Lets train

It seems like a lot of people were unaware of my weekend plans. When I say 'a lot of people' I mean about 2 actual beings who forgot to write my busy schedule on their calendar, since I know everyone cares :) Well, let me just clarify: I'm going to St. Louis on Friday night after work to run the half marathon on Sunday morning. Nate is running with me, as is Keri---which was the whole reason I signed up for this race [to see Keri and celebrate her health during a painful endurance run:)]

A week ago I was all, "OMG, I get to see St. Louis in full fledged Springtime! There will be flowers and green grass and sunshine! Yes, there will be evidence of life that Wisconsin is majorly lacking right now."

And then, this happened:


Whaaaa? RAIN? I did not order this forecast and I'm praying that the weather people are way off on this one. Why can't it just be sunshiny and glorious down there, strictly in my honor? Too much to ask?

So I could whine and complain that it will rain not only on race day [hello, blisters!] but also on Saturday.

Or I could look at the bright side and thank the good Lord this run isn't taking place in Milwaukee. Sure, Saturday will be amazing here but please look at Sunday:


Um, lows in the UPPER 30s, plus rain?! I think I'll take rainy and warm over rainy and effing cold any day. Eat it, Milwaukee. I still like St. Louis weather better.

On that note, I am packing tonight and I'm not sure I've devoted enough posts to the topic of packing. I hate it. It stresses me out. I would like to think with my Type-A qualities I am a fabulous packer but it seems like I always pack the wrong type of gear. I mean, it's organized and neat and all that junk....but my packing skills consistently lack proper estimation of what I'll actually NEED during a trip. Ugh. Just add this to the list of things I do not like [there are so many].

Speaking of packing, I would like you to guess what this is:



Hint: there are four items pictured here. 10 points goes to the reader who correctly guesses all four of these. I'm afraid this makes me a bit psycho....


And finally, I just finished New Moon and I have to admit.....it was not my favorite. In fact, it seemed to drag on forever and I just didn't have the desire to get through it as fast as Twilight. I might do a separate post about this major let down but let me just leave you with this: when Bella cried and moaned about potentially turning THIRTY before Edward would change her, I lost even more respect for that whiny baby. No she di'int.

As someone who is turning the big 2-8 in a matter of days I take great offense to her statement found here:

'But you said thirty,' I whispered. The tears leaked over the edge. 'What? You're going to stay, but let me get all old anyway?'

Perhaps this should be my big wake up call: the Twilight series is geared towards a target audience approximately 10 years younger than me, if not more. They think I'm old and believe that turning thirty is next to death.

I suppose when I was 17 I thought the same thing, but still. I'm a little sensitive to this whole 'aging' thing, Miss Bella. So lay off the overly dramatic tantrums about getting 'all old' already.

And seriously, why did 2/3 of the whole book have to be about Bella being completely depressive and lonely. Talk about Debbie Downer!

With that, I am off. I will reveal my mystery items when I return. Try to contain your excitement.

So, it's August and I have been wanting to attempt the unfathomable for awhile now. I really want to write a post every day this month. I know, I know---that's about 20x more than I usually post in a given month. But here me out.

Sometimes it will probably be a single picture with a slightly wordy caption. Sometimes it will be a hodge podge of thoughts, as if I was emailing a girlfriend. Other times, if I'm lucky, it might actually be a cohesive 'meaty' post. But I figure now is the time because it's the start of a new month, life is somewhat settled right now (don't jinx me, blogging gods), and this glass of wine makes me feel chatty.

I don't have any guide or list of topics, though. Is that bad? Oh man, I hope I can pull this off. I am far too competitive to admit defeat so I'm afraid you might have to deal with a lot of posts in your Bloglovin/Feedly from me in the coming weeks.

Why am I doing this? To capture my thoughts better. To break through the 'I don't feel like blogging' barriers. Because writing is my journaling and it helps me sort my thoughts. Also, I take a lot of iphone pictures so this would be one way to document those apart from IG ;)

Right now, I do have a few things on my mind, too. Is it cheating if I just list one thing right now and then draft the other thoughts for different days? I think so.

