Beer Brewin' & Black Olives

We weren't up to much this weekend. It's almost not even blog-worthy. But this is what I do. I take note. I record. I snap pictures constantly. Of nothing. Of everything.

Typical Izzy: dressing up & layering upon layers of costume.

Mike & his best friend Jason bought a beer-making kit and have been working hard on their first 5 gallon brew. They spent over 4 hours the other night working on their first batch (and watching the informational how-to while drinking beers & boiling water). Just thought you'd like to know what Mike's been up to, as his personal life rarely makes it to this blog.

Saturday morning I went out for a warm 8 mile run. I was dressed for the 20's and the weather delivered 50's. Needless to say I was warm. A drastic swing from last week's sopping wet run. I am not a fast runner. I am not even a good runner. I never win. And I never will. But I was reminded why I run when a man was running the opposite direction on the Mon.on at a fast clip with one of those spring-like prosthetic legs. Put my pain into persepctive and reminded me that I run because I can. And so can you. Just sayin'.

Friday night I went over to Lori's to craft a few handmade stamps:

Today both girls took 3 hour naps. Must have been the time change. Or the fact that our summer nanny (aka the summer girl) came over for a playdate this morning and wore them out. Either way, I'll take the 3 hours.

Black olives are always a hit around our house.

And tonight the neighbors came over for a delicious dinner made by Mikey: spicy seafood pasta (aka Misto Mar or Seafood Diablo). YUM. We got all caught up on this guy:

Nothing too exciting. Just a typical weekend around these parts. Two week countdown to Florida. Bring. It. On.

Girls Weekend in Indy...

Every Spring my high school girlfriends travel down from Chicago for a weekend in Indy. We have had this weekend planned for months, so I had been anticipating their arrival for a long time. I waited patiently on Friday evening...and could barely keep my eyes open when they got here at this time:

 Mikey, being the host with the most per usual had lined up some drinks for the girls' arrival:

 We ended up staying up pretty late so when the girls woke up on Saturday morning, we spent a long time lounging in bed reading:

 Jen, Mary & Erin (who didn't make it down this trip) bought Izzy a boatload of Dr. Suess books fo rmy shower years ago and it was fun to listen to the girls read them to Iz. Plus, it was the Doctor's birthday this week so we'd been reading a lot of his books already. Izzy's favorite one of the moment is There's A Rocket In My Pocket. Too cute.

After lots of lounging Saturday morning we went to Izzy's ballet class. Iz was excited to show off her moves...and Jenny challenged me to take pictures through the one way mirrored glass. I apologize for the poor quality of these pics, but I am just so tired of not being able to document her adorableness in class. Oh, I received the information on her recital (in June) and I learned that Izzy's hair needs to be pulled into a bun (if hair isn't long enough to do so, they sell bun kits...true story) and she has to be in full stage makeup which consists of foundation, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, blush and lipstick. Help me now. It's hard enough getting those tights on her, let alone MAKEUP?! That should be interesting.

 We came back to the house for some playtime...

 ...and craft time:

 Saturday night we went out for Mexican with Mikey and the girls and 2 pitchers of margaritas. So. Much. Fun. Then we headed down to the B-Ripp for some good old blue grass music. Love, love, love the Wellin.gton, as this was the location of our rehearsal dinner almost 7 years ago. Brings back good memories. Oh, and a lot of singing at the top of your lungs and dancing too.

 The night was an absolute blast. Did a LOT of dancing and laughing. I had to take a pic of this:

 Mary came back from the bar with a 6 pack of beer. This just screams class. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

And this is what it looks like after hours of drinking and dancing...melting faces. So glad these girls were able to meet my Indy friends and that my worlds collided. Erin & Ange...we missed you. Jaime...thanks for a crazy ride home, delivering us safe & sound. Girls, until we meet again...muah!

396th post...oh my!

So this is my 396th post since I started my blog 4 years ago. What's the significance of this number? Nada. But it does mark the day when I have had to actually purchase storage space because I have officially exceeded my 1GB free capacity. I just spent a whopping $5 on another 20GB of storage. Watch out.

 Izzy's hair is long enough to fit two little piggies again. So stinkin' cute.

 And a little Friday night snug time is the best. Who needs to hit the clubs when you have an adorable 3 year old to smooch on?

