run, run, run

guys - i did it! i ran my first official race! i survived and i finished it and i can't wait to do another! it was slow - it took me just under 38 min to complete - but i DID it! now we're trying to find another one to do maybe in november or late october? i need something to work towards. for now i'm setting my sights on the warrior dash next month. it's a 5k as well, but has you running through fire and climbing things and going through mud.

after our tomato run this morning we hauled booty home, showered and headed down to church to do our nursery worker orientation. since we're taking a break from being part of a community group this year, we still wanted to serve and stay involved, so we are volunteering with the kiddos. i have to admit, i'm not looking forward to having to be at the church by 7:45 every sunday morning - but, it will be awesome to serve and we're hanging out with the newly walking age group. that'll be fun :-)

then tonight i had a little 30th bday shindig for the sweetest sweet miss ELM. it's crazy to think that we'll be attending many 30th parties this year. you go through life phases - wedding showers, baby showers, graduations, births... this year will be the year of the 30th birthday celebration. bub and i both turn 30 this winter within just a few weeks of each other. i really want to plan something fabulous, but well, cheap... i'm having a hard time with this. any ideas??? 30 is such a milestone. you're finally done being a 20-something. it's like you're finally a for real adult. you need to have a memorable celebration!

it's been a busy day, so i'm gonna snuggle up in the bed. goodnight lovelies!

florida - the not so sunny state

well we're back from vacation. not sure we'll be taking another family vaycay any time soon and i'm not sure we'll ever head back to florida.

"up, up and away we go - flying on an airplane!" this was our little ditty we sang to nuggie. she did amazing. we had an easy, direct flight from nashville to ft. lauderdale and an empty seat b/t her papa and me and our little baby was a perfect travel buddy :-)

our first morning we got up and hit the beach. our hotel was sandwiched right between to very nice hotels who had private beach access. ours had a scrawny little patch of sand that was open to the public. it was dirty and littered and not alot of fun. it was also so humid that several times i tried to take pics the camera lens just fogged up. but i'm not fussing about that - it IS august in the south.

i think our beach trip was a little premature for the nugg. she didn't get that you can't drink salt water. the poor little thing snorted it several times and had red eyes and a runny nose :-( so i sat with her on the beach while daddy did some ocean exploring. she then proceeded to try to eat the sand. try keeping a very mobile 10 month old out of the sand... yeah, not so much. so we headed back to the hotel room. and it started to rain.

and rain.

and rain.

it rained the whole time we were there.

no sunny florida tan for me. not even a hint of color. nada. nothing.

so we went out to eat. alot. what else do you do? my favorite meal of the whole trip? the last one we had in the ft. lauderdale airport. i'm not even kidding. you want yummy sea food? you're in florida, right? that would be a no go. every place we went to stunk.  we tried a funky sports bar sorta place - icky bar food. middle eastern food - sounded fun and different... ick too. though they did have THE BEST hummus i've ever had. cuban food that was all the rave, supposedly - lukewarm, fried and the place was filled with flies. not to mention we were the only ones there, soooo the crazy owner talked our ears off about his wife loosing cheese. funny, but not worth the $$$ we spent on it. we wanted the best seafood. we asked several people and the concierge and went where they sent us. we got so-so meals and a HUGE tab.

this was our bar food night. ick. but we did get to sit on a nice patio and nuggie really enjoyed people watching.

these sounded so yummy - fried s'mores! diets aren't allowed to be packed when on vacation! so i left mine at home. these were not as good as they looked. i'd take fair food any day over this. ick.

our hotel was pretty nice. not at all what their website implied. i'm being very careful to not snap a pic of the huge, noisy highway that went right by our "quiet balcony" nugg loved being able to climb all around a big space without baby gates though. and the bed was heavenly! she also loved our huge floor to ceiling windows. and since we had a sleeping baby in our room we were all in bed by about 8pm every night. we DID get alot of sleep and that was a huge blessing!

eating. again. bub tried a huge bowl of seafood. i think the bowl looked more like a metal helmet. 

my little dinner buddy :-) that girl thinks straws are gifts from heaven!

we managed to dodge the rain drops for about 20 minutes and took sweet pea down to the pool. she LOVED it! they had a fabulous little shallow area that she could sit in and splash. she also loved going all around the pool with her papa. too bad we didn't get to go more.

not the best pic - but she was so tickled to be in that water!

