Category: Misc

We had a lovely busy weekend. 3 days off was blissful. We had lots to do but we got a lot of rest and relaxation time in. On Friday night, my sister and I took my mom out for dinner at Devil’s Food, an upscaled kind of home-cooking place. It was wonderful and I’d love to go back any time!

Saturday we got up and got going right away. We bribed the kids with donuts and took them on a hike.

There was a little whining, but it was one of our best hikes to date. We saw some gorgeous wildflowers, including what I think are wild irises – which I’d never seen before. The kids did great and Loki got a swim. What more can you ask for?

We had lunch and did some errands and then I took Tabby to a b’day party for one of her friends.

After the b’day party, I went home to finally shower and then I took off to have dinner and a lovely night out with my girlfriends while Matt hosted their husbands and kids. We were all up late!!

Sunday was more errands and naps, followed by a graduation party for 3 (!!) of my cousins.

Monday morning I set out on my first triathalon training session with my training buddy. We did a 750m swim (less than 20 min) and a 9 mi bike ride (about 45 min). Not too shabby.

We did some shopping (we need a new mattress) and a cookout and a bike ride and a little strawberry shortcake. And the weekend was done.

This was probably the most productive weekend we’ve had in a while. It started off with a bang – we hired my cousin and his girlfriend to work in our garden. They did an awesome job and our garden look faaaab. Friday I took a half-day so I could go to Tabby’s field day. This is a big deal at her school and Matt and I had lunch with her on the lawn and then I hung out for the festivities. They had 16 different events and were playing dance music outside. The only bad part is that it was HOT! We’ve totally skipped over spring this year and went straight to summer.

After field day, I got to hang out with the kids and get ready for Bunco. My turn to host. I bought quiches from costco and then turned my attention to making sangria, a nice salad, and some salted caramel pie. Everything was a hit and we had a great evening. I opened up the patio and we enjoyed the beautiful Colorado summer night.

Saturday Tabby had her last soccer game of the season. Ben would have had his too, but he went to a friend’s b’day party at the fireman’s museum. I was his escort and he had a good time playing in the gear and driving the rig. Some cupcakes and hotdogs didn’t hurt either. After the party, the kids went to my parents’ house for the rest of the day.

Matt and I had some awesome mexican food at a new place and then we went to see Star Trek: Into Darkness. I am an unabashed Star Trek fan, but I loved this movie! I never even once checked my watch – the sign of a great movie for me! After the movie, we got down to business. We commissioned and inventoried the pop-up for the summer and did our grocery shopping and some house cleaning.

This morning we cleaned out the garage, got the photo booth stored and did some laundry. We picked up the kids and Tabby and I went to b’day party #2 while Ben and Matt got Ben a haircut. During the party, Tabby started feeling crummy with an upset tummy. Luckily my friend had a tums with her and that seemed to do the trick!

Around 3:30 after the party was over I finally got my run in … just a few miles … before I showered for the day and we headed to The Kitchen for Matt’s very belated birthday dinner. A yummy time was had by all.

I need to sit down and write a real post pretty soon (er go this is a fake post). Lots of cool things have been going on, but all those cool things have been taking time and energy. So I haven’t been able to sit down, pull photos off the camera and reflect on things. Maybe tonight. For now, teasers. Just a sampling of things going on at Casa de Nichols:

1. playing with liquid nitrogen
2. running races
3. getting our art on
4. soccer!!
5. birthdays!
6. school stuff, including …
7. homework!!
8. grocery shopping
9. me going insane and signing up for a big race

…. and much much more. Stay tuned.

I like this quote. I like that we are in the age of the geek. I like that it is cool to be excited about things again. I like that my kids are growing up seeing people getting into things … and I don’t mean TV and popstars. I mean cooking great food, making amazing and beautiful creations, reading wonderful books, learning to play the hell out of the bassoon. And there’s nothing wrong with getting into TV and popstars. I’m just glad that it’s (mainstream) cool to be into OTHER things too now.

