Spring Break Sum Up

Since I'm home from work today with "broken nose boy" - see post below, I actually have a quiet moment to update the blog with our happenings over Spring Break.  

We were busy but I'm not really sure with what - this and that, here and there, stuff, nothing, zoo. 

Let's try and go in order, shall we?

Nan's Birthday....see previous post.  That happened over the 1st weekend of spring break.

Monday - Early St. Patrick's Day dinner.  We invited my parents, sister and her family over for a little St. Patrick's Day shindig.  I made corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, watergate salad (it's green, cool whippy, pudding thing), mint chocolate chip cake and Mom brought Irish soda bread.  The boys helped with the decorations and we all got dressed up.  We played Wii games after dinner and had a lot of fun.

The boys in their green attire.

Don't I look happy?

Bryan's green beer was turning him green on the inside too!

Our yummy dinner!

Tuesday we did this and that  AND I got my first pedicure of the season!  So excited to have done that.  It was getting embarrassing to wear my flip flops in public.   ANYWAYS, we did go to a real, authentic, St. Patrick's Day party that night at the Dallas Stein house.  Good times and limericks always make for an interesting St. Patty's Day.

Wednesday was Dallas Zoo day.  Fortunately we had the foresight to leave extra early for the zoo and be there AT the moment they opened.  We even packed a lunch so we didn't have to spend a bazillion dollars for lunch too.  Colleen and Reid came along for the day and the weather was PERFECT!!!!  Explains why when we left the highway was practically shut down from all the traffic trying to get into the zoo.  

Random picture by the sign so we had proof we were there.  

Riding the ultra cool monorail thingy.  We saw lots of animals with random names that I can't remember and some other coolish things too.  Well worth the extra couple bucks to do this!

Brennan enjoying the view.

Evan enjoying the giraffes.

Good time, fun time now nap time.

We wound down Spring Break with some more of this and that.   The garage got organized and cleaned up so the boys have more of a space to play out there, a trip to the outlet mall, a trip to the park, Sunday brunch at Blue Mesa and relaxing.

Evan has taken to sleeping in Brennan's room the past couple of nights.  Brennan must have snuck down to the bottom bunk at some point to snuggle with Evan.  Bryan snapped a picture of this rare sweet moment the other morning.

Thank you, Spring Break.  We were glad you were here and we already miss you!

ER Trip #1

Evan finally made his 1st trip to the ER. 

He fell yesterday, at school, and landed right on his face into his nap cot.  The pediatrician recommended a trip to the ER to get things X-rayed.  Except that the ER doctor said there was nothing they could do IF he did break his nose.  So....no need to do X-rays.  Thanks for nothing, doctor!  I'm pretty convinced it's more than "soft tissue damage"but I am not a doctor, I just play one as a mommy.  Things are still pretty swollen and painful to the touch.  Ouch!

He goes to the pediatrician in 2 weeks - she'll check things out then when the swelling has gone down.  

This is the 1st of many broken somethings for this little guy...just never really heard of a 2 year old breaking his nose.  

Happy Birthday, Nan!

Nan with her grandbabies - Brennan, Robert, Casey, Eleanor and Evan.

Today we celebrated Nan's Birthday at our house.  The whole Stein clan was there!  We had so much fun eating tacos and yummy Snickerdoodle Cake (that Bryan actually baked) and playing Wii - Outdoor Challenge and Rockband.  It's so great that the kids can play together and have a good time and we can visit and enjoy ourselves too.  Happy Birthday , Nan!  We love you!

Spring Break is here. We made it.  I'm so looking forward to this week.  Although we seem to already have a lot going on this week, it will be nice to break the regular work/school routine of every other week.  Only 11 more weeks of actual school left for this year - Wow!  Time sure does fly!  I promise to catch up on some blogging - people have actually been asking me about it - eeks.  So, I'd better do my part.  It is just so darn hard when I'm so addicted to updating my status on facebook.  What's a workin' girl supposed to do, huh? 

