the silent escape

It's no secret that Scarlett is an escape artist.  She first climbed the baby gate when she was about 9 months old.  Unfortunately we live in an old house and most of the doors won't close so we have to use baby gates in some places.  At night each of the kiddos has a gate at their bedroom door.  Scarlett can climb hers, but she usually doesn't unless it's after her nap.  Until this week, when she started climbing it in the mornings too, but it's no problem because she just walks downstairs & finds whoever is awake.  That's fine, as long as there is a grownup awake.  Buuuutttt, this weekend, David's out of town & I'm on my own.  I have a weird thing of not being able to go to sleep when he's not home so Friday night I had been asleep for about 2 hours when Scarlett was beside my bed grabbing me saying "mommy".  A glance at the clock told me it was 5:15 so I put her back in her bed.  Around 6:30 I heard her & Matthew giggling.  She was outside his gate.    Last night I tried to go to sleep earlier but couldn't...last time I noticed the time it was 3:53.  At 6:20 this morning I heard pitter patter on the stairs.  I got up & she heard me, so she came back up the stairs.  She had my contact lens solution & an empty cup in her hand, both things from our bathroom cabinet.  I made it a point to close the bathroom door last night when I put her down so at least I would hear her if she opened it, but no dice...she was super quiet or else I was really out of it.  She had also gotten into my makeup bag, and had eyeliner and lipstick all up & down her legs.  Nice.    Obviously I've got some childproofing to do.

getting old sucks

Normally I don't complain about aging as I figure it's better than the alternative, but sometimes a girl's just gotta whine.  As I've been running more & more, my right hip has been hurting more & more.  I mentioned it to my boot camp teacher & she diagnosed me with ITBS.  She gave me some stretches to do to help, then I read up on it, and decided to add some biking in as cross training to help.  (of course then I read the wiki link that says it's associated with cycling too)   Last weekend David & I took the kids on a bike ride.  He hauled the trailer most of the time and the ride was very easy for me.  Once I got the trailer I could tell a big difference, as that extra 85 lbs is a lot for me.  He ended up blowing a tire (and while we had an extra tube, we did NOT have an extra tire) so I left him & the kiddos at a playground & biked home to get the car.  All told I rode almost 30 miles and felt great.  I resumed running during the week, then I decided Monday to go for a ride since I had been pretty lazy all weekend.  My hip has been sore but biking last weekend hadn't bothered me.  The kids & I spent almost all day Monday out & about.  I stopped several times along our ride to let them play and we had a picnic lunch.  All told I rode about 35 miles, this time by myself with them, so that extra weight was all mine to carry.  No problem, I still felt great.   Tuesday night, I went to step, just like always and was fine.  I've been running some either before or after class so did a short run.  Then I made the mistake of falling asleep on the couch.  I woke up yesterday morning in so much pain I couldn't describe it.  My hip & back were terrible.  Carrying a child on my hip...IMPOSSIBLE!  The pain is slightly better today but I can't get comfy, sitting or laying down, only standing up.    Now I have to figure out if it's something about my running form that is just bad so I can correct it & keep up the activity.  And if it's not that then what could it be?

my droolicious weekend

My weekend was awesome! My friend from Pittsburgh got here Friday afternoon so we hung out. Then our other friends & sitter got here, and David got home from work. Once the sitter was settled in with the kids, we left. We went to Lafayette Coney Island to eat. It's kind of a Detroit landmark and I hadn't eaten there, so it was cool. Food was tasty. We left there & went to the stadium. The first band, I don't know anything about them & we could barely hear so we just chatted. Then Skynyrd came on. I wouldn't mind seeing them as the headliner. LOVE that guitar! They put on a good fun show. Then Kid Rock had some trouble getting set up, but finally came on a little before 10. He was AMAZING. He put on a super great show. His energy was just high high high (um energy wasn't the only thing high!) and he was very entertaining. The crowd was amazing - I don't think I've ever seen so many people at a concert, and to think he sold out 2 nights in a row. As crappy as the economy is people were still out having a good time, maybe taking a night off from worrying about that shit. Him being from here I think made it even better. He performed over 2 hours & was just great. When we left one of my friends said "no wonder he's so skinny". LOL

Saturday my girlfriend & I hung out. David had the kids all day - he took them to an air show while we went shopping. He also took them to the grocery store & did all our shopping, which I hate doing with them! He's a great hubby to give me pretty much the whole weekend off. Saturday night we went out for drinks, gossip, and pizza.

Sunday my girlfriend went home :( & I napped. Then went to the concert Sun night. Backstage was great. David teased me a lot because earlier he had said he wondered if Trace would be sitting down at a table doing autographs or if he'd be standing up and I said "well I hope he's standing up so I can feel how big he is". I *meant* because he's so tall, but it sounded bad. So anyway, get back there & I'm all giddy like a freaking 13year old. Fortunately all the other ladies back there were just as bad. And yeah, he was standing up so I got to feel him. His voice when he talks just makes me quiver, and omg he smelled so good. MMMmmmmmmm. Unfortunately he wasn't doing any autographs, just pictures, but hey, I got to hug him, talk to him for a couple of minutes, and snap some pics. Then the concert....OMG he is just fun and I could watch him all day every day. And Toby...mmmmmmm again. I don't know what it is about him, he's not good looking but man oh man he does something to me. I could watch him all day every day too. At the end of the show they sing together & I'm just thinking "oh yeah, that's my dream right there...put me in between them...mmmmmm" LOL - Fortunately David doesn't mind me drooling over them - he's the one that bought me the tickets. Of course if he knew all my thoughts he might not buy them again. I had a naughty dream about Toby Sunday night. ;)

lookin' forward to the weekend

Got tickets to see Kid Rock tonight with Lynyrd Skynyrd (gotta love southern rock).  A friend is coming in from out of town for the show so we'll have to find something fun to do tomorrow too.    Then Sunday I have tickets to see Trace Adkins & Toby Keith (yeah, again).  David bought me tickets for my birthday but didn't wan to tell me he had them when we had the chance to go to the other show.  This one should be even better though - I have a backstage pass & we've got much better seats.        and re-reading this I don't think I've ever sounded more redneck

I'm back

I've actually been back from my trip for a week now, but it's been hectic & I've had stuff to do around the house so I've avoided blogs, including my own. I'll post a quick summary of our trip:

• June 19 - drove to TN to visit with David's family. Found out Saturday morning his grandfather was in really bad shape in the nursing home, had been in & out of the hospital for the last couple of weeks. Pissed with FIL for not letting us know it was this bad. We visited him too, a couple of times, and it was hard. As hard as it was for me, I know it must have been horrible for David.
  
• June 21 - Happy Anniversary to us. 12 years. Instead of celebrating, David drove me to meet my parents. We swapped cars & I went to GA with them, he came home.
  
• Midweek - we went to the beach. Matthew caught a fish in the tidal pool. He didn't care that it was dead. Gag. My kiddos love the beach though - the sand, the water, all of it.
  
• Sunday June 28 - celebrate Scarlett's birthday. My sister baked the cake because she wants to make my nephew's and she's never made a cake before. We had a Pinkalicious theme so we put a little food coloring in the cake then we decorated it like a giant cupcake with different shades of pink icing. It was definitely Pinkalicious. David & I went to Jacksonville, FL - my BIL won concert tickets to see Trace Adkins & Toby Keith but he isn't a big fan of theirs so we went instead. It was a nice "date" for us. We spent the night with my sis & BIL and then went to the beach Monday, just the 2 of us. That was nice. My mom kept my niece too & the kids had a ball playing together all day Monday.
  
• Tuesday morning - got a call that David's grandfather passed away. Start figuring out our new plans.
  
• Thursday - back to TN. David's grandfather was an amazing man who lived 93 years and the last couple of years had just been so hard on him. I think his life was celebrated more than mourned.
  
• Saturday - go to Chicago. BIL lives there & had no trouble getting a flight down to TN but wasn't having much luck finding one back. We figured it would be nice to spend the night in IL before we came home....whatever. We did see nice fireworks displays from the roof of his building though.
  
• Sunday, July 5 - drive home. I think I spent over 60 hours in the car and David spent over 75. Whew.
  
• Monday, July 6 - try to return to normal life. Unpack, laundry, all that fun stuff. Whatever!

Now that that boring update is out of the way, tomorrow I'll try to resume some more interesting posting.