Tomorrow, two lucky people are heading to Music City for the weekend. See Matt’s sister had a beautiful baby girl a couple of weeks ago and they are headed to pay her a visit. We were initially planning to wait until February to go see our new niece and cousin, but we just couldn’t wait. Unfortunately we’re out of vacation time, so a weekend was about the best we could do. Of course taking two kids for a weekend trip (out Friday, Back Sunday) seemed a bit too insane even for us, so we decided it would be best for just half of us to go.
Of course I wanted to be part of the half that gets to snuggle the beautiful Miss Autumn Grace, but it didn’t seem fair for me to go see Matt’s sister and the rest of his family. So I encouraged him to take Tabby with him and proposed that I stay home with Ben. So that is the plan. I know they’re looking forward to some daddy-daughter time – Tabby always relishes alone time with any adults. And of course I am looking forward to some time with just my Ben.
Last Saturday, after our 8 mile run, after a trip to IKEA and lunch with my sweet family and even some nap time, I got to have girls night out. A few months back two friends and myself bought Groupons for a local painting studio, the variety where you get to drink wine and slap around paint on a canvas. Last Saturday was our prescribed evening and another friend decided to come along too sort of last minute.
We got going kind of slowly and ditched our initial dinner plans and ended up at Foolish Craigs, one of Boulder’s sort of hippie cafes. It’s excellent and we had a nice, if slightly rushed meal. Then we went a couple blocks up to Posh and signed in for our painting session. Our Groupons included one glass of house wine each which we converted handily into a whole bottle of group wine and we sat down to paint a pretty moonlit tree. This is one of my favorite activities … it’s super relaxing because it’s just you and tons of like-minded people and some paint and music. The results are always at very least interesting … 30-40 people painting the same thing and they’re like snowflakes, no two alike.
In the photo above, the left-most one is mine, the next is my friend Holly’s that had a sort of starry starry night thing going, next is Jenny’s – I think her hills of trees turned out particularly well – and then last is Nan’s who is a trained artist. Up close you would definitely notice the comparably good technique in hers as compared to ours, but they all are pretty and fun to hang in your house. More importantly of course, we got to hang out and relax and enjoy a nice evening.
I would love to do this with Matty sometime for date night.
<whisper>Pssst. Guys … 51 days until … Christmas</whisper>. I know. It seems sacrilegious to me still to be thinking about Christmas this early. I even bought a couple of Christmas gifts LAST MONTH. Like BEFORE HALLOWEEN. I know. *shame*
But. You should see our December calendar. Yes, ALREADY. It’s quite full … and messy! We have a ski weekend, several parties, a turkey-fry with our crazy friends, and even an informational meeting on kindergarten. And of course there’s all the un-scheduled things we need to fit in, like Zoo Lights and gift-wrapping and tree trimming and cookie-baking and mass-attending and caroling and wassailing and one-horse-open-sleigh riding and so on. So I am already making the list and checking it twice and trying to get as much shopping and crafting done before Thanksgiving as I can. Because come Dec 1, I want to be kicking up my feet and taking it easy.
So. Things I have to do :
1. Christmas shop. This is hard … I will probably place a giant Amazon order, but it’s all the rest that get tricky. Bugging people for lists, running around town. And with the kids it’s the constant battle between having a fun Christmas for them and buying crap they don’t need. Plus I have to help Santa out and keeping that straight in my mind is always tricky.
2. Ornaments. Since Tabby was a year or so, we have been assisting her to make hand-crafted ornaments for the family. And we also do an ornament with the kids’ Christmas photo (sometimes we combine them) too. Last year it was glass ornaments with paint markers. The year before that, teeny tiny canvases with Tabby originals painted onto them. This year something new and I think Ben is ready to get in on the act. Not sure if we’ll do one for each to decorate or what. Should be fun … ish.
3. Other craftiness. I have a few projects I would like to complete as Christmas gifts for some people … some pajama bottoms for the kids, and maybe a few other bits and bobbles here and there. I need to figure out what I’ll realistically have time for and make it happen.
4. Calendars. Another tradition since Tabby was a little one is a photo calendar for all of the grandparents and aunts and uncles. It is not hard, but it’s time consuming to do photo selection. Part of me would also like to do some sort of photo book, but as that makes my head hurt, it probably will not happen.
5. Christmas cards!! Part of me says I should just give it up and let Shutterfly or some other service design our cards, but I really like doing it myself. Plus, when I use Premium Postcard, they send them for me. Cheers!
