Thank you God, for coffee....

So last night I came home from work and found that Ethan had run the laundry for me (I had forgotten to ask him, but he did it anyway!). I was so happy that it was done, so I folded it and put it all away. Laundry is actually my favorite chore....I think because I can see the results of it...a heap of unfolded clothes gets folded into piles and then placed in the correct drawer.... I'm type A like that. Haha. Then I went to the gym to get my workout in, had dinner, and tried to go to sleep in preparation for my early wakeup call today. It didn't work.

I didn't fall asleep until 11:30 (or later) last night... and the alarm this morning was like a punch in the face. I immediately developed a raging headache....dragged myself to work and went back to sleep on the couch. Thank god the kids didn't require my attention until 7:45 AM because I would have been in bad shape otherwise. As I was giving them breakfast, I noticed that there was coffee still left in the pot. I poured it into a mug, added skim milk and my truvia, and started drinking. Within an hour my headache was gone and I felt human again. I totally understand why moms drink coffee in the morning now. Completely. I have always sworn that I'm not going to be a coffee drinking mama in the future, but we'll see. I'm going to keep my options open on that one for SURE. Haha. I just don't like to be dependent on anything to keep me going on a regular basis and I see some moms guzzle it all day long...definitely don't want to be like that.

So the kids and I are hanging out until Ethan texts me...he took my car in for an oil change and some other services, and we're going to pick him up since he'll probably have to leave the car there all day. Since my bosses are out of town in the Bahamas for the day, they left the minivan for me to use with the kids. It worked out quite perfectly if I do say so myself. Next weekend I have a road trip to Charlotte, so he wanted to make sure my car was in tip top shape. It's one of the many ways he demonstrates his love and care for me. I'm a lucky gal!

Ever had the rug yanked out from underneath you?

That's kind of what today felt like....my part-time nanny informed me she's taking a six week leave of absence, Finn threw up all over my car today, and I have to be at work tomorow at 6 AM, which means I have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning. Yowza.

First things first. My part-time nanny and I have had bumps in the road with our relationship, but nothing we haven't been able to overcome. I've been very accommodating to her needs, and she's gone away on several vacations for a week at a time here and there, and I've usually been able to secure backup so it isn't an issue. Due to personal reasons, she's taking a 6 week leave, and wants me to find someone to work temporarily so she can have her job back when she returns. However, I'm tired of this.... and I think she needs to be replaced by someone who is reliable and who I can trust to be there and not constantly be wondering if she's going to announce she's going out of town. So I've started looking for a replacement....but I only have 2 weeks until she leaves, and that's usually nowhere near enough time. This job is anything but easy and it takes a special kind of person to step in here and take the reins from me. Normally I would try to make things work, but my younger two go down for naps from 1:30-4ish, and Finn has to be picked up from school at 2:45. Then he has to be taken to taekwondo, and he was supposed to be going to swimming lessons, but I don't see how I'm going to be able to make that work.... there are just a lot of schedule conflicts. Not to mention, I don't want to be here until 7:45 PM every night. There are things I like to do....like be at home....go to the gym....have dinner with my husband, etc. So, keep me in your prayers ... I need to find a permanent replacement or a temporary 4 week replacement at the very least.

Now onto grosser things.... I went to pick Finn up from his great grandmother's, and she informed me that he'd gagged a little at breakfast and handed me two grocery bags for the car in case he threw up. So, we're driving on the interstate, and all of a sudden...yeah. Well, the bag overflowed. So the seat was covered in vomity goo that smelled like rancid strawberry yogurt (even though he didn't have any strawberry yogurt). It was so awesome. Not. I pulled off at a random exit and found a random free parking garage and grabbed my pack of diaper wipes and did the best I could. We changed Finn into his PJ's that he had worn the night before and got back in the car with the windows down. We got home and got him into a warm bubble bath, and when my part-time nanny came I took my car to get cleaned. My bosses pay for the car to be cleaned if that happens, which is nice. It still has a faint odor though, so I'm just going to put a cup of coffee grounds in my car and it should disappear within a few days. It's the best thing for getting yucky smells out of a car.