we tried to go down to the keys one day - to sorta re-visit our honeymoon destination. florida drivers are worse then nashville drivers in the rain. after two hours of driving south and still not getting through miami (they had EVERY road torn up) we were all tired, frustrated and hungry - so we turned around and went back to the hotel. everywhere we went was so dirty and littered. and our flight home was a nightmare. our flight got canceled b/c of a storm. so we ended up stuck at the airport for 7 hours. then when we finally got home we found out our luggage was MIA. they couldn't tell us where our pack n play, CAR SEAT or three suitcases were. thankfully they had a car seat we could borrow. and really, we were at least heading home. but nuggie didn't have any of her night night lovies, we didn't have our toothbrushes or cell phone chargers. i mean, minor inconveniences really, but just the shriveled cherry on the top of a very sour trip.

sorry to be a grump - but i had to vent. this trip was awful! nuggie was a bright spot. she was such a trooper. she slept pretty well and was so happy. she's such a sweet pea :-)

now we're home - woot! our 5k is on saturday and we have orientation for nursery duty at church too. we're so excited to start that new adventure!

picture, picture...

COUSINS!!!  

 on monday we had a little visit with bub's nieces and nephews. they were passing through town on their way home and  so nuggie got to meet all SIX of them at once! nuggie and her little cousin aiden are just over a week apart in age - it was so fun to see them together! i wish i had thought to get a pic of all the kiddos together. we're hoping to visit them in savannah sometime soon, so i'll be sure to get some good ones then. oh it was a short visit, but so sweet!

whew - have we had a DAY! this morning i had an appt with my endocrinologist and while we got to see her very quickly (hurray!), we had to wait for an HOUR to get in to the lab (boo). sweet nuggie was such a trooper, but when the nurse in the lab kept us waiting another twenty minutes b/c she couldn't find my vein, nugg had had enough and let her know. i don't blame her. if it was acceptable for an adult to throw a temper tantrum, i would have at that point as well. while in the waiting room i also had a crotchety old women exclaim in the most sour and nasty of tones - "THAT child is fat!" to my sweet nugg. i wanted to punch her. then another man said, oh you have her ears pierced already? and i said no, looking at nugg sort of questioningly, quickly realizing he meant her skin tag. what?!? i want to keep her in a bubble and never, ever let her out. people are mean.

after that we headed home for a bit. nugg took a short nap and it was seriously 105 degrees today, so we went to walmart to walk up and down the air conditioned aisles. then we headed home... only to discover i had left my phone somewhere.

oh holy mother of all electronics!!! i rushed over to our sweet neighbor's house and asked to use her phone - called bub - told him what had happened and then hauled booty over to wally world. and low and behold - there it was - sitting all alone in the shopping cart i had used 30 minutes before. i am one lucky lady. bub had reported it lost, just in case, so it wouldn't work when i did get my hands on it. so i tried to use a pay phone - A PAY PHONE! i didn't even have change to use the dumb thing, so i went old school and tried to make a collect call to bub to let him know i'd found it and could he turn it back on. did. you. know... it now costs $9.95 to make a freakin' collect call?!? i yelled into the phone - DON'T ACCEPT! and hung it up. who knew???

 

after the phone nonsense i went with our super sweet neighbor (as mentioned above :-) to buy seeds!!! i'm planting a winter garden - holy moley! i am so so so excited. and would you believe i got all these seeds for $1.20???? well, sweet heather treated me to them - BUT - that's all they cost! so i stocked up on seeds for my spring garden too. we're putting in a raised bed next to the house and i'm gonna go all green thumbs on it! 

so now the nugg is tucked in for the night - wearing her big girl jammies by the way. my baby is growing too fast :-( and i'm sitting here quietly, enjoying a nice iced peach tea. what a day - but what a day full of blessings! i can't believe no one took my phone, i can't believe that i'll be able to plant a whole giant garden for pretty much nothing, i can't believe my once colicky, screamy baby is now such a joy to travel around with - i love that little girl so much!  

lose ends...

everything is coming together for school in the fall. i FINALLY got the last titer results i needed today (only took almost 2 months of fighting with the doctor's office!) my financial aid officially went through. i've got all the books i need and i passed micro (just in case you hadn't heard yet :-) yesterday i took my CPR class and passed that too. now it's just to enjoy the next couple of weeks till classes start. i'm so excited i can hardly stand it! after we get back from vacation i'll stock up on school supplies :-) i don't really need much, but there's nothing like starting a new semester with a few new pens and folders.

speaking of vacation - not too much longer till we leave! we're keeping our fingers crossed that tropical storm emily will avoid southern florida in the near future. it's so hot here right now, it's sort of funny to be heading to another hot place. but we'll be near the ocean - we can dip our toes in the water!

i am so ready for autumn. it is my absolute favorite season. i love everything about it. cooler temps, snuggly cardigans and sweaters, picking apples, naps while bub watches football, yummy soups. i'm watching barefoot contessa right now and she's making a butternut squash soup - ooh, i want to make it! but who wants to eat a fall soup like that when it's 103 degrees outside? oh fall - hurry up and get here!

here are a couple of pics from nuggie's 9 month photos we took last weekend. it was so miserably hot. we were all crabby and sweaty - bleck! our sweet photographer, allison, is pregnant and she didn't complain once. she's amazing!! seriously guys, you know you need some pics taken - she's your lady!

