Arizona Snapshots

A few more photos from Arizona I wanted to archive, these coming from my phone.

First day: Running with Sister



Playing in the pool with Dad



My day out - Massage, mani and a coffee in the sunshine



"Pool, mama?" (His concern! I love his furrowed brow.)



His new smile: scrunched nose, gummy mouth.



Brother and Bo



How Do You Roll? Sushi - as seen on Shark Tank. (We watched that episode the same day we left and decided we had to try it. It was good!)



Someone is having a sad. (But I am enjoying a rare snuggle.)



Phoenix.

Happenings

Last weekend my friend Heather came to visit me. We've been friends for almost six years, when she was my bright-eyed and helpful intern at Wake. We've forged a bestie-ship ever since and have driven back and forth across many miles for visits and catch up sessions. Recently, she moved to Nashville from Connecticut putting her back in road trip distance. She came over to meet the kiddo and we had a fun weekend of catching up on each other's lives, creating secret Pinterest boards, eating Camino pastries and turning our teeth purple with a few bottles of wine.





On Monday, I met my friend Megan - who I originally met over Twitter and who is from my husband's hometown - at Mellow Mushroom for lunch. She was in town to do some shopping and we had a chance to catch up and let our little boys get to know each other. Bo was quite taken with Henry, but I'm not sure the admiration was mutual.



On Thursday, I went and got my hairs did. If I somehow find myself in a situation with an excessive amount of discretionary income, I will go get my hair done on a near-weekly basis. (At least just shampoo and blow-dried.) It is probably one of my favorite experiences in life. Over the last year, I have been going darker and darker and have now officially crossed over into the world of brunettes.



My experience at the hair salon included a brush with fame. While she was putting color on my hair, my stylist happened to mention that a regular client of hers who is a NASCAR driver, was going to be coming in with a film crew to be taped having his hair cut as part of a "Day in the Life" documentary.

Well then.

(I honestly didn't know who this guy was except that he had happened to be on Duck Dynansty this morning. So there's that.)



I kept getting nervous he'd talk to me and I'd be that awkward person who said something really stupid on camera but luckily, the only time he talked to me the film crew had stepped away. I was still that totally awkward person who said something really stupid though.

This week, the kiddo has not been in a great mood. I'm wondering if there are pearly whites waiting to bust through his little gums. I guess that would make me rather pissy too. It's tough to see him in a bad mood, because he's usually such a pleasant little guy. This picture pains me - the little furrowed brow! Woe is me!



Being a baby seems like it's really hard sometimes.

On Friday, we had friends over for dinner. Matt made baby back ribs and I made Barefoot Contessa cosmopolitans. And some other food stuff, but the cosmos were really my pride and joy.



Yesterday, I went to Teri's house to trade life skills. I helped her organize her email inboxes and come up with some systems to manage incoming mail and she taught me how to blow-dry my hair holding a round brush. Pretty sure we both left each other's company feeling ready to take on the world anew. Clean inboxes and a good blow out are some pretty huge life skills.

Also, her dog usually shuns me because I almost always my own dog or tiny baby in tow. This time, we were best buds. Although this picture indicates otherwise.



Last night, we had dinner with my sister-in-law, her boyfriend and his kids at East Coast Wings. It occurred to me since Bo is sitting up on his own on the floor, that he could now up in a high chair. I plopped him in one and immediately felt tears come to my eyes to see how grown up he looked.

The same thing happened today when I realized he could hold his bottle on his own. I am pretty sure this is how people end up with a half a dozen kids when you mourn every stage of babyhood passing.



And the next thing I know, it's Sunday night again! These weeks really do go by so fast, and having our month carved out into every other week on/off work schedules makes the month fly by. I'm sure the ER work schedule would drive some people crazy - and granted, it's not the greatest at the holidays - but I really love our non-traditional schedule. It's so great to have him home on random weekdays and we try to make the most of his time off from work.