Did I ever mention that we just had a lot of family visiting us from out of town? My mom was just here for 10 days, Memaw was here for 7 days, Pepaw was here for 2 days, and Nate's brother Jon was here for 7 days. So these four family members represent Colorado, Missouri, and Oregon and we get to see some of them only twice per year. Amazing that they all happened to plan a trip to WI around the same time.

Mom was here because Dad traveled back to MO for a golf trip, so she figured it would be a good time to visit me the grandkids. (Just figured out how to do the strike through thing after almost 7 years of blogging). Pepaw always flies up his own two-seater plane every summer for a big air show in Oshkosh, and Memaw flew commercial this time to see Mom/help with the grandkids. Also, I had a light-bulb moment after Cecelia's first birthday party. I came up with the idea of hiring Andrea for a 'four generations' photo shoot. We are so blessed to have Memaw in spectacular health and I don't plan on that changing anytime soon. But I still want to capture the four of us girls right now because I know we will all cherish these pictures forever. Both my mom and Memaw were really into the idea, too, and both of them requested that Truman be in the pictures, too.

So we did the photoshoot two days ago and I am dying to see all of the images. The teaser Andrea put on FB was adorable and I feel like the shoot went really well. I spent too much time attempting to coordinate the outfits of three women with completely different styles/generations along with two children's outfits, who are easy to dress but difficult to predict when it comes to photo shoots. We went with a 'cool tone' theme, meaning I said 'pick anything that has shades of blue and green and let's see what happens.' I think our outfits came together very nicely and was relieved with how the kids behaved. Also, an exorbitant amount of fruit snacks/chocolate chips are my special secret for maintaining attention spans past 2 seconds. For Truman and Cecelia, that is. My mom and Memaw were fine without bribery;)

Anyway, the photoshoot and the visit with family in general leaves me feeling rather emotional. See also: glass of wine. But seriously. I love when my mom and Memaw (and Pepaw and Jon, too) visit. But I HATE when we have to say goodbye. The last time my mom left Truman came to the airport with me. Very bad decision. He cried the entire way home and thus, I cried as well. Nothing like hearing my sweet three year old say, 'But I miss GoGo, I want to go to Colorado nowwwwwww.' Ugh. So last night Truman did not make the airport trip with me and the goodbyes were slightly less horrific. But still really sad. Same with telling Memaw goodbye today. It's just hard knowing they live so far away and although we are really blessed to have them visit so frequently, it's just not the same as having my family in the same state. They are the best. They do so much for us when they are here, and when they are away. I literally changed Cecelia's diaper about 4 times total in the past 10 days and my mom got Cecelia each morning when the child woke at 5 or earlier, bringing her downstairs to play so mommy could sleep a little longer. I mean, what? I know. They are amazing helpers and are so engaging when they interact with my children. Thank you God, for these women in my life. I do not take it for granted.

I'm not going to include a ton of pictures in each post, but I guess this one turned out to be my 'family visit' recap. Except I didn't even say what we truly did for these 10 days (pool, zoo, playground, driveway, eating, laughing, running, pedi/mani time, eating, etc etc). But anyway, a few pictures from our amazing visits with family.

Last night, hugs from his buddy MM


Before the photo shoot, helping the ladies with our hairspray


I actually wore 'real' makeup for the shoot.


I think we nailed a few shots.




Oh, I hope all of his forced smiles were like this


Doing a 'treasure hunt' with Truman in the back yard


Some of the out-of-towners, Sunday. Down right chilly!








Playground with everyone


Watching TV together


One of many awesome 'group effort' dinners. At the most, we had 8 adults and 2 kids at this table. Love it!


Pool time!




Zoo time!


Kissing with popsicle sticks


Off to the playground we go



What a fun 10 days, huh?

Crap, August has 31 days in it, doesn't it?