The Monon is where my heart is...

I was planning on running my long run on Friday this past week. See, I have every other Friday off and have attempted to use those Fridays to get my long runs in. Mostly so I can sleep in on Saturday mornings. Regardless, this past Friday you may have heard that we here in Indiana encountered severe weather. Tornadoes to be exact. Funnel clouds. Hail. Winds in the 40-50 mph range. I decided to postpone my Friday run and opted to run with my Perfect Stranger girls on Saturday. However, my heart was racing so fast for a solid hour on Friday that I felt like I had just run for hours.

Jaime had texted me early on Friday to ask if we had bad weather would I be able to pick up her boys from school if the going got rough (she has been out of town and her huz was as well). We encountered some morning storms and hail. Then around 2:15 the tornado sirens went off. They only go off if there is a tornado watch AND warning (an actual sighting). I hunkered down in the basement with the dog and my laptop...as the satellite was out from all the wind. One funnel cloud was spotted, then a second in the next county over from ours. My panic set in. Mike told me I didn't have enough time to go get the girls and be home in time to take cover. He also told me their school was all brick; they'd be much safer there than at home. Jaime reminded me that the school does drills regularly (in fact they just did one that morning in preparation!) and are trained for taking care of our children in these situations. But I still couldn't relax. I sent out an email to my parents and sister to tell them what I was in the middle of and how scared I was. Thirty minutes later the storm had passed without any tornadoes touching down. The sun came out in full effect and the rest of the day was absolutely gorgeous. However, parts of Southern Indiana didn't fare so well. Complete devastation.

After I was brave enough to go back upstairs I immediately picked up the girls. I couldn't get my hands on them quick enough! There was a buzz about the school, as every child had to be woken up from their naps to take shelter from the storms. Izzy told me all about it while I kissed all over her and then all over Luke (his mom was out of town, someone had to do it!). Let's just say the rest of the day we laid low at home and took comfort in the fact that everyone one was safe and sound.

I woke up Saturday excited to get in a long run with my runner girls. You may remember we had a few themed runs last year (Survivor, Totally 80's, Patriotic)...a few of the girls were running 20 milers so we had to spice it up with another theme: Princess. I arrived bearing tiaras (borrowed from Izzalicious) and donning pink. After a few miles the tiaras were ditched, as they couldn't withstand the high winds we were enduring (30ish mph!).

Knee high socks from the night trail run in January. And see those mittens? Probably the best present ever for a runner! Jaim got me those for xmas and I'll tell you what I told her, "life changing." I have poor circulation in my hands and the mittens rock my world. And the best part? The thumb is a soft fabric for wiping your runny nose. Comes in handy after a snot rocket. You're welcome.

Several other runners thought we were celebrating a bachelorette party. We heard, "Congrats!" and "Nice socks!" all morning long. See? Themed runs keep it interesting! I finished just shy of 10 miles and left the girls to finish up 20. Inspiring, I tell ya. But I was happy to be done, that's for sure.

Wanted to give you a sneak peek at our lot for our new home:

It may just look like a lot of dirt to you, but it'll soon be turned into our home. See those trees? They line the M.onon Trail. And that house behind the trees? That's what we'll get to look out on (not too shabby, right?!). Mikey and I have already chosen our elevation (design of the front of our house), interior & exterior colors, flooring, cabinetry, counters, fixtures and more. It's incredible the sheer amount of decisions that have to be make in order to pull it all together. What's even more incredible is that Mike and I agreed on nearly every one of those decisions (notice I said nearly). So far it's been a fun process and I can't wait to see it all come together in the upcoming months.

In the meantime, we've been getting a lot of projects completed at our current house to get it in order for listing it in a few weeks. We have a large list of things to complete and are slowly crossing things off. I cleaned out, purged and organized 5 closets yesterday and I have to say that I'm pretty surprised by how roomy they look now that all the clutter is out! Next up: turning our coveted toy room back into a living room and turning our small den back into a dining room. Will be more purging happening at our house as I try to get all the toys to fit into the built-ins in our basement. Should be interesting.

