Resolution revival

Well, it took about 5 months, but I'm finally back on track with the exercise component of my 2013 resolutions. I lost my motivation for a little while there, but now it's back! It all started with the Northwestern Run for Walk at the end of July -- a 4.1 mile run from the NU stadium to the lakefront in honor of Randy Walker, the head football coach back when I went to Northwestern. Susie and I were both out of shape, but we managed to run most of the way and post near-respectable times. Betsy and Archie left us in the dust, but that's to be expected. 

Anyway, since then, I've been back to running / exercising 3 times a week as promised and am feeling great. I've been running on Saturday and Sunday afternoons while Molly naps and lifting weights one day a week at the gym during lunch. I can do this. Tiger thinks so too. At the end of my run today, thanks to the Nike Fit app on my iPod, I got a little message from Tiger Woods telling me I posted my fastest mile yet. Ha! Fun little motivational perk. It wasn't super fast -- somewhere around 9 min 40 seconds, but it still felt good to get congratulated by a celebrity. I'm guessing the message was recorded pre-scandal (my iPod is a few years old) but whatever! I'll only get faster, right? 

Breaking up is hard to do

Molly's best pal, Izzy (or, as Molly likes to call her, Izzy-Belle), had her last day of school on Friday. She's switching to another preschool in town and we're going to stick where we are. Those two have been best buddies since last September, so it's a total bummer that they won't be in class together anymore. We see pictures of them holding hands in almost every update we get from school and Molly has stories to tell about Izzy almost every night. They're pretty adorable together.

The good news is, we've become friendly with Izzy's parents and have started meeting up at the park on weekends. We're also trying to get the girls in the same ballet class this fall. I hope they stay friends. I mean, look how cute they are together:

Singing "Happy birthday to Izzy"

So long, Izzy! Have fun at the new school!

Growing like weeds

I don't think I ever posted Molly's 3-year-old stats. I wasn't able to make the appointment -- Jason and Marsha took her a couple of weeks ago -- but I made sure to ask Marsha to text me the details. Molly is now officially 3 ft tall and tipping the scales at 28.5 lbs. Here's a blurry, but happy, pic of the little string bean:

Happy girl in her new Little Mermaid nightgown

My nephew James is also growing like a weed. I'm counting the days until we are neighbors and I'm able to see his cute face on a more regular basis. Here's James at almost 5 months old:

So handsome in his cargo pants!

I also have to wish my adorable nephew Will a very happy and slightly belated second birthday. Though I was tempted to post a funny pic of Will in the buff, I'll spare him future humiliation and just include this sweet photo of two cousins playing in the sand:

Can't wait to reunite these two in September!

I'm feeling pretty lucky right now to have these happy healthy kids in my life. I had a long week traveling for work (LA --> Houston --> Chicago), but all it took was a hug and a smile from my little girl and all felt right in the world.

My thumb? Still pretty green.

I thought I would write a quick follow-up to my June "My green thumb" post since things still seem to be going well. My hanging baskets and container arrangements are still thriving, most likely because of all the rain we've been getting. And I ended up getting plants from about 50% of the seeds I planted back in June. The marigolds, pumpkins, and nasturtium all seem nice and healthy. I even have blooms on the marigolds. Pretty! Hopefully they will help keep the animals and insects away from my veggie garden. 

Yes, you read that right. Thanks to Jason and Steve, I now have a veggie garden! I planted 3 or 4 kinds of peppers, tomatoes (regular and cherry), cantelope, parsley, and basil. I also have the pumpkin vines I started from seeds and 1 pathetic looking watermelon plant that I hope turns into something.

Hopefully, if I can keep the roots watered and the weeds and animals away, you will see another post later this summer with pictures of healthy looking peppers and tomatoes.

