Nothing New.

I'll be brief. (HAHAHAHAHAHA)

Nothing exciting is happening here.  We spent Christmas with my family and then had 5 glorious days at home with just the three of us.  We relaxed, we played, it was magical.  I cannot wrap my brain around the fact that the holidays are a whole year away.  The pain.  It was a seriously fabulous time - we NEVER have relaxing time at home - and even though we were all sick as dogs ( I spend one full day at the doc-in-a-box and at an actual doctors office), it was still magical.  THAT'S how badly we all needed a vacation.

Nonetheless, a few updates:

We are considering moving.  It's been a long time in the making, but now we are actually thinking about moving.  We need a little more space (currently in 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and no yard)...and we really want a pool.  We are still trying to wrap our brains around moving to the 'burbs, but it's looking more and more likely every day.  We found a house that had the most AMAZING backyard - gorgeous pool, overlooking a little subdivision pond - but we didn't put in an offer fast enough.  Drat!!  And now, having seen THAT backyard, we are all snobby and are like, "well, THAT one isn't on a lake, so phooey".  Yeah.  Now we have this bizarre "it must be on a lake" requirement that we didn't even know could exist before. Nonetheless, we are on the hunt and are getting prepared to put out house on the market at any given moment.  Our biggest issue is that we work on opposite ends of town, so figuring out the commute is going to be a huge mess.  Alas, we will find something wonderful...someday.  And we are secretly hoping that other sale falls through so we can just have that one and have a pool for the summer.  Hahaha.  Fingers crossed!!

Anna has started to really babble.  In a scratchy animal voice.  It's like she permanently has a "smelly cat voice".  All the time.  I'm pretty sure that is going to be her permanent voice. 

3 Bath Days:

• The other day, she grabbed the pepper shaker off the coffee table (because yes, we eat at the coffee table)...and coated herself in it.  She was sneezing and coughing and it was fairly comical.  It ended up being a 3 bath day.
• On the drive home from my parents house for Christmas...we had the car loaded with us, Anna, the 2 80lb dogs, our luggage for a week and some Christmas presents...and Anna had a blowout.  We only had one wipe left from the trip and no clean clothes (well, there were clean clothes, but who knows where they were in the car).  She was naked and fairly well coated in terd for the next 3 hours of car drive.  That's good parenting right there.

And speaking of good parenting:

• We learned that if we play Rock Band, she will be mesmerized for at least an hour (probably longer, but we are kind of out of shape).  Between the lights and music on the TV, Tommy singing and dancing and my banging on the drums, it's like Baby Valium.  Not sure why we didn't think of this before. 
• So, I bought her some shoes...and I put them on her for our trip to the zoo on Saturday.  And I kept wondering why one seemed almost too big, but the other was WAY too tight.  I was starting to get concerned about her freakishly different sized feet.  Well, I was freaked out until Tommy pointed out that I hadn't taken the paper out of the toe of one shoe.  Ooops. 

Clapping because wearing Christmas jammies in January is awesome!

Horrified of this new toy.

Grammy and Anna

Great Grandma, her grandson, and his daughter!

From the wedding we went to in Mexico

I did not approve this photo.

The olympic trials for the marathon were in town this weekend, so we gathered up our running buddies, some champagne and a portable heater and settled in for the duration.  Luckily, at the olympic trials for the marathon, the duration is only about 2.5 hours.  They are pussies.  Real athletes can run at full speed for 5 hours.  Srsly.  I'd like to see them do that.  Ha.  But it was a wonderful morning spent with friends and then an even more enjoyable afternoon at the zoo...I love Houston in January.  We MEANT to wake up to see the marathon (which was the next day) but we slept in instead...wise choice.  I've lived in Houston for 8 years and this was the first time I didn't participate in the race...it felt wierd, yet oddly relaxing. 

My training has been total crap, but my New Years Resolution is to lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks (which happens to conveniently coincide with my 31st birthday), so my race training is being put on the backburner and I am focusing on eating right, lifting weights and getting toned and stronger.  I'm still biking and running, but only for like 30-45 minutes at a time to make room for weights.  We will see.  I'm still planning to race a 5k in February, a 10k in March and a sprint tri in April, but it will all depend on how my training goes.  Wish me luck!!

Happy Happy Christmas!

Okay, the 2 job, maintain a happy healthy marriage while raising a child thing was rough and is (thank goodness) basically over.  At this point, I'm really only doing about 1.25 jobs and it's fairly manageable for the moment.  Things slow down a little during the holidays, so that's made a huge difference and I am finally starting to get the hang of the new job, so yayyy...that said, I am still probably going to end up wasting 3-4 days of vacation this year and that just hurts my heart. 

