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A Long Strange Trip

So a funny thing happened on the way to the airport. Well I guess technically it was the days leading up to our flight. Matt’s stepmom mentioned something about our flight being at 10AM. I knew it was a morning flight and this seemed about right to me, though I thought it was a smidge earlier. But when we checked in online and printed our boarding passes the night before both Matt and I looked at our flight times and sure enough … right there it said 10:49am.

Upon arriving at the airport, we tried to log in and check our bags and got errors. The clerk informed us after some back-and-forth that our flight was actually at 9 AM and we had just missed (by minutes, I swear!!) our cutoff for putting our luggage on the flight, and ourselves as well it seems. No amount of cajoling, crying, etc. mattered. We could NOT get on that flight. Since we’d already checked in and it was just a matter of our bags, it was pretty irritating, especially since, as I noted later, they’re happy for your bags to be on a different flight if it suits them, but if you make the mistake, you are screwed.

Quadrupling our mistake was the fact that we were 1) a family of four 2) flying on a holiday weekend. Standby was not much of an option since they predicted they could get us on basically one at a time, maybe two. And the idea of hanging out in the airport all weekend to see who stupidly missed their flight (like us) with two little kids already at the end of their vacation rope was not much appealing. We could also pay fare-difference and fly as a family on Monday for around $600, but as we were already packed up and ready to go, heading back to Matt’s parents’ house, unpacking, etc. etc. was pretty depressing, especially since we’d miss the whole weekend and all the time we needed to get ready to go back to work.

We checked out other airlines which were either entirely unavailable or ridiculous (thousands for us to fly on such short notice, one-way). So we hit on a slightly crazy idea … rent a car and drive back. For around $400 (though I think once all fees, etc. were paid, it was closer to $500) we could rent a car, drive back and be home the next day. It wasn’t a cheaper option, but it was in many ways a more palatable option. We’ve done the trip many times before and it’s all easy-interstate. Everything was packed and we could just go from the airport and head out.

So … we did. We did a long stop-over in Paducah, KY for lunch at a Chick-fil-A with a play center and a stop at Walmart for various other provisions. $90 netted us a portable DVD player with two screens and that plus the $10 copy of Scooby Doo, Where are You?? we picked up, plus some various other bribes, kept the kids happy for MANY hours. We grabbed some road-trip food and an insulated bag so we had snacks. We made stops here and there for traffic and gas and … POTTY/diaper breaks.

We made our best time after rush hour and when the kids were sleeping, so we pushed through to Hays, KS and stayed at the dubious Days Inn, home of the worst shower I’ve ever had. The next day after our continental breakfast and another 5 hours in the car, we finally made it to the Denver International Airport and returned our car.

Matt and I are both still FLOORED at how amazing the kids were. Of course possibly watching mommy lose her sh*t in the Nashville Airport impressed upon them the gravity of the situation. Or maybe they were so engrossed in Scooby Doo they just didn’t care. But they were amazingly good. The road trip overall was kind of fun in a weird way. It felt sort of like we were back in college again and someone had dropped two unsuspecting children into our back seat.

Of course it’s much easier to be Zen about all this now, but we definitely made some lemonade and dealt with the situation pretty well. As we kept saying, it could have been much worse. We decided there were four people on standby who needed to get to Denver for whatever reason much more urgently than us. And we’ve got 4 flight credits on Frontier for our next trip. That said, not something I’m keen to do again in a big hurry.

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A Day in the Life

Fridays are my “day off” … day off from office work that is. I had an extremely busy yet pretty typical day on Friday and I wanted to write it down for posterity’s sake something, perhaps, to show the kids when they are parents of young children.

6 AM – Wake up and hop right on the treadmill. Hopping “right on” actually involves about 15-20 minutes of eye-rubbing, yawning, stretching, dressing and setup (fans, TV). Make it a paltry 5 of the 12K I have on the schedule.

6:45 AM – Hop off the treadmill and drag Matt out of bed, dress the kids, hand them some toast and hit the road. While on the road, I make a doctor’s appt for Ben since he STILL has the darn cough. That pretty much eliminates all possibility of going to the gym with Matt as planned.