This has changed since I was a kid, I think. It’s a good change. I would be happy with some more changes. Strong and fit can replace skinny. Tolerant can replace narrow minded. Home cooked food can replace fast food and junk food. Recycling and conservation can replace mindless consumerism.

It could be awesome, right?

Tabby goes to the same school district I did when I was a kid (actually, she is our family’s 4th generation in this district, but that’s another story entirely). Anyhow, waaaay back when I was a kid, they NEVER cancelled school, or well almost never. A foot of snow, icy roads and never a cancellation. Seriously in the 12 years I was in the school system, I think they cancelled 3 days tops. And two of those were consecutive days (I was in 3rd or 4th grade) when we got like 3+ feet of snow.

But all day yesterday, they were forecasting today to be an EPIC blizzard. Snowmageddon or something. Still, I was surprised, based on my own experiences when as I was finishing up my run last night around 9 pm, I got a call from the school district saying they had preemptively cancelled school for the whole district today. I suppose it was nice giving working parents a little extra warning. In our case, Tabby can always stay home with Matt, so long as he’s in town, so not such a big deal.

However, when I woke up this morning and looked outside, it was snowing a little bit and we had maybe 1″. That’s it. My drive into the office was a little slick, but not too bad. It did snow off and on all day, but whatever snow had been on the ground when I woke up melted and no more accumulated, despite some pretty fierce snowfall. By lunch time, it was normal driving conditions and the roads on the way home were likewise unremarkable.

I can’t say I’m too sorry the terrible conditions never materialized. I’m OK with snow through March, but after we’ve had it so nice, I’m about ready to bid all the ick adieu. Now only if I’d waited until this weekend to wash my car!

Last week I felt like I had oh-so-many things to post about. And this week it’s quite the opposite. I feel boring and just generally tired. I haven’t made it to the gym once this week (VERY VERY unlike me) but I’m giving myself a break because I’ve been going pretty hard. It’s OK to not be superwoman this week, really.

• We did clean out the “media closet,” as we refer to it, last night. Once upon a time, it was a coat closet, but we added shelves to house our ridiculous DVD collection. Then when Tabby came along, I moved our ridiculous DVD collection to a bunch of binders and moved her toys and DVDs into the closet. Last night we got rid of the remaining toys and now it houses all the DVDs (ours in binders, the kids where they can see them), a bunch of video game paraphernalia and the kid activities that can’t be in the playroom, namely anything with tiny pieces or the potential to destroy the house. It’s actually got a mostly empty shelf. Weird.
• We made IGE’s Chicken Parmesan Meatball Subs last night. They were very tasty. Ben’s having some of the meatballs for lunch today. I’m having a meatball sub for lunch today. Clearly, it is a good day.
• On the side, I steamed some green beans and mixed them with a little butter, some garlic salt and pepper and then tossed them with just a little panko and parmesan. Excellent side dish.
• I also fully intend to keep photographing and cataloging our family’s favorite recipes, but I hit a snag this week when I made Broccoli Cheese Soup and used the 2% cheddar I had in the fridge instead of the regular stuff. It got all separated and weird looking. It still tasted great, but would not have photographed well.
• We scoped out the site for T’s party last night and now I need to spend my lunch hour making up some clues for the kids to do a scavenger hunt.
• I also need to do a dry-run on making the cake. Luckily, my parents are taking the kids Friday night. That means we can have a super sexy baking date. Yep. We know how to party.
• Ben continues to be pretty freaked out by floating on his back in the water. Funny thing is, he is pretty OK with having his face in the water … I feel bad for him though and I hope we can resolve this soon, both for his sake and my wallet’s!
• Tomorrow is our company ski trip. I know it will be fun, but I’m not particularly excited at the prospect of leaving town. Again.

So I taught Bootcamp on Wednesday. Our teacher was away for the week and she asked me and some of the more experienced campers to be in charge while she was gone and Wednesday was my day. I’d been to a peer-led class the day before so I had some idea what to expect and it was a blast! This isn’t like an aerobics class where I get my leotard and leg warmers on and adjust the mic just right. We have a prescribed workout and we do it. I was just there to demonstrate the exercises and double-check form.

