What being a mom means to me...

I originally planned to finish up our California recaps today, but in honor of Mother's Day this weekend, it's getting pushed to next week.

Being a mom means...

• Dropping everything you are doing (including that section of hair you are straightening) to run into the living room and do the hot dog dance.



• Having an INSANE amount of patience - like letting your son scoop the Nesquick, stir the milk, have a drink before putting the lid on, and then put the lid on himself - even though it takes triple the time.

• Totally changing course on which way you are walking around the couch, house, car, etc. because your son starts screaming and pointing "IFF (THIS) WAY!"

• Sitting outside when you need to be cooking dinner or doing dishes because your son insists on running laps around the truck (and still doesn't go to bed until 10 p.m.)

• After supper is over, letting said demon child "elp do dishes" even though he makes a mess and it takes twice as long because he doesn't understand the importance of rinsing off ALL the soap suds. But it's a mama's job to raise a boy who will make a good husband some day, right?

• Having way more fun buying little boys clothes than buying things for yourself.

• Never getting to stay in bed past 8 a.m. And if you do, you are getting kicked and treated like a human playset.

• Beaming with pride when your husband and son walk out of the bathroom at Chick-Fil-A and the two year old proudly proclaims "Mommy, I peed!" #pottytrainingprobz

• That this little boy is mine. I'm still in shock that I made such a perfect (despite bossy and stubborn!) little boy. When he kisses me or asks to hold my hand or play with me, my heart just melts and I forget everything else in the world. Which is why I'll never have a clean house. But that's OK.

Happy Mother's Day!

Pin It

 

 

 

 

 

 

California {Day at the Beach}

Tuesday was the best day of our vacation. We had nothing we HAD to do except have fun!

We got up that morning and went for a run on the beach. So fun! It felt amazing and we both had great times.



Once we got back to our room, we fixed some cereal and got cleaned up. We had some souvenirs from Paso that we wanted to mail back since they were fragile rather than put them in our luggage, so we got all of that together and then walked over to the post office to mail them. (As an aside, the post office totally didn't see the FRAGILE all over the box and broke two of our glasses, but thankfully we did the Priority Mail with insurance so I filed a claim and got reimbursed!)

On the way back we checked out a few of the shops and also noticed the bicycle shop again. I had joked about renting bikes so we got some information and then headed back to the hotel to drop off the items we had. We decided to go ahead and rent the bikes so we could really check out the area. Our hotel was about 2-3 miles from the Santa Monica Pier and we wanted to check that out AND Bel, my friend who got married, and her new husband were in the area that day, so we all decided to meet at Bubba Gump's at the pier for lunch.





It took me a bit to get my "bike legs" back but it was so.much.fun. I bet we rode more than 10 miles on the bikes that day and loved every minute of it. Except when I slid on sand and then hubby wrecked into me. Whoops.

 

While at the pier, we HAD to ride the Ferris Wheel. It was so cool, even for this girl who's afraid of heights.

We rode by Muscle Beach, too! I couldn't talk hubby into doing anything though.

Mid afternoon, we decided to attempt the beach. The Pacific was FREEZING as everyone said it would be, so we essentially just got our toes wet, then set up on our mats and chilled/tanned for a couple hours.

We had such a huge lunch that we just had some sandwiches for dinner. We had both gotten burnt and knew we would have an early morning the next day so went ahead and made it another early night.

Up next: Final day :(



Pin It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California {Hollywood!}

Note: The photos in this post don't flow with the text like I usually try to do, I just wanted to do a better job of breaking up text since the end of the post would have otherwise been VERY photo heavy.


Other than booking a hotel, we purposely didn't make any plans for our time in LA. Too many times on vacation, we tend to overbook ourselves and just get overwhelmed or feel like we didn't have time to take advantage of things.

However, a friend mentioned something a couple weeks prior about TV shows. I didn't realize it, but you can get free tickets to a lot of tapings! Unfortunately, the good shows that we love (Big Bang, Two and a Half Men, Two Broke Girls) all had full lists AND waiting lists for the shows while we were there. Even the Price is Right was booked until the day we flew out (BOOO!) But we still wanted to do SOMETHING, so we ended up getting tickets to the Dr. Phil Show.

The taping was to start at 9:30 and our tickets said to be there by around 9. Google maps indicated that it would take us around 25 minutes to get to the studio, so we left around 8:20 to get there and have some extra time. Or so we thought. This is where gridlock came into play again, it took us over an hour to get there. By the time we arrived at the studio, unfortunately, it was too late.

