Feeling Special and our Favorite Thing

I love how some days I have absolutely nothing to say and then other days I am full to the brim of experiences to share.  Today is one of those days where I am full to the brim of really random things, but all things that happened since the last time we chatted.

First, let's talk about how I was too tired to do my PiYo workout this morning.  I'm not even sure it was tired, I just felt a bit burnt out.  So I didn't do it.  I kind of knew I wasn't going to do it yesterday night because I just felt to exhausted.  And not physically exhausted, more mentally exhausted.  And that can be just as bad - if not worse.  I figure I can do it tonight if I want to or I can do it tomorrow (since Fridays are rest days).  We'll see.  I don't think I'm giving up by any means, I just wanted a day off from the 4:15am wake-up call and the double days of PiYo and running.  I think I'll still run this afternoon, but we'll see how I feel.  I really wasn't feeling my run yesterday before I left, but then I felt really good on the run and thought about lots of things and worked other things out in my head, so I was really glad I went.

In other news, I had my goodbye party at work and it was AWESOME!!!  They worked so hard on it and it was so fabulous.  They made me this Good Luck bulletin:

Isn't it fabulous!!  The little skeleton is saying "Kattrina calls the shots" and those are all pictures of me with a nursing hat on.  The cake was amazing too - it was lemon cream.  And my co-worker put the prescription meds on the cake (M&Ms).  Those little pieces of paper are for people to write me a "prescriptions" for school and the future.  The notes were so sweet that I actually shed some tears.  I really love my co-workers - they not only do amazing work every day, but they are truly amazing people.  My one co-worker made me a condom necklace (since I work in HIV prevention):

Complete with a female condom that matches my shirt.  Of course, none of these condoms are usable, since they all had holes punched into them!  The room was decorated with nursing stuff (like a kid's medical kit!) and condom streamers.  And there was also a slide show of a bunch of photos of me over the years - 7 years - from numerous events, trainings, and staff fun.  Here's a picture of me from our 2008 Award Ceremony with my good friend from high school (she didn't work with me, she just came to hang out).

And here is our 2008 Wine Tasting, with the same friend from high school and another good friend from Peace Corps. 

I would show you other photos but a lot of the people in the photos are related to work and I don't have photo releases for them.  But here are some of my adorable co-workers from the party!

I'm gonna miss them all so much!!!  In addition to the wonderful party (it was an Italian potluck - think pasta, chicken parm, meatballs, bread, salad, cookies, Bundt cake, and other yumminess), they also gave me a HUGE gift card to Amazon.com so I could buy some nursing supplies and books and other odds and ends.  It was so generous and helped out so much.  Yes, I already spent every last penny.  I bought two pairs of scrubs, two undershirts, a pair of nursing shoes, a stethoscope, three books, and a filing cabinet (not really school related but I really need something to keep my files, loan documents, work documents, etc. organized - right now they are in piles in the kitchen).  It felt so great to buy it though, now I'm almost ready for school.  I ordered this backpack:

I couldn't decide if the pink color made it look childish, but I really like it and didn't want the obligatory black/gray/blue backpack.  So, pink it is!

So, that was my party.  I hope everyone has the chance to work at a place as great as my current job.  Obviously, I did my fair share of complaining, but even when I complained, I knew how lucky I was.  The party really made me feel special and like I had made a real contribution to the organization and the community we serve.  Oh, and I bought my boss/supervisor a gift too:

It's a tie with microscopic images of the HIV virus (gold and silver circles)!  I loved it and was so excited to give it to him!!  I think he was really surprised and said he was planning on wearing it to a wedding he's going to in September.  I told him it is a conversation starter and that he can use it to bring up HIV prevention whenever he's out at events - and he can be reminded of me and the six years we spent working on HIV prevention together.  It was a bit pricey and I was hesitant to buy it at first, but I'm SO glad I got it because it was nice to give something back.

Ok - enough party talk!

Yesterday I met a friend and her daughter at the nature center and we went and threw rocks into the river again!

This time I put Evan in his bathing suit and shoes that dried easily.  He was really excited to go and hang out and hike again.  It took him a while to warm up because my friend and her daughter were with us and he gets all weird when we hang out with other people that he doesn't know that well (although we hang out with them a LOT).

We spent about an hour and half there - walking in the water, throwing rocks, hiking, picking up sticks, picking up rocks, jumping on stumps, etc.  I'm gonna be really sad once summer and the warm weather is gone.  I'm not quite ready to spend six months inside again.  Plus, Evan is still in 18 month clothes and all his winter clothes are size 2T!

And a fun Throwback Thursday pic from 2002 (I think!):

One year for Christmas my father bought me a week long trip to Costa Rica for a yoga retreat.  The girl with me was the yoga instructor - my Dad and I always went to her studio in DC when I was in college and she ran the retreat in Costa Rica.  It was SO fun!!  We did so much yoga but also got to go zip lining, white water rafting, and a lot of fun other things.  This year she's leading a yoga retreat in Italy!!!  Hint hint Dad....haha!

