Ballsies, it's cold.

And also, my son's "new to him" shoes remind me of Rain Man.  I think it's the navy blue nylon and velcro.  Whatever.  Think what you want.  I see Rain Man, though.

So back to this weather.  I guess I shouldn't complain since this really is what spring is supposed to be, right?  All chilly in the morning, warming up in the afternoon, nobody's tulips blooming yet.  Except that my tulips will never bloom because some asshole squirrel decided to eat the bulbs for a snack.  Don't tell Finn, but he's getting squirrel-lined mittens for Christmas.

Moving on.  Away from the bitterness.  It's been one of those days, I guess.  Just ask Uriah.  He's probably wishing he hadn't agreed to go on a walk with Finn and me this afternoon because I'm pretty sure it was torture for him the whole 2 miles.  Which brings me to my next point: Don't tell me you want to go on a walk with me if you only want to walk half of the walk!  I have walking expectations.  The first is that we walk 4 miles!  A day! As many days in a week as possible.  4.  Not 2.  That's actually the only walking expectation that I have.

Are you wishing you hadn't dropped by to check out what I have to say today?  I think it's time I resign to my bed, pull the covers up tightly and declare tomorrow a do-over.

Except...one more thing: today is my little brother's birthday.  He's not little anymore, but he always will be to me.  I hope someone sang him "Happy Birthday" and I hope he had a good day.  And I hope that this year will bring him much happiness, growth, and wisdom.  I miss him.

And also, my son's "new to him" shoes remind me of Rain Man.  I think it's the navy blue nylon and velcro.  Whatever.  Think what you want.  I see Rain Man, though.

So back to this weather.  I guess I shouldn't complain since this really is what spring is supposed to be, right?  All chilly in the morning, warming up in the afternoon, nobody's tulips blooming yet.  Except that my tulips will never bloom because some asshole squirrel decided to eat the bulbs for a snack.  Don't tell Finn, but he's getting squirrel-lined mittens for Christmas.

Moving on.  Away from the bitterness.  It's been one of those days, I guess.  Just ask Uriah.  He's probably wishing he hadn't agreed to go on a walk with Finn and me this afternoon because I'm pretty sure it was torture for him the whole 2 miles.  Which brings me to my next point: Don't tell me you want to go on a walk with me if you only want to walk half of the walk!  I have walking expectations.  The first is that we walk 4 miles!  A day! As many days in a week as possible.  4.  Not 2.  That's actually the only walking expectation that I have.

Are you wishing you hadn't dropped by to check out what I have to say today?  I think it's time I resign to my bed, pull the covers up tightly and declare tomorrow a do-over.

Except...one more thing: today is my little brother's birthday.  He's not little anymore, but he always will be to me.  I hope someone sang him "Happy Birthday" and I hope he had a good day.  And I hope that this year will bring him much happiness, growth, and wisdom.  I miss him.

It's an instagram kind of Easter {You Capture | Easter/Pastels}

Uriah left for work very early yesterday - apparently everyone in the tri-county area goes out to Easter Brunch, which meant that he was gone all day.  And Finn was up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 6:45 am, which mean so was I.  So much for a leisurely Easter morning with the whole entire bed to myself for an hour or two.  One large pot of coffee and downloading the instagram ap to my phone sort of made up for it.

I got the kiddos in their Easter-finery and we headed off to church, where Finn told me (and everyone else around us) every time he heard a baby crying by saying: "Baby? Baby? Baby?" until I could shush him and affirm that yes, it was a baby crying.  Everyone's babies were crying, though, so I didn't feel bad that my son hasn't quite mastered his whisper voice.  Beyond that, he was easily quieted with Goldfish crackers and distracted with his new Easter book and the church books that we only pull out when we go to church (makes them more of a novelty since we don't read them every day - a great idea my mom had when we were growing up.).

Abby's probably on her last year of getting an Easter basket...growing up sure does suck sometimes, but it's hard balancing the polar-opposite age differences between these two kids.  She said she was okay with that as long as she still got Peeps each year (disgusting, but okay!).  She did get to wear her dress from the dance and her heels, so she was happy.  The fact is that an Easter egg hunt has lost it's childhood appeal for her, and really, how do you hide eggs for a 1 1/2 year old and a 12 year old?  Trust me...it's not easy.