7:30 AM – Drop Matt’s car off at the dealership for floor-mat recall and oil change.

8:10 AM – Check in at the clinic for Ben’s appointment. Children persist in touching everything in site and I imagine germs crawling all over them.

8:20 AM – Appointment begins with weigh-in. He has finally gained a teeny bit of weight (1 lb). Kids drive us nuts in the exam room. They have chosen to store the IV poles in the corner (who thought THAT was a good idea?).

8:30 AM NP arrives. I’m pretty sure she thinks our kids are out of control. Tabby won’t stop talking and Ben won’t stop climbing. After all the cursory exams, we leave about 20 min later with a script for amoxycillin and a diagnosis of sinusitis.

8:50 AM I send Ben and Matt to the car to wait while Tabby and I wait on Ben’s script at the clinic pharmacy. We pass the time by playing word and math games. “What letter does Amoxycillin start with? Which is a better deal – 100 claratin for $15 or 50 Claratin for $10?”

9:00 AM We exit the clinic with Ben’s bottle o’ pink in hand.

9:10 AM Arrive at the nearby Target and QUICKLY execute my shopping list for our weekend away.

9:50 AM Arrive home and see that Loki has dispatched the remainder of our almost new loaf of bread. Curse under my breath and then hop on the treadmill again while the kids destroy the playroom. I execute another 5K, bringing my total for the day to 10/12K. Good enough!

Continue reading “A Day in the Life”

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Tabby at 4.25

June 4th ticked off a quarter year of the way through Tabby’s fourth year. I’m still shocked and dismayed as these milestones fly by. Wonder if it will ever slow down a bit?

I’m really loving this little girl. I know she’s not 100% perfect, but the small battles we have over this and that (she’s a bit prone to drama and sometimes she doesn’t mind) are so small that it’s almost not worth mentioning. Sometimes this freaks me out a little. She’s too good. Too easy going. What am I in for with the teen years? Major payback? Oh well I won’t ruin this by borrowing trouble.

I notice the changes more slowly with Tabby these days, but she still does change. Just recently, she’s stretched out a bunch and seems to be all legs and arms. I’m sure that’s where all the food she’s been packing away is going to. She’s been eating like a horse and still hovering right around 35 lbs. She wears everything from 2T to 4T and I need to measure her again soon because I’m sure she must be inches above her last mark on the kitchen wall.

She seems to have abandoned some of her picky eating ways. We’re having more success with not gagging on “no thank you bites.” She’s also succumbed to my marketing campaigns for this and that. Quiche is gross but egg pie is tasty and delightful. Seaweed? Repellent!! But nori? SO YUMMY!! She will pretty reliably eat meat and cheese (but not string cheese – prefers bleu cheese or sharp cheddar or some of that delightful Wensley-Dale) and most carbs. She just recently discovered grits and I think Matt about burst with pride.

She is becoming a master at the art of negotiation. Some of her favorite phrases these days are, “but Mommy …” and “actually, Mommy …” It’s quite killing to hear her talk in her little girl voice with her adult-like vocabulary. She says almost all words perfectly, though ‘R’s give her some trouble still. Three=”fwee” for example.

Her newest interest is video games. She and Ben have a computer in their playroom. He loves it because it plays his beloved “Buzz!!” but Tabby loves it because she can play all the latest Dora and Kai-Lan games and draw and Skype with her family in Nashville. She also acquired a Dora Gameboy game (you take care of Dora’s puppy) that she is much in love with. We have to strictly limit access or she would play nonstop.

She has also recently overcome her fear of the waterslide at our rec center pool. This is huge for her and wonderful for us. You can only sit in the shallows of the kiddie pool guarding against disaster for so long before you want to scream. Now we can make the long trip up the stairs eleventy million times which is a vast improvement, believe it or not. I think we’ll get to take the kids to Waterworld this summer!

In many ways I am so sad at how fast her childhood is going by, but I dearly love the incredible little person she’s become. She is my little buddy and we both love doing things together … reading, cooking, making things … and the older she gets, the more stuff we can do together. Definitely a silver lining.