Nine years ago today, I walked on the arm of my handsome father down an aisle to be formally bonded to the man of my dreams.
He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me. An awesome husband. A wonderful dad. An amazing friend.
Wow. I am so lucky.
Nine years of fun and laughter and the occasional tear and squabble. Nine years of projects and recipes. Nine years of trips and lazy weekends. Nine years of holding hands.
Grow old with me … the best is yet to be. Cheers to 9 years … and many many more.
received a card from my darling daughter on which she had printed every letter of the phrase, “Happy Birthday Mommy” and signed her name and drew about 50 little flowers (heart melt!)
completed 10 rounds of Cool Hand Luke (CrossFit workout involving rounds of 200m run, 10 pull-ups, 10 burpees, 10 kettle bell swings) scraping in right at the 45:00 min time limit
found a note in my purse from my hubby telling me he bought me a new macro lens for my camera
had a lovely lunch out with my husband, conspicuously free of the need to cut up food, clean up spills and referee battles, followed by a few stolen minutes exploring a nearby town
had a mom who was generous enough to watch the kids so we could have a lovely evening playing Geeks Who Drink Trivia with some good friends
received birthday wishes, greetings, notes, emails, FB shout-outs, cards and gifts from lovely people near and far
had a wonderful birthday party on Sunday where my whole family made me a super delicious meal of fried chicken, green beans, corn, fruit salad and lemon blueberry cupcakes
received lovely gifts including a new gym bag, some cute clothes, and a necklace (Tabby’s selection)
delighted in listening to my darling son sing umpteen rounds of “Happy Mommy! Haaaaaaappy Mommy! Happy happy mommy”
Last night while I was slaving away over a hot stove making the kids some fried rice for dinner and cleaning up the house, Matt was picking up our new (to us) pop-up camper.
It is a nice 12′ size with sleeping room for 8 (if most of those sleeping are kids). We put it up and put it down and it was pretty easy and quick. Hopefully soon we can stock it up and hit the road. We’d like to get a couple trips in before the weather starts getting too cool, possibly to The Great Sand Dunes. Matt also has designs on a trip to the western slope to do some apple and peach picking.
But of course before we can do any of that we need to get it all stocked up and ready to go. I think that will be a project for the weekend. And I’m hoping this will be a wonderful way to get the kids out into nature and spend time together as a family!
Quite a bit happened since my last post 3 days ago. For one thing, it is now August. Beyond that …
Friday Morning I ran N Table Mesa (this is a redundant phrase since Mesa = Table, but that’s what we call it around here) with Kelly in the AM. It was beautiful. Then I got to sleep while Matt took the kids to the gym.
I spent most of Friday cleaning the house. It was quite a slog with the kids to contend with, but it did improve.
Friday night we had the family over Movie Night. Matt and I made Chicken Parmesan salad which was AWESOME. Everyone liked it. Then we watched Freaky Friday (new one with Lindsay Lohan as specified by Tabby, though I still prefer the old one) and Tabby got her movie snacks. Not sure which she likes more: movie or movie snacks.
Saturday morning we hung around the house and had breakfast and then eventually went to Costco. After Costco, we dropped the kids off with my parents so we could have date day.
We had grand plans for FUN but as we are OLD, we spent a few hours organizing the house. We cleaned out both kids’ closets and bookshelves (our new niece has a box of books heading her way) and their playroom.
After that we went to Good Will to do a drop off. I almost lost it when I put Tabby’s old crib bedding in the bin. Of course it’s not the bedding … it’s what it symbolizes. *sigh*
After that we went to IKEA (you know, the one that just opened a couple of days ago) to embrace the insanity (we stood in a Disneyland style queue, only longer just to get in) and buy stuff for the pop-up camper and a new peppermill that I am in love with. Also we looked at beds for our kids who are officially growing up TOO FAST.
Of course after IKEA, we were starved, so went to dinner at Smash Burger (best burgers EVER) and then to Bass Pro (gag) and Target.
We came home, unloaded the car, gathered running stuff and passed out.
Because next morning we were back up on North Redundant Mountain running again.
We picked up the kids. They had an awesome time, of course. Ben was the life of the block party. Tabby got stung by a wasp. They both got pancakes, snuggles, and thoroughly spoiled.
We had to stop by Walm*rt on the way home. I spied the super-delicious food-like product you see on the right (it has not only slim-jim style beef jerky but also mini ritz crackers with cheese-product sandwiched between them) while we were in the check-out line. I did not buy it.
