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Now it's Tuesday and I was up again and again with a coughing Nicky.  Then we finally fell asleep and he woke me up again by peeing all over my pillow. 

Being a mom is so glamorous.

He is lucky he has those soft little hands to pat my arm with.

I am lucky to be patted with them.  I am also lucky I have good dark coffee for this morning and that it's nice out and that I have some stuff to plant.  And that I get to make cupcakes for my little darling Ruby who is turning 7 tomorrow.  

I am praying this Columbian does the job and I will soon stop feeling like I need to crawl back into my bed.

I bought sunscreen yesterday and forgot to put it on my kids today. 

James can eat regular ice cream bars now.  Like a boss.

Teresa made me think outside the box for Under Armour apparel and I thought, "duh!  I should check ebay." and found 2 shirts for James for $12 each, shipped.  They arrived last Friday and he's worn a rotation of his now collection of 3 every day since.

Here are some pictures of Ruby's room:

 My vitatop knock offs turned out really good.  They were slightly smaller than real vitatops and had less fiber but were tasty and easy and gone in 2 days.  I'm going to make more today or tomorrow.  Let me know if you want the recipe and I'll post it!

 See what I mean about being underwater?  :)

xxooxxo

holla

Hey everyone!  :)  How's it going?  It's Monday and I am supposed to be working but had a few things to take care of first.  Like coffee and blogging.  :)  I don't think I'm going to work on Mondays next year.  I do appreciate the quiet after a busy week but I also want to just get stuff in order after the weekend and I feel guilty doing that if it's a "work" day.  Obviously not that guilty, as here I sit, but too guilty to finish cleaning out my closet like I'd like to.

First of all, I hope if you're a mom that you had a good Mother's Day.  Mine was uneventful but good.  We had a quiet morning with waffles and coffee and then Patrick went to help Ronan at the house.  (I was good with this...he didn't ditch me. :) )  The kids and I just hung out all day, planted some flowers and then went and had dinner at Culver's.  They were all bickering while planting and I was ready to throttle them and then we got to Culver's and they all slid into the booth right next to each other...1,2,3.  It was so cute.  And then James gave me some of his burger and Ruby gave me some cheese curds and I felt much better.  :)

Last week flew by.  I felt kind of off all week, on and off.  I went with Ruby on their field trip on Thursday and that was fun but soooo tiring.  On Friday I worked and then went with Annie & Ronan to pick up our race packets for Saturday night.  When I came home I found these on my front porch

Our dad sent Andrea & I each some flowers for Mother's Day.  awwww.  He is so sweet.  xoxooxox

On Saturday we went to my sister's to see my mom while she was watching their kids.  I also sewed my sister & I some running "skirts" for our run.  It was a Glow Run and I found a neon highway worker tee at the thrift store and was able to make it into two skirts and a couple of headbands.  :)  It was fun.

The run turned out to be super fun!  It was FREEZING cold and really windy so much so that we sat in my van and waited to meet our friends at the starting line.  (they had met earlier and were at a bar nearby)  Once we met up though, and started jumping around to the fun music they were playing, everyone warmed up a little.  I was so happy to finally start running...I warmed up right away then.  It was a 5k with "party zones" along the way that you could stop and dance at.  They actually looked pretty dumb when I got to the first one so I kept on going.  I felt pretty good and thought I might have a shot at running the whole thing.  And I did!!  Yay!  I ran my first 5K!!  I was so happy.  I went slow and it was un-timed so I don't even know how long it took me but I don't even care.  I ran by myself most of the way which I really liked.  I loved being there with my sister and friends but for the running part, it was just good to be in my own zone and not worrying about slowing anyone down.  :)  Afterwards we stayed and danced for a long time (the dj was still there) and then came back to a local bar to have bar food & another beer.  I woke up yesterday and my legs were sore but once I moved around some, I was fine.  I chugged a lot of water throughout the day and went for a walk yesterday afternoon, too.  This morning my shoulders ached!  Same thing, though.  Once I started moving them, I feel fine.

 (the white lips were for the black light areas...not my look of choice.  :)  )

 at the finish line:

 after party:

 Annie & Ronan:

So fun!!!  xoxoxo

weigh in wednesday, week 3

What the hell was I thinking?  Why would I ever want to come and tell you that I GAINED 3lbs in the last 2 days???  :)  Yeah, up 3 this morning.  BUMMER.  But, I am not too upset about it.  My fingers are like sausages so I think there is some bloat going on.  I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and get my water intake back up there and hopefully that will go away in the next couple days.  ((If it's still here next week, then I'll be seriously sad.))

