It's not you, it's me...

A few days ago I made my blog private for some security/privacy reasons. It wasn't about you. Or you. Or you. It was about my family and our choices to have a public blog.

I started this blog when I found out I was pregnant with Izzy. For our parents that live out of town. Since then it has turned into much more than documenting our pregnancy. Rather, it's a place I document our daily lives. So the girls can one day trudge through the monotony that was their youth. Look at pictures. Read funny stories. This blog is about our family and you choose to read it and we love that you do.

In the past few days I've struggled with what to do with this blog. I researched what I could do to make it safer to be out there in cyberspace. So I used my resources at work and met with some of our IT guys (read: html literate) and made some coding changes, robot changes and search engine changes to make us feel more comfortable about having said public blog.

I have had 9 emails/texts in the past 24 hours as to why it was private. And to be quite frank, my reasons are private. But thanks for stopping by to read. To care what's going on in our lives. And I'll continue to blog as normal.

Carry on.

Izzy's First Day of Kindergarten...

This little girl started kindergarten last week...can you tell she was excited!!??

 A few days before school started the elementary had a meet-the-teacher open house and ice cream social. I was anticipating the evening all day and had a hard time concentrating at work, as I had so many ants in my pants. The four of us toured the school and Izzy's classroom. Her teacher gave a presentation to both the kids and adults. There was nervous energy in the room and I must admit, I had sweaty pits. A new routine to start. A new 'first' for Izzy. I love celebrating these 'firsts' with both girls. As Mike tells them, "Girls, your mommy is really in to 'big deals'!"

After meeting new friends (many whom live in our neighborhood!) we ventured on to the ice cream social where I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Our girl was going to be a kindergartener! Izzy came to sit on my lap after she was finished and I giddily asked her if she was excited to start kindergarten. To which she replied, "Not as excited as you, mommy!" I will never forget those words. I just beamed.

The morning of the first day of school was a brisk 55 degrees. Which means the dress we picked out wasn't conducive to outdoor pics but I was determined to capture the monumental morning. Hence Izzy's crying, pitiful face. But have no fear, as soon as we got to school she perked right up.

 Her backpack on her back, she skipped into school. She and Laney explored a bit, as Izzy goes to a before-and-after program that is homeroomed in the cafeteria. Mike and I learned the routine of sign-in, backpack placement, breakfast line, et al. I tried to capture a few more pictures as I was doing my best to extend each minute I had left with her. After all that excitement I wasn't ready to let her go. Sweaty pits and all.

 After we were finished with pictures Izzy was directed to line up for breakfast in alphabetical order. Among other kids of all grades. That had been to school before and high fiving their friends. Ummm, Izzy knows the alphabet but notsomuch how to line up by last name. We helped her out and she was sandwiched between two fourth grade girls who immediately oohed and ahhed over our sweet little Izzy, taking her under their 9 year old wings. Then she was off to choose her breakfast. I made Mike stay a little while until she got to her table to eat so I could leave knowing she was happy. She sat down with older girls. Placed Monkey right in front of her bowl, then jumped right into animated conversation. We knew it was time to let her spread her wings and fly.

After her first full day in her new school I greeted her at the car in the garage. As soon as her door opened she was talking a mile a minute; Izzy was excited and wanted to share every last detail with us. She made new friends. She ate all of her (self-made) lunch. She had recess (the teeter totter was her favorite). Read stories. Art class. Bottom line....kindergarten was a success. After she completed telling us all about it she said, "Ok I have to stop talking because I have to make my lunch now!" Well then.

Quite a different response than my mother said I had after my first day of kindergarten. Mom says I came home, plopped myself down and told her 'I don't think I'm going to go back tomorrow.' I had gone to pre-k and pre-school for a handful of years prior and apparently kindergarten was simply boring for me. Izzy has mentioned a bit of the same (they aren't doing hard math problems yet...which has actually brought her to tears). But thankfully she wants to go back :)

And every day since her first day she comes barreling into the house from school and immediately makes her lunch for the next day. Last night Izzy gave Mike and I a play-by-play of what her typical day looks like. Unsolicited. Detailed. Animated. She walked us through all of the rules (only one voice in the classroom at a time, where to put your lunch box, when walking in line you 'hold a bubble' in your mouth, etc), all of the daily routines, and all of her sweet little commentary on her friends she makes before and after school whilst playing on the 'big kids' playground.