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Do you like your job?  What is the best thing about it?

Have you ever gone on a yoga retreat?  What's your favorite yoga pose??

  -- My favorite pose is Pigeon Pose!

Lots of Tractors and Livestock

Last night I had the most terrifying dream.  I don't have nightmares too often but this one made up for all the nights I didn't have one.  It was filled with serial killers, tortured murder victims, and all those other fun things.  I am blaming it on the fact that I read an excerpt from a book called Heartbreaker and the beginning was all about a guy who was confessing to torturing and murdering a bunch of women in a small town.   Ironically, I think the book is supposed to be a romance novel...and I think I've actually read it, back in my romance novel days of high school.  That theme of psychopathic killers transferred nicely to my dreams.  I was actually very happy when my alarm went off this morning and I could escape my dreams.  Then I remembered I had to get up and do a PiYo workout and I couldn't decide which was better: nightmare or workout.  Haha - actually it was an easy and short 20 minute PiYo workout so I was happy about that.

This past weekend was BUSY.  We haven't had such a busy weekend in months.  It was filled with good stuff though.  I actually think the rest of August is going to be really busy because I am trying to fit every fun activity in between now and the start of school.  I am terrified that I won't have a free minute (or a free dollar) once school starts so want to get in every bit of fun possible. 

Friday afternoon was our regular routine of a run with Evan followed by a stop at the playground.

There I am, ready to head out.  Ivan makes fun of me when I take "selfies" and says no one wants to see me that close up except him - haha.  However, my arms aren't long enough to take photos farther away than that, so you will continue to get a nice close-up of my face!

Surprisingly when I asked Evan if he wanted to go for a run, he looked excited too.  I think he is realizing that I always make a stop at the playground when we go for runs, so he's not too upset about sitting in the stroller for an hour.

He brought his tractor along with him too.  I was thrilled that he didn't try and pitch it overboard while we were running.  Occasionally he has taken a shoe off and thrown it into the street.  Running into the street after a shoe or ball is not my idea of a fun sprinting drill.  Before heading to the park we took a small detour to the doctor to get my final TB test read.  Still no TB, thank goodness!

Saturday I had golf in the morning and then my friend Sarah came over from the Easter Shore to spend the afternoon together.  Good times!  She is one of my best friends from college and now that she moved far away I don't see her as often.  The county fair was going on, so we decided to spend the afternoon there.  I hadn't been for years, like 20, so it was fun to go back.  My husband and Evan thought it was great!  

Although he looks super serious, he was having a good time.  Promise!

I can tell you I am a lot older now because hanging out in the midway with barely-there clothes did not appeal to me.  What did appeal to me??

Fried dough and fried Berger cookies.  Berger cookies are a Baltimore specialty and they were extra delicious fried.  We had plans to try the fried Oreos, but when we saw the friend Berger cookies, we changed our mind.  Don't worry, that wasn't all I had for dinner.  I also ate French fries.  Haha.  My cholesterol may not have been thrilled but my taste buds were in heaven.  On the topic of cholesterol, I went for a physical a few weeks ago and my cholesterol was 136.  Umm, maybe it's because I am a health dork, but I was so incredibly proud of that.  I wanted to tattoo it on my forehead (not really).  High cholesterol runs in my family so I am always excited when I "beat" my genetics.

The rest of our fair experience consisted of cows and tractors.  Evan was in tractor heaven.  He took a picture on every tractor possible.

He really acted like he was driving them.  He moved the steering wheel and pretended to honk the horn and change the gears.  It was adorable.

The hubs was pretty excited too, climbing on big machines was pretty fun for him too.

And notice how the hubs put on his "farmer" wardrobe.  Shirt, jeans, and boots.  If he had a cowboy hat, he would have worn that too.

Yes, Evan was trying to eat this tractor.  I guess it was time for a food break....

I couldn't go without sitting on one tractor, so I made sure to climbed on one too.

The air seat was pretty fun, but I didn't get the urge to drive around and cut the grass or anything.

Then we went to visit the animals.  Evan practiced milking a cow.

The hubs showed him how it's done.  In Honduras, the hubs milked cows by hand for years.  He's a milking expert and huge fan of cows.

They had the cutest kiddie barn with these rocking horses and animals to pet and barley pits (instead of sand pits). Evan had a blast!

All in all, it was a great time.  Ivan can't wait for next year.

Sunday we did the unbelievable.  Hubs and I went on a double date and played golf!  

I know, it's a miracle.  My sister watched Evan for a few hours and Ivan and I played nine holes with the couple we used to play with all the time before.  It was so fun.  It helped that my golf game was totally on and I got two pars and two bogies...it's definitely more fun when I'm playing well.  And since I haven 't played since Memorial Day, it's pretty shocking that I did so well.  It must be because I spend every weekend concentrating on improving the golf game of 7-12 year olds that some of the instruction gets branded into my brain!