High Five for Friday

I am really happy that today is today. I just woke up this morning feeling really happy.  It could have something to do with this:

Yes, that is almost 10 hours of sleep (and a little spike to let Buddy out in the wee hours of the morning.)

That will definitely put one in a great mood.  You know what else will?

Having a coffee date with a wonderful friend to catch up on life. Lauren and I were spoiled when we worked at Wake together and ran together 3 days a week to always be caught up on each other’s lives! We joked that if we hadn’t had other places to be today, we would have ordered coffee…then brunch…then lunch…and probably an afternoon snack, just losing track of time catching up. (Those are the very best kinds of dates though, aren’t they?)

Pool dates. Anne & I had plans to meet at the pool this morning, which was quite wonderful considering it was 104 by the time we walked out of there. Oye!! What made it even better? Anne showing up with donuts (that she had driven to Greensboro to buy!) and the hubbys being able to join us for a quick dip/lunch before their FINAL residency shift.

FINAL RESIDENCY SHIFT! Yes, it’s finally here! I can’t believe it. I feel like we have been counting down to residency ending since… well, since it started. Residency has not actually been all that bad… at least not from my perspective. Especially an emergency medicine residency.  But nonetheless, in the journey of becoming a physician, you always feel like there is another step on the path ahead of you before real life starts. There’s getting into med school… then matching…then residency… it’s a little mind-boggling to think that Matt starts his real life, this is it job on Monday.  And there’s no more “next step” unless one day we decided we want a change. (And yes, Monday. So today is a bit anticlimactic…. last day of residency, a weekend off and then oh hey, real world job. What up.) But it’s here, residency is over as of 11 pm tonight and I am so, so, so very proud of him for all he’s done these last 7 years!

Wino Jessie K becoming a NC resident today. As we speak, one of my best friends in the whole world is making the drive from Charlottesville to Charlotte where she and her husband are moving. And say a little prayer for her, because her a/c broke YESTERDAY and the poor girl is probably melting somewhere along I-85 right now. Having her in Cville since we graduated has been wonderful – she has always been within driving distance of me as I lived in Baltimore, DC and NC – and Charlottesville has become one of my very favorite places to visit. BUT having her be 100 miles closer door-to-door is very exciting.

And last but not least, it is my momma’s birthday today! I wish I was hanging out with her celebrating, especially since she is spending the evening at a Tim McGraw concert! I have the greatest mom in the world and I hope her birthday is every bit as wonderful as she is. And since she has just officially started her first week as a RETIRED teacher, I know she has a summer of fun planned ahead and I’m very excited for her. (And yes, obviously that includes a few visits down to North Carolina to see her grandson in a few weeks!)

Five great reasons why today is a good day. Six, if you count feeling a little more well-rested.  Which I guess I should do, since I have definitely entered the phase of interrupted sleep thanks to a squirming little baby who thinks night time is the perfect time to practice tae bo. I have been looking forward to it being Friday since it was Monday. I know, I know – not exactly conducive to the whole being present and “enjoying the next 8 weeks” post I just wrote. Obviously I meant, wishing Monday-Thursday would rush right by and slowly savoring Friday-Sunday. (Isn’t that what most people do anyways?)

Right now, lack of sleep plus long days at work coupled with seriously uncomfortable desk chair makes for one cranky employee. I know I have not been very cheerful at work and the best I do is just try to focus on getting my calls done, or listening to music or a recorded book when I’m charting to make the day go faster. I’m sure I’m not particularly pleasant to be around right now at work, so at best I hope I’m not particularly difficult to be around.

Regardless, the weekends are absolute respite. Just being able to change positions throughout the day – to go from sititng,t o standing, to laying down whenever I need to - makes me a much more genial person as a whole! And you know what else will? Spending the rest of the weekend in my nice, cool air-conditioned bubble. Other than my pool date, there’s not much that’s going to drag me out into the 100 degree days this weekend. So it looks like the rest of my weekend is going to be full of alternating between getting some baby-related projects out of the way and relaxing with my newly-minted attending physician husband. Not bad at all.  High five, Friday.