Now that we have THAT out of the way...how are you?  I'm good.  I just took my first attempt at homemade vitatops out of the oven.  I will update you later.  They smell good, if that counts for anything.  :)  I really like the chocolate vitatops.  They are 100 calories and a really good breakfast when toasted and smeared with 1T of sunbutter.  (total 200 calories)  I am a sucker for baked goods so those make me feel like I am having some without blowing through 300 calories.  They are pricey, though!  Mine will have less "stuff" (fiber & vitamins) but hopefully still be tasty.  And they have 4.6g of fiber each as I'm using Super Colon Blow All Bran cereal.  I'll let you know!!

Ruby's room is all painted and a lot of her stuff moved back in.  With the aqua curtains and aqua walls, being in her room is kind of like being underwater.  :)  heehee.  She loves it but Patrick and I laid in there last night and imagined a few things on the walls to help break it all up.  Only Ruby-approved stuff, though.

Guess what she wants for her birthday??  Pierced ears.  Ohhhhhhh.  My little Ruby.  xxxooo

I thrifted James an Under Armour shirt and he is in LOVE.  It is super fitted and fits his slim body really well.  He has requested more so I am going to have to find some.  Who sells Under Armour for kids??

I am TOTALLy over ebay right now.  I don't know why!!!  I got out of my groove and am struggling, struggling to get back into it.  I am still having some sales, listing some stuff, but the fire isn't there.  I just may be ready for a break.  Going to the thrift stores doesn't even excite me anymore!!  crazy.

I did get my consignment sale check last weekend and it went great!!  I made more than I hoped and most of it sold the first day (for full price) so I know I priced things well.  That was a happy thing!  :)

I better go now.  My coffee is gone and I have one extra little boy here wanting to go outside with Nicky.

(Can I just quickly say how lots of homework for 2 kids + getting dinner on the table + a 3 year old who only wants to go OUTSIDE = holy shit, get me a beer.)

xoxo

mke or bust

Hello there! How is your week going so far?  I hope well.  Mine is good.  I am so happy to be home with Nicky today.  We have lots of stuff to do and are going to spend the whole day outside.

Right after I finish my coffee and blogging.  :)

We walked the kids to school again and I have to say, I am loving that.  It's just really fun and all 3 of the kids love it, too.  Today James is picking Ruby up at school and they are walking home together, by themselves.  eek!  Well, kind of.  If Nicky is up, we will go meet them.  If he is sleeping I will go out and watch for them.

We had a great weekend in Milwaukee.  I really love that city...the lakefront is just beautiful and reminds me so much of Duluth.

Along with the fun family time, I was so happy to go to two different Alterras for coffee & breakfast.  The food and coffee is delicious and they just have a really cool vibe.  (Ha!  I just looked at their website and saw that they have a place in Madison, up on the square.  Cool!)  Patrick also really liked them.  He said the coffee stops and the beach were his favorites.   :)

 We were sitting there having coffee and hot chocolate and James said, "Mom, something smells like bread."  HAHAHAHA!  Patrick and I just looked at each other and I was like, "Are you serious?"  He realized what we were talking about and said he hadn't even noticed the 72 freshly baked loaves in front of him.  It was so funny.

We got the cupcakes from Honeypie and they were very good and just as huge as last year.  :)  Next time we want to eat there...the place was packed at breakfast time and the food looked amazing.

Overall, Ruby (and all of us) had a great time and James said he wants to go to Milwaukee in December for his birthday, too.  I'm guessing he'll change his mind but who knows!  I'm game.  :)  Those parties are an awful lot of work.

xoxo

non-scale victories, week 4 (and other random bits)

My NSVs for this week are:

1.  I'm on track for exercising 5x this week.  That is my goal for every week.
2.  Walking the kids to school in the morning.  It was freezing today but James is really into it and I want to encourage that.  Plus, I burned 180 calories during that walk!!  Nice.  :)  (Ruby took the bus and Nicky burrowed under his blanket as seen in the blurry picture below.)

3.  Going to Chipotle with Patrick last night and getting what I really wanted (burrito bowl...ate 3/4 of it.).  I looked at the website earlier in the day, figured out the calories I'd need, and ate accordingly all day so I'd have enough.  We even got some frozen yogurt at Orange Leaf afterwards.  YUM!!  I did get some cookie dough chunks but would have been just as happy with the plain oatmeal cookie yogurt.  It was soooo good and 180 calories for 4 ounces.

I have had such a good (busy) week and today I am just tired out and unmotivated.  Of course, it's a work day so I can't just sit on the couch all day like I really want to.  Maybe all night??  It's chilly out so maybe my kids will want to be couch potatoes with me later.

After our mini-date (which was so nice.  I really love Patrick.) I stopped in Old Navy to get Ruby some shorts.  I brought home 2 pairs of flip flops for her, too.  When she saw them she was so excited!  "Do I get to keep them both, Mom??"  :)  So cute.

We are going to Milwaukee again this weekend for her birthday celebration.  (here are some pics from last year)

Something tells me she's most excited about the cupcacks.  :)

I found the diagram below when I cleaned out her folder yesterday.  I asked her about it and she said they had done them about their favorite animals and then she wanted to do one about me.  :) haha!  I asked her to read it to me and she read the "evol" as love.  I thought she was trying to write evil but she laughed so hard when I suggested it that I believed her.  She said, "Why would I write that about you, Mom??"  And the "hort" is heart.

Something that's making me happy right now:  Patrick is really good about noticing the stuff I do around here.  Lots of times when he comes home he'll say, "The house looks nice, honey."  (we usually pick it up before he gets home)  He always thanks me for dinner, even if it's less than stellar.  This morning he thanked me for washing his sweatshirt.  That stuff is so simple but really means a lot to me.

Anyways.  :)

The other day as I drove past the last gas station on our way out of town, Nicky reminded me I needed to get gas.  (I had told him that as we were leaving the house 4 minutes earlier!  duh.)  I totally did so I turned around and went to the gas station.  We have had this van for over 7 years and I've never put in more than 16.5 gallons.  NEVER.

17.7!!!  Holy cow.  That was a total blessing because I don't think we would have made it even 15 miles down the road.  Crazy.  We were so empty!!

And finally, just a couple cute (but silly) pictures of Nicky & Jacob last week.  I was happy we got to see them a lot last week.  Sadly, Nicky has started making funny faces for pictures...a lot like his older brother!!

xoxoxo

weekly weigh-in, week 3

Quick pop in.  The scale said I was down .6 lb this morning.  Yay!  No gain for last week is a big success in my eyes.  (and my hips.)

I am a sweaty mess right now so I can't stay and chat.  Have a great day!!!

xoxo

spring training 5k challenge - week 4

Today has been pretty dreamy.  This morning Nicky & I walked the kids to school and then came right home, loaded up and headed to Picnic Point.  I haven't ran in two weeks and have been really wanting to.

holy crap.  It was super windy, I was pushing the jogger (thanks Susan!) and there are lots of hills on that trail.  I took a walk break after about 5 minutes and then a couple more during my 30 minute run.  I'd just walk for one minute and then start up again.  It was so hard!!  My heart rate was super high but would come right down once I slowed down, which I read was good.  I just need to read up on that more.  I always wondered how hard I was working - because it felt really hard sometimes - and now the heart rate monitor is showing me that I am indeed working really hard.

Nicky was working hard, too.  :)

I ran to the end of the trail, back towards the van about half way and then back to the end again to stop and look at the water.  It was already about 70 out and so beautiful.  I woke Nicky up so he could enjoy it.

 I love this picture below.  He came and sat down as close as he could to me with his little sandwich.  What a cutie.

It took us over an hour to get back to the van as I let Nicky set our pace.  He pushed the stroller for a while, threw rocks forever, stopped 1,000,000 times and ran in little spurts whenever a runner would pass us by.  :)  Afterwards we went to Starbucks and I wish I would have brought my phone in with me.  He looked so cute sitting in a big leather chair with his petite scone and chocolate milk.

What a wonderful morning.

Now he is sleeping, has been for a while, and I'm going to have to wake him up to walk and get the kids.  It's over 80 right now!!

I'm linking up with Katie J today for the Spring Training 5K Challenge!  I hope to get a couple more runs in this week and next.  Our 5K is on May 11th!  It is a fun one, though, a Glow Run, where we will stop and dance along the way so there is no pressure to run the whole thing.  I'm kind of glad even though I want to do that sometime.  As for other exercise, I loved doing the Ripped in 30 (found a new muscle in my calf today!) but am glad to be done, too.  I will probably do another 30 day thing in June but am enjoying this "break" of doing whatever workouts I want. :)  Even if they're still Jillian Michaels.  haha.

Have a great day!!  xoxo