 

BUT they do two tapings, so told us to come back around 10:45 and we could be in the second. We killed some time by walking to a nearby café and having coffee/tea. Once we got back (early this time!) we waited. A LONG time. The first show was pretty dramatic apparently and became a two-part episode. It went over so long that they ended up ordering pizza - but it arrived just before it was time to start taping the show we were there for!

We weren't allowed to have phones, cameras or anything at the studio, which is why I have nothing to really document it. But our show was about a case of domestic abuse. It was even an Opera-type day, because there was a giveaway! Robin McGraw, Dr. Phil's wife, has a skincare line that benefits women/children affected by domestic abuse, so we filled out vouchers to receive them (which I just realized, haven't come in the mail yet. Hmmmmm)

Once we FINALLY got out of the taping (I think it was between 2 & 3?) we scarfed down a couple slices of pizza and then headed down to Hollywood Blvd. We were still kinda hungry so we stopped at a bar for a couple drinks and appetizers (gotta love happy hour!) We also changed clothes (the studio was cold and they wanted you dressed nice, so we ditched the dress pants and nicer shirts in favor of shorts and comfy clothes!)

Then we decided to just walk the Boulevard. Cooper is obsessed with Mickey right now so we HAD to take a photo with the Mouse! Hubby posed with Marilyn and I also had to hug up on Cinderella (even if she was the tranny version) because she is my favorite princess.

We continued to just walk up the strip. We stopped at the Chinese theatre and checked out some of the stars. We stopped in Hooters for drinks, and decided to go ahead and get another appetizer there as well. After that, it was beginning to get dark, so we decided to go up to the Griffith observatory.



That was super cool! Unfortunately it was too dark to get a good picture of the Hollywood sign, but it was neat to have that bird's eye view of the city!

Since traffic was so bad that morning, we realized that we could take one of the more popular streets rather than the I-10. We followed Sunset Boulevard until we hit the ocean and had to turn. It was pretty cool to go through neighborhoods like Bel Air! And so much better than getting caught in gridlock.



By the time we got back, we needed some more supplies for breakfast so found a grocery store to grab those items, then went back to the hotel and passed out. It was a great day!

Up next: Beach time and the pier!


Pin It

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

California {back to LA}

The wedding festivities concluded on Saturday and I think everyone headed out on Sunday {if not sooner} so we followed suit. Of course, we weren't on a real schedule, so we had time to pack and visit a bit before heading out.



When we booked the trip, we knew we wanted to spend a few days in Cali outside of the wedding - we figured since we were paying to fly, we may as well enjoy it and do some sight-seeing. After checking out what was around, we determined that we wanted to spend our time in the LA area, so that's why we flew in there and just rented the car to drive. {It was a lot less expensive to fly that way as well!} Hubby and I both like the laid-back atmosphere of the beach, so we stayed in a little hotel that I think was formerly studio-type apartments in the Venice Beach/Santa Monica area.

Before leaving Paso, however, hubby wanted to stop back in the Firestone Walker Brewery, which he had toured on Friday, to get a growler and some beer.



Since we drove the PCH to get to Paso, we thought it would be fun to take Interstate 5 to get back to LA. It was SO pretty, with lots of rolling hills and pump jacks.

We did stop for lunch at In-N-Out Burger, one of my musts for this trip! I loved the burger, the fries not so much.

We made REALLY great time until we got to the LA traffic. Now I know what gridlock is. Also, once we got close to our hotel, I think it took us about 30 minutes to go four blocks, as our hotel didn't have parking and it was a beautiful day at the beach so pretty much a nightmare.

We FINALLY got parked and checked in. Then hauled our stuff the four blocks to the hotel. {Seriously. It sucked.} Once I got us unpacked, we went for a stroll down the boardwalk to check things out and, honestly, stretch our legs. We later headed back to the hotel to rest and get cleaned up.

View from the hotel, but sadly, not from our room :(

Around 8 p.m., we ventured out to find some food and ended up dining outside at a cute little café. While it hit the 80s and 90s while we were in the LA area, the evenings were really chilly, especially on the beach, so it didn't take us long after we were done eating to head back to the hotel. We knew we had an early morning on Monday, so we just chilled in our room, watching TV and drinking our beer that we'd picked up earlier that morning.

Next up: Hollywood!

Pin It

 

 

 

Weekend wrap-up

Is it seriously Monday already? I feel sorta hungover from the weekend!