30

I could not have had a better 30th birthday if I had planned it – and that was probably the best part of my day that we didn’t plan a thing.  Other than the fact that I had decided to take the day off from work when I saw that Matt wasn’t scheduled to work, I had no idea how we were going to spend my birthday.  We had bounced a few ideas off each other of some errands that we should get done since we were both off on a weekday (an exceedingly rare occurrence), but that was it.

We had a late brunch at Camino Bakery before heading out to run some errands.  Some were boring but necessary – like the bank and post office – and others were more enticing and fun like a trip to the Deacon shop (Buddy scored himself a new Wake Forest collar), a visit to Sephora to redeem my birthday perks postcard (free Sugar lipstick duo!), Plow & Hearth to pick out a wicker rocking chair my Mom had gifted me for our porch and a trip to Belk’s which finally ended my 6th month quest to find brown {not nude!} high heeled pumps.  (That could be a whole blog post in and of itself, but I will spare you.)  We wrapped up our day of errands by picking up Chick-Fil-A on the way home for a yummy lunch of waffles fries and chick nuggets and then I lazily spent the afternoon catching up on blogs on the porch while Matt did yard work.  (I might have done a load of laundry or two just to appease some of my guilt of watching him work while I lazed, but really… I took full advantage of it being a day off.)  We capped off the night with dinner on the patio at Forsyth and after a failed attempt to get pink lemonade cupcakes from Dewey’s, picked up some decaf frappuccinos from Starbucks on the way home for dessert.

It was an absolutely perfect day for me – a balance of feeling like I got some things done that had been hanging over my head but also indulgent and relaxing.  I felt so loved by all the phone calls, text messages and Facebook posts – holy cow, is there anything more ego inducing than Facebook on your birthday?  It was a peaceful & contented day, which is exactly how I feel about turning 30. 

My 20s were wonderful.  They were at times, especially the beginning of the decade, tumultuous and chaotic and full of a lot of life lessons but they were also happy, fulfilling and fun.  Each year has been better than the one before it and despite the fact that each year brings more cellulite and a decreasing ability to recover from a hangover, I have no qualms about aging and heading into the next chapter of my life.  Bring it on, 30’s.  Happy Birthday to me!

Mother’s Day

Not only did I get spoiled rotten at my baby shower this weekend, but I also had the pleasure of some extra hanging out time with two of my favorite women – my mom & my sis.  After the shower, we came back to my house to relax…

And to organize…. (Insert small panic attack because I don’t have a place to put all these goodies yet!)

And then we went to dinner at Mozelle’s Bistro.  It is one of my favorite places to eat in Winston & my sister had never been yet.  I didn’t make a reservation but we were fortunate enough to grab the last open table on the small front patio.  My mom had the tomato pie, which is usually my go to… she loved it but not the cheese grits that came with it.  Who doesn’t love cheese grits?  For shame!  Katie had the scallops plate which she loved and I did a 3-veggie plate with asparagus, collards and mac & cheese.  Their collards will make a grown man cry, y’all.  They are so, so good.

On Sunday morning (Mother’s Day!), we had a leisurely breakfast at Camino Bakery.

Scones and coffee, anyone?

And then Mom & Kates had to head back down to Charlotte to go the airport.  I just spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up and then went to my favorite Sunday night combo class of body pump/dance trance.   I was walking in the door of the gym when a teenage boy, holding the door open for me, looked at me and said “Happy Mother’s Day!”  I was so surprised for a second and then realized…

Oh yea, I am going to be a Mom!  Or I am a Mom.  Or something mind-boggling like that!

And not just to this guy, which of course I already counted….

(And yes he is wearing baby socks.  He has a bad habit of pacing around 5 am but he doesn’t really need to go out… but of course, since I am already practicing for motherhood I wake up at the first sound of him getting up and lay there in bed wondering if I should let him “walk it out” and put himself back to bed, or get up.)