First World Problems.  I has them.

We did the Turkey Trot here and I did about like I expected (not good, but about as good as I expected).  I finished in 26:26 for the 5K...which is about 3 minutes off my PR.  I figured I would do just under 27 minutes, so yeah, right on plan, but not good.  I keep saying I'll get faster and back to where I was, but to do that, I will actually have to train properly...and right now, I'm not.  Blah!  Tommy walked with Anna in the jogging stroller...he fell down the stairs (twice) earlier in the week and his ankle was all jacked up. 

Then we did Thanksgiving with our wonderful friends Tiffany and Harold at their camp on the coast...it was us, Anna, our two dogs, Tiffany and Harold, Harolds mom, their 4 kids and their 3 dogs.  To recap, thats 5 adults, 5 children and 5 dogs.  Hahahaha.  It was wonderful - we wish we could see them more often!

We went to Cancun for vacation, which was marvelous (although, a little cold for our tastes).  I got caught up on my reading (The Hunger Games, a couple of chick lit/romance crap, and some comedy...I ran the full gamut).  We did a lot of beach sitting, even though Anna HATED sand, eating delicious seafood, drinking margaritas, playing cards and watching movies.  The water was too rough and we couldn't swim in the ocean, but Anna loved swimming in the pool (I did not swim in the pool...it was freezing).

Here is a photo bomb of our last few months.  And yes, these are the just a small selection of pictures.  We took 320 pictures over the weekend alone.  Trust me.  I've toned it down for you.  It could be much worse.  Much, much worse.


I'm 7 months old!  Hooray!



A Preview of the Teenage Years

And you thought YOU had bad hair days.

My friend Jodie came in town and we had a girls lunch and then we went and "played" at Kristins.  Playing mostly consisted of the other babies taking whatever Anna was playing with (eating).  It was very amusing.

Mom.  Seriously.  Stop it with the camera.

Anna and her pals. 



The girls!  We survived lunch!



Cupcake! 

This is when we realized that we should have dressed her as Gene Simmons for Halloween. 



First trip to the zoo.  Petting a goat.  It looked and felt a lot like Donny the Dog.  She was not impressed.

My mom and sister came in town and Tommy and I went to a wedding and then spent the night in a hotel...there is nothing better than waking up on your own on a Sunday morning.

Thanksgiving at our friends new camp!

 And then we spent the week after Thanksgiving in Cancun - we spent the first 5 days alone, just the 3 of us, and then we packed up and moved to another resort for a friends wedding for 3 days.  My family was there and it was a blast. 

Mommy realizes she may be showing too much boob for a wedding.

Baby Anna will cut you if you take her banana.

Dancing with Daddy

This is the moment that she realizes that sand is going to kill her.

Yayy Mexico!

This is how we do vacation.  Napping baby, cards, beer and paella...on the beach.

What up?!?

Practicing for the swim.  Ironbaby!

The storm that rolled in from Cozumel the day of the Ironman...

Splashing is the best!

Yes.  She is almost 8 months old and we still swaddle her.  Dear lord.

I love swimming!  Even when it's freezing cold!

The view from our room.  We are spoiled!

My family!  Nothing better than a wedding where you are barefoot and can have a mimosa during the ceremony.

Excuses!

I am seriously just one giant excuse after another.

But here is my Top Ten List for Why I Haven't Blogged Since Before Kim Kardashian Got Married:

10.  I got a new job (yayyy!)
9.  But I still have my old job (boo!), so I get to do two jobs...and only get paid for one.
8.  I got a subscription to US Weekly (also known as the greatest publication of all time) and therefore for one night a week, I am busy.  Reading about the Kardashians.  And the Real Housewives of Whatever City.  And the Beiber.  GLORIOUS.
7.  I have this rugrat who requires inordinate amounts of attention and prefers to be outside with the mosquitoes.  And it's hard to play on the computer when you spend 100% of your time batting mosquitoes away from your child's face.  And then she STILL looks like an assault victim.  And then we both spend the next two days walking around swearing that we just ran into a door...our husbands did NOT beat us.
6.  I am running.  Or biking.  Or lifting weights.  Or TRYING to do some form of calorie expenditure. 
5.  I am lounging on the couch, watching the Beibers, Kardashians, and Housewives with my cute husband who moans and groans the whole time, which means that I have to rewind and re-watch, which means that we all get double the time with the Kardashian family.  Winning!
4.  I've been sick.  Which is sad.  And means that I walk around with kleenex stuck up my nose.  Lucky for me, Tommy finds women with kleenex hanging out of their noses irresistible.
3.  Anna is hysterical and wild and still isn't taking naps.  Which means I am not taking naps.  And when Mama don't take naps, ain't nobody happy.  And ain't nobody having no time to blog.  I just bought a book about how to get your baby to nap.  Basically, it's all puppies and rainbows and "just love your baby to sleep" and makes me want to hurl the book across the room.  If love put the kid to sleep, she'd be freaking Sleeping Beauty.
2.  I apparently have arthritis in my feet and am wearing old lady shoes.  From the ugly shoe aisle at DSW.  I don't respect myself.  At all.  But man, these puppies are comfy.

