Productivity

Accomplishing simple tasks like this makes me happy :)

Before

After-Sorted by type and cleaned (and some "disappeared").  Love it.

Mouths of babes...

Both kids are amusing me lately with what they say. For Sadie it's lots of "oh, wow!!" And "ooo, what's zat?" For ella it's things like this....

Just now
Ella: hey mom, wanna chat with me while I brush my teeth?
Me: sure! What should we chat about?
E: So, I've been wondering...what's it like being a grown up?
(Then I laughed and tried to convinve her it wasn't all just getting to do whatever you want!)

Yesterday on a walk
Me: oh my gosh! Ella look at this-it's a dead bat!!! (It was laying on the sidewalk and I was totally fascinated)
E: (totally deadpan) well, ya don't see that everyday

Two days ago
Ella: mom? Sadie has a huge head. Like, her feet are tiny and her hands are tiny but that head? Whoowee! It's huge mom! ....I guess maybe she'll grow into it.

Ummm-AMAZING!!

This is not a deep, spiritual post or a heartfelt child-focused post so put away any desires for depth.  But, have no fear, you will be inspired nonetheless :-)  If you're a girl.  And have longish hair. So, here's the scoop.

I am not adept with a curling iron.  Nor do I have any desire to spend the time, ever, to curl my entire head of hair.  Thus, I was intrigued when I saw this on a craft blog I read.  I was curious enough to watch the tutorial video on youtube and then tried it last night.  Oh.  My. Word.  This may be as life changing as 8 years ago when I bought my first professional grade flattening iron.  Changed my hair life forever. Seemed to good to be true, so I had to try it. 

I started with my hair straight and dry. It took literally 2 minutes (I timed it) to wrap it around the elastic headband like the girl in the video demonstrates. And woke up with this...

an unintentional side shot

All I did was curl my bangs a tiny bit (because they were still straight).  Didn't touch the rest of it.  I'm in love.

 

Here's the video tutorial. 

 

 

Baltimore Women's Classic 5k!

 Even though this was my third 5k, this one was on purpose (the first one I just meant to walk and the second I meant to do the 2 mile fun run and never saw the turn around) and it was the one my 3 sisters-in-law and I had agreed to train for and run months ago. We all trained separately for the most part but were all ready and able to finish the race! And, at the last minute, Chris' mom joined us too!!  She did awesome!  We had an awesome, BIG cheering section which was really nice-all the husbands, my Father-in-law, all 6 cousins, and my SIL's parents!  I think my favorite thing about this race was the random guitar player/singers who serenaded us t different parts of the course.  Oh, and the cold towels at the end.  That was fabulous.  Chris might have to hand me one of those when I get home from running in the mornings from now on :-)

I'm definitely proud of this accomplishment but I'm wavering between signing up for another race (10k? trying to do a 5k faster?) and being done with running.  Here are the pros and cons (no promises to how shallow or silly they may be, keepin' it real):

Pros: Feels good afterwards and occasionally during
Good for weight loss efforts and overall health
 I've invested in the clothes :-)
 It's very convenient (right outside my front door, no equipment)

Cons: I'd have to figure out some other form of exercise which might require paying for something or leaving kids with strangers
I can't wear my hair straight (I have to wash it every time I run and it takes WAY too long to straighten it every day or even 3 times a week)
It hurts
I get bored and think of all the things I could be doing if I was at home


I don't think I'll quit but this race being over has definitely decreased my motivation. But, Chris reminds me that if I went from not running to 3.1 miles in a couple months, I can certainly continue to increase my distance and speed if I keep going.  And it would be exciting to do a 10K....we'll see :-)  For now, the pics.
 

And we're off!  about 3000 women ran

See that little dot of pink up in the top corner?  That's Uncle David holding Ella.  Quite the good view of the race!

Almost done!

That's Chris' mom finishing and Uncle Matthew and the kids cheering her on on the sidelines

Nancy, Ping, me, Amy, Julie (post race) We did it!!

Baby Meet Up!

 I have a great group of college friends who I am still pretty connected to after ELEVEN years since graduating!  So, get this, last year 5 of my close girl friends from college had babies!!  Jennifer first with Henry, Annie 6 weeks later with Joe (who is 1 today!!), then I had Sadie in August, Kathy had Elsa in September, and Libby had Maggie in October.  How WEIRD is that??  We obviously did not plan this but it's been awesome to share pregnancy and baby-world with them.
         Yesterday I was able to meet up with Annie and Kathy in a random town that just happens to be midway for us coming from different directions. My friend Kathy and I met there last December where I got to tell her in person that we were pregnant. A few months later, she found out she too was pregnant and yesterday, we finally got to meet each other's babies!  My dear friend Annie was able to join us too since she lives close by (which means I get to see her all the time!!) and our 4 kids (2 years old and under) did great while letting the mommies catch up.  So thankful for these women and the role they've played in my life since I was 18 years old!

Sweet little Elsa!

Yes, we did let them play on the floor under the table at the coffee shop :-)

Lucy was the "big girl" at this playdate and was so sweet and well behaved the entire time!  She loved having the babies sit on her lap and voluntarily fed them her cheerios!

We explored the town and got to see some sailboats on the water

Sadie (10 mos), Joe (one day shy of 1 year old!), Elsa (8mos), Lucy (1 day shy of 2 1/2)