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A Very Nice Weekend

We packed this weekend to the limits!

Thursday night: Took the kids swimming at the rec center. They both went down the slide about eleventy million times. Ben got water up his nose and decided snuggling was more his style.

Friday morning: Went to a killer workout with H. Triceps still a little sore.

Friday afternoon: Visited the Denver Botanic Gardens with my parents and my aunt and uncle, in town from AZ. Beautiful day. Kids played forever in the little river. Tabby asked a million questions about plants. Ben ran amuck.

Friday evening: Went out to dinner with everyone. Behaved myself admiarably and shunned such treats as margaritas and enchiladas. Had excellent shrimp tacos.

Saturday morning: Ran errands. There is a great shopping center with my two most oft-visited stores right next to each other (instead of 10-15 min apart like near me), too bad this area is more than 25 minutes away. Boo. Had Chick-Fil-A for lunch. 8 nuggets is actually fewer calories than 1 chargrilled chicken sandwich. Who knew?

Saturday afternoon: Manic mode as we prepped for two parties in the evening. I was baking a very complicated cake (and spilling batter all over myself) and then hopping on the treadmill for a run while it baked. Matt was running errands, wrapping presents.

Saturday evening: Went to our sitter’s daughter’s graduation party. Kids had a great time playing in the back yard. We chatted it up with mostly strangers. Then we high-tailed it back to the house to pick up the cake and then to my parents’ to celebrate my mom’s birthday. Dad fixed amazing dinner (salmon) and kids got to ride their plasma cars all around Dad’s newly re-floored garage.

Sunday morning: Loaded the kids in the stroller (way too early) and went for a run/walk with H. Beautiful day.

Sunday afternoon: Had INDIAN food with H and her boys and then checked out pieces of land Matt has been scoping out. Followed by NAPS.

Sunday evening: Had dinner outside. Kids had a bath (I supervised) while Matt worked in the garden. We skyped with all of the Nashvillians for Grandpa Sandy’s birthday. Kids passed out, I did photo management, mourned the end of the weekend.

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Our Little Ski Bum

My poor hubby. His birthday is jammed in with Mother’s Day. And it’s not that anyone thinks Mother’s Day is necessarily any more important than his b’day, it’s just that there’s a LOT of mothers between my mom, myself and our extended family and friends. It’s a numbers thing. So frequently his b’day kind of gets the short end of the stick. And his b’day is also in pretty close proximity with Ben’s which means two years ago I was exhausted from having just had a baby (and a bunch of relatives in from out-of-town for my brother-in-law’s graduation) and last year we were doing the first birthday thing. So like I said, not much birthday love for Matt. But this year, I swear I redeemed myself. I DID!!

Last summer at the Vail Farmer’s Market, we saw an awesome artist, Sara Melzer. She does gorgeous India ink portraits of ski bums! They’re super colorful and kind of wild and splashy and Matt and I both loved them. We thought at the time about commissioning her to do a portrait from one of our favorite photos of Tabby in her ski gear but we couldn’t really swing or justify the price at the time. So I filed it away in my brain.

This past winter, seeing Matt skiing with his baby girl I knew I had to have the portrait made for him. He just loves sharing his favorite sport with her and takes such pride in her enjoyment and emerging proficiency. So this March I emailed Sara about getting it going and she was wonderful to work with. I sent a few photos, including this one, my fave and she agreed, that was the one. So she took a couple of weeks, worked up a proof and emailed it to me. I was thrilled!! Since Vail is a couple of hours away, I could either have it mailed to me or pick it up … shipping was steepish so I bribed my awesome cousin and his girlfriend with Indian food and he picked it up for me when he was in Vail over spring break.

I made a few slip-ups and I was scared to death he’d figure it out before the big day, but he didn’t! He was totally surprised and he LOVES it. We don’t know where we’ll hang it just yet. But we do know we’ll need a second one featuring Ben … now I just have to find the perfect ski suit.

