Can't Complain...

I've been so frustrated lately because I feel like I don't have any time to keep up with the blog and I'm barely taking any pictures, unless it's with my iPhone. It's sad to not get to do these things that I greatly enjoy.
Work is really crazy, has been for months and will be that way for the foreseeable months.

It's really hard to complain about work though, seeing that I have such flexibility. I love being here when the kids get home from school or being 30 seconds away from the school when the nurse calls that some isn't feeling too hot. While working from home has tons of hassles, it's also something that I feel blessed to have for my family life.

While the crazies of life have limited my photography and blogging for the time being, We have been doing lots of fun stuff.

I have been running pretty regularly the last 4 weeks. Sarah and I have been meeting at the trails on the weekend and running together. For someone that usually runs alone, it's a nice change to run and chat and it's a good motivator.




It's been pretty chilly on our runs but I love running in cold weather. Even the little ice balls hitting my eyeballs last weekend didn't derail me from going 7 miles.





Another thing I've been making time for is music. We've been to a few great concerts in the last couple weeks and have 4 more already planned in the next few months. On Sunday we saw the Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys and WOW, they were awesome!!










And Young the Giant the week before.

 (YG's picture from the stage)

Much of our time has also gone into working on getting the basement settled. It's close to completion but very functional now. We have an office that I LOVE (but still needs decor and organized).




We have the TV/movie space and a new table that will be perfect for some euchre! The kids have loved hanging out in the new space.




Oh and I also went to an OSU basketball game too! It's been a lot of years since I'd been to one and it was damn fun.




So it hasn't been all work and no play.  Rather than complaining, I'll just have to try harder to get out with my camera and to sneak in a little more blogging time.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Fall Into Winter...Already!

With Christmas quickly approaching, the kids have had some festive school projects to create.  In kindergarten, they make wreaths that they can decorate however they want. We made Si's this week.  I thought I'd have to come up with ideas for him, like things to glue on or family pictures but Silas knew exactly what he wanted to do.  He wanted snow on the ground, snowflakes falling and Santa and a snowman.  With the exception of gluing down some of the cotton balls (it was messy) he did everything else himself.
I thought he did a beautiful job!
I love that Silas is taking more interest in art and painting but in pure Silas style though,  he likes to drink the paint water. He really is a nutty child!!

Justin has gotten to go on two fun outings over the last few weeks.  The first was to see a Notre Dame vs. Boston College football game with Kevin.  It was a good game and ND won.  It was pretty cold, just like a November football game is supposed to be!

This week Justin got to go on a 5 day golf trip with Tim and a bunch of other guys.  They went down to Santee in South Carolina and golfed 3 days of 36 holes per day.  I can just imagine the Icy Hot and tired-men-drinking-booze smell filling the air in the condos! He had a BLAST and I was very happy to see him go have some fun after all the long days he's been putting in.

I have been happy to have some good live music to listen to.  I listen to CD101 (now 102.5) and the CD101 Holiday concert was this past week.  I won tickets to see one of the bands playing in the Big Room on Tuesday, so Justin and I went to see them.  There were probably less than 30 poeple in this (very not big) room and the band.  It was very cool. Sleeper Agent was the band.  A very young looking band.  It was a lot of fun.

I'm pretty sure we are old enough to be the parents of most of these guys!

That night I went to the concert by myself. Everyone else was either busy or had never heard of the bands I was seeing. It's the first time I've gone to a concert alone and it really wasn't that bad.  They biggest problem was I wanted to keep the spot that I had claimed (open venue, no seats) so I didn't leave to go to the bathroom or anything once there.  I stood up on the 2nd lever so that I had a better view of the stage and it was crazy watching all the young "kids" slam dancing and crowd surfing.  All I could think is how sore they would be the next day.  Guess that shows my age! (though I was never one to get into that anyway).