Anyways!  Motherhood!  While it’s occurred to me that I am going to have a baby, it’s not really occurred to me that I am going to be someone’s mom.  Wow.  What a huge, life-altering change lies before me.  Katie and I always agree that we are blessed with the greatest mom ever.  I don’t know how we got so lucky, and how she makes it seem to easy to be a mom.  As kids, she had a perfect balance of being a loving, supporting presence but also inciting enough fear in us to make us stay in time out when told or clean our rooms when told.   As grown-ups, she gives us the perfect balance of friendship and support but also authority and expertise when we need to feel certain we’re cooking the pork tenderloin to perfection or handling the job interview the right way.  How do you hone that type of balance?  Is it just genetics or is my mom going to slip an owner’s manual to kiddo raising when I come home from the hospital to tell me how she did it all?

I sure hope it’s the latter, and if so – can I have that manual early so I can start studying now, Mom?

Happy Mother’s Day, to the best Mom ever.  If I can be half the mom you are to this little kiddo, I think I’ll be alright.  (But please know your number is on speed dial and I intend to use it often.)  We love you!

Pitiful

Buddy went in for a "routine" dental scaling yesterday and ended up having to have 6 (!!!) teeth extracted. Someone is feeling extra pitiful now...

I think he feels better today, but he is sure taking advantage of the opportunity for extra snuggles. Not that I'm complaining either...

Seeing a dog in pain is the worst because you can't explain to them it'll be over soon and they can't tell you how they are feeling. Thank goodness for doggy pain pills smothered in peanut butter...they seem to be doing the trick.

Monday Prompts & Weekend Update

Prompts from my page-a-day calendar this morning. My first appointment didn't answer today so I did some quick scribbling to answer these questions.

List 5 things you do for fun. In the last six months, how much time have you spent doing these activities?
1. Wine tastings/visiting vineyards: Clearly, not much. But I think we know why and I think I'll return to this hobby in a few months.
2. Reading fiction: I've read a handful of fiction books lately but I've also been reading some baby books and some other nonfiction (Steve Jobs bio). I read a lot before bed and I listen to a lot of audiobooks on my commute - I probably read/listen to about 2-3 books a month. So… I’d say, plenty. :)
3. Doing crafts: Thanks to Anne's Pinterest party, I got a good fix recently. Can we do this again soon please? My "crafty" board is calling my name.
4. Dancing: A year or so ago, I wouldn't have been able to say I did this very much anymore. Thanks to dance trance, I get my dancing fix at least once a week and sometimes 2-3x/wk.
5. Traveling to new places: San Fran, check. Nashville, check. Palm Springs, check. Upcoming: Nashville again and Emerald Isle. Matt and I are pretty good about making travel a priority - I'm lucky I married someone who loves it as much as me.

I think I'm actually pretty good at including "fun" in my life these days. When I went to coach training back in 2007, they had us do this exercise called "the Wheel of Life." You rated your satisfaction with different aspects of your life (family, health, career, money, etc) on a scale of 1-10 and looked at how balanced your "wheel" was. “Fun” was my lowest then - I gave it a 5, while everything else was a 7-9. I don't think I've really consciously cultivated more fun in my life, but I guess I have made it a point to do things that aren't just simply productive or work related. Yay me! If I was doing the wheel of life exercise today, I'd probably give myself an 8 in that category.

Incidentally, it's something I ask a lot of people about when I'm doing stress management coaching and I have concluded that very few people do things for fun anymore. And I'm not just talking about people who have kids or work longer hours and have less free time than I do. I think a lot of people don't know (or remember) what they like to do for fun, and don't make an effort to include it.) An easy way to figure out what you like to do for fun is to think about what you did as a kid in your free time. With the exception of wine tasting, I loved doing all those things as a little kid and still do.

Okay, off my fun soapbox/coaching moment and off to the next prompt....