Tomorrow morning is a 5:30 AM wakeup call....my boss is an interior designer, and she has to fly with a client to the Bahamas to make a site visit for the house she is designing. It's the client's private jet, so they have to be at the airport by 7, which means they have to leave at 6.... yeaaaaah. I'm not looking forward to waking up that early, but it must be done. I'll survive!

So it's been quite the day. Serenity. Now.

Canon 60D.....

So I finally decided to purchase the Canon 60D! It will arrive on Wednesday...I'm very excited! It will take my photography to the next level, since my Canon Rebel XT is over 5 years old. The main reason for the upgrade was my need for expanded ISO... my XT only goes up to 1600, and the 60D goes to 3200 and is expandable to 6400. It's perfect for natural light photography and low light photography as well.

I also got the Bridge to 10K application for my phone so I could see what it was all about. When you complete C25K, you immediately start Bridge to 10 K.... well, it's pretty awesome. By the end of the 10 weeks, you are literally running for 1 hour total! I should finish June 18th with the C25K and Bridge to 10K.... and I should be in pretty darn good shape! I'm excited about the prospect of pushing myself to run for one hour without stopping....wow.

In other news: Hawaii is most likely where we are headed in August. As soon as I said "Hawaii is another option" to Ethan, his ears perked up and he immediately said "Can we go to the North Shore and surf?!".... so the decision was basically pretty much made! I'm super excited....even though it means we're on a plane for basically 12 hours. Whatever, it's Hawaii!

When plans don't work out quite the way you'd hoped...

So, I got all of my clothes....and none of them were as fabulous in person as I had hoped. The good thing is that I was wrong about the Anthropologie clothing being on final sale, so I was able to return them! All's well that ends well. No biggie. I'll just do some shopping in New York when I'm there in March. I just don't have time when I'm at home!

I spent all last night and this morning cleaning our house...it was a wreck, and that was mostly my fault. The cupcake preparation had essentially destroyed our kitchen, and the rest of the house was just in shambles. It made me smile to clean the windows which had little handprints all over, and I was horrified to find some wall art by Eugenia, but fortunately the crayon came right off. I have no idea how she managed to get away from the table with a crayon.... I'm thinking she might have had one in her pocket. I need to go to the gym today for 45 minutes to do W1D3 of C25k, but I will admit that I am psyching myself up to go. My right hip is bothering me a little bit and I'm not quite sure why. I'll get to it before I go to work at 6:30 (Greek kids again)....I'll even come back on blogger and post that I finished it! Just in case anyone actually checks up on me to see if I did. ;)

After researching and talking, we decided the Europe trip needs to be put on hold for a later year because of the possibility of grad school and due to the fact that Ethan might have to retake a section of the CPA if he doesn't pass the first time. (Very few people pass the sections the first time they take them; the CPA exam is harder than the bar for law) So it looks like we'll be doing the good old beach vacation but we haven't decided where or when. Maybe Hawaii....maybe Florida, maybe North Carolina....or maybe we'll go to the French or Italian Riveria or Costa Rica...there's lots of beaches in the world to pick from. I emailed some travel agents today so hopefully we'll have that trip wrapped up and planned by the end of May once we find out if Ethan has been admitted. It'll be fun to decide where to go....we always try to go somewhere new that we haven't been to before. As long as we're together, that's all that matters!

......

For anyone who checked back, yes I did my C25K workout. It only took me until 4:15 to get myself to the gym, haha....but I DID get everything else around my house finished!

Cupcakes marry photography....

http://nannycakes.tumblr.com/

Enjoy! We'll be having lots of fun in the months to come!

The one where the treadmill bites the dust...