After a very busy week and weekend, we've got some sleepy people in the house (it's 9:30pm and I'm the only one still awake!).  But I think I'm ready for bed now too.  When did life get so exhausting!?! (I think my answer is when I hit my 40s!)

{PS} - sorry to be such a blog slacker lately - it's so hard to find time!  I promise to try to do better with updates!

Memorial Day Weekend

What a BUSY and FUN long weekend - it was a great mix of fun, productive, family and friends!

Friday was Silas' last day of preschool - as you can guess, it was very emotional for me!  They had a clapout at school and it was so sweet.  He is ready and excited for Kindergarten...he wanted to start this week!

Wednesday night will be the "official graduation".

Saturday night Justin and I went to a concert (The Avett Brothers) with Sarah, Brian, Donna and Lee. It was a PERFECT evening for an outdoor concert...warm & breezy. Justin even got to to take a little mini-nap in the middle of the concert.

Sunday the garden finally got planted and we got the flowers in the front beds and baskets.  Just in time for the 90 degree heat!!

Ella is very much like her mom.  She told Justin that "she wished everyday could be like today".  When he asked why she said because she "got to lay in the hammock and read and eat watermelon" :)  My little summer girl!

Sunday afternoon we went to a family cookout and then got to spend the evening with the lovey neighbors at another cookout. Delicious food and great company at both!

Today was blazing hot and the kids got their bathing suits and sprinkler out. Si decided to try out Ella's grass skirt :)  They ran around and got the squirt guns out and had a good old time, which was much better than the morning when they were fighting like cats and dogs!

A couple weeks ago we got Si a new bike.  He was way too big for his other one and we decided to go up to an 18 inch.  Problem is, they don't have training wheels on that size, so now we are trying to teach him to ride it without them.  We went to the school and after a few wobbly minutes, he was actually getting the hang of it, except for the sharp turns he'd decide to randomly take.  I think if we practice a few times a week, he'll have it in a couple weeks!

It was a great weekend with a lot of cherished time just being together.  Perfect. But what I didn't get much of this weekend was REST...I need to go get that now!

Odds and Ends and This and That

Nothing major (well maybe a few things major) and yet so much on my mind.  In no particular order...

1. This week I FINALLY booked the beach house for the summer Outer Banks vacation. Back to Nags Head this year. Loved last year's trip to Emerald Isle and it will be fun to switch it up again and go to our spots in Nags Head.  I hate to wish my life away, but I am ready for the beach...and it's not until August so I have a long wait!!

2. Justin and I had a rockin' Friday night with our annual CF Wine Opener AND The Black Joe Lewis concert. We only stayed at the wine event for about an hour and then took off to the Newport to see Black Joe. We met up with Donna, Lee, Sarah and Brian.  Such a great band!!

3. Speaking of Sarah and Brian...looks like we'll have a little one (hopefully for Sarah, smaller than 10 lbs. at birth!) due to arrive in October :)  Our family is due for another (no pun intended...). Congrats to them and I'm ready to payback my babysitting dues! (How any times can YOU use "due" in one little couple sentence update?) - by the way - I (really) went to the library today and returned 8 overDUE books. seriously.

4. Speaking of babies and heart attacks, dear friend and neighbor Jen about gave us both this week. At 21 weeks pregnant with twins she had some preterm labor issues. After a lovely week in Riverside - she's resting comfortably at home on STRICT (the emphasis for her in case she checks the blog) bed rest. I think with all the conversations about her cervix in the last few days..she may not be as private as she once was...
(Seriously, it got very scary last week and it's been amazing to see her friends and family rally to help her, her husband and preschooler with dinners, playdates, hospital visits and a showering of love). Prayers, love and lots of positive vibes have and continue to be sent their way.

5. Speaking of cervices (I just had to pause and look up what the plural of cervix was- cervixes? cervi?  cervix+  Now I know).  Really, there is no way for me to lead that into soccer or track...in any appropriate way.

