virtual 5k: June 19th

We are gearing up for our Virtual 5K! If you haven't been following along, we are joining together from various cities and states, promising to run a 5K on June 19th (or anytime that weekend.) We will have the tshirts to prove it! (ROBOT TSHIRTS FTW!)

Here are the participants in no particular orders (links to blogs beneath/next to the photos if available):

Meredith, Richmond, VA






Bethany, Jenks, OK







Jessica, Austin, TX







Kate, Chicago, IL

Marc & Serenity, Lewisville, TX

Leah, Little Rock, AR







Christine, St. Louis, MO







Shannon, Sherwood, AR







Megan, St. Louis, MO







Liza, Little Rock, AR







Melissa, Los Angeles, CA







Jennifer, Milwaukee, WI








Jennifer, Tulsa, OK






Karl and Kat, Little Rock, AR








Aubrey, Germany









Ashley, LA, CA

Erin, Little Rock





That is 19 folks total - quite exciting. I will do three more. If you are interested in being one of those three please email me! The shirts are ROBOTS for sure (I voted for them too.). Again, they won't be fancy but I'm so happy you all are participating!

and then i heard the doors lock

I am working on our Virtual 5K post and will have it up tonight.

In the meantime, I am going to share with you something that happened to us last week. I've been debating on sharing because I have been embarrassed and slightly traumatized ever since this particular event happened. But whatever, we're all friends here, right?!? (ANONYMOUS, I'm looking at you to leave EXTRA supportive and uplifting comments!)

ANYWAY,

Nate and I were wandering around the house Thursday morning, unsure of what to do with ourselves. I suggested the zoo and he lit up. (See the animals, mama!) (I swear I can not get over the full sentences that come out of this kid's mouth.) (And how did he even connect the word ZOO with ANIMALS? We've been to a zoo like twice.) Anyway, we pack up and head out. Nate proceeds to run around like a crazy person screaming BYE BYE ELEPHANT! BYE BYE GIRAFFE! TRAIN! TRACTORS! for a solid two hours. (He was TERRIFIED of the birds. TERRIFIED.) It was without a doubt my favorite morning of the week. It was also HOT so we headed to the car around 11:30, Nate exhausted and rehydrating in the stroller. (Me + 25lb stroller + 30 pound toddler = SWEATY.) I strap my red faced child in his carseat and turn the air on high while I put the stroller in the trunk. I start to open the door and hear my locks LOCK. (My car is OLD and my electrical is all kinds of messed up and the locks randomly lock and unlock... I usually always leave it unlocked... please come steal it.)

PANIC ensues. Everything is in the car... my BABY, my keys, my wallet, my bag ... RUNNING AIR CONDITIONING...my SHIRT... which I had just taken off to put the stroller in the trunk (I had a tank on under my shirt... but it was quite skimpy.). I DID have (THANK THE LORD) my phone, which had been in my bag the entire time but I took out to call Karl on the way to the car. I called Karl again FREAKING OUT. He 1. answered. and 2. got there within 10-15 minutes. 3. stayed on the phone with me the entire time ASSURING me that the cops and/or the Mom Police were not out in full force and there was no way they could know Nate was in there and staycalmyouarepregnant and they are NOT GOING TO ARREST YOU. I kept peering in at Nate like he was going to disappear or melt or who the hell knows what AND HE WAS SLEEPING. I can't get the child to nap to save my sanity on normal days, but I've never been so grateful to see his little eyeballs (well, lids, I guess) flutter shut.

I have to tell you guys: locking my child or leaving my child in a car is one of my biggest parenting fears. I always park directly next to a cart return - no matter how far away - at the grocery store JUST IN CASE. I feel like I always leave a door open or cracked until we're both in. I don't know why I closed the door in this case - I just wanted him to cool off quickly. I know the way that it happened was best case scenario. I know of many parents who have worse stories than this but DEAR GOD. I can't explain to you how stupid I felt. (I began channeling Cam from Modern Family and Johnny from Dirty Dancing.) And how Karl and I have been rethinking where we leave our keys and who has copies and other emergency-type plans. JESUS.

