreplaceable was lost and no one was hurt. It is a small thing in the long run, but it makes for a good story.

3 years ago, at 4:20 AM, my sweet Tabby made her grand entrance. Even completely blitzed from a very long labor and C-section, I was elated to finally meet the little lady who had been bee-bopping inside me for over 9 months. There is a lot I don't remember about that day, but I do remember how tiny and warm she was, and how amazing and beautiful I beheld her to be. It was without a doubt, one of the greatest days of my life.

In 1095 days, we've seen her change from a sweet, smiley baby into our sweet, firecracker of a preschooler. The teeny changes along the way, a fraction of an inch, a new word, were hardly perceptible on a daily basis, but suddenly we'd glance up and there she was - smiling, walking, kissing, talking, running, reasoning, singing, loving, helping! I am so dang proud of her it practically makes me teary to think about. Every day she belongs a little less to just us and a bit more to the world. She goes to school. She interacts with people I don't. I feel like she's gotten an excellent start in her young life and I will be there to help her as best I can to continue to be sweet, smart, inquisitive and confident.

Everyday she makes me smile and amazes me with her humor and ingenuity and kindness. She's some of Matt, some of me, some of the various amazing people she interacts with, but she is all Tabby and she is incredible!

This weekend, I abandoned my family. But it was just temporarily. Swear. Friday at 4 PM I picked up one of my besties (Holly) and we (after a short pitstop to buy me new mittens) headed for the hills. A relatively easy 1.5 hours later, we arrived in Vail, home of gorgeous alpine views, ski slopes to die for and excellent girl time.

Two other friends (L&J) arrived a couple of hours later and we had dinner -- the kind where you don't pick up things off the ground, don't cut up food for anyone and all of the drinking vessels are actually made of glass (no lids, either!). Then we talked. And talked. In fact, talking was our primary leisure activity of the weekend.

We were up late, and then even up pretty early since we didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to make bottles or calm fears. Holly, L and I went skiing while J (who is pregnant) went to the spa. After glorious days at our selected pursuits, we had a very happy happy hour and then went out to dinner (on top of a mountain) like grown ups, even if most of us ate burgers and fries. But we all smiled wistfully when we spied a sweet little boy asleep on his daddy's shoulder.

After dinner there was, of course, more talking. We're all moms with two (or almost two) kids. We all have husbands that we love to pieces and yet find completely irritating at times. Most of us have day jobs. We talked for hours. We could have talked all night.

Morning came quickly and after a leisurely breakfast and some more talking, we packed up our things (in about 5 minutes) and headed for home. It was a wonderful trip. I enjoyed everyone's company immensely and it was a break I desperately needed -- I was notably less irritable and stressed when I got home. I can't speak for everyone, but as much as I enjoyed my time away, I missed my family hugely and I was so so glad to see them.

PS - I'd show you pictures, but we were having way too much fun to take any.

One of the songs on my running playlist is from the Power Puff Girls' Soundtrack (an all-time favorite), by Shonen Knife called "Super Girl." It's Buttercup's theme, I think and it always energizes me.

It's been playing in my head this week, even though I haven't been able to get much running in. See, I've been Super Busy. My partner in crime has been absent, doing his duty for the good of our family on a business trip. I have a giant freelance project due the middle of next week. Between work and commuting and getting the kids to bed on time and household maintenance (cooking, cleaning, etc.) plus being out sick on Monday, I would normally only be left with about an hour to get anything else done. Luckily, I have excellent help right nearby.

My sis came over and helped out with the kids on Monday night when I was still sick and having those terrible achey chills. My mom came over last night and took over from the end of dinner until bedtime so I could use those hours on my freelance project (coming along nicely!). And because she's Super Grammy, she and my dad are having the kids to stay Friday night and a good part of Saturday so Matt and I can have a date night followed by a work day (when I should be able to finish the oft-mentioned project).

What's my point? My awesome family are my superpowers and superheroes. Also? I need to use that song as my ringtone.