Week 17, Days of Our Lives

Week 17 was another fun and busy week, and as I thought about it, I realized that "fun and busy" have pretty much become the standard for our lives.  Don't get me wrong, we have bad days like anyone else, but in general I'm happy to say that the days of our lives right now are typically fun and busy.  Another word I might use to describe them are random.  Some days are almost completely family-centric, other days we strive to maintain our separate identities and interests, and then other days are mainly fun relationship-building times for me and Davey while the kids are off having fun with Grandparents.  This week was one of those weeks where we were fortunate enough to have a little bit of everything--fun and busy :)

On Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed two wonderful days as a family.  We went to the grocery store, ate pizza, and had some good quality time together.  I just started carrying the boys back to the gym with me in the mornings (since Tommy has been ear infection free for 2 months--woohoo!!), and they are absolutely loving it!  I have to say, the boys were super good to start to the week--it is a true pleasure to just be around them when they're both in happy moods!  Here are a few pictures of what typical family time looks like for us!

Hangin' out in their Kroger whip :)

You've got a little something on your entire face!

Pizza anyone?!

We still play with our bath toys Uncle Nate and Aunt Sarah!

Yes, I will be using these at your wedding to embarrass you!

Getting ready for our nightly 15-minute movie showing before bed. 
Ethan has stolen Woody from Tommy, because in truth, Teddy is to Tommy what Woody is to Andy :)

On Wednesday, we were a bit more back to normal--let's just say the boys weren't exactly angels!  Tuesday was a wonderful day, and we let the boys stay up late in fact because we were all having such a good time together.  Too bad for us that Tommy had his first accident overnight that evening, waking us at the unGodly hour of 5am soaking wet!  Needless to say, he was EXHAUSTED all day, and when our notary showed up at 4pm for us to quickly sign our new mortgage (4% on our remaining less than 11 years for no closing costs--w00t w00t), he and Ethan proceeded to repeat the phrase "P.U. STINKY!!" over and over and over again, which was not at all embarrassing!  Sooooooooooo, I couldn't wait for 4:30pm to roll around so my Mom could come pick them up after work for Davey and I to go on a nice date!!  We decided to go to a new restaurant in Holly Springs called "The Little Hen".  It's actually a very nice restaurant despite kind of an odd location, and the food is pretty top notch, although maybe slightly overpriced for the quantity--Davey finished the meal by saying, "I'm gonna need to eat some pretzels when we get home!".  It's a nice special occasion dinner, but too pricey to be a regular spot.  I can't believe we forgot to take pictures of the actual food--it was gorgeous, Iron Chef-like presentations!  Davey, however, seemed more impressed with their decor ;)

Davey--"Did they just draw a pig with white chalk on a chalkboard and frame it?!"

Emily--"In a manner of speaking, and look here's a bovine too!"

After another amusing PB&J interaction on Tuesday where Tommy took apart his sandwich in order to have a conversation between the peanut butter and jelly, Thursday's lunchtime "show" was not nearly as adorable.  Tommy seemed to be in a button-pushing mood all morning, and boy did he have mine!  He kept on baiting Ethan into screaming by, of course, screaming at him, which Ethan thinks is hilarious.  So, they'd scream back and forth a few times, and then Tommy would say (in his best Mommy impersonation), "Ethan, stop it...that's enough!"  Tommy got the same reaction out of saying that as I do--none--so this wonderful cycle continued for a good 15-20 minutes.  I had a headache at the end of it, but since they seemed to be having fun together, I just let it go :)

Friday brought the end of the week, a good workout that I NEEDED to get some frustration out from the past 2 days, and my pleasant boys again thankfully!  That night, Davey dropped the boys off at my parent's house after my Dad got home from his baseball game so that I could meet a couple of friends, Laura and Megan, for dinner at Sushi O in downtown Raleigh.  We had a really fun time, and we definitely had PLENTY of sushi.  In fact, I had too much sushi--I think it might be a while before I have it again even though it's one of my favorite foods!  On that note, I was not surprisingly up half a pound this week.  I hope I can recover before this Wednesday, but the rest of the weekend didn't go much better in terms of staying the course with my diet!

ready for a girl's night out on the town!

After an utterly stuffing meal, it was back home to try to get ready for the EARLY morning we would have on Saturday.  As I mentioned, the boys were at Grandma and Granddad's because Davey and I had the pleasure of waking up again at 5am, but at least this time it was planned!!  We were able to spend the entire day together as we traveled to Boone, NC for my good friend, Winston Walters', wedding.  It was really nice to be able to talk in  peace, without kids music playing in the background, for 4 solid hours as we made our way up to the scenic mountains of NC.  We talked about our "ideal" vacations, what we thought the kids might be like when they got older, when we might actually get to go on one of those vacations, and our perfect "empty nest"--how we want our home to be our own personal retreat when the boys have grown up and left the house.  It's fun dreaming with your soul mate <3

Once we arrived at the wedding, it was clear that this wouldn't be your usual, run of the mill wedding.  The venue was a zip-lining resort, and the theme was what I would call "laid-back rustic".  The bride and bridesmaids literally wore flannel shirts for the wedding, with the bride, Addy, pairing a long white 'wedding skirt' to accompany hers, while the bridesmaids donned shorter, off-white skirts and cowgirl boots!  The ceremony itself was beautiful--short, sweet, and extremely God-centered.  Winston and Addy wrote their own vows, and their cute, young pastor summed it up when they finished with an apropos "Right On!".