6. This week started the kick-off of soccer for both Ella and Silas (both coached again by my darling husband).  Si played on Saturday and it was about 35 degrees outside and raining. Sucked but the boys played great and most importantly - got their snack after the game.
Ella played on Sunday and scored 2 goals! Last month we read a Mia Hamm book and she also played indoor soccer over the winter - she is wired for soccer sound now!


7. Mason had his first home track meet today.  I was bundled in 2 pair of running pants, a turtle neck, my down winter coat and was still freezing.
Poor kid!

8. Stuff like this continues to be the downfall of my (already messy) house.  Silas made this Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick candle stick in school in January.  Can't get rid of it because Silas likes to jump over it and (really) it's just too cute to toss so soon. So there it sits. being jumped over. and stepped on. and moved around from place to place.

I won't know what to do when all the school art stops coming home.  I love it :)

9. I know that I need to update the picture at the top of my blog...I just love it -the kids all look like they aren't growing up as fast as they are in real life. Soon...

10.  Ella's favorite band right now is Vampire Weekend.

11. I went 12 days without running - I hurt my knee and couldn't put any weight on it running or going up/down stairs.  It's better now and I ran on Sunday and it did pretty well.  I missed it terribly!

Busy Week

It's wonderful to be sitting here on a lazy Saturday morning in my pj's with a cup of coffee - nothing scheduled for the day and no place that we need to be!!  It's been a rather crazy week.

Last Sunday, after Ella and Si's soccer games, Justin drove up to New York to see Jim (Grandpa J).  He's been in the hospital since September 17th.  The cancer in the bones has flared up and it was affecting the nerves and he wasn't able to walk.  He's been doing radiation and started a new chemo.  Praying that this give him some relief and enables him to get around again soon!
Monday and Tuesday I was flying solo with the kids so we concentrated on the basics like homework, dinner, bath, books, bed. And then I have a bad habit of staying up WAY too late working when Justin is gone, which is fine until the alarm goes off at 5:50am.
Justin got home around 1:30am so he was exhausted the rest of the week.  He and I are both really sucky night drivers.

Wednesday night I went to a concert with Donna and Sarah - Jason Mraz and he was awesome!

(not my photo...stolen from his Facebook fan page) 

 I love going to concerts but I have to be very selective about week night concerts these days...getting too old!

Thursday night I went to see author Kelly Corrigan with Margie.  Donna was supposed to go too but got stuck doing some work stuff.  Kelly is one of my new favorite authors.  She wrote The Middle Place and Lift.  I have quoted her books on here quite a few times.  She has an amazing gift of putting into words the thoughts,  feelings, anxiety and humor of being a mother, wife, daughter, friend and cancer survivor.  Her entire talk left me both laughing and crying at the same time. It was fantastic.  You can watch some of her videos here.

By end of the day on Friday, I was wiped out.  I  had been up until midnight or later every night of the week.  Justin went out with the boys for the evening so the kids and I had a relaxing night at home.  We watched movies and snuggled.  It was perfect.  After they went to bed, I watched Food, Inc. (We now have the Netflix on-demand and it is awesome - since we can never seem to get movies that we borrow back on time).  Excellent but disturbing documentary about the food industry. Since reading The Anti-cancer book, I've continued to research and learn very frightening stuff about the food that we consume, and how appalling the industry treats our farmers. Today starts Local Matters week, encouraging consumers to buy and eat local foods as much as possible.  

One of the highlights of my week was getting a free canvas 8x10 print of one of my photos.  I had taken this picture in Hocking Hills this summer, and winkflash had a deal for a free canvas.  It came this week and I love it!

I made some Thank You cards out of some of my photos and ordered (for free!) also. Can't wait to find another deal so I can get another print made!!

The other highlight of my week is that it is OCTOBER! My favorite month of the year!  Beautiful autumn weather, pumpkin picking, hay rides, apple crisp, the pumpkin fest, some fantastic photo opportunities...and my anniversary.  Yippee for October!!