Later in the afternoon we headed to our old neighbor's house and played a couple rounds of bocci ball and ate some flank steak.  It was quite yummy and we had such a good time.  I am always so thankful for the amazing friends we have here.  I feel like adult friends can be hard to come by, so I am very thankful that we have made good friends in the area.  Evan ran around in their yard playing with balls and moving rocks from the garden to the grass.  He had a blast.  We got home pretty late so quickly got ready for the week and then headed to bed.  

So, that was our weekend!  

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Do you have a county fair?  What fried foods have you tried???  Favorite fair food?

Any other female golfers out there??

4 Kids and an Aquarium

Friday was a great day.  I can't remember why now, but I remember thinking that it was a great day.  At work I had helped to organize a Thunderclap for National HIV Testing Day and we needed 100 supporters in order to "release" it.  You would think that would be fairly easy, but no, it wasn't. I think it was a new concept and people were nervousness or something.  And then people are apathetic and like to ignore you.  I posted it on my Facebook page numerous time pleading with friends and family to sign up and I got three friends to sign on.  That's it.  I have hundreds of friends and lots of family members on Facebook and I got three people to help me out.  There was no cost to it...you just had to agree to have an HIV prevention message posted on your wall at the exact same time as everyone else who signed up.  I really thought I might get a few more people, especially when I was pleading and desperate sounding.  But no.  Everyone ignored me.

I think I got off track because that paragraph above is very negative sounding and I started out saying that I had an amazing Friday.  After a few personal phone calls I finally got 100 supporters and the message went out!! That was really exciting.  We also had a success at the car shop.  I took my car in for an oil change and its 60,000 mile check-up - scary stuff.  Since the life of the car, we've never walked out of the car shop for less than $600 (even when it should be cheap there are things wrong, like I backed into a snow bank and ruined some tire thing that costs a lot of money).  This time we only owed $300!!!  It felt amazing!!  Yeah - I realize that $300 is still a ton of money and I really shouldn't be celebrating, but when you are expecting $600-$1200 and it's only half of that, you get really excited.

Then that evening I went on a short three mile run (while Evan slept) before heading over to a friend's house for a BBQ.  Yum!!  I love BBQing.  They have a daughter Evan's age but Evan is too shy and won't play with her.  It's possible we were two hours late for the BBQ because I underestimated how long I thought it would take me to run and shower, but oh well.  I was really happy that I got a run in when I was swamped at work and then had the BBQ a short time later.

Saturday was filled with lots of exercise.  I went on a 9 mile run/walk with TNT.  I didn't have golf because it's an in-between week so I met up with friends and did a long run.  Everyone else was doing ten miles but I had to run 2 miles there and 2 miles home so I just did five with the group.  And we walked up most hills.  Evan is getting heavy in his stroller so it is a lot of work running with him and my friend wanted to walk the hills so who was I to argue???  We stopped at the playground on our way home so that was fun.  It was completely empty so that's a plus.  Evan had a blast in the sand box.   I used to hate those things because I thought they were disgusting but now I don't really care.

After the park we went home, showered, and headed to the pool.  Yeah...right during nap time.  Evan slept the entire time at the pool and didn't want to play in the water.  He snuggle up next to me and promptly fell asleep while I was sitting in the water.  Very adorable.  That night Ivan decided that he wanted to go on a family bike rike - completely ignoring the fact that I had already run 9 miles.  I agreed anyway.  We rode our bikes around the neighborhood and to the park so Evan could play.  He loves the bikes and I do too...even more so when I am not already exhausted from my run in the morning....

And Sunday was a crazy day.  It started out with chocolate chip, banana, strawberry pancakes.  And some maple syrup.

Look what happens when you give a toddle maple syrup.  First, he glows (haha - not sure why the photo turned out so weird)!!  And then he stops dipping his pancake in the syrup and just licks it straight from the plate.  He was in sugar heaven.  This boy loves his maple syrup.

Then we took all the nieces to the Aquarium.

Yup - Ivan and me and four kids all 5 and under and a huge, crowded aquarium.  We had a blast though.  Or at least I did.  Ivan had to carry Evan and the heavy diaper bag the entire time and started complaining about his back hurting, so he was not as patient towards the end of the visit as he could have been.  And I got a bit impatient with the girls when they were trying to pick out their items from the gift shop - but mainly because I knew that Ivan was annoyed.  But all in all, I thought it was so much fun.

When we got home my sister and her husband were still at the movies so we made grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and played outside.

Evan loves this play structure.  And his shorts are so short because we have to roll the waist band or else they fall off.  He's just a skinny-minny.

So that was my busy, fun weekend.  How about you?

Real maple syrup or the fake stuff?  