And the number one reason why I haven't blogged since Before Kim Kardashian Got Married:

1.  I just haven't felt like it.

Quick update:
Tommy and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary last week.  The traditional gift for 4 years is fruit or flowers, so I got him an Edible Arrangement and he planted flowers in our garden in the shape of a 4.  We are so cute.  My mom is coming in town this week to hang with me, since Tommy is going to Amsterdam for work and then when he gets back, we are going to a friends wedding and staying at a hotel for the night while Nana hangs with the nugget.  I plan on taking 14 naps before I head home in the morning.  Ha.

The Don is doing SO much better.  He has been diagnosed with Addison's disease and for the small price of $400 a month, he is healthy and happy.  Don needs to get a job.  But seriously, Addison's is a very dangerous disease, but it's similar to diabetes in that it is deadly, but VERY manageable ($$$)...so we are managing it.  And Anna will have to pay for her own college, but that's an entirely different issue.

Work is seriously kicking my butt.  I miss blogging.  But then again, I also miss having a waist, so it just goes to show that we can't have everything.

Okay.  Love.  And puppies.  And I'll get back to it eventually. 

Post About Nothing.

So, unfortunately, I don't spend as much time surfin' the net like I used to...not because I don't have the time but because I choose to go to bed at 8PM on a regular basis.  This is the bedtime I have always dreamed about but never indulged in.  I am a morning person, but due to social norms, for years I have been forcing myself to stay awake at least until the sun goes down.  But having a baby gives you the perfect excuse to do just about anything you want. 

Want to talk about vaginas all day?  Sure.  You just had a baby.  Want to cry for no reason?  Yeah, that's normal.  You just had a baby.  Want to talk about poop and vomit while others are eating?  Why not?  You just had a baby.  Sweating profusely?  It's the hormones.  You just had a baby.  Want to go to bed at 8PM everynight for the rest of your life?  No prob.  You just had a baby.

As a kid, my mom would tell me that I couldn't get out of bed until the numbers on the clock matched this piece of paper she taped on the wall that 7:00.  Unfortunately for me, at my tender age, I didn't know that 6:59 came before 7:00 and that 7:01 came after...so I remember sitting in my bed, staring intently at the clock, just BEGGING the numbers to match and knowing that if I looked away for even a second I could miss 7:00. 

It's the little things that really eff up your kids man.  It's the little things.  She also gave me a phone book and a pair of scissors so I could entertain myself.  I spent most of my childhood cutting up phonebooks.  That's a life skill I have yet to need.

Back to my point.  My original intent was to tell you why I haven't been blogging...which, if you follow the logic, can ultimately be blamed on my mother.  So thanks mom for screwing up my blog.  I'm sure that when you gave birth to me, you were planning on savings lots of money for some serious therapy sessions down the road (for you or me or both) and you had no comprehension of this newfangled virtual world where I would type up my diahrea of the mouth for everyone to read.  I think we can ultimately blame dad for that one though.  I'm sure he had something to do with it.  And if not, feel free to take your angry out on him anyway.  You just had a baby after all (I realize I am 30 years old so the excuse is getting a little tired, but until he capable of pushing a baby out of him, I say just go with it).

Sidenote since my mother has now started reading my blog:  I love you mom.  But all those times you told me I looked terrible in lavender really messed me up.  I don't own a stitch of purple clothing for fear of upsetting the color wheel.  But really, I love you mom.

I wish I had something exciting to write about, but the point is that I don't. 

Mmmmm...Nachos is good for me.

Cooking up a nugget for dinner!