 Saturday was busy...I ran 8 miles in the frigid cold, raced to ballet with the girls, got a haircut, hit up the library (where, let it be known, Saturdays are filled with kids and their dads...apparently moms get this day off?) and then had a delish dinner out with the fam. I love, love, love days like these; racing around with lots of nothing to do. Then again, I love me a good jammie day! Anyway, Mike and his buddy bought a beer making kit and it came in two large boxes...which made for instant fun in our house. Whenever we get large boxes at our house they turn into a big to-do. I'm going to tell you why - Mike said when he was a kid and moved into a new house they had boxes from their new washer, dryer, fridge et al and used all of them to make himself a huge house in his basement. Complete with a real television. Plugged in. Oh my. So I'm pretty sure whenever we get a large box at our house he tries to replicate that same fun-in-a-box house with our girls. It's purely his gig and I let him have fun with the girls. Hours of free entertainment, I tell you.

After coloring their box-houses, a trip to the grocery and out to lunch...naptime left me time to craft a little baby gift:

We had an impromptu visit from Grandma Laura & Grandpa Bob. We love when they call on the road and say they are passing through and can they stop in for a visit? (They have family in Illinois.) The girls are over-the-moon to get these surprise visitors, too!

Izzy has a small infatuation with taking pictures with point-and-shoot cameras. She can't hold up my new camera, thankfully (but yes, I tried). Molly...I thought you'd appreciate her love for photos!

We had to show Grandma & Grandpa one of our favorite activities inside the house (we have to get creative in the cold months!): scooting back and forth across the kitchen in the buggy cart! This is more hours of free fun and the girls just love it. Plus, there's no box to clean up after this one :)

Delaney is 18 months old...

This little peanut is 18 months old. And I can hardly stand it. She's so grown up, yet still so little. Most 12 month olds are bigger than she is...but she's got quite the personality, so that makes up for her short stature. Laney Bug weighs in at 22 lbs 3 oz (10-25%), she's 30 3/4 inches short (25%) and her head measures 48 cm large (75-90%). Buggy is healthy and happy...and the most fun little 18 month old we know. I would say the large head size means she has a big brain; however, when you ask her what her name is, she answers with "Izzy!" Sheer genius I tell you.

Tutus & Warmer Temps

If you've ever visited our house (or our living room-turned-playroom) you'd know we have many, many dress up items, costumes, hats, jewelry, accessories & tutus. I believe we have 6 tutus to be exact. Some nights just call for dancing (to hip hop Mick.ey Mou.se) in our tutus:

 And some nights call for snuggle time with daddy:

 The weather slowly climbed upwards into the 50's over the last few days and we tried to play outside both Friday and Saturday. Izzy loved being able to climb on her monkey bars, swing and slide once again.

 Here' is Laney telling Katie to "shhhh" her barking:

In other news, the first week of Mini Mara.thon training went well. I mean, if you call having to stop frequently on the treadmill to catch my breath a good thing. Yeah, I didn't think so either. But I still did my speed training and got all my weekly runs in. I even ran 7 miles on Saturday morning in 30 degrees. Was very different than my last long run on the Mon.on just 4 months ago, when it was in the 80's by 7am. Very nostalgic to be back out there among the early morning runners, crossing familiar mile markers and trying to get my breathing in rhythm with my mind and body. Felt gooood to be back. It had been too long (I could tell because my legs have been sore all week). Here's to hoping each week gets easier and easier!

Inspiration...

Tomorrow is the first day of my 12 week half marathon training. I haven't run since October and am dreading the discovery of how out of shape I am. I wanted a LONG break from running after my marathon. And now I've had it. And it's time to get back on the horse. Or the treadmill. Whatever. I'm actually chomping at the bit to start and am ready to get back into fighting shape. Not only am I training for the half marathon in May, but from my previous blog entry, I'm also running a 200 mile relay in June. Which means my long runs will be longer. In fact, training for the relay is almost as intense as training for a marathon. I like a good challenge, can you tell?

Anyway, I've been trying to get inspired for my training and discovered this:

 I love this motto. Short and simple: do what makes you happy. I watched an Oprah this morning about happiness and what makes us happy. The biggest takeaway was to choose experiences that make you happy, not things. Things cannot give anything back to us. However, the memories we have from the experiences in life can. To remind myself of my passion and those memories, I created an inspiration board (in my closet...now that we have kids there is little left to the house that is personal space):

 Hoping to add another few medals and bibs to this board this year: Mi.ni Marathon in May, Ra.gnar Relay in June and the Mo.nument Marathon in November (just signed up today).

I also made a shadow box with my Chicago Mar.athon bib, medal and finisher photo. Just need to keep inspired and reminded why I run...because I can. It's my passion, and I'm pretty sure I wear it.