Saturday evening Mike's mom and step-dad came down to watch the girls for us so we could have a date night with some friends. The girls had fun with their grandparents while Mikey & I had a relaxing night out.

Larry is such a trooper with that headband...what a riot!

Don't be a stranger...

I've been out of pocket in the blog-o-sphere lately. Wasn't intentional. Life just got in the way. I had no idea how many people actually read this blog on a regular basis until I stopped posting weekly. Emails and phone calls and texts have been coming in from many friends (and even family) asking if everything was ok. Everything is more than ok...we're simply living life and enjoying the small things. Such as snuggling with daddy...

 And sister snuggling...

 And mommy snuggling...

 Mikey and I were able to get in a long run together (I know, we look so hot). Mike's back has slowly started to feel better and he's easing back into running. He was shocked to run with me for the first time without my headphones in...we actually talked the entire run. Thanks to running with my Perfect Stranger girls to being able to run for hours on end whilst talking. That takes talent, you know. And huge lung capacity. Just sayin'.

 I've also been reading an amazing book. Lance's ex wife is a runner. And boy can she ever write. And relate. She runs with a group of women every week dubbed the "sweat sisters." I've been highlighting all my favorite parts that I can relate with and will be passing this along to every one of my runner girls.

 My sister and her boyfriend was (briefly) in town and we met her out for breakfast. The girls loved seeing their KiKi and so did I.

 I had a girls' night out last weekend with some fellow mom friends from the girls' school. Have to admit, I had so much fun and made a handful of new mommy friends. 

 So here's something super fun, Izzy's school has called me twice in the past month about "issues" she's had. Both times were on Fridays. The first time was to tell me she had a piece of rock salt stuck up her nose. She sniffs everything (and I have no idea where she gets that from) and apparently found a little piece of salt on the floor at school and sniffed. Said salt got lodged in her nose. Every time the teachers asked her to blow her nose to get it out she sniffed (she still hasn't mastered the art of blowing her nose...when is a child too old to not know how to do this?!?!). Which only made the salt go further up her nose. We left her at school (she wasn't bleeding or uncomfortable) and believe that it eventually dissolved. So that was fun.

The second time school called was to tell me they thought Izzy had the measles. Come again!? Since there was a recent outbreak of measles in a nearby town none of us took this lightly. I called the ped and they asked us to come immediately and to knock on the back door of the office so we could enter wearing masks. As soon as we got into the doctor's they realized it wasn't the measles. But it was definitely a bad case of hives. Not a rash (contact dermatitis, caused from lotions or laundry detergent) but hives (usually caused by a food allergy or a virus). We were able to narrow that day's food Izzy ate down to peanuts being the only culprit. After a referral to an allergist and the strong suggestion to keep away from the peanut family, we were on our way.

Izzy made sure to remind me the next morning at Dunkin' Donuts while I was eating my coveted peanut donut that she had to stay away from the peanut family and now I had an entire peanut family in my tummy. Mmmkay.

We visited the allergist and we have to get blood drawn in a few weeks to determine if a peanut allergy is truly what Izzy has or if it was just a reaction to a virus. Learned that usually a food allergy presents itself with hives and is accompanied by a systemic side effect (cough, throat tightening, etc). Since Iz didn't have any other symptoms it may not be an allergy. So off we went with an epi pen and we'll wait to see what the blood test says in a few weeks.

 In the meantime, Izzy has been enjoying her gymnastics classes and learning a lot of new skills. Just last weekend she learned how to climb the rope! It's a huge deal at the gym if you can climb all the way up and ring the bell. Izzy's class was only able to get about shoulder height before getting scared and climbing back down. Just so darn proud of her and I love watching her learn new things every week.

 Another topic I've failed to keep you updated on is the state of this little girl's health...

 We received the results from the EEG and they were negative. Meaning there was no abnormalities in Laney's brain activity. This is inconclusive as the neurologist said kids with epilepsy can have normal EEGs. The doctor challenged us to pinch Laney the next time we saw an episode. Wouldn't you know it that we haven't seen one single episode since the EEG. It almost seems as if they have disappeared as quickly as they came about. We're just happy to have some more knowledge on epilepsy and what to do if we see more absent behavior from Buggy. And many thanks to all of you for your thoughts, prayers and emails you sent our way.

