Birthday Week

It's hard to believe that I am 32. I think at the age 32 I am at one of the happier points of my life. I have 2 wonderful girls and a Travis is awesome too! He made this birthday as special as can be.

My birthday is around Memorial Day. It's nice to have a long weekend to celebrate. This year Travis had to work 3rd shift at his job, but as I mentioned he made as special as he could . On my birthday we went out to dinner with my sibling and her family. It was kept very low key which was ok with me.

Memorial Day weekend was busy! The Jaela had her last soccer tournament of the season, we had bbq plans, and a parade to see! I was excited for Leia to see the parade. Last year she was still a bit too small to enjoy. This year she waved hi to everyone that passed by. A police offer on his motorcycle stopped to say "hi"!

The rest of that week was quiet. Travis bought me a new grill for my birthday! He got me a few gifts, but the grill is the one item I requested. I broke it out a few times and made some delicious dinners. I love Summertime! The food just tastes much better.

He was able to convince someone to work 3rd shift for him this past weekend! He asked what I wanted to do for my birthday and I told him visit a few wineries. After the gym Saturday and a trip to the vet (our dog has horrible skin and we are trying to fix it) we were off to the wineries.

We dropped of the girls to my sister and then hit up three wineries near us. The first one was Round Barn. This place was busy! They were have a dog event and everyone had their pups. We said a few times how we should have brought ours! We each had a flight to taste. I'm more of a red sweet wine person and he loves the dry whites.

Since Round Barn was busy, we headed out to our next stop, Tabor Hill. It was much quieter and we enjoyed having the spot almost to ourselves. We both had a flight of wines to taste. He really loved the Spumanti and we bought a bottle to take home. We ended our wine tasting at Gravity, another quiet spot. As we pulled up with saw a funny looking limo. We joked on  how we would reserve the limo for my daughter's quinceanera in 5 years!

We were both  extremely hungry after all the wine tasting. We asked one of the staff members at Gravity where was the best place for burgers. She said a little pub, near another bar (I can't remember the name), but she couldn't give us directions. Yelp came to the rescue and recommended Mickey's Drive-In. It did not disappoint! I had a cheese burger with all the toppings and an order of cheese sticks. It was the perfect way to end the birthday celebrations.

They chose another one...

I'm tired of hearing those words! House hunting has taken a toll on my life. Every darn time we find our "perfect" house we are outbid! This last house we offered on had 8 offers!! It is definitely a sellers market. We were very excited about this last house. I tried not to get excited because I knew the chances were slim that we would get it. We were supposed to know that evening at 7pm whether or not our offer was accepted. At 9:30 they still hadn't made a decision, so I fell asleep. The Baby Daddy came to bed after midnight and him moving around woke me up. I looked over to my phone and saw I had a missed text, then I saw what was written "Sorry, they chose another one". My response was "we figured, thanks". We have an awesome realtor. He is amazing. Not pushing us to offer on every house we see! Looking at every detail of the home. I mean seriously, we're new to buying a home and at the beginning we didn't look at the roof, we didn't look at the windows, furnace, etc. He did.  The right one will come along, I know it will. Patience is the key here. PATIENCE!

What a Monday! It went by quick. I'm back to an early morning wake up. I woke up at 4:45am to complete some upper arm work. Then  I spent my usual 9 hours at work and was thrilled when it was time to leave. I missed my babies. Once I got home I was put on mom duty quickly. The diva had papers from school that I needed to sign, the redhead wanted to snuggle (which I didn't mind) and the Baby Daddy was ready for a break.

One nice thing, from my day, was when I unpacked my lunched I found a sweet note from the Diva. Made going back to work a tad bit harder.  It also made me wonder if there was some ulterior motive. She can be a slick one.

I realized yesterday that after a full day of work, I only have about 4 hours to spend with the family during the weekday and really not a full 4 hours if you take dinner, homework, housework, or whatever else into consideration. I loved being home with the girls for a week, but I'm not sure if I can be a stay-at-home-mom. A shout-out to those moms that do!!

Dinner was easy peasy. The diva has been wanted breakfast for dinner for sometime now. She really loves her breakfast meals. I cooked up some egg sandwiches, with bacon, and a side of hash browns. It was so good.

As mentioned yesterday, soccer starts this week, and of course we cannot find the chin guards that I just bought for last season, so we had to make run to the store. She needed new cleats as well, I mean I can't have her in playing in a Nike soccer uniform and wear cleats made by Adidas. I was expecting to spend much more than I actually did!  We went to the one of the only stores we have in town, Dick's, and it was packed. You would have thought it was Black Friday! Oh well, the things we do for our children.

Let's Catch Up for the Millionth Time

Where should I begin? Let's talk about my least favorite thing going on in my life right now. Buying a house! or at least trying to. You would think I would love it. I mean who doesn't love trying to pick out their new home. The market is horrible right now. Once a house goes up, if it's not sold within the same day, it is on the next. We know that eventually we will find our "perfect" home, but gosh darn it, I wish that was sooner than later.

One of the many great things happening in my life right now, is my running. I've slowly have been getting back on track. My speed still isn't where I would like for it to be, but I'm getting there. I'm running 3x per week and trying to do strength training in between. My 5ks are getting faster! I ran one last week under 33 minutes and I was excited. I really think I could have ran it faster if it wasn't so windy. I need to figure out how to correctly do speed work. My "speed work" consists of running super fast for about a minute and then slowing down for 2 and repeating.  I'm hoping to run a half marathon in June, but I haven't signed up yet. I did sign up for a 5 de Mayo race with my oldest. She's been wanting to run a race and I think it would be a fun one for us to do.