Is there a quote, book or scene from a movie that makes you happy?
The first thing that came to mind for me with this prompt was that the other night I saw someone on Twitter mention going to the musical Newsies and it made me go look up some of my favorite scenes from what was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I watched the clip of "Carrying the Banner" about 3 times in a row on Youtube - I had forgotten how happy that scene had made me to watch. So I guess that's what this prompt is going after. The other movie scene that I remember loving - from a movie I probably watched a dozen times in high school - is the "Sugar High" scene from Empire Records.

What 3 subjects fascinate you?
For this one I tried to think about what blogs I am drawn to or books I peruse in book stores - and I purposefully left weight management/nutrition off since that's my job and it kinda felt like an obvious. I came up with:
- home renovations (older homes being redone, like the blog Young House Love)
- money management, savings, financial psychology (I love the blog Get Rich Slowly and the Dave Ramsey books)
- positive thinking/psychology/self-development

These were interesting prompts. I'm not totally sure what the theme was, but I think it was in general to get you thinking about things that interest you, pique your curiosity or make you happy. That's what I got out of it and it was nice to do this exercise following a weekend that was very "productive" - garage sale prep, cooking, laundry, swapping out my closet (summer clothes AND taking out the heaps of clothes that no longer fit me now), etc.

It was definitely a much needed productive weekend, sandwiched in between last week's beach trip and a bunch of upcoming travel though. And it wasn't all work, no play.

I did go to dance on Sat morning and then got caught up on some blogging and photo editing in the afternoon. We had dinner with the Forsey's Saturday night - a comfortable sit on the deck kind of night - and I got to get my snuggle on with this sweet girl.

She is the cutest. Sigh.

Sunday after my cooking marathon and closet swap out, I decided to skip my usual body pump/dance trance and do a long walk outside with Buddy to take advantage of the warm spring weather. Then I eeked out the last bit of Sunday night light on the porch with my feet propped up, a coconut popsicle and a magazine.

It was a good balanced weekend, although I still felt a little sad that the alarm went off and Monday showed up yet again. In fact, I kinda wished I could join this guy and spend the rest of the morning right here:

Somehow I turned this into a two-for-one blog post...prompts from my calendar digressed into a weekend update. Oh well, I'm running with it.

Real Life Pinterest: Junior League Tour of Fine Spaces

I have this sort of fascination with going to open houses, despite the fact that I’m not actually buying a new house anytime soon.  It’s partially because I’m very nosy but also because I have always, always loved architecture.  (Little known fact: my 2nd career choice when I was in high school was architecture but as it turns out, I lack the, how do I put it, precision and carefulness it requires.)  So when I saw that the Junior League had a Fine Home Tours which was basically 10 back to back open houses - most in my favorite neighborhood in Winston – I decided I had to go.  Coupled with the fact that each house was going to have a local chef offering samples of their food?  Yup, I had to go.

I talked my other housie and foodie friends, Kate, Charlie and Anne, into going and we set off on our culinary and home design adventure.  I didn't really know what to expect but it was amazing.  It was really like being in a real life Pinterest page.  Each home was more beautiful than the next.  The homes are chosen because they have had work done by local contractors - kitchens, bathrooms, landscapes, renovations, etc and they were all truly incredible.  Most of the homes we were in had been built in the 1930s-50s and they each have such a unique sense of charm and style, but it was very cool to see how the renovations - some quite modern - worked within the homes.

And the food was quite great too!  Chilled avocado soup with chicken salad sliders?  Mini cheesecake bites?  Cake balls?  It really was like walking through real life Pinterest - I just needed a craft station at each house to have rounded out the experience.

If you live here locally and like design, I'd highly recommend doing it next year - it is an annual event.  I am definitely signing it up for it next year - and I'm coming hungry.

These were a few of my favorite features from some of the homes that we went to.  They aren’t great pictures because they are all from my phone – lots of people were snapping phone pics but I would have felt over the top voyeuristic busting out my SLR.

My kingdom for a farmhouse sink and subway tiled kitchen!