Winnie walking Addy down the aisle :)

Exchanging rings and vows--beautifully done <3

The 2 handsome Walters boys!

After the ceremony, we headed right to the reception hall, where we had a wonderfully comforting lunch of BBQ, chicken, baked beans, cole slaw, dinner rolls, and of course sweet tea!  The meal was very finely finished with some delicious red velvet cupcakes--one of my favorites!  Everything was very nicely coordinated to fit within their theme--laid back, cute, and fun.  Everyone had at their table setting a piece of paper labeled "Wedding Libs"--a take-off of Mad Libs.  Well, as you can see from the picture below, Winston and Addy left themselves wide open for some interesting responses!  Our table, labeled by more than a few people as "the fun table" didn't disappoint!  With Karen and Bob Donalson, Dean and Dennis Duke, and me and Davey at the table, we all separately made quite sure that the bride and groom would NOT be reading these aloud during the reception!!  Following the meal, the vast majority of the guests and wedding party headed back outside to zip the afternoon away!  Davey and I being overly cautious and having evaluated the risk/reward of ziplining, decided against joining in on the fun!

My cute table setting

RED. VELVET. CUPCAKES

Winston and Addy's prints in blue--everyone else added theirs in shades of green--looked really cool!

Ohhhh boy!!  This was fun, but dangerous...our table will not be repeating what we wrote :)

Lovely job--simple, pretty, rustic

tons of little pictures of the bride and groom as kids and the canvases I made them for their shower!

We headed on back home, where we ate a delicious roast beef dinner with my parents and Nolan and Laura.  After dinner, the ladies hung out on the deck while the guys watched baseball and talked fantasy strategy.  The boys were wonderful, going back and forth in between the 2 groups and loving all of the attention from both!  On Sunday, we were happy to celebrate Mother's Day for Susie, as she and Bill will be on a wonderful Mediterranean cruise over the actual Mother's Day weekend.  We headed over with the boys a couple of hours before lunch so that Goggi could have some special time with those little guys!  We all treated Susie to a lovely lunch, everyone contributing a tasty dish to the meal.  Bill splurged and got us specially marinated steak tips from "The Meat Store", as well as a couple of bacon wrapped scallops for Susie and Becky that he grilled on his brand new gas grill!  I brought 2 different kinds of stuffed mini-peppers--one with Israeli couscous, and one with a combination of cheeses, and Becky brought a nice big green salad.  Sarah and Nathan made some amazing gluten-free muffins with 2 different kinds of compound butters (orange and honey), as well as picking up a family favorite--flourless chocolate torte from a bakery in Apex!  So, we had another big yummy meal to end the week (thankfully we were able to skip dinner after that big lunch)!  Here we all are relaxing on a beautiful Sunday afternoon :)

Tommy goes to sit with Aunt Becky, while Ethan honors his Goggi with his presence!

Aunt Becky and her favorite little man!

Relaxing as Buzz Lightyear and Woody save the day!

So, at the end of the week, and at the end of most of the days of our lives, we are busy people--but, we sure do try to have as much fun as we can!

Week 16, Everyday I'm Shufflin'

WOW!!  What a crazy, busy, fun week it was!  The week started off on the right note with Tommy FINALLY making a poo-poo in the potty!  As his reward, he was able to play with his new Buzz Lightyear toy for 5 minutes.  Now, he has only gotten to play with his special toy twice this week, but still--that is 2 more times that I thought would happen, so I'm pleased!  In the meantime, Ethan has picked up on the phrase "P.U. Stinky"--he's so darn cute when he says it "Eeeee Uuuuuuu Teen-key"!  Take a look at my cutie-pie reading his little book on the potty--sorry, I just couldn't resist--so cute!!

I tried to get a lot done with the boys on Monday and Tuesday because the rest of the week was pretty hectic!  So, we made some "butterflies" for the first time with the boys, and Tommy really understood and thought it was cool (he wanted to show Daddy everyday--"Look at my butterfly paint!").  After the butterflies, you'll see a few more art pieces that were done at OT this week--my big guy is becoming quite the artist!  The first and fourth pictures are some of little E's first independent pieces of art!

Tommy also had a few classic kid-lines this week that kept us laughing for a while.  The first one I already shared on facebook, but in case you didn't see it....we're eating lunch one day, and Tommy grabs his PB&J, takes the 2 sides apart, holds the jelly side up right in front of his mouth and says, "Helloooo Jelly...it's me....Tommy" in a very "we meet again" type of voice before he tears into the poor jelly bread!  I have no idea where he got that from, but it was hilarious!  Another one that had us both rolling was when we were in the car.  Tommy LOVES music, so if he starts whining or misbehaving in the car, we turn off the music.  He usually immediately starts saying, "Daddy/Mommy I want music on please!!" and forgets about his previous woes.  Well, we pulled the same tactic this time, but this time when we asked him what he needed to say to get the music back on, he replied, "DADDY, STOP WHINING PLEASE, MUSIC ON PLEASE!"