So, today I did week 1, day 2 of C25K and actually ran at 7 mph during the running segments. Whew, it was tough, but I felt so accomplished when I was done! I need to work on my breathing while running though.... if I can master that I'll be good to go. Anyway, towards the end of the workout, my treadmill decided to stop working. I knew this day was coming since it's over 5 years old.... I jumped off the treadmill and ran to our building gym and finished the workout. Ethan suggested we fix it, but I don't think it's worth the money. I paid $899 for it five years ago, and it's pretty old as far as treadmills go. I will miss being able to watch my DVR'ed shows while using the treadmill, but I am just going to have to use our building's gym and the YMCA for now. I did tell Ethan that if we have kids, I'm getting a new treadmill... I am not putting our children in YMCA childcare so that they can get the latest cold, and I can't count on being able to get to the buildings' gym as a stay at home mom. He agreed to that of course. Anyway....

Emily and I started on our cupcakes for the teacher's luncheon dessert! It was our first time working with fondant and we had SO much fun... pictures will be up sometime this weekend. We're finishing the cupcakes up tomorrow night, but we spent 4 hours total today - and that was making the actual cupcakes, making and dyeing the buttercream icing, dyeing the fondant, rolling out and forming the fondant decorations, and cleaning it all up....it went by so fast with Emily. I'm lucky to have her as one of my friends. We're both into cupcakes and photography... my talent is with the cupcakes, and hers is with photography. So, we're teaching each other. We're thinking about calling our little experiment NannyCakes. Haha... as a joke, of course - there is no way we would ever want to do this as a business. Takes the fun out of it! After this round of cupcakes, we're going to do some of the cupcakes from "Hello, Cupcake"... check the book out if you haven't already seen it. It's so cool and so creative! It's a good thing that most people are willing and grateful recipients of cupcakes since there is no way that we'll be eating them.

I can't wait for the weekend.... I am so looking forward to sleeping in!

C25K round three...

So, I decided I needed to ramp up my exercise now that the gyms have emptied from all the people who gave up on their New Year's Resolutions to lose weight. I usually kickstart my exercise routine around this time of year anyway since it gives me plenty of time to be happy with myself by May when the pools open. Running has been something that I've done on and off, and I honestly don't think I can really claim that I "run" because it's more of a forced jog. So I have decided to attempt to change that and am starting Couch to 5 K (henceforth known as C25k) again but I have set a goal to run at least 6 mph with the ultimate goal of 8 mph for the entire 25 minutes. It doesn't scare me like it used to because I've completed it twice and am fully capable of running for 25 minutes. But it's obvious to me that I don't push myself to reach past my limits, and that needs to change. No more of this putting forth the minimal required effort...that's my goal. Push myself!

I went through my closet and drawers today and filled up a big trash bag of Goodwill donations. I still have a LOT of clothes left, but it's so nice to have everything neatly organized again... I was putting away laundry and thought to myself, "Hm, it's looking kind of messy in here." An hour later, voila! I can't wait to welcome my new clothes (previous post) to their new home...haha.

This week, I started reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp....I recommend picking it up and reading it yourself. I won't really get into it in this post because I want to finish it before I post about it, but one of the things I have read that struck me was the following:

"Wherever you are, be all there."

Slow down. Be there in the moment. Stop hurrying. Savor life for what it is instead of constantly straining to see ahead.

Adventures in shopping...

My Steelers lost the Superbowl. Too little, too late. It was fun to see the Packers win though, since we have won six times already...there's always next year!

I worked today, and it was a pretty uneventful three hours. Then I came home and Ethan and I took a 2 hour naps. Probably not the smartest idea, since I am now having difficulty falling asleep.... tomorrow I'll probably be so tired I'll end up drinking coffee. Early bedtime tomorrow night. DEFINITELY.