Sandboxes - yes or no?

My Old Stomping Ground

This past week I headed back to Atlanta - my home for the two years I was in grad school.  I remember when I was trying to decide where to go for grad school and I was nervous about heading so far south and to a place completely unknown to me.  However, Atlanta turned out to be a great city and I loved everything about it.  I don't love it enough to move there for the rest of my life, but it was, and is, a fabulous city.

Evan and I headed there for a work trip (probably my last work trip to Atlanta ever) and so the first few days were spent in grantee meetings.  My wonderful mother was able to make the trip to Atlanta this time and take care of Evan (thanks Mom!!!), which was awesome because I pretty much spent the first couple days in meetings.  The meetings started at 8am and ended around 5pm and then we had evening events that went from 5:30pm-9pm.  Yup - long, long days.  I stopped in around lunch to eat with my mom and nurse Evan to sleep and then I banana split again.  Since I've been on the same grant since it started and everyone remembers when I was pregnant and I've brought Evan on every work trip - people were very excited to see him again.

Evan was an angel and behaved perfectly for my mom. 

They got to spend so much time together and did lots of exciting things: hanging out at the pool, kicking pine cones in abandoned parking lots, walking around the hotel property numerous times, playing the "dancing farmer" app, and putting stickers all over the hotel room.

Evan loved the pool and kept pointing outside and saying "agua" numerous times a day.  I think a ton of pool days are in our future.  Like all photos, he looks like he's a bit iffy about the entire situation, but really he just isn't into smiling for the camera.

After the work meeting, I stayed a few extra days to see some Atlanta friends.  I stayed the remaining nights with my Peace Corps friend Sarah (for some reason we didn't take any pictures).  Fun fact: she married a Honduran also!  She is now pregnant with her first child (a little boy) and is due in November.  We moved from the hotel to her house on Friday and then headed over to my old roommate's house to see her and her three kids.  I hadn't seen them in about 4 years so it was nice to catch up.

Back at Sarah's house we had a traditional Honduran meal: Pollo Campero!  Ok, so Pollo Campero is actually a Guatemalan chain, but it was all over Honduras too and it's pretty yummy fried chicken.  It was fun eating it and remembering all our Honduran times.  Sarah used to live in the city near my town and when I'd go into the city I'd often hang out with her and sometimes spend the night at her place.  When I first moved to my town she was the person who really helped me adjust to life in Honduras and showed me around the city.  She was starting her third year when I started my first so she left about 10 months after I got there, but we had a lot of great times together.

My mom left the next morning so Evan and I took her to the airport.

Evan was very sad to see her go.  I don't pay attention to him nearly as much as his Mimi does! 

Here we all are together.  I'm not sure what is going on with my leg there, but oh well.  And I swear this outfit looked better when I looked in the mirror than it does on camera...but again, oh well.  It was so much fun seeing my mom and watching Evan and her bond.  After she left he kept saying "Bye Mimi" all day.  And when I'd say "Te amo Evan" he'd respond "Te amo Mimi" rather than "Te amo Mami".  I realize that Mimi and Mami are very similar so he's probably just confused, but I thought it was cute.

After dropping my mom off Evan and I headed to my friend Kelly's house.  I met her in grad school and then she moved to the DC area and then recently just moved back to Atlanta.  From her house we walked to downtown Decatur where we were going to meet another friend Nancy for lunch.  We got there early so played at a very awesome playground for about 40 minutes.  This playground not only had playground equipment, but people also donated a ton of old toys so it also had trucks, cars, fun riding things, those plastic play equipment things, kitchens, etc.  Evan LOVED it and didn't even really go on the playground stuff - he mostly pushed around plastic lawn mowers, road cars, and went in and out of plastic houses.  He was in playground heaven.

When our other friend arrived with her three kids we headed to farm burger for lunch.  It was a bit  crazy because I had Evan, Kelly had her son (two months older than Evan), and Nancy had her three kids (two boys aged 6 and 4 and a girl aged 10 months).  It made for a constantly moving meal, but we still managed to catch up and talk a bit.  After lunch we headed back to the playground for a while and then Kelly and I walked back to her house.  Evan fell asleep on the way so Kelly and I got some quiet time to catch up before she brought me back to Sarah's house (Sarah was working on Saturday - which is why we didn't hang out).

Sunday we slept in a bit and then headed to the Renaissance Festival.  I really lucked out because I didn't have a ticket and just as I was heading over to buy one (for $20), a nice family asked if I needed a ticket and handed me their extra one.  What a blessing!  We really just walked around the festival, ate some food, played some games, and people-watched (very entertaining since so many people dress up).  It was a fun day.  Then we headed home, packed up our suitcases, and made our way to the airport.  Our flight was delayed 1.5 hours so Evan and I entertained ourselves for about three hours (since I like to arrive a bit early when I'm traveling with Evan) before getting on a completely packed flight.