It was fun to hide the eggs that I made in the yard.  Finn liked to throw the eggs he found in his basket.  He had a lot of energy, I guess.  After all the eggs were found, we commenced with the smashing.  Equally as fun as finding the eggs.  Next year I'm going to fill them with little treasures instead of cereal and m&ms.  I'll admit to being a little less thoughtful this year and kind of dull.

I hope you had a lovely Easter!

I love having company (Uriah's parents for part of the weekend and mine for dinner yesterday.) but it is exhausting.  I'm going to need this week to recover.  And to prepare myself for the coming weekend: I'm leaving  my family and I can't wait!  More on that later...

If you'd like to see more You Capture | Easter/Pastel, head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry!

Next week's challenge: Chocolate

Uriah left for work very early yesterday - apparently everyone in the tri-county area goes out to Easter Brunch, which meant that he was gone all day.  And Finn was up bright-eyed and bushy tailed at 6:45 am, which mean so was I.  So much for a leisurely Easter morning with the whole entire bed to myself for an hour or two.  One large pot of coffee and downloading the instagram ap to my phone sort of made up for it.

I got the kiddos in their Easter-finery and we headed off to church, where Finn told me (and everyone else around us) every time he heard a baby crying by saying: "Baby? Baby? Baby?" until I could shush him and affirm that yes, it was a baby crying.  Everyone's babies were crying, though, so I didn't feel bad that my son hasn't quite mastered his whisper voice.  Beyond that, he was easily quieted with Goldfish crackers and distracted with his new Easter book and the church books that we only pull out when we go to church (makes them more of a novelty since we don't read them every day - a great idea my mom had when we were growing up.).

Abby's probably on her last year of getting an Easter basket...growing up sure does suck sometimes, but it's hard balancing the polar-opposite age differences between these two kids.  She said she was okay with that as long as she still got Peeps each year (disgusting, but okay!).  She did get to wear her dress from the dance and her heels, so she was happy.  The fact is that an Easter egg hunt has lost it's childhood appeal for her, and really, how do you hide eggs for a 1 1/2 year old and a 12 year old?  Trust me...it's not easy.

It was fun to hide the eggs that I made in the yard.  Finn liked to throw the eggs he found in his basket.  He had a lot of energy, I guess.  After all the eggs were found, we commenced with the smashing.  Equally as fun as finding the eggs.  Next year I'm going to fill them with little treasures instead of cereal and m&ms.  I'll admit to being a little less thoughtful this year and kind of dull.

I hope you had a lovely Easter!

I love having company (Uriah's parents for part of the weekend and mine for dinner yesterday.) but it is exhausting.  I'm going to need this week to recover.  And to prepare myself for the coming weekend: I'm leaving  my family and I can't wait!  More on that later...

If you'd like to see more You Capture | Easter/Pastel, head on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry!

Next week's challenge: Chocolate

Weekend Update.

This is going to be a super-quickie update because I can hear Finn stirring from his nap and I know my time is limited once he starts requesting his "mama mama mama mama..."  And also my in-laws are in town visiting this weekend and my parents are coming tomorrow, so I have shit to do!

First things first:  our "shishies" are now just "shish."  Poor Esmeralda was given a two-flush salute yesterday.  We will not be replacing her at this time.  Boris has been swimming around the fish tank like the King of Fishes.   It was sort of like a day-time-fish drama.  No love lost there, apparently.

Secondly, I had to get on the internets to log my miles for the 100 Mile Challenge.  Finn and I walked 18 miles last week!  Only 82 to go by the end of June!  I guess that 4 mile route we have mapped out adds up when you do it a couple of times a week.  If you want to join in the challenge, you certainly still can, just head over here.  And a quick note about the photo above, which I thought was an oriel but turns out is a Red Winged Black bird (thanks for the lesson, Mom!) - on one of our walks this week, Finn and I came upon an area where a bunch of these black birds were; I think maybe they had their nests in the area.  They flew over and around our heads and sang songs to each other.  It was so beautiful and even with Finn pointing out every bird, they just kept flying back and forth around us.  It totally made that 4 miles worth every drop of sweat! This is why I love walking!

Finally, I will be back on Monday with some pastel photos for the You Capture Challenge and I have a couple of tasty recipes that I want to share with you...Grilled Veggie Sandwich, anyone?  Let me just tell you this: amazing!

Happy Easter!  I hope you're weekend is full of spring-like weather and family and happiness!

I know mine is!