Our house has been seriously neglected lately with all sorts of other extracurriculars and such going on, so on Friday night I got home and started in on some laundry and house cleaning. I can't remember the last time I dusted and vacuumed our master and I could feel stray hair on the carpet when doing yoga (gross, I know) so I really devoted time to getting it all cleaned, as well as hanging up the mountains of laundry just thrown on the cedar chest at the end of our bed.

When I did my long run on Thursday night, I noticed that my feet were really starting to hurt. I've had the shoes I was wearing since October so knew it was time to replace them. Hubby needed a new pair as well, so we went to Cape for some shopping Saturday morning! I got Asics Kayonos and LOVE them. (But not so much the price tag)

There was a good sale at Old Navy and I picked up a couple pairs of shorts since the ones I have are getting pretty baggy (a good problem to have!) They were actually two sizes smaller than what I thought I would need, so needless to say, I was shocked!

New shorts! And they don't fall off :)

Once we got home, I took a nap and then just hydrated and chilled in prep of my Glow Run that night. I had a protein bar for a "snack" and also did some yoga to get stretched.

The run was great in that the weather was amazing and I made my goal of running it in under 27 minutes. However, I had some complaints. It was a fundraiser for a local Girl Scouts camp, so intended as more of a fun run. Well, they let the little girls take off at the same time (from the front of the starting line) as the serious runners, and that was tough, as I practically tripped over at least three. Part of the course had you loop around a pond - but the volunteer there didn't have most of the runners go around! I had listened to the route info and often run this trail so I know what it takes to hit 3.1 miles, but it was still frustrating as I had no idea where I was in terms of place. Oh well. After the run, we went to the local Mexican place, and I had yummy steak tacos!

Sunday morning we tried to sleep in, but a certain monkey had a different idea. It was very warm and got up to almost 90 degrees! Hubby went for a morning run and I worked on a freelance job and around the house. That afternoon, we went to Lowe's to get some plants for our front flower beds, and then I sent the boys home and went grocery shopping solo. It was like a vacation, y'all.

Once I got home hubby had most of the flowers planted. It was getting a bit late, so we decided to hold off on the last seven (he planted 10 while I was shopping and putting groceries away) so we could go ahead and grill. And it was still 8 by the time we ate.

Thankfully, we filled up the grill so we have lots of leftovers, which means less cooking for me this week and will hopefully keep the house a bit cooler. Here's this week's menu plan.

Sunday: Ribeye steaks, cheesy potatoes on the grill, corn on the cob
Monday: Grilled venison burgers, sweet potato fries
Tuesday: Grilled chicken, quinoa, salad
Wednesday: Spaghetti (spaghetti squash for me, noodles for the boys), salad
Thursday: Beef stroganoff in the crock pot, Brussels sprouts
Friday: Leftover spaghetti (I may do actual noodles since my 10K is Saturday morning!0
Saturday: Leftovers




Pin It

 

 

 

Five on Friday!

 

{1} I am SO GLAD that Friday is here! Last weekend was our annual Chamber of Commerce banquet. I'm on the committee and attend on behalf of my work, so Friday was a loooong day of decorating, enjoying and cleanup. Then on Saturday, a local organization that donates to us hosted a crawfish boil and asked for volunteers, which meant I was busy with that four five hours. Sunday, my parents hosted our family's postponed Easter. So I'm very hopeful to get some time to actually relax this weekend.

 

{2} After April being more of a maintaining month {which does stink, but I'm also glad to have maintained with vacation} I'm trying to get back on track with my fitness goals. To keep myself more accountable, I posted on IG {michelle1761} and below.

 

I have a 5K tomorrow night which I'm hoping will be the sub 27 minute or I'll have to sign up for another later this month.

 

We're also signed up for a 10K next weekend. Last night I finally got in a 6.25 mile training run AND it was in under an hour. My goal is to finish and do it in under an hour, so it looks like I am on pace!

 

{3} May is a crazy month. I'm thinking I'll have to print off a calendar to put on the fridge to keep us on track. And it's really hard to believe that our summer hours are only a month away.

 

{4} Summer hours make me think of freezer cooking, and I realized I never did post on what I made last year and my tips and tricks. I'll have to do that soon, especially since I'm beginning to get my list together for my first session this year! And since I'm trying to clean up our food consumption, I'm definitely on the lookout for clean-ish recipes that I can make freezer meals.

 

{5} Last weekend, we went out for breakfast. The boys decided to have a "sword" fight with straws while we were waiting for our food. So cute!

 

Happy Friday! What are your weekend plans?

Pin It