Life will start getting busy here again. My oldest starts soccer tomorrow, if the yucky weather stays away! It's officially Spring here. Bring on the April Showers. Honestly I don't mind the rain, however, I would mind it less if I didn't have to go anywhere. I went back to work today after having a week off. We were supposed to go out of town for vacation but plans changed when the Baby Daddy vacation was retracted. Oh well. It was still nice. I can honestly say I went back to work relaxed. We stayed home most of the time and did some remodeling/cleaning/downsizing/etc at home. Once we find our new home, we are hoping to rent our current one out. Hope you enjoy some of our pictures from our "stay-cation"

Random Monday

This past weekend went by so fast. I mean they usually do, but this one sped by quickly. We are looking for a new house and it is no longer fun. We put offers in two out of the 6 or so that we have seen so far and both time they went with another offer. Oh well, our "perfect" house is still out there somewhere. I really wanted to take a week or so off from house hunting but the Baby Daddy found another to look at. Right in our neighborhood (which I love). So on Sunday I laced up my running shoes and ran by the house. It's a cute house, in a cul-de-sac. It does need some updating, painting, new carpet/floor. Some curb appeal. We shall see.

So what did I do with the rest of my weekend. Friday night began with decluttering our room. We have so much JUNK! Our small room looks much smaller with all the stuff I have accumulated through the years. I took about an hour on Friday evening and went through clothes, shoes, books, etc and got rid of what I didn't need. How did I decide whether or not I needed it, if I questioned, into the trash or donation pile it went.


Saturday morning we woke up early to hit the gym. I have been going to the gym regularly. I love it. The girls love it. After the gym we went to the grocery store, then back home to clean up some more. I had so.much.laundry. Seriously, I don't know where it all comes from. After a day of laundry we were ready to get out again!  Saturday evening we went out to dinner with the family. My siblings and I were all craving Italian, but both Olive Garden and Papa Vino's were completely booked. We ended up at a local Mexican restaurant where I enjoyed a bit too much of chips and dip, oh and a very large margarita. Seriously by the time my dinner came I was stuffed.

Sunday I had a bit of energy left and I was ready for a day outdoors. I had spent Sunday folding laundry, watching Beauty and the Beast, I was ready for some me time. The diva wanted to join so we did a 2 mile run. Once home I decided it was time for the kitchen decluttering to begin. I went through all the cabinets, took them out and cleaned them with soap and vinegar. I found two vintage items! A 1930's juice press and the recipes that were hand written by the Baby Daddy's grandmother. I wanted to keep them, but his step-mom asked to have them. I will make a few copies of some recipes to create, and pull out a few cards to give to my daughter when she gets older. There you have it! My weekend. Now lets get this work week over!

Goodbye 2016...Hello 2017

This past year was a very interesting year to say the least. Learning how to parent with another person is tough. I was a single parent for 7 years before I had a second child. My parents and sisters did help when I needed a sitter for work or to enjoy a night to myself, but other than that I made up the rules and I provided for my daughter. At one point working two jobs (working.every.single.day). I did this for about a year, until my daughter told me she did not see me anymore and she missed me. That day, I put in my two weeks notice.

Having someone parenting with me was a struggle. I "knew" what worked. I wanted it my way. I have always been somewhat independent and part of me hated the fact that someone else was there to share the responsibility. After a huge argument and a phone call from my dad, I realized that it was ok to share the extra responsibility. I realized that it would be ok to share in parenting, after all he did play a huge role in creating our baby. Life would be ok.

2016 wasn't a horrible year, not the best, but far from the worse. We survived the first year of our baby's life. There were times that I wanted to leave, times that he probably wanted me gone, but in the end we stuck it through and boy am I glad that we did. He is my best friend, the one I can vent to, and the one to tell me to suck it up. He accepted my oldest as one as if she was his own. The other day while sitting in the living room listening to some random music, he danced with her. He had her on his feet and held her. As I was looking at them, I could not help to think that I am lucky, that we are lucky. That is how 2016 ended, with that memory, a beautiful memory.

Now that we're in 2017 I'm looking forward for what's to come. I'm hoping to continue to reach my goal of being fit. I've been asked what's my ideal weight, however, that's not really my goal. Yes, I would love to reach a certain weight, but if I don't, then I don't. Being fit to mean means exercising, eating well, and most importantly being happy.

Sickness, Who Has Time For That?

As busy people, we don't have time to be sick. It's hard and I think it especially harder on a mom. For about the past week in a half we have battled sickness in the home. It all started with the toddler getting sick. Over a week ago she woke up and throw up all over the bed. It was not fun. At first I thought it was the spaghetti I had made, but no one else got sick. As she started to feel better, I started to feel worse. My stomach did not feel right. I was nauseated and my stomach made weird noises (tmi?), but nothing else. Then the baby daddy came down with the full blown stomach flu, and last the 9 year old. It was not fun.

This week we're all pretty much back to "normal". We ventured out last Sunday to see Santa. It was the first time that we all got out the house to do something fun. I was worried that the toddler wouldn't like the man and I feared how she would react. I also feared for what my 9 year old would say. For the past few years she has been questioning if there's any truth to Santa. I think she knows that Santa isn't real, but still plays along with me. Next year I will sit with her and break the news. It makes me sad because she's quickly growing up.

I haven't been working out as much either. I just felt too tired and pained. Yesterday I finally did some yoga to get my muscles stretched out and it felt great! Today I'm hoping to get some strength training in and then wake up tomorrow morning at 5am to get a quick run in. I haven't gained any weight (it's so easy for me to gain), but it's probably because I was sick. I do feel stressed to the max, but I blame that on the no exercise.