This is going to be a super-quickie update because I can hear Finn stirring from his nap and I know my time is limited once he starts requesting his "mama mama mama mama..."  And also my in-laws are in town visiting this weekend and my parents are coming tomorrow, so I have shit to do!

First things first:  our "shishies" are now just "shish."  Poor Esmeralda was given a two-flush salute yesterday.  We will not be replacing her at this time.  Boris has been swimming around the fish tank like the King of Fishes.   It was sort of like a day-time-fish drama.  No love lost there, apparently.

Secondly, I had to get on the internets to log my miles for the 100 Mile Challenge.  Finn and I walked 18 miles last week!  Only 82 to go by the end of June!  I guess that 4 mile route we have mapped out adds up when you do it a couple of times a week.  If you want to join in the challenge, you certainly still can, just head over here.  And a quick note about the photo above, which I thought was an oriel but turns out is a Red Winged Black bird (thanks for the lesson, Mom!) - on one of our walks this week, Finn and I came upon an area where a bunch of these black birds were; I think maybe they had their nests in the area.  They flew over and around our heads and sang songs to each other.  It was so beautiful and even with Finn pointing out every bird, they just kept flying back and forth around us.  It totally made that 4 miles worth every drop of sweat! This is why I love walking!

Finally, I will be back on Monday with some pastel photos for the You Capture Challenge and I have a couple of tasty recipes that I want to share with you...Grilled Veggie Sandwich, anyone?  Let me just tell you this: amazing!

Happy Easter!  I hope you're weekend is full of spring-like weather and family and happiness!

I know mine is!

Abs is a poser. {You Capture | White}

I'm lucky Abby's dress and shoes for her first dance had white in them, because I was crap at picking up my camera last week.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I saw lots of white for the challenge - birch trees, birds, puffy clouds, fog on the lake.  It's just that every time I saw it, I did't have my camera handy.  

So...here's Abby's first dance instead. Not the actual dance, because parents showing up to the dance to take pictures would be total embarrassment and very lame. Instead I took some shots before the girls left - all giggly and excited and talking a mile a minute.

I'm not sure who's stellar idea it was to paint their nails while in their dresses, but I had to bite my tongue and hope that nobody spilled polish on her dress.  They were careful and no dresses were harmed in the making of pretty girls.

Abby can't take a picture without posing.  She's actually always been that way, so I've gotten used to having random shots of Abby looking like she's on a photo-shoot for Teen Vogue.

It was a super cute dress, though. so I can see why she'd be excited to wear it.  In fact, all of the girls put on their dresses pretty much the moment they got home from school.  I made them all put on an old shirt or a sweatshirt to eat dinner because their hair was done and they just could not be bothered to take off their dresses!  Gosh.  Aren't her shoes so cute?  It took her a little bit to convince me because heels equate to growing up in my book.  I mean, honestly, is there really anything more exciting or more definitive of growing up than getting a pair of heels?  I think not.

We all know how middle school and high school friendships can be - besties one second, arch nemesis-es the next.  She's got a pretty solid group of girlfriends, though.  All of them are polite and considerate and I would let her have any and all of these girls stay over again.  It's lovely to see that tween/teen girls can be nice to each other, supporting each other instead of being catty.  And having so much fun together.

It was fun to see friendships blossom, and to see glimpses of the young ladies that these girls are becomeing.

Want to see some more white?  Head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry (it's my favorite thing to do with a cup of coffee; there's so much talent out there!).

Next week's challenge: Easter/Pastels

I'm lucky Abby's dress and shoes for her first dance had white in them, because I was crap at picking up my camera last week.  Oh, don't get me wrong, I saw lots of white for the challenge - birch trees, birds, puffy clouds, fog on the lake.  It's just that every time I saw it, I did't have my camera handy.  

So...here's Abby's first dance instead. Not the actual dance, because parents showing up to the dance to take pictures would be total embarrassment and very lame. Instead I took some shots before the girls left - all giggly and excited and talking a mile a minute.

I'm not sure who's stellar idea it was to paint their nails while in their dresses, but I had to bite my tongue and hope that nobody spilled polish on her dress.  They were careful and no dresses were harmed in the making of pretty girls.

Abby can't take a picture without posing.  She's actually always been that way, so I've gotten used to having random shots of Abby looking like she's on a photo-shoot for Teen Vogue.