I haven't done any clothes shopping in a while. I didn't go to the mall, I just perused online and there were some serious sales at J. Crew Factory and Anthropologie. So, I essentially purchased 2 outfits. The biggest steal was the Joe's cargo pants from Anthropologie, since they were 75% off original price. I had wanted them but didn't want to spend that much money on them, so when I found them in the sale section online in MY size, I was thrilled! They'll transition well to spring, and can even be worn in the summer with flip flops and a black tank top. Perfect. The jeans from J. Crew are more of an experiment...I like to see if I can find jeans that fit well since I have a hard time finding them. If they don't fit, they'll be returned, no big deal!

From J. Crew Factory at 30% off sale prices (which is only open on the weekends, believe it or not!):

Everyday Cardigan

Flower tee

Jeans

From Anthropologie final sale:

Sparkle Military shirt in Ivory

Joe's Jeans Sateen Cargo Pant

So, tomorrow is the Superbowl! Go Steelers! I wish I could be in Charlotte with my family to watch it, but I'll just have to be there with them in spirit.

My week has been long and bordered on the side of difficult...I won't get into details, but sometimes in my profession there are inner struggles because as a parent, you would do things very differently than the actual parents. I constantly remind myself that these are not my children and that I just have to let it go, and someday I might get my chance to parent the way I think is best. I'm hoping that the next week goes better or is at least somewhat calmer....I'm sure it didn't help that I was fighting a cold all week and succumbed to it today. Why do I always have to get sick on the weekend? Why can't I get sick during the week? Haha. Oh well!

I'm going home to Charlotte the last weekend in February and am very much looking forward to it. In March I'm headed to New York City again for another long weekend with Phillip and Irene, and in April, I think we're headed to Disney World, Savannah, and then I'm going to Mexico for my weekend girls' trip. Lots of traveling going on the next couple of months....just the way I like it! Most importantly, it's giving me a break from work, which I need... I think if I make an effort to make sure to take one long weekend off every month, it will be better for me in the long run. :)

This coming week my goal is to get back in the gym consistently....I slacked off when the beginning of the month hit, and I think that's why I got sick. So I will MAKE myself go to the gym for at least one hour five to six times a week for the rest of the month, starting tomorrow. I know I can do it... I just need to give myself another kick in the butt to get back into it!

Impromptu date nights = bliss

Can't believe it's Wednesday already....I am always amazed at how time flies. I'm so happy we're into February now and that spring is not that far off! I'm officially ready for flip flops and warm weather.

I got off of work at 3 PM today and came home utterly exhausted. I crashed into bed for a nap and when I woke up, it was almost 6 PM. Ethan had the day off of work today, and this morning he had taken my car in to get new tires, and he stopped and had it washed too. He's such a sweetheart like that... I kept meaning to get it washed and just kept forgetting to do it! Anyway, I asked him if he could take a break from studying and take some time together to go on a date night somewhere new. Thanks to Scoutmob here in Atlanta, there's a plethora of choices at 50% off. We decided on Fritti, and enjoyed the misto antipasti as an appetizer and Strachinella pizza. Delicious. It was so nice to sit there for a couple of hours talking. Of course, being in an Italian place made us think of our time in Europe, and we started discussing our next trip there, which will be in August for our 6th anniversary. So far we're planning on London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Prague. We'd like to try to fit in Vienna and maybe Paris, but we'll have to see if we're able to time-wise! We've been to the beach somewhere in the world for our last few vacations, so we're ready for the Europe thing again. It will be our third trip to Europe together and my fourth. Love it...there is honestly nothing like it! My favorite part of traveling with Ethan is being WITH Ethan. Seeing new things together and sharing new experiences that are just for us and our memories. Being able to focus on each other with nothing else competing for our attentions. If we ever have children, we'll be taking a week every other year to go away just by ourselves. The years we don't go away for a week, we will go away for a long weekend every three months. We're fortunate that my family is so wonderful and understands the importance of parent-only time and is willing to support us by taking care of our children while we go off on our adventures.

Well....I'm off to do some research on our next European vacation!