Yesterday I took the day off to catch up, unpack our suitcase, wash some clothes, go to the grocery store, and rest a bit.  Evan found his bird while I was unpacking and it made him think of Mimi.

My mom made this bird for him (and one for herself too) and they play with their birds when they Skype.  This is one way they play - they put the birds in their mouth and then shake their heads around.  So, when Evan sees his bird, he usually does this and wants to talk to Mimi on Skype.  It's adorable.

So, that was my long week/weekend!  What have you been up to since I've been gone???

Playgrounds and Play dates

We had some serious playtime this weekend.  Well, Evan did at least.  I had some too I guess, but not nearly as much as Evan.  Friday night we headed out for Ivan's soccer game.  We don't usually go because it's been cold and his games are in the evening, but this game was at a different field 30 minutes away and I was afraid he'd get lost.  It was a tad bit chilly and very windy, but not unbearable, so we decided to stay and hang around until his game ended.  There also happened to be a huge playground so I was hoping it would keep Evan entertained for a while.  It keep him entertained for two straight hours!  It was helpful that there was no one else playing so we had the park to ourselves and he could wander all over the place without out worrying about getting run over by big kids.  I was still shocked that he played for so long. It was too dark outside for pictures, so you'll just have to imagine it.

The next morning we woke up and headed out to meet my Team In Training (TNT) friends and their kiddos. We all got pregnant around our TNT training time and then spent the following summer all walking together.

One of my TNT friends when she is 39 weeks pregnant and I am 29 weeks!

Evan and I ended up walking the 1.5 miles or so there and back, so that was a nice outing.  Evan didn't even ask to get out of his stroller so I was happy about that.  We had so much fun hanging out there.  Evan was super shy again and clung to me about 97% of the time but I was still able to chat.  We had breakfast and then headed to the park for some more playground time.  It was cute watching all the kids play on the playground.  Evan than proceeded to fall asleep so. I stayed for a few hours until he woke up...until my friend's daughter started throwing up actually.  Yikes!  We are hoping it was just something she ate and not Norwalk virus or something.

And I managed to get the grocery shopping done on Saturday, which was nice because that hasn't happened for a while.  I kept having to go on Sundays which always makes my Sundays busier.  It was an expensive day at the grocery store but I had a few random things to pick up.  And for some reason I had put down to buy flank steak and chicken breasts and chicken thighs all on the same trip.  That adds up fast.

Everyone went to bed early so I stayed up eating cookies and watching Call the Midwife by myself on the sofa.  I really cherish the few evenings of quiet I get around here!

Sunday was a bit relaxing on top of crazy cooking.  We went out for breakfast and Evan behaved the entire time.  That was a miracle.  Ivan wanted to order everything off the menu, but that's normal.  Then we got home and I did some cooking.  I made Morraccan Lentil Stew, which I've made before and enjoyed, and Shrimp-Stuffed Shells, which is one of Ivan's favorite.  Ivan had snuck out to go golfing so Evan and I were just chilling.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that while I was putting Evan down for his nap Ivan came home and washed the dishes.  It was a great feeling!

Then I did four loads of laundry, folded them, and even managed to out them away.  But not before Evan got stuck in the laundry basket.

He was not thrilled.  

I also made some Beef and Snow Peas with rice for Ivan (and dirtied a billion more dishes) and gave Evan a bath.  Ivan was at indoor soccer so the house was semi-quiet.  Except for Evan racing around with his toys.  He kept starting by the front door, shouting "go" and racing to the sofa holding his two stuffed animals.  It was adorable.  For our night time snack we shared a blood orange.

Yum!  I was very surprised that Evan even ate it.  Blood oranges remind me of Italy because I remember eating them there all the time.  This orange was from the US and much more red than the blood oranges I remember from when I was little.  It was tasty though!

Then it was off to bed and ready for another week of work!

Roses, Movies, and Big Decisions

Boy do I have a lot to tell you.  I will try to keep it short, so as not to lose your interest though.  I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday because Evan was sick so I had to stay home.  Poor kiddo.  He literally slept all day.  He didn't wake up until 10am and then he fell back asleep around 12:30pm and slept all the way until 6:20pm!  Then he was up until 10pm and fell back asleep until 6am when I woke him this morning.  Hopefully all that sleep helped him feel better.  His fever broke yesterday evening so that was good.

On Friday I had an Acceptd Students reception at Hopkins that I went to.  Every time I go there I get so excited and feel like it is the perfect school for me.  Until I think about how much it costs.  Everyone was so nice and there are 35 Peace Corps fellows in the new class, which  I find very exciting.  I met one girl on Friday and it made me excited to meet the other former volunteers.  Even seeing the scrubs and uniforms was exciting.  I LOVE uniforms and will be thrilled to not have to pick out boring work clothes all the time.  I'm not sure if I have to wear scrubs to class though.  Check out these mugs they gave us.