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This Time of Year

This is the time of year when I’m exhausted just looking at our calendar. From Ben’s birthday (end of April) to my sister’s (early July) we are just slammed! Holidays, weddings, birthdays, graduations, travel and RACES.

We’ve been so go-go-go that I really feel like I’ve lost my groove. For weeks and weeks I was super good about getting my butt to the gym and avoiding crap food. But the past week has been a freaking train-wreck. I’ve had pain in my foot and I’ve been a bit less active because of that, but I’ve also been doing some dumb dumb things like playing Sims 3 and staying up too late and then skipping my workout in the AM. The fact that I haven’t missed a training run is a miracle.

And the food. Really, we shouldn’t talk about it. It is terrible. I had pizza on Friday, Thai food (curry made with coconut milk) on Saturday, a giant burger on Sunday and then fried nastiness from the movie theatre last night – a grilled cheese sandwich and some cinnamon rolls. The grease stains the kids left on my pants can attest to how bad that stuff was for us. On top of that, I feel terrible when I eat that way more than once a week. Emotionally I’m guilty and mad for eating that junk and physiologically I have way less energy and my GI is not a happy camper either.

And let’s not talk about the house. I can feel my blood pressure rise just thinking about it. There is junk EVERYWHERE. The kids’ kitchen stool is out in the yard still because Ben threw up on it last week and we took it out there to wash and it hasn’t come back in yet. Laundry is in baskets (mostly folded at least) all over the place. We have mystery EVERYTHING in the fridge. There are random bags that we’ve taken all over creation and still not unpacked so I know where virtually nothing is.

But enough bitching and moaning. I need plan. A plan of attack. So here it is.

  • No computer games unless it’s the weekend and the house doesn’t look like a disaster zone.
  • Spend 10 minutes before bed each evening returning things to their proper places.
  • Continue making and executing meal plans … but nothing new, nothing fancy. Just get it done.
  • No more slacking on the training. Every Damn Day (except possibly Saturday). Just Do It.
  • JUST SAY NO. No more stuff. No more dates filling up on our calendar with anything except the best. No more Ms. Nice Girl.

This Thursday I am taking the day off work. I get to go see Tabby in her school program and then I get some blissful hours of mental health time. I will be using at least part of that to veg with a book or have a nap but I know I will use a bit of it at least to work on getting my life in order. Order means I can read to and play with the kids, hang with Matt and do other things for myself without distractions. Order is good.

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Why I’m Boring this Week

I keep trying to write you an interesting post, but it’s just not going very well. Every night I want to go to bed by like 8 PM and on Monday night I did. We’ll see how tonight goes.

I’m training very hard right now. I am in week 2 of a 6-week bootcamp which meets 3 days/week (MWF). It’s a bit more strenuous than my normal x-training routine of step class and some conditioning (if I feel like it). But I’m also just a few weeks away from my first half marathon of the season which means I’m training hard for that too. So I’m running 3 days a week in addition and resting a bit on the 7th.  I am also responsible (as part of boot camp) for doing a comprehensive food journal for the duration of the 6 weeks. My normal routine is to do pretty well 5 days a week and then say “the hell with it!” over the weekend but I am trying to break that bad habit and I succeeded last weekend. Hopefully I can continue this trend. Continue reading “Why I’m Boring this Week”

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Weekend Update

We had a really really nice (though typically busy) weekend. It was a pretty good mix of go and chill and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Friday we had a nice “day off.” It always amazes me how fast our Fridays go. A little workout here, some meals, a nap, a single activity and done. We dropped the kids off with my parents in the evening so we could have a nice evening out with Andrew who leaves this week. Matt, Andrew, Kelly and I went to dinner at Ted’s (hello giant burger!) and then did some “Cosmic Bowling.” I love that we can really enjoy bowling since all the venues are now SMOKE FREE. Sorry smokers, but this makes me ecstatic. We played 3 or 4 games. I actually got above 100 on one of them. I also got to dedicate a song to Uncle Buck.