To be a kindergartener again...it's so sweet to relive it all with Izzy. Warms my heart.

And this little Buggy returned to G.oddard School last week. She missed her buddies but thankfully attended a few summer birthday parties to keep up with her friends. I remember how much Izzy learned in pre-K and how far she came in that short time she spent with Ms. Scott. And I am looking forward to seeing the same growth from Laney. She's already started writing her name on paper and writing the alphabet.

It's going to be a big year in our house. Lots of learning, growing, developing and fun. Here's to a successful year of building strong, healthy, smart and compassionate little girls.

Since you've been gone...

Just a few things that have been going on around our house as of late...

Girls spend every day at the pool that it's nice outside. Luxury of being home with a nanny in the summer.

Iz & Lane love to play out on our deck...too cute.

While I was away in Mexico two very big things happened in the McCulloch household: Izzy learned to swim independently across the pool (& dive for sticks!). Huge win for Izzy, as we haven't had her in swim lessons for over a year. Mike said it'd happen organically and it did. And every waking moment she now wants to go to the pool. Love her and how she is growing up!

And the other thing that happened was that Mike finally installed his outdoor shower. He's been talking about it for a few years and decided to pull the trigger while I was gone. Per his usual style. I have yet to see him (or any of the girls) use it. Hope he likes it. And the cold hose water that comes out of it.

A rare snuggle that melts my heart. They have a love/hate relationship. I get it...as I've been there.

I've been making some pretty big gains in the gym as of late. Coach has us on several week cycles to gain strength and the work is paying off. Got 4 pretty big PRs over the last 2 weeks. Starting a pretty intense pre-competition cycle starting this week...going from working out 6 times a week to now 8 times a week. Will be tough to maintain but after seeing the gains as of late, I'm pumped to see more. Bring it on!

We have discovered a local polo club near our house and Friday nights they have matches. Pretty much the most fun family night we've had in a while. Going back this week to do it all over again.

In between quarters (even though they're not called that) you can go out and play on the field and even stomp divets!

Sunbathing Izzy while her sister naps

Got a long run in with the Perfect Strangers (6 miles for me is now considered long, my oh my how times have changed!)

Spent a day with our old friends the Moosebruggers. We toured their new house and many acres, watched hours of the CF Games, dined outside and made s'mores by their campfire. Was so enjoyable to spend the day together like old times. My talks with Meg are good for my soul.

We spend almost every night (weather and schedule permitting) at the pool. Gets our sillies out and is quality family time for us. We pack a cooler and our jammies. Showers are taken there instead of baths at home. We have it down to a routine and I'm sad this will be coming to an end soon with Fall approaching.

Can't get this little diving diva out of the pool. She throws, retrieves, throws, retrieves, swims a lap, throws, etc. She's turned into a little fish and I love that it all happened organically. Not forced. On her own timing.

Izzy bought a jump rope (among other treasures) with her piggy bank money. She's been slowly getting the hang of jumping with it. We turned it into a family affair...gave me some good double-under practice.

Had special Feller family time a few weeks ago. Spent an entire day with them and it was so much fun. We laughed. We swam. We replenished an empty cooler. Was perfection. And long overdue.

The diving duo: Izzy & Luke

Love bugs: Jacob & Laney. Two peas. One pod. Melting heart.

And here is a picture of the school supplies we had to buy for Izzy's kindergarten year. She and I had fun hunting for everything on the list. Not sure what she'll do with 16 dry-erase markers and 8 glue sticks but I'm positive it'll be amazing. Sister started kindergarten yesterday and she LOVED it. Will post on that next. Until then, enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

Perfect Strangers do Mexico...

Last week four of my friends and I boarded a plane to Mexico. No big deal.

Actually it was a plane to Houston for a 5 hour layover and then we boarded a plane to Mexico.

And of course we started vacation off right: mimosas at the airport. Those 5 hours flew by with all of us catching up, telling stories, and plotting our trip's theme song. Somehow it ended with us toasting to Meghan, Meggie & Dana PRing Chicago...and Kristi and I agreeing to "fun run" the Monumental FULL if the girls achieved this goal. Let's just say we were on our fifth mimosa...not sure that bet is legit.

After customs, checking into our incredible (all-inclusive) resort we grabbed some food and explored the grounds. There were 5 restaurants, a sushi bar, a spa and over 5 bars. Mmmkay, that'll do.