On yet another random note, Laney has been going through a strange stage where she'll get out of bed in the middle of the night and either falling asleep in the hallway outside of her room or coming into our bedroom and just sitting on the floor watching us. Mind you, we sleep with a very loud fan on so we never hear her come in. I'll roll over while sleeping, notice our door is open, and sit up to find Laney just sitting there. Quite creepy. I'll be bringing this up with the neurologist at our follow up appointment to see if this has anything to do with abnormal brain activity or is just a stage. But strange, no?

 Bug is quite the ham these days. And she knows it. Plus, her daddy is getting pretty good at pig tales which makes her even more cute and irresistible.

And Laney is quite the bruiser these days. Rough and tumble is her middle name, that's for sure. Check out her black eye from falling on the playground.

Happy March Madness everyone. We're looking forward to going to the Big T.en Tourney next weekend for some basketball with the Funsters! And I promise not to be such a stranger. I'll have lots to update you on in the coming months, as we just started building a new house. Say what?!?!?

Happy Valentine's Day...

Happy Valentine's Day! I have a few pictures to share before we talk V-Day...

We attempt to have game night at our house once a week (aka Candy Land or Chutes & Ladders). When I say attempt it's because we have Laney Bug (Swiper, no swiping!) that doesn't grasp the rules of taking turns, sitting still and basically rules in general. Many times Laney loses interest, then eventually Izzy will too, and Mike and I find ourselves playing the game just the two of us. We laugh at it...but this past week Izzy made it all the way through a game and even won (fair and square). Just love the little girl she's becoming. So sweet.

Had to take a picture of the two littles in their matching jammers

And I know I've posted a similar picture in the past...but Izzy just cracks me up in the way she settles in for bed each night. She has about 327 stuffed animals (of all sizes) and she arranges them along the perimeter of her bed. She tucks some of them in. Groups them with their buddies (monkeys go with other monkeys, Abby Cadabby goes with Elmo, etc). The shear amount of buddies she has on her bed drives Mike crazy and he's constantly trying to reduce the number on her bed. However, I find it so endearing that she loves every one of them and seeks out the guys that daddy has removed. Sometimes she'll even ask for me to help in lining them up and tucking them in. We say goodnight to most of them. Don't want to forget this time, as eventually she won't even want me in her room one day.

Saturday morning instead of my typical outdoor run, we Perfect Strangers opted to run indoors. The temps were in the teens and the winds were 20mph. Don't get me wrong, I love running outdoors and bearing the elements with the next crazy distance runner, but as soon as the idea was thrown out of running on the track? You bet I jumped at the opportunity to forgo the 17 layers and hand warmers! Running in shorts and a tank felt so freeing. But the laps around the track did not. We ran for time, as we knew counting laps would not last long (as 8 laps=1 mile). The run felt great and we were all able to catch up without the muzzle of a neck gaiter in our way. Ha! Below is a pic of Meggie, Karen & Christie lapping it up.

Something exciting has happened at my office: Reebok CrossFit has shipped us a "box" that contains all the supplies to run a full CF gym right in our warehouse. Last week we were able to try out a very elementary workout, and now they are offering 4 classes a week to us. There are talks of building out an entire CF gym in our warehouse...but until then, we're all just enjoying a total body workout. It's fun to work out along side VPs that I wouldn't typically get the opportunity to talk to, let alone do lunges next to. Think that's one of the biggest reasons (next to health) that our management is bringing this here...to promote community among our 700 employees. Should be fun!

Nanny Natalie and Mr. Dave surprised the girls at school last week. Love that she always finds a way to visit them whenever she's back in town. Had to dress the girls in the t-shirts she made them (front says "Go IU" and back says "PU Purdue").

Just 6.5 more weeks until we go to Florida. The girls got some new suits for Valentine's Day...can you tell how excited they are?!?!