I'm still working on my training for the 3 Day event.  I only missed 1 day of 5:45 workout in the past however many weeks....it is was this past Wednesday - it was cold, rainy, lightening and dark, dark, dark outside.  My tired self could not roll out of bed - no matter how hard Lindsey tried to threaten me with her texting.  We are still planning on some walking over Spring Break at our regularly scheduled times - so maybe that will make up for my 1 day off.  I'm over 60% to my financial goal too - if you want to give your money to me - click on that donate button over there!  Thanks to all of you that have already supported me.  And keep asking me how it's going - I need to be accountable!

I leave you with a photo of my two lit-tle boys.  It was crazy hair day at school last Friday. Brennan (the conservative one) wanted to go for the spiky, mohawk, Rockband look.  Evan - well, this is probably how Evan would do his hair everyday if he could. 

Girl Time

My husband has been so wonderful this weekend.  He is always so great when I say "I've scheduled lunch with so and so OR I made plans to do this.  You got the kids?"  And I sort of planned 2 days in a row with "me" time.  

Friday night I got tickets for me and Lindsey to see a Sara Hickman concert in Grapevine.  If you've never heard of Sara Hickman you are really missing out on a great singer/songwriter from Texas.  She is smart, creative, quirky, talented, funny, enjoyable, friendly...shall I go on?  She writes music for adults and most recently she has put out a few childrens' CDs.  She saved our life with her Newborn CD - it put Evan to bed every night of his life for an entire year.  So, I was thrilled when Lindsey was willing to take a night off from her family and come to this concert with me.  

We had a great time at this concert.  Sara was wonderful - she played for about 3 hours.  You can just get lost in her melodies and her lyrics are so poetic and thoughtful.  For each song she sang she told the story about how it came about.  So intriguing.  

The stage was Sara, her guitars, a microphone and a stand.  That was all.  No back up.  No band. Casual and intimate.  At intermission and after the concert she walked right down into the audience and essentially greeted people and chatted.  

We got our turn pretty quick.  I introduced myself and told her I was a music therapist.  "Oh, I LOVE music therapists!", she said as she gave me a huge hug.  I told her how we use her music with the students we work with, how we added some lyrics to one and made books for others.  She was thrilled and so happy.  She even gave me a suggestion on how to use another one of her songs.  And then she was nice enough to pose for a picture with me.  

Me and my new friend, Sara.

Lindsey and I just had the best time.  We can always crack ourselves up over complete nothingness and I'm so thankful that we have each other in our lives.  

THEN....

The next day the two of us went to meet our long lost friend, Laura.  She recently moved back to the US after being in Switzerland for sometime.  I know the last time I saw Laura was 1994 and I think Lindsey last saw her in 1992!  It was so great to see her and catch up.  I hope we get to see each other more often now that she is actually living back in our state!

This isn't the greatest angle - but the total stranger I asked to take our picture didn't feel the need to stand up from their chair to snap it.  So hear we are looking down on things.  Love ya, Laura - thanks for meeting us for lunch!

What a great weekend with some wonderful Girl Time!

Cowtown 5K

February 28th, 2009

Cowtown Marathon 

This past Saturday my sister, brother-in-law and I participated in the Ft. Worth CowtownMarathon.  Well....it was the 5K.  It was soooooo freezing cold on Saturday and windy that it was pretty miserable in the morning.  But once we got moving it wasn't so bad.  We really ended up walking about 6 miles considering how far we walked from the parking lot to the actual race area and back.  It was my first official, big 5K event that I've ever done.  Colleen and I mostly walked but we did a couple of jog sprints throughout the course.  John ran the whole thing....that was great!  Colleen and I finished at 50:27 - definitely not last with the 3,000 other people that did the 5K.  This was my kick-off to training for the 3day (BTW, you can donate by clicking on the link to the right).  My shins are pretty sore today - still...but it was a great experience.   We are signing up for the Race for the Cure in April.  Wanna join us?

This was us before the race - it was so cold!

Colleen and I running into the finish line

So, here is actual proof that I can run.  It wasn't very far but this may be the only recorded evidence of me running - EVER!  HA!