It was a super cute dress, though. so I can see why she'd be excited to wear it.  In fact, all of the girls put on their dresses pretty much the moment they got home from school.  I made them all put on an old shirt or a sweatshirt to eat dinner because their hair was done and they just could not be bothered to take off their dresses!  Gosh.  Aren't her shoes so cute?  It took her a little bit to convince me because heels equate to growing up in my book.  I mean, honestly, is there really anything more exciting or more definitive of growing up than getting a pair of heels?  I think not.

We all know how middle school and high school friendships can be - besties one second, arch nemesis-es the next.  She's got a pretty solid group of girlfriends, though.  All of them are polite and considerate and I would let her have any and all of these girls stay over again.  It's lovely to see that tween/teen girls can be nice to each other, supporting each other instead of being catty.  And having so much fun together.

It was fun to see friendships blossom, and to see glimpses of the young ladies that these girls are becomeing.

Want to see some more white?  Head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry (it's my favorite thing to do with a cup of coffee; there's so much talent out there!).

Next week's challenge: Easter/Pastels

What 40 pounds looks like...

{ July 2010 - 2 days prior to having Finn.
Obviously this doesn't count, really.
If we were to count this as the starting point,
it would really be more like: "What 60+ pounds looks like."
I just share this because this truly was the peak of my weight. }

{ May 2011 - a strategically placed baby can hide a lot of things.
Not so much in this picture.
This was the beginning - when I started watching carbs
and walking almost every day. }

{ September 2011 - after a summer of walking, I got a pretty nice tan
and had lost 20 pounds.
I hope to do that again this summer - get the tan and loose the weight! }

{ December 2011 - the beginning of Weight Watchers. }

{ March 2012 - again, a strategically placed baby can hide a lot of things.
There's less for him to hide these days, though!
40 pounds lost since May 2011. }

One of the benefits of the world wide interwebs is that you can connect with people.  I stumbled upon the website of a woman who is leading a 100 Miles in 3 Months Challenge, and I decided to do it.  You can read about the rules here and if you want to join, you certainly can, it's not too late (it's only April 2 and I know you can totally get in 8 miles yet this week!).  The great thing is that it is something that I can work on at my own pace, but I'm still accountable each week for how many miles I've put in.  I also like the added benefit of a virtual community of support as we each work toward the same goal - walking 100 miles in 3 months.  I broke it down to about 8 miles a week or less than a mile a day.  Finn and I can do that!  Of course, I did make myself a spreadsheet to track my daily/weekly/monthly miles and my weight and measurements before, during and after the challenge (I sometimes go a little overboard with Excel Spreadsheets! I love them so much.).  I'll let you know weekly how many miles I've logged toward my goal, and if you'd like to join up, let me know.  Supporting each other goes a long, long way!

So...here's to Monday and fresh starts and walking shoes and foggy morning trails!

{ July 2010 - 2 days prior to having Finn.
Obviously this doesn't count, really.
If we were to count this as the starting point,
it would really be more like: "What 60+ pounds looks like."
I just share this because this truly was the peak of my weight. }

{ May 2011 - a strategically placed baby can hide a lot of things.
Not so much in this picture.
This was the beginning - when I started watching carbs
and walking almost every day. }

{ September 2011 - after a summer of walking, I got a pretty nice tan
and had lost 20 pounds.
I hope to do that again this summer - get the tan and loose the weight! }

{ December 2011 - the beginning of Weight Watchers. }

{ March 2012 - again, a strategically placed baby can hide a lot of things.
There's less for him to hide these days, though!
40 pounds lost since May 2011. }

One of the benefits of the world wide interwebs is that you can connect with people.  I stumbled upon the website of a woman who is leading a 100 Miles in 3 Months Challenge, and I decided to do it.  You can read about the rules here and if you want to join, you certainly can, it's not too late (it's only April 2 and I know you can totally get in 8 miles yet this week!).  The great thing is that it is something that I can work on at my own pace, but I'm still accountable each week for how many miles I've put in.  I also like the added benefit of a virtual community of support as we each work toward the same goal - walking 100 miles in 3 months.  I broke it down to about 8 miles a week or less than a mile a day.  Finn and I can do that!  Of course, I did make myself a spreadsheet to track my daily/weekly/monthly miles and my weight and measurements before, during and after the challenge (I sometimes go a little overboard with Excel Spreadsheets! I love them so much.).  I'll let you know weekly how many miles I've logged toward my goal, and if you'd like to join up, let me know.  Supporting each other goes a long, long way!

So...here's to Monday and fresh starts and walking shoes and foggy morning trails!