And this year for Valentine's Day I decided to save some money and make my own cards. Definitely didn't save me time, though. I spent Sunday nap time cutting and pasting. But they did turn out cute. Buggie's cards:

And Izzy's valentines are a little different this year:

Girls are getting lips on the end of a sucker while the boys are getting mustaches

Jaime and I spent another Sunday afternoon together, this time making sugar cookies and frosting (both homemade!) for the littles to decorate. Check out Jacob in the pic below, he's taking an important phone call while everyone else is smiling for the camera.

Besties. Jaime taught me how to use a stand mixer. So fancy.

Jaim and her boys

Gigi and her girls

One of the best sights in the world is watching your best friend love on your children like they are her own. Never gets old.

Happy Valentine's Day!

ps-sorry for the phone pictures...but my phone is so much easier to carry around then my big camera. I've been reading on several peoples' blogs that Instagram is killing the DSLR. True dat.

Weekend shenanigans...

These pictures are in no particular order...just a mish mosh of pics from the last few weeks that haven't made it onto the blog yet.

Laney has been joining us at gymnastics the last few weeks and she puts on a show of her own...

 Oh that face...

 Izzy is becoming stronger and stronger each week (and more brave)

 Silly face montage

 Playing at Chick-fil-a

 Buggy!

 Baking muffins

 Izzy back bending

Izzy loves wearing her IU dress because her nanny Natalie goes to school there. Yesterday, in preparation for IU playing pee-you Purdue, Izzy was doing her best "Kay You" cheer. She's so stinkin' cute!

And finally, we've been spending the entire weekend in big girl undies. My goal is to have Bug fully trained by the time our nanny returns in May. Wish us luck!

Super Bowl XLVI in Indy...

The much anticipated Super Bowl XLVI is finally here. Today. In Indy. Our city has been preparing for this huge event for the better part of 2 years and the hype the last month has been huge. There have been celebrity sightings all over the city, people renting their homes out for the week for $20,000, exclusive invite only parties, concerts, zip-lining and hundreds of thousands of visitors from out of town coming to our city to see it all come together.

I have to admit, I'm not one for crowds. Or traffic. I avoid both at all costs. Pretty sure I've never stayed to the end of any concert for this reason. And pretty sure I vowed never to live in a big city for the same reason (growing up in Chicago put the nail in that coffin). My anxiety and lack of patience gets the best of me and it's just not pretty. This being said, I knew I wouldn't go downtown to witness any of the Super Bowl events during the week or weekend. My company offered free tickets to many a party, zip line, experience, et al...I still wasn't going to do it.

However, I did find a way around this. I run downtown every Wednesday morning with the guys from Back On My Feet. We run through the city, past every major landmark within a 2.5 mile radius. I drove down a few minutes early this past Wednesday to snap a picture of the large XLVI roman numerals on the circle (right in front of the Colum.bia Club, where Mikey and I were married!). Since it was 5:30am, there were no cars on the circle so I was able to stop my car, get out and snap pics. The only other people there were all the news stations setting up camp. I got back into my car and drove to meet all the runners. I asked our pace-leader/coach if our group could run past all the big Super Bowl sites. He obliged.

 These roman numerals were made at the company right next to the Finish Line. We have been watching them create these numerals for the last year or so. I recall last summer looking out the window and seeing the large "X" and I'm pretty sure my entire division got their phones out and took pictures in excitement. We also saw them cart these numerals off via large semi-tractors in smaller pieces 2 weeks ago, heading for the circle. Was amazing to see them all put together, lit up in the heart of our city.

 Mile 2 of fartleks we ran right into the circle and past the roman numerals

We ran through Super Bowl Village and above is the taping of ESPNs morning show. Friday morning the Today Show was downtown and a few of my BoMF friends got some air time.

 This may be a little hard to see, but it's me and James in the heart of Super Bowl Village

 These next two pictures above and below are obviously professional pics but I just had to post them so you could see how our city was transformed into an amazing playground celebrating the big game. The far left (above) is Lucas Oil Stadium and the far right is the JW Mariott where the Lombardi trophy is displayed on the outside of the building. I tried taking pictures of both of these on my run but the lighting was awful.

I'm proud to call Indy my home. Now only if the Colts were playing today...that would be the perfect storm!