Ok, that's that. Thanks for listening. I'm still terrified SOMEONE KNOWS and is going to yell at me and turn me into to some sort of Better Parents organization.

Fun posts to follow, I swear. Here are a couple recent Nate shots:

dum dee do: waiting

Now I feel a bit as if I'm waiting.

Waiting waiting waiting.

Dum dee do...

I feel like maybe I felt this way last time in early pregnancy? Though last time it was my own secret wait and this time it's all out there!

I did call my midwife and there is good news on that front but I won't see her until 10 weeks...which sort of feels like a long time but is only one week later than I saw my OB the first time with Nate. So, for now, I'm just guzzling water, taking vitamins and exercising like normal (with a heart monitor). I dropped coffee and my caffeinated breakfast shake. I've splurged a few times and had a coke or two (Get Crazy). I'm forcing myself to sleep a ton and eat a little protein every three or four hours to ward off any nauseousness. We'll see if it works.

Have some cute pictures to post shortly AND I will be posting the participants in the Virtual 5K!

In the meantime, pick a boog for me in solidarity?

a birthday

Thank you all so much for your comments on the pregnancy. It feels very, very strange that people know so early this time and I continue to ask you to send good thoughts our way. I have yet to call a doctor or a midwife (but have shared it with the internet - ahhhh responsible parenting at its finest!), but have promised Karl that I will do so within the next 24 hours. At this point, I intend to call our midwife from Nate's birth and we are tentatively planning to see her only. Midwives in Arkansas do not have hospital privileges so that tentatively means we are planning a homebirth. I use the word tentative b/c there is no way that I can know what kind of pregnancy this will be and we all know plans like those can change, yes? Yes. To answer your BURNING "how are you feeling" question, I feel great. A little tired, a little nauseous here and there, but great overall. I'm definitely one of those super-annoying people who enjoys being pregnant even when vomiting up breakfast, lunch and dinner. I haven't really decided HOW to share this pregnancy on the blog. Last time, I did size comparison and belly pictures week by week. Again? Too much? We'll see how it flows?

Our little family of 3 (3.25?) headed to Tulsa this weekend to celebrate a first birthday. Specifically, this guys:

Karl took Friday off work and we thought we'd get in the car around Nate's naptime. I was so excited to leave early because generally a weekend out of town doesn't start until the 5pm Friday hour and then we get there LATE! and then Nate is AWAKE! and all thrown out of whack and it's not that fun trying to put him back down in a strange place.

Cue Friday morning and a whiny, fussing, getting over croup-still-on-steroids-so-whiny-yet-hyper toddler. We packed amidst pleas of "watch Cars" (the movie) and "waffle please" and more mutterings and whining and tears. (Did I mention the whining?) We wound up getting in the car early praying Nate would sleep (based on the maybe six or seven hours he got the previous evening). It didn't really pan out and he woke after an hour crankier than before. We were about two hours into a four hour drive and we seriously considered turning back around. It was all very "I'll TURN THIS CAR AROUND" dramatic. (I swear to God the medicine he was taking is the devil. It made him hyper. and sleepless. He was superhuman in his sleeplessness!)

The whole weekend for Nate was really a pretty big mess and we felt super guilty b/c we know he wasn't feeling normal and he certainly was showing all the parents of soon-to-be-toddlers what they have to look forward to! The hour the party started he ASKED to "go night-night" and he slept through the whole party. (Which, in all honestly, was more enjoyable for both Karl and myself. I'd much rather him sleep than WHINE. GOD THE WHINING.) (and GAH the guilt of not staying home! We really thought he was more on the mend than he was.)