Isn't that funny?  I guess even if I end up choosing not to go there, I will still have a mug!

On Saturday  Ivan and I celebrated our anniversary.  

It wasn't on Saturday, but that was the only day we had to celebrate so we went with it.  We even had a babysitter come over and watch Evan.  Of course that meant out date was $30 more expensive than it would have been, but what can you do?  Not everyone has family available who will watch their kid for free (and if you do,  I hope you appreciate it).  I had really wanted to see the Veronica Mars movie, because like I said we were practically best friends, but for some reason it wasn't in the theaters anymore.  At least not the theater we went to.  How crazy is that?  So we saw Divergent instead.  I had wanted to see that too because I read the book a few years ago.  It was a good movie and Ivan liked it.  Ivan has no preconceived notions about movies and what is considered a chick flick or not.  He just loves to go to movies and doesn't usually care which one we go to.  This is great for me!

After the movie I raced home, put Evan to nap, and made some Butternut Squash and Black Bean Enchiladas.  I made these a while ago and loved them and we were having a college friends reunion so I thought I would bring them to that.  It was so great seeing my old college friends and all their kiddos.  Evan was starting to feel sick so he was extra clingy and less active, but we still had a lot of fun.  I love those ladies!  Hopefully we can get together again before too much time passes.

Sunday we didn't do too much, just grocery shopping and the rest of the chores.  I made Sopa de Frijoles, Spaghetti Squash lasagna (which was delicious), and Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Soup.  Everything turned out delicious.  Ivan finished the Sopa de Frijoles in one sitting.  Nice.  

Yesterday I stayed home with sick baby and watched a lot of TV.  I couldn't really do too much because Evan wanted to cuddle so I just relaxed on the sofa and watched a bunch of TV.  Army Wives, NCIS, The Voice, and Call the Midwife.  All great shows, but a bit overwhelming.  Today it's off to work.  This winter has seen a lot of three and four day weekends between snow days and me taking a Friday off for one thing or another.  Got lots of work to catch up on!

What are some new recipes you've been making recently?

The yummiest thing ever

This weekend went by in such a blur.  It must be because it was 70 degrees out on Saturday and nice days seem so fleeting.  It started off with a last minute dinner invitation on Friday.  Ivan couldn't go because he has soccer on Fridays now, but Evan and I went to eat dinner with my friend from anatomy class.  It reminded me why we don't go out to eat very much anymore.  Evan sat in his high chair for all of ten minutes and then he wanted to sit with me.  And then he wanted to get up and run around the restaurant (don't worry, I didn't let him do it).  Luckily a balloon man came and made a few balloon animals and that kept his entertainment long enough for me to scarf down some pizza.  But yeah, eating out is kind of stressful with a little one (at least my little one).

Saturday I lazily woke up to go running with Team In Training.  Ivan was a grump because he had wanted to sleep in and Evan woke up while I was changing (before 7am).  So I ended up taking the little guy with me.  It worked out fine, he didn't have any meltdowns, but we only went about four miles.  One of those miles was the biggest hill ever!!  It was steep and kept going on and on and on...I could see the end but it never seemed to get closer.  Pushing 45 pounds up that huge hill was exhausting and at times I totally felt like I was walking, but I made it jelly legs and all.  

That afternoon I took a two hour yoga/deep relaxation/meditation class with a friend from high school.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and I only had to do downward dog twice so I was thrilled about that.  I hate downward dog and find it to be the most uncomfortable position ever.  If we have to do it for too long or too often I start to hate yoga.  Afterwards we grabbed a coffee and ran some errands.  My errand was to buy a new charger for Ivan's phone because I accidentally sucked it up the vacuum.  Whoops!  And now the rolls thing doesn't work on the vacuum, which is a great since we just spent $40 to get the vacuum fixed.  And I thought it would be a good idea to buy the charger before telling him about the plight of his old one and then come to find out - he had an extra charger at home.  Grrrrr!

And Eavn has started doing some adorable things.  Every once in a while the house goes quiet and I wonder where Evan is...and this is where he was every time.

Hanging out behind the curtain.  Yup, his new favorite secret hiding place.  He bring books and balls back there, it is really adorable.  You just see his little feet sticking out.

Yesterday was a bit crazy.  I went grocery shopping early in the morning, which I don't normally do.  I didn't have time to go on Saturday so I had to squeeze it in.  Then I did five loads of laundry, Skyped with my mom, and cooked three meals.  One for today, one for yesterday, and a vegetarian meal for me for when I cook meat during the week.  And then I did dishes.  And while I did dished I stupidly chose to start watching the last season of Army Wives which was a big mistake because I bawled my eyes out the entire time.  That show is so sad all the time.

And then I ate this.

It really is bliss.  It's like chocolate fudge in a package.  It is sooooo yummy.  It's a good thing I just bought the package and not the whole jar, because I couldn't stop eating it, it was so delicious.  You should definitely buy some.