Saturday Tabby had her mini gymnastics meet that ends this session of “gymnastics.” Then my parents kept Ben while we had our Tabby Date. We took her to Target so she could spend some of her b’day money. She purchased a hot pink sequined Hello Kitty purse and Guess Who. Then we went to Into the Fire so she could paint her very own “box” turtle. Its body is brown, its shell is green and it has camo-colored dots EVERYWHERE (inspired, I think by the salt and pepper shakers I painted). There was a small meltdown when she realized she’d have to wait a week for her turtle to be baked but she got over it and enjoyed lunch at her requested spot “SWEET TOMATOES!” After naps, we got to finish out the evening by joining my parents for pizza and playing several games of Guess Who (which I am apparently very bad at … ha!).

Matt and I started out Sunday with our 7.5 mile run and followed it up with the usual montage of laundry, errands, house cleaning, cooking. Since the sun is now going down later, we were able to take the kids to the park after dinner which was nice. Though unfortunately, the wind was blowing hard and making it pretty chilly so we only stayed for about 30 minutes. I will be excited to get home and enjoy the dinner I started yesterday, Pork Ragu … it smells so so good.

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Happy B’day Baby Girl!!

My most darling Tabby turned 4 years old today. I have hardly any words to describe my feelings about her going from the pink cherubic little baby to this big, sweet, funny, amazingly capable little person.

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We talked at dinner tonight about all the things she couldn’t do when she was Ben’s age (almost two) that she can do now. She is skiing like a champ (spent about 4 hours today doing just that). She knows all her letters and can write her name and read quite a few words. She is getting good at simple addition. She goes potty all on her own. She dresses herself. She helps with little chores around the house. She is an amazing big sister to Ben. She plays computer games. She rides her bike. She “skins the cat” (a gymnastics move). And the list goes on and on. It was neat to see how for the first time this year, she really seems to grasp what having a birthday is all about. She seems to understand that quite a bit of time has gone by since her last one and what that means. It’s pretty cool.

She had a wonderful day (she even said so). She requested baked french toast for her b’day breakfast, complete with bacon and Papa’s custom smoothies to drink. Then we hit the slopes for a few hours of fun in the sun. She got to have hot chocolate at the lodge and then ski down and take the bus home. I was happy it worked out for her to get a nap … she needed it! After her nap we opened presents from Mommy and Daddy so Tabby could see and wear her b’day t’shirt. I’m extremely happy to report she loves it!! We went and had dinner at a restaurant in town. She requested STEAK and received a kiddo sized portion of prime rib and mashed potatoes plus a Shirley Temple – extra cherries. Then it was back to the condo for a grandma-made birthday cake, heavy on the funfetti and some more presents. It was a tired girl who crawled into bed way past her bedtime.

It has been oh-so incredible to watch her grow and change these past four years. She is becoming a little person who I’m incredibly proud of and oh so thankful to have in my life. She’s a gem through and through.

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The Haps

It’s been a busy busy week. And it’s only Tuesday.

  • We are ALMOST all over our colds (flu??) I’m still a bit hazy around the edges.
  • We’re planning a send-off for Uncle Buck (Matt’s brother who’s been living with us this month) as he heads back to TN and eventually to the army. We’re going to go play trivia at DNote on Thursday. Yay!
  • We’re going to see Gigi tonight because it’s been way too long.
  • I went to a very unsatisfying sports conditioning class last night. I’m pretty sure she was conditioning me to sleep … or maybe do yoga.
  • We are planning our LAST ski weekend of the season (how is this possible??).
  • We are planning Tabby’s 4th b’day festivities – TEN days people … TEN days!!!
  • Speaking of which, I have no idea what to get Tabby for her b’day … I was going to get her  a Leapster Explorer, but the bad reviews scared me off. I don’t want a ton more junky plastic. Maybe we’ll go shopping for an outfit and visit the paint-your-own pottery store. The girl loves her art.
  • The house is a semi-wreck from busyness/sickness.
  • My Visa has suddenly decided not to work, so I cannot pay my library fines. Now I have to spend time on the phone figuring out WHY.
  • The above is only ONE of about 100 phone calls I need to make … during business hours.
  • I am supposed to run a half marathon in less than 7 weeks and I have not run more than 4.5 miles since … December? That’s a problem.