RIP Lilo (the fish)

i mentioned that a couple of weeks ago we added two more critters to our brood. sadly, we've already lost one... our sucker fish - lindsay lohan went off to the toilet bowl in the sky this afternoon. but our fat goldfish frank is going strong. he's a fabulous little fish with one black eye and one white eye. nuggie likes to say good morning and good night each day to him. sweet little frank :-)

class. is. done. well - for three weeks anyhow. i passed microbiology and with a B - woot!!! college the first time around yielded a less then stellar GPA. it's great to be doing it now with a different attitude. i could kick my self for being such a slacker in the past. oh, it was SO hard to find time to study and to go to class when you've got a boyfriend and a hate for the hours of 4-10 am. oh what i wouldn't give to have that schedule again :-) hindsight really is 20/20!

so the next weeks have a few fun things in store. first, we leave for a little mini vacation to florida. this will be my first real trip there. we honeymooned in the keys, but other than that i've yet to explore anywhere in the pan handle state. we have zero plans other than to sleep and eat and go to the beach. it will be our first family vacation. guess we'll need to take nuggie to the zoo or a museum or something family vacation-y :-) then i've got the 5k - not sure i'm going to be able to run the WHOLE thing, but i will run most of it, that is for sure. guess i shouldn't have picked the hottest part of summer to start my training. it's been so hard to get moving when it's 80something at 6am. i'm up to running almost two miles though - woot! and we do still have two weeks. so we'll see :-)

nuggie had her 9 month photos taken by the amazing and talented miss allison wicker today. if you live in the middle tn/southern ky area and are looking for an AUHMAZING photographer - please look her up!!! i'll pass along her info if you like :-) i'll be sure to post some pics when we get them. i think we got some really fun ones today!

just one of those weeks...

i opened up the drawer in our kitchen tonight and look at what happened!?! yep - it's just been one of those weeks. and... it's only tuesday. well, it won't do anyone any good to dwell on it i guess - though i'd love to rant about the fact that it's really stinking hard being a mommy some days, especially with an obnoxious dog, puking cat, teething baby, husband out of town and finals to study for... but no one wants to hear that either... one thing i do need to get off my chest - ooorrrr maybe get off my flabby ass - this baby weight! i heard tonight that if you've not lost the weight by the time babes is 9 months old, you're not likely to lose it. please someone tell me this isn't true. if i could go back in time and un-eat all those waffle fries and cartons of cake batter ice cream that i stuffed in my face when nuggie was just a bun in the oven - trust me, i would. i'm getting so frustrated! i'm running now - you know, not miles and miles, but 3 times a week and then trying to do yoga one day and weights one day. it's not the most amazing workout plan on earth - but it's something. and i'm trying so hard to eat well. again, i don't always do super awesome - but i've really cut back on sweets and fatty foods. and NOTHING. not one single pound lost. i'm still sitting at about 17 pounds over my pre-preggo weight. i'm so sick of not fitting in to anything. i've got a closet full of size 6 pants and medium tops and i'm still living in a chunky monkey world. maybe i should just give up and get some bigger clothes? but i don't want to do that! i'm at my wits end. ideas anyone? i need QUICK, healthy, snack and meals ideas. i think maybe this is where i'm going wrong? i am eating better, but not great i guess. and maybe little tricks for sneaking in exercise or something? i'm feeling very sorry for myself tonight. it's taking everything in me to not run towards the sugar cereal and stuff it all in my mouth right now. HELP!

tomato!!!!

looky, looky, LOOKY!

i picked our first tomato this morning! we will eat it tonight and i can't wait! we didn't do a garden this year - with the new babycakes and school we just couldn't commit to caring for a full on veggie patch - BUT, we did put a couple of tomato plants out on the back deck. YUM!

the pics of frank and li lo are coming, i promise. the tank is up on a dresser in nugg's room, so every time she's napping and i can blog i can't take pics b/c, well, there's a sleeping baby by the fishy wishies.don't worry - it's VERY secure and at this point there is no possible way she can get to it. we'll move it when she's older and in a big girl bed and is free in her room to move about.

bub's home so i'm gonna keep this short. have a sweet weekend lovelies! stay cool, it's blazing hot out there.