And now I'm exhausted because when I set my alarm it said I had 4 hours and 59 minutes before my alarm went off.  Boo.  Good thing I bought that planner because I am not doing very good at getting to bed early.  I also woke up on time today because I am determined to blow dry my hair every day now that I paid $200 for my haircut.   I am still sad/mad about that.

What is something delicious that you ate this weekend????

Disney Trip Part Three

Somehow I survived the first day at work after daylight saving time.  The irony of it is that I drank a cup of regular coffee, instead of decaf, and so at 10:30pm when I crawled into bed I was wide awake.  Yes, a cup of coffee at 8am will keep me awake at 10:30pm - I don't have caffeine very often.  So, I was still up late again, just this time I was in bed.  I am trying a new method where I make a slow cooker meal or cook the night before in hopes of reducing dinner prep time.  It was a complete success yesterday.  Evan and I played for a while when I got home and we still sat down to eat at around 7:30pm and all I had to do was microwave a few things and dinner was ready.  I'm not sure how long it will last though.

Ok, onto Disney!  It's the last Disney post in case you are tired of hearing about the "happiest place on Earth"!

The Disney Princess Half Marathon

The half marathon was the sole reason we had even embarked on a ridiculously expensive vacation to Disney World in the first place.  My sister had wanted to run a half marathon for her 30th birthday and I agreed to do it with her (so she wasn't doing it alone).  She chose the Disney Princess because it sounded fun and not as serious as a regular half marathon.  And people dressed up as Disney Princesses and she thought it would be fun to dress up (it was fun actually).  So, we paid the outrageous entry fee of $165 back in June and there was no turning back.  I was a bit skeptical about paying so much money because it's not like you got free entry to the park or something.  You got nothing extra actually - just the same old stuff like a t-shirt and a medal.  I'm not quite sure why the race is so pricey, but it was fun.

On race day I woke up at 2:30am to catch a shuttle to the race start.  The first shuttle left at 3am and I knew I wanted to be at the start with plenty of time to spare.  Mission accomplished - I was one of about 50 people there!  I had my costume on that my sister had made and I walked around, used the potty, and stretched a bit while waiting for my sister to arrive.  There was not a lot going on, but they did have a DJ and he was playing some motivating tunes, so I was jamming along by myself.  Finally my sister showed up!

First things first - getting our picture taken.  As you may or may not know from our costumes, we were Anna and Elsa from Frozen.  My sister made our costumes, which you can see a little better in the pictures we took when it finally got light out.  Remember, it's only 4am right now so it's still plenty dark!

We eventually headed over to our corral, F, to start stretching and get ready for the 5:30am start.  My sister was a bit nervous because she hadn't trained that well and was worried about finishing, but I figured we'd be just fine.  I was initially put in corral C but decided to run with my sister so ended up just going to F (just in case you're not race savvy, you can usually move down corrals but you are not supposed to move up corrals because the front corrals are for faster people).  While waiting for the race to start we find Olaf!

We didn't actually know that guy at all, but it was fun getting our picture taken with him.  And do you see that cape I'm wearing?  That was actually my niece's cape and I had to run with it the entire time.  My mom had made a shorter cape for me to run with but it got lost in the mail and didn't arrive in time, so instead I borrowed my niece's cape and ran in that instead.  I can tell you - it was a bit hot!!  And it occassionally pulled at my neck.  However, it worked fine and everyone was able to recognize that I was Anna, so that was a huge positive.

We started out the race running like a normal race.  My sister was puffing a bit beside me so I kind of figured we wouldn't be keeping that pace the entire time, but we started out strong.  The beginning part of the race was just along highways and through parking lots.  We started in the parking lot of Epcot and had to run to Magic Kingdom, so that was a good bit of distance.  We finally hit Magic Kingdom about the time the sun was coming up!

There's the lit-up castle behind me!  All the pictures are a bit blurry because they were from my sister's iPhone, but they are better than nothing.  And way better than paying $100 for race photos!  Here's a closer picture when we ran through the castle:

As you can see (on the left of my sister's head), the castle was under construction a bit and the person who took this photo of us didn't think to crop our bodies out for more of the castle.  Oh well.

 

From about this point on we started stopping to take pictures all the time.  Disney had a bunch of characters out on the sides of the race where you could get photo-ops and so it was fun to stop  and get pictures taken.  Especially since during Disney hours you have to wait for hours and hours for a photo with a character!  Don't get me wrong, the lines were really long at times but I think the longest we waited was 15 minutes for Mickey and Minnie mouse.

But it was worth it!

I think my sister enjoyed the pictures because she got a chance to relax, take a break while waiting in line, and look forward to the next character coming up!!  So, we got a lot of character photos.

