I must apologize for the month-long blog absence. The last few weeks have just been bonkers for me. I feel like I have had maybe 2 hours total to myself, which is probably equal to the cumulative number of minutes i've spent in the shower during the past month. So, here's what's been going on in my world.
My friend Alicia came to visit for a week and the day after she arrived, we "ran" the 5K together. Remember all the fuss I made about running the 5K, and training really hard and being a bad-ass? Yeah, well, that plan kind of didn't work out. This winter was a bitch and I couldn't really get outside to run like I wanted to, and I don't have a treadmill, and, oh yeah, I have a BABY and all of those factors put together did not equal a regimented training schedule. I exercised when I could, but I honestly did not feel prepared when the time came, and I kind of freaked out about it. And it also turned out that my husband couldn't watch the baby during the time we were scheduled to run, so we took her with us to the run and I didn't have a jogging stroller so anything over a slow jog was too much for it to handle. So we ran a little bit, but ultimately ended up walking at a brisk pace the whole time. It was a gorgeous day and Lena enjoyed it immensely and it was by the beach and I was with one of my closest friends, so I can't complain. I admit, I felt kind of like a giant failure for not following through on the training plans i'd made, but we ended up finishing the race in under 45 minutes, so it was still an accomplishment and i'm going to say i'm proud of us and leave it at that.
After the race, looking our VERY best.
During that week that Alicia was here, we spent a good deal of time planning Lena's 1st birthday party. If you head on over to Food Lush you can read all about our cake adventures, which turned out to be a rousing success. And honestly? If Alicia hadn't been here i'm almost certain there would have been a sobbing, hysterical, last minute grocery store run to buy an already made-cake. Alicia brought a ton of adorable decorations and seriously helped make the party a wonderful success. The birthday girl had a blast, and loved the attention. She also got a giant stuffed lion the size of a golden retriever from her mom and dad. We couldn't resist. She hugs it and loves on it something fierce, and every time she sees it she says, "ROAR!"
About a DAY before the party, our 15-by-15 foot stone patio in our backyard was completed, and it is definitely an improvement over the giant mud pit that used to be there.
We also treated ourselves to a full landscaping makeover, which made our property look SO nice and now we're not "those" people on the street anymore. You know, the one house that brings down everyone else's property value simply by having unmowed grass and unwieldly shrubs. Oh and right about now is when the dogwood trees in our front yard start blooming and the azaleas begin busting out and I wish it was May all year long.
Hmm, what else happened? A friend of mine from high school and his wife had their first child, a boy! And some other friends of mine in Virginia had their first child, a girl! And some other friends of mine are expecting their first child any day now, a yet-to-be-discovered gender! Babies everywhere, man. And I just found out last night that one of my very close friends is buying a house only 20 minutes from where we live, which means lots of good times ahead with him and his wife and adorable little boy. So i'm super psyched about that.
Oh yeah, and did I mention my daughter turned A YEAR OLD??? What the....? How the hell....? Argh.