The experience was great. I’m certainly no Robyn (or regular coach who is phenomenal), but I did a good job. And it was a real testament to how hard I’ve worked at Bootcamp. I am not the most senior there (in tenure or age) by a long shot, but I come regularly and I work hard and it was very nice to be recognized for that. I have no designs on coaching Bootcamp full or part time (our coach is mostly a one-woman show anyhow and I’m not leaving her gym anytime soon), but I’d be happy to fill in again.

It made me reflect on the fact that I really am good at quite a few things. I’ve talked about this before, but it seems to be such a problem with adults – we can’t admit when we’re good at something. Ben tells me once a day how awesome he is at something. And he is utterly, wholly, completely convinced. Adults brush off compliments and make self deprecating remarks. I think in part, it’s because with our greater breadth of knowledge, when compared to our kids, we know that there is ALWAYS someone out there better than us. And I think we also fear being found out as a phony.

So I want to, more frequently, take inventory of all the things that I’ve done well lately. From this week:

• taught a darn fine bootcamp class
• won my DietBet
• got my project out of a logjam
• fixed a coworker’s iPad
• found a damn good bargain on backpacks and lunchboxes for the kids for next year
• planned one helluva surprise
• comforted my baby girl with an earache
• made some awesome party invites that were a huge hit
• successfully completed another month of daily Instagrams

Yay me! 🙂

• This marks week 4 of crazy swim lessons for the kids. Getting them there hasn’t been easy and they are EXPENSIVE, but they are paying off. Tabby is swimming like a fish (backstroke, elem backstroke, front crawl) and during the last lesson, Ben didn’t cry once! I’m really hoping we’ve turned a corner with him.
• Went to Ace yesterday for lunch with coworkers. Their food is awesome and we tried a few new and amazing things, including their take on Mango Sticky Rice (above) which was awwweesssome.
• And then for dinner, we had this amazing CROCKPOT Thai Green Curry. Matt, Tabby and I loved it. Ben complained that he wasn’t hungry and that his tummy hurt, but ultimately ate quite a bit.
• We found out today that Ben (seemingly deliberately) peed his pants at school twice yesterday. These were accompanied by assertions that Daddy would have to bring him clothes. This follows closely on the heels of him saying that his ears, stomach, feet, neck and nose hurt in order to try to get a sick pass from school. This transition continues to be a bit difficult and we’re 6 months in! *sigh*
• Matt’s mom is coming in tomorrow to visit for the weekend. Initially we’d hoped to have Tabby’s party this weekend and share that fun with her, but it couldn’t be scheduled. So we’ll be inventing some other fun and I know the kids are excited to see their grandma.
• And speaking of Tabby’s party, things are going quite well for the most part. We sent out invites last week and we’re slowly getting some RSVPs in. People seem to be getting into the theme, with one mom noting in her response that her son like his juice shaken, not stirred. We are going to go over to the space this weekend and make some further plans for the games, etc.
• And speaking of Tabby’s birthday, SHE WILL BE SIX in just a couple of weeks!!!! How is that possible? She’s growing up way too fast.
• I’ve been quickly making my way through the Irish Country books but I’ve taken a break to enjoy the last of the Inn Boonsboro books. They’re lovely.
• On the TV, we are just about finished with S3 of Downton. I’ve enjoyed it, but I’m hoping that S4 will bring a bit more happiness. But I also got caught up with all of my less-often watched favorites like The Mindy Project, New Girl, 2 Broke Girls and Bunheads last week while Matt was out of town and I was banished to the treadmill.
• In related news, we have just purchased our third Roku box. If you’re into streaming media content, this is an investment well worth it (they start around $50). It streams quickly and simply from most of the major streaming players (Amazon, Netflix and Pandora) and I think it’s a real contender to take over from satellite and cable. But possibly, we have a problem.