Senioritas

We spent the evening on the pool deck unwinding from our long travel day and out of the blue some man came right up to us to inform us they were releasing baby sea turtles at the shore. We left our drinks and ran as fast as our flip flops would allow and stood in line to wait for our instructions. Each one of us were handed a baby turtle and allowed to name them and set them free. Mine was Yertle. And he crawled his little fins off into the ocean. Picture is pretty dark because flash wasn't allowed. Released them at night so as to give them the best opportunity to make it without being eaten by seagulls. Meggie and I were all in tears as it was so moving. And a few were not in tears because their baby turtles were not moving :(

The first morning we all woke very early (which progressively got later as the week went on). Dana, Meghan & Meggie went for a run while I did a little traveling wod in the gym (while all the treadmillers looked at me like I had three heads...have they never seen one arm dumbell snatches?...weird). We all met on the beach for a wod (Cindy shortened to 10 mins) and made sure to get in beach handstand photos. I'm in love with this pic...

This became our daily routine: wake up for a workout, change into swim suits, grab brunch, then hit the pool. Spend the entire day at the pool. Head back to our rooms, rest, clean up, dinner, then party. It was all very organic, our routine. Not once did we have to discuss what to do and when. Everything just fell into place. And it felt so good.

Day 1 at the pool. Perfect weather.

We slid our lounge chairs into the pool (below) and quickly learned that it was waaaaayyyyy too hot to lay out. I'd say 90% of the time we were in the water.

One of my fave pics. The fist of three full days in this pool.

And ish got cray. Real fast.

Night one we spent having dinner at the resort. Casual. Spent some time at the bar and then at the beach at night. Four of us stayed up until 3am or so in our room playing games and being silly...while one of us tuckered out early (not naming names).

Day two started with a very long chipper wod that included beach relays & ocean sprints among other typical CF moves. Was a tough one but also so surreal to be wod'ing in Cancun.

Again we had spectacular weather. Couldn't have asked for better, in fact.

Pool time every day was my favorite as it started off with hysterical laughter and always made its way into very deep topics. We literally laughed and cried in that pool so much and those are hours and days I won't soon forget. We bonded something fierce.

Resort was Aqua Live: all-inclusive, adult only, 8 pools and unlimited fun. Wasn't too bad to look at, either.

Bellied up poolside

It is important (for my parents and husband) to know that we did break for lunch and sunscreen application. No one got "December 30th'd". No bad burns (until the last day, more on that later). I was more trusted to apply SPF to backs than others...I'm a mom, so I get the little details. Ha!

This evening we ventured off the resort grounds and into downtown Cancun. Our van taxi was equipped with a light and sounds show that knocked our socks off. It was very random but that was the theme of the night as we'd soon learn.

We sat VIP (read: bottle service and security) at a large, open-air dance club. People-watched the strip while local mariachi band members danced with us. Had a stalker. I could go on with the randomness. We danced the night away until we were all drenched. It was amazing.

#likeaboss

Shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot, shot! Yeah, I learned that song...can't believe I'd never heard it before. I also did not take this shot. Mama knows her limits.

Day 3 at the pool started a little later than normal as we all slept in quite late. We skipped our workouts and opted for some hair-of-the-dog to start the day. Let it be known that we spent 9 full hours in the pool. No breaks for lunch (Alejandra delivered it to us with our drinks). Little SPF reapplication (I still have the recovering sunburned lips to prove it). Loads of fun. Meggie gave everyone their eulogy (sometimes more than once). There was more laughs and many more tears.

We ventured into the infinity pool that was typically the destination of all the honeymooners. When we showed up the mood changed from make-out mode to Perfect-Stranger-Invasion complete with photo sessions.

And here is where the handstands started. In the water. Complete with lessons. I always wanted to be a synchronized swimmer and this was the closest I'll ever get.

That evening was a little fuzzy, as the 9 hours in the pool took their toll. No pictures were taken and I'm pretty sure I was in bed early. We went out with a bang, that's for sure.

Leaving was bitter sweet, as I wanted to get back home to my lovies (with whom I face-timed every day...love technology!) yet I didn't want this amazing experience to end. It was so cathartic for me. Lots of processing things I've been going through. And this group of girls truly wanted to dig deeper and get to the bottom of every one of our issues. Engaging and supportive. Safe. I left Mexico with weight lifted off my shoulders and fresh perspective. And some amazing friendships were forged even deeper.

Cancun, thank you for one of the best vacations of my life!