On the whole, I'm glad that we went and were able to celebrate. In addition to the party, we shared meals and laughs with many of our favorite friends. It's hard to realize that the trips are becoming more strenuous the more our families expand. It's also hilarious that we now go to bed at 10 p.m. even out of town.

Jenny worked so hard on this party and it was absolutely WONDERFUL. If you are ever in need of a theme for a baby party, I highly recommend the Alphabet route. So many adorable decorations. The fence letters might be my favorite part. You can see them in the background of this shot: (There were also ABC cookies, ABC crayon molds, ABC fabric for the tableclothes, sandwiches in the ABC shape, and oh-so-much more. Seriously, it was amazing.)

Oh and don't forget your party mustache (created by Maddox's Aunt Miya). Everyone got one and they made me REAL happy:

goooooooooooaaaaaaaaal

So, when we found out we were pregnant with Nate we waited and waited (and waited) to tell everyone. Very few people knew until we were officially out of the first trimester. We covered up, made excuses, consumed fake drinks at parties, lied, hid out... etc. We didn't even tell some people until 20 weeks. (In retrospect how in the world was I not showing at that point!?)

This time (YES, THIS TIME), I am taking a deep deep breath, closing my eyes and hitting publish on this post.

So, as of today, Tuesday, May 18, I am officially announcing our pregnancy.

For my geeky friends, an html reference:
It's way too early to tell anyone and I hope you will think sticky baby thoughts for us and I hope that, in the unfortunate event of something happening, you would be there to support us for that as well. (And I hope that I would be as comfortable sharing that information as this information.)

On the night of my birthday, five or six of us were sitting around (quite drunkenly) discussing our goals for the end of the year. Among them were get a job, be more social in a professional capacity, and (mine) get pregnant before the end of the year.

Fast forward two weeks later... BAM. Pee stick. Two lines. DONE. GOAL. I believe I might be the first of that drunken conversation to achieve my goal.

All I have to say is I WIN.

EAVB_ZHOLHVMKIO

questionable sauces

Do you ever have those weekends where you feel like EVERYTHING & NOTHING is going on at the same time? No? Just me? Okay then.

I have been working on our Virtual 5K shirts. Here are the designs. There is a beer option, a robot option and a KFC Double Down option. Please leave your thoughts in the comments. There are currently 17 racers from lots of different places (which I am super pumped to share with you.) The race is June 19th. I intend to post a list of runners on June 1 w/ their city and state and country...and then photos of all of us in our shirts after the race weekend. I hope you will cheer us on if you are not participating. If you did not receive an email from me and are interested in participating (and a free shirt!) let me know via email. There are a few spots left. To those of you who did receive my email, apologies for the overuse of exclamation points. I just want people I don't know to think I'm NICE!! and excessive exclamation points seems to communicate this, yes?

The first one makes fun of the disgusting (yet i still want to try it!) KFC Double Down. If you don't know what a Double Down is, here is an image. It's basically chicken as bread... bacon and cheese and questionable sauces in the middle....yuck. (Or yum?)
Anyway, here is a tshirt that makes fun. I like the idea of running in a Double Down shirt b/c a 5K probably wouldn't even come close to burning the calories of one of these monsters.

Next our robot shirt. Obviously the shirt won't have a watermark on it. How cute are these robots? Found them on istock.

And finally A BEER SHIRT! Cause who doesn't love carbing up before and after a run with beer (and maybe during?!).

Ok send me an email or leave me a comment? The shirts won't be that fancy but they will be fun!

OH and I know it's improper/unspoken running etiquette to run the race in the shirt FOR the race, but, maybe make an exception this time? Pretty please?

good thing he's cute

I sat down in our recliner this morning with Nate for a morning snuggle. He was watching Cars (his new obsession) and APPARENTLY I inturrupted him, because he said (very cleary) "go away mommy." He then pointed to the couch and said "sit couch mommy". Um... I thought that wasn't supposed to happen until like 12. HE IS NOT EVEN TWO.

this is the post where i show you my ass on the internet

Remember that post last week where I was all "We're FAMOUS in tees" and mentioned additionally being photographed for my group exercise class?