Okay, back to the actual week (btw, we realize that we find the 'cute' little stories about our boys way cuter than anyone else!).  So, back to Wednesday.  After therapy, I dropped the boys off at Goggi and Gramps' house where they had a nice playdate with Kathryn and Lilly.  Once I dropped them off, I headed over to 'The Stockroom' in Raleigh--the site of Sara Griffin's wedding reception.  We spent the afternoon setting up a simply gorgeous reception for their wedding on Friday.  That evening, I went to 'Solas' in Raleigh for the bachelorette party--it was AMAZING!  We had drinks and ate tapas while lounging back in couches on the rooftop.  It was a perfect setting--I felt like I was in NY city or something--such a neat place for a girl's night out!  We had an absolute blast--as you can probably tell from the pictures below :)

On Thursday, I decided I better try on the dress I had planned to wear to Sara's wedding the next day--it's the same dress I wore to the PT Christmas party in December of this past year.  Well......it was TOO BIG!  I was obviously happy about that, BUT time to panic because I didn't really have a solid backup plan.  I called my Mom's friend that we've known since I was in like 3rd grade and left her a desperate message that morning seeing if she could alter my dress, but as of 4:30pm, I hadn't heard back.  Thankfully, I was meeting an old high school friend, Mandy Becker, for dinner.  We had a wonderful time catching up, and it's so nice to reconnect with her again after all of this time.  While we were eating, Kelly called and told me to come on over to her place after dinner and she'd alter the dress for me that night while I waited--SCORE!!  So, here's a picture of me and Mandy leaving the restaurant before I went to grab my dress!

Friday was another jam-packed day.  Getting ready for a wedding on a workday with 2 little guys can be tough!  Finally 4pm rolled around, and we dropped off the boys with Grandma and headed to Raleigh!  The wedding was so sweet--Sara was the most bubbling, excited, and flat-out giddy bride I've ever seen in my life!  As she has impeccable taste, everything looked amazing--her dress, the bridesmaids dresses, the ceremony, and of course the reception!  Julie Luchene and I were charged with greeting all of the guests as they entered the reception, and we were fortunate enough to sit with our good friends Mike & Megan Danaher at the reception.  As you can see below, Davey and Mike always have a good laugh together!

It was so nice to have the evening to ourselves, and thankfully for us, that continued on Saturday!  The boys spent the night with Grandma and Granddad, so we were able to sleep in all the way until 7:45am LOL!  After I went to workout (fill you in on all of that later), we got ready and headed to the annual NC State Spring Football Game at Carter-Finley!  While the game itself wasn't all that thrilling, Mother Nature came through with some excitement of her own by DRENCHING us a few minutes short of halftime.  We decided to bail since we already had plans to eat the boys' favorite "Sketteees" and homemade bread at my parents house.  When we got there, Uncle NoNo and Aunt LoLo were already there, having beaten us back from UNC where my brother Nolan competed in the Tar Heel 10-miler (and, first real race in years!).  Nolan finished 9th out of 172 men in his age bracket, averaging less than 7 minute miles the entire race in HILLY Chapel Hill--so proud of him!  Nolan decided to let Tommy in on what it feels like to fly--you've got to watch this video of my tooterbear flapping his arms--BAHAHAHA!!

So, we finally went home late Saturday night with the boys, and woke up for church early on Sunday.  I unfortunately had a funeral to attend at 3pm on Sunday, but it ended up being a positive experience.  They did such a wonderful job of celebrating this dear woman's life--a woman who truly lived her life to the fullest, was kind, sweet, and positive always, and truly a pleasure to be around at all times.  I took a few things away from the funeral of Judy Hair:  1)  I sincerely hope that I can have as great of an impact on my friends, family, and community as this woman has had, 2)  priorities, priorities, priorities--it's too easy to get caught up in the rat race that is life in America.  Pay attention to the things that really matter--God, family, relationships, simplicity, and good old fashioned fun.  In the end, those are the things that matter most--not money, not fame or position, and not yourself, and 3)  I want my funeral to be a true celebration of Jesus and the free gift of grace and salvation He offers to each of us and of my life. 

After a family trip to the grocery store, which both boys actually loved, we finally were all home together to relax for the rest of the evening.  It was a truly wonderful week.  As for the weight-loss update, I realized that I didn't post an update for Week 15.  Well, not shockingly, I was up a pound after all of my gallivanting in Week 14.  What is shocking however, is that I was down 2 pounds this week, after my "soul food" weekend at Grandma's--maybe there's something to this real food movement--HA!  So, I'm back on my one pound a week pace--16 in 16--woohoo!  However, for the third straight week, I'm going to have to predict a gain this week, despite 5 hard workouts...too much shufflin'!!