 

The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland:

Mary Poppins and Bert, from Mary Poppins:

The Genie from Aladdin:

 

 

On the side of the road there was this sign:

 

"Let it Go" is one of the main songs from Frozen so we had to get our picture taken with it.

The Disney Princes!

Notice how my sister is flexing her muscle but if you look closely at me you'll see that I am carrying her water bottle.  Yup, that's what older sisters are for - when the little sis gets tired the big sis carries her water bottle.  So I actually had my water bottle in one hand and her's in another.

Princess Dot from A Bug's Life:

As you can see from the photo above, it was very hazy and foggy out during the race.  It was great actually because it wasn't too hot but it wasn't cold either.  We were perfectly comfortable the entire time.  It got really sunny and warm after the race ended but it was nice that the weather stayed cooler for the race (of course we finished a little after 8:30am so it was still early).

 

 About mile 10 there was a decent sized hill and about half way up the hill they had this green army man yelling at everyone to keep running and do push-ups!  It was cute, so we snapped a picture.  It was a little sad because there were no lines to get your picture with him - I guess princess racers aren't interested in army men!

 

Towards the end of the race they had this big set-up with Jack Sparrow and the ship from Pirates of the Caribbean.  Too bad it wasn't Johnny Depp!!!  

 

In Epcot, within the last mile of the race we found Sofia the First!  My nieces love her (she was their favorite until Frozen came out), so we had to snap our picture.  We were hoping Elsa and Anna would be on the course, but they were not.  Actually, there were hardly any princesses on the course - just Snow White, Princess Dot, and Sofia the First.  What happened to Belle and Pocahontas and Aurora and Ariel and all the others???  I think I remember Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog, but I hadn't ever seen that so I didn't know who she was until my sister mentioned it.

And then we were done!!!  13.1 miles and 3 hours later!!  Yup, it took us THREE HOURS - it was the longest half marathon of my life!!!  I guess that's what happens when you wait in a million lines for photos with Disney characters....

I had a ton of fun though - it was fun running with my sister, not caring about the time, stopping to get fun photos all the time, and just relaxing through the entire thing.  And we didn't do too badly, I think we were in the 9000 out of more than 24,000 runners so we finished before more than half of the people out there (scary thought, huh).  Plus, I wasn't out of breath or tired after the race and I wasn't even sore the next day.  It was like I had dreamed the entire thing!

 

All in all the race was really fun and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fun race, especially if you don't care as much about your time.  I'm not sure it would have been worth the money if I had just run straight through and hadn't taken any photos - what made it worth it were the fun photos and the actual experience.  I was disappointed that more of the race wasn't through the parks though.  We only ended up doing about a mile through Magic Kingdom and then a mile through Epcot - but the race was 13.1 miles - so that means more than ten miles were just on highways and through parking lots.  Not that exciting.  Sure, they tried to make it more exciting by having the characters along the highway, but the park and characters together would have been way better.  We could have looped through Hollywood Studies and Animal Kingdom if they needed more space.  Not sure why they limit the park part so much.

After the race I took the shuttle back to the hotel, showered, packed, and we checked out.  Our resort was nice enough to give me a late check-out so we didn't have to be out until 1pm.  Then our friends from Tampa (they used to live in near us and are Evan's godparents) came and picked us up and we spent the rest of Sunday and all day Monday hanging out with them.

They had giant legos at the entrance to the hotel so evan had a blast playing with them while we waited for our friends to arrive and figure out how to pack all our luggage into their car.

We had a lot of fun staying with them - Ivan really loved it because he went golfing Sunday afternoon, fishing Monday morning, and golfing Monday afternoon again!  Evan and I hung out at the condo, took a nice walk along the mangroves, and went to the beach Monday afternoon.

Evan looks SOOOOO old in this photo.  Where is my baby???

Evan thought the best thing in the world was their screened-in porch.  He loved hanging out there and looking at everything (they were on the 6th floor and looked out to the water).

On Monday I made a huge boo-boo that ended our trip on a high-panic note.  I thought our flight left at 8:45pm so we were about to leave the condo (at 6:15pm) and I checked to make sure and our flight actually left at 7:45pm!!!!  Yikes!!!!  It took at least 45 minutes to get to the airport and we weren't sure we'd make it.  We decided to try because we didn't have a lot of options (changing flights would have cost a small fortune).  We got to the airport at 7:15pm and by the time we got our luggage out, put the car seat in its travel bag, and made our way to the check-in it was 7:20pm!!!  The woman was doubtful we'd make it but she said we could try if we wanted.  So we checked our bags, raced through security, and made it to the gate!!!  They had even printed out our gate-check tags already!  Plus, we weren't the last ones on the flight - two people came on after us.

It was a bit hectic and crazy, but I was so happy we had made it.  

And just like that we got home and I went to work the next day.  

 

Disney?  Done.  

 

Half marathon?  Done.  

 

Bank account?  DONE!!

 

The End.