We had lunch then naps (for the kids). We thought they’d never wake up. But eventually they did. So we took them to the pool (it was SUPER HOT yesterday).
They didn’t want to leave, but we had to go home and have dinner. We made steaks and super super awesome zucchini feta fritters (highly recommend).
Amazingly after all of that, we could do little but put away some laundry and then put away the kids in their beds. We followed very shortly.
It was somewhat difficult to get out of bed this morning.
My maternal grandpa’s family has family reunions every 2 years. We flip-flop between a location in the Rockies (near us) and a location in Missouri (near the other branches of family). They started when I was a baby and have been going strong for 30 years. I have been to almost all of them. My mom and a few others, every one.
This year’s family reunion was on the schedule as one of our bi-weekly weekend trips. It was the last weekend in July, or so the calendar said. Friday afternoon, around 3:30, I was at home waiting for a friend of mine and her little girl to arrive for a playdate when my mom called. “I’m sick, Jess,” she said. I figured she was referring to a stomach virus or something that would take her out of commission for Tabby’s beloved Friday Movie Night. But then she went on.
“Reunion is THIS weekend.”
Tabby at Dinner amongst her people
That’s right … the summer of calendar mishaps and idiocy continues. We as a group had collectively gotten it into our heads that reunion was a weekend later than it actually was. Now the reunion was to be held near Warsaw, MO, about 10.5 hours from Denver, or about 2 hours from the nearest airport if you could get yourself on a plane. But of course, a quick check of flights revealed that it was both cost-prohibitive and a scheduling nightmare.
We were all really bummed. We only get to see our extended family in short spells every once in a while. It’s not that we can’t see them at other times but there’s a pretty large contingent and so a reunion is excellent visiting value. Beyond that you hate to miss out on something that’s part of the collective group’s history. So we started scheming. The biggest hurdle was my grandma. She has perfect reunion attendance and we were very much looking forward to bringing her with us, but at 88 years old she has a walker and is on full-time oxygen. Between the combination of the two (well not the walker so much as the reasons for the walker) we simply couldn’t figure out any way to get her to the reunion in time.
Once we came to terms with that, we assessed whether or not the rest of us should/could go. Ultimately we decided we could … and we would. So playdate over (all this transpired in phone calls and mom coming to my house in about an hour as the playdate was going on), I set the land-speed record for packing and got us ready to go in about half an hour. Trip all over I can say in all honesty that I did an excellent job. The only thing I forgot was a swim-diaper for Ben.
We met up at my mom’s house and piled clown-car style into my mom’s SUV, using up 6 of 7 seats. My dad was off fishing in Wyoming with a buddy and we had no way to get in touch with him and so left him fishing. We left at 6:30 pm on Friday and made it to Salina, KS and a very nice Courtyard Marriot by 2:15 AM. After a paltry 3-4 hours of sleep, we left Salina by 7 AM the next morning and made it to “Camp” by 11 AM.
Reunion was what reunion always is, organized chaos. People in the lake and pool, people in the meeting room, mixer games, awesome group meals, playing games ’til way too late, lots of fun and laughs and photo-taking. My kids got to meet their age-mates, 5th or 6th cousins (had to sketch out a partial family tree on some scratch paper to figure that out) that are the children of my age-mates. My kids slept in a queen
Lil' Skipper
(double?) bed with my mom and Matt and I shared a twin bed. Sleep was scanty and light, but that’s hardly the point.
We learned that it was definitely worth the effort. And we were very glad we went. Unfortunately, we still had to drive across Kansas once more.
Friday we were lucky enough to witness a goat herd trucking along the side of a street about 4 blocks from our house. We don’t really live in the country but as we live on the edge of civilization, there’s some country mixed in pretty close by. It’s kind of fun. Presumably these bad boys escaped their confinement and were running back and forth along the road. They were definitely smart enough to stay away from cars. It was pretty funny to behold.
Beyond that it was a pretty average weekend. We actually got two “quiet” evenings at home. We rented The King’s Speech, though we didn’t actually get to watch it. We went shopping and to the pool and did all of that sort of stuff. Ben was pretty challenging. Tabby was her usual helpful self. She’s so easy it really makes me concerned for the teenage years. What is she storing up for later??
But nevermind that. We celebrated Kelly’s birthday. We started Bootcamp. We got back into routines. It was good. And goaty.
We’ll try not to get too crazy.