So in lieu of actually writing a post, I started a special savings account for Anna's future therapy, which frankly, I feel that her future self should pay for...but since I am the one who styles her hair that way (because OMG, it cracks me up!), I will do what I can to offset the financial strain of years and years of therapy.  Here's a quarter sweetheart.

International Travel

Did you know that infants need passports?  Yeah.  They do.  Which is ridiculous, by the way.  Because we took passport pictures of her and we travel in 7 months...which means that she will look nothing like she does now.  Totally NOT a waste of my time.

Nonetheless, you have to have a passport for an infant and we are going to Mexico for a wedding in December, so the beast will have a passport.  Unfortunately, taking a picture of an infant who cannot hold her own head up is like pulling teeth (and hysterical...unlike pulling teeth).

We are highly amused by these.

And then we got to hang out at the passport office for 2.5 hours with an infant.  What an awesome system.  Luckily, I think she left some crap  (yeah, like actual crap) on the floor there.  Payback is a bia!

********************

In other news, I started back to work this week.  In very un-momlike fashion, I enjoyed almost every single minute of my first day.  That said, I spent a good portion of my day looking at pictures of her on my phone (don't tell my boss how much they paid me to do that), but I loved being back at the office, talking to people, solving problems, using the non-babytalk side of my brain, and having a reason to brush my teeth. 

I loved staying home with her (WAY more than I thought I could/would) but I was definitely ready to get back in the work force.  I took 11.5 weeks off - which was right about what I needed.  I started getting really antsy at about 10 weeks and then I had another week to get my ducks in a row...it was perfect.  3 days in, I am tired but overall, work is work.  Some parts of it are good, some parts of it are bad...but as an engineer, I CRAVE routine and schedules and spreadsheets.  And there are only so many spreadsheets you need for an infant (and I didn't actually have any).  I considered making a spreadsheet of her sleep and awake cycles, but since she doesn't sleep during the day AT ALL, the spreadsheet would have been quite short.

I've given myself the week off from working out.  But since my office has a great gym, I was able to get an abs class and some weights in yesterday and toda, I woke up early and got 25 minutes on my bike trainer and there is a quick class at lunch again that I will take.  So the week won't be a total wash.  Next week I will start to try to get workouts in before work  - it will be an interesting balancing act, but since Tommy and I are the masters at schedule juggling, I'm sure we will figure it out.  AND next week Tommy and I will start alternating middle of the night feedings...right now, Tommy has been doing it because I was pumping in the middle of the night, but that has stopped now that I am back at work.  Hopefully the beast will start sleeping through the night soon and life can get some sort of routine!

AND (so many changes!) my track workouts with my group start next week.  I cannot wait.  It's been a LOOOONG time since I've done speed work...and while I am terrified, I know it will be worth it in the long run.  Hooray!

Snow Day!

It's a Snow Day in Houston, Texas which means absolutely nothing except that most of the city got off from work for no reason. Darn! There isn't a snowflake in sight...but the steps to our "yard" are iced over which means it is quite a challenge for the dogs to get out there to pee. Tommy has to help Donny up and down, but Dixie just slides down and crashes into the fence. There is a high of 60 degrees predicted for tomorrow, so this will all be very shortlived and tomorrow we can get back to our normal life of shorts in the winter. (Sidenote: 60 degress is still VERY cold to Houstonians. We will still be bundled in most of our winter gear tomorrow, but we will be able to eat dinner outside, which is what it's all about.)

Nonetheless, I am enjoying my day on my couch. I still have to work, but it's a half-assed affair where I sit in my pj's with the tv on and get some work done. I still find it hard to believe that there are episodes of Say Yes to the Dress that I haven't seen yet. Oh how I love bridal shows!

Knowing I would have the day off today and that it would be balls cold (call me a weenie, but it's Houston...we don't live here for the winters...) so I went to the grocery store yesterday to stock up on wintery Hunker Down supplies. The city of Houston is excellent at hunkering down...and the rest of the city was at Kroger as well. I read an entire magazine while waiting in line to checkout. But hey, saved myself $4! I bought supplies to make red beans and rice for my cajun husband and the fixin's for potato soup for me. I don't do beans. [shudder] It was my first time making both and they were deeeeelicious...even if they took all day.

My only complaint about today is that we have breastfeeding class tonight (yippee!) and that means I will actually have to shower at some point. Tragedy strikes again.

In other news, the pics from the half marathon are up...

This is what "running" a half marathon looks like at 30 weeks pregnant.


And this is what running a half marathon (without the quotes) looks like. Tommy is giving the Shocker in honor of the baby!