Well, guess what friends? I made the paper! Er, at least my backside! GLAM.

Enjoy this gorgeous weekend. I intend to do so.

and then i was 29.

My birthday this year taught me several things:

1. Facebook friends and contacts: wow. I need to get better about looking at my little Birthday reminders and sending people notes.

2. 29 is not too old for a birthday crown!
It actually does say Happy Birthday! (It was originally a pressie from Mere Bear on my 25th.)
3. My husband (and friends!) can still surprise me! Karl told me he had a surprise dinner spot picked out for us and a reservation. I didn't argue (that's the surprise! ha! kidding.) and when we arrived at the restaurant, the hostess asked if we were "with the group." At the same time he said yes, I said no...bam, turned the corner and SURPRISE: an enormo table of friends! Apologies to the people who look like sparkly vampires in this picture - it was bright in there.
And a box fulled up with OWL CUPCAKES! (made, clearly, by the talented Leah!). I polished off the last one for breakfast this morning!Lemon meringue butter cream icing is, in fact, delicious even in the early hours.
We even made it to ::gasp:: a BAR for post dinner drinks and THEN AND THEN we came back home and had a little patio party! It ended around 1 in the AM, which, is crazy late for A TUESDAY. Sorry neighbors, if our giggling woke you. Consider it payback for the massive amount of your dog's shite in my yard.

I honestly was completely surprised by this little gathering and between that and the facebook and the twitters and multiple beers, I felt ridiculously loved and lucky. Nate spent the night with Gigi and Papaw (present enough!) , and, as an added bonus, Karl took a couple hours of work this morning and let me sleep in a bit to recover.

OH OH and and I got some snail cards too! I love snail cards. Notably this year, one arrived with BOOBIE TASSLES:
I think Nate liked "reading" it best:
The end. If my birthday is an indicator, 29 is going to be fabulous indeed!

run through the rain

We've had two exciting nights of tornadic activity here in the Natural State. According to the weather channel, there were six tornadoes that touched down in the state of Arkansas Friday night alone. It's been a pretty crazy weather season already and I'm never sure how to act when it gets serious.

Karl would love to be storm chasing somewhere with Reed Timmer and his Dominator (he ensures me that it's "safe") and I alternate between wanting to curl up in the bathtub with a mattress over my head and wanting to dance barefoot on the front lawn while the rain pours down.

(Like that one glorious, rainsoaked night in college, the night before graduation, with the sirens wailing all around! That was A-mazing. And probably stupid. But there was no wall cloud and my Oklahoma friends ensure me you're FINE until you see one of those.)

Mostly, I drank coffee (and then beer as the storms got worse!), checked twitter obsessively (hashtag #arwx! it was awesome!), and watched the weatherman on TV say "let me just pull up this mo-zilla fox fire."

I also spent some time thinking about our upcoming VIRTUAL RACE. There are about 15 unofficially signed up/interested! I'm so very excited and am in the process of nailing down a date! It is officially going to be a 5K! (though for those wanting the challenge of a 10K I could def make your shirts brag appropriately)! The couch to 5K program is about 8 or 9 weeks so I am currently contemplating the weekend of June 19. Again, since it is virtual you could pick any day that weekend (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday morning!). I am hoping to post shirt options on May 15.

If you are still interested, there are spots left! You can run or walk or do a run walk combo but it has to be at least 3.1 miles. ( Take the survey here.)

If you aren't, enjoy these adorable pictures:

all nude, all the time

Things we support: clothing-less-ness on the weekends. Less clothing on the weekends. LCOTW.

Or, really, on any day.

Hooray for exhibitionism!

Er. Too far?

Hooray for freed and sun kissed skin!

Better?

We busted out the swimming pool just in time for May 1.