The farmer and her husband

Impatiens and Vincas

Congratulations to Susie and Sean

We had such a wonderful weekend in Lake Geneva, WI celebrating Susie and Sean's wedding! It was so much fun from start to finish. The rehearsal dinner on Friday night was a laid back fish fry with kegs of Spotted Cow beer -- totally Wisconsin. And the wedding on Saturday at Geneva National Golf Club was totally Susie and Sean. They added so many personal touches, from the hand-picked readings at the ceremony to the country music and photo booth at the reception. It was perfect. Here are a few highlights from the big day:

Susie was such a beautiful bride

Molly was an adorable flower girl -- she actually made it down the aisle, though she didn't end up scattering any flowers

I think the bridesmaids ended up looking pretty good, too

And of course Sean was a handsome groom. Can't beat the setting -- it was a gorgeous wedding!

Talk about gorgeous. My sisters :)

Even though we've been calling him "Uncle Sean" for years, it's nice to officially welcome Sean to the family. Now they're off to Jamaica for a well deserved beach vacation. Congratulations, Susie and Sean!

Princess party

Molly is officially 3! I couldn't let the day end without posting at least a few pictures of my 3-year-old girl:

And a happy birthday it was!

My gift to Molly - a tennis racquet! Now we can all try to be like Andy Murray :)

The pink gift explosion - crown, courtesy of Uncle Joe

Molly sees her mermaid cake

Happy girl

If you want to see how far she's come in 3 years, check this out!

Weekend update

Our internet appears to be down, so I will have to compose a quick post on my phone. I know it is long overdue.

We had another busy weekend, last weekend, but it was busy in a good way. Everything we did was fun and I still had time for a run and some gardening. Can't complain!

On Friday night, Jason and I celebrated our 6-year anniversary at Quince, a delightfully charming restaurant in downtown Evanston with Top Chef-quality food. If I write a post about my favorite restaurants in Evanston, which I'm thinking I should, I would have to add it to the list of special occasion (aka, expensive) restaurants. We had excellent food and good service. Perfect for a romantic night out.

On Saturday morning, we made a last minute decision to get Molly's hair cut and drove out to a place called Kidsnips that, you guessed it, specializes in hair cuts for kids. She got to watch Finding Nemo and sit in a hot rod while getting her locks trimmed. Pretty painless and only 20 bucks, which was less than I was expecting since most things for kids tend to be overpriced. I'm including a couple of pics somewhere in this post. Who knows where they will go since I'm writing this using the Blogger app on my phone!

On Saturday night, our friends Justin and Kristie and their girls Chloe and McCall came over for a sleepover. We've had a few of these before since the girls are all friends and it allows the adults to hang out together after bedtime. In theory :) This one was fun up until about 11:00 pm when we realized the girls were going to keep coming up with excuses to have the adults come up to the bedroom to check on them. From having to go potty to being scared of biting monkeys, we were treated to every stall tactic in the books. After finally getting them to sleep, we were too worn out to hang out with each other. I have a feeling the next time we hang out will be a daytime activity...

Speaking of which, Jason, Molly, and I had a lovely brunch on Sunday with some of my Northwestern friends and their kids. Molly was a little tired, but she still had fun with my friend Laura's daughter, Ellen, and Courtney's daughter, Claire. Cute pic included somewhere in the post. We also got to meet Courtney and Brian's adorable new baby, Paige. It was a bittersweet meeting because soon after saying hello for the first time, we had to say goodbye. Courtney, Brian, and their girls are moving to New York in just a couple of weeks. I will miss them.

After brunch, Molly and Jason caught up on sleep and then we went to the park to meet Molly's best friend from school,  Izzy. It was so much fun to watch them play. I don't usually get to observe Molly with her school friends outside of the classroom, but it was eye opening. She was so much more confident at the park when she had a little pal to run around with. We need to make more of an effort to call the kids from school on weekends.

After all of that excitement, we ended the weekend by ordering Indian food with my parents and watching Ray Donovan, the new Showtime drama with Liev Schreiber. Pretty good!

Think we packed enough activities into our weekend? They're almost all like that. It's no wonder I can only manage to write a post or two a week!

Claire, Ellen, and Molly

Too focused on her lollipop and movie to worry